Okay. Aftermath studio. Everyone from TDI. And I will do Celebrity Manhunt after this, promise. Toni won't be on TDWT, but I want her to at least meet the WT castmates, since in this universe, she's kind of the reason they're there. Thanks for reviewing, OmnipotentAbsoluteUIGodzilla, lordgemini, timothysch22 and AnonBrowser.
I was told before I arrived that I wasn't going straight home. There was an aftershow for contestants to look back on their experiences, and it had run every five episodes. The finale was going to also end there, so all the contestants, whethere they'd been on this season or not, would be there. And who was hosting this show? Well, none other than the King and Queen of Makeout Sessions!
Both of them were waiting outside the studio to greet me. Even though I hadn't gotten to know either of them, they smiled and started chatting like they knew me. I guessed watching the show had helped.
"That was so cool, how you refused to let Chris talk you down at the end." Geoff told me.
"We've got a lot of footage of the man behind the host," Bridgette giggled, "But anything you can tell us is welcome. We have a hairless scene, so the audience will see the truth in that."
"And Duncan was happy to pass on all the dirt you told him." Geoff added. He was grinning like a pumpkin head on Halloween, his eyes bright with amusement. "It would be good if you have any more to share, though."
"We can talk about it later." Bridgette said quickly. "For now, you can go up to your room and freshen up if you want. Then come down to the lobby. The rest of the cast is there, so we'll introduce you to everyone from the first season and you can hang out. We've got a few days to chill before the finale."
Every cast member, it turned out, had a little ensuite in the studio building. It wasn't huge or special, but after the trailers, queen singles and glass box showers felt like five star accomodation. The white towels weren't even particularly fluffy and I still felt wrapped in bliss.
I also didn't have to wear the same clothes. I could put them in the studio laundromat to be ready to wear for the finale episode. I had extra clothes, I just wasn't allowed to wear them on the show. I chose black leggings, an oversize purple, red and black striped top that said BUG OFF on the front and pulled my trainers on to complete the look. Once I'd dried and combed my hair, I was ready to meet everyone.
When I first reached the studio lobby, I could hear the height of sound belonging to eighteen teenagers. Sure enough, when I pushed open the door, everyone seemed to be talking. Gwen and Trent were right at the back, but at least they were chatting quietly. I couldn't quite hear what Leshawna was saying, but her voice rang out over everyone else's. I heard Duncan laughing with a bunch of the other guys. Finally, Bridgette noticed me and pulled me into the room. Geoff whistled above all the sound, and everyone finally turned to see me.
I was soon introduced to everyone I didn't know, which consisted of musclebuilder chick Eva, homeschooled toque wearer Ezekiel, wannabe and geek Cody, snarky total jerk (sorry, but he was) Noah and besties Katie and Sadie (because they were like the same person). None of them seemed too interested in me, except Cody. He gave me a gap-toothed grin and said "So you're Chris' cousin, right? Never knew a girl who looked like Chris could be so hot."
I gave him a shove. "Knock it off, casanova. Why are you flirting with me, anyway? I remember that episode at the Playa. I thought Gwen was more your type."
Cody shrugged, but the wannabe suave edge to his tone was dropped, and I liked him better immediately. "Well, she's with Trent. I mean, you know, I even helped set them up."
I paused. "Did I miss that episode?"
"The canoe race?" Cody prompted. "I grabbed Gwen as my partner during the canoe race so I could ask her out, but she kept shooting me down, so I offered to help set them up and even got them in the same canoe on the way back."
"Oh yes!" Now I remembered. And something else. "Um...you didn't keep the bra she gave you, right?"
Cody went scarlet. "I offered it back to her..." he mumbled. "She said I could keep it."
Now I felt a bit guilty. "Okay, no need to act like that. You're a guy and you're sixteen, fine. Back to my original question, okay? Why did you start flirting with me?"
Cody looked at the ground, still mumbling his words. "I guess because I liked you on the show. And you look sort of like Chris, but you're pretty with it, and not fake pretty like he is."
I couldn't help smiling at this real Cody. "Hey, you can stop being embarrassed." I said lightly. "I'll stop picking on you, okay? We can just talk and see where things go."
I didn't just talk to Cody, by the way. I did make an effort to talk to Noah once, but that's why I decided he was a jerk and didn't try again. I hung out with Duncan a bit more, of course. Gwen joined us a couple times and the three of us had a laugh together. My other teammates were nice to see, too. DJ still made snacks for the whole cast and everyone was loving his cooking. Heather was mostly in the background, but I did make an effort to let her know voting her off wasn't personal and she sort of shrugged it off and said "Whatever. You're here too." That wasn't as hostile as I was expecting, so that was something.
Leshawna was the life of the party, enjoying every moment of living it up at the studio, and not one bit mad about my hand in her elimination. She hadn't been mad at the time, I guess, but it was still nice.
It was a nice night, and a good day after that. But two evenings later, we had to watch the rough version of the next episode until the next person eliminated got there. It was an animal buddy challenge. Everyone had to choose an animal buddy and teach it to act like them. Courtney grabbed the shark immediately, Lindsay decided on the chameleon because she wanted to make it look pretty, Harold agreed to take the bear because he thought he could train it best, and Beth was happy to get the raccoon. Courtney didn't teach her shark anything and in the end, just served Chris and Chef sashimi from the shark's last meal (she was quite cross when Chef wondered if she'd just served him the shark itself, saying "As if I would be that cruel!"). Beth did the best, although it looked more like her raccoon trained her than the other way around. The bear wasn't willing to listen to Harold, although it did manage a good impression of the way he screamed and ran, and while Lindsay's chameleon was able to blend into her bandanna, that wasn't enough to get her higher marks.
Still, the next challenge, where the group was dropped off in the forest and had to find their way back to the lot using just their animal buddies. Beth was the only one who got back on the same day, but they cut out most of that time. Lindsay returned with her clothes tattered and whimpering, and Courtney was shivering from PDA withdrawal (Beth's raccoon found it for her).Harold ended up actually hitching a ride on the bear, so he came back in best performance condition. And then there was the vote.
Well, there was some good news and some bad. My alliance partners were still in the game. But on the other hand, I wasn't looking forward to having Courtney hanging around glowering all the time because she'd finally lost a challenge and gained all the votes without them being rigged to keep her.
I simply kept well away from her, but since she made a beeline for Duncan, that meant I had to stay away from him for the moment.
Gwen saw me watching them and whispered "Guess we won't be seeing much of them this evening." with a smirk.
"So..." I said thoughtfully, "Do you think they'll actually..."
Gwen laughed, shaking her head. "Nah, they won't go that far, but if they do spend the night in the same room, I'd pay to find out how far they do get. There aren't any cameras in the rooms, and once Trent and I knew, we were free to do what we wanted." She could tell from my face that I wanted details, and she chuckled again. "I'm not the kiss-and-tell type you want to hear from, you know. But if you really want to know, we wouldn't do half the stuff we've done with cameras but we haven't done everything. That's all I'll say."
Even though everyone had their own room, I already knew about some of the couples sneaking into each other's rooms. I'd gotten quite a lot of gossip from some of the other girls. I hadn't known Gwen and Trent were one of the couples doing it, though. They didn't act very romantic when they were together, mostly just acting like friends with a little extra casual affection. But then, who knew what they were like when it was just the two of them?
As it was, I don't think the reunited couple even spent the evening totally together, let alone the night. By nine, they were on their own, and Courtney was up in her room half an hour later (Bridgette told me that's where she was when I asked). She was already asleep by the time I went up at ten. What? I was tired? And we had a major day ahead of us.
The final three were going to race for the million. Chris wanted to start vacation early, so he figured he'd just have the winner be whoever got to the Aftermath studio first, and then Geoff and Bridgette could handle an extra Aftermath where they answered fan questions or something like that.
But still, I was finally going to see who won Total. Drama. Action!
Yep, you can see that the final three is just a tiny bit more how it should have been in Action. I know, poor Harold is at a clear disadvantage compared to the girls, but hey, he's probably got a better chance than Lindsay at passing a few challenges with questions. She can't even remember everyone's names (although admittedly she wasn't too bad with it this season). It's not really the kind of challenge Beth and Lindsay can work together on, so I'd say they've all got a fair chance. We'll catch up with them next chapter!
