A/N: Thanks, as always, for the reviews and alerts. I am glad you're all enjoying this.

:)
Kadence

Disclaimer: Camp Rock and its characters are the property of the Disney Channel. I own nothing…I merely borrow for my amusement, as well as yours.

Chapter 5

By now, overcome with emotion from the lyrics of the song, Bailey had tears streaming down her face. She bowed as the crowd applauded and cheered, but quickly took her exit, walking offstage calmly before finding a corner to hide in backstage as she slumped the floor and fell apart.

"Wow, she is remarkable, isn't she?" Brown asked, having hurried onstage to wrap up the show. While he wasn't sure what had brought on her reaction, Brown knew that Bailey was still struggling with her emotions, so he quickly ended the evening and dismissed the campers.

"That was amazing," Shane said. "You were all great."

"She so beautiful on stage, isn't she?" Mitchie said. "I so wish I could do that."

"What do you think happened up there?" Caitlyn asked.

"I'm going to talk to her," Jason said.

**********

"You've got to tell Schiff to get me out of here," Bailey said. "I can't do this."

"I know it's hard, but you've got to stay in hiding," the agent replied. "Anywhere else we put you, you'll just be by yourself. Wouldn't you rather stay here with kids your own age? Dancing?"

"I guess," Bailey said. "But how do I go back to my life after this?"

"You'll just take it one day at a time," the agent said. "I've got to get out of here before I'm seen. Are you going to be okay?"

"I'll be fine," Bailey said.

The agent headed off, leaving Bailey alone. She was sitting on a big rock behind the stage, her tears still falling.

"All of these tears, time will dry them," Bailey said, singing Mitchie's lyrics to herself softly. "I will survive them, and make it through into another day."

"Bailey?" Jason said. "Bailey, are you back here?"

Jason heard singing and followed the sound until he reached Bailey.

"Hey," Jason said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "What happened up there?"

"Nothing. I'm fine," Bailey said a bit sharply, brushing her tears away.

"It's okay," Jason said. "You don't have to talk to me. I just kind of thought we were friends."

"I'm sorry," Bailey said.

"Mitchie writes some powerful songs, doesn't she?" Jason said, sitting down next to her.

"She does," Bailey said. "I thought she was with Shane though. That's a pretty emotional breakup song for someone in a happy relationship."

"Mitchie draws her inspiration from herself, and from people she knows," Jason said. "She wrote that for her friend Sierra after Sierra's boyfriend cheated on her."

"Well she's very talented," Bailey said. "Those lyrics are amazing."

"Your dancing is amazing," Jason said. "There's so much emotion in it."

"I think part of that was the song," Bailey said. "I guess it kind of effected me and I threw myself into the dance. I do that a lot because I love telling a story onstage, but this time..."

"The song reminded you of something?" Jason asked.

"Oh yeah," Bailey said.

"That's just the sign of a good artist, dancer or singer," Jason said. "You want to talk about it."

"I can't," Bailey said.

"Too soon?" Jason asked.

"It's too hard," Bailey said.

"If it's some guy, he doesn't deserve you," Jason said.

"Thanks," Bailey said. "I wish it was that simple."

"Well I'm here if you want to talk," Jason said.

"I appreciate that," Bailey said.

The two sat in silence for a few minutes and Jason just watched the beautiful redhead as she cried. When she shivered from a breeze, Jason put his arm around her and Bailey leaned closer to him. She could feel herself falling and knew it would only cause trouble, but at the moment, Bailey didn't care. Jason had been kind to her, he was funny and he was definitely attractive.

'No,' Bailey thought. 'I can't do this. Bailey's not real. I can't let him get involved with a girl who's not going to exist in two months.'

Meanwhile, Jason was thinking about how right it felt to be holding her.

"Aw, they look so cute," Mitchie said, as she, Shane, Nate and Caitlyn watched from a distance.

Jason had his arms around Bailey and was gently rubbing her arm to keep her warm. Bailey had her head on his shoulder and her eyes closed, but her tears had finally subsided.

"We should head back to the cabin before you freeze," Jason said.

"Thanks," Bailey said. "I've just got to get my stuff and change me shoes. I can't walk back to the cabin in these."

Jason grabbed Bailey's dance bag and Bailey took off her modern shoes and slipped her sandals on.

"Ready?" Jason asked.

"Mm hmm," Bailey said with a nod, zipping her bag.

Jason offered her his hand and Bailey hesitated for a brief second, but slipped her hand into his as they began the walk back.

**********

The next morning...

Bailey had managed to get a decent night's sleep the night before, in her bed, after talking with the Jason after the Opening Jam. She was still conflicted about how quickly she was falling for him, and what exactly to do about it, but she knew teaching a bunch of classes all week would keep her pretty distracted.

Currently, she was dressed and brushing her hair, watching Shane flat iron his hair, which he'd been doing for the past thirty minutes, while Nate and Jason were finishing up showering and getting dressed in the two bathrooms.

The boys had originally offered to designate one bathroom as Bailey's alone, but Bailey had quickly rejected that as unnecessary. Especially since the boys appeared to have far more bathroom and hair products than she did. In addition to the dozen kinds of shampoos and conditioners, they had combs, brushes, hair gel, mousse, hair serum, hair wax...it was insane. Bailey had laughed when she first saw it all.

"You know you could probably sleep a little later if you didn't spend so much time on your hair," Bailey said with a smile as she tightly braided her long red hair.

"Shane can't survive without his hair products," Nate said, walking out of the bathroom dressed, towel-drying his hair.

"Yeah, one look in the bathroom kind of gave that away," Bailey said, slipping her sandals on.

"Just be glad Jason gave up on flat-ironing his hair," Nate said. "The two of them would probably blow a circuit."

"Well, I've seen pictures of Jason with straight hair, and I'm kind of partial to the natural, curly look," Bailey said.

"Speaking of Jason, did he find you last night?" Shane asked with a smile, already knowing the answer.

"Shane!" Nate said.

"What? I'm just curious," Shane said.

"Yes," Bailey answered. "And I'm kind of glad he did. It was nice to have someone to talk to. And just to sit with. I haven't had that in a while."

"I guess Mitchie was right about that fifth wheel thing Nate," Shane said.

"No, uh, we're just...just friends," Bailey said. "Um, I'm gonna head to breakfast. See you guys there?"

Bailey didn't wait for an answer; she just quickly grabbed her cell phone and her sunglasses and hurried out of the cabin.

"Nice going genius," Nate said. "She couldn't have gotten out of here fast enough."

"Hey, where's Bailey?" Jason asked. "I thought we were all going to breakfast together."

"Big mouth over there had to ask a bunch of questions about the two of you and scared her off," Nate said.

"Shane!" Jason said, throwing his wet towel at his younger brother.

"What? I'm trying to help you out man," Shane said.

"Do me a favor," Jason said.

"Yeah?" Shane replied.

"Don't," Jason said.

A/N: I know it's a little shorter than the last chapter, but I'm fast-forwarding a few days next and I wanted to break it up a little. Thanks again for reading and reviewing and alerting. I have a plan for when some suspicions about Bailey starting getting raised, but I'm not sure how much time I want to pass before that happens. Any thoughts? Thanks!

Kadence