Disclaimer - The rights of Total Drama Island and its characters belong to Teletoon, Cartoon Network, and all those associated with the show. No profit is being made by this fanfiction, only sheer unbridled joy that I am allowed free writing. Bless you, First Amendment, haha. And don't try any of these stunts at home, you could get really messed up.

Author's Quite Unnecessary Note That You More Than Likely Are Skipping Over - You are more than welcome to cheer for the jock, the blond, the goth, the prairie boy, the know-it-all, the surfer chick, the geek, and/or the best female friend, you are more than welcome.

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Chapter 02 (Day 01, Part 2) - Talent Night, Weird Night

"Okay campers," Chris exclaimed, raising his hands up in the air for dramatic effect. "You have tonight, and tomorrow morning to prepare for the Talent Night 2: Revenge of the Performers! Now, have you all decided what you are going to do?"
Courtney and Heather, the self-appointed leaders of the two groups, nodded. Heather gestered over to Gwen, who was turned three-fourths away from the camera but still glaring at it.

"Weird Goth Girl is going to do be doing poetry," the ravenhaired girl said. "That should be interesting, which is what you're aiming for, huh Chris?"

"Possibly," the host said with a nod. "How about Lindsay?"

"I," the blond spoke up, cutting off Heather, "am gonna do cheerleading!"

"You're what?" Heather shouted, flabbergasted.

Lindsay looked around at her, perplexed. "What? Is that bad?"

"No, I...," the queen bee cleared her throat, "I think it's a perfect fit."

Chris cocked his head to the side. "Okay then, how about Cody?"

"Keyboard," Cody shouted, flashing two V's in the air and wooting. He headbanged a little.

"Okay, lover boy, but you probably shouldn't sing," Chris said, trying hard not to chuckle. "I saw your audition tape."

"Well, I couldn't warm up, 'cuz of my dad," the geek said, looking away.

"And Noah?" Chris looked very anxious, he was rubbing his hands in anticipation.

The know-it-all barely looked up from the book he was reading. He seemed more concerned with how Izzy kept peering over his shoulder at his book.

"Shakespeare," he replied.

"Oh, that should be interesting," Chris said, though his laughter as he walked over to the Killer Bass said otherwise.

Noah rolled his eyes, and thumbed through his book. "And you people wonder why," he said aloud, swatting at Izzy absent-mindedly, "I don't try my hardest to win these things."

"Well, it would be nice if you would," Beth said timidly.

"Beth dear, what good will it do in the end? The challenges get more and more degrading and dangerous, until by the end of this contest, he'll have us eating live bugs over an active volcano."

Leshawna slapped a hand over his mouth suddenly. "You'll give him ideas," she hissed.

Chris was now talking to the Killer Bass, who looked more than a little disorganized. Katie was close to hyperventilating and Sadie was desperately trying to calm her down. Duncan was mercilessly flirting with Courtney, who was yelling at him to stop. DJ was chasing after Bunny, who was anxious to get away from all the hostile noise.

"So you are doing surfing, right?" he asked Bridgette, the most sane member (in his eyes) that wasn't arguing with someone.

The blond gal nodded, smiling despite the screaming. "Geoff will be standing on the Dock of Shame to use the camera."

"What if there is no surf?" Chris asked. "Be kind of a let-down if your waves are smaller than speed bumps on the road."
"I can do plenty of tricks without any waves," Bridgette replied as she knocked on her surfboard. "You learn these things you hit the beaches and there are no waves."

"Cool," Chris replied, glad that there was a back-up plan. "Now, how about Katie?"
"She said something about dancing before she, um," Geoff said, scratching the back of his head. He gestered with his elbow at Katie, who was now lying on the grass, whimpering as Sadie yelled at her to stay away from the light.

After Chris stopped laughing, he looked back to the blond couple. "How about Tyler?"

"I think he'll be doing yo-yo, he said he was practicing," Bridgette replied, shrugging. "Which is preferable, since it's hard to do sports as a talent on-stage."
"Maybe Wii Sports," Geoff suggested, chuckling at the idea. He swung his arm like if it was a golf club. "Fore! Mario scores hole in one!"

Chris looked around. "And prairie boy, what's he doing? Not archery, I hope."
"Oh, I dunno actually," Geoff said, looking around. "I don't remember him telling us."

"Where is he?" Bridgette asked aloud, now a little concerned. Her ponytail whipped around as she searched for Ezekiel.

Where he was was almost incredulous. Ezekiel was sitting at the end of the Dock of Shame, his legs dangling over the edge. He was staring at the horizon, in the direction the boats that delievered them.

"Is he surrendering already?" Chris asked hypothetically. "You think he doesn't like it here?"

Geoff and Bridgette both headed over to the Dock of Shame. Harold, who had been watching them since Courtney was too busy having the usual lover's tiff with Duncan, couldn't help but stare.

(Confession Camera - Now with more annoying flies.)

Harold - "People seem surprised that Ezekiel doesn't want to be here. Last time he was here, he was throttled, dashed off the rocks, and voted off first. Would you like to return to that place? I don't think even his modern-day bling is enought to comfort him."


Bridgette and Geoff walked up behind Ezekiel on the dock. He heard them coming, and tried to ignore them.

"Hey, Zeke," Geoff spoke up, clapping his hands, "whacha' doin' out here? You planning on your performance?"

"I'm not doing anything, eh," was the home schooled boy's reply.

This shocked Geoff, who wasn't expecting such a negative response. "Um... wha?"

Ezekiel drummed his fingers on the dock impatiently. "I refuse to let Chris make me his puppet, eh."

"Ezekiel, come on," Bridgette said, tapping her foot. "You cannot back out just because you don't feel like it."

But he wasn't listening anymore. Geoff and Bridgette exchanged looks, and the cowboy shrugged.

"Is he cooperating?" Chris called to them.

When they shook their heads, Chris cocked an eyebrow.

As Chef held up Ezekiel by one leg in front of the Killer Bass, Harold was fairly impressed how the prairie boy's toque wouldn't fall off his head.

"You just won't take 'no' for an answer, will you?" Ezekiel fumed, crossing his arms.

"Why don't you grow up, you immature dweeb?"

Ezekiel scanned the legs of his ten teammates. "Who said that, eh?" he asked. "C'mon, who's the one who said that?"

"Me, you idiot! Courtney!"

"Hmm? Oh right, C.I.T. girl. Sorry, I don't have voices memorized yet," the homeschooled teen shrugged. "Oh, and DJ, your shoelace is untied."
Chef then dropped Ezekiel, who hit his head on the grassy ground. Some sense of balance kept Ezekiel positioned there, standing on his head without using his hands. It looked ridiculous, especially since he was still looking sulky.

"Look, Ezekiel, I don't care how much you don't want to do this, but we are not, I repeat not going to lose because you don't like being here," Courtney continued. Most of the others were nodding in agreement, except for Harold and DJ, the latter because he was busy tying his shoe.

Ezekiel put his hands on the ground, and pushed himself down on his back. With a grunt, he got back on his feet, shook off the dizzy feeling from having the blood rush to his head, and then scowled at Courtney.

"I mean, we are at a bit of a downside already. I have no idea what you could do to for a talent," Courtney continued, much to Ezekiel's chagrin, "Katie is having a nervous break-down since she cannot be with Sadie, and we know we cannot count on Tyler winning this."

"Hey!"

The C.I.T. did not lose a beat, despite the jock's outcry. "So we need you, as difficult as this may seem, to mature a little and be a man for this."

The prairie boy shuffled his toque, trying desperately to hold back what he wanted to say; however, Tyler had no desire to hold back what he wanted to say.

"No seriously, what the hell?" Tyler shouted, clentching his fists. "You don't see me for six months, and the first thing you do is trash talk me? And not even to my face?"

"Not now, Tyler," Courtney growled at him, throwing him a side glare as she turned back to Ezekiel.

Tyler's jaw dropped, then he glared right back at her. "Don't talk to me like that, I'm not your child! Who made you boss, anyway?"

(Confession Camera - Interrupting the tension to annoy you.)

Bridgette - "This was getting ugly, fast. I could almost sense the bloodshed."

Duncan - "Courtney may be right about Ezekiel and Tyler, but her way of going around is that snooty C.I.T. image she throws up when she tries to be the boss. It's kind of hot, if you ask me."

Tyler - "I would have put down money that, in next three sentences she said, she would mention that she was had C.I.T. experience."


"Why am I boss?" Courtney shouted at Tyler, now turning completely to him. "Do we have to go over this, Tyler? I am a counselor in training!"

Several eyes rolled. Some owners' of those eyes wondered when she would finally fully become a counselor.

Tyler sniffed deeply and shrugged. "Whatever. That means little to me. You're not my coach or anything."

The tan-skinned girl gasped indignantly. "What kind of reply is that? What, you think I should let you run around like a chicken with your head cut off?"

Several jaws dropped, one of them Tyler's, as the C.I.T. mentioned the jock's phobia. He shook with fury for a few seconds, hissing air in through his teeth. He might have looked a bit more intimidating if he wasn't wearing a cheap hawaiian shirt.

"You really aren't in the right position to take a shot at him there, eh," said Ezekiel. His eyes were narrowed at Courtney. "I didn't see you conquering your phobia in that challenge."

"You stay out of this, Ezekiel," Courtney shouted at him, pointing at the angry prairie boy.

The Screaming Gophers were staring at the Killer Bass now, alarmed by how the other team was yelling at each other not ten minutes into the first challenge.

"He's right," Tyler shouted. "You want to talk green jelly, Ms. C.I.T.?"

"In fact, you were pretty much useless up until you got kicked off, eh," Ezekiel said. The mental dam that stopped him from saying what truly was on his mind had broken.

The Killer Bass gasped collectively. Duncan snarled and cracked his knuckles. "Take that back, you toque-wearing rat."

"No, I won't," Ezekiel retorted. "What did she ever accomplish? She didn't jump the cliff in the first challenge, she didn't face her phobia, she didn't let Harold audition for the talent show, and she dropped out of Chef's boot camp training at the last challenge."

"Not to mention she was almost giving people dirty looks when she wasn't doing any better than them," Tyler added, nodding fervently.

"Why do we have to listen to you when you don't accomplish anything?" Ezekiel continued. His face was almost red with anger while Courtney's was. "It actually helped the Killer Bass when you were kicked off, because they didn't have to put up with all your nagg-"

A tan fist plowed into his nose, cutting him off short. Blood spurted from Ezekiel's nostrils. After the shock passed, he pinched his nostrils shut but it wasn't enough to stop the leaking.

Bridgette was shouting at Courtney to stop as her friend pulled her fist back to hit Ezekiel again. The C.I.T. was restrained by Geoff, who tried to calm her down with his usual fight-breaking words. None of them noticed Duncan had moved forward and it caught everyone, especially Ezekiel, off-guard when the ex-prisoner kicked the prairie boy right in his sensitive area.

Now everyone in the Killer Bass was shouting and running around. DJ and Bridgette were holding back Duncan, who was shouting things at Ezekiel that had to be bleeped out. Courtney was fighting to get away from Geoff, her fingers extended like claws. Katie and Sadie ran around in a panic, screaming about blood and violence and how horrid it all was.

Heather watched all this, watched as Ezekiel fall on all fours with blood dripping from his nose, watched as the team had to restrain not one but two members, and she laughed. She couldn't stop herself.

"And to think I was worried when we were going to be with the same people," she said aloud, casting a look over at her fellow Screaming Gophers. "The Killer Bass look ready to kill each other."

(Confession Camera - Where there's normally enough room for one.)

Bridgette - \She holds her head and shakes it, as if trying to keep out bad thoughts.\ "I cannot believe what happened back there! It was a madhouse! When I dreamed of being reunited with my teammates, I was hoping it would be pleasent. At the least, no broken noses!"

Harold - "Gosh. I don't think Courtney is going to be accepting an apology from me anytime soon. I'd like to stay in one piece for when I am reunited with Leshawna."

Leshawna - "Did you see the way that girl was swinging at that white boy? It was like sum'min you'd have ta pay-per-view!"

Geoff - "Why can't we be friends?"

DJ - "Can't we all just get along?"


Ezekiel sat on the Dock of Shame with a bandage over his nose. He propped his head up with his hand, staring up at the sky. He wished he was on that big, bright moon right now, up away from all these people who couldn't stand him.

From a distance, Courtney and Duncan were casting angry glances at him. Bridgette finally grew tired of this, and approached them.

"Look you two, it isn't helping our team's morale that a fistfight has already broken out," she said, narrowing her green eyes at them. "If we're going to win this, we have to stay-"

"Save it, Malibu Barbie, I've had enough lecturing for today," Duncan cut her off. "I'm gonna go to bed. Good luck rehearsing for tomorrow."

"Me too," Courtney replied, shooting one more angry glance at Ezekiel, Tyler, then one at Harold just as a reminder before she stormed off to the girls' side of the Killer Bass cabin.

Bridgette let out a moan, covering her face with her hands. She was startled when she heard laughter, and was more startled when she realized it was Eva.

"This is poetic justice," Eva said, smiling wickedly. "You all kick me off the island twice because you think I have anger management issues, and I wasn't even involved in the first fight at our reunion."

She walked off laughing, the cruel noise almost fraying Bridgette's last nerve. "She thinks that we think she had anger management issues?" Bridgette was at her wits' end. If ever she needed a hug, it was now.

With well-developed boyfriend senses, Geoff wrapped his arms around her shoulders from behind. "It's okay, Bridge. I think they're all just letting out some steam."

"You could power a train out of the steam that was generated here," the surfer chick said with a sigh. She leaned back onto Geoff's chest. "I wish I had your ability to stay calm when all around was chaos, like you, Geoff."

"It's only because I don't fully grasp the dire situation I'm in until it's too late," Geoff said with a chuckle. "Man though, Ezekiel and Courtney had some rage in their cage, didn't they?"

Harold, who overheard this, approached them. "I thought Ezekiel was content with his popularity," he remarked, jerking his thumb towards the Dock of Shame. "Wasn't he happy at the Plaza de Losers?"

"A little too happy," Bridgette remarked with an unexpected chuckle. Looking back on how Ezekiel kept trying to get near her then scrambling off when she looked his way was annoying then, but funny now.

"Poor prairie boy's got no experience with other guys," Geoff said, sounding poetic, "and they keep thrusting him back him."

"It doesn't jusitfy how he fired off at Courtney, though."

"Or why Tyler was so mad," Harold remarked, scratching his head. "He sure is different than last time, isn't he?"

"Cha," Geoff said, nodding at Harold. "I wonder what happened. He used to be this entergetic sports fan, now he's got a massive chip on his shoulder."

(Confession Camera - Seeing more rage than you care for.)

Courtney - "If that sexist little pig from a pig farm says one more word to me-"

Duncan - "... or if he makes one more snide remark about Courtney-"

Tyler - "... or acts like she is the boss over me, or gives me one more haughty, stuck-up sneer-"

Courtney - "... he is..."


Tyler - "... so going to regret it..."

Duncan - "... because I'll kick the living..."

Courtney - "... tar and feather him..."


Tyler - "... with a duck and a rotting block of cheese..."

Duncan - "... and then I'll do the same to that wannabe-jock..."

Courtney - "... who is absolutely useless..."


Tyler - "... in everything she does..."

Duncan - \makes chicken noises\


Courtney - "... and as much as I like how Duncan came to defend my honor..."

Tyler - "... that mega-sleeze that forced his way into being her boyfriend, if you can call him that..."

Courtney - "... I don't need his help in defending myself!"

Duncan - "... because no one insults Princess except me!"

Tyler - "... that thieving cretin and Ms. C.I.T.-That's-Me!"

Courtney - "... and that goes double for Harold!"

Harold - \long sigh\

Heather clapped her hands to catch the attention of her team. "Okay now. I know a lot of you don't think much of me-"

A chorus of "yeah," "damn right," and "tho true" arose.

"However," Heather said through gritted teeth, "we should focus on winning this first challenge. It shouldn't be that hard, the Killer Bass look ready to tear each other apart."

Owen raised his hand, very very slowly.

"Yes, Owen?"

"Um, since I'm not participating in the contest or anything... can I go to bed?"

"Yes. In fact, I suggest everyone who isn't performing or helping someone perform tomorrow, go get some sleep. We all know how much Chris loves to wake us up early."

"Whoop-dee-doo, back to the moldy sheets," muttered Leshawna.

"The cockroaches," Beth said with a whimper.

"The hole in the wall that allowed you to see in the other side of the cabin!"

Everyone stared at Owen, the girls quite unfriendly. The gentle giant stared blankly, then realized the amount of trouble he was in.

"Ummm, for the girls to use only?"

He was chased back by the Leshawna, Beth, and Heather. Slamming the door shut, he pushed on it to avoid the girls' wrath.

"Let uth in, Owen," Beth hollered.

"No! You'll kill me so bad, it'll hurt more than anything I've ever felt!"

"We're not going to kill you, big guy," Leshawna tried to assure him as she pounded on the door, "we just want in our room!"

"Huh?" was all Owen could say.

"You barricaded yourself in the girls' side!"

Cody watched all this with a wide grin. He caught a glance at Gwen glaring at him.

"Don't look at me, I didn't know there was a hole in the wall," he said.

"Ri-iiiiiiiight."
"Gwen, I'm a lot of things, but do you really think I'd sink that low?"

"You're a teenage boy, Cody. I don't think there is a bar to set in the first place."

Cody shrugged. If Gwen wasn't going to believe him, there was little he could do to change that. "If you say so. Ready for tomorrow?"

"No, not really. I need to come up with some poetry."

"And I need to think of a great tune to play. Hey, Noah," Cody swung around to the intelligent guy, "you have any idea which play and act you're going to do?"

"Since I'm sure most of the people here are as familiar with Shakespeare as they are with advanced nuclear physics," the tan-skinned boy said, rolling his eyes as usual, "I'll do the most known of them all."

" 'O Romeo, romeo, wherefore art are thou, Romeo?'" Gwen asked, unable to resist. When she raised an eyebrow and grinned, she made Cody swoon inside.

"Very funny, Gwen," Noah replied, cynical as always but sounded a little amused. "No, it's going to be GET OFF!"
Noah began swatting at Izzy, who was now over Noah's shoulder, turning the pages of his book. She licked her thumb and turned one more page before the egghead could push her away.

(Confession Camera - You'll see more of it as more of it is seen..)

Noah - "Sometimes I really wonder what goes through that girl's mind. Then I get up and walk around until the feeling goes away."

Izzy - "Hmmm. Didn't taste any cherry, watermelon, or grape. Maybe I'm wrong about the illegal jelly beans being in his book. Perhaps in his hair, behind his ears."

Most everyone had gone to bed after another hour. The only ones who hadn't were Cody, who was on the talent show stage and pretending that an audience large enough for Pearl Jam was there; Tyler, who was getting out of the Confessional Can after a long rant; Trent and Gwen, who were discussing poetry and swapping ideas; Ezekiel, who was still sitting on the Dock of Shame; Noah, who was reading a copy containing Shakespeare's greatest plays; and Izzy, who was picking at Noah's hair and getting swat for it.

Tyler was about to go to bed when he spotted Ezekiel, his back shadowed by the moonlight but still a recognizable figure considering his toque. Deciding now would be the best chance to get to know the guy he never really got a chance to, he headed over.

Ezekiel turned around slowly when he heard the footsteps on the dock. "Oh, hi, Tyler."

"What's up, man?" Tyler said casually, squatting down next to the prairie boy. To which, the prairie boy looked up at the midnight sky.

"Well, the stars aren't really bright tonight."

There was a pause, then Ezekiel started laughing, and Tyler knew he was kidding. After laughing himself, the two were silent. It was awkward but peaceful, since the water lightly rippled against the beams of the dock.

Ezekiel flicked a splinter into the water. "Do you remember," he asked, "when you had to walk this dock, the first time around?"
Tyler nodded, sitting down with a sad sigh. "Was a really rotten day for me. I've lost some big games, but I felt like I lost the biggest one that day."

"I still couldn't believe it when I had to walk it, eh," Ezekiel stared up at the moon as he spoke, "I don't even... remember it. Is that weird?"

"Whacha mean, dude?"

"Well, I think it was a combination of shock and surreal disbelief, eh. When Chris told me to walk that dock, I just felt my body walk forward, staring down at the ground."

Tyler nodded. He actually knew exactly knew how that felt. He remembered concentrating on the planks of the dock to ignore the taunts of his teammates.

"Then I was on that boat, and I watched the island go away. All that time, I kept thinking, 'This cannot be happening. I cannot have been kicked off the first day.' "

The jock nodded more, resting his head on his fist. He had actually wished his boat ride had been that calm; the thought of all those chickens, which he was certain to this day was a cruel joke of Chris's, had left him a quivering mess when he reached the resort.

"When I got to the resort, it was still an out-of-body experience. It had been ever since Chris called out Courtney's name instead of mine."

Exhaling loudly, the prairie boy looked over at Tyler. "Still kind of felt like that when I watched you guys on the TV they had there. Like I was... no, it's too weird."

"Go on, tell me, dude," Tyler said, patting Ezekiel's shoulder. "I promise I won't laugh."

"Well, it was like... it was like as if I was watching my life, the way it was unfolding. Only... I wasn't there."

He clentched his fist, as if to grasp this difficult feeling. "I was on that island, trying to stay awake for days on end, but I wasn't. I was camping out in the wild with you guys, sharing stories and misfortunes, but I wasn't there. I was paintballing and cooking and racing with you all, but I wasn't there.

"It was like the life I wanted, the life that I was part of, was being shown in front of me every day, eh. And I wasn't experiencing it."

Ezekiel let out a huge sigh and closed his eyes. "Weird, eh?"

"Actually, I was gonna say," the jock scratched the back of his neck, "how much I felt like that."

When the homeschooled kid raised his eyebrows in disbelief, Tyler smiled. "Yeah, 'cause-"

He waved his hands in the air, lost his balance, and slipped off the dock into the water. The splash caused the remaining campers to look over, and Izzy pounced Noah and started digging through his hair.

As the egghead fought to get Izzy off of him, Tyler pulled himself up on the dock. Shaking the excess water off, he chuckled at himself. "Happens almost every time I sit on the edge of a pool, that does."

"Good thing you're an athlete, and can swim," Ezekiel noted. "I doot I could pull myself out of the water like that."
"Meh, it's not too hard," the jock replied with a cool wave of his hand. "But as I was saying, I felt like that too, man.

"I felt like I was watching the sports and games that I was supposed to be doing. I guess this is how retired athletes feel. They sit there thinking, 'I should be out there running and catching, I was out there doing it just yesterday.'

"Worst of all was watching Lindsay without me being there. I kept cursing about how team situation had driven us apart, how I didn't even get to say good-bye, and how she was being manipulated more and more by that black-haired harpy!"

Tyler curled his fingers in front of his face. "I wanted to scream, to drag that woman onto the Boat of Losers, and make sure she never came back."

"Whoa," Ezekiel replied, eyes wide. "You had it rougher than I did."

The two guys exchanged looks before Ezekiel continued. "You had to miss out on what everyone voted out missed out on, but you also had to be seperated from someone you really liked."

Tyler nodded, then stared down at the water. He saw his own reflection, constantly rippling from the drops of water coming from his wet clothes. "She doesn't even recognize me."

"What? What are you talking aboot?"

"We were seperated after the contest was over, though I was emailing and texting her. I stopped for a little while, because of," he looked away, "family issues. And when I got here, she kept staring at me like one would an old boyfriend. I know that look."

Ezekiel continued to look confused, so Tyler decided to bite the bullet and tell something he never told anyone else. "When I was younger, my dad and I were out one night. He's divorced, and he's had some girlfriends since. Nothing's been really steady for years.

"That one night, he ran into an old girlfriend he had a few years ago. She had this look on her face when she realized it was him, one of astonishment and... not really horror, just agitation. Like if she was meeting someone who used to be her enemy."

The athlete sighed again, staring at the reflection on the moon. "At that time, I was so young, I thought she was some enemy spy, and my dad was the target."

The two boys shared a small laugh, then Tyler continued. "She was attractive and tall, so I was sure she was some kind of spy. And my dad was like ol' James Bond, so handsome and alluring that she couldn't bring herself to kill him though she was supposed to."

"Sounds like quite the man, your father," Ezekiel replied. He had a lot of respect for parental figures, so he figured complimenting one's parents was complimenting them.

"He is. He's a good man. I just wish..."

Tyler struggled to say what came next. "I just wish that... no, never mind. Maybe another time."

The two were silent for a couple minutes after that. Tyler fiddled with his pocket, and pulled out a small, electronic device. Ezekiel stared at it, not sure what it was.

"Oh, this is my iPod. I got it after TDI, as a little way of trying to cheer myself up."

Ezekiel continued to stare at the device, which was less than half the size of a bookmark. "Um, what's it do?"

"Plays music."

The prairie boy gaped. He kept looking between the device and Tyler, as if to say, "No, seriously, what's it do?" Tyler couldn't help but laugh, and then pulled out the headphones. After drying off the waifer-thin electronic (which the jock explained to Ezekiel was waterproof) and the headphones, he let Ezekiel listen to some music.

Gwen and Trent, who had been glancing at the two ever since Tyler fell in the water, exchanged a smile. "Jock and outcast bonding," Trent remarked. "There's a song in that, I'll bet."

The goth girl nodded, grinning. "As much as I hate this place, I'm amazed how people of different personalities can get along. Beth the excitable farmgirl was friends with bold Leshawna of the streets. Rule-following Courtney and law-breaking Duncan hit it on. The looniest girl I've ever seen, Izzy, was making kissy face with the biggest, loudest, and happiest guy I've ever seen, Owen."

Trent chuckled. "They say in dire circumstances, even the worst of enemies can become the best of allies. Total Drama Island was like a war-zone at times, and people who would normally never talk to each other, like Geoff and Duncan, would become allies and eventually friends."

Gwen smiled. Then her pale face lit up, an enchanting look for Trent, and she snapped her fingers. "Bingo," she whispered.

"What?"

"I know what to do for tomorrow."

As Gwen began to whisper her plan to her boyfriend, Ezekiel and Tyler continued to share music. "Whoa, dude," the prairie boy muttered as he listened to a particular song, "this one is great!"

"Oh yeah, I love that one," Tyler agreed after checking the name of the song on the iPod. "It reminds me a lot of Total Drama Island, to be honest."

"I can see that, eh."

After listening to the rest of the song, Ezekiel searched through the songs on the music device. He stopped when he saw an interesting name.

"Who is this 'Weird Al' Yankovic?" he asked, quirking his eyebrows at the unusual name.

"He's like a comedian singer. He makes funny songs, and parodies others."

"Parodies?"

"It's when you take the music from the song, and put in your own lyrics to spoof it. I love it, because the first time I heard him, he was spoofing a song I hate!"

Ezekiel nodded, taking all this in. An idea sparked in the homeschooled boy's mind, ran a trail of powder, then exploded. He laughed aloud, and had to grab Tyler's shirt to keep him from falling in the water again.

"What is it, dude? Listening to one of the parodies?"

"That's not it, eh," the boy grinned, a wicked one that was fitting for his oval face. "I know what I'm gonna do for the talent show tomorrow.

"But first... preperations! I gotta find that guy who has the computer... Cody, I think!"

Racing off to find Cody, Tyler followed after, excited to see what the prairie boy had in mind. Gwen and Trent went over her new idea, and Noah ran away from a cackling Izzy who insisted that she was on to him and he might as well submit to her search process!

Continued in Part 3.

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Read on, I dare ye!