Chapter 2

"You've got to be kidding me," Tawni couldn't hide her disapproval of Marshall's new sketch idea as he held up two sumo costumes. "Can't we do a sketch with the girdles? Those are always fun to wear," nobody thought her suggestion odd.

"That they are," Nico agreed as Grady also nodded his head.

"And…no offense, Marshall, but, uh," Sonny tried to state her opinion in a polite way, "isn't the whole fat, sumo gag a little bit overdone? It just doesn't seem very original."

"I absolutely agree," Marshall responded, allowing Tawni a momentary inner sigh of relief. "That's why instead of a sumo wrestling bit, it'll be Sumo Boot Camp. Nico, you'll be the drill sergeant and Sonny and Tawni, you two will be the sumos who have to run through the boot camp obstacle course."

"Sounds difficult," Tawni said snappishly.

"Exactly. Half the fun will be seeing the two of you trip over all the obstacles," Marshall replied with an oblivious chuckle.

"Cool," Nico gave a smile of approval regarding the idea. "I've always wanted to try my hand at a drill sergeant character."

"I guess it won't be so bad," Tawni gave in, realizing she didn't have much choice. You'll just have to try to lose a few more pounds so they'll know you're skinnier underneath. As illogical as it seemed, something made Tawni think people might think she was already as big as the blow-up sumo outfit.

"Alright, Sonny, you in?" Sonny nodded enthusiastically and Marshall continued. "Okay, so I want to shoot for this being a part of next week's show. I'll get you all a working script after lunch." Marshall looked down at his watch. "But for now, you'd all better get to class before I hear about it from Joy…again."

"Man, the only thing good about class is it's the only thing left standing between us and pizza Friday in the commissary," Grady cheered as he and the others headed in the direction of their on-set school room.

"MMHMM," Nico agreed with his best friend. "No better way to round off the week than pizza."

"Nothing says delicious like melted cheese, pepperoni and bucket loads of grease," Grady practically salivated as he said it.

"Oh yeah," Nico got a distant look in his eyes as he thought about how good lunch would taste.

"Cool it, pizza freaks," Zora rolled her eyes. "You're drooling all over the carpet," she pulled out a cup. "Here, drool in this so I can use it to create DNA for my zombie army." Everyone stopped and stared at Zora cautiously. "What? A girl can't have a few aspirations in life?" She rolled her eyes again and headed off ahead of them.

"It must be true that there's only a fine line between genius and insanity," Sonny commented once Zora was far enough away not to hear her.

"Oh, by the way guys," Tawni had been thinking about what Grady had said about the pizza being greasy, "I won't be having lunch with you guys today."

"I knew it!" Nico shouted suddenly, causing Tawni's expression to turn to one of panic. "You HAVE been secretly dating someone over at The Falls!"

This time the others looked at Nico like he was the crazy one. Tawni's look of panic turned to one of confusion. "Do I look like Sonny to you?"

"Hey!" came Sonny's loud protest. "I'm not dating Chad!"

"Maybe not, but you said his name, so obviously that's who you were just thinking about," Tawni retorted as if it proved her point. "Anyways, um, my dad's in town until, uh, Wednesday and he said he wants to spend as much time with me as possible so he said he's taking me to lunch everyday he can," Tawni's speech got smoother as she grew more confident that her reason would suffice.

"Oh, well, that sounds nice," Nico responded sheepishly as they arrived at the classroom.

-----oOo-----

"Hey, mom," Tawni was on her cell phone. She was standing somewhere on the studio lot far enough from the So Random! studio that none of the others would see her. "I got your message to call you," she knew her mom never took the time to leave a message unless it was something she thought needed to be heard from her directly.

"Hi, hun, I just wanted to let you know I won't be home tonight," Tawni's mom cut straight to the chase. There were no nice words of asking how Tawni was or how her day was going. Then again, Tawni hadn't really expected them anyways.

"Oh, really?" Tawni forced a smile.

"I'm sorry, Tawn, but Dan just called and said they want me in Rio for a shoot asap," she explained. Tawni's mother was a model /actress and often busy working on her own career. Dan was her handler. "I'll be gone until Monday morning."

"All weekend?" This time Tawni couldn't hide her disappointment.

"You know how these things go," Tawni's mom expected her to understand the situation.

"Yeah, I know. Have fun in Rio. Bring me back something chic," Tawni always got a trinket whenever her mom came back from some place exciting. "Love you too, mwah," Tawni made an exaggerated sound of a kiss before hanging up her phone. "So, I lie about my dad coming to visit and instead my mom leaves. I hate irony," Tawni looked at the time on her phone and figured it was safe enough to return to the studio.

"Hey, Tawni," Sonny was the first one to see Tawni return. "How was lunch with your dad?"

"Great as usual," Tawni was getting used to lying. "So, hey, Sonny, do you want to go shopping tomorrow? My day's free and…"

"Well, shouldn't you spend it with your dad?" Sonny furrowed her eyebrows a little.

Tawni's heart nearly stopped. There was a reason lies were often referred to as tangled webs. "Well…you know, my dad never has a full day free. But we're spending Sunday together," she hoped Sonny would be naive enough to believe it.

"Oh, I see. Sorry you can't spend tomorrow with him too," Sonny tried to console her, sure Tawni must feel bad beneath her strong exterior. "But, uh, sure. Sounds like fun," Sonny smiled.

A/N - Thanks for all of the wonderful reviews you all have already left. I hope no one minds too much that I took the liberty of making Tawni's family life a little dysfunctional(ish). I figured it would fit in well with the plot :)