Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama or any of the characters affiliated

On the typical morning you would find Jo Victorino in her local, but rather tiny gym. The sky would still be covered in stars and the majority of the town's residents would still be asleep. It was Jo's favorite time of the day. She enjoyed the way that she could feel herself improving the more she worked out. It helped her stay on top of her game.

It was nearing five in the morning and Jo had taken to the elliptical. Harder and harder she would push herself, never giving in. Now, she wasn't alone at the gym, and it gave her a smug satisfaction to know that she could outlast most of the people here. She was as tough as nails Though, Jo did have respect for people with the discipline to wake themselves up everyday and work out, most of the people who had accompanied her simply just were not up to the jock's athletic abilities.

The only person who would ever beat Jo to the gym was a girl who everyone simply called "Evil Eva." Eva was intimidating, even by Jo's standards. On this particular morning, with what seemed like enough rage to flip over a car, Eva sat in a corner with headphones in, pumping the biggest weight available with a permanent glare on her face. Eva didn't seem like the kind of person to take anyone's crap, and Jo had to respect her.

There was a also rather angry hispanic girl running on the treadmill a couple of machines down; Courtney Martinez. While, the girl wasn't exhausting herself, Jo could tell that she felt good blowing off some of the pent-up frustrations she had. Every now and again, when the blonde had the pleasure of working out next to the ticking-time bomb called Courtney, she would hear the girl murmur things under her breath about her loser ex-boyfriends or the LSATS or whatever was bugging her. Jo wasn't really fond of her.

Tyler Tanner, the town's resident "athlete" would often make early morning appearances in the gym whenever he was done recovering from the previous sports-related injury he received. Pathetic. Today, Tyler didn't even make it to a machine before he tripped over his shoelace. His shoelace. Despite what the boy might have thought, Tyler wasn't tough, no. He was more like a teletubbie or, as Jo thought that morning while watching the boy stumble, a Tylertubbie. She always did love her zingers. Jo watched the boy in disgust as he proceeded to grab a weight only to drop it and have it land on his foot. Some people just were not cut out for this.

The only other person who would regularly show up to the gym was Lightning. Lightning could easily be described as the type-A athletic. Today, he was busy lifting a couple of weights then admire his "sha-self" in one of the gym's many mirrors. Lovely. You could say that Lightning wasn't the brightest person in the world, hell, he thought Jo herself was a boy when he first met her, a boy! While Jo and Lightning could be friends, sometimes she thought that the boy needed to sha-shut it. Like this morning, which was rather quiet apart from Lightning's narcissism.

The gym session was going as it typically did, with the five of them working out in an almost hostile silence, minus a certain someone's occasional appraisal of themselves, until the unexpected happened. Someone new walked in.

He was a well-built man with dark black hair and a rather disciplined expression occupying his face. He moved onto the elliptical next to Jo, and much to the athletic girl's shock, was able to keep pace with her. This had turned into a competition.

Jo began to go faster and faster on the machine, enjoying the slight burn in her legs. She looked over at the boy next to her to watch a shocked look take over his face as he realized how fast she was going.

"Don't you think that you should slow down a bit, ma'am?" The guy next to her had asked with nothing but chivalry in his voice. Jo almost laughed out loud.

"No, that would be giving up, and giving up is for the weak, maggot." To Jo, he simply seemed intrigued by her response. Instead of replying, however, the man kicked his machine up a notch and began going to Jo's pace. This both shocked, annoyed and...pleased Jo? She was never used to being directly challenged by someone at the gym, save occasionally Lightning. Most people just kept to themselves this early in the morning.

Never one to lose, Jo began to go even faster. The blonde knew that her time on the elliptical should have been well up, and she should have moved on to something else, but the boy on the machine next to her, kept her where she was.

Soon, it was an all out war. Both where going as fast as they could, trying to outdo the other. It was easily past six o'clock, and the early morning crowd was dwindling. Courtney had gone home, probably to take a shower and get ready for her college classes or internship, or whatever it is that stresses her out so much, and Tyler was erm...injured beyond belief after his stint in the gym. Lightning was still lifting weights, and Eva was taking out all of her pent up aggression on the treadmill previously occupied by a certain C.I.T. Despite the time, Jo wasn't going to quit. No. She wasn't stopping until the man next to her gave up. Jo simply had too much pride for that.

It didn't take much longer, maybe about five more minutes, for dark haired man next to her to stop, completely winded. Jo, who was still going full-force stopped too once she realized that her competitor had given up. And though, the girl was drained, she didn't show it. Her face was instead painted with a rather victorious smirk.

"Wow, ma'am, you're fast." Jo's previous competitor remarked after he regained his breath.

"I've had a lot of practice." This was true, as Jo was often found in the gym exercising.

"Well, me too. I was in the army." The soldier stated proudly. "Brick McArthur, at your service, ma'am." Brick held out his hand to athletic girl in front of him. She took it, sensing that he respected her.

"Jo. Jo Victorino."

After that, she squeezed Brick's hand just a little too hard, and left the gym to get ready for the day. And though she would never admit it, the thought of going back tomorrow morning excited her more than it normally did.

Author's Note:

Hi, guys, this was my first Jock story, and I honestly just got the idea when my friend dragged me to the gym the other morning.

This was also my first time attempting to write with the ROTI characters, so criticism is highly appreciated. I think they may have been slightly ooc, because it has been a while since I watched that season.

And, Jo's last name was just Shane Victorino's, the outfielder for the Boston Red Sox, last name. It doesn't really fit, but I had trouble coming up with one for her, so if you could leave me suggestions, I would love you forever!

Anyways, I've always had a head-canon that those would be the characters willing to wake up really early in the morning to go to the gym, so I just thought that I would include it.

This is getting long, so thank you for reading!

Jennavieve~

PS: Credit for the Tylertubbie line goes to thatjockfan on tumblr, I don't know if you'll read this or not, but since I was writing Jock and I knew that you loved them, I just had to include it ^^