A/N: HAPPY HALLOWEEN! :D LOL. Okay, so I know it's been awhile. :P I'm sorry. Some things have happened…anyway, I'll talk about them at the end. A very happy Halloween to you all, and a special happy birthday to McLovingIt. This is for you, dear Angela. I hope you have a wonderful birthday!

Tricks and Treats

There were some holidays that Chad Dylan Cooper simply did not care about.

Aside from Christmas and his birthday (which wasn't an "official" holiday yet, but it would be soon if he had his way), none of them really seemed to matter very much.

In general, holidays were tedious and filled with unnecessary enthusiasm over something that really wasn't worth so much energy.

Halloween, for example, was just an excuse for people to be childish and dress up for no reason, as well as unleash their violence and mutilate pumpkins over nothing.

Not to mention the overindulgence of chocolate and candies and everything likely to give one cavities and increase body fat until the human race became more unappealing on the whole.

No, Chad Dylan Cooper was most definitely not a fan of Halloween.

Nor was he a fan of orange. It was a rather garish color, after all, and in excess it was really quite repulsive.

Or so he had thought, until someone with a loud voice and clad completely in orange walked into the commissary.

"Happy Halloween!" announced Sonny, throwing her arms in the air and grinning as widely as the paper jack-o'-lantern stapled to the wall behind her.

"Oh, God." Portlyn rolled her eyes at this overt display of holiday spirit, smoothing down her plaid skirt and navy sweater into perfect condition. "Doesn't she have anything better to do?"

"Of course not," Penelope answered immediately, a smirk on the corner of her mouth. "She's on So Random, isn't she?"

This set off a round of laughter at the Mackenzie Falls table that Sonny found herself unable to ignore, seeing as it happened rather rarely.

"Hi, guys!" she greeted cheerfully, swinging a cheap plastic container in the shape of a pumpkin on her arm, candy clearly visible within.

"...hi." Chad looked her up and down skeptically as the rest of his cast pointedly turned away at the sight of her.

Of course, being Sonny, she didn't let that deter her. "Why aren't you guys dressed up?"

"I'm dressed up." Chad stood up automatically, running a hand through his hair momentarily before striking the traditional pose be was accustomed to. "I am...Mackenzie," he revealed dramatically.

"And I...am Sonny Munroe!" imitated the exploding ball of sunshine - or in this case, of orange.

"In orange," he added, surveying her once more with a critical eye.

"Well, yes, of course!" Sonny's hands dropped to her sides as her mouth opened in indignation. "Halloween is one of the best holidays of the year!"

Chad's quiet cough said more than enough about his differing opinion on the subject.

"Oh, please, Chad. You can't seriously dislike Halloween, can you?" Sonny frowned as she realized this was, in fact, entirely possible. "Can you?" she repeated, this time more curious than argumentative.

"Well, let's just say that it's certainly nowhere near as awesome as the holiday named after the greatest actor of our generation," reasoned Chad, shoving his hands into his pockets and shrugging his shoulders confidently.

"A holiday named after you. Really, Chad? Really?"

"So you admit that I'm the greatest actor of our generation," he pointed out, smirking at her.

"N-no!" sputtered out Sonny. "That's - that's not what I meant - that was - "

"I know what you meant, Sonny. It's okay." Sonny fumed as he tossed his head with a smile.

"Well, the point is that Halloween is way better than any stupid holiday named after an actor," she argued, returning back to familiar territory.

"As if," scoffed Chad, grimacing at the thought of it.

"Oh, yeah? What could possibly be better than piles of candy?" Sonny put a hand on her hip defiantly and lifted her chin, challenging him.

"Piles of candy and Chad Dylan Cooper," he answered promptly, a smile on the edge of his lips.

"You are unbelievable!" Sonny threw her hands up in the air, completely fed up.

"Come on now. Everything's better with a little CDC." Seeing the look on Sonny's face, Chad added, "Or a lot of CDC."

"More like no CDC," muttered Sonny, rolling her eyes.

"Ouch, Sonny, that hurt." Chad placed a hand on his heart and pouted, sticking out his lower lip and looking for all the world like her comment had struck him to the core.

"You are so self-centered, Chad," she shot back with less conviction, shaking her head at him.

"And you know that you would love to have a little more CDC in your life," he returned immediately, opening his arms as if to demonstrate to her exactly what she was protesting against.

"Not at all." Sonny tossed her hair with this retort, pulling her brightly colored orange felt hat off her head and jamming it onto Chad's. "There. Now you actually look somewhat spirited."

Chad froze for a moment, looking absolutely comical with his face midway between a triumphant smile and utter shock, his arms still held out.

Sonny couldn't help herself - she burst out laughing seconds later, leaving Chad looking somewhat crestfallen for a moment.

It soon passed, however, and when Sonny next looked up at his face, it was smoothed into a blank expression, a vengeful fire in his eyes the only sign of emotion.

"Well, Sonny, since you find this so humorous..." He reached behind up to grab his full and rather large glass of orange soda, swiftly picking it up and dumping its contents onto Sonny's head, drenching her in even more orange.

"Oh. My," began Sonny, her eyes wide with surprise and her jaw hanging.

"Chad," completed Chad himself, smirking. "Oh my Chad. Or rather, OMC, if you're texting."

The brunette gaped at him for a moment, stunned by his apparent nonchalance. "Chad Dylan Cooper, I'm going to kill you."

"Oh, you know that CDC makes everything better."

"Oh, no, he does not!" The Mackenzie Falls cast snickered behind Chad, laughing at Sonny's sodden state. "You think this is funny?" she asked them, her frustration flaring up.

"Funnier than your lame 'comedy' show," retaliated Penelope, setting off another round of amused chuckles and condescending looks.

"Fine." Sonny clenched her fists for a moment, controlling herself. "Fine. Yes, it's very funny," she agreed after a second or two, smiling at Chad.

"I'll say." He snorted with a show of confidence, but she could tell he was somewhat confused by her actions.

"Oh, yes. Very funny. In fact..." Sonny reached out and unexpectedly gave him a full hug, burying her head into his shoulder comfortably and wrapping her arms around his waist.

"What the - " Chad trailed off as he automatically reached to return the hug.

They stood there for a moment together, embracing in the middle of the now-silent commissary, until Sonny pulled away abruptly.

"You were right, Chad."

"What?" asked Chad, still rather disoriented from the whole experience.

"Everything is better with a little CDC." Without waiting for a response, Sonny turned on her heel and walked out of the cafeteria, her wet hair swinging behind her.

"Well, that was...odd," Chad murmured to himself, turning back to his table and trying to clear his head.

"Oh my Chad," said Portlyn with an expression of disgust. "You're covered in - ew!"

Chad looked down to see his previously perfect white argyle sweater vest covered in splotchy stains of orange soda, which he knew for a fact would be an absolute pain to remove.

"Sonny!" he yelled out, running out of the commissary to punish her for ruining his Halloween ensemble.

"Well," stated Penelope simply after he left. "Happy Halloween."

And amid the shouts of "Sonny Munroe!" and "It's not my fault! You should have been more spirited!" echoing from down the hall, the cast of Mackenzie Falls, the number one teen show, lifted their respective glasses of orange soda and clinked them together, toasting the holiday of pumpkins and candy, of ghosts and witches, of tricks and treats, and of unexpected hugs and orange stains.

"Happy Halloween!"

A/N: Yes, yes, I know it's terribly lame (particularly that awful ending xD), and I apologize. :P I wrote it in quickly last night, realizing I had procrastinated terribly as always. ;) Shoutout to TeddyLuver for having a conversation with me that prompted a few lines of dialogue in this story. :D

So…here comes the confession. If you're not a regular reader of my stories, I suppose there's really no reason to read this, so feel free to skip it and click on that review button like I know you want to. ;) If you are, though, I guess you ought to continue. :P

Hi. I've thought about it for awhile, and there's really no way around saying it outright. So here it is – I'll be leaving SWAC FF soon. I'm going to be writing and publishing the birthday fics that I've promised, and possibly some that I've already had thought out in my head, but after that, I'll be going. This is in no way influenced by the departure of any other writers (I actually decided to leave before the lovely Arie Jay told me of her decision to do so as well :P), it's simply based on many different reasons that I'm sure you wouldn't find the least bit interesting. ;) Anyway. I'm estimating that my last fic will be published around the end of the year, possibly some time in January if I keep putting off writing. xD I'll probably write an official goodbye then, but for now, don't worry about it. :P I felt like I ought to let you all know, since you've been so good to me…but there's no need to worry about it for the time being. :) You're still stuck with me for now. xP Feel free to review or PM me with any questions, comments, etc. ;)

Happy Halloween! Review if you like taking pity on poor authors who check their inboxes obsessively…LOL. Just kidding. But not really. xP

Happy birthday, Ang! :D