Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Author's Note: Okay, I think it's time to give the Camp Rock fandom its first challenge. You see, I've been reading in the Life with Derek section for a while, and kept coming across a challenge, called the iPod Song Challenge. It seems incredibly interesting, so I decided: why not try and do it? Basically, the rules for this challenge is that you put your iPod, music player or radio station on (put it on Shuffle if using iPod or other music player) and then write a short Camp Rock fic based on the first ten songs that come up.

Sounds easy, right?

But there's a catch: you only have as long as the song lasts to write the fic. (For me, I'm going to make it a tiny bit easier and allow you to listen to the song as much as you like before you actually start writing, but once you decide to start writing, you have to put the song on and start at the beginning of the song, then stop when the song ends. Unless you're in the middle of a thought, and you can finish your thought if that's the case. Oh, and you can edit it when you're done as well—you just can't rewrite it entirely.)

And, at the end, you have to tag four people to do the challenge after you. :-D

Summary: Music has always been what binds Shane and Mitchie together. Written for the iPod Shuffle Challenge.

The Power of Music
by PiperPaigePhoebe01

1. Take You Back—Jeremy Camp

Mitchie meets him at the dock after Final Jam, nervous. She wasn't sure if Shane would forgive her—she had hurt him. Surely, that song they sang together couldn't cause Shane to forgive her that easily.

"Mitchie," Shane says, looking at her as they join each other.

"Shane."

"Are you all right?"

"Of course," she says. She can't take it any longer—not that she took it all that long to begin with—and so she asks him: "Why did you sing with me a few minutes ago? I don't—I don't—"

"I know you don't understand," he says, taking her hand in his. "And neither do I."

Mitchie looks down, but Shane tilts her head to look at him. "But?" she asks him again. "I lied to you... you shouldn't take me back. I don't deserve you."

Shane laughs.

"Why are you laughing?" Mitchie asks, confused.

"Because you don't give yourself enough credit." He trails off, and Mitchie wonders.

"What else?"

"And it doesn't matter if I shouldn't forgive you. Because I do. And..."

Mitchie waits patiently, biting her lip.

Shane finally continues.

"I do take you back."

And with that, he leans forward, pressing his lips to hers lightly.

2. Breathe—Faith Hill

Mitchie will never understand why Shane is with her. Every morning, when she awakens to Shane's voice on the end of the phone, she is so surprised at the sweetness of his voice, the way he says "Good morning." She won't understand why he never gets fed up with her when she calls him in the middle of the night for song inspiration, and neither will she know how every single one of Shane's kisses tastes as fresh as if it was the first.

And, more than that, she won't understand why Shane can't see how he affects her.

After all, isn't she obvious when her legs tremble slightly as he kisses her, when her eyes brighten considerably whenever he walks into the room? Isn't it obvious how she melts whenever he sings for her?

It's surprising how Shane chose her to be this sweet boyfriend towards.

But it's even more surprising that he doesn't see the way he loves her—she wishes she could make him see that, and the way it affects her. Maybe then it would seem a bit less surreal... but then again, maybe not.

3. Absolutely (Story of a Girl)—Nine Days

Shane just loves it when Mitchie smiles.

He loves other parts of Mitchie's personality, of course, but he absolutely loves it when she smiles. No matter how hard the day had been—for him or for her—her smile always serves to cheer him up. Her smile just lights up her face. She can be wearing the rattiest T-shirt and the most faded jeans in the world, but as long as she's smiling, he can't help admiring her for her beauty.

Her smile shows up in the oddest places, too.

Even though she could be absolutely miserable, it only needs a playful poke in her stomach for her smile to appear on her face. She hates getting her photograph taken, but as soon as Shane gets into the shot with her, she smiles widely—and Shane falls in love with her all again.

And, you know, sometimes he thinks he wouldn't like her as much if she didn't have that full-out, all-teeth-showing smile that melts him every single time.

4. Things I'll Never Say—Avril Lavigne

There are some things Mitchie Torres would never admit to. For one thing, she wouldn't admit to feeling inferior to the other teens at Camp Rock, even though it's quite obvious for anyone who heard about her secret. For another thing, she wouldn't say that she feels constantly under pressure to be perfect. And for the third and last thing, she would never admit that she had fallen for Shane Gray.

Sure, she wants to say that. She wants to say that she loves Shane, that she wants to launch herself into his arms, apologize profusely for ever lying to him, and have him forgive her, but she can't. She stumbles over her words whenever she tries to express this, and so she keeps it hidden, knowing... just knowing that if she said any of it, it would ruin everything.

She couldn't say anything about her liking Shane or secretly wanting to be his girlfriend.

Her thoughts were castles in the clouds, she knew, but...

Was it a bad thing if she didn't mind wishing her life away with those things she'd never say? Was it a bad thing if she wanted the dream of having Shane as a boyfriend to stay forever in her mind and heart?

5. What About Now—Chris Daughtry

She knows that she had hurt him. She knows that he may never forgive her for lying to him, even if he had, after some strange twist of fate, gotten a crush on her. She just knows that if she was him, she wouldn't forgive herself, so...

How could she ask him to?

I can't help it, she thinks. I just want to feel a touch of his grace... I know he has some. I don't deserve any of his grace, yet... with him, he made me happy just being who I was, but...

I blew it.

She sighs.

There's only three days left, and now that she can't participate in Final Jam, there were only a few chances she had to get him to forgive her. But could he? Would he be willing to?

She thinks to a future where he doesn't, but... then she thinks: what about now?

There's no better moment than today, right? For all she knew, this could be the last moment she had to live. And wouldn't it better to have those moments be as happy as possible, without any grudges? What if, what if, what if?

What about now...

She hopes he realizes that forgiveness is perhaps the best thing you can grant to a person, but... she wouldn't be surprised if he didn't realize the same thing she had...

"What about now..." she whispers before walking down to the dock to meet with Caitlyn.

6. If We Were a Movie—Hannah Montana

Mitchie was the only one who wasn't falling all over him and, to be honest, he appreciated that about her. She never seemed fazed about his fame—she seemed to accept that part of him, no strings attached. She never tried to get him to invite her to any parties or get her free stuff. She seemed happy just to hear his music and be with him, unlike all the other people at Camp Rock.

Except it wasn't meant to be, of course.

She was just getting close to him with the intent of hurting him later on. That's what he felt as soon as Tess revealed her secret—he suddenly realized there was nothing possible he could do about this situation now to turn it around.

If this was a movie, of course, something would happen that would cause Shane to forgive her. But of course this wasn't a movie—even though it felt like it sometimes—and there was no use thinking about something impossible occurring.

7. Hold On—B-witched (replace - with asterisk)

Mitchie always felt there was more to life than just living it. For as long as she could remember, she felt that she was put on this world for a reason, however cliched that sounded. She always wanted to follow her dreams, even before she knew what her dreams were—and once she found out her dream of being a singer was within reach, she couldn't help reaching for it.

Unfortunately for her, though, it had not always been easy.

Sure, she had been always been tough when it came to following her dreams, but the summer of her fifteenth year was uncommonly hard. She felt like she was getting pushed into the background and with her, her dreams were becoming less of a reality and more of just that—a dream. When Tess Tyler sabotaged her, she felt stuck. Her dreams were gone, she felt, and she would never make them a reality.

But then her mother helped her.

"It's going to be all right," she said. "Don't run away from what your heart is saying."

Mitchie had done just that. Her heart had told her not to give up on her dreams, and so she hadn't. She managed to shake off Tess. She managed to follow her dreams and even get a boyfriend in the process!

To her, that fifteenth summer was a summer that showed her how close and how far dreams could get, and how tightly you had to hold onto them in order to make them a reality, and she was never going to forget that summer for as long as she lived.

8. If Everyone Cared—Nickelback

"You never dreamed this would happen, did you?" Shane asks Mitchie.

"No," Mitchie said softly.

She snuggles into Shane, but she allows her thoughts to drift away—how she wished everyone could have this happiness! After all, if everyone loved like this, if everyone just cared about other peoples' feelings, imagine how much better the world would be!

But, of course, that was impossible.

If everyone was considerate of everyone else's feelings, then they would be no crying, no more pain, and no more death... and that was impossible. There was going to be sadness and anger, pain and suffering, even though the thought bothered her. But at least mingled in with the sadness and suffering, there was happiness—Shane and Mitchie looking up the stars together, arms wrapped around each other, just content to be with each other.

There was happiness, but there was suffering too.

And the trick of life is to focus more on the happiness and not let the suffering bring you down.

Mitchie smiles at that thought, leaning in to kiss Shane—she was being much too serious for a simple night-time stroll to look at the stars, but still. Maybe these thoughts would come in handy sometime...

9. Hello Beautiful—Jonas Brothers

It was a few months after Mitchie and Shane went back to their respective places after Camp Rock—Mitchie back with her mother to the normal, slightly dorky, life she had, Shane back to the glamorous life of Hollywood, with the constant paparazzi and the hecticness he faced in trying to get a new album out before the end of the year—and they both missed each other like crazy.

Or at least he hopes Mitchie misses him...

"Shane?" Nate says. "What are you thinking about?"

Shane shakes himself out of his thoughts. "Nothing," he says.

And yet it's so much more than nothing—he's thinking about Mitchie and how he wants to see her again. It's surprising, but somehow, things didn't seem as exciting as they used to.

Maybe it's because she's not here.

"I just need to call someone," he says after a few moments, picking up the phone.

Nate nods and walks out of the room.

Shane dials the number that has become so familiar to him. There are two rings, and then a familiar voice comes on the other end.

"Hello," Mitchie says.

Shane smiles. "Hello, beautiful."

10. I Don't Want to Miss A Thing—Aerosmith

It's crazy how mushy Shane's gotten ever since he's started dating Mitchie.

Really, it is.

I mean, how many times before he asked Mitchie to be his girlfriend did he deliberately try to lull someone to sleep just so he could watch her sleep? How many times before he met Mitchie did he pine after someone's company?

It's ridiculous.

Whenever he's away from Mitchie, he misses her. When he dreams about her, it remains just on the inside of his eyelids until he sees her again. When he holds her close, he loves hearing her soft heartbeat go thump, thump—and he wants to stay in that position forever, no matter how long they live. He treasures every moment they spend together, no matter how swift and fleeting it is.

See how ridiculous it is?

It's insane, but he doesn't want to miss one kiss, one smile, one... anything. Before he met Mitchie, he was independent, but now, he's worryingly depending on Mitchie more and more for song inspiration, for happiness, for love.

Of course, he's not dependent on her, but... he needs her.

And Shane Gray has never needed anyone in his life.

Shane doesn't know what he should do with this new-found devotion to a single human being. Part of him doesn't like it, part of him says that a guy shouldn't be this mushy, but then... then...

The stronger part of him defeats those parts.

And, of course, the strongest part of him is the side that doesn't want to miss a moment in the life of Mitchie, no matter how fleeting it is. The strongest part of him is the lovestruck fool... and surprisingly enough, he doesn't mind that title as much as he thought he would.

-

Author's Note: Wheeeee, that was so much fun! Some of them are shamelessly sappy, but I can't help it. I'm a little worried about the characterization and the writing in some, but again, I love them, so I hope you do too!

Oh, and I'm tagging (but of course you can participate even if I didn't tag you):

pyrolyn-776

Shizuku Tsukishima749

PlzBeMineAt705

hollywoodgal205

Hope you want to partake in this challenge (it's super fun, believe me)! Please keep this game going, and don't hesitate to retag me—I really don't mind, considering this was so much fun!

But anyway, hope you enjoyed, and please review!