Little project I've been working on for a while. :) I hope you guys like it. I had a ton of fun writing it, and have drawn a few pictures that go along with this story. If you want to see them, I'll post the links in my profile later.

Who else heard that Demi isn't coming back to Sonny with a Chance? D: I'm really depressed about that.

Well, anyway, enjoy.

Disclaimer: SWAC belongs to Disney. Or it did. The plot is an original creation from my brain.

"I'm not eating that." My co-star, Tawni Hart, gave our lunch a disgusted look and flipped her blond hair over her shoulder.

I rolled my eyes. Tawni was such a drama queen. Though I guess I couldn't blame her at the moment, because our cafeteria lunch, some kind of weird meat thing on a stick, looked seriously gross. "We don't really have a choice, Tawni. Unless you want to take a look at the menu for some other options. Oh, wait, there isn't a menu!" I frowned at her.

From across the table, Nico Harris and Grady Mitchell exchanged a look. Beside me, the youngest of our cast, Zora Lancaster, remarked, "Since when are you so grumpy, Sonny?"

Yeah. That's me, Sonny Munroe. Actually, my real name's Allison, but everyone calls me Sonny. I should probably tell you a bit about myself before we go any further, huh? I'm a 16 year old girl from Wisconsin who scored the best job ever. I managed to land a role on the hit TV show, So Random. Pretty much everyone in Condor Studios (where my show is filmed), especially my castmates, know me as a happy, bubbly, unable-to-quit-meddling-in-everybody's-lives kind of person. But that doesn't mean I'm always that cheerful. I have some bad days, too.

I sighed. "My day didn't go so well yesterday." Suddenly, I felt a smile pop onto my face as a certain someone walked into the cafeteria, and an idea quickly came to my mind. "But I think things are looking up!" I said excitedly. "Don't worry, guys, I'll get us a great lunch faster than you can say Mackenzie Falls! But don't say it yet," I added quickly as Grady opened his mouth to speak.

I got up and skipped over to the certain someone I'd seen walking in: Chad Dylan Cooper, the star of the rival show, Mackenzie Falls. He was a total jerk, with him being all high and mighty about how great he is, and how his show is so much better than ours... ugh. But whatever. The point is, because the lunch ladies love his stupid drama, they give his cast the best lunch, like steak and lobster, while everyone else is stuck with slop. Well, I was pretty certain that I could convince him to get the lunch ladies to give my castmates and I some of that good food, too. Because I'd noticed that over the past few months he'd been uncharacteristically nice to me, just me. Why? Don't ask me, I haven't got a clue. I mean, I had a few theories, but they were probably wrong... I think. All right, I'm gonna continue with the story.

"Hey, Chad!" I greeted him as I sidled up to him. He'd just taken a platter of steak from one of the lunch ladies that had me drooling. He frowned at me. "What do you want?" was his rude reply.

Ok, he was being oddly not nice. But that didn't deter me. I summoned up all my acting skills and put on the sweetest voice I could muster. "Chad, do you think you could - ?"

"No," he interrupted and began to walk away.

The smile slid off my face. "You didn't even hear my question!" I protested.

He smirked at me. "I know what you want, Munroe, and the answer is no. This is my food."

"B-But-" I stammered. His smirk widened. "Well, that's what you get for making me kiss a pig on your dumb show last week."

Oh, so he was still bellyaching over that. He really needed to get over himself. I glared at him. "First off, I didn't make you. And second, you are such a jerk! All you do is take and take, but not once do you ever give!" Chad just rolled his eyes and turned away from me.

I don't know what made me say what I said next. Before I could stop myself, I yelled, "I challenge you to a... to a water balloon fight!" Well, that had come out of nowhere.

Chad turned back to face me, looking bemused. "Excuse me?"

I nodded firmly, beginning to warm up to the idea. "Yes. Here are the terms. Us Randoms win, we get the good lunch, the awesome treatment, and... you and your cast have to be our personal servants for a month."

Chad scoffed. "No way."

I folded my arms. "Scared, Cooper?" I taunted, knowing it would get on his nerves. I was right, because he glared at me and said hotly, "Chad Dylan Cooper fears nothing. Except heights. And spiders. But other than that, nothing! You know what, I accept your challenge! But if my cast wins, then I get something from you. I'm not going to tell you what it is yet, but that's my only term. Take it or leave it." We stared each other down, both our eyes narrowed and our arms crossed. I was aware that the cafeteria had gone silent, which must have meant we were the center of attention. Great, huh?

His terms made me nervous, but I finally answered, "Fine."

He smirked again. "Fine," he responded loftily.

"Good," I countered back.

"Good," was his reply.

After continuing with our 'Good' 'Good' 'Fine' 'Fine' fight for a bit, we finished making the arrangements for the water balloon fight, and then he left with his delicious looking steak. I returned to my castmates, who immediately bombarded me with questions.

"What were you thinking?"

"A water balloon fight? We won't be able to win that!"

"Who challenges someone to a water balloon fight?"

"Do you think I should get a manicure?"

Once I managed to get them to quiet down, I said with a confidence I didn't feel, "Don't worry, guys. I got this." I forced myself to take a bite of the Ick on a Stick (it tasted like cardboard). Oh, jeez. What the heck had I gotten myself into?

Friday morning, my castmates and I met at the local park where we celebrities like to hang out. No kidding, you could see people like Sandra Bullock or Reese Witherspoon here sometimes, walking their dogs or jogging. It was the perfect spot to have a water balloon fight, partly because there was loads of wide open space and mainly because the paparazzi rarely came here. Strange, I know, but I guess the park is forbidden turf for them. It's a good thing, too. No photographs means no publicity, something we didn't really need at the moment.

Tawni and I were sitting at one of the park picnic tables, with two bags filled to the brim with water balloons placed directly in front of us. Meanwhile, Nico had gone off to help Grady, who had been playing on one of the slides and managed to get himself stuck halfway through (everyone could've seen that coming). Zora was somewhere studying the eating habits of a squirrel. Very weird, yeah, but no one questions what Zora does. The girl's wacky, but for an 11 year old, she's a complete genius.

Anyway, the Mackenzie Falls cast hadn't shown up yet, and I was getting increasingly nervous. "Where are they? They were supposed to be here by now!" I said anxiously.

Tawni adjusted her sun visor and gave me a look. "Oh, Sonny, relax, they'll come. And if they don't, I'll send that picture I took of Chad shoving an old lady to Tween Weekly. That'll cause bad press, and you know Chad hates bad press. He'll be here," she reassured me.

I wasn't appeased. "Tawni, this is Chad we're talking about! This might be a plot of his to trick us into thinking he's not coming, and then BAM!" I pounded my fist on the table for extra emphasis. "He'll pop out of the bushes and hit us when we least expect it! And then he'll win and he'll want something from me! What could he possibly want from me!" My voice had risen hysterically, and I could tell that I was close to hyperventilating.

Tawni gave me a look as though I were stupid. "Think about it, Sonny," she told me very slowly, as if she were talking to a three year old. "What do obnoxious jerks like Chad usually want from completely innocent girls like you?"

I had no clue. "I don't know - " I began to say. Then my eyes suddenly widened. "Oh my gosh!" I wailed. "Tawni, he wants to get me fired!"

For some reason, Tawni shook her head in exasperation. "You're so naive, Sonny. I give up on you." I barely heard her. I was too busy panicking. I didn't want to get fired! I loved my job! "Maybe this was a bad idea," I said anxiously.

Tawni laughed sarcastically. "Ya think?"

I glanced around, trying to take deep breaths, then I brightened as a thought hit me. "Tawni, let's get out of here. We can all leave now, call it off, before they get here, and it'll be like nothing ever happened! We'll be good, they'll be good, we'll all be good, and I won't be fired!" I stood up. "Come on, let's get the others and go - "

Tawni was up in a flash and steering me back towards the table. After she plopped me down on the bench, she shook her head. "Oh, girl up, Sonny. You should've thought about what might happen before you went and challenged him. It's your own fault."

It's very rare for Tawni to sound so sensible. I would've been completely shocked if I hadn't been freaking out. That was when someone tapped my shoulder. I thought it was Chad and nearly had a heart attack, but it turned out to just be Nico, with Grady trailing after him. They had grim expressions on their faces. Not good. "Guess who just arrived?" Grady said dryly.

"Uh... Mandy Moore?" I asked hopefully.

Unfortunately, I was wrong. Nico pointed to the parking lot, where I turned to see a group of people climbing out of a sleek black convertible and heading our way. Yep, it was the cast of Mackenzie Falls. Pretty much all of them were there, even Portlyn, which was weird because she wasn't on the show anymore. Even though they weren't wearing the Mack Falls uniform they usually wear at the studio and were dressed casually, they all still looked gorgeous. Darn them.

But... I didn't see Chad anywhere. Was he skipping out? The thought made me cheerful. Maybe I'd be able to get out of this.

But my hopes were dashed when he pushed his way forward through his castmates, allowing us Randoms to get a good look at him.

What we saw made us burst out laughing. While everyone was clad simply in jeans and T-shirts... Chad was dressed like Superman.

Yeah, Superman. I'm not kidding, he was wearing the blue suit and the red cape and everything. He glared at us as we cracked up at his expense. "This isn't funny." That just made us laugh harder.

"Where's the costume party?" I managed to choke out through my snickering.

"Yeah, Chad, did you lose your dignity under that cape?" Nico wisecracked, which led us into another fit of laughter.

Chad gave us a mocking smile. "Haha. Well, we'll see who's laughing when you losers do what you do best... lose." That made our laughter come to an abrupt end, and we all flashed him dirty looks as he continued with an air of superiority, "And for your information, my little cousin helped me pick out this disguise so that the paparazzi wouldn't recognize me. So there."

"Chad, the paparazzi don't come here," I said in a patronizing tone, which made my cast snicker. "You might as well go back to being Clark Kent, Superman, 'cause you got dressed up for nothing."

Chad frowned at me, looking annoyed, and changed the subject. "Shouldn't we be starting now? Where's the little weird girl?"

Huh. I hadn't even noticed that Zora wasn't here. But then, right on cue, she came up to us, carrying a frying pan. And there was a squirrel on her shoulder. "Guys, this is Frankie," she said, pointing at the squirrel. She didn't tell us where she'd gotten the frying pan from, and no one asked. Like I said, the girl's a genius, but very, very odd.

I stood up so that everyone could see me and spoke, trying not to let my voice shake as the nervousness returned. "Ok. We've all got our water balloons, right?" Tawni pointed to our two bags of water balloons, and Portlyn held up two sacks of their own. "Right. Um... so you know the rules? We have the fight, and if you fall down, you're out. Last person standing wins." My voice cracked on the last word, and I cleared my throat. "We'll need a referee to keep track of everything..."

Tawni's hand shot up into the air eagerly. I was a bit surprised that she was volunteering, so I nodded to her, and she clapped her hands together happily. I found out later that she only volunteered so she wouldn't have to get her clothes wet... but still.

I continued robotically, "And anything goes. Do all you can to win. May the best cast be victorious." The Mack Falls cast exchanged smirks, like they were absolutely certain they would win. I felt a surge of anger rise up in me. Forgetting my nervousness over being fired for that one moment, I stepped over to Chad and gave him what I hoped was a determined, intense look. "It's on, Cooper."

He grinned at me. "Then let the games begin, Munroe."

Both our casts separated and grouped together at opposite ends of the grassy area. Tawni stayed where she was at the picnic table, admiring her new manicure. We all stared at her until she noticed that we were waiting for her to give the signal to start. "Oh. Well, start then," she said indifferently.

Immediately, the air was filled with flying water balloons. Everywhere you looked, there was some balloon exploding in your face. I got hit by three right away and almost lost my balance, but managed to steady myself and stay upright. It hurt, too. But I couldn't focus on that. I shrugged off the pain, then I darted off, throwing balloons at the Mack Falls cast. I got Portlyn down pretty quickly. Score one for the Randoms! But then I saw Nico go down, too, after Penelope hit him in the face with two water balloons. Apparently he'd been trying to act like a gentleman and hadn't gotten her out when he had the chance. He should have known she would try and turn the tables on him. Just great, Nico.

"Look out, Sonny!" I heard Zora yell from somewhere behind me. I turned just in time to see Devon throwing a balloon at me. I ducked down just in time, and it flew harmlessly over my head. And instead went in Zora's direction. Zora didn't even blink an eye. She just hefted that frying pan over her shoulder like a baseball bat and whacked the balloon as hard as she could back at Devon. It smacked him hard in the chest, and he let out a cry before falling over. Woah. I guess there was a reason for that pan after all. I beamed at Zora and gave her a thumbs up before scampering off to chase Trevor.

In the end, there were only three people left in the showdown: me, Zora, and Chad. Everyone else was crowded around Tawni by the picnic table, their eyes trained on us. I was running out of balloons, and my clothes were drenched in water. It was the same with the other two left in the game. Zora and I tried to be precise in our throws at Chad, but we somehow kept missing. Every time we missed, he would give us this infuriating smirk and jog off, taking his sweet time in throwing balloons at us. It was aggravating.

Finally, I got so ticked off that I hurled a balloon at him without even trying to be precise in my aim. He dodged easily, and my balloon ended up hitting Zora. She wobbled a bit, but stayed upright and smiled. "Ha! I don't go down that easy!" Unfortunately, Chad crept up behind her just as she was saying this and hit her with two more balloons, making her fall facefirst into the wet grass.

Chad looked over at me as Zora trudged over to the others. "Looks like it's just you and me, Munroe."

My hands felt clammy. Or maybe that was just the water from the balloons. Either way, I was getting increasingly freaked out. I tossed a balloon at him half heartedly and missed, then said as bravely as I could, "You're acting pretty confident for someone who's about to lose!"

He shot back, "Well, at least I actually can act."

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Cooper," I retaliated.

Huh. That was a major deja vu moment. The last time we'd had a conversation, I'd challenged him to a game of musical chairs and won. Maybe this was a sign that I'd win again?

I had one balloon left. That was it. This was my last shot. I took a deep breath, took careful aim, and threw it in his direction. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. I know that sounds cliché, but it's true. It would've been a straight hit, too. But at the last second, his hand moved upward, and he caught the balloon. It didn't even explode in his face, just remained perfectly intact. I stared at him in shock, and he grinned before throwing the balloon right back at me. Next thing I knew, I was flat on my back, staring up at the sky, and the Mack Falls cast was cheering and whooping. They'd won, and we'd lost.

I slowly got to my feet and made my way over to my castmates, who gave me silent, sympathetic looks. I met their gazes and smiled weakly, then watched as Chad high fived Trevor and Devon. A surge of panic hit me like a punch to the stomach. Now that he'd won, he was going to get me fired. I didn't want to get fired. I really did not want to get fired. It wasn't fair! I was just beginning to feel like I belonged here in Hollywood, like I had a family in my castmates. I was even starting to get along with Tawni, and that was saying something. This couldn't be happening to me.

Chad finally turned around to face me. His usually perfectly combed hair was wet and messed up, which I knew was something he absolutely hated. But his blue eyes sparkled with triumph, and something else I couldn't quite place. "Looks like you lost, Munroe. So. Now I get something from you."

I glared at him. He could taunt me all he wanted, but if he thought I was going to cry when he got me fired, he was sadly mistaken - wait, why was he moving closer to me? Why was he staring at me like that? What was he doing?

Tawni apparently realized what he was doing before anyone else did and screeched, "Oh my God, are you going to kiss her?"

Pandemonium broke out. Pretty much everyone was making some sort of disgusted noise, Nico and Grady were threatening to hit Chad with Zora's frying pan if he made a move on me, and Penelope was yelling something I couldn't understand and trying to slap Chad's face. I think. I don't remember exactly. I was just feeling dazed at the sudden turn of events. So... did that mean I wasn't getting fired?

Chad was still approaching me, despite Nico and Grady's threats, and I came to my senses and realized I need to get the heck out of there before he could try anything. Unfortunately, I was unable to make my feet move from the spot. Why? I don't know.

But luck was on my side. Zora snatched up her squirrel, which had been sitting calmly on the picnic table, and chucked it in Chad's direction, yelling, "Frankie, attack!"

There's really no way to describe what happened next. One minute Chad was walking calmly towards me, and the next minute he was doing a really weird dance and screaming, "There's a squirrel in my pants!"

He danced away, still screeching about the squirrel, with his castmates running after him like those kids in that pied piper story.

I stood there stupidly, gazing after them with my jaw practically on the ground, until Tawni tugged on my arm. "He's distracted. Let's get out of here!" she hissed at me. So while Chad was busy screaming like a little girl, we Randoms ran to Tawni's car and made our escape.

After the whole park fiasco, my cast and I returned to Condor Studios and headed to the Prop House (the room that houses all our show's props, hence the name) to dry off our hair and whatnot. As I rubbed my hair with a towel, I said brightly, "Well, we may have lost to Mackenzie Falls, but we still kicked their butts."

The others just gave me blank stares. Grady pointed out glumly, "They kicked ours even worse."

I made a face. "Well, yes, but it still felt good to give them what they deserve, right?" They all nodded slowly with a chorus of 'yeah's.

"Exactly!" I continued proudly. "So you know what I think? I think we should go celebrate our epic failure with frozen yogurt from the cafeteria!"

The boys grinned and highfived. It really didn't take that much to lift their spirits, so long as you were talking about either food, video games, or girls. "Great idea, Sonny! Let's go right now!" They scrambled out of the Prop House, practically tripping over each other in their hurry to be the first one out.

Zora hopped up and followed them, calling over her shoulder, "I'll ask Marshall if we can order pizza!" She ran off.

Tawni started to head out, too, but paused and looked back at me. "You know, Sonny, your outfit isn't as hideous as what you usually wear. Though it looks horrible now that you got it ruined with all those balloons."

I rolled my eyes. "Gee, Tawni, thanks," I said sarcastically. "You're really terrible at giving compliments to anyone besides yourself, you know that, right?"

She shrugged in reponse.

I sighed and added, "I'm gonna stay here for a bit. Can you save me a seat in the cafeteria?"

She laughed. "Don't count on it." Then she flounced away. I couldn't help but smile a tiny bit. Some things never change, I guess.

I sat down on the couch, twisting my wet brown hair between my fingers. I don't think I ever mentioned this, but the thought of having to kiss Chad was just as terrifying as getting fired. Maybe more so. When he guest starred on our show last week, he told me that a few things were going to happen. First I would get nervous, then I'd stumble, start dreaming about him, and get lost in his eyes. And then we'd apparently kiss and I'd be hooked. (His words, not mine)

I thought he was completely nuts, and who could blame me? I disliked the guy. He was my mortal enemy. But after the first few things he'd told me would happen actually happened, I wasn't so sure he was as cuckoo as I'd thought he was. I certainly did not want to fall in love with Chad Dylan Cooper. Anyway, I was supposed to kiss him on our show, in front of a live audience, but then Nico and Grady's pet pig somehow ended up on my lap. I took full advantage of this and allowed Chad to smooch the pig instead of me.

Hey, our show's called So Random for a reason. And besides, the main thing is that the audience found it hilarious.

So this is what was going through my head when I suddenly heard footsteps behind me. I thought it was Tawni coming back to look for her lip gloss or something, and I turned, about to tell her it was in our dressing room. Instead of Tawni, I came face to face with Chad, and the words died away in my throat. His hair was still wet and unruly, but he'd ditched the Superman outfit and had changed into some casual clothes. Frankie was nowhere to be seen. Darn it. And Chad looked insanely hot with his hair all wet like that. Double darn it.

We stared at each other for a few long seconds, not saying anything. Then I stood up. "Chad, what're you doing here?" I was surprised by how calm my voice sounded. I'd expected it to come out sounding squeaky.

"I'm here to claim my prize," he stated, smirking yet again. I scoffed. "Yeah. Good luck with that."

He frowned. "Sonny, a deal's a deal." When I just glared at him, he went on pleadingly, "Please?"

I studied him, taking in his wide blue eyes and the hopeful expression on his face. Honestly, I don't know why he wanted a kiss so bad. If he wanted to kiss something, why couldn't he just kiss his reflection? He'd done it often enough.

But he did say please, so...

I considered my options for a bit, then took a step forward toward him. He grinned widely, but that grin disappeared when I gave him a quick peck on the cheek, shot him a huge smile, and started to skip away. He yelled after me indignantly, "Hey, wait, that doesn't count!"

I shrugged. "You weren't very specific, Cooper."

"You knew what I meant," he said unhappily. "And you said last week on your stupid show that you'd kiss me for real when pigs fly. Well, the pig flew, Sonny!"

I crossed my arms. He really needed to give up. "Ok, first off, my show is not stupid. Second, the pig bounced off a trampoline and landed in my lap, it didn't fly. And anyway, didn't that feel real enough for you?"

Chad glared at me and ran a hand through his hair. "You're so frustrating," he muttered. "Other girls would do anything to get a kiss from me."

I raised an eyebrow. "Well, I'm not like other girls."

He didn't say anything for a moment, but then he smiled. It was a real smile, not one of those annoying smirks he usually has on his face. "I guess so."

I laughed and couldn't help but smile back. But then I asked him a question that had been nagging suspiciously in the back of my mind. "Say, why did you want to kiss me anyway?"

His face reddened. "Um. James Conroy told me that you were a terrible kisser, and I - I wanted to see if it was true."

Oh. That was it. Huh. I couldn't help but be a teeny, tiny bit disappointed. Not that I cared what his reasons were for wanting to kiss me. Because... I didn't. Pfft. Psh! Definitely not.

I hid my disappointment and instead rolled my eyes, "Chad, James never kissed me the whole day that we dated. You know that."

Chad nodded. "Right, right, I knew that... must've slipped my mind or something." He laughed a bit, sounding kind of nervous. That was probably just my imagination, though. I forced out a laugh, too, before saying, "So I guess I'll catch ya later, Chad."

He shoved his hands in his pockets. "Catch ya later, Sonny." And then he smiled again.

Feeling strangely lightheaded, I turned and walked out of the Prop House with a spring in my step. I grinned. So maybe this day hadn't gone out exactly how I'd hoped. But even though I hadn't beaten Chad Dylan Cooper, I still felt like I'd won. Odd, right? But I'd think about it later. For now, I just wanted to meet up with my cast for some well deserved frozen yogurt.

I'd leave the rest of my life in Hollywood up to chance.

Review, please. ^^