Author's Note: If you're wondering why this took a little while to get out, it's because I was hanging out, too delighted that people actually reviewed that chapter (a lot of people!) and liked it. So ok ok ok, here's the next installment, and here you get to see a somewhat resolution to the last drama, but you definitely get to see what's coming next. Why can't Mitchie just have a good day for once?

He followed her to the area by the canoes, a scene he recognized. The sun was setting, casting an orange glow over the lake, bathing her in its yellow reflection. She kicked a canoe angrily before sinking to her knees, truly defeated.

She couldn't remember the last time she felt this bad. Probably the first day of school after breaking up with Joey, she surmised. That had been the last time that she had broke down completely. She hadn't even made it through the whole day; she went to the nurse's office after third period and went home. She remembered the whispers, the stares, the fact that she was tripped in the hallway three times in five minutes and nobody, not once, had helped her up. She remembered the pain she had felt at that. It was nothing compared to what she was feeling at that moment, right now.

School was school – Mitchie just had to remind herself that eventually she would leave that entire place and everyone in it, never having to see them again. But this…this was Camp Rock. This was what she wanted her entire future to be about. And all she kept seeing in her mind were the backs of campers as they walked away from her. And Kylie's voice. Kylie's stupid fucking voice, repeating over and over and over again: "Guess no one wanted to hear you, Mitchie."

A frustrated scream escaped Mitchie as she banged her hands on the pebbles surrounding her. She felt like a two year old throwing a tantrum, but she couldn't find any other way of releasing her emotions. She had no one to talk to, no one to complain to, no one to commiserate with. If she admitted it, all she really wanted to do was cry. She wanted to go back to her cabin and sink into her bed and cry until she couldn't cry anymore. But she didn't want her mom asking questions, unfortunately. She wondered briefly if Connie had heard anything that had happened in the mess hall.

"Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry," she repeated aloud to herself and she leaned back against a nearby canoe, squinching her eyes shut. She wanted to be strong for a little while longer, until she could at least gather her thoughts.

"It's okay to cry, Mitchie," his soft voice barely above a whisper.

"Jason?" Her eyes opened wide as she found him standing above her.

"Do you mind if I sit?" He gestured to the space next to her. She shook her head. She had never seen this side of Jason; he seemed serious and even…melancholic. "I'm really sort about what happened to you tonight. You didn't deserve that…I can't believe she did it."

"I can. I should've seen something like that coming from a mile away. I'm so stupid."

"You're not stupid," he gently chided. "All those people in there were stupid for listening to that girl."

"'That girl' is Kylie Stiles, Jason. Daughter of Sookie Stiles. I don't blame them for listening to her."

"Well I do!" Jason actually looked really angry at this. "Everyone makes choices, Mitchie. Those people chose to listen to her. They didn't have to, but they did."

They sat in silence for a while, backs against the canoes with the lake to their right, forest in front of them. Mitchie was oddly grateful to have someone just … there.

"You know, I was made fun of when I came here, too." Mitchie raised her eyebrows. She didn't know that. "I may not be able to sing very well, and I may not understand all that production-y stuff, but I can play guitar. I was still learning back then, but I was still pretty far ahead of all the other campers. The guitar teacher took me on in solo lessons in order to have a more hands on kind of learning experience." He shook his head in remembrance. "The older kids didn't like me because I was so much better than them. I was that weird kid that had curly hair and sat on the dock with binoculars, watching the birds. They didn't think it was fair that I was better than them."

"That's horrible," Mitchie murmured.

"It was pretty terrible, for a while at least. They would do a lot of the stuff kids are doing to you. They'd mess with my guitar, or move it around on me so I wouldn't find it. They even dumped orange juice on me at breakfast one time." He smiled at the memory, which Mitchie found disconcerting.

"Then why did you want to come back here? Why did you sound so happy and grateful that you got to be here again?" She alluded to the conversation they had had while building the birdhouse.

"The same day the kids dumped orange juice on me was the same day I met Nate and Shane. I thought Nate was going to punch somebody. Shane was the one who actually stood up to them. He was so young compared to them, too, but he did hold a little bit of power since he's Brown's nephew. But he stood up to them and put them in their place. He didn't even know me. We became best friends after that and have been Connect 3 since."

"And you still love this place, even though you have all those memories? Even though kids were so mean to you?"

Jason shrugged.

"I like to think that maybe we wouldn't have ever become Connect 3 if those jerks hadn't done what they did. So, instead, I thank them."

"So do we." Mitchie jerked around, only to see Shane and Nate standing behind them. She hadn't even heard them approach; her and Jason lost in their own world.

Shane, Nate, Caitlyn and the others watched as Mitchie took off through the doors, Jason following her after pausing for barely a second. Shane had to rein in his own urge to follow Mitchie. As much as he wanted to, he also wanted to say some words to this Kylie.

Kylie shrugged as she saw Mitchie scamper away. She had hoped for a little more volatile confrontation, she had a lot more she wanted to say to that pathetic excuse for a camper, but she figured that it could've gone worse.

Man, the look on her face when everyone stood up to leave, Kylie remembered gleefully. It would be more than enough to get her through whatever pseudo-punishment Brown had for her, if she got anything. After all, it wasn't really her fault that Mitchie sucked so bad and no one wanted to have their ears bleed by listening to her. Of course, she hadn't actually heard Mitchie sing outside of vocal lessons, but she could only imagine. As far as she was concerned, she did everyone a favor by telling them to leave.

"You are a stupid, petty girl." Shane Gray's voice broke through her reverie, although it wasn't his normal, light-hearted voice, or even his somewhat stern voice that he used during dance class. No, his voice was barely contained fury with cold, dark eyes behind it. Kylie looked at him with raised eyebrows, not believing his seriousness.

"Oh, please. She'll get over it." A smirk spread across her face. "Speaking of getting over things, don't you think it's time you got over whatever this little stage is of yours where you take pity on the biggest losers in the camp?"

Shane gritted his teeth, clenching and unclenching his fists successively. He just had to remind himself repeatedly that he doesn't hit girls. Although this Kylie chick was really pressing her luck. And Nate and Caitlyn's too, from the looks on their faces.

"You're right," Shane said, surprising the two people standing next to him. "I'm gonna start a new stage in my life. It's a stage I should've started a long time ago, but it sort of took me a while to realize it. It's the stage where I stand up for others when people are being jerks to them. For a long time, that jerk was me, but someone has already put me in my place. Clearly no one has done that for you." Shane took a step closer to Kylie, who still looked as if she didn't understand what was going on.

"In the real world, no one cares who you are. No one cares who your mom is, and no one cares how much money you have. That girl that you just tried to make cry-"

"I did make her cry," Kylie interrupted smugly.

"That girl that you did just make cry, for no reason other than to make yourself feel like you have power? That girl has more talent then you could ever hope for. I've only known her for a week and I already know that she is so much more than you could ever try to be. And you wanted to win me from that stupid bet? She was right – I'm not a possession. And all you've won from me is my disgust."

Before Shane could say any more, the door opened and in walked Brown.

"Five seconds to start explaining what just happened." Shane didn't think he had ever seen this side of Brown. There was no trace of a smile on his face; he looked murderous.

"Kylie will tell you all about it," Shane said, staring into Kylie's face, daring her to refuse. He finally looked away, sending an apologetic glance to Brown. "I've got to go."

He ran past Brown, intent on finding Mitchie. Nate ran a hand over his face before making to follow him.

"Make sure she tells him exactly what happened," he called back to Cait.

"Happily," Caitlyn said darkly, watching the two leave the mess hall.

"Someone start talking. Now."

Jason and Mitchie stood to greet the other two members of Connect 3, and Nate reached out and gave her a tentative hug first.

"They're all pathetic, you know that, right?" He said into her ear. "You are so much more than them." He pulled back and smiled at her. "I heard your raw songs that Caitlyn had, before she mixed them. You're amazing, Mitchie. It was their loss tonight."

Mitchie gave him a weak smile at that, and she hoped that in the coming days that's how she saw the situation, too, but to be honest, at that moment those thoughts were the farthest from her mind.

Jason wrapped his arms around her next and let her go rather quickly as he saw a shadow pass over Shane's face.

"As long as you have us, it'll be okay," he said simply.

With a small nod from Shane, Jason and Nate took their leave, clapping Shane on the shoulder as he stood back and watched them go before turning his attention back on Mitchie.

"Brown's in there with her now," Shane started off, somewhat awkwardly.

"Oh," Mitchie murmured before turning away, looking off at the lake.

"Mitchie…?"

"Sorry," she mumbled, sniffing. "I'm just a little upset. You should get back there though."

Shane quickly realized she wasn't brushing him off, but trying to hide the fact that she was crying.

"Mitchie," Shane took a step towards her. "You have every right to be a 'little' upset. In fact, you should probably be a lot more upset. If I had known that she would do this to get to me, I swear, I wouldn't have pushed for you to perform so badly."

"It's not your fault." Mitchie still wouldn't turn to face him. "I go to high school with Kylie, Shane. She hated me long before we even got here. It just seems that with a lot less teachers around, she's a lot more cruel."

Mitchie sunk to the ground, frustrated and conflicted. Shane crouched down next to her.

"I don't even know if it'd be better for me to stay or go at this point."

It took Shane a moment to understand what she was talking about, but then –

"You can't leave!"

"Shane," Mitchie finally turned to him. Her eyes were glistening and there was the unmistaken shine of tear tracks down her cheeks. Shane thought he had never seen anything as beautiful, or as tragic. "She's not going to stop. She wants to ruin this entire summer for me, and she's doing a pretty good job at it so far."

"Jason was right, Mitchie. As long as you have us, it'll be okay." He tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear, a tender gesture that reminded her of him apologizing to her outside of the kitchen. If only camp was just filled with these memories, she thought wistfully.

"It's okay to cry," he unknowingly echoed Jason. Mitchie shook her head.

"It's a sign of weakness," she said softly.

"Weakness? What are we, in the military?" An almost-smile crossed her face.

"The bet." Her voice was barely above a whisper. "Tess and Kylie made a bet as to who could make me cry first. I don't know why," her voice cracked and she had to swallow thickly before continuing. "I don't know why they hate me so much, but they do. And having all those people walk out…it was like my nightmare coming true, Shane. I was so scared that people weren't going to like what I sang, that I never even thought about how much it would hurt if they didn't even give it a chance."

That was all it took for Shane to gently pick her up and place her in his lap, as the tears overcame her. She buried her head in his neck and sobbed freely as he whispered soothing words into her ear, rocking slowly. When the sobs slowly subsided into the occasional hiccup, Shane spoke.

"They're pathetic people, Mitchie. They don't mean anything though, and they never will. If they don't want to listen to you, that's their loss. You have an amazing voice and you are going to blow everyone away at the next Jam."

Mitchie chose to ignore the part where Shane assumed that she would actually be performing at the next Jam.

"I'm a nobody, Shane. No one wants to hear me."

"Everyone's a nobody here. I was a nobody when I first came here, too. But at Camp Rock, it's where people become somebodies. This is your chance, girl. Don't let them take it away from you."

Mitchie wiped her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to center herself.

"Who knew that Shane Gray was filled with insight?" She joked weakly.

"I didn't, that's for sure. What are you doing to me, Mitchie Torres?"

"The world may never know."

They sat there for a while, watching the sun become completely buried by the horizon, as the moon and stars started to sparkle. Words weren't needed as they mulled over their own thoughts.

"I didn't know you go to high school with Kylie," Shane spoke suddenly. Mitchie just nodded, too tired to speak. "So, you must've seen us at that end of the year thing you guys had, right?" Mitchie knew where this was going. "And you must've seen that poor girl get soda poured all over her."

"About that, Shane-" Mitchie tried to tell him, but he spoke too quickly, lost in his memory of that night.

"Man, I have never felt so bad as I did for that girl. I pity her, I really do."

Mitchie couldn't bring herself to say anymore about that night. She listened as Shane continued, rehashing that night and how the girl looked so innocent and so undeserving. She had never really seen what it must have looked like to a third party. The humiliation she had felt earlier that night was nothing compared to what she was feeling right then. All he could talk about was how much he pitied her!

"…I mean, you were there, right?" She tuned in at the last moment.

"Y-yeah. I saw," she said quietly.

"You know, I talked to her that night. I got lost in your big school and found her in the auditorium, playing the piano. I still get the song she was playing stuck in my head sometimes, isn't that funny?"

"Yeah. Funny." She wanted to tell him everything, to confess, but the last thing she wanted was more pity. She had no idea what he'd do once he found out – would he shun her, remembering that night? Or worse, would he continue to be her friend our of a weird charity obligation, feeling so bad for her that he just had to stay friends with her?

"She seemed pretty nice," Shane mused. "But I don't know…she seemed…lost."

"Lost?" Well, that's one way to put it.

"Yeah, I mean – you should've heard the song she was singing." I have, she thought bitterly. "It was sad. But she was nice, and she didn't freak out that I was Shane Gray." He gave her a side eye. "Guess you're not the only one who is immune to my charm."

If only you knew.