Chapter 1
To this day, Gwen isn’t sure if she should call Total Drama a blessing or a curse to her life. She’s a celebrity, there’s no getting around that; all of them are now, even if she and some of the others like to hide among the regular folk and pretend that they aren’t. There’s good and bad with the celebrity status.
The good being that she never has to introduce herself, people already know her. It does wonders for her social anxiety. It means random strangers she’s never met want to give her special treats and gifts, sometimes on the expensive side.
The bad being that she never has to introduce herself, people assuming they know her. It does terrible things for her social anxiety. It means random strangers she’s never met want things from her, like autographs and pictures, or details about the others.
She only keeps up with some of her old friends.
Leshawna, of course she keeps up with Leshawna. How could she not after all the two of them went through together? Leshawna was her person for so long, and they still get together occasionally to catch up. Leshawna is fairly popular on social media, always begging Gwen to take pictures with her. Her pictures are the few times that the public catches a glimpse of Gwen nowadays online.
Bridgette and Geoff still check up on her routinely. It’s nice to text them when she gets the chance, but she refuses to meet up with them, much to the couple’s constant disappointment. The two are always surrounded by fans or paparazzi, and Gwen wants to steer clear of that. Leshawna is the only exception.
She keeps up with Cody and Sierra too, and had someone told teenage Gwen that she would actually be friends with those two years down the line, she would have laughed in their faces, but Cody and Sierra grew up. It’s something some of the others never did.
She exchanges the occasional text with Trent and Owen, because Trent will always have a special place in her heart at the end of the day and because Owen is the sweetest human being to exist on the Earth.
She doesn’t talk to anyone else, but she sees some of their names on news articles or their faces on the thumbnail of videos.
Heather and Alejandro host an obviously scripted couple counseling show that Gwen admits to watching... a couple times. They both seem a bit more mellow now, but Heather’s mean streak does pop up sometimes during their show. Not that Gwen would know… she only watches it sometimes… like twice a week.
The Drama brothers occasionally release songs together, but Gwen avoids the music videos; she would rather not see them taking their shirts off in an attempt to seduce girls. It’s odd, even Cody has a large female fan base. Sierra still remains his number one though, even if she’s long since called off any want for a romantic relationship with him.
Sierra is an interviewer, always patrolling award shows. She sends Gwen selfies of herself with some stars that Gwen only vaguely knows every once in a while. She does get autographs from some of Gwen’s favorite horror movie directors though, and she really really appreciates that.
Bridgette and Geoff have their own reality show, very wholesome overall. She knows they have some of the Total Drama cast guest stars sometimes because Bridgette asked her years ago to come be on an episode. Neither of them were surprised when Gwen declined.
Lindsay and Beth have some sort of Youtube channel, but Gwen has no idea what they do for it. She’s never actually watched any of their videos, but she hopes that they’re doing okay.
She has no idea what any of the others are doing. They must have thought the same thing as Gwen and dipped the moment a camera wasn’t following them around. It gets tiring, constantly being scrutinized for every move they make.
Of course, she should have expected Chris McLean to come and interrupt her life again some day. She just expected more explosions and screaming, not a single, unassuming letter in the mailbox.
Dear Gwen,
We welcome you back for one last adventure on Total Drama Island. As you know, the ten year anniversary is coming up and it wouldn’t truly be a reunion without you. We implore you to show up, as it is essentially an all paid for vacation, and by implore, we mean you have to come. It’s literally in the original contract that you signed that you have to come back for a reunion. We would hate for you to suffer the consequences of not fulfilling your contract.
See you soon, dude.
Chris
Gwen sighs, running her fingers across the edge of the papers. “What a polite threat.”
She knows there’s no use in ignoring it. She would like to have a home to sleep in, and if Chris had his way, he would probably have Gwen sleeping on the streets for defying him. Honestly, the man’s ego will probably destroy the world one day.
```
They take a boat that’s bigger than the dingy little thing that used to escort them to and from the island, one that fits more than a handful of people, and that’s how she ends up pressed next to Cody while the twins (God, she forgot Katie and Sadie even existed) chase each other around the deck.
Gwen pulls her legs up to her chest when Katie stumbles a little too close to her feet, praying the running girls don’t trip over anything.
“They uh-” Cody rubs the back of his neck. “-haven’t changed much, have they?”
Gwen eyes the two curiously. They really do almost seem like the same girls she met ten years ago. It makes her wonder if the others will still be the same or not.
“At least they aren’t screaming yet.” DJ gives a gentle smile from across the boat, mirroring their seated positions.
Gwen was never close to the large boy- man- but DJ was always one of the ones that radiated pure kindness. Back then, Gwen looked down on his constant happy disposition, but she’s matured now. She’s glad to have a little optimism around.
“That is a plus. If they start, knock me out, okay?” Gwen leans her head back and closes her eyes, hitting the side a little harder than she’d thought she would have.
Cody and DJ both snort at her response, or maybe at the pained expression that crosses her face. She’s not sure.
“You’re just going to hear them when you wake up.” Noah’s snarky voice comes somewhere near the back of the boat. “Might as well just jump and hope you can swim home.”
Gwen almost laughs, but she’s slung right into Cody’s shoulder instead when the boat hits the dock. She has to blink the dizzy feeling in her head away before she can stand, and even then Cody has to steady her.
DJ offers to take her bag, but she declines, dragging the large duffle over her shoulder. DJ ends up carrying the twins’ bags instead, ever the kind hearted man he is.
Thankfully, the dock doesn’t break under their weight. Gwen would like to not ever repeat that fiasco ever again in her life. Chris absolutely ruined her makeup that day.
“Come on, DJ. Leave a bag for me. How am I supposed to impress the girls?” Cody whines, a friendly grin taking over most of her face.
Once upon a time, Gwen would have scoffed at Cody’s inquiry, but now she’s merely endeared at the idiot’s one track mind. He’s grown up, yes, but he’ll always be the silly boy she befriended years ago.
Noah tosses his suitcase over. “Here, you can carry mine. I’m sure your big strong arms will impress someone.”
Noah stalks away, toward the island.
Cody gapes for a moment, eyeing the suitcase. “Uh…”
Gwen elbows his shoulder. “You asked for this. Pick it up and go.”
She doesn’t wait for the others, following after Noah. She thinks she hears Cody grunting, he still has those noodle arms of his, but she ignores it. There’s no way he’s going to guilt her into helping him.
It seems that they’re the last to arrive because everyone else is already sitting outside the cabins. It’s an overwhelming sight, reminding her of her odd youth.
“Hey, baby!” Leshawna wastes no time in rushing over and sweeps her right off her feet, as if she hadn’t seen Gwen just two weeks ago. “Took you long enough.”
Gwen rolls her eyes playfully. “Right, sorry. I guess I forgot to threaten the boat driver to go faster.”
“Now how could you forget something important like that?” Leshawna gives as good as she gets, that’s for sure.
Gwen glances around the gathered group to find the rest of her boat ride buddies, an uncomfortable pit forming at the bottom of her stomach. She likes to think that she’s grown a lot over the last ten years, but being here again surrounded by this group makes her feel like an insecure teenager again.
DJ and Geoff are hugging in that bro type of way, Duncan waiting for his turn off to the side. She’s not entirely excited to interact with the latter of that trio, even if she and Duncan put the past behind them a long time ago.
The twins are fawning over Justin, nothing new there. Noah and Cody have joined Owen, Izzy, and Sierra, Sierra giving a big wave when she catches Gwen’s gaze. Gwen returns the wave, albeit much less enthusiastically. Not because it’s Sierra, but because Gwen is already out of energy and she hasn’t even talked to any of the others yet.
Thankfully, she doesn’t have to because Chris jumps out of one of the bushes, scaring all of them. She vaguely wonders where Chef is.
“What is up, campers?” Chris throws his arms out in an exaggerated way, scratching at his facial hair when no one responds. Gwen ignores the grey hairs in his beard, not liking how the sight brings a wave of unease. He’s getting old, all of them are. “Woah, calm your enthusiasm…”
No one offers a greeting of any sort, sans Owen who begins to give a tiny wave only for Izzy to push it down, and continues their glaring.
“Tough crowd!” Chris grins, always one to enjoy attention, even if it’s the bad kind. “Luckily, I’m used to tough crowds.”
It was funny when they were younger to see Chris embarrass himself, but now there’s a dark sense of enjoyment that she gets from seeing the grown man flounder. Not even Sierra is sparing him an ounce of attention.
He coughs, embarrassed now. “Right! So... welcome back! I’m sure you all got my letters. Obviously… or else you wouldn’t be here….”
“Chris, can we get on with it, please?” A voice Gwen had genuinely not expected to hear speaks up. “None of us want to be here. You practically threatened us.”
Courtney is frowning, nose stuck up in the air, like she thinks she’s better than Chris. She is, of course, They all are.
“I mean-” Geoff raises a hand, looking around timidly. “-I kind of wanted to be here. I’m excited to see you guys.”
Some of the others soften at the admittance, but Courtney isn’t impressed. “Right, well the sane people don’t want to be here.”
Geoff pouts. “Hey-”
“Not that I particularly want to agree with Courtney of all people, but she’s right.” Harold shrinks under Courtney’s glare. “We have a tour coming up and we need to be ready for it. This is cutting into our practice.”
The rest of the drama brothers nod in agreement at one another and then at the rest of the gathered group, and for the first time since arriving, Gwen makes eye contact with Trent. It’s nothing exciting, just the briefest exchange, but it sets a nervous fire to Gwen’s skin.
There’s a part of her that will always be unnerved by Trent’s presence. Not for any real reason other than her lingering doubts that Trent holds their breakup against her. They’re unfounded, but the two of them have never been very good at communication. She realized that a long time ago.
She wants to scratch it away, ask him if he hates her in any way, but she knows if she does that, the itch will just continue to grow. Better to let it fade, right?
“Yeah!” Beth spits out, but with much less spit now. Her braces are gone, of course, but she still has the smallest lingering of a lisp from her younger years. “Lindsay and I have events to attend.”
Lindsay double takes at her name. She doesn’t seem to really know what’s happening, but at Beth’s imploring look, she nods emphatically. No one can ever say that Lindsay isn’t loyal at the very least. “Yeah! What Beth said!”
Bridgette gives Geoff a small pat to his still pouting face. “It’s okay sweetie. Not everyone can just cut the cameras like us. They have jobs that don’t surround their actual lives.”
Gwen stays silent, watching Chris. He’s obviously pleased by the rapport. Gwen has a feeling that he intentionally tried to provoke them. He knows better than most what makes interesting television.
“You’re all morons.”
Gwen sighs. She was really hoping that she wouldn’t have to hear from that voice, but of course Heather has to offer her own input.
“This show is the perfect thing to keep your dying careers afloat.” She throws her perfect hair over her perfect shoulder. Alejandro nods at her side, ever the perfect backup to her shenanigans. “Really, did you think you could ride your childhood fame forever? This is the obvious step to take to keep your heads financially above the water, right? Would you rather drown?”
Some of them blink, startled by the observation. Trent and Justin seem to be taking her words to heart, their energy renewed. The ones that have been relatively silent throughout this ordeal, like Tyler and Eva, don’t appear interested in the least.
Courtney scoffs, never one to let Heather win anything. “I don’t have a job in the spotlight. I don’t need this.”
Gwen, against her better judgement, asks the question she’s been curious about for years. She hasn’t heard word from or about Courtney. “What is your job?”
Leshawna jumps at her question. Some of the others look surprised as well, and Gwen isn’t sure of it’s because it’s because they didn’t expect her to speak up, if they didn’t expect her to ask a question that wasn’t dipped in sarcasm, or if they didn’t expect her to ask Courtney a question that wasn’t dipped in sarcasm.
It could be any of those, but from the look Courtney gives her, one of uneasy hesitance that asks her if they’re actually being civil, if they’ve finally grown from their teenage angst, Gwen assumes the latter reasoning is why they’re all so surprised.
It’s not like they hate one another, right? At least, Gwen doesn’t hate Courtney, and she hopes Courtney doesn’t hate her, but she wouldn’t blame her.
Courtney finally answers her after a long moment of silence. “I’m a lawyer.”
Gwen nods. “You always were the smartest of us.”
And that's it. She doesn’t have any other questions. She isn't even entirely sure herself why she interrupted to ask Courtney that. She’s not curious about the others, but Courtney has always been the one that Gwen wondered about.
Maybe it’s because Gwen has spent years feeling guilty, because she and Courtney were kind of friends at one point, weren’t they? And Gwen betrayed her, there’s no getting around that. Duncan is to blame too, but it’s obvious that they don’t speak anymore from the way they’ve strategically placed themselves apart from one another, the way they won’t even look at each other.
Gwen doesn’t want that. She wants to be able to talk to Courtney again.
The others are quiet, and Gwen catches the glimpse of annoyance on Chris’ face from the lull in conversation. She already has an idea of what’s going to come out of his mouth before he speaks.
“Heather is right!” Chris steps up, placing himself in the middle of the gathered adults. “This is a great opportunity for all of you. With that said, let’s get started, shall we?”
“Uh excuse me?” Leshawna puts her hands on her hips, an eyebrow raised. “Aren’t you going to let us put our things away?”
Chris waves her off. “Of course, right after this, but first we have to pick teams!”
Gwen blinks, turning to Leshawna to whisper, “Teams? As in more than two?”
Leshawna shrugs at her, seemingly satisfied that she’ll be able to put her things away soon. “We’ve done it before.”
Gwen would rather not think about her team from the world tour.
“When I call your name, please head to the left.” He pulls out a list, but Gwen is pretty certain it’s blank.
“Cody, Duncan, DJ, Lindsay, Heather, and Noah.”
Gwen waits, but no other names come.
There’s a lot of grumbling from Duncan and Noah as they walk over. Cody doesn’t seem nearly as afraid of Duncan as he used to be, but there’s still an obvious shake from his knees when Duncan accidentally bumps his shoulder. DJ has no issues, skipping over and plopping his arm around Duncan’s shoulder. Lindsay eyes Heather hesitantly.
Gwen has no doubt in her mind that Chris is just looking to pair people up in groups that he thinks will cause drama.
Chris doesn’t even bother pretending to read from his list this time, just eyes people as he calls names off. “Hmm. To the right this time, please. Eva, Katie, Sadie, Izzy, Owen, and Justin.”
Gwen wonders how long Eva will be able to withstand Katie and Sadie’s squeals until she finally decides to commit murder. Justin shoots them all panicked looks when the twins engulf him in a hug. Owen and Izzy are unbothered, sharing stories under their breaths. Well, they’re attempting to whisper, but neither of them have much of an inside voice.
“Next team is behind me.” Chris props his chin in his hand. “Leshawna, Bridgette, Alejandro, Tyler, Harold, and Beth.”
Leshawna is quick to latch onto Bridgette, pulling her over to Harold, Tyler, and Beth. Alejandro stands awkwardly to the side, trying his best to look unbothered by all the uneasy looks he’s getting from his team.
Gwen scans the rest of the loners, assessing what is undoubtedly going to be her team. The others are doing the same, having come up with the same realization as her, but Gwen is quick to pick up on the problem.
“And that leaves Gwen, Trent, Geoff, Sierra, and Courtney.” Chris nods proudly.
“Chris?” Gwen tilts her head quizzically. “There’s only five of us?”
Chris blinks counting over the other groups quickly. “Right… well it’ll have to do. We… don’t really know where Zeke is and no one liked Blaineley so this is it.”
Courtney pads over to Gwen, the other three following closely. “Great. Chris screws me over once again.”
Gwen eyes Courtney carefully, refusing to comment on that. It’s not like she’s wrong… but Gwen is pretty sure Chris just likes making them all miserable in some way or another. Perhaps Courtney would prefer to stew in anger silently than with the rest of her team.
Trent shrugs, smiling at them gently, his gaze lingering on Gwen for a second longer than the rest. “Maybe it’ll work out in our favor?”
Courtney huffs, crossing her arms irritably. Gwen can’t help but stare at her. She’s a little overwhelmed by the sight of Courtney up close like this. Gwen puts it down to the fact that she’s used to seeing the other three on her team all grown up, but this new Courtney is a shock.
Their CIT is no longer an insecure teenage girl fighting for a delinquent boy’s attention. Instead stands an older, mature grown woman. Gwen wonders if Courtney is having the same thoughts about her- about all of them, not just her.
“Yeah!” Sierra hops over, pulling Gwen into a reluctant hug. “Sometimes it’s better to have the smaller team. I would know, I’ve been following survival shows forever.”
Geoff grins easily, reaching over to ruffle Gwen’s hair that’s tucked under Sierra’s chin. “Hell yeah, dudes. Look on the bright side, right?”
Chris is watching them, frowning a bit. Gwen wonders if he was hoping for more of a dramatic reaction between them and not such a wholesome reunion. Thankfully, his attention is stolen by the arguing Duncan and Heather before he can make any comments about or to them.
“Well.” Gwen stops fighting, accepting her fate in Sierra’s arms. The tall girl probably won’t let go any time soon. “It could be worse.”
```
“This could not be worse.” Gwen peers over the cliff. “Are those piranhas?”
Geoff takes a glance over her shoulder. “Yup.”
Gwen frowns. “Surrounding the balls we need?”
Geoff nods solemnly. “Yup.”
“Great.”
“Great.” He agrees.
Gwen turns, expecting to find the same expression on his face as hers, but he’s smiling instead, and of course he’s watching Bridgette. Gwen rolls her eyes fondly at the disgustingly cute display.
She returns to the rest of her team that are still putting on their harnesses. Trent is having trouble, and although she thinks about helping him out, she decides it better to let Sierra do so since she’s almost done.
“You changed your hair.”
Gwen blinks, not expecting the line of conversation. “Yeah.”
Courtney grabs a few strands between her fingers. “I’m so used to seeing that blue.”
“So is the rest of the world.”
Courtney drops her hair, the strands falling onto her shoulder. “You don’t want people to recognize you?”
Gwen lifts an eyebrow. “Do you?”
Courtney shrugs. “I won’t hide my past.”
“I’m not always proud of mine.” Gwen bites back the blunt apology on the tip of her tongue, not sure how Courtney would react to it.
The darker skinned girl seems to understand though, because she nods, gaze softening. “We all make mistakes. No need to hold it in.”
Gwen breathes a sigh of relief. It’s probably the closest they’ll ever get to an actual conversation about what happened all those years ago, but at the very least, Gwen knows Courtney doesn’t hate her, even if she probably should.
“You uh-” Gwen avoids her gaze. “-you look nice. Happy.”
Courtney makes a noise, Gwen thinks it might be a snort of amusement, but it could also be a scoff. “I guess. It took me a long time to stop being angry at this dumb show.”
“Me too.” Gwen admits, finally meeting her eyes. Courtney has the tiniest of smiles on her lips, and it’s enough to calm Gwen’s nerves completely.
“Hey, Gwen! Courtney! Geoff!” Trent waves them over, harness secured finally. Sierra must have helped him out.
Courtney stumbles on her way over, Gwen and Geoff have to right her before she falls on her face. Luckily, there’s no other almost accidents.
“Okay, game plan?” Trent crosses his arms, looking over them all.
Gwen tosses a look over her shoulder at the pulley systems between the cliffs. “All of us have to drop for a ball, right?”
Trent nods. “One of us has to go twice though.”
Courtney rolls her eyes. “So much for having less people being a good thing.”
“No it’s totally a good thing, right?” Geoff nudges Gwen’s elbow, like he wants her to agree with him. “They all have to take a turn, we can send our best person out there a second time. Means we have a better chance for points.”
Gwen punches him in the shoulder with little force. “When did you get smart?”
Geoff smirks. “Bridgette is rubbing off on me.”
Courtney hums. “Huh… you’re right.”
“Damn right!” Geoff holds his palm out, waiting for a low five. Gwen eventually gives in and slaps it.
“So who do we send out twice?” Trent asks, eyeing them all.
Sierra furrows her brow. “We should wait to decide.”
Gwen shrugs. “Agreed. It’s been a long time since any of us have done something like this. Who knows what we’re good at now.”
The others murmur some agreements.
“So we wing it?” Geoff questions.
Courtney squeezes the bridge of her nose with her fingers. “We wing it.”
```
Winging it was a very bad idea.
“Gwen! Pull harder!” She’s never heard Geoff’s voice reach such a high octave before, but it probably has something to do with the piranhas nipping at his heels.
“I am trying!” Gwen has no idea how she’s the one that got stuck with pulling the heaviest person on the team out of the water. She knows their rotation got messed up at some point; Sierra grabbed the bucket to catch the ball that Trent threw up when she wasn’t meant to, throwing off their entire plan. “You’re heavier when you’re wet!”
“Are you calling me fat? Have you seen my abs?”
Gwen doesn’t get the chance to respond because Geoff is screaming his head off about being bitten. She can’t see him at the moment, too busy desperately attempting to pull him up the side of the cliff with her non existent muscles, but she imagines his face must be comical.
“Sierra, keep shooting, try to keep the piranhas off him before he loses that ball. Trent, wait for him to toss it up.” Courtney waits for their nods of confirmation before she drops her own paintball gun.
Gwen barely registers Courtney’s arms around her waist, pulling Gwen, and Geoff, with all her might. She can, however, feel the pain from the rope digging into her palms. She’s certain she’ll have rope burn after all this is done and over with.
“Relax. On three, okay?” Courtney’s hot breath hits the nape of her still wet neck from Gwen’s own plunge in the water. “One. Two. Three!”
Gwen pulls with what is the very last of her energy. Thankfully, Courtney still seems to have plenty and pulls her whole body. Gwen peeks up in time to see a ball being thrown over the cliff's side, Trent scrambling to make sure it lands in their basket.
“One more pull, Gwen.” Courtney reaches past her and grabs just past her own grip on the rope.
Gwen is so ready to give up, but she knows Geoff still needs her, she knows Courtney still needs her. She pulls.
Geoff’s head pops up, finally. Sierra and Trent pull him up the rest of the way, flinching when a whistle goes off moments later.
“That’s the last competitor, campers!” Chris’ voice booms from his dumb megaphone. “Time to count up those points!”
Gwen would like to know where exactly the megaphone came from because he sure didn’t have it half an hour ago when the challenge started.
“Let’s go, bring those baskets!”
Trent is the one that grabs their basket, trailing behind a tired Sierra and bleeding Geoff. Gwen knows that Bridgette is going to cause a fuss when she sees the bloody ankle, she just hopes that she doesn’t get mad at her for it. Gwen knows better though, Bridgette would never blame someone else for Chris’ psychopathic tendencies that put them in danger.
“Guess we still make a good team.”
Gwen jumps out of Courtney’s grasp. She hadn’t even realized the woman still had a hold of her. “Yeah. Guess so.”
Gwen tries to settle her beating heart, but when she catches a glimpse of Courtney’s half dried hair sticking to her cheeks, she feels her heart double in speed. She’s not really sure why, putting it to the fact that she’s still reacting to Courtney scaring her.
“Coming?” Courtney tosses her a glance over her shoulder, not bothering to wait on her.
It miffs Gwen a bit, that she doesn’t wait, but she follows behind her to the rest of her team. Geoff is still dripping wet for obvious reasons, but the rest of them are pretty close to being dry already due to the strong wind. It is a bit chilly though now that they’ve all stopped running around, chilly enough that Gwen finds herself settling into Sierra’s side for warmth.
Chris doesn’t waste any time, pulling the first bucket he can get. “First up is team…” He frowns. “Uh… what name do you guys want to be called?”
Leshawna raises her hand in a hurry. “Team Alejandro Sucks.”
Harold snorts, agreeing quickly with her. The others shrug, not seeming to find an issue with it. Even Alejandro concedes, apparently knowing he isn’t getting out of this one. Gwen thinks it’s a great name.
“Okay then.” Chris grins, adding up the numbers on the balls. “One hundred and twenty-five.”
Team Alejandro Sucks look at one another, obviously not sure if that’s a good number or not. They settle on giving each other small high fives anyway in a show of camaraderie. Even Alejandro gets a hesitant one from the rest.
Cody offers his team’s bucket next, coining his team’s name ‘MVPs.’ Duncan and Heather smirk at the name, making Gwen think they were most likely behind that. She vaguely wonders if they came up with a team name before Chris even gathered them or if they came up with it on the spot. Knowing Duncan, the secret dork, he’d been thinking about it the moment the teams were assigned.
“Team MVPs. One hundred and fifty-five!”
Noah actually smiles excitedly with the rest of the cheering team, and it leaves Gwen surprised. All of them are surprising her today, really. Sometimes it feels like she knows them better than she knows herself, and sometimes they all seem like completely different people.
Eva drops her bucket on Chris’ foot, smirking at the whoops and hollering that gets her. It seems that even if they don’t all get along or know each other as well anymore, they can all agree that Chris’ pain brings them joy.
“Right.” Chris winces, pulling the balls out to count. “Team…”
Eva glances back at the others, waiting for their input. Izzy is the one that shoots up and offers a name. “Team Fish Eyes! ‘Cuz I have fish eyes! It’s how I got that big pointer in the water!”
Everyone pauses, collectively choosing to ignore Izzy’s strange words.
“Team Fish Eyes have one hundred and forty-five points!”
The twins squeal into Justin’s shoulders. Justin looks like he would rather be anywhere else at the moment. Izzy jumps onto Owen’s back, screeching about something that Gwen doesn’t understand.
Trent offers their basket, turning around immediately with a questioning look. Geoff looks to Gwen first, Sierra and Courtney doing the same when they catch sight of Geoff’s gaze. Trent is the last to look at her.
“Uh…” Gwen blinks, realizing that they’re letting her pick. “Team… Friends?”
She immediately cringes at herself, not believing something so stupidly cheesy just slipped past her lips. Really, who does she think she is, saying stuff like that. Teenage Gwen would kick her ass.
“Lame!” Chris calls, still counting up their total. “You sure you don’t want to change it to something better?”
Geoff is quick to turn him down. “You heard her. That’s our name.”
Sierra squeezes her tight, nearly cutting off her oxygen with the grip she has around her neck. “That’s us!”
Neither Courtney or Trent offer up a verbal defense, but they do give her a quick nod and smile, affirming their stance with her.
Chris rolls his eyes, probably thinking the same thing that Gwen had when the name first came out of her mouth. “Whatever. Team Friends has one hundred and sixty.”
Sierra’s sudden screams of joy overpower the disappointed groaning from the other three teams. Gwen manages to escape Sierra’s hold, but she finds herself tucked into Geoff’s chest seconds later. She’s glad that he’s finally begun to wear an actual shirt that covers his skin instead of… whatever that pink monstrosity was that he used to wear.
“Way to go, party boy.” Gwen pats him on the back. “Guess it was smart to send you twice.”
Geoff laughs happily, releasing her just so he can send Bridgette a wink paired with a finger gun. Bridgette rolls her eyes fondly, shooting Gwen a look that says please hit him for me, and so Gwen does just that.
“Ow.” Geoff rubs the shoulder Gwen has lightly punched, the big baby. “You and Bridge are totally conspiring against me or something.”
“Totally.” She mocks.
“Okay, enough happiness!” Chris turns his megaphone on once again. “We’ll be assigning you cabins based on your rankings. First place will be receiving a top of the line cabin while the three losers will be staying in regular cabins.”
“And by top of the line, you mean?” Courtney ventures, eyeing him dubiously.
Chris blinks slowly. “It… has strobe lights.”
Trent shakes his head. “Were you really expecting anything better than that? Chris has always been cheap.”
Chris has the audacity to look offended when Courtney agrees with him. “I am not! I just like to spend wisely.”
Gwen narrows her eyes, daring him to lie to their faces again. It’s enough to intimidate him into the truth. “Fine! Whatever, I’m cheap. Now, all of you to the cafeteria. Chef was nice enough to cook you a welcome back meal.”
Gwen exchanges a weary glance with Leshawna. She’s not particularly excited for Chef’s infamous sludge, and from Leshawna scowl, she doubts she is either.
“Come on, girl.” Leshawna drags her by the wrist. “If I have to poison myself with Chef’s food then you do too.”
“Yay.” Gwen frowns. “Friendship.”