Not Far

Whew, another one. I'll try to make this one better than the last three, sorry for all the mistakes. Okay, so it was kind of hard for me to think of a way to get them to kiss when they weren't near each other, so don't be mean if you don't like it. Here it is:

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"Don't you just love Hawaii?" Tawni sighed happily. She actually sounded sincere.

"Man I love all the chicks in bikinis," Nico said, staring as a gaggle of bikini-clad girls walked past them.

"I like all the free stuff tourists get," Grady said, lifting up a heavy looking shopping bag.

Zora shrugged. "There are too many people," she said.

Sonny was having the time of her life. "Wasn't it great of Marshall to send us here to do a sketch?" she cried joyfully, spreading her hands out into the air. She inhaled deeply, enjoying the smell of flowers, volcanic soil, and ocean waves. The breeze whipped around them, and it felt really good on her bare midriff.

"Mmm," Tawni agreed, fluffing her hair as a group of older-looking surfers drove by in a convertible. "This kind of weather is really good for my pores."

"What I don't see is what Hawaii has to do with islands," Grady said thoughtfully. Everybody ignored him.

"We have to rehearse the sketch when we get back to the hotel," Zora said in a very businesslike manner that everybody but Sonny tuned out.

"Ooh! I call being the chief!" she said excitedly. "I always wanted to dress up like an Indian."

"You do know the chief supposed to be a guy, right?" Tawni asked, sounding a lot like her old self.

"Well, I know how to be a guy!" Sonny said defensively.

Tawni shrugged. "No argument there!" she said cheerfully, and skipped off to a few muscular men up ahead. Sonny rolled her eyes.

"Hey, Sonny," Nico called from behind a large brick wall. Sonny blinked. When did that get there? The next thing she knew, Zora and Grady had taken both her arms firmly and were steering her over towards him. The dumped her on the floor, and stood in the entrance to the alley they were in, arms folded and feet apart.

What was going on?

"Um," Sonny said uncertainly. "Hey, guys. Do you mind not making me feel like I'm in serious danger?"

All three of them laughed. Nico stood up, tipping his ridiculous fruit-hat at her.

"All right, Sonny Monroe," he said, clasping his hands together. "Let's get down to business."

Sonny flinched as he advanced towards her, but then he sat down opposite her and removed his overly-outrageous hat, putting in his lap.

"Talk," Nico ordered, looking at her expectantly.

"What?" Sonny asked. She was beyond confused.

"You love Chad," Nico said, like it was the most obvious thing in the whole entire world. Which, to him, it was.

"Wha-? I don't love Chad!" Sonny said, her voice high and in-denial. "What on earth gave you that idea?"

Nico wordlessly held up her math notebook, which had 'I love Chad' written all over the cover.

Sonny couldn't think of anything to say.

"Well, that doesn't mean Chad Dylan Cooper," she said, trying to give them a convincible laugh. "It – it could mean Chad Michael Murray, or Chad Johnson, or Chad Kroeger, or even Chad Vader-"

"You're History notebook says 'Sonny Monroe and Chad Dylan Cooper forever', Nico pointed out, holding up said notebook. Sonny paled.

"Okay, fine," she said, a blazing look on her face. "Fine. Maybe I just happen to have a little tiny itsty-bitsy tad of a crush on him. But I bet it'll be gone by tomorrow."

At that point, her phone mooed. It was Chad.

"Oh, my gosh, he texted me!" she squealed excitedly, and Nico rolled his eyes at Grady and Zora, who still stood like statues in the alley entrance. Her smile slipped when she saw it.

"Sonny," she read out loud. "Should I wear my leprechaun boxers or my tidy-widy's today?"

She scowled as she slipped her phone back into her pocked, and her expression became even grumpier when Nico and Grady started laughing and hooting. Zora, thankfully, kept her head.

"Man, I don't know what you see in him," Nico said when he was done. He wiped a tear out of his eye.

"Well, when he's not rolling around in insensitivity, he's really a nice guy," Sonny said. Nico raised an eyebrow.

"It's true," she insisted, for she could see that they didn't believe her. "He's caring and sweet and he really surprises me sometimes," she said, her face going all soft as she confessed to her friends.

"Woah, you got it bad," Tawni's voice sounded smug. Sonny whirled around.

"Where did you come from?" She said rudely. Tawni rolled her eyes.

"In case you haven't noticed, we're all on vacation together. I'm supposed to stick with you guys, but it looks like you ditched me to interrogate Sonny! Do you know how wrong that sounds?"

"We're just trying to give her some love advice." Nico pouted. Grady and Zora nodded earnestly.

"When someone's in love with Chad Dylan Cooper, you don't give them advice. You give them therapy." Tawni snapped.

"Hey, come on!" Sonny cried defensively. "Chad's really not a bad guy! I mean, sure, he can be obnoxious and rude and irritating and frustrating."

"Don't forget annoying," Zora piped in.

"And stupid," Grady added.

Sonny shot them a look, and continued on. "But you see, he can also be very kind, and sensitive, and down-to-earth and generous and charming-"

"Qualities that only someone infatuated with him would notice," Nico nodded approvingly. Sonny blushed.

"Actually, if I didn't know any better, I'd say he felt the same," she said boldly, and the whole group went quiet.

A moo made Sonny look down at her phone. She opened the Chad's text, and read it out loud to her friends. "He might," she said, and then looked up in disbelief.

"Um, heh-heh," Nico said shyly, fiddling with the ridiculous fruit hat in his lap. Suddenly, the whole scenario seemed extremely suspicious.

"Guys?" Sonny asked tentatively. "Can Chad hear me right now?"

"I told you it wouldn't work," Zora and Tawni chorused. They looked at each other. "She's too smart, she would have figured it out anyway."

"Say hi to the camera," Grady sang happily, picking up the hat and aiming it at Sonny. Her mouth fell open.

"Guys, what did you do?" she screeched, jumping up.

"Well, you see, there was an incident about a week ago," Nico said, fiddling with the hat and pulling out a compact camcorder. Sonny stared at it like it would do back-flips.

"Basically, Nico, Grady and Tawni bet that they could get you to admit that you liked Chad," Zora said matter-of-factly.

"Hey, you were the one who started it!" Grady said, pointing a finger at her. "You walked up to him and insulted him with your 'we-know-something-you-don't-know' attitude!"

"Okay, okay, no fighting," Sonny said in a loud, stressed out voice. "Is Chad still listening right now?"

"You bet he is!" A cheerful voice from above them said. They looked up, startled, and saw Chad's face grinning at them from a billboard. "Haaay, Sonny," he said flirtatiously, wiggling his fingers at her. She gaped. (A/N: I know they don't have those things in Hawaii, only like Vegas and New York, but just roll with it, kay?)

"Chad!" she cried, walking out from behind the brick wall. "Why are you on a billboard?"

"There are amazing things you can do when you're me," Chad replied smoothly. "Anyway, I couldn't help overhearing your little conversation, and I want to tell you something, Sonny."

She could feel her insides shaking. "Okay, what?"

He leaned forward, and for a moment she thought that he was gonna whisper something into whatever he was using to do that, but then his lips were pressed against the glass, and they were giant and wet, and he made an obnoxious kissy-noise, then pulled back, smacking his lips.

"There you go," he said happily, his whole face once again visible on the enormous screen. "A little treat for my favorite ray of Sonshine. Now I have to go, but just remember that I'll be thinking of you when I'm not thinking about me!"

And the screen was blank.

Sonny was about to turn back to her friends with a stunned expression on her face, but the gigantic billboard flickered back to life and Chad was there again.

"Oh, and by the way," he said, looking down at Sonny. "You look totally hot in that bikini top. Portlyn's got nothing on you." He clicked his tongue with his finger in a shooting pose, and winked with his sparkly eye, then vanished in a nanosecond.

"Even when we're thousands of miles away, he still manages to get under my skin." Sonny grumbled. But she was smiling.