AN: Even though it says Christmas, this chapter really takes place a few days after Christmas Break begins. I just didn't want to name it Christmas Break. This is also the end of the first part of No Fear. I broke No Fear into Part 1 (2012), and Part II (2013). It will say end of Part I at the end of this, but I will add Part II to the story. Chapter 19 will say this. Otherwise, I own no rights to Total Drama or the characters used. I do hope that all of you enjoy this, this is by far the longest Chapter I have written in No Fear (A good almost 4000 words).
Chapter 18: Christmas
December 14th, 2012
School
This was going to be the last day before our Christmas break. I was sitting at our lunch table discussing with my friends if they had any plans for their Christmas breaks.
"So, Zoey, do you have any plans for this Christmas break?" I asked her.
"Oh I do! Mike and I are going to be flying into Calgary to be visiting some of my relatives there. And then we're going to go ice skating, and maybe go see a hockey game! Anything else that happens will just add to the fun that we're going to have!" said Zoey.
"I'm excited for it!" said Mike. "I've never been to Calgary before, but you tell me about it, and it sounds like an awesome place!"
"And what about the rest of you?" I asked them.
"Well I think that I'm going to be taking a trip somewhere into the United States, maybe go and do some research on some of the wildlife there and such. Nothing really too special." said Cameron.
"Well I think that's lovely to hear. I'd love to be with the wildlife in somewhere other than here. Not saying that I don't enjoy some things here." I said to him. After I finished saying that, B pulled out a map and placed it on the table.
"You're going to visit Alaska?" asked Mike. B nodded his head and then pointed to Sam and Dakota at another table.
"And you're going with Sam and Dakota?" asked Zoey. B nodded his head in approval again.
"Well that will certainly be an interesting trip! I'd love to go there one day and learn all I can about it." said Cameron.
"What about you Ella?" asked Gwen.
"My mother told me that she wants to go to as many different places that she can with me, to make up for all the times that she traveled and didn't take me. We're planning a massive trip to Europe, exploring everywhere from Norway to Italy!" Ella said in excitement.
"I'm glad to hear that your mother cleared things up with you. It was hard to see someone like yourself suffering through that." I said to her.
"And what about you Gwen?" asked Zoey.
"I'm leaving with my mother and my brother and we're going to France for a while. It would give me some time to work on some drawings that I'm doing." said Gwen.
"What about you, Dawn?" asked Cameron.
"Oh me? Well, I don't really have many plans at all. We're not exactly doing well financially to be spending money on taking trips." I said. Everyone grew quiet after hearing that.
"I'm sorry to hear that, but hey, don't get down, we'll be sure to keep you posted about what's going on with us while we're away." said Zoey.
"Thanks." I said. I started to walk away from the table after I said this.
"Guys, I feel bad." said Zoey.
"Yeah, I kind of feel bad as well. We should do something before we leave for her!" said Mike.
"Hey, that's a great idea! We could have a party for her, to show her how much we appreciate her!" said Cameron.
"Oh I do adore the idea of that!" said Ella.
"Where exactly do you want this party to be held?" asked Gwen.
"Oh, you just leave it to me. Just make sure that she doesn't find out about it. This needs to be a surprise." said Zoey.
2:45 P.M.
Joe had asked me if I wanted to take a ride with him back to my house before he had to go to work, so I agreed.
"Hey, so are you excited that it's Christmas break now?" he asked me while he was driving.
"A little bit, but not nearly as much as everyone else." I said to him.
"How come?"
"Well, unlike all of them, I myself don't have many plans if any for this Christmas break. Zoey and Mike are going to Calgary to visit Zoey's family, Gwen is going on a trip to France with her mother and brother, B is going with Dakota and Sam to Alaska, Cameron is going to the United States to conduct some research, and Ella is going with her mother to explore all of Europe. May I ask, do you have any plans?"
"Besides working? Not really. My mom and I don't really go out and do much during the break. If you are able, I'd love to come over and hang out when I can with you. Maybe go on a date? We haven't exactly been able to have one with me being so busy all the time and you going off and helping people, right?"
"I don't remember ever really going on a date with you, besides that time that I was over at your home for dinner, but that was more of a greeting with your family then a date. I'd love to go on one with you if you would take me on one."
"Of course, I'll have to find a day that I'm not working, and we can go on one of those days." I smiled after he said that, and didn't even realize that after he finished saying that, we were outside of my house. I kissed him goodbye and walked into my house to see that my mother was home.
"Mother, isn't it a little early for you to be home? I thought that you didn't get off work until 6?" I asked her curiously.
"Oh, my work gave me the rest of the day off. I won't have to go to work for the next week. They said that we get the next week and a half off so that we can enjoy spending time with our families." she told me.
"Well I am certainly glad to hear that."
"Dawn, may I ask, are you going to be doing anything in the next few days? Especially tomorrow?"
"I don't believe so, unless you have something you'd wish to do with me on those days. May I ask why you're asking me? That is quite an odd question."
"Oh no reason." After she said this, I proceeded to my room.
"I wonder as to why she would ask me that?" I said to myself as I laid down on my bed.
December 15, 2012
My House
10:00 A.M.
I was asleep until I heard my phone going off right on my counter next to my bed.
"I wonder who would be calling me at this hour of the morning." I asked myself. I looked to see who it was, and saw that it was Zoey.
"Hello?" I asked, still relatively tired.
"Hey, Dawn, are you doing anything today?" asked Zoey.
"No, I don't believe I am. You know, you could always have walked over here if you wished to discuss something with me. I mean, you do live right next door to me."
"I know. But it's nothing too serious at all. I was just wondering, would you be interested in hanging out outside of your house? Maybe in the woods?"
"Why, I would love to. I didn't know that you showed much interest in the forest. May I ask what the occasion is?"
"Oh you'll see. I hope that you'll come though. Meet me at my house around 5?"
"Yes, of course." I hung up after that.
"Everyone is acting rather mysterious. First mother, and now Zoey. I do wonder what they're up to. I think I'll find out if I go with Zoey today."
5:00 P.M.
Zoey's House
"Hey Dawn! Are you ready to go?" asked a rather excited Zoey.
"I am. I do wish to come to the end of this mystery. I do wish to know what people are up to nowadays. First, my mother asks me what I was doing today, and now I have you asking me what I am doing. If I didn't know better, I would assume that you are holding something for me, and you told my mother." I said to her.
"What!? What would give you that idea? You're silly Dawn you know that?"
"I never thought of myself as silly."
"Well you are, Dawn. Follow me." She then grabbed my hand and started to run into the forest behind my house.
After a few minutes, she told me to close my eyes.
"May I ask why?"
"Oh, it's just something."
"Alright."
Shortly after doing that, she stopped.
"Have we stopped?" I asked her.
"Yes. You can open your eyes now." she told me. As soon as she told me I could open my eyes, I did. What I saw was something that I kind of expected, but not in the manner that it was like. I saw all my friends there (including my mother and Joe). There were tables laid out with food, I noticed that there were Christmas lights all hung up on the trees as well with decorations, and in the middle of the area where the tables were, there was a little fire there.
"Wow, this really is something. May I ask how exactly did you get those lights that far up into those trees?" I asked.
"Ask Svetlana." said Mike.
"Yeah, Mike became Svetlana and put all those lights up there. Otherwise we would've been hear a while trying to figure out how we were going to put them up. And just in case we didn't have Svetlana…" said Cameron. He pointed to what looked to be a wooden see-saw right next to a tree.
"B, did you make that?" I asked him. He nodded his head in approval.
"I helped him with some of the layout for it, but otherwise, he just went around and started taking materials he found around and made that."
"And these decorations?"
"Oh that would be me! I had so much fun putting them up. The only difficulty that I had was deciding what color they should be. I thought about pink because it's my favorite color, but then I thought red because I thought that it would match the sunset so nicely, and then…" said Ella. She was then cut off by Gwen.
"So I decided that it should be green because I remembered how much you loved nature and green seems to be your color." said Gwen.
"Thank you Gwen, and of course to you too Ella, and everyone here. I didn't nearly expect this to be as grand. I suspected something was going on. But why are you guys doing this for me?"
"Well, we noticed that you aren't exactly doing anything for Christmas break, and well…we don't want this to sound like we're feeling sorry for you, but we decided that, before we all leave for our trips, we wanted to throw something for you." said Zoey.
"Mother, you knew about this? And Joe?"
"Oh, I was just told earlier today believe it or not." said Joe.
"I knew about it, and I think it was such a lovely thing that your friends are doing this for you." my mother said.
"Well…" I said. I began to shed a tear, something that I'm not very prone to do. Zoey came to me and hugged me.
"Thank you, all of you." I said to her tearfully.
"Of course, Dawn. You've helped us all out so much. You're a special friend to all of us." said Zoey.
"Hey now…don't cry. This is supposed to be a happy time! Come on, let's get something to eat, and just hang out." said Mike as he approached us. I smiled after he said that, and wiped the tears away.
"You're right. I'm curious to see what you guys brought to eat. Hopefully it's something I can eat." I said laughably. Mike and Zoey started to laugh and then shortly after that, everyone else started to laugh. I started to make my way to one of the tables, to which Joe sat right next to me along with my mother on the other side of me.
We spent around 4 to 5 hours just having as much fun as we possibly could. After we were done eating, we sat around the fire and started telling each other stories. My mother had told us that we could stay out here as long as we needed to, and then proceeded to head back to the house.
Mike told us a story about how he had discovered his multiple personalities, Zoey told us how she had fallen for someone she had never met but heard her friends talking about him, only to find out he was one of the teachers at one of her old schools. Cameron told us the story about the reason he had to be put into a bubble (which was rather funny, hearing how it was because of a monarch butterfly).
"Whatever you've heard about them, it's completely wrong. They are bloodthirsty creatures!" said Cameron. We laughed after hearing him say that, and he did as well until he saw one that was close to him and jumped off the ground and hid behind B.
We continued the stories with B, who spoke only to tell the story about how his first invention went incredibly wrong and nearly ended up destroying his house because of the explosion from it. Ella told us the story about the first play she had ever been in, and the dress she had worn for it was too long and that she tripped over it and accidentally kissed one of the leads in it. It got to Gwen and she began to tell us about someone that she had loved a while ago.
"Well, this was about 2 years ago. There was a guy that I knew named Trent, but I had never really talked to him. I had met him in one of my freshman classes, I don't remember which, but it was in one of them. Anyways, he was always interested in wanting to get to know me. He would keep talking to me, trying to get me to say something other than leave me alone. After about 2 months, I lost it and told him that if I talked with him he would leave me alone. He said yes, so we went to the café next to the school and got to know each other. He said that he was from British Colombia and that he was trying to become a recording artist. He lives with his dad who wanted him to be an accountant just like him, and he just went on and on about it. I thought at first that I was going to be annoyed with him, but listening to him was really nice. That day, he told me that he would leave me alone if I wanted, but I told him that I wanted to hang out again sometime. Soon, hanging out once a week, turned into twice a week, then to twice a day, and then after that, it seemed like almost every hour we were together." said Gwen.
"Did you ever date him?" asked Zoey.
"Yeah, after a while, we were hanging outside my house, and he dropped the question if I would date him or not. At first, I thought that he was joking, but then I realized shortly after that, that he was being serious. So I gave him a serious look and I told him yes. For those few months that we were together, those were some of the happiest months that I've ever had."
"Wait you said months? What exactly happened?" asked Mike.
"Well…"
"Gwen, you know that you can tell us. We're your friends. We wouldn't judge you for your own relationship things." said Ella.
"Well, alright. After a few months, I started talking with this guy named Duncan. Well I hadn't really talked to him until the end of my freshman year. Well, I was kind of interested in dating him…" said Gwen before she was cut off.
"You were planning on cheating with Trent!?" asked Zoey.
"No! Well…not really. Anyways, well I started hanging with Duncan more than with Trent, and well, he kind of started to lose it. Beginning of sophomore year, he was a changed person. He went from the coolest guy I had ever met, to one of the most obsessive ones. He would never leave me alone with another guy, in fact, he would follow me home to make sure that I wouldn't. Well eventually, I just had enough and I broke up with him, to which he was pretty heartbroken, for good reason. About a month after that, I started to date Duncan, and that lasted until a few months ago believe it or not,"
"What happened with Duncan?" I asked her.
"Well, Duncan isn't exactly what you would consider a romantic. And also, he was interested in a girl that he had already been in a relationship with named Courtney." Mike nearly spit out his drink after she said that.
"Wait a minute, you mean Courtney Schroeder?" he asked surprised.
"Yeah, that's the one." said Gwen.
"Who is this Courtney?" I asked them.
"Only the head of like every club and organization at this school. She is student body president for the whole school, and she's not even a senior. She's a junior like all of us, the first junior to ever be a student body president. She's head of the student council, key club, everything except gaming club. She says she refuses to be associated with "those people". She's really snobby and uptight, but she dated that guy?" asked Mike.
"Yeah, she did. You mustn't have been here when they were dating. That was also when we were friends. We're not anymore."
"How come, Gwen?" asked Joe.
"Well…Duncan kind of cheated on Courtney…for me." We gasped after hearing that.
"Yes I know! I'm ashamed that I let a guy like that ruin the friendship of someone I considered a very close friend of mine. Now she wants nothing to do with me." I walked over to Gwen and I wrapped my arm around her shoulder.
"I'm dearly sorry to hear that, Gwen. If you require any assistance for this, I'm here." I said to her.
"Thanks Dawn, but I don't think there's much anyone can do for it. But anyway, that lead me off topic of what this story is about. Trent. But I don't have much to say except after we broke up, we never really spoke after that."
"Do you ever miss him?" asked Cameron.
"I do sometimes. I mean, even if he wasn't the greatest boyfriend ever, he was a good friend. Someone I could go to and talk to." After she finished saying that, we were quite for a little bit until…
"Hey! It's snowing!" said Zoey. We all turned our heads to look up at what was going on to see that she was right. It was snowing.
"I have some music we can play! We can dance!" said Ella.
"Dancing in the snow, Ella? Isn't that a little fairytaleish?" asked Joe.
"Of come now, Joe! I think that's a lovely idea!" said Zoey. Ella pulled out her iPod and turned it to full volume.
"What kind of music do you have?" asked Cameron.
"Well, besides all the Disney soundtracks that I have…I do have some music from actual bands if that's what you're asking. May I ask, how do you guys like Journey?"
"Oh, who doesn't love Journey?" asked Mike. Ella smiled and then looked through her songs to play one. She started to play "Lights" and shortly after that, they all started to sign rather bad karaoke.
"Hey Dawn, would you like to take a walk with me?" asked Joe.
"Sure." I told him. We snuck out of the forest while the others were singing bad karaoke, or in Gwen's case, laughing while they were doing it.
Outside my House
"So is there something that you would like to talk about Joe?" I asked him.
"No, I just wanted to have some alone time, not saying that hanging out with our friends is bad or anything, but…" he said.
"I understand what you mean. I do enjoy what alone time that we get together. We don't seem to have enough." I said as we continued to walk. Soon before I realized it, we were outside my driveway.
"Dawn…I love you. More than anyone I could ever care for. I know I don't say it enough as I probably should, but I rarely ever see you, and you're always so busy helping others. But…before I met you, I was a much different person. I wanted nothing to do with people because I believed that everyone was either going to try and hurt me, or if they're anything like Lightning, just try and get on my nerves on a constant basis. You've shown me that not everyone is like that. I mean not only you, but Zoey and Mike and Ella and everyone else in our group. But I have you to thank for that."
"Joe, I love you too. I'm so happy that I was able to do that for you. You seemed like you needed someone to love, and that you'd scream it to the world if you needed to. I enjoy all the time I get to spend with you, and I'm so very happy that I was able to change you for the better." As I finished saying that, the snow started to fall heavier, but it was romantic. I never really noticed the streetlights we had outside my house until now, as the day was coming to a close, the lights began to light up. One in particular was right under us. Joe held me around my waist, while I placed my arms around his neck.
"Dawn…" he said to me.
"Shh…no words." I said to him quietly. After I said that, we embraced in a kiss under the light while the snow continued to fall on us.
"This is a wonderful way to almost end the year with." I thought to myself. Nothing could've ruined this day. Nothing in the world.
End of Part 1 – 2012
AN: I do want to thank you all who have stuck around for this story. A special shout out to Applauze, Hugh Takinamee, and Menmamauo32 for consistently reading and commenting on this story. I do enjoy hearing all the feedback about these chapters from you guys. This marks the end of Part I. The beginning of Part II will come by in the near future. That chapter will be dealing with everybody's favorite wannabe Chris. Thanks for reading!
-Defan777