"Hold still." Austin told the girl sitting in front of him on the piano bench. "I don't wanna hurt you."
"Austin, it's fine." Ally told him. "They're just stickers; they can't hurt that bad."
"I don't wanna pull your hair." Austin said, carefully removing the stickers from her brunette curls.
Ally was covered head to toe in gold star stickers and she had never felt more alive. But, she had come to realize that they were just materialistic items used to insert confidence; that and being covered in stickers wasn't exactly the most comfortable thing in the world.
So that's how they found themselves in their current position: Ally seated on the piano bench in the practice room and Austin standing behind her, picking stickers out of her hair like a monkey grooming its friend.
"Ok, that's it." Austin said. "You have been officially de-starred."
"Thanks Austin." Ally giggled.
She looked down at her shirt, peeled off one of the many gold star stickers the remained on it, and placed the sticker on his shirt.
"Here, you get a gold star for helping me." Ally said, an amused smile on her face.
"Thanks Ally." Austin laughed. "But I don't need this little sticker to be my gold star."
"What do you mean?" Ally asked, quirking her head to the side in confusion.
"I have something like a gold star that's always with me. Something that's always there to congratulate me when I do something good and scold me when I do something bad." Austin said, a small smirk on his face.
"Oh yeah, and what might that be?" Ally asked playfully, crossing her arms across her gold star covered chest.
"Who." Austin corrected her.
"Huh?" Ally replied.
"It's not a what, it's a who." Austin explained.
"Fine, then WHO is it?" Ally said.
"You." Austin simply said. "You're my gold star, Ally."
Ally didn't know what to say. She dropped her head shyly.
"Really?" she said.
"Yeah. I don't need some dumb sticker to reward my accomplishments, just you're approval is better than any gold star could ever be." Austin said.
"That's so sweet, Austin." Ally said. "Thank you."
The pair smiled at each other.
"You know what?" Ally said, breaking the silence.
"Hmm?" Austin replied.
"You're my gold star too, Austin Moon."
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