Chapter 7: In Loving Memory
Lance had given the competing 21 campers, minus Liv, a few minutes to congregate and form a strategy. The path from the dock to the employee resort was essentials a straight path, so the navigation was not a concern for anyone.
"Time!" Lance announced to the campers. They looked behind them and saw just how many plants and gardening supplies were placed behind them. There were hundreds of different flowers, trees, and bushes to choose from, in addition to supplies like shovels and wheelbarrows. There were also other decorative items such as large rocks and fountain kits ready to be used as well.
"How were you able to get all of this stuff here in such short notice?" Henrique asked in wonder.
"This job has connections. You'd be surprised about the things I can do as host," Lance answered. Henrique simply nodded in response. "Anyways," Lance restarted, "It's nearing time to begin. This challenge will last three hours and the most aesthetically pleasing garden wins."
Lance fiddled with his expensive watch for a few moments and set a timer. "The time starts…NOW!" Lance's announcement sent all of the campers to the supplies where they all gathered their preferred items.
Within just a few seconds, 21 teens were fighting over gardening supplies and plants.
"Give me that shovel," Lara said with a grunt as she grabbed a shovel that was in Otto's hands.
"Yeah, right!" Otto answered aggressively as he yanked the shovel back, sending the two of them back into Henrique who was carrying a bag of mulch. Upon impact, the bad ripped and the mulch spilled out onto the dock.
"Really?" Henrique said towards Lara and Otto in a hostile tone. He grabbed another bag from the stockpile and moved away from the others.
"Monique, help me carry these ones," Michelle called out to Monique while pointing at carnations
"Okay, I'll be there," Monique said as she came over and grabbed two pots of flowers. She and Michelle began walking toward the employee resort, but then a large worm unearthed itself and crawled on Monique's arm.
"AAH!" she screamed in surprise as she looked down at her arm. She flicked the worm off of her arm in disgust.
"Ew that thing was nasty," Michelle said grossed out.
"Let's just keep going. I don't want to think about that," Monique said and she and Michelle went off.
Back at the supply stash, Devin was carrying a heavy potted tree away from the pile but was interrupted as Emily approached him.
"Do you need help carrying that?" she asked him.
"Not really. But if you'd help, then we can probably go quicker," Devin said. Emily nodded and grabbed the pot as the two made their way inward on the island.
Confessional:
Devin: Emily's help was appreciated, but I think we went slower having her there since she asked to stop a few times. It could've told her that I didn't need to help, but I didn't want to say no and seem overly confident. Oh well.
Jaime was not having a very pleasant time being around all of the plants due to his allergies to the plants. He continued sneezing for a few moments until Adrian came over and talked to him.
"Dude, you obviously can't be around these plants, so what are you going to do since you'll just be sneezing the entire time?" Adrian asked.
"I don't know," Jaime said, sneezing a few times. "What do you think?"
Adrian turned around and looked at the massive pile of equipment. "What about putting that fountain together? That would look really cool if you can do it."
Jaime shrugged considering this option. "It's definitely better than dealing with these allergies." He attempted to pick up the fountain box, but due to its extremely heavy weight, he just dragged it towards the garden instead. Adrian grabbed a potted rose bush and followed behind Jaime.
Meanwhile, Lotus and Sebastian claimed a small wheelbarrow. Lotus placed a few small plants and decorative rocks in the wheelbarrow while Sebastian followed her carrying and shovel and a hoe. The only managed to move a few feet before the front wheel of the wheelbarrow unscrewed itself and went rolling toward Felix, causing him to step on it and fall.
"I'm not dealing with this right now," Lotus said to Sebastian as she grabbed as much as she could and ditched the wheelbarrow.
"We should at least apologize to Felix for making him trip," Sebastian proposed.
"There's not enough time for that," Lotus said as she and Sebastian kept moving toward the employee resort.
Confessional:
Felix: The fall actually hurt quite a bit, considering I landed squarely on the head of a shovel. That wheel must've fallen off of something else. Too bad that I didn't see where it came from because they would be in for quite the lecture.
By this time, the supply stash was noticeably reduced in size, but was still exceptionally large. Carson, think with the mindset that the best stuff would be in the middle of everything, had managed to burrow his way in between the plants and tools.
"Come on, there has to be something worth it in here. I better not have wasted all of my time," he thought to himself while looking through plants that no one else would've been able to see. After finding nothing of any specialty, he was close to calling it quits until he saw an extremely vividly colored plant in the corner of his eye.
The plant had only 5 blooming flowers, but each of them were perfect round and almost seeming to glow. "This is exactly what I was looking for" he should to himself as he went back to the outer parts of the stash, where he was greeted by Daniella.
"Carson?" she said confused. "Why were you all of the way into all of the plants?"
He showed Daniella the golden flowers and didn't need to say anything for her to understand.
"Those are beautiful. We have to make sure we keep those for ourselves," Daniella said as she and Carson walked off.
Rowena, Shayli, and Helena were searching vigorously through the seemingly endless amounts of plants for things that caught their eyes.
"A lot of these plants are dark, so we should try to find some that have really bright colors to contrast it out," Shayli said.
"What do you think of these?" Helena said pointed towards pink tulips.
"Take them while they're here. They look pretty nice," Rowena instructed. Helena nodded and grabbed the flowers.
Shayli looked down and picked up a mosaic stone. "This is pretty. We should us this," she said to the others.
"Fine by me," Rowena said. "Before it's too late, we need to make sure we have tools to dig and stuff."
Helena handed the tulips to Shayli. "I'll grab some stuff if you get the plants to the garden." Rowena and Shayli nodded as Helena went back to grab some tools.
Confessional:
Rowena: Our team is pulling together pretty well so far, so we should be fine in this challenge if we keep it up. That being said, we have been pretty consistent in losing leads thus far, but today we can turn it around.
Angelica and Xavier, the only two members of their team still at the dock were working together to try to find the best materials.
"Do we have any ideas for the layout yet?" Xavier asked Angelica.
"Beats me," she answered unsure. "I hope so but we still have some time to manage everything."
Xavier walked around for a moment before spotting some azaleas. "What about these?"
"Those could work," Angelica said approvingly. "I hope it matches the other stuff."
The two picked up a few more small plants and headed toward the employee resort.
The last competing campers still at the dock, Landon and Bram, were taking vastly different approaches to the challenge. Landon was essentially balancing numerous gardening tools and flowers while trying to walk forward, while Bram was holding just two small pots but was moving extremely sluggishly.
"As long as I don't drop anything on the way there, then I'll feel a lot better about taking the risk," Landon thought to himself. "This might've been a mistake." He kept trudging forward slowly while trying to keep all of the things in his hand balanced. "I could really use a wheelbarrow that isn't busted right now."
He took a few more steps as he dropped a small flower in a terracotta pot fell out of his grasp and hit the ground and shattered. "That's not my concern anymore," ne thought as he continued.
Close behind him, Bram was trudged even slower despite having hardly anything in his hands.
"Maybe I should be going quicker," he thought to himself. "My team can work for a little without me. It's not like I'm some team captain or anything."
He kept his pace consistently slow to the point where there were members of other teams on a section run back to the dock while he was just barely leaving for his first time. After realizing this, he picked up his pace.
At the employee resort, most of the campers were hard at work rebuilding the garden behind the large building complex, but unlike the others, Liv was in a lounge area with Lance on the 2nd floor overlooking everyone else. She and Lance had grabbed a drink and were sitting on an expensive, comfortable loveseat that had a complete view of the garden below.
"I used to really like sitting here, you know," Lance said somberly to Liv. "It gave me a great sense of accomplishment seeing that garden that I put so much effort into.
"I know that it's not going to be easy to get over this since it means a lot more to you than it would to most people," Liv said in an understanding tone. "But, I am curious about the backstory behind the garden and what exactly it means."
"It's a pretty long story, in all honesty, but I'll tell you the basics. So, I'm the oldest child in my family. I have a younger brother and two younger sisters. We had a pretty decent life for the first few years that we spent as a family all together. For a while, my dad was the only source of income for our family since my mom didn't work, but my dad ended up passing away when I was 8. It was obviously really sad, but his passing impacted us a lot more than it would seem. My family wasn't in super good financial terms after he died since we didn't have any source of income and the money we had deplete pretty quickly. Our extended family was pretty distant so they couldn't help us much and we ended up having to sell our house and more into a really shady neighborhood because that's all we could afford at that point. My mom ended up having to take two jobs at once to essentially help us survive. She must've worked almost 15 hours a day for a while, but she still managed to take care of me and my siblings. I swear that the only thing that kept her sane from all of the work was all pf the time that she spent with us, especially in our garden. It wasn't much, but we were really proud of it. It's been a hobby that's stayed with me for years now. Since now I'm getting paid for this job, I have a fair bit of money so I wanted to dedicate a garden to my parents, and what better place to do it than in a place like this. My mom's health has been declining for the past few years, and I wanted to fly her out here to show her in person since that won't be something I can do forever. I know that I'll and up rebuilding it myself, but having the others do it today helped me get my mint off of it for a while," Lance said in a tone that was both nostalgic and sad.
Liv looked extremely touched by the story and gave Lance a hug, which they held for a seemingly long amount of time. "I can't even begin to try to understand how you feel right now, but just know that we're all supportive of you."
"Thanks, Liv," Lance said with a smile. "I needed someone to talk to and I'm thankful you listened."
"You're a really sweet and strong person, Lance. You should be proud of yourself because a lot of people wouldn't be able to try to do something of this nature again. I know your mom will love whatever it is that you do," Liv said supportively.
"I hope that's how it is," Lance said hopefully.
In the Team Xenon sector of the garden, things were going relatively well. Monique, Landon, Felix and Daniella were assigned to planting as the others were responsible for transporting new supplies back and forth.
Felix and Monique were digging holes in the ground for the plants for the other two to fill with flowers and other greenery.
"This challenge went really downhill once this forced labor started," Felix said glumly.
"I agree with you, but it's either we do this or we lose because everyone else is overworked," Monique said. "I know which once I'd rather have happen."
"If we win, then I'll be happy, but this challenge will be a bitch to lose," Felix noted. "I think we've probably dug enough holes for the others. Maybe we should stop."
Monique and Felix turned around and looked at the ground that they had covers, which had an extremely large amount of holes. Daniella and Landon were at essentially the other end of the garden trying to pick up the pace. "Yeah, maybe you're right about stopping," Monique agreed. The two walked off to the side and sat down for a break.
"I can't believe that they're going so quickly," Landon said wiping sweat off of his forehead. He planted a group of lilies in a hole and kept moving forward.
"Tellme about it," Daniella agreed. "It's good to have that work ethic, but we just can't keep up. Maybe we should ask them to help us."
"Nah, they've done everything they needed to, so they deserve a break for a while," Landon stated. He put an orchid in the next hole.
Daniella picked up the golden flower plant that Carson had found and put in in the middle of the holes and planted it into the ground. "We can let them sit for now, but if we fall behind they better get back here and help out," she said. Landon nodded in response.
Confessional:
Monique: Spending the better part of a day digging holes in dirt isn't something that I would normally be doing, but there's a reward at stake so that changes things. Although, in all honesty, I would've much rather been a supply runner instead, but that doesn't really matter.
Landon: Daniella and I have been picking up the pace for planting the flowers and stuff, thankfully, but there's still so much more work to do. I'm sure it's not good to focus on all of the hard stuff that we have to inevitably do, but I can't help it.
Right next to where Team Xenon was working, Team Neon was working with similar speed and efficiency. Adrian, Rowena, and Shayli stayed behind to begin the planting process, and Jaime stayed behind to work on building the fountain. The others were the designated runners.
Sitting in the shade under a large tree off to the side, Jaime was perplexed on how to build the fountain. It wasn't exceptionally heavy, but there were a lot of intricate pieces that needed to be put together to make the fountain work properly.
Jaime let out a large sigh as he tried screwing a decorative piece onto the base, only for it to detach moments later. "Of course these instructions aren't in English. I mean why wouldn't they be? This is such a joke," he thought to himself in frustration. He stood up and stretched out after being hunched over the fountain for a while and looked at what he had accomplished: virtually nothing. Most of the pieces were still scattered around just as they had been when the box was first opened. Jaime took a walk off to clear his head.
In the garden area, the three planters were working as efficiently as they could, with all of them working on digging and planting at the same time.
"The other team over there is doing all of the holes first and then planting," Shayli observed. "Should we try that?"
"No. This working just fine and there's not really any need to fix what we're doing," Adrian said.
"We're already getting pretty low on plants," Rowena said looking at the reserves sitting around. There were only a few shrubs and the decorative stone from before as everything else had been used up. "The others better get back here soon."
"Helena and Otto probably will, but I'm not sure about Bram," Shayli noted.
"It's too early to be worrying," Adrian said. "Later, sure, but for now we have time."
"Let's hope we won't even have the need to rush," Rowena said hopefully.
Confessional:
Jaime: This fountain construction situation is really getting on my nerves. It I can get it working, then that'll be really good, but if I can't get it, then I would've wasted hours when I could've been helping. It was Adrian's idea, anyways.
Shayli: Judging by where we are compared to the other teams, I think that we're doing pretty well for the time that we've been working, but they might have some really good strategy that we're not aware of. I really hope that's not the case.
Team Krypton, occupying the farthest right area of the designated gardening area was, like the other teams, on relatively the same pace. Angelica, Xavier, Henrique, and Sebastian stayed to plant as the others had other jobs to do. They didn't have as many plants in terms of numbers, but they had a few trees and stones that took up a lot of area on their own.
"I was thinking that since we have stone and the trees they we need here already, we could do like a walkway type thing with the stone and have the trees in the middle," Angelica stated. "Does that sound good?"
"That sounds good to me," Xavier said. "We'll just have to fill in the rest of the area with the smaller stuff I guess."
"Let's get the trees in the ground now since they're heavier. We can worry about the rock and other stuff after," Henrique stated. He and the other three paired up and picked up the trees and carried them to the center.
"And now we dig, I guess," Sebastian said. "This should be fun." Xavier and Henrique shoveled two holes in the ground and the trees were placed in the middle. Angelica and Sebastian packed the dirt around the tree to support it.
"It looks pretty good to me," Angelica stated. "What do you guys think?"
"I think it looks nice. Definitely nicer than what the other teams have," Henrique said. Both Xavier and Sebastian agreed to this. The four next went to place the rocks in position.
Confessional:
Angelica: While our team doesn't have as many individual things placed in our area, our stuff easily take up the most space, so I'd say that is a solid start. I'm not sure exactly what Lance's criteria is, but I'm confident we'll do well.
Henrique: This challenge isn't actually all that bad, but I would greatly appreciate if the weather was like yesterday: cool and cloudy. I don't hate being in the heat or anything like that, but if I had the choice, I would be somewhere else.
The rest of the campers were all busy retrieving more supplies from the dock for their respective teams. Michelle, Lara, and Carson went intent on gathering larger plants to cover more area of their garden.
Lara was standing next to two small, identical shrubs as she called the others over. "Should we use these?" she asked her teammates.
"They look fine to me, but they're kind of drab," Carson said. "We can use those as long as we get something else with a lot of color." Lara nodded and picked up the two shrubs.
Michelle, a few yards away, was searching for anything that stood out with a splash of color, but was coming across mostly green. She moved inward towards the center of the pile and looked there for just a moment before spotting two hydrangeas, one blue and one white. Satisfied, she picked them up and walked back toward the others.
"Those are nice, Michelle. Where did you find them?" Carson asked.
"Right in the middle over there," Michelle said. "It feels like that's where all of the good stuff is."
"My experience leads me to think the same way," Carson said as he went toward the middle as well.
Michelle walked over to Lara and placed the hydrangeas down. "I think we should probably just go back now since our hands are full," Michelle said.
"Yeah, that's fine," Lara nodded. "Hopefully Carson can hurry up." The two girls went back toward the inner island as Carson came back out holding a bag of mosaic rock.
"They left me? That's unfortunate since they'll be blown away by when I have," Carson thought to himself as he walked back as well.
Confessional:
Carson: Sure, the bag of rocks isn't as good of a find as those golden flowers from earlier, but we can use some more diversity in our garden since right now it's only plants. They'll thank me for this, I just know it.
Helena, Otto, and Bram were searching the supplies as well at this time, but were coming up relatively empty-handed. Helena was searching for a rose bush to plant, but was unrewarded in her efforts.
Otto walked over to Helena and asked if he could help. "What exactly are you looking for?" he asked.
"I'm trying to find a rose bush because I know other people have found them, but I can't seem to," she lamented.
"I'll help you, but I can't guarantee anything," Otto offered. Helena thanked him as they both began to look.
A few minutes had passed and Helena finally found what she was looking for. Granted, the bush she found was rather small, but she was happy nonetheless.
"Otto, I found one," Helena exclaimed happily as she turned to face Otto, who was holding a multitude of smaller plants of varying colors and shapes.
"I got distracted," he said with a chuckle. Helena smiled and laughed. The two went back toward the garden.
Bram, the only one on his team still left on the dock, moped around, picking up a few smalls flowers before having an idea. "We're going to need to have water for the fountain, so that's what I should be getting," he thought to himself. He grabbed a large empty pot from the dock and dipped in into the seas saltwater and carried that back with a few of the small flowers. Content, he began his walk back toward the employee resort.
Confessional:
Bram: My team will thank me for thinking outside of the box this time. They underestimate me, but that won't be happening any longer after this. Needless to say, I'm extremely proud of myself for this.
The members of Team Krypton responsible for the transportation, Devin, Lotus, and Emily, were busy doing the job that they had set for themselves. Devin had picked up two more trees by himself, one in each hand, and began his walk back.
"Are you sure you don't need any help carrying those?" Emily asked. "Those seem really heavy."
"Thanks for the offer, Emily. But no, I'm plenty capable of carrying both of these by myself," Devin said.
"Well, okay, but if you need any help, just call me over," Emily said, which elicited a nod from Devin as he went off. Afterwards, she went over to Lotus.
"Hey, Emily, did you find anything good yet?" Lotus asked.
"No, unfortunately. There's plenty of stuff here, but not really anything that catches my eye," Emily said. "I guess I could just grab more rocks since I guess that's our theme."
"That sounds like a good idea. We'll still need some smaller stuff to put around the edges, so that's what I'm getting right now," Lotus stated. Emily walked off to gather more rocks as Lotus picked up small flowers in pink, purple, and white. The two walked off about a minute later.
Confessional:
Emily: I like the way our garden is coming along, but we probably won't have as big of a garden as the other teams, and that could hurt us. But, on the other hand, we have a lot of rocks and some nice looking trees, so we should be fine. Or at least I hope.
A few more trips from dock to garden had passed before Lance walked out of the employee resort. The contestants at the garden looked toward them, expecting news.
"I know that I haven't been very informative on this challenge, but there's a half an hour left for you all to perfect your garden. Keep that in mind before and radical changes are made," Lance said. "That being said, I'll be going back and will be returning when the challenge is ending. Good luck." He walked back into the complex and sat back down with Liv at a table. The two were each drinking a coffee.
"How is the challenge going?" Liv asked. "I hope my team is winning."
"It's hard to say as of right now, but it should be close at the end," Lance stated.
"I guess we'll just have to wait and see," Liv said. "I'm not worried or anything, but some clarification would be nice. It just feels better to be sure."
"Trust me, I understand that, but I wouldn't be a very good impartial host to tell you the results ahead of time. I would if I could," Lance said. Liv nodded in understanding and the two drank some of their coffee.
Everyone of Team Xenon was working to help finish out the design of their garden. Felix and Monique had finished the hole and were helping out as well.
"Make sure these go toward the middle with the golden flowers," Michelle said to Monique, handing her the hydrangeas.
"Alright. I think we may need a few more plants after this, but they don't need to be large," Monique said as she grabbed the pots and went toward the middle."
Carson and Landon were walking around the dirt in between the plants and other holes and were placing the decorative mosaic rock in between the areas.
"These are pretty colorful, so as long as they go near some darker stuff, then it should look fine," Landon said. "Thoughts?"
"Yeah, that sounds like a plan," Carson agreed. "The thing is, do we have enough to go around?"
"We should. If not, then we can always make a quick run back and it'll work out," Landon said. He and Carson continued their placing of the rocks as the others were occupied with planting the rest of the flowers and shrubs.
Felix walked over from the side of the garden and handed smaller pots of marigolds and tulips to Lara and Daniella, who were planting them in the ground.
"We're running low on plants. How many more spots do we have to fill?" he asked the others.
"We have quite a few left. Like 10 or 15 probably," Daniella said while looking at the garden.
"Are we going to have to get more stuff?" Lara asked. "It's getting relatively late in the challenge."
"I don't think so," Felix said. "If worst comes to worst, then we can just split a plant into two separate buds and just go with that. Although, that's the very last of last resorts." Lara and Daniella continued to plant as Felix handed them more plants.
The general atmosphere on Team Neon was less stressed then the other two teams, but everyone was still working with the quickest pace possible. Adrian and Jaime carried the completed fountain over to the center of the garden and stabilized it.
"It looks good," Adrian said contently. "I'm sure that it was a bitch to make, though."
"Tell me about it," Jaime said. "If I could read Mandarin, then I could've actually used the instructions, but we can't all have what we want."
"That really does suck, bro, but I think it paid off," Adrian said. A moment later, the others came to see the fountain closer.
"Let's see if this thing works," Rowena said.
"I hope it does. It looks nice sitting here in between these plants," Otto said.
"I brought some water here," Bram said. "Let me grab it."
The rest of his team waited as he walked off and returned with the pot of water.
"Does anyone want to have the honor of pouring the water in the fountain?" Bram asked.
"No one care. Just do it yourself," Helena said.
Bram dumped the water into the reservoir in the base of the fountain and Jaime turned it on. It took a moment, but the water came out of the top and created a peaceful atmosphere. For about 30 seconds, then fountain worked perfectly, but then the base support suddenly snapped off and the fountain collapsed on the ground, spilling the salt water all of the plants at the base. Not only did the fountain get destroyed, but the salt water drenched the small plants at the bottom. The sheer amount of water caused the plants at the bottom to wilt and droop over.
"Shiiiiiiiit," Helena said in disbelief.
"Bram, did you by chance happen to use the saltwater from the water surrounding the island?" Shayli asked angrily.
"Yeah. It was the only water there," Bram admitted.
"That's why the plants are all dead now. You're such an idiot," Shayli yelled.
"It wouldn't have made a difference if Jaime didn't make a broken fountain," Bram said.
"It wasn't my idea anyways. It was Adrian's idea to grab it," Jaime said, passing the blame.
"I was just trying to make this garden look nice because you guys are all incompetent," Adrian said justifyingly.
"You're calling us incompetent? At least we have the decency to spend time with each other so this shit doesn't happen," Rowena said.
As this was going on, Otto and Helena were trying to save the garden, but ended up just leaving a large open space in the middle since the ground was muddy with salt water.
The large amount of bickering and general hysteria was extremely noticeable, especially to the members of Team Krypton.
"Geez, what on earth is going on over there?" Emily asked curiously.
"It beats me, but it's good if they're not doing anything productive," Devin said, planting another tree in the ground. "How many trees are left to plant?"
"Four I believe," Emily counted. "We don't have enough time to go get more, so we'll just have to use what we have."
Angelica and Xavier were walking straight through the garden area, placing stone on a path throughout to the other side.
"This is coming together really well, surprisingly," Xavier said with satisfaction. "Not to be condescending to our team or anything, but I had my doubts."
"No, I understand completely," Angelica said in agreement. "Judging by how the other teams are performing, I think our chances are pretty strong."
"If everyone else does their job well, we'll be set," Xavier said. "We just need that to happen."
"It will. It will," Angelica nodded in agreement.
Lotus, Sebastian, and Henrique were tasked with placing flowers and other small greenery along the sides of the pathway for more detail. They were working pretty speedily and were almost done by the time the others finished.
"It feels like we didn't grab this many plants, but I guess I've been missing something," Lotus said.
"We're almost done here, so that's good. This day has been strenuous as hell," Henrique said.
"At least it's a nice day to be doing something like this. It could always be a lot worse," Sebastian said.
"It's too hot for my liking, personally," Henrique said as he stood up and stretched as he finished planting his last flower. "I think we're just about done."
"Thank God. I need a rest after this," Lotus said after planting her last flower. "I'm glad this is all done."
Sebastian got up with the others and set is gardening gloves down on the ground. "And now I guess we wait for the others to finish."
"TIME'S UP!" Lance exclaimed through a megaphone as a large air horn blasted through the air. The teams all gathered and stood by their works and waited for Lance to judge each of them. Lance took a close look at each team's garden and took a few steps back to decide the results to himself.
The teams all had distinct looks on their faces, with Team Xenon looking a bit nervous and anxious, Neon looking angry and volatile, and Krypton looking content. Lance seems to gather his thought and cleared his voice before announcing the results.
"Team Neon, due to your garden being unfinished and being rather barren in the center, where it should be most lively, you placed last and will be sending someone home tonight," Lance dictated.
Team Neon looked angry, but not necessarily surprised as they accepted their inevitable results.
"And now," Lance said with a pause as he looked at both of the other teams, "The winners of this challenge…
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Team Xenon!"
The members of Xenon rejoiced and celebrated with themselves as the Krypton members looked relatively indifferent over their middle-place finish.
"Team Neon, I'll be seeing you at the campfire tonight… again. Team Xenon, your reward for this challenge will be a two hour session in our luxurious pool and spa area in the resort. This will be tomorrow if you're interested. That is all I have to say," Lance said as he headed back inside. At this time, Liv walked out and confronted her team.
"Second place isn't too bad," Liv said positively.
"Eh, you can't win them all," Devin said with a shrug. "We'll come back stronger next time."
The contestants all left the resort area a few minutes after the challenge ended.
Confessional:
Michelle: Our first victory feels just as good as I thought it would. We pulled together much better than I thought we would, which sounds condescending, but it can be hard to recover from a loss. I'm glad that didn't affect us.
Xavier: Us losing a challenge was bound to happen eventually, but at least we didn't lose lose. If I was the one judging, I definitely would've given us the win since we actually had a design, but you can't always get what you want.
Adrian: This challenge was supposed to be a break from the apparent shit show that happened this morning, but it ended up being just as bad, if not worse. It's a shame that blame just happened to get thrown at me, but I'm not worried about the voting tonight.
In the girls' side on the Team Neon cabin, Shayli and Rowena were talking strategy for the ceremony that would be later that night.
"So it's between Bram and Jaime and maybe Adrian tonight," Rowena summarized. "I'm leaning towards Jaime or Bram, personally."
"I agree with you on that, but they're both people that are honestly equally to blame for the loss," Shayli said. "What are each of their pros and cons?"
"Well, Bram is lazy and doesn't do anything, but I feel like I can actually trust him," Rowena said.
"Why can't you say that you trust Jaime?" Shayli asked. "I'd feel better voting for Bram."
"Something just doesn't sit right with me about Jaime's personality," Rowena admitted. "I mean, we don't necessarily need to vote for the same person tonight."
"Technically no, but I'd feel better if we did. So, we're voting Jaime?" Shayli asked.
"If you think it's the best option."
Bram was sitting in his smoking area, but this time he wasn't in any attempt to get high. Rather, he was just sitting there in peace staring off into the sunset. He was disturbed as he heard someone approach him.
"Who's there," he asked nervously.
"It's me," Jaime said as he walked closer and sat down next to Bram. "We're targets tonight, so we should vote together for Adrian."
"Maybe, but who else would vote with us?" Bram asked.
"I'll figure that out myself. Trust me," Jaime said confidently.
"Uh, I guess so. Just make sure you get everyone on board," Bram said as Jaime nodded and walked off.
"This is too easy," Jaime thought to himself as he descending down the hill.
On the beach outside of the cabins, Helena, Otto, and Adrian were sitting discussing the vote.
"Why exactly am I here? I assumed no one liked me," Helena said suspiciously.
"First of all, that's not true, and second, we need votes to get Bram off," Otto said. "We got you here because you clearly don't like him."
"What make you say that?" Adrian asked curiously.
"I kind of snapped at him earlier because he was really aggravating me earlier," Helena clarified. "I have no reservations against voting him out, personally."
"Yeah, I can understand why people could also vote for Jaime, but at least he's friendly and actually comes around the rest of the team," Adrian said. "So we're final on this?"
"Yes," Otto and Helena said in unison.
At the campfire ceremony, the tension among Team Neon was just the same as it had been before, with many glares being shot around.
"The votes have been cast and the verdict will be delivered shortly. You've been here before, so you know the drill. When I call your name, stand up and retrieve your coconut," Lance stated.
"Helena…"
"Rowena…"
"Otto…"
"Shayli…"
"Adrian…"
Jaime and Bram, the only two left without a coconut were sitting in anxiousness awaiting Lance's next words.
"The last coconut goes to…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
Jaime."
Jaime, with a thankful look on his face, stood up and joined the rest of his team with their coconuts.
"Bram, I'm sorry to say, but you've been voted off the island. Please grab your belongings and meet me at the dock."
Minutes later, the sky had grown dark and the source of light had become solely artificial.
Bram, now high, was standing bored on the dock with Lance.
"Bram Dickson, I'm sorry to say this, but you have been eliminated from Total Drama Tropic. You have placed 22nd. As part of your departure ceremony, it is custom for me to read you a voting confessional from a contestant that voted you out," Lance explained.
"Fine by me. The worst part is already over," Bram said melodramatically.
"Bram," Lance read, "You really were destined to go early because I don't think that I can recall anything that you have done right on this island because everything you've done has been marked with your failure. If I would say that I miss you, then I would be lying, and we both know that I'm too good at that for you to notice."
"Was that Helena saying that?" Bram asked.
"I can't say. Please step on the boat," Lance said.
Bram got on the boat and it began to sail away toward the Losers' Resort. Lance turned around and got ready to do his outro.
"With a new team taking over as the victors, will things finally start to shake up some more around here? How will the drama unfold from here on out? What strategies will be enforced? Find out next time on Total Drama Tropic!"
"Cut!"
A/N: As much as I've tried to keep with my every-Friday update schedule, I knew eventually I would fall behind a bit, and now I think it's starting to happen. Considering that I've had 3 essays due within the last two weeks and working around 30 hours on top of that, I was surprised to get this done even this early. Anyways, about Bram: I knew that when I created his character that he wasn't destined for much, but I really like writing for him since he was extremely chill and was probably the most laid back character on the show. He didn't really have any long-term development in my eyes, so 22nd place is where he was bound to be. If you read and enjoyed, feedback is very much appreciated!
