Hey guys I just wanted to say thank you to LoonyLoonz, this-x-is-x-me, BandS4ever & lovelivelifehope14 for reviewing. I hope you all enjoy this chapter.

Chapter 2 – Catching up

I was almost at the kitchen when I changed my mind and decided to head down to the lake. I needed a place to relax and the lake was the perfect place. I just loved the view from the pier. From there you could see all the surrounding greenery and the blue sky; even better it was always quiet over there.

As I approached the lake I saw that someone already beat me to my spot. I wanted to turn away and leave but my curiosity got the best of me and I slowly approached the person to find out who it was.

When I was only two or so metres away from the mystery person I recognised him to be Nate. You wanna know how I recognised him? Well, the curly hair was a big clue but the main give away was the fact that he was wearing the charm bracelet that I got him for his birthday, back when Shane and I were dating.

It was interesting that I ran into Nate. I mean, if it was Jason I wouldn't hesitate to sit down next to him and chat away with him. And if it was Shane I would push him into that lake faster than you can say 'Abra Cadabra!'

Nate on the other hand was more complicated. I had never taken the time to talk to him or get to know him before so I didn't know much about him; if he was a good guy like Jason or a bastard like Shane. Then again he is Shane's friend so that makes him the enemy. Unlike Jason who at least stayed in contact with me even after all this time.

With that internal debate settled, I was only left with one questions: 'should I push him in the lake or not?'

The answer was; definitely yes.

I quietly approached him from the behind and kicked him and his derriere into the lake. And success, he went down like a brick, he didn't even have chance to hold on to the wooden planks! And best of all; he screamed like a little girl! I wanted to burst out in laughter but I held it in and put on a shocked expression for when he emerged.

Soon enough his head popped out from the water and he spurt out the water that went into his mouth. After clearing the water on his face that was blurring his vision he looked around until he set his eyes on me. A menacing glare made its way onto his face as he recognised me.

"What the hell Mitchie!" he exclaimed angrily, rather than asked. I inwardly smirked. It was time to test my acting skills.

"Oh my God! I'm so sorry! Here let me help you out!" I apologised frantically and stretched it out for him to take. I lifted him up, nearly high enough for him to reach the wood and climb up, but then I gasped an pretended to be shocked. "Nate?" I asked with wide eyes, as if I hadn't recognised him. Then I let go of his hand and watched him fall into the water once again.

He came back up again with an annoyed expression on his face. "I know Connect 3 probably isn't on your favourites list right now but was that really necessary?"

I rolled my eyes and sat down at the edge of the pier, as Nate struggled to lift himself out of the water.

"Need any help?"

"Yes please," he quickly replied.

I smirked. "Good." And with that I pushed his hands off the wood and sent him back into the water.

I giggled, remembering the look on his face as when he realised what I was going to do to him.

I stared intently into the lake waiting for him to come out but he didn't. I waited a while before beginning to panic. 'Oh my God! What if he hit his head and is drowning? Or worse! What if the idiot figured out that there was a ladder at the other side of the pier, next to the land?'

I didn't get to dwell on my thoughts as two hands came out of the water and grabbed my feet, dragging me into the water.

I screamed loudly before it was muffled by water getting into my mouth.

Seconds later my head popped out the water only to come face to face with a smirking Nate. We stayed silent a first waiting for the other crack, but that failed 'cause we both started laughing at the same time. When I finally started to calm down, I burst out into another round of giggles at the sound of his infectious laughter. It felt nice to hear his laugh, it was rather comforting. My giggles died down at the same time his did.

I looked at him and smiled. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all. He certainly wasn't the square that I assumed he was.

He smiled back at me and asked, "So how do we get out here?"

I rolled my eyes and pointed to the ladder on the far side of the pier. He just shrugged as if to say 'how was I supposed to know.'

I just snorted and swam towards the ladder; making sure to splash him as I did so.

"It's good to see you again Mitch," he said, a large grin on his face, when we were both out of the water.

"You too," I replied with a matching grin.

We spent the next few minutes having some small talk but mostly we just enjoyed the view. I wouldn't have minded staying a little longer but I was getting colder and I needed to go change. I got up and said, "I have to go. I'll talk to you some other time Nate. Preferably without him around."

He reluctantly nodded and opened his mouth, probably wanting to tell me something. I waited for him to speak but, after nothing was uttered by his lips, I eventually turned around and walked away.

"Mitchie wait!" he yelled before I even took five steps forwards. I turned to look at him and saw that he was rising to his feet to catch up with me. "Do you want to hang out together later?"

Now that took me by surprise, I was sure that my eyes had widened and my jaw had dropped. Though I think Nate misinterpreted my reaction as he said; "If you don't want to, it's fine. I just thought that it would be nice for us to get to know each other better. So what do you think?"

"Sure, I'd like that," I answered. "So when and where should we meet up?"

"How about I sit at your table at dinner?"

I smiled and nodded before departing with a wave.

As I neared my cabin I heard two very loud female voices which seemed to be arguing. I listened carefully and noticed that they were coming from my cabin.

I walked in through the door to see a fuming Caitlyn and an equally angry Tess Tyler. I groaned loudly and attracted their attention.

"Please tell me that she's just visiting," I whined to Caitlyn, who gave me a very sympathetic look before returning her gaze to Tess.

"I'm afraid not," Caitlyn answered with a hate filled voice. "The bitch is here to stay."

"Oh that's it Gellar! If you wanna fight I'll give you a fight!" Tess growled as she prepared herself for attacking Caitlyn. But to tell you the truth I really wasn't in the mood for fighting.

"Stop it!" I screamed. "Here are the rules: one; there will be no fighting in this cabin. Two; Shane is to stay away from this cabin." I could see that Tess was about to protest so I sent her a glare that would make a grown man ask for his mommy. "Third, you two will be civil to each other this summer unless one of you starts something with the other. 'Cause I know that there's no stopping either of you when you want revenge. Am I understood?"

"Yes," was the mumbled reply from both of them.

"Good."

I then went to my dresser and started picking out my outfit. It was then that Caitlyn noticed the fact that I was soaked.

"Mitchie you're soaked! What happened?"

"I had a run in with Nate."

"He pushed you into the lake?"

"Nope, I pushed him into the lake 3 times but then he decided to get even with me. Oh and by the way about dinner, do you mi-"

"Oh yeah," Caitlyn interrupted. "I hope you don't mind but I promised Lola that I'd mix the music for her next performance. She's practicing during dinner so we're all going to be gone for dinner."

"Oh."

"If you don't want to eat alone, you can come along and watch the rehearsal," Caity offered. I smiled, this was perfect. Now I could avoid her grilling about Nate and his dinner invitation.

"No of course not!" I exclaimed in fake horror. "I'd only get in the way! You go on, I'll be fine."

Caitlyn looked at me sceptically before leaving to the dance studio to help Lola with her performance.

It was now dinnertime and I had changed my clothes and was wearing a grey long-sleeved sweater-dress that hugged my waist but was loose enough that it didn't show off too much of my figure. It was accompanied by black leggings and black riding boots.

As I walked into the mess hall, I looked around and saw that Nate was sitting with his brothers. He looked up and his gaze met mine, and I could tell he was miserable sitting there. He was sat next to Jason, who was obviously talking nonstop about birds, and he had a perfect view of Shane and Tess' sickening couple-y actions. I motioned for him to join me at an empty picnic table. He quickly nodded and got up from his seat taking his plate of food with him. I went to the serving table, grabbed a plate and served myself some food. When I returned to the table, where Nate had just sat down, I my plate consisted of my mom's World Famous Torres Burger, some fries and a mini burrito.

"So did you have any trouble breaking away from Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee?" I asked as I took a seat facing Nate.

He looked confused for a second. "I thought you liked Jas- oh, Tess. Umm, no. Shane and Tess weren't a problem, and Jason was too busy day dreaming about the birdhouse he wants Shane to build him."

I giggled. That was so like Jason. "I don't get why he doesn't just make it himself."

Nate rolled his eyes. "Because it would ruin the surprise! Duh!"

I giggled again. "Anyway," Nate continued. "I'm sure that they're watching us right now with their jaws dropped to the floor."

I glanced towards the 'Taboo Table', as I would call it from now on, and sure enough Shane and Tess were watching with shocked expressions and wide open mouths. Jason just looked like he was feeling sad and left-out. I rolled my eyes at the other two and waved Jason over.

Jason grinned and rushed over. "Mitchie!" he exclaimed in excitement. I giggled at his enthusiasm; I really did miss him over the last few months.

"Jason!" I squealed as he quickly engulfed me in a hug. "I missed you little sis," he told me with such sincerity that I just wanted squeeze the life outta him.

"I missed you too big bro," I replied.

"With you gone I had no one to talk to about birdhouses. Nate even threw some waer on me to get me to stop talking about birds! It's just not fair."

I faked horror. "That's horrible!" Then I smacked Nate's arm a few times. "You should be ashamed of yourself! What a terrible thing to do to poor Jason."

"Jason! Do something! She's stronger than she looks," Nate responded as he tried to dodge my swatting hands. Jason merely stuck his tongue out.

I laughed and we all sat back down.

By the end of dinner I had found out that Nate could play guitar, drums and the piano and that he was the main so writer of connect 3. His favourite colour was blue; he was the same age as me; he loved nature; his favourite things to do were playing music (obviously), riding horses and reading; and he was a really good cook.

He now knew that I could play guitar and piano; I wrote all of my songs; my favourite colour was aqua; I also loved nature; and my favourite things to were playing music (again: obvious), playing volleyball, dancing and cooking.

I found out that Jason was a very strange child. For example, when he was 13, he bought a large cage for a parakeet and when he found out that he couldn't have one he locked himself in it for days.

And I also knew that for some bizarre reason I had agreed to write a song with Nate.

So what do you think? It would have been out sooner but I wanted to update my other story first. I hope you enjoy it! The next chapter will be up as soon as possible :D

Nate's finally arrived so what do you think of his character? What about Mitchie? Do you like this more confident and less naive side of her? And Tess. How bitchy do you think she should be?

By the way I put a link in my profile, to my photobucket album for this fic. You can find a picture of Mitchie's dinner clothes there. I'll be putting up a picture of their cabin sometime soon.

Please leave a review.

FmG