He's A Girl Now?! (TD Transfem Duncan AU) (ON HOLD 1/14/24)

Six - Rules and Regulations

Sabrina needed rules.

All her life, she'd hated rules. Rules from her parents, rules from officers, rules from society. They were made to be broken, right? That was her defining character trait on Total Drama. She was The Delinquent. The rule breaker. 

But rules were a must in this environment.

She got the easy one out of the way first.

Rule 1: Avoid Courtney.

Fair enough.

Rule 2: Repeat rule 1.

Necessary distinction.

Bubbles of anxiety travelled up her throat as Chris, in his typical Chris fashion, explained the rules as dramatically as he could. Sabrina didn't even know it was possible to add that many suspenseful pauses to the most mundane speech ever. And the music, god, the music. This show was taking itself way too seriously. Every time Chris hesitated, there was a dramatic musical accompaniment as if they didn't know exactly what was coming next. She wondered when things like that about Total Drama started bugging her so much.

"And the camper who lasts, the camper who triumphs, is walking away with..."

Pause with musical accompaniment.

"One million dollars!"

It was the strangest thing, because Sabrina didn't know when she stopped being phased by Big Numbers. Maybe it was when she realized that her job and her apartment and her life was enough.

Oh, who was she kidding? It was when she realized that money would just make her taxes way harder and surviving twenty two episodes of Total Drama for a million dollars was barely worth it for all the press bullshit she'd have to go through after and the people she'd have to break in the process.

Sabrina casually checked her nails.

Rule 3: Stay out of all the drama. If drama comes to you, ignore it. Do not engage. Do not fight. Do not take people's bait.

***

Standing on the ledge of a cliff that led into a lake full of man-eating sharks was always a surefire way for negative emotions to pique.

Namely, terror.

How did she do this when she was 17?

At least they didn't make her wear a bathing suit, she thought. When some intern came up to her and asked her why she was planning to jump into the lake fully clothed, she simply told him that swimsuits made her feel insecure, nobody questioned it.

Man, she was good at this.

She looked around at her team. Tyler, Trent, Geoff, Noah, Owen, Izzy, Eva, Courtney (lucky Sabrina, huh?) Gwen (double the luck! Wow, god really was being a dick today) and Bridgette. It was an okay team. Weak links, sure, but nobody terrible. She was just thankful god had enough mercy to not put Ezekiel on the Bass again.

(Ezekiel was still in his weird cage thing. How was he supposed to jump off a cliff if he was trapped in a box? The world may never know.)

Everyone looked staunchly different than she remembered, but there was some sort of invisible nostalgia she felt looking at them. Like they were morphing into their 16 and 17 year old selves before her eyes. 

Sabrina would literally die if that happened to her.

She turned her attention back to the glaring issue: The Cliff.

Wawanakwa Cliff.

Her knees suddenly felt like liquid, as if her leg bones had been put through a blender and turned into a refreshing tropical drink.

The trick was to not look down right? Don't bother looking down, we're not going that way, as a certain singer would say. 

But the problem was that she was gonna have to go that way.  If there was one thing Sabrina would never be, it was a coward.

Rule 4: Never chicken out. You're better than that.

"Alright, so we're just recycling old challenges now. C'mon, is this whole thing just a moneymaker for Fresh TV?" Gwen complained.

Chris snapped his fingers. "Correct! Someone give this goth a medal!"

"Forget it." She scoffed. "Sooooo, anyone wanna volunteer?"

After a moment's pause... Izzy stepped forward.

"Izzy does! Izzy will! IZZY VOLUNTEERS AS TRIBUUUUTTTTTEEEEEEE!"

She pumped her fist in the air. 

The ginger psycho took a running start, shouted out her battle cry, and jumped without hesitation.

A splash was heard below.

Along with many coos directed to the man-eating sharks.

"Who's a good sharkie? You are, yes you are!" Izzy coddled as one latched onto her arm. This was some next level masochist type of shit... ew. Get your mind out of the gutter. C'mon, reader, I know you saw the word masochist and thought of something related to BDSM. And if you didn't, you probably are now.

Quickly reconstructing the forth wall, Sabrina watched as one by one, her teammates made the descent, all in their usual fashion. Tyler didn't stop screaming until he got to shore. Eva was totally stone faced. Geoff went down with a smile and a cry of "Canonball!". Noah... didn't jump.

Loser.

Her eyes flitted from contestant to contestant. Only three people on her team hadn't made their move yet: Gwen, Owen, and her. She didn't wanna be last. Her gaze travelled downwards into the shockingly clear water, teal as her eyes.

It filled her with a strange kind of hope. The kind that almost resembled dread.

One step forward.

"Alright... guess I'm next."

Those four words sealed her fate. She couldn't just back down now. Sabrina wasn't sure if she even wanted to win Total Drama Redo, but she at least wanted to make it to the merge. She'd done it in every season she competed in. She couldn't break her streak. And since basically everyone thought she was a newcomer, she had to make a good first impression.

Rule 5: If you say you're gonna do something, you're doing it.

She was doing it.

Her toes felt the cool rock of the cliff under her feet. Until they met the air as she plummeted, her hair rippling in the wind.

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

She sounded so elated. It took her a second to realize that she was. Damn, she needed this adrenaline! Her skin felt like she'd just been struck by lightning, and you know what? She had. She had just entered the storm. Perfect storm? Debatable. But when she suddenly felt a rush of cold come over her as she quickly treaded the water, she couldn't help but think: what makes something perfect?