~Chapter 2~

I woke up alone. Somehow I'd gotten back up in the tree. Probably Svetlana. Or maybe it was Manitoba Smith. I was covered in mud for some reason. Svetlana wouldn't allow this to happen. Zoey wasn't around, which brought me to conclude that it was in fact Manitoba who had come out. And here I thought only a fedora cued him.

I noticed it was daytime. Wait...daytime. Daytime! I'd missed the challenge for today!

I hopped off the branch. If I was going to risk my life, it better be worth the million bucks. No, it better be worth Zoey. She was my whole world, the one thing I wouldn't be able to bear losing. I would give anything for her, that was how much she meant to me. We hardly had any alone time but...I still loved her. So much, more than she would ever know. And even if she didn't like me back, my feelings wouldn't change. That was why I couldn't tell her about my "characters". She wouldn't understand, she might even hate me for lying to her all this time! I didn't want her to hate me or think less of me. I just wanted to be with her, that's all. In order to do that, though, I would have to keep this a secret.

Now she was gone. She hadn't woke me up for the challenge, which meant she'd been offended by one of Manitoba's sexist comments about girls being weak and defenseless. I hated it when he said things like that, always making the girls angry. And once he was gone, guess who got blamed? Yeah, me. I didn't do any of this to get caught up in yet another misunderstanding, but darn it all I had serious psychological problems. And to think my conscience contained four different people, all who got me into trouble. Well, except Svetlana. Even though she got a little overconfident at times, she still came through for our team and helped us win the challenges. I was grateful to have her as one of my personalities.

I went back to the cabin. Who knows where the others ran off to? They could be miles away in any direction by now. I would never find them. It was all I could to wait until they came back. And unfortunately I'd missed breakfast. I wasn't hungry yet, having just woken up, but soon enough my stomach would be begging me for food. Hopefully hunger wouldn't bring out one of my personalities. I remembered the rain last night; it suddenly made sense that I was muddy. Manitoba Smith was known to get dirty while he explored, or did whatever. I guess the only real upside was that I felt energetic thanks to a good night's sleep. But the downside outweighed the upside, being as my teammates had abandoned me. I had to wonder why that was. Did it have something to do with the challenge, like some kind of extreme hide and seek game? It was a possibility and it would certainly explain why they ditched me.

Yeah, either it was the challenge or another one of Chris's insane rules. It made me feel a little better to know I hadn't been left alone for nothing. And it made me feel all the more better to know that now no one could see any of my multiple personalities, meaning they couldn't guess what my disorder was. Yeah, okay, that was two upsides, which outweighed the downside. Well, rather the downside had turned into the second upside.

I sighed. I was left alone, but even though it was for the best, I still felt lonely. After all, what was I supposed to do, wait on the doorstep until everyone came back? Surely there had to be something around here that could keep me busy... Maybe a yo-yo or a long string. I could do tricks with the yo-yo and play cat's cradle with the string. If there was a piece of paper, I could try my hand at origami. I wasn't very good at origami, but I could make paper airplanes. That was the only thing I could make though. However, cat's cradle was my specialty. I could make all kinds of little patterns with a single piece of string, and thanks to Svetlana, I had nimble fingers. I knew a few yo-yo tricks, but none of them were very good.

I'd learned to be resourceful as a child. Climbing trees, using bark as a pretend pirate boat, trying to identify what clouds looked like, playing around with onion grass...it was all fun to me. Well, maybe not now, but it was worth a shot if it kept me entertained. And if that didn't work, I could daydream about Zoey. I liked thinking about her, me asking her out for the first time and her saying yes, us two having a picnic together, even if it was just holding hands, thinking about her would keep my busy for hours. Unfortunately, whenever I got deep into thought, I became unaware of my surroundings until someone touched me.

I decided to go inside the cabin and search for a piece of string. There was nobody inside, as I expected. I frisked each person's bed, looking under bunks to find nothing but a bunch of dust bunnies. Hm...cleaning would keep me occupied, and it would serve as a nice surprise for the rest of my team when they got back to find a neat, clean cabin to sleep in.

I couldn't find a broom anywhere, so I crawled beneath to beds and swept the dust out with my hands until I was sure I'd thoroughly cleaned out all the dust. I couldn't take off my shirt, as that would summon Vito, so I had to keep using my hands as a makeshift broom. I could wash them off in the bathroom sink when I was done. I brushed the clumps of dust outside and continued brushing them along until they were off and under the doorsteps. At least now the floor was clean. And what an amazing difference it made! Everyone was going to be so happy to finally have a decent cabin, I couldn't wait to see the smiles on everyone's faces! And Zoey...maybe she would forgive me for Manitoba's actions. It was a nice little gift, meant not only for her, but for the whole team.

Now that the floor was done, I could get to work on making everyone's beds. I started with the top bunks first, getting the harder ones out of the way before moving on to the easier bottom bunks. I even fluffed their pillows and put them in a position where the slightly leaned against the wall. I tried to make sure each and every bed was perfectly made, saving my bed for last just in case they came back early. Good thing my bed was a bottom bunk. I didn't have much to contribute to my team since my other personalities kept getting in the way, so I felt this was the least I could do for them, finally able to do something of my own will.

Once the beds were made, I polished the lamp with the bottom of my shirt, not taking it off for fear of Vito popping up. The lamp was pretty dirty, but I didn't mind. Once it was nice and shiny, I fixed the lampshade, tilting into an straight, upright position. The whole cabin suddenly looked like an entirely different place. It was a nice change from the dirty old cabin we were all sick of living in. Having nothing left to tidy up, I inspected the beds and smoothed out any wrinkles I could find. Of course, that didn't take long at all, and before I knew it, I had nothing left to do. I could clean the other cabin, but I didn't want my team to feel like I'd betrayed them by helping the competition.

I let out a deep breath. Normally, when I had nothing to do, I would sit on my bed and ponder over things. But this time, I wanted everything to stay neat, that way it could remain a surprise for everyone else. Messing up my bed would ruin that surprise. And besides, this was the only real way I could lend a hand while everyone was gone. They would be so tired when they got back, so I just knew they would be glad to sleep in a comfortable bed. I couldn't fix the creaking, granted, but at least I'd managed to make their beds look good and inviting. I just hoped it was enough for Zoey to forgive me. She wasn't exactly the type to hold a grudge, but just in case...

I sighed and waited. And waited...and waited...and waited. It took forever, but finally my team, as well as the other team, arrived. I got off the doorstep and stretched. Sitting still for so long without having eaten yet was tiring and my muscles were stiff from inactivity. Besides, my team's arrival meant dinner, and dinner meant food, and food meant no more hunger. Now I really couldn't wait, I was starving! some people got headaches from hunger. Thankfully I wasn't one of those people. I was glad, because multiple personalities was enough to handle. And heck, I couldn't truly handle it anyway!

I saw Zoey headed my way and smiled at the mere sight of her. She might hate my other selves, but at least she didn't hate Mike. And Manitoba...well, I hope I could make it up to her. But once she drew nearer, I noticed something was wrong with her. She had her head down and seemed to be so distracted, as if she was thinking about something serious. I frowned. I did all this mainly for Zoey. Hopefully this would be enough to get her out of her funk.

As the rest of the team moved on, Zoey stopped and looked at me with this hateful glare. Manitoba Smith must've done something really bad, he probably took it too far this time...

I tried to pretend I didn't see her and opened the door for my fellow teammates, putting on a fake smile to try to impress them. They gasped merrily as they took in the sight of the improved and practically refurbished cabin. It seemed like forever before Zoey finally caught up with the rest of us. I kept the door open for her and gestured for her to come in and see what I'd done for everybody. I kept my fake smile. It was easy to tell something was on her mind, and obviously it was really important. I wondered if it was about me, or should I say Manitoba.

She didn't speak to me as she walked by. Maybe she was just too deep into thought to notice me. She certainly didn't seem to be surprised at the clean cabin. Well...at least she would have a nice bed and a clean room to sleep in. Maybe tomorrow would be different, and her grudge would be gone. That's what I hoped, at least. For her to give me that kind of look, Manitoba must've said something awful. I just...I wish I knew what had happened.

I began to go inside the cabin, but before I could take two steps, Zoey slammed the door in my face.

What the heck did I say?