Chapter One

When Austin strode in to Sonic Boom he was not surprised by the sight before him. Ally was perched on the end of the piano bench, scribbling manically into her precious book, pausing ever now and again to try out a new tune on the piano. There was no doubt in his mind that this song was going to be a hit.

Ally gnawed at the eraser on the end of her pencil, and Austin smirked amusedly to himself.

"I thought you only ever chewed on your hair?"

Ally continued scribbling in her book, and for a moment Austin wondered if she had even heard him. He could tell by the slight movement of her lips that she was mumbling something to herself. Curious by his friend's actions Austin leant forward to hear what Ally was mumbling.

"I played it safe, kept my foot up on the brake. I never really took a chance in life…"

Austin stood erect and grinned. The new song was sounding so good. He debated joining Ally in writing his latest song, but decided against it as he caught sight of Trish and Dez bickering at the back of the store. He figured he had better head over and supervise the troublesome pair before they broke something and Ally got mad.

"No you Doof, you can't just crouch behind a bush and wait for him to walk out from the store. That's such a cheap shot," Trish huffed, before turning to greet Austin.

"It's called a strategy," Dez quipped. "Oh, hey buddy!" The red head grinned upon seeing Austin.

"What are you two planning?" Austin asked, quirking an eyebrow. If Trish was involved Austin felt genuinely concerned for the idiot who had crossed her.

"Nothing," Trish said, just as Dez replied with, "Pranking her boss."

"DEZ!" Trish snapped, smacking him over the head with her hand. "You said you wouldn't tell!"

Austin smirked. "Since when do you two have secrets?"

"We don't, but I knew that if I told you, you would tell Ally and then Ally would try to stop me."

The blonde opened his mouth to defend himself but closed it upon realising Trish was right. "And why are you pranking your boss?"

"Because he fired me."

"That probably has something to do with that ten minute break you took that lasted five hours," Austin offered.

Trish shrugged. "Whatever. He's still gonna feel my wrath."

Dez shuddered. "Your wrath hurts."

Austin nodded in agreement and Trish grinned triumphantly at them both.

"That'll teach you not to mess with Mama."

"I don't mess with you," Dez pointed out. "You just hurt me anyway."

Trish shrugged.

"Well, last week she did kind of have a reason to, you did leave your meatball sandwich in her bag."

"Oooh! That reminds me!" Dez yelped happily as he ran over to the tuba beside the metal stairs leading to the practice room. Dez reached into the tuba, his long arm disappearing briefly before emerging seconds later with a tuna sandwich clasped in his hand.

"Dez! There's no eating in the store!" Ally snapped, rushing over to him and snatching the sub out of his hand. "How many times do I have to tell you before you actually listen to me?" She asked tossing Dez's food into the trashcan behind the counter. "At least Austin seems to have conquered the habit."

"That's because he's whipped," Dez stated.

"He's what?" Ally asked.

Austin stared at his friend with wide eyes. "What? No I'm not!"

"Sure you are. Dallas said –"

"Why would you listen to anything Dallas says?" Trish asked. "He's almost as much of a doofus as you."

"Trish, play nice," Ally said playfully.

Dez nodded thankful for Ally's interference.

"Dallas is not a doof."

Both Austin and Dez frowned at this. Dez because he was hurt Ally hadn't been defending him, and Austin because he couldn't believe Ally was defending that doof Dallas.

"Ally, he is. Do you not remember when he worked here?"

Ally was about to reply but was cut off by a loud rumble of Dez's stomach.

"Dude! Was that you?" Austin asked, incredulous at the sound Dez's body had just made.

Dez nodded.

"Sweet!" Austin grinned high fiving his best friend, earning himself and Dez disgusted looks from both girls. "But Dez's stomach has a point. We're hungry."

"I'm pretty sure there's some food in the refrigerator upstairs. You can have that if you want. I on the other hand have a song to finish," Ally beamed happily as she made her way back over to the piano.

Austin and Dez glanced at each other before offering a quick nod. Ally wasn't going to be happy about this but she'd thank them later.

In the blink of an eye Austin had dashed across the room, pulled Ally up off of the piano bench and threw her over his shoulder.

"Austin! What are you doing? Put me down!"

"This is for your own good Ally," Austin replied. "Dez, you know what to do."

"Right," Dez mock saluted Austin and disappeared into the practice room.

"What?" Ally yelled confused. "Trish do something!"

"What?" Trish looked up from her phone. "Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't listening. Trent just sent me this really funny –"

"Trish!"

The young Latina had no time to answer before Austin sprang into action, running out of the music store with Ally over his shoulder.

"HELP!"

"Was there really any need to kidnap me?" Ally scowled across the booth at Austin.

Austin swallowed his mouthful of hamburger before replying. "Since it was for your own good, I don't think it constitutes as kidnapping."

"Kidnapping. The crime of unlawfully seizing and carrying away a person by force or fraud, or seizing and detaining a person against his or her will with an intent to carry that person away at a later time," Ally recited as though she were a human dictionary.

Trish rolled her eyes. "Would you just be quiet and eat your food?"

Ally did as she was told though continued to grumble into her spaghetti.

"Thank you," Trish said, happy her friend had finally stopped complaining. "Anyway, on a lighter note. Trent and I are going on a date this Saturday night, and Trent has a very single, very hot friend who was hoping I had a single friend who could join us." Trish nudged Ally with elbow teasingly.

"I don't know Trish…" Ally said, feeling uneasy. "I don't have the best track record when it comes to flirting." She shuddered at the memory of Jimmy Starr's Halloween party.

"You'll be fine. Elliot is a really great guy. Why else would Trent be friends with him?"

Ally opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by Austin. "Ally can't go Saturday night."

"Why not?" Trish asked glaring at Austin.

"Because Ally scheduled that for our Austin and Ally time. We were gonna work on a new song."

"Well, Ally can work on a new song some other time. She's forever writing in that book of hers anyway. You can just reuse some old material. In the mean time however, Ally, what do you say? Will you please go on a double date with Trent and I?"

Ally sighed, knowing that this was battle with Trish she had clearly lost. "Sure. Why not? It might be good for me to get out there on the dating scene again."

Dez and Austin snickered between themselves.

"When were you ever on it?" Dez giggled through his mouthful of chicken potpie.

Ally scowled at her friends' laughter. "I'll have you know Ally Dawson wasn't all that innocent."

"Ally, you were gonna go as Florence Nightingale to Jimmy Starr's Halloween party," Trish pointed out.

"Well, that was recently. Back in the fifth grade –"

"Doesn't count," Trish interrupted. "You were ten years old. Therefore it wasn't dating."

"Sure it does. Dalton and I –"

The boys burst into sputters of laughter at this.

"Dalton?" Austin asked, his shoulders shaking with laughter. "Who names their kid Dalton?"

"Dalton is an English name and it means the town near the valley. Unlike Dez which means messy eater and Austin which means disgusting," Ally said as she surveyed the boys before her, their hands and mouths covered in ketchup and other food products.

"Awww!" Dez groaned. "I wanted to be disgusting."

"I wouldn't worry about that, you're nearly there," Trish grimaced.

"Anyway," Ally began, returning their conversation back to her past love, Dalton. "Dalton and I were together for four months."

"What went wrong?" Austin asked as he wiped away the mess on his face with his napkin.

Ally blushed. "That wasn't the point of this –"

"Dalton Snorkowitz," Trish cut in, allowing a momentary pause for the boys to laugh at the poor kids name. "Gave Ally here, a beautiful love letter for Valentine's day –"

Dez smiled lopsidedly. "Awwww."

"And then Ally broke his heart."

"You monster!" Dez roared, appalled at the songwriter.

"How come?" Austin asked expertly ignoring Dez's outburst.

"Because Ally simply took the letter, corrected all the spelling and grammar mistakes and gave it back."

"Poor Dalton was heartbroken," Ally commented. "He burst into tears right in front of me and ran off. I feel bad about that. I should call him and apologise and –"

"Not before you go on your date with Elliot," Trish interjected.

"I don't care about Elliot," Dez said waving off Trish's worries. "I want to know what happened to Dalton! Did he ever find love?"

Trish and Austin both stared at the redhead amused by his 'soft-side', whilst Ally smiled at him sympathising with his kind heart though not agreeing with Dez's thirst for gossip.

"Actually he's okay. He ignored me for the rest of elementary school and through most of middle school. Last I heard he moved away."

"That doesn't answer my question! Did he ever find love?"

"Yes Dez, he found love," Ally nodded slowly, not wanting to upset Dez further. The poor guy just go so enthused by everything and anything that it was hard trying to let him down gently. Dez would be heartbroken if he found out that actually Dalton hadn't dated since Trish had broken his thumbs in middle school because he refused to take her to the Sadie Hawkins dance.

"Awww," Dez grinned. "That's nice. And now Trish had found love with Trent. I've got Mindy, and Ally's got Elliot. This is shaping up quite nicely."

"Ally hasn't got Elliot," Austin piped up, a small crease forming between his eyebrows.

"That's what you care about?" Trish snapped at Austin. "What about Dez and Mindy? I thought he hated her."

"We are right here you know…"Ally pointed out. "There really isn't a need to talk about us in the third person.

"No, Dez doesn't hate Mindy. She just creeps him out," Austin explained. "A lot. But she makes really good chicken potpie."

"That's no reason for them to be together!" Trish snapped. "She's too clingy, and she's so blinded by her obsession for him that she'll let him get away with anything! Dez needs someone who will keep him in check, and won't let him get hurt by you crazy schemes."

"My crazy schemes?! You're the one who's roped him in to pranking your ex-boss!"

"He offered to do that!"

"And what about Ally, huh? You set her up with some guy neither of you know. He could be a psycho killer who likes chopping pretty girls up into tiny pieces!"

"You think Ally's pretty, huh?" Trish smirked no longer yelling.

"What? No."

"Dude, you did just call her pretty," Dez said earning himself a glare from Austin.

"No, I didn't."

"Does that mean you don't think I'm pretty?" Ally asked, feeling confused and somewhat hurt. She had lost track of Austin's and Trish's argument pretty quickly but she had hear him call her pretty.

"What? No! Of course I think you're pretty!" Austin babbled, not wanting to hurt Ally's feelings. "Beautiful even, I just didn't want you to get the wrong idea after the whole me going orange and sweaty and you being publicly humiliated and –"

"Austin," Ally said, cutting him off. She placed a comforting hand on his arm and smiled. "I get it, and no I didn't get the wrong idea. Of course, a guy like you could never like a girl like me."

Austin didn't have chance to ask her why she thought that because he was prevented by Dez reaching over and placing a hand on Trish's. This would not end well.