Title: Escape from Reality

Summary: "She grinned with malevolence, the same kind of fury that she possessed when the ice-cream men threatened her with the darkness and such" Number 85 out of my 100-theme challenge!

Time: A few dayz.

Disclaimer: I don't own KND. * sob *

A pink figure snuck down the halls of the tree house, a purple bag slung over her shoulder, the words Sunshine Days scrawled across the front in metallic silver script. Wrappers and cans crunched inside of the bag, containing cookies, chips, sodas, candies, and much more. She arrived in her room, and slung the bag on her bed, where she then relaxed with a can of root beer and a package of BBQ chips. She focused on watching the new Rainbow Monkey movie playing on the TV, but for some reason, she couldn't lose herself in the movie.

She sighed- this was harder than she thought. This resulted in the opening another can of root beer, than another, and another. She drank until she was out of the brown liquid, then cracked open a package of licorice twists. She stuck one in her mouth and relaxed on her bed, slowly sucking on the strawberry flavored item. A knock on her door stopped her, and she quickly chucked the cans into her cluttered closet and spat out the licorice.

She meekly opened the door. A small boy whose eyes were hidden by a snow hat was outside her door, spinning a yo-yo. She gulped. She had expected maybe Harvey to find out, or even Paddy, but not Lee. This was going all wrong.

"Uh, hello Lee…" she said timidly, hiccupping. She cupped her hand over her mouth and prayed the boy hadn't noticed. He hadn't.

"Hey Sonya." He said, spinning the yo-yo again.

"Hi…" she whispered, hoping he didn't see past her cool façade.

"I'm heading to Lime Rickey's. Wanna come?" he offered. She thought of the endless supply of root beer they had there, the music that made you want to dance, and the cheap licorice. Then she shook her head, causing her pigtails to flop around her head. She hiccupped again, and this time the boy noticed, but he waved it off as just a symptom of nervousness.

"Okay." He said, walking coolly away. Sonya sighed thankfully to herself- he was gone. As soon as the slam of the door signaled his departure, she clambered out of her room and into the soda stash. She ran in and grabbed as many cans as her tiny arms could handle, and drank them all, resulting in a mad fit of hiccupping. She doubled over, feeling the sugar rush to her head and pound against her temples. She shrieked in pain, and as a way to escape this pain, she downed another soda.

She then collapsed against the couch with another soda clasped in her sticky hand and turned on Rainbow Monkeys. Her eyelids drooped as she stuck another piece of licorice in her mouth. Then her pink shadowed eyes snapped open and she shoved all the dented cans of root beer in her closet, piling them up and she slammed the door shut. She sighed with relief and walked coolly back into the living room. She cracked open another soda and slowly sipped the fizz that appeared near the opening.

It must have been a while later because soon the excited voice of Paddy, the bored tone of Harvey and the cool voice of Lee reached her ears. Normally, she would've greeted them happily, but she was too soda drunk to even care that they were here.

"Hey Sonya?" the voice of Lee drifted to her eardrums, but she was focused on drinking her soda- she didn't have time for him. The voices got closer and the eventual crunch of a broken can signaled they were in the living room.

"Got some root beer while we were gone?" Paddy joked, running his hand through his new red hair.

"Meh." Sonya replied, surfing the channels. She didn't care about anything right now, except that her licorice supply was running dangerously low. She put another piece in her mouth and stopped on the Rainbow Monkey Halloween special.

"Sonya?" Paddy stopped and looked at her. "Lee wants some chips. Do you have any in your room?"

"Yeah. He can have them." She muttered. Lee walked away to her room as Paddy studied her.

"What?" Sonya grumbled.

"Nothing…hey! Is that licorice?" Paddy asked.

"Yeah." Sonya muttered.

"Why are you using licorice?" he asked, wrinkling up his nose.

"Ah!" the yell of Lee brought Paddy running. Sonya trailed lazily behind. Lee was standing in a waist-high pile of dented and crumpled soda cans. He looked at Sonya in disbelief.

"Sonya…all this soda…!" he sputtered, his coolness evaporated leaving a shocked and scared seven year old.

"Yeah! What are ya gonna do 'bout it?" Sonya slurred, hiccupping once and turning to walk out of the room. Lee caught her hand and tugged her back.

"How long have you been drinking soda?" Lee demanded. Sonya looked at their hands and giggled. Well, it started as a giggle, then ended as hysterical laughter the ricochet off the walls and hurt her stomach. She dropped to the floor in laughter, leaving Lee looking at her like she was insane. She laughed and laughed until a hiccup finally ended the bout. Then she stuck out her tongue at Lee and flounced into the kitchen. When Lee arrived she was perched on the counter, smiling her ultra-cute grin, her fingers playing on the pop-top off the can.

"You wouldn't…" Lee's eyes narrowed.

"Wouldn't I?" Sonya hiccupped, her nails going under the pop-top.

"Sonya! Don't!" Lee was now reduced to begging on his knees. But it was too late- she opened the can and drank the soda, chucking the can across the room when she finished. She grinned with malevolence, the same kind of fury that she possessed when the ice-cream men threatened her with the darkness and such. Then, her sudden sugar-rush ended and she collapsed against the counter, finally, escaping from reality.

Sonya woke up woozily in a bleached white bed, her head aching. This hurt worse then when she was soda drunk, and she could only remember her previous soda rampage and then falling against the counter. She looked around her room, focusing her chocolate brown eyes on the young boy in the ushanka in the corner, spinning a lime-green yo-yo coolly.

"Hey." He said, his eyes looking at her in concern.

"Hey…what happened?" she muttered, clasping her hand against her head. Surprisingly, it was bandaged tightly with off-white bandages.

"Erm… you got soda drunk." Lee admitted, swiping his hand across his face.

"Really? Then it worked…" Sonya laughed harshly, unlike the regular cute laugh she omitted.

"You…you were trying to get soda drunk?" Lee asked in shock, his eyebrows rising and his yo-yo ending its perfect twirl to come up and smack his face. "Ow…"

"Yeah…" she tried to seem cool.

"Why?"

"Well…my mom and dad just got divorced and… uh…" she struggled to keep her cool aura about her, "And my sister died and…and…"

"And?"

"Nobody likes me!" her cool façade melted away at once, tears gushing from her beautiful eyes, soaking the bed in a cool drenching of salty rain. Lee stared in shock, mentally cursing himself- he should've seen this coming. She was down lately, and did he notice? Nope. He was too busy hanging out with Paddy.

"What…?" he asked.

"Yeah! And…"

"And?" Lee tensed. There was more?

"And I've been using licorice…" Sonya sobbed.

"Licorice?" he should've noticed the discarded wrappers, but he thought maybe Harvey… ah! Never mind that!

"Why?" he asked, demandingly, his lower lip stuck out in a pout.

"I already told you." She turned away, not wanting to meet his eyes. His eyes. They were so dark brown they were almost black, like the night. The night… what time was it? She shook her head- she was ranting again. Again. She laughed at the funniness of it all…

"What?" Lee asked in curiosity.

"Hmm? Oh nothing…" she mumbled, the funniness disappearing.

"Okay…" he said, tears suddenly brewing in her eyes. "I was really worried…" he confessed, his façade melting as well. He pulled his hat over his eyes but sobs escaped his mouth.

"Lee…" Sonya whispered. She had never meant to hurt him… Just shake everybody up a little, then maybe write a note that tugged at the heartstrings and disappear for a while until they really, really appreciated her again.

"Lee… I'm sorry…" she said, crying as well.

"It's okay…" he said, wiping her eyes. She closed her eyes and sighed, then her eyes snapped open when his lips met hers. She then closed her eyes and finally, escaped from reality.

A/N: So, yeah. I made an assumption with this story- that licorice is kinda like a cigarette? I dunno if youze got that, but yeah. Sorry if they went a little OOC