Just as Mitchie was about to answer, Caitlyn's phone ringed. She looked at the caller ID and when she saw who it was, she put it on speaker and pressed 'send'.

"Hey Caity! So, is Mitchie excited to come on tour with us?" Nate spoke as soon as Caitlyn picked up the phone.

"Hey Nate! Actually, maybe you should talk to her. She has some serious doubts. You're on speaker, by the way." Caitlyn answered.

Nate took advantage of this moment and started ranting about why Mitchie should come along.

"What?! Mitch, please don't tell me you're actually considering not coming?!" Nate whisper-yelled through the phone.

"Uhm.. yes?" Mitchie answered his question somewhat uncertain.

"Come on! You gotta come, everyone knows you're crazy about him. Well except for himself of course. And I for a fact can tell you he feels the exact same way."

"Really? But why hasn't he made a move on me then?" Mitchie told him, trying to convince Caitlyn and Nate – as well as herself – that there's no way Shane likes.

"You're all he talks about! 'Man, I miss her!' 'Why couldn't she just come with us?' Those are a few of the many things he says every single freakin' day!" Nate said.

"And besides, even if you don't want to tell him how you feel, you can always just sing your songs and have fun with that! Please Mitch??" Caitlyn pleaded.

"Exactly! Mitchie, I'm begging you! I promise you it'll be so much fun!"

Mitchie sighed. Should she really go? Well why not? If she chickened out on telling Shane, she could always just sing her songs. Then and there, she decided what to do. Mitchie inhaled deeply and,

"Okay, I'll go!"

"YEAH--"

"BUT!" Mitchie interrupted both Caitlyn's and Nate's shouting, "If I don't want to show him my feelings, you won't push me into doing so!"

"Of course, we promise we won't do such a thing." Caitlyn said for the both of them.

In the background, Caitlyn and Mitchie could hear a door being opened and a voice starting to talk to Nate, "Nate, why were you screaming like that?" Mitchie recognized the voice as Shane's.

"Shit!" Nate obviously turned away from the phone because the sound became a lot softer, "Uhm, what scream? I wasn't screaming!" and he turned back to the phone, "I gotta go, bye!" And before the girls could reply, they heard the dialling tone.

The girls shared a look and started laughing at Nate's lame excuse.

--

Caitlyn had gone home two and a half hours ago to do some last minute packing and Mitchie was now alone in her room packing her own stuff. When Mitchie let Caitlyn out, she was called back into the living room by her parents. They wanted to discuss the rules with Mitchie about going on tour with Connect Three.

Rule #1. Checking in with her parents every two days, even if it was only a one-minute talk.

Rule #2. She shouldn't do anything she didn't want to do. It was more of an advice than a rule.

And last but not least rule #3. Enjoy her time on stage and everything that was going to happen. Again, more of an advice.

Mitchie happily agreed with these rules. The last two rules were obvious, of course she wouldn't do anything stupid or not enjoy herself! She didn't have any problems with the first rule as well, because she knew she was going to miss her parents a lot. Mitchie had never gone away from home this long.

Mitchie was about halfway done packing when there was a knock on her door.

"Come in!"

The door opened and her mom stuck her head in.

"Need any help with packing?"

Mitchie smiled at her mom and nodded. Connie walked in to her room and started packing with Mitchie. After a few minutes of silence, Mitchie walked to her stereo, put in a CD of her own music and turned the volume way up. She turned around to see her mom laughing at her and danced her way back to the suitcase and her mom.

'This is Me' came up and the Torres women looked at each other with big smiles on their faces. Connie walked to her daughter and they both started dancing and singing along, basically having a great time while the song lasted. Shane's part came on and while Connie sung her daughter's part, Mitchie belted out Shane's lines.

As the song ended, Connie and Mitchie fell on her bed, laughing at their crazy outburst. After a few seconds, Connie set up straight and looked Mitchie directly in her eyes and stroked her cheek.

"I'm gonna miss you honey, you know that right?"

"Of course I know that. And I'm gonna miss you too mom, soooo much!" Mitchie said as she also sat up straight and hugged her mom tightly.

Connie stroked her daughter's hair and let go of her. She put her arms on Mitchie's shoulders so she could look at Mitchie again.

"But I want you to have fun, and don't be afraid of anything because you are amazing at what you do! And no matter what may happen, know that your dad and I will be behind you the full 100%. If you need anything, don't hesitate to call me okay?"

"Mom, I'll try to call you everyday. I love you" She said as tears started falling from her eyes.

Connie took away her daughter's tears using her thumb and pulled her into another hug. "I love you too honey, I love you too…" She whispered into Mitchie's hair.

--

"Mitchie honey, make sure you call us. Don't try to forget us once you're the most famous 16 year old in the world!" Her father said as he held onto her as if his life counted on it.

"Dad… Can't… Breathe…" Mitchie whispered caused by lack of air.

Immediately her dad let her go and muttered a sorry in her way, while Mitchie was just relieved to finally breathe normally again. She straightened out her top and looked at her parents again, now tears brimming in her eyes.

Now Connie stepped a little to the front and engulfed Mitchie in a tight hug. Her mother placed her head beside Mitchie's ear and whispered, "And please don't forget what I told you last night", finishing it off with a kiss on her hair. Mitchie pulled away, looked at her mother and shook her head, silently promising her mother she wouldn't.

Caitlyn came walking towards Mitchie and her parents, which meant she was ready saying goodbye to her own folks. "Hey, we should go. Don't want to miss our flight, now do we?" She tried to cheer me up. It wasn't really working, nevertheless I gave her the satisfaction by laughing a bit.

"Okay, bye mom! Bye dad!" I called while I was being pulled towards the gate. Our luggage was probably already in the plane, so we didn't have to drag that along.

After a few more minutes, we were allowed to enter the plane. It wasn't a very big plane. Rather small, actually. And soon I found out we were the only passengers in it.

"Cait, where are the rest of the passengers??"

Caitlyn shifted a bit uncomfortably, "Uhm, Nate made sure we had a plane for our own…"

WHAT?! "What?! Why?"

Caitlyn sighed, "I know. It's a bit much. Nate didn't mind spending this much money and I'm sure Jase and Shane wouldn't mind either. But hey, look at the bright side. We can dance and sing and still won't get any weird glares thrown our way?" She stated that last part more as a question, to see if I would agree. Although she did make a point with that last one.

"Don't worry Cait. It's fine. As long as you dance and sing along with me?" I grinned at her, and she broke out into a huge grin as well.

Maybe, this trip wasn't so bad. Not bad at all.

I guess I should still apologize for not updating in a LONG LONG LONG time. So here it goes:

SORRRRRYYYYY!!

I know that doesn't quite cover it, and that's also why I'm posting these two chapters at the same time.

Please forgive me, xox Deb