Disclaimer: I do not own SWAC, Disney, or anything else copyrighted.

'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt...'

Sonny wanted to believe that phrase. Yes, sticks and stones hurt people, that was true, but words, especially out of some people's mouthes, hurt more than any stick or stone ever could. She cared for Chad, a lot more than she wanted to. It was now November, almost exactly three months after Sonny made her proposal to Chad. Of course, it seemed like he had hated her more than ever now, with all the constant hateful things he said to her. He never came to personally speak to her anymore, he never texted or called her (for any real reason, anyway), and because of these things, she never really wanted to see him.

If they happened to pass in the hallway, he would mutter different words to her:

Whore.

Jerk.

Jackass.

Ass.

Asshole.

Loser.

His favorite thing to call her was "bitch". Some things he said to her included, "What a bitch", "Such a bitch", "Look at that bitch", or he would just say that one word to (or about) her.

At first, those words stung her hard. Why would he call her such hateful, strong, mean words? Over time, she tried ignoring it... sometimes, she would be successful in ignoring him, and other times, it really got to her.

One time, she was temporarily at the lunch table by herself when Chad came up to her. "Wow, look at this loser," he loudly said. Sonny already wasn't having a good day, so she balled her fists together. "Why are you by yourself, bitch?" She shut her eyes, trying to keep her cool. Of course, his taunting words just continued on, and she opened her eyes, tears brimming the edges. "Aww, look at the crybaby," he teased. His teases weren't fun and cute anymore, they were just mean. "Look at the bitch cry."

'Chad Dylan Cooper: Once an respectable actor with a slight badboy image, now slowly becoming Hollywood's next trainwreck...'

It had been a month since Chad last spoke to his parents. They were getting into more and more arguments, mostly over Chad's actions. He always denied them, making up more and more excuses. His parents were deeply concerned, and wished to only help him.

"Chad, honey, you have got to stop doing this," his Mom pleaded with him at his apartment one day.

"Doing what, Mother?!" Chad exclaimed, shakily running his hands through his hair.

"You've changed, son," his Dad said.

"Really? Have I changed? Everyone's always down my back now! I can't seem to get a break from anyone!"

"You're always making up excuses, Chad. I hear some excuses used for different situations over and over again," his Mom softly said. "What are you hiding from us, baby?"

"I'm not your baby anymore!" Chad snapped. "I'm 19 years old, for crying out loud! I'm almost 20! Can't I lead my own life without my parents trying to shove themselves down my throat all the time?!"

"Just know this, Chad," his Dad said. "No matter what happens, we'll always be here for you."

'Disappearing on set, sometimes not showing up, no longer at Hollywood's parties... Where in the world is Chad Dylan Cooper?'

Chad spent a lot of his time with Max, Trey, and Jason. They understood him the most, and they never tried to force themselves into his private life. If he decided to say something to them, they'd let him, and if he didn't want to, they didn't care. They were always there for him, and they helped him through these hard times.

These drugs that they gave to him always helped him feel better, and he never considered them to be bad.

Chad loved the feeling after using marijuana or cocaine. He tried heroin and other things before, but he mostly stayed with cocaine and Mary Jane. He tried them in different forms and loved them just as much. Why couldn't people see that? Why did they say drugs were such bad things?

He often thought about Sonny, and almost expected her to be on his side. Why was she trying to get him away from the things that made him feel better? He never understood her methods, and whenever he saw her, he reminded her of the pain she made him go through. He knew it always affected her, whether she showed it or not, and that made him happy. He sometimes wondered what she was talking about when she said she wanted to take him to two different places, but he could never quite figure it out.

'You sometimes don't know what you have until it's gone... yes, we miss Chad's badboy attitude, and we want it back!'

It was early December when Chad decided to have a civilized conversation with Sonny. He caught her in the hallway when he was done filming for the day. He figured she was, too, because she seemed to have all her belongings. He stepped in front of her and stood there for a moment, trying to come up with something to say to her.

"Huh, usually you know exactly what to say," Sonny muttered, looking up at him. She raised an eyebrow and asked, "What do you want?"

"Let's talk?" He didn't mean for that to comeout as a question, but wasn't going to take it back.

She shrugged. "Alright. Whatever you have to say, just say it here, and saw it now. It's not like you haven't done that before."

"I... Take me to that place."

She furrowed her eyebrows together, thinking for a moment before smiling. "Huh. Really?" He nodded. "Too bad. Your offer ended back in September. I can't go to that place anymore."

"Well, then what about the second place?"

She thought for a moment before looking at her watch. "We'll be late if we don't go now."

"Wait, we're doing this now?"

"Are you coming or not?" she snapped.

He huffed and muttered, "Fine."

She led him to her car and said, "Hope you don't mind driving in my beat-down car..."

"Can it," he snapped, getting into her front passenger seat.

She sighed as she got into the drivers seat. She buckled up, started the car, and started to drive off. "Chad, I need to ask you one favor. I don't care if this is the last favor you ever do for me."

"Go on."

"I need you to act like you don't hate me."

Chad remained silent for a few minutes. Did he hate her? He didn't think he did. Did he act like hated her? He wasn't sure. He thought he was just teasing her, but the more he thought about it, it did seem like he maybe disliked her. "I don't hate you, Sonny."

She softly smiled and said, "You're doing a good job."

He frowned slightly but decided to let it go. Continuing to argue wouldn't do either of them any good. "Just give me a hint of where we're going."

She thought for a moment. "EDA."

"EDA?"

"That's all I'm saying."

"I've never heard of it."

"Well, then it'll be an even bigger surprised for you. Have you ever heard of EEA?"

"Nope."

"Well, they're almost the same thing, but mine is a bit more... well, people would consider where we're going a bit more dangerous than EEA."

"Wait, dangerous?"

"Shocked?"

"I won't say I'm not, nor can I."

"Well... actually, we're here." She pulled into the parking lot of a small building. She parked near the door and got out. Chad followed her into the building, and sure enough, there was a sign that read, "EDA MEETING". They walked into the room, where a few other boys and girls were standing around. Chad just stood there while she greeted the other people. Chad thought about the room as they all sat in the chairs, which were placed in a circle. The setup seemed familiar, but he couldn't quite put his tongue on it.

An older lady walked in, and she smiled and greeted everyone. "Well, Sonny, who do we have here?"

"Chad," Sonny simply said.

The lady smiled. "Aah. Well, welcome Chad. I guess we'll start the meeting off with you, Sonny."

Sonny smiled at everyone. "Well... hi, everyone, my name is Sonny..."

"Hi Sonny," everyone said.

Chad pursed his lips slightly. He's heard something like this before...

"...and I suffered with anorexia."

...except he didn't expect to hear that coming out of Sonny's mouth. Questions flew through his mind - when did she suffer with this? Why? How did he not know?

"I've been... well, to put it blatently, I've been eating for almost twelve months now..."

So, she got help a year ago. That was after she started working on So Random!... Hollywood caused her to change? He frowned slightly at the thoughts that raced through his mind. He continued to listen to Sonny talk, and he listened to each other person talk. Their stories were interesting and he found himself focusing intently on their problems. Pretty soon, two hours had passed, and the older lady said to them, "Well, our time is up today. Until next time, my dears."

Everyone stood up and talked amongst each other. The older lady walked over to Sonny and said, "I'm proud of you, sweetie."

Sonny smiled. "Thanks, Delia." She turned to Chad and said, "Shall we go?" He nodded. They walked out of the room and back out to her car. "So, Chad... I actually have one more favor to ask you."

"Ask away."

"Please don't talk about what happened today to anyone else. 'EDA' stands for 'Eating Disorders Anonymous', and, well, you're supposed to keep this stuff confidential. I had to go through a lot to get you into this meeting."

"Did you, Sonny? Did you really?"

She rolled her eyes. "Really." He laughed. At a red light, Sonny looked over at Chad and said, "Chad... remember how I said I couldn't take you to the first place I mentioned?"

He slowly nodded. "Yeah..."

"Well... tomorrow, you have the day off, right?" He nodded. "I will take you someplace tomorrow. You won't regret this decision."

A/N: Thank you all SO MUCH for the reviews! I decided to post two chapters tonight... I'm not too sure how I feel about these. I promise, the next chapter will be so much better. We'll soon see more of why Chad does drugs, and what exactly happens when he does them.