CHAPTER FIVE
━━━━ season one, episode five

bloggers and butterflies!
━━━━━━━━━━━━

"I can't believe this is on the internet. I thought I was alone." Austin sighed to the twins, referring to the video they were watching of him eating an ice cream sundae off his pants when he was or thought he was alone in the store that night.

Apparently someone had caught it on video and posted it on the Miami Hater Girl website.

Turning to the boy, Ally reminded. "Austin, you know there's no eating in the store. And there's definitely no eating off your pants." She took the computer off the piano before walking away with Austin following. "There's no sign for that." He said, confused.

The twins turned around and looked at him with a dumbfounded expression. "There shouldn't have to be a sign to not eat off your pants, blondie." Adelaide told him.

Walking into the store dressed in a different new uniform, Trish made her entrance. "Guess who got a job at Pirate Frank's Fish Fry. Where every meal is a parrr-ty." She removed her eyepatch and approached the girls. "This is the worst job I've ever had. I smell like fish guts. And guess who my new co-worker is."

They didn't get a chance to guess before Dez then walked in, revealing it for them. "Ahoy, mateys! I just got hired at Pirate Frank's, where every meal is a parrrr-ty. I can't wait to starrrr-t. I can save up to buy a carrrr." He announced, dressed in the same work uniform as Trish who used her hook to stop him from continuing.

"Guys, we've got bigger problems." Austin stated, bringing the conversation back to the Hater Girl website. "This blog."

"Oh, Miami Hater Girl." Trish recognised it. "She writes about everything she hates in Miami. She's so angry and bitter. I love her." She smiled.

"Well, right now all she hates is Austin." Ally told her friend. "I mean look at all these embarrassing videos she posted." She gestured to the computer before listing off. "'Austin with broccoli in his teeth', 'Austin biting his toenails', 'Austin checking out a girl'."

Adelaide couldn't help but laugh at seeing Austin walk into the wall, which her action received a look from the boy before he sighed. "That was so embarrassing." Austin then looked disbelieved at Trish who clicked a button on the laptop. "Trish, did you just click like?"

Trish shrugged. "Hey. Funny is funny."

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

Unfortunately, even Austin trying to avoid doing anything embarrassing in public, Hater Girl still managed to find a way to turn it around in order to make it look bad on Austin. For example, with Nelson at the food court — Austin helped the boy out of the wishing fountain after he fell in, and all Hater Girl did was reverse the video and made it seem like he dunked him into the fountain.

So what did Austin decide to do? Well, thinking it was a good idea, he started to get all essentials he needed to go camping in the practice room so he could hide from Hater Girl.

But he didn't do it alone — as Adelaide was found fast asleep in the tent that she helped Austin set up the night before. And speaking of the boy, he was currently sat in the entrance of the tent and looked up at Ally who had just walked in and asked. "What's with the tent?"

Not wanting to wake Adelaide up just yet, Austin responded through a whisper. "Shhh. I'm living here until the mall concert so Hater Girl can't get any more bad footage of me. I've got everything I need, food, video games, a bathroom—"

"That's a closet." Ally informed him and looked a bit worried as Austin winced before saying. "Oh. Might not wanna go in there for a while." He then flinched slightly when something or someone seemed to kick him in the back. "Ow!"

The blonde then narrowed his eyes as soon as he heard Adelaide laugh from behind him, just as Ally began to speak. "Alright, first, Eww! Second, I think you're overreacting. And third, is that my sister in there?"

"What do you think?" Austin raised a brow at the girl as Adelaide made an appearance beside him, looking smug. "Hey sister." She greeted.

"What are you doing?" Ally questioned her sister who looked at her confused. "Did you not get my text? Blondie wanted company to go camping and found me first. Yippee." Adelaide explained.

"That's fine." Austin hummed. "I'll just take the strawberries back then, shall I?"

"Do it, I dare you." Adelaide narrowed her eyes at the blonde who sighed at her threat. "And look... Ally's right." She started to tell him, changing the subject back to Hater Girl. "It's just a harmless website. I'm sure it's not like Hater Girl is going to ruin your career."

At that moment, Trish stormed in with Dez stood behind her. "Hater Girl is ruining your career."

"See?" Austin sent a pointed look towards the girl next to him who chuckled nervously. "Well, who said to listen to me?" She shrugged her shoulders while following Austin and stepped out of the tent. "I don't know squat about this!"

Continuing in her panicked state, Trish directed her next words towards Austin. "The owner of the mall saw the video of you dunking Nelson in the fountain and cancelled your gig. Apparently the mall has a 'No dunking kids in the fountain' policy? So strict."

"That does it!" Austin snapped. "We need to find out who this Hater Girl is and stop her!"

Ally nodded in agreement. "You're right, we can't let her hurt your career anymore." She turned to look at her sister, Trish and Dez. "Come on, guys. Let's..." She trailed off as she looked disturbed by whatever Dez was currently doing. "What's with your shoes?"

"I fried 'em." Dez explained, holding up his fried shoe with a fork. "Deee-licious!"

"There's no eating shoes in the store." Ally had to remind the redhead who looked at her confused before going to say. "There's no sign that says—"

"There shouldn't have to be a sign to not eat your shoes." Adelaide interjected, looking at the Wade boy with a baffled expression as her and the rest of the group watched him huff. "Fine!" He then wobbled out of the room with the other shoe that wasn't fried, on his foot.

So the group came up with a plan that would take place later that night — where each one of them are found hiding behind a vending cart with a hat on their heads that they picked from there.

Adelaide stood beside her sister, whether she was annoyed by all the shushing or because she didn't manage to grab herself some strawberries for their stakeout, until she finally had enough and stopped it.

"Dez, go. Just go." Adelaide told the redhead who finally left their hiding spot with a envelope in his hand as Trish asked the group. "So why do we think Hater Girl's gonna show up?"

Austin then explained. "Because Dez emailed her and said he had embarrassing pictures of me. She said to leave them in that recycling bin."

Feeling hopeful, Ally recapped. "When Hater Girl comes to get them, we'll find out who she is. It's perfect. She'll have no idea we're hiding here."

The group looked back at the Wade boy who was still hovering over the recycling bin before Trish had enough and impatiently yelled without even thinking. "Hurry up, you doof!"

Dez finally dropped the envelope in the recycling bin before he ran back to the group's hiding spot and whispered. "The chicken is in the bucket."

"Is that code for 'you made the drop'?" The Moon boy wondered and Dez shook his head. "No. I brought chicken." He corrected, putting a fried chicken bucket onto the cart in front of them that he got from a fast-food restaurant. "I thought we might be here for a while."

"Good call." Austin agreed, seeing Adelaide stare at the fried chicken with hunger. "Stakeouts can take all night. The key is to stay alert and awake."

Unfortunately, that plan failed as everyone ended up falling asleep after finishing what was left of the fried chicken. They all slept beside each other while resting their heads on their hats, excluding Dez who had situated himself in the vending cart.

The group stayed fast asleep, until the sound of a crash was heard in the distance which led to the team to finally wake up from their slumber, when their eyes were instantly pulled to the empty spot where the recycling bin once stood.

"The recycling bin is gone!" Austin realised as he started to pull himself off the floor.

With Dez not having moved from his spot inside the vending cart, he looked up at his friends and asked. "Do you think Hater Girl took it?"

"No. It sprouted legs and ran away." Trish replied with sarcasm, not knowing how right she actually was. And in return, Dez gave her a dirty look and took another bite of his chicken leg.

"Now what?" Austin sighed. "We blew our shot of catching Hater Girl."

"Sorry blondie." Adelaide said with her and Ally looking at the boy apologetically. "But look on the bright side, even though I would love to see them, at least she didn't get any embarrassing photos of you. All she got was an empty envelope."

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

"Old school photo of Austin Moon?!" They all sat in Pirate Frank's, looking at Hater Girl's new post that appeared to be an embarrassing photo of the boy from when he was younger.

"Never mind. I was clearly wrong." Adelaide said, chuckling nervously when her point to reassure Austin that night had failed. "But why did you give her real pictures?" She asked Dez.

"Because I promised." The redhead explained in his defence. "She may be an evil blogger who's out to destroy my best friend, but I'm a man of my word."

Having enough of the situation, Austin huffed out a breath and snapped. "This Hater Girl's driving me nuts."

"You know what's driving me nuts?" Trish asked her friends before answering for them, while she complained about her job yet again. "Trying to read a magazine with a hook hand."

"Your uniform could be a lot worse." Ally told her friend in attempt to reassure her. "At least you're not the one who have to greet customers dressed as a catfish." She gestured with her thumb to the person standing outside the store in a catfish costume.

"Wait a sec." Trish stood up from her seat looking confused when she told the group. "That catfish doesn't work here. We don't serve catfish. We don't even serve real fish."

Austin then chimed in, adding onto Trish's point as he said. "That fish has been watching us for like five minutes."

Knowing they were busted, the person dressed in the catfish costume ran off, making their identity more obvious as Adelaide was first to realise as she announced. "Hmm. I spy stalker behaviour. And I think we just found our Hater Girl."

"I'll get her." Dez volunteered himself as he stood up from his chair and grabbed a fishing rod. "Tell Pirate Frank I've gone fishing." He tried to leave but the fishing rod got in the way so he turned it before rushing out the door and after Hater Girl with his friends following behind.

Thankfully, Dez managed to snag Hater Girl with his fishing rod and start to reel the fish-costumed person along the floor. His friends arrived and began to encourage the redhead to lure them in closer to them. As soon as Hater Girl was in their reach, the group ran up to them and prepared to reveal their identity.

"Let's see who Hater Girl is." Austin said before him and Dez pulled the head of the catfish off the person's head to reveal a blonde-haired teenager who looked around the same age as them.

"Tilly Thompson?" The twins were the only ones who recognised the girl underneath the catfish costume — and Adelaide instantly rolled her eyes and groaned under her breath.

"You know her?" Austin questioned and looked at the twins for more information. Looking between her sister and herself, Ally explained. "We went to kindergarten together." She looked down at Tilly confused as she asked. "You're Hater Girl?"

"Hater Girl? You mean that beautiful, amazingly talented girl who has that awesome website about how much I hate Austin?" Tilly rambled through her own confession before shrugging. "Never heard of her."

"Don't even think about it." Adelaide scoffed and was quick to pull Tilly back when the girl tried to make her escape.

"Wait, hold on." Ally paused for a moment before Trish reminded the blonde. "You realise you just admitted you're Hater Girl."

At Trish's reminder, Tilly scowled. "I hate it when I admit things! I hate it! I hate it! I hate it!"

Interjecting into the conversation, Austin finally asked the girl. "So, how did you get all those videos of me?"

"I was always around you. You just didn't realize it because I'm a master of disguise." The blonde-haired girl explained before pulling a phone out from her back pocket to show them her multiple disguises. "Here's me as a cowboy, a biker, and here... my favorite."

Dez looked at the picture on the phone before he pointed out. "That lady pushing the stroller doesn't look anything like you."

"I'm the baby." Tilly said before letting out a cry as if she was a baby and her eyes finally stopped on Austin, giving him a dirty look. "Burp me!"

Austin chuckled nervously. "Look Tilly, you seem like a really nice... not crazy girl. But, why do you hate me?" He asked the blonde who surprised the group with her answer. "I don't hate you. In fact I think you're an amazing singer."

"Really? Thanks." The Moon boy smiled although confused until Tilly turned to Ally and added on to her explanation. "I hate her!" She admitted.

"What? What did I do?" Ally wondered, confused by this as much as her sister was. Though Tilly scoffed in disbelief. "Oh, don't act like you don't know."

"She's not acting." Adelaide looked at the blonde in question as she spoke for her sister. "She really doesn't know."

Tilly furrowed her brows. "You mean, you don't spend every minute of every day thinking about my song you ruined in kindergarten?" She asked rhetorically.

"No." Ally chuckled lightly. "A person who dwells on something every minute of every day for ten years would have to be insane" Tilly gave her a threatening look. "—ly talented. And pretty." She corrected herself.

"Shhh." Adelaide was quick to cover Ally's mouth with her hand and pull her behind her. "This is for your own protection." She quipped, noticing the deathly glare in Tilly's eyes before Austin cut in and asked the blonde. "How did Ally ruin your song?"

Gesturing between herself, Adelaide and Ally, the Thompson girl started to explain. "The three of us were in Mrs. Carmichael's class..."

Tilly started narrating. "As usual, Ally was being her little bossy self."

Adelaide and Ally were five at the time when Ally spotted another boy in her class eating and went to take it from him. "There's no eating in the classroom."

"I was in that class too." Trish remembered.

"Guess who got a job as the hall monitor." Five year old Trish presented herself as she stood in the doorway of the classroom, wearing a red sash around her torso that read Hall Monitor.

Five year old Adelaide smiled at her friend before continuing with her music-styled poem, showing when the dancer first started to take an interest in music and songwriting.

"The spring pageant was coming up." The blonde haired girl continued to narrate through her own point of view. "This years theme was insects. I wrote 'The Ladybug Song'. It was brilliant."

Five year old Tilly stood in the centre of the class before singing her song. "I'm a little ladybug, I have black polka dots, I love to eat pizza and ride my bicycle."

"Everybody loved it." Tilly narrated and Adelaide raised a brow at that before sharing a look with her sister because as far as they remembered, by the look on everyone's faces who didn't look at all impressed by Tilly's song, they did not love it as much as Tilly thought they did.

"It was kind of cute. But the lyrics were a little all over the place." Ally admitted. "I mean, ladybugs don't ride bikes."

Tilly scoffed in annoyance. "Oh, like you know everything about ladybugs."

"I don't know everything." Ally looked at the girl with an awkward expression. "Just that they don't ride bikes."

"Whatever. The point is, you had to go and write 'The Butterfly Song'." Tilly scoffed in annoyance before returning to the flashback where five year old Ally was sat playing the piano while singing her song.

"I'm a little butterfly
Spread my colorful wings
Even though I'm small and fraill,
I can do most an-ny-thing"

"Everybody hated it." Tilly narrated through her point of view which couldn't be further from the truth as everyone apart from Tilly clapped for Ally — with Adelaide being the loudest of course.

"And then the class picked which one was going to be in the insect play."

Dez moved to stand beside Tilly. "Which one did they pick? Which one did they pick?" He asked eagerly as if it wasn't obvious.

"They picked Ally's." Tilly stated while rolling her eyes at the boy who gasped. "Oh, no way! I would be so mad if I were you." He said while shaking his head but stopped at Tilly's glare. "You were saying?" He added, wanting to take the attention off him.

"Not fair! My song was better!" Tilly then began to throw a tantrum when she knocked stuff off the teacher's desk before walking over to the twins. "Ally, you will pay for this. Have fun singing with no lyrics."

She grabbed the paper out of Ally's hand before crinkling into a ball and tried to eat it but Ally snatched it off her and reminded. "There's no eating in the classroom."

"Forget that." Adelaide told her sister. "The girl is eating paper!" She pulled a look of disgust at that before her eyes widened when Tilly started screaming.

"That was a special day for me." Ally smiled with her sister. "It was the day I realized I wanted to be a songwriter."

"Same with me." Adelaide joined in and wrapped her arm around Ally's shoulder. "It was the day I realised, I could become a triple threat."

"It was a special day for me, too." Trish chimed in and explained. "It was the first time I was fired from a job. Apparently, a hall monitor can't charge kids to use the bathroom." She shrugged before sitting down on the wishing fountain.

"Yeah, about that." Adelaide cleared her throat as she turned to Trish. "You still owe me two bucks from that day." She reminded the girl.

"Well, it wasn't a special day for me." Tilly slowly moved to stand beside Ally with a glare. "It was the day Ally destroyed my dream."

"Look Tilly, it was kindergarten." Ally attempted to reason with her. "We were kids. 'Kinder' is German for kids."

"And 'garten' is German for meatloaf." The Wade boy commented. "Kindergarten— meatloaf made of kids."

"Your brain is made of meatloaf." Trish retorted to the redhead and the twins nodded.

"I don't understand." A confused Austin spoke up and they all looked at him. And assuming he was referring to the comment he made before about meatloaf, Dez went to explain. "Well, it's one part kid, one part hamburger, put it together—"

"No." Austin interrupted Dez before he looked at Tilly to ask. "Why are you taking it out on me, if you're mad at Ally?"

"Because, I figured by ruining your career," Tilly gestured to Austin before turning to Ally as she finished. "I'll ruin her career. The perfect way to get revenge."

"Wait, wouldn't it be better to just get revenge on Ally directly?" Dez pointed out without thinking and Tilly smiled. "That's a great idea!" She said, agreeing with him.

"Dez!" The twins looked annoyed at the redhead who turned to them, continuing. "I'm just saying, cut out the middle man. Besides, it's not like I told her how to get revenge." He tried to reassure Ally but quickly failed as he chuckled through his next words. "Like using your stage fright against you or something." When he realised what he did, Dez used his hand to cover his mouth and scolded himself. "Dez!"

"That's exactly what we're going to do." Tilly said, walking towards Ally. "We're going to have a little show here at the mall..." She handed her fish-head to Austin who gave it to Dez who tried to do the same thing. "and reverse what happened in kindergarten. You're going to sing your 'Butterfly Song' and look stupid because of your stage fright, and I'm going to sing 'The Ladybug Song', and everybody's going to love me."

Ally kept a hold of her sister's arm to prevent her from potentially hitting Tilly. "What if I don't sing the Butterfly Song?" She asked in worry.

"Then I'm going to keep posting bad stuff about Austin and make sure he never has another gig again."

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

From then on, Adelaide and Austin did their best to try and help Ally to overcome her stage fright by using different tactics for example, using their stuffed animals and situate them on chairs so she could pretend like they were the people in the audience, but that didn't work.

Finally, it was the night of the show and Adelaide was worried for her sister. Standing in the middle of the stage was Tilly who announced through a microphone to the audience. "Thanks everybody for coming out. You're about to hear two songs— one great one and one terrible one. I'm not gonna say which is which." But she did anyway. "Here to sing the terrible song— Ally Dawson."

As the audience clapped, Austin turned to Ally to hand her the guitar. "You can do this. I have total faith in you." He encouraged before turning to the audience and warned them. "Those of you in the front row, might wanna take a few steps back."

"You've got this." Adelaide said softly and locked her pinkie with Ally's. "Just try your best, okay?"

Ally nodded before letting go of her sister to walk onto the stage, already hiding her face behind her guitar. Once she reached the chair, she pulled the instrument down to take a peek at the audience and was instantly spooked — therefore she lifted it back up to cover her face.

Finally sitting down on the chair, she settled her guitar onto her lap with Dez recording before she started to play — although no sound was coming from her mouth nor the instrument.

Everyone looked confused before she stopped to look at the audience, chuckling to herself. "Oh, mic's not working." She made an excuse to leave the stage but before she could, Dez ran on to test the microphone himself. "Testing, testing, check one, two. It's working fine." He told Ally.

"Thank you, Dez." Ally responded sarcastically as she watched the boy run off stage, slightly angry that she had to stay there.

"You're welcome."

Ally sighed before sitting back down on the chair and began to stammer nervously. Austin frowned before looking over at Adelaide to see her worried state as she watched Ally panic. He thought for a moment and gave the girl one last look before he ran on stage and told the crowd. "Hi, I'm Austin Moon, and I'm here to sing a song for you."

As the crowd started to applaud, Ally then looked at Austin and asked. "What are you doing?"

"I don't care if Tilly destroys my career." Austin told the girl. "I'd rather that happen than let you suffer."

Ally smiled. "Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"Thank you, Austin." Ally's smile widened. "That is the nicest thing that anyone's ever done." The audience aww'ed at that, making Ally widen her eyes. "Gotta go, bye." She ran off the stage and in to her sister's embrace.

Not liking the way this is going, Tilly stormed on stage, telling Austin. "This isn't part of the deal. If Ally doesn't sing her stupid song, then I'm gonna keep posting fake stuff about you on my Hater Girl website." She revealed herself without even realising it.

Smiling, Austin turned to the audience and spoke through the microphone. "Whoa, you heard her, folks." He gestured to Tilly with his thumb before continuing. "That's Hater Girl and she faked the stuff about me on her website."

"Boo!" Nelson yelled from the audience before the rest of them joined in with him.

"I hate it when I admit things. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it!" Tilly snapped through a tantrum before Adelaide and Trish ran up to the stage and grabbed her arm.

"Yeah, yeah, you hate things. Join the club."

"Let's go, crazy pants." Adelaide added for Trish before they pulled her off stage, leaving Austin alone as he announced. "Now I'm gonna sing the best song ever written by a five year old."

Tilly rushed back to where Ally stood, looking at Austin with a hopeful expression. "The Ladybug Song?"

"The Butterfly Song." Austin responded, making Tilly cry out while she was dragged away again by Adelaide and Trish. "This song was written by my partner Ally. It's special to her because it made her realise she wanted to be a songwriter. And that makes it special to me too."

Ally smiled before Austin started to play.

"I'm a little butterfly
Spread my colorful wings
Even though I'm small and frail
I can do most anything
Catapillar in my cocoon
I'm gonna be a butterfly soon.

I'm a little butterfly
I can soar through the sky
So glad I ended up like this
Thanks to metamorphosis
I'm a butterfly
I'm a butterfly
Yeah, I'm a butterfly."

Everyone apart from Tilly applauded as the song reached it's end. Adelaide smiled softly as Austin met her eyes before she mouthed to him. "Thank you." As she was happy for what he did for her sister.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

Following on the next day, the group was in Sonic Boom at the counter, watching a video on Ally's laptop when Adelaide walked up with her stuffed dolphin in her arms that Austin took an interest to the day before.

"Hey, blondie." Adelaide called out to the blonde who turned around to face her. "That was really sweet what you did for Ally yesterday, so I want you to have this."

"Dougie!" Austin gasped and grabbed the stuffed animal from her hand before snuggling it up to his face.

"You like stuffed animals?" Trish asked the Moon boy and he suddenly went all shy. "Pfft. No." He said before turning to Adelaide. "I'll pick him up later." He spoke quietly and handed the dolphin back to the girl.

"What are you guys watching?" Adelaide asked as she moved closer and joined Ally's side to look at the laptop when Dez answered. "Hater Girl's meltdown. This is all over the internet."

They continued to watch the video showing Tilly screaming like a child while she threw everything around on the stage.

Ally laughed along with Trish as they watched the video before the latter of the two informed. "Tilly was so embarrassed, she shut down her Hater Girl website."

Austin sighed in relief. "I guess we won't have to be worrying about her anymore."

Ally chuckled and turned around to see a woman push a stroller into the store. "Aww, a cute little baby." She cooed, walking over when the woman stopped to let them have a look at the baby.

Ally pulled the covers off the baby's face, shocked to find Tilly staring back at them. "Miss me?" She taunted, making the group all scream in horror.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

megan speaks!

i hope you all enjoyed reading this chapter! what are you most excited to see in future chapters?

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