LOST AND FOUND | A Camp Rock Story |

Chapter Five.

Dee was delighted to be reacquainted with Caitlyn, and set her straight to work on hanging up the decorations and setting up the sound system. The time flew by in a blur of bunting and mic tests and the next thing that Caitlyn knew, the rest of the campers were flocking in groups into the hall.

She fixed the final tuning problem and took it as her cue to leave the stage and help with ushering the students in. She ducked in and around the crowd, avoiding the Kylie girl as if her life depended on it. She found Nate at the side of the stage just as Brown was getting up to announce the first act.

It felt like the campers enthusiasm and excitement was rubbing off on her, she started smiling and swaying to the music that the campers played.

"Seems like yesterday we were up on that stage huh?" Nate leaned his shoulder against her to whisper his question in her ear.

She smiled, "Yeah it does." But in other ways it seemed like an age. They had been so young and carefree, now look at the two of them, broken and hiding out from the world.

"Are you going to perform for them?" He asked.

She rolled her eyes in jest, "How exactly? I'm not allowed dance like I usually do, and Mitchie isn't here to produce for anymore."

"I've heard you sing." He pointed out, immediately causing a blush rise in her cheeks. That was right, he had, one of the few who did. But nobody knew just how much she loved it. Singing was something she kept all for herself. "Hey, we sounded pretty good together, we should give them a duet."

It took everything in her to not cry at his words. She kept her gaze solely focused on the performers and bit her lip hard. She didn't know if they were happy or sad tears. For a girl who had always commended herself for being confident, it had been terrifying singing with Nate.

She sang backup for Tess, and then even for Mitchie, but when she had finally gathered enough of her confidence to sing with Nate, he had never spared her a second glance once Dana started joining in.

She didn't know whether she was nearly crying because she was sad he had assumed wrongly that singing for other people came easily to her or because she was ecstatic that he had remembered singing with her at all.

She shrugged and cleared her throat, hoping to keep her voice even, "I don't really sing though. Background, I'm good, but otherwise it's not really my thing."

"Okay." He smiled easily, dropping the subject. She let out a breath she didn't realise that she was holding. Usually people kept picking at her, kept prodding at the fact that she didn't want to sing. But Nate, she realized, was too sweet for that.

"Hey, maybe I can convince Jason and Shane to drop in for a surprise performance." He said, clapping at the girl group that was leaving the stage. "If I can get them to come off their holidays..."

"I think everyone would love that." Caitlyn replied, but she felt uneasy, like someone was watching her. She turned her head slightly, and with a small smile playing on her lips, she leaned back over to Nate. "But I think everyone would appreciate if you played a song now." She told him, nodding her head in the direction where half the camp were staring in their direction.

Nate rose his eyebrows at the scene behind them, and then shrugged, "I'll ask Brown." He whispered back, before shuffling past a few other counsellors and out around the other side of the stage. She missed his presence at her side immediately.

The next performance, a duet, was followed by Brown taking the stage for a final call for applause for all the performers before introducing Nate as a surprise performer. Nate took his place behind the microphone, with his electric guitar, and asked the crowd of campers to sing along to one of Connect Three's biggest upbeat hits. Caitlyn could tell he was nervous, he kept glancing to his left and kept twirling the guitar pic in his hand before he started, but he started to sing it all faded away.

He started playing, the melody infecting the space of the auditorium while his eyes sought her out. When their eyes met, Caitlyn tried to ignore the spark that burned in her heart.

 A fire, she had thought, that had been put out a long, long time ago. 

She swallowed the impact of the sudden emotions and gave him a thumbs up a huge smile.

She loved his singing, she always had. It always had the ability to make her forget anything but the sound of his voice intertwined in a melody that he made.

Apparently the crowd loved his singing too, as they sang the song word for word back at him. Music always made him happy, but she could see that he missed his brothers. There were constant rumours in the media that Connect 3 were always on the verge of 'disconnecting', but Caitlyn knew differently.

They all loved what they did. And they worked well together. There wasn't a chance of them breaking up, they were all too invested in playing together. Sure they all had their side projects to have a bit of independence, Jason and his burgeoning record label, Nate and his song writing and Shane and his music agent-esque role he had carved out for himself, but the band was their life.

The crowd were still roaring even as he left the stage and while he made his way over to her again. "I have to make sure my campers are in their cabins by curfew, but did you get sorted with Brown?"

"Kind of..." She told him. "If you don't mind, you have a new roommate for the summer..." She smiled sheepishly.

"No, I'd never mind Caitlyn! This is will be great. Summer keeps getting better." He smiled before excusing himself to deal with the campers. She watched him go, before getting back up on the empty stage and helping to tidy everything away.

The moon was shining brightly, and the campers asleep, before Caitlyn made her way back to her new cabin. The lake was glistening and the entire place was nearly silent, like a comfortable blanket wrapped around her as she wandered back.

She let herself in, the room was empty but she could hear the shower running. So she set about putting her clothes away, and was half way through sorting out her own music equipment when the door to the bathroom opened and whatever she was going to say got suddenly caught in her throat.

Because Nate Gray was walking around their cabin in nothing but a towel.

Thanks so much for reading! Hope you're enjoying it! Next update will be up on Sunday :)