Author's note:

Another day, another chapter for this story. Let's get things going.

Luckily for Gwen, she had paired up with Bridgette for rooms. She would've picked Leshawna as her first choice, but at least it wasn't Heather.

"You seem worried," Bridgette commented as Gwen was setting up her bed.

"Gee, thanks, I hadn't noticed," Gwen replied sarcastically.

"Come on, you know that the further away we are from the island, the further we're from that thing that chased you."

"Uh, last time I checked, sharks could swim," Gwen responded.

"If it even was a shark."

"I know what I saw that night, Bridgette. It was a shark."

Bridgette nodded slowly. "Even if that's true, there's no guarantee that it would follow us all over the ocean. Sharks aren't known to do that."

But this isn't any ordinary shark, Gwen thought. The legs alone were enough to tell her that.

"I'm going to the top deck," she decided, heading for the door. As she opened it, she had to duck to avoid a flying cue ball that would've clocked her in the head.

"Damn it!" Eva growled in frustration, holding a cue stick on the other side of the large pool table. She glared at DJ, who was standing behind her, watching the game. "You made me miss!"

"Chill, brah," Geoff, the person she was playing against, told her. "It's just a game." Eva shot daggers at him, panting in rage.

Gwen rubbed her forehead in annoyance. If this is how they're going to act for this entire trip, I may just have to throw myself overboard just to get away from them, she thought as she moved up the stairs to the top deck.

Once she was there, she walked over to the railing of the ship, staring out over the ocean, watching the waves go by. Boney Island was now little more than a speck on the horizon.

And somewhere out there, she knew, was that shark.

A roar of a smaller engine drove her attention below as she saw Tyler and Lindsay on a jet ski, evidently racing Heather and Alejandro.

"Ha! You'll never get past us!" Tyler yelled back to them. "Check this out!" He twisted the jet ski to the side, but only succeeded in throwing both him and Lindsay off.

"It appears your skills aren't as good as you think they are," Alejandro commented as he and Heather sped past. "Adios."

Gwen put her head down on the railing as a voice spoke behind her. "You okay?"

Gwen jumped and whirled around, finding Trent behind her. "Yeah, I'm fine," she replied, turning back to the water as Tyler began to flip off Alejandro.

Trent joined her at the railing. "Beautiful day," he commented.

"Yeah, I guess it is."

"Okay, what's bugging you?

Gwen sighed. "I'm starting to regret coming on this cruise."

Trent raised an eyebrow. "Because you're afraid that land shark will come after us, or because most of our class drives you insane?"

She gave him a look. "Both."

He chuckled slightly. "That figures. Sometimes I think the only one you can tolerate fully is me."

"Not true," Gwen argued. "There's Leshawna and Brigette. And I guess DJ and Owen too."

Trent nodded. "I guess that makes sense."

Gwen sighed again, leaning down on the railing while looking out at the waves. "Sometimes I wish I could just get away from it all," she admitted. "But with an island as small as Boney Island, that's impossible. Everybody knows everybody, and there's no place for privacy."

Trent didn't say a word. He merely joined her at the railing to watch the water lap by. "I guess you just have to find the right times to sneak off to be away from everyone and everything," he eventually told her. "There's some places on the island that work out. Like the beach in the early morning when the sun rises."

"Kind of hard to make that work ever since we found Katie's body there," Gwen mentioned.

Trent opened his mouth to respond, but then stopped. "Check it out," he said instead, pointing off to the distance. Gwen turned her head up to see the faint image of what appeared to be some sort of rig in the middle of the ocean.

"Isn't that the Drama Corporation facility?" she asked. "The one that's technically based on Boney Island despite not being on land itself?"

"Looks like it," Trent agreed. "I think it's supposed to be some sort of shipping station where all the reality show equipment getting shipped off to this area is stored."

"Through boats or planes?"

Trent raised an eyebrow. "Boats, I think. Why do you ask?"

Gwen squinted her eyes. "I can't be sure, but I don't think there's any boats over there."

"They're probably just shut down or something. Or maybe all their shipping boats are already off. It's nothing to worry about."

Gwen bowed her head in agreement. "Yeah, I guess you're right. There's bigger things to worry about." Like a man-eating shark on the loose.

"Woo hoo!" Gwen whipped around to see Owen and Cody barreling for the swimming pool, both leaping in at the same time. The resulting cataclysmic splash drenched both Gwen and Trent.

Gwen screamed in frustration. "I hate this place!" She stormed past Trent despite his attempts to get her to stay, stomping down the stairs back below decks.

Behind her, she could hear Trent calling the two out for it, as well as Owen turning the blame directly to Cody. She didn't even have time to get out of the way when Sierra came barreling towards her.

"Where's my Codykins?" she demanded to know. "He escaped my safety bag and is in danger!"

"Up the stairs. Can't miss him," Gwen told her, shoving past her before continuing back into the lounge and towards her room. Normally she wouldn't have thrown Cody under the bus like that, but she really wasn't in any mood to deal with Sierra's craziness.

"Weather not too good up there?" Gwen looked over to see Duncan leaning against a wall, his right hand holding a knife, which he was proceeding to carve into the wall with.

She glared at him. "Why are you carving death skulls in the wall?"

Duncan shrugged. "They needed some decoration."

Gwen simply scoffed and walked towards her room.

"Let me guess: our classmates are idiots and you want to be alone right now," Duncan guessed.

"Whoop de do," Gwen answered dryly, preparing to open the door.

"What you need is something fun to do. And I don't mean one of the lame ship activities they've provided for us to do."

Gwen turned to face him again. "I'm not that type of girl."

"Not that," Duncan assured her. "I mean real fun. You know that Drama Corporation facility nearby."

Gwen raised an eyebrow. "Yeah."

"Tonight, why don't we go over there and check the place out."

"You're kidding." Gwen shook her head. "That's a bad idea. What if we get caught?"

"We won't get caught," Duncan told her. "We'll sneak out tonight after everyone else has gone to bed, steal one of the boats on this ship, and go see what's there. Maybe they'll be some cool things there that no one will miss."

"Won't this ship continue on, leaving us too far behind to catch up?"

"This ship stops the engines every night," Duncan explained. "And they won't move on again until the morning. We'll be there and back again before anyone realizes that we're gone."

Gwen hesitated. "Come on," Duncan told her. "Don't you want to get away from all these losers and do something exciting for once in your life?"

Gwen had to admit that it sounded pretty intriguing. "All right, you're on," she eventually told him.

"Sweet. Meet me at the back of the ship at midnight," Duncan informed her. "I should have a boat ready by then, and there shouldn't be anyone awake at that time."

"Fine then," Gwen said. "See you then." She then opened the door to her room and went in, closing it behind her.

She wasn't exactly sure what to make of Duncan or his plan. But one thing was for sure: it was better than being stuck here surrounded by her crazy class.

She just hoped that they wouldn't get caught.

Alive: Alejandro, Beth, Blaineley, Bridgette, Chef Hatchet, Chris McLean, Cody, Courtney, DJ, Duncan, Eva, Fang, Geoff, Gwen, Harold, Heather, Izzy, Justin, Leshawna, Lindsey, MacArthur, Noah, Owen, Sanders, Sierra, Trent, Tyler

Dead: Katie, Sadie

Not much going on in this chapter, but it sets things up for the next one, which should be (hopefully) my longest chapter yet for this story. I have a lot planned for what goes on in it. And once that's done, it'll be time for this story to really get into gear. But until then, make sure you hit that favorite/follow button to stay informed on future updates, and don't forget to drop a review to let me know how I'm doing. Until next time, this is Guest 1138, reminding you to never set yourself on fire in a dynamite warehouse. Ciao!