Okay, let's keep moving. And by the way – something I have in common with Corrine. I used to think Dubai was in India for some reason. I think the name threw me off, reminding me of Mumbai and Delhi at the same time. Needless to say, never been there. But I'd like to go someday. Thanks for reviewing to EmEm811, Silver Writer 0927, Gage the Hedgehog, AA, Bloodylilcorpse and RainbowMonkeys.

In answer to your question, RainbowMonkeys, Corrine has long strawberry-blonde hair and green eyes. She has no freckles and as I mentioned, she's of average weight with still some baby fat. She's a few inches shorter than Junior, and I'm sure I mentioned her outfit already.

Taxis suck. I mean, let's think about it. Kat and I were in second place. Second. Place. We fell to joint seventh because we got a taxi with the most cautious driver ever. The next location was Dubai (I thought it was somewhere in India until Kat explained where it was), and we had to take the second flight, something we hadn't had to do since the flight to Morocco. The only good thing about it was that I'd definitely have someone to talk to on the flight. Junior, for one thing. The twins, too. And Laurie and Miles were on the same flight, too, so at least we'd actually have a chance to work with our alliance.

But meanwhile, we were waiting in the airport for an extra hour. While Kat got talking to the Vegans again, she said to me "Don't worry, we're not talking about alliance stuff at the moment. You don't have to stick with me right now. Why don't you go and talk to one of your friends?"

I felt like snapping at her, treating me like a little kid. Besides, it wasn't like Laurie and Miles were her age – in fact, I was closer in age to them than she was! I was five years younger, she was six years older. I guess she didn't see a difference because they were closer to adulthood. And me? I still looked like a kid.

But I did go and talk to the twins, after a while. They were in a better mood than usual, having to battle a ton of allergies in the last challenge and surviving it all. Plus they'd exceeded everyone's expectations.

"I didn't even hope to last through five eliminations!" Mickey said, his eyes shining. "I still can't believe it."

"At this point, I'm even thinking it's not crazy to think we could possibly win." added Jay.

I grinned back at them and teased "Actually, that is crazy. Second place, maybe. Me and Kat are gonna win!"

After my first sentence, the twins had looked shocked and disheartened. But when they realized what I was getting at, both of them laughed with me.

Our seats on the flight were actually opposite the twins. We didn't even have to take off before Jay pressed the flight attendant button because Mickey was getting a nosebleed.

"How much longer is this flight?" the ill twin groaned.

"We're still on the ground, you babies." Taylor said from the seat behind him. And you would think someone would tell her to be nice, but no. You know what Kelly actually said to her?
"I like how you handled that, honey."

"Oh, do I get a fake trophy for it?" Taylor replied snarkily.

I turned to Kat. "Why does she let Taylor speak to her like that?"

Kat gave a sigh. "Poor Kelly. I know what Taylor means by that. You remember how Kelly lost her temper in Hawaii? I found out later that she'd told Taylor that all of the awards she has were fake – her dad paid for them all, and he paid off her coaches to lie and say she was the best at everything. They even paid off judges of beauty pageants so she'd win them! Taylor knows Kelly's sorry for what she said and is using it against her."

I nodded. "Yeah, I got that part."

After we took off, I heard Taylor saying "Mom, I need some space. I'm giving you a time out."

Yeah, exactly. When Kelly tried to protest, Taylor was about to make herself pass out by holding her breath, and her mother left her on her own and took a seat next to Dwayne and Junior.

The flight was almost a day long, so there was a lot of time to move back and forth. Kat and I didn't discuss any alliance stuff with the Vegans again, but eventually, Kat got into a conversation with Miles in their allotted aisle, and Laurie, just like on the first flight, swapped seats with Kat and instead, talked to me.

The two of them were back on full form with the competition. They'd been on shaky ground for the first few episodes after the feast dilemma – according to Laurie, Miles had thought for some reason that she had enjoyed the Icelandic feast, but even if she had, she'd felt so guilty for it that she'd never try meat again – but they had recovered and were playing with new determination. Well, they did seem to be placing higher now – they started off being almost last and now they were mostly in the middle. And now that they didn't need support any more, we were back to an equal friendship.

And there was that advice I needed. "Laurie," I said hesitantly, "There's something I need advice on. It's kind of...crush advice."

"Oh?" Laurie motioned for me to go on.

"Well, I don't really know." I confessed. "But I've been talking to Junior a lot...you know, since he's the closest person in age to me. And I think we're friends, but I kind of...I kind of want to be more than friends with him. But I don't know what that means. It's just...he's really cool, and I want to keep hanging out with him. I know I probably should tell him, but I don't want to make our friendship weird."

Laurie hesitated before answering. Her face was thoughtful. "I've never actually been in a serious relationship before." she admitted. "I didn't really notice boys until I was, like, fifteen, so I'm not really the right person to ask. You could ask your sister-"

"No way." I said firmly. "She'd tease me. Please, Laurie, don't tell anyone I told you."

Laurie nodded, and I believed her. "Okay, Corrine. I won't tell anyone. I guess...the best advice I can give you is to let him know at some point. Don't feel you have to tell him now, but he deserves to know. Maybe when you guys are better friends." She suddenly grinned mischeviously. "But don't worry. I think he probably likes you back."

I raised an eyebrow. "How can you tell? I thought he had a crush on Carrie."

Laurie shrugged. "I don't know about that, but I just got the impression he likes you. A couple of times, I noticed him looking at you without you seeing. And then he'd just sort of smile a little bit." She paused, and then added "Actually, now I think about it, haven't you been doing that?"

I blushed. "Maybe..." I admitted. "A few times."

It was good to get on the ground and find our tip. It was another Either-Or. "We have to return a tennis serve or clean a column of windows." Kat read. "Serve?"

I shook my head. "Before we decide, shouldn't we see what we're up against?"

What we were up against was the toughest ball launcher ever. And it was so tough that we chose to do the window washing. So the Sisters were clinging to a platform, hanging off it, but everyone else who was on windows looked as if they were doing okay.

Not the most interesting of challenges, but the Vegans chose to do the same and we had about the same speed and usually ended up washing windows on the same floor, so we talked as we washed.

We were still nowhere near first, though. The Sisters and Reality TV Pros teamed up and finished first, and the Ice Dancers were done when we still had five windows to go.

I don't know how the tennis teams were working, but when we arrived at the golden mall the Chill Zone was, only three tennis teams had arrived, Mickey and Jay being the first of them. They both looked thrilled.

We let Laurie and Miles take eighth place, and we took ninth. As for the winners – well, the Sisters had won, with the Reality TV Pros in second, the twins in third, and the Ice Dancers in fourth again. As a matter of fact, Josee was running around, throwing anything she could find.

"Okay, she's starting to scare me even more." I whispered to Kat.

"She's just angry." Kat said in an infuriatingly soothing tone. "She'll be fine."

"I'm not worked up about it." I said, trying really hard to hang on to my temper. "But she's too old to throw things around when she gets angry."

"True." Kat agreed. "Sorry – I was trying to calm myself down more than you. I'm scared of her too, you know."

I couldn't help smiling a little, as we connected for a moment.

We weren't the only team who forged a connection. It looked like Emma and Kitty had their own alliance with Owen and Noah from then on. And now, not only did Noah seem to really like Emma, but Emma got a bit dreamy and shy around him.

As for the losers...well, the Best Friends nearly lost, but it was Kelly and Taylor who got kicked out. They seemed on better terms than before, but they'd gone shopping before they checked in and only arrived after everyone else had come back.

And you know, they didn't seem that bothered. Taylor even smiled and shrugged "It was fun while it lasted."

And the fun had barely started.

This episode is nice to watch, but as an OC in the world, it's not so fun. The challenge is just so simple. Still, a bit more bonding done.

To everyone, PLEASE check out my fic "I Kissed A Girl". It hasn't really taken off yet and it'll be in the M category when the next chapter is uploaded, but I'd like some support for it. The first four chapters are also posted under the same name on AdultFanFiction.