Credit to Momfriend10 for this chapter and helping me with it. She really is a good mom friend!

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"Noah! Oh my god, I could kiss you." Emma searched through the pile, wanting to find him so bad but she couldn't! Until he poked his head out, mostly because he just wanted a kiss from the really beautiful girl!

He really, really liked Emma! She was pretty and smart and really mean! Really mean, just like him. They were both mean, so it was meant to be right?

And that kiss really sealed the deal for him. He loved this girl.

"Do I love this girl?" Noah whispered under his breath as he and Cody made their way to the cafeteria. Cody looked over at Noah and raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"Oh, um, nothing." Noah waved him off, opening the doors to the cafe. Cody shrugged and entered with him.

"If you say so." He left Noah's side to go get a plate to eat. Noah watched him leave with a sigh, he couldn't stop thinking about Cody, he couldn't stop thinking about Emma. He couldn't stop thinking in general! Today's challenge was going to be hell if he didn't get his head back in the game.

Come on Noah! Stop stressing over this, remember highschool musical. Get your head in the game, Noah!

You know what? Fuck Troy Bolton and Fuck Highschool Musical 3, it was shit.

"Noah!" It was Owen, he wrapped his arms around Noah and held him up in the air. Noah groaned and gave Owen a look.

"Put me down, Owen." He said, "I'm not in the mood for any of this today. I'm tired and I want to get this all over with." Noah gave Owen a small pat on the chest. Owen frowned and put his shorter friend down, looking at him with worry.

"You alright, Little Buddy? You're usually stressed out but not this much. Did something happen?" Owen questioned, Noah just shrugged. He didn't really mind confiding in Owen but the guy had a big mouth. If Noah told him anything it would usually end up being spread to everyone. But this really wasn't a secret, right? Just thoughts...but then why was he so nervous about saying it out loud?

"J-Just thinking about, Emma."

"Ooh~ Do you miss your girl?" Owen nudged him on the shoulder. Noah lightly pushed him away and shook his head.

"No, Big Guy. That's the point. I don't think I do miss her." Noah ran a hand through is hair, "I'm her boyfriend! I'm supposed to miss her, but I don't! Which is weird because instead of thinking about her I'm thinking about C-...Conditioner. Air conditioning is what I need right now! It's hot in this fucking hotel." Noah spat, pinching the bridge of his nose and looking away from Owen.

"Oh, I see. Well that's nothing to he worried about, it's not like you're entire history is gone because you're not thinking about her. Noah, I know something. Just because you love someone doesn't mean they will be the center of attention. And that's okay!" He threw an arm around Noah. "And plus, it's not like she'll find out. She's not even here!"

"You're right..."

"CONTESTANTS! Today is a very special challenge, you will be performing acts of love for your partner. You'll be doing it, infront of two love experts. I don't really know if they're experts...but they're the cheapest. Head down to the lobby!" Chris chuckled, turning off the announcements and smiling to himself.

"You two ready for today's challenge?" He smirked at Kitty and Emma. Kitty squealed and nodded, Emma nodded as well.

"I'm excited to see everyone! We only know a few people that were from the original cast. But to meet everyone? Wow!" Kitty snorted, "Right, Emma?"

"Yeah, it'd be nice to see Owen and Noah." She placed a hand on her hip and smiled at the thought of her boyfriend. Kitty wiggled her eyebrows, Emma scoffed and hit her on the back of the head.

"Quit it, Kit."

"Nice, blah blah, let's get to it!" Chris shouted, exiting the room. Emma and Kitty followed behind him, smiling at each other. Emma was really excited to see Noah, it had only been a week or so since they last saw each other but it was a lonely week. She knew her boyfriend could cheer her up. That cute smile, the way his eyes lit up when he saw her. She had noticed all of it, and she cherished it. Noah was the best guy she could ask for. He was so nice and he had this feistiness in him that she also loved! The way he snapped at others and the way he used his sarcasm. Oh wow, Noah was a keeper!

• • •

Everyone gathered around in the lobby, standing by their assigned partners. Chris stepped up on to the platform, smiling at his crowd of depressed teens. He cleared his throat and held his hands behind his back.

"Dudes and Dudettes! The first part of your challenge will be writing a short poem about your companion. The poem must be top notch, our relationship experts will be judging the quality of the poem. So if you want a good score? Be a good writer." Chris glanced at a hand that was held up in the air. He rolled his eyes and scoffed.

"What, Lindsay?"

"Um, Chris? Who are the love experts?" She tilted her head. Chris's frown disappeared, he let out a small laugh.

"Oh, glad you asked. Our love experts are people who were on our last season of Total Drama. The season I wasn't in." Chris gave an angry expression to the cameras. "Total Drama: The Ridonculous Race. Of course that was the worst season of all, I mean, you can't have Total Drama without Chris McLean! Who even was that last guy!?" Chris yelled, Sierra raised her fist into the air. She was just as angry.

"Yeah! Who does he think he is!?" She growled, she wasn't a fan of the last season either. She knew everything there was about Chris McLean, she loved Chris McLean. She believed that Total Drama was nothing without Chris McLean. The others didn't agree, they hated Chris. Obviously.

"Thank you, Sierra. Anyway, welcome our love experts!" Chris motioned towards the entrance of the building. "Kitty and Emma!" He clapped as they entered.

"KITTY AND WHO?" Noah snapped his attention towards the double doors, this wasn't going to be good. They two sisters entered, those were the love experts? Out of all the times you could've brought Emma back into his life you chose now? Just as he was questioning his feelings for her? Emma had been the only girl Noah ever had feelings for and now he wasn't sure if he had even loved her in the first place? And now she's here!? What, was he gay or something?

"Holy shit..." Noah mumbled, balling his fists and staring up at Emma.

Was he gay or something?

No, no, that couldn't be it. Noah would've known he was gay. And plus, why did he want to kiss Emma so badly if he was gay. It just didn't add up, maybe Emma just wasn't the right girl? But Noah was in his late teens now, there's no way it should take him this long to fall for a girl. It was all so confusing and fucking weird! Maybe he was a late bloomer, he would find someone one day. And he had decided that Emma wasn't that someone. But how could he tell her that? After leading her on for so long? After going on dates and watched her smile, she was smiling at him right now. Did he even have the courage to say anything? He hated this. But for now, he would just listen to the love experts at work.

"Hi, everyone!" Kitty waved, standing on her tippy toes. Owen quickly waved back, beaming with joy.

"Hey, Kitty!" He smiled, Kitty was one of his best friends. Izzy raised an eyebrow as she turned to her significant other.

"You know her?"

"Yeah! We were on The Ridonculous Race together. Kitty's really fun." Owen explained, still waving to his friend. Izzy smiled along with Owen and began waving as well.

"Cool! HI KITTY!"

"HIIII!" Kitty giggled, still waving at the two. Emma rolled her eyes for what seemed to be the tenth time today. She searched the crowd and spotted Noah, giving him a small wave. He waved back at her, sweating like a pig.

"Hey...Emma.."

"Hi, Noah."

"Okay, Contestants. Let's get this started, you have exactly 10 minutes to search for your paper, that will have your own name on it. Once you have your paper you have another 10 minutes to find your pencil. The pencil has your partner's initials engraved in them. Be sure to find the right one. After that, you'll have only 5 minutes to write the actual poem. That's 25 minutes, hurry it up!" Chris blew his air horn, signaling for the clock to start. Everyone split up and started searched through the piles.

"Alright...my name.." Courtney mumbled, reaching her hand in the pile. She quickly jerked her hand back when she felt a sharp pinch on her wrists. She yelped and looked at her hand, a red crab was hanging onto it. She looked up and Chris, why was she surprised?

"A crab? You haven't changed one bit, McLean!" She spat. She threw the crab off of her and went back to searching.

"What more can I say? I like to stick to traditions. And don't relax because that's not all."

"OW, SHIT! A FUCKING EEL?" Heather screamed, she had just gotten shocked by an Electric Eel. "Don't those things only live in fucking water?" Heather kicked the Eel and slowly and cautiously stuck her hand back in the pile.

"You think I got regular Eels? You're funny, Heather." Chris shot her finger guns. He went back to laughing at the pain of the other contestants.

This was fun.

"GOT IT!" Cody yelled, holding his paper in the air. And that was when a bee, the tiniest bee, came and stung Cody on his finger. And that made Chris the happiest person alive, he knew that bee hive wouldn't disappoint him. Cody dropped the paper and stared at his finger. He felt his finger swell up, his throat following the trend soon after. He couldn't breathe, Oh God he couldn't breathe.

"Cody?" Noah looked back at his partner. "Oh shit! Cody!" Noah ran towards Cody, putting his hands on his shoulder. He shook Cody back at forth, wondering if he was even still alive. Yes, he was alive, but Noah was extra and didn't know much about allergic reactions.

"D-Do you have an inhaler or something? Wait no, not inhaler- EpiPen? Is that what it's called? Do you have that!?" Noah was panicking, he didn't need a dead Cody right now. Cody tried to speak but obviously that wasn't going to happen. He pointed at his back pocket, trying to take it out himself. Noah immediately grabbed the EpiPen, how the hell was he supposed to use it?

"Oh! I saw this in a movie once." Noah pulled off the blue safety cap and stabbed it into Cody's thigh. He didn't mean to do it as rough as he did but like I said, he was panicking. He heard a small click and awkwardly waited a few seconds. Cody then sat and took a loud deep breath, he made eye contact with Noah.

"Dude, thanks."

"It's nothing," Noah gave him a small shrug. "Can't win a million with a dead partner, right?" Noah smiled to show he was joking. Sometimes it was hard to tell, it's not like he was the King Of Comedy.

"Heh, yeah." A smile appeared on Cody's face as well. It was small but genuine and true, it sent a shock down Noah's spine. Noah felt his face flushing at the sight of the smile. The dimples, the sparkle in his eyes. Holy fuck this guy was cute. Really cute. It sort of confused Noah when he saw Cody's smile. It had never felt like anything he'd seen before but it was really just a smile. Smiles aren't intense? But this one felt different...

"Hey! What is up with you two and saving each other? It's annoying! Stop it!" Chris pouted, he loved the danger. It may have seemed psychotic but he killed to see teens on the edge of life and death. It was like a drug!

"We wouldn't have to do it if you weren't fucking crazy!"

"Get back to the challenge, losers!"

"Whatever," Noah grumbled, following Chris's orders. The two had about five minutes left to find their papers. Cody retrieved the one he had dropped and dashed off to the finish line. He would've finished first if it weren't for the Bee Allergy thing. While that happened Alejandro had already found his own, no creature would dare pinch or bite that man. He was invincible.

"Are you alright, Cody? That looked like it hurt," Alejandro asked. Cody furrowed his eyebrows, not even looking at Alejandro. He remembered what had happened in World Tour and he wasn't going to forget it. He wasn't going to be played this season, not ever again! It didn't matter if Alejandro was extremely attractive and had long luscious locks. Cody still knew he was a bitch.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine. Nothing wrong here, Al." Cody smirked, Alejandro tried his best to keep his cool.

"Please, don't call me that."

"Sorry, Al."

Before Alejandro could continue speaking the buzzer went off. The others had found their papers and made it to the finish line with the others. They just had retrieve their pencils from the second pile! The second pile looked safe so hopefully nothing would hurt anyone again. They could just look for their pencils and write their dumb love poems and get it over with! Then everyone could move on to whatever the hell Chris wanted them to do next. This would be easy!

"Is that a fucking bear?"

• • •

"Now, that everyone has finished writing their poems hand them to me and Emma. Trust me, we'll pick out the best one. We are love experts after all." Kitty leaned back in her chair, Emma scoffed at her. Love experts, yeah.

"What she said," Emma pointed at her sister. The contestants did as told, handing in their poems and stepping back to wait for their scores.

"Hmm..." Kitty placed a finger under her chin. "Owen, this is just a picture of Izzy's head and a heart. This isn't a poem..." Kitty glanced up at Owen, he smiled and gave her finger guns.

"Or, is it?"

"It's not," Emma cut in. "0/10. Lazy. Not even a good drawing." She threw the paper away and sighed. Owen's smile dropped as he slowly nodded and walked away. Izzy growled at Emma, she would definitely be watching her. Emma was a bit scared but played it off as if she didn't see anything. Kitty picked out the next card and read it out loud.

"Your hair is winter fire, January embers. My heart burns there, too." Kitty covered her mouth and gasped, "IT REFERENCE? HELL YEAH SIERRA! TEN OUT OF TEN!"

"I'M A REDDIE STAN!"

"ME TOO!"

"Kitty, stop it. We have to take this seriously! We're supposed to be love experts and basing our scores off of dumb references is unprofessional. Sierra, I give it a Six out of Ten. Cute but unoriginal." Emma titled her nose up in the air. Sierra was filled with rage, how fucking dare she?

"SIX OUT OF TEN? DO YOU EVEN-"

"No. I don't. Next!" Emma picked out another.

And another.

And another.

And another.

More and more went by. The more Emma spoke the more people got mad or sad. Emma didn't consider other people's feelings a lot when it came to judging. She meant well but she liked to take things seriously. Kitty was a little pissed off that she barely got any say in the matter. She loved her sister but sometimes Emma could be really rude and inconsiderate. It was something she needed to work on if she wanted any kind of friends.

"Aaaannd...Noah!"

"I hate mine. I'm not the one to be romantic so I was as sappy and stereotypical as possible. Ya know? RomCom stuff," Noah explained. Emma read the card and smiled a bit, she thought it was really sweet.

"This is great! I mean, bland and stereotypical as you said. But great! And you're plenty romantic, Noah." Emma winked at him, that made him extremely uncomfortable. Kitty snatched the paper and read it out loud.

"Roses are Red. Violets are blue. Your dimples warm my heart. And I love you. DUDE THIS IS SO LAZY." Kitty screeched, bursting out into a fit of laughter.

"Exactly, that was the point. Why put effort into a poem about a fake partner? I'm like the only one who didn't get paired with my actual girlfriend."

Girlfriend. It felt weird coming out of his mouth. Girlfriend. It just didn't quite sound right to him. Girlfriend. It was a common word so he didn't know why saying it was such a big deal. Girlfriend. I mean, it's something he definitely has! But he felt like he wanted something else, something different. A different word but with a similar meaning.

What the hell could that be?

"Hush up. That's only because I'm not a contestant. But anyway, 7 out of 10! It's cute." Emma continued to smile at the paper.

Your dimples warm my heart.

"Dimples." Emma mumbled to herself, resting her cheek on her hand. Emma had dimples, maybe Noah was talking about her? She was dating him so it was obvious the I Love You was pointed at her. Did he really love her dimples? Noah was such a sweetheart sometimes.

"That's that! The highest score we had was for Alejandro! With his beautiful sonnet to Heather. And our lowest score was for Heather...with negative 10...for her insulting and inappropriate poem to Alejandro." Kitty shook her head and let out a sigh. "Next portion of the challenge! Is the hand-holding test." Kitty pointed at a machine in the corner.

"You will hold the hand of the machine and it will score you on your hand-holding. If you don't score high enough you will be shocked and thrown into the pool of electric eels in the other corner." Chris snickered, motioning towards the electrified water. This would be fun.

• • •

"That's it! I quit. I don't want a million anymore!" Cody screamed, he rushed into his hotel room soaking wet. He of course didn't get a very high score on the hand-holding test. He was shocked and electrocuted and he swore one of those eels took his left sock and left the shoe. That thief! Cody plopped down onto the couch and screeched into the sofa pillow.

"I mean, stiff!? Can you believe that called my hand-holding too stiff? I was perfectly calm." Cody complained, looking at Noah for a response. Noah was just staring off into space, thinking and thinking and thinking.

There's no way. Is there a way? I mean it cant be. Can it? It's just everything I once saw in Emma is just so dissatisfying now. Her smile and her eyes used to make me go crazy. The way she yelled at me and rejected me only made me want her more.

"Hey...Noah?"

She was so mean and I loved her for it. But now everytime I see her acting bitchy it just doesn't have the same effect now. Her glare doesn't turn me on. Her yelling just pisses me off. The way she was a bitch to Owen today wasn't hot at all.

"You're a nerd and your books are awful."

None of it's hot! Shes not hot! I don't think Emma is hot anymore? In the eyes of a standard male she'd be the most attractive thing alive. But I guess I'm not a standard male.

"Your mom is ugly."

And what was up with me when Cody smiled? I've seen plenty of Cody smiling yet the one from today seemed like it had a whole new meaning. Now it's all I can fucking think about! That smile was just...I don't know how to explain it. All I know is that I definitely want to see it again. God, let me see it again.

"You're gay."

"What!?" Noah was snapped back into reality. "I'm not gay. I have a girlfriend, what are you talking about?"

"Chill, man! Just trying to get your attention. You're acting really weird." There was a hint of concern in Cody's voice. It was true, he was concerned. How could he not be? Noah was acting in a way that it could make anyone concerned.

"Weird? I'm not acting weird. It's just-" Noah cut himself off. He really wanted to talk about it.

"Yes. I am acting weird. But it's just about, Emma! She's just right here and smiling at everyone. Smiling at me! And I want to smile back but it feels wrong to," Noah huffed. "I don't think I want to be with her anymore."

"Oh," Cody thought it over for a second. He wasn't very good at relationship advice but he did know one thing. If you didn't love someone then you probably shouldn't be with them. Leading someone on because you're confused with yourself is never the right answer. It hurts you and the other person.

"I'm not the one to talk. Every relationship I've been in ended horribly. Girls don't really like me, which sucks. But I think you should probably break up with her. That is, if you're sure you don't feel the same way about her." Cody mumbled, laughing a bit. That's not what Noah wanted to hear but at the same time, it kinda was.

"I guess so..." Noah covered his face and looked down at the ground. This was really fucking with him and he hated every moment of it. Why was this so hard!? It's never been something he had to decipher before so why was it now? It just came out of nowhere with no warning! And he's just supposed to be fine with it? Hell no. His life sucked ass at the moment.

"Hey, dude. It's okay. Everything will be okay." Cody reassured him. "It may seem bad now but things will get better. And if Emma isn't the one, you'll have many other relationships to determine who is. It may take you a few tries but sooner or later you'll find them. And they'll think you're totally awesome. Because that's what you are, totally awesome!" Cody rested his hand on Noah's arm. His smile growing even bigger if that was possible.

"Dork," Noah felt that feeling again. The smile was back. But it wasn't just the smile it was Cody in general. His words made Noah feel better about the situation.

"I'm a swag Dork."

"Mhm, sure." Noah chuckled, smiling back at Cody. God, Cody was really such a good guy. He knew exactly what to say when it was the right time. Sure he had his slip ups but this wasn't one of them. Cody really cared and that suprised Noah. No one usually gave a shit about the sarcastic bastard that talked trash all the time. But Cody did and Noah appreciated it. He appreciated the smile, the dimples, the glimmer in his eyes, the words, the caring, the Codemeister. Way more than he had ever appreciated Emma or anyone in his life. Not his dad, not even Owen. Cody was something special and that was a fact.

And that's when he realized it.

"Fuck I think I'm gay."

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This took longer than expected.

GUESS WHOSE BAAAACCKK!