A/N: Ok, let it be known that even though this story is based on "The Princess Diaries", there will be differences from the movie. I've never done a non-canon, completely AU fic so please bear with me as I try to portray these characters correctly.

Disclaimer: If I did own Austin and Ally, they'd somehow be married by now, so no I do not own it.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

I woke up to the same annoying sound of my alarm clock that went off every morning at 6:30 am. I groaned, reaching over to my nightstand and pushing the off button, right before stretching and walking out of bed like a zombie.

I put on my black, thick rimmed glasses and walked over to my closet, deciding on what to wear for school. Usually I'd be more excited, but I was going to have to perform a solo in my music class and let's just say I wasn't looking toward to it. I grabbed a pair of faded ripped jeans and a white T-shirt to match my black converse. After throwing it on, I looked at myself in the mirror.

"Well Ally Dawson, this is as good as it's gonna get," I told myself, throwing my hair in a ponytail before grabbing my bag and books and going downstairs.

"Hey mom," I greeted. She turned around from stacking CDs on the shelf to smile at me.

"Hey sweetie," she replied, "Ready for your presentation?" I just threw a glare at her and she tried to hold back her laugh.

"Oh sweetie, you'll do fine," she reassured me and gave me a hug, "Good luck."

"Bye," I said, and I left the store to find Austin and Trish outside waiting for me.

"It's about time. We were just about to leave you," Trish laughed.

"Well," Austin defended, "She was. I would never leave you." I smiled up at him, giving him a small hug.

I had been best friends with Trish since kindergarten and it had always been just the two of us. But in the sixth grade, Austin had moved from Orlando and then it became the three of us. Or more like me and Trish as well as me and Austin, since Trish and Austin hardly got along. With Trish I would do girly stuff such as shopping and sleepovers, but with Austin I felt like I could do whatever and have a good time, whether it was listening to him sing or just watching a movie.

We continued our walk to school, listening to Trish complain about how unfairly they were paying her at her current job at the pet store.

"Why don't you just quit," I suggested, but she just waved off the idea, arguing that it wouldn't be as much fun as doing something to get revenge and getting fired. Austin and I shot a "this girl is on crack" look at each other simultaneously and burst out laughing, ignoring the same look that Trish was now giving us.

I sat down at one of the chairs that formed a semi-circle in the back of the class, while Austin took his seat next to me. The class began to file in one by one and soon enough the bell rang to begin instruction for music class.

Here we go.

Mr. Rodich stood at the front of the class, calling everyone's names one-by-one to stand up and perform their solo. Finally the dreaded moment came when he called mine.

"Try to beat that," Kira said as she walked past me to take her seat. Kira was a bitch to practically everybody just because her dad was a big music producer and made her family super rich. But she was especially rude to Austin, Trish, and I because when she tried flirting with him, he hadn't even taken a second glance at her, and since we were friends with him, we were included in her big ol' daily routine of embarrassment and torture.

"Don't worry, Als. You'll do great," he whispered to me, and squeezed my hand in reassurance. I stood up slowly and walked over to the piano in the front of the class.

"Deep breath," I mentally told myself before I began to play. I was doing pretty well, too, but when it came time to sing, I felt something other than words begin to rise up. I stopped playing immediately and ran off, trying to block my vomit from coming out before I reached the nearest trash can.

Behind me, I heard the noise of laughter right before the sound of quick footsteps coming closer.

"You okay, Ally," I heard Austin say. He pushed my hair away from my face with one hand and with the other he pulled me closer to him, while I cried onto his chest.

"That was so embarrassing," I sobbed. He kissed the top of my head and kept telling me it was going to be okay.

But no matter how many times he told me, I knew it wasn't.

I walked into Sonic Boom, throwing my backpack under the counter and pinning on my employee name tag, even though I was more of an owner than I was an employee.

"Hey honey. How was school," my mom asked, barely noticing my appearance after having gotten there 15 minutes before, not that I blamed her. She wasn't really all that here ever since she had to quit her job and move.

"I'd rather not talk about it." She just gave me a small frown as if understanding and then continued to walk around the store to ask customers if they needed any help. Almost immediately however, she came back with the biggest smile on her face.

"I can't believe I almost forgot to tell you," she told me, sitting up on the counter and swinging her legs back and forth, "Your grandmother Clarice from your father's side called. She's in town and wants to have tea with you; says it's very important."

I just stared at my mother. Of course I knew I had a grandmother and that she was very much alive, but I had never even met the woman. All I knew was that she lived in a tiny country in the middle of nowhere.

"She didn't even come to dad's funeral and now, almost two months later, she decides to come and pay us a visit? No way am I meeting her," I declared, moving away from my mother to end the conversation, but she just followed me.

"Sweetie, I think it'd be good for you to meet your grandmother. It's obvious she realizes she should meet her granddaughter, so I really think you should go," she persuaded. I stared at my mother at loss of words. It's not that I didn't want to meet her because I did.

I had lived with just my dad here in Miami since I was three, while my mother studied gorillas in Africa. Even with just having one parental figure really in my life 24/7, my father refrained from telling me much about his childhood or his family in general and the curiosity was killing me. Why all this secrecy? Now with my grandmother, maybe questions would finally be answered.

"Fine, I'll go have tea with my grandmother," I mocked in a fake British accent.

"That's my girl," my mother encouraged and then continued to work.

I sat down at the piano bench and sighed. I had the worst feeling in the pit of my stomach that something bad was going to happen.

A/N 2:

Ok, so obviously like I said before there are some differences between the movie and this.

Next chapter, Ally will find out she's a princess. Ooh la la! (And because this is an Auslly fic, you can also be expecting some of their cute moments as well!)

Please review!

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