Seven-year-old Darla Milton was sick and tired of it all. She was very angry and jealous of her older sister, Dakota. Dakota got the paparazzi, she got to go shopping all the time, she was the oldest. Darla's biggest problem was that Dakota was born and often wanted to destroy her own older sister to get the attention and be the favorite.
Darla was wearing her private school uniform, a navy blue buckled up coat with a white shirt, black tie, a plaid skirt, white knee socks, and black dress shoes, with her traditional purple bow. Dakota wore the same thing, except no bow and her shiny blonde hair was down always and she wore pink flats that nearly looked like ballerina slippers.
"You excited about going to school again, Darla?" Dakota asked her younger sister with glee. "I bet you're excited! I miss the days when I was your age and loved going to school..."
"Yeah, second grade's a real paradise." Darla nearly huffed.
Dakota was too self-engrossed to notice her younger sisters horrendous attitude. "That's cool!"
Darla rolled her eyes. 'There must be some way to get rid of her... Then I'll be Daddy's best girl and favorite princess...'
The Milton family limo pulled up in front of a fancy looking school and there were a dozen people crowded around with flashing cameras and chanting Dakota's name. The door was open for the girls to get out and go to their private academy. Dakota smiled smugly as she came out and was living in the limelight.
Darla rubbed her eyes as she tried to get out due to the eye burning flashes from the people who were paid to follow her sister around like a celebrity. Darla then wailed and fell out into a mud puddle behind the school's sidewalk. The paparazzi of course still only focused on Dakota and followed her inside the school to take more pictures.
"Ugh, typical..." Darla muttered as she had fallen in the mud, much to her embarrassment. She tracked mud in with her as she went up the stairs to the school for all ages and she tried to make the second grade hallway to Ms. Beverly's classroom.
Darla nearly had the mud off her face, but it stuck to her uniform. That meant one thing, she's going to be in horrible trouble with Ms. Beverly for seeing her atrocious preparation. Not only that but she skinned her knee and she was dripping a little. Just her luck. Darla quickly went into the girl's bathroom and decided to clean up the mud splotches herself so she wouldn't risk getting a demerit for poor self presentation.
"Hey, Darla..." a voice called to her.
Darla huffed, like her day wasn't bad enough already. She turned with a deep scowl to see a black haired girl, a blonde haired girl, and a brown haired girl looking at her. "Not now, Rachel, Stephanie, and Sarah..."
"What's wrong?" Stephanie, the blonde, taunted. "You gotta be in your sister's shadow again?"
"Yeah, like we're in Rachel's?" the brown haired girl, Sarah, added.
Rachel, the black haired girl, glared at them to shut them up, then looked back to Darla with a sick smirk. "You'll be nothing! You'll always be second rate cuz of your big sister!"
"Shut up!" Darla snarled at them. "I won't always be in her shadow! Just 'cuz Daddy likes her more and gives her whatever she wants doesn't mean I have to be the unfavorite! I'll rise up over her!"
"Yeah, right." Rachel cackled.
"You're just a wannabe, if you do anything like your sister now, you'll end up being a copycat." Stephanie added.
"I'm going to torture my sister so bad somehow... I don't know how, but I'll make it happen..." Darla challenged.
"Good luck with that, Dakota's sister!" Sarah scoffed, walking with Rachel and Stephanie.
"I'll show 'em," Darla huffed, washing her face in the bathroom before going to meet the others for class. "I'll get my sister so miserable she'll feel so bad to ever cross with me again, then Daddy'll pay attention to ME! I just have to make her go away for a little while, but how?"
Darla was now in the classroom with her very strict teacher. There was no laughing or giggling in class, always address the teacher when speaking with her, never correct her. It was like living in a dictatorship for six hours a day except on Saturday or Sunday. Darla always wondered what it was like whenever her sister had classes, the teacher probably also got her whatever she wanted. Dakota's homework was probably to be published in the local newspaper and do an oral report on it.
"Excuse me, class, I have an important phone call, do your work while I'm away and you had better actually do it." Ms. Beverly told her class sharply before leaving after the headmaster came to request her in his office. The woman then left and once her footsteps was no longer heard, the other students started to talk among themselves.
"Did you guys watch Total Drama: World Tour?" one of the boys asked.
"Those songs are stuck in my head, and Heather's still bald!" one of the girls giggled.
"I couldn't come up with a song like that, what're they gonna do this year?" another kid asked.
"I heard it's probably gonna be called Total Drama: Reloaded or Total Drama: Revenge of the Island." a girl with glasses shrugged.
"Revenge of the Island?" the girl asked. "Isn't Camp Wawanakwa closed down 'cuz Chris McLean made it to a toxic waste disposal company?"
"That's the thing," a boy said to her. "Chris is gonna bring it back for the new season. I bet the campers will mutate and get eaten by land sharks or something!"
"Really...?" Darla overheard the conversation and had a wicked Cheshire Cat-like grin as she pressed her pencil's eraser to her mouth. "When do they do auditions?"
The other students looked at her.
"Darla, you have to be sixteen to compete." the girl with glasses told her.
"I know, I was talking about my sister..." Darla grinned eerily.
During lunch, the students went to get their fancy foods that a lot of other school students would never dream of having. There was fresh steak, butter drenched lobster, caviar, Baked Alaska, and more. Darla took her lunch of a rich salad and scampered across the golden tiled paved floor, then stopped and smiled as she saw her sister taking a break from the press to do her make-up.
"Hey, Sis..." Darla came to Dakota.
"Hi, Darla!" Dakota beamed, smiling. "How's your class going?"
"Oh, you know, the usual," Darla pretended to sound casual and even had a goody kid look in her eye. "Learning addition, subtraction, shapes, big words, reading books with lots of pictures... Anyway, you remember that reality show Total Drama Island?"
"Oh, of course I do, baby sis!" Dakota praised. "But, one day, I wanna be a fashion model and award winning movie actress... And maybe a pop music star."
"Why not add reality TV star to your list?" Darla smirked darkly. "Just imagine... You competing on Total Drama, meeting Chris McLean, you'll be on TV, and then the whole world will know who you are!"
Dakota gasped then. "Darla, you are SO right! The whole world will know the name Dakota Milton!"
Darla smirked. She had seen a few episodes of Total Drama and knew that many of the contestants were often beat up and humiliated on a regular basis. This would be the perfect revenge on her older sister and plus, for the summer, she would have their father all to herself. "You should make an audition tape!" she then beamed.
"Yes, yes, I'll do it," Dakota nodded. "Oh, Darla, I don't know if you realize this, but I'm so glad and lucky to have a little sister like you!"
Darla chuckled darkly, then smiled innocently, batting her eyelashes to appear cute and innocent as always. "Well, I better eat my healthy lunch of greens! I'll see you after school, Sis!"
"See you then, Sis!" Dakota called, waving and smiling.
"Excellent..." Darla grinned as she went to eat and feel victory.
After school, Darla was doing her homework in her regular clothes. A purple dress with white buttons and fringe with a darker purple skirt. Dakota was doing her audition tape. It would be summer before they knew it and Dakota hurriedly sent it to the company and she was so excited. Darla grinned and hoped too Dakota would make it.
It was finally the last day of school. Dakota and Darla came into their house.
"Dakota, sweetie," Mr. Milton came in with an envelope. "You got a letter."
"Oh, thanks, Daddy!" Dakota took it. "Who's it from?"
"Total Drama."
Dakota squealed and opened it and read the letter frantically. "O.M.G!"
"Did you make it, Sis?" Darla pretended to be thrilled for her big sister and had high hopes for her.
"Yes, I did, and it's all thanks to you!" Dakota wrapped her arms around her chubby younger sister.
"Darla, how nice of you to inspire your sister to audition for Total Drama, now the whole world will know about your sister!" Mr. Milton was excited.
"Oh, wait, I'll be gone most of the summer," Dakota sounded sad. "No way I can't spend that much time away from my little sis! I should write something back saying I changed my mind."
"NO!" Darla yelled. "Uhh... I mean, no... You don't wanna miss a once in a lifetime opportunity, do you?"
"I guess not... But, I can't leave you here all alone... You don't have any friends to come see you..." Dakota knelt down to her sister's height, wrapping an arm around her.
"Oh, Sissy, I'll be fine, now go!" Darla smiled, then twitched as her plans seemed to be foiling.
"I don't know..." Dakota still felt bad, completely blind to her younger sister's selfish wishes.
Darla twitched, then shut her eyes tight and shook her head, clenching her tiny fists. She then widened them as she had an idea and pretended to look very sad. Even her bow drooped. "Please, Sis, don't just do it for you, do it for ME!"
"You?"
"Yes, Sissy, I always looked up to you! You're my role model! You would make me so proud if you left for the summer and did this show!"
"Really?" Dakota had tears in ehr eyes, smiling.
"Yes!" Darla beamed. "So please... Go to Total Drama: Revenge of the Island... I'll watch you every night, I-I promise! I know I can't be a contestant, but I'll be voting for you to stay on everyday and I hope you win!"
"How mature of you, Darla..." Mr. Milton praised, then went back to his home office to get back to work.
"Oh, Darla, you're the best!" Dakota hugged her younger sister. "I wish you could come with me, if only you were nine years older..."
"Yes, how unfortunate," Darla said, though since Dakota had her face turned, she had a wide, sinister girn. "Better start packing!"
The next morning, a limo driver took Darla and Dakota to get on the boat and join Dakota's fellow contestants.
"Well, this is it... Have a good summer, little sis..." Dakota kissed her sister's cheek, then had the paparazzi carry her things in and take another boat to always capture photographs of her.
"Au revoir, mon sœur!" Darla called, waving a hanky as the boat went off and she had a deep evil grin. "Excellent... Let the fun and games begin, big sis..."