Okay, so I know that in the show, their lockers are outside and conveniently all next to each other. In this particular layout, there's an open space like the show, but the lockers are all indoors and away from each other. And they have alternating schedules because I clearly hate myself and decided to give them A and B days instead of the same set schedule which would have been so much easier. (But I really wanted Austin and Ally to have lunch to themselves every other day, whoops.)
Nobody cares about how I've laid out the school, so here's the next chapter. Also, I don't want to talk about how dumb this chapter is. I'm trying to set up some stuff for future chapters and am now realizing how bad I am at plotting things out, oops.
I know I don't say this enough, but thanks for all the wonderful feedback, guys! Seriously, all the favorites and reviews and follows mean so much to me. Thanks for sticking around despite my abysmal updating schedule.
Austin laughs and nods approvingly at one of the jokes that was just uttered. He's not sure who deserves the credit, but that's probably because he's not really paying attention and taking the cue to laugh from everyone else.
He's sitting on a table out in the open quad, his feet on the bench, surrounded by some popular jocks. They're an alright bunch and he likes them fine, even if he gets their names mixed up sometimes.
But this morning, he's mostly quiet, choosing to let them talk while he chimes in with the occasional chuckle or head nod.
"Speaking of, where were you last Friday? You weren't in class and you didn't reply to any of my texts."
He opens his mouth, ready to answer, but then he sees Ally walking out a door, quickly and quietly making her way through another door, probably using the quad to take a shortcut. His lips twitch into a smile when he remembers skipping class with her last Friday.
His friends don't miss the way his eyes follow her every movement.
"Austin?"
At the sound of his name, Austin's eyes snap up to meet Jake's as he feels Jay and Jack (see how he sometimes get their names confused?) stare at him curiously. "What?" he asks bluntly.
"Well, I was asking about Friday… but I think you'd rather talk about her," Jake, a shorter guy with shaggy dirty blond hair, says curiously, interrupting his thoughts. "Ally Dawson, I mean."
His eyebrows scrunch up. "What?" he repeats.
"Ally Dawson," Jake repeats with a frown. "She's pretty cute," he admits.
Jay, a guy that's just as tall as Austin but with pitch-black hair, nods. "Not bad looking," he agrees. "But super quiet and kinda weird."
Austin frowns. "Weird how?" he asks, resisting the urge to automatically defend her. He hopes that maybe they'll be able to shed some light on the reason why she seems so isolated from everyone.
Jack shares a look with the other two. The lanky, brown-haired teen shrugs. "She just keeps to herself a lot. Doesn't really make friends, from what we can tell." He gives Austin an odd look. "Well, we've heard that you two seem to hit it off," he says, like he's heard the rumors but can't quite believe them.
"She's pretty cool," Austin says honestly. "We're friends."
The three jocks share a look before they burst into laughter.
"Good one, dude!" Jay says as he punches the blond in the arm.
With a loud snigger, Jack points out, "Yeah, right. Like you'd be friends with some boring bookworm like Ally Dawson."
Austin rolls his eyes. "You guys don't even know her," he states flatly, doing his best to keep the edge out of his voice.
Jake stops his laughing, looking a little stunned. "Wait, the rumors are true?"
"She's a really cool girl," he reiterates in a cold voice.
Jack's jaw drops. It makes his underbite less noticeable. "Seriously?! Dude, how did you even get her to talk about anything other than books and homework?"
Austin raises a perplexed eyebrow. "Have you guys even tried to talk to her?" He looks at them in mild annoyance. "Like, ever?"
The three of them take a moment to consider this in silence. Slowly, they all begin to simultaneously shake their heads.
Austin rolls his eyes and grabs his stuff, getting up to go. "By the way, I spent Friday skipping with Ally." At the identical looks of shock on their faces, he smirks. "Not so boring now, is she?"
"Don't think I didn't notice Friday."
"Trish, good morning to you, too," Ally says without diverting attention from her books in her locker. "Tell me, have you forgotten about pleasantries and greetings or is it just me?"
Trish rolls her eyes and waves a hand back and forth, bored with her friend's chiding remark. "Good morning. Hi. How are you? Whatever, whatever," she rattles off impatiently. She crosses her arms and shoots her friend an annoyed look. "So. Friday. Dez and I noticed that both you and Austin were missing all day."
Ally's lips curve into an amused smile. "Observant, you two."
Trish levels her with a stare. "I've been trying to convince you to skip class with me since the seventh grade and Austin manages to get you to do it within a week of knowing you." She sounds incredulous. "I'm astounded. And seriously impressed with his skills."
Ally rolls her eyes and looks at her wryly. "Don't be all that impressed; he faked an emergency and pulled me out of my first block."
Trish's jaw drops. "Holy crap. He tricked you? Now I'm even more impressed." She frowns thoughtfully. "Huh. Why didn't I ever think of that?" she mutters under her breath.
The fair brunette eyes her friend wearily. "I don't like that look on your face."
"I was just thinking that—"
"Nope! Nope, I don't want to know!" she interrupts firmly, holding up a hand to stop Trish's line of thought. "You and Austin teaming up may be the death of me," she adds with a shudder.
Trish smirks. "Anyway, I'm just surprised that you didn't tell him to turn the car around. What did you two even do?"
Ally gives a one-shouldered shrug. "Dumb stuff," she admits with a small chuckle. "We went to the store so Austin could grab some hair product and then we goofed off at the park for a while." She feels like there's no need to mention her embarrassing injury, so she keeps that part to herself.
"Wow," Trish breathes in quiet wonder. "You even skip school boringly."
"Hey! I had fun! And Austin picked the park because he didn't like my first choice."
Trish raises an eyebrow. "And what was that?"
Ally blushes in embarrassment, only realizing rather belatedly that her first choice wasn't going to help her cause. "I may or may not have wanted to go to the library first," she coughs. "It's never too early to study something!" she adds defensively at Trish's incredulous look.
Trish just shakes her head and sighs. "Maybe it's a good thing we've never skipped together," she says as she pats Ally consolingly on the arm.
"My disappointment is earth-shattering," Ally deadpans.
"Ally! Wait up!"
The two girls whirl around to find Austin jogging up to them, holding onto the lone backpack strap he has shouldered. "Hey," he grins as he skids to a stop in front of them.
"Hey, Austin," Ally greets with a friendly smile.
Trish rolls her eyes. "God, I always feel so invisible around you two."
Austin tears away his near-dopey look at Ally to look at Trish sheepishly. "Oh, sorry. Hey, Trish."
She shrugs, already over it, and quickly paints on a curious smirk. "So, Ally tells me that you tricked her into skipping with you Friday."
He laughs, loud and bright. "Yeah, I did." He smirks a little and adds, "Practically had to drag her the rest of the way kicking and screaming when she finally realized the truth, though."
Trish shakes her head and pats Austin on the arm. "Doesn't matter. You got her to break a school rule. I've been trying to do that since we were kids." She shakes her head again. "You've done so much for her in your short time of knowing her," she whispers fiercely. "So. Much."
Austin raises an eyebrow. "Uh. Okay."
"Anyway, I'm expecting a full-on rebel by the end of the year. Do me proud, Moon, do me proud." And then she flounces off, making her exit. "Bye, guys, see you at lunch. I gotta go copy my homework from someone."
Ally waves good-bye, smiling resignedly at her best friend's penchant for rule-breaking. "Stay out of trouble!" she shouts uselessly after her.
"Hey, I've never gotten caught before!" Trish points out with a mischievous smirk.
Ally can't help but smile wider and then she turns to find Austin staring at her patiently. "How's the ankle?" he whispers, pointing down at her feet. "Didn't want to embarrass you in front of Trish," he adds when she looks down at her flats.
"Thanks for being so thoughtful," she chuckles. "It's fine, thanks for asking," she says with a warm smile.
"That's good," he smiles. "So are you headed to class right now?"
She nods. "Yeah, I'll see you at lunch?" she offers.
"Actually, I was going to walk you to class," he says, as casually as he can.
Her brow furrows and she tilts her head, regarding him thoughtfully. "You usually spend all morning talking to your friends right up until the bell, though," she says.
Too late, and she realizes the implication in her observation.
"Ally Dawson," Austin smirks, sounding delighted, "have you been spying on me?"
She flushes and shakes her head rapidly. "Of course not! I just see you on the quad every so often when I'm making my way between buildings," she mumbles, before shooting him a curious glance. "Or, you know, in the halls and stuff. Why aren't you with them this morning?"
Austin shrugs noncommittally. "Eh, they're around," he answers in a bored tone. When she gives him an odd look, he sighs and continues with, "They just pissed me off this morning so I decided to leave the group early, no big deal."
"Oh. Do you want to talk about it?" she asks gently, her brow crinkling with worry.
Seeing as how it was about you, no, not really, he thinks wryly to himself.
"Nah," Austin says, sending her as disarming a grin as he can. "They're just assholes sometimes," he shrugs in a bored tone.
She raises an eyebrow. "Sounds like a great set of friends you've got there."
"They mean well," he sighs. "But they tend to get swept up in all the social hierarchy bullshit and give into peer pressure a lot, so they say a lot of dumb stuff."
She blinks in surprise. "Wow," she murmurs. "Do you even like being popular?" she asks, sounding doubtful.
"I like having friends and hanging out," he corrects. "I mean, the popularity certainly helps, though," he admits as he smirks and waves at a cheerleader walking by. She grins back shyly and gives a little finger wave in return. His smirk widens and he watches her go until she disappears around the corner before turning back to Ally, who's looking at him, exasperated. "Sorry," he says sheepishly.
"I know, I know. Cheerleaders; your ultimatum weakness," she sighs with a shake of her head. She continues moving down the hall, "Well, I'm heading off to my physics class now, so."
"Hey, I'm still walking you to class." He quickens his pace to catch up, not that it takes very long anyway due to his long legs. "Trust me, you can't get away from me that easily," he smirks.
"You know, I'm beginning to notice that trend," she muses softly, a slow grin forming on her lips, as he falls into step beside her.
During Austin's study hall, he takes his usual seat near the back and moments later, Jake comes in and takes his usual seat next to Austin.
The first thing out of his mouth is an apology, followed with, "Look, we didn't mean to dog on Ally, okay? She seems nice enough, but she's always been a bit socially awkward."
"What do you mean by 'always'?" Austin immediately asks.
"Well, she's been like that since middle school."
Austin frowns and leans forward to pay closer attention. "What was she like in middle school?" he demands.
Jake gives him an odd look as he shrugs a bit. "It's not like I talked to her or anything." But when Austin gives him a hard look, he fidgets nervously before attempting to elaborate. "She got bullied a lot back then."
"She gets bullied now," Austin snorts impatiently. "By Tilly and her dumb crew."
Jake shakes his head slowly. "This is nothing compared to what she went through in middle school," he admits quietly. Austin's eyebrows shoot up, but he stays silent so Jake can resume speaking. "Whatever beef Tilly has with Ally started way before middle school from what I can tell. She was vicious. Spreading rumors, vandalizing her locker, stealing her clothes out of her gym locker, and whatever else you can think of. She made Ally's life miserable and humiliated her; it's what made all the other kids steer clear of her." He shakes his head again, this time in pity. "Practically every day, you would always hear about something Tilly did that made Ally cry."
Anger flashes through Austin and he clenches his jaw as he feels his whole body tighten with tension at the thought of Ally crying. "So what happened? Why is Tilly holding back now?" he whispers, trying to keep the edge out of his voice. Now all those comments about Ally having heard worse made sense. This does nothing to ease the anger he feels, though.
Jake sighs and rubs his temples. "I don't know. But one day, all of a sudden, Tilly did something—her usual shit or whatever—and Ally didn't even shed a single tear. It was like she gave up or was tired of crying or something. And I guess that's when it stopped being fun for Tilly."
Austin leans forward, fascinated with the story. "Just like that?" he asks, awed.
Jake nods. "Nobody really knows what happened with Ally and her friend, that Mexican chick—"
"Trish?" he supplies curtly.
"Right, her—she shut down any rumors before they could even start."
Austin nods, mentally cataloging this information. It seems like the more he knew about Ally, the bigger the mystery surrounding her past becomes. He sighs and thanks Jake, before asking, "But why are you telling me all this?"
"Because you wanted to know why people keep giving you shit about hanging out with Ally," Jake sighs. "It's because Tilly pretty much ruined her social life. And she even went far enough to harass and bully anyone that tried to befriend Ally. Trish is the only person that's ever stood by her side." He pauses and regards Austin thoughtfully. "Until you, anyway," he murmurs with a quirk of his eyebrow.
"Tilly doesn't scare me," he snaps with a steely gaze.
Jake chuckles wryly. "I didn't think she did. But man, it must be killing Tilly to see the two of you hang out. The guy of her wet dreams—"
"Argh. Fuck off, Jake!" he interrupts, gagging and wrinkling his nose in grotesque horror.
Jake sniggers. "It's totally true, man. Anyway, seeing you with the one person she hates the most in the world?" He shakes his head. "This might not end well—"
"I can handle it," Austin says smoothly.
"Let me finish. Might not end well for you or for Ally," he warns as he fixes him with a meaningful stare.
Austin rubs his jaw, annoyed that he hadn't realized the full extent of Tilly's wrath earlier. He's positive he'll be able to handle anything she sends his way but isn't so sure how Ally will fare.
Or, even if she'll fare well enough, he doesn't want to see having to suffer Tilly torment again, regardless.
"Just… keep an eye out, I guess," Jake whispers helplessly as he gives a sympathetic shrug.
Austin nods absently, occupied with thoughts and worries concerning one Ally Dawson.
"Stop it."
The stern command snaps Austin out of his daze. "Stop what?" he asks automatically.
"Staring at me like that," Ally says with a frown. "It's freaking me out." She lowers her fork on to the lunch table they're sitting at. "You've been staring at me like you just beat down the world's largest piñata, but instead of candy, mini bagels fell out."
His brow furrows at her analogy. "What?"
"Just really, really sad," Ally elaborates.
Austin gives her an odd look. "I think I'd be pissed. You can't tempt me with the promise of candy by shoving the world's largest piñata in my face and then expect me to be okay with getting mini bagels, instead." He pauses, thinking over that scenario. "Also, that's just cruel," he adds as an afterthought.
Ally rolls her eyes. "You know what I mean."
"I know to never accept a piñata from you, jeez."
She can't help the barest hint of a smile on her lips at that, but then goes back to schooling her expression. "Austin, are you okay? You seem kind of… out of it," she murmurs, a crease of worry appearing between her brows. "It's not your friends, is it? The ones that upset you this morning?"
"No, it's not that," he says with a firm shake of his head. "It's—" he breaks off and sighs. "Never mind," he mumbles.
He can't exactly tell her that he's heard very vague details of her past and now all he wants to do is give her a big hug, wrap her in a blanket, and make sure she never has to deal with Tilly or bullies or anything that could even remotely upset her ever again.
He's aware of how crazy and over-protective that sounds. Also, he's pretty sure that Ally won't appreciate him bringing up her past.
He pulls his gaze down to his plate. "It's nothing," he coughs, poking at his food with his fork.
"Are you sure?" she presses gently.
He looks at her through his bangs, the crease of worry still present and her lips pulled down in a mild frown. He sighs, feeling a sense of guilt wash over him because he's worrying her like this. He lifts his head, looking at her more fully and smiles as he forces his shoulders to relax. "Yeah, Ally, I'm fine. Don't worry about me."
Her frown deepens but she nods, respectful enough to drop the subject. "If you're sure," she murmurs, going back to her lunch.
A moment of silence settles over them and that's when it hits Austin; there's silence.
"Hey," he says, looking around. "Where are Dez and Trish?"
Ally gives him an odd look. "I already told you," she answers slowly. He looks at her, puzzled, and she sighs, pulling out her phone. "You must have been spacing out. Trish sent me a text saying that there was something wrong with one of the segments for Messages from Marino so she and Dez have to eat lunch in the newsroom."
"Oh."
Ally looks at him thoughtfully after setting her phone down. "You know, Dez is an odd guy."
Austin snickers. "I think that's the nicest way I've ever heard it being put."
Ally's lips quirk and she's glad that he's much livelier than before. "I guess what I'm trying to say is… how did you two even become friends?" she asks curiously. "He doesn't really seem like the type of guy that would frequent your social circles."
Austin smiles and shakes his head. "He really isn't," he agrees, but there's fondness in his voice on Dez's behalf and Ally knows there's genuine friendship there.
Ally smiles and tilts her head. "So? How did you two even meet? Did you have a class together?"
"Nope!" Austin grins. "I was his project," he whispers, with an air of mystery.
She blinks, confused. "Project?" she repeats, sounding bewildered.
He laughs and goes on to elaborate. "He decided to do a short documentary on 'the new kid'," he says with finger quotes before gesturing toward himself. "He asked for permission to film me and my life and I thought it was weird but then figured it couldn't be that bad, so I agreed. He wanted to focus on how hard it can be sometimes to fit into a new school."
Ally laughs incredulously. "And he picked you for his project? Mr. Popular Boy Wonder?" She shakes her head. "That must have been a letdown."
"It was, yeah," he admits with another small laugh. "He eventually changed the thesis to 'how to fit in at a new school', based on my examples."
"Ah, of course."
"Anyway, he followed me around everywhere for three weeks. He even got special permission to follow me into some of my classes. We've been buds ever since! But after the project, it was hard for us to hang out since we don't have any classes together. And then he was away for most of the summer." Austin sighs. "But I'm hoping things will be different this year," he says optimistically. "He's a cool guy. Kinda, you know," he pauses, twirling a finger next to his temple, "at times, but he's funny and I like hanging out with him."
"Wow," she says, impressed. "That's… actually kind of a cool story," she admits.
"Not as cool as our story," he says, smiling like they've got a huge secret the world wasn't privy to.
She raises an eyebrow. "What, where you hit on me and I turned you down at a party? When I flung corn in your face for your inappropriate comment? Or the part where I wrote up our contract?"
"All of it," he replies with a single nod. "The whole shebang."
She looks down at her tray, biting back a smile of her own. "It is quite the story," she agrees a bit reluctantly.
"One for the ages," he grins.
She sneaks a peek at him. "I'll be sure to tell my grandchildren," she quips, but his grin is contagious and she knows there's an identical one upon her own countenance as she resumes eating her lunch.
During the rest of the day, all Austin can think about is how lonely Ally must have been growing up and wonders just how drastically Tilly altered her social life. Ally didn't deserve to be isolated and on the outs like that, anybody that's talked to her could clearly see that.
But it's almost too late to make a complete turn-around, he realizes, now that they're all in their senior year of high school. There's almost no point for her in making friends and starting anew because after graduation, she'll have to start anew in college anyway. He smiles briefly at that, thinking that she'll deserve the fresh start and he just has this knowing feeling that she'll flourish and exceed wherever she decides to go after Marino High.
It may be too late in some areas, but he comes to the quick conclusion that he'll do whatever it takes to make sure her senior year washes out as much of her tainted school memories as he can. He wants her to know that if no one else is there for her when she's down, he will be.
Well, you know, him and Trish.
Either way, he's determined to help her make the most of senior year.
So, after class, he stalks down the halls, eyes sweeping left and right on the hunt for brown and lightly colored waves on a diminutive stature. Finally, he spots her and quickens his pace to meet her at her locker.
"Ally," he says, sounding relieved to have caught her.
She looks up from her locker. "Hi," she greets pleasantly.
He clears his throat and the noise makes her focus on him more attentively. "So, um, I was thinking…" he trails off, unable to look her in the eye.
"About?" she asks, as encouragingly as she can.
"I think I want to add something to the contract," Austin says after a brief moment of hesitation.
Ally frowns, but he notices the curious light in her eyes. "Add what?"
"Friends hang out, right?" he asks, trying to fight the strange set of nerves making their way into the pit of his stomach. "I want us to hang out more," he continues, pushing his nerves down even further.
"I know," she says, raising an eyebrow. "You told me that—"
"No, add it in," he interrupts, his tone leaving no room for arguments. "I want it to be a rule that we hang out at least once a week. Twice, if we can manage it."
Now her other eyebrow has joined the first one. "You think that's really necessary?" she asks.
He frowns and crosses his arms. "Hey, you wrote up three ridiculous clauses and all I ask is for us to hang out more. And that's actually crucial to a friendship."
"Austin, we see each other every day at school," she points out dryly, her brow furrowing. "It's not like we avoid each other or anything."
"What, you don't think you can handle hanging out with me on a weekly basis?" he questions. And then he pauses, knowing of a way that will push her into agreeing to his addendum. "Oh, I get it, you're afraid of falling a little bit in love with me, huh?" he smirks, purposefully provoking her.
Ally's jaw drops and her eyes flash dangerously. "What did you just say?"
He sighs and shakes his head, making a show of appearing pitiful. "It's okay, Ally, I get it. You can't hold back your feelings."
"I can't hold back my vomit, is more like it," she mutters, glaring heatedly at him.
Okay, that one kinda stung, but he ignores it and presses on. "Then what are you so afraid of, huh?"
Without another word, she pulls something out of a folder in her backpack and hands it to him.
He looks down and sees that it's the contract she wrote up a while ago. "Oh my God," he mutters in disbelief. "You just carry this around with you everywhere?" he asks incredulously.
"Add the new clause," she orders, holding out a pen. "Add it in your own words and I'll sign it." And then she's looking at him with challenge and with promise and he can't help it, he beams widely, giddy at the prospect of seeing her willingly spending time with him.
Well, the contract makes the 'willingly' part a bit fuzzy but he decides not to focus on that.
He wordlessly takes the pen from her and using the metal locker to write on, sloppily jots down, 'Mandatory hang out time once a week. You better show up, Dawson.' And then he draws a short line underneath, to the right of the statement, with a little 'x' for her to sign her name.
She reads the new clause and he sees her eyebrows jump and her lips thin in distaste. Her eyes flick up to his and deadpans, "Eloquent." But then she signs in her cursive, loopy handwriting. "Anything else to add?" she asks.
Austin shakes his head, a self-satisfied smile adorning his features. "Nope!" he chirps happily. "Just don't fall in love with me once we start hanging out, though," he warns her, mock-seriously.
"I don't think that's a serious worry," she deadpans.
"Whatever you say, Dawson," he replies with a flippant air.
Her eyes narrow and she scoffs in pure, unadulterated indignation. "Don't fall in love with me, either!" she bites back.
Not her best comeback, but she's so angry with him and his ridiculous ego, she can't come up with much else.
"I dunno," he shrugs, "You are awfully cute."
At this point, he can't tell whether her face is flushed with anger or embarrassment but he's willing to bet it's a good, even mixture of both.
She scowls at him like a cute little kitten and then she places the contract on the locker like he had moments ago and writes, 'MUSTN'T FALL IN LOVE WITH ONE ANOTHER.' with two perfectly straight lines beginning with tiny 'x's underneath the statement. She signs her name and throws the pen at him without warning, making him jump in surprise before catching it quickly. She smirks, clearly pleased to have caught him off guard with her toss. "Sign it," she orders, jabbing at the blank line with a finger.
Austin grins lazily, signs it with his atrocious chicken scratch, and hands the pen back to her. "We good?" he asks.
"Excellent," she replies crisply as she neatly places the document back into a folder and slipping it into her bag.
Austin sticks out a hand. "Nice doing business with you, then," he says jokingly.
She glares at as she grabs his hand—with a little more force than necessary—and shakes as firmly as possible without it being considered a death grip. "Likewise, Mr. Moon," she returns, her steely gaze never leaving his.
They drop their hands and when Austin sends her a lazy smirk as he casually stuffs his hands into his pockets, she rolls her eyes and whirls around to walk off. He turns and walks away in the opposite direction, grinning to himself.
And just when he thought the friendship contract couldn't get more interesting.
