-this chapter has been edited and redone :D enjoy-
"Honey?" a knock on my door had me awake. "Sonny, wake up. It's Christmas!" I heard my mother's voice just outside my door. A wide grin slowly spread across my face then giddily threw the covers aside and jumped out of bed. It was only 10:17 in the morning.
"I'm so excited!" I squealed as I bounced down to the living room to our Christmas tree. I sat down and looked at the presents—a red box with a sparkly red ribbon caught my eye.
"What's this?" I asked as I reached for it.
"Oh that's from Tawni," mom smiled and handed me an envelope, "and this is from Mr. Condor—most of them came in just this morning."
"Thanks mom," I took it from her and opened it, sitting myself on the couch. Mom sat beside me holding two cups of hot chocolate. I looked at the note and started reading it.
"It says that the party will be held later at 6:30. Games are prepared and a few surprises. Huh, that sounds nice," I placed the letter on the coffee table and took a sip of my hot cocoa. I placed the cup by the letter and took a hold on my present from Tawni.
"I thought the dress yesterday was her gift," I said to myself, unwrapping it. It was again, another dress. This time, though, it was a simple cherry red dress. No tiny puffs, no sparkles, no nothing—just a tight wrap around the waist.
"Oh Sonny, that's beautiful!" my mother chirped, taking the dress from me to look at it closer as I moved on to unwrap other gifts.
After that, I went to my room and prepared all the presents I had for my friends and the wrappers.
Yes, I, Sonny Munroe, had forgotten to wrap them up.
I started with Tawni's gift which was a multi-colored feather-patterned white purse with a pair of her favorite discontinued lipstick, Coco Moco Coco. I placed it in a small box and wrapped it in pink wrapper and topped it with a sparkly silver ribbon. Looks obviously like something for Tawni. Then I moved on to Zora's. It was hard to think of what she wanted, so I just got her an antique. It was an old empty book. I just thought that maybe Zora might just want to write things in it. I placed it in a different rectangular box and wrapped it up in gold and topped it with a deep purple ribbon. I moved on to Nico and Grady's present. It was a bag of two dozen of my mom's chocolate chip cookies. They had a taste of it once and thought it was amazing. I placed the bag in a dark green box then secured it with some tape and a gold ribbon. And believe it or not, I bought Chad a gift too. It was a book filled with guitar tabs, a box of picks and a small snow globe. I didn't know what came over me why I bought him something. And yes, I do know he plays a guitar, I'm just not so sure about the signing part. I placed his present in a dark blue paper bag. I looked inside my drawers and found a Santa figurine. I had it prepared for some reasons that include thinking that maybe Mr. Condor might like it. I placed it in a small box and wrapped it with silver Christmas wrapper stuck a Christmas card on it.
I looked over at my clock. 12:20. I still have a lot of time. I decided to make a batch of cookies for Dakota. It might soften her up a bit—and by that I mean make her feel guilty about tricking everyone.
After having lunch with my mom, I spent just about an hour and 10 minutes just doing that—making the cookies. I snickered at myself. I just sitting on the kitchen counter and staring at the oven for twenty minutes. If my mom had been in here instead of relaxing in the living room, I bet I looked like a fool to her. I smiled at the result though—sweet, sweet smelling chocolate chips.
I headed to my room and laid out my new dress from Tawni. I was thinking that maybe she'll be so happy to see me in it. I smiled to myself. I pulled my hair up into a messy bun and walked into my bathroom. Staring at my reflection, I put my hand under the water flowing out of the faucet and washed my face. After freshening up, I put on the dress and I have to admit, Tawni has incredible taste. The dress hugged me in all the right places and made up for my pale complexion. I grinned widely knowing that tonight was gonna be one of the best Christmases ever. I can see it now: myself laughing and talking with Chad—wait, what? Did I just think that? Oh my, this is just so...ineffable. I am so speechless. Did I like Chad? Do I like Chad? Do I like Chad? Do I like Chad? Do I like Chad? I ranted on and on in my head. Did or do I really? Nevertheless I threw the thought back into the deep, deep part of my mind. I started curling my hair and putting on mascara, eyeliner and some lip gloss.
I stared at the clock. 5:15. Just enough time to get to the studio. I took all the presents and brought them to the living room.
"Uh, mom? " I asked my mother who was sitting on the couch reading a book.
"Yes, sweetie? " She looked up.
"Could you help me out here a bit? Like drive me to the studio, please?" I asked her. She smiled.
"Of course; I wouldn't want my little Santa to lose all the gifts she's gonna give her friends."
We took all the presents to the car and drove off into the traffic.
As we neared the gates to the studios, I looked at the time. 6:20. Time sure does pass by quickly. My mother and I went inside carrying the gifts and walked towards the room where the party will be held. Mr. Condor told us to put the presents under the Christmas tree.
"Oh, there it is!" mom said, pointing to a huge tree with so many festive buntings hanging off it's branches.
"Wow," I managed to squeak out as my mom walked over with the presents. It had so many gifts under it that a whole army could each be given one. I got so excited about how many I could get. I quickly skipped over and gently placed the presents there.
"Oh, hold on," I heard my mom say as she walked away talking into her phone. She walked back a few minutes later and hugged me with a smile. "You're cousins came."
"They're here already?" I asked clearly over-excited.
"Yes, but don't you go home early, okay? I want you to stay and have some fun first," she told me, pinching my cheek.
"Mom," I said, squirming out of her pincer hands, "Mom, I will. I'm sure they're already waiting."
"Oh right," she hugged me again and we said goodbye.
I looked around and found people arriving and walking through and into the doors. Mr. Condor walked up to the makeshift stage in the room and tapped the microphone.
"Everybody, I have bad news," he hesitated for a moment, "I will not be here for the whole time because Dakota has a cold and is staying at home," some murmurs were filling up the room and some faces began lighting up. "Well, goodbye and I have left my assistant, Jenny, here to keep everything in control and in order," he walked off the stage and started towards the door. I stopped him.
"Sonny, what is it?"
"I have a gift. For you and Dakota," I told him as I walked over to the Christmas tree and took his and Dakota's gift. "Here," I told him, giving him one my hundred-watt smiles.
"Why, thank you, Sonny," he smiled and walked off.
"You're welcome!"
"Okay," I heard a feminine and small voice from the speakers. I turned around and saw Jenny through the crowd and speaking into the microphone. There were at least fifty who came. " So I'm sure everyone's very excited to get all their presents," she smiled as everyone in the room had their eyes wide with excitement, including me, "but, as to not spoil the surprise, I'm afraid we'd have to do that last," everyone groaned and complained. "First we'll be having a truth or dare!" She excitedly announced and said again, "although we'll be splitting everyone into their own groups and the truths and dares will not be asked by you but you'd have to pick from a hat," she paused and took out a list, "Mr. Condor had already prepared a list so just say that you like it or all of you will get fired because Mr. Condor installed hidden cameras to know how everything's going.. but don't worry, this activity was made to strengthen the bonds between our shows," wow...maybe this might not be as fun as I thought.
"Group A will be Portlyn Murray, Cassandra Davids, Rachel Andrews, Becka Morrison, Emma Jones, Alana Adam , Nicholas Jones, Harry Peter and Joseph Adam. All of you will stay in that corner," Jenny smiled as she pointed to a small table for ten in a corner of the room.
"Next will be group B, you will stay there," Jenny pointed to the table near the tree, " so group B will be composed of Chad Dylan Cooper, Kevin Deane, Zack Matthews, Grady Mitchell, Skylar DeVane, Vanessa Peirce, Tara Hart, Tiffany Berg, Sophia Jones and Allison Munroe."
"It's Sonny, Jen. Not Allison," I told her.
"Well here we use the complete names, Ms. Munroe, not nicknames," she politely remarked-yeah right.
She went on and on with the other groups as I walked over the my assigned place. I noticed there were really two top hats on the table filled with paper. One says truth and the other hat said dare. I sat down and was greeted by a sweet smile.
"Hi I'm Sophie, you must be Sonny," I shook her hand as she took the seat next to me. She had very dark hair, brown eyes and wow, we could be sisters. She and I share the same complexion.
"So, what show do you star in?" I asked her, curious. She might be one of those girls in Meal Or No Meal.
"Hoosier Girl," she giggled, "It's comedy too."
"Well, no wonder we're getting along fine," I laughed as the others took their seats. A blond sat on the other seat next to me.
"Hi," I said politely.
"Tara Hart, Tawni's younger sister. Star lunch box girl of Meal Or No Meal," I stared at her. Is she really going to be just like her sister? She giggled alongside with Sophie.
"Don't worry, Sonny," she had her hand on my shoulder, "I'm not as conceited as my sister. Trust me, I'm different," I smiled.
"Oh, sorry."
"Sonny, Sonny, Sonny. Hasn't anyone told you that it's rude to not stare at me?" I heard his voice across the table. I faked a smile and rolled my eyes. "Hey, I'm kidding. Merry Christmas, Sonny," he smiled. I swear I was being charmed. No, I am charmed.
Jenny started explaining how it works. "You spin the bottle and you ask one person truth or dare and whichever he/she picks you will get only one piece of paper from the hat that says so and read it. In some truths and dares, you can pick whoever you want the person who you asked to do something to or pick that something that the person you ask to do or tell something to," everybody had a confused face on, including Jenny and I.
"Okay well just read the paper. I'm sure you don't have to be a genius to figure out what to do," she waved the last sentence away and walked off. "You can start now!" she said very loudly.
"Who's gonna spin it first?" a redhead girl asked.
"That's Vanessa," Sophie whispered to me.
"Since I'm the best, I'll be last," of course, Chad.
"Can I go?" An eager Grady asked.
"Go ahead," Tara motioned. He started spinning the bottle. I had my fingers crossed hoping it wouldn't be me.
"Ugh, great," A brunette said, rolling her eyes, "Why do I have to go first?" she murmured.
"That's Tiffany, she's actually a sweetheart," Tara whispered to me.
"Don't know," Grady shrugged, "Truth or dare?" ah, everyone's favorite question.
"Uh, dare?"
"Okay then," Grady reached over the hat and pulled out a strip of paper. " Uh, pull out a strand of hair from the head of who you think is the most self-absorbed person in this group," he read. He looked up and saw Tiffany walk over to Chad.
"Hey Chad, how's it going?" I can tell she had a fake smile on her face.
" Real goo-OW! Hey! Nobody touches the hair!" I giggled.
"Shut up, Munroe," he glared.
"You'd have to be thankful to Mr. Condor for the cameras," Sophie giggled. She was either telling me or Tiffany. I carried on giggling as Tiffany spun the bottle. It landed on Skylar. I would know because he's one of the 'Falls' kids.
"Alright," she said, "T or D?"
"Dare," Skylar said, smirking.
"Okay," Tiffany said pulling out a piece of paper from the hat. "Kiss whoever you think is the hottest person, in the group, on the lips," she paused and looked up.
"Well that's impossible, I'm the only and hottest person in this group," Chad said arrogantly. Everybody rolled their eyes at his remark and so did I. Later, I felt a shadow over me. I turned around and saw Skylar beside me and smirking at Chad.
"Hey, Sonny. Uh," he hesitated there for a moment I smiled signaling him to continue, "may I?" I nodded and he gave me a quick peck on the lips.
"Wait, wait. You can't kiss her!" I heard Chad protest as Skylar walked back to his seat.
"But he did," I told him, "besides, there's no rule that he can't," I smirked at him. Oh no, I'm becoming his female version. Oh well.
"Fine"
"Fine!"
"Good!"
"GOOD!"
"Good riddance!" Tara yelled, "Gosh, you two."
I rolled my eyes and took my turn in spinning the bottle. It landed on Sophie.
"Oh goodie," she said sarcastically," I'll take truth."
"Wimp," I heard Chad say under his breath. I glared at Chad as I pulled out a paper.
"Who do you think has the biggest crush on me?" I paused and reflected on what i read on the paper, "Wait what?"
"Chad has the biggest and most massive crush on you," she said giggling.
"I do not!," Chad complained. Oh my gosh, is he blushing?
"He does not," I knew my voice raised there. "Pfft," I am so...stupid.
The rest of the party went fine. By that I meant Chad and I going around ignoring each other.
"Now, it's time for the Christmas time photo shoot," Jenny announced, smiling. "As Mr. Condor told me, all the stars will be sitting or standing in that corner be be taken a picture of for the official Condor Studios website and Happy Holidays posts," she remarked as she pointed over to a well-arranged part of the room. I didn't notice that part yesterday.
Everybody skipped on over to the corner. some sat down and some were standing while some were on the floor. I was on the floor and at the end. Tawni, Tara and Tiffany were standing up behind me and Sophie was sitting beside me. My cast was around my side and the Falls cast were all around Chad in the other end far, far away from me.
"Okay," Jenny said after snapping the picture, "we are gonna have the star of two of our top shows," Tawni got a little too excited by then, "Alison, Chad, Do you mind stand over there?" Jenny told us as she pointed towards a table arranged for a dinner. "Mr. Condor wants you guys to sit over there and look all lovey dovey, 'kay?"
"Aw Sonny! I waned to get more face time with the camera!" Tawni complained as Chad and I begrudgingly walked towards it.
Wow. It was like Mr. Condor knew what was going on...Oh wait, right, cameras.
"Okay, now I need a volunteer to pose behind the table and hold up the mistletoe.
"Mistle-what?" Chad and I chorused.
"Me!" Tawni chirped, raising her hands with a delighted look on her face. I slightly glared up at her as I took my seat on the table.
So we sat down and the room grew silent. Everybody's eyes were on us. So we posed. I leaned back on my chair as Tawni leaned on the table. Of course Chad had his leg crossed over the other and had that smirk again. I smiled as the camera flashed.
"Okay now Tawni, hold up the mistletoe over them," Jenny said.
"Okay," Tawni responded hanging the branch over us.
"You know the rules," Jenny winked at us. Everyone got their phones out. Even Portlyn was happy. What? Wait, so-
"Sonny," I heard Chad whisper/yell at me. I turned around and Chad practically smacked our lips together across the little table. Some of the people in our little audience were giggling, murmuring and I could even hear Tawni holding in a fit of laughter while cameras and camera phones snapped.