Chapter 1: Hatred & Hazel Eyes

The whole thing starts on a beautiful morning, just like any other normal day in the Moon household. If you ask them whether they believe anything remotely similar to what they're about to go through might happen at that time, they would wholeheartedly laugh it off and say you're crazy. But it did happen, and neither of them is about complain with the results.

It is exactly a minute before six o'clock when Ally Dawson's eyes snaps open, her internal alarm clock synchronizing just in time with the beeping noise of her actual alarm clock. She sits up, attempting to rub the sleep out of her eyes, and gently turns off her alarm.

Trudging to her closet, she throws her soft comfy bed one last longing look, yet manages to stop herself from snuggling back into the warm covers. She takes her perfectly ironed uniform off from the hanger and absentmindedly dons it on, her mind half asleep but still succeeds in putting it on correctly, despite all those intricate and annoying little buttons.

After all, she has been working as a maid for as long as she can remember.

Her parents hadn't been able to raise her since they weren't exactly expecting her, and because they were still struggling with her dad's music business at the time, they had no choice but to, well, make a bargain with the Moons. They agreed to keep her well fed and provide a roof over her head, under the only condition of her working as a maid in their house until she's eighteen.

She feels no hate towards her parents or the Moons, surprisingly. After all, Mike and Mimi did keep their promise of keeping her stomach full, and working as a maid isn't half as hard as it sounds. Mimi, having always wanted a daughter, practically treats her like her own, and she knows as a fact that Mimi personally altered her schedule to lessen her load of housework. But being Ally, she always volunteers to help with the chores even though she didn't have to. She occasionally sees her parents in her free time, and she totally understands why they had to make that decision. It's for her own good, and really, working as a maid is quite fun sometimes. She has a few friends, okay, two, but they are extremely fun to hang out with. Trish de la Rosa, her fellow colleague, has a striking personality and seems to have an endless supply of snarky and sarcastic remarks. Her constant bickering with Dez Fisher, a friend of the family who always hangs out here after school, is always hilarious and almost sweet. But that's beside the point, and Trish will skin her alive if she ever heard her say her name and Dez's in the same sentence.

After freshening up in the bathroom, Ally turns around just to see the door flying open, revealing her short Latina friend right behind with a broom in hand.

"Trish, I'm in the bathroom. You didn't even knock," she says, half annoyed.

Trish just grinned. "Well, you should've locked the door."

"I hung up the occupied sign," she points out, nodding to the small sign swaying left to right on the wide open door.

"Yeah, well, but we're having trouble waking him up again, so COME. ON." Ignoring her protests, Trish drags the poor brunette out of the servant's bathroom, heading straight to the other wing of the Moon's mansion.

Passing a ridiculously long hallway with a wall made entirely out of glass and beautiful marble flooring, they finally stop in front of a set of ebony double doors.

Ally groans. "You can't be serious. It's not my job to wake him up anyway!"

"You and I both know that one never works," Trish replies, rolling her eyes. "Just get on with it. My five minute break ended half an hour ago and I still have to sweep the main dining room."

Sighing dramatically and causing her friend to roll her eyes again, Ally kicks open the door without knocking, shoulders slump.

The heavy drapes in the dark room are shut. She takes a grudging step forward, only to almost trip over a dented alarm clock, clearly unwanted and abused by its owner.

Annoyed, she marches straight to the drapes and yanks them open, allowing brilliant sunlight to stream mercilessly towards the lump on the bigger-than-king-sized bed beside. The lump stirs, snuggling deeper into the tangled silken sheets.

She briefly debates whether to bang the cymbal lying conveniently on the floor, left on its own apart from all the other instruments strewn randomly across the overly spacious room, before deciding against it. It's not worth wasting her energy just to wake that jerk up.

Oh, so she should probably talk about who the jerk is. His name is Austin Moon, a.k.a. the bane of her existence. How good people like Mike and Mimi Moon managed to conceive such a horrible jerk will always remain a mystery to her. He has apparently made it his lifetime mission to make her life miserable. Seriously, what kind of childish sicko sticks a post it note stating 'Just got my first period ;)' on your back to which you unfortunately didn't notice until the end of the day? Sure, everyone in the Moon household from their personal chauffer to the garden boy had found it highly amusing, but she hadn't been able to face anyone without blushing like an overripe tomato for a week. And there's also a time when he hacked off Mrs. Moon's precious yellow roses then attempted to blame it on her. Of course no one had believed him, since the idiot had apparently never given a thought to their fancy high-tech security cameras all around the house.

Anyway, her point is that she hates his guts. And she's pretty sure the feeling is mutual too, considering her detailed and through observation done over the past sixteen years of her life. He's just an annoying jerk, a childish idiot, and a total pain in the rear end.

Momentarily lost in her thoughts, she fails to notice the hand grabbing her arm, successfully making her lose balance and stumble down upon the bed. The owner of it emerges from the mess of tangled sheets, a head of impossibly soft looking blond hair looking even shinier than usual under the bright sunbeams.

"When are you going to stop staring at me and start waking me up?" he drawls lazily, still half asleep. Hazel eyes fix themselves on her brown ones, and Ally feels her cheeks color ever so slightly.

Okay, so maybe she forgot to mention one crucial little detail. The person trying to ruin her life is ridiculously gorgeous.

She manages to fight down the blush. "One, I so did not stare at you, and two, I thought that was your alarm's job before it got dismantled."

He doesn't miss a beat. "True, but I thought the person who has been living off us for sixteen years would be more than glad to do something as insignificant as waking me up. But I guess I was wrong." He rests his head on the headboard and shrugs, shaking his head in mock sorrow.

"Moon—"

"Master Moon," he corrects, flashing her his trademark smirk.

She grits her teeth. "Master Moon, please accept my most sincere apologies, but you have to get that lazy ass of yours up right now before you're late for school. Again."

"Language, Dawson. I thought my parents raised you better."

For the love of—How the hell does he always manage to make her lose self control?! Of all the maids and servants in the Moon household, he just has to make her call him master. Ugh, as if it's not already torture to serve him.

Taking deep, slow breaths, she manages to restrain herself from spitting out another snarky remark that will definitely earn his disapproval. "Just get up, it's already pass seven o'clock."

She starts to get up, only to be pulled back by that jerk's—sorry, Master Moon's—hand. "Aww, come on, Dawson, five more minutes?" he pleads playfully, knowing fully well what her answer will be.

"No," comes her predicted reply.

He retaliates by sticking his tongue out at her and hiding back into the covers. Yep, mature, right?

After a few minutes, she finally sighs and says, "I'm making breakfast."

A corner of his comforter lifts up. "I want pancakes," he orders.

"No, you had that yesterday."

He smirks. "That was an order, Dawson."

"I could get another maid to make them for you," she tries to threaten. It works.

His smirk drops. A small pout makes its way to his lips as he widens his hazel eyes innocently. Oh, no—not that look again.

And then there is the look she's been dreading of again. His infamous, adorable-as-hell puppy dog face that gets him whatever he wants.

"Please, Ally?"

Maybe it's due to the fact that he rarely calls her by her first name, or maybe it's just because his puppy dog face is working its magic as usual, but Ally just can't seem to make herself say no.

"Fine."

He shoots out of his bed, grinning. "Great, now get out of my room, Dawson. I want chocolate ones and make sure there's a lot of syrup on 'em."

The ebony double door shuts in her face and she sighs, leaning her back against the doors.

Hazel eyes always seem to have that effect on her.

A/N: So there goes my first attempt at writing chaptered stories. Please review if you like it, cause I already have chapter two ready since I got exams on Tuesday :(