Just a little five chapter Christmas bit that popped into my head at three in the morning. C: I hope you guys enjoy it!

Summary: Sonny's usual C-themed Christmas in Wisconsin isn't going to happen this year. Chad thinks he can make up for that with a CDC-themed Christmas in California.


In the Spirit of the Season

EmbracingRain


Chapter One

Scrooge's Resolution


Sony Munroe missed Wisconsin. There was nothing like a white Christmas spent with her entire family. Christmas carols, cocoa, cookies… The Munroes always went all out, and Sonny missed the C-themed Christmas things with something akin to desperation. Instead of a cozy Christmas at her grandma's house and opening presents in front of a crackling fireplace, she was spending the last few days before her favorite day of the year wearing a hideously tacky Christmas sweater for a sketch that Marshall wanted to film last second (the holiday episode of So Random! wasn't going to be live this year. None of the kids wanted to work on Christmas day). What with her friends leaving to go on fantastic trips to different countries and her own mom away on business until New Year's, it was no wonder she was feeling blue. She was by herself this year.

"Cut!"

Sonny groaned as Marshall's voice cut across the set. Tawni stopped mid-sentence and Grady almost fell off the ladder he was perched precariously on, tree topper in hand. Zora sighed and chucked a cookie at Nico's head. He glowered darkly at her.

"You kids aren't giving me excitement! I need Christmas spirit and holiday cheer! Where's your Christmas spirit?"

"You've had us doing this sketch for two hours now, Marhsall," Tawni whined. "I've been wearing this ugly, itchy sweater for two hours, and you gave me a monologue that isn't even funny!"

"I don't even celebrate Christmas," Zora chimed in, raising her hand as though she were in school. "At least, not in December."

"The stupid star keeps cutting my hand," Grady added as Nico put in his two cents with, "I've been sitting on the floor so long I can't feel my butt!"

As the complaints continued to spew from her friends' mouths, Sonny stayed silent in her corner, playing with the shiny bow on her character's present and wishing herself stuck in the midst of a Christmas day snowball fight with her cousins and her friends. She could almost feel the bite of the wind on her cheeks and her nose, could practically feel her fingers freezing at she hurled the little spheres of white powder at her giggling loved ones.

"Look, just give me one solid take, okay? After that, you can go home," Marshall wheedled. "I promise."

Three hours, six "soft" takes, and (at last) one solid take later found Sonny finally stripping herself of the hideous sweater and hurrying into her street clothes. Tawni was giggling about her Christmas in a French chateau to one of her friends over the phone, but still wiggled her fingers at Sonny as the brunette made to leave the room.

"Have a good Christmas, Sonny!"

"You too, Tawn," Sonny replied with a small smile. She'd already said goodbye to the others, now she just had to go home and sit on her couch in her pajamas, stuffing her face with Oreos until her mom finally came home.

She was walking sullenly down the hallway when, seemingly out of nowhere, Chad showed up by her side. Sonny looked at him out of the corner of her eye, the only signal she was willing to give that she'd noticed him. They walked in silence for a few moments before Chad appeared to have gotten fed up with the fact that nobody was talking.

"What's wrong with you, Munroe?" he asked, sounding like he didn't care at all.

Sonny sighed, not at all in the mood to put up with his attitude. "Christmas," she said shortly, hoping he would take her response and leave it at that.

"I'm not such a big fan either," Chad said, reaching around her to pull open the door to the parking lot. As he did, she looked up at him, both impressed and shocked. Impressed because he was holding the door open for her, shocked because he hated Christmas.

"I don't hate Christmas, Chad."

"Really? I mean, you strike me as the kind of person who would hate the fact that Christmas is so commercialized. You realize they started showing Christmas commercials even before Halloween this year? The malls are crowded, kids get cranky…"

Sonny frowned as they began walking across the parking lot. "The way I feel has nothing to do with that aspect of Christmas. My mom's out of town, alright? And I can't get a flight out to Wisconsin no matter what I do. Every year, we have a C-themed Christmas at my grandma's house, but this year I'm missing everything! Christmas carols, cookie decorating, cocoa…" She shrugged, kicking a pebble across the lot. "I'm just not in the mood for Christmas right now."

"You miss that?" Chad asked her, sounding incredulous.

Fishing her car keys out of her purse and pausing by her car door, Sonny looked up at Chad with a frown. "Yeah, I do. But it's nice to know that you're a scrooge, Chad." She opened the door and tossed her purse over to the passenger's seat.

"I'm not a scrooge!" Chad exclaimed. "I just hate how commercialized Christmas is. It's insane! But that doesn't mean I'm a scrooge, Munroe."

"Then prove it," Sonny challenged, stepping into her car.

"Fine! I will."

"Pffft! Yeah, right," Sonny snorted, slamming the door shut and driving away.

Chad watched her car disappear, coming to the decision that if Sonny was of the opinion that he was a scrooge and if she was so intent on having a blue Christmas, then it was up to him to change it. Who needed C-themed Christmases in Wisconsin when they could have a CDC-themed Christmas in California?


Next time…

She turned around to see Chad grinning at her with a boyish innocence she didn't quite believe.

Chad puts his plan into action, on a mission to prove to Sonny that he's not a scrooge and Christmases aren't always best in Wisconsin.

Don't worry, I'm still working on Four Seasons! I'll have the next chapter up soon and I'll also have the next chapter of this story up soon, too. C:

-EmbracingRain