Yay, I've finally managed to update! The reason it's taken a while involves a maths test and a certain someone's email inbox exploding.

Thank you to all my lovely reviwers and anyone who has clicked on/alerted this story, I love you.....in a non gay way.....

I hope I just made Rhi smile, you finally have your very own dedication :-D

New Experiences Are Had By All

I stood in the doorway, unsure of what to do. I was surrounded by people I didn't know, and felt like a child on her first day at a school where all the kids already knew each other. It was good to know I'd have the exact same feeling come September….

Mitchie saw my worried expression and smiled at me reassuringly.

"Come on," She said, taking my arm, "You'll get used to all the people soon enough, and in time you may even find you like some of them!" As she spoke a curly haired girl came over to us, beaming.

"Hey, Caitlyn, Mitchie! I haven't seen you two since forever! I love your outfit," She added, looking at me. I smiled self consciously; glad she liked my black skinny jeans, worn red Converse and dark red t-shirt with a lizard on the collar.

"Yeah, it has been ages since Christmas," Caitlyn agreed, grinning. "Oh, and Lola, this is Jools."

"Pleased to meet you." Lola told me, "Are you performing this evening?" She asked the group at large.

"Nah, but I think Connect Three are." Mitchie replied, and right on cue, Dee took to the stage, waving her hands for quiet.

"As it's still the start of camp and some of you may need inspiring after a hard year at school," There were murmurs of agreement at this statement, "We have managed to get some successful and amazing ex-Camp Rockers to perform for us tonight!"

"Well, I wouldn't say we're ex rockers just yet," I heard a voice say, and the crowd whooped as Connect 3 ran up on stage, instruments in hands. "Hey you guys," Shane continued, grinning at the crowd, "We played this here last year, but we've always been told it's inspirational. For those of you who weren't here a year ago, this is called 'Play My Music."

The song was catchy and also very motivating – and it was all about music and the feeling it gave you. The feeling I hoped I would know and understand by the end of camp.

The rest of the evening went quickly, simply because there was so much to see and do! The records, guitars and signed t-shirts on the walls set the Mess Hall away from all other halls in any other camp, and the atmosphere was like one at a live show – electric.

After some other performers had done their pretty amazing stuff, and people were starting leave to go to bed, I noticed a sign with 'Final Jam' written on it, and a list where people had written their names underneath. I didn't know what Final Jam was, but made up my mind to ask about it later – maybe it was a big deal or something…

"Caitlyn, what's Final Jam?" I asked as we walked back to our cabin, yawning.

"I can't believe we haven't told you!" She exclaimed, stopping dead in her tracks for a second, all tiredness forgotten.

"Told her what?" Mitchie had been plodding along behind us, lost in her own world.

"What Final Jam is." I said, and Mitchie stopped too, looking amazed.

"We haven't told you about the most incredible night here at Camp Rock?"

"No. Should you have?" I was starting to get worried about what I didn't know.

"Final Jam is what we work for all summer. On the last night here, a bunch of acts perform a song in front of the rest of camp, our parents and a panel of judges. At the end of the night, the act the judges like best gets a trophy. Last year, Connect Three judged and the winner also got to record with Shane." Mitchie informed me.

Wow. Final Jam was a big deal, then.

The next day bought with it new experiences, that was for sure. My first lesson was Beginner's Guitar, with Jason. My first problem was that I didn't actually have a guitar to play on. My second was that every other student in my class I could see did have a guitar to play on - and could actually play it, and well.

Half way through a red haired girl's version of Umbrella (that was way better than the original), Jason himself walked in and several guitars slung over his shoulder or clutched in his hand.

A hush fell over the class, which Jason seemed happy to break, putting down the instruments he had been holding.

"Okay, guys, each of you grab a guitar and start playing what you know. I'll come round and see how much each of you can do, and we can go from there." he told us, then Umbrella started up again, along with a bunch of other songs, some I recognised, some I didn't. I picked up one of the guitars Jason had set down, and took it out of the case carefully – how much did these things cost?

Half an hour later, I had discovered three things. One, the dark brown guitar I was strumming was an acoustic. Two, playing it was a lot harder than it looked. And three, I didn't have to worry about it, because Jason had realised that most of the people in the Beginner's class weren't actually beginner's at all – he sent them to administration to be put in a lesson of their level. That had left just me, two other girls and one guy.

"This should be an interesting class," Jason said cheerfully, once the last person had left to go to admin. He, unlike the other four of us, seemed perfectly comfortable in a small group, unlike the rest of us. It seemed to me that he could adjust in just about any situation, no matter what the circumstances. "As there are only five of us, we should probably get to know each other a bit - I'm Jason."

"I'm Eliza." A curly haired girl told us, smiling. I immediately liked her; she gave off those happy vibes some people just seem to carry around with them.

"I'm Jools." I introduced myself.

"Tess," A blonde said, and I wondered if this was the Tess Caitlyn and Mitchie had mentioned, she seemed about the right age.

"Hey, didn't you perform at Final Jam last year?" Jason asked suddenly, looking at Tess.

"Yeah, I did – I was part of the It Girls."

"Tess Tyler," Jason recalled, and Tess blushed slightly. So this was Tess. Interesting.

"I'm Mickey," the guy said, flicking his blondish hair away from his face as he spoke.

Hello, future rockstar, I thought immediately, and remembered that old song, 'Oh Mickey You're So Fine'. It was a favourite pastime of my mother's to dance around our living room in England to an '80's classic. I giggled at the memory of mum boogying and everyone looked at me, but I was spared the embarrassment of having to explain by Jason, who chose that very moment to clap his hands together excitedly.

"Well, now we all now each other, let's get down to the instruments. When I came round the classroom earlier, it seemed to me that you four were the only ones who have never played before. Am I right? We all nodded. "In that case, we'll start at the complete beginning. You are all holding acoustic guitars. They're different form electric but you can plug some to amps if you're playing live….."

The lesson continued, and I was shocked when the bell that signaled meals rang, telling us to go to lunch.

I had a two day timetable, with one lesson in the morning and one in the afternoon, so we had lots of time to learn, plus the classrooms were open all the time, so if I ever wanted to practice out of lesson time I could.

I was told all this by Eliza, whose sister had been here last year –

"But she has flu right now, and as I'm finally old enough to come, I got her slot!" she told me as we ate lunch. Caitlyn and Mitchie had mentioned they were working on a new song, and might not be eating at the normal time. Caitlyn had said that once Mitchie let the music take her, she was gone until the song had finished – so I could expect to see her sometime next week if I was lucky. Caitlyn's words, not mine.

"Cool," I said to Eliza, "So what other classes are you taking?"

"Intermediate Singing, Beginner's Dance and Music Theory Grade Three."

"Great, I'm in Beginner's dance as well. You already know some stuff then?" I asked.

"Yeah, I play piano and sing." she shrugged. "What about you?"

"Just started learning guitar, and I'm starting singing, dance and music theory here as well."

"Cool, I can give you a hand on piano if you want."

"That would be great," I was relived that I had made a friend on my first proper day at camp, and it wasn't because I had knocked into her either.

My next lesson was Music Theory, Grade One. Luckily, everyone in this class was the exact same level – the most anyone knew was how to read music, which, I discovered, was really easy; all you had to do was remember the rhymes and you were fine. The clefs weren't difficult once you knew which was bass and which was treble. My only problem was time signatures. What was with the fractions?

"They're not fractions," Laughed Nate when I threw my pencil down in frustration, "They tell you how many beats are in a bar." Oh.

The funniest occurrence of the entire day, though, was Caitlyn's reaction when I told her Tess Tyler was learning guitar at dinner.

"She's learning something worthwhile?" she had gasped, after picking herself up from the floor, where she had landed after falling off her chair with shock.

"Yeah. She seemed pretty nice too." Now it was Mitchie's turn to gape.

"Nice?! Jools, are you sure this is the Tess Tyler we told you about?"

"That girl over there." I pointed to Tess, who was walking across the hall as I spoke.

"That's Tess all right." Caitlyn muttered, looking at the blonde. "Wow." She could find absolutely nothing else to say on the matter. Seriously. I had left Caitlyn speechless, something that, Nate told me, was extremely rare.