A/N: Just a little story on the side. I've done a few Total Drama Disney stories (all set in this century) before, and I've been a teeny bit obsessed with a certain musical about teenagers based on a 1988 Winona Ryder movie, and with the new season out, I had to start writing a new parody! So for anyone who has not seen Heathers, you'll be able to follow along with the characters, but you should try and find the musical soundtrack because you are really missing out! Also, just a warning, this does take place in our century, even though the musical is set in 1989. So modern stuff will show up.

Plot: Modern-day. Gwen's just trying to survive high school as she starts her senior year. But when she's unexpectedly invited into a clique of popular girls, she figures, what the hell, it's an easier way to get through school. At least, until she meets the new guy in the cafeteria. Little does she realize that underneath that long coat is a lot of passion…but passion isn't just about love. After all, what's passion without a passion kill? Not telling who it is yet…

Disclaimer: I don't own the story, all rights to Daniel Waters for the movie and whoever wrote the musical. All Total Drama characters owned by Fresh TV. As a note, I am going by the musical here, so if you're thinking movie-verse and some characters seem nicer or meaner than they should be, it's because that's what the musical was doing.

Gwen tucked her sketchbook into her schoolbag as she pulled up into the student parking lot. She took a deep breath. One more year. I can do this. Then art history at college.

It wasn't easy, being true to yourself in high school. But Gwen hated the idea of being like everyone else. Who wanted to scream and jump around for the football team like the cheer squad or go to wild parties that involved doing nothing but substance abuse like all the popular kids did on the weekend? She would rather just continue everyone calling her "emo" and "cutter" when none of it was true. So what if she liked the goth look? It was just another way for her to explore her artistry. But try telling that to a bunch of high-schoolers. Gwen had known most of the other kids all her life, or at least since kindergarten, and had mixed with them, getting to know everyone. There'd always been different circles, even in elementary school, but everyone tolerated each other pretty well. Even as they became teenagers, people became more confined to their own groups, but they still got on with other people. But as soon as middle school was over, clique season seemed to hit and no one mixed. Jocks who'd been nice before became bullies, anyone who stood out at all got picked on, and anyone who let their true feelings show would get eaten alive. Now it was senior year, and nothing had changed.

Gwen finally stepped out of her car and walked into the building, She felt like she could hear the name-calling starting already. It wasn't just her. Everyone got a label. It felt like every person she walked past either had a name to call her or had a name they were being called. The wannabe jock who never made a team. The camp basketball player with dyed hair who watched every hockey game (there was a rumour he was dating one of them). The indie chick with the red hair who apologized every time someone purposely scattered her books or tripped her. The Glee Club lead singer with her cute little pixie cut, cute little voice and cute little miniskirt. Even the hot muscular guy who towered over everyone else got picked on sometimes. Gwen saw all of them as she went to her locker, but none of them noticed her. She was invisible unless someone wanted to target the goth girl. Sometimes she wished she was more invisible, able to just get through the year without anyone seeing her.

As she was contemplating this wish, someone tapped her on the shoulder, and she turned, a little bit startled. As soon as she saw who it was, her face relaxed. "Hey, Emma."

"Hi, Gwen!" The blonde grinned at her. They didn't have much in common, but they'd been thrown together a lot when they were little. Emma's mother had run an in-house daycare, and Gwen had been dropped off there most days, since it was just her and her mom, who had one hundred and one things to do (her little brother had gone there at the same age). So Emma and Gwen had been friends since they were about two, and they'd been close ever since, even as their interests developed and it was clear how different they were.

Emma got teased more than Gwen, though, because she was fairly chubby. The football team was especially bad. Emma's ex-boyfriend from junior year was on the team, a guy called Chase – in fact, he was the star quarterback this year – and he'd treated her pretty badly, even when they were dating, although he'd seemed to think he wasn't doing anything wrong. Now, he was even worse, because he'd apparently given the whole team the go-ahead to give her an even harder time, probably because he hadn't liked being dumped. Not that he ever bullied her himself – half the time it seemed like he just wanted her back – but it was obvious, at least from Gwen's perspective.

"Movie night still on Friday?" Emma asked.

Gwen smiled in spite of herself. "Yeah, at yours. Got the popcorn and a movie?"

Emma nodded. "I found a good romcom on Disney+. They keep adding new ones. It'll probably get us through the whole year."

Gwen rolled her eyes in mock exasperation. "Another one? Come on, Ems, they're all the same. Generic girl meets generic boy and they fight for about half the movie, then they fall in love for no apparent reason."

Emma shrugged. "I like happy endings, especially when the girl gets the guy. I like love stories. Next week we can watch a slasher if you want. They're all the same, too. Teenagers get killed for most of the movie, except for some generic girl, who for some reason always has brown hair, who evades death."

The two girls laughed. Their tastes in movies was radically different. Gwen was a big fan of horror movies, always looking for the next bloodfest. Something about them really kept her attention. Emma loved romcoms. Sometimes they compromised, choosing horror with a strong romantic couple or something with a central romance that could get pretty dark, but those were few and far between, so they mostly just did their best to enjoy each other's tastes. Sometimes the movies worked for both of them, sometimes they didn't.

But then, as they were talking, the mood was broken. Their faces fell as they heard a familiar voice from just down the hall. "Oh, hey, it's Chubster and the Emo Chick!"

It was Ripper, the football team's star linebacker. He was always in tonnes of trouble and never passed his classes, but somehow he managed to stay on the team. The girls suspected they needed him to keep the school's stellar sports record. No one got past him. And he didn't get past Emma before knocking her books to the ground. "Sorry, fatso," he smirked, before breaking into raucous laughter.

Gwen stepped in front of him as Emma scrambled to pick them up. "Apologize. Now," she said in her coldest tone.

Ripper glared back at her. "Are you actually trying to talk to me, skank?"

"You know you're going to flunk high school, right?" Gwen said. She usually didn't get this confrontational, but Emma had been her friend for a long time and no matter how angry she got (and Emma had a real temper), standing up for herself mostly didn't do any good, so Gwen didn't mind doing it for her sometimes. Gwen usually got very quiet when she was angry, but that didn't work on bullies, so she had to raise her voice to get them to listen. "At least Emma's got a life ahead of her. At least her goal is more than playing stupid pranks on YouTube or counting bodily emissions. Once high school is over, you'll probably be homeless. Or in retail."

Everyone at school knew about Three Guys In A Beach House, the channel Chase ran. Emma was in it when she was still dating him. They used to prank each other and it worked out for a while, but Emma dumped him and quit when Chase cut her brakes last April and she'd been working on thinking up her own channel since then, although she hadn't got a clear goal in mind. Yet. But Gwen wasn't going to say that. Emma was smart – she'd think of something good.

As for Ripper, everyone knew he wanted to break some kind of world record of how long someone could pass gases for. The whole football team actually encouraged it. But he didn't have any goals past that.

"Yeah, well-" Ripper blurted out. "You…you've got a zit popping out there!" He flicked at Gwen's (zit-free) forehead, and then ran away, laughing, just as the bell rang.

Gwen turned to Emma so they could quickly compare schedules. Their homeroom was different, but they did share two classes. They hadn't shared any in sophomore year. "I'll see you in history class, I guess," Emma said, smiling.

"Yeah, see you then," Gwen echoed before heading towards her homeroom.

This was going to be a looong day.

I know, if you've seen the musical, it's like, "You're not even halfway through the first song yet!" Patience, campers (or if you're here for the Heathers, slushie buddies). We've got a few more people to meet.