A/N I've had the idea for a Noah Trent Gwen love triangle thing for quite some time. I wanted to write it as a divergence in canon. Obviously, this only covers until the talent show, since the diary thing is what I was focused on. So it's a oneshot for now, but there may be follow ups in the future? I dunno. Been awhile since I've written Gwoah
Gwen was confused and frustrated with her own mind. She just wanted some peace and quiet to write in her diary. She used her diary to work out her emotions, because there was no way she was going to share them with anyone. Of course Heather wouldn't leave her alone. Gwen figured it would be like this no matter what, but she had sealed her fate during the awake-a-thon. She sighed and decided to start going over the events that had happened thus far so she could truly write them in her diary.
When she arrived at Camp Wawanakwa she was pissed. There was no other way of putting it. The five-star resort was a lie, and they were actually staying at a summer camp that would be lucky to get a star. At first she kept to herself, merely making a snide comment here and there. Then Trent arrived.
Gwen had tried to ignore him, but he was pretty cute, no lie. She didn't know what to do with the emotions, so she withdrew into herself. It lasted awhile but then Noah arrived.
"You got my memo about my life threatening allergies? "A droll voice asked, bringing her to attention. Noah had a look of pure apathy on his face.
Chris held up a finger. "I'm sure someone did."
"Good is this where we're staying?"
Duncan spoke up. "No its your mother's house and we're having a party." He said punching his fist into his other hand.
Gwen chuckled fully expecting Noah to back down. To her surprise he didn't. "Nice piercings original. Do them yourself?"
Duncan pulled out a needle and grabbed Noah's lip. "Yeah, you want one?"
Noah's face didn't change from its deadpan expression despite the threat. "No thank you, can I have my lip back now." Duncan released his lip. "Thanks." He said, in the way someone else would say 'fuck you'. Gwen couldn't help but chuckle at this. The nerd had moxie at any rate.
The rest of the contestants came in a blur. Gwen only sort of paid attention to it, trying to avoid looking at Trent, uncomfortable with the emotions he had triggered. Eventually they took a picture, nearly drowned, and sat down at the campfire where Chris explained the rules most of them already knew. They were here for the chance to win 100,000 dollars.
It wasn't long before she regretted coming here. "I have to live with Sadie or I'll die!" one of the girls in matching outfits, apparently Katie, said
"And I'll break out in Hives, it's true." Sadie? said
Gwen groaned. "This cannot be happening." She said, not expecting an answer.
"Hey if I have to live in hell for the next eight weeks, then so do you." Noah responded, smirking at her. She couldn't help but smirk back.
After that things didn't get any better. Lindsay was a complete idiot, The Heather had already given her a cruel nickname, and she'd been hit on by Cody. It was like being in high school, unfortunately for her this was her summer break. Why had she expected this to be a good idea?
After Duncan killed a roach with an axe, which pretty cool, they were fed piles of red mush on a bun. Then Chris entered the mess hall. "Welcome to the main lodge." Chris said
"Yo dude, can we order a pizza?" Geoff asked.
A cleaver flew through the air almost hitting Geoff. Gwen winced, okay don't ask for outside food. The cook was not a fan.
"Whoa it's cool G! Brown slop is cool!" The party dude said.
"Your first challenge will be in one hour." Chris told them.
The others began to wonder what the challenge might be. DJ said it couldn't be that hard. Gwen wanted to groan, and there was karma's cue.
"Well now it'll definately be hard." Noah said, breaking her from her thoughts.
"Are you talking to me?" Gwen asked, not in the mood.
"Yes. You're literally the only sane person here." Noah nodded.
"Okay? Thanks, I guess?" She told him questioningly.
He returned to reading his book.
Their first challenge, jumping off a cliff into shark infested waters and hoping they didn't die. Karma was a bitch. The whole thing went by pretty fast. Bass went first, and all but DJ and Courtney jumped. Katie and Sadie begged Chris to let them be on the same team, and he relented after the nutjob, Izzy, offered to switch teams. So now they had her to deal with. Yippee.
Then it was their turn. Lashawna and Heather got into a fight, which ended when Lashawna threw her off the cliff. Everyone but Beth jumped, so they got pull carts. Naturally with such an advantage they won.
Chris had given them the hot tub and a party began. Gwen was not a party person. At all. The last thing she had expected was Noah joining her on the porch. She wasn't in a talkative mood, and niether was he. They sat there in silence until Gwen noticed the book he was reading.
"And then there were none? You like Agatha Christie?" She had found herself asking.
"You know it's rude to read the cover of people's books." Noah snarked. "But yes, I do."
"I kinda expected you to be reading war and peace or something," Gwen admitted.
"Please I read to escape reality not to remember past wars." The cynic smirked. "Did you know the original title of this book had to be changed when it was brought west?"
"Yeah," Gwen nodded. "I'd say what it was, but I don't dare say that word."
"You'd be lynched." Noah chuckled. "It's just an interesting fact."
After that they began talking about other things. Apparently, Noah wasn't just into murder mystery novels. He also liked Eldritch based works, and the classic monster books. Like Dracula and Frankenstein. They had shared a shudder as they mentioned how annoyed they were when people forgot Frankenstein was the scientist not the monster.
Eventually she had gotten tired and went to bed. When the next challenge came around, Chris woke them at an unbelievably early hour. Then he told them to run 20 k. Gwen hadn't had much trouble, but she still hated it.
Noah arrived passed out. Gwen found herself glancing at him in worry. Aside from Trent, who stirred up confusing feelings, Noah was the only person she had bothered to talk to. Luckily Owen knew how to do CPR and Noah was fine.
After that Chris let them gorge themselves on food. It turned out to be a trap. Their challenge: stay up as long as possible. It was so boring. Gwen had taken a seat between Noah and Trent. She yawned. "This is the most boring thing I've ever done in my life."
"Could be way worse." Trent told her.
"Oh yeah? How?" She asked.
"I could be stuck here without you to talk to." he said. Gwen blushed, those feelings bubbling to to surface again. She knew how cheesy the line was. She didn't care all that much.
"Careful, you're going to turn into a tomato." Noah snarked. Gwen pushed him off the log and they both laughed.
Shortly after was when it happened. Gwen just happened to be glancing towards the Bass when she noticed Eva's MP3 player fall out of her pocket. Gwen walked over and grabbed it. "Eva! You dropped this!" She called. The iron woman had turned towards her irate, but calmed when she saw her MP3 player. she grabbed it from Gwen.
"Thanks." Was all she said, but Gwen was glad she'd helped.
For the next several hours Gwen could feel Heather glaring at her. She did her best to ignore it. Trent certainly noticed.
"Gwen, do you want me to tell her to stop?" He had asked.
"It won't do much." Noah told him. "I have a feeling she wanted to use Eva's MP3 player as some kind of leverage. "
"Oh." Trent frowned. After several uneventful hours night fell. Noah fell asleep and Gwen found herself talking to Trent. Everything from her favorite color to her favorite movie moment. At one point they got so tired they just stargazed. Eventually it was down to five campers. She and Trent were two of them. Trent fell asleep before her, in fact everyone did. She somehow won.
Gwen was literally asleep for most of the day afterwards. She only woke around six out of hunger. She entered the mess hall and got some of the sludge Chef considered food. She sat down at one of the tables, nearly snarling when someone tapped her on the shoulder.
"You did great last challenge." Trent told her. Gwen was really too tired to respond, so she settled for a weak grin. "So, you doing okay?" She moved her hand from side to side. "So-so? Anything I can do to help?"
"Let her eat and go back to bed." Noah interjected from nearby, not looking up from his book.
Trent turned to him. "I was asking Gwen."
"And I'm just saying, the best thing to do right now would be to let her eat and go back to sleep. She's sleep deprived." Noah pointed out.
Trent turned back to her. "Is he right?" Gwen nodded. "Okay do you mind if I walk you back to the cabin? You know after you eat?" Gwen smiled and shook her head. It only took her a few minutes to eat, and then Trent helped walk her back to her cabin. She went inside and passed out.
She awoke the next morning still miserable and tired. Were it up to her she'd sleep for the rest of today as well. Unfortunately, it wasn't up to her. Today was a challenge day. So it was with utmost reluctance that she forced herself to get out of bed, walked into the mess hall, to both the cheers of her own team and the glares of the Bass. She had no energy to glare back at them, noting the absence of Harold as she sat down at her table and groaned. "I can't feel my face," Before face planting directly into the table. Lashawna attempted to make conversation, but she was too tired to pay attention. In fact, the next time she paid attention was when a spoonful of gruel hit her directly in the face from the Bass table.
Today's challenge was a game of dodgeball. No really that was it, there was nothing else to it. No twists to the rules or anything. It was hardly a challenge at all. Gwen didn't pay any attention to Chris' explanation and simply sat down on the wooden bleachers with her team logo above it.
Gwen didn't know when she fell asleep but the next thing she knew she was being shaken awake by Noah. "Hey, the challenge is over."
"Over?" Gwen yawned.
"Yeah. Eva totally owned us for the first two games, then Chris made to sit the next two out, so the challenge wasn't over too quickly he let her back on for the tie breaker and she owned us again." Noah explained.
"We lost?" The goth asked.
"Yeah, but don't worry no one's sending you home." Noah told her.
Gwen decided to go back to sleep now that the challenge was over, she was just about to enter the cabin when a charming voice said. "Hey Gwen."
Were it anyone else she'd have told them she wasn't in the mood and left, but Justin's looks and charm were even more effective on her sleep deprived brain than normal. 'Yeah?"
"I've talked to Izzy, Owen, and Noah already. I think we should vote out Lindsay. You were asleep so you wouldn't know, but she spent most of the challenge with a guy from the other team." Justin said.
"Sounds fine." Gwen groaned, going inside and passing out. That night Lindsay got eliminated.
Which brings us to today. All of Gwen's worries and thoughts. It had started with Chris calling them to a makeshift amphitheater. When she arrived, Trent called her over. He'd saved her a seat. She also noticed Beth was sitting right next to Justin. Like practically on his lap close.
Chris revealed today's challenge was a talent show. Gwen already hated it. It all became worse when Heather blew her whistle. "Okay, I'm the team captain so here's how this is going to work.," Heather began.
"Wait who said you were team captain?" Gwen asked, clutching her diary.
"Justin, Beth and I took a vote and I won." Heather replied.
"What? Justin, why did you vote for Heather?" Gwen asked in confusion.
"I figured she knows how to lead so why not?" Justin said with a shrug.
"Hey," Trent said, Gwen quickly hid her diary behind her back. "Snagged you an extra muffin." He handed it over.
"Trent, you're cool with me leading this project, right?" Heather said.
"Right on, go for it." Trent said. Gwen couldn't believe he'd be okay with that, but then again Trent was really nice.
"Good, Beth, Justin, and I will be the judges." Heather declared.
Gwen plopped down on the steps and groaned. "I know it's so obviously biased, isn't it?" She glanced at Noah, who looked like he didn't want to be here either.
"Ugh. I just don't get why Justin is agreeing with her." Gwen said.
"It's not hard to figure out. Beth. Lindsay and she a\were in an alliance." Noah whispered. "We voted out Lindsay last night, leaving the perfect opening for,"
"Justin!" Gwen gasped. "That's why he wanted Lindsay gone? So, he could take her place in Heather's alliance?!"
"Exactly." Noah nodded. It was a bit later when Trent sat on her other side as Owen chugged a gallon of milk.
"You gonna audition?" Trent asked.
"Doubtful." Gwen replied. Her best talent was drawing which wouldn't translate well to stage. "You should be in this though. I heard you the other night by the dock, you're really good."
"If you're into saccharine love songs." Noah snarked.
Owen burped the entire alphabet in one go. The boys were into it, except Noah who remained as aloof as normal. "That was excellent man!" Trent said, giving him a high five.
"Well you're not going to do that in this contest, that's disgusting!" Heather said.
"Do you know how hard it is to burp the entire alphabet in one go?" Trent asked.
"I can also toot Beethoven's Fifth." Owen said.
Okay that was enough. If this was what their team had for talent, then she had no reason to stay. So she started to walk off.
"Where are you going?!" Heather snapped.
"Anywhere but here." Gwen replied. She walked into the woods. Which brings us to now, as Gwen is attempting to sort this all out in her head as she writes. She wrote and wrote about everything she could. Of course she couldn't be left alone for nearly long enough as Cody, the annoying boy who kept hitting on her, arrived. "What you got there? A journal?" he asked and sat next to her on the stump. Way too close in Gwen's opinion.
"Beat it." She was so not in the mood for him.
"Oh, I get it. Yeah its private huh?" Cody continued. It's a journal, of course it's private. "I'm down with that, yeah. It's cool brah." Please stop talking. He leaned closer to her.
"What part of beat it don't you understand?" She snapped.
Cody leaned in close again, she wasn't sure what he was about to do but fortunately for her someone arrived to save her. "Hey casanova, I'm sure hovering over her doesn't come off as creepy at all." Noah remarked drolly.
Cody shot up. "Creepy? I'm not trying to be creepy! If that's how this comes off, then I'm sorry!" With that the geek ran away looking embarrassed.
Gwen heaved a sigh of relief. "Thanks Noah. He was really annoying me."
"I get it. I have my own follower." The cynic admitted.
Now that Gwen thought about it, Owen had been hanging around Noah a lot. "That sucks."
"Well at least he thinks my quips are funny. I just wish he wouldn't hug me so hard." Noah said. "Anyway, see you."
Gwen couldn't help but smile as he walked away. It was nice to see someone was on the same page as her. She wrote a bit more in her diary.
She returned to the cabin to see Cody was there. The moment she arrived Cody opened the door for her. From nearby Heather jeered. "Look, the first hook up of the season." Gwen glared at her. "Oh yeah, we're going at it big time. I need a swim just to cool off." She changed into her swimsuit quickly, heedless of the door hitting Cody. His fault for trying to see through it .
"Gwen, wait up I'll come with you!" Trent said.
Gwen was excited at the prospect of spending more time with Trent. "Sure!" Realizing that came out a little too eager she added. "Whatever."
Despite saying she was going for a swim, Gwen was completely content to sit on the dock with Trent and talk. "How are you holding up?" Trent asked.
Gwen sighed. "Sometimes I just need to get away from everyone here you know? I mean it's like they're all driving me crazy!' She glanced at Trent and thought of Noah's help earlier. "Well almost all of them."
It was really nice, but of course the moment just had to be ruined. Gwen heard a familiar voice crying out. "Owen, I'm really not interested in cannonballing into the lake!" Thunderous footsteps shook the dock as Cody and Owen ran across it, the later dragging a hapless Noah by the arm.
"It'll be fun!" Owen said "Cannonball!" With that all three jumped into the lake. The ensuing splash drenched Gwen.
She had had quite enough of this! "I hate this place!" Gwen snapped, walking off the dock. When she finally reached the cabin, it was to see Justin in front of the door.
"Oh Gwen! You're back from your swim already?" He chuckled charmingly. "Did something happen?"
"Owen and Cody happened." Gwen sighed.
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I think the wet look is good on you." Justin complimented.
"Sure, but I prefer the dry look. So if you wouldn't mind?" Gwen asked.
"Mind? Of course I don't mind." Justin said, stepping aside. Gwen entered the cabin to see Heather inside.
"Hi Gwen, have a nice swim?" the queen bee asked.
"What is going on in here?" She asked, she had the feeling Heather was up to something.
"Nothing, just resting before the big show. Are you always so paranoid?" Heather asked, before walking out of the cabin.
Gwen just knew something was going on, but she had no proof of it. The rest of the day passed uneventfully. Mostly she just stayed in the cabin and sketched. She really needed some alone time after the events of the day.
The talent show began, and Gwen was unfortunately required to attend. So she sat in the bleachers as Chris introduced the show, Justin did some modeling, and DJ attempted some rhythmic gymnastics but failed. If this was all the talent they had, they were in trouble. Trent was next and she found herself smiling as he said. "This one goes out to someone special here at camp" He sang a short song about enjoying summer and just hanging out together. It was a nice idea. Just hanging out with Trent, no one else bothering them, but sometime during her fantasy sequence Noah had joined them, leaving Gwen confused. Why had Noah entered her vision?
She thought on this as Bridgette did her act, which ended up in a lot of puke. Gwen was so done with today. Trent's song was the nicest thing that had happened. Eventually all the puke was cleaned up and it was time for Heather's act. She walked onto the stage in her tutu and sat on the stool Trent had just been sitting in.
"Originally I was going to dance for you, but instead I want to celebrate team spirit with a collaboration." Heather held up her diary. No, no. She wasn't going to-
"She wouldn't." Gwen gasped.
"So with words by Gwen, performance by me, enjoy." It was torture as Heather read out. "Okay so I'm trying to ignore him, but he's just so cute. If they had custom ordered a guy to be a distraction for me here, it would have been Mchottie. We just totally connect. He's almost the only person I can relate to here and I know its cliche, but I love guys who play guitar."
"Wait, I don't play guitar." Cody said.
All of this was bad enough, and Gwen wanted to run away, but she knew there was more. The part she'd written after Noah had gotten Cody to leave her alone.
"Okay, so remember how I said he was almost the only person I could relate to here? Well, there is another. We've been talking a lot and I feel like he understands not wanting to be around other people. He even helped me get some alone time just now, and maybe it's stupid, but I enjoy a boy who shares my sense of humor. Not everyone enjoys sarcasm."
That was it. Gwen couldn't take it anymore. She ran away to the cabin and buried her face into a pillow. Now the entire camp knew how she felt about Trent,
She wasn't sure how long she cried, but she heard a light knock at the door. That last thing she wanted to see was Trent, so she stayed where is she was until she heard a familiar voice say. "Gwen?" She wasn't sure what came over her in that moment, but she rushed to the door. It wasn't Trent. It was Noah.
"What do you want?" She asked.
"Two tickets on the next boat off the island but considering we won that's not happening." Noah said.
Gwen smiled weakly. "So we won?"
"Yeah, Geoff's skateboard broke in half and the Bass' replacement act of Eva lifting weights ended with a giant hole in the middle of the stage after she threw it in anger." Noah explained.
"Well, there's that at least." Gwen sighed.
Noah sighed as well. "Look I'm not good at the whole comfort thing. I don't know what to say, but I'm here if you need it?"
"Not much you can do. Everything sucks right now." she said.
"At least it sucks for both of us." He replied.
Gwen chuckled lightly. "Somehow that does make me feel a little better."
"Misery loves company." The cynic smirked.
"Well, you better stop hanging out in the doorway or someone will think you're being a creep." Gwen smirked back.
"A guy standing right outside the girl's cabin while no one else is around? At night? Wonder where they'd get that idea from?" Noah asked.
"Get out of here." She said, waving him off.
"I'm going." He smirked, walking away.
Gwen returned to her bunk. She had to admit after talking to Noah she really did feel a bit better. Maybe she could find some way to get back at Heather for spilling her secret feelings for Trent. Oh, and Noah, but that wasn't as bad because she didn't like him, like him. Did she? Gwen thought back to her fantasy sequence during Trent's song. Noah had joined them in her vision. She thought back further at all the other times they hung out the past couple weeks. She felt warm. Oh crap she did like him, didn't she? She liked two guys? That, that was so dumb It was so cliche.
The other girls arrived to go to sleep. Gwen tried to sleep as well, but her brain was still reeling at the thought of liking two boys. It was a cliche she never expected to happen to her. She didn't like most people at the best of times, so the fact that there were two guys at camp she not only liked, but had feelings for was surprising, and kind of unwelcome. Gwen had been having a hard enough time processing her feelings for Trent, and now she realized she had feelings for Noah too? On top of that, the way she'd written it in her diary meant people probably knew she was into two guys. Which was mortifying.
Gwen turned over and punched her pillow. Why did being a teenager have to be so confusing?
A/N: Just so we're clear, I think Cody's reaction when Noah let him know he's being creepy is because I have a headcanon he doesn't understand social boundaries for whatever reason. That's how it comes across to me anyway.