DODGING THE BULLET
A TOTAL DRAMA ISLAND STORY
A/N: Yet another chapter. I hope you enjoy Twilight, because this story is pretty much it, in Total Drama Island format. This chapter might be a bit angst-y, with a bit of JustinxCourtney. Not on Courtney's part, of course. And of course Duncan's protective side sort of kicks in. I don't really like Justin, he's pointless except for his good looks in the show. So yeah, don't be surprised if you find yourself getting severely annoyed with him.
This is a very lengthy chapter so hold in for the long run.
Another song for this chapter:
Crash, by Hilary Duff
It's Hilary Duff and all, but it's an okay song that fits nicely with this chapter.
Read and review, readers, read and review. (5x fast?)
CHICAGO718
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CHAPTER FOUR: CRASH
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Courtney stood in front of her full-length mirror, annoyed with herself, Justin, Duncan, and all of his friends. Of course they had done that traffic jam just to spite her. It was so stupid. Justin had been, unbeknownst to him, part of the plan, and he had played his part to perfection.
Aggravated, she pulled her hair into a ponytail and put on a white cable-knit pullover hoodie. As soon as she had looked out the window she knew she could skip the tee shirts for a while. The sky was dark gray, with flashes of white lighting up the sky every minute.
"Morning, sweetheart," her mom, Diane, said, sipping lukewarm black coffee in one hand and flipping through Steven King's 'It' with the other. The contrast in tones between her mother's and Duncan's sneering indifference when he had referred to her as 'sweetheart' the day previous was almost comical.
"Morning," Courtney replied blandly, taking a box of toaster waffles out of the refrigerator. After they had cooked, she ate two wordlessly.
"In a bad mood?" her mom asked, unusually observant and putting down her book.
"Not really," she lied. "I'm just nervous about the trig test today, that's all."
"Oh," her mom sighed understandingly. "You'll do fine. You always do."
Courtney put on her shoes and walked outside to her car. It hummed as she turned the keys, warming beneath her feet. She smiled. If only school was as comfortable as the car, she would be happy.
She took her time, driving slowly and a few miles beneath the speed limit. Still, she made it to school half an hour early. Only a few cars were in the parking lot.
The rain and lighting had stopped, but the sky was still dark and threatening rain. She didn't feel like playing it safe today, though. She took her trig textbook out of her backpack and sat on one of the stone tables outside the cafeteria, flipping through the chapters and trying hard to concentrate.
She looked up only when a dark shadow cast its way across her book, blocking her reading light.
"Uh, hi," Justin said, putting down his raincoat hood.
Courtney bit her lip. "Hi."
Was he going to ask her about the fling again? Had he finally figured out that she had been lying? She winced inwardly.
"What are you doing?" he asked, sitting down next to her without her agreeing.
"Studying," she answered bluntly. That means you should go away, she thought.
"The trig test, damn, I forgot," Justin said, looking genuinely worried.
"Too bad," Courtney answered. "Well, good luck." Go away, she urged.
"You think you could help me?" he asked hopefully.
"No, I'm barely prepared myself." Leave me alone.
"Oh well."
Courtney smiled awkwardly, turning back to her book and hoping he would take the hint.
"I never noticed, you have yellow in your hair," Justin commented, brushing her hair out of her face and taking a strand in his hand, tugging at it.
Courtney looked up at the parking lot, biting her tongue.
Duncan, Trent, and Geoff had pulled into the school. Trent and Geoff were throwing a football, but Duncan was looking directly at her. Or, to be more precise, at Justin holding her hair. There was no mistaking that jealous and somewhat primal look.
She politely turned her head so that her hair would fall out of Justin's fingers. Meanwhile, her thoughts were running a hundred miles an hour. She felt blood rush to her face, crimsoning.
Duncan? Jealous? Of Justin, touching me? she thought miserably. She could only imagine the horrors this would cause.
Justin finally seemed to get it, mainly because of Duncan's glare pointed at him. He got up, tripping slightly on his feet. "Well, I'll see you later, Courtney."
"Uh, bye," she said, relieved.
She got up, haphazardly stuffing her book in her bag.
No, it's impossible, she thought. I mistook his look. He was probably smirking. Yes, that's it. No way could he be jealous of Justin, because of me.
She felt herself relax; obviously it was for this reason and nothing else. Her life would stay as it was.
She tucked the piece of hair Justin had been touching back into place and headed into school.
Bridgette and Gwen were waiting for her near the entrance. She smiled a false smile.
Bridgette wasn't fooled. "I think I know."
Courtney glared at her. "What would you know?"
"We pulled into the parking lot when Justin was touching your hair!" Bridgette exclaimed, clasping her hands together.
"I think Justin is overrated," Gwen volunteered, shading a drawing in her sketchbook.
"I think its sweet," Bridgette argued.
"I think we should get to class before we're late. And I know what you're thinking," Courtney added as Bridgette opened her mouth to talk. "And it's a no. I don't like Justin."
Bridgette rolled her eyes. "He's cute."
"Maybe so, but he's not…" Courtney hedged.
"Not what?"
"Not…my type. I mean, sure he's attractive, but there's got to be something behind the face, you know?" Courtney said.
Bridgette just shrugged and turned into a class that smelled strongly of Windex. "Chem. See you guys."
Courtney turned into the next room, her homeroom class. Justin was sitting towards the back. He waved. Courtney pretended not to see him.
DJ, Tyler, Trent, Duncan, and Geoff were sitting in the very back of the classroom. DJ was pounding a drum beat on his desk, Trent and Geoff were still playing football, Tyler was leaning back on two legs of his chair and staring at Lindsay's back, and Duncan was just…sitting.
She examined him more carefully, but casually as she walked to her seat. Duncan's muscles in his forearms were tensed and visible from his black button-down shirt, which was rolled up to his elbows. He had a hard look on his face, eyebrows creased. He looked directly at her. Courtney felt as if the tension had transmitted.
Dread filled her; so it hadn't been her imagination.
I'm sure he has a perfectly good reason to be tense, Courtney thought, turning around in her seat to face front. It's absurd that someone like him should be attracted to someone like…me. Anyway, I'm totally out of his league.
It was probably the other way around, but the last person who would admit that was Courtney.
She could barely concentrate on the teacher's words, just like the half-naked Duncan memory tattooed on her brain; she couldn't seem to get the idea of Duncan, jealous of Justin, out her head.
The day passed slowly, soon it was last period, gym.
The only moment she truly dreaded that day was gym, Duncan wasn't in her class but sports were not her strong point in the least.
She changed into the required and prison garb-like gym uniform: mesh black shorts that seemed too short to be abided by the dress code, and a bear sized blue tee shirt with pictures of various sports equipment on the front and back.
Oh yeah, this outfit was going to appear in Vogue any day now.
"Okay," Coach Page barked once all the students were dressed and lined up like prisoners against the wall. Courtney couldn't help but suspect she was a man, even if there was a mop of long curly red hair at the nape of her neck, pulled into a tight ponytail.
"Today you will be participating in a volleyball game, boys against girls. Participation is mandatory, Anderson," the coach clarified, glaring pointedly at Courtney. "That means no 'sprained ankles', got that?" Coach formed sarcastic quotations in the air with her fingers.
Courtney cringed and nodded. Leave it to Coach Page to humiliate her in front of her class, if Duncan or Justin couldn't get the job done. A few kids snickered.
Somehow she managed to serve the ball behind her on her first serve, the other team smirked, her team glared.
After what seemed like hours of horrendous hitting the ball back and forth over a net, Courtney changed back into her pullover and jeans. No doubt that the time when she had swatted the ball and it had bounced off her foot would make it into the 'Funnies' section of the school paper.
She yanked the bottom of her hoodie down with unneeded force and slung her backpack onto her back, ready to drive back home. The parking lot was flooded with rain.
"Hold it, little miss," someone said, a hand grabbing her shoulder and pulling her out of the way. It was a bearded construction worker. "We're setting down new tar here, go around the orange cones. Tar is very slippery when it hasn't dried."
Courtney avoided the orange cones as she opened her car trunk, avoiding the snickers of the fellow gym-mates around her that were getting into their cars. She prepared to stuff the plastic bag with her gym uniform in it when suddenly someone yelled, "Watch out!"
She turned around. It was Justin, his red car out of control, skidding across the still-wet and newly tarred parking lot directly in the path of her and her car. Her eyes widened.
There wasn't even time to scream. It all seemed to move in slow motion, the truck turning one last time so that its side would face her when it hit her, the splashes of tar going everywhere, the crowd turned towards her, watching with horrified expressions.
Courtney shut her eyes, waiting for the sickening meeting of car to body.
And then something grabbed her by the wrists, forcing her out of the way and to the ground of the cold, wet parking lot. Her back leaned against one of the parking barriers so that she was upright. The breath got knocked out of her. The hands let go of her wrists. Momentarily she panicked that her cable knit white pullover had gotten dirty, but then realized that that concern was mundane and trivial.
She opened her eyes just in time to see Justin's car collide with her BMW, the metal of her trunk and his side doors smashing together to form some kind of accordion shape, the horrible screech of the two solid objects meeting with such force.
She was lucky it wasn't her.
Courtney looked up into a pair of very blue eyes, staring down at her with a little concern, but maybe more amusement. There was no mistaking that sharply mint breath.
"Why didn't you move out of the way?" Duncan asked, crouching over her.
Courtney found that her vocal cords seemed to have stopped working, all that came out was a sound like someone scraping two pieces of gravel together.
He shook her shoulder. "Talk to me, princess."
She shrugged.
"Someone get Justin!" a female voice screeched from across the lot.
The bearded construction worker opened the door on the passenger's side and lifted a bloodied Justin out of it. He seemed to have been knocked unconscious.
"Call 9-1-1!" the worker said in a rushed voice. One of his partners took out a cell phone.
In less than ten minutes, an ambulance pulled up in the parking lot and Justin was loaded in on a stretcher.
"Hey, you better take this one too," Duncan said, lifting up Courtney with ease, bridal-style, and handing her off to one of the medical helpers.
Courtney gave Duncan a frantic and furious look.
No, she tried to say to the medical helper. I'm okay.
All that came out was the sound of gravel.
The medical worker loaded her in, obviously her attempts at speaking had sealed her fate.
She was taken to a very white room. A large woman strapped a neck brace around her neck.
Courtney tugged at it furiously, embarrassed and feeling stupid. She felt even stupider when she realized Justin was awake and Duncan was also in the room.
Duncan was leaning on an armchair across from her bed, smirking at her.
Justin looked even more apologetic. "I'm sorry, I didn't see the cones and when I backed out of the parking lot I just started slipping into the path of your car. God, I could have killed you. I feel so stupid."
Courtney tried to assure him that she was fine, but it turned out to be a muffled screech.
The doctor came in and lifted Courtney's chin.
"Nothing seems to be the matter," he said, looking over at Duncan.
"Try and get her to talk, then," Duncan said, sarcasm coloring his tone.
Courtney opened her mouth and graveled.
"Hmm. Just seems to be a dry throat, my dear. Cough a few times and take a drink over there," the doctor directed. "After that, you may leave."
He turned to Justin. "You might need to stay a little longer, young man." He began to put antibiotic on Justin's wounds.
Courtney coughed a few times, feeling coming back into her throat with the numbness ebbing away, and took a long drink of water, gulping it down.
Duncan put his hand on her back and led her out, but as soon as they were about to turn to the hallway before waiting room, Courtney stopped him.
"Why did you tell him I wasn't okay?" she demanded, coughing. "And, why did you save me? You hate me!"
His coolness by comparison to Courtney was nearly laughable. "You weren't okay. You were talking gravel."
It was true, but there was one other question. "But…why'd you save me?"
His expression darkened. "I can't to a good deed once in a while? I couldn't just let you get killed."
"Well, I wouldn't be here. You hate me, it would be a good thing for you," Courtney reminded him.
Duncan raised his eyebrows. "I don't always do things that are good for me. Besides, what makes you think I don't want you to be here?"
Courtney looked down, confused and embarrassed. They were both silent as they walked into the waiting room.
"Oh! Courtney! Oh dear lord I was so worried," her mom babbled, flinging her arms around Courtney's neck.
"Mom, I'm fine, Justin's car didn't hurt me at all," Courtney complained, ducking out of her mother's grip.
"Who is this young man?" Diane asked, looking at Duncan.
Courtney paused, thinking of the right word. "Mom, this is my…classmate, Duncan. Uh, he pushed me out of the way of the car."
"You saved my little girl?" her mom said, eyes shining. Courtney winced inwardly; her mom was so embarrassing.
"Yes yes, he's a hero," she interrupted quickly before her mother could her express her undying gratitude.
"Thank you," the mother said, smiling and shaking Duncan's outstretched hand.
"No problem. She should have just gotten out of the way herself, though," he said, grinning wickedly at Courtney.
"Courtney! You mean you didn't try to get out of the way?" Diane exclaimed.
"It was too fast," Courtney explained, glaring daggers at Duncan.
"I'll take your word for it, but next time, don't do that," Diane scolded. Her tone changed completely to sweet for Duncan. "Thank you, Duncan. We very much appreciate you saving Courtney."
Diane herded Courtney outside into the waiting rain to her own dark blue SUV.
Courtney was wrapped up in her thoughts.
Why did Duncan, of all people, save me?
What if I don't really hate him?
Have I misjudged him all along?