Chapter Text
This wasn’t Total Drama.
This was, arguably, something worse.
Their new seasons of Total Drama must’ve been a hit, because now the entire cast was flown out of their hometown, put on a cruise, and dropped on an island that was very much not the Wawanakwa-dupe they’d grown semi-used to.
“For this summer, instead of another season of Total Drama, we’ll be filming a spin-off. I’m glad to see everyone here today.” Chris had smiled at the group during one of the meetings on the cruise, as they traveled to the island Damien himself didn’t quite remember the name of, but was sure that it’s not too far from the island they competed on. Somewhere across from him, he could hear MK’s sarcasm. “Because you forced us here with a loophole in our contract.”
“I know, I’m the best at this.” Chris grinned, Damien wished the worst for the host. “There will be no elimination, no challenges. Just the sixteen of you and some cameras, staying in one of my many private beachfront villas.”
“Well…That doesn’t sound too bad?” Emma’s voice pitched up at the end, clearly doubting her own words. She was proven right when McLean continued.
“...You also have zero contact with the outside world, not even the internet! Just you, your friends, your enemies, your past drama. You’ll be staying the entire summer, and there are no prizes!”
“...Oh.”
Damien recalled the amount of outrage, especially from those like Julia and Chase, at the prospect of having no internet mostly. Not like there was much they could do about it though, considering they were already in the middle of the ocean.
Now that the group were standing with their suitcases on the dock, Damien had to wonder how loaded the host actually is. He shouldn’t be surprised, Chris is the host of the world renowned reality show that has been running for more than a decade, but still! He was looking at an outrageously large and modern luxury beachfront mansion with three stories, a nicely decorated garden with a sandy path that leads from the entrance right to the shoreline.
“Wow.” Millie gaped next to him. “If we didn’t have to stay with some…interesting personalities, I’d totally call this a relaxing vacation.”
“Definitely. I’m not sure how long the relaxing part would last though.”
Millie giggled at his comment, and Damien smiled back. He wasn’t exactly joking, and he’s sure Millie knew that too, but it was still funny so he’ll take it. His attention was drawn away when some of his castmates began making their way to the mansion, trodding down the sand.
Millie noticed it too, and picked her suitcase up, probably wanting to avoid the sand jamming the wheels. “Come on, we should probably go in and get settled, just in case Chris gives us more intrusion later on or something.”
The two then quickly moved on. With Damien bringing his backpack, he didn’t need to lift anything, but he still finds it sort of difficult to walk on the sand with how heavy his bag actually ended up being. Damien cringed at the iconic, uncomfortable sensation of sand going into his sneakers and socks.
Maybe he should’ve worn sandals.
——————————————————————
Upon walking in, Wayne could immediately see how spacious anything was, totally different from anywhere he’s ever been before! And most definitely way different from their old cabins.
Right away, they were prompted to take their shoes off and into the shoe cabinet so as to not dirty the rest of the house, and as soon as he walked in, he was blown away by, well, everything! The living space was large, with a full glass window view right out to the ocean, and he’s pretty sure he can see a swimming pool in the back. He wasn’t sure why a swimming pool would be needed when they could just swim in the ocean, but hey! It’s cool!
Wayne wanted to explore the house a little bit, but Damien instructed them to stay in the living room area for now as Axel and Ripper go take a look at the bedrooms and how they were going to divide the space. The sectional sofa was big, but even with that, plus two armchairs and a bean bag, it was only enough for twelve people. Wayne ended up sitting on the floor in front of Raj and Bowie, with the former sitting on the arm of said armchair.
It didn’t take too long before Axel and Ripper walked down a flight of stairs.
“There’s eight bedrooms in total. Four bedrooms with two single beds, Four bedrooms with one double bed, two of each per floor. They’re divided by left and right wings on the mansion, and they’re all pretty much the same size. I’ve got the keys.” Axel explains, looking at the notebook Millie had given her earlier to map out the place.
“There’s also only one master bathroom per floor. There’s an additional toilet for each of em, and we haven’t looked if there’s more on the first floor, but people on the same floor will have to share a bathroom.” Ripper added, crossing his arms. “So I guess we’ll need to decide who will room with who, and which room they want…Axel and I call dibs on one of the double bed bedrooms.”
Axel rolled her eyes with a smile at that.
“Caleb and I will take a double bed room!” Priya quickly said, her hand in Caleb’s, who smiled gently down at her.
Immediately, Wayne can see Raj’s expression shifts with uncertainty. Raj’s eyes nervously flickered up between him and Bowie, and Wayne easily caught on to the conundrum Raj was having right before his very eyes; He was deciding who he should share a room with.
Wayne stood up and placed a hand on Raj’s shoulder. “You can bunk with Bowie if you want to, eh? You don’t need to get yourself worked up over that.”
Both Raj and Bowie turned to face him. “Are you sure Wayne? I could find someone else if you two wanted to share a room.” Bowie offered kindly, but Wayne knew there was part of him that wanted to share a room with Raj after the two being semi-long distance for the entire two years that they had been dating.
Wayne nodded his head. “Yah! No problemo! I know you both want to.”
Raj let out a low hum. He was clutching his own hands, and he quickly averted his gaze. “But— What about you?”
“I can always share with someone else! We live next to each other for our entire lives, we have sleepovers all the time!” Wayne assured his best bud, flicking his hands dismissively. “And we can just choose a room next to each other! That way we can have sleepovers and still visit each other!”
Raj’s eyes seemed to shine with excitement with that idea. “Bro! That’s brilliant!” He beamed before standing up and tackling Wayne into a hug. Wayne stumbled, but didn’t completely fall over, laughing along with his best friend. Raj pulled back. “Thanks, Wayner. I was kinda having a hard time deciding.”
“I could tell.” Wayne smirked, lowering his voice into a more quiet tone. “Besides, I know you definitely wanted him to spoon you, who am I to stop you from your dreams?”
Raj punched his arm, face turning red.
“Shut up, dude!”
Raj’s face turned redder when they heard Bowie’s giggle next to them, having heard basically everything, and taking the chance to tease his boyfriend a little bit too. “Baby, why didn’t you just ask? Of course you can be the little spoon, we can cuddle any time you want.”
“You both suck .” Raj’s half-hearted comment went muffled as the blushing boy hid his face in his hand.
Wayne and Bowie shared a smile.
By the time Bowie walked over to tell Axel of their plans for rooms and get their keys, Damien and Millie had already voiced the intention to stay in one of the rooms with two single beds, which means he should probably find a roommate quick.
“NO CHASE, I am NOT sharing a room with you! How many times do I have to say that we’re over!?”
The yelling drew Wayne into the direction of Emma and Chase, who were clearly having an argument. Wayne remembered that they do this kinda thing often. Wayne watched as Chase shrugged dismissively.
“Pssh! Come one, you know you can’t resist me!”
“WHAT!? What are you even— ARGH!” Emma groaned out of frustration before turning to the rest of the group. “Who wants to be my roommate!? Anyone other than him!” She pointed angrily at Chase, and Wayne perked up.
“Oh! I need a roommate!” Wayne raised his hand before pointing to himself, and Emma walked over to him, ignoring Chase’s pleas of desperation the entire time. Emma grinned at him, hands rested on her hips.
“Then it’s settled!”
Wayne went and told Axel that he and Emma will be sharing the two single beds bedroom next to Raj and Bowie’s, and Axel gave him the key for it. Defeated, Chase and Zee paired up and went to tell the survivalist right after them. Soon enough, there were only two rooms left. He noticed Julia and MK walking over to Axel.
“Which room had the better view?” Julia asked.
“The double bed one.”
“We’ll take it.”
Axel wordlessly wrote it down. She threw the key at Julia, who barely caught it, while reading over the notes. Wayne blinked in confusion when the survivalist faltered for a second. “Wait, we’re missing someone. Nichelle, who’s your roommate?”
The aforementioned actress looked around, also looking unsure of the answer. “I…don’t know, I was going to share with whoever was left.”
Silence overtook the room with that statement. Wayne was starting to get worried that they might have left someone behind.
“Wait! Where’s Lauren!?” Priya gasped, and the look of both realization and horror washed over just about everyone’s features. “I swear I saw her on the cruise with us!” and Priya was right! Wayne definitely saw her at one point right when they got off of the giant boat.
“Wait, wait, wait— Lauren, you mean Scary Girl!?” Nichelle exclaimed, both hands beside her heads in sheer terror. “You’re telling me I’m supposed to be sharing a room with her of all people!?”
“You were supposed to, but you might be alone considering she’s not even here. Where IS she?” Damien looked around the room, which prompted everyone to turn their heads to look for any sign of the group’s source of horror. There was nothing, it was as if Scary Girl had vanished into thin air.
“I’m sure she’ll be back eventually.” Zee cracked open a can of soda, being pretty much the only person who isn’t terrified at the moment, his chill smile still present even within the cast’s silent panic. “Why don’t we just chill out, go unpack our stuff, and just see where things take us.”
With that, everyone dissipated.
——————————————————————
Bowie gasped as Raj opened the door to their bedroom and threw in his duffle bag like it was nothing.
“Careful! Don’t you have…” Bowie’s mind raced to find anything Raj might’ve brought with him that could get damaged, but let’s be real, this is Raj . At most, he brought the necessities plus some trinkets from home. Seems like he brought a bigger bag than the one he uses in day to day life though, so at least Bowie can be assured that Raj brought enough for their stay. “...Stuff that could be broken in there?”
Bowie placed his own bag down on one of the drawers, not really paying much attention to Raj, who now sat on the floor, opening his bag. “Nah, don’t worry, I just brought clothes, toiletries, my lucky puck…oh! And I brought a photo album of my dogs.”
Ah, right. Raj owns like, four different dogs. They’re all different breeds, and all of them are big dogs except for one, which is a dachshund.
“Oh right, how are they doing?”
“Good! Mom and dad are taking care of them while I’m gone, like the last two years.” Raj rambled while Bowie opened the closet and assessed the space, intending on using half of it so Raj can use the other half, while listening to his boyfriend. “Pucky— the one that ate my hockey card, almost ate another one like…last week? I almost cried again. And Bone crusher, destroyer of bones—”
“I still can’t believe you named your dachshund Bone crusher .”
“Ay, you gotta call him by his legal name.” Bowie snorted, and Raj continued his story. “Bone crusher, destroyer of bones, is just his same bone-crushing self. Nugget tackled me before I left, and then Frosty tackled me again when I was walking to our car, and they’re both giant so I fell over both times.”
Bowie laughed at the story, turning his head back, all while unpacking his suitcase and quickly hanging some of his clothes on the rack. “You sure you didn’t get any bruises from that?”
“Probably, but I think it’s blending in with the ones I got from hockey” Raj carried some of his clothes in a pile and walked up next to Bowie, before he attempted to shove it into the closet. Bowie grabbed his wrist before he could do it though. “Babe, you need to hang some of those up, it’s going to get all wrinkly otherwise.”
Raj gasped like it was a revolutionary idea, and Bowie couldn’t help but snort at his boyfriend’s innocent, ignorant wonder. “You’re so smart, Bows!”
“I know I am.” Bowie led Raj to put his clothes on the bed and together, they slowly sorted through Raj’s clothes. A lot of them were graphic tees and shorts, along with his jerseys, but a good chunk of them were his jeans, jackets, and even some of the clothes Bowie had bought him on their first date two years ago.
“I’m surprised you managed to fit this much in your bag.” Bowie remarked, grabbing the light green sweater with ribbons on the sleeves, remembering it as one of many things he bought Raj on the first date. “Good variety too, I hope you realize we won’t be going out often though, considering we’re stuck here.”
Raj grinned, grabbing the sweater from Bowie’s hand and putting it on a clothing hanger before setting it aside to put in the closet later. “I know, I was just…” Raj trailed off, tone changing to a more bashful one. “I wanted to impress you, which is stupid since we go out on dates and you see me wearing some of these all the time— but still! You know! I—”
Raj was quickly cut off by a hand caressing his chin, turning his face upwards as Bowie leaned in for a quick kiss, effectively shutting him up. Raj’s face was red when he pulled away.
“Thank you, Raj, but you’re stunning everyday, no matter what you wear.”
Bowie smirked at the way Raj’s face brightened and blushed at the compliment. Raj was very easy to fluster, even after so long of dating, and Bowie was quite pleased with that fact. He gets to stifle his laugh when Raj stumbles over his words and avoids eye contact in a poor effort to calm his nerves.
Instead, Bowie put another one of Raj’s varsity jackets onto the clothing hanger, setting it aside casually while Raj recovered from his flirtatious remark. Raj silently followed suit, even with slightly shaky hands.
“Y-You know, I should be the one saying that to you…” Raj pouted, acting like the comment was more nonchalant than it probably was. “Because you’re you…You always look good, eh?”
Bowie smirked. “If you want another kiss you could just ask.”
Raj’s eyes lit up for a moment, and Bowie took the chance to tackle his boyfriend into the mattress. Raj let out a yelp, and thankfully didn’t fall back onto any of the clothing hangers. Bowie held him there, pinning his wrists on both sides of his head.
His shock turned into small giggles when Bowie smothered his face with kisses, squirming under the playfully soft touch, getting lost in the moment.
They’ll unpack the rest of their stuff later.
——————————————————————
“You know, we could’ve just taken the room with two beds instead of having to share.”
MK commented from her side of the bed, rubbing the sheets and feeling how clean it seemingly was. MK had to admit, everything seemed to be in stellar condition, which was a surprise when you consider who was hosting this little spin-off show. She would’ve thought Chris made this as hard for them as possible but apparently not, they were just given a pretty good living condition.
Maybe he knew all the juicy bits were going to be with the cast interacting after two seasons worth of drama, and yeah, that makes sense.
Meanwhile, Julia stood in front of the full window in their room, taking pictures of the ocean view outside. There was a sliding glass door that led to the balcony outside, but with the trees swaying, Julia probably didn’t fancy getting her hair blown. She was still recovering from the mullet incident, her hair didn’t even reach the length it once was yet.
The influencer scoffed, lowering her phone and turning back to look at MK. “And miss the opportunity to at least be with a good view? No thanks. I have to take pictures for MySelfieGram.”
“You can’t even post it, no internet, remember?”
“Ugh, don’t even remind me.” Julia rolled her eyes before pocketing her phone. She paced to her bag on the dresser and started unloading her large haul of skincare, perfume, other makeup and beauty products that MK had either never seen before, or never bothered to pay attention to; it’s just not her rodeo, she guessed. “Besides, it never hurts to have a backlog for later.”
“If you say so.” MK shrugged, before she was struck with an idea. A wonderfully terrible idea that brought a smirk to her lips.
“Well, I think the reason why you chose this room is because you just wanted to share a bed with me.”
Julia’s head whipped in her direction way faster than she could count the second. The influencer was staring at her with practically bulging eyes.
“Wh— WHAT!?”
“Oh, don’t act dumb.” MK took the opportunity to tease her only friend further, a smug smile spreading across her lips. “Everyone else who took the double bed bedroom is dating, and we had the option to take the other one. You’re just coming up with excuses so it won’t seem obvious.”
Julia’s jaw dropped, and MK felt kind of proud that she managed to elicit such a funny reaction out of the usually tough, ruthless girl. Sadly, it didn’t last long. Julia shook her head and regained composure, scoffed at MK. MK knew better though, with the way she refused to meet her eyes. It makes MK grin even wider.
“Oh whatever, MK.” Julia rested a hand on her hips, turning to face the dresser and started sorting through her stuff, neatly arranging her multiple bottles of perfume and lotion. “Keep telling yourself you even have a chance with me. We’re like, on a different level.”
MK hummed, noncommittal. The silence between them brewed, and MK wasn’t sure if Julia felt the same tension or not.
…Okay, maybe that comment stung a little, she had to make sure.
“So are you saying I don’t have a chance with you?”
Julia didn’t answer, and despite the lack of answer, MK found some comfort in that. Still, MK decided not to push further, and instead laid back down on the bed comfortably, choosing to deal with the unpacking later and use this opportunity to watch Julia organize her things.
Julia is a bitch, MK knew that— And she accepted her of course; MK isn’t exactly a saint. But there was just something so relatable about Julia, something MK saw a piece of herself in. They were the outcast, they are hated by basically everyone here, and yet they stuck together— Not because of necessity, but because they just wanted to.
Was it weird to stare? Maybe. MK couldn’t help but watch her from afar.
She just hopes Julia doesn’t mind.
——————————————————————
Unlike everyone else, this place was kind of a downgrade for Nichelle.
She’s freaking Nichelle LaDonna, is that really a surprise? She’s been in several feature films, won several awards, she was loaded. She only showed up to Total Drama for more fame, seeing as it was an internationally renowned reality show…somehow.
If she could’ve gone back in time, she would’ve never come on the show. Not only was the living condition god awful, but she was humiliated on TV! Twice!
Well, at least it led to self-improvement, and even though the contracts on the second season were fakes made by Julia, her moves and skills during it did eventually catch the eyes of a producer, and she was signed back on for a few movie deals. Unlucky for her, none of it were on production during this time, so she was obligated to come back for this spin-off.
The room is small compared to her actual bedroom back at home, and it looked a little barebones. The bed was much smaller than hers too, considering this was a twin beds bedroom, and she was used to a queen-sized bed.
She dragged her suitcase next to her bed, and looked at the empty bed parallel to hers, only divided by a small bedside table with a lamp.
Speaking of, where was—
“Hi.”
“EEP!”
Nichelle jumped out of her skin at the sudden greeting behind her, causing her to fall back on her ass onto her bed. Of course, in front of her was their local creep, Scary Girl. Nichelle took a gulp, watching her roommate grin at her eerily.
“...Hi.”
The silence quickly became awkward, with the two staring at each other, Nichelle not wanting to even risk a second of looking away just in case this lady decides to jump her, and Scary girl because…she’s Scary girl.
“What are you doing?”
Nichelle blinked at the question, and her eyes flitted towards her suitcase and back to stare at Scary girl’s pale face. “I’m about to unpack my things?”
She tilted her head at that, and Nichelle couldn’t stop herself but raise a brow back at the creepy girl. “...Don’t you have anything to unpack yourself? Did you just come here with nothing?”
Scary girl giggled, and god is it scary like her name entailed. Well— It wasn’t actually her name, was it? It was just a thing everyone on the island collectively called her by. What was actually her name again? Nichelle didn’t really talk to this girl much at all, even if they both spent a lot of time on Playa Des Losers.
“I already did, silly!” Scary girl’s grin grew impossibly wider, and Nichelle felt the heebies-jeebies. “It’s under my bed! I have some candles, some of my skull friends, and—”
“Please don’t finish that sentence.”
Nichelle quietly signed out of relief when Scary girl simply giggled and stepped back, now she just has to hope this won’t be the hardest thing she’ll have to do in her life. Just for her own comfort, she looked back at Scary girl, who had skipped towards the front door. To do that, she just had to ask…
“Wait!” Scary girl paused by their room’s door, turning her head around almost 180 degrees at her name being called, Nichelle could feel her palm grow sweaty. “You’re not going to murder me in my sleep, right?”
Scary girl merely let out what she could only describe as a crazed laugh, before skipping out the door and slamming it shut to go god knows where.
Well, this isn’t ideal…
——————————————————————
“Woah dude! Look at THIS!”
Zee followed Chase to the back of the beach house where the swimming pool is. The two basically finished ‘unpacking’ in just a few minutes, considering they both agreed to just leave it for now in favor of exploring the mansion more.
The pool was definitely huge, enough for everyone here and still has more space easily, along with a small poolside bar and a few lounge chairs. Floating on top of the pool were some fun looking floaties, one looked like a swan, one party float that was big enough for four people, and one that looked like a pizza. Coolio.
More than that, off to the side is a shelf full of towels and pool toys like water guns and a beach ball, and next to that is a lifeguard chair. Zee didn’t know if anyone here was qualified to do that, well, actually Axel probably knows how to guard lives, nevermind.
“Nice dude!” Zee exclaimed as well, with maybe a little less excitement compared to Chase, cracking a can of soda that he had packed with him. “We could probably have a sick pool party with everyone here.”
He watched Chase whip out a camera and filmed himself with the pool, blinking silently at Chase taking a couple of tries at what Zee could only assume was a video intro, until eventually, Chase walked towards him, putting the camera right in front of them.
“...And this is one of my friends, Zee! Say hi!”
“Yo, whassup…!” Zee drawled, waving his hand at the camera like Chase just did. The youtuber quickly moved on away from him, saying something about how they were staying with other contestants from total drama in this ‘wicked beach house’ with a pool— And with that, he watched as Chase approached the pool, turning his back to it, and he started leaning back! Oh no!
“CHASE, I’LL SAVE YOU!”
“Wha—”
Zee pulled Chase by his hoodie before he could fall into the pool, but the sudden force made them tumble in another direction and onto the hard floor instead. The camera flew out of Chase’s hand and collided on the floor, but luckily, it didn’t look damaged at all.
After a few seconds of them being sprawled out of the ground, Chase quickly sat up.
“Dude! What was that for!?”
Zee tilted his head, an easy smile still on her face. “Oh that? I just saw that you were like…falling into the pool, so I saved you from getting soaked in the water. No need to thank me, man.”
Chase sputtered. “I did that on purpose!”
Huh?
“But…you’re not in your swimming trunks?” Zee questioned, and Chase waved a hand with a ‘pssh!’, nonchalantly pushing that fact aside before he stood up and went to grab his camera, checking it. He seemed content, so it must still be working fine. Chase looked at him. “Um, yeah! But that’s fine if it means I get a cool transition shot!”
“Ohhhh, cool!”
With that, Chase pressed a button of his camera, shooting Zee a peace sign. “Right, I’ll see you later then, dude! We’ll totally film something together!” He said before cheerfully stepping inside, still messing with his camera.
“Heck yeah, later man.” Zee called out as he stood up, looking around to see that his can of soda had spilled on the floor when he abandoned it in favor of saving Chase from the non-existent danger. He should probably clean that later.
Bummer.
——————————————————————
Ripper was surprised by the size of the house, but none of it mattered to him more than the kitchen.
What? If they’re going to be stuck here together, he was going to at least make damn sure that there’s enough ingredients to cook a meal for everyone that wasn’t a shitty frozen pizza or microwavable dinner. Ripper didn’t like the idea of having the same thing everyday either, so there better be some variety here.
And boy, did it not disappoint.
As he wandered into the area, he could see that the kitchen was an open one, connected to the rest of the dining room, with an island with a sink right in the middle. There was anything you could ever want in a kitchen; two ovens, a stove, a dishwasher, large capacity fridge, even a walk-in pantry a little off to the side. They also had a microwave and a coffee maker right there, as well as plenty of counter space to work with.
To say Ripper was pleased would be an understatement, especially after he opened the pantry to be met with basically anything he would need. Different spices, dried pasta, canned foods, and basic cooking ingredients. Satisfied, he moved on to the fridge.
Before he could open it, he noticed a note stuck on its door with a magnet.
“New ingredients will be restocked weekly…Cool.” Ripper read aloud to himself before opening the fancy fridge with a water dispenser, and inside was a bunch of fresh ingredients like fruits and vegetables, along with drinks like milk and juice among other things. He checked the freezer too, and there was various meat and seafood, some frozen food here and there, and they even had a stash of ice cream! Hell yeah!
Happy with the selection, Ripper was about to close the fridge and leave, only to jump out of his skin when he felt the sensation of slightly cold hands on the nape of his neck.
“What are you doing?”
“JE—sus! Axel! Warn a guy a little.” Ripped grumbled, turning around to face his girlfriend with a pout. Axel wasn’t deterred, only sparing him a small smirk as she slightly pushed him aside to take a look for herself. “Checking what we have?”
“Yeah, since you know…I needed to make sure what I have to work with.” Ripper rubbed the back of his neck. He was insecure about his interest in cooking for a while. Sure, he learned a good few things, you have to when it’s up to you to take care of your brothers, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t embarrassed about it not being ‘manly’.
Being with Axel was new, in all the best ways. She’s badass, she’s hardcore, and even if she can be harsh and rough around the edges, she’s so genuine. When Axel told Ripper the first time she came over to his place just a month ago that his love of cooking didn’t make him any less of a man, it gave Ripper the confidence to want to show off, just a little bit.
Ripper was pulled out of his thoughts when Axel hummed, closing the fridge with a little more power than necessary. “Looks pretty good. I’m surprised Chris McClean let us live in a decent place, let alone in a fancy one.”
“Yeah, but hey, at least we’ll get to live in luxury, baby!” Ripper exclaimed with a wide smile, placing his arm around Axel’s shoulder. He was pretty stoked about getting to stay somewhere comfortable for a change, even if it’s just for a few months. Axel reached up to pat his hand firmly, grinning. “Too bad we have to share with these weirdos.” She deadpanned, and he could tell it was without bad intent. Ripper snorted.
“Babe, we’re weirdos too.”
Axel smirked once more, slightly turning her head to face him. “Calling yourself a weirdo? What happened to the macho man?”
Ripper rolled his eyes back, but he couldn’t help but let out a light laugh.
“Oh, shuddup.”
——————————————————————
Emma got settled into her and Wayne’s room quickly and they had a good catch up talk. She was relieved, honestly. Wayne’s a pleasant person to be around, and she didn’t mind sharing a room with him, even if she’s sure he’ll be super messy. As long as he doesn’t get his dirty clothes on her bed like she’d asked, there would be no issue. He’s not Chase at the end of the day.
After a while of talking though, Emma excused herself to go look at the place a little more. She invited Wayne along, but apparently he was still waiting on Raj and Bowie, so she was alone for now.
She took her time looking at what the first floor has to offer. Most of it was standard house accommodations, with some extra spaces like the laundry room and a small home gym. It reminded her of a more luxurious version of her own house. Maybe she could consider an expansion if her parents wanted it, but then again, Emma liked to live modestly instead of spending her earnings needlessly, no matter how much she has earned.
Clearly, Emma wasn’t paying much attention, because when she turned the corner into the living room, she bumped right into someone much taller than her.
“Ah!” Emma yelped, and while she didn’t fall, the crash was firm enough to make her stumble back a little bit. She looked up tight as Caleb turned around, a startled look on his face was quickly replaced by a guilty one.
“Oh! Sorry Emma, didn’t see you coming.” He quickly apologized, but Emma shook her head, smiling awkwardly. “No, it’s ok. It was my fault for not looking where I was going.”
Emma’s eyes quickly scanned the room. Now that there’s no sixteen people in it, the living room looks even bigger than before. The built-in TV set caught her eyes first. The screen was huge, the stereo was huge, and the shelves around it were full of decorations like potted plants and rows of books. Oh! Emma was sure she spotted some gaming consoles too.
Then Emma heard a low hum. She’s not sure how she didn’t see her before, but she saw Priya standing off to the side, looking down at the TV remote.
Emma and Priya were on weird terms. She would still consider them friendly, but she was still a little upset that Priya had lied to her in the challenge and voted her out when they were supposed to be in an alliance. Emma…had enough experience being lied to by people on this island between Chase and Bowie, she really hated having to add another person onto the list.
She considered Priya a friend, she kind of missed that.
Just like how she still missed Bowie.
Shaking the thoughts out of her head, Emma decided to just push those thoughts aside. She didn’t want to address them yet, not now.
“Hey! Uh…Priya, Hi.” Emma greeted, far too nervous for her liking. The smaller girl’s head quickly whipped towards her, blinking in surprise before she, too, greeted her with the same level of awkwardness.
“Emma!…Hey…Nice to uh— Nice to see you again. Been a while, hasn’t it?”
“Mhm…”
The tension was rapidly building in the air, and it seemed like it wasn’t just noticed by Priya and Emma. Caleb cleared his throat, eyes darting around the room and smile becoming sheepish. He quickly changed the subject.
“So we checked the room.” He started, gesturing back to the TV. “There’s no signal on the island, so no scheduled programming like the news and such, but they did give us plenty of movie CDs that we can still watch. Oh! And there’s a nintendo switch and a PS4 with extra controllers, and a few games for each of those, in case anyone here likes to play games.”
“Oh! Nice. I love video games, I know C— I know a few other people here like it too.” Emma was just unsure if any of them would want to play with her, but she left that part out. “I’ll tell the others when I get the chance.”
Caleb gave a small, reassuring smile. “Hey, if you need company, I’ll be willing to learn how to play some stuff. Priya too, right babe?”
“Huh?” Priya startled, clearly thinking about something else until now. “Oh! Games! Mhm!”
Emma saw Caleb gave Priya a concerned look, but chose not to address it; probably because Emma was standing right there. It did make her feel a little self conscious, but Caleb played it off well enough that she didn’t have time to overthink. “Just know that I’m terrible at the games I’ve played when I was younger, so you’ll probably have to carry our loads.”
“I don’t mind that.” Emma giggled into her hand. Then, she felt that this was the natural end to the conversation. “Right! Guess I’ll go back to explore this place a little bit more. You guys enjoy yourselves, okay?”
“Sure thing, see you around Emma.” Caleb bid her farewell, and Priya added a small smile and a wave, to which Emma quickly waved back and walked out the room.
She just left one conversation, and she swore she could hear another one just in the room ahead of her. She completely forgot how chaotic some of these people actually were between the fact that such a long time has passed since last season and that Total Drama was a completely different experience.
There is no competition now, there is no prize, absolutely no stakes. It was just them on an island with a beach house with all their past drama that will probably end up driving someone insane eventually.
Emma sighed.
Living with fifteen other people will be quite the experience, won’t it?