Thanks as always! I received a review saying it was hard to tell the difference between the scenes sometimes. As usual, I forget that fan fiction screws up the formatting. On my computer, the scenes have an extra space separating them and all the paragraphs are indented. I don't really look at them once I upload them. Is anyone having a major time telling the difference? If you are I'll find a way to separate them better.
Warning: Major time jumps in this one. It was another necessary, but longer and cuter chapter. We hit Valentine's Day and Mitchie's Birthday Party in this. The excitement starts up in the next one when Shane and the guys leave. The CaitlynxNate sex issue will be discussed further and there is a tour surprise in store. A few actually, so hold out and make it through this chapter. Oh, and say hello to Jacob. :D
Chapter 15
The following day, Caitlyn and I raided the guys apartment to hang out with Anastasia. Jason didn't mind at all and let us. Of course none of them thought we'd kick them out of their apartment. We spent the entire time talking and just hanging out. We learned that Anastasia is 17, but will turn 18 in August. Until then, she's living with her brother and going to school in the City. Whenever we'd mention Jason she'd just smile happily and bite the corner of her lip.
We were laying in various positions on the floor and couch about ro watch a movie when the guys came back, bearing food. "What are we watching?" Nate asked dropping onto the couch at Caitlyn's feet.
"John Tucker Must Die." We all replied.
"Seriously?" Shane whined sitting on the floor next to my head. I immediately lifted my head into his lap. He seemed a bit surprised at first but ran his fingers through my hair a moment later.
"JTMD?" Jason asked excitedly laying down next to Anastasia, "Sweet!"
Anastasia looked over at him. "You like chick flicks?" She asked with her eyebrow raised.
"Jason watches chick flicks with us all the time." Caitlyn said shrugging.
"Aw. That's so cute." She cooed. Jason seemed to be blushing.
I looked up at Shane, "Did I see bags of food when you came in?" Shane nodded. I made a puppy dog face at him. He laughed but got up anyway. He came back with three bags of food and sodas for everyone. Everyone sat eating and laughing, the guys actually enjoying the movie.
"Oh! That's wrong!" Nate and Shane cried as they saw a bunch of guys in thongs. We laughed at them and continued to watch.
"Now, was that so bad?" I asked as the end credits rolled.
Shane and Nate sighed. "Except for the thong thing… it was pretty funny." Shane relented. Nate nodded.
"Can we watch A Cinderella Story?" Jason asked. Shane and Nate groaned as we put the movie in.
"You actually brought that?" Caitlyn and I shook our heads no.
"It's Jason's. So was John Tucker." I said simply.
"There is something really wrong with you." Nate said shaking his head at Jason.
"I think it's cute. It just means you can appreciate things that other guys can't." Anastasia said. Jason smiled over at her thankful.
"Ya know, Stas," I said looking at from over Jason's head. "I think you fit with us perfectly."
"I agree!" Caitlyn threw in.
Jason nodded, "Yeah, me too."
The weeks passed and soon it was Friday. Or more specifically, Valentine's Day. We hung out with Anastasia a few more times, as well as Sierra a few times, too. Shane and Nate called Caitlyn and I as often as they could. Shane was constantly texting me between recordings. With all the school work we had, it was easy for us to forget they weren't there. There had been weeks when Caitlyn and I got so caught up with school we didn't see them. Usually, we talked more than this, but we made due. It wasn't as hard as we'd been expecting.
However, with it being Valentine's Day, we were depressed. All around the school there were hearts and arrows pinned to lockers and red streamers hanging from the ceiling. Caitlyn sighed as she sat on the floor next to my locker.
"What's wrong, Cait?" I asked.
"This is the first year I have a boyfriend on Valentine's Day… and I don't even go to school with him, much less get to see him!" She complained.
"I understand. Believe me." My phone vibrated, letting me know I had a message. Jason asked me to be his Valentine. Anastasia sent me.
Awww! I hope you accepted! I sent back. "Jason asked Stas to be his Valentine."
Caitlyn smiled. "Aww! I haven't heard from mine yet. Have you?"
"Nope- wait, that's either him or Stas again." I opened my phone again and sure enough it was from Shane. Happy Valentine's Day! Hope you like roses. I love you.
Caitlyn pulled out her phone and read the same message from Nate. "Weird." She said. I shrugged as Sierra walked up to us,
"Craig just asked me to be his Valentine." She gushed.
"Wait, Craig from AP Calculus, Craig?" I asked. She nodded giddily. "Aww. Good for you, Sierra." Caitlyn agreed.
We were sitting in home room listening to the mindless Valentine's Day chatter. Some girls had boxes of chocolate. Others had single roses, and some like Rosie had bouquets.
"Awe, Mitchie and Caitlyn didn't get anything? Oh right, you have big famous boyfriends who probably forgot." Rosie scoffed playing with her standard red roses. We were going to reply when someone knocked on the door. One of the kids who work in the main office during homeroom came in with flowers. He handed Caitlyn and I each 3 yellow roses bound together with a red ribbon with writing on the end.
"Love starts with friendship." He read to us. "Love Nate and Shane." We melted.
"Thank you!" We said smiling and smelling our flowers.
"Only 3? I'd have expected more." Rosie scoffed again. We ignored her.
"That's so sweet of them." I said sniffing the flowers again.
"It'd be nicer if they were wrapped in a ribbon being delivered to us, though." Caitlyn commented. I had to pause and think about that image.
"That's something Jason would do." I said in all seriousness. Caitlyn thought about too and agreed. "Stas has no idea what she's getting into." I giggled.
"I wonder if Jason sent her anything?" Caitlyn asked. I shrugged. "She'll text us if he does, right?" I nodded and we waited for the bell to ring..
Sporadically throughout the day, we received three more roses. In second period, our teacher passed us yellow roses with red tips. We read the ribbons on them ourselves. Then we can fall in love. During lunch, the lunch ladies placed our pink bouquets reading We appreciate having you in our lives more than you truly know. on our trays. Sixth period we found orange roses in our gym lockers. You are our truest desires in life, we read. The last class of the day, our teacher again gave us our flowers. Unlike the others, there were three individually colored roses bound together and a card for each of us, though they said the same thing.
Dear Mitchie/Caitlyn, Yellow means friendship. Yellow with red tips symbolizes falling in love. Pink is for appreciation. Orange stands for desire. Lavender signifies love at first site. Red implies true love. And lastly white shows purity. A bouquet of three is known as an "I love you" bouquet. A bouquet of fifteen is an apology. If you add all of your bouquets together, you have fifteen roses. We're sorry we weren't able to be home for this, and we know you were lying when you said it didn't matter. I'll see you soon. I love you. Love, Shane/Nate.
We almost cried in the middle of class. Luckily for us, Rosie was in our class. "Oh wow. I think this is the most romantic thing I've ever seen." Caitlyn said smiling brightly.
"I think this is about equal with the ring." I agreed.
"What are you two going on about now?" Rosie sneered. She was mad by the time we had received the 3rd bouquet.
"Our boyfriends are amazing. That's what." Caitlyn said not bothering to explain further.
When we opened the front door after school, we were shocked to see the house flooded in flowers. "Mom?" I yelled, trying to get through the maze.
"In the rose free zone!" She called.
Caitlyn and I laughed. "Which is?" Caitlyn yelled back.
"My kitchen!" We made our way to the kitchen, amazed at all the flowers. "Here." She shoved cards into our hands. You didn't think we were done, did you? Enjoy all the flowers. "Now, why do I have all these flowers in my house if you have flowers in your hands?" We showed her the cards and then shrugged.
"I have no idea. Cait?" I asked. She shrugged in response. "How many are there?"
"I lost count at 30 dozen. There are flowers in your room, in the living room, the dining room, up the stairs, in the hallways, and a few in my room."
"Oh wow. They've really out done themselves." Caitlyn laughed.
"Is that a bad thing?" I heard Nate's voice ask from my back doorway. Caitlyn and I turned around as fast as possible. Nate and Shane were standing there, smirking slightly.
"You don't like?" Shane asked.
"No, we love. We thought you were done after the incredibly sweet gesture at school." I smacked his chest lightly as he wrapped his arms around me. "I thought you weren't going to be here?"
"We weren't." He answered. "We worked through the night and had Lava fly us home at 4 this morning. We had already order all of the flowers and the cards and everything."
Happy to have our boyfriends home for Valentine's Day, we dragged them upstairs to our room. The only clear space was our beds. Nate and Shane looked sheepish as they looked around. "Okay, maybe we went over board with the flowers." Caitlyn and I laughed.
"Just a little." I smiled. "Maybe we could donate them to a hospital or something? I mean, they're pretty, but I can't handle living in the meadow." I laughed.
Nate nodded. "That'd be good PR for you and Caity." He said.
Cait smacked him. "Do you ever not think about business?" He laughed.
"Sorry." He kissed her cheek in apology.
"I'm going to call the hospital now. We can take them tomorrow since it's Saturday."
We hung out with Shane and Nate, separately for a little while at one point, but mostly together. Mom made us an amazing dinner before going out with Dad for the night. Jason and Anastasia had gone out to dinner, alone. Something neither Shane and I nor Nate and Caitlyn had managed. After dinner, they showed up at my house to hang out.
The next day, Caitlyn and I loaded up the catering van with as many flowers as possible as well as Shane's car. Someone told the press what we were planning and they showed up at the hospital waiting for us.
Caitlyn and I began taking vases upon vases of flowers into the hospital. When we insisted on giving them out ourselves, the press seemed even more excited. Shane, Nate, Jason, Anastasia, Sierra, Mom, and Dad all helped us unload the flowers, but only Caitlyn and I handed them out. We gave a lot of the patients who would be in there for a while the flowers, but also a few new mothers, too. We took apart some of the vases and gave the little girls and younger teenagers in the hospital individual flowers instead of vases.
Sure enough, like Nate had predicted, we did get good PR from it, though that hadn't been on intention. HotTunes reported, "Can Connect 3 get any sweeter? After sending their girlfriends multiple specifically chosen bouquets in school, the girls entered their home to find over 150 dozen flowers everywhere! In an act of generosity, Torres and Gellar, with the help of friends and family, delivered the flowers to the local hospital, personally handing out the flowers to patients. Grey says, "Nate and I went a little overboard and the girls immediate solution to the thousands of flowers was to donate them. They're truly amazing."
Lava had been really impressed with us. Caitlyn and I shrugged it off. We would have done the same thing if our famous rock star boyfriends weren't the reason we had all those flowers.
A few weeks later, Shane waltzed into the kitchen and sat down next to me. Caitlyn was upstairs studying while I was down here attempting to do the same. He placed a piece of paper in front of me. I turned it over to see it was the Camp Rock brochure.
"Camp Rock is back! And it's better than ever." I read the cover. "Brown made the deal?" I asked excitedly.
"Yup. And now we will all be at Camp Rock this summer. If Jason and Stas are still together, Brown's going to get her a job in the kitchen with the caterer."
"Caterer? No! You mean they're hiring Mom again?" Shane nodded. I squealed. "Oh my god! This is going to be the best summer ever."
"And, we found a way to lessen the time until we see you." He said even more excited. "You can come on tour with us the two weeks between school gets out and Camp Rock."
"Oh wow." I threw my arms around him. "You guys are a way too good to us." I kissed him deeply and things started getting carried away. We heard my father clear his throat a few minutes later.
"Hi, Mr. Torres." Shane said scratching the back of his neck as we pulled apart.
"You can call me Steve, Shane." Dad corrected. "And please don't ever do that in the kitchen again." He shuddered. "I like to pretend she's still my little girl who doesn't have a boyfriend."
I laughed at him. "Dad…"
"What?" He asked innocently. I got up and hugged my dad's side.
"I'll always be your little girl, promise. You just gotta let me grow up sometime, okay?" He kissed my head and nodded. "I love you, Daddy."
"I love you, too, Mitchie."
Shane had been watching us with a smile on his face. "I may like you, now, but I'll still hurt you if you hurt her." He said in a stern voice.
"I don't plan on it, but I'll keep it mind." Shane answered. I smiled.
I was not looking forward to Shane leaving on tour, but I was definitely going to enjoy every minute I had with him until then. We spent the next 2 months together every possible moment we could. Between studying for SATs and rehearsals, it wasn't as much as we would've liked.
However, Shane had me excited for my birthday. He kept saying he had a surprise for me. I loved getting surprises from him. They weren't clichéd and if they were originally then he made them his own. Mom was throwing me a birthday party at the house for all my family and my friends the night before my birthday, on Saturday. On Sunday, the guys were having a going away party at their apartment. Monday morning at 6 am they'd be on the road to their first show of the tour.
"Can you please, please, please tell me?" I begged Caitlyn, who knew my surprise.
"Nope." She smiled. "You'll see." She laughed, "You'll find out later at your party. Relax!"
"I'm just so excited. I don't remember the last time I was this excited about my birthday!" I laughed.
"Wait 'til next year." Anastasia said entering the room. "You'll be even more excited for your 18th, then your 21st. After that, it'll fade."
"Way to be optimistic, Stas." Caitlyn laughed throwing a pillow at her. She shrugged.
"You're early." I commented.
She shrugged again. "Nothing better to do."
"Gee, I feel special." I said sarcastically as she simply laughed.
Four hours later, I was surrounded by my friends and family. At first, many of them seemed surprised to find Connect 3 in my house, but they eventually eased. Well except my cousin Steph who felt it necessary to drool at my boyfriend and friends. My cousin Jason felt it wise to not come, thankfully.
"Presents time!" Caitlyn said happily as we finished our cake. I opened every one else's gifts first, being forced to save Shane's surprise for last. Finally I only had to open Caitlyn's gift and then I could receive my surprise.
"Here." Caitlyn passed me a bag. I opened it and pulled out a dog bowl, doggy treats, and a chew toy.
"Caitlyn? Why did you get me dog stuff?" I asked, completely confused. Shane walked in a moment later, though I hadn't noticed he left, carry a blanket in his arms. The blanket was wiggling. As he placed the blanket in my arms it barked. "Oh my god!" I laughed moving the blanket to see a curly haired black puppy staring up at me with the cutest eyes I'd ever seen. "Shane…" I cooed. "Does it have a name?"
"Well, the people I got him from named him Jacob when he was born, but-" I didn't listen to him after that I just started talking to Jacob, my puppy.
I wouldn't put him down for almost a half an hour. I had to when people to started to leave. Once most people had left, Shane picked up Jacob and carried him upstairs, pulling me with him. He laid the puppy on my bed and Jacob whined slightly until we were both on the bed with him.
"He's so cute. I love it. What made you decide to get me a puppy?" I asked.
"I figured I've given enough jewelry in the last couple of months. And I figured having a curly haired puppy might keep you company while I'm gone."
I wanted to cry. "Like the curly haired baby I want someday." He nodded. "Shane…" I hugged him. Jacob was feeling neglected and wiggled his way between us.
"Someone seems jealous." Shane teased the puppy, petting him.
"Oh, what am I going to do with him while I'm on tour with you or at Camp Rock?"
Shane laughed, "You really think I didn't think all of this out?" He shook his head. "You can bring him with you on tour. And as for Camp Rock… your mom, Stas, even Brown will help when we can't."
"We?" I asked looking up from Jacob.
He blushed a little. "Well, I've bonded with him for the last week he's been at my apartment."
"So, he's not just mine, is he?" I asked. "He's ours?"
Shane smiled at me. "If you want him to be."
"Absolutely." I kissed Shane. Jacob barked and pawed Shane's chest. Suddenly, Shane leaving didn't seem as lonely as it had.
We've hit the 45,000 word mark. Woo! And so ya'll know, it's 4:36 am EST as I write this!