CHAPTER TWELVE
━━━━ season one, episode twelve

soups and stars!
━━━━━━━━━━━

"Uhhh, what are you two doing?" Adelaide asked, with her brows furrowed towards Austin and Dez as she, Ally and Trish made their way downstairs to see Dez with his camera in his hand — filming Austin playing a guitar that was way bigger than him.

At the sound of her voice, Austin stopped playing the instrument to direct his gaze over to the three girls approaching them. His lips began to curl up into a smile, and with the shrug of his shoulders, he responded to the girl. "Shooting a commercial for Sonic Boom."

Ally raised her brows, scoffing out a light chuckle, like his answer somehow seemed unbelievable to her. Sharing a bewildered look with her twin, she opened her mouth to ask, "Our dad is paying you to shoot a commercial? In real money?" Stopping in front of Dez, she added, "'Cause Addy and I got chicken fingers for allowance last week."

"I'm doing it for free." Dez shared, rather thrilled to fulfil this new offer of filming a commercial for the twins' father. "I'm hoping when other stores see it, they'll pay me to shoot their commercials."

Trish ducked under the enormous guitar that was in her way, Austin and Adelaide following behind her. "Whoa," She held her hands up, pausing him briefly to stop him from saying anymore. "you're actually doing work for free? You're supposed to get paid not to work." She reminded the redhead, looking at him incredulously. "Have I taught you nothing?"

Adelaide made a face, pursing her lips. "So..." She cleared her throat, motioning behind her towards the giant instrument, with her thumb. "what's up with the huge guitar?"

"Every director needs a 'thing'. My 'thing' is giant props—" The Wade boy air quoted the word thing through his explanation, then turned away with a bright smile. "and the splits." At his addition, the redhead dropped down into the splits ( well... as far as he could go ), stopping in a lunge position before he raised his arms above his head. Albeit, he could only hold it for a few seconds before the smile on his face faltered, and he let out a scream at the feeling of his thighs practically burning up. Coming to his rescue, Austin rushed behind them to pull Dez up to stand straight. "Okay," His voice sounded weak, "maybe just giant props."

Adelaide nodded along with him. "Definitely."

"My thing is twitting." Ally pointed out to the rest of the team with a smirk grazed across her lips as she started heading over to the benches stationed in the corner of the store. "That's right, I joined Tweeter. Ever heard of it?"

Trish arched her brows in surprise, and tilted her head at her joyful best friend. "You're just joining Tweeter now?"

"Yep, Ally Dawson is officially a passenger on the cool train." The girl continued with a smirk. "All aboard. A—" Ally raised her arm and moved it up and down, imitating the sound of a train. "woot woot!"

Her friends stared, pulling faces until Austin was the first to speak, "Ally." He called out her name, making her stop whatever she was doing and she looked up at the blond. "The tweeter train left the station about two years ago. And apparently, it left you stranded there."

The four of them nodded, making her shoot them a look, but she still managed to smile. "Well, I got on this week, and I'm already up to 11 followers."

Trish and Adelaide chuckled, sitting down beside Ally on the bench. Dez shrugged, gesturing to his best friend standing next to him. "Austin just got 3,000 followers."

Ally quirked a brow. "This week?"

"This morning."

"I don't get it." Ally slumped at this. "I post really great twits."

"Let me see." Adelaide said, holding her hand out for Ally to hand over her phone, so she and Trish could take a look for themselves as the boys took a seat so they could listen. "The radiant glow of a friendly smile" They nodded, the twit seeming to be starting off well, before Adelaide furrowed her brows at the next part. "will warm a heart for a million miles?"

Trish looked up at her best-friend who stood next to her sister, and knitted her brows. "Is this a twit or your English paper?"

Adelaide passed the phone back to her perplexed sister, and Ally stepped back to sit back down on the bench. "What are you talking about?" The girl genuinely wondered.

"Alls," Adelaide shrugged. "twits are supposed to be silly and fun."

Austin turned slightly, nodding. "You put way too much thought into your twits. Here," Reaching to his back pocket to pull his phone out and open up Tweeter, he continued, "check out what I posted when I was eating pancakes with Dez."

He passed his phone over to Ally who smiled, and looked down at the mobile to read his twit, before the smile faltered slightly. "Eating pancakes" She looked bemused, "with Dez."

"See? No thought." Austin shook his head.

Ally handed his phone back. "All right, let me try something fun." She grinned lightly, and started to type out a new twit. "Chilling at Sonic Boom with my buds." Everyone nodded, approving her new twit, however it didn't stop there. "There is nothing more important than the moments you share with your friends. Twit!" Once she posted the twit on her page, Ally's phone beeped and she frowned down at the screen. "Hey, I just lost four followers." Awkwardly, Dez, Austin, Adelaide and Trish turned away with their phones still in their hands. Guess she just found her culprits.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

"Guess who got a job at Suzy's Soups?" The De La Rosa girl announced upon her arrival at the Sonic Boom store, dressed in a waitress uniform. Trish wore a blissful grin, moving towards the twins at her news she was so eager to share. "You'll never guess who the owner is."

"Wait," Adelaide paused, taking her elbow off the counter before she pointed a finger in her friend's direction and responded amusingly. "don't tell us— someone named Suzy?"

Trish rolled her eyes with a smile. "It's Miss Suzy, our elementary school music teacher." Her words gave them a sense of nostalgia, reminiscing their times with Miss Suzy, who the three loved dearly. It seemed like the woman had quite the effect on each of their lives, in a positive way.

"No way! I loved Miss Suzy." Ally felt delighted to hear about her music teacher, who she grew very fond of in elementary school. "She's a big reason why I started to take music seriously."

Trish snorted. "She's a big reason why I started to take naps in class." She shared through a chuckle, following Ally, who was trying to carry on wiping down the counter. "She was so boring." Adelaide smiled lightly, rolling her eyes at the girl's words. Of course that would be the reason. Though, she never found her former music teacher boring like Trish said she was, as she'd grown a soft spot for the woman, who influenced her life in music and dance greatly. Miss Suzy was someone Adelaide could always count on whenever she needed her support, and she appreciated her very much.

Ally interrupted her thoughts when she asked her friend. "So Miss Suzy's not teaching anymore?"

"No, she's retired." Trish responded, shaking her head as she followed the twins towards the piano, continued to explain, with a beaming grin on her face. "But she still acts like a third grade teacher. She gives us gold stars for doing good work, and instead of breaks, she gives us recess."

Ally stared ahead. "Ah, recess." She let out, with a content smile grazed across her lips, recalling the times she spent during recess— or what seemed to be her version of recess. "Nothing better than curling up in the library with a good book." Trish furrowed her brows at her friend while Adelaide simply chuckled. Ally quickly noticed her friend's befuddled gaze. "What? I hated the playground. I was always getting nailed in the head with a dodgeball."

"Ah," Adelaide and Trish let out a breath, looking ahead with a content expression. "dodgeball."

Ally turned to her friend, the smile spread across her lips awkwardly. "So, Miss Suzy still gives out gold stars, huh?" She arched her brows, bringing up what seemed to be a sensitive subject for her as she mentioned. "I never got one of those."

"Really?" Trish turned around when Ally stepped away for a moment to continue wiping down the counter with the cloth in her hand. Trish pointed to her shoulder, pointing out one of the gold stars she received. "I got this one for spilling hot soup on only one customer today," Her finger lifted off her shirt to point out the other one just below it, and she giggled. "and this one for going potty."

Ally then decided. "I wanna go see Miss Suzy. I'm gonna twit an update. I'm getting good at these." She hummed, opening up the tweeter app on her phone and began to type out a new twit. "Cruisin' to Suzy's Soups to see my old teach." Her sister and Trish raised their brows, getting better at the twits, I see? But she wasn't done. "Teachers are like candles, they light the way for others."

Adelaide pursed her lips, as Trish gave her friend an exasperated look. "It's like you want to get hit by dodgeballs."

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

The Dawson twins stared, knitting their brows at Austin and Dez who sat across from them, loudly slurping down their soups. Ally was about to put a spoonful of her soup to her mouth, but stopped and shifted her eyes back to them. "Do you guys have to make those noises?"

They paused briefly, pulling the edge of the bowls away from their lips. "Sorry, we'll make different noises." Dez told her, before him and Austin took a large sip of their soups and hung their head back to gargle what was in their mouths.

Ally pursed her lips as Adelaide simply rolled her eyes at the boys' antics. "I'm pretty sure that's not what she meant." She commented, before flicking her eyes over to her sister and shook her head as she muttered, "Kids."

"Come on, honey." Miss Suzy motioned for Trish to follow her as she led her employee over to stop at the station. "I'll show you how to do a setup at the station. Crackers on your left," She started to sing, using her hands to gesture to the essentials she'll need. "spoons on your right. When you're eating soup, you'll never have to bite."

"As long as you pay me," Trish grabbed a weaved basket from the station, then turned back to Miss Suzy with a bright smile. "it's all good. La la la la la la la la la la—" In the middle of following Miss Suzy, she stopped at her friends' table, and gently placed the basket of crackers in front of them, as her boss gasped in awe upon reuniting with two more of her former students, Adelaide and Ally.

The latter stood up from her chair, and bashfully smiled at the woman. "Hi, Miss Suzy. Remember me?"

"How could I ever forget you, my little" Miss Suzy brought her hand to Ally's cheek before pinching it softly, "Ally-gator?" She directed her gaze down to Adelaide and her blissful smile widened at the dancer, putting her hand to her heart. "And of course, my little ballerina."

"Hi, Miss Suzy." Adelaide smiled shyly, her heart warming at the sight of the woman.

"She gave us all nicknames in class." They turned their heads to look at Trish when she said that. "I was Trish-kabob." She giggled.

"My teachers used to call me D-plus." Dez shared with the table, before he leant and tilted his head back with a smug expression, attempting to brag through his next words. "They put it at the top of all my tests."

"Do you kids need more crayons to color on your placemats?" Miss Suzy held out a pack of crayons to Austin and Dez, and the blond accepted them within a second, taking one of the crayons in his hand and scribbled it across his paper, finishing off his picture.

"Miss Suzy, we're grown up now." Ally reminded her old elementary school music teacher, clearly having missed what Austin did. "We don't color anymore."

Austin flicked his eyes up towards his songwriter, quickly disagreeing with her. "Speak for yourself, Ally-gator." He picked up his picture and turned it around, before pressing it against his chest for Miss Suzy to see it. There was a small crossword puzzle in the bottom left corner, unfinished, along with a picture of a soda cup, an ice cream, and a completed colored rocket — with his name written out beside it in blue: Austin! "Ta dah!"

"Oh. That shows real potential." Miss Suzy placed a hand to her heart, praising the blond singer for his hard work. "You get a gold star." As she gently stuck the gold star on his t-shirt, Austin pumped his fists and cheered, "Sweet!"

Adelaide snorted, amused, before quickly making a comment towards the Moon boy. "You are such a child." Miss Suzy looked over at Adelaide, when she took notice of the placemat that was laid out next to her finished bowl of soup. "And Addy, my little ballerina... don't think I didn't notice you've finished your placemat." She walked around Ally and put her hand on the back of Adelaide's chair, glancing down at her completed placemat unlike Austin's. "That looks amazing! Now, you've got a gold star." Miss Suzy unpeeled one of the stickers off the sheet before placing it softly on the t-shirt. She never normally gave her gold stars, but only on occasions when Adelaide needed some type of encouragement so she could keep going in music and dancing.

Adelaide smiled, turning away from her — only to meet with Austin's smug expression. "Look who's acting like a child now?" He was referring to her behaviour, when he stuck his tongue out at her, like that was proving her wrong.

Adelaide arched a brow, smirking. "It's still you."

While they were still on the subject, Dez, who felt desperate to receive a gold star, grabbed his bowl of soup and tipped it to his mouth, slurping down what was left of it, before holding up the emptied bowl and spoon for Miss Suzy to clearly see. "Ta-dah!" The woman gaped at him from across the table and as he hoped, she made her way around the table to him. "And you finished all your soup. You get a gold star, too." She praised, sticking the gold star on his purple shirt.

"Awesome!" Dez cheered, leaning back to rest his arm on the chair with a smug smile. "Lunch has always been my best subject."

Trish grinned in excitement and shuffled her feet over to her boss, turning to the side so Miss Suzy could put another gold star on her uniform. "And you get a gold star, too, Trish-kabob."

"Why does Trish-kabob get a gold star?"

"She's really improving at her job." The owner of the restaurant began to explain to Ally. "She's not ladling soup with her hands anymore."

Adelaide was in the middle of her drink when she widened her eyes at the woman's words. Flicking her eyes over to Trish, she watched as she leaned down in between Austin and Dez to inform them quietly, but loud enough for her to hear. "That's what she thinks." Trish snickered, causing Austin and Dez to gag. Austin immediately spat out what was in his mouth, and Adelaide almost choked on her drink.

"Well, I just finished my soup." Ally informed the woman, holding up her empty bowl and spoon to Miss Suzy, hoping she would give her a gold star for it, her first one ever. She put down her bowl and spoon on the table, and looked back at Miss Suzy with a beaming grin. "Do I get anything for that?"

"Yes, you do." She nodded. Finally. Ally thought. The time finally came for her to receive her very first gold star from the woman, who wrapped her arm around Ally's shoulder, elaborating on that answer. "The nutritious benefits of a hearty bowl of soup." The smile dropped from her face almost instantly.

"This place is awesome. I'm gonna twit about it." Dez pointed out. His brows furrowed, seeming to forget where he placed his phone. "Wait, where's my phone?" He fumbled around his pockets, only to find them empty before opening his backpack and began rummaging through it as he threw out every item that he held in his bag, onto the table.

"You know, you wouldn't keep losing your phone if you didn't carry around all that junk."

Dez pulled away from his bag, disagreeing. "This isn't junk. I need this stuff."

"Really?" Adelaide arched a brow once she took a look at the pile of junk on the table. "You need an anchor, a license plate and a rubber spider?" The girl practically shuddered at the last object, even though it was fake, she absolutely hated spiders.

Dez slowly looked away from his backpack and to Adelaide. "Yes, Addy, I do." He responded, before moving back to his bag, continuing to go through it until he soon felt his phone with his hand and he smiled in satisfaction. "Ah, here it is." The boy pulled it out, as Austin picked up his phone from the table too, chiming in to say, "I'm gonna twit, too." He began to type out the twit on his phone, and read aloud, "Eating at Suzy's Soups. What's soup, everybody?"

Trish laughed. "Good one."

"I can do a cool twit, too." Ally interjected. "Give me a minute to think about exactly—"

"Don't think. Just do, do." Austin advised, before giggling like a child when he realised what he just said, and turned to Dez. "I just said do-do. I gotta twit that." He said, while Dez and Trish laughed along with him.

"What do you want me to do?" Ally asked as she picked up the rubber spider from Dez's junk pile and chucked it into a bowl of soup near her. "Put Dez's rubber spider in a bowl of a soup and take a picture of it?"

Trish shuffled to stand next to Ally. "That's pretty funny."

Ally shrugged slightly, not managing to think that twitting about a rubber spider in a soup— with an attached photo to it, could work and possibly get her more followers on the app. "I'll call it spider noodle soup. There." Once she posted the twit on her page, Dez's phone buzzed, making him laugh all of a sudden. Ally smiled, assuming he found her twit amusing. "Thanks, Dez. I guess spider noodle soup is pretty funny."

"No," Dez turned his phone around for Ally to see and chuckled. "Austin just said do-do." The Wade boy raised his hand to his best friend so they both could do their famous handshake. "What up?!"

Adelaide chuckled. "Point proven."

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

Ever since Ally twitted a picture of spider noodle soup from the Suzy's Soups restaurant, somehow she had gained 5,000 followers because of it, and that definitely surprised her. But, her celebration was soon to be cut short when Trish informed her friend about her boss losing customers due to the amount of people who now believed Suzy's Soups had bugs in their food because of the picture Ally twitted.

The next day, Adelaide and Trish strolled into the store, their brows pinched together upon spotting Ally slumped on the counter, while a customer in front of her, looked around helplessly, unsure on what to do. She was in the middle of serving him by the looks of it. "Ally!" Trish exclaimed, and she shot up from her slumber. "You look exhausted."

Ally looked back at the customer stood in front of her, letting out a breath and waved her sister and Trish off, pretending she hadn't just fallen asleep in front of the customer. "I'm fine." She started to pass the bag over, with his change in Ally's other hand, "Thank you for shopping at Sonic Change. Here's your boom." As the customer finally exited the store, the girls moved to stand where he was, as Ally sighed, admitting. "Okay, I'm exhausted. I was up all night trying to figure out how to save Miss Suzy's business. It's all my fault she's gonna lose it." She was ridden with guilt ever since she found out, feeling responsible for Suzy's lack of customers in her restaurant, since her twit of the spider noodle soup was the one that made this all happen.

Adelaide exhaled deeply, placing a hand on Ally's to comfort her. "Alls, it's not all your fault. People are actually making it worse by putting up more fake pictures." She explained.

"Look." Trish said, and turned her phone around so Ally could see as her friend scrolled through the many edited photos that had been made by other people. "An eyeball in a bowl of Miss Suzy's soup. A cruise ship in a bowl of soup. Bigfoot in a bowl of soup."

Ally wasn't amused. "What kind of person would do this just to get a cheap laugh?"

Trish was giggling. "I did the Bigfoot one. Funny, right?"

"Wrong." Ally replied, stepping out from behind the counter to stand with the girls, continuing in her current worried state. "If Miss Suzy loses her business, she's gonna hate me even more than she already does."

Adelaide stared at her sister incredulously. "What are you talking about?" She knitted her eyebrows, genuinely puzzled on what Ally believed, making Trish nod along before chiming in. "Yeah, you're like her favourite student ever.

"Then, why hasn't she given me a gold star?" Ally seemed pretty fixated on the subject, desperate to know why her former music teacher hasn't given her a gold star yet, back in elementary school and in the time they reunited the day before. "Do you know how bad I want a gold star?"

Trish looked concerned, placing her hands gently on her best friend's arms. "You know they're not real gold, right?"

"Hey, guys," Austin called out from behind them, greeting them with a wave as he and Dez entered Sonic Boom. "we just came from Miss Suzy's, and it was empty."

Dez frowned, shrugging. Before, he was hoping to shoot a commercial for Suzy's Soups restaurant— however, with Suzy losing customers, his chance of committing to it was slim. "I guess I can cross Miss Suzy off my list of potential commercial clients." He mentioned, not realising he just gave them an idea of how they can save the woman's restaurant as he scribbled out the name on his notepad.

"Dez, that's it." Ally followed him, with her brown eyes lighting up at what he said. "That's how we'll save Miss Suzy's. We'll make a commercial."

"You just saw me cross her off the list." The Wade boy groaned, his fingers fiddling around his note-pad, trying to redo what he had just done.

"No, that's a great idea." Austin chimed in.

Ally faced him, feeling hopeful. "I'll write a jingle, you can sing it, Addy can help Dez direct it— and Trish can act in it." She explained.

"Oh great! How's this?" The De La Rosa girl faced away from them for a moment to prepare for her act, before she turned around. "Ahhhh! There's a spider in my soup!"

"Ummm, that was good," Adelaide started to tell the girl, "but we probably shouldn't mention the whole— you know— spider in the soup thing. We want to remind customers that Suzy's Soups don't have bugs in, remember?"

"Got it." Trish nodded, turning around to prepare for her second attempt at the act. Facing them all again, she let out. "Ahhh! There's not a spider in my soup!"

Ally pursed her lips, managing to come up with a sarcastic response. "Better."

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

Once Austin and Ally seemed to have finished the jingle, they dragged Adelaide with them to Suzy's Soups, where they would show Suzy and listen to the recording of the jingle together. Adelaide and Austin stood behind Suzy and Ally, who were sat down at a table with a computer opened in front of them as they listened to the jingle. "When the pressure of life gets you down, and you wanna turn that frown upside down. Don't be sad, don't be blue, Miss Suzy's got a soup for you."

Ally shut the computer and directed her beaming smile towards the woman beside her. "So what do you think, Miss Suzy?" She asked, wanting Suzy's approval. "Pretty gold star worthy, huh?" She did not forget to add, hinting towards the award she's been asking for since elementary school.

"Oh, Ally," Suzy sighed softly, "this jingle is truly a triumph of the human spirit, but I'm just trying to sell soup here."

Austin shuffled over to stand by Suzy and looked down at the woman. "That's what I said." He told her, wanting Suzy to hear his thoughts. "I think it should be a lot simpler, like, soup soup soup soup soup soup soup."

"I-I'm sorry." Ally stood up, trying to speak to the woman, assuming she wasn't liking the blonde's jingle either. "tried to tell him earlier that—" Suzy interrupted her, standing up to Austin with a grin grazed across her lips. "Oh! I love it."

Surprised by this, Ally let out a light "What?" Her sister's facial expression softened, moving over to stand by Ally. After listening to both jingles, she believed Austin's fit better for the commercial they were filming, but, it didn't mean she thought Ally's was terrible, because it wasn't.

"Let's all sing it together!" Suzy called, turning to sing with the blond. "One and a two and a... soup soup soup soup soup soup soup." As they stopped dancing, Suzy shared her thoughts. "This jingle is perfect for the commercial. I may not lose my business after all. Gold star for you, Austin." Suzy patted a gold star sticker on his flannel shirt, and walked away, continuing to sing the new decided jingle, "Soup soup soup..."

Austin smiled jolly, raising his arms up high with a cheer. "Whoo! Awesome!"

Ally feigned a smile, feeling disappointed that she thinks she let Miss Suzy down again, considering the outcome and managed to tell him, "Congrats on another gold star, Austin."

Austin's smile faltered at seeing through the girl's pretend smile. "What's wrong?" He pulled a chair out to sit down, joining them both. "Are you mad Miss Suzy didn't pick your jingle? Isn't it more important we're gonna save her restaurant?"

"I know. I'm happy about that." Ally made sure to say, wanting him to know Miss Suzy choosing his jingle over hers isn't the reason why she's upset— but something else. "It's just—" She sighed softly, her shoulders dropping as she said, "Miss Suzy is the only teacher I've ever had that never gave me a gold star."

"Who cares?" Austin chuckled, shrugging. "Gold stars are silly."

Adelaide arched a brow as Ally chuckled. "That's easy for you to say, Austin." She said, standing up from her seat, looking down at the blond. "Good things always happen to you and you don't even try. Your life is like a gold star."

"That's not true." Austin contradicted, finding his eyes glancing down under the table, and widened his eyes when he found, "Hey, look! I just found twenty bucks."

The girls were already out of their seats when he said that. Ally pulled a face, gesturing to what the blond just found— like he proved her point as her sister smirked, making a noise. "That's mine." As she went to snatch it out of his hands to retrieve the twenty dollar bill that she pretended was her own, Austin pulled the money closer to his chest, scowling childishly. "Hey— finders keepers!"

Adelaide shook her head at his antics, letting out a small chuckle as Austin reached his hand down to slip the twenty dollar bill in his pocket once he saw Adelaide lose interest. "Look," Ally started, making them direct their eyes over to her, "Miss Suzy was my music teacher. I looked up to her. If she says I'm doing a good job, then I know I'm doing a good job."

"Ally," Adelaide sighed, moving closer to her. "do you really need to have your jingle in Miss Suzy's commercial just to get her approval?"

"Well, when you put it like that..." Ally had made her way around Adelaide and Austin, and turned back to face them, "yes! Yes, I do. I'll make my own commercial, use my jingle and get a gold star!" Her smile widened and skipped out of the restaurant.

"Ally, that wasn't my point." Adelaide tried to call out after her, sighing to herself before she rushed out after her sister, with Austin following suit.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

Dez was sat down at a table in the food court, and Ally paced behind him. He rubbed two fingers on either side of his head, trying hard not to explode on Ally who appeared to be frustrating him. "It's just a soup commercial." He argued. "Ally, you're making this way more complicated than it needs to be."

"What are you talking about?" Ally held her arms out to the sides, with a feigned grin resting at her lips that would make someone nervous. "It is not just a commercial. We're saving Suzy's Soups." A light chuckle escaped her lips. "And who knows? Maybe I'll get a gold star in the process." The girl spun around and raised her voice, demanding to know where Austin and Trish were. "Where are my actors?!"

Austin and Trish came rushing in, after Adelaide gave them a push, and she came skidding behind the two. "Ally, we look ridiculous." Trish made a complaint about their costume choices, speaking for the both of them.

"Yeah." Austin nodded, pulling at his dark yellow tights that framed his long legs. "These tights are really tight." The last word being let out in a high pitched voice, and made a face when he realised the wordplay and grinned. "Hey, I bet that's why they call them tights."

"Oh, I forgot—" Adelaide exhaled, pretending like she was trying to remember something while she opened up the camera on her phone, then held it up to Austin and Trish, smirking. "Say cheese!"

She laughed softly, capturing the glares they sent her way in the picture. "No need to worry, it's not going on Tweeter." She reassured them both in a teasing manner. Trish's narrowed eyes faltered, directing her gaze away from her friend's phone, and to the massive bowl of soup prop. "So what's with the giant bowl of soup?"

Dez stepped in to answer Trish. "I'm the director. You know big props are my 'thing'." He said, air-quoting the last word before he added, "That and tap-dancing." He threw out his arm, pushing Ally to the side as his shoes clicked against the floor, demonstrating his tap-dancing skills as everyone watching him, dropped their jaws in amazement, surprised, but impressed by his talent. He finally stopped what he was doing and smiled. "All right, let's shoot this."

Dez went back to get his camera as Ally moved to stand in front of Austin and Trish, grabbing their attention as she began explaining. "Austin, you're playing a sailor who just returned from being lost at sea. Trish, you play his loyal wife who thought you'd never see him again. Your motivation is your mutual love of soup. Okay, we're ready." She shoved them towards the prop horse. "And action!"

Dez pulled his camera away, aiming his narrowed eyes at her. "Ally, you're not a director. You don't know how to say action. And action!" He called— no different to how Ally called it, before pushing the camera to his eye, moving closer to shoot the scene that Austin and Trish were prepared for.

"Cornelia, when I was lost at sea, I thought of two things every day to keep me happy. You—" Austin turned his head to look at Trish, who awed. "and soup." He faced the camera, trying not to laugh at how flabbergasted Adelaide looked through their scene.

"Oh, Benjamin," Trish put on an accent, "I would never have survived your absence if not for the warmth of this wonton soup." She moved around Austin, modelling the giant bowl of soup behind them.

Ally shook her head, rolling her eyes. "Cut!"

Dez silently groaned, standing up. "Ally— again, you're not a director. You don't know how to say 'cut'. Cut!"

Ally plastered a smile, frustrated — beckoning for Dez to follow her. She led him over to the bowl of soup prop while Austin, Trish and Adelaide went over to sit down, watching Ally and Dez bicker by the giant prop, about what type of soup Dez made it to be, and why it wasn't chicken noodle soup.

As Dez and Ally returned, Trish's brows furrowed as she asked. "What does it matter if it wonton or chicken noodle?"

Ally let out a sharp breath. "Because there was no Chinese food in colonial America!" She suddenly snapped, pulling her hat off her head. "Why don't we just put a drive-thru here and everyone can have tacos!"

"Ooh," Austin jumped up, pointing a finger in her direction. "if we're doing a drive-thru, I'd rather have hamburgers."

"Everybody focus. This commercial has to be perfect."

"Alls, relax, it's just soup." Adelaide reminded her sister, trying to find a way to calm her down, but it was no use, as the three people standing next to her, started singing Austin's jingle.

"Stop it!" Ally demanded, her voice croaked from all the yelling. "It is more than just soup. I want a gold star!"

"Ally, I'll give you all my gold stars if you promise to calm down—" Trish tried to tell her friend, her voice soft. The team followed Ally towards where the giant bowl of soup was, and stumbled back as Ally suddenly turned to them with a huge metal spoon in her hand.

"I am calm!" She snapped, putting on a soft voice through her frustrated state. "Now, if this soup is gonna be right, I need to pull these wontons out," She started walking up the stairs, "buy enormous noodles, boil them up, cut some giant carrots and—" She could barely hear Adelaide raise her voice from the bottom of the steps, warning her before it was too late. The giant spoon prop slipped out of her hand, causing her to tip over, screaming as she fell into the huge bowl of soup with a loud splash!

"Ally!" Adelaide was the first to run over, with the others following shortly after, wanting to check if she was okay. "Alls, are you alright?"

"Are you okay?"

"Ally?"

"Awesome!" Dez appeared to still be filming with his camera.

Ally slowly stood up, her hair wet from the liquid of the soup, with one of the wontons on the top of her head. "Okay, maybe I do need to calm down a little bit." She chuckled awkwardly. Yep. "There's a wonton on my head, isn't there?" As everybody nodded, Ally formed her lips into a straight line before she slowly lowered herself back under the soup.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

"There you are." Trish and Austin walked into the practice room, relieved to have found the twins in there, Ally sat at the piano and Adelaide slumped comfortably on the beanbag next to her. After the whole Ally falling into the giant soup accident in the food court, and after she changed her clothes, Adelaide has spent her time in the practice room with her sister, wanting to comfort her. "We've been looking for you for hours."

Ally stood up from the piano bench, her eyebrows knitted towards her friends while offering a hand to Adelaide to help her get up. "We've been in the practice room this whole time. Where were you looking?"

Austin threw his right hand out, shrugging. "All your favourite places— the Pizza Parlor and the arcade." He listed, earning confused expressions from the both of them.

"She doesn't like either of those places." Adelaide spoke for her sister, reminding their friends, who clearly didn't look close enough.

"Fine," Trish shrugged slightly, smiling. "we went to our favourite places."

Austin threw his arm out that held a stuffed frog, finally showing off the prize he won at the arcade earlier. "I won a frog!" He chuckled giddily. Trish nodded as Ally and Adelaide stared, with either a frown or looking amused. Ally gazed down to the floor, walking past Trish and Austin, who noticed her body language, causing him to drop his smile and ask, "Are you okay?"

Ally turned to the three at her answer. "No, I feel terrible." She looked deflated, slowly losing hope that she could save Suzy's Soups now, especially after what had occurred in the food court during their attempt at filming a commercial. "I got so caught up in trying to win Miss Suzy's approval that I ruined her commercial. Now she's definitely gonna lose her business."

The three of them frowned at her, when Dez all of a sudden, came rushing in, looking eager to share his news. "Ally, have you seen your Tweeter? You have more followers than Austin." Their eyes had lit up in shock just then, considering their recent events, they assumed different.

"What? How did that happen?"

Dez tilted his head back, smirking proudly. "Let's just say someone edited your footage, made Miss Suzy an awesome commercial and posted it on your Tweeter feed." He explained, the corners of his lips stretching into a smile. "You can thank your BFF."

Adelaide's brows knitted, gesturing to Trish next to her with her thumb. "Trish did that?" The girl looked just as confused as the twins did.

"No, me." Dez motioned to himself. "Her B.F.F... best freckled friend."

"That's not at all what it stands for," Ally pointed out to the redhead, though smiled at him anyway, appreciating what he had done. "but, thank you."

"No, thank us, too." Trish interjected quickly, and glanced over at the blond-haired boy. "We helped— after we left the arcade."

Austin took a step forward and shoved his stuffed frog in front of Dez's face. "I won a frog!" The boy pointed at it and laughed, before Austin retracted his arm, pulling the stuffed animal to his chest to snuggle with it.

"Check it out." Dez moved over and set his tablet up on the table nearby, as the others surrounded him so they could watch the new commercial Dez had edited for Suzy's Soups, using clips that were filmed in the food court and of Miss Suzy, and as a compromise, he put in both Ally's and Austin's versions of the jingle.

"Suzy's Soups— so good, you'll wanna dive right in. We do not have spiders!" Dez put the message across at the end of the commercial.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

When the team arrived at the restaurant the next day, they were over the moon when they found it back to its former glory. The tables were already filled with customers enjoying their soups, Trish returned to work along with the other employees, while Miss Suzy went around a few tables, asking the customers the general questions — like if they needed anything else or if everything was alright with their food. Especially that.

"Oh, Ally." The woman stepped away from one of the tables and approached Ally with a bright grin on her face, in gratitude. "Your commercial saved my business. I wanna give you something."

"Really?" Ally's brows shot up, believing this was finally going to be the moment that she was going to receive a gold star from Miss Suzy. The woman pulled something out of her pocket, making Ally's shoulders drop and her smile falter.

"Ta-dah!"

Ally grabbed it out of her hand, plastering a smile for her elementary school music teacher, wanting to hide her disappointment once again. "Coupons for free soup." She chuckled awkwardly.

"For the whole year!" Suzy added, before walking away and Ally followed suit, dropping her reward of coupons on the table along the way.

"Miss Suzy, can I ask you something?"

Suzy turned around and nodded. "Sure."

Ally took a deep breath before finally asking what she had been wondering all this time. "How come you give everyone else gold stars but me?"

She shook her head. "Oh, Ally, because you don't need them." Miss Suzy answered truthfully, and Adelaide arched a brow at her sister, to say, I told you so. "You're the most talented student I've ever had. Usually, I just give gold stars to people who need extra motivation, like Trish-kabob."

Trish pulled a face from behind Ally. "Hey, I only broke ten bowls today." She said, offended.

"Oh, well... here's a gold star." Miss Suzy gave her another gold star, proving her point that she just made to Ally as Adelaide and Austin got up from the table. Trish beamed at the reward, "Yay! Gold star! Yay!" and danced away.

"See?" Austin chuckled lightly, telling Ally. "I told you you were being silly for nothing."

"Okay, here it goes." Suzy began, as she peeled off a gold star and held it up. "I know you don't need this, but gold star for Ally-gator." She put the star gently on Ally's denim vest, causing her to shuffle her feet happily as Miss Suzy walked away.

"Sooo..." Adelaide drawled out, tilting her head at the girl curiously. "now that you have a gold star, how does it feel?"

"Eh, not that big of a deal." Ally shrugged, trying to act like it wasn't just to fool them, and Austin widened his eyes, falling for it. She went through all that for nothing? He must have been thinking at that moment, before Ally added on, "Kidding. This is the best thing ever. Gold star dance!" She called before dancing carelessly. "Gold star! Gold star! Who's got a gold star? Ally's got a gold star!"

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

Adelaide stood with Dez, who was filming Austin and Trish with his camera — of a commercial for Sonic Boom. Austin and Trish were back in their costumes that Ally had chosen for them in Miss Suzy's commercial, standing on either side of the prop horse. "Dear Cornelia, I'm afraid I must return to sea."

"Oh, Benjamin," Trish directed her eyes towards the camera and swooned. "if you must leave me, I want to give you something to remember me by." She picked up her dress and moved over to stand in front of the giant guitar.

"A guitar?"

"From Sonic Boom. All the instruments you need at historically low prices." Trish advertised before her and Austin sang, "Sonic boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!"

"And cut!" Dez shut off his camera. "Ally is going to love it. Where is she anyway?" He looked over at Adelaide expectantly, assuming she knew the answer but Trish spoke for her.

"Oh, she's covering for me at Miss Suzy's."

Austin's brows knitted. "Why would she do that?"

Adelaide shot him an incredulous look. "Why do you think?" Like she knew her sister too well.

At that moment, Ally wandered in, dressed in the Suzy's Soups uniform — that was covered in gold stars from top to bottom, including her hair, face and shoes. "Sorry I'm late. Just had the best day ever!"