New story time!

I've been planning this out for a while now, and I'm so excited for you all to see it! Now, this takes place in the same continuity as Say Anything, but if you haven't read it, don't worry! I'll try and explain everything throughout the story.

With that being said, enjoy!

It was an ordinary midsummer evening in the suburbs of Saskatoon, Canada. People arrived home from a long day of work, parents cooked dinner, kids groaned over chores. The day was winding down, and it was time to relax.

As the sun slipped below the horizon, each row of houses lit up in the darkness. And as time wore on, as the hour grew later, the lights were switched off as people started heading to bed, leaving the world dark and silent once more.

Inside of one house, however, this was not the case.

Four teenage boys were sprawled on the carpet of a recently furnished basement inside of one of the more stately homes of the neighborhood. They were surrounded by various musical instruments, pens and pieces of paper, and empty food wrappers. They'd been like this for hours.

What were they doing? Composing songs for a potential new album.

"Writing songs is really hard," Ezekiel commented. "Way harder than I thought, eh." He wished he had his lucky kazoo with him. Too bad he'd left it behind at his house-no, his parents' house.

Trent sighed. "How did we manage before?" He turned to Cody. "Hell, how did we manage to put out two entire albums with Justin, of all people?"

"I ask myself that every day," Cody shrugged. "Guy's a jerk."

"Remember when he threw a tambourine at your head, Trent?" Harold piped up. "That whole situation got violent fast."

Trent sat up suddenly. "Aw, dudes. We haven't told our manager that we replaced Justin with Zeke yet."

Harold waved him off. "We can always get a new manager. One that won't hamper our creativity. After all, freedom of expression is very important, and we can't have anybody who gets in the way. Like our old manager. Or Justin."

Ever since he joined the trio, Zeke learned that the band's relationship with Justin had turned extremely sour once he started making all sorts of demands to change their music and refusing to compromise. He frequently came to blows with the others over this, but they were able to tolerate him until the personal insults started.

As soon as Harold left, not wanting to deal with this anymore, their manager quickly scrambled to pick up the pieces and keep them out of the gossip columns. He forced Trent and Cody to make peace with Justin, which only lasted for so long. By the time everyone was reunited for the third season of Total Drama, The Drama Brothers were on the brink of collapse.

But now here they were, several months later, on the brink of revival. After hanging out with the others long enough for them to recognize his own musical talent, Ezekiel had been invited to all their jam sessions, and had been unofficially inducted into the band.

Well, considering that Ezekiel was staying in Harold's basement at the moment, it would have been rude for them not to invite him.

(But Zeke was trying not to focus on the reason why he was at Harold's right now. Too many negative feelings.)

Cody and Trent had decided to come over to Harold's and spend six weeks in the summer with them, just hanging out, doing what friends do. So there they were, brainstorming ideas for their third studio album. With not even the slightest clue about what they should do.

Trent strummed away mindlessly on his guitar. Cody scribbled away on a notepad. Harold was fiddling with a pencil. Ezekiel was deep in thought.

"Maybe we should make a disco album," he suggested.

"That's not such a bad idea," Cody said.

"Nooo," Trent groaned. "You guys know I can't stand disco."

"You like house music, don't you?" Harold countered. "As they say: house music is disco's revenge."

"Yeah, but house is different."

"Maybe so, but in my eyes, they're so similar that they're pretty much the same anyways." Cody was still writing messily as he spoke. "But we don't have to do that. We could do something like space pop or dance pop. I've always wanted to give those a try."

"Well, I've always wanted to do something more hip-hop inspired." Harold thought for a moment. "We should all try and do the stuff that inspires us. We should go back to our roots."

"Look," Trent set aside his guitar for a moment. "Let's all just write from our hearts, and see where that takes us. I mean, we still got rich off the first album we did because of that, so what's the harm in trying it again?"

It was the best suggestion anyone had had all night.

"Well…that's what I've been doing already." Cody said, looking down at his paper.

"Can we see?"

"Umm…" Cody blushed and covered his writing with his hand. "Maybe I'll show you guys later. It might actually be too personal."

"That's alright, man. As long as you're staying true to yourself."

"Making an album with other people is a lot harder than making it yourself," Zeke mused.

"But it's a lot more fun to do it with others!" Cody said.

"Very true, eh."

"Yeah. That's why I never got around to finishing my solo project," Harold admitted. "It just wasn't the same without you two." That was directed at Cody and Trent.

"Ugh, I know!" Trent said irritably. That second album Cody and I did with Justin was terrible. It had no soul, no heart. We only did it for the fame." He chuckled awkwardly. "Man, we really let ourselves get carried away, huh? The gossip magazines really had a field day with us."

"Never again!" The others chorused. Harold continued with, "If we're gonna make another album, then we better make sure it's good!"

"Yeah. Speaking of which," Trent adjusted his hold on his guitar. "I wanna you a little something I've been working on for a while now. I really wanted to make sure it was perfect before showing you." And with that, he began strumming a very short and simple, but mesmerizing piece.

The notes all flowed together beautifully. The picture they painted was perfectly clear. It was of peace and quiet, and contentment. Something about it just screamed city. Lights, smoky air, and the buzz of some other emotion that you couldn't quite put your finger on.

The others stayed quiet and listened along politely. Cody in particular seemed to like it a lot. As Trent repeated the notes twice over, Cody leaned forward, as if to hear it better. His eyes were half-closed and completely glazed over. His chin rested in his palm. He didn't make a single sound.

Trent finished his little piece, to which Ezekiel clapped appreciatively.

"Nice, Trent," Harold commented. "We're definitely using that for something."

"I thought it was really relaxing," Zeke added.

"Thanks, guys." Trent smiled warmly at them. "I wrote it a while ago. All the way back when we were in Toronto for the World Tour Aftermaths. There was this one evening when I was alone and bored. I took my guitar up onto the hotel roof and watched the lights in the nearby buildings switch on as the sunlight disappeared. I remember that it was pretty cold, but I didn't seem to feel it. And I remember being able to…smell the city. All the exhaust and the food cooking and the smoke from people's fireplaces."

The basement was silent as Trent described the scene. "I could see the CN tower from where I was sitting. It was all lit up, so bright it hurt to look at. It reminded me of this time my parents took me to Toronto on vacation when I was six. That was the first time I ever saw the CN tower in person. I used to think the top looked kind of like a spaceship, y'know? I remember begging my parents to take me up to the top, but they never did. I was so disappointed back then. But when I was sitting on the roof all alone, my fingers just started, kind of…instinctively plucking away at my guitar strings. And before I knew it, I'd written a new piece of music."

Cody sat up suddenly, as straight as a pole. "Nostalgia!" At everyone's questioning stares, he hurried to clarify. "Trent's song just made me feel this emotion that I couldn't quite name. Like floating down a stream, but the stream is really really far away. Then, when Trent told us about seeing the CN Tower, it hit me: it was nostalgia. That feeling the song made me feel was nostalgia." Cody smiled. "And I think it's beautiful."

"Woah, you're right," Zeke said. "We should totally put that on the album."

"Nostalgia is powerful. It's been the driving force behind some of my best songs." Harold agreed. "Like the one about the time I went to Wizard Steve's Wizard Camp and we took turns using a cauldron to brew potions."

'Then why not utilize it?" Trent said boldly. "Why not base the whole album around nostalgia? That way, it'll be extremely personal to us, and relatable to others. Everyone loves when songs are relatable. And, it'll be a great way to see how well emotion can convey itself through music. To see how well we can convey emotion through music." He stood up, guitar still in hand, as he continued with his rousing speech. "I know the Drama Brothers have had a…turbulent start. But this is our chance to also be taken seriously as musicians and songwriters. We're not just some silly boys messing around with instruments and getting into trouble. We are artists!"

The response was enthusiastic.

"Yeah! Let's do it! Let's make this album!" Cody was ecstatic.

"Yesss!" Harold pumped his arms.

"Let's get this party started!" Ezekiel cheered.

The four boys danced around the basement floor for a few moments before things settled back down, as quickly as it had started.

"So, uh…where do we begin?" Ezekiel asked.

"Well, I suppose we should let our manager know we've decided to work on a new album." Trent reached for his phone, but Harold shot out his hand and stopped him.

"Wait, didn't we say that we were gonna find a new manager, since our old one was such a jerk?"

"Oh yeah, we were."

"Just tell someone from our record label that we want to do another album." Cody suggested.

"Yeah, okay." Trent grabbed his phone. "I'll just shoot a text to that one guy at the studio who mixed our other albums. Jerome Adams. He seemed pretty cool."

Ezekiel sat back, leaning on his arms. He was feeling pretty good about finally being included in something with other people. For once in his life. And he was determined to make the most of it. "I wonder what memory I should write about, eh. I have a lot about living on my parent's farm, milking cows, harvesting crops, driving tractors…" He trailed off as a stream of said memories flooded into his brain.

And then came the sorrow. And the guilt. And a hint of anger.

The biggest question one might be asking right now is: "Why is Zeke living at Harold's house?" And the answer to that was this:

At the end of Total Drama World Tour, Ezekiel called home to his parents, excited to tell them all that had happened, only for them to tell him that he was no longer welcome back to the farm. They were annoyed by his behaviour, embarrassed at everything he had done, and were ashamed that he was reflecting badly on them as parents. They felt that if he wanted to see the outside world so badly, then he could just stay there.

So Ezekiel was left with literally nothing but the clothes on his back, and whatever he'd packed with him for the season.

But Harold came to his rescue, and took him back to his home in Saskatoon, promising him a comfortable basement to stay in. Harold's mom had been completely blindsided by another guy on her doorstep, but welcomed him in anyway. And Ezekiel was still here, a few months after World Tour ended, with nowhere else to go.

And no family left. Not his parents. And not his sister.

"Zeke?" Cody gently touched his shoulder. "You okay, dude?"

"Oh! Yeah!" Ezekiel blinked. "I'm fine!"

"You zoned out for a minute there, man." Trent said.

"Oh, I was just thinkin' about home…" Ezekiel trailed off, unsure of what to say next. Thinking about it made his chest feel heavy, like someone had just dropped a big rock onto his heart, squishing it flat.

Cody patted his shoulder. "You know it's not your fault, right? Your parents just suck."

Ezekiel nodded. "I know. But…I still can't help feeling crappy about it, eh."

"If anyone should feel crappy, it should be your parents, gosh!" Harold folded his arms.

"I know," Ezekiel said again. "I didn't mean to let them down. I just wanted to be on TV. And now I'm probably never gonna see my farm again. All my pet cows, and the moose that likes to sneak into our paddocks, and the family of mice that lives under the stairs…though, after hiding in the cargo hold for a few weeks, I could go without ever seeing mice again."

"It must be really hard," Trent said sympathetically.

"It is." Zeke sighed despondently. "Man, I wish I had my lucky kazoo with me. I used to use it to try and lure a moose over to me. If I'd known I was gonna get kicked out, I'd have packed it before I left." He paused, staring up at the ceiling in thought. "Actually, there's a lotta stuff I wish I brought with me. My language books, my spelling bee trophies, my favourite flip-flops. But no chance of getting any of it now. My dad'll probably bring out his shotgun if I ever returned."

"What if we went over there as a group? Would that make you feel safer?" Cody suggested.

Ezekiel only shrugged one shoulder in response. "A little. But I think that that might upset him more."

"Well, I don't want to see you have to live without all your personal belongings," Cody said. "If my parents kicked me out and I couldn't take my keyboard, I'd be miserable."

"Maybe we could just do it when they're not home." Harold spoke up. "We could stake out the house, wait til they leave, then go in and grab what we need. I went to Spy Steve's Spy Camp a few years ago. I know all about how to pick locks and stuff."

"Are you seriously suggesting breaking and entering?" Trent raised an eyebrow.

"What choice do we have?"

"Uh, how about not committing a crime?"

"Don't worry, I know where all the spare keys are kept. We won't have to pick any locks." At the idea of getting his most prized possessions back, Ezekiel started to grow more hopeful.

"Yeah! Maybe we can lure his parents out!" Cody jumped up.

"Then we swoop in and take what we can!" Harold got to his feet too. The excitement was contagious.

"...You guys seem a little too eager to do this…" Trent remarked.

Cody shrugged. "It's Saturday night, we've been holed up in this basement for hours, and to be honest, I'm starting to get sick of messing around with our instruments right now. Let's have an adventure for once!"

"I can drive us!" Harold said. "I have my own car. I won't have to bother Mom by asking for hers."

Trent did a double take. "Wait, you want to go now?"

"Why not?" The two geeks chorused.

"Yeah."

Everyone turned to face Ezekiel. He was nodding in agreement; slower at first, but getting faster as he felt more emboldened.

Yeah. He wanted his stuff back. It was his. Sure, he didn't know how he could get past his parents, but the others would help him with that regardless. Yeah. He could do this. He could face his parents one more time.

Trent sighed. "I don't have a choice in this matter, do I?"

"Nope."

"Fine, then. We might as well go." Trent stood up, dusted off his pants, and headed for the stairs. Harold, Cody and Ezekiel followed right behind him. Cody was giddy with excitement. Zeke was, too. But he also couldn't help feeling extremely anxious.

It would be okay. It had to be. He was just going to get his stuff back. That was all.

Just then, a loud rumble cut through the air. It sounded like someone's impression of a whale with a scratchy throat.

Everyone turned to face Cody, who clutched his stomach, smiling embarrassedly.

"Uh, is it okay if we grab something to eat first? I'm starving."