Hey guys! Thank you for your sympathy. Lol. Well, here's the next chapter, and no, it's not the wedding just yet. When you get a update alert, it says the chapter title. I promise I will write 'The Wedding' in the title so you know. Okay? This isn't filler! I promise. It seems like it, but it's not. I'm addressing a lot of things that I've been contemplating about this story so far. Things like how much things have changed, etc. And, may I just say that I don't necessarily 'plan' this story. I have a basic outline in my head, but most of it, I sit, I write, and everything connects magically. The Woodale thing occurred in my head as I was writing it. It wasn't planned. There are a lot of moments like that in ATCR and LKG. Okay, well, enjoy.
Chapter 17:
A much needed vacation came in the form of Camp Rock that year. I hadn't really seen Mom in a while and I wanted to show her all of the plans for the wedding. The Saturday before Final Jam, Shane, Nicky, Jacob and I piled into the Mustang.
Nicky and I grew excited as we pulled up outside of the administration building. I ran out of the car before it even stopped, with Nicky right behind me seconds later. Shane caught Jacob before he ran out after us. I heard Shane mumbling under his breath but I ignored it and ran into the office with Nicky.
"Uncle Brown!" We yelled, seeing him standing at his desk, looking for something.
"Well if it isn't my two favorite nieces!" He laughed, coming over to us. He hugged each of us tightly. "How are things?" He asked.
"Good. Mitchie and Shane are boring." Nicky complained.
I laughed. "No, we just aren't doing things you want us to." I replied. "Things are good. Not amazingly perfect, but still pretty good. Is my mom in the kitchen?" I asked.
Brown nodded and I ran off to the kitchen. I saw Anastasia's car pulling up next to the Mustang, but didn't bother to stop. "Mommy!" I cried running in the back door and hugging my mother tightly. "God, I've missed you." I said, not letting go. Mom smiled and hugged me back.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
"Wedding planning is so much harder than I thought it'd be." I sighed.
"I'm sorry I'm not home to help. I just have so much fun up here." She said looking slightly upset.
"I totally understand. It's not even things you can help with. But Shane is being amazing as always with all of it."
"Well, I'm baking cupcakes if you want to help." She smiled at me, moving back to where she was icing them.
Shane came in awhile later while I was cleaning up for Mom. He picked up a cupcake and scooped icing off of it. I smiled.
"Déjà vu." I laughed.
"Yeah. Except you aren't covered in flour." He comment. I blushed and threw my rag at him. "You don't do that too much anymore." He said softly.
"Do what? Cover myself in flour?" I asked confused.
He shook his head. "No, blush."
I shrugged. "You've got me jaded." I smiled playfully.
"Well, then I guess I'll have to resort to telling you all of the things I plan on doing to you on our honeymoon." He smirked.
I did indeed blush again. "Jerk." He smiled. "So, did you catch up with Brown?" I asked.
"Yes. And you, Nicky, Cait and Stas are 'sharing' a cabin while we're here." He said slightly disappointed.
"Why are we 'sharing' a cabin?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Because you and I both know that will completely change by the time we all fall asleep tonight. I'm thinking we shove Nicky with Nate and Caitlyn, cause they don't do anything anyway… and Stas won't care if we're doing anything cause she'll be doing it, too." He explained.
"We could all chill in one cabin." I said thinking over his theory.
"Too suspicious if only 1 cabin is being used." He smirked, having already thought it out.
"You know, we could kick all of them out into one cabin." I said, playing with a cupcake.
He smiled. "Somehow, I don't think my sister will trust us to be alone."
I sighed. "True. Oh well. We lived in much closer space with all of them before, right?" I half smiled.
"You like living alone, don't you?" He asked knowingly, reaching across the counter to touch my cheek.
I nodded. "I just, I love our friends and all, and my family, but… I just… I like being alone with you." I admitted.
"Good." He smiled widely. "Well, tomorrow you get your surprise." He said.
"Really? I figured you'd wait until our anniversary." I said, surprised as usual.
He shook his head. "Nah. It's not going to be our anniversary much longer, and with it being Final Jam, that always makes it a tad bit hard. And this way I don't interfere with Nate at all."
"You are too thoughtful for your own good. What happened to the jerky popstar I met right here two years ago?" I asked smiling softly.
"He found himself." He sighed smiling softly as well. "We've changed a lot since then." He realized.
"I know. You used to petrify me. I never thought about the future… I apparently blushed more."
"You were freaked by me kissing you anywhere but your mouth…" He threw out. I glared at him slightly. "We've just matured." He decided. "Nothing wrong with it."
"True. Change is good."
He sighed again. "Not always." He admitted.
"Well, just think. If you hadn't become the jerky pop star you were, we wouldn't be here now, would we?"
He smiled brightly. "You are very right." He leaned across the counter and kissed me.
Mom came in a moment later. "Do that in your cabin!" She chided as we broke apart.
I smiled. "Sorry, Mom." We said, smiling at her. She laughed and threw her arm around Shane.
"I've missed you two. What am I gonna do when you're away at college and you're gone on tour? I'll never see you!" She cried slightly.
"Aw. Momma T." Shane said wrapping his arm around her as well. "We'll miss you, too."
I smiled at the site of my mother and fiancé so comfortable and loving with one another. "Yeah." I agreed softly.
We spent a lot of time with Mom after that showing her all of the details about the wedding. Jacob was especially excited to see Mom as well. Later, we were all gathered in the Mess Hall for dinner.
"It's so weird to be back here." Caitlyn sighed. "I've spent the last 4 summers here, but being here, now, this year? It's so different."
I nodded. "Yeah. It is weird… not being campers and all."
"That's what it was like for us the first summer Shane was here." Nate added. "You get used to it."
"I forget you guys are older than us." I commented. "It doesn't feel like it most times."
"I feel older than them most times." Anastasia commented.
"Yeah, right. You're just as bad as Jason sometimes." Shane laughed.
We smiled and laughed. Not too many of the campers knew us as friends. They knew us as 'Connect 3 & Company.' We received a lot of stares and bewildered looks by the younger crowd.
"This is awkward." Shane said looking around and seeing all of the younger girls staring at us as he wrapped an arm around me.
"Yeah. Why are they staring so hard?" Jason asked.
"I don't know." Nate answered, shrugging.
"I'm going to see if Mom needs help." I kissed Shane and stood up. He watched me go, and I could feel eyes on me. I looked over my shoulder and realized Shane wasn't looking at me. He was looking at a guy staring at me. I blushed and headed to the kitchen even faster. Shane followed a few minutes later.
"What's up?" I asked, drying a dish.
"Nothing." He mumbled, picking at the left over cupcakes. "Just missed you."
"You weren't even looking at me when I left." I said softly.
"I was… at first. Then I noticed some punk watching your ass." He grumbled.
"Shane." I said warningly.
"Sorry. I know, Connie doesn't like cursing. But it's really not a curse." He defended. I smiled dismissively, since that wasn't what I was talking about.
"So what if someone was looking at me? Girls stare at you -and worse- all the time." I replied.
"And you hate it." He threw back. "You get jealous all the time, baby." He smirked.
"And clearly, so do you." I glared at him. His smirk faltered.
"It's degrading for a guy to watch you like that." He argued.
I threw my hands up in the air. "You do it all the time!" I cried.
"It's different. I'm your husband." He defended.
I smirked. "Not yet, pop star."
He rolled his eyes. "Close enough."
I smiled for real. "Well, thank you for defending my honor. You didn't do anything stupid did you?" I asked.
"No." He sighed. "I just glared and Nate snapped at me… so I came to find my beautiful girl who was hiding in the kitchen again. What's up with that?"
"It's all gonna change when we get married. I just… I wanted to remember what brought me here." Shane started humming and I smiled. "Are you humming Woodale?" I asked.
He smiled and started singing to me. "With a long way from where we first saw, there's too much here, the world can't say we're wrong." He moved over to me while singing the song and wrapped his arms around me. "And even when the roads begin to disappear, we won't forget what brought us here. No, we'll still go."
I smiled up at him. "Very fitting, don't you think?" He asked. I nodded and kissed him.
"More so now then Valentine's Day." I admitted.
He laughed. "And to think neither of us actually knew that song when we put it on our CDs." I laughed too, enjoying the moment.
That night when we went to bed, we all started in our respective cabins. Shane ended up sneaking over to my cabin with Nate. Nate was staying, while Anastasia and I were being traded. I smiled sleepily and followed Shane out with Anastasia.
"Where are we going?" She asked equally sleepy.
"To the other cabin." Shane whispered.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because I don't like not sleeping with you." He admitted softly to me. I smiled while Anastasia rolled her eyes. "And cause Jason wants to see Stas." She smiled giddily and walked faster to the boys' cabin. Shane and I walked slower, enjoying the cool night air.
"Sorry I woke you up." Shane said softly.
I shrugged. "It wasn't that great of a sleep." I admitted. "It's going to suck when I can't share a bed with you in September."
"Actually-" He stopped himself. "Never mind. I want to tell you tomorrow night, okay?" I nodded, figuring it had something to do with his tour.
When we reached the cabin, Jason and Anastasia were both sound asleep in Jason's bed. I crawled into Shane's bed, and he slipped in behind me.
"Love you." He whispered against my neck.
"Love you, too." I whispered falling asleep as well.
Shane and Nicky spent time with Uncle Brown while I hung out with Mom. Caitlyn was catching up with Milo. Anastasia, Jason and Nate were going around the camp, watching the various groups practicing. Sunday evening around 5:30, I was surprised to have Mom shooing me out of the kitchen and telling me to go take a shower. I gave her an odd look but she told me to do it.
When I came out of the bathroom in Shane's cabin later on, I found a summer dress I owned but almost never wore sitting on the bed. I rolled my eyes but got dressed anyway. I slipped on a sweater I had in my bag, knowing it was going to get colder up here. It didn't exactly match, but it worked.
Shane showed up around 7:30, dragging me down the steps. He was dressed in a button down shirt that was mostly open and untucked with a t-shirt underneath. Surprisingly, instead of his usually skinny jeans, he had a pair of regular loose jeans. My eyes took in his site while he dragged me. Obviously dress pants weren't appropriate in his mind. I'd never really seen him in jeans. Actually, I didn't know he owned jeans. "Shane, what are we doing?" I asked as he headed toward the canoes. "Your surprise is a canoe ride?" I asked, slightly disappointed. He shook his head no and pointed out at the lake. The sun would be setting soon and in the center of the lake was a small floating dock, with a table and chairs set up on it.
I didn't say anything, too much in shock to do so. When we finally climbed out of the boat and onto the small dock, I was able to speak. There was just enough room up there for us to move around the table and not fall off. As he pulled out my chair, I asked, "What is all this?"
"Well," he said sitting down. "Every attempt at a first date I ever tried ended in us being hounded by the paparazzi or joined by our friends. No one else can fit out here and we're all alone."
"Shane…" I smiled laughing slightly. "Two years have gone by. I would have thought you'd given up on the first date."
"Well, we're getting married. I thought it only be right that we actually have an official date, for no reason other than to have a date before we do."
I smiled even more. "We were alone on Valentine's Day this year." I commented.
"That's cause we did our own things. Doesn't count if everyone else is busy, too." He explained.
I raised an eyebrow as he lifted two covered plates out of basket next to the table that I'd missed. "You didn't cook that did you?" I asked skeptically.
"No, I helped." He admitted. "Momma T did."
I giggled. "Good. Cause you suck at cooking, dear."
He pouted. "Thanks."
"I just don't want you getting any ideas that could burn down our kitchen someday." I teased.
He smiled back. "Dig in." I smiled as I took the cover off to reveal my favorite dish of Mom's. It was a Spanish dish that I never really learned the name of. It was always called Papi's dish.
"So," He started, while we were eating. "Do you remember last night when I was going to say something and told you I'd tell you tonight?" I nodded. "Well, our tour manager came up with an idea."
I interrupted. "Isn't John your tour manager? And isn't he currently on another tour? How is he coming up with ideas for your tour?"
He chuckled. "He's almost done with the other tour, so he's really just supervising over there. Anyway… he thought that maybe, if we changed some of the tour dates, we could get back to the states sooner." I eyed him skeptically.
"How?" I demanded.
"Well, if we played during the three weeks we're taking off, we could be home almost 5 weeks sooner."
"So, basically, you won't be home for Christmas? Like you promised." I said quietly.
He sighed. "Well, I wouldn't be home, but you can come see me in Europe." He said softly.
"You'll be touring. It won't be the same. You know that." I argued gently.
"Then we won't. It was just an idea, so I could come home sooner." He dismissed the idea, but I could tell he was a little upset.
"Shane… I know it's going to be impossible, but I wanted to try to be normal sometimes. I want you home, alone, with me, for Christmas."
"I know. I'm sorry. It's just the thought of being away from you… it drives me insane."
"We'll survive." I assured him, though my own thoughts and fears mirrored his.
After we ate, Shane rowed us back to the stationary dock, where we sat, watching the stars for a while.
"Three weeks." Shane sighed, holding me tightly.
"And to think, two years ago, you hated me at this point." I said with a slight edge to my voice.
He sighed again, "I didn't hate you, Mitchie…"
"I'm kidding. Sorry." I replied burying my face into his neck and inhaling his scent.
"I know." He whispered into my hair. "I just hate when you bring it up. I was a jerk. And I know it eats at you when you think about lying to me."
I held myself tighter to him and sighed. "How'd you know?" I asked.
"It always has. Just because you can talk about it doesn't mean it doesn't drive you insane at the same time."
We were silent for a while, before I spoke again. "What am I going to do if my dress isn't finished?"
He shrugged. "It'll be done. And if it isn't… well… we'll go buy you a different one that doesn't need to be altered. We can go back to getting married in a white tank top and jean skirt and a black button down and jeans, if we have to." He said trying to cheer me up.
I smiled. "With the top hats, right?" He chuckled underneath me. I was amazed to feel the laughter rumbling in his chest. It always amazed me.
"Yes, love, with the top hats." I smiled hearing him call me love. He'd been spending a lot of time with Brown while we were here so far, but he also had been talking to him on the phone a lot.
I was happy to see Shane and Brown becoming closer. During that first summer at Camp Rock, it wasn't hard to see how hurt Brown was by Shane's actions. I'd always suspected that there was a bad falling out when Shane become famous, or Shane just stopped talking to him all together.
"Let's head back." Shane suggested as I shivered.
I stopped him as he began to stand up. "Not yet."
He stayed seated. "Okay. What's up? You're shivering. Why don't you want to go back?"
"I just want to spend some more time with you." I said softly. "This was an awesome first date." I teased.
He smiled down at me. "Thank you."
"It's a lot like the night we got together." I said wistfully. "Save for the dinner and floating dock. And our friends interrupting." I commented.
"You're righ-" He sighed, looking over his shoulder. "I wouldn't count on that last one." He said softly. I looked over my shoulder as well and saw the four of them heading toward us with lanterns.
"Do you know what a date is?" I asked them laughing slightly.
They shrugged. "We do. We were coming to spy. We figured you'd still be out on the dock." Jason explained.
"Jason." The other three hissed, hitting him.
"Sorry." He replied, rubbing his now sore arms.
"Well, we wanted to see how your date was going. Guess now we're interrupting it." Caitlyn said.
"Yes. Yes, you are." Shane said.
Anastasia rolled her eyes. "Come on, guys, let's leave them be." They started walking away and I looked up at Shane. He rolled his eyes but nodded.
"No, it's okay. Come back. We were getting ready to head in soon anyway." He called out. I smiled. No we weren't.
The six of us sat out there for a long time talking. I mean, a long time. By the time we were getting ready to head into the cabins, the sun was beginning to peak over the horizon.
"Oh, let's watch the sunrise." Anastasia said happily.
Nate was the first to sit back down. "I haven't watched one since I went to camp here."
The rest of us followed suit, sitting back down on the edge of the dock. We were silent, watching the morning sunrise brightly in amazement. As the last rays peaked up with the beautiful red and pink sky, I turned to the rest of the group.
"I love you guys." I smiled.
Anastasia and Caitlyn awed and the guys smiled brightly at me. "We love you, too." Jason replied.
"You really think we're going to stay this way forever?" Anastasia asked.
"We've been this way for two years now." Nate commented.
Shane nodded in agreement. "Even if we don't stay the exact same, we'll always find our ways back to each other."
"I can't believe one of us is getting married." Nate sighed.
"I can't believe Shane is getting married." Jason laughed.
"Hey, now." Shane playfully pushed Jason.
I smiled. These boys really were best friends. Nothing was able to come between them for long. I sighed. "Let's try and get some sleep." I said, standing up.
Nate looked at his watch. "Yeah, it's 5:30." He yawned.
Sleepily, we all made our way back to the cabins. That was definitely the best date of my life.
Bree is getting excited. She can't wait for the wedding chapters that she has planned. And the plot twists after them!