I Have My Reasons
Continuing my line of Total Drama oneshots, enjoy this one about Izzy, our favorite wild child. I do not own Total Drama or its characters, only this story.
An echoing scream sounded through the forest, its volume startling the animals and causing them to run for cover. The tree tops rattled and leaves fell to the floor as a blur of a figure dashed through the canopy. With a backflip worthy of a gymnast, the person landed on a tree branch and sat in total silence. Bright green eyes darted around the wilderness, taking in their surroundings and analyzing where to go next. Strong, tanned legs pushed off of the limb and launched the body into the air, highly susceptible to whatever nature had intended for it. Instead of plummeting to the ground, however, a set of hands wrapped themselves around a vine that hung from the treetops and disappeared into the dense foliage.
The momentum of the jumped pushed the person forward to another vine, only for a hand to grasp it and repeat the process. Deeper and deeper into the green the person went, whooping and hollering in sheer delight at what its brain perceived as an epic adventure. Stopping once again to settle amongst a bark covered protrusion, the figure finally calmed down enough to sit still. Small beams of light shown through the gaps of the highest leaves and illuminated the figure in the trees. The person was revealed to be a girl with curly red hair that seemed to flow like fire from her head. Her upper torso was covered by a green sleeveless top; a triangle shaped cut out showcased her cleavage. From her waist to her knees, she was cloaked in a light green skirt that enveloped her legs as if they were made of grass. Lastly, her feet lay inside green ballerina flats that seemed to be slightly worn from the years of use.
This vine swinging wild child went by the name of Izzy, and if there was one thing that she was known for the most, it was her spastic personality. She loved nothing more than to jump, flip and run about in a matter that she deemed fit. While everyone else was concerned about the world's perception of them, she obviously didn't care. If she wanted to scream like a madman and wear a bear costume, then that's exactly what she would do. Izzy was an unrestricted girl who didn't bend to the rules and social stigma about how a teenage girl should act. Those rules were boring and confining, and always made her feel like she was trapped in some sort of box.
Just thinking about being caged up and forced to conform sent a shiver down her spine. How could everyone else live like that without utterly losing their mind? The rambunctious ginger would have gone mad if she had to be so dull. Sure, some of her actions would cause people to look at her funny but; she was doing what she loved. She was free, uninhibited and she loved every moment of it. Thoughts of always doing what she was told reminded her of her home. Or, more specifically, the school she had left behind.
It wasn't so bad but, it always could have been better. The best part about home had to be her parents and her brother. They were the greatest family that anyone could ask for. When she was younger, her mother would take her out for ice cream and take her to the zoo. Izzy loved the animals, especially the big scary ones like wolves and bears, and would pretend to be one and chase her mom around. Her dad would take her to work with him at construction sites, and she got to use a lot of the machines and watch things explode. And her brother was the coolest guy in the history of ever; he would help her when she had homework problems and just be awesome.
Thinking back on it, maybe she should have told him what else she needed help with when she was little. The school that her parents enrolled her into was a private school, and they were very strict there. In the beginning, Izzy thought it would be fun to go someplace new and to meet new people. Yeah, the uniforms were dark and ugly, but the creative child found ways to brighten it up with buttons and stickers. Everything seemed to be going well until she was called to the principal's office.
She had no idea of what she had done so early in the year and wondered if they had called her parents. Apparently, they didn't like the way she had decorated her uniform. She was ordered to take off the buttons and stickers and that she was never to wear anything like them ever again. It disheartened the little girl that she couldn't express herself at school as much as she did at home, but she was determined to stand out. Since she wasn't allowed to dress the way she wanted, she could at least act the way she wanted. Izzy was always up and about, goofing off and acting silly just so she could show how much of an individual she was.
The adults wanted nothing more than to stop her but, seeing how every time they'd give her a warning she would ignore it, they eventually began to give up. Miraculously, they were able to come to a compromise that, she would be able to be slightly different as long as she didn't distract the other students. Little Izzy agreed wholeheartedly, as was pretty much left to her own devices. After all, she was the closest thing that school had to a child prodigy since it opened; they were willing to work with her if she could work with them. Of course, the other students, who were raised with their noses in the air, looked down at the little ginger. They didn't really think that she belonged there, but she just didn't care about them. The jumpy little girl had melted even the coldest of hearts at that school, as she seemed to do with everyone in her life.
Sadly, her joy would be short lived when she became a little older, and things at home started to change. Izzy had to have been no more than eight when she noticed that the things between her parents weren't like how they used to be. What had started out as little love spats soon turned into arguments, and the two not speaking for days. The red head would always do her best to try and make her parents stop fighting, but she would either get a pat on the head or a command to leave. Daddy would come home later and later and her mommy would stay up and wait for him with her adult drink that Izzy wasn't supposed to touch.
Izzy would always be woken up by their arguments, even all the way upstairs.
Then, things began to get strange or, stranger as the case may be. One night, they didn't even fight when her father came in at some time in the early morning. They were quiet and only said a few words to each other, and none of the naughty ones that Izzy would hear a lot. The sounds of her dad's heavy footsteps going up the stairs could be heard. He came into her room, kissed her goodnight, and then left back into the master bedroom. For that moment, Izzy thought that her life was back to normal now, and that her, her parents and her brother could be a family again!
That little girl couldn't have been more wrong. When she came down for breakfast the next day, the house was eerily quiet. Her mom was in the kitchen cooking breakfast, her brother had already left for soccer practice, and her father was seated at his usual place at the table. Before, there would at least be the playing of the radio to help ease the mode, but the electric music box was silent. It hadn't played a tune in months. Izzy sat at her designated seat and, as she waited for her plate, she just stared at them. Why weren't they talking to each other? Why didn't they look at each other? There was nothing but silence, white noise everywhere. Izzy could hear things she hadn't really noticed before, like the ticking of the clock in the corner, and the sounds of breathing.
Her father's deep breathes to her left, her mother's light snorts, and her own quickening inhale. It was beyond weird, beyond strange, it was downright creepy and she hated it. To break the silence, Izzy squeaked out a quiet 'good morning' just so something could ease the tension. Her mother gave her a gentle reply, but it lacked the usual ring that went with it. It almost sounded lifeless, as if she were a robot and was programmed to say it. Her father, on the other hand, gave the child just what she needed that morning. His greeting was filled with quite a bit more mirth as he set down his newspaper and patted her head. With her orange locks now a mess, she could finally exhaled and broke out into a gigantic smile. She hadn't even realized that she was holding her breath.
That day, she spent a majority of her time with her dad, as he had requested the day off to spend with his little girl. They went to every place that the young ginger loved to go, and hadn't been to in years. For the first time in what seemed like forever, she was happy. All was going well up until her father said her had one more stop to make before going home. Izzy thought that it was definitely weird at first but, having full faith in her father, she trusted him. They arrived at some residential neighborhood on the far side of town where the houses were small and not as nicely decorated as their own.
One house stood out from the rest with its blue coloring and an actually maintained flower garden in the front. All of this was felt so weird to Izzy because, for some unforeseen reason, she had a feeling that whatever was in this house would change her life forever. The little girl couldn't have been more right. After knocking a few times, the bright white door opened and inside was a beautiful woman. She had rich chocolate brown hair that reached past her shoulders and bright blue eyes that shimmered like pools. Her figure was curvy and toned, but definitely not super model skinny. Her bust had to have measured to a D and her hips looked wide and healthy.
When she spoke, her voice flowed out like a river and sounded sweeter than honeydew. The small red head was in awe of this woman, this princess that stood before her. After she and her father entered the house, she had found out that the woman's name was Eris and she was what she called, a good "friend" of Izzy's father. She showed Izzy the inside of her house before sitting her in front of her large television and excusing her and Izzy's father. For the most part, the little ginger was comfortable, with her favorite show on in front of her and a bowl of popcorn in her lap. Soon, the sense of comfort began to wash away as the girl began to get jittery. Izzy never could sit still for long.
As she looked around the room for something to do, the young girl began to hear strange noises coming from down the hall. It started out low, an imperceptible rumbling that could only be heard if one were to pay very close attention. Izzy tried to ignore the sounds and go back to watching TV, but she was born with a very strong sense of curiosity. Quietly, she stood up and snuck over to the room where the sounds were emanating, her little ears acting as homing beacons. In the back of her mind, Izzy felt that she had heard these sounds before, but for the life of her couldn't place its source. The sounds of grunts and bed squeaks persisted and continuously gnawed at the girl's senses until it hit her. The only time she had heard sounds like that was from her mommy and daddy's room some time ago.
She hadn't known what it meant then, but after she had asked her mother about them, she found out what those sounds meant. All of her mental functions ceased as she stood, frozen in place by the door. Slowly, she regained the most minor of motor functions and walked back to the living room. From that point on, she just sat there, her child like mind desperately trying to comprehend what was happening. Around an hour later, Izzy and her father left Eris' house and began their trek back home in her dad's black pick-up truck. She was quiet for the entire trip.
Izzy had finally found out why her family seemed so broken now, it was all so clear to her. The day that all of the yelling started must have been the day that her mother had discovered her father's cheating. From that point on, Izzy's brother, Michael, had been sure to be out of the house before their dad awoke and back before he returned. That was the reason that daddy's hours at work got longer, he wasn't even working. All that left was the burning question of why Izzy's mother had suddenly gone quiet whenever her husband was in the room. Was she just tired of the constant argument or did she already know? And if she did know, then why did she seem to accept it?
Izzy couldn't figure it out for the life of her, and if there was one thing her curiosity wouldn't allow, it was not being able to understand something. So, she did what any child in her situation would do, she flat out told her mom. Everything about her trip with her dad spilled out of the ginger's mouth like a waterfall, hoping that it would cause her mother to react. And she had gotten just what she wanted. Throughout the tale, Izzy watched her mother's face change from mild intrigue to being contorted with shock and rage. She was absolutely livid and, for the first time in months, went to talk to her husband. They argued the whole evening about him bringing Izzy with him to some strange woman's house.
The little red head watched from around the corner, her green eyes brimming with glistening tears. She had wanted her parents to talk again, but not like this, not with them screaming at each other. Izzy glumly went upstairs and to her room, the yells of her parents behind her and surrounding her. This was not how a family was supposed to be, this wasn't right. The little girl sat in the middle of her floor, her favorite doll held in her hands. All of the words that her parents were saying hung over and around her like an inescapable fog. It was suffocating to say the least.
Her hands flew to her ears in hopes to block out the noise, but that seemed to only make it worse. She wished she had help through all of this, someone to take her hands and lift her away from this situation. Her brother was nowhere to be found that evening, and her parents were obviously no help. So, maybe, if she couldn't have someone help her from the outside, perhaps she could have some help from someone on the inside. A friend she could count on to guide her out of the perpetual noise and into someplace where she could be in control. So, she made one.
His name was Philip, or Phil for short, and he was Izzy's closest friend for quite some time. He was there to help Izzy escape the noise when her parents fought, and the heavy silence when they weren't speaking. With him, the small ginger had plenty of adventures, and she seemed to be filled with life again. She would whoop and holler like she did before and would even hop and swing off of the furniture. Her parents had tried to stop her, but she never listened, because in her mind, they would do nothing but yell. They soon gave up and just left the child to do whatever she wanted now. By the time Izzy was ten, her parents had finally gotten a divorce and her father had moved out to live with Eris.
It saddened her whenever she thought about it, but with Phil by her side, she would quickly move on to something else. She had even created more friends to spend time with to ensure that she wouldn't be alone. The downside to this was that it prevented Izzy from making actual friends. All of the other kids were genuinely scared of her, as by that point, she had become too wild. Nothing she did was conventional, and always consisted of yells of joy, explosions and sharp objects. Those that attempted to talk to her, guided by either bravery or stupidity, would always come back different than when they went up to her, usually with some sort of nervous tick.
So, yeah it was kind of hard for Izzy to make friends, but it didn't stop her from trying. She was going to be herself and not conform to whatever someone else said. She overcame it before, and she knew that she could do it again. Being wild and social was the only way she knew how to mask her still smoldering pain. For every time she went to bed, when the voices would stop and settle, she would think about it. Her parents being split, her brother moving and barely talking to her, her broken relationships and lack of real friends, no one knew about it. All they saw was the crazy psycho who would bite you to say hello, not the sad little girl who would cry herself to sleep.
This was a good thing, as she told herself, because if they did know, they wouldn't be any help. What could they do to ease her pain? They didn't know what it felt like to have your world collapse around you like a stained glass window. They were strong and never felt the pain like she had. Wiping away the tears, Izzy set her face into an attempted smile and began to swing again. The tears didn't stop, however, and just kept spilling out. She laughed a broken laugh that she hoped would heal the gash in her heart. A laugh that was punctuated occasionally by a shaky sob or a hiccup that faded back into her throat. The others thought she was crazy, sure, but one thing they would never know, was that Izzy had her reasons.
Ok, this was an absolute piece of miracle writing here folks. I guess you could say that this is me saying that I'm back? I don't know, but sorry for the long wait. Got caught up in summer vacation and I didn't have my computer with me. I actually wrote this in a week, which shows me that I'm getting better! Then again, I am typing this at school so… Anyway, I wanted to do this for Izzy mainly because she is who I thought of at the moment and then the idea just started flowing. I hope that you like it, despite all of the angstyness. Anywhoozle, until next time my darlings, keep writing and reading. Mwah!