Hey everyone, welcome to my new story! I hope you guys all enjoy it!
As ever, I do not own Austin and Ally or anything you recognise from the show in any way, shape or form, nor do I own any recognisable brands, songs or lyrics within them.
This chapter is gonna be kind of like a pilot chapter, just to gauge people's reaction. The next chapter will be up in a couple of weeks' time, but the larger the demand and response the sooner that will be!
I hope you all enjoy!
. . . . .
Chapter One: A is for…
Ally's POV
Beep
Beep
Beep
"Ugh…" I groan as I slowly open my eyes and wait for them to adjust to the sunlight streaming through my window.
I threw my arm out and slapped it down on the alarm clock that was beeping like there was no tomorrow, thankful for the silence that followed. I rubbed my eyes as I sat up, and gave myself a minute just sat there as I thought about everything.
It was the first day of my junior year in High School, and I was feeling… well, I was feeling lots of things really, but on the whole I was very positive, because believe it or not, I am one of those people who actually enjoysgoing to school and learning – what's the point in having a brain if you're not going to test and stretch and fill it with information?
There were going to be big changes this year at Marino High. The school had for some reason decided that, as it was junior year, and therefore halfway through our time at High School, the classes should all be switched up a bit so that we could all interact with new people. Stupid idea, I know. Basically, it meant that we would still have the same classes, but the people in them would all be switched up a bit, as every year beforehand there had been two 'sides' of the year. These 'sides' were being mixed around a bit… it was all a bit confusing, but it made sense at the same time.
Lots of people were not happy with these new changes, because for them it meant that they would be split up from their friends who would now be on the other 'side' of the year. Fortunately, that had not really been a problem for me, because… well, to be honest, I didn't really have many friends. In fact, I only really had one true friend, Trish. Trish de la Rosa. She's been my best friend for as long as I can remember. She's a short Latina girl, which thick black curly hair that runs down her back just past her shoulders. Trish is amazing, she's really sweet and caring to her friends, but she's not afraid to stand up for herself and never backs down. Essentially, you just don't want to get on the wrong side of her.
Then there's me. Me, Allyson Dawson (but everyone calls me Ally). Short, but still taller than Trish, I have brown eyes and brown hair that goes just past my shoulders. I got caramel highlights in my hair recently, with a little persuasion from Piper telling me it would look better, and everyone agreed when I finally did it.
My love life... well, in short, it's non-existent. I am what is known as an 'ultimate virgin'. Basically what this means is that I have never had a boyfriend, I've never been kissed, hell I've never even been hugged in any way other than friendly. And let's just say, being like this and seeing everyone else all happy and in couples and stuff doesn't really boost my self-esteem. I know I'm not the best looking girl, but I've just accepted it over the years I guess. Trish has always been there to reassure me and say that I'm beautiful really, which is kind, but no matter how much I'm told it by her and my parents I never feel it.
I've never really had many classes with any of the group, really. I don't take the same classes as most of them. For my junior year I am taking a total of 6 AP classes to ensure I get into my college of choice, MUNY (we'll come to that later), and none of my group are the most intelligent people. I'm taking AP Music, World History, Spanish, Calculus, English Literature and Chemistry. I also have already completed an honors in Theatre, got that done in my Sophomore year.
For the past 3 years, I've been with Trish in AP Spanish (by far her best subject, what do you expect her family all speaks it), Calculus (she spends half the time sleeping, no clue why she took it or how she manages to stay in it) and Chemistry (we've always been lab partners – I always end up doing most of the work but I don't really mind. But now that they're changing up the classes and everything, I'm only with Trish in AP Chemistry and Spanish.
We have 8 periods a day at my school, leaving me two free periods that have always matched up with Trish's, but once again the new system has messed it up and now I'll only have one free period with her. I guess I can look forward to being a complete loner during the other one, but honestly I'm actually just used to that now. Oh, we also have a compulsory period of Sports every Wednesday. So on Wednesdays I only have one free period… luckily it's the same one as Trish.
Now, back to this whole MUNY thing. Basically, music is my life – I absolutely adore it. I find it so incredible how sounds can make us feel so many emotions and can express so much meaning. I've been writing songs for a few years, but no-one except Trish knows about them. I have the worst stage fright you can imagine. But at least no one else really knows about it, because I have no one else to tell apart from Trish. And this way I can at least keep it a secret – I really don't need the whole school discovering I like music because I'll inevitably be forced to perform in front of the school or something and then I'd just have a panic attack and die. Over-dramatic? I don't think so.
My AP Music classes have always been really small, only a few people in them. I'm so thankful for this, it means that when we have performance projects I don't have to perform in front of too many people – remember how bad I get stage fright. I mentioned earlier that I did an honors in Theatre, and that was a big class, but it's not the same. When I'm acting, I'm not me, I'm simply playing a character, and somehow that lets me perform without stage fright, but music is so personal to me and I feel so open when I play that it's a completely different story.
Where does my passion for music come from, you ask? Well, I guess music's just always been in my life. My Dad, Lester, owns Sonic Boom, a music store in the mall that sells anything and everything to do with music, and he has since before I was born. I spend a lot of time there helping him run the place, and when I was growing up I would spend a lot of time there with him after school because no one would be at home for me. Because I spent so much time there I had a lot of time to play around with all the instruments and what not and my Dad has always tried to teach me what he knows, as well as getting me lessons on more difficult instruments. As a result, I can now play piano, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, most things on bass and I have the basics of violin and drums down too.
My mom, Penny, she still lives with us, but she's never really been so keen on music. Her and my Dad have always argued about it, she was never too keen on my Dad owning a music store and she didn't really want me to go down the musical path. She's always been a businesswoman, working in a "real job" with long hours and good pay, and wanting me to do the same. Don't get me wrong, she still loves us both and I love her too, and she understands how passionate about music I am and tries to support me, but she's never had the same understanding of it as my Dad has.
Anyway, back to the big morning. I get up at 6 a.m., I have to because school starts at 7:30. I can honestly say I won't be sad to see the end of early morning starts when I graduate! Despite how early it is, the sun is shining brightly (it is Miami, what do you expect?), so I walk over to my curtains and draw them back, allowing the sunlight to shine into my room at full force, illuminating it completely. That's what I love about my bedroom, it's positioned just right so the sunlight gets directly into it pretty much all day.
I opened the glass doors and hopped out onto my balcony, leaning against the railing and smiling as the warmth of the sun warmed me up. I stand there for about 30 seconds before going back into my room and closing the door. I opened the window above my desk to let some fresh air in and stumble into the en-suite bathroom to begin my morning routine.
30 minutes later I emerge from the bathroom showered and hair washed. I blow dry and straighten my hair before walking over to my closet to decide what to wear today. It looks like it's a relatively warm day, so I decide on a light pink floral dress that comes to just below my mid-thigh, with a brown leather waist belt. I grab a white lace cardigan to go over the top and sit down at my dressing table to do my make-up.
Like I said before, I'm not the prettiest girl in the world and I know it, but I'm also not the type of girl who cakes their face in make-up to try and look "perfect". I put on some natural style make-up and a small amount of lip gloss before smiling at myself in the mirror. I grab some brown leather heeled ankle boots to match the belt.
It's now 6:45 so I have about 15 minutes before I need to leave to meet Trish and walk to school, and my stomach's rumbling like nothing, so I grabbed my phone and strolled out of my room and down the stairs.
The second my bedroom door closed behind me I was met by the heavenly smell of food coming from downstairs. That's one other thing about my Mom – she is an amazing cook! I sauntered down the stairs, trying my best to be graceful and smiling to myself, before rounding the corner into the kitchen. I could smell fresh coffee brewing along with food from the stove where my Mom was stood cooking, and the radio was on to a generic radio station like it was every morning.
My Dad was sat at the table with the newspaper and a mug of coffee. He looked up and smiled brightly at me when he saw me walk in. "Morning sweetie, how did you sleep?" He asked kindly.
"Morning Dad, I slept great thanks." I said, walking over and perching on a stool at the island/breakfast bar as I pulled out and unlocked my phone. "Morning Mom." I said to her as she stood with her back to me, facing the cooker from where I could smell… hmm, I couldn't quite decipher it.
"Morning hon, you excited for your first day of junior year?" She replied gently, turning her head to smile softly at me.
"Yeah, I guess so, it doesn't really feel any different to being a sophomore." I replied, looking up at her and returning her smile. She kept the smile on her face and nodded a little before turning her attention back to the food. "What are you making for breakfast, mom?" I asked politely as I got up and walked over to the fridge, taking out the carton of orange juice and pouring myself a glass.
"Waffles dear, is that okay?" She replied sweetly, not looking over her shoulder.
"Yeah, that's great, thanks!" I said back as I returned to my seat at the island.
"Good." She said with a giggle as she continued to cook.
10 minutes later and I had eaten it all without hesitating, my Mom's waffles were renowned for being incredible and they never failed to live up to that reputation.
I ran back upstairs, thanking my Mom for the breakfast as I went and quickly entered my bedroom. I grabbed all my books and folders and pens and shoved them into my bag.
I specifically make sure I have my most prized possession with me – my songbook. It was given to me by my Mom years ago when she realised that I was serious about music, as an attempt to show me that she's willing to support me in it. It's perfect, brown leather with a big orange A on the front. Obviously, the A is for Ally. I use it as a songbook/journal/diary, I write everything in it – my thoughts, my feelings, songs I'm writing, random lyrics that come into my head, anything, and I always have it with me. And most importantly, no one but me is allowed to look in it. I show Trish the occasional thing in it, but that's it! It's my personal book and I don't even let people touch it. If anyone read half the stuff in there I would die, I cringe myself just reading back over some of the stuff in there.
One last look in the mirror and I was back out and down the stairs. I said bye to both my parents and gave them each a kiss on the cheek before walking towards the front door. "Are you sure you don't want a lift, darling?" My Dad called behind me as I walked out of the kitchen.
"No thanks Dad it's fine, I'm walking with Trish." I called back over my shoulder.
"Okay, see you later!" He replied merrily.
"Have a great day at school!" My Mom called out as I opened the front door.
"Thank you, bye!" I answered as I walked out and shut the door behind me.
To anyone we'd look like the perfect family, and it's true that a lot of the time we were, but like every family we definitely had our fair share of problems, and I knew that there would always be something to get in the way in the future.
I took a deep breath and let it back out again smiling. I put on my sunglasses and walked down my driveway and right down the street to meet Trish and begin our junior year.
. . . . .
Austin's POV
I woke up to the sound of clattering coming from downstairs, as I do most mornings, and glanced over at my clock. 6:30. Ah well, it was time to get up anyway so I sat up and swung my legs out of bed. I opened up my curtains to let in the sunlight and cracked open my balcony door to let a little air in.
I grabbed my phone and opened it up, not surprised to see hundreds of message notifications. My friends had clearly decided that they were gonna stay up practically all night on the group chat, the last message being sent at 3:27 this morning. 'What idiots' I thought to myself, knowing that they were going to be so tired all day. Ah well, at least it would be pretty funny to see them being even dumber than usual.
All my friends are pretty crazy, especially Dez, my best friend. I've known him for years. He's a lovely guy, but he is crazy, borderline worryingly so. Tip for life: never ask Dez what's in his pocket or does he have any pets, because you will get the weirdest answers from him.
Then there's Elliot. He's honestly the sweetest guy you'll ever meet and he's got a heart like gold, but he's also not the brightest of people and that is often his downfall.
The final member of our group is Alex. He's a bit more intelligent than Elliot and Dez, but he doesn't have the best attitude and there have been a few times when the rest of us have had to step in to stop him from bullying people. He's a feisty one, easily aggravated and always determined to have what he wants in any way possible. But when he tries he can be a really nice guy.
That's right, there's only four of us in our group, but we're happy and we're popular. We're not jocks or anything, although I do have a pretty good body if I do say so myself, although I've got plenty of friends and people who like me, but those three are my main group.
I don't know why I'm so popular, I'm not even like a bad boy or anything, but that is my reputation – even though I've never done anything to encourage it. I mean, girls have always told me that I'm cute, or hot, or whatever, and teenagers nowadays think that it's impossible to be good-looking and intelligent. Stereotypes, how I hate them. And yes, it's true, I have had a reputation as a bit of a player, but in every relationship I've been in it just hasn't felt right to me so I broke up with the girl sooner rather than later. That makes me seem like a jerk for going through the ladies quickly, but I just do it so that it's over before either of us gets too attached.
I'm not complaining about people thinking I'm a bad boy, by the way. It means people don't expect much from me, and that suits me just fine.
But I'm also not saying that being a "bad-boy" doesn't have its downsides. Because of it, most of the people who try to get close to me only do it because of my status. Often, girls will only want to date me because of who I am, or my looks. And of course, there are the rumours that come from jealous and bitter exes, as well as other guys who don't like that I'm more popular than them and get all the female attention. Oh God the rumours. I won't bother going into details, but I'm sure you can guess that it's not nice stuff, and there are some sick people out there who come up with them.
I'm not dumb by any means, I'm taking 6 AP classes this year, and I like being sorta secretly intelligent. Obviously Dez, Elliot and Alex know I'm smart, but no one else really does. It's not even like I try and hide it, but my reputation would make people think otherwise, and believe it or not they believe the reputation over real experience. Crazy but it's true.
I know what you're thinking: 6 AP classes? This guy must be serious about college. And you'd be right. I'm taking AP World History, Statistics, French, English Literature, Chemistry and of course AP Music, with the goal of getting into MUNY.
Yeah, that's right, I love music. I want to be a recording artist and star when I grow up, I always have. I know, I know, loads of people say that and millions of people share that dream with very little chance of success, but I'm really serious about music as a career. I've been obsessed with music my whole life, my parents have some old videos of toddler me walking around singing and dancing… God they're embarrassing.
But I've always loved music, and I can play loads of instruments – I can play piano, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, drums, bass, I can even play a trumpet through another trumpet! Guitar is definitely my favourite, though. I look up above my bed and hanging there is my red and white electric guitar, my pride and joy. The shape of it means it looks a little like an A, and this is made more obvious by a big black A that sits in the middle and outlines the shape. Obviously, A is for Austin.
I realise I've been standing here thinking for a few minutes, so I quickly race across the hallway into the bathroom and take a shower and wash my hair. When I'm done, I go back into my bedroom and dry my beach-blonde hair, which many people say is one of my best features, before standing in front of my mirror to make sure it's in that perfectly messy-yet-still-kinda-neat look. I stroll over to my wardrobe and get dressed. Today I decided to go with a blue v-neck t-shirt with sleeves down to my elbows, black skinny jeans and a black leather jacket, along with my usual dog tags.
I realised that I only had just less than 10 minutes before I need to drive to school, so I quickly ran downstairs. As I walked through the living room to get to the kitchen, I see my Dad, Mike, asleep on the couch with pillows, so clearly he and my Mom had another argument last night that ended in him having to sleep downstairs… again. Unfortunately that seems to be happening more and more recently. There's an empty bowl on the rug next to the couch on its side, I'm guessing my Dad dropped it which was the sound that woke me up this morning.
As I hurriedly walk into the kitchen, my Mom, Mimi, is sat at the table just staring into her cup of coffee in silence. She has bags under her eyes; clearly she didn't get much sleep last night. Her long blonde hair is scruffy and she clearly hasn't bothered to wash or comb it. She looks miserable. "Morning, Mom!" I say in my best bright and cheerful voice with a smile on my face in an attempt to lighten the mood.
"Good morning. Are you excited for your first day of junior year?" She replied in a monotonous voice, not looking up from her coffee. I can tell she doesn't really care, but play along anyway for her benefit.
"Yeah, I can't wait to get these last two years done and just graduate already." I said back enthusiastically as I went to the fridge and grabbed out a small bowl of fruit salad, I didn't have time to eat anything more. Mom smiled slightly at my comment but didn't say anything else.
I quickly ate the fruit salad and threw my empty bowl in the sink, before shooting my Mom another smile and racing back past my still-sleeping Dad and upstairs.
I grabbed everything I needed for the day and shoved it all into my backpack, zipping it up quickly. I grabbed my blue high-tops and put them on to match my t-shirt. I didn't have time to lace them up so I just put the laces inside the shoe and slipped them on. To be honest I would have probably put them on like that anyway, I think it looks better… and I'm too lazy to tie them.
I did a final check in the mirror to make sure my hair still looked okay and gave myself a small smile and a wink before grabbing my backpack and leaving the room. "Bye Mom, love you!" I called out as I reached the door.
"Bye Austin, have a great day sweetheart!" She called back rather half-heartedly as I walked out the door and shut it behind me.
I strolled over to my car and unlocked it. A black Mercedes SLR hard-top convertible, it's my absolute pride and joy. I saved up for SO long and had to do SO many gigs to be able to afford it, it was basically my entire life savings so far, and I only paid for half of it. My parents paid the rest as my 16th birthday present. I kept it in absolutely pristine condition and did everything I could to keep it pretty much as good as new, and I did a pretty good job in doing that.
I got in, threw my backpack on the passenger seat, turned on the ignition, and of course the radio, and pulled out of the driveway and off towards Marino High for the first day of junior year.
. . . . .
There you go guys, there's the first chapter! I hope you guys enjoyed it, not much at all happened really it was just more of an introduction to the main characters and a tiny bit of back story. I know this was a little boring but I hope you choose to stick with it :)
Please, please, please make sure to review, favourite and follow! It really helps me know you're enjoying it!
Catch you later! :)
