A/N: Merry belated Christmas, everyone! Thank you to Fluffness, WildeEngel, call me what you want, Love at First Fight, channylover101, TeddyLuver, Joker236, and Zoezora for reviewing! I loved hearing all your feedback. I hope you like this chapter!

Stormy with Patches of Sky

"I wanna dance with somebody - with somebody who loves me." -Whitney Houston

I looked longingly at the prom pictures Lucy had just sent me, sighing. Not being able to enjoy the usual high school experiences was definitely a detriment of living in Hollywood.

"I can't believe I missed it!" I exclaimed aloud before I ran into someone.

"Whoa, watch it." It was Chad. Figures.

"Chad?" I looked up and saw that he had a black eye, which was in actuality rather red, purple, and puffy. "Oh my gosh, what happened?" I winced; Chad Dylan Cooper's eye was not supposed to look like that. It was supposed to look sparkly, that perfect blue that makes you want to stare into it forever, that bottomless pool of emotion and mystery, that...what am I doing?

"Oh, I just got in a huge fight over at the Falls," he answered nonchalantly, pulling my attention back to the conversation. A fight? Well, there could be only one reason for that, and it set up the perfect insult.

"They don't like you either?" I grinned, and so did Chad, oddly enough.

"Funny." Really? He thought it was funny? "No, we were shooting a scene. I know it's hard to believe I can look this good when I look this bad, huh?" I would have agreed, but the thought of looking good reminded me of the prom back home that I had just missed, and I sighed again. Chad's cocky expression fell. "Normally that would've charmed you. What's up with you?" Well, that was an interesting way to show he cared. But at least it meant he cared, right?

"Nothing, I'm just a little bummed. I missed my prom back home, and I just got some pictures from my best friend," I explained. Chad scoffed in response.

"You're not missing much! I've been to a bunch of proms and they have all ended in disaster." Disaster? That sucked. I wondered if it had anything to do with his dates to these proms. Which led to speculation about who these dates might have been. On second thought...maybe it was a good thing that he hadn't had such a good time at those proms.

"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that," I replied, somewhat feigning it.

"Yeah, episode 10, my hair caught on fire. Last year's season finale, my date turned out to be my long-lost sister..." Well, that crossed one of those stunningly gorgeous dates off the list. The one from last season's finale. Wait, what? Season? Episode?

"What? Chad, those are fake proms." i should have known. After all, he lives in Hollywood too. He probably had to miss his prom back home too, and he figured that the dramatic ones on the Falls were a good enough compensation.

"Fake proms, real proms, they all stink." Stink? Yeah, right. Then why would girls look forward to prom their entire life?

"No, they don't! They're romantic! You know, a girl dreams her whole life about going to the prom and sharing that perfect dance with a very special guy." That little fantasy from long ago about Chad being the special guy for me flashed into my head, and I smiled blissfully.

"And then he gets hit in the head by a faulty disco ball, episode 16!" Chad's voice cleared the clouds from my head, and then I got frustrated. He was ruining my idea of a perfect prom.

"You know what, Chad? You wouldn't know real romance if it punched you in the face. In fact, you wouldn't know a real punch in the face if it punched you in the face, because there's nothing real about you." I finally paused for breath, glad that I had gotten it off my chest.

"Well, here's something real for you, I really don't wanna stand here and talk to you," Chad replied, sounding annoyed. And his words stung, I have to admit. That is why I would never tell him that I like him. Can you imagine his reaction?

"Good! Cuz I really don't wanna stand here and talk to you!" I retorted, even though it was far from the truth.

"Good!"

"Good!" I shot back.

"Good!" We both stalked off in different directions before I realized that I had let him have the last word. I pulled out my cell phone quickly and called him.

"Hello?" he answered. I was surprised - no "CDC here"? But I remembered the reason for my call.

"Good!" He looked back at me and I grinned widely before walking to the prop house, still exchanging "Good!"s. Haha, that was a pun! Get it - goods, "Good!"s? Oh, whatever.

"Good!"

"Good!"

"Good!"

"Good!"

"Good and goodbye!" I hung up before Chad could respond, happy to have bested him. My joy continued to grow as I planned a prom with my castmates, only to be crushed by Marshall. But after I saw how disappointed everyone was, I decided to go against the rules for once and have a secret prom. I was rushing to set it up, disco ball in hand, when I met Chad in the hallway.

"Oh, hey, Sonny," he said. Again, I was surprised - a normal greeting? But I didn't pause in my stride. Even Chad wasn't going to stop me from having my prom.

"Sorry, Chad, can't talk, I'm in a hurry," I explained as I walked past him.

"Oh, right, right, that whole secret prom." I whirled around as he spoke. HE knew about the secret prom? It must have shown on my face, because Chad then told me how he knew. "They're not that much of a secret when every kid on the lot is walking around with flyers that read 'Secret Prom!'" He unfurled one of the flyers that we had sent out, and I couldn't help but feel a thrill of excitement. We were having a secret prom! There's something about a secret that gives you a little burst of energy, that makes your smile brighter, that makes you glow in the knowledge that you know a secret and others don't. I think it's because you know, in that moment, that you have power. You have something others want, and you are in control of whether they get it or not. It's a marvelous feeling. And when you add that to the magic of a prom, you've hit the jackpot.

"Aren't you excited? I'm even excited about how excited I am!" I exclaimed as I retraced my steps to meet him.

"Yeah, we're not really feeling that over at the Falls. Mostly we just think it's...dumb?" He pouted at me in that stupidly adorable way as he spoke, but it didn't distract me - okay, it didn't distract me completely - from what he had said. Dumb? How could a prom be dumb?

"Well, if you think it's so dumb, then maybe you and your little snobby friends at Mackenzie Falls shouldn't come," I told him defiantly. Ha. Now who's boss? After all, it was my prom. And I was in charge of invites. Along with everything else.

"Well, maybe we won't," Chad retorted. There goes my fantasy of dancing with that one special guy. Well, if he wasn't going to come, I was gonna make sure that he knew I didn't want him to.

"Good! Cuz your officially uninvited," I informed him proudly.

"Well, good, cuz we officially wouldn't have come anyway," was his reply. Now he was just mocking me.

"You're only saying that cause I just uninvited you," I shot back, knowing that I was right. For once.

"You only uninvited me because I just said I didn't wanna come," Chad defended, knowing that he was also right. This conversation was going nowhere. And I had a secret prom to put together, even if he wasn't coming.

"Are we done here?" I asked in frustration.

"Oh, we're beyond done." Beyond done? What was that supposed to mean?

"Good!" I figured that was the safest response.

"Good!" Uh huh, it looked like it had been pretty good to me, especially if Chad chose to use the same one.

"Good!" I repeated. Here we go again...

"Good!" This was another conversation that was going nowhere. I decided to end it.

"So we're good?"

"Oh, we're so good." So good? Beyond done? What the heck did he mean? After pondering his words for a few minutes, I gave up on trying to understand Chad and whatever he said, choosing instead to focus on the prom. Once everything was set up and the time came for the prom to start, however, Marshall abducted me and I was trapped in his office. When I was finally able to escape, I was greeted at the entrance to the prom with empty platters and a demand for more food. When I returned a little while later, food in tow, someone bumped the door open, and most of the food splattered on the ground. I was just starting to pick them up when someone stepped on them. Looking up, I saw the person whom I had least expected to see at the prom.

"Chad?" Then I remembered why I hadn't expected to see him. "What are you doing here? You weren't invited."

"Oh, you see, I was invited, but I didn't wanna go. Then I was uninvited, so I knew I had to go." I was momentarily stunned and confused by his logic, but I recovered in time to stop him from going into my prom.

"No no no no no no no. You're not going into my prom before I do." I smirked at him triumphantly, and he reached for a snack in response. I quickly pulled it away from him. "And these are for invited guests only!" My smirk grew even larger. See? Chad Dylan Cooper doesn't always get what he wants.

"Are you saying I can't have one?" he asked, confirming.

"Yeah, you heard me!"

"Well, then I have to have one," Chad explained with his logic that didn't make sense. I was still trying to figure it out when he stole a snack and popped it into his mouth before I could say anything. "Mmmm...this tastes good. You know where it would taste better? At your prom!" And he walked right into my prom. Before me. As did everyone else who had been invited. The night progressed, and I was sent for more food and a couple wardrobe changes along the way, but I never got to see my prom. Until it was time to destroy it. When Marshall returned and finally approved the idea of a prom, I was beyond done. I was pretty sure I knew what Chad meant by that now. The prom had been a disaster - for me, at least, and I was the one who had wanted it in the first place. So much for that perfect dance; I hadn't even gotten to have one dance.

"Hey." Chad walked out from nowhere. "See you finally made it." I glared at him halfheartedly. Then again, he had noticed that I hadn't been there before. Which meant something, right? Even if he hadn't wanted to be there in the first place. Speaking of which, why was he still there?

"Chad? What are you doing here? I thought you'd be the first to go."

"Which is exactly why I had to be the last to go." Again with that stupid logic. I shook my head and sighed.

"Well, Chad, you were right. All proms end in disaster." As much as I hated to admit it, my prom had pretty much followed the pattern that Chad had told me about. Strangely enough, though, he now contradicted me.

"Do they, Sonny? Do they really?" Chad grinned at me as he moved closer and delivered his signature line. "Because sometimes, I heard, you get to have that perfect dance, with that one special person." My breath caught in my throat. Could it be? Did he really mean...? He pulled out a pair of headphones. "You're just going to have to settle for me," he concluded. Settle? For Chad Dylan Cooper? In what way is that settling? I grinned and accepted the headphone that he held out to me. Chad put one of his hands on my waist, and the other held my hand. As we started to slow dance, I wondered what could have wrought such a change. One minute, Chad was arguing with me, and the next, he had decided to give me the perfect dance with my one special person. Even if he didn't know he was the one special person.

"This is sweet," slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it. No! Chad wasn't supposed to know anything! But his response was casual. He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly as he smiled again, those dimples laughing at me.

"I have my moments." That he did. I just wish they weren't only moments. Which reminded me of all those times that weren't moments, the times when he laughed at and made fun of me. I hastily searched for something to say before I let another clue of my feelings for him show.

"You gonna press play?" The music hadn't been on.

"Oh, right." Chad seemed almost...embarrassed. As though he had maybe been as caught up in the moment as I had. A fast, techno kind of song came on, one that you couldn't really slow dance to, and we began to dance like we had at "The Basement." There was no doubt about it this time, though - Chad was dancing with me. On purpose. He had given me my perfect dance. He had made my prom worth having. He had shown me - and perhaps even himself - that not all proms end in disaster. In fact, sometimes the ending can be a thousand times better than what happened before. All you need is one special person to make your evening brighter and your dreams come true.

A/N: Please review! As a…late Christmas present? XD Haha. I think I already used that excuse. But please review anyways :D