freedom.

Sonny took a deep Hollywood breath and took off down the hallway towards rehursal, She wasn't looking where she was going and before she knew It she'd run into somebody, throwing herself backwards onto the ground.

"Oh my gosh, i'm so sorr- Chad?" She looked up and got up from the floor, seeing an apologetic boy before her who held out his hand for support.

"What are you doing here?" She asked pleasantly, ignoring his sorrowful look in his eye.

He shrugged, he was obviously too tired for an insult war or any smooth moves.

"Getting away" He sighed, he looked nothing but good and broken.

Sonny tilted her head to one side, an apologetic smile on her lips,

"Come on" She sighed, leading him into her dressing room that was so familiar to Chad, he'd spent so much time here, even just to annoy the girls.

She sat him down on the tiger print chase long and grabbed herself the chair opposite, from Tawni's dressing table.

"What are you doing?" He asked, not even a hint of sarcasm in his voice, just tiredness.

"Fixing you, wait- shouldn't you be shooting scenes? It's two 'o clock" Sonny responded, catching glimpse of the clock on the dresser.

"Thats just It!" He let out a frustrated sigh, "I can't work like this anymore, I thought they wouldn't look for me over here at So Random"

Sonny mentally rolled her eyes, great another diva thing.

"Like what?" She lost all care in her voice, he probably wants a bigger dressing room or more people to tell him how hot he is.. blah blah blah. Her thoughts were interuppted by his passionate response.

"Nothing I say or do Is right, every little thing I say, the director yells cut, Sonny what If i'm not good enough anymore?" His eyes filled with tears, his voice began to quiver.

"Whoa whoa whoa" She scooted closer, siting on the edge of the chase long, so she could comfort him. She didn't expect this, seeing Chad cry was alien to her. She never knew he obtained any human emotion. It broke her heart to see the boy in front of her, burst into a quiverng mess.

She grabbed his hand, and held it tightly in her own. He began to ramble again,

"I need to study my lines, I need to keep my image up and I need to-"

"Chad, you know my mom tells me the same thing every time I call her up in tears, everytime I tell her that I can't act, that she should get the next plane out here and drag me home" She put her hand under his chin and pulled him up to look her in the eye.

"there's more to life then acting" She finished simply.

"It's all I have" He whispered, dropping his head again.

"No, no it's not" She instantly replied, pulling his shoulders around so he was facing her once again.

"But It's my dream, It's always been my dream" He protested.

"Yours or your Moms?" Sonny asked sorrowfuly, he opened his mouth to respond but failed, she was right. He hated it when she was right.

"Chad, It's taken over your life, whens the last time you were just regular Chad, having a good time, without the pressure of being Hollywood's bad boy, or being the hottie of the month?" She asked, her own eyes, stinging with tears that she begged not to fall, not in front of Chad anyway.

He frowned, he couldn't remember.

"Outside these studio walls, theres something called freedom, no fake girlfriends, no scripts, no publicity stunts, just, life, you can have real friendships and real loves, there's no image to mantain, and your missing out Chad, go enjoy it, I'm not saying quit full blown, but your working yourself to death here, just relax a little aye?" She laughed slightly, a smile played on Chad's lips, Sonny's laugh was always infecious to him.

"So I can stop being the Chad Dylan Cooper that Mr Condor invented and just be me?" He asked, in relief.

"Wow" he shook his head in disbeleif, so this was freedom.

She smiled to herself and headed over to the prop house to fix them both some hot chocolate.

As she came back, Chad was just finishing his phone call to his mom.

"You're fired as my agent, not as my mom" Sonny smiled to herself once again, admiring the boy she once thought of as a snobby jerk.

"I know, just call the director, tell him to cut me out of half the episodes next season, bring in some new actors, anything because if you hadn't noticed, i'm just a kid, I've got my whole life to act and work but right now, I need to have fun so i'll see you later" She could tell he was smiling, even if he had his back to her.

Sonny cleared her throat to make herself known, holding the two mugs of steaming chocolate in the doorway.

"Sonny can I ask you something?" Chad asked, taking a sip of his own as Sonny sat back down, nodding in reply.

He proposed shly, "Can we be friends" he took a pause, looking deep into her eyes that matched the colour of the liqud in his mug, "as in forever?"

"And always" Sonny nodded her head viciously, grinning.

"I like this feeling" He thought outloud.

"Freedom?" She asked, a mouth full of whipped cream.

He shook his head, "Falling in love"