Flight after Japan

"No need to thank me, Ladies." Cody said confidently as he walked towards the rest of Team Amazon after the rest of the teams had left to rest, or try to, in the economy class section. Courtney, Gwen, and Heather ignored him and discussed what they thought was more important, who should be the team's leader.

"We make a really good team, Cody!" Sierra grabbed his upper arm and giggled, "We should work together more often, huh?" The wide-eyed boy brushed her off lightly and rubbed his neck. "Uh, I think we should pay attention to the other girls…" He motioned towards the bickering trio of hard-headed girls. "Instead of each other, you know? It would be better for the team…" Cody trailed off and backed away slightly. Sierra jumped towards Cody and crushed him in yet another one of her hugs. "That's a great idea!" She squealed into his ear, almost blowing his eardrums out.

Noah watched the scene through the door that separated the losers from the winners. 'Poor Cody…' He murmured to himself. He closed the door and turned around to face the rest of his team. Izzy squirmed in her seat resulting in a piece of her seat belt to tear a bit. She stared at it in amazement and tore it apart entirely while laughing like a maniac. "Izzy, No! The plane's going to crash any second now!" Owen screamed, breathing heavily at his seat. Noah buckled himself in and leaned back, still staring at his team. "Calm down, she's probably prone to explosions and crashes anyways. She'll be fine if we crash... Which we might." He looked further behind the ballistic Owen and the berserk Izzy to find the rest of his team-mates, Alejandro and Tyler, with Team Victory.

Alejandro practically had the girls wrapped around his finger. Even Izzy glanced up numerous times to ogle him from a distance. "It was tragic that Harold chose to leave, wasn't it?" Alejandro had a sympathetic expression on and he shook his head as if Harold was actually his friend. "Who?" LeShawna mumbled, obviously distracted by his looks. Noah face palmed and leaned forward to support his head up on his hand. "I sure hope your team wins the next challenge," Alejandro put his arms around Bridgette and Lindsay. Noah opened an eye and watched him. "You all surely deserve to win." He finished seductively, making them blush even more. Noah shifted his sight towards Izzy to see her reaction to this. Izzy was without a doubt drowning in jealousy. It was so out of character, Noah couldn't stop watching her. She was practically glowing green.

"Man, Lindsay is supposed to like me!" Tyler whined. "That Alejandro guy is-" "As sweet as honey." Dj interrupted. Noah groaned. Alejandro even had Dj fooled. Tyler nodded his head in a depressing matter, reluctantly agreeing with Dj.

Noah straightened his back and fiddled with the belt that kept him seated. He figured that since there was nobody to talk to and nothing to do, he should get some rest. He leaned against the plane wall and tried to drown out the noises that his fellow competitors were making.

Heather sat independently away from the rest of her team in the winners' compartment. 'Who needs them?' She thought angrily. Looking towards them, she growled. She knew she needed them to keep herself in the game, but she would never let Courtney become the team leader. Courtney was the one who annoyed her even more than Gwen, and to Heather, being on the same team as those two was hell. Both of them were against her, no matter what she did. No way was she going to start being nice to them, they didn't deserve it. Nobody on this plane deserved it. She spotted Gwen and Courtney laughing amongst themselves and she rolled her eyes. It was dark outside the window but it was burning hot inside, thanks to the over-active heater. She decided to check and see what was going on outside the room and walked over to the exit.

"I guess she finally figured out that she's a loser and she's going to be where she's supposed to be." Gwen mumbled. Despite her lowering her voice, she still wanted Heather to hear what she had said, and to her satisfaction, she did. Courtney giggled and watched Heather make her way out of the room.

Shrugging off Gwen's comment, as usual, Heather left the room. The temperature dropped unexpectedly, forcing Heather to wrap her arms around herself. The place smelt of Owen's sweat and she tried her best to ignore it. Alejandro relaxed with girls in his arms and once he spotted Heather he couldn't help but grin at her. Heather shot him a scowl in return and continued to walk forward, tripping, and nearly falling, over Noah's feet in the process, waking him from his snooze. She turned in speed and waited for Noah's complaint. Noah rubbed his eyes and looked up at her sloppily. They locked gazes for a second, then Noah decided to speak.

"It isn't that hard to watch where you're going, you know." He said as he stretched his arms. He was annoyed with her action. Thanks to her, he wouldn't be able to go back to sleep.

"It isn't that hard to sleep lying down like a normal person, you know." She retorted, looking towards Alejandro, then turning around completely to face Noah.

"I'd rather sleep sitting up than lying down in here." He pointed towards Owen who let out another one of his nauseous fumes onto the seats. "Safety..." Owen murmured in his sleep.

Heather raised an eyebrow at Owen and sat next to Noah. He looked around aimlessly, trying to avoid eye contact with her. She noticed his nervous behaviour and chuckled.

"Anything bothering you?" She crossed her legs and leaned back.

"Not at all. I don't mind sitting next to manipulative, ego-maniacal people." He sighed, "I have to get used to it with him on my team." He caught sight of Alejandro, who was practically buried in girls.

"Jealous much?" Heather teased, also keeping an eye on Alejandro.

"There's nothing to be jealous about." Noah answered, nonchalantly. He knew he was lying, and so did she.

"I'm sure there isn't." She turned her head to face Noah, once again. She saw the envy in his eyes but chose to ignore it.

"Jeez, it is cold in here." Heather shivered and wrapped her arms around herself once more. Noah stared at her curiously.

"I'll say." He muttered.

They sat verbally silent for a few hours, secretly exchanging glances every now and then. Heather covered her mouth with her hand and yawned. Noah watched her at the corner of his eye. She blinked lazily and propped her head up with her hand.

"Aww, it looks like it's past someone's bed time." Noah chimed quietly. In return, he received a slight shove. This surprised him, causing him to stiffen and straighten his spine.

"I am not a child." She snapped. "Compared to everyone one else here, I'm way more mature." She yawned again. She turned lazily to look at the door to the winners' compartment. She was mentally hesitant, and Noah realized this through her expression.

"They're all sleeping, it's really late." Noah told her, "You don't have to worry about them uh... Talking to you when you get in there." He assured her and motioned for her to go and get some rest. Heather nodded lazily and without another word, she left him seated by himself.

Noah exhaled and closed his eyes. He asked himself why she had decided to talk to him. It's not that it bothered him, it was just... Weird. He had to admit, though, she wasn't as uninteresting as all of the others.

A/N: I'm sorry, but they're going to continue to be short for a while. The only time I feel like typing is really late at night and I tend to stay up a little too late and I'm trying to change that. I'm almost finished the 'Flight after Yukon' chapter (Which was supposed to be in the same chapter as this one...) so that'll probably be up tomorrow. Probably. This story's going pretty slowly, but trust me, it'll get better. Night!