Chapter Four; Duncan's Story-Time

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Much to Gwen's surprise, this approach seemed to work quite well. The next few hours were spent watching Duncan make a fool out of himself in various ways to try and catch her attention. First, Duncan tried stealing her diary. This only earned him an attack from Owen – of course, Duncan knew better than to actually steal the girl's journal after Heather had spilled about Gwen's crush on Trent. He needed a plan. And, considering the fact there was nothing to do for the next day or two, Duncan decided there was no better time than now to see how much it would take to get Gwen to break.

'Hey sweetheart, still not talking to me?' Duncan asked, sliding in along the table to sit next to Trent and Gwen. They seemed mid conversation, with Trent pausing only to give Duncan an apologetic look. 'What's that look for?'

'What look?' Trent asked, tilting his head with a casual laugh and a smile.

Duncan instantly growled, his eyes narrowing to slits; Trent and himself were bros, buds, dudes, hombres. But at the moment, Duncan was focused on the gothic little tart Trent had his arm around. 'Gwen, you know you can't ignore me forever. You're gonna crack sometime,' he grinned, assured of himself in the usual way.

Gwen didn't seem to register Duncan, ignoring him and not bothering to bat an eyelash his way. She was intertwined with Trent, her head resting on his shoulder and a yawn parting from her lips. 'Can we go somewhere more interesting?' Gwen asked Trent – instantly Trent lifted the girl up and bound off toward the forest.

Duncan was left gobsmacked, bewildered and confused… dazed even. All this vocabulary may have been hurting his head, but it seemed totally out of character to have Gwen all over Trent and for him to be so damn – well no, he would be excited for Gwen to be acting the way she was.

Nothing could compare to this, Gwen thought to herself, a smile passing her lips. Duncan was actually being affected by her actions, seemingly perturbed by the fact she was now pointedly ignoring him. Trent allowed her down onto her feet once they were a few feets out of sight from the cafeteria, smiling down to the girl.

'Did it go well?'

'Yeah,' Gwen agreed, examining her skirt and shirt for a moment before patting Trent on the head, 'good boyfriend.'

Trent raised his eyebrow, arms wrapping around Gwen's waist, 'That's all I get?'

Gwen rolled her eyes, a smile fading from her face in favour of a more agreeable expression, 'For now, yeah. Being all strong and carrying me around earns you my favour – you've gotta work for the rest.' Gwen flinched, 'That sounded a bit wrong.'

Trent laughed, 'I got what you meant,' he smiled, bending down and placing a chaste kiss against her lips. They stayed like this for a moment or two before Gwen let her head drop to his shoulder, her cheeks a dull red. She wasn't really used to tenderness or gentleness – more drunken flings that she barely remembered. 'So why're you ignoring him again?'

'Because -' Gwen frowned. She had a reason. She did. She just had to think of the reason; 'he's always turning comments back at me and calling me negative.' Gwen decided, her hands settled on Trent's shoulders. Gwen was focused on the ground once more, her mind trailing across what Duncan had said – maybe she had been a little harsh, but she'd been building to something nice… if he's let her speak, there wouldn't be an issue.

'Maybe go apologise,' Trent offered. In truth, he was kinda happy to see the two apart. Duncan and himself were on okay terms, but there was something between Gwen and Duncan he didn't approve of… he and Courtney had discussed it during their time off the island, and neither was willing to take a chance. Rather than waiting for her response, Trent took to kissing the teal-haired goth once more, earning him a little squeak in response, but a reciprocation he was thankful for.

A short while later, Gwen and Trent returned to camp; they were allowed their couples time, and Gwen was starting to agree with that. However, she returned to a rather upsetting sight. Duncan, the one she'd been so pointedly ignoring, was holding her diary in his clutches. 'Why do I even bother with that thing,' Gwen asked herself, her eyes falling to the ground.

'Hey Gwen, Trent,' Duncan said, seemingly excited to see the pair. Trent instantly approached Duncan, trying to seem as threatening as possible.

'Why do you have that?' Trent asked, his tone rather unexpectedly fierce – it seemed as if he were actually mad rather than just defending Gwen out of principle.

Duncan looked between the two, 'What? I haven't read it, I just wanted to say,' Duncan paused, 'I will – if you don't talk to me princess,' Duncan trailed off, the book clutched in his hand. Gwen still ignored the other boy, her arms tightly crossed. Duncan felt a small eye twitch, surprised by her resilience. 'if you insist…' he cleared his throat, running away to the totem pole – once there, he scaled the tower and sat at the top, smirking down at Trent who couldn't fathom climbing the precarious pole.

'Dear diary,' Duncan began, his eyes fixed on the figure shaking with utter rage – that is, Gwen. She was sticking to her guns, he'd give her that. The two were stubborn, but he had a feeling she'd crack first. 'Today I was in the forest,' his voice was oddly toned, as if he were mocking Gwen's own voice. A few of the other campers gathered around, eyeing Duncan with an unsure expression shared around. 'I spent the start of the day looking around for my stupid, pasty boyfriend and wondering why I was dating his sorry ass-'

Gwen stared, her jaw going slack. Examining the punk, he was opened to the very back page – she hadn't written any entries there… A few moments of thought, she came to the conclusion that he was simply going to be as embarrassing as possible for the sake of attention and for her to give in. A small sigh passed her lips as she listened to the completely overblown story Duncan concocted.

The other campers were in various states of shock and fear, especially as Duncan began scraping the barrel for things to say. Deciding it was time for the big guns, Duncan flipped a few pages, pretending to look for juicer parts. Gwen needed to remember that she had to beat him up for this. In the process of Duncan reading and Gwen staying oddly quiet, Trent had been trying to shake the totem pole loose to little effect.

'Owen, some help here,' Trent asked with a grin, trying to shove the pole as hard as possible.

Owen obliged, walking over and leaning against the pole – Duncan was mid-sentence, his voice cracking into laughter. 'I met up with Duncan later on – blah blah blah – he had the biggest -'

The pole, at this moment, began to topple, causing the journal to fly into the air as Duncan leaped for his life. Duncan landed with a loud crash. He managed to survive, sustaining a small cut to his palm but little else. The journal, however, went flying into the forest and the sound of birds could be heard off in the distance. Duncan stood up, a hand on his hip and a smirk on his face, 'Uh – don't worry everyone… I'm fine.'

LeShawna stared at Duncan before walking over and smacking him over the head, 'Didn't you learn from that Heather girl that you don't go readin' people's journals!?' she yelled, her hands on her hips and her lips angrily jutted out.

'Dude, I made it all up,' Duncan said with a look over to Gwen who nodded.

'He's trying to get my attention seeing as I've been ignoring him…' Gwen pointed out, her eyes narrowed at Duncan – he smirked triumphantly, Trent walking over and placing an arm around her shoulders. Duncan instantly soured, his hands diving into his pockets. 'You've got my attention, what did you want to tell me?'

Duncan seemed like a deer in headlights, looking between Trent and Gwen. It occurred to him that he had won, but ended up upsetting one of the few people he got along with. 'Uh. April Fools?'

'Dude, it's August,' Trent said through his own annoyance at Duncan.

'I'll… just go get the journal,' Duncan said with a muttered word or two. Gwen shook her head and headed off for the forest.

'I'm gonna go get it, seeing as it's mine… better hope it's in tact,' Gwen said in a threatening voice as she walked off into the trees as the other campers disappeared. Trent and Duncan shared a look for a moment before walking off into the forest, shoving and pushing each other to get by.

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