"Check out this sky!" Zee exclaimed. "It's like we're flying through an orange dreamsicle!"
Zee's words were hard to decipher, as he shouted them while Athena hurtled them straight into the sky, shooting from their launch pad. Athena didn't respond anyway, as her focus was completely aligned on her goals.
Confessional - Zee
"I always thought vanilla was the ice cream flavor that makes the most sense to fly through, 'cause the vanilla tufts are like clouds. Get it? I've been saying this for years, man."
End of confessional
Matcha hurtled into the sky with determination in her eyes.
Confessional - Matcha
"Only one more round to prove that I can win even with a single teammate."
End of confessional
Screeching and cheering with excitement, Londyn soared up into the sky with the help of the powerful fan that Iko and Brook found. She flew by Team Fire's hot air balloon, now carrying Jill and Cody together. Their ascent was much calmer than any of the other teams'.
"Thanks for sticking up for me back there."
"Sure, Cody. I'm just so sick of the lack of teamwork on my team."
"Is it tough being on a team with Queen and Holden?"
"Very. The others are fine, and I was close with Athena until," she sighed, "until recently I guess."
"What's up with that? You talking about her mugshot?"
"Yeah, the mugshot. She told me one thing about herself back during the art challenge, which I'm gonna leave private, but then she said something completely different to our team last night when MK got eliminated. It's just really got me in a weird position with her. Not to mention how she's been talking about Iko; he and I just started going out."
"What's she been saying?" Cody wondered.
"Stuff like I can't-"
"Look out!" Cody blurted all of the sudden.
Jill turned and screamed, her and Cody holding each other for dear life as Athena's plane flew straight above them. Aerodynamic as it was, she zoomed right past the balloon, piercing it all the way across its side.
"No!" Jill cried.
"Zee, we need to finish the job! Fire the sodas!"
"Do I have to?" he moaned. "They're my sugary little friends!"
"Do it!"
Sadness in his eyes, Zee pressed a button, opening up the tiny cannons that once housed potatoes. Cans of soda shot through other sides of the balloon as Athena flew around it, poking holes in it. With that, their balloon began to descend, luckily not very quickly. Jill stared at Athena flying by with a mixture of confusion, hurt, and anger in her radiant, emerald eyes. Athena didn't even bother looking at her, instead flying off to continue the round.
"That didn't feel ooey-gooey in my tummy," Zee murmured.
"Gonna have to suck it up, buddy! We need that win, don't we?"
"It just felt dirty. Plus, Cody's my real teammate."
"Right now, I'm your real teammate, Zee! This moment right now is what matters, put everything else out of your head!"
Zee shut his eyes tight, rocking in his secondary seat. "Okay... don't think about an alpaca, don't think about an alpaca, don't think about an alpaca... Oh, Athena, I'm sorry! I can see its British-looking face and hilarious shape clear as day!"
Without him able to see, she rolled her eyes and frowned.
Matcha and Londyn soared by in opposite directions, collecting rings as they went. Londyn let out more cheers, while Matcha locked in, laser-focused on her objective.
"Nope," Athena uttered, thrusting her shuttle aside, causing Zee to yelp, and spill and lose a soda against the side of the plane.
"Aw..."
Way down below, Kobe shut his eyes and winced at the sight of Zee's can coming straight for him. The can meshed right into his afro without making a sound, leaving Kobe glancing around and wondering where the can went and how it could have disappeared.
Athena hurtled through a line up of rings, letting them roll up her arm as she zipped by. Flying by, down and to the right was Londyn, collecting rings of her own.
"Zee, shoot a can at her!"
Zee bit his lip, sweat beads under his green hat as he reached for the fire button on his console. He retracted his finger. "I don't wanna."
"What?"
"I don't wanna. She didn't do anything wrong."
Athena shrugged. "Alrighty, I'll do it myself."
She swiveled the plane, shooting past another row of rings and set a course for Londyn. The girl's happy-go-lucky nature diminished at the throttling shuttle coming at her. She peered behind herself, then gasped, in a frenzy as she desperately bobbed her winged arms around, but Athena banged the side of her plane against her. Zee cringed.
Londyn was completely discombobulated, sent screaming as she plummeted down. Athena zoomed her plane in the direction of Matcha, collecting more rings as this went on.
Meanwhile, Jill and Cody braced for impact as their hot air balloon came soaring down for the ground, barely flying over the leafless, crooked trees.
"What do we do?" Cody panicked.
"We've just gotta stay in the chair! That'd be better than falling from-"
Low enough, a branch caught Cody's loose shoelace, tugging him out of the chair. He let out a cry of dismay, then proceeded to crash against multiple branches on his way to thudding to the forest floor. Jill watched with her emerald eyes peeking between her hands over her face.
Elsewhere, Londyn yelped and screeched with terror, barely able to catch herself with her wings, flapping them vigorously as she slowed down closer to the ground. She still came in too hot, her feet unable to run as fast as the speed she'd accumulated, causing her to collapse face first into the dirt. Worse yet, all the rings she'd collected had gone rolling away after her impact. She let out a moan of pain as she laid still.
Zee chewed at his fingernails as he stared over the side of the Team Air plane, eyeing the respective scenes of Londyn and Cody's wipeouts. Athena gunned the shuttle towards Matcha.
"Your turn," Athena peeped.
She zoomed through the sky with the power of a superhero taking off. Matcha could tell what was coming, then pulled a lever to make herself go even faster.
"Fire the sodas, Zee! For real this time!"
"I don't think I can do that, yo," he whimpered.
"It's part of the challenge! There's no rule against it! Go ahead!"
He let out a moan, then pulled cans out of his pockets to load into their cannons.
Matcha furrowed her face with irritation as cans pounded the side of her shuttle. Before long, Athena flew up from below to barge against the bottom of Matcha's plane.
"Hey!" she yelled.
Confessional - Matcha
"Did she forget that we're both on the Dropout team? Me and her are gonna have words," she growled.
End of confessional
Continuously, Athena and Matcha rocketed past the rings, collecting them as they went. Their two planes swished through clouds immersed in the orange sky for a while longer, until Mercutio announced down below, "Time's up! Teams Earth and Air, go ahead and land."
After a wait allowing the two planes to return to their launch pads, Mercutio made another loudspeaker announcement.
"This just in: the winner of round three is Team Air! With all three rounds concluded, Teams Earth, Water, and Air earn invincibility for the night thanks to earning the most rings in at least one round. Team Fire, on the other hand..." On the Team Fire launch pad, Jayshawn, Damien, Holden, and Queen expressed their disdain with the coming announcement. "For not winning a single round, nor collecting any more than two rings, you will be facing elimination tonight."
"Who didn't see that coming?" Damien muttered.
Mercutio gathered up with the contestants behind the dorms once again, beside the roll-out dumpster. This time, Tracy, Fish, Londyn, and Cody weren't present.
"Teams, today was an interesting performance from everyone here. Except for you, Stephen. You didn't participate even once. This makes me wonder; could it be because you're worthless?"
Stephen didn't even wince, instead taking the insult and remaining sullen as ever.
"Is there a reason why you're laying into Stephen like that?" Matcha questioned.
"Let your incessant questioning remain inside your head, girl. Holden, Jayshawn, Queen, Damien, and Jill, the five of you are at risk for elimination tonight."
"Shouldn't Cody be as well?" Jayshawn demanded. "Why you tryna worsen our chances for?"
"If you had a brain, Jayshawn, you might notice that he, Fish, and Londyn are absent."
"Oh, Fish isn't here?" Bowie laughed. "I couldn't tell."
"They've been sent to the Million Dollar Academy infirmary for the duration of the evening. Cody is in no shape to compete, so he will not be counted."
"What?" Damien uttered. "Wait, you said 'compete'?"
Mercutio nodded. "Quite the astute fellow you are. Tonight will not end in a vote; tonight, the five of you will partake in another elimination round."
Confessional - Damien
"I was afraid of another one of those poppin' up! And now I have to be in it? Argh!"
Confessional - Queen
"My first elimination round. Well, I've survived worse. Once, I went an entire week without being told I was beautiful."
Confessional - Jayshawn
"These opps don't know who I am. These mothafuckas 'bouta get Vendome'd."
End of confessionals
"Despite it perhaps seeming an obvious choice," Mercutio explained, "to eliminate Cody now would spoil the chance for a thrilling elimination round to close this challenge off. Team Fire, you will be given another three hours to create new planes. After this time, you will take to the sky. This time, instead of collecting rings, your chief objective will be to knock an opponent out of the running. The first contestant to crash will be eliminated from the contest. I will give the fifth person to complete their plane coordinates to a fifth launch pad. Now then, get going. Everyone else, dismissed. I will assemble you once the elimination round is ready to commence."
Iko raised a hand.
"What?"
"Are we allowed to help any of the five? My girlfriend, for instance?"
Mercutio feigned interest. "Your girlfriend, eh? Holden, it's about time you and your lovely locks found love. Congratulations."
Queen cracked up as Holden feigned a chuckle.
"Know what other men had long hair?" he retorted. "Vikings."
"There were no Vikings in Soviet Russia, only masculine men. The answer, Iko, is no. Whether you loiter around her or not is your business, but do not help her."
"All right, I won't then," he murmured, defeated.
"Dismissed!"
Jill strained herself, her muscles aching and sweat staining her red locks as she screwed in one of the screws holding down a metal plate to the outer wall of her makeshift plane. Iko approached, emerging from leafless trees to join her in a clearing.
"Hi, Iko," she rasped.
"Hey, Jill. You okay?"
"Yeah. Just exhausted. To be honest, I'm terrified to go back up there. I guess you probably can't say the same though, right? You looked like you were having the time of your life."
"It wasn't that bad for me, but I didn't get taken out of the running by Athena," Iko mentioned.
"I couldn't believe that! Cody looked like he got really hurt, and Londyn, too. They're both in the infirmary because of her. That's not the Athena I've been getting to know all season."
"I don't- I don't know what to think of her. I try to see the best in people, so I assume she's just... confused?"
"Confused or not, that's it between me and her. She's really unraveling a different person than the one who- well, who kissed me, for instance. Or so I think..."
Iko stepped a little closer. "You're not gonna lose tonight, right? I'd really rather you didn't."
Jill smiled at him, stroking her hand against his cheek.
"I kinda can't believe you're into me," he admitted.
"You're a good guy, Iko. That kind of light shines really bright. You might as well call me a moth."
Iko leaned in and hugged her. She hugged him back, and the pair stood embracing each other for a few seconds.
"I bet you're gonna do great," Iko told her. "Just treat them all like basketballs."
She chuckled. "There, now I'm set."
If one were to call the mood a road, Athena appeared, acting as a fork being thrown into that same road. She emerged from a scattered set of leafless trees south of Jill and Iko. A frown creased Jill's face, and she turned away from her, while Iko lingered somewhat awkwardly.
"Jill, hey-"
"I'm not in the mood to talk to you right now."
"Jilly bean-"
The redhead spun around in a flash. "Don't call me that. That's over. You tore up my hot air balloon and could've killed us!"
Tapping her fingertips together, Athena peeped, "So, you're ang-y?"
"Yes. Yes! Yes, I'm angry! Why wouldn't I be angry?" she fumed.
"U-understand, I know where you're coming from, but I just- MK did a number on my respect among the other members of our team-at least, that's what I suspect. I had to make sure I had immunity to stay in the contest and make good with you, and Fish and Bowie were both screwing around, so I-"
"Look, you did what you did for whatever reason you did it. Fine. But as far as 'making good' with me goes, you should've known risking my safety wasn't a footstep in that direction." With Athena's eyes beaming with a sorrowful sparkle, Jill turned away again. "I'm not talking to you."
"What about after the elimination round?"
"No, Athena. I-" she sighed. "I can't do this. Maybe if you can give me a reason to trust you, maybe then I'll reconsider. But now? I'm calling this off."
Athena stayed still, silent. She glanced over at Iko, who forced a chuckle and murmured, "Hey, I'm, uh, I'm not really a part of this."
A few more beats later, and Athena's eyes started to well up with tears. "I'm glad-" she rasped. "I'm glad to see where your priorities lay. Spending all your time with your new boyfriend, not with the girl who... the girl who was only strong thanks to you!" The orangey-blonde went sobbing off into the distance.
Nightfall.
The screen showed a five-way split of Holden, Queen, Jayshawn, Damien, and Jill in their respective planes. They had looks of determination in their eyes, gripping the control sticks to their planes. The screen phased the other four screens out and zeroed in on each contestant before a confessional of theirs played, starting with Damien.
Confessional - Damien
"I've never been in this much danger on Total Drama before. Hell, I've never been in this much danger ever before. Normally, I'd be shitting myself. But I am sick and tired of running away from everything that comes at me! Sometimes you need to pick yourself up by your bootstraps and run into the face of danger! With that million dollars on the horizon, I think back to what Holden said when we first stepped off the Bus of Shame- when he tried to taunt me, talking about the twenty-one other contestants I'd have to beat to win. Well, why can't it be me? It's gonna be someone. I am not giving up!"
Confessional - Queen
"This will be a cinch, I'm sure. Everything I've ever wanted, I've received. While it was often other people answering my every beck or whim, I'm about to show that I have what it takes to fulfill my own interests."
Confessional - Jayshawn
"I didn't outlast seven people just to be the eighth one gone! I ain't even gonna be gone! At any point! I'm winning this shit, or my name ain't Jayshawn Maryanne Vendome!"
Confessional - Tracy
"J- Jay-" He tried to speak, but couldn't keep from chuckling. "Jay- Jayshawn's middle name is Maryanne? Oh, my."
Offscreen, Mercutio reminded him, "Your name is Tracy. Your first name."
Tracy's chuckling gradually slowed. "Oh, yeah."
Confessional - Holden
"I'm just glad to get to do this without the fucking hot air balloon. Fucking Cody, man."
Confessional - Jill
"Ideally, it might be best to target Holden or Queen to tie up that loose end I created. Then again, Jayshawn and Damien are Grads, so wouldn't it make more sense to go for them? Whatever. Sorry to be the cause of ruining someone's chances at a million dollars, but I can't get cold feet now."
End of confessionals
Off they went. Altogether, the five planes took off, shooting up off their launch pad ramps and throttling high into the sky. Jayshawn screamed, letting off a plethora of emotions as he flew. The screen shifted over to Damien doing the same thing, smacking down on his control panel. Next, it shifted to Holden, who flew silently in his cockpit.
Up and around the planes flew, narrowly avoiding hitting each other. Jayshawn barged the side of his plane into Damien's.
"Hey!"
Queen scraped the top of Jayshawn's plane as Jill hit her, head on.
"Watch where you're going, you daft cunt!"
Jayshawn squinted his eyes and locked in, flying head on for Damien. He seemed to notice Jayshawn gunning for him, so he flew his plane around, swerving out of his line of flight. Meanwhile, Jill soared right over and past Queen's plane, then Holden flew by her to shout, "Yo!"
"What do you want?" she yelled back.
"Wouldn't you say it's about time we clean up our loose end of sorts?"
Realization hit Queen, and she grinned, then nodded.
"Follow my lead!" Holden urged.
Jayshawn jostled his plane into the back of Damien's, causing his opponent to scream, his plane curving out of control. Gritting his teeth and gripping the steering wheel even harder, Damien regained control, only for Jill to save his skin, thrusting her plane into the side of Jayshawn's.
"You goin' pay for that, girl!" Jayshawn growled.
Down below, Mercutio, Tracy, Matcha, Stephen, Zee, Bowie, Iko, Kobe, Athena, and Brook watched the dogfight with their attention glued to the action.
"This is riveting," Tracy commented. "I wonder who's gonna lose."
"Come on, Jill..." Iko begged under his breath.
"Thanks, Jill!" Damien shouted. "Wait, look out!"
The redhead gasped and veered aside, shooting through a moonlit cloud as Queen and Holden each shot for her. With Jill managing to escape, the two rammed planes instead, snapping complaints at each other. Damien soared through the night sky in search of Jill. Eventually, he was completely stunned by Jayshawn flying up from below him. He'd gained enough speed that he demolished Damien's plane, shooting right through it.
Damien was left wailing with absolute horror as he plummeted.
"Fuck, I didn't just kill that nigga, did I?" Jayshawn wondered.
Wind shot by him as he descended so quickly that he thought he'd burst into flame.
"Damien!" Jill cried, only for Holden to barge his plane against hers. Her plane went spinning aside, the tail of her craft going in circles. "Dammit! I'm coming!"
Eventually, Damien's fall was interrupted. He had been rescued by none other than Queen, flying in to catch him. He hyperventilated, darting his head around to see his surroundings while Queen flew them higher.
"Did I just die? Is this Hell?"
"I wish."
"Wha- you saved me. Thank you. Thank you! But why?"
"Because your elimination isn't my priority." Queen rocketed through a cloud, the sight of Holden flying after Jill in the higher up distance in her vision. Their shuttles were darker with the moon shining behind them. "Hers is."
"Okay, okay, everything's fine," Jill tried to soothe herself, flipping buttons and switches at her control panel. "I'm gonna be fine. Everything's-" Holden clanged into her craft again, causing her to let out a cry of utter frustration.
Queen flew in to shout at Holden, "You're going to crash your own craft at this rate!"
Flying in the distance, Jayshawn looked out the side of his plane to see Holden and Queen each flying at Jill, who, at this point, was just trying to survive being ganged up on. A grin spread across Jayshawn's face.
"Ah, okay. I see what we doin'."
Before long, it was three on one. With Holden, Queen, and Jayshawn all gunning for Jill, the redhead began to panic.
"Stop!" Damien urged, throwing his hands to his head.
"Or what? Would you rather I dunked you overboard?"
"You really are a bitch!"
"I've been called worse."
"Queen! Jayshawn!" Holden yelled to the other pilots. "Here's what we're gonna do!"
Jill's plane sputtered and began to rock uncontrollably. All the damage she'd taken was beginning to wear down on her aircraft.
"No! Stay afloat! Please! I don't wanna go home!"
Staring out the sides of her plane, she saw Queen gunning for her from the west, Holden from the east, and Jayshawn from the north. Jill screamed as all at once, they pulled up, flying away from her just as they reached her plane. In their ascent, their planes shredded the sides of hers from all the momentum put behind them, and with that, Jill's plane started dipping for the Broken Limb Forest.
"Oh, god!" she wailed.
"Mission accomplished, squad!" Holden cheered.
On its way down, Jill's failing plane shot right through a bundle of trees. Branches exploded and splintered as she barged through them, then her plane ate up mounds of earth as it shredded the ground. She braced for impact, until finally, all the forward inertia died out, and Jill's plane came to a stop, with the ground torn up for a half a mile back. Sitting in her devastated pilot's seat, she drooped her head and arms over her control console and let out a sigh.
Picking up a little later in the evening, Jill headed off towards the Bus of Shame with Tracy to accompany her. Her sparkly eyes were dismal, the light usually within them quelled by the imminent despondent feelings of loss. On her way to the bus, Iko and Athena each ran to meet her, Athena arriving much before Iko, who had to set his hands on his knees and wheeze for breath by the time he reached the bus.
"Oh, Jill!" Athena wailed, hugging her tight. "I'm so sorry this happened! I never thought it would be you! Please tell me we're still cool. Please. Please, please? I never meant to hurt you. I was just playing the game the way I was supposed to."
"Athena, you could have killed-"
"Wait." She sighed. "There's so much I've been learning throughout this whole experience. If there's anything I've learned though, it's what it means to have a friend like you. Truly, I never had a person like you ever in my whole life! You've shown me I can be okay with myself, you've shown me what it is to believe in my abilities, and, well, I can't say that about many other people. I've made some mistakes over the course of our friendship, but I hope we can end things off on good terms if we don't see each other again. So, Jill, will you forgive me?"
Jill stared at her for a long time. Athena's orange eyes were big, puppy-like and pleading. The redhead mulled it over in her mind. "Athena... masking because of autism and masking due to the events of a car crash aren't the same thing, and both stories can't be true simultaneously."
"But- they could."
"Ultimately, today, you almost killed me. I'm sixteen. I mean, the amount of years I have left to live... and you nearly stripped it all away from me-for a million dollars. I know we're all here to win, but I wouldn't have expected you to want to win under those circumstances."
"But I didn't think that was gonna happen! If I thought-"
"Athena, stop, please, and just for once, listen to me. Let me speak."
Surprisingly, she remained silent.
"I want to trust that you had purer intentions than it appeared. I want to trust that there's overlap between your story to me outside the art room and what MK brought out of you. I want to trust that I can tell you about what my interests are in a person and that I won't be judged for it. But I can't trust any of those things. For that reason, if I can't trust you, then how am I supposed to be able to forgive you?"
Athena took a moment to absorb her words. She took a deep breath in, then dipped her head. "All right, Jill. I'll respect your choice."
The beginnings of a smile formed on Jill's face. "That's appreciated."
Athena took a few steps back, then Iko stepped forward, just as crestfallen as she was. "Hey."
"Hey."
"I'm... I'm sorry. I don't want you to leave."
"I don't want to leave either, but I don't want to leave without my dignity. I always knew losing was a possibility. I've gotta accept it."
"You know," Iko started, "I realize we still haven't had our first kiss. You know- seeing as we were apart for most of today? Maybe we could do that before you go?"
"Running low on time," Tracy murmured, awkwardly standing aside from the trio.
"About that," Jill started, awkward and tense.
Her words were taut, which frightened Iko. "W-what is it?"
"It's just..." She sighed. "I'm out of the game, and I was really excited to win. I really thought... and to lose this early. I mean, I thought, if not first place, maybe fourth or fifth, and I just... I'm... I'm not sure if I can do... this... after all..."
Her words trailed off with a whimper, descending more and more awkwardly.
"Do... this?" Iko responded.
She faced him with shame and sympathy. "Us. I- I'm sorry. I know we just-"
"Oh. Oh..."
"Yeah. Just- I care about you, Iko. Maybe it doesn't make sense, but- but- losing has my feelings all jumbled. And I- maybe after the season is over... I don't know. But... Oh, I'm sorry, Iko. There's no real, well, good explanation for it. Feelings are just... they don't abide by logic."
"That's..." He nodded, looking down at his loafers. "That's okay. You should do what's gonna make you feel best, right?" His words came out disjointed, as though he were forcing himself to be happy.
"I really hope you win, Iko. You deserve that."
"That'd be cool."
Jill cupped his chin, prompting him to face her.
"I doubt I'll ever forget your eyes," Iko murmured.
She smiled one more time at him. "Take care."
"Here, Jill," Athena handed over a note to her, cupping Jill's hands over it. "You'll want this. Don't read it until you go. Think of it as a special surprise. Even if we're... not cool... it's something I wanted you to have."
"All right. Bye, guys."
Letting them go, Athena and Iko waved to her as she got into the bus, herded by Tracy, who then started to head back towards the academy. They kept waving as the bus started to roll its tires and take her away. Jill waved back as the bus started to leave her former friend and boyfriend behind.
Curious about the note, she opened it up and read the first few words. Eventually, getting further into the note, an expression of shock and betrayal marked her face. She jumped up from her seat and rushed to the end of the bus, staring out the back window to see Athena standing in the road from where the Bus of Shame departed.
Inaudible, Jill banged on the back of the glass, pain and anger in her eyes as she screamed something we, the viewer, could not hear. Before long, the Bus of Shame was gone. Athena stood in the road with a grin on her face. As the camera showed the left side of Athena, with Iko moping his way back to the academy in the background, Athena murmured, "That couldn't have gone any better."
Quite a ways ahead, Iko turned around to shout, "You coming, Athena?"
"Coming!" she chirped back. "Just wanted to watch Jill go for a while." She started prancing towards Iko. "I sure will miss her."
"Me too..."
"Sorry she dumped you, Iko! That sure was rough!"
He rubbed behind his neck, muttering, "Y-yeah, it stings."
"Tell you what! I'll head back to the dorms later, I think I wanna watch for a little while longer. Helps me grieve."
He nodded to her and said no more, heading back towards the academy, head and arms dipped as he slouched off. Skipping like a cheerleader, Athena returned to the road, except now the bus was long gone. Far in the distance of the road was a mass of fog that the bus had since vanished through.
"Truth doesn't feel too good, does it? I'll take good care of your ex, Jilly bean. Maybe after I get my money, I'll see you again. Hell, maybe that'd be the day I could be bothered to care about your sorry ass. Bye bye for now."
Cody blinked his eyes open to find himself in an unfamiliar space. Based on the sight of walls and a roof around him, he figured himself to be in the academy. He was on a cot propped up beside many others of the same variety. The sight of cabinets filled with medicine prescriptions, and first aid kits set on tables informed him that he was probably in
"The infirmary. Okay." He grunted, having trouble moving. "Damn."
The door to the medical room opened up to Mercutio entering, gently closing the door behind him.
"Mercutio? Hey, wait, why aren't Londyn and Fish in here? Didn't they also get injured?"
"Yes, but Tracy is administering them medication in a separate space."
Mercutio walked across the room, his feet making a gentle tapping sound against the floor as he neared Cody.
The geek sat up in his cot. "Listen, man, I'm really starting to doubt that you're all that much safer than Chris was. We did crazy things on Total Drama Island, but I don't remember the episode where we took to the sky and-"
The rest of Cody's words were muffled, as Mercutio stood over his cot, and forced the boy back into a lying position by pressing a hand over his nose and mouth.
Cody tried to cry out, but he was completely muffled. He couldn't defend himself with his arms, as now the host leaned over and onto the cot to press a muscular, suit sleeved arm over his tiny chest. Cody's desperate eyes darted around, and he jerked like a bull being ridden. Mercutio kept an ice cold stillness about him as he kept a tight clench over Cody's airways.
Brain losing oxygen, the geek kept expecting it to be the way it works in movies, that Izzy would appear out of nowhere and save him, but there was no psychotic redheaded girl or anyone else to rescue him.
Dropouts: Athena, Holden, Iko, Kobe, Matcha, Queen, Brook
Grads: Cody, Bowie, Zee, Fish, Jayshawn, Londyn, Stephen, Damien
Some quick OC descriptions:
Athena: orangey-blonde, orange contacts, black and white dress
Holden: long, scraggly hair, heavyset, short, leather jacket
Iko: slim-fat, short, stylish overcoat and vest
Kobe: tall, big afro
Matcha: brunette, business casual
Queen: purple hair
Fish: typical influencer look
Jayshawn: fit, muscular, dreads, gym tank/shorts
Londyn: brunette, face tattoos, gorgeous features
Stephen: early 2000s emo look
Mercutio: chiseled face, suit, wide-framed
Tracy: slim, suspenders/bowler hat
Brook: silver hair, oversized cardigan