Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama or anything in the franchise. I do own Backpack Crew, Personality Universe, and my OCs.

Chapter 10: Noah and Staci

She hummed as she finished dusting the living room. One final spot. With a few circular motions from her hand, the dust rag picked up the last bit of dust.

"Perfect." Staci murmured in satisfaction. Glancing up at the clock, she realized that it was quarter after twelve. "Time to make some lunch." That task on her mind, she entered the kitchen next to the living room and started taking a pot, a box, and a jar out of the cupboards. First, she filled up the pot with warm water then let it warm up on the stove. Taking another pot out of the cupboards, she opened the jar and started emptying out some tomato sauce.

Of all the surprises that had come out of Total Drama, the relationship of Noah and Staci would be in the top five. Ever since the first cast and the second cast had met, Staci was eager to tell them all about her relatives. Most of the cast either politely excused themselves, told her to shut up, or do something rude to make her stop and they would leave after that. Now Noah, he didn't do any of those things. When Staci first interacted with Noah, she gabbed about her relatives and he sarcastically (she didn't realize he was being sarcastic at the time) flattered her and her so-called relatives. Since he was the first to not go away from her after she told several stories of ancestors, she was a bit smitten with him. Others would harshly tell her that her relatives didn't exist and that she made them up, eventually Noah flatly told her the truth about her lies and refused to stop until the message got through to her; afterwards she had to go see Dawn, who could read everyone's past like a book to confirm it and apparently her parents told all of those stories to her so her self-esteem would be high enough due to the fact that they didn't have any famous relatives. After that, Staci was in rock bottom, her whole family history having been a lie. Things changed the moment Staci's mathematical genius was revealed. Through her life, the one thing Staci excelled at in academics was math, always taking advanced math courses beyond someone her age. To say the least, Noah was impressed and gave her a whole new respect. At that point, when Staci wasn't hanging out with her other new friends within the cast, she would go read literature with Noah and he would help make her stories sound truthful. Years later, here she was, married to Noah, being a homemaker since Noah made enough money for the both of them by himself.

Roughly half an hour later, Staci scooped some pasta onto a plate, poured some sauce over them, and grabbed a fork and a cup filled with milk. She placed them on a tray and carried the tray through the living room to a door down the hall next to the room. "Noah, lunch is ready!" The former liar set the tray down on the floor in front of the door and went back to the kitchen.

Moments later, the door opened and Noah picked up the tray to bring it into his office. "Thanks, Stace!" He called to the kitchen.

"You're welcome!"

The genius bookworm set the tray on his desk next to his computer. Break time. Picking up his fork, he began to dig into his spaghetti, drinking an occasional swish of milk.

Back in the kitchen, Staci prepared another tray and took it upstairs to a bedroom with a sign that said 'unless it's an emergency, go away'. Noah's wife put down the tray and rapped a knock on the door. "Mark, lunch time." She walked back downstairs while a tan boy with light brown hair and brown eyes opened up the bedroom door and brought the tray inside his room.

Mark set the tray on his desk and left it aside for a few minutes to let it cool. He would eat it in a few minutes. At the moment, he was in the middle of finishing a multiplayer battle on a video game called 'Backpack Crew' with a fellow Total Drama bloodline which was one of Sam and Dakota's kids and a few friends.

Mark was a smart kid, no doubt about that, but he also had a tongue as sharp as a snake's hiss. While most kids his age were still in elementary school, going on middle school, he was already in college. For now, he was on summer break, once summer was over, he will go back to college to achieve his associate's degree. He and his parents figured once he got a degree of some kind, he would be able to enjoy his childhood until he turned twenty-one when he would have to get a job. That didn't stop him from interacting with other kids his age. Every once in a while, he would hang out with his friends around the neighborhood. Despite him being a college level genius, his friends still liked having him around for his humor, his advanced skill at video games, and his ability to put the bullies of the town in their place with no fisticuffs but words. His cynicism was practically on par with his father's or perhaps even better, that's what happened since Noah never watched what he said with his son present. Though he didn't really care for Total Drama or his family's involvement in it, he had to admit it made life interesting at points. Like now for instance.

He had finished the battle with his friends and messaged them that he would be taking off for lunch. Just as he was about to begin eating, he got an e-mail alert. The message that had arrived was from Sierra.

It read: OMG! Total Drama's Personality Universe is being up for another award this year! If it wins then it will be the fifth consecutive year as best MMORPG of the year! We are such a huge success! Once again, props to Noah and Sam for creating such an amazing game and for allowing us to still shine in Total Drama fame! – Sierra

This wouldn't surprise him. Ever since Personality Universe went online, it's been popular with everyone. Sure it was his father's game, he still had an account on it like everyone else. It looks like he and the family would be attending another award show this year. With this new piece of information out of the way, Mark started to eat lunch.

So he would get his exercise for the day, Mark picked up the empty tray afterwards and left his room to take it back to the kitchen. He went into the kitchen and set the tray on the counter, emptying his dishes into the sink for his mother to rinse and put in their dishwasher.

"Mark, it's your turn to walk Speare." Staci told him as he completed his task.

"Alright." He walked into foyer to pick up a leash and doggie doo bags before heading to the back porch. "Speare, time for a walk."

Speare, the golden Labrador, was napping by his dog house when his ears perked up and the dog bounded over to him.

Speare was their dog. Noah had grown up with eight siblings and a golden Labrador so it seemed fitting he would have a golden Lab in his middle ages. Being a reader of fine literature, Noah named him after William Shakespeare. The dog was good for getting much needed exercise and the family enjoyed spending quality time with him on certain days when they didn't have plans. Each day, someone was designated to walk Speare so they would be doing the fair share of taking care of him. They had a routine for everything with him.

Mark took Speare down a few blocks around some corners and through the park before returning home and getting him to wind down. Once Speare was relaxed, Mark returned to his room to read a novel from his bookshelf.

Downstairs, Staci watched her favorite afternoon shows with Speare sitting next to her on the couch. Noah's door still remained closed ever since lunch.

A few hours later, Staci had a dinner of chicken ready and called her boys into the dining room. They normally spent breakfast together, split up for lunch, then gathered together again for dinner. While Mark and Staci set the table, Noah got out the dog food and prepared a bowl for Speare. He set it down next to the dining table where Speare padded over and started nibbling at the food. Sitting down, Noah held the chicken still while Staci cut pieces off to serve.

"How did today go?" Staci asked Noah as they began to eat.

Noah shrugged. "Same old, I guess. Terminated a few troll accounts on Personality Universe, made modifications to Sierra's sites as she wished, started designing the layout for that new movie site I was asked to do."

Noah made a lot of money that's for sure. Between being the co-creator of Personality Universe (an award winning game), acting as Webmaster for several of Sierra's Total Drama sites, and his client jobs, he got paid pretty well. He knew he would amount to big things but he never imagined he would do this well. For one thing, he had no idea that he was going to have a wife and a son let alone a genius son. He expected Mark to be an average kid but he was above and beyond expectations. To be honest, he had no idea how he and Staci happened. At first he thought if he said a few words to her at a time then she would go away and talk about her relatives with someone else. Instead, she came back to him. Let him tell you, it was hard to ignore her when her facts were completely false and not said in a way that would make her sound like she knew what she was talking about. It felt so good to tell her off and tell her the truth about her relatives. Sure it was harsh but like all things, the truth had to come out sometime. He was surprised by the actual truth behind her lies. Her parents had seriously messed up ways with dealing with their daughter. Just when he thought he had everything figured out about her, she starts showing her true potential as a math genius. A math genius, Staci of all people. After her harsh wake up to reality, Staci approached him and thanked him for being honest with her. Then she started asking him about literature, something hardly anyone at the Playa asked him about. That's when his feelings for her started to appear. Now not only did he tolerate Owen, Izzy, and Eva. He tolerated her too. He actually spent time with her outside of reading literature or discussing math. When she wanted tell stories that weren't about her fake relatives, he helped her develop tone to make her stories sound believable. Their relationship wasn't too showy but it wasn't too in the dark either. This made the fact that he proposed to her years later surprise everyone in the cast and the fans. They started their lives together and developed a system, he would do all the work outside of the house and she would do all the work inside. Her math skills proved quite helpful when it came to taxes and bills, she also made sure he eat when he was too busy to feed himself. He wasn't making her the old-time stay at home wife, she actually chose that because she didn't find any talents outside of home stuff and math. He on the other hand was busy programming. They had an interesting way of being together, that was for sure.

Hours later after dinner, Noah was back in his office after spending family quality time away from computers and his office. He had already talked to Sam and Sierra about the award and made plans to attend that. Clicking away, Noah browsed through Personality Universe for stuff to do and things to update.

His office door clicked open and he turned to find Staci in her pajamas, ready for bed.

"Coming to bed?" She asked him.

"Sure, just give me some time to get ready for bed and I'll join you soon." He told her.

Staci nodded and closed the door behind her. The moment she did, he went about shutting down his computer for the night and left his office. Computer time and reading time were good but bedtime was great too.

Note: Surprise! Bet you didn't expect Noah to end up with Staci! Also, Backpack Crew will be making an appearance in a later story and Personality Universe will be mentioned more later on in this one. For now, I'll leave you with the hint of whose family is next: She nicknames people every time instead of saying their name.