Author's notes: This takes place after season 1 and ignores seasons 2 and 3.

…

Heather was in Harold's room. The two of them had been spending time with each other for over a month. After TDI, Heather had lost her position of influence in her high school. Everyone turned on her and made her a social pariah because her actions on the show had made it abundantly clear that she was not to be trusted.

Harold decided to ignore these signs and extended a hand of friendship in her direction. Normally, Heather would have slapped it away from her but with the entire school against her, she really needed a friend and didn't have the luxury of being picky.

Since then, Heather had been wondering if all the mean and nasty things she had done in the name of popularity had been worth it since popularity turned out to be a fickle bitch of a mistress. She was also kicking herself a bit for not knowing that Harold went to the same school as her when they first met on the island.

Harold had connected his laptop to a TV/computer monitor hybrid and was continuing in an endeavor to share one of his interests with Heather. For a while now, he had been showing Heather episodes of one his favorite Japanese TV shows, Kamen Rider Blade. If Heather wasn't enjoying this, she kept it to herself.

They were watching the second episode for that day and came to a part where a fast moving cat monster bit into a person and a bit of flesh was dangling from its mouth.

"They make this for kids in Japan?" Heather asked.

"Yeah," Harold answered. "I don't think that country has censorship laws."

They finished watching the episode and Harold disconnected his laptop from the TV. While he was on his computer, he decided to check his email. He came across an email from the network responsible for Total Drama Island. He opened the email and looked over it.

"Hey Heather," Harold said. "You're going to want to see this."

Heather came over and looked at the email as well. It seemed the network was going to hold a little party in about two weeks for all the former contestants. The network was even going to provide air fare since many of the contestants lived in different parts of Canada.

"This is going to be awesome," Harold said enthusiastically. "I'm going to see Leshawna in person for the first time since the show ended."

When Harold and Leshawna met again at Playa De Losers after they were both eliminated, Leshawna had said that she got carried away with kissing him on the dock and only wanted to be friends with him. Harold had been courting Leshawna with text messages and phone calls since the show ended in the hopes of changing her mind. He had not made any progress.

"I don't understand why you keep trying with Leshawna," Heather said. "Aside from the fact that she's made it pretty clear that she doesn't like you like that, she lives over two hundred miles away."

"I'd rather be in a long-distance relationship with her than stuck in the friend zone," Harold countered.

"Fair enough," Heather said. As she thought over Harold's situation, an idea occurred to her. "I think I know how you can win over Leshawna."

"How's that?" Harold asked.

"Simple," Heather said with a mischievous smile. "We'll pretend that you and I are dating."

"So your plan is for me to play hard to get with Leshawna," Harold said with a quirked eyebrow. "Isn't that kind of cliché?"

"Correction: it is very cliché. But hear me out," Heather said as she raised her hand to motion Harold to stop. "Pretending to go out with me will accomplish two things. First, Leshawna does not take you seriously as a romantic prospect because she has this image of you as perpetually unattached. But if I take you off the table, then she is forced to reevaluate her opinion of you. Second, it shows that you have the potential to be good boyfriend material."

Harold thought over Heather's idea. He didn't like the underhanded nature of her plan, but he was desperate to make some headway with Leshawna. The only idea he had at the moment was to keep trying what he'd been doing, but he hadn't made progress with that and likely wouldn't. Plus, the way Heather described her plan sounded like it could work.

"What exactly did you have in mind?" Harold asked.

"Here's what I've got so far," Heather began. "At the party, we'll just tell them what's happened between us so far: I found out the hard way that being a total bitch on national TV can have repricussions and you extended an olive branch towards me. I accepted your kindness because things were very bleak for me. So we started hanging out and you got me interested in some of your nerdy hobbies: video games, Yugioh cards, that genre of Japanese television that's pretty much live action anime."

"Tokusatsu," Harold said, using the proper term Heather was thinking of. "And I see what you're going for here: the more truth we add to our story, the less likely we'll get caught telling a lie."

"Exactly," Heather said enthusiastically. "And then we'll say that we stated dating a week ago: that is, a week before the party."

"I see a problem there," Harold said. "Now I get that by saying we've been briefly dating after a few months of being friends will explain why we're not acting like a typical couple: we're in a transitionary period of sorts. Great idea, by the way. But if we say we got together after the announcement of the party, won't that seem suspicious?"

"Good point," Heather said as she placed her hand on her chin and began thinking of ways to cover that hole in the plan. She was also thinking of how much she appreciated Harold's compliment of her plan and how he was smart enough to point out one problem. It was very different from how she used to date popular jocks who only like her for physical reasons and were stereotypical dumb muscle. She had to admit that she really liked how Harold was different from that.

"I've got it," Heather said as she snapped her fingers and came up with a revision to the plan. "When you heard about the party, you started going on and on about how you were finally going to win Leshawna over. For a while now, I've been thinking about maybe being more than friends with you but didn't want to risk losing my only friend if things didn't work out. But hearing you fawn over a girl who's repeatedly turned you down and lived hundreds of miles away while I was under your nose pushed me into acting on my feelings."

Harold thought over Heather's story. "That is a very well thought deception," Harold said.

"Thanks," Heather replied. "But there is one last problem: it's very likely we'll be asked for proof of our new relationship. We'll have to provide some."

"What did you have in mind?" Harold asked. Heather walked up right next to him, leaned towards his face and placed her lips on his. They stayed together like that for a while.

"We'll do that," Heather answered. "And now that we've done it for the first time, there won't be any signs of awkwardness when we have to do it in front of witnesses."

Harold was shocked by how forward Heather was but saw the merits of her idea. He found himself strangely enjoying the kiss, but it didn't compare to the one he had received from Leshawna when he was eliminated. All he could think about now was how Heather's plan was going to bring him and Leshawna together and he'd receive more passionate kisses like that.