A/N: I feel so bad! I was going to update Thursday, and then I was going to update Friday, and things just kept getting in the way! So, here's my apology chapter, along with another chapter, since this one was getting pretty lengthy :) Yay! Who doesn't love two chapters in one day? Anyways, thanks again to it'sapartyintheUK, Katia11 and Joker236 for reviewing last chapter, and thank you to all who have been reading this fic!
Chad woke up the next morning, trying to cling to the dream he'd just had. In the dream, he had just won Best Teen Actor in the World at a very prestigious award ceremony for actors. Sonny had been in his dream at the ceremony, congratulating him on his wonderful accomplishment, gushing over how amazing he was at acting, and marveling over how absolutely gorgeous he was. At the end of his dream, he had brought Sonny back to his huge castle on a white stallion, and was just about to tell her something important when he woke up in a coughing fit.
Wait. A coughing fit? Chad Dylan Cooper did not have coughing fits. Maybe the occasional clearing of the throat, or a little cough if he swallowed something the wrong way. But never a coughing fit, because coughing fits meant illness, and Chad had never been sick in his life. It just wasn't something he let happen to himself. He watched what he ate, always made sure his hands were sanitized, and never ever came in contact with sick people.
Something, however, was noticeably wrong with Chad this morning. As soon as he got out of his bed and went into his bathroom, he turned on the lights, and immediately got a pounding headache. What in the world? he thought. Gazing into the mirror, Chad soon got a horrible surprise – he had bags under his eyes! How did that happen? I got my beauty sleep last night! His face looked paler than usual, and he started sniffling.
No. This is not happening to me. I am not getting sick. I am not getting sick. I am not getting sick. Chad got dressed in the usual way, preppy shoes and all, fixed his hair, brushed his teeth, and went downstairs to grab a granola bar for breakfast and head to Mackenzie Falls. Eyeing an orange in the fruit bowl on the counter, he thought, There's nothing wrong with a little Vitamin C, is there? He grabbed one, then, just to be on the safe side, grabbed another.
-~:~-
Sonny sat in the waiting room outside of Mr. Condor's office. She had the master copy of the contract sitting on her lap, getting bounced around by her nervous legs. It was her job to tell Mr. Condor which show was going to get to work with Jean-Claude, but the very thought of talking to the man who owned So Random! frightened her more than airplanes, or spiders, or earthquakes.
Mr. Condor's secretary was sitting behind her desk, talking to her boss on the phone. She was a petite woman, in her late twenties maybe, and she looked really bored with her job. She also had a great accent that Sonny tucked away in the back of her mind to use on a sketch sometime.
Hanging up the phone, the secretary said to Sonny, "I'm afraid Mr. Condor won't be coming in until later today. If you'd like, you can drop the papers off with me and I'll give them to him." Sonny noticed how bored the secretary was by the way she drew out every word she said.
"No, that's okay. I'll just catch him later. Thanks anyway," she replied, eager to leave the (terrifying!) office and get ready for the rest of her workday. She closed the door as she left, and practically flew to So Random!
Tawni was seated on a stool in their shared dressing room, sketching what looked to be clothes on a pad of paper on her easel when Sonny walked in. Tawni looked oddly thoughtful as she added some color to a collar, a belt to a blouse, or a flower to a hat. By the looks of it, she had already created four or five designs, and Sonny was impressed.
"Oh my goodness, Tawni!" Sonny exclaimed, closing the dressing room door behind her and setting her papers and purse on a chair. "Those designs are amazing! I didn't know you wanted to be a fashion designer."
Tawni twisted around to face Sonny for a second to say, "I didn't, either." Turning back to her easel, she continued, "I figured if we got to work with Jean-Claude for a few weeks, then maybe he'd consider making a clothing line with me. Maybe we can sell it to Chanel or Yves Saint Laurent!"
"That's a great dream, Tawni!" Sonny encouraged excitedly. She crossed the room to her desk and began to study her script.
After a few moments, Tawni's great blonde head popped out from behind her easel and stared at Sonny. "Wait, what do you mean, 'dream'?"
"I – "
"You don't think I could make it in the fashion industry, do you?"
"Tawni, that's not what I – "
"Don't make excuses, Munroe! I know you're just trying to beat my dreams to the floor to build your perky little Wisconsin dreams up! Well, it's not going to work!" Tawni threw her pencils on the carpet and ran frantically from the room as Sonny stared on, completely and utterly shocked. She had not expected an outburst like that at all. Zora, who had entered the dressing room as Tawni began her rant, shook her head and plopped on Tawni's yellow-fur lounge chair.
"What was that about?" Sonny asked Zora, who was reading a copy of Tween Weekly.
"Oh, Tawni's still upset about her Skinny Pants disaster. I suppose taking another venture into the fashion world could be quite traumatic for someone who tried to make it before and failed," Zora explained nonchalantly.
Right, Sonny thought. With that, she turned back to her script.
-~:~-
After a very successful run-through of that night's show, Sonny, Zora, Nico, Grady, and Tawni went to the commissary to get a well-deserved lunch. Not that they would be able to find much edible food, but they would take what they could get.
As the group walked into the commissary, laughing at a joke Zora had just told, Sonny noticed that Mackenzie Falls was also having their lunch right now. Not that it took much for her to notice them. Her Chad Radar was always on.
Sonny went to the lunch counter with her friends, tried (and failed) to get some decent food for lunch, and walked away with a plate of, well, she didn't really know. Passing the Mackenzie Falls table, however, Sonny could tell that none of them looked very good. Some had extremely pale faces, some were blowing their noses, and some were popping pills for a headache. However, Chloe, Penelope, Portly, and Trevor combined did not look as bad as Chad. He wasn't touching his plate of filet mignon (which was making Sonny's mouth water), had all the symptoms of a common cold that the others did, and occasionally barked out a cough that sounded like a seal. It made Sonny sad to see Chad so miserable, and she couldn't remember a time when she'd ever seen him sick. As they all sat down at their usual table, it occurred to her that maybe he was one of those people who "just didn't get sick," which would mean that this was rough for him and he didn't know what to do. For a fleeting moment, Sonny had a picture in her head of her taking care him, bringing him home to her mom so she could give him the right medicine and nurse him back to health. But Sonny shook the image from her mind. That would never happen.
"…don't you think, Sonny?" Grady asked suddenly. Sonny was dazed and had no idea what to say.
"Um, what?" she asked sweetly, trying to act as innocent as possible, though she wasn't guilty of anything except for imagining Chad lying on her couch.
"We were just thinking of ways to rub it in the Falls' faces that we get Jean-Claude and they don't… How about we send them a cake saying something like, "Congratulations on Winning Jean-Claude for Your Show!", then send someone over to their set asking if they've seen a cake that Mr. Condor said he sent to us, and take it from them!" Nico explained eagerly, a mischievous glint in his eyes.
"Well, that wouldn't be very nice," Sonny insisted.
"Exactly!" Zora said.
"So, we should do it?" Grady asked.
"I have a bakery on speed-dial," Tawni commented. Everyone stared at her. "What?" she asked. "Sometimes I just need a chocolate-chip cookie!"
"No, I don't think it's a good idea. That would hurt their feelings!" Sonny argued.
"They hurt our feelings all the time!" Nico complained.
"Whatever," Sonny replied, giving up. "But don't come crying to me when you've all got guilty consciences." She brought her eyes to the Mackenzie Falls table, and, embarrassingly, her gaze caught Chad's. He held it for a long moment, and then she turned away, feeling the heat rise up in her cheeks. Though Chad's eyes had been half open from fatigue, his stare was still intense and made her feel like she was the only person he saw. Sonny turned back to her plate and didn't talk or look up for the rest of lunch.
-~:~-
After lunch, the cast of So Random! had to be on set for a few notes, another run-through, and then a dress rehearsal for that night's show. Sonny half-listened to the director's and Marshall's comments, distracted by thoughts of Chad being sick, and then got ready for the run-through. She was backstage when she remembered the basket she was supposed to hit Nico and Grady with was in the Prop House, where she'd put it before lunch. She told Marshall she'd back quickly without disturbing the run-through, and bolted to the Prop House.
Flinging open the doors, she looked around frantically for the basket. She found it on a table, and was about to leave when she heard a small voice say, "Sonny?"
She stopped, frozen in her tracks, and searched around the room for the source of the voice. When she found it, she was totally surprised.
Chad Dylan Cooper lay on the couch, looking up at Sonny with a confused expression. He looked like he'd just woken up from a nap, and Sonny blinked rapidly to try and understand the picture before her.
"Chad, why are you on our couch? In our Prop House?"
Chad chuckled dryly, and replied, "Sonny, you are so cute when you're confused." This compliment flustered Sonny, and she almost stamped her foot before retorting, "Look, Chad, I've got somewhere I've got to be. So, if you don't have an explanation, I'll be leaving now."
"No, wait!" Chad said, a little too eagerly, sitting up on the couch. "I'll tell you. Just don't leave me."
The sound of Chad's voice as he said those last four words drove Sonny's brain crazy. This was because she'd always imagined him saying something to her that tenderly, and she never thought he ever would. It was also because she knew, deep down inside her heart, that she would never ever leave him.
She sat down next to him on the couch, making sure to leave some room as to not seem desperate for him, and listened to his story.
"I was walking back from the commissary after lunch, and was going to drop in on you in your dressing room, when my steak started, well, coming up, and I was in this hallway, so I just barged in and, well." He showed Sonny the contents of the wastebasket that had been next to the couch, and she put her hand over her mouth and nose. It smelled disgusting, and Sonny was about to puke into it when Chad pulled it away.
"Sorry," he muttered, barely louder than a whisper. "I felt horrible afterwards, so I just laid down and slept. What time is it?"
"Um, a little after six-thirty," Sonny answered.
"Crap, I was supposed to be on set a half-hour ago," Chad sighed. "Oh well. They'll just have to think I'm pulling another 'diva stunt.'" He slumped down into his former position on the couch, careful not to hit Sonny with his feet.
"Do you mind if I sleep here again?" he asked, his big blue eyes gleaming up at Sonny with what looked like sadness and exhaustion.
"Of course you can," she insisted. "Can I get you anything? Water? Something to eat?" Sonny was surprised that Chad wasn't trying to be charming or flirty or anything with her. But he was still charming her with his politeness, and if her motherly instincts hadn't taken over, she would have stayed with him and let him charm her into oblivion.
"Um, water would be nice," Chad admitted. A shiver rocked through his body, and he closed his eyes. "Thanks, Sonny." Opening his eyes the tiniest bit, he continued, "I mean it. I don't think anyone else here would have done this for me."
Just then, an obnoxiously loud voice came over the intercom saying, "Sonny Munroe to the set of So Random! please, Sonny Munroe to the set of So Random!"
"You should go," Chad whispered, a tiny smile on his peaceful face.
"I'll be back, I promise." Sonny searched around for a blanket, and once she found one, laid it on top of Chad. With one last look at him, she slipped through the Prop House door.
A/N: I hope you liked it! If you want to review, that's great and I'll really appreciate it! If not, that's okay too. My feelings won't be hurt :)
