Hello my faithful and devoted readers! Thank you all for reviewing and for complimenting each chapter. It seems like you all are enjoying the story so far, and I am definitely enjoying writing it. I can't believe that the story is drawing to its conclusion very shortly – we only have 2 more chapters after this one! Please keep reading and reviewing because you all really are the reason I continue to write this story! (Well, that and it's Sonny and Chad. How can you NOT write them? Haha.)

Disclaimers: I don't own…anything. What a tragic story.

Spoilers: None.

7 Things

"…but nothing's ever gonna change until you hear, my dear, the seven things I hate about you. The seven things I hate about you, oh, you…"

Chapter 5: You Make Me Laugh, You Make Me Cry

One thing.

He had only said one little thing to her – one snide little comment, oozing with sarcasm – and there she was, sitting cross-legged on her dressing room floor with a box of tissues at her side. He hadn't meant the comment. She knew that. But he had said it, hadn't he? Obviously he had been thinking about it.

Sonny yanked a tissue from its box and wiped the mascara tears that had trailed down her cheeks. Stupid Chad Dylan Cooper with his stupid comments and his stupid show. It had been in the commissary when he had walked past the So Random! cast's unofficially official table. Leaning in, he had whispered:

"So if you guys are trying to decide who has the most talent out of the five of you…" he paused and blue eyes scanned the table and landed directly on Sonny before he finished snidely: "…the answer is none."

Normally, Sonny would have uttered a quick-witted response, something critiquing Chad's lack of acting skills or obsessive love of his own reflection. Instead, the brunette found herself angrily pushing back her chair and running out of the room, hot tears stinging her face as she walked.

In that moment, Sonny realized what she should have all along – she cared about what Chad Dylan Cooper thought of her. She cared about how he saw her as an actress, as a person, as a girl. Even though she would deny it to anyone else, she couldn't deny it to herself.

"Sounds like someone cares."

Sonny heaved a sigh as she tossed a wadded up tissue onto the tiny pile that had accumulated on the floor. Her own words had come back to bite her. How was that even possible? How was it that someone so unbelievably annoying, selfish, and irritating could make her laugh one moment or cry the next?

Chad Dylan Cooper was complex.

And Chad Dylan Cooper was currently sitting on the couch in the Randoms' prop house like he owned it, fixing his perfectly floppy blonde locks. He had been pretty stunned when Sonny had walked right out of the commissary without so much as a snappy goodbye. He wondered if what he had said could have made her upset. Vaguely, he recalled seeing her chocolate eyes shimmering as she left.

Shaking his head, the blonde listened to the approaching footsteps with interest. He kicked his feet onto the coffee table – like Sonny had told him not to do months ago – and waited for the Randoms to enter. All four filed in and…

Wait? Four?

Chad counted again to be sure. There were the two guys…the blonde what's-his-face and the other one whose name might have been Taco, or something like it. Then there was Tawni, admiring herself in her compact as she strutted into the room. And the littlest one who, quite frankly, scared him. Dora? Nora? Zora. That was it. With her braided pigtails swishing back and forth, the girl sashayed into the room and stopped dead in her tracks upon seeing Chad.

"You," she replied, pointing at him threateningly.

And Chad wouldn't admit it aloud, but he was scared.

The blonde actor leapt from his comfortable seating arrangement and backed away from the approaching Zora. Her three cast members looked up from where they had been previously preoccupied and glared.

"What do you want?" Tawni asked, voice dripping with as much bitterness as she could muster up.

Chad held his hands up in defense. "Look, I just came in here because I thought Sonny was with you all. Where is she anyway?"

Nico and Grady shared a look before replying in unison: "In her dressing room."

"…crying," Zora added with a shake of her head.

Chad was taken aback. "Woah, woah, wait. She's crying?" His voice lowered in concern. "Was this because of what I said in the commissary? Because she knows I was only joking. We joke all the time."

"Well," Tawni huffed, "apparently you took it too far this time. She's gone through almost an entire box of tissues already."

"…two-ply," Nico added, shaking his head in disappointment.

"I didn't mean to hurt her," Chad replied honestly. He felt his heart do the strangest thing as he listened to Sonny's friends describe how upset he was. His heart sunk. "Honestly, the last thing I want to do is make Sonny cry."

Did I just say that out loud?

"…did you just say that out loud?" Zora asked, eyebrows arched, seemingly reading his thoughts. Chad swore that little girl was frightening sometimes.

With a dismissive wave of his hand, the blonde headed toward the exit, declaring: "I'll go talk to her."

"Don't waste your time trying to get her to open to door," Tawni explained. "We've already tried. And if she's not going to open the door for us, then she really isn't going to for you."

Chad paused near the doorframe and realized that the blonde Barbie doll had a point – if Sonny wouldn't listen to her closest friends, then what would make him think that she would open the door for the guy who had made her cry?

The little wheels inside of Zora's head seemed to be spinning and she grinned, fixing her sights on Chad. Apprehensively, the blonde asked: "What are you thinking?"

Zora smirked. "You'll see."

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Sonny pushed the pile of tissues away from her and stretched her legs out in front of her. Sitting cross-legged for the past hour had really taken a toll on her muscles. The brunette sighed and listened to the rumble of her stomach. Having rushed out of the commissary during lunch, the actress had barely had any time to eat anything.

"Hey, I can hear your stomach from up here, you know."

Sonny jumped off the floor and her head snapped around, searching for the source of the voice. Sliding open the air vent, a grinning Chad looked down on the teenage girl.

"Chad, you nearly gave me a heart attack! What are you doing up there? Wait…how did you get up there?"

"Your little friend helped me get up here," he explained. "Except, now I have no idea how to get out of this thing. Here, you're gonna have to stand below me," Chad directed.

Rising from the floor, Sonny walked to the air vent and stood directly under it. "Am I expected to catch you?" she asked with a slight smile.

Chad looked down and pretended to laugh. "Ha-ha, no," he replied, squirming around. "I'm just going to turn around so my feet are facing you and I'll have to jump out."

"So I am expected to catch you."

"Monroe," he continued, voice fading in and out as he turned around in the air vent. "just keep your pretty little face out of the way of my feet and we'll be fine. I'm like a cat. I can land on my feet."

Taking a step back from the air vent, the brunette crossed her arms and smirked with amusement as Chad managed to make the leap from the air vent to the floor. He took a moment to steady himself, fix his suit collar, and smirk his signature smirk before looking at Sonny.

"So what's this I hear about you crying?"

Suddenly, the brunette felt embarrassed. "Look, Chad, it has nothing to do with you. I was just having a bad day and your comment set me off. That's all."

Tilting his head, Chad studied her for a moment and noticed how her eyes flickered from his own to the floor. "Nah, I'm not buying that." Walking toward where Sonny had been sitting, he sat himself down and patted the spot next to him invitingly. Sonny debated for a moment before rolling her eyes and sitting down next to him.

"So, you gonna tell Chad what's been on your mind?"

Resisting the urge to smile at how he referred to himself in the third person, Sonny sighed and looked at the pile of tissues with flushed cheeks before flinging them off to the side. From the corner of his eye, Chad noticed this and smiled. "Hey," he said seriously, looking deep into Sonny's eyes, "if something's bothering you, I'm all ears. Promise."

It was the promise that got her, and Sonny's eyes began to well up with tears again. "I just hate a lot about being in L.A. Half the time I spend here, I wish I was at home where I had friends and family who cared about me."

"Oh," Chad mumbled simply. His face fell and Sonny took notice.

"No, no, I don't mean it like that," she hastily explained. "I love everyone here, don't get me wrong. But at home, I have friends who I have known my entire life. We share tons of inside jokes and they know me inside and out."

"So what makes you think that L.A. is any different than Wisconsin?" Chad asked. "I mean, you have friends here who you have tons of inside jokes with. I could list things that would make you think of jokes with Tawni, Nico, Grady, Zora…and even me," he added.

Sonny smiled genuinely and shrugged a shoulder. "Yeah, but it still doesn't feel like home."

"Maybe it's not supposed to. Maybe you're just supposed to take home with you wherever you go."

Sonny contemplated for a moment. "Chad, that was actually deep. And it made sense."

Popping his collar, the blonde smirked with satisfaction. "I'm just amazing like that." Sonny laughed and the pair's eyes connected. Chad nudged her arm with his elbow, and with a nudge back, Sonny smiled.

"Thanks Chad," she replied honestly. "It means a lot to me that you're here." With a sharp intake of breath and a rapidly fluttering heart, she scooted an inch closer to Chad and put her head on his shoulder.

Chad's stomach became a garden full of butterflies as he felt Sonny's head on his shoulder. He looked down on her closed eyes and contented smile before slinging an arm around her shoulder and pulling her an inch closer. He shifted slightly, about to kiss the top of her head, but decided against it. It was too soon, and he didn't know how strongly she felt about him.

But for now, the view from where he was sitting amidst wads of tissues was alright. In fact, it was better than alright. It was perfect.

So, what did you guys think? You know what to do – hit that little button and review! We've only got two chapters left to go, and I'm saving some of my best stuff for last!