Daw, this was so cute! Sammy(I refuse to call her Samey, because if I do, Amy wins) deserves better. I have actually seen pictures of Jasmine taking Sammy in.

Technical note: The canonical spelling for the name of Amy’s sister is, in fact, “Samey”—probably a case of the child suffering for the parents wanting to be “different”. Fanfic writers who depicts Samey sympathetically, as most do, tend to use the phonetic spelling (“Sammy”) to show how her friends and other sympathizers are pronouncing her name. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s worth mentioning. I will use the canonical spelling here for the sake of, well, canonicity.

-

If Shawn thinks he hears a zombie, why wouldn’t he just keep quiet and hope it doesn’t notice him? Perhaps he decided to try to kill it before it could, er, “reproduce”? He took a big chance, though, at least in his mind, because where there’s one zombie, there will probably be others. Of course, if he stays in the tree, then we don’t have a story; so yes, he had to investigate.

If Amy really did boot Samey from the shelter for snoring, instead of for some darker reason, then she does have a point of sorts: It’s not like Samey can exercise willpower when she’s asleep (unless she’s a lucid dreamer, which is a separate issue) so her promise to stop snoring is plainly one she can’t keep. This is relevant to Samey’s promise to stop cutting; as much as she might like to for the sake of her new friends, I’m skeptical that she’ll be able to (in the long term, anyway) without fixing the underlying problem. Cutting is basically a response to chronic stress, which isn’t going to go away until Samey’s relationship with her sister improves or they are separated for an extended period. The latter is, of course, the canonical reason why Samey signed up for Total Drama in the first place.

“Popularity doesn’t matter in high school?” I understand what Shawn’s trying to say, but I’m not sure where popularity matters *more* than it does in high school, at least to the kids themselves. Even those who don’t care about school-wide popularity still want to be popular in their peer group. It’s part of being a member of a social species.

It sounded like Jasmine’s first instinct was to pound Amy into the dirt, but that would probably just have gotten her (Jasmine, not Amy) eliminated. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed.

As for characterizations, Samey needed little encouragement to open up to Jasmine in canon, so it makes sense that she would readily open up to Shawn, who is in many ways a similar personality. Shawn is probably more openly caring than his canon counterpart was at this point in the season, but I think the change is an improvement, and he’s still unmistakably Shawn. Jasmine’s part was too small for me to judge, although she was perhaps more hotheaded than in canon.

Nicely done, on the whole. I’ve always liked these canon-compatible “infill” stories.

Reviewed for the Read and Swap

OOOOH-KAY! A Sammy story! Judging by the word count, it looks like you've pretty much covered the basics of this story! And I like how I'm not the only one that calls her Sammy. Hey, did you ever feel pity when you first watched her on PI?

Anyways, the story! It was amazing, I WILL give you that! It's really a classic case of Sammy with a struggle. The struggle? Amy. Wait, no? Oh, it's the evidence caused by Amy.

I really do like the friendship between the three! It's nice to see bby Jasmine and Sammy together, but with Shawn in the mix? Well... Sammy seems safe from her bitchy sister for a while C:

Overall, I do like the story and its focus. For a person who's written mostly Sammopher, this is pretty damn well written! And yes, I'm considering a Story Time episode... idk xD

Well done!

-Julius

This was rather dark with the self-mutilation topic... but turned so sweet so soon! Maybe, just maybe, this was even sweeter than how it turned out to be in TDPI itself!

Well, maybe Shawn was a little OOC, but it also could've been an alternative character interpretation where he looks after others who are in pain or in trouble. Although still, a little bit more caution in the approach on Shawn's half would've been nice.

But still, I have no regret of reading this! Good work, and it's almost too bad it was only a one-shot!

:D,
L.W.

This was such a good story! Although it's a bit dark, I loved the way you portrayed all of the characters. It's very well written and I'd love to see this turned into a mutlichapter. There were a few continuity issues though, so I'd fix those, but other than that, great job!

Reading this for the read and swap. I liked this Shazmine and Sammy fic a lot. It was very sweet. Poor for even having to deal with Amy. That witch is cruel. I'm glad Shawn and Jasmine have her back in these situations. The way Shawn comforted Sammy was nice. It was also very touching when Shawn gave up his vest. This was very awesome.

Aww...this is cute!
I myself have never been a big fan of PI - I only watched half of it, but I've read enough stories to pick up on the characters. I think Shawn was actually quite realistic - his zombie apocalypse thing really came through here, which doesn't happen for some one-shots. Sammy's character was also very well portrayed and realistic, and pretty well-thought out too - especially if you were writing this around the time PI was airing. I can see Sammy doing what she did so the theme didn't really come as a surprise for me. Although it wasn't totally shocking, it was really thought out and was written excellently. I'd definitely read more one-shots like this one.
All in all, I really loved this one shot and if you published another one similar to this one, I would definitely read it!
-Eve.

And, here I am for R&S. I told you I was gonna read a different story, but then I saw this one, and I automatically went to it. And can you blame me?
This was heartwarming. I loved Shawn helping Sammy, and Sammy opening up to Jasmine and Shawn. She needed someone to talk to, and Jasmine and Shawn were there.
I really want to see what Jasmine would have done to Amy.
I'm glad Shawn called her Sammy and not Samey. She doesn't deserve to be called that name.
That's all for now. Bye!

This was a nice one-shot!

I liked the friendship between the three, and also the expansion on Shawn and Sammy's characters.

It's sad that Amy would be so awful as to drive Sammy to cutting as a coping mechanism. It goes to show how terrible Amy is as a sister.

I think that everyone was in-character, and I didn't have problems with Shawn here. In fact, I liked him here better than on the show, but I guess that doesn't say much since I'm not a huge fan of Shawn in the first place.

Overall, this was a nice one-shot about a Sammy/Shawn/Jasmine friendship, and it seemed realistic. I didn't spot any grammatical errors, but as some of your other reviewers have pointed out, there are some continuity errors with Sammy's cutting, but you've heard it a million times.

I enjoyed this story! I like Sammy and to see her get a support network is nice. c:

-Green

please, in the future, actually warn for self-harm. "dark themes" doesn't cut it (no pun intended).

reading the reviews, i have to agree with jamie i am on sammy promising not to cut anymore. it does seem like something she'd say, but considering this is a one-shot it leaves me feeling really uncomfortable. i still struggle with cutting to this day, and i don't feel like it's appropriate to have her say "yeah i promise i won't do it anymore" without any acknowledgement in the narrative or the author's note that recovery isn't as easy as saying ok cool i'm done with that

Thank you for not saying Samey. That's just rude! She doesn't like it! I hate it when people call her Samey. I mean he real name is Sammy. I love this! It's probably one of the fanfics ever!

I enjoyed reading this. Samey's backstory was interesting to read and I like how you referred to her as "Sammy". It was deep and I liked her friendship with Shawn and Jasmine. Keep up the great work. :)

One point- there is a discrepancy on the cutting. First it is about a year, then three years. You might want to do a bit of editing and make it one or the other.

This is pretty nice, and yeah, Shawn acts a little OOC, but he's a caring guy, and he'd probably do the same for any possible 'victim of the zombie apocalypse' that is still physically healthy.

Keep the good writing.

Finally getting around to reviewing it, and I've gotta say, you turned out a one-shot that went back to the writing style I love! It's a simple storyline that's been done time and time again, but one that is still true and relevant. You managed to keep the characters very in character, for the most part. I feel as though the only way that Shawn was out of character is that he might have been a bit annoyed, rather than immediately jumping in to help Sammy. As good a guy as he is, zombie survival is his biggest concern.

I'm happy with how you were able to capture Sammy's hurt without Amy even needing to be present. It was simple and effective, and it helped to give Sammy the focus in the story rather than her sister. I'm also very glad that you only had Shawn GUESS that Amy was jealous of Sammy, rather than ASSERT that she was. I feel as though dismissing every cruel action under the guise of jealousy is a toxic tactic that never benefits anyone, and I'm glad how you just glossed over that rather than harping on it, and having him build up her confidence through something totally unprecedented.

I also really liked Jasmine's portrayal in your story. I feel as though it captured her relationship with Sammy very well, but also brought a bit of her Outback edge to the mix. The interactions between Team Maskwak were also SPOT ON, brevity aside. I particularly liked Ella's welcoming of Sammy and Dave's inclination to disregard his skepticism once Sky voiced her approval.

Aside from two little technical errors that I noticed (which I will get to in a moment), I only had a few other noticeable issues with the story.

First, there comes the issue of "You've got to have family." This is more of a personal opinion than an actual fault with the story, but A) the idea that one HAS to have family can often prove toxic, particularly in a situation such as Sammy's where her sister is abused, and B) I don't believe that Shawn would view family as a strength in a zombie apocalypse, given his statement in canon about not wanting to get together with Jasmine due to fear of having to protect his brain AND hers. Granted, that could have just meant he didn't want to extend help to anyone outside of his immediate family, so again, this is more a personal opinion than an actual issue with the story, but still something you may want to consider.

Second, I noticed a continuity error in the alleged length of Sammy's cutting. She told Shawn that she'd only been cutting for about a year, but told Jasmine that it had been three. Was it that she wasn't quite comfortable enough with Shawn to tell him the whole truth? Or was it just a mistake?

Third, there is the line that Sammy has about "Amy would probably throw me out... Literally!" It all depends on the way you were trying to incorporate it, but exclamation points are typically used to indicate excitement, either positive or negative. Though I think that Sammy is obviously some negativity in this scene, I don't think that an exclamation point is appropriate. Perhaps an ellipsis would better convey the sense of moroseness and hesitance that she is feeling, just for future reference.

Lastly (of the major issues, before I point out the two technical ones), I take a little bit of hesitance in having Sammy promise that she won't cut herself "for [Shawn] and Jasmine." Reasons for breaking addictions are totally individual from person to person, and some people definitely make these promises to others. While I feel as though this COULD make sense due to Sammy having such low self esteem (and therefore, instead, placing more value in the opinions of her two friends), I think that it's a bit problematic, and reminiscent of the problem that you and I both had with Mike in TDRotI: wanting to solve deeply rooted personal issues for someone else, rather than deciding to do so for oneself. Again, I think it could make sense at the initial stage (I have never personally suffered from an addictive behavior, so I can't know anything for sure), but I feel as though making the decision that she loves herself would be more of a powerful message. But that's just me.

Let's move on to the two technical details, and then I will wrap up this review! Firstly, there are a lot of sentences in this story that form individual paragraphs, when they could easily be combined to form a larger one, particularly at the beginning when you are describing Shawn in the tree. Paragraphs are meant to convey a singular idea, and switch when a new one comes into play. I don't think that the 3 paragraphs you have about Shawn's comfort (or lack thereof) in the tree need to be individual paragraphs. Perhaps some more appropriate paragraph breaks would come when he hears the moaning, when he gets out of the tree, and when he finds Sammy.

The second of the technical issues I had comes at the end. ("You both... I'm Shawn, you're a sweetheart. Sammy, you're the kindest girl ever.") First of all, I'm confused why the word I'm is there, and that