Author's Note: Wow... I am blown away at the number of reviews I've gotten, as always. I thought my other story was a "one-hit wonder," so to speak, but apparently, that's not so. Words can't really express how happy I am for all the reviews I've gotten, so... I'll just say THANK YOU to IAMSOAP, Shizuku Tsukishima749, QueenSusanLovesKingCaspian18, blonde-gal, SaphirePhoenix, cutiepie100, RACHE BABYY x3, lala, Florchuchizz, cflat, Peachie-Trishie, geek'd, penguinsrpals, hollywoodgal205, Chaotic Light, Paupu, Wildx.xAngel, pink princess 16, Rei Tamashii, LosingTrack, KCMemory, Mandy94, cherry-blossom-101, AtemuManaLover, monko25, and The Sushi Monster—I kept saying it, but I appreciate every single comment, so just... thank you. Also, a thank you to those people who continue to add this story to their favorite or alert lists. I just hope I can live up and deserve all the feedback I'm getting!

Hope all of you enjoy this chapter!

Second Chances
by PiperPaigePhoebe01

Chapter Two

Shane had hardly stepped foot outside his limo before the screams started. He smiled and attempted to make his way out of the crowd, but stopped in his tracks as a familiar voice shrieked his name.

He whipped around, suddenly meeting her eyes.

Mitchie.

He wanted to look away, but found he could not, even as his heart tightened uncomfortably in his chest. He suddenly felt like storming away, but knew that if he did, people would talk. He kept his gaze with Mitchie, who stared at him, expressions of hurt and sheer terror on her face, before stooping down to pick up her bag, running as fast as she could away from the crowd.

Shane couldn't help feeling like she deserved it, but also couldn't help feeling like he just wanted to take off as well. He certainly wasn't expecting to see her this year and now that she was here, what was he supposed to do?

Storm away was the first option that came to his mind.

That works, he thought.

But first, he had to get away.

"Help," he said out of the corner of his mouth as Nate and Jason emerged from the limo. "The other girl I was telling you about is here."

Nate nodded and immediately set to work distracting the crowd gathering around the limo. Jason seemed to have spotted a few girls—he recognized the name of one of them, Ella—and began talking to them about his birdhouse, sufficiently distracting the crowd enough so that Shane could slip away, into the forest behind the parking lot. It was a moment before he found a place good enough to sit down, but he eventually did—there was a bench overseeing the lake that would be perfect.

He sat down on the bench, his thoughts immediately traveling back to the last encounter he had ever had with Mitchie. He found it funny that the last time he ever saw her, he had stormed away from her, and this time, they had both stormed away from each other.

Shane sighed. He still couldn't believe what she had done.

Why did she lie to me? And why didn't I see it?

He knew the answer to that: he hadn't seen it because he didn't want to see it. But now, he knew how stupid it is. He knew that Mitchie wasn't different from any other girl that came here. He had thought she understood, but apparently not.

I should have known there's no way she could understand. She's the cook's daughter. She doesn't know what it's like to be a star...

Shane let out a fed-up noise. He shouldn't even let her affect him this much. Why should he care about her, anyway? There was only one girl he cared about, and that was the girl with the voice.

Not Mitchie.

After all, there's no way she could be the girl with the voice.

-

Mitchie found herself walking along the lakeshore, her heart still pounding as fast and as loud as it could. In all her wildest dreams—nightmares, really—she had never thought that Shane Gray would return to Camp Rock a second year. She now knew how stupid it was, considering the members of Connect Three loved Camp Rock, but there wasn't anything she could do about the past.

Michie sighed, walking a bit faster. The expression on Shane's face once he had heard her yell was nearly identical to the one he had worn so many months ago. It expressed the same amount of hurt, disappointment and anger on his face. In fact, it was almost as though no time had passed and they were back in the past, when Shane first discovered her secret.

I never should have let Tess intimidate me...

If she hadn't, none of this would have happened...

By now, Mitchie was at a run, trying to get as far away from that parking lot as she could. She needed to go somewhere where she could calm down, maybe sing a little, to get her mind off Shane. So she ran down the lake's shore until she reached a place where she could sit down—there were a couple benches a few feet ahead that would be perfect.

She emerged there a few seconds later and was about to sit on one of the benches when she saw him again. She froze in her tracks, slowly trying to get away from the clearing without alerting him to her presence, but—

Crack.

—she accidentally stepped on a stick.

She froze again as Shane turned to look at her, his expression immediately hardening.

"What are you doing here?" he asked harshly. "Come to spread more of your lies this summer?"

"No, I—" Mitchie began.

"Or are you about to step it up a notch?" Shane continued, not letting Mitchie speak. "Are you going to try and get close to me and then lie to my face? Are you going to try to 'fit in' again?"

"Shane, I—"

"I really don't want to talk to you right now," Shane snapped. "You lost that privilege. I thought I could trust you and then you lied to me. You were never honest with me, were you?"

"Shane, I'm sorry!" Mitchie said, cursing herself as tears welled up in her eyes. "I never thought something like this would happen. Tess Tyler had somehow found out and then spread it around! I never meant to hurt you!"

"Oh, really?" Shane said, standing up. His entire body was stiff, his face displaying more hurt and anger than Mitchie had ever seen in her life. "I'm not surprised you'd blame it on Tess. You know, I think she is the best person in this entire mess because she didn't allow lies to spread around! She's the one who should be talking to me right now, not you! After all, if she didn't find out, when would you have told me your secret, huh?"

Mitchie grew silent. She looked down.

"That's all the answer I need," Shane said in a low voice, hurt seeping into every syllable.

"Shane, I would have told you eventually... I just..."

"Wanted to fit in, right? Wanted to be with the popular crowd for once?" Shane asked.

"Well, yes, bu—"

Shane shook his head. "Mitchie, I thought you were different than that," he said. "I thought you would never try to pretend to be someone you're not just to fit in. I thought you were happy being who you were, but apparently you're not. You lied. There is not one moment last year that you showed how you really felt. And that's what music is all about."

"I was going to, but..."

"You know what?" Shane interrupted. "I'm sick of your 'but's. There's nothing you can say that will make me forget what you did. In case you can't see it, I don't want to talk to you and, starting now, I don't expect to."

With that statement, Shane turned, storming away in the opposite direction, his hair ruffling slightly in the wind. Mitchie, whose eyes were rapidly filling with tears, slipped onto a bench. Using her bag as a pillow, she spread out across it, letting the tears fall.

If this was going to be a sign of what Camp Rock this summer would be like, she wanted to go home right now.

-

Author's Note: I know, this chapter is incredibly sad, but I just had to establish Shane and Mitchie's relationship right now—it will get happier, but this is just the "introductory" chapter, I guess you could say. It's just establishing where our two favorite singers stand at the moment. But, even despite that, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

And please review? Thanks!