Isabella

Isabella, labeled The Local, was a contestant on Total Drama Lakeside who was placed on the Killer Wildcats.
==Biography==
Isabella hails from an affluent suburb in eastern Ontario, and goes to a large research university nearby. She's always had great relationships with her family and friends, of which she has many. Her passion is biology, but she's always been proficient at other kinds of STEM, especially math—she's never been a fan of studying humanities, though, as she thinks it's "useless." Some of her favorite pastimes are eating ice cream, listening to modern mainstream hip-hop and posting on social media about how deep the lyrics are, and watching 10 episodes straight of a Webflicks sitcom. She carries her phone with her wherever she goes, and often dramatically pauses what she's doing just so she can post a new photo "to the 'gram"—always heavily posed, edited, filtered, and made to look far more interesting than her life actually is for her 1,800 followers. She isn't used to having deep conversations with anyone in her life, as she and her friends mostly just talk about TV, their favorite fast food chains, and makeup routines. Thus, when someone does open up to Isabella or show vulnerability in any way, she's uncomfortable and distances herself from them because she prefers to live life "casually."
Isabella joined Total Drama because it had just gotten popular among her peers, and she thought she'd "slay" onscreen.
==Total Drama Lakeside==
Isabella was one of the first contestants to arrive to the competition. She sat next to Kelsey on the train ride, and spent most of the time taking selfies and complimenting Kelsey on various superficial aspects of her personality. She expressed her excitement at being on Total Drama, thinking the lakeside setting would have lots of "'gram potential." As more contestants arrived, Isabella tried to make conversation with them, but was usually shut down—especially by Whitney, who made her so upset that that she planned to tweet about her rudeness. Once Graham showed up, Isabella remarked that he was weird. She was later placed on the Killer Wildcats team.
Once the Wildcat girls moved in, Isabella attempted to bond with her teammates by organizing a group photo to be taken by Kingsley, and got very excited about her "girl gang." During the race portion of the challenge, she realized in the confessional that she had a crush on Christian. Once the Awake-A-Thon started, she continued to try and socialize with her teammates, talking to them about boys and gushing over Erica's relationship. Soon after, Kelsey bared her soul to the others, which made Isabella uncomfortable. She gave Kelsey very shallow advice, then tried to change the subject by turning on a karaoke machine and loudly singing "Dancing Queen" by ABBA, which scared the other girls away.
A drunk Christian then staggered in and went upstairs with Isabella, where they walked in on Chris and Chef on accident, but then found an empty room and hooked up. Right after the Wildcats lost, Isabella was upset about having to go to elimination and said she'd prefer to vote Chris off instead, or Graham or Miles. However, Isabella herself was voted off, and seemed disappointed by this. She told the other girls she'd never forget her "girl squad," then pulled everyone in for another selfie before she left. Once she was gone, Erica revealed in the confessional that she had targeted Isabella because she thought she was vapid and superficial, and was jealous of her relationship with Christian.
After her elimination, it was clear from various comments of his that Christian was nowhere near over Isabella. Mid-merge, Don hosted a challenge based on his series The Ridonculous Race, and when realizing Kaitlin was in prison and couldn't compete, he brought Isabella back from the loser lodge to temporarily take her place. Naturally, she was partnered with Christian, who seemed uncharacteristically flustered. She stressed in the confessional that she hadn't "caught feelings" for him and just "really [liked] making out with people." Sure enough, he spent the challenge hitting on her, where she'd routinely try to divert the conversation toward more anodyne things like her Spotify playlists. During Don's Either/Or challenge, Isabella befriended a bunch of random party-goers, including past contestant Chelsey. 
While walking to the Chill Zone, Christian began making more advances toward Isabella, who was still ambivalent—but the two continued to bond over music, such as FDǾ, their shared favorite. He then decided to make a grand romantic gesture toward her, asking if she wanted to be his "woman," which she was much less receptive towards. Isabella told Christian she couldn't be tied down to one guy at the moment, then accidentally called him "Carlton," which he was horrified by and she apologized for, but it was too late. Although the two were the last to arrive, Christian avoided elimination and a slightly uncomfortable (but still cheerful) Isabella returned to the loser lodge.
When Don arrived at the loser lodge, Isabella instantly proved to be one of the strongest presences there. In addition to fending off Boris's romantic endeavors, she spent lots of time in a hot tub with Kingsley, who seemed to despise her but also considered her his favorite person there by default, and Rachel. She admitted in the confessional that she felt bad about rejecting Christian, but didn't think he was "boyfriend material." Later that night, at the round-table discussion about the final five, Isabella didn't realize that Erica was the reason she was voted out—and was shocked and horrified when she did find that out. She spent the rest of the evening arguing with Kingsley, until she paid Miles—who she'd developed an unlikely friendship with—a late-night visit. Still feeling awkward about the Christian encounter, Isabella had a heart-to-heart with him, where she expressed her feelings for maybe the first time in the game, while he talked about his strange interactions with Rachel and Jackie. She asked Miles to write a song for him, even though they were just friends, saying she'd be flattered. And eventually, regardless of whether they were truly "just friends," the night ended with Isabella and Miles hooking up.
==Appearances==
==Trivia==
*Isabella's original label was "The Normie."
*Isabella was explicitly created to be the first boot. I wanted another female first boot since four of my five others were male, and I wanted to make her more than a one-joke character like Lizza.
*While most of my characters are assumed to be from the United States, Isabella is the only one outright confirmed to be Canadian. 
**She was inspired by certain Canadians I befriended while studying abroad. They were ridiculously cheerful and friendly, but also superficial and seemed to get uncomfortable whenever I brought up anything other than the most basic topics. However, we ended up staying close years after our semester abroad and my friendships with them eventually got deeper, which made me love writing for Isabella that much more. 
*The Isabella/Christian relationship wasn't thought of until right before I wrote her boot, but I figured their personalities complemented each other very well.
*Isabella's eventual rejection of Christian was to give Christian a love interest who was "out of his league," despite countless other women being interested in him. 
*I hadn't meant for Isabella to be as likable as she was, but I really enjoyed writing for her by the time she got booted. That, combined with her positive reception from readers, made me want to keep her in longer, but I felt her plot wouldn't have been as satisfying if she was anything but the first boot.
*I decided to bring back Isabella for a guest appearance in the Ridonculous Race chapter because not only did I have a lot of fun writing for her, but everyone who read the story loved her. Plus, I wanted to take advantage of the fact I had a first boot who was actually involved in the plot.
*Isabella and Miles's hookup was a last-minute idea that stemmed from trying to create the most unexpected, bizarre pairing possible. The two seemed to be polar opposites, but they were both searching for validation, so the hookup didn't seem that weird after thinking about it.
==Gallery==
IsabellaRace.png|An outfit Isabella would wear in The Ridonculous Race.
Isabella24.png|Isabella's appearance in 2024.
Category:Total Drama Lakeside