Courtney stared dejectedly out her bedroom window at the sun slowly rising in the distance, her face set in a resigned frown. A new day had dawned, and yet it was just like the last, and the one before, and the one before. Her daily existence seemed so dry and boring to her now, devoid of any real joy or excitement. It had been five years now since the end of Total Drama: All-Stars, and the end of her TV career.
After the end of the show and her failure to win any prize money, Courtney had decided to go to Law school and become a lawyer. However, this idea quickly became a failure as she was ridiculed by her fellow students for appearing on the reality TV show, and her behavior on it. Becoming a lawyer had been her secret dream for years, and her continued failure had demoralized her.
Now she was stuck with a teaching job in a crappy school system in Toronto, and worst of all, she was alone. Oh, how it was ironic that she finally discovered how important relationships are to being happy only after she sacrificed hers with Duncan to try and win Total Drama fame and fortune. Now she looked back on the few happy days she'd spent with him with fondness, when she wasn't royally fucking everything up by being a bossy, self-absorbed idiot, that is. She'd been so busy trying to fix what she'd deemed to be his many faults – she'd made a list, for God's sake! – That she hadn't realized that she was partly responsible for their failed relationship. Duncan, despite his Mohawk and piercings and tats, had been her angel, the one person who looked past her bossy, annoying exterior and found something to love. And yet she had driven him away.
She couldn't really fault him for running to Gwen. If she had only been kinder, and realized how important their relationship was to her, then maybe he would've stayed. But it was too late for all that now. Too late for regrets, too late for Courtney to tell Duncan that she loved him, and that she was so incredibly sorry. A few years ago she'd seen Duncan on TV during an interview. He was working as a successful tattoo artist now, and engaged to Gwen, who was pregnant and also a successful writer.
Courtney had immediately turned off the TV when the interviewer started to give his "happiest regards" to the young couple, unable to listen to another word. She had bawled for hours on her couch, feeling a bit jealous but mainly so very alone. She was an only child, her dad had passed away when she a young child, and her mom was a workaholic. She'd also never really made friends as a child, thanks to her loud, bossy personality. So there was no one in the world that she could really talk to. Duncan had been the only person she'd ever really felt comfortable with and she missed him with every fiber of her being.
Courtney finally realized that she'd been sitting and think for way to long now, and pulled herself up from her bed with a sigh, then getting dressed and walking to the front door in a haze. Every morning she hoped that for some unknown reason Duncan would be there, and every day she was disappointed. But today she was in for the surprise of a lifetime, and Courtney was rendered speechless with shock as she carelessly threw open her front door and gazed into an extremely familiar pair of stunning aqua eyes.
"So, did you miss me?" he asked with his trademark smirk.
And for the first time in 5 years a genuine smile graced Courtney's, because perhaps it was a new day after all.