Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama or anything within the franchise.
Chapter 7: Duncan and Courtney
The drive home was quiet. He was waiting for her to say something first so he could respond to it and the boy sitting next to her was confused on what's going on around him. It had been like that ever since he picked them up at the school. Finally, they pulled into their driveway and parked the car.
When he let the two inside, the boy immediately dashed to his room to do his homework and he waited for the boy to be out of earshot before speaking to the young girl.
"Let me just say that you are lucky your mom's too busy to answer a call otherwise she would have thrown a fit." He said to her.
Silence was answering him for a few seconds before she turned around. "All I did was kick him where it would hurt so he would learn to buzz off. If that teacher didn't come around the corner when she did then no one would have known but him and I." She retorted, obviously peeved that her business had been intruded.
He blinked for a moment before he let out what sounded like a sigh of warmth and recollection. "Man, you really take after me."
He was Duncan, former delinquent and now husband to the current mayor of town. After the fifth season of Total Drama, Courtney broke it off with Scott and that allowed Duncan, who was missing her company, to step in and convince her to take him back even after the whole love triangle with Gwen. Thanks to some strings Courtney managed to hook him up with, Duncan was able to get into a college so he would have a better chance at getting a good job. In the present, Duncan was owner of a store in the local mall, Duncan and Drama. His shop doubled as a piercing and tattoo center and a Total Drama-associated merchandise store. Among his merchandise was his skull carvings, season collections and theme packages of the show's series, as well as merchandise that starred his ensemble cast mates such as Trent's music or Izzy's films. It was a popular joint for Total Drama fans and tough guys like him.
"So what? I like who I am."
"I know, I know and I'm fine with it. It's just that with your mom being mayor and you taking after me, I think it wouldn't kill you to behave a little more. Ever since you were little, you were able to slide these kinds of things past your brother. One of these days he'll see what you do and think it's okay to do those things."
"No he won't. He's more like Mom than he's like you. I doubt he'd start to copy me that easily."
"You'd be surprised at what can happen. Look at Noah's kid, he's only nine and he's already almost as good as Noah is at being cynical. That's because Noah never watched what he said around him."
"You're starting to sound like Mom." This comment took Duncan by surprise for a moment before he glared at her. She only smiled in victory.
Duncan and Courtney's daughter was eleven year old Jennifer. The girl that kicked the boy at school had Courtney's tan skin, freckles, and brown hair (which she dyed black so she wouldn't get so much taunting from kids at school about looking like her mayor mother). Only her father's eyes were passed on from him. At the time of taking care of their first kid, Duncan didn't have a proper handle on raising a child so he wasn't sure when he was supposed to stop being Duncan for them so that resulted in Jennifer being the troublemaker she is now. Courtney was slightly worried about her attempt to run for mayor, her worry being Duncan and Jennifer might ruin it for her and end her path towards for running for office but luckily she had won. As Courtney disapproved of Jennifer's actions that got her into trouble at school, Duncan saw it the other way and believed she was merely defending herself. It may sound surprising but even though she makes messes at her place of education, she still has good grades.
"Low blow, kid. Low blow." Duncan retorted. "Look, eventually Mom may or may not find out about this but since you were trying to get a dork off your back, I won't tell her if you don't want to."
"That's all I ask."
Suddenly, Jennifer's younger brother ran up to them. "I'm done with my homework. That means I can watch tv, Mom says so." He told Duncan.
His father nodded in approval. "Good, Lance. Go ahead."
"Yes!" Lance ran off into the family room.
Lance was seven and looked half Duncan and half Courtney. He had Duncan's skin tone and eyes as well as Courtney's freckles and brown hair. Like every pair of opposite siblings, Jennifer was the troublemaker and Lance was the stickler for the rules. Thanks to Duncan learning from his first parenting experience, he was turning out like Courtney hoped he would. In his class at school, his mom being mayor meant nothing to the others and his enjoyment of the rules outcast him among everybody as a weirdo. There wasn't any bullying occurring but he was alone a lot. Only one time in his life he got upset and that's when Courtney didn't follow through on a promise she made him. From then she always strived to fill her promises and her rules to him while asking Duncan and Jennifer to do the same. One of the rules for him was homework before fun and the only exceptions were when Duncan and Courtney said to save homework for later and they were careful not to let it happen too often.
Both Duncan and Jennifer watched as Lance skedaddled into the family room to watch his cartoons. When they heard the television turn on, they continued where they left off.
"So we're alright?" asked Duncan.
Jennifer smiled and gave her dad a fist bump. "Yeah, we're alright. Neither of us tells Mom." They exchanged a quick hug and released each other. Then Jennifer turned to go figure out what she was going to do since she was suspended for tomorrow.
"Hold on a second." Jennifer turned to see Duncan frowning a smidge. "Hand it over." He said, holding his palm out. Her puzzled face turned into a frown of failure and, sighing as she did so, she pulled out something from her pocket.
What she pulled out was a wallet with Duncan's signature skull on it. That was Duncan's wallet.
Duncan motioned towards him. "Give it here." Reluctantly, Jennifer handed it to him. He peeked inside to make sure nothing was missing and then slid it into his back pants' pocket, where it was moments ago. "You thought I wouldn't notice." He smirked a little. "But nice try though." This got a little chuckle from Jennifer.
A couple hours later, Courtney returned home to see Duncan and the kids eating a frozen pizza that Duncan had heated up in the oven. "Hi!" She waved as she entered the dining room.
Swallowing the bit of pizza he was eating, Duncan smiled and waved back. "Hey Princess."
"You would think by now she was a queen." Jennifer remarked, causing Duncan and Courtney to laugh.
A year ago, Courtney had won mayoral office and now she was busier than she was as a lawyer. Her lawyer career was a successful one and then she thought it was time to put her dream of running the government into action. Though she had piles of work sometimes, it didn't stop her from socializing with her family and friends. Ever since World Tour, she never thought that she would get back together with Duncan but the future surprised her. It turns out she can't plan everything that comes in her future. In her opinion, when she and Duncan started out as parents, Duncan had made it clear that he never took any child care courses in school so she had to teach him parental basics. By the time it came to Lance, Duncan had stepped it up and made her proud. She and Duncan had a little more work to do on Jennifer but Lance was coming along nicely. Anyhow, Courtney's road to leadership was getting longer and she needed Duncan to look after their kids when she couldn't.
After she sat down, Courtney took a couple of slices. "How was school?"
Jennifer put down her pizza and answered. "It went good."
Then Lance answered how his day went. "It was nice. The teacher let us have extra recess because we did great in math this morning."
"Great," Courtney said, pleased to hear good news. She noticed a little bit of pizza sauce on Jennifer's face. "Jennifer, you have some sauce on your cheek." Since she was in office, her family was expected at some events and she wanted to make sure they all had good manners when those occasions came up.
"Sorry." Jennifer wiped her cheek. They kept eating until Jennifer finished her pizza. "I don't have any homework tonight that's due tomorrow. I'm going to go web surf."
Courtney sighed. It was like this a lot of the time. "Alright, just make sure you do what does need to get done tonight."
Jennifer waved her off. "Yeah I know." Then she muttered under breath. "I'm not going to school tomorrow anyway." This went unheard by Courtney and the daughter ascended upstairs.
While Courtney and Lance continued to eat, Duncan made a mental note to bring Jennifer with him to the mall tomorrow. She may be a smart eleven year old but Courtney would freak if she was left home alone before she was thirteen. He made a second mental note to double check if his wallet was in his pocket when he and Jennifer were at the mall tomorrow. If Jennifer did really take after him then it was a safe bet that she would try to get her hands on it so she could have a lot of fun on her day of suspension from school.
Speaking of Duncan, be on the lookout for a short series about him. Also the next chapter features the aura whisperer.
