The first thing Cody did for the day was make plans with the time he had left in it. Since he had already given up his spot in 'TDI' this timeline Cody amused himself and tried to remember as much as he could of the challenges ahead.

The first he did was look at his wardrobe.

Okay so it wasn't terrible; he had originally put on the sweater for warmth, the collared shirt for class, and the worn jeans to show he was a 'cool cat'. Well that was what he had thought when he first left for TDI; Cody had foregone any other proper camping gear because well; he thought they were going to a resort; surely they'd have any other clothes he'd need at the resort!

'Not this time' Cody thought to himself and this time laid out sturdier clothing. He placed down a plain, form-fitting, but comfortable black turtleneck shirt. A black pair of cargo pants with plenty of pockets, and a pair of hiking boots which were also black.

Cody blushed at seeing how much black he had chosen before grabbing a thick leather jacket for warmth. Cody felt like the outfit was a little bit 'try-hardy' for his taste but remembering the cold nights at Wawanaka made Cody put a green scarf on the pile.

Happy with his choices Cody then took a shower before changing his luggage. He found himself staring at a bunch of custom shampoos, his favourite robe, clean underwear, and a bunch of IT gadgets and games.

Helpless to stop it Cody let out a snort. Jesus he'd been a naïve kid those years ago, really? A Gameboy? He liked video games but in a game show like this there was no time for gaming.

Cody quickly repacked and this time brought survival gear, a fully stocked medkit, (and thinking back to all his injuries put in several kits.), and other useful odds and ends.

Cody then looked at his electric keyboard; in the first timeline Cody hadn't brought it since the resort would probably have a better one right? Then when he'd come back from TDI he'd been horribly out of practice.

Cody placed it with its collapsible and portable stand with his luggage gingerly. If he was careful it should remain undamaged and he could practice away from the other campers at the start of the show since he was probably rusty as hell again.

'Why on earth did I enter a band if I never practice?' Cody thought scowling to himself. Finally Cody let himself take a shower before realising he was too pumped to think about getting back to sleep.

'Well I'm in for a long night' Cody thought to himself morosely.

XXXXXX

It was only 4 in the morning when Cody awoke in his repeats so he spent that time going through the challenges in his head and grabbing useful stuff and packing it away in his luggage.

In the end he decided to keep a few of his gaming devices figuring it couldn't hurt and he had the room.

'Besides if they get damaged I'll either wake up with them fixed again, or walk away from this with a lot of cash.' Cody justified in his mind.

Finally unable to wait any longer Cody went down to the beach and helped the interns pack up his boat. Cody caught a glimpse of a certain nerdy girl walking in her own boat and realised that Beth probably also hadn't gotten much sleep.

The intern who piloted Cody's boat the first time around walked up to Cody.

"Hey; wanna leave early? We'd be the first ones there!" The intern said giving Cody a friendly smile. Cody looked at the bearded intern with a grin. The first time around he'd been in a daze at being picked for something and had slept in, getting to the island fairly late.

This time…

"Well it couldn't hurt! Let's go!" Cody said grinning and the boatman smiled at the teen's enthusiasm.

"Say, what's your name? I never caught it." Cody said, inwardly chuckling at his reference to the past timelines.

"Um that's cause I didn't give it; we're not supposed to tell campers our names." The intern said looking uncertain for a second.

Cody grinned a little more and whispered conspiratorially to the intern "well you know…. Rules are made to be broken, and it might be a bit awkward of a ride if I have to call you intern the entire way." The boatman grinned at this before giving in.

"Ah true enough, the names David, nice ta meetcha!" David said grinning and Cody smiled back,

"Well you probably already know this but my names Cody-" The gap-toothed boy said grinning; he slung his last bag off his back on the boat and took off his now overly-hot leather jacket.

"-and it's time we hit the road!" Cody finished grinning… before pausing, "er… ocean!"

David grinned back and they were off.

XXXXXX

It was halfway to the island when Cody had a thought occur to him. David probably knew a lot more about the behind the scenes happenings of the show then Cody did. Cody then flashed back to Chris asking him if he were okay on the cliff; whether or not Chris was a jerk, there was still an honest concern for Cody in the host's eyes back there.

"So David what's Chris like?" Cody asked and David gave a start at the host's name before looking around.

"Well he isn't really a bad guy for the most part; hell even chef, you'll meet him later, isn't that bad a dude when you get to know him. The problem is the show's board." David said getting a bit nervous now. "Chris got locked in a really bad contract before and is really fighting hard to get some sort of official notice on the show; I'm not supposed to tell you this but the board is really not a nice group of people." The intern gave a shudder. "They remind more of bond villains then T.V. show producers."

Cody raised an eyebrow "So they're the ones who make the show dangerous?" he said unthinkingly.

David stared at Cody, "how'd you know about that? I thought that was a secret from you guys till the first challenge." Cody paused at his slip of the tongue before finding a good excuse.

"I heard two other interns talking about it earlier, said something about a cliff, sharks, and the hospital." Cody said hoping he wasn't about to get caught out of his lie.

"Well you're right," David said accepting Cody's story and not noticing the gap-toothed teen's sigh of relief. "Mclean is pushing for work-safety, legal representation on unfair use of contracts, going into contract law, hell he even tried Peta. The contracts you guys signed aren't even valid since they added a bunch of new pages." David said looking very nervous. "The problem is the board is a group of people who are rich enough to give away a million dollars on an already expensive show; they have enough money to throw around that'll shut anyone up; PETA, lawyers, work safety, it doesn't matter." David said. "Chris is usually pretty nice but stress has been getting to him, he's been a bit snappish and is banking on you guys or your parents managing to get some help."

Cody remembered Chris's "mock" look of hurt earlier when Cody ignored him; "So then he isn't that bad a guy?" Cody asked

David smiled for the first time since they started on this topic, "No; he's an arrogant ass, but I mean that in a good way. He's pretty nice and cheerful most of the time. Even if the shouting matches stopped after the producers threatened his public image if he kept up the disobedience. Chris is pretty obsessed with his image, and he's also fairly petty sometimes; other than that? He's a cool guy!"

Cody paused at that; "Thanks David for telling me this, by the way, I know you're risking a lot to tell me this." Cody said grinning at the intern who grinned back,

"Haha just don't tell anyone else mmkay? Chris is allowed to be 'naughty' since he's famous, but some nobody like me? Heck I wouldn't last the week if they found out."

Cody returned the chat to safer topics as they boated along the water; as they talked about the recording equipment used in the island. Cody found himself thinking about the show.

Just who were these mysterious producers anyway?

XXXXXX

Annnnd that's a wrap! Another fairly short chapter I know but this marks the end of the preliminary stuff.

Interesting fact; Cody's outfit is almost identical to Leon's from Resident evil 4; I realized this after designing it in my head so I got a few chuckles out of that. Essentially make his shirt long-sleeved, drop the gun holster; put a green scarf on and 'bam!' Cody's outfit for this fic!

I also forgot to address this in the previous chapter but this does not necessarily mean I am abandoning BOTN. I've just run into some writers block regarding the 'video game' part of that story and I am trying to rewrite the previous few chapters, and post massive one at the same time, the word count for the next chapter I've written for BOTN is at 23,000 words. I've only edited a quarter of that and it's still very, very rough. I usually do 2 edits for a chapter as well so this is a nice break.

Finally this chapter was only edited once properly rather than my usual twice over so I apologize for any mistakes. Just yell at me and quote the expression, or spelling error in a comment and I'll fix it.

Cheers!