A/N: So so sorry for the delay, but I'm happy to say that I'm finally done my first semester, which was a hard and work loaded one, so hopefully I'll have some more free time to write. Hope everyone had a great Christmas and great New Year!

Disclaimer: Don't own A&A but I own the other characters not associated with it. I also don't own Pizza Planet from Toy Story. I just watched that movie (one of my all time favourites), and it was the first name that came into mind haha.

Ally POV

"You aren't doing it right."

"I'm doing the best that I can."

"You have to angle it more, or else you aren't going to get the entire thing."

"I don't really see why you're making me do this- Ouch! Son of a nut, I pinched my skin!" I yelped, rubbing the spot under my eyebrow that was rapidly turning red.

Claudia snatched the tweezers out of my hand. "Here, let me do it. It's painful watching you try."

"This is painful!" I glared, pointing to where I pinched my skin with the beauty tool made by Satan.

My step sister sat me down on the chair at my vanity and spun me around to face her. "Don't move, or you're going to get pinched again."

"What's wrong with my eyebrows?" I complained. "I've never plucked them before."

"Well, lucky for you, they have a good natural shape, which is rare for most girls. I just want to pluck some of the loose hairs," she replied, going in for the kill. I flinched, and she huffed in irritation. "Ally, I mean it, don't freaking move."

"I'm just going to a basketball game at the school, so who cares what I look like? Who cares what I look like at any time? Certainly not me," I told her.

"See, that's the thing. It's not just any basketball game anymore; it's Austin's basketball game."

"It's also Bryce's."

"Who cares about my stupid brother," Claudia said. "The point is, Austin is your boyfriend now, soyou need to look your best for him at all times. Even if it means plucking a few loose eyebrow hairs."

"Claudia, he didn't seem to care what I looked like before, and he still won't." I shoved her hand away. "Can you please leave it alone?"

"I just have a couple left!"

"Ugh, fine, but hurry up, the game starts soon."

Once she finished, she left the room with a quick "Cover that red spot!", so I flipped her the bird, but I grudgingly followed her order because I looked in the mirror and saw that it did look pretty nasty. Luckily, I had some great concealer that did the trick.

I changed into white skinny jeans and a red pullover, and put on my combat boots. With a ball cap and ponytail to finish it off, I hurried downstairs and out to my car.

When I arrived at the school, there were a lot of people streaming into the gym still, even though the game started in fifteen minutes. From the looks of the crowd, it was going to be a big game, which didn't surprise me; it was the home opener.

I went to give my money to Mrs. Oaks at the door, but she waved me off. "You're paid for, Miss Dawson."

"What?" I asked, confused.

"Your friend paid for you already," she replied. "Run along."

"Um…okay?" I took my money back and made my way to the gym. Out of the people inside the gym already, half of them were wearing our school colours and the other half was wearing the Stingrays' colours; the visiting team was from another high school across Tampa.

"Ally!" I turned around at the sound of my name and scanned the bleachers until I spotted Sam in the middle of them, waving her hands. I dodged people in the crowd as I made my way up to her.

"I saved you a seat," she said, scooting over so I could sit beside her. "I wasn't sure when you were going to get here."

"Thanks," I smiled. I noticed my mom and Mike were sitting a few rows down from us, both wearing school colours. I caught their attention and waved.

"Oh, we can't have you looking like that at the home opener," Sam said, taking me in. She reached on her other side and pulled out two face paint sticks: red and gold, our school colours. Like me, she was also in a red sweater. Her lips were painted half red, half gold, and she had football streaks under her eyes in the same colours.

"Samantha-" I started, but she cut me off.

"You have to look like you give a damn, come on." She took off my baseball cat and painted my face the same as hers. "Just try not to lick your lips; this stuff doesn't taste very good."

"You don't say," I replied, slipping my ponytail back through my hat. "Hey, did you pay for me at the door?"

She shook her head. "No, was I supposed to? Oh no, now I feel bad."

"No, no," I quickly said. "Mrs. Oaks just said I was already paid for, so I thought it might have been you."

She smiled at me, and I looked at her. "What?"

"It was probably Austin," she laughed. "Did that not cross your mind?"

"Uh, I guess not," I sighed. "No. I'm still not used to this whole having a boyfriend thing."

She patted my leg. "Don't sweat it, Ally, I was the same when I started dating Tyson."

"But you dated Austin before. I've never had a boyfriend. Like ever."

She shrugged. "Nothing wrong with that. Besides, with Austin, it didn't feel 'romantic'. It still felt like we were just friends. With Tyson though, my heart actually races whenever I'm around him. It was never like that with Austin."

"You're getting all sappy," I teased, giving her a little shove.

She grinned. "Yeah, yeah, guys you're totally into will do that to you."

The buzzer on the score clock went off to signal the teams to enter, and the cheerleaders started cheering at their respective doorways. We even had a fog machine.

"Wow, this is legit," I commented to Sam over the cheering. "It's like High School Musical in here."

"Yeah, we take basketball seriously," she replied. "As you can tell."

"Ladies and gentleman, welcome to the annual home opener between the Ashburn High Anemones and the Sargent High Stingrays!" Frank, the school's sports caster, announced, in which the entire gym responded in an uproar. "To start of another season of this beautiful game, here come your defending champs…the Anemones!"

Sam and I got up and cheered with the rest of our side as the guys ran through the banner in a stream of red and gold, grabbing basketballs to shoot. The other side booed. I spotted Austin leading a drill, and my heart gave a little jump.

"Ty looks so good," Sam sighed beside me.

"I'm not exactly focused on Tyson," I said, not taking my eyes off Austin.

"And the Anemone's rivals, the Stingrays!" This time, our side booed while the Stingrays ran out in a field of dark blue and white, and our boos were a little louder because there were slightly more Anemone fans than there were Stingray fans, but that's always how it was when you were the home team.

After the teams finished their warmups, the captains went and did the coin toss. Austin and the other team's captain didn't appear too fond of each other, but these teams were major rivals, so it wasn't a shock.

After the teams did their cheers, the guys got in their positions. Austin had the jump ball against the other captain. Figures.

"Know anything about basketball?" Sam asked.

"To an extent," I replied. "I'm more of a baseball kind of person."

"Really? We've got a girls' and boys' team," she said. "You should try out."

I shrugged. "We'll see."

"Alright, let the game begin!" Frank announced, and the ref threw the ball up. Austin won the jump, and smacked the ball to Bryce. He took the ball a little down the court, passed it to Tyson, who faked a pass one way before passing it back to Bryce. Bryce did a lay-up and scored. Everyone went nuts.

"And Bryce Sandler brings the Anemones ahead just seven seconds into the game with an assist from Tyson Miller!"

"Oh, gross!" Sam suddenly exclaimed from beside me.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I just licked my lips," she replied in disgust, wiping her tongue with her fingers. I rolled my eyes as she grabbed her paint sticks to reapply.

The game continued with the shot clock resetting to twenty four continuously as shot after shot was made. At half time, the score was thirty-six to twenty-nine for the Anemones.

"I'm going to go grab a soda," Sam said. "You want anything?"

"A Coke sounds good," I replied.

When she left, I happened to catch Austin's eye across the gym and lifted my hand in a wave. He smiled and waved back before going to join his teammates on the bench to hear a game plan from the coach.

I heard a group of girls behind me a few rows up, giggling about Austin and making some sexual remarks about him, but I tried to ignore it; if he was interested in a freak like me over all of the other girls in the school who were beautiful and popular like Claudia, then I didn't think I had anything to worry about. At least, I hoped I didn't.

Sam returned a few minutes later. "God, the line at the concession stand is huge," she commented. "What the hell does it take to get a girl two sodas around here?" She handed me my drink.

I thanked her and cracked open the can, taking a sip. "So where are Trish and Dylan tonight?" she asked.

"Trish hates sports and Dylan is at a family dinner," I replied, just as the second half of the game started up.

"Yeah, Trish doesn't really strike me as the sporty type," Sam said, then paused. "Neither do you, though. But hey, to each his own!"

"Right."

We looked back at the game in time to see Austin score a three pointer, and we erupted into cheers along with everyone else.

"The Anemone's captain, Austin Moon, brings the Anemones back into the lead with that beautiful three pointer!" Frank exclaimed over the microphone.

We ended up winning the game 59-56, which left the Stingrays down in the dumps. Sam and I waited for the team to finish up their talk before the Tyson and Austin came over. Dez went off to talk to Sarah, Claudia's friend and Dez's girlfriend. Tyson and Sam talked off to the side.

"Good game," I smiled at Austin.

"Thanks," he said, returning my smile. He glanced at my coloured lips. "I'd kiss you, but I don't think your lips would taste very good."

"Good choice," I replied.

He slung an arm around my waist and pulled me in to kiss my head. "I'll settle for that," he joked.

"You guys want to grab pizza or something with us?" Sam asked.

Austin looked at me in question, and I shrugged, saying I was cool with it. "Mind if Dez joins us? He'll probably bring Sarah, too, if that's okay," Austin replied.

"Yeah, that's fine!" Sam replied. "Bryce can come, too, " she added, looking at me.

"I'll go ask him," I told her before hurrying off to talk to him. He was in conversation with my mom and Mike. They greeted me and I told Bryce he played great before asking him if he'd want to come with us. He said he would, and I brought him back to the group. Dez and Sarah had joined.

"Bryce is down," I said. "Where are we going?"

"Pizza Planet?" Tyson suggested, and everyone agreed.

"I'm Sarah," Sarah said to me as we walked out of the gym. She was a pretty girl, with shoulder length purple hair and brown eyes. She had a lanky build to her. I had seen her come into the café a few times with the rest of Claudia's group, but we had never really spoken.

"Hi, I'm Ally," I replied. "You sure Claudia is okay with this?"

"Claudia doesn't own me," Sarah replied. "I can do whatever the hell I want."

I looked at her, slightly in shock, before nodding. "I think I like you."

She smiled, and we hurried off to catch up to the rest of the group. Austin linked his fingers through mine. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, I was just talking with Sarah," I replied.

He nodded. "She's a nice girl, I like her. And she's good for Dez. They're both pretty eccentric."

"I gathered that, seeing as how she has purple hair," I said, not judgementally though.

"Maybe you should die your hair purple," he said, kissing my head again. "It would look good."

"Not a chance."

A/N: Hopefully that was pretty good for Austin and Ally just starting a relationship, because they're just taking it slow first. I tried! BTW, do any of you guys watch The 100 on the CW? Holy SHIT, it's so good. If you don't, I highly suggest you look it up and start watching it because it's extremely good acting, it's a well thought out show, and it's just soo freaking good. Ugh, so good. If you're a sci-fi, post apocalyptic kind of person, then this is the show for you.

Joelle xx

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