Introductions Part 1

Rebecca Reid

"Becca."

The soft voice of her mother woke Rebecca from her sleep with a slight start. She rolled over to see her smiling through the sunlight as it filtered through the window. "You almost overslept. You wouldn't want to miss your bus."

Becca sat up, head swimming, trying to remember just what her mother was talking about. "What? That show?"

Finally, she became fully awake as it hit her with the full force of itself. "Crap! I have to get ready, and packed and--"

"I packed some clothes for you, don't worry. I know what you like. Remember that bag they sent? Pack your things in it then get ready to go, I'll drive you to the bus stop, alright?"

"Okay…wait, Mom, don't you have to work?" she asked, bewildered.

"I took today off. I don't want to have to miss for that sort of length of time and not have seen you the day you leave," she said. Her tone sounded as though she couldn't believe Becca had thought she'd have considered going to work.

"Alright," Becca said, smiling. "Thanks, mom."

"I'll give you your space to pack your things. We have about an hour and a half, but I want you to be able to eat breakfast and make sure you've got everything."

"I will."

With that, her mother backed out of her room, shutting the door quietly behind her. Becca turned to her bedroom, overlooking everything. The first thing she did was check to make sure the clothes her mother had packed were, in fact, what she would wear. She had nothing to worry about, of course; Mom was a fashion designer, of course she wasn't going to pack anything that looked bad.

Becca crossed to her vanity, picking up her book of lyrics and the pen lying across it. She tucked the pen into the spiral and slipped that into the gym bag, then reached just next to it for a couple of well-worn books, her copies of "The It Girl" and "Notorious". She'd read them over and over again, and likely would while she was at this reality school, as well.

She glanced at her guitar that was leaning against her bed, never too far from her. Of course she would take it, she mused, putting it in its case. So what if it didn't fit? She'd watched Total Drama Island; if Trent was allowed to take a guitar, she could clearly get away with it, and she was prepared to mention it if they tried to give her a hard time. That wouldn't be easy, but for her guitar it was quite worth it.

Next, she took the family portrait featuring herself and her parents and slipped it into her gym bag. She loved her mother and father more than anything, and it was true, she was going to miss them terribly.

Her mother was sitting at the kitchen table when Becca got down the stairs. Her mother slid something across the table and Becca looked at it. It was a cell phone.

"We got the plan tweaked to include unlimited texting. My number is programmed in. I expect frequent reports, Bec." She looked so serious, and Becca wasn't sure what to say. Instead, she didn't say anything. She wrapped her arms around her mother's neck and kissed her on the cheek.

"Did you want to eat something here or would you like to grab it on the way?" her mother asked. "The dairy bar drive through is open."

"You're not serious," Becca said, eyes widening. "Mom, you never let me have ice cream for breakfast!"

"Today is special. I want to send you off right, for luck if nothing else," she said, smiling. Becca took a deep breath and grinned, nodding once, then she and her mother left the house and got into the Mercedes. Becca had her gym bag slung over her shoulder and her guitar case in her hand. If the rest of the season went as well as today, she was going to be quite the happy camper…er, student.

Amber Steven

Amber only lived a couple of blocks away from the air port. That was why she had trouble sleeping, and that was the only reason her grades weren't as perfect as they might have been. They weren't bad, just not completely up to par because of the damned planes all the time.

The plus side was that she was within walking distance of about everything, and walking distance was certainly skateboarding distance as well. She'd packed the night before, determined to get as much rest as possible, but of course it hadn't happened. Damned planes.

She grabbed her skateboard on the way out of the house, leaving her Total Drama Academy gym bag slightly unzipped to let her headphone chord down into her walkman. Her favorite mix tape was playing, the one with the medley of Lady Gaga, and a few of the classics. Her favorite song, "Poker Face" was what was playing just then as she rolled down her street. She left a note for her mother, who would probably find it at some time or another. It wasn't like she didn't know where Amber was going, anyway.

"Hey, girl," a voice said. Amber looked over to see a neighborhood boy leaning up against a phone pole. She rolled her eyes.

"What do you want, Jake?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him. He only called her 'girl' to remind her of what he'd told her a million times; that she wasn't one of the guys even if she dressed and acted like one.

"Just to see where you're going," he said.

"You're not blind," she said, shaking her gym bag slightly. His eyes were drawn to it and his mouth formed a small 'oh'.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it, no need to get all sarcastic with me."

Amber told him just where he could stick his objection. Jake chuckled.

"Now, now," he said, shaking his head, which right now was full of dread locks. He fell into step beside Amber as she rolled down the sidewalk in the easy sort of way they shared. He'd been a close friend of hers since they were in kinder garden, which was no surprise considering that they were legally cousins. "You'll call, won't you short stuff?"

Amber smacked him in the shoulder.

"Yeah, I'll call. You know I don't go anywhere without my cell," she said. Jake nodded, giving her his widest grin.

"You let me know if anyone does anything to upset you. I'll be over there faster than a barefoot jackrabbit on a hot greasy griddle in the middle of august."

"Too much Spongebob," she said, shaking her head.

"Hey, I like the little yellow dude," he said. "Besides, what else am I supposed to do with you away?"

"Maybe find yourself some other friends?" she said, tone perfectly innocent.

"What, you think Tony and Gabe won't hang out with me if you're not there?" he asked in a mock hurt voice.

"They'll hang with you, I'm just afraid of what they might get you into while I'm gone," she said, shaking her head. The two of them shared a laugh as they turned the corner and he bus stop came into view.

Lunesta Eclipse

She crept along the rooftops with every inch of skin covered save a small strip of skin around her eyes, hands clutching her sais with a practiced grip. Unlike the others, she had been at the academy for about a week now, and had just been informed that the outside was to be off limits after the season started. By her logic, she may as well be getting it out of her system, now.

At any rate, she had him in her sights now and she'd just heard him tell Chef Hatchet that he had no idea where she'd gone. Crouching, preparing to spring, she waited until just the right moment…and struck.

She and Chris went down in a tangle of limbs. His cry was a startled one, not one given by someone in any real danger. A moment later, Chef Hatchet's hand was on her shoulder and she felt herself being removed from Chris.

"Wow," he said, in his usual 'TV Host' tone. "That, was messed up."

Fool, she thought. He is completely unaware of his own surroundings and those random pauses make me want to stab him.

You're going to want to kill him more when the challenges start.

Not to mention now he's got his eye on you from what you just did.

She scowled at her mental banter; her thoughts had a tendency to take on the voices of her dead sister and mother whenever they came unbidden to her mind, and as a result it didn't feel like she was thinking to herself, but listening to them.

She straightened herself and forced a smile Chris's way.

"You let your guard down," she deadpanned.

"And that, is what Chef Hatchet is for. What do you think I pay him for? To cook?" he asked, smiling back at her. One of his teeth caught the early afternoon light and glinted. No, not even being outside was worth this.

Mitchie Winters

When Mitchie got off the plane, her legs were stiff and she was feeling restless. That restless feeling caused her to pity everyone she came into contact with at this school that first day. She was running with her gym bag and then she caught sight of something…dark. Moving for the door. Her eyes widened.

"Holy crap it's a ninja!" she shouted, vaulting over the waist high fence that stretched around the whole building. Out of her peripheral vision she caught sight of Chris staring at her, and Chef Hatchet raising an eyebrow. A moment later, Mitchie would have made impact with the figure, but it sidestepped her.

When she felt herself falling forward, she extended her hands and cart wheeled out of it.

"Hi, mister ninja! I see you've got sharp and pointy things. I like those, too. I just got here from Ohio, my name is Mitchie. Can you teach me to be a ninja? I want to be a splendid ninja as well!"

The stranger stood there for a long moment, staring at her in reaction to Mitchie's announcement. Mitchie extended a hand after a pause to shake the stranger's hand. Rather than taking Mitchie's hand, the stranger reached up and pulled his mask down to reveal that he was in fact, a female.

"I'm Luna," she said, simply, face blank.

"Well if you're not going to make expressions at me you may as well have just left the mask on," Mitchie said, tone disappointed. "I mean, seriously, what were you wearing that thing for, anyway? It's the middle of the day, that black is going to stick out like a sore thumb. We should be friends, do you want to be friends?"

"You should stop talking," Luna deadpanned. There was a long pause in which they simply stared at one another until finally Mitchie cracked up laughing. She moved forward and inhaled sharply.

"Good, good. I like you, you're funny and you smell responsible!" she said, smiling a smile that made her eyes disappear for a moment. She reached out and hugged Luna, who tensed up for a moment.

"Don't. Hug. Me."

"Funny, funny stuff," Mitchie said. "Hey, do you have a pogo stick?"

Kia Rogers

When Kia arrived, it was an hour ahead of the bus while Chris and Chef Hatchet were supervising the setups of the cameras. She did not arrive by bus, but personal limousine, and when she stepped out she walked with a strut that could only have been described as haughty.

"You," she said to one of the camera crew, "get someone to come and pick up my luggage."

She pulled a hundred dollar bill from her handbag and slipped it into his breast pocket.

"Whoa, whoa," Chris said, stepping between Kia and the building. "The rules clearly state that you're limited to what will fit within the confines of the gym bag we sent with the application packet--"

"And you expect me to carry it myself? Count yourself fortunate that I touched that canvas death trap to begin with. Don't insult me, you're man is being well tipped for the effort."

"What's she got in this thing?" the man asked, tugging it out of the limo.

"Do be careful with that, it has some very delicate equipment inside."

"Right, right," the man said. Chris and Chef Hatchet exchanged a look, but Kia blew them off as she walked into the building.

A/N: Okay, see what I mean by everyone gets their introduction? I'm getting what I've had submitted out of the way so far.

Watergale - Thanks for your submission, it'll be good to have a character with a cruel streak and a tomboy would be a great counterbalance to some of the other characters. I hope you don't mind, but I thought a skateboard would fit a tomboyish character perfectly. If you take issue with it I can go back and change it.

Jynxite - I really appreciate your sense of humor. Luna's bits are going to end up with a slightly different tone from most of the others because of it, in the same vein that Izzy had a different tone than the rest of the campers. I honestly think I'm going to have fun with her. I'm guessing she's a little loopy anyway, because at one moment she said she'd save her younger sister then the next said her sister was dead.

Princess Tikal Calafiore - Rebecca seems to be a fairly sound and well-rounded character, hence her being the opening for this chapter. She seems like a good 'common ground' to go back to when things get too odd, a frame of reference for the reader. Kudos.

Kelsica2 - I got your bio for Mitchie when I was roughly halfway through writing this chapter and I have a ton of good ideas for her. Just so you know, I put Luna in her introduction because I just got this feeling the two characters would have an interesting…meeting scene and I really wanted to write it. Also, I figured it would be much easier to bring out Mitchie's strangeness in contrast with Luna's somber…ness.

Just Another Fanatic - I got your bio just after Kelsica's, and I'm also quite optimistic about Kia. She seems sort of…bitchy, and I like that. We need some antagonizing and I could totally imagine her trying to bribe Chris.

I'm fairly optimistic about this, due to the entries so far being diverse and write-able. I'll update again when I've got a few more characters to introduce, and as was done here, they'll all have their time.

I'm already fairly sure that Luna and Mitchie will be room mates, as I love the way they interact, but I'm going to see what else I get in before assigning anything for sure.

Accepting five more girls and eleven boys.