DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN CAMP ROCK OR ITS ORIGINAL CHARACTERS, NOR DO I OWN ANY SONGS OR QUOTES THAT MAY APPEAR IN THIS FIC!

A/N: A little WARNING ahead of time, this chapter deals with a little bit of heavy emotion and mentions of a suicide attempt. Please DO NOT read if that is something that is bothersome to you! If you want, you can P.M. me or leave a review and I'll tell you an overview.


Chapter 7:

Mitchie's P.O.V.:

I was so excited that Brown didn't fall for Tess' games. I can't believe- well actually I can believe she did that. I turned to Caitlyn and saw her smiling just as big as me. We hugged and jumped up and down in celebration. We were really scared we wouldn't be able to participate in the one thing we've been getting ready for all of camp.

"I'm going to go thank them," I told her as I removed my apron.

I made my way towards Shane's cabin and knocked. Nate answered.

"Hey Mitchie," he greeted.

"Hey Nate," he moved aside and I entered going for a chair by the door.

"Did Uncle Brown come and talk to you guys? He told us about what happened. Why'd Tess think you took her bracelet?" he asked.

"Yeah he came to talk to us and we're back in Final Jam. Tess knew we didn't take her bracelet she was just trying to get us into trouble. I'd tell on her too, if I had proof. She doesn't like me or Caitlyn; us stealing her bracelet would be just the thing to get us kicked out, which she'd love." I explained.

"Hm, that's really petty," he said.

"I know, but it's Tess. Anyways, I just came to say thanks. You guys really saved us," I said getting up.

"No problem," he said, giving me a hug that I returned.

Just as we separated, Jason and Shane came in.

"Hey Mitchie," they both greeted.

"Hey guys." I said.

"So is everything alright? Uncle Brown told us what happened." Said Shane.

"Yeah it's fine. Thanks for sticking up for us. We get to stay in Final Jam now."

"Great, I can't wait to hear what you sing. Is it about birds?" asked Jason, looking hopeful.

Shane slapped him upside the head. "No one is singing about birds! That's the ninth time you've asked that question!"

"Okay, there's no need for the abuse," I said to Shane. "Thanks and I don't know what we're going to sing yet, but I don't think it'll be about birds." I told Jason laughing.

"I gotta go and finish helping set up for dinner, but I'll see you guys later." I told them, leaving.

"See you later Mitch." Called Nate and I turned and waved.


Shane's P.O.V.:

"What was the about?" I asked turning on Nate as soon as Mitchie was out of sight.

"What was what about?" he asked going over to his guitar, on it stand.

"We saw that hug," Jason put in.

"And that look. You like Mitchie." I said with a smirk my little brother has a crush! I'm so going to milk this! I thought laughing.

"Of course I like her, she cool. You like her too," he said.

"No," said Jason, stretching out the word and shaking his head. "You like-like her."

"'Like-like'? How old are you?" asked Nate.

"I'm twenty and don't change the subject." Said Jason, refusing to be sidetracked.

"Okay, sure she's cute and funny and smart and talented... But that doesn't mean I like her like that. She seems like a good friend is all." Said Nate trying to brush it off.

Not happening!

"Aw, come on Nater-tot. You can tell us about this! We're your big brothers. We're always here to listen! Besides, who else is gonna give ou your chat about the birds and the bees?" I said pinching his cheeks, trying to hold in my laughter.

"'Nater-tot'? Birds and- Get off of me!" he said slapping at my hands as Jas and I laughed. "I'm going for a walk." And with that Nate was gone.

"You think we made him mad?" asked Jase.

"Nah, he's just mad we know he likes Mitchie, which means she probably knows it too. Can't wait to see how this turns out." I said plopping down on my bed.


Nate's P.O.V.:

Outside

They are so annoying! 'Nater-tot'! Where the hell did he get that one from?

I walked for a little bit longer thinking about what Jase had said.

"You like-like her."

Was it a bad thing if I did? Was that even logical? I did just meet her today... I don't know. She is cute and she has to be smart to be able to see past Shane's crap and put him in check. She's talented too. She's tough too. That thing with Tess showed she'd fit in just fine in this lifestyle, she'd be able to hold her own, at least... Why am I thinking about all of this? She's just a friend.

But you want her as more than a friend. The voice in the back of my head taunted.

I sighed. I can't go out with Mitchie, she wouldn't make it. Tess is way different from the Paparazzi and hateful angry fans. I can't do that to her. She probably likes Shane anyways.

I sighed again as I walked back to the cabin.


Mitchie's P.O.V.:

Things were getting really hectic, as Final Jam quickly approached. The past couple of days have been spent helping in the kitchen, deliberating on what to perform, if we would all perform together, and hanging out with everyone when we could.

I had been spending a lot of time with Nate as well. We had only met a few days ago, but I already felt like he was a really close friend. He was a good person to talk to about music and life in general. We agreed on a lot of things even our views on Tess and people like her. I smiled thinking back on the conversation we'd had about that the other day.


Flashback:

We were walking around the camp talking about our likes and dislikes, and personality traits came into discussion.

"Not to bad-mouth her, but something that I really hate in a person is for them to think everything has to be about them and Tess is a prime example. I mean she's pretty, she's rich, and she has talent, but she's so self-centered and attention hungry, it's ridiculous. I mean her mom is T.J. Tyler for God's sake! People will forever know who she is just from association, but she still has to rub that she;s "more important" in other people's faces." I said, going into a mini rant.

"I know what you mean. I've only been around her a few times in the past few days, but it's like she expects you to bow and thank her whenever she enters your presence. It's a bit annoying. It reminds me of how Shane was getting and practically was before we sent him here; before you got to him." Said Nate.

"He wasn't that bad. He was a little arrogant, but something tells me that's not going to leave Mr. Front man anytime soon." I said with a laugh.

"Maybe, but still. You lead him back to who he is." He said smiling at me.

"I don't know about that. I pushed him a little, maybe, but I doubt I had that big of an impact on him. I'm me, I don't impact anything that much." I said scoffing.

"You impact a lot of things. In this short amount of time, I've seen that you can impact the mood of a room and make things brighter, you can make a song come to life before even opening your mouth. At least, that's my opinion." He said causing me to blush.

"Thanks," I said quietly. There was a stent of silence.

"That's awkward," he said laughing a little.

"What?"

"That, it got really quiet suddenly."

"I know, it's just... people don't say that type of stuff to me. It's a little... yeah." I finished off lamely.

"They should, it's true." He said, touching my hand and smiling.

I smiled back at him.

"Thanks," and with that we continued on with our walk in comfortable silence.

End of flashback


Bonfire

The whole group and other campers were all sitting around the fire roasting marshmallows and hotdogs over the fire sharing stories about our families. I had just finished telling a story about what happened at a family reunion we had a few years back.

"You left out an important member mom." Said Tess from across the fire.

"What?" I asked confused. Did she just call me mom?

"Did you forget about baby Sarah already?" she smirked, pulling up a picture of me and Sarah at her birthday party. "You know, the fact that you haven't mentioned her all summer says a lot about your parenting skills. Usually parents won't shut up about their brats." She said smiling.

My whole stomach fell on the floor. How the hell did she find out? I looked at Caitlyn as she was the only person here who knew about Sarah who wasn't in the family. She shook her head.

"What's wrong Mitchie? You don't want to share the most important part of your life with the camp?"

The bonfire got completely silent.

"Where'd you get that?" I asked feeling a headache coming on.

"I have my sources. So, tell us about little Sarah. Does she look like her daddy?" she asked tauntingly.

"No, she doesn't!" I said angrily. This wasn't supposed to follow me here.

"Oh, did I strike a chord? What, is daddy not in the picture?"

"No, and he never will be if I have anything to say about it. Can we change the subject?" I said starting to feel closed in like I often did at home.

"Why? I want to hear about little Sarah. Has she gotten an interest in boys yet? Something tells me she'll be just like mommy."

"Stop it!" I said.

"Why?" she asked.

"Leave my baby out of it, she has nothing to do with you or anyone else here," I said angrily. "You shouldn't even know about her. It's wonderful to know you care so much about my life, but you can stop now." I said sarcastically.

"I don't care about your life, I care to know when I'm sleeping in the company of a liar. You've been prancing around this camp like you're so innocent and nice and important, the truth is you're nothing but a dirty, lying, hoe. You have the brat to prove it." She said harshly with narrowed eyes.

"Shut the hell up!" Shouted Sierra jumping up.

"Make me!" Yelled Tess. "Don't sit there and try to defend her, you know it's true or are you the proud Aunty of the runt?" she said laughing.

"'Mitchie, what is she talking about?" asked Shane.

"Something that not her business," I said glaring at Tess.

"You've told me everything else. Why didn't you say you have a kid?" questioned Shane.

"She was busy looking for a new baby daddy since Mica left her," said Tess. I flinched at that name.

"No I wasn't and you can shut the up!" I shouted.

"No, you're always up for story time and being in the spotlight, it's all yours now. Why not share?"

"You are such a bitch!" I said getting out of my seat.

"I'd rather be a bitch than a lonely whore with a bastard!" she spat back, rising from her seat.

I launched myself at her, but was stopped by Shane.

"Get off of me!" I shouted pushing him away. "You are a sneaky, conniving, spoiled bitch! You're miserable because you can't get your mother to pay one lick of attention to you so you have to make up for it by being everyone else's center of attention and when you're not, you make others miserable with you. I came here to get away and you go as far as to dig it up and drag it here! I hope you spend the rest of your life alone cause that's nothing less than what you deserve!"

"Mitchie!" Shane said, shocked.

"What?" I yelled turning on him.

"You can't sit here and get mad at her for knowing you have a daughter! You don't have that right! You hid it in the first place!" he said beginning to get mad. "What happened to believing everything coming to light eventually or were you lying about that too? Or what about hating when ignorance is used to retaliate against ignorance? What you just said was extremely ignorant! Her mom is a busy person, that doesn't mean she loves her any less. Or what about accepting your actions as they are? You've been talking about Tess being an evil liar, but you've been hiding half your life from us. You're under aged and not married, but that's still your baby and she exists! You chose to do what you did for her to exist, at least own up to it!" he yelled at me.

At that point, I felt like him slapping me would have felt better than to hear those words. I felt disconnected; like I was watching all of it happen from somewhere else. "I know she exists Shane," I said in a monotone voice. "I promise you I know that much... I knew things were too good here. I just can't win." I said with a bitter laugh.


Jared P.O.V.:

We were all sitting around having a good time laughing at stories and joking around when Tess opened her mouth about Sarah. She started calling her and Mitchie all types of names and just like I do with the girls at home, I wished my mom didn't raise me right so I could smack her. I didn't even need to look at Mitchie to know that she was slipping again. The tone of her voice... It was happening again.

I remember the way she was after what Mica did to her. I still want to kill him. She would sit with her eyes open for hours and never blink, never saying a word, for weeks. Then she found out she was pregnant and gave up.

"... I just can't win." She said, her voice getting distant.

I just can't win.


Flashback:

"What the hell's going on?" I asked out of breath, as I ran into Mitchie's house to see Sierra crying on Michaels shoulder.

There was an ambulance with its lights flashing and back doors open, but no one inside. Just then, paramedics came down the stairs with a passed out Mitchie on a stretcher, a gas mask on her face, wrists bleeding through bandages.

"What the hell? Mitchie?" I asked freaked out. I tried to get closer, but one of the paramedics stopped me.

"She needs to get to the hospital. Feel free to follow, but she needs to go." she said, running after her partner.

"What?" I asked turning towards Michael seeing as he was the only one who could speak legible English.

"We tried calling her to see how she was doing, but she never answered so we came here. The door was unlocked and we went up... She won't wake up." He said, silent tears falling down his face.

"No... no. Come on. We can call Mrs. T on the way." I said pulling them both to Michaels parents car.

I saw that he had something in his hands. It was a piece of paper. I grabbed it and uncrumbled it.

I can't do it. I'm sorry, please don't be mad. I love you guys, but I just can't win. It's better this way.

Forgive me,

Mitchie

Damn it Mitchie! I thought throwing the note on the ground as I ran for the driver's seat of the car. If you die, I'm gonna kill you!

End of Flashback


I got up from my seat to try to talk to her, but when I touched her arm, she pulled away.

"Mitch," I said pleadingly.

"No," she said.

"Mitchie, don't do that," I tried again.

"No!" she shouted. "No! I keep trying and I can't. Every time... every time! I lose..." she said mumbling to herself.

I turned to Sierra, pleading with her to help.

"Mitchie, hon, nobody's playing against you." She said softly.

"Yes they are, they always are. I let them do it. Shane's right, I need to take responsibility," she said, finally looking us in the eye. With everything in me, I wished she hadn't. I saw the exact same emptiness as when she woke up in the hospital. She didn't talk to us for days, the only explanation we got as to why was that we ruined it. She said she finally won and we took it away.

Please not again.

"No, Mitchie please-" I tried to plead, outright beg on the verge of tears now, but she just turned and walked away.

"I'll never win."


Michael's P.O.V.:

As I stood next to my friends watching Mitchie walk away, I felt a surge of anger build up in me and turned and punched Shane in the face. I continued to hit him until Sander, Barron, and Jason pulled me off of him.

"And you," I said turning on Tess who took a step back. "Yeah, you be scared. God I wish I could kick your ass, too. Do you have any type of idea what the fuck you've done?"

"I exposed her for what she is." Tess sat back down looking righteously pleased with herself.

"You just set her back!" Sierra said in an almost whisper. "If you wanted to snoop so badly, you should have done it correctly. Did you at all bother digging past the sparknotes while you were playing mole in Mitchie's life?"

"I didn't have to. All that matters is I got what I needed, now we all know what she is." She has the balls to sound smug! I raged inside. "You three and everyone else knows to stay away from her now." Tess said to Nate, Jason, and Shane.

"You did this over them?" yelled Jared.

"Why else?" asked Tess confused.

Before anyone could say anything else, Sierra hit her in the face.

"You dumb bitch!" She yelled and everyone gasped. "You have no clue- I swear if anything happens to her, God himself won't be able to hide you!" She hissed and turned to try to find Mitchie.


Nate's P.O.V.:

Everything was going fine and then it all went to hell in a matter of seconds because Tess said something about Mitchie being a mom, which turned out to be true. I was shocked at first, but I got over it pretty fast. It's surprising, but it could be something worse. She's still Mitchie.

It's terrible that Tess felt the need to go that far just to get us to pay attention to her. It seemed to really hurt Mitchie and got her no where, not with me at least.

That's so sad. I thought as a turned to go and follow after Mitchie to make sure she was okay. As I was walking away I could hear screaming and a fist colliding with skin. I turned to look over my shoulder and saw Shane lying flat on the ground, Michael yelling over him. You deserved it.

I found Mitchie a little ways away from the bond fire. She was sitting on the same rock we sat by when we talked the first time. As I got closer I could hear her singing.

Just when you think
Hope is lost,
And giving up
Is all you got,
And blue turns black,
Your confidence is cracked,
There seems no turning back from here...

"Sounds great," I said stepping out from behind the trees.

"Came to call me names, too?" she asked wiping her face clean of tears, but they kept coming as she sniffled.

"No. I came to see how you were doing, though that's pretty obvious."

"That's never obvious." She said.

"What's that mean?" I pondered as I sat on the ground next to her.

"No matter how you feel, the only thing people see is what you show them. I can't even do that right," she said bitterly. "I try to leave, they won't let me." she muttered, unaware that I had heard. What's that supposed to mean?

"Well, you know what I see? I see people that love you, who want to keep you as close as possible."

"No one loves me. If they did, they'd leave me alone." She crossed her arms and turned away from me to face the sky.

"Your daughter loves you. Your friends love you. I'm sure your parents love you more than anyone else."

"Whatever," she shrugged.

"No, not whatever." I said getting up to sit in front of her. "Mitchie there are people who care about you. No matter how many more people there seem to be that don't, there are people who need and care about you."

"I don't know how to deal with this anymore," she huffed as the pain she'd been trying to hide began to win, flashing across her face for the world to see.

"I know that feeling. I went through the same thing a few years ago. I got diagnosed with diabetes and I questioned what tomorrow would be like every morning I woke up. I didn't know how to deal with it either but, I kept going, and things got easier after a while. You just have to keep going Mitchie. You can't give up yet."

"I don't know how," she said her voice breaking as a new wave of tears came.

"I'll help. And I'm sure your real friends and people who really love you will help, too." I said as I took her into my arms and we both sat in silence for a little while, Mitchie leaning farther into my side.

After a while, she shifted a little and pulled up the sleeve of her shirt. I could see faded scars along the exposed skin.

"I found out I was pregnant with Sarah and didn't know how to face it..." she stopped taking a deep breath. "Her father raped me and I let him get away with it... I don't know, I just couldn't stand the idea of bringing another living thing into the world and I didn't even want to be in it myself, you know? I can't handle the world how the hell am I supposed to teach her how to?" She looked to me, her eyes pleading for understanding, for an answer.

"I understand that," I took a hold of her hand. We lapsed back into silence and I thought over the last few minutes, all that I had learned. "What stopped you after Sarah got here?" I questioned, running my thumb over the fading jagged scars of the great girl I was slowly, but surely, getting to know.

"I couldn't leave her here with no parents at all. Mica probably would have tried to take custody of her and I just couldn't be selfish enough to force her into that life. Not with him." She covered the hand that held hers, finally looking me in the eye again. I could see her resolve to try, if not for anyone or anything else, to protect her daughter.

"See, you already have a reason to keep trying. All you have to do is find one reason to get up and keep trying every day, and eventually you'll see that you have the whole world to live for if you want it. All you have to do is want it." I told her, holding her tighter hoping she'd get the message that she was cared for.

"I can do that." She said softly as she sniffled once more.

"Good."


A/N: There are 3,884 words in this chapter excluding the author's notes and little "markers" (bolded text). The song used in this chapter is"Bridge of light" by Pink from the "Happy feet two" movie. I'm happy enough with how this turned out. I finally connected with the wording at the end of it visually, so it will remain for now. Remember to review! Constructive criticism is very welcomed and needed! Until next time!