Okay. One of my favourite challenges coming up. No talent show of course, but that's all right. Thanks for reviewing, Nicky Haugh, OmniPlanckInstant (so what does that actually tell you?), Gage The Hedgehog, Bloodylilcorpse, PokemonFTW, SuperKitty4789 and TheProtecterOfHim.

I should have known what Sky was going to ask me. Her voice was quiet, but her tone was firm as she said "I want to hear the truth. How many times have you manipulated everyone in this game?"

But instead of expecting it, I was actually surprised. "I haven't manipulated people, Sky!" I insisted. "Maybe I've pushed a few things further than I needed to, but they were all bound to happen."

"Stop lying!" Sky said forcefully. "It's not that hard to notice. You've used people all the time. You only teamed up with Shawn yesterday and made me pair up with Ella because you thought she wouldn't be strong enough."

"Life and death." I replied simply. "This is a game. When it's survival of the fittest, I need someone stronger on my side, and I knew you'd look after Ella for me. Why does that make you think I've manipulated people?"

Then Sky pulled out another accusation that I'd almost forgotten. "Well, what about Sugar?" she challenged. "I'm pretty sure it was your intervention that made everyone vote her off. Otherwise, it would have been me."

I gave a sigh. "You're yelling at me for an act that saved you? We had to vote off someone! I was sick of the way Sugar was treating Ella. Of course I talked Ella up a bit while telling Sugar off for being mean to her. I didn't make Sugar show herself up when she laughed at Ella getting electrocuted."

"Yes, but that's not the only elimination you've helped cause, is it?" Sky said stubbornly. "It's the final three. Can't you be honest now? How many?"

I wasn't getting out of this one. I wasn't a born manipulator – not really. I could do some, but without the overheard confessionals, I wouldn't have been able to. "I guess I might've said something that caused Topher's elimination." I mumbled. "But only because I didn't want the team to vote off an undeserving Sammy. And I listened in to a few of our teammates to help decide some of my votes."

Unfortunately, this didn't help my case. "You listened in to confessionals?!" Sky went pink, her dark eyes hard. "I can't believe you, Julie! I thought you were a decent person at first! But you're just like...I don't know, someone who was like the designated villain of the last few seasons!"

"Oh, come on, Sky!" I snapped. "You're here to win, just like me. I heard you say that after the second challenge. Are you honestly comparing me to people like...I don't know, Alejandro? Heather? Courtney?"

"Maybe you're not quite like Heather," Sky said, "But you've been faking friendliness for a while now and listening into confessionals! So yes, I am comparing you to Alejandro...and Scott, for that matter."

"Listen to yourself!" I said, now frustrated. "I didn't try to lead the team and sabotage people like Scott did. And I wasn't faking friendliness! I genuinely liked Ella and Beardo! I didn't vote either of them off, in case you didn't notice. And I liked you and Dave and Shawn too! I liked Sammy and Jasmine. It's true I didn't like Amy or Sugar, and I was never quite sure about Scarlett, but I was not pretending to be friendly! I really liked most of the people on here! Why are you acting like I've committed some horrible crime? I mean, I know you don't like cheating, but I haven't cheated! And I thought you didn't like trash talk, but that's what you're doing right now! Why, Sky? I mean, fine, you can try to beat me tomorrow, but there's no point in all this!"

"Fine." Sky scowled at me. "I will try to beat you tomorrow. And I'm going to tell Shawn everything you just told me, so he's on his guard, too. Trust me, you won't be in the finale. I'd rather lose to Shawn than let you in the final two!"

With that, Sky left the treehouse, her face still flushed with anger. I was left feeling like a total jerk. Even though I'd tried to justify the things I'd done, and I truly believed I hadn't done anything totally evil, Sky's words really got to me. She'd had no right to go off on me like that, but then, had I had the right to sway Team Kinosewak to ditch Topher all those days ago?

Well, it was still a game. It wasn't really fair of Sky to call me a villain. I was sure I hadn't joined the ranks of those we'd listed.

From the end of that argument to the next morning, Sky didn't say a word to me. I said "Good morning" when we got up, but she just narrowed her eyes at me and didn't reply.

I tried to get a reaction out of her. "Oh, come on, Sky! Do you have to be so childish? You can be civil without going easy on me, you know! I'm not asking you to be friends with me – just be a little nicer!"

"Good morning." Sky muttered out, not really looking at me properly. Then she went back to ignoring me as she climbed out of the treehouse.

I went to the confessional after that. "There's no point in using this to listen in on people anymore, anyway, so I might as well start using it for its intended purpose." I shrugged at the camera. "I know enough about Sky and Shawn already, plus Sky will probably check I'm nowhere around next time she uses this thing. But I'm not the villain she's making me out to be! Right? I'm just playing the game! How can that be so wrong?"

Well, my feelings aside, I couldn't change Sky's mind. By the time Chris called us to the challenge and we'd reached the meeting area, I could tell she'd already done as she'd said she would and told Shawn about my strategies. His glance at me wasn't exactly angry, but I could tell he wasn't too likely to let me into the finale either., even if he beat Sky today. It was still an unfriendly look.

"Children of competition," Chris said brightly, "Your toughest challenge yet will be in three parts. Head to head to head."

"Meaning?" I said.

"Each player gets to create one of those parts."

"I get to create my own challenge?" Sky said excitedly.

"You all do, within reason." Chris told her. "Winner of each challenge gets three points, second place gets two, and the loser gets one. After all three challenges, the player with the lowest total points gets to see the inside of the cannon – briefly. The two highest scorers get to battle it out in the finale."

We all made confessionals this time, although the other two insisted I go first. "My challenge is going to be simple." I told the confessional. "I'm not sure how good Sky will be. Oh well, it's not gymnastics – that would be a disaster. And it's not going to involve crazy agility, either, since I know that's Shawn's strength. My theory is, as long as I choose something I'm good at that I know they're not necessarily amazing at, I'm more likely to get it right. I just wish my strengths weren't so close to theirs! If only I had Ella's singing voice, or Izzy's combat skills, or...not Zoey's agility, that's Sky's thing – but B's inventing skills would be awesome, or Dawn's ability to talk to animals...though not sure how I could make that into a challenge. It's all about my strengths and Sky and Shawn's weaknesses. Problem is, they have so few weaknesses and so many strengths. And by the way, if you two are outside listening in, I respect both of you. No matter which of us goes home today, that stands. You two can be mad at me all you want, but I'm not trying to butter you up here and make you go easy. I know you guys'll put up a good fight. But seriously, if you're expecting me to threaten lawyers on Chris or get seriously mad if I get eliminated, you're wrong. I'm not the villain, no matter what you think."

I knew perfectly well that my competitors were thinking along the same lines – what weaknesses did we have that they could exploit?

Sky got to do her challenge first. It was a 100m hurdles race.

I had to make a confessional about that. "Oh, Sky." I sighed. "You should've chosen something more along the gymnastics side. This is just progressive high jump and running. Too bad, girl. Next time, try something with a few flips."

Of course, Chris added some surprises, but it didn't matter. Shawn started falling behind almost instantly, while Sky and I were almost neck-and-neck for most of the race. Then she fell into a pit, and as for me? Well, I jumped over a beehive and ended up with quite a few stings.

But it didn't matter. I still made my last hurdle just a fraction before Sky. She sped up, but so did I. We crossed the finish line, almost together. But my foot touched the ground after the line just half a second before her.

"Julie wins!" Chris announced. "Three points for her. Two for Sky in second place, and Shawn gets one point for effort."

Sky shot a glare at me. I shrugged and smiled back. My challenge was next. As long as I won that one, I was in the finale, since even if I lost Shawn's challenge, I'd still have seven points, and only one of us could get eight (if I didn't win all three, no one could get a perfect nine).

"The challenge is a footrace around the whole island!" Chris explained. "Only on the ground, though – it was specified that no tree-hopping was allowed." (I didn't want to take that risk, otherwise Shawn would definitely win). "Of course, again, I thought this was a pretty boring challenge, so I added another few surprises to-"

"Make things more interesting." I interrupted. "We've heard it all before. If Alejandro and Heather can predict you saying it by the end of one season, so can we."

I should've kept my big mouth shut. Today became my worst day on the island – well, okay, second worst. At least I didn't look death in the face. You know what Chris did? So many obstacles were easy enough to avoid. About three-quarters of the race passed, and I was in the lead. I kept running, running, running...

And fell.

I'd tripped over a tree stump. Of all the things that could've stopped me, a stupid tree stump that wasn't even real like everything else on the island was the thing to trip me.

And guess what? Yeah, I couldn't have just twisted my ankle a little bit. No, I didn't sprain it either. After Chef checked me over, he told me I'd broken it. So a tree stump got me a broken ankle! Yeah, how was that fair?

I had to try to be brave, though. I smiled at Sky and Shawn. "Well, I guess the semifinals are over. Good luck tomorrow, guys. I'll be thinking of you."

"Wait," Chris said, laughing. "This doesn't mean the semifinals are over. All this means, Julie, is that I get to fire you out of a cannon. Sky and Shawn still have to do Shawn's challenge."

So I watched them. All they had to do was get to the finish line without touching the ground. Well, Shawn wanted a scavenger hunt to find government documents proving that there was the development of a zombie virus, but you can guess why Chris couldn't okay that. He didn't add anything dangerous to the challenge, but that was because there were a few things already in the trees.

Both of them seemed to do pretty well, and in the end, Sky narrowly won, due to a monkey with a chainsaw. Not that it mattered.

I had to wait to get a cast and crutches until I left the island, so I ended up spending the rest of the day sitting around with a throbbing pain. But just before elimination, the two finalists came back to where I was sitting. They were both smiling.

"We figured it would take a while for you to get to the elimination area." Sky explained.

"So we thought we might as well help you get there." Shawn added.

The two of them played crutches for me. And as we walked (or in my case, hopped), we talked a bit more pleasantly.

"I broke my ankle a couple of years ago." Sky told me. "I know how much it hurts."

"And it must suck to get taken out of the competiton by injury." Shawn said. "Sorry it had to end this way."

I managed a smile. "Thanks. It means a lot to hear you guys saying that. Especially since I expected Sky to consider it my karma."

Sky thought about that. Finally, she said "Well, I guess I sort of do. But I didn't think you deserved to break your ankle over the win. I mean, it is really painful. I'm not taking back what I said yesterday, but me saying you didn't deserve to be in the finale didn't mean I wanted you to get taken out like this. I wanted you to lose fair and square."

As I said, it really did mean a lot that my co-competitors were that supportive. My last words on Pahkitew Island as Chris pressed the button, were simply "Play hard, guys!"

Yes, Julie is out, and we have our original final two. I know a lot of you expected Julie to make it to the finale, but let's face it, villains never win this show. This was just Julie's time to go. As she runs track, I thought the footrace made the most sense as her challenge, and I figured she'd also be good at the hurdles race. Consider her broken ankle the same thing as Heather losing her hair or Justin getting pushed off a building, or Alejandro getting burned by lava, or Scott mauled by Fang. It seems like a good middle ground – Julie is injured, but she'll heal fairly easily, and she can communicate well. It's not painless like Heather, but it doesn't go too far like Scott.