Shine On Me Chapter 11, a camp rock fanfic

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN CAMP ROCK OR ITS ORIGINAL CHARACTERS, NOR DO I OWN ANY SONGS OR QUOTES THAT MAY APPEAR IN THIS FIC!

Chapter 10:

Mitchie's P.O.V.

The next day (Tuesday):

I got up the next morning and went straight for the shower seeing as the girls had picked out my outfit last night. I dressed in the really cute black and cream-colored two-tone techno lace top that Sierra let me barrow, some black leggings, and a pair of cream-colored heels. I accessorized with gold hoops, a cuff bangle, a cute glasses ring I borrowed from Caitlyn, and a cute tote.

Once dressed, I went down stairs to help mom like I always do and after eating, I went to get Sarah and was again surprised to see her up & waiting for me for the second day in a row.

"Mama," she said with a sleepy smile, reaching up for me to pick her up.

"Hey bunny," I greeted her. "What's up with the early rising? You feeling ok?" I felt her forehead but she felt fine. Hmm... Maybe she's just getting into the pattern of school early. I got her ready, grabbed my bag, and headed back downstairs.

"Bye mom, bye dad" I called as I opened the door to head out to Sierra and the others who had piled into her brothers car again. We all agreed to ride to school together and talk about the meeting later.

"Bye kid," my dad said giving Sarah and I a kiss on the cheek before walking past to get in his car to go to work.

"Bye girls," mom waved as she walked up the stairs. "I'll see you later."

As soon as I returned from the car from taking Sarah inside, the guys jumped on me all at once.

"Are you excited?"

"What are you guys doing for your date?"

"Do you think you're getting a contract?"

"Guys!" I shouted over them. They quieted down. "Yes, I'm very excited. I get to record in a real studio and meet some really important people. I have no clue what we're doing after the recording and it's not a date!" I said causing them to laugh. "I don't know if they'll offer me a contract or not, but I don't think I'd sign one without you guys."

"What, why?" asked Sierra.

"Because you're the ones who talked me into going on alone in Final Jam in the first place, I don't think it's fair if I get a contract off of something we all do together." I admitted.

"That's stupid," Michael said looking at me cross-eyed.

"Why is that stupid?" I asked.

"You're talented Mitchie. If you get offered a contract you should take it. Just because we don't sign with you, doesn't mean you're ditching us or something. You deserve it," Jared said looking back at me from the passenger seat.

"Besides, if you get signed you can go on tour and travel with Nate and you should take that opportunity and run with it, 'cause that's the only way you're getting away from us snoopers." Caitlyn said laughing while the others agreed.

"Okay, listen," I started.

"Uh-oh, the speech voice," Michael groaned.

"Yes, the speech voice. You are all going to cut the Nate thing out. We're not dating and we're never going to date. Let it die."

"Mitchie, he likes you. Everyone can see that boy likes you and we all know you like him back. Why do you keep fighting the dating thing so hard?" asked Sierra.

"Because he's a friend, that's all."

"Friends she says!," Michael scoffed. "I'm your friend, I have been for years and I don't look at you the way he does."

"What way?"

"The same way you look at him when you think no body's looking," accused Caitlyn. "All we're saying is give him a chance; if he messes it up we can track him down and beat him with a sack of potatoes, but at least give him a chance to get to that point." We all laughed at that and the heavy mood lifted from the car as Sierra pulled into the parking lot of the school.

The day moved pretty fast. It was filled with droning speeches about what to expect in classes for the year, conversations about what was to happen later that day, and a text or two from Nate. We decided to do something low-key for after the meeting. He didn't want us getting hounded while we were out.

Everything was fine until lunch. Natalia and her puppets decided to pay us another visit.

"Wow! Two days in a row! We're setting trends this year, I see," Sierra rolled her eyes.

"Trends!" Natalia scoffed.

"You losers couldn't be a part of a trend even if you were one!" Megan lamely tried to follow with an insult, failing miserably. We all just looked at her.

"Shut up!" Natalia sneered at her then turned back to our table. "We were headed out for actual food when we saw Itchy Mitchie has her "goods" on display. Finally found a date or are you meeting up with a client later?"

"Yeah, it's your father." I shot back causing my friends and some of hers to laugh. I'm sick of her. This will end this year.

"My father wouldn't touch you with another man's dick," she said glaring. "How's the bastard? She find her daddy yet?" she asked loudly and once again the cafeteria quieted down to hear what would happen next.

"Sadly I already know who her father is, she never will if I have a say, and she's not a bastard. She also has a name, it's Sarah."

"Oh, please! You've made up so much shit, it's hard to believe the ankle bitter is even your real daughter," by that point everyone was looking on with bated breath waiting to see what would unfold from this, even the teachers who were on duty. "Face it Mitchie, you're one of them. You thought you could hold on and make a one nighter last, but you failed, like you do with everything," she said with a small laugh. "It's okay sweety, the best of us have our failures... well, some worse than others," She said in a fake sympathetic voice.

I pushed her hand off of my shoulder. "And you'd know all about that wouldn't you sweety? I ignored him for the longest time and he still chased me, while you did everything in the world just to get him to look at you," I said getting in her face and she flinched at my words. "You have the biggest failure of all under your belt. Everyone in this town falls at your feet, but the one person you wanted passed you up for plain old me. It was fun being in someone else's shoes for a change wasn't it? I'd say I wish I was in yours, but I don't want the sad life of a girl that's spent the past three years sobbing and whining over someone who clearly didn't give a damn about her."

Her face turned redder than the three-inch shorts and matching thong she had on and with no warning at all, Natalia swung. Yes! I celebrated internally as the brawl began. I've been waiting to do this for a long time!

We fought for a good five minutes before the teachers and security finally made their way through the rushing crowd of chanting kids to pull us apart.

Natalia's face was pretty bruised already and I knew it would be ugly in a few hours. She also had a busted lip that looked pretty bad.

"To the office!" one of the security guards holding one of my arms yelled, as he pulled me in the direction of the cafeteria doors.

Sierra and Caitlyn were high fiving and gave me thumbs up as I walked out of the cafeteria.

My and Natalia's moms were called in and, not to anyone's surprise, I was suspended for the rest of the week, while queen Natalia got nothing. Happy freaking Monday to me!

Natalia and her mother made empty threats to press charges, but were talked out of it by Principal Ramirez who thought it best to "let it go this time".

My mom and I left the office first and I was waiting to hear her start a lecture about violence not being an answer, but when we made it to the car and I still hadn't heard anything, I looked at her from the corner of my eye. She was just looking ahead, no trace of anger on her face.

"You're not mad?"

"Not at you, no; I don't have any reason to be. You defended yourself. I'd be angry if you didn't, after she hit you, though you could have just ignored her in the first place. Remember, sweetheart, people can't argue-"

"With their selves," I said completing the saying she had said since I was little. "I know. I just got tired of her taking cheap shots at me. It's the only thing she has to use against me and she milked it dry about two years ago."

"Let's get you home and see if we can fix that swelling ," she said reaching over and tilting my head to see the forming bruise on my cheek from Natalia's cheap shot.

"It's not that bad."

"Yeah, but still. What do you want to do about your meeting? Are you feeling up to it?"

I let out a sigh. Today wasn't supposed to go this way, but.. "I'll probably call the guys and tell them I have to reschedule. I'm not up to it now,"

I flopped down on my bed and read the texts from Sierra and the others, right after hers, asking if I was okay, saying how proud they were, that they'd get my work for me for the rest of the week, and to tell them about the meeting and date (that wasn't a date) later.

Just as I was about to text back to let them know I was canceling, Nate texted to see how classes were going. I decided to call him and get the conversation over with.

"Hey," he greeted. "Aren't you in school?"

"I was; I got suspended."

"For what?" He sounded concerned.

"Fighting Natalia, the pride and joy of the town. Just think of an older Tess with less money, fewer resources, and even less recognition."

"Hm... I'm not sure which is worse, that there's such a low quality grade of people personality wise or that there's basically two Tess Tylers." We both laughed at that.

"I'm not sure either now that I think about it."

"So, what led to this little brawl?"

"She was making smart comments and got mad when I fired back, so she hit me and it all started from there"

"Why doesn't she like you?"

"She hasn't liked me in years, not since everything with Mica. She still holds the grudge over him liking me instead of her, like everyone else did and still does for the most part. I'd say I would have loved to switch places with her, but I don't think I would like being the type of girl who holds on to hope of getting someone like him for so long, even if she is ignorant to what he did, he wasn't a good person before it all happened. I don't think I'd wish that on another person either, not even her."

"Good, that just means you're as good of a person as I believe you are. So long as you're alright, everything's good. Do you know if you can still hang out after the meeting?"

"I'm gonna have to reschedule the meeting; my face is a little swollen from her cheap shot and i'm not up for meeting all those important people looking like this..." I said with a sigh.

"Oh, well that sucks... If you're up for it, we can still go somewhere and hang. I can let everybody know there was an emergency and you and me can go do something fun. The whole day doesn't have to ruined because of her." He offered and it made me smile. He still wants to go! my inner voice squealed.

"Sure. I'll see you soon!"

At the park in Mitchie's neighborhood:

Nate showed up at my house about an hour later and we ended up getting burgers from Burger King. Nate admitted to not having any in almost a year while we were driving past and I made him turn back around and get us some. That's just criminal! Healthy, but criminal!

We then headed for the park because I knew that that'd be the quietest, least crowded place for us to sit and talk. Also, because my friends wouldn't expect us to have gone there so they wouldn't be present to snoop. We sat and joked and shared stories about ourselves and our families.

"I woke up to see Shane standing over me with a flat iron. Jase was supposed to record it, but he got distracted by a bird flying passed the window and dropped his cell."

"Wow. That's not as bad as Sarah's clothes rebellion. She had a thing against clothes a year ago. Whenever we put something on her, she'd take it right back off when you turned your back. I tried to get her into a dress one day and she flipped. She tried to run out of the house and she would have made it, too had she been able to climb the safety gate on the stairs," I laughed remembering my crazy baby and her hyperactivity. "She went to daycare and as soon as I left, her teacher called me and said she wouldn't put her clothes back on! I shouldn't be laughing at that, but it was hilarious."

"Oh wow. Didn't picture Sarah being a streaker," said Nate laughing.

"Please don't jinx me! At this point in time she's leaning towards it, though we've gotten her to keep her clothes on for the greater part of the year so we'll see," I joked. "Dad said he only had a small incident with her not wanting to change from her pajama pants to a skirt, so we're moving in the right direction. Speaking of right directions, did Shane ever play this song he played for me at camp?"

"What song?"

"He never told me if he had named it, but the chorus was really beautiful. You're the voice I hear inside my head, the reason that I'm singing. I need to find you. I gotta find you..."

"He never told us about that. It sounds good," he said with that calculating look.

"I was thinking about it earlier and camp in general... I was thinking about the conversations we'd had... I kind of had an idea, but I need to see if Shane would be up for it, since it involves his song,"

"You can talk to me if you want," he offered, putting his half eaten burger down. So far, we'd talked more than we'd eaten.

"Well, I kind of came up with this chorus and I started writing, but I need some help with it," I said meekly.

"I can help if you want," he offered.

"Thanks. We'd need a piano,"

"Come on. There's this really cool place me and the guys go to for our instruments sometimes. The owner, Bobby, even set up a little space for us to go when we go to visit in town. You'll like him, he's one of those people that grow younger as the years go by," he said.

I raised my brow at that. Really?

"Just trust me," he said, helping me up from the bench. We grabbed our trash and wasted burgers and tossed them in the trash before heading for town.

We pulled into town and stopped in front of a really cool, vintage looking music shop. The inside was even better. There were guitars and instruments of all kinds hanging from the walls and displayed out on the floor. Behind the counter, there was a guy, about 40, with shoulder-length dirty blonde hair, blue eyes, and a goatee. He came from behind the counter when he saw Nate and I walk in.

"Nate! What's up dude? I haven't seen you in about a year. I thought you boys forgot me," he said as he greeted Nate with a hug. "And who's this beautiful friend of yours?" he asked with a smile.

"What's up, Bobby? This is Mitchie," Nate introduced me.

"It's nice to meet you," I said offering my hand.

"Friends don't shake around here. Bring it in," said Bobby, opening his arms for a hug causing me to laugh. Why not? I hugged him anyways.

"We came by to see if we could use the room. We need a piano," he said, pointing towards a hall in the back.

"You're always welcome, have at it," Bobby said, gesturing towards the hall which I guessed the room was at the end of.

"Thanks. Come on Mitch." We walked down the hallway and into the room which was a studio much like the one at Lava Records, just a little more downgraded. More of a homey feel, more comfortable.

"Did you guy set this up?" I asked Nate as we walked to the beautiful white grand piano in the center of the room.

"Yeah. Bobby offered the space for a quiet rehearsal and general hangout spot so we set it up our way," Nate responded. "So what's this idea you have?"

"Well I was thinking of some lyrics, but I only got to the chorus," I told him again.

"Well, let's see if we can come up with something," he said and sat at the piano with me.

I've always been the kind of girl
That hid my face
So afraid to tell the world
What I've got to say
But I have this dream
Right inside of me
I'm gonna let it show
It's time to let you know
to let you know

This is real
This is me
I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be now
Gonna let the light shine on me
Now I've found who I am
There's no way to hold it in
No more hiding who I wanna be
This is me...

I stopped playing not knowing what else to put and looked to Nate.

"You remember when we talked about wanting to be different people? We could use that. The song is about finding who you are and being happy with it, but at the same time I feel like it should reflect on what you feel in the bad times; we all want to be someone else when something in our lives are going bad, I know I do. We could put something like that into the song," he suggested as he put his fingers to the keys and began playing the melody. He began to sing.

Do you know what it's like
To feel so in the dark
To dream about a life
Where you're the shining star
Even though it seems
Like it's too far away
I have to believe in myself
It's the only way

He bumped me with his knee as he continued playing and mouth 'chorus'. I joined him in singing.

"That's perfect! Now we just have to get my idea to work; I wanted to merge Shane's song into this one. The chords and notes are perfect and the songs go really well together. Do you think Shane would want to?" I asked hoping I could do the project. I really liked where this song was going and it was perfect for the duet with the guys.

"I think he would. The song's great already and it's not even done yet. I think we should try to finish it and we can definitely get him and the others to agree once they hear it. It's perfect for you," he said smiling.

We continued working on the song and writing down the music and lyrics until the song was finally complete.

...

Now I've found who I am
There's no way to hold it in
No more hiding who I wanna be
This is me

As the last note of the song resonated through the room I couldn't help but launch myself at Nate into a hug.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! This is great! This would have never happened without your help. You are awesome!" I said with a smile big enough to tear my face in half. He hugged me back smiling as well.

"We're just a good team," he said looking directly at my eyes. Something shifted then and I couldn't bring myself to look away, though my cheeks were growing warmer by the minute. I felt like everything I wanted was in that moment and I wasn't sure if I should be scared or happy. Without any warning, he leaned forward and kissed me.

What the hell is he doing? One part of me asked in a panic. Shut up and kiss the boy! The other part of me yelled. The panicked side won and I pulled away.

"I can't" I said with a shake of my head.

"Did I do something?" Nate asked with a cute pink tint to his cheeks and he looked just as embarrassed as me.

"Uh... No, I just... Um..." I was at a loss on how to explain myself. This is not happening! Why can't I just let this be?

"I need to go," I said and made a mad dash for the door.

"Wait, Mitchie!" Nate called a few steps behind me. He just barely managed to catch my arm as I made it out the front door of the shop. I tried so hard not to look at him but it couldn't be helped and seeing the confusion and hurt flash across his face broke my heart. "What's wrong?"

"I just... I can't," I said desperately wanting him to understand. "I'm sorry," I told him pulling away as I practically ran down the street. Not knowing what else I could possibly do, I ducked into a small coffee shop hoping to avoid Nate if he chased after me.

"So stupid," I muttered to myself as I plopped down into a booth in the back. "I should have known better..."

"Can I get you something?" asked the barista. She had short light brown hair, was a little taller than me, looked to be a few years older too.

"No, I'm okay. I was just leaving," I told her getting up.

"Um... it's none of my business but... are you sure you're okay?" she asked hesitantly. "I saw you run in here. You looked scared of something. Do you need the cops or something?"

"Oh no! No, I don't need any cops... It's just... Life really sucks sometimes you know?"

"What's going on?" she asked motioning for me to sit.

Why not? Some of the best advice comes from strangers. Maybe she'll be of some use.

"Well there's this guy that I like, and he just admitted that he likes me and I'm scared," I started pouring my life story out to her.

"Why? He's not a bad person is he?"

"No, he's great, really great. That's the problem; I'm not like him. I'm scared if I let this happen then it'll be my own fault when it doesn't work out," I admitted. There, I said it.

"Well, the only thing I can say to that is you'll hurt more from the regret of not trying than if you do try and it doesn't work out. My dad always says you can't avoid fate; you can only detour and that's like taking continuous left turns. It gets you nowhere," the barista said with a smile.

"I guess so," I agreed.

"Danni Michaels," she said offering her hand.

"Mitchie Torres," I shook her hand.

"You feel better now?"

"Definitely. Now I just have to figure out how to talk to him and not back out or sound stupid," I said and Danni laughed.

"I'm sure you'll do fine. If you're alright, I have to get back to work," she said with an assuring and polite smile. "Are you sure you don't want anything?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. Thanks Danni."

"No problem. Come back any time," she said as she turned to leave.

"Hey Danni," I called, reaching into my purse. "Here," I placed a twenty in her hands.

"What's this for?"

"Great service. You really helped me out," I said with a smile. I gathered my things and walked for the door.

I really hope he's still here. I thought as I pushed the door to Bobby's shop open.

A/N: There are 3,936 words in this chapter excluding the author's notes and little "markers" (P.O.V.'s, location, days, etc.). The suspense in this crappy chapter is so real! We're starting out with a little conflict, we'll see what happens later. I'm really happy to get into the relationship aspect of this whole thing especially with the pairing. I love Nitchie! Remember to review! I can't improve much without feedback on what needs to be fixed.