A/N: OMG GUYS! IT'S BEEN FOREVER! How has everyone been doing? I took a really long break from this fanfic didn't I?! Well, I've been kinda occupied with my new obsession Dollhouse! Y'all need to check this show out; it is unbelievably awesome! If you like high-paced action and moral conflict, this is the show for you! Okay, just type Dollhouse in on Wikipedia (I'm horrible at summarizing things) and you should go to the link for the TV series. It's available online, but only the last five episodes. The first five are no longer available online, unless you have special ways of getting the episodes. The show is blowing my mind! Okay, fangirl squeals over!

The writing may not be as good as you like (I know it's not to my standards), but just bear with me. I need to get back in the groove of writing. So I think you all know what the next challenge is, so just stay tuned. And this is a very short chapter yet again, so um...have fun! Review, disclaimer is in the first chapter.

Third Person POV

The two break days dragged on without a hitch. Except for the fact that Gwen was secretly beating herself up about helping to vote Trent off, Julie still being boggled about the dream she had and the talk show she witnessed the day before, Courtney and Duncan not talking to each other after she kinda-sorta forgave him for pushing Trent and Gwen's relationship to the breaking point (the night of the second break day, she didn't let him in and forced him out, regardless of cameras. Chase wiped the footage right before Chris came into the room to do a daily check-up.), then starting to get back on speaking terms—also known as kissing terms—come the morning of the third day. Tawny and Blaire saw the footage that showed Gwen was beating herself up over losing Trent, and warned Julie about this after breakfast while they were hanging out in the make-up trailer.

"You need to be careful." Blaire warned. She and Tawny were sitting while Julie was pacing.

"I'm not worried. Gwen got far in the competition after Trent was voted off." Julie callously brushed aside with a wave of her hand.

"But this time is different. Gwen helped in voting off Trent. You should know that."

"And you haven't SEEN how badly she's beating herself up. I mean, sobbing and screaming, writing a lot in her journal, of course, when no one is in the trailer. She's BEGGING to be voted off next." Tawny added.

"Don't say that! Gwen is a strong girl, and she wouldn't hurt herself like that! And she's my teammate!" Julie screamed, suddenly angry at Tawny for talking about Gwen behind her back. Julie was still very angry and stressed about the fact that all of her dreams were really glimpses into the pasts of her fellow contestants arranged by the Reality Court judge. "I—I'm sorry. I'm just a little stressed." Julie looked down, and looked at Tawny and Blaire again. "All better."

"We don't want to cause you too much stress. Maybe you should take a break and walk around, even run if you want. You should be socializing with the others." Blaire advised.

"Fine, fine." And Julie left the trailer.

My POV

I can't believe I was kicked out like that! Tawny and Blaire have been doing that a lot lately, or maybe I'm just becoming my old self again. I can't have that happen! No, I have to help Gwen out of her rut! But how am I going to do that without revealing that I know about her deal with the Grips? Oh, maybe I should've switched teams! What am I going to do, what am I going to do?! I stumbled back and rubbed my head unconsciously, and it was then I realized I had bumped into someone and sent them to the ground. As my luck would have it, that someone was Heather.

"Watch where you're going Julie!" Heather yelled at me. Oh, if only she knew that I knew about her past…I offered a hand.

"Need help?"

"Not from you." Heather glared at me and got up from the asphalt on her own. That made me angry.

"Well, fine." I shrugged and stared walking past Heather, and she walked past me. "By the way, that black mark on the back of your head would be perfect for target practice with your scrunchies. Not that I would want to, but—" Heather's hands flew to the back of her head and she screamed, running for the showers. "All in a day's work." I grinned to myself and kept wandering the film lot.

Courtney's POV

"Babe, where's breakfast? I'm starved." The imbecile! The utter nerve of Duncan to call out to me as though I were some…some…WENCH! I had breakfast for myself, but only for myself. It's Duncan's responsibility to get breakfast for himself, and I don't care how he does it. I set my breakfast, a simple piece of golden brown toast and scrambled eggs with a cup of orange juice, on the table across from my bed, the bed Duncan was making himself comfortable on. He had come back in the middle of night—again—and I guess we were back to normal. I was completely over Gwen and Trent's troubles; I'm not in the game—not yet.

"I hope you don't expect a response to your vulgarity."

"Ah come on babe, can't you spare some for me?" I started busying myself with eating my toast because if I turned to look at him, his shirtless body and childish grin would leave me with an empty stomach. I gulped down two bites of my toast.

"No. Leave before Chase—or worse, Chris—finds you."

"Princess, I'm okay with Chase."

"It doesn't matter! I don't trust him!" I turned around in my chair, now impervious to his body and grin.

"Well, that's too bad, because I do."

"Leave." I stood up, pointed to the door, and snarled.

"Nope." And he plopped down onto my bed! UGH!

"You…ogre!!! FORGET IT!" I sat back down and busied myself with my toast once more.

Chris's POV

"Oh Chase…" I called to him in a sing-songy voice. The look on his face when he turned around in his chair was PRICELESS!

"Chris?"

"Guess what you, Chef, Blaire, and Tawny get to do for me today!"

"Ah shit. Do we have to?"

"You bet! The complex is all set up; you four just need to load in the food for the challenges, set the obstacles up, draw the finish line, raise the cells—"

"I get it man, I get it!" Chase angrily got up and started walking past me.

"And one last thing…place the two cast trailers on lockdown, around, I'd say, two in the morning-ish." Chase faced me.

"Are you out of your FUCKING MIND?! Have you been watching these tapes?! Gwen's been staying up all night for the past three nights! There's no WAY I'm going to be able to shut everything down without tipping her off!"

"Not if she's asleep dude."

"But she won't be—no fucking way. Do you realize how illegal that is?! I mean, we have no parental consent, not to mention—"

"Dude, dude, chill out! I thought you were all for torturing the contestants."

"To a certain extent! Jokes, insults, and occasional bodily harm are fun, but this is going a little off the deep end."

"All right, all right, just round up Tawny and Blaire and get over to the complex. Chef's waiting for you there."

"It'll just take a phone call." Chase whipped out his blue Juke, but I snatched it from his hands.

"Ah, ah, ah! No calling! You've got to warn them yourself." Chase snatched his cell phone out of my hand.

"Then I'm fucking CERTAIN I won't trust my phone with you. And with all of the fucking heavy lifting…fucking hell!" Chase kept muttering to himself as he left the surveillance room.

"Have fun!" I snickered and left to my cabin for a relaxing facial.

Chase's POV

As soon as I was out of sight of Chris and made sure he left to his cabin, I called Tawny.

"Tawny, babe, we need to go and help Chris set up for the next challenge."

"What? Just me? What about Blaire?"

"She's coming too. It's a prison theme, so we're loading in disgusting food and all of this other stuff. You know the big complex that was already up when we arrived?"

"Yeah, it looked kinda like…a…prison…OH FUCK WHY DIDN'T I SEE IT?! I NEED TO WARN JULIE!"

"Tawny, babe, no, you and Blaire need to come ASAP. Chef's going to hunt us down if we don't get there to help him with the stuff. We're not supposed to be hurt by anyone while on the job, but you know Chef—and Chris. Warn Julie after we set everything up."

"Hurry babe. I'll see you soon." I hung up without saying goodbye and ran to the prison complex.

My POV

When I went back to the confessional to thank Tawny and Blaire for letting me clear my mind, I found them gone. However, there was a note on their table.

Julie, Tawny and I are going to be gone for a while. You're probably already reading this, and we're gone—obviously. We need to set up the next challenge for Chris, and he's ordered Chef to hunt us down if we don't get to the spot for the next challenge on time. Tawny told me the theme was prison movies, so that means gross food and a prison break. We don't know much more than that, but we will as soon as we're done setting up the challenge for Chris. Just go back to your walking or sleeping or whatever you were doing before you found this note. Oh, and trash this note when you're done reading it. If Duncan comes in here and finds the note…you know what'll happen.

-Blaire

Ah crap. Now I have nothing to do! A prison break…hm, I think a little bit more exploring wouldn't hurt. A wicked grin broke out on my face as I came up with an idea to meet Blaire and Tawny at the prison complex they must be at. It can't be that hard to miss. I crumpled the note, trashed it in the trash can, and left the trailer, looking for the prison complex.

It didn't take me long. It was near the back of the film lot though, so it involved a lot of walking first to the front, then retracing my steps to the back of the film lot. No one suspected anything. Lately, the others, including my teammates, had been staying away from me. Was it something I said, something I did? Or maybe I've managed to stray from everyone else, against my Julie Rose personality that the Reality Court gave me. Not good.

I came across a looming grey building that I would associate with a prison. A quick glance around revealed no one in sight, and the front door was open, so I walked right in.

Blaire's POV

"Finally!" Tawny breathed a sigh of relief. We had finally finished tested the cages to make sure they could be pulled up easily.

"I can't believe Chris has us doing all of this stuff. What happened to being prepared ahead of time?"

"Out the window, according to Chase. In fact, he says it's been out the window for a long time." Tawny looked out over the railing to the two tables full of disgusting food. "I feel sorry for the contestants. Two of them have to eat that shit tomorrow."

"Wouldn't you?" I turned to Tawny, looking at her face. She looked back at me, shock on her face.

"If I were offered enough money! You could die eating half of the stuff on those tables!" She pointed out to the tables.

"What is this stuff?" I heard a voice and looked down to the floor to see a girl looking at the two tables. Oh no, it can't be! Crap. The girl looked up at us, and I could see now that it was Julie. "Blaire! Tawny!" She waved to us.

"I don't get top billing?! What the hell?!" Tawny yelled, and I gave a sharp jab to her stomach with my elbow.

"We have to get her out of here. This place…has cameras."

"Chase told me they weren't on though."

"Chris is still at headquarters. He could've turned them on for all we know." We both dashed down to the ground floor and met up with Julie.

"Hey! So what is all of this? A part of the challenge tomorrow?" I took a glance around, looking for cameras and Chris, half hearing Julie's question. Thankfully, Tawny answered for me.

"Yeah. You get to choose one person from the Gaffers, and they get to choose someone from the Grips. Those two have to eat a mix of all of this food on the table. Be careful for two reasons. Number one; choose someone who has a very weak stomach so it'll be easier for you to win. Number two, I don't think you know this, but DJ and Chef are in an alliance!"

"WHAT?! AN ALLIANCE?!"

"Uh huh! Chef is trying to get DJ to be all tough and stuff."

"But I can do that easily! I made him pull the trailer up a few challenges back!"

"That's the same challenge where Chef forced him into his alliance." I added.

"No, I've got to get him out of it!"

"You can't. If DJ knows you know, it'll be devastating. If Chef knows, it'll be even worse. You're putting too much at stake."

"At least the team!"

"If they know, they'll vote him off. And you need all of the manpower you can get for any coming challenges. They only promise to get tougher."

"Why should I worry about DJ though?"

"Chef is having him help with the cooking. Tawny has a hunch that DJ could somehow mess something up with the cooking."

"But DJ's a…great…cook…oh crap!" Julie finally realized Tawny's point. She calmed herself down quickly. "Show me around here."

"All right!" Tawny grinned. "So this is the first part of the challenge. The second part is outside, and you have to go through this obstacle course to get to the boxcars of freedom. First team to get to them wins. If you win the food challenge, you get a golden shovel which you can use to dig underneath the prison walls."

"And when she says golden, she means a shovel painted gold." I added in case Julie was at all confused.

"The cheap bastard!" Julie exclaimed.

"As though we don't know that already." I looked around once more. "We ought to get you back to the film lot. Let's go." It was only a short walk to the exit, and we were soon outside and walking to the confessional trailer. We were back in the trailer, saying goodbye.

"So…" Julie trailed off.

"What's wrong?"

"Everything's fine, right? I just go about trying to win and—" Julie sighed. "What I'm trying to say is…all of this tension, the competition, I think it's getting to me."

"It gets to everyone from time to time."

"I'm worried for Gwen. She's going to end up eliminating herself out of grief the way she's going."

"Then you make her see that she should stay in the competition. Trent would want that."

"Yeah, so he wouldn't see Gwen again!" Tawny butted in. I glared at her, and she looked down to the ground. "Sorry."

"I'll stop Gwen." Julie had her resolve back. "I have to!" Julie smiled before leaving Tawny and I in the trailer.

Me: And welcome back to the TDA Aftermath Stage! I know it's been a while, and we can't reveal too much about the future--

Nikki: Like how G--

Me: Oh no!!! No spoilers!

Noah: Or how D--

Me: Guys! Don't do this!

Geoff: Whoa! Let's just chill out!

Bridgette: Lane's right! We shouldn't be spoiling anything about the future for anyone!

Me: Thank you Bridgette. At least SOMEONE agrees with me. *glares at Nikki*

Nikki: Hey, I'm as upset as you are about what's coming up next, if not even more upset! She was one of my favorite contestants!

Katie: I can't believe it too!

Sadie: Oh! Neither can I! It was just SO devastating!

Katie: I know right?! SOOOO devastating!

Noah: The intelligence here has just plummeted to zero. Review please, orders from Lane.