Disclaimer: Sonny With a Chance belongs to Disney.
Author's Note: I'm really sorry about the long wait. Labor Day weekend kind of threw me off, and I've had a hard time focusing on my writing lately. I'm working on setting a schedule.
Is it just me, or does it seem like the episodes this season are being shown out of order? The Double Date episode ended on October 2, which should have been shortly before Sonny's homecoming in Sonny with a Secret. Also, Sonny said in Chad without a Chance that she wanted to get Chad spending more time with her friends, but he was already hanging around them quite a bit in prior episodes. It's confusing.
Sharing the News
The ride back into the city seemed somehow shorter than the trip out had been. Maybe that was because neither Chad nor Sonny was in a hurry to end the evening. Naturally, that made time go by unconscionably fast.
Chad walked Sonny all the way up to her apartment, and they paused at the door.
"Please tell me you won't make me scale the building again," he requested, and she smiled.
"No promises," she replied jokingly. She was keeping her voice as low as possible, knowing from experience that sound carried surprisingly well from the hallway into the apartments. "So how did you know the paparazzi wouldn't be there?" Having been surrounded by cameras for most of his life, Chad was generally able to ignore the media attention that seemed to perpetually follow them, but Sonny still found it unsettling. She thought it was sweet that he did make an effort to keep their time together private, like tonight.
"Sand gets in the cameras and causes problems," he shrugged. "Not to mention that reporters don't usually have time to change into appropriate clothing for that kind of thing. I'm sure there were a few freelancers around who figured the cash they'd get was worth the risk of damaging their equipment."
Sonny nodded thoughtfully. She'd learned a little about these freelancers and knew that many of them struggled to support families on what they could make off of celebrity pictures. They took risks salaried people wouldn't and were often ill-used by the high-profile targets they pursued, but having few marketable skills, they still believed it was their best shot at getting a decent income. Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to throw a few of those hardworking photographers a bone.
She and Chad shared their second kiss and regretfully said goodbye. Sonny felt like she was floating as she opened the door.
"So how was it?" her mother asked. She was catching up by watching the newly released Season 4 DVD set of Mackenzie Falls, but she stopped the machine when her daughter entered. That looked like progress; she was able to shut it off in the middle of an episode!
"It was fantastic!" Sonny exclaimed. "He brought the most amazing food, and we swam together, and the sunset was…perfect."
"I'll bet it was," murmured her mother, leading Sonny to roll her eyes.
"I wish you wouldn't use that tone," she complained, feeling herself reddening, which made her a little angry at herself. What's wrong with you? You have nothing to be embarrassed about. It was just a kiss! Well, two kisses.
"I'm sorry, honey; it's just so exciting to see my only daughter falling for a great guy. I have to admit, I was worried when we first came out here that you'd focus so much on So Random that you'd forget to have a social life."
"You really worried about that?" That was a new one.
"Well, yes, but I can see how wrong I was," her mom continued. "You've made friends with your entire cast, and now you're dating Chad Dylan Cooper. That must make you the envy of teenage girls across the country."
"I don't really think about it that way," Sonny replied, her mother's words bringing her up short. She wondered how many fangirls hated her because she'd taken the coveted spot at Chad's side. Setting the issue aside as unimportant, she continued the conversation. "Was Dad worried? About me not having a social life?"
"Are you kidding? For him, that was one of the selling points!"
Sonny grinned. As great as her father was, he nonetheless had the stereotypical tendency to be overprotective of his daughter. Still, she often missed him. She understood that he needed to stay in Wisconsin to tend to the family farm and her two brothers, but that didn't prevent her from wishing she could see him more often.
"He must be going nuts not being able to protect me," she mused. "I hope you're telling him that Chad and I are behaving ourselves."
"Of course," Mrs. Munroe gave her daughter a hard look. "You are, aren't you?"
"Of course!" Sonny echoed. She plopped down on the couch, debating what she was about to say. At last, she decided she was just bursting to tell somebody. "Actually, we just had our first kiss tonight."
"I wondered about that when you came in here like you were lighter than air. I'm glad you took your time with it."
"It was so worth it, Mom! It was wonderful!"
"I'm so happy for you!" They shared an impulsive hug.
"Thanks, Mom," said Sonny. "If you don't mind, I really think I need to wash this salt off me before I go to bed."
"Of course."
While in the shower, Sonny pondered the question of whether to call Tawni, and if she did, how much to tell her. Her female co-star had made Sonny promise to tell her everything about her relationship with Chad. That had, essentially, been her price for being "okay" with the situation. At the time, Sonny had been mentally crossing her fingers and promising herself that she would make those decisions as they came. She'd also been almost positive that she would never, under any circumstances, tell Tawni absolutely everything.
Now, for the first time, Sonny was truly faced with one of these decisions. Should she tell Tawni or not? On the one hand, it would be nice to keep it more or less private for a little while. On the other hand, Tawni was bound to find out about the kiss eventually. Probably pretty soon, in fact, since it was likely that Sonny and Chad would begin sharing the occasional kiss at the studio. Sure, they preferred to keep most of their behavior in that setting completely professional, but they were a couple, and some overlap was inevitable. When they slipped up, if Tawni happened to catch them, she'd be upset that Sonny hadn't held up her end of the bargain. Not to mention that Sonny was not very comfortable with the idea of breaking a promise anyway, no matter how ill-advised she now believed that promise to be.
It seemed clear, therefore, that she had no choice, so the only question remaining was whether to call Tawni tonight or wait until morning. It really wasn't all that late, but Tawni loved her beauty sleep. Then again, the late call time tomorrow could mean that she'd stay up a bit longer than usual tonight.
Somehow, it just didn't feel right to tell Tawni before Lucy, Sonny decided. Lucy had been her best friend forever, and Sonny would feel like she was betraying all of those years if she called Tawni first. It was definitely too late to call Wisconsin on a weeknight, so that settled it. Sonny set the alarm for 5:00 in the morning, figuring she could go back to sleep after she'd shared her gossip.
Although excitement and reliving the evening kept her up for quite some time, exhaustion eventually won out, and she fell into a deep sleep.
When the alarm went off, far too soon for Sonny's taste, she looked at the clock and frowned.
Why on earth did I set it so early? She thought groggily to herself as she slapped it to turn it off. She lay back down and closed her eyes. Then, all it once, it came back to her – the ocean, the sunset, the decision. She sat bolt upright, dug out her phone, and hit the speed-dial. It was 7:00 in Wisconsin, so Lucy should be getting ready for school.
"Hi Lucy!" she said brightly as soon as she heard her best friend's voice. "I have something to tell you…"
Despite the early wake-up call (which she suspected her mother knew about but didn't mention), Sonny arrived at the studio in an incredibly good mood. That was a good thing, considering it was Taping Day, with Pizza Night to follow. She had no intention of missing any of it, and she owed it to her friends and cast-mates to be on top of her game.
Sonny decided to go to the dressing room first, to make sure her costumes for this week's sketches were arranged in order, ready to be taken to the set. Tawni and Zora were already there, Tawni applying her lipstick and Zora lounging in a chair, reviewing the script.
"Hello, ladies," Sonny greeted them cheerfully.
"Good morning, Sonny," Tawni responded, giving a smug look through the mirror. Sonny had called her about an hour earlier to fulfill her promise of dishing about her relationship with Chad, so she was no doubt enjoying the position of knowing more than anyone else and trying to figure out how best to use that to her advantage – or at least entertainment.
Zora popped up from her seat and stood with her balled fists on her hips, staring at Sonny in a way that made the older girl distinctly uncomfortable. After several seconds of this intense scrutiny, Zora nodded as though coming to an important decision. Then she flopped back into the chair with her script.
"So you finally got around to it, huh?" Zora said nonchalantly. Sonny felt her mouth open in shock, and she was going to accuse Tawni of spilling the beans when she noticed that the smug expression had completely dropped off of the blonde's face.
"You told her, too?" Tawni pouted. Now it was her turn to stand up and look at Sonny accusingly.
"What? No!"
"She didn't have to," Zora contributed, sounding bored yet with an undercurrent of evil genius in her tone. "It's written all over her face."
"But how did you…" Sonny began, wondering how she would have known this was the first kiss. Mid-sentence, however, it came to her. "You've been spying in the vents again, haven't you?" She couldn't help but flush at the thought that her private conversation with Chad the other day had been overheard. She added, to no one in particular, "Remind me never to discuss anything personal in this building."
"I'll remind you if you remind me," replied Tawni, still obviously in a huff. "I was supposed to be the only one who knew."
"Oh, have your fun," Zora told her. "I'll pretend to be surprised when you lord it over the boys. It's not like I care."
"Just make sure I'm out of the room," Sonny pleaded. "I do not need to be standing there while you all discuss my love life." She finally moved into the wardrobe area to complete her original task.
"What do you want me to do, schedule the scene?" Tawni called sarcastically after her.
"If that's what it takes."
"By the way, I think I've changed my mind about this whole thing," shouted Zora.
"Oh really?" asked Sonny suspiciously, poking her head out of the curtain.
"Yep. Anything that can make Chad Dylan Cooper this whipped is okay by me." She grinned while Tawni laughed uproariously. Sonny could think of no response, so she just ducked back out of sight, muttering to herself.
Author's Note: I'm making up Sonny's family. A lot of writers have her father either long dead or long skipped out, but Mrs. Munroe was wearing a wedding ring in Falling for the Falls, indicating that she's either currently married or recently widowed. Since Sonny hasn't shown any grief over the loss of her father, I'm going with the former. It makes sense that someone would have to stay and manage a business, family, etc. After all, there's no guarantee that Sonny's career will last, and you can't just pack up a farm.
Review responses:
Chloeand McKenzie: I did decide to use some of your ideas. I think your comment of having Sonny talk things over with her mom inspired me to continue this a little bit further.
iLoveRomance2010.: I know what you mean, and I tend to lean towards brevity myself, when it's possible and seems appropriate. However, I took so long to get back to the story that I forgot how I was going to wrap it up, and I got some ideas for how to continue. I don't think it'll be too much longer, but there's a bit more I want to address.
