Trouble in Paradise
Chapter 3: Hallucinating Backstories
(Screaming Gophers cabin)
Naruto grunted with some sweat dripping down his forehead as he did another handstand rep. He had his black tank top and tan shorts. Maybe it was a bad idea to wear a mask, not enough oxygen going into his lungs. He grunted again as he did another rep, a boulder situated on his feet.
"How many sets have you done?" An unexpected voice asked him. He peered up to see Eva with her own training clothes and some dumbbells in hand. "About nine sets with a hundred reps each. I'm on my last set though."
"Nice." Eva complimented which was pretty rare as she didn't do that a lot. He flipped back to his feet, the boulder flying through the air before he caught it and set it down on the ground.
"How about a spar?" He offered and he had to duck from a fist headed for his face.
"I thought you'd never ask." Naruto gave a grin in kind, not that she could see it and threw a few jabs at her. It's been a while since he had a spar with someone and he had to keep his skills sharp.
Naruto looked into Eva's eyes and he could see fire, frustration and excitement in her sinister brown eyes. She advanced towards Naruto and her arm was outstretched in a cross that he blocked and he could feel his bones rattling from the forceful blow. He grit his teeth before grabbing her still outstretched arm and flipped her over him. Her back slammed into the ground and the air in her lungs left her in a wheeze. Naruto's fist was in front of her face. She winced, closing her eyes and he gave a small laugh.
"Again?" She took his hand and was ready again with a snarl.
"Make it a challenge this time, Eva." Eva's eyes widened before narrowing in anger. She was calmer this time and so Naruto began the fight in earnest, kicking away at her legs. She stumbled back and roared at Naruto, throwing him off at the sudden cry. Eva pushed forward using her advantage, arms and legs flying. Naruto's arms flew up to protect his head, his arms hurting as he could the bones rattle in their sockets. He felt his ribs ache and he saw it. An opening. He trapped her next strike in his armpit and head-butted her harshly that left her dazed and he delivered his own frenzied punches being careful enough that it wouldn't bruise. She threw a wild haymaker and he ducked under and was behind her. Eva realised her mistake but it was too late and she felt the chop to the back of her neck. She fell down in a heap. He looked around to see that he had a gaping audience.
"Hey guys, how's it going?" Naruto waved. Eva groaned and he helped her up into a sitting possession.
"How did you do that?" Harold asked.
"Years and years of training."
"Good morning campers!" Everyone was wide awake now thanks to Chris' air horn-megaphone.
The host chuckled as he looked over the grumbling campers lining up, some were yawning, some were glaring and that's the way he liked it. Eva was listening to some rock music when Cody tried to reach for it, she snapped and growled at him.
"Morning! Hope you slept well." Chris said enthusiastically that got on the camper's nerves.
"Hi, Chris. You look buff in these shorts." Heather said, trying to butter him up as Naruto looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"I know," Chris winked, "Okay, I hope you're all ready because your next challenge begins in exactly one minute." The host tapped his watch before Owen asked him for breakfast, "Oh, you'll get your breakfast, Owen, right after you complete your twenty kilometre run around the lake."
"Oh, so you're funny now…" Eva growled as she walks up to Chris with a fist in air, "You know, what I think would be funny if…" Duncan and Naruto quickly held her back as she flung her arms trying to reach Chris.
"Eva, try to control your temper." Courtney whispered to her.
The bodybuilder growled at Chris, "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"
"A little." Chris admitted, "You have thirty seconds."
"Eva, come on let's do the run at least it will help us cool down." Eva growled before nodding.
(Confessional)
"Okay, that girl, Eva, has got to get a handle on her temper." Courtney gulped before start counting on her hand, "She's only been here one day and she's already thrown her suitcase out a window and broken the lock on one of the bathroom doors."
*Static*
"Okay, runners!" Chris raised his finger to the sky. "On your marks, get set, go!" Some of the campers ran off while the others decided to walk instead to save their energy for when they really needed it.
In the woods…
"Do you know how much longer?" Harold whined to Gwen as Bridgette and Justin rushed past.
''Don't walk beside me.'' She said curtly to his question.
Geoff and Bridgette shot passed ahead, easily passing Heather who was trailed by Noah.
''Do you mind?'' Heather shouted at Noah as he nearly bumped into her.
(Confessional)
''I don't run! And I definitely don't run in high-heel wedges.'' Heather listed off in front of the confession camera.
*Static*
Heather continued walking until she happened upon the disgusting sight of Owen licking up a puddle of water from the ground. Her nose scrunched up as he continued lapping from a stream. "Can't... go... on... must... have... condition!"
"Yeah, it's called overeating. Look into it."
Leshawana happened to pass by. She was slightly winded not having a lot of stamina. "Oh so what's your excuse? You skinny, annoying…ooh, I'm too tired for insults." She continued to trudge on ahead.
Chris being the lazy sadistic bastard that he was rode past on a moped yelling into the megaphone at the campers. "Pick it up people! If you're not back by dinnertime, you don't get to eat!"
"Ugh, I hate him so much." She put out her frustration by using Owen to step over the puddle considering the wedges digging into his fat, that's gotta hurt.
(Main Lodge)
Chris hummed a song, filing his nails and waits for the rest of campers to show up. He took a glance at his right to see some campers lying on floor and tables before the door opened with Noah slung over Owen's shoulders. Noah had passed out from exhaustion and Owen had been slowly but surely making his way to the lodge. Leshawna trailed in falling to her knees in relief at the end of the challenge.
'This is so brutal!' She gasped for some air. "Oh, we made it."
Owen performed CPR on Noah and when he was about to put his lips on him. Noah shot up and blocked his face. "Don't even think about it, tubby!"
Harold showed up on the doorstep, sweat pouring down his face as he clutched his chest while Courtney was busy berating him. "I think I'm having heart palpitations."
"Hey, wait a minute. If they lost, that means we won the challenge." The Screaming Gophers all cheered at their supposed victory and Chris was quick to burst their bubble.
"Whoa, there! Hold your horses, guys!" Chris waved his hands, "That wasn't the challenge."
"What did he just say?" Gwen mumbled as the host walked up to a curtain.
"Who's hungry?" Chris smirked as the curtain parted, revealing a large buffet table. The foods actually shined with bright light.
"Is that what I think it is?" Naruto whispered and everybody turned to see he was zeroing in on a bowl of noodles. He rushed up and gripped Chris' shirt, shaking him. "That bowl of ramen better not be made of Styrofoam, is it real?"
"Yes, of course it's real." He patted his shirt after Naruto let him go. "Sheesh."
(Confessional)
Gwen admitted to the camera. "After a whole week of brown sludge, I almost cried when I saw that buffet."
*Static*
Owen sniffled and choked, tears in his eyes as emotions ran high. "It was so beautiful…The buffet…So beautiful…" He wiped a tear away.
*Static*
Everyone immediately dug into the buffet and Naruto put his finger to his mask to pull it down. Gwen, looked up from her food to stare across from the table and instantly blushed at the chiseled face of Naruto. No words could describe the share perfection and adorable whisker marks and then he was blur as bowls of ramen stacked on top of each other. His fingers and face moving so fast, she could've sworn that what she saw was simply a hallucination from the run and her starved and tired mind. He continued to eat until two towers of bowls were stacked neatly besides him and everyone who was done with dinner and never knowing when they would get another chance to eat such good food stared at him, his mask still up.
"Where does he put it all in?" DJ gaped as Cody counted them.
"Maybe he has a black hole for a stomach…"
"Hey, Gwen why are you all flustered?" Bridgette asked.
"I-it's n-nothing." She stuttered, still not quite believing the face she just saw.
"Okay campers, time for part two of your challenge!"
"I thought eating was the second part…" Owen moaned.
"What more do you want from us?"
"Weird goth girl is right." Heather groaned, "Haven't we been through enough?"
"Um…Let me think about that." Chris said cockily, "No! It's time for the awake-a-thon!"
"The what-a-thon?" Owen said.
"Don't worry, this is an easy one." The host grinned, "You have to stay awake until the team with the last camper standing wins invincibility."
"So what you're saying is the 20k run and the eating-frenzy," Gwen deadpanned. "Was part of your evil plan to make it harder for us to stay awake?"
"That's right!" Chris admitted with sadistic grin.
"Man, he's good…" Everyone agreed with Gwen.
"Move, move, move!" Chris pushed everyone out as Trent walk up to Gwen.
"How long do you think it'll be before everyone's out cold?" He asked and looking at the tired and bulging bellies of some of the campers and in particular, Owen, she guess that it would probably take an hour.
Naruto laughed, walking past them, "Oh you'll be surprised when people have something to win for."
(Campfire)
The blonde was right, it has been 12 hours and counting. All of the campers were still up before Owen cheered, "Wooo-hooo! Stay up for 12 hours? I can do that in my sleep!" He immediately collapsed on the ground and the fluffy guy slept on the spot and Chris chuckled.
(Confessional)
Gwen sighed, "The awake-a-thon was definitely the most brutal thing I ever done in my life."
*Static*
"Oh staying awake is not the hard part." Naruto scowled. "The hard part is the pure boredom I'm going to experience."
*Static*
Gwen yawned. ''This is the most boring thing I've ever done in my life."
Trent, sitting beside her reassured her, "It could be way worse."
Gwen then bitterly remarked. ''Oh yeah? And how is that?''
Trent smiled. ''I could be stuck here without you to talk to."
Gwen blushed and turned away.
Trent looked over and saw some of the guys giving him a thumbs up.
Bridgette yawned before looking over to the Screaming Gophers team to see Trent and Gwen stay awake by asking each other questions. 'Oh, that's not bad idea.' She looked around to find Naruto and scratched her head in confusion.
"I was sure he was here before."
Heather was scoping out the competition to see who she could use.
(Confessional)
"So, my strategy is to get two other campers to form an alliance with me and take me to the final three." Heather smirked, "The only question is, who can I find that is either desperate or dumb enough to do whatever I say?" She gives a smirk.
"What are you doing?" Heather turned her head as Gwen asked Lindsay, who was doing a handstand.
"Trying to get the blood to rush to my head." Lindsay said, "I think it's working!"
"Can I try?" Beth asked and the bombshell answered, "Sure."
'Too easy.' Heather smirked before call out to them, "Lindsay, Beth, can I talk to you for a sec?"
"Sure!" The trio walks a little farther from their team before Heather turns to them with crossed arms.
"Okay, I have a plan to get me and two other people into the final three, and I choose you guys."
"Really?"
"You should know that this is a very big deal. I am placing my trust in you, and trust is two-way street." Beth and Lindsay nodded with smiles, "So you'll do everything I say, then?"
"Sure!" Lindsay squealed to Beth, "We're going to the final three!"
"Oh my gosh, I'm going to the final three!" The farmer girl giggled with glee.
"Speaking of alliances, you know who I think is really cute?" Lindsay said to Beth.
"You mean, like Justin?" Beth sighed dreamily as she stares at unmoving Justin.
"Hmm, nah, I'm thinking of someone else in the other team." Heather gets up to them closer and shakes her head with a frown.
"Oh no, no, no, no! You can't date anyone!"
Lindsay whined, "Why not?"
"Because they're on the other team!" The queen bee snarled as she pointed at the opposite team, "You can't inter-team date. It's, like, against the alliance rules."
"There are rules?"
"Remember what I just said about trust?" Heather shrugged, "Of course, you can always leave the alliance…" She crossed her arms with smirk, "If you do, though, I won't protect you from getting kicked off."
"No, I want to be in the alliance!" Lindsay cried and Beth nodded her head.
"Good!" Heather turned on her heels and walk back with a smirk, 'All too easy!'
"I'm going to the bathroom." Eva grunted as she stood up and walked off, dropping something on her way. Heather was on her way to grab when she blinked and noticed that it was gone. She looked around to find that no-one was anywhere near it. She narrowed her eyes before simply brushing it off as a hallucination. Damn the stupid show host for coming up with these stupid challenges.
It has been almost 24 hours and Bridgette was barely keeping herself awake. She felt her eyelids getting heavy until she spotted him coming towards her a little dishevelled.
"Where have you been?" Bridgette asked seeing his getup, she wondered if he had gone hunting.
"Around." Was his vague reply.
"Wait, shouldn't he be disqualified? He left the campfire area, he could've slept for all we know." Heather argued.
"Actually, I had Rick with me the entire time." He pointed towards the cameraman who gave him a thumbs up.
"Aaaaaah!" Tyler screamed out of blue, leaped on his feet and screaming something about rabid bear.
'Looks like the side effect of insomnia is kicking in.' Chris smirked, "Congratulation, campers. You've made it to 24 hour mark. Time to take things up a notch." He presented them a pile of books next to him, "Fairy tales!"
Chef appeared out of nowhere, wearing a pink sheep costume and with harp. 'They better give me a raise for this.'
"Oh, he's not serious!" Gwen groaned. Trent seemed to be creeped out by seeing Chef in pink costume as Chris picks book up and cleared his throat.
"Once upon a time, there was inside this boring kingdom…" Chef played his harp as some of the remaining campers yawning, "A boring village and inside this boring, sleepy village, filled with very boring children."
Cody was the first to fall asleep during the tale but a fart in his face caused him to wake up, it turned out he was resting his head on Owen's rear. He coughed out some of the noxious fumes. All of sudden, Chef leaped in the air wearing a pink tutu outfit, freaked the campers out, and throwing some sleeping dust at them. DJ tied himself to the tree for no reason before fall asleep under Chef's dust attack, bring a tree down in process.
"Tim-ber…" Gwen yawned.
(Confessional)
Courtney glanced at the ceiling before look in the camera, "I figured that if I kept moving, I could outlast all of them. I just had to keep my eye on the ball.
*Static*
"Forty hours later, some of the campers passed out, leaving Eva, Duncan, Naruto, Bridgette, Courtney against Beth, Gwen, Trent, Heather, Justin and Courtney.
"You know, I don't know a lot about you." Bridgette said leaning onto his shoulder, her head bobbing up and down.
"What's there to tell?" Naruto shrugged. "Why don't you tell me about yourself?"
"Well, ever since I was a kid I loved the sea and the surf. My dad used to take me out to beach every day when I was kid, we played in the water all day and he would teach me how to surf. When I was 14, I won my first junior surf championship in Australia." She said wistfully.
"That's a big accomplishment."
"Yeah it was." Bridgette said quietly and nudged Naruto's shoulders. "Now tell me about you?"
"Ok, when I was a kid I loved to pull pranks… " He proceeded to tell her all about his pranks and the ever famous Hokage monument prank with wild gestures. "And then I smeared all of the orange paint. Iruka was so mad at me."
Bridgette laughed tiredly at his stories and leaned into his shoulders.
"How long has it been?" Bridgette was becoming more exhausted with each passing second.
"About two days."
"Hey, Naruto can I ask you something?"
"Yeah, Bridge." If she noticed his comment about her name, she didn't say anything about it. "Win this for us."
Naruto blinked to see that Bridgette had fallen asleep against his shoulder.
"Beth?" Heather glanced to see her pass out. Trent attempted to keep Gwen up by asking her more questions.
"Quick, favourite movie moment?" The musician asked.
"You're gonna think it's cheesy." Gwen said.
"I promise I won't."
"Okay," She sighed, "The kiss at the end of that road-trip movie. You know one with the guy and three girls?"
"Yeah." Trent chuckled, "You like that movie?" They were about to talk some more until a nude Owen was sleepwalking pass them, leaving them in shock.
After recovering from the shock that last for another ten hours, Gwen took a glance at Justin before speaking up, "Look at him, he's like a statue…He hasn't even moved in over fifty hours."
"Yeah, even Naruto hasn't moved a muscle." Trent pointed out as Naruto stared ahead. "Maybe it's because Bridgette is still sleeping on him."
"Well it'd be rude to wake a sleeping lady." He said suddenly, shocking both of them. "What I'm more impressed is how Justin has been sleeping standing up."
"What?" Gwen waved her hands in front of Justin's face and Trent joined her. She poked Justin, causing him to blink, revealing that he painted fake eyes on his eyelids.
"He painted his eyelids! I saw it! Chris! Chris!" Eva gasped, pointing at Justin.
"Shut up!" Chris gasped in surprise before grinned as he ran up to Justin's face, "Oh, I've got to see this…This is so freakin' cool! But you're still out, dude." Justin sighed in defeat.
Naruto took a notebook from his pocket and began writing into it. Gwen looked over and the thought of Naruto's face came to the forefront of her mind. All the evidence pointed to him being the person that she looked up to.
Another thirty hours went by and Cody passed out, leaving Eva, Heather, Duncan, Trent, Gwen and Naruto.
Duncan decided to pull a prank on Harold by using 'Hand-in-cup' trick. "Oh gross! It works! Dude peed his pant!" The nerd wakes to Duncan's shout, only to find his pant wet and gasped in shock as the punk laughed at him.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Noah and Cody screamed together, causing the slumbering campers to get up with groggily eyes.
Naruto shook Bridgette awake, she groggily opened her eyes and blushed when she saw Naruto's piercing eyes a few centimetres away from her.
"Have a good sleep?" She turned red before sputtering. "Y-yeah."
Gwen yawned. "I'd kill for a coffee right now…"
"What is the matter with you people?" Chris walked up with a cup of coffee in hand clearly mocking them with the caffeinated beverage. "Just fall asleep already!"
"Come on, you got to hook me up, man!" Gwen whined as she grabs the host's leg, "I'll even eat the grinds! Anything!"
"Fine…You six stay with me…" Chris grumbled, "The rest of you go and get a shower, for heaven's sake. You stink!" Everyone turned and look at Harold, the said nerd ran off. The campers walked off and they can hear him said something about pop-up book and history.
"I didn't want it to come to this. I said that to Chef Hatchet last night. I said, "Chef, I don't want it to come to this." But damn it, these campers are tough! And so, I've come up with the most boring, sleep-inducing activity I can find." He pulled out a book. "The History of Canada. A pop-up book. Chapter one, the beaver. National symbol and a "dam" fine hat."
Soon enough Duncan, followed by Eva, and Heather had dozed off. As Chris continued on, Trent soon fell prey to the boredom leaving Naruto and Gwen.
"So it's just the two of us." Naruto yawned, bags under his eyes. His eyes staring directly into hers challenging her.
"Yeah, bring it on." Gwen mumbled, blinking away the sleepiness from her eyes. They both continued their staring contest and Gwen closed her eyes for a second but that was all it took as she passed out, Naruto stared at her unmoving form.
"Yay, I won!" Chris came over and congratulated him. "Awesome job, dude! You must be feeling wrecked."
"Pretty much."
The remaining campers all went back to the cabins to find them staring at where the cabins used to be or what was in place of those cabins. There were two double-story oak cottages that looked amazing. The logos of both teams were sprayed on the side of each cabins.
"Dude, this is AWESOME!" Tyler screamed in happiness. Everyone immediately went to check out the inside and it left them baffled at all the luxurious furniture with most of them being wicker.
"Who built all this?" Naruto shuffled through the door with a yawn. "Oh this, I was bored."
"But you were gone for twelve hours." Naruto only laughed at him before falling forwards with a snore.
(Campfire)
"Welcome to your first campfire ceremony!" Chris said as he walks up to the Screaming Gophers with a tray of marshmallows, "You've all cast your votes and made your decision. There are only ten marshmallows on this plate. When I call your name, come up and claim your marshmallow."
The host chuckled, "The camper who does not receive a marshmallow must immediately return to the dock of shame, catches the boat of losers, and leave! You will never come back, ever."
"Heather…Owen…Cody…Trent…Izzy…Noah…Leshawna…" One by one, the campers took their marshmallow. There was one left and it comes down between Gwen and Justin, "This is the final marshmallow of the evening."
"…" Justin gulped.
"…" Gwen still wondered how she was awake at this point.
"…" Chris smirked, enjoying the dramatic pause.
"…" The group stared at the host, waiting for Chris' announcement.
"…Gwen!" The marshmallow sailed past here as she didn't have the energy to move.
"Justin, the dock of shame awaits!" Chris whispered to Justin with a smug smirk. Justin stood up and turned to her former teammates with his heart-melting smile.
"It's been fun guys!" The model waved and made his way to the dock.
"Now wasn't that an interesting episode, we saw our campers go through the most hellish experience but wait until you see what we've got in store for you, next time on…"
"TOTAL!"
"DRAMA!"
"ISLAND!"
Didn't expect that did you? And for those people currently reviewing the story, there seems to be an issue where I can't actually read your reviews on the site but no worries as I can read it from my email. Seriously criticize my work, I need to see what I'm doing so I can improve as a writer.
