Author's Note: Wow, I'm absolutely surprised at the response I got for the last chapter, considering I thought for sure that it was terrible. So, a huge thank you goes to my reviewers—gleamingeyes, JoBro-JelsiLuver, HCSBForever, RushOfYou, LaLaLand.xoxo., pyrolyn-776, Rakuzen, JaBoyYa, foolwiz, Jonaswifey11, RokerChic5, xoAlmostFamous, Florchuchizz, StargazingHighschooler, XO Miz Blonde OX, Blair (anon.), zanessanileyLOVE, Angie-ange, Vrai Amour, My Personal Angel (anon.), creative-writing-girl13, Camp Rockians, shayoom, jamierocks5195, Reaper Scythe, choirsinger, cHaRiSmA DoLl ArIeLlE, The Sushi Monster, monko25, animeaddict2323232, ShikallllTema, not so random, x miss magic x, zannesa-all-the-way, SHAWTii328, PlzBeMineAt705, Gracefulfalling, oddball15, BoredHpfan, xBeautiful, nrisley19892007, Konnichiwa Minna, NorthernLights25, Live Like Music., dancerPat, katie (anon.), Remedyzero, Camp Rock's Good Girl, have-a-cookie, ilovehim x3, charmedNluckyP3, Yuki's Little Girl, PRchic559, QueenSusanLovesKingCaspian18, Grl4Peace, hollywoodgal205, blonde-gal, -TheBeeVee-THEEAmazing, kokoro192, Excuse me Mr. Mister, jesscaa, SaphirePhoenix, brucas224, Peachie-Trishie, Toshiba19, sernity1806, crazyforpurple, CowGirlsKickAss, LosingTrack, musiclvr21, XxhAPPYjONASfANxX, Maiqu, xxJemixxZanessaxx, iDreamt, epobbp, Sweet Little All-American Girl, Nicole Kathrine, KungFuDuckie-x3, Runaway Rockstar and KellylovesNickJonas! I keep saying it, but you guys are truly amazing. You make this story as good as it is, believe me. And I'm glad that I only got one death threat for not being able to update yesterday, so that makes you all greater. (grins cheekily)
This chapter takes place from Mitchie's POV, and I'm backtracking a bit—there's a few things I have to go over that happened while Shane was singing in the previous chapter. But I just wanted to clear that up, in case there are a few confusing questions as to why I started the chapter where I did.
So, hope you enjoy this chapter!
Second Chances
by PiperPaigePhoebe01
Chapter Twelve
Mitchie watched Shane head up the stairs, her emotions in a whirlwind. Part of her was overjoyed that he hadn't been angry at her for being the girl with the voice, only angry at her not telling him sooner, but she was also a bit hurt at his opposition to the possibility of her being the girl, and excited that he actually knew and she didn't have to keep it from him anymore—
I never thought I could feel all these emotions at the same time before.
She shook her head. She still couldn't believe he had found out, even though she should. After all, Caitlyn had insisted on practicing ("Come on, Mitchie. We have to practice. We only have a week and a half left!"), even though Lola wasn't there to keep watch, so it just made sense that the only time they were a bit lax in their conditions Shane would find out. It was just typical.
"Mitchie," Caitlyn said suddenly. "Did you see the way he looked at you?"
"What do you mean?" Mitchie asked, glancing at Caitlyn.
"You didn't see?" Caitlyn replied, looking surprised. "Mitchie, he was staring at you as if you were the most wonderful thing in the world! He couldn't stop either. He glanced at me for a moment, then bam, it was back to staring at you. It was slightly scary after a while."
Thinking back on the conversation she had just had with Shane, she did have to admit Shane had been staring at her a lot during that time, but not as if he thought she was the most wonderful thing in the world. No, Mitchie had thought of it as a look full of shock, awe, and anger, but not in a terribly awestruck way. He was only in awe because he never expected her to be the mystery girl.
That's all.
Caitlyn is just over-reacting.
Mitchie told Caitlyn this but, to her surprise, Caitlyn just laughed.
"You are so not good at figuring out when a guy is awestruck at you, Mitch," Caitlyn said. "And don't give me those looks."
"What looks?"
"The looks that say 'Don't call me that' and 'Don't make me think Shane can possibly be in awe about me,'" Caitlyn responded. "They don't go together and at least one is a complete waste of time. Although..." Caitlyn pretended to think. "Actually, both of them are a waste of time, because I'm not about to stop calling you Mitch, no matter how much it annoys you, and I know the difference between a guy being awestruck at you and being awestruck at what you've done."
Mitchie rolled her eyes. "Come on, Caitlyn," she said. "He just stared at me. He was surprised, that's all."
"Are you sure about that?"
"Of course," Mitchie said. "After all, wouldn't you be surprised if you found out the girl you've been looking for was the one you'd hated for nearly a year?"
"Well, first of all, it probably wouldn't be a girl I was looking for, considering I don't swing that way—" Caitlyn laughed slightly at the annoyed look on Mitchie's face—"and I might be surprised, but I would not look at them the way Shane was looking at you. But maybe guys are different than I thought and he's just surprised that you're it."
Mitchie knew that she was only saying that to make her feel better, not because Caitlyn actually believed it, but it soothed Mitchie all the same. She smiled at Caitlyn, who stuck out her tongue in response, lying down on Lola's empty bed. She stared up at the ceiling for a moment, thinking of what had just happened, but was cut off as Caitlyn asked a question.
"What are we going to do?"
Mitchie sat up. "What do you mean?"
"Well, we can't really put our plan in action now, can we?" Caitlyn pointed out. "Shane knows you're the girl he's looking for now. That means that we can't reveal yourself to him then, because... well, he'll already know. So what are we going to do now? I mean, it won't have the same impact we wanted to have, since everyone will know you're the mystery girl by lunch tomorrow."
"I guess," Mitchie said. "But is that a bad thing? I mean, we can still sing."
"Yeah, but it won't have the same effect," Caitlyn said. "And the best part was the shock factor."
"At least we'll still be able to sing," Mitchie said, "unlike last year."
At the mention of last year, Caitlyn's lips tightened—she still hadn't forgiven Tess Tyler for banning them from Final Jam last year, even though she hadn't caused any amount of trouble this year.
"That's a plus," Caitlyn muttered.
"And it's more my vocal than the actual shock," Mitchie said. "Or that's what I thought we were going for."
"True," Caitlyn responded. "But anyway. We can go over this later. For now, I think you should try to talk to Shane. I think we've given him enough time to think, and you guys need to talk. Alone."
Mitchie opened her mouth to protest.
"No," Caitlyn said. "Go."
Mitche sighed. "Can't it wait?"
Caitlyn simply shook her head and looked down at her laptop. Mitchie sighed but got up from Lola's bed, heading up the stairs to the second floor. There was silence from the room she shared with Shane and as she appeared at the doorway, she saw why: Shane was hunched over a piece of paper, scribbling something down quickly.
What is he doing?
Mitchie wanted to say something, but kept herself contained, instead choosing to simply watch him as he wrote, an odd expression forming on her face before she could stop it. She had never seen Shane this into what he was doing—she had seen him passionate, of course, since he was always passionate when he sang, but concentrating this hard?
She found it hard to believe Shane was even capable of it.
Although I should have guessed. How else could he think of all those songs?
He has to concentrate sometimes.
Of course, that didn't wipe the odd expression off her face as a few minutes passed and Shane was still concentrating on the piece of paper. With a growing amount of interest, she watched Shane continue to write in a sort of trance, only shaking herself out of it as Shane looked up to get another piece of paper—and saw her. His expression changed visibly, from a closed look of intense concentration to an incredibly excited one in a second.
"I was just thinking about you, Mitchie!" he said excitedly.
Mitchie felt a bit nervous. "Oh? Why?"
A smile stretched across Shane's face, lighting it up.
"Because I have an idea," he said.
"What sort of idea?" Mitchie asked, walking into the room and sitting down on her bed.
"You know the song I wrote for my mystery girl, right?" Shane asked. As soon as Mitchie nodded, Shane continued. "Well, I was playing around with it a few minutes ago, and I suddenly realized that it fits in with your song amazingly. I never noticed it before, but when I switched out my lyrics for yours, it went together perfectly. I'm surprised I didn't think of it before."
Mitchie thought back to that time out by the lake, when Shane had sang the song. Now that he mentioned it, his song's melody had seemed similar to something she had heard before, but she hadn't been able to put her finger on it. Of course, now that Shane brought it up, it all made sense: of course Shane's song would have similarities to hers.
After all, he wrote it as a response to mine so it makes sense that they might go together.
And it's so weird to call that song mine. Even though, you know, it is.
"Show me?" Mitchie asked.
I want to hear this for myself.
"Of course," Shane said, a small smile on his face. He reached for the guitar beside him, getting ready to play. "This won't be as good as it can, because it's just a guitar, but you'll get the basic idea."
Mitchie nodded, and Shane began to play the music to his song. He didn't start singing until the chorus, which he first sang with Gotta Find You. Even though she would never admit it, his voice singing those words—and more than that, singing those words to her—never failed to give her goosebumps. As he sang those words, she smiled, but the chorus was all too soon over, and he trailed off.
"And here's the lyrics to This Is Me sung to Gotta Find You's music," Shane said.
He began playing the music for the chorus once more, this time substiting the words to his song for the words to Mitchie's. To her surprise, they fit in incredibly well. All they would have to do to meld the two together would be settling on a midway point, where one song's "meat," you could say, ended and the other song's "meat" started, which would be easy if you have someone used to doing that...
Someone like Caitlyn.
As soon as Shane finished singing, Mitchie smiled a bit wider.
"I think I know your idea," she said.
"And?"
At that one word, Mitchie's smile grew so big she felt her face would split in two.
"Let's do it."
-
Brown headed into the mess hall the next morning, his eyes traveling over the groups of people sitting at the tables, alternatively eating, talking or, in some cases, both. It seemed everyone who was talking was talking in hushed tones, pointing over their bacon or under a person's arm at the group of people sitting in the back of the mess hall, talking and laughing together.
His eyes traveled over to the group, a smile tilting his lips as he saw who it was.
Shane was sitting with Mitchie, Caitlyn, Lola, and some other males that Brown couldn't quite remember the names of, looking quite animated for eight-thirty on a Thursday morning. Ever since a week ago, it seemed Shane and Mitchie had miraculously made up—they never shot glares across the room at each other when they had the same class together and the atmosphere whenever you saw them together was somehow calmer, as if they had just gotten over all the issues and were now the best of friends, as if it was just a childish fight they soon realized was a waste of time.
Which it was, but Shane and Mitchie are not going to admit that.
Even if they did make up.
Also, it seemed like most of the "Missing" signs for the girl with the voice had miraculously disappeared. There had been at least fifty of them just on his way to the mess hall last night, but now it seemed like most of them had disappeared, which meant only one thing.
Something happened last night after I stopped talking to him, and I bet I know exactly what that something is.
Brown quickly weaved his way through the maze of tables—he couldn't pass by a chance to tease his dear old nephew once an opportunity presented itself, could he?
Of course not.
He easily made it to their table. It put a smile on his face to know that his nephew was finally happy and not the moody boy that had come to camp this summer. It seemed like Mitchie had made a good impact on Shane, which was an invaluable skill to have.
"Hey, gang," Brown said, heading over to them.
"Brown!" a few people at the table chorused as one, causing Mitchie, Shane and Caitlyn, who were facing away from him, to turn, a smile on each of their faces... even Shane's.
"How are you?" Brown asked, smiling. "Having fun?"
"Much," Lola said.
"Yeah, Mitchie and Shane are finally getting along," Caitlyn said, looking utterly relieved at that. "And Shane's finally found his mystery girl."
"Did you really?" Brown said, feigning surprise. "It's about time!"
Shane rolled his eyes. "I would have figured it out sooner if you had given me another hint," Shane pointed out sulkily, but Brown could tell he wasn't entirely serious.
"If we gave another hint, we'd have given it away," Mitchie pointed out amusedly.
"I have to agree," Brown responded. "We did everything sort of pasting 'This is the girl with the voice Shane Gray has been looking for' on Mitchie's forehead."
Shane looked slightly offended at this and was about to say something, but was cut off as Mitchie turned to Brown, brown eyes filling with surprise.
"You knew I was the girl?" she asked. "How?"
Brown grinned. "Let's just say I have a sixth sense," he responded and turned without a word, heading to the table laden with food nearest to the group of teens, feeling amused.
I love it when this happens.
He picked up a plate and walked around to the side farthest away from Shane's group, keeping one eye on them as he filled his plate. He was glad to see Shane finally happy with the cabinmates he had been assigned to and, more than that, he was exceedingly glad that he had finally found his mystery girl, even though he should have figured it out a long time ago.
All the drama of the year seemed to be over, thankfully.
Or most of the drama.
There's still a week and a half left, so who knows how much drama can occur in that amount of time?
Brown grinned, scooping a few large spoonfuls of eggs onto his plate, next to his bacon. Mitchie was still looking surprised, Brown noted, but he couldn't blame her for that, considering she probably thought no one but her, Caitlyn and Lola knew. However, he wasn't really concentrating on Mitchie—no, his eye was on Shane, who seemed to be glancing at Mitchie every few minutes, as though he thought she would jump up and run out or do something equally unexpected.
Or maybe he's looking at her like she is unexpected.
Now that was an interesting thought.
As Brown finished piling his plate full of food and picked up a fork, he glanced once more in their direction, noticing Shane's eyes shift in Mitchie's direction for a moment, a strange look in his eyes, before it was gone, and he began concentrating on the conversation once more, saying something that made the whole table roar in amusement. Brown, however, recognized that look.
Shane looks like he might be delving into the stickiest feelings a guy can have for a girl.
How interesting...
-
Author's Note: What is with me and not being able to get endings right? For some reason, I'm not happy with this ending, but I've got to learn to just not fret about them, and hope you like them all the same. But at least I liked writing this chapter better than the last one (even though I'm once again slightly disappointed with the quality, since I'm self-conscious like that), so I hope you do too—I think I can stretch this story for another three chapters, but it's not a given yet.
Also, before I leave you with my customary "Please review!" at the end of my second author's note, I just have to say a huge thank you to those people who wished me a happy birthday and encouraged me on to high school—it's really awesome that all of you are kind enough to do that for me. You guys are always utterly awesome. And I have incredible almost-good news that I got ahold of on my birthday: one of the people at my youth group went to see the Jonas Brothers in concert during their last tour (twice!), so they might go for the Burning Up tour, so if they do, my brother-in-law is going to try and ask them to take me along. I'm really crossing my fingers and praying, so wish me luck! If I went to a concert, I'd be so happy I would die. So, yeah. Just wanted to share that with you guys if you're even halfway interested, but I'll stop blathering now (this is my longest author's note to date, I believe).
Please review!