Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama or anything in the franchise.

Okay, so writing and uploading all the chapters to this story before the twelfth was more like wishful thinking. I took a look at my writing speed, and the outline to the story, and came to the conclusion that there was no way that it was possible. That said, I'm putting up this chapter as promised. Enjoy!

There weren't many occupants in the gym besides Sky. Eva was there like always, Brick came in to do his usual laps around the gym, and Lightning was keeping in football player shape. Jo usually did her jog outside, but with the snow and cold weather, she had to take her exercise indoors and was taking the opportunity to try and outrun Brick.

Sky kept to the area near the balance beam, the trampoline, the vault, and the bar. Jumping into the air on the trampoline, she forced herself to stop thinking about Dave and focus on practice. While in the air, she did flips and spins, managing to get several of each in the process. It was such a rush to be in the air and seeing the world rapidly whirl around. After a few rounds, she stopped jumping and let gravity grab hold of her body again. Climbing off the trampoline, she picked up her towel and her bottle of water. She wiped her forehead and took a swig of water to rehydrate.

"Hah!" Sky turned her attention to the masculine shout. From the sound of it, it came from where Brick and Jo were. "I beat you, Jo." Brick boasted with pride.

Jo rolled her eyes and folded her arms. "Big whoop, so what does this make for us, you now have twenty victories to my seventy?"

Brick friendly nudged her in the shoulder. "Come on, Jo, you know it's not that big of a gap."

"Fine, so what is it really? Thirty to sixty?"

"Close enough."

The sight of them couldn't help but make Sky smile. She remembered that Dave tried to be competitive to impress her. Once her thoughts focused on Dave again, she frowned. Just when she had forgotten about him.

"So," Jo drawled out, "what now?"

Brick grinned and took one of her hands. "Now we go find mistletoe and kiss under it. Just as we betted."

"Remind me why I agreed to that."

"Because you were confident that I would lose and you wouldn't end up kissing me under mistletoe. If you had won, I'd have to find you an early Christmas present."

"Fine, but we better do it when nobody's watching us or I'm never going to hear the end of it." Jo reluctantly let Brick pull her out of the gym.

Eva wasn't even paying attention to what was going on. She had her earbuds in and was weightlifting to the music. Lightning, however, was listening just as Sky was.

"Lightning just doesn't get what Joe sees in Brick. And if he doesn't want anybody seeing them kiss, then why are they doing it in the first place?" He asked out loud as he did some curl ups.

Sky looked at Lightning weirdly. She had seen him on the show, but interacting with him made him seem a lot weirder. "You do realize Jo's a girl, right?"

The athletic overachiever let out a short laugh, "Hah, like Lightning's going to believe that a second time. Lightning almost believed it the first time, but then he figured, Joe's trying to get the last laugh by pulling Lightning's leg and making him look stupid. Sha-hah, like that will happen."

The gymnast sighed and glanced at the clock. It was mid-afternoon now and she had been practicing ever since she talked with Ella. She really needed something to get her mind off Dave. Recalling that she sometimes heads out to the pool to swim some laps, she remembered that with the outdoor pool closed up, the indoor pool was up and running. Chris was cheap like that. He would let one operate, but not both. In the warmer months, it was the outdoor pool, and in the cooler months, it was the indoor pool. It saved money on water and kept the teens from pestering him about not having a pool to swim in. Thoughts of the indoor pool flooding her mind, Sky decided she would go swim laps there.

Her next activity planned, Sky went back up to her room to change into her swimsuit and headed back downstairs to the indoor pool.

Entering the room the pool was in, it almost looked like a hotel pool room. The juice bar that normally operated outside had a stall inside this very room at the resort as well. Not too many were around. It seemed like there was only Noah, who was at the juice bar counter with a book, and Gwen, who appeared to be peacefully taking a nap in one of the comfortable lounge chairs. Aside from those two, it seemed that Sky had the whole pool to swim in alone. Quietly setting her towel on a chair near Gwen's, Sky walked over to the end of the pool and climbed down the ladder into the water. Once she was treading water, she took a breath and began doing some laps across. While she practiced, she hoped she wasn't making too much noise and disturbing the other occupants of the room.

After doing several laps across and back, Sky decided to take a break and just swam for leisure. She swam under a few times just for the sensation of it, and floated for a little while and kicked her legs absentmindedly. A little bit later, she got upright and treaded water. Noticing she was still alone, Sky glanced at the water around her. She sighed; she was alone quite often. At first, she thought it was just because she was dedicated to her training for the Olympics, but she eventually found out that she was alone because not a lot of the other contestants were very fond of her. They had seen the PI finale, and needless to say, they weren't very supportive of some of the decisions she made. Sure they congratulated her on winning and taking down Sugar in the final three, but that was all the support she got. She had only a few people that she could call friends at the resort: Ella, Lindsay, Beth, Mike, Zoey, Cameron, Owen, Dawn, and B, and that was pretty much it. They all had other friends beside her and spent most of their time with them instead of her. All alone, Sky could only wallow in the loneliness that she had recently discovered.

Somehow though, Sky found herself imagining being back on Pahkitew Island. She remembered being down in the caves with her team. More specifically, she remembered how after Sugar had accidentally rammed her and the boys into the lake in front of them. The gymnast recalled that moment vividly; that was one of the happy moments she had with Dave. She was treading water there, and he was treading right beside her with a smile on his face which made her smile too, and he had charmed her with his sense of humor.

…But that was before their bond was ruined thanks to her stupid decisions.

Shaking her head, she looked back where she was staring and saw the empty, sparkly pool water. No Dave. Disappointed in herself for letting her thoughts constantly wander to Dave, Sky sighed sadly.

"Hey, you okay?"

Turning to where she heard the voice, the gymnast saw Gwen, awake, sitting in the lounge chair beside where she had left her towel.

"Oops, Gwen, did I wake you?" Sky asked apologetically.

"No, I slept fine." Gwen waved off the notion. "So, what's up with you? You seem all… well, moody. Just like I was when I first got sucked into this messed up show."

"I, I'm just thinking. I heard some stuff earlier, and I can't stop thinking about it no matter how much I try to focus on training. The more I think, the more I feel guilty." Sky admitted, looking away from Gwen.

Gwen breathed out and leaned back in her chair. "I know how that feels."

Biting her lower lip, Sky glanced at the juice bar and noticed that Noah had vanished. It seemed nobody was here except for her and Gwen now. She glanced at Gwen, uncertainty in her eyes. "Gwen, can I… can I talk to you about something?"

"We're already talking anyway, go right ahead."

Sky climbed out of the pool and started to dry herself off with her towel. "Do you ever feel like you've royally messed up?"

"I might," Gwen raised an eyebrow at her, "what's it to you?"

"I won the million dollars, which is great and everything, but the way I got there was so screwed up." She finished drying off and sat down on her chair next to Gwen's.

"You think so?"

"You saw the season, I know you did. Zoey told me that everyone at the Playa is the first to see the completed episodes."

Gwen held up a hand to stop her. "I know that. I'm just asking if you truly think the way you played the game was screwed up."

The gymnast slumped in her chair and covered her face with her hands. "I know I screwed up! I led Dave on when I didn't even mean to. Sure I tried to tell him the truth several times, but he just wouldn't let me even get there. It's because of me unintentionally leading him on that he went overboard. I kissed him for crying out loud! I kissed him just so he could help me win. That's all I cared about at that point, winning. Gah, I'm so stupid! And now because of what I did, I've hardly got any friends, Dave isolated himself in his room for the last several months, and most of the fanbase hates me, all because I was selfish and spineless for not outright telling Dave the truth before it was too late. Ever since this morning when I learned what Dave has been up to, I can't stop thinking about how bad everything turned out. Why did everything go so wrong?!"

She laid there in silence for a little bit after completing her rant, her face covered by her hands in shame. Unknown to her and her chat companion, someone stood just around the door to the room. Ella had wanted to speak to Sky again and had been searching the Playa for her ever since she left Dave's room a little while ago. A few tips from some of the other contestants had led her to the pool, where Sky was last seen headed towards. Coincidentally, Ella had heard the whole exchange. Out of respect for Sky's privacy, Ella decided against her original plan of talking to Sky and chose to speak with her later. The fairytale princess walked away with something to think about.

"… I thought the same."

Sky uncovered her face to look at Gwen confusedly. "Huh?"

The Goth girl sat up a little straighter. "I thought the same thing before."

"You did?"

"In my time of Total Drama, I made some bad calls. When I made those bad calls, I have no idea what I was thinking." Gwen admitted. "After season three, I lost a lot of my friends and fans. At first, I wasn't sure why, but then I found out it had to do with me hooking up with Duncan. I tried to make amends with people, but people just wouldn't give me more than the time of day anymore. When season five came around, I thought I could try and make amends, but you can guess how well that turned out."

"Yeah, I can." Sky nodded.

Gwen sighed. "Looking back, I really screwed up too. I looked over my previous performances after season five and realized that I didn't approach my problems with Trent the right way in season two. I didn't get the full story before I broke up with him. Looking over season three, I noticed that Courtney and Duncan didn't even officially break up until after Duncan and I had kissed. Even when I was trying to make amends with Courtney, I realized how big of a jerk I was to Duncan in the process. I've been wrong every time, no matter how much I try to fix things. I guess we both royally messed up huh?"

"Yeah, we really did." Sky nodded again.

"You still have a chance though."

"What?"

"You still have a chance to fix your mistakes. I'm already too deep and I think if I try anything more, I'll just get into an even bigger mess." Gwen laid back again.

Sky sat up inquisitively. "What do you think I should do?"

"Show Dave that you're sorry, get everything off your chest, show him that you care about him."

"How do I do that?"

Gwen hummed for a moment. "Well, it's Christmas, maybe you should get him something that he'll really like. Give him the present and come clean with about how you feel about everything that happened. You have less people involved than I do, it shouldn't be too hard."

The gymnast mulled it over for a little bit. "I suppose I could give it a try. Hopefully it won't hurt and it will work. Thanks, Gwen." Her mind set, Sky got up and grabbed her towel to leave the pool room. As she left, she thought of something. "Hey, Gwen?"

"Yeah?" Gwen asked in a monotone.

"Just because I'm trying doesn't mean you shouldn't. If you really care about Courtney, Duncan, and Trent, then you should try. You're back to being friends with Trent right? That's one step forward. You just need to take the rest." Her final word said, Sky left the pool.

The Goth girl opened her mouth and reached her hand out to say something, but Sky left before she could. With no one to talk to Gwen was left to think on what Sky had said. She glanced around the pool room and observed the loneliness she felt in it.

A few hours later, Sky had changed into her day clothes, had her dinner, and was currently in her room, mulling over what she could possibly give to Dave. She was in the middle of thinking on her bed when she heard a knock on her door. Wondering who could possibly want to see her at this time, she opened up her door to see someone surprising.

"Ella?"

"Hello again, Sky." She greeted friendly. "May I come in?"

"Um," Sky hesitated for a moment, she rarely had anyone visiting her room so the request was a bit out of the ordinary. Though, after talking that morning, she felt that it would be okay, "Sure, come in." Ella walked inside and Sky shut the door behind her. Ella stood in the middle of the suite while Sky took a seat on the edge of her bed. "So, what do you need?"

Ella turned from friendly to concerned. "After our talk this morning, I thought I should keep you updated on what Dave is up to?"

"And?"

"And he's been the same he's always been. He finished the newest book I gave him two days ago today and this afternoon, he attempted to complete this game he downloaded off the Internet on his computer. He seemed pretty happy when he accomplished it. That was the first time I've seen him smile in a couple weeks, actually. He's been working on that game for a couple days."

Sky slightly smiled, "At least we know he can still smile sometimes."

"Yes," Ella nodded, "I'm happy about that too." Then the fairytale princess bit her lip nervously. "I also came to talk to you about something else."

"What?"

"I might have overheard you speaking with Gwen…" Ella admitted.

"You did?" Sky's eyes widened and she flopped onto her bed with a groan.

"I truly am sorry. I was looking for you and the others directed me to the pool, and I believe I just arrived at the wrong time."

"No, no, it's fine." The gymnast waved off the apology.

"Really?" Ella asked, taking a seat on the bed next to where Sky was lying down. "You're not mad?"

Sky peered over at Ella. "I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at myself."

"If this is about what you told Gwen earlier, then you shouldn't be so hard on yourself. You had no idea what was going to happen whatever you did."

"That's because I didn't even think of what would happen, Ella!" Sky snapped, making Ella flinch. "I acted without thinking about the consequences. One of the stupidest things a person can do! Thanks to me acting without thinking, I ruined Dave's life, and mine. Except for you and a few other people, nobody wants to even be around me. Heck, even Keith did the breakup when I was the one that planned to do that first, and he did it over a stupid text."

Ella reached over to touch Sky's arm and said, "Sky, please, I told you. You shouldn't be so hard on yourself. You didn't know what would happen. You're not alone in this. It's Dave's fault too. You were trying to tell him the truth, but he didn't let you have a chance. Now I haven't told him this personally, but I think he overreacted when he did find out. Please, stop blaming yourself for everything."

The other girl sat up even though she didn't feel like it. "I know." She moped. "And I'm sorry for snapping at you."

"No apology needed. You needed to vent." Ella responded and moved her hand up to Sky's shoulder. "Now cheer up. Now is not the time to be sad. It's almost Christmas and that's supposed to be a happy time."

"I don't see how I can with everything that's on my mind."

"I think I know what will make you feel better." The fairytale princess stood up with a smile and a gleam in her eye. "How about I sing you a song?"

Sky moaned. "Ella, please don't sing a song and turn this into some sort of Christmas special."

"Christmas is a time for cheer,"

The gymnast frowned and watched as Ella went on with her song anyway.

"Because it's the end of the year.

Sure you accidentally led Dave astray

But you didn't mean for it to go that way."

Sky didn't like where this was going.

"Even though you made him mad,

You have shown that you still care.

His anger might have made you sad,

But you still went back and saved him from that bear."

She had to concede to that point. She was the only one in the helicopter that realized Dave wasn't onboard and they had retrieved him before a robot bear could maul him.

"He was your friend first,

Your enemy last.

I believe you've already faced the worst,

If you make up, you will surely have a blast.

On the island you both had fun,

You had even more when our team won."

Sky recalled her moments with Dave fondly: calming him down after he was covered in grease, their conversation during Doom Balloons, foraging together, their reluctance to kiss for the scare, learning Dave had set up a picnic for her, their several attempts to kiss in the caves, her concern for him getting beaned by a tennis ball Chef fired, pulling the snake Jasmine provoked off him. All those times, she really did care about him, and those thoughts made her feel happy.

"Give him a gift,

Say hello.

Close the rift,

Dave is now quite mellow.

Do this because Christmas is a time for cheer,

It is especially good to be nice.

Show him that he's still in here,"

As Ella said 'here', she pointed closely to where Sky's heart is. Sky followed Ella's finger with her eyes and looked up as Ella pulled her finger away.

"Show him your bond is not on ice.

Tell him your feelings that are true,

And he will come back to you."

Looking at Ella, Sky realized she was done singing and struggled to find the words she was looking for. Ella stood patiently, waiting for a response. Once Sky found the words she was looking for, she couldn't help but smile. "Thank you, Ella. I have no idea what to say. Maybe that was what I needed."

"I knew it was." Ella smiled back and bent over to give Sky a hug. At first, Sky was taken aback, but she got over it and accepted the hug, returning it with all her heart. They released and Ella said, "I better go. I usually tell Dave what went on all day so he's not left out of the loop."

"Okay." Sky followed Ella to the door so she could close it.

"Should I tell Dave about you?" Ella asked when she stepped out into the hallway.

Sky shook her head. "No, I want it to be a surprise. I want to do this myself."

Ella nodded in acknowledgment. "Alright, have a good evening."

"Bye." Ella walked down the hall and Sky closed the door.

The gymnast walked back to the center of her room. Ella's song and Gwen's advice gave her some confidence. She would get Dave a Christmas present and fix their relationship; she promised herself she would. Looking around her room for inspiration, it wasn't until she laid her eyes on her computer that she thought of an idea. Picking up her laptop, she settled on her bed and turned on the device. She opened up the web browser and started clicking away. Christmas Eve was five days away so she was on a time crunch; she had to find a gift Dave would like and fast.