A/N: This is a sequel to my one-shot Checklist, and it does refer to that story in one scene, so it is recommended that you read that one first. However, if you're feeling stubborn, you don't have to if you don't want to. I won't force anyone. :P Dedications to lifeisveryshortsoamiand McLovinIt for suggesting a sequel with Chad's list. :D Hope you guys like it!
Mrs. Perfect
Chad Dylan Cooper liked girls. Pretty much like any 17-year-old guy who was straight did. But the main difference between some typical, straight, hormone-obsessed guy and Chad Dylan Cooper was that girls liked Chad back. More so than he liked them, in fact. Most of the time.
And then there was Sonny.
But even though Chad liked girls, and he dated a lot of them, none of them were quite right for him.
And then there was Sonny.
Chad couldn't quite put his finger on why she seemed so different from the rest. She was good-looking, of course, but many of the girls he dated were much more so. No offense to Sonny.
And after all, wasn't that all he was really supposed to care about? He was a teenager with girls practically falling at his feet. Chad wasn't so particular about them - as long as a girl was pretty enough for him to be seen in public with her, he would take her out once. Maybe twice, if she were lucky. Three times, only if her looks were worthy enough for her to be on the cover of Playboy magazine. But Chad drew the line at more than three dates. He wasn't a commitment kind of guy, putting it simply.
Until it came to Sonny.
He had met her months ago, really. Felt like forever, though, like he wouldn't be able to imagine life without her anymore - but only because it had been such a long time.
That in itself was odd. Chad Dylan Cooper was not a patient person. In fact, he had four steps planned out for every relationship with a girl. Meet her; ask her out; date her; break up with her. It was a very simple process that generally took no longer than a week or so. And yet the effervescent brunette with a smile a mile wide still occupied at least half of his thoughts after months. Which, when considering how incredibly busy Chad was as the star of a TV show, was far more thoughts than it ought to be.
When Chad actually thought about it (his thinking about Sonny, not just Sonny in general), he didn't really know why he hadn't just asked her out ages ago. Because she met his basic requirements as a date. Well, kind of.
1. Hot.
Okay, so maybe Sonny wasn't really hot, exactly. She was more...cute. When she laughed, with her eyes crinkling at the corners and her mouth curving perfectly and her chin dimpling even more than usual, she was adorable. And Chad knew it, even if he didn't care to admit it to anyone else.
"Wow, Chad. Lookout Mountain is beautiful...romantic..." Chad senses rather than sees that Sonny's looking at him, and he flashes a brief smile, glancing back. She turns her gaze back to the stars, continuing, "All the stars are so bright."
"Yes, I am," Chad says in a self-satisfied manner. He knows it's not what she meant, but he says it anyways. Chad is for once unsure of what to say on a (almost) date, simply because this isn't some extra from the Falls or a hot girl on the street, but Sonny, the girl from Chuckle City. He figures the easiest way to ease his mind and make the situation more natural is by acting how he normally does around her. It apparently doesn't work, since Sonny glares at him instead. Chad hastily tries to amend it, returning to her original topic.
"Oh, you mean the ones up there." He gives them a prolonged appraising glance for her benefit, deciding to try one more time. "Yeah, they're a'ight. I mean, they don't have their own show," he comments in the same condescending tone as before, and it works this time. She laughs. And he smiles along with her, appreciating her child-like giggles and the way they light up her face.
But Sonny wasn't always adorable. There were times when she was more...attractive. When she argued with him, with her eyes flashing with annoyance and her mouth set defiantly and her eyebrows lifting with incredulity at his statements, she was captivating. And Chad knew it, even if he didn't care to admit it to anyone else.
"Okay, state your name and the part you're here to read for," Chad orders into his megaphone, knowing that asking her for obvious information will annoy her.
"Sonny Munroe reading for the part of Sonny Munroe," Sonny answers dully. Chad frowns - after all, it's no fun arguing with someone who won't respond in kind.
"There's that attitude again!" Chad singsongs to the cameraman, supposedly discreetly, but loud enough for Sonny to hear.
"What?" she objects indignantly. That's more like it.
"And action!" He leans forward in his seat to deliver his line. "Hi, you must be Sonny. I'm Chad."
"Oh my gosh! You're Chad Dylan Cooper! Possibly the greatest actor of our generation - " It suddenly hits Sonny what she's saying, and she protests loudly, her annoyance flaring, " – are you kidding me with this?"
"Sonny, I am giving you a chance here, okay? Just read the lines. Let's, uh…let's jump ahead to where Sonny enters and punches my costar…and action!"
"I never punched your costar!" Sonny exclaims rather than doing what he says. Her irritated, defensive tone brings a smile to Chad's face.
"Diva!" is his response. Sonny's jaw drops at the accusation.
"Are you kidding me? I'm so not a diva!" Chad gets out of his chair as Sonny moves forward, both of them shifting into their ideal position for arguing.
"Really, Sonny? Really?" Chad asks, intentionally provoking her.
"You know what? This is ridiculous. I'm out of here," Sonny declares, starting to turn towards the door.
"Fine."
"Fine!" Sonny turns back to engage in their usual fight.
"Good!" Chad notes how intent she is when she's furious. It's somewhat endearing, odd as it is.
"Good! And good luck trying to find a better me than me. Because nobody knows me the way that I know me." And with that, Sonny opens the door to make her grand exit, sparing one piercingly contemptuous glare for Chad.
But Sonny wasn't always captivating. There were times when she was more...beautiful. When she smiled at him, with her eyes warm and glowing and her mouth in a soft kind of half-smile and her cheeks tinged pink a little, she was beautiful. And Chad knew it, even if he didn't care to admit it to anyone else.
"Well, Chad, you were right. All proms end in disaster." She frowns, her crimson lips curved the opposite way from how they ought to be.
"Do they, Sonny? Do they really?" Chad grins at her as he draws closer, delivering his signature line. "Because sometimes, I heard, you get to have that perfect dance, with that one special person." He watches her expression brighten as he pulls out a pair of headphones. "You're just going to have to settle for me," he concludes, inwardly wondering why he's being such a sap. But then Sonny smiles in response and accepts the headphone that he holds out to her, and he knows exactly why. Chad places one of his hands on her waist, and the other takes her hand.
"This is sweet," Sonny admits as they sway back and forth. He shrugs his shoulders nonchalantly as he smiles again, trying not to show how pleased he is that she thinks so.
"I have my moments." And then she gives him that smile again, looking up at him from underneath her eyelashes in that alluring way as he appreciates how lovely she looks right now, mermaid dress and all.
So Sonny wasn't hot. But she was adorable and captivating and beautiful, and that was more than sufficient.
2. Affectionate.
Okay, so Chad wasn't the most "deep" teenager around. He didn't fantasize about a girl who had intelligent conversation, could make him laugh, and shared his interests. He wasn't interested in looking for his soulmate at present; after all, he was only seventeen.
No, Chad wanted to have fun. Not that he screwed every girl he dated, but there simply wasn't any fun in having a date who wouldn't at least let him kiss her.
At least, so it seemed until he went on a date with Sonny. She had initially seemed eager for physical contact, grabbing his hand as soon as they entered the arcade and suggesting that he put his arm around her. But then Chad remembered the humiliating scene after the "date," when everyone else had left and they were alone...
"That was some kiss," he reflects with a smile on his face, reliving her sudden display of affection in his head.
"What do you mean? That kiss was fake," Sonny scoffs in return. Chad thinks that perhaps since Sonny sees this as a "fake" date, then everything else is fake too. But he's not going to let her get away with thinking that the kiss they shared (okay, more like the one she took from him by surprise) was anything but real.
"Was not!" Chad quickly denies, and Sonny lifts her eyebrows in a teasing way as she explains.
"Chad, I put my hand over your mouth." Sonny has the audacity to smile at this, to smile as she delivers the thunderbolt. Chad's taken aback for a split second, the unexpectedness of it shocking him for a moment before his features smooth back into his usual confident expression.
"Well, that explains why your lips tasted like skeeball and air hockey," Chad lifts an eyebrow of his own with a grimace as Sonny shudders in disgust.
"Do you actually think that I would really kiss you?" she asks, expecting an honest answer. But Chad certainly isn't going to give her one after her truly fake kiss. Stupid girls and their stupid pretensions.
"Well, that's what I'm gonna put on my blog!" He suddenly ducks to the side and onto the floor before rolling to the door. "Peace out, suckas!" he says in an odd voice before running away.
No kiss. Not even a tiny little peck. Not even on the cheek. On the hand instead. That's a first. Chad was pretty sure that this was the first date since - actually, it was the first date ever, even going all the way back to The Goody Gang and Tawni, and even before that, that he hadn't gotten at least a kiss on the cheek, if not on the lips. But what else is to be expected? It's Sonny. And she's always stood out as being different somehow. Always.
She shows her affection in other ways, and he knows it. He knows it when she smiles at him during those few times that he shows her he cares. He knows it when she argues with him about anything and everything that he's set her off about. He knows it all the time. But he knows it most when she finally says yes.
"Sonny Munroe. Will you go out with me?" Chad's arms are held out wide, and he's down on the floor on one knee, both feeling and (he's certain) looking ridiculous. This kind of behavior is for stupid pansies like Zac Efron, who go driving across states to sit in a tree and wait for their girlfriends to walk by. But Sonny's giving him that beautiful smile again, and he knows he's lost.
"Let me think about it," she answers teasingly. "Well…okay." And he stands up and smiles, relieved. Because she agreed, eventually, and that's all there is to it.
So maybe Chad didn't have a super long list of traits that "his dream girl" had to have (honestly, what kind of guy does?). And maybe he was a bit shallow when it came to deciding which girls he wanted to date and which ones he didn't. And maybe he should have pulled his act together and start seriously looking for "the one."
But he didn't have to. Because he knew that it was the girl sitting right next to him in the movie theater. The one who wasn't hot, but was adorable and captivating and beautiful. The one who wouldn't kiss him until their fifth date, but laughed and argued with him in the way that she never did with anyone else. The one who was always different, the one who wasn't like any girl he had ever met before. The one that had always occupied at least half of his thoughts, if not more. The one that he loved.
"Chad? Cha-ad," Sonny singsonged softly in the present, elbowing him slightly. "You okay?"
"Yeah," Chad assured her absentmindedly, shaking his head to clear his thoughts and return to reality. "Why?"
"Because you haven't moved a muscle since the huge romantic scene, and that was a few minutes ago. Normally you're constantly squirming at these chick flicks. What's up?" Sonny looked at him anxiously, concerned, and Chad grinned as she did so, noting to himself that this was one of the ways she was affectionate.
"Sonny? You know I hate watching these movies, right?" Sonny furrowed her eyebrows at the sudden change of topic.
"Yes," she answered anyways, confident of her answer. "But I make you watch them with me anyways."
"And you know I hate reading books for you, right?"
"Yes," Sonny agreed, with even more conviction than her last. "But I make you read them anyways. They make you more intelligent."
"And you know I love you, right?" Sonny blinked rapidly, unsure of what he had just said. After all, he had never declared his love to her aloud.
"No," she answered half-truthfully, mesmerized as he leaned closer to her, the truth of it written in his eyes. "But I love you anyways." And suddenly her beautiful smile was back, and Chad drew closer and captured her lips in a kiss. And she let him, because it was their fiftieth date and affection that stretched even so far as kissing was allowed this late in their relationship, especially in a dark, deserted movie theater that no one else was even in because the cheesy movie playing was so horrendously awful.
Chad had four steps to his relationships. Meet her; ask her out; date her; break up with her. With Sonny, he'd gotten through the first easily. The second had taken a little longer, but that was only because she didn't quite fit the requirements perfectly, or so he had thought. The third was still in progress, the longest step by far. And Chad was, at this moment in time, fairly certain that the fourth was never going to happen.
And whatever Sonny was always saying about checklists and him failing hers didn't matter. What was with girls and their useless lists, anyways? It wasn't like they were ever going to find Mr. Perfect.
Because his real name was Mr. Chad Dylan Cooper. And his heart belonged to Miss Sonny Munroe, his future Mrs. Perfect.
A/N: So utterly cheesy. But I have to say that it makes me smile. :P Please review!
