Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama, nor any of the characters associated with the show. I own this story and Erin McLean only.

Wow, once again another Total Drama Fanfic. I have so many I haven't finished but this one will be added too. Probably infrequently but I will add to it. I'm still working on Total Drama Challenge but I'm currently trying for a coupling I've never really worked with made of two characters I've never connected with for.
Anywhooooooooo. Here's-yet another- total drama high school fic...because I'm that original.

"Who's the new girl?" The voice behind Heather asked. Heather looked up from her phone in time to see an unfamiliar face enter the Senior Literature class. She was tall, slim and kind of pretty; her jet black hair hung in a loose curtain to her waist, a single cobalt blue streak ran its length and matched her bangs which only half sported the color. Storm gray eyes scanned the classroom critically in search of an open seat. She carried herself with a cocky sort of confidence as she crossed, not speaking a single word to anyone as she did.

"Doesn't she know the meaning of modesty?" Another voice whispered.

The girls outfit didn't leave much to the imagination, that was for sure. Her black crop top showed slightly sculpted abs and more than enough cleavage while her camo cargo pants hung off her hips to expose the bands of what could clearly be deduced as a black g-string. A tattoo of a black iris stood out against the pale skin of her left shoulder.

Despite all this, she looked good. Anyone else who tried to wear that specific combination would have looked extremely trashy. This girl didn't.

Heather hated her.

"Everyone, this is Erin McLean, a transfer from North Castle High." Miss. Lynn, a springy teacher of only twenty-seven, informed the class.

Heather started visibly. North Castle was a very private, very distinguished high school that only the best of the best could get in to. And this social reject went there? It took her a minute to realize Miss. Lynn was still talking.

"...Studying poetry, so you'll have to borrow someone's notes. Feel free to participate but it's perfectly fine if you don't today. Just focus on getting caught up." She smiled brightly at Erin who just nodded in turn. Miss. Lynn proceded to read from her book while the class listened. "Alright, who wants to give an analysis of Poe's 'A Dream Within a Dream'? Anyone?" Heather wasn't surprised when no one volunteered. "Fine. I'll just have to-"

"It's a reflection of himself."

Everyone turned to see Erin leaning back in her chair, doodling a crude skull on her inner wrist with a sharpie. Heather raised an eyebrow. There was no way she had been the one to answer.

Miss. Lynn blinked several times before asking, "Care to explain, Erin?"

"The poem is Poe's way of expressing the decline of his sanity, brought about by his excessive alcohol intake and opium use. The sand represents this and he feels as if it's slowly slipping away leaving everything to feel as if he is living in a dream."

"That's an...interesting take," Miss. Lynn responded after several moments, "but what's to say that this poem isn't about the passage of time?"

"'Take this kiss upon thy brow!

And, in parting from you now,

Thus much let me avow-

You are not wrong, who deem

That my days have been a dream.' And he knew this. If this isn't a clear indicator that he accepted the slow disintegration of his fragile sanity, I don't know what is. Anyone who has studied Poe's work thoroughly can see that he was deranged. He was intelligent but dark, depressed...crazy even.

'I sand amid the roar

Of a surf-tourmented shore

And I hold within my hand

Grains of golden sand.

How few! Yet how they creep,

Through my fingers to the deep,

While I weep-While I weep!

Oh God! Can I not grasp

Them in a tighter clasp?

Oh God! Can I not save

One from the pitiless wave? Though clearly aware that he is slowly sinking into madness, Poe still weeps and attempts to keep hold of his sanity, trying desperately to keep it from slipping through his fingers as he descends into darkness."

The entire class just stared at her while she finished her little speech; both in awe of her in depth analysis of Poe and amazement because she never once took her eyes off her drawing. A drawing which had evolved into a skull surrounded by a thicket of black roses. K

"Well," Miss. Lynn cleared her throat, "I don't think anyone can really top that. Well done Miss. McLean."

Heather scowled.

She really hated her.

Another boring day at another boring school.

Erin made her way from class to class, paying just enough attention to show up the teachers but not enough to actually care. She spent the first week scoping things out, then the second finding her place. She'd settled herself in with the undesirables-the ones that hung on the bottom rung of the social ladder for dear life- quite comfortably. In fact, she was so comfortable in her outcast position that she was currently sprawled out in the old wood shop with her two new friends; Gwen- a rebellious, gothic artist that was only mildly brooding and had a stare like medusa, and Duncan- a punk rocker with a bad boy reputation as well as, in Erin's opinion, one hell of a body.

At the moment they were in the basement of the school, at the end of a long, dimly lit hall where not even the janitors ventured for no other reason than there was no need to. Thanks to their solitude, Erin was lying with her head in Duncan's lap, sitting up just long enough to take a hit off Gwen's artfully sculpted rose shaped bowl. She would then lay back and exhale a thick, sweet smelling cloud of green tinged smoke.

This was how she had spent first and fourth period everyday for the last week and a half. The three of them had hit it off instantly when Gwen and Duncan-both on their way to lunch to sate their case of the munchies- had found Erin telling off Heather Chang, who had an instant loathing for Erin and wasn't afraid of telling her. Gwen had been impressed by the new girls moxie but Duncan was harder to convince. He had decided to put her to his own test with a few choice phrases and an inappropriately placed hand. Even almost two weeks later he was still showing the remainder of the shiner Erin had given him when she cold cocked him and nursing a bruised ego. Needless to say the two of them had bonded in detention that afternoon.

"So, Erin, we hear your from North Castle?" Gwen mumbled, chewing on her pencil. Erin nodded her head in affirmation. "What made you transfer here?"

"Lack of a choice." Erin said shortly. "I was expelled for tagging the lockers in the girls locker room...among other things, but that just so happened to be my third strike." She gave a casual shrug. "Apperently the school frowns upon public humiliation of your needle dick principal. Your principal who also enjoys watching underage girls in short shorts playing volleyball and whacking off in his office. My artful interpretation of said event was not found amusing. Excuse me for trying to get that scumbag fired." She grinned a wicked cheshire grin. "It doesn't help that I punched him for 'slyly' grabbing my ass while implying that there were other options that would get me expelled."

"No shit?!" Gwen's dark eyes widened. Erin nodded. "You know, now that I think about it, I heard on the news he got arrested after several girls came out and said he'd done the same thing to them. Looks like you started a revolution."

"Vive la résistance!" Duncan cheered. Erin laughed and thrust her fist in the air. "I'll take it your rental units weren't too thrilled?"

Erin snorted. "Like my mom ever is. That place is Hell, I swear."

"Better than living in a family of cops." Duncan grumbled.

"Or one stuck in the fifties." Gwen and Duncan exchanged glances and shuttered. "What are your folks like, anyway?" Gwen asked.

"My mom's like Satan himself. Pushy, demanding, eager for me to conform. A real peach." She paused briefly. "My dad died just before I was born so I never knew him." She earned a sympathetic look from Gwen and Duncan shifted uncomfortably. Erin hated mentioning her father to anyone, it always ended up hella awkward. In attempt to defuse the situation she cleared her throat and stood. "I don't know about you guys but I'm starving. Let's go get some lunch."

"Don't have to ask me twice." Duncan agreed and stood, brushing dust off his pants. Together they packed up and the trio headed up to the cafeteria.

"Ugh, will you look at her?" Courtney Santiago mumbled the next day in lunch. Her chocolate brown eyes were glued on Erin, who was lounging by the vending machines in a navy blue mini, torn fishnets and a tight fitting black tank covered by an overly large leather jacket. She was leaning casually against Duncan, their heads bent close together...intimately close and Erin's arm wrapped around Duncan's waist. Erin laughed at something he said and the two of them turned, which is when Courtney saw Erin's hand was tucked into Duncan's back pocket.

Bridgette looked up from her biology notes. "What about her?" She asked, one slim eyebrow rising into her hairline. Courtney waved her hand vaguely.

"Just look at her! She's practically kissing him!"

"So?" Bridgette, knowing this was about to become something more than it was, closed her notebook. "What's the big deal?"

"What's the big deal? It's Duncan! You would be just as upset if it were Geoff." Courtney exclaimed. Her voice rose in volume, so much so that several students cast curious glances their way. Bridgette just let out a heavy sigh.

"That's because Geoff and I are dating," She put as much emphasis on the word as she could without sounding bitchy. "You and Duncan broke up ages ago. Besides he's been with other girls since then and you didn't act like this."

"That's because he wasn't serious about them."

"But he is about her?"

"Yes! Look she's wearing his coat!" Bridgette rolled her eyes in exasperation. It was very rare that she lost her temper, and it was hard to annoy her. But Courtney was good a pushing her limits. "And besides none of them were her." Courtney's eyes narrowed into hateful slits and her face screwed up into a very unattractive scowl. "I hate her."

"You don't even know her." Bridgette sighed.

Courtney stabbed at her home made salad, pretending it was the obnoxiously perfect-for-Duncan face of Erin McLean. "I don't have to."

Erin laughed on the way to her locker, Duncan on one side, Gwen on the other. "I swear she was trying to blow my head up with her mind. She just kept staring at me." Gwen chuckled, shifting her books from one hip to another.

"It's probably because you were blatantly copping a feel of her ex-boyfriend's ass." She gave Erin a knowing grin and arched an eyebrow suggestively.

"I was not groping, my hand was just there!"

"I don't know. I felt a few wandering fingers." Duncan decided to demonstrate what he meant by pinching Erin's backside. She yelped and swatted at him, slapping his arms with the excess sleeve that hung off her arms. "Ouch!" Gwen made a sad attempt to hide her laughter.

"Didn't you learn from the first time not do that? You know, when she punched you in the face?"

"In my defense," Duncan said, rubbing his arm, "I didn't think someone that small could have a right hook that powerful. She's like an angry little elf." The warning bell rang, signaling five minutes until class started.

"I'm gonna be late for trig if I don't go...like now." Erin muttered with a slam of her locker.

"Well aren't you just student of the month material." Duncan teased, ruffling Erin's hair. She rolled her eyes skyward and pushed his hand away.

"Oh bite me!"

"Are you offering?"

"Maybe."

"Kinky."

Gwen groaned and grabbed Erin. "Oh c'mon you!" She huffed, dragging her friend down the hall. Duncan's laughter followed them as they disappeared into the throng of students rushing to class. While they walked Erin cought Gwen giving her a look.

"What?"She asked innocently.

"You could cut the tension between the two of you with a knife." Gwen's matter of fact tone made Erin look away uncomfortably.

"Shut up."

Word Count: 2,063