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Onto the next chapter…

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN AUSTIN AND ALLY!

The plane ride was horrible.

Ally hadn't really given much thought to exactly how high in the sky planes were. She'd never been on a plane before, and looking at one from the ground, it had always seemed like they weren't that far away, even though she knew they flew thousands of miles above the ground. Being in a plane was a completely different experience.

Ally had gotten a window seat, and had watched the ground go further and further away as she grew more and more terrified. It was like her stage fright, only a thousand times worse, because she couldn't get away. She tried closing her eyes so as not to see how distant the ground had become, but if anything, it made things worse. She could sense the lack of solid ground, and the distant between her and it. She could feel every part of the plane as if it were part of her own body, and every weakness the plane had. It no longer became a question of IF the plane would crash. It was a question of WHEN.

Her friends had instantly noticed that something was wrong, and though she couldn't trust herself to talk, they figured it out. They then spent the rest of the four hours citing statistics and making jokes in an effort to make her feel better. It only made it worse. So, for the entire four hours, Ally sat there, her eyes wide, body tense and a chunk of hair in her mouth.

When the plane touched down, the first thing Ally did was find a public washroom and throw up. She instantly felt better.

"Can we drive back to Miami?" Ally asked her friends as soon as she felt presentable enough to find them.

"We'll see." Austin said. He smiled at her and rested a hand on her shoulder. "Feeling better?"

"Yeah." Ally said, smiling back. "I just never want to do that again." His smile grew wider and he dropped his hand. "Maybe Trish can fix something." He said. Ally beamed. She knew that Trish couldn't do anything to get alternate means of transport back to Miami, but it was sweet thing to say.

"I didn't know you were scared of flying." Trish said, sounding more excited than worried, but that was Trish's way, and Ally knew it.

"Neither did I" Ally told her. "It was my first time."

Dez chuckled, and they all looked over. He pointed to a security guard and dog. "I didn't know dogs had people for pets."

Everyone laughed, and Ally's fear was all but forgotten.

It took a long time for the foursome to get out of the airport. Pearson International was a very big place, even though there were signs everywhere telling you exactly where to go. Only someone like Dez could get lost in Pearson, and he would have, too, if the others hadn't kept steering him in the right direction.

Eventually, though, they did get out, and a bus got them from the airport to the hotel they were staying at. It wasn't anything fancy- just a holiday inn. Trish's excuse was that she didn't want fans surrounded them all day, so she had to book at a place where the fans wouldn't go looking. Ally didn't mind- the paparazzi could creep her out sometimes.

Trish had gotten two adjacent rooms, one for the girls and one for the boys. They checked in and made their way up to their rooms, flopping the bags on the bed. Ally had barely sat down when Trish started to push for something fun.

"We have exactly twenty-four hours before we need to be at the MMVAs. That gives us just enough time to cover three quarters of the mall- providing we leave now." She turned and headed for the door, both boys closely behind her.

"Not so fast!" Ally yelled, jumping up from the bed. "Austin needs a speech."

He looked confused. "A what?"

Ally put on her fiercest expression. "You need to prepare a speech in case you win."

"But what if I don't win?"

"Then you don't need a speech."

"Well then-"

"No!" Ally held up her hand. Most of the time, she hated bringing down his hopes, but this was an exception. "We are writing a speech. Then we can go to the mall."

"Fine." He put on a pouty face, which he somehow managed to make look cute.

"Well, you won't catch me writing anything." Said Trish. She turned and grabbed Dez by the wrist. "Come on, dummy. We're going shopping." The last thing Austin and Ally saw before the hotel room door closed was Dez's 'Help me!' look. They smiled.

The speech actually only took about twenty minutes to complete, by which time Austin's sugar high- which he'd been living off of for the past 12 hours- had faded. Claiming to be too tired to shop, he flopped on the couch and turned on the TV.

"You know they have completely different channels here, right?" Ally noted as she sat down on the couch next to Austin, watching him flip through the channels.

"Cartoons are cartoons anywhere in the world." Austin said. Ally had to agree- even though she didn't watch cartoons. Actually, she didn't really watch any TV. And apparently, neither did Austin, because as soon as he set down the remote, he opened up his laptop.

"What's the point of having the TV on if you won't watch it?" Ally said, reaching for the remote. He saw this, and snatched it away.

"Because if I gave you the remote, you would've turned it to some documentary, and it would've put me to sleep in five seconds." He joked. Ally smiled because, well, it was true. She decided to change the subject.

"What are you doing?" She tried to peer over his shoulder and see the screen, but he turned it away to block her view. The look on his face was identical to the one Ally would get whenever someone reached for her songbook diary.

"Just checking my email."

Ally raised her eyebrows, but didn't press for details. If Austin was keeping something from her, than he had a good reason for doing so, and he'd talk about it when he was ready. So instead, she opened her book and wrote down a few lyrics that had come to mind earlier while she'd been trying to distract herself on the plane.

After a couple of minutes, Ally glanced up at Austin, only to see a slight frown on his face. Whatever he was reading was worrying him, and that troubled Ally. Austin didn't worry. He never had anything to worry about.

"Is everything okay, Austin?" She asked. She felt like this question had been coming up too much lately.

He looked up, and for a second, seemed surprised to see her there. Ally recognised it as a state of reading, when a person gets so absorbed that they forget about their surroundings. She just never expected to see that in Austin, since the biggest book he'd ever read was the book of world records.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. It's just, you know, big day tomorrow." He said, his natural grin returning.

Ally supposed she couldn't really question that, what with her stage fright and all. It just wasn't very, well, Austin. She tried to smile back, but it didn't come as naturally to her as it did to him. "Austin." He started, making sure she had his full attention. "You know you can tell me anything, right? No matter what."

Austin's expression softened, and he practically glowed. She knew he loved it when she expressed her feelings to him. "Of course I know that, Ally." He said. "I can always count on you. Don't worry; I'm fine." He seemed ready to go back to his computer, but at the last moment, changed his mind. Her turned back toward her, a conflict in his eyes that was just beyond Ally's comprehending. He reached out and put his hand on Ally's. "Can you promise me something?"

Ally nodded. As if she could've said no with him looking at her like that.

"Promise me we'll always be close, no matter what."

Ally blinked in shock, searching for the right words to respond with. Why would he need her promise for something like that? Wasn't it implied? Is he joking? She searched his eyes. No, he really meant it.

"Oh Austin." She said working to keep a frown off her face. "Of course we'll always be close."

Austin smiled at her, and opened his mouth to say something else, but at that exact moment, Dez came stumbling in the room, weighed down by several shopping bags. He shot the pair a look of betrayal as if to say it's your fault I'm being forced to carry this stuff. Austin immediately jumped up to help his best friend, just as Trish walked in. She sighed dramatically.

"There was so much, I ran out of money to spend. I should've brought more." She lit up. "Maybe I could get a job for our time here…"

"How did you spend that much money? It's only been 35 minutes." Ally inquired. She'd been under the impression that Trish had brought about 2000$ of shopping money.

Instead of answering out loud, Trish took out a small shopping bag from her purse and pulled out a pair of earrings. They had genuine diamonds hanging on what Ally guessed was almost pure gold chain. She stifled a laugh.

"They were calling to me." She explained in an adoring voice. "I've still got some money left, though. I figured you guys might want something-"

"Great!" Everyone turned to Austin, who had spoken. "There are a few things I need to get. Might as well go now."

"Oh, then I'll go with you." Ally said, reaching for her purse.

"No!" Austin yelled, a bit of panic in his voice. Everyone stared. He blinked, and quickly recovered. "It's gonna be a surprise." He said.

The other three glanced at each other, intrigued, and Ally complied. "OK. Just don't take too long."

"I'll be back in a flash." In a flash, he picked up the money Trish hadn't spent and sped out the door.

Dez dismissed Austin's behaviour right away and started playing with a bouncy ball, but Trish turned to Ally, incredulous.

"What was that about?"

Ally shook her head at the door. She was clueless. And Ally Dawson hated being clueless.

"I don't know."