A/N: Hello friends! After this there are only 4 more chapters :o But keep an eye out for my toher fics! I started a superhero AU and I have a few others in the works so if you like my writing style or you're interested in fantasy AUs then keep an eye out! Woohoo!

Word count: 5874

"And, I mean, it's not like it's that hard to pretend I'm smitten with her and that I really like her because all of that's true. I basically get to date her until she likes me and then really date her, you know?" Austin grinned at Dez and Jace over the pizza tower.

They exchanged a glance and wrinkled their noses. Jace ran a hand through his hair while Dez leaned back in his chair and scratched his chin thoughtfully.

"So let me get this straight," Jace started. "You have an embarrassingly huge crush on Ally – which Dez knew about, but I didn't," he grumbled pettily, "and now she's asked you to fake-date her to piss off Tilly. But you're just happy because you get to basically treat her like your girlfriend even though she isn't. And me and Dez aren't actually supposed to know about this, but you told us anyway."

"Yup," Austin said, popping the 'p' and reaching for a slice of pizza.

"That doesn't sound very much like you. Except maybe that last bit."

"What do you mean?"

Jace shrugged and leaned back. "You're more of a YOLO kinda guy than that. You're kinda… impulsive? I've never seen you stop and think super hard about things you really want."

Austin frowned, unsure if he should be offended. "Are you saying I'm like, an airhead or something?"

His friend looked thoughtful.

"Yes," Dez decided.

"No, no, I don't think he's an airhead," Jace said, rolling his eyes at Dez. "I just mean that you're more spontaneous. Usually when you like a girl you ask her out – but with Ally, you've just been becoming her friend and waiting for the right moment. You usually make the right moment."

Austin shrugged. "That's because with the other girls it was obvious they liked me back, so I knew I wouldn't get rejected. If I asked Ally out right now, she'd probably get embarrassed and flustered and then say 'yes' out of pure awkwardness. I don't want her to say 'yes' because she doesn't want things to be weird between us, I want her to say 'yes' because she likes me back, I guess."

Dez nodded his agreement. Austin was beginning to think his friend was mostly just agreeing with everything being said.

"Well…" Jace sighed and took a bite of the pizza. "Just… don't get too wrapped up in this. If she really doesn't like you, like you seem to think, then this is just going to end with you feeling like you just had a break up and her not even knowing. Just be careful about this, man."

The blond rolled his eyes. Dez seemed to take this silence as an opportunity to start babbling about Carrie, while Jace and Austin ate their pizza silently. He wondered if his friend was right. He wondered if Ally liked him. He wondered why he was so afraid of being rejected by her.

Maybe he liked Ally a lot more than he thought.

Monday afternoon. Lunchtime. Game time.

When Austin spotted Ally, she was standing on her tiptoes and struggling to fit her textbook into the top shelf of her locker. He smirked and swaggered his way over to her before standing behind her and reaching around her to take the textbook from her hands, easily slotting it into her locker for her. Ally's whole body stiffened against his chest, her arms still frozen in the air from where she'd been trying to reach the shelf, and he casually placed his hands over hers and lowered them to her sides. He couldn't see her face, but judging from the flustered squeak she let out, she was probably blushing. Just to mess with her a little, Austin leaned down so his mouth was beside her ear. "You're welcome," he said huskily, immensely pleased when she shivered. Ally spun around and Austin caged her between him and the lockers by pressing his hands against the lockers on either side of her, giving her a cocky smirk.

"Um – umm – th-thank you," Ally squawked, and a quick glance at her rosy cheeks confirmed that she was, indeed, blushing.

"No problem," he grinned.

Ally fidgeted with her hands, looking around awkwardly. "Um… Can you… Can you move, please?" She asked. "Kira and Trish are waiting," she explained. "You – I mean – of course, you can – you can join us."

Austin laughed and took a step back to free her, and she quickly closed her locker before turning to face him again. She gave him a grateful smile and gestured awkwardly to motion which way they were going – but he wasn't having any of that. He reached for her hand and laced their fingers together, tugging her towards the cafeteria.

"Austin!" She hissed, her eyes bright with embarrassment. "What are you doing!?"

"Walking?" He suggested innocently, batting his eyelashes at her.

She gestured vaguely to their hands, her cheeks still flushed. Ally grunted as she followed him, clearly not sure how to ask him why he was holding her hand.

"What is it, Lassie?" He joked. He decided that, perhaps, he was enjoying this too much. "Gee, I think she's trying to tell us something!"

Ally huffed, but didn't say anything further, but to Austin's relief she didn't pull her hand away either.

When they reached the cafeteria, Austin was surprised to see that Dez, Carrie, and Jace were already sitting with Trish and Kira. He figured that his boys had known he would be sitting with the girls today.

"Hey!" Ally greeted Trish and Kira enthusiastically, sitting down beside Kira. "Sorry I'm late. Austin held me up," she said, glaring at him.

The blond shrugged, unaffected, and sat down in the chair beside Ally and took out his lunch. The chair scraped loudly as he pulled it closer to the brunette, and he casually leaned back with one arm draped over the back of her chair. It was then that it occurred to him that Jace was doing the exact same thing as him, only with Trish. Hm. Maybe his boys weren't sitting there because of him.

"What are you doing now?" She asked, exasperated, twisting in her seat to glare at him.

Austin casually took a huge bite of his sandwich and shrugged again.

"Austin!" She whined.

He swallowed and chuckled, leaning forward to kiss her cheek. "People have to think we're dating, right?" He asked so only she could hear. She blushed, and he smirked as he leaned back.

"But you can't just… but I… I guess that's – but you – I - ugh," she sighed, glaring at Kira when the cheerleader let out an amused snigger. Ally pouted at Austin. "You're enjoying this too much."

"Maybe," he said nonchalantly, winking at her before taking another bite of his sandwich. She let out another little grunt but didn't complain any further.

He hadn't realised that Dez had been watching the whole exchange with what he had come to known as his 'contemplative' face. He wondered what was going through his friend's mind, but thoughts of Dez shot straight out of his mind when his arm suddenly felt warm and he realised that Ally was leaning back against her chair and his arm. Austin's eyes went wide and he grinned before moving his arm from the back of her chair to circle her shoulders. He wondered if the thump of his heart was audible when she hesitantly relaxed against his side and leaned her head against his shoulder.

"Aw, you guys," Kira gushed, making Ally blush wildly and hide her face in his chest. He felt like he would explode with how cute she was.

"Shut up!" Ally whined, and he could feel her warm breath through his shirt.

"Holy shit, you're adorable," he breathed unconsciously, unable to hold it in. She pulled her face back just enough that he could only see those big brown eyes peeking up at him shyly, before she squeezed them shut and buried her face in his chest again.

Oh, yeah. He was totally going to enjoy this.

"And, I mean, obviously you know the four steps of mathematical induction or whatever, so there's no point in me telling you them. I think you should try this example," Ally said, pushing forward a sheet of paper, "and when you're done, give it back and I'll see how you went. Then I'll know what part you're having trouble with," she explained. "I'm almost done with our essay, so while you do that, I'll do this, okay?"

Austin gave a noncommittal shrug and inspected the page curiously. She seemed to take this as a 'yes', because she nodded and glided across the room in her wheelie chair, grabbing her computer desk to stop and booting up her laptop. Austin let out a little grumble as he stared at the maths question in his lap, but he was grateful that she was still willing to take time out of her studying schedule to help him with this. The least he could do was actually complete the work she set him so that she knew he appreciated it and wasn't taking her for granted.

When he was finished, he gave her the sheet, and lay down on her bed as he watched her look through his work. He felt slightly embarrassed, knowing that she was critiquing everything he was writing – he certainly did not want her to think that he was stupid, but he knew that he needed her help if he wanted to get good enough marks for MUNY.

To distract himself from his embarrassment, he decided to focus on something else, instead. Like, the way that her hair cascaded down her back, or the way she tapped the pen pensively against her lips. Her lips looked especially full today, extra kissable. He wasn't too familiar with different kinds of make-up, but he was pretty sure she was wearing matte pink, or maybe it was called nude. All he knew was that he giggled whenever his mother mentioned 'nude shades'.

Regardless, her lips looked kissable, and he'd be damned if he wasn't going to get a few kisses out of this fake-dating experience.

"So, how d'you wanna make things 'official'?" He asked casually, standing and moving to hover near her.

"Hmm?" She asked, distracted. Her tongue peeked out between her lips in concentration as she checked his calculations.

"You know. You and me," he grinned, peering over her shoulder. He felt a deep sense of satisfaction at the little red ticks she had placed on the first two steps. "When are we going to make it clear to everyone at school that we're, you know, 'dating'. Or, I guess, how will we make it clear to Tilly?"

"Oh, um…" She scribbled out one of his calculations and wrote a correction beside it, before placing another neat tick beside the rest of his work. She skimmed through the final statement and put another tick before looking back up at him. "I guess I hadn't thought about that. I've never really had to make my relationship status publicly official," she pointed out.

"Neither have I," he confessed, chuckling and rubbing the back of his neck. "Usually rumours just spread and if it's true I won't do anything but if it's not I have to shut it down."

Ally swivelled her chair so that she was facing him, her glasses glinting in the light. Austin rubbed his chin thoughtfully, trying to figure out what they should do. He got an idea and smirked at her wolfishly.

"I have an idea."

"I figured," Ally said flatly, eyeing him warily. "Should I be afraid?"

"Of course not!"

"Alright, Rockstar, what is it?" She asked, leaning her elbow on her desk and dropping her head into her hand as she stared up at him.

"We should totally get caught making out."

Ally rolled her eyes with a small laugh. "Very funny. What's your real plan?"

Austin met her gaze seriously. "That is my real plan." He looked offended. "I happen to think it's a very good plan!" He exclaimed haughtily.

"You just want to make-out," she said, folding her arms across her chest and studying him dubiously. "I think a fake make-out is dumb," she decided. She leaned back in her chair, one long leg crossed over the other, and Austin wanted nothing more than to uncross her legs and show her just how real a make-out he could give her.

"It's not dumb," he protested. "It's a subtle way of announcing we're together without telling people that we are. They see us kissing, they'll connect the dots. Duh."

She pursed her lips thoughtfully, assessing his suggestion. Ally groaned and took off her glasses, rubbing at her eyes. "That actually made sense," she complained, pressing her palms against her face. "And I can't think of a better way to 'make it official'," she admitted, dropping her hands to her lap and looking up at him with bleary eyes.

"So… is that a yes?" He smirked at her.

Ally surprised him by looking at him coyly. "If you think you can handle it," she said, batting her eyelashes.

And heck, he'd be an idiot if he didn't take her up on that flirty invitation – and Austin Moon was no idiot.

"I can handle a lot, chatterbox," he said, folding his arms and looking down his nose at her. "I think it's you who can't handle it. I'm all, like, tall and strong and stuff, and you're all short and dainty. No way could you handle all this," he teased, puffing out his chest importantly.

She raised an eyebrow at him and slowly rose to her feet, as though trying to intimidate him. She seemed to realise instantly that she only reached his collarbones, but she didn't back down. Instead, she schooled her face into an incredibly coy expression that he hadn't even known she was capable of, and reached up to rest her hands on his chest. "Hmmm…" She mused, watching her hands as she casually ran them down his chest and to his stomach. "No, I think I could definitely handle all this," she decided, looking up at him innocently through her eyelashes.

Austin swallowed. Maybe she was right – maybe it was him he couldn't handle it. But he was too stubborn to simply let her win – so, with a smirk, her wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her snugly against his chest. She squeaked in surprise and immediately blushed, and he couldn't help but feel smug that he had such an instantaneous effect on her. "Maybe you're right," he said, before leaning down so that they were nose-to-nose. "Maybe I can't handle it. Maybe we should practice and make sure that I can," he said huskily.

Ally squeaked and looked at him with wide eyes, her cheeks flushed and her fingers unconsciously gripping the fabric of his shirt against his abs.

"Can I take that as a yes?" He teased, raising his eyebrows at her.

"Um – y-yes?" Ally squeaked again, blinking rapidly, before she cleared her throat and nervously took a step back. She tripped over the computer chair in her haste and flailed for a moment before Austin caught her around the waist and steadied her.

"So… Tomorrow at school, then?" He asked cheekily.

Ally looked confused. "T-Tomorrow?"

"The kissing thing? Keep up, Alls," he laughed, stepping backwards and moving back to sit on her bed.

She looked stunned and for a moment, disappointment flashed across her face. "Right. Tomorrow. For the, um... fake announcement…"

"I mean, unless you want to make out right now," he offered nonchalantly. He may have only been half-joking.

Her cheeks lit up brilliantly and she shook her head at the same time that a smile grew on her face. "Austin!" She scolded.

He laughed, holding his hands up in surrender. He was mostly just glad that she had calmed down. "Just kidding!"

She let out a little grumble, but was still smiling, even as she plucked his paper off the desk and sat on the bed beside him to show him what he did wrong and what he needed do to correct it. Austin was more than happy to listen to her, but he was more absorbed in the way her lips moved and how much he wished that they were moving against his.

What was he doing? He wasn't even sure himself. He'd shown up outside her house before school, but he hadn't told her he was coming. For all he knew, she had a ride with somebody else. But he knew he'd seen her walking to school before, so he was pretty sure that she didn't have a ride with anybody. Austin stared at her front door, waiting for her to come out, before his nerves got to him and he jumped out of his car, walked up to her front door, and knocked on it.

An excruciatingly long moment passed where he decided that, yes, he would die from embarrassment if any of her neighbours happened to poke their head out and see him waiting there, before the door suddenly swung open. He smiled in relief, opening his mouth to greet Ally, before he realised that it was not the petite brunette in front of him, but rather, a balding, middle-aged man.

"Whatever you're selling, I don't want it," the man – who Austin assumed to be Ally's father – said gruffly. His eyes lit up. "But does the door-to-door thing work? Do you make a lot of money with that?"

"Oh – um –" Austin cleared his throat, awkwardly running a hand through his hair. "I'm not – I'm not, like, a door-to-door salesman. I'm actually here to see if Ally wanted a lift to school?" He managed to get out.

His gaze turned sharp as he critically stared Austin up and down. "Why do you want to see if my daughter wants a lift to school?" He asked suspiciously.

"I mean – it's just – I realised that you guys live kind of on my way to school – I mean, it's only a three minute detour to swing by – so I figured – you know – why – why not? She's been helping me with my maths so much that – I guess – I just – I felt like I owed her?" His voice was rising in pitch with every word, feeling more and more uncomfortable under her dad's scrutinising gaze.

Seemingly satisfied with his explanation, her dad pursed his lips. "She's already left for school. She left about ten minutes ago," he explained.

"What?" Austin asked, blinking dumbly.

He rolled his eyes. "She left ten minutes ago. It takes longer to walk than to drive, and since she didn't say anything about anyone coming to pick her up, I'm assuming she didn't know you were coming."

Austin shifted uncomfortably. "…That would be correct, Mr Dawson."

"Well… Maybe next time try letting her know first," he suggested, eyebrows raised. Lester gave a little wave. "If that's all, then bye," he said bluntly, before closing the door.

How awkward! Austin blinked in shock and waddled back to his car, wondering why he hadn't factored in that Ally would have already left by now.

He drove along despondently, but his spirits lifted instantly when he saw her familiar backpack and her long brown hair tumbling ungracefully over it. Austin grinned and rolled down the window.

"Hey, sexy stranger," he called out playfully. After all, they were pretending to be boyfriend and girlfriend, right?

Ally whipped around in surprise, before giving him a small smile and a little wave. "Hey, stranger" she called back, equally as playful.

"Want a lift?" He asked, already pulling up beside her.

"My dad always told me not to get into cars with strangers," Ally said defiantly, though she was already walking towards his car.

"Does that rule apply to hot strangers?" Austin wondered out loud.

Ally opened the door and climbed in, cracking a sly grin. "Nah."

He could hardly believe that Ally was really flirting so openly with him. Austin waggled his eyebrows, looking impossibly pleased. "Ah. You're saying I'm hot," he observed smugly.

"I'm saying you're not a stranger," she observed wisely.

"So… I'm not hot?" He pouted at her.

Ally shrugged noncommittally. "Are you gonna drive or what?"

"What a gold digger," Austin teased, pulling back into the road and continuing the drive to school. "Only using me for my car."

"Hey, I'm a girl who knows what she wants, and she knows she wants your fancy, hand-me-down truck that looks like it's been through the junkyard twice. Real classy."

"My truck's been through a lot more than that," Austin said, slapping the dashboard heartily. "She's a fighter."

"Both hands on the wheel!" Ally whined, clutching at her seatbelt.

Austin rolled his eyes, but followed her wishes nonetheless. "You know, if we were actually dating, I could be holding your hand right now," he stated.

"That's dangerous. You need to have both hands on the wheel."

"I'm quite the multitasker," he argued. "I can do a lot of things with one hand."

Ally let out a squeak. "Excuse me?" She spluttered, her cheeks turning red.

Austin quickly glanced at her, confused. "What?" He didn't understand what had gotten her flustered.

She gestured vaguely, looking even more embarrassed. "Oh – did you not – did you not mean that in… in like… a – um – se-ex ual way?" She stuttered.

Austin's eyes widened when he got what she was getting at. "Ally! Get your mind out of the gutter!" He scolded, but he was smiling. She let out another embarrassed squeak, so he decided to tease her a little. He turned and cracked half a smile. "I mean, I could. I could totally have one hand on the wheel and be doing naughty stuff to you with the other if we were dating."

"Oh – you're disgusting," she scoffed, pointedly crossing one leg over the other and looking away. Her red cheeks told him otherwise.

"You're the one who took it dirty," he pointed out, smirking.

"J-Just shut up! Drivers need to be focussed on the road, not saying disgusting things to their passengers," she said, sticking her tongue out at him.

"Passengers need to be grateful instead of accusing their driver of being disgusting," he countered.

"…Shut up!" Ally whined. He couldn't help but think she was adorable.

Once they were at school, he grabbed her hand and led her inside. He was pleased that she didn't seem to mind, and was getting used to this now. She even tugged him along a little, pulling him towards her lockers with a huge smile set firmly in place. Ally opened her locker and then pouted expectantly at Austin, flickering her gaze upwards to the textbooks in the top shelf. She batted her eyelashes – and Austin was fairly sure that she knew that he couldn't say no to her.

"Why did they give you such a tall locker?" He laughed, easily pulling the books out for her. She sifted through them and handed some back to him to slot back into her locker. "You're a midget. This is injustice. My locker is on the floor."

Ally shrugged, putting her books into her backpack before zipping it up and swinging it back over her shoulder. "I mean, it's not like they knew whether we'd be tall or short when they assigned us our lockers," she pointed out. Ally closed her locker and turned to face him. "Thanks for getting my books out for me," she chirped, smiling cutely at him.

Austin took this opportunity to slyly slink one arm around her waist, pulling her towards him. "Do I get a thank you gift?" He asked suggestively.

"Don't be gross," Ally giggled, wrinkling her nose and shoving him lightly in the chest. He noted smugly that she didn't pull away, though, and even though he knew she was only letting him hold her and flirt with her like this for the sake of the plan, he couldn't help but feel as though they were just being themselves.

"I'm not being gross!" He protested, settling his other arm around her waist as well and resting both his hands just on the top of the waistband of her jeans. The lower half of her body bowed into his as her hands came to rest neatly against his chest. "Besides, don't you remember what we talked about yesterday?"

Ally blushed. "O-Oh, ha-ha," she said sarcastically. "We both know you were kidding about that. You're not really gonna do it."

Austin raised his eyebrows. "Oh, I was joking, was I? Hmm…" He gave her an innocent smile, leaning his face unnecessarily close to hers. "I don't think that I was…"

Her eyes went wide and dropped momentarily to his lips before flickering back up to meet his smug gaze. Ally's breathing sped up just the slightest and her cheeks coloured with embarrassment. "Shut up. I'm not gonna pay you back for taking my books out of my locker."

Oh, she was totally enjoying this.

"Don't you remember what that old lady in Starbucks said? About the best way to pay me back?" He reminded her.

"Austin!" She whined, pouting up at him.

"Ally!" He whined back, making a silly face at her.

"Oh. My. God." Somebody nearby uttered the words in a disgusted whisper.

Both Ally and Austin turned their heads to see Tilly Thompson standing with her entourage, a revolted look on her face.

Immediately, Ally's expression hardened into a bored stare. "May we help you?" She asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Sweetie, he's clearly uncomfortable," Tilly said patronisingly, gesturing to Austin – who was definitely more comfortable than he'd ever been with her.

"Um, no, I'm not uncomfortable," Austin piped up awkwardly, not particularly wanting to be dragged into this girl fight. He reflected thoughtfully that by agreeing to the plan, that was exactly what he was being dragged into.

"Let him go," Tilly said, crossing her arms over her chest and ignoring Austin. "You can't just come onto him without his permission, especially if he makes it obvious that he doesn't want you. That's just rude."

Ally's nostrils flared, clearly offended that Tilly was accusing her of molesting him. "Excuse me?" She said, pulling from Austin's arms and taking a step towards Tilly. Austin let out a grunt of disappointment.

"You heard me," the blonde said, taking a step towards Ally as well, blonde curls bouncing as she tipped her head to one side. "The boy's terrified of you. Leave him alone."

"Yeah," her entourage chorused.

"I'm not terrified of Ally!" Austin protested again, awkwardly moving behind her.

"He's so scared of you that he's even pretending he's not," Tilly gasped, one hand over her mouth.

Ally's brows furrowed. "…That doesn't even make any sense," she said, bewildered.

"Look," Tilly said, stepping forward so she was nose-to-nose with Ally. "I get it. It's the last few months of high school. You want to have a fling with the hottest and most popular boy so that you have a story to tell the other old people at the nursing home when you one day inevitably end up alone. But Austin doesn't want you because you're a nobody."

"Tilly, that's a little rude," one of her entourage mumbled, immediately looking at the floor when Tilly glared at her.

"I mean –" Ally began, but Austin cut her off. He was fuming. He couldn't believe that anybody could say such mean and awful things to someone, let alone to somebody as sweet and wonderful as his Ally, and he was going to make sure Tilly knew that he didn't think it was cool.

"I do want Ally," Austin declared. "To me, she's somebody, and I happen to like her very much."

"Shh, Austy," Tilly cooed, reaching up to pet his hair. "You don't know what you're saying. Clearly she's spiked one of your drinks or something. This isn't you. C'mon, let's go," she said, reaching for his hands.

"Tilly, I think you're pushing it a little too far," another one of the freshmen piped up, shifting uncomfortably and looking away when Tilly glared at her as well.

Austin rolled his eyes and turned to Ally. "Don't let Tilly's words get to you," he murmured, feeling outrageously chivalrous. Gosh, he thought he was cool! He looked at her with shining eyes, thinking that he was certainly her knight in shining armour.

"Uh, I wasn't going to," Ally said, brows furrowed. "She always comes here and says this kind of stuff. It doesn't really affect me," she shrugged, nonplussed.

Austin deflated a little bit. "So… you didn't need me to rescue you?" He pouted.

"Not really. She does this, like, everyday," she said. Ally paused, before grinning up at him. "But it was sweet that you wanted to."

He decided that it didn't matter that she didn't need him to rescue her.

"Um, barf," Tilly said, wrinkling her nose. "Austin Moon, you could do so much better," she stated, turning to him. She flipped her hair over her shoulder. "You're going to lose all your popularity if you keep making heart eyes at that piece of trash."

Austin's jaw dropped. He opened his mouth to defend Ally's honour, but he wasn't good with words. He didn't know what to say other than 'Ally's great', and somehow, he didn't think that was a very good comeback. "As if anybody could do better than Ally," he scoffed lamely. Words were not his forte – he was a firm believer that actions spoke louder than words. On impulse, he did the only thing that he thought could possibly nail into Tilly's head that he liked Ally, that he wanted her and knew that she was more wonderful than any other girl he had ever known. Most importantly, he wanted Tilly to know that he wasn't interested in her or in the mean things she had to say.

He placed both hands on Ally's face and pulled her towards him before crashing his lips onto hers.

"Aus—mmf!" Ally exclaimed in surprised, cut off by his mouth working against hers. He didn't care that she knew how to deal with this. He didn't care that she was unaffected by Tilly's words. He wanted her to know that she was smart and talented and that he could be there for her, if she wanted.

His fingers curled gently against her jaw, thumbs rubbing soothing circles against her cheekbones, and he swore that his heart just about burst out of his chest when she hesitantly rubbed her hands against his back and kissed him back. One of his hands moved from her face, the backs of his fingers brushing lightly against the delicate curve of her neck, before his fingertips traced down the indents of her spine. His palm rested flat against the small of her back and pulled her tiny body into his, his tongue tracing the dips and contours of those lips he'd been daydreaming about for so long as he finally, finally got to kiss her. He could feel her lips moving tentatively against his, one of her hands clutching at the fabric of his shirt and the other tracing down the curve of his spine, before settling against his hip. Austin felt as though he were a live wire, drinking her electricity as his tongue entered her mouth and he pulled her more firmly against him.

"Mr Moon and Miss Dawson!" Ms Suzy exclaimed loudly, sounding quite scandalised. "You are on school grounds," she scolded.

Austin let his lips tug Ally's once more before he reluctantly pulled away. He had almost forgotten why he'd kissed her in the first place, too wrapped up in the taste of her lips to remember petty details like the audience they had. Her lip gloss was smudged and mostly rubbed off, her cheeks flushed and her eyes wide and dark as she looked at him, before she ducked her head in embarrassment and turned to Ms Suzy with wide eyes.

"I'm sorry!" She exclaimed, bowing to her. Austin resisted the urge to laugh.

Ms Suzy looked uncomfortable and glanced around, before nudging Ally. "It's okay, Ally-gator. Stop bowing, would you? It's fine. I understand that you kids get carried away. Just try to keep it PG on school grounds, okay? I'll let you both off with a warning this time, but if I catch you again, I'm going to have to give you a detention," she warned.

"Understood, Miss," Austin said, nodding respectfully towards her. She smiled at the two of them before leaving.

Tilly rolled her eyes, scoffing. "I can't believe the two of you," she said scornfully. "Austin, this is getting ridiculous. Making out with another girl in front of me? To make me jealous? That's going way too far. Especially with someone like Ally Dawson."

Austin smiled bashfully at Ally. He couldn't believe he'd really just kissed her.

Tilly's entourage parted, and a head of strawberry blonde emerged.

"Hey, Tilly?" Cassidy said sweetly, tapping on her shoulder.

The blonde turned and threw Cassidy an impossibly fake smile. "Cass! What's up?" She chirped.

"You're a bitch," Cassidy smiled cheerfully, nodding. "And I'm surprised nobody else has told you yet. Austin dumped you ages ago and you're being pathetic and disgusting. Seriously. Leave before you embarrass yourself further. I'm about this close to dying from second-hand embarrassment," she informed her, pinching her fingers together to demonstrate.

Beside Austin, Ally snorted and hid her face in his arm to stifle it. Cassidy threw Tilly another cheerful smile and then gave Austin and Ally a little wave before leaving, humming to herself. The bell rang, and Tilly's entourage awkwardly pushed Tilly away, leaving the two of them alone.

"Do you need to go to your locker?" Ally asked, looking up and biting her lip shyly. Austin's eyes dropped to her lips.

"Yeah," he said quietly.

"Let's go, then. We have English together," she reminded him, reaching for his hand and giving him another shy smile.

"Okay," he said, unable to contain the huge grin on his face. She started to pull him towards his lockers.

"You're a really good actor, by the way," she murmured, looking away in embarrassment. "Good thinking with the kiss thing. Trish's plan is – um – doing really well."

Austin raised both his eyebrows, chuckling slightly. "Sure," he said, shaking his head with a smile. If she wanted to call that acting, then he'd let her.

"By the way," Ally said, clearing her throat and finally raising her eyes to meet his again with a coy smile. "Nice lip gloss you're wearing. I have more in my bag, if you wanted to touch up."

He touched his lips in surprise, realising that Ally's lip gloss was smeared across his lips.

"Thanks," he said dryly, but he couldn't keep the smugness out of his voice. "I'd rather steal the rest from your lips," he joked.

Ally rolled her eyes and shoved him, giggling a little before tugging on his hand harder to hurry him up, clearly wanting to get to English quickly. The thought crossed Austin's mind that he'd go anywhere as long as her hand was in his.

A/N: Thanks for reading! I'm sorry that I'm so slow with updates in general – I do full-time at uni and recently got a new job so I'm usually pretty busy. Thank you all for sticking with me through this and I promise to try and get the next chapter up within the next couple of weeks hopefully.

Replies to you lovely reviewers:

unreal zebra: Hahahaha yaas! Ally's gonna be in denial for like quite some time but at least we get a lot of Austin knowing how much he's in love with her. AND AUSTIN CAN'T WAIT FOR THEM TO BE IN A REAL RELATIONSHIP EITHER LMAO

letmetakeyourpicturebaby: Omg the butt scene was literally my favourite and I was laughing the whole time that I was writing Austin trying to get out of that situation. Thank you so much lovely, your review really made me happy!

Dont-Stop-Believin: Lmao the next chapter gets SUPER spicy in terms of catfights but from this point out it's pretty much just all fluff with a bit of sass

jcarter692: You are so sweet! I hope you've continued to enjoy the chapters and that it's met your expectations ahhh! It's so encouraging to read reviews like yours. I've been working hard on keeping the characters as close to canon as possible for this particular fiction so it's awesome to hear that I am.

xxSmileYoureBeautifulxx: jeez you know that makeout scene was literally for u

Guest: Aw thank you so much! I work hard on making sure my writing is coherent and entertaining so I'm so glad that you enjoyed it.

Guest: Hahahaha I'm not sure I quite understand the whole 'rivers belong with they can ramble' thing but I'm glad you're loving it! :D