Author's Note: Heya, I may as well start by saying that I've been silly again with the whole 'procrastination' thing and I've only gone and taken over a month to write this chapter when I originally wanted it ready for the reboots anniversary on April 10th, then the 1st anniversary of 'Not So Scary After All' on April 25th.
But no… I only go and miss both… hopefully I got this out before the AO3 anniversary on May 6th.
To be fair, I have been trying to lay the foundations for a couple of other fics I wanna work on, one of which being the compfic sequel I want to potentially do after 'Not So Normal' is completed, but that's still in very early planning stages. The other fic being unrelated to Total Drama, but for the (very few) people who know me or at least looked at my fanfiction profile probably know that I also really like My Hero Academia, and I want to write something for that, specifically about a certain pairing I really love involving a certain green haired hero and a blonde villain, if you know you know. That being said, both of those are still in the early planning stages, especially until I get closer to finishing this fic.
On a side note, the reboot is finally getting a US release date! It's out on June 1st, so I'm begging all of you from the USA to please watch the official release of the reboot seasons. I've done my part with the UK release, but this is the big one that'll decide if we get a third season, whether it's this cast again, a mixture of the old ones, or a brand new cast!
Reviews
Derick Lindsey: As much as I'd like to rewrite the entire season, this will be sticking to canon as much as possible. If I was to rewrite the season Scary Girl would not have been booted first XD. But seriously it'd be more like adding substance that explains away some eliminations rather than actually rewriting them like with the contract. But the elimination order isn't changing, even if I disagree with the order this isn't the fic for that (sorry Zee and Damien in particular). But I agree that Scary Girl should've had some revenge, I was convinced that the fear challenge would have her play a role.
MatiasND: The one good thing about the eliminations being so contrived is that it means there's gaps to slot Lauren into, admittedly the Nichelle one nearly had me second guessing the whole 'canon compliant' aspect to this but this does open up some things for Lauren to do. As for the whole Ezekiel thing, yeah Chris can't technically do anything this time but Ezekiel doesn't know that, to Ezekiel this was a last resort so this'll be interesting.
Chapter Five
It had been quite late into the night when Ezekiel had arrived at the docks where he had last seen Lauren just before she had taken off for the new season…
Just before everything had started to go wrong…
There were unfortunately no boats at the dock at the time of Ezekiel's arrival, however there was one thing in particular nearby that caught Ezekiel's eye. The remains of what looked to be a small fire, but whilst the fact that a fire being made on what was supposed to be a public space was odd enough, what really caught the Prairie Boy's eye was the burnt remains of some familiar clothes.
The once orange shirt was almost completely charred, although he could see a couple small patches of orange fabric in amongst the now blackened and burnt fabric. The shorts were in a similar state, and the shoes had melted on themselves, almost completely unrecognisable. But the thing that really convinced Ezekiel was the sight of a single red ribbon, untied but trapped underneath one of the shoes, flowing freely in the wind.
There was no mistaking it for Ezekiel, this was the 'Normal Girl' outfit Lauren had been wearing the last time he saw her…
Which only confirmed for him that she was most likely back on the island, or at least on one of the nearby islands, he just knew that she wasn't at the Playa Des Losers resort, even if she was hiding on the same island.
Ezekiel did end up having to spend the night hidden somewhere in the docks, it wasn't too much of a bother to him after having spent several years sleeping on solid ground or hastily made nests. It had been something that he was still used to even after being cured of his feral state, although he definitely preferred both of his beds back at the farm and the funeral home.
He woke up early in the next morning, the docks were still empty however there was now a single boat docked up, with a man standing in front of the boat seemingly waiting for somebody to show up. Seeing the lack of available options to him at the moment, Ezekiel decided he needed to check to see if he'd be allowed to board the boat in hopes of being taken to the Playa Des Losers island to begin his search for Lauren, he left his bags at the side just in case, and began to approach the boat.
The man waiting in front of the boat looked slightly irritated as Ezekiel approached, and one glance at the Prairie Boy was all it took for said man to narrow his eyes, although the sight of the man looking through the clipboard in his hands was making Ezekiel think that there was a bit more of a reason than just being openly hostile. He was wearing one of the intern uniforms that was standard for Total Drama, so Ezekiel immediately knew to be cautious just in case this ended up getting back to Chris somehow.
They were lucky he somehow had no idea yet about Lauren going missing for the second season in a row, and Ezekiel was feeling more and more grateful to both Millie and Damien for keeping him in the loop somewhat about what was going on both at the Playa and the main island.
"Um… hey…" Ezekiel greeted awkwardly as he stepped up to the boat, the man glaring at him in response.
"What do you want?" The man responded, his voice quite rough, he sounded tired and looked fed up with Ezekiel already.
"I-I was just wondering i-if this boat was a-available eh…" Ezekiel asked nervously, sweat forming under his toque.
The man narrowed his eyes some more. "It isn't… and you don't look like the person I'm supposed to be picking up… so buzz off!" He didn't advance towards him, but it was quite clear that Ezekiel was not gonna be allowed on by conventional means.
Which normally Ezekiel would've accepted… if it wasn't for the fact that he currently had no means of getting to the island without swimming there himself, which considering he'd also have to carry both his and Lauren's things would at best be a long and tedious task, and at worst result in him possibly losing their things AND potentially drowning.
"W-Well… do you know if there's gonna be any other boats available soon?" Ezekiel replied somewhat nervously, realising that he was in fact running out of options.
He tried to ignore Ezekiel, checking the clipboard in his hands once more, then sighed. "Look man, I don't know anything about any other boats being here, nor do I care all that much. If there is, then it'll be fishermen bringing their own boats to the lake, or supplies being delivered to my boss. Either way I'm only here to bring my passenger to my boss for his stupid show, and you're not them… so I'm gonna ask you once more nicely… Please leave me alone."
Ezekiel sighed, realising that it was better to not risk picking a fight with someone who was clearly an intern working for Chris, so common sense won out this time as Ezekiel walked off grumbling to himself.
He turned the corner, heading back to his stuff where he'd then slump to the ground, trying to think of another way for him to get to the resort without needing to swim all the way there.
He spent the next few minutes in silence, completely distracted by his own thoughts, and he was only interrupted by a pair of large arms wrapping around his torso, hoisting him up and crushing his smaller body in a huge bear hug.
"Ezekiel!" Owen greeted happily, being the source of the bear hug that was currently squeezing the life out of the Prairie Boy. "It's so good to see you again!"
"Ack!" Ezekiel choked out, struggling to breathe slightly, he thought he was used to having the life squeezed out of him after spending the last six months living with Lauren, but clearly he didn't realise that there was a massive difference between a Scary Girl who for all her strength, was only around the same size as him, and the massive behemoth that was Owen, who wasn't exactly a slouch in the strength department either…
"O-Owen… p-put m-me… d-down eh…" Ezekiel gasped weakly. "I… c-can't breathe…"
"Huh?" Owen blinked, before realising what he was doing, he gently set Ezekiel back onto the ground, before rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry dude, I'm just so psyched to see my friend again!" He cheered.
Ezekiel didn't respond for a moment, taking a moment to take some deep breaths back into his lungs, as the pain of his ribs and organs being crushed by Owen's bear hug started to fade away.
He took a moment to look at Owen, and he looked exactly the same as he always had whilst on the show, the only addition being the large backpack he was carrying.
"I-It's good to see you too eh…" Ezekiel admitted, smiling shyly. "But… what are you even doing here?"
"Well… Chris asked me to come help out with a challenge for tomorrow, so he's letting me stay at the resort for a couple of days…" Owen explained happily, opening his bag which turned out to NOT be full of clothes or essentials, but rather full of food, which he started digging into. "He did also say that I had to sign something that keeps me from leaking anything after what happened last season… something about that fight that got posted on social media…"
Owen then unwrapped a large sandwich that he had taken out of his bag, before stuffing the whole thing into his mouth. "Mmm… delicious…"
Ezekiel blinked for a moment as Owen ate, quickly realising that he meant the fight between Lauren and Axel that had happened so long ago… he'd completely forgotten about that incident if he was honest with himself.
And then he realised something else…
"Wait… you said you were heading to the resort?" Ezekiel asked Owen nervously, a plan beginning to form in his mind.
Owen finished his snack, before glancing at Ezekiel and nodding slowly. "Uh… yeah… Are you not?"
Ezekiel sighed, he didn't quite want to explain just yet, he'd rather wait until he was actually at the resort trying to find his missing girlfriend before explaining anything to do with the situation.
"I am, but unfortunately the knob manning the boat won't let me board, and I'm guessing you're the passenger they're waiting for." Ezekiel responded, glaring behind him at the corner where he knew led to where the boat was.
Owen thought to himself for a moment. "I mean… I guess I could help… but how?"
Ezekiel smirked and pointed at Owen's bag. "Remember Newfoundland? When you found me contorted inside that pan?"
Owen shuddered slightly at the reminder of that little incident after the Newfoundland challenge, he was fishing items out of the soup when he somehow had fished out Ezekiel, which given no one else had realised that Ezekiel was still stowing away on the plane at the time it ended up scaring Owen half to death.
"Uh… yeah…" Owen shuddered again. "I remember… I still don't know how you managed to do that?"
Ezekiel laughed awkwardly. "Yeah… I suppose if one good thing came out of World Tour, it showed me that I have a large pain tolerance eh."
He then shook his head, focusing once more. "Anyway, I was thinking… if they won't let me on the boat, maybe you can sneak me inside your bag? They never saw my bags so if I stay quiet, they won't notice me…"
After a moment of consideration Owen had to ask something, his tone sounding slightly unsure. "I'm getting the impression that you're not actually supposed to be there…"
Ezekiel just sighed. "Look, I'll explain once we're at the resort, but I really need to be over there!" He pleaded.
Owen thought on it for a moment, then shrugged, opening his bag fully and pushing the food to the side so it created some room for Ezekiel to squeeze into.
Ezekiel smiled for a moment, only for it to drop when Owen picked him up, trying to shove him into the bag roughly.
"H-Hey! Watch it yo! Ow! Owen!" He complained, feeling severely uncomfortable being shoved into the bag, almost contradicting his earlier statement about his supposed 'pain tolerance', but eventually Ezekiel was inside the bag, with Owen closing it up.
"I'll get you there little buddy! But when we get there I wanna know why I've had to do this…" Owen said to the bag now containing Ezekiel, oblivious to the fact that his new companion was in an uncomfortable position.
Owen hoisted the bag back onto his shoulders, before picking up Ezekiel's bags and heading around the corner, almost immediately spotting the boat and walking towards it.
"HEY!" Owen yelled at the intern, who groaned slightly to himself before checking the clipboard. "How's it going man!" Owen greeted happily, not noticing the intern's poor mood like Ezekiel had.
The intern skimmed his clipboard once, looked back at Owen, and sighed in relief. "Oh good, you're here." He forced a smile and unlocked the hatch to let Owen onto the boat. "As much as I like having a break from being tortured by McLean… I was beginning to get tired of waiting."
Owen just laughed, attempting to make casual conversation, setting both his and Ezekiel's bags down onto the floor as he sat down on one of the seats. "I feel ya man, I mean… doing the challenges in the past were hard enough, I could hardly imagine having to test them!"
The intern just rolled his eyes and suppressed a sigh, realising that this was going to be a long trip to the Playa Des Losers to drop this guy off. And then he'd had to do this tomorrow as well to get him to the island for the Baking Challenge Chris wanted him there for…
As the boat set off and Owen kept the intern distracted with a mostly one-sided conversation, Ezekiel sighed quietly from within the bag, having both felt and heard the boat beginning to move away from the docks and towards the cluster of islands where the show took place.
'I'm on my way Lauren…' Ezekiel thought silently to himself, a determined look on his face. 'I just hope you're doing alright… wherever you are right now…'
*Around the same time*
Lauren sighed quietly to herself as she walked quietly through the forest, deep in thought about what she was going to do next.
Her first idea of revenge hadn't gone amazingly well… sure she did technically cause someone's elimination, and despite Julia being able to flip it onto Nichelle she was at least glad that it did put the villainous influencer on edge…
And again, she could only imagine the rage, the sadness, the horror on Nichelle's face when she realised that she had been duped into quitting, and it pleased her… especially knowing that she was technically blameless for the elimination since it was supposed to be Julia being hit with the contract… not that it bothered her.
What did bother Lauren however was that the realisation that… well…
She didn't really have a plan for what she was gonna do to the others for revenge…
And that was an issue for the Scary Girl, how was she gonna make good on her promise when she didn't have a clue on how to go about it? Does she just try to sabotage people's chances at the game? Does she try and just humiliate them? Does she even try and physically harm them? She just didn't know...
Of course, she'd save that last one as a last resort… and only for the people she didn't like or care about that much, like Axel, Ripper or Julia…
Because as much as Lauren was pissed off about her elimination, their rejection of her trying her hardest to be normal… to try and show her abusive parents that she wasn't just the monster they thought she was…
Lauren did have to admit that a couple of the others from her cast had become something close to 'friends' for her… like Priya, Zee and Damien…
She didn't know if she actually wanted to harm her… 'friends'... in the same way that she would've six months ago. She would definitely scare them, it was her favourite pastime after all, and she always knew the limit of how far she could take her scares before it became too much…
She didn't once own her own attraction at her father figure's circus just because of her looks, she knew exactly how to push people's buttons in order to extract the most fear from them…
Lauren shook her head slightly as she kept walking, she knew that she could scare them still, even get them eliminated as revenge, they wouldn't hold it against her forever if they found out what she was doing right? She watched the show, plenty of other contestants did these things in the past and they were still liked after the show… right?
She just had to pick and choose who to really hurt, and who to only scare and get kicked off the show…
As she kept contemplating her thoughts, she started to pass by the campgrounds, being just out of view of anyone that could easily catch her…
That is… if any of them were actually outside, when they clearly weren't.
Lauren didn't pay attention to this, and almost completely walked past the camp until an explosion in the Mess Hall caught her off guard. She immediately turned with a shocked look on her face, only for it to turn to excitement as she saw the hole that had formed on the roof.
"Ooh, what happened?" She giggled creepily to herself as she skipped over, leaping up to grab the edge of the roof, quickly climbing up onto the top of the Mess Hall and shimmying over to the hole that had opened up, peering over the edge and into the interior of the Mess Hall to listen in on whatever had just happened.
She got there just in time to hear the end of Chris's explanation for the teams merging, and she could just about see the nervous looks on most of the contestants faces as they processed this information.
That was… apart from MK and Julia, the villainous duo both smirking at the turn of events, realising that they had managed to survive what looked like seemingly impossible odds at the start of the team phase of the competition.
"Oh it is on!" Julia proclaimed smugly, leaning forward with her head resting on her hands, looking almost arrogantly at Bowie, who looked around nervously at the realisation that he would need to win that individual immunity otherwise he was likely gone, especially with some of the members of the other team also still disliking him after what happened at the finale last season.
"Wait… already?" Lauren muttered quietly to herself in disbelief at the turn of events. "But only five of us have left… isn't it too early?"
It just didn't make any sense to her to merge after only five episodes… even her previous season didn't merge this early, and she was genuinely confused… did something happen to warrant this, or was Chris already bored with how the teams are looking and decided to make some changes?
After giving all eleven remaining contestants a moment to process that the merge was happening, as well as the Scary Girl currently spying on them, Chris began the second, and more intriguing part of his announcements.
"In addition to the merging of the teams, there will now be an immunity idol in play!" Chris began eagerly, pointing towards Chef who had pulled out a small golden bobblehead statue of Chris, the Co-Host flicking the head with a content smile on his face.
"This handsome specimen will be hidden somewhere on the island…" Chris continued eagerly as all eleven of the still competing teenagers looked at him with varying expressions. "He's beautiful, but not easy to find! It might be in a tree, or underground, or even inside something else…"
Lauren smirked deviously as she eyed up the immunity idol from her vantage point up on the roof of the Mess Hall, whilst she still didn't have too much of an idea of how she would sabotage the others in her quest for revenge, but stealing the immunity idol for herself would be a good start.
Plus the thought of watching the others aimlessly searching for the idol whilst their chances of survival in the game dwindled was amusing to her… it wasn't her usual brand of scaring people, but it would do…
"Can't be in here coach." Wayne smirked, knocking on his head with his fist, and Lauren could swear she heard nothing but a thick skull. "There's no room…"
"Wayne was in a medical journal…" Raj agreed, both Hockey Bros oblivious to the fact that it wasn't exactly a thing to be proud of, especially in Wayne's case with how he looked away from Chris with a proud look on his face.
"I believe that…" Chris responded with a deadpan look on his face, before turning to the other contestants with his usual smile back on his face. "As I was saying, whoever finds the idol can use it at an elimination ceremony to save themselves from being voted off."
As he spoke he glanced around at each of the contestants, noting their nervous expressions, outside of the confident looks on Julia and MK's faces. Chris tried to keep his expression neutral, wanting to save his surprise for the cheater until he got to explaining the challenge.
"Feel free to search for it during your free time…" Chris finished his idol explanation before gesturing towards the door. "But for now… meet me outside… It's challenge time!" He smirked before beginning to make his way outside, the contestants soon following him out.
As Chris was finishing his explanation, Lauren noticed Chef Hatchet in the centre of the campgrounds instructing one of the interns to hide the idol somewhere deep into the forest, wanting it to be somewhere that the others would never find it, the intern running off with the immunity idol as the others started to slowly make their way out of the Mess Hall.
Unfortunately for the Scary Girl, with everyone now heading onto the campgrounds to start their challenge, she was unable to follow the intern straight away without risking getting caught by the others, so she reluctantly stayed on the roof for the moment, ducking away from view so nobody would notice her as Chris began explaining the challenge.
And considering the moment they left the Mess Hall, Lauren saw Ripper and Axel beginning to make out, she would take hiding away for a change…
There were few things that could scare Lauren… but those two being in a relationship was just disturbing to her…
It definitely didn't help that she really didn't like Ripper, and the only reason her and Axel weren't at each other's throats was because Axel and Ezekiel were still civil with each other.
She was so deep in her thoughts that she missed the initial explanation of the challenge, although she saw MK stood on her own looking slightly uncomfortable as everyone else started to pair up. She looked confused at this, considering she thought MK and Julia would have been pairing up straight away…
Lauren watched as MK looked around with a lot of concern on her face as the others paired up, before turning back to Chris with a nervous look on her face.
"W-Why's it gotta be me who doesn't get a partner huh?" MK asked with a scared smile on her face, her expression fearful as she nervously tapped her fingers together.
Chris smiled as he knew his moment had arrived, and began to slowly explain exactly why MK was going to be alone for the challenge…
"Oh! If you prefer a partner, maybe you can work with one of the interns!" Chris proclaimed gleefully as he began to walk over to the nervous MK. "I know the perfect one!"
He faked a confused expression, looking around as he stopped in front of MK. "Hmm I don't see him… he's about your height, with nervous deceitful eyes, a moustache…" Chris explained the appearance of this 'intern', making hand gestures with every point he made.
"Where is he?" Chris then proclaimed, an evil smile appearing on his face as he pulled out a black marker pen from his pocket, taking off the cap and quickly scribbling a moustache onto MK's face, much to Lauren's amusement.
"There he is!" Chris smirked, glaring at MK who paled as she finally realised that she had been caught.
"Aw crap…" MK muttered to herself as the other contestants crowded around the pair, curious about what was going on.
"That's pretty impressive…" Chris continued, his grin widening as he noticed all of the Rat Faces in particular crowding around him and MK, and he knew that there would be fireworks from the opposing team as to the real reason why they had lost so many challenges in a row.
MK just rubbed her arm in embarrassment as Chris just continued to explain what she had done, knowing that she was most likely screwed unless something drastic happened during the challenge.
"Dressing up as an intern to get information on the challenges so your team could cheat…" Chris glared, letting out the secret to the Skunk Butts success in the last few challenges.
"WHAT!" Priya shouted, glaring menacingly at MK as she realised that this cheating may very well have been the reason why Millie, Emma and Nichelle had all been eliminated back to back to back.
"Interesting…" Lauren muttered to herself, still sitting on the roof of the Mess Hall hidden away from everyone else, at least this explained why he'd merged the teams even earlier than the previous season.
"There are two things in this world I can not stand!" Damien began, glaring at MK. "Cheaters! And double dutch…"
Zee's eyes just widened in disbelief, and Damien had to scramble to explain what he meant. "It's too many ropes…"
Thankfully for Damien, he was saved from having to explain further when Chris blew an air horn to signal the start of the challenge.
"More information will be given once you get to the lake" Chris instructed, before pointing upwards. "GO!"
Lauren watched as everyone grabbed their canoes and began to run towards the lake in their pairs… Everyone except for MK, and Lauren took a moment from her spot on the roof of the Mess Hall to smirk at the thief's misfortune.
Chris had also left for the Lake alongside Chef Hatchet in order to prepare for the contestants arrival for the next part of the challenge, which allowed Lauren to finally leap down onto the ground from the roof, now that she was finally alone again.
"Interesting… so MK cheated at the game… and there's an immunity idol…" Lauren muttered to herself, a creepy smile growing on her face. "Well then… I better try and grab that idol for myself, just so no one else can have it…"
She giggled for a moment before heading in the direction of where the intern had gone previously, hoping that she could catch up to them before the idol was successfully hidden away…
*Around 30 minutes later*
"Alright… we're here…" The tired voice of the intern stated aloud to himself as the boat parked up at the dock leading up to the Playa Des Losers resort.
"Awesome! I get to see my friends from the new cast again!" Owen exclaimed happily as he stepped off the boat, dragging all three of the bags with him, trying to be a little careful considering he was still hiding Ezekiel inside of his own bag.
The intern sighed and checked to see if everything was off the boat, before turning towards Owen once more. "Right… just remember what McLean told you… no leaking stuff on social media… and you need to be here first thing tomorrow morning so we can prepare you for your cameo in the challenge…" He explained once more, sounding like he was almost reading off of a script.
Owen smiled and nodded, he'd do his best not to forget that information… but at the same time he did want to at least send something to the rest of his friends back home like Izzy and Noah.
The intern didn't say anything else, instead sitting back down at his seat. Moments later the boat set off once more, heading back towards the main island where the competition would still be going on.
Owen watched the boat leave for a few moments, then when he was certain that they wouldn't be able to see him anymore, he picked up his bag and unzipped it, unceremoniously dumping Ezekiel out of it, some rubbish and some food falling out of the bag alongside the Prairie Boy.
Ezekiel yelped as he was dumped onto the wooden planks of the dock, groaning slightly from the impact, before wincing slightly as he felt the soreness of his body after having contorted himself into a cramped bag for over half an hour.
"Remind me to never do that again eh…" Ezekiel groaned softly as he stretched his limbs out, trying to get some feeling back into them, before slowly pushing himself off the floor, getting up onto his feet and looking at the resort.
Owen chuckled, before nudging his friend playfully. "Aww what's the matter little buddy? I thought you said you had a pain tolerance?" He teased, chucking again.
"I thought so too… I mean, I've done much worse than this eh?" Ezekiel responded, but he ultimately shrugged it off. "Ah well… it doesn't matter, it still worked."
Ezekiel picked up his bags, taking slightly more care with the bag filled with Lauren's things, as Owen swiftly pushed the food that had fallen onto the dock back into his own bag. They then started to slowly walk towards the resort's entrance, Ezekiel looking a little more apprehensive about being on the island now that he'd actually made it, compared to the happy go lucky expression on Owen's face.
"So uh…" Owen began awkwardly, chuckling slightly to himself as the pair left the dock. "You gonna tell me why you're here now?"
Ezekiel didn't answer for a moment, still deep in thought about how he was going to go about things now that he'd made it to the resort. All he knew about Lauren's whereabouts was that she was most likely somewhere on one of the three islands…
He was hoping that the worst case scenario of the three wasn't the one she was hiding on…
He REALLY didn't want to go back to Boney Island if he could help it, and especially NOT the Fun Zone…
The Prairie Boy was brought back to his senses by Owen clicking his fingers in front of his face loudly, almost flicking his face in the process.
"Hello… Ezekiel? You in there?" Owen looked a little more nervous.
"Huh? What?" Ezekiel blinked before snapping his eyes over to Owen. "Did you say something eh?"
"Uh yeah…" He chuckled nervously in response. "I asked why you were here…"
Ezekiel blinked again, then sighed, nodding slowly. They had gotten close to the resort's entrance now, and they had yet to hear any sign of the contestants that should've been there yet…
"Well… it's a bit of a long story…" Ezekiel began, looking away in the direction of where the main island was. "You remember Lauren, right?"
Owen thought for a moment then shook his head slowly. "I don't think so… I mean…" He then blinked in realisation. "Is she the purple haired one? Scary Girl? The girl Izzy became friends with?"
Ezekiel couldn't help but chuckle at his larger friend's naivety, and nodded with a small smile as they approached the doors to the resort's entrance. "Yeah, that's her… sometimes I forget the majority of the world know her as 'Scary Girl'... she's always just been Lauren to me."
He stopped before he could open the doors to the resort, and sighed slightly. "Well… I'll explain fully when we meet up again with the others… but to sum it up… something happened over the break between seasons… and she tried to force a change in personality in herself because of it." Ezekiel explained, his smile vanishing as he spoke.
"You mean… like how Izzy tried to become 'E-Scope' back during Total Drama Action?" Owen responded, looking slightly confused, yet he could see the clear concern on Ezekiel's face and knew this wasn't simply a quirky girl doing her own thing.
Ezekiel shook his head slowly, he remembered the crazy girl's 'switch in personalities' during that season, and this was nothing like it. "No… unfortunately it's nothing like what 'E-Scope' or 'Explosivo' were... she was clearly struggling and… well…" He sighed softly. "She got booted out first despite everything… she hurt herself mentally for months without telling anyone and she snapped… she disappeared from the resort and none of us have seen her since…"
"Oh…" Owen looked a lot more sombre after hearing his explanation, and he knew that there was a lot more going on that he hadn't said yet. "So… you're here to find her then?"
Ezekiel just nodded as they opened the doors leading into the main lobby of the resort. "Pretty much… she needs someone with her right now… even if she doesn't think she does…" He muttered quietly, almost whispering the last part to himself.
They walked through the main lobby, ascending the stairs towards the residential wing where their rooms would be…
"I'm probably gonna stay in Lauren's room like last time…" Ezekiel said quietly, heading towards the wing where the contestants had stayed during the last season.
Owen just nodded in response, turning to head into the opposite wing. "I guess we just drop off our things and meet back here to look for whoever else is here?"
"Yeah… I'll only be a minute…" Ezekiel smiled, before walking away towards his room, he quickly found the room that he'd stayed in last season with Lauren, taking a deep breath in order to prepare himself.
"Okay… let's see how bad the damage is eh…" Ezekiel muttered to himself, before opening the door and stepping into the room, only to pause at the amount of debris that she had left behind in the room.
Ezekiel just sighed, knowing that he'd be cleaning up at least some of it later, he dropped both his and Lauren's bag on a part of the floor that didn't have any debris nearby, before stepping out of the room and closing the door.
For now… it was time to meet up with the others once more…
Lauren had been searching for the immunity idol for around an hour now, and it was fairly obvious to her at this point that she had no idea where to look for the damn thing.
She had realised fairly quickly that she had no chance of catching up to the intern that had hidden the idol away, so instead she stopped bothering with looking for the person carrying it, and just started with a full scale search of the forest.
It was almost a shame that she was missing the challenge, as she really needed ideas on what to do about the others. And more importantly, she wanted to watch them get hurt or scared…
She sighed softly to herself as she combed through another bush for the idol, she really wished she had something to occupy her time with…
Her head just kept going in circles regarding this whole 'revenge' thing, and whilst only a small part of her wanted to just forget about it and go back to the resort, she knew she was in too deep now…
Besides… quitting now meant admitting that her abusive parents were right about her… and she wouldn't allow them to be right…
It was then that Lauren began to hear people heading in her direction, and she quickly scrambled up the nearest tree to hide from them. It was only when she got to a high enough vantage point where she was certain that she wouldn't be spotted that she realised that it was Priya and Caleb, who thankfully didn't seem to notice her.
She saw them heading into two different bushes, both seemingly doing the exact same thing that she had just been doing only moments ago. She saw Priya stick her head back through, hearing them both begin to talk to each other.
"Huh… nothing in shrub number one hundred and ninety seven…" Priya muttered loudly to herself, moving on to the next bush as Caleb popped out from his with a soft grin on his face.
"Chris did say that it would be hard to find." Caleb responded, looking over towards the path that they were currently looking through, and Lauren noticed that they were heading in a different direction to the way that she'd just come from. "It might take a while…"
A plan began forming in the Scary Girl's mind, instead of just simply getting away from them and continuing her own search, she was going to follow them from above, just in case either Caleb or Priya ended up finding the immunity idol. Then she'd try to move in swiftly and steal it from them, even knock them both out if it meant that she wouldn't be caught…
Lauren knew that she should be capable of taking Priya out by surprise, she wouldn't want to, not after she'd realised that she did like having someone like her as a 'friend' over the last few months, and even if her stalking did end up completely alienating herself from the others she'd still consider her a 'friend'...
The other reason she'd need to though was that considering the training her parents put her through, Lauren knew that Priya was probably one of two people on the island who could realistically take her on in a fight. And whilst Lauren still felt like she could win with her almost unnatural strength at times, Priya wasn't exactly a slouch either…
But then there was Caleb to consider, as Lauren didn't actually spend much time 'researching' Caleb like she had the various other members of her cast whilst trying to become 'normal'... because honestly…
Caleb was kinda boring in Lauren's eyes… even as a normal person…
However it meant that she didn't know how strong he actually was, she remembered him frequenting the gym when they were all at the Playa Des Losers resort last season, but outside of the resort she didn't really try to stalk him.
She carried on listening to the pair, trying to gather more information on them whilst watching out for if they spotted the idol.
"No worries…" Priya smiled nervously, looking quite flustered as they moved on to their next respective bushes. "One time… my parents made me find a needle in an actual haystack… they said it would teach me the patience to win reality TV show challenges." She explained with a smile that looked just a little too fake in Lauren's eyes.
"That actually sounds kinda fun…" Caleb replied smoothly as he walked out of the bushes, moving towards a rather large rock in order to check underneath it. "I didn't get to have any fun until I finished my homework." He continued as he lifted it above his head, only to find nothing.
"When you're studying to get into MIT… the homework never ends…" Caleb finished, his expression looking almost saddened.
Priya ran up to him with a lovesick expression on her face, one that Caleb didn't seem to notice, but Lauren sure as hell did. Priya giggled softly as she clutched her hands together as she looked at him dreamily. "Okay… maybe I'd take the haystack…"
Caleb laughed as he threw the rock away, turning to face Priya. "I thought so…" He grinned, before frowning, looking deep in thought. "Wow… our parents are both a little much huh…" He gestured with his hands as Priya frowned at the comparison.
"Yeah…" Priya stood up straighter as she began to realise the same thing, although it quickly turned into another smile as she looked up at Caleb again. "I guess we have that in common…"
Caleb chuckled again as they began walking further down the path, continuing to look for the idol. "Yeah… I guess we do…" He smiled again, although he looked deep in thought like he was beginning to realise something important.
Back up in the trees however, Lauren looked shocked at what she had just heard. Taking a minute in order to process the conversation she'd just heard before she would follow them again.
"There is no way I just heard him compare doing homework to brutal reality TV training…" Lauren muttered, her tone gradually getting a little more annoyed as she realised just how weird that sounded. Something in her mind snapped, and she really felt annoyed at that comment, even if it wasn't intending on hurting anyone.
"What would he say to what MY parents did to me! Just pat me on the back and go 'I feel you, my parents always scolded me when I was young too'." Lauren almost growled, her eyes twitching as she stared at the retreating Caleb and Priya, almost mocking Caleb when she did her 'impression' of him.
She watched them head further into the forest with an angry glare, taking a moment to let out some rage before she did something drastic, even if it would be fun to her.
"Caleb may have had strict parents, but at least it sounds like they want him to do well in life… Mine didn't give a shit about what I wanted! Priya may have been forced to train for a reality show most of her life… But at least some of that might have ended up being fun for her!" Lauren ranted, her voice raising slightly as her anger grew, she was thankful that they had moved away from the area she was in, knowing that she would have easily been caught if they hadn't.
Tears began to slowly form in Lauren's eyes as she continued ranting to herself. "I'd have taken either of those… but no! I just had to suffer through countless beatings! Being verbally abused and called a 'Psychopath' and a 'Demon' by my own family! They didn't have to worry every night if they would even wake up the next morning!"
Lauren started breathing heavily the more she continued ranting, she clung onto the tree branch she'd been previously standing on with all of her strength, just so she didn't fall as she felt herself panicking.
"A-And even after all these years… they still try to control me… I… I just want it all to end…" She finished ranting, breaking out into more sobs, grateful that nothing could see her from where she was currently sitting.
She took a few minutes to calm herself down slowly, and Lauren was thankful that of all of the things that she had forgotten to take from her brief trip back home to swap out her outfits… it was her makeup bag… because she knew for a fact that it would be running badly right now.
Home… she really wanted to just go home and forget about this season…
She missed Ezekiel…
Lauren had to slap herself gently in order to block out that trail of thought, she couldn't let herself be distracted anymore, she needed to keep going.
She slowly pushed herself back onto her feet, before beginning to jump from tree to tree, trying to catch back up to Priya and Caleb, more determined than before to find that Immunity Idol before they could.
She caught up within a couple of minutes, seeing them still searching through several bushes as they kept talking, and Lauren found herself reluctantly listening in once more.
"Exactly!" Priya exclaimed happily as Caleb disappeared into one of the bushes. "Wow… I didn't think I could like you more than I do…" She said dreamily to herself, before gasping in shock as she realised what she'd just admitted to in front of her crush.
Caleb's eyes were wide as he popped out from his own bush, looking directly at last season's winner. "Sorry what?"
Priya turned to him with an extremely scared look on her face. "WHAT?"
Caleb however only grinned at her in response, although he looked a little confused. "I didn't hear what you said…"
This only caused Priya to laugh hysterically to herself. "That's so funny I didn't even hear what YOU said!" She laughed nervously again.
Caleb just chuckled again as he searched through a couple of more bushes as Priya mentally slapped herself for the slip up that had almost cost her.
Lauren meanwhile found herself even more dumbfounded by the new piece of information that she found about the pair…
'Really?' The Scary Girl thought to herself as she looked down at the two of them from the trees. 'You really friendzoned Damien in between seasons just for this guy?'
She smirked deviously, finding the current situation hilarious, and it almost made her forget the mental trauma that the pair had unknowingly put her through only minutes ago…
Almost… because Lauren was definitely going to use this to her advantage at some point…
She continued to watch them, noticing them walking up to each other in the clearing, looking just about done with their brief search of the forest for the immunity idol.
"I don't think we're gonna find the idol today…" Caleb said calmly as the two walked up to each other, he then pointed in the direction of the lake where the challenge would still be ongoing. "We should probably head back…"
"M-Maybe we should try again tomorrow?" Priya smiled at him, looking flustered.
"Deal." Was Caleb's simple response, pointing at her with a flirtatious tone in his voice, the pair of them looking into each other's eyes for just a little too long.
Lauren watched with her creepy smile still in place as Caleb and Priya started walking away once more, and whilst she was tempted to follow them in order to see how the challenge ended since it was apparently still ongoing, she found herself too mentally drained from the past few minutes…
She climbed down the tree back onto solid ground, and promptly collapsed against it for a few moments, thankfully out of sight of any cameras.
"So… Caleb and Priya huh…" Lauren chuckled sinisterly to herself, it seems like she found something to focus on as part of her revenge beyond the idol. "Interesting…"
Lauren slowly got up, beginning to head in the opposite direction from where the pair had gone, instead deciding to head back to the cave she was 'living' in to rest for the moment, still feeling drained for the moment.
She could always go and look for the idol in the evening, and she might even be able to eavesdrop on some more of the contestants if she was lucky enough. She just hoped that it wouldn't be as taxing as this conversation was.
"Wait? A baking challenge? Are you serious?" Ezekiel laughed as he and Owen walked down the hallways of the resort towards the outdoor pool area, where they suspected that the four eliminated contestants were.
"Yeah! That's the challenge Chris wanted me on, something about me being the best judge of character for food?" Owen responded, before chuckling along with Ezekiel. "But honestly, I think I'm only here because he knows I'm the least picky eater from the whole cast."
"I guess so…" Ezekiel shrugged, it was probably more so for 'popularity reasons', but Owen's reasoning also made enough sense to him, so he wasn't going to argue with it.
They kept walking a little bit further, eventually beginning to hear sounds from outside. They smiled, having finally found the other contestants, and opened the doors to the pool area, only for their faces to drop upon what they were witnessing.
"I SAID NO CHASE! JUST STOP!" Emma shouted furiously as she tried to storm away towards the tiki bar, with said influencer trying to follow her looking completely unfazed, with Millie just sat on the deckchairs looking completely fed up with their arguing.
"Aww come on Emma… but I've got this awesome collab we can do!" Chase tried to reason, holding up the camera that he'd taken from the island, having yet to put it down since he'd arrived at the resort several days ago.
Emma stopped and turned around with a hateful expression. "Chase! Just! Stop! It's over… it's been over for months! I don't wanna date you! I don't wanna even collab with you! And if it wasn't for Total Drama I wouldn't even wanna see you again! Just… leave me alone…" She sighed at the end and walked away, not even noticing the two newcomers.
Chase just sighed, for a moment seeming genuinely regretful, before perking up again. "Ah well… maybe she just needs more time before coming back to the Chasester!" He smirked to himself, posing into the camera as Millie just rolled her eyes from where she was sat.
"You're such an embarrassment…" Millie muttered to herself, before looking past Chase towards the doors where Owen and Ezekiel were standing, gasping in shock. "Wait… WHAT!"
Emma and Chase both looked at Millie for a moment, then followed her gaze over to the other two. "Owen? Ezekiel!" They both gasped, all three of the eliminated contestants running over to the pair.
"You actually showed up?" Millie asked Ezekiel, looking a little concerned about the situation, remembering what Ezekiel had said a couple of days ago.
Ezekiel nodded, genuinely thankful for their support "Thanks eh, b-but promise me you'll keep me up to date, I'm about one bad situation away from making my way to that island myself!"
Millie laughed nervously in response to that. "W-We'll make sure it doesn't come to that…"
Ezekiel just smiled nervously, nodding slightly. "W-Well… I guess that bad situation came about…"
Millie winced. "Oh god… what happened?" She asked, clear concern in her voice.
Ezekiel sighed quietly to himself. "Well… apparently the other day there was a 'either or' challenge…"
Emma scowled immediately at the mention of that particular challenge. "Oh I remember that challenge alright…"
Ezekiel looked at Emma, his expression looking a little more nervous since she was there for the 'Funeral Home' reveal. "Um… d-did you hear Lauren's comment then…"
Emma shuddered at the reminder, a small frown on her face whilst Millie also looked slightly uncomfortable, having been told about that particular challenge after Emma's elimination. Chase on the other hand just shrugged, not seeming too bothered by the comment.
"Eh, she says creepy stuff all the time… what makes skeletons in her closet in a funeral home any different…" Chase responded.
Ezekiel glared at Chase for a moment, not wanting to hear any insults towards his girlfriend from Chase of all people, even if he wasn't exactly wrong about Lauren, but he liked it about her.
"Um… maybe because she never said those things…" Ezekiel almost growled.
All four of the others blinked, not understanding what he meant, and in Owen's case just in plain confusion at where the conversation was going.
"Wait, but there was video proof of it?" Emma looked confused, then her eyes widened. "Hold on… are you implying it's been spliced?"
Ezekiel nodded, his annoyance now directed towards Chris rather than any of the others in the resort. "Yeah… I was there when she did her whole 'would you rather' question, and not once did she mention where we were living… No way was she gonna give that away when her abusers were looking for her…"
Millie and Owen widened their eyes in shock, whilst Chase looked indifferent towards his comment. Meanwhile Emma had her hand on her chin, looking deeply in thought about the video that had played during the challenge she'd been eliminated in.
"Now that you mention it… I think something was off about the audio in that clip… and the video might have been edited as well to match what she was saying…" Emma muttered to them, still thinking back to the clip of Lauren during the challenge.
"No skeletons in my closet!" Lauren announced gleefully, the audio then sounded the slightest bit off but in their concern for her next words none of the cast registered that. "I mean… there are, but only because I live in a funeral home…"
"But her video was extremely glitchy… so maybe it was to cover up the editing?" Emma guessed, shrugging her shoulders, mostly because she was unsure if it was genuine or if Scary Girl just somehow gave the effect off, she just didn't know when it came to her.
Chase nodded in agreement. "Well she's not wrong, I mean… Emma was our old editor for our vids back when it was 'Three Guys and a Girl in a Beach House'." He smiled at Emma, only for her to turn away from him with a loud "Hmph!"
"Well… Damien and I seem to think that Chris might have got someone to follow us home for the information, because Lauren and I never told anyone about where she really lived until he called me asking about it after that challenge." Ezekiel explained, looking somewhat upset since he knew what would end up happening after the season aired.
"Hey, not to go off topic or anything…" Owen interrupted, looking around the pool area of the resort. "But um… five challenges have already aired right? And I know Sca… I mean… Lauren isn't here but… there's still only three of you right now…"
Ezekiel looked around and realised he was right, meanwhile Chase and Millie gave each other concerned glances, whilst Emma chuckled nervously at the question.
"Yeah… so um… Nichelle supposedly got given a contract yesterday for a movie that she quit the game for…" Emma began, chuckling again, and it was clear to the pair that something had gone wrong with that. "And well… the thing is that… um, it turned out someone faked making the contract to get her out and now she's sooo incredibly pissed off… personally, I'd avoid her for a couple days." She explained to them.
"Do we know who made this fake?" Ezekiel asked.
"Nope! No clue! Although I'd bet on it being Julia who did it, given those two were butting heads the whole season before I got kicked off…" Emma replied, trailing off into a grumble at the mention of her own elimination.
"Ouch…" Owen winced, not knowing what else to say to this.
"Yeah… word of advice… don't mention Hollywood at all. She'll be super pissed if you do…" Emma warned them, to which both Owen and Ezekiel nodded.
"Speaking of people who should or shouldn't be here…" Millie looked at Owen. "I understand Ezekiel's here to find our missing Scary Girl… but why are you here?"
Ezekiel suppressed a knowing smile as Owen smiled happily in response, jutting his chest out and pointing proudly to himself. "Oh me? I'm going back on the show tomorrow."
"YOU'RE WHAT!"
End Chapter
Author's Note: This chapter was a prime example as to why I needed to rewatch these episodes again before planning out the chapter, because Lauren's sections went through a few changes purely because I thought the bear found MK before the main challenge, and I'd planned her first section to be about her overhearing the cheating reveal and setting a bear on MK as 'revenge', but instead it turns out that the bear was only there for the challenge, so it became the idol reveal instead.
Originally as well I wasn't going to show how Ezekiel had gotten back to the resort, but then I remembered how Owen had cameoed in this season, and whilst he could have easily made it to the island and back within a single day, I thought it'd be better to have him make a minor appearance in the story.