I think the tenth episode marks the start of the last week. This rest day is the end of three long weeks. Thanks for reviewing, AnonBrowser, lordgemini and OmniIBIBUltraInstinctGodzilla.

With Dakota gone, Mike gone and me not feeling very good, the rest day came as a major relief. I still went running with Jo in the morning, which made me feel a little better, but I spent most of the day in my trailer. In spite of telling Mike it was okay, I had no wish to talk to Zoey. If anything, I wanted to talk to her even less than before. I knew it was petty and stupid just because Mike liked her better, but it didn't change my feelings. Cameron would be with her, so I didn't want to see him either. I'd never been interested in getting to know Lightning and that hadn't changed, and after the blackmailing stunt Scott had pulled, I wasn't interested in getting chummy with him, not to mention what he'd done to Dawn earlier. I could have hung out with Jo, but I didn't feel like talking to anyone who wasn't going to listen.

I missed Dakota a lot that day. She'd been so easy to take my grievances to. I wouldn't have minded talking things over with Dawn, either. She may have been harder to understand, but I knew she was a kind and caring person and she might have said something that made things easier for me.

In the end, I just lay in my cabin, when I received an unexpected phone call (hey, the contestants couldn't take a phone, but I was totally allowed). I got a What'sApp video call request buzzing. I checked the caller ID first, and frowned. What was he calling me for? Either way, I picked up. "Hey, Chrissy, what did you want?"

"Is that any way to talk to someone who's had their show stolen – by you?" The little image of Chris raised an eyebrow at me. "You know, I'm not letting you take over completely."

"You haven't even seen what kind of host I am," I pointed out. "At least on my own. You can keep your show – I'm not hosting again. You're the fame-hungry one. I'm just in it for the cash, then my contract's expired and I'm out of Total Drama for good."

Chris didn't exactly smile at me when I said that, but he did look as if he was pleased to hear that. "That is if you don't get the show canned completely," he grumbled. "I was calling because I wanted to know a bit about the contestants. We have enough people for a smaller season of all-star players…or losers. You know, I'm easy. Any idea who's going to be the ones on your season people want to see back?"

I thought about it hard. Then I said "I guess Cameron or Zoey. They're underdogs, heroes, whatever. And Scott, because he's a total jerkwad and they're good for drama or some crap like that. For pre-mergers…well, I think Dawn deserves another chance and she's weird and cute and a lot of fans like that. And on that note, probably people will want to see Mike again." I paused. "I'm assuming you don't actually know why I'm choosing these people?"

"I'll check out the ratings when the show starts airing," Chris said with a shrug. "Low ratings for the episode's star, no return." He smiled. "By the way, I heard from the producers you actually agreed to use Heather this season. I'll be looking forward to seeing that episode."

"She hates you more than she hates me," I said, grinning. "It's still better than using Courtney since she still thinks I'm a boyfriend-stealer or Alejandro and his opinion that I'm a mozzie. Heather doesn't have anything personal against me."

"Okay, well, good luck," my cousin said, a note of sincerity in his voice for once. "I want my show to stay on the air!"

"Bye!"

I wondered about another season combining both the new cast and the old contestants. If it was all-stars, all of the mergers, as well as probably Brick or one of the girls would be on another season. I couldn't quite see them with my old group. Would that even work out?

Either way, I was feeling a little better by the next day when I got out a zeppelin the producers had foraged for, and went to the mainland to collect Heather as I'd promised.

I managed a smile. "Hi!"

"Toni," Heather said in reply. Her hair was back to being as long as it was in the first season. I'd never actually seen her in real life with that same hair, but I remembered envying it and its ability to never tangle. She looked around critically. "I see you and Chris are both cheap."

"You mean the producers," I corrected her. "Don't blame Chrissy for everything."

Heather shrugged. Her grey eyes focused on me, and lit up a little. "You look terrible, you know," she said bluntly. "Host job not as fun as it was last season?" I heard a malicious note in her voice.

If it had been Bridgette or Gwen, or even Lindsay or Beth, I would have told her. I might have told Duncan, if he was ready to listen. But no way was I going to tell Heather what was going on with me. She wouldn't have let love become an issue, be it host or contestant. She'd proved that she always had her head in the game last season.

I just sort of shrugged and played it off. "You try hanging out with a bunch of strangers all over again when you already had to get to know one set. A few of these guys are actually weirder than your cast was. You've only got five of them to meet."

"So," Heather said, "Tell me about them. It's not going to make a difference, I'm demo-ing, not going to hang out with them."

I paused, thinking. "Well," I said finally, "Cameron's like a super genius. But he's not like Noah, he's sweet and sheltered. He's new to a lot of this stuff. Scott's a total jerkwad who gets his kicks from getting rid of other contestants and laughing at other people's pain. Not that you'd argue with his ideals and gameplay," I added with a sly smirk. "Lightning's more of a jerk, athletic, a major egomaniac and actually really stupid with it. Zoey's nice, really sweet, never says a mean thing and pretty quiet. And I like Jo – she's a lot like you, except she's really into sports and wouldn't care at all if someone shaved her head."

Heather gave me a death glare for bringing that up, but she didn't look as cross as usual. "So what are you expecting me to do, exactly?" she asked.

I smiled. "Try out my jet pack, fly through a bunch of hoops and get no money at all for any of it."

In retrospect, maybe I shouldn't have teased Heather about the money part. That might have been why things happened the way they did.

Okay, NOW we get into the challenge proper. See you then!