Enter...
STEVE

We all stare at the ring as Aunt Grandma beats Wendy up.

"So...should we do something?" Andy says eventually.

Jo snorts. "Are you kidding me? This is great entertainment!"

"But what if Wendy gets killed?" I ask.

Jo shrugs. "Saves you four the trouble of deciding who gets eliminated."

We look at her, disturbed.

"That's cold," Chef says.

Jo groans. "Fine. Chef, get in there and break them up."

Chef's eyes widen. "Are you sure about that? I don't think it's a good idea to get in front of an angry woman."

"It isn't," Jo says. "Which is why I'm making you do it."

Chef frowns angrily. "Lousy teenagers! The things I do for this show..."

Chef swims out to the ring and manages to separate Wendy and Aunt Grandma. Once he does, Aunt Grandma walks back across the bridge to shore. Chef follows her, carrying Wendy's unconscious body with him.

"You know, I should disqualify you," Jo tells Aunt Grandma. "Beating up on an unconscious person? Ignoring the end of the round? All kinds of stuff I could nab you on. But, you were the strongest fighter out there and didn't need to cheat to win, so you get immunity."

Jo looks around. "Where's Chris? Isn't he supposed to show up about now?"

"Probably still sleeping in his trailer," Chef says. "He got in pretty late last night."

"Fine," Jo says. "So. Slacky, Shorty, Sleepy, one of you is going home tonight. Now Chef, is there any decent food around here?"

"Uh, yeah," Chef says. "Back at the production site."

"Good, let's go," Jo says.

Chef shakes his head as he follows her to the production camp. "Why am I always the sidekick?"

Nothing important happens for the rest of the day, which is just fine with me. Even at dinner, Andy isn't talking much. Of course, that's because he's been beaten up pretty badly by the females left in the game.

As I slowly chew my food, I think about how almost everything that happened yesterday is coming back to bite me today. I thought that talking to Aunt Grandma might take me off of her radar as a threat, just in case she was still mad at me for the whole debacle of on the same team as me. Instead, I just made her more suspicious. I don't think she's on the right trail, since she was asking questions about how Andy and I feel about Boris. That tells me that she probably thinks we're in an alliance–that, or she wants to form one with us to vote off Boris. But she theoretically doesn't have to worry about that, since Wendy hates Boris and Boris hates Andy. She should think she's in the clear.

Unless perhaps she wants to get rid of Wendy. That's the only explanation for how she snapped in the ring and just started beating Wendy up. Things must not be much fun in their cabin–or at least, I'd assume that's the case. Which means that maybe she wants us to get rid of Wendy instead of Boris.

I look around the dining room. Wendy and Aunt Grandma are both looking at me suspiciously for some reason. Wendy's occasionally glancing back at Aunt Grandma, though. Andy's just keeping his head down, and Boris looks secretly thrilled.

Maybe Boris has some big secret plan that he's trying to put into action. I wouldn't mind seeing him try, honestly, if for no other reason than that his eventual failure would be a huge shock to him. Then again, maybe I don't really want him to fail. It's time that I started thinking about the final three, since it's not that far away. Boris may be a huge pain in the ass, he's not as strong as Aunt Grandma or Wendy. Andy's useful, so I definitely want him around as long as possible, but I don't have any use for Aunt Grandma and Wendy.

Tonight, there are two possible targets. The only question is whether I want to get rid of Boris or Wendy. Wendy's probably a less-likely target, but if things keep going the way they're going, she and Aunt Grandma might have immunity at the same time. This new 'two people with immunity' thing isn't something I planned for. So now that I have to take that into account...

Fuck it. As unlikely as it may seem, Wendy's going home tonight.

I'm still not happy that Aunt Grandma's suspicious of me. I mean, sure, I should have expected her to catch on eventually. And if I'm being honest, I'm surprised that it's taken until now for anybody to finger me. But she could seriously throw a wrench into my plans.

I slowly eat dinner, but as soon as Aunt Grandma leaves to go vote I quickly clear my place and follow her. Strangely enough, she was the last person out of the cafeteria besides me. This is going to make things slightly more complicated. But only slightly more complicated.

I make sure to stay out of sight until after Aunt Grandma has finished voting. As soon as she's left the confessional and headed to the campfire pit, though, I scurry forward and slip inside the outhouse, making triply-sure the door is locked. That's always part one of what has become an almost nightly routine for me.

Part two, of course, is cracking open the voting box and seeing how everybody else voted.

I pull out my screwdriver and unscrew the hinges on the back of the box. It's so weakly put together that I'm surprised nobody's done this before me. As soon as the hinges are unscrewed, I pop the top open and pull out the votes. Three for Boris with one for Andy in Boris's handwriting. I snort. Not much I can work with here. Not that it matters. Nobody cares enough to check the handwriting, or at least, nobody cares enough to stop me from cheating.

I grab four ballots and fill them out for Wendy, signing Andy's name, Aunt Grandma's name, and Boris's name at the top. I dump them back in the ballot box, along with Wendy's vote for Boris, and shut the lid. I rescrew the hinges together, sealing the box so that it doesn't look like it's been tampered with to whomever comes after me. Not that it matters today, but I don't want to leave any evidence for the others on the island.

Finally, I cast my ballot and head off to the campfire ceremony. Tonight, I'll be one step closer to the million and have gotten rid of one of my strongest competitors.

When I show up at the campfire, everybody is already waiting, including Sky. I assume she'll be giving out the marshmallows tonight.

"So, this is Sky," Chris introduces her. "She's gonna give out the marshmallows, tell you who won, yadda yadda yadda. I'd leave, but I don't have anywhere to go, so I'm just gonna stay here and make fun of Sky."

"Why?" Sky asks.

"Gotta earn my paycheck somehow," Chris says. "And since this season I'm not getting to host–and oh yes, it's annoying–I have way too few opportunities to get my smiling face in front of a camera. So I'm taking advantage of them where I can."

"Fine," Sky says, tight-lipped. "In that case, I'm gonna ignore those special instructions you gave me."

Chris's eyes pop. "Wait, what?"

"Okay, guys!" Sky says to us. "Because I don't like to drag this stuff out and leave everybody stressed, I'm just going to tell you that today's elimination wasn't decided by voting. Jo got to choose who performed worst in today's boxing matches, and that means that the worst performer of the day is going home. So I guess that means you're saying goodbye, Boris."

Boris stands up and tips his hat. "I always knew it would end this way. Actually, I didn't, but I'll say I did to seem smarter."

"Whatever!" Chris says. "Boris is gone, and we're in the final four...for now."

"What's that mean?" Wendy asks suspiciously.

Chris grins. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure tomorrow won't be a double-elimination or anything. Anyway, we drop to four and shut the door on Boris's hopes of winning! Who's gonna go down next? Find out when we bring back a real whiz kid to test our competitors mentally, here! On Total! Drama! Cartoon Multiverse! The Inevitably Disappointing Sequel!"

You know, I probably should have seen this coming. I couldn't have, obviously. There's no way that I could have seen that the votes wouldn't matter tonight but somebody would still get eliminated. But I should've known that Chris would pull some sort of bullshit on us. Apart from the bullshit that is allowing people to rig the votes without any punishment, of course.

I'm still not happy about it. Now, instead of having one strong player that everyone would target for elimination, an ally, and somebody who's focused on my ally, there are two strong players and an ally. This doesn't mean the game is unwinnable. It just means that instead of me flying completely under the radar, there are now three factions: Wendy, Aunt Grandma, and the friendship between me and Andy. Add in that Chris all but confirmed that two people will be eliminated tomorrow, and suddenly, I'm not in such a good position.

I'm gonna need luck tomorrow.

Voting Breakdown:

Wendy Corduroy: Boris Badenov
Boris Badenov: Wendy Corduroy
Aunt Grandma: Wendy Corduroy
Steve: Wendy Corduroy
Andy French: Wendy Corduroy

Final tally of votes cast:

Wendy Corduroy: 4
Boris Badenov: 1