What Would You Do to Keep a Secret?

Zoey Adams was asleep in her bed, clearly in the middle of a happy dream given the huge grin on her face. However, the redhead was taken out of whatever dream she was having by the feeling of someone hopping onto her bed. Zoey tried to pretend to still be asleep so she could get back into dreamland, but the feeling of weight on the end of her bed told her that whoever it was wasn't leaving, so she decided to open her eyes and see what was going on. Zoey rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, revealing the culprit to be Jo Bouchard, who had an uncharacteristically wide smile on her face.

"What do you want, Jo?" Zoey asked grouchily, causing Jo to raise her hands up in mock surrender, making Zoey realize that Jo was holding some pieces of what looked like paper in her right hand.

"Woah, relax! Can't a girl say good morning to her teammate?" Jo asked, causing Zoey to raise an eyebrow.

"Ummm…we're not teammates. In fact, I don't like you," Zoey responded bluntly before trying to go back to sleep, but Jo responded to this by scooting closer to the red-head, and showing off what she was holding.

"Are you sure about that? Because…I think I have something that'll change your mind," Jo responded, handing what was in her hands to Zoey, which turned out to be photos. When Zoey looked at the photos, the color drained from her face, her heart rate increased, and she broke out in a cold sweat. Jo smirked when she saw that Zoey's hands were shaking so much that she had inadvertently crumpled up the sides of the photos.

"Wh…wh…when did you take these?" Zoey stammered out, having difficulty breathing from how nervous and scared she was. Jo took the pictures back before putting them in her hoodie pocket and responding.

"Oh, I just happened to pass by last night, and saw you in this…compromising situation. For someone who was willing to do all this without the cameras on, you must REALLY not want this to get out there. I mean…imagine if your parents saw these," Jo said with false concern before Zoey jumped out of bed and attempted to grab the pictures.

"Jo, please! You don't understand! My parents could disown me for this, and my church could kick me out! Nobody can know about this!" Zoey exclaimed, tears threatening to come out of her eyes as she continued attempting to reach for the pictures, but Jo continued pushing her head and hands away. However, before Zoey could burst into tears, Jo patted her on the head and forced her to look up at her.

"Well, if you're that desperate to keep this a secret, I'm sure we can work something out."

"W…what do you mean?"

"Well, I was thinking about my need for an alliance, and I think you'd make the perfect alliance buddy. You just have to do everything I say and vote for whoever I want. You do that, and I'll rip up the photos and nobody will know," Jo offered. Zoey, while wiping her eyes dry, looked at Jo, conflicted at her offer. Jo proved that she wasn't exactly trustworthy, but Jo was also someone who didn't make idle threats, so Zoey knew that if she didn't help Jo out, she definitely would have her secret exposed. Zoey sighed, realizing that she had a better chance of keeping her secret working with Jo than being against her.

"Fine," Zoey mumbled, encouraging Jo to grab her hand and shake it. Zoey couldn't even bother to look at Jo before the jock got up from the bed and gave Zoey another pat on the head, Zoey fighting every urge to push Jo's hand away from her.

"Pleasure doing business with you," Jo said before walking out of the cabin and heading to the dining hall for breakfast. Zoey sat up on her bed, looking at the closed door in front of her, still shaking from the events that just transpired.

Several Hours Later…

Zoey was absolutely miserable. When Jo said she wanted Zoey to be her teammate, what the jock really meant was that the redhead was going to be her personal servant for the challenges. The challenge today was that the participants had to ride karts to try and tag certain places on the island with their insignia using spray paint. However, not only did Jo force Zoey to drive her cart, but Zoey also had to tag certain places with both her and Jo's insignia. Zoey glared back at Jo, who was fanning herself with the pictures she was blackmailing the redhead with.

"Zoey?" Zoey's heart fluttered when she heard the gentle patter of Dawn Riverfall's voice. Zoey turned around to face the bleached blonde girl with the first real smile on her face since the morning.

"Oh! Hey, Dawn."

"Are you doing alright, Zoey? I couldn't help but notice your aura today has been darker than usual. In fact, since you woke up, your aura has been black, especially when you're near Jo," Dawn explained as if it was the most obvious thing ever. Zoey stifled a chuckle at Dawn's talk about aura and also stifled the fact she had no idea what her aura being black meant.

"Oh…yeah. Jo's giving me a hard time, but-!" Zoey attempted to respond before she yelped in pain after feeling something sharp jab her in the arm. When she turned around, Zoey noticed that Jo had poked her with a big stick, causing her to glare at the jock. "Is the stick really necessary!?"

"Well, you're slacking off while I have a challenge to win, so…yeah, it is necessary. Now, go tag my logo onto the final landmark," Jo ordered, shooing her away with her hand before poking her with the stick again. Zoey's eyes twitched in irritation, her fists clenched while she tried to bite her tongue to prevent any insults from coming out. However, Jo wasn't done prodding her, as she literally prodded the redhead with the stick again. "Less twitching and more spraying!" Jo ordered. Before Zoey could paint anything, Dawn stomped over to the jock and glared down at her.

"Jo, I don't know what you're doing to Zoey, but you need to stop. Zoey's aura is becoming black, and-" Dawn attempted to explain before Jo cut her off by poking her with her stick.

"Oh blah, blah, blah. Spare me your hippie aura crap. Zoey made a deal with me, and she's just following the terms of the deal. Now why don't you get lost and mind your own business?" Jo asked before pushing her down to the ground, causing Dawn's face to land in the dirt. While Jo laughed, Dawn pulled her face out of the dirt and coughed while trying to catch her breath and get some of the dirt off her face. Zoey, seeing what Jo had just done to Dawn, glared at the jock with her pupils shrinking more every second, and after a whole day of essentially being Jo's servant, grabbed the jock's can of yellow spray paint, and threw it right at Jo's face.

"OW!" Zoey then grabbed her can of pink spray paint and began pulling herself up to the top of the landmark, spraying it with her insignia. Right after Zoey jumped down to the ground, and helped Dawn up to her feet, Chris McLean, the host, came riding in on his jetpack.

"And Zoey wins immunity!" Chris exclaimed, causing Zoey and Dawn to begin celebrating, hugging each other while other competitors, Lightning, Cameron, and Scott, looked on in a mixture of annoyance and respect. Jo, meanwhile, who had sustained a black eye and a small cut on the side of her eye, glared at Zoey. Jo pulled herself out of the cart, stomped over to one of the cameras, and pulled the pictures out of her pocket. Chris, seeing an opportunity for more drama, allowed this to happen while Zoey began shaking out of fear.

"I tried to give you a way out of this, Zoey, but since you didn't want to listen," Jo said before showing off the pictures to the camera, revealing images of Zoey and Dawn late at night sitting close to each other, holding hands, and kissing each other. Lightning and Scott looked shocked that Zoey and Dawn appeared to be in a relationship, Dawn was shocked that her secret with Zoey had been exposed, and Cameron simply looked on with wide eyes, already suspecting that there was something more between Dawn and Zoey given their ever-growing closeness. Zoey, meanwhile, was in a state of shock and panic. The cold sweat had returned, along with the shaking and the tears in her eyes. Dawn attempted to put a comforting hand on Zoey's shoulder, but the redhead high-tailed it and ran away from the participants, heading right into the forest, her hands covering her teary eyes.

"Oh…tough luck, Fairy Princess," Scott remarked condescendingly towards Dawn before laughing at her. However, Dawn looked at Scott with an uncharacteristic glare on her face with an unusual fire in her eyes. While Scott was laughing at Zoey's dismay, Dawn stomped over to the redneck, and kicked him right in the crotch so hard, that a bolt of electricity traveled all throughout his body.

"Timber…," was all Scott grunted out before he fell to the floor, gripping his crotch as if it would fall off if he didn't. Everyone looked shocked and a little terrified at Dawn when she looked up and glared at them. Even Jo backed away slightly, not used to seeing someone as calm and at peace as Dawn go into a rage like that. However, before anyone could try and calm her down, Dawn ran off in the same direction Zoey had, intent on trying to find her.

Five Minutes Later…

After minutes of running through the mutated forest of Camp Wawanakwa, Dawn finally found the redhead that she was looking for. Dawn's heart wrenched when she heard the loud sobs coming from her girlfriend. When she walked past the tree she was standing behind, Dawn immediately sat next to the downtrodden Zoey and gave her a hug, which Zoey immediately returned while continuing to cry on Dawn's shoulder.

"There, there, Zoey. It'll be OK," Dawn soothingly whispered while running her hands through the dyed red hair of the indie girl.

"No, it won't. My life is ruined now. My parents are going to kick me out of the house and the church is going to ruin my reputation, and I'm going to be shunned by my town!" Zoey bawled out while continuing to press her wet eyes into Dawn's sweater-covered shoulder. Dawn nodded in understanding, continuing to run her hand through Zoey's hair and beginning to rock her back and forth to try and calm her down.

"Your aura is still a very dark blue," Dawn stated, causing Zoey to look up from the spiritualist's now wet shoulder, sitting up while continuing to look into Dawn's blue eyes. If Zoey hadn't been so miserable she would've easily gotten lost in those gorgeous eyes of her girlfriend.

"What does that mean?"

"It means that you're overworked, sensitive, and tired. You're overworked mentally because of how much you've done to try and hide your sexuality from your family. You're sensitive to the thoughts of what could happen if you come back with this information revealed. And you're tired. Tired of hiding your true self, and tired of being scared." Zoey looked at Dawn with her tear-soaked eyes widened, before she looked down at the grass below her, taking a couple of very deep breaths before responding.

"Wow…you know me so well," Zoey admitted with a light chuckle. Dawn was happy that she had pulled Zoey out of her miserable state, even if it was likely temporary.

"Zoey, I know you're afraid, and there's nothing wrong with being afraid. But I want you to know that no matter what your parents say, no matter what your church says, and no matter what your town says, I will always love you. The time I've spent with you since coming to Total Drama has been some of the best I've had in my life. You're a beautiful soul that makes me happy with just the sight of your smile, the sound of your laugh, and the smell of your sweet apple perfume. If the entire world was against you, I'd still be by your side, because you're my soulmate and I'll never let you face these hardships alone," Dawn soliloquized, not taking her sky-blue eyes off of Zoey. Zoey, meanwhile, looked at her girlfriend in disbelief at what she had said, though she began to shake as tears began spilling out of her eyes and down her cheeks again. Before Dawn could ask what was wrong, Zoey jumped back into Dawn's arms and planted a powerful kiss on Dawn's lips. Dawn, after recovering from the initial shock of the surprising kiss, immediately reciprocated, holding onto the back of Zoey's shirt so that she didn't fall over while they kissed. After almost two straight minutes of kissing, both released each other's lips as the need for oxygen became too great to ignore.

"Thank you, Snow Angel. I…I really needed to hear that," Zoey breathed out after a minute of regaining oxygen.

"Of course, Zoey. Oh! Your aura has changed!" Dawn exclaimed while smiling at the once again confused Zoey.

"Is that good?"

"Very good! Your aura's become red!"

"And…that means?" Zoey felt bad sometimes about not knowing what Dawn talked about when she talked about auras. Hopefully, the two would have the time in the future for Dawn to teach her about auras and their meanings.

"You're passionate, strong, and courageous. You're passionate about who you are and your love for me, you're strong because of your growing willingness to try and be yourself without listening to what others think when it comes to your sexuality, and you're courageous for the same reason," Dawn explained with a smile. Zoey wiped the remaining tears from her eyes and cheeks before sitting down next to Dawn, the two put their arms around each other as they noticed the sunset, painting the forest in an orange hue.

"I'm still a little afraid of what's going to happen once the show's done," Zoey whispered, slightly tightening her grip on Dawn's hand, which the bleach-blonde spiritualist responded by squeezing Zoey's hand and putting it on her lap.

"Like I said, Zoey, no matter what happens, I'll be standing by your side the entire way. I love you," Dawn responded, causing Zoey's soft smile to grow, leaning her head on the spiritualist's shoulder.

"I love you too, Snow Angel," Zoey said before planting a kiss on Dawn's pale cheek. The two decided to continue sitting in the forest, watching the sunset as the tensions around them seemed to melt away. They would deal with Jo and Scott during the elimination ceremony, but for right now, they wanted to just enjoy each other's company, something that they couldn't do enough for their liking before today. The thoughts of the future occasionally wormed their way into Zoey and Dawn's minds, but all it took to assuage those fears was simply looking into each other's eyes. Zoey realized that while her life had the opportunity to change in a major way when she got back home, as long that Dawn was by her side, the Indie Chick was sure that she could handle whatever changes happened in her life, negative or positive.