Archive of Our Own ^beta

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“Any ideas for the next video Chase? I’ve been looking at medieval torture equipment, it’s definitely worth the expense!” Scary girl grinned at Chase. With Emma making it clear there is zero chance she would ever come back to Chase’s beach house it felt strangely natural for Scary Girl to move in to replace Emma. At Chase’s silence Scary Girl moved closer to his face “Something wrong? You usually only look like that when our videos do bad, but they’ve been loving the screams lately!”

Chase’s face turned red at the closeness Scary Girl “Agh, it’s happening again! This past week I’ve been getting really sweaty randomly and sometimes at a loss for words which never happens! It’s so hard to fall asleep, all I can think about is our next video but the thought of making them makes me so nervous my blood runs cold. This has never happened before, I, I might be dying!” Chase got up from his seat, almost tearing up from voicing his symptoms not looking Scary Girl in the eye as she followed his movement. “No screaming in agony… that’s a terrible way to go! And I’ve barely done half the tor… ‘pranks’ that I’ve wanted to do with someone else, is there any cure?” she questioned, treating Chase’s refusal to look at her like a game. “Of course I looked up my symptoms on bing, it says I have from a week to a month at best. Our journey to 1M subscribers might be over before it’s truly started SG, what a cruel twist of fate,” Chase moved to the floor, drawing his knees in. The change from crazy smile to deep frown happened over the course of a second on Scary Girl’s face “I’ll be alone in a month, you’d be gone so I’d be alone again…” switching it up for her usual smile to say “Well! No use crying over it yet, let’s make use of the time you have left!” Sniffing slightly Chase said, “Like a bucket list?” for Scary Girl to nod frantically “Yes! If we work even harder on our videos, we could hit that 1M goal you always talk about!” Chase’s mood brightened “I’ve always wanted to break the record for most pizza eaten in 10 minutes,” met with even bigger energy “Let’s do it! Immortalise yourself as one last act before becoming one with the worms!”

Several hours later the 2 hadn’t made it past what idea they should do first, a whiteboard was covered in so many words it almost looked entirely black from a distance. “How am I supposed to choose, they all sound so cool and we have to think about if we can earn enough money to do the ideas!” Chase groaned, throwing a marker at the board only for it to rebound and hit him in the face. “Don’t worry, we’ll do as many as we can and if you regret enough, you can come back as a ghost and you can possess me to finish the rest!” Scary Girl comforted him. “Wait you’d really do that for me, that’s so cool of you,” watching as Scary Girl picked up the marker, searching for more room Chase gasped “It’s happening again! It’s like a heart attack, my chest feels all warm and fuzzy but also really hot and burning as well!” Turning her attention back to Chase, Scary Girl moved to put her head against his chest “Oh no! Let me listen, I’ve listened to someone have a heart attack online.” Yelping in surprise Chase backed away “Don’t do that, it’s making it worse! Just don’t move, maybe it will pass?”

Raising her arms Scary Girl watched Chase, her eyes wide as the growing silence in the room. Taking deep breathes time stretched on, Chase focusing on his shoes rather than the concern in Scary Girl’s eyes. Eventually Chase relaxed his shoulders “Okay it passed, that was terrifying and shows we don’t have time to sit around and plan. Let’s just pick an idea and do it, sound good?” Scary Girl was still in a statue pose, shaking her head before speaking with less cheer than her normal enthusiasm “Yeah, yeah we should do what’s written down while we have the time…”

If Chase noticed the shift in atmosphere, he didn’t mention it “Let’s take a look here, oooh how about ‘Go on live tv’? I know Julia’s been in some talk shows about her makeup brand so maybe she can help.” Chase pulled out his phone already looking up her social media to message her “Sounds perfect Chase,” Scary Girl spoke, the high pitch in her tone sounding slightly strained.

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“Hey Jules, your phone’s been blowing up for the past ten minutes, I thought you turned notifications off ages ago?” MK waved Julia’s phone at her, standing in the doorway to her dressing room. Before turning to look at MK, Julia took her time to keeping her hair neat and her makeup smudge less “So when I asked you this morning where my phone was you were telling the truth in saying no right?” she spoke with a smile. Adjusting her beanie MK chuckled nervously “Fine, you caught me. It’s not like you missed it, I’ve seen how many phones you have at home, it’s like a whole monument to the past phone models.” As MK closed the door behind her Julia walked closer to her, hand outstretched “Yeah but that’s the latest model, I can’t have someone think I’m not up to date with the trends by using the previous model,” MK giving Julia her phone whilst shrugging. “Yeah, I’m sorry for taking it except I am also responsible for improving its internet connection so maybe you’re super cool with me stealing your stuff?”

Julia gave back a raised eyebrow before laughing “MK you don’t have to hide taking my stuff, unless it’s my moisturiser, or my lip gloss, well just anything to do with my skincare because I will kill you. Honestly, I think it’s sweet how you keep trying to improve these little things in my life. However, I don’t want you to think you have to try so hard, I didn’t say yes to going out with you because I pity you or expect you to work for me. Trust me, If I didn’t have total drama to focus on, I probably would’ve asked you out first instead.” Lowering her beanie over her eyes MK hid her blush “You didn’t have to say all that, I’m no good with all the mushy stuff. It is nice to hear you say it though, for the record I fell way earlier than you did for me.”

Interrupting the moment was Julia’s phone, the speed of notifications seeming to double out of nowhere. “We’re revisiting the feelings stuff later, for now I’ve got to see who the person messaging me thinks they are,” Julia turned her attention to her phone, scrolling past the almost hundreds of spammed messages of misspelled versions of her name and ‘hi’s’ now split across 2 separate people. The first Julia could see happening with Chase’s profile picture showing his face pulled in what could only be meant as funny, Julia was not impressed. The second was a little more confusing to see a profile picture of a flaming skull, slightly slower than Chase to type vague threats telling Julia to answer the phone. “MK, who’s this profile belong to,” Julia passed her phone back to MK, allowing her to do the digging whilst ignoring the onslaught of messages.

MK took her time to scrutinise the phone, turning off the notifications at some point to eventually pause, her eyes going wide “Wait Scary Girl is on Chase’s channel, when did that happen?” Julia leaned over for MK to show her a video of Chase encouraging Scary Girl to jump from a building wearing dozens of balloons strapped to her back “Wow, didn’t see that coming, I never knew they were that close. Anyway, that means they both clearly want something from me which isn’t a good sign, but if Scary Girl is involved I should probably at least see what it is for our safety,” Julia winced, remembering the time Scary Girl chased Damien with a jackhammer while laughing.

Nodding in agreement MK finally opened up the messages, pausing to type anything until Julia made a shrug “Type whatever, it doesn’t matter to me.” Letting MK type into the flood of messages from Chase ‘what?’, from this the text channels went silent and after a short while of Chase typing then stopping typing the reply came ‘Can you get me on tv? Live so they don’t cut out my awesomeness, please!!!!’. “Pfft why would I do that, if he wants to get on there, he should grow his channel big enough to…” Julia paused seeing the next message ‘I’m dying so I don’t have much time left to do the things I want’ followed by several crying emojis and prayer emojis. “Oh, we can’t refuse him now right Jules? I mean it could be a prank still, on the other hand though if it isn’t we’ll be the worst humans ever,” MK frowned turning to Julia. Sighing Julia pressed on the bridge of her nose “I hate that you’re right, and I also hate that Chase of all people is making me call in some favours.”

Taking the phone Julia called Chase to hear Scary Girl’s voice say “I caught it! Here you go Chase!” Chase then talking “Heyyy, Julia, so about getting on tv?!” the annoyance on Julia’s face so clear that MK stifled a snicker. “Are you actually sick? Because I swear you don’t joke about shit like that Chase, I better not become a part of some prank video to be clipped,” Julia said keeping her tone calm whilst also stern. “No lie, I can pinkie promise later, I swear! I’ve been randomly feeling all sweaty, I can’t sleep properly and sometimes my heart feels like it’s being stopped! Please help me, I can’t die without the world seeing the full unabridged Chase!” Chase spoke so loud Julia had to pull her phone away from her ear to not be turned deaf.

“Alright, alright, I’ll set something up for tomorrow. I’m friends with a gameshow host so hopefully they’ll be able to get you on there, it’s challenges get pretty insane so I’m sure it will be to your pace. I’ll send you the location when I can confirm you’re on,” Julia relented. Only to then be hit with Chase talking somehow even louder “Thank you!... Wait can Scary Girl come too; you remember her from total drama, right?! She’s super cool I promise!” Gritting her teeth only to smile at MK’s sniggering that Chase could be heard off speaker as Julia held her phone completely away from her ear “Fine, I’m not getting her on tv though, she’ll definitely ruin the set games.” Some rustling could be heard from Chase’s end until it was cut off with him saying “See you tomorrow, this is gonna be so fun!”

Chase was practically vibrating joy, enough so that he attempted to lift Scary Girl up, his strength only able to manage an inch off the ground before he had to stop. Noticing the wider eyed than usual look Scary Girl gave him he immediately took some steps back. “OMG, am I contagious!? Your face! It’s got way more colour than usual! I’m so sorry!” Chase’s face red all over his spiral was stopped by Scary Girl regaining composure. “It’s fine!” she squeaked out “It’s probably because It’s so late in the day and my makeup is wearing off!” Chase raised his eyebrow “Wait that’s a thing? Man, I thought it was just water that would do that, and I thought some makeup was invulnerable to that. Keeping makeup on must be really hard, I’m glad you’re safe though.” Keeping the same distance between each other Scary Girl nodded her head “Yeah, it’s getting late and I’m tired from all our plotting so I’m going to head to bed. I had a big lunch before coming back here so don’t worry, I’ll see you tomorrow. I appreciate you letting me stay here as part of the prank house… bye!”

Scary Girl moved quickly before slowing her pace to a more regular pattern giving a small wave back to Chase as he spoke “Oh, goodnight then, see ya in the morning Scary Girl.” As she left sight Chase gripped his hoodie over his heart “Ugh, I think it’s getting worse. I hope I still have time to at least more than one thing on my bucket list.”

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Scary Girl didn’t usually wake up peacefully considering her alarm was a combination of horror film music and screams but this morning it wasn’t her alarm that woke her up. Even from upstairs she could hear the sounds of cookware slamming into the kitchen floor from downstairs. Her first instinct was to grab the spiked baseball bat under her bed until she noticed the faint light of the sun through her dark curtains and the familiar shout of Chase “No, no, no!” as the crash of more cookware could be heard.

Scary Girl took her time to get downstairs, keeping an ear out if Chase had actually hurt himself in whatever he was doing. By the time she reached the kitchen she saw Chase holding a hand against the cupboard with all the cookware in it, the other on a frying pan to what looked like it was supposed to be pancakes. A pile of rejects next to the stovetop, some burnt and some mostly batter, unsurprisingly one on the ceiling. “Oh, Scary Girl did I wake you up? Sorry, I was going to have my usual cereal, then I realised I’ve never made a hot breakfast before that wasn’t from a restaurant,” Chase kept his eyes on the pan. Moving past him Scary Girl moved Chase’s hand off the cupboard, managing to keep back the tsunami of pots long enough to move everything in its usual order “You didn’t wake me, also it’s burning so you should flip it.” Chase’s concentration broken to watch Scary Girl make the cupboard arrangement look simple looked back to his pan, taking it off to get ready to flip it “Thanks for the assist, I think I’ve nearly got the hang of this.” As Chase flipped the pancake it flew further to the right of the pan, Chase’s attempt to catch it in vain as it flopped to the ground, the uncooked side up. “Again? The tutorial video I watched made it look so easy.”

Seeing Chase’s disappointment Scary Girl stretched her hand out “Can I try?” shrugging Chase handed over the pan, handing over the pancake mixture as well “Sure, don’t feel bad if you don’t get it, I’ve been trying to do it all morning.” Both of them kept their attention to the pancake cooking, when bubbles began to rise Scary Girl used one hand to flip the pancake to reveal a perfectly cooked face of the pancake. “Woah! How’d you do that?” Chase questioned, Scary Girl turned to look at Chase to say “Just keep a steady hand and not a lot of strength. Do you want me to teach you?” Chase responded with a “Hell yeah!” and after a while did get the hang of it, after Scary Girl managed to copy Chase’s attempt at doing a cool flip then teaching it back to him.

The resulting pancakes were then drowned in what was almost an entire box of ice cream on Chase’s plate, Scary Girl mashing hers with all the available toppings in the house to create an abomination that could’ve only tasted good from the sugar content. Mid bite Chase’s phone rang, he answered with his mouth full to Julia telling him to make his way to the filming site to be on the game show “I can’t understand you Chase, I’ll just send the location, you better be here on time.” Still chewing he turned to Scary Girl “We…” he swallowed “Julia called for us to get going.” Scary Girl abandoned her food in line with Chase suddenly being halfway out of the door “Are you going out like that?” She gestured to the ice cream smeared over his face and pancake mix on the sleeves of his hoodie “Shoot, good catch Scary Girl.”

Changing his hoodie and cleaning off his face let Scary Girl be the first to get to the car, car keys in hand. “Wait, Scary Girl let me drive,” her icy stare back to Chase instantly making him flinch “I just think we don’t want to end up in prison when there’s stuff to do today. Scary Girl angled her head to look more threatening “I mean the prank where you pretend, you’re about to run over people is funny and all. However, we don’t have time to avoid the police if we want to get where Julia told us in time?” Chase’s argument taking a questioning tone in the end as he tried to tell if his reasoning worked. “Ok! When we drive back, I want to scare some people though!” Scary Girl tossed Chase the keys, moving to the passenger side.

Starting the car Chase brought the conversation back to breakfast “Genuinely, I never knew you were so incredible using a frying pan. I was trying for ages then bam you come in and keep the cupboards all together and get it first try!” Scary Girl studied his face for a moment before saying “It feels weird to hear someone compliment me as much as you do. Usually, I just get called weird over talented even when I’ve tried to act normal.” Chase met Scary Girl’s eyes holding a serious expression “I mean it Scary Girl, looking back on total drama it kinda sucks we never really spoke. The jackhammer worked really awesome in that one challenge until you chased our own team.” In the next moment Chase turned away to make a troubled expression that Scary Girl picked up on “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, it’s just that chest squeeze feeling, I’ll still be okay to drive as long as I let it pass. Don’t forget what I said Scary Girl. Time to be on a gameshow!” During the beginning of the drive Scary Girl waited for Chase to speak before doing anything, still thinking about the fact that Chase really did seem to have an illness. It was at a red light where an elderly lady was walking across the road taking enough time that the crosswalk had set back to green where Chase grinned “Should I do it?” pointing at the car horn. Squealing Scary Girl leaned out of her seat slightly “Can I?!” and as Chase moved back in his seat Scary Girl slammed the horn, scaring the lady on the street. At the outraged expression on her face the 2 burst into laughter in the car despite the rest of the pedestrians clearly not finding the situation amusing. As the lady crossed the street Chase hit a high five with Scary Girl before driving on “Sick prank Scary Girl, we should’ve recorded it!”

That incident reassuring Scary Girl that Chase’s health was fine for the moment as they chatted in the drive to Julia’s location. Pulling up to the location had the 2 pointing at all of the warehouse style buildings and Scary Girl taking a picture of Chase in an abandoned Director’s chair. The gruff man escorting them to the right set gestured to some golf carts and his efforts to be the driver were pushed aside in the face of Scary Girl’s shout of ‘Dibs!’. Taking far longer than necessary they arrived in the right spot, Julia holding a clipboard, shouting orders at people on set.

“Good you’re here on time, are you going to be fine on stage?” Julia looked up from her clipboard, giving the escort a sympathetic look from the scared look on his face. “Yeah, I think so, this is going to be so cool!” Chase replied, “Wait, Scary Girl you can be a part of the live audience! Maybe I can phone a friend and then you answer from the crowd without me even calling, that would be hilarious!” Sending a text Julia raised an eyebrow, “This isn’t ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire?’ at least your enthusiastic, that’ll bring good ratings. MK will set up your mic and send you to makeup, Chase I’m sorry to hear about you being sick, I hope it’ll be fun today to take your mind off the whole… not long left thing.”

Chase frowned “Honestly, it still doesn’t feel real, thanks for doing all this Julia. Wait did you say makeup, on this handsome face.” Chase made an exaggerated expression, flexing which caused Scary Girl to giggle, Chase going further to try and get Scary Girl to laugh more. “Huh, Scary Girl you can be a part of the live audience, just keep quiet. I’ll take Chase to see MK,” Julia sent another text to MK. Chase fist bumped Scary Girl, waving Scary Girl goodbye as he went off backstage with Julia. During the walk Julia slowed down to ask a question “Chase, this might be a weird question, and I could be wrong but do these ‘symptoms’ only show up when you’re with Scary Girl?”

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“Chase, this might be a weird question, and I could be wrong but do these ‘symptoms’ only show up when you’re with Scary Girl?” Chase scrunched his face up, furrowing his brows, then he spoke “You’re right that is a weird question. I… I think that’s right, well sort of right I mean. One thing I’ve been dealing with is insomnia and I’m not near Scary Girl when that happens but the other time’s my illness has flared up it has been around Scary Girl. Wait but that might just be because we hang out so much, we live in the same house now, why does that matter again?” Julia had never seen Chase’s thinking face before, it was unnatural, “Just curious, let’s go see MK.”

At the dressing room Julia raised her hand to knock at the door only for Chase to barge in anyway. “Hey, it’s… beanie… girl,” Chase scratched his head at the girl sitting down in front of him. “It’s MK, glad to see you’re not dead yet,” MK replied nonchalantly for Chase to ask, “I think we’ve met before; did I do a collab with you at any point?” At this MK was caught between the desire to laugh or scoff “Dude, total drama? We did 2 seasons of that show together, we were even on the same team at one point?” Chase shook his head “Nah, we’re probably just thinking of a different person BK.”

Breaking off the conversation that was about to get heated judging by MK’s face Julia said, “Can I remind everyone that it’s not long until we go live, and Chase is neither mic’d up nor has make up for the camera.” MK’s gaze softened at Julia’s pleading face “I still don’t get why I need make up, I’m young and beautiful!” Chase cheered up dramatically. “Just sit-down hoodie dude,” MK retorted, as he did so MK stood up getting equipment ready as Julia pulled out an array of make up tools. To Chase’s credit he didn’t complain about how still he had to sit, the small talk they had started was broken by Julia giving a strong nudge to MK.

“So, how’s dying feel?” MK held down an ‘ow’ as Julia purposefully stepped on her foot. “Not too bad honestly, I am set to have a month left though so it could just mean it’s too early for me to be really feeling ill. I get these annoying tight feelings in my chest every once in a while, doesn’t seem too bad though as they go away fairly quick,” Chase’s thinking face appeared again. “Cool, Julia’s been wondering if you aren’t sick and instead feel like this because you have a crush on Scary Girl,” MK bluntly said, Julia’s disapproving look she was planning to hold for a few minutes was cut short by Chase’s reaction. “What!? No way, that’s not possible. Scary Girl’s my friend, my best platonic friend,” spoken far too defensively from Chase’s face that was the colour of tomatoes from his blush. Chase seeing the unconvinced stare Julia gave prompted him to panic “Guys and girls can be friends without going out with each other! Besides I’m not stupid, I can recognise if I have feelings or not, I’ve had a girlfriend before!” MK’s mouth opened and closed a few times, Julia being first to reply “Sorry Chase, that was pretty inconsiderate of me to assume after seeing you when it’s been so long. I didn’t mean to upset you, especially not to the point of you shouting.”

Wheeling around in his seat Chase returned the apology with his own “No I’m sorry for blowing up like that, I’m not usually like that, you were only asking a question. I didn’t ruin the make up did i?” Making a double check MK muttered out “You’re good, the way I worded that was pretty bad, if you don’t feel well on stage all you have to do is signal someone on set and they’ll make up some excuse for you.” Having calmed down Chase adjusted the new mic attached to his hoodie to ask “Sounds awesome KM, so we’re all done here? I have tons of questions about the gameshow, I’ve heard a little here and there about the physical challenges in between rounds, think I’ll go viral?” Talking a bit about the gameshow took the heat off of the earlier conversation, Chase returning to his loud personality. From all of the time he took getting ready the introductions to the other contestants were kept brief, moments until he was set to get on stage Chase suddenly asked Julia “Does it look like I have a crush on Scary Girl to you? I don’t, I’m only asking to ask why you think so.” Julia had a headset on, clipboard back in her hand as she took in Chase’s interested question “Yeah, I mean you two just have a certain vibe around it. You seem way happier around her than anyone I’ve ever seen you around, not even Emma made you smile like that. That being said it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s romantic, that’s my bad for being nosy, we haven’t even really spoken at all as friends like this since total drama, it’s kinda cool seeing this new you.” Chase quickly shot back “Don’t say it like that, we’re friends, you weren’t even being that nosy really. I promise we’ll hang out more before my death day and I still think you’re way off about me and Scary Girl even, so I’ll sleep on it as a token of respect to my official new friend.” As the final call of one minute till the show goes live hit Chase held out a fist bump to Julia that she hesitantly bumped back as Chase jumped into the blinding lights of the set.

Scary Girl was bored, originally, she assumed talking to some people about the challenges would help pass the time, however they were either too busy to care or looked nervous then turned to run. In the audience all she did was ask for a seat at the front very politely and while she did get her seat everyone beside her, behind of her even diagonal of her moved away. That made it clear they wanted nothing to do with talking to her leaving her bored, in her thoughts she wondered how make up would make Chase look, she reckoned she could do a better job than anyone back there. She considered asking for an update by texting Chase, deciding not to because she didn’t really know how much needed to be done for him to be ready to go on stage. Scary Girl had plenty of room around her, yet she felt caged, everyone else was either engaged in conversation or working, it was lonely. Scary Girl reassured herself Chase would be back soon, the one person who didn’t treat her like a freak, actually considered her talents as talents and amazing to have. That reassurance short lived on the reminder that they were here to do as much as they could before Chase was gone, gone and leaving Scary Girl all alone again.

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The action around her speed up as someone yelled “One minute left!” in the back of the set she saw MK hurrying what looked to be a guy in the tech department, rushing him to finish up and away from the camera. The podiums set up indicated 3 contestants and a host, the host being first to arrive with a particularly impressive afro, comb in hand. Next to arrive was 2 of the contestants, their podium lighting up with there name after they picked where to stand. One was a loud blonde-haired woman, the podium indicated to be called Sugar, the second being a man in sports gear looking the most nervous of everyone on set called Brick. The third podium clearly belonging to Chase as he stumbles in from behind a curtain, his brows creased in concentration until he slaps his face to smile. Scary Girl took note of it, she also took note that it was probably just Chase being nervous in a new setting, it definitely wasn’t camera shyness. When Chase spotted her in the crowd he waved frantically, Scary Girl stood up to wave him back, shooting a death glare to the complaints from those behind her.

When it came to the start of the show Chase ended up almost jumping with the anticipation of playing the game. The man introducing the show, and the contestants called himself ‘The Earl’ clearly used to hosting he didn’t hesitate to cut off Sugar’s own introduction. Brick was able to stammer out his appearance on the show mainly being for promoting his new sports clothing brand, quickly cut off as he went to explain the fabric used for his clothing. Chase’s introduction went how anyone who knew Chase would expect, he spoke about his channel, about the new member Scary Girl and listed many unique but not useful talents. Despite being terrible at trivia Chase boasted he would win the gameshow as the best total drama contestant, Scary Girl made a show to be positive even with her doubts.

Lucky for Chase the first round was true or false, it didn’t take long for it to devolve into who could hit their button to answer fastest. In the beginning Chase would at least hear out the whole question before buzzing in to guess the answer, Sugar beating him twice in a row pushed him to buzz even earlier. Finding it funny Sugar kept on pushing the button as early as possible, much to the dismay of Brick as even if one of them answered wrong the other would be next to buzz in correctly. The host’s attempts to slow them down was met by the buzzer, at the end of the round Chase was in the lead by one point followed by Sugar and Brick last with a whole 5 points behind Sugar.

For the next round it was individual trivia for the contestants to answer as many questions as possible in one minute to boost their score. This round showed why answering questions as if they were a coin flip doesn’t work. Brick took his time as he answered, holding knowledge for both sports and fashion working well to get him back in the game with his points. Chase and Sugar both mostly saying pass for their minute cost them their lead against Brick, Chase still barely holding onto his lead as Sugar moved to last place.

Reaching the final round Brick looked smug, Chase and Sugar fully concentrated to what was next. Split from a 50/50 choice the next set of questions came with 4 options, 3 different category’s set around the contestant’s own expertise. Chase inwardly prayed Julia had made his easy, no longer button spamming each contestant answered independently. Brick was stumped on a few of his own, clearly upset that Chase and Sugar had guessed right on a few of the questions he got wrong. Being around Scary Girl’s sense of fashion surprisingly being perfect for some of Brick’s questions, Sugar’s set kept a theme of farms that was perfectly broad to create a level playing field of questions. Especially Chase was nervous for his set of questions, that soon dissipating at his first question describing a prank that only Chase correctly identified. Brick exclaiming “Is that even English?” to the next question giving acronyms used online. At the end of the round Chase was grinning, declaring his win as the host began declaring the scores. Face dropping further than Sugar’s as Brick was named the winner of the show, Brick moved to stand by the host, even as he thanked the host for his prize trophy, he robotically promoted his clothes brand. Chase’s dejected expression switching as he was handed a much smaller trophy for second place, bursting out into laughter at the comically small trophy Sugar received.

The moment a woman behind a camera shouted cut, Scary Girl jumped onto the stage to congratulate Chase. “It’s too bad you didn’t get first place, want me to get that trophy!” Scary Girl gestured to Brick, ready to bolt off and take it. “Don’t worry, my trophy’s still awesome, at least I didn’t get that one!” the 2 snickering at Sugar complaining to an employee about the size of her trophy. In the quiet as the laughter died down Scary Girl thought she saw Chase lean closer to her, his arms slightly raised, Chase moving back to keep the distance after that instant. Scary Girl concluded Chase was acting strange after coming back from makeup to which Scary Girl could hardly tell he was wearing, Chase did always initiate hugs, maybe he thought it was weird of him to do now. Scary Girl sucked in a breath, bringing Chase away from looking around him to watch her yank Chase toward her in a spine crushing hug. Releasing a now winded Chase Scary Girl put a finger to her chin “Huh, I think you’re better at hugging than me.”

Chase’s eyes widened, Scary Girl maintaining a close distance after letting go, Chase’s face felt burning. Catching his breath, Chase quickly spoke “Oh, I think I left my… car keys in the dressing room, be back in a minute!” His exit halted by Scary Girl’s grip on his arm “Wait, sorry if I did it wrong, don’t run,” the twinge of sadness in Scary Girl’s voice made Chase’s own panic turn to worry. “I’m not leaving because you hugged me, I just said about my car keys. I thought the hug was… cool, a little bit too tight sure, you didn’t do anything wrong I only want to make sure my stuff doesn’t get stolen from the dressing room,” Chase felt a pang in his chest, he really needed to go to that dressing room. After some internal debate Scary Girl accepted his reasoning “Okay, I’ll meet you by the car so we can head back, text me if you get held up again. I’ll keep in mind how tight to hug you for the future…” Chase gave back a smile that he hoped hide his crisis that was expanding in his head at the speed of light, trying not to run to the dressing room, ignoring the fact that halfway there he heard the faint jingle of keys in his pocket.

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By the time Chase reached the dressing room, getting some weird glances on the way there he had calmed down slightly. There was one person who could give him the advice he needed, he’d already heard Julia’s point of view and wasn’t in the mood to be told what his feelings for Scary Girl ‘looked’ like, he needed to understand how he felt. If his symptoms are a result of like liking Scary Girl, he was going to have to apologise to a lot of people for saying he was going to die. Sitting down with his back against the door Chase clutched his phone as he called Ripper, the only guy Chase is really friends with that has a girlfriend, surely he can tell Chase what he was feeling.

“Huh, what’s up Chase? I’m kinda busy watching the most recent rugby game on the tv right now,” Ripper’s side of the call leaking the sounds of a roaring crowd only a little quieter than his voice. “Dude this is a huge emergency, I think I might have a crush on Scary Girl, I can’t tell if Its feelings or I’m dying. Bing says I’m dying, Julia says I have feelings, I’m freaking out man!” after a few seconds Ripper responded to Chase’s rambling. “Damn, didn’t realise you might like Scary Girl, she gives like everyone the creeps, to each their own, I guess. First off don’t listen to the internet, even worse don’t listen to what a girl, especially Julia tells you it’s all about how you feel. I realised I liked Axel by my gut feeling, by the second season of Total Drama I started to realise we had a lot more in common than I thought. I’m awesome, she’s awesome so I wanted to show her how cool I am and that’s when it hit me that I liked her more than a friend.”

Chase put his free hand on his chin “I sort of get what you mean, Scary Girl is really awesome, don’t get me wrong I was scared of her at first. Then the more I saw of her on Total Drama the more I saw a talented goth girl who just wanted to get along with everyone. I mean she showed up to the second season with a whole new personality and style, it was kinda sad to see her act like someone else to try and get people to talk to her. She’s a part of the prank house I’m in now, I honestly can’t imagine making videos without her, yet I still can’t tell if that’s friendship or me liking her.” From Ripper’s end the noise of the tv quieted down “Wow, I almost forgot we were talking about Scary Girl there,” Chase cutting in to defend Scary Girl “Ripper, I told you why I’m friends with her not even 5 seconds ago!” The surprise was evident in Ripper’s voice “Okay! I won’t diss the girl you might like… Wait you’ve had a girlfriend before. This can’t be the first time you’ve felt like this before.” Chase almost instinctively said back “That’s different,” to get a confused Ripper ask, “Its different?”

Chase put a hand to his face and groaned “It is different; to be honest I tried reaching out to Emma after total drama, she saw one message and blocked me. I’ve thought back on it and we didn’t really do any coupley things together, we barely went on dates unless Emma planned it all. Sure, we kissed, I did like that, did I like kissing Emma, or did I only like kissing a girl is what I can’t figure out.” Some shuffling around a Ripper’s voice came out clearer “That’s deep man, honestly, I do have my own thoughts on what you are feeling. Having said that I won’t say anything, it’s pretty clear you need to figure this out by yourself instead of listening to others. I do have to ask, was it even any fun hanging out with Emma? I didn’t question you guys on the show, but Emma does have a pretty uptight attitude for a prank channel…” Chase didn’t think about it much but when Ripper asked it felt so obvious “Sometimes, sometimes it was as if I was talking to constant ‘no’ machine, I had to really simplify my pranks before she even thought about agreeing. When we did do videos I did enjoy it to some extent, not as much fun as I have been with Scary Girl. She listens unlike Emma, to be honest Emma was way better as a friend rather than my girlfriend. I really don’t want to talk to Scary Girl when I’m so unsure in what I’m feeling, I’m terrified of making the same mistake I did with Emma,” Chase said the last part lower “I’m terrified of losing what I have with Scary Girl.”

Ripper’s voice came out gentler than his usual tone “Relax Chase, you don’t need to decide now, rushing a relationship is literally the worst thing you can do, trust me. Even if you decide it is a crush you need to start showing Scary Girl, you’re the best guy to date. And hey if you do kick the bucket your answer gets chosen for you, seriously there’s no use worrying about it all at once, maybe just keep an open mind on it for now.” Chase weakly smiled “Both could be true Ripper. Thanks though, for letting me interrupt your rugby game, you’re the best.” As Chase was close to ending the call Ripper added on “Anytime Chase, oh if you do start dating and don’t die give me call, Axel says she doesn’t care but I think she does like the sound of a double date. If you need a master wingman, you’d better call me as well, I’ll be offended if you ask anyone else.” Chase snickered “Alright, thanks again, this all feels stupid for me to freak out so much after taking to you. I’d better go, or else Scary Girl might break down every room to figure out where I am, once I took to long in the bathroom and she thought I’d been kidnapped so you get the picture. Talk to ya later!” Ripper calling back “Good luck, you’d better not die until we hang out again at least one more time by the way! See ya!” Chase assured Ripper he would then made his way to the parking lot.

Pacing back and forth was Scary Girl, her head bent down to stare at the asphalt floor walking so fast Chase was tempted to see if she could wear down the floor only by walking. Barely 10 steps away from Scary Girl and the car she whipped her head up to stare at Chase, the tense, anxious expression she wore startling Chase as it flipped to her usual grin. Skipping over Scary Girl outstretched her hand for the car keys, Chase nearly considered it being her asking him to hold hands “There you are! What took you so long?” Thinking of a lie on the spot Chase stuttered out “Uh, I needed the bathroom afterword and got lost,” handing over the car keys as promised that morning. Chase felt bad about lying, he’d tell her one day, for now he simply wanted to spend time alongside his best friend… And avoid literally running over someone over accidentally.”

Chapter Text

Most of the time when Scary Girl had the wheel Chase was caught between giggling and screaming to swerve out of the way. Except sometimes he was reminded of how calm it was to be a passenger in the car, even over a speedbump Scary Girl seemed to have figured out exactly the right angle to move over it without making the car jump enough to force you to grit your teeth. Chase watched her side profile, she was looking out to the road, yet it was like she was staring through the traffic, on autopilot while her mind was elsewhere. Her smile was absent and in the mundaneness of the situation, as the sun started its descent Chase heard the brief thought ‘She’s so pretty’. Interrupted when he realised, he was staring a little too long, thankfully Scary Girl didn’t seem to notice. As soon as Chase looked back to the view of his window Scary Girl spoke “What’s next on the bucket list?” maybe Scary Girl did notice.

“What?” Chase didn’t really process her words before the word left his mouth, assuming Scary Girl was still zoned out. “The bucket list, we can’t only do one thing a day, we have a time limit remember? Sorry again you didn’t get 1st place on the gameshow, we should’ve prepared some questions,” Scary Girl insisted, Chase felt a pit in his stomach. Scary Girl has been left worrying about him ever since he told her was 100% going to die and now, he could be completely wrong and have made her worry all this time for nothing. His thoughts had done a one eighty over the course of the day from ‘My symptoms could only be because of my illness’ to ‘Maybe I like Scary Girl… I could still be sick though’. He wished he could figure out his feelings already, to have the answer and go ‘Aha, this is what I’ll do now!’ he replied to Scary Girl “I don’t mind not getting first place, I had a ton of fun during the show, don’t act like it’s your fault for me not being book smart. I mean we don’t have a huge amount of time left in the day; it’ll have to be something we can do later in the day. Let me check the picture I took of our notes.”

Chase quickly found out that taking a photo and not checking to see if it came out well is not a good idea. He’d taken the photo way too close to the board, leaving him with a very small portion of ideas: Bullfighting, lion tamer, the guy who uses a wrecking ball in construction… Zooming in on the photo Chase tried to piece together the cut off writing until a grumbling sound reverberated in the car. In Scary Girl’s burst of laughter Chase forgot to be embarrassed at how loud his stomach was, he kept quiet until she stopped. Smiling softly as Scary Girl glanced at him as if to say something then turned back to the road as she laughed again. Taking deep breathes Scary Girl got out “The timing! I don’t think I’ve heard a hungrier person till now! I seriously was about to pull over the car thinking it’d totally broken somewhere! I assume we get food first, takeout?”

Chase couldn’t stop the smile beaming on his face, it was a real talent to make Scary Girl fully laugh instead of just a giggle. “After this morning, I’m done with cooking for a bit, you read my mind. Read my mind again!” Chase asked for Scary Girl to say “Hmm, Pizza?” Both of them back to the usual loud they talked at Chase affirmed her “Yes! I suppose that wasn’t really a hard thing to predict. Man, I could eat a mountain of pizza, I guess breakfast was more like dessert than proper food…” As Scary Girl turned the corner Chase recognised they were nearly home “Should I start ordering now? What pizza do you want? I have to admit I cannot share pizza,” he took up a blank expression remembering the time he went to a buffet to vlog with Scary Girl and the other guys in the house, they were less than kindly kicked out due to him.

As they got to the driveway Chase really should be on his guard, a quiet drive had made him calm and by the time Scary Girl had done a donut to turn the car to face out Chase swung forward in his seatbelt. The car now parked Scary Girl turned it off, announcing “Gotch ya!” as she got out, moving to wait for him on his side. Chase shook off his shock to get out of his side of the car “How many times is that this month? How do you do it?” Scary Girl made a zipping motion with her lips “I want all the toppings on one pizza, or nothing at all.” Scary Girl opened up the door to let them into the house, beating Chase to the flier holding the pizza place’s number. With Scary Girl’s head start Chase jumped to reach up to where Scary Girl held the flier “Come on I’m gonna order so much it’s not worth me repeating my order to you,” Chase pleaded, Scary Girl managing to keep the flier from his hands. “Nope! I’ve wanted to try a new voice I’ve been working on so the guys working there don’t notice it’s us again. Last time you made it too obvious, and they cut the phone call for us ‘Repeatedly distressing the employees as they deliver the pizza’ it’s a prank, it’s funny!”

Chase echoed Scary Girl’s sentiment “Exactly, none of our pranks involved actually hurting someone, it’s their fault for overreacting and running off so we can’t do the punchline.” Despite having the height advantage Chase could tell he was fighting a losing battle, even if he does grab the flier there’s no way Scary Girl will let him dial the number before taking it back. Scary Girl nodded in agreement, letting Chase see the flier enough to read the options, not enough to grab it from her. As Chase recited what his order is Scary Girl spoke over him “Jeez I didn’t think you meant that much, it’s like you’re going for the world record…” Simultaneously their eyes widened to face each other, Chase having stopped talking the moment the word ‘record’ was heard. “I’ll get the camera, you make sure we have the amount necessary… and a large soda,” Chase setting off as Scary Girl confirmed this was happening “On it, you’ve got this Chase!”

Arms full of whatever camera Chase thinks could work best to show him breaking a world record he stumbled downstairs to hear Scary Girl’s impression of what Chase considers a scary mob boss. As Scary Girl finished the call she took to helping Chase move the dining room table in position, as she reached for plates Chase spoke, still out of breath from running to get everything ready “Plates will only slow me down, get one for yourself if you wanna try some of my one’s though, well if I don’t eat it all.” Scary Girl put the plates down, Chase had most of the cameras in position, this isn’t all they need to do, however. “Can we do axe murderer #2? Last time didn’t go so well,” Scary Girl almost ripped the fridge door open to get everything in place for the 20 minutes until pizza, calling for a lot of pizza never changed the places policy to get it to them in 20 minutes or less.
“No problem,” Chase switched to the next task of creating the best lighting, stuffing a small camera to only be slightly visible under his hoodie. Hearing crashing off upstairs Chase contemplated going to help, relaxing at Scary Girl giggling as she walked downstairs holding a metal axe, fake blood staining it’s edge. Checking the time, the 2 prepared their positions by the front door, Scary Girl chucking him the ketchup bottle she got out to wipe across Chase’s face. Peeking behind the curtains Chase caught a glimpse of the pizza guy’s bike, it was time. One look at Scary Girl’s delighted expression, axe held high, and Chase breathed in to let out a long scream. Running out of the front door Chase put on his most terrified expression “Get away from me! I won’t let you get away with this!” Scary Girl swung the axe around, stalking slowly after Chase out of the front door. Until Chase bumped into the pizza guy, about to tell him to run for his life drenched in ketchup “Zee?”

Chapter Text

Zee angled his neck to look over the pizza boxes “Oh hey what’s all the screaming about?” looking at Scary Girl now walking at a calmer pace, axe in hand Zee’s face paled. “Don’t freak out, Scary Girl is holding a bloody axe and walking towards us though, we should probably run…” Chase turned around to wave Scary Girl over, “Relax, it’s just Scary Girl, we were gonna prank you but your reactions when you get pranked are never funny enough, so we gave up on pranking you.” Zee’s demeanour calmed from Chase covering for Scary Girl “Oh, sorry about that then, if you tell me next time I could try and make a better reaction. Wait, are you drenched in ketchup?” Chase face palms as he answers “That would ruin the point of the prank! Also yes, it’s so I look covered in blood for the prank on the pizza guy as per me and Scary Girl’s tradition. Hey, when did you start working at the pizza place? I thought you were working at a supermarket.”

Scary Girl approached the two, when she brought up her axe to hold menacingly over Zee, Chase without looking moved it back down. “Makes sense, I got fired a couple weeks ago for drinking soda while clocked in, I did pay for it though. Funny enough the pizza place was looking for a lot of staff replacements, they said a lot of people quit because of a certain 2 customers. Speaking of which I think this is the address they told me not to take the order for, that’s weird.” Chase grimaced “Yeah, that’s because we prank that place a lot, looks like Scary Girl did a good job on the phone though to get the order to you.” Zee glanced between the pranking duo in front of him and watched the way they interacted, Scary Girl gave him a not so gentle shove at the compliment, keeping her focus mostly on Chase throughout the conversation. “We should get those pizzas in first, so they don’t get cold. Let’s go Chase!” as Scary Girl spoke she snagged half of Zee’s pizza boxes so that he could see and trail behind them. At the front door Zee spoke up “Hey Lauren if I could just get the code off your phone, I’ll catch up with you guys later, I think I have some questions about how you two have been getting along,” Zee grinned.

As Scary Girl responded quickly to the name, pulling out her phone and reading the code out loud Chase scratched his head. “Hold on, Lauren!?” Chase nervously asked to get a “Yeah?” from the girl who Chase has been calling by her nickname for his entire life. “Not ‘yeah?’, I never knew that your real name was Lauren!” Chase had a look on his face that was crossed between upset and guilty. Scary Girl’s smile dropped as she finished giving Zee the code, to pay attention to Chase “Chase I really don’t mind either name, it’s nothing to get upset over.” This seemed to make Chase even more upset “It definitely is! I suck as a best friend, I’m sorry Lauren, I promise I’ll do better in the rest of my time to figure out everything I can about you.” Chase held her attention, reaching a hand on hers to take the pizza boxes from her gently. Scary Girl, or as Chase has started saying Lauren stood frozen, looking at the empty space where she held pizza boxes, the faintest tint of red on her cheeks.

Looking up to see Zee’s eyes sparkling at what he witnessed he takes a breath in to talk, only for Scary Girl to loudly yank open the front door of the house to silence him. Chase protested Scary Girl keeping the door open for him to help everyone inside instead. Luckily, Chase had dropped his serious attitude “Give me a minute to clean up for the pizza eating Lauren, I’ll be back as quick as possible,” at the top of the stairs he shouted down “Don’t dump me as a best friend, I’ll do better I promise!” Scary Girl tried to call back to tell him not to worry about it and that she truly does not care he didn’t realise her real name except the lack of call back suggested Chase either ignored it or didn’t hear.
Alone downstairs standing by a mountain of pizzas on a table and several cameras set up around it was Zee and Scary Girl. Zee hadn’t wiped the excited look from his face, the slight squeal he let out warned Scary Girl enough to have her say first. “Don’t say it, whatever you’re thinking is completely untrue. I am not in love with Chase, do not, say anything you ‘think’ is going on or I’ll bury you so deep no dog will ever sniff you out! Do you understand?” Scary Girl was intimidating, she didn’t get her nickname for nothing, Zee on the other hand had a lot of height on Scary Girl that diminished her effect and the fact that Zee had figured something out purely by watching his previous teammates on Total Drama. Scary Girl grabbed his shirt ready to resort to violence to hear Zee giggle out “I didn’t say anything! Oh my God, I thought it was a crush and now you told me you love him!” Zee was elated, he’d seen how heartbroken Chase was about Emma up close and now he had something to play cupid for. The intensity of Scary Girl whisper shouting at him to not say that so loud as she pointed upstairs where Chase was only added to Zee’s joy.

“When are you confessing? Do you need help setting the vibe?” Scary Girl finally managed to cut in on Zee’s speeding thoughts. “Shut up! I’m not confessing anything, first of all he doesn’t like me that way, I’m nothing like Emma. Second of all Chase doesn’t have much time left, he’s… sick with something deadly and telling him puts pressure on him and would make everything weird, possibly making him die faster.” Zee refused to give up on this couple “Really? Chase looked all right to me, he held all those pizzas fine. What does he have?” Scary Girl recited the symptoms Chase had told her perfectly, the distraught expression starting on Zee’s face flicked back to excitement. “Why do you look like that? Chase is going to die,” Zee breathed in and out a few times to relax his face “I can’t tell you 100% right now, I wouldn’t worry about his condition though, and you shouldn’t worry if Chase doesn’t feel the same.” Scary Girl didn’t give up “Nope, you’re terrible at keeping secrets so you have to tell me why you think that, I’ll make you say it one way or another.” Zee leaned against the table completely calm “I’m totally about to play wingman for you to get together, I’ve got a half hour I can take right now.”

Scary Girl had no time to refute as the creaking steps of Chase heading downstairs made sure she didn’t bring up any topics she and Zee talked about. “Alright let’s get started on breaking that record, I can’t lose, for my pride,” Chase looked determined, he stopped as he saw Zee was still there “Hey Zee, are you good to stay? I don’t want to be the reason you get fired, me and Lauren are about to film me destroying the world record for most pizza eaten in 10 minutes.” Zee couldn’t wrap his head around that he noticed this so quickly, Scary Girl reacted to everything Chase did, being called by her real name was having an unprecedented effect. “It’s cool, I gotta take my break at some point, plus I picked up my world record officiator a few months back,” Chase shook his head “We need to catch up more often man, how many new things have you picked up since we left Total Drama?” Zee chuckled again, adjusting the cameras again as Chase sat down and Scary Girl watched him as if he was holding a grenade in his hand “Haven’t counted actually, my CV is 10 pages, so I guess it is a lot. Looks like Scary Girl set up the recording so well we can start right away, does she do all of the camera work on your videos.” Thinking for a second Chase smiled softly “She does, honestly she far surpasses any of my work, that’s why I need to make the best content to match Lauren’s skill.” Scary Girl clapped her hands together “And we’re rolling in 5,4,3,2,1…” leaving only Chase in frame the timer was set, pizza in front of him left Scary Girl blushing slightly at the compliments she was getting today, still reeling at Chase calling her by her real name and Zee standing to the side. Zee considered this to be the best half an hour break he could ever take off work.

Chapter Text

Scary Girl thought of herself as being quite a calm person, while sometimes her own interests can get out of hand such as chasing Damien in Total drama, she never felt fear personally until Chase announced he was dying. That and now that Zee, the worst keeper of secrets knew her feelings for him meant every second he stayed near Chase, he could spill it to him. Not only that but Chase seemed to be troubled by something himself, he didn’t usually have a thinking face on unless it was brainstorming a prank and now that they were on the same channel he would be sharing his ideas with her. The addition of insisting to call her by her real name was stranger still, Scary Girl didn’t mind her nickname that much, Chase taking this much of an interest in her recently almost makes Scary Girl think she has a chance of being with him. She really wished she had the chance to talk to him before he eats a ridiculous amount of pizza.

Throughout the recording Chase did the intro, calling Zee over to introduce him as the officiator of his challenge. There wasn’t any particular reason for Scary Girl to be a part of the challenge, she wasn’t judging it, wasn’t doing it yet Chase met her eyes to call her over next. Scary Girl felt that all too common flutter in heart at Chase’s smile broadened as she came over on frame being reintroduced with her real name, she was very glad Chase was as dense as he is since Zee of all people figured her out. After some conversation and jokes the pizza eating started in earnest, Zee and Scary Girl giving as much emotional and physical support as they could. Making sure Chase’s hands were full and the pizza boxes were all easily reachable, the eating started off well as Chase got in the zone. Eventually he hit a wall that made the last few slices he needed to beat the world record holder seem like a few more entire pizzas.

Scary Girl didn’t let him give up, she wasn’t able to help him win his dream of being on a gameshow, now she had her chance to get him to have that world record. Forget what Zee might tell him, forget how much it will hurt to lose Chase someday soon, what matters is that he has no regrets in his life. Chase managed to swallow his last bite in time to win the record, as his face turned green Zee and Scary Girl panicked, telling him he needs to keep it down as they grabbed him a bucket. Patiently they watched his face return to a normal colour, cheering loudly, as Chase wanted to join in, he ends up slumped back in his seat from his food coma weakly cheering back. Cutting the video the group burst into celebration again in that they actually did it, Zee’s random qualification meaning, and video evidence cemented the victory in concrete.

Ignoring Zee’s loud proclamations that Scary Girl cheered way better than him and other praise Scary Girl moved to ask Chase what they were doing tomorrow. “We are on a clock we can’t see so we need to figure out if we need to wake up earlier tomorrow to finish as much if not all of the ideas we came up with Chase!” Scary Girl dragged in the whiteboard they had used. Zee raised his eyebrow questioningly at Chase as he nervously laughed “Yeah, I meant to tell you, I’ve had some weird symptoms lately that aren’t getting any better,” sweat ran down his forehead as Zee studied him. “Scary Girl or Lauren told me that and you’re sure it’s not only when you’re around Lauren?” Zee gave a knowing smile that made Chase force a poker face that Lauren was watching a few meters away “Of course, well we live in the same house but when I’m not with Lauren I still have the pain in my chest. Let’s try not to think about it, online did say I could still have a year.” At that comment Scary Girl tried to ask if it really was a whole year and not a month to be drowned out by Zee’s voice “Sure, sure dude, what activity are the two of you up to next. Just the two of you, hanging out together, having fun and bonding.”

Scary Girl vowed to make sure Zee never messed with her again after this, Zee’s redirection of the conversation working as Scary Girl begrudgingly talked about what ideas they had instead of Chase’s weirdness coming up again. From writing a book to joining a gang to seeing a real ghost the list filled the entire whiteboard. Zee committed to pushing past the uncomfortable previous topic enthusiastically looked it over, eyes widening as he thought of something. “I haven’t seen any ghosts myself, but I have heard of a place being haunted where people have seen one…” Scary Girl had started to realise Zee casually picks up useful and unusual things for no particular reason. “I have been to exorcists and seances, have these people undeniably seen a real ghost?” At Scary Girl’s doubts Zee shook his head “Totally legitimate, it’s at the Zoo, the rumour is that it’s a zookeeper who fell into the lion pit at night and was mauled to death over 300 hundred years ago. The zookeeper prowling the enclosure looking to drag more people over to his same fate all those years ago.” Chase looked worried “Isn’t there a nicer ghost we can go meet?” Scary Girl grinned, hitting Chase forward “Come on Chase, we’ve done way scarier things than this!”
“You’re right Lauren, we can do this, all together the ghost wouldn’t see us coming!” Chase was reassured, the number of times he had to put for his fans to not try what he did themselves in the front of his mind, he could do this. “Oh, I can’t dude and dudette, I’ve got work at the pizza place tomorrow night, oh and I really need to get back to work, shoot man. Have fun, the ghost usually shows around midnight, enjoy your time getting closer together and give me a call next time!” Zee gave a rushed goodbye fist bump, his wording of how Chase and Scary Girl were going to most likely go to the haunted Zoo making Scary Girl flicker her eyes to Chase to make sure he didn’t hear the suggesting tone of them going on a date.

As the door closed behind Zee it left Chase to say, “He took our soda…” his stomach hurting, Chase positioned himself to sit and then lie on the floor “Ugh, I don’t think I’ve ever had this much pizza before, and I love pizza!” Scary Girl smiled warmly at Chase’s frustration “Do you need me to get anything? If you wanted soda, I could go grab some real quick?” Chase had his eyes closed “I’ll be good, a night’s sleep always helps me out of how much I’ve eaten, wait that’s why they call it a food coma!” Scary Girl stepped closer to him on the floor “So if you can, I think we need to talk.” Chase forced himself to not sit up to look at her face to see how serious it is “Umm, sure, turn off the lights and come sit or lie down with me.” Doing as he asked Scary Girl sat head’s back-to-back staring at the dark ceiling as the day was finally entering night, a glowing star half stuck to the ceiling from a past video idea sticking out as it tried it’s best to keep the room illuminated. This close to each other Scary Girl could tell Chase was squirming to hide whatever he thought he couldn’t tell her.

“So, what’s up?” Chase spoke up “What should we do from the list until midnight for us to sneak into the Zoo?” that wasn’t what Scary Girl wanted to ask. “Oh, I did want to talk to you about this, tomorrow I’ll probably chill out to recover from winning a full world record! What’s been with you lately? We make videos together sure; we never did this tight schedule like you want us to do with my bucket list though.” Scary Girl scrunched up her face “Me? What’s up with you? I thought you’d want this, so you don’t die with any regrets, why did you tell Zee you have a year? I thought you said it was shorter, Chase what’s going on?” She has every right to know, Chase understood that so much it hurt, except if he was wrong then he was hurting Lauren even more. “What if I’m not really sick? Maybe I should’ve gone to a hospital to get a diagnosis before jumping to conclusions… Are you mad?”

Scary Girl didn’t have an answer to Chase’s questions “I didn’t expect this, I don’t think I’m mad… Do you think it’s something else?” Scary Girl could feel the heat radiating off Chase as she wanted to see his facial expression, he took a long pause to say “Yeah, I’m not sure yet, I need to figure it out still, so I didn’t say anything. Sorry, I still could be wrong, I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up.” Scary Girl pushed her knuckles against her eyes, crying in front of Chase would be way too embarrassing “I still would want to know, I care about you so much, we’ll set a doctors appointment tomorrow.” Chase still hurt inside that he couldn’t sort his feelings out quicker, so he tried to lighten the mood “Probably should’ve done that first, American healthcare right Lauren?” Chase was glad to hear Scary Girl give a small giggle at that “What’s with the Lauren thing as well? I was fine with sticking to my nickname.” Chase scratched the back of his head “I feel pretty bad I just learned your real name after all this time, I mean on total drama we all collectively stuck to that name. As your best friend I should be better than that, especially since Zee knew from the start. I want to understand everything about you down to your favourite time of day, the way you like to drink your tea…”

Sitting up, the pain in his stomach and heart a little lighter, Chase was forced to stay in place as Scary Girl wrapped her arms around him. Chase didn’t dare bring up what he could tell was tears dropping onto his hoodie. “I’ll tell you everything, so don’t you dare give up on living Chase,” Chase placed his hands on Scary Girl’s “It’s gonna be fine, don’t worry, we should get some sleep for tomorrow.” They stayed in that position for no more than a few minutes, Scary Girl nodded against Chase’s back, as they separated to their own rooms they smiled to each other, slowing down to recognise the bottled up fear and sadness at what might happen to Chase helping both of them not pretend around each other anymore.