Author's Note: Wheee... there's nothing better than waking up in the morning to an inbox crammed with reviews, so a thank you goes to those people who reviewed: blueSKIES247, ErikaEverest, xoxoband-geek-4-lifexox, UndeniablyMe, ScribblingKunoichi, Amberle25, JaBoyYa, Maeke, foolwiz, zanessanileyLOVE, shayoom, XxhAPPYjONASfANxX, jamierocks5195, SecretSoltice, dancerPat, MazzLuvsJB, Shizuku Tsukishima749, jonasxsister, Cripps13, Mina (anon.), have-a-cookie, oddball15, pyrolyn-776, ShikallllTema, Noorah, 711slurpeerocks, PlzBeMineAt705, jesscaa, kokoro192, apathetic. sinister., Bookworm622, xBeautiful, Nikkieee02, midnightwriter1898, katie (anon.), Florchuchizz, charmedNluckyP3, epobbp, deppslittlegirl, xoAlmostFamous, x miss magic x, CowGirlsKickAss, brucas224, iDreamt, KungFuDuckie-x3, prettygal6, BlackBeauty613, Peachie-Trishie, smallncrazy91, blonde-gal, xCampRockHSMluva4evax, afta4ever, Maiqu, IAMSOAP, xoxogirlie, hollywoodgal205, A to the L to the EXIS (anon.), Vrai Amour, Paupu, lazydigitalbooklet., Just-Joy-4evea, musiclvr21, XO Miz Blonde OX, NorthernLights25, not so random, SaphirePhoenix, sugarsugar (anon.), xxZacBabyVxx, valetbizou, creative-writing-girl13, Camp Rockians, monko25, Konnichiwa Minna, QueenSusanLovesKingCaspian18, Nicole Kathrine, Shygirldee (anon.), Remedyzero, wormhannah, Sweet Little All-American Girl, LosingTrack, Butterflygrl08, pr0udpnaii x33, and anglefacedcutie! (hands cookie)
Also, a note on the song in this chapter: Shane sings Take a Breath by the Jonas Brothers, just in case you were wondering. I tried looking up songs to see if another one would fit better, but this is the only one I could think of. Also, Shane singing it is sort of like what happened in the movie, when he sang Gotta Find You—it's slower, but only because he's singing it alone with only a guitar, but anyway.
Hope you enjoy this chapter!
Second Chances
by PiperPaigePhoebe01
Chapter Ten
Mitchie followed Shane out of the forest, her mind full of thoughts.
I can't believe he didn't find out...
When Shane had emerged from the forest after she finished singing, she had thought that he had definitely found out that she was the mystery girl, but apparently not. She wasn't sure how, but her secret was still hidden—maybe she would be able to keep her secret until Final Jam, considering Shane was being unusually dim if he couldn't put two and two together.
So that's a good thing, at least.
At least that's not the most surprising thing of this whole day...
No, that part went to Shane's apology. If there was one thing she thought would never happen, it was Shane apologizing to her and hearing her story. It had been a year since he had even wanted to really talk to her, so why would he suddenly change and apologize to her? It just didn't make much sense, but... Mitchie had told him her story, he had forgiven her, and now he was going to show her something.
Even if she didn't know what that something was.
"Shane, where are we going?" she asked, following directly on his heels.
"You'll see," Shane said.
Mitchie rolled her eyes—she liked being friendly with Shane, but she didn't like his mischievous nature—but followed Shane. They emerged from the forest in a few minutes, heading straight for their cabin. A few people were still out, but not many. Mitchie thought that was a good thing, considering the outrage and surprise that would sweep through the camp tomorrow if Shane and Mitchie were actually friendly with each other. It was better to have just a few people gawk, Mitchie told herself, instead of everyone in the camp.
Of course, gawking still made her uncomfortable.
"Can't they just stop that?" Mitchie asked.
"I don't think so," Shane said, leading Mitchie through the maze of cabins.
Mitchie didn't answer. Luckily, as they got closer to their cabin, they came across practically no people. The only person they actually saw was Brown, who shot one look in their direction, waved cheerily and walked into his cabin, a broad grin on his face.
What was that about? Mitchie wondered, but didn't think on it as she followed Shane into their cabin.
"Mitchie!" Caitlyn exclaimed as soon as she saw her. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah," Mitchie said.
And she wasn't given a chance to say anything else as Shane walked up the staircase, leaving Mitchie to follow him. She quickly said a "Not right now" at Caitlyn's odd look, hurrying up the stairs after him. They emerged on their floor in a few seconds, Shane immediately going over to his bed to pick up his guitar.
"What are you doing?" Mitchie asked, surprised.
"You'll see," Shane said. "Sit down."
Mitchie moved to sit down on her bed.
"No, that's too far away," Shane said. "You might as well sit here."
He patted the spot on the bed right next to him. Feeling surprised, and wondering what Shane was about to do, she hesitantly sat down on the edge of his bed, looking at him.
"I wrote a song," Shane said. "As you know already."
"It was really great," Mitchie added.
"Well, that's what you said about the lyrics," Shane said, "and I decided that you couldn't really get the full feel of the song unless you hear it. It's for Beach Jam, when Connect Three performs, so it's not exactly the way it's supposed to be, but it's close enough. Do you want to hear it?"
Mitchie blinked.
"Yes, but—"
"Why am I doing this?" Shane offered.
Mitchie nodded. "I don't understand why you would."
"Me either," Shane said. "But I will, if you want me to."
Mitchie voiced her agreement and smiled softly at him. There was silence for a moment as Shane got his guitar and sat back down on the bed, but then he began playing, his voice capturing the words of the song Mitchie had read earlier.
I walked across a crowded street
A sea of eyes cut through me
And I saw you in the middle
Your upset face
You wear it well
Camouflage the way you feel
When everything's the matter
Mitchie found herself concentrating on Shane's eyes, the way they filled with passion as he sang. The words meant something to him, Mitchie saw, and he got into them, which meant Mitchie found herself attached to them as well.
We've all been down that road before
Searching for that something more
Worlds are spinning round
There's no time for slowing down
So won't you take a breath, just take a breath
People change and promises are broken
Clouds can move and skies will be wide open
So don't forget to take a breath...
Shane's eyes met hers. Mitchie blushed and looked down, so much like the last time Shane had ever sang for her and her alone.
We blink our eyes, life's rearranged
To our surprise it's still okay
It's the way things happen
Summer comes and then it goes
Hold on tight and brace for cold
It's only for a moment
Mitchie smiled. To her, everything about the song was perfect and, as he sang the chorus once more, she looked up, watching him as he sang. Regardless of the many problems they still had to work through, and ignoring anything else that might be going on, Shane let Mitchie see him when he sang, and Mitchie liked that.
He really does feel all this.
Life isn't suffocating
Air isn't overrated
Shane sang the chorus a few more times after this, his eyes capturing hers. The song slowly wound to a close, Shane's voice trailing away, his fingers slowing on the guitar.
"Wow," Mitchie whispered as he finished. "That was great."
Shane smiled. "I don't even know where it came from," he said. "A few weeks ago, I was just sitting down, bored out of my mind, and the first verse came to me. And as soon as I wrote it down, the rest appeared."
"I can't wait to hear it at Beach Jam," Mitchie said.
"Yeah," Shane said. "It should be fun."
Shane placed his guitar on the unoccupied side of the bed, looking at Mitchie. There was a split seconds' worth of silence, and then Mitchie spoke up again, her voice surprisingly low.
"Thanks," she said.
Shane looked surprised. "What did I do?"
"You forgave me," Mitchie said.
Surprise was replaced with confusion. "It's not as if you needed forgiving," Shane said. "I was the one being the jerk."
"Agreed," Mitchie said, laughing at the playfully offended look on his face. "But I did lie, and I shouldn't have done that. And it's not as if I was any better than you when we had the last few fights."
"That's a good point," Shane said.
"And thanks for showing me your song," Mitchie said. "I don't blame you for being upset with me looking at your song. I'd be upset if someone looked at my songs"—and that was an understatament if Mitchie ever heard one—"or my journal, so I'm glad you showed me your song."
Shane glanced at her at this.
"About that," he said, his eyes flashing to her bed.
Mitchie followed his gaze to the head of her bed, down a bit, toward her pillows. She scanned her eyes over the bottom of her pillows—and saw it.
The tip of her yellow journal was peeking out from the corner of her bed. With a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, she turned to Shane, who was wearing a thoroughly guilty expression on his face.
"You didn't," she said, staring at him.
"It was right there!" Shane defended. "I was just curious!"
Mitchie couldn't believe him.
"You read my journal?" she asked incredulously. "And got angry with me for reading a song?"
"Reading a song is the same as reading a journal—it's just in a different form," Shane pointed out. "And it was in plain sight. I just saw it and picked it up."
Well, that's true. At least he didn't read my songbook, but it's not as if he could ever find that unless I showed it to him.
And I won't show that to him anytime soon.
"I suppose," Mitchie said. "But that was rude. What did you read anyway?"
"Just the last entry," Shane replied. "When you called me obnoxious."
Mitchie glanced at him. "Just that?"
"Yeah."
"Good. In that case, all you need is a smack."
Mitchie hit Shane on the shoulder as hard as she could.
Shane laughed. "That's all I get?" he asked. "A lousy hit to the shoulder? I thought girls are extremely possessive about their journals and stuff like that. I felt sure you would skin me alive or something."
Mitchie had to think about that one for a while—after all, she couldn't very well tell him that her journal wasn't that important and that her songbook was much more important, right?—but she finally said: "Oh. Well, it's not like I use it that often, like you probably know from the entry. I don't say much of my important stuff in there. I just felt like ranting there."
"Good," Shane said. "Then I'll survive."
Mitchie let out a laugh. "For now."
Shane grinned at her. Mitchie was suddenly struck by the comfortable atmosphere she and Shane now shared. When they normally talked, it was just a few words, maybe two sentences, and they were awkward and stilted, but now things flowed a bit easier. Things were no longer as awkward and weird as they had always seemed, and Shane didn't seem two steps away from yelling at her anymore.
"This is so weird," Mitchie couldn't help saying.
"How?"
"I just can't believe we're actually talking," Mitchie said. "It's so bizarre."
"Yeah, it is," Shane agreed.
"And that's even weirder," Mitchie pointed out. "You're agreeing with me? I never thought that was possible."
"Well, you thought wrong," Shane said.
"Does this mean we're actually friends now?" Mitchie asked, the words sounding odd in her head. Shane and Mitchie, friends? Considering the events of the past year or so, she never thought she'd actually see "Shane and Mitchie" and "friends" in the same sentence, unless "are not" was between them, but now...
I think we actually are.
What an odd thought.
"I think so," Shane responded.
Mitchie smiled at Shane.
Maybe the rest of our stay in this cabin won't be as bad as I think it will be.
-
Finally, after what seemed to be ages, there was peace in the cabin, and not just the stilted peace Shane had tried to instill, but actual peace, when Shane and Mitchie actually talked to each other and enjoyed it, not reluctantly talking to each other. Even Caitlyn and Lola seemed to be warming up to him—apparently all they needed was proof that Mitchie and Shane were actually living together and not biting the other's head off. Of course, Caitlyn was still a bit cold, but she was gradually becoming a bit more comfortable with him, which was a blessing.
Our peace is even starting to get noticed by Uncle Brown.
A few days after Shane and Mitchie had first called themselves friends, his uncle had kept him after one of Shane's vocal classes (his uncle had forced him to go to classes, even though he couldn't teach them).
"Shane," he had said. "I hear you're being friendlier with Mitchie."
"That's true," Shane responded.
"Good," his uncle said, a smile on his face. "I was wondering when you'd get your head screwed on right again."
Shane had rolled his eyes at that comment when he first heard it, but looking back on it, he realized his uncle was right. Even though it had been slightly painful for him to actually admit he had been wrong, the results were much better than they would have been otherwise. If he hadn't confronted Mitchie about all their issues, he would definitely have stormed off by now, but now that he had, he could concentrate on more important things.
Like finding the mystery girl.
Shane hated to say it, but he was beginning to lose hope. When Nate and Jason had come down four days ago for Beach Jam, they had asked if he had found the mystery girl, and he was forced to say no. For two and a half weeks, his mystery girl had failed to show up—either she just hadn't came to camp this year (like he had been saying happened all year long) or she was incredibly good at keeping herself hidden.
Or I'm incredibly good at not seeing what's in front of my eyes.
Either way, she wasn't showing her face.
And the really infuriating part was that his uncle seemed to know something, but he refused to tell him anything about it. Whenever Shane brought up the mystery girl, his uncle would get this devious look on his face, and no matter how many times Shane tried to get whatever he knew out of him, he was as silent as he could be on the issue, only saying: "She's right in front of you, Shane. Just use your eyes."
Obviously, that didn't help in the slightest.
I just want to find her. Is that really too much to ask?
Apparently it was.
It seemed like everyone else other than him knew who she was. Whenever he asked Caitlyn or Lola, they got a sly look in the eyes and walked off, not even answering his questions, and whenever he asked Mitchie, she grew shy, as if she knew who it was and was absolutely refusing to tell. To be honest, he was soon getting sick of it. It wouldn't hurt to tell him who his mystery girl was, so why did they keep it from him?
Maybe they want me to figure it out myself?
That was the only thing he could think of to explain why nobody would tell him who his mystery girl was. He supposed that was fair, but he hated it—he just wanted a name or a description! That's all, and then he would stop bothering them.
But no, that was too much to ask.
He sighed. He felt like he was being a petulant child, but he didn't care. He had a week and a half left to find his mystery girl. That was it, and if he didn't find her, he would drive himself insane for another year.
He shook his head, making his way through the camp grounds after heading to the mess hall for a late supper. His thoughts had been going in this vein for the past few days, ever since he didn't have to worry about Mitchie anymore. Every day, it seemed, he thought of that mystery girl's song a million times, so that the girl's singing of the song was replaced by his, his own voice singing it softly under his breath whenever he thought no one was watching.
Like now.
"This is real, this is me, I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be now, gonna let the light shine on me," Shane sang softly, trailing off abruptly as someone came down the path ahead of him.
It was his uncle.
Wondering how he seemed to come up everywhere and getting frustrated at his lack of talk about the mystery girl, Shane called after him. Uncle Brown stopped and spotted Shane, a smile growing on his face
"Shane," he said. "Have you found the girl yet?"
"No," Shane said, "and I'm getting frustrated. I know that you know who she is, and I'm just wondering why you won't tell me."
"Because this is something you should figure out on your own," his uncle replied. "Look, Shane. This is something you decided to figure out on your own. I never brought anything up about this mysterious girl with the voice. That was all you, and so it only makes sense that realizing who she is comes down to you. If I told you, it wouldn't mean as much."
Shane sighed. "Uncle Brown, I think I've been searching long enough."
"You're only searching long enough when you've given hope finding her forever," his uncle said. "And you definitely haven't given up on finding her. That's something I do know, and so I'm not going to tell you."
"But—"
"You know me well enough to know I don't tolerate 'but's, Shane," Uncle Brown said. "And now, if you excuse me, I've got to run down to the mess hall. I haven't had anything to eat since lunchtime, and you know how hungry I get."
Uncle Brown raised a hand as Shane opened his mouth to respond. He began walking the way he had been before, leaving Shane to turn around and glare frustratedly at him for a moment. Then he turned back around, heading in the direction his uncle had come from, toward his cabin. There he could maybe get his mind off the mystery girl—maybe talk to Mitchie for a bit.
As he got closer to his cabin, however, he stopped dead in his tracks.
The voice was floating down the dirt path, meeting his ears with what the small romantic part of him interpreted as a caress. His memory of the voice couldn't compare to what he was hearing now—over the past year, the sound of the voice had diminished slightly, so that he could hear it dimly, like a radio station when it's gone all static, but now... now that he was hearing it once more, it was ten times better than it had ever been. It calmed him, it soothed him, it carried him off to the mess hall a year ago, when he had first heard the song and his heart beat and his love for music grew louder and louder until it was a roar, until he couldn't keep it contained any longer—
Shane stumbled dazedly toward the sound of the voice, hardly noticing the voice was coming from his cabin until he walked up the steps, his eyes glued to the glass panel in the wooden door, taking in the sight of the girl long searched for, long awaited, and now finally seen.
And his heart stopped as the mystery girl was revealed.
Suddenly gaps in his mind were filled in. Things made sense, more sense than they had before—Mitchie's nervousness when he had brought up the familiarity of her voice, the reason his uncle had smiled so widely after he had Mitchie sing, why she had been so shy when he asked her about the mystery girl, why Caitlyn and Lola were so sly whenever he asked them who the mystery girl was... they all fit in, they all fit in perfectly.
Clarity burst into his mind, overwhelming joy following a moment later.
He suddenly understood.
Mitchie was his mystery girl, the girl he was looking for.
-
Author's Note: The end of this chapter is why I love writing, it really is. As I wrote that last part... oh, wow. What a rush. It just... filled me so much... I love that part. It's my favorite part in the entire story so far... and I hope you liked it too, even though it's slightly evil... I just... you can't understand how much writing the end of that chapter thrilled me unless you've been in my position.
But anyway. Please, please review and tell me what you think?