Sound Off! (2 page)

I
n all the times that she had eaten at the Mess Hall of Fame, Mitchie had never really paid any attention to the plaques that hung on the wall near the kitchen. They were clustered under a pair of old wooden paddles which had been painted to read CAMP ROCK and SOUND OFF. There was a different plaque for every year since the beginning of camp. Each plaque featured the names of the top three cabins as well as the winners of two individual awards—the Big Enchilada and the Golden Drumstick.

Mitchie had no idea what either the Big Enchilada or the Golden Drumstick was or how it had anything to do with Sound Off, but she smiled when she saw some familiar names on the plaques. Caitlyn had won the Drumstick, and Shane had won the Big Enchilada during his last year as a camper.

“My proudest moment.”

Mitchie turned to find that the pop star— and current camp counselor—Shane Gray had walked up behind her. He was wearing a striped referee's shirt and had a whistle on a string around his neck. Despite the odd apparel, he looked every inch the pop star—from his dark hair to his brooding eyes.

“What was?” she asked.

“Winning the Big Enchilada,” he said as though it had to be incredibly obvious. “As far as I'm concerned, it was right up there with the day Connect Three got our first gold record.”

“What's the Big Enchilada?”

“It's the last event of Sound Off,” he said with a big smile. “It's an obstacle course that runs through the whole camp. It's beyond crazy.”

“And winning that is your proudest moment?” Mitchie teased. She had a hard time believing that the lead singer of one of the hottest bands in the universe could get pumped over an obstacle-course win. Still, ever since she and Shane became friends, he'd been surprising her. Today was no exception.

“Absolutely,” he replied, a smile lighting up his handsome face. “At the end, I was going head-to-head with both Jason and Nate, and I
just
beat them to the finish line. It was
sweeeeet
.”

Mitchie was still laughing at the image of the bandmates duking it out when Caitlyn and Peggy walked over to them. Caitlyn was in heavy-duty panic mode as she flipped through the giant binder that contained every detail about anything and everything to do with Sound Off.

“We start in twenty-seven minutes and thirteen seconds,” she said as she checked her watch. “We need to make sure that we've got the stopwatches, the whistles, and the disco ball.”

“Disco ball?” Mitchie repeated, perplexed.

“It's all ready,” Peggy reassured Caitlyn.

“Peggy and I already went through the checklist twice,” Shane added.

Caitlyn gave him a look. “The original checklist? The revised checklist? Or the amended revised checklist?”

“We did all three,” Shane said, as Peggy and Mitchie tried not to laugh. “Just to be on the safe side.”

“Good,” Caitlyn said with a slightly relaxed breath. “Have you talked to Jason and Nate?”

“Jason and Nate are coming?” Mitchie asked with a smile. Shane's bandmates were known to drop by now and then.

Caitlyn cringed. “That's supposed to be a surprise.”

“I didn't hear anything. Promise,” Mitchie replied, holding a hand to her heart.

“Yes,” Shane said to Caitlyn. “I talked to them a few minutes ago, and they're right on time.”

Caitlyn nodded and then turned to Mitchie. “Here you go,” she said, pulling out some papers from her binder and handing them to Mitchie one at a time. “This is the schedule of events. Here is a list of event descriptions, so you can figure out which member of your team should do what. Not every person has to participate in every event. And here is your team sign-up sheet. You're the captain, so you'll be in charge of it. Your team needs to be at the starting line no later than three minutes
before
an event is scheduled to begin.”

“Whoa, team captain!” Mitchie cried, quickly trying to think of a way to get out of it. “Don't you think it should be one of the other girls? Maybe someone who has done this before?”

“It can't be Tess,” Caitlyn explained. “I told you how she feels about Sound Off.”

“What about Lorraine or Ella? Don't you think one of them would make a good captain?”

Caitlyn gave her a look. “If you don't want to be the captain, I can go find one of them. But since you're standing right here . . .”

Mitchie could tell that Caitlyn's feelings were a little hurt by her resistance. “No, it's not that I don't want to be captain,” she answered. “I just want to make sure I don't step on any toes.”

“Captain or no captain, Vibe Cabin is going to need all the help they can get,” Peggy added.

“That's what I hear,” Mitchie said, dreading the day more and more.

Suddenly Caitlyn seemed to remember something and started flipping through her binder.

“The sound system,” she blurted out. “Have we checked it?”

“Last night,” Shane told her.

“And then again about an hour ago,” Peggy added.

“In other words, you're saying you haven't checked it recently,” she said. “Maybe I should go look at it one more time. Just to be sure.”

She turned quickly and headed outside.

“She's a little nervous,” Mitchie said.

Shane laughed. “Just a little. We better go help her.”

“Yeah,” Peggy said.

“And, I guess I better go . . . captain my team.”

“Good luck with that,” Shane said.

Mitchie smiled. “Apparently I'll need it.”

Mitchie looked through the papers as she walked over to the table where Lorraine Burgess and Ella Pador were eating breakfast. Lorraine's head was bent over her cereal bowl while Ella applied a fresh coat of lip gloss—her accessory of choice. There was no sign of Tess.

“Hey, guys,” Mitchie said with a half wave as she reached the table, “ready for Sound Off?” She tried to sound enthusiastic, but it wasn't very convincing.

“Absolutely,” Lorraine said. “Look what I've got.” She held up a pink short-sleeved jersey with a big
V
on the chest. “I made them for all of us. They have our names on the back, and when we stand next to each other they spell out
Vibe
.”

Mitchie flashed a big smile. Lorraine was an excellent costume designer, and the shirt did look cool. Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad after all.

“That's awesome,” Mitchie said. “They look great.”

Lorraine smiled appreciatively. “Thank you.”

“Here's the sign-up sheet,” Mitchie said as she held it up. “We've got to figure out who's doing what events.”

She handed the papers to them.

Ella, who, like Lorraine, was pretty excited about the day, laughed as she read through the event names. “Disco Duck Walk. Hip-Hop Hippity-Hop in a Sack Race. Some of these are new. This sounds like fun.”

“You know,” Mitchie said, warming up to the day, “I think you're right. It does sound fun.”

“Oh,” Ella said spotting something on the list. “I want to do the first event. The Hard-Rock Rock Climb.”

“Me, too,” Lorraine said. “Is it okay if we both sign up for it?”

“Absolutely,” Mitchie said. “There'll be plenty of things for me and Tess to do. Speaking of Tess, where is she?”

“I'm not sure,” Lorraine said as she put their names down on the list.

“I haven't seen her, either,” Ella said as she continued to look through the list. “Here's an event for all of us—Capture the Keys to the Tour Bus.”

“My personal favorite event,” Brown said as he walked up to the table along with Dee La Duke, the Camp Rock musical director.

“And it's not just because I'm the one who gets to hide the keys.”

“Hey, Brown, Dee,” Mitchie said.

“Good morning, Vibe team!” Brown said. “It seems like you're missing somebody.”

“Yeah,” Mitchie answered. “We were just trying to figure out where Tess was.”

“Let's see. What was it last year?” Brown asked Dee.

“Doctor's note,” she answered.

“Right.” Brown nodded. “She tried to get out of Sound Off with a doctor's note. Of course, when I called the doctor, he had no memory of writing it.”

“Don't you just hate forgetful doctors?” Dee joked.

“And the year before, I think it was the flu?” Brown added.

“Not the flu,” she said correcting him. “It was Rocky Mountain spotted fever.”

“That's right. You know, that might have worked,” he said. “Except we're nowhere near the Rocky Mountains.”

“And she didn't have a fever,” Dee added.

Mitchie laughed. Caitlyn had told her that Tess hated Sound Off, but she didn't realize just how much the girl loathed it.

“Ah, here she comes,” Brown said as he looked across the room.

Mitchie looked in the same direction and saw Tess enter the mess hall. At first, Mitchie couldn't figure out why Tess was moving the way she was moving. Then somebody stepped out of the way, and Mitchie got a good look at her teammate.

Tess was on crutches.

C
HAPTER
T
HREE

I
t was a struggle for Tess to make it across the mess hall on her crutches and still look graceful, but she managed. When she got close, the others could see that her ankle was taped up.

“I am so sorry, guys,” Tess said as she reached the table. She addressed only the girls, as though Brown and Dee weren't there.

“I twisted it pretty bad in hip-hop dance class yesterday,” she explained, holding her foot up for them to see. “I was hoping it would get better overnight. But when I woke up this morning, it was worse.”

“Are you going to be all right?” Lorraine asked, her green eyes filled with concern.

“Don't worry about me,” Tess said. “I'm sure I'll be fine. I'm just not sure how much I'll be able to help the team today. It's a shame, because I was
really
looking forward to it.”

Brown raised an eyebrow and shared a look with Dee. “Well, you better get off of that ankle and rest,” he said as he pulled a chair out for her. “You wouldn't want to make it worse.”

“But what about Sound Off?” she asked. “Is there some way I can still compete?”

“If you're injured, you're injured,” he replied. “We can't risk you making it worse. I think you're going to have to sit this one out.”

“Really?” Tess said, trying to sound disappointed and not happy.

“Really,” he said.

Mitchie couldn't believe it. Brown was actually buying Tess's story. She had been in the hip-hop dance class with Tess the day before and didn't remember anything about her getting injured.

“My biggest concern is this week's jam,” Brown added. “Do you think it will heal up in time for that?”

“I sure hope so,” Tess offered. Then she bit her lip dramatically as though she were summoning up all of her strength. “Actually, I will make
sure
that it does. I will give it total rest between now and then, if that's what it takes.”

“That's a relief,” Brown said. “I'd hate for you to miss a jam.”

Dee nodded knowingly before adding, “Although, she
will
have to miss Bruno and Carrie Ann.”

Brown nodded. “That's a real shame. I'm sure they would have liked her.”

It took a moment for this nugget of information to register with the others. The first to pick up on it was Ella. “
The
Bruno and Carrie Ann?” she blurted out.

“The judges from
Dancing with the Stars
?” added Lorraine.

“Right, they are on that show, aren't they?” Brown said, shrugging.

“I hadn't thought about it, but, yes, they are,” Dee answered.

“We've always just known them as big-time choreographers and friends,” Brown said.

Lorraine, who was still getting used to the star quality of a place like Camp Rock, could not believe her ears. “You mean you actually know Bruno and Carrie Ann?
Personally?
”

“We've known them forever.” Brown nodded as though it were no big deal. “They called late last night because they're looking for some young dancers for a new music video they're working on.”

“We were just about to announce it,” Dee continued. “They'll be here first thing tomorrow morning to hold auditions.”

“That's perfect,” Tess said. “Wait until they see the new moves I've been working on. There's no way they won't pick me.”

Without even thinking, she popped up from the chair and did an amazing double spin into a toe stop and followed it up with a moonwalk.

“Wow!” Brown said.

“I know,” Tess said. “It's good. Isn't it?”

“It is good,” he said. “And, apparently, so is your ankle.”

As Mitchie tried to hide a smile, Tess slumped back into her chair. She had been totally caught!