"Save Me – Izzy's life after Total Drama" - by Jnk1296
DISCLAIMER - Total Drama, Total Drama Island, Total Drama Action, Total Drama World Tour, TDI, TDA, TDWT, and all character names and references are the sole property of Teletoons Inc. I do not claim to be the owner of any of the aforementioned.
WARNING - This Fan Fiction contains mild to moderate language, and is not recommended for anyone under 16+.
AUTHOR NOTES - Now, before you start reading, I just want to say a few things. First of all, this is my first FanFiction ever! So please bear that in mind if you write a review. Secondly, I have created Izzy's life at home based off of the description that The Kobold Necromancer's "Love Ain't Easy, It's Ezzy" FanFiction story gave it. If you don't know anything about her life at home, then I suggest you go read his story, it's excellent; although this story will, in due time, explain itself. With that, we begin the story.
THOUGHTS AND FLASH BACKS ARE IN ITALICS.
Save Me - Izzy's life after Total Drama
(A not so) Welcome Home
Izzy watched out the window of the train she was on, as it pulled into the station. TDWT had just ended after what seemed like eternity and a day, and Chris, as strange and untrustworthy as it sounded, had let all the contestants go home. Although Izzy was excited to be coming home after such a long time, she was half expecting Chris to reel them all back in for another season, what with the contracts they had to sign. She began thinking about the reunion she and her family would share. "Ooo! Maybe they'll be holding a banner with my name on it! Or maybe their take me out to eat!" Her stomach growled, almost as if to agree with her. "Actually, now that i think about, I'm really really hungry right now. I could go for some Taco Bell, or maybe McDonalds. Ooo! Ooo! Or maybe even-" She was suddenly jarred out of her thought as the train came to a stop. She watched as the passengers got up and began leaving the train, and she suddenly got a very Izzy-ish impulse. She watched and waited as the remaining passengers left, and then grabbed her luggage at the last second. As the train began to pull out of station, she suddenly bolted from out of her seat, and ran to the end of the train. She arrived at the end of the last car, baggage in hand, and climbed onto the protective railing, almost falling as she attempted to balance herself. She waited as the train car got closer and closer to the end of the terminal, and at the last second, she jumped off, making a perfect ten point landing on the terminal floor. She took in a big breath of fresh air, happy to be back in her home town. A warm smile formed on her face as she mentally thought to herself, "Finally! I'm finally away from that asshole (Chris), and all of his stupid cameras and challenges!" She excitedly looked around the terminal, trying to find her family. This was especially hard to do since the terminal was filled with noisy people. "Hmm. I wonder where they could be? Oh well, I'm not going to find them just standing here, now am I?" she thought, letting the idea of hunting for people work its way into her head. She began to work her way through the crowds, like a snake slithering through tall grass. She started her search by looking towards where the train tracks were, but turned up empty. Then she looked in the waiting area, and still they were nowhere to be seen. Now Izzy was starting to panic slightly, worrying that they may gotten into a wreck or something, but she pushed the bad thought to the back of her mind. She then proceeded to go out to the parking lot, thinking to herself "Maybe there were too many people inside, and they just decided to wait in the car, where it's quiet." She searched through all of the cars that looked like the one belonging to her family, even stopping to watch a couple who was making out, strangely, in the back seat of their car, in broad daylight. After moderate complaining and jeering from the couple, she continued onward, yet still she was unable to find her family. A frown began to form on her normally grinning face, but she quickly calmed herself, reasoning that it must just be a traffic back up. She dismissed her doubts, and went back inside. As she walked through the door, she was immediately hit with a blast of cool air, which was a very welcomed sensation, as the blacktop outside made it feel like a hundred degrees. After basking in the cool breeze for a short while, she sat down on one of the waiting area benches, next to a sleeping elderly man. She picked up one of the tabloids on the table in front of her, and began leafing through its pages. After reading for a few minutes, she began to lose interest. The tabloid, as strange as it's story was, was failing to keep her occupied as it normally would. So, having nothing better to do, she allowed her imagination to run away from her. "What if they aren't coming?" She thought to herself, her smile leaving her face again. "No. No, don't think that, E-Scope. They may not 'like you'," she swallowed hard at the thought, "but they wouldn't leave you here to rot at a train station, would they? Would they? No, of course they wouldn't. Silly E-scope." Izzy and her family didn't have the best of relationships, but she put her family above such acts as to let her stay here because of their personal feelings towards her. She tossed the tabloid to the side, and curled up on the bench she was on, scooting away from the elderly man. "Guess I'll just catch up on my beauty sleep. I'm sure they'll be here any time now." With this thought, she closed her eyes and dozed off.
She was later woken up by the sound of a young girl, who was maybe twelve years old, squealing in a fashion similar to that of Katie and Sadie. "Oh my gosh! Are you Izzy? From Total Drama?" "Yep that's me!" Izzy both cheerfully and tiredly responded, stretching and getting down on the floor, scratching herself behind the ear. As she stood up, she whispered into the young girl's ear, her hand covering her mouth as if to hide the words. "It's actually E-Scope. But I'll tell you what, you can call me Izzy." "Thanks!" the ecstatic girl chirped. she looked down at her hands, which contained a black sharpie and a notepad, and suddenly remembered the reason why she was standing there. "Can I have your autograph?" she asked, a glimmer in her eye. "Sure, why not." She handed Izzy the items, and practically held her breath in anticipation. Izzy proceeded to write "E-Scope" on the paper in a curly script, and drew a heart next to it. She handed the notepad back to the girl, who again squealed in delight. "Thank you so much! I got to go tell my friends!" The girl ran off excitedly, practically screaming in happiness. "Any time," Izzy replied, watching her disappear into a group of people. She sat back down on the bench and looked out glass front of the building. "Hmm... what a beautiful sunset. It's a nice way to end this day and ... hey! Wait a minute! There wasn't a sunset when I fell asleep!" Izzy looked up at the clock hanging above the ticket counter, her mouth nearly unhinging itself when she saw the time. "Holy crap! It's six thirty? You have got to be freaking kidding me!" Izzy felt her anger start to grow, she had been there for over three hours now, and she could tell something wasn't right about this. She got up off the bench, and walked up to the ticket counter. "Excuse me..." she proceeded to ask the ticket woman in the nicest tone she could manage at that moment, what with her emotions. "Could I use your phone?" The ticket woman stared at Izzy for a moment, almost as if to ask if this were some kind of joke. "Please?" She asked again in an more agitated tone. The woman shrugged and handed Izzy the phone. She practically bashed the phone's face in as she angrily dialed the number, and then pressed the phone up to her face with extreme force, waiting for someone to answer. Her breath was coming out heavy, and her irritation was growing with every ring of the phone. After about four rings, someone finally answered, but before Izzy could even get a single word in, the person, a very angry and tipsy sounding male, yelled "Leave us alone you god damn telemarketers!" and forcefully slammed the phone down. Izzy stood there shocked for a moment, before her irritation intensified even more so, and she pressed the redial button. This time, there were only two rings before the tipsy man picked up the phone again. "Now you listen to me you bastards!" the man started, hiccuping slightly. "I've had about enough of-" "This isn't a telemarketer you jackass! It's your daughter!" Izzy yelled into phone, overpowering the man's voice. The ticket woman's eyes grew wide, and she slowly began to back away. There was silence on the other end for a moment, before the man responded. "Oh… well what do you want, Izzy?" the man had an agitated tone to his voice. She sighed, "First of all, don't call me Izzy! My name is E-Scope! And second, I was wondering if, just maybe, i could ask his high and mighty-ness to get off his fat, lazy, drunken ass and come get me!" Izzy's tone was clearly a mixture of anger and sarcasm, she was beyond pissed that she was still at the train station, and was more than ready to leave. The man sighed, "Oh, Jesus Christ," he said under his breath. "I'll be there in a minute." That was all he said before he hung up. "That asshole," Izzy thought to herself. "He was too busy drinking to remember to pick up his own daughter!" She laid/dropped the phone down on the counter, and slowly retreated back to her seat. "I can't believe that he didn't even remember me, none of them did," she thought to herself. She felt tears start to form in her eyes. "No. Don't cry. You're stronger than that, E-Scope. You can get through this." She managed to hold her emotions in. Still though, she couldn't help but sense the feelings of pain from her childhood start to wash over her again. She groaned as she laid her head down in her palms, trying to remain calm.
She waited for another two hours before he finally arrived. She had been trying to call a cab for the last hour, but when ever she told the cab service her name, the person immediately hung up, a hint of fear in their panicked screaming. He arrived on good timing too, because the train station was closing for the night, and the ticket lady was just about to kick Izzy out. When she noticed the headlights of her father's truck shining through the building, she less than gracefully grabbed her luggage, and walked out the door, the expression of anger and irritation on her face. "Get in the car," her slightly drunken father yelled from the window. Izzy gave him the evil eye as she threw her luggage into the trunk, and climbed into the passenger seat. She was a bit concerned at the idea that her drunken father was driving her home, and holding a bottle in his left hand. She wasn't exactly thrilled to go home, but she'd rather be at home than on the side of the road watching her father be arrested for DUI, so she made sure to keep an eye out for any cops. She wasn't able to keep focus very well though, as her head was swirling with thoughts and emotions. She was so furious and sad at the same time that she wasn't even able to attempt conversation the entire trip there. She just sat there, blankly looking out the window, watching the houses and people pass, admiring their happy and care-free expressions, and thinking about what was awaiting her when she got home. She thought back to memories of her childhood, before it happened. They were actually happy times, happy times that most people would recall; Christmas, her first pet, her first restraining order, oh wait... that was just her. She got worked up every time she recalled them, because she knew they were long gone. She couldn't help but ask herself how she got to where she was today, in a world where her family could be that cold. It was when these thoughts crossed into her mind, that she wondered why she put up with it all. As she contemplated it, she grew more saddened at the grim realization. As much as they disliked her, and she disliked them, they were all she had. She had no one else to turn to, no one to talk to, and no one to express her emotions with; she was all alone. All of these emotions would build up in her head, until they came out like a blast of hot steam, which was usually directed at someone. "I couldn't even get my families attention if I were on fire," she thought to herself. "No one cares about E-Scope." As they pulled into the driveway, Izzy's mood turned from anger and resent to fear and sadness. Normally, when someone would come home after being gone for over a year, they would, at the very least, be happy, if not elated. But then again, that was the normal reaction of someone who had had a happy life at home. Izzy, on the other hand, looked towards the house and shuddered, as though she were an innocent man in chains, headed for Alcatraz. As she walked into the house, she braced herself for the reaction she knew she was about to receive, and it was exactly what she had expected. Silence. There were all three her three siblings; Zoey, Izaac, and Elizabeth, all sitting in the living room, watching TV. None of them even so much as gave a glance in her direction as she quietly muttered "Hi guys." She knew in her heart that they all resented being in the same family as her, but she couldn't bring herself to accept it. She didn't want to be that part of the family that no one wanted , and it tore at her heart a little more every time she thought about it. With luggage in hand, since no one had offered to help her with it, she silently walked upstairs to her room, just wanting to go to bed, and let her imagination wander. Let it wander so that she could be in a better place, even if it was in her mind. Just imagine a faraway place, so she could be away from here, be away from the hate, be away from it all. When she opened the door, however, she was shocked, appalled, and thunderstruck by what she saw. Instead of walking into her bedroom, she walked into an entertainment room. A pool table sat where her bed had once been, a computer where her dresser used to be, a plasma screen TV where her mirror and porcelain figurines used to hang, and to top it all off; the pink wallpaper that used to adorn her room, was now just painted over in boring egg shell colored paint. After standing there for a moment, taking this all in, the first thing that came out of Izzy's mouth was "Where the hell is E-Scopes room?" After a moment, her father walked upstairs. "First of all, young lady, you are not using that language in my house! Second, your bed is out in the garage, along which your other junk. Good Night." His blunt words hurt her deep down. She just gave him a hateful glare, and trudged down the steps. "If you're good," her father yelled after her, slightly slurring, "we might discuss bringing it back in the house!" Izzy slammed the living room door behind her with such force, that a couple pictures fell off the wall. Her siblings all looked at each other, and exchanged sly smiles.
Izzy kicked open the side door of the garage, and walked inside, sulking. She looked around at her surroundings, remembering them from before Total Drama. The garage had not changed much since she had left, excluding the fact that sitting off to the side, was her bed, and on top of it was a box labeled 'Izzy's Junk'. She read the label on the box, and felt overwhelming sadness wash over her. It was too much for Izzy to take, as she sat down on the bed and began to cry. "Why?" she mentally screamed. "Why do they hate me so much? What did I do to deserve this?" She wiped the tears from her eyes, and glanced over at the box sitting next to her. She eyed it for a moment, and then picked it up out of curiosity. She opened it carefully, as though it were a present, and looked down inside. Inside the box was her diary, her porcelain figurines, and the stuffed octopus that her mother had bought her for her fifth birthday. She sighed as she remembered what birthdays were like, how it felt to have that feeling of surprise, and what it was like to know that somebody actually cared. She thought back to last time her family had celebrated her birthday, which was when she had turned 8, the year 'it' happened. It was possibly the best birthday of her life. It was the year she had gotten said diary, and her first ten figurines (the rest she collected over the years); not much, but enough to make her feel like the most special girl in the world. Remembering all of this was taking its toll on Izzy's mind. Not being able to withstand her emotions again, she pushed the thought away, and hugged the octopus close to her, remembering how it had always brought her comfort when she had these thoughts. She looked down at the box's contents, and a perplexed look began to grow on her face. She began to wonder to herself, "Where's the rest of my stuff?" She looked over towards the old washer and dryer that sat in the back. They were possibly twenty years old, and in need of a great amount of service if they were to ever run again. Neither of them had been used in years, and they both had a heavy amount of dust accumulation. But now, she noticed, there were also boxes sitting on top, ten or twelve of them, all labeled 'To Goodwill or trash'. "Those weren't there before," she thought to herself. Getting off the bed, she slowly walked toward the boxes, like a crook sneaking into a bank. She looked behind her to make sure no one was watching, and she opened one of them. Her jaw dropped when she saw more of her belongings inside. This box in particular contained her iPod, a few books from the Twilight series, a deck of novelty playing cards, from when they went to Disney world when she was six, and a few of her Bon Jovi cds. She opened another box and found it full of her stuffed animals. She went through all of the boxes, all the while finding more and more of her stuff, and growing more and more of a feeling of disbelief. While all of this was shocking to her, it didn't really hit home until she came across an old baby book, with the words 'My Darling Isabella" on the cover. When she put two and two together and realized that this book was supposed to go to Goodwill, or even worse, the trash, she realized something that cut her heart in two. "Oh. My. God. They… they don't want to remember me? They don't even want me?" Izzy sat down on her bed, flabbergasted. Tears were streaming down her face, and her breath was coming out ragged. She tried telling herself that it was a mistake, that someone had put the book in there by accident, or that one of her siblings had put it in there, knowing that she would find it. Unfortunately though, she couldn't believe either of the theories. She picked up the stuffed octopus again, and stared at it as though it was the most vile thing she had ever seen. "MY LIFE IS A LIE!" she screamed loudly. She threw the octopus down on the ground, and shoved the box that was next to her off her bed, all the while screaming. She froze when she heard the sound of porcelain shattering, and knew immediately where the sound had come from. She peered down into the box, and a horrified look grew on her face. In her sudden rage, she had shoved the box that contained her figurines off of the bed, breaking all but one of them. She reached in, and retrieved the one that managed to survive the fall. It was an angel, one that had a music box built into it, and read 'Never lose hope'. She had gotten it when her grandmother had passed away a few years earlier. She looked at it, and repeated the words back to herself. "Never lose hope. That's what I used to say to myself… when I still had hope." She fell backwards onto the bed, still holding the figurine in her hands. She held it above her head, studying it. Then she wound the music box inside, and let the soothing music lull her. She did this a few times more, until she finally managed to fall asleep. In her dreams, she was plummeting. This was the same dream she had every night since as far back as she could remember. In actuality, these dreams were the reason she was so scared of flying, because she was so afraid of that feeling of helplessness she got every night as she fell, and she was afraid that she would get the same feeling being inside of a plane. She had, on more than one occasion, let the dream play out completely so that she fell to her doom; hoping every time that she wouldn't wake up, that she wouldn't have to face the people who despised her. Unfortunately, her dreams wouldn't cooperate with her, and she lived through another night.
She woke up the next morning to the sound of a car pulling into the garage, a 2007 Elantra. It was her mother, coming home after working the night shift at the hospital. As much as she never saw her mother, a small smile formed on Izzy's face. "Hi mom," she said as she got off of her bed, her voice was light and uplifting, yet her eyes sent another message; they were red and puffy from her emotional breakdown the night before. Her mother gave her a quick half hearted glance, grunted, and walked off. Izzy's smile turned into a frown as she watched her mother walk towards the house. "This is gonna be one hell of a day," she thought to herself. She worked up the courage to follow her mother into the house. When her mother walked in, all three of Izzy's siblings, who were sitting at the table eating breakfast, gave her a warm welcome; Zoey even got up and gave her a hug. Her mother returned this welcome cheerfully, smiling, giving out kisses, and returning said hug. Watching this made Izzy feel even more unappreciated, as she sank down against the door. When all the welcomes were said and done, and everyone had quieted down, Izzy spoke up. "Morning everyone," she said in a low voice, still up against the door. Everyone in the room turned towards her and gave her a look as though she had just said that they were all ugly and would never amount to anything. She quickly looked down to her feet, shielding her families simultaneous glares away from her eyes, and walked out of the room. She was fighting the feeling of sadness that was looming over her, and trying desperately not to start crying again. Izzy sat down in the living room and turned on the TV. After some fiddling with the TV's settings, she turned it to AFV, which was her favorite American TV show, since she had started "borrowing" cable from America *. She had always loved watching people, especially Americans, make complete idiots of themselves, although the feeling wasn't as strong as it was before, since her experiences on Total Drama. Still though, she managed to find humor in their pain. She was in the middle of watching a man fall on his groin on the side of a trampoline, when her father stepped out in front of the TV. "C'mon… move," Izzy said complaining. "Oh, shut up!" her father yelled at her, still drunk from last night. "Get out of my chair, and give me the remote!" he demanded. "No. I'm a member of this household, and I have a right to sit here if I want." "Not when you're under my roof, you don't! Now get up!" Izzy looked down, a defeated glare in her eyes. She started to get up, but in her father's impatience, he grabbed her arm, and yanked her of the chair. "Ow! What the hell? That freaking hurt!" "Haven't I told you! I don't want you using that language in my house! And I don't want to hear that come out of your mouth again! Now get out of my sight!" While physically Izzy was starting to shrink up in her fathers immense anger, her own anger was intensifying. She thought back to that horrible day when she was eight, the day everything in her life changed for the worst. She tried to remember the events that led up to it, but came up blank. Finally, her emotions got the better of, and she couldn't hold it in anymore. "Why do you all hate me so much?" "Oh, here we go," her father groaned. "No! I'm serious! You ignore me! You give me hateful looks whenever I say anything! You even moved my stuff out of the house and turned my bedroom into an entertainment center!" Tears were beginning to stream down her face. Her father looked at her incredulously, and said bluntly "Oh suck it up you big baby!" Izzy tried to summon the energy to look her father in the eye, but she couldn't. She felt emotions that she didn't even think were possible to feel around family. She felt feelings of sadness, anger, resent, disgust, torment, and shame. She couldn't withstand this belittlement anymore, she felt like her entire world was collapsing in around her, with no way to escape. She wanted to hide, hide herself, hide her shame; just hide so that no one would ever see her again. Meanwhile, her father had started to speak again, using the most asinine tone imaginable. "You know what? Here you are, complaining because life isn't fair for you. You complain because we 'ignore' you, you complain because we give you looks, you complain because we moved your stuff out into the garage, you complain about everything all the fricking time! Life isn't fair, you know! All that stuff you complain about? It's exactly that! It's stuff! None of those things are necessities! You don't need any of those things!" He chuckled for a moment before continuing. "You know what? Here's my response to all that bitching and whining you do; why don't you drop a pair and get over it!" Izzy just stared at him with blurry eyes, like she didn't know who he was. Then she replied sarcastically, "Just like you got over losing your job, right?" This struck a bad note with her father, there were flames in his eyes. "Why do I put up with you?" he yelled hatefully, pointing an accusing finger at her. "You're such an ungrateful! little! bitch!" All Izzy could do was stare at him with a phased expression and mouth open wide. His harsh words were too much. Her expression turned into fiery rage, as she walked right up to him and yelled "Fuck you!" as loud as she could, partially spitting in his face. Her father was now seething in anger. He grabbed Izzy by the arm and sat down, pulling her over his knee. "What the hell are you doing?" she yelled, kicking her legs. "I'm teaching you respect! I told you that you weren't supposed to use that language in this house! And it's not just that! You've needed this for a long time!" Izzy could tell what was about to happen, and she didn't like it one bit. She knew that if she had done something to deserve this, then she would accept it, and move on. But she hadn't done anything wrong, and she was mentally preparing herself for what she was about to do, saying in a low yet steady voice "No. Not again. I won't let this happen to me again."
What happened next happened faster than anyone's brain could interpret. As her father had begun to lift up her skirt, she managed to kick free of his tight grasp, and force herself upright. Then, even faster, without the slightest bit of warning, she summoned her inner Chuck Norris, and delivered a round house kick to the temple of his head, something she had learned from watching reruns of Texas Ranger (on American TV), and The Delta Force. She was panting hard, and her head was spinning from the adrenaline. She felt eyes like daggers starring at the back of her head, and turned to see that her siblings and her mother were all staring at her with their mouths agape. She looked at them all for a moment, and then looked at her unconscious father laying on the floor. When she truly realized what she had just done, she stood their for a moment, and then suddenly bolted out of the house. She quickly ran into the garage, and locked the door behind her. She knew what she was getting ready to do, as she grabbed one of the duffel bags that she had brought back from Total Drama and stuffed if full of clothes. Then she quickly searched through the 'Goodwill' boxes until she found what she was looking for; a green dinosaur piggy bank. She slammed it onto the floor, shattering it, and collected its contents, which was roughly $200. She then grabbed her iPod, and looked around the room, as if trying to remember something. She noticed a notepad laying on one of the shelves, and grabbed it. She quickly scribbled a message, and threw the notepad down on the bed. She then proceeded to made her escape out the garage door, running off into the distance. Where she was going, she didn't know. But then again, she didn't care either. All she cared about was that she was finally free of them, and finally free of the shame that she felt every time she was around them. But most of all, she felt like a load was being lifted off of her shoulders as she ran, and she had no intention of stopping.
Yeah. That's what happens when you treat Izzy- oops, I mean E-Scope, badly. She round house kicks you and runs away. Where to? You'll just have to wait and see.
*Please remember, "borrowing" cable is the same as stealing cable, and is not recommended. Also, Izzy's parents did not know about her doing this either.
