A/N: Yes, everyone, this is my fifth, and last, TD OC fic. I've written most seasons, but I've never tried out this one, and I have a pairing in mind for my second favourite RI character, so let's go!
Plot: Shannon Taylors may be small and cute, like a strawberry-blonde kitten, but she's also tough and never minces words, and she's known as the "Cutie With Claws". She only signed up for TD for fun, but as the challenges start, it brings out a competitive streak in her, although there's nothing more important to her than her newfound friends and her new crush...
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Total Drama! But I do own Shannon.
As I leaned on the railings, looking back at the dock I'd just left, I remembered my audition tape...
I rubbed my amber charm with one finger as I smiled at the camera. "Hey. The name's Shannon, and I really want to be on the next season of Total Drama. Trust me, you don't want to miss out on letting me try out. See, I've watched this show before, and let me say, some people needed to go earlier or later. I'd be good on the show because I get people. If you pick me, I will win this. Definitely. I don't care who else is on there – I'll be there, and I'll have fun winning a million!"
I just made the audition tape for Total Drama for fun. I'd never actually thought I'd make it onto the show, with all kinds of teenagers like me. But then again, who would turn down a free pass to spend their summer on an island where they had a fourteen-to-one chance to win a million bucks? Not me! So now I was on a boat, speeding towards Camp Wawanakwa to be on the fourth season of this show. This season was called "Total Drama: Revenge of The Island", and I couldn't wait to get there.
I was broken from my thoughts when a boy with red hair and a sly look came up to me. "Hey, sweetheart." he greeted me, with this weird smile on his face.
"Shannon to you." I corrected, turning to face him.
"I'm Scott." the boy introduced himself. "I just wanted to ask you something. Did it hurt?"
"Hm?" I frowned.
"When you fell from the sky, angel."
I slapped him across the face. "First, I met you seconds ago, creep! Second, that is the oldest pick-up-line ever – can't you be original?"
"OK, OK." Scott muttered, rubbing his face where I'd slapped him. "Just trying to be nice. It's a compliment." As he left, I heard him muttering "For someone that small, she can hurt." I counted that as a compliment. At least now, I knew that there was one creep and twelve potentially nicer people.
There were other teenagers everywhere on the boat. On the top deck, there was an African-Canadian kid who looked too young to be sixteen (then again, I was even smaller than he was), staring in awe at everything, and below, a guy playing on a handheld console.
Most of the others were on the same deck as me. A big guy was standing next to a pale blonde who was slightly thinner and taller than me, who was sitting on the railings. Next to them, a girl with scarlet pigtails and a flower in her hair was standing next to a guy with spiky dark hair. Also around the ship was a muscular African-Canadian guy who was flexing, a scowling tomboyish girl in grey sweats, a boy with a crew cut in army-style clothes, a pear-shaped girl with mouse hair and a red hair bow, a tall blonde wearing pink, and an Italian-Canadian girl who, I swear, would've already used up three cans of hairspray by the time we got to camp.
As we neared the island, I spotted Chris McLean, the host.
"Stay out of my way if you value your kiwis." the girl in sweats advised Scott as we got closer.
"Right back at ya." he replied.
The girl with pigtails nudged the spiky-haired guy. "Can you believe we're here?"
"Yeah, it's beautiful..." the boy murmured, looking at her. They were snapped out of it when the boy with the muscles knocked them over. "Hello, gorgeous!" he announced arrogantly, and then kissed his biceps.
As this happened, the spiky haired boy was accidentally thrown right into me, knocking me over.
"Sorry." he apologized immediately.
"It's OK." I answered. "It was that other guy's fault." I smiled at him. "I'm Shannon, by the way."
"I'm Mike." He grinned back shyly.
The girl with the pigtails had been caught by the guy with the crew cut, luckily.
At that moment, the girl on the railings spoke to the big guy. "Your aura is exceptionally purplish-green. Oh, it suits you, though." The boy grinned.
As the camera moved to the deck above us, the blonde in pink started self-advertising herself. "Hey there! Dakota here, and I-" But the camera was already moving on to the girl with the hairspray.
Dakota gave her a shove. "Whoa, who said you could pan away?"
"Don't push me, blondie!" the other girl said, knocking her over and spraying fake tan and hairspray in her face.
The mouse-haired girl started babbling something about fake tan being invented by some great-great ancestor or something.
I couldn't hear the boy on the top deck, but he still seemed awed by everything he saw, enough for a bunch of birds to knock him onto the deck, just next to the guy playing on his console.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Chris holding a remote. He pressed the button, and the boat...exploded.
I landed right next to a rock, which the little African-Canadian kid landed on. "Is this what pain tastes like?" he groaned, slipping into the water.
"Chris is so getting the beatdown for this!" I heard the girl with the hairspray call.
I wasn't too good with swimming myself, although I could swim (just not well), but the other boy wasn't coming up, so I took a breath – and was suddenly out of the water, held in one hand by the muscly guy. In his other hand was the African-Canadian little kid.
"I'll save you, little girls!" he exclaimed, ignoring the other boy's call that he was a boy.
From my view, I saw Dakota lounging in a lifeboat with a lot of guys in another boat taking photos of her. However, Chris exploded it again, and both the boy and I were knocked out of the guy's hands, the boy crashing into the hairspray girl's hair, and me crashing into him. "Hey, no touching the hair, four-eyes!" the girl said fiercely. Someone's a little vain.
The first onto the beach was the blonde girl who'd been on the railings, completely, much to the displeasure of the girl in the sweats, who arrived soaked like the rest of us, coming in second.
I managed to swim to shore, while the other boy came out on top of the big guy.
I leant against one of the rocks, where Mike and the girl with the flower were.
"So stoked to be here." the redhead said. "I've been watching Total Drama for ever! Who knows, maybe I'll even make some new friends!"
I grinned at her as she smiled around at everyone.
"Yes." said the blonde. "That would be good, considering you were an only child and all."
The redhead frowned. "Who told you that?
"Your soul reads like an open book. You had such a lonely childhood." The girl took her hand sympathetically. "It must have been difficult."
I took a step away. OK, the blonde was a little creepy. But she seemed nice.
Suddenly, the intercoms crackled. "Attention, fresh meat!" Chris' voice yelled. "See the trail leading into the forest? Race to the end of the trail and do NOT disturb the wildlife. That would be bad."
"Yeah, we don't wanna upset the bunnies!" laughed the muscly guy.
"The tiniest sound can set them off," Chris continued. "Like THIS!" Some music played, making some trees fall, and we all ran for it.
I was fourth to the end of the trail, where Chris was already dividing people up. "Strawberry-blonde cloud pixie, Team B." he ordered, pointing to the place where the girl with sweats was already standing. On the other side of him, the African-Canadian muscly guy was standing with Scott.
"Corporal Brickhouse, Team B." he continued as the boy in army clothes arrived.
"Sir, yes, Sir!" the boy saluted and stood with me.
Chris continued ordering each person as they arrived. "Silent treatment, Team A. Bubble boy, Team B. Zoey the Lonely, Team B."
Zoey was the redhead with the flower. "Only as a child!" she protested. "Seriously!"
Chris continued. "The aura whisperer, Team A. Saved by a girl, Team B. Princess wannabe, Team A. Tan in a can, Team B. Yo, game junkie, Team A! And chatty Staci, Team A." Staci was the girl with the red bow in her hair.
I looked around at my team. The little African-Canadian guy, the girl in sweats, the army guy, the hairspray girl, Zoey, Mike, and I. Huh, could be worse. At least Scott wasn't part of my team.
Chris told us some of the differences in the seasons. First, someone would be cut in every episode – there were no reward challenges. To make up for that, he was going to hide an immunity idol in the campground. If someone was voted off, they could use the idol to stay in the game.
Chris named our teams. We were the Mutant Maggots, and the other team were the Toxic Rats. The reason for the toxic waste references were apparently to do with the island. Just as Mike asked that question, a roar sounded.
"It's the monster!" the African-Canadian boy called out. No, it was only a squirrel.
"Awww!" cooed Dakota. She screamed when it blinked vertically instead of horizontally.
"Oh my gosh, what's wrong with it?" the little blonde asked.
As it turned out, Chris had rented out the island to a toxic waste disposal company, who had left chemical waste everywhere, and it was having an effect on the wildlife.
"Most. Danger. Ever!" Chris sang out cheerfully.
We got rewards to help us in the next challenge. We got a trampoline, since our first team member got here first. The other team got a saw.
After Chris cut to commercial, I managed to get everyone's names. On the other team, the gamer was Sam, the muscly guy was Lightning (what kind of a name is that?), the big silent guy was called B (I was told that one by another team member), the pale blonde was Dawn, and I already knew Scott, Dakota and Staci's names.
On my team, I checked out who I knew (just Mike and Zoey) and got everyone else's names. The African-Canadian boy was Cameron, and he seemed nice. He was also the smallest guy on the island, just an inch taller than me. The girl in sweats was Jo. The girl with the hairspray was called Anne Maria, and finally, the army boy was called Brick.
Chris showed us two totem poles, each of them with our team's symbol. Basically, we had to cut them down and ride them down the river to the campgrounds. The first team there got their pick of the cabins, and we had to do it in seven minutes – or the totem pole would explode.
"All right, let's do this!" Jo yelled, jumping on the trampoline and accidentally hurling herself into a bush.
Cameron thought for a moment. "OK, if Jo hits centre of the trampoline with 50 pounds of pressure per square inch-"
"Back off, I want a crack at this!" Anne Maria ordered.
"But I calculated for Jo's weight!"
Anne Maria didn't listen. We actually had to drag the trampoline out from her landing point before she stopped bouncing. Well, Jo did.
I looked at the little axe stuck to the base of the pole. "We need to get the axe out of the pole and up to the top to cut the rope." I mused. "How are we going to do that?"
When Brick jumped on the trampoline and grabbed onto the axe, it held fast. He started screaming for help, stuck in the air.
"Sheesh, what a baby." Anne Maria muttered.
"Aw, man, this isn't working!" Mike said frustratedly. Suddenly, he gasped, and said in an old man's voice "Darn it, cut the danged rope already!"
"That's what we're trying to do, Mike!" Anne Maria pointed it out.
"Mike? Name's Chester, missy!"
I exchanged glances with Zoey. "I don't get it, do you?" I whispered.
Zoey shook her head. "But I bet it's really funny if you're from somewhere...like...I don't know, France, maybe?"
It was actually Mike that got us the win. Some squirrel with laser beams kept shooting after he threw a rock at it, and it cut the rope. Soon, all of us were on the totem pole, floating down the river.
We all cheered.
Jo, who was at the front, looked back at the other team. "They're gaining on us!"
"It is my duty to inform you, ma'am, that we have bigger problems." Brick pointed ahead.
"No, this is NOT a classic cartoon!" I screamed. There was a waterfall. Seriously, how did this happen in real life? There was always a cartoon waterfall joke, but everyone survived in that.
"My first waterfall!" Cameron said excitedly.
"And maybe our last!" Mike said in his old man voice.
Actually, we survived the waterfall, too, and were riding down a bumpy hill. I felt so insecure, I just instinctively hung on to the person in front of me (Cameron) and shut my eyes.
As I did, I heard Zoey screaming behind me. She was at the back, with Mike in front. I suddenly heard him say "Zoey?" in his regular voice, and then, panicked, "Zoey! Hang on tight!"
I think he saved her from something. I didn't look around, but I heard her reply "OK. Thanks, Mike."
We arrived last, and our totem pole exploded...just as we crashed into the cabin the Rats had already claimed – a huge mansion.
"As the only team with a cabin still standing, the Mutant Maggots win the first challenge!" Chris announced.
Chris gave the Rats another cabin – the twin to our shabby one, pretty much like the ones from the first season
At least there was no elimination ceremony, so I got to chill and hang out with my team – and unpack, of course.
There were two bunks in each cabin. "Hey, Zoey," I said, "Wanna share a bunk with me?"
Zoey smiled. "Sure, Shannon. Do you want top?"
I shrugged. "Sure. If that's OK with you."
Anne Maria and Jo also had to share, of course. As I unpacked, I discovered that I actually got on best with Zoey. Anne Maria was really vain. She spent all her time spraying fake tan and hairspray on herself, while Jo was really harsh and bossy. Zoey seemed a bit nervous and eager to please, but she was nice and I needed a friend.
After I'd unpacked, I sat outside on the steps. Cameron happened to be out there, too. "Hey," I said, "Sorry about hanging onto you back there. It was kind of a reflex, I just freaked out."
Cameron smiled shyly. "It's OK. It was a surprise, but I understand."
I grinned back. "So...just out of interest, why'd you sign up for this?"
"It's kind of a long story." Cameron answered. "This is the first time in sixteen years that I've been able to do anything like anyone else. I was prematurely born, so my mom was really overprotective of me. For most of my life, I've lived in a plastic bubble. I've never really been able to do anything except read. I wanted to do something exciting. I might be weak, but it's my knowledge that I'm counting on to get me through this."
I grinned. "Wow." I said sympathetically. "So...you've never really talked to any other people our age before?"
"Nope." Cameron admitted. "It's kind of overwhelming, but at the same time, it feels amazing to be out. So...why'd you sign up?"
"For fun." I answered. "And to see if I could win a million. Thing is, I think Chris is going to be even tougher on us than he was on the last cast. Did you ever get to watch the show?"
"Not really." Cameron admitted. "A few times. It was hard to hear from inside the bubble, but I got the idea."
By the end of the day, I'd talked to everyone on the team. I liked all of the guys on our team. Cameron especially, but Mike and Brick too. I didn't care much for Jo, or Anne Maria, but Zoey was great. Oh yeah, and I was pretty sure she and Mike had a thing for each other.
Staci was voted off, that night. Everyone was sick of her babbling about her ancestors inventing this and what people did before that.
Sorry, but the next few chapters probably won't be so long. Hope you liked this one. Wanna review?