Author's Note: Hellooooo! Here is the next chapter and I hope you guys like it a lot – we're starting to get to the fun drama! Next chapter will be the first Jam and you will NOT want to miss that. It gets all sorts of crazy! I hope you like this chapter, and thank you so much for the reviews and messages. They make me absolutely thrilled to be able to continue posting this story. Love youuuuuuuuuus!

"Bye, guys," Mitchie called to her friends as Lola and her guys left, leaving her with the members of Connect 3 and Caitlyn. "That's definitely the fastest I've ever cleaned the mess hall before…or anyone has, for that matter."

"It's cool. Besides, I'd do it again if I could hear Caitlyn try to reach that falsetto note again," Nate kidded.

"I'm sorry your voice is that of a prepubescent girl," Caitlyn teased. "We can't all be that lucky."

"Hey! That's an old song! I was younger."

"It was last year!"

They continued to bicker as Mitchie turned to Jason and Shane.

"Keep an eye on them, won't you?" Mitchie asked Shane. "I'm nervous they'll accidentally kill each other before they make out or something."

"Done. So are you two…?"

"We're gonna go grab a few things but then we'll be in my cabin if you need us."

"But we're not doing anything!" Jason spoke up. "We are doing nothing. There will be nothing going on. We are not building anything, either! We're doing nothing."

"Well, I think you convinced them, Jase." Mitchie grabbed his wrist and started to pull him away. "See you guys later!"

Mitchie let Jason talk about what colors he wanted to paint the birdhouse with the occasional veto from herself. She was not letting him paint the birdhouse brown and black, no matter how much he thought it would camouflage. She led him to the pile of scrap wood she had spotted earlier and directed him to find the pieces that looked the best - dry, with no or very few nails in it.

They finally made their way back to Mitchie's cabin, arms full of wood.

"Just drop it on the floor," she instructed. "Now where is the…"

"You owe me, daughter," Connie Torres said as she came in the cabin, holding a small wood saw and a toolbox. "This took a little convincing to get, so no chopping off body limbs, do you understand me?"

"Brown just gave it to you? That's great!"

"Yes, well, as soon as I mentioned that it was for a birdhouse for a certain member of Connect 3, he seemed to understand completely."

"What? No one has ever made me one before, but I've asked a lot!" Jason sat down on the floor next to the pile of wood.

"I don't even want to know," Connie said as she backed out of the cabin. "I'll be with some of the staff in the kitchen having coffee and going over the plans for the next few weeks if you need me, okay?"

"Great!" Mitchie plopped down next to Jason. "Let's get started!"

After two hours, Mitchie was pleased with their progress. It was just a base and the four walls, but it was sturdy and that was all she cared about. She had built a few birdhouses with her dad when she was younger, so she had a general idea of what to do, but she had never realized how much work it was when you were the one doing the building and not the little kid, watching in awe. That was Jason's role.

"I like the door!" Jason said for the tenth time. He would like the door- that had been his chief decision of the night. Mitchie had penciled in the size of the door that she had anticipated, and Jason had quickly overruled her. It was now a large square that sat in the middle of the wall section. She had actually had to convince him to make it smaller as to not let in other animals.

"It's a nice door." Mitchie stood up and looked down on their work. Four walls, one with a square in it, and a base. It wasn't much, but it was the beginning of a birdhouse.

"Can we keep it in here?"

"Of course! We can keep it a secret better this way anyway," Mitchie agreed.

"Well, it's not that late – you should come over and watch some TV with us!"

"Wait a second! You guys have a TV in your cabin?"

"Yeah we do! We live like rockstars here.

"Jase," Mitchie held open the door for him, "you guys are rockstars."

"But then why do you call Shane a Popstar? It drives him crazy." He paused for a second. "Ohhhhhh."

They had just reached the bottom of the steps to her cabin when footsteps attracted their attention.

"Well I guess it's true, what Kylie says," Tess Tyler approached Mitchie and Jason. "You really don't waste your time."

"What are you doing here, Tess? These are staff cabins."

"Exactly – what are you doing here?" Tess flicked some of her blonde hair over her shoulder and waited for her to respond.

"This is my cabin."

"You're staying in the staff cabins? Are you…oh my God. Torres. Like the cook here, right? You're the cook's daughter?" Mitchie didn't give her the satisfaction of a response. "Wow, you really are a nobody."

"That's what they tell me," Mitchie spat out. "Come on, Jason. Let's just go."

Jason made to follow her before pausing in front of Tess.

"Mitchie isn't a nobody. You're just jealous." With that, he followed Mitchie the forty feet down the path to his own cabin.

"Sorry about that, Jase," Mitchie said as she waited outside the door to Connect 3's cabin. "You shouldn't have to deal with that. I don't know what you said to her, but you didn't have to, really."

"You shouldn't have to deal with it either," he said simply before opening the door and leading the way in.

"Deal with what?" Shane asked the second they stepped foot inside.

"Eavesdropping, Mr. Gray?" Mitchie asked as she flopped into the same seat she had occupied that morning during their breakfast. It was strange how it seemed like so long ago to her.

"The majority of this cabin is screened in, it was impossible not to hear," Nate defended. He and Caitlyn were sitting on his bed, backs against the headboard, as they watched the TV that had been set up in the corner. Mitchie couldn't be sure if it had been there that morning or not, as she had been so distracted.

"Just Tess Tyler drama," Mitchie explained, reaching for some of the caramel popcorn in the bowl that Shane offered her.

"You okay?" It was times like these that Mitchie could really see herself falling for Shane Gray. When he looked at her with those intense eyes, asking if she was okay, like she really mattered.

"It was no big deal," she smiled back.

"Okay, great, but can we continue watching Whose Line Is It now?" Caitlyn looked slightly put out.

"Ooh, my favorite!" Mitchie exclaimed, hopping onto the bed beside Shane.

"You're gonna fit in just fine, Torres," he said as he put the bowl of popcorn between them. "Just fine."

Mitchie didn't get to see Shane much in the following days. He would occasionally stop in for lunch or dinner with the gang, but they didn't have any time to themselves like they had with their conversation by the canoes. All of Mitchie's free time was ate up by Caitlyn, who insisted on hearing every single Beatles song Mitchie had ever learned to play, and then added her own production elements to it. Mitchie was sure the first song she played would be just fine, but Caitlyn wanted to choose the best one possible for Mitchie's "Camp Rock debut."

She still saw him in dance class, of course, but except for him admonishing students that went out of their way to be rude to her (Shelley never did end up coming back to class), he sort of had his hands full with actually teaching.

She was just getting her stuff collected from dance class on the Friday before the Beatles Jam when Shane popped up next to her.

"How do you do that? It's like one minute you're not there, the next: poof!"

"I'm magic," he explained with a cocky grin.

"Oh, really? I don't remember them saying anything like that in Pop Informer…"

"You'll have to give it to them for their next expose." That was their inside joke – that Mitchie was actually compiling information for the next big Shane Gray career-ruining article. He had actually suggested it with a current of seriousness underlying it, but Mitchie reassured him that even if she did want to sell him out, it couldn't possibly hurt him. After all, with everything he'd told Mitchie so far, it actually only made him come across as an even cooler person than he was before.

"Let me walk you to class," he suggested as he realized that she had been standing in front of him, not moving.

"Don't you have class next?" She asked although she did walk out the door with him. He just shrugged.

"It's a free period. They can all work on their stuff for Beatles Jam."

"Do they know this already?" Mitchie laughed.

"They'll find out when their superstar teacher doesn't show up," he tossed back with a wink.

"Just when I thought you changed…" She teased good-naturedly. They walked side by side for a few moments in companionable silence before Shane spoke.

"So, are you going to tell me what song you're going to be doing tomorrow?"

"As soon as I know! Caitlyn has legitimately heard me play through or at least sample twenty different Beatles songs. She keeps saying that she'll 'know it when she hears it.'"

"This isn't fair," Shane whined. "Caitlyn's heard you play an entire Beatles album, and I haven't heard a thing."

"Good things come-"

"To those who wait, yeah, yeah," he grumbled. "It's still not fair."

"Well, it's not like I know what you guys are performing either! Give me a hint. Give me a year."

"Okay, the sixties. But that's all you get! No more. The guys will kill me if I spill the beans."

"The sixties? Okay, that didn't help at all. It could be anything!" Shane ignored her and tried a different topic.

"Have you looked at the rest of the Jam schedule?" Mitchie gave him a sidelong look but answered him anyway.

"Yeah, most of them look like fun. Although I'm a little confused on 'Bubblegum Jam' – what is the theme, exactly?"

"That one's my favorite! Most people get confused on it, and just show up chewing bubblegum. But that's not the real theme – the real theme is bubblegum pop music."

"And that's your favorite?" Mitchie smirked at him.

"Hey, those *NSync guys knew what they were doing, that's all I'm saying." They shared a laugh over that.

"So it's like a throwback to the pop of the late nineties?"

"Yeah! Britney, Christina, Backstreet, you know…the classics."

"Those aren't 'classics,' Popstar, but it sounds like fun." She shot him a glance. "So are you going to grace us with your presence at dinner tonight?"

"Hmm…what's on the menu?"

"World famous Torres pasta. We sort of just add 'World Famous Torres' to any meal that is significantly plain but we want to make it sound great. Except for our burgers – I'm pretty sure my dad thinks they're gourmet quality."

"Well with a name like that, I feel like I have to go and make sure it's living up to their potential, don't I?"

"I guess you do." Mitchie gave him a flirtatious smile as they came up to the edge of the cabin where Jason's lessons always started out. "Well, I guess I should get in there. Start consoling Jason about his birdhouse. He doesn't think it'll ever get finished."

"It's been like, three days!"

"Tell me about it." Mitchie shifted her messenger bag from one shoulder to the other. "See you at dinner, Popstar."

Shane let out a fake groan. "That's rockstar to you!"

Mitchie just shook her head and headed into the classroom, where she noticed Jason was restringing his guitar at the front of the class. She smiled to a few kids that didn't give her death glares and slid into a seat.

"Hey, Mitchie." Peggy stood in front of her, looking extremely uncomfortable.

"Uh, hi Peggy." Mitchie and Peggy had a tenuous almost-friendship. She helped keep Jason focused during class, and she would always try to get the attention off Mitchie if it had somehow strayed there, and the two frequently shared smiles at Jason's antics, but they didn't really have conversations. After all, Peggy made it quite clear that she was Tess's friend and that didn't seem to have any room to include Mitchie.

"Are you, um, performing tomorrow night?"

"I was thinking about it, yeah. Are you?"

"With Tess." She didn't look particularly thrilled about it. "Listen, I…oh, gosh," she ran a hand over her face.

"What's wrong?" Mitchie was beginning to have a bad feeling about this.

"It's just…okay, I know you're probably going to take this the wrong way, but I wouldn't perform tomorrow night if I were you."

"Did…is this what Tess wants? She wants you to convince me to not perform?"

"No! This is me, trying to…ugh, I'm not good at this. And I'm sorry. But if you perform tomorrow night, I don't think it'll go well for you." Peggy closed her eyes and scrunched her face in blatant discomfort.

"Is Tess planning something?" Mitchie didn't know why Peggy looked like she was the one who had just received bad news. Maybe she thought Mitchie would shoot the messenger?

"Her…and Kylie. They have a…a bet."

"Are they friends now?" Mitchie tried to keep her voice level, but it was hard. Kyle Stiles and Tess Tyler being friends was almost guaranteed to ruin Mitchie's summer, if not her life.

"No!" Peggy's eyes popped open and she looked to be sincere. "I'm pretty sure they're also plotting against each other, at least Tess is, but I just…I just wanted you to know. You seem nice."

"What's the bet?" Mitchie asked softly.

"Huh?"

"The bet. About me. What is it?"

"Oh, um…" Peggy looked to be more uncomfortable, if that was possible. "They want to see who can…who can make you cry first."

Mitchie closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. How did people even learn to be so cruel?

"What are the stakes?" Peggy hesitated. "C'mon, Peggy, it doesn't really matter. And trust me when I say that neither one of them is winning this bet."

"The winner gets Shane Gray."

…

Oh, hell no.

Mitchie didn't know whether to tell Caitlyn about the bet. On the one hand, she did want someone who could help her keep an eye open for…she didn't even know what. Sabotage attempts, she assumed. But on the other hand, she didn't want more attention brought to herself, and Caitlyn was guaranteed to get good and pissed at this. In fact, she was likely to get violent, and Mitchie wanted to avoid that at all costs.

She was preoccupied with thoughts of the bet all through her lesson with Jason and preparing dinner and then at dinner itself, she found herself over-analyzing everything. She knew it was getting bad when Jason asked her why she seemed to be staring at Kylie and Tess. She quickly excused herself from dinner shortly after that.

Not surprisingly, Caitlyn popped into her cabin a few minutes later. She thought it over for about a minute before telling Caitlyn all she knew about the bet.

"I fucking hate them," Caitlyn seethed. "Who does that? Who makes bets like that about a person's emotions? And don't you dare, Mitchie," she whirled and pointed a threatening finger at her, "try and tell me that this isn't a big deal. You can't possibly be cool about this."

"I'm never 'cool' about things, Cait. And this obviously bothers me enough to tell you."

"You should tell Brown."

"And he'll do what, exactly? Be on the lookout for people who want to make me cry? For all he knows, I'm an overemotional girl who cries at the drop of a hat." Mitchie shook her head reluctantly. "There's nothing he can do."

"Then tell Shane."

"Noooo way. I am not getting him involved in my petty drama. Besides, he shouldn't be choosing sides in this entire thing anyway. He's an instructor, after all."

"I hate to be the one to break it to you, but I'm pretty sure he's already picked a side. We all have."

"You say that like you had a choice," Mitchie teased to lighten the mood, but Caitlyn just gave her a look that said 'nice try.'

"Well, you haven't cried yet over them and they have done some pretty heinous things to you." Little does she know, Mitchie thought bitterly, although she did pride herself on not having cried at camp yet. To everyone here, she was strong, sarcastic Mitchie Torres, who didn't give a damn what people thought of her. If only it could stay that way for one more night…

Mitchie woke up the next morning with equally overwhelming feelings of apprehension and excitement. She knew she was probably tempting the fates by performing today, and she wasn't exactly looking forward to anything that the two spawns of Satan were going to throw at her, but she knew that she had to be strong for this. Showing weakness was not an option.

She helped out in the kitchen preparing French toast, not particularly bothered by her usual friend's absence. She had told Cait to sleep in; Saturdays were Saturdays no matter where you were. She used this alone time to mentally prepare and steel herself for what was to come. The Jam wasn't until about 5 p.m., so you would think that she had plenty of time to herself to prepare, but Mitchie knew that Caitlyn was going to want to hear her play the seven hundredth Beatles song, although Mitchie had actually sort of decided on one already. Unless Caitlyn had another one that she was determined to hear Mitchie perform, she sort of had her heart set on playing 'Blackbird.'

She let out another uneasy breath before closing her eyes and smiling. It would go good tonight. It had to.

"So, Caitlyn," Mitchie began. They had just finished eating breakfast, although it was just the two of them and the boys of Connect 3 this morning, who were currently distracted. Nate and Shane were trying their hardest to get Jason to catch the pieces of hash browns that they were throwing at the same time in his mouth.

"Yes, dear?" Caitlyn tore her eyes away from the spectacle that was her newfound famous friends.

"All this talk about what I'm going to perform, and you know, you've never told me what you're doing." Mitchie raised her eyebrows expectantly.

"Well, ok…you're right. And don't get mad! I just…you're sort of part of my project, too."

"Caitlyn," Mitchie fought to keep her voice level. "How am I part of your project without my knowledge?"

"You know those Beatles songs you sang…?" Caitlyn scratched the back of her neck nervously. "I might've used a few clips in my final product."

"A few clips?" Mitchie echoed. "How many is a few?"

"Well, the good news is that none of those songs I made you rehearse will go to waste, right?"

Mitchie grabbed her song notebook from her bag and started hitting Caitlyn with it.

"You made me play like thirty songs!" Mitchie said in between hits. "You were going to let me choose all along, weren't you?"

Caitlyn was cracking up as she tried to defend herself.

"Stop, stop! You are crazy!"

"Whoa!" Shane grabbed Mitchie's notebook from her hands, which she promptly tried to retrieve. "Ah-ah-ah!" He held it up above his head as both him and Mitchie stood.

"Give it to me," she pled.

"No more hitting Caitlyn."

"But she lied to me," Mitchie whined.

"Hey now, I didn't lie," Caitlyn spoke up. "I just wasn't entirely truthful about my motives."

"You made me sing a zillion songs!"

"They were all really good by the way!"

"So not the time to suck up, Caitlyn."

"I think it's the perfect time, although she's sucking up to the wrong person." Shane waved the notebook tauntingly in the air. "What did you want to say to me?"

"Oh, Shane," Caitlyn batted her eyelashes dramatically. "You're the dreamiest Popstar in all the land, what would we ever do without your cookie cutter pop music?"

"Really?" Shane lowered his hands, defeated. "I try to help a girl out, and that's what I get."

Mitchie grabbed her notebook from the distracted musician and went to lunge at Caitlyn again but Shane snagged her around the waist and carried her a few feet away. Mitchie mock pouted as he put her down, keeping her arms pinned at her sides.

"Come on, Mitchie, aren't you even a little bit curious as to hear what I created? It sounds awesome."

"Okay, fine," Mitchie grumbled, breaking free of Shane and grabbing her messenger bag from under the table.

"Uh-uh!" Caitlyn shook her head at Shane, Jason and Nate, who had also stood up to follow them. "You guys have to wait until tonight."

"But why does she get to hear it and we don't?" Shane complained.

"Because she is actually involved. Besides, Nate already heard it, we worked on it together in production."

"Now it's really unfair!"

Caitlyn just grinned. "Bye boys!" And with that, she pulled Mitchie out of the mess hall and towards her cabin.

"That's me?"

"Yup," Caitlyn nodded. Mitchie didn't even know what to say. She honestly wouldn't have thought that had been her voice coming through her computer's speakers. Caitlyn had indeed taken clips from all the Beatles songs she had sung and meshed them into one hell of a mix. They flowed from one song to another and a lot of times she would use beats from different Beatles songs, or even beats from popular rap music. The final product was amazing.

"Wow. Just wow. You are so great, Caitlyn. That sounds awesome."

"So you're really not mad about me using your voice?"

"When it comes out like that, how can I be mad?" Caitlyn sighed in relief. "But now really, which song should I do now?"

Caitlyn shrugged. "Whichever one you like the most?" Mitchie thwacked her with a pillow.

"A lot of help you are. I was thinking maybe, um, 'Blackbird'?"

"That one sounds amazing. You don't even need any producing elements in it – I think it'd be perfect with just you and your acoustic."

"Really?" Mitchie fiddled with the hem of her shirt.

"Yes, really. Trust me, if it needed anything extra, I'd be all over it. But still, do you want to go over it a few times with me?"

"Would you mind?"

Caitlyn rolled her eyes. "Go get your guitar!"

They spent the rest of the afternoon practicing and talking and doing all the typical best friends sort of things that Mitchie had tried to convince herself that she didn't need in her life anymore. It was excellent. They didn't even go to lunch in the mess hall, instead opting to pig out on snacks that Caitlyn had hoarded under her bed.

"Are you nervous?" Caitlyn asked as they made their way back to Mitchie's cabin. It was getting late in the afternoon and Mitchie wanted Caitlyn's opinion on what to wear that night.

"More nervous than I've ever been in my entire life," Mitchie admitted before coming to a halt in the middle of the path. "Caitlyn, I can't do this. I'm so stupid for even thinking I can. We don't even know what they're going to do tonight!"

Before Caitlyn could comfort her, Jason, Nate and Shane came around the corner, spotting them. They were wearing long coats covering their clothes and Shane was sporting a newsboy cap to boot.

"Hey guys." Shane looked between the two girls. "What's wrong?"

Mitchie rubbed her hands over her face, trying to calm herself down.

"Mitchie is having a major case of the stage frights," Caitlyn explained.

"It's not like I think I'm not going to be able to perform, it's just…what if no one likes me? What if they all just hate it? They already hate me, so it's really not that far off…"

"Mitchie, if you sound anything like what I've heard from working with Cait on her project, then you'll do great. You've got a great voice," Nate said gently.

"Are you playing guitar?" Jason asked excitedly. Mitchie nodded, unsure of where he was going with that. "Then how could they not love you? You're awesome on guitar!" Mitchie had to smile at that.

"Thanks, guys…it's just that everyone already thinks that I don't deserve to be here. I don't really want to give them more fuel for the fire."

"You won't," Shane said firmly. "You are going to get up on that stage and sing your ass off and prove to them why you're here in the first place. Camp Rock is for the best, Mitchie. And you're here for a reason…now it's time to show everyone what that reason is." He stepped closer to her so that their chests were touching, looking down at her with a flirtatious glint in his eyes. "Now are you going to perform tonight or do I have to make you? I know where you live, Torres."

"You couldn't make me do anything," Mitchie flirted brazenly. "But…I'll see you tonight."

Shane winked and tipped his cap at her.

"Now if you'll excuse us," Nate ushered Jason and Shane away from the girls, "we've got to go do a mini soundcheck. We'll see you later on tonight!"

"Yeah," Shane called back. "We'll be the ones with the bad British accents!"

"I thought you said I sounded good?" Jason cried. "I don't sound good?"

*I uploaded a beautiful cover of the 'Blackbird' by Evan Rachel Wood, from the movie Across The Universe to my twitter! (/sammmmanthaj) Enjoy it!