Austin's cool. He's the coolest. He runs the playground. If there was a king of grade three, he'd be him. And if there was a court jester, that'd be Dez. And everyone else would be the people of the country (playground) he'd run. Austin's so cool that one day during gym when they were all playing freeze-tag, he volunteered to be It because no one wanted to and they were wasting time. He is so cool that he can spin a basketball on his index finger for four whole seconds. He's so cool that at his seventh birthday party he handed out loot bags with a one dollar bill in each one, from his own birthday money. Austin's so cool that a little while ago when everyone was playing Grounders on the climber and he fell from the top of the ladder and sprained his knee, he kept playing until he caught someone – an additional six minutes!
Austin's just, so cool.
One chilly Tuesday morning, while all the kids pull off their boots and scarves and mitts from outside, Austin unzips his leather jacket. So cool. Most of the kids are sporting a puffy jacket that makes them look like a dip-dyed marshmallow. But not Austin. Nope, he's rocking a leather jacket and really awesome combat boots. SO COOL. And his gloves are black – nothing special, right? WRONG. These gloves have these super modern mitten contraption where you can pull another flap over your fingers to go from GLOVES to MITTS. So cool.
As the kids slam their lockers shut and form a single-file line, Austin leads them to battle – or rather, class.
First period: Social Studies. Austin isn't particularly good at Social Studies; he doesn't understand why there has to be a Virginia and a West Virginia, an England and a New England, a York and a New York (and New York – the city!?), a North Dakota and a South Dakota, a Wales and a New South Wales. He just doesn't get it. He doesn't get why eight year-olds have to learn about the presidents already. Lincoln, Kennedy, whatever. He gets that presidents are important, but why are they important to him now? Not cool.
The teacher hands out a map of the country. On the top you can see a little slice of Canada, and at the bottom, a sliver of Mexico. Their assignment is to neatly label and colour the map. It's out of 100, so he sighs inwardly. The guy beside him, a smart kid with a missing tooth in the front, gets started right away, but his colouring is messy. Heh. He'll show him.
He starts with Florida – colours it bright orange since it's his favourite of all the colours. He isn't exactly stellar at colouring, indeed, but it sure does put Toothless over there to shame. He sticks out his tongue in a concentrated manner as he aggressively colours New York (his second favourite state) blue (his second favourite colour). Orange and blue is a great combination, he thinks proudly as he stares at his otherwise blank sheet triumphantly.
Just then a knock at the classroom door brings the class out of focus. Austin looks up and sees the principal there in her ugly pantsuit, accompanied by a little girl in a jean dress and white frilled shirt. She's holding a The Little Mermaid lunch bag and a brown leather book, as well as her backpack – also The Little Mermaid. She looks at the ground shyly.
"Guys, I'd like you to give a warm welcome to our new student, Allyson Dawson."
The girl looks up at their teacher and whispers quietly, "it's Ally."
"Sorry, dear. Ally. Her parents just moved here from Brooksville." Cool, he thinks. I expect you all to behave and treat her nicely." She turns to her and nods towards Austin. "Ally, why don't you take the seat beside Austin there, where it's nice and up front. Eldon, do you mind sitting beside Kiara?"
Austin almost doesn't know who's talking to, partly because he's staring at Ally-not-Allyson, but mostly because he just refers to him as Toothless.
Eldon jumps with a smile and he looks almost relieved. He scurries to the back of the room and Ally-not-Allyson carefully puts her stuff down and sits next to him. He offers her a smile, but she doesn't notice. She tucks her hair back behind her ear as the teacher hands her the assignment.
"So, dear, what we're doing is labelling and colouring the US map. Can you do that?" she tells her kindly.
Ally-not-Allyson nods. She looks like she might smile, but doesn't. She immediately opens her pencil case and pulls out a pencil, then starts to label the map. He looks around the room at the other students, then back at her work. He's relatively astounded – he's never seen anyone label then colour. He watches intently and she breezes through the work. He grins when she labels Florida and New York first, just like him, but then chooses to label Washington instead of Austin's third choice – California.
Eventually, she starts to colour in her states. She doesn't seem to colour with any particular order of favourites, but what he does notice is how she colours. She carefully outlines each state darkly, then lightly covers it in. That's kind of... pretentious. She catches him staring then, and when she looks up nervously, he quickly averts his gaze. She looks down at his sheet and scrunches her nose.
"What?" he asks, eager to hear what she's bothered about.
She points to a state. "You mixed up Georgia and West Virginia," she comments quietly.
He notices his mistake and tries to erase it feverishly. She continues her awfully sophisticated colouring in silence. He leans over her page. "You mixed up Arizona and Kentucky," he tells her, attempting to put up a smart front.
She leans back and looks, then peers at him with irritated eyes. "No I didn't," she argues. "They are literally on opposite sides of the country."
He blushes considerably.
Dez speaks up on behalf of his best friend from the pair of desks behind them. "Austin doesn't need to know geology," he says charismatically. "He's the coolest kid in grade three."
Ally colours in Wisconsin and doesn't look up. "Coolest kid who doesn't know where the states are." She turns to Dez. "By the way, it's geography, not geology."
"I-I-I'm... the coolest," Austin stutters.
"What's wrong?" she asks.
Austin's at a loss for words. No one has ever resisted the Moon Magic, not once in eight years.
Dez speaks again. "He can't talk because he likes you."
It's Ally's turn to blush, though it'd be more accurate to say that all of the blood from her body shot up to her cheeks and turned them fire-hydrant red. She turns back to her colouring.
Austin turns around and gives Dez a death-glare. "DEZ!" Not. Cool.
Unfortunately for him, that isn't the last time he strikes out with Ally-not-Allyson.
During recess, he sees her reading underneath a tree when he runs to catch a soccer ball that's been kicked too far. He makes a production of breathing loudly and groaning and muttering to himself about the ball and such, but she doesn't notice – she's too engrossed in her book.
He picks it up and comes over, slowly approaching her. "H-hey, Ally-not-Allyson." He immediately freezes when he calls her his nickname.
She looks up, startled and squints her eyes. "'Ally-not-Allyson'? What is that. Why are you calling me that."
He starts to sweat. "Well it's just that, like, I mean, you... Like you told Ms. Williams that your name is... it's Ally, not Allyson," he stammers.
She closes her book and looks up at him through her reading glasses. "My name is Allyson, but I much prefer Ally. So call me that. Not Ally-not-Allyson. Not Allyson. Ally."
He nods and looks around. "So, uh, whatcha reading?"
She sighs and looks up at him again. "I thought you were supposed to be 'the coolest kid in third grade' or something," she says, unamused.
"Oh, I am," he laughs, gaining some confidence. "You don't even know. But you're throwing off my whole game, girl."
She giggles. "What 'game', pray-tell? You mean the terribly fake coughing or the whole telling me I labelled the map wrong thing?"
"First of all, how would you know if that was part of my strategy or not?" he wonders, eyeing her suspiciously.
She gives him this are-you-serious look. "You labelled those states right on your own map, Mr. Cool," she says. "So I know you just tried to make conversation."
He shrugs. "Can't blame me for wanting to talk to you. You're very pretty."
She laughs awkwardly. "Thanks."
The bell rings then, indicating the end of recess.
She stands up and looks at him expectantly.
"Race you to the school?" he challenges, smirking.
She studies him for a second, then bolts, messing him up and leaving him trailing behind. She beats him there by an entire two seconds. "I beat you," she teases.
"No one beats Austin Moon," he declares. "I challenge you to a rematch next recess!"
She shrugs. "Sure, Mr. Cool."
Austin's day is going pretty spectacular until Ms. Williams announces a surprise spelling test.
The chorus of groans is firm indication that no one is ready, but Ally doesn't seem fazed.
She hands everyone a sheet with ten blank spaces on it and resumes her position behind the desk. "Everyone, take out your pencil and get ready. If you've studied the words like I asked you to, this should be a piece of cake." She looks at Ally and frowns. "Do you want to take it another time?"
Ally shakes her head and gives her a thumbs up. She's ready. Austin gets the feeling that she's the type who is ready for anything, even though she's eight.
"First word," Ms. Williams reads. "Fridge. Tommy put his leftover sandwich in the fridge." Austin scribbles it down confidently and Ally does the same. These words are easy. "Second word: Vacuum. I hate how loud my vacuum is." More scribbling. "Third word: Photosynthesis. When the sun gives plants energy, that is photosynthesis."
Austin pauses and bites his lip worriedly. He writes out the sounds. P, H, O, T, O, S, I, N, T, H, I, S, E, S. He looks it over and isn't very sure of himself but decides it'll have to do when the teacher gives the next word.
"Dragon. If an animal has wings and breathes fire, it's probably a dragon." He snickers, but writes it down.
"Promise. I made a promise to my mom that I'll clean my room after dinner."
This goes on until she gives them the last word and collects the sheets. For the rest of the period, the class works on handwriting. Though he's not surprised, he's sort of disappointed that Ally's writing is so neat. Determined, he tries to write out the alphabet (Upper and lowercase letters since he wants to impress this girl) in the best way he possibly can. They don't say much, but they sneak glances at each others' work here and there.
Later, at lunch, he gets her to sit with him and Dez, and she invites a girl named Trish, her new friend (aside from him, of course). Cool. The four of them pull out their lunches at once, but since Ally doesn't know the routine, she almost dives right in.
"Ally, you can't eat yet," Trish gasps dramatically.
Her hands freeze as she pulls out her sandwich. "Why not?" she wonders.
"Every day at lunch, we all trade certain parts of our lunch with each other. By the end of it, we rarely have what we came with. Since it's your first day, we'll let you do it with just the four of us."
Ally carefully sets down her sandwich. "Okay," she says in a resigned tone. "I have a ham, cheese and lettuce sandwich on whole wheat, chocolate pudding, celery and cheese spread and a juice box."
Austin pipes up. "I have a granola bar, ravioli and chocolate milk. I'll trade you the granola bar for your chocolate pudding?" he offers.
"Deal."
Austin makes it his mission of the day to inform Ally of all the third grade customs at school. When Music class comes around, he intends to show her his amazing skill at the guitar. Usually he's the first kid to play in the class, since he's the coolest, but since Ally's new (and he likes her), he offers her the spot.
She's reluctant at first, but walks lightly to the piano by the teacher. Most kids don't try out the piano in this class (most prefer the loud instruments like drums and trumpets), but Ally isn't most kids, as Austin's figured out. She takes a deep breath as she sits, and maybe he's the only one, but he's on the edge of his seat while he waits for her to play.
She starts off with a beautiful melody he recognizes to be a Beethoven piece and he swears he falls in love at eight years old. Her small fingers trail across the keys rhythmically and she presses down on them heavily, creating a mix of power and sound across the room. She finishes on point and he claps immediately, everyone following suit (she might be the newest, but he's the coolest and people follow him).
She bows and grins and takes her seat next to him while the teacher introduces Austin, and the remainder of the class (and the day) is of everyone taking turns on their favourite instruments, and the teacher (a different teacher from Ms. Williams) attempting to teach everyone the pentatonic scale.
At the end of the day, when everyone is redressing in their puffy marshmallow coats and gear, and Austin in his super cool leather jacket and his wickedly cool glove-mitten contraptions, he sees Ally get dressed in a brown suede coat and is momentarily glad he doesn't have a crush on a marshmallow victim.
He heads over to her and gives her a sly brow. "Hey," he says.
"Hey, Mr. Cool," she laughs.
"You say that like I'm not," he replies, pretending to be offended.
"Nothing you've done has been very cool yet," she counters with a grin.
He gives her a mischievous look and starts to walk backwards slowly. "You haven't seen the last of me, Ally-not-Allyson. I'll make you like me."
As she goes to taunt him, her mother walks over to her and he disappears.
"Hey, baby, how was your first day of school?"
"Good, mommy. I met a friend named Austin."
Her mother smiles. "That's great."
"Yeah. Don't tell him this, but he's pretty cool."