Hey, everyone! It's time for this week's episode of The Ridonculous Race: Stranger Shuffle! Two contestants will be leaving us today, and it might not be the obvious boot that you all mentioned last week! But read on to find out!
A question I've noticed multiple people ask is whether or not the teams each episode are really randomly generated, and yes, they are! Except for the eliminated team, who is planned before I randomly generate the other teams for the episode.
Now without further adieu, let's start episode two!
Episode 2: Home on the Campus
(Narrated by Don.)
"Last time on The Ridonculous Race: Stranger Shuffle. Our thirty-six contestants started out with a bang as they literally maneuvered through minefields at Vancouver Studios!"
"Some teams took the challenge to their own advantage." A clip was shown of Gertrude and Lexi using their plank of wood to fly over the rest of the contestants.
"Some teams had a brush with death!" A clip was shown of Helen pulling Naoya and Xavier pulling Rosa away from the falling tree.
"And some teams started to socialize amongst each other." Ethan, James, Shakir, and Ash were seen all running together.
"But none of that matters, as brand new teams are going to be assigned as we go to the first destination of our race! Who will be the first two contestants to fall? Stay tuned to… The Ridonculous Race: Stranger Shuffle!"
After the theme song, all eighteen teams were seen standing behind Don, as he exclaimed to the camera, "Welcome back to the Ridonculous Race: Stranger Shuffle, where we'll be having our first Stranger Shuffle of the competition."
An intern wheeled a monitor onto the Chill Zone, as Don explained how the Stranger Shuffle worked, "Here's the deal. Every leg of the competition, the contestants will be put on brand new teams, meaning that every friendship and enemy they make? Counts. Our monitor will be randomly generating the new teams as we speak, giving a new, amazing look into the Ridonculous Race."
As Don spoke, names of all thirty-six contestants quickly flashed across the screen. After a few repeats and a few moments of waiting, a new set of teams flashed onto the screen.
Team 1: Justin, the Male Model and Helen, the Snack Addict
Team 2: Jackie, the Ambitious Artist and Rebecca, the Aspiring Rock Star
Team 3: Lily, the Not-So-Innocent One and Danielle, the Wild Animal Child
Team 4: Davis, the One-Man Acapella Group and Junior, the Comeback Kid
Team 5: Josh, the Tragic Comedian and Melissa, the Failed Manipulator
Team 6: Jake, the Genius Techie and Ethan, the Prankster
Team 7: Scarlett, the Evil Scientist and Vanessa, the Flirty Geek
Team 8: Rosa, the Unintentional Seducer and Naoya, the Company Heir
Team 9: Liam, the Classy Gentleman and Rosalina, the Yaoi Fangirl
Team 10: Lexi, the Flirty Punk and Mitch, the Creepy Shut-In
Team 11: Tai, the Illusionist and Charlotte, the Enthusiastic Actress
Team 12: Xavier, the Ace Detective and Shakir, the Insane Funny Guy
Team 13: Ash, the Nature Lover and James, the Computer Hacker
Team 14: Gertrude, the Thrill-Seeking Grandma and Isadora, the Exuberant Explorer
Team 15: Victor, the Mean Principal and Sam, the Ex-Intern
Team 16: Brady, the Cowardly Jerk and Kayla, the Pastel Goth
Team 17: Markus, the Stressed Workaholic and Kelly, the Over-Preppy Cheerleader
Team 18: Brooke, the Kind-Hearted Bookworm and Blaine, the Aspiring Photographer
As the teams dispersed to join their new teams, several teammates that had grown close (or as close as you could get from one life-threatening challenge) to each other said quick "goodbyes" as teammates such as Lexi and Gertrude, Danielle and Kayla, and Charlotte and Jake.
Once the new teams were lined up, Don announced, stepping aside to reveal the Don Box, "Since Rebecca and Rosalina were the winners of yesterday's challenge, their teams get to be the first ones to access the Don Box and get a headstart on the challenge. So! Jackie and Rebecca, Liam and Rosalina; come on down!"
The four contestants stepped forward, as Jackie pressed her hand down on the Don Box, dispensing the first clue of this leg of the race.
"Get ready to go to the southern end of the USA to make it to Dallas, Texas's airport for your first Botch or Watch," Jackie read off of the tip.
"That's right!" Don exclaimed, as the camera flashed to the city, "Dallas, Texas! Home to Cowboys; the Dallas Cowboys, to be exact! Home to prestigious colleges. Or as prestigious as the South can get. This is the first location outside of Canada for this season."
Solo Confessional: Kelly
"Dallas?!" Kelly's eyes lit up in glee, "The home to the Dallas Cowboys! And more importantly, home to the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleading Team!"
She then frowned and sighed slightly, "But the last challenge had nothing to do with making movies, so I might as well not get my hopes up." She quickly perked back up, "Right! Okay! S-T-A-Y P-O-S-I-T-I-V-E! Whoo!"
With that, the teams were off, calling taxis to get to the airport. Before long, they were separated into three flights, each on the path to Dallas, Texas.
The first flight contained: Ash and James, Brady and Kayla, Davis and Junior, Jackie and Rebecca, Liam and Rosalina, and Victor and Sam.
The second flight contained: Jake and Ethan, Justin and Helen, Lily and Danielle, Markus and Kelly, Rosa and Naoya, and Xavier and Shakir.
The third flight contained: Brooke and Blaine, Gertrude and Isadora, Scarlett and Vanessa, Josh and Melissa, Lexi and Mitch, and Tai and Charlotte.
Flight 1.
"Um… May I ask why you're staring at me like that?"
Rosalina stared intensely at Liam, before looking around the room. Liam rose an eyebrow in confusion; just what was the girl doing?
"How about…" Rosalina spoke up, pausing for a moment, before pointing at Brady who was having an… animated discussion with Kayla, "Him?"
Liam looked over at the other boy before turning back to Rosalina, "What about him, may I ask?" He then took a sip of his water while Rosalina answered.
"To be your boyfriend!"
Liam suddenly spat out his drink, before widening his eyes at Rosalina. "Okay, uh. I don't know how to put this. I'm very much straight."
"...Bummer," she mumbled, rubbing the back of her head.
"Why are you shipping people on this show on the first place?" he asked out of curiosity.
"Well, every reality show needs a matchmaker," Rosalina shrugged and smiled, "So! I put it upon myself to be this season's matchmaker!"
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" the gentleman asked the fangirl, "I mean… That's not really-"
"Hold on, I'll go ask Brady!" the girl stood up and began to walk over to Brady and Kayla, ignoring the fact that Liam was trying to stop her.
Meanwhile, Brady and Kayla weren't getting along… all that well.
"Do you have to take up so much leg room?" the pastel goth asked, looking exasperated at Brady.
Brady stared at Kayla for a moment before smirking and taking up even more leg room, replying with, "Yes."
Kayla scowled, turning up the beat of her loud pop music in her headphones up louder. The quicker that this flight was over and the quicker that this challenge was over, the better. However, she ended up turning her music back down a bit when she saw a certain thirteen year old make her way up to them.
"Hey, hey," Rosalina prodded Brady on the arm to get his attention.
Brady scowled and turned to face the girl, "What'cha want, squirt?"
"I think I've picked out your perfect lover!" she replied with a smile.
"Do tell," Brady's smirk broadened. Of course one of the girls on the show would want a piece of him, he decided.
However, when Rosalina pointed at Liam who facepalmed in return, Brady furrowed his brow and said, "I ain't a-"
"If you finish that sentence, I will throw you off of this plane," Kayla interjected, her glare seeming like it could shoot daggers to kill Brady on the spot.
"Yeah!" Rosalina added, looking just as unamused at the boy.
Solo Confessional: Brady
Brady crossed his arms and grumbled, "Man, the chicks on this show are the pits. First Lily offers to leave me in a pit and now this. What's next?" He paused for a second before saying, "Don't answer that."
Solo Confessional: Kayla
"Brady needs a serious attitude adjustment," Kayla said, crossing her arms as she stared at the camera, "Either he fixes it or the show does, that's for damn sure."
Solo Confessional: Rosalina
Rosalina was seen scribbling in a notepad, saying, "Note to self. Don't ship Brady with anyone." She paused for a second, before saying, "Except for other guys who may annoy me in the future."
"You got to sing with Pentatonix?!" Junior exclaimed in awe at Davis's achievement.
Davis nodded and gave a grin, "Of course! I am the Lord of Acapella, after all!"
"So, how was it?" Junior asked, his excitement growing from the idea of Davis meeting one of his favorite "bands" of sort at one point.
"Wonderful~" was Davis's musical response.
"Radical," was the thirteen year old's amused response. The two continued to talk amusedly between each other, as James watched on.
"I can barely hear myself think," he gruffly said to them.
Davis arched an eyebrow at the computer hacker, "There's twelve of us on this plane, I'm pretty sure we're not the only ones being loud, you know."
James gave a grunt and turned back to his computer, as his partner woke from a short nap with a yawn.
"We in Dallas yet?" Ash asked, looking around the area.
James amusedly exhaled out of his nostrils and said, "Nope."
"They sure do make this a lot more fastpaced on the show," she mused, stretching and sitting up, "But then again, it is a pretty long flight from Vancouver to Dallas."
The computer hacker gave a shrug, "Gives me time to do some offline work. No distractions with wifi or anything either."
"Shouldn't you be enjoying the sights instead of messing on your computer?" she asked, peering over at his work.
"No thanks," was his simple, blunt response.
Team Confessional: Ash and James.
"We're both obviously 'you don't bother me, and I won't bother you,' type of people," Ash spoke about why the two of them were getting along reasonably well, "I can respect that. So we should work well together in the challenge."
"Or the very least not get eliminated," James added, looking up from his laptop.
"Alright, let's put it together!" Rebecca exclaimed with some excitement, as she readied her fingers on her guitar. Jackie nodded and cleared her throat, prepping her voice to sing along with the girl. Opening her mouth, as Rebecca played the instrumentals, Jackie sang in a powerful soprano:
"Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide,
No escape from reality.
Open your eyes,
Look up to the skies and see,
I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy,
Because I'm easy come, easy go,
Little high, little low,
Anyway the wind blows doesn't really matter to me, to me."
Suddenly, Davis's voice joined in:
"Mama, just killed a man,
Put a gun against his head,
Pulled my trigger, now he's dead.
Mama, life had just begun,
But now I've gone and thrown it all away.
Mama, ooh,
Didn't mean to make you cry,
If I'm not back again this time tomorrow,
Carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters."
Jackie and Rebecca, pleasantly surprised from Davis's sudden join in, looked at each other before looking at him. Junior and Sam, who were by their respective partners, clapped a little bit for the three musicians.
Team Confessional: Jackie and Rebecca
"If I didn't already have a band, I totally would have gotten you two to be part of one in an instant," the rock star praised Jackie, "Shivers."
Jackie smiled and nodded to Rebecca, saying, "And if I wasn't so busy with everything else, I would have quickly took you up on that."
"Man, that was something else," Sam stated to no one in particular in amusement. Victor, however, didn't seem all that amused by the three's showing.
"All it did was give me a headache," he grumbled, crossing his arms, "You kids today and your ro-"
"Okay, dude," Sam interrupted Victor, "I can promise you that you wouldn't have lasted a day on Total Drama."
"What did you just say to me, boy?" Victor asked, glaring at the ex-intern.
"Exactly what I said," Sam replied, crossing his arms, "All you do is whine and complain instead of focusing on the competition. And I'm not going to be eliminated first because of your shit."
"How dare you say that to me!" the principal shouted, standing up from his seat and glaring at Sam, "I came in second place in the challenge!"
"No," Rebecca, who was listening to the argument, shook her head, "You and Vanessa were arguing. You easily could have been the first person eliminated, you know."
Victor sputtered for a second before glaring at the rocker and walking off to complain to the stewardess. Rebecca got up from her seat, since Jackie was currently talking to Blaine and Junior, going to walk over to Sam and sitting down next to him.
"He's the worst, huh?" she asked, laughing slightly.
"Tell me about it," Sam replied, rolling his eyes, "But I've gotta put up with him until this challenge is over. I'm not getting eliminated even if it means basically carrying this guy to the finish line."
"I'd do the same, honestly," she replied with a nod, "I mean, he's definitely going to make a lot of people who might want to just throw the challenge to spite him if they think the challenges are too rough."
"True," he replied with a nod before asking, "Hey, question. How long have you been playing the guitar?"
"My grandma taught me to play and gave me my first guitar," she explained, "Been playing ever since. But I do sing too, honestly."
"Radical," Sam replied with a grin, "What kind of music do you like anyway?"
"Are you sure you want this question because I can talk about it all day," was Rebecca's teasing retort.
Solo Confessional: Sam.
"Okay, I'm amending that confessional from last chapter," Sam spoke, "Rebecca is more than just kinda cute."
Flight 2.
"H-hey!"
Kelly had taken Markus's notepad away from him, shaking her head slightly, "No. You're supposed to be having fun! Not doing schoolwork!"
"But if I don't get it done-"
"The world won't end," she shook her head, "I'm not writing an apocalyptic cheer, you know! ...Yet."
Markus sighed. Maybe Kelly was right. Maybe he should try to enjoy some of the competition. But he still needed to get his current essay done for his mom before it got too late.
"Before this challenge is over, I'll be getting you to have some… F-U-N!" Kelly determined, spelling that out for him.
"Why?" Markus asked, raising an eyebrow, "I mean… I'm still gonna be stressed out."
Kelly shrugged, "Because people aren't supposed to be so worked up like this. Yeah, this is a competition. Yeah, you have work to do. But it's still a trip around the globe! That's huge."
Markus was about to reply when Rosa and Naoya made their way over to them, Rosa having somehow clung herself to Naoya's arm.
"...Is this how people greet others in the 'real world?'" Naoya asked, using fingerquotes to do so, "Hold onto each other's arms?"
Kelly laughed and shook her head, "Not really, no."
Rosa let go of Naoya and apologized, "Uh, sorry about that."
Naoya just shrugged dismissively before asking Markus, "I heard you guys were on an adventure for fun?"
"Well-"
"You bet your bottom dollar, rich kid!" Kelly interrupted, giving him a thumbs up.
"Perfect!" he replied with a nod, "If it's alright, I'll partake in this too!" Of course, Kelly just nodded her head eagerly.
Team Confessional: Markus and Kelly
"All aboard the fun train!" the optimistic cheerleader exclaimed excitedly, "Now boarding: Kelly, Markus, Naoya, and Rosa!"
She looked over at Markus expectantly, who gave an unsure, "Choo choo?"
Team Confessional: Rosa and Naoya
"I've never really gotten to experience fun like the rest of the people my age," Naoya explained, rubbing the back of his neck, "So it'd be nice to just… get away from my life and do some things I've never done before."
"Might as well," Rosa agreed with a shrug, "While everything's really chill in the competition anyway."
"Okay, okay," Jake asked with a wave of his hand, "Ethan, tell me again why you're doing this?"
While Xavier and Shakir were on another part of the plane talking to a stewardess, Ethan had set up a low trip wire in the aisle of the plane, with a banana creme pie ready to be pushed out when Xavier fell.
"I told you!" the prankster replied, "Xavier's a detective, right?"
"...Right," Jake replied with a nod.
"Well, if Xavier's as good as he supposedly says he is, he'll either end up figuring a way past it or not at all," Ethan explained the point of his idea, "You know! Testing his skills."
Jake gave a light, "Ah," before turning back to his computer, "Just… try to not get yourself or him killed, alright?"
"Aye, aye, captain!" Ethan teased, saluting Jake, as he went back to work. However, Jake, not too sure about this, stood up and stepped over the trip wire, going to warn Xavier of the prank.
Meanwhile, a stewardess was keeping Shakir from getting to the pilot's quarters. Xavier, ever the vigilant snarker, was nearby to witness all of it.
"Come onnnn," Shakir urged the stewardess, "Just let me fly it a little-"
"I think not!" the stewardess replied, "Passengers are not allowed into that area!"
"What could go wrong?" Shakir asked with a shrug.
"Everything," Xavier dryly commented for the stewardess, "Everything could go wrong."
As Shakir and the stewardess began to argue again, Xavier was tapped on the shoulder by the competition's resident genius techie.
"May I help you, Mr. Jake?" Xavier asked, tilting his head slightly.
"It's Ethan," Jake replied, "He's setting up a prank for you, so I decided to warn you."
"A prank for me?" Xavier asked, raising his brows slightly, sarcastically saying, "He shouldn't have. I guess I shouldn't keep him waiting, should I?"
"Huh?" Jake asked, widening his eyes, "Wha- You're gonna go over to it?"
"Of course," Xavier replied, putting a hand into his blazer pocket, "When someone offers a challenge to me, there's no way I'm going to ignore it, after all."
Solo Confessional: Jake
"It's a prank, not a challenge," Jake spoke, shaking his head, "Although, it could be a personal challenge from Ethan to Xavier, but that's very unlikely."
Solo Confessional: Xavier
"Back at home, my family tests each other's deductive skills by setting up mock 'trials' for each of us to overcome," Xavier explained, as he cleaned off his glasses, "This is just like another of those trials. And since I'm a competitive soul, I can't say no to a good challenge."
Ethan kept an eye out as he hid under the seats, ready to slide the banana creme pie out when Xavier'd make his way through. He watched as the sight of Xavier's shoes passed by his vision. He watched a shoe touch the tripwire, alongside an exaggerated scream.
Ethan then slid out the pie, only to see a shoe land in the middle of it.
Xavier had flung his shoe off and exaggerated his voice to trick Ethan into activating part two of his prank too early. Ethan crawled out from under the seats and asked the detective, "How did you-"
"Elementary," was Xavier's response, "I have the eyes of a hawk. ...And I could have seen that wire coming a mile away."
Shakir, who had caught up to his partner, added, "I have the eyes of a hawk, too! Wanna see?" Xavier didn't reply and just looked at Shakir with half-lidded eyes.
Solo Confessional: Ethan
"He's not all that bad," Ethan mused in surprise, before grinning, "Like… Wow, at all. Gonna have an interesting prank war with him around for sure!"
Meanwhile, two other contestants were sitting by themselves for a few different reasons. They were teammates, they were reality show veterans, but more importantly?
They were forming an alliance.
"And if I team up with you, I'll be safe, right?" Justin asked, arching an eyebrow at the blonde.
"Of course!," Helen replied, adjusting her taking another bite of a piece of candy, "I am a woman of my word for the most part. And I do want to win this competition as much as you do."
Justin tapped his perfect lips for a moment before saying, "You have a good point. Alright. We'll team up."
"Perf-"
"Under a few conditions," Justin interrupted her with a dazzling smile.
"..ect," she finished, her tone lowering, "Alright. What exactly do you want?"
"I'll be your muscle, but I cannot injure any of the body parts I use for modeling," he continued, "My face, hands, arms, legs, butt, anything in the chestal region-"
"I get it," she interrupted him, before asking, "Anything else?"
"Oh, there's a lot more," he replied with a nod. She grumbled under her breath, "Great."
While Justin and Helen had a lot to say to each other, Danielle found herself with quiet silence as she sat beside Lily who was currently reading a book.
"You're a quiet one, I suppose," Danielle mused aloud, just wanting to see if her teammate would finally speak.
"I am in some ways," the prim and proper girl replied with a nod, "I guess that I often become wrapped up in my own solitude, so to speak."
"Oh," Danielle replied, before smiling and standing up, "I think I'll go walk around and let you read then. Is that okay?"
"That's just fine," Lily gave a sweet smile and tilted her head slightly to her teammate.
The British girl nodded to her teammate and went to walk on. However, when she walked on, she found herself tripping over a previously laid down tripwire, only to be stopped from falling by a hand on her shoulder.
"Aww, I coulda done the pie thing again," Ethan half-laughed, half-fake pouted.
"I duly apologize, mate," Xavier's response was inbetween sincere and sarcastic to Ethan before he turned towards Danielle, "I assume you're alright"
Danielle nodded and smiled, "Yep! I think it'd take a little more than a trip to the floor to take me down."
"That's good," Xavier released her shoulder, before turning back to Ethan, "Perhaps we should pick the wire up."
"No way, dude, what if someone else comes through?" Ethan asked, shaking his head.
"What are you guys doing, anyway?" Danielle asked curiously.
"Pranks," Ethan said simply. Xavier added, "Analyzing Ethan's pranks."
"Ah," she replied with a nod before asking, "Mind if I join you guys?"
Neither of the boys seemed to disagree and just simply nodded in confirmation.
Solo Confessional: Danielle
"I don't know what it is," Danielle mused for a second, "but Lily's a little… different? I don't know. I think she's nice, but something about her is strangely distant. Maybe the rest of this challenge will give her time to actually open up to someone on here."
Changing the subject, Danielle said, "But surprisingly, Xavier's actually really nice from what I can tell! Ethan, too. I could probably hang around them pretty well."
Flight 3.
"Thanks so much for letting me see your photos," Brooke told Blaine humbly, "I could definitely get some extra ideas from this."
"Thanks for saying you wanted to see my photos," the photographer replied, "I love it when fellow artists appreciate my work."
"Well, I'm not exactly an artist," Brooke replied, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear as she looked through the rest of his photos for inspiration.
"I'm pretty sure writing's an art, you know," was Blaine's simple retort, "I think anything could be an art, really."
"Like that?" Brooke asked, looking up and pointing at Charlotte and Tai.
"Oh, definitely," Blaine replied with a laugh.
As another wave of ashes faded, Charlotte spoke to Tai, "I don't know why Don said that to you. You can talk, you know!"
Tai dug in his ashes again, before flinging them out, the sparks spelling out, "Of course I can talk. But then again, I'm used to people being closed-minded about this."
"You shouldn't be!" Charlotte replied, shaking her head and crossing her arms, "That's not fair to you at all! You're a magician! A talented one! Not someone to just write off because you can't speak!"
Tai made a noise similar to a chuckle before bowing overdramatically.
"But now I'm curious," she added, placing her hands on her lap, "How do you do that?"
Tai just smiled an enigmatic smile and shrugged. It was magic, after all.
Team Confessional: Charlotte and Tai
"Oh, come on, you can tell me!" Charlotte playfully nudged her teammate and asked, "I won't tell anyone. Promise!"
Tai dug in his hat again and sprayed another cloud of igniting ashes which spelled out, "A magician never reveals his secrets."
"...Touche," the actress conceded, laughing a bit.
"Wow, dearest," Gertrude gave a whistle in awe, "To think that you got to climb that in just that length of time."
Isadora rubbed the back of her neck and laughed, "Oh, it's nothing, Mrs. Gertrude."
The granny shook her head and implored, "No, it's definitely something. There's a lot of things I'd do, but I wouldn't hike up a mountain like that. The last thing I need is to fall and break a hip and be put out of commission for a few weeks. I hate hospitals."
"Well, I could give you the name of some casually friendly hiking trails if you want!" Isadora said, excitedly, "I have a lot of them and I don't exactly have a lot of people that's as into these kinds of things as I am!"
"Hit me with 'em, sprout," Gertrude gave a grin, "And then hopefully I can work myself up to your level."
"Maybe we can do some hiking together then," she suggested.
"That'd be nice, dearie," the daredevil granny sweetly replied, before digging through her purse, "Now it's in here somewhere…"
Meanwhile, behind them was none other than Josh and Melissa, who surprisingly were getting along quite well.
"And then I tell him," Josh set up his punchline, "'That's not a tortoise, that's your wife!'"
Melissa burst into laughter, before saying, "It's funny because he married a tortoise!"
"Exactly," Josh laughed slightly at the strange girl before asking, "Yo, you seem to be a lot happier than yesterday, I noticed?"
Melissa sat there for a moment before shaking her head and crossing her arms, "Well. Bad girls have to have fun times too, right?"
"Bad girls?" he asked, arching an eyebrow before stopping, "Oh, right. Evil villain. You told me that."
"You don't believe me, do you?" she asked.
"That's not quite what I meant," he shook his head, "I just-"
"Ooh, I know how I could show you!" she jumped up and ran to another part of the plane, causing Josh's eyes to widen in alarm. It was then that he noticed Isadora looking back over at him.
"So you believe she's… good?" Isadora asked, tentatively.
"Well, I don't think she means any harm," Josh replied, shaking his head, "She's just… Uh…"
"Melissa," Gertrude added, knowingly, "She's just looking for her place in life if I had any guess. So she's just herself."
"Yeah," Josh grinned and nodded to the granny, "That's exactly it."
Isadora looked contemplative for a moment before nodding. Josh jumped up and said, "Wait, I should probably stop her before she causes something bad to happen. Hey, Melissa- Wait, where did you go?"
Team Confessional: Gertrude and Isadora
"Maybe I should have given Melissa the benefit of a doubt," Isadora mused for a moment, "I mean, this isn't like me at all. I just… She could end up being one of the villains around here, you know?"
"Anyone could, dearie; but I believe everything will be just fine- aha!" Gertrude pulled out a whole handful of hard candy, offering them to Isadora, "Hard candy?"
Solo Confessional: Josh
"Melissa's not bad, I don't think," Josh shook his head, "She just seems to be looking for attention in the exact wrong places. Maybe with some time, she'll change her mind about being a villain since she's about as villainous as Snow White at this point."
"Mitch!" Lexi had called out for her partner. Ever since they boarded the plane, she had no idea whatsoever of where he went. She continued to call out for him, before Vanessa who was originally talking to Scarlett decided to look over at her.
"Honey, what's wrong?" she asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion.
"I haven't seen Mitch anywhere," Lexi replied, exasperated, "You know? We're probably going to land in another hour or so, but I haven't seen him since we boarded this stupid plane."
"With any luck, we left him back in Vancouver," Scarlett mused, before shrugging, "Well, I guess nothing of value was lost."
"If Mitch is still in Vancouver, then that means that I'm going to be eliminated," Lexi crossed her arms and frowned at the redhead.
"...Then nothing of value was lost- Ugh!" Scarlett was suddenly elbowed in the ribs by Vanessa, who glared at her.
"I'm sure he's around here somewhere, Lexi," Vanessa reassured the punk, "He's probably somewhere praying to satan or… whatever Mitch's do."
Lexi frowned, but nodded, "Still. I wanna make sure that he's somewhere on this plane. Mitch!" With that, she called out for Mitch again.
Solo Confessional: Lexi
"Okay, Helen might've been on a reality show, but she can drop the 'better than everyone' act she has," Lexi rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, "Because she's not. She didn't even win her competition, now did she?"
Team Confessional: Scarlett and Vanessa.
"Seriously, Scarlett," Vanessa looked up from her 3DS and shook her head at the scientist, "Do you really want to become the next Victor?"
Scarlett was quiet for a moment before sighing and mumbling, "No."
"Mitch!" "Melissa!"
Lexi and Josh paused and looked over at each other when they saw that both of them were calling out for their teammates.
"Seriously, we should glue our teammates to our side," he joked, grinning slightly.
Lexi smirked and nodded, "Seriously. I mean, Mitch basically just… appears so that doesn't necessarily work for me, so…"
"Yeah, true," Josh shrugged and nodded, "But it'd be worth a shot, I guess."
"How did you lose yours anyway?" Lexi asked, "I mean, I can see me losing Mitch. But I'm pretty sure Melissa could stand out from the crowd pretty well."
"I was gonna follow after her, but then I talked to Gertrude and Isadora, and… poof," Josh gave a wave of his hands to signify that Melissa had disappeared.
"Good luck, then," Lexi encouraged with a wink, "You're gonna need it, funnyboy."
"Will do," he replied, about to go look for Melissa again, "Right back at'cha!" As he went to go look for Melissa in another compartment, Lexi turned to face Mitch standing right beside her, jumping a bit from his sudden appearance.
"You rang?" was his only monotone reply.
The first flight finally landed in Dallas, Texas, as the first six teams got off and made a mad dash for the Don Box, with Davis and Junior pulling ahead of the rest to receive the tip first. To everyone's surprise, the Don Box was on one of Dallas's college campuses; or right outside of it.
"The person holding this tip will participate in the Botch or Watch," Davis read it off to Junior, "They must paint their partner using watercolors and show it to the resident art teacher to move on."
"Can you draw?" Junior asked the singer in curiosity.
"We're fixing to find out, huh?" Davis replied, chuckling slightly.
Solo Confessional: Junior
"So even the challenges are going to be assigned by the luck of the draw?" Junior asked, surprised, "Man, if I think a challenge is gonna be dangerous, I'm definitely not taking any Don Box tips."
The artistry began. Ash was painting James, Brady was painting Kayla, Davis was painting Junior, Jackie was painting Rebecca, Liam was painting Rosalina, and Sam was painting Victor. For a first Botch or Watch, they were all glad that they weren't having to do something dangerous yet.
"Would it kill you to smile?" Ash joked, looking up from her painting to look at her subject.
"Yes," was James's deadpan response, as he looked up from his laptop. If he had to pose, he might as well finish this last code first. Regardless, Ash rolled her eyes and went back to painting once more.
Junior, noticing Ash's question, stopped posing for a second to ask, "Davis, you're the artist! Is there anything you need for it?"
"Not that I'm aware of," Davis shook his head and said, "I'll be done soon, promise." Junior nodded, and crossed his arms again, trying to do a cool kid pose, but he ended up accidentally falling over while doing so.
"Will 'ya hurry it up?!" Victor complained, his own arms crossed in anger at his teammate, Sam, "I ain't gettin' any older!"
"With all luck, you'll get a heart attack," Sam mumbled, not even looking away from his painting.
"What'd you say?!"
Rosalina, who was posing for Liam by using two peace signs, mentioned, "See?! He's perfect for Don!"
"I'm perfect for who now?!" Victor asked, turning towards the girl, fuming.
"I agree," was Sam's only reply, as he continued to work on his painting.
"You agree?!" once again Victor burst out into another outburst of annoyance, but his teammate wasn't listening, deciding to simply tune the man out for his own benefit.
Meanwhile, Rebecca and Kayla were talking to each other while they were getting themselves painted by Brady and Jackie respectively.
"I heard you guys playing Queen earlier," Kayla brought up, her hands up in peace signs for her photo, "It was pretty nice!"
Rebecca, meanwhile, was strumming her guitar and laughed, nodding to Kayla, "I'd play you something but… I have no absolute idea what kind of music you'd listen to."
"Shitty music…" Brady mumbled as he continued his painting. Kayla rolled her eyes at the boy before shrugging at Rebecca, "Isn't it obvious? Bubblegum pop."
"See?" Brady added, "Shitty music."
"You should be painting, not grumbling," Jackie spoke to the boy, looking up from her work, "Or don't. Less competition for us."
Team Confessional: Brady and Kayla
"What'd I say?" Brady asked, crossing his arms and grunting, "An-noy-ing. And that purple haired freak is one of the worst of 'em."
Kayla stared at Brady flatly before saying, "I'm sitting right next to you, I know."
Brady inhaled, crossed his arms, and smirked, "I know." All Kayla did was roll her eyes in response.
The second plane finally touched down, the second set of contestants arriving to begin the challenge. Justin would be painting Helen, Lily would be painting Danielle, Rosa would be painting Naoya, Markus would be painting Kelly, Jake would be painting Ethan, and Xavier would be painting Shakir.
"Why can't I be the one who gets a portrait painted of them?" Justin asked, whining all the while, "After all, I'm definitely a better visage than her."
Helen, who was posing with her chef's hat on, narrowed her eyes at Justin, "And what exactly do you mean by that?"
"Oh, no offense," Justin reassured, before saying something absolutely offensive, "It's just that anyone compared to me looks way below average, you know?"
"...Excuse me?" Helen furrowed her brow and crossed her arms, "And just who are you? I was a contestant on-"
Justin looked up from his canvas and said, "Please. The only reality show that counts other than this one is Total Drama."
"...Excuse me?!"
As Helen and Justin began to fight, Danielle watched them do so as Lily continued to paint her.
"Wow," she mused, "That escalated really, really quickly, didn't it?"
"It did," Lily mused with a nod, "However, it was inevitable, don't you think?"
Danielle arched an eyebrow for a moment before realizing exactly what Lily meant, "Their egos… Right. When two egos are put in the same room, they'll definitely clash before the day's over."
"Absolutely," Lily smiled lightly as she twisted the paintbrush between her index fingers, "But we seem to get along fine for the most part, Miss Danielle. Of that, I have noticed."
"We have," Danielle's answer was between a statement and a question. Lily was extremely hard to read, but hey. If the girl enjoyed Danielle's company, that was fine with her. But what did that even have to do with clashing egos?
Finally shrugging and moving back to her smiling pose, Danielle watched Lily continue to work away.
"Finished!" Davis turned the painting around to show the painter what he had done. It was just a simple visage of what seemed to be Junior, but it got the job done. The painter gave the singer the next tip, letting the two move on.
"What's it say?" Junior asked, walking over to his partner and peering over his shoulder.
"The next challenge is… a cheerleader challenge?" Davis asked, in surprise, "Apparently we have to get in cheerleader getups and go cheer for one of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders."
Junior groaned, "Great. A challenge we don't care about. But… what's her name… Kelly? She might."
"It might be fun," Davis disagreed with the younger boy, before nodding, "Alright! Let's hit it!"
The two boys ran on, passing by Kelly who could barely contain herself in joy, "Yes! Y-E-S! This next challenge was made for me! C'mon, Markus, finish up so we can strut our stuff!"
"I've… never done cheerleading before," Markus said, walking over to the artist to give him the painting. Markus was already pretty good at art he had to admit, so it was obvious that the art teacher would give them their next tip, not that they necessarily needed it.
Kelly grinned and nodded, "I promise you right now, it's going to be amazing! Hey, Naoya! Rosa! You two coming?!"
Rosa got her thumbs up for her drawing of the rich kid, before she turned to face the cheerleader and the workaholic, "Uh, yeah! We're coming!" She followed after the duo, Naoya trailing along behind them.
Xavier looked away from his work for a second to watch the four continue onto the next challenge, as he finally looked back to Shakir and dryly asked, "This might be a dumb question, but… do you have to have me paint you naked?"
"He said for you to paint your partner like one of those French girls," Shakir shrugged, as he posed on the ground, for some reason nude.
"That is most definitely not what he said," Xavier rolled his eyes, but continued to paint his partner, regardless.
"Seriously, man," Jake added in agreement, looking away from Ethan for a moment, "Put your clothes back on."
Shakir sighed and grumbled while he did just that.
Meanwhile, Ethan was holding a gigantic fake spider and was pretending to look horrified for it, for what seemed to be longer than a lot of people could have assumed he would have been able to do.
"Your face will freeze that way," Xavier warned, slightly, "Why can't you just pose normally? Either of you for that matter?"
Ethan moved from his pose and grinned, "Oh come on, Sherlock. What's wrong with having fun?"
"Nothing is wrong with having fun," he agreed, simply, chuckling at the prankster lightly, "I just believe that when the competition is going, everyone should be giving their all. Their all's all, if you will."
"Yeah, same," Jake nodded, before asking Ethan, "Can you please hold up a prop that isn't that hard to draw, man?"
Ethan sighed and said, "Fiiiine," digging around in his backpack for a different prop.
Solo Confessional: Shakir
"How much of an all would it take to give your all when all of your all has already been given to prove to someone that your all's all is all?" Shakir asked, before nodding "sagely," "Yeah. That's exactly what I was thinking too."
The third plane touched down, as the last twelve contestants arrived to compete in the first challenge. Josh would be painting Melissa, Lexi was painting Mitch, Gertrude was painting Isadora, Scarlett was painting Vanessa, Charlotte was painting Tai, and Brooke was painting Blaine.
"So, you've got my good side?" the photographer joked at the bookworm as she continued to paint him.
"I think so," she quietly nodded, musing over what she had so far, "Or at least, I think so!"
"No worries, Brooke," he encouraged her, "Take all the time you need. There's several teams still working, so we're fine."
"Right," she nodded, determined, before turning and noticing that Charlotte was also giving her absolute all in the challenge, "Hey, Charlotte? Why are you working so hard on this? You might wear yourself out."
"I heard what Don said to Tai last challenge," was the simple, sincere reply from the actress, "And I'm not going to fulfill his little prophecy about Tai going first just because he's mute. No way."
Blaine watched the two work together in awe, Tai posing dramatically as Charlotte worked away. Despite only knowing each other for a few hours, Charlotte had decided to give it her all so Tai wouldn't be eliminated. And from the thankful expression on the magician's face, it was easy to tell that Tai was grateful. Catching a gaze from Tai, he nodded, determining to himself that they'd work even harder too. They wouldn't lose, if he had anything to say about it.
Meanwhile, Scarlett was scowling as she had to listen to Gertrude, Isadora, and Vanessa chit-chat while she worked. Gertrude was taking her leisurely time but still working, while Isadora and Vanessa were just having a good time talking with each other and with the granny.
"You guys are alright!" Vanessa exclaimed with a smile, "We should definitely hang out more later."
"Oh, you've got it!" Isadora gave the girl a thumbs up, "Maybe we'll end up on each other's teams later!"
"I'd love that, just let me say," was Vanessa's reply, giving the explorer a wink.
Scarlett muttered under her breath as she painted, "Will you all just shut up and let me work?"
"Come on, dearie," Gertrude nudged at Scarlett, "Live a little! Make some friends!"
"The only friend I need is that million dollar cash prize," Scarlett scoffed, rolling her eyes.
"You mean half a million," Vanessa corrected, furrowing her brows.
"...Yes, of course," was Scarlett's reply, but of course Vanessa didn't seem convinced of this.
Solo Confessional: Vanessa
"If I get to the finale, can I at least have a chill partner to work with?" she asked, rolling her eyes slightly.
While Josh was painting Melissa, every once in a while he found himself getting off track and looking over to see what Lexi and Mitch were doing. Melissa, finally a little tired of constantly having to redirect Josh's attention, gave a sigh.
"Okay, comedy boy," she said, snapping her fingers and smiling, "Do I have to give you some incentive to finish this challenge?"
Josh turned back towards the "manipulator" confusedly, repeating, "Incentive?"
"You know," she nodded coyly, "An alliance."
"In a game where we can be switched up at any time?" he asked, shaking his head, "Not yet, man."
Melissa sighed and asked, "Could you at least humor me and say you'll think about it?"
Josh mused for a second before nodding, "Hey, sure. Why the hell not?"
"Yes!" she exclaimed, pumping her fist, singing in a singsong voice, "Alliance, alliance~!"
"I said I'd think about it," he tried to remind her, but she was way too excited to care anything about that.
Meanwhile, the conversation between Lexi and Mitch had reached a standstill. Mitch wasn't the most talkative contestant ever and just preferred to stand there, unmoving as his partner painted him.
"So… are you excited for the competition?" the punk asked, wanting to break some of the awkward silence.
"Not especially."
"Eh, don't blame you," she shrugged her shoulders, "Think we're gonna win this?"
"Not especially."
"...Do you want to talk about anything," she asked, knitting her brows together.
Of course, the answer was, "Not especially."
Solo Confessional: Lexi
Lexi had her arms crossed and was shaking her head, "Mitch is… something. But at least he sticks around for the challenges. Otherwise, people would probably get rid of him in an instant."
"Nine teams have moved onto the cheerleading challenge," Don's voice narrated, "But some seem to be a lot happier than the others."
Indeed, the following teams had made it to the cheerleading challenge: Ash and James, Davis and Junior, Gertrude and Isadora, Jackie and Rebecca, Jake and Ethan, Lexi and Mitch, Markus and Kelly, Rosa and Naoya, and Xavier and Shakir.
However, since most teams had only one male uniform and one female uniform, some teams had to make do with what they had.
"Why do I have to be the one in the skirt?" Junior asked, crossing his arms annoyedly.
"Because it fits you better than I do, Junior," Davis replied with a shrug, "It's not all that bad."
Junior mumbled under his breath, "Yes, it is."
"Dearie," Gertrude, who was wearing the male cheerleader uniform encouraged the young boy, "There really is nothing that bad about it."
"Yeah!" Isadora added with a nod and a hand on her hip, "I can promise you that you look really rad, Junior!"
"...If you say so…" the thirteen year old rubbed his arm awkwardly.
Meanwhile, Jake and Xavier, also wearing the female cheerleading uniforms, seemed a lot more comfortable with it than Junior did.
Ethan gave a whistle at the two boys, teasing them, especially Xavier with a wink, "Looking good, fellas!"
"My slim legs do pull off this skirt quite well," was Xavier's simple answer, not seeming phased in the least.
Solo Confessional: Xavier
"I see no problem with this, honestly; any true man would agree with me," the detective in the cheerleading outfit sat in the confessional with his legs crossed, "In fact, I quite like it. I'd prefer it in red, but I guess I can deal with the Cowboys's colors."
Team Confessional: Jake and Ethan.
"This isn't the… most comfortable thing I've ever wore," the techie shook his head, "But this is a challenge. And I'm not going to get a penalty just because I didn't want to wear it- put that water balloon down or you'll be wearing it, man."
Ethan put away his water balloon and sighed, "Yeah, yeah, I gotcha."
"Who's first?" the blonde cheerleader who was hosting the next challenge asked now that the first nine contestants had gotten their uniforms on.
"Us!" Kelly exclaimed, raising her hand in the air, "But first, let me say that I'm an absolute huge fan!"
The cheerleader smiled and nodded, "Awwww, thanks! Alright! Give us what y'all've got!"
While Kelly looked sure and excited to start up their cheer, Markus didn't seem very sure at all, saying, "Uh… I have no idea where to even start. What do we-"
"Don't worry about it, partner," Kelly reassured him with a determined nod, "Just follow what I do and trust me!"
"But-"
"Look," she interrupted him with a grin, "Trust me. We're teammates. I won't let you make a fool of yourself on national TV if I can help it. Like, trust me!"
Markus was silent for a moment, before nodding determinedly, "Right… Right! I'll trust you." He didn't have much of a choice anyway, he figured.
The two walked in front of the rest of the teams and the girl holding the challenge.
"1, 2, 3, 4!" Kelly exclaimed, as she moved her pom poms around, hitting each pose with absolute precision. Markus did his very best to mimic what Kelly was doing to the best of his ability.
"R-I-D-O-N!" she called out before spinning swiftly and pointing at Markus.
"Uh, C-U-L-O-U-S…?" Markus replied, doing the same and spinning to point right back at her.
"That's the race; the race to the million!" she exclaimed, before doing a cartwheel. To everyone's shock, the cartwheel turned, as Kelly began to a series a backflips and frontflips. As she continued to do so, she began to go towards Markus as if he wanted him to catch her.
"Wait, no, nononono-"
But it was too late, Kelly did one last somersalt and…
...landed safely on Markus's shoulders.
"To get us further!" she exclaimed, clapping and looking towards the cheerleader, "We need that next tip! Whoo!"
The cheerleader and the other teams watched in awe of Kelly's stunts, before almost unanimously bursting out into cheering.
Team Confessional: Markus and Kelly
Kelly held the ticket in her hand that said that they needed to go to the chill zone as she exclaimed, "See? I told you to trust me!"
"I have to admit that was kinda exhilarating," Markus replied with a nod.
"Kinda exhilarating?" Kelly asked, faking shock, "No, that was totally beyond exhilarating! We did totes amazing!"
As Kelly and Markus ran on, the two teams of Gertrude and Isadora, as well as Rosa and Naoya, were absolutely blown away by the two's performance.
"Talk about a hard act to follow," Naoya deadpanned, not really sure if they could keep up with it at all.
"As long as I don't dislodge my hip, maybe I could do something like that…" Gertrude mused wistfully, a little unsure herself for once.
"Come on, it can't be that bad," Rosa mused before saying, "We'll never know unless we try! Let's give it our best!"
"She's right," Naoya nodded, adding, "It is not over until the mad lady sings!"
Isadora gave a giggle, turning to face the rich kid, "That's fat lady, Naoya."
"That too," the sheltered teen nodded, before saying, "...Are you sure that's how it's said? I mean, I don't wanna look foolish-"
"You look fine," she lazily waved him off, "It's all chill."
Gertrude got between the two, now agreeing whole-heartedly with Rosa, "Alright, then! Let's get them and show them what we've got!"
"And show them what they had, they did!" Don's voice narrated, as the rest of the team's cheers were shown on the screen.
Rosa and Naoya's cheer was simple, but got the job done, Naoya doing his best to keep up with the girl. Yet it worked out just fine, and they were allowed to continue onward to the Chill Zone. Isadora and Gertrude put a lot of fire into theirs in contrast, and while it didn't wow everyone as much as Kelly and Markus's cheer, it did enough to get them to go on.
The rest of the teams also succeeded to varying degrees, to say the least.
Ash and James's cheer wasn't the most energetic in the world, but it was definitely physically active enough to get them the okay. While Junior looked extremely uncomfortable, Davis picked up the slack for his partner's slack, incorporating his musical ability into his cheer to come up with a really unique blend of singing and slight gymnastics.
Jake and Ethan's cheer was standard, but both boys pulled it off with aplomb. Jackie and Rebecca took a page from Davis's book, incorporating their singing voice into a rendition of the football rock song "The Boys Are Back In Town," changing it to fit themselves by using "Girls" instead of "Boys."
Lexi and Mitch ended up being a massive surprise themselves, as Lexi was already moderately fit, but when her own movements matched Mitch's lightning fast ones, it was incredibly entertaining to watch. With Shakir and Xavier, Shakir was the selling point of the cheer with his wild but expressive movements, while Xavier preferred to let his partner have the spotlight, wanting to just back him up to the best of his abilities.
The race was on, as the first nine teams continued the last trek to the Chill Zone. In an unsurprising move, one team ended up making it there first.
"Kelly! Markus!" Don greeted the cheerleader and workaholic, "Welcome to first place! When you're put on your new teams, you'll be given a headstart."
"Yes!" Kelly cheered happily, giving her partner a high five. Seventeenth place for Markus all the way up to first place was a massive upset and game changer for him. And going from fourth place to first place for Kelly wasn't that bad of a move on her part either.
Don looked over to see two teams running neck to neck with each other to receive second, "Oooh, so it's Gertrude and Isadora VS. Rosa and Naoya! Which team will make it here first?"
As the teams neared the Chill Zone, one of the contestants, Naoya, tripped. Because of this, Gertrude and Isadora were able to score second place, putting Rosa and Naoya into third.
"Hey, need some help up?" Isadora asked the downed rich boy, bending over and extending her hand.
"We're on different-"
"Who cares?" she asked, shaking her head, "The challenge's over, so."
Naoya sat there a moment, before taking Isadora's hand and standing up, walking over to stand next to the other two teams on the Chill Zone.
Team Confessional: Markus and Kelly.
"Let's keep up the momentum, Markus!" Kelly exclaimed happily, extremely pumped over their win in the second leg of the race.
"Well, I got seventeenth last time, so I've got to build up that momentum first," Markus replied, still a little unsure of himself.
"...It's a work in progress," the cheerleader turned to the camera and nodded.
Solo Confessional: Rosa
"Third place!" she cheered with a smile, "We did great! And that challenge? It was actually really, really fun!"
The fourth team to arrive was none other than Shakir and Xavier. Coming after them was Davis and Junior, Jake and Ethan, Jackie and Rebecca, Lexi and Mitch, and finally, Ash and James.
Team Confessional: Ash and James.
"Ninth isn't all that bad," Ash mused with a shrug, "Could be a lot better, but it could be a lot worse too."
"We didn't come in last," James replied with a grunt, as he was back to his laptop once again.
"If this is what you call celebrating, I'd hate to see what your bored face was, man," Ash turned towards the delinquent, smirking slightly.
"With the first half of the contestants already crossed the finish line," Don narrated once again, "The second half began the cheerleading challenge! Six teams succeeded and were able to move onto the Chill Zone…"
Brooke and Blaine were first up, the former doing decently and the latter having much more excited movements in particular. Josh and Melissa went after them, giving a good job with a few shared comedic pratfalls to give their cheer a certain zest to it that no other team could replicate. Liam and Rosalina's cheer ended up being standard, but it did have a certain cute factor thanks to the latter.
Lily and Danielle, Danielle wearing the male cheerleading uniform, had an interesting contrast to their cheer; Lily's half of the cheer being more feminine and Danielle's being more tomboyish. But it did work, overall. Scarlett and Vanessa, Scarlett being fine with wearing the male cheerleading uniform, had a relatively geeky cheer due to who both of them were, but Vanessa gave it a sultry edge.
Tai and Charlotte, however, proved the most that they were working hard to make it further in the competition. Using Charlotte's high energy and acting prowess, alongside Tai's great magical skills, their cheer was less of a cheer and more of an experience. Even people like Brady and Victor had to admit that the two did a fantastic job.
Team Confessional: Charlotte and Tai
"When I say I'm going to make sure me and my partner tries our hardest, I mean it!" Charlotte affirmed with a nod, "Take that, Don! Tai isn't going home this week!"
Tai crossed his arms, smiled, and nodded as well, but his eyes obviously shared the same sentiment towards Don as Charlotte had; not a good one.
However, three teams weren't doing as well. At all.
And it all exploded into view when Helen had dropped Justin during their routine.
"My ass!" the model exclaimed in horror, "You dropped me on my precious, precious ass!"
"Okay, you know what?" the chef asked, turning to face Justin and glaring at him, "You've been nothing but annoying since this competition even started!"
"Excuse me-"
"Yeah, excuse you," Helen interrupted him, her gaze growing icier and icier by the moment, "All you do is talk about yourself or complain about your 'pwecious, pwecious' ass which, in my opinion? Isn't even that great!"
Justin gave an overdramatic gasp, as he ordered, "Take that back! Take that back right now!"
As the two continued to argue, it wasn't like the other teams were speaking either. Sam and Kayla, who were on opposite teams, ended up sitting next to each other as they ignored their respective teammates.
"How'd it come to this?" Sam asked with a weary sigh, "I'm almost sure that I'm going to lose right now."
"Tell me about it," the goth replied, sighing as well, "Why do you think you're going to lose?"
"Victor had to wear the skirt," Sam motioned over to the absolutely appalled Victor, who was ranting to no one but himself, "So he's refusing to do the challenge. At all."
"What a baby," Kayla replied, rolling her eyes, "It's just a skirt."
"Seriously," Sam agreed before asking, "What about you and Brady?"
Kayla gave a scoff in annoyance when Sam said her teammates name, "He decided that he wasn't going to do it because cheerleading is girly."
"Why am I not surprised?" Sam mused, before frowning and standing up, "You know what? No. Neither of us deserve to lose a challenge because we have two shitty partners, now do we?"
Kayla sat there for a moment before nodding and standing up, "Absolutely right! We should tell them what's for, shouldn't we?"
"Damn straight," Sam smirked, and nodded, "Let's do it."
Meanwhile, at the Chill Zone, more contestants had arrived. Liam and Rosalina claimed tenth, Tai and Charlotte got eleventh (which they did promptly point out to Don, to his annoyance), Josh and Melissa scored twelfth, Brooke and Blaine got thirteenth, Scarlett and Vanessa got fourteenth, and Lily and Danielle came in fifteenth place.
"What's taking them so long?!" Don ranted, as he paced back and forth, "The last three teams should be here by now! We have an elimination to… eliminate!"
"Huh," Ash spoke up amusedly as she watched Don pace, "I think I see a gray hair forming."
"A what?!"
Team Confessional: Jackie and Rebecca
"Sam really needs to hurry up," Rebecca sighed, crossing her arms.
"Why do you care exactly?" Jackie asked, raising an eyebrow at her teammate.
"Because he was one of the first friends I made here?" the rocker replied, arching an eyebrow right back at Jackie, "And he's pretty cool?"
"Ah," was the artist's only reply.
Solo Confessional: Vanessa
"The pastel babe can't be eliminated yet," Vanessa shook her head, "I mean, she and Danielle helped me out last episode. She's good people."
She then smiled, "Aaaaand she did say that she was okay with me kissing her, so that's a plus in her favor."
Back at the gymnasium, Sam and Kayla ended up gathering Brady and Victor together, Brady snickering childishly at the principal's attire.
"Nice skirt, old man," the French teen commented.
"Don't be looking at this skirt, you-"
"Hey!" Kayla exclaimed, hands on her hips, "We gathered you two together for a reason!"
"Oh yeah, koolaid hair?" Brady asked, smugly, "And what exactly is that?"
Kayla stared at Brady for a moment, before stepping forward, ready to fight him, before being held back by Sam.
"We don't like you," Sam spoke, bluntly, "And we can tell you don't care for us either. Obviously."
"Damn true," Victor seethed, his arms crossed as he glared at the ex-intern, "Your point is?"
"Our point is if you don't want to lose out on half a million dollars for being stubborn," Sam emphasized, "Then we don't really care. But think about it. Half a million dollars."
"Or at least be useless when you're on someone else's team!" Kayla added, her hands on her hips.
Brady and Victor didn't speak, but did wordlessly glance at each other.
"Finally!" Don exclaimed in fatigue, "The last two out of three teams are here! What took you so long?!"
In sixteenth place was none other than Brady and Kayla, who on Brady's half of the cheer begrudgingly did their cheer to get it over with. But this seemed to have just made Kayla even more livid.
"You were good at being flexible the entire time?!" Kayla asked, glaring at Brady, her usual happy silliness absolutely gone.
"You didn't ask," was Brady's smug, simple reply.
"Ignore him, hun," was Vanessa's voice, trying to calm Kayla down.
"Oh, he's basically blacklisted from my sight, don't worry," the goth seethed, before mumbling, "I need my sweater. Anything's better than this outfit."
In seventeenth place, barely saving themselves from elimination was Victor and Sam, who were in a slightly better mood than the other team since Sam already assumed that Victor wouldn't be that great at cheerleading anyway.
"You actually got your partner to cooperate?" Rebecca asked Sam, arching an eyebrow.
"Think you'd get rid of me that quick?" he replied, chuckling slightly.
"Nah, not that quick," she shook her head.
"Yeah, she did," was Jackie's deadpan addition to the conversation.
Don ended up having to walk all the way back to the gymnasium, deciding to stand next to the college's cheerleader and ask her, "You think they'll argue all day?"
"I, like, have no clue, but this is better than cable," was the woman's reply.
"True," he chuckled, "But we do have a show to do."
"You literally were useless on Total Drama, too!" Helen exclaimed, shouting at the model, "I'd know! I watched every season!"
"Like you did any better on your show!" the model shot back, his nostrils flaring in anger.
"I did excellent-"
"YOU WERE ELIMINATED FIFTH!"
Suddenly, the two were stopped by a sudden and loud blare of an airhorn. They turned to face Don, who had his arms crossed and was just staring at them incredulously.
"Congratulations," he mocked, sarcastically, "Because of your incessant arguing, you two are the first eliminated from the competition. You both suck at reality shows."
Helen and Justin stared wide-eyed at Don, before Helen glared back at Justin and shouted, "This is your fault!"
Team Confessional: Danielle and Lily
"Well, we were right," Danielle noted, laughing slightly, "I do feel bad for them, but they did argue the entire time of the challenge."
"I'm afraid I do not concur," Lily disagreed, shaking her head, "They didn't even attempt to do anything to help themselves out."
"You really can be blunt when you need to, huh?" Danielle asked, having to keep herself from laughing even harder.
"One of my finer charms," the Native American girl giggled, putting a hand over her mouth, before asking, "So. Did you see that detective boy's legs?"
"I wasn't look-" Danielle paused, as Lily's smile just grew wider in amusement.
Final Words: Helen.
"Did I have an awful experience?" she asked, "Yes. Why couldn't I have been given a better teammate?! Don gave me that teammate on purpose! This is all rigged! Rigged!"
"Actually, it was randomly generated," Don popped his head into the confessional, "You just suck- Ow!" Helen had suddenly punched him hard in the face.
"...I feel much better now, actually," she grinned.
Final Words: Justin.
"Whatever, now I can go back to modeling," Justin didn't seem to care at all about him being eliminated, as he stared into his hand mirror, "A face as pretty as this definitely doesn't need all this stress. I could be getting gray hairs and have a black eye right now, after all."
Don was seen outside the campus, nursing his black eye, as he signed off the show, "With that, Helen and Justin are the first two contestants to leave us! Thirty-four contestants remain, and twenty-four more stops are planned! Who will end up being eliminated next? Find out right here! On the Ridonculous Race: Stranger Shuffle! ...Anyone got any aspirin?"
Episode 2 Race Rankings:
1st- Markus and Kelly
2nd- Gertrude and Isadora
3rd- Rosa and Naoya
4th- Xavier and Shakir
5th- Davis and Junior
6th- Jake and Ethan
7th- Jackie and Rebecca
8th- Lexi and Mitch
9th- Ash and James
10th- Liam and Rosalina
11th- Tai and Charlotte
12th- Josh and Melissa
13th- Brooke and Blaine
14th- Scarlett and Vanessa
15th- Lily and Danielle
16th- Brady and Kayla
17th- Victor and Sam
18th- Justin and Helen
Remaining contestants: Ash, Blaine, Brady, Brooke, Charlotte, Danielle, Davis, Ethan, Gertrude, Isadora, Jackie, Jake, James, Josh, Junior, Kayla, Kelly, Lexi, Liam, Lily, Markus, Melissa, Mitch, Naoya, Rebecca, Rosa, Rosalina, Sam, Scarlett, Shakir, Tai, Vanessa, Victor, and Xavier.
Eliminated contestants: Helen and Justin.
And thus, Helen and Justin are the first two contestants to go instead of Victor like a lot of people guessed last episode. Justin was planned from the start to be the first boot in comparison to Scarlett and Junior. Helen also seemed like a fair first boot to teach her (or not) that she's not all that and a bag of chips herself.
What'd you think of this chapter? Tell me everything that comes to mind, because I had a lot of fun reading everyone's thoughts last week! Especially since this week had some plot threads start up for the most part and some foreshadowing on its way.
Next episode: Game of Crones