A/N: Yay, update! :) Hope you all enjoy it! The next chapter is going to be so good haha well in my opinion, anyway :p I had the best time writing it, I was freaking out the whole time every time something new came to my head!

Disclaimer: don't own A&A but own all other characters not associated with it.

Ally POV

"Thanks for meeting me," I said as I sat down at the table in the coffee shop.

"No problem," Cassidy smiled. "What's up?"

"I need a favour."

"Oh jeez," she joked. "This sounds scary."

"It's nothing major," I assured her. "I just need you to run to the store to grab me a few things."

She eyed me over her coffee mug. "What kind of things are we talking here? Something that's going to put me in jail?"

"God no!" I exclaimed. "Come on, Cassidy, you know me."

"I'm kidding," she laughed. "Sorta."

"I need a hammer, nails, hot pink paint, and wood. Like, the planks of it." I slapped a wad of money into her palm.

"Um, okay…can I ask what the hell you're planning on doing? Especially without Austin in town to supervise or do at least something to prevent you from killing yourself?"

"I'm not that hopeless!" I said. "Besides, he knows. I told him on the phone last night."

"Really?"

"No. He doesn't need to know."

She sighed. "Alright, Ally, I'll do it."

"Thanks, Cassidy, I owe you," I said with relief. "You can just drop them off at my house. I've got to go pick Maci up from Quinn's."

We stood up and she grabbed her coat. "How are you holding up, by the way? With Austin being gone, and all."

"I'm coping," I admitted. "I've definitely been better though. I just miss him, that's all."

It had been two weeks since Austin had left for tour and even though I knew he was having the time of his life and we talked on the phone every day, I still missed him like crazy. But who was I to stand in the way of something he loved doing?

"Just think, you're halfway there," Cassidy smiled. "It'll be okay, just hang in there. I know how weird it must feel not being there."

"It feels extremely weird. But I have a kid now, so things need to change."

She nodded. "I understand what you mean. But hey, if you ever need anything, you know you can call me. I'm always here to help."

I hugged her. "Thanks, Cassidy. I missed seeing you around."

She grinned. "Diddo, girl. I'll see you in a bit at your place."

"Great," I said. We parted ways and I hopped into my car, heading to Quinn's. When I got there, Jace was playing with Maci in the front yard.

"Hey," he greeted when I got out.

"Hey! I didn't expect to see you here," I said. I wrapped my scarf tighter around me. It was cooling off now, with it being the first week of December.

"Yeah, I've been home for a few hours. Tracey's off her break from school so I came back to Miami," he explained. Tracey was Jace's girlfriend, who lived in Orlando.

"Hi mommy!" Maci chirped as she waddled over, grabbing my leg for balance.

"Hey, sweetie," I smiled, stroking her hair. "Did you have fun today with Sheridan?"

"Yeah!"

"That's good," I grinned before turning to Jace. "Where is everyone?"

"Leah's at work, Mom and Dad are at work as well, and Quinn is-"

"Right here," came a clipped voice from the side of the house. We both turned to see Quinn walking around the side of the house with Sheridan under one arm, covered in mud. Quinn was wearing old sweat pants with an oversized black sweater, her bleached hair thrown up in a long ponytail on top of her head.

"What happened?" I exclaimed.

"Sheridan found a mud puddle in the back of the yard," Quinn grumbled. "I left Jace to watch Maci while I dug her out."

"So fun, Auntie Ally!" Sheridan exclaimed from under her mom's arm. Her blonde hair was caked in mud. "It was so much chocolate in one place!"

I stifled a laugh. "At least she had fun."

"I won't be having fun while I'm bathing her," Quinn said.

"Come on, sis, live a little," Jace told his younger sister.

"Do you want to give her a bath and wash her clothes when we get inside?" She challenged. "You can be my guest."

"Nah, I'm good."

"That's what I thought." Quinn sighed and ran a hand over her face. "Come on, Sheridan; let's go get you cleaned up."

"But then the chocolate will be all gone," Sheridan frowned.

"It's not chocolate, honey."

"Yes, it is!"

"Well, then, too bad for the chocolate," Quinn snapped. "I'll see you later, Ally," she added to me before heading inside.

"She's been having a rough day," Jace said. "At least that's what Leah told me when she was home on her lunch break."

"We all get those days, unfortunately," I said, scooping my kid up. "Thanks for watching Maci."

"No problem. How's Austin's tour so far?"

"From the sounds of our phone calls, he's having a blast," I said. "Not that I'm surprised. He lives, eats, and breathes music."

Jace grinned. "I'm not surprised either. Let him know I say hey. We'll get to one of his shows."

"I will," I promised. "See you later."

When I got Maci strapped into my car, I drove home. Pancakes was thrilled to see us since I hadn't been home for most of the day, and she immediately lay down beside Maci's play pen, where I set Maci in for her to play while I waited for Cassidy.

About an hour later, there was a knock at the door and I went to open it. Cassidy was standing on the step. "I've got your stuff," she said.

"Awesome," I told her. "I'll just go get Maci and then I'll come help you haul it to the backyard."

"So, what do you need all of this for?" Cassidy asked me as we looked down at the pile of building supplies. Maci was sitting with Pancakes a few feet away, ripping out grass.

"I wanna build Maci a play house," I told her.

"A play house? Seriously? Do you even know how to measure wood correctly or anything?" Cassidy asked.

"No. That's why you're going to help me."

"Oh, you better believe I'm going to help you. I wasn't going to let you do this by yourself." She pulled a ponytail off of her wrist and tied up her long strawberry blonde locks. "Ready?"

"You aren't exactly dressed for it," I told her.

She was wearing leather pants, high heels, and a long blue jacket that went to her knees. "I can fix that," she said. Cassidy pulled off her jacket to reveal a thin red sweater. "There."

"What about the pants?"

She waved her hand. "I'm good. Don't worry about it."

I shrugged. "Suit yourself. Alright, let's figure this out."

For the next hour, we measured and cut wood. Well, we did it our way. Not professionally. It seemed to be working, so whatever, right? Besides, we were having fun.

"Are you painting this whole thing pink?" she asked as she held down wood for me to hammer nails into.

I nodded. "Maci is obsessed with the color pink."

"We should paint the door white with little flowers on it," Cassidy suggested. "Maybe add some other designs on the walls."

"Sounds perfect," I grinned. "She'll love it. Right, Maci?" I said, glancing up at my daughter. She looked up and clapped her hands. I had put her in her jumper on the deck so she was away from our work area, but so I could still see her. Pancakes was sitting up with her, keeping an eye on her.

After another couple of hours, we managed to get the walls and the roof up. I brought out hot chocolate for us to have while we took a break.

"I think that was the hardest thing I've ever had to do," Cassidy said tiredly.

"At least the painting will be easy," I told her. "I think it looks pretty good, to be honest. We did a good job."

"Teamwork," she grinned, high fiving me. "I don't know about you, but I had lots of fun doing this. Everything is more fun when you don't know what you're doing."

We started laughing. "That's very true, " I said between laughs. "Well, what do you say? Should we paint this thing and make it pretty?"

"Hell yeah we should," she said. "I've got some artistic abilities, so this better look good."

"I have no artistic abilities," I laughed.

While we were painting, my cell phone rang. "Who would that be?" I wondered aloud as I grabbed it. Jesse's number flashed. "Jesse?"

"Hey, Ally, are you busy?"

"Um, yeah, I am, actually. What's up? Is everything okay?"

"Well, you know how your mom acts so weird around me? I think I found something you should see," he said.

"Really?" I glanced at Cassidy, who was concentrating on her design. "Can you come over around eight?"

"Sounds good, I'll see you then."

"Alright, bye." I hung up and slid my phone back in my pocket. "Sorry about that," I said to Cassidy.

She waved her hand. "Oh, don't worry about it." She did one more flick before pulling back. "There, all done!"

"That looks awesome," I complimented as I saw her drawing. It was a very intricate flower woven through vines.

"Thanks," she smiled. "Wow, we actually managed to get this whole thing done today."

"If you hadn't stayed, I would have still been figuring out how to cut the wood," I admitted.

She laughed. "That's what friends are for."

The playhouse was all hot pink with a white door and pretty designs all over it. It had "Maci Harmony" scrawled across the top with music notes in random places.

"Nicely done, Carlyle," I said as I fist pumped Cassidy.

"Same to you, Dawson," she grinned. "Think Maci will notice we didn't use a super hot pink?"

"Um…I hope not."

A/N: Cassidy came up again! Hope you guys enjoyed that :) I really liked her and I'm actually excited for her to come back in season 3! And someone is reviewing as Guest for almost every chapter saying the funniest things and I cry laughing every time I read them so whoever you are, you're awesome hahaha

Plus, I know it's in Ally's POV most of the time, which someone reviewed and said, but it won't always be. I swear!

Joelle xx

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