"So you're going to be okay for the next few days, Ally?" asked Mr. Dawson. It was almost opening time for Sonic Boom and Mr. Dawson was on his way out to an Oboe convention in New York.
"For the last time, YES, dad," said Ally as she helped her dad with his bags to the cab, "this isn't the first time you've left me in charge of the store," she pointed out.
"Yes, but I've never you left you in charge of the store for more than a day."
"Relax, enjoy the oboe convention, I have everything under control."
"Ok, thanks Ally. I'll be back soon. And if you need ANYTHING you just call me and I'll be back in a flash." Mr. Dawson kissed his daughter on the forehead and said goodbye.
"Bye, Dad," Ally said, waving at the the taxi as it drove away.
Ally went to go open the store. It was a Sunday morning, so typically the store wasn't busy. She noticed that some of the shelves were looking a bit empty so she went down to the basement storage room to find some instruments to fill them with.
As she walked down the stairs a shiver crawled up her spine, "yeeesh," she mumbled to herself, "the store's basement gives me the creeps." When she reached the basement storage room she fumbled with the keys and twisted the door knob a few times before she got it to finally open. She placed a wedge under the door so it would stay open. The door had a habit of closing on its own and locking itself.
The storage room was filled with instruments. Being clumsy Ally, when she bent over to pick up a box she knocked over some other boxes and instruments. The tumbling of objects fell over like a line of dominos which were heading towards the door. The wedge under the door was pushed out of its spot causing the door to close.
Ally ran for the door but she wasn't quick enough, the door shut and locked her in. "NOOO!" she groaned. She put down the box and began to bang on the door and call for help. "HELP!" she cried.
She began to grow tired of banging on the door when she suddenly heard footsteps above her. Her spirits lifted. She banged on the door and yelled as loudly as she could, "HELP! I'M IN THE BASEMENT STORAGE ROOM!"
She heard the footsteps come rushing down the stairs and then a voice, "Ally? is that you?" She recognized it as Austin's.
"Yes Austin! It's me, Ally! Please help me out! I'm locked in!" she cried.
Austin laughed, "how did you do that?"
"I'll explain later," she said getting impatient. She shoved the key under the door, "Here, use this to unlock the door."
"okay, okay," he said obeying her orders. He twisted the key around a few times and unlocked the door.
"Oh thank God, you're always coming to the store," ally gasped.
"woah! COOL!" Austin said excitedly as he entered the storage room, "I've never seen this before! Check out all the instruments!"
"Austin WAIT! hold the door open!" Ally shouted.
"what?" Austin said and turned around, but it was too late the door closed on him too.
Ally's face fell into her hands.
"Oops," said Austin, "so is that how you got locked in here?"
Ally rolled her eyes.
Austin rushed at the door and began to bang on it. "HELP!" he yelled repeatedly. "HELP WE'RE STUCK DOWN HERE!"
After an hour of the two of them yelling, they're voices grew too weak to scream anymore.
"This is hopeless," whined Ally as she collapsed onto the floor, "hardly anyone comes into the store on Sundays"
"Hey I know!" said Austin getting an idea, "I'll call Dez or Trish!"
"Austin that's genius!' cried Ally getting up excitedly, "call Trish, Dez we'll just get locked in here too."
"Aw come on Ally," said Austin.
Ally gave him a look.
"Trish it is!" he said. When he pulled out his phone though, his happy, excited face dropped, "NO BARS! are you kidding me!"
"what!" she said grabbing his phone from his hands and looking at it for herself. She pulled out her phone to check too. It detected no bars. Ally groaned. "What do we do now!"
Austin put on a thinking face, then his face lit up once again with an idea. He pushed Ally out of the way of the door, "stand back," he said. He stood a few meters from the door and ran hard at it. BAM! Austin collapsed onto the ground.
"AUSTIN ARE YOU CRAZY!" Ally gasped rushing over to his side.
Austin moaned, "well it was worth a try," he said rubbing his arm, "Hey! what if we both-"
"no," ally said before he could finish saying his idea. She stood up and looked around the storage room for anything they could use to get out. But she got no ideas from what she saw. There were no windows to climb out of. No vents to crawl up. No other doors. The room was just filled with instruments in a space built of cement walls and lit by a single lightbulb. Even if she could come up with a way to use the instruments to get them out, it would most likely involve damaging them in some sort of way, so there was no way she was doing that. (until she got really desperate that is)
Suddenly she heard the sound of an acoustic guitar playing. She whipped her head around to see Austin playing. She marched over to him and grabbed the guitar's neck. "How can you be playing at a time like this!" Ally snapped at him.
"I'm a musician, Ally. It's what I do," said Austin cooly.
"And how can you be so calm!" she cried.
"I'm stuck in a room with a billion instruments," he said, "this is like a dream! plus I'm here with me best friend" He grinned at her.
Ally rolled her eyes at the sweet comment.
"Things could be worse," Austin said, "It could be a lot more cramped, I could be stuck in here alone or with a total psycho. This room could be totally empty, I could die of boredom. At least this way I can entertain myself until somebody finds us."
"You really think someone's going to find us?" Ally asked him.
"Sure," he said, "Plus I'm sure people will notice that we've gone missing so they're bound to go looking for us."
Ally gave a slight smile at Austin's optimistic attitude. He always knew how to stay so calm and cool. She took a seat on the floor across from him and watched him play. She was jealous of his confidence; how he could play so flawlessly in front of an audience. Sure, it was just her at the moment, but Ally, herself, could barely perform in front of one person. The only person she ever really preformed in front of was Austin, since her stage fright had emerged. And when she did preform in front of him it was either unintentional or it was so she could show him a song she wrote for him to preform.
Austin began to sing the acoustic version of "Not a Love Song". His voice was so sweet and soft when he preformed it this way, Ally loved the way it sound. Then she remembered the time that inspired the song. When Austin freaked out at the idea of her having a crush on him and did ridiculous things just so she would not like him. She smiled to herself when the image of him sweaty and orange popped into her mind. But then the idea of him not liking her that way made her a bit sad.
It was a good thing that Austin and Dallas shared those characteristics, because that entry in her book was originally about Austin! She was able to pull it off as being about Dallas because he had those thing in common with Austin. And she only started to like Dallas because she realized that nothing could ever happen between her and Austin.
It was hard to get over him when he was always so nice to her and was so charming. Not too mention his amazing good looks. Ally let out a small sigh, her thoughts were getting to her. Although he could be egotistic and childish sometime, they were what made him, him and she couldn't help but admit to herself that they were part of why she loved him so much.
Ally continued to watch Austin play as she kept her private thoughts to herself. His melodic voice was able to calm her from the whole situation of being locked in the Sonic Boom basement. It was so soothing in fact that it began to put her to sleep like a lullaby. Ally slowly drifted off into sweet dreams.
As Austin continued to play he noticed Ally had fallen asleep. He snickered quietly at the sleeping songwriter. "she's so cute when she sleeps," he thought. Austin shook his head at the thought but he knew that he couldn't lie to himself. He had undeniably fallen for his close friend, Ally Dawson. Austin had dated plenty of girls and he knew that there were many that just fell to his feet, but none of them were like Ally.
Although Ally was super awkward, shy and clumsy, he loved her for those things, they made her special and they made him smile. He loved it when she would yell at him for his misbehaviour, how all her focus and attention would be on him for those brief moments. That furious look on her face made him want to hug her tightly because he knew that she was just trying to be responsible but wasn't actually mad at him.
There so many things that Austin admired Ally for. Although she had an irrational stage fright complex, she was an amazing singer. He has never heard anything more beautiful than her voice. She also wrote the best songs, especially the ones she wrote for him. They suited him so well, she knew exactly what was good for him.
On top of being incredibly musically talented, she was really smart. Ally could do anything if she set her mind to it. He also liked how she was able to appreciate the simple things in life, like cloud watching. She was a girl of simple taste. Ally was also a great friend, she was looking out for not only his best interest but Dez's and Trish's as well.
Aside from Dez, Ally was his next closest friend, and he would hate to lose someone like her from his life. If he tried to be her boyfriend he felt there was a higher risk of losing her. Despite how badly he wished she was his girlfriend, he was too scared to jeopardize their friendship.
He thoughtfully watched Ally sleep and noticed she was looking a bit cold, so he took off his sweater and draped it over her petite body. He like the way she looked with his clothes.
So when did he, Austin Moon, fall in love with the songwriter? It was probably when he first saw her in Sonic Boom. Although he hadn't realized he was in love with her at the time, he knew he wanted to get her attention. And he successfully completed that mission when he drummed on the store's drum kit with corn dogs. Austin let out a low chuckle at the thought of the stunt he pulled. He loved that first perplexed look she gave him when she caught him. But he knew he had fallen in love with her the moment they danced together for Trish's quincesnera. It was electricity had flowed through his body when he moved with her.
Austin looked at Ally and wished he could wrap his arms around her sleeping body and cuddle with her. Actually, watching her sleep so peacefully made him sleepy too, and he began to nod off to dreamland.
