I know you all thought I was dead for a while, but here I am, PrairieRose1017, back with another Rio Triumph! This story is sort of like a prequal to my other three, but it really DOES matter if you read this one first if you haven't read the other ones! There will be spoilers GALORE! lol

But to all of my people who have read the other ones, this will be a welcome informationaly packed story on how Nico and Sonora first met, and a whole bunch of thier other firsts *que evil smile and maniacle laughter* I'l try really hard not to go crazy super mushy in all of the chapters, because we all know that that gets annoying over time. XD But yes this will be good, adn yes I hope you will love it!

Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

Chapter 1

New Life

"Come on Nico! I swear you fly like we have all the time in the world!" Pedro called over his shoulder to me.

"I'm flying faster than you are; you're just in the updraft!" I panted and was finally able to set my wings to use the warm air and stop flapping for a minute.

"I'm so excited for this! You're gonna love everybody! And the music! And you'll have to perform…" Pedro was acting very…how to put it…hyperactive today and it was really starting to get annoying.

"Whoa whoa whoa. Pedro I can't perform." I told my round, red-crested Cardinal brother. Ok he wasn't my blood brother, but he might as well be.

"We'll see about that." A creepy little smile came to the cardinal's beak.

"Dude you look like the crypt keeper." I shivered and shoved him over to make the freaky smile go away.

"Hey boys!" A huge toco toucan soared down to us and smiled brightly on his colorful beak.

"Ralphy! Bout time you showed up!" We shared a special wing shake with the big black and white bird as we left the jungle and soared over the city.

"Actually Sonny sent me. She's been at The Branch since it opened with Josie and Patty. She's on a roll tonight and was still singing when I left." Rafael smiled.

"I know whatcha mean. Pedro's been going crazy since we left the hollow." I explained. "I'm pretty excited myself."

"Not near as excited as Sonny. She and Pedro have been…" The toucan trailed off as Pedro shot him a shut-up look.

"What?" I asked confused. "Pedro you didn't make a big deal out of this just because it's my birthday, did you?" Pedro always did that. Just because I was leaving that stupid academy after a scrap with a dumb hyacinth macaw named Phillip, he thought it was Carnival or something.

"Maybe…" My friends chorused. I sighed.

"Come on guys! I don't wanna look like a preener!" I told them. Great, now my first impression on my new classmates would be an attention hog.

"You won't! Everybody helped and it's all perfect! This is gonna be the best eighteenth birthday ever!" Pedro said as we landed at the end of the fruit market.

"Is this it?" I asked feeling the back beat of the music flow through the concrete, up through my toes, and into my feathers.

"Nico, my brother, welcome to The Branch." Rafael and Pedro swept back the tarp and my beak fell open. The music crashed over me in a warm, melodic wave. Tons of birds were dancing around and cheering at the performer on the stage. I didn't realize it, but in the next few minutes, my life, would change forever.

"Holy feathers!" I gasped.

"See? I told you! Isn't this the COOLEST thing ever?" Pedro crowed and zoomed into the air. Then something across the room caught his attention and he waved. "Come on! Sonny and the girls are over here!" We met the cardinal in the air and followed him over to a well-lit corner. I was starting to get insanely curious about this Sonny bird; she seemed to be very special.

"Pedro! There you are!" We landed and a yellow blur shot forward and shared a wing-bump with my brother. I couldn't see who she was though, because the round grey bird was standing just right to where I couldn't. "What took you so long?" Her voice was strong and lyrical to say the least. I wanted to move so I could catch a glance at what she looked like, but there were just too many birds around for me to move.

"I was getting' the birthday boy." Finally Pedro stepped aside, and again my jaw dropped open. Standing there with the sweetest smile on her face was an angelic female canary. The colorful splotches of light from the disco ball danced across her sunny yellow feathers and she carried herself with total confidence. Her eyes…Wow her eyes! They were light meadow green and shone with glee.

"Nico?" Pedro elbowed me and I came out of my stupor.

"Oh…Yeah…" I rubbed the back of my neck in embarrassment. "I'm Nico." I reached out a wing for her to shake and remembered what Pedro told me before we left. You gotta show these girls your suave side. They'll just melt in your wings, cause you got some good stuff. So, as she took my wing, I gripped it and spun her towards me and dipped her slightly. "And who are you?" I put on a flirtatious smirk on my face as I asked her this.

She seemed pleasantly surprised and returned my smile with one of her own that made my heart flutter. "Sonora," I spun her back out and she posed at the furthest reach of my wing. "Call me Sonny." But as she said the second part she spun back to me and preformed one of the many tango poses; this one with her one leg wrapped around my hips and my face held gently in her wings. I just placed my wings on her back so she didn't fall, but I was blushing so hard, and shaking, from the pounding of my heart, that I'm sure I looked like an orange in an earthquake.

Wow! I thought to myself, these west-side girls are the definition of Hot Wings! I grew up on the east side with my parents, before…well, we'll get to that later. After I got "removed" from the dance academy, not three days ago, I had moved in with Pedro and his family. Ever since then Pedro had been coaching me for this night. It was annoying at times, but I see now that it came in handy.

Sonora hopped back with a slight blush on her cheeks, and a spark of…I swear it was hope, in her sweet green eyes. "Take it easy there hot wing!" Pedro scolded her after he and Raphael closed their beaks. "Nico's fresh off the east side. He's not used to your…style."

"Uh-huh." She rolled her eyes then looked back at me. "You sure show some poise for an east side preener." She flipped a few stray feathers back behind her head and shot me a wink. "I didn't offend you did I?" She asked seriously, as I just stood there as though I had no brain.

"No, not at all." I replied and smiled dumbly. I was still in utter shock from the seemingly magical moment just seconds ago.

"You don't seem like an academy boy to me." A pretty Scarlet macaw stepped up to Sonny's right and a little blue flycatcher with black feathers around her eyes, to her left.

"I would have to agree, Josie. Although you seem to show more manners than most of our boys." And both girls shot a look at my red-crested cardinal friend.

"What, I can't flirt with you lovely ladies and still be a good boy?" Pedro teased and walked over to them. "Now for the proper intro," He paused and linked his wing with the flycatcher, "This cerulean wonder is Patrice, but we all call her Patty."

"Ooooo! Big words Pedro! You do pay attention in Composition!" Patty cooed sarcastically. My brother just rolled his brown eyes and flourished his wings at the macaw.

"And this rainbow of a Spanish beauty is Josephine."

"Me apodo Josie." She said in a perfect accent and blushed as she realized it was in Spanish. "Call me Josie." She looked back at her friends and they nodded. "I just moved here from El Salvador, and am still working on your language."

"No problema, señorita. Me entienda perfectamente (Not a problem miss. I understand perfectly)." I said and she smiled broadly and nodded.

"Dude? You can speak Spanish?" Rafael asked, highly impressed.

"Yeah, just one of my many talents." I joked while blowing on the tips of my flight feathers and rubbing them against my shoulder as everyone laughed. My eyes flitted back to Sonny for a moment and I just stared; she was so much different than any girls I had met before, and I just couldn't wrap my mind around it. Then she turned her eyes to me and I looked away quickly. I caught her warm smile though and started to feel all tingly.

"Oh my! Who might you be sunshine?" A new voice joined us from behind me. It was very high pitched, a touch nasal, and reminded me of those…what do the Americans call them? Oh yeah! Southern belles! That's what she sounded like. I turned to see who owned the voice, and before me was a bright rainbow lorikeet. Her colors stood out in bright patches, and upon first glance I saw her as pretty. But there was something about the way my friends stiffened and the way she carried herself that bothered me.

"I…I'm Nico." I stuttered. I didn't extend a wing to shake, I couldn't even smile; this situation was too weird for any of that. The lori just beamed and opened her beak to speak again.

"Honey, you're already concerning yourself with birds that aren't worth your time." She told me over-sweetly.

"Alright Ana, we get it, you were an east side preener too. You can go now." Patty hopped next to me and glared at the lori.

"Patrice! Don't you look just as lovely as ever, sugar?" Ana said again in that same voice that made me cringe inwardly now.

"Like Patty said, buzz off." Josie joined me on the other side. She hesitated but was able to spit out the words in an angry tone. I shot her a small smile, but she was too offended by the lorikeet's presence to notice.

"Josephine! Bless my soul! I haven't seen you in ages! Seems I never get to have a decent conversation with you without that little Sonora around." Now she was starting to get annoying, and I really wanted to leave.

"You know I'm right here." Sonny flew over my head, and finally broke the lori's fake smile. I could tell by the way the club paused, my friends stepped back, and how Sonora stood with her shoulders squared and chin up that this was going to end badly.

"Hello." Ana snipped. "Seems you've added another poor soul to your raggle-taggle band. Too bad, he's a cutie." I turned bright red, and wanted so badly to dive under Rafael's huge black wing to hide, as she blew me a kiss.

"What do you want?" Sonora placed a wing on her hip and a venomous glare on her face as she spoke.

"I only wanted to remind your little west side…posse…that they have one last chance to realize that they could do so much better with the company that they keep." The poison in her tone made even me feel sick. Then I noticed that Sonny was fluffed up to twice her size and her pretty yellow feathers were turning orange.

"Now girls," Rafael flew up to each of them in turn and smiled, "It's Friday Night, we're all worn out after a long week, and all we want to do is party…" His attempt to cut the tension did nothing, and he slowly stepped back as the girls continued to glare daggers at each other. I looked at Pedro, whose eyes were wide open and a scared look lingered there as he fished for a way to stop the impending fight, should one of the girls speak again. Suddenly his face lit up and he and Rafael had the same thought.

"SONG AND DANCE BATTLE!" They called and the tension diminished a smidge as the uneasy club goers cheered their approval.

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