two.
Miami International Airport, 12:54 am.
"Last call for passengers travelling on the 13:20 flight to JFK."
Austin and Ally looked around at the group gathered with them at the airport as they heard the call.
"That's us!" Austin said, excitment rising in his stomach.
"Call as soon as you land," Jennifer Moon said, hugging her son tightly. "And stay safe, both of you!"
"Keep up with your school work." David Moon said, his tone gruff as he shook his sons hand. Austin nodded, returning the handsshake. That was the extent of their relationship; handsshakes and questions about school work.
Austin never talked about it, but they had been friends for almost two years. Ally had noticed.
"Don't forget about your old dad, eh?" Clark said, smiling at Ally as he gave her a bone crushing hug. "I know how amazing the bright lights of the big city can be."
"I'd never do that dad." Ally said, clinging onto him.
"I know hon." Clark pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "You have an amazing time, okay? And I'll see you for thanksgiving."
Ally nodded, letting go relucantly.
"Come here girl." Trish said, grabbing Ally and hugging her tightly. "You are going to email me, or text me everyday, okay?"
"Okay." Ally nodded, her eyes welling up at the thought of not seeing Trish everyday. "And you have to send me a photo of your new uniform everytime you get a new job, alright?"
Trish laughed. "I will. Have an amazing time in New York,"
"I'm going to miss you," Ally said, hugging Trish again.
"I'll miss you too Ally."
"I'm going to miss you bro!" Dez wailed, throwing himself at Austin.
"Dude!" Austin laughed. "I'm not going to be that far away." He couldn't hug his friend back, seeing as Dez had his arms pinned to his sides, so Austin stood there awkwardly as Dez sobbed at him.
"Wait, I thought you were going to New York?" Dez looked confused.
"I am?"
"That's in Australia." Dez said seriously. "Its really far away."
"New York is in America," Trish said, speaking as though she was talking to a small child. "Remind me to buy you a map for your next birthday."
Laughing slightly, Ally gave Dez a hug. "I'm going to miss your weirdness."
"And I will miss your strange hair biting habits," Dez said. "And you yelling at me for eating in the store."
"Ally," Austin looked at his watch. "We need to go, or we'll miss our flight."
Ally nodded, holding tightly onto her hand luggage. "Goodbye then." She said, giving her dad one last hug before joining Austin, and starting to walk away.
As they reached secuirty, Ally turned around once more to look at the small group that had gathered to see them off. She waved, before turning around, stilfing a sob as she did so.
"Ally, are you crying?" Austin asked from where he was dumping his stuff in a basket to go throught the xray machine.
"Nope, I'm good." Ally shook her head, her voice thick with tears as she walked through the body scanner. "I'm all good."
"Ally.." Austin said slowly, sighing. He stuffed his wallet and phone back into his pockets before slinging his bag over one shoulder. "Please don't cry."
"I c-can't help it!" Ally sniffed. "I'm going to m-miss them so much!"
"We're only going to New York Ally," Austin said. "Its not exactly.. Australia. We wont be that far away."
"I haven't spent longer than two weeks away from Trish in the past eight years," Ally said. "I'm really going to miss her. And my dad Austin! I haven't spent more than two days away from him since, since, ages!"
She looked at him, her expression desperate. "I don't think I can do this."
"Ally," Austin stopped walking, and placed his hands on her shoulders. "You're going to be okay."
"How do you know that?"
"Because your dad and Trish wanted you to take this opportunity," Austin pointed out. "And, in a few hours, we'll be in New York. Its the place where dreams come true, remember? We're going to have an amazing time."
"It doesn't mean I wont miss them." Ally said, tears running down her cheeks.
"I know." Austin gave her a small grin. "But you've got me, that's something, right?"
"Yeah." Ally nodded. "It is. But you do know that because Trish isn't around all the time now, you're going to have to be the one to listen to me talk about boys."
Austin paled slightly. "I don't think I can handle any more boy talk, not after Dallas. And Evan."
"Need I remind you of Charlotte?" Ally raised an eyebrow, cheering up at memory of the girl Austin had been obsessed with a few months previously. He hadn't stopped talking about her for weeks, and when he tried to ask her out, he ended up in the mall fountain.
That had been entertaining, and well worth the hours, upon hours of Austin gushing about Charlotte's hair, Charlotte's face, Charlotte's smile, Charlotte's everything really, that Ally had put up with.
"Ouch." Austin grimanced as they reached the gate. "That was not nice."
"You're the one who brought Dallas and Evan up." Ally said innocently.
"Touche." Austin admitted. "How about we leave all those crazy people in Miami?"
"Deal." Ally laughed. "But you know, preformers are hot. I'm going to talk about guys way more when we get there.."
"I'm not going to listen."
"But we established a few minutes ago that you're my honary best girl friend while we're at Brooker Phillips," Ally teased. "Of course you'll have to listen."
"I am going to find you a girl to talk to as soon as we get there." Austin said seriously.
Ally feigned disapointment. "But who else is going to watch romantic comedies with me?"
"That was a one time thing!"
"Austin," Ally laughed. "You cried at the Notebook."
"I didn't." Austin flushed bright red.
"And the Vow."
"Did not."
"And the Proposal, though I don't know why."
"You're crazy."
"What I'm trying to say is," Ally said as they put their luggage in the overhead compartment of the plane. "I'm not going to be able to find anyone else who enjoys romantic comedies as much as you."
"I feel slightly emasculated."
"Nice word," Ally looked impressed.
"I tried to pinpoint the feeling I got after we had a six hour romantic movie marathon," Austin replied. "That's what I came up with."
Ally had to laugh. "You enjoyed that movie marathon."
"It was because of the popcorn."
"Deny it all you want," Ally grinned as they settled into their seats. "But you're secretly a romantic."
"And you," Austin countered. "Are delusional."
"Mhm." Ally nodded, reaching into her handbag and pulling out a well read brouchure.
"You have the brochure with you?" Austin raised an eyebrow.
"I've read it pretty much every night since we got it." Ally admitted. "And now we're actually on the plane, it all feels a lot more real. I want to look at our new home!"
"Its pretty cool." Austin nodded, leaning in to get a better look at the glossy pages. The booklet was well worn at this point, with pages folded over, and things circled. Ally really had poured over it.
Austin, he had given his booklet one look before tossing it aside and returning to his usual summer routine. There was far too much reading involved, especially when it was summer.
"The stage looks amazing." Ally commented, pointing at the two page spread of glossy photos.
"It does." Austin sounded awed. "Can you imagine preforming on that?"
Ally couldn't help but feel anxious as Austin mentioned the word preform. "No, no, no. I wouldn't want to anyway, you know-"
"Your stage fright is still really bad?" Austin inquired.
"Yes." Ally sighed. "And I'm terrified about going to this school, because what if they make me go on stage, and-"
"They could cure your stage fright." Austin interrupted. "The teachers and stuff I mean. Or maybe just being at the school could cure it."
"Maybe- oh God, we're taking off." Ally reached for a strand of hair, her hands shaking.
"I didn't know you were a bad flyer."
"I've never been on a plane before." Ally admitted. "And the idea of being stuck in a small enclosed space for hours with a bunch of strangers really freaks me out, and I think I need to get off. Is it like at the fun fair? Can you start screaming and they'll stop the ride and let you off?"
"Ally," Austin said, barely able to hold back laughter. "Chill."
Ally shook her head. "I can't chill, chilling is not an option. It is not an option Austin!"
"Ally." Austin grabbed her hands. "Look at me."
Ally looked at him with a wild expression.
"Think about New York," He said, hoping his tone sounded soothing. "And all the pianos at the school, and the songwriting classes, and the new friends we're going to make.."
Ally took a shaky breath. "New York," She murmered, turning to face around properly again, her gaze fixed on the seat in front of her. "New York."
"See?" Austin grinned. "Its fine."
"Its all good." Ally nodded.
"Anyway," Austin said, intertwining their fingers tightly, and flashing her a brilliant smile. "I'm not a stranger."
/
"Is this the right place?" Ally inquired as they grabbed their bags out of the taxi. She had paused to take a look at the huge brownstone building in front of them.
"I think the big sign saying Brooker Phillips Preforming Arts Academy gives it away a little Als," Austin teased.
"Smartass." Ally rolled her eyes, lifting her suitcase out of the trunk of the taxi with a pained 'oof!' The major downside to boarding school was that fact you had to cart all your stuff their on the first day.
At least, she hoped that was the major downside.
"I can't believe we're actually here." Austin said, sounding slightly awed. He had just paid the tazi driver, and was shouldering his guitar case, working out how best to get all his bags up the steps, and into the school.
"Me neither." Ally shook her head. "Though, it feels like time went really fast."
"That doesn't make sense."
"You know what I mean." Ally said. "Like, it felt like we'd never get here, and yet.. Here we are, and it feels like we only got the letter last week."
"Mm." Austin nodded. "Are we going to stare at the school all day, or can we go inside?"
Ally didn't reply, lost in her own thoughts.
"All-y?" Austin called, waving a hand in front of her face.
"What? Oh, sorry." Ally came back down to earth with a bang.
"What's up?" Austin inquired.
"Nothing." Ally reassured. "I'm just thinking about how much everything's changed. Two years ago, I was just another kid, working in my dads store part time and writing songs every chance I got."
She looked at him, and gave him a bright smile. "This year is going to be crazy, right?"
"I'd say that's a safe bet to make." Austin nodded, and the pair of them started their struggle up the front steps of the school.
"They didn't really think about the fact people would have a lot of baggage when they built the school, did they?" Austin huffed, struggling to his feet. He had tripped over his suitcase, and landed flat on his face.
"It was probably built long before it was a boarding school." Ally said wisely. Somehow, even in her wedges, she had managed to make it up the steps without any great injury.
Thankfully, the huge wooden doors of the school were wide open, and as they reached the top of the steps, they could hear noise from within. It was a loud buzz, ocasionally broken by an excited yell, or laughter.
It was a welcoming sound, as a matter of fact.
Austin and Ally pushed their way into the school, and the massive open space that was the reception.
"Welcome to Brooker Phillips!" A dark haired woman, who couldn't be more than thirty, greeted brightly, her blue eyes sparkling as she looked at them. "Names please?"
"Austin Moon."
"Ally Dawson."
"Ah, the duo Mr Ferris was excited to have in the school." She beamed at them. "I'm Michelle, I'm one of the teachers here. Right, I think I should find y'all your dorms before you drop dead because of all those bags."
Michelle gave a small laugh, her bright smile never fading. "It wouldn't do to have our new students tired on the first day." She gave them a wink. "You'll be feeling tired in a week though."
Austin and Ally exchanged slightly terrified looks.
"Now.." Michelle flicked through papers she had clutched tightly in her hands. "Austin Moon, your room is 141A, on the fourth floor."
Austin nodded.
"And Ally.. You're on the fourth floor too, 139A." Michelle beamed at them. "Walk down this corridor on the left, and theres an elevator at the end of the hallway. There's signs everywhere for the first few days, so you wont get lost. Too much, anyway."
"Thank you," Ally nodded, nervousness bubbling in the pit of her stomach. She was good at getting lost, even in places where it was close to impossible to get lost.
"Dinner's at.." Michelle checked the file in front of her. "Half five today, just so we can have an assembly before we eat. Otherwise, its at six."
Austin and Ally said their thanks, and moved to turn away.
"Oh, wait!" Michelle stopped them in their tracks. "I'm so forgetful, I forgot to give you your timetables."
She had grabbed two surprisingly thick folders from a table beside her, their names on each of them.
"Happy reading." She beamed, and bustled off to speak to another student.
"Its this corridor, right?" Austin inquired as they walked left.
"Everyone seems to be going that way." Ally nodded. Austin shrugged, and proceeded to walk that way, drinking in everything about the school. Despite the old brownstone look, the school itself, on the inside at least, was completely modern.
Austin was postive he had never seen that much glass, or bright colours in one place. It was cool though, a refreshing change from their mostly blue and grey school back in Miami. It only took a few minutes for them to reach the elevator, where there another student already waiting.
"This place is awesome." Austin commented.
"And we've only been here like, two minutes." Ally agreed. "I can't wait to see the rest of it. Its so much more amazing in person,"
"Oh, trust me." A girl with dark red hair, a colour that couldn't be natural said, smiling at them. "This place gets even better."
"Its our first year here." Ally said.
"I know," The girl said, making both Austin and Ally feel more than a little weirded out.
"Everyone knows everyone around here," She said as a way of explanation. "We're not a huge school. I'm Florence de Rossi by the way, but everyone calles me Flo."
"Ally Dawson," Ally introduced.
"Austin Moon." Austin said, unable to take his eyes off the girl. There was something about her that was completely captivating, and interesting.
"Oh, I've seen some of your videos," Flo nodded. "You're pretty talented, both of you."
"Both of us?" Ally's eyes widened.
"Unlike most people, I pay attention to who writes the songs." Flo grinned, stepping into the elevator as the doors opened with a ding. "What floor are you two on?"
"Fourth." Austin answered for both of them.
Flo nodded, hitting the button for the fourth floor. "Me too. What year are you starting in?"
"Junior."
"We'll be seeing a lot of each other then," Flo said, smiling. "I'm a junior as well."
"How long have you been going here?" Ally inquired.
"Since freshman year." Flo nodded. "I spent like four years begging my parents to let me apply, and I got in on the first audition."
"Auditon?" Austin wrinkled his nose in confusion.
"Mmhm." Flo nodded. "The school has an audtion process so you can get a place. I'm guessing you didn't do that?"
Austin shook his head.
"I'm going to take a wild guess and say that Ferris took all the videos you two had on the internet as your audtion." Flo said thoughtfully. "He does that sometimes. Did it for Jasper, but then again, he lives in Australia when he's not here."
"I'm never going to remember everyone's names." Ally hissed to Austin.
"You'll be fine," Flo had heard her. "No one minds the newbies forgetting names at the start, and you'd be surprised how quickly you pick up peoples names. You are around them twenty four seven,"
The elevator doors opened, and they stepped out into a bright, bustling corridor. Most doors were open, allowing both Austin and Ally to catch a glimpse of the people they would be sharing their lives with for the next two years.
People were unpacking, playing instruments, blasting music, or having impromtu jam sessions in the middle of the hallway. The whole place felt so alive, and the pulsing mix of music genres, and tunes was one of the more amazing things either of them had experienced.
"Is it always like this?" Ally found herself asking, awed.
"Always." Flo grinned. "That's what you get when you put a bunch of kids with a passion for preforming in the same building, I guess. Do you need help finding your rooms? Though, I think most people are here already, so it shouldn't be too hard."
Flo leaned over, and looked at the booklets Ally and Austin were holding.
"Oh, Ally, your room is next to mine." She said. "And yours is a few doors down, it'll be easy enough to find."
Flo lead them down the corridor, easily weaving her way through people, pausing occasionally to say hello, or give someone a high five. She was clearly popular, though, from what Ally had seen so far, everyone seemed to get on well.
It didn't feel like there was seperate groups, a certain popular group. Maybe, maybe it was because all of these people were kind of on the same wavelength. They were performers, and musicans, and dancers, and they were all striving to achieve the same dream.
Maybe that was why.
"Here we are," Flo stopped outside her room, pointing to the door next to hers. "That's yours Ally, and yours is a little further down Austin."
Austin nodded, and turned to Ally. "I'll come talk to you in a minute, okay?"
Ally nodded, and watched him continue his journey down the corridor, his gaze locked on the walls, more specfically the numbers that hung from them.
"You're a cute couple," Flo commented.
"Austin and I?" Ally spluttered. "Oh, we're not a couple! God no. We're just best friends,"
"Alright then." Flo shrugged. "You'd make a cute couple- and oh my God, is that a Dooney and Burke bag?"
Ally looked down at the handbag that was resting on her shoulder. "Yeah, Austin got it for me with some of the money he got from being on a talk show."
"And you say you aren't a couple." Flo teased. "Its cute though hon. I think you and I are going to be great friends, you know that?"
"Really?" The word had left her mouth before Ally had a chance to stop herself. Way to sound like a total idiot Ally.
"Yeah! You have great fashion sense," Flo said. "And theres something about you Ally. You seem cool,"
Cool? Her? Ally barely held back a snort.
"You seem really awesome too." She said, a smile spreading across her face at Flo's words.
"See? We're practically friends already." Flo beamed. "Hang around here before dinner, and I'll show you and Austin where to go. If you want me to, I mean."
"That would be great," Ally nodded. "Austin and I are good at getting lost."
Flo laughed. "I'll talk to you soon Ally."
With that, she disapeared into her dorm room, her red hair flowing out behind her. Pushing down the handle of her own room, Ally stepped inside.
It was small, but she had expected it to be. It was, after all, made for only one person. Ally didn't mind though. She liked having her own space over having to share a room with a stranger.
She set her bags down on her bed, her arms screaming in relief. Right now, the room was bare, the cream walls free of posters, and pictures. The only decoration was marks left behind by previous occupants of the room, from having their pictures, and posters stuck up with sticky tape.
Ally opened up one of her bags, and grabbed the bundle of photographs, and posters she had carefully placed there before she had left Miami that morning. Rooting out the packet of blue tac she had bought in the airport, she ripped open the cardboard, and set about making her dorm a little more homely.
The photos were of her dad, and of Trish and Dez, and Austin, and some random ones from concerts, and parties. She was almost done creating her wall of photographs when she picked up one that made her stop.
Sitting down onto her bed slowly, Ally stared at the photograph. It was of her, Trish, Dez and Austin, before they had gotten the news about Brooker Phillps. Summer had just begun, and they had gone out for ice cream and pizza (in that order, at Dez's insistance) to celebrate.
They had asked one of the waiters to take a picture of the four of them, and of course, not a single one of them was looking at the camera itself. Thats what made the picture so amazing in Allys mind.
All four of them were staring at each other, mouths wide open as they laughed about something. For the life of her, she couldn't remember what they had been smiling about, but the sentiment alone was enough to make her heart ache for home.
"Knock knock!"
Ally looked up to see Austin bouncing into the room, looking like an excited puppy. His expression fell as he noticed Ally, and her tears.
"Ally, whats up?" He sat down next to her.
Ally showed him the photo. "I miss them already."
"I know." Austin sighed. "I do too. But don't cry about it Ally!"
"Why not?"
"Because for one, Trish would kill you if she knew you were spending your first day at Brooker crying alone in your dorm, and not making new friends and showing everyone how talented you are."
"Stage fright Austin." Ally reminded.
"But maybe this place is your cure!" Austin said. "And thats not the point, anyway. Trish and Dez wouldn't want you to be upset about them."
"I can't help but feel we've just abandonned them." Ally muttered.
"Ally." Austin groaned. "Don't be ridiculous."
"I'm not being ridiculous!" Ally said defensively. "We just picked up and went off on our big New York adventure without even thinking about them!"
"That is completely untrue." Austin said. "They wanted us to come, remember? Music is our dream, not theirs."
Ally stayed silent.
"Ally, if you're going to be like this all year, we might as well just go home now." Austin said seriously.
"We?" Ally looked confused. Why would Austin be leaving too?
"I'm not doing this without you." Austin said simply. "We're partners, you and me."
"Do you really think this place is going to make our dreams come true?" Ally said after a silence.
Austin smiled, knowing he had gotten through to her. "Yup."
"Even with my stage fright?"
"We're curing that, remember?" Austin grinned. ""Plus, you and me can do anything."
"We can?"
"Mmhm." Austin made a noise of confirmation. "We're a good team."
"What if you find some other songwriter once school starts?"
"Nope." Austin popped the 'p' in the word loudly. "No one's ever going to replace you Als. As long as you don't find some other singer to write for,"
"I couldn't." Ally said, with a smile. "You're my goose, remember?"
Austin held out a hand, his pinky sticking out. "Pinky promise?"
"Pinky promise what?"
"That'll we'll always be best friends," Austin said, serious for once. "No matter what. I can't do this without you Ally,"
Ally smiled, and hooked her finger with his. The gesture should have felt a whole lot more juvenille then it did.
"Best friends forever." She said quietly. Maybe New York wasn't going to be such a scary experience after all.
/
author's note; Thank you so much for the reviews, alerts etc., last chapter! I didn't think I'd even get one, so that was amazing. I'll do my best to update every few days, but with school that isn't set in stone.
Thanks again! And you know, feedback is always awesome ;D
