Author's Note: I'm continually amazed by the awesomeness of this fandom... you continue to deliver great reviews! So, thank you to: Animefreakkagome, Kage Mistress of Shadows, Shizuku Tsukishima749, blonde-gal, NorthernLights25, Peachie-Trishie, Invisable-rocker, SaphirePhoenix, pyrolyn-776, The Sushi Monster, hollywoodgal205, KungFuDuckie-x3, IncandescentAngel, choirsinger, penguinsrpals, QueenSusanLovesKingCaspian18, IAMSOAP, LosingTrack, pink princess 16, gred-forge-r-hot, MitsukixTakuto 4 ever, Florchuchizz, Angie-ange, Paupu, monko25, and cutiepie100! Also, another thank you to the people continuing to add this story (and me) to their favorites and alert lists!

Please keep it up? Hope you enjoy this chapter! This chapter is going to be another one of those depressing ones, at least at the beginning, but I promise that it will get better. If I go back on my word, you have permission to hunt me down and tie me up until I write happiness.

Second Chances
by PiperPaigePhoebe01

Chapter Three

It was nearly dark before someone found her.

Caitlyn Gellar, Mitchie's best friend from last year, had been worried when Mitchie hadn't immediately come running toward her once she arrived late at Camp Rock. She had been even more worried when Mitchie hadn't shown up at the introductory session, the First Day Jam, or the assigning of cabins. At first, she had thought Mitchie had just gotten held up in the kitchens—after all, for the last three things, Connie needed to supply food, so maybe Mitchie had helped that—but once Shane had appeared, nearly spitting mad, at the end of the cabin assigning, she knew.

Caitlyn removed herself from her friends' conversation, walking over to Shane. He was talking to his uncle in a low, fast voice, and as she moved closer, she could catch a bit of it.

"—come on, Shane, you're being ridiculous—"

"I am not—"

"Excuse me," Caitlyn piped up, interrupting their conversation. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but I really would like to talk to Shane."

Brown nodded. "Of course," he said. "I'll leave you two alone."

And he disappeared into the crowd, leaving Shane staring at a spot right above Caitlyn's head, his eyes narrowed.

"Where's Mitchie?" Caitlyn said simply.

Shane's eyes snapped to hers. "How should I know?"

"Because I know you're the last person to have seen her," Caitlyn said. "If anyone else had seen her, she'd be here right now. But she's not, and you are, and you're angry, so it's not that hard to put two and two together. So, where did you last see her?"

"She'll come back," Shane said. "She always comes back."

"How do you know that?" Caitlyn snapped. "Damn it, Shane, just tell me where she is."

Caitlyn was surprised at her language—she never usually swore, since her mother and father had raised her against it, in one of the only families that did—but she didn't care. She was too angry. Shane was being ridiculous. He might be angry at Mitchie, but that didn't give him any right to allow her to be outside in the dark. She fixed Shane with a glare at this, hoping it forced him to fess up.

Fortunately for her, it did.

"Fine," Shane grumbled. "She was down by the lake. Can't give you directions where. I could probably get there, but I don't feel like going out in the cold to find her. You can handle it, can't you? I need to put up some signs."

Oh, so you'd prefer me to go out in the cold to find Mitchie, who is probably freezing at the moment?

Even Caitlyn now thought he was being a tad over the top, but she wasn't going to admit that. "Yes, I can handle it," Caitlyn said, only a trace of anger in her voice. "I'll be back."

Caitlyn didn't even bother waiting for his response as she walked out of the large cabin. She ran down to the lake, shining by the light of the moon with a faint silvery glow. If she wasn't in such a hurry to find Mitchie, she probably would have sat out there for a while to admire it, but since she was, she ran along it quickly, hardly even noticing it. Caitlyn ran as fast as she could, calling Mitchie's name—the camp grounds were surrounded on nearly all sides by a fence, but you never knew what might happen in the dark.

Finally, after about five minutes of running, she burst out of the tangle of trees along the shore, spying two benches. One of them was occupied—the long brown hair immediately betrayed the person to be Mitchie.

"Mitchie," Caitlyn said, but she didn't answer.

With slight hesitation, Caitlyn walked toward her, touching her lightly on the shoulder. Her breathing told Caitlyn that she was sleeping, but the small dark streaks down her face also told her that she had been crying. Cursing Shane to the depths of hell and back, Caitlyn gently shook Mitchie, who stirred back to life. Blinking back sleep—or maybe tears—Mitchie sat up, her eyes focusing.

"Caitlyn?" Mitchie asked groggily. "Is that you?"

"Yes," Caitlyn said. "And I'm about to march back to Camp Rock and kill Shane."

At the mention of Shane's name, Mitchie woke up all the way, her eyes filling with hurt. "Don't," she said. "It's not worth it. He wants me to avoid him from now on. He as good as said he never wanted to hear my voice again."

Caitlyn clenched her fists together. "I swear, I thought I could understand a bit of what was going through that jerk's head, but apparently not. I can't believe how long he's holding this grudge."

"He's been hurt," Mitchie murmured. "You can't get angry at him for that."

"I can't get angry at him for being hurt. I know that," Caitlyn said. "But I can get angry at him for being such a jerk and not being able to let things go. I can understand him being hurt on the inside, but now... now he's gone too far. He wouldn't even tell me where you were. It's like he didn't even care."

"That's the thing, Caitlyn."

"What?"

"I don't think he does care."

-

The only thing Shane cared about at the moment was putting up the "Missing" signs for the girl with the voice. At first, he hadn't thought it was a good idea, but Nate and Jason had talked him into it. Besides, even if it didn't help find the girl with the voice, it got his mind off Mitchie. He hated what she had done to him, but he did have to admit that he didn't want her wandering around the camp grounds in the dark.

He shook his head at that thought. Hadn't he just said that putting up "Missing" signs got his mind off Mitchie?

"What's on your mind?" someone asked him suddenly.

Shane whirled around, looking at his uncle. "Nothing," he said.

"It doesn't look like nothing," his uncle said. "I saw you when you arrived at camp. It seems like nothing has changed between you and Mitchie, right?"

"Nothing can change," Shane said. "I don't want to get caught up in her lies again. Besides, you know me. I'll just concentrate on my music and finding that mystery girl again."

"And what if the mystery girl is Mitchie?"

Shane glanced at his uncle. "That's not going to happen."

"You never know that," his uncle responded.

"Yeah, I do," Shane said. He moved away from his uncle, walking over to one of the cabins. His uncle made the moves to follow him, but was abruptly sidetracked as a camper came up to him.

Thank God.

Shane let himself into the cabin—since he was an instructor, he could let himself into cabins and such to put notices up—and walked over to the brown bulletin board. He tacked two pieces of paper to the bulletin board—one was the front side of the paper, the other was the back. That way, they wouldn't have to remove the piece of paper everytime they wanted to see the back.

He smiled at his work and walked back out of the cabin.

He was beginning to think that his fellow group members were right. These notices would work—he was going to find his mystery girl this year, even if it was the only thing he did this summer.

-

Mitchie and Caitlyn slowly made their way back to their cabin. Caitlyn was trying to cheer her up with stories of her life away from Camp Rock, and Mitchie was laughing, but she still couldn't forget what had happened with her and Shane. She wanted to, but it seemed like he was permanently stuck to her brain and nothing would pry him loose.

"Mitchie... are you even listening?" Caitlyn said.

"I'm trying," Mitchie said, shaking her thoughts free of Shane. "What did you say about your mother again?"

Caitlyn rolled her eyes at Mitchie, but retold her story from the beginning. Finally Mitchie seemed to let go—she found herself laughing at Caitlyn's retelling of her first days at Camp Rock a few years ago. In fact, by the time she returned to their cabin, thoughts of Shane Gray had all but disappeared from her brain, with only a bit of hurt and regret in her heart as they opened the door of their cabin.

"We're sharing this cabin with Lola," Caitlyn said. "You know her from last year."

Mitchie nodded and was about to say something. However, she was cut off by Lola's sudden shriek over by the bulletin board.

"Caitlyn, did you see this?" Lola cried as she turned around. "Mitchie, look over here!"

Mitchie and Caitlyn exchanged a look, but went over to the bulletin board. Tacked to it were the typical rules and lunch menus, but in the middle of the bulletin board, there were two new pieces of paper.

"Shane Gray is still looking for his mystery girl!" Lola explained. "And he wants to find her so much that he even gave us the lyrics to the song he heard her singing."

Mitchie's eyes fell immediately to the second piece of paper, reading the lyrics.

This is real
This is me
I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be now
Gonna let the light shine on me
Now I've found who I am
There's no way to hold it in
No more hiding who I wanna be
This is me...

Mitchie stopped reading.

Shane's words echoed in her head.

"I don't want to talk to you and, starting now, I don't expect to."

"Oh no," Mitchie groaned, and sat down roughly on the nearest bed.

-

Author's Note: So... there you have it. Mitchie now knows she's the girl Shane's looking for, but knows she can't talk to him. Shane's completely rejecting the idea that Mitchie could be the mystery girl. Here comes the drama... (grins)

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