Disclaimer: still own nothing, thanks for asking


Thanksgiving Day:

Part 2

The two tasks Mrs. Munroe gave us seemed easy enough: 1. Keep everyone out of the kitchen so she was free to bake. 2. Since she needed the oven for other things, Sonny and I were to take the turkey out to the garage's oven and make sure it got cooked.

"I still don't understand why you have an oven out here," I said, sitting on the hood of the Munroe's car, watching as Sonny tried to set the oven to the correct degree. "Doesn't it seem a little unsanitary to cook food in the same place you keep poison?"

"What are you talking about?" She didn't turn to face me, too busy spinning the dial to the exact temperature her mom had told her. "There's no poison in here."

"Oh, really, Sonny? Then what do you call this?"

She glanced at me over her shoulder, a dubious expression in her eyes until she saw the box I was holding up. I watched as her mouth fell open in surprise and she sprang forward, reaching to take the box. Already higher than her thanks to the car, I was easily able to pull it out of her reach.

"Do you really think it's smart to hold poison in your hand like that?"

"Do you really think it's smart to have poison out in the open where everyone can see it?" I shot back. "What if the police showed up and started searching your house? They could find this stuff, think you're trying to kill someone, and you'd be taken to live in some nut house instead of your cozy little Hollywood apartment."

Only because I wasn't expecting it (she was still standing with a gap between our bodies before suddenly lunging forward), Sonny was able to grab my arm with both her hands, pulling it down low enough she could pry my fingers off the box. She studied it for less than thirty seconds before looking at me.

"I don't think the police will be taking me away anytime soon," she stated. "They'll probably think I'm using this stuff to get rid of mice like the instructions say to do."

With one flick of her hand, she tossed the box back to me. This time, I looked at the front instead of the back. Sure enough, there was a huge picture of a mouse with a red X going through his body.

"Oh." Unsure what to say in the silence that followed, I began tossing the box into the air, catching it every time it came back to me. "Well, that still doesn't explain why you have an oven in your garage."

"Give me the turkey before you drop that box and the poison explodes everywhere," Sonny ordered, holding out her hands expectantly. I handed her the huge pan setting on the car beside me, jumping to my feet when she almost fell from the weight of it. With her shoulder, she pushed me away, heading toward the open door of the oven. "We had this thing added in a few years ago. Dad saw how hectic things were for mom and I every Thanksgiving morning and thought having two ovens might help us out."

I didn't sit down again as Sonny heaved the pan onto the top rack in the oven, giving the door an extra tap as she shut it, making sure no heat could escape. Once she was done with that, she stood on her tiptoes, checking the dial one last time. Finally, she turned around-

And jumped what had to be a foot into the air when she noticed how close I was standing to her.

"Don't do that to me!" she exclaimed, slapping my shoulder. "There's a hot oven right behind me! What if I had jumped into it?"

"Are you sure you shouldn't be a full time actress on Mackenzie Falls? You're doing a great job at coming up with drama this morning. First you were afraid of me poisoning the turkey, now of touching a hot oven…What will happen next? The suspense is killing me!"

Sonny didn't find the joke as funny as I intended it to be. She didn't crack even the smallest grin before pushing her way past me, her arms folded over her chest.

"If you're done making fun of me, you're welcome to come back inside," she said coolly, already standing in the doorframe leading back into the house. "On the other hand, if you plan on doing nothing but annoying me, you can stay out here and watch the turkey for the next few hours."

"Aww, come on!" I did my best to sound hurt. "I can't annoy you at all if I come in? But I'm Chad Dylan Cooper! It's my job to annoy you!"

"It's my job to keep you in line," she shot back. "Sorry, but it's my house, which means you have to follow my rules. You're in Munroe Territory now, Cooper."

She didn't move as I stepped closer to her, quickly closing the distance between us. It wasn't long before we were both standing in the tiny doorframe, our bodies resting against each other for lack of space. I lowered my head, letting our foreheads meet.

"What, exactly, does Munroe Territory mean for me?" I asked softly.

"It - It means…" I could tell Sonny was trying unsuccessfully to form a coherent sentence. A year with me and she still fell victim to everything about me. "It means you can't do anything involving drama. No one-man speeches, no fake crying, no pauses for dramatic effect…For the rest of your visit, only comedy is allowed."

I was silent for several moments, thinking over her rules. Her body was trembling under my touch and I couldn't help but smile. I was going to push it a little bit farther.

"I want to kiss you one last time before we spend the day keeping everyone away from your mom," I whispered, letting my lips linger close to hers. Her breath became shaky as she prepared for the moment, waiting for me to do more than just speak about the action. I hovered above her, making sure she was able to smell my breath as her eyes fell shut. "But I'm afraid kissing you wouldn't count as 'funny', and Chad Dylan Cooper isn't wasting his day watching a turkey cook. Sorry!"

Before Sonny had a chance to react, I took off running. I could hear her following behind me, but it was too late for her to give me the punishment I knew was coming.

We were in the living room where a very tired group of Randoms and my cast sat, all looking ready to kill each other. We had a dispute to end that was more important than our own.


I was about to ask the two casts what was wrong when I noticed dad sitting across the room from me in front of the fireplace, waving happily. A bad feeling shot through my stomach, telling me he was the cause of all the glares.

"Sonny! I was just getting to know your cast," he said, nodding toward the Mackenzie Falls actors, "And Chad's!"

Instantly I knew what the problem was: everyone was getting mad because dad had mixed up the two shows.

"If he compares me to a Random one more time…" Devon's voice trailed off, his hand balling into a fist.

"Yeah, like it's a joy for us to be thought of as a bunch of over-dramatic actors," Nico shot back.

When Devon jumped to his feet, his eyes on Nico, it took all of his fellow cast mates, including Chad, to keep him from starting a fight.

"You might want to get your dad out of here," Trevor warned. "I don't know how long we'll be able to hold Devon back."

I rushed over to dad's side, dragging him to his feet. He sounded confused as I led him out of the room, asking over and over again what he had done. It wasn't until we reached the room's entry that his smile grew again, his eyes flying toward the front door.

"I can't leave yet," he told me. "Everyone's finally here! I want to see you introduce them to all your friends."

Sure enough, the door was open wide as all the family sharing Thanksgiving dinner with us came through, somehow all arriving at the same moment as they did every year. I gave them all a smile before turning my attention back into the room. Devon was still being held back, but without me to tell them to sit down and behave, Nico and Grady were on their feet, getting as close to Devon as they dared to go, shooting him every snide remark they could think of.

This introduction wasn't going to go smoothly.


"Step into the living room, everyone!" I heard Sonny say in a loud voice. "I have some people I would like you to meet!"

She sent me a helpless look and I knew what she was trying to say: please at least make everyone look like they're having fun. As quickly as I could do it, I was on my feet, ordering my cast to sit down and smile if they didn't want their characters to suddenly 'disappear' on the show. Nico and Grady weren't so easy. They knew I had no power to threaten them. In a last attempt, I put an arm around each of their shoulders, forcing them to rejoin Tawni on the couch, only now it was squished with me sitting between the two males.

There was no time for me to rejoin my cast. A crowd of people stood behind Sonny, peering in and gawking like they were watching animals at a zoo.

"So, these are a few of my friends who will be sharing Thanksgiving with us this year," Sonny started off, motioning for me to join her. I stayed where I was. If Lucy's warning was right, I didn't want to get near the Munroe family. "Friends, this is my family. Ok, now you all know each other, so I believe my job is-,"

"Just starting," Mr. Munroe finished her sentence, grabbing Sonny's shoulder as she tried to walk away. "I won't make you introduce all your friends. They can take care of that. I do want you to make sure Chad knows who everyone is though."

"Oh, but I already do!" I called out quickly. "See, this is Nico and Grady, and Tawni beside them, and then over there is Chloe, Penelope-,"

Sonny wasn't the only one who glared at me. This time, Mr. Munroe joined in before waving me over.

"I'm serious, Chad," he said. "I want you to come over here and meet the family."

Trying to look happy, I made my way over to Sonny's side, lightly slipping my arm around her waist. She sent me a 'sorry I have to do this' face before taking a deep breath.

"I'm going to make this as easy as possible and just go straight down the line," she explained before her voice grew as fast as an auctioneer's. "First up are my other grandparents, then my Uncle and Aunt with my favorite little one year old cousin, and my other uncle and aunt with all my other cousins." She turned her brown eyes in my direction, taking in what had to be a surprised expression on my face. "Yeah…I have tons of uncles and aunts. My parents both came from big families. If you want to know my cousins by name, I'm sure they'd be happy to-,"

Her sentence was cut off when Tawni pushed her way between us.

"Sonny," she said in that fake happy voice I'd heard her use around my girlfriend quite a bit. It was the voice she used when trying to convince someone she was best friends with Sonny. "Don't you feel silly trying to keep me away from your family! Everyone deserves to know someone as pretty as I am!"

"Uh…I guess I could introduce you by name," Sonny said slowly, sounding more than a little surprised by Tawni's enthusiasm. "Guys, this is-,"

"Tawni Hart."

One of the many cousins stepped forward, walking toward the shocked blonde. He reached out for her hand and she gave it to him, the smile on her face huge.

"I have watched So Random! for years just so I could see you," he explained. "My name is Taylor and I am your biggest fan."

To prove his point, Taylor took the hand he was still clutching and brought it to his face, kissing it. Tawni giggled and Sonny and I exchanged glances over the couple. At least I wasn't the only one freaked out by the stalker's confession and Tawni's reaction to it.

The family members who had come the day before came up from their downstairs cavern at this point, walking a puppy on a leash at their side. Wanting to make a good impression on at least part of Sonny's family, I joined them.

"That's such a cute puppy!" I said, putting my acting skills to the test as I tried to sound happy. "What kind is it?"

"She's an American water spaniel," the aunt holding the leash stated proudly. "I named her Princess."

Princess started wagging her tail as I got to my knees, pawing at me as she begged for attention. Before I could do more than extend my hand toward her, the aunt scooped the puppy into her arms.

"Don't touch my baby!" she cried in alarm. "I saw what you did to those other dogs, you little puppy shover!"

I felt my mouth fall open.

"But-But…Didn't you see the other interview?" I demanded as I climbed back to my full height. "I built houses for the dogs, remember?"

"Oh, you mean the interview where you made my niece out to look like a diva?" The aunt shook her head. "That's two strikes against you. Want to try for a third?"

Not quite sure what to say after that, I was thankful I didn't have to think of anything. Lucy, Kimberly, and Zora bounded into the hallway at that moment, working together to carry a long box.

"Who wants to play Monopoly?" they asked in unison.


After watching through the awkwardness of the introductions, dad promised to keep the family out of the kitchen if I took care of everyone else. With the exception of Taylor, I was left in the living room while dad took the family into another room, my cast and Chad's cast and Lucy and Kimberly all helping to set up the Monopoly board.

"Your family is strict," Chad whispered to me. "I can't pet a puppy just because of an interview that took place who knows how long ago?"

"Maybe it is a good thing you brought all our Hollywood friends here," I shrugged. "Otherwise, I would be helping my mom bake and you'd be stuck with my family all day long."

I watched as Chad shuddered at the very thought.

"Someone is helping your mom this year, right?" he asked. "I didn't steal away her only helper, did I?"

"I think Grandma Munroe is helping her, along with your parents," I replied, trying to remember who all had been in the kitchen last time I'd snuck a glance, just to make sure my help wasn't needed. "She has more help than she's had in past years."

"Well, that's good news," Chad nodded. "For a second, I was afraid I might have to volunteer to help out, and Chad Dylan Cooper never volunteers."

All I had time to do was slap his shoulder playfully before Lucy started speaking. It looked like it was time to start the game.

"We have way too many people in here to play with everyone on their own," she stated the obvious. "I say we split into teams!"

Kimberly came running to Chad and me, jumping into my lap as she shouted, "I want to be on Sonny's team!"

"Why does she always pick my lap instead of yours?" I demanded as I tried to adjust Kimberly, not wanting my legs to fall asleep in the state she left them in after jumping. "You're her older brother; I'm just the innocent girlfriend."

"I don't know," Chad answered with a shrug. "I guess she just likes you. It must run in my family."

"Ok, so we have team Cooper over there," Lucy stated, going on before I could inform her my last name wasn't Cooper. "Anyone else have special teammates they want?"

Other than team Zora, Portlyn, Tawni, Taylor, all the teams were divided by show. Nico and Grady wanted to be their own team, although they did let Lucy join them. Devon and Trevor and Penelope and Chloe joined together and finally, the game began.

It didn't me long to figure out everyone had been inside for too long. At first the fights were small and over simple things, but gradually they began to grow. Once again, Nico and Grady teamed up against Devon as they fought over the price of a piece of land the Falls actor was auctioning off. Penelope and Chloe fought with Zora about how my youngest cast mate couldn't use the excuse she was traveling through the vent to get out of paying for landing on their property. Lucy was the loudest of all, shouting at everyone else to please shut up. Tawni and Taylor ignored the entire scene, talking to each other, and in my lap, Kimberly stretched her arm forward, taking money from the bank while no one was watching. Portlyn sent me a 'please make it stop!' look.

I did as Portlyn asked. The room fell silent when I tipped over the entire Monopoly board.

"Oops! I am so sorry, everyone!" I lied as I handed Kimberly over to Chad so I could climb to my feet. "So, who wants to play football?"


It was the prefect way to get the fighting out of everyone's system. Being outside in the fresh air wouldn't only give them a chance to get out of the stuffy house (it was too warm inside with all the work going on in the kitchen), but on top of that, there was plenty of room to shout at each other. Sonny's idea to play football was great. Devon would have an excuse to tackle someone.

I used the cold as an excuse to keep Kimberly inside. Sure, it was chilly, but the real reason I wanted her in the house was because I wasn't sure how messy the football game was going to be. The last thing I needed was for mom to yell at me for letting her little girl get injured.

"Don't worry," Lucy reassured me as she stood in the doorway, the crowd of people heading outside around us, her hands on Kimberly's shoulders to keep her from following. "I'll take good care of your sister."

"And I'll help," Taylor said, coming up behind Lucy. "I don't want to go outside. I have a cold starting, and instead of letting it get worse, I think I'll wait in here."

Him speaking about a cold reminded me of Sonny and how she probably shouldn't be outside either considering the way she'd nearly fainted yesterday. I thought about reminding her and suggesting she stay inside, but I had a feeling she wasn't going to listen no matter what I said. She hadn't so far when it came to the coughing fits; why would she start now?

"Hey," Lucy stopped me, grabbing my arm as I turned to leave. She lowered her voice even though Taylor was already heading off to the other room. "What do you think of the Munroe family so far?"

"Well, they certainly aren't the nicest people in the world, but they don't seem as bad as you made them sound either," I replied. "What were you doing, trying to scare me into leaving when you warned me about them?"

There was a mischievous smile on Lucy's face as she winked at me.

"Just wait until after the meal tonight. You'll find out if I was kidding or not."

I didn't get a chance to ask what she was talking about. Without waiting for me to do more than open my mouth, Lucy slammed the door in my face. Wondering if I should open it and demand to know what she meant, I heard yelling and decided against it. It sounded like Sonny was going to need my help.

The yelling ended up belonging to my cast as they shouted out my name. They were standing close to the Randoms, Sonny on the invisible divider between the two groups, a football in her hands.

"Let me guess," I said upon meeting up with everyone. "These are the teams we're playing on?"

"Technically, you and Sonny still need to pick your teams," Portlyn explained, rolling her eyes to prove she thought the rivalry between the two casts was stupid. "You've both been on both shows, so you need to pick which team you want to play for now."

The backyard fell silent as I met Sonny's eyes. She was reflecting back the same question running through my mind: what was the best way to divide up?

"Want to make this easy?" she asked, the first to speak. "I'll go with my cast and you can go with yours. Then it'll really be Randoms vs. Falls."

"That's works for me," I agreed. "As long as you promise not to start crying once you lose."

Sonny smiled, tossing the football to my chest.

"Game on."

Six Mackenzie Falls actors against the five on So Random! With tensions running high, it was a tough game. Nico and Grady were tackled several times, although they got their revenge more than once. The one time Tawni was tossed the ball, she cowered as everyone ran forward to dog-pile on her. As Nico and Grady ran forward to protect the tween queen, she snuck the ball over to Zora, who ended up making a field goal. Sonny's backyard was huge and had more than enough running space to make everyone happy.

Sonny, of course, noticed the tight watch I kept on her. Instead of joining in and playing at my full ability, I stayed at her side most of the game, watching for any signs of her coughing to start up or her chest to tighten. Realizing what I was doing, she tried to prove she was fine. She ran around with everyone else, and as her cheeks turned rosy, it was because of the cold weather and her breathlessness from running, not coughing. To my relief, she really did seem to be ok.

Time seemed to fly by as the game went on. No one wanted to stop and Sonny wasn't going to make them. After all, it was a great way to keep everyone out of the kitchen. She and I were team captains and spent part of the game standing on the side-lines, shouting orders to our teams. "Pretend to be hurt!" Sonny would yell at the same time I would say, "Don't fall for any of their tricks; they're only comedians, they don't know how to act!" One time after I said something along the lines of that, Sonny gave me a slight push.

"Penalty against team Random!" I exclaimed, pointing both hands at her.

"That's not a penalty! We're not even playing right now, Chad!" she protested.

"Neither of us called a time-out," I argued. "We're in this game and that was a penalty, Munroe."

"I'll show you a penalty."

She ran off the side-line, easily catching the ball when Nico tossed it into her hands. As she started to run for the touch-down, no one on my team tried to stop her. They saw me take off a few seconds after she did, quickly closing the gap between us despite her head start.

Glancing over her shoulder, Sonny saw how close I was. She picked up her speed, but I still had some energy left in my legs as well.

"If you tackle me," she stated, her words coming out in pants from the running, "I'll have to tackle you back."

"No one tackles Chad Dylan Cooper," I stated the obvious, my own words sounding a lot more winded than I thought they would.

She smiled.

"Haven't we already figured out that I'm the exception to all of your rules?"

I didn't tackle her (my mom could've been spying on me from the house and she wouldn't be happy if she saw me tackle anyone, especially if it was a girl). Instead, right before Sonny would've crossed the line, making her score, I wrapped my arms around her waist. We were both going too fast to stop and we fell into one huge heap on the other side of the line.

"That still counts!" Sonny stated, not even bothering to climb to her feet as she tried to catch her breath.

"No, it doesn't," I protested, not moving from her side. "If you would've let me tackle you, you would've fallen before crossing the line."

"But you didn't tackle me. We're over the line, and the ball is still in my hands. It counts."

I pulled the football away from her grasp.

"Now it's in my hands. According to your logic, I just scored as well."

"That's cheating! The game wasn't even in motion when you did that!"

"You said all I had to do was be across the line with a football in my hands. I'm following your rules. If your score counts, so does mine!"

"Your score can't count because-,"

I never found out why my score couldn't count. Sonny's sentence was forced to stop when a loud shout echoed around us.

"ALLISON MUNROE!"

Her chocolate eyes turned to me.

"Please tell me you remembered to check the turkey today."

"What turkey?"

She groaned loudly before climbing to her feet, pulling me up behind her. While our casts exchanged confused glances behind our backs, we ran toward her house.


When Chad and I ran into the garage, it was too full of smoke to see anything. Mom walked out, a tray in her hands, nothing but black charcoal on it. She held it up to me, her eyes narrow.

"Would one of you like to explain why there's no turkey here?" she asked in what had to be the maddest voice I'd ever heard her use.

Chad opened his mouth to answer, but when I elbowed his rib he changed his mind. It wasn't the time to joke around. I knew from years of experience that there was only one way out of this mess: apologize and look as cute as possible while doing it.

"We're sorry, mommy," I said in the cutest voice I could muster.

"You're sorry? You're SORRY?" She sounded hysteric as she started laughing, not in a 'ha ha, that's funny' sort of way but more so 'you're lucky it's a holiday and I would feel guilty killing you' way. "How many people are we going to be able to feed just by saying sorry, Sonny?"

I wasn't sure what to say after that. I was in trouble and mom had every right to be mad at me. I'd been so engrossed in the football game, I'd completely forgotten about the turkey. It was all my fault and there was nothing I could do to make the turkey suddenly be alright again.

It was Chad who nervously made a suggestion.

"Uh, Mrs. Munroe? I know all the restaurants around here may be closed and the ones that are open probably would charge a fortune to cater anything," he started and mom and I both stared at him, wondering where he was going with this. "Since it is mainly my fault the turkey burned, I would be more than happy to pay to have some other food delivered straight to your house. Maybe…I don't know, meatball sandwiches or something like that?"

I gave mom a hopeful smile as she grew silent, thinking over Chad's words. Several tense seconds drug by before she finally gave her answer.

And in the strangest Thanksgiving ever thrown at my house, meatball sandwiches were served as the main dish instead of turkey. Not everyone could sit around the table and eat this year, so although the food stayed on the table, people took their plates and silverware into the living room where we all crammed together to enjoy the meal. It was quiet, peaceful, and the best food I'd ever tasted before. Everything was going perfectly until Lucy jumped to my side.

"Are you and Chad ready for the square-dancing?" she asked.

Chad spit out the sip of pop he'd just taken, luckily shooting it into the glass again rather than the floor. His eyes were big as he asked, "Are we ready for the what?"

I smiled nervously up at him, wondering if one of his Chad Dylan Cooper rules included never ever square-dancing. Judging by the shock on his face, my guess was he wouldn't want to be a partaker in the night's upcoming event.


Author's Note: Here goes the credit I promised!

Shmadders14: Thank you for giving me a lot of good suggestions! I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to use all of them. But I did steal the Monopoly one!

24QueenMo: Thank you for the football idea! I know I didn't use it EXACTLY the way you explained it. Still, you said football and that got my mind whirling with, 'well, what would happen if they did play football? What if it was the Falls vs. Randoms?'