The Process of Metamorphosis

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: 3, 995

Author's Notes: I always wanted see why Shane stormed off the set to their music video, or at least have Shane try and explain away his actions. Since that never happens, this doesn't do that, but it's just more added Connect 3 jabber I created. Since Nate and Shane are my favourite characters in Camp Rock, they're the main ones in this.

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"No we're not gonna work this out tonight,

(we won't work this out)

No we're not gonna make this right."

- Tonight, by Jonas Brothers

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It was a normal day for Nate; or at least, as normal as days were of late. It started the usual way; which, for Connect 3, consisted of an early wake up call at the ripe time of five in the morning. Nate groaned as he heard his alarm clock blaring in his ears. Stretching out a hand from under the blankets, he tapped the device into silence. Letting his arm flop, Nate took a deep breath before rolling over and pushing his blankets off.

His feet hit the floor with a barely audible thud and he ran a hand through sleep-tousled hair. It was time to wake the others. Yes, someone had come up with the brilliant idea of having Nate wake up Jason and Shane every morning. Jason he could live with, it was Shane that was the problem. With an irritated shake of his head, Nate set off into the next room.

Jason was sprawled across his bed, legs and arms flung in all different directions. The pillow was, of course, on the floor half-way across the room. How it always got there was a mystery to Nate but he wasn't too keen on finding out. Reaching out, he gently shook Jason, pulling the covers back for good measure.

"Huh…?" Jason drawled, eyes opening blearily. "Wha…?"

"Up and at 'em Jason," Nate called. "Time to get up."

"What time is it?"

Nate resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Five o'clock dude. The same time I woke you up yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that. Come on, up and get dressed. Breakfast's in half an hour."

"Mm…ok, I'll be there," Jason answered, stumbling on the covers as he stood up.

The youngest Connect 3 member gave a satisfied nod before heading on to the next room. Shane's room. He sincerely hoped today wasn't going to be anything like yesterday but he knew Shane and Shane was consistent. Rubbing his eyes tiredly, Nate wandered over to Shane's bedside. Their lead diva was buried under his blankets and only the top of his head was visible.

"Shane!" Nate whispered, trying to rouse Shane gently.

Aforementioned singer merely mumbled in response.

"God help me," Nate muttered before reaching out and shaking Shane carefully. "Shane."

No response.

"Sha-ane."

Again, no response.

He shook a little harder.

"Shane!"

"Jesus Nate!" Shane exclaimed, suddenly awake and lashing out with an arm wildly. "What are you doing? Get outta my room. It's too early man."

"Dude, it's already past five o'clock. We have to get up. Breakfast's at five thirty. You can't be late. Again." He added, stressing the 'again'. Shane had been late every day this week, and it was definitely not due to a lack of trying on Nate's behalf.

"Shut up Nate." The pop star pulled his blankets tight around him. "Now, get lost."

"Shane you have to get up!" Nate implored. "Jason is already up. I'm up. That only leaves you. Get up, have a shower, and do whatever it is you need to do. Put product in your hair. You got to sleep-in yesterday."

"Six-thirty is hardly a sleep in," Shane snapped back, glaring at Nate.

"It is when filming starts at seven," came the retort. "Shane, please!"

"Oh just shut up Nate!" Shane yelled angrily. "You go, I'll be there."

Nate shot him a look that was clearly disbelieving. Shane didn't take that too well. Before Nate had time to move, Shane was out of bed and gripping his arm tightly. Roughly, Shane dragged his band-mate to his door and practically threw Nate through it, slamming the door in his face. Nate regained his footing just before he crashed into the carpet. Growling, he kicked the now closed door as hard as he could.

Hearing Shane's resultant mad yell, Nate dashed off back to his room. Grabbing the outfit that had been left hanging on his door by their stylist the night before, Nate made for the bathroom and leapt inside, hastily locking the door behind him. Throwing the clothes haphazardly on the floor, he raced to the shower and turned the water on full.

Creeping back to the door and placing an ear against it, Nate could hear Shane right on the opposite side of the door, huffing. As he listened, Shane stalked away, convinced that Nate was already in the shower. Nate winced when he heard some crashing noises. He just hoped it wasn't his guitar that had suffered the brunt of Shane's wrath.

When Nate was absolutely certain that Shane had returned to his own room, he undressed, straightened the clothes he had thrown down earlier and then jumped into the shower. Yep, situation normal so far. He ran his hands down his face in exasperation. Shane was becoming too much for him to handle.

That too was becoming normal.

()~~~~~()~~~~~()~~~~~()

It was five-thirty and breakfast was underway. The director of their music video was supposed to be arriving in a few minutes to join them and have a quick meeting on today's schedule. Nate was hardly surprised when there was no sign of Shane. Earlier, when Nate had finally left the bathroom, he had soon discovered that everything that had been on his bedside tables had been forcibly moved to the floor, courtesy of Shane. He had hardly expected his band-mate to show up their morning meal on time.

"Hey Nate," Jason said round a bite of waffle. "Where's Shane?"

Nate shrugged. "I don't know. You go find him."

"Whoa man," Jason replied, holding up his hands in a placating gesture. "I was just wondering."

"Yeah, sorry," he answered with a sigh, placing down his cutlery. "He's just driving me crazy."

"Heh, it's not just you. He's driving everyone crazy." Jason paused, looking remotely thoughtful for a second. "I don't remember him driving me crazy when we first met."

"Because he didn't," Nate stated darkly. "He used to be cool, normal, down-to-earth. Now he's just whatever. And whatever 'whatever' is, it's bad publicity."

"Yeah, but we're Connect 3," pointed out Jason, obviously missing the gravity of the situation. "Any publicity is good right?"

"Sure," Nate scoffed. "Unless it's Shane-publicity, and then it's just annoying. I mean, when did Shane become so self-centred? This band is Connect 3; there's three of us. It's not all about him. I think I liked the old Shane better."

"Sorry to disappoint."

Jason froze and Nate felt the colour drain from his face as he slowly turned around. With dread, he saw that Shane was standing in the doorway and had indeed heard the majority of their conversation. While he had had it up to here with Shane, it was never something that Nate would have wanted Shane to hear in a context like this. As he imagined, Shane looked downright furious.

"Shane, I-"

"Save it Nate," Shane interrupted, throwing himself into a chair at the table. "It's obvious that you meant what you said so don't bother going 'oh, I didn't really mean it'. You think I'm stupid? If you really hate me, then just say it. I'm not gonna cry to my mother."

Every guilty feeling Nate had promptly left. "I don't hate you Shane," he said sharply, "I'm just sick of you. That clear enough for you?"

And with that, Nate threw down his napkin and left the table, heading over to the tv and flicking it on absently. The first channel that came on was the sport channel. Nate was in the process of reaching for the remote to switch stations when Shane called out:

"Change the channel Nate, I hate watching sport."

Nate shot a murderous look at Shane but the older boy was already engrossed in his breakfast. With the sole purpose of spiting Shane, Nate grabbed the remote and simply turned the volume louder, pretending to be totally fascinated by the hockey game that was being shown.

"Nate!" Shane yelled.

Nate ignored him.

"God Nate," Shane said, walking over and giving him a patronising look. "You're so immature. I know you hate sport as much as I do."

Reaching down, Shane wrenched the remote out of Nate's unsuspecting hands and changed the tv over to the music station. Chucking the remote down, he started to walk away when Nate quickly grabbed it and turned the sport back on. Nate gave Shane a challenging look. Shane looked at him like he'd just said the most unamusing thing ever, to which Nate simply raised an eyebrow.

Rolling his eyes, Shane held out a hand, clearly expecting Nate to just hand over the remote. Nate eyed the hand in disbelief and turned his eyes back to the plasma screen wordlessly. Shane snarled and stormed over. With a knee, he pinned Nate's legs down and used both his hands to rip the remote free. Pressing the button on the remote much harder than was necessary, Shane put the music station back on. Nate went to grab the remote but Shane pushed him down, flinging the remote away as hard as he could.

There was loud, shattering crash and everyone turned around to see a gaping hole in the window behind Shane. Jason leapt from the table and ran straight over. Nick was staring at Shane with wide eyes. Shane, for his part, just shrugged after he saw the broken window. He figured that since it was already broken, that was that and nothing more could be done.

"Are you insane?" Nate demanded, shoving Shane off and sending him toppling to the floor. The young guitarist quickly ran to the window. "This is not good."

"Hey look," Jason said, pointing with a finger. "I can see the remote! It's down in the pool! See Nate!"

Shane came over, intrigued and a little pleased with himself. Joining Jason at the window, he positively beamed when he caught sight of the remote in the pool floors below.

"Alright!" he cheered, giving Jason a high-five.

"Guys!" Nate cut in, his demeanour exuding everything but amusement. "This isn't a laughing matter. Jason, you shouldn't be joking about this, this is serious. And Shane, you can't just throw a remote through a window because you feel like it."

"Well I wouldn't have had to throw it out if you'd just left it on the channel I wanted," Shane responded.

"This is not my fault!" Nate said. "You can't always get what you want-"

"You can't?" Jason asked.

"-so stop acting like everything revolves around you," Nate continued, ignoring Jason easily.

"Oh stop being such an old-fuss pot Nate," Shane sneered. "We're rock stars. People expect this kind of stuff from us."

"See Jason?" Nate asked, turning to their third band member. "This is a perfect example of Shane-publicity. It's ok to break a window because I'm famous. If I didn't, I would be a let down to the whole rock and roll community."

"You know what Nate?" Shane said, looking at him intently. "You say I'm full of it, but you're just as bad. You always think you know what is right, how each of us should act, what we should say, and you always think that you're the only one who can handle a situation responsibly."

"And aren't I?" Nate shot back, eyebrows raised.

Shane was about to tell Nate exactly what he thought of him – almost all of which would have been extremely derogatory – when the door to their suite opened. As one, the members of Connect 3 turned around. Their director, Kay Simmons, smiled at them as he walked in, frowning when he caught sight of the window.

"Wha-"

"Oh," Shane said, cutting Kay off before he could even start. The pop-star slung an arm over Nate's shoulders, all smiles. "I was just telling Nate off. Can you believe he threw the tv remote out the window because he couldn't find anything he wanted to watch on tv?"

Jason's mouth dropped open in disbelief but Nate merely huffed; he'd seen it coming. The director looked at him with something akin to shock and Nate merely shrugged.

"Yeah," he answered flippantly. "I realise now how irresponsible and immature it was." The grip on his shoulders by Shane tightened painfully. "But it won't happen again."

"I certainly hope not," Kay agreed, waving a hand to dismiss the subject.

Shane let go of Nate and returned to the table, his breakfast still unfinished. Kay gave Nate a once over and Nate knew at once that his story hadn't been bought. Kay wasn't an idiot. He could probably guess what had happened, but he was willing to let it slip if Nate was; so long as one of them took the blame. Nate just shrugged again and returned to the table. Kay joined him, as did Jason, and so their meeting began.

()~~~~~()~~~~~()~~~~~()

It was one o'clock before the boys of Connect 3 were finally given a break. They had been filming all morning. While the actual video was straightforward, it was time-consuming. There were scenes that were solely Shane, and other scenes that involved the whole band. Unfortunately, Kay had decided that having the band wearing the same outfit for the entire video would be monotonous and so they had to do the song over and over again while wearing different clothes. The idea was to cut these shots together so that their outfits swapped with each camera angle change.

Shane was exhausted. Singing and dancing and jumping for hours on end was hard work and having to change clothes so many times was just downright irritating. Jason, of course, was totally loving the whole thing. Nate merely accepted everything with a fake indifference. Shane, on the other hand, was making sure the director knew exactly what he thought every opportunity he got.

"Don't you think ten outfits is a bit extreme? Jason and Nate only have six!"

"It is not easy to lip-synch! Especially while swinging the mic stand. Here, you wanna try?"

"What do you mean your cameraman was out of position? Did he even go to film school?"

"We've done this solo scene, like, fifteen times. I cannot believe not even one take was good enough. God."

Those were just some examples of the various comments he had made over the course of the morning. Honestly, he thought they were valid. It had seemed as though everything that could have gone wrong had. In fact, the whole day had been crap, right from the very beginning. And it didn't look like his luck was going to change any time soon.

"Hey Shane," Jason said, two plates of food in his hand. He held one out. "I got you some lunch. I figured you'd be more tired than Nate or me."

"You got that right," Shane answered, taking the food and starting to eat. "This whole video is just ridiculous. It's all outfits and flashing lights."

"That's what sells."

Shane literally growled when he heard Nate's voice. He'd had enough of the kid for one day. "Is that so?" he asked shortly. "Yeah well, I think it's a dumb idea."

"Probably," Nate agreed with a shrug, settling next to Jason. "But it's what the label wants. It's what sells; it's what keeps us in business. If we came up with an idea that would work just as well, they'd probably let us use it."

"Sure, and the Easter bunny exists too, right?" Shane said sarcastically.

"What does that mean?" Jason exclaimed, looking shocked. "Oh Shane, you cannot be saying that the Easter bunny is fake because that would just be the dumbest thing I have ever heard. Of course he's real. Where else would Easter eggs come from?"

"Hmm, let me think about that," Nate fake-pondered, giving Jason an incredulous look. "Anyway," he said, turning back to Shane. "This video may not be everything you want it to be, but try to make the best of it. Who knows, it could be more fun than you think."

"I'd have more fun cutting my hair with safety scissors."

"I'd like to see that."

"I'm sure."

Shane was unsure if they were just about to make the transition from sarcasm to genuine joking but he would never find out because at that point Kay decided to walk over. He had a disgruntled expression on his face, which Shane assumed was bad.

'Oh great,' he moaned internally. 'What now?'

"Hey guys," Kay said calmly, trying to be reassuring.

Shane shot a look at Nate and he saw that his band mate was watching Kay very closely, also picking up that something was wrong.

"What's happened?" Shane asked impatiently. "More bad news?"

"Shane!" Nate hissed, glaring at him.

Well, there went any hope they had of getting along for the rest of the day. Shane could never let anyone have the last word, and so glared back, causing Nate to roll his eyes at Shane's impossible attitude.

"Guys!" called Kay, refocusing their attention. "I've just been playing back some of the footage we took this morning and it looks as though the camera had an error. There's a large segment of footage that's all blurry so we're going to have to re-shoot. No early mark today boys, sorry."

Shane felt rage start boiling away in his stomach. That was just flipping typical, wasn't it? All his hard work amounted to nothing in the end! And then the director acting as though this was merely a minor issue, like a blue pen instead of a black one.

"Don't worry about it."

Nate's voice cut through Shane's angry haze.

"It's ok. We understand that it wasn't your fault. We're happy to do the scenes again, right guys?"

That was, as they say, the straw that broke the camel's back. Shane couldn't believe that Nate was taking this so casually. His frustration only grew when he heard Jason's usual chirpy answer.

"You mean we get to do all the singing and guitar playing again? Awesome! I cannot wait."

"Shane?" Nate prompted after a moment of silence, sending him a look that was clearly pleading him to answer responsibly. "That's cool, right?"

"No Nate!" Shane yelled as though it was obvious. Didn't any of them see how tiresome this was? How extremely unfair it was? "That's not 'cool'. These guys are supposed to be professionals! You wanna go around wasting your own time, that's fine, but don't waste mine. I'm not doing all that again, just cause it's a little blurry! I'm sure you'll find something you can use."

"That's not possible Shane," Kay replied apologetically. "I already checked what we could salvage, and it's not enough."

"Sounds like a personal problem."

The director raised an eyebrow. "Really? It sounds more like your problem to me. This is your band's music video we're talking about after all."

"That's right, my band. And my band is over this."

"Hey man!" Jason protested. "I don't have a problem with this!"

"And neither do I," Nate said in that ever so condescending tone that Shane despised. Oh how he hated Nate right now.

"Like hell you do Nate," Shane sneered darkly. "You just won't admit it because you're too busy being perfect. Don't let honesty get in the way of your perfect image." He scoffed. "Let me know when that stops working out for you."

Nate physically took a step back, startled by Shane's words. For once, he didn't have a comeback. Well, he did, but he was actually genuinely scared of Shane. He didn't want to do anything that would antagonise the pop-star more.

"Shane, I think you've said enough," Kay said decisively. "Now, you go and change your clothes and we'll start filming again. Be on stage in ten."

Kay turned to walk away when a crashing sound caused him to turn around. Shane was standing there, a broken plate at his feet and an unreadable expression on his face.

"I don't know where you get off talking to me like that," Shane commented, folding his arms stiffly. "I'm Shane Gray. No one speaks to me like that."

"Shane," Jason implored quietly, more than a little unnerved, "just chill out man."

"Shut up!"

Everyone on set paused as Shane turned on his band member, untempered fury in his gaze. Jason froze, and Nate was quick to jump between the two boys, though his nervousness was clearly evident. For a moment, Shane truly thought he was going to slam his fist into Nate but he finally restrained himself, despite the pleasure he was sure the action would have brought. Backing off, he saw Nate's shoulders slump in relief but the hardness in his young gaze was still there. The little guitarist still thought he knew better – of course!

Blowing off his fellow Connect 3 members, Shane spun around, grabbed his chair and threw it straight at their set. After all, something needed to pay for the intense fury he was feeling. And if it wasn't Nate and Jason, it would be the next best thing: their precious music video set.

People yelled and ran in various directions as the back-drop cracked and started to collapse. One rather large piece of plaster crashed into the drum kit, sending it toppling and completely wrecking the two toms. Cameramen hastily hauled their cameras away and roadies were quick to remove the guitars, lest they be damaged also.

When the dust had settled, everyone looked between Shane and the set in disbelief, and a tinge of horror.

"That's what I think of you and this damned video," Shane informed them loudly.

And with that, he spun on his heel and stormed out of the room. Various protests could be heard and he picked up footsteps as someone came running after him. Shane turned around and shoved the figure, hard, already guessing who it would be. Nate hit the ground roughly and only just managed to stop his head slamming into the concrete.

"Just piss off Nate," growled Shane, towering over his fallen form. "You know how you didn't hate me, you were just sick of me?" He asked, waiting for a single nod in response before continuing. "Well, I'm not just sick of you, I hate you."

Turning away before he could see the devastation he had left in his wake, Shane made his way over to their limo. With a bark to the driver, he was being driven back to the hotel. In the studio behind him, everyone else stayed to pick up the broken pieces.

And Shane didn't care.

()~~~~~()~~~~~()~~~~~()

Nate was lying on his stomach on his hotel bed. He hadn't been bothered to kick his shoes off and his arms were folded underneath his pillow. He was staring at the headboard as though it was the most interesting thing he had ever seen. Hearing a noise from the doorway, Nate looked over and saw Jason standing there uncertainly.

"Come in," Nate said quietly, giving Jason the biggest smile he could, which was appallingly small.

"Are you okay?" Jason asked as he seated himself next to Nate, putting a hand on aforementioned guy's shoulder.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Nate asked back, returning his attention to the wall once more.

"Shane said some pretty mean things to you. And he did push you over," pointed out Jason.

"I'm fine," he lied. "Hey Jason," he whispered, looking at his fellow guitarist, "do you trust me?"

Jason looked affronted. "Of course I do! I can't believe you even had to ask that!"

Nate let out a small chuckle. "I'm just wondering if you trust me enough to let me do what's best for Connect 3, as a band."

"Dude, I'd trust you with my life. You can do whatever you want." Jason nodded to himself in affirmation. "So what are you gonna do?" he suddenly asked, seeming to only just realise the true implications of what Nate had said.

Nate sighed and rolled over, looking Jason straight in the eye. "I'm cancelling our summer tour."

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A/N: and so end chapter 1. I think this'll probably turn into a three-piece work; sort of a before Camp Rock, during and after. I tried to keep everyone in character but I may have failed so pleast let me know what you think.

I wanna thank you for taking the time to read this. Feel free to leave reviews. I always find your words extremely helpful, not to mention inspiring. Until next time!

DG777