Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

There's an important author's note at the end of this chapter.

"Oh, and a big thanks to Riker and Rydel for supplying the costumes." Austin laughed. "Anyway, this is the first song of the 'I'm-Sorry-I-Was-A-Jerk' Comeback Concert. I don't have any new songs for you guys, but I hope I will after this." he shot me another wink.

I blushed and knew one thing.

Austin was definitely going to have more new songs after this concert.

Ally POV

The practice room was restored to it's old look a week after Austin's Comeback/I'm-Sorry Concert. It was pretty easy considering my dad's old wallpaper that he put up over Austin's was put on sloppily, and he hid everything else in the basement.

In some ways, it was like nothing had changed. In fact, Dez's first gingerbread house that we were saving was still in the mini-fridge. At least it was until Dez and Austin decided to eat it and get food poisoning for two days.

We were back in our regular spots; me and Austin at the piano, and Dez and Trish doing their own thing.

It should have been like old times; like we were back seven months ago. But it wasn't. So many things had changed.

Instead of constantly fighting all the time, Trish and Dez were playfully throwing grapes at each other.

And instead of falling over myself for Dallas, I was mooning over Austin.

It was official. I was head over heels in what felt like…well, not exactly love, but something similar to that.

And I think he might feel the same way.

I'm a huge fan of flowers and their meanings - next to Cloud Watching Club, Flower Power Club was my favorite club- and if Austin knew what those flowers meant when he gave them to me, than he definitely feels the same.

But every time I try to bring it up, something chaotic happens.

FLASHBACK!

I knocked on Austin's front door and his mom answered.

"Hi, Mrs. Moon. Is Austin here?" I asked and she smiled.

"Yes, he's just upstairs washing his hair. You can go wait in his room." she said kindly and let me in.

I don't know what she meant by washing his hair, but I was guessing she meant taking a shower.

I paced back and forth in his room practicing what I would say and how I would say it over and over again. But then there was a loud crash and a strangled yelp from down the hall.

I ran to the bathroom an pounded on the door.

"Austin? Are you okay? Can I come in? Are you decent?" I asked quickly.

"Define decent!" I heard him shout back and I opened the door.

He was fully clothed, but dripping wet with shampoo still in his hair. The shower was still running, and Austin had one eye open and one eye closed. Plus he was laying on the ground…and he had the shower curtain wrapped around him like an ill-fitting gown.

I stepped over him and turned the shower off.

"Are you okay?" I asked attempting horribly to stifle my laughter.

He kept blinking and wincing. "Not really. Can you help me?"

After several minutes of laughter and a few more of confusion, Austin was out of the curtain and leaning against the counter, still blinking and wincing.

"Well I was washing my hair so it would be able to comb - you know, to give it that flat-yet-windswept look - but I got shampoo in my eye and I freaked, and slipped." he admitted causing a couple more seconds of laughter from me.

"Why didn't you just take a regular shower?" I giggled while he glared at me through one eye.

"It's not funny! And I was feeling really lazy, and I had just gotten dressed. I figured it would be easy and painless." he cracked a smile. "Obviously, I was wrong."

I shook my head. "Well let me take a look at your eye. Make sure it isn't severely damaged or anything."

Austin turned his head away from me. "But it'll hurt." he whined making me give him my 'don't be a baby' look.

I ended up having to wash the shampoo out of his hair in the sink, and after several moans, groans, and complaints I got him to wash the shampoo out of his eye and all thoughts of flowers were gone.

FLASHBACK OVER!

So now, here I was, playing the piano without looking because I was too busy watching Austin sing with a smile on his face. He couldn't see me staring, he was really focused on getting each lyric right that was in my book.

"I said na, na, na. Yeah, na, na, na." he ended and looked up at me. "How was that?"

I shook my head and smiled at him. "It was great. Break?" I offered and he nodded all too willingly.

I stayed on the bench while he stole a couple grapes from Dez and sat in a beanie bag chair.

"I am so tired." Austin sighed looking like he might doze off right there.

"Well don't fall asleep here. Go home." I teased and he gave me a 'that's not fair!' look.

"But Trish sleeps here all the time!" Austin protested, and Trish turned to him after catching the grape that Dez through at her and throwing it back at Dez.

"Not true. I've never slept on the beanie bag chair." she pointed out causing Austin to throw a grape at her. "Ha!" she teased after catching the grape in her mouth.

"Well, I'm all out of grapes. I'm going to get some more at the Grape Cart." Dez sighed getting up and he looked at Trish expectantly. "You wanna come?"

She grinned. "Uh, yeah!" as they walked out of the room I heard her ask, "Instead of eating them, can we drop them on people who walk passed the window?" she closed the door behind her, and I realized I was alone with Austin.

Okay, now or never. Don't be a coward Ally. Don't be coward Ally. You can do this! Eye of the tiger! I cheered myself on.

"Hey Austin, can I ask you something?" I asked, and he smiled at me.

"Sure." he said.

I laughed awkwardly and chickened out. "I just did."

You stink you wimp. I thought to myself.

Austin looked at me weirdly. "Um, okay then." he got up and got a soda from the fridge.

"Wait!" I said quickly even though he wasn't going anywhere. "That's not what I was going to ask you."

Austin gave me a weird look again. "Okay." he looked at the flowers that he had given me that were on my desk. "Your flowers are wilting by the way."

I smiled and he flopped back on the beanie bag chair with a soda. I caught the water he tossed me, but played with cap nervously.

"Well, that's actually what I wanted to talk to you about." I sighed finally looking up at him. He was as still as a statue and he was staring at his shoes. "I know what they mean…do you?"

"I knew you would." he sad finally looking at me. He smirked at me and I thought he was going to tell me he likes me. "You're into boring stuff like that."

I gave him a teasing glare and grabbed a stray grape from the ground and threw it at him, but he dodged it easily.

"So, did you?" I asked while swapping my water for a soda.

He was quiet while I struggled to open my soda. "Well…yeah." he said and my soda exploded out of the can when I opened it.

Austin POV

I knew Ally didn't feel the same way when she didn't immediately start cleaning up the soda mess.

I, however, ran to the closet and started soaking up the mess with a mass of towels. Ally knelt beside me and started helping me, but I didn't look at her.

I only looked up when I felt her hand accidentally touched mine, like it did when we had written our first song together.

Our eyes locked but she looked down. I helped her up, and I felt more vulnerable than ever. We were just standing there and staring at each other, not even talking. I couldn't breathe, I could barely think - which wasn't really knew to me, but still! Is this what Ally felt when she was on stage? Oh my God, did Ally give me stage fright?

"Will you say something?" I asked barely controlling the shakiness in my voice.

"I don't know what to say." she admitted. "I'm scared."

She didn't even let me ask why. "I like you too."

I almost started Ally-Dancing. But then I remembered that she said she's scared. "What are you scared about?"

"Say we get together." she said and I grinned stupidly at the idea. "What if we break up? What will happen to our partnership?"

I couldn't help but laugh a little. "Ally, despite all odds, our friendship and partnership survived 6 months of not speaking to each other. I think we could survive a break up." she looked unconvinced as she walked passed me.

"Come on. Let's go see how Trish and Dez are doing." she said and opened the door.

"Ally, will you go out with me?" I blurted out. She looked at me with her mouth open.

"Um," she shook her head. "No. I wont ruin our friendship."

I rolled my eyes and smiled. She liked me, she just didn't want to ruin our friendship. I'm not gonna give up that easily.

I grabbed her hand and she blushed. "Go out with me."

"No." she laughed slipping her hand out of mine.

I followed her down the steps into Sonic Boom.

"Ally, just go out with me." I laughed at how silly we were being.

She gave me her 'you are such a dork' look. "Austin!"

"Don't make me beg. I'll get on my knees in front of everyone, I promise Ally." I threatened, making her roll her eyes. When she didn't say anything I began to kneel and she laughed.

"Oh get up!" she looked me in the eye suddenly serious. "Can you promise me that if we break up it wont ruin our friendship and both our careers?"

I hooked my pinky around hers making her laugh again. "I promise."

She smiled and hugged me. But when she pulled away she was smiling evilly. "I have an idea. Let's not tell Trish and Dez yet."

I tilted my head to the side and smiled in curiosity. "Why?"

She shrugged. "Just to mess with them. It'll be fun."

I stared at her. "Did Ally Dawson just suggest something fun?" I asked acting shocked and she gave me another 'you're such a dork' look.

We walked to the food court where Dez and Trish were trying to discretely throw grapes at people.

"What are you guys doing?" Ally laughed as we sat across from them and I held Ally's hand underneath the table.

Trish sighed. "We're trying to hit people with grapes, but we keep missing."

I snatched a grape and hit Statue Man in the head. I gave Trish a triumphant look and received a fistful of grapes thrown at me.

We all laughed and Cassidy flopped in the chair next to me looking extremely nervous.

"What's wrong?" Dez asked.

She frowned. "Dallas asked me out on a date and I'm really freaking out because I really like him and I really want the date to go really well."

I smirked at her. "I've never seen you this stressed before Cassidy." I teased. "It's endearing…in an annoying kind of way."

"Now isn't the time for jokes Blondie." she growled glaring at me.

"Wait, wait, wait! You and Dallas?" Ally asked Cassidy and she grinned. "How cute!"

Cassidy smiled in thanks, and then looked at how close we were sitting and smirked at me. "Do you guys think you could double date with me and Dallas?"

I sucked half of a grape down with out chewing and starting coughing violently so Ally pounded on my back. "I'm okay!" I choked out.

Ally turned to Cassidy. "Um, sure. We'll double with you…as friends." she added quickly and Cassidy looked unconvinced.

"Mhmm." she said and turned to Dez and Trish. "Actually I guess we could make it a triple if you guys want to come."

Dez and Trish looked sick at the thought.

"Ew! Me and him on a date?" Trish exclaimed in disgust.

"Me and her?" Dez agreed looking a little green. "Besides, Mindy would be on a warpath if she found out."

Cassidy grinned at my two friends. "Lies. Mindy is dating one of the dancers from the flash mob now. Tonight at seven, okay?"

Trish and Dez huffed and stormed away from the table together, the back of their hands touching. Cassidy turned to us and jerked her thumb in their direction.

"They do know that they're in love with each other, right?" she asked causing us to laugh.

"Hard to tell." Ally smiled.

That night we met up with Dallas, Cassidy, Dez, and Trish.

"So where are we headed?" I asked, and they all shrugged. "Isn't this your guys' date?" I asked Dallas and Cassidy.

Dallas smiled sheepishly. "I didn't think she would say yes."

All the girls and Dez 'awww'ed while I rolled my eyes.

"I know of a place we could go." I grinned and ten minutes later we were all sitting at a booth in the Pancake Hut with stacks of pancakes.

Everyone was having a good time and laughing and I looked at Ally.

I figured it was time for everyone to know we were dating so I did the most romantic thing possible.

I grabbed the whipped cream and made a heart on one of Ally's pancakes. She grinned at me as all the girls and Dez 'awww'ed again.

"You guys are dating now?" Trish smiled, and Ally nodded.

The atmosphere got very romantic all of a sudden, and it was kind of weird because I wasn't used to it being like this with Ally.

But then she took the whipped cream from me and squirted it on my face in the shape of a mustache and the awkward, romantic atmosphere disintegrated and we all laughed…and then we laughed even harder when the whipped cream fell off of my face and onto our interlocked hands.

So I've gotten a few requests to make a sequel to this story and I've decided to do one. I've already started writing it, I've got the title and the summary, so it should be up in a few day's time.