Disclaimer: I do not own the Total Drama franchise.
A/N: Happy seriously belated birthday, Sonowa! You have been an amazing friend, and I apologize profusely for taking such a long time to upload this damned story. I love you, my friend, and wish you a seriously belated birthday again!
WARNING: Though this fanfic is an AU, there are still several spoilers to the actual Total Drama World Tour challenges up to episode 17. Read this story at your own risk.
A/N 2: By the way, "NEVAAAAR!" isn't the actual name of this story. I just like being a smartass. The real title will be up when I see fit.
The Total Drama jet flew through the late night sky, its engine puttering pathetically as Chef struggled to push the bulky death trapforward. The seven remaining contestants had just finished shooting their latest challenge in sunny California: a scavenger hunt for a bizarre collection of items throughout the smoggy streets of Los Angeles.
Bridgette and Lindsay had emerged the victors of the challenge now that the teams were merged, and sat now in the first class section of the plane. Despite the comfort of the first class seats, though, Bridgette found herself unable to fall asleep, and staring intently out the window at the stars.
This season of Total Drama was not at all what she had expected. She had been shocked to have qualified for this season in the first place, given her poor performance in Total Drama Action, and was even more shocked to have climbed her way to the final seven.
…especially given the drama that had ensued so far.
Yes, Bridgette was aware that the show's title was Total Drama, but this season was far different from the previous two. There had been far more life-threatening challenges, far more secret alliances…
…far more backstabbing and unexpected eliminations…
The first handful of eliminations had been predictable, like every season.
Duncan had been the first to go. He angrily forfeited the competition after only a few hours. Bridgette couldn't say she was shocked, though. After all, Duncans don't sing.
Ezekiel had been the next to go after Team Victory lost their first challenge in Egypt. Bridgette felt a tad guilty whenever she thought of the prairie boy, and how she had taken part in eliminating him once again. She hadn't wanted to vote him off, truly she hadn't. He'd made an honest mistake by losing that damned divining rod as they crossed the Nile. There had been crocodiles snapping at him, for God's sake! And yet, that one mistake led to one obvious elimination, in which the prairie boy had been shoved heartlessly out of the plane by Chef Hatchet.
Harold left the game next after the contestants paid a visit to Japan. He'd lost the pinball challenge for Team Victory after his calculations regarding the angle of the machine's flippers failed to even hit their team's ball. He cost his team the advertisement challenge, also, with his samurai mumbo-jumbo. Four votes against him sent the lanky teen packing. Bridgette would never forget the look on LeShawna's face as she watched her sugar baby fall through the clouds.
DJ took the Drop of Shame after he led Team Victory to their third failure in the Yukon. His paranoia about some curse brought about by that mummified dog got the best of him. His refusal to walk within fifty feet of any animal slowed Team Victory down sufficiently, resulting in them coming in last place during the bobsled challenge. The gentle giant jumped out of the plane dignifiedly, giving his former teammates his blessings before taking the plunge.
After a series of three reward challenges, Owen had been eliminated in Newfoundland [1]. The loveable oaf's hefty appetite overtook him, and he devoured the stash of fish Izzy had gathered for Chris' welcoming party. Chris was far from pleased with the sudden lack of seafood, and in retaliation, tossed Team Chris is Really Really Really Really Hot in last place. Though Owen was voted out, his stomach (which was bloated from the large amount of shellfish he had consumed) caused him to become lodged in the plane's exit. This resulted in the chubby teen sticking around for one more episode, his front dangling out of the plane as he waited for his bloated stomach to deflate.
The next elimination had been the first of the more unpredictable ones, and the start of Bridgette's feelings of distress.
The plane had landed in Paris, in front of the world renowned Lourve. The challenge had been to scour the Lourve for pieces of famous statues, and then to piece them back together in the pyramid court. Team Amazon placed first in the challenge, while Team Chris had placed last, thanks to Tyler's apparent lack of coordination, which sent his team's Venus de Milo tumbling to the ground in a heap of marble chunks. Everyone left in the contest, including the aforementioned jock, was certain that Tyler would be voted off.
And yet, when Team Chris returned to the economy section from the elimination ceremony, Tyler was with them. Izzy, however was not.
Bridgette was not about to let this surprise elimination pass easily. The moment she found the opportunity to, Bridgette approached Tyler about Izzy's departure. The jock seemed just as confused by it as Bridgette had, if not more so, but he did have one piece of information to share with her.
Alejandro, he said, had promised not to vote for Tyler in exchange for his vote. Tyler, eager to stay in the game, agreed, but was surprised when Alejandro gave him Izzy's name.
"I can't see why Al would want Izzy gone," he had said with a shrug. "I mean, the girl was kind of crazy, but I can't understand why Al would want to keep me in the game over her. She's the one who pieced that entire statue together."
Bridgette was no fool. The minute Alejandro's name left Tyler's lips, the blonde surfer had his game plan figured out. Heather's theories about the Latin ladies' man manipulating the others in his favor suddenly didn't appear so crazy anymore. Bridgette knew better than to make her new theories known, though.
If her theories were right, it wouldn't be long before Alejandro found a way to eliminate her. If her theories were wrong, she stood a chance of elimination anyway, simply for sharing the same beliefs as Heather. Those being her only options, she held her tongue.
After Izzy left, things in the competitions only continued to worsen.
With only three competitors left on Team Victory, Chris split the girls between the other two teams. LeShawna had been placed on Team Amazon while Bridgette and Lindsay were placed on Team Chris is Really Really Really Really Hot. Bridgette felt disgusted to have been placed on the same team as Alejandro, but once again, held her tongue.
The team landed in Jamaica next, or rather, crashed in Jamaica. Chris, unsurprisingly, had blown the show's gas money on decorating his personal quarters. A shark dive and one rickety sleigh ride later, Team Amazon emerged as the victors. No one had been eliminated in the end, although something did occur that surprised Bridgette to no end.
During the challenge, Gwen and Courtney… befriended each other. Something about watching Heather be electrocuted repeatedly made the two rivals put aside their numerous differences. They spent the rest of the episode laughing at Heather's expense, teasing Chris about his woman's dashiki, and admiring the beauty of their surroundings.
The friendship only grew stronger with the following episode. The teams were sent on a hunting challenge through the dark streets of London. Their set target was Jack the Ripper, the infamous murderer. Their goal was to capture Jack and bring him back to the Total Drama plane. The only catch was that Jack would be hunting the contestants down, too.
Barely forty minutes into the challenge, Gwen and Courtney found themselves as the only members left on their team. Even with those odds against them, the Gothic girl and the former CIT pulled their strengths together, and made their way back to the plane. Though Team Chris had come back with Jack (or rather, a zombie-like Ezekiel), Team Amazon managed to avoid elimination when the new friends returned with a little… extra baggage.
Courtney and Gwen had managed to kidnap a runaway Duncan from a sleazy nightclub. Chris immediately jumped on the opportunity to drag Duncan back into the game, and stuck the juvenile on Team Chris, much to Courtney's delight. The moment Chris made that decision, the tension between the contestants skyrocketed.
Gwen and Duncan had shared a kiss in the plane's confessional during the flight from London, and Tyler had found out. It wasn't long before Alejandro noticed Tyler's on-edge behavior, and used that to his advantage, too.
The plane landed in Greece after the scandalous kiss occurred, and suddenly, utter chaos broke out within the contest. Tyler, per suggestion of Alejandro, informed everyone of Gwen and Duncan's little smooch, to clear his conscience. All good feelings between Gwen and Courtney were immediately destroyed, and the latter of the two gained an unhealthy obsession with eliminating the other.
Gwen was not the one sent home that night, though. LeShawna managed to win the challenge for the Amazons by snagging the last victory medal. "Ain't no way I'm lettin' my homegirl get voted out," she had said.
So, Team Chris had been sent to the elimination room, where Tyler took the Drop of Shame next. Duncan was not about to let the jock get away with ratting him out, and teamed up with Alejandro to ensure Tyler's elimination. Just like with Harold's elimination, Lindsay looked utterly heartbroken as she watched her beloved boyfriend plummet to the ground.
Area 51 was the site of their next challenge. This challenge had been the hardest one in all of Total Drama history thus far, but not because of the creepy little aliens, or the deadly security precautions protecting Area 51. This challenge was made difficult due to Courtney and Alejandro purposely sabotaging their own team, both eager to eliminate Gwen and Duncan, respectively.
Courtney managed to succeed in her sabotage attempts, and Team Amazon was sent to the elimination room for the first time. Voting off Gwen proved to be harder than she had expected, though, thanks to LeShawna and Cody. The two teens defended Gwen from Courtney's tirade, a decision which proved to be foolish on their part.
Courtney was no idiot. She knew that Gwen would be safe from elimination as long as she had supporters. That being the case, Courtney targeted LeShawna instead. Heather was only too glad to eliminate her longtime rival, and anything that aided in eliminating Gwen was brilliant in Sierra's mind. With three votes against her, LeShawna was the next one to fall.
With one of the show's main mediators gone, tensions between the remaining competitors rose even further.
The hostility between Gwen and Courtney was open for everyone to see, and Duncan continued to play both girls without a single feeling of remorse.
Alejandro sat back and enjoyed the conflict, trying to decide which of the three he should manipulate next, while Heather tried to figure out ways to send the arch villain home.
Lindsay's sadness over the loss of her boyfriend was only escalated whenever she saw Sierra fawning over Cody, who didn't seem at all interested in the psychotic girl's advances.
And Bridgette had to endure all of it.
Chef landed the plane in Australia next, and Chris told the competitors that their next challenge would involve an emu race to Hanging Rock, followed by a bungee jump into a pack of sheep. Just like in Area 51, this challenge was made difficult solely by the plotting and self-sabotage on Courtney and Alejandro's part.
Alejandro had decided that Courtney would be the easiest one to manipulate out of the love triangle, given her short temper and her strong feelings for Duncan. He had taken to flirting with the uptight girl, trying to catch her on the rebound and mess around with both her heart and her head. It didn't take long for Courtney to fall for his charms, and soon, her dislike and anger towards Gwen soon evolved into complete and total hatred, just as Alejandro had intended.
Courtney had once again succeeded in sabotaging her team, and the four Amazons were sent to the elimination room for the second time. Gwen received the most votes from her teammates, and should have been sent home. However, it was Cody who went home next, after sacrificing himself to keep Gwen in the game.
With Cody's self-sacrifice, Courtney's anger only grew larger. After a reward challenge held in Sweden (in which Courtney, once again, sabotaged her own team), the gang headed to the beautiful Niagra Falls. The challenge consisted of an arduous trek to the top of the falls, followed by a barrel ride down to the bottom.
Courtney had had it. Gwen would be going home this week. Courtney's refusal to go over the falls seemed to be a surefire way to guarantee her team's loss, given the fact that they were already down a player. But Lindsay, being her usual materialistic self, refused to go over the falls as well. How could she, in good conscience, take a barrel dive into such a large embodiment of water when she had just started using a new brand of lip gloss? It was just wrong!
Duncan refused to go over the falls as well, knowing what Courtney's plan was. There was no way he was going to let Courtney get rid of his new girl.
That did it. That did it. If Duncan wasn't going to go over the falls himself, and make Gwen's elimination easy for her, then Courtney would get him over the falls herself. In a show of unexpected strength, Courtney threw the juvenile delinquent through the air and into his barrel, which she then proceeded to kick over the falls.
Chris, being the sadistic and twisted man that he was, counted Duncan's toss over the falls as a point for Team Chris, and declared them the victors of that challenge. For the third time, Team Amazon was sent to the elimination room, and finally, Courtney succeeded in getting rid of Gwen. Adding insult to injury, Courtney slapped the girl harshly across the face, and shoved her out of the plane herself.
With now Gwen gone, albeit via an incredibly harsh elimination, Bridgette felt a small sense of relief. Surely things would simmer down now, seeing as Courtney had personally rid herself of her greatest enemy and now had Duncan to herself.
But needless to say, Bridgette had been wrong.
Duncan refused to talk to Courtney now, having been completely repulsed by her behavior in the previous challenge. He cursed her and berated her, saying how big of a mistake he'd made by ever taking interest in her, and how she didn't deserve the decency that half the people on this show gave her.
Courtney was far from pleased by Duncan's rejection, but shrugged it off when she remembered she had Alejandro. She went crawling to him, oozing rivers of flirtatiousness out of her every pore. She didn't need Duncan; she had Alejandro.
The only problem with that little fantasy was that Alejandro didn't need, nor did he want Courtney. His rejection was even harsher on Courtney, though. While Duncan screamed at Courtney and told her how much he hated her, Alejandro simply brushed her off.
He treated her like she was nothing. Nothing. He didn't even waste his breath by calling her an arsenal of insults, or telling her what a horrible, vile monster she had become. He didn't acknowledge her at all.
That proved to be too much for Courtney to handle. This wasn't how her plan was supposed to work out. She was supposed to rid herself of Gwen and then win back Duncan's heart! Even if she failed at that, she thought she'd have Alejandro as a consolation prize.
But the two boys had left her with nothing.
The lack of anything to call her own finally got to Courtney when the contestants landed in their next destination: Moscow. Their challenge consisted of a race from the Spasskaya Tower to Saint Basil's Cathedral. Once they had arrived, the teams were supposed to construct a replica of the cathedral out of paper-mâché. Halfway through her team's replica of Saint Basil's, Courtney snapped.
She tore the replica to shreds and stomped it ferociously into the ground, and then proceeded to throw the broken chunks at the members of Team Chris. She turned on her teammates after that, calling Heather out on all the evil things she had done over the course of the past three seasons, and accusing Sierra of being nothing more than an obsessive, demented creep. Bridgette had tried to calm Courtney down, but the CIT had turned on her, too, something which shocked everyone, even Chris.
Courtney had called her a worthless, spineless, pathetic excuse for a teenaged girl. She insulted everything there was to insult about Bridgette, from her klutziness to her naïveté. Courtney even went so far as to bring up Bridgette's failed relationship with Geoff, which had ended when Geoff cheated on her with one of Chris' many interns.
"Where do you get off trying to calm me down," Courtney had sneered, "when that airhead party boy didn't even think you were good enough for him?"
Bridgette felt her eyes begin to water at the horrid memory, but she wiped at them with her finger and tried to remember what happened next.
After Courtney had finished belittling Bridgette, she turned to her greatest enemy left in the game: Duncan.
She tackled Duncan to the ground, knocking over Team Chris' model of Saint Basil's Cathedral, as well, and wrapped her hands tightly around his throat. She pressed down on his larynx, cutting off his air supply, causing him to go blue in the face. Kick and punch hard as he may, the punk just couldn't pry Courtney off of him.
Thankfully, Chef Hatchet could. He scraped the emotional girl off of her spited ex, and carried her, draped over his shoulders, to the top of one of Saint Basil's tallest towers. He dangled Courtney out the tower by her bra strap, which he then proceeded to hook onto a conveniently placed nail, which jutted out of the wall.
And he left Courtney there, dangling by her bra, kicking and screaming at the top of her lungs. He made his way out of the cathedral, and back towards the remaining contestants. Courtney, he and Chris agreed, would be eliminated without a ceremony, one of the greatest shames a contestant could face.
Bridgette felt herself tearing up again as she thought of Courtney hanging there, embarrassed and disgraced. Courtney had clawed fruitlessly at the skies above as the Total Drama jet took off, asking, begging to be given a second chance. Bridgette had watched Courtney grow smaller and smaller as the plane rose further off the ground. Finally, Courtney disappeared under a cover of gaudy purple thunderheads, which Bridgette felt went along rather well with the depressed feeling that lingered about the remaining contestants, and she was gone.
That had been two episodes ago, though to Bridgette, it felt as though it had been much longer. This whole season, which had only gone on for a little over a month, seemed to have stretched out over a length of at least a few years. It wasn't possible for so many things to change in such a short amount of time.
There was no way that Courtney could have gone from the uptight, overachieving girl who stepped onto the Dock of Shame, to the demented, vengeful harpy who had been left dangling from Saint Basil's.
There was no way that Gwen, who had dedicated every affectionate thought to her beloved Trent, could have changed into a lying, boyfriend-stealing pariah.
There was no way that Cody could have changed from an overconfident little pervert, set on courting Gwen, to a serious young man, who sacrificed his own place in the competition to benefit another.
And there was no way that Bridgette could have gone from the fun-loving, free-spirited, optimistic surfer girl who was friends with everyone on the show to being the hopelessly pessimistic shell of a girl who sat now in first class, left with virtually no one.
It just wasn't possible. Not in such a short amount of time, anyway. It couldn't be done.
And yet, Bridgette realized as she looked out amongst the stars, it had. Everything she knew about this show, and the people on it, had changed in the time span of a mere thirty-three days. And even now, with only seven competitors left in the running, Bridgette knew things would still continue to change.
She went over the remaining contestants in her head.
Duncan was still here, much to Bridgette's dismay. She couldn't imagine how Duncan had made it this far along again, especially given his early elimination and his affair with Gwen.
Lindsay was still here, too, although Bridgette would never know it was her. Since Tyler's departure, Lindsay had undergone a serious transformation. She had gone from being a bubbly, carefree ditz to an independent, driven young woman who had her sights set on winning. If Bridgette couldn't win this season, she hoped that Lindsay would, at least.
Bridgette scowled angrily as she realized that the manipulative and scheming Alejandro was still left amongst the active competitors. She would have loved to smack the teeth right out of that pretty boy's mouth, but she knew that wouldn't do her any good. And she was determined to outlast him; to make him pay for all the people he'd hurt this season.
Sierra was still in the game, though like Duncan, Bridgette didn't understand how. She entered the competition very unpopular with her fellow competitors, due to her obsessive and stalker-like nature. Her annoying personality increased after Cody eliminated himself, and she was now frequently seen huddling in a corner with a large vat of vanilla ice cream. Bridgette guessed that she wouldn't last too much longer.
Heather was still in the running for the million, too, and surprisingly, Bridgette was fine with that. She had gradually taken a liking to the queen bee shortly after Izzy's elimination, and she could actually maintain a civil conversation with her now. That, in Bridgette's opinion, had been the only good thing to come out of this season.
And finally, Bridgette came to the last competitor left in the game: Noah.
Bridgette dragged her eyes from the starry sky outside and into the first class cabin. She looked over her shoulder, towards the door to the economy section, where Noah now rested along with the other four losers of today's challenge. The faint sound of snoring came from the door's direction, though Bridgette couldn't tell who it was doing so.
The blonde surfer girl frowned as she realized that she had very few memories of Noah, from any season. Even after she had been placed on the same team as the bookworm, she still had very limited interaction with him. Bridgette searched her mind for any memories of Noah that she had. Sadly, she only found a handful.
Noah's arrival to Camp Wawanakwa on the first day of Total Drama Island, and his mention of his life-threatening allergies. (Bridgette applauded herself for remembering that last bit.)
Noah fainting due to heat exhaustion during the second challenge, and Owen carrying him bridal style back to the mess hall.
There was another memory of Noah during the second challenge, in which the bookworm had spooned Cody after they fell asleep. Bridgette chuckled as she recalled their faces upon waking up.
Noah cheering cynically during the dodge ball challenge, which had been the last time Bridgette saw him until her elimination thirteen episodes later.
There were no other memories of Noah from Total Drama Island. Bridgette frowned and thought harder, seeing if she could find any memories of him during her time on Total Drama Action. She'd certainly spent a good amount of time with him and the other commentators when she hosted the aftermath. And yet, there was nothing.
Bridgette dug further, still, thinking about this most recent season. There had to be one point in Total Drama World Tour where she and the bookworm had come in contact.
Bridgette frowned as she thought of the one.
Back in the Yukon, before the start of the bobsled challenge. The temperatures had been below freezing, and, of course, Chris and Chef were the only two people provided with coats. Courtney, drawing attention once more to her status as a former CIT, had suggested that the competitors huddle together for warmth. While most of the girls had huddled up to Alejandro, and Cody huddled up to Gwen, Noah had cuddled up to her.
And Bridgette had pushed him away.
"I have a boyfriend!" she had snapped, shoving the bookworm harshly to the snowy ground.
Right, Bridgette thought bitterly, some boyfriend.
Bridgette's feelings of bitterness quickly gave way to feelings of guilt as she thought of the way she had treated Noah. All Noah had wanted was too keep himself warm against the merciless cold of the Yukon. And she had denied him that, indirectly accusing him of wanting something more, and defending a boy who had tossed her to the side the minute another girl walked his way.
That couldn't be the only recent memory that Bridgette had of Noah. There had to be something else. She searched again, and found another.
Though the memory didn't involve Bridgette directly, it was still one she had of Noah.
Team Chris had just returned to the economy section of the plane following their first elimination ceremony. The one in which Owen had been eliminated. Noah had looked completely distraught after Owen's departure. Bridgette had been shocked, to say the least. She had written Noah off as a heartless, emotionless little prick, who cared about nothing other than his own self. But the look on Noah's face now that his friend had been sent packing stuck with Bridgette.
Bridgette looked through her mind further, and found a similar memory. Izzy had just been eliminated, and Team Chris was returning to the economy section. Noah had returned looking outraged by the results of the latest elimination. Bridgette had been outraged by Izzy's elimination as well, but was certain that the bookworm would be only too glad to be rid of the psycho hose beast.
Guess there's more to the little guy than his dry sense of humor, Bridgette thought to herself.
Now that she had at least two other memories of Noah in her head, Bridgette was determined to find even more. She reviewed every elimination ceremony that had come to pass, and the events that happened in every challenge.
Upon learning that LeShawna had been eliminated, Noah wasn't in the least bit surprised. He did, however, seem a trifle unhappy now that the voluptuous teen had left.
After being informed that Cody had sacrificed himself for Gwen's sake, Noah looked as though he just heard that Christmas had been cancelled.
When Courtney threw Duncan over the falls, Noah had looked absolutely terrified, and had been the first, now that Bridgette thought about it, to rush to the edge of the falls, and check to see if Duncan was injured.
When Gwen was pushed out of the plane, screaming on her way to the ground below, Noah immediately locked himself in the confessional. For the next several hours, Bridgette heard the bookworm complain about how hard Cody and LeShawna had worked to protect the Goth girl, and how it was unfair that their efforts apparently had been for naught.
Bridgette went to find another memory of Noah, but was cut short as the sound of her name caught her attention.
"Bridgette?"
Bridgette turned back from the economy section door to the seat across from her. Lindsay sat there, rubbing tiredly at her eyes and arching her back. She stopped arching when she heard a small popping sound, and then eased back into her cushy chair.
"This chair is amazing," Lindsay sighed dreamily, sinking further into it. She then remembered about Bridgette, and jerked herself up so that she sat completely straight, looking the surfer right in the eyes.
"Bridgette," she repeated, "what are you doing up so late? It has to be at least two-thirty o'clock."
Bridgette smiled and waved a hand dismissively at Lindsay. "Hey there, Linds," she said, "I guess I just can't sleep."
Lindsay gasped. "Are you suffering from in-zombie-a? Stay away from me! Oh, please don't eat my brain, Bridgette!"
Bridgette chuckled. "The word is insomnia, Linds," she said. "And don't worry, I have no immediate plans to eat your brains."
Lindsay let out a breath of relief and eased back in her chair. "Oh, good," she said. "Without my brains, I'm nothing!"
Bridgette chuckled again, though this time to herself. Lindsay was a sweetheart; there was no doubt about that in Bridgette's mind. And while she had buckled down and become more serious after Tyler's elimination, that transformation, Bridgette found, had not provided Lindsay with any more smarts.
"So what's bothering you?'
Bridgette was caught off guard by the directness of Lindsay's question.
"Nothing's wrong, Lindsay," Bridgette said, trying to keep a feeling of cheer in her voice as she did so. "I just can't get to sleep, remember?"
Lindsay shook her head in disbelief. "I'm not buying it, Bridgette," she said. "So come on and tell me! We're BFFs!"
Bridgette sighed as she looked at Lindsay. The girl's persistence hadn't changed any since Tyler's elimination, either. If anything, it had increased. She figured she may as well get this over with.
"Lindsay," Bridgette said, folding her hands in her lap, "have you ever just… not been as kind to someone as you'd have liked?"
Lindsay's eyes widened in understanding. "Ooooh," she gasped, "you mean like ugly girls? Oh, like, don't worry, Bridgette, I've been mean to ugly girls before without meaning to! Everyone does it! I mean, this one time I-"
"No, Lindsay," Bridgette interrupted, placing a hand lightly on the airhead's shoulder. "I'm not talking about ugly girls."
Lindsay cocked her head to the side in confusion. "Are we talking about really ugly girls?"
Bridgette chuckled. "No."
"Really really-"
"We're not talking about ugly girls of any kind, Linds," Bridgette said, beginning to get a little irritated.
Lindsay cocked her head even further to the side, to the point that Bridgette was surprised her neck hadn't snapped. "Then who are we talking about?"
Bridgette sighed, feeling as thought she'd just been dropped into the middle of a poorly directed teen drama. But still, she looked up at Lindsay in defeat.
"It's Noah," Bridgette said.
Lindsay's look of confusion melted away, and gave way to one of understanding. She grabbed Bridgette's hand in her own, and gripped it tightly. "Go on," she said.
Bridgette shifted uncomfortably in her seat, and brought her hand away from Lindsay's to rub the back of her neck embarrassedly. "Well, it's like I said. I haven't exactly… been as kind to Noah as I'd like."
Lindsay's look of understanding faltered for a moment, giving way to confusion before returning to understanding. "But you're one of the sweetest girls I know," she said. "How could you be anything less than kind to Noah? You're even nice to Heather."
Bridgette shook her head in disagreement. "I haven't been as kind as I'd like to," she repeated.
"How, though?" Lindsay asked, tapping her chin as she tried to think of the answer. "I mean, I rarely even see the two of you talk."
"That's my point," Bridgette said, holding out her hands to emphasize her point. "I've been on this show for three seasons, and I've barely even acknowledged the fact that Noah exists. I've talked to Eva more than I have Noah, and she had a casket set out for me the minute I walked onto the aftermath set."
Bridgette bit her lip in shame as she thought back to the Yukon. "And, after I just shoved him away like that in the Yukon," she said, "when all he wanted was to keep warm. How could I have had such little interaction with Noah, and have almost all of it be bad?"
She looked down at the floor of the first class cabin, upset with herself. She'd gone off on Geoff for calling Heather hot, even after all the nasty things she'd done, and here Bridgette was, having the only time she and Noah connected be a harsh push away from her.
"But, Bridgette," Lindsay said, dragging Bridgette from her thoughts of self-loathing, "that doesn't make you a bad person. So what if you and Noah haven't talked much, and so what if the one time you did you were a little rude?"
Bridgette winced.
"You're still one of the sweetest girls I know!"
Despite Lindsay's kind words, Bridgette didn't cheer up in the slightest. Rather, she just sank back in her chair and let her eyes drift toward the ground yet again.
Lindsay saw this, and pulled Bridgette's face up by her chin.
"Tell ya what," she said, locking her eyes with Bridgette's. "I'll help you with this."
Bridgette arched a brow and Lindsay. "How can you help?"
Lindsay let go of Bridgette's chin, and pointed to herself. "I'm going to help you make it up to Noah. Help you befriend him!"
Bridgette scoffed and sank further into her chair. "I thank you for the offer, Linds, but I honestly doubt that Noah will be up for befriending me. He's not exactly a social butterfly, and even if I'm only just remembering how rude I've been to him, I'm pretty sure he hasn't. He's got a habit of making mental notes of everything that goes on in this game."
"So?" Lindsay asked, shrugging. "That doesn't mean he's not willing to give you another chance! Look and him and Owen, or him and Cody! He couldn't stand either of them at first, and now they're two of his best friends! I'm sure he'd be willing to give you a chance!"
Bridgette looked at Lindsay, unsure. "I dunno…"
"Trust me," Lindsay said, leaning back in her chair, "this will work. You just watch, Bridgette. Before either of you two leave this competition, you'll be the best of friends!"
Lindsay let out a yawn, and let her eyes slowly begin to droop closed. "You'll see, Bridgette. What do ya…"
Bridgette smiled as she watched her fellow winner fall asleep, mid-sentence.
"Okay, Linds," Bridgette said, though she knew Lindsay was too far asleep to hear her. "I'll trust you on this one."
Lindsay let out a loud snore in response, and Bridgette smiled to herself. She followed Lindsay's example, leaning back in her chair, and let her eyes slowly flutter shut.
"G'night, Lindsay," she muttered.
A/N: Well, there is the first chapter of this story. I'm not so sure what to make of it, but I certainly hoped that you enjoyed it, Daniel. I'd set a goal for when the next chapter should be up, but honestly? How often do I follow through with that?
Either way, reviews are appreciated, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY AGAIN, DANIEL!