I Wonder If I'll Ever See You Again
Author's Note: Ok so I wrote this on a plane to Miami and by the pool in Orlando. Anyway, I'm glad you guys all seemed to like Todd. He's like the perfect guy. But don't worry, we'll have Smitchie eventually. Anyway, in this chapter our characters finally learn what the other is doing…ooh.
"All of my life where have you been? I wonder if I'll ever see you again. And if that day comes I know we could win. I wonder if I'll ever see you again."
Chapter Six: Yesterday Is Gone
I'm sorry your situation has let you down. I know that things did not go as planned. 'Cause in this time you're feeling alone and sad, this is what you must understand. There is a way. Yesterday is gone. It's a new day. Yesterday is gone
SHANE
The night of final Jam had arrived. Shane was backstage with Tess, Peggy, and Ella.
"Good luck girls." He said. He'd taken himself off the judging panel since he felt it wouldn't be fair for him to judge his…well the girl he was kind of dating.
"Thanks, Shane." They all said.
"Shane, can I get a good luck kiss." Tess asked, fully aware that everyone was looking at them.
To be honest, Shane was reluctant to make public displays of affection. If he was really honest with himself, Shane would realize that he was more reluctant to make public displays of affection with Tess. Something about her didn't sit entirely right with him. But he assumed it had something to do with Mitchie, so he dismissed the thoughts immediately. Shane finally complied by giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. He then left to enjoy their performance from the audience.
Peggy and Ella were excited. Since Shane and Tess had gotten "together," Tess was actually nice. Of course when they weren't physically together she was the same Tess, but that was better than always being the same Tess.
Tess looked in the mirror, making a final make-up check. She looked at two pictures on her dressing room table. One was a picture of her mother. Tess had been disappointed when her mother called to say she couldn't make it to the show. Tess then looked at the picture of Shane. "Well I got the rockstar and I'm about to get the career." She thought to herself. "Try not to mess up." Tess said to the girls as they walked onto the stage.
Both girls rolled their eyes but followed Tess onto the stage. This could be their big break as well.
After their performance, the judges convened. As they were discussing the performances, Shane thought about the entire show. He could tell something was missing. There were lots of radio-friendly "cookie cutter pop" performances. But the show was lacking something… "real." An image of Mitchie came to his mind. "I wonder what she would have done." He thought to himself. Shane immediately shook his head, "She'd be anything but real."
"And the winner of Final Jam is…The It Girls!"
Shane smiled, he'd found his "real girl." She'd exposed herself to him in a way that Mitchie never had. And it looked like everyone else thought Tess was something special too.
MITCHIE
Ever since "that day" at Camp Rock, Mitchie had felt like she was putting on a front. She looked and acted happy to the casual observer, but she felt like she was always an inch away from a breakdown. After meeting Todd, that started to change. She wasn't completely her old self, but the pain wasn't threatening to tear her apart.
True to his word, Todd became her friend. Mitchie had never met someone so intuitive before. He seemed to know exactly what to say and do to make her feel better if she was down. One of the things he did was to take her into the studio. It seemed that the "greatest unsigned band" was looking to get signed. They were laying down some demo tracks to submit to several labels who had expressed interest. It would all culminate in New York City in a few weeks.
"So if all of these record labels are interested, why do you have to go to all this trouble?" Mitchie asked the band.
"To get the best deal. If they see the kind of crowds we draw, they'll know what we are worth." Rob, the unofficial manger and co-producer said.
"Always talking finances…We also think it's a good idea to get some great demos down so they know they can trust us with our sound. We don't want them to bring in too many studio big wigs to change our sound." Todd added.
So the band spent days and nights working on perfecting the select songs they would be performing at their showcase. The showcase was shaping up to be a big deal, with a number of industry people attending. Even a few well-known musicians were attending since they'd followed the band's progress for a while. So, the band was in the middle of another late night studio session.
"I think I'm burnt out." Ryan said, throwing his hands in the air. The band was sitting together in the control room listening to one of their tracks yet again.
"I know guys, but we already paid for the studio time." Rob replied.
"Why don't we take a half an hour to regroup." Todd suggested.
"I have a better idea. Why doesn't Mitchie get in the booth. I can practice my production skills." Caitlyn suggested.
Mitchie shot Caitlyn a horrified look, "Uh…I don't…" Mitchie said before getting interrupted.
"Yeah, you're always singing under your breath. Why don't we make use of the studio time. You can even sing one of our songs if you don't have something to sing. Lord knows you must know them all by heart with the number of times you've heard them these past few days." Ryan said
"Um…" Mitchie was again interrupted.
"Actually Mitchie's a great songwriter. In fact we've got one of her songs all prepared. It'd be awesome to actually record it though." Caitlyn said.
"Let's hear it then." Rob said, glad that their money wouldn't go entirely to waste.
"You don't have to if you don't want to, but I'd really love to hear you." Todd added. He knew Mitchie loved music and he could tell she had a good voice. But for some reason she was reluctant to sing or talk about her own songs around him.
Mitchie was torn. She was excited about actually recording a song in a real studio, but she was also afraid of singing in front of all these real musicians. It took her a moment to realize that this was a huge opportunity. Her friends would tell her what her chances were at being a real recording artist. It would be better to hear the truth from friends than from scary industry people who would shut her down before hearing her. "Sure. Why not." She finally agreed.
"Great!" Caitlyn said getting some of her things ready.
"Promise to be nice." Mitchie said, nervously.
"We'll just sit back here and pretend not to listen." Todd said.
"And if it sucks, you can always blame it on Caitlyn." Ryan said.
"Oh I'll get you for that." Caitlyn said.
"What'll we do for the music?" Mitchie asked.
"Oh I've got all our tracks right here." Caitlyn said.
"You just carry it around with you?" Mitchie laughed.
"I've always got to be ready in case opportunity knocks. And it's knocking right now so get in there." Caitlyn replied.
Mitchie nervously made it into the sound booth. She put on the head phones and waited for the music to start. She looked out at her friends. Caitlyn was messing around with the controls. The band was talking amongst itself. A few weeks ago this would have been the last place she'd imagine herself. She was in NYC in a recording studio. But somehow it was right…She started singing.
"I've always been the kind of girl that hid my face. So afraid to show the world, what I've got to say…" Mitchie sang.
As she sang Mitchie forgot about everything except how amazing it felt to be in the studio. She didn't think about Shane or Camp Rock. She didn't think about what the band was thinking of her. She just thought about the song and how she was exactly where she was supposed to be.
When she finished, Mitchie was brought back to reality. She had gotten so into the song she hoped the band didn't think she had gone way over the top. She distinctly recalled making some expansive arm movements. She looked up and saw all eyes on her. The band had evidently stopped talking. They way they were all looking at her made her really nervous. At least Caitlyn was smiling, but she'd heard her sing the song a bunch of times. The band members all had blank stares on their faces.
"So..um…what did you think?" Mitchie asked.
The band all seemed to snap out of it at the same moment. They started clapping, much to Mitchie's embarrassment. She made her way back into the control room.
"That was amazing. We had no idea you could sing like that." Rob said.
"Speak for yourself, I knew you would be fantastic." Ryan added.
Mitchie smiled, "Thanks guys." She turned to Todd to see what he thought. The others did the same since Todd had been silent since Mitchie entered the room.
"It was…I can't even describe…" Todd finally uttered.
"Mr. Poet can't come up with anything? That's how you know you're good." Ryan laughed.
Mitchie smiled at Todd who actually blushed.
"We should get out of here. Our time's about up and I think I hear the next group getting restless outside." Rob said.
"Alright. Let's go." Rob said as the group exited the studio.
The group all headed to the subway station to drop Mitchie and Caitlyn off for the night. The rest of the group started walking ahead as Mitchie and Todd hung back. They were walking in silence for several minutes.
"Hey slow pokes, get a move on." Rob yelled from several feet in front of them. Caitlyn immediately elbowed him in the side. "I mean…take your time guys…we've got all day." He said.
Todd finally spoke, "Mitchie, I…you're perfect. Everything about you is completely perfect."
Mitchie started to protest but stopped when she looked up at Todd's face. He had this look on his face that she hadn't seen before. She couldn't describe it but it was a look that would melt anyone's heart. And Mitchie felt something. She didn't think it was possible, but she felt something.
"Mitchie, I know I said we could be just friends and we can, but I have to tell you that I've never felt the way I feel about you." Todd said.
Mitchie knew it was coming, but it still frazzled her. When he'd asked her before, she had no doubts about saying no, but now?
"Let me think about it." Mitchie finally said.
Todd's eyes lit up in response, "Take your time."
Mitchie didn't respond as she heard clapping and cheering. The two realized that they had completely stopped walking and the rest of the group was standing a few feet away listening.
"Let's go." She said, laughing.
And Mitchie did think about it. When she got back to Caitlyn's house she sat in silence for hours. On the one hand she didn't feel nearly as strongly about Todd as she had about Shane. But what was the point of holding on to someone who obviously wouldn't ever forgive her. She'd been so honest with Todd and he'd said she was perfect. But her heart had literally stopped the first time Shane smiled at her.
"Earth to Mitchie! Go get ready!" Caitlyn shouted.
"For what?" Mitchie asked, confused.
"You haven't been listening to anything I've said. The band got finished early with their interview. So we're meeting them at a club downtown." Caitlyn explained again.
Mitchie rushed to get ready. As she was waiting, Caitlyn turned on Hot Tunes TV. Mitchie walked into the room just as the host started talking about something she was very familiar with.
"Shane Gray seems to have shaped up. As we reported several months ago, the pop star member of Connect Three has been an instructor at Camp Rock for the majority of the Summer. Last night was the camp's "Final Jam." The winner of the competition is set to record a duet with the band. We can now exclusively reveal the winner of the competition." The host said before cutting to a video clip from the show. The video showed Tess, Peggy, and Ella singing. "The winners were a group of three girls, named 'The It Girls.' The lead singer is Tess Tyler, daughter of grammy award winning TJ Tyler. Tess may have won something more than the competition." The host said before cutting to a photograph of Shane kissing Tess on the cheek. That was followed by a picture of the two walking off stage hand-in-hand.
Caitlyn tried to shut the TV off as soon as the first picture came on, but wasn't fast enough. She turned to look at Mitchie. Mitchie had a strangely blank expression on her face. She stood in silence for a minute before turning to Caitlyn with that same expression, "Let's go. I need to talk to Todd." She said before turning to walk out of the room and the house.
As the two rode the subway into the City, Caitlyn was torn. She knew exactly what Mitchie was going to do. She was going to jump head first into a relationship with Todd because of what she'd seen on the TV. "Mitchie, you can't believe everything they say." Caitlyn finally said.
"I saw it Caitlyn. I can believe what I saw." Mitchie said finally showing some emotion.
"But you know Tess, she could have manipulated him into it." Caitlyn said.
"He was kissing her. I don't see her grabbing him and forcing herself on him" Mitchie said.
"It was just on the cheek…" Caitlyn said.
"Yeah and how many girls did he kiss on the cheek. He didn't kiss me on the cheek when…" Mitchie abrubtly stopped speaking as tears threatened to spill from her check. "Forget it. I'm moving on." Mitchie said.
"That's just it. You can't just start dating Todd because you're mad about Shane." Caitlyn said.
"I can do whatever I want. If Shane wants to date that two-faced bitch, I can date whoever I want." Mitchie said ending the conversation. However a part of her was screaming that Caitlyn was right. She silenced that part and looked forward to seeing Todd.
The band was all gathered at a hot new club. It wasn't their typical scene, so Mitchie was a bit surprised. Earlier in the day they had participated in an interview with a writer for The Industry News Provider. When the girls found the band, Todd wasn't anywhere to be found.
"Sorry about the location. The writer wants to get some shots of us in the middle of the action…whatever that is. They wanted to do some of the interview, "candidly." Todd's talking to him now." Ryan explained.
"That sounds kind of manipulative." Caitlyn responded.
"Well he's actually a fan. He's been following us for a long time and is just trying to get us to be appealing to the big wigs above him. He wants us to succeed so he's doing what he can to create buzz. He said if the story is good we'll have an article in the Industry newsletter this week. It'll create even more buzz for the showcase. If that goes well, we could land ourselves in a high profile magazine." Rob explained.
"Looks like we're heading to the VIP area….Fancy." Caitlyn said as the guys headed toward another part of the club. As the others mingled, Mitchie sat in a booth waiting for Todd. When Mitchie finally saw Todd, her conviction waivered. He was walking toward her with the biggest smile on his face. When he reached the VIP area, he immediately sat down next to Mitchie and hugged her.
"What's that for?" Mitchie asked.
"For being you." Todd said.
"I'll take it the interview went well." Mitchie responded. She couldn't help smiling back.
"Yeah. Jimmy, the writer, said there was already a lot of great industry buzz. The more we get as an indie band, the more control we may get when…if we get signed." Todd said.
"Of course you'll get signed. I didn't like you when I heard you the first time and look at me now, I worship the ground you walk on." Mitchie joked.
"That's the difference between me and you." Todd said.
"What is?" Mitchie asked.
"I always worshipped the ground you walked on." Todd answered.
Once again Mitchie was about to laugh but that look was back in is eyes. Then and there Mitchie realized she couldn't do it. She cared too much about Todd to lead him on.
"About that…" Mitchie said.
"You don't have to answer right now." Todd assured her.
"I do. I care about you a lot Todd." Mitchie said.
"And you don't want to risk our friendship." Todd said, clearly disappointed.
"It's not that…I mean our friendship does mean a lot to me. But…I'm going to be completely honest with you. Remember when I told you about all that happened at Camp Rock?" Mitchie said.
"Yeah. The whole pretending to be something you weren't and then getting framed for theft." Todd said.
"Yeah but I left out the part about me falling for a guy. You see there was this guy. He has to deal with a lot of people being fake around him. Anyway, we really connected and he opened up to me and I opened up to him. I never felt that way about anyone before. And I think he cared about me too." Mitchie explained.
"So what happened?" Todd asked.
"He was there during the public shaming. And well…I lied to him and he couldn't forgive me. He'd been honest with me despite being wary of people being fake around me. He couldn't even look at me. I'm a horrible person." Mitchie said almost in tears. Saying the words aloud made her realize how much it still mattered to her.
Todd reached over and lifted her chin up. "You are not a horrible person. You may have made a mistake but everyone makes mistakes. I didn't know you for more than five minutes before I realized you were the most genuine person I've ever met. You'd never do anything to hurt another person. So what if you pretended to live a more glamorous life than you did. You did what any other girl who wasn't born to priviledge would do in your situation. You didn't do it to hurt anyone." Todd said.
Mitchie felt a little comforted by Todd's words, "Thanks Todd. It's not true, but thanks."
"Yes it is. So that's why you can't be with me. You still have feelings for this guy?" Todd asked.
"I don't know. I just know that if I said yes, I wouldn't be doing it for the right reasons." Mitchie said.
"What do you mean?" Todd asked.
"Well, I….I found out he sort of moved on and I was about to say yes to dating you." Mitchie said.
"Oh." Todd said.
"It's not that I don't care about you. I do. I just know that if I said yes now, it wouldn't be fair." Mitchie said.
"But you're still open to the possibility that it could happen, just not now." Todd said.
"Yes." Mitchie answered.
"That's good enough for me. He's stupid you know. I don't care what you did. If I had you, I'd never let you go." Todd said.
Mitchie instinctively leaned over to hug him. As they parted, she turned her head to look at Todd. At the same time, Todd turned toward her. Their faces were inches apart. Mitchie knew what was coming but she wasn't completely against it. Todd made her feel so safe. Todd looked into Mitchie's eyes and didn't see any sign of protest. He leaned in and Mitchie closed her eyes. She felt his soft lips touch hers. He was gentle, so gentle. She couldn't help but kiss him back. She may not be feeling burning passion, but she felt comfort in his embrace.
Neither saw the flash going off as Jimmy snapped a candid photo of the couple.
SHANE
Shane was back in LA. He should have been ecstatic, but a part of him missed the simplicity of the camp…He missed the outdoors, the freedom, and even the brown-haired liars (especially the brown-haired liars), but he wouldn't admit it to himself.
Shane was sitting in the studio with the rest of the band. Tess, Peggy, and Ella were in the recording booth. It hadn't gone as well as he'd hoped. Tess seemed to feel the other group members were unnecessary. Shane had to agree, three people on one track was a bit much. But the reward was for the winner of Final Jam and they had won as a group.
"Hey, here's an article about that group there's been so much buzz about. The one with that young singer who everyone is calling a musical genius." Jason said.
"The Color Green right?" Nate asked.
"Yeah." Jason said as Shane snatched the magazine out of his hands.
"Let me see that." Shane said. He was tired of hearing the girls arguing.
"Hey! I was reading that." Jason complained.
But Shane didn't hear a word. The magazine was flipped to the article about The Color Green. He'd been hearing about them for a while. They didn't make cookie cutter pop. That may have been the reason it took so long for them to get any label interest. But the times were changing. Shane was curious about what the article had to say. If The Color Green was getting interest, maybe his own new music might get a chance. All of these thoughts vanished as he looked at the article. The first page was a large photo of the band performing. Shane looked at the second page, which was full of candid pictures of the band. One picture drew his eyes immediately. It was a picture of the lead singer as he was kissing a girl. Shane stared at the picture in disbelief. It was Mitchie. Mitchie with her arms around another guy. Mitchie kissing another guy with the lips he had wanted to kiss so badly. Shane felt bile rise up in his throat. He didn't even notice that Tess had come out of the booth. He jumped up from his seat and walked out of the room.
"What's with him?" Tess asked, picking up the magazine he had dropped on the table. Tess also got sick to his stomach when she saw the picture, but not for the same reason. She read the caption below the picture.
"Lead singer, Todd Sparrow and his "someone special," Mitchie Torres, share an intimate moment. Mitchie, an aspiring singer/songwriter, will be singing at the band's upcoming showcase."
Tess grimaced. If Mitchie sang that song, Shane would find out and she'd lose everything. Tess had to come with a plan….fast.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ah! Another long chapter. I wrote even more but I'm going to cut it off here and put it into the next chapter.