J O N A H

"Thanks for letting us sit with you guys today." Ethan sucked up to Heather, but it was obviously because he was madly obsessed with Aubrey. I don't even understand why he's so interested in her. She's stuck up from what I can tell, and she gets what she wants. I already don't like her, but then again I could be a little biased because of the things Mitchie told me the other day.

Maybe that's why she fits in with this crowd so well. Heather is just like her, it's surprising that they're not sitting here fighting for dominance over who controls what as we speak. The girl with the purple hair - Alex - isn't the smartest from what I gathered. She's not stupid, no, but she isn't the fastest at picking up not only jokes, but what's going on. I don't really know how to explain it without it being rude.

Sierra just goes along with everything, she's very quiet. I think I've only heard her speak a few times, but then again I haven't been around this group very much. It was mainly because Mitchie that I'm around them, or tolerate them at least. Of course, I cover it up and say it's because of Ethan and Corbyn, because they want to be over here but at the same time it's fairly obvious I've hardly stood them and how they act around the girls so when Mitchie's around I give pretty much all of my attention to her.

"I guess we could use the friends. Although don't get used to it, you can't sing with us or anything like that. That's exclusive." Heather replied, barely touching her food. She's so picky, I don't understand how anyone can handle her. She keeps giving me these heart eyes too, why would she be interested in me when I'm clearly not interested in her? Only Mitchie.

"Of course, we wouldn't want to take your spotlight." Ethan looked at Aubrey, and she just sent him a small smile before eating her food. At least she didn't have an issue with it.

Then again, she's Mitchie's best friend so she's used to eating this food. Mitchie's mom probably cooks all the time and every single meal I've had here so far tastes so homemade and good, I don't see why anyone would dislike it. I mean it'd be understandable if they don't eat it because they don't like that food or are allergic or something but - Heather has no allergies from what I've gathered so far, and I don't think she's picky to the point where she eats basically nothing.

But this is Heather I'm thinking about.

I give Mitchie big props for dealing with this all the time. Maybe I'm over exaggerating or whatever, but I can barely handle dealing with Ethan on his own. Corbyn I can handle way more, minus the fact he's always talking to me basically just to get information about Mitchie out of me. Like when she pulled me out of the cafeteria the other day because she needed to talk to me and told me about how Aubrey's turning her life into one huge lie - I never heard the end of it with the blonde boy. He didn't shut up, not until I just said it was some personal issues. I mean I wasn't lying but, Mitchie trusts me with that information and I'm not going to run and tell her business to anyone. Especially if it's just Corbyn, who has this weird crush on her the way Ethan does Aubrey.

At least Corbyn's isn't that bad. He just asks me about her all the time and stares at her, he doesn't try half as hard as Ethan does to get close to Aubrey.

"So, Michelle, where were you this morning?" Heather asked, turning all of the attention on Mitchie. I know she doesn't like being called Michelle so for the redhead to repeatedly do it annoys me on a whole other level, not to mention she's putting the girl on the spot.

Mitchie's eyes widened, and before she could even begin to muster up a reply I spoke up for her.

"I was with her, hanging out." I smiled a small smile.

"Oh, really?" Heather asked. "What'd you guys do?"

"Oh! You know how I was mentioning before that she jogs or whatever?" Aubrey spoke up this time, not letting me say my own little lie. "Yeah, well, it looks like she found a buddy to workout with. Need to get that flat stomach if she wants to look good."

My eyebrows knitted together as I glanced at Mitchie, who completely stopped eating the food on her plate. She'd had a sad look in her eyes, and anger began to course through me.

"We actually didn't jog." I harshly spoke. Heather then glanced at me, confusion written all over her features.

"Okay well, I'm getting two different stories here. What's going on?" She asked, her face straight. She was beginning to get suspicious, and I spoke before Aubrey had the chance to.

"I think that Mitchie is just fine the way she is so I told her instead of jogging every morning her and I can meet up and just hang out." I glared at Aubrey, who looked down at her half-eaten food.

"Hey, guys!" An older voice said, and we all looked over to see it was the chef of the camp, meaning this was Mitchie's mom. You could tell they were mother and daughter, but at the same time, you couldn't.

You'd only know if it were mentioned. At least they don't look like twins, then we'd never get away with this.

"Uh... hi?" Heather asked, clearly confused as to why she was talking to us. She wasn't the only one, as Sierra, Alex, Ethan and even Corbyn had those looks on their faces.

"So, um, yummy breakfast." Mitchie mustered. I don't remember whether she had told me if her mother knew about it or not, but I'm guessing she didn't by the way Mitchie got all flustered.

"Oh? How would you know, there's hardly anything on your plate?" The older blonde raised an eyebrow. Oh, I hope she doesn't blow this...

"Morning carbs. Definite no-no." Heather spoke up, clearly wanting nothing more than for this woman to go away.

"Uh, yeah. Right. Gotta get that perfect body, right Aubrey?" Mitchie glanced at the brunette who was sitting next to Heather. She had venom in her voice, causing Aubrey to take in a sharp breath, not expecting her to react like this.

"Well, I just wanted to meet Mitchie's new friends," The woman then looked at me. "You must be Jonah." Mitchie's face grew red, and I couldn't help my smile as I bit my lip. She talked about me to her mom, that's cute.

"Well, you know Aubrey, yes that's Jonah, then Heather, Alex, Sierra, Ethan, and Corbyn." Mitchie pointed to who was who. How was this going to fit in with Aubrey's outrageous lie?

They all mumbled hi's, all of them seeming genuine except for Heather's. Of course.

"Well, I see you're all pretty occupied so I'll talk to you later." She smiled at us before walking away, and I rested my hand on top of Mitchie's. It was on her leg under the table, and she kept her gaze down, avoiding eye contact with anyone.

She's clearly on edge, not knowing what was about to be said, and I'd honestly feel the same way if I were her. She's caught in this big ass lie because her 'best friend' is being a shitty friend and wants to play Barbie. I'd grabbed the girl's hand because I noticed her palms were clenched, causing her knuckles to turn red, her nails digging into her palms. Her leg was also shaking, and the moment I put my hand on hers she calmed ever so slightly, taking in a deep breath.

"Okay, so what's the deal with her?" Heather asked. She's still suspicious. "Do you know her or something?"

"Yeah, don't you?" Aubrey spoke up, putting a fake face on. She's clearly wounded by not only Mitchie's words, but by the way I treated her. She probably knows that I know about the lie now and that I'm trying to help Mitchie not in a bad way, but for the better. I know I told Mitchie it's up to her, but I'm going to try my best to help her and ease her out of this lie as best as possible, although it will be hard. I know deep down that Mitchie doesn't want to live this lie, she's told me. She just doesn't know what to do without her decision spiraling into bunches of drama.

"From Jessica and Nick pre-breakup to Pharrell." Aubrey finished, smiling at the redhead.

"Wait, really?" Alex asked, a giant smile taking over her face. I wanted to roll my eyes so bad but didn't for Mitchie's sake.

"Yeah, I'm shocked the camp even got her," Aubrey replied, eating her food again. Mitchie still hadn't touched her food, and I leaned toward her.

"You should eat."

"No, I'm good." She mumbled immediately. "Not hungry anymore."

"Don't listen to what she said. It's false and I meant what I said." Mitchie finally glanced over at my reply, and I sent her an encouraging smile. She finally sighed and I removed my hand so she could begin eating again.

"So you're saying that Jessica ate these eggs?" Alex scooped up a forkful of eggs, before shoving them into her mouth.

"Yep," Aubrey spoke.

Soon after breakfast ended and the group separated, Mitchie told me she wanted to hang out again but wanted to stop by her cabin to change into something more comfortable. I waited outside of the cabin, where Aubrey stopped in front of me. I basically towered over her, and she stared at me with a sour expression with her arms crossed.

"Okay, who are you exactly?"

"Jonah," I replied, not interested in what she had to say. Nothing good could come from this girl's mouth.

"Obviously, but what are you doing? You don't even know Mitchie." She stated.

"Clearly, neither do you." I raised one eyebrow at her, causing her to raise both.

"Excuse me?"

I looked over to make sure Mitchie wasn't done changing yet, before sighing as I got up off of the wall I was leaning against. "I know about your little project with Mitchie. And you're not even treating her like a human. She shouldn't be forced to change her look, attitude or life."

"So she told you?" She asked, it being probably the dumbest question she could have asked at the moment.

"Yes, it's shitty to do that to someone. What kind of friend are you?" I asked.

"Look, I didn't come here to be attacked." She shook her head.

"But you came to attack for me for wanting what's best for Mitchie," I stated.

"You don't know her like you think you do. You've known her for what, four days? Maybe that? You don't know her like I do. Like Phoebe and Griffin do, her other best friends. You just met her. If you knew her you'd want the same thing that I want for her," She replied.

"Oh, right. The two other best friends who you don't talk to anymore because you're so stuck up Heather's ass you forgot who your real friends are." I sarcastically replied. "Not to mention, Mitchie told me about how Phoebe is taking her anger on you out on her because she's letting it happen. The two others you mentioned don't want this for her. She's made plenty of friends who barely know about your stupid ass lie and love her just the way she is."

"You don't know Phoebe or Griffin," She said.

"I'm not going to sit here and argue with you. I just want what's best for Mitchie. Whether I've known her four days or four years, I'm still going to be the best friend to her I can be because she's genuinely the first actual friend I've made here that don't just care about popularity or the other sex." I sternly said. "You can try and ruin Mitchie's life all you want but do not ever insult her body again when you know she's fine the way she is."

"I didn't mean to take it this far, honestly." She breathed out.

"Then fix it or something! I don't know, you basically changed her entire life to where her own mother couldn't meet her friends. You know this is all going to blow up into something it's not, and Mitchie's going to take the downfall for this. She's going to have almost nobody because you drove her two other best friends away, and nobody is going to want to be around her after they find out," I said. "They're going to think she's just an impulsive liar or some shit when in reality it's you that has that issue. And she's definitely not going to want to be near you when that happens."

"I'll figure it out, I guess." She mumbled.

"Like I'm going to believe that." I rolled my eyes.

"You know, I can run in there right now and go tell Mitchie all these lies since you think I'm some sort of liar and make her hate you more than anyone else in the world?" She questioned, holding a poker face.

"Oh, whatever." I leaned back against the wall. "You're literally just salty because you're getting caught in your own lies, and now that you're trying to bring someone down with you and I'm not letting it happen so you're going to try to mess my life up, too."

"I don't give two flying fucks if you're life is messed up or not. You're literally acting like you know Mitchie, like you're some sort of fucking bodyguard or boyfriend. If you want the real Mitchie, the one I'm trying to change, you aren't going to get anywhere with her." She rolled her eyes this time. "She's never going to give you a chance. So stop trying now."

"I don't care about a chance with her. We've got a good friendship and I'm not going to let you ruin her." I stood back up, beginning to glare at the girl.

We just stood there glaring at each other until we heard the cabin door open, Mitchie walking out with a pair of shorts and a summer top on. The top was longer than the one she was wearing before, and her shorts also going to the middle of her thighs instead of barely reaching past her butt.

"What are you wearing?" Aubrey asked, turning away from me.

"Something I put in my suitcase when you weren't looking." Mitchie curtly replied. She was clearly still upset at Aubrey for what happened at breakfast, I think. Although she did have a hint of something else I couldn't decipher.

"You should change, you know Heather will freak when she sees that." Aubrey began to walk toward Mitchie. "Also, you know she called dibs on Jonah, don't want to piss her off even more by doing both." She looked back at me, giving me a wink that went unnoticed by Mitchie.

"Okay, no Aubrey." Mitchie shook her head, walking down the stairs to the cabin and next to me. "Fuck what Heather wants. She was interested in Corbyn, let her have him. I'm friends with Jonah whether you like it or not. I'm also wearing these whether she likes it or not. You're already lying about my life, let me do a few things I want. You're not my mom."

My eyes widened, I'd never seen Mitchie this way. In a way, it didn't scare me or make me dislike her any less, it was kind of hot, to be honest.

"What are you saying?" Aubrey asked. "If you tell anyone about your real-life nobody's going like you anymore."

"I will, or did you forget?" I asked, wrapping an arm around Mitchie's shoulders.

"Aubrey, you have been shoving me around this entire fucking time! I'm just wanting a little bit of time to enjoy my summer." Mitchie crossed her arms.

Aubrey took in a sharp breath, walking up to Mitchie. "Don't forget who helped you get into this camp, Michelle Teagarden." Mitchie's eyes widened before tears began to fill her eyes. She turned and walked away leaving the brunette and I standing.

"Don't cross me, Jonah," She said. "I can ruin you, in ways you wouldn't ever think."

"No, Aubrey. Don't cross me," I threatened, taking a step toward her. "You're not the queen here. Even though you're in the group means nothing, you're still a backup singer for Heather. Even then, you know when Heather finds out about your lie you're out of the group too." I winked at her this time.

"Just remember, you do anything to hurt your so-called best friend, I will be one step ahead of you, and you won't even see it coming," I spoke as I walked away, leaving the brunette standing there, her jaw practically on the ground.

--

ok lowkey i wasn't going to make aubrey this evil lmao. but don't worry there's a lot planned, it's my fav story to write so far.

so i know it's only chapter thirteen and there's still lots of character development needing to happen but i have questions if ur reading this:

q: who do you ship? 

a: i lowkey ship mitchie and jonah, although part of me wants mitchie and dani together idk my heart goes soft for those two ships

q: also what rivalry are you enjoying right now?

a: i'm living for jonah and aubrey  :)

but it's 4 am as i'm writing this and i need sleep so bye comment on the couple you ship/rivalry you're digging rn

edited: september 11th, 2019