CHAPTER SIX
━━━━ season one, episode six

tickets and trashbags!
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"How was that?" During his piano lesson, Nelson asked Ally, referring to the part he played on the instrument. Whilst trying to hide her wince, the Dawson girl chuckled nervously. "Well, you got all the notes, just not in the right order or in the right key." She told him.

"Thanks!" Nelson raised his hand up to give her a high-five before Austin and Dez came barging in through the back door. "Ally, Nelson, quick. We need you off the piano." Austin ushered them off the piano bench before grabbing a bat.

"Put your hands in the air and back away from the baby grand." Dez instructed before setting a watermelon on the piano.

Adelaide, who just returned from her place in the corner of the store, walked towards the group in question. "What are you guys—" However, Austin interrupted her before she could finish by hitting the bar of the piano with the bat, causing the fruit to splatter everywhere, including, onto Nelson and the twins. "ugh, doing?"

The boys, however, cheered after what they have managed to accomplish before giving each other a high-five. "Awesome! That was way better than smashing peanuts on my laptop." Austin opened his laptop to show how the peanut butter had covered it from screen to keyboard.

Adelaide chuckled sarcastically. "Funny."

"Alright Nelson, uh, lesson's over." Ally informed the boy. "You can go wash up."

"I'm Melon Man!" Nelson then made his way out of the store through the back door, just as Trish entered through the front entrance, dressed in a new work uniform and a megaphone in her hand when she announced. "Guess who got a job at... Megaphone world?"

"Who?" Dez asked, making Adelaide raise a brow while she and Ally finished off wiping the fruit off of them with a cloth.

Deciding to ignore him, Trish approached before continuing her announcement. "And, more importantly, guess who got an exciting piece of mail for... Mr. Austin Moon?"

At that, Austin rushed over to grab the mail while the others followed behind him, and as he began to unfold the paper, Ally asked eagerly. "What's it say? What's it say?"

With a smile, Austin began to read out loud from his mail. "I've been selected to take part in a study on..." The smile fell off his face as he looked more confused when he read the last bit. "male pattern baldness?"

"Sorry, wrong letter." Trish apologised before she took the paper away and searched for the correct mail while Dez looked at his friend, confused. "I never knew you were bald. Killer toupee." He grabbed onto his hair and attempted to pull it off which earned a look from the blonde when it seemed to fail. "Dude."

"Here you go." Trish passed him his mail, leading to a now excited Austin as soon as he got a first look at what it said. "Whoa! I've been invited to the Miami Internet Music Awards!" He read out loud to his friends. "The rapper Shiny Money wants me to perform with him!"

"Congratulations, blondie." Adelaide said, first to congratulate him, receiving a smile from Austin.

With a proud smile, Trish informed. "I convinced him to sample your song 'Double Take' in his new rap."

"Look at you, Trish; Manager of the Year!"

"It was easy. All I had to do was stand outside his house doing this until he agreed to watch Austin and his video." Trish explained before pressing the button on the bullhorn, and a siren blared.

Dez winced. "Ugh, I hate that sound!"

"You're gonna regret that, my friend." Hiding her wince, Adelaide patted him on the shoulder and backed away slightly as Trish shrugged. "Oh, well in the case." She kept her finger on the button of the bullhorn as the siren continued to blare, only closer to him.

"I can't believe one of my songs is going to be on an award show!" Ally gushed with excitement, as did everyone else. "I can't believe Austin's singing with Shiny Money. He's my favorite. I hope he'll sign my picture of him I keep in my wallet." Dez mentioned before opening his wallet to take the picture out — well, more like a poster once he had unfolded it.

"Who cares about autographs? I can't wait to break out my red carpet walk." Trish said before demonstrating it.

"You call that a red carpet walk?" Austin raised a brow at the De La Rosa girl. "Check this out." He said before showing off his own.

Ally laughed. "Step aside, rookies." She stepped in front of them as her sister facepalmed, already having an idea of how this was going to go. "Let uh... Ally D show you how it's done! Unhh!" Ally did hers, whilst including some beatboxing.

"I think 'Ally D' should probably go in the side entrance." Austin retorted, which got a look from the girl before Dez piped up, continuing to show his excitement. "The five of us are going to have the best night ever."

"I know. And look," Austin looked at the paper in his hand. "I get access to an exclusive after party."

"Yay!"

"A complimentary gift bag."

"Yay!"

"And an extra ticket for one guest."

Adelaide frowned at this, although, it seemed like the others didn't notice straight away, seeing as they cheered once again until they finally realised. "What?"

Austin frowned at this outcome. "I only get one extra ticket to the show."

"I've never been good at math," Dez pointed out before trying to figure it out. "but one ticket times four friends is... carry the 4–"

"It means only one of us gets to go." Trish sighed at the boy who looked at her with his brows furrowed. "Huh, I got 47." He shrugged.

Adelaide shook her head and muttered. "We really need to get you a tutor."

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After it was revealed to them that there was only one extra ticket available, everyone seemed to go out of their way in order to please Austin so they could persuade him to pick them as the extra guest to the show.

This included Trish putting chocolate frosting on his fries, and convincing him that he wouldn't have even gotten the gig if it wasn't for her, Dez reminding him about his role of his best friend and gave him his pants, and Ally, who wouldn't stop rambling to Austin.

Somehow, this led him to saying yes to everyone, apart from Adelaide, who was the only one who didn't take part in pressuring Austin to pick her to have the extra ticket.

Seeing as that confused him, the Moon boy found himself stood in the practice room, calling out to the girl sat by the piano. "Hey." Adelaide turned around at the sound of his voice, watching as he came and sat down next to her. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure." Adelaide nodded before placing her book down out of Austin's reach. "Why are you looking so down?"

"I've noticed that you're the only one who has not bugged me about wanting the extra ticket to the show which I had managed to say yes to all three of them too." Austin explained. "But in that case, is that because you don't want to go?"

Adelaide sighed. "Of course, I do. I would love to be there and support you," She started off before continuing. "however I wouldn't be a real friend if I was practically forcing you to pick me to come with you, now would I?"

"What do I do, though?" He asked. "I still said all three of them could come."

"Austin, this is completely your decision." Softly speaking, Adelaide advised. "So ignoring what all of them said to you today, by yourself, you need to think about who you would want by your side at the show. Don't let anyone decide that for you, when they are supposed to be your friend. And if they are, they should accept whatever decision you make."

"What about you? Do you want to go?"

"Like I said before, of course I do." Adelaide told him, pausing for a second before elaborating on her answer. "But only if all of us can go. But since there is only one ticket, count me out."

"Are you sure?" Austin asked.

"Yes. Now remember, what I said, Moon. It's you who decides who goes with you to the show. This night is about you, not them." Adelaide told him one last time before she started to gather up her things and stood up from the piano bench. "Hope it goes well. Good luck, blondie." She ruffled his hair before walking out of the practice room and left him alone to his thoughts.

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After talking to Ally, Trish and Dez, it turned out that Austin ended up taking Nelson to the award show since his friends, excluding Adelaide, were quite selfish and didn't accept his decision when he followed Adelaide's advice and chose not to go when not all of them could be there.

Adelaide watched by the doorway of the practice room with her arms crossed over her chest as Ally and Trish sulked, regretting how they acted towards Austin when he came down to talk to them.

"So we're pretty much..." Ally trailed off.

"The worst friends ever." Trish finished the girl's sentence before Dez rushed in and sat beside the De La Rosa girl in excitement. "Oh! I wanna play the finish-the-sentence game!" Trish rolled her eyes and turned to the redhead. "Say something, Trish."

"Dez, you are such an—" Trish went to insult him, but of course, the Wade boy interrupted and tried to guess the end of her sentence. "Elephant! Tractor! Pineapple!"

Trish pursed her lips before she nodded her head and replied in a sarcastic manner. "Yes, you are such an elephant tractor pineapple."

Not noticing the sarcasm, Dez smiled. "I'm great at this game."

"So, now what?" Ally questioned. "We sit here all night feeling horrible for ourselves?"

"Yes." Adelaide muttered from the door, making her sister glare at her. "That didn't help, I know, I'm sorry." She moved positions so she was now leaning against the wall as Dez spoke up, looking as if he had an idea. "Not necessarily."

"Wait a minute." Trish paused and turned to Dez with a smile before asking. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Adelaide looked at them with her brows furrowed as she mentioned as a joke. "He's never thinking what you're thinking." She watched as he nodded in agreement to what Trish was saying before the girl spoke out loud. "We need to sneak into the show!"

"It would be so cool to own a penguin." Dez told the girls almost simultaneously with Trish, not to mention the idea was completely different to hers.

"See?" Adelaide gestured to Dez. "Although, he is right on that one. I agree that would be cool." She agreed with his idea, since she's always loved penguins.

It was one of her favourite animals.

"Sneak into the show?" Ally interjected and stood up from her seat, doubting her idea would work as she reminded. "Trish, we've already upset Austin enough for one night." She walked to Dez at the change in subject. "And Dez, where would you even keep a penguin? In a bathtub with ice?"

"You guys heard Austin, he wants us all there. We have to go and make this right." Trish declared.

Ally still looked unsure. "I guess."

"Great. So we're all on the same page?"

Dez nodded at Trish and stood up before starting to list off. "Yes. I'll get the penguin, you get the ice and we'll all meet at the twins' bathtub." Dez decided before walking out of the practice room.

"I think we might want to stop him now before he gets to the aquarium, don't you think?" Adelaide asked the girls and they nodded before following her out the door.

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"Okay, we're in." Ally stated as soon as the group had managed to sneak backstage while dressed in light blue trash bags to match the Shiny Money's dancers costumes. "Can we take off these trash bags now?"

"No, we need to look like we belong here." Trish reminded her friend. "Shiny Money's performing 'trash talka' and his dancers wear trash bags. See?" She gestured to two of the dancers behind them.

"I think this is a good look for me." The Wade boy mentioned. "And the best part is, you never have to worry about finding a trash can." He pointed out and demonstrated by chucking his empty can down his pants.

Adelaide pursed her lips with a sigh. "How about we just find Austin. We should be fine as long as nobody who works here sees us." She assured the group, before Trish interrupted as her finger was pointed in a certain direction. "Like that guy! Hide!"

They all began to panic before quickly jumping in the garbage cans to hide inside, just before the stage manager walked in. "Show time, everyone take your places." He announced.

Once they appeared to have stopped again, Ally was first to open the lid, not knowing where she was and she went to ask. "Did we just move? I felt like—" The revelation of where she was, instantly caused her to shriek in horror before ducking back inside the garbage can. Meanwhile, Trish and Dez popped out of their garbage cans and looked around the stage until they spotted Austin stood next to Shiny Money backstage.

"Check it out." Dez pointed over to where Austin was. "It's Shiny Money and Austin." And without thinking, Dez called out to his friend. "Hey, Austin!" He waved to the blonde who responded with a look of surprise.

Adelaide lifted the lid to the trash can up slightly just enough that she could still see what was on the stage and muttered. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea."

Luckily for them, they all had ducked back down into their garbage cans before the announcement came on. "Make some noise for the one and only, Shiny Money, with special guest, internet sensation, Austin Moon!"

"Miami, make some noise!"

"What do we do?" Trish panicked, turning to Dez as the two were now back in the open. The Wade boy however shrugged. "We could ask for his autograph." He suggested, before they followed the other dancers' movements.

"We about to take the trash out on y'all. It's your boy, Shiny Money and Austin Moon." The rapper continued, unaware of what's going on behind him, unlike Austin.

"Ah, jeez." Adelaide winced, seeing as her sister's trash can had tipped over and she began to crawl out and towards backstage where she could hide.

Joining the other back-up dancers, Adelaide then jumped out of the trash can with Trish and Dez, and although she didn't have stage fright, she'd rather stand with her sister, so as Trish and Dez stayed and attempted to follow along with the dance moves, she danced away until she reached Ally's side, hearing Austin sing. "You gotta make, make, make 'em do a double take."

Between his queue during the song, the blonde-haired singer backed away and tried to talk to his friends, starting with Trish and Dez. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Trying to learn the dance." Dez answered before Austin had to come forward and go into his part of the chorus. "You gotta make, make, make 'em do a double take."

This time, he rushed backstage and stood beside the twins as Ally was first to apologise. "Austin, let us explain—"

"I can't believe you guys." The boy scoffed before returning to his queue. "You gotta make, make, make 'em do a double take." He managed to run back as Adelaide now tried to explain. "Austin, please."

"How could you guys get in here? I..." The singer questioned, but before one of them could answer, Austin had to go back on stage and sing his part of the song again.

As Shiny Money started to rap, the twins heard a loud voice from behind them. "Hey you two, get over here!" The stage manager called them over and while he was distracted, talking to someone through his head-set, the girls took off and ran behind the dancers.

"We'll explain later!" Adelaide called to Austin as her and Ally danced along with the dancers to remain inconspicuous before continuing their escape with the stage manager put in the same spotlight which delayed the chase for a moment before he carried on.

Meanwhile, Trish and Dez are still on stage while trying to keep up with the other dancers. As they got back into the chorus, stage hands bring out a cart with six empty chemical barrels on top for Shiny Money to climb up on during his performance.

As the rapper prepared to stage dive, he gave Dez and Trish a thumbs-up, expecting to be caught by them, but unluckily for him, they were clueless about the plan and responded simply with the same gesture before Shiny Money dived off and unfortunately, face-planted the floor.

Now embarrassed, Dez and Trish moved to stand next to each other before the latter spoke quietly and informed the other. "I think we were supposed to catch him."

Austin approached the injured rapper and looked at the crowd with a nervous chuckle before trying to break the tension and sang awkwardly.

"Double take."

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"You guys still here?" Austin asked as he walked on stage after the show was over and janitors were now sweeping up all the mess.

"Yeah, Austin, we're so sorry." Ally called out an apology from her spot behind the four trash cans where the others were sitting as well. However, they weren't noticed by the blonde yet as he had assumed they were hiding in the pile of trash bags while he said. "Sorry for what? For caring more about yourselves than you care about me?"

"Um, blondie," Adelaide furrowed her brows as she told him. "you're talking to a trash bag."

At this, Austin walked around the garbage cans to find his friends sitting there. "Oh." He let out before going to repeat what he said. "Sorry for what? For caring more about yourselves—"

"Austin!" Ally interrupted and stood up from the floor with the others before continuing. "You're right. We were being selfish—"

"Excluding me." Adelaide quickly interjected and sent her sister a pointed look to remind her that she wasn't involved in upsetting Austin before sneaking into the show.

"Right." Ally sighed and mentally rolled her eyes at her twin before continuing her point. "But then we realised the night was about you, not us. That's why we came down here, to support you."

"So you guys weren't just thinking about yourselves?"

"If I was only thinking about myself, do you think I would wear such a ridiculous outfit?" Trish rhetorically asked to prove a point.

"Yeah." Dez laughed. "That purple dress you had on earlier was awful."

"I'm talking about the trash bag." Trish reminded the redhead who scratched his neck nervously.

"I'm sorry we ruined the show for you." Ally told the blonde, apologising once again.

"You didn't ruin it." Austin said before correcting himself. "Actually, you totally ruined it." The smile on Ally's face disappeared. "But I'm happy you guys came."

"Really?" Adelaide asked.

"Yeah." Austin nodded. "We're a team. I couldn't imagine my first awards show without you guys here."

Dez smiled. "Buddy, if I was wearing real pants, I would totally give them to you right now." He told the blonde who responded with. "Yeah, I think we should go back to fist bumping."

Dez was first to throw his fist in the centre of the group before followed by Austin, Adelaide, Ally and Trish. "Boom!"

Two paramedics then wheeled Shiny Money on a stretcher across the stage — the rapper covered in bandages, when he recognised Dez and Trish and called out to them, making them stop. "Hey! You're the two that were supposed to catch me!"

"You're not still mad, are you?" Trish nervously asked and Shiny Money looked at them as if they were crazy. "Still?! It just happened an hour ago!"

"Actually, it was two hours ago. You blacked out a little bit." Ally informed the injured musician.

"My doctor says I can't perform for at least eight months. Thanks a lot!" Shiny Money notified the group, the last part spoken with sarcasm, which yet again, Dez didn't notice as he said. "Hey, you're welcome. High five." He slapped his most injured arm without thinking, sending the man rolling backstage while screaming in pain, which resulted him to be injured even further.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

"Thanks again for helping me today." Austin told Adelaide as they sat beside each other on top of the counter in Sonic Boom. Adelaide was only there to close up after Austin and Dez had their small after party.

"It's no problem, really." Adelaide waved him off with a shrug. "Damn that advice was good, wasn't it? I should be a life coach." She stared ahead as she thought about the idea while Austin laughed, clearly amused. "But seriously, did you have fun tonight?"

"I guess so," Austin shrugged. "but I liked it when you guys were there with me."

Adelaide nodded. "Good."

"Oh by the way, I got you something." Austin said and reached behind the counter as Adelaide went to question what it was before she gasped, seeing Austin holding a box of strawberries. "There are some chocolate covered ones in there as well for you. I saw them and I took the chance."

Adelaide instantly shrieked, grabbing the box of strawberries from his hand before wrapping her arm around his shoulder and pulled him in for a hug as she gushed. "Oh, I love you, I love you, I love you!"

She jumped off the counter and started to run off towards the stairs as Dez passed her by when he finally returned from the bathroom. "Oh, sweet! Did you get some pizza?" He asked.

Austin chuckled at her excitement, finally pulling his eyes away from the back of her head and looked at Dez. "Yeah. Come on."

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megan speaks!

i hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! aren't austin and addy just the cutest?? 🥰

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