True to her words, Dawn refused to talk with me for the next couple of days. Nor did she do anything to address Ella as the Fairy Tale Princess continued to wallow in self-pity and sadness, and even her animal friends could not cheer her up. Said animal did not look happy at me, presumably as a mixture of not keeping my promise to get Ella back to normal and killing the bear.
Since I wanted to trust Dawn, I let her sort out these matters herself. I had a specific mission to fulfil.
Today's trouble was one of Heather's nastiest tricks against Gwen, and I needed to stop her from reading Gwen's diary aloud on the stage. Chef didn't even give Heather a score, which, given how far ahead we were, seemed like it wouldn't matter. Of course, this backfired as Harold's beatboxing tipped the scales in the Bass's favour. And speaking with a bit of self-preservation in mind, it was here that Justin, whose spot I had taken, was voted off by Heather's manoeuvring.
The best outcome would be for the Screaming Gopher to win; the second best would be to vote out Heather. I screwed up the voting the first time because I told Beth I was voting for Trent to get him out of the way. She must have relied the info to Heather, meaning Heather could focus on getting only two more votes against Justin instead of three.
But that begged the question of why not eliminate Trent. I noticed this time that Heather saw the bond between Goth and Guitarist forming, so removing an ally for Gwen would have been more logical. My only guess is that Heather didn't want to increase the target on her back by taking more revenge on Gwen on the same day. Trent got the highest score for the Screaming Gophers that day, so voting for him would be for no other reason than adding insult to injury.
Heather could justifiably vote for Justin as he could have done a more impressive route and got a higher score, so Heather and Justin were to blame for the loss. Though it was a nine-tenths share in Heather's case.
This time, it would not be so simple. Heather could still bribe Owen, but who would replace Izzy in the numbers? At a stretch, Ella might persuade Dave. Still, Heather would not be able to find someone else, as I doubt Dawn would be convinced to vote Heather's way; she may have been tricked by Scott in the old timeline, but Dawn had two extra years of aura training and experience now.
Old scrawny me hadn't noticed Heather's scheming as I was too busy trying to attract Gwen's attention and form a connection with her. This included my infamous hair-sniffing moment, something I truly regret doing.
Anyway, most of us were seen seated in stands in front of a stage that Chris was standing on. "Are we going to see a musical?" Lindsay asked with her usual ditzy smile on her face. "I love musicals. Especially the ones with singing and dancing."
"Ah," Dave commented. "Well, that narrowing it down." Over the past few days, it became apparent that Dave could be just as snarky as Noah. Still, he shrugged. "At least from the looks of things, we won't have the squeak of plimsolls and the flash of nipples," then narrowed his eyes and scratched his head. "Or is it the flash of plimsolls and the squeak of nipples?" he grinned hopefully up at Ella, but the Fairy Tale Princess failed to respond. The Germaphobe sighed.
"Gwen!" Trent called to the Goth as she approached and patted the space next to him. "Saved you a seat." Gwen smiled a little and thanked Trent as she sat next to him. Like before, I noticed Heather's glance at the pair.
I wasn't going to make the same mistake as last time; for one thing, I was now too big to slip between the gaps. As I walked up to the stand, I looked at Dawn, sitting in the lotus position on the bench below, Ella, Lindsay, and Heather. The aura whisperer saw me and then turned her head away. I sighed and sat on the top with Owen.
Heather didn't notice this because she was distracted by Lindsay and Tyler's cute interaction, where she blew him a kiss, and he caught it. The Bombshell got whipped in the face by Heather's hairtail.
Chris walked onto the stage. "Welcome campers to our brand new deluxe state-of-the-art outdoor amphitheatre! Okay, this week's challenge is a summer camp favourite; a talent contest!"
"Yes!" Owen stood up from his seat and raised both fists in the air. "Awesome!" he pointed at Chris.
"Each team has eight hours to pick their three most talented campers," Chris explained.
Some campers cheered at this, eager to get on stage and show what they could do. Some, like Dawn, Gwen and Eva, looked indifferent. And Ella just seemed to get even sadder.
"These three will represent them in the show tonight. Sing, dance, juggle. Anything goes, as long as it's legal." Chris directed that last part right at Duncan. The juvie reject snapped his fingers. I still wonder what he intended.
"You'll be judged by our resident talent scout, former DJ, VJ, and rap legend, Grand Master Chef,"
Dave raised his eyebrow. "So, Chef is a cook, a solider, a former DJ, VJ, rapper, and the show's current talent scout? Hard to believe he's still single," he then slumped slightly. "This show is weird,"
I nodded. 'You don't know the half of it,' I thought.
Chris continued to explain about Grand Master Chef, "Who will show his approval via the Chef-o-Meter," he pointed up at nothing; I knew from the broadcast a wooden spoon with Chef's face would appear above Chris. For us taking part, the image appeared on a TV screen near the top of the stage. Ten bars on the spoon blinked green a few times to show how the meter looked.
This was another change from last time. As I recall, the past Chef-o-Meter only went up to nine. Which, come to think of it, means the final score from the old timeline didn't make sense. Justin got six, and Trent eight, and since Heather did not receive any points because she did not perform, the Screaming Gophers had fourteen. The Killer Bass only had four points before Harold's perfect scoring beatboxing.
Because a top score back then meant nine, the Bass only had thirteen, one point shorter than us Gophers. Yet Chris declared the Killer Bass were victorious.
I guess Chris was arbitrary back then too.
"The team that loses will send one camper home tonight. Good luck." And with that, Chris left as our teams split up to figure out who would be performing tonight.
We Gophers, except for Trent, gathered in front of our cabin, with Heather standing in front and blowing a whistle. "Okay. I'm the team captain, so here's how it will work." Heather announced to everyone while holding a clipboard.
"Wait," Gwen spoke up while holding her diary. "Who said you were team captain?"
"She did," Lindsay said as she pointed to Heather. "Just now."
"Lindsay, Ella, and I took a vote, and I won," Heather informed everyone, with the two mentioned girls nodding their heads. Again, Ella's nods were so shallow as to be nearly unnoticeable.
Gwen simply rolled her eyes before crossing her arms. "Threatening them to vote for you isn't exactly democratic." Heather glared at Gwen as Trent approached the Goth while carrying his encased guitar.
"Hey," Trent whispered to Gwen as he revealed a muffin to her behind his back. "Snagged you an extra muffin."
Heather glared at Gwen before she finally noticed Trent and softened her look. "Trent. You're cool with me leading this project, aren't you?" Heather asked the guitarist with a fake innocent tone.
"Right on." Trent shrugged. "Go for it." Trent sounded less like approving of Heather and more like he didn't care who was in charge if he got to show his musical skills.
I felt similar. It didn't matter to me who handled the final lineup so long as I could prevent Heather from spitefully embarrassing Gwen.
"Ella, Lindsay and I shall be the judges," Heather announced. Lindsay looked eager; Ella still behaved downheartedly. And Gwen just became fed up. "Whatever."
Dave, on the other hand, did care. "And what's stopping you three from picking yourselves over anyone else? Lindsay thought this whole show be a talent contest if you can call bikini modelling a talent," he glanced at Ella. "And Ella does not seem to be in the right headspace to be a judge right now,"
Heather brushed him off. "It's just high school shellshock. I've seen it several times when a friendship gets betrayed. The affected people were still about the function in the classroom. Why not here?"
Before anyone could respond, an offkey singing voice came from the main lodge, where the Killer Bass were holding their auditions. Then the singer hit a high note, followed by glass shattering. This was quickly followed by a shout from one of the cameramen, "Damn it! You just shattered the lens!"
Ella sat up and looked in the direction of the main lodge. "Whoever that was maybe not suitable for pop music or rap, but they may have a successful opera career,"
Dave blinked and glanced at her. "That's the first complete sentence you've said for days, Ella," she then looked down. "I had nothing worth saying," and she shrunk into a sombre ball.
Heather smirked. "See, Ella, can act as a judge."
Dawn stood up with her eyes shut. "I would prefer to abstain from this challenge. My abilities are not translatable to stage performances," she started walking. "I shall be on the beach should anyone need me,"
Owen stepped up first. And like last time, it was such a long wait for him to chug the large bottle of soda. Trent and Gwen had their conversation. And Dave and I had one too.
"Are you going to audition?" the Germaphobe asked. I hesitated. "I don't know. I want to perform something on my keyboard, and show I can do more. But I get the feeling if I did an audition, everyone would want me to pose and look all sexy. I can do more than that,"
Dave nodded. "Sounds like you've got similar problems as Rudolph Valentino. He displayed humour and elegance when he did Monsieur Beaucaire. However, his fans wanted the same virile, menacing passion as in The Sheik. Didn't help the foppish Louis XV nobleman character made Valentino look effeminate,"
Owen threw the bottle anyway and belted the alphabet in a single burp. Trent and I cheered, though this time, Dave looked frightened.
The Big Party Guy smiled proudly. "Yes!" he cheered as Trent came up and high-fived him.
"That was excellent, man." Trent complimented.
"Well, you're not going to do that in the contest," Heather scoffed. "That's disgusting."
"You know how hard it is to burp the alphabet in one go?" Trent defended as he wrapped an arm around Owen's shoulder.
From where I stood, I nodded, knowing what would happen next, yet I still agreed with Trent. "It may be crude. But it's still impressive,"
"I can also toot Beethoven's 5th!" Owen said as he bent down and stuck his butt out. Dave and the female judges winced and reeled back, and I shook my head. "Okay, that's going too far. Still, I think you should at least put Owen on the backup list,"
Heather merely glared at me. Then she noticed something. "Where did the weird goth girl go?"
I shrugged. "Gwen probably decided, like Dawn, to not audition. She's more into visual art than performance. Useless Gwen can speed paint; I don't think she has anything that would work for us today. Plus, since she's not going to be allowed any input, she might as well do something she feels is more productive,"
Heather rolled her eyes. "I guess. I'll audition next,"
Dave then scowled. "And abstain for voting for yourself,"
"Whatever, let me just get ready," Heather walked into the girls' side.
Dave glanced at Ella. "You should audition, Ella. You have a beautiful singing voice," the Fairy Tale Princess just slumped further. "But with my heart so sorrowful I," she buried her face in her hands again. Lindsay stroked her back.
Heather came out of the cabin dressed in a toto and performed her ballet. Her footwork was light, and her movements were smooth and perfect. Heather then finished off by jumping high and landing while doing the splits. Despite knowing she would not perform this on the show if I didn't do anything, I still clapped with the others. After all, you should encourage people's positive attributes.
Heather turned her eyes to Lindsay and Ella and cleared her throat harshly. The two girls caught on quickly, with Lindsay saying. "Oh, I vote for Heather to be in the contest!"
"I second that!" Ella followed. "Right now, Heather is far more elegant and graceful than I feel,"
"Guys, that's so sweet!" Heather said with faked surprise. "Okay, so I guess I'm in. Why doesn't everyone take five?" We all walked away to take a break. While I walked away, I kept my eyes on Heather and Lindsay as the Queen Bee pulled the Bombshell aside and began formulating her scheme against Gwen. Heather handed Lindsay a walkie-talkie and sent her to find Gwen. I knew I had some time to think up a counterplan as the Bombshell would get distracted by Tyler.
Lindsay returned after the five-minute break a little flustered, but she whispered something to Heather. The Queen Bee nodded, then clapped her hands. "Okay, guys, breaktime's over. Who's next?"
Without Izzy to do the Dance of the Rattlesnake or Beth's flaming baton twirl, we became thin on the ground for people to audition. And I'm sure that dance Izzy performed hypnotised Owen into liking her. Leshawna's infamous dance was rejected by Heather, and Ella declined to audition.
So, I went next. I took my luggage out and unloaded some instruments; I used my reinforced keyboard for the audition. Trent, however, looked interested in the other one. "Is that a theremin?"
I nodded. "I wanted to keep my musical skill up while building this," I pointed to the keyboard. "And the theremin is an instrument you can play without touching, so the perfect thing for a guy who has trouble judging his own physical strength."
Heather looked unimpressed. "You've got the most attractive body of any guy. If you want in, you should show that off. It's the best part,"
Dave glanced up at me. "Told you, Valentino,"
I shook my head. "Part of why I came here was to showcase what I can do beyond my good looks,"
"Then," Heather said decisively. "Consider yourself barred from performing on stage with that," she pointed to my keyboard, then glanced at her minions and coldly asked, "Right, girls?" Both Lindsay and Ella nodded but with frowns.
Trent went next, and the girls decided to go with him.
"We still need one more person," Heather said.
I glanced at Dave. "You have some fancy footwork, Dave,"
Dave's eyes widened. "Me? I, my dancing isn't anything special,"
Ella then took his hands. "David, just don't be nervous, for me,"
Dave gulped. "All right, I guess," he glanced at Trent and me. "Guys, can I get some Swing Jazz?"
Trent shook his head. "Sorry, Dave, that's not really my style,"
I chuckled. "You want to swing? Coming right up!" and I started playing hard. I went for a Boogie-Woogie Swing mix, starting a repetitive walking bass line with my left hand. With my right, I improvised some counter rhythms, ostinatos, riffs, and full melodies, which I kept swapping.
After the first few bars, Dave tapped his foot and twisted his head to sync up with the music. He tapped the brim of his bowler hat, then went to town with the moves.
And his dance continued for a full two minutes.
When I finished, Dave stood straight and still. Trent and Owen were first to cheer, then Leshawna, "Woo! You got the moves, my brother!" she then looked at me. "And I never thought a white boy could boogie like the best,"
Ella smiled for the first time in days and enthusiastically applauded. Next to her, Heather just stood, eye wide and jaw dropped. Lindsay whispered, "I think you might have spoken too soon about banning Cody from playing his keyboard for the contest," Heather thrust an elbow into Lindsay's side. The Queen Bee took up her clipboard and scribbled down something. "Okay, so long as we can find an alternative music source than Cody's keyboard for him to dance to, I say it me, Trent, and Dave. Any objections?"
No one raised them.
The Fairy Tale Princess hugged Dave. "See? You are wonderful, David," Dave smiled. "So, does this mean you're over what Sugar said?" Ella's face dropped at this. "No, and I'm still not ready to sing again. I still need to come to terms with it,"
Dave frowned. "So, you're still going to wear black? Not that it's a bad look on you, Ella, but you look better in pink."
"Thank you for saying that, David. But I'm wearing it because I morn the friendship Sugar and I could have had,"
Heather rolled her eyes. "Oh, please, she was never going to be your friend. And there's nothing to get about what Pink Pig Peckerwood said to you. She just said that to insult you, so get over it,"
Ella looked down. "I realise Sugar's words are empty. I don't understand how she could think of me like that. That is what keeps me from moving on,"
Dave nodded. "Okay, I can get that. But you've got some friends you need to explain this to. How about we go find them?" Ella nodded, and the pair walked off.
Heather grumbled. "Great, first pair up of the season, and it had to be Ella,"
Lindsay giggled. "I think they look cute together," the Queen Bee stood up and got in the Bombshell's face. "You're not supposed to think, Lindsay; you're supposed to maintain our alliance, got it?" Lindsay winced, bit her lips, and nodded.
Gwen returned with her diary a little later and got changed to swim in the lake, leaving her journal in the cabin.
As Gwen walked off, Trent quickly set his guitar down and approached her. "Gwen, wait up!" The guitarist called to the Goth as he began to walk next to her. "I'll come with you."
"Sure," Gwen quickly responded with an enthusiastic tone. The Goth promptly realised her mistake and quickly put her brooding look back on. "I mean, whatever."
Lindsay went to follow the two until Heather stopped her. "You. Stay here," she ordered the blonde. "We've got a diary to find."
I watched Heather enter the girls' side of the cabin. Even if Lindsay somehow ignored me, it would look wrong for me to go into the girls' room without permission.
At this point in the day, during the first go, I was more concerned with showing off to Gwen without looking too desperate. So, I roped Owen into a lake dip, hence why he admonished me when Trent called us out. This time I would give Gwen and Trent a chance to hang out.
So, I needed someone, not on Heather's side, who could enter the girls' side. I saw Leshawna enter the communal bathroom, and since I didn't know how long I had, I couldn't wait for her. That meant only one option. I scanned the beach area in sight of the cabins and saw Dawn meditating on a rock. With trepidation, I ran over.
The aura whisperer sat with her back to me as I slowly approached. "Dawn?" I asked. She didn't shift.
"I want to apologise for what I did, but I'll wait until you're ready to forgive me, if ever. However, I need your help to stop Heather from doing something horrible to Gwen," Dawn's head turned slightly, allowing the corner of her eye to meet mine, and she nodded for me to continue.
"In the old timeline, Heather steals Gwen's diary and reads it during the performance," I then glanced to the pier where the Goth and Guitarist sat talking. "And in my stupidity, I ignored it entirely," I sighed and shook my head. "I was very different back then and regret it a lot. But self-reflection and explanations will have to wait. Currently, Heather's looking through the girls' side of the cabin. I hope you'll be willing to stop her,"
I turned back to look at Dawn and stopped upon seeing the rock vacant. Blinking, I turned towards the cabin and glimpsed Dawn, or some of her hair, inside the girls' part of the cabin. Quickly, Heather ran out. A small smile graced my face. "Thank you, Dawn,"
Then another thought crossed my mind. An unpleasantry to be avoided. I ran towards the stage and arrived just in time to see Courtney tuning her violin and Bridgette doing a handstand, struggling with the rope around her leg. The support hoop knot came undone, the coiling over the beam unwound, and the stage light budged.
Quickly I dove forward and grabbed the rope. Courtney gasped and jumped backwards.
With the CIT and her instrument out of the way, I slowly lowered the light and observed the scene. "That would have been a nasty accident," I looked at the pile of money on the crate. "I think next time you have a bet like this, don't do it on a set that's as ramshackle as all the other buildings on camp,"
Courtney glared at the others. Most, like Bridgette, DJ, Harold, Geoff, and Tyler, looked down sheepishly while Duncan stood with his arms crossed, ambivalent.
"By the way," I added to create an excuse as to why I was passing. "You haven't seen Dave and Ella around, by any chance?" they all shook their heads. "All right, I'd better continue looking for them. I'll see you back here tonight then," and I walked away. The big question now was what the ending scores would be.
As I walked, I began thinking about what Dave said about Rudolph Valentino. How could I show off my other talents if people only wanted me to be hot, posing and flexing? An idea surfaced, and I changed direction back to the cabin; I needed to test it.
A few hours later, we were all seated for the start of the contest.
"It's the TDI Talent Extravaganza!" Chris's voice boomed throughout the area as the man himself walked onto the stage. The moon shined in the sky as everyone not competing sat on the bleachers. Like before, I sat on the top bench beside Owen, and Dawn sat in Izzy's old spot next to Gwen.
"Welcome to the very first Camp Wawanakwa Talent Contest. Where six campers will showcase their mad skills and desperately try not to humiliate themselves. First up for the Screaming Gophers is Dave!"
We all cheered and clapped as the speaker started playing an electro-swing instrumental. The music slowly rose, and when the theme section started, his feet took off, with the clicking sound showing he wore tap dancing shoes.
When the music finished, he ended with a bow, panting hard, sweat covering his face, but grinning widely. All of us cheered, and Chef gave Dave seven out of ten. Chris came walking on as Dave used his handkerchief to wipe his face. "Dang! You can jive, dude!"
Unfortunately, DJ made the same blunder with his ribbon twirling. Chef still gave him a two, even with the adjusted meter. And Chef, this time, seemed less interested in Trent's style as he scored only five this time.
Courtney played her violin piece, the Waltz of the Flowers from the Nutcracker Suite, which gave the Bass an add seven, making it twelve-nine to the Gophers.
Finally came Heather, who repeated her routine from the audition with an added spin, though her glare at Dawn probably marked the Queen Bee down as Chef gave her five points.
Anne Maria walked on stage instead of Geoff's skateboarding or Harold's beatboxing. The interns had set up a table with a tower of champagne glasses. Suddenly the high note from earlier in the day came to mind. And Anne Maria's belting voice shattered the entire stack. Impressed, Chef gave her eight, probably due to the destructive potential Anne Maria's voice could have. Like Ella said, the Jerseyite could do well in opera with some training.
Chris walked on stage. "Okay, so this is a turn-up for the books. It's seventeen points on both sides. So, this calls for a tiebreaker!"
Everyone looked at each other. Knowing of past tiebreaker challenges, I dreaded what Chris would come up with.
"It's simple, each team submits a new fourth performer, and Chef will pick the one he prefers."
I gave a sigh of relief. After the escalation in the other seasons, I forgot the simplicity of challenges in Total Drama Island.
Heather stood on the top bench to tower over me. "You're doing the tiebreaker, Cody. Get your keyboard and win Chef over,"
I raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me? You and the other two judges forbade me from playing my keyboard on stage."
Heather's eyes widened. "Well," she stammered. "The ban's been lifted,"
Lindsay raised her hand. "Um, you can't just go back on what you said," Ella nodded. "If you so easily change your mind, how can we trust you to uphold your promise?"
I rolled my eyes. 'If only they knew now what'll happen later,' I crossed my arms. "Since you told me I couldn't use it, I didn't put it on charge. The battery's likely flat."
Dread filled Heather's face.
"Okay, campers," Chris called. "The Killer Bass have decided on their tiebreaker performer first. So, on stage is Harold,"
The lanky Dweeb did his showstopping beatboxing. Chris chuckled. "Gophers, you're running out of time,"
Desperate, Heather looked at me. "Cody, please! I'm begging you, do something. There's no way Owen can beat that," the Big Party Guy nodded.
I smirked. "All right, I have an idea," I called Chris. "I'll be doing it for the Gophers, Chris. I just need to get a couple things."
"Don't take too long," Chris called as I ran. "Or else Grand Master Chef's going to get angry,"
I grabbed my theremin, a spare bedsheet to act as a cloak, and I found pair of black swim briefs that fit me with the hammer space, though they looked like a male thong on me.
On stage, I plugged the theremin in. "First, I'd like to thank Dave for advising me. Unlike Rudolph Valentino's Mousier Beaucaire, I'm going to give my audience what they want while also showing off more of my talent," I pulled the sheet off. I started posing in comfortable and sexy positions while playing a melody by flexing my muscles. Biceps, hamstrings, even my pectorals and ads.
Everyone cheered, clapped, and whistled. I noticed Dawn smiled and blushed before looking away when our eyes met. Harold rejoined me on stage. Chef lifted his finger and pointed at one of us.
"And it's Cody for the win!" Chris announced. "As for the Killer Bass, pick your favourite loser, and I'll see you back to the bonfire."
Harold sighed, but I patted him gently on the back. "Don't be down, Harold. I bet it was a close decision," Chef nodded.
Heather crossed her arms after the excitement died down, and I was changed back to my regular hyper-puberty attire. "And just how long have you had that routine?" the other Screaming Gopher came over to listen.
"For about three hours or so," I admitted. Heather threw her arms out. "Then why did you scare me half to death with that stuff about your keyboard?"
I smirked. "It's called malicious compliance," then I crossed my arms. "If you carry on behaving like that, it's likely going to be a common occurrence for you,"
Leshawna burst out laughing, and beside her, Gwen smirked. Heather meanwhile stood stunned with a face of horror and offence. I merely packed up my stuff and went back to the cabin.
I once again climbed the tree with a vantage point on the firepit. Anne Maria, Courtney, and Harold were the first lot safe, as were Bridgette, Duncan, Eva, and Geoff. Which meant DJ and Tyler were for the chop. I was surprised someone voted for Tyler, but I guess someone didn't like his yoyo blunder. For DJ, it was understandable as messing up his performance cost the Killer Bass the win since his low score led to the tiebreaker.
In the end, it was no surprise DJ got eliminated. I felt sorry for the Brickhouse Teddy Bear since he couldn't catch a break now. The last time he made it to the merge on Total Drama Island, he honourable quit Total Drama Action because of his deal with Chef, and then got his curse during the World Tour and was voted off in Jamacia despite Izzy already getting airlifted out of the competition.
I returned to the cabin and saw Dawn and Gwen talking. The aura whisperer paused as I passed and entered the guys' side. Still, I could hear the discussion about Heather trying to steal Gwen's diary. Gwen wanted to do the red ant revenge, but Dawn immediately shot her down.
"So," Gwen added, "What about you and Cody?"
I ignored the conversation and went to bed.
