Author's Note: Heya, welcome back to 'Not So Scary After All', it's been awhile since I last updated this particular story. I had this idea for a while back when the leaks for season two came out months ago, then when episode one leaked shortly before the season released in Italy I had the layout for how this was going to go.
Originally this was just gonna be a one shot, however I think there's just a bit too much to put in for just one chapter, however I don't expect this to be nearly as long as the first fic in length, I want to try at least get the episodes where Lauren made an appearance in so this'll probably be around five or six chapters long.
I was also originally going to wait until season two had finished airing, however I had this chapter basically finished by Christmas (Happy Holidays/Happy New Year btw! Hope you guys had a good one!) and I just couldn't wait until the season finished so some things are left open ended in this chapter regarding Lauren just in case we get clarity on her return in the last five episodes. (Only up to Ep8 is out as of this chapter, chapter two won't be out until the whole season is out)
WARNING: There will be spoilers for season two of the reboot, in the event you haven't seen the season yet please give this a pass until you have…
An attempt was made of letting this squeeze into canon as much as possible (minus the obvious timeline changes associated with this fic) and I'll try to explain how things evolved from the previous fics, lastly I'll put a proper review for the season at the bottom of this chapter.
With that lengthy intro done welcome to the second part of the 'Not So Scary' series, 'Not So Normal'... (In case a refresher is needed most of it is summed up in this chapter, however I'd suggest at least reading chapter 27 for some context with Ezekiel's portion of the chapter.)
Chapter One
*Flashback, Two Months after Season One*
Ever since the end of the first revival season of Total Drama, things had seemed to get a lot more interesting for Lauren, known to most people by her nickname 'Scary Girl', given to her during her short period on said show. What most people didn't know about her time on the island was what had happened shortly after her elimination in that season, having found her way onto a long forgotten island, completely abandoned after the sinking of the original Wawanakwa over three years ago.
There, she'd found something, or rather someone completely unexpected. One of the original contestants who'd gone missing around the same time as the sinking of Wawanakwa, the Feral Freakshow known as Ezekiel. The two had formed a close friendship on the island, eventually being found and taken back to the Playa Des Losers by an irritated Chris McLean.
There, their friendship quickly developed into something more whilst Ezekiel finally got the treatment he needed in order to become fully human again. Several issues got in the way, such as confrontations with several others who hated Ezekiel, several of his 'old friends' returning to the resort, and a dramatic season finale that briefly tested their newly formed relationship, however in the end they had persevered, even managing to get their own back at the vile host who had caused so many problems over the years for Ezekiel.
She'd even been able to find a place to call her home not too far away from the farm where Ezekiel lived, an abandoned funeral home that she'd spent a couple weeks tidying up slightly in order to keep it inhabitable, knowing that when the season came out that her biological family would start a manhunt for her. Although her former caretaker and father figure had made sure to cover any traces of her ever being at that particular circus, Lauren did still occasionally visit him though when it was safe, she wasn't heartless…
However, since the season had released around a month after she returned from the island things had gotten even more 'interesting' for her…
Despite Lauren's short time on the show, she seemed to have become one of the most polarising contestants in the eyes of the TD fanbase, people seemed to either love her or loathe her, with any social media accounts that she had quickly being spammed with an influx of messages either praising some of her actions or giving her the same criticisms that she was 'too scary'.
Some accounts in particular stood out to her, for drastically different reasons that both contributed to her current dilemma, one that she'd been pondering ever since the Playa.
One of them had seemed quite sweet at first glance, an account that had constantly praised her during her four episodes on the show, however then the posts got extremely weird really fast, even for someone who'd repeatedly attempted to attack her teammates and constantly creep them out it was too much for her, seeing someone obsessing over her to a point where it made Sierra's crush on Cody look sane.
The other accounts though…
She knew in advance that not everyone would appreciate her for who she was, she expected the 'scary' comments from the moment that people first saw the promotional material, the comments about the 'creepy looking goth girl' having both intrigued and unnerved her slightly.
However the amount of detail some people went into criticising her, whether it was for attacking the others or even just the way she smiled was starting to slightly get to her.
Lauren didn't want to admit it out loud to anyone, but since the resort, when she briefly got to experience what it was like to be part of a larger friendship circle, the thoughts had become more and more frequent. The thoughts of trying to change herself in order to fit in with everyone else seemed more and more appealing with each passing day…
Until recently however she felt like she could block the thoughts out and continue to be herself, she still had some people even as she currently was. Her relationship with Ezekiel was better than ever since returning from the island, the Prairie Boy having almost fully recovered from his time as a Feral Freakshow.
Not only that, she'd been able to keep up some form of contact with a few of the others since the season had ended, she'd found herself as the fourth member of the friendship circle between Millie, Priya and Damien, and more than once she'd been able to speak to the likes of Wayne, Raj and Bowie because of Ezekiel's friendship with the Hockey Bros. And Zee was just completely chilled out with everyone, and he had since become her primary source of gossip about everyone else who she didn't speak to since the season ended.
And that was only from her cast, Dawn and Izzy had both come to see the pair more than once, and Tyler had usually joined the Hockey Bros conversations. Sierra had also created a group chat where the majority of the contestants who were at the resort last season could keep contact, although some of the more anti-social contestants like MK and Axel had never joined, and Julia had been banned after saying some particularly nasty comments about some of the others.
Noah and Emma had also occasionally contacted either her or Ezekiel to let them know how the lawsuit against Chris was going, however any interactions with them were usually limited to that.
She did enjoy getting to spend some time with the others in between seasons, and it was interesting to see what had happened with the others in the month following the season's release, although it hadn't been smooth sailing for a lot of the others.
Whilst Lauren thought she had it bad with her polarising split, Nichelle seemed to have taken the worst out of all the cast, a shocking contender in the Scary Girl's eyes considering how she thought maybe Ripper and Chase would've been the worst of them all. Nichelle had been completely cancelled for her lacklustre performance, and had since gone completely off the grid, even cutting off the people she'd been quite close to at the resort like Axel and Caleb, the former in particular not taking it too well…
At least the friends she did speak to had mostly positive responses, Damien, Zee and Priya became fan favourites, and the relationship between Bowie and Raj was one of the most talked about points of the season on social media.
Lauren was at least content with what she had, however as she sat in her new room in the funeral home that she'd been living alone in for the last couple of months, repainting the skull she liberated from Camp Wawanakwa, her phone started pinging repeatedly.
She glanced over, tempted to just switch the phone off and get back to her decorating when she saw the notification that popped up, her pale face whitening even further at the message…
It was from her father figure, and it simply read… "Your parents found me…".
Lauren began breathing heavily, jumping up from her bed and practically dived over the skull over towards the nightstand where her phone was, almost tumbling over into her closet as she did so.
She immediately unlocked her phone, sitting back on the bed as she headed straight for her contacts, wanting to find out what the hell had happened.
She waited for a few agonising minutes before calling, briefly pondering whether it was wise to contact him so soon, considering her 'parents' may still be at the circus where she used to live, or if she should contact one of her friends for emotional support.
Ultimately, she just decided to bite the bullet and find out for herself, as she didn't really have anyone else who could support her, she hadn't exactly told anyone else from the show, and Ezekiel wouldn't be able to get over in time before her patience and/or her anxiety ran out. Lauren sighed weakly, forcing a smile on her face as she dialled Mecidi's number, hoping that the news wouldn't be too bad…
"Come on pick up…" She whispered frantically more and more as the phone continued to dial until eventually it connected.
"Hello…" Mecidi's voice called from the phone, sounding worn down like he'd just come out of an intense workout.
"What the hell happened over there? Are you okay?" Lauren shouted down the phone, the small amount of relief that she felt being overridden by the intense panic she was feeling about the current situation.
"Lauren?" He meekly managed before sighing. "I should've known you'd pick up straight away…"
"Well sending me THAT wasn't exactly gonna ease my anxiety now was it." Lauren snarked in response, burning a hole into the skull sitting next to her as she tried to focus on not panicking as much.
"True, but I suppose that doesn't matter now…" Mecidi sighed again before continuing. "Yes your parents were here, they'd manage to trace the location from your audition tape and they had a lot to say about you, none of it positive…"
"Yeah I kinda expected that, but you didn't give them the location of me and Zekey did you?" Lauren responded, trying to take the positives even as her heart rate continued to spike, her nerves getting weaker as she internally panicked about what they would have said about her.
"What? No, no of course not, I promised I wouldn't sell you out, and to tell you the truth they didn't know anything about him…" Medici replied, attempting to reassure her that at least one thing was okay.
Lauren sighed in relief, some of the panic going away as she didn't want Ezekiel to be dragged into any family drama more so than he already had. And she was at least grateful that she wasn't about to have any surprise visitors show up anytime soon, at least, not her old 'family'…
However the most concerning part for the Scary Girl still remained, and as she put the phone up to her ear again, internally she hoped that whatever was said about her wasn't too bad. "So… what did happen then?" She asked, forcing a smile onto her face as she spoke.
"They well… like I said, didn't have anything positive to say." He began. "They'd seen you on the show, your appearance seemed to frighten them, the way you smiled and spoke to the others freaked them out. How you treated that Priya girl and that Damien boy on the show, even though I know from when you've visited that you three are friends now."
"They essentially tried to pin the blame onto me for your actions at first, calling it 'horrible parenting' like they didn't abuse you for years before I even found you. Everything on those message boards about you they seemed to fully be on board with, that you were 'too scary' or that you were 'looking for excuses to kill the other contestants'." He continued.
"B-But I didn't! If it was about the jackhammer I wasn't actually going to use it on them! I-It was just for a scare!" Lauren complained, her heart rate increasing once more, she didn't even know why but something about this coming from her biological family just hurt way more than the random people on the internet…
"I know Lauren, but they didn't listen to me, they just think that 'you're an unnatural freak that could never be normal'... The worst part was that they seemed to treat you like you weren't even their daughter anymore, just a monster they needed to put down…" Mecidi finished sadly, a solemn tone in his voice, hearing the hurt in Lauren's voice.
"B-But… I-I…" Lauren weakly muttered as she registered the final comments, her eyes widening in shock and horror as tears began to fall down her face. She knew what was gonna happen when her parents eventually found where she had disappeared to, but somehow despite everything she still found herself hurting over the comments.
She did her best for a moment to hold it together, gently thanking her father figure for telling her and saying a soft goodbye. The moment the call ended, and she knew she was alone again, she threw the phone against the wall with all of her strength, before stomping on it with a metal boot, the tears of agony flowing down her face freely.
"Why! Why can't they accept me for who I am! What do I have to do!" She complained as she kept stomping on her phone, the device quickly becoming nothing but scrap as she attempted to vent her frustrations on what had just happened.
But no matter how much she vented she couldn't get the thoughts out of her head, the thoughts of changing herself in order to fit in just wouldn't go away, the thoughts of forcing herself to become normal just seemed like it was the only option for her at this point.
And as the Scary Girl collapsed to her knees, panting heavily from the emotional turmoil that she was currently feeling, she found herself beginning to agree with those thoughts inside of her head.
She'd show them… she'd show them all that she could function normally just like everyone else…
She'd wear normal looking outfits. She'd watch normal films and TV shows. She'd listen to normal music and read normal books. She'd do everything it took to be just like everyone else since it seemed like everyone else couldn't accept her for who she was.
She grinned softly at her decaying thoughts, the grin becoming a demented smile as she began to giggle to herself, before opening wide as a stream of crazed laughter erupted from her, her eyes watering again as she let herself go.
She knew some people wouldn't approve of this, who knows what Priya and Damien would think of this? And the more eccentric people like Izzy and Dawn certainly wouldn't approve of what she was going to do. And as for Ezekiel…
'Well… Zekey doesn't have to know for the moment…' She rationalised, still laughing to herself.
She knew exactly what she needed to do before season two arrived, now she just needed to find ways of 'improving herself', maybe use the others as starting points as to what she needed to do…
Although first she'd need to scrape some funds together for a new phone, Lauren's laughter slowly turned into groans of disappointment as she finally realised what she had done to her phone.
*Present, Episode One of Season Two*
It hadn't quite clicked for Lauren about how much she'd screwed up preparing for this season until after she'd sat back down by the campfire one last time, waiting for the others to hand their votes in to Chris so they could send the first person home…
She attempted to smile normally at the others, completely unaware of the horrified looks that Wayne and Raj gave each other as they passed her, or how both Ripper and Chase turned themselves away from her after what she'd unknowingly revealed to them about what she had done in her attempts to be 'normal'.
Ever since that phone call and her subsequent breakdown, she'd taken to watching everyone at every opportunity in order to try and figure out how to blend in more with societal norms. Spying on them from a distance as they all lived their lives, having occasionally crossed several lines in order to observe them up close, whether it was from their bedroom windows or even in their closets…
Both her own cast and some of the 'friend's' she'd made from Ezekiel's cast had been targeted as part of her 'learning', and she thought that she was beginning to get it right as she went into the first challenge. However the doubts were still there even as she'd entered the new season, her 'old persona' abandoned completely in favour of trying to 'fix herself', her gothic dress having been left behind at the abandoned funeral home she'd been living in for the last few months in favour of the more normal looking outfit she was currently wearing.
She grinned creepily to herself, not noticing the glares from MK and Julia as they passed by her. She knew that the others on her team had admitted to finding her, in their words '100% a total freakshow'...
But she was confident that she'd done enough in order to convince them that she'd 'changed for the better', that she was 'normal enough' to be able to go further in the game, or at least further than some of the people sitting around her like Julia, Chase and Ripper…
The 'Normal Girl' shook her head slightly as she noticed the final contestant sitting down, Bowie immediately looking away and towards Raj as he noticed her staring. Her smile began to falter for the first time that evening, her eyes briefly clouding up as she tried to shake the doubts out of her head once more.
She needed to be normal for her own sake as much as everyone else's, even if deep down she didn't want to change she knew that she needed to in order to make everyone like her…
She promised Ezekiel that she'd do well, that she'd come back with the million dollars, that she'd prove everyone on the message boards wrong about her…
That she could prove her family wrong about her, that she could be normal if she tried…
But as she watched Chris and Chef tallying up the votes, she heard the faint whispering coming from the others, about her being 'even more terrifying than before', about 'how disturbing she was with her speech' and her eyes widened briefly as she realised what she had admitted to…
Oh…
Lauren's eyes stared blankly forward as Chris started to address them once more, throwing marshmallows at her fellow competitors until it was down to just her and Bowie. Her thoughts and doubts began to overwhelm her once more as she tried to keep her blank expression, hoping desperately that perhaps Ripper, Chase, Julia and MK had enough of a grudge against Bowie to vote him off instead of her…
Unfortunately for the 'Normal Girl', Chris quickly announced that Bowie was safe, tossing him the final marshmallow, the host's grin taunting her as her smile dropped once more…
'So all of that was for nothing…' Her eyes looked down for a moment as she overheard the others celebrate their victory, whilst she sat there, the only person without a marshmallow. 'All of that time, that planning… The pain of trying to become something I hated… just to go first…'
She felt her eyes begin to tear up slightly as her emotions internally raged inside of her, however outwardly she kept her expression blank, the frown being the only indication of how she was beginning to feel…
"Scary Girl, I'm sorry..." Chris began unapologetically, smiling smugly at his least favourite of the new contestants as she glanced back up, blinking away the tears so that no one could see how devastated she actually was. "You've been eliminated, follow me please!"
Chef stood next to him, a small smile of relief on his own face, his opinion of the girl changing drastically after having heard the drastic measures she'd taken for her new appearance, the cook could only wonder one thing as Lauren looked up towards the duo, anger beginning to cloud her pale blue eyes.
'Did Homeschool know about this?' Chef wondered, as Lauren stood up and began walking away from the campfire and towards the Dock of Shame, her fists clenched as she tried to keep it together until she was away from the others.
She glared venomously at Chris as she followed him, the host gazing back at her mockingly, he stopped briefly at the confessional, gesturing towards it, his mocking stare never leaving the 'Normal Girl'. "Scary Girl, if you have any last words, now's the time to air them!" He grinned, stepping away from the confessional for a brief moment so Lauren could quickly vent.
She turned briefly once more towards the campfire where she'd just been voted off, seeing the rest of her team seemingly cheering at her departure, she growled slightly at this, all of the suppressed emotions from the last few months of trying to suppress her true personality beginning to leak out as she slammed the door to the confessional shut.
For a moment she breathed deeply, trying to calm herself down slightly before looking back up towards the camera, a look of utter loathing in her eyes as she began to vent.
"This is what you get for trying to conform with societal norms, carried into the sky by a drone!" She began before glaring directly at the camera. "I didn't even try to hurt anyone on my team this time!" She almost growled, trying to hold back tears of frustration as she knew that she didn't have much time.
She smiled, a cold look on her face as she continued to vent, briefly holding a hand to her chest in order to stop the shaking. "I taught myself how to smile forty percent less creepily!"
Eventually however she couldn't hold back the anger anymore, diving towards the camera and clutching it in both hands as a dark look overcame her eyes. "Ohh, this isn't the last of Scary Girl…" She muttered to the camera before a look of pure hatred entered her pale blue eyes, Lauren completely discarding the 'Normal Girl' persona she'd tried to create as she let her emotions completely overtake her. "I'm going to MAKE THEM PAY!" She almost screamed, a manic look entering her eyes before she stood up and kicked the door open.
Lauren stormed out of the confessional, Chris waiting several feet away with his smug look still in place, and if anything it got wider upon seeing the look of utter hatred on her face. She followed him silently to the Dock of Shame where the Drone of Despair was already waiting for her.
Her mind was swimming, the bitterness completely overriding every small amount of common sense that she had, Ezekiel was completely forgotten for the moment as she began to laugh maniacally to herself. She grabbed onto the claws of the Drone, immediately taking off for the Playa Des Losers as she stared back at the Camp one last time, beginning to plot her revenge against everyone as she left the island once more...
*Around the same time*
The door slammed shut at the entrance to the Funeral Home, Ezekiel immediately sprinting through the building in order to get to Lauren's room, fully intent on finding out any clues as to what was going on with her with this sudden change in personality.
He'd just about managed to keep himself composed whilst Lauren was still around, hiding his concern for her as they took the long journey to the pick up point where he'd watched her leave on the aircraft with the other contestants. The second she disappeared into the horizon however, Ezekiel dropped his mask and had spent the last few hours trying to figure out anything that would have triggered something like this.
He wasn't a fool, he could see that Lauren had been acting strangely. He'd found out about what her parents had said shortly after it happened, and he had a feeling that they had something to do with this, however he had a feeling that it wasn't the only factor. Lauren hadn't shown signs of her strange behaviour over the first few weeks, but as the season had drawn closer and closer the signs slowly began to show themselves…
Lauren would disappear for days at a time, only to show up looking completely exhausted, with at least one habit of hers having been either suppressed or outright changed. She always seemed on edge whenever they had the time to do something in public, and at first he thought it was just because of her newfound fame from being on the show, however as the weeks went on he noticed her observing people more and more rather than actually enjoying herself.
The only times she seemed completely like her normal self was when they were alone, not even the few times where they'd spoken with some of the other contestants. It was like she was hiding something from them, trying not to let some forbidden secret slip that at least one of them wasn't supposed to know, and if it wasn't that it was like she was trying not to be there, the same observations being used on them that he'd noticed with the general public.
It was one of the reasons why he attempted to speak to some of the others who'd spoken to Lauren, hoping that they may have had answers that his admittedly still poor social skills weren't picking up on, that maybe he was just overthinking things and that Lauren was okay. However they just weren't around the Scary Girl often enough to have noticed anything off, and they likely wouldn't until they were well into the season, and the only people who might've noticed beforehand weren't competing and had been avoided by Lauren over the last few weeks in particular.
It was what led him to his current situation, he didn't know where else to go in regards to finding out what was wrong, Lauren wasn't around to tell him either and even if she was she'd have likely just given him the same answer as before, even if her eyes said otherwise. So Ezekiel found himself rummaging through the drawers and cupboards in Lauren's room trying desperately to find anything that may give some clarity as to what was going on.
It was disturbing for him when he had opened the closet doors, finding Lauren's doll-like dress laid carefully in the closet, hidden next to the decorated skull that she'd taken from the island. When even the things she'd held dear to herself were being locked away in favour of the various CD's and books currently scattered across the room, he knew that the problem was serious, especially when he examined said items and saw that none of them had anything to do with the dark thrillers or horror that he'd grown to expect from her.
Ezekiel sighed in frustration as he sat on the bed moments later, having searched almost every corner of the room to no avail, the only parts left were too private for him to even think about going near, and he was beginning to think anyway that maybe Lauren may have taken whatever he was looking for with her, something that explained what was going on…
He glanced over towards the open closet where the skull stared back at him lifelessly, the Prairie Boy getting back up and walking over to pick it up. He sat back down moments later and just spent some time pondering to himself, staring aimlessly at the skull in his hands, reminiscing about the events of the first couple of weeks after having been rescued, and he wondered where things had truly gone wrong from there.
He eventually got his answer when his phone started vibrating in his pocket, said phone having been a gift from Dakota when everyone had left the Playa Des Losers at the end of the previous season so Zeke could keep in contact with everyone else now that he'd been rescued. He gently set the skull down next to him, reaching into his pocket in order to pull the phone out, his eyebrow rising in confusion at the name on the screen…
"Why's Raj trying to call me? Did he get voted out?" He muttered to himself, wondering what was going on, but ultimately shrugging and answering the call, best case scenario he might be able to see if Lauren was okay?
The first red flag however came when instead of just being a phone call, the camera activated on both ends, the video feed on the other end showing the inside of one of the cabins.
What triggered the even more alarming red flag was seeing that it wasn't just Raj, but rather Bowie, Wayne, MK and Julia all crowded around the phone, said phone clearly being set to speaker so everyone would be able to talk to him. Ripper and Chase however were nowhere to be seen, being the only members of the Skunk Butts still in the game to not be in the room.
This wouldn't have been so bad, however the scared looks from the Hockey Bros and the glares from the other three gave off the third and most alarming red flag of all. What's he done to piss them off? Or rather…
What had Lauren done?
"Uh… hey?" Ezekiel greeted nervously, putting his phone on speaker so he could talk to them all, setting the phone down with one hand whilst waving nervously to them with the other. "What's up?"
"Cut the crap homeschool!" Julia responded angrily as she glared into the camera, Wayne and Raj looking alarmed as she began to shout at him. "You knew about what that creepy bitch was doing didn't you?" She accused.
"What?" Ezekiel responded, not knowing what the influencer was talking about. "What are you talking about eh?"
"You know, about how your girlfriend was stalking all of us over the last few months…" MK clarified, rolling her eyes at the Prairie Boy.
"WHAT!" Ezekiel's eyes widened in shock and horror.
"You heard her right! She admitted to everything right before we kicked her off! Following us around, breaking into our homes and hiding in our closets!" Julia taunted, driving the dagger deeper, enjoying the growing tension that she could see from Ezekiel at the other end of the call.
"Uh, Jules?" Wayne cut her off, looking at Ezekiel nervously.
"I don't think Zeke knew about this…" Raj added, pointing to the screen where Ezekiel could be seen shocked into silence.
"W-What… B-But… T-That…" Ezekiel eventually stammered, trying to find a way of denying what they were accusing Lauren of…
"Ezekiel!" Bowie snapped his fingers, regaining his attention even through the video call. "So… did you know anything about what Scary Girl was doing?" He asked almost gently, since Ezekiel had no presence in the game and Lauren had already been eliminated he didn't feel as much of a need to use this to his advantage like Julia would've.
Plus Ezekiel was Raj's friend… Bowie at least had to look like he was understanding…
"N-No…" Ezekiel muttered softly, tears of frustration beginning to appear on the corner of his eyes. "I knew something was off… but I never thought it was something like this…"
He didn't want to admit it, but what Julia had said did seem to line up with Lauren's disappearances, was she really stalking the others? Was this why she was hurting herself by having this radical change in personality? And… was it because of those comments…
Ezekiel's fists clenched, so she was hurting because of all of the hate comments, her family just pushed her over the edge… He quickly found himself holding back a growl, not wanting the others in the call to think he was angry at them, although he was slightly annoyed that they voted Lauren off first.
"What do you mean?" Raj asked, curious about what was truly going on, even if Lauren was already eliminated it didn't mean that they couldn't at least try and hear out more of the story.
"..." Ezekiel paused for a moment, his mouth open wide as if he was about to speak but couldn't get the words out. He didn't know if he should reveal what had happened regarding her home life to the others, especially with the more manipulative contestants like Julia and Bowie in the room, plus he didn't know how mad Lauren would be if he told the others, even after months of knowing each other Ezekiel was still the only person who knew about Lauren's trauma.
Eventually however he decided that it may be the only way that he could convince the others to back off her slightly, but he had to make sure first just in case he was wrong about them not knowing. "H-How much do you know about Lauren's home life?"
"Don't know, don't care…" Julia dismissed.
"What she said…" MK agreed.
"Sorry coach, but we got nothing." Wayne and Raj both said at the same time, whilst Bowie just shrugged.
Ezekiel sighed deeply, knowing that he'd probably regret this, before beginning to explain everything, how her parents had abused her, how Lauren had ran away years before the show, how she ended up growing up at the circus and how this all factored into how she interacted with the others…
"...I was the only person who knew about this until now eh, and until the season aired she never seemed to be bothered by it…" Ezekiel continued.
"So what changed?" Raj asked.
"Yeah, what was sooo bad that it made Scary Girl decide to stalk all of us?" MK added, sarcasm clear in her voice.
Ezekiel's eyes darted down for a moment, holding back another sigh, before looking back up to the screen. "They found her… and they got it into her head that she was unwanted… that she would be alone and only remembered as a freak the way she was…"
"What?" Bowie, Wayne and Raj all cried out, the three of them holding a little bit of empathy for the Scary Girl.
"They put it into her head that she had to be normal, even though she was perfectly fine as she was… She had you guys, she had Damien and Priya and Millie, she had Dawn and Izzy and Sierra… she had me…" He sighed sadly, finally realising what was wrong… "Or at least I thought she knew… that night was when she started to change, I didn't notice at first but… Lauren slowly started to act weird, and I think that's when this 'stalking' began, and the worst part is I could see in her eyes that she hated it…"
"Really?" Julia rolled her eyes. "Because the freak clearly seemed to get a kick out of it… besides she was never gonna be normal anyway the way she was acting."
"Julia!" Bowie snapped at her, the Hockey Bros glaring from behind him. "Now is not the time for that!"
"What?" She responded innocently. "There was a reason we kicked her off, I mean, for someone trying to be normal she somehow made herself even scarier."
"ENOUGH!" Ezekiel shouted, a growl almost sounding exactly like when he was feral coming out of his mouth as he glared through the screen at the pair.
Everyone in the cabin stared back at the phone in silent shock, before eventually Wayne shook his head and began to speak again. "So… you're saying Lauren was just trying to fit in with us eh?"
"I think so…" Ezekiel answered, uncertainty creeping into his voice. "I don't know what her reasoning was, I just think that she wanted people to see past the 'Scary Girl' like I did… even if it meant being something that she wasn't…"
"Was she really hurting that much?" Raj asked softly.
Ezekiel just nodded in response. "Yeah… I could see it so easily eh…" He answered solemnly, before glancing at them once more. "Could I ask you guys something?" He asked.
"What is it coach?" Wayne responded.
"If… If you end up seeing her first…" Ezekiel began, knowing that he was gonna try and contact Lauren himself to find out what was really going on. "Could you talk to her?"
"Absolutely not…" Julia and MK deadpanned.
"I mean, I plan to win this time around, but in the event she comes back I could try…" Bowie replied, not planning on being eliminated so soon but knowing at the very least he should act like he cared.
"Do you want us to ask Priya or Damien since they're friends with her?" Raj asked Ezekiel, who rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"Maybe just Millie and Priya, Damien would probably freak out, I mean they're friends but… well… he's still scared of her…" He laughed slightly.
"On it coach!" Wayne shouted in response, already running out of the door to the cabin.
"Yeah, I think I'm out as well…" Julia added disinterestedly, both her and MK leaving now that the conversation had turned fully away from the Ezekiel and Lauren hate she was expecting to have, although she at least had some dirt on Scary Girl if she did ever return to the competition.
"I should probably try and talk to her myself eh…" Ezekiel said to the two remaining guys, glancing away from the pair as his expression briefly fell, his worry creeping onto his face over what was going on.
"That's okay man, hope it goes well!" Raj smiled.
"Agreed, oh and uh, Zeke?" Bowie called out, Ezekiel looking up at the camera one last time. "I'm not sorry for voting her out since she was still a challenge threat, but if we'd known about this sooner we'd have gotten rid of Chase or Ripper instead…" He 'apologised'.
"Okay…" Ezekiel responded confused, not knowing how to take that.
"Good, now that that's clear, bye!" Bowie smirked, Raj waving goodbye from behind him before the video cut out, the call ending.
Once he was sure that no one could hear him, Ezekiel sighed and laid down on the bed once more, glancing glumly at the skull next to him.
So it didn't end up going well for Lauren after all… and now she's out first with people potentially even more afraid of her…
At least he now knew what was going on with her…
He held the phone up once more, quickly dialling Lauren's number. He waited for her to pick up however it went to voicemail, he tried again a couple minutes later, only for the same thing to happen.
"She isn't mad… is she?" Ezekiel questioned to himself, glancing over at the skull. "I guess I could call tomorrow instead…"
He put the phone down gently on the stand before clutching the skull next to him, curling up into a ball as he thought about the information that Lauren's ex-teammates had given him, before eventually drifting off into a dreamless sleep.
End Chapter
Author's Note: For those of you who are on twitter, I'm sure you know who that one account in the first section was referring to, I just thought it was funny so I added it (it's apparently a joke account but it's still funny so…). I also tried to add in some things to show why certain pairs changed from my initial fic to what we got in season two, hence the bit about Nichelle's cancellation. I'll get to Priya and Damien's in the next chapter since I didn't cover it here…
Anyway, about season two, I'm gonna assume that most of you have already watched the whole thing because of the leaks, if not then SPOILERS, but you likely shouldn't have read this chapter anyway if you haven't so… (only up to Ep8, will do the last five episodes next chapter)
Anyway… I'll start with the positives.
The challenges were really good in this season and it almost makes me happy that we didn't get the Action setting like a lot of people wanted (a World Tour themed season would still be fire tho), my personal favourites were the jousting challenge and the pinball one, but for the most part there wasn't a single challenge I disliked.
I loved the MK/Julia alliance and honestly I ship those two now, they're so good together and if it made me hate anything about season one it was that MK went home too early. Bowie/Raj was as good as always, and shockingly I did like the idea of Ripper/Axel, although they did fumble the execution post episode four.
The team dynamics were really fun, again I loved the Skunk Butts chemistry (Bowie/Raj and MK/Julia, plus Wayne), plus they had Lauren for a moment so that boosted them a bit. The Rat Faces were a bit more meh, but I loved seeing Damien and Nichelle get their chances to shine after a poor first season, and Zee is such a goofball I love that guy! (2nd for a reason behind best girl)
Lastly the cameo's, it was so good seeing Owen return in episode 7, and the lack of redesign really surprised me, maybe it's just like Terry said in that one tweet about TD following cartoon logic but it opens up the doors to the 15 years being retconned and the old characters coming back and joining up with the new gen. (Would love that personally, although I don't blame people for not wanting the gen 1 cast to return, plus it means I wouldn't look so controversial because of this fic XD, I know no one's said it but I know people are thinking it!)
Duncan, Courtney and Izzy's cameo in episode 8 was nice to see as well, even if it wasn't in person like Owen's, if it's limited to more cameo's in the future I'd like to see more like this with some of the less popular characters like Eva or Tyler, just to remind people that yes they do exist.
Now onto the Negatives…
The eliminations were horrible compared to last season, Lauren we all expected because it got leaked months ago, and Chase was good if a little predictable, but from Millie onwards it was either forced or last minute…
Emma's in particular felt stupid considering what they were doing to her, and Nichelle I felt like they didn't know what to do with her so they just threw her out at the last minute. Zee's felt forced as well, Caleb should've gone in episode 8…
Speaking of Caleb…
The Priya/Caleb storyline overstayed its welcome for too long, I probably wouldn't have minded so much if it were a premerge thing only, or if Priya and Caleb at least had other plotlines that season. But it was ten/eleven episodes long! It's especially sad for Caleb considering he had nothing in the previous season so he feels like wasted potential.
Overall I'd say the season was still really good, compared to the other seasons I'd put it above ROTI but it's probably below the first reboot season in 5th place out of 9, right in the middle. (although only AS and PI are bad seasons)