Right! Let's keep going! Thank you to ewisko, Sideshow Cellophane 26 and the guest reviewer!
The air horn sounded through the camp the next day. Haley was in no way a morning person, but luckily, most of the campers were slow in getting up too, groaning as they left their bunks.
Chris explained that they'd get breakfast after their next challenge started – a twenty kilometre run around the lake.
"Oh, so you're funny now." Eva muttered sarcastically. "You know what I think would be funny?" She lunged forward, but Geoff and Duncan held her back.
"Try to control your temper!" Courtney hissed.
Haley resolved not to get on Eva's bad side. That girl was only two years older than her, but she was scary.
Haley was running with the fastest for a while, but then she lagged behind and started walking. She was with Sadie and Katie, who were both walking.
"So, you guys," she said, "How are things going?"
The two girls looked over at her, as if they hadn't realized she was there. They probably hadn't.
"Apart from this run, which is probably going to kill me?" Katie said.
"Me too." added Sadie. "But at least it's both of us."
Haley gave up. Evidently, the only thing those girls were interested in was each other. She lagged even further back, where Gwen and Harold were walking.
"Hi." she introduced herself to the goth. "I'm Haley."
"I know." muttered Gwen.
"It sucks getting up this early, right?" Haley said. "I am ready to kill Chris when and if we get back."
Gwen half-smiled. "Me too." she admitted.
Luckily, Haley sped up towards the end and got back to the lodge just ahead of the twin best friends. But Harold was last in, and the Gophers thought they'd won the challenge.
"Hold your horses!" Chris laughed. "That wasn't the challenge!"
The Gophers were pretty annoyed that they'd run like crazy, yet it wasn't even the challenge. However, no one cared about the run after they saw the huge feast they were given. Most of them ate until they were stuffed. After the chef's 'food', it looked and tasted like heaven.
But then Chris revealed what the challenge was: Staying awake.
"So," Gwen worked out. "What you're saying is the twenty k run and the turkey eating frenzy was all part of your evil plan to make it harder for us to stay awake?"
Chris gave them five minutes to get what they might want from the cabins, but then, it was just sitting around, trying to stay awake.
Owen was the first to go at twelve hours. Haley tried to start up a conversation with Bridgette. Heather set up an alliance with Lindsay and Beth. Courtney jogged on the spot, no matter how tired she got.
By the twenty-four hour mark, Bridgette was down, followed by the non-twins. Haley was too fatigued to work out who was asleep on the other team, but she knew Gwen was still awake, since she could hear her talking to Trent.
Then Chris pulled out a book of the most boring fairy tales he could find and started reading them out while Chef played the harp, and that was it. After 36 hours, Haley was out. The last thing she saw was Courtney, still moving, moving, moving.
When she woke up, it had turned out Justin had fallen asleep standing up, with his eyelids painted so it looked like he was still awake. He was out. Trent and Gwen were still in, though, as was Heather. In her team, Duncan had stayed awake, and after a few days, was still awake enough to dip Harold's hand in warm water, and soon a damp patch appeared on Harold's crotch. Haley giggled at that. Eva's eyes were still open by that time, too.
Then Noah woke up to find he was kissing Cody's ear. Both of them screamed when they realized it.
After nearly four days, the sleepers were allowed to shower while the rest of the group stayed.
Eva was the first of the final five to go down. Then Heather, and then Trent. Finally, it was just Duncan and Gwen.
But the Screaming Gophers won when Duncan fell asleep during a bathroom break.
Later on, Eva was getting furious about something – no one asked what. She threw everything out of the cabin door. Everyone was too scared to stop her.
"Remind me what she's lost." Haley muttered.
Before anyone could answer, Eva poked her head out of the window. "WHERE IS MY MP3 PLAYER? One of you must've stolen it!"
None of them had, but then Heather came walking up cheerfully with the MP3 in hand. "I was wondering who it belonged to. I found it by the campfire pit."
Haley thought Bridgette looked a bit suspicious of Heather. That gave her an idea of what really happened. "Bet she stole it." Haley whispered to her. "I don't get why she gave it back, though."
Bridgette shrugged.
"So," Eva said sheepishly, "Sorry about that little...misunderstanding. Guess no one stole it after all. Maybe I overreacted."
Before the campfire ceremony, Haley decided to take one last catnap to keep her awake. It was Courtney who woke her up. "Haley, it's voting time!" she told her, adding in a whisper "We're voting for Eva."
Haley sighed. "Courtney, are you seriously telling me who to vote for? I know I'm younger, but I can choose who to vote for."
Courtney was offended. "I'm just suggesting it!" she said. "I'm trying to help you."
Haley shrugged. "Sure it wouldn't be better to vote for who fell asleep first? Not that I want to – I like Bridgette, but Eva's a strong competitor."
"Come on!" Courtney pleaded. "Everyone else has voted for her."
Haley went to the confessional after casting her vote. "Courtney has to stop being so bossy." she said. "Otherwise, I'm voting her off next."
But Eva was gone, this time at least.
Sorry this is going so slowly. Dodgeball won't be so bad.
