Chapter 7: The Eye of the Storm

"Why?" Trent moaned. Dramatically, he thumped his head down against the table. He let out a muffled "Ow."

Sadie wasn't quite sure why she was privy to Trent's personal pity party. But at this point, she was too late to get out of it. Besides, it didn't look like she was required to offer any sort of insight, as Trent had stopped actually enumerating his problems and had begun moaning out single words while rocking back and forth. She scooted her chair closer to Cody's and laced her fingers into his, preparing to settle in for a while.

"Katie," Trent whimpered into the table. Or at least Sadie thought it was Katie's name that he said. She really doubted that he had suddenly developed a new problem with a girl named "Kad-eh", which is what is sounded like through the muffling of the table.

Bridgette continued patting him comfortingly on the back. "It's all right, Trent," she said soothingly. "You could just do something to show her how much you care! Make a big gesture!"

"Waaaaa?" [Translation: Whaaaaat?]

Bridgette appeared to be at a loss. "I'm sure she'll come to her senses if she makes up with Sadie." She flashed Sadie what might have been a pointed glare from anyone else. From Bridgette, the effect was somewhat muted by the half-smile she wore.

"Sad-eeeehhhhh!" [Translation: Sadieeeee!]

Sadie took that as her cue to get some more breakfast, though she was uninterested in actually consuming any more food. As she walked to the buffet table, DJ entered the dining hall.

"DJ!" Sadie cried, running to give him a hug.

"Hey, Sadie!" he said, almost crushing her with the strength behind his hug. "Sorry I didn't say hi last night. We got in kind of late. How've you been?"

"Deej!" Leshawna said excitedly. She shoved out her chair and stood up from where she'd slumped on the table beside Bridgette, as she had lost patience with comforting the inconsolable Trent long before the surfer girl. "Man, I've missed you in this crazy place."

"Missed you too, Leshawna," DJ said. "The island's never the same when you're gone."

"Yeah, it's a heck of a lot quieter," Courtney snapped, appearing from behind DJ. She crossed her arms across her chest and proceeded to stare at the cream tiled floor with a face that was sourer than a quart of unsweetened lime juice.

"Hi, DJ!" Bridgette said, joining the group.

"Triple elimination?" Cody asked, also joining the circle that was growing around DJ.

"Triple?" DJ asked. "It's just me and Courtney."

"But what about Izzy?" Sadie said.

"Izzy? She should have been kicked off instead of me!" Courtney said indignantly, going a bit red in the face. "She disappeared for most of the challenge!"

"She was-" Sadie began. She thought better of revealing Izzy's location to Courtney, who seemed to currently have her temper sitting next to motion-sensing explosives. If anyone said anything even slightly provocative, Courtney was likely to detonate in their face.

Cody grabbed her hand and squeezed it tightly, trying to send her a message to stop. She squeezed back, telling him that she'd already come to the realization that she shouldn't mention Izzy to Courtney.

"She was what?" Courtney simmered with resentment and irritation, quite frankly terrifying Sadie.

"Guess what?" Bridgette said brightly.

"What?" several people chorused back, all desperate to avoid the Courtney-explosion from taking place.

"Sadie and Cody are dating now!" Bridgette said, verging on rivaling a game show host's enthusiasm.

"She was what?" Courtney repeated savagely.

"Congrats!" DJ said, able to show genuine excitement even in the face of Courtney related danger.

Sadie was not able to muster up the same level of excitement. Terror was squashing all her capacity for other feelings. Cody likely felt the same level of fear if the choke grip he had on her hand was anything to go by.

"For the love of god, SHE WAS WHAT?"

Boom.

Sadie flinched. Retreat presented itself as the only available option. Unfortunately, before she could break into an all-out run, Duncan put in an appearance. He slouched past the group with Katie following close behind him.

Courtney shoved DJ out of the way, which was impressive considering her size relative to DJ's, and began slowly stomping her way after Duncan. Katie glanced back to see where the noise was coming from and froze when she sighted Courtney, petrified.

Now, Sadie disliked the Nature Channel intensely. She was both too squeamish and too empathetic to stand watching large animals devour smaller animals, which was her impression of what went on during shows on the channel. At that moment, Katie resembled an injured rabbit bleeding between two lions too much for Sadie's weakened anti-Katie sentiment to persist. Sadie darted quickly out of the small crowd, grabbed Katie's elbow, and yanked her into safety.

Courtney neared Duncan. It was quiet enough that an ant could have been heard crawling in the next room.

Everybody had learned what to expect when it came to Duncan and Courtney. Thus, what happened next seemed about as plausible as a killer alien unicorn attack.

"Hello Duncan," Courtney said evenly. Sadie wondered what sort of expression she wore while she gave this calm greeting. Her face only a few seconds before had been terrifying and would be entirely incongruous with her tone now.

"Courtney," Duncan said, barely looking up from where he'd sat.

"How's Gwen?" Courtney asked.

"I dunno," Duncan said.

In the silence that followed, people wondered if Courtney was about to leap on Duncan and claw him into confetti. Instead, she turned and walked away. She had fixed on this awful, syrupy smile, while her eyes were like two jagged icicles.

Duncan kicked his feet up onto an empty chair and leaned back, his face lazily slack.

"What's going on?" Cody whispered.

Those in the huddle by the door whispered responses that conveyed their own lack of knowledge.

It had been two days and no great disaster had struck the Playa. In fact, there had been a full 48 hours with no drama whatsoever, which was a first for the contestants from the aptly named Total Drama Island. Everyone tensed whenever Courtney and Duncan were in a room together, but the two had strictly ignored each other. Duncan had been missing for the majority of the two days, only deigning to reemerge from wherever he was hiding out to shovel massive amounts of food into his mouth.

The general consensus was that the peace wouldn't last. Courtney's temper would frequently erupt, causing her to yell shrilly at whoever she was talking to with very little provocation.

That afternoon, Sadie and Cody were sitting in the hot tub with Leshawna, Bridgette, Katie, and Courtney. Cody had proved to be a terrible conversation partner for the past fifteen minutes. He had turned bright red the second Sadie had stripped down to her bathing suit and entered the hot tub. What little conversation she'd managed to elicit from him had ground to a halt when she leaned against him slightly. In the end, she'd given up and concentrated on talking to Leshawna and Bridgette while ignoring Katie. Courtney had withdrawn from the group to the farthest point of the oval-shaped hot tub and was staring moodily into the water. Eventually, she pulled herself out and went to get her towel.

Checking that Courtney was definitely out of earshot, Leshawna ushered for the girls to huddle together. "Okay, I know you all are curious too. Does anyone know what the heck is goin' on with that-" She tilted her head towards Courtney's retreating figure. "And Duncan?"

"They've said, like, two words to each other," Katie whispered.

"But Courtney said something about Gwen," Bridgette pointed out.

"Cody, do you know anything? You were voted off right before Duncan," Sadie said.

Cody didn't seem to fully register what she had said. He nodded slowly, staring fixedly down the top of her swimsuit.

Leshawna snapped her fingers. "Focus, boy."

"What?"

Sadie repeated her question. He heard her this time.

"Oh, Gwen?" His voice cracked on her name. "Courtney was always yelling something about Duncan cheating on her with Gwen. Nobody took her seriously."

"I was totally surprised they didn't hook up ages ago," Katie said.

Cody shifted awkwardly. When Sadie looked into his face, he looked distinctly uncomfortable. "Wait," she said. "Did they, like…." She trailed off and stared at Cody expectantly.

He broke quickly. "Okay, you can't tell I told you, but they did a really long time ago. The first night of the first season."

"Who told you?"

"Cody, you've got to listen to me! I know everything about you. Everything! Even things you don't know about yourself! Gwen doesn't love you as much I do, Cody, she wouldn't have hooked up with Duncan if she did. I went through all the hundreds of hours of outtakes just so I could find every moment of your adorable sleeping face and I saw them! I saw it! Cody? Cody? Are you listening to me? I'm your biggest fan! Remember my name because it's going to have your last name attached to it one day. My name will be Sie-"

Cody shuddered. "My lips are sealed."

A/N: These two chapters have been pretty Duncan-centric. But things are going pretty well for Sadie right now, so she's simply a bystander in the drama that's currently occurring. The next chapter should return to being mostly about Sadie stuff, if all goes according to plan. Anyway. Hurricane Courtney has blown into town! I'm excited to figure out the specifics of what comes next. I have a vague idea, which does involve mass destruction and possibly an alien unicorn invasion.