Wow, just wow. I would like to thank all of my admirers. I'm new to this fandom and you guys were all, but supportive. So I hope that I won't disappoint, as usual and I really paid attention to your reviews. I don't think the characters are actually out of character, since this is crack so we wouldn't know how they would act if they were a couple. I don't see them happening on the show, though. Talk to you soon!

Duncan squeezed his eyes. It was morning. The hot dry air in the hallway hinted it. The annoying shrill of birds hinted it. And the killer pain in his back definitely hinted it. He had fallen asleep on the hallway; back propped against the wall. He rubbed his eyes stretching his neck and grinding his teeth at the pain. Sprawled at his feet was Gwen who was still sleeping.

"Mhm," she rolled over to face him. "You look like crap," she moaned taking in how his Mohawk hung limply brushing against his forehead.

"If you wanna know what crap is like, look in the nearest mirror," he replied.

Indeed, she did look bad. Her eyeliner was spread all across her pale face.

"You are such a gentleman," she laughed.

He smiled at the way she was stretching like a kitten on the rug. Courtney would have pummeled by now if it ever crossed his mind that she was anything, but perfect. Gwen never got mad over things like that.

"Speaking of which," she continued. "What hour did Courtney go back?"

"No idea," he got up. "I'm going to catch a few more z-s before breakfast."

"Good idea," Gwen nodded as he helped her up.

"You use too much mascara," he stated.

"Apparently, you don't use enough hair gel," she laughed.

She shook her head. Trent would never have deemed to think that she looked any other way than perfect. She wrinkled her nose. Who would want to be perfect? She wasn't saying that Duncan was any better, just more realistic.

"Gwen? Gwen?" his voice echoed in her mind.

"Huh?" she asked in a distracted tone.

"What's your damage?" he asked as they got out of the lift.

"Nothing," she replied. "I was just thinking about Trent," she unlocked her door.

Duncan's eyebrows furrowed as he unlocked his own room. He was no Trent.

Courtney snuggled deeper in the hot white sheets. She rolled her eyes around the room stretching her hands. Her fingers searchingly felt the night stand for her PDA only to see that it wasn't there. She got up in a sitting position and rolled her eyes around the room. It definitely wasn't hers since she usually liked sleeping in her pajamas. She crawled to the edge of the bed. She softly smiled upon seeing Trent sleeping on the floor. She still thought that he was cut out from a cliché romance novel, but she had to admit that every once in a while a girl craved for a gentleman in her life. How could a sensitive girl like Gwen give up Trent for Duncan? Since Goths were extremely sensitive people, weren't they?

"Is that you, Gwen?" he hugged the pillow tight to his chest and puckered his lips.

"Dork," she snickered. "Why, yes, Trent," she sweetly said. "It's me. And can I say how manly you look when you chew your food nine times?"

He opened his eyes. "You're not Gwen!" he accusingly pointed at her.

"Nor do I ever want to be," she replied pulling the curtains. "Rise and shine."

He narrowed his eyes at her. He couldn't agree more with the other cast mates. She was one annoying pain in the neck. He had easily ignored her since they never were on the same team, but now she was starting to get on his nerves. He couldn't blame Duncan for going after poor Gwen when he had to put up with the Duchess of Pain twenty four out of seven.

"I said that you couldn't spend the night!"

"Why didn't you wake me up?" she asked.

"Because!" he began. "Because it is beyond my principles, but I swear, Courtney, you're making it very hard for me to respect them!"

"That's good," she said. "I live by principles too."

"Don't make me laugh," he rolled his eyes.

"I do!" she spat.

"Then please get out of my room," he pointed to the door.

"Humph," she stiffened her shoulders. "How rude."

He waited for the door to shut before tumbling down on his bed always muttering: "Gwen, Gwen, Gwen."

He went to breakfast without waiting for Courtney. He was disappointed to find that Gwen wasn't there. Numerous scenarios went through his mind. Perhaps he hurt her by showing up with Courtney by his side and she spent the night crying or she was in Duncan's room. He shuddered at the last thought.

"And what do you think you're doing?" he heard Courtney's high pitched voice telling off Sadie and Katie who were just getting ready to sit at his table. "Ugh," she took the seat next to him. "Must I always save you?"

"Possessive much?" he sighed.

"You'll never learn," she shook her head.

"Don't know if you noticed, but both Gwen and Duncan are missing," he said with a bad taste in his mouth.

"I know," she narrowed her eyes. "Look, Gwen just came in."

Trent's desperate eyes searched for hers, but she chose to ignore him. It still disappointed her that he had sunk so low as to pretend to date Courtney to get her attention. Trent bit his lower lip upon noticing the bags under her eyes.

"She looks terrible," he said.

"Please," Courtney scoffed. "The girl always looked as if she was on the point of dying. Nothing new."

Trent rolled his eyes and bit back the nasty comments that were ready to roll down his tongue.

"It's no use if Duncan isn't here," she moaned.

"Hopefully, there won't be any need for us to pretend any longer."

"That girl is just restless," Leshawna commented.

"Give me a break, Leshawna. They're just pretending," Gwen snapped.

"I don't know about Trent, but Courtney looks very determined. Ain't no messing with her."

"Trent is just an innocent victim in her senseless plan."

"And how does that make you feel? Are you jealous?"

"More like sorry for both of them."

"How about Duncan?"

"What about Duncan?"

"He seems to be buying their relationship. You jealous about that?" Leshawna insisted.

"Neah…" Gwen hesitantly said. "Duncan and I are just buddies."

"If you say so," Leshawna added.

"Cast mates!" Chris flashed them his tooth paste commercial smile. "On today's schedule we have a pool party at the hotel's exterior pool. Lunch will be a barbeque!"

The whole dining room cheered.

"Yes! Is so need to work on my tan!" Heather grinned.

"It's about time these bad boys came out," Harold cheered looking under his tee shirt.

Heather just slapped her forehead.

"You think it'll be too much for Leshawna to handle?" he asked.

"Seriously?" Heather raised an eyebrow. "I think you should stop talking to me." Harold opened his mouth. "Now!" she growled.

"Perfect!" Courtney clapped her hands together. "The perfect occasion to make them crazy jealous."

"Do I want to know?" Trent asked.

"Follow my lead, and no one will get hurt," she patted his shoulder. "Too much," she evilly grinned.

It turned out to be the best day for a pool party. The sun was high up on the sky, birds were chirping, not a cloud in sight if you didn't count Heather's constant dark aura. She was grateful now that Harold was too busying flexing his inexistent muscles in front of Leshawna. Noah was sitting on the long chair next to her, happy that Cody was caught up showing off in front of the adoring Katie and Sadie. The swimming pool was next to the park. Gwen was currently sitting on a long chair under the shade of a tree.

"What did I miss?" she failed to hear Duncan as she was too caught up in a glaring contest with Courtney who was sitting a few long chairs away.

"Oh, I see," he hopped on the chair next to Gwen. "Trent dumped her already?"

Trent came with a towel hanging around his neck Courtney waved at him. Smirking, he sat next to her.

"Not quite," Gwen crossed her arms.

"Oh," Duncan narrowed his eyes. "They just want attention. So let's just ignore them."

Courtney's hand reached out and grabbed Trent's. he shot up in a sitting position.

"Hey, don't look too excited or they won't buy it," she whispered.

"Why are you holding my hand, Courtney?" he tried to maintain his cool, but her touch sent vibrations down his spine.

"It's what couples do," she rolled her eyes. "Do I make you nervous?" she slyly smiled as his hand got sweatier.

"No," he answered. "It's just that holding hands is very personal to me."

"That's good," she encouraged . "It will make Gwen really jealous."

He bit his lower lip. She didn't seem to understand that when she held her hand over his , Gwen was the last thing on his mind. There was tension building up inside of him, making his stomach turn. Courtney's professionalism saddened him.

"Tell me a joke," Gwen whipped her head in Duncan's direction.

"Why, I'm not a funny guy?" he asked.

"Anything to distract me," she insisted.

Trent thought for a moment that Courtney was going through the same thing as him. Maybe she also hated having to lie to get some attention from a guy who didn't deserve any kind of girl, let alone one like Courtney.

"This is not working," she hissed. "We have to kick it up a notch."

He quickly dismissed any of his previous thought. "Anything you have in mind?"

"Let's play in the water," she dragged him by the hand to the pool.

Lindsay, Beth, Sadie, Katie, Tyler and Cody were playing volleyball in the water.

"Wanna tag along with them?" Trent asked.

"Why don't we play by ourselves?" she grabbed a light plastic ball and threw it to him.

But Courtney didn't have her head in the simple game and always missed the ball. The way Gwen hysterically laughed made her sick. Duncan wasn't even good at telling jokes, so how come she could laugh?

"Courtney!" the ball hit her head.

"Sorry," she tiredly said.

Trent saw her sad smile. It brought him down. He came to realize that Courtney was taking all of the blows to protect him.

"Relax a bit," he patted her shoulder. "Why don't we switch places?" he encouragingly smiled. She stared at him, but accepted. "Just try and have fun."

He gently threw the ball in her direction, but she kept turning.

"Hey, Courtney," he called. "I'm right here. They'll catch on if you keep doing that. You're not helping."

"Oh, right, then," she threw back the ball.

"Catch!" he called and she darted after it tossing it back.

Trent smirked upon seeing her lose herself in the game. Everything she did was with passion. It was something to look up to. He found himself forgetting about Gwen and enjoying the simple game. Every time she got a right hit, Courtney giggled like a child. He found that adorable.

"Watch out!" he heard her yell.

But it was too late. The heavy volley ball hit him in the head knocking him off his feet.

"Trent!" Courtney cried.

"Sorry, man," Cody went after the ball and slowly backed away upon meeting Courtney's death glare.

"Hang in there, I'm going to pull you up," he heard her say as everything got blurry.

He felt someone dragging him up and laying him on his back always whispering: "Sorry." The sun was bright blinding his eyes.

"Trent, Trent are you okay?" he thought he saw two pretty Courtneys talking to him.

"Trent!" Gwen ran up to them knocking Courtney off her feet. "Are you okay?" she rested her cold hands on his cheeks.

"Courtney?" he muffled.

"Oh, my God, he's seeing things," she said. "Go get some ice!" she told Courtney.

She quickly came back with a pack of ice and gave it to Gwen.

"It's okay, I'm here," she placed the pack on his forehead.

"Gwen," he sighed.

Courtney watched them from afar. At least one part of her plan was working. Trent had Gwen all over him now while Duncan was rolling on the grass from laughter. It annoyed her. She was the one who looked after him. Then she remembered that she wasn't competing for his attention although…She shook her head. She went for a hot dog.

"Dumped?" Duncan came up to her.

"Dumped?" she answered.

He shook his head. "When are you going to understand that there is nothing between me and Gwen?"

"What gives you the impression that this has anything to do with you?' she spat.

"Seriously, Trent?" he asked. "And look," he pointed to the two. "They're all over each other."

"Are you feeling better?" Gwen patted his head.

"Yeah, thanks for helping me," he smiled.

"Oh, well, Courtney was the one who pulled you out, put I totally looked after you!" she insisted.

Trent looked to see Courtney desperately staring at them. It was his chance to be with Gwen, but he couldn't bring himself to leave her alone with Duncan.

"Excuse me," he got up.

"Where are you going?" Gwen asked.

"To my girlfriend," he said over his shoulder.

He went up to them and placed a hand on Courtney's waist. "Thanks, babe," he kissed her forehead.

Courtney smirked. "Hot dog?"

"You're so…" he bit his lower lip. "Lovely."

"Watch it, Elvis, or I'll give you another black eye to match your right one," Duncan growled as he left.

Courtney sighed. "Tanks, Trent," she gave him a hot dog.

"No, Courtney," he smiled. "Thank you."