Sonny was surprisingly very excited for her evening with Chad.

She couldn't put her finger on exactly what it was but she sensed a whole new aura about him. He seemed less like he was hiding his true feelings behind a mask of sarcasm and more like he was truly trying to show his affection for her. She had taken her time getting ready because she knew Chad was always 'fashionably late'

She wasn't sure what they were going to do, so she tried to look 'upper-class casual'. As she called it. She put on her blue tank top and ice blue skirt (hoping it might bring out the blue in his eyes again), her brown boots, and her red cardigan. She decided to go with a half up hair do, so that it could be placed up or down later depending on the activity.

"Why am I so nervous?" she said to herself. "Or excited?" It surprised her that she would feel anything at all besides relieved that she didn't have to spend the night home alone. I mean, it's just Chad right?

As she was finishing her hair and about to put on her boots the doorbell rang. Sonny finished up and ran quickly to open the door.

"What are you doing here already?"

"I thought I said 5:30"

Sonny didn't really listen to the answer, she was too stunned to see Chad standing in his favorite button up shirt that he only wore on special occasions. He also carried a big bouquet of brightly colored flowers. He spotted her eyeing them

"Some flowers to go with the Sonn-shine!" He smiled with pride.

Sonny gleamed. "Come on in!" She took the flowers to the kitchen.

Chris shut the door and smiled with a cocky grin 'Well winning her might be easier than I thought!'

Sonny came skipping out of the kitchen.

Chris was hoping she wasn't going to be that giddy the whole night. But, with looks like here's he figured he could deal with the perky personality for a little while.

"So where are we going?" She asked with a smile.

"We are going to go play miniature golf!"

"Miniature golf? We're both terrible at that!" she stated with a raised brow.

Chad hated miniature golf and so did Sonny-It was one of the few things they had in common.

"Uhh… I was just kidding!" He nervously smiled. "We are going to…." He had to think. "Well what do you want to do?"

He figured it was best if he just let her spit out some of the ideas since apparently he wasn't a very good guesser.

"Hmm… I know let's go to the skating rink" She teased knowing Chad was a terrible skater and he would never be seen doing something he couldn't do perfectly."

"Ok" Chris said.

"Ok?… No, No way am I going to be seen with you and your terrible skating skills. You might crash right into me." She said laughing.

There goes that perkiness again. "You know what let's just go eat" -'Surely Chad knows how to do that!' Chris thought to himself.

"Sounds great, you know I'm always up for some good Italian food!"

Chris didn't really care where they went as long as he could keep her attention with his debonair smile!

"Here we are" Chris felt like she might be more impressed if he announced their arrival into the restaurant.

"Yeah, I can see that!" Sonny said with a grin.

"I want your best table for the best lady." Chris said to the hostess as he gave a wink to Sonny.

This was so unlike Chad- On the way to the restaurant he did not make one sarcastic comment, he didn't talk about himself, and he didn't tease her about anything. He just seamed to be attentively listening to her speak about her sketches she was working on, and that would have surely given Chad leverage to taunt her on any given day.

Sonny snapped out of her thoughts to see Chad motioning her to come to the table. It was beautiful! It had a red silk cloth over it, the nicest china, and beautiful lights twinkled above it.

"Wow" That was all she could say.

She looked over at Chad with his nice shirt his graceful manners and his charismatic smile. There were some things that were oddly different-his eyes still didn't shine blue, his hair seemed to have lightened, and he wasn't wearing his lucky Mackenzie Falls ring. But, these things were quickly moved from her mind when he began to pay her beautiful compliments. She usually had to read into what he said, or catch one to just see him quickly shrug off the compliment with a sarcastic twist. But, this time he was genuinely caring for her. Physical changes can happen everyday-they weren't enough to ask about and chance changing his new found attraction for her and his beautiful expression of it.

As Chad lay on his couch surrounded by bags of chips, empty cans of soda, and melted bags of ice: he was awaken by the sound of yet another slamming door.

As he jumped up he saw his cousin's smiling face.

"Whoa, man… would you please quit slammin' that door" Chad sat up rubbing his eyes he turned off the TV.

He noticed the smirk that slid across Chris' face.

"I take it I had a good time on my date." Chad said sarcastically still trying to wake up.

"Oh you did!… We went out to eat at a beautiful place, then we swung by the mall and I took her on a little shopping spree. She loved it!"

"And how exactly did you pay for this elaborate date?"

"Eww…I kinda took it upon myself to grab some cash out of your drawer… I can't believe how much money you leave just lyin' around! Somebody could take that you know?"

Chad's temper rose quickly "You got a date by using my name then paid for it by using my money?"

"Dude, I'll pay you back later!… But right now I've got to hit the hay, after shopping we stopped by the Ice cream Parlor and I scarfed down a majorly big hot fudge Sunday! Whoa.. Might take a while to recover from that if you know what I mean?"

He grinned at Chad who did not offer so much as a courtesy nod.

After an awkward pause "Well catch ya later!" Chris darted off to his room.

Chad stretched his back to get it back into normal condition. Maybe he could return to work tomorrow, but he wasn't sure if it would be best to have half the shoot with Chris and the other half with him. He would just have to see how he felt in the morning.

Chad made his way up the stairs hoping he had worked up and off some energy so that he could get to sleep. He was sick of watching TV and sitting in the bedroom all by himself.

It wouldn't be so bad if he could get out. But, if there were too different Chads running around Hollywood I'm sure someone would notice. Mr. Condor's words echoed in Chad's ears. "No one fills in for anybody around here without checking with me first." "Uhh..." Chad shuddered at the thought.

Mackenzie Falls was all he had. To lose that would be to lose his identity! It is all he had known for the past 6 years and it was possibly the only thing he might be good at doing with his life. To tell you the truth he was deathly afraid of finding out!

"Well… That was a great day!" He said to himself sarcastically, as he started his nightly routine.

Most of his routine was like anyone else's- brush and floss your teeth, wash your face, drink a glass of water… But, there were also some special Chad Dylan Cooper routines as well- check your twitter account for new fans, grab a mirror-speak good thoughts to yourself, about yourself, while you look at yourself, and always lay tween weekly under your pillow for good luck! That's about it...

…except, there was however a very special tradition Chad tried with all his might to break himself of, but it never seemed to work. It was something he felt restless without. He would toss and turn, but as soon as he had it he was completely at peace.

"Not tonight!" he said as he pulled the covers over his head. …..

Time passed and not an ounce of sleep weighed on him… He tried quoting a memorized script like he did many times but that did not work. He tried naming all his co-workers but he could only name 4 so that didn't really help either. He even sunk to counting sheep but nothing.

"Huh…" he sighed in frustration. "You are soo pathetic!"

With that he reached over to his drawer and pulled out a picture frame. He placed the photo on his side table. Just a glance at that photo put a warmth and peace in his heart that nothing else could seem to do. The big smile, the big brown eyes and her beautiful hair brought a smile to his face each night.

He couldn't help but laugh at himself for needing that picture of Sonny by him to help him sleep. But, it definitely brought peaceful thoughts to his too many times dramatic world!

In the dark corner of his room, in his bed, in the quiet- he felt the freedom to admire her all he wanted to. He didn't have to put up a front or sneak a glance when no one was looking. He could almost feel her presence with no fear of her knowing his feelings or most fearful her rejecting them.

"Man... what a cutie!" He whispered to himself with a smirk.

"If anybody knew I needed you to help me fall asleep I would never hear the end of it…so let's keep it our little secret." He said with a wink.

As he lay there he thought of the time he acquired that picture.

He saw it in the hall near Mac Falls and against his urge to keep it decided to return it to it's owner. "Here Sonny I found this on the floor." She glanced over at the photo "Oh… That is a terrible picture… and you're a terrible actor-so you can keep it" She laughed, thumped him on the forehead, and skipped off. It wasn't a terrible picture, in fact it was one of the best pictures Sonny had ever taken. He knew that and he had a pretty good feeling that she did too. As she skipped away he flipped the picture over and saw that she had written "To: Chad From: Sonny".He rolled his eyes and smiled at her silly attempt to give him a photo of herself, though it did make him feel quite special, he laughed and put it in his pocket.

He breathed in a deep breath. "Well, at least I know your staying home this week too. If I knew that you were there without me and I could have been there, well… that would just make me feel even sicker." Chad closed his eyes and finally felt ready to call it a night.

Across town there was another set of eyes that had a hard time closing as well.

Sonny lay in her bed staring at the ceiling.

She couldn't stop smiling ever since she got home.

'Things seemed so different with Chad, so much more free!' She thought.- He was not covering his feelings, he loved to hear her talk, he had never been so attentive or caring. He had charmed her after all.

She took a deep breath, and looked over at her dresser.

Pictures of everyone were up there- cast mates, family, friends back home, and a small one of Chad.

But, tonight she chose to move that picture to the front. Her heart was warmed, and for once she felt she could safely be at rest in her affections- She finally drifted off to sleep excited for the day ahead.