We' Sailin' Bucko's

Ezekiel entered the boat first, he ignored everyone behind him and took a seat in one of the two benches attached to the walls. The container smelled really bad, it had this greasy wet air to it, and the smell seemed to originate in the wall opposite to the door where there was an agglomeration of crates, each of a size barely bigger than a human head.

Everyone followed in silence, Tyler sat next to Zeke, he seemed to be the only one that wasn't actively trying to avoid the green creature as they sneakily set themselves apart from him. Everyone else was trying very hard not to be rude, except for Courtney who didn't care at this point, but Ezekiel's rotten skin, crooked teeth, and dry bald head didn't make it any easier, and that's not to mention the soft smell. Both Noah and Cody ended up sitting next to Tyler, in a sort of unspoken agreement to not sit with the girls, who were all on the bench in front of them.

The room was dead silent. Cody was trying to make contact with anyone to maybe strike a conversation but everyone seemed to be avoiding each other. When he finally managed to get Gwen to look at him, she looked away immediately.

Gwen made sure to sit the furthest away from Courtney as she could, between the two there were Katie and Eva, the first one was looking around the rotten walls with an easily questionable smile like as if she was pretending to be distracted so not to look bored, the latter was looking rather annoyed, but somewhat determined.

Noah and Courtney accidentally looked at each other, none of them conscious of it. Noah was thinking about Emma, but mostly their little 'issue'. Before leaving home they had devised a strategy to win the bonus prize but he would need to step up his game a lot to get through with it. But hey it sounds easy to win when there's only eight contestants. Courtney was thinking about another kind of issue, the boat didn't look stable at all, and even less it looked healthy. When they came to the realization they were spacing out at each other, they turned around with indifference. Noah genuinely didn't care, Courtney, on the other hand, thought it was really awkward and tried to play it off by looking at Tyler and then just around.

Tyler was mostly grabbing his hand in pain, it was burned, Katie had noticed this but didn't dare to say anything and break the profound silence. By his side, Zeke was staring directly at the crate section of the boat, smirking. He was the thing everyone else was avoiding to look at, and it seemed he was avoiding everyone as well.

Eva stood up, catching everyone's attention, as she walked to the crates. She started picking up crates, testing which one had her preferred weight, for all the crates had different proportions and sizes. After settling for one, she picked it up and started exercising with it as if it were a pair of weights.

Tired of the silence, and uncaring of everyone else's opinion, Noah broke the room with a snarky comment, "Why a crate, Hulk?"

Eva identified Noah was talking but didn't understand why, "What?" Her voice sounded rough, mostly annoyed, but it was enough to throw Noah off.

"Nothing, it's fine"

"Oh no, now I want to know why you needed to interrupt me" Eva hadn't stopped exercising, you could tell she was annoyed but didn't look enraged, which was pleasantly surprising for the rest of the peeps.

Noah crossed his arms and looked away with an eye roll, before he could say anything, Katie attempted to help out. "Hum, he asked why you're doing that weighty thingy with a crate instead of a weight"

Eva looked over to Katie, then back at Noah. "Do you see my bags anywhere?" Noah just rolled his eyes away again, didn't look like his attempt at conversation was appreciated.

"Oh gosh, it's true." Gwen covered her face for a second. "We didn't pack up, we don't have clothes or chargers or-"

"-Or dignity or morals or decency. Yeah, we got the memo gothie" Noah was already a bit salty, he really didn't need the goth to remind him of the shit situation they had all ended up in

Gwen gave him an annoyed look. "Oh are you going to be like this the entire trip?"

"Oh, my apologies, continue to point out the obvious please" Noah did a swirly gesture with his hands indicating Gwen to continue talking.

Gwen settled for crossing her arms while frowning and looking away from him, she really wasn't a fan of this room.

"I mean- I guess they're gonna hand that stuff to us, right?" Cody was trying to calm the situation down a bit, 'the situation' being Gwen.

"They better do, or they'll be hearing from me." Courtney injected herself into the dialogue as she stood up to walk in circles around the room, unsure what to do with her hands.

"What happened with your lawyers?" Noah was aiming for a less aggressive tone this time.

"I'm studying law, you absolute ignorant, I don't need those sharks anymore, I am the shark now." Noah sighed, frankly offended with Courtney's rudeness

Ezekiel laid back on the container wall getting a look from everyone before they decided to go back to the conversation. There was a silence

"I'm sure your boyfriend would like that," Gwen said it under her breath, giving Courtney the cold shoulder.

"I-" She was startled. "Scott and I are not together anymore, thanks." She said coldly.

"Hey, I feel that." Tyler, who was the only person that hadn't talked since the boat sailed, lowered his head a bit.

"What do you know about breakups?"

"Hey I went through my couple of breakups!" The room kinda gave him a worried look, except for Ezekiel who couldn't be bothered, Tyler continued to break the silence. "You know, I just feel it." Feeling his insight was unappreciated, Tyler lowered his head once again to check on his hurt hand.

Courtney felt she should turn and apologize to him, but didn't care enough or had the time for it.

"Well that's a lot of catching up with breakups, isn't it?" Said Noah, in a remarkably ridiculous tone.

"Did you fall off too buddy?" Cody was friendly mocking him, Noah did not appreciate it.

"What? No. One of the main reasons I even accepted to go into this dumb game was because Emma and I need a win... you know." He sounded embarrassed about that last part.

"Oh… that's really sweet actually." Cody smiled at him with an attempted comfort.

"You would know about sweet…" He ironically stated

"Why? What happens" The boy was pretty much confused

"Oh you know I'm just pretty sure from the way you treated Sierra back in the dock. Weren't you guys on good terms or something?"

"I mean, we were… And don't get me wrong I tried to make us stay friends." Cody was visibly freaking out just talking about it. "But even as friends she's a freak!"

Gwen let a laugh out. "Oh come on, it can't be that bad."

"She has a jar full of my saliva she collects while I sleep, she calls it 'the Cody juice'"

The room dispersed in laughter until an eight laugh mixed with the others and everyone went into absolute silence. It sounded like someone was scratching their fingernails on a board, Ezekiel calmed himself down, maintaining enough composure to be able to talk.

"What?" The room didn't abandon the state of silence, everyone was staring right at him in absolute awe until Courtney ruined it.

"You talk now? Good, the last thing I needed." She returned to her walking. There was silence again for a second while everyone regained their traction.

"Yeah... how did that happen?" Katie was trying her best to insert herself into the conversation, she didn't really feel she had anything to do with everyone else here so she was trying her best.

"Yo if there's something I'm good with it's language, I used to know like uhh..." The green man took a moment to think this through. "...Seven! You know, I could only learn like four back tho." His voice sounded rough, scratchy, mostly what you would expect from a ghoul, but he seemed unaware of this.

"And how did your brain recover, you genius?" Noah was skeptical about this whole 'recovery' thing.

"Radiation just wears off eh!"

"No, it doesn't."

"Well, Chris's cheap version of radiation does."

"You know what? That makes enough sense for me." He gave up on the conversation.

Eva, who was not excited about the green man's ability to communicate, got tired of lifting just one crate and picked up a second one.

Tyler was rightfully impressed. "How can you even do that?"

"I'm not a pussy, that's how" Eva didn't even look at him

Tyler was a little hurt, he approached the corner of crates trying to pick one up to lift. What he did not consider was that crates had different weights and he happened to pick one of the heavier ones, failing to lift it and making him fall on his back to the floor, which made him look really lame. This got only but a single giggle from Gwen.

"Hey… Katie?" Gwen didn't really want to talk to Katie but considering the falling out with Courtney she had last year she was the closest thing to a friend she had in that boat, if you can consider someone you never fought with a friend.

"Hi!"

"So… going solo eh?" Gwen mentally slapped herself for using 'eh' in a conversation. "You know, you were sitting alone seárate from Sadie back at the dock."

"Oh yeah, you know how it is."- Katie looked genuinely happy someone was approaching her, just saddened by the conversation topic she chose.

"I mean I guess, it's just I've never seen you either alone or not screaming at the top of your lungs."

Katie really wanted to laugh at that but it hurt a bit. "Well you know, I'm looking to calm down and chill a bit! I could totally use to make some real friends right now."

Gwen was a bit confused. "Did something happen-"

"Eh!"- Ezekiel was lifting up two boxes of crates with his right hand at the back of the container. "Check this out." he was smirking, clearly trying to one-up Eva.

"What? No way!" Eva, not stopping her previous lifting, walked over him and attempted to lift two more boxes. She was sore from all the lifting from before, and she was clearly struggling to keep the pace up, but it was worth it to put that bastard in his place.

"Yo good try… but check out this!"- Zeke lifted two more crates with his other hand and then placed them above the previous two with seemingly a lot of ease.

Tyler, who was still on the floor and hadn't moved from the back pain, had a lot to say about this little competition for he was directly below the boxes.

"Guys? Can hum… Someone move me out of the way before they-" Noah and Cody stepped in and grabbed Tyler by the shoulders, pulling him away while Eva and Zeke one-upped each other until there were no more boxes to pick up from.

One, two, four, suddenly each of them had five crates in each hand, Eva was bothered, Ezekiel hadn't stopped smiling.

"Whatever, I've been lifting longer, I win" Eva was prideful showing off the seven crates she was holding in one hand."

Ezekiel smirked, as he put the crates down. "Sure, whatever floats your boat, eh?" He walked untouched back to his bench. Eva, not accepting defeat, threw the boxes to the other side of the container, one of which landed on Tyler's foot.

Tyler's scream filled the room, it was short but loud and got Eva a lot of glances. "God dude, you really are unlucky." Cody was aiding the jock along with Noah.

"I know right? I never get to show my abilities." He sounded a bit frustrated

"The ones you tootally have?" Noah let out a small chuckle.

"Hey what's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, big guy"

The speaker sounded loud and clear with Chef's voice behind it. "We're arriving in five minutes kids, brace yourselves."

Katie sounded a little confused. "Brace? Oh my god is it going to be cold there Gwen?"

"I don't think that's what 'brace' means Katie."

"She wouldn't get it, don't try."- Ezekiel's voice cut through the room, as everyone gave him a concerned look.

Katie stood up. "Excuse me, what did you say?" Ezekiel realized the way people were looking at him, he started getting nervous.

"Something not sexist, that's what… I meant it is proven once the brain familiarizes a vague meaning for a word it is way harder to correct it than if it has a wrong one." Zeke looked at Noah for approval that he surprisingly gave with a nod

Faster than anyone could say anything, the door opened, and Chris welcomed them to the complex.

"Campers! Come on, get out of the boat, it smells like illegal stuff in there." As everyone got out of the boat they became aware of the environment around them.

The docks the boat had harbored in were directly connected into a swamped area and in the distance, there was some sort of mountainous terrain all united by a remarkably thick forest.

As everyone got a hold of the view, Chris started reading from a paper while talking into a camera, he explained. "You're on a complex of five islands, made from reused sets from other shows, all connected by a set of docks, we'll be visiting them as we advance on the competition, except for the one in the middle, that one's for the losers." Chris started pointing fingers in the air, allegedly where the editors would edit a map of the islands in later, in the meantime, Chef showed the contestants a real map from behind the camera.

The islands were arranged as the pips on dice, the one they were in right now resembled Wawanakwa a lot, a dreary abandoned, flooded and jungly version of it, but it was still the entrance to Wawanakwa as they remembered it, just much smaller.

Chris rambled for a while before the cameras cut and turned to talk to the contestants, he looked tired. "Ok kids, your cabins are visible from here, in between them is the confessional boot, you can go there at the end of each day to say your confessionals and we'll edit them in later. Remember I write the confessionals for you, only those will go into the show so don't try anything original. We made sure to put everything right next to the dock so sending you all home is easier."

"But you said we're not going home." Katie interrupted Chris, genuinely inquiring about the contradiction.

"I don't care, I just want you close to the dock." He took a break. "The teams we'll be divided in, and I'm quoting our fellow friend Ezekiel here: 'The stronger, more intelligent masculine men' and 'The weaker, dumber, inferior women'".

Cody and Courtney left a chuckle while everyone else looked at Zeke with disgust. "Really? You're gonna hold me to that? You literally told me not to-"

"Why would I have invited you if it weren't for this Zeke? Now everyone, to their cabins!"

Zeke's expressions went from sadness to a bit of rage, and the green deteriorated man looked very scary when angry.

"Cabins! I said cabins! Can you not understand something that simple, Jesus!" Chris signaled Chef with his hand to follow him into the staff house, and so he did. While the man walked away they were interrupted by Tyler. "Wait, you're not going to introduce us?"

"They already know you, we'll do a voice-over to footage of you or something" Chris turned around to say a last thing to the contestants while Chef walked off into the forest where the staff house allegedly was. "And one more thing, I need you record at least one confessional before tomorrow, and be ready for tomorrow, this first episode has to be the bomb." He turned around to follow chef , spouting some last words as he walked away. "It's not like any of us want to be here, let's make it easy shall we."

The kids looked at each other, Cody tried to play it cool. "What's his damage, right?" But everyone seemed uninterested in the comment and headed to the cabins. Still ashamed, Zeke walked behind them as each team entered their housing space. The cabins were brand new wooden little houses with four bunk-beds each and a little window on the back to keep the light coming in, the only thing that felt out of place was the ceiling, which seemed to be made out of the old wood and was old, wet and covered in fungus.

Noah and Cody both entered the boy's cabin first and took the lower beds, leaving the upper one to Zeke and Tyler, who struggled to get up there with his hurt foot. Katie and Eva each took the lower beds in their respective cabin, leaving the other two to Courtney and Gwen.

As everyone settled to sleep the night away, Chris's voice cut the silence with a megaphone outside. "Ok campers! Tomorrow will be the first challenge, eliminations and challenges happen on the same day, we'll just tell the audience they're 3 days apart so they think this is happening as it airs. Now go to sleep if you know what's good for you. And of course overall, welcome to the first season of our comeback saga, Total Drama Dehisce! Get it? Like when you reopen an old wound? Good, it's hilarious, now go to sleep."

Gwen covered her ears with her pillow. "God one second he's begging us for help to save the show and the next he's a smug fuck."

"It does make for good television." Courtney reañozed none of them have pajamas and will have to sleep fully clothed.

"Well, team…" Eva roughened her voice. "Tomorrow's gonna be the key day to assert dominance, so get good sleep."

"Uh, team? Who gave you leadership?"

Katie, almost falling asleep, tried to calm them down. "Guys, you're literally making it impossible to sleep, you can both scream tomorrow, right Gwen?"

No one really answered, they were all tired and it was as good a time as any to drop it. Slowly, they fell asleep.

Tyler stretched in his bed, relieved of finally laying down on something and resting his muscles. "Finally! A good place to rest… I mean it is not that comfortable but it's better than standing or sitting down…" He went kind of ignored.

Ezekiel, on the other hand, had trouble sleeping. "Hey, did any of you bring binoculars?"

"Binoculars? Why?" Cody was genuinely intrigued

"You know yo, bird watching."

"Bird watching? How lame can you get." Noah tried to be smug but got cut off by Tyler.

"Dude, uncool. If the man wants to birdwatch I say let him birdwatch"

Ezekiel looked at the ceiling fungus, with some naivety. "I don't know yo, birds just… calm me down."

A/N: Hope you liked my little intro chapter! It was really fun to set up all the little plots and future relationships that are going to go explored in the fic. Obviously there's some surprises, but a few are hinted at from here.

This cast was really fun to work with, and I picked it very specifically because they usually go unused in competition fics or character explorations. (With the major exception of Gwen and Courtney but they need to be here for other reasons). You'll see Dehisce is more about character relationships and personal stakes than competition, but I still made sure to make the competition aspect entertaining, so if you're looking for that you hopefully won't be disappointed.

I must warn you from now, next chapter is the longest in the entire fic, so buckle up for it. I hope you enjoy it anyways! I promise none of the others are even close to that long.