Figuring It Out.
//
Sonny at once wanted to tell Chad where they were but Chad already gone inside in search of the Rasgulla. Sonny couldn't blame him. Rasgullas' were all kinds of wonderful. They were soft and sweet and chewy and just melted in your mouth.
She then tucked her sari securely around her head and walked to her house. She would find some way to go to Chad's house and tell him. What he would do with the knowledge she didn't know but it would be nice to put a name to the place they were staying in. Just knowing that they were in rural India didn't solve any problems. Maybe she could subtly ask her not-mother where they were right now and how far was the nearest city. And from there could figure out the next plan of action.
Feeling hopeful she walked inside her house and as soon as she entered the house her not-mother whisked her away into the kitchen telling that there was big fair coming up in the village in the weekend on account of Ganesh Chaturthi and that there were plenty of sweet meats and snacks to be made. Sonny blinked in confusion. What was Ganesh Chaturti? And why was she being taken to the kitchen, again. She survived in the morning because she knew about crepes but she didn't know about many other sweets other than Rasgullas' and Sandesh and if she asked her not-mother what they were, she knew she would be doomed for sure.
Why rural India of all places? Why couldn't they have been taken to some place back in the USA or even Europe? She and Chad were so out of their element here, though so far no one seemed to have noticed, which was a good thing.
But you could only play charades for so long and that is what scared Sonny.
She would have to have a talk with Chad and soon.
//
As soon as Chad entered the house, his nose led him straight to the kitchen, where he could smell the fragrant sweets. Chad sniffed appreciatively ands then checked himself. He had only met his not-family this morning and he already felt like one of them. And even more surprisingly, he felt very much at home here. His not-dad was a pretty chill dude, even if his sentence construction and grammar were way off. The point was his not-dad treated him like a son and that hadn't happened to him in a long time. He spoke affectionately to him, ruffled his hair, which Chad grudgingly admitted he enjoyed and he was constantly telling Chad how much of a wonderful son he was. The last part had made Chad's heart explode a little with happiness. And in an unexpected display of affection he had gone and hugged his not-dad, albeit awkwardly because they were both manly men and manly men didn't hug.
But after that Chad had been sporting a grin and Chad's father had been sporting an even bigger grin, though he was a little red in the face. They had then worked in silence, hoeing the field and occasionally sharing smiles.
Chad's not-mom was even better. She fussed over him constantly and that made him feel nice. It wasn't like back at Mackenzie Falls where sometimes the fussing was fake but here it was genuine and that's what made Chad even happier. She was constantly exhorting him to eat more despite him feeling stuffed and she'd keep making him these small treats. She was like the mothers he had read about in books. Always asking kids to eat more, even though they were fine and worrying that they were unhealthy and undernourished, even when they were most definitely not.
But Chad enjoyed all the attention. Growing up in Hollywood didn't leave a lot of time for childhood, or time with his parents. He loved his parents for sure, but they were kind of distant and vague figures in his life. He knew they loved him too but he didn't want to burden them by foisting his fame on them. Fame had ruined many a family's life and that's why his family played such a small part in his life. And also, Hollywood had a knack for making your grow up over night. He didn't mean it in a losing innocence kind of way, but he had become and adult too soon. And he was only sixteen.
So here he got to live the life he never really had a chance to live. A mom to fuss over him and a dad to teach him father-son stuff. Mind you it wasn't exactly the hoops and balls kind of stuff but it was still nice.
Extremely nice.
He was still lost in his thoughts when his not-mom came out bearing a plate of Rasgullas. She motioned at Chad to open his mouth and even though he was sixteen and not six, Chad did and he almost died to happiness inside. Rasgullas were the equivalent of heaven. Now if he could only kiss Sonny while she was wearing Rasgulla flavored lip-gloss, he would die a happy man.
"How is it, Chad beta?" his not-mom asked. He bobbed his head very fast and mumbled incoherently. She got the message and smiled before making her way back to the kitchen. By that time his not-dad came back and taking one look at the pure delight on Chad's face, he made his way instantly to the kitchen only to be tossed out by Chad's not-mom. His not-dad then dejectedly made his way to the bathroom. The threat was simple and potent. No cleans hands and legs, no rasgulla.
Chad then went up to his room to get rid of his sweaty clothes. He didn't really have a chance to look around before and he made use of the opportunity to do so now. His room was sparsely furnished yet it still had a homely feel to it. He had a decent sized bed and there was a bookshelf with books in a language he didn't understand and a chair and a cupboard which he supposed was for clothes. He walked to the bookshelf and looked at the books. Some of the books had colorful covers, like movie posters done in Technicolor and some of them had sober covers. Chad picked up the sober covered ones and stared at them. They were science books, that much he could recognize because of the drawings and all. But they were in a different language. His eyes bugged out of his head. He felt pity for the kids who studied this. Science was hard enough as it is in English. But learning it in a whole different language. Man, that would be tough. He was glad he didn't have to go to school in this place. He didn't need all of that nonsense, especially science, his favorite bugbear in a different language.
He moved to the window and looked and then promptly stumbled backwards in shock. His room was right opposite Sonny's room and from his window; he could take a good peek into Sonny's room. His head was at once flooded with plenty of images involving Sonny and acres of pale smooth skin. He got up and backed away from the room, trying to focus his gaze elsewhere and his gaze landed on a picture of what clearly was a deity. Okay he knew it was a deity because there was a halo around its head and from the deity's palm there was stream of shining light issuing forth. Chad colored. He wasn't a particularly religious person but somehow thinking certain thoughts and then thinking of some form of God felt so very wrong.
He at once went to his closet and began rifling through it. Damn, he only had loose flowing tunics and tight pants in here. Oh well, they would have to do because just have a swathe of cotton wrapped around his lower half didn't feel all that nice. He felt pretty exposed and the fear that it would fall of at any time was quite annoying. He stripped off his sweat soaked vest, and pulled of his lower cloth. He then quickly pulled his tunic over his head and then hopped around the room, trying to get his tight pants around. By the time he was done he was exhausted. Who knew clothing would cause such a problem.
He was going to turn to go when he noticed something pink outside his window. He went closer and peered into the afternoon sun. The pink was none other than Sonny and Chad smirked. So she had seen him getting dressed huh? Good thing he was wearing striped boxers.
"Hey Sonny, had your fill of my smokin bod'?" he called out cheerily.
"Psh. Like what nonsense. As if I'd ever want to see you. I don't even like seeing you fully clothed." Sonny snapped, looking quite put out by him.
"Please Sonny, I know you were peeking and enjoying it," Chad called out cheekily settling himself on the windowsill artistically. There, he was sure he made a pretty handsome picture to anyone watching from below.
"You wish Chad," Sonny called out before adding an artistic snort of disbelief to her denial. Chad smirked. Sonny could deny all she wanted but her cheeks which were pink and rosy even from all the way here spoke a different story.
Sonny Munroe had seen him and liked it.
Oh happy day.
//
Sonny had seriously not been expecting this. She had begged off cooking by citing a headache and taking one close look at Sonny her not-mom had marched her off upstairs to sleep. She said she would come upstairs later on with a hot glass of milk to soothe. Sonny had almost cried in happiness but this reminded her of something her mom would do. After hugging her not-mom who simply laughed and hugged her back, Sonny trudged her way upstairs.
Truth be told, she didn't actually have a headache. But constantly trying to figure out the logistics of how they got there and how they would escape was beginning to give her a headache. Plus there was also an element of guilt involved. Her not-parents were nice as were Chad's and if she and he escaped together, their parents would never hear the end of it. And she didn't want them to have to face that. Here in India, eloping was frowned upon very strictly. Arranged marriages were more of the norm here. Love marriages were looked upon with extreme caution and distaste. And eloping usually meant a love marriage.
She sighed as she flopped on her bed, which was surprisingly soft and downy. And it was also an ornate four poster with carvings on each post. Now there were more problems to sort out.
Sonny stared at the patterns asking them to help her before sighing again. Maybe sleep would make everything better. She got off the bed and struggled to get out of the sari. That was the problem with wearing six yards of fabric; you tended to get lost in it, especially if you were short like her.
She was in the process of extricating a long tunic from her cupboard when she noticed a movement outside her window. When she peered at it, she realized it was Chad and she immediately picked up the sari to cover herself. God, why hadn't she noticed the open window before. She had begun feeling mortified when she realized that Chad didn't know of her existence. He was trying to get dressed himself. And the moment, he took of all his clothes, she blushed. At least the guy had boxers on but oh my goodness, this wicked memory was going to haunt her till the end of her days. She only hoped Chad hadn't noticed. She quickly pulled on her clothes and cleared away her sari only to find Chad grinning at her obnoxiously.
And from the way he settled herself on the windowsill, grinning like that cat that ate the canary, she knew he knew. He called her out on it but she denied it. Admitting it was the equivalent of digging her own grave. And she was in no mood to do that, thank you very much.
And then she suddenly realized, now would be the perfect time to tell him because she may not find him at any other time since now Chad was working in the fields..
"Chad, I know where we are," she called out, feeling a little excited. Finally they could begin putting plans into motion.
Chad immediately perked up at the mention of that. Sonny could see from the way he sat up straighter and the speed with which his expression became serious.
"We're in rural India!"
"Where is that?" Chad called out blinking in confusion. He had never heard of a place called rural India. Sonny quickly racked her brains, trying to remember her geography lessons about the silk route and colonization.
"It's in-between China and Pakistan," she called out.
"Wha---" Chad began and Sonny didn't hear the end of it because Chad Dylan Cooper had fallen out his window in shock and landed in the fragrant jasmine bushes down below.
Well, in her defense, she never asked him to sit on the windowsill But maybe she should have asked him to stand on solid ground before he heard her. A string of curses were sounded out from below and Sonny sighed.
Now she would have to go extricate his sorry behind.
Reference.
Rasgullas and Sandesh are yummy Bengali sweets.
Ganesh Chaturthi – Festival celebrating an elephant headed god named Ganesha which is going to happen here in two days! ^_^
Sorry for the delay in updating. Real life can be quite insistent that you pay attention to it, so I did. Anyhow this chapter was slightly filler-esque but I kinda needed it in order to move forward. Not the best chapter but hopefully it's not all bad. Next chapter, some epic Chad freak out. :)
And please if you have any questions about the fic or India, I'd happy to answer. :)
