If you left a review, I wanted to sincerely thank you. If you read the first chapter, walked away without leaving one, but you're back for round two anyway, I also wanted to thank you.
I suppose one could argue that Ally is a tad bit out of character at some points in this. But I'm choosing to make her sassier because I see that potential in her. Plus, she's best friends with Trish and it's bound to rub off, right? And c'mon, who doesn't like a sassy female lead?
Boring losers with no wit, that's who!
And apologies for the lack of interesting happenings in this chapter, since it's mostly filler. But I hope it wrangles a chuckle or two out of you anyway, no matter how weak or mild they may be. I'll even take a pity chuckle; I'm not asking for much here.
A pained, weak smile? No? Alright then.
Ally spent the next quiet hour or so completely focused on doing her math homework, choosing to ignore her chance encounter with Austin Moon where he had stumbled into her store. Really, pretending the whole thing never happened was much easier than trying to process any of it. Well, she tried to. It proved more difficult than she had anticipated, since her mind kept wandering back to the whole ordeal.
Also, that was one smooth moonwalk he showcased.
Anyway, as much as Ally hated to admit it, Trish was right; those words she once used to describe Dallas were much more fitting for Austin.
(Not that Ally would ever admit that to another soul for as long as she breathed and walked along this Earth.)
"Argh," she grunted unbecomingly with a furious shake of her head, "This is ridiculous. Less than fifteen minutes in the same room with him and I'm already becoming 'Moon'struck." She instantly froze and repeated herself. Moonstruck… moonstruck… moon…struck. Huh. That could be an excellent song title and oh my holy barrel of pickles, is Austin Moon becoming my new inspiration? Am I actually being inspired by that insipid, egotistical pop star?
Ally groaned and flumped over the counter in a limp fashion, depressed and embarrassed with herself. She closed her eyes and mechanically opened her brown leather song book. With her cheek still pressed to the counter, she opened an eye and half-heartedly scribbled down MOONSTRUCK on the corner of a blank page anyway. Once she underlined it, she quickly shut the book, lifting her head up to dart her eyes back and forth like a tiny, demented squirrel, making sure she was still alone as she was still not proud about her most recent muse.
Her timing was perfect, since Trish chose that moment to dance into the store, Austin Moon's lyrics belting out of her mouth as her way of greeting. She spun to a stop at Ally's counter, glowing with an obvious concert-high.
Ally's eyebrow arched itself. "Why, hello to you, too," she greeted with an amused grin. "I take it the concert was amazing?" She put her beloved songbook under the counter to pay attention to her friend's spiel.
Trish actually squealed.
"Ow," Ally winced. She brought a hand up to her head and rubbed the offended eardrum.
Trish didn't notice the potential bursting of her friend's eardrum and carried on. "Oh, my god. You have no idea! He's phenomenal! The energy was insane! And he even did an encore!" she gushed enthusiastically, practically breathless. "You may not be a fan, but you sure would have loved it!" she sang with a near-creepy waggling of her eyebrows.
Ally snorted and rolled her eyes. "I'm sure I would have," she said, looking at Trish with a level stare but there was a small smile playing at her lips anyway.
Trish ignored her friend's sarcasm and continued with a serious look, "And you know what the scary part is?"
"The amount of superficiality in his dumbed-down lyrics?" she muttered under her breath.
"He's somehow cuter in person!"
Ally sighed irritably. "You got that right," she grumbled in annoyed agreement, a flash of Austin's devilish smirk coming to her mind's eye.
The Latina girl instantly did a double take. "What was that?" It wasn't often that Trish was stunned, after all.
Ally froze and inwardly panicked for a second. "Duh-uh, nothin'," she stuttered, her tongue tripping over itself. She flashed a fake, bright smile. "So-oh! Why don't you, uh, tell me more about the concert!" she deflected with a wide grin.
Trish's eyebrows furrowed, obviously not convinced but she finally decided to drop the matter so she could continue her fangirling. "Anyway, Ally, it was crazy! I elbowed my way up to the front and I'm pretty sure I touched his hand." She gave a smug smile and nodded smoothly.
Ally's cheeks turned pink as she remembered Austin's warm, calloused fingers wrapped around her own slender wrists. "Cool," she managed weakly.
Trish's eyebrows shot up. "Uh, Ally, you okay? You look kind of red…"
"Yeah," Ally answered breathlessly. "I'm just—uh, it's just the heat, you know?" She made a big show of fanning herself with her hand, laughing nervously.
Trish opened her mouth to question her further, obviously no longer buying her friend's phony act, but Lester had walked into the store, calling his daughter's name. He quickly stalked to the counter; his features screwed up in confusion and worry.
Ally's facial expression immediately mirrored her father's. "Dad? Dad, what is it?" She walked out from behind the counter to meet her father. "Is something wrong?" she asked, placing a soft hand on her father's arm.
"Um, a boy is here for you. Uh, he's outside, actually." He jerked a thumb toward the door. "But—"
"Is that all?" she interrupted incredulously, eyebrows furrowed.
Lester nodded. "Well, yes, but—"
Trish raised an eyebrow. "Wow, is it really that shocking that a boy would show an interest in you, Ally? Hey, ow!" She rubbed her arm where Ally had smacked her.
Ally turned to her father, curious. "Do you know who he was?"
Lester nodded again, but he appeared more panicky this time around. "I think so. But the weird part—"
"Weirder than a guy being interested in Ally?" Trish joked.
The taller brunette rounded on the shorter one. "Thanks, Trish, you're really helping my confidence here," Ally deadpanned.
Trish held her hands up in defense. "Hey! I love you and everything, but it kinda takes some time, ya know?"
Ally was about to defend herself when Lester interrupted hurriedly.
"He's waiting in a limo."
The girls' jaws dropped. As the words slowly started to sink in, Trish turned to look at Ally, who had paled considerably.
"Ally…" Trish managed quietly after a pause as she regarded Ally with a look of inquisition.
"… Uh huh?" Ally replied feebly, feeling a painfully large headache coming on. But currently, she felt more than a little sick to her stomach due to the amount of dread that was steadfastly building in her lower abdomen. And here she'd been, foolishly hoping she'd be able to keep her meeting with Austin Moon a secret she'd take to her grave.
Trish gave her a look of pissed-off confusion. "What the hell? Why would someone in a limo want to see you? Do you even know anyone who has a limo?" If she'd been talking to anyone else, they probably would have been taken aback by her seemingly rude words. But this was Ally, and she knew that this lack of tact was just Trish being her usual, spicy Latina self.
Ally winced and decided it was too late to keep Trish in the dark now; her friend was painfully lazy, not annoyingly stupid. "Well, someone does come to mind…" Ally laughed awkwardly as she thought back to a certain pop star.
"What do you mean 'someone comes to mind'?" Trish demanded hotly. "Ally, we've gone to the same school since kindergarten! All the people you know, I know! WE KNOW THE SAME PEOPLE. SO WHO THE HELL HAS A FREAKIN' LIMO?" She gave her a pointed look and cocked her head, "'Cause I'd like to know." She was also planning to take full advantage of limo opportunities.
Ally swallowed and tried to breathe normally. "Uh, about that," she muttered nervously. "Well, I—"
Lester looked even more confused as he said slowly, "Ally, honey… I couldn't get a really good look at him, but…" and here he paused dramatically, taking a sweeping look around the store, only continuing when he noticed they were still the only ones in the store, "… honey, I think it's that Austin Moon singer you young girls keep fancying."
"Oh god," Ally breathed, face-palming as her fears became reality. "Oh, I think I'm gonna hurl..."
The look Trish's face made it seem as if her brain had just stopped working. She opened her mouth, uttered not a single sound or syllable, and closed her mouth. She blinked and opened her mouth again, managed a pained grunt and closed it once more. Finally, "… I think I'm speechless." She quickly decided she did not like this feeling of being 'at a loss of words'. Seriously, how could she showcase her witty sarcasm at this point? "I don't like this," she muttered with quiet ire.
Lester frowned. "Ally, what's going on here? Why would some young pop singer want to see you? And how did you two even meet?"
Ally leaned forward and placed her elbows on the counter to rub her temples. "It's a long story, dad."
Trish looked incredulous. "Well, get goin', come back here and then tell me all about it!" she yelled.
"I'm not going!" Ally declared. She bit her lip and fought the powerful urge to stick the strand of hair she was twirling furiously between her fingers into her mouth so she could gnaw on something familiar. "This is ridiculous," she huffed bitterly, "Why on earth would he want to waste his time with me? Hasn't he got another crappy, shallow, fluff-pop album to produce?"
Trish glared at her. "Okay. First of all, they are totally awesome albums and yes, he is working on another album. Second, if Austin Moon wants to see you, he's going to see you so get your ass out there!" she shouted.
And then, as if Ally's life couldn't get any more bizarre, a tall, redheaded young man waltzed in through the door. "Uh, is there an Ally Dawson here? Ally Dawson. Are you here? Ally. Dawson. Calling Ally Dawson. Dawson, Ally. Is she here?" He looked all around the store in jerky, spastic movements. "Hello? Miss Dawson? Mrs. Dawson?" He squinted his eyes in contemplation, "… Mr. Dawson…?"
Ally didn't make any sudden movements and froze, secretly hoping that maybe she'd turn invisible and he wouldn't notice her. The logical part of her realized the glaringly large holes of impossibility in this plan, but it was all she got. She didn't take any chances and held her breath as well.
Trish rolled her eyes and pointed at the still brunette. "Here's the lucky winner!" she shouted loudly, hand cupped around her mouth.
"Traitor!" the statue hissed, her nerves coming back.
The redhead lit up as he pointed at Ally as well. "Oh hey, I totally thought you were a mannequin!" he exclaimed with child-like wonder.
The short Latina shoved her friend forward with a grunt. "Now go play nice with Mr. Popstar!"
"Oh crap," Ally muttered feebly as she stumbled forward clumsily thanks to Trish's hard shove, a lock of hair now wedged between her teeth.
"Stop eating your hair!" Trish hissed, "Austin's not going to like you if you have bald spots!"
"Shut up!" her hair-gnawing friend hissed back, turning to glare at her friend. The threat worked though, as Ally spat out her hair. She turned again to face the redheaded stranger. "Um. Hello," she said nervously.
He smiled brightly and chirped, "Hey, I'm Dez! C'mon, let's go! Austin's gonna get impatient." He grabbed her arm and went to spin around toward the door.
Ally stopped him by pulling his hand off her arm. "Uh, no," she said with a forced laugh, quickly getting over her nausea, "Sorry, but I am not going with you. You can tell Austin that I'm not interested."
Dez frowned, looking mildly hurt. "He won't be happy to hear that."
"That's too bad," Ally snapped, quickly becoming more and more annoyed.
He threw her an offended look. "Well, okay, Miss Snappylips!"
Ally rolled her eyes and started to make her way back to the counter. "Please tell Mr. Moon that I have no intention of seeing him again," she called over her shoulder in a sassy huff.
"I'm sorry that I'm going to have to resort to this," he muttered. And then he exhaled and inhaled deeply, rolling his shoulders and working out the kinks in his neck. He caught up to Ally at the counter in two long strides and picked her up like a sack of light potato chips and threw her over his shoulder effortlessly.
Ally screeched at the top of her lungs. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" she demanded, beating at his back with her tiny fists. "Put me down! Oh god. Please put me down! Why are you doing this?" she cried desperately, "I'm in a skirt."
Dez turned to her father, enjoying the light massage he was receiving from the flailing brunette. "You must be her male parental unit! Don't worry, Austin just wants to talk with her over dinner. Kinda like a date."
"I REFUSE TO GO OUT ON A DATE WITH AUSTIN MOON," Ally shouted in a booming voice.
Her desires of avoiding the pop star went on ignored.
"He'll be a perfect gentleman. And he'll have her back in one piece," he promised with a charming smile.
Lester just nodded dumbly and didn't say another word. He realized he was an odd man and very little phased hi m due to that. But this was, by far, the strangest thing that's ever happened to him and his daughter.
As Dez headed to the door, Ally mouthed, 'HELP ME,' to her best friend and beloved father.
Her father shouted at Ally to have fun on her date.
Trish demanded that she come back with an autographed picture. Preferably already framed as well.
Fools. The lot of them, Ally thought darkly with a dramatic narrowing of her brown eyes. She huffed irritably and crossed her arms along Dez's back, finally giving in.
"Oh, hey! Why'd you stop the massage?" Dez whined.
Ally's lips pressed into a thin line of intense irritation. "How's this for a massage?" she asked dryly, taking aim and giving him one last hearty thump with her fist.
"Gah! My right kidney!"