Title: Pool Party, or Scars and Secrets

Author: Starsgirls

Fandom: Sonny With a Chance

Characters: Zora and Mandy (The girl on the show before Sonny)

Genre: Friendship

Summary: Zora reveals a secret, and makes a new friend in the process

Disclaimer: I don't own SWAC or Paula Deen

A/N Zora has always been my favorite character on the show. Have you noticed she only wears long sleeved shirts? Here's my take on why.

This story takes place a year before Sonny is on the show. Therefore it stars old cast member Mandy instead.

I told you enough. Now, on to the story.

MPOV:

Another day, another sketch! Today's rehearsal was especially fun, because I wrote and performed the sketch. Called "Mama's Kitchen" it was parody of Paula Deen's cooking show. I played "Mama" and cooked all sorts greasy southern foods made with pounds and pounds of butter and sugar. I think it'll turn out pretty well on the show.

Ah, lunch time. One of my favorite parts of the day. Along with rehearsing, performing and hanging out with the cast, of course. Anyway, after standing in line for half an hour (way too long if you ask me), we were rewarded with what they claimed were sloppy joes and applesauce. I personally believe it was something else. But then, I've been suspicious of sloppy joes ever since my mom decided to sneak spinach inside one when I was five. (You can hide it, but you still can taste it!)

Anyway, once the rest of the cast got their food; we went and sat down at our usual table.

"Yo, you hear about the pool party next week?" Nico asked.

Tawni looked up from her mirror where she was applying lip-gloss. "Pool party? Am I invited?"

"Probably, I think it's for every kid in the lot. Mr. Condor throws it every year just for us. There hot dogs, and limbo contests, and everything!" Grady exclaimed between bites of sloppy joe.

Zora eyed Grady skeptically, "That's all you need, huh? You'd get excited about anything if they offered free hotdogs."

I looked up at the younger girl, surprised. Normally she got excited about these kinds of things. I wonder…

"Mandy, Mandy. You there?" Nico looked at me expectantly, waving a hand in front of my face. "You kinda spaced out for a sec."

I shook my head to clear it. "Sorry, what was the question?" I asked perkily trying to make up for the space out.

Nico just looked at me for a moment before going on. "What about you, excited about the party?"

I nodded, my head bouncing up and down like a beach ball. "Yeah, we had pool parties back in Somerville all the time. This is gonna be so great!"

I glance over at Tawni, who had drifted into what I called "Fashion Distraction Mode." "I wonder what everyone will be wearing." She mused out loud. " I totally need to go shopping for a new swimsuit!"

"Swimsuits!' Nico yelped, earning him a few looks from the other commissary occupants. "Forget hotdogs, Grady. Man, there's gonna be girls in swimsuits!"

I glanced over at Zora, to see what she thought about all this. The expression on her face had gone from amused and skeptical to kinda dejected and embarrassed. So I intentionally directed my next question at her. "What about you Zora? Are you going?"

She frowned for a moment and then resumed her confident smirk. "That thing? Nah. It's probably gonna be boring. Besides, I'll probably be busy. My older sister Aurora's gonna be in town next week, we might do something that day."

Grady looked up at her from over his sandwich. "You live with your sister, Z. You two can hang out when ever you want.

"Yeah, but she's always working." Zora argued, looking kinda mad. "We both are. I think spending time with your only sister is more important than some lame pool party.

"All right, All right, I get it. Calm down girl," Nico said. He looked kinda scared. Not that I would blame him. By now Zora was on her feet, talking sort of loudly, and looking really mad. There's nothing worse than an angry Zora. Everyone knew that.

We let it go, but I still wondered what was wrong with her.

After lunch Nico, Grady, Tawni, Zora and I made our way back to the studio.

ZPOV

After eating lunch, my cast mates and I left the commissary to go back to the studio. The four of them were still going on about the stupid pool party. Apparently it was the 'pool party of all pool parties' from the way they were talking. It's just a bunch of teenagers in skimpy bathing suits sitting in lounge chairs people! Who would seriously want to go to that?

I trailed behind the older kids, lost in my own thoughts. It would be fun to go the pool party and truth was, I really wanted to. But there was no way I was going to.

Once we were inside Studio 2, the five of us crowded around that afternoon's schedule. More practice for Mandy's sketch. That meant just Grady and Mandy were working this afternoon. The rest of us would have to find something else to occupy our time. For me that was easy enough. I didn't feel like doing anything else. As soon as the others left the hallway, I quickly ducked into the vent opening on the wall (my secret entrance!). I crawled swiftly through the practiced route, going deeper and deeper into the studio. A slow smile crossed my face as rounded the final bend and reached my intended target.

I had claimed the small section of vent above Tawni and Mandy's room the day I started working here. Dressing rooms are supposed to be a place to relax. The way those two girls bicker, I knew that wasn't gonna happen. So I relocated to the vent. I don't need that much space, and anyway it makes it easier to spy on people.

I booted up my laptop and placed in a random DVD. I was so upset right now, I really didn't care what I was watching. As I watched the title sequence of the movie, I started thinking. There were so many things my cast mates and the other kids didn't know about me. To them, I'm the (really) crazy kid from Portland, nothing else. Just wacky, quirky Zora Lancaster, the 'weird one' on So Random. And I just want to keep it that way. If anyone found out my secret, why I can't go to the pool party, well…

I ended up spending the rest of the afternoon up in the vent system. At the end of the day, I gathered up my laptop and book I was reading and crawled back through the vent system.

When I got in the car, Aurora smiled at me as she looked up from her cell phone. "Hey, kiddo. You're late. I've been here for about 15 minutes. I tried calling you."

"The vents don't get cell service," I snapped, getting in the car.

What's your problem?" She responded. "Bad day?"

"I don't wanna talk about it," I mutter, knowing she won't press the matter.

"Fine then."

"Fine"

A/N: Well, What do you think? R&R I'll get the next chapter up as soon as possible. What do you think Zora's secret is? Think hard and don't go with the obvious answer.