Oh yeah, back in the driver seat!

I missed writing OC fics so much, and I'm glad I get to be working on this now! But, like the original Gen I cast, the Karon cast has kinda done everything they could. So, here comes a new cast, and because Chris was arrested at the end of Fiery Passion, we have a new host too, who you will meet soon. Let's not waste any more time. Here we go!

Episode 1: Class is in Session, Part I

A woman in a brown suit, white shirt, and brown tie, briskly walked up the hallway in the dark building. In her hands, was a clipboard, and she adjusted her sunglasses in her other hand, keeping her demeanor low and stealthy. As she walked, her dark black heels echoed through the hallway with every step, giving away her otherwise low profile. Every once in a while, she'd lift up her sunglasses and reveal her light brown eyes, as if looking for someone. Her dark black hair waved behind her, until eventually the woman stopped moving.

She took another look around, almost as if she had found what she was looking for within the dark passageway. "You're here, Hatchet," she said bluntly. "You know it wouldn't make sense to try and hide from me, yeah?"

The cook she had spoke about revealed himself from a corner, wearing his standard apron and hat. "You know I wouldn't try and hide from you," he responded. "After all, no one ever made it past Dr. Susan Hazel back in-"

The woman swiftly interrupted him, sticking her hand out. "That's Miss Hazel to you, now," she answered sternly. "You'd best correct that lax nature of yours before you step foot on my show. How on Earth did you manage to stay so hidden? You were only ever found out because of a coincidence!"

Chef Hatchet shook his head at Susan Hazel. "It's my show too, and that's because I left, I never was disguising myself." He pointed up to the white hat on top of his head. "That's real. I make food, I'm a host on the show. That's what I do now." He then looked at her, not able to reach her eyes due to the sunglasses that she had on. "These are kids you are working with. You might wanna be more lax than the Dr. Hazel everyone feared."

Susan let out a huff. "I suppose I'd have to ask for your help in that department, yeah?" She pulled up the clipboard, and flicked a nearby light switch, revealing that the two were standing at the bottom of a stairwell, at the end of a school hallway. "Alright. Shall we get started?"

Intro Coming Next Chapter

In a very different location, a red train was moving alone on a track, making its way across the flat plains that it currently found itself on. The sky was a vibrant blue, and the grass was very green, free of any form of wildlife.

Inside the train itself, there were sixteen teenagers, stationed to one car each. The long train would have struggled on a normal circumstance, but the track was flat, which made it easy for the train to handle. Inside one of the cars, a short and skinny boy stood up from his seat. He had short black hair, with dark blue eyes. He wore a grey sweater-vest that had a black shirt and tie under it, along with black pants held up with a belt. He checked down at his black shoes to ensure that they were tied properly, before pushing open the cabin door. Though the door appeared normal, it seemed as if opening the door alone was quite the challenge for the small boy.

He began walking around, trying to find anyone else. Eventually, he exited his car and went to the car in front of him, knocking on the door of the cabin. There was no response, so this time, the short boy, now a bit agitated, knocked harder. "Open!" he shouted, trying his best to summon whoever was on the other side. When no response came from them, he began trying his best to open that cabin door as well. Just like before, it was quite the struggle.

When he got in, he was quite shocked at what he saw. Another boy, this one taller and with more mass than the skinny boy, was asleep during that entire exchange. The sleeping boy wore light blue sneakers with dark blue basketball shorts, and had a red graphic T-shirt on. He also had blonde hair that was messy from a long sleep, and he also appeared to have brought his own pillow. "Hey, you!" the shorter boy shouted. "Wake up! We're about to arrive at our stop...probably!"

The blonde boy opened his eyes. "Who are you?" he asked groggily, rubbing his blue eyes, but not lifting his head off the pillow.

"Me?" the short boy asked, "my name is Leo, and you better remember that! I'm going to win this game." Leo's eyes were filled with determination, but his face showed that he was quite offended by the sleeping boy's question.

The blonde boy took a quick look at Leo. "Nolan," he said bluntly, putting the side of his head back on his pillow, "goodbye." Nolan proceeded to shut his eyes again, and the sound of snoring came from him almost instantly. Leo thought it may have been a joke at first, but when Nolan's hand dropped to the floor, he was certain that he had simply fallen asleep that quickly.

"Hmph," Leo said with a huff. "I'll make sure he regrets that. I'll make sure all of them do!"

Meanwhile, everyone else on the train was starting to get up and meet people. The next girl sat in her cabin alone, however. She mundanely stared out the window, twirling her short dirty blonde hair with one finger. As she stared, her legs, which sported black leggings, dangled over the floor as her legs were too short to reach it. Every once in a while, she would adjust her light blue top, or feel her grey shoes occasionally grace the floor. She very much appeared to be in her own element, not really caring about anything else going on. Her face gave off a blank expression, and only finally moved when her cabin door opened. She unflinchingly turned her head out of curiosity, just to see who was there.

The boy who opened her cabin door was dressed quite odd as far as she was concerned. The boy had most notably, a giant red wool cape that he wore along his backside, covering the back end of his very clean black suit, white shirt, and red tie. The boy's long brown hair glimmered from the sunlight through the window as he adjusted the metal crown that sat above his head. He slammed his leg down, and put his right arm out, which carried a long staff. "You there!" he shouted in a commanding voice, "I hope you are ready for your introduction of a lifetime! I am George, the next sovereign monarch of..." the boy hesitated, "well, that's not important quite yet." George retracted his staff, and looked the short girl in the eye. "Who may you be?" George seemed to have a bit of interest in the girl, but the feeling was not mutual.

The girl turned her head back over to the window. Her expression hadn't changed since he entered, and she gave off the vibe that she was less than wowed over the introduction George had given her. "Kris," she answered bluntly, "hello." Despite her short appearance, the way she spoke was a bit deeper than one would think, and everything she said was also very free of emotion, almost like no effort was put into it.

Instead of maintaining his formal greeting, George had become flustered. "What- 'hello'? That is all you have to offer? I am a future sovereign monarch! You should be offering your respects to me!" Kris noted that this boy had probably not gone outside in a month.

"Sorry," Kris responded with a deadpan expression, making her apology almost sound like sarcasm. "I don't really have anything to respond to that." With that, she continued staring out the window, in hopes that the boy would maybe go away. Fully upset by this rude woman, George had grabbed his staff and walked out of Kris's cabin, hoping that maybe he would find better subjects.

A rugged man began walking around the train. His dark green sneakers that matched his eyes made noise every time he took a step, like he was trying to draw attention. He wore a dark red hoodie over a sleeveless white tank top, and dark jeans that looked like they were new. He looked like he had some sort of goal in mind, but nothing he found seemed to get his interest. "Nothing but losers in that last car," he muttered to himself. "Someone better be worth my time in this one."

He entered the car in front of him, which was the foremost car on the train. When he opened the door, he was shocked at what he walked into. A smaller boy with messy black hair was adjusting his glasses, entertaining himself with a math problem on the white board in front of him. He had a few marker stains on his otherwise clean white button-down shirt, which had a bright yellow tie on it. He dusted off his black dress pants after looking up and seeing the hulking man in front of him. "Oh!" he said in surprise, surprised anyone had came to see him, "How long have you been standing there?"

"Enough time to know that you aren't worth my attention," the larger boy said. "What's your name? I want to be able to know the name of the person I pick on." The larger boy was in between surprising a laugh and keeping his look of intimidation.

From what the smaller boy could gather, the larger boy seemed like he would keep his promise on that. "Oh, I'm Peter," the smaller boy said, grabbing his white board to show it to the larger man. "I like doing math a lot, but that's really all there is about me." Peter held his head high though, and looked him in the eyes. "What about you? If you plan on picking on me, I feel I've earned the right to know your name."

The larger boy looked down at Peter. "Fine," he said, clenching his fist, "I'm Nathan, don't call me anything but that, got it?" Peter nodded his head slowly. "Have you seen anyone here worth my time?" he asked, "I don't want to be bored when I win."

Peter hesitated for a second. "Um, I haven't, I'm sorry." He held his head down. "I-I've been just sitting in here. I guess I was so absorbed in my board that I had forgotten to actually look around and see who's here."

Nathan watched the kid squirm in front of him for a bit longer before deciding that he was bored of what he saw. "Okay," he said, turning around to leave, "dork." He closed the cabin door, and realized he had hit the front of the train. How boring. Maybe someone would be in the back that was worth his while.

A few cars back from that one, a girl was lying down in her cabin, talking on the phone. She was wearing a long pink sundress, with pink sandals, and had a large straw hat on over her light brown hair. "You can do that for me?" she asked the other end of the phone, "That's fantastic, I was hoping you'd say that!" She listened for a second before laughing. "Of course, I will keep my end of the bargain, you shouldn't believe those rumors." Her sentence became a little shaky by the end of that. "Oh! But please leave me a good review. Maybe we can smash those rumors together!" Her bubbly voice seemed to resonate well with the person on the other line. "Excellent, well, I'll be seeing you shortly, I'm sure!"

As she hung up the phone, she put her head against the wall of her cabin. "Oops, I forgot to mention I'd be away from my office for some time due to the show!" Her voice suddenly switched from bubbly to toxic and insincere. "Eh, I'm sure they'll figure it out."

As she said that, someone was watching her form outside the window. She was wearing an orange tube top with jeans, and orange sneakers to go along with it. Her blonde hair, coupled with an orange headband, sparkled in the sunlight from the window, and a sense of jealousy emerged from her hazel eyes as she watched the girl with the hat. Carefully, she opened the door, making her presence known immediately. "Hi!" she said bubbly, the jealousy from her eyes disappearing in an instant. "I was going around meeting people, and I just fell in love with that hat!"

The phone girl sat up, smiling at the new person standing before her. "Aww, thanks, you're so kind!" she said, "what's your name? I would love to get to know you better!" She gestured to herself as she slid the phone into her pocket. "My name's Gianna, have you heard of me before?"

The second girl was caught off guard by that last part. Was this a celebrity? it didn't really matter. "I'm Claire," she said back, "but...I haven't seen you before, I don't think. Sorry about that." Her voice was a mix of someone who was confused and desperately searching for answers.

Gianna smirked. "Of course you don't know about me," she boasted. "I'm Hollywood's Shadow. That's what my clients refer to me as, at least." Claire tilted her head, it was clear she didn't understand. "Basically, I work in the background of Hollywood, and I do tons of dirty work to grab people the connections they need to hit it big."

"That's incredible," Claire said in awe. "That sounds like you have a lot of work to do though, so I shouldn't waste anymore of your time." Claire instantly began to start getting up to leave. "Besides, I want to go meet everyone else before we get off the train!"

Gianna narrowed her eyes for a second, studying the blonde girl. "Well, I'll leave you to it then!" she then responded with, her bubbly attitude returning. As Claire was leaving, she offered up one more thing. "Just remember, if you ever want to hit it big, contact me, we'll cut a deal!"

"Thanks!" Claire said, quickly making her way outside her cabin, "I'll think it over!" As she closed the door, Claire rolled her eyes and muttered to herself. "That was a waste of my time," she said, visibly annoyed at the interaction she just went through, "hopefully I get something better in the next one."

As the sun grew brighter, a girl was relaxing in her seat, with the cabin door open. She casually flipped her dark brown hair, and her brown eyes were buried deep in the book she was reading, a cookbook. She was wearing a green T-shirt, jeans and had a white apron wrapped around her. She swung her legs as she read, her white sneakers occasionally scraping the floor. "That looks great," she said to herself, enthralled in one of the pages. Her expression quickly changed to a frown. "I guess I'll have to remember it for now. No way I'd get to cook here."

Suddenly, as she was reading, she felt a giant shake on the train. She could hear a scream from one of the nearby cabins, but she disregarded it. Then, she lost her attention again when two people fell in front of her just outside the cabin. "Ah!" the one screamed, collapsing on the floor without a chance to save himself. The boy had a dark blue jersey with black shorts on, and as he stumbled around from the disturbance, his white shoes gave way, forcing him down onto the ground. After moaning for a bit, he lifted his head up, only to find another girl who had fallen in front of him. "Oh!" he shouted, as their eyes quickly met, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you..."

The second girl, lifted her head up and looked at the boy, before getting herself up again. She wore a red top with black dress pants, and as she stood up, adjusted her glasses and fixed her straight dirty blonde hair. "No need to apologize," she said as-a-matter-of-factly, "There was no way either of us could have anticipated that." She turned around behind her, probably where the disturbance came from. "Still," she said, facing backward still, "something must have happened." She noticed the boy was pretty much frozen in fear. "Oh, I suppose it would be logical for me to introduce myself. I'm Brenna."

The blue-wearing boy hesitated, and snapped back into focus. "Oh, right! I'm B-Ben. Yeah..." He paused for a second, and the two finally realized that the cabin door was open the whole time, and a girl was going through a cookbook as they talked. "Oh, I'm sorry!" he said again, this time to the apron-wearing girl. "You must be annoyed with me."

The girl in green put down her cookbook. "I mean, I was trying to read," she admitted calmly, "but what's more important is that you two are okay." She looked at the two of them with a friendly smile. "I'm Celine, by the way." She helped Ben up. "Actually, I'm interested in what happened back there too. Do you think we should take a look?"

Brenna shook her head. "I was expecting something like that, and it'd be best if we avoided it. It would probably only mean more trouble." She appeared flustered for a second. "But, I wasn't expecting it to knock me over like that." Her gaze shifted to outside. "We're moving faster now, too," she added, "maybe we're getting closer to our location."

"Maybe," Celine said with a shrug. "But I still don't see anything else besides fields outside. Weird." She took a closer look outside, then also gazed back, in an attempt to maybe grasp what was going on.

A smaller girl was walking around the back of the train when the commotion happened, and while she was looking for people before, she became a bit more concerned. This train car felt different, like it was shaking a bit, and every once in a while, she would hear some sort of pop. The girl was wearing a light blue dress that reached her knees, with the end frilling up like a tutu. She had a light blue headband to match it, equipped with bunny ears. Eventually, her eyes settled on one spot in particular, which she could feel the tension from outside on.

She was about to press on the cabin door to test it out, but before anything happened, a voice sounded out to her, startling her. "Speak your name," the voice sounded at her. It was deeper than she expected, but it ended up sounding pleasant at the same time, like it was more of an invitation. Regardless, the girl still answered the question of the voice. "Nala," she said slowly, "um, who are you?"

The voice sounded off again. "Enter and you will learn." Nala was about to open the door, when another pop was heard. The voice shrieked, but this time, the voice was much higher. "No!" it shouted, clearly being a girl's voice now. Another pop. "Oh, come on, stop! I was so close!" Once Nala opened the door, the rest of the strange pops, those revealing themselves to be balloons, began sounding off, as a storm of darts paraded down in front of her. The loud sound of the pops ended up making Nala jump back, and the voice to begin cackling at her misery.

Once the balloons dissipated, a girl was seen behind all of it. Her black hair was still moving back and forth with each laugh she gave off, and she wore a brown sweater with a brown skirt. Like Nala, she also had a headband on, but no bunny ears. "Oh, that was almost so much better!" the girl complained to Nala, who was still visibly shocked at what had happened. "It was almost like...boom!" The girl cackled for a second before sighing. "Oh well. You seem like a nice enough person anyway." The brown-haired girl stuck her hand out. "I'm Abigail, by the way," she said, calming down from her laughing fit just a second ago. "You said it was...Nala, right?"

Nala slowly shook her head. "Um, yeah, I did," she muttered. "Anyway, I think I'm gonna go." She began walking back a few steps, but then broke into a sprint and left the prankster by herself.

Abigail frowned. "That's a shame," she said to herself, picking up some of the popped balloons, "but I didn't have enough time to make something good, whatever happened right behind me screwed up my plans!" She then looked at the back of her car, and stepped near it. "I'm sure I can just check for a second." She skipped over to the back of her car, and pulled the door open.

What she saw came as a shock to her. There was literally nothing behind her but the track and the plains. "I could have sworn there were two cars behind me," she muttered to herself, "where did they go?" Upset that she was thrown off from what she thought was true, she sighed and pulled the door shut again, then turned around to go back to her cabin.

When she turned around, she was first greeted by a voice. "I should have figured it was you causing that disruption," a male voice said, stepping forward. He was dressed in a maroon polo shirt and khaki pants, and had brown dress shoes on. His brown hair was slicked back a bit, and his dark black eyes began staring into Abigail's soul. "You know you knocked some people down up in the front too. You're getting a little too extreme for my liking, friend."

Abigail's bubbly personality instantly turned sour. "Why are you here?" she demanded from him, "why on Earth would you show up to something like this?" she made sure a bit of spit came out and landed on the boy's shirt. The boy in return was instantly repulsed and turned away to try and wipe it off. "Oh, and Jacob," she told him, "we're not friends, despite what your executive board tells you."

Jacob finished cleaning himself off from the minor disruption, and let out a huff. "It's a president's duty to be friends will all of the students of the band. Surely you know that, right?" Abigail returned the soulless stare back at him. "But...you look angry right now. May I ask what the issue was?"

Abigail let out a stressed yell. "First of all, you showed up here, without telling me! I was looking forward to having time to do my thing, and now you're here!" Jacob was not fazed by the comment, like he had heard it many times before, because he had. "Second of all, look!" she pulled open the door again, "I didn't make that big disruption!" She gestured to the big nothing in front of them. "There were two more train cars there, and now there aren't! Something's happening, and it probably has to do with their disappearance."

"Don't be so rash," Jacob insisted, earning himself a glare from the girl beside him, "I'm sure that you only imagined it." She smacked him across the head. "Ugh, how dare you!" Jacob shouted, and then quickly regained his composure. "Okay, but if there were really two cars here, where are they now?" Abigail scratched her head. She didn't want to admit it, but he made a good point. At the same time, she was certain those cars were there.

"Hey, wake up."

In a train car that was stationary, a well-built boy was pacing around, trying to figure out the current situation he was in. The boy had a blue shirt that was tightly fitted on him, and pants with a camouflaged design on it. He had short, buzzed blonde hair, and wore green boots. He continued pacing around the room, and kept observing the girl on the floor. His first call to wake her was unsuccessful. "This is...annoying," he told himself. "Ugh, I should have kept my guard up while on the train. It was stupid of me to think they wouldn't try anything." He took a deep breath, and let go of his anger. "Alright, I need to calm down. It won't happen again, that's for sure."

He looked down again to the girl, who was finally coming to her senses. She had dark brown hair that went down to her upper back, where the bottom tip was dyed blue. Around her shoulders was a black fur jacket that appeared to be handmade, and a brown skirt with black leggings. She opened her blue eyes and moaned a bit. "Finally, you're up," the boy said to her, "are you okay? I couldn't find anything damaging on me, but I didn't really bother to check you."

The girl stood up, and that was when the boy realized she had a bow and quiver with her, and that quiver had several arrows in it. Instead of responding, the girl quickly inspected herself, and shrugged. "Not much for talking?" he asked her, to which the girl responded with another shrug. "That's fine, you don't have to really tell me anything. It's not like I'd really believe it anyway."

As the two stood in an awkward silence a bit longer, footsteps could be heard from outside the train car. The brown suited woman made herself visible to them, still wearing her sunglasses in the dimly-lit train car. "Finally, the two of you are up," she said dully, approaching them. "My name is Miss Susan Hazel, but you can feel free to refer to me as Susan." She reached into her earpiece she was currently wearing. "How was that? Was I...'chill' enough?" After receiving a response, she turned to them again. "I want to open up by apologizing for putting sleep gas in your train cars, but know this wasn't luck that you two are here."

The boy raised an eyebrow at Susan. "How are we supposed to just believe everything you say after what you did to us? I'm supposed to be on a show right now." He stared into the woman's eyes, and Susan was taken aback that when she stared back he didn't even flinch.

"No need to fret, boy," Susan insisted, "you're on the show, but you must let me continue." The boy relaxed for a second, letting Susan go on. "Next, let's make sure this is correct." She turned to the girl first. "You're Sharron Magail, correct?" The girl nodded, still refusing to speak. She then turned from Sharron to the boy. "And...Carter Kane, if I'm not mistaken." Carter let out a huff at the woman.

Susan made a note on the clipboard she was carrying. "Good, we have the right people." She faced the two again. "You two have the highest projected performance scores for this season, based on your physical backgrounds, as a hunter and son of a military family." She scribbled some more things down on her clipboard. "Because of this, you two have been selected as the captains for our teams this season. These will be semi-official roles, as we are setting your expectations higher, but not everyone on your team has to listen to you."

Carter raised his hand, and as Susan instinctively tried to answer it, he began speaking anyway. "Yeah, I'm not sure if this is an oversight on your part, but we haven't seen anyone else yet. How is this supposed to work?"

Susan snapped her fingers and smiled at him. "You're on the right track." She snapped her fingers again, and a screen began glowing in front of them. On the screen was what looked to be a blueprint of a building. "You're challenge is to find and meet your teammates, then report back to me. You each will solve riddles and challenges to get each new team member, who will be scattered throughout the school." As she spoke, several red dots appeared on the screen in various spaces throughout the blueprint. "Are you two good with that?"

"Seems simple enough," Carter said, still observing the screen. He was hoping that he could study where the dots were and try and get an advantage over the suspicious archer girl.

"Don't bother studying," Susan told Carter when she caught onto what he was doing, "these locations will be shuffled." She turned to the archer girl. "Sharron, are you good with this challenge?" Sharron nodded, a fierce look of determination appearing on her face. "I'm sorry, I need a verbal confirmation."

Sharron gasped and turned red for a second, before quietly muttering out a "yes," under her breath. Carter was caught off-guard by her voice, which did not hail from Canada, but instead had a British accent on it.

Susan nodded. "Good. Now, I have some other business to attend to elsewhere. Your challenge begins when you hear the buzzer. Until then, do not leave the car. We have this place rigged with cameras, so we will know." Susan took her clipboard and began walking away. As she left, she snapped her fingers, and the screen in front of them turned off and retreated back into the ceiling.

Once the door closed, Sharron and Carter were alone again. Carter took another look at the archer girl, who turned to him with a glare. "What?" she asked, turning away from him quickly.

"Nothing," Carter quickly replied. He really didn't care where she was from, because he was going to win anyway.

Susan returned to outside of the entrance to an odd looking school, which was just a short walk away from where she had left from. Instead of being bright and inviting, this school was lifeless. Moss covered many parts of the walls, and cobwebs were running amok as well. This place had clearly been abandoned for some time. Behind her, someone approached her. "This is the last place I had in mind, but you did win the hosting gig," Chef noted, standing next to her.

Susan smirked. "I know you weren't a fan of this place, that's partially the reason I chose it. You could learn a thing or two from this school." She felt a buzz in her pocket, and pulled out a phone, quickly reading the message before putting the phone in her pocket again. "Look sharp, they'll be here in a few seconds."

Right before Chef's eyes, the ground in front of them opened up, and retracted underneath itself, and he could feel the whole ground shake as something began to rise out of it. Once it hit the top, fourteen contestants stood in front of them, holding their stuff. The train was no longer there, but the contestants could still see the two train cars that were left outside the right end of the school. "I told you there were more," Abigail said harshly to Jacob, who simply turned away from her in response.

"Let's not get into trouble too quickly," Susan said, stepping forward in front of the cast. "Let's start with introductions. I'm your new host, Susan Hazel, you can refer to me as Miss Susan. If that's too formal for you, you may call me Susan instead." Peter took out a notepad, scribbling quickly as the new host spoke. "In front of you, stands Ingress Academy, a school that was prided for its academic growth in its short lifespan. It earned the name after three of the worst transfer students the education system had ever seen were accepted into Ivy level schools." Peter continued to scribble.

Susan gestured to a bus that was pulling up, with an intern driving it. "We're going to ask you all to step onto this bus. It will take you to your dormitories, where you will be sleeping. I will explain more once you have moved in." The contestants began herding onto the bus in chaos, causing Susan to yell out, "please follow the rooming assignments I designated on the doors!"

Once everyone was loaded onto the bus, the intern began driving away from the school, making a right so the contestants were able to see the side of it as well. "Well, this place looks like junk," Nathan said, briefly glancing out the window. "The loss of McLean really hurt this show, huh?"

"Cut them some slack," Celine told him, "I mean, Miss Susan is probably trying her best. Who's to say the look wasn't intentional?" She eyed him up, and Nathan appeared slightly impressed when he returned the favor that she didn't back down.

Nathan scoffed. "Well, if the dorms look anything like the school I might vomit." He turned to one of the contestants sitting behind him, Kris. "What do you think? School's garbage or what?"

Kris was still mundanely staring out the window. Her fix didn't shift from outside as she answered. "I don't really care," Kris answered, "it's not like we're staying her forever."

Someone else, being Jacob, raised his hand. "I for one, am with you," he told Nathan, extending his hand. "This school lacks what could only be a thriving leader. Luckily, I'm here to bring it some new light." Abigail rolled her eyes as he continued speaking. "Follow me, and we'll-"

"Okay, forget I asked," Nathan muttered, turning away from Jacob. "Didn't know you were planning on dorking out on me." He retreated back to his seat, and began eyeing up some of the stronger-looking competitors, such as Celine and Nolan, who was asleep, but still looked pretty tough.

Before they knew it, they had arrived. "That was weird," Nala pointed out, stepping off the bus. "I don't remember actually arriving anywhere." She tried looking around, but she couldn't pinpoint where she had come from.

Brenna also began searching the area. "How odd. I don't see the school anymore either. That trip wasn't logical." The logician grabbed her bag and began walking toward the dorms. "Well, regardless, we're here."

Leo began dragging his bag along the floor. "Ngh...someone help me with this!" No one was coming to his aid, which made things difficult for him, as he'd need to get in the building, preferably before sundown. "Hey! Someone help me with this!"

Leo's bag was then lifted up by the robed boy. "Allow me, youngling," George said, picking up his bag with ease. It wasn't actually that heavy, but Leo was just that weak.

George began walking inside with Leo's bag, and Leo charged in after him. "H-hey, that's mine! Stop taking it away from me!" George kept moving toward an elevator that was in the lobby of the dorms.

Nathan was in shock as he saw the lobby. "Well, I'm allowed to be wrong," he admitted, observing the sights. The lobby looked like a hotel's lobby, complete with an eating area, fountains, and fully carpeted floors. The entire space was clean and sparkling. "Besides, we haven't seen the rooms yet."

After the elevator trip, the group reached the dorm rooms, which had four doors marked for them. Outside each door, there were four names. Jacob approached the first door, reading off the names. "Naturally, I'm listed first," he gloated, preparing to open the door, only to receive a smack on the head from his alleged friend.

"Keep dreaming," Abigail taunted, stepping toward her door. She looked at the room assignments for her room, which was labeled '1A'. "Okay...so, Nala...oh! I remember you from the train!"

Nala stepped forward easily. "Oh, we're rooming together...that's nice." Nala still seemed very apprehensive about that notion, despite what she had said. She brought her bags carefully near Abigail.

Abigail read off the next name. "Brenna...yeah, I guess I should have met people on the train," she said, chuckling nervously. Brenna stepped forward without saying anything, and stood next to the other two. "And...Sharron?" No one stepped forward at the final name. "That's odd, did Miss Susan mess up?"

Nathan chuckled. "I knew this place was too good to be true," he said slyly, "Susan really forgot one of us already." He was then spooked again when a screen dropped in front of the contestants, and Susan appeared back on the screen in front of them.

"Apologies for the fright, Mr. Verity," Susan teased, "I simply thought you were above getting scared, so I went with a better tactic." Nathan scowled as Susan kept instructing. "Your rooming assignments are separated by team, and you each will be missing a team member for now."

Claire playfully raised her hand. "So...what? We have to find this..." she quickly scanned around the doors to try and find the name of the person that was missing, "Carter...yeah, Carter guy, and then we win the first challenge?"

Susan shook her head. "Not quite. The better way to phrase it is that they will be finding you." The contestants were still confused, so Susan attempted to ease their worries. "For now, just unpack and get to know each other. That may come in handy later down the road." Once she left again, Abigail, Nala, and Brenna disappeared into their room, leaving the other eleven.

Peter observed his door, which was labeled 2B. "I take it that we must be the group that doesn't have all our members as well," he noted, grabbing his things. "The others in here are...Nolan and Leo."

Leo looked over to the side, and realized that the blonde boy was asleep again. "Ugh! Wake up!" he said, giving him what appeared to be his hardest punch on the shoulder. Leo was exhausted after the hit, but Nolan managed to get up.

Nolan grabbed his bags and went in. "I don't remember going to here," he said slowly, before entering the room himself. Peter let out a sigh of relief as he saw that Nathan was not following them. Celebrating that for only a second, he shut the door and didn't look back.

That left the other eight in the hallway. "So...I guess it's us," Ben said slowly, grabbing his stuff and heading into room 1B. He seemed very terrified about his intimidating roommates, but he did his best not to let that show. George followed soon after, then Jacob and Nathan.

Gianna hastily turned toward Claire. "I'm excited we're the ones rooming together," she told the flirt excitedly, "the others didn't seem as much fun." She grabbed her stuff and skipped inside. Claire rolled her eyes once she was out of sight and followed her in as well.

Kris silently grabbed her stuff, and started walking in, but a hand had reached out in her way. "Sorry," Celine said carefully, "I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Celine." Kris didn't react at all to the gesture, but accepted the handshake.

"Kris," the deadpan responded, entering the room while dragging her stuff behind her. The rooms were very resembling of the cabins from the previous seasons, but updated to be much more modern. Each end still had bunk beds, but the rooms were now filled with dressers, desks, and each room had its own bathroom as well.

When Celine entered, she was stopped instantly. "Do I know you?" Gianna asked excitedly, "because your face seems familiar to me." Gianna got up close and bean examining Celine from a closer distance, causing Celine to become flustered. "Were you one of my clients maybe?"

"Clients?" Celine responded, trying to take a few steps back. "I'm not sure I remember any agents partnering with me." She quickly realized the misstep in her words. "Wait, I meant-"

"Oh, you are famous!" Claire loudly responded. "I totally didn't recognize you, but now I do! Celine Hanza, season four winner of Young Chef Championship, back in two-thousand two!"

Celine sighed. "Yes, that's me...you like cooking?" She was hoping that these people would take her seriously if she asked them to keep that quiet, but it was probably too late. Gianna was already typing away on her phone, Claire was gushing, and even Kris looked a bit interested, but it was hard to tell.

Claire shook her head. "Eh, not really, but you guys knew how to bring out the drama!" she said. "You guys were only four years old but there was a lot of tension!" She plopped back on her bed, remembering the simpler times.

"Thanks, I guess," Celine said as modestly as possible. She was about to ask them to keep quiet about that before a scream had filled their room. Gianna was nervously typing away on her phone, and holding it up to the ceiling.

"What's going on?" Gianna screamed nervously, "I have a business to run! I need proper service!" Claire was suddenly bored from the excitement, and got up and left the room, leaving Gianna to her own dysfunctional devices.

An announcement came over the speakers, and this time it was Chef's voice. "If you may have noticed, we didn't confiscate your electronics. That's because we jacked up the systems, and they won't work enough to get you an edge anyway. So, you can keep your expensive bricks." Gianna was now desperately pounding her phone against the wall. Celine gave up. It looked like they wouldn't tell anyone anyway. They were too busy elsewhere in their heads.

"Okay," Nathan said, plopping his bag on a top bunk in 1B. "I want to make something clear now." He eyed up the other three members of his room with a large look of disgust. "I want the least dorky out of the three of you to bunk under me, and while it's a tough call..." he pointed over at Jacob, "you win that title, for now."

Jacob instead took his bag and threw it over on the other top bunk. "You should know I have no plans on being beneath anyone," he spitefully responded, climbing up to the top to further solidify his position. "That applies both in here, and as we compete. I will be the champion this show was hoping for."

George then stepped forward and threw his bag on the same bunk Jacob was sitting on. "Unfortunately, I don't believe any of you actually own land. I will be commandeering this location as my own sovereign territory."

Nathan grumbled to himself. "Of course I was wrong," he muttered. He let out an annoyed sigh before turning to Ben. "Are you also crazy and want the top bunk?"

Ben hesitated, before putting his bag under Nathan's bunk. "No...it's fine, I can take the bottom one." Nathan gave off a smile of relief as someone who looked like they had at least a bit of their head on bunked beneath him. The two of them watched George and Jacob argue over the bunks for a while. It didn't look like that conflict would be resolved in time.

"You don't understand," George told Jacob sternly, "I am quite literally above you in any way, shape, and form. I won't allow this to be different!" He held his ground, and began climbing up the bunk that Jacob was sitting on.

Jacob very swiftly flipped one of George's hands off a ladder rung, and caused him to fall back and land on the ground. "How dare you pick a fight with me!" Jacob shouted back. "If you insist in getting in my way, I'll destroy you!"

Nathan chuckled, watching the two hooligans cause each other misery. "Well, you may not be the least nerdy out of them," he told Ben as he began lying down on his top bunk, "but you are the most bearable." Ben smiled for a second, but it was quickly dismissed. "Don't think that we're friends now, got it?" Ben quickly shook his head. He may still be scared of the big guy still.

Room 1A was going quite smoothly compared to the other chaos that was happening in the other rooms. "What do you think Sharron's like?" Nala asked nervously, placing her stuff on a bottom bunk. "Do you think she's so mean they took her away from us?"

Brenna shook her head. "I doubt it. This show has never been that protective of us contestants in the past. It wouldn't be logical for something like that to happen." She approached the other bottom bunk. "Abigail, do you mind if I take the other bottom bunk? I get dizzy climbing late at night."

Abigail shrugged, lobbing her bag from across the room, and making it land on the top bunk above Nala. "Eh, go for it. After all, being higher up makes an air strike easier!" Nala was heard quivering in fear a bit. "Oh, don't worry about yourself," she said, trying to calm the cosplayer down, "I prank people for very specific reasons, and you don't fit them anymore."

Brenna looked up in interest. "Specific reasons? What exactly would those entail?" She began unpacking some of her stuff into the drawers, which were a fine dark wood, and they didn't even wobble.

"I only focus on those people who could use a smile from a prank," Abigail said, "so normally I target the people who are either very grumpy, or are just rotten human beings." She laughed. "I've met you two now, so I'm sure you guys are fine people."

Nala raised her hand. "So, like, that Nathan guy? Is he someone you'd consider?" She looked up at Abigail like she was hoping that a 'yes' would come out of her mouth.

The prankster shrugged. "Probably, but he wasn't who I had in mind in that room." Her voice shifted to an angry one for a quick second, but after a few deep breaths, everything was taken care of. "Anyway, I'm hungry. How about lunch? Are they serving that?"

Brenna felt her stomach rumble as well. "Well, lunch wouldn't be the most horrible thing." The three girls began laughing. Brenna was happy that they were at least getting along. That was probably better than the other rooms.

In room 2B, Leo was currently busy doing his best to run the entire place. "I should receive a bottom bunk, not because I can't climb to the top, but because it will make me faster and better than both of you." He quickly jumped onto one of the two bottom bunks, and then resumed this instructions. "Nolan, you take a top bunk. The drop in the morning will wake you up more."

Nolan grabbed his bag and threw it on the top bunk above Leo. "That's fine," he said slowly and quietly, "anything's a bed to me, then climb won't make that harder for me to sleep." Then, he climbed up himself and instantly went to sleep again, proving to Leo that it was in fact no challenge at all.

Peter grabbed his bag and put himself on the top bunk across from Nolan and Leo. "I think I will go up here," he said, putting himself on the top. "I um...like having a better view of the room...in case of danger..." he then stopped talking, and began thinking to himself again.

The silence in the room was short-lived, as Claire had barged into their room. "Please promise me you'll be more exciting," she begged, collapsing on the currently empty bottom bunk. "None of the boys in the other room were worth my time." She then rubbed her arm. "Also, that Nathan guy is a brute. I dislike him a lot!"

Peter jumped down from the top. "Well, I can empathize with you on that," he said nervously, "but I fear there will be little we can do about it." He reached up and grabbed his white board and began writing. "Look at the room assignments. We're in room 2B, while your room is 2A. That means we are probably on the same team." He then held out his hands and began counting with them. "Each team is perfectly balanced if we sort it like that as well." He sighed. "Nathan will be in the hands of our foes."

Claire grumbled again. "Ugh, are you kidding me?" She sighed. "Well, I wish you boys luck. Goodbye, everyone." As she turned to leave, she eyed up the sleeping boy up top. "Goodbye, Nolan," she added playfully.

"How did she know his name?" Leo asked, surprised, and looking very concerned if that this girl knows too much already. He turned to Peter. "Did she learn it earlier? Tell me!"

Peter shrugged. "I don't know what she sees in him, but if my theory is correct, it would make sense for her to approach him." He began doodling on his white board again, trying to make sense of what he knew so far.

As he was scribbling, another announcement came on over the speakers. "Attention, contestants," Susan's voice said to all of them, "I would like to inform you that the confessional will be in the janitor's closet on the ground floor. We will begin our first challenge shortly, and anyone who wishes to vent and release their problems will need to do so before we depart."

Peter stopped scribbling and left the room, leaving Leo and the sleeping Nolan left in the room alone. "Well, he's weird, right?" a pause showed Leo that Nolan was still sleeping. "Hey! Wake up!" he said, shaking him. "We have a challenge- woah!" his shaking threw him off guard, causing him to fall down onto the floor. "Nrgh..."

Nathan: The janitor's closet was well-lit for confessional use, and it was mostly cleared out, save for a few mops, brooms, and buckets that were still sticking around. "I take it that I haven't left a good impression so far," he said with a confident laugh, throwing his arms up. "But, that won't matter. Once my team sees how useful I am, I'll be able to stick around as long as I need to."

Abigail: "The nerve of that...boy!" she cried out, leaning against the wall and putting one of her hands on her forehead. "Jacob helped with my audition tape! He knew I was coming, and he still showed up!" She groaned, shaking her head. "Well, nothing for it now. I am glad that I brought all of my supplies with me. If he's here I'm gonna make him miserable."

Celine: Celine was pacing in the small space that she was able to be in. "I'd really appreciate it if no one shared about my past here," she admitted, "the less people that know what I'm able to do the better." She sighed. "Well, I honestly don't think I'll have to worry about Gianna or Claire that long. But Kris...I can't tell what she wants. Maybe it's just me being paranoid, but something about her interests me."

Nolan: Nolan is asleep still, but still in the janitor's closet now. He snored twice, before slipping out of the chair and crashing on the ground. That woke him up. "Huh..." he muttered groggily, before standing up. "I know I'm asleep a lot, but once the challenge gets going I'll be awake...probably." He then fell back asleep.

Peter: "My teammates are certainly interesting," he admitted, wiping his white board clean with a rag he found in the closet. "I'm hoping none of them are as mean as Nathan, because I would love to come back a winner, with both my limbs." He chuckled nervously.

Once everyone was gathered back on the ground floor, Susan greeted them again. "Hello, again," she said to them, still holding her clipboard. "I hope you all had the time to grow as a potential team as you unpacked." She adjusted her sunglasses. "Allow me to tell you some more information about myself first, before I begin the challenge." She let out a sigh. "This came at Chef's request."

"Speaking of Chef," Nala asked quietly, raising her hand, "um...will we be eating lunch?" She nervously put her hand down, deciding that question was best left unasked.

Susan shook her head. "You will have a proper large dinner to accommodate for you lack of a midday meal," she answered. "Now, to me. I chose this school specifically, because some of you are...less than ideal citizens." She made eye contact specifically with Jacob, Nathan, and Gianna. "My hope is that this school will bring out the best in you as it had for others in the past. After all, I am a former guidance counselor. This place felt at home to me."

Susan snapped her fingers, and some piped had dropped from the ceiling. "I will continue with the challenge explanation. You will be scattered throughout the school, and your two captains, Sharron and Carter, will search for you using a series of riddles. You are free to help each other out once you are located, so take pride in your teamwork."

Jacob stepped forward. "I have several questions. What made you denote those two as captains? Will there be a chance to swap captains? How does one become a captain?" He cleared his throat. "Um, additionally, I find that it odd that you're permitting us to help despite us easily knowing where we would hide. What is the catch?"

Susan smiled. "Ah, such an ambitious boy. Hopefully someone knocks that out of you." She snapped her fingers again, and the pipes above her aimed down at the contestants. "You will not be choosing your hiding spots, we will. Perhaps this shall clear it up." She snapped her fingers a third time, and the pipes began emitting sleeping gas. Susan had covered her face with a mask and walked out of the dormitory's lobby.

Nolan went out like a light, and the others struggled to stay up for a bit, before succumbing to the gas themselves. Once everyone was asleep, the gas stopped, and Susan entered. "Thanks, Hatchet," she said as the bus pulled up in front of the dormitory. "Now, let's hope this works out. I will contact the captains." She paused for a second. "I forgot to mention that they shouldn't leave the room they're in once they wake up. Oh well, I'm sure they'll figure it out."

Back in the stationary train car, there was still a very tense silence between the two captains. Sharron had been messing with her arrows for some time, sharpening some of the edges on the tips, while on other arrows she purposefully dulled out the tip to use as a scare tactic. Carter had been pacing around, and every once in a while did some pull-up reps on a low-hanging pipe. "Thank you for your cooperation," a voice sounded out to them. "Your teammates are officially scattered."

The two perked up and got ready to move out as Susan's voice continued. "Your teammates have met each other, but they have not met you. Rely on them as much as you rely on yourself." Carter let out a huff as Sharron continued to listen attentively. "The first team back at the front of the school with their whole team will win invincibility." The buzzer finally sounded. "Good luck, and you are free to leave." The door flew open, and Carter and Sharron dashed out of the train car, running to the front of the school as fast as they could.

The scene switched to the two running on a camera as Susan and Chef watched them from a secret location. "That wraps it up, right?" she asked him, "you said we would split the pilot into two parts."

Chef shook his head. "You gotta close the episode out. Use the big name screaming thing the pretty boy did." As he spoke, he threw his arms up like Chris used to do, as Susan watched in confusion. "You...you did come here with a name for the season, correct?"

Susan hesitated, before adjusting her sunglasses. "With as many connections as I had, that wasn't an issue when I pitched this season to the board." She sighed. "Let's think of something together, yeah?" She put her fingers up to her chin. "Something about learning, and then like, something related to ambition or something, yeah?" Chef shrugged. "Learned...tried..."

"You gotta stop chanting like a cult leader," Chef told her. "This is still a family show." He let out a sigh at the new host as she still scrambled for a name. This would be a long season.

Susan kept rambling. "Cult...got it!" She turned to the camera with a not-so-big smile. "The teams are on their way, and they probably aren't stopping for a while, because they don't know what they're in for once they're in that school. But, maybe some of those kids will surprise me. Anyway, I guess we'll see what happens next time on Total, Drama...Cultivated Will." She said the last phrase with as little emotion as the rest of it. "How was that?"

"Good enough, for now," Chef muttered.

Teams:

Team A (not named yet): Abigail, Ben, Brenna, George, Jacob, Nala, Nathan, Sharron

Team B (not named yet): Carter, Celine, Claire, Gianna, Kris, Leo, Nolan, Peter

Today's pilot is over 10k words, my longest chapter ever. This is my current length goal for the rest of the season, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to stretch that out every single time. We'll see. And, with the new length comes proper expectations. This season will not have a consistent upload schedule, but I do plan on it staying active.

The cast may look familiar to some of you. Six of the characters have been submitted by me before in other SYOC's, and I will let you know where else they competed if/when they are eliminated. It's very fun finally getting to write them out myself. Personal writing favorite for me right now is Gianna.

Well, who's your favorite? Who do you think is going to do well? Who's gonna crack under the pressure? I have purposefully not stated a main antagonist yet, but with no mid-season debuts, it's one of these guys. Let me know what you think of these guys in the reviews! I'm excited to hear your takes on them.