dna has nothing to do with your state of mind

(in a world where TDA didn't happen, Geoff invites Gwen to come to one of his parties, like he promised.)

-0-

The season is over, with Owen winning the prize. Second place isn't so bad, she figures. At least she made some friends, had some fun, screwed over Heather more than once, and best of the lot, met Trent. He's really sweet, and they get along, and he's really hot and thinks she is too, and they share so many interests that she's wondered where he's been all her life.

(she really likes this guy, in case you couldn't tell.)

-0-

It's the middle of summer when Total Drama Island is wrapped up.

Owen's party-on-his-yacht is a blast, and she loves it, rocking out with Leshawna and Trent and Bridgette on the dance floor. Owen's adoration of her promised gift of donuts threatened to smother her, but she can appreciate the thanks. She'll miss him when she goes home, she thinks.

It's weird, how they can all relax together now. Not that they couldn't before but . . . it feels different, somehow, like there's a whole world of possibilities of what they could do together. Of course, they all get somber after a while, when they realise that after this party, they might never see each other again.

Of course, there are some people that she could live with never seeing again – Chris, Chef, Heather, hi there– but the fact that she's met all these pretty cool people, who like her, or respect her, and enjoy her company the way she enjoys theirs. It just . . . makes her feel really down, about the circumstances.

Before everyone leaves the yacht, she takes the time to go around to as many of the campers as possible, and get their phone numbers. If she can't see them, she could at least text them.

-0-

On second thought, maybe expressly trying to keep in contact with the weirdos she lived with for six weeks was probably not the best idea she'd ever had.

"did you know that you can make explosives using ordinary cat food and dishwashing liquid?"

Or maybe it was just the decision to keep up with Izzy.

-0-

"heeey. I'm having a party to celebrate the start of break. Wanna come?"

Gwen was perplexed. She didn't get a lot of texts from Geoff. She didn't talk to Geoff much, period. Usually the most news she heard about him was from Bridgette, because, somehow, the two of them made a long-distance relationship work.

Why would Geoff want me at one of his parties?

She racked her brain for a while, before it finally came back to her. In the final challenges of Total Drama Island, she and Geoff had been teamed together in the 'Tri-Armed Triathlon'. She hadn't enjoyed herself very much, Geoff's constant reminiscing about his former parties and insistence on taking time out of the competition to "slow down and chillax, bro. Enjoy what we're doing". They hadn't really started to work together until they reached Boney Island. She'd exploded and demanded how in the holy hell he could be so happy and optimistic all the damn time, or be so relaxed about partying, just being such a damn party-boy, and he told her,

"Partying ISN'T in your DNA. It's a state of mind."

After that enlightening statement, and his confession of liking her, and wanting to be her friend and spend time with her outside of the competition, she and the party-boy had started to work together pretty well, even if they didn't win the challenge. After Geoff had been eliminated, she'd given him back his camera, and he'd taken a photo of the two of them together for posterity. He'd even kept his promise to give her a copy.

She swung around in her desk chair.

The photo, blurry from the water of Lake Wawanakwa she'd fished it out of, showed a madly-grinning Geoff, and herself, a small, happy grin in her face.

She remembered Geoff promising to invite her and a bunch of other contestants to one of parties at some point during the year, making a point to be certain Gwen knew she was invited.

I guess he wanted to be sure he kept his promise.

For all his faults, Geoff was pretty cool to hang out with. Gwen knew he lived in a town about three hours away, on the coast. She knew, because Bridgette was an hour away from him, and Gwen was two hours away from her, and an hour's train-ride to Trent's hometown, so she could see him on weekends.

I guess . . . he'd definitely invite Bridgette, and DJ. Maybe he wouldn't mind if I brought Trent.

Smiling to herself, she turned back to her phone, and hit the 'reply' button.

-0-

fin.

-0-

notes: ever been obsessed with a tv show as a kid, and then re-watched it years later, and become kind-of obsessed with it again? yeah, that's my excuse for this.