A/N: Hi everyone! It's good to be writing again - it always is. Most people haven't realized that I'm back and updating, so tell all your friends! Lol. Thanks to my reviewers - I'll post a special thank-you to each of you at the end of the chapter. Enjoy this one - no more flashbacks. This is the 4th last chapter of the story!

Chapter 12: The missing piece

It was nearing the end of the month; only a week and a half was left of Camp Rock. The kids were all starting to realize this, and were rather sad to have to leave their new friends. Rory and Jordan were especially bummed - they'd only just found out they were brothers! On the plus side, Eclipse was progressing quite nicely (their best song being "Under the Bridge" by Red Hot Chili Peppers) and they were excited for the concert on Parent's Day, which was 5 days away.

During lunch that day (lunch was fried chicken, fries, coleslaw, bread, and pudding, if anyone cares), Ms. O'Keefe stood up and made an announcement.

"Attention rockers!" she called into the microphone. Aaron sniggered quietly. With her plaid skirt and white t-shirt, Ms. O'Keefe seemed very out-of-place, calling them rockers.

"As you all know, the Camp Rock dance is coming up tomorrow night. Instead of playing 'canned music' all night, as you kids like to say, each band will take it in turn to play 3 songs: 2 faster ones, and 1 slow one. As you've been preparing 4 pieces for Parent's Day, this shouldn't be a problem. So get practicing!" she smiled and stepped down from the podium.

Girls Table 3 immediately began to buzz with excitement. "I totally forgot about the dance!" said Leah.

"This should be totally cool," nodded Nikki.

"Eclipse's first gig!" added Carmen, bouncing in her seat with excitement.

"It's not the gig that's got me excited," said Hailey with a knowing smile at the rest of the table. "It's the prospect of dancing with the boys."

Five out of the six girls giggled slightly, out of excitement, no doubt. But Jenna just surveyed them all moodily. "Come on, don't tell me you guys are actually excited about this dorky dance thing," she said.

"Come on, it'll be fun!" said Marissa.

"Whatever," sighed Jenna, returning to her pudding. The rest of the girls just shrugged.

The next morning (the day of the dance) Eclipse rehearsal was full of three things: excitement, anticipation, and (what else?) hormones. Everywhere the girls went, they couldn't help giving their hair an extra toss, or apply lip gloss more frequently than usual. The guys spent a lot of their time eyeing the girls in the band, and running their fingers through their hair. All of this annoyed Dewey to no end.

"Come on, you guys!" he exclaimed. "Stop eyeing each other like you're hamburgers out on display. I've got a surprise for you, anyway."

This got their attention. "A surprise?" asked Jordan. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, there's somebody arriving right about now who I really think you guys should meet," Dewey explained.

"Who is it?" Marissa wanted to know.

"Uh uh, not telling till he gets here," he shook his head.

The kids didn't have long to wait. Soon, a timid knock came at the door to the staff lounge. Dewey jogged over to it and opened it. A boy of about 12 years old stepped in, smiling at everyone (rather nervously, it must be noted). "Hey," he greeted them.

"Dude, come on in!" exclaimed Dewey, pulling the boy into the centre of the room. "Guys, this is Kory Hathaway-Hawkins. Kory, this is Jordan, Rory, Marissa, Carmen, Leah, Aaron, and Nikki," he pointed to each band member as he said their names. They all gave a "hey" of response.

"Now, 'School of Rock' - Kory, you know about 'School of Rock', right? Your mom explained everything?" asked Dewey. Kory nodded, so Dewey continued. "'School of Rock' wasn't a band that ran itself - it had a band manager. That band manager's name was Summer Hathaway. When the band broke up, she went off to Yale. I actually managed to keep in touch with Summer. We didn't lose contact like everyone else. Summer got married to Brent Hawkins, and moved out here, to Long Island - about 20 minutes away. This is her son, Kory. He's the missing piece, as it were."

Everyone blinked at Kory. He began to feel a little awkward. These kids had all known each other for almost a month, and he was a newcomer. But being beside Dewey helped a little.

"Now everyone, Kory's gonna be spending his days here with us. He'll be at the dance tonight, too. So hopefully you'll make him feel welcome," said Dewey.

Marissa stood up from behind her drum set. "Dewey, you sound like a real teacher. Shut up." She walked up to Kory. "Hey, I'm Marissa. My dad was the drummer, too," she shook his hand. Kory smiled, grateful. "I'm Kory - but I guess you already got that."

"You play an instrument?" asked Jordan.

"Nah," Kory shook his head. "I'd like to, but I've never gotten around to it."

"That's all right," smiled Nikki, "you can still hang with us."

"All righty, you've had your chance to chat," broke in Dewey. "Now Kory, you can sit over there, and guys, get back in your positions! No more raging hormones until 11:30 - we have a gig tonight and we need to practice! All right, here we go - 'Highway to Hell', on three."

That night, the girls were all getting ready in their cabin for the dance. The dance was scheduled to run from 7:00 - 11:00, and it was already six thirty. They had all (well, most of them, anyway) finished getting ready, and were putting on a mini fashion show for the others.

First came Leah, parading in between the row of bunk beds. She was wearing a jean skirt that stopped just past her knee with a silver chain belt, and a pink halter-top. Her hair was done up in a sort of messy bun, with small pieces tumbling around her face. Her cheeks had the slightest dusting of glitter on them. The other girls all had to agree; Leah looked hot.

Next was Hailey. She bounced up and down the makeshift "runway", wearing trainers, black capris, and a white t-shirt with a black skull across the back. Her hair was down, in loose waves. She had rosy lip gloss on, and coral eyeshadow. She looked really good, very confident.

Carmen was wearing dark blue, almost black, jeans with huge flares. The jeans had silver studs running up the seams on the sides. A red, flowing top completed the look, and she had pulled her hair into a high ponytail. Gold eyeshadow contrasted nicely with her coffee-coloured skin.

Marissa definitely went for a bold look that night: her jeans, a deep royal blue, were held together on the sides with safety pins. Normally, this would look trashy, but somehow, by pairing it with a blue t-shirt, Marissa made it look rock. Her hair was down (the first time she'd worn it down all month) and her eyelashes, with several coats of mascara, looked twice as long. She looked awesome.

Nikki, the shyest of all the girls, surprised them all by wearing a brown leather miniskirt. She had really nice legs, so this worked very well for her. She had a white and brown striped shirt on as well, and her hair was half pulled back. She'd used a dark brown stain on her lips, and she looked extremely outgoing and confident.

The girls spent several minutes ooh-ing and ahh-ing over each other, then Nikki noticed something. "Wait... where's Jenna?" she asked.

Jenna, it turned out, was a lump under the covers on her bed. She lay there doing absolutely nothing. "Leave me alone," she muttered when Carmen yanked back the bed sheets.

"Not a chance," smirked Leah. "You're coming to this dance."

Jenna shook her head. "I don't have anything to wear."

"We'll help you," Marissa decided. "Now, get up!"

"Fine," Jenna agreed. She pulled herself out of bed, where she was immediately yanked towards the closet.

Ten minutes later, the girls in Cabin 3 had totally transformed Jenna. She was wearing a pair of Leah's red flare pants, and one of Marissa's black over-the-shoulder tops. Carmen had pulled her hair up into a bun, with two long strands framing her face. Using a bit of everyone's make-up, Nikki had outlined Jenna's eyes with dark eyeliner (as usual), but had added a rosy colour to her cheeks, and a light peachy gloss. Jenna admired herself in the mirror. "All right," she agreed, smiling what had to be her first smile that month, "I'll go. Thanks, guys."

The dance was going really well. Eclipse played fourth that evening. Their first song, "Just Can't Get Enough" by Depeche Mode went over really well - everyone seemed to enjoy bopping along to its catchy, almost-pop beat. It put a lot of responsibility on Aaron, who had a great techno keyboard line. Then the band played "Magic Carpet Ride" by Steppenwolf, which gave Marissa a real chance to have fun on the drums. Their slow song, "Under the Bridge" by Red Hot Chili Peppers, let Leah, Carmen, and Nikki have a lot of fun with the vocals. All in all, the band played a great set.

Later that evening, the band Simulation stepped up and played the song "My Immortal" by Evanescence. Everyone paired off, ready to dance. Marissa watched as Aaron stepped towards Leah, took her arm gallantly, and they walked off onto the dance floor together. Jordan and Carmen were dancing together too - Carmen was a good three or four inches taller than him, so it was rather amusing. Rory asked Nikki to dance, blushing crimson, but she accepted happily. This, of course, left Marissa without a partner. Sadly, she headed over to the refreshments table to ladle herself some punch. Halfway there, however, she got stopped by a voice behind her.

"You want to dance?" asked someone behind her. Marissa whirled around. It was Kory. She had to admit, he looked adorable in khaki pants and a blue button-down shirt.

"Yeah," she nodded. He took her hand and led her over to the crowd. He turned her around to face him, and placed his arms around her waist. Smiling to herself, she wrapped her arms around his neck. Marissa leaned into his chest (he was a good six inches taller than herself) and smiled slightly. She breathed in the scent of his cologne and couldn't remember when she'd ever felt so comfortable.

Meanwhile, Leah noticed something about Aaron: he had wandering hands. She had to adjust herself twice to prevent his hands from going somewhere she didn't want them to. By the third time, she pulled away from him. "What are you doing?" she asked, annoyed.

He looked surprised. "Nothing, I - what's wrong?" he asked, confused.

"Well, stop it." She turned and walked away from him, leaving him very astonished. This was the first time he'd ever had a girl turn him down.

Rory and Nikki, however, were faring much better than Leah and Aaron. Rory was being a gentleman and keeping his hands right where the should be, and the two were talking quietly. "So are you excited about the show?" asked Nikki.

"Yeah, I am," Rory nodded. "It'll be great to see my mom again."

"Are you guys tight?" she asked.

"Really tight," he confirmed. "I mean, it's only been the two of us my whole life. I mean, she's practically my best friend."

"That's sweet," Nikki smiled. She liked Rory - he was sweet and quiet, not loud and obnoxious. That was a good quality in a guy, she thought.

As the music floated around the gym, and Simulation finished up their set, the kids all knew that they had found something very important that summer: friendship.

A/N: All right, a bit of a corny ending, but I wasn't quite sure how to end it. Sorry. I liked writing this chapter, it was fun. Now, on to my thank-yous!

tmrwspromise: You think my story is brilliant! Wow, thanks! blushes like crazy I'm glad you liked the last chapter, it was kind of tough to write (writing sad things are always hard). Enjoy this one!

MoonlightPhoenix3: Glad you liked the chapter. Hope this one is satisfactory!

quitesirius: I'm glad you're liking the backstory. Dewey and the kids will get everything pulled together - I mean, it's Dewey! Of course he will! :)

the devil: Sorry you thought that Tomika, Marta, and Alicia's reasons for quitting their talent were lame, it's what I came up with. But other than that, I'm glad you love it. Enjoy this chapter!

maroonedpirate11: Here you go!!

ThatJoeyKid: I am so glad you like this story, it's such an honour... I mean, I love yours! Yeah, the rest of the band (Eclipse, that is) and Dewey know that Rory is Katie and Zack's son, and that he and Jordan are half-brothers. But no, Katie never told Zack. But he'll find out eventually! maniacal laugh Please don't hit me with your keyboard, I'll update again soon! :)

xobadrhymer03: So glad you like my story! Thanks for the suggestion, but no, Leah isn't Marissa and Freddy's daughter. Sorry. :)

So here we go again, me pleading with you guys for reviews... I'd love to get to 200, if you guys would help me out... wink.