Total Drama Life

Ch. 2: Packing and Shopping and Houses, Oh My!

I stared at my bookshelf, wondering how I was going to fit all my literature into the box. I looked at the box with detest, and looked back at my bookshelf. I took out a book, The Lovely Bones, opened it for a moment, and closed it, putting it into the box. For the next 10 minutes I was struggling to get all the books to fit neatly into that box.
I rummaged through the crap that was on the floor of my closet. I ended up stopping at a luggage bag- the one I used for Total Drama Island. I still had a few things in there, I suppose I'm a pack rat sometimes, considering it had been over a year since TDI and most would think that bag would be empty by now. I put my hand in it, searching to see what I could have possibly left inside. I pulled out something almost round, only to see it was the skull Duncan had carved for me. I shot a half, yet fake smile at it. I sat on my butt; my feet were tired from the crouching.
I was staring off into the skull, turning it around and looking at the "D+C" on the back of it. I held the skull by its eye sockets, having it face me. I winced at it, and threw it backwards so that it landed into the labelled "STUFF" box.
I cracked my neck, and rolled my eyes. I tried to divert my mind to something else besides Duncan. I took a deep breath.
Standing up, I made my way to my cell phone. I needed to call my best friend, Darien, and spend some time with her. Man was I gonna miss her. I dialled the number, it rang, and she picked up.

"Yo."

I grinned, and fell on my back, on my bed, "Hey Darien, it's Courtney."

"Oh my gosh! Courtney! When are you moving? I've been trying to call you how come you weren't picking up?" I had to pull the phone away from my ear a bit, since she was almost shrieking at me.

"Oh I'm sorry I've been busy, you know- packing and stuff. It's been a little overwhelming but I guess I gotta get over it," I sighed, "oh, and, I'm leaving this Thursday…"

"Ugh Courtney why do you have to move?" I could sense the desperation in her voice.

"It's not my fault, it's my dad's company's fault. They want us to move for some reason that I don't even know about," I sat up, my forehead in one of my hand's palm, "and trust me it's not like I want to move."

"You could always live with me ya'know! Stay in my closet, feed you crackers and cheese..." She was trying to make me laugh. It kind of worked. I giggled.

"Hah ok sure definitely because that'll work."

"I tried. So, are we hanging out today or what? We could go shopping together, for old times' sake."

"Okay. I'll get ready."

"Alright I'll be there to pick you in an hour!" I heard the hanging up of the phone.

Hopefully today will keep my mind off of all this moving, I thought to myself.

I got off my bed, and walked towards my dresser's mirror. I stared at myself, but not in a narcissistic way. I was looking at how much I had changed since TDI. My hair was much longer, and I had dyed it strawberry blonde, it had a wave to it but I kind-of liked it.
I stuck my tongue out at my reflection. I stared at my tongue piercing. It was a purple rod with spheres at each end. How the hell I convinced my mom to let me do this was a mystery to everyone. I don't even know why I did it. I guess I needed to do something sweet little Courtney wouldn't do. It was something I needed to get off my chest you could say.
I backed away from the mirror headed to my closet and changed into black skinny jeans and a small white spaghetti strapped tank top. I cringed my nose and decided to put my orange cashmere sweater-cardigan over it.
I quickly brushed my teeth and fixed my hair a bit. I got my cell phone and shoved it into my small purple purse, went downstairs and got a bottle of water. I closed the fridge and turned around, and there was my dad again.

"Going somewhere?" he asked.

"I'm going shopping with Darien."

He motioned me (nicely of course) to get out of the way since I was in front of the fridge. He opened it, got out a bottle of water as well.

"Do you have money?" he opened the bottle and took a sip.

"No. I was just about to ask you for some." I opened mine, and took a sip too.

He walked towards the counter and took his wallet off of it, opened it and handed me a dollar.

"Here you go," he started to laugh a bit.

"DAD!" I grinned, "Come on!"

"Okay, okay," he pulled out a few twenties and handed them to me, "don't go too crazy." He sat down on a stool and read the newspaper that was set on the counter.

I hugged him and walked towards the door. My cell phone rang; I took it out of my purse quickly, and put it to my ear.

"Darien?"

"Yep yep. I'm outside, you ready?" she said it with excitement.

"Yeah, I'm about to put on my shoes I'll be out in a second." I hung up.

I opened the shoe closet and got my silver, closed toed pumps. (I have a fetish for high heels- what can I say, but I got over the wedges type after TDI) I closed the shoe closet, and headed out the door, saying bye to my dad.

He shouted out to me, "Don't forget to call when you're coming home!"

"Right!" I shut the door.

I ran to Darien's car, opened the door, and jumped in.

"Heeeeey Courtney, how much did you bring? I brought a ton because I want to spend as much time as I can with you today!"

I pulled out the money my dad had given me and started to count the twenties- "Holy crap he gave me 400 dollars."

"Oh my gosh!" he giggled, "We're gonna get you such cute outfits for your new school!"

I rolled my eyes, even though I loved shopping, "Yeah, you better help pick them out."

"Duh."

And we drove off to the mall.

--

The mall was PACKED. After all, it was a Saturday. I looked around at the stores, thinking which one to go to first. Darien already had an idea though.

"Ruehl!" she pointed, "They finished it!"

I turned my head to where she was pointing, it was a brick store, NYC styled. "Oh my god Darien! I've been waiting for this store to open up here! This is awesome, let's go in!" I was actually really excited.

"That's the spirit," she took my arm and led me quickly inside the store.

The store was dimly lit, and fashionable apparel was everywhere. It was like every girl's dream. Ruehl was a new branch of Abercrombie, much more expensive, the clothes almost looked the same, but there was a more sophisticated look to it.

"Okay. We need to get you some summer clothing, 'cause Florida is WAY hot, basically all year long," she turned her head to face long sleeves, "but it might be a little chilly in Orlando, so you might need some thin, long sleeve shirts."

My eyes widened, "Wow you've got this all planned out." I mocked her and grinned.

"Yeah I really get into shopping."

I picked out some "Beth" styled tank tops; a dark grey, a dark burgundy, and a navy one. Darien was off in a different section getting some things for herself. I walked over to the woven shirts.

I love these types of shirts! I thought to myself.

I got two "Tara" styled ones: blue and brown. I turned around and saw Darien running up to me, shoving long sleeves in my face.

"Whoa whoa whoa what's this?!" my eyebrows raised and eyes widened.

"Ohhhh nothing, just a little bit of clothing."

"A LITTLE!?"

"Oh come on you need them."

"I need them? Hehe," she was smiling, "okay I'll get them."

We went to purchase the clothes we picked out. I ended up getting the tanks I picked earlier, the woven shirts, and red, blue, and green V-Neck long sleeves.
We exited the store, talking like normal, preppy teens. Hanging out with Darien really made shopping 100 times more fun. She was so bubbly. We were talking about boys, she had brought up Duncan.

"So, tell me, Courtney, how's that Duncan guy?"

"Darien…" I rolled my eyes, "I haven't talked to him in like over a year. It was just a little fling, you know how it is."

She scoffed, "Whatever! I bet you still think about him!" She nudged me playfully.

I nudged her back, "I do not!" This conversation made me blush.

Lie.

"You probably still have that skull he made you!"

I denied it, "No freakin' way! What makes you think I'd keep that creepy thing?"

Lie. Again.

"Haha whatev-" she stopped, and stared. She was developing a small grin on her face.

"What?" I asked her, and looked at the direction she was looking at. It was the Hot Topic store, "Darien I know what you're thinking but don't even think about it!"

"Oh come onnnnn! Haven't you ever wondered how it looks like in there?"

"I am NOT goth Darien!"

She shook her head, "The store isn't only for goth people, and it has some cute stuff too! It's not as scary as it looks."

"Fine whatever," I cringed my nose at the place, "let's go in."

We walked into Hot Topic; there were a few people in the store, the norm from what I could tell from outside every time I had passed this store before. Most of the eyes though, diverted to us. I knew what they were thinking: "What are thesetwo doing in here?"
I looked down at the ground, but then told myself that it doesn't matter what they think, so I held it back up and kept a confident posture. We were walking towards the section where pants were. I scanned the wall, looking at the clothes. There were pants with chains, pants with lines of neon colours… with chains, and did I mention there were pants with chains?
But then I saw the skinny jeans. Those types of jeans always caught my eye. There were so many different colours though in this place! They looked so fashionable. I pointed them out to Darien.

"Hey, how about those? They look cute," I shifted my point to the purple skinny jeans, "Especially the purple ones."

She looked at the pants, and then smiled at me, "See you found something you like already. How about you try them on?"

I took a size 0 and headed to the dressing room. There was only one, luckily, no one was in it, and it was open, so I just went in and shut the door. Darien was outside the door, waiting for me, but not patiently.

"Are you done?" I could hear the tapping of her foot.

"Almost!" I was shoving my legs in the pants.

I succeeded in getting them on. I looked at myself in the mirror, turning to the side to look at my butt. They actually look pretty good, I thought to myself.

Darien knocked on the door. It startled me. I could have sworn my head turned a complete 360, figuratively speaking. I had forgotten she was waiting to see how they looked on me as well. I opened the door, only to see a giant, bright smile smacked on her face.

"They look AMAZING! You should TOTALLY get them! I'm getting the red ones!"

I boasted, "Haha okay okay I'll admit they look pretty good!" I looked down at the pants I was wearing and pulled up the tag to see the price, "and they're only 40 bucks!"

We paid for our pants, the cashier gave us a little "ok weird" look, but we were giddy. We left Hot Topic and went on something Darien and I like to call a shoe hunt!

"Ok. Courtney, now we need to get you shoes. How about…."

I could finished her sentence any day, "VICTORIA'S SECRET!?"

"YEAH!" the face Darien put on was priceless.

We went to Victoria's Secret and looked at all the amazing shoes. I didn't know where to choose from, but one of them caught my eye quickly enough.

They were an oxford/pump styled shoe, called "BCBGIRLS Grommeted Pump". They were black, with cute straps on it, and two silver un-holed buttons at its side.

I turned around to look for Darien and show them to her, but she was busy getting shoes of her own, I smiled at that. I looked back at the shoes and asked one of the employees to get me a size 7.
As a waited, Darien came to me with two bags of shoes. She had probably bought three pairs of shoes.

"Jeez Darien would you like to buy 10 more pairs of shoes," I asked her mockingly, grinning.

"I would but I probably wouldn't be able to carry them all!"

I couldn't help but smile.

--

It was pretty dark outside. I hadn't noticed until I came out of Darien's car. I turned my body around and bent down in front of the rolled down passenger seat's window.

"See you at school Darien. Thanks for the amazing day."

"Anytime, of course, Courtney. I promise this week will be a blast. I won't let you leave Toronto without all the memories of this place burned into your mind!" she was grinning her usual bubbly grin.

"See ya!" I yelled as she drove away.

I walked towards my house, opening the door with my keys. When I opened the door I saw the lights of the kitchen were on. I walked to the kitchen.
My parents were looking at my dad's Mac laptop. They were on the "Unique Homes" magazine's website. They looked pretty excited. My mom signalled me to come take a closer look.

"Hey honey, come look at this house with us. We already put an offer on it and the deal's closing sometime this week!"

"Yeah, you're mom's really excited about it," my dad said in high spirits.

I came closer and looked at the house my mother was pointing to. The house was featured on its very own page. It was 3900 Lake Sarah Dr., Orlando, Florida. The house was huge! Outside, it was an orange colour, the roof had red shingles, and the windows were outlined white. It was a really nice house. We had a nice house in Toronto, but this one was just so amazing. This made the move seem so much better.

"Do you like it hon? It says here that it's about 3 minutes driving distance to Edgewater High School."

"Huh?" I listened to my mom even more now when I heard 'high school'.

"Edgewater High School: your new school. It looks very presentable I'm sure you'll like it."

I sighed, "Yeah, I guess." New schools always freak me out.

I turned around, on my way to the stairs, my dad called out behind me, though.

"Hey! Courtney! This week there's no school Thursday or Friday, so you'll start school at Edgewater NEXT Monday!"

I sighed with relief, I wasn't ready to go this week, "Okay, dad, got it!" I ran upstairs.

A/N

I hope you guys liked it. Basically (until maybe the 4th or 5th chapter) the story will focus on Courtney and her family. So keep checking back! I will try to have a new chapter ALMOST every day- depends on how I'm feeling.

p.s. One of the purposes of this chapter was to show more of Courtney's personality

p.s.s Reviews, pl0x