Tess has always had a thing for green eyes.

They are penetrating and sparkling and pretty, but as she watches Nate strum out his latest song, she thinks that maybe brown eyes can be pretty, too. Especially his, flecked with amber, they glow and she melts. His voice slides over the melody and plays on the strings of Tess' heart, and she is telling herself not to go down that path again. She holds on tight to her plan, do not get distracted, as he finishes it, his brown orbs shining with the excitement of a new song.

"So, what do you think?" He asks, a smile pulling up one corner of his mouth.

She decides to throw all of her facades and all of her lies out the window, because something is telling her that Nate won't believe any of it. She throws away her lies but she is still holding fast to her motto: cold but not frozen.

"It was good, keep it acoustic; it doesn't need anything else." She says, nodding in approval.

His smile gets bigger and he blushes a little at her praise, he's always been modest. She's sitting in one of the chairs in his cabin, his single cabin, because all Celebrity Guests get their own. He makes a comment on how Shane often crashes with him because he gets scared in his own cabin ("I always feel like one of those crazy girls are gonna bust in and kidnap me or something").

She laughs like the tinkling of bells and he is going to save the sound and dream about it later.

Her giggles die down and she is suddenly afraid, since when does she laugh like that? Since when has her laughter been so... easy. She struggles with the concept of fun and Nate is still smiling at her. Her heart flutters and she curses it (damn you to hell), because she is not falling again.

&&&

"I can't stop thinking about her."

"Hmm."

It's two days after their last conversation, and the whole camp has been buzzing about Smitchie. (They're back together? Fuck, I was counting on him being single...) Nate is expecting him to talk about sunny smiles and warm eyes-

"It's like I had her, but I didn't want her, and now I do, and she's all 'fuck off'."

And Shane is definitely not talking about Mitchie Torres.

"Who?"

"Tess! God, Nate, I think you have ADD, quit zoning out on me."

Nate shakes off his comment and says, "What about Mitchie?".

"What about her?" Shane says, smirking.

He's layed out on the couch that he often occupies, throwing a baseball into the air and catching it.

"Word is that you're back together."

"We are." And his smirk widens.

"But, you want Tess." Nate says, because this is Shane's game.

Shane tosses up the ball, turns his eyes on Nate, that smirk making him into the same boy he was last summer, and nods a small yes. Nate takes a breath in, stupid fucking dick, you never-

His mental string of profanities is interrupted as the ball falls and Shane is not fast enough. It hits his face with a satisfying smack! and he groans, rolling to the floor.

Nate feels a smirk of his own spread across his face.

&&&

Her girls are not listening.

She is frustrated and Cara is flat. She closes her eyes tight, takes a deep breath, calm Tess, calm. She opens her eyes and Brit has this... wary look on her face, like she knows Tess is about to blow up; Brit's probably heard of her legendary bitch fits. Tess rolls her eyes, because she doesn't do that anymore.

"Stop looking at me like that." She says, and it's not that venomous, just a little.

Brit nods, and Cara shoots her a dirty look out of the corner of her eye.

"Cara, you're flat, work on it. Britney, your fine." She says, turning for the door.

It's lunch time, and she is prepared to go into the mess hall and watch Shane and Mitchie flirt relentlessly. She hears the girls trudging behind her, and she turns to say something reassuring to them.

"You guys are good, I really think we have a shot at winning." She does her best to scrape up a smile to go along with the statement.

&&&

Shane is becoming a problem.

The thing is, he's always been a problem, but it was normally just his general attitude and arrogance. Now? It's his love interests. And Nate knows that, eventually, there is going to be a falling out. He has been preparing for it for years now, and he can't deny the fillings of hate and disgust that pump through his veins at the sight of his bestfriend. Everytime he sees them together, Mitchie and Shane, he feels sick, honestly sick, because his boy, his homie, his compadre, his best man, is a cheat. A lying, fucked up, disastrous, no-good-for-anybody, cheat.

And Mitchie is blind.

Blinded by love, or so she thinks. Shane doesn't love her, Shane only loves himself, and he is tired of being the only one in on the secret.

&&&

Why won't you give me a chance is whispered into her window sill late on a Tuesday night.

I did, she replies furiously, now leave me alone.

She goes to shut the window, but he catches it, Tess please, I'm begging here.

His mouth twists into a pleading half-smile.

She looks into his eyes, her pretty pink lips grimacing bitterly.

Boring brown eyes that are a shade too dark to be what she wants.

Tess slams the window without a second thought.

The questions and statements of that night rage through her mind and she doesn't sleep for days.

&&&

She is still battling with her feelings that next Friday night, her head a war zone. Many casualties. But, she waves a white flag for a moment, because tonight is the Pajama Jam. She slides into something so color coordinated that it will blow the other girls right out of the water. (It's a Victoria's Secret Pink outfit, styled specifically for this night by her personal shopper.)

It's nothing immaculate, nothing like what the Old Tess would've worn, but it is still somewhat her. Britney ooh's and ahh's over the cuteness of it, her own Pink apparel not quite stacking up. Cara, always the quiet one, nods her approval. She is dressed in a robe and slippers, cheetah print pajama pants and and a simple tank. It reminds her of Caitlyn, but she doesn't know why.

They walk over to the party cabin, following the loud thump of bass in the darkness. Tess is wary and excited, a mix of the two. She wants to see what the others are up to, she wants to scope out the competition. But, she doesn't want to see Shane, she doesn't want to see her, she knows they'll be together.

And, it's not like she wants him, she doesn't, but it still hurts a little. He still hurts a little, even though she knows him. Even though she knows how he plays the game and how he'd do anything to get what he wants.

It hits her -

just like that.

They never worked because they were so much alike. Shane and the Old Tess were just alike. Clawing and breaking and taking anything to get to the top, doing anything to win. And, she couldn't see it. She could only see the fact that he was another stepping stone, another thing for her to use. (She thought it was love.) She wants to laugh at her stupidity, her ignorance, because look at him! Look at the mess of a boy she thought she was falling for. She shakes her head, tells her girls to go on in, she's just had a breakthrough. There will be no more hurting, no more false anger, there is no use for any of that. Last summer was a tragedy for so long, but now she can only see it as a miracle. A blessing. If she hadn't lost, if she hadn't been humiliated, well, she would have continued to be That Tess. That terrible person who thought the point of life was to suceed at all costs.

Tess takes a breath, a breath free of Shane and his stupid antics.

She breathes deep, realizes her mistakes and takes them in stride, her mistakes have gotten her here. Her mistakes are her salvation.

She laughs, a full laugh.

Because it's really funny how things can change in a year.

Author Note - Okay, so, what'd you think? Good? Bad? Terriffic? REVIEW. It's the only way you're gonna get another chapter!(: (oh, and im sorry that this took so long.)