Author's Note: You. Guys. Are. Amazing. No joke. I cannot buh-lieve the response I got for the last chapter—105 reviews? That is the most reviews I've ever got for a fanfic ever, so the biggest thank you in the world goes to apathetic. sinister., NorthernLights25, estrrrsunny, JaBoyYa, wormhannah, bibi (anon.), RokerChic5, xCampRockHSMluva4evax, ScribblingKunoichi, xophantomoftheoperaloverxo, Lela (anon.), You Are My Brand of Heroin, foolwiz (anon.), Vanecia, Reaper Scythe, dancerPat, IAMSOAP, SecretSoltice, seekingxsolace, Baybee.Kayked.Fever, have-a-cookie, Cripps13, Mina (anon.), jonasxsister, xoAlmostFamous, blonde-gal, QueenSusanLovesKingCaspian18, Konnichiwa Minna, Noorah, IaMoBsEsSeDwItHnArNiA, PutYourSmileOn, Jonaswifey11, RushOfYou, Blair (anon.), Bookworm622, Anglefacedcutie, Toshiba19, XxhAPPYjONASfANxX, GreysAnatomy-TamoraPierce-Fan, Aria (anon.), musiclvr21, Shizuki Tsukishima749, prettygal6, Florchuchizz, ErikaEverest, Butterflygrl08, epobbp, hollywoodgal205, Bella6393, charmedNluckyP3, not so random, musicbrat-0901, Vrai Amour, elevategirl, lazydigitalbooklet., XO Miz Blond OX, MissDestinyHope, SaphirePhoenix, jensfer, 711slurpeerocks, Kurukus, x miss magic x, zanessanileyLOVE, PlzBeMineAt705, yourdarkdesire, puppypower317, Runaway Rockstar, JustASmile, Live Like Music., CowGirlsKickAss (anon.), nrisley19892007, Laylora, jesscaa, creative-writing-girl13, readergirl85, SHAWTii328, brucas224, milkteaxoxo, katie (anon.), lovely valbrun (anon.), fangirl12, House.Cam-xx, Troyella4everinluv, BlackBeauty613, supergurl03, Maiqu, MitsukixTakuto 4 ever, Paupu, zannessa-all-the-way, afta4ever, PaoHalliwell, ShikallllTema, shayoom, KungFuDuckie-x3, Nicole Kathrine, Princess.KaylZ-808, Melancholy Smilez, Dancer4life15, butterflygoodbye, monko25, LosingTrack, pyrolyn-776, notsoperfectbutdealwithit, xxZacBabyVxx and Remedyzero. Without all of your support, this story would definitely not be as good as it is, so I appreciate each and every review I get, even if it's an "update soon" (even though I like more than that, of course)!
Before I leave you to read this chapter, there's something I need to clear up—the song in Chapter Seven is not mine. Someone asked me who wrote it, and it's Demi Lovato's song Stronger, as I said in the author's note, and the song in this chapter is Open by Demi Lovato as well. Just to clarify that issue, but anyway.
Hope you love this chapter, considering how much all of you have been waiting for it!
Second Chances
by PiperPaigePhoebe01
Chapter Nine
The lyrics of the song caused a lump to rise in his throat.
The only noises in my head
Are consumed of your voice
From all the pain and hatred
How long can you kick somebody down
Before a foot breaks?
Of course. It's Mitchie... and she's singing about our fight.
Shane thought it most likely wasn't the fight they just had—there was no way she could think of lyrics to a song that quickly—but it would fit if she had written it right after their first fight of the summer, when she had gotten so upset with him. That would give her time to have written all the words, and think of a melody, and write the chorus...
And why can't I get through the night
Without another fight
I'm tired of the hurting
Is it really worth it?
Am I all alone again 'cause
I am kinda feeling like I'm screaming
With my mouth shut when it's really open
Shane rested his head against the tree trunk he was hiding behind. It was obvious that she had written that song directly after that first fight. Now, Mitchie wasn't crying every time Shane was rude to her. She actually fought back and now he was trying to get her to forgive him, just a few minutes after she had first snapped. What was he thinking?
I'm thinking this can't go on for much longer.
Wait. No, actually, I'm thinking that this won't go on for any longer.
Shane shook himself slightly, concentrating on that voice. As Mitchie sang the next verse (And I knew you would fabricate this situation just for the sake of your need for attention, and I'm sick of always being the one to always break down, always melt down in the end...) something in her tone nearly jogged his memory, almost as if he should remember something but didn't.
But... all I know is that her voice is captivating.
Shane smiled softly, even though he didn't why. Mitchie's voice was so familiar, but why couldn't he figure out why?
Mitchie's voice grew a bit softer, and with it, the sense of familiarity grew stronger, and yet... still he couldn't place it. He knew that there was something he should remember, but he couldn't.
Shane beat his head against the tree trunk once, then walked out from behind the tree. If he listened to that music without seeing Mitchie, he was going to lose his nerve, and Shane Gray never lost his nerve. He crept closer to Mitchie until she was in sight—she was standing, her back to him, so that she couldn't see him, but she was still singing, her voice echoing through the trees.
Times have changed in just a few months...
Mitchie finished the song, a heavy sigh escaping her lips.
"That was amazing," Shane said in a low voice, walking a bit closer.
Mitchie whirled around, staring at Shane. A panicked and yet angry look came into her eyes. "Are you seriously giving me a compliment?"
Okay... this is going to be harder than I thought it would be...
"Yeah."
Mitchie's angry look softened slightly, to be replaced a moment later by confusion. "Why?" she asked. She didn't even allow Shane to answer before continuing. "Why are you even here? Did Caitlyn put you up to this?"
"Of course not," Shane said. "I just think it's time for me to apologize."
Mitchie laughed, in a cold, hard way that expressed absolutely no amusement. "Am I hearing things correctly? Does the great Shane Gray actually want to apologize to me?"
"I think I've been a jerk long enough," Shane said in a slightly snippy voice—Mitchie was making it much harder than it had to be. "I should have gotten over what you did a long time ago, and I've been a bit of an idiot lately, so..." Shane paused here, trying to get the words out. "I'm sorry."
Mitche didn't answer.
Shane waited as patiently as possible—she probably couldn't fathom the idea of Shane apologizing to her, instead of it constantly being the other way around.
Even though I wish she would just respond.
And, luckily for him, just as he thought that, Mitchie opened her mouth.
"A bit of an idiot?" she asked.
"Okay, a lot of an idiot," Shane quickly remedied.
Mitchie looked at Shane. "I don't understand why you're doing this, Shane," she said. "You pretty much said you hated me. You said that you never wanted to talk to me again and that you would never forget what I did. You've been rude to me ever since we arrived. So why did you choose now to actually change? It's not as if you were even considering this yesterday."
"Things changed," Shane said, getting a bit angry himself.
"Things can't change that quickly, Shane!" Mitchie snapped. "Thirty minutes ago, you were perfectly willing to ignore me, so excuse me if I can't believe things have changed that quickly."
"I am sick of ignoring you!" Shane said, raising his voice before he could help himself. "Isn't that obvious? It's been hell for the past week and a half, and you know why? Because we're bottling up our feelings and I'll explode if we didn't talk about them!"
Mitchie laughed. "You're getting sick of things?" she asked. "Well, I'm sick of our constant silence, our constant "peace," and I'm sick of you yelling at me every time I do something you don't like!"
"I haven't yelled at you in a week and a half!"
"And that's some sort of record with you, isn't it?"
"Mitchie, I'm trying to do the right thing here!" Shane yelled. "I don't want all of this to keep going on for the rest of the month! I want this to be over with!"
Mitchie shook her head. "I don't believe you're actually willing to forgive me," she said. "Caitlyn or Lola or Brown or someone else put you up to this, I know they did. There's no way you could possibly say 'I'm sorry' and mean it."
She turned on her heel and made to walk out of the forest. Shane called for her to come back, but she didn't answer. Rolling his eyes at her stubbornness (and wondering if this was what Mitchie felt like whenever he stormed out on her), he caught up to her easily, catching her by the wrist. She whirled around, about to scream, but Shane clapped his free hand over her mouth.
"Don't leave," he said. "You've been waiting for this moment for a while, so why not jump at it?"
Mitchie tried to say something, but was blocked by Shane's hand over her mouth. Reluctantly, he removed it, hoping that Mitchie wouldn't try to scream again. Luckily for him, she didn't.
"This isn't real," she said.
Shane looked at her. "Let me be the judge of that?"
"Fine," Mitchie said in an exhale. "I don't feel like getting in another fight. What do you want with me anyway?"
Shane took a deep breath.
"I want you to tell me what happened last summer. From your point of view."
Mitchie's mouth fell open. "I can't believe this," she said, sounding amused and annoyed at the same time. "I cannot believe you actually want to hear my story. What changed?"
"Doesn't matter," Shane said.
Mitchie sighed. It took a bit more cajoling, but Mitchie finally agreed to tell him her side of the story. And so Shane and Mitchie sat down on one of the benches, uncomfortably close. Mitchie took a deep breath, visibly collected herself, and began telling him what she had thought of last summer, from the beginning, when she had arrived, to the end, when Uncle Brown had banned her from participating in Final Jam.
Shane's first reaction to her story was "I had no idea," followed by "Why didn't I ask her to tell her story sooner?" and "I shouldn't have treated her the way I did. I didn't understand any of it."
He had guessed a little of it, but... he hadn't really understood how much that summer had really affected her, how much it had been a turning point in her life. He knew that Mitchie had lied to fit in, but he never understood how much she hated herself for lying—for some reason, he had refused to think about Mitchie regretting the lie, instead thinking of it as her simply lying to manipulate people, not because she had actually gotten... well, intimidated. Mitchie had tried to tell him that all the way at the beginning of camp, and yet...
I refused to listen.
He was beginning to slowly think he was an idiot. He had taken the word of Tess Tyler, the resident diva and the one girl that was obviously jealous of Mitchie's talent, over Mitchie herself. Tess was known for manipulating people she felt were competition—Peggy's breaking out of Tess's clique proved that—but Mitchie seemed content to just have friends who liked her.
She just lied to fit in. She kept trying to tell me that, but I wouldn't listen because I was so stubborn.
Why was I so stubborn?
Shane knew the answer to that question before he asked it. Shane was notoriously known for his tendency to ignore anything and everything that contradicted what he thought—he would only admit he was wrong if something like this happened, when he forced himself to hear something he didn't like if the consequences of him not doing it were too great.
He sighed.
But I never expected for Mitchie's story to run something like this...
"Shane?" Mitchie asked, noticing the sigh. She broke off her story, right in the middle of explaining how she felt after all that drama of last year, glancing at him. "What are you thinking?"
"I just wish I heard all this before," Shane said simply.
Mitchie looked down. "I told you that you should give me a chance to go over my story," she said. "I even told you that you didn't have to agree with it or even like it."
"I know," Shane said. Mitchie's story still rang in his ears, statement after statement flooding his mind. He found his perspective on the entire situation with Mitchie's lie changing, even before he knew it. He found himself realizing that, after all of his objections and refusals, Mitchie was not the bad guy in this situation and, if anything, he was the one who was being unreasonable and idiotic.
"It really did affect me, you know," Mitchie said. "It's not like I said all that stuff to try to get on your good side and then hurt you. That's not me."
"I think I know that now," Shane said, wondering how he had ever been angry at Mitchie for lying to him—he now understood it as best as he could, and he wasn't about to yell at her again. "I never... never really thought of anything of this the way I should have. I should have listened to you before this and realized how much it must have hurt you as well as me."
Mitchie laughed softly. "Shane, you're the guy people have called stubborn as a mule numerous times over the past year," she said. "And it's not fine, exactly, but it's working out for good, isn't it?"
"Yeah."
Mitchie seemed to have run out of things to say. She was silent for a moment, but then it seemed like she figured out what else she could say.
"And... that song you heard me singing..." Mitchie inhaled and exhaled. "Well, it's called Open, and I wrote bits and pieces of it during these past two weeks. It's really about our fights... as you probably already know."
Shane nodded. "It was a great song," he said, a small smile tilting his lips. "And... you know, your voice reminds me of something. I'm not sure why, but it seems like I've heard your voice somewhere, but I can't quite place it."
"You did hear me a week and a half ago," Mitchie said in a light voice—almost too light.
"I know that," Shane said, slightly amused. "But there's something odd about your voice. Odd in a good way, I mean. It's like I've heard it before and I should remember where, but it's too far away for me to reach."
Mitchie looked seriously nervous at that statement.
"Oh, really?" she said, looking into the forest vacantly. "How—how interesting."
Shane glanced at her, amused. Normally, her vacancy would have annoyed him, but now his new-found, more comfortable peace with Mitchie was much too precious for him to get after her now. And besides, his thoughts were traveling as well, back toward the moment just a few moments ago, when he had come across Mitchie reading his song.
Almost before he realized it, he had taken out the paper with the song lyrics written on it. He smiled at the lyrics—he had written them a month or so ago for Connect Three's performance at Beach Jam, but...
Mitchie's already read it, so it can't hurt to show her how the song is supposed to sound, right?
Shane smiled, standing up. Mitchie looked up at him, surprised, for a moment, but Shane spoke before she could.
"Come on. I have something to show you."
-
Author's Note: So, there we are. Shane and Mitchie are... well, not friends yet, but getting there. And Shane has something to show her... I really can't wait to write the next chapter, because it's where things really come to a "mini-climax." I'm worried about the characterization in this chapter (as always), but I think it's pretty good. Hope you did too (as always, again)!
Oh, and if it's not too much trouble, I recently wrote a response to a particular challenge. The story is called The Power of Music, and it would be really awesome if you checked it out (and maybe did the challenge as well). But enough of the plugging.
Please review this chapter!