Chapter Text
I’m not sure what I expected; my friends refused to tell me anything about the show back when I auditioned.
I mean, I did know it was some form of competition. I heard the million dollar reward and, hey, who couldn’t use a million dollars?
Eventually when I did get picked for the show, I couldn’t talk about it at all because of my ‘contractual obligations’ .
In the end it is my fault for not doing enough research, but I didn’t think this show would be lethal!
I was very naive, back when I arrived at the docks of that place.
I wasn’t the first to show up, I wasn’t the last. There were five people that showed up before me; 2 guys and 3 girls.
Of the girls they seemed relatively alright.
The first of which was a curly haired girl in jeans and a red shirt, who would shortly go on to have a notebook and pencil glued to her hands. She seemed at ease.
The second one was a lot more readable than the others. She donned cargo pants and boots, and besides her looked to be a bag bursting at the seams with something. I’m not sure I wanted to figure out, she had quite a scowl to her.
The third was the one I couldn’t get a read on. She wore an all blue outfit, except for her orange shoes. She was clearly excited; she made me confused with the mix of the last two.
The guys were more of a mixed bag.
The taller of the two wore a green hat, a yellow shirt, and red pants. He stood slouched, with a soda can in his hands. While everyone else stood around him looking concerned about the man beside him, he seemed indifferent to it.
As to why everyone was staring at the man beside him, he had no shirt on! It was even more concerning when I overheard that he hadn’t packed any other clothes. Despite this he seemingly had a confident look to him. I was not too sure what to expect out of him.
Even with this first impression, I remained optimistic. I mean, I’m pretty sure I’m a likable guy. No one in my school hates me, so I think that’s a good sign. I didn’t think I’d have trouble making friends here, that is if I needed to. Again, I was a bit clueless.
As I stepped onto the docks, I figured it was the time to start asking questions. Well, the only thing on my mind was the money, but, really what else could I expect? Did I mention I knew nothing?
It seems my questioning only led to my own doubts, as the host called my lack of knowledge “fun” .
Which, really, I should have just turned away back then. But I didn’t know any better.
However people were showing up faster than I would have expected, and the girl behind me, Lauren, is not someone I would want to be on the radar of. So it seems I was stuck.
So, I ended up standing there while the rest of the contestants were introduced. Before anyone else showed up, I found myself in a conversation.
“Hey Damien, I mean, Chris did say Damien, right?”
I turned to look at the person speaking to me, it was the girl in blue. Before I responded I made a quick mental note of the host's name: Chris.
“Yeah, that’s me!” I responded.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Priya! So, it’s really true you’ve never heard of this show before?” she laughs before finishing her sentence. “That’s a luxury I’ve never had.”
That sentence made me pause; what did she mean by that?
I guess Priya sensed my confusion, so she followed up, “Well my parents are really big fans of this show, and they’ve been training me for quite some time— my whole life actually..”
“Oh, maybe you could—“ I suddenly got cut off from some commotion.
A few other people had been introduced since we started talking, but none were a distraction until a blonde girl started yelling.
It’s clear that she knew the man introduced prior to her. She was not happy about him being there.
I’d heard of those two, slightly. Emma and Chase had a pretty messy public breakup, and it seemed even people who don’t care for their side of the internet reported on it. It wasn’t exactly made public as to why they broke up, and that’s about as much as I cared to look into.
Eventually those two were separated and the commotion died down.
“Okay, as I was saying, maybe you could give me a slight hint as to what I should be expecting?” I asked Priya.
“Well.. There’s a lot of physical activity involved. Sometimes things get a little risky, there’s also a social element—“ I cut her off.
“Risky like,” I paused, “ fatal? ”
I was pretty sure my fear made her too uncomfortable to finish our conversation. There went my best way into the competition..
More contestants were introduced but my mind was already wandering. I was pretty sure her non-answer meant ‘Yes, Damien, there’s a good chance you’ll die here’ .
I was snapped out of my thinking when I saw the co-host, Chef, throw a box into the water around us. I was too preoccupied to figure out what was in it, but a blonde contestant seemed very distraught by it.
Now, when all the contestants were properly introduced, it was time to introduce the game. The host, Chris, mentioned that we would be ‘getting hurt’, so I was really concerned. I figured I would voice my concerns.
When I did so, the two hosts made their remarks about me knowing nothing about the show. I was then referred to as a “poor, poor, sweet child” . Not assuring in the slightest..
Chris finished his introductions and now, apparently it was time to ask questions. I had many, but my first one had to do with the risk of this whole show, again.
Unfortunately all of the questions the contestants asked were, in fact, not answered. Chris simply dismissed us to our cabins to get settled.
In my side of the cabin, I felt like I got the short end of the stick. I was stuck with the guy who ripped off his shirt; the stuck-up internet star who’s ex-girlfriend was here, and angry at him; and the nonchalant guy who was oblivious to the other two.
I quickly learned their names: Ripper, Chase and Zee. I’d be around these three a lot, so there isn’t any forgetting them.
I just dropped my stuff off on a random bed and got out of there. As soon as did, I heard Ripper trying to pick a fight; yes, he did get a new shirt, thankfully.
While trying to avoid my male teammates, I thought of my female teammates. Priya was on the same team as me, so maybe I shouldn’t give up on a friendship just yet.
It does not seem like Priya was too far off from my situation, the women on our team are far from all being sane. There was Lauren, who quickly gained the nickname ‘Scary Girl’ for a good reason. Also, Axel, the woman in cargo pants, apparently has an obsession with the apocalypse. Her bag was actually filled with weapons. I tried not to think about it. There was also the woman with the notebook, Millie. She actually seemed sane, so it seemed like Priya would still have a different experience than me.
I gathered a lot of this information outside the cabin doors, because again, I was avoiding the male team members.
Eventually it was about time for the challenges to start, so I made my way over along with the rest of our team.
There was little conversation happening at the challenge site, only between the two people on the other team that knew each other. That, alongside Emma and a guy from her team.
Then, everyone went silent as the challenge was introduced. As Chris went on and on about the challenge I got worried. There were so many opportunities to injure myself, and apparently it had to be done blindfolded and connected to another person? Not only that, but they’d have to hold a bucket full of chum, and if they ended up dropping it, we would immediately lose. If there was any chance I did not have to do any of that, I would’ve been taking it.
Thankfully for me, there was. Unfortunately, if anything happened to the blindfolded people, it would be directly me and Millie’s fault. We had to guide them. Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad, but it was Chase and Ripper. The only members of our team who I knew would have their difficulties listening. As for the rest of our team, they had to raise the buckets up to us.
But there wasn’t any time to waste; we had to do the challenge! Millie and I climbed onto the platforms above, alongside Emma and the guy she was talking to. I learned his name through their passing conversation, Bowie.
Just like that, the challenge had started. Chase and Ripper were off and Millie immediately started to guide them, or at least attempted. Ripper seemed to have a mind of his own, and dismissed her words.
That did not lead the pair very well, as they crashed right into containers of crabs. Well, it just so happens that crabs like to pinch onto anything and everything they can.
Alright listen, I’m not the kind of guy to be keeping up with much of the news, or watching really anything that’s on tv. But is the ripping of someone’s pants and exposing themselves popular now? Also if that wasn’t bad enough, not too much later he tied his shoes, bending down, further exposing himself. If there was any moment that I first started thinking ‘what kind of tv show am I on?’ It was definitely then.
I was dumbfounded, but we had to continue. Millie tried to give the pair instructions, but it seems like Ripper had not learned from the previous mishap and ignored her again. This promptly leads to him smacking himself, falling over, and exposing himself yet again.
Only this time the other team’s guides noticed. It’s a good thing they reacted the same as me, because I was about to think I was going crazy.
It is with Bowie’s words that our pair actually realize that Ripper is missing part of his pants. Instead of being embarrassed, the two celebrate? I don’t think I’ll ever actually understand those two.
It seems like both parts of our pair do not want to listen to Millie, because as she warns them of a ‘mud puddle’ (definitely not just a puddle), Chase is the one to disregard it. At this point I didn’t have any hope left that they would survive the challenge, they are almost definitely drowning.
But it seems like I was wrong, and they eventually popped back up again. It seems Millie was back on our job, but I took that time to voice my concerns. Was no one else fazed by their potential drowning?
As Emma attempted to guide her pair, Chase mistook it as help for our team. I could tell quite literally everyone could see that she would not be receptive to his misconstrued thinking.
The two bickered for a little while, or, rather, it was just Emma yelling at him. Chase seemingly had no clue as to why she is so upset at him, and his naivety is going to be the death of him.
Emma ends up getting incredibly enraged, and she reveals what Chase did, what the final straw was.
“You cut the breaks on my car !”
Time froze for a split second on the platform we were stood upon. From what little I’d known of this man, he was a bit stuck-up, and that’s really about all I knew.
But even that was something SO FAR OUT OF LEFT FIELD . For a moment in time, me and Bowie looked at each other in astonishment. I knew we had the exact same thing on our mind.
I had trouble returning my focus to the task at hand, but when I did, I came to find out Chase wasn’t denying any of it.
I reset my focus away from that conflict, and just tried to focus on how we were doing in the game.
At this point in time our pair had gotten back with the buckets, which made the other team rush to get their pair back as well.
That did not serve well for them. Even if they hadn't spilled their buckets, Millie and I had already grabbed the buckets for our team. For the first challenge on this show, winning really didn’t hurt.
While the other team gathered for their marshmallow ceremony, ours went to the dining hall for our dinner.
In the dining hall, other than Ripper and Chase, it seemed everyone was keeping their distance from each other. Understandably so, we really didn’t know each other.
I wasn’t really entirely sure what to do, the majority of our team wasn’t exactly people I’d associate with. But there were still 2 people— one of which at this point I should apologize to.
At this point Priya was no longer in the Dining hall, so I made my way outside.
“Hey Priya?” I called out to her.
She turns around “Oh, Hi Damien!”
“Listen, I’m sorry about what I said earlier,” I started, “You just kind of scared me with the whole ‘risk’ thing, I mean I really didn’t know I could get hurt on this show.”
“Then you really should have done your research,” she laughs.
“I’m very well aware of that,” I responded.
“So, because of that, you might need some filling in on, like, expectations and stuff,” she said with a grin, “like I wanted to say this morning, it’s not all competition. There’s also the social element, but, what do you think you need to know?”
I thought for a moment, “Priya, tell me everything.”
“Everything?” Priya looked shocked, “I mean, I can try.”
“No pressure,” I assured her, “Maybe just as much as you can.”
As we continued talking, we made our way to the outside of the cabins.
“So, the first episode was only really an introduction to the contestants.” She started, “But the first challenge was cliff diving, not too bad, unless I tell you it was 1,000 feet in the air. ”
Priya paused as I tried to hide the horror on my face. I quickly changed it so she could continue.
“Oh believe me Damien, there is so much worse,” Priya giggled, “But you’re not wrong to react that way, a lot of the contestants were reluctant to do the challenge–”
She got interrupted by the sound of Chris’ voice. We diverted our attention to the docks to see who exactly got eliminated.
“Caleb? Wow, I didn’t see that coming,” Priya said in astonishment
Apparently, the other team had voted out Caleb of all people. It seemed a bit random?
“He wasn’t doing bad was he? I wonder why they voted for him..”
We both stood there and watched Caleb get taken off the island. Or flown? He was grabbed by a drone.
Which, excuse me, but it doesn’t exactly seem the safest? Really, if the hand-claw thing doesn’t have as good a grip on the person, then they could fall and potentially drown in these waters. Does anyone care about safety in this place?
We sat alone in our thoughts until Caleb was out of sight.
“So, how did the episode end?” I questioned, breaking the silence.
“Well, it really seemed like Courtney would go home that night..”
Priya continued talking about the season, and I listened. She talked about a lot of the drama that went down, and trying to wrap my head around all the contestant's names was not easy. In terms of the challenges, the more she talked about them, the less tense I felt. A lot of these challenges did not seem that risky.
I voiced this to her, “You know, a lot of these seem a lot tamer than what I saw out there today.”
“That’s because this is only the first season,” Priya replied, “a lot of the focus in the earlier seasons isn’t so much on the risk of the challenges, more the drama.”
“Wait wait, how many seasons are there?”
I think that question set off a switch in her head.
“From a technical standpoint this is the 7th season of Total Drama,” Priya informed me, “But what would be considered the 5th and 6th are oftentimes referred to as season 5A and 5B from the people who work on the show”
“So we’re starring in season 6?”
“That is, if you do not count the spin off,” Priya continues, “so, we can refer to this as either season 6, 7, or 8.”
“Okay, but what do you refer to it as?” I ask her.
“Huh,” Priya thought before giving me an answer, “Maybe season 8? No one would confuse it with another season.”
“That makes sense,”
I quickly realized that it was getting pretty late, so I wanted her to finish telling me about the first season.
“I made you go off on a tangent, my bad,” I try to steer the conversation back on course, “But, continue where you left off, who gets eliminated in that episode?”
“Right right.." suddenly Priya jolted up, “Wait, what time is it?”
“Well, I don’t have a watch,” I pause and look up at the sky before responding, “but judging by the position of the moon, I’d say it’s around nine.”
With how little I was actually prepared for the show, this was the one thing I thought to learn before I showed up. I knew I couldn’t bring a phone, and I thought it could be at least a little useful to be able to tell the time without a clock.
Priya suddenly became anxious, “I’ve got to get to bed!”
“Wait, when do you normally wake up?” I asked, because nine is kind of early to get to bed. At least, for me it is.
“Well, I have to wake up at 5 am to get ready for my daily run,” Priya informed me “or else my whole day is out of whack.”
“I don’t want to hold you back from sleep,” I smiled at her, "so, uh, it was nice talking to you!"
She grinned back at me and waved before slipping into her side of the cabin.
That leads me to where I have been sitting for a little while. I should probably go into the cabins so I can sleep too, but like I’ve mentioned countless times the guys on my team aren’t exactly my crowd. So I’m sitting in this spot outside the cabins, collecting my thoughts on this first day, until I can’t anymore.
Well, it seems that time is now, I hear very faint conversations from the male side of the cabin. The conversation gets louder until I hear the door swing open.
“Hey! We were missing someone over here?” my attention is brought to Zee, who has opened the door, “Damien, right? Dude you’re missing all this conversation!”
I reluctantly follow inside and sit down on the bed I claimed some hours ago. Suddenly all the focus is on me.
“So, what was all going on out there?” Chase questions me with a smug look on his face, “You were out there for a while.”
“I was just talking—“ Ripper cuts me off
“And we know that it isn’t someone from the other team; it’s also not one of us,” He says like he thinks he’s caught me, “so who’s the girl, Damien?”
“I was talking to Priya, why does this matter?”
“Priya..” Zee begins a thought, “she’s the one with the parents, right?”
His input to the conversation goes unnoticed.
“See that’s how it starts,” Chase rebutted “me and Emma have known each other for a long time, all because I messaged her on social media!”
A lot of things I could say crossed my mind, but I eventually settled on trying to change the subject.
“Maybe talking doesn’t always end up in a relationship,” I start “Priya is a nice girl. She’s helping me out a little, and I’d like to be her friend. Now if you excuse me, I’m going to get changed”
I take my pajamas and get out of the cabin before I can hear anyone say anything about me. At this point it’s around 10pm, so maybe I should go to bed too.
There’s no one in the bathrooms at this time, so I quickly change and get out.
When I leave, there’s a little commotion from both ends of the cabin. It seems like Millie and Ripper are arguing, both Chase and Priya are standing back from the discussion. By the time I get back everyone is back to their respective sides.
When I step in the room I don’t ask. I don’t want to get myself involved in this. But it seems I don’t even have to ask, Ripper is already talking about it to Zee, who hung back.
“Apparently Scary Girl got into Axel’s bag,” Ripper ranted, “that scared Millie, who woke up Priya with her screams”
“So that’s what the noise was.” Zee chimed in.
“She didn’t even do anything. If you’re screaming in the dead of night at least be hurt” Ripper’s short rant had come to an end.
Again, I don’t want to weigh in on it, so I stayed out of it, “Well, there’s no noise now, so we should probably go to bed.”
"Wow, I really thought you'd go and protect your 'friend' Damien.." Ripper responds.
"I'm going to bed" I say, deflecting his implications.
"That's not an insult man, the less distractions, the more you'll be on top of your game!" Ripper continues smugly.
I ignore him.
I turn off the light, and climb into my bed. I hope nothing else comes up tonight, because it's been a long day.
There is still a lingering of a conversation, I try to shut it out, but I catch one thing that was said before I dozed off.
“No, but Emma was totally helping me out with this challenge.”
I think someone needs to give that guy a reality check, desperately.
My first night’s stay on Total Drama Island comes to an end. My verdict: I should have known what I was getting myself into. As soon as I get home, I’m telling my friends off.
Until then, I guess this is where I’m staying.