Heather: Okay, so SideshowJazz1 wanted me to introduce the next challenge. I usually wouldn't even waste my breath on some loser with no fashion sense – seriously, pink Converse? What is she, five? - but she's writing this story and I'm in it, so yeah, enjoy the chapter. And thanks for reviewing, Ali6132.
Me: *sweetly* Thank you, Heather. If it helps, my old Converse were black and my sandals are navy.
Sleeping on a wooden bench with no pillow was not fun at all. I only got like two hours of sleep, although part of that was because I was shaken awake early.
I woke up to find a pair of grey eyes glaring at me. "What-" I mumbled.
"Finally!" Heather snapped. "We don't have that long alone, and we need to talk."
Sure enough, we were alone. "Where's Sierra?" I asked.
"She's in the confessional. Then she's probably going to try to sneak into First Class. Again." Heather answered in a bored tone. "Listen. We need to vote out Alejandro next. I know you like him and all, but he's a threat."
I looked at Heather. "You like him too." I said. "I know you do. I won't tell anyone else or agree with those who tease you about it, as long as you accept that I know. And you're right, he is a threat. But the thing is, whenever I think about voting for him, this weird feeling comes over me and I can't bring myself to do it."
Heather rolled her eyes. "Find some willpower, can't you? But seriously. You're my best chance at an ally now, since my only other prospect is Mrs Crazytown. Deal?"
I smiled at Heather's brutal honesty. "Deal. And can I ask you one question?" Heather's face hardened, and I knew her answer was no, but I took it as a yes anyway. Hey, I was thinking my question could soften her up.
"You know how everyone keeps going on about us and Alejandro being together? Like, all of us at the same time? What do you think they were smoking?"
Heather's face relaxed and she actually half-smiled. "Don't know, but whatever it is, I'm not touching that stuff."
By the time Sierra returned in the morning, asking us to play Dr Phil to her and give her marriage counselling and advice over Cody, we were on almost friendly terms.
Heather and I looked at each other. We both instantly knew what to tell Sierra. If we wanted to crush the boys, we had to get Sierra on our side, which we could do by telling her to focus more on her girlfriends – us. "Boys come and go, but girlfriends are for ever." Heather told her. "And girl to girl, it is my duty to warn you – Alejandro is trying to destroy your marriage."
"Which is why you should vote for him next." I mumbled, looking down. I didn't want him to go, but I knew Heather was right. He had to go next – he was a threat. If I couldn't bring myself to vote for him, maybe Sierra would.
But she just giggled at us. "You're so funny."
"Funny weird or funny 'I'm going to vote for Alejandro at the next elimination?'"
"As if either of you want Alejandro to leave." Sierra laughed. "You two are both so into him, his kidneys are getting crowded. And yes, I said both of you. It's like a three-way relationship. You two like him so much, you don't care if he's into the other, as long as he's into you too."
Sierra was absolutely right, but Heather and I weren't going to tell her that. But we needed her vote, so neither of us denied it.
We arrived on an island with a lot of carvings, one of which the plane knocked over.
"Another piece of world heritage, destroyed." Alejandro commented when we were out of the plane.
"That's not the only chiseled rock that's going to get destroyed today." Heather answered.
"Chiseled, you say?"
"I said gristled." Heather corrected herself. "Arrogant much?"
Sierra squealed over seeing Cody after a night away from him. "Let me look at you! Oh, you've changed so much! Way taller!" She was acting like an annoying aunt or overprotective mom. Cody himself didn't seem bothered, but that was because he was carrying a basketful of candy, which I gathered was the reward for the safari win. I knew Alejandro wouldn't be completely happy to receive candy (I'd asked him after China, and persuaded him into explaining that he wanted to keep himself in top shape and wouldn't eat anything harmful), and he was obviously trying to win Cody over. The boy was on a high, and it wasn't completely to do with all that sugar.
"I'm going to have to trim your hair," Sierra went on, "And your nails."
"Oh, anybody got a camera? You guys are too cute!" squealed Heather, giving me a hard nudge to tell me to join in.
"That is just soooo adorable!" I added. I knew that Sierra, being the Total Drama fan she was, probably saw right through us, but I figured that she'd be okay with sticking with us as long as we didn't vote out her beloved Cody.
According to Chris, we were in Rapanui – Easter Island, the place with the giant carved heads. Our challenge – at least the first part, was to find coloured eggs hidden around the statues. Before explaining any further, Chris gave us coloured headdresses. "Wear 'em with pride."
The style was kind of cool, but seriously, mine was orange. Not my colour – it clashed with my hair, which had been going all coppery-coloured, closer to red than brown because of some of the more sunny destinations we'd been to - Jamaica, Australia, Tanzania...
Anyway, the other headdresses: Sierra's was green, Cody's was purple, Alejandro's was blue, and Heather's was red. We'd have to find three hidden eggs in the colour of our headdress, and bring them through a cavern Chris pointed out to us, to the highest point on the island, where the rest of the challenge would take place. If we accidentally lost or dropped one of our eggs, we'd have to go back for a replacement.
"And no, you cannot take a back-up egg." Chris added when Alejandro raised his hand.
We instantly found out something weird about the heads. They weren't normal...they were carvings of the other contestants, the ones who had left!
While I climbed up Tyler, I heard Alejandro and Sierra talking.
"Got one!" Sierra called, who was up on Ezekiel.
"Blue's my colour!" Alejandro exclaimed. He was climbing up Lindsay. "Thank you, Sierra! You are so kind to-"
I heard a faint splatting sound and Sierra saying cheerfully "Oops! I guess that's what happens when you're a homewrecking husband-stealer and destroyer of dreams!" Whoa. Either she'd really believed Heather, or she was really mad about Alejandro taking Cody up to First Class and not letting her in.
I found my eggs rather easily. Sierra even fashioned me a little thing out of reeds to carry my eggs in. Seh made one for Heather, too, obviously trying to ally with us the way we were trying to ally with her.
However, the boys left first, mainly because Sierra just stood there and watched Alejandro tempting Cody to work with him instead of her due to the remaining candy in the basket (which they were now both using to carry their eggs in).
But then boulders started rolling down the cavern as the three of us walked. Luckily, if we pressed against the cavern walls, they would miss us.
However, I began to feel a little claustrophobic. Well, okay, I started shivering.
Sierra noticed first. "What's wrong, Amee?" she asked with a touch of concern. "You look worried."
Heather paused and studied me. "She's scared of small enclosed dark spaces. It's like Gwen's fear of being buried alive." she announced calmly and walked on. "Come on. The guys are way ahead of us, and besides, the faster we leave, the faster we get out of this cave."
Heather was right, I knew, but she was pretty cruel about it. It didn't help that the boys suddenly appeared, running the wrong way.
"Awww, Codykins came back cause he missed me!" Sierra gushed, but the boys ran straight past us. They'd broken their eggs nad had to go back for replacements. Actually, Sierra nearly dropped one of hers, but Heather caught it.
That was when it hatched."Cody – the next generation begins!" whispered Sierra. There in Heather's hands was a baby bird, staring up at her adoringly. She was happy to hand it over to Sierra (who named it Cody Jr or Cody 2), but the minute Heather started walking off, it flew over to her and wouldn't budge from its place on Heather's head.
I couldn't help giggling at it. Cody Jr clearly loved Heather, but all she wanted was for it to leave her alone, and all Sierra wanted was for it to love her.
"You're doing this on purpose!" Sierra accused. "And Amee, stop laughing, it's not funny!"
"You're not kidding." Heather muttered. "And how am I doing this on purpose? I don't wanna keep this little thing happy, but for you, I'll do it. Now let's go!"
"Fine, but don't even think about doing the same thing to Cody senior." Sierra warned.
That was when the boys ran past us, screaming, and we had to do the same as some giant version of Cody Jr swooped through the cave. I got out of it just behind the boys, and luckily, Chef pushed a statue of himself into the opening of the cavern after the other girls were out, so we were safe.
Make that in even more danger. The next part of the challenge consisted of climbing up a rock pillar to the nest at the top and put the eggs in. Problem was – the bird chasing us was a giant condor, and we'd have to face a bigger, angrier one guarding the nest – a female, this time. That was scary – much worse than chasing a feral Ezekiel like last time. At least he didn't attack us.
Alejandro, being the first out, got a baseball mask, so at least his face would be protected, but then, since we were doing it in the order of which we arrived, he'd be going first, followed by Cody. Then me, then Sierra, and lucky Heather got to be last (Ha, lucky heather..like the superstition about the flower).
"The giant condor has been known to peck the eyes of predators." Alejandro admitted, putting on the mask.
"But I like my eyes!" Heather protested.
"As do I, especially when they're shooting daggers."
I folded my arms at Alejandro's comment, especially when Heather narrowed her eyes at him and he added "Yes, like that." Finally, he seemed to notice the look on my face and gave me the smile that...well, whenever he looked at me that way, I felt like I was the only girl in the world to him. My heart melted, and I smiled back.
"Oh, and one more thing." Chris added.
Alejandro muttered something in Spanish, asking "What else could you-"
Ding-ding! The song bell sounded. "It's for your own protection." Chris explained. "Keeps the birds calm. I'm lying. Or I'm not. You choose."
To be honest, I didn't pay attention to the boy's lyrics, desperately trying to see if there was a mistake I could avoid and thinking of lyrics to sing when it was my turn. Alejandro got two eggs into the nest before he fell and his other egg broke. Cody didn't get any in, but his eggs survived the fall intact.
"Good news!" said Chris. "You can have another turn later, but first-" he looked at me.
I began to climb, singing to a modified version of the tune Cody had sang to. "Why, yeah, why-y-y, are you doing this, Chris?
Making us sing all this, while the stuff we do could leave us in bits.
Condor, oh, condor, I'm bringing these back,
Please let me through, or these chicks you'll lack!" I only got one egg in, but managed to save the other two so I could try again if neither of the others made it.
Sierra did about as well as me, except Cody Jr abandoned her to fly to Heather. The condor actually left the nest after swooping down on Heather's head to grab the baby condor. Therefore, her task was rendered easy.
"Yes!" she cried, singing the last line. "Thanks, my sweet condor, now I'm in the final four!"
That evening on the plane, Heather pulled me aside before I went to vote. "Listen," she whispered, "We vote out Sierra, then we'll win Cody's loyalty."
"But I thought you wanted Alejandro to go next." I said, confused. "Cody will keep voting for Sierra, so if we vote Alejandro out first, we can easily vote her out afterwards."
Heather shrugged. "He won't be so much of a threat once we get Cody on our side. It'll be three against one. Come on Amee, work with me here."
I sighed and shrugged. "Okay, Heather, if you really think we should, I'll vote Sierra." It was a relief to not have to attempt to fight my feelings to vote for Alejandro. Instead, I found it easy to look at the bright smiling face framed by long violet hair and stamp it to show my vote.
As it turned out, the only person who voted for Alejandro was Sierra herself. Everyone else wanted her out.
Sierra hugged Cody close. "Win it for us!" she whispered.
"Adorable." Chris remarked. But you can shut off the waterworks because...you're all still in the final five! It was just a reward challenge! Except," he added, "The last challenge was a reward and elimination challenge, so there's no reward for this."
Heather's face fell, but she had to pick who to bring to First Class.
She looked a bit torn at first, but after a fleeting glance at Alejandro, she picked me. Yes, me! I knew it was just because of our alliance, but it was still a free trip travelling in nice conditions. I held back a squeal, couldn't help grinning at Heather, and left the other three in Economy.
Don't you remember that Heather didn't get a reward other than First Class? Anyway, this was getting really long, so I had to cut it off here.
Heather: Wait, remind me why I'm being all pally with her?
Me: Because you guys are bonding over your feelings towards Alejandro, and you've allied with her, remember? You need all the allies you can find.
Heather: There's something you're not telling me. Come on, reviewers, some of you must know! Review and tell me what she's planning!
Me: I don't know what she's on about. But review, guys, please!