Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or any of its characters. The Total Drama Series and all of its characters are the property of FreshTV and the parent company of the Total Drama television show.

Say, do you guys have any favorite characters in the story? Any pairings that you specifically support among the cast? Let me know! I'm a bit conflicted about two different pairings involving the same character. Oh, and make sure to suggest challenge ideas if you want a specific one! I'll consider any requests as I did the request for Moon Madness :)

WARNING: I kinda went overboard with this one and made it a bit long...Soooooo this is life right now. Do you guys think that maybe splitting each episode into three parts might be a good idea? I could probably get chapters out quicker and you could read things a bit quicker? Tell me what you think. I'm definitely gonna go for less detail from now on, though, so hopefully you guys respond well to that.

To Reviewer Guest: Glad to see you reviewed :) Your review actually made me laugh when I first read it lol. Don't worry about Scott; you'll find out about what happened to him soon enough ;)

To Reviewer Gucci: Glad to hear that you liked Mal's appearance last chapter. I have some big plans where he and Mike are concerned. The Chris and Chef argument was also a pretty nice part to me. I just really like playing on their dynamic. And yeah, I figured I would include references to the idea that Al replaced Justin. There might be more of that in the future if people like it.

To Reviewer lordgemini: Glad that you liked it so much! It's one of my favorites so far, as well. And yeah, we're at a point in the story where the spotlight may be traded more often. The Moon challenge has kinda been refitted to plot purposes lol. As for Mal, explanations will definitely be coming somewhere in the future.

To Reviewer never been real: Thanks! It's always encouraging to hear that someone enjoys my writing :) I hope this one comes close to your expectations.

Day 6-7: But Wait, There's More!

(The Forest: Cody, Leshawna, and Ezekiel)

"How are ya doing back there, Co'ody?"

Cody inwardly sighed at the question. He figured that the answer was pretty obvious.

Here they were, trekking through the woods at midnight, separated from the rest of their team. He had already gotten all scratched up by some surprisingly-resilient racoons and then gotten beaten pretty badly with a large stick by an apologetic Leshawna. Somehow, this wasn't how he had expected to spend his night so far.

Of course, that would be a bit rude to point out, so he decided to just be polite and give a non-answer.

"I'm...doing fine, Zeke." Then, wanting to change the subject, he decided to ask a question himself.

"Either of you see any clues on where to go or of anyone else out here?"

Embarrassingly enough, he had been kind of drained of all of his energy earlier. Due to that, he was slung over Ezekiel's back right now, being carried along as Leshawna and Zeke looked for any sign of their lost teammates or of the finish line.

Man, he was sure glad that Gwen couldn't see him now.

Err, he meant Eva.

Jeez, he was still really mixed up about that.

Leshawna shook her head as she darted her eyes around annoyedly. "Nope. Seems like Chris didn't see it fit to give us any indication of which way to go."

She then muttered under her breath, "Probably spent that part of the budget on his hair gel."

"Hey, wait, yo'o! The Zeke sees something!"

Cody perked up from his position on the prairie boy's shoulder.

"Really? What is it? A sign or speaker or something?"

The homeschooler didn't respond, however. He just began jogging quickly, clearly transfixed on whatever he was seeing. Leshawna, who was running behind Ezekiel, just shrugged cluelessly at Cody when he shot her a questioning look.

Ezekiel stopped right in front of a rocky cave, peering inside.

"I think I saw something important in here, homies."

Leshawna and Cody both shared a skeptical look.

"Well...alright, but make it quick."

Ezekiel looked ready to step into the perpetual darkness before Cody suddenly remembered that he was carrying him.

"Wait a minute! I can walk! I can walk!" The tech geek quickly squirmed his way off of Ezekiel's shoulder and landed painfully onto his sore feet. He winced a bit and watched curiously and anxiously as Ezekiel stepped into the cave.

Once the prairie boy was gone, things quickly became awkward. After all, Cody and Leshawna had never really directly interacted before. In fact, really about the only thing that they had in common was-

"So...did you keep in contact with Gwen after season 3?"

Leshawna raised an eyebrow at the question. "Kinda. Gwen and I never really got much time to talk that season, so we sort of drifted apart. We did text sometimes, though. How about you?"

Cody's shoulders drooped a bit. "Oh, well...I tried to, but..."

Leshawna slapped him on the back and gave him a reassuring smile. He yelped in reply and rubbed the spot that she had slapped.

"C'mon, sugar. You can tell me what it is! I'm great at giving advice. So what is it?"

Cody frowned. "Well, if I'm being honest, I just felt a bit...uncomfortable talking to her after the whole Duncan thing. I mean, getting rejected for Trent was disappointing, but Duncan?" His tone sounded disbelieving.

"I just really missed my chance, you know?"

Leshawna frowned at the tech geek and looked like she was struggling to find something to say to him. However, their intimate secret-sharing moment soon went as fast as it had come.

Suddenly, a loud chime began playing from inside of the cave. What follow afterwards was a high-pitched scream that could be heard echoing out of the depths of the cave. Both the large sister and the short geek immediately craned their heads to face the mouth of the cave. Several seconds later, Ezekiel emerged from the cave, screaming at the top of his lungs and bolting out of the rocky dome.

"Get go'oing if ya want t'a live!"

Cody normally would have wondered if this was a prank, but not tonight. He wasn't taking any chances with the blue harvest Moon. Plus, he wasn't sure that Ezekiel knew what a prank was. And so, he took after the prairie boy at full speed. Leshawna, who had reacted a bit quicker than Cody had, was running slightly ahead of him.

"What happened in there?! Why are we running?!"

Ezekiel already seemed to be a bit breathless, but his feet didn't slow down in the slightest. He slightly turned his head as he ran, his gray eyes wide.

"Just look back there, eh!"

Cody and Leshawna both turned their heads to look back, only to be scared by the sight of a large brown bear barreling out of the front of the rocky cave, snarling and baring its teeth at them as it gave chase.

It was at that moment that Cody stopped being patient with Zeke. As he ran for his life, he yelled at the prairie boy.

"YOU IDIOT!"

CONFESSIONAL:

Chris: The host laughed uncontrollably, holding his stomach and rocking back and forth.

"I knew that was a great idea! Hahahaha! Leave it to Ezekiel to fall for mock gold!"

Ezekiel: The homeschooler gazed at the camera sheepishly, waving his hands in the air.

"How was The Zeke suppo'osed t'a kno'ow there was a bear in that cave, eh? I just saw something shiny in there and wanted to check it out, yo'o." He looked at his hands with a desperate expression. "Stupid bear," he muttered, "that gold woulda set The Zeke for life, eh."

Cody: "First Heather and Gwen being eliminated early and now this?" He was shaking a bit in fear and holding his knees tightly. "This day is...like the worst one since Total Drama World Tour." He then sighed and stood up reluctantly to leave the confession cam, only to reveal a large wet spot at the front of his pants.

The angry bear from before is seen, but it was now clawing angrily at the top of a tree trunk. The camera panned up to reveal Cody, Ezekiel, and Leshawna hiding at the top of the tree in fear. Their limbs were sprawled uncomfortably on the various intersecting portions of the tree, which made their positions look quite awkward.

Leshawna took a deep breath as the two boys with her watched the angry bear scratch up the tree's trunk.

Soon, both of the boys met eyes and then glanced at her. Her face displayed a sense of urgency. They both nodded their heads in understanding. It was time to go ahead and go for it, like they had talked about earlier.

1...

They all positioned themselves on their branches so that their legs were hanging off of the tree.

2...

Ezekiel placed a hand on his toque nervously to make sure that no tree branches snatched it at the last minute.

...3!

Immediately, Leshawna and Ezekiel fell out of the tree, Leshawna landing on her feet and Zeke on his face. After some scrambling and some genuinely confused glances at them, courtesy of the bear, the two scrambled away as fast as they could run.

Cody wanted to drop down. He really did. But he just couldn't find the courage in his bones when the moment came. This resulted in Leshawna and Ezekiel bolting far away from the tree as he watched them disappear into the woods.

Even worse, they hadn't even drawn the bear away. It was still laying at the bottom of the tree, its narrowed eyes gazing squarely up at it. Cody felt a shiver. He knew that the bear probably couldn't actually see him, but it obviously knew that he was there.

(The Gorge)

"Nice to see that they've finally sent someone to rescue me. Though, you really don't look like much to me."

Justin brought his hands up to his face, rubbing his eyes in an attempt to see where he was and who he was with. All he saw were blurs of color from his sudden fall, and it seemed to be really dark around here anyway.

Once he realized what had happened, his hands immediately went from his eyes to his face. He began caressing his skin worriedly and turned his gaze to the mysterious person that was standing over him. He got onto his knees in a pleading fashion.

"Please, tell me how I look! Last time I took a nasty fall, I had to work for an entire year to get my handsomeness levels back!"

The blurry orange and white figure sounded extremely annoyed. "Oh great, you mean you fell down here on accident? You? You're like a more obnoxious version of Alejandro."

Justin shakily stood up, offended at the comparison. His eyes began to finally focus in on his surroundings, leading him to recognize the figure in front of him as the filthy farm boy from the Killer Sharks.

"I'll have you know that I ruled this show long before that Spanish Heather-loving hack ever got the pity to be added in. And," he crossed his arms cynically now, looking Scott up and down, "you're not exactly a blessing from God yourself."

Scott now glared at him. "And what's that supposed to mean? The ladies dig my look back home!"

Justin mocked him with his eyes. "Then why do I only see guys defending you all over the fansites? Not to mention pairing you with people like Cody and Duncan."

Scott clenched his fists together and smirked. "I would shut up if I were you. At least I'm still talked about. You were such a disappointment that they replaced you with Al. Plus, you're gonna need my help if you ever want to get out of this hellhole, bub."

Justin narrowed his eyes and poked his finger into the farm boy's chest. "Don't you dare go there, dirt sniffer. I was not replaced! I was just too heroic. I still slap myself all the time for going with Geoff to look for help instead of staying in that chasm to be rescued by Chris."

Scott sneered at him. "Must not be that strong then, what with your baby skin."

Justin had fire in his eyes now. "I'll have you know that my skin smells like cocoa butter! And what would an ignorant redneck like you know about skin care anyway? You're so filthy that your skin has natural specks of dirt on it." He was talking, of course, about Scott's freckles.

"Alright, fine! Then I guess we're staying down here forever then!" Scott crossed his arms and sat down facing away from the model. Justin rolled his eyes and scowled at the farm boy.

"You do realize that you're staring at the wall, right? I might not have brains, but at least I'm not ugly on top of that."

He was met with complete silence, which would've usually have been solemn in their situation, if they weren't so ferociously at odds.

The male model huffed, walking over to Scott and tapping the other boy's shoulder. He received no response.

"Oh please, are you giving me the silent treatment now? That's so childish!" He began shaking the farm boy's shoulder, trying to get a response out of him. He was met with a simple grunt.

Justin eventually gave up, taking his hand off of Scott with his eye twitching. He scoffed and crossed his arms, turning his back on the other boy.

"Fine, ignore me. You have a stupid face anyway! A face that's one-third the beauty of mine! Nobody who matters ignores me! I'll make it out of here by myself!"

He immediately went to one of the giant dirt walls and began grasping at some of the vines that hung from there. He jumped high several times and couldn't seem to reach any of them. On his last sporting try, however, he managed to just touch one of the vines with his index fingers before falling back to the ground. He whined and stomped his foot on the cold ground in frustration.

"This is so unfair, man! How am I expected to work under these conditions?!"

Scott, who still had his back turned to the male model, just rolled his eyes.

(Wooly Beaver Territory: Courtney, Noah, Harold, Zoey, and Lightning)

The wooly beavers glanced at each other in confusion as Lightning yelled down at them from his tree branch. Once the athlete felt that he was losing their attention, he threw a large pinecone directly at them. The small projectile bounced off of one of the wooly beavers' heads. They now eyed him as less of an annoyance and more as an enemy.

Lightning just smirked at their hateful gazes. He pulled one of his shirt sleeves up his right arm and kissed his bicep. "Lightning's football-throwing arm is still in sha-perfect condition! Never underestimate the Lightning!" Having said that, the egotistical athlete jumped down from his tree branch and began sprinting the way that his team had first entered the dangerous land.

The wooly beavers saw Lightning fleeing and roared angrily. The carnivorous beasts quickly took chase, leaving the rest of the Screaming Bears that had been present sitting in the dust.

The rescued teens just stared wordlessly at the disappearing crowd of wooly beavers, trying to work out what had just happened. That is, until someone came running out of the woods to their right and snapped them out of their trances.

Lindsay jumped in the air in front of her teammates frantically, her hands flailing out as if she was doing jumping-jacks. "C'mon guys! We need to get out of this scary place before they come back!"

The other blinked a few times and looked at each other and then at Lindsay.

Noah seemed at a loss for words. "Wha...uh...Did that just happen?"

Lindsay nodded hastily. "Yes! And we need to go right now!" She stomped her foot impatiently against the dirt.

Her anxious expression seemed to convince the others. They all began running after the blonde as she fled away from the direction that Lightning had run.

As they sprinted toward the direction of the finish line, however, Zoey looked back at the clearing that Lightning had led the wooly beavers into.

"Guys, what about Lightning?! He can't outrun those monsters forever!"

Noah scoffed, vaulting over a fallen tree trunk that was laying in the middle of their current path. "Trust me, honey. Lightning will be just fine. He's basically a bipedal cheetah anyway. I'm more worried about myself." Immediately after saying that, the bookworm tripped over a long tripwire on the ground. Loud, previously-unnoticeable alarms started blaring in their area.

Noah raised a hand and pushed his face up out of the dirt. He had a disgusted look on his face as he spit some dirt out of his mouth.

Harold, who had been trailing behind the others for some time now due to his weak heart, quickly skidded to a halt and grabbed the back of the bookworm's shirt. The nerd quickly jerked backwards, pulling Noah unceremoniously to his feet.

"We don't have time to play in the dirt, Noah!"

Noah sighed and began running after their team again, Harold now almost level with him.

"My mistake. Must've mistaken this perilous dark forest for my old playground sandbox."

Soon enough, a new area was sighted in the distance. Large, gray stone walls separated the wooly beaver territory from this new place, and barbed wire was lined evenly on top of said walls. Only one door could be seen on the structure, and it had no door handle on it. The Bears scrambled toward it as fast as they could. Lindsay, who had made it there first, began knocking on the knob-less door.

"Chris! I think those beavers took your door knob! We can't get in!"

Some of the others tried to stifle their snickers.

Seconds later, the door began creaking open mechanically. As it inched further open, the Bears, one-by-one, squeezed eagerly through the crack into the protected zone.

Harold immediately collapsed onto the ground, looking absolutely exhausted from all of the night's events. The others supported their arms on their knees, breathing heavily in relief that the challenge was over.

Chris stood to the immediate left of the door, looking at them in puzzlement and in glee.

"Great job, Bears! You guys are the first ones here!"

Courtney glared at him. She flung the silver suitcase that she had carried throughout the challenge at his smug face. Chris was quick though, and the host easily caught the projectile. The CIT looked miffed. "Stop with the fake congratulations. We brought you your case, so just declare us the winners already and let us get back to bed."

Chris blinked several times. "Uhhh, you do realize that you had to bring your whole team with you too, right?"

Lindsay raised one of her hands excitedly, "Ohh, don't worry! Lightning and I like totally planned this." She waved her hand carelessly. "He'll be back here in no time."

Zoey tilted her head at the blonde. "Wait, you mean that you came up with that? Lightning didn't just pick the fight instinctively?"

Lindsay shook her head with a bright smile. "Nope! We saw that you guys were in trouble and I said that he should draw the beavers away. Then he was like 'Nobody can outrun the Lightning' and all of that stuff. And then we did it!"

Chris shot two enthusiastic finger guns at Lindsay. "Yep! And let me say that it was really impressive! Without you, these other jokers would've been out of luck."

Courtney casted a disbelieving look at Lindsay. "I had no idea you had it in you."

Lindsay just blushed bashfully and closed her eyes, a small smile playing onto her face. She flipped her hair. "No need to thank me sooo much. Lightning did the dangerous part."

CONFESSIONAL:

Lindsay: The blonde bombshell had a proud look on her face. "It feels soooo great to be appreciated. Other than Beth, no one ever really likes my ideas. But it worked!" She pumped her fists into the air in celebration. "Yay me! Lindsay Her Hotness is back!"

Harold: Harold just stared at the camera with his hands down at his sides. He inhaled loudly.

"Lindsay's idea was pretty impressive. I could've come up with an idea like that, but I was too busy trying to intimidate the beavers with my karate poses. WA-TAA-CHA!" He karate chopped the air rapidly in different places before he leaned too far to one side and crashed into the confessional wall. "Ow!"

(Wooly Beaver Territory: Alejandro and Mal)

"This is quite curious, don't you think, Mal?"

Alejandro rose to his feet, still gazing at one of the many fallen trees around him. The Latino pursed his lips in thought.

"What possibly could have caused this much damage? And to mere trees at that?"

Mal, who was leaning against one of the few standing trees nearby, just rolled his eyes.

"Who cares? It's just a tree. The things grow back as fast as diseases spread."

Alejandro continued looking around, obviously disregarding the words of his teammate. Mal sighed in frustration, but, on the inside, he was actually quite gleeful about the distraction.

CONFESSIONAL:

Mal: The persona rubbed his hands together happily and began speaking in his deep voice. "This is perfect. If Alejandro is stalled enough, maybe my nifty case can attract some animals." He smiled maliciously at the camera.

"Of course, my ultimate goal is to get Mike voted off of this ridiculous show," Mal rolled his eyes, "but he'll be much more depressed if one of his little teammates gets hurt in the process. Plus, I'll have a lot more fun."

Suddenly, a random beeping noise startled both of the boys. They both began looking around them in confusion.

A voice was heard booming all around them, sounding amused. "Al and Mal, welcome to the party! I see that you have the Killer Sharks' victory item with you! Good on you guys!"

Alejandro's left eye twitched suddenly. "Ah Chris, always so pleasant to hear your voice. The name is Alejandro, by the way."

Chris's voice boomed through the otherwise eerily quiet forest. "Thanks for the compliment, Al! I'll keep that in mind, Al!"

Alejandro grimaced as Mal finally spoke up.

The scrawny boy glowered up at the speaker that Chris's voice was projecting from. "Will you get on with the instructions already? I'm getting quite tired, and I'm not always very pleasant when I'm tired." The bags under his eyes seemed to get more pronounced.

Chris sounded almost surprised when he replied. "Mal, since you're a newbie on this show, I'll cut you some slack. Just know that you'll be feeling pretty tired throughout this season. Hahahaha!"

Mal sneered up at the speaker and leaned harder against the tree trunk next to him, crossing his arms over his small frame as he did so. Alejandro just looked weary.

"Dios mio. Do you have anything important to say or not?"

The speaker sounded off again as Chris's laughter faded out. "Oh yeah! I almost forgot! You guys should probably tread lightly through that patch of woods. And I would definitely try to avoid Lightning as well! Wouldn't want to be that guy right about now."

Alejandro cocked an eyebrow at the speaker. "Lightning? You mean that idiot braggadocio from the other team? What is he up to around here?"

"Ehhhh, nothing much. Just being chased by giant carnivorous beavers. As I said, you should probably steer clear of him and those fans of his currently pursuing him. And make sure to get that case back here safely, even if it means that you don't! Chef will never let me forget it if that case comes back damaged."

Mal chuckled darkly and tilted his head, causing some of his hair to sweep across his visible eye. "So the fool is bringing the party, eh? That might be entertaining to watch..."

Alejandro gave the mysterious persona a worried look and Chris sounded slightly off-put by his comments.

"...Yeaahhhhhh, so...um...I'm just going to end transmission now. That's kinda messed up, dude." With that, a loud beep was heard, signaling that Chris was no longer connected to the speaker hanging up above.

Mal grunted in response to Chris's uncomfortable scolding of his comments about Lightning. He then narrowed his eyes and cast his gaze over to Alejandro, who now had scrunched his lips up disapprovingly at the odd persona.

"What? It was done in jest...I wouldn't want to see the fool get hurt...well, deathly hurt, at least."

Alejandro continued to study his companion with a watchful eye, not unlike a mother hen's.

Mal rolled his eyes once he realized that Alejandro wasn't going to stop. He grabbed the silver suitcase with their team's logo on it and began slowly pacing past the Latino.

"Whatever. I don't have to answer to you, anyway. I don't answer to anyone," he muttered under his breath as he finally began hearing the sound of Alejandro's boots pattering against the ground behind him.

Unexpectedly, a blood-curdling scream was heard roaring through the dark forest. The unusual duo jumped slightly at the sudden booming noise. Both immediately followed this action by craning their heads toward the direction of said scream.

Alejandro looked thoughtful about this. "Hmmm, do you think that we should come to Lightning's aid, friend?"

Mal scoffed at his teammate. "You can drop the "friend" off of that sentence. I much prefer my name, thank you very much." Soon after saying this, Mal grew a distraught look.

"With that being said...I would simply love to go help our fellow cast member, Lightning. I'm very worried about his wellbeing. Those beavers could be seriously hurting him." Mal's deep voice sounded very suspicious as he said this, as it had an air of inflection that he hadn't used up to that moment.

Alejandro casted a weary look to his odd teammate before looking back to the direction that Lightning's shriek had came from. He bit his lip puzzlingly before clicking his tongue.

His bright green eyes drifted to meet Mal's dark brown ones. "Alright...Mal. Let's go rescue the brute. Even one as arrogant as him doesn't deserve such a fate." The Latino then began running into the forest, searching for Lightning with his eyes. Mal followed him.

As the two disappeared into the lightly-wooded area, the latter boy muttered something under his breath.

"Yes, he doesn't deserve that..." He cast a look to the side, where numerous fallen trees, wooden chips, and dead leaves were piled among the shadows.

"Off-screen, at least."

(The Gorge)

At the bottom of the gorge, another painful thud was heard as Justin once again failed to reach any of the vines that were entangled in the tall dirt walls.

"You know, maybe if you weren't such an obnoxious pretty boy, I'd help ya out."

Justin immediately turned a sharp glare to the farm boy's back. "And maybe if you weren't such a hick farmer, someone would've actually have come looking for you. Only Ezekiel even noticed that you were missing, and he's a nose-picking redneck like you."

Scott jumped to his feet, now red with anger. He ran at Justin, only for the male model to step out of the way at the last minute, looking unimpressed. The farm boy crashed into the wall.

Justin pursed his lips and tapped his foot on the ground. "Did you honestly think that I was just going to stand there and let you tackle me? This is real life here, not a cheesy action film."

Scott tore his face off of the wall, his gray eyes narrowed. He looked back at the male model with obvious contempt.

"I'm the master manipulator of this dumb show! I'm the one who arranged all of those eliminations last season! I deserve at least some respect!"

Justin stroked his chin as he watched Scott ramble, seeing an opportunity. His blue eyes glinted in the dark gorge as he smiled at the farm boy for the first time yet.

"You know, you and I maybe aren't as different as I thought. I'm like the more refined, more handsome version of you."

Justin's eyes widened as he realized that his words might offend Scott.

"I mean, that isn't your fault though! Not all of us can be living art sculptures. Genetics can be really unfair, eh?"

Scott cocked an eyebrow at Justin now, his anger seemingly vanishing in the face of confusion.

Justin decided to continue, glad that he was commanding the farm boy's attention. He began pacing side to side, his hands now clasped together behind his back as if he was formulating a war plan.

"You and I have both been cut down. We made this show interesting, for crying out loud! People just take things too personally! I mean, without some manipulation, it would just be a lovefest for the million!"

Scott's eyes widened in a conspiratorial fashion as he shakily pointed at Justin. "That's what I've been saying! I get people voted off so that I can win some money for my farm, and everyone calls me a bad guy," he rolled his eyes. "But all of these other people claim to be saints and yet they don't even care that we're missing!"

Justin looked visibly uncomfortable at that last part.

"They probably care that I'm gone," he meekly added.

"But, you're right. So, what do you say, uhhh." Justin tried to think of what the farm boy's name was again, "sport? Truce?" The male model held out his tanned and manicured hand to Scott. The pale farm boy stared down at it for a moment before spitting in his own and eagerly grabbing Justin's. The male model's face grimaced in psychological pain as he felt Scott's spit spread against his hand.

Scott let him go after a few seconds, a devious smile on his face.

"Pappy says that it isn't really a deal unless there's spit involved. Something about DNA."

The ginger now looked up at the towering walls around them, then at the moon that shined down the chasm.

"Hmmm, we could climb this if we worked together. I know a trick that an old pal of mine from last season taught me," Scott began snickering. "Should work perfectly for this."

Behind him, Justin held his spit-covered hand out away from him with a horrified expression and began callously dragging it against the dirt wall.

He resolved to whisper-screaming so that Scott wouldn't hear his freak-out and possibly get offended.

"EWWWWWW! I can already feel the bacteria coursing along my arm! Is this what it feels like to have fleas! Get it off! Get it off!"

CONFESSIONAL:

Scott: Scott just crossed his arms at the camera passively. "Yeah, so I guess that Beverly did do one useful thing on this show: he taught the ol' Scottmeister how to get out of situations like these." He began cackling and pointed both of his index fingers at his forehead.

(The Forest: Cody)

Cody spread out uncomfortably on the tree branches, looking down at the big brown bear that awaited his appearance down on the ground. His turquoise eyes were wide anxiety.

He put one of his hands right next to his mouth in a half-cup, "Hey, uh, Mr. Bear? What say you that we agree to settle this like men? If you could just turn around, close your eyes, and walk back ten paces..."

He sighed to himself and rolled his eyes. The tech geek let out a desperate sigh as he pondered over his situation.

I wonder if Zeke and Leshawna are at the finish line already? I'm probably holding the team up...

He looked down at his lap depressingly, noticing the wet spot on his crotch. After casting a depressed look at the spot for several seconds, Cody closed his eyes and began breathing deeply.

...Maybe the Bears already won...If that's the case, the Codemeister will get eliminated for sure...Again, without getting the girl or the respect of my team...

He sprawled out among the tree branches, his hands cushioning his head as he stared up at the night sky longingly. The bears distinct growls could be heard below him as he had a new thought.

Should I wait for Chris to send out the search party? Or should I...*GULP* just go for it?

He casted a long look down at the base of the tree, thinking over his options.

CONFESSIONAL:

Cody: The short boy now had a look of determination on his face. His eyebrows were slanted and his turquoise eyes had fire in them. He clenched his left fist at the camera.

"I've decided! The Codemeister is done hiding!" He punched his open palm with his left fist. "I may get horribly disfigured, but chicks love battle scars!"

He then paused and scratched his chin, gazing at the roof of the confession cam. "Or...at least I'm told they do...I really hope they do." He winced.

And so, after hyping himself up for several minutes, the tech geek pasted a battle-ready look onto his face and breathed in deeply several times.

Then, he jumped from the tree branch that he had perched on down to the ground below, puffing his chest up. From most men, it would look intimidating, but from Cody...

Of course, considering all of this, the short brunette was quite surprised at what he found at the base of the tree.

The large, fuzzy brown bear that had been growling and snarling up at Cody before had fallen asleep. The large creature was currently curled up right next to the tree's trunk, snoring loudly.

Cody just stared at the snoozing bear for several seconds. Then he sighed quietly and began silently creeping away.

CONFESSIONAL:

Cody: He had his head in his heads. "It was asleep! For how long?!"

He shook his head at the camera. "I've gotta get to the finish line ASAP. I can't be going home this early!"

(The Protective Zone)

Courtney tapped her foot against the ground impatiently. Her arms were crossed and her eyes grew increasingly blurry as time kept ticking by.

"Ugh. Where is Lightning? It's been forever since we got here!"

Lindsay shot the CIT a confused look and counted on her fingers. "Ummm, we've only been here for 10 minutes, Courtney."

Suddenly, a loud, drawn-out groan was heard from the left. Both girls craned their heads to see Harold still lying on the ground.

The ginger nerd yawned. "10 minutes or not, I'm getting really tired. I need at least 4 hours of REM sleep each night if I'm to perform at my peak in the challenges."

The camera panned over to Noah, who was leaning against the giant wall separating the protective zone from the dangers outside. The egghead had a grumpy look on his face. "That's very nice to hear. I have a condition where I need sleep to actually function, just like most humans. Why are we even waiting here? Us four already completed the challenge."

Chris appeared right next to Noah second later, a large grin on his face as he poked Noah on the nose. "C'mon Noah, where's your team spirit?! Don't you want to be here cheering on Lightning and Justin when they ride in heroically to hook you the win?"

Noah grumbled and turned his head away from the mocking host. "Pfft, yeah, and I'm the head cheerleader at my high school. Good one."

Lindsay gasped, her blue orbs turning to Noah in surprise. "Wait, you're head cheerleader too? We so need to hang out!"

The cynical bookworm just rolled his eyes. "Gee, I just can't wait."

Nearby, Harold sat up in a flash, his eyes wide. "Wait a minute, Justin is still out there."

Chris, who was still standing cockily next to Noah, pointed at Harold enthusiastically. "That a boy, Harold! I was wondering when you guys would notice that your most valuable player was missing." He dug into his pocket for something and flashed a toothy smile at the nerd. He quickly tossed it to Harold. "Here, have a prize!"

Said projectile hit Harold in the glasses, tumbling to the ground after colliding with them. Harold rubbed his glasses soothingly and glared at Chris. "Gosh! Watch where you're throwing stuff." He followed this up by picking up the thing that Chris had thrown at him. He squinted at it puzzlingly.

"A pen? That's my big prize?"

Chris winked at him. "That's not just any pen! That's my custom Chris McLean writing pen! Available with three different colored inks!"

Noah interjected here, pointing to a beeping red button by the large metallic door in front of the group. "Hate to interrupt your ad, but I think that someone else is here."

Chris's face quickly became devoid of the joy he had had before. He grumbled under his breath as he slowly dragged his feet over to the large door.

Courtney conspiratorially placed a hand that covered her mouth from the left and leaned over to Lindsay. "Thank god we didn't have to listen to him harp over his cheap pens. Now we only have to pray that it's Lightning and Justin at the door."

Lindsay blinked a few times before smiling knowingly at Courtney. "Oh, don't worry. I do that allll the time at home."

The blonde then proceeded to close her eyes and bow her head. Her hands clasped together in front of her. "Our father who art in-"

As Lindsay kept praying, Courtney slapped her forehead and groaned under her breath. "That's not what I meant."

Off to the side, Chris finally came up on the door, still muttering under his breath. "I swear, I wait forever for these teens and they decide to show up right as I'm trying to advertise my brand. So disrespectful." He condescendingly pressed the button to open the large door, watching bitterly as it began slowly swinging open. The Screaming Bears present all held their fingers in the hope that it was their two remaining teammates.

Mal and Alejandro walked through the door into the protective zone, Lightning's arms draped over both of their shoulders as they helped the wounded athlete over the finish line. Lightning was covered in dark scratches and his white hair was ruffled. He had a defiant expression as the two Sharks helped him through.

"Lightning wants to make clear that he did NOT need your help. Lightning just thought this would be quicker."

Alejandro scowled at the egomaniac and dropped Lightning's left arm off of his shoulder, watching as the athlete winced in pain. "So you've told us every minute that we walked."

Mal mimicked the Latino by tossing Lightning's arm off of his shoulder. The mysterious boy then placed his hands on his hips and surveyed those present with a large smirk. "So this is the competition?" He scoffed. "Didn't even go back for their own teammate."

The Screaming Bears studied the persona, all of them noting the hair that covered one of his eyes and the dark grin on his face. Zoey, in particular, looked confused about his presence.

Chris patted the new arrivals on the back as they made their way over to the others. Mal handed the Killer Shark suitcase over to him as he passed the host. Chris inspected it quickly and nodded his approval at Alejandro and Mal. He then shook his head. " The Killer Sharks have delivered their case! Seems that they're catching up a bit. Screaming Bears, you're still waiting on one member for the win, which means that Justin is going to have to make it through alone."

Lindsay had a worried look in her blue eyes now. "Oh no! Justin is out there alone?!"

Courtney groaned as she too came to that realization, slapping herself on her forehead. "Great. Justin is out there alone."

CONFESSIONAL:

Courtney: Courtney had narrowed eyes as she regarded the camera. "Justin had better get here soon. If he doesn't, I can easily get him thrown out of here. Nobody double-crosses me and gets away with it!"

Alejandro: Alejandro tapped his chin with an anxious expression on his face. "I was surprised that Mal agreed to rescue Lightning, especially after all that he had said before that. That is, until I saw what he did to those beavers." The Latino shivered. "My god, he was utterly brutal. He didn't draw any blood, but he sure gave them a few of them a vicious beating...I'm going to need to ask Mike about this Mal character later..."

Zoey: The redhead looked curious about something. She rubbed her chin in thought as she looked to the side. "I've never met any one of Mike's personalities that looked like that. He almost looked the an emo-version of Mike." She realized what she said and laughed before looking at the camera with a smile. "I guess I'll need to talk to him while I have the chance!"

(The Forest: Ezekiel and Leshawna)

"...H-Hey Leshawna...The Zeke has another question, eh."

Leshawna sighed and looked back at her teammate, who looked quite thoughtful about something. He had his right hand raised high in the air as if he was in a classroom.

"What is it, Zeke?"

He fidgeted somewhat anxiously. "Ummm...Why do'on't we go'o back for Co'ody, homes? We can't win without him, eh."

Leshawna pursed her lips. "What do you want to do, Zeke? Distract the bear and get eaten ourselves? Our best chance is to get to the finish line and get Chris to send help. That's Cody's best chance."

Ezekiel scrunched his mouth up worriedly as the two walked. "Are ya sure that Co'ody'll be alright, eh? The Zeke still feels like this be his fault, yo'o."

Leshawna threw her hands up in the air. "That's because it is your fault!"

The homeschooler hung his head in shame as the two kept walking through the dark forest.

CONFESSIONAL:

Leshawna: She is seen massaging her temples. "I feel for Zeke. I really do. But he screwed up majorly, again! I might even consider voting for him if I wasn't so scared of what he might do this time after getting voted out." She frowned thoughtfully.

Ezekiel: His gray eyes were glued to the floor and he was hunched over in his seat. "The Zeke didn't mean t'a...Honest, eh! It was just that that gold was so tempting, yo'o!" His eyes grew a dreamy look in them and he clasped his hands together in front of him endearingly as he daydreamed about the mock gold from earlier.

(The Top of the Gorge)

"Get your hand out of my gorgeous f-face!"

Scott looked down at the model, who was currently stretched fully out in an attempt to boost him up far enough to reach the wooden bridge that ran straight across the large chasm in the ground. The farm boy had one hand reaching toward the rope foundation of the bridge while his other hand pushed down firmly against Justin's face for leverage. He rolled his eyes.

"Get your face out of my hand! See, it goes both ways! Now stop whining! You're distracting me from grabbing the ropes."

Justin flinched as Scott's hand pushed forcefully against his left cheek. He then growled quietly and muttered under his breath. "Doesn't seem to me like distracting you is that hard."

Scott grunted in effort as he pushed himself forward toward the bridge, grasping aimlessly at it. He eventually grasped one of the ropes binding it with one hand, and a smile lit up his face as he called down to Justin, "Hey, Sir Frail Fingers! I got it!"

Justin groaned as Scott's hand put even more pressure on him. His sandals began slipping slightly against the rocky wall of the chasm.

The male model gazed up at Scott pitifully. "Well hurry up then! I didn't spend all of these years perfecting my looks just to die in a dumb hole in the ground."

Scott grunted as he gripped the rope bridge tightly with both of his hands and began pulling himself up. He moved with caution at first as he pulled his upper body onto the bridge but got hasty as he tried to quickly pull his legs up, which then caused Justin to lose his balance against the rims of the gorge. The male model had a panicked expression as he slipped, and he quickly grabbed onto Scott's left leg with both hands to avoid falling all the way to the bottom again. Scott screamed as Justin grasped onto his leg for dear life and the farm boy tried to scramble fully onto the bridge, only to find that he wasn't strong enough to pull both himself and Justin up.

Justin yelled up at Scott with an anxious voice as he clutched the farm boy's left leg. "Please do not let go!"

Scott struggled to pull himself fully onto the bridge, but failed. He began panting and sweating. "What are you, crazy? I'll never let go, Jack!"

"The name is Justin!"

"I knew that!"

Suddenly, a new voice spoke up. "So, are you babies going to keep whining or do you want some help?"

Scott and Justin both immediately looked up. Up above, illuminated in moonlight, was Eva. The fitness buff had her usual stoic expression on, with one eyebrow cocked in a questioning manner. Her arms were crossed firmly against her chest. Trent was seen standing to her right side and looking down curiously at the two stragglers.

The musician smiled down at Justin as the two hangers just stared at their would-be rescuers. "Hey ya, Justin. How's it hanging?"

Justin just grumbled as he hugged Scott's leg for dear life. "That wasn't funny."

Eva nodded as she looked down at Scott with a glint in her eyes. "I agree, but I do find this situation sort of funny."

Scott scoffed and looked up at her. "You know, if you leave me behind, our team will lose."

Eva tilted her head and looked down at him quizzically. "Oh, so Mr. Throwing Challenges suddenly wants to win? That's convenient."

Trent gulped as he met Scott's eyes. He looked hesitantly over at Eva. "Uhhh, Eva? The guy makes a fair point, even if he is a jerk."

Eva shot a sideways glance at Trent before sighing. "Fine." she grumbled. She bent down and grabbed one of Scott's arms roughly. The farm boy gritted his teeth in pain at her tight grip as she handily lifted him into the air onto the bridge. Justin was unceremoniously dragged onto the bridge as a result.

The male model faceplanted tiredly onto the wooden planks and held up a thumbs up. "Thanks Eva," he mumbled into the ground.

Eva grinned at Scott as she held him up in the air. She dropped him onto his feet with a warning look. "Alright, fine, you can come with us. You're lucky that we're on the same team." She then regarded Justin, who was still lying face down onto the wooden planks of the bridge. "We can't, however, let handsome here follow us."

Scott glanced down at Justin with a distasteful frown. "I agree. We can't afford to lose."

Eva glared at the dirt farmer. "You're only saying that because you're on the chopping block if we do," she shot back at him.

Scott scowled and let his eyes wander to the land at the end of the bridge, where a heavily vine-covered tree stood. "I say we hogtie him. He can't follow us that way."

Trent looked uneasily between his two ruthless teammates. "Uh, guys? Don't you think that's a bit extreme? He could get seriously hurt if you tie him up and an animal comes around."

Eva pursed her lips as she too studied the tree that Scott was gazing at. "He has a point," she concurred.

Trent smiled in relief and wiped some sweat off of his forehead. "Good. I propose that we be sportsmanlike and just leave him here. Give him a fair chance. I'm sure that the rest of our team is already at the finish anyway."

Eva glanced at Scott, who brought a hand up to his chin in thought.

CONFESSIONAL:

Trent: He smiled at the camera and hunched over positively. "I think I'm making some headway with the team. Some of them are just so hardcore." He shrugged. "I prefer to win fairly or not at all."

Justin scowled as he tried to wiggle out of his bonds. "Oh c'mon, you're telling me that you're just going to leave me like this?"

Trent just smiled up at Justin sheepishly and shrugged his shoulders. "Sorry man; I tried. They outvoted me."

The male model was hanging on the bottom of a long tree branch that jutted out of a huge oak tree. Thick olive-colored vines were wrapped around him and carefully knotted so as to not give him any room to loosen his bonds. Gravity left Justin's hair suspended messily across his forehead and hanging toward the ground.

Suddenly, Eva could be heard shouting back at the musician through a thicket of trees. "Hey music man! You comin' or what?!"

Trent looked awkwardly to his left, where Eva's shout had resonated from. Then he looked back up at Justin with concerned eyes. He patted the tree that Justin was tied to warmly. "You take care of yourself, ok man? I'll leave a trail for Chris to follow back to you once we win."

Justin cocked an eyebrow at his fellow Drama Brother. "A trail of what?

Trent smiled at him and withdrew a small notepad from his pocket filled with bright neon yellow-colored pages. When Justin still looked puzzled, Trent moved to explain himself.

"You see, I always liked to keep it on me. You never know when some nice lyrics will come to mind." He rubbed his head sheepishly now. "That's how I write most of our songs actually. They just come to me at random times."

Justin's eyes widened at the revelation. "Even 'I Want It This Way'? I never knew that you wrote our songs that way. I always assumed that you had like a schedule for brainstorming and smart person stuff like that."

Trent shook his head amusedly. "I'm no genius, you know. I'm just a regular guy. Talent isn't something that you can just manifest at certain times."

Justin blinked several times confusedly, obviously having a hard time processing such a thought. "I'll leave the philosophizing to you, Trent my friend. All I know is that I was born with my talents." At this, Justin shot a charming white smile down at the musician and winked at him with shining blue eyes.

Trent chuckled at the model's antics until Scott's voice could be heard impatiently echoing through the same trees that Eva's had before. "Move it, lover boy! I have an aching leg and an aching arm! I am not in the mood to kept waiting!"

Trent frowned and stepped back gingerly from Justin's tree. "Alright man, I guess I've gotta get going. I'll see you on the other side, though. I'm sure your team will come through here and cut you down eventually." With that being said, he spun around on his heels and began walking casually away from Justin. He waved back at his friend as he disappeared from sight.

Justin had an extremely worried look on his face as Trent disappeared. He darted his eyes side to side as he heard the noises of nature all around him. "Trent?! This isn't funny! Cut me down, please! I've never even been camping before! A handsome body like mine doesn't belong outside, unless it's the beach!"

After several seconds of hyperventilating, he took some deep breaths and calmed down. He gave a small smile to the ground and chuckled anxiously. "Calm down, Justin...Calm down...He's right. He's right. I'll bet my team comes through here any minute now...Any minute now...They wouldn't leave behind their most handsome player!"

CONFESSIONAL:

Justin: The male model had a confident look on his face and a bright glint in his blue eyes as he pointed to his brain. "I might not remember much from all of my classes back at school, but I do know that saying something twice makes it scientifically more likely to happen." He shot the camera a brilliant smile and leaned against the left side of the confession cam. "Learned that in Art class."

He looked thoughtfully at the ceiling for a moment before correcting himself. "I meant Psychology. Yeesh," he chuckled, "it's kind of hard to remember which class was which now that I think about it."

(The Protective Zone)

At the finish line, those who had already completed the challenge shuffled around aimlessly for something to do to keep themselves awake as they waited for their fellow campers to arrive. The Screaming Bears, who had been there the longest, largely opted to stay together.

Alejandro, who was one of the only two Killer Sharks that had passed the finish line so far, drifted toward some of those on the other team.

He decided to approach Noah and Lindsay, who were situated against the large gray wall that separated them from the animals of Wawanakwa. The blonde was eagerly talking the bookworm's head off about cheerleading and, well, pretty much anything that came to her mind.

"And so Paula convinced me to audition. I was so nervous! And like, Coach Grey looked so intimidating, like that one judge from American Idol! She had on some gray sweatpants and a gray hoodie, which so didn't match the color of her eyes. Do you know what color her eyes were?"

Noah, who had his arms crossed as he sat in a laid-back position against the large metallic wall, answered with mock enthusiasm. "Oh, was it blue?! I bet it was blue!"

Lindsay laughed and smiled at him. "Nooooo, her eyes were green, which soooo doesn't go with gray at all. Anyway, I just pulled some basic moves that Paula had taught me, and all of her friends cheered for me! And do you know what happened next?"

Noah closed his eyes and sighed depressingly. "Let me guess, you got onto the team?"

Lindsay titled her head in wonder at him. "Wow! You're a good guesser!"

"So I'm told."

Alejandro, who now stood just a few feet away from the two, smiled and nodded at both of them as a greeting. "Hello amigos, would you mind if I joined your conversation here? I'm afraid that some of the others don't quite make as great of conversation." He chuckled.

Lindsay smiled brightly at the newcomer. "Of course, Alejandro! The more the merrier." She then scratched her head confusedly. "But I thought that 'amigos' meant boys? That's what my Spanish teacher used to say, I think."

Alejandro shook his head amusedly at her, his green eyes bright. "A common mistake, chica. You would be correct if I had referred to you singularly, but, since I was talking to both you and Noah, 'amigos' is the correct plural form."

Lindsay tilted her head puzzlingly for a few seconds before she just chuckled and waved her hand carelessly. "I never did understand the language anyway. I did worse in that class than I did in English."

Alejandro regarded her warmly. "You must not sell yourself short, chica. Tell me, what grade did you get in Spanish?"

Lindsay looked thoughtful for a few seconds before firing off her answer. "I think I got a 65? Or was that P.E.? Ms. Wilson was always harping on me over the dress code."

She paused. "No, wait! That was my English II grade! I got a 62 in Spanish." She nodded assuredly at Alejandro, who now looked awkward and uncomfortable. He glanced over at Noah.

"And you, Noah? How are you on this fine night?"

Noah opened one of his eyes and gazed at the Latino suspiciously. "I'm trying to catch up on my much-needed rest here. You can do what you want, Eelejandro. It is a free country, after all." Following this, the bookworm's eye closed once again.

Chris popped up next to them now, wagging his finger enthusiastically at Noah. "I'm afraid this isn't a free country, because I own Wawanakwa! Which makes me Supreme Leader Chris McLean while on this soil." He smirked proudly and tilted his head up in pride.

Alejandro cocked an eyebrow at the host. "Isn't Wawanakwa still within the Canadian sphere? I thought that the Canadian authorities arrested you last season?"

Chris chuckled heartily and slung one of his arms around Alejandro's neck, pulling the Latino close. "This guy here is such a racket! Hehehe. There's no need to be bringing up such archaic memories. I prefer to live in the now! And, right now, I'm basically Governor of this island! They only came here because of some...uh," he squinted his eyes thoughtfully, "disagreements over the international disposal of toxic waste."

Noah opened his eyes and rolled them, his sight set on Alejandro and Lindsay. He spoke in a frank tone, thick with sarcasm. "Basically what our 'Supreme Leader' means is that you shouldn't disagree with him if you want to be treated well."

Lindsay's eyes widened and she eagerly put one of her hands up. "Oh, me! Me!"

Chris sighed and drug his hand over his eyes. "Lindsay?"

The blonde dropped her hand back down to her side and shifted her eyes between the other three around her. "Isn't that how they run things in Cube? I think I remember that from History class."

Alejandro, Chris, and Noah all collectively sighed at her mispronunciation of 'Cuba'.

Of everyone in the protective zone, Mal was easily the outcast. The scrawny boy stood noticeably distant from the others, facing a large, dark brown tree while everyone else either made conversations with someone else or tried desperately to sleep.

He was currently carving said tree with a makeshift metal knife. Nobody knew where he had gotten it, but nobody attempted to ask him. He did give off somewhat of an intimidating presence, after all.

As the mysterious persona kept roughly carving the tree in front of him, Harold walked over and attempted to peek over his shoulder to view the carving. Mal noticed this, but largely let it slide at first. That is, until Harold tried to lean in closer, which brought the nerd's head right above Mal's right shoulder. Harold rubbed his chin as he examined the wood carving up close.

Mal grew increasingly more agitated as this happened. He gritted his teeth and his eye narrowed as he kept carving. He was obviously trying to keep his cool.

"Hmmm, so what are you carving?"

Mal turned his eye to the side that Harold was on and glared. He didn't turn, however, and just opted to growl threateningly at the nerd. Harold yelped and quickly scrambled away from the reclusive persona.

Mal smiled toothily as he watched the ginger nerd retreat. The odd persona flipped his makeshift knife into the air and caught it. Seconds later, he would begin carving once again, but he whistled merrily this time.

CONFESSIONAL:

Harold: The nerd just sat down and stared at the camera. "I wasn't scared of Mike back there. I just wanted to make him feel more secure as the toughest guy around." Harold now smiled proudly. "I mean, I doubt that he could beat me in a fight, but I prefer to be underestimated."

After the thus-far-dubbed Harold incident, it became apparent to everyone that Mal wasn't to be bothered. Well...mostly everyone, that is.

Zoey innocently approached Mal soon after, making sure to keep a small distance between them as she craned her head in an attempt to view his work. Her eyes drifted curiously to the back of Mal's head, and she decided to say something.

"You look like you would be a nice artist."

Mal stopped carving and stepped back without turning to the redhead. He crossed his arms loosely and seemed to admire his work, which was a deep, blocky carving of a fiery skull with devil's horns. Without missing a beat, Mal decided to respond.

"Do you really believe that, or are you just being falsely nice?"

The question seemed to throw Zoey a bit off guard. The indie chick chuckled a bit nervously as she studied his extremely-dark carving.

"I, admittedly, don't quite agree with some of the themes that you used, but it has some seriously nice detail to it." She stepped forward cautiously and walked over to the tree trunk. With Mal to her immediate left, she began tracing some of the carved flames with one of her fingers. She turned to him as she did this. "I like how you carved some sparks for the fire. Really makes it look more realistic. And I think it shows that you care about your art."

Mal met her eyes wordlessly, as if studying her from head to toe. He then decided to ask her a point-blank question. "Why are you talking to me?"

Zoey didn't look very shocked at the question. She giggled and turned back to the tree. "You know, that's the sixth time that I've gotten that question from your body. Heck, even Mike gets insecure sometimes...I just try to be friends with all of Mike's personalities. You guys are people too, and that makes you important to me. I'm sure that, deep down, Mike feels the same way."

Mal just looked at her with a wide eye. The odd persona seemed taken aback by the sincerity in the girl's tone.

Zoey squinted at him and examined his look. "Would you mind telling me your name? Mine's Zoey."

Mal blinked. "...The name is Mal."

CONFESSIONAL:

Mal: He rubbed his chin in deep thought before looking up at the camera. "Zoey is nauseatingly nice...but that only makes her a more fitting pawn for my plans. So, I'll tolerate her for now. I'll even talk to her. The mere fact that I was so near his innocent girlfriend will make Mike go crazy." Mal then proceeded to let out a hyena laugh.

(Wooly Beaver Territory)

Back in the Wooly Beaver Territory, Ezekiel and Leshawna walked in deafening silence.

Leshawna was determinedly strutting forward through the dark forest, her eyes drifting to the side onto the ruined landscape and her eyes tuned in to the eery sounds echoing from the thin forestline.

Ezekiel, however, was dragging his feet, his head hung low. He had tried to start up a conversation with Leshawna several times now, but each attempt had failed before he could even speak. Evidently, he wasn't very good at talking to people his age yet.

I failed, eh...Cody's stuck up in a tree and Leshawna probably doesn't even wanna talk t'a me, he thought as the duo trudged forward.

The Zeke might deserve to go home tonight...

This thought made him more depressed than he had been before as he began creating imaginary scenes of his elimination. He imagined Chris gleefully rubbing it in his face as someone else was tossed the last marshmallow, and he imagined the disappointed and awkward-looking expressions on his teammates' faces as he once again walked the Dock of Shame.

His gray eyes grew more and more dingy as he kept creating these scenarios in his head, which made him lose focus on pretty much everything around him. That is, except for the ground.

Which is why he noticed something strange when he finally came back to reality.

He looked up nervously and looked at Leshawna, who kept forging ahead, clueless of what they were wandering over.

The prairie boy gulped slightly and opened his mouth. "Uhhh, Leshawna? We're walking over-"

Leshawna turned her head slightly toward the homeschooler. "Zeke, I'm going to stop ya right there. You don't have to apologize. You looked depressed enough on our way here that Leshawna forgave you already."

Ezekiel closed his mouth and cocked an eyebrow at her.

She continued as they walked. "But ya need to try a lot harder. You have bad luck naturally, so you've gotta put some more effort into what you do. That's what my dad taught me my whole life. Ya gotta accept when you make a mistake and try your hardest not to make another one."

She then turned back to him, her gaze no friendly once again. "So what were you tryin' to say?"

Ezekiel blinked several times, absorbing all of what she had said. He then began stuttering. "U-Uhhh, I just wanted to tell ya that we're walkin' over a trail 'a yellow specks, eh. The Zeke doesn't kn'ow what it be, yo'o."

Leshawna rolled her eyes at his use of slang. The homegirl placed two hands on her hips in an unimpressed fashion. "Sugar, you've got to stop with the slang. It does not fit a white country boy like you. Sound like you're speaking in tongues or something." Her eyes then moved down to the ground and widened as she noticed what Zeke had previously pointed out. She kneeled down onto the ground and picked up one of the ripped pieces of neon yellow paper, inspecting it with her dark brown eyes. She gaped and looked up at Ezekiel, who eyed her with a puzzled expression.

"What's the fire, eh?"

Leshawna smiled and chuckled at his screw-up of the expression. "This is a trail to the finish line, Zeke! It's got to be! Someone must've left it here to lead their teammates to the finish." She looked forward and saw that the trail spanned through the woods up ahead in a slightly curved manner. "We've got our lead! Leshawna says that we follow it."

Ezekiel scratched his head confusedly. "Couldn't that have been from the other team, eh? What if it's a mirage?"

Leshawna cocked an eyebrow at him. "Do you mean sabotage? That's not likely. Even if it was the Bears, they'd want their teammates to reach the finish."

She stood up and grinned proudly at the prairie boy. He put on a nervous smile to mirror hers.

"Uhhh...So am I in the good zone again, eh?"

Leshawna put her arms out and nodded her head. "Come give Leshawna a hug, white boy. You've made up for earlier."

Ezekiel looked hesitant as he slowly scooted forward. "Uh, I've never hugged anyone outside 'a my family, homie."

Leshawna chuckled and pulled him close. He awkwardly hugged her back, his face red. After a few seconds, she let him go and looked toward the arching path of the torn paper shreds.

Leshawna pointed forward authoritatively. "Full speed ahead, sugar! The Killer Sharks are winning this challenge!" She then took off in an enthusiastic run.

Ezekiel held up a thumbs up and began jogging after her. He saluted as he ran. "You're the Don, homes!"

CONFESSIONAL:

Leshawna: The homegirl sat sassily with one leg laying over the other. "Yeah, I've made my fair share of mistakes on this show, but I've always tried to fix 'em the best that I could. I mean, heck, I'm helping out Cody, Eva, Zeke...I'm basically Mother Leshawna over here"

"And once I win the 5 mil, The Zeke is go'oing back int'a the rap business, yo'o! I've already got tons of concept albums, eh. Ya wanna hear one?"

Leshawna grimaced slightly and turned her eyes up ahead. Her ears perked up suddenly as she heard another voice in the distance.

Leshawna turned back to Ezekiel and slapped her hand over his mouth. His gray eyes met her brown ones and she shushed him. "Leshawna hears someone up ahead. We're going to need to see who it is. Might be our teammates; might not be."

Ezekiel opened his mouth to speak, which caused Leshawna to bring her index finger up over her mouth in a shushing fashion again. "I need you to be quiet. You can be stealthy, right Zeke?"

Ezekiel slowly nodded, which caused Leshawna to withdraw her hand from his face. He silently got onto the ground on all fours and began slowly crawling over to the forest clearing that Leshawna had indicated. He heard the voices become more audible as he moved closer. A quick glance around told him to climb into a nearby bush to get as close as possible to the conversation while also being hidden from view.

Leshawna stayed back cautiously as her formerly-feral teammate hid inside of the dark green bush. Shouts could be heard from the nearby forest clearing.

A rough, angry voice echoed through the trees. "You'd better take that back, dirt sniffer, or I'll bury you here!"

A careless one followed, sounding exasperated with the former speaker. "Pfft, please, why don't you prove my point a little bit more. I merely said that you were like the She-Hulk and that you could use that power to help us win here."

The angry voice boomed once again. "How about I use your a** to fend off the frogs, huh?!"

A third voice sheepishly interjected. "Now Eva, I'm sure that Scott didn't mean to insult you."

The careless voice sounded off again, sounding defiant now. "You're damn right that I did, music boy!"

Scattered yelling was heard as two of the voices could be heard shouting over each other. The sheepish one was heard again, this time louder and more desperate.

"C'mon guys, we're a team! Violence is almost never the answer!" More yelling drowned the mediating voice out for several seconds until it could be heard again. "Why don't I have my guitar?! Music works perfectly for calming people down!"

A loud crack was heard, which was followed by a scream of pain and the sound of someone's body hitting the ground.

Ezekiel, from his bush, rustled around to get a bit closer. He was unsure of what had just happened.

The angry voice from before now sounded a lot calmer. "That's true, music man, but violence is sometimes the answer."

"E-Eva, what did you just do?!"

"He started it, and I finished it! I-" Suddenly, the voice trailed off.

Ezekiel cocked an eyebrow at this and tried to pull himself further to the front of the bush. He pressed his left ear forward and attempted to hear what was going on.

Suddenly, though, something grabbed his hood and yanked him upward out of his protective bush. Ezekiel yelped and blinked several times nervously as he found himself face-to-face with an angry-looking Eva.

The prairie boy quickly covered his face with his hands. "Please, Eva homes, don't kill The Zeke! I was just scouting, yo'o!"

Eva's face quickly adopted a confused look. "Homeschool? What are y-"

Leshawna ran into the clearing from the side. She skidded to a halt and put her hands up. "We thought you guys might've been the other team, so Zeke was spying."

Eva turned to look at Leshawna before her face turned to its normally neutral look. She dropped Ezekiel onto his feet next to the bush from before and crossed her arms. "Nice to see that it's you, I suppose. I thought that dumb model had gotten himself free and tried to follow us."

Leshawna arched an eyebrow and tilted her head to the left as she looked from Eva to Trent to Scott, who was currently lying down on the ground with his eyes shut and his limbs thrown all about. "Justin? Why would you mention that handsome devil? Were you trying to lure him with your trail of paper?"

Trent, who was now kneeling next to Scott worriedly, looked up at her. "We ran into Justin earlier," he explained. "Eva and Scott voted to tie him to a tree back there, so I left a trail of ripped paper so that Chris could send someone to rescue him after the challenge."

Eva's eyes widened and she turned to look at the musician with an outraged look. "You what?!"

Trent looked nervously at the angry fitness buff. He put his hands up in a surrendering manner. "I just didn't feel right about leaving him in the middle of nowhere. I at least wanted him to be found as quickly as possible."

Leshawna walked past the ongoing feud and looked over at the wall behind the group. Her eyes widened as she realized something. "Wait, are those all frogs on this wall?"

Eva turned her attention away from Trent to answer. "Yeah, they're a bunch of dumb frogs. We have to get them off if we want to pound on the door. There is no handle or anything, and they're croaking too loud for us to scream to let McLean know that we're here."

Trent stood up and walked over to the wall, his eyes on Leshawna. "Yeah, and the frogs look pretty aggressive. Eva wants to just fling them off, but we got beaten up by raccoons earlier, so I didn't think it was that great of an idea."

Leshawna shook her head and pursed her lips thoughtfully. "I don't know what we can do. I had a pretty bad experience with a frog on this show before, and let me tell ya: you don't want to mess with them."

A frowning Ezekiel now approached them, looking up at the wall of frogs. "What do'o we do'o, eh? If we can't touch the door or scream, we can't do'o anything."

They all looked thoughtful about this. That is, until Eva's amber eyes lit up. The others watched curiously as she jogged over to where Scott still laid deliriously on the ground. She slung the farm boy over her shoulder and rejoined her teammates at the border.

"Alright, so I'll just throw farm boy over and-"

Ezekiel's eyes widened in horror. "What?! Ya can't do'o that, homes! What if he gets hurt, eh?"

Trent frowned. "Hate to break it to you, dude, but he's already kinda hurt. Plus, I don't think we really have many other options."

Leshawna looked uneasy as well, but she nodded her reluctant approval to Eva. The fitness buff grinned and situated herself into throwing position.

"Don't worry, Homeschool. I'm great at shot-put." She let out a slight scream as she catapulted the delirious farm boy over the wall. His body could almost be heard hitting the ground on the other side.

They all glanced at each other now.

"Well...I guess we just have to wait now."

They didn'y have to wait long, however, as the giant door began slowly creaking open, causing all of the frogs gathered on it to croak furiously and retreat from the wall. The campers outside all bolted into the protective zone as quickly as possible, stopping only once they were all inside. They were greeted by a bunch of pairs of wide eyes and a wide smile from Chris, who stood right next to the wall. A delirious Scott laid on the ground beside the host.

"Congrats guys, you're safe now! And I see that you found Scott!"

Scott mumbled something from the ground, which Chris promptly ignored. He looked cheerfully at everyone present as the door began closing.

"Now we're only waiting for Cody and Justin! Screaming Bears, you guys have really squandered your four-person lead!"

All of the Screaming Bears gulped nervously as they realized that the competition was now down to a wire.

Courtney facepalmed. "Justin, where are you?"

CONFESSIONAL:

Trent: The musician rubbed the back of his head wearily and laughed. "Well, I'm glad that's finally over. Mediating between Scott and Eva felt like getting between a bulldozer and a condemned house: you already know who's going to win but you try to save the house anyway."

(The Forest)

Cody came to a large wooden bridge, strung up by ropes on each end and very much unstable-looking. He eyed it nervously while he glanced to each side to see whether there was any other way across the long chasm up ahead.

He sighed loudly when he realized that the bridge was the only way across. "Oh, c'mon! Anyone who has ever watched a movie knows that going onto the rickety bridge almost always results in falling!" He peeked down the large chasm in the ground ahead of him and blanched when he realized how far it likely went down.

He eyed the bridge hesitantly and slowly tiptoed onto it, looking down at his feet the whole time and cautiously stepping from one plank to another to gauge how precarious his position was. He winced slightly each time he heard one of the wooden planks make a creaking sound.

He continued on like this for awhile, until he got to the middle of the bridge. Once he reached this point, the tech geek grew impatient and decided to just gun it. He ran as quickly as his legs could carry him until he reached solid ground again.

He turned back to the bridge and placed his hands on his hips proudly. "Today, the Codemeister has conquered this bridge! Now I'll conquer this challenge!"

Out of nowhere, another voice spoke up. It sounded quite bored. "You are such a geek, you know that?"

Cody froze and glanced around, making sure to look at every possible direction that said voice could come from. Then he scratched his head confusedly. "Who was that?"

"Look up, Codester."

Cody cocked an eyebrow and looked up. His turquoise eyes widened as he saw Justin, his bandmate, wrapped up onto a tree branch with vines.

The short boy put a hand to his mouth to stifle his laughter. "Justin? Let me guess, another fangirl kidnapped you?"

Justin glared down at Cody. "Glad to see you're having fun here, because I'm not. Would you mind getting me down?"

Cody frowned. "Uhh, sure thing. Let me just find out how to do that." He whirled around, twiddling his thumbs as he looked around for something that could do such a job. His eyes lit up as he saw something. The tech geek quickly grabbed it and presented it to Justin.

Justin scowled. "A beaver? Really?"

Cody's eyebrows rose up in offense. "I'll have you know that I thought this through. This will work. Just trust the Codemeister a bit."

Justin rolled his eyes, but relented. "Fine, but only because we're friends."

Cody quickly climbed the tree to its lowest branch, which happened to be the one that the male model was attached to. Then, he grabbed the beaver's tail and yanked it backwards. The irritated beaver's teeth began chattering around like a chainsaw. Cody smirked proudly at Justin, who glanced at the beaver in mild confusion. Cody then brought the beaver's vibrating teeth over to hover onto the vines binding Justin. The beaver cut through them with ease, which resulted in Justin screaming as he crashed into the ground.

Cody slid down the tree happily and tossed the beaver back onto the ground. His eyes then fell onto the forest up ahead.

"Sooo...know any way through a dark, spooky forest?"

Justin's eyes met Cody's. "Well...you lack the muscle to get through alone and I lack the brains to get through alone. Why don't we temporarily team up to make it out alive?"

Cody frowned. "C'mon man, I'm not thaaat weak."

Justin just sent him a deadpan look. Cody rubbed his shoulder self-consciously before reluctantly nodding. "Alright, I'm in. But only because it's safer this way. Not because I agree with your logic."

Justin nodded and began walking forward. Cody followed him slowly. The male model grinned as he looked down at the paper trail that led through the forest. "Thank you, Trent," he whispered.

(The Protective Zone)

Chris checked his watch with a disdainful look on his face. Once he saw the time, the host grimaced and turned his eyes back to the giant barrier in front of him. "Where the heck are the rest of those teens? I'm close to just declaring the Bears the winners for bringing their case back first and going to bed." He followed this up with a loud, drawn-out yawn.

He waited for a reply, yet none came. This caused him to look back at the present contestants. None of them seemed to be paying attention to him at all.

Just a few feet away, Harold shakily pointed a finger up at the night sky, eyeing a collection of stars directly over top of the island.

"You guys see that one? That's Ursa Minor. Doesn't it look beautiful?"

Scott cocked an eyebrow up at the constellation. "I don't get it. It's just a bunch of dumb lights in the sky. What's so beautiful about that?"

Harold scowled at the farm boy. "Ye of such little taste. The stars are way more than lights, you caveman. They're celestial bodies of brilliant light that happen to be far away from our planet!" The nerd threw his hands up for emphasis.

Scott crossed his arms with an uninterested look. "Alright, so they're balls of light. That's all I need to know."

Trent placed a hand on the farm boy's shoulder. Scott looked at the musician with a cocked eyebrow.

"C'mon man, stars are beautiful." Trent glanced at Harold carefully. "I mean, you don't have to look at them the way Harold does."

Harold muttered "Idiots" under his breath.

The musician continued, "I think of stars as kind of like a sunset. A great cosmic thing that we get the privilege of seeing every day. Plus, they're great inspiration for songs." He smiled widely.

Scott pursed his lips and brushed Trent's hand off. "Pappy says that they're just levitating balls of stupid gas. I mean, they only come out at night! What the heck is that?"

Harold looked like he was about to fiercely argue that point with Scott, until an ear-wrenching scream came from the other side of the protective wall. Everyone assembled in in the protective zone craned their heads and held their ears as they stared at the large wall.

Chris winced as he let go of his ears. He plastered a grin onto his face and laughed as he looked at the campers' shocked faces.

"Seems to me like someone may be out there. It looks like we'll finally be able to declare our winner!"

He then squinted at the button that would open the door and rubbed his chin. "The question is: will I let them in?"

Another scream was heard, this one high-pitched. Chris burst out laughing and wiped an imaginary tear from his eyes. "Alright, I think I've made them wait long enough." With this, he pressed the button and the metallic door began slowly swinging open.

Chris stood back dramatically as heavy footsteps could be heard coming through the door. Seconds later, it became clear who it was.

"AHHHHHHHH! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!" Justin bolted through the large doorway and began running around aimlessly in circles. Two yellow birds, both curiously with three eyes, were perched on the top of his head and their beaks were firmly clamped onto separate clumps of his hair. They both pulled at the male model's black hair ruthlessly.

The other campers watched with wide eyes and stifled laughs as he ran around in circles around them. Lightning, however, stepped forward and waited for the male model to circle around again. Once he did, Lightning grabbed him firmly and ripped the birds out of his teammate's hair.

Lightning then whirled around and pitched the birds into the midnight sky. He brushed his hands together satisfyingly. "Lighning's still got it." The athlete then proceeded to kiss one of his biceps.

Justin quickly brought both hands up to his hair, feeling around for any missing portions. He looked worriedly at everyone around him. "Did they take any? Am I still handsome? Please answer me!"

Lightning shrugged from right next to him. "Lightning don't judge guys."

Nobody else said anything as everyone just stared at the panicking model.

He quickly locked eyes with someone that he knew. "Lindsay! Please tell me whether I'm still handsome or not!"

Lindsay just looked nervously at him before turning her eyes to someone else in the crowd. She smiled sympathetically at Justin.

Soon enough, someone stepped forward. Zoey, glancing at Mal, turned her eyes to meet Justin's. "You look fine, Justin. Nothing's changed."

Chris walked over to the male model and slung an arm around his shoulder, causing the now-calm Justin to look over at Chris. The host smirked. "I wouldn't say that! The Screaming Bears have just won the challenge!" He then casted an unimpressed look at the male model. "You kinda did ruin the drama of that moment, though. I swear, I'm working with television amateurs here!"

The campers assembled around the pair rolled their eyes. The host's rant was cut short, however, when someone else came running through the wide-open metallic door, panicking nearly as much as Justin.

"AHHHH! SNAKE! SNAKE!" Cody, with a large purple snake wrapped around various parts of his body, came speeding through the clearing while screaming his head off.

After the previous episode, almost nobody was as impressed or entertained. Eva quickly grabbed the tech geek as he ran by her, grabbed the snake around its neck, and threw it back over the large wall. Cody collapsed to the ground and looked back up at his hero with thankful eyes.

"Thanks for the save, hehe."

Eva shrugged at the tech geek. Chris then walked up, frowning as he looked down at the exhausted boy.

The host shook his head. "Cody, Cody, Cody, Cody, Cody. You've lost the challenge for your team tonight, bro." He then turned his head and squinted his eyes at the shorter boy. His nose crinkled with disgust. "And you've peed your pants? Sick!"

Cody's cheeks turned red as he used both hands to cover the wet spot. All of his fellow campers looked at him with a mixture of amusement, disappointment, or disgust.

Chris walked past the tech geek to press the button on his protective wall once again. The metallic doors swung closed. The host then turned around and began pacing past the campers. As he walked, he made a beckoning motion with one hand. "C'mon campers! We're staying at my villa tonight because it's too late to send you back to camp! Plus, I'm exhausted!"

The campers all sighed in relief that the challenge was over. Each of them began dragging their tired feet against the ground in the direction that the host was walking.

Chris called back one more thing, however. "By the way, Killer Sharks, meet me out back on the beach! You're heading to elimination tonight before I cut you all loose!"

The Screaming Bears grinned at each other as they heard the Killer Sharks collectively groan.

CONFESSIONAL:

Mike: The quirky boy held his head conflictedly. "I don't know who to vote for. I mean, Scott has helped me out a few times this season. And Cody did lose us the challenge..."

He sighed loudly. "But Scott's been a jerk the entire time I've met him!" He ran his hands through his hair. "I don't know what to do..."

Leshawna: Leshawna shook her head regretfully. "Poor Cody. That kid just can't seem to catch a break."

"I'm voting for Alejandro, of course. Nobody else seems to believe me about him yet, but we didn't get any time to strategize about who to vote for, so maybe this'll work."

Eva: Eva stared unyieldingly at the camera. The fitness buff had her arms crossed over her chest resolutely.

"I'm voting for that idiot farm boy." After a few seconds, her eyes widened. "Err, I mean Scott, not Homeschool."

Alejandro: Alejandro frowned and sighed at the camera. "Well, it is unfortunate, but I am currently left with no choice."

(The Beach)

Chris walked up to an improvised wooden podium, a mischievous look plainly on his face as he gazed at the Killer Sharks, who stood in rows with their backs to the ocean.

Chef stood stiffly behind the host, crossing his arms and muttering things under his breath. His head was turned stubbornly to the left.

Most of them looked extremely tired, with dirt speckling their shirts and pants. Cody's pants still had the vague pee stains on them, which he seemed to be trying to cover up with his hands. Overall, they looked terrible, which might be expected considering all that they had been through throughout the night.

Chris smiled widely as he surveyed their grumpy faces, a tray of marshmallows balanced on his left hand.

"Alright campers, you know the rules. Whoever doesn't receive a marshmallow tonight will be eliminated. You'll board the Boat of Losers, and you cannot come back. Everrrrrrrr."

He now straightened his spine, giving the Sharks a disappointed frown.

"Sharks, I'll be honest, I really thought that you guys had this challenge in the bag at the beginning. I mean, the other team was sprayed with pheromones AND they were carrying around a bunch of lobster through a den of crazy and carnivorous animals!" He used an incredulous tone as he looked at them all with wide eyes and an amused expression.

He learned his elbows down onto his improv podium. "Of course, you would have won, had Cody been a bit quicker about escaping the bear...And had he not freed Justin, who is on the other team. Heck, his wet pants also might've slowed him down a bit!"

Cody avoided eye contact with the others as everyone subconsciously turned their gazes to him. The tech geek's cheeks burned red with embarrassment as he tried to cover the wet spot on his pants with his hands.

He mustered up a weak defense seconds later. "I-it was a big bear."

Chris seemed to ignore this, though Cody did receive some sympathetic glances from his teammates. "Yet here we are again. I wonder if this elimination will be an unexpected as your last one? Maybe you'll go crazy and decide to eliminate Trent this time?"

Trent suddenly began looking nervous from his spot to the left of Alejandro. The musician cocked an eyebrow at Chris with a worried expression, "Wait, what? Why would anyone want to vote for me? Did everyone vote for me?"

Scott snorted. "Yeah, like I would waste a vote on you."

Leshawna, while casting a sideways glare at Alejandro, also threw water on the idea. "Don't worry, Trent, my vote wasn't for you, sugar. I voted for the lowliest snake on this team."

Alejandro ignored the hostility, instead directing a confused expression at Chris.

"Why would we vote for Trent?"

Chris waved a dismissive hand in front of him. "No need to get so inquisitive, people! It was just an idea. Trent isn't going home tonight. He's probably the most likable one of you jerks." He tossed a marshmallow to Trent, rolling his eyes as the musician happily caught it and went to go stand behind the host.

Chris murmured under his breath, "Always getting attacked just for hyping up tension."

He then shook his head, grabbing two other marshmallows off of his tray.

"Eva. Leshawna. You ladies are both safe tonight."

The two girls looked relieved as they caught their marshmallows and walked over to join Trent. The musician offered a smile to both of them, which Leshawna returned. Eva just nodded respectfully at Trent before crossing her arms and turning her eyes to those who hadn't received a marshmallow yet.

Chris grabbed another marshmallow and brought it close to his face, examining it carelessly with a slight frown.

"This next one goes to the most unpopular member of your team."

Immediately, all eyes around the host shot to Scott, who, after noticing the looks he was receiving, just crossed his arms and grumbled.

"Least I'm popular with the viewers."

After rolling the marshmallow around in his hand for a few seconds, the host reluctantly tossed the marshmallow over. However, it obviously wasn't aimed at Scott. The sugary treat instead bounced off of Ezekiel's shoulder and fell to the ground. The homeschooler bent down to pick it up and walked over to join his other safe teammates.

As he passed Chris, he sighed. "Yo'o, that's cold, homes."

Chris shrugged. "Hey, not my fault that you aren't that likable."

The host then grabbed another two marshmallows, his eyes drifting between the last 4 campers still standing in front of him.

"Mike. You acted pretty freaky today, and you've received votes in every ceremony so far."

Mike looked down in slight shame as the host continued.

"Despite that, tonight is the first ceremony where you haven't received a single vote! Congrats on not being as mediocre or as disliked as these other suckers!" Chris motioned to Cody, Scott, and Alejandro, who stood alongside Mike. The quirky boy sighed in relief as his name was called and caught his marshmallow.

Chris then set his sights on Alejandro, tossing a marshmallow up in his right hand several times before throwing it at the Latino.

"Think fast!"

Alejandro raised an eyebrow at the host and caught his marshmallow easily. As he walked past the host, Chris shot a glare at him.

"Way to play along, man. You're now off of my favorite contestants list."

After several seconds of glaring at Alejandro, Chris brushed himself off quickly and then grew a dramatic look on his face as he peered between Scott and Cody. Cody's mouth had curled into a slight frown and his eyebrows now arched downward nervously on his forehead. Scott's face didn't betray his neutral look, though he was now shooting a slight glare at the tech geek next to him.

Dramatic music began playing in the background as Chris held up the last marshmallow and tossed his tray into the sand beside him. He held a slight smile as he darted his eyes between them.

"Well, well, well. Here we are," he shrugged. "Can't say that I'm surprised. Scott, it's a marvel that you haven't gotten a single vote so far. I mean, you have less redeemable qualities than Heather did!"

Some of the other contestants behind Chris nodded their heads. The farm boy, however, just scowled and stayed quiet.

Chris then turned his gaze to Cody, who looked somewhat nervous with his eyes glued to the host.

Chris just shook his head and wagged his finger at the short boy.

"Gotta say, Cody bro, I'm disappointed. You let yourself get left behind, and that led to even Justin making it back before you. And that guy freaked out over some tiny little birds!"

Cody looked down at the ground, obviously in shame at his performance as well.

Chris sighed and closed his eyes, squeezing the last marshmallow slightly between two fingers.

"Unfortunately, this is the last marshmallow for tonight. And I mean it this time, unlike when I said it earlier today."

His eyes flickered over to rest upon Cody and Scott. "So who will be getting it? And whose journey will end right here and right now?"

The other Sharks watched with mixed facial expressions. Some, like Trent, had wide eyes as they watched. Others, like Mike, looked unsure of what they wanted.

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Chris began studying the marshmallow closely, his eyes squinting as he twirled it around slowly in his hand.

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The host's neutral face finally turned into a small smile. "Cody."

A few seconds passed, and the host didn't toss the last marshmallow.

Cody and Scott shot each other puzzled looks.

Silence reigned around the campfire for a few moments before someone finally dared to break it.

Trent raised a hand, "Uhhh, Chris? Does that mean that Cody is safe or that he is eliminated?"

Chris tapped his nose and then pointed to Trent with a smile. "I was waiting to see who would be the first to say something! Bravo, Trent!"

Leshawna crossed her arms impatiently. "Just answer the darn question, McLean!"

Chris rolled his eyes. "Alright, fine. Ruin the moment. I meant, of course, that Cody received the most votes." The host handily tossed the last marshmallow to Scott, who smirked proudly and caught it with both hands.

Several people looked stunned, but none of their reactions quite matched Cody's.

Instead of sporting a shocked look, the short brunette had simply began slouching heavily, a disappointed look in his eyes. He managed a small smile after a few seconds, which was accompanied by him raising his head to look at his now-former teammates.

His turquoise eyes scanned the crowd as he let off an unenthusiastic chuckle. "Well, I did make the finale three once before, so I guess I've already done better than most."

He straightened his spine and began walking over to them. He stopped short just of Trent. The musician pulled his friend into a quick hug before releasing him.

"I just want you to know that you never had to prove yourself to me, buddy."

Cody gave a toothy grin to his bandmate. "Thanks, man. I want you to know that you don't have to prove anything either. Not to me." He then moved on down the line.

Alejandro bowed his head slightly as Cody walked past him.

"I'm deeply sorry to see you go, amigo. I assure you that it was nothing personal."

Cody shot a smile at the Latino and kept slowly walking. Ezekiel was the next to say goodbye. The homeschooler threw up indecipherable hand signs.

"You're a winner in the Zeke's book, dawg."

Cody chuckled and moved on. Scott, who was now standing near the end of the line, rolled his eyes.

Chris could be seen standing in the background and checking his watch impatiently. The host tapped his foot.

The farm boy watched as Cody said goodbye to Leshawna for a few seconds before turning away. When he did this, he noticed that Eva looked slightly downtrodden.

"What's wrong, gorilla girl? Sad that your boyfriend is leaving?"

Eva's eyes narrowed she she focused her attention onto Scott. She quickly grasped the front of the farm boy's dirty white shirt and lifted him up. She still had her usual neutral expression, but rage could be seen as plain as day in her eyes.

"You wanna run that by me again, dirt sniffer?"

Scott, to her surprise, just smirked at her. She quickly became confused before she realized that someone was now right next to her. A quick turn of her head confirmed her suspicions of who it was. There stood Cody, who had an eyebrow raised at her and Scott. The farm boy laughed as Eva reluctantly dropped him. She silenced his mocking laughter by stomping on his left foot. He yelped and took a few steps back. Her amber orbs then met Cody's turquoise ones awkwardly.

The entire team watched them from the sidelines, being sure not to say anything that would ruin the moment. Chris was also watching now, finally seeming interested in what was going on.

The host whispered to the camera crew, "Make sure to use some cool camera angles. We'll get big ratings no matter how this goes!"

Cody nervously drug one of his feet against the ground as he gazed up at Eva. The fitness buff looked to be at a similar loss of words.

After a short period of awkward silence, Eva spoke up.

"...So...you're leaving."

"...Yep...Unfortunately, I am. But hey, even if I've been eliminated, at least I learned an important lesson from today."

She crossed her arms and cocked her unibrow. "And what's that?"

The tech geek crossed his fingers and closed his eyes for a few seconds. After he had mentally hyped himself up, he made quite the unexpected, dangerous move.

He slung his scrawny arms around Eva's muscular back, pulled himself to her, and kissed her.

For the second time.

Jaws dropped all around them as the kiss went on.

None of the shocked reactions could top Eva's, though. The fitness buff's eyes were bugged out in shock, and her body seemed to be frozen for the entire duration of the seconds-long kiss.

When Cody finally parted from the girl, he opened his eyes, noting the shocked looks on the others' faces.

He just softly chuckled and shrugged his shoulders sheepishly. "If I'm being honest, I've wanted to do that again ever since the fort challenge."

He then turned his eyes to Eva, whose face had gone red. She looked slightly embarrassed.

He slowly took her hands into his and gazed up into her eyes. "Today, I learned that, sometimes, you just have to be brave and go for it...And so-"

He gulped loudly, his hands now slightly shaking. "Will you be my girlfriend?"

From the sidelines, Leshawna smiled sassily and placed one hand on her hip. "I had no idea that white boy had it in him."

Ezekiel threw up peace symbols with both of his hands, a large smile on his face and a light glint in his gray eyes. "The Zeke calls ring bearer, yo'o."

Scott, from next to the prairie boy, crossed his arms over his grubby shirt. "Yeah, and I call priest," he said sarcastically.

Eva reluctantly glanced back at her teammates.

CONFESSIONAL:

Eva: The gym-enthusiast looked slightly uncomfortable as she stiffly gazed at the camera. "All I could think about was how the guys at my gym back home would react, and the fact that so many people were watching at the ceremony and on TV...And it was weird for me. I'm not used to getting all lovey-dovey in public."

She rubbed the back of her neck shyly. "Despite that...it felt good, in a way."

Eva twiddled her fingers by her sides, not daring to look at Cody.

"...Alright, I'm in."

An overpowering happy and surprised look overtook Cody's face. He cheered loudly, and many of his teammates now also sported smiles.

"...But you'll need to stop flirting with other girls...And maybe man up a bit too. I'm not a huge fan of weaklings." Her eyes traced his scrawny exterior.

But nothing could dampen Cody's mood right now. He gave her an enthusiastic thumbs up. "Will do, m'lady! The Codemeister will do anything for his girl!"

Chris now popped up behind them, slinging his arms around both of their shoulders. "Wow! This is a really touching moment! Look at Chef over there!" The host pointed over to his left. The camera panned over to show Chef Hatchet bawling into a handful of tissues.

Chris wiped off a tear of his own amusedly, "Unfortunately though, I've still got a big announcement to do after this, as well as the end monologue. Sooooooo..."

Cody frowned and brushed Chris's hand off. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. I'll get going now."

The host chuckled a bit. "Oh, you think that you're leaving the island?"

Now Chris had the full attention of all of the Sharks.

Cody looked hesitant now. "Ummm...You mean that I'm not?"

The host threw his arms up in the air enthusiastically. "Of course not! A much different fate awaits you!" As the other Sharks pondered what he meant by that, Chris pulled a megaphone out from behind his improvised podium. He brought it to his lips gently.

"Screaming Bears, please report to the campfire pit! I repeat, get your keisters out here!"

After he said that, the host dropped the megaphone into the sand carelessly and shot two thumbs up at the Killer Sharks and then at Cody. He leaned his arms on his podium as they all waited for the other team to arrive.

A minute passed and went, however, and the other team still hadn't descended down the villa's staircase.

Chris began tapping his finger on his wooden podium awkwardly. He looked down at it and then back up at the campers, all of whom immediately diverted their eyes.

"You know, I have a new sound system in the villa...Cool playlists and all that...We could hook it up if you guys wanted."

An awkward silence gripped the atmosphere as none of the teens looked in Chris's direction. He slumped forward a bit after a few seconds of silence, looking unsure and embarrassed.

The host rubbed the back of his head. "Uh...just forget what I said...I just thought-"

The villa door up above swung open as Chris attempted to explain himself. The Screaming Bears came strolling out of it, apparently arguing.

"GOSH! I told you that he meant out here on the beach."

"Well how was Lightning supposed to know that?! Chris said the campfire!"

"From what I remember, a campfire and a fireplace are two entirely different things. That's why they're both known under different names."

"Will you guys just shut up and walk down the stairs. You're embarrassing me."

Chris's eyes lit up as he heard their voices. His head immediately craned up to see them walking down to the beach. Once they had all exited the staircase, he smiled brightly at them.

"Ahhhh, Bears! How good to see you! How's my favorite team doing?" The host shot a quick glare at the Killer Sharks as he said this, causing them all to either roll their eyes or groan.

Zoey looked lost. "Wait, why are you being so nice to us?"

Lightning immediately offered up a deluded explanation. "It's obviously because Chris recognizes our team's greatness now that Lightning is in charge!"

Noah rolled his eyes and put his hands mockingly on his hips. "Yeah, I'm sure that's the reason."

Chris's smile grew strained. "I called you all down here to introduce you to your new teammate!"

Gasps were heard all around. Some people looked suspicious.

Courtney narrowed her eyes at Chris. "Hold on a quick minute, McLean. Who are you talking about?"

"Today was a reward challenge! And, because I made you go through so much today, I decided to bestow upon you the best gift of all: a new teammate!"

Cody, who still stood apart from the Killer Sharks, gaped at the host. "W-What? You mean you're swapping me over to their team?" The tech geek eyed the Killer Sharks nervously. He was met with surprised and sympathetic glances by most of them.

Harold shot a questioning look to Chris. "Wait, you're giving Cody to us?"

Chris now nodded his head and threw his arms up into the air. "Henceforth, Cody is the responsibility of the Screaming Bears! Which is bad news bears for the Killer Sharks, who now have a numbers disadvantage!"

Some of the members of the Sharks shot sharp glares at the host, all of which he ignored.

Zoey, however, looked at Chris with a strange look. "Wait a minute? Isn't that a 70s reference? I didn't know you were that old."

Chris suddenly looked uncomfortable. "Umm, I have no idea what you're talking about, Zoey. You're the old one here. I was talking about the 2005 movie. Is that a remake? I guess it's a remake. I certainly didn't know that, hahahahah." He let out nervous laughter before backing up to his villa's stairs.

Chris began walking back up the stairs of the villa, saluting the contestants as they looked up at him from the beach.

"Now, you all play nice together, alright?" I'm going to my room. Don't knock on my door unless somebody is dying!"

With that having been said, Chris disappeared into the villa, the expensive glass/wooden doors clanging shut behind him.

The two teams looked at each other for several seconds.

Finally, Courtney snapped her fingers, a reluctant look on her face. "Alright, Cody, get over here. You're with us now."

Cody looked back longingly at the Killer Sharks for several seconds, his eyes meeting Eva's and Trent's briefly before he turned around and hesitantly marched over to join his new team.

He was met with a tired smile from Justin and a pat on the back from Harold and then Noah. Zoey smiled brightly at the tech geek, as did Lindsay. Courtney just studied the tech geek with a thoughtful look.

With all of the semantics sorted out, the two teams squeezed onto the staircase together and walked up the wooden staircase.

They'd figure out how they felt about this tomorrow. For now, they needed some food and showers ASAP.

(Chris's Villa: Chris's Bedroom)

Chris sat on a large bed with red silky covers draped over it, a large window casting light from the moon into the room.

He rocked back and forth on the edge of the bed whistling.

"Yep, so that was episode 7! We saw escalating feuds between various campers, a new flame between Cody and Eva, and an occupation of the island by wooly beavers!"

He placed a hand on his side as he began laughing and kicking his legs up off of the ground a bit.

"Who would've thought that so much could happen in one night? Certainly not me! Look at us!"

He folded his arms against his side like a chicken would, exclaiming proudly, "Just wait until you see what I've got cooked up for next time! If our campers think that they're free-falling right now, wait until they brave the dangers of space!" Chris now had both of his hands high in the air above his head, his index fingers pointing directly up.

"How will poor Cody deal with being on a different team than his new girlfriend? And, the bigger question, how will Eva take it?" Chris cringed. "I really hope she doesn't wreck a bunch of my stuff down there. That's a new VCR."

Suddenly, noises were heard coming from outside. Chris glanced to his side and then shrugged it off.

"Eh, I'll just buy a new one. Kind of a hostile environment out there right now, what with Chef being a big baby, the wooly beavers trying to get through my defenses, and the campers crashing out here for the night. But, don't worry, your favorite host is used to slumming it! And know that I'll see you next time on TOTAL. DRAMA. WARS!"

(Bonus Scene: ?)

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

The inside of a spacious conference room is seen, with four people sitting around a long dark brown table. They sat comfortably in four tall black leather chairs arranged neatly around the table. The camera was in such a weird angle that none of their faces could be fully seen.

One of them spoke up suddenly in an incredulous tone.

"You can't be serious. You want me," he motioned to himself with one of his index fingers, "to be in charge? I didn't even know we were doing that anymore!" His recognizable features, hidden by the awkward camera angle, all showed surprise and shock. His dark hair, one of his few identifiable features, looked shaggy and unprofessional compared to the others in the room.

The person sitting to his right, who was obviously a woman, agreed vehemently with the previous speaker. "I agree with fork-feet over here. I am the obvious pick to be in charge of this. I mean, I already did it once before, and I was great at it!" She waved her hands around randomly in the air for emphasis. Her long blonde hair moved fluidly with the rest of her body.

From across the table, someone else began shaking their head. This person, clad in an indigo suit with a light blue tie, had a standard business haircut. His dirty blonde hair looked neat and was fully kept off of his forehead. "We're sorry, but you're just a bit...well, uh..."

The person sitting next to him, a woman wearing a gray suit, spoke up.

"Old. You're a bit old to be doing it alone. And he is exceedingly popular with the fanbase, despite his ineptitude at most things."

The man with the messy hair smiled widely and waved from across the table. "Hey thanks!" After taking several seconds to process her whole statement, however, he sounded off in an offended tone.

"HEY!"

The blonde woman now stood up out of her chair and got onto her knees, clasping her hands together in a pleading fashion to the two individuals in suits.

"Pleaseeeee don't make me work under another teenager. I can do it alone; I swear!"

Both of the people in suits shared a quick look with each other before shaking their heads sheepishly.

The man among the two shrugged his shoulder sympathetically at the desperate blonde. "I'm sorry, but the producers already made up their minds. It's not really our decision. They want him to host, and they want you to help him get a hang of it."

The gray-suited woman next to him gathered some papers up off of the table, straightened them up into a pile, and stood up out of her chair. The blonde woman looked up at her desperately.

"We're sorry, Ms. O'Halloran, but we have other matters to tend to. We recommend that you two get acquainted before the first show. Goodbye." With that having been said, the gray-suited woman nodded at the blonde and promptly walked out of the moderately-sized conference room. Her male colleague followed her.

As the door clambered shut behind the two, the shaggy-haired teen walked up to the blonde woman and put a friendly hand on her shoulder. She looked back at him with a mixture of dread and annoyance. He just gave her an enthusiastic smile and a thumbs up.

"Great to be working with you again. Err, uh, I mean, for the first time." He stumbled over his words clumsily. The blonde woman just clutched her head and sighed heavily, thinking to herself about the situation.

Great. Juuuust great. He's even clumsy with words. This is going to be even worse than last time.

Votes:

Alejandro: Cody

Scott: Cody

Ezekiel: Cody

Mike: Cody

Leshawna: Alejandro

Trent: Scott

Eva: Scott

Cody: Scott

Vote Tally:

Cody: 4 Votes

Scott: 3 Votes

Alejandro: 1 Vote

The Killer Sharks: Alejandro, Scott, Trent, Ezekiel, Mike, Leshawna, and Eva

The Screaming Bears: Lightning, Zoey, Courtney, Justin, Noah, Lindsay, Harold, and Cody

Elimination Order: Jo, Duncan, Brick, Gwen, Heather, ?

I really had you going, didn't I? You thought Cody was leaving, didn't you? I'll admit that I had actually written that ending and intended to post it for awhile. However, I got some really great new ideas on where to take the story, so I decided to cut Cody some slack.

What did you think about the Cody/Eva ending and the team swap that followed?

What does the bonus scene mean?

Will Chef forgive Chris, or will it come to WAR?! (I love puns lol)

Which reminds me, please Review or Follow/Favorite the story if you like it! It tells me whether I'm going in the right direction with how I'm writing and even the simplest of reviews can give me some energy to write quicker. Just saying. Shills gonna shill.

This is WhatTheHeck23, signing off!