Ally sat in the room as she watched Austin standing on a platform in front of a large mirror. One lady was taking his waist size while the other was scrounging boxes looking for the right pair of shoes. Austin glanced over at Ally and saw her watching the women intensely. He knew how to direct her stare where it really should be.

On him.

Haughtily, he said, "See something you like?"

Ally looked at him, eyebrows pulling together. "What?" she asked, dumbly. Her eyes widened when she realized he really thought she'd been staring at him. She didn't know how to deny where her stare was without sounding like a sputtering truck with wheels caught in mud. She was never really the type to sound intimidating or to even share the same amount of animosity, or arrogance as he did. She was the shy, sit-in-the-corner-and-say-nothing type, the type who wished she was just the entire background and not really a person.

Austin smirked but before he could say anything, Ally cocked her head to the side. "He should be wearing the blue tie, not the green." Ally voiced.

The lady glanced at Ally and then grabbed the blue tie. She held it against Austin's shirt and grinned, looking back at Ally. "That works. Thanks, kid. You've got an eye."

Austin stared at himself in the mirror when the lady slung the tie around his neck. Perhaps Trish was right; Ally really was suitable for this job. Now that Cassidy had finished training her a few days ago, maybe Austin could see what Ally was made of when it came to being his assistant. Maybe she could be the assistant he's been looking for.

Austin cast a sideways glance at Ally and then looked back at the mirror and took the tie away from his neck. He tossed it carelessly towards Ally who (apparently had great reflexes) caught the tie in her hands. "I don't like it. I'm wearing the green."

"Oh, Well, Ally suggested the blue and-"

"Well, Ally was wrong. She's my personal assistant, not my stylist." Austin replied.

"Ally's job as an assistant is to keep an eye on these kinds of things-"

"-I don't care what she does in her job, I'm not wearing the blue tie. In fact, I don't want to wear a tie." Austin stubbornly told them.

Ally's eyes caught a leather jacket sitting on a stool. "How about this jacket?" she questioned, having ignored his comments and took the jacket into her hands and holding it up, "It would go well. It pulls everything together."

Austin looked over at the jacket. He liked the jacket and knew she was right. It would go with everything he was wearing. He still shook his head. "No."

"You're going to have to wear something." Ally told him.

"Nothing you suggest." Austin said, snidely. Ally lowered the jacket. "Grab me that one. I'm wearing it." Austin suddenly said, pointing towards a red one. Ally grabbed it and handed it to him. He roughly snatched it and shrugged it on.

"It's the same thing but in red." Ally pointed out.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious." Austin sent Ally a wry smile. "I like the red one. Red looks good on me." Austin said, casting a glance at Ally. Ally nodded her head slowly, unsure of what else to do. "Ally, get me a coffee."

"But we have to-"

"Now." Austin snapped. Ally nodded her head, grabbed her things and rushed out.

"How about it, Mr. Moon?" asked the woman who was helping him slide into his jacket. Austin looked at his reflection.

He bit the inside of his cheek. "Hand me that one." he pointed towards the black jacket Ally had recently been holding. The woman grabbed it and handed it to him.

Austin held the jacket up against his chest, staring at himself in the mirror. "I think I do like this black one."

The woman arched her eye brows, "Are you sure? I thought you-"

"I'll wear this one." Austin finalized. The woman nodded, taking the jacket to the back.

After a few minutes went by, Austin jumped off the platform he was standing on. He had changed back into his original clothes now. He glanced over to see Ally rushing through the door with two coffees. "We're on a schedule. We don't have time for you to grab yourself a coffee. This isn't free time for you."

"Oh, it's not for me." Ally said. Austin looked at her, confused. "Well, I remembered that you said you like your coffees two sugars, one cream but when I was with Cassidy, you liked your coffee black. I wasn't sure which one to get you, so I just got both." Ally said.

Austin stared at her for a moment. He fought back the urge to laugh at her spontaneous problem-solving. "I'll take the black." he said. Ally nodded her head and handed it forward to him. "You can have that one." he told her.

"Okay." Ally said, "We have to go now. Trish called me. We're already late for your interview rehearsal."

Austin nodded. Ally headed for his bags of clothes that we're on the floor while he didn't bother waiting on her. He headed out. Ally glanced inside the bag and saw the black jacket. She halted. She slowly looked over her shoulder at him and shook her head. She took the bags and headed after him.

Austin seemed to have already pushed his way through the crowd of paparazzi waiting for him on the street and gotten into the limo. Ally shoved her way through them and slammed the limo door shut. She stared at them. She fought her urge to smile, only imagining a day when those cameras could be for her.

She shook off the thought, telling herself that her dream would never come true. Being Austin Moon's assistant was the final proof of that.

x

Ally watched from backstage as Austin was being interviewed. He held a cool persona, flashing an occasional smile towards the audience. Ally crossed her arms and shook her head. She wished the world could see what a jerk he was, but she had a feeling they were beginning to find out.

Trish was standing across from her, sipping a coffee while typing something into her phone. She had a concentrated face on show. Ally slowly looked down to her phone that beeped. She saw it was her alarm, sending her small reminders of tasks she had yet to do. She sighed heavily. When she dreamed about being in L.A., she imagined she would be sitting on that couch with the interviewer, not on this stool watching somebody else live out everything she's prayed for.

As Ally listened to Austin give her cheesy answers to the interviewers response, she pulled out a pen and held her hand close to her chest. She scribbled down a few lyrics that came to her mind as she watched him. Another name goes up in lights / You wonder if you'll make it out alive.

"Ally."

Ally looked away from the lyrics she had scribbled messily on the back of her hand and saw Cassidy standing to the side. She nodded at Ally and Ally followed. "We have a problem." Cassidy said.

"What happened?" Ally frowned.

Cassidy cringed. "There was a mistake in Austin's schedule"

"What do you mean?" Ally questioned.

"We scheduled Austin on the Helen Show for right now, tonight he's scheduled for spare time, he's got nothing going on. That's where the problem starts. " Cassidy began, "He was scheduled for a concert tomorrow night at 7:15 P.M. and he was also scheduled for a Press Conference at 7:30 P.M. I guess the schedule got mixed up and instead of having the concert tonight, it's tomorrow. I tried to change it, but it's not going to work out."

"What do we do?" Ally's eyes widened, already breaking into a nervous sweat.

"You," she pointed at Ally, "being Austin's personal assistant, it's your job to cancel the concert. Press Conferences are important and if we cancel it, it'll look very bad on his career. You need to call off the concert."

"Me?" Ally gasped. Cassidy nodded. "But we can't...It'll look so bad. We can't just cancel it."

"We don't have another option. I couldn't move the concert to tonight like I'd hoped, same deal for the conference." Cassidy sighed. "It's alright. All you have to do is explain the problem and apologize excessively. I've done it many times."

"So, can't you do it again?" Ally asked.

Cassidy sighed, "Ally, you're his personal assistant. It's your job."

"No...No, my job is to assist him. Not the management's matters." Ally said.

"It is your job. You have to take his calls, his business calls, and his personal calls. You have to do everything for him." Cassidy explained.

"But...But what about my other tasks? I'm supposed to arrange-"

"I guess you're working over-time." Cassidy said, with a shrug. "It happens to the best of us." Ally looked at her. "I'm sorry, Ally. I've got to straighten out his schedule and fix this so it won't happen again, which is supposed to be your job. I'm helping out as much as I can. I'll see you tonight?" Cassidy waved, walking off, calling on people to make sure they were doing what they were supposed to.

Ally bit on the inside of her cheek. She had so much to do. She wasn't talking an hour of over-time, she means she'll probably be up until midnight or later sorting things out. Ally sighed, running her fingers through her hair.

"Happens to the best of us," Ally grumbled, rolling her eyes. It wasn't supposed to happen to her. Especially because she didn't even want this job in the first place, she just wanted to perform. Unfortunately, these dreams are always only granted to people as stuck up as Austin.

"You look like you just lost your best friend."

Speak of the devil.

Ally turned and looked at him. "Can I help you?" she had tried to make it as helpful as she could, but her voice dripped acid instead.

Austin lifted his arms in defense, "Sorry, Sorry." he said. He smirked at her. "The interview's over. We gotta get out of here. The limos waiting and I don't expect to be swarmed by pap's anytime soon." With that, he turned on his heel and started heading the other way.

She didn't know whether it was out of stress or anger, but she called after him, "You're stuck up, you know that?"

He turned, crooked grin in place. "Bite me, Dawson!"

She sighed and shook her head. She combed her fingers through her hair and followed Austin towards the limo. She was about to get in when he shut the door in her face. Ally groaned under her breath and opened the door, sliding in.

"Oops." Austin smirked.

Ally ignored him, clicking her seatbelt and pulling out her phone. "I can't believe you make everyone do everything for you." she grumbled under her breath.

Unfortunately Austin had heard her, "Hey, you chose this job, hun."

"I didn't actually." Ally said. Austin looked at her, but Ally didn't explain any further. "Keep track of your schedule. We're disappointing nine hundred fans tonight."

Austin watched her as she pressed her phone to her ear and began doing her work of letting down anyone who paid to see him in concert. He tried to shrug it off because he was a busy man after all, but it was her tone that was almost bone-chilling.

x

"Vegetables?" Austin snapped.

Ally looked at him, confused. She nodded her head, her curly locks bouncing along her shoulders. Austin's eyes were flat and cold. He glanced down at his plate with disgust, not daring to touch the small carrots and celery.

"You asked for a snack," Ally said, quietly, her mind racing to figure out what she had done wrong that was making him look at her like this, like she had really screwed up.

"I meant like a candy bar, or a piece of a cake. Not this poor excuse." Austin said, distastefully as he pushed the plate forward, refusing to eat the healthy choices.

"It's just some carrots and celery. It's good-"

"-Try disgusting. I'm not eating this. How many times are you going to screw up on this job?" Austin spat. Ally winced, trying to hold back the vibration of anger that was surging up her core.

"You have to stay healthy. You travel a lot. You can't be getting sick and a piece of cake won't help you. You should be eating healthy foods." Ally mothered.

Austin scoffed, shaking his head and causing some hair to fall into his eyes. For some reason, it bothered Ally seeing it there. She gritted her teeth and took the plate. "Get me real food."

"If you're so particular," Ally began, "Why don't you prepare your own snack?" she muttered, under her breath.

Of course, Austin had ears like a dog. Which came as a surprise, Ally imagined they would be damaged from all of his concerts and millions of fans screaming in his ears 24/7. "Because it's your job." Austin said. Ally wondered how many times people were going to say that to her. "You were hired to do everything I say, and you were hired to help me."

"You know," Ally snapped, feeling all her strings of patience weakening, "I have to give out nine hundred and some refunds, disappointing nine hundred of your loyal fans, and I have to do it in one night. It's going to be a long process. The least you could do was get off your lazy behind and get yourself your own goddamn piece of cake!"

It was silent for a moment before Austin cracked. The corner of his lips twitched and his shoulders began to shake, throat vibrating with laughter. Ally took a step back, staring at him with a puzzled look.

"You're...You're laughing?" she asked him, watching as he guffawed at her.

He quieted down and stood up, towering over her with his larger figure. "You're my assistant. You do what I say. You do whatever I want, when I want it. You don't get to argue with me. You don't get to refuse anything. You don't even have the authority to complain to me. I am your boss. I choose whether or not you continue this job. I've noticed that you don't have a soft spot for me, which means only one thing: You need this job. You don't have any other choice, do you? So, I'd suggest that you shut your pretty, little mouth and deal."

His face was inches from hers. She gulped, taking in a deep breath. She carefully and slowly nodded. "Right." she whispered, eyes peering up from beneath her lashes to catch his gaze. It was so close.

Ally took a step back from him, squaring her shoulders. "I guess I'll get you something different." she told him, turning around and walking away from him as she felt his domineering stare practically burning her spine to dust particles.

She suddenly halted and slowly looked over her shoulder at him. He arched his eye brows questioningly. "But you would've fired me." Was all she said.

"What?" he frowned.

"If you didn't need me, if you didn't want me here," Pause, "You would've fired me. You don't fool me Austin Moon, you want me here, you need me here."

Austin chortled, "No, I really don't."

"Oh, but you do." Ally said, turning around fully and walking towards him. Austin shook his head. "You need me to run around like a little servant because you're too lazy to do it yourself." Ally got closer. "You need me to answer all of your calls, even your personal ones, because you can't be bothered to do it yourself." She was even closer now, standing directly in front of him, one more step and she would've been face to face with him. "You need me to disappoint all of your fans by myself, because you know that you're disappointing them, in fact, you've lost count on how many times you've disappointed them already." Finally, she took that last step, the plate in her hands grazing his sternum. "Wow, Austin, It must be horrible to be so important that it stopped being about the music." Knowing very well she had his attention, she went on, "Because like I said, you don't fool me. I think you're a selfish, ungrateful pig who lost himself when he got swallowed by so much damn pride."

No smirk, no chuckle, no scoff, not a movement. He stared down at her. The first time his stare was actually really cold. This wasn't a facade, this wasn't a game. She had really done it. She had actually pissed him off. Her pink, beautifully-shaped lips didn't look so pretty anymore, they were a nuisance. Her big, brown eyes were intimidating and he saw she had enough integrity to let him see all the pity there.

"Oh, yeah?" he finally spat, "and who are you to tell me where I stand with music?" he questioned her, taking a step back, not wanting to be so close anymore.

All she did was give him a dry smile. "It looks like I have a task to do. Considering, you know, it's my job." she said.

Then Austin's eyes fell towards the centre of Ally's collarbone. He saw the silver, shiny object hanging on a beautiful, sparkling chain. It looked like a music note. He understood now. He looked back at her face and then smirked. He reached out and rubbed the music note, dangling around her neck. "Nice necklace," he said, "How does it feel to know you didn't make it?"

Ally's wry smile fell and she stared at him with a new found hatred. His smirk widened. She turned around on her heel and left the room quickly. He chuckled to himself, ruefully. Ally gripped the plate so tight in her hands she swore it would crack right in her palms. She muttered curses about him under her breath.

She was really starting to hate him.