Chapter Three: BOSTON


Turn the pages we'll write another chapter

Be the last one standing

Burn those bridges down

And we'll never go back

No


Braids of dark brown swayed back and forth rapidly as she shook her head, one of the few and the only girl to have done so. The rest of the class had erupted into cheers and squeals of girlish glee.

"Half-Light? More like Half-Witted." Nina Masons groaned unhappily to herself as the substitute teacher happily put down the Harold Potts DVD in favor of the brain killing drivel that was called Half-Light.

For the umpteenth time she cursed being placed in a science class filled with an overabundance of uber obsessed fan girls. Shooting said girls a dark glare for voting for the horrid movie, Nina searched through her backpack for her salvation.

Pulling out a well worn copy of "Harold Potts and the Halfling Princess" as well as a small flashlight, Nina prepared to tune out the swill of glowing vampires in favor of the magical world of Pigs Blemish.

However when she opened her book, something white fell onto her desk. Blinking in surprise, Nina picked up the object and carefully unfolded it. Turning on her little light and carefully muffling it, she immediately noticed an image of two blue crossed pens and her name carefully written on the front.

After a moment of careful thought it finally hit her. Her teacher Mr. Graves had given it to her last week at the start of Literature class! Vaguely Nina remembered how the overweight yet jolly teacher had signed up the whole class up for the Pen Pal program.


While Nina had been thrilled with the opportunity, her classmates were not. Eventually Mr. Graves so called treat became extra credit in hopes of enticing the most reluctant of the group to participate.

And one by one the letters were written and sent off. Mr. Graves had explained it could be weeks or a month before anyone would get a reply. The very next day there was a first class envelope addressed to her.

Nina had scarcely removed the smaller envelope from within before her desk was surrounded by teenagers all demanding to see the letter. Exasperated, she had finally folded the letter and stuffed it in one of her books.


"Well no time like the present." Nina murmured shaking her head of the memory as she tore off the top to the envelope causing a bunch of shushing and glares in the process before the Half-Light obsessed group went back to watching Edmond.

Nina shuddered again before turning her attention to the long abandoned letter. Pushing up her oval glasses, she proceeded to read, her flashlight traveling over each of the written words in the process.

"Okay…16...smart…misunderstood and most likely a fellow geek…can cook…genuinely eager for correspondence and he's apparently a television star." Nina analyzed to herself with a smile. A minute passed. Then another before Nina's eyes widened.

"TELEVISION STAR?!!"

"SHHHHH!!!!"


Salutations and Greetings to you Ezekiel,

Just to let you know…television star or not I'm not fangirlish like the other morons in my school. I won't rub their face in it...though it is tempting. Oh what the heck...

Actually it's kinda of cool to have a pen pal from another country...TV star or not…I mean the whole point is to meet new people and maybe new friends' right?

Oh almost forgot! I haven't even told you my name! Yeah…that would help…

Well I'm Nina…Nina Masons. I'm 15 and I live in Boston Massachusetts...Cradle of Modern America yada yada…

Hey maybe somewhere down the line if we actually click…err…become friends rather, I would enjoy showing you some of the local sites! Or maybe just the museum to start off with…

But let's just start with letter one and go from there.

Nina Masons

Boston, MA


Canada

1 month later

"Anytime your Pen Pal wants you to visit, heck I won't stop you!"

Whirl Whirl Click!

"Anytime your Pen Pal wants you to visit, heck I won't stop you!"

Whirl Whirl Click!

"Anytime your Pen Pal wants you to visit, heck I won't-"

"ALRIGHT!! YOU WIN! Now can you stop with the tape already?!" Chris McClain yelled out in displeasure. Courtney smirked. "Gladly." The overachiever said removing her finger from the old tape recorder…where she had gotten it Chris had no idea.

Scowling at the very happy group of teenagers, he continued. "SHEESH! What kind of freak writes to a Pen Pal anyway?! And for that matter…who the heck would have multiple ones?!"

The group looked at each other before pointing to Ezekiel with a cheerful or an evil grin on their faces. The homeschooler was oblivious to it all as he sat in a nearby corner with his now ever present mail bags on one side and a carefully organized stack of older letters on the other.

Fully absorbed in his latest correspondence, Ezekiel didn't notice Chris's presence until he heard the harsh crinkling of paper. "Hey! Be careful with thoose eh!" The toque wearing brunet insisted jumping to his feet.

The host of Total Drama ignored him and rapidly sorted through the stack of letters. "Haven't you ever heard of email?!" Chris said with a scowl before flinging the pieces of the paper into the air carelessly.

While Ezekiel let out a yelp and raced around after his precious letters, Chris glared at the group. "Fine! But if I'm going to let ANY of you…ESPECIALLY Prairie Boy travel to Middle of Nowhereville you're going to follow MY rules!"


Needless to say, Courtney had been pleased to discover that the TRAITOR, his girlfriend and the show sexist had disappeared from the hotel one morning. Her joy abruptly disappeared when she discovered the reason.

Instead of being sent back home like she had originally thought, those CREEPS had taken a completely unauthorized trip to New York! Screaming out her rage to the entire hotel, Courtney proceeded to call her lawyers.


The CIT's blood boiled in remembrance, before she smirked proudly. In her blind anger, she had discovered the latest pack of letters for the absent chauvinist and had in the process discovered his secret. It had taken only a simple call to her lawyers to gain her ammunition.

Cooperation from the other present campers had come easily. The moment she had revealed the contents of the tape, they had been more then willing to go along eagerly awaiting for the moment where Chris's 13 fatal words would come back to haunt him.

And haunt him it did. Still livid at being trumped at his own game, their "beloved" host was practically spitting out fire as he started to lay down the NEW rules. Smiling happily, Courtney waited.

"Number One! Either myself or Chef will be your show guardian! No more secret teenage rebellion hijinx jet setting! I mean it! It's done! Finito! Au revoir, Sayonara, Hasta la vista, baby, GONE!"

Nearby Gwen smirked. "And the fine print bites its owner." The goth said earning several chuckles from her fellow teens and the look of someone who swallowed glass on Chris's face. Gritting his teeth he continued.

"Number Two! Ezekiel your Homeschooled, your clueless and the real world despite your little exposure to it would eat you alive!" Said homeschooler let out a cry of protest which was ignored.

"So needless to say…you need ONE of the other sorry contestants to accompany you on each and every adventure!"

That was the moment the overachiever had waited for. Clearing her throat, Courtney stood up more then ready to take the opportunity to guide and show the naïve little sexist the error of his ways.

"Harold, LeShawna which one of you was the first on board with this crazy adventure in the first place?" After a moment of hesitation, Harold finally raised his hand. "Alrighty! Congrats! Your Ezekiel's traveling buddy!"

Shock became immediate anger. There was no way this was going to fly.


"YES!!!" Harold cheered walking over to Ezekiel. "So where's the next stop on our Pen Pal journey?" Ezekiel grinned back as he held up one of his letters. "Well Nina lives in Booston eh. Booston Massachusetts."

Owen let out a sudden gasp of delight. "The Birthplace of the Boston Crème donut?! The Boston Crème Pie?! The Boston Crème…For the love of all that is Deep Fried! PLEASE! Take me with you!"

The jolly heavyweight begged. Ezekiel scratched his head. "Well actually Nina didn't say anything aboot doonuts or pie…joost-"

"Blah blah blah yakety yak ENOUGH!" Chris barked out before grinning broadly. "Now as I was saying on to Rule Thr-"

"Excuse me Chris, BUT as a CIT I hardly can say I approve of a fellow conspirator and a CHEATER as a positive role model." Courtney spoke up causing most of the former campers to look at her with both looks of disbelief and amusement.

Chris narrowed his eyes. "And even though I already know the answer…" The host mumbled under his breath before forcing a grin on his face. "Alright then Courtney…who do YOU think should go with Ezekiel then?"

The freckle faced girl smiled. "Why, myself of course!" Courtney answered proudly causing several bouts of snickers from the other teenagers. The smile turned into a scowl as the overachiever glared at the group.

"Fine! We'll put it to a vote… Model Representative, High Honor Roll since Day 1 of Pre K, Class Presidency since Grade 3 and both a team player AND an unsurpassable leader…Or a Useless Honor Roll Wannabee who Unfairly CHEATS?!!!"

LeShawna frowned darkly before storming up to the CIT. "Oh no no no! You are not pulling out THAT card on my Sugar Baby you tanned faced, hoochie pants wearing hypocrite! And on that matter Harold is Ezekiel's friend, while YOU don't even like him!"

"And while my Chocolate Goddess makes a good point I shall make another. Grade Cheating is considered one of the most common yet lowest forms and unheard of for a paladin of light! I earned each of my A's the old fashioned way…by being academically awesome!"

Harold added proudly before letting out a cry of horror as a very red faced Courtney let out a scream of rage as she lunged at him. In the process a terrified Ezekiel was dragged into her one sided battle.

Chris raised an eyebrow at the fighting teens, before snapping his fingers. In a matter of seconds Ezekiel's letters were piled high before him by one of his interns. Picking up the top letter, the host quickly scanned it his expression of displeasure turning to one of glee.

"Good news for Guardian Chef AND our Brickhouse with a heart of gold…DJ! Ezekiel's Pen Pal requested both of you personally! So you lucky lucky guys get to accompany Zeke and Harold on their first OFFICIAL trip to…the Museum of Science in Boston Massachusetts!"

Chris announced with a grin. "Yeah!" DJ pumped his fist in the air before fist bumping Geoff and then Duncan who smirked. "Fine by me…I'll just hold out for one of the other adventures…like concerts, paintballing, race cars…but by all means have fun at the museum!"

"I wonder what'sth over there?" Beth questioned absently to herself while Cody pulled out his laptop. "Just give her a few seconds to boot up and we shall soon know. The techno geek said proudly.

Chris blinked. "Riiight…in the meantime let us continue to rule number 3! And to do so…we shall turn to…drum roll please…The Jar of Mystery!"


Boston, MA

Museum of Science

10:00 a.m.

The Building was crowded. Scratch that. It was filled to capacity, packed, no entry allowed. Thankfully the reservation made months in advance by the school principal allowed each of the five school buses to disembark and enter the building while everyone else was turned away.

Nina's happy smile faded when she noticed the large SOLD OUT sign by the museum door. Of course the Harold Potts exhibit was another story. Letting out another sigh of disappointment, she followed the rest of the teens into the building.

A quick roll call later and the various classes started to separate. Mrs. Farret's class as well as Ms. Thompson's and Mr. Wilbur's had left the main lobby area heading towards Mathmatica, the Omni Theater or the Rock Garden.

Mr. Graves was just starting to lead his own class away towards the Human Body Connection, when a loud cheer coming from Miss Carter's class interrupted them. It wasn't until they saw the brightly colored tickets in each of the Remedial Math students' hands that it sunk in.

While the rest of her class gasped and complained heartedly over Miss Carter's surprise, Nina did her best to force the envy from her mind. Harold Potts or not she was determined not to let a little rain spoil her day.

"OH NIIIIINNNA...NINA MAAAASONS…"

Nina jerked back in surprise as her name suddenly reverberated seamlessly through the museum instantly cutting through the clamor and noise. For a brief moment the building was silent while people looked around in confusion.

"Wow...that was weird." Nina deadpanned to herself before noticing the eyes of both her class and Miss Carter's on her. Nina turned pink. "Maybe it's some other Nina. I mean the odds of someone outside the class actually knowing my name is-"

"LOON OF BIRD TALON, RUPERT, HAROLD AND NORBERT OF LION EAGLE, DRAGON OF SNAKE SNEAK AND HAGGLE CREATURE TAMER TRAVELED ACROSS THE PERILOUS AIR TO VISIT HERMIA! Well actually her real name is Nina Masons…yeah about 4'11 dark brown hair in braids and in the picture that Loon is holding she has a blue polo and kinda of these baggy yet faded blue jeans…OH! AND SHE WEARS GLASSES!!! COME OUT COME OUT HERMIA AND FOLLOW THE SOUND OF LOON'S VOICE!"

Nina's face flushed and she nervously pushed her glasses up on her nose at finding herself the center of attention.


It wasn't hard to find the source of the mysterious Loon. With her class and Miss Carter's following, Nina led the way towards the most crowded place in the museum…The waiting area to the Harold Potts exhibit.

"OH! I SEE HER I SEE HER!!! HEY EVERYBODY! GET OUT OF THE WAY AND LET HERMIA COME THROUGH!"

Loon's voice chimed excitedly somewhere off to the left. Slowly but surely the crowd parted as the mysterious Loon issued directions allowing Nina through followed closely by Mr. Graves, Miss Carter and the rest of the two classes.

Making her way through the last of the crowd, Nina suddenly found herself with a camera in her face. Frozen in shock she didn't see the redhead, but she did see something dark being flung overhead obscuring her vision.

"Hey!" Nina protested as someone pulled the fabric over her polo. With another quick tug, Nina found herself now staring into the face of a familiar red head. "Izzy?" She questioned in disbelief while the other girl scowled.

"Smargles must have gotten in your ears. Loon knows of no Izzy, but hey! Now that Hermia has her Pigs Blemish robe she can come to Pigs Blemish with Loon, Rubert, Harold, Dragon, Norbert and Haggle!"

Izzy announced happily pointing to said people. Clad also in robes of dark blue with varying crests, Harold and DJ offered her a grin while Ezekiel smiled and waved. Noah had his nose in a visitor's guide to the museum with Chef Hatchet eying her critically.

Nina blinked several times while a large grin slowly appeared across her face. "Hi everyone, I'm Nin-er…Hermia. Ezek-I mean…Rupert's Pen Pal from Boston and I'm glad to finally meet everyone face to face."


Naturally there were a few protests. Both from the crowded room and from Mr. Graves class. The former declaring stars or not, NO ticket NO seeing the exhibit and the latter firmly announcing that if Nina got to go in they should too.

A debate that quickly ended once Chef Hatchet got involved. In a matter of seconds, the TDI Pigs Blemish group, Nina and the camera men were on their way down several flights of stairs and down a twisting corridor.

With each turn of the path, Nina became more and more excited. "This is like some kind of dream right? My Pen Pal here, ME seeing an exhibit SOLD out for WEEKS, I'm on a show called Total Drama Pen Pal AND I got to meet DJ AND CHEF!"

Nina said blissfully before she spun around to the person next to her. "This is a dream…but don't pinch me! I don't want to wake u-OW!" Nina yelped before glaring at Noah. "I told you not to pinch me!"

The know-it-all stared at her. "You're not dreaming, we are here, you've been successfully declared a cast guinea pig for Chris's latest brain child without the multiple seasons at his very whim mind you, and you are in route to the Pigs Blemish display."

Noah drawled in disinterest while DJ smiled. "Don't mind him Nina; Noah couldn't have been more pleased when Ezekiel picked his and Izzy's name out of a pickle jar back at Playa des Losers."

"Wait a pickle jar?" The brunette female asked in bemusement while the brickhouse nodded. "Yeah, first Chris stuffed it full of only the boy names...you know to get Zeke in trouble and after Noah's name got pulled Courtney took away the jar and discovered Chris's trick."

"So she then refilled Chris's Jar of Mystery this time with the girls' names replacing the guys in order to thwart a "guys only" trip and to promote a much needed female influence…or so we were told."

Noah then smirked. "Any normal person would usually grab the piece of paper lying neatly on top of the others. Ezekiel on the other hand ignored it and managed to get both his sleeve and his hand stuck inside the container."

"And then Izzy appeared behind him without warning, Zeke yelled her name out and he fell backwards causing the glass to break on the ground." DJ chuckled. "Since Zeke's hand was in the jar, Chris counted his cry as a vote, paper or no paper."

The gentle giant chuckled again before smiling down at Nina warmly. "As for me and Chef well we were both really surprised that you wanted to meet us in person too. And honored and pleased and-"

"MIXING HAT HO!!!" Izzy's voice announced happily ahead as she pointed excitedly towards an old stump with a wizard's hat perched on top.


The nice thing about small groups is that special treats usually given to a few were given to all. Such was the case of the Mixing Hat. Harold had gone first. As the hat started to move and talk, DJ jumped and a moment later a bemused Nina found the much taller camper hiding behind her.

"It's just a hat. That just happens to move and talk. It won't hurt you." Nina calmly reasoned as first Harold and then Noah were sorted. "SAYS YOU!" DJ declared unhappily as Chef sat on the stool.

After the hat's verdict, Nina smiled slightly at the cowered teen before taking her place on the stump. "See hat is coming down on my head…doesn't hurt…hat is moving…hat doesn't hurt…and hat is now talking which is cool!"

Nina narrated enthusiastically. DJ on the other hand didn't seem very convinced and he jumped again when the Mixing Hat roared out…LION EAGLE!!!" Smiling, Nina held it out to the timid male.

When DJ once again refused, Izzy took the initiative. Grabbing both the hat and Ezekiel, the wild red head plopped down on the tree remains with Ezekiel on her lap. Ignoring the wide eyed look of shock from the prairie boy, Izzy carefully balanced the hat on both of their heads.

"LION CLAW!!!"


After getting over the amusement of the Mixing hat's faux, the TDI/TDP group continued onwards, past the train, through the castle and so forth until they reached the end much to their tour guide's great relief.

With Izzy trying to cause the large dragon model to breath fire among other things, Noah poorly attempting to shoot a Quilitch ball through a hoop, and DJ running screaming past a giant demonic clown then back as he confronted a computer generated image of an even larger snake, the guide more then had his hands full.

"Chris indeed shall be very pleased." Harold commented sagely as they exited the gift shop door with everyone including the camera men carrying bags loaded with Pigs Blemish merchandise. Noah smirked.

"In addition the rest of your class as well as the rest of the Pigs Blemish ticket holders will undoubtedly be pleased that the exhibit has surprising remained more or less "intact." The bookworm pointed out with a nod to Nina and a glare at Izzy who raspberried him.

Nina giggled. "Well its 11:30, we still have another hour until the rest of my class gets through Pigs Blemish so how about we go to Science in the Park in the meantime? It's like a giant indoor playground."

Ezekiel smiled. "Sure eh. And we're still here in Booston foor another day so maybe you could show us the-"

The prairie boy suddenly blanched as he noticed just what Izzy was doing in the corner. "Izzy! I mean Loon...I doon't think you should jump off of the-"

"WHEEEEEEEEE!!!"

"IZZY!!!!"


Imagi's Ramblings: In case you haven't figured it out I don't own Twilight nor do I own Harry Potter. ;) While the Harry Potter Exhibition WAS in Boston (as it was in Chicago) it is now at the Ontario Science Center. And the song I used this time is "The World is Ours Tonight" by Gloriana.

Also Nina Masons belongs to koolbroadwayreader. ;) Hope I did her justice! :)

Other news I am now ONE review away from restarting up 23: The Road to Total Drama Retro! Also I'm closer to finishing yet another story of mine making my self inflicted story work load much easier to bear...I have GOT to stop procrastinating so much. ^^;

So A is for Angel…B is for Boston…C is for… :D

Thanks for the reviews and the additional Pen Pal requests! Totally I have now accepted 14 Fan sent Pen Pals and I have 2 of my own making it 17. But I still need a few more!

And thanks very much for the reviews! The more reviews…the more dedicated I am to finishing these crazy stories of mine! And inspiration too…but I'll work on that later. ;)

Thanks again for reading and reviewing! :)

Imagi