Author's Note: Before anyone starts yelling at me, yes, I know this story has been on the site before, and no, I did not steal it. I am the original author. I took this story down years ago for personal reasons - and ended up losing it. Thanks to TrinityFlower of Memories, I finally have it back. I'm putting it back online because, hey, FanFiction will always be here. If my computer dies, if I lose every file on it, at least I can come back to this website and still have my stories around to read.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Special Note: This story takes place during Cheater Girls, swac season one.
Numbers
It was time to get some serious studying done.
I could still hear Mom's warning loud and clear in my head: "If the grade doesn't come up, you're not doing the show." It wasn't a fair bet, really. I knew Mom and I agreed grades would come before So Random!, but didn't she understand how much the show meant to me? Even back in Wisconsin when I had time to study, my math grades weren't very good. How did Mom expect me to put just as many hours into my homework now that I had new friends to hang out with and sketches to brainstorm?
Zora's tutoring lessons were too confusing to keep me engaged, so I couldn't study with her. All Tawni did was encourage me to cheat, so studying in my dressing room was pretty much out of the question. In the Prop House, Nico and Grady were willing to let me work – as long as they could continue playing their video game with the volume up full blast.
As a last resort, I found myself sitting alone in the dark commissary. Most of the lights were off since lunch was over and Mr. Condor was trying to save money by wasting less energy, but there was enough for me to see my math problems as I sprawled them across a table, my book open to the page that was supposed to explain how to do the one I was having trouble with.
"Ok," I sighed, bringing the book closer to me. "If a quadrilateral has two angles that are equal and a third angle that is equal to the sum of the two equal angles and a fourth angle that is 60 degrees less than twice the sum of the other three angles, what are the chances of me understanding a word I just said?"
Groaning, I slammed my head against the book, wanting to make the stupid words hurt as much as they were hurting me (it didn't work. The book didn't feel a thing and I was the one who ended up with a headache). It was hopeless. I was never going to learn this stuff, I was going to fail my next test, Mom would make me quit the show-
Was that a cell phone on the other side of the table?
"Check it out," I said, the words flowing out of my mouth too easily as I climbed to my feet, reaching for the phone. "Check out this phone somebody forgot. Check out me checking out who it belongs to."
Hitting the on button, it didn't take long for the device to power up. Once it did and I saw the picture of Hollywood's biggest jerkthrob-
Well, let's just say the fact Chad left his phone in the commissary was a little surprising to me. I threw the phone into the air in shock (lunch had been hours ago. Shouldn't Chad have realized his missing item and come to retrieve it?), my senses kicking in at the last second, enabling me to catch it before letting the floor take care of it.
"Check it out!" I said, a wave of excitement coming over me as I examined the phone. "Check out Chad's phone. Check out how sleek it is. Check it out – he has more apps than me!"
As my fingers lingered over the buttons, bringing up Chad's menu, only a few of his applications were visible, the bar at the top telling me it was displaying 1-5 of 250. For some reason, his contact list was what I clicked on.
"Check out his contacts. Check out how little his list is!" Besides a few names I recognized as the others on Mackenzie Falls, the address book was empty. I smiled, pulling my own phone from my pocket. "Check out how nice I am. Check out me inputting my friends' numbers!"
Nico, Grady, Tawni, and Zora had all given me their numbers (actually, Tawni hadn't given me hers, but after she called my phone, I saved it). I entered all four of them to Chad's phone before putting in my own as well. Just as I was trying to figure out how to send a picture to the other phone so my school ID would pop up every time I called or texted the Mackenzie Falls actor, I heard a throat clear behind me.
Jumping at the sound, I turned around, trying to hide the phone behind my back. It was too late; Chad Dylan Cooper was standing right behind me, hovering close enough I was sure he'd been able to see exactly what I was doing.
We both stood there in silence, Chad staring down at me and me staring up at him, unsure what to do.
"Check out me checking out of trouble!"
Placing the phone back on the table, I ran from the room, not even bothering to pick up my math supplies. All I cared about was getting away as fast as possible before Chad had a chance to kill me. If he said anything to me, I never heard him, although I was sprinting down the hall at a fairly quick pace, my panting loud in my ears. As far as I could tell, I was safe.
Too bad I never checked the cell phone still in my hands as I slipped it into my pocket.
For some reason, my pocket wouldn't stop vibrating. The first time it did it, I thought I was only feeling things (my cell phone was there and I never left it on vibrate). The second time, I thought I was going crazy. By the third time I felt the sensation, I had to reach into my pocket, pulling out my cell phone to see what was wrong with it.
My eyes widened as I stared at the device in my hands. It wasn't my cow spotted phone I had felt going off. The sleek phone belonging to Chad was the one resting in my palm.
My number was lighting up the screen. That could only mean one thing: I'd put the wrong phone on the table before running out of the commissary. Instead of placing Chad's phone down, I had given him mine-
And now he was calling me from it.
I thought about just letting the phone ring. Chad wasn't going to have nice things to say to me, that much I was sure of. Maybe if I didn't answer it, he would think I didn't have his phone. Would he fall for the old, 'Oh, you must've misplaced it yourself!' trick if I switched the phones back in the morning?
Chad had seen me in the commissary. He knew I was the only one to touch his phone, and he knew the one in his hands was mine. As much trouble as I was going to be in, I had no choice but to answer his call.
"Look, Chad, I know I shouldn't have been messing around with your phone today," I started as soon as I brought the phone to my ear. "I wasn't trying to mess with it, I was really just trying to figure out who it belonged to. I was going to bring it back to you but then you showed up and I panicked and-,"
"Are you expecting a delivery?"
His voice was so gentle, so…unlike the mad tone I was expecting to hear. I pulled the phone out where I could see the screen, wondering if I'd seen the number correctly.
"Chad? Is that you?" I asked nervously.
"I have a delivery here for someone by the name of Sonny Munroe," his voice spoke up again. "If you could answer your door soon, that'd be great. This delivery is kind of heavy."
With no idea what was going on, I walked to the door of my apartment, pulling it open curiously.
There stood Chad, hanging up my cell phone with one hand, everything else I'd left on the table in his other. I blushed as he handed it all over to me, passing over his phone before trying to grab hold of all my things.
"I hope you don't mind, but I thought you might like that stuff back, so I looked through your phone and found your address," Chad explained, smiling when I opened my mouth to speak. "There's no reason to thank me. Just remember tonight as the night Chad Dylan Cooper did something nice for you."
He turned and started walking away after that, stopping at the end of the hallway long enough to wink at me. I was confused as I shut the door behind him, heading toward my couch and flopping down, staring at the math supplies and phone in my hand. Had I just gotten away with stealing Chad's phone without getting in any trouble?
A loud moo cut through my thoughts – someone was texting me. Chad's name flashed across my screen. Knowing the lecture was about to come, I held my breath as I waited for his message to load-
Only to let out a sigh of relief. I read the message once as soon as it was sent, and then I read it again as I settled down for bed that night, the smile coming back no matter how many times I read his words, as I knew it always would after reading it:
Touch my phone again and die.
-C.D.C.
PS. Thanks for the new numbers. I'll be sure to text you and your cast every Wednesday night when it's time for Mackenzie Falls. Peace out, sucker!
Maybe getting side-tracked from studying wasn't always a bad idea.