Author's Note: Hi! I meant to update sooner – I'm thinking like, 2, per week, but this has pretty much been a week. So sorry! Anyway, here's chapter 2, where you get to meet Connect 3 in this story.

You can find the chapter's title track – "Over-Rated" – available for download on my twitter account (/sammmmanthaj). It's a song by Alexz Johnson, and I have to admit, I think popularity is pretty over-rated.

Anyway, enjoy! A huge thank you to those of you who reviewed: coolkitten12, mia_bella_jacob and ladymilly12. Thankyouthankyouthankyou!

The parking lot was already pretty full by the time she pulled into it; students were milling around and drinking out of Solo cups, some of them well on their way to being drunk. Mitchie gingerly got out of the truck, making sure it was locked, before making her way to the football field where she could hear music playing and people shouting. For the first time in a while, she held her head high and didn't give in to the inappropriate or rude comments that were thrown her way. She just smirked a knowing smile at them and continued on her way. This seemed to work almost as good as her witty, sarcastic retorts.

She had made it almost to the thirty yard line when a carefully pedicured foot caught on her ankle, making her stumble slightly, but luckily, not fall down. One look at the sparkly heels told her that Harmony Jacobs was making herself known. She was the niece of Marc Jacobs and her mother had her own line of cosmetics, making her one of the most artificially beautiful persons to walk through the doors of Grant High.

"Come to see your boyfriend tonight, Mitchie?" Mitchie raised her eyebrows at her.

"I'm pretty sure you know I don't have a boyfriend, seeing as you were making out with Joey a few weeks ago at Tori's party." She might not go to these parties anymore, but everyone made sure that she knew every last gruesome detail.

"Hah! Not Joey, sweetie." Mitchie grit her teeth at the endearment. "Shane Gray."

"Oh, is part of his court mandated community service that he hang out with you? That's a pretty good punishment, now that I think about it."

"Oh, you're almost funny, Mitchie." Harmony looked good and mad now. "But you mean you don't know that Connect 3 is playing tonight? God, does no one talk to you anymore? …Oh, wait. They don't." Harmony whirled away but stopped about five feet from her and turned back. "And don't worry, Mitchie – I'll point you out as the crazed stalker to him. I'm sure he'd love to give you an autograph. Or a restraining order."

Mitchie's mind was reeling so fast that she didn't even have time to think of anything to come back with. Connect 3 was coming to her school. Connect 3. Only her favorite band of all time, which, of course, Harmony was well aware of. But at this point, she couldn't even care about that. She had never had the money to go to a Connect 3 concert, and now she was going to get one – for free! She was utterly and truly surprised that they were going to be playing at her school. For one, they were internationally acclaimed superstars, but she supposed that didn't particularly matter when she went to school with Kylie Stiles. Kylie was the daughter of pop sensation Sookie Stiles and she was a year older than Mitchie, although she heard that she failed senior year and was going to be in Michie's class next year. To make matters worse, she was one of the few that was never nice to her, even when she had been dating Joey.

So it wasn't that big of a surprise that celebrities were making cameo appearances at her high school. No, with enough money and the right strings, she supposed anyone would do anything. It was the fact that Shane Gray, Connect 3's lead singer and resident heartthrob, was currently on probation. Or something. She read about it in Pop Informer, and while the news might not be 100% accurate, it was a well-documented fact that Shane Gray was Hollywood's current bad boy. In the past couple months, he had been seen starting fights, being particularly diva-like, costing the label and the band a lot of money, and just being a genuine jerk. Mitchie had to smirk a little at that…for the most part, that described her in the past few months, too.

She wasn't really worried about anything Harmony or the others might say. After all, it's not like she'd ever see Shane Gray again, and it's not like she'd even speak to him tonight. Of course, with the way he'd been acting lately, she wouldn't mind giving him a piece of her mind. She didn't really care about the diva fits and tantrums, but she'd read a story about him ditching a charity function where he was supposed to be the main attraction, and that made her want to read him the riot act.

She mulled this over in her mind as she tried to make her way closer to the main stage nonchalantly. People were starting to crowd the area and apparently she was the only one who didn't know that Connect 3 was going to be playing.

Finally, after waiting what seemed like hours, and her fake smile splayed so tightly across her face that she thought her cheeks might fall off, she heard it. It. It was just one chord, really, but it was enough to make her heart start beating faster and her foot start tapping subconsciously. It was going to start.

They took the stage and it was like pure pandemonium erupted on the football field. And as much as Mitchie wanted to be close to the stage, she wanted to not be trampled even more, so she sidled out of the craziness, making her way towards the back. She watched from the sidelines, enjoying the show, despite Shane's somewhat surly face that made it seem like he wanted to be anywhere but here.

Connect 3 had made it through about 4 songs when Mitchie's attention was drawn elsewhere. It was Harmony, Joey, Melissa, Kylie, Shawn, and a group of other people that she wasn't too familiar with, as they must have been seniors that just graduated.

She watched as Joey maliciously tore what looked like a paperback book apart and throw it on the ground, and then as Melissa and Harmony mocked a girl that Mitchie had only seen once or twice before. She had long, curly yet frizzy hair and glasses, wearing a plain green button up and some nondescript jeans, and she currently looked as if she was about to burst into tears.

Before she knew what she was doing, before she could think it through, Mitchie was over there, grabbing what was left of the paperback book out of Joey's hands and picking up the pieces on the ground. She gently gave them back to the girl.

"Are you okay?" Mitchie asked her quietly.

"Yeah," the girl sniffed, wiping her eyes furtively. "Sorry, I just…um, have you seen my-oh."

"Looking for this?" Melissa held out what looked to be a homemade crocheted purse, dangling from her finger. She was dressed in a tiny dress, barely covering her bottom, made of shiny gold silk. Of course.

"Just give it to her, Melissa."

"Or what, sweetie? You'll be mean to me? God, Mitchie!" She cackled, and suddenly Mitchie was distinctly aware of the silence that surrounded them. Sure enough, she looked up and even Connect 3 had stopped playing. Nate and Jason, the other two members of the band were trying to discreetly look somewhere other than at the argument between the two girls, but Shane Gray seemed to not care, as he stared them down from a distance.

"You think you're so great!" Melissa's screeching brought her attention back to her. "But really, Mitchie, what do you have going for you? Because I can't think of one good thing. You don't have any friends, and you don't have a boyfriend, you have no money, and thanks to yours truly, you don't have a job."

"Unlike you, I happen to think there's more to life than friends like you or having a boyfriend like Joey, Melissa."

"Yeah? Well, no one cares what you think. Not anymore." Melissa dropped the girl's purse as if on cue, and the contents scattered out. Mitchie knelt down and started putting them back in the pocketbook when something wet started to drip down her neck. A sloshing sensation and then what had to have been a filled to the brim Solo cup of what smelled like rum and coke was poured all over her head.

Standing slowly, Mitchie gave the purse back to the girl.

"I hope nothing got ruined," she said softly.

"Oh, cut the Lifetime bullshit out," Kylie Stiles spoke up for the first time. "You're standing in front of us soaked in soda and rum, Mitch. Why are you even trying to pretend you're better than us? You're nobody. You always were." With that, Kylie slipped her hand into Joey's and leaned up and put a sensual kiss on his cheek.

Mitchie felt her eyes and cheeks burn with anger and humiliation. This was supposed to be a fun night, and it had started off so good and now…now she was standing in front of her idols, her old friends and her ex-boyfriend, covered in sticky soda and reeking of alcohol.

"You're not going to cry are you?" Harmony piped in, her voice laced with fake sympathy.

"No," Kylie spoke for her. "She isn't. But I bet she's going to go write a song about it, huh Mitchie?"

And that was it. That was all it took. Her eyes widened with recognition as Mitchie realized that Kylie knew. Joey had told her. The one thing she had been hoping he would be a decent human about, he went and blew it.

No one knew she wrote songs except for Joey. He was the only one she ever told besides her parents. She hated singing in front of people, but Joey would always be able to coax a song out of her. She had actually written a song for their break up, and he had cried when she played it for him. She briefly considered reminding him of that particular fact at that moment, but she refrained. She wasn't sure she could do that without crying. With a brief shake of her head, Mitchie turned around and ran off the field as fast as her legs could take her.

"Dude, what just happened out there? That was crazy!" Nate Brown exclaimed to his bandmates and friends as they started to put away their instruments after their set.

"They were so mean to that poor girl that was just trying to be nice!" Jason sounded legitimately upset about the entire ordeal. "It was terrible!"

"Girls are bitches," Shane commented off handedly.

"Oh gosh!" Jason suddenly gasped. "You don't think they were mean to her because we were here, do you?"

"Probably, Jase," Shane slung his guitar over his shoulder. "I'm just glad we're getting out of here. I hate high school girls."

"You hate everyone," Nate rolled his eyes. "You're not even the least bit concerned for that girl that we just saw had soda dumped on her?"

"You don't even know what she did, Nate! She probably deserved it."

A few beats of silence passed, then, "No one deserves that," Jason said in a rare serious tone. "And we're going to have bigger issues than you throwing a few tantrums if you really believe that." Jason gave one last disparaging look at Shane and grabbed his guitar and walked off the backstage area and headed towards the bus.

"What the hell was that?" Shane asked Nate, unbelieving that Jason had just acted that way towards him.

"You really are an idiot, aren't you?" Now Nate looked just as mad as Jason.

"What did I do?"

"Don't you remember the first day we met Jason?"

"We met him at Camp Rock," Shane said in an obvious tone.

"Yeah. After kids two years older dumped a cup of juice on him because he could play guitar better than them." Nate could only shake his head at Shane. "We stood up for him then. And now you're saying that this girl, who just had the same thing happen to her, deserved it? She looked like she was helping someone. You don't even know that girl. And…I don't even know you anymore. Meet us at the bus, if you think there's room for your ego." Nate said and walked out, leaving Shane alone.

"Fuck!" He swore to himself. He kicked his guitar case, tipping it over before sitting on an amp, rubbing his hands over his face. He didn't mean to alienate Jason and Nate; he had honestly forgotten how he had met Jason. He forgot that before Connect 3, Jason had been just as big of an outcast as that girl he saw had apparently been. It seemed so long ago to him - Camp Rock, meeting the guys, all of it.

He felt a slight twinge of guilt for the girl that he had judged so rashly earlier. Nate was right, he didn't know that girl at all. And he knew high school girls were catty and mean; that girl probably didn't deserve it at all.

"Shane?" A feminine voice caused him to look up sharply and see the intruder.

"Yeah? Who is it?" He called out tiredly.

"Oh, it's me, Kylie. Kylie Stiles." Oh, great, Shane thought miserably. The last thing I ever wanted to deal with tonight was Sookie Stiles' daughter who has to be just as big of a bitch as her mother.

"Oh, Sookie's daughter."

"Yup, that's me!" Her voice was laced with fake kindness.

"Well, are you going to come in, or…?" She was currently standing hidden behind some amps and drums piled up.

"Sure! Of course! I just have some people who want to meet- …where's the rest of the guys?"

Please leave, Shane thought desperately, but instead, what came out was, "Out in the tour bus. I bet you can still catch them if you hurry."

"Oh, no, you're more than fine all by yourself!" Shane bit back a groan. "So, are you-"

That was all Shane heard as the girl stepped out from behind the amps. Her and two girls that followed her were the same girls that had dumped the soda on the girl's head. Of course they are, Shane realized. He had been fairly far away but it wasn't hard discerning the same gold dress on the girl that had poured the soda and the hot pink dress that was on the girl he now knew as Kylie, who had been egging the entire situation on, even going so far as to hand the cup of soda to the girl in the gold.

"Shane? Are you listening to me, Shane?" Kylie had sickeningly sweet smile plastered on her face, but her tapping foot belied her annoyance with his lack of attention.

"Sorry, Kaitlin, what did you say?" A look of pure loathing flitted across her face at Shane's almost-innocent name mix up.

"It's Kylie, Shaney."

"Oh. Don't call me that." Shane didn't know what to do. Was it his duty to say something to these cruel girls? Or would that be overstepping some weird boundary he had as a celebrity, and not a student? Did he even care what happened to that girl?

He knew the answer was yes. He did care what about what had happened to that girl he saw out there. He had only gone to public high school for two years, he would've already graduated had he stayed. He remembered how hard it was to be anyone except for who others wanted you to be, and yet he saw that girl out there not only help someone who it didn't even look like she knew, but she stood her ground after she got publicly humiliated. So yes, he knew he wanted to say something to these girls. But what to say?

"Anyway, we were wondering if you wanted to come to my house afterwards. The other guys are totally welcome, too, and I mean, it's not going to be a huge thing. Not too many people – just the ones that matter."

"So, no one that had soda just dumped on their head then?" Shane asked slowly.

"Oh, you saw that?" Kylie looked amazingly proud of herself, and the two girls she was with actually high-fived each other. "Nope. She definitely won't be there. I doubt she'll show her face at Grant High ever again." When Shane didn't respond right away, Kylie felt like she had to continue. "You wouldn't have liked her anyway – she was so fake. A complete poser that had no business ever hanging with people like us."

"Us?" Shane echoed.

"You know – people like us! People who are someone. She's a nothing – always has been and always will."

Shane felt his blood start to boil. It was becoming quite clear to him that this girl hadn't done anything. And in a rare burst of self-empowerment – at least, rare as of late – Shane stood up and grabbed his guitar.

"So, I'll see you at the mansion?"

The mansion? Shane wondered. People really refer to their home as 'the mansion'? He could only shake his head.

"Oh, about that, no."

"No?" Kylie whined and the two girls behind her pouted. "Are you sure? I bet my mom would really love to see you."

"I'm definitely sure," Shane paused as he walked by her. "And by the way, for the record, I'm not sure if you'd classify me as a 'somebody,' but people like me – and that's to say people that would never do what you just did to that girl out there – would never hang out with people like you." He gave her and her friends a scathing look. "Grow up."

He left them behind the curtains on the outside stage as he snuck off with his guitar on his back. He started to make his way to the tour bus when he decided he didn't feel like going back just yet. Those girls had really riled him up and he needed some time to blow off steam, and he imagined that Jason and Nate needed the same.

He was walking around the edges of the school when he saw a door that had been propped open. What the hell, he thought. I haven't been inside a public school in years. He double checked to make sure he had his cell phone still on him, then slipped inside, carefully propping the door up as it had been.

"Whoa," he breathed. The school did not have the feel of a public school – in fact, everything screamed 'private.' Huge lockers, even bigger classrooms, state of the art technology everywhere he looked – the school was amazing, ten times better than the one he had attended.

He wandered along for a while, humming to himself, enjoying the way the sound echoed off the empty halls. Suddenly, he realized that his voice wasn't the only sound in the hallway. Strains from a piano and a soft, barely audible voice, reached through the school's halls too. He followed them quickly, intending just to take a quick look and then get out, figuring enough time had passed for him to go back to the tour bus anyway. But as he got closer to the voice, he found himself oddly intrigued. It was a female voice and he couldn't make out the words exactly, but the piano was solid and the tune was haunting.

He finally reached what he had to assume was their auditorium. The lights weren't on, just the emergency lights lit up the floor, and led straight to a piano sitting at the base of the stage with a girl sitting before it, intently focusing on the keys.

He couldn't make her out too good, but in the dim lights he saw that she was wearing sweatpants and an athletic tee, with long hair that appeared to be wet hanging down her back.

"There were sounds in my head – little voices whispering… that I should go and this should end, oh and I found myself listening…" Her voice was beautiful, albeit soft, but the lyrics struck a chord with him and she continued to sing, he found himself commenting before he could stop himself.

"You're not half bad."

The girl whipped around, but he still couldn't see any characteristics of her face.

"Who's there? Who is that?" When she got no immediate response, her tone turned from one of someone being startled to that of someone resigned. "Listen, I'm having a bad enough night, as I'm sure you know, so if you'd just let me leave, I'll get my stuff…"

"No!" He spoke up. "I mean, you don't have to leave. It's just…um, did you just take a shower?" He had no idea what inspired him to ask that question, it just popped out.

"Yeah, well," she let out a harsh laugh. "Didn't want to go home smelling like alcohol." Shane felt his heart drop for a minute – this piano playing girl was drunk? "And I'm pretty sure that was rum in that cup of soda they dropped on me," she continued, oblivious to his disappointment.

It suddenly all connected for Shane.

"That was you? You were the girl they poured the soda on?"

"Uh, yes, but…what? Who are you?"

"Oh, it's Shane…" he took a leap and told her more. "Shane Gray."

"Shane Gray," she repeated, sounding skeptical. She let out a big sigh. "Is that you, Mark? Did Melissa put you up to this, because I really don't want to have to do something-"

"No, no, it's Shane Gray." He realized she probably couldn't see him, like he couldn't see her. He took out his phone and opened it, holding it up to his face. "See? Shane Gray. The real one. Not some Mark."

He heard her sharp intake of air as she saw his face in the glow of his cell phone.

"Of course you are."

"What, you still don't believe me? What do I have to do, sing for you?"

"No, no, it's not that. I believe you. It's just more of a 'of-course-I'd-meet-Shane-Gray-on-the-worst-night-ever' sort of thing."

"Oh," he commented awkwardly. "Well, I meant what I said. You're not half bad."

"Um, thanks, I think." She started packing up her things, grabbing a plastic bag with her soaked dress in it.

"Why are you singing?"

"In general? Or why am I singing at this particular moment?" She teased lightly, still scrambling to get a notebook that had managed to fall under the piano.

"Well, that song. It was good, but, you know. Why?"

She stopped trying to scramble to get her things and stood up straight. He still couldn't see her face, but he knew she was looking directly at him.

"Sometimes you just have to sing to remind yourself."

"Remind yourself of what?"

"Of why you made certain choices." Her voice wavered on the last word and she shook her head a little bit, as if to clear it. "It was nice to meet you," she said finally, and darted out of the auditorium through a side entrance before Shane could even get her name.

He wanted to go after her and ask her what she meant – after all, what kind of choices could she have made that she'd regret? But he also wanted to get back to the tour bus.

He walked to the bus in a sort of trance, unaware of how he actually got there in the end.

"Guys," he said as way of greeting to Nate and Jason. They both just looked at him, remaining silent. He took a deep breath. "Jase, I wanted to apologize. I forgot how we met at Camp Rock. Nate had to remind me." He had the decency to look ashamed. "I just talked to that girl, the one that had soda dumped on her. She didn't deserve it. She didn't deserve it at all. I know…I know I've been sort of hard to deal with. Maybe I just need to remember why I made some of the choices I did."

He gave them all a half smile and then walked to his room in the back of the bus, grabbing a notepad and a pencil on his way.

"What just happened?" Jason looked as shocked as he could. Nate just gave him a small smile.

"I think we might've just seen the dawning of a new era."

Mitchie slipped into her house a little past 11. She quietly made her way up to her room, flopping down on her bed.

What just happened? She asked herself, bewildered. Shane Gray talked to me. And he seemed…normal. And I talked back to him! Why did I do that? But he did say I wasn't half bad, so that's got to be good, right? I don't think he could see me though, at least not well. But he definitely saw me get publicly humiliated. Great, of all the moments of my life for a celebrity to see, he had to see me then, getting soda and rum dumped all over me. But he seemed a little interested when I blathered on about reminding yourself and singing, or singing to remind yourself…I can't even remember what I said. It's a good thing I didn't tell him my name, that's for sure.