I still don't own Camp Rock, but I do own the ideas.
A/N: If you haven't read "Novelty", " Never Have I Ever", "Rose Garden", "Painting Wild Flowers", "Sharing", "Winning Roses", "In Sickness", "All in the Timing", "Seconds", "The Campers Catalog", "Her letter", "When I'm not lookin' ", or "Barefoot CinderElla", I would appreciate it if you did.
For Logan
Jason jogged across the camp, looking for Ella. The nineteen year old finally spotted a small pink shimmer heading in the same direction as the computer lab.
"Hey," Jason called out, picking up his pace. "hey Ella, wait up!" He stumbled over a root but found his footing before continuing on his way over.
"Hey Jase, what's up?" Ella smiled looking slightly panicked.
"I wanted to talk about Amelia." Ella let a startled noise before commanding him to silence.
"Well, I don't! Tess found out today, and I'd like to keep my crazy under wraps for a little while longer." Jason frowned at the annoyance that Ella was radiating, but was positive it wasn't aimed solely at him.
"I don't think you're crazy."
"Well, I'm sure Tess does. Now what did you want to talk about?" Jason gulped, he'd never handled an irritated Ella before and wasn't sure how to proceed.
"I'd like to write an e-mail to Amelia." Jason's palms began to sweat when Ella's face blanked.
"You're kidding me, right?" She looked at him, dazed. "Why would you want to write to a figment of my of imagination?"
Jason's brow furrowed and his frown deepened.
"Did Tess say that?" Ella threw up her hands.
"What does it matter?" She stomped into the cabin and slammed the door behind her.
"Tess, we need to talk."
The blonde looked up from her nails and stared at the supposedly air-headed guitarist. She waited for a second before sighing irritably "What? You wanted to talk to me, so get to it." Jason's jaw squared and his eye-brow twitched, a tell that he was prepping for a verbal fight.
"I know that you found out about Amelia." Tess froze for a split second before going back to filing her nails.
"Yeah, so?" Jason ground his teeth.
"It's not stupid. In fact it means a lot to Ella, and I don't really like that you have to put her down at every turn. Isn't it enough t-"
"Whoa, whoa, wait a second bird-brain." Tess interrupted. "I never said anything like that, I wasn't even going to bring it up." She set the emery board down and looked Jason in the eyes, to prove her innocence. "I know I can be a bitch, but this is Ella's thing." Tess sighed and twisted a lock of her blonde hair around her finger. "I can kind of understand where she's coming from. God, I wish my mom had done something like that for me. That would have made life way easier." She gave her hair a sharp tug and Jason winced for her.
"Well, I think you should clear that up to Ella." Tess' icy blues took him in critically. "She's all paranoid that you're going to out her in front of the camp... Like you did with Mitchie." Tess averted her gaze to the dirt.
"I'll talk to her."
Ella stared at the blank computer screen. She couldn't think of a single thing to say for the 20 serious questions Jason had given her. Thinking of Jason, Ella slammed her head down on the table. She felt awful about the way she'd treated her friend. He hadn't done anything to deserve that, his idea was even kind of sweet.
The door to the computer lab swung open and Ella sprung out of her chair.
"T-tess! What are you doing here?" She stuttered as the ice queen of camp strutted over to her.
"I wanted to talk." Tess cleared her throat and sat down, so Ella sat back down too.
"Ella, I talked to Jason, about Amelia." Ella gulped, this could only be bad. "I don't think you're crazy. It's a little weird, but hell, I've done crazier things." Tess gave a ghost of a smile. "I actually think it's kind of sweet, and I understand where it's coming from, non-present mom's who ignore our existence." Tess nudged Ella's foot with her own. Ella gave a sad nod and tried not to speculate what the blonde was saying. "So, I'm keeping it a secret. You can tell everyone when you're good and ready." Tess finished, patting Ella's shoulder, until she noticed the open e-mail account.
"What is that?"
Ella fidgeted.
"That's today's e-mail. I-i don't have anything written for today; I can't think of any answers for Jason's questions." Ella confessed. Tess looked at the paper and squinted at Jason's chicken scratch.
"I've got this." She moved Ella out of the way and logged on to her own account.
"Wh-what?" Ella squeaked as Tess began to type out Jason's questions.
"I'm going to send this e-mail. It'd make more sense if someone else filled it out about you." Tess stated, never peeling her eyes off of the screen. "Now what's the e-mail account?"
"Amelia at gmail dot com." Ella watched as Tess' fingers moved at light speed over the keyboard.
"Ella, you can go... ya know? I've got this." Ella searched Tess' eyes before giving a consenting nod.
"O-okay, I guess."
To: amelia (at) gmail (dot) com
From: Popsicleprincess (at) camprock (dot) com
Subject: Changing it up
Dear Amelia,
Surprise, it's Tess. Jason gave your mother some questions and I thought it'd be better for someone else to fill them out instead. She may not like me that much for this, but she'll probably get over it, your mom is one of the nicest people I know.
What is your favorite memory?
-Sometimes, your mom says really crazy and ditzy things. Like this one time, she wanted us to pick out a nail polish for her and the two colors looked exactly the same. It wasn't until I was using them later that I noticed one of them was a matte polish and the other was a shimmer coat. We had all sort of teased your mom about it, and then we all noticed the difference and teased ourselves for not listening.
Or the time she pushed Nate into the lake.
God, that was the best thing ever. He was being all stupid and gushy with Dana and then said something offhandedly that really made Ella ticked, so she just shoved him in! He looked like a drowned rat!
Who was your first love?
-It's got to be Nate. Her first summer here, she fawned over him like he'd made the moon or something. Not very many people actually liked Nate at the time and it was sort of surprising for someone to put up with "Mister Grumpy" (that's what we called him, and sometimes we still do.) But Ella took it upon herself to be his friend. She might have been ten, but the girl was always pretty smart with people.
What was your first heartbreak?
-Her father's death. It wasn't a romantic love or anything, but I'd never seen your mom be so broken. We were all at a Jam practice, and Brown called Ella away. She only came back to the cabin to pack her things. We were ten and didn't understand what was going on, and that was the summer everything started to change. My mother started going out on promotions and tours more often and Ella's mom pretty much abandoned being a mother. It was one of those heartbreaks you just never heal from.
What are your biggest insecurities?
-She'd never say this out loud, and she might kill me for telling you this, but I think it'll be okay. One of Ella's biggest insecurities is never being good enough. She always puts so much into everything, and sometimes people just take that for granted. Her mother never told her that she was good at anything and it took awhile for people at camp to even acknowledge that she was a good artist on her own. I hope that she goes into fashion. While she'd be an awesome performer, there's just something about watching Ella work on a new outfit or making something completely new out of something that other people thought was unusable.
Name a time you did something brave or took a big risk?
- It took a lot to stand up to me when she was a teen. I had done some really stupid things and your mom finally had had enough of me. So she just told me like it was and walked away. I could have crushed her reputation at camp, but she just never looked back. It was something I've always admired about your mom.
What group would you consider yourself to be in as a teen or student? (kinda like clique I guess...)
-At camp your mom was defiantly part of the popular crowd, if only because her status. But at school, she was teased a lot because of that status and wealth, so she was kind of a loser. When we were in our early teens, your mom let people walk over her and I was one biggest culprits of that.
What's your biggest fear?
-Your mom doesn't talk about it much, but think her fears have to do with her father's death. She's always been kind of nervous about airplanes, but it got worse after her father's plane crash. But I think the big one would be that everyone she loves dies before her or abandon her.
What's most important to you in friend?
-I can't answer this one for Ella, but I know that for me, extreme loyalty and patience are really important. I'm not easily broken and I'm not very pleasant to be around sometimes, but your mom is a great friend and has always shown me how true of a friend she is by sticking up for me or telling me when I've done something that was out of bounds.
Name an event that changed the way you interact with people and the world around you.
-I might sound like a broken record, but your Grandfather Pador's death.
Ella tells everyone that she loves them before she leaves a place, just to make sure that she doesn't leave anyone with doubt in case something happens to her. It's like, if she died, she wants her last words to be "I love you." so that people don't regret the last words they spoke to her or wonder what her last words to them were.
Who's your biggest inspiration?
- I think it'd have to be Peggy. Not only did Peggy stand up to me and went on to win the Final Jam, she also stayed amazing friends with your mother. Never once did Ella have to wonder about being left out or forgotten, because Peggy was always there. And when she needed a comforting shoulder, she went to Peggy, who knew exactly what to say to help her out.
If you could change the world in one way, what would it be?
-Ella would probably like to fix domestic abuse or violence. She hates fighting and doesn't see the point of it most of the time.
What's your work ethic like?
-Your mom's work ethic kind of sucks sometimes. If it a project that she knows is going to be hard, she'll dive right into it. But if it's something that she could do in a short amount of time, she'll procrastinate as long as possible.
What's something you hope you'll never grow out of?
-I hope your mom never grows out of taking pleasure in the small things. She happier when she gets to spend ten minutes extra in the shower or gets a new lip gloss. She's just happy to be there in the moment and I hope that she never loses that.
When you're in a tough situation what gets you through it?
-Your mom gains the back bone of Superman and hauls everyone else through the mess with her. It's not until after that she panics or cries. But if you play a Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire movie and get some ice cream, she feels a lot better. I've seen her a Caitlyn have a few of those nights together.
Jason has a few more questions on here, but I can't read his hand writing.
Later,
Tess Tyler
Mia tried to hold off a few days before opening the next letter, but it was just to good. So she hurriedly clicked June 16, 2010, and was surprised to find that wasn't in fact from her mom, but from her Aunt Tess.
...
This could be interesting.