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Chapter 20: Last Summer

This is what I did during science class tonight…

"Last year was Mitchie's first year at Camp Rock," Nate began "when she showed up she met Caitlyn, who she became friends with. Then she met Tess."

"Why is it a big deal that she met Tess. Sure Tess can be," Alex paused, "difficult, if she doesn't like you, but come on, it's Mitchie. How could she not love Mitchie?"

"Tess changed a lot last year, she was pretty much a bitch. She only liked you if came from a famous family and if she felt you were a threat because you were talented, she'd rope you into singing back up to her. With Tess there could only be one star."

"So she did that to Mitchie? But how did she get to know Mitchie? Her parents aren't famous, she comes from a modest background." Alex pointed out. "A lot like me."

"Hey Justin!" Tess came and sat down next to him, "So Operation: Cabin Destruction was totally successful! And Brown and Dee are running Hannah and Amber in complete circles. It was totally fun."

Justin gave her a smile, "That's good, wanna go for a walk?" Justin stood up and offered out his hand.

Tess gave him the biggest smile as she placed her tiny hand in his, their fingers twining together as they walked out of the main cabin and down onto the trail that was in place for campers who wanted to 'be one with nature' as Brown put it.

"So why don't you tell me more about yourself?" Justin asked, "I feel like I don't know anything about you, like what was your childhood like? What'd you do last summer? What'd you do the week before you met me? Any pets? Friends not in camp? School? Siblings? Anything." Justin gave her a small side-glance.

"Well, I guess I might as well tell you everything." Tess sighed, "My mom is Tess Tyler. She goes through a husband a year. She travels and I stay in LA. I have a tutor and am home-schooled. Not too many friends not in camp, but that's more my fault than anyone else."

"Why is that?" Justin led down to a small clearing that was filled with trees and other shrubbery.

Nate gave Alex a stern look, "You really shouldn't interrupt me. Mitchie lied, she told everyone that yes, her dad owned a hardware store, but her mother was president of Hot Tunes in China."

When Nate held the pause, Alex jumped in to ask questions, "Didn't Connie work here last year? Clearly she got caught, how the hell did she think she could get away with that lie? Is there even a market in China?"

Laughing, Nate commented, "You can't not interrupt can you? You're just like Jason." Sighing, Nate leaned over and kissed away the pout that formed on his tiny girlfriend's face. "She just wasn't confident that who she was, was good enough for everyone. She wanted to be in the 'popular' crowd. And that was Tess. And Tess had Peggy and Ella as her 'followers'. Then she met Shane. And them meeting changed everything. For both of them."

"What changed for Shane?" Alex asked, taking Nate's arms and wrapping them around her body to warm herself up.

"I sort of felt like I needed to be the center of attention." Tess sighed, going to sit down on a tree stump, "I talked to a psychiatrist in the past year, she said it's because I'm not the center of my parents' world. I never see my dad, I technically live with my mom, but she's never home. But I shouldn't be putting blame off, I just treated the only two people I could call friends, Peggy and Ella, like shit. Caitlyn and I were friends, but that didn't last cause she didn't like my attitude, and Mitchie. God Mitchie." Tess put her head in her hands.

Gently prying her hands away, Justin took a seat next to the stump. He lifted her chin so he could see her face, "What happened with Mitchie?"

Chuckling, Nate continued, "Our record label told us that Shane had to change his 'pain in the ass, stuck up, popstar ways' or they were going to drop us. So we, Jason and I," at Alex's look, he sighed, "okay, I decided that Shane should go back to Camp Rock and find his roots, spend time with Uncle Brown. So we dropped him here against his will and told him that he'd record a song with the winner of Final Jam. He was so pissed off."

Alex laughed, imagining the look of horror, dread, hate, revenge, and most likely shock that'd probably encompassed both Shane's facial expression and feelings. "I'll bet that was funny. It was also probably funny when he tried to kick your ass the next time he saw you."

"Actually, he'd met Mitchie before he saw us. That's probably why we're so protective of her. She pretty much put him in his place. She didn't like his popstar shit and she got him to open up and we were able to start writing the same kind of stuff we'd written as we became famous, before we became cookie-cutter popstars."

"How did Shane react when he found out Mitchie lied? How did he find out?"

"Well before I met her I was in my 'I only hang out with famous people' phase." Tess hesitated, "I'm over it. I don't judge anymore. I don't have the right at all. High horses want nothing to do with me (Know what TV show that came from?). Anyhow, when I met her, Peggy knew of a Torres that was a composer or something and Mitchie told us that her dad owned a hardware store." Tess looked down.

"So you didn't want anything to do with her?" Justin asked.

"Well, yeah, but she immediately told us that her mother was the president of Hot Tunes in China." Tess looked down, "I made her feel like she needed to lie."

"Well she shouldn't have lied." Justin frowned.

"Please don't take up for me, through my terrible actions I made her feel like the only way she could fit in was by lying. Not to mention the fact that her mother worked here, so it was a risky lie. But that wasn't the worst thing I did to her and Caitlyn." Tess sighed.

"What else happened?" Justin gently laid a hand on her thigh.

"So pissed. He didn't want to look at her, to talk to her, nothing. Sucked that he had to teach her." Nate laughed. "Tess found out, she overheard Mitchie call her mom 'mom'. After we performed at the Beach Jam, which was our test run for our song Play My Music, she outed Mitchie in front of everyone. And boy was Shane beyond pissed. And Mitchie was crying and Jason was confused cause he liked Mitchie." Nate sighed, "We immediately took Shane's side, which was stupid. But Caitlyn was a good sport. She took Mitchie in and the two of them used one of Mitchie's songs and they performed it after Final Jam." Nate held up his hands, "I know what you're going to ask. Why after Final Jam?"

Alex nodded enthusiastically, "It's good that you can read my mind."

Nate chuckled and leaned over, "Yup, it's my best skill." He placed his lips over hers for a brief second. Just a ghosting over her own.

"Well I had no reason to even think that Mitchie had lied. I let her move into our cabin. Then, the next day, I heard her sing." Tess sighed, "She was the most incredible singer I'd ever heard and I knew, I just knew that if she sang solo or with someone else in Final Jam, she'd win. And I'd lose." Tess shook her head, "So I played into her nerves of never singing in front of an audience before and manipulated her into singing back up for me, with Peggy and Ella." Tess took a deep breath, "I took her chance away. Her chance from singing with Shane. It was stupid, for me to try and chase Shane. He was blatantly head over heels for her. She makes him a better person, and vice versa. They really complete each other and I was jealous."

"You still jealous of her?" Justin asked quietly.

"Any how, Tess found Mitchie's song book and realized just how big of threat Mitchie was, especially since she was no longer singing back up for her. So she planted her gold charm bracelet in the kitchen. Then she went to Brown, accusing Caitlyn and Mitchie of stealing it. Brown followed protocol. He found the bracelet under cookbooks in the kitchen and had to ban Mitchie and Caitlyn from camp activities until the end of Final Jam, even though he knew in his heart that Tess had planted the bracelet there."

"Wow…" Alex looked out at the sun, which was slowly going down over the lake. The bright orange and pink light reflecting spectacular colors over the gently rocking water. "Last summer was intense. So how did Mitchie fix things with Shane? And how did Tess fix things with, well, everyone?"

Tess looked down at Justin, "No I'm not jealous of anyone." She smiled, "Not anymore."

Justin nodded, "So what else happened?"

"Well I found out that she lied, I heard her talking to her mother and I decided I should out her. I just didn't know when. And then I really saw it. I'd seen it before, but God it was right in front of my face." Tess shook her head, "I was so stupid and so lucky I didn't really ruin it for them."

"What?" Justin gave her a curious look.

"I'd seen Mitchie and Shane out in a canoe laughing and having a good time. Flirting. You know they're in your face without actually being in your face flirting." Tess shook her head and giggled, "Then during Beach Jam, they couldn't stop looking at each other. I thought they were gonna jump each other's bones in front of the whole camp. So when the Jam was over I did it. I knew Shane was listening, I knew he was right behind Mitchie and I told the whole camp that her mother was the cook at camp." Tess looked over at Justin who was quiet.

Dead quiet.

"Tess apologized. Jason was the only that fully accepted it cause he's Jason. He's like a little kid. He forgives everyone. He gives everyone that unconditional love, even Tess. You have to be Hannah or Amber to not get it if from him.. And Mitchie invited Shane on a canoe ride. That's their thing. Being out on the lake, it's their place. Like this is ours."

Alex gave him a full grin, "Yeah this is ours."

"Then when I found Mitchie's song book I realized just what a huge threat Mitchie and Caitlyn would be. She would win and I couldn't be the star. So I took my gold charm bracelet," Tess dangled the bracelet in Justin's all too quiet direction, "that she'd admired and placed it in the kitchen before getting Brown and telling him that they'd stolen it." She took a breath, "When Brown found it he did what he was required to do, ban Mitchie and Caitlyn from all camp activities until after Final Jam, even though he knew I'd put it there."

"You really did all that?" Justin looked at Tess incredulously.

"Any more questions for me?" Nate looked at Alex with raised eyebrows.

"Yeah, I really did that." Tess looked away, "Do you hate me now?"

"There you are!" Jason leaned over to catch his breath, "Birdhouse Alex! Birdhouse! You promised!"

Leaning towards Nate, Alex sighed, "I should go." She gave him a small kiss. "Later tonight, when everyone's in bed, we'll sneak out and meet here." She promised as she looped her arm through Jason's leaving her boyfriend behind.

"Damn it Jason." Nate muttered, standing up and kicking some dirt around as he left his spot.

"Tess, Dee's looking for us, Brown's having trouble with Hannah and Amber." Tess looked over at Peggy and then down regretfully at Justin.

"I guess that's my cue." Tess gave him a small kiss on the cheek, "Maybe we can meet on the dock tonight, when everyone's turned in." Walking over to Peggy she gave her friend a hug before tossing a sad glance at Justin and walking off.

Justin looked at Tess and Peggy's retreating figures. "I've got some thinking to do I guess." He muttered unhappily to himself.

Whoever said relationships were easy didn't know what they were talking about.

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Mollie XOXO