CHAPTER TEN
August 17th
"You-you look pale." Joseph observed, eyeing me warilly. It was the day of Final Jam. The countdown had finally reached; in eight hours everyone would start taking their seats and the first performer would be on. It made me a little nauseous. I just sat staring at my breakfast, contemplating what would happen if it came back up when I got on stage.
"I'm fine." I shook myself out of my thoughts and smiled weakly at Joseph.
"We don't have-" Joseph started, his eyes wide and nervous.
"Don't worry, Joseph, I want to." I assured him; want to perform and want to sing with Joseph and see him happy... It's really quite a fine line.
"If-if you decide different, you'll tell me, right?" He asked and I nodded.
"Promise." I nodded, I took a small bite of my bacon and grimaced, everything taste like chalk.
"Alright!" Brown came into the dining hall and clapped his hands loudly to get everyone's attention. "All performers for Final Jam, the hall is open for final rehearsals." He anounced, I took a bite of toast, I had to eat. "I suggest you use it, get used to the stage, perfect your lighting cues. Remember, Guys, this is Final Jam, we don't do sloppy shows at Final Jam, we do our best." It could have just been me, but I felt like he was looking at me and Joseph; we hadn't performed our mash-up song in front of anyone before, let alone on the stage of the music hall.
"Wanna go on the boats?" Joseph asked when Brown finished and everyone went back to breakfast. I smiled, he was so calm and excited about this. It was cute, and it helped me a little; Joseph was scared of a lot of things and if he wasn't scared about performing then why should I be?
"Okay." I agreed, starting to actually eat some breakfast.
"Just wait and see, Miles, we're gonna be awesome tonight." I don't know how Joseph knew what I was thinking. Maybe he was psychic?
Me, Joseph, two guitars and a rowboat. That's what was out in the middle of the lake an hour and a half later. It was peaceful, no expectations. We weren't even playing our song for Final Jam, we were just sitting and playing. I sat back in the boat and strummed slowly, watching as Joseph retuned his guitar, his eyes half lidded, biting his lip in concentration. I wished I could look so beautiful whilst playing so effortlessly. Joseph started humming softly and I smiled, he was getting an idea for a song, it was like watching history happen. I knew one day he was going to make it, and I'd be watching him on TV or at a concert. I just hoped I'd still know him then, the thought of not being with Joseph - even after only one Summer - made me sick to my stomach.
"You wanna practice in the music hall?" I asked when it was well into the afternoon, only a few hours and we'd be on stage in front of all of camp and record scouts and parents.
"No." Joseph whispered, sitting up a little straighter. I wondered idly how long we'd been out here. Hours at least, the sun had reached its peak a while ago already. "Let's practice out here." He decided, starting to strum the first chords of our mash-up song. Hello, Beautiful, I'm Right Here. Joseph was right about the title, it did fit. "I don't want to have to share you yet." I flushed and looked down to my strings, fumbling over the chords.
"If only it was like this in there." I sighed wistfully, looking out over the glittering lake. We were the only ones out here, everyone else was sane and was on shore, mostly inside the music hall practicing or helping, or otherwise getting ready for Final Jam.
"It can be." Joseph said, his lashes fluttering against his cheeks. "If you get nervous just close your eyes and pretends it's only you and me, out here. That's what I do, when I'm nervous about performing in front of people I pretend it's just me in my room, or I'm just singing for you."
"You're a mean boy, Joseph Shane Gray." I accused, narrowing my eyes at him and he looked shocked and confused. "You're too sweet, Joseph, you're gonna make all those other girls fall in love with you as soon as you open your mouth." He relaxed into a grin and shook his head, blushing. "And it's not nice to make other girls fall in love with you."
"I don't want any other girl, no other girl is as amazing as you." Joseph said, turning pink and looking down, focussing on his guitar.
"Too sweet." I muttered to myself, shaking my head.
"Hello beautiful, how's it goin'? I hear it's wonderful in Tennessee." Joseph strummed, his lashes fluttering against his cheeks as he concentrated. "I will miss you, it's true." Only two more days until we go home. I was dreading it, I think I'd become slightly unhealthilly attached to Joseph in our time at Camp Rock. "But, tonight..." I swear his voice literally made me swoon. "It's you and I. Yeah tonight, we'll touch the sky..."
"Will you marry me?" I sighed happilly, just completely smitten with him. I'd never liked anyone before, let alone a musician, I actually resented musicians because my Dad always pushed me to be one, but I couldn't help love Joseph's music, it just made me like him even more. Joseph got flustered and he blushed and fumbled over his chords.
"Yes." He whispered and I blushed too. We sat in the boat in slightly awkward silence for a minute before I blushed darker and started playing.
"I'll be right here when you need me, anytime just keep believin', and I'll be... Right here." I think maybe Joseph just needed to be assured of that sometimes, that he wasn't alone, that there is someone who cares and will be there for him no matter what. I don't think anyone had told him that before, and I wanted to make sure he knew I was here.
"We should have a Christmas wedding." Joseph smiled goofilly. "In New York where it snows." I giggled and shook my head. "We can sing our vows; you're voice is amazing."
"You've heard me sing before." I mumbled, looking down, the way he was staring at me was like he never heard me before.
"I know, you're just so good at it." He still had that goofy/happy look on his face that was so cute and endearing. We reahearsed normally after that; our two songs mixed so well when Joseph put his mind to it, and our voices blended beautifully as well. If I do say so myself.
"We should go back to shore." I sighed when the sun started to go down factionally.
"Oh." Joseph looked almost sad. "Right. Yeah." He nodded, setting his guitar down.
CR
I gripped a support beam backstage of Final Jam. The crowd didn't seem very enthused by the last act and Joseph and I were up next. We didn't have any fancy choreography, it was just us and our guitars. If the group before us couldn't excite the crowd then the only thing that would happen with us is Joseph would make all the girls swoon.
"It's not too late to say no." Joseph murmured, standing next to me. He looked nervous too, he was a little pale, it was a little comforting to know I wasn't the only one nervous.
"I don't want to say no." I shook my head firmly. The stage cleared and Dee La Duke took to the stage as MC.
"And now, two of our youngest campers this year, give a big Camp Rock welcome for the first time to Final Jam; Miley Stewart and Shane Gray!" Hlaf-hearted applause and a sad sigh from Joseph followed Dee's introduction as we went onto the stage.
"H-hi." I sat on one of the stools in the middle of the stage. "I-" I took a deep, calming breath. "I'm Miley Stewart and this is Joseph Gray and we wrote this ourselves." I spoke into the microphone as Joseph tuned up. I saw him close his eyes tightly and then he relaxed and opened them and the nerves seemed to have gone. He grinned at me and I could see the happiness, the confidence. Joseph was confident.
Hello, Beautiful, how's it going?
I hear it's wonderful in New York City
Where I'll be if you need me
Anytime, just believe me
I'm right here
But, I would search all the world
See all sights and never be satisfied
If you weren't by my side
Just call my name
When you're far away
Just ask me once
And I'll come
I'll come running
I will miss you
But, tonight, it's you and I
Yeay, tonight, we'll reach the sky
I'm right here
But, I'm ready to go wherever you're at
I need you to know that
Anywhere, I'll be there
We're gonna touch the sky
Our love will fly
Everytime...
Everytime I see your eyes
I looked up to see Joseph staring at me intently, the green and gold in his eyes standing out in the dark performance hall with the spotlights only on us. When I came back to reality I was blushing bright red I'm sure, and my heart stopped when I realised there was dead silence. I swear I could hear crickets chirping. Then slowly people started to clap. It wasn't a standing ovation, there weren't people standing and cheering and demanding an encore. But, they didn't hate it, and it was just slightly more enthusiastic than it had been for the previous act.
"That was really good, Shane. Miley." Brown said when we stumbled off stage.
"It-it was -b-b-better than good." Joseph contradicted, practically vibrating with energy. "It was-it was p-perfect." I was buzzed with energy too, it was contagious. I couldn't help myself, when right in front of Brown I leaned over and kissed Joseph on the lips.
"And now.." Dee continued as I pulled away from Joseph, blushing bright pink.
"Shove off, Losers!" Nate pushed in between us, stopping to check his reflection in a piece of shiney metal.
"Another of our younger campers; Nate Lucas!" Dee anounced as Nate winked at his own reflection before going on stage.
First day of camp
I was struggling just to stand
Joseph jerked away from me abruptly and gaped at his cousin on stage. He looked horrified, he clenched his fists and his surprise turned into a glare.
"Joseph?" I asked, furrowing my brow.
Chillin on the sand, tryin' to pretend
That I wasn't just a fool
Three rows down, second to the left
With your big blue eyes
And your cheek I wanna kiss
"Th-that's my-that's my song." Joseph said, glaring at Nate as he sang. "I-I wrote it the f-first week of camp... For you." He whispered the last part, looking down.
"Then how is..." I trailed off when realisation hit me. "He stole your song?" I blurted out. "How could he do that?"
"What are you two talkin' about?" Brown asked, shaking his head.
"Nate stole my song, Uncle Brown." Joseph said, pointing out to the arrogant bully boy.
"No, that's his own song." Brown shook his head and I rolled my eyes. Did he just close his eyes and pretend everything Nate said was true no matter what?
"It-it's mine, I wrote it 'bout M-Miley." Joseph isisted, his cheeks turning pink angrilly. "He stole it."
"Or maybe, if it is yours, you gave it to him and just forgot?" Brown suggested and Joseph let out a frustrated sound.
"I didn't. He stole my song." Joseph stomped his foot impatiently. "I would ne-never give him m-m-my song, e-especially one about M-Miley."
"I'll talk to him when he's finished." Brown sighed, shaking his head dispondantly. "Nate!" He called when Joseph's cousin finished, walking off stage with a cocky grin. "You did good, Mate."
"With my song." Joseph cut in angrilly.
"I don't know what he's talking about." Nate turned his nose up in affrontation.
"You-y-you stole my song." Joseph yelled, "I wr-I wrote that for-for Miley."
"Like I would need to steal anything from you, Dork Face." Nate rolled his eyes. That was all it took for Joseph to lose it and he attacked Nate, pouncing at him and pushing him to the ground, hitting him.
"Hey, HEY!" Brown grabbed Joseph and held him back. "That's, Shane, you're disqualified for fighting with another camper, and Nate you're disqualified for using Shane's song without his permission."
"It's called theft of intelectual property." I frowned, I'd wanted to say something before, but Joseph was defending himself, I didn't want to interrupt that. Hopefully it would start happening more.
"Thank-you, Miss Stewart." Brown said through gritted teeth.
"You can't punish Miley too, we're the same act, she didn't do anything wrong." Joseph said, his eyes wide.
CR
August 19th
"You're gonna come back next year, right?" Joseph asked, sitting on my bed as I packed my stuff. His stuff was already meticulusly packed and the bus was going to be here soon to take us to a town a few hours away where our parents were going to be.
"Of course." I smiled, zipping up my suitecase and sitting opposite him. "And we'll talk on the phone."
"And e-mail." Joseph added brightly.
"Campers!" A voice came over the loudspeakers. "First call for final bus." I sighed sadly, I guess it really was the end of camp.
"Guess we should go, huh?" Joseph mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Yeah." I got up and set my suitecase on it's wheels. "You never told me what that Italian meant."
"Hmm?" Joseph hummed, holding my hand as we got closer to the bus; it was the last one of the day, I'd drawn out packing as long as possible.
"Mio coure stare alla tu." I blushed, so what if I still remembered it exactly? That wasn't weird, was it? "You said you'd say what it meant at the end of camp." Joseph smiled shyly and looked down.
"You wanna know?" He asked, stopping us beside the bus and the drive too my suitecase, throwing it into the luggage compartment. I nodded and he held both of my hands in his, looking straight into my eyes. I felt like he could see everything about me, but I didn't care 'cause it was Joseph. "Mio coure stare alla tu..." He leaned in and kissed my lips softly. "My heart belongs to you."
1) What was your favourite part of the chapter?
2) Did you think Miley and Joseph were going to win?
3) What do you think will happen when Joseph and Miley see each other at the start of camp next year?
4) What was your favourite part of the whole first Summer at Camp Rock?
5) The plan is for this series to reach maybe up 7 installments; will anyone actually read the whole thing through and review it?
6) Joseph is just the most romantic thing when he speaks Italian, isn't he?
Considering it took less than 3 hours to get the 5 reviews for Queen Diaries it shouldn't be too hard to do the same for this. Either 3 reviews with all the questions or 5 reviews in total.
With the end of this installment I would like to thank; ilovecolby21, CorinaVanessa, MileyLover231855, Guest, jonasbroloverr, hadhud98, Guest, Bair, sgpchick, Little Miss Lovable, Guest, Guest, caroline vincent, Guest, Guest, Guest, Guest, Guest, SMilerz1123, Guest, and Guest... The reason there's so many 'Guests' is because I can't really be sure if it's the same person or different people. I would like to thank you all for reviewing this story and I hope you'll come back and read and review the 2nd year.
After this there is going to be a break of at least 2 weeks before I start on the 2 year at Camp Rock.
Smiler For Joe!