Painting Love a Picture

Summary: Three years ago, Sunny Morgan was swept off her feet by Jackson Connelly, only to fall back hard on the ground with Chad Carlson to catch her. Now, Jackson's back in her life and Chad doesn't seem too happy about it. But Sunny doesn't understand why Chad cares. What they did back then was only pretend, right? And to complicate matters, Jackson doesn't seem to be happy about Chad either. With her heart on the line, Sunny must make a choice.

A/N: Hi guys!!! My summary sucks. Haha! Um, well, I'm back to writing!!! God, it's been sooo long since I last wrote a story and posted it here. But all year long I got reviews and was added as somoene's favorite author (at this point, I'm modestly saying THANK YOUUU TO YOU GUYS!!!) so, I decided it was time for a new story. This is the latest story I finished (it's finished already but well, just gotta tie up some lose ends before I post all the chapters online). BTW, as some of you might've figured it out, I got this idea from watching Sonny with a Chance; as in, Sonny and Chad. Yup, I'm a Sonny-Chad shipper. So this is me, dreaming away the possibilities. Cheers!

+ read, enjoy and review +

Chapter 1 - The Girl Who Paints

Sunshine Morgan dipped a brush into the green paint on her palette. Propping her right hand on her left, she dabbed the brush lightly on the canvass to get the desired effect of what she wanted. She smiled as she leaned back and admired her work, pleased with herself. She dipped the brush into a cup of water and patted it dry against a cloth, and contuining to paint with another color.

Painting was her hobby. Her mom kept an album of the little sketches she made since she was little, and some of the paintings she’d done on canvass, hung all over their house. Her sketches were little everyday musings that she doodled on her sketchbook, but the canvass was something she really worked hard on. Sunny couldn’t explain it but she just loved catching an image and putting it on canvass. Taking pictures was easy but she preferred painting. Somehow, it made the image more personal.

At that moment, she was making a painting of their backyard. Her parents had it renovated and it was now a beautiful garden. Before, the backyard was composed of a shed where her dad’s tools were kept, some trees and just grass that tended to grow weeds. Now, instead of a shed, there was a gazebo painted white with ivy trailing up the pillars and plenty of flower beds. They had a porch made at the back of the house with an awning. There were white outdoor chairs with a table in between. But on the opposite side, her wooden easel was set up.

Overlooking the garden with the sunlight bathing the world around her, Sunny felt very much at peace, which was how she wanted to be when she painted. It felt like some kind of heaven to her. She had to admit it was becoming a newfound favorite place for her, other than her bedroom.

Behind her, she heard the doorbell ring. She went down the stool to answer the door since she was home alone. Her parents and her younger sister, Starlight, were out buying groceries.

“Sunny Morgan, open this door this instant!”

Sunny stifled a laugh as she realized who was visiting. It was her best friend, Kendall Platt. She opened the door with a mock-frown. “What do you want?”

Kenny placed a hand on her hips, and raised her chin haughtily. “Well, excuse me, is that the way to talk to your best friend?”

“Yes when she’s interrupting-” Sunny barely finished when Kenny gasped, placing a hand on her mouth.

“Oh my God, do you have a guy over?” she asked in a whisper, cautiously looking inside.

“No!” Sunny cried out, appalled. “Why on earth would you think that?”

Kenny whipped imaginary sweat on her brow. Then she shrugged. “Lord knows, Sunny. You did say I was interrupting something,” she retorted accusingly. “What else was I to think?”

“Plenty of things,” Sunny countered wryly as she stepped aside to Kenny in. “I could’ve been on the phone, I could’ve been cooking, taking a bath, watching TV, even sleeping,” she enumerated, “lots of possibilities under the sun.” She closed the door and followed Kenny who was headed towards the kitchen, being in the Morgan house a million times before.

Kenny looked back at her and stuck out her tongue. “Sorry, Sunny who does everything under the sun.”

Sunny shook her head exasperatedly. “I wasn’t doing everything under the sun.”

“Of course, I know.” Kenny sat on the bar stool and swiveled. “You were working on this summer’s masterpiece.”

It was Sunny’s turn to place her hands on her hips. “Okay, how did you know that?”

Kenny shot her a triumphant look. “Easy, your hands are filled with paint.”

True enough when Sunny inspected her hands, they were dotted all over with drops of paint. It looked like she was growing a skin rash colored like a rainbow. But painting being her hobby, she rarely bothered with what her hands looked like. They were bound to get paint on them at some point. “Well smarty-pants, go grab a Coke or whatever and join me out back.”

Kenny grabbed a banana and followed her out, plopping down on the outdoor chair. “Hey, you wouldn’t believe what I just heard! It’s the biggest gossip everyone’s talking about now! Did you hear “Someone’s back from Timbuktu!” she exclaimed, wiggling her eyebrows.

Sunny looked up from the canvass she was painting on. “Kenny, if you’re talking about-”

“Oh so you do know!”

“Heard it from someone,” Sunny replied with skipping a beat and turning back to the grove of trees she was painting. She tried to act disinterested and nonchalant about the whole thing although inside she felt a little confused because she didn’t know if she was supposed to be affected.

“Heard it or snooped?” Kenny teased, which earned her a withered look from Sunny. She held up her hands and backed away. “Okay, I’ll stop. But you have to admit this is so weird! After three years of being away, he’s back and they say he’s staying for good. And just in time for senior year too!”

Sunny shrugged nonchalantly and continued working on her painting. Senior year was to start in a week and she was excited. But the knowledge that a certain someone was coming back managed to dampen her spirits just a little.

Kenny sighed. “I know, I am such a bad friend. I shouldn’t be saying this. Anyway, beach party next Friday! We’re going, right?”

The paintbrush that was coloring the tree bark stilled. “Maybe,” then the paintbrush moved again.

“Aw! How can you say that?”

In Sunny’s mind, it was probably because that certain someone was definitely going to be at that beach party and she wasn’t sure if she could meet him face to face. Oh yes, it was a him, some guy she had the misfortune of falling-

“He won’t be there,” Kenny interrupted quietly. “And if he would, I’ll totally help you and push him into the ocean. How does that sound?”

Sunny smiled at her. “Like you’re the best friend a girl could ever have.”

Kenny beamed.

Next up, meet the boys! ;)