Please enjoy! Thanks to the Elizabeth Life Stone, Ali6132, and the guest reviewer.
The minute I knew the Aftermath show had finished airing, I called Bridgette again. She sounded happier.
"Elle, I can't really talk right now, I'm kind of in the middle of something..." she began, and at that moment there were kissing sounds in the background. "Wait a minute." I heard her say. "Elle's calling."
Another voice came over the line. "Hey, sis, how's it going?" I heard Geoff ask.
"Okay, I guess." I said. "You know what the show's like. So...are you and Bridgette okay?"
It was one of the most lucky things to happen to Bridgette this season – she'd managed to win Geoff back. When I requested, they even sent me a sound clip of Bridgette's song, which was absolutely beautiful.
The four of us members of Team Victory were still pretty down. DJ was depressed because of the turtle he'd put back in the pond getting swallowed by the giant one, I was down because I couldn't see any way to warn my team about Alejandro before we got to our next destination (and Leshawna and Lindsay clearly liked him), and while the other girls were more positive, none of us were happy about not having won a single challenge, even though we hadn't lost the last one.
We were dropped off in the snow-topped mountains of Germany.
"Hi, Darryl!" Lindsay greeted Tyler happily.
"It's me, Tyler!" he corrected. "Season One – you and I were together!" Lindsay had gone on and on about Tyler in the second season, but now he was here, she didn't even remember what he looked like.
The next words out of her mouth were "You must have me confused with someone else. The only guy I was ever into on this show was Tyler, and he's never coming back."
Chris wanted us to sing as a mini-challenge – avoid the Songalanche. To avoid an avalanche, we had to keep the singing at a low volume.
I didn't really listen to the first part of the song. I could sort of vaguely hear Noah, Owen, Heather, Gwen and Courtney singing something, but I only really snapped into attention when I realized Alejandro was singing a line straight to Leshawna.
"When you don't hold back and lead the pack, truly there is nothing stopping you, you, you." he sang.
In reply, Leshawna sang "Swimming in your eyes, it's butterflies and suddenly there's nothing I can't do. Sorry, Harold..." she added. We all knew Harold was probably watching.
I stepped in between them and addressed Alejandro, unable to stop myself. "Get out of her face, it's a disgrace, I won't let it happen to her too."
Leshawna gave me a puzzled scowl, and I saw Alejandro's eye twitching before he appeared just as confused.
"Wait," sang Lindsay, "Something's itching in my brain, someone's back in the game!
My former flame, and Tyler's your name!" She ran to the boy in the red tracksuit and threw her arms around him. "You're Tyler just the same, oh, Tyler, Tyler, Tyler, Tyler, back you came!"
"You remember me?" Tyler said. Lindsay nodded happily. "She remembers me! YES!"
I would've been happy, if it wasn't for the fact that he caused the avalanche. At least it made me realize what I'd done – I'd been so desperate to stop Leshawna from falling into the same trap as Bridgette that I'd blown my own cover.
We had to begin a long trek back up the mountain to start the day's challenge.
"Great news, guys!" Lindsay said joyfully. "Tyler's back!"
Leshawna just acted as if this was surprising to her, adding to DJ and I that it was easier to go along with Lindsay's obliviousness.
"Anyway, Elle," she said, fixing me with a hard stare, "What were you saying in the song?"
I glanced towards Team CIRRRRH before I answered. Alejandro was probably too far away from me to hear, so I said "I've been meaning to warn you guys since after the Yukon. Remember I was saying about how Bridgette was kicked off? I didn't have time to tell you then, because Alejandro came in with those snacks from First Class. And I couldn't tell you while he was there, but..." I lowered my voice, "He caused Bridgette to get kicked off. It's his fault she got stuck to that pole."
Leshawna looked skeptical. "How do you figure?"
"Bridgette told me." I answered. "I tried to tell you what she was saying before she took the Drop Of Shame. She was trying to warn us about Alejandro. What I said in the song was to leave you alone, because there's no way I'm letting you get kicked off by falling into his trap. With the way he flirted with you in Japan, I'm worried that you're next."
Leshawna looked thoughtful. "Are you sure that's what Bridgette said?"
"Positive." I answered. "I didn't want to believe it either, but did you see him flirting with Heather in New York? She told him to back off, which is what you need to do next time he flirts with you."
Our first challenge was waiting at the top of the mountain with us. There were three mounds of raw meat, each sitting next to a giant hand-powered grinder. Our job was to each make a giant sausage with it and ride it down a treacherous mountain.
We were all pretty successful at this one. DJ shoveled from the ground and I shoveled the meat he threw up into the grinder, while Leshawna turned the grinder, and Lindsay stuffed.
Team Amazon was having problems, because Sierra turned most of their meat into a statue of Cody and it accidentally slid down the mountain.
"Ha ha, Cody's got a tiny sausage!" Noah yelled out.
"At least my team has a sausage!" Cody called back, drawing attention to Team CIRRRRH's problem. Owen had eaten all the meat instead of stuffing like Alejandro had told him to. They were lucky Chris let them ride Owen down the mountain as the sausage. As for us...we took our own sausage down and came in second, although DJ ended up having another run-in with an animal. This time, it was a cute but vicious mountain goat that accidentally hit its head on a branch while DJ was holding it and it was suddenly left behind. Team Amazon lost, and as a result, for the next part of the challenge, someone had to wear lederhosen (Sierra volunteered, but Chris made Cody wear it)
Everyone was given rewards for making it down the mountain. Team CIRRRRH got helmets, we got fluffy hats ("Ooh, these are all the rage in Paris!" Lindsay squealed) and Team Amazon got Peter Pan hats.
Our elimination challenge concerned learning a traditional German dance. We didn't all have to dance – three on each of the other teams, and since we were at a number disadvantage, two on ours. Lindsay and I sat out in the end. On the other teams, there was Heather, Sierra and Cody for Team Amazon, and Alejandro, Owen and Noah for Team CIRRRRH.
"Remember," I reminded Leshawna, "Ignore Alejandro if he talks to you."
Oh, if only she'd listened to me! I was pretty distracted by Sierra's rhyme, at first. She was saying it as Lindsay and I watched the dancers.
"One, two, three, slap my knee!" Sierra chanted as she danced. "My husband-to-be, his name is Cody!
Four, five, six, pick up sticks, my heart won't tick without my Cody fix!
Seven, eight, nine, straighten your spine, spin to see Cody looking so fine!
Ten, eleven, twelve, nothing rhymes with twelve, chicks want Cody but his butt's MINE!"
But then Alejandro did start talking to Leshawna. He was talking very quietly, so I couldn't hear anything, but whatever it was made Leshawna reply "You're right, candy apple!" and dance even more enthusiastically. It made Heather scowl, and I saw her whisper something to Leshawna.
Leshawna laughed and I heard her say "You jealous he's paying attention to all this?"
"What?" Heather said, just as loudly. "Ugh! I hate that guy!"
The next part of the challenge had each person dancing on a podium, and trying to knock off someone else. First, Leshawna easily kicked Noah off. Then Alejandro sent Cody flying.
"CODY!" shrieked Sierra. She looked at DJ with fire in her eyes, and knocked him off. Heather didn't even have to try to get Owen off – he just fell.
Next, it was Alejandro vs Sierra, and Leshawna vs Heather.
"Stay on that platform, Leshawna!" DJ called.
"I'm not going anywhere!" she assured us.
"That's it, seize the day!" Alejandro called over to her.
"Ugh, she's not even on your team!" Heather yelled at him.
Leshawna glared at Heather and knocked her off the platform. "I'm gonna seize the YOU! YOU'VE HAD THIS COMING FOR THREE SEASONS!" I would've been fine with this, except that she leapt off the platform to beat Heather up, even knocking out her tooth. Since Sierra was still on the platform, it was only us, Team Victory, who couldn't possibly win.
I'm not sure exactly what happened, but Alejandro didn't even seem to try at the last minute, and Sierra won for her team, while we were getting sent to elimination again.
"Seriously, what happened?" I asked Leshawna. "You had to stay on the platform – you cost us the challenge! You could've waited for Sierra or Alejandro to knock each other off. Then we wouldn't have lost either way. We could've won!"
Nevertheless, Leshawna was shocked when she was the one deprived of her bag of peanuts. "What? But – but I'm fabulous!" she argued. "I seize the day!" I knew that she was just parroting what Alejandro had said to her, and I frowned.
"And we're out of time!" Chris said, giving Leshawna her parachute. One of my best friends stood at the edge of the door.
Suddenly, Leshawna gasped at something, something I couldn't see from her angle. "You!" she exclaimed, and she was soon tumbling out of the plane, screaming.
I ran up to see what she had gasped at, but I only caught a glimpse before the totem pole moved, covering the person. But I saw the caramel skin, the bracelet, the smirk.
I went straight to the confessional. "That's both of my best friends, gone! I told Leshawna to ignore Alejandro, I told her he was up to something! Okay, so maybe it doesn't seem like he did anything, but what was he saying to Leshawna? I'll bet it was what made her able to disregard the game and beat up Heather...although that was entertaining. I swear, just because he knows I know things doesn't mean he can kick me off. It's a good thing we're not on the same team, so if his manipulation doesn't work on me, he can't use the good old-fashioned method of voting and kick me off. At least, not until the merge..."
Anyone else confused about exactly how Alejandro "robbed Leshawna of her fabulous soul"? I wasn't sure, and then when I showed my sister the episode, she asked me what he'd done. I had to dissect everything to understand it at all. Please review!