A/N.: A big THANK YOU to everyone who is still reading. I'm sorry for not updating in so long, but truth is I've kind of been unmotivated by the lack of reviews. I guess I can't really expect many since this fandom is slowly 'dying', it's been six years since the first part after all. I was very excited to see a new review today, SO shout out to mmedicus for reviewing, since it was what motivated me to get this chapter up.

Thanks for reading my boring A/N, if you did. :D

And now (hopefully) enjoy this chapter and drop me a review if you'd like! :)

Chapter 4

"We would like to see you act out the scene you prepared now," the red haired woman said, smiling slightly. I hoped that it was a good sign.

I put my guitar back in its case and put on an angry face.
"Ugh, Morgan, I know that you hate me, but why'd you have to do that?! Huh?! I didn't do anything to you and then you do this? You know, I thought we were at least somewhere close to respecting each other," my expression changed to one of sadness. "You don't even know what you started! I'm so humiliated! My boyfriend thinks I cheated on him thanks to you! He probably isn't even my boyfriend anymore...thanks a lot," I hissed, a few tears escaping my eyes.

I looked down and wiped underneath my eyes. When I looked up the jury stood up and applauded me.
"Ms. Torres, you were just as brilliant as I was told!" Mr. Coleman exclaimed happily, making me smile widely.
"Thank you."
"You really are a talented young lady," the bald man said. I thanked him too.
"You Ms Torres are a true star! So unique! And you didn't even back down when we acted unconvinced, I love it!" she exclaimed enthusiastically, as if she'd been holding it in for a while. It was contagious, I couldn't stop smiling.
"Thank you so much, but does that mean you have a role for me?" I asked, suddenly a little shy.
"You're going to be our Jade Garcia of course, just like I hoped! No more need for the others to audition," Mr. Coleman said with almost as much enthusiasm as the woman, but I didn't think anyone would be able to outdo her.
"Oh my God! Are you serious?" I looked at them with wide eyes. They all just smiled and nodded at me. "Oh my God! Oh my God! I- thank you so much!" I shrieked, jumping down the stage to give each of them a hug. I didn't know if it was appropriate, but at that moment I couldn't have cared less.
After my outburst they handed me the script and told me to be back on Monday for a meeting with the whole cast.

When I finally got home and told Cait and Matt the good news, my happiness rose to heights I never thought were possible. Sharing this moment with them made me even happier, I am sure that at one point I had started tearing up. Caitlyn then had the wonderful idea to go out on a celebratory dinner later while Matt was at his friends' birthday party, which I agreed to immediately. It was amazing to have them to celebrate this important moment with me, but I was ready for some alone time with my bestie.

On Monday, I woke up and realized I still had a few minutes, so I snuggled further into my warm blanket. But soon I heard the pitter-patter of Matt's small feet before he opened my door and crawled into my bed.

"Hey little man, what are you doing in here already?" I asked, cuddling his body close to me.
"Couldn't sleep," he said cutely, burying his face in my pillows.
"Then come on, let's get up and get you ready for school," I nudged him.
"Noooo. I wanna stay home today," he whined, clinging to me.
"Why don't you wanna go? I thought you liked school?" I stroked his back.
"No. Jimmy likes Shelby, but I liked her first and now she always plays with him," he said sadly.
"Aww, baby. I'm sure she'll see that you're much cooler than Jimmy. Maybe you can ask her to play with you today?" I kissed his forehead.
"No. Can I go to work with you, please?" he begged with that pout that I always struggled to say no to.
"Mattster, I can't take you with me and tell the school you're sick when you're not. I'm sorry."
"But I don't wanna go! It makes me sad!" he clung to me.
"I'll make you some pancakes to cheer you up, but you have to go to school. I promise I'll take you with me the next time you don't have school, okay?" I tried to coax him, but I could already see in his face that he was going to be stubborn about it. "Alright last offer, I will tell Caity that she doesn't need to pick you up because I'll be picking you up after school to take you back to work with me," I looked at him expectantly.
"Okay," he nodded, looking disappointed because he still had to go to school.
"Come on, we have to get up or we're going to be late," I threw the blankets off us.

After I had finally gotten Matt ready for school, I rushed to get dressed. I threw on some black leggings and a tight gray tank top with a thin white sweater that hung loosely on my body. Since we were late already I just chose some flats before grabbing my handbag and dragging Matt out of the door.
We rushed through the streets to get to his school on time and fortunately we made it without getting hit by a car. When I looked at my watch I realized that I had roughly ten minutes to get to work. Sure, the theater was in walking distance, but it still usually took me at least twenty minutes.

I arrived at the theater completely out of breath, about five minutes too late, positively blushing, which only deepened when all heads turned to me when I entered the room.

"Ah, there you are Ms Torres," said the bald man from the audition, whose name I had learned was Mr. Wallace.
"I am so sorry Sir, but I had to take Matthew to school and today he was a little cranky and refused to go, the only way I got him to go was if I let him come here today after school," I apologized. "I hope you don't mind if I take him here during the break," I added carefully.
"Of course you can bring him, you know the little man is always welcome here," Mr. Coleman interjected.
"Thank you, I promise he'll be doing his homework, so he won't interrupt anything," I said, still a tiny bit scared that the other executives would hate me for being late and requesting to bring a second-grader.
"I know, he's a good kid," Mr. Coleman smiled. I was so lucky to have him as my boss, he really cared and it kinda helped that he had the most say.
"Now, since that's settled, let's continue. Ms Torres, have a seat," Mr Wallace said, motioning to the only free seat next to a black haired guy that wore a bandana and thick rimmed glasses. It kind of suited him, but I had no time to look at him any longer, as the meeting continued.

Shane's POV:

The girl they kept calling Miss Torres looked at me for a while before blushing and taking the seat next to me. She looked kinda hot in her tight leggings. But they were talking about a kid she had to get to school. How the hell did she have a kid already? Well I know how, but one that was already in school? She couldn't be more than 21. Oh God, pregnant at fifteen. Seems kinda slutty to me. She must have been pretty naïve.

"Let's get to know each other a little better. We'll start with Mr. Gray and then the line will continue," one of them said. Fuck. What did he say I'm supposed to start with? I'll just go with the flow, we'll probably have to introduce ourselves or something like that.
"Hi. I'm Shane. I'm 22 and I'm from New Jersey. I'm playing Alex Carlton and my hobbies include playing the guitar and songwriting," I said smoothly. I turned to my left and looked at the girl, waiting for her to speak up.
"Well, my name's Mitchie, I'm nineteen, soon twenty. I live in Manhattan and my character's name is Jade Garcia. In my free time, besides taking care of Matt, I enjoy playing the piano or the guitar and I also do some songwriting," she said with a smile. Jackpot! The hot girl, now known to me as Mitchie, was playing my love interest. I tuned out the rest of the introduction, bored already, but forced to stay in order to keep my role. I didn't really care about the role, only about the fact that it gave me a break from my asshole family, so naturally I would do everything in my power to keep it. No way was I going back there sooner than I have to.

When the introduction stuff was over we talked about our working hours and were given schedules for different coachings; voice, dance and acting. There was also added which scenes and songs we had to know or prepare for certain days. Then there was the the part where we discussed and signed our contracts. The payment was nothing major, but it was more than enough to afford living in the city.

The break came sooner than I had expected and I watched Mitchie gather up her stuff and excusing herself to leave to get her son. Weirdly enough I was really looking forward to see her kid. It had sparked some kind of curiosity in me that I couldn't explain. Mitchie herself had already proven to be cool, she was different. Good different. Not like some of the theater geeks that we were working with. We hadn't had a direct conversation with each other, but she appeared to be pretty smart and to know her music. So why would a smart girl get herself knocked up at fifteen? It was a mystery to me. She would definitely be my type, had she not had a kid. It's not that I don't like kids, I just could never be with a girl that has a kid that's not mine, I would always feel like an intruder.

I was so deep in thought that I didn't hear Mitchie pull up another chair next to me.
"Shane, right?" I nodded "Would you mind scooting one over, so Matt can sit next to me?"she asked. It was then that I noticed the blond boy that was slightly hiding behind her legs while looking around curiously.
"Yeah, sure," I said.
I pretended not to listen to their conversation, to be occupied with something else, but in reality I was listening to the entire thing.

"I know I told you already, but it's really important that you stay in your seat and don't interrupt anybody, okay?" she asked.
"Yeah, but can you sing something today?" he pouted.
"Well we're going to practice some singing to see if our voices sound good together, so yes, I'm going to sing today kiddo," she smiled, her eyes lighting up when his face turned into one of excitement.
"Cool! So I get to hear everybody sing?!" he asked incredulously.
"That is pretty possible," she chuckled. "But you should start on your homework, so you're done when we start singing," she told him. He quickly pulled out a pencil and an exercise book before getting to work. Wow, he didn't even protest. I used to hate homework even in primary school when it was mostly coloring.
"Mimi? Can you help me?" he suddenly asked, tugging on her sleeve. Mimi?! Not mommy? Or mom? Or mama? What kid calls their mom Mimi?!
"Sure, what do you need? You don't understand the example?" he nodded. "It's much easier than they put it in your book. Basically all you need to do is," I tuned out how she explained his maths homework to him, but tuned back in just in time to catch him calling her Mimi again. It was bugging me so much that I just had to ask.
"Why does he keep calling you Mimi?" I asked out of the blue.
"Excuse me?" she asked, scrunching her eyebrows.
"I was just wondering why Matt doesn't call you mom or something," I explained. Matt had upon hearing his name turned his head to me.
"Because she is Mimi," he looked at me as if he thought I was stupid.
"So you don't call Mitchie 'mom'?" I asked.
"Why should I call Mimi my mom?" he asked incredulously.
"Well because that's what you call your mother usually, isn't it?" I questioned.
"Yeah, but Mimi's not my mom," he said in a Duh voice.
"Oh...I thought she was...I'm sorry, so she's your cousin?" I asked since he looked nothing like her, so I didn't think they would be siblings.
"I'm not his cousin," Mitchie suddenly cut in, amused. "I'm taking care of him, but we're not related," she said.

I wanted to ask a whole more questions, but we were starting rehearsals for the first song, so I needed to focus on getting my lines right. I didn't want to make a fool out of myself after all. Shane Gray does not embarrass himself. Especially not in any matter related to music.

Mitchie's POV:

We continued rehearsing several parts of the musical until 5pm, Matt had long since finished his homework and was happily listening to the songs we practiced. Weirdly enough Shane had been the only person to ask me if Matt was my son, well not directly me, but still. Usually people would give me disapproving looks or it would be the opposite and they would coo about how cute my 'son' was. But none of that had happened. They treated me the same way they treated any other castmember.

While Matt and I were making our way out of the building, we passed Shane who was having a heated argument with, apparently, his mother.
"Mom I don't give a fuck," he laughed into his phone.
"Well at least it got your attention, I don't want to live in New Jersey. And I certainly don't want to be in a band with my idiot cousins! This whole Connect 3 thing is fucking ridiculous! If you want fame and money, do it yourself! I am done with your bullshit, don't expect me to come back any time soon!" he cursed at her. I covered Matt's ears, although he probably understood every single word, I was lucky he knew not to repeat bad words.

But wow, Shane really had no respect for his mother. I was not exactly fond of my parents, but I would never be so disrespectful. That was just wrong of him. I pulled Matthew along with me. Soon we were out on the busy streets of NYC. The way home was pretty uneventful and I was glad to finally have some time for myself. Matt was playing in his room and Caitlyn was making dinner later on, so I used my spare time to take a relaxing bath in our small bathtub. Sometimes I missed the luxury of my old life, but I was too exhausted to care about the size of my bathtub.

I closed my eyes and let the warm water and the scent of my bubble bath soothe me. My thoughts wandered from subject to subject; at first it was Matt, then it was my new job and finally I got stuck on Shane. I didn't know much about him, but at first I had thought he was a nice guy, slightly cocky, but still nice. Hearing him talk to his mother the way he had made me question that though. But I didn't know, he seemed to have a reason that made him act that way, so maybe I had judged too soon. I didn't even know why I was thinking about him that much. Sure, he didn't look bad, he actually was pretty attractive, but I shouldn't even be thinking that about my colleague. Who plays your love interest, a voice in the back of my head said. I couldn't start a relationship with him, I didn't even know if he liked me or found me attractive. But I was getting way ahead of myself there. Besides 'You should never mix business with pleasure,' wasn't that what people said?

Since my bath had kind of been ruined by my conscious, I decided to just do my nails and listen to some music, preferably Ed Sheeran's latest album or some Sara Bareilles. Something calming.