Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama Island, and I am not making any money off of this story.

Not much to say this time, but I only have about three weeks until college starts again; I'll have to wait and see how that affects my update speed. Now enjoy the chapter.

Chapter Eight: Not So Simple Anymore

Cody's first instinct was to scream and run away. After taking a few seconds to suppress that instinct, he tried to find something more productive to do.

"Courtney, long time no see."

Or would have, if Harold hadn't decided to say something first.

While not an expert on body language, Cody was pretty sure Courtney was half a step from running over and throttling the nerd standing behind him, even though her face was fairly calm. The fact that he was standing between the two was probably the only thing dissuading her at the moment.

Not that she seemed all that happy with him at the moment.

Without saying anything Courtney took a step forward, and Harold took an involuntary step back. Courtney took another, so did Harold, this bizarre dance continued with the CIT trying to get closer to Harold, while the nerd kept her away by keeping her boyfriend in between the two of them.

To people that weren't involved in the strange dance; the situation must have seemed hilarious.

After Courtney began to pick up the pace Cody tried to head off the violence by grabbing his girlfriends arm. He shuddered at the look she gave him, but he had a chance to end this rivalry and he wasn't going to back down now.

"Courtney," he started, trying to guide his girlfriend to the far side of the room. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Why were you talking to him?" Courtney demanded, her eyes narrowed into slits, but she allowed him to escort her away from Harold.

"Because he wants to apologize to you," Cody said with as much force as he dared.

"Well I don't want to talk to him!" Courtney insisted stubbornly.

"I know, but remember the conversation we had yesterday, don't you want to be able to put this behind you?"

Courtney didn't say anything; she wasn't sure what to say. Of course she wanted to end this, but not like this, not now.

She just wasn't sure how to tell him that without seeming stubborn.

Harold chose that moment to step in. Courtney seemed as calm as the situation would allow, and he had to apologize, the guilt was eating him alive.

He got their attention by clearing his throat, but couldn't find the nerve to look Courtney in the eye. Instead he focused on his sneakers while he spoke.

"I'm sorry," he said softly, then seemed to find the courage to lift his eyes off of the floor.

"I'm sorry for cheating to get you voted off, it was wrong of me to vote you off just to get back at your boyfriend for the way he and the others were treating me. And I'm sorry I couldn't do more to help you when we were on season two together." He stopped here to take another breath.

"And most of all," Harold finally looked Courtney in the eye. "I'm sorry it took me this long to apologize."

Courtney kept her hard gaze on Harold. At first she had wanted to throttle the nerd, but what Cody said to her made a lot of sense, she did want this to end. So she listened to him apologize to her, not even bothering to correct him when he called Duncan her boyfriend, and stayed silent for a few moments after he finished.

Drawing in a shuddering breath, Courtney started to respond.

"What you did caused me a lot of trouble you know and I'm not just talking about on the show."

Harold looked down in shame as Courtney continued.

"The way people treated me, either they were judging me because of what you did or they pitied me. I can't stand pity!"

Courtney barely resisted the urge to start screaming, Cody tried to place his hand on her shoulder but she shrugged it off before continuing.

"I can't fairly blame you for what happened on season two; I dug my own grave there. Besides, it was a competition; I wasn't expecting anyone to help me."

Courtney steeled herself for what she had to say next.

"I forgive you," Harold looked at her in surprise. "I forgive you for voting me off, I really shouldn't have let Duncan and those idiots carry on the way they did, we were supposed to be a team. But I'm not going to forget what you did, either!"

Courtney turned away from him.

"So just give me some space, alright."

Harold nodded, he was too pleased that she had forgiven him to try and press the situation, so he left.

Cody watched with a small degree of shock. He honestly hadn't expected the situation to be resolved so easily, or without bloodshed. But he was impressed with the level of maturity Courtney had shown, even as he watched her sigh and flop onto the couch. The confrontation had drained her, though not nearly as badly as the earlier one.

"You okay, Courtney?"

The look she gave him said. 'What do you think?'

"Sorry, standard question."

Courtney only sighed again as Cody went to sit next to her, stopping briefly to pick up the two bottled waters that she had dropped. Unsure of exactly what he should do, Cody settled for placing one of his arms around her shoulders in a loose hug. Courtney leaned into the embrace, staring at the television in a sort of trance.

"That went pretty well, didn't it?" Cody offered offhandedly.

"Yup," Courtney agreed, too out of it to focus on the conversation.

Cody considered how to get his girlfriends attention for a few moments before inspiration hit him.

"You look pretty hot when you're mad too."

Courtney flushed at the sudden comment, but that didn't stop her from lightly smacking the back of his head.

"Pervert!"

"Just trying to get your attention...it's true though."

That got him another smack around the head, and a small smile.

"So now what do you want to do?" Cody asked, rubbing the back of his head.

Courtney looked around the room for a few seconds before turning off the big screen television. She didn't really feel like watching television right now. She saw Cody looking at her expectantly, and glanced at the clock on the cable box, it was just a little past eleven, a bit early but...

"Want to get some lunch?"

"Sure," Cody agreed then got a sly look on his face. "Maybe we could get some chocolate."

Courtney moaned and buried her face in her hands.

"What, I liked happy Courtney."

Cody smiled, remembering the indecent that he dubbed, happy Courtney.

It had been just a week before their first date, though neither of them knew it at the time. Courtney's parents had gone to visit an aunt of hers outside the city, and rather than leave her alone overnight, they asked her to find a friend to stay with for the night.

Cody hadn't been her first choice, for obvious reasons. But after several negative replies and two last minute cancellations that was exactly where she had ended up.

After arriving and thanking his parents, Courtney had declined something to eat and went to the guest room to relax. She stayed there for the next several hours, trying not to get in the way of the people who were taking her in, even though it was only for the night.

Cody had given her the space she wanted, honestly a bit disappointed that they couldn't hang out, though he supposed that doing that with his parents around would have been a bit awkward.

A little after ten, about three hours after Courtney had arrived at his house, he had finished his desert and his parents had just turned in for the night. He was rinsing out his bowl in the sink when a thought hit him. Courtney hadn't had any desert! That was rude of him, especially since she was his guest.

With that thought in mind, Cody grabbed a clean bowel and filled it with chocolate ice cream. Then to top it off, he added chocolate syrup and whipped cream. Once the sugary concoction was finished, Cody grabbed a large napkin and spoon before heading to the guest room.

Once he was in front of the door, Cody reached out for the doorknob. But mentally caught himself, he didn't want to walk in on Courtney if she was changing or something. So instead, he knocked twice on the door.

His guest responded fairly quickly, opening the door for him.

"Hello, Cody, what is it?"

"I brought you this." The brunet exclaimed, raising the bowel of sugar. "I know you didn't have any desert so I brought you this."

Courtney looked at him awkwardly for a moment; she seemed to be looking for a way to decline the treat without being rude.

"Thank you...but I'm still full from dinner."

It was a fair argument, or would have been if her stomach hadn't growled at that particular moment.

"Please, Courtney, I promise, it's delicious!" Cody begged, trying to look as innocent as possible at the same time.

After several agonizing seconds, Courtney sighed and reached out for the teeth rotting concoction her friend was forcing on her. With a victorious look Cody handed it to her, and then hurried off to bed.

While he was changing Cody wandered why Courtney seemed to be so reluctant to have any kind of sugar. Was she afraid of gaining weight or something? He hoped it wasn't one of those insane diets some girls put themselves through.

He shook off the thought. Courtney was too smart to do something that stupid.

Dropping the thought from his mind entirely, Cody closed his eyes and let himself drift off.

He hadn't been out very long when a sudden shift of the bed woke him up again. Jerking up, Cody fumbled for the switch on the lamp next to his bed; in his shocked state of mind he actually thought he heard giggling.

Once the switch was found and Cody gave his eyes a few seconds to adjust, he saw what was on his bed.

And incidentally, there had been giggling.

Courtney was sitting on the edge of his bed, rocking back and forth quickly. She had a too large smile on her face and was quietly giggling to herself.

Cody looked at her for a moment then blinked, she was still there when opened his eyes again. Repeating the experiment yielded the same results.

There was only one logical conclusion, Courtney was in his room.

Courtney, who had been watching Cody open and close his eyes, suddenly burst into another fit of giggles. Though Cody didn't know what he had done that was so funny, he felt his face heat up.

"Courtney...what are you doing in here?"

Courtney finally stopped giggling, though she was still rocking herself back and forth.

"I couldn't sleep," Courtney said, bouncing on the bed now. "I keep thinking."

"About what?" Cody decided that he should deal with whatever Courtney wanted before he tried to get back to sleep.

Courtney didn't answer immediately. Though she did stop moving for what may have been the first time since she entered the room. Then she let out a sequel that would have made Sadie or Katie proud and fell off the bed with a surprised gasp, then started laughing again.

Cody watched the brunette girl roll around the floor while she tried to keep herself from suffocating in her own laughter.

He wandered what event had caused his friend to snap, and if there was anything that could be done to reverse it.

"I'm not supposed to have sugar!" Courtney finally managed to get out.

"What?" Cody asked, confused, which seemed to be the trend tonight.

"I'm not allowed to have sweets," Courtney got up and sat next to him on the bed. "My parents say that they make me really hyper, so I'm not supposed to have them."

The relevance of this didn't hit him, until he remembered the bowel of chocolate ice cream that he had delivered to Courtney a short while ago.

One with chocolate syrup and whipped cream…

Not good.

"Umm, Courtney," Cody began tentatively. "Maybe you should go back to your room."

Courtney pouted something rather out of character for the normally restrained young woman.

"But I can't sleep." Her tone was pleading, on the verge of whining.

Sighing, Cody decided to try and work out Courtney's excess energy before she woke up his parents.

After all, it couldn't take too long to burn through a sugar rush. Right!

It took almost three hours before Courtney began to come down from her sugar high. And they had been three very long hours at that. Courtney didn't seem capable of staying still for more than a few seconds unless she was doing something, and keeping her from waking up his parents had taken an almost inhuman effort. Thankfully their bedroom was on the other side of the house.

His bedroom, which he normally kept fairly neat, was a wreck. His clothes were all over the floor, a result of Courtney looking through his drawers.

His video games were scattered around the floor, he had been able to distract her briefly with each one. But because he had to mute the television to avoid waking his parents, and because Courtney didn't seem able to focus on one thing for more than a few minutes, none of them had held her attention for very long.

But she finally seemed to be winding down, and was sitting down for the first time without bouncing. And she was casually looking through the nightstand next to his bed. It held game manuals, receipts from recently purchased items, with the exception of the final drawer, that held something slightly more...personal.

And Courtney was reaching for it.

Cody was actually ashamed that he had taken so long to notice that, but he still had a chance to stop her!

"No!" The brunet cried out, wincing at the volume of his yell, though it did serve to distract Courtney. "You don't want to look in there, Courtney!"

Courtney looked back at her friend oddly. As though he was the one being weird! Then a look of comprehension seemed to dawn on her face.

"I understand," Cody panicked at that. "You have a dirty magazine in there! Don't you?"

Not waiting for a response, Courtney opened the drawer. Just as she was reaching inside she felt something collide with her right side and force her to the ground.

Cody, in an act of desperation, had launched himself off of his bed at Courtney. Courtney was so caught off guard that she was actually brought to the ground, though that left him with the task of keeping the temporary hyper girl away from his little secret.

Unfortunately, less than a minute later he was pinned under Courtney while she reached into the drawer with her free hand. Cody, unable to struggle out of her grip, tried to reason with her.

"Courtney," the girl on top of him didn't stop, but she did make a noise to indicate that she was listening. "What's in there is very personal. Please, please, please don't look!"

Courtney's hand stopped just over the drawer, and her eyes seemed to glance between his pleading expression and the mysterious drawer.

With an annoyed huff, Courtney pushed the drawer shut. She could live without knowing what was in there. Besides, she was beginning to get sleepy. But before she went to sleep, there was one last thing she had to do.

Cody sighed in relief, and then started to wonder why Courtney wasn't getting off of him. The fact that a teenage girl was straddling his stomach suddenly sank in and he began to blush. Courtney started to giggle again, which just made him blush harder.

"You know, Star thinks you're cute."

Cody blinked in confusion, he had expected Courtney to tease him and call him a pervert, not bring up a friend of hers.

"What?"

"You know, Star! The top heavy blond girl on the debate team, she told me she thinks you're cute."

Cody contemplated that while Courtney drew close to him.

"She's right though, you are cute."

Then Courtney closed the distance between their lips and kissed him. Cody stared wide eyed at her closed ones, then gave in and began to kiss her back. After half a minute of that, Courtney drew away and placed her head in the crock of his neck with a content sigh.

Cody stayed like that for nearly three minutes before he realized that she had fallen asleep, and then began the arduous task of getting out from under her and placing her on his bed.

He was too smart to say anything later, but she was heavy.

After another twenty minutes, Courtney was sleeping soundly in his bed and he was headed off to sleep in the guest room.

On the way out he paused briefly and reached into the drawer he had struggled to keep Courtney out of and examined its contents. After a few seconds he closed the drawer, and then glanced back at Courtney's sleeping form.

Maybe someday.

Fortunately, neither of his parents seemed to notice that he and Courtney had switched rooms in the middle of the night. They both left for work early that morning while Courtney rushed through a breakfast his mother had prepared for them before running home.

When Cody brought it up at school later, Courtney had begged, whined, threatened, and pretty much everything else for him to keep her behavior a secret.

He promised not to tell anyone. Though he was more than a little grateful it had happened. If it hadn't, he might not have found the courage to ask her out.

Not that it stopped him from teasing her occasionally when they were in private.

He also wandered how happy Courtney, as he had taken to calling her hyper state, would act around him now that they were a couple.

Courtney only groaned as she covered her face with her hands. Cody would never let her live that down, she knew she shouldn't have eaten the sundae but it was such a rare treat for her...

She had never found out what was in that drawer, either.

And that is chapter eight of my first romance based story. But before everyone starts saying how out of character Courtney was, I just want to bring up her behavior after she and Duncan raided Chef's fridge, I personally believe that a sugar rush can be partially responsible for her behavior.

And the image of Courtney on a sugar rush just leads to so many possibilities. But I see her free side as something akin to Duncan's tender side. It's there if you know what to look for, but it's very rare.

Now please, leave me a review and tell me what you think of my latest chapter. I'm always interested in hearing you comments and other things you think of my work. Also, if anyone is interested, my next update will be for Total Drama Virtual Combat, and should follow this chapter within a few days.