Waking up to the sound of Heather screaming wasn't exactly what Gwen had in mind. Slowly, she opened her eyes and turned her head towards the center of the room where Heather was perched up on a chair, pointing at the ground in distress.
"Kill it, kill it now!" She screamed at Beth. Beth opened her mouth in protest, but a sharp glare from Heather caused her to gulp and take a tentative step towards the culprit.
Gwen lifted her head to see what exactly had Heather in such a fuss.
"A spider, really?" Gwen groaned. "That's what has you so terrified? That thing's like the size of your pinky."
"Fine, then you kill it!" Heather retorted. "I'm not getting near that thing. God knows it might be poisonous."
"Doubtful," Gwen muttered. She rolled away from Heather, pulling her pillow over her ears. She closed her eyes, hoping to catch a few more minutes of sleep. Of course, the world was extremely against Gwen getting anything that she wanted.
The thrumming at Gwen's end of the Link grew louder and louder, meaning that Duncan was trying pretty hard to get her to unblock him. Gwen, half wanting peace and half in defiance, tried just as hard to continue to block him out. Eventually, Duncan gave up, as the Link went silent again. However, the effort to keep him out essentially caused Gwen to fully wake up, a fact which she was most annoyed with.
Gwen rolled her eyes, gently sliding off of her top bunk. Heather and Beth had managed to get Leshawna to kill their terrifying spider nemesis for them, but they were still occupying the cabin. Gwen changed quickly, blocking out the sounds of Heather arguing with Beth over something stupid.
Gwen took one step outside of her cabin before groaning.
"Really?" She grumbled, stomping down the stairs past Duncan. Duncan shot up after her, joining her quickening pace as she walked away from her cabin.
"What's with the block, huh?" He shot, accusation in his voice. "I thought we made a promise not to do that."
"I thought we made a promise not to overstep the boundaries with the Link," Gwen fired back, stopping dead in her tracks and turning on her heels to face Duncan. Her quick stop meant that Duncan was only a couple inches away from her, and the slight fear in his face was evident.
"Boundaries? I was just trying to make sure you were okay," Duncan argued.
Gwen's eyes narrowed. "You were trying to influence my emotions, Duncan. I don't usually care if you do it when I'm slightly stressed, or slightly upset, but when something as big as my brother nearly dying happens, I really don't need you trying to intervene and change how I feel!"
"Okay, point taken, but I was just trying to help you out," Duncan said. "I didn't realize you thought I was trying to change anything."
Gwen sighed in exasperation. "Look Duncan, having a mental Link with you is pretty useful most of the time, but I really just need my own headspace sometimes, and I'd appreciate if you use your sense of judgement better and not stick your thoughts into my head when I don't want them."
Duncan's face contorted into a look that conveyed to Gwen that he thought what she was saying was ridiculous. "You've never told me this before. Has something changed?"
"No," Gwen said. "But I haven't felt any emotions as strongly as I have last night with Cody. Just give me a bit of space in the future, alright?"
Now it was Duncan's turn to sigh. "Alright, I will."
"Thanks," Gwen responded. She smiled softly, placing a hand on Duncan's shoulder for a moment before walking towards the mess hall for breakfast. She slowly began to open her end of the Link again, though not by much. It was just enough so that Duncan would be able to speak to her, but not enough that he'd be able to pick up on her emotions. This did not mean, however, that Gwen was unable to feel Duncan's emotions, as slight feelings of anger were boiling in her head that Gwen knew didn't belong to her.
At the mess hall, Gwen tried her hardest to make this happen as per usual. It was a non-competition day, which meant that spirits were generally happier and the two teams more likely to converse with each other.
Gwen took her usual spot next to Trent at the table, and the guitarist grinned whilst placing a few pieces of bread onto her plate.
"I figured you might want some, and for once I think Chef actually made it somewhat fresh," Trent added.
Gwen took one look at the bread and could tell it was at least a week old, but Trent's kind gesture still went appreciated by her. Gwen smiled brightly. "Thanks, Trent. God knows I need some help after yesterday."
Trent chuckled. "Hanging out with me in the forest really did a number on you, yeah?"
"You have no idea," Gwen teased, though her voice fell slightly.
"So, what happened to you last night?" Trent asked.
"Hm?" Gwen questioned as she began to tear apart pieces of bread.
"You came back from the campfire extremely late, but I figured I should wait until now to ask about it," Trent admitted.
Gwen mentally slapped herself. She told Trent she'd meet him at the lake after running back to the campfire site, but the whole Cody situation meant she'd been gone an extra couple of hours.
"I am so sorry about that," Gwen apologized. "I went back to the campfire and Cody was still there, so I figured I should apologize to him about how I treated him while he was here." It was a lie, but at least not a complete one.
"He practically stalked you, I don't think you're the one who needed to apologize," Trent mused.
Gwen shrugged. "Nonetheless. I guess the boat was just super late or something because we were talking for a while before it came."
Trent rolled his eyes. "Knowing Chris, he probably made the boat be late so that the show could get footage of you and Cody talking. They'll probably market you two as star-crossed lovers or something."
Gwen's heart fell. "They record at the campfire after the ceremony is over?" Gwen asked quickly. Her heart began to race in fear. She thought the cameras all stopped at a certain time in the night! If the cameras were still rolling at the campfire, it's possible that they got footage of Gwen and Duncan both flying, as well as the conversations they had with Cody.
Trent shrugged. "Beats me, but I've always assumed that they waited to get footage of the eliminated camper going on the boat."
"Shit," Gwen thought to herself. "Hey I'm going to run to the bathroom really quickly, save my seat?"
"Sure," Trent smiled. Gwen returned his smile quickly before dashing out of the mess hall.
"Duncan, meet me on top of the mountain. Bring Bridgette, now," Gwen said through the Link.
"What, why?" Duncan responded immediately.
"I'll explain when we get there, just hurry," Gwen urged. She took off running into the woods, only pushing herself into the air once she knew she was out of the cameras' boundaries.
Duncan and Bridgette arrived at the top of the mountain a few minutes after Gwen, both of them sporting extremely worried looks on their faces.
"What's wrong?" Bridgette asked immediately.
"Duncan, you told her about Cody?" Gwen asked.
"Of course," Duncan nodded. "The whole thing."
"What if there were cameras?" Gwen said.
"Cameras…?"
"At the campfire, when we rescued Cody," Gwen continued. "What if cameras caught us flying?"
Duncan and Bridgette's faces both fell into expressions of shock.
"I never even thought of that," Duncan admitted quietly. "Shit, Gwen, this is bad."
"What do we do?" Bridgette asked worriedly. Gwen shook her head.
"You don't have to do anything, Bridge. You weren't there, so you're totally safe," Gwen assured her.
"I know that you and Duncan are the oldest ones here, but I'm old enough to help out," Bridgette interjected. "I'm not letting you two try and figure this out alone. The more brains, the better, right?"
Gwen stared at Bridgette for a few moments. "Alright. But if anything ever happens, I don't want you to expose yourself. At all. Understood?"
"Yes," Bridgette answered, though the tone in her voice made Gwen question how truthful she was being at that moment.
"So, what now?" Duncan piped in. "We have no clue where they are storing the camera footage, so it's not like we can go delete everything."
"I guess we play sitting ducks for a while and wait for it to be a problem," Gwen sighed. "As much as I hate playing the waiting game, we have no idea if the cameras were even on at that time or not, and if they were how much was caught. So basically, we can't do anything right now except for try as hard as we can not to be caught anymore."
"So, no more trips up the mountain," Bridge added. Duncan and Gwen both nodded, although reluctantly.
"No more power practice either," Duncan pointed out.
"And we should try to cut back on talking through the Link, to prevent any more mess hall episodes," Gwen said to Duncan. Shock fleeted amongst Duncan's face momentarily, before falling into a slight sadness. He said nothing, simply nodding in quiet response. Gwen felt numerous emotions running through Duncan's mind, so she attempted her best to block him out for now.
"Ok well we should be getting back before we're missed," Bridgette pointed out.
"You're right," Gwen agreed. She glanced over at Duncan, but the punk teen simply rolled his eyes before launching himself into the air and flying fast away from the pair of them.
"What's his deal?" Bridgette asked.
Gwen sighed. "I kinda got mad at him for trying to meddle with my emotions over the Link. I might have been a bit too harsh."
"And now that you've said you don't want to use it as much, he's pretty upset," Bridgette continued.
"Yeah, I think he's taking it as I don't like communicating over the link anymore," Gwen added. "I do like the connection, but I just need my own headspace right now."
Bridgette nodded. "Of course, and I'm sure he'll realize that eventually. Duncan is just dramatic sometimes, give him a day and he'll forget all about it."
"I hope so," Gwen admitted. "Now is not the time for any of us to be in a fight."
"Duncan loves you, I'm sure the last thing he wants is a fight," Bridgette pointed out.
"He loves all of us, and that doesn't stop him from fighting," Gwen reminded her, though with a lighter tone in her voice. Gwen smiled and rolled her eyes. "I'll talk to him later, smooth things out."
"Good," Bridgette responded. "Now let's get going before your boyfriend notices we're gone."
"Trent is not my-" Gwen started protesting just to realize that Bridgette had taken off mid-sentence. Gwen chuckled to herself before extending her own wings and letting herself glide gently down the mountainside.
Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Gwen spent the remainder of the day trying to get Duncan to talk to her. She tried everything, from glares, to notes, to shouting at him over the Link. Every time Gwen got near Duncan, he suddenly had someone calling his name or somewhere he needed to be. Honestly, it was getting a bit ridiculous.
Her chance finally came that night when Duncan was sat at the docks with Courtney. The two appeared to be in some sort of argument, as per usual, though the look on Duncan's face told Gwen that he was enjoying it. Courtney finally got fed up, screaming a bit of profanity at Duncan before standing up and stomping away from him.
"So, does she love you yet?" Gwen teased, taking Courtney's place. Duncan looked over at Gwen. He held his gaze for a few seconds, as if trying to read her mind without touching the Link.
"I'm sorry," He said, completely ignoring Gwen's question. "I crossed a boundary."
Gwen sighed deeply. "I overreacted. You were just trying to make me feel better."
"You've told me before not to send you emotions," Duncan interjected. "I guess it's just been so long since you've felt that bad that I just forgot about how you don't like it."
"Regardless, I shouldn't have said it like I did," Gwen admitted. "Things are just hard right now, with the competition getting more intense."
"You don't have to explain wanting your own space," Duncan said. "We're both getting older and don't need to rely on each other as much. Cutting back on the Link is probably for the best."
Silence fell over the two of them for a couple of minutes. Gwen was thinking to herself. Was cutting back on the Link something she actually wanted, or was it a spur of the moment request she made in a fleeting pang of anger? To be honest, she wasn't quite sure.
"Ok well, we should both head in for the night and get some sleep," Duncan finally spoke up. Gwen took a deep breath in and out before nodding slowly.
"We'll talk more after the competition tomorrow," She added.
"If that's what you want," Duncan shrugged. He stood up and walked away from Gwen, leaving a conversation hanging in the air with little closure for either participant. Gwen waited for a minute, staring out at the open lake before standing up and making her way slowly back to her own cabin.