Another two weeks of pure simple camp activities passed; that is until today came around – the fourth Wednesday of camp. As soon as I awoke properly, the meaning of the day hit me – exactly six months ago, I ended an innocent life. Instantly I was overwhelmed by feelings of loss, guilt, anger and disgust. Quietly, so as not to wake up my roommate, I hurried into the bathroom, digging out my stash of razors and taking one to my left thigh. As I felt the blade cut at my skin, and saw the blood slowly flow out, my whole body relaxed. Once I felt emotionally relieved, I proceeded with my morning activities to find a pleasant surprise to greet me when I stepped out of the shower.
"Oh, great timing you crappy menstrual s\cycle. And on the day when I don't have any pads or tampons," I muttered under my breath as I threw on my black bathrobe. As some point during my rant, Emmi barged into the bathroom and keeled over the toilet, bringing up the contents of her stomach numerous times. I hurried over to her and held her hair back, handing her a damp washcloth to wash up with after.
"I have some tampons in my bath bag. I haven't needed them in a while, which is weird, cause I was due last week… but go ahead and take what you need."
"Thanks hon. Are you okay now?" I asked, seeing that this was the first time I had ever seen her even register the fact that she was in pain.
"Mmmhmm, fruit never has agreed with me."
"At least it wasn't Mom's fault," I said, somewhat relieved.
"Now I think about it, it was Sander's wise idea to try and get me to eat some," she replied, before resuming her previous actions as another wave of nausea hit her. I left the bathroom, raiding her luggage and finding my saviour. I got dressed for the day, and headed to the guys cabin to practice – tonight was Dance Jam, and Ella, Caitlyn, Lola and I were rehearsing our song, then Emmi was gonna rehearse hers with the guys. It was one that the label wanted them to sing at one point, and despite not wanting to sound like "perfect cookie cutter pop stars", the guys liked the song.
By the time us girls had run through our song close to seven times, Emmi stumbled in, looking sweaty and pasty… even more so than she normally did.
"Do… do you think you could ask your Mum to pop down to the chemist for me?" She whispered as Caitlyn and I walked towards her. "I think I'm…" But she never finished her sentence, for she burst into tears and fell to the floor. Thinking about our conversation in the bathroom that morning, I knew exactly what she desired.
"What about the drugs?" I whispered as Caitlyn and I helped her up and placed her gently on Nate's bed.
"I'm clean," she stated, happiness radiating from her body. Caitlyn and I congratulated her as Connect 3 made their way over.
"Baby, are you okay?" Jason asked, pressing the back of his hand against her forehead.
"If I have the correct assumption, which I am 95% positive I have, I may be. But then again, it may break us up." Soon everyone had gathered around the bed, and Emmi looked like a lost child.
EPOV
"You don't have to tell us if you don't want to," Shane said, pulling Mitchie into his arms and sitting next to me on the bed.
"I cannot lie anymore. Not to myself, and more importantly, not to my friends," I spoke as Caitlyn and Nate sat on another bed, and Ella and Lola made themselves comfortable on the floor.
? POV
"… not to myself, and more importantly, not to my friends. I lied to Jason the morning after Campfire Jam. Yes, I am on the pill, but I have to take antibiotics for my burn, and I forgot that the two mixed together cancelled out the effects of the birth control," the English girl said. I knew this would be worth my while, so I pulled out my cell and recorded the rest of the conversation.
"Does that mean?" Jason asked. Even from my vantage point, you could see his eyes gleaming with hope. Fucking disgusting.
"Yes Jason, I'm carrying your baby." That was all the proof I needed. I removed myself stealthily from my hiding spot and ran to Brown's cabin.
JPOV
"I'm carrying your baby." Even though I knew I was still young, I was elated by the news that I was going to be a daddy. I picked Emmi up gently and twirled her around my body, holding her close and laughing.
"I'm going to be a dad," I whispered into her ear, before roughly capturing her lips with mine.
"And a damn fine one at that," she replied when we broke away. And then came the congratulations.
BPOV
"Well, its Dance tonight, then we have a Jam every four days or so, with the prom between the Waterfall and Final Jams. That way everyone…"
"Brown, I have something important to tell you. It absolutely cannot wait," Tess said, storming into my meeting with Dee, disregarding the fact that we had been talking.
"What is it Ms. Tyler?"
"Listen to this," she said while pulling her phone out, and pressing a few buttons.
"Yes Jason, I'm carrying your baby." They what?! I thought, outraged at the fact they could be so careless. I thought Emmi had learned from the last time.
"Thank you Tess, you can go now. I'll find a way to deal with this."
TPOV
I left Brown's cabin with a triumphant smile on my face. Too bad he didn't know that I had already called and sent the audio clip to Pop Informer Magazine and Hot Tunes TV. The slut and the loser would be headlining news by the afternoon.
MPOV
Lola, Ella, Caitlyn and I were waiting backstage for Brown to announce our act, all of us dealing with nerves in a different way. Ella was reapplying her lip gloss countless times; Lola fixing her hair; Caitlyn was attempting to pull her almost micro-mini skirt down to cover more of herself, and I was pacing, debating as to whether wearing the leather pants would be a good idea considering I would be dancing.
"Welcome to the stage, Mitchie, Ella, Lola and Caitlyn!" We all walked onto the stage and got into positions – this was gonna shock the audience.
"Now I've got a confession, when I was young I wanted attention. And I promised myself that I'd do anything; anything at all for them to notice me." I sang, strutting my stuff as Shane put it earlier, causing the campers to clap loudly.
"But I ain't complaining. Y'all
wanna be famous. So go ahead and say what you wanna say. You know
what its like to be nameless, want them to know what your name is.
Cos see when I was younger I would say."
Ella sang, her voice ringing out into the crowd, getting us greater
applause than before.
"When I grow up, I wanna be famous, I wanna be a star, I wanna be in movies. When I grow up, I wanna see the world, drive nice cars, I wanna have groupies. When I grow up, be on TV, people know me, be on magazines. When I grow up, Fashion Queen, number one chick when I step out on the scene. Be careful what you wish for cos you just might get it, you just might get it, you just might get it. Be careful what you wish for cos you just might get it, you just might get it, you just might get it." We sang as a group, before Caitlyn launched into her solo.
"They use to tell me I was silly, until I popped up on the TV. I always wanted to be a superstar; who knew that singing songs would get me this far?"
"But I ain't complaining. Y'all wanna be famous. So go ahead and say what you wanna say. You know what its like to be nameless, want them to know what your name is. Cos see when I was younger I would say." Lola used some of her appealing Hip-hop moves to actually get the crowd to scream at us when she sang, making Shane, Nate and Jason laugh.
"When I grow up, I wanna be famous, I wanna be a star, I wanna be in movies. When I grow up, I wanna see the world, drive nice cars, I wanna have groupies. When I grow up, be on TV, people know me, be on magazines. When I grow up, Fashion Queen, number one chick when I step out on the scene. Be careful what you wish for cos you just might get it, you just might get it, you just might get it. Be careful what you wish for cos you just might get it, you just might get it, you just might get it."
"I see them staring at me, ooh I'm a trendsetter. Yes this is true cos what I do, no one can do it better. You can talk about me, cos I'm a hot topic. I see you watching me watching me and I know you want it" These lyrics were my favourite in the whole song, and I was so happy that the girls let me sing it, before we launched into the outro.
"When I grow up, I wanna be famous, I wanna be a star, I wanna be in movies. When I grow up, I wanna see the world, drive nice cars, I wanna have groupies. When I grow up, be on TV, people know me, be on magazines. When I grow up, Fashion Queen, number one chick when I step out on the scene. Be careful what you wish for cos you just might get it, you just might get it, you just might get it. Be careful what you wish for cos you just might get it, you just might get it, you just might get it." As we finished, we quickly bowed and ran offstage, giggling at some of the reactions we had managed to get during the performance.
EPOV
"And next up is Connect 3, singing their new single "We've Got the Party." I went up with the guys and took my spot on stage between Shane and Nate, so Jason and I could have a chance at keeping our hands off each other. (A/N: I don't like doing these in the middle of chapters, but I need to explain. Emmi's lyrics are italic; Shane's underlined; Nate's bold, and everyone is plain.)
Come
on guys tell me what we're doing
We're hangin' around when we
could be all over the place
The
sun is shinin' just the way we like it
Let's get out of this
hallway
Show the world our face
It's
Friday but there's nowhere to go
Anywhere is cool but we're not
going home
And
we can do anything we wanna do
It's all up to me and you
Turn
this park into a club
the stars and lights and the moon is a vibe
from above
These skateboard heels all right so cool
Everyone is
waiting for us
So anywhere we are
Anywhere we go
Everybody
knows
We got the party with us
Anywhere we are
Anywhere we
go
Everybody knows
We got the party with us
Oh
oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
We got the party with us
Oh
oh oh oh oh oh
We got the party with us
Radio,
let me be your DJ
I'll turn you up because we're moving 'till
we're on a roll
Everyone is
dancing to their own beat
And letting go, everybody here's out a
soul
It's Friday and there's
nowhere to be
We're kickin' it together it's so good to be free
We
got each other and that's all we need
The rest is up to you and
me
Turn this park into a
club
the stars and lights and the moon is a vibe from above
These
skateboard heels all right so cool
Everyone is waiting for us
So
anywhere we are
Anywhere we go
Everybody knows
We got the
party with us
Anywhere we are
Anywhere we go
Everybody
knows
We got the party with us
So
anywhere we are
Anywhere we go
Everybody knows
We got the
party with us
Anywhere we are
Anywhere we go
Everybody
knows
We got the party with us
Wooo!
We
got the party!
Life is for dreamers and I'm a believer
That
nothing can stand in our way today to start the place to play
Turn
this park into a club
the stars and lights and the moon is a vibe
from above
These skateboard's here's our ride so pull on up
So
pull on up everyone is waiting for us
Anywhere we are
Anywhere
we go
Everybody knows
We got the party with us
Anywhere we
are
Anywhere we go
Everybody knows
We got the party with
us
Turn this park into a club
the stars and lights and the
moon is a vibe from above
We got the party with us
Skateboards,
heels
So pull on up everyone is waiting for us
Anywhere we
are
Anywhere we go
Everybody knows
We got the party with
us
Anywhere we are
Anywhere we go
Everybody knows
Oh oh
oh
We got the party, we got the party, we got the party, we got
the party with us
Oh oh oh oh oh
We got the party with us
As we all took our bows, flashes went off before my eyes, and reporters appeared out of nowhere.
"Hey, you, girly! Is it true you got knocked up by Jason?" Everyone and I mean everyone in the camp gasped, all except me. Being the individual that I am, I passed out onto the hard wood that made up the dance studio floor.
MPOV
"How do you…?"
"The world of gossip never sleeps," the arrogant reporter replied. Jason and Sander hurried to get Emmi safely into a cabin, whilst the rest of us stayed behind to deal with the jerky paps.
"No, the world of gossip does sleep. However, the world of Tess Tyler and her need to ruin everyone else's lives never sleeps," Caitlyn stated.
"How do you know it was me?" Tess whined, looking like a fool in front of the rest of the camp. After what went down last year, nobody really liked her anymore. With Peggy on vacation this summer, there were no minions for her to take her hatred out on.
"Well, I know for a fact that both Ella and I saw you by the window. But I think we're gonna leave it there. We'll let the Paps get the whole story." And with that, Lola left the room with Barron directly behind her. Everyone else in the group put in their two cents with Tess, the media capturing every moment of it either in a notepad, on a microphone or on camera. Before she even had a chance to retaliate, we all – by this I mean every camper, Brown, Dee and Mom – left Tess in the middle of the mess of Paparazzi she created.
