CHAPTER THREE
━━━━ season one, episode three

secrets and songbooks!
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Ally Dawson counts her songbook as one of the most sacred things that belongs to her — that nobody other than her sister and maybe Trish would understand because of the amount of personal things the book contains, that in her words 'she would die' if anyone reads even one sentence from the different diary or journal entries included.

So once the Dawson girl came into the realisation that her songbook was missing, Ally made it her mission to find it — involving Adelaide in the mess other than Trish who was sat at the piano reading a magazine.

"Trish, can you get off the piano bench so I can see if my book is in there?"

"Yeah, sure." Trish barely managed to move away from the piano before Ally did it for her, lifting the piano bench that had her drop to the floor with a yelp.

"Ah! It's not in there." Ally sighed before walking away from the piano to look into the tuba. Her action having Adelaide slightly concerned and went to speak when Austin did it for her. "I'm pretty sure there's nothing in the tuba."

Ally scrunched her eyebrows up in confusion and began to retract her arm from the instrument to see she had picked out an old sandwich that could have been stuck in the instrument for god knows how long.

"You were saying?" Adelaide raised a brow to the blonde-haired boy beside her, although she couldn't hide her disgust at the thought.

"What kind of disgusting person puts food in a tuba?" Ally stared at the food in her hand, filled with disgust until her facial expression was quick to change at the sight of Dez taking it out of her hand when he claimed the sandwich was his.

"Lost this a month ago." Dez chuckled, taking a bite out of his sandwich. His action making Ally walk away in disgust and past Austin who stared at his friend in offence.

"Dude, that's just wrong." The blonde walked to his friend. "At least share. Okay?" His mood change had the twins fall into bewilderment as they watched Austin grab the sandwich from his best friend before taking a bite out of it himself.

"No, that's just wrong." Adelaide shook her head and turned herself away from the boys and to the double doors to see Nelson pulling a piano in by a rope. "What the—"

"Hello, Ally. I'm here for my piano lesson." The young boy smiled at his music teacher who shook her head slightly, remembering the situation she was in. "Uh, now is not a good time, Nelson. And I've told you before you don't need to bring your own piano."

"Oh, I forgot."

"Besides, your piano lesson is tomorrow. Today is your Oboe lesson." Adelaide reminded Nelson who swung his arm in front of him — the catchphrase quick to roll off his tongue. "Aww, nartz! You know how hard it was to get this on the bus? I'll be back."

"You know, I'd give him a A for effort." Adelaide hummed, gesturing to the boy who was now pushing the giant instrument back out of the store. "That boy's got some strength."

"Only because you would pass out after running for not even a minute." Ally raised a brow towards her sister who turned away to mutter under her breath. "We don't talk about that."

"And hang on!" Adelaide gestured towards Ally to remind her. "Don't act like you don't do the same. It's no wonder we're twins."

Ally rolled her eyes before turning to the rest of the group who approached. "You guys look for my book here while Addy, Trish and I check the lost and found. I have to find it before someone reads it. Some of the things I wrote in there are super personal and embarrassing."

Austin snickered mockingly. "Like how you have an imaginary friend named Ms. Pennyworth, you talk to when you're stressed?"

"How do you know about Ms. Pennyworth? I've only ever told two people that secret." Ally turned around to look at Trish and Adelaide in question, the latter first to stare at her sister in offence before reminding her. "As if I would tell them anything that personal."

At her sister's comment, Ally turned her gaze to Trish who looked awfully guilty before smiling nervously at her excuse. "Well, obviously Ms. Pennyworth has been blabbing about you all over town."

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After failing to find the songbook at the lost and found, the girls decided to get some food from the mall — giving Ally the opportunity to retrace her steps since that morning. However instead, like Ally does when she normally gets nervous, she started chewing her hair.

"You want some guacamole with that?" Trish and Adelaide caught her in the act, with Ally instantly pulling her hair away from her mouth with a awkward smile. "Sorry. That's probably not very appetising to watch."

Adelaide nodded in the middle of chewing on one of her fries that she ordered. "Why don't you try retracing your steps from today again?" The girl suggested after swallowing her food.

"Okay." Ally nodded. "I got here early, so I wrote in my book on the bench next to the cellphone accessory cart. Then I went to work, and on my break, I took a walk past the cellphone accessory cart. Then I—"

"Wait." Trish interrupted the girl's explanation when she noticed the multiple mentions of the cellphone accessory cart — especially when she kept on looking over in that direction. "Why do you keep talking about the cellphone accessory cart?"

"I'm not. I didn't." Ally chuckled nervously that made her sister smirk slightly. "Wait a sec—" The girl was interrupted by Ally answering her question before she could even ask. "Why? Did the cute guy who works there ask about me?"

"Haha I knew it!" Adelaide grinned teasingly at the same time Trish gasped from beside her, being the only one out of the three who didn't know about Ally's crush. "No way! You have a crush on the cellphone accessory cart guy. That's what you wrote in your book, isn't it?"

Ally then let out a high-pitched "What?" She gestured behind her in attempt to act cool about Trish's realisation. "The cellphone guy? That's crazy. Why would I— Holy unlimited texting, he is so cute."

Adelaide hummed, turning her head to follow her sister's gaze. "He is cute, I admit. He's not my type though."

Ally ignored her sister as she went on to point out all the things she noticed about the cellphone accessory cart guy. "I mean look at him— his kind eyes, hair that flops just the right way. We work so close to each other and yet we're so far apart. And he smells like a fresh summer breeze."

"And his name is Dallas." Ally smiled brightly as she finally finished describing, before it dropped at the sight of the boy walking over in their direction. "Be cool, here he comes."

Adelaide furrowed her brows slightly at the girl's way of 'acting cool' before holding a neutral expression on her face as the boy excused himself to pass by their table.

The girls encouraged Ally to stand up and talk to the guy, not knowing how it would turn out. "Oh, so you like throwing trash away?" Was the first thing that Ally could come up with, followed by an awkward laugh.

"Uh, yeah, I guess." Dallas furrowed his brows in confusion, though shrugging his shoulders.

"No way. Me too." Ally turned around to pick up the closest food tray to her on the table that seemed to be Trish's as Adelaide had already pulled her own tray away, theorising what she was going to do.

"Oh. Okay." Dallas walked away with an awkward expression that made Ally sigh to herself before being reminded by her best friend. "I wasn't done with that." She said, referring to her food that had just been thrown away.

Ally responded with silence and instead sat back down in her chair to continue chewing nervously on her hair with her sister's hand on her shoulder in attempt to comfort her.

"How about we go back to the store and check on the boys? Maybe they have found it." Adelaide shrugged her shoulders at her own suggestion before adding on another point to persuade Ally in wanting to move places. "Plus, we might not want to leave them there for too long, especially after the kangaroo incident."

"You have a point. Let's go." The girls instantly agreed before they left the table to head back to the store, not knowing what the boys have been up to.

Only if they knew.

"Ally!" The three girls were met with Dez giving Ally a warm welcome once they've finally returned to the store. This of course offending the other two girls with Trish first to remind the redhead. "And Addy and Trish. We're short, not invisible."

"No way. You found my book." Ally felt relieved once her songbook was finally in her hands that Austin had passed to her.

"Yeah, it was in the refrig—" Austin gestured up towards the practice room in attempt to explain when Ally cut him off by pulling him back and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Oh I love you, I love you, I love you."

"I am so relieved." The Dawson girl circled Austin with the smile never leaving her face before telling him. "Let's go work on that new song for South Beach Sound." Not leaving the boy a chance to respond before pulling him upstairs to the practice room with the blonde left with his eyes still wide.

This left Addy in question who was first to notice the freaked out expressions shared between the two boy best friends.

"Boy, blondie looks a bit scared there to write a new song. Don't you think, Dez?" The Dawson girl looked towards the redhead who wore a nervous expression. "Well, h-he might be scared Ally would make him write something himself. W-Who knows?"

"Okay then." Adelaide shared a quick glance with Trish before suggesting. "Do you want to play a quick game until a customer comes up?"

"Uno! Yes!" Adelaide chuckled at the Wade boy who reached for his bag before pulling out the deck of Uno cards to play, soon hearing Austin shout from upstairs. "We're writing a song up here with the door open. Wide open."

"Weirdo." Adelaide shook her head, confused by the blonde's action until she noticed the look on Dez's face once again, narrowing her eyes slightly at her own theory that the boys were currently sharing a secret.

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After the songwriting session between Austin and Ally had got cut short, Ally and Trish were back at the mall wandering in their thoughts as to why the Moon boy ran out of the practice room before they could finish writing the song.

"Addy!" Adelaide stood behind the counter and looked up at the call of her name to see Ally and Trish rush in. "You'll never guess why the boys have been acting so strange."

"I'm guessing Austin read your book?" Adelaide theorised since she had been by herself to watch the store long enough for her to think about the boys' strange behaviour.

"How'd you know that?" Ally and Trish furrowed her brows in question, only for Adelaide to wide her eyes slightly, not expecting her theory to have been fully correct. "I wasn't one hundred percent sure until now. That was the only thing I could think of since they had been acting strange ever since they found your book."

"Anyway." Trish waved her hands around in front of her to move forward in the conversation. "We are planning to get revenge on him. Wanna help?"

The Dawson girl thought for a moment which the girls assumed was hesitance, making Ally chime in, attempting to convince her sister. "I'll get you as many strawberries as you want."

This made Adelaide smirk. "I was already in but thank you! I'll certainly take you up on that offer, sis."

Ally rolled her eyes at the girl's antics before the three gathered together to think of a revenge plan to teach Austin a lesson for reading Ally's book, assuming the personal mentions of her crush, Dallas, was about him.

Once the first part of the plan was set up, the two sisters were in position by the counter, ready for Austin to come in when Nelson made another entrance — this time pulling in a stranger with him.

"Hey Ally, I'm here for my hobo lesson." The girls smiled awkwardly at the boy before Ally was first to remind him. "Nelson, it's an oboe lesson, not a hobo lesson."

"Aw, nartz. You know how hard it was to get him on the bus? Come on, Uncle Hank." The girls watched as he dragged the man back out of the store, their questionable looks quick to change at Trish running in, throwing the lipstick towards Ally at her warning. "Austin's coming. Lipstick."

Adelaide instantly yelped as she jumped over the counter on instinct as a faster way to join Trish in the corner and clutched one of the magazines to her hand to pretend to put her focus elsewhere to hide the fact that she and Trish would be listening to the upcoming conversation.

Ally picked up the Austin Moon mannequin doll after plastering the makeup onto her lips before starting to mark her lipstick on it. "Oh, mwah! Austin. Mwah! Austin! Mwah mwah."

"Ally?" The blonde-haired boy gapped at the girl who stopped what she was doing to look at him as he inquired. "What are you doing? Is that doll supposed to be me?"

"Oh, Austin. Hi. Yes, it is." Ally continued on with the act with an innocent smile as she turned the doll around for him to see. "I was just practicing what I would do if you got bit by a rattlesnake on the lips. It could happen. Oh."

"Good to know. So you wanna work on our new song now here where everyone can see us?"

"I can't right now. I'm busy." Ally glanced at the girls in the corner with a smirk to indicate it was time for them to join in the conversation.

"Ooh Ally." Adelaide jumped out of her seat and skipped towards her sister with Trish following behind. "What private thoughts are you writing in your book of secrets?" She leant her elbows on the counter, placing her chin in the palm of her hands with a smile. "I'm intrigued."

Ally looked back for a moment just in time to see Austin pull a book up to his face to pretend he wasn't going to listen — which is exactly what they wanted.

"I'm just making a list of turnoffs— things I don't like in a guy, things that if a guy did I would definitely not be interested in him at all."

Trish nodded. "Cool. Wanna go to the food court and not come back for at least twenty minutes?"

"Sure. I'll just leave my book right here." She left the book on the counter for Austin to easily take and fall for their trap as they walked out the door, hoping the outcome to their revenge would be a success.

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"Hey Ally, how do I look?" The Dawson looked up towards the doors where Austin came in, looking amused as he looked exactly like someone with all of her turn-offs included that she had written in her book.

"You look orange." Addy answered for her from the other side of the counter, amused. "But this would be great blackmail." She muttered under her breath and pulled her phone out to take a picture of Austin before he could protest.

"I know, right?" The blonde approached the girls at the counter before pulling the sunglasses off his face. "It brings out the colour of my eyes."

Ally instantly backed away in disgust. "Ew. I hate fake tans." She pointed out at the same time Adelaide left her side to 'read her book' in the corner area of the store.

"Really? I did not know that." Austin responded in a stilted tone as he pretended like he didn't just read her book again. He then pulled his arms up pretending to stretch so that Ally could see his armpit sweat, making her grimace. "Almost as much as I hate sweaty guys."

"Also did not know that." Austin continued in a stilted tone before Ally walked away, leaving him alone for a moment when Dez came in, spotting the difference. "Whoa. You look different."

"Yeah, 'cause I'm orange and I'm sweaty." Austin gestured with his fake tan and armpit sweat that was completely missed by Dez. "No. That's not it."

"That's exactly it." Adelaide called out, walking past the boys and towards Ally so the boys could have a more private conversation. That was until the sight of the Moon boy running around with heavy breaths caught her attention.

"Dez." Adelaide called out in a hushed tone and gestured for the redhead to approach her. "What happened with him?"

"Okay, this one is not my fault." Dez began to say while defending himself. "I gave him a volcano pepper to try but before I could warn him to only take one little bite, he bit into the whole thing."

"Yikes." Adelaide pulled a grimace at her lips as they both looked back at Austin who was cornered by Trish and the camera crew who stood behind her.

The plan for revenge wasn't done yet.

"They moved it to today." Trish informed the boy before doing a double take at his fake tan and sweat marks. "You look like a wet pumpkin."

"I can't go on live TV like this." Austin gasped as he watched the De La Rosa girl walk away from him before he was pulled back by the 'host' of the camera crew.

"We're here on live TV with Austin Moon. Tell us about your new song." The 'host' turned to the blonde who continued with his panting breaths and wafting one of his hands in front of his mouth. "Hot, hot."

"I bet it is hot." The man turned away from the camera again to ask Austin. "What's it called?"

"Water, water." Austin only managed to stammer as he glanced around the room for anything he can use to drink and cool his mouth down.

"'Water, water.' Catchy, catchy." The man nodded along after looking at the camera again, smiling as Austin finally spotted the drink bottle next to his friend's bag. "Dez, drink— now."

"I wasn't thirsty but okay." Dez shrugged before taking a drink from his water bottle — the action not intentional.

"Are you nervous about being on live TV?" The man questioned after seeing the sweat start to run down the blonde's face. "You're kind of sweating a little."

"A little?" Adelaide scoffed under her breath out of amusement and shared a look with the girls beside her. "More like a lot."

"Am I?" Austin chuckled nervously, wafting his hair out of his eyes before glancing down at his sweat-covered shirt. "Didn't notice."

"So tell us about your music."

"It's really very fun, you know? Peppers are really hot!" This made the girls beside Dez smile in satisfaction, knowing it was almost time for the moment where the 'host' finally exposed Austin in front of the camera.

"Austin, I have one last question for you." The man took a breath before finally asking. "Why'd you read Ally's book?"

"Huh?" This question of course caught him off-guard, but before the man could elaborate, Ally did for him as she walked up from behind with Adelaide and Trish in tow. "You know, my private book I told you a million times not to touch? Why'd you read it?"

"I— we— wait, is this a—" The Moon stammered nervously, being interrupted by Adelaide. "Fake interview to make you look stupid as punishment for reading Ally's book?"

"Yeah, that's exactly what it is!" Ally turned to high-five her sister and Trish who cheered along with her.

"The camera crew was my idea." Trish started to explain to the blonde-haired boy. "I'm really good at revenge. If there was a revenge store, I'd never get fired."

Austin gestured towards the camera crew behind him. "So that isn't the crew from South Beach Sound?" He received a shake of the head from the Dawson who then made sure to tell him. "No, and I don't have a crush on you."

"That's a relief. I thought I'd have to stay orange forever."

Adelaide laughed. "Ha! That would be funny."

The blonde sent her a look before turning to Dez with a gesture. "Okay, Dez— towel." The redhead unintentionally repeated the same action from before. "I'm not really sweaty, but okay." He shrugged his shoulders before pulling a towel out of his bag and used it on himself.

"Listen, I know I shouldn't have read your book. It was wrong and I'm sorry." Austin finally apologised to the Dawson who smiled.

"I accept your apology." The smile dropped from her face as she walked around the counter, calling out to the boy before he could leave the store. "Um... But, you know, uh— there's still one thing that bothers me. Why did you freak out so much when you thought I had a crush on you? Am I that horrible?"

From behind Ally, Adelaide narrowed her eyes at the blonde in warning and slapped the rolled-up magazine on the palm of her hands to imitate her whacking the magazine on his head ( not so softly ) if he said the wrong thing.

This of course scared the Moon boy, although he would never admit it as he managed to hide his slight feared-expression before Ally could question and covered it up with a chuckle. "No, Ally, you got it all wrong. You're awesome. I did that stuff because you're my friend and I don't wanna jeopardise that."

"I feel the same way." Ally smiled at the boy who stepped forward to hug her when the girl put her hand on his chest to stop him. "Let's hug when you're less orange and sweaty."

"I'm just glad I didn't actually make a fool of myself on live TV." Austin smiled in relief before looking over Ally's shoulder towards Adelaide who spoke up. "Yeah, you're safe..." She blew a kiss and sent him a playful wink. "For now."

Adelaide was then pulled to the side by the De La Rosa girl before she could spot the look on Austin's face after she said that.

"Yeah." Ally nodded, chuckling at Austin's facial expression. "Trish wanted to put the whole thing on the mall jumbotron, but Addy and I wouldn't let her."

"Wow, she really is good at revenge."

"The best. But you know I wouldn't embarrass you like that." Ally started to say, not hearing the hushed whispers that her sister and Trish were sharing. "Public humiliation is my worst nightmare. That's why I freaked out about my book. I mean, I would die if anyone found out I had a crush on the cellphone accessory guy."

Trish finally approached Ally in a less violent way as Adelaide was about to tackle her sister to the floor, though not in time before she blurted out through the mall jumbotron about her crush — whispering in her ear in warning to stop her from admitting anything further in front of the cameras.

"What? The jumbotron?" Ally looked towards the cameras, embarrassed. "I thought we weren't doing that." Ally pulled her hair to her lips before chewing it nervously, disappearing from the camera's view.

Moving on to the next day, it was finally time for Austin's real gig for South Beach Sound that was taking place in the mall.

"What's up, Mall of Miami?" The man on stage announced, making the crowd erupt in applause and loud cheers. "We are live on South Beach Sound with the one and only, Austin Moon!"

"This song was written by my good friend, Ally Dawson. It's called Not a Love Song."

"You're always on my mind. I think about you all the time. Umm... no." Austin grabbed his microphone and clutched it in his hand as he got up to his feet to continue the song as it got more up-beat.

Adelaide smiled proudly during the performance for two reasons, one for Austin singing, and two, as she watched her sister and Dallas stood side by side, starting to overcome their awkwardness.

"Not a Love Song."

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megan speaks!

i hope you all enjoyed reading this chapter! who's your favourite friendship so far?

don't forget to comment if you would like as i absolutely adore reading them! thanks for reading, i love you all!! <33