Tic-Tac Tactic

In her dreams, it wasn't a mermaid dress. It wasn't a froofy (for lack of a better word) princess dress. It wasn't a red dress either.

In her dreams, the dress was violet. It was violet, and Cinderella-like, and flowing with silk and lace in all of the right places.

In her dreams, the boy that she danced with wouldn't have been Chad Dylan Cooper. The boy that she danced with would have had brown hair and green eyes and a dimpled smile. He would have been sweet and practiced Yahoo!'s Top Ten Tops of Etiquette on a daily bases. He would have played a song like "Follow You Into the Dark" by Death Cab for Cutie, or "Love Me Tender" by Elvis. And then, at the end of their dance, the handsome brown-headed boy would have pulled out a tiny box of red Tic Tacs – because they're the best ones.

But Chad just had to come along and ruin everything.

In truth, all of Sonny's dreams dissolved into a puddle of a trampled and ruined prom – that she didn't get to hardly participate in. And when she finally made it, Chad Dylan Cooper was there in a tux.

Egotistical, un-cool, un-Yahoo!ing, un-red Tic Tacs – Chad.

So for a split second, she placed her delicately small hands in his, and slow danced with him. His breath was hot on her cheek and her heart was plotting to pulsate violently out of her chest. And for that split second, Sonny wondered if she had feelings for him.

Then that moment ended. She ended that moment. She told him that he had forgotten to turn on his iPod.

Dumb her.

But she wanted a prom. So heck, she was going to do the Macarena and the YMCA to get it.

You saw what happened next.

Tawni joined them, followed my Grady and Nico – and their latest hot squeezes. They danced and busted their moves for a whole hour, until Chad announced that his iPod was running low on batteries.

After his announcement, Chad walked away.

What he didn't realize though, was that he was dragging Sonny (still attached by the ear-plugs) along with him. He didn't realize his mistake until she grabbed his shoulder and made him stop when they were outside on the lighted terrace.

On second thought, maybe it wasn't a mistake.

Because when Chad spun around to face Sonny, a goofy grin was on his face, and his iPod's battery was still half full.

Then suddenly, "You and Me" by Lifehouse came on, and Sonny gave him a goofy look. After huffing and narrowing her eyes, she yanked his iPod out of his pocket and pressed the 'pause' button.

"Why?" Sonny inquired, tilting her head to the side.

Chad mirrored her, and bit his lip; utterly confused. "What do you mean?"

"We have a serious moment," Sonny drew in a deep breath, "And then you ruin it. Always."

"For the record," The blue-eyed boy raised an eyebrow and chuckled lowly. "You're the one who told me to turn my iPod on."

"Well," Sonny swallowed, her eyebrows melting together in frustration. "You could've played this song." She shrugged, rubbing her thumb against the iPod's control so the screen would light up and flash to the Lifehouse screen. "Or you could have played John Mayer, or The Cab, or-"

"Or Miley singing 'The Climb'?" Chad scoffed as he stepped a little closer to Sonny.

"Maybe." For some odd reason, Sonny shivered as Chad placed his hands against the small of her back and pulled her closer to himself.

"Because, Son-beam," Chad grinned boyfully, still keeping his arms around Sonny. "I knew that Blondie, Rainy, Cloudy, and their Hooter-playoffs would come back and ruin everything." He lowered his head closer to hers, and she gulped in confusion and nervousness. "And I wanted this to be perfect."

Sonny gasped as Chad, by some odd miracle, pulled her even closer against him. Then he yanked his iPod away from her, pressed 'play', and started dragging Sonny along with him in a slow dance – their foreheads still touching.

Suddenly, everything was becoming magical. For a second, Sonny wasn't in a mermaid costume anymore – she was in her violet dress with her charming prince.

Just as she thought that he was about to kiss her though, Chad stopped, pulled away, and pulled a tiny box that read 'Tic Tac' out of his pocket.

They were orange.

Sonny cringed at the thought of having just one orange Tic Tac. After all, she had never had an orange Tic Tac. It was weird. It was illegal. It was new and exhilarating.

"Want one?" She looked down warily at the orange mini-pellet shaped piece of mint in Chad's hand and frowned.

"M-maybe." Sonny sputtered, reached out, and popped it in her mouth before any part of her could object.

Startling.

Spicy.

Exhilarating.

Sonny broke into a huge grin as the Tic Tac finally dissolved, and then she laughed and did a little spin. Chad chuckled slowly to himself as he watched her, completely mesmerized.

It was the perfect moment. Knowing this, Chad gently grabbed a hold of her and kissed her; the taste of their Tic Tacs blending together.

So yeah, maybe Sonny's dreams didn't come true. But reality happened. And this go-round, reality was very tasty and very, very wonderful.

Disclaimer: I do not own Tic Tacs, or SWAC.

A/N: Do you know those gum commercials that have the girl falling over a guy because the gum smells so good? Do you cringe every single time they come on because you think that they're so ridicules and dumb?

Yeah. So do I.

I would like to point out that this involves candy and not gum, but in the end, I guess it's all the same, haha. Seriously though, like GutterFlowers, I wrote this solely for the purpose of the title. Alliteration people. It rules :D

Also, if you're lost with the "Yahoo!" parts and Son-beam; the references are used in my story "Stupid Cute".

My word to describe this? Sappy.

Anywho…Thoughts?

Thank you!