Ah, Toni's hosting again. Hmmm…the Amazon. In my last story, I talked Amazonian river dolphins (the pink ones), mawcaws, and toucans with rainbow beaks. I have never been to South America at all, so no fun facts from my own experience. But there are giant centipedes (not as big as the caterpillars we see in the episode of course), mozzies that carry malaria and yellow fever, the Wandering Spider (most venomous spider in the world) and black caimans (a lot like alligators). Also, Owen and Tyler were lucky they only faced piranhas, because electric eels can deliver shocks so fatal they can cause instant heart failure, and anacondas often lurk in the water, too (yes, I looked up dangerous Amazonian wildlife – you're welcome!) Thanks for reviewing, Anon Browser, OmnipotentAbsoluteUIGodzilla, IllusionSign, iwashere01 (no, you're allowed, it's constructive criticism) and lordgemini.

Chris called me out before everyone in First Class went to sleep to tell me we were heading for the Amazon, in Peru. "It's just a hike from where we land to Macchu Picchu and then a hunt for a gold statue which you'll have to hide before they get there. You'll need to wait by a T-bar for the teams – I'll tell you if there's any that aren't going that way, and then meet up with the team in first place to give them bananas in the evening – you know, as a reward – but then you can go straight there and you can stay in the plane for the night if you want." I opened my mouth, but he went on "And no, you're still not allowed to use my hot tub or come into my quarters. You can go sleep in First Class like usual."

I slept at the same time as the Amazons, and once again, woke up to have breakfast (I felt like just having some canned fruit, so I had peach slices). Mostly, I spent the time talking to Gwen, keeping an eye on Sierra just in case she started on Cody again, and ignoring Heather, who was unhappily looking at the black eye and missing tooth Leshawna's beatdown had caused.

Chris only made the announcement about the Amazonian rainforest around one pm. I looked around, gauging the others' reactions to landing in their team namesake.

Gwen was the first to make a comment. "Team Amazon in the Amazon? That's gotta be a lucky sign," she said innocently.

Sierra gave a big dramatic gasp. "Whenever a team predicts good luck, they always lose!"

Gwen started stammering out some defense, but before she could say much, Sierra pressed a hand over her mouth. The intercom crackled again. "I hope none of the Amazons said this might be lucky for them!" Chris' voice said. "That'd be disastrous!" The rest of the team all glared at Gwen.

Okay, I secretly thought they were right, and if Team Amazon lost, everyone would blame Gwen. But I did feel bad for the girl who had truly become my friend, so I decided to stand up for her.
"Hey, that's just a superstition." I snapped. "You four haven't lost this one yet, and if you haven't noticed, Cody's an Amazon in name only, seeing as he's a guy. You do know that an Amazon is a strong, beautiful woman, right? Isn't that why you called yourselves that? I'd say Izzy, Bridgette and Lindsay have a fair chance at being every bit as Amazonian as you three have."

Heather made a scoffing sound, but didn't argue. Sierra didn't say anything, but she still looked cross.

Gwen just looked depressed, but she gave me a grateful look.

"Don't pay attention to what Sierra said." I whispered to her. "She knows her reality show tropes, but not exactly how much of it is reality. Prediction of good luck doesn't always mean fate messes with the hand it deals just to prove you wrong."

Just before everyone went out and assembled in the middle of the jungle (sorry, rainforest – it's only a jungle if it's not characterised by rainfall and this one is), Chris pressed an epipen into my hand. "It's Cody's." he told me. "We legally have to provide one for him."

I frowned. "I thought it was Noah who had the life-threatening allergies?"

Chris shrugged. "Apparently they aren't from insect bites and plants. Cody's allergies are around here."

So I told the teams all about the challenge, both hiking to Macchu Picchu and finding the 'golden treasure' planted there. I did give the epipen to Team Amazon – Cody specifically. Sierra begged to take it, but I told her no. "Cody's old enough to be responsible for his own meds." I told her, including the whole team. "Just keep an eye out, so any of you can give him an injection if he's having a reaction and can't do it himself."

I even told the teams how long the trip would take. "It'll be overnight, but you probably know that a lot of dangerous creatures are awake then, so it's safer to stop and make camp. Building a fire might help."

"And I assume there are no tents?" Alejandro asked. He was looking like a pirate at the moment, because apparently Owen had punched him in the eye when he was asleep and Chef had given him an eyepatch. Still, it didn't make him any less hot. He reminded me of that noble pirate stereotype when they capture ships, but protect the women they take hostage in those old forbidden romance novels from the nineteenth or eighteenth century. Not that I'd read any of them.

"Sorry." I shrugged. "The producers want me to put you guys through the wringer. Oh, and one more thing." I showed them a mask that had been recreated. "There's a tribe that lives in here called the Zing-Zings. They have never encountered modern life and don't plan to. If you come across them, do not make contact." I then handed each member of the team a walkie-talkie. "If there's any emergency, you can ask for help. But emergencies only. If you can get to Macchu Picchu with the whole team and everyone surviving and able to walk up the steps, I don't expect to hear from you. See you tomorrow!"

I didn't have to walk a step, myself, but I did have to hang around until nightfall, taking one of those all-terrain scooters to the next area, which was a zipline over a lake, to wait for the teams. The first team was also the smallest.

"Congratulations, Team Victory!" I grinned. "You three are in first place right now. Luckily – that means you get the T-bar for this part, so there's less danger of piranha bites or disturbing lake-dwelling

anacondas. Everyone else will have to take the line hand over hand. Although, there are three of you, so…"

DJ paused, thinking for a second. Then he lifted Lindsay onto his shoulders, still looking thoughtful. He paused for a moment, before Bridgette spoke up. "What about if I hang onto the T-bar from the top of the zipline? Then we can all go."

So that's what they did. Lindsay and Bridgette were about level with each other, but they all fitted and got over the water dry. "First place!" Lindsay sang as they zipped down. Her voice echoed across the lake.

Team Chris arrived next. "Where's the hanging-on thingy?" Tyler asked immediately.

I couldn't help being amused at his description. "You don't know what you call it?"

"You know, the riding stick." Tyler struggled. "The grabby whatchamacallit…zipper buckle handle…"

I was unable to keep from laughing at this point. Alejandro finally interrupted him. "We need no T-bar! We are Team Chris Is Really Really Really Really Hot!" He hooked his backpack onto the zipline, and got down that way. Owen and Tyler…weren't so lucky. Owen tried using his hands and his weight brought the zipline down, so he had to paddle with the piranhas. Tyler had the same problem, but at least he didn't get burning hands, because he pulled off his trackpants and tried using them. Izzy used her own backpack, and she put Noah in it – headfirst – so they both slid down the zipline, dry and safe.

Chris contacted me by walkie-talkie to let me know that Team Amazon had gone the wrong way, so I didn't have to wait for them. Finally, sunset came and it was time to go through the trail and find out who was furthest along. Surprise surprise, Team Victory was still going strong. When they saw me, they all smiled.

"Toni, tell me you have food!' DJ pleaded. "We're starving!"

I grinned back at him. "Well, you're in luck. You three are still in first place, so you do have a reward, and yes, it is dinner." Their reward landed on the ground. "There you go – as many bananas as you'd like. Get a good's night rest."

At that very moment, my walkie-talkie crackled to life. An unintelligible panicked voice said something into it I barely understood.

"Gwen?" I said into the walkie-talkie. "What's happened?"

Gwen repeated everything she just said. I understood some of it, but not all. The bit I got was "hand in Cody's pants" and "this trouble is big".

Another crackle came through, this time with Tyler's voice. "Way to go, Cody!"

"Thank you!" Cody's voice replied. Yeah, what exactly had Gwen meant?

Finally, Sierra's voice came through. "Gwen used Cody's epipen!" she exclaimed in a high voice. "We need another one, like, now!"

I gave a sigh. "Okay, why did she do that, and is this an emergency?"

"We're also being held at spearpoint by the Zing-Zings!" Heather's voice hissed. "Help! Us! Now!"

Lindsay reached for her own walkie talkie. "We're in first place!" she squealed into the mouthpiece. "Hi, Tyler!" Wow, she still remembered his name.

"I'll send someone to get you as soon as possible, Team Amazon." I said into my walkie-talkie. "But I have read up a little on the Zing-Zings, so you could…" Ding-ding!

I knew they could hear that, and Heather didn't sound very happy at all about it.

Owen's voice came through. "Do we have to sing back-up?"

"Only if you've been kidnapped with the Amazons." I told him. "No, just the team has to sing. And Heather? You know those tribesmen and women would LOVE a solo from you. Let's hear it!"

I didn't hear it as it was, because they didn't sing into the walkie-talkie, but when I left for the plane (with less bananas), and went straight to Macchu Picchu, Chris showed me footage of a lackluster song.

"I promised the girls and Cody I'd send them someone." I said anxiously. "Are they going to be okay?"

Chef answered for Chris. "Those kids aren't Zing-Zings. They're locals. They know about Total Drama and they're just playing a joke."

I frowned. "How can you tell?"

"Haven't you ever heard Portuguese in your life?" Chef barked. "I understand what they're saying."

I shrugged. "Actually, no, I haven't. I don't even know any Spanish."

"They'll be fine until tomorrow morning." Chris added. "They'll probably never get here and so they'll lose, but you'll have to tell them it's a reward anyway. The winning team gets to stream a movie of their choice in First Class. Hope you like whatever they choose!"
"Is it a long flight to the next place?" I asked. "Long enough to watch the movie, at least? It wasn't that far from the Yukon to New York."

"All I'm gonna tell you is that we're leaving South America to reach our next destination." Chris answerd casually. And we were in the Peruvian part of the Amazon. Mexico was close, but it would be a few hours away, so even if we were going there, the movie could probably play two times over as long as it wasn't Gone With The Wind or The Sound Of Music.

As it was, Team Victory was ahead by a mile. I greeted them that morning with a smile. "Well, Team Victory, I think we have our rainforest frontrunners. Not too surprising, what with friends of nature stamped all over you." (Yes, even Lindsay – she'd said in an extra confessional I saw that she wanted to use part of her prize money to market skin care products that weren't tested on animals). "You can make a start on searching immediately."

Team Chris was already on their way up the steps by that point, but I noticed something missing immediately. "Guys, sorry, you can't start yet. You all need to be here, and there's only four of you."

Tyler looked over his shoulder. "Owen!" he exclaimed.

"You never said that!" Alejandro objected. "You're making up rules as we go." What, had he wanted to lose a teammate? I mean, yeah, evil or whatever, but at this stage of the game, wasn't it better to have a large team? It seemed a bit weird, especially as Owen was a favourite with most of the competitors.

I shook my head. "I didn't make it up, Chrissy did. And I said yesterday that you needed to be at Macchu Picchu with the whole team, don't you remember? You can't say I didn't warn you. You can find Owen, or wait for him to arrive, but either way, no searching until all five of you are here."

Alejandro still looked cross, but he sounded apologetic. "I'm deeply sorry for my accusation, Toni. Even I make mistakes sometimes." Then he turned to the others and said "Allow me to search for our beloved teammate." So Izzy, Tyler and Noah waited, all of them looking tense. Since I knew Team Amazon was never going to catch up by that point, I sat down with them, watching Team Victory search.

Alejandro and Owen arrived back before Team Victory had finished looking. Seconds later, Owen and Tyler were tugging at something. "We got it!" Owen declared. "The olden treasure!"

"Um, guys," I said, "I said golden treasure. That's not it."

"I found it!" Lindsay squealed, running up to me with gold in her hands.
"And you can stop now, because Team Victory has won First Class!" I declared.

Soon, everyone was back on the plane, safe and sound. Chef had been right about the "Zing-Zings", by the way. They were just local teenagers messing around. Chris wanted me to make the team vote before I told them it was a reward challenge, but he said I didn't have to, so I said no. "You can do that as much as you want when it's your turn. I don't want to torture everyone as much as you do."

I went back to First Class as soon as Team Amazon was back, just long enough to let them know that they had lost a reward challenge – and long enough to notice that Heather had acquired a gold tooth in place of the one Leshawna had knocked out. Her black eye, by the way, was almost gone.

Team Victory had some time picking out a movie. Bridgette wanted a surf movie, Lindsay wanted to watch one of the Twilight Saga movies or Clueless, and DJ wanted to watch Babe, the movie about the sheepdog pig. None of them were to my taste, as I was in a mood to watch one of Nolan's Batman movies, like Batman Begins or The Dark Knight. We ended up compromising on an Indiana Jones movie, since they'd just been on an intrepid trip through the rainforest. Now that was something entertaining. And we weren't over land when the movie was over, so we probably weren't going to Mexico next, either.

Hope you liked this chapter. I don't own any of the movies I mentioned, but Team Victory's choices were based on their Total Drama bios, which mention references to real movies – movies which I used here. And as for Toni wanting a Batman movie…I didn't like them, but I think she would. I did look up action movies, but the only one I knew anything about that came up was The Incredibles (I don't really like action movies). The two long movies I mentioned I have seen, and they are good, but they go on forever.