Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama Island, Action, or World tour, and I am not making any money off of this story.
Well, I have to admit. I'm pretty overwhelmed by the response I got for the first chapter. Usually when I post a new chapter, I check back that night or the next morning. By then I usually have two to four reviews waiting for me and a few more might trickle in over the next couple of days. Last chapter, six reviews in two hours! By now, I have well over a dozen. I can only hope to attract more people as time goes on. So to everyone who reviewed, thank you and enjoy.
Chapter Two: Getting Back to Basics
Cody quietly followed the rest of the cast up the cliff in his bathing suit. He was too busy thinking to focus on anything that was happening around him, so his body was on autopilot. It was amazing how easily a time loop could distract you.
How could this have happened? Cody thought furiously. Could it have been something from back on the island? No, that didn't make any sense. Nothing like this had happened during season one. He had been fleeing an erupting volcano and then come too on the boat. And no one else noticed anything wrong!
Nothing made any sense around here.
"Like, are you okay?" A familiar voiced asked him from up ahead on the path.
Cody looked up to see Lindsay giving him a concerned look. The blonde had an almost puppy like appeal that had never quite faded, even after everything that had happened to her on the show. Right now it was going full force, and Cody couldn't help but smile back at the pretty girl.
"Oh sure," Cody did his best to assure her. If the easily distracted girl had been able to tell how lost he felt, he was sure that the others could it too. It was best not to look too distracted and risk losing again today.
Giving him a large smile, the taller girl hurried up to stand next to heather. He knew how that would end up, but couldn't bring himself to try and discourage her after she had been so nice to him.
And he had to admit. From this angle, Lindsay filled out that little red bikini of hers very nicely.
Before he knew it, they were on top of the cliff again and Chris was giving them a rundown of the challenge. Word for word from the last two times, maybe he had writers who gave him a script he memorized. Anyway, the other team started to jump, and Katie and Sadie begged Chris to be let onto the same team, who gave in after a minute of high pitched pleading and let Izzy change teams.
All of it was so very familiar. And before he knew it, most of his team had gone over the edge and it was his turn. But this time, he wouldn't let himself chicken out.
Remembering the suicidal jump was not nearly as intimidating as standing there on the ledge preparing to throw himself off the cliff. He took a minute to remind himself that no one had actually died from this challenge.
Not yet, anyway.
"Go ahead and jump," Chis encouraged. "Unless your chicken, bawk, bawk!"
Not even bothering to look back at the annoying flapping motions he was sure the host was making, Cody threw himself over the edge of the cliff and moved himself into a perfect cannonball. An impossibly short fall later, he was splashing down amidst the cheers of his teammates.
Rising back to the surface, Cody forced himself to smile back at them once he took a few deep breaths. Even as Chef pulled up in the boat to fish him out. A scream from above made him look up and he suddenly remembered who had been waiting to go after him and the results from the first time.
That was all the warning he got before Owen's small flood tossed them all around. Cody was tossed around like a leave in a hurricane before he finally stopped.
Sputtering, Cody spat a bit of sand out of his mouth. Somehow he and most of the others had ended up on the shore with most of the others.
Cheers ensued, until Owen's request for a new bathing suit stopped them.
"Forty-nine bottles of pop on the wall, Forty-nine bottles of pop. If one of those bottles should happen to fall, forty-eight bottles of pop on the wall!"
Cody followed his team's sing-along with a genuine smile. His first one real one since he had started looping, which was the best word that came to mind. This was how he remembered going into the first season, with a smile on his face and a song in his heart! After the first day the entire team had felt confident that they could take on anything Chris could throw at them.
It was too bad that Heathers scheming had brought them all down. He would really have to do something about that before it got out of hand.
Heather, he looked over at the girl. He had to admit, the way she smiled and sang along with the others he never would have known just how far the girl would go for the sake of victory. A victory she would never really get, the million dollars being lost in the lava surge.
If that wasn't proof of karma, what was?
But the important thing was that he DID know what she would do, and that gave him the advantage! It had been said many times before and it rang true now, knowledge was power.
The real question was. What should he do with that knowledge, that power?
He could win, that shouldn't be too difficult with what he knew. But there was so much he could do with this! He could convince the others to eliminate Heather early and spare themselves a ton of grief!
But…should he? The Heather he had been on Team Amazon with hadn't been a people person to say the least, but she hadn't been as overly cruel as she was now and had helped lead them to several victories. He meant it when he said she had been pretty good to him overall. Maybe he could reach out to that same Heather here.
…OR, he could use that knowledge to win Gwen over! He had been her friend long enough to know what she did and didn't like. And enough time brooding to see where he had gone wrong with her, and he already avoided that really bad first impression.
Maybe this was fates way of giving him a second chance at love. Wishful thinking maybe, but it made about as much sense as anything else that was happening this season.
"Hey look, there's the campground!" Beth called out.
But for now, he could see the campground coming up. He'd deal with all this other stuff later; they hadn't actually won the challenge yet. And he really wanted that hot tub party!
An hour later, the hot tub was really coming together. He'd spent most of that time holding boards in place while Trent or Justin hammered them in or looking for particular parts. Now he was having a drink while he helped fill the tub with water.
A little while later, Chris came to judge them. It was really a no brainier, even before the other teams fairly shoddy looking hot tub collapsed in on itself.
"Well I think we have a winner here, the Screaming Gophers." Chris declared. The rest of the team burst out in cheers and Owen burst out of the tub, waving is hands in the air.
Cody tuned out the rest of the conversation, for now he just wanted to have some time alone. He knew that the part wouldn't begin until just after sunset, so he had a little while to chill before things got started.
"Hey," jumping, Cody quickly turned around from where he had been looking through his stuff. Thinking about what might be useful in future challenges and hadn't heard anyone walk into the cabin.
Trent was there, raising an eyebrow at the smaller boy's reaction.
"You okay, I didn't mean to scare you." He sounded sincere too.
"Me? Scared?" Cody tried to play it off with a laugh. "Nah, I guess I'm just still a little wired. It's not every day you jump off a thousand foot cliff."
At least I hope it's not a daily thing, Cody added, a little afraid. He could only assume time would flow normally now, after all.
Trent laughed a little, accepting his explanation at face value. "Yeah, that was pretty intense, huh. Anyway, were getting ready for the party so I came to get you. The hot tub is just about ready."
A glance out the window showed the sky was turning a dark shade of pink. He could feel the weariness of the day's events coming down on him, and already knew that he would sleep well tonight. Even in the unfamiliar and rather stuffed cabin.
"I'll be out there in a minute," he assured Trent.
"Okay, but don't take too long. Owen looks like he could eat the entire buffet right now." The musician warned him, turning back to the door.
He probably could at that. "I'll be quick."
"To the screaming gophers," Cody toasted with a bottle of juice while the others cheered.
"Go gophers, go gophers," Leshawna cheered from in the front of the tub, doing an incredibly silly looking dance. Owen, and in a rare bout of team spirit, Noah, had joined her little dance, celebrating their teams victory.
Laughing at the spectacle, Cody saw the other team wander back from the marshmallow ceremony. It was easy to pick out who was missing from the lack of toque alone.
"Looks like Ezekiel got the boot," Cody muttered quietly.
"So what?" Heather demanded, apparently he hadn't been quiet enough. "The sexist hillbilly had it coming!" Most of the other girls muttered their agreement, even if they didn't use those words.
"Yeah, I guess," Cody hesitantly agreed with her.
Seeing the looks he was getting he elaborated before they got the wrong idea.
"I mean, no one is really evil at heart right? I think he just didn't get out much, being homeschooled and all."
"Whatever," Heather muttered to herself. "What we need to worry about is keeping our winning streak going!" This was a Heather he knew all too well.
"Would you relax string bean," Leshawna cut in, sipping from a bottle of water. "We got two days to relax, let's just try to have some fun with this." Leshawna predictably tried to be the voice of reason, and it got him thinking.
Heather put on a smile, but he was probably the only one who saw how forced it was. "Yeah, we'll have plenty of fun." She even sounded like she meant it. Cody wondered if it was natural, or if she had taken acting classes at some point.
Confessional
Cody, still in his bathing suit, smiled at the camera. "I think Leshawna has the right idea. I may not know what's going on right now, but there's no reason I can't sit back and try to enjoy myself."
Cody tries to lean coolly against the back of the outhouse, and slips out of the seat leaving a small pool of water behind.
The morning sun leaked in through the thin shades, landing right on his face. Bringing his blanket up to block it only delayed the inevitable. He was awake again.
Groaning, Cody looked around. The familiar cabin seemed to mock all of his hopes that the events of last night were just some kind of crazy dream. Still, at least he was not back to day one again.
With that thought in mind, Cody got to his feet and grabbed the stuff he needed in order to get a quick shower. A fast trip to the communal wash showed a small line had formed.
"Come on already," Gwen yelled, banging on the door.
"What's going on?" Cody asked, curiously. He honestly didn't remember this ever happening.
"Heather has barricaded herself in the bathroom." Gwen answered, pounding on the door again.
"She said she likes to bathe in privacy." Lindsay said happily.
"Well she's using up all the hot water!" Gwen shot back.
Seeing he wasn't going to get a shower any time soon. Cody went back to his cabin to put his stuff away before he went to get breakfast. The last day had passed quicker then he would have thought. He had spent most of it just relaxing with the others, getting to know old friends a second time. He planned to explore the area around the island today. Hopefully he would find something, anything, to help him figure out what was happening.
No such luck. Other than that, he had spent some time getting to know his teammates. He and Trent were actually getting off to a better start then they had the first time. And part of that was probably his lack of blatant flirting with Gwen, whom he had a few pleasant conversations with.
His future knowledge kept Gwen interested in their conversations, rather than simply tolerating. He wasn't an artist, but he had some skill in music that he'd honed with the Drama Brothers.
He wandered if they would still be formed when this was all over.
Shrugging, he went over to the mess hall. The Awakeathon was tomorrow and he was trying to figure out how to help his team. Maybe he could ration some coffee and hand it out after the first day was done. Or should he just leave it alone? They had won the first time after all.
"Skinny, you got a package." Chef announced, bringing down a small brown wrapped package on top of whatever he was trying to pass off as an omelet.
Careful not to aggravate the man further, Cody said nothing and took his tray to the nearest seat. Carefully extracting the package from the gunk, he worked on untying the twine holding it together. Thankfully the inside seemed like it hadn't been touched by the concoction.
The inside opened to reveal a small brown clock. Or at least what he thought was a clock. Instead of twelve numbers around the middle, there were twenty-five. And with only a single small arrow in the middle pointing at the number one rather than the two you usually found on a traditional clock. Blinking, Cody tried to turn the dial, but as much as he struggled it wouldn't budge either way.
There was only one other distinguishing mark on the entire clock. Engraved in fancy writing on the back was a single word. Hope.
Confused, he placed it off to one side. Then he turned his attention to breakfast, trying to get down some of the rubbery eggs Chef had served him before the smell got to him.
A blow horn he would come to dread tore through the quiet morning air. Groaning with the rest of the campers, he slowly got up to get dressed. He could hear Leshawna yelling from her window, but knew Chris too well to think he would be swayed by a few angry words.
Wearily, he listened to the host begin his prepared speech.
I wonder how he always seems so awake? Cody wondered, more interested in that then what he was saying. Probably a lot of expensive coffee, he reasoned. God only knew what the man spent on hair care products, so a little expensive coffee probably wasn't much. Then he got to watch Eva stalk up the host, barely being held back by several of her teammates. There was something important involving her in this challenge, but he couldn't remember what it was at the moment.
Nodding to himself, he noticed everyone else heading to the starting line. Hurrying, he went over to join them. The sooner they got this done, the sooner they could eat.
Twiddling his thumbs, the young man waited for what was left of his team. Owen chose that moment to slam through the door. Noah was tossed over one shoulder like a sack. The chubby team carried his comrade over to one of the tables and laid him down none too gently before pumping up and down above his heart. Leshawna crawled in after them, gasping for breath.
"Finally, gasp, made it."
Part of him was thinking of how to approach Gwen over the challenge, this was one of the few chances he'd have to really talk to her and there was no reason to waist it.
Another part of him was amused that some of his teammates were less physically inclined then him, speed wise anyway. Though winded, he had managed the run pretty well.
He broke out in cheers with the others when they believed that they had somehow won that days challenge, Chris was quick enough to burst that bubble though.
"What did he just say?" Gwen asked.
"Who's hungry," the host yelled as a sheet was parted to either side to expose the buffet sitting behind it, worthy of any thanksgiving dinner.
A gorge fest later, Chris was announcing the beginning of the real challenge, to several completes from the Screaming Gophers.
"It's time for the Awakeathon!"
"The what-athon?" Owen asked dumbly.
"Don't worry," Chris was still talking into that darn megaphone. "This is an easy one. The team with the last camper standing wins invincibility."
"So what your saying is the 20K run, and the turkey eating frenzy, were all part of your evil plan to make it harder for us to stay awake."
"That's right Gwen!"
"Man he's good," no one disagreed with her on that.
The first twelve hours passed faster than you would think. The teens engaged each other in mundane conversation or just walked in circles, but that tapered off as resisting sleep became a real struggle.
"This is the most boring thing I've ever done in my life," Gwen said to no one.
"Could be way worse," Trent observed.
"Oh yeah, how?" Gwen challenged.
"Well, I could be stuck here without you to talk too."
A little corny on Trent's part, but Gwen looked away bashfully as her cheeks turned a faint pink color.
Cody watched this from off to the side, conflicted.
Confessional
"On the one hand," the tech geek began, "they're two of the closest friends I have on the island. But I already know they won't work out. So there's nothing wrong with trying to win Gwen over, right?" Cody asked, looking around for some degree of reassurance that he wasn't wrong to try and win Gwen over.
Distracted by them interacting, Cody missed Heather as she began to wrap Beth and Lindsay in her spidery web and her subtle theft of Eva's prized MP3 player.
Wearily, Cody hit the twenty-four hour mark with most of the others, and was treated to the bizarre sight of Chef in a fluffy pink sheet costume, complete with a fluffy tail, and harp in hand. The image was ruined by the fierce glare on his face. To his left, Chris began to read the fairy tale This Boring Town.
An undetermined amount of time later, Chef came back. This time, dancing around in a bright pink tutu, throwing out handfuls of fairy dust as some of it seemed to come off it in sparkles. In the background, he could hear soft music that sounded like something that came from the Nutcracker.
He still wasn't sure if that was a hallucination or not.
Whatever it was, it was enough to get through his defenses, and frankly he had never been a night bird. Darkness finally claimed him.
Hours later, Cody opened his eyes to see the sun sitting high in the sky. Stretching Cody looked around to see several other sleepers around a handful of campers that were still in the game.
Though disappointed, it didn't take him long to find a positive in all this.
At no point in the night had he woken up to Noah kissing the back of his ear.
That made losing the challenge himself worth it.
Everything else went as it had before. The final two came down to Gwen and Duncan, Duncan fell asleep on the can, Eva freaked out over the loss of her music player, which Heather innocently returned afterwards, and she was gone that same night.
Cody was more concerned with his own plans.
"Here," he handed a Styrofoam cup to the confused girl. "It's a double mocha with foam and roasted nut creamer; it's one of my favorites." Chef had been nice enough to let the teens brew a few pots of coffee if interested, and he had ceased the opportunity.
Smiling, Gwen took the cup up to her lips for a long sip. "Sigh, thank you Cody," it was a more sincere thanks then he could ever remember getting from the girl.
"No sweat," he said, trying to play it off.
Taking another sip, the taller girl walked away. Once she was out of sight, Cody brought his hand up in a victory pose.
That's one point for me!
Okay, a few things I need to say.
1) An extra thank you to everyone that took the time to review. This chapter came out much faster than I thought it would. This has started out as one of my most successful stories ever. And as long as I know even one person is enjoying my work, I'll try and keep at it!
2) I know I glanced over certain parts, but there's a reason for that.
This story is not about season one. We've seen the show, read plenty of fanfiction, so we know that story. No, this is about Cody's quest. For love, for fame, for a hundred grand, for a bra!
Well, it is Cody after all.
3) A couple of people thought Cody was being a little morbid last chapter. That was not really the case. Cody was still in a minor state of shock that left him emotionally off balance. With his future knowledge, he knew what the others were thinking; he just wasn't in a state where he was really thinking about what he was saying. I hope that clears everything up. I think he was more in character this chapter.
4) Not a lot of action so far, I know. But I needed to establish the plot, that's why a lot of the dialogue is still being taken right from the show. It should pick up soon enough, when Cody's actions begin to have a real impact. Especially after the resests become a regular thing.
5) This time travel bit is not taken from any movie, show, or game. You might see similarities, but it's not taken from anywhere in particular. It's just an idea I had.
6) The next chapter probably won't be as quick. Its midterms week, and I had my wisdom teeth removed yesterday. And I spent most of the day recovering from that, which let me focus on this chapter. But today it's back to work.
7) By all means, tell me what you think in a review. They can only make me write faster.
