After running away from the figure, she bumped into the button. A loud siren screeched, and the pot above her dumped out dozens of rubber chickens. She was, after all, in a rubber chicken factory. After brushing off the chickens, she continued running. The figure was catching up to her, but when he got to the area with the pile of rubber chickens, loud "squawks!" could be heard. Apparently, the rubber chickens had a mechanism that made them speak. Not wanting to take a chance to look back, she continued running away. Wait a second, was that light? She was almost out! Just a few more steps to sweet freedom!
"And cut!" a voice called out. A bell rang and the lights came back on. Sonny, worn out from the rubber chicken chase, sat down on the floor and graciously accepted a bottle of water from Marshall. "Good job, kiddo!" he congratulated. "You had me hooked on to the fact that Grady was going to kidnap you!"
Sonny smiled. "He almost let Nico play the part of the creepy stalker, but I told him to pretend that I had eaten his last piece of cheese."
As if on cue, Grady ran off the stage screaming, "You ate my last piece of gouda, Sonny!"
"Well, it was a 'gouda' piece of cheese!" Sonny replied, laughing at her own joke. Her smile quickly vanished when she saw the furious look on Grady's face. She was about to be pummeled when Zora popped up out of nowhere and said, "Look, it's cheese!" Grady was instantly happy and began to run in the direction of Zora.
Sonny, relieved that Grady was off her case, went back to relax in her dressing room. When she opened the door, it looked like a tornado had gone through.
"Oh my gosh, what happened?" Sonny exclaimed out loud.
A lump underneath a pile of clothes started to move. When Tawni emerged from the pile, Sonny calmed down enormously.
"Somebody stole my lucky sock!" Tawni wailed.
"You have a lucky sock?" Sonny snorted. After Tawni gave her a death glare, Sonny said, "I'm so sorry to hear that. Do you want me to help?"
"How do I know that you didn't steal my lucky sock?" Tawni accused of her.
"I didn't even know you had a lucky sock, or even socks for that matter!"
Tawni grumbled something inaudible and then shouted, "Well, don't just stand there! Help me!"
Sonny immediately started to search through the pile of clothes. After what seemed to be an hour, a tired Sonny came out of the pile. "I think it's safe to say that your sock is missing."
Tawni stomped on the floor. "This is so frustrating! I never perform a sketch without that lucky sock!"
"But as I've said before, I didn't even know you owned socks."
"I usually just put it in my pocket. The thing is, the one day I didn't wear my lucky sock was the day Marshall announced that you were coming to So Random! so I have to find it!"
After Sonny recovered from her hurt expression, she said, "Maybe you left it at your house."
"I never take it home; it's always in my dressing room! So that means someone had to have stolen it!"
No matter what she did, Sonny could not talk Tawni out of her stolen sock theory. Having given up, Sonny decided to get a snack. While she picked out a banana, she noticed a flyer on the wall. "'Condor Studios Masquerade Ball: Bring a mask and great dance moves!'" Sonny read. She noticed that it was in two days. Right as she was about to grab a bottle of water, she ran into somebody.
"I'm so sorry!" Sonny apologized. Then she noticed who she bumped. Chad.
"Chad, what are you doing here?" she grumbled.
"Wow, somebody doesn't like my filet mignon." Chad smirked. "And I'm an actor here, in case you forgot."
"You're an actor? I thought you were just an overly-dramatic person. And you never get snacks, much less steak for an afternoon snack."
"Noting my daily meat eating, huh Sonny? Yeah, I have that effect on people."
"I'd think it'd be more the steak than you, Chad." Sonny snapped.
"Ah, but that's the key word, Sonny. Think. You think it'd be more the steak than me. But you secretly think it's me. Which reverts us back to, I have that effect on people." He popped his collar and grabbed Sonny's water bottle.
"Hey, get your own water bottle!" Sonny cried angrily.
"Fine," Chad said, setting the bottle on Sonny's tray.
"Fine."
"Good."
"Good!"
"So we're good?"
"Oh, we're so good." And Sonny, feeling a bit like Tawni, stomped out with her food.
"So who do you think you're taking to the ball?" Sonny asked Tawni. "It's tomorrow, and I'm so excited!
"I don't know; my lucky sock won't be there to help me!" Tawni pouted.
"Still looking for your sock, I see."
"Yes! I've interrogated everybody! But nobody's seen it!"
"Well, it's a sock."
"So? It's very important! Just like my Putty-Two-Shoes… until you shredded it!" Tawni crossed her arms and turned back to her mirror to reapply a coat of Coco Moco Coco.
Sonny, annoyed with how Tawni was asking, knocked on Zora's vent. "Zora? Are you there?"
A hand slid back the door. "What do you need, Sonny?"
"Have you seen Tawni's lucky sock?"
"Tawni wears socks?"
"Yeah, I know. It's shocking. Well, since I'm going to take that as a no, have you seen anyone suspicious in here?"
"Well, I heard somebody snooping around Tawni's clothes the other day."
"Ah ha!" Tawni exclaimed, leaping up from her chair and smearing lipstick across her face. "So somebody did take my sock!"
"Not necessarily," Sonny said weakly.
"Sonny, you're so naïve! Do you really think that somebody stealing my sock isn't a possibility?"
"Well…"
"It's just as I thought. You're too… Sonny to understand what I'm going through." She flipped her hair and went back to looking at her reflection.
"What was that about?" Sonny whispered to Zora.
"Who knows; it's a Tawni thing." Zora shrugged and went back in her vent.
Deciding to get away from the stress of a sock-less Tawni, Sonny stopped by the prop house. In there, Grady and Nico were searching for popcorn twins,
but to no avail.
"I think I found a pair!" Grady said excitedly.
"I don't think so. But save it anyway; it looks a bit like George Washington's head." Nico said.
"Hey, guys!" Sonny said. "Having fun searching for popcorn twins?"
"It'd be a lot more fun if we actually found twins," Grady muttered.
"I hate to bother you, but have you seen, or even heard, about Tawni's missing sock?"
"She came around asking about it yesterday, but we had no clue what she was talking about." Nico explained. "To me, a sock is a sock. Unless it's a granny sock."
"I found some!" Grady cried.
"Those two look nothing alike!"
"I wasn't talking about if they looked alike; I was talking about how buttery these pieces of popcorn were!" Grady popped the pieces into his mouth to prove his point. Nico rolled his eyes and continued his search.
"Well, thanks anyway," a dismayed Sonny said. She was heading back to her dressing room when she bumped into somebody again. And, of course, it was the same person as before.
"Sonny, Sonny, Sonny," Chad said while shaking his head, "You do know that no matter how many times you run into me, I'm still not going to ask you to the ball."
"I was heading back to my dressing room, and for your information, you'd be the last person I'd want to go to the ball with," Sonny sneered.
"You keep saying that, Sonny." Chad popped his collar and continued walking. Before reaching the end of the hallway, he turned and said, "But if you still need a date, CDC is always available."
Sonny gagged, but a small smile crept up on her face.
Dance music played loudly on the speakers. Sonny was dressed up in a flowing purple dress and was wearing a purple mask to match it. Although everyone was wearing a mask, Sonny could identify some of her cast mates. She knew Tawni would be the one in the pink mask and tiara, and that Grady would be the only one wearing the cheese mask. Nico was probably hitting on a Meal or No Meal girl, and Zora was probably hiding in the vents, enjoying the thrills of popping up with a creepy mask in unexpected vent gates. And if she waited a little bit, the person popping their collar the most would be Chad.
Marshall came up to the microphone and announced, "Welcome to the 5th annual Condor Studios Masquerade Ball! We hope you'll enjoy your time here… whoever you are!" Marshall laughed, and the audience kept quiet. "Ha, well… have a great time!" He scratched his head and walked off the stage awkwardly.
After Marshall's speech, Sonny walked over to a somewhat flustered Tawni. "Hey, Tawni, having a fun time?"
"Who are you! Don't touch my purse!"
"Tawni, it's me, Sonny!"
"Oh. Ever since I got my lucky sock stolen, bad luck has been happening left and right! Yesterday, I smeared Coco Moco Coco all over my face, and I spilled my fro-yo all over me! And today, right before I got ready for the ball, I had my first pimple! I'm so glad that this is a masquerade ball!"
"Well, the pimple is probably from the stress you're causing about your sock, and I can probably explain the Coco Moco Coco."
"You're not helping, Sonny!" Suddenly, Tawni gasped. "Look!" she cried. "It's my lucky sock!" She turned an extremely confused Sonny around. There, in the middle of the crowd, was a sock being held high in the air. "Well, don't just stand there!" Tawni exclaimed. "Help me get it!"
The two girls rushed over to the sock bearer when a deafening crash was heard. The walls were rumbling, and people were falling over from the shockwaves.
"We're in an earthquake!" Sonny screamed, half-scared, half-excited.
"We have to hurry; that sock-stealer is getting away!" Tawni cried.
They were about to take another step when a shake crumpled them down on the floor. "This earthquake is one of the worst I've ever been in!" Tawni screamed. "And I've been in a lot of earthquakes!"
Other people toppled onto them. "Ow, get off of me!" Tawni yelled defiantly. She pushed the person on her off of her, only to find an unhappy Nico on the floor. "Hey, watch where you're falling next time!" Tawni pouted. Nico scoffed and went back to trying to impress girls, but failed with the earthquake going on. Sonny was waiting for an apology for the person who fell, but receiving none, she took off the person's mask. She was not surprised with who was underneath.
"How did I know it would be you, Chad."
"This is where I would usually go, 'You're falling for me, Sonny!' but I guess I can't use those words in this situation."
"Well, instead of trying to make me like you, are you going to apologize for toppling over me?"
"Chad Dylan Cooper does not apologize! But he does dance. Would you like to--"
"Sonny, we have to get my sock!" Tawni exclaimed, yanking her by the arm.
"Hold that thought!" Sonny cried.
Tawni elbowed the fallen crowd out of her way in an attempt to get to her beloved sock. When they finally caught up with the culprit, she was not expecting this person.
"Grady!" both girls shouted in disbelief.
"Whaaaat?" Grady whined.
"Why do you have my lucky sock?" Tawni demanded. "I specifically asked you if you'd seen it!"
"This is your sock?" Grady asked.
"Duh! It's got my name in rhinestones!" Tawni showed him her embroidered name on the brim of the sock.
"Oh. Sorry," Grady said sheepishly.
"Wait, why do you even have her sock?" Sonny asked.
"Well, ever since you told me that you ate the last of my cheese, I was hoping that you would have a platter of cheese somewhere in your room."
"So you looked in my wardrobe!" Tawni yelled incredulously.
"It is Grady, after all," Sonny reasoned.
"Well, I saw that you had a sock in your many clothes, and I was thinking, 'Oh, I'm missing a sock! I need one!' And so I took it. And guess what? It fit!"
"I can't believe my wonderful sock was used on your disgusting feet!"
"Hey! I washed them last month!"
Tawni gagged and snatched back her sock. "Two more questions, Mr. I-Like-Cheese-Way-Too-Much. One, why did you have my sock with you here? And two, why were you waving it around like a banner?"
"Well, the suit I'm in right now was used for the Rice is Right Sketch, and that was the suit I found the sock in. So I put the sock in my pocket, and continued with my day. But during the ball, I noticed something in my pocket, and I took it out. It turns out it was the sock, and right at that moment I saw a waiter come by with a tray that had fruit kabobs. So I threw my hands up in the air trying to get the fruit kabobs. And that's when that short earthquake happened."
"I still can't believe you stole Tawni's sock," Sonny said.
"I still can't believe you thought I was hiding cheese platters in my wardrobe!" Tawni cried.
"Well… you have your sock back now," Grady smiled and shrugged. "Now if you excuse me, I've got to meet up with a fruit kabob!" Grady put back on his cheese mask and disappeared into the group of people.
Sonny sighed with the satisfaction of a job well done. That is, until someone tapped her shoulder. Automatically, Sonny said, "What do you want, Chad?"
"I wanted to ask you if you wanted to dance with me," Chad smirked. "But apparently, you have better things to do. Like finding pairs of socks."
"It was a single, lucky, sock!" Sonny cried. "And yes."
"Yes?"
"Yes, I'll dance with you."
Chad smiled and held out an arm for her. A slow song came on, and Sonny, perhaps a bit too caught up in the moment, laid her head on Chad's shoulder. But her head immediately shot back up when a piercing voice hit the air.
"Who stole my lucky monkey barrette?"
So, did you enjoy my first SWAC story? In case you were wonder why most of these things were happening (like how the whole story revolved around a sock) I used a writing prompt generator. The beginning setting was a rubber chicken factory, the goal was to catch a thief, the "person or thing that gets between the main character and his or her goal" was an earthquake, an important event was a masquerade ball, and an important object was a sock. So this is what happens when you put all those things together. Thanks for reading!