a/n: Hey here's the latest chapter it's kinda long and took me ages to write but hopefully you'll like it as I kinda spent the time when I should be doing my English Lit coursework writing this! Oops! Anyway this is a lot more fun than doing a close analysis of The history boys (great play just don't like analysising it!) so I hope you enjoy iy and rea dand review.

Thanks to everyone who's reading this. It really means a lot! :P xoxo

BTW the beginning of this chapter take place at the same time as the last chapter! :P

Chapter 24

Mitchie and Layla's jaws dropped open as they pulled up outside Brown's cabin to find Brown standing there smack bang in the middle of his front garden, staring at them, his arms folded across his chest with a serious expression on his face. It was soon replaced with one of mild annoyance as he saw the look on Mitchie and Layla's faces.

"Alright alright no need to look so shocked." He said dryly as they got out of the car and Layla, still open mouthed, walked up to him and stared for a second before shaking her head violently as if trying to clear it.

"I don't believe it." She whispered disbelievingly as she continued to stare at him. "He's actually here and on time."

Brown rolled his eyes.

"Yes he is. And he would like if you would stop talking about him like he's not. And don't even think about trying to poke me Layla Jayne!"

Shocked and disgruntled by his sudden use of her full name Layla jumped back and slowly lowered her outstretched hand.

"I was just checking." She grumbled. Beside her Mitchie shook her head sadly but couldn't help but smile a little at the pout on her sister in law's face. She too had doubted that Brown was there but once she realised that it was actually his cabin and therefore he didn't have to travel any further than from his bed to his front room Mitchie's doubts suddenly disappeared.

"So where are they?" Brown asked suddenly changing the subject. "I'm assuming that they're either making their own way here or folded up in your glove compartment, either way they'd better get here soon."

Mitchie's eyes went wide and she looked at Brown like he was speaking another language.

"What?! You mean they're not..OWW!" She yelped painfully as the heel of Layla's shoe forcefully made contact with Mitchie's foot.

Mitchie mouth hung open and she was unable to speak for a couple of seconds due to the pain before she began hopping on one foot while shooting death glares at Layla. Layla shot her back some looks of her own before turning back to her uncle and laughing nervously.

"What my sister in law means to say is.... They're right behind us! Yeah! Jason caught sight of a woodpecker and you know what that boy's like with birds....bird crazy!" She rambled nervously before grabbing hold of Mitchie and pulling her into the cabin.

"Where are you..." Brown began but Layla cut him off.

"Sorry gotta go Uncle Brown. Bye! Love you!" She shouted hurriedly before steering Mitchie away and deep into the crowd of councilors which had all been crammed into Brown's smaller on site cabin.

She waited until she'd successfully navigated them through the crazy throngs of people before dragging her into the kitchen and shutting the door behind them.

"Good job Mitchie you almost dropped them right in it." Layla hissed as she grabbed an ice pack and handed it to Mitchie to put on her foot. Mitchie gratefully accepted it and the pair of them sat down on the breakfast bar as she took of her shoe and she groaned with relief as the ice made contact with her foot.

"Damn Layla did you have to stamp on my foot so hard?!"

"Sorry." She said sheepishly. "I didn't mean to. I'm used to fighting with the guys and Ryan. It never usually bothers them...besides,it was the only way I could think of shutting you up."

Mitchie glared at her for a minute before she started talking again.

"What do you mean "landing them in it"? Brown can't exactly tell them off for being late. He's never on time...Well apart from today. That was just a fluke."

"Yeah you're right that's just creepy usually someone has to go in and wake him up when he calls us to his cabin but that's not what I'm talking about. Did you see the look on his face when we pulled up and then again when he noticed that the guys weren't with us?"

Mitchie shook her head and Layla sighed exasperatedly.

"God Mitchie you're one of the most unobservant people I've met!"

Her eyes narrowed and she raised the ice pack to throw at Layla before the burning pain in her foot caused her to stop.

"Well I'm sorry I was a bit preoccupied with the fact that my foot was being trampled to death!"

Layla rolled her eyes at Mitchie's over exaggeration but continued.

"He was serious. And not Brown "I'm being uncool" serious like he was with the toilet roll incident yesterday." Mitchie sniggered slightly as she remembered the guys' faces when Brown told them off for dressing up like mummies to teach try and scare the other councilors. Layla also smirked a little as she recalled the look of terror on Danny's brother Kieran's face before continuing. "I mean "the time Shane locked me in an airing when I was 5" serious."

Mitchie's face fell.

"Shane locked you in an airing cupboard?"

Layla sighed.

"He thought it was the TARDIS but that doesn't matter. What matters is Brown was seriously pissed off. I mean seriously seriously and he had the exact expression on his face then as he does now."

"So what does that mean?"

Layla shrugged.

" I dunno but it must be serious for Brown to call us all in early, turn up on time and actually be annoyed at the guys because they're not here. Everyone knows that Connect 3 are his favourites! He'd forgive them for anything!"

"And?"

Layla groaned.

"Oh my God you've been around my brother too much his stupidity is rubbing off on you. Something serious is going on here at Camp Rock and whatever it is...it isn't good."

Mitchie and Layla sat in silence for a while contemplating what might be going on when Mitchie suddenly jumped up from her seat and threw the ice pack down on the table.

"Well sitting around here's not gonna do us any good is it."

"But what about your foot?"

Mitchie waved off her concern and began dancing around the kitchen causing Layla to laugh at the stupidity of it as she tried to dance without falling over with only one shoe on. Eventually Mitchie stopped and grinned back at Layla before linking arms with the younger girl.

"See I'm fine. Now come on. I wanna get out there and catch up on the latest conspiracy theories before the guys show up."

Layla laughed along with Mitchie and the both began walking towards the door. They'd barely stepped past the threshold when a loud scream caught their attention.

"Really Caitlyn you don't need to be so dramatic." Brown sighed as Layla and Mitchie quickly made their way towards the group of their friends and family which had gathered in the corner of the room.

"What's going on here?" Mitchie asked worriedly when she saw the frantic look on her best friend's usually calm and rational face.

"Barron here suggested to Brown that Tess be the one to go and find Shane and Nate." Caitlyn hissed.

"What?!" Layla and Mitchie shrieked simultaneously, causing anyone who wasn't already looking to turn and stare at them inquisitively. "Noooo! You can't do that!"

"I can do what ever I want." Brown stated firmly. "And I want Tess to go look for them."

"But...But..." Layla stuttered.

"No buts. It's been 40 minutes. I only gave them 30. They're not here so I'm going to do something about it and that something is Tess."

"I'll go." Layla called desperately, trying to think of anything to save her brother and best friends from a fate worse than death.

"You don't have a license." Brown shot back causing Layla to groan in frustration and annoyance as she began to mutter under her breath.

Brown rolled his eyes.

"And don't start that crap about the tree jumping out at you from nowhere, The judge didn't buy it and neither do I. No it's settled. Tess will go."

Layla, Mitchie and Caitlyn continued to argue with him trying to change his mind but, like Shane and Layla, Brown was stubborn and refused to give in so when Tess came back from the bathroom he instantly asked her and she agreed.

They watched with wide eyed horror and shock as she made her way towards the door before suddenly springing into action and racing after her, jumping right in front of the tall blonde woman as she reached her hand out for the door handle.

Shocked to find three people in front of her instead of a solid wooden door Tess pulled back slightly and stared at them suspiciously.

"What are you doing?" She asked slowly as they began to look at each other nervously, trying to search for an explanation between the three of them for their abnormal behaviour.

"Shoes!" Layla blurted out unintentionally earning herself a glare from Caitlyn and Mitchie and a wary look from Tess.

"Shoes?"

"Yeah your shoes." Layla stuttered nervously as she tried to come up with a reasonable excuse involving the red satin heels Tess was currently wearing. "They look expensive and we'd hate for them to get ruined."

Tess looked at her more confused then ever.

"Why would they get ruined?"

Layla stared at her open mouthed as she searched around her brain for an answer and came up with nothing. Mentioning the shoes had been a spur of the moment thing and now she had nothing else to say. Floundering and gaping at Tess like a fish out of water, Layla looked desperately between Mitchie and Caitlyn before Mitchie finally took pity on her and jumped in with an answer which surprised everyone (including herself).

"She means the mud."

Everyone looked at her like she was crazy and Mitchie's eyes closed as she realised the own stupidity of her answer. Today was one of the hottest days of the year and with no rain for weeks and a water ban in place no one had seen mud for a while.

"Mud? You're worried about me getting mud on my shoes?" Tess asked disbelievingly.

By now the other councilors had completely stopped what they were doing and were watching with undivided attention to see what the trio would do next.

"Yeah mud." Mitchie said more firmly this time. "While you were in the bathroom Woody thought he was a water sprinkler again and now every where's covered in water and mud. I've never seen anything like it!"

They saw the look of disbelief on her face as she craned her neck to look out of the window. Knowing what Mitchie said was a total lie Caitlyn quickly darted to the side and blocked Tess' view before she could see anything, flashing her a quick grin as a look of annoyance flashed across Tess' face.

"She's right you know." Caitlyn said seriously as Mitchie and Layla nodded their heads in agreement, all three of them hoping it would be enough to convince Tess but she still looked doubtful.

"It's terrible and we'd hate to see those beautiful shoes get ruined by tea.."

Layla's eyes widened and her foot frantically stomped down on Caitlyn's before she could go any further causing Caitlyn to yelp out in pain.

"MUD!" Mitchie yelled suddenly covering up her friend's stupidity as quickly as she could. "She means mud!"

Tess looked at them weirdly for a second before edging past them and reaching for the door, which in their mad attempt to block her from looking out the window was no longer covered.

"I think I'll take my chances." She said softly before yanking open the door and walking out towards her car.

"But why?" Layla added desperately as the three of them started chasing after her. "Mitchie or Caitlyn would be glad to go and bring them back , wouldn't you?"

They nodded enthusiastically but Tess had already unlocked her car and was stepping into the driver's seat.

"Don't worry about it guys. I left my purse back at the cabins so I was going back anyway. It's not a big deal."

Before they could say anything Tess was in her car and driving away out of sight.

They stared after her for a couple of seconds in silence before Mitchie let out a low and frustrated scream of anger.

"Stupid boys with their stupid time keeping!" She muttered angrily as she whipped her phone out of her back pocket and began punching in numbers furiously before realising that there was no signal and snapping it shut forcefully as she stormed back into the cabin, closely followed by Caitlyn and Layla.

By the time they'd caught up with her she'd already found Brown's phone and was tapping her fingernails on the back of the receiver as she waited impatiently for someone to answer.

The second they did her entire face changed and she started to scream catching the attention of anyone in the immediate area with the loud voice and colourful language.

"SHANE GRAY I DON'T KNOW WHERE YOU ARE BUT YOU BETTER GET YOUR ASS TO CAMP ROCK RIGHT NOW!"

Sensing that Mitchie was out for blood Layla and Caitlyn did a 180 and turned back around heading towards the others.

"This is a disaster." Layla muttered as they trudged dejectedly towards their friends. "Who's stupid idea was it to suggest Tess went anyway?"

The pair stopped for a second to think before it finally clicked and they began storming towards their friends shouting the same thing simultaneously as they crossed the room.

"BARRON!"

He turned around instantly at the sound of his name and when he saw the look on their faces, froze and the smile disappeared from his face.

"What did you do that for?!" Layla hissed menacingly as she stormed up to Barron slapped him around the back of the head forcefully creating a loud smacking sound as her hand made contact with his head.

"Ow!" he yelped, instantly covering his head and moving away in an attempt to avoid any further assaults from Layla or Caitlyn."What was that for?! I didn't do anything wrong!"

By this time Mitchie had finished yelling at Shane and arrived just in time to hear what was going on and the three of them turned to stare at him, wide eyed with shock and anger.

"Didn't do anything wrong!" Mitchie screeched hysterically as she began pacing the room. "You just convinced Brown to send Tess out to look for Shane,Jason and Nate! You practically signed their death warrant!"

Barron's forehead creased in confusion as he tried to make sense of what they were saying.

"Wait Wait! All I did was tell Brown she would go. Tess needed something from the cabin and Brown needed someone to get the guys. I did nothing wrong so what exactly is your problem?!"

Mitchie groaned and began hitting the palm of her hand against her forehead in frustration.

"Because currently sitting in our games room is a very expensive and one of a kind vintage Chanel dress with matching satin heels which Tess brought and Jason ruined."

Everyone gasped and Ella who previously had been more concerned with the state of her nails suddenly became interested, dropping the nail file to make her way towards them.

"What do you mean ruined?" She insisted forcefully, pushing Barron out of the way and getting as close as she could to Mitchie, Layla and Caitlyn before adding desperately. "You mean ruined as in a small stain or a pulled stitch or something right? Obviously something that can be fixed easily I mean theres no way it could be ruined ruined. Please tell me it's not ruined!"

Layla gulped nervously for a second before shaking her head and telling them what happened. By the time they'd finished everyone's face had gone pale and Ella looked like she was debating whether to join Tess in hunting them down or crying over the destruction of something so beautiful and so expensive. After a couple of minutes of mental debate in which the rest of the gang could swear that they heard the cogs whirring in her head, she took a deep, calming breath and moved back to her previous spot in the corner of the room to continue filing her nails.

The others took a deep breath of relief at knowing that another crisis was safely averted before returning their attention to the one at hand.

Peggy, the most calm and collected out of all of them as well as the second eldest stepped forward and tried to calm everyone by pointing out that the chances were that Tess wouldn't find the dress before they could find a replacement. This seemed to work and everyone began to visibly calm down before Lola added something which instantly sent everyone into a panic again.

"Wait. Mitchie didn't you just say that you hid the dress in the games room?"

"What about it?" Mitchie asked, just as confused as Barron had been earlier as everyone turned to look at her disbelievingly.

"Mitchie. Shane, Nate and Jason practically live in that room whenever they have the cabin to themselves! If you were Tess and looking for Connect 3 in an empty cabin where would be the first place you looked?"

It took her a minute but eventually realisation dawned on her and she gasped loudly, covering her mouth in shock as she stared at them all wide eyed.

"I totally forgot about that!" She whispered slowly, her voice quivering slightly as the panic set in.

"Mitchie you idiot!" Caitlyn shouted loudly at her friend's stupidity. Up until now Caitlyn thought that Lola had simply misheard what Mitchie said but the look on Mitchie's face told her everything and now Caitlyn couldn't help but be annoyed by her best friend's ultimate moment of stupidity. "The games room! Mitchie! What the hell were you thinking?!"

"I was thinking that it would be the last place she would look after that incident with you and Nate I just didn't factor in the unlikely event that she would be there when we weren't!"She snapped back defensively.

Caitlyn's face slowly started turning red as Mitchie continued to glare at her while the others started smirking all apart from Layla who just looked at them confused.

"What happened in the games room?" She asked innocently and the smirks instantly disappeared from their faces.

"NOTHING!" They all yelled quickly causing Layla to jump slightly at the seriousness and urgency in their tone which instantly warned her that whatever had happened was probably best kept in the past.

The gang gave an involuntary shudder at the memory (including Caitlyn) before returning to their squabbling about how Mitchie had been.

It was only when Peggy was halfway through arguing that anyone with a brain or even Tess would know that if they were looking for Connect 3 and Caitlyn wasn't in the house the best place to look would be the games room when they heard a loud cough from behind them.

Brown, who until now had been casually circling the room and making small talk with the other councilors while waiting for Connect 3 to turn up had noticed the increased noise level coming from those he had come to consider his family and had made his way towards them in an attempt to find out what had caused this latest outbreak of all too common madness among them.

Raising an eyebrow at them suspiciously as they all turned to look at him he took in their sheepish looks and angry glares before shaking his head and turning to the only person who looked almost as confused as he did for an explanation.

With a loud sigh Layla recalled the story again from the beginning for Brown while Mitchie and Caitlyn continued to grumble amongst each other. Mitchie didn't exactly like being called stupid and Caitlyn was still blushing from Mitchie's remarks and as a consequence the pair were now were now sulking and making childish comments in an attempt to cover up their embarrassment before Brown shot them a warning look which instantly shut them up.

Once Layla had finished Brown watched her for a second with a look of concentration on his face before speaking.

"So let me get this straight. You and Jason had some sort of argument and he chased you out of the kitchen into the hallway where at some point before you physically attacked him and had to be dragged away he ruined a priceless dress which Tess bought you?"

Layla nodded sadly.

"And now she's been sent out to find them and may or may not stumble across such a dress which she will then use to torture all three of them?"

Before Brown could say anything the door burst open and Connect 3 came racing in.

"Ah I'm guessing from the looks on your faces that Tess didn't find the dress?" Brown asked amusedly as the three of them grinned as they closed the door behind them.

"Would we be here if she did?" Shane lied smoothly as he smirked back at his uncle.

Uncle Brown laughed and smiled back at them slightly.

"So where's Tess? I suppose she's not too happy about having to run around looking for you three?"

Suddenly there was a loud bang as something heavy made contact with the door and Shane, Nate and Jason suddenly found themselves trying to hide their laughter.

"You could say that." Nate smirked slightly before the three of them hurried away, quickly getting lost in the crowd as they searched for their friends and family. Finally finding them huddled up in the corner of the room still arguing among each other they quickly said their hellos and worked their way into the centre of the group just in time to tell them with unfaltering certainty that Tess hadn't found the dress when a loud shriek filled the air.

They all jumped and turned just in time to see the door fly open and Tess come storming in, her nostril's flaring wildly as she scanned the room for Nate, Shane and Nate. Finally making eye contact with them she smirked evilly before making a bee line towards them.

"I thought you said she didn't find the dress?!" Mitchie whispered frantically.

"We lied..She did." Shane stuttered quickly as they moved further away from the approaching blonde. "But that's not what she's angry about."

Then what's her problem?" Layla whispered under her breath as they watched Tess work her way closer towards them but no one answered.

She was close enough now for the gang to be able to see her face and with the exception of Layla who had no idea what was happening, they gasped and recoiled in fear at the look on her face. Unlike Layla who'd never seen the look on Tess' face before the others knew that this wasn't just some little thing like a ruined dress that had gotten on her nerves.. oh no- it was much worse than that, much much worse-because they all knew that look...very well in fact.

It was the same look she had when they first met her at Camp Rock and the others realised as she suddenly came to a stop right next to Layla that the old Tess was back...and she was bigger and badder than ever.

"Hey Tess!" Layla said happily completely oblivious to the looks the others were shooting each other and the way Shane visibly stiffened when he saw how close Tess was to his sister. "Shane told us you found the dress. I am so sorry. It was completely my fault. I promise I'll fix it."

"Aww don't worry about it sweetie." She said with a fake smile which caused Shane to physically shake with anger. "It was nothing really. I'm not mad honest."

Layla's face broke into a genuine smile and she reached forward to pull Tess into a tight hug.

"Thanks Tess." She whispered into the blonde woman's ear as she hugged her back.

"No problem. That's what friends are for right?" She smirked at Shane and the others over her shoulder as the pair continued to hug. "Plus they're something I need to tell you."

Layla pulled away and looked at Tess curiously but before the woman could say anything Shane had grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her to another part of the room.

"What the hell was that Tess?!" Shane hissed once they were far enough away. "I told you to stay away from them... especially Layla!"

"And I said I had to tell them something first!" She snapped as she yanked her arm away from him and glared at Shane angrily before storming back to the others.

Growling angrily he darted in front of her and grabbed her shoulders, stopping her from going any further as he stared at her fiercely.

"If you say one word to them I swear to God I will kill you with my bare hands!"

Tess just smirked and wiggled her way out of Shane's grasp.

"Will just see about that shall we?" She whispered darkly before putting on a fake smile and returning to her place next to Layla.

"Hey you're back." The younger girl said brightly as Tess sidled up to her. "What was it you wanted to tell me?"

Tess opened her mouth but Shane beat her to it.

"Tess has decided to leave early haven't you Tess? Something about a gig in Nepal wasn't it?" Shane added lightly as he worked his way between the two and wrapped an arm protectively around Layla's shoulders as he glared at Tess over the top of his sister's head.

Tess shot him a glare before fixing a sickly sweet smile to her face.

"Yes. He's right I was going to cancel but it's such an important part of the tour so I changed my mind."

Layla's face fell.

"But what about your lessons here?"

"I'm sure Brown will be able to sort something out." Nate added quickly yet again beating Tess to her answer.

"Yes. I'm sure he will." She said with annoyance before smiling again. "But that's not what I wanted to talk about..."

"BROWN!" Jason suddenly shouted, cutting her off mid-sentence causing her to groan with frustration. "I don't know about everyone else but I'd love to know why I'm here so early on a Monday morning. Right guys?"

There was a loud murmur of agreement as the councilor's all turned to Brown demanding an answer as Tess sighed in defeat.

There was no way she was going to be able to go through with this now. Well not until Brown had told them the reason why they were here and to be honest she too was quite intrigued as to why they'd all been called in so early therefore she tried her best to ignore the satisfied smirks radiating from Connect 3 and actually (for once) tried to listen to Brown.

"As Jason so tactfully pointed out you're probably all wondering why I all called you here so early well it's simple really.. you're all fired."

"WHAT!!!!"

Brown laughed and the screams of protest stopped.

"I'm joking! I'm joking! None of you are fired. The catering company on the other hand though..."

"What do you mean?" Lola called out followed by a chorus of "yeahs".

"It turns out the catering company we hired were actually a front for some sort of drug smuggling outfit. The police raided their offices yesterday and last night they were unhappily carted away by a couple of the area's finest police officers. From the looks of it they're gonna be doing quite a long stint in jail so it's doubtful they'll be out in time to cook us breakfast this morning...or any other morning for the nect 20+ years."

The whole room stared at him open mouthed in shock.

"Wow." Nate said disbelievingly. "I was not expecting that."

Brown snorted.

"You weren't expecting it. How do you think I felt?"

"So what has all this got to do with us?"

The group all turned around and groaned as they recognised the voice coming from the blonde haired guitar instructor at the back of the room.

"Well Kieran." Brown stated tersely. "It's got everything to do with you as until I can find a replacement you're all on permanent kitchen duty and if I remember quickly it's your cabin's shift and I'd hurry up if I were you. They get a little nasty when they're hungry. Hop to it!"

The whole room groaned at the prospect of unlimited kitchen duty all apart from Mitchie who was chewing her bottom lip thoughtfully.

Brown caught onto the look and the groans at the same time and shouted at everyone to get on with it before turning back to Mitchie and who led them away from the others and began whispering in hushed tones.

Suddenly a wide smile spread across Mitchie's face and she hugged Brown excitedly before racing off out of the now empty room.

"What was that all about?" Layla asked curiously as Brown made his way back towards them, all signs of seriousness and stress gone from his face.

"Oh nothing except I think Mitchie might just have solved our little catering problem." He said casually before walking off to answer his cell phone which had been ringing non stop for the last 5 minutes.

Before Layla could even ask what he meant Brown was gone and Mitchie came bounding out of the back room, squealing excitedly as she flung herself into Shane's arms.

He laughed and swung her around happily.

"What's got you so happy? Not that I'm complaining but..."

"Connie's catering's going camping!" She yelled excitedly and in that moment Layla felt like all the air had left her body...

And everything went black.