Rating changed to M. Explanation below.

*Chapter 10: At Least Now I Can Say That I Am Trying*

Quite a while later, Mitchie finally rolled off of him and cuddled up to his side with a smile. "My boyfriend's a fairly good kisser," she murmured.

"Fairly good?" Shane exclaimed in disbelief. "Nuh uh, Shane Gray does not do things half way."

"Okay, so maybe you're amazing," she admitted. "I just didn't think you needed an ego inflation."

Shane laughed and gripped her closer to him. "You've made me one very happy guy tonight, Mitchie."

"Back at you, super star," she smiled.

They were quiet for a moment, and then Mitchie heard the rumblings of laughter echoing through Shane's body. "I can't believe you thought I'd just forget about you after camp. Like that's even possible."

Mitchie blushed. "Well, you've got this whole life out there waiting for you, Shane. Your band, your fame, your fans, your label. I'm sure you've got lots of celebrity friends to get back to, and I didn't think you'd want some girl from the suburbs anymore."

Shane shook his head. "Not like that at all, Mitch, haven't you been listening to me the last couple of weeks? Nate, Jason, and I, we keep to ourselves a lot when it comes to hanging out with famous people. I mean, it's great to get to know everyone, and they're all decent people and it's fun sometimes, but the three of us would much rather be lazy and normal than be huge party boys. That's why it was so refreshing to meet you – you're easygoing and fun to be around. And you're so much better than any of those people anyway, you make it easy to be myself and don't make me feel like I have to be something I'm not. You make me feel like it's okay to just be Shane."

"It's more than okay," Mitchie whispered, raising her head from his chest to kiss his lips. "I enjoy this deeper side of you."

"You saying I'm shallow?"

"Only on a regular basis," she smiled at him. "To everyone else, at least. Why do you let everyone think that, anyway?"
"Let them think what?"

"That the most important thing in the world to you is your basket of hair products."

"Who says it's not?" he caught the glare she was sending him and laughed. "Because it's easier that way. People will believe what they want to believe, and, as surprising as it is, I like to keep my private life private. By neither denying nor encouraging any rumours, I usually succeed in doing so. Unfortunately, it also makes me seem like more of an asshole than I typically am."

"Yeah, well, your behaviour helps the stereotype along too. Not so much a rumour anymore," Mitchie laughed.

He just shrugged. "I don't even care what they all think anymore, Mitchie. When you're famous, the love and hate from the general public comes and goes so quickly that you have to learn not to worry about it. I mean, I'd never do anything to seriously jeopardize the band, at least not on purpose, but these stupid daily obsessions they have with Connect 3 are ridiculous and just not worth setting the record straight for. So because I won't talk to the media about any of it, they just paint me as even more of a jerk than I act."

"Which then makes you even madder and perpetuates the stereotype again?" Mitchie guessed.

"Exactly," Shane shrugged. "So it's better to just ignore it the best I can, and let things slide whenever possible. It's easier to let people think they know me than to have to share a lot about myself to make sure they actually do."

"Makes sense, in some really weird, twisted, pop star logic, I guess," Mitchie smiled. "I'm happy you don't put up that side of you when you're with me, though, because I'm pretty sure the rock star's pretty face would be all black and blue from getting slapped so much."

"You really are abusive, aren't you?" Shane scoffed. "But at least you're helping to keep me in line," he laughed.

Mitchie laughed too. "Hey, what are girlfriends for?" she teased, loving the fact that she could say that to him. "Someone's gotta help out the egotistical superstars in the world."

Shane smiled and then turned serious. "Seriously, though, thank you for all your help with the song."

"No problem, it was kind of flattering to have a hand in the process, actually. So what time are you meeting Jason and Nate at?"

"After supper," Shane said vaguely. "Actually, about that … I was wondering if you'd come with me tomorrow night."

Mitchie's brow furrowed. "Me? Why?"

"Because I want you there. I need the moral support."

"They're going to love the sound, Shane."

"Maybe, maybe not," he answered. "But I feel a little strange about how I've acted around them too. I feel really bad about it, to be honest. I mean, I've talked to them and it seems like things are okay, but I also want you there because I want to introduce them to the girl who changed me."

"I didn't do anything except knock some reality back into you," Mitchie grinned. "But, yeah, of course I'll go with you. If you're sure, I mean. I really, really don't want to intrude."

"You won't be," Shane promised, kissing her on the top of her head. They lapsed back into silence for a while, before Shane asked, "So what was that with Tess earlier?"

"What do you mean?" Mitchie evaded.

"You told her you had to practice because you sucked, Mitch, which is not true. But you put yourself down to get her to back off, when you could have just said you were busy or had something to do. Why would you do that?"

Mitchie was somewhat uncomfortable talking about her feelings and behaviour toward Tess, even to Shane. She realized he wouldn't let it go, though, and answered, "Because it got her to back off. I knew you wanted to talk to me, and I wanted her gone. She's been asking me a lot of questions lately about where I've been, and they're easier to deflect if I say something negative about myself, because we both know she thrives on putting others down to boost her own ego." She looked down at the ground and just played with Shane's fingers intertwined with her own.

Shane just stared at her face for a long moment, before finally saying, "Look, I'm sorry if you don't want to talk about it, but I'm just trying to understand this. I mean, it's obvious to me that you can't stand the girl – which I agree with you on, by the way – but yet you still put up with her shit. I know you're an amazing singer, Mitch, so why are you just singing backup for her? I've been wondering this for a while, but haven't wanted to bring it up. But now I'm getting worried about you, because you seem to be retreating into the background when it comes to her. I just want to know why you let her treat you like that when you would be so amazing on your own."

"Maybe I'm not ready to step out on my own, did you ever think about that?" Mitchie snapped, pulling away from him and sitting up with her knees pulled up to her chest. "We can't all be fearless rock stars, Shane."

Sighing, Shane sat up beside her. "Bullshit, Mitchie," he said softly, without a hint of malice in his voice. "I may not have heard you sing anything besides this song before, but I know from your writing skills that you've got a lot of talent in you. I also know you're trying to evade the real answer here, but I'm not going to push you. Just know you can talk to me when you're ready."

Suddenly feeling horrible at having pushed Shane away like that, all Mitchie could do was reach down and grab Shane's hand, whispering, "I know."

They stayed at the beach a while longer, light conversation flowing easily between them. Eventually, they put the blanket away, doused out the fire, and headed back toward the boat. The wind whipping her hair as they crossed the lake, it was all Mitchie could do to keep her eyes from watering. The one person that she was quickly growing to trust and open up to was there for her, but she couldn't talk to him about one of the biggest things she'd been worrying about lately. How was she supposed to tell him she was worried about being fake, and put everything in the right perspective without divulging the truth about her mother? It was impossible, and so the next best option was to snap at him and make him back off.

Nothing seemed to be amiss between them as they walked hand in hand back to the cabins, though, and kissed each other goodnight. Still, Mitchie knew Shane could sense something was off, and given what she'd learned about him so far, she didn't think he'd be giving up on finding out what was going on any time soon.

Later the next day, Shane decided it was finally time to have a legitimate talk with Brown. Taking a deep breath, he walked over to where his uncle sat reading on the couch. "Brown?" he asked, watching as his uncle raised his head and quirked his eyebrow. "Can I talk to you for a sec?"

"Talk?" Brown responded. "Or complain some more?"

Shane shrugged and trudged over to sit in a chair across from Brown. "Talk about why I've been complaining so much, I guess."

Brown looked at him in surprise. "What happened to it being all about you?"

"It still is," Shane joked. "Just a little bit differently now. I know that you've been taking me to the island and that you encouraged the guys to send me here in the first place because you're worried about me getting in so far I won't come back. And I know I've been pushing you away, and I want to apologize for my behaviour toward you."

"Seriously?" Brown asked softly, leaning forward to rest his forearms on his knees.

Shane nodded his head. "I get it, you know? I get why you're so worried, because I am too, to be honest. But I've felt so alone for so long, Brown, except for the guys, that when I was thrown back here and you were being all mother-hen-like, I didn't know how to deal. It's been too long since I've allowed myself to depend on family, and I'm really sorry I took that out on you and forgot that you've been there for me every step of the way."

Brown stared at him for a moment, taking it all in. Shane watched him nervously, shoving his hands into his pockets. He hadn't necessarily meant to get into such a deep conversation, but he knew he owed Brown some kind of explanation for his behaviour toward him. His uncle was the only one who had always been there for him, and his behaviour had been uncalled for.

Finally, Brown spoke, jolting him from his thoughts.

"Glad to see you're finally coming around, Shane," he said softly. "You had me really worried that little boy who loved music was disappearing forever."

Shane shook his head, relieved. "Always been here, Uncle Brown. Just got a little lost along the way."

"Finding your way back have anything to do with Ms. Torres?" Brown teased.

"You mean my girlfriend?" Shane smirked at the look on his uncle's face. "Yeah, she might have had a little bit of influence on the change."

"Girlfriend?" Brown asked in surprise. "Thought you were gonna turn into one of those lifelong bachelor types."

"Take after my uncle, maybe?" Shane grinned. "We made it official last night. And yes, I think she's had a little bit to do with this."

"And what's 'this'?" Brown asked curiously.

Shane took a deep breath. "I've been writing a lot lately, you know that. And last week, I called the label and gave them an idea of the new sound I've been playing around with. They pretty much shot me down right away, because they don't want us deviating from the pop stuff we've been doing so well with lately."

"What's wrong with that?" Brown cut in.

"It's not us anymore," Shane shrugged. "Hasn't been for a while. The music we loved when we started out has become unrecognizable after going through the label's purity machine so many times, and we, or at least me personally, are so sick of it that I just started to lose my mind. So the label rejected the ideas I told them about, and Mitchie called me on it when I started taking out my frustration on the kids in my classes. She encouraged me to finish the song anyway, and when I went all pessimistic about what good it would be, she came up with kind of a brilliant plan."

"Oh?" Brown asked, sitting back with an arm along the couch and quirking an eyebrow at his nephew again.

Shane nodded enthusiastically. "Nate and Jason have always thought the same thing as I do about our sound, but they've managed to keep themselves in check a lot better than I have. Mitchie suggested I get together with them and go over the song and my ideas, and if they're receptive, we should organize a surprise performance to get the song out there so the label can't restrict us."

Brown was quiet for a moment, and Shane just waited for his reaction. "It's a really good idea, I'll admit that," Brown said finally. "But have you thought this through, Shane? Really thought it through I mean? Because your label reps are not going to be impressed that you guys are going behind their backs on this one."

"What other choice do we have?" Shane exploded, shaking his head. "I know that, okay? But this is in the early stages, and I need to sit down with the boys and work it out. And I was actually kind of wondering if you'd let me go meet them tonight?"

"Tonight?" Brown asked in surprise. "Where at?"

"A little studio a friend of Nate's dad owns in the city. We don't want to go anywhere big in case the label gets wind of it. I really feel like we have to get started on this, Brown. I haven't been this inspired in a long time, and I'm worried that if we wait until camp is over, it'll never happen because the label will run us ragged to make up for missing the tour this summer. I'm hoping you can provide me with a little bit of freedom to do this?"

Brown appeared thoughtful for a moment. Finally he leaned forward again, making Shane nervous with the serious stare directed at him. "If it stops you from being such an idiot," Brown said. "Then I don't see how I can say no." He grinned at the look of relief spreading across Shane's face.

Laughing, Shane said, "Scared me for a minute, Brown. But really? You don't mind me just taking off? I mean, you've been so adamant that I not knock off camp activities…"

"This little talk has left me somewhat satisfied that if I let you use my car tonight, you actually will come back with it."

Shane rolled his eyes. "I'm not that bad," he scoffed.

"Shane, a week ago I would've chained you to a tree before I'd have let you take my vehicle and leave camp, because we both know you wouldn't have come back."

"Probably not," Shane admitted with a shrug.

"But I'm putting my stock in Mitchie having changed you, Shane, and I'm going to trust you to go tonight. And actually return, too," he laughed.

"Yeah, well, thanks for the faith," Shane joked. "I also needed to ask you, is it okay if Mitchie comes with me? I know she'd need your permission because she's a camper and all."

Brown's eyebrows shot up. "Are you serious?"

Shane furrowed his brow. "Yes," he said slowly. "Why? Does she not need your permission?"

"That's not it," Brown said with a wave of his hand. "You do realize how very unlike you it is to want to bring in someone from the outside, right? I don't think I've seen you ready to willingly share this side of yourself in a really long time."

"I know," Shane said quietly. "But nothing about my relationship with Mitchie seems normal, because everything really is normal with her. It's easy to forget everything and just hang out like a normal kid."

"You're not a normal kid, Shane," Brown reminded him needlessly.

"But what's wrong with needing to feel like I am every so often? I don't want to be surrounded by people who only care about using me."

"No, no, I agree," Brown said quickly. "I wasn't saying that to make you think you shouldn't hold on to that. I said it to remind you that Mitchie is the average person, and you're not, and I don't want to see you lose sight of that and wind up hurting her."

Shane was surprised at his uncle's words. "I won't," he promised. "I mean, it's really early in our relationship, and yeah, I haven't known her all that long, but I know enough to tell you that you're wrong, because she's not average. She's kind of been my support system lately, which is part of why I want to bring her with me tonight."

"And the other part?"

"I want the guys to meet her," Shane said, looking down in embarrassment. "They've heard me talk about her obviously, and they're like you – pretty skeptical about me letting someone into our world. I want them to meet her so they know she's not like all the people who try to use us for the status."

Brown smiled at his nephew. "God, you've changed," he said softly. "And if Mitchie will help make this side of you stick around, I can't really deny you two anything, can I?"

"So she can come?" Shane asked, excitement evident in his voice.

"As the owner and operator of Camp Rock, I give my permission for both you and Ms. Torres to leave camp tonight for as long as you require to get your damn head back on straight."

Grinning and ignoring the insult, Shane got up and walked over to wrap his arms around his uncle in a hug. As Brown hugged him back tightly, Shane said his thanks. "Just don't put me through all this again," Brown whispered back seriously.

Shane just smiled as he pulled away from his uncle. "I'll do my best," he promised. "I'm gonna go find Mitchie and let her know, okay?"

Brown nodded. "Come find me for the keys later on."

"Alright, we'll probably leave right around supper time; it's a little bit of a drive to the city."

"Just let me know," Brown said as he sat back down and Shane waved goodbye before exiting the cabin.

A/N: Some more Smitchie cuteness, and Shane legit talking to Brown. Yay :) Sorry for most of this so far being really dialogue-heavy; it's important to actually give more depth to all of these relationships though. And there's been quite a bit of foreshadowing going on, if you've been paying attention to subtle hints.

I know things are going slowly, and there hasn't been much drama so far, but trust me when I say there's a LOT of it coming up several chapters from now. Honestly, this story is still in the intro stages right now. I feel like I need to spend time building up Shane and Mitchie's relationship in order for the drama that's coming up to make any sense. And Nate and Jason are also coming up in 2 (maybe?) chapters, and I'm taking a different path with their characters too. So this is all about making you guys comfortable with the characters right now, before I throw in twists and turns and screw up their lives a little bit :) haha, kidding … kind of …

Also, VERY IMPORTANT: I know I said it above and changed the summary already, but the rating has been changed to M. This is for mature themes (way in the future), and I don't want to give away specifically what that entails, but I did want to give you all an early heads up. In general, moderate sexual themes, some substance use, and some really strong language.

Lastly: loving your comments! I'm sad I can't respond to all of them, but clearly I love to talk, so TWEET ME! I'm: LadyKacey Or tell me your twitter name so I can actually answer some of the stuff you say in reviews haha.

Chapter title is from "Sowing Season (Yeah)" by Brand New.

March 10, 2010