Okay, last chapter. Finally. Thanks for revewing, TheSparklyKitten.

Going home felt like a dream, sort of. I'd been surrounded by the other competitors for so long that it felt weird to go back to my own life, catching up on my work in school, hanging out with my friends (also having to confess to Kara that I hadn't felt comfortable asking Duncan for his autograph, so I didn't get it for her), and enjoying the luxuries of my home and getting to wear whatever clothes I wanted, as well as doing my hair how I wanted.

Lindsay texted me most days. She still wanted to come over, veto my wardrobe and take me shopping before our planned sleepover, which would be early in May, since that was when the show was premiering – two episodes, back in Egypt. My friends were very interested when I talked about how close I'd gotten to everyone on the show.

"When you're not doing challenges, you're still with your team all the time." I told them. "You either get to hate or love all of them. I got on well with almost everyone on my team – we called it Team Victory, although we didn't actually win every challenge. I later had to switch teams, and there was love and hate for a lot of them – all the others were guys, but I got on okay with most of them. It's weird, but you get this closeness from living together and experiencing all the same things. It's like, you know you're on TV, but you end up letting your guard down. Well, at least, I did."

The other thing I did that month was watch the previous two seasons. They were all on YouTube, along with everyone's audition tape, and I was interested to see it.

I watched the audition tapes first. Some were weird. Ezekiel, for example, attempted to hunt a moose and accidentally hit his mom with a bow. Izzy twirled a fire baton inside her house and set the sprinklers going, even though she actually caught the baton and didn't set anything on fire. Bridgette played Yankee Doodle with her nose. Duncan appeared to be abseiling down the wall outside of juvie in his tape, and Heather did her whole tape in a towel, and threw it aside the minute she was off-camera.

Then I binge watched the first season. The opening was kind of fun, hinting at stuff I knew I'd see, like a romantic moment of Geoff and Bridgette drifting by on a surfboard (ruined by Owen's flatulence), Izzy swinging on a vine and hitting Harold, and Gwen and Trent having a romantic minute by the fire pit also spoiled when Cody got between them. As for the season...wow, I had known no one liked Heather, but I hadn't grasped how horrible she was. In the third episode, she asked Lindsay and Beth to be in an alliance with her, and made out that her trust meant they had to do everything she said. Beth eventually stood up to her, but it wasn't until Lindsay was eliminated when she discovered that Heather didn't even like her. And then...

Okay, I had never felt so proud of a friend as I did when I heard Lindsay call Heather a "two-faced, backstabbing, lying little ****" (what she said was bleeped out). After everything Heather had done on the screen, it was just an amazing moment. And weird thing – Heather got immunity in three challenges straight, just before Lindsay went home. Afterwards, she never won a single immunity challenge and got by on technicalities.

And then, in the final three, a technicality got her kicked off. The final three had to perform dares from the other campers, and at the end, Lindsay dared Heather to have her head shaved. She didn't accept the dare, but her head was shaved just by the razor falling on her head when she kicked it out of Chef's hands. Technically, she hadn't accepted the dare, so she was sent home.

Owen won the season in the stupidest way possible, but I couldn't help feeling pleased. I grew to like him even more as I watched the show, because all his confessionals proved that he was just as golden-hearted as he seemed. Even when Gwen was suspicious in the finale from Heather's smirk, Owen suggested that maybe she was just really happy for them. Then came the special, which was pretty much just a wild goose-chase where Owen agreed to give up his prize for the chance of finding a case of one million dollars. When a shark ate it, everyone who'd jumped into the water was slated for the second season. This was really where Lindsay and Beth made friends, since everyone got into teams of two to four, and Beth asked Lindsay to team up with her (and they allowed Ezekiel to come with them, but not Heather – Beth told her firmly that they had enough people).

It took longer to watch Season Two, but I liked the genre-themed challenges. Lindsay in particular was a dynamo during the season, even winning a few challenges. I couldn't believe it when she accidentally voted herself off – if I hadn't known who the finalists were, I would have put money on her winning. Courtney was a nightmare. I understood exactly what Gwen had meant by saying how bad she was that season. She was mean, ruthless and manipulated people like Justin because he developed a crush on her, and even Duncan, because back then she seemed to have some power over him. I got a bit freaked out when she made up a thirty-two page letter and expected Duncan to memorize and obey everything she'd put down. Maybe I saw why he wasn't eager to dump Courtney before getting with Gwen. And it was a shame, because they'd actually been pretty cute in the first season.

As for everything else? My instincts about just about everyone had been right, and the confessionals proved it all. Geoff and Bridgette had both left the first season because they were likable. As Duncan put it, "Everyone likes Bridgette, and she's great at sports." So that was why she hadn't wanted to say it – she just didn't want to tell me she was voted off because everyone liked her. Geoff was voted off for similar reasons, Gwen even calling him "the nicest guy in the world".

What surprised me was Chris. He'd been far more sadistic on World Tour than he'd ever been there. He was mostly worried about lawsuits and ratings primarily, but he didn't keep trying to murder the cast. When Gwen was cornered by a serial killer in one episode, he looked about as worried as everyone else, even though he admitted that it could be good for ratings. Same thing when he almost let the contestants drown during a disaster movie challenge because something broke and he couldn't turn the water off. Yet he'd laughed when we nearly got killed by Niagara Falls. Way to change your whole personality.

Lindsay folllowed through on her promise to take me shopping on the Saturday before our sleepover the following week (the show was airing Saturday evenings, so we got lucky). We invited Beth along, but she had some assignment that was due on the following Monday and wanted to finish it so she didn't have to worry on Sunday. Lindsay lived about half an hour away from me, but we could both drive, so Lindsay picked me up in her car. I had to borrow my parents' car for the moment, but Lindsay had her own pink convertible (we had the top up since it was still cold, even though it was the middle of spring), so the choice of whose car to take was obvious.

Although neither of us had won the money, I had kept the $100 compensation I got from Alejandro, and when added to my own money, it would be enough for a few things. I couldn't realistically afford anything at Albatross and Finch, which Lindsay insisted we go to first, but then we found a few cute things in the Khaki Barn that Lindsay wanted me to try on – a red T-shirt with a star on it, the skinniest blue jeans I'd ever worn, and a mock-leather jacket. It actually made me look slim and with my hair down, it didn't emphasize the roundness of my face, either.

We even went back to my house for a little while, just to hang out and catch up with normal life. But the real fun was the next week, when we all met up (at Lindsay's, because it was the biggest and she had the most luxurious room, including her own flat-screen TV so the three of us could watch the premiere of the show in there).

Once Beth and I arrived and got everything out, we ordered out for pizzas, a bottle of Coke and got some chocolate from the kitchen to have while the show was on.

While we waited, though, I told the girls I'd watched the whole of their other two seasons. "I wish I'd watched them before World Tour." I admitted. "They would've given me some warning about stuff. I remember Sierra looked at me like she thought I was a freak when I admitted I hadn't seen the show properly, that first day."

Beth smiled, her well-straightened teeth sparkling. "You should've heard some of the behind-the-scenes stuff." she giggled. "There was this one time in the first season when Heather made me get the shower ready for her, and I accidentally made it too hot for her. You should've heard her screaming!"

Lindsay giggled, too. "Heather got so mad when she heard me laughing, but I couldn't help it, honestly."

When the episodes began, we all shushed each other and listened to what the onscreen Chris was saying. "Season Three of Total Drama, folks!" he declared. "The world is gonna be mine, sea to shining sea! Unfortunately, I have to share my world with a three-ring traveling teen freak show." And with that, everyone was introduced, and I finally heard that the short ponytail Heather had all season were hair extensions. It had been long enough since the incident where her head was shaved that it her hair could connect extensions – guess that was something.

"Wonder if Heather's hair's started growing back properly again?" I said out loud.

"I guess she's not as mean as she used to be, so maybe she should get it back..." Lindsay said thoughtfully. Then she pouted. "I don't know. Maybe her long hair made her mean and she'll be worse when she gets it back!"

"I think you're kind of right." Beth said carefully. "But it's the vanity. That's why it cost her to lose her hair. She gets it back, she's confident, she's vain, she gets meaner again."

I smiled at Beth. That was a great way to make sense out of Lindsay's rather strange suggestion.

There wasn't too much new for Lindsay and I to see. They cut out Sierra letting me know exactly who was who on the plane, but kept her telling Cody she knew his full name and birthday (now I remembered, his birthday was the day I got eliminated. What were the odds?). However, I'd completely forgotten Chef forgetting to turn the intercom off before muttering about how Chris was an idiot for insisting on musical numbers. To be honest, they hadn't been too bad, and although not everyone could sing, a few of us could.

I could tell there was some autotuning, though. Not everything in either episode sounded exactly how I remembered. It wasn't too noticeable, though. Yet.

Although I couldn't sleep over every Saturday, I still watched every episode with my parents for the moment. All they knew was that I hadn't won, and I had somehow "persuaded" the winner to give me $100 of his winnings, but I hadn't told them who won or how I got eliminated.

The other songs were clearly mostly autotuned. I couldn't know about all of them, but I could just tell the bit in the Amazon when Gwen had been rapping was autotuned. To be fair, she'd just taken a shot of Cody's allergy medicine by mistake. And I knew I hadn't sang so nicely during the aftermath in Rangitoto. I didn't think Courtney was autotuned, but Cody and I probably were. For Alejandro, it was even weirder. His voice started off natural, and it was just kind of normal. He could sing in tune, but that was about all the positive things I could say. Then his voice got more and more autotuned as time went on. By the time it got to our duet, the autotuning made him sound like a rock star. And it made me sound like a Disney Channel pop princess.

I learned a lot from the confessionals that I hadn't heard. The reason behind Lindsay's pep talk about how we weren't quitters were apparently connected to the amount of lip gloss she thought she'd need to last the season. Alejandro, just after Bridgette had been eliminated, had stated that she, like everyone else, was expendable. It was enough to make it clear that picking everyone off one by one was his plan.

After the episode in Germany, he came back on again, apparently feeling cross about it being a reward challenge. Why? Because he was sure we would have voted off Leshawna if it was an elimination round. He was almost right, too, but I was glad we'd been able to keep her around for longer. She'd been a valuable team leader, right up until she got eliminated. Funnily enough, Alejandro had mostly left her alone for the rest of the season. Maybe he'd figured that I would be easy prey and started working on me, then he figured out that I was more valuable as an extra vote.

As the episodes unfolded, it looked like that was the case. He'd even thought about going after Lindsay to leave me without an ally, but when discussing it with the team, he'd gone for Courtney instead so that I'd stay loyal to him. As for Noah – his distrust in Alejandro was harmless without allies to vote with him, so taking out Owen, his closest link, was just as good as taking Noah out, especially since I hadn't been listening to his warnings. And I could tell just from watching Alejandro's expressions that he found Owen abhorrent.

I had wondered if anyone else talked about me. There wasn't too much. I was hoping to see if Duncan had an opinion on me. All he really said was in the seventeenth episode. Something about "That girl's really creasing me. What is her problem?" Huh, I would've thought it was obvious – I don't like cheaters. Alejandro said very little about me. He did sort of mention something about how "gullible" I was in the same episode. Then he admitted that he was going to break my trust, explaining it by crushing one of the chocolate-chip cookies from First Class. If only I'd seen that!

I only had one problem. The season ending didn't show how the girls and I made Alejandro pay compensation for getting us kicked off unfairly.

Afterwards, my mom asked about it. "You said he gave you that hundred. What exactly happened?"

I shrugged and said "A few of us confronted him about the crap he put everyone through. He had to pay us something for that. Of course, it wasn't everyone, but we told him exactly how many apologies he owed people and he paid up. That didn't stop some of them from giving him a hard time, though."

And that's the end of Total Drama World Tour. Not to mention the end of my Total Drama story. I watched Revenge Of The Island when it came out, looking at the new contestants that I so easily could have been one of (my favourite of the cast was probably B, who was so resourceful, got robbed and was so genuine with everyone, even though he never said a word), and All-Stars (I was asked back, but my contract had expired and I said no – Sierra ended up taking my place – surprisingly they didn't ask Owen or Noah back, but that might've been because I'd heard from both of them that they were making a career out of reality show-hopping), and Pahkitew Island (my favourite there had to be Jasmine, but that was no shock to anyone). I even watched the Ridonculous Race spin-off, with the two non All-Stars, along with Geoff and a friend, not to mention one of the early boots from Pahkitew Island with some girl. But my time on TV was over.

This is Jemma Madison Tan, and I can scratch one thing off my bucketlist – being on TV

I know this was not the best ending I've ever written, and I'll probably rewrite it before you actually see this, but oh well. I hope you enjoyed the story. That's four seasons of TD done, so I'm going to have to find something else to write now. And right now, I don't think I'll be doing Island or Action (but if I do, it probably won't be Island). Thanks for reading!

And one more fun fact: You may have figured this out, but the reason Noah made it this far is because I'd considered Joah (Every other way of saying it is too close to Nemma). As it is, I'm kind of tempted to do Tremma (yes, Trent/Jemma) but who knows if that'd work out? I don't think Jemma's really his type. Thanks again, and see you all in the next fanfic! Though I don't know how long that will be...