Chapter 15: Who Can You Trust?


Reviews:

TaitanoRules555: At the moment, I'm trying to write about 5,000-7,000 words per chapter. My early chapters were only about 3,500 words each, and that's not enough. I may end up writing longer chapters as strategy becomes more central and complex, but I don't want to have too much filler, so I'll evaluate the chapters on a case-by-case basis.

Knifez: The Gopher and Badger votes will be explained within this chapter. I'm glad you're not mad about the eliminations. And while it may seem otherwise, me hating a character isn't a guarantee of early elimination. Sierra, Courtney, Justin, Duncan, Katie, Sadie, and Mike are all characters I hate, and they're all still here, while Max, Dawn, and Gwen are gone. The determining factor is what I think I can do with them. I knew I could do nothing worthwhile with Dave, Staci, Amy, or Rodney, which is why they're gone.

QueenAzulaThinksYourWorthless: I understand your disappointment about Eva being eliminated, but I had no real plans for her. And as much as I like Gwen and Dawn, I felt Trent and B needed the focus more. It wouldn't be Total Drama if the challenges weren't painful, especially to the out-of-shape. And yeah, that felt like a very Scarlett thing to say.

LovelyLuly: 1: Yes, I did, but so did you. It actually is spelled "asexual." 2: I know, but the chapter was already long, and it would have been too similar to Chapter 8 if it had been included. 3: I've never read Harry Potter, but I agree that Mike has no personality in canon.

Gucci Mane LaFlare: Strategy, reference, and it's been used in several stories, just mostly OC and SYOC stories. TSROTI was just the most notable time it was used. Glad you're not too mad at me.

LanaDelRey33: Okay, there's a lot to unpack here. First off, I'm glad you like the story. 52 characters is a big cast, and some characters are inevitably going to have more focus than others. I hate nonsensical eliminations, so making sure the eliminations make sense is my first priority. I agree that Dawn isn't the strongest competitor, and she usually makes the merge less because she plays well and more because she doesn't give her team reason to want her gone specifically. I hate self-inserts as much as anyone, and I'm glad you hate Aiden. I won't spoil anything, but he's not as big a threat as he thinks he is. I'll try not to spoil too much in the A/Ns. I understand your thoughts, but I don't really like characters being OOC, unless it's necessary to make them more interesting or likeable, as with the occasional occurrence of schemer Topher. I think the idea was that eliminating my least favorites early would indicate that eliminations would be bias over logic, which I hopefully have refuted by now. I agree with everything you've said about Owen. Strategy is interesting, and I like stories like Total Drama: Legends vs Nobodies, where many characters are focused on it. I think it best I should not comment on your predictions. Thanks!

Phenomenal Ultra Instinct: They are. And this particular one was probably shocking to a lot of campers.

OmniSpectator: Glad I was able to keep your interest.

CmonBruh: I understand where you're coming from. I do. But at the same time, I have seen potentially good stories bogged down by an overabundance of filler. I try not to include anything unless it has a point. I'll try to do better with the elimination ceremonies. I'm glad you like the realistic eliminations; that's what I consider one of my greatest strengths. I'm glad you're enjoying, and I'll see what I can do.

Dark mage: You'll just have to wait and see on both counts.


Teams:

Gophers: B, Beardo, Beth, Brick, Duncan, Ella, Heather, Jasmine, Sammy

Bass: Courtney, DJ, Lindsay, Mike, Sam, Scarlett, Scott, Topher, Tyler

Moose: Aiden, Cameron, Cody, Harold, Leshawna, Lightning, Noah, Owen, Shawn

Badgers: Alejandro, Bridgette, Geoff, Justin, Katie, Sadie, Sierra, Sky, Trent, Zoey


The episode opened on the teams eating breakfast. None of the usual conversation was taking place, and the teams were mostly eating in silence, largely with suspicious looks on their faces.

Geoff commented, "Man, you guys need to cheer up. It's like a graveyard here."

Trent was the first to reply. "Not likely to happen until we figure out what the hell happened last night. There is no reason why Gwen should have been voted out. Same with Dawn and Eva, actually. They all did pretty well yesterday. What happened?"

Courtney overheard the question. "Scarlett, did you have anything to do with that?"

Scarlett replied, "Your low opinion of me means nothing to me. The fact remains, I had nothing to do with the eliminations last night, save for helping my team win."

Jasmine decided to contribute to the discussion. "Well, I can guess why Dawn went home, at least. It's 'cause Heather didn't want Beth to get eliminated, so she probably got her little group to vote Dawn out. Not sure who the fifth vote was, though."

Brick said, "Probably Duncan. She knew I was voting for him and he probably wouldn't want to go to a tiebreaker."

B glared at Heather, clearly furious.

Heather thought for a moment to try to deny it, realized there was no point, then put on a regretful look. "I'm sorry. I'm just not good at making friends, and I couldn't just let one of my friends get voted out. I wasn't close to Dawn, and she wasn't one of our strongest players, so we voted her out instead."

The expressions on the faces of the other Gophers ranged from anger (B) to suspicion (Jasmine) to disapproval (Brick) to uncertainty (Sammy) to defensiveness (Duncan) to regret (Ella, Beth, and Beardo). Finally, Brick said, "I appreciate your loyalty. But that sort of dishonesty is not permissible."


Confessional: Heather

"Okay, so getting the others to trust me again will be hard, but I'm sure I can do it. I just need to win a few challenges to buy some time."

End confessional


The scene shifted to the forest. Chris walked into view with a frown on his face. "Hi! Chris here. Sometimes, teams...just don't get along. So, the producers and I thought the best way to work through the group friction would be," he grinned, "to exploit it for laughs." He rubbed his hands together. "This is gonna be awesome!"


The four teams were lined up at the dock. "Two challenges ago, some Bass issues came to light," Chris began. Scarlett and Courtney glared at each other, while Scott stared at Topher questioningly. Topher had a poker face. "And I'm detecting some issues with the other three teams as well." B glared at Heather, Duncan and Brick refused to look at each other, the Moose all looked at each other suspiciously, several of the Badgers eyed each other suspiciously, and Trent looked like he was about to freak out. "So," the host continued, "this episode's challenge will be all about building trust, because all good things begin with a little trust."


Confessional: Trent

"Yeah, I'll trust my teammates once whoever got Gwen eliminated is voted out."

Confessional: Shawn

"Trust is a good way to get your brains eaten. If you want to survive, suspicion is important."

Confessional: Topher

"Trust might be good for ratings, but mistrust is better!"

Confessional: Ella

"I think it's wonderful that Chris is trying to help our teams trust each other again, don't you?"

End confessional


"There will be three major challenges that have to be completed by two or more members of your team," Chris elaborated. "Win one of these challenges, and your team gets immunity. Normally, we would let you pick your pairs, or choose them randomly, but not this time! More fun for me!"


The scene cut to the mountainside, where Chris explained the first challenge. "Okay! So, for the first challenge, you'll be doing an extreme rock climbing adventure! Leshawna and Cameron will play for the Moose," he said as he tossed the two a belay and harness.

"Ooh, my first rock climb! How exciting!" Cameron exclaimed.

"Zoey and Alejandro will play for the Badgers," Chris continued.

Alejandro said to Zoey, "You should be the one to climb. While your agility is matched only by your beauty," she blushed at this, "you do not have the strength needed to hold me up."

"Oh...okay," she stammered.

"DJ and Tyler will play for the Bass," Chris said.

Tyler grinned. "Ooh! I wanna climb! I'll climb that cliff like Spiderman!"

DJ looked at him. "Sure," he replied. "That probably would be better than having me climb."

"And Hector and Samey will play for the Gophers." Chris said.

Both Beardo and Sammy looked at Beardo's stomach. Beardo spoke what they were both thinking. "You climb. I'll probably be more able to hold you up than the other way around."

"You won't be holding them up, exactly," Chris continued. "One camper pulls the slack through the belay as their partner climbs. If they fall, the rope keeps them from crashing." He pulled the slack through the belay and threw it to DJ, who was watching.

"The catch? Both the side and the base of the mountain are rigged with a few minor distractions, like rusty nails, slippery oil slicks, mild explosives, and a few other surprises."

Tyler pumped his fist. "Extreme!"

Chris grinned. "The person on belay must also harness their partner up. It's all about trust, people, and remember, ne-ver let go of the rope! Your partner's life depends on it!" At this, Sammy, Aiden, and Zoey looked at their partners nervously.

Sammy looked down at the unusually complicated system of loops Beardo was tying on her. She hesitantly asked, "Uh, are you sure this is safe?"

Beardo looked at it critically. "Yeah? More knots means more safe, right?"


Confessional: Sammy

"Mom, if I die, make sure Amy doesn't get any of my stuff. Donate it all to charity or something, I don't care. Just don't let her have it."

End confessional


The challenge began, and the four climbers started off. Zoey pulled ahead, with Tyler and Sammy in hot pursuit, and Cameron dropping behind. A close-up shot of a patch of nails was shown, and Tyler's hand grabbed them. The pain magnet screamed, but didn't let go.

Zoey edged her way up the mountain, teeth gritted. An explosive went off a few inches away from her shoulder. "That was way too close!" she exclaimed. Then, another bomb went off near her hand, and she accidentally let go. Alejandro caught the rope, just before she hit the ground.

"I did promise surprises," Chris said, as he held up a super soaker. "Habañero pepper sauce, anyone?"

He sprayed DJ in the face with hot sauce. DJ screamed. "Aah! My eyes!" He dropped the rope, and ran off. Tyler looked back and saw, and gulped.

"Muy caliente!" Chris exclaimed, and tried to spray Beardo. Brick stepped in front of him and took the spray. Upon receiving a liberal amount of hot sauce in the mouth, his face turned red, and he started coughing. Upon seeing the concerned looks he was getting from his teammates, he coughed out, "I'm (cough) okay!"


Confessional: Brick

"Not being able to do anything to help Sa...I mean, my team, was driving me crazy. Yes, I'll gladly take a spray of hot sauce to the face for the sake of teamwork!"

End confessional


Chris sprayed Alejandro next. Alejandro barely even reacted. He looked at Chris, and said, "Is that the best you have?"

"Is that the best we have?" Chris asked Chef.

Sammy kept climbing, trying to keep pace with Tyler. However, her foot hit an oil slick, and she slipped. She fell from the cliff. Beardo saw her fall and tried to catch her, but the knots holding her in the harness came undone. He made an alarm noise as she fell. She landed hard on the ground.

Brick rushed to her side. "Sammy!"


Confessional: Brick

"I should have been able to do something!"

End confessional


Brick picked Sammy up. "Here, I'll get you to the infirmary." He rushed off, with her in his arms.

Cameron was edging his way up slowly, when Zoey accidentally placed her foot on his face while climbing, trying to catch up with Tyler. He let go, but Leshawna caught him before he hit the ground. "Sorry!" Zoey called.

She climbed after Tyler, and almost caught up, when a huge explosion happened with him at the center, the shock of which caused Zoey to fall again. Chris cringed, and whispered to Chef, "Are we liable if Tyler gets reduced to ash?" Chef cringed.

However, the lanky figure of Tyler soon climbed out of the descending dust cloud, and over the edge of the cliff. Chris sighed in relief, and announced, "I don't know how Tyler managed to hang onto the cliff face, but he won the first challenge! Now, get him to the infirmary, pronto!"

Two interns quickly picked up Tyler, a slightly built male with shaggy black hair with a white stripe in the center, and a slightly built Asian female with blond hair and a robotic expression.


Confessional: Scott

"So Tyler does have a skills set after all. A very specific skills set, but if we need someone to climb something while in extreme pain again, we know who to call."

End confessional


A trio of lights came on in the Mess Hall, illuminating a podium in front of the four tables, and showing six campers: B, Heather, Lightning, Aiden, Bridgette, and Geoff. The spotlights shined on the podium, where an unidentified male somersaulted in the air and landed behind the podium. Afterwards, Chris popped up from behind it, and said, "And now round two!" The camera pulled back to show the six teens watching him, and in the background, the unnamed man crawled away. "The Extreme Cooking Challenge! Each team must decide who cooks, and who eats!"

Geoff looked at Bridgette. "If you wanna cook, I'm cool with it." Bridgette accepted the responsibility, commenting that meat upsets her stomach anyway.

Aiden looked at Lightning. "You made the pasta back in the cooking challenge. You should cook."

B stared at Heather thunderously, grabbed the chef hat, and put it on his own head. Heather raised an eyebrow.


Confessional: Heather

"Yeah, no chance this meal will be an easy one. And out of all my teammates, I don't trust B not to try to get revenge against me."

End confessional


"Today you'll be preparing fugu sashimi, the traditional Japanese poisonous blowfish," Chris continued, gesturing to a tank of the aforementioned fish.

Aiden said, "Actually, maybe I should—" but was cut off by Chris. "Uh-uh-uh! No backsies!"

"The fugu blowfish contains enough lethal toxin to kill thirty people," the host continued.

Chef tapped the side of the fish tank, and three blowfish inflated. He chuckled and said, "Fishies, meet your maker!" He then pulled the three fish out of the tank by their tails, and placed them on the cutting boards.

"They must be sliced veeerrry carefully," Chris emphasized, "to cut around the poisonous organs. The poison paralyzes the nerves, and there is no antidote!"

B wrote something on a notepad, and handed it to Chris. Chris looked at the note. "Okay, apparently there is an antidote," he corrected himself. "That's news to me. Still, you should be careful."

Lightning scoffed. "Sha-please. It's just a fish, how hard can it be?" He stabbed the fish with his knife, causing it to deflate and fly around the room.


Confessional: Aiden

"Why me?"

End confessional


An indeterminate amount of time later, Bridgette placed the plate of sashimi in front of Geoff. "Sha-finally!" Lightning commented. "Me and B finished..." he started counting on his fingers, "Uh...we been waitin' for a while!" The camera showed a plate of neatly stacked sashimi rolls in front of Heather, and a plate of pink mush in front of Aiden.

Geoff stared at the sushi in front of him. He took a bite, chewed, and swallowed. He looked around, then smiled. "Excellence!" he commented.

Aiden took a bite of the pink mush in front of him, then he clutched his stomach and fell over. Foam and vomit poured out of his mouth.

After seeing Aiden's reaction to the toxin, Heather pushed her plate away. "Nope. I can't do it." She walked away from the table, and out of the Mess Hall. B watched her leave, then passive-aggressively ate the sashimi he had prepared. He showed no signs of adverse effects.

Bridgette looked at Aiden. "Is somebody going to help him?" The camera showed him in a spasm.

Chef, in a nurse's uniform, leaned over him and injected him with a large medical needle. Chris said, "Give him twenty-four hours, he'll be fine."


The camera shifted to a bit later, with Bridgette and Geoff on the docks. "Last one in's a rotten blowfish!" Geoff exclaimed as he ran down the dock and jumped into the lake. Bridgette followed shortly afterwards.

"You were so brave to eat that blowfish," Bridgette said.

"No biggie! I knew I could trust you. You're cool," Geoff told her.

"Oh yeah?" she smiled. "You know what else is cool? This!" She splashed him with water and swam off. He laughed and gave chase.


The scene cut to the infirmary, where Aiden was in a hospital bed, clearly still affected by the poison. Chef held up another large syringe. "This won't hurt a bit," he said as he tapped the syringe. "It'll hurt a whole lot."

The camera panned over to Sammy unconscious on another bed. Beside her stood Brick and Beardo. Brick wrung his hands. "I hope she's okay," he said quietly.

Beardo looked at him. "I hope so too. I'd feel rotten if she got badly hurt because of me," he said. "You really like her, don't you?"

The camera lingered on Brick's face. "Yeah, I do," he said, as he gently stroked her hair.

Over by Tyler, who was in a full body cast, Lindsay and Mike were looking incredibly worried. "I can't believe Chip," Lindsay said. "Making us do such dangerous stuff!"

Mike nodded. "Yeah! What kind of host lets these kinds of injuries happen?" He then bent over and became Chester. "Back in my day, bein' on TV was safe!"

He then stormed out of the infirmary. "Dangerous activities, stupid kids, and on top of that, I've got to deal with this ache in my bones." He then paused. "Actually, that ache feels familiar. I haven't ached like this since..."

Then his eyes popped. "Great Scott! He's back! I've got to warn..." but then he gasped, straightened his back, and his hair fell over his eye, emo-style. "You'll warn no one, old man."


Chris addressed the remaining Gophers and Moose. "Good news, everyone! The third round includes three more challenges! It's the Three Blind Challenges! It begins with the Blind William Tell, followed by the Blind Trapeze, and culminating in the treacherous Blind Toboggan."

He handed goggles to Noah, and placed an arrow on his head, then held up an apple and a slingshot. "Like legendary marksman William Tell," he continued, "you will be shooting arrows of of your teammates' heads with apples."

Harold felt the need to correct Chris. "Actually, William Tell shot an apple off of his son's head with a crossbow—"

"Shush!" Chris interrupted. "Also, the shooter will be blindfolded. Whoever shoots the arrow off first wins." He placed a white blindfold over his eyes, and shot the apple at Noah, hitting him in the groin.

"Brick and Duncan, you'll be one team. Shawn and Leshawna, you're the other." He passed the slingshots, blindfolds, and goggles to the two teams.

"I'll shoot! I've trained extensively with the slingshot, so I should be able to hit the arrow fairly easily," Shawn said. Leshawna raised an eyebrow at him. "You'd better."

Brick and Duncan both shouted, "Shooter, called it!" Duncan then shouted, "Rock, paper, scissors for it." They then did rock, paper, scissors. Brick chose rock. Duncan chose paper. Brick snapped his fingers. "Crap."

"Okay!" Chris said, pumping his fist. "Let's rock and roll!"

The shot cut to Brick and Leshawna standing across the clearing from Duncan and Shawn, with the arrows on their heads. Duncan shot first, missing the arrow and hitting Brick in the stomach. Shawn took a shot a second later, hitting the arrow on Leshawna's head.

"Wow! First try, Shawn!" Chris said.

Shawn took off the blindfold. "Of course. In a zombie apocalypse, ammo is scarce. You have to be able to make every shot count."


The next part of the challenge was at a wooden structure that consisted of a pool of water, with platforms at either end and a trapeze in the middle. "And now," Chris announced, "The Blind Trapeze! To avoid serious injury, the trapeze has been set up over this pool, which is filled with jellyfish." The camera showed multiple pinkish-purple jellyfish inside the water.

"You two," he said as he threw blindfolds to Beth and Harold, "will stand blindfolded on the platform until your partners tell you to jump." The two looked nervously at their assigned partners, Jasmine and Cody.

"And then we trust them to catch us, right?" Beth lisped.

"Yup!" Chris replied. "Otherwise, that's gonna be one heck of a painful swim. Okay, hut hut!"

The camera cut to the two blindfolded campers waiting on the platform, Jasmine swinging on the trapeze, and Cody swinging on the trapeze. Harold said to Jasmine, "Now, for the demonstration of my mad skills. Observe."

Cody then said, "Now!" and Harold jumped and caught his hands. However, he slightly mistimed the jump, was unable to grip more than the tips of Cody's fingers, and fell into the water. His screams of pain nearly caused Beth to lose her nerve.


Confessional: Jasmine

"Mad skills indeed."

End confessional


Jasmine then started swinging calmly. "Okay, Beth! On the count of three, jump! I've done this before, don't worry!"

Beth took a deep breath. "If you say so."

Jasmine counted slowly. "One...two...three!" She caught Beth before she could fall into the pool, and the Gophers cheered.

"Looks like that's one point for the Gophers!" Chris announced, as an intern helped Harold to the infirmary.


Sam decided to visit Dakota in the infirmary. "Hey, Dakota! How are you?"

Dakota looked up from her task of spoon-feeding Aiden. "Not great. Chris decided to get super mean for this challenge, and left Chef and me to handle the infirmary."

Sam nodded. "I noticed. Anything I can do to help?"

Dakota thought for a moment. "Actually, yeah. If you could bring me some vinegar, that would be nice. I need it to treat Harold's jellyfish stings."

Sam grinned. "Sure thing!" He then ran off to get vinegar.

Dakota turned her attention back to Aiden, and saw drool come out of his mouth. "Eww..." she shuddered.


The camera cut to a pair of toboggans leaning against a tree. "And now for the final leg!" Chris announced. "The Blind Toboggan Race!"

"Oh, this will certainly end well," Noah deadpanned.

"Each team will have a driver, and a navigator. The driver steers, while the navigator shouts directions." Chris explained. "Oh, and the driver will be blindfolded!" He then surveyed the remaining campers. "Looks like we're down a few," he laughed and scratched his chin. "Oh well. Noah and Owen, Ella and Beverly."

The two pairs looked at each other nervously.


The two teams waited at the top of the mountain. B and Owen had been chosen to steer, and Ella and Noah to navigate. "We're doing this," Owen commented. "We're making this happen." He then farted loudly, which caused the other three to gag.

"Ugh, if you're going to do that, do it while we're actually going down the mountain so we can at least get some acceleration from it!" Noah shouted. Owen chuckled at this.

"On your marks!" Chris said as he and Chef stood behind the four participants. "Get set!" He put his foot on the back of the Moose toboggan, while Chef did the same with the Gopher toboggan. He then pulled out his air horn, and as he blew the horn, both men gave the teens a push.

The music became fast-paced and hectic. "Left! Right!" Noah called out, directing Owen. The two then passed behind a tree, allowing the footage to transition to B and Ella.

"Right!" Ella called, and B leaned hard in that direction. "Watch out for that tree!" she called, and B quickly reversed direction. "And now straight forward!" B leveled off, and the toboggan accelerated down a steep slope.

Noah and Owen sledded into view, slightly behind the other two. "Hahaha! Oh yeah!" Owen laughed, leaning hard forwards. He called back to Noah, "Are we winning?" Noah shouted, "No!"

Suddenly, an explosion went off to the left of B and Ella. "What was that?" Ella fretted.

The camera cut to Chris holding a detonator, with Topher and Sierra watching him. "We had a few explosives left over," Chris explained to the camera, "and I just hate to waste." He then noticed his two super-fans. "What are you two doing?"

"Watching genius at work," Sierra said hesitantly, although the two looked slightly disturbed.


Confessional: Sierra

"Okay, I don't think I like this challenge. Too many people getting hurt."

Confessional: Topher

"I think Chris is trying to see how much he can get away with with this challenge. And as a contestant on the show, I'm a bit disturbed by that prospect."

End confessional


"Left!" Noah shouted, and Owen steered away from another explosion. "Right!" He looked ahead, and saw that B and Ella were successfully avoiding the explosives without slowing down much, certainly not enough for them to pass.

Owen, perhaps hearing the explosions ahead of them, asked Noah, "Are we screwed?"

Noah opened his mouth to say yes, but then an idea popped into his head. "No, we're not! On my mark, bank hard to the right! Wait for it...now!" Owen did as he was directed, and hit a slanted rock, launching the two into the air. An explosion went off behind them, giving them even more speed. As they flew through the air, Owen let out a huge fart.

They landed next to B and Ella near the finish line, and managed to cross just ahead of them. Noah and Ella, after crossing the finish line, directed their teammates in angling their toboggans sideways in order to stop.

The camera showed that Sammy and Aiden had rejoined the Gopher and Moose teams, respectively, with the former with several bandages and a crutch under her arm, and the latter in a wheelchair, still gurgling. "And the Moose are the winners of the toboggan race!" Chris announced, to the delight of the Moose team members. "And Gophers, I will see you at your fifth elimination, tonight."


The camera cut to B working on something mechanical in the arts and crafts tent, with a gutted loudspeaker on the table. Ella stood at the entrance, and asked, "May I come in?"

B glanced at her and shrugged. She took this as an invitation and sat down next to him. "What are you working on?" she asked.

He held up a device with a keyboard and started typing. A mechanical voice said, "It's my new text-to-speech device. Dawn was effectively my voice here, with her gone, I need a new voice."

"Then you're actually mute?" Ella asked. B nodded his head.

"I know you probably don't want to talk to me right now," she said, "given that I helped get Dawn eliminated. I know you were close."

B sighed and typed a few more sentences. "It's not just that. It's...I have autism. High-functioning, obviously, but even so, it has caused problems for me in the past. I have a history of missing social cues that probably should be completely obvious. As a result, making friends is hard for me, especially here, considering that the game gives everyone reason to want to betray me.

"With Dawn, it was easy. She understood me in a way that few other people ever have. When she was around, I felt like I didn't have to be scared of other people. Now she's gone, and I'm scared again."

Ella looked at him, obviously distraught. Sparks then flew out of the text-to-speech device, and B sighed.


Confessional: Ella

"I wasn't prepared for how much this game can emotionally hurt people."

End confessional


Outside, Trent approached Zoey. "Zoey, can I talk to you for a minute?" he asked. "I'm trying to figure out how Gwen got eliminated. Who did you vote for?"

"I voted for Sadie," Zoey answered. "She and Katie seemed like they weren't doing much, so I flipped a coin to decide which one to vote for."


"I voted for Katie," Bridgette told Trent. "I borrowed a deck of playing cards from Harold. I shuffled them, drew one, and it was the four of clubs. I had decided beforehand that if I got a red card, I'd vote Sadie, and if I got a black card, I'd vote Katie."


"I voted Katie," Geoff told Trent. "I went down onto the beach, drew an S and a K in the sand, closed my eyes, spun around a bunch of times, and when I opened my eyes, the direction I was facing was closer to the K."


"I voted for Sadie," Sky told Trent. "I thought she would be more useless than anyone else."


"I voted for Justin," said Sierra. "Super hot guys are nothing but trouble."


Confessional: Trent

"Okay, I think I know how Gwen was voted out now. While our vote was divided, Justin, Katie, Sadie, and I'm assuming Alejandro all voted for Gwen. After all, Alejandro is Justin's friend. But why?"

End confessional


Cameron approached Aiden at the Dock of Shame. "Excuse me, do you have a moment?" Cameron asked.

Aiden sighed and asked, "What is it that you want?"

Cameron showed him the note that the nerds' alliance had received. "Did you write this?"

Aiden looked at it. "I couldn't possibly have written that note. You can tell by the slant that whoever wrote it did so with their right hand, and I'm left-handed."

Cameron tossed a pebble at him. Aiden caught it with his left hand. Cameron waited a few moments, then said "Thank you for your time," and walked away.


Confessional: Aiden

"Good thing I've practiced writing with my right hand! That should throw them off for now."

Confessional: Cameron

"I'm not buying it. But I don't have evidence, so I can't appeal to my teammates. I'll keep a close eye on him for now."

End confessional


At the Campfire Ceremony, all of the Gophers were seated, listening to Chris. "What an exciting day!" he said. "Which loser is to be voted out today? Perhaps Hector, for his lousy knot-tying skills?" Beardo didn't meet his gaze. "Or Samey, because of her injuries?" Sammy glared at him. "Maybe Heather, for not trusting B enough to complete their challenge together?" Heather's knuckles whitened as she raised her fists. "Or—"

"Me," Ella interrupted. "It's going to be me."

"Well, we won't know that until the votes are read, will we?" asked the host.

Ella shook her head. "No, I mean I'm volunteering. I want to be eliminated."

Heather said, "Now hold on, you don't have to—"

"Yes, I do," Ella said. "When I auditioned for Total Drama, I expected that we would all be friends, we'd play a friendly game, and everything would be wonderful. But now I see that's not how Total Drama works. No matter what I do, I'm going to end up causing a level of emotional pain I wasn't prepared for. That's not the kind of game I wanted to play."

Chris shrugged. "Meh, if that's what you wanted, you should have signed up for an actual summer camp. But sure, I accept your resignation."

Ella perked up. "And before I leave, I would like to sing a song for you all!"

Chris frowned. "Wait, wha—"

A tune began to play, and Ella began her song:

"My time on the show is finished and done,

But that's not to say I didn't have fun.

I'll do my best not to cry,

But now is the time to say goodbye.

I was on Total Drama, and gave it my best.

I gave as much effort as the rest.

Good luck to you, my friends, I want you to know,

I hope you have fun on this show!

Now try your best not to cry,

Because now it's time to say...

GOODBYE!"

As she sang the last few lines, she danced onto the Boat of Losers, which sped away.

Beardo, who had been frowning, asked, "Okay, I'm confused. Where was the music coming from?"

Duncan looked at him, shocked. "I thought you were doing the music!"

Beardo shook his head. "Nope."

Chris frowned. "I guess we'll never know. Anyway, the rest of you are safe. For tonight."


Confessional: Heather

"Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it wasn't me. I know there was a very real chance that it would have been me if Ella hadn't volunteered to be eliminated. Still, with five-three potentially against me, I'm not in a great position right now.

"I think my best chance is to try to get Brick and Sammy on my side. It might not be easy, but I've planted the seeds. With Sammy, at least. I can handle this."

End confessional


Wow, two episodes in a row of fan favorites getting eliminated. I'm probably really unpopular right now with all of you. But unfortunately, Ella just doesn't really have the right mindset for the game, and in order to really bring out the antagonistic side of Heather, Ella had to go. I know you all were hoping I would start eliminating more guys, and I promise I will, but I couldn't really fit this one anywhere else.

Thoughts on Ella? I like her a lot, but I'm not sure I would consider her a personal favorite. I think she's a two-dimensional gimmick character, much like most of the Gen 3 cast. However, she does have an exceptionally good gimmick, so it's excusable. I'm not sure how she would have fared against the Gen 1 cast, although I know exactly how she would have fared against the Gen 2 cast (Jo would have hated her for her girlishness and perceived weakness and tried to get her voted out).

I'll be honest, Who Can You Trust is only an okay episode to me, but I did think the challenge would be perfect to demonstrate Chris's increasing sadism, given that it's one of only four potentially life-threatening challenges in season 1 (by design; Hook, Line, and Screamer doesn't count).

I'm planning on redoing some of my early chapters, so look out for those updates soon.

Elimination order:

52: Dave, the Germaphobe

51: Staci, the Compulsive Liar

50: Dakota, the Fame-Monger

49: Sugar, the Pageant Queen

48: Amy, the Evil Twin

47: Leonard, the LARPer

46: Anne Maria, the Jersey Shore Reject

45: Izzy, the Psycho Hose Beast (still out there?)

44: Rodney, the Lovesick Farm Boy

43: Max, the Super-Villain Wannabe

42: Jo, the Take-No-Prisoners Jockette

41: Ezekiel, the Homeschooled Guy

38 (Tie): Gwen, the Loner

38 (Tie): Dawn, the Moonchild

38 (Tie): Eva, the Hothead

37: Ella, the Fairytale Princess