Author's note: here is the next chapter! I know this is an Auslly story but most Auslly fans are also Raura shippers so I'm going to say one thing. Andrew has been getting a lot of hate from Raura shippers lately because he has blond hair (like Ross) and some people got into an argument with this random mean girl about Landrew vs. Raura. It's probably more complicated than that, but to all the Raura shippers out there: we have no proof that Andrew is even half as mean as that girl or that he even knows that girl. For all anyone knows, she could be a random person who just likes getting into arguments. We also have no proof that Andrew ever mistreated Laura or was mean or anything. Don't hate him. Yes, he could be a reason why Raura hasn't gotten together yet, but that's no reason to hate him. Just think about it: what do you really know about him?
To all the readers out there who aren't Raura shippers: that won't be relevant to you, but please still don't hate anyone.
"I am your Secret Santa!" Ally exclaimed as he took the box from Kimmy.
Neither of them were exactly excited. Austin's present for Ally was missing, and both of them were more than a little disappointed. He didn't even have it in him to be surprised that her present was for him.
"What's going on?" he whispered as he sat back down next to her.
"I don't know," she replied a bit sadly. "Just open your present."
He already knew what it was, of course. It was the ukulele. He couldn't even begin to be excited about the instrument he had dreamed about for a week, because somehow Ally didn't get the beautiful necklace that she wanted. Reluctantly, he opened the box, but as soon as the lid came off, both of them frowned again. It wasn't a festive ukulele at all. Instead, in the box lay a pair of sparkly pink flip-flops.
"That is not what I got you," Ally mumbled.
He couldn't help but laugh. Of course it wasn't what she got him, but even if it was, it would've been funny. And it still was funny! Seeing him laugh made her smile, but she was still disappointed at whoever had messed up the whole thing.
"Do you think Kimmy switched all the presents?" she whispered.
He looked around at the other students. Some had already received their presents and didn't look too happy. Others were watching their friends opening presents and didn't look too happy, either. Kimmy just looked worried and confused at the negative reactions.
"What's wrong?" she said from the front of the gym. "Why is everyone so sad? We need to be happy! It's Christmastime! We need to be jolly!"
"I don't think so," Austin finally said. "Kimmy has no idea what's going on."
"True, she organized the whole thing." Ally said. "She probably doesn't want everything to go wrong."
"Maybe it was Coach Simmons!" he exclaimed quietly. "He's seemed really annoyed at this whole thing, this whole time! He probably never wants to have to help out with another gift exchange again!"
"He's coming this way," Ally pointed out.
"Dawson! Moon! What's going on?" he boomed. "Are those flip-flops?"
"Yeah, Coach Simmons, something went wrong." Austin replied.
"I got Austin a ukulele, not flip-flops." Ally continued, "And my present box was empty."
"Now, Austin, were you so inconsiderate as to not get a present for your girlfriend?" Coach Simmons said, raising an eyebrow in suspicion.
"She's not my girlfriend- never mind. No, I got her a necklace! But it wasn't in the box when she opened it! I promise, Coach Simmons, it was in there before!"
"I believe you, Austin. Not sure about the flip-flops, though. Dawson, did you really get your boyfriend pink flip-flops?"
"He's not my- never mind. No, I got him a Christmasy ukulele! We went shopping together!" she replied.
"Kimmy!" he called loudly.
"Yes, Coach Simmons, what's the matter?" she asked.
"Dawson and Moon here had a mix-up with their presents. Did you do anything to the boxes?" he asked.
"No, you just left them in a pile that I took them from to hand out to everyone. I just read the labels on the boxes and handed them out to everyone. Maybe some of the labels fell off onto other boxes?"
"It doesn't seem like it." he replied. "Alright, Kimmy, hand out the rest of the presents, then we'll figure out what went wrong."
"My present box was empty," someone called.
"Yeah, mine, too!"
"Mine only had a cookie in it, and that's not what Didi got me!"
"Mine had a ukulele in it! I don't even take music."
"Hold on!" Ally exclaimed. "A ukulele? As in a white ukulele with red and green patterns on it? With a sticker on the back that says Sonic Boom?"
"Yeah, how did you know?" the girl, Piper, called back.
"Because that's the present that I got for Austin!" she replied. "Unless anyone else bought a limited-edition Christmas ukulele from Sonic Boom?"
"Wait, I thought you only said that Sonic Boom only had one ukulele-" Austin interjected.
"Yeah, I don't think anyone else bought a ukulele." she continued. "So somehow my present got switched for Piper's present!"
"Well, Margo said she got me-"
"Flip-flops?" Ally guessed. "Maybe, I don't know... pink sparkly flip-flops?"
"Yeah, that's exactly what I got!" Margo exclaimed. "How did you know?"
"Because that's what was in my present box!" Austin exclaimed.
"Alright, we really need to figure out what happened." Coach Simmons announced, after quickly going around and talking to every student.
Everyone agreed.
"Maybe we could check the security footage of the gym?" Ally suggested.
Most of the students had left already, after giving up on solving the mystery of the messed up gift exchange. Only Austin, Ally, Dez, Kimmy, Piper, Carrie, Chuck, Brooke, and Margo remained.
"Good idea, Dawson." Coach Simmons said. "Now, I don't know how to get the footage, but you can probably ask Mr. Conley. He should be in charge of this stuff. Do you kids want to go talk to him? He should be in his office."
They all nodded and left the gym as a group and headed towards Mr. Conley's office. They didn't have to go that far, though. He was dancing in the hallway. They stood, watching him, unsure of what to do. Finally, Kimmy spoke up.
"Excuse me, Mr. Conley?"
"Oh, yes, kids, what do you need?" he asked, suddenly noticing them.
"We were wondering if we could take a look at the security footage for the gym," Ally said.
He frowned. "Why? Students usually don't get access to confidential information like that."
"Well, we had a Secret Santa gift exchange." Kimmy explained. "All of the presents were mixed up or even missing. We're afraid some of them were stolen, and we want to know what went wrong."
"Why don't you ask Coach Simmons? He's always in the gym, anyways." he suggested.
"Coach Simmons told us to ask you, Mr. Conley." Brooke scoffed.
"I see. Look, kids, it's against school policy to let students view security footage of certain parts of the school, but I can check for you." he finally said. "Is that okay?"
"That would be great!" Kimmy exclaimed. "Thanks so much, Mr. Conley!"
"No problem." he said, walking to his office.
"I hope Mr. Conley finds out what happened to the presents," Dez said. "It would've been so awesome!"
Meanwhile, Brooke was talking quickly to Austin, who looked like he really wanted to get away from her. Ally laughed a little. She and Brooke had something in common. They both liked Austin. Other than that, though, they couldn't be more different.
"Brooke, maybe you should leave Austin alone," she said.
"What? Trying to steal my Austin from me? He's not your boyfriend now, is he?" she said, frowning.
"Well, no, but he's not yours, either," she replied. "And he looks very uncomfortable."
Brooke continued to talk about everything Austin-related and how they were still dating. They weren't. Dating Brooke was Austin's biggest regret in his sixteen years of life so far, other than breaking up with Ally. She didn't know that, though.
"Kids, I have bad news." Mr. Conley said, returning from his office.
"What?" they said in unison.
"There was no one in the gym all afternoon except for Coach Simmons and a couple of other students, and they didn't even go near the present boxes." he said. "They were all the way on the opposite side of the gym. There was really no way that they could've tampered with them."
"So what happened?" Austin asked, to no one in particular. "What happened to the presents?"
No one had an answer.
Author's note: What happened to the presents? Well, you'll have to wait for the next update to find out. Unfortunately, that won't be for at least a few days. School exams just ended, but I have a Christmas concert thing in two days and rehearsals all of tomorrow (because I'm in 6 musical ensembles, of course). Hopefully it'll be up within a week, but no guarantees. In the meantime, constructive criticism is appreciated! I'm glad this is apparently better than my original piece:)