A/N: Everyone probably hates me for not updating for so long. At least, I know how bad I feel when someone seems to have dropped their fan fiction. I'm not gonna make excuses for myself.

So I got inspired recently and continued working on this. I have a lot of ideas and as long as I have time I will keep it up. I tried to make this chapter slightly longer in a pathetic attempt to make up for my absence to those who are still reading.

Disclaimer: Nope, last time I checked, I didn't own Camp Rock nor Wizards Of Waverly Place.

Alex went to Mr. Laritate after she stormed out of Biology. She entered his office and made herself comfortable in one of the chairs.

"Alex! What did you do?"

"Came to see my old friend, have some tea", retorted Alex with a pleasant tone but dropped it at the look on the principal's face. "Chillax, it was nothing big, I'm just bored. I've had it for today."

"Alex! No more detention for you. I'm afraid I have no choice, but to…", Alex wasn't going to let him finish that sentence, she didn't need any more problems at home, especially with her older brother, who would never let her hear the end of it if she got expelled.

"Hey, hey, take a chill pill, why don't ya. I'll be here tomorrow, no worries. Scout's honor, or whatever.", she said making weird signs with her hands.

Mr. Laritate sighed and took off his glasses to clean them.

"This is your last chance, Miss Russo"

"Cool, later, Mr. L", with that Alex left the office and teleported herself back home. The last thing she heard of school that day was a fading yell from the principal's office. She could have sworn he said something to the effect of "you've never been a scout".

Knowing that her parents were working downstairs in the sub shop, she went out to the balcony to light a cigarette. She had no idea why she had decided to go to school that day. If she had to be honest, she wouldn't really care if she did happen to get expelled. She hated school with a passion and it felt like a complete waste of her time anyway. Nothing ever happened there, everyone had a fixed routine that they followed like mindless zombies – class, gossip, class, notes passed sneakily, some more gossip, class, lunch, smoking, class, partying, studying… not really, only geeks got to that part.

The only thing different today was Mystery Girl, whatever her name was. She was obviously new or Alex would have noticed her before – all the black made her hard to miss. What was she, the founder of the emo club? From what Alex had gathered from the whole of three seconds she had studied her, she seemed just as fed up with life as Alex was. New was supposed to be exciting, so she decided that tomorrow would be a day dedicated to solving the mystery that was, well, Mystery Girl.

Steve picked up Mitchie after school. The ride home was silent, but the second they stepped into the house, he couldn't wait to ask his daughter how her day was.

"Fine. Boring, but fine", Mitchie said plainly, hoping that it would satisfy her dad's curiosity. Wrong.

"Did you meet anyone?" , was the concerned father's next question.

"No. And I don't want to." The finality in her tone implied that the subject wasn't up for discussion.

"Mitchie…", Steve sighed, feeling helpless.

"Dad…", Mitchie hesitated for a second, grabbing his attention and distracting him from her unwillingness to make new friends. "How are you?"

"Um, I'm okay… What do you mean?", now he was just confused.

"It's just… ever since mom…", she didn't think she could ever actually voice what had happened, she couldn't even bear the thought of it. "I never once asked how you were and I'm sorry", Mitchie kissed her dad on the cheek and gave him a short hug, before going up to her room.

She had finally thought of her father's well-being, which was actually progress for her in a way. She felt like a horrible daughter. She knew he was hurting too, maybe more than her. She wished that she could do more to show that she cared, but she didn't think she was capable of caring right now. She knew how selfish that must have seemed, but she just couldn't.

Mitchie skipped dinner that night, she had lost her appetite somewhere along way. She had tried not to cry the last week, to try and be strong, but she was unable to hold it in that night.

The next day Alex came to school with the intention to stay. Harper and Justin were extremely surprised when they saw her there on time. That hadn't happened in quite a long time. She took her seat next to Harper in the classroom. She wasn't sure what class they were having, but she shared all of them with her best friend, so it wasn't really that much of a problem.

Harper, however, was actually freaked out by her friend's weird behavior. She had tried everything in her power to make Alex go to school on time, but her efforts met with no success. So to say that she was surprised when she saw her best friend doing it on her own, was an understatement and a cause for concern and suspicion.

"Alex, are you okay? Did you do a s-p-e-l-l or something?"

"What? Harper, no! I'm fine, just felt like going to school.", Harper had never heard those words exit her best friend's mouth in all the years she'd known her.

"Okay, an alien must have kidnapped and brainwashed you", she paused for a second. "Do aliens really exist?", she mumbled more to herself, than it was directed to Alex, who just chuckled lightly.

Just then Mystery Girl entered the room and took her seat alone in a corner in the back.

"Yo, Harper, who is she?", she elbowed her friend under the table and pointed sneakily at the girl dressed in all black, again, all the way in the back of the classroom.

"The new student", Harper replied, as if that cleared everything up.

"Duh, Captain Obvious. Name? Anything?"

"Mitchie. And that's all anyone knows." The red-haired girl answered with a shrug of her shoulders. "Why the sudden interest?"

"I don't know. She's new aka interesting. Finally some diversity. Excuse me." Alex got up and approached the table Mystery Girl – now known as Mitchie – occupied.

"Hey, Mitchie. Can I sit here?", she asked casually, pointing to the empty chair next to the raven-haired girl.

"Yes, you can. And no, you may not. Alex." The black-haired girl answered looking up at Alex with a set jaw.

"Is that so?", now the wizard was simply annoyed.

"I'm afraid it is", Mitchie replied with a mockingly sad tone.

"Suit yourself", Alex only received a glare in return and settled for making her way back to Harper.

"What happened?", asked her best friend.

"Girl doesn't wanna talk", the brunette said nonchalantly.

"You're acting real weird today and it is freaking me out, which is usually reversed, just saying.", Harper pointed out. "You planning on ditching the rest of the classes today?"

"No, I'm gonna stay. By the way, I heard about this party tonight, it's gonna be wild, wanna come?"

"And there goes the weirdness", Harper shook her head in, dare she say it, disappointment.

Mitchie avoided Alex successfully until lunch. As far as she was concerned the girl had mental issues. She didn't go to the cafeteria, but walked outside instead. She went around to the back of the school, where its park was located, and looked around. She wanted to be alone, so she had to choose some secluded place that she could claim as her own. Her eyes fell on a large oak tree near the exit of the school premises. No one seemed to be headed there, so she decided that it would do for now.

Mitchie went to sit under the tree and leaned against its massive trunk. She took out her songbook – she hadn't written anything since the accident. She needed to try; writing always took the pain off her chest. But she stared at the blank page and nothing came out. Although she had so many emotions bottled up inside, the necessary words just never came.

"That's my tree." At the sound of the slightly familiar voice, Mitchie quickly closed her songbook.

"Is your name on it?"

"Smart-ass. I'm trying to make small talk here.", Alex's initial smirk faded.

"I don't want to be talked to.", Mitchie gathered her stuff and began to walk away.

"Oh, come on, what is your problem?", The wizard yelled after the retreating figure.

Mitchie spun one hundred and eighty degrees and looked Alex straight in the eyes even from the distance between them.

"Right now – you are. Anything else does not concern you."

The brunette was about to come up with a witty response, but the bell rang and Mitchie was well on her way to class. Alex couldn't remember the last time someone had talked to her like that. The new girl was certainly something else. She decided that she could be late; having attended all of today's classed on time, and lit a cigarette. She wasn't afraid of getting caught, knowing that no one usually came back here.

"Dad, I'm home!", Steve came out of the kitchen and enveloped Mitchie in a hug.

"Hey, dear, how was your day?", he asked his daughter with a smile that he had to force.

"Okay, I guess. Today some girl tried to talk to me", she said indifferently, trying to make some kind of conversation. They hadn't really been good at talking about anything really, since that dreadful day. He made sure she was okay, cooking for her and checking up on her all the time, but he never knew how to talk to her, to get her to open up. That used to be her mom's responsibilty.

"That's great! Wait… tried?", her dad asked, confusion furrowing his brows.

"I blew her off." She winced – bad topic choice.

"But, Mitchie, the whole purpose of sending you to a public school was for you to meet other people, make some new friends.", Steve tried to reason with her and was subconsciously glad that he didn't have to fake a smile anymore. Concern he could handle, that emotion was easy for him when it came to his daughter. But he couldn't pretend to be happy, that everything was okay, when it was the utmost opposite. He tried to clear his head quickly, before the sorrow could get to him, and focus on the issue at hand. His little girl never did have many friends, but she couldn't do without any either.

"Dad, she's crazy. Plus, if I'm gonna make friends, ever, it'd be on my own time, okay?", having made her point, Mitchie headed towards her room. "I'm going to do my homework, just call me down for dinner."

Alex was rummaging through her closet, searching for something to wear to tonight's party. Harper may have refused to go, but there was no way she was going to miss it.

"What do you think you're doing?", the sounds of her older brother's voice startled her, but she brushed it off.

"Going to a party. Why, what does it look like?"

"Again? Really, Alex?", Justin shook his head in disapproval. "You've been fooling dad with your little duplication spell, but I know of every single time you went to get drunk at some random party. You don't remember, but I've had to drag you home more than once." His voice rose with every word he spoke. He couldn't take seeing his sister like that. He had been quiet long enough and he loved Alex too much to let her destroy yourself.

Alex was taken aback at that statement and her eyes widened.

"What are you talking about?" Sure, after she had been out partying, things were usually blurry and there were a few black spots in her memory, but she had never imagined that it was that bad. How could she possibly recall nothing of such events?

"I can put up with your smoking, with you ditching class, with unsupervised magic even, but you're not going anywhere now or ever again."

Alex loved her brother in spite of everything and he had almost gotten to her, but out of all the things she hated, she despised being told what to do the most.

"Watch me", she went back to going through her clothes and Justin's determination came crashing down.

"Alex, please, listen to me, just this once." The confidence had faded and now he was simply desperate.

The middle Russo sighed in defeat – when her brother started begging, she couldn't find it even in the darkest parts of her soul to say 'no' to him.

"Just this once." Justin got the feeling that this statement would bring problems in the future, but he couldn't ask for more right now. So he simply uttered a quiet 'thank you' and left the room.

Review and tell me what you think or how much you despise me for making you wait so long ^^