I know that lately I've been posting this things super fast, but don't expect that to happen again, alright? I have a feeling that I'm going to be super busy with my schoolwork this semester, especially since I have Math. That doesn't necessarily mean that I'll be ditching this story, but I'll try and update at least once a week, alright?
This is a special chapter, not because of what's in it, but because I'm posting it on my birthday! That's right guys...I'm finally 17! I feel old, to say the least. But you know, it's all downhill from here, right? Next is 18, and that's adulthood, and then 19, 20, 21, 22....wow, I'm woozy just thinking about it lol.
So, as sort of like a birthday present, I'll really appreciate a review, please. I mean, it's not everyday that I turn 17, right? Might as well commemorate it!
Disclaimer - I do not own SWAC or JONAS
By the way, as one of my presents, I got the DVD of Sonny with a Chance, Volume 1. Do you know what this means? SCREENSHOTS!!
Chapter 7
You know that feeling that you get when you just know that something is going to go wrong? Like, you're not sure what it is, and you're not sure when it will happen either, but you just have the biggest gut feeling ever that something will happen which causes everything else to unravel? That was the feeling that I had while I was walking through the set of So Random!, heading towards my dressing room. The knot in my stomach grew bigger with each step that I took, so I tried to shake off the feeling of dread that had settled over me, attempting to replace it with enthusiasm.
I mean, I had a lot to be excited about today. After a week and a half of rehearsals, the first episode of JONAS as finally going to be filmed in front of a live audience tonight. Normally, I would have been a little upset about missing filming for So Random!, but because Zora was still out sick (she had gotten better, but then suffered a relapse – the importance of getting your vaccines!) and I had to be on JONAS, there wasn't going to be a new episode of our show this week. Which meant, ultimately, that I was able to focus all of my attention on being the best Penny that I could be.
Which also meant that I had had to break almost all of my dates with Chad. It was like every single time that I had made plans to hang out with my boyfriend, the director of JONAS would schedule a rehearsal. And he insisted that I attend all of them, even the ones that I didn't have to take part in. I would just sit down and look on while Nicole and Chelsea practiced their lines, or while the Jonas Brothers ran through their scene after Nick found out that Penny had a boyfriend.
Not that, of course, I minded having to sit in during the rehearsals. It was just that...well, I just wished that I didn't have to have broken my dates to do it. We never got to spend any time together anymore, just because the guest spot on JONAS was keeping me so busy. Before I had gotten the role, Chad and I would spend every evening together, and even hang out while at the studios. But after I was cast as Penny, I felt like the only time that I ever saw him was at lunch in the commissary, and only for half an hour a day.
I missed him.
"Tawni!" I screamed, barging into our dressing room.
She jumped, and turned around to face me, anger shining through her eyes. They looked greener today, because she was wearing an olive shirt tank top and white jeans. I was just admiring the shade of her eyes when I noticed the long, jagged line of Cocoa Moco Cocoa that ran all the way up from her top lip to her eyebrow.
I winced. "Sorry?"
"Sorry does not cut it, Sonny!" Tawni grabbed a handkerchief and started to rub her cheek, trying to erase the lip gloss scar that I had given her. "Do you know how hard this is to come off?" She frantically continued to scrub her face, until finally the makeup faded. "Oh...well, I guess not that hard," she said, flinging the rag back on the vanity table and smoothing her fingers over her face. She quickly began where she left off and started to reapply the lip gloss, making long, even strokes. "Now, why did you come in here yelling my name?"
I shrugged and leaned my back against the couch's armrest, perching on the edge. "I was just excited because we are filming the episode of JONAS today, that's all."
"And you felt the need to tell me this?"
I nodded.
"Sonny, really? For the fifth time today?"
I raised on eyebrow in surprise. "I've told you the same thing five times already?" When Tawni nodded her head, I broke out into nervous giggles. "Oh, sorry Tawn, but you know how I get when I'm excited about stuff. I just want to share it with everyone!"
She smiled at my reflection in the mirror. "I get it, Sonny. You're a blabber and a hugger. But guess what! I have news that I didn't tell you before!"
I jumped up from my seat and hurried towards Tawni, excitement bubbling through my veins. I loved news, especially if it was good. "What is it, Tawni?"
She spun around dramatically and gripped my arms, a huge smile dancing across her face. "Joe asked me out!"
"What? He did? When? How?" As quickly as I asked one question, another formed in my brain.
"He asked me out! Yes! At lunch! By talking!" Tawni answered all of my questions in order and then burst out into peals of laughter. "At lunch, when you were with Chad? He came over to our table and asked me if I wanted to do something with him later, once the filming of the pilot is finished and he has more time!"
I let out a high pitched squeal and started to jump up and down, still gripping Tawni's forearms. My brown curls bounced loosely down my back, and a couple of them swung over my shoulder and hit me in the face. I brushed them back with one hand and continued jumping, too excited to stop.
Tawni liked Joe almost as much as I had liked Chad before we had gotten together. Even before the Jonas Brothers had landed a show at Condor Studios, Tawni would drag me to countless computer screens, if only to watch Joe parade around his stage in black vests and skinny jeans, singing his heart out into the mike on YouTube. She even thought that the way he danced (like he was in dire need of a bathroom break) was sexy.
"Tawni Hart, this is so exciting!"
"Sonny Munroe, I know it is!"
Just then, Nico and Grady bounded into the room. "Hey, guys, do you know where our cheese pants are?" Grady asked.
After their little fiasco on the red carpet, Tawni and I had decided to take matters into our own hands and hide the pants away from them. If we ever needed them for a sketch again, we would retrieve them and put them back once they were no longer needed. But there was no way that we would let Nico and Grady know where the pants were, lest we woke up the next morning, opened up a magazine and saw a picture of them at a movie premiere, decked out in the cheddar trousers and matching cap.
The two boys took one look at us jumping and squealing and backed out in the hallway. "Don't worry, we'll find them ourselves," Nico called over his shoulder as they retreated.
Finally, Tawni and I stopped jumping and instead threw our arms around each other in an over animated way. "Hey, do you wanna go and grab some fro-yo?" she asked, pointing the nail file that she was holding towards the door.
I nodded my head and linked my arm through hers. "And I want all the details about this date, capice?"
She giggled and nodded her head. "So, it all started when we went for lunch..."
I poked at my untouched frozen yogurt with my spoon, watching as the creamy desert swallowed up the scooped head of the utensil. I pulled it back out and poked it again, this time in another place. I had been doing this for the past half an hour, and by this point, my cup of vanilla fro-yo looked more like a hunk of Swiss cheese than an actual desert.
"Oh, yum, fro-yo," Portlyn said, sliding into the seat opposite me. She pulled the Styrofoam cup out of my reach and promptly stuck a gigantic spoonful of the stuff into her mouth, swallowing loudly. "This is really good. You don't mind if I, like, have the rest, do you Chad?"
I shook my head, gesturing with my hand for her to continue to scarf down my fro-yo.
She set the cup down on the table in front of her and narrowed her eyes at me, looking through them at me suspiciously. "Ok, what is up?" She crossed her arms across her chest and glared at me. "Why are you so totally mopey today?"
"What? I'm not," I said, my voice devoid of any emotion. I couldn't help it – I missed Sonny. I hadn't had a chance to hang out with her all week, let alone have an actual date. This, of course, would ruin my image, so I kept it all in until I was alone. Like now. Or, until Portlyn had come and interrupted my mopey time.
Portlyn gave me a knowing glance and rested her hand on my forearm, her long nails scratching me through my Mackenzie Falls blazer. "Chad, I know that you miss Sonny, but the show is filming tonight, and after that she'll be free. Besides, she was really excited about doing this, so can't you at least be supportive?"
"I am supportive!" I cried out indignantly. "And I don't miss her!"
"Don't miss who?" Sonny questioned, walking through the door with Tawni at her side. She cocked her head and looked at me questioningly. "Who don't you miss, Chaddy?"
"Oh, uhhh, no one. I was just practicing my line for the newest episode of Mackenzie Falls, where I try and convince Chloe that she's the one for me that I don't miss Portlyn, who is still yet to be found after her ballooning accident."
She nodded slowly, as if this actually made sense to her (it didn't even make sense to me) and then shrugged her shoulders in her carefree way. Her cute, carefree way. Stupid Jonas for not letting me spend time with my own cute girlfriend.
Tawni walked over to the fro-yo machine to fill up a cup, and Portlyn bounded over to her, probably to talk about makeup or some other junk like that. Sonny took Portlyn's now empty chair and started to play with my fingers across the table.
"Chad...I know that we haven't really had any time together since I got the part of Penny, so I was wondering if today, before I have to go and film, you wanted to just relax in the Prop House with me, around 6-ish? We could pop some popcorn," she sang, trying to convince me.
Even though my brain was screaming Yes! Of course! I wouldn't miss it for anything!, I decided to play it cool and replied instead with a nonchalant, "Sure. I'll meet you there, right?" Then I winked at her, which caused her to smile and giggle. I loved when she did that.
"Sonny, we need to go and pick out clothes for my date!" Tawni said. She appeared at Sonny's side and pulled on her arm using one hand, the other balancing a half finished cup of frozen yogurt. "Let's go!"
Sonny stood up and followed her cast-mate out of the room. "See you later, Chad," she said. She blew a kiss to me over her shoulder and then grinned one more time before turning around and leaving with Tawni.
Portlyn, standing next to me, just rolled her eyes. "Wow Chad. You have it bad."
"Ok, Tawn, what about this one?" I asked, holding up a light pink T-shirt with a sparkles and jewels sewn into it. I turned it to the left and then turned it to the right, showing it off from all angles, and allowed a slow grin to spread across my face when Tawni clapped her hands once in approval.
"Sonny, that is perfect!" she exclaimed.
I rolled my eyes. "Tawni, that's what I was trying to tell you when we first found this shirt."
"What are you talking about, Sonny?"
I gestured to the piles of clothes that littered the floor of our dressing room. "Tawni, that was the first shirt that we looked at. I had to pull it out from underneath all of those shirts over there," I retorted, pointing my finger in the direction of the mountain of clothes that lay at my knees.
Tawni at least had the decency to look slightly abashed, but she quickly shook it off and swept her arm across the room. "We should pack these up," she said, sitting back in her chair and smoothing out the rough edges of her fingernail with her nail file.
I assumed that by we, she meant me.
Just then, my cell phone vibrated in my pocket, and I pulled it out and turned it around in my hand, blowing a lock of hair out of my eyes. It was a text message from Nick, and as I read it, my heart fell all the way down to my knees.
Sonny, last minute rehearsal, Ben wants this whole thing to be perfect tonight – 5:30. Meet us on set!
No. No, no, no, no, no. I couldn't do this, not now. I had already made plans with Chad, and it was my first date with him in a whole week! I quickly typed this information back to Nick and waited for his reply, biting my lip.
Sonny...this is important. d/w, Chad will understand
I let out a heavy sigh and slumped my shoulders. I had a feeling that Chad wouldn't understand, because he seemed to have missed me just as much as I missed him. Sure, he tried to hide it and act like he didn't mind, but I could always see through his acting. Well, except for that first day, with the musical chairs. But other than that, I always knew when he was telling the truth or not.
"Tawni, can you pack this up? I need to go and break my date with Chad...again," I said, getting to my feet.
Tawni looked up at me, her eyes wide. "Sonny! No, you can't! This would be, like, the eighth date that you would have broken with him this week!"
"Believe me, I know. But I can't help it," I waved my cell phone in the air. "Duty calls." I walked out of the room and down the hall, towards the set of Mackenzie Falls. I knew that Chad wouldn't be happy, but hopefully he'd be able to tolerate it, especially since this would be the last time.
I knocked on Chad's door once and the opened it a crack, peeking my head inside. My boyfriend was sitting down with his back to me, holding a script in his hand. He was running lines, and every few minutes he would toss his head back, flipping his hair dramatically. I let out a nervous giggle and he turned around to face me, a smile overtaking his entire face.
"Hey Sonny," he said, getting out of his chair and enveloping me in a bear hug. I hugged him back tightly and rested my head against his chest. I took a deep breath and began to talk.
"Chad, listen. About our date later...I can't make it," I said slowly.
Chad pulled back from me, hurt flashing in his ocean blue eyes. "W-what do you mean?"
I shook my head sadly and let out a dejected sigh. "Sorry, Chaddy, but Nick called an extra, last minute rehearsal, so that we'd all be perfect for filming tonight. But, you know, we can always make a rain check on the rain check, or something..." I trailed off, and I saw another emotion pass through Chad's eyes. This time it wasn't hurt though. It was anger.
"No, Sonny, don't Chaddy me, ok?" he said, pulling out of my grip. With each word that he spoke, his voice got louder, until he was full out screaming at me. "Sonny, I've tried to be supportive of this role, but I never get to see you anymore! Every time we want to go out, or do something together, you always have to go to rehearsal. You're on a show, and I'm on a show, and let me ask you, have we ever needed to rehearse this much? I'm telling you, Nick is only doing this because he has a crush on you!"
"C-Chad, I thought that you would understand," I whispered, my vision blurring because of the amount of tears that were collecting behind my eyelids. I wrapped my arms around my stomach and tried to keep the tears at bay. There was no way I was going to cry in front of Chad, not when he was breaking my heart like this.
"No, I do not understand!" he exploded. He tossed his script down on his table and ran his hands through his hair in frustration. His gorgeous golden hair, all messed up. Because of me. "I don't understand why you can't spend some time with me, and why you have to spend it instead with those stupid brothers! Why you always have to break our dates just so you could go and hang out with them on set?"
"Chad, I – "
He shook his head and pointed one shaky finger at the door. "Sonny...please, just leave."
I silently left the room, my arms still hugging my body. I couldn't believe that he would just explode at me like that. Actually...I could believe it. I did believe it. And the worst part was that I understood. If it was a role reversal, and if Chad had been the one breaking all of the dates, I would have gotten upset too.
The tears flowed freely down my cheeks and I trekked back to my dressing room. Just as I was about to open the door, the speakers overhead crackled and then came to life, the familiar voice of Ben echoing down the hall.
"Would all actors on tonight's episode of JONAS report to set, please? It's time for the final run through."
I wiped at my cheeks and took a few deep, calming breaths. So what if Chad and I had possibly just broken up, and who cares if my heart was shattered into a million pieces?
The show must go on, right?
Virtual birthday cake sounds yummy, right?
I know you want some......!
And it's real easy to get too. Just leave me a little present! Thanks in advance...generosity is always nice!
