If you want a better picture of Nathaniel, I'm imagining him as extremely similar to Ricky Underwood from The Secret Life of the American Teenager. xD

There's some (slight) Nico/Tawni in this one, too! Yay! :)

Enjoy!

"Alright, so if you were stranded on a desert island with Chad Dylan Cooper and you could only bring three things, what would they be?" Nico asked the So Random! cast curiously, trying to pass the interminable time between lunch and rehearsals.

"Well he'd probably have a good handle on hair products and what not–" Grady began.

"Earplugs! I'd bring those; that's definitely a must have. Can you imagine being like, forced to listen to him go on and on about how handsome and talented he's convinced that he is?" Tawni added to Grady's statement with a roll of her eyes.

"Kind of like you," Nico mused, which earned a hard whack of the arm from Tawni.

"You know what I'd bring?" Zora went back to the original subject. "A gun. Just for threatening purposes," she answered her own question with a malicious giggle and mischevous flick of the eyebrows that only she could pull off. Although the rest of the cast was used to her peculiar behavior, this remark caused each one of them to practically gape at her.

As the cast continued to stare at a malevolent Zora, not one of them took notice of an approaching Sonny with Nathaniel on her heel. Sending an assuring smile to Nathaniel, Sonny reached the lunch of table of the So Random! cast and waited patiently for them to acknowledge her was the first to break her regard from Zora and register the fact that there were two new additions to the lunch table. She condescendingly observed Nathaniel before saying, "Sonny, you were gone for barely fifteen minutes and you picked up a stray?"

"Uh," Sonny began nervously as everyone else noticed that she was there, "Guys, this is Nathaniel! Nathaniel Parker — or Nate, for short. He's guest starring on an episode of that gladiator show in studio three. I bumped into him a few minutes ago — which is a lot more literal than you think — and we got to talking. I figured since he's new around here and he hasn't really met anyone yet, I'd invite him to eat lunch with us."

"That's so sweet, Sonny," Tawni smiled a seemingly genuine smile, gesturing to the two empty seats at the end of the table for them to sit down and join them. As Sonny began leading Nathaniel toward the seats, she grinned back and Tawni's smile instantly dropped, being replaced with a look of annoyance. Tawni Hart did not like new people — her feelings of Sonny joining the cast being the perfect example — and was less than thrilled to see that Sonny had invited someone to eat with them without even asking them beforehand. That, and there was something about him that she didn't trust just yet.

Zora, Nico, and Grady happily accepted the fact that he'd be eating with them and admirably watched as he pulled out Sonny's chair and took a seat next to her, a never-faltering smile plastered across his face. Although the apparition was still there, Tawni decided to let things play out as they would without interfering.

"So, what's up Nate?" Nico asked casually to strike up a conversation.

"The ceiling," Nathaniel replied with a smirk, obviously trying not to laugh at his own inane joke. Sonny let out a true laugh at the remark while the rest of the cast simply giggled out of politeness.

"So funny," Tawni spit out between overly forced laughs, punching Nathaniel's shoulder a little too hard. He sent a friendly smile her way, trying his best to ignore the pain that was wracking his upper body. Seriously, the girl could pack a punch.

"Nathaniel!" Nico began, eyeing Tawni. "Since we're still eating," he paused, nodding towards Nathaniel's empty place, "and you're obviously not–"

"Which kind of destroys the purpose of having lunch with us," Tawni muttered under her breath, and this time it was her turn to get a jab of the elbow from Nico.

"Why don't you tell us about yourself?" he continued, glaring at Tawni with an expression that said 'Cut it out.'

"There's not much to say really," Nathaniel shrugged in response.

"Then just start from the beginning! Give us the E! True Hollywood Story of Nathaniel Parker," Grady suggested, grabbing a piece of food off of Nico's plate and tossing it into his mouth.

"Okay," Nathaniel began nervously. Truthfully, these people were kind of, well, weird. One of them was physically abusing him and glaring at him whenever he looked her way, another was stuffing food down his throat as if it was going out of style, the little girl in the corner was stabbing holes in her milk carton with a plastic straw, the blond one just asked for his freaking life story... and then there was Sonny. She was normal; she was sane. Although they'd just met, he liked her. And because he liked her, he'd need to get used to and close to her friends.

Step One of getting close to her friends: Give them your life story.

"Well, as you know, I'm Nathaniel Parker. I'm sixteen, turning seventeen in a few weeks. Uh, I was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. I never really liked acting much; I mainly played baseball and hung out with my friends — had some good times with my buddies pulling pranks on random people throughout the city. Juvenile, yeah, but fun nevertheless. My family moved out here to LA with my Dad's law firm. Being thrust into the middle of the acting territory got me interested in the whole Hollywood business and I eventually decided to pursue it. Now I'm here, guest starring on a teen drama about gladiators and telling you guys stuff that you probably don't even care about," he finished the story with a light comment, trying to earn some laughs.

"Got that right," Tawni mumbled, stifling a yawn.

"She's charming, isn't she?" Nico grinned at Nathaniel, placing a friendly arm around Tawni's shoulder and pinching her tightly once he looked the other way. She jabbed his side with her elbow and he retreated, leaving Tawni with a triumphant smile.

"I thought it was interesting," Sonny smiled, placing a hand on his arm. "The pranking part seemed fun. Did you ever try that practical joke where you go inside an airport and tell random people not to get on their flight?"

"Funny story, actually–" Nathaniel began with a laugh, but was cut off by the ringing of the lunch bell reverberating through the cafeteria.

"Rehearsal time, guys!" Grady stated, standing up and tossing a used napkin on his tray. With that announcement, the rest of the cast, excluding Tawni, stood also and nodded politely toward Nathaniel before throwing away their trash and heading out the door. After they'd left, Tawni picked up her tray and violently pushed out her seat as she stood so that it crashed against Nathaniel's side. Sending a faux apologetic smile his way, she strutted to the trash barrel and out of the cafeteria. Sonny strayed behind with Nathaniel and sent a smile his way after they'd all left.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the building, a broken Chad Dylan Cooper pulled himself off the ground and brushed the dirt and lint off of his clothing. The overpowering beat of the rain and his flooding thoughts of Sonny and Nathaniel were enough to make him want to rip out his beautiful head of hair. However, in the fifteen minutes he'd spent in his dressing room, he'd hatched up a plan that would allow him to scoff down some much needed food and avoid Sonny and her So Random! followers. And, of course, that Nathaniel kid as well. He was certainly someone that he'd hoped he wouldn't be seeing around too often.

Once he heard the sound of the bell signaling that it was time to get back to work, he opened the door and quickly made his way to the cafeteria. As he rounded the corner to the foyer of the building that lead to his destination, he noticed a fuming Tawni exiting the cafeteria doors. He sent a confused look her way, and she rolled her eyes in response without saying a word to him. Shrugging it off, he pushed open the swinging doors of the cafeteria and the sight of none other than that Nathaniel Parker and Sonny stopped him in his tracks. Seriously? Was this God's way of torturing him or something?

"So that went well," Sonny said to Nathaniel with a grin, not noticing the figure frozen in the doorway behind him.

"Call me crazy, Sonny, but I don't think they like me very much. Especially Tawni," he sighed.

"Of course they do!" she replied.

"Sonny, one of them was more interested in his food than me, another would rather poke holes in her milk carton than pay attention to my lame story, and another one took every chance she got to either abuse me physically or cut down something that I said," he said.

"Relax, Nathaniel, they've only just met you," she reassured him. By then, everyone but themselves and the workers had cleared out of the cafeteria except for an unnoticed Chad that was lurking in the shadows of the doorway.

"So have you," Nathaniel pointed out.

"And I like what I see," she smiled widely, immediately turning red after the words came out of her mouth. A grin slowly overtook Nathaniel's features as he stared back at a blushing Sonny until she broke the gaze and became more interested in something behind him. It was then that she noticed that Chad was in the room, practically frozen in place in the doorway while his eyes locked with Sonny's as they had only a short while before. This time, though, it was Sonny that broke the contact as she looked back at Nathaniel with a faltered grin.

"W-we need to get going to rehearsals! Let's get out of here, okay?" she asked with hopeful eyes, and Nathaniel quickly obliged. Sonny, following him, left the cafeteria with her eyes nervously glued to the carpeted floor so that she wasn't forced to look at Chad. Trying her best not to bump into him and cause even more embarrassment and awkwardness, she swiftly brushed past him and let out a silent sigh of relief once she was out of the room.

Chad remained where he was standing after they left and slowly collapsed into a nearby chair. He replayed what had just happened and was confused at how he felt about it. He was — jealous. That was new. Sure, he'd had to act it out a million and one times in MacKenzie Falls episodes but he never actually experienced it himself. He wasn't even sure if it was jealousy that he was feeling, but it definitely wasn't joy or happiness that he felt when seeing the two flirt like mad in the middle of a deserted cafeteria. The way she smiled at him, the way she blushed...

That was his smile.

That was his blush.

He felt as though those little things that Sonny did were reserved for him and only him, not someone she'd just met.

Instead, though, he was forced to watch her smile at someone else. He was forced to watch her flirt with someone else. He was forced to watch her blush because of someone else. That made him feel sick, because someone else was not him.

Did he really deserve this?

Well, maybe he did.

He was beginning to think he'd never forgive himself for what he'd done to Sonny in front of the MacKenzie Falls cast. Hell, he was beginning to think he'd never forgive himself what he'd done to her period.

The look on her face when he spoke those words pained him, yet he didn't fix the mistake while there was still time left. He could've easily taken the words back and coaxed her out of being mad at him. It was no mystery to either of them that they had some sort of spell over each other; they knew how to put on the charm to get what they wanted from the other. That being said, with a few good lines and smiles Sonny would've easily forgiven him. Now, though, he wasn't so sure that was a possibility.

The one thing that he was sure of was that this blossoming friendship between Sonny and Nathaniel needed to be stopped cold in its tracks. Why? He wasn't sure of the exact reason; he just knew that it must be put to an end before he had to face them together again.

How would he do this, though? It's not like he could just walk up to Sonny and say, 'Hey, you need to stop hanging out with that guy because I say so.' He may have had an effect on her, but he wasn't that good. After a few minutes of tossing around different ideas in his head, he finally settled on the perfect foolproof plan.

Step One of ending a possible relationship between Sonny and someone that is not you: Get on the inside.