A/N: Oh my gosh! So long since I've updated. Apologies! I feel awful :( Here's the next chapter, sorry, I'm in a rush!
Stormy with Patches of Sky
"If you ask me if I love him, I'd lie." -Taylor Swift
I was having one of those days. One of those days where everything just seems a little off. So when I sat down to eat with the wrong people twice, I was already pretty frustrated. And finding out that it was all Chad's fault honestly didn't make me feel any better.
"Chad, what is all this? I should've known that you were behind it," I accused, pausing as I looked over his outfit. "Why are you dressed like a paperboy?" Even though I'm pretty sure paperboys don't carry around megaphones. Or have shiny leather boots that glint like their eyes.
"I'm casting a TV movie about my life: Chad Dylan Cooper: The Chad Dylan Cooper Story, a Chad Dylan Cooper production. I need look-a-likes to play the losers from So Random!." A movie about himself? How conceited. He interpreted the scornful look on my face incorrectly. "No offense," he added. "Group One losers, you're up next!" Oh, yeah. No offense, alright. Mhm. Totally.
"Wait. You're auditioning people to play us?" I asked incredulously. Did he not know we were actors and actresses? (Even if he thought otherwise.) Besides, we didn't need to act. We were the members of So Random!.
"When you got the actual losers right here!" Nico pointed out. I bet he didn't even notice that he called himself (and the rest of us) losers.
"Hey, we're not losers," I defended. A statement which Grady then made sure to contradict by providing an impression of Darth Vader using Chad's megaphone. Really? Was that really necessary? Oh, God, Chad was rubbing off on me.
"Give me that, that's my megaphone. Group One, let's go!" Chad called out. No. Nuh uh. I wasn't going to stand by and watch some girl play me in a movie, starring with Chad! Ahem. I mean…I should play me. It's logical! After all, I know the character inside out. And I'm pretty sure I'll have perfect delivery. Not to mention I'm an actress in any case.
"No, no, no." I snatched Chad's megaphone out of his hands. "Group One, don't move!" I turned to the rest of my cast (excluding Zora), who was standing by looking confused. "Can you believe this guy? We should be playing us." I knew that if I got all of them on my side, Chad wouldn't be able to refuse. Hopefully. My cast backed me up with a chorus of agreement, and Chad gave in.
"Fine, fine, fine. You're all hired." I clapped my hands with delight, as did my friends. Had it really been that easy?
"Except for Sonny," Chad put in. My face fell instantly. Of course. I should have known. He would never be so nice as to give what I wanted without question.
"What?" I asked in disbelief. If he had wanted to be as mean as usual, he wouldn't have made it so I was the only one punished!
"You have to audition," he explained. I had to audition? But why? It wasn't fair! And yes, I'm aware of how childish that sounds. My castmates didn't care, unfortunately – Tawni went off to pamper her hair even more, and Nico and Grady tried once more to pick up some girls. I could have told them beforehand that it wouldn't work, but might as well leave them to try. Although seeing as how loyally they helped me…
"I shouldn't have to audition! Why do I have to audition?" I protested to Chad.
"Cuz apparently you're difficult to work with," he said as he looked up and down. Did he seriously just check me out? No, no. Probably not. Considering how he backed away after doing so.
"Look, I don't have to prove to anybody, least of all you, that I'm the best Sonny Munroe to play Sonny Munroe!" I declared. Chad was immune to my reasoning, however. As per usual.
"Do you want the part or not?" Well, what was I supposed to say to that? Of course I wanted it! Which was how I ended up auditioning for the role of myself.
"Okay, state your name and the part you're here to read for." Like he didn't know.
"Sonny Munroe reading for the part of Sonny Munroe," I said dully. Honestly, Chad could be so annoying sometimes. And yet so…not annoying at other times.
"There's that attitude again!" Chad noted to the guy holding up the camera, loud enough that I was meant to hear it. Exhibit A for the "so annoying" side of Chad.
"What?!" I objected, only to be cut off.
"And action!" He leaned forward in his seat to deliver his line. "Hi, you must be Sonny. I'm Chad." Wow, Chad certainly was portraying himself as much nicer than in real life. As if he could read my thoughts, he winked at me. I smiled a little before looking at the script in my hands.
"Oh my gosh! You're Chad Dylan Cooper! Possibly the greatest actor of our generation - " It suddenly hit me what I was saying. " – are you kidding me with this?!"
"Sonny, I am giving you a chance here, okay? Just read the lines. Let's, uh…let's jump ahead to where Sonny enters and punches my costar…and action!"
"I never punched your costar!" I exclaimed. I didn't want the whole world thinking that I was mean and went around punching people; not to mention my apparent awe at meeting Chad Dylan Cooper, who I supposedly thought was the greatest actor of our generation.
"Diva!" was Chad's response. Which ticked me off. If anyone in the room was a diva, it was Chad.
"Are you kidding me? I'm so not a diva!" Chad got up as I moved forward, both of us launching into fight mode.
"Really, Sonny? Really?" That was pretty much the last straw. I didn't even know why I cared so much about getting the part in the first place. If I had to go on set everyday and experience this kind of treatment from Chad, it wasn't worth it. Sure, he was...intoxicating to be around, but that didn't mean I was willingly going to be near him constantly and have him hurt me with his words.
"You know what? This is ridiculous. I'm out of here," I proclaimed, starting to turn towards the door.
"Fine," Chad argued, as if he didn't want me there in the first place. Which he probably didn't, seeing as how I had to audition when none of my friends did.
"Fine!" I shot back. Whatever. I didn't need him. Right?
"Good!" I imagined him carrying out the same argument with some other girl who would be playing me in his movie, and I wondered vaguely who it would be, and whether or not she would be as attracted to Chad as the person she would be playing.
"Good! And good luck trying to find a better me than me. Because nobody knows me the way that I know me." And with that, I opened the door, ready to make my grand exit. Standing in my way, however, was none other than Selena Gomez, one of my favorite actresses. Needless to say, I was a little starstruck. "Oh my gosh! Selena Gomez! Can I get your autograph? Here, sign this lousy script!" I glared at Chad momentarily before shoving the script into Selena's hands. She pulled out a pen to sign it as she walked towards Chad.
"Hey, Chad. I got your text, and yes, I'll play the part of Sonny." It took me a couple seconds to process her words, but once I did, I was shocked. Chad had made me audition, even after he already texted Selena with a request for her to play me?
"What?" was all I could manage.
"Personally, I think the character's kind of dull, but I'll liven her up." Chad smirked at me as Selena called me dull, and I put my hand on my hip. "And you are?" asked Selena, poised to sign the script.
"The dull girl that you need to liven up," I introduced myself, glaring. Selena looked away, uncomfortable, as Chad made the scene even more awkward by saying that it was. Awkward, that is.
A little while later, I was walking around the set when I noticed Selena following me. I eventually started to get to know her a little better, and we became friends. Which is how I ended up accompanying her to her first scene for Chad's movie. Not that I was trying to see how Chad was portraying me in his movie. No, not at all.
"Alright, we're about to do the scene where you barge onto the set of Mackenzie Falls. Now, when this really happened, do you remember how you felt?" Selena asked me as she prepped for the scene. Actually, I did remember. I had been hurt. And upset. But that's not the answer to give someone you hardly know.
"Oooh, probably mad, because I'm always mad when I have to go see Chad," I replied. Yes. Definitely a safe and believable response. I rolled my eyes as I said his name, just for good measure.
"Right, but really you're mad at yourself because of how much you like him." Selena gave me a wry smile, as though she knew. Which she apparently did.
"Right," I agreed before I knew what I was saying. Then it hit me. "What?! I don't like Chad!" I immediately denied, before realizing that my voice went high. According to Selena, this means I'm in denial. I quickly lowered my voice, repeating myself. "I mean, I don't like Chad." She didn't believe it, instead grinning at me happily while holding out her script.
"Sure you do! It's right here in the script."
"Wha- ?" I stuttered out before snatching the script. "Give me that!" I flipped through the pages quickly, searching for any signs that Chad had written something about me liking him. I scoffed with relief when I saw that there was nothing beyond our usual banter in the pages that I skimmed. "All it says is 'Fine!' 'Fine!' 'Good!' 'Good!' 'Fine!' 'Fine!'" It felt a little weird doing the usual argument with myself. But at least I was confident that Chad had not yet discovered that I liked him. Or at least, he hadn't put it in his movie for the world to see.
"It's not what the lines say. It's what's between the lines," Selena explained, giving me that knowing look again. She was onto me.
"There is nothing between those lines, trust me," I told her, hoping that my acting abilities were better than Chad said they were. As Selena pulled out her recorder again, most likely to say something about how I was really in denial, I grabbed it from her. "Hear this," I announced into it. "I am not in denial, okay?" I then realized how guilty that was. The lady doth protest too much and all that, right? "Which, I know, makes it sound like I am in denial, but...I'm not," I tried to clarify, failing miserably. "So, uh...we're good! Here you go." I handed the recorder back to Selena, feeling extraordinarily awkward as I did so. What if she didn't believe me? What if she told Chad? Right on cue, Chad himself walked in.
"Okay, people. Here we go. Chad Dylan Cooper: The Chad Dylan Cooper Story, Sonny barges onto Mack Falls set, take one!" he announced into his megaphone. "Miss Gomez, on your mark, if you please. Thank you!" Chad added politely. Oh, sure, she gets treated nicely. As if he could hear my thoughts, Chad turned around and looked at me before reminding me, "No extras on set." I found myself at a loss for words, deciding to simply scoff and stride away.
"Okay, people. I want to see real energy and real emotion...and action!" He handed his director's accessories to an assistant standing nearby, and they began to shoot the scene. I watched carefully, letting out a short exclamation when I saw that Chad had added in a fictional punch from me to Portlyn. My protest went unheeded, however, and the scene proceeded uninterrupted until Selena suddenly jumped forward and kissed Chad.
She kissed Chad. She kissed Chad. Supposedly as me. But obviously not. Before I knew what I was doing, I snatched up a megaphone and screamed, "Cut! Cut! Cut it out!" I knew that I sounded unnecessarily affected, but it couldn't be helped. They had to stop, and they had to stop now. Which they did, thankfully, before I made an even bigger fool of myself. But that didn't stop me from going to confront Selena about her actions. I had actually thought we were kinda friends. So much for that.
"I can't believe you kissed Chad! Where in the script does it say that Sonny kisses Chad?" Selena gave me that look of hers in the mirror before turning around to face me, surprisingly calm about the entire situation.
"It's not in the script. I told you, I want to play your character honestly." That was her defense? She wanted to play me honestly? Randomly, I remembered my previous thought about whether or not the girl who would play me would be as attracted to Chad as I was. Evidently she was; or at least, so it seemed based on her actions. I laughed loudly and falsely, even throwing my head in the air for good measure.
"Okay, and you honestly think that I would kiss him," I snickered, hoping she would buy it. Although Selena had shown an uncanny sense of knowing about my...feelings for Chad ever since she came. She mimicked my laugh mockingly before replying.
"Yes, I do." Very matter-of-fact. No nonsense. Not even a hint of doubt. How could she be so certain? She hardly even knew me! I scoffed again, denying it.
"Uh, well, I would never kiss him."
"In that scene," Selena added with a smile. No, no, no!
"No! Not anywhere! Not in that scene, not in a dream, not in a car, not near, not far, not here, not there, not anywhere - " I had begun to ramble (and rhyme), as I tended to when I was nervous. But I thought of another perfectly plausible reason for it, which I decided to tell Selena. "I'm rhyming, aren't I? See, I do that when I don't want to kiss somebody." The look on her face didn't seem like she was convinced.
"Really, Sonny? Really?" Ugh, it sounded all wrong coming from her.
"Now, you sound like Chad!" I accused. It didn't hurt that it helped change the subject either. Selena chuckled.
"Well, that line is in the script. Page 18, 22, and twice on 39." Wow, that girl studied hard for her parts. She knew exactly what pages lines were on? I only knew where they came up in the conversations. But still - that was definitely a lot of times.
"Wow, he does say that a lot," I acknowledged. It actually seemed to me that he said it more often than only four times in the space of the movie, but I supposed the movie didn't really revolve around us. If it did, though, I think it would be at least ten times.
"Well, maybe it's because he has the same issues you do," was Selena's response. I gaped at her blankly for a moment before attempting to brush it off. Very unsuccessfully, might I add. In fact, I somehow managed to come up with the conclusion that Selena was a "relationship wizard" before I stormed off, infuriated.
In my state of - what should I call it? - emotional imbalance, I dressed myself in "traditional" wizard attire, which resulted in my embarrassing myself in front of Chad. Thankfully, this was nothing new (or perhaps not so thankfully?), so he wasn't surprised or even slightly affected by my costume. One thing led to another, of course, and I ended up being appointed as Selena's Sonny consultant. Weird, isn't it? I was going to teach Selena how to be me. When really, I should be me. But everything always gets a little twisted when Chad gets involved. I should have known that it would be no different in his movie. Did I mention that he wrote the script? Which automatically meant that events in the movie didn't exactly match up with my own memories of the events. In fact, some of these events never even seemed to have taken place. An example? The very first scene that was shot after I had acquired my new job. I was just starting to walk over to the set, director's chair in tow, when I realized that they were already filming. Selena was speaking, and I quickly drew nearer, curious to see what Chad had written in this particular scene.
"Dreamy, dreamy Chad." Selena smiled at him, her eyes glowing. Dreamy? I was positive that I had never said that about Chad. Not to his face, at least. "Of all the eyes in all of Hollywood, I had to stare into yours," Selena concluded. I had definitely not said that either.
"Cut!" I called out into my megaphone, dragging my chair across the set. "That's not how it happened!" Chad turned to me, irritated.
"What are you doing here? Get off my set. We're trying to make a movie here." Selena stepped up and interrupted him, explaining that she had hired me. When he looked at the two of us incredulously, I smirked at him (what can I say? I figured out a way to hang around his set after all) before turning to Selena.
"Now, Selena, I think you're playing it wrong. Just remember, when he's staring into your eyes, he's really looking at his reflection in your eyes." I glanced at Chad as I spoke, hoping that he heard every word. "Oh, and you hate him," I added, just to make it perfectly clear to him. And Selena. "Okay. Action!" This led to a brief fight about who said action better. Does it sound stupid? Yes, I agree. It does. But I always end up getting into a fight about the stupidest things with Chad. Eventually, they continued shooting the scene.
"Oh, Sonny. Try to stop yourself from falling in love with me. I beg you." I rolled my eyes, knowing that he would peek to see my reaction. Inwardly, though, I couldn't help but feel a small tremble.
"I'm just a small town girl with a big town dream, and meeting you is the biggest dream of all," Selena replied, smiling brightly. Okay, really? No, no, no.
"Okay, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut!" I called out, walking onto set again. Chad protested, of course, but I ignored him.
"Okay, Selena. Remember, your biggest dream is to be on So Random!. Chad is just the monster that wakes you up!" I glared at him, mentally cursing him for having hair that somehow looked amazing even when tousled from his beret. "Oh, and remember that you hate him. You just really, really hate him!" I inserted, this time for my own benefit. "Action," I said quietly once I finished. Chad made a face before continuing.
"Sonny – " Before he could continue, I cut him off. I couldn't help it – I was on a roll.
"Oh, and one more thing. He's the worst actor of our generation." I should have known that of all the things I had said, that would be the one to set him off.
"Bart!" Chad called for his megaphone. "Cut! Cut! Stop the lying!"
"You stop the lying!" I shot back, yelling. Even though I wasn't really sure what he had been lying about in the first place…oh, that's right. The script!
"You stop the lying!" he repeated as loudly as I had. Selena stepped in between us, throwing her hands up in the air.
"Stop! Stop saying stop, just stop it!" Chad and I both stopped, surprisingly, and looked at her. "Gosh, I was wrong. You two should never be together," she concluded. I felt my heart sink a little at this confirmation, but I didn't let it show. At least I had finally convinced her that I didn't like Chad.
"Finally. I've been trying to tell her that all day," I exclaimed.
"You've been trying to tell her that? I've been trying to tell her that too!" Okay, so it hurt a bit that he thought that we should never be together. I mean, I knew it already, but still. You can't help but feel a little forlorn. But a bit of quarrelling with Chad always seemed to bring up my spirits, so I decided to continue with our kinda-sorta argument.
"Well, I told her first." I glanced at Selena. "She thinks she's some sort of – relationship wizard," I told Chad, even though I was really the one who thought that, not her.
"Yeah!" Chad agreed, which surprised me a little. "Look at her with her little – wizardy magic beans. Okay, who does she think she is to tell us that we can't like each other? If I want to like you, I will." I wasn't entirely sure what had just happened. I knew that Chad had started out trying to defy Selena. But I didn't know what happened after that. My first response, however, was to agree with him. Shocking, right?
"Yeah, and if I want to like you, I will." I said the last two words into my megaphone for emphasis, looking pointedly at Selena.
"Yeah, if I want to think you have pretty hair, I will." Caught up in the moment, I didn't comprehend what Chad was saying. Nor did I really pay attention to what I was saying. Which was probably a mistake, based on my next words.
"And if I want to think that you have sparkly eyes, then I will." I wanted to smack myself in the face after I said that. But luckily, Chad didn't seem to take notice of it.
"Yeah, so take that, Selena!" he declared instead, and I immediately pounced on the opportunity to change the subject.
"In your face, Gomez!" Chad and I shared a fist bump as Selena rolled her eyes at us. I can't imagine why.
"Wow. Yes. You guys – you guys got me, there's nothing going on here at all." Even I could tell that she was being sarcastic this time. As she walked away, she took my megaphone before saying into it, "You two are...perfect for each other. I'm out of here!" Chad asked her something about the movie, but I didn't really listen. Perfect for each other? Perfect? Really? That was…interesting. Definitely an idea to think about. Not that it was true. Chad and I exchanged a few words about the possibility of my becoming "BFFs with Selena Gomez" before I bashfully brought up the topic that I wanted to.
"So...you really think I have pretty hair?" I asked, somewhat embarrassed.
"I don't know…" he mumbled as he looked at the ground. Wait. He looked at the ground? Was he as uncomfortable as I was? "You really think I have sparkly eyes?" Oops. I forgot that I had let that slip.
"I don't know…" I replied, the same way that he had. "Well, one of them is," I admitted truthfully. That at least I could attest to.
"So...you want to be in my movie? I kind of need a Sonny." Chad changed the subject, and I was grateful for it. Especially since I was finally going to be able to play myself in his movie! But of course, it wouldn't do to sound too eager.
"Fine," I agreed, grinning.
"Fine." He smiled at me, a real smile, and I grinned even wider.
"Good."
"Good." Chad chuckled a little. I still wondered why he seemed as nervous as I was.
"Fine," I repeated, still grinning like an idiot.
"Fine." He began to walk away. "I'll set you up an audition. Nine o'clock?" I gave him that look, the one that says…
"Really, Chad? Really?" And it worked.
"Fine." He muttered into his megaphone. "You got the part." I smiled as he walked away, content. After all…I was in a movie! And I apparently didn't even need to condition like Tawni – Chad thought I had pretty hair. Pretty hair. Pretty hair. Were there any two words that sounded nicer together? I didn't think so.
A/N: Review? Even though I'm a horrible person for not updating in so long?