A/N: More more. I'm glad you all seemed to like the last chapter (: I was toying with a kiss but it all seemed too easy (and I never let my characters do anythign easily). So... Caitlyn and Nate have now spent a night together (and if anyone knew how they'd spent it... well... I'm sure any magasine would pay a lot for that story) and they now each have a score to settle with, well, everyone else.

Let's see where it goes (:

Well, I know where it goes. But i can still hope that maybe you won't guess. Well... you know where it's ending up... but... oh nevermind, I've confused myself.

Let's just get the the chapter, okay?

Ten

*Caitlyn*

After the... incident... involving the music hut, Caitlyn resolved that she wasn't going to speak to any of the perpetrators again for the rest of camp. Mitchie was complaining a lot, usually when Caitlyn was trying to sleep, but Caitlyn was certain this was the pacifists approach. Mitchie had no idea how lucky she was that Caitlyn hadn't hit her.

The only problem she could see so far with this plan, however, was that it left her social circle rather... limited... meaning first thing two mornings later after a day of nothing while her new timetable was sorted she was confronted by Nate storming into a room and his eyes falling on her. Shockingly, his anger seemed to abate and he flicked through embarrassment before coming out confused.

"What are you doing here?"

It was nice, the way he said 'you' as though she was a very unpleasant contagious disease. Really made a girl feel wanted. She shrugged, as though it didn't matter much even though it did. It really did. "I had to drop all my classes because either Mitchie was taking them, Shane was teaching them or both. Brown said I couldn't have a blank timetable and I'm not talking to Jason or Ele thus," she spread her arms. "Here I am. No choice."

Nate stalked forward, apparently capable of ignoring the entire class who seemed shocked that he seemed to know someone in the camp enough to have something resembling a two-sided conversation. "Couldn't you go somewhere else?"

Caitlyn rolled her eyes, turning after him. "Where?"

"Oh, I dunno, anywhere." He was moving towards a pile of cushions which was, presumably, where he usually slept in these lessons.

"If you have a suggestion, I'd love to hear it. I don't want to be here either, I can assure you. At least you don't keep trying to talk to me." She moved over to the wall and sat on a side board between a stereo and a box of hats.

"Hi, Caitlyn," came a kind of timid voice from across the room and she glanced over to see Andy sitting in a corner with another girl. They looked like they were attempting to get two MP3 players in time with each other.

"Hi Andy. What are you doing?" Finally, someone in the camp who isn't a jerk pop star or a stupid idiot who thinks locking me in a room with a jerk would be amusing.

"We were going to try a dance routine, we need to make sure we're in time with each other."

Oh yeah, Nate hates noise... Caitlyn smirked slightly and reached over to the CD collection. "If you want to be in time with each other, you should just listen to the same song. That's what the stereo is for." She picked one disk at random and slid it into the CD player. "I'm sure Nate will survive."

She glanced over and saw Nate was sitting up on his pillows and glaring at her. "Caitlyn," he said warningly.

"What?" she said with a bright smile, hitting play and turning the volume up so she could barely hear his retort. Then she shrugged, holding a hand up by her ear. "Sorry," she mouthed. "Can't hear you."

*Nate*

Nate had never seriously wanted to punch a girl (ignoring Mitchie and Ele, they were his brother's girlfriends. There had to be a rule somewhere that said they didn't count) more than he did right at this moment. He'd had a terrible night's sleep due to this stupid backing guitar part which had been pushing at his mind and simultaneously refusing to spawn lyrics and a melody or let him get to sleep. That combined with Brown waking him up stupidly early (the man seemed to think Nate might want to shower or have breakfast or do anything other than throw a few clothes on before his morning class) to tell him that they should have a 'talk' soon about what had happened in the practice huts.

Did they need to have a 'talk'? They'd already had a perfectly good argument when the two of them had stormed to Brown's hut the moment Dee unlocked their room in preparation for the day ahead. His main excuse had been that they'd been 'locked in the wrong hut' which was why the heating had been off.

He noticeably had no explanation for why he'd authorised them being locked in in the first place. He had been added to Nate's blacker-than-black list (his black list already contained everyone on camp) but he still insisted on playing the uncle.

Nate stormed over to the stereo, pulling out the power chord. "I need sleep," he half-shouted, pushing Caitlyn off the side mostly just because he didn't like having to look up at her.

"Well Andy needs to have the music class he paid for."

"I don't want to dance, I don't want to listen to your stupid techno music. I want to be left alone somewhere quiet with a guitar and a pillow so I can play music and sleep and..."And now he was getting an idea for a melody. Now, when it was too late to make any difference to the amount of sleep he was getting. He pushed past Caitlyn, ignoring whatever she was saying in response and grabbed the only instrument in the hut, a black electric guitar. His fingers trembled very slightly when he gripped it.

Grow up, Nate. You can't have a phobia of electric guitars, you're a guitarist. It doesn't work.

But he couldn't help sending up a silent prayer to Brown's magic no-wires system of guitar management, however it worked. "Leave me alone," he repeated, turning back to Caitlyn as he slid the strap over his head.

She was beaming... why would she be beaming? What was she planning? "Okay," she said simply.

"Wait... okay? Is that it?"

She was already turning to the class. "Right. It seems clear that all this class really needs is some organisation and, while I can't dance any better than any of you, I might be able to sort that."

"Caitlyn," Nate started, warningly. "I'm not going to agree to this."

"Of course you are. You get to play music, they get to dance, Brown gets off all our backs and we get left alone. Isn't that what you want?"

It was... but there would be a catch. Unless... "Oh," he managed as it dawned on him. I want to play music, they need music to dance to. I'm kind of dense sometimes...

"You can be really dense sometimes, Nate." Caitlyn turned to the class. "This is called a compromise. You get to do whatever you want but the music will be Nate's music and Nate's style. He won't sleep in class anymore."

Nate let out a soft snort at this. He would sleep in class if he wanted to sleep in class. Right now he wanted to play music. He started playing the rhythm from last night, smoothing out the kinks in it and finding the right chords to fit it. It was working well and the guitar was playing as though it was attached to an amp. A bit of security would be nice with the system, Brown. Something to make sure it always works?

*Caitlyn*

Caitlyn rested the palm of her hand across her throat, stopping talking the moment Nate's fingers hit the strings and she helium pushed through her. So sometimes it works when I want it to, she thought pensively, climbing back onto the side and watching as the class pulled together from the edges of the room and started to find the beat.

Andy's drum sticks were resting on the side a little further down. She leant over and grabbed them, tapping a rhythm against the box of hats which, thankfully, no one was using preferring to just do the movements. They were leading themselves, improvising in different ways and it didn't look perfect or practiced or meshed but it was improvisation and it was working and she felt the pain in her throat sooth slightly to a mild discomfort. Nate's guitar volume lowered slightly and he opened his mouth to sing slowly.

"Don't want to live life your way,

But I'm finding it easy, easy to give in.

Just want to have my life, my say

Don't want to have to let you in.

Cause it's my world, they're my secrets

I can hold them as long as I want to,

It's my life, stories untold

Not to him, her or you,

Not now

Ever, ever after maybe

You'll know all about me

Just not now."

It was slower than the music the dancers were, presumably, used to but they were already adjusting, smiling and laughing slightly as they swayed and stepped around each other and crashed into each other to the floor. The twists in the music were unexpected and the dance was random but this could work, maybe.

Nate was still playing chords but now he looked over at her. "You want a go? You write songs, don't you?"

Technically, she did, but she'd never tried one like this before where she'd have to just come up with it spur of the moment. Not unless it was a song with all the lyrics already there.

Unless I just copy what he sang.

She closed her eyes slightly then opened her mouth and sang, slightly higher than usual admittedly but the helium seemed to be simultaneously hurting her throat so she couldn't sing and magicking her throat so she could. It felt very strange.

"Don't want to have to follow your plans

But I'm finding it easy, to have none of my own

Just want to have my life, my dreams

Just want to make my own home."

Was it obvious that she'd just gone with the first rhyme she could think of? Nate was starting to move up and down the room with his guitar as he sang the chorus again and the dancers seemed to have come up with a definite routine for this part though only one of them knew it so it was entertaining watching him moving and all the others colliding and falling over.

"Cause it's my world, they're my secrets

I can hold them as long as I want to,

It's my life, stories untold

Not to him, her or you,

Not now

Ever, ever after maybe

You'll know all about me

Just not now."

He nodded at her again and for a moment she wanted to yell at him that she wasn't like him and she couldn't make up songs on the spot then she just found herself going along with it.

"You assume I know what I'm doing, here." Okay, that was all she could think of.

"And you all assume that I care," Nate had come in, as though he had been expecting this. Was he psychic or something? Did he have magic oxygen or hydrogen or something just as stupid?

"I just want to tell you that I have no answers."

"Just a burst of stage and flair."

"Too true," she said, unable to help herself smiling a little as Nate laughed at her comment.

"Maybe this is all I am,

Just a face and a famous name."

"Maybe if you close your eyes

I'll break your heart again."

Nate titled his head back and stuck his tongue out as though she'd killed him. "Tacky, Caitlyn, real tacky. There I was thinking maybe we'd avoid love and heartbreak with just one song." He interrupted himself by coming in with the chorus again and, this time, she joined in.

"Cause it's my world, they're my secrets

I can hold them as long as I want to,

It's my life, stories untold

Not to him, her or you,

Not now

Ever, ever after maybe

You'll know all about me

Just not now."

"Are you guys, like, in love or something?"

Both theit heads both shot around like bullets to where Andy was looking at them with a questioning expression. "No," they said at exactly the same time.

"We're mutual enemies," Caitlyn elaborated. "He's a spoilt arrogant jerk who doesn't care about anyone."

"She's just annoying," Nate provided. "But we keep getting shoved together, it's like Fate... or possibly Brown... is determined to set us up together."

"Which will not happen," Caitlyn added. "Never."

"I think he thinks I'll mellow if I get together with a girl. He clearly hasn't met Caitlyn, however. I can't see her mellowing anyone." He rested his hand against the guitar again. "Let's try a song you might be more familiar with, does anyone know any songs by Connect 3 or from my solo tour?"

"What about Play My Music," Andy offered, trying to martial the dance group into a line. "Those of us who were here last year know that one, Caitlyn could join in with us..."

"No," Caitlyn contradicted, with the same force she'd just used to say there was no way she was ever going out with Nate Grey. "I don't dance. No way. No way ever."

"I think you should," Nate said, starting to play and effectively silencing her. She shook her head firmly. "It would be funny," he elaborated then shrugged. "Music!"

Caitlyn brought the drum sticks down and it was a fiasco.

But a fun fiasco.

*Nate*

It was strange... he'd never been this unwilling to leave his class before. They'd stopped playing a while back and now the group of dancers were sitting on the floor and discussing routines while he sat up on the side with Caitlyn who was rubbing her throat. "You should take throat sweets," he remarked. "Or cough drops, they might help."

"Help what?"

"Your throat." He pulled a fake mike from the box beside him, throwing it from hand to hand. "Whenever you sing near me you always clutch your throat as though it's hurting you. Not the best trait in a musician."

Caitlyn shrugged but she was blushing a little. "Luckily I'm not a singer. I'm more into the producing side of music, recording and mixing. That sort of thing." She glanced at her watch. "Hey, the class finished ten minutes ago. Andy said you usually left early."

Nate glanced over at her for a moment. He couldn't exactly admit that he'd kind of been enjoying himself. His pride wouldn't let him. "I have a meeting with Brown," he said instead. She would probably understand. She'd been locked in the room too, possibly even without a good reason.

"Ah." Caitlyn glanced at the group. "They want to do that song you wrote in final jam, a dance routine for it at any rate. Are you okay with that?"

Nate glanced at the group then shrugged. "Better than it just lying in my head and never getting used."

"You don't want it for Connect 3? Or for you?"

He let out a soft laugh, slightly regretful. "In case you hadn't noticed, Connect 3 isn't connecting all that well at the moment. I don't think I'll play solo again, I don't even know if I'll play in the band." He shook himself slightly. He was saying far too much and he was saying it to Caitlyn of all people. He didn't even like Caitlyn. He didn't like her and she didn't like him. They'd established that. He pushed himself down with a sigh, tossing the toy mike back to her. "Well, I guess I'd better go face our great master. Hate to think he might come down here and see my class being productive. I have a reputation to keep up here."

"So you're not a jerk, it's just your reputation."

"Or I am a jerk and my reputation backs it up." He flashed her a bright smile. "I don't suppose you'd be really nice and give my class a miss tomorrow?"

"No such luck, I don't want to have to go see Brown. Your days of sleeping in class are over."

Nate shrugged finding, to his surprise, that he didn't mind all that much. He glanced over at where his class were starting to make a move. "Anyone who doesn't turn up for class tomorrow gets a gold star."

Sadly, they all just laughed.

*Jason*

"All I'm saying," Ele repeated for what must've been about the tenth time proving that all she was saying was rather a lot. "Is that we can't make the aquiturd here. We don't have enough resources or the right machines. We definitely don't have enough funding."

Jason picked up the latest design complete with calculations he didn't really understand and a small note on the bottom reading: 'how to make the guitar function without killing the animals... magic?' It would be disappointing to have come this far during the summer only to fall now, at the last hurdle. "Could we make a prototype," he offered. "One that doesn't have to work completely but could still look good?"

"That's what I've been saying." Ele snatched all the designs together, gathering them into a pile with the short sharp movements she used when she was annoyed. "We can't make anything with what we have at the moment."

Jason picked up his mobile from the floor, flipping it between his palms instead. Admittedly this had all been what Nate had been saying from the start but it felt more real when Ele said it. He flipped his phone open, scrolling through the menu more for something to do with his hands than anything really serious.

He glanced at the screen at the moment when their agent's name, Celia, flashed up on the screen. She was new, someone who liked their new style of music and had helped Connect 3 change their sound and up it. She'd been more distracted lately because of her new boyfriend...

Jason started smiling.

Her new boyfriend who worked in a concept designs studio where they modelled full scale design ideas.

"Jason, why are you smiling? This isn't good you know. It's, like, everything we've done so far is a complete waste of time. Look at me when I'm talking to you. Stop staring at your phone like that. Jason!"

He smiled wider and kissed her. She stopped talking very quickly. "Celia!"

It took her a few moments to collect herself by which time she wasn't frowning quite so much but was ready with a sarcastic comment. "Don't you usually learn the names of the girls you kiss? I'm Ele, Ele." She was blushing slightly though and couldn't conceal a small hint of delight in her voice.

"My agent," Jason explained quickly. "Her boyfriend might be able to make it."

Ele's expression started shifting from confusion to a mirror of the smile on Jason's face. "Properly?"

"He might not be able to do all the wiring you've got here but he could make the shape, I think. Celia was showing us a concept guitar he made which was star shaped. It was cool, but it didn't work very well... plus it had no wildlife feature..."

Ele was almost bouncing with enthusiasm now and cut across his musings. "Can you call him? Tell him I'll send anything he needs, anything. We should tell Brown. Does he need paying? I could save up..."

Jason raised a hand slightly. "I'm a popstar," he offered. "I think I should be able to afford it." He lifted his phone to his ear though, pressing the call button. "I'll ask," he said, adding just in case: "but no promises."

Ele just smiled widely. "Anything is possible."