The room the group walked into was similar in size to the chocolate room; it was massive. As opposed to the chocolate room, however, there was no edible grass or lollipop trees. This was a large room that contained many, many machines. Giant machines lined the walls and spit out some kind of chocolate or candy creation every minute. Despite that, they didn't make any noise as they churned and shook. The room was brightly lit, but Cameron did not see any lights in this room either. There were doors all along the walls, with bright labels over them that described where they led. For example, there was the "Peanut-Developing Room", which Sir Watson seemed especially happy to see. There was the "Salt-Water and Fresh-Water Taffy Room", in which Cameron could see a giant pool of water, with taffy at the bottom. Cameron looked around and noticed that Chris was beaming and running around the room eagerly, checking gauges, flipping switches, and tasting different materials. It was obvious that he loved this room and was excited to show it off to other people.
"Welcome everyone! This is my Inventing Room. In here, I am constantly mixing, inventing, developing, testing, and tasting all manner of delicious sweets. Everything that you saw in the Chocolate Room, at one time or another, was made in this very room! In fact, when I was building this place, I had this room built before all the other ones, because inventing new types of candy is the most important thing in a chocolate factory! Speaking of which, I have a gift for you all", Chris said as he entered a room and came out a few seconds later with four little white balls.
"These are called Everlasting Gobstoppers. They're my newest project. It's like a hard candy that you suck on, except these Gobstoppers don't ever get any smaller. They'll last you the rest of your lives! And the good thing is, although it looks pretty plain now, they have an insane amount of flavor. Plus, it changes flavor every week, so one week it'll be strawberry, then the next it'll be lemon, and so on and so forth! With one of these, there may never be a kid who can't enjoy candy anymore!" With that, Mclean gave one Gobstopper to each child, who popped it into their mouth; Courtney didn't bother to remove her gum before she threw the Gobstopper in her mouth. "Wow, I think I mine is raspberry flavored!", said Heather. "I got root beer-my favorite!", exclaimed Cody. "Fruit punch!", said Courtney. "Mine is strawberry flavored!", Cameron said.
"How is it, Cameron? Tasty?", Grandpa Joe asked, to which Cameron laughed. "Grandpa, it's the best thing I've ever tasted! It's like eating real strawberries!", he replied.
"Glad to see you all like them! I needed some second opinions on them, and the interns are no help because they love everything sweet! So you guys are the first people to receive Gobstoppers!" Mclean said. Everyone was pretty happy with this news, with Courtney remarking that this would go in her record book. "Chris, do you have another one of those? Because I want one more!", Heather asked Chris. The man just chuckled and kept walking. Heather grumbled and told her father that she should get one more, to which the man nodded. "As we move past the room where we catch Swedish Fish-those things are really hard to catch, they put up a heck of a fight-and the room for Pop Rocks That Actually Explode, we hit one of my personal favorite projects: the hair room!" Chris said as he stopped in front of a door with a couple interns inside, dressed in lab coats and holding up some liquids in beakers.
"The hair room? What does hair have to do with a chocolate factory?", Cody spoke up.
"Glad you asked, Cody. You see, I had a friend years ago who was going bald and was really insecure about it. Now, being a good friend, I had to see what I could do to help him. So I spent years slaving away with equations, test runs, and ideas until finally I had an epiphany: What if I were to make some kind of candy that could help you grow hair? So back to the drawing board I went, searching for some kind of formula that would not only help cure baldness all over the body, but that would also taste great! Now, I'll admit, it's definitely still in the test process, but I believe that Mclean brand Toffee Hair Tonic will revolutionize the way we treat baldness!" He looked inside the room and pointed. "Hey, you! Would you mind coming out here and showing everyone what happened?", Chris asked an intern. As the intern came out, everyone raised an eyebrow. The intern had long hair and a beard that completely covered them. It looked like a rug walked out of the room, but then he waved to the group and gave a thumbs-up to indicate that he was perfectly fine, just really hairy. "Last week we had to use a lawnmower to cut his hair! So as you can see, unfortunately the tonic is not quite ready yet, so you"-he pointed to Grandpa Joe- "are gonna have to wait a little bit. Now on we go!"
Cameron piped up. "Mr. Mclean, could you tell us a little more about how you met your interns? I'm really curious."
"Certainly, Cameron. As I said, I was travelling in Wawanakwa at the time. I was searching for a kind of flower that was said to have a taste almost identical to that of an ice cream sundae. It is called the Theobroma, and it is delicious. But anyway, I noticed that every night around my campsite these terrifying animals would try to get into my cabin! They were violent, ill-tempered, and generally unpleasant, and I was even afraid of them the first time I laid eyes on them. It didn't last. I remember one night waking up to a rapping at my door, and when I opened it there was this really small guy standing there panicked. His name was Billy, and he explained to me that him and the rest of his village of interns were always under attack from these hideous creatures. Since they would attack them if they dare lay a toe on the ground, they lived in the trees, living off of mashed caterpillars and leaf stew. It was sad. So that day, I decided to help them out. On my way to their village, every aggressive creature I saw, I beat them up. Soon, all the monsters that I was so scared of were not scared of me! When I made it to the village, the interns were so happy that I'd conquered the beasts that they threw me a party! It was there I found they had an extreme love for chocolate and sweet things of any kind. It was then that I got the idea to employ them in my factory as workers and pay them in chocolate! They all readily agreed to this deal, and in no time I had them flying back to the factory! That's why no one ever comes in or out of this building: it's because my work force resides here full time!" Chris took a deep breath after he had finished speaking, as that had obviously taken a lot out of him. One of the interns ran into the room and emerged carrying a towel, which Chris used to dry himself off.
"Now then. Onto the next bit of inventing I've been doing. These"-he gestured to a wall with many strips of wallpaper covered in fruit designs- "are pieces of wallpaper. But not just any old boring wallpaper! The fun thing about this wallpaper is that every fruit on that paper actually tastes like the real thing! The strawberries taste like strawberries, the oranges taste like oranges, even the grapes taste like grapes! Please, everyone have a lick." With that, the four kids and some of the parents went over to the wallpaper and started sampling it. To everyone's amazement, Chris was right! The fruits on the wall actually did taste like fruits. The background, however, tasted like wallpaper, which was quite unpleasant to everyone. "I am glad that you are enjoying the wallpaper, but there is still one more thing I have to show you in this room! And I can guarantee you won't want to miss this!", Chris spoke up as the group came back together.
The group walked around the room, past more giant machines that were busy at work churning up some new delicious creation until they reached one on the end. "In an effort to be eco-friendly, the Mclean factory is introducing some recycling measures. You remember all those pipes in the chocolate room that Owen got sucked up into?" The group nodded their heads. "Well, 86% of the chocolate that would otherwise be funneled right out of the factory is now sucked up over here to this machine, which divides it based on what room it'll go to. For example, there is a compartment for chocolate going to the Hot Fudge room, and another one for the caramel room, and so on and so forth. There are a ton of compartments in this machine, that's why it's so big! And unless there are any more questions, I'll let you look around this room for a few minutes. Explore the machines! Look in the different rooms! My only rule is that you don't fiddle with the machines. Please, they are very expensive." The group went forth and explored all the wondrous machines and rooms. Cody was struggling not to take a picture of the hair room, but his phone stayed in his pocket. Heather was looking at the machine that was currently making a giant block of marshmallow. Cameron and Grandpa Joe had wandered over to a room where interns were tasting different combinations of chocolate and salty foods (one of the interns was eating a chocolate-covered potato chip, while the other one was trying a chocolate-covered pretzel). Grandpa Joe and Cameron continued watching this process, and the interns offered them samples of the different combinations they had deemed delicious. After a time, Grandpa Joe looked at Cameron and said "Well, what do ya say, Cam? Wanna go see what Mr. Mclean's up to? This is all so interesting, I gotta ask the man a couple questions!" Cameron readily agreed, and the rest of the group had the same idea, as they reconvened with Chris. As they were about to leave, Courtney called out to him: "Hey, Chris, what does this machine do? It looks a lot newer than the other machines." Indeed it did: this machine was significantly larger and shinier than the rest of the machines. It had a wide circular base with a long tube leading up to the ceiling. There were many offshoots of this tube that led to large steel containers lifted high in the air.
"Oh, that's for another project I'm working on, but it's not ready yet. You wouldn't like it", Chris shrugged. "Oh, come on, what's the worst that can happen? If you're gonna let us see all the other machines, we should get to see this one too!", Courtney persisted.
Chris hesitated for a second, mulling it over in his brain. "Yeah, you're right, I guess there's no harm in showing you what it is. Alright, everyone, gather around!" Everyone crowded around the large machine. Chris pressed a bunch of buttons on the side of the machine, and it roared to life. Cameron could hear the sound of materials being dropped from the containers in the air down to the circular base of the machine. There was nearly a minute of hissing, chopping, stirring, and squishing, until finally the machine stopped. Everyone looked panicked. "Is it broken?" Cameron said. "It sure looks broken, that piece of junk", said Heather. "No, no, everyone, it's almost done!" Chris reassured them. Sure enough, a metallic whrr came from the machine, and a little slot that sat next to all the buttons started opening. Everyone crowded in to get a good peek, and eventually a thin gray strip of something started coming out of it. Everyone was now puzzled and curious, except for Courtney, who was wide-eyed.
"What is that?", asked Heather.
"It looks kinda gross", said Cody.
"I don't know what that is!", said Cameron.
"By gum, it's gum!", said Courtney.
"Right you are, Courtney! This is what I like to call Three Course Meal Gum!", exclaimed Chris.
Hey everyone! So I decided that after I finish this story, what I want to do going forward is to recreate classic movies with Total Drama characters. If you have any suggestions, please let me know! I'm pretty sure I know what I'm gonna do next, so if you're interested in finding out, shoot me a DM and I'll let you know. Thanks again for reading!
TUS