Hey, guys. Just to clarify the summary, this story is in fact the whole Campers and Complications episode. Basically I took the story and turned it in to Austin's point of view, adding parts we miss as viewers and removing parts that didn't include Ally, such as the scenes with Trish and Dez and the scenes with Trish and Ally.
I literally spent my time watching the episode to make sure my lines were correct and in order. Thanks for reading. :)
On a bright summer afternoon, my girlfriend Kira and I, along with the stuffed panda in her arms, headed to Sonic Boom. Walking in, the first thing I notice is Ally at the counter watching Trish and Dez talking. Funnily enough, they didn't seem to be arguing. Usually they're at each others' throats – so to speak.
Ally greets me. "Hey, Austin," she smiles.
"Austin, I'm so glad you're here," Trish exclaims, coming over. "I almost had to hang out with Dez."
I chuckle.
Ally chimes in. "How was Phil's Fun Town?" she asks. "Awe, you won Kira a giant panda."
"Actually," Kira corrects her. "I won it for Austin."
I sigh. "You weren't supposed to tell anybody," I whine.
"Awe," she says in a cute voice. "You're so cute when you pout."
Her smile makes me forgive her instantly. "Awe, you're so cute when you tell me I'm so cute."
She giggles and I side-hug her affectionately. "I should go; walk me out?" she asks.
Before I can respond, Dez interjects. "My pleasure,'" he says. He rushes over and takes her arm, leading her out of the store.
"Uh," she stammers. "I meant Austin!" As she's being pulled away I run after the two of them, leaving Sonic Boom and the girls.
Eventually, Dez stops by Mimi's. "Buh-bye," he says.
I scoff at him and pull Kira in to a hug. "Bye," I say, kissing her on the cheek.
She takes the panda that I offer her to keep for now and leaves.
"Rude, man," I say to Dez. "Rude." I start walking back to the store.
Dez catches up. "Sorry, Austin, but you two don't need to me lovey-dovey all the time. It's gross." I shove him and we both laugh.
When we get to Sonic Boom, I see Trish and Ally leaning on the counter, talking in hushed voices. The only sentence I manage to hear is from Ally, saying, "I'm totally cool with it."
"Totally cool with what?" I ask curiously, stopping at the counter.
"I..uh..erh," Trish stammers. "She's... totally cool with giving me twenty bucks!" Dez and I look at each other, confused. She then whispers something incoherent to Ally.
Ally rolls her eyes and faces us. "She means, I'm totally cool that we can't hang out today," she says. "Because I have an old friend coming in to town. His name's Elliot. We went to Arts and Crafts camp together." She lifts her MyTab to show us an old picture of a young kid holding a hand-made pot. The kid is kind of dorky with really thick, black-rimmed glasses.
"Beep, beep, beep," Dez says suddenly. "I just got a text message. It says 'nerd alert'."
I look at Dez, caught off guard by his comment and turn back to Ally, also giving him a look. Trish speaks up. "I remember Elliot; he was your first crush!"
Ally grins. I smile and look at the old Elliot. I shouldn't be surprised that she'd like him.
"Here's a picture of us making macaroni Christmas ornaments," Ally shows us.
I cock my head to the side. "Meh, if you take away the braces and the bushy eyebrows he wouldn't look so bad," I chuckle, nudging Dez. He laughs, too.
She awkwardly puts the MyPad down. "That's me."
Our eyes widen and we immediately shut up.
"I am so excited to see Elliot."
Just then, a guy around my height – 6 foot, comes in. "Ally?" he says, sounding surprised.
"Elliot," she gasps, running from the around the counter and in to his arms.
"That's Ally's friend?" I ask.
"Beep, beep, beep," Dez chimes. "Hunk alert," he then sings.
They separate. "It's so good to see you," Ally exclaims. "Wow, you look uh-mazing."
"Me?" he replies. "What about you, you look guh-orgeous!" He playfully shoves her and she giggles. This is too weird.
"Why are they talking to cruh-razy?" Dez asks. I shrug, confused.
"Come meet my friends," Ally insists. She pulls him closer to Dez, Trish and I. "This is Trish, Dez and Austin," she informs him, explaining.
"Nice to meet you guys," Elliot smiles. "Austin, I'm a huge fan. You're album rocks!"
"Thanks man," I grin happily. "I have the best songwriter in the business," I say about Ally.
"Yeah," he agrees. "She's the best at everything. That's why we were weaving buddies at Camp Craft-a-Mogga. And I'll never forget the first day she walked in to the Weavers' Tent."
Ally laughs again. "He said my baskets were 'unbe-weave-able'." She almost bursts in to tears at the apparently hilarious pun. She looks at him longingly.
Trish, Dez and I exchange glances, not impressed by that joke. "Heh, I used to crafts, too," I say.
"Heh, nobody cares," Dez says. I look at him and give him a dirty look. I turn to draw on a piece of paper while Ally and Elliot continue.
"Remember when we tie-dyed pillow cases?" he asks her.
"We were only supposed to tie-dye t-shirts," she agrees. "We were arts and crafts rebels."
"Yeah, I don't think those words go together," Trish interjects.
I turn around suddenly with my picture on a clipboard. "Check it out," I exclaim. "It's a hand-turkey. Gobble gobble gobble."
"Put it away, you're embarrassing yourself," Dez mutters disapprovingly. Ally and Elliot give me a similar look, pretending to be impressed. Defeated, I put it back on the counter.
"Ally," Elliot asks, taking her hand and pulling her a few steps back. "I need to ask you something. My eyes – along with Dez's – widen, as we're expecting him to ask her out. "Will you help me make a toothpick house for my turtle?"
Ally was far too pleased. "Of course," she agrees. "Still have your glue gun?"
"I never leave house without it," he tells her. Then, proving that he could in fact be lamer than he already was, Elliot pulls one out of his back pocket. He spins it like a real gun and blows on the 'barrel'.
She laughs again. "Isn't he cute?" she asks us.
"I thought so until he pulled out a glue gun," Trish says. Dez and I nod in agreement. This guy was weird.
That was enough. "Well, great to meet you, Elliot," I interject, walking over. "Ally and I have to rehearse now."
"We'll rehearse later, Austin," Ally dismisses, pushing me away. "I want to show Elliot around Miami." She looks at him with loving eyes. Confused, I back away slightly. Wow.
"I saw a crafts store on my way up here, can we hit that first?" Elliot asks.
"Does balsa wood make the best bird feeder?" she asks, chuckling. He laughs, obviously knowing the answer. She looks at me and responds to her own question confidently, "it does."
They both leave the store, Trish, Dez and I all confused.
Where's Ally? I haven't seen her in days. On my way to Sonic Boom, I see Trish. "Hey, Trish," I call. "Have you seen Ally?"
She turns and smiles. "No, she's out with Elliot," she informs me.
"Again?" I ask, astounded. "It's been 3 days, how long does it take to catch up with a guy?"
"A regular looking guy, a day. A cutie like him? You may never see Ally again." She shakes her head, smirking.
I sigh, frustrated. "We need to write some new songs but with Elliot around, it's like Ally's too busy for me." I don't see why she needs 3 days to catch up.
"Ugh, join the club," Trish relates. She eyes me suspiciously. "You sure this is just about work? You almost sound... jealous."
"Why would I be jealous?" I demand. "I'm dating Kira. She won me a panda."
"I was just asking, you don't have to sound all defensive," she says to me.
"I'm not defensive, I think you're jealous of my panda," I basically yell... somewhat defensively. Oops. Well whatever it was a cool panda. She looks at and rolls her eyes.
"And then I said your baskets were unbe-weave-able," I suddenly hear Elliot say. I whip around and sure enough, Ally and Elliot are walking in our general direction. Not really towards us but near us. Ally, wearing a busy patterned skirt and a simple purple tank, was holding on to his words like a life raft. She was laughing with him like she hadn't heard the story a thousand times.
"We had so much fun back then," she says, a hint of nostalgia hidden in her voice.
"Well," I begin, walking over. "I bet your fun back then wasn't any more fun than our fun back now." I stop and think about what I just said, immediately regretting it. That made no sense. I brush it off and chuckle like it was supposed to sound stupid.
Ally looks at me confused. Before she could say anything, Trish interrupts. "Anyway, Ally, you ready for our girls' day?"
Ally looks to Elliot who, this time, speaks. "Ooh," he says. "Trish, don't hate me, but I was really hoping Ally and I could basket weave again. For old times' sake. Do you want to join?"
Meanwhile, I look at them all with a really distant look, not believing he'd find that interesting.
"Oh, that sounds awful," Trish replies truthfully, me frantically nodding.
"Sorry Trish," Ally apologizes. "We'll have our girls' day next weekend. C'mon, Elliot," she grins, walking off.
Just then, Kira walks by them and up to me. "Hey, Austin," she says cheerfully, pulling me in to a hug. "Ready to go to the movies?"
"Uh," I stammer. "Can I take a rain-check? I have to work on a song. By myself. Ally hasn't had time since Elliot's been in town," I explain.
"Is that the guy I just saw her with? He's kinda cute," she says.
"He carries a glue gun you know," I say. Seriously, what's the hype about this guy? It's just a good looking guy who can basket-weave. I'm good-looking. I can... probably basket-weave?
Dez runs up as Kira continues. "Well, I'm bummed you can't make it," she says.
"Hey, Austin," Dez says. I inadvertently ignore him.
"Sorry," I say, "I'll call you later." I walk away to Sonic Boom myself.
Around 6 o' clock, I gave up on trying to work on the song and found myself determined to learn how to basket-weave. I don't know why it was so important to me. I guess I figure that it shouldn't be something only Elliot gets praised for.
So try as I might, it doesn't turn out right. For 2 hours I sit in the practise room sticking things under and over kind of like a weave.
Eventually, Dez shows up. "Guess who got his eyebrows plucked, armpits waxed and feet scraped?" he asks, carrying shopping bags.
"That sounds painful," I say, feeling bad.
"It WAS," he exclaims. "And it's all your fault!"
"Sorry," I say. "But, you do smell pretty good," I notice.
"Thanks," he grins. "It's cucumber melon." He looks at me suddenly. "Why are you making a birds' nest?" he asks.
"It's a basket," I exclaim. Obviously. "Elliot's not the only guy who can do arts and crafts."
Dez takes the basket and inspects it. "Apparently he is," he says, essentially trashing my work. I give him a look and go pull a water bottle from the fridge for myself. "And, I know why you're doing this," he says. "You're bummed about Ally and Elliot."
What? "A guy can't just basket-weave for the fun of it?" I say, sitting on the piano bench.
"No, no he can't," he finalizes, dropping the basket. "Austin, don't you see what's going on here? You like Ally," he finishes, smiling.
Wait, what? "What?!" I repeat out loud. "That's crazy."
"Is it?" he asks. "You don't like anything about Ally?"
"Well yeah," I admit. "I like a lot of things about Ally." Dez sits down across from me. "I like writing songs with her."
"Uh huh."
"I like that I can talk to her about anything."
"Go on."
"And I like her smile. And the way she laughs. Oh and I really like when we play piano and my hand accidentally touches hers. I get this awesome feeling that no one, not even Kira, makes me-"
I stop mid sentence. What? I like Ally? Since when? What?
"Oh man," I continue. "I like Ally."
"Oh I think it's more than that buddy," Dez disagrees. "I think you're in love with her." Then, because he's Dez, he does this weird fluttery bird-wing motion above his head, a gesture only he'd surely understand.
"Wow. I like Ally," I reiterate, more to myself than him. I smile. Then, at that moment, nothing else mattered. I like Ally.
I like Ally.
That night, sleep was impossible. All I could think about was Ally and Kira and the relationship I have with each girl. There wasn't any doubt that I liked Ally after this evening. But was it enough to break up with Kira? She probably doesn't like me anyway...
The next day I found Dez at Champy's Sports Grill. I knew he'd be there because he's been hanging out with Trish a lot and she was at work a lot lately. Actually... now that I think about it, I think this is the longest she's had one job. This would be her fourth day. Wow. Good for her.
Anyway, I see Dez at the air hockey table and immediately seek his attention. "I need to talk to you, Dez," I say, jogging over. "I was up all night thinking about what you said."
"About you and Ally and the-?" he makes that weird bird gesture.
"Yeah," I nod. "The-" I do it also. "Maybe I do have feelings for her... But she clearly likes Elliot and I'm dating Kira, who I really like."
"I get it," Dez says. "You're torn. Now let me give you some unbiased advice: Forget about girls, hang out with your best friend! Trust me, you'll feel better."
Yeah, unbiased.
I laugh and ignore him. "Look Dez, I like things the way they are with Kira. And I don't want to ruin my friendship with Ally just because I have some mixed feelings."
"You're feelings aren't mixed," he says to me. "You like Ally way more than you like Kira."
"No I don't," I exclaim, not sure who I'm trying to convince – him or me. "And I'm going to prove it."
As if on queue, Kira walks in to the building then and comes over. "Hey, Austin, I got your text. What's so big you couldn't wait to tell me?"
"That I'm sorry for how I've been acting this week," I tell her. "I'm going to make it up to you, starting tonight. We're seeing Katy Perry at the Beach Club!"
"Really?" she yells happily, hugging me. Dez complains about wanting to see it then, and I just laugh.
"Meet me at Sonic Boom at seven," I tell her.
"K," she smiles, leaving.
"See?" I say. "Isn't she awesome? Can't believe I had second thoughts," I scoff. "Obviously, me and Ally should be together!"
"Did you hear what you just said?" Dez suddenly says, panicked.
Obviously? "Later, buddy," I chuckle, leaving.
I decided it was probably a good idea to work on the song I failed to continue yesterday becasue Ally still wasn't available. Ugh, when is Elliot going to leave?
Just then, Dez runs in and yells, "Austin," startling me to the point I shriek. I sound awfully girly when that happens but, hey- it happens. "We gotta talk about Ally," he demands frantically.
"We already went over that," I chastise. "I'm happy with Kira. Ally and I are just friends, I swear."
"Okay great," he sighs, relieved. "'Cause I was worried you were going to be upset that Ally's going to tell Elliot she wants to be his girlfriend."
"What?" I exclaim.
"Yeah," confirms. "She said that he was her first crush and she's always wanted to be his girlfriend. She's telling him at Champy's tonight. She's wearing a red dress and everything!"
"No, that can't happen! She can't be his girlfriend, he's not the right guy for her!"
"Well, I'm just glad that you don't have any feelings for Ally. I'd hate to see how you'd react if you really liked her," he calls after me as I barrel out of the room and down the stairs.
Ally can't be with Elliot! She has to be with me. I'm her best friend. I'll know how to treat her.
I guess I forgot about my date with Kira to see Katy Perry tonight because I ran right in to her on my way out. "Hey, Austin," she grins. "Ready for the Katy Perry concert?"
Shoot. "Yeah," I awkwardly say. "I just gotta drop something off to Ally on the way..." I look for an excuse. I spot one. "This... pencil," I continue, grabbing one from her cup. "It's her lucky one. She needs it to finish lyrics to a song we're working on."
"Aren't all those pencils the same?" she asks, confused.
"No, she's really superstitious," I explain. "It has to be this one," I say as I accidentally snap it. "I mean, this one," I decide instead on a different one. "Let's go," I direct us out of the store.
On our way, it's mostly silent. She holds my hand and we exchange glances. She occasionally blushes and I know why I liked her in the first place. The problem is, I still really like her. But I don't know, I guess I like Ally more.
I don't know how I'll play this.
When we get there, I spot Ally and Elliot at a table, Ally wearing the red dress and Dez explained she would. She looks beautiful. I make a conscious effort not to let my jaw drop to the floor and I put on the 'cool guy' facade.
"Ally," I shout, running up to her table.
"Austin?" she greets questioningly. "What are you doing here?"
"I brought your lucky pencil," I say, handing it to her.
"This isn't my lucky pencil," she says, confused. She sets it down.
"I can't believe she noticed," Kira mutters, also confused. I just nod at her, pretending to agree that Ally was in fact, superstitious.
Elliot pipes up. "Are you guys staying for Trivia Night?" he asks.
"Nope," Kira tells him. "We're on our way to see Katy Perry!" She starts to pull me away.
I pull her back. "Awe, Kira, I think they want us to stay," I say over-enthusiastically.
"Actually, I was kind of hoping for some time alone with Ell-" Ally begins to say.
"If you insist," I cut her off. "A couple questions won't hurt," I say, grabbing the nearest table and sitting.
"Well, Ally and I are gonna win," Elliot threats jokingly. "We're the best team." Ally smiles. Ugh, I hate that guy.
"No you're not," I disagree defensively. "Because... me and Kira are." I look at Ally.
"Awe, you think we make a good team?" she asks.
"Yeah, but not tonight," I turn away. "Let's not play teams. I say we play head to head. Unless Elliot's scared I'll beat him," I say, feeling overly confident.
"Austin, what about Katy Perry," Kira insists.
"I'll beat her, too!" I guess I really didn't get what she meant. "So what do you say, Elliot?"
"I say the same thing Camp Craft-A-Mogga says about sunblock... bring it." I glare at him.
Suddenly Dez barrels through the door and to my table. "What'd I miss?" he asks, low enough the others won't hear.
"Dez, you're just in time. I'm about to beat Elliot at trivia!"
"But you stink at trivia."
"Dez, could be a little more supportive?" I whine.
"Sorry, but you stink at trivia," he repeats with far too much enthusiasm. He runs off.
"Okay, people with nothing to do, welcome to Trivia Night," Trish announces over a mic. The small audience applauses. "Yippee," she continues sarcastically. "K, first question: name the British singer who sang Rolling In The Deep?"
I make a sort of pfft noise between my teeth at the question. I quickly scribble Adele on my whiteboard.
"That's a tough one," Elliot says quietly. "I'm not really in to music."
Really? Wow. "Ha! You hear that, Ally? He's not in to music." She gives me a hard look to add on to her confusion.
"Times up," Trish tells us. "The correct answer is Adele." All of us show her our boards... Well, except Elliot. I grin.
"Austin: 1, Elliot: 0," I announce happily.
"Kira: bored, can we go now?" she asks while holding up her board that she wrote Katy Perry on.
"Just one more," I mouth, apologetic.
"Okay, next question: name the method for dyeing a fabric using wax," Trish says.
"I know this from camp," Elliot exclaims.
"Shocker," Ally mutters. Hmm. Trouble in paradise, Ally?
I, of course, don't know the answer. "What is it, Kira?" I beg. "Think, think!" I grab her shoulders, alarmed.
"I have no idea," she tells me, bored.
"Hey," Elliot interrupts. "No helping each other."
"Times up! The answer is batiking."
"Yes," he enthuses. "All tied up. In your face, Austin." I glare at him again.
"You know who's face he should be in? Katy Perry's," Kira says, erasing her board. I can tell she wasn't having a good time at all.
"Just, one more question," I plead. I was determined to beat Elliot. I had to.
Many questions later, we all applaud again. "That was our fiftieth and final question," Trish says, bored.
"Did I win?" I ask.
"Austin, you and Elliot are tied," Trish informs us. "For last place." We look at each other. "Oh and Ally Dawson won."
Ally cheers. "Woo! Free appetizer."
I chuckle mentally and Elliot laughs.
"Austin, let's go, I don't want to miss the concert," Kira pleads.
"And Elliot, I really need to talk to you."
"No," I exclaim. "No one can do anything until I beat him." I didn't realize I was this competitive. Ally looked at me like I was ridiculous. I brushed it off. "I know how we can settle this," I continue.
We find ourselves – Elliot and I – competing in a series of events, the prize being Ally, unbeknownst to everyone except Elliot and I. We knew exactly what we were fighting for.
First, we start of with air hockey. We smash the puck back and forth for what seems like an hour. Trish and Dez cut us off and we declare a tie.
Since that doesn't work out, we move to the basketball nets, both beside each other, doing our best to shoot more baskets than the other. We run out of balls pretty quickly so Dez, being the supportive friend, brings us a couple dozen bread rolls for us to use as makeshift basketballs.
That ends in a tie, too. Elliot is a good oponent.
We move to rock, paper scissors, me winning the first round, him the second. The tie-breaker round is endless, however, as we are consistently choosing the same variation. Neither of us win that game.
We try thumb-wrestling, too. You'd think that'd be easy. Nope. With Dez on my side to massage my hands – don't ask – and give me water, I'd think there was no way to lose. Well there wasn't. But there was also no way to win.
Finally, we decide on a tug-of-war right in the middle of Champy's. The girls had had enough at that point.
"Okay, this is ridiculous," Kira complains. "You guys have been doing this for hours!"
"Why don't you guys just call it a draw?" Ally suggests, tired.
We can't, Ally, we can't exactly share you. "No," I tell them. "We're not done. I have to beat him." I continue to pull.
"I don't understand why you care so much," Kira says, annoyed.
"Yeah, Elliot," Ally agrees. "Why do you care?"
"What, I don't?" he grunts.
Just then, he lets go of the rope and I'm sent flying in to the kitchen behind me. I land in a pile of food and run out, quickly recovering. I run out and victoriously yell, "yes! I won!" Dez laughs with me.
"You sure?" Trish questions. "Winners aren't usually covered in egg salad and buffalo sauce." She eyes me suspiciously. Kira sighs. Ally and Elliot look lost.
I brush her comment off and walk to them. "Elliot's not so perfect now, is he Ally?" I ask, pulling a piece of food off shirt and eating it. "Still want to be his girlfriend?" I chuckle.
"What?" Ally exclaims, confused. "I-"
"So that's why you cared so much," Kira yells, suddenly realizing what happened. "I should have known something was going on, I'm out of here." She whips around and huffs off.
"Kira, wait, I can explain," I call after her, running.
Well, I hope I can explain.
"Kira," I call again, jogging behind her.
She stops then and turns to me, furious. "What."
"Kira, please let me explain."
"Look Austin," she says. "I know you like me but you obviously also have feelings for Ally."
"No I don't," I insist, not even fooling myself.
"Austin, come on."
"Alright, yes. No. I don't know, Maybe. I-I don't know. I'm confused," I say, exasperated.
"Well I'm not," she finalizes. "When you figure out what you want, give me a call." And with that she walks off, still mad.
I sigh. I can't believe I just let the best girlfriend I ever had walk out of my life because I have a little crush on Ally. She probably knows now, too, because Trish is her equivalent of Dez to me and is probably making her experience some sort of logical revelation.
I sulkily walk back to Sonic Boom, grateful I have a change of clothes there.
I really like Ally and but I really like Kira. How am I going to decide?
Once there, I quickly change and sit at the piano in the practise room. I start playing a few chords of the song I was forced to work on myself because of Ally, somewhat happy with the results. Of course, the results would be much better if we had created them together.
But whatever.
I'm still playing when Ally walks in, still gorgeous in that red dress. "Hey," I say shyly.
She walks over. "Hey," she smiles.
"Listen, Ally, about tonight," I begin.
She cuts me off. "You don't have to say anything, Austin."
I sigh, relieved.
After a moment she looks at me awkwardly. "I mean, you don't have to not say anything." I continue to sit there in silence. "...You know what, let's just work on the song," she laughs, uncomfortable.
She takes her seat beside me. "Okay," I smile. We start playing the way we usually do.
In sync, minor and major keys, as one.
But this time, when our hands touch, we both stop playing and look at each other, her beautiful brown eyes staring in to mine, her mouth on the verge of a smile, me trying to resist the urge to kiss her.
Just then, we both lean forward like we're about to kiss.
A million thoughts go through my mind.
Does she like me, too?
She couldn't, surely.
Once we're really close, she speaks again. "I was thinking the... chorus could go something like this," she tells me, playing.
"Yeah," I say, still completely awestruck. "That'd be great."
She turns her body back to the piano and plays what suddenly turned in to the best song I've ever heard.
I don't take my eyes off of her.
I just stare and watch, falling love more and more with my best friend.