CHAPTER ELEVEN
━━━━ season one, episode eleven

songwriting and starfish!
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At night, Dez emerged from an ice cream shop at the mall, called Scoop, There It Is!, holding an ice cream cone as he licked it, and a starfish that was somehow stuck to his face. Something that would raise a lot of questions. A police officer appeared all of a sudden, shining his flashlight in the Wade boy's face. "Little early for ice cream, isn't it?"

Spooked by the new voice, Dez shrieked, until he realised who it was and he sighed in relief. "What are you doing here, Officer?" He casually struck a conversation with the man.

"Somebody triggered the silent alarm."

"Really?" Dez asked, his brows pinching together in confusion. "I didn't hear anything."

"What's with your face?" The officer questioned, referring to the starfish that was pressed against his cheek, but Dez didn't understand that, due to believing that the man was actually talking about his facial features. "Well, some people say I have my mom's eyes and my dad's nose, but I see more of my Great Aunt Ruth. She is a handsome woman."

"I'm talking about the starfish." He reminded the redhead.

Dez shrugged at him. "Oh. I have a starfish on my face." He stated, still not giving an explanation on why the sea creature found its way onto his face, or how it got there.

That's when the door opened up again, revealing Adelaide, Austin and Trish walking out of the ice cream shop. The girls were dressed in pajamas — Trish wore leopard-pattern pj's and curlers in her hair, and Adelaide had a Winnie the Pooh onesie on. Austin was in a blue tank-top and shorts, and was covered in sand. Again, something else that people would question. Once the officer noticed them leaving, he shined his flashlight onto them, like he did with Dez. "Freeze, ice cream stealers!"

Adelaide squealed, and Trish raised her hands in innocence. "What's going on?" The latter asked, looking genuinely baffled about what was going on, even though, from the officer's point of view, it was quite obvious that it seemed like they were robbing the shop.

Dez faced his friends with a panicked expression on his face. "He's busting us for breaking into the ice cream shop."

Trish instantly stepped forward. "Officer, this is a misunderstanding. I work here." She explained to him.

"No, you don't. You served me a latte today at the coffee kiosk." The officer reminded her. However, he doesn't know Trish De La Rosa.

"Yeah..." Adelaide awkwardly interjected into the conversation, and pointed to her friend. "she gets fired a lot."

Trish nodded. "That's true."

"I can see why." The officer agreed, glancing over at the boys and Adelaide, sharing his opinion on the drink. "That was the worst latte I've ever had in my life. Why are you girls in pajamas, and why is he" He gestured towards the blonde. "covered in sand?"

"Officer, I know this looks bad," Austin moved to stand in front of the man. "but I swear, we're not robbing the ice cream store." He insisted.

Just then, Ally came out of the shop, with a black ski mask over her head, a spoon in one hand, and a huge tub of Fruity Mint Swirl ice cream resting in the other. "Score! I can't believe we pulled this off!" She pulled the ski mask off her head with a beaming smile on her face, that dropped as soon as she noticed the police officer. "Uh-oh." Yeah... that was really bad timing.

"All right, kids, come on." The man sighed. "Let's take a little ride downtown."

"But, we can't." Austin interjected, spoken with a hint of desperation. The team definitely couldn't get arrested. "I'm performing at the Miami Beach Bash today."

"The Miami Beach Bash?" He echoed, pretending like he was going to change his mind. "Well, why didn't you say something? I'll let you off right now."

"Really?" All but Adelaide looked delighted about that, falling for his trick. The team still had yet to explain to the police officer, the real reason why they were in the shop at this time a night, so why would he let them off so easily without any more questions, even if he did believe that Austin really was performing at the Miami Beach Bash.

"No." The man deadpanned. "Let's go."

Ignoring the fact that the officer was taking them in, Adelaide shook her head. "I can't believe you guys fell for that." She muttered, chuckling softly as she and her friends followed the officer. At her words, Austin swiftly moved his hand to pull her hood to her Winnie the Pooh onesie down so her eyes were covered for that moment, causing the Dawson girl to squeal once again.

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"I swear we weren't committing a crime, Officer." Ally was trying to explain why they were actually inside the ice cream store, and it wasn't because they were breaking the law like he believed they did. "We were trying to finish a song for Austin to perform at the beach bash."

"Yeah." The blonde singer chimed in. "FM 109 is having a Hot Summer Jam contest. If I win, I get my song on the radio." Austin explained to him, and with a burst of excitement, he danced around carelessly, accidentally flinging some of the sand off his body in the officer's direction.

"Kid," Officer Dunphy stopped him. "you just got sand all in my latte." He picked it up to take a sip of the hot drink, but gagged when the liquid went down his throat. "Ugh. That's still better than the one she made me yesterday." He gestured over to Trish at his comment. The De La Rosa girl pulled a face, and instead of defending herself from that comment, she nodded her head in agreement.

"Uh, anyway," Ally started, as her and Austin sat back down. "the song's the whole reason we were in the ice cream shop."

"So, you expect me to believe that" He pointed to Ally with his pencil. "you were in a ski mask," He then moved the hand that was holding the pencil towards Austin, as he continued. "you're covered in sand," Next was Adelaide and Trish. "you two are in pajamas, and you," His eyes finally landed on Dez. "have a starfish on your face, all because of a song?"

"I know it sounds crazy," Austin started off. "but it's all part of our songwriting process. It's a long story."

The officer instantly sat up. "Ooh, a story. Hmm, I love a story." He mentioned, before playing the drums on his desk, using his pencils as the drum sticks, and chuckled. "Tell me everything."

Ally smiled at the man. "I was trying to come up with something for the beach bash, and I finally got an idea." She started to narrate.

Earlier that day, Ally was scatting a tune as she speed-walked into Sonic Boom, with her hands covering her ears, trying to block out the other noises going on around her. Her sister and Trish followed in tow. "Dah-Dah-Dah-ti-Dah-ta-Dah! Nobody talk to me! I've got a melody stuck in my head, and I don't want to lose it."

She went straight past Austin and Dez who were stood at the counter, but Trish stopped to stand in between them. "Nobody talk to me either. No reason, I just don't feel like talking to either of you."

Trish walked away, making Austin raise a brow towards Adelaide. "Can we talk to you?"

The Dawson girl hummed. "Not right now." Was all she said, before she headed over to her sister and Trish by the piano.

Ally glanced down at the young girl, who was in the middle of playing the instrument, and let out an awkward chuckle. "Excuse me, can I borrow the piano for a second?" The girl didn't move an inch as Ally looked down at the piano anyway, not wanting to lose the melody in her head. "Da-da da-da da-da..." The kid suddenly banged on the piano keys, playing quite loudly and poorly, that Ally feared the volume of that new sound could possibly make her lose it. "No, no, no! I'm going to lose the melody!" So, she tried to sing it again, hoping that the tune would stay on her mind. "Da-da da-da da-da."

"Here, let me help you." Dez interjected, offering his help. "Did it sound like this?" He scatted his own variation of the tune.

Austin quickly stepped in. "Dez, stop. You're not helping." He told him, making Ally look relieved at that, but the expression was soon to fall at his next words. "Did it sound like this?" The blonde scatted his own version of melody, which was further away from what she wanted, especially when Dez joined in with vocalising.

Adelaide huffed, and slapped the back of Austin's head. "Neither of you are helping her."

"Hey," Trish smiled, pointing towards the small instruments on top of the piano. "when did you guys get cowbells?" She picked one of them up and started rattling it, causing Ally to let out a yell, getting irritated by the lack of help from her friends, apart from Adelaide, who groaned, and followed her sister up to the practice room, with Austin behind her.

She continued to sing the melody out loud, until she got to the piano inside the practice room and sat down on the bench. She placed her songbook on top of the piano, before focusing her attention on the keys in front of her as she finally brought the tune to life. "Ah!" She looked up at her sister and Austin with a bright smile. "That's it. That's the melody. Now, let's put some chords behind it." She turned back to the piano, adding chords into the melody. Once she was done, she let out a sigh and looked back up at the two standing next to her. "So, what do you think?"

"It's a good song, Ally." Austin began to say, and sat down on the bench next to her. "It's just... you wrote it in a minor key. It's so sad." The singer started playing the instrument himself, in minor chords, and pouted. "Sad, sad, sad." He sang, as the twins looked at him oddly. "It should be in a major key— upbeat and happy." The Moon boy demonstrated an upbeat version to the melody Ally came up with, singing. "Fun, fun, fun, fun-fun!"

Ally chuckled. "Oh. I like that." She commented, as Austin carried on singing. As soon as Austin stopped, Ally put her hands on the keys to perk the chords up more.

Adelaide stood on the left side of Austin, with her elbows leaning on the piano. "Now, this could be a hot summer jam." She chuckled, grinning over at Ally, who laughed.

"Oh, yeah." Ally joined Austin and stood up from the bench. "That is jammin'." The girl continued, chuckling in between her words. "Jam on it! Uh, jammy-jam-jam! Jam and cheese sandwich!" She stopped as soon as she realised Adelaide and Austin weren't laughing. "One too many?"

"All too many." Austin replied, making Ally give him a look before they returned to the piano and sat down on the bench, with Adelaide standing on the right side of Ally. "Now, we just need to think of some sweet lyrics about how awesome the beach is."

"Let me give it a shot." Ally decided. As Adelaide went to object, she stopped when Ally resumed playing the piano, racking her mind of lyrics to use for the song. "Sand in my eyes, sun burning my thighs, waves crash on pile of trash, we're at the beach, hooray..."

"Ally, those lyrics are a total bummer."

"Yeah..." Adelaide trailed off, making Austin and Ally look over at her. "Ally's not really a big fan of beaches." She pointed out to the blonde, which got a look from her sister.

"But, I said hooray." Ally contradicted. She then sighed. "I'm sorry, Austin. Addy's right. I've just always had bad experiences at the beach."

The blonde let out a breath. "You know who else is gonna have a bad experience at the beach?" He began. "Me. We're not going to win that Hot Summer Jam contest, because we don't have a song."

"Yet." Adelaide corrected. "You don't have a song yet. Let's not lose hope, blondie." She sighed and shook her head, nudging Ally as she nodded her head towards the Moon boy. "Look, who's the bummer now?"

Back to the present, Officer Dunphy interrupted their story with a frustrated groan. "Your story's just not adding up." He banged one of his pencils a few times. "You said you were in the ice cream shop to write a song, and now you're saying you didn't have any lyrics? No. You kids aren't going anywhere. Get comfortable."

"Waaaaay ahead of ya." Trish called, lounging on a chair behind a file cabinet.

"Excuse me, officer," Dez interjected. "but aren't we allowed to call someone?"

"You get one phone call. Make it count."

"Yes!" Ally cheered, as the others smiled.

"Oh, I will." Dez stood up to approach the phone that was on the desk. He picked it up and put it to his ear, before dialling his mother's number. "Hi, mom? I just called to say I love you." He laughed, before saying "Goodbye" and then he hung up the phone.

The smiles on their faces dropped, when they let out a gasp at what just happened. Trish stood up from the chair she was laying on, and approached the Wade boy from behind. "You just wasted our one phone call!"

"Whoa," Dez looked up at the De La Rosa girl in disbelief. "it is never a waste to tell someone you love them."

Trish just shook her head and sat back down next to him, when Officer Dunphy interrupted. "Okay, I'm gonna go see if your jail cells are ready."

"What—"

"Officer, wait." Austin quickly stopped him. "Let us finish the story. It gets better."

"Yeah." Adelaide nodded with a smile. "My sister got into a fight."

"Ooh, a fight." Dunphy grinned, his eyes lighting up at this part. "Grab some napkins, because this story's getting juicy. Who'd you fight?" He asked Ally.

The Dawson girl chuckled awkwardly. "A beach chair."

The officer laughed at her answer. "Don't tell me the beach chair won."

"What?" Ally let out in a high-pitched tone. Well, that's a lie. "Of course not." She said, as she stood up. "Uh, look at these guns." The girl tried to flex her biceps, and awkwardly grabbed her forearm to imitate the sound of gunfire in an attempt to show off her said 'muscles'.

"We knew Ally only wrote bad lyrics because she never had a good time at the beach." Trish began to narrate this time. "So, we thought we'd show her how to have fun there."

Team Austin were setting up their towels on the sand, as Trish, dressed in her work uniform for her current job at 'Scoop, There It Is!' ice cream shop, groaned in frustration as she struggled to push the ice cream cart through the sand. "This is so not fun!"

"Trish." Austin hushed quickly. He and Adelaide shared a pointed look towards the curly-haired girl, while the blonde-haired teenager gestured to Ally with his thumb behind his hand. Ally was nodding her head with a frown on her face. She could understand her friend complaining, even though Trish wasn't referring to their place of setting at all.

"Oh right." Trish realised how that sounded once she saw Ally, remembering why they were there in the first place. She plastered a cheery smile on her face through her next words. "I love pushing a heavy cart through the sand in the hot sun for minimum wage. Hooray, beach!" Trish noticed the looks she received from Austin and Adelaide, and shrugged innocently. "I said 'hooray'."

"Guys, I appreciate what you're doing," Ally said at first. "but maybe I'm just not a beach person. I mean, you see the sun, I see sunburn. You see ocean, I see 'place where sharks live'."

Austin turned to the brunette. "You're focused on the wrong things." He told the girl, then brought her attention to their surroundings. "There's so much cool stuff here. Look, people rockin' their shades, kids smiling and tanning..."

Adelaide threw her hand forward, pointing over to the familiar redhead that was coming over to the group now. "Dez with a starfish on his face... for some reason." Adelaide tilted her head when she realised what she had pointed out. The other three mimicked her actions when they saw the sea creature on the boy's face — raising so many questions.

Dez trotted from the shore. "You guys, the water is amazing." He gushed about his experience in the ocean, with a beaming smile on his face.

Austin was first to let the Wade boy know about his new friend that had joined him. "Dez, you've got a little something on your—" The Moon boy pointed towards Dez's left cheek, but he ended up patting the wrong cheek anyway, where a smaller invertebrate landed and he flicked it off as soon as. "Oh, thanks."

"No, you've got a starfish on your face." Austin finally told him, causing Dez to grab the other cheek, where his hand met with the sea creature and he attempted to pull it off, earning a wince from him when he failed. "Oh, man! It's gonna hurt when I pull it off."

Trish quickly raised her hand, looking rather too excited. "Ooh, I'll do it." She volunteered to be the one to pull it off his face, knowing the action will cause him pain.

"I got it." Austin said pointedly, and looked back at his best-friend to put his hand on the creature, preparing to pull it off. "I'll do it quick on three. One...," Before he finished counting to three, the blonde ripped the starfish off his friend's cheek, naturally causing a loud reaction from him with a scream, and Dez grabbed his cheek to try and hold back the pain. "two, three."

The Wade boy grabbed the starfish from Austin and stared at the creature in his hand with what seemed like a look of awe. "I'm gonna keep him. We've been through a lot together." The redhead walked away from them, caressing the starfish with his finger like it was a pet.

A smile slowly made its way onto Ally's face, as she came to terms with that maybe the three of them were right at what they were trying to do for her. She could at least make an effort to try and see what they saw at the beach. "You know what, Austin? You're right. There is some cool stuff here we can use in the lyrics. Smiling and tanning, rockin' the shades... I'm gonna write that down." She turned around, and went over to pick up her songbook, only to groan in disgust when she noticed the pages of her pride and joy was covered in melted bubblegum. "Oh no. This gum melted and got over my songbook."

Dez looked down at the object in her hands and whined. "Oh no. The songbook closed and got all over my gum."

Ally scoffed, and turned to face Austin. "You see? Bad things happen at the beach."

"Relax, I can fix it." Trish sighed, offering to help as she stepped forward to grab the songbook out of Ally's hands, but on instinct, the Dawson girl instantly pulled it back.

"Alls..." Adelaide cut in, placing her hand on her sister's shoulder, and Ally glanced at her. "as an attempt to fix the problem, can Trish touch your book, just this once? Plus, it's not like she will be able to read it, with the amount of gum that is splatted on there." She reminded her, in a way to reassure the girl.

When Ally nodded, Trish grabbed the book from her hands. "Thank you." She muttered, stepping over to the ice cream cart. Ally followed behind, questioning her actions. "Whoa, what are you doing?" She inquired nervously. The De La Rosa girl ignored her to put her songbook in the cart freezer. She turned back to her, gesturing to the ice cream cart with a smile. "There, the gum will freeze and then we can scrape it off."

"Just don't accidentally give it to someone when you sell them ice cream." Ally reminded her best-friend. She had already lost her songbook once, and wouldn't want to go through it again.

Trish smiled like she had just seen the cutest dog in the world. "Oh, that's adorable. You think I'm actually going to work." She tore off the bottom half to her uniform, then her t-shirt, to reveal a one-piece swimming costume and shorts under her work clothes. "Guess who's ready to tan?"

"I'm with Trish." Adelaide, who was dressed in a blue strap-top with summer shorts over her two piece swimming costume, placed her sunglasses over her eyes and dropped to the floor where her towel was.

"So am I." Austin agreed. "Let's catch some rays while we think of more lyrics." He turned to his red-headed friend to call out. "Yo, Dez, toss me the sunblock." He did just that, so Austin could spray some of it on.

Meanwhile, Ally grabbed a beach chair to sit on and walked back over to them. "Okay, so we're chilling..." However, she appeared to be having some trouble with it when she tried to unfold the chair, but it was stuck. "I can do that. I'll just sit back, and relax and..." She continued to struggle with unfolding the chair, causing her to huff in annoyance. "why does this chair hate me?"

Austin chuckled. "Here, let me help you." The boy passed the spray bottle back to Dez, before going to help the brunette with the chair. They stepped away from their friends who watched as the two seemed to have some sort of tug of war with the beach chair, until they broke apart. The blonde-haired boy rolled backwards and landed near a tent, and when he stood up, that's when Austin looked down at his body with his brows knitted together in confusion, noticing the sand was strangely stuck on him. "Why is this sand so sticky?" He wondered, examining the sand that was splatted across both of his arms and down his chest.

Dez was double-checking the spray bottle, before he realised his mistake. "Oh." He laughed. "Yeah, this isn't sunblock. It's glue."

"What?" Austin looked at his friend in disbelief, as he continued to laugh. "Why'd you bring glue to the beach?"

Dez pulled a face. "How else are you supposed to stay up on a surfboard?" He asked rhetorically, like it was the most obvious answer, before he brought everyone's attention to the floor, where his left foot was stuck to the surfboard that he was planning on using.

"Um, guys?" Ally, who appeared to be tangled in the beach chair, hobbled over to her friends. "A little help?" Everyone laughed, as Adelaide took her phone out to take a picture. She was amused about what was happening, but soon, her sister instinct took over. "Alright, alright, I'm coming." She put her phone back in her pocket, before she went over to help.

Back at the police station, where Officer Dunphy was laughing at the recent part of the story. "All right, well, that explains how you got the lyrics, and why he's covered in sand." He was starting to understand, making their story more believable, however, there was still something missing. The man glanced over to Dez. "But, why does this fool still have a starfish on his face if you ripped the other one off?" He was about to answer, but the officer interrupted him. "Wait, don't tell me you got another one stuck to your face."

"No, I'm not an idiot." Dez began. "I got the same starfish stuck to my face."

"But, I still don't understand how you guys all ended up in the ice cream shop."

Dunphy could tell the team hadn't finished their story. "Well, we had the verses, but we couldn't figure out a cool chorus." Austin mentioned.

"So we had to pull an all-nighter to finish the song."

Late at night, Austin and Ally were sitting down at the piano, while Adelaide situated herself on a beanbag next to them, with her songbook and a pen in hand. All three of them were very much in need of sleep — something that Adelaide could've been doing, but to be nice, she offered to help the other two finish the song. Yeah... she regrets that now.

"Okay, okay. What about this?" Ally pressed her hands on the piano keys to play the melody, as lyrics popped into her head, and she sang them out loud. "Summer at the beach, rockin' shades. Bed, pillow, tired... dreams." At this point, Ally was overcome with fatigue, as her head dropped onto the piano keys, falling asleep.

Austin glanced between the sisters, seeing as his choreographer had dozed off, with her book and pen now resting on her knees. "Ally!" His voice lacked energy when he yelled, resulting in both the Dawson siblings to wake up.

Ally immediately snapped her head up. "Did we finish the song?"

"No," Austin sighed in disappointment. "but you slobbered all over the keys." That's when, a faint grumble came from behind him, making Austin look back at Adelaide at her words. "Damn you, blondie." The boy merely shook his head, before turning back to Ally. "Why are we having such a hard time coming up with lyrics for the chorus?"

Ally's eyes then lit up at her idea. "Maybe I have some old ideas in my songbook." She voiced, and stood up from the bench to go over to where her purse was and rummaged through it, unaware that she was practically dumping whatever else was in her purse, onto Adelaide's lap. Ally began to panic when she realised the book wasn't in the bag, before remembering what happened at the beach. "Oh no! I left my book in Trish's ice cream cart. I'm calling her." She put her bag down and swapped it for her phone.

Austin watched her start to dial her best-friend's number with a chuckle. "Are you kidding? It's 4am. Trish is asleep."

"Lucky her." Adelaide muttered.

"Austin, please." Ally scoffed, with her phone still pressed against her ear, while she waited for the girl to hopefully answer the phone. "Trish is my best friend. She'll understand."

Adelaide got up from the beanbag, and turned to her sister with her brows raised. "Do you realise what you just said?" She rhetorically asked. "The girl will not understand."

And she was proven right, when they arrived in front of the ice cream shop. Trish was dressed in her pajamas, the same as Adelaide, who had her Winnie the Pooh onesie on from helping Ally and Austin finish the song in the practice room. The De La Rosa girl was exhausted as she cried out to her friend. "I don't understand! It's 4am. Why would you do this to me?!"

"Told you." Adelaide didn't forget to remind her sister, receiving a look in return.

"I-I-I'm sorry, Trish, but my book is in your cart. We need your keys to get inside to finish the song."

Trish fumbled around her pajamas in attempt to find her keys, when she realised. "Oh no. I forgot my keys." She threw her arms up in the air. She was already too tired for this.

"Trish! But— my book!"

Adelaide's eyes started to close as she leaned on Austin, feeling herself drifting off to sleep, the same as Austin, who was about to fall asleep on the door of the ice cream shop, when it opened, making Adelaide fall into Austin's side, and he wrapped his arm around the girl to prevent her from falling any further. He realised what had happened, and turned back to the girls with a smile. "It's unlocked."

"Oh, yeah." The corner of her lips tugged up into a grin as Trish remembered. "I keep it unlocked because I always forget my keys." She chuckled to herself as she entered into the ice cream shop, with the other three following behind, until they found themselves walking into the freezer, and immediately, they wrapped their arms around themselves at how cold it was.

"'No hugging the ice cream'?" Ally read off from the sign on the wall, with her eyebrows pinched together in bewilderment. "Do they really need a sign for that?"

"You'd be surprised at how often it happens."

"Then maybe you should have warned him." The eldest-Dawson sibling motioned over to Austin, who was currently hugging one of the ice cream tubs on the shelf. "I love you, ice cream."

"Austin." Trish went over to pull him away from the ice cream tub.

"Sorry." The blonde chuckled awkwardly. "Let's just grab your book and get out of here." Austin walked over to open the freezer door, but failed, when it appeared to be jammed. Then, when he pulled harder on the handle, unfortunately, the boy managed to yank it out of the door, making him panic and look back at the girls. "Uh, guys? I think the door handle broke."

"What?"

"Are you kidding me?"

"Oh no!"

The four of them rushed over in attempt to push the freezer door open with all the strength they could muster, but it was no use.

"We're trapped in here."

"This is all my fault." Austin admitted.

"No, it's not." Ally disagreed. "You didn't do it on purpose."

However, that wasn't what he meant. "No, when I was five, I made a birthday wish that I'd be locked in a freezer full of ice cream." The blonde-haired boy shared, before he noticed the looks he was receiving from the girls. "I should've wished for a pony."

As they continued trying to warm themselves up in the freezer, they wondered what they could do now, since their only way out was a no go, from the inside anyway. "What are we gonna do? It's freezing in here." Ally reminded everyone.

"And the beach bash is in a few hours, and we haven't even finished our song." Austin added, before he got an idea. "I'll call Dez."

"Yeah."

Meanwhile with Dez, he was sleeping soundly in his bed, until his phone ringing woke him up. As he fumbled to find it, the boy picked up what he believed was his phone, but instead, the starfish, which was now stuck to his cheek. "Hello?" His phone continued to ring. "Aw, man." The Wade boy groaned once he realised. "Why did I leave my starfish next to my starfish phone again?" He finally got his starfish phone in his hand and pressed it to his right ear. "Hello?" He answered.

"Dez, we're in the ice cream shop, locked in the freezer."

"Austin?" Dez furrowed his brows, struggling to hear him through the phone. "Austin, it's a bad connection. Did you say you're at a mice dream swamp and your clock is a sneezer?"

"What? No. Come to the ice cream shop!" Austin raised his voice, desperately trying to get Dez to hear him. "We need you to save us!"

"I have to come to the ice cream shop and shave Gus?" Dez repeated, before dragging an electric razor. "I'm on my way." He dropped his phone, before leaping out of bed.

"Dez? Dez?" Austin hung up the phone seeing as he didn't get a response from his friend. "Well, I think he's on his way, but he might be stopping somewhere to shave some guy named Gus."

Adelaide looked baffled. "Who the hell is Gus?"

Austin shrugged. "I don't know."

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Minutes have passed, and the freezer was filled with more condensation. "I hope Dez gets here soon. I'm freezing." Ally pointed out.

"Oh, here. Put on this ski mask." Trish suggested, and grabbed the mask from the shelf, before she passed it to her friend, who stared at the mask in her hand with a puzzled expression. "W-Why do you have a ski mask in here?" She asked.

"So I don't freeze my face off when I sneak in here to take naps." Trish scoffed, like the answer was obvious.

"Man, I'm starting to get hungry, but all that's in here is ice cream." Austin's stomach rumbled. He hadn't taken into account straight away what he said, when his eyes widened. "Wait. All that's in here is ice cream!" He grabbed two scoops from the floor, before opening the first ice cream tub on the trolley and dug in, using both scoops to taste the ice cream. "Mmm. Chocolate chip." The boy moved onto the next tub of ice cream to open that one as well to have two scoopfuls. "Mmmm. Cookie dough." Last but not least, Austin opened the third tub, and scooped the ice cream into his mouth. "Oh, fruity mint swirl!"

At the mention of the specific ice cream flavour, Ally pulled the ski mask off her face, leaving it on her head like a hat. "Fruity mint swirl? That was my favourite ice cream when I was a little girl." She shared, before grabbing an ice cream scoop herself to dig into the tub, and savour the taste of her favourite ice cream.

"Check it out! They have mint chocolate chip!" As Austin exclaimed, Adelaide ran forward, almost making the singer jump. "Where?!" And by that reaction, if you didn't know by now — that mint chocolate chip is Adelaide's favourite ice cream flavour. The Dawson girl beamed, and grabbed an ice cream scoop, before doing what her sister did, and took a scoop full of ice cream.

Trish stepped in between her friends. "Guys, we can't have ice cream for breakfast..." The De La Rosa girl deliberately paused, before a bright smile appeared on her face. "Without toppings!"

She bent down and picked up a can of whipped cream and some toppings for everyone. "Fruity mint swirl reminds me of this one time Addy and I were walking on the beach with our dad." Ally started talking, making her sister direct her eyes over to her. "We were walking on the boardwalk eating this ice cream." She said, as her and Trish swapped places.

"Wait. Are you having a good memory about the beach?" Austin asked.

Ally hummed, looking just as surprised about it as he was. "I guess I am."

"I'm having a good memory, too." Trish chimed in. "Remember that time, right now, when I was ignoring your story and eating this ice cream." She chuckled, shaking her head. "Oh, good times. Good times."

"Anyway," Ally faced Austin. "uh, while we were eating the ice cream, we heard this cool song on the radio. Don't you remember, Addy?" The girl nodded, listening as she carried on. "The band was playing in town that night, so our dad took us down to see the show. We had the best time ever."

"Hey," Adelaide hummed, after swallowing the spoonful of mint chocolate chip ice cream that was in her mouth. "maybe there's something in that memory you can use for the chorus."

"Yeah." Ally nodded, and looked back at Austin, picking out words from the memory. "Heard it on the radio. Coming down to see the show."

"That's perfect!" Austin smiled. "I heard it on the radio," He began to sing, mimicking the sound of a guitar in between. "coming down to see your show."

Ally shrieked happily. "We have a song for the beach bash!" She exclaimed, before high-fiving the blonde. "Whoo-hoo!"

"We're still stuck in the freezer." Trish reminded her two friends, causing the smiles on their faces to drop into a frown.

"Awww."

Luckily for them, Dez finally arrived to the shop a moment later, to rescue them from the freezer, and opened the door. "Hey, guys." His friends let out cheers as soon as they saw him. "I'm sorry, I didn't get here quicker." Dez briefly stepped out of view to pull in a half-bearded man, dressed in a janitor's uniform. "It's taking twice as long as I thought to shave Gus the janitor." He turned his face, to expose the other half of his face that Dez had already shaved. "Smooth like half a baby's bottom."

Back at the police precinct, where Austin finished off the story. "And that's why we were in the ice cream shop."

"Do you believe our story now, officer?"

"You know what? I do." Dunphy nodded.

"Yes!" Ally cheered.

"So, you'll let us go?" Austin asked with a hopeful expression.

"No." The officer shook his head.

"What?!" The five of them exclaimed, and leaped up from their chairs. After hearing that Dunphy had believed their story, and that it summed up, they obviously assumed that was their chance to be free. But, clearly not.

"Well, you just admitted to breaking into the ice cream shop, and stealing 'fruity mint swirl'." The man reminded the five of them. "Forget about the beach bash. You kids aren't going anywhere." He mimicked a whine as he gestured for the team to sit back down, letting out a whine like he thought they would.

Austin sighed. "I can't believe we're going to miss the beach bash, after all we went through writing the song."

"That song will still be the hot summer jam, even if I have to sing it personally to all the men, women and children in Miami." Dez commented, before singing the lyrics. "I heard it on the radio, coming down to see your show!" He vocalised a tune. "Heard it on the radio—" Trish cut him off by ripping the starfish off his face, causing him to scream and hold his cheek.

"Thank you." Dunphy looked towards the girl in gratitude. "I thought I was gonna have to pepper-spray him."

"Awww." Trish frowned, before looking up at the officer with a beaming smile. "You still can."

"Ahh." Dunphy considered her offer for a second, before letting it go. "No, I shouldn't." The officer then proceeded to pass the time by impulsively drumming on his desk, using the pencils as the drumsticks.

Adelaide tilted her head, noticing how he played, making her grin slightly. "Blondie, check it out." She nudged the boy beside her, who followed her gaze, as well as Ally, Trish and Dez, and watched as Dunphy continued to drum, ending the drum roll by pretending to slam the pencil on a pair of cymbals.

Once he finished, everyone cheered, and erupted in applause for his play. "Sorry- sorry about that. I get... I get carried away." He tried to resume the report.

"That's okay. You're good." Austin complimented his drumming skills.

"I don't know if I'm good..." The officer shrugged at him. "Really? You think I'm good?" His words of approval brought his attention away from the police report. "'Cause when I was a kid, I always wanted to be in a band, but my dad said I had like, a bazillion-in-one-chance of making it in the music biz, so... so I quit."

Austin feigned a sigh, using this as his chance to try and convince the man to let them go. "It's too bad I'm not playing the beach bash, or I'd ask you to sit in with my band."

"Uh, yeah." Ally joined in. "You two could totally be jamming on stage together in two hours, but," She snapped her fingers, imitating the sound of a buzzer. "we're stuck in here."

"Really? Because I have some drumsticks back..." Dunphy went to say, but stopped himself as soon as he realised he was being fooled. "Wait a sec, I know what it is you're trying to do. You think I'm gonna let you outta here and go to the beach bash, just so I can play drums and finally prove my dad wrong? That's..."

Completely true. Dunphy in fact did let the team go, and was now sat behind the drumset, with his sleeves ripped, his shirt opened and his tie being used as a bandana. "In your face, dad!" The man cheered. "I'm drumming!" He did a drum roll on stage, and slammed the sticks onto some of the cymbals. The crowd cheered, their eyes attending to the sand dune, where Austin was standing.

"What's up, Miami!" Austin called. "This is a new song my partner Ally and I wrote, called Heard It On The Radio. Hope everybody likes it. Hit it officer!"

Dunphy tapped his drumsticks together, starting them off as Austin stepped on stage. His guitarist and bassist joined in. "Yo, what up?"

"Summer in the sand,
he's a drummer in the band,
droppin' the beach,
she's a DJ at the boardwalk.
A smile and a tan,
and her sandals in her hand,
rockin' her shades,
you could almost see the eyes lock.

What could be better than a party
in the weather,
with the both of us together in
the backdrop?

Everything was right and the
day turned into night,
with the music and the lights
that's when we stop."

The crowd were still clapping their hands to the beat as Austin was reaching the chorus.

"Heard it on the radio, sing it out loud.
Coming down to see your show
Oh oh oh, having fun now
Heard it on the radio, oh oh
Oh oh oh, having fun now
Coming down to see your show!"

He pulled his guitar over his head and passed the instrument to one of his back-up players, before going over to stand at the front of the stage where he'd sing his next verse. Dez was recording the performance with his video camera, as everyone else danced and clapped to the beat. As the verse Austin was singing was coming to an end, the boy turned around and retrieved his guitar back, and hung it back around him, before he finished the second verse when he flipped the guitar over his shoulder.

"What?" He dove backwards into the crowd so he could body surf. He continued playing the guitar as his fans carried him over to the beach.

"Heard it on the radio, sing it out loud,
Oh, coming down to see your show.
Oh oh oh, having fun now
Heard it on the radio, oh oh
Oh oh oh, having fun now
Heard it on the radio, oh oh
Oh oh oh, having fun now
Coming down to see your show!"

"Whoo!" Austin was standing on the deck of the lifeguard's tower when he finished the song, and smiled down at the crowd that erupted in cheers and applause.

After the concert, Team Austin and Dunphy were on stage. The officer was still overcome with joy that he finally got to play the drums, and for the Austin Moon no less. "Thanks for letting me play with you, Austin. That was awesome!" He looked up once again, shouting. "Told you, dad! Unh!"

"So, are we free to go, officer?" Ally asked, before she, Adelaide, Trish and Dez lifted up their arms to remind him that they were handcuffed to each other.

Officer Dunphy pulled out the keys. "Yeah." Then he passed them over to Austin, who handed them to Adelaide, who was the first to uncuff herself, before passing the keys down the line. "I spoke to the owner of the ice cream shop and he said that, since Ally left money for the ice cream, he's not pressing charges."

Austin turned to Ally. "Wow. You being a goody-goody finally paid off." He commented, as Trish unlocked the handcuffs that were attached to her left wrist, and Dez's right one.

Ally grinned. "Honesty is its own reward."

Dez shook his head. "She just doesn't stop."

"Hey, don't give Ally all the credit." Trish chimed in, and went over to stand in between Austin and Dunphy. "We probably got off because my boss loves me."

"Actually, he wanted me to tell you that you're fired." The officer informed the girl, before taking the keys back.

"What?" Trish looked genuinely shocked that she was getting fired for that reason. "But we didn't break in!"

"It wasn't for that. It was for..." The police officer had pulled a list out of his pocket, and was now staring at it in his hands. "Ooh, leaving the shop unlocked, napping in the freezer, charging customers for free samples, scooping ice cream with her hands, scooping ice cream with someone else's hands—"

"Okay, I get it. I'm fired." Trish interrupted him, before suddenly perking up as she turned to the man with a raised brow. "On a totally unrelated note, are you guys hiring down at the station?"

"How are you with paperwork?"

"Mmm," Trish looked unsure. "see, I really don't do anything with the word 'work' in it."

Officer Dunphy hummed and nodded. "Can you start Monday?"

Trish repeated the sound he made. "I also don't work on days that end with 'Y'." She pointed out to him, as the two of them walked off the stage together.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

Team Austin were at the beach the next day, and listened to Austin's new hit song as it blared from a stereo that was situated in front of them. Mack from Miami F.M 109 then voice-overed the new song. "That was Austin Moon, with Heard It On The Radio, the winner of F.M 109 Hot Summer Jam contest. The team cheered and clapped their hands before Dez switched the radio off.

Austin let out a breath and turned to his friends with a grin on his face. "I can't believe it. Our first song on the radio. I've always dreamed of this day."

"This is awesome." Ally interjected. "I think now I know what was missing all those times I didn't have fun on the beach."

"We know, we know." Trish nodded. "Your good friends."

"No, my best friend." Ally corrected, smiling over at Trish who appeared to be flattered by what she said, assuming she was talking about her. But, by the look on Adelaide's face, she knew her sister too well, to know Ally wasn't referring to Trish at her words. "Wait for it..." Adelaide muttered, and pursed her lips. Ally reached behind her to grab a tub of Fruity Mint Swirl ice cream, her favourite, momentarily offending Trish. "I love you, Fruity Mint Swirl."

Dez turned to the blonde-haired singer. "I am so psyched you got a song on the radio." He smiled proudly at his best-friend. "Group hug!" He put his arms out for his friends to lean into. Ally had put the tub of ice cream down beside her, before joining the group hug.

Austin suddenly widened his eyes. He could tell something was wrong. "Um, Dez?"

"Yeah."

"You weren't just putting on sunblock, were you?"

"Yeah, why?" Dez asked.

"It wasn't sunblock. It was glue!" Trish yelled, as the five of them struggled to break free from the group hug, causing them to fall straight on their backs.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

author's note!

i hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! lmao, not me putting my love for mint chocolate chip ice cream into my oc's 🤭

next up is soups and stars!

thanks for reading, i love you all!! <33