It was a fact of life that from the moment you were born, your soulmate would be discussed everyday of your life. When you met your soulmate a pattern of sorts would appear on your chest above your heart. A tattoo like mark that was unique to everyone. Then, when you kissed the person who was your soulmate, the black marks would fill with colour. And the idea of finding ones soulmate consumed everybody. The whole world was desperate to find that one person they were destined for. Every one that is, except for Courtney Castillo.
For the first thirteen years of her life she was enamoured by the idea of finding a soulmate. Her parents were soulmates, some of her friends had already met theirs. But at thirteen, her parents divorced.
"I don't understand!" a thirteen year old Courtney had cried to her mother. "You're soulmates. Doesn't that outweigh everything else in the whole world?"
Her mother looked down onto her daughters tear stained face and she sighed.
"I wish it did," she said with a sad smile. And so, it was at thirteen that Courtney figured out soulmates didn't really mean anything. It was a hard lesson for her to learn, and she learnt it a lot earlier than most of her friends, but she learnt it none the less. She figured if you could spend your whole life looking for someone, and then find them, and know for certain they were the one, from the way your marks lit up when you kissed them, only to have them leave you anyway, then what was the point? She knew then that she was better off focusing on her studies, and getting a good career. Other people only got in her way anyway. She would use them to her advantage but never run the risk of getting attached to anyone. Not even her soulmate. No, especially not her soulmate.
Fast forward three years and Courtney stepped off a boat onto a dock, where she greeted twenty other teenagers that she was ready to defeat in order to win $100000. She acted sweet and nice, of course. She was going to need to form alliances at some point in order to make it to the end. But she knew from watching thirteen seasons of Survivor as research that a strong player's greatest downfall was almost always being too trusting. So her game plan was to trust no one and never take off the prize.
They were placed in their teams. She knew right away she didn't like any of them. You don't have to like them, she reminded herself, you just have to pretend to.
"Alright campers! It's time for the first challenge," Chris McLean announced. "Get into your swimsuits and meet me on top of the cliff!"
In the cabin, Courtney tried her best not to be snappy at the extremely annoying girls who were dressed exactly alike. Katie and Sadie, she remembered, though she hadn't a clue which was which. Then there was Eva, and frankly she was down right scary, even to Courtney, who was afraid of nothing. And then there was Bridgette, who seemed… normal? Only time would tell.
She was dressed in her swimsuit and about to leave the cabin when Sadie… (or Katie was it?) stopped her.
"Oh my god, Courtney, who's your soulmate?" she shrieked excitedly.
"I don't…" Courtney started, looking down at her chest, where Sadie was staring. Courtney eyes widened when she saw the black swirls peeking out from her bikini top. "Oh no. That wasn't there before," she said, trying not to panic.
"Ohmygod Courtney, that means your soulmate is on this island!" Sadie gushed. "This is so exciting! We can help you figure out who it is! We'll just look and see who else has the marks."
"But you guys have them too," Courtney said, noticing Katie and Sadie's spiralling tattoos, almost identical to each other.
"Oh but we've had them forever!" Katie explained.
"We're each others soulmate!" Sadie squealed.
"This soulmate business is getting on my nerves! Get out of my way!" Eva growled, pushing past the girls and outside.
"Wow, she is like, so mean," Sadie sniffed.
"So mean. It's just because she doesn't have one," Katie agreed. She and Sadie then followed Eva outside. Courtney groaned and futilely tried to rub off the marks that had evidently appeared the moment she'd stepped on the dock.
It doesn't matter, she told herself. You don't have to do anything about it. It's just a pretty mark for all you care. But deep down she did care. Some part of her had assumed that if she didn't want a soulmate, she wouldn't get one. She had honestly thought she'd never have to worry about the marks. But now that they were there… her twelve year old self came bubbling to the surface, excited by the idea of finding someone to love for the rest of her life. She quickly squashed the notion. Soulmates were stupid.
"You're not the only one," Bridgette said to her as they left the cabin together.
"What are you talking about?" Courtney asked her.
"I got one today too," Bridgette confided. It wasn't visible as she was wearing a wetsuit, but Bridgette seemed to be genuine. For a moment Courtney wondered if Bridgette was her soulmate. That wouldn't be so bad. She wasn't attracted to the girl but maybe that would be better.
It soon became apparent when they reached the top of the cliff that almost everyone had their marks already. It wasn't possible to tell whose had appeared that day and who had had there's already, but it seemed that most of them were still black, which meant that if they did know who their soulmate was, they had yet to make a move.
Courtney glanced around at the other campers, wondering who it could possibly be that had caused this fungus (because that's what she's decided it was) to grow on her chest. Not Katie or Sadie or Eva, obviously. Bridgette was still a possibility. Of the boys on her team, four of them were sporting marks. Tyler, Duncan Geoff and Harold if she remembered their names correctly. She prayed it was none of them.
The prospects on the other team were not much better though. Of the girls, Courtney could see that Gwen and Lindsay both had marks, and of the boys Trent and Cody were the only ones. Judging by only looks, Courtney was hoping Trent or Tyler would be the one who turned out to be her soulmate. Neither of them were exactly the kind of man she would picture herself with, but they were better than all the others.
Her thoughts were interrupted by some gross punk, saying something about ladies going first. If he thought there was any way she was jumping off this cliff, he had another think coming. Courtney cursed herself for letting herself get distracted. This soulmate thing was getting to her head and throwing her off her game already. She knew as soon as possible she had to find out who it was and get them eliminated. But until then she quickly sized up the other team (and this time not for potential soulmates) and quickly decided there was no way all of them were going to jump off the cliff.
She was wrong, unfortunately, and the Killer Bass lost the challenge. It wasn't her fault, she was adamant. And she needed to convince the rest of the team of that before it was too late.
Duncan, that ogre, of course was trying to convince everyone to get rid of her. And he found the need to call her princess constantly. Was it possible that he was the most annoying human being she'd ever met? On the plus side, that probably meant he certainly wasn't her soulmate, so that narrowed down her search. That left the possibilities of Harold, Geoff, Tyler or Bridgette on her team. And she still had to convince them not to vote her off.
"So who would you pick?" Bridgette asked flatly. Okay this was it…
"What about… him?" she pointed at Tyler (the one she figured was the most likely candidate).
"No!" there was a shout from the other table. Lindsay was standing up looking stricken. She started mumbling something about there being no salt on the table, but Courtney wasn't fooled. Lindsay liked Tyler, which meant there was a strong possibility that she and Tyler were soulmates. After all, they both had marks. Courtney sighed. She was no closer to finding her soulmate or to convincing her team not to vote her off. That was until Ezekiel happened to make some extremely sexist remarks.
Courtney thanked her lucky stars as a marshmallow was thrown her way at the campfire ceremony that night. She blamed her lack of concentration on the game for her near miss. No more thinking about soulmates. No more getting distracted. She'd eliminate every possible soulmate and then she wouldn't have to worry about it anymore.
She walked back to the cabin with more determination than ever.
"It actually suits you, you know," a voice behind her laughed. She spun around and scowled when she saw who it was.
"Duncan!" she cursed, pulling the chicken hat from her head.
"Lighten up, princess, it's just a game," he grinned.
"Don't call me that," Courtney snapped.
"See you tomorrow," he winked and walked into his cabin. Courtney watched him go, feeling a sinking in her stomach, and all of a sudden Duncan was back in her list.
Hey guys so I started another story. I cannot promise regular updates and if it isn't finished by March 15 there will be a 3 month hiatus.
