Essential Circuitry

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Camp Rock or the Jonas Brothers. Camp Rock belongs to Disney and the Jonas Brothers belong to themselves.

Characters: Shane, Nate and Jason

Words: 1, 484

Author's Notes: it's funny, I was all pumped to write this but now, five chapters in, I'm already struggling. Sorry if that comes through in this chapter. I tried my hardest though.

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Nate hadn't spoken to either Jason or Shane once they'd arrived back to the cabin after Opening Night Jam. He had, instead, simply changed into his pajamas and curled up in his bed, a cell phone clutched tightly in his hand. At one stage, Shane had seen him make a call, but the dejected look on Nate's face had told him that whoever it was he was trying to reach had not picked up.

Unsure of the reason behind the sudden attitude change, Shane had offered to stay quiet. Nate had waved the suggestion away though, and urged him and Jason to be as loud as they wanted, to not bother about disturbing him. The arrangement didn't sit too well with Shane but he let it slide, deciding the nicest thing to do might be to respect his cabin mate's wishes.

So, he and Jason had spent hours talking. While they had many differences, they also had many similarities. They seemed to like the same types of music and they could talk for hours about their dream guitars. It would have been early morning by the time they passed out, each slumping into their respective beds. It had been a night well spent.

The next morning had seen no change from Nate, Shane attributing it to the fact that, when Nate looked at his cell the moment he woke up, there were no missed calls or messages waiting for him. Shane had tried to brighten his mood by enticing Nate into conversation but the thirteen-year-old had shied away from him, doing is very best to not talk, preferring to keep quiet.

They had, however, had breakfast together, although all conversation was again carried between him and Jason. In a way, it was like Nate wasn't a person at all. He never spoke to them, avoided eye contact as often as possible, and only followed them when they asked him to. If they didn't, he would wander off for hours at a time, finding somewhere to sit in solitude.

And Shane had to admit, he didn't like it. He didn't like it at all.

And what was worse; he was actually starting to worry about the kid.

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Nate wanted to convince himself he was having a good time, but he never even came close. He just wanted everything to be over so that he could go back home. In his thirteen years of being alive, Nate had never been away from his mother for even a single night. Whenever Courtney had gone on business trips or conferences, she had always insisted she bring Nate with her. And now, now he was out in the middle of nowhere all alone and his mother hadn't even bothered to call him once.

That was probably what hurt the most. The first time he'd called and been met with a voice mail, he figured his mother must have been half-way to London. But that didn't explain why she didn't call him back. She still hadn't called him back, and it had been almost a week.

Okay, so that last bit had been a lie. She might have called in the past three days but Nate would never have known, seeing as how he was no longer in possession of his phone. It had been taken from him the fourth day of camp and he hadn't seen it since. He'd been tempted to report the theft to Director Brown but a well-placed threat had been enough to make him back down and forget the idea completely.

Nate was in the process of walking up from the lake where he'd been working on his lyric structure assignment when two familiar voices reached his ears, filling him with dread.

"Heya Nate," said the blond Kyle. "How's our favourite camper doing today?"

"Fine," he mumbled, trying to break away but being stopped when an arm was thrown over his shoulder.

"Aw, come on," mock-whined the older of the pair, Dylan. "We're just starting to get along, aren't we?"

Nate glanced up at the two boys flanking him nervously. It was because of them that he was now cell phone-less.

"No," he snapped, agitated for once. "We weren't, so leave me alone."

That was obviously the wrong thing to say because he suddenly found himself pinned to a tree, a firm hand pressing onto his chest with enough pressure to cause pain.

"What was that?" Dylan snarled, raising an eyebrow.

"I just-"

"You don't get to 'just' anything," Kyle interrupted, smacking him up the side of his head. "You don't belong here and you know it. You're too little, too fragile. No one wants you here, little baby Nate. So cute, waiting for his mommy to call."

Nate found himself pricking up against his will when Kyle extracted his stolen Blackberry from his pocket, shaking it teasingly.

"You want it back baby?" Dylan asked in a fake display of sympathy. "You want it back to see if Mommy's called?"

"Give it back," Nate said, surprising himself with how level his voice sounded.

"That's not how we ask for things," Kyle laughed, wagging a finger tauntingly.

"Can I have it back, please?" Nate grumbled scathingly, holding out a hand.

Dylan growled at the attitude and pulled him away from the tree only to slam him back into it, Nate gasping as pain shot up his back, eyes closing as he tried to force tears away.

"If you want this phone so badly, you better damn beg for it," Dylan snarled, Kyle's face splitting into a smirk, casually rolling the cell in his palm.

Glancing between the phone, his only link to home, and the ground, Nate finally decided that his dignity meant less to him than the ability to speak to his mother. Facing burning with humiliation, he sunk to his knees, head bowing in shame.

"Please," he begged, hands forming shaking fists at his sides. "Please, please, can I have it back?"

There was a moment of silence and then it was shattered by laughter. "You're pathetic," Dylan scoffed, grabbing the cell from his friend and flinging it as far as it could, causing the Blackberry to land in the lake, promptly sinking out of sight.

"No!" Nate cried, launching to his feet only to be shoved back, Kyle pushing him hard enough to have him falling onto his back.

"What a loser," Kyle remarked, sneering down at him. "Why did you even bother coming here? Come back when you grow a pair and can actually prove that you deserve to be here."

With that, the troublesome duo left and Nate pushed himself up, scrubbing away his tears furiously. Rubbing his hands on his jeans, Nate looked out at the lake sorrowfully, swallowing in a vain attempt to stop more tears from falling. He didn't like this and he didn't want to be here; not in the slightest.

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A week later Shane opted out of going owl-hunting with Jason, something his fellow fifteen-year-old begged him to do every night, and made a point of heading straight back to his cabin. He was just about to bound up the stairs that led to their cabin door when a voice called him back.

"Shane!"

It was Jason.

"Hey Jason," Shane called, shoving his hands in his pocket as he turned to his other cabin mate. "What are you doing?"

"Going owl hunting," he said, as though it was obvious. "And why aren't you coming?"

"I wanna talk to Nate," Shane replied softly, glancing at the cabin behind him. "He's been too quiet lately. Jason, something isn't right."

Jason made a thoughtful face. "Maybe he's just always this quiet. It's not like he ever talks anyway. The longer he stays here, the quieter he gets." He shrugged. "Maybe that's just how he is."

"No way," Shane said firmly. "He suddenly got really quiet about a week ago. And there's something wrong with that. You go ahead," he added in a cheerful tone that was mostly faked. "I'll catch up with you once I make sure Nate's okay."

"Okay!" Jason agreed, brightening at the news that Shane would still be joining him. Without further input, he bounded off into the night, heading for the dense forest behind their cabin.

Shaking his head in amusement, Shane scaled the stairs behind him and pushed open their cabin door. What he saw when he opened it though was absolutely not what he was expecting. Nate's bags had all been packed and the younger teen was just shoving his final things into his knapsack when Shane hastily entered.

"Nate?" he called, shocking himself with the urgency his tone held.

"Shane!" Nate squeaked, startled, whirling around to face him.

"What's going on?" Shane demanded, striding across the room to stand in front of his cabin mate.

"Shane," Nate said, eyes meeting his before dropping to the floor. "I'm leaving Camp Rock."

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A/N: ah yes, another cliff-hanger. I always wanted it to come to this, it just happened a little bit more quickly than I expected. So obviously, our boys have some things to work through. Leave me a review on the way out to show that you care! And thank you to everyone who has commented thus far; you guys really make my day! :)

DG777