Disclaimer: I do not own Austin & Ally, but I do own Natalie and any ideas surrounding her! :)

You're My Favorite Song

Episode Name: Cake Batter and Choreographers; Part Dos!

~.~

Is this seriously happening to me right now?

Frankly, Natalie didn't want to answer that question to herself. She couldn't believe any of this was happening. Usually she could predict her day from the morning. It was the same all the time and pretty uneventful. Initially, her thought was she would:

One: Go to the mall.

Two: Get the banjo.

And three: Go back home.

Never did she expect to be coated in sticky Blue Raspberry Slush with four people she'd never met in her life (one of which having the audacity to lick her) and a broken thousand dollar banjo.

Could this day get any worse?

"Seriously! What is going on?" The girl asked from the doorway, before staring pointedly at strange boy. "What did you do?"

"Me?" Dez threw his hands up in mock hurt and disbelief. "I beg your pardon, but it wasn't me this time. Austin is the one who ran into her and broke the banjo, also spilling slushie on her in the process."

Natalie clenched her fists and continued to glare at Dez. "And you're the one who tied the thing into a freaking bow!" She held out the instrument to further show her point.

"And, hey, it isn't like I meant to do it either," Austin quickly quipped and shrugged. "She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Natalie's jaw dropped once again, and her eyes adverted to the blonde. There was seriously way to many people for her to be glaring at right now. "Are you trying to put this on me?" she interrogated. "This is certainly not my fault. Maybe it was you who was in the wrong place at the wrong time." The last sentence came out of her mouth in a mocking tone.

Before Austin could say anything in return, the girl who was in the doorway stepped further into the store. She walked up to Natalie. "Wait, and who is this 'she' we're all talking about?"

Even though Natalie should've been a little hurt by the fact that someone didn't know who she was, in reality, she was thrilled. And then something she didn't think would happen after the recent turn of events occurred; she smiled. "I'm the 'she'," Natalie began, eyes traveling down to the girl's name tag which said 'Trish'. "My name's Natalie."

"Natalie Reagan," Ally corrected in a worried voice, pulling her hair out of her mouth for a millisecond. "Daughter of my favorite celebrity, Natalie Reagan. And now she has blue all over her, and her mom, the one and only Veronica Hastings, is going to be mad about the banjo."

"Your mom's Veronica Hastings?" Trish interrupted, earning a nod from Natalie.

Meanwhile, Ally continued to freak. "Then she's going to call the store all angry, and I'll never get to do that private collaboration with her!"

Austin's eyebrow quirked as he stared at his partner. "What private collaboration?"

Ally's eyes widened. "I said that out loud?" Frantically, she brought all of her locks to cover her entire face.

"Chill, Ally." Trish comforted, before turning to Austin and Dez. "Tell me everything that happened from the beginning."

Dez threw a hand up when Austin tried to speak, cutting him off. "I got this," he said, causing Natalie to mentally face-palm. Why do I have a feeling this is going to be epically awful?

"Really?" Trish looked amused, folding her arms.

Dez nodded. "Yes." He began to pace around the room. "So this morning I woke up to the smell of fresh waffles mixed with milk, butter, and a touch, just a touch, of cinnamon. And . . ."

"Not that beginning," Trish deadpanned. "The other one."

The ginger looked at her confused, before something went off in his mind. "Oh!" He clapped his hands together and began his story with a dark eerie tone. "It was a dark, stormy night and my mother had been pregnant for nine . . ."

Natalie felt her eye twitch. Is he serious right now?

Trish seemed like she was about to lose it to. "Dez!" she shouted, immediately seizing his story. "How about the beginning as in when you walked into the store?"

His face contorted into a slight pout. "But that story's not as interesting."

Trish scoffed. "There are two people here coated in blue with a broken banjo. One of which is a celebrity's daughter. I have a feeling this story would be pretty interesting."

"But don't you want to hear about the . . ."

"No!"

Dez shook his head. "Well, then. Tough crowd." He sighed and rattled off the tale carelessly. "Austin ran into the store then bumped into Miss Priss over there and . . ."

Natalie's features turned dark. "What did you just call me?" she asked in a dangerously low voice. Does this man have a death wish?

For some reason, Dez was enjoying making her angry. With a smile he inched dangerously close to the already irate female and said softly. "Miss Priss." He threw his hands out in an 'in your face' way. "What are you going to do about it?"

Natalie's eye twitched again as her gaze turned murderous. "Hold this." She shoved the banjo at Ally and was about to take a step toward Dez when she felt arms go around her waist, restraining her. Turning around, she met Austin's gaze. "Let me at 'em!" she growled, trying to break from his hold. "Let me at 'em!" Her limbs began flailing when she felt herself lifted slightly off the floor. "Let me go, Blondie!"

Trish began to burst out laughing. "Let her . . . let her go, Austin!" she managed to choke out through bouts of hilarity. "I need to see this! Hurry, Ally, give me your phone so I can tape it."

Ignoring her, Natalie bit her bottom lip before shouting, "You are so lucky right now, Ginge!"

"Ginge?" Austin's mouth was exceptionally close Natalie's ear since he was holding her up, causing his voice to ring louder and his breath to tickle her ear. "Do you like to call people by their hair color or something?"

Shuddering slightly from the awkward sensation, Natalie shook her head. "I have other selective, not-so-PG names I could give a try," she shot back with a small smirk.

"You know," He gave a small chuckle. "Ginge is fine."

Without much thinking, Natalie took note of how his whole body shook when he laughed . . . even just a little. She also noticed how warm his breath was against her face. Hey, it was just her nervous system! If it were any other person holding her like this it would be no different. Except . . . maybe if it was Dez, she would've already puked.

Now everything was getting . . . awkward. Really, that was the only possible way to capture the whole situation in one word. She was now sticky, irritated, starting to sweat, and felt all around awkward.

Give it up, Nat. She told herself. Just for now, so you can get cleaned off.

With an disgusted huff, Natalie rolled her eyes. "I give up." Her flailing seized and her limbs went limp. "You can put me down now."

As Austin carefully placed her to the ground, checking for any sudden movements, Dez let out a triumphant cry. "Ha! I knew you didn't have the guts to take on this!" He threw up his fists and made some rather pathetic attempts at punches in the air. "I once fought a Kangaroo and won."

Trish guffawed. "No you didn't! The kangaroo kicked your butt!"

Dez snickered. "That's what you did see."

And after that, Dez and Trish began to fight over who won, Dez or the kangaroo. But Natalie had a strong feeling the kangaroo was still the reigning champion. Moving away from their squabble, Natalie scooted over towards Ally, who seemed to be furiously busting down the counter. Where she got the rag and cleaning supplies, she'd never know.

"Um, Ally?" Ally's eyes darted up to her, they were set wide and she looked like a mad woman. Okay, then.

"What?" the brunette questioned apprehensively, causing Natalie to jump back a little.

"Do you know where there's a bathroom I can wash up in?" She tried to run a hand through her hair, but got stuck at a clump meshed by blue dye. Great.

"There's one upstairs in my practice room." She pointed up to a balcony, which in fact had a door with a 'Keep Out!' sign on it. "Austin will show where it is."

Austin, who managed to pick up his name in the conversation, drew his attention away from the two bickering members of his 'team'. "Austin's gonna do what?"

Ally went back down to scrubbing down the counter. "Can you just bring Natalie upstairs to wash off, and then come back down to help clean this mess?"

He groaned at the mention of him coming down to help clean everything, but obliged anyway. "Fine." He started walking towards the black staircase. "Let's go."

Natalie followed him, close in tow. When they got up to the practice room, she marveled at how cool it looked. She took quick notice of the giant 'A' on the wall. Austin and Ally. Ha ha. And then the old piano to her left caught her attention. It was like some foreign force was drawing her to it, because within seconds she found herself in front of the instrument, hand gliding softly over the keys, but not enough to elicit a sound. Her gaze was promptly drawn to the sheet music perched on the stand, examining every note and melody drawn in.

It must be pretty cool to be able to do this.

"And then the bathroom's right here."

The sound of Austin's voice broke Natalie out of her reverie. She turned to him. "Huh?"

His eyebrows furrowed. "The bathroom." He jerked his thumb towards the door beside him. "It's right here."

"Oh!" Natalie's pursed her lips to try and wipe off her dazed expression. "Alright." Much against her chagrin, she found herself staring at the sheet music again.

Austin realized this and cracked a smile. He sauntered over to her. "You play?"

"What?" She was so "out-there" again that she didn't even realize he came up beside her. Her feet took her back away from him slightly. "Oh, no." A nervous laugh escaped her lips. "I used to try, but never could really get a grasp of it. My mom used play for me when I was little."

He grinned wider. "I could imagine. Your mom's a pretty sick piano player from what I've seen in videos of her concerts."

"Yeah, I guess," Natalie sighed, before stepping away from the instrument. "It all stopped when she became really famous, though. And it looks like all the talent skipped a generation." She snickered. "I can't play anything for my life. Maybe a recorder, but that was in, like, fourth grade and doesn't count."

Austin gave her a dubious look. "You have to be good at something. Everybody is good at something. Just some more than others." He placed a hand on his chest. "Take me for example, I can play any instrument under the sun."

Another snicker almost escaped Natalie's mouth. Looks like someone has an ego. Folding her arms, she mirrored his doubtful look. "Oh, really?"

With a cheeky grin, he replied, "Yup."

"Guitar?"

"Of course."

"Piano?"

"With my eyes closed."

"Drums?"

"No sweat."

Natalie tapped at her chin with a pensive expression. When an idea hit her, she pointed to him. "Bag pipes?"

Austin chuckled and stuffed his hands in his pockets, cocky smile plastered on his face as he inched closer to her. "With my hands tied behind my back."

She felt her lips begin to form a pout as she stepped back away from him. "Well then, Mr. Hotshot, I guess some people are more talented than others."

"Yeah," he exhaled, before adding, "So what's your talent?" Trying to act cool, Austin went to lean on the wooden frame of the piano, but ended up slamming his hand down on the keys. Both teens cringed at the unpleasant racket.

Wow. A small giggle slipped Natalie's tongue at Austin's failed attempt at acting "smooth". Well, that was great, she mused and rolled her eyes. "I guess I dance a little, but I haven't for years."

Shaking off his little mishap, Austin nodded approvingly. "Dancing's a talent." He went for another attempt at resting his hand on the piano. This time he went slower and was more successful. "I'm a pretty impressive dancer, too."

"Of course you are," Natalie laughed, before side-stepping to make her way to the bathroom. "Well, nice chatting with you Mr. Ego Factory, but I kind of feel disgusting."

One of his eyebrows rose. "Mr. Ego Factory, Mr. Hotshot, and Blondie? Either you keep forgetting my name or you just like giving nicknames to people."

She pushed a loose strand of hair from her face and shrugged. "A little bit of both."

He started to get closer to her again. "Why don't you just call me Austin?"

"Because," she turned on her heel and walked to the bathroom door. Swinging it open, she stepped inside before popping her head out. "You'll always just be the guy who spilled blue slushie on me." With a quick wink, she vanished.

~.~

"What're you doing, Trish?" Ally questioned as she basked in the beauty that was a now clean store.

It had taken her a good half-an-hour to get the blue off of everything. The floor was now spotless, the counter was perfectly tidy, and she even found someone who could possibly fix the banjo! Well, Dez did, and it kind of freaked her out. Something inside her screamed that it was a bad idea. If that thing wasn't fixed by at least tonight, Ally was a dead woman!

That's why the store was relatively peaceful now. Dez had gone with Austin for him to get a shirt with less, well, less blue on it, and to bring the banjo to a friend. Natalie was still upstairs in the bathroom trying to clean off. That left her and Trish down in the pretty much empty (except for a few lingering customers) store.

"What?" Trish glanced up at her friend, before back down at her laptop screen. "Oh, I'm just looking up that Natalie chick on Bloople . com. There's some cool stuff on here."

Ally moved next to her, curiosity etched into her face. "What'd you find?"

Trish smiled. "Well, she has a dog named Churo! How cool is that?"

For some reason, Ally wasn't nearly as amazed at the tiny dog fact. "Anything else? Maybe something interesting?"

The shorter girl's eyebrows furrowed. "You're telling me that a dog named Churo isn't interesting?"

Ally shook her head. "Not really. No."

A slightly astonished look passed across Trish's features, before her gaze directed back to the screen. "Well, do you remember that old dance competition they'd hold every year and broadcast on TV? Little Miss Hip-Hop?"

Ally raked her brain for any type of memory before it clicked. "Yeah, why?"

"Well, it says here that Natalie Reagan was the five-time champion. Years 2003 to 2007. Apparently she was pretty amazing."

The brunette contemplated the thought. She never knew that Veronica Hastings' daughter was a dancer, yet she knew that her favorite food was three-fourths a cup of spaghetti with one-fourth a cup of white sauce, and one-third a cup of graded cheese. "Why happened after that? Did she get beat or something?"

Trish went back and started rereading the article. "No. It just says she stopped. There isn't a reason listed either."

That's strange, Ally thought, before the two boys walking in the store caught her eye. And they were fighting. Oh no. And there was no banjo in their hand. No. No. No.

She moved from around the counter and hurried up to them. "Please tell me you got the banjo fixed," she begged, clasping her hands together. Meanwhile, Trish got a phone call and was chatting in the corner, seemingly irate.

Austin started to wring his hands together, a little nervous, then he stuck them in the pockets of his new yellow sweatshirt. "Well, the thing is . . . uh, about the banjo . . ." Something in him snapped. "It was all Dez's fault!"

Ally's eyes widened in fear. "What?" She turned and shot daggers at Dez through her eyes. "What did you do?"

Dez looked a little panicky. "Look! I didn't mean for the guy to drive off with it!"

Austin stared at him, dumbfounded. "He was in a black van with skulls painted on it! He even had someone in the front ready to drive off!"

Skulls? Black van? Ally began to breathe sporadically. "So you're saying it's gone?"

Dez tried to comfort her. "Not gone, just misplaced."

"That doesn't work here!"

"Uh, guys."

"And why not? We'll get it back!"

"Guys . . ."

"It got driven off in a van we're not going to . . ."

Everyone stopped screaming when Trish let out a shrill scream. They all turned to her in disbelief, while she just gave them a smile. But immediately, it faltered. "We have bigger issues on our hands right now."

Ally began playing with her hair. "What? What can be worse than losing the banjo?"

"Well . . ." Trish skirted around the group, moving her head from side to side anxiously. "Do you remember that guy, the choreographer for Austin's big performance. The one with all the dancers?" The three others nodded in unison. "He sorta, kinda, quit."

"What?" Ally screamed. "Why?"

"Yeah," Austin's look was the pure definition of mortification. "What happened?"

Trish fidgeted with the phone in her hands. "Let's just say, we had some creative differences."

Dez suddenly scoffed. "Creative differences? But you're not creat . . ."

He was cut off when Trish glared. "Do you want to finish that, Freckles?" When he didn't respond, Trish smirked and continued reciting their dilemma. "So now we need a new choreographer and soon. And they have to be pretty good, too. There's only a day for . . ."

Once again, there was an interruption, but this time it was by an opening and shutting door. Everyone's eyes adverted to the girl at the top of the staircase leading to the practice room, examining her phone. She was paying no mind to the people in front of her.

Something sparked inside Trish causing a devilish grin to appear. She turned to Ally. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Ally stared back, puzzled. "No?" After Trish made some gestures to her phone, Natalie, and some subtle strange dance moves, Ally understood. She nodded like a first grader in a candy store. "Yeah! That's perfect." That's when they commenced staring at Natalie, an evil glint in their eyes.

Austin and Dez, in turn, followed suit. Though, both had no idea what was going on.

Natalie suddenly took notice and jumped in surprise when she caught their gazes. She began to laugh nervously, eyes wide in fear. "Why . . . why are you guys looking at me like that?"

Dez nudged Austin and whispered, "That's a good question. Why are we looking at her like that?"

In return, Austin's shoulders rose and fell. "Honestly, I don't know. But do it anyway."

And so, they continued.

Author's Note!

Dunn, dunn, dunnnn! What do you think they have prepared for Natalie? ;)

I just want to thank you all so much for the support so far! Your reviews, faves, and alerts are what drove me (and keeps driving me) to continue this! So far I have a variety of fun "episodes" planned and I can't wait to share them with you! Oh! And the reason I broke up the episodes in "parts" is because, if I didn't, this whole thing would be, like, 10,000 words long. So it also works for faster updates!

Oh, and ISupportAustalie, loving the fact that you already have a shipping name for Austin and Natalie, even if they are together (and whether or not they even get together). Haha;)

Please review and let me know what you think! I'm going to start a little something cool. There will be a question (either Austin & Ally related or not) each chapter and if you answer correct, you get a shoutout next chapter! Cool?

Okay! This question is super easy!

Question: What episode (exact name!) was being referred to when Dez was talking about fighting a kangagroo? ;)

Got it? Okay, good! Thanks again, guys! Don't forget to review and let me know what you think! If I can manage to hit thirty, everyone who helped me reach it gets a preview of the next episode titled: Mixed-Up Melodies and Mansion-Sitting! Woot! And I'll also update on Thursday, rather than Saturday. :) Deal?

Alright!

Peace out!*