"Subscription!" the mail guy, Curt, called into Marshall's office. He was about to toss the rubber-banded subscription of People magazine into his office when it was suddenly whisked from his hand.

"Sorry, mind if I take this for a minute?" Sonny said anxiously, rushing away to the dressing room before Curt could answer.

She collapsed onto the leopard-print recliner after stuffing two-dozen People subscription magazines underneath the large leopard-print cushion. She heaved heavily before her eye fell on a magazine that had slipped out of her arms. The horrifying cover stared up at her. "Why me?" She asked nobody in particular as she shoved it under the cushion quickly.

"Sonny?" Grady said, poking his head around the corner. A jittery Sonny yelped slightly and jumped backwards, falling onto the recliner. "C'mon! We're about to start filming! The crowd's just going crazy!" He chuckled.

Sonny smoothed her flower-print dress and tried to look sophisticated. But, instead of feeling erudite and stylish, she just felt scatter-brained and betrayed.

"Annnnnnnnnd ACTION!"

Sonny breathed in and out rhythmically, trying her hardest to make the terrifying image that was splattered across a national magazine escape her mind.

"Hey loser give me all your lunch money!" Tawni said in a deep voice. Sonny pulled the small lever on the specially made backpack and a plush but hard-looking boxing glove popped out and tapped Tawni. She screamed and fell backwards at her posse.

"Cut, cut, cut," Marshall declared. The audience's laughter, chattering, and screaming of their favorite actors' names began to roll back to life. Sonny thought she heard her name a few times, but wasn't exactly sure. "Sonny, where's the passion? Where's the life?"

"I-I'm sorry." She stammered, shaking her head to clear it of the image of Chad's face leaning towards hers. She looked towards the left wing and saw Chad. "Ugh, I'm hallucinating!" She assumed, whispering it to herself. This picture was driving her crazy. Wait a minute, she thought, I'm not hallucinating! It's actually Chad! "Uh, Marshall, do you mind if we take five?" Marshall contemplated this for a moment, then shrugged and walked towards the chocolate fountain.

"Chad, what are you doing here?" demanded Sonny through gritted teeth, "I told you that in order to maintain a secret relationship, you have to stay off of the So Random! set." Chad rolled his eyes and shoved his hands in the pocket of his Mackenzie Falls uniform.

"We don't need to maintain a secret relationship, Sonny, because the secret is out." He searched her brown eyes for something. What he was looking for exactly, Sonny didn't know.

"No, no, you see, I collected all the subscriptions so nobody around here knows . . . .yet." She added nervously, picking her cuticles.

"I did the same thing but I can't go collect the subscriptions in Virginia or Indiana or Washington!" Chad argued, "What about those?"

"Maybe . . . Maybe we get special subscriptions and the actual public magazines haven't been shipped out yet!" Sonny concluded, already Google-ing the phone number to the People magazine headquarters.

"That's ridiculous."

"Just try the number . . . Please . . . For us?" She looked into his blue eyes pleadingly. He sighed and smiled, taking the iPhone from Sonny's shaking, sweaty palm.

"Okay, fine." They peered around to make sure nobody was watching and quickly hugged.

"Tell you what, why don't you come to my apartment tonight and we'll talk about everything?" Chad offered. Sonny wanted to say yes but knew that it didn't feel right.

"Eh . . .," Sure, Chad was an emancipated minor but Sonny wasn't and she was only fifteen after all. "How about you come by mine and we talk about it over a nice hot bowl of soup?" She smiled her million dollar smile. Chad, instead of being pushy and persuasive, smiled warmly.

"I'd like that."

Yeah! It's a party in the USA! Yeah! It's a party in the USA! The music stopped and the radio DJ's voice came over the speakers once more, "And that was the newest hit single Party in the USA by the one and the only, Miley Cyrus! We've got Selena Gomez's new single, Falling Down, right after the break!" It cut to a commercial about Jewel Osco and Ms. Monroe switched it off.

"Mmm, this chicken noodle soup smells delicious, Chad should love it sweetie." She assured, taking a small taste-test of it and quickly reaching for an ice cold cup of water, since the soup was boiling hot. Sonny chuckled.

"Nice, mom." She situated the rolled up silverware neatly on the fancy brown placemats that also had tiny red beads hanging off of them. She lit the candelabra centerpiece. Ding-dong! Sonny jumped.

"It's him!" She squealed. Ms. Monroe's eyes widened and she hurriedly turned off the stove and scooped the soup into the fancy china bowls that were rarely used, they were just mostly for show, and hid around the corner to the hallway that the bedrooms were on so she could eavesdrop on her daughter's conversation.

"Chad, thanks for coming to my place instead of yours." Sonny took his coat and lazily tossed it aside on the couch, gesturing towards the kitchen, "Soup's ready."

"Cool," Chad took a seat across from Sonny and blew on his soup to cool it off. "So, about the magazines . . . I called . . .,"

"And?" coaxed Sonny.

"And they already had 1,000 shipments sent out." Sonny sighed, looking dejected as she slurped her soup. "I'm sorry, I tried all I could. I told them it was Chad Dylan Cooper and that I needed the cover changed and they said it was fine and it was all about publicity and stupid stuff like that."

"This is so unfair. It hasn't even been our week-a-versary yet and already the paparazzi caught us." Sonny shoved her soup aside, "Ugh, I'm not even hungry anymore."

"Well . . . They can't catch us here." Chad leaned in and Sonny, aware of her mother peaking around the corner, twitched towards Ms. Monroe's direction.

"Not here. Not now." She whispered through a too-big smile that seemed obviously fake.

"Well, since we're just gonna be talking for right now, you should really eat." He shoved the soup bowl towards Sonny, who quickly gave in and drank another spoonful of the broth. While her mouth was full, her phone buzzed. The broth was hot, so she was letting it sit in her mouth for a few moments so it wouldn't burn her throat.

"He-wo?" She asked through the mouthful of broth.

"Sonny?" A familiar voice came over the speaker, "It's Lucy . . . I'm in Hollywood." Sonny spat her mouthful of hot soup all over Chad.