I Wonder If I'll Ever See You Again

Author's Note: Hello hello. Ok so I have to admit I haven't read any of the random reviews coming in for fear of them saying, "WTF is wrong with you." But I am going to try and get this written despite having a million other things to do.

"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 Nine: Are You Gonna Go My Way?

"I was born long ago. I am the chosen I'm the one. I have come to save the day and I won't leave until I'm done. So that's why you've got to try. You got to breath and have some fun. Though I'm not paid, I play this game and I won't stop until I'm done. But what I really want to know is are you gonna go my way? And I got to got to know."

3 weeks later

Shane

Shane and the rest of Connect Three were hard at work in the studio. This time around, recording was completely different for him. They were finally making music they could be proud of. He wasn't sure that his fans would embrace it, but for once it didn't matter. Of course whenever he thought of that a memory would inevitably come to mind…sitting by the water "I know of one girl who would by that record." It was becoming harder and harder to put Mitchie's image out of his mind. He had his record label to thank for that.

The first thing they did was send Tess off to some country in Europe…ok he should be more informed on his girlfriend's whereabouts…he was pretty sure it was Sweden. She was attending some secret pop star "boot camp" from what he gathered. He'd found out that the "Pop star factory" reference that the media loved to use was not just a myth. He got random calls from her but they were so full of "Oh my gosh you should see the clothes…" that he zoned out most of the time. Although he still wasn't admitting it, he'd started dating Tess partially to keep his mind off Mitchie…now that Tess was out of the country he had a difficult time figuring out why he'd started dating her in the first place.

The second thing his record label had done was sign Mitchie. Ok so it was one of their subsidiary labels, but still it was under his own label. When he'd heard the news a few weeks ago, he'd been too shocked to react.

"Hey, hurry up Shane we're going to be late to the meeting." Nate called from Shane's living room. "Ok, ok, I'm coming." Shane said exiting the bathroom. They were set to discuss the band's new sound with the label bigwigs. "Wow." Nate said as he took in Shane's appearance. Shane had decided if he was going to sell the more organic sound, he'd have to be less pretty pop star and more singer/songwriter. He'd opted for a t-shirt and "loose-fitting" jeans. "What, pants not tight enough?" Shane joked. "Actually, yeah, they make your butt look big." Jason teased. The boys all left and headed to the label's office.

When they entered the building, they glanced at the wall of artists in the lobby area. Of course, there was a big picture of Connect Three. "See I told you your pants weren't tight enough." Jason said referring to Shane's pants in the picture. Shane laughed it off and was about to walk to the elevator when Jason said, "Hey isn't that…" Nate jabbed him in the ribs before he could finish. But it was too late, Shane turned around to look at what they were looking at. They were standing by the smaller images of artists in development. At first Shane thought they were talking about Tess' picture, but it had been up for a few weeks. But then he a saw the picture they must be talking about. It was a brunette standing behind a mic stand. She was wearing a black blazer over a red dress, paired with a pair of black converse sneakers. She was holding an electric guitar. The girl was looking straight head with a smile, smirk that you couldn't read. She seemed to be daring you to say something about her. She was intriguing, She was Mitchie. As if he needed to he glanced at the blurb accompanying the picture.

"Mitchie Torres joins Rebel Road records, a subsidiary of Zenith Records. She brings a fresh new take on the pop genre, with her stunning vocals and heartfelt lyrics. Media enquiries should be addressed to Samantha Francis…"

He stood in silence for a moment, unable to take in the information. Finally he just shook his head and called to his bandmates, "We're going to be late." He said as he walked to the elevators. Nate and Jason looked at eachother and shrugged their shoulders as they followed him.

It had taken him a day or two to even address the issue with his friends. And then it was to just say, "Hey guys, I just wanted to say its not a big deal about....M…that girl from Camp Rock. We probably won't even see her since she's on Rebel Road. I haven't even heard of any of the artists on that label." Shane said, a bit more spitefully then he'd planned. Nate and Jason were doubtful, but if Shane chose to ignore her than they would too. Easier said than done.

The band had just finished up recording for the day when their manager Greg walked into the room. He was just getting off the phone as the guys started to get their things together to leave. "Hold up guys, we've got some exciting plans to discuss." Greg said. The guys all sat down to hear what brilliant plan Greg had next. Greg hadn't been too keen on the idea of their new sound, but once the label okayed it, he'd thrown himself into figuring out how to promote their new music. So far he'd come up with: Connect Three – back to nature, a documentary showing them trying to fend for themselves in some random wilderness; Connect Three: Search for the great American songwriter, a reality show; and countless other similar plans. Luckily the label hadn't been really responsive.

'I've come up a great way to promote your new sound." Greg said.

Connect Three rolled their eyes, it always started that way.

"Don't roll your eyes. This time, I mean it. I talked to the label and they love the idea. We're calling it "Connect Three: Hometown Connection." Greg explained.

"Don't tell me, it's a reality show." Shane said.

"Yes, but it won't really be about you…it's about the music." Greg said.

The band was intrigued, "Go on." They said.

"Ok, so we're going to do a promotional tour with your new material. But we'll have a contest to find an opening act at each date. You'll be playing one city a week so you'll still have time to work on your record. Each week we'll ask for entries for each concert city. They'll post videos online of them performing a song. We'll have interns or something sort through them and find a few that have potential. Then you guys will look at them and choose 3 bands for the live show. The bands will perform in a single show to be broadcast on tv. Then America votes for their favorite band. That band gets to open for you at the show in their city. We'll do this for the 8-week tour. Then the final show we'll have a big finale where the bands will get together to perform in front of a live studio audience and America gets to pick the band that will get a record deal from Zenith." Greg explained.

"Ok so how does this promote us?" Shane asked.

"Well each week we'll show the winning bands performance from the previous week and a new song from the album being performed by you guys on the tour." Greg explained.

The guys conferred for a few minutes before deciding that it wasn't a half bad idea. "So we do get to pick which band gets to the show." Nate asked. "Yes, I knew you'd be worried about having a bunch of cookie cutter pop bands picked by the label so you guys get to choose the finalists." Greg confirmed. "Well then it sounds like a pretty good idea." The band responded.

"Great you'll be ready in 3 weeks?" Greg said. "Three weeks?!!" Shane asked. "Yeah we'll need those three weeks to get the website up and entries for the first week." Greg explained. "But we haven't even gotten final cuts of any of our songs yet." Jason protested. "But that's the point. We want the show to be very organic. Like you guys just wrote these songs and want the audience to hear them straightaway…which you will be doing anyway since you'll be writing while touring." Greg responded. The guys had to admit it was a pretty great plan. "Wow Greg…you've really impressed us." Nate said. Greg smiled, "Come on guys, I've got ideas." Greg said. He didn't mention that most of the idea had come from his friend Samantha. "Oh and the label suggested you take one of our new artists on tour with you as another opening act." Greg added. "Tess?" Shane asked, semi-hopeful, semi-worried. "No she's busy with bimbo bootcamp…I mean she's immersed in the musical process. No a new girl we just signed, she apparently has an organic sound." Greg said. "Who?" Jason asked. But Shane already knew what was going to come out of Greg's mouth as soon as he heard "organic sound." "Her name's Mitchie Torres, she's about your age Nate, maybe you'll hit it off." Greg said. Nate just gave a nervous laugh and looked at Shane. But Shane had already walked out of the studio. "This is going to be a long 8-weeks." Nate said to Jason. "How can it be a long 8-weeks…8-weeks is 8-weeks." Jason responded.

Mitchie

The last 3-weeks had flown by in a blur. After agreeing to join the label, Mitchie had been thrust into an exhausting schedule of photoshoots, label meetings, and recording. She didn't know how she'd have gotten through it without Sam. Sam was always there to make sure that the label didn't try and change her too much. Of course she'd been some tips on refining her image. But overall she was still "Mitchie." She'd been apprehensive when the label had a sent a stylist to her apartment (She'd been give an awesome apartment to stay in while working on her demo). But Samantha had explained the stylist would just be looking at what Mitchie liked to wear and find things that were a little more high-end but maintained the same style. She'd get the final say on what she wore. Mitchie found it funny that she'd be wearing a $150 t-shirt that looked just like the $5 t-shirt she already owned, but if the label wanted to spend the money…

The only downside to her new life was that Todd wasn't there to share it with her. He had left for LA where he was working on his major record label release. The Color Green was on the fast track for fame. Within a week of being signed, one of their songs had hit the most popular downloads on Itunes. The band had wanted to stay in New York to make their record. But the label had lined up some amazing co-producers and writers to help out with the album…people they'd dreamed of working with. So the band packed up and left for LA.

The band had thrown a party on the night before they left. Mitchie was a bit disappointed she hadn't gotten to spend much alone time with Todd recently. She missed their time together. But she couldn't begrudge the rest of their friends and die-hard fans their fun. So she had attended the party with Caitlyn. An hour into the party, Ryan came up to Mitchie and Caitlyn who were sitting on a couch.

"Ok who died?" Ryan asked. Mitchie turned to Caitlyn and they both laughed when they realized they were both sitting sullenly by themselves. "Looks like something died in your hair." Caitlyn responded, referring to Ryan's wild looking hair. "Hey it's the hottest new look…they call it vampire-sheek." Ryan said."Sure." Caitlyn said."If I didn't know better, I'd say you were sulking over me." Ryan said. Caitlyn was quick to deny it, "You wish." Ryan's face softened, "You're right." It was the first time either had come close to admitting they liked eachother. "Do you want to dance?" Ryan asked. Caitlyn, speechless for once, just nodded.

Mitchie watched them walk away with a half smile. "Took them long enough." Todd said sitting down next to Mitchie. "Oh I didn't see you there." Mitchie said. "Too busy brooding?" Todd asked. "I just…I just don't know how I'm supposed to do this without you guys….without you." Mitchie admitted. "Hey, you'll do it. You'll blow everyone away." Todd said, gently touching Mitchie's face. "How do you know." Mitchie asked. "Because you blow me away ever single time I see you." Todd responded. Mitchie blushed, trying to pull away. But Todd's grip was firm. Mitchie looked at him, confused. "I know we're going slow, but I just want to tell you there won't be a second of the day I'm not thinking about you." Todd said. Mitchie didn't know what to do. A part of her wanted to say that's how she felt too and just throw herself into a relationship with Todd. But another part of her said she'd be lying. So instead she leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. But Todd thought she was leaning for a real kiss so he moved in and kissed her. As their lips touched, Mitchie was torn. She hated herself for enjoying the kiss but she hated herself for immediately thinking that this just wasn't right. But she was too weak to pull away. In the end, she still didn't know where Todd and her stood. But she'd have several weeks to think it through.

A few weeks later, Mitchie was taking a much needed break from recording by eating fast food with Caitlyn. They were both startled by the knock on the door as they weren't expecting anyone. When she saw Samantha through the peephole, she couldn't help the thought that sprung to mind. She got it every once in a while. She imagined Sam was there to tell her that they'd all been kidding about her making music. But she brushed the thought aside, that was the old Mitchie. The new strong Mitchie was confident in herself. She opened the door and smiled as Sam hugged her.

"Hey I've got some great news." Samantha said after sitting down. "We've booked you a tour." Samantha said. Mitchie couldn't help but be excited. "Ok my friend Greg manages Connect Three and we came up with this great way to promote their new album…." Samantha went on to explain the concept to Mitchie. Mitchie was only half listening. "So I bet you wonder where you fit in." Samantha said expectantly. "Oh yeah." Mitchie responded. Sam didn't notice Mitchie's sudden mood change. "Well they think it'd be the perfect opportunity to showcase your music as well. Since they want to go more organic and you already are…And it'd be a great way for you to get exposure. I think it's a great way to get you out there." Samantha said adding, "And to save my job. What do you think?" Samantha explained. Mitchie wasn't sure what to say. Caitlyn understood and said, "Sorry Mitchie is just shocked is all. She just got used to recording in the studio…" "Of course. Just think about it, but we have to act fast to get you ready for the tour in three weeks. Think about it but we've got to commit by tomorrow." Samantha said before leaving.

"So?" Caitlyn said after giving Mitchie a few minutes.

"It's a great opportunity." Mitchie said.

"But." Caitlyn said.

"And Samantha has so much riding on this." Mitchie said.

"But." Caitlyn said.

"And opening acts don't have to spend time with the headlining act." Mitchie said.

They were getting to the root of it… "But." Caitlyn said.

"But…why'd it have to be them." Mitchie finally said.

"It's ok to say no." Caitlyn responded.

Mitchie thought about it. Of course she could say no, but what did that say about her. That she was too afraid to go on tour with him? That she wasn't ready for the big time? "I know, but…this is it. This is my chance to show that I'm bigger than this. If they are ok with me being on tour than so am I. I'm not backing down from this." Mitchie finally said.

Somewhere else, Shane was trying to decide if he was ok with Mitchie being on tour with them.

Authors Note: Ok, that's it kiddos. More when I get the inspiration.