Courtney had never been so exhausted in her life. She wasn't sure if it was because of the first challenge yesterday or her anxiety of getting out first, but she never wanted to leave her bed.

However, life was never kind. At exactly 7:00 am, Courtney woke up to the sound of an airhorn and banged her head on the ceiling.

While rubbing her head, she felt Bridgette in the bed below her bang her head on the bottom of her bunk. She looked around and saw that Katie and Sadie were also up. The only one still sleeping was Eva, who had fallen asleep with her headphones while listening to her MP3.

"Hey," Katie said over to Courtney. "Your swelling went down!"

She automatically touched the area around her eye. Katie was right. She no longer felt the sting.

Last night, after showering in the communal bathrooms, Courtney noticed that there was some medicine for her eye on her bunk. At the time, she figured it was Bridgette who had given it to her, but when she asked, Bridgette shook her head.

"Yeah," Courtney replied. She looked back over at Eva, who was sound asleep. "Someone needs to wake up Eva."

Katie and Sadie looked at her like she was crazy. "Bridge?" She heard no response.

She sighed and climbed down her bunk. She shook Eva's shoulder and felt Eva twitch. Quickly, she moved her hand before Eva could bite her.

...Okay then. "Our challenge is starting," Courtney said to her.

Eva didn't say anything. She just continued to glare at Courtney. Courtney shook her head. At least I tried...


Once Courtney was done getting ready, she stood with her teammates outside of their cabin. She was surprised to see Eva was there considering the cold look Eva gave her earlier.

Chris took front and center explaining their challenge. "I hope you are all ready because your next challenge begins in exactly one minute."

"Oh, excuse me," Owen said. "I don't know if that's enough time to eat breakfast."

Courtney grimaced. Based on what was served yesterday, she didn't even want to know what breakfast could be.

"Oh, you'll get breakfast, Owen," Chris promised. "Right after you complete your kilometer run around the lake."

"So you're being funny now," Eva asked in an angry tone.

"Oh I see," Bridgette whispered to Courtney. "She couldn't hear the airhorn through those headphones, but now, she hears everything perfectly fine."

Courtney was going to respond when she saw that Eva was walking up to Chris with her fists raised. The only thing stopping her from taking a swing was Duncan. She was kind of impressed that he was able to stop her.

Not the time!

She rolled her eyes. She's had it with Eva's attitude, and her lack of sleep couldn't hold it in. She marched over to Eva and whispered, "Eva, try to control your temper!"

Of course, Eva didn't take her advice into consideration. Courtney sighed. She didn't know how much longer she could deal with her.

Sadie whispered to Courtney, "At least you didn't have to deal with her in the bathroom. She broke the lock on my stall because she could 'hear me humming.'"


Courtney had always been competitive ever since she was little. It's the reason why she's always been able to do everything her parents have asked her to do despite not always enjoying them.

The downside was that it also caused her to become more critical of herself when she doesn't win, a habit her parents happily encouraged.

So while she cursed herself for not training for physical activities and for wearing wedges, she still attempted to run with the group in the very front. Her feet were blistered up and her khaki pants were chaffing against her legs, but if it helped her team to win, she was all for it.

It was a waste. While most of her teammates ran, a few walked at their own pace. She would've been safe even if she just jogged there.

What was most annoying was that Harold was dead last. He was beaten by Owen, who took a nap in a puddle, Noah, who fainted, and Leshawn, who was crawling. Just what excuse does he have? She marched right over to him to give him a piece of her mind. "What took you so long? We lost the challenge!"

He grasped his heart as if he was dying. "I think I'm having heart palpitations!"

Heart palpitations? From walking? She growled at him. "Really? I'll give you a real reason to get heart palpitations!" She crouched down to spring onto Harold but was stopped by Duncan. Harold hurried away.

"Whoa there," Duncan said while still holding on to her waist. "Weren't you the one who just told Eva to control her temper?"

She chose to ignore his comment.

"Hey," he said. "Your eye looks better."

"Yeah," she said not looking at him. She was still glaring at Harold. "I don't know how that medicine got on my bed."

"...Maybe it was stolen."

Her head snapped back towards Duncan. She widened her eyes when she realized what he was saying. "You could get kicked off for doing that!"

He just laughed. "Like the consequences matter to me... If I want to do something, I'll do it, Princess."

She couldn't help but pout. She wished the consequences didn't matter to her either.


After Chris announced their actual challenge, Courtney, Bridgette, Katie, and Sadie walked over to the campfire site together.

"Ooooh, an Awake-A-Thon," Sadie squealed excitedly. "This is going to be so exciting!"

"I know right," Katie squealed in agreement. "It's going to be like a giant sleepover!"

Courtney and Bridgette couldn't help but shake their heads and smile at their ridiculousness.

"We can tell each other our deepest secrets," suggested Sadie.

"Oh! And play truth or dare," Katie shouted.

Both girls looked at Bridgette and Courtney excitedly.

Courtney shrugged. "As long as it keeps us awake."


"Oh my gosh," Katie said. "I have to tell you guys about our first kiss."

Sadie covered her face with both hands. "Katie noooo. That was so embarrassing."

"Well," said Bridgette. "Now, Katie has to tell us."

Katie squealed excitedly. "Okay, okay! So like, me and Katie were like at our freshman dance, right?"

"We had these twins as our date," chimed in Sadie. Her shyness seemed to have evaporated. "They were our biology partners for dissecting frogs."

"And like, at our school, there's this spot under the tree where couples kiss, and it's supposed to be good luck-"

"-So like we were all excited to go out and pulled the guys from the table-"

"-And we rushed them over to the tree-"

"-And we kissed them before they could say anything-"

"-But when we pulled back-"

"-we realized-"

"-we kissed each other's dates," they shouted together.

Bridgette laughed. "That's nothing," she said. "My first kiss was with this guy at my school who would always ask me to go surfing-"

"Was he cute," interrupted Sadie.

"Yes! Anyway, so we go surfing on Friday after school like always-"

"But how cute," asked Katie.

"Very Baywatch cute. And I guess that day, he decided he wanted to kiss me-"

"Did you want to kiss him," wondered Courtney.

"Of course! It's why I always went surfing with him! But what he didn't realize is that I just got my braces-"

"No," Katie and Sadie shouted.

"Yes!" Bridgette cringed at the memory. "We both leaned in, and like the klutz I am, I stumbled into him... And cut his lip..."

Courtney winced. "Then what happened?"

"Surprisingly, he laughed it off. We dated for a few months before he transferred to a new school."

"That's not that embarrassing," Courtney said. "It actually sounds really cute."

Bridgette shrugged. "If you say so. Okay Courtney, now it's your turn to spill."

Courtney froze. This was the reason why nobody played these games with her. "The thing is..."

"Oh, come one," said Bridgette encouragingly. "It can't be any worse than the rest of ours."

Depends on your definition of "worse." "...I've never had mine."

"Really," asked Sadie. "What about a date?"

Courtney shook her head.

"A crush," asked Katie.

She shook her head again.

"Were the guys in your school really that bad," asked Bridgette.

"...I wouldn't know," Courtney said softly. "I've never really had the... time to wonder about it."

It was silent for a while. Courtney wondered if her lack of... everything brought down the conversation.

"...Well, now you have the time," Katie said with a smile. "It's not like there aren't ten guys here."

"Which one is your fave," asked Sadie. "Me and Katie are into Justin."

"Yeah," Katie replied dreamily. "He looks like a greek model."

Katie and Sadie continued to gush about Justin. Courtney and Bridgette looked at each other.

"Are you into anyone," Bridgette whispered. "I won't tell."

Courtney considered Bridgette's question. The only guy she really looked twice at was Duncan, and it was more due to her jealousy of him than liking him. "I don't think so. Are you?"

Bridgette shrugged. "Maybe."

"Hey, guys," yelled Geoff. "Watch me do a backflip!"

He winked at Bridgette before standing on one of the stumps and attempting to do a backflip. ...He landed on his back.

"Ow," he groaned.

Courtney and Bridgette shook their heads. "...Maybe not."


At the twelve-hour mark, Courtney kept to herself. She was used to staying up. After all, how else would she finish her impossible schedule and maintain her studies? She figured if she could take AP and IB classes without sleep, then this should be a breeze.

However, now, she was discovering how hard it was to stay awake when you're not doing anything. Her fingers itched to practice her violin, but something told her it would just make more of her teammates fall asleep.

She looked over at Duncan. He was just sitting there like it was nothing. How can he be so calm all the time?

He must have felt her eyes on him because he looked over at her and winked.

Courtney turned her head in embarrassment.


At the twenty-four-hour mark, Bridgette, Katie, and Sadie had fallen asleep.

Courtney had to keep herself busy. Maybe if I keep moving? She started running in place.

And then... The fairytales started.

She prayed that the challenge would be over soon.


It's been forty hours. On one hand, Courtney was proud of herself for making it that long. On the other hand, she's not quite sure if she really is awake. She swore she saw Chef in a tutu with magic dust, but that couldn't be real...

"You're gonna tire yourself out if you keep doing that, sweetheart," Courtney heard Duncan say to her.

He was right. She knew he was. But at the same time, she wasn't confident that she would stay awake even if she did stop.


She didn't know when she fell asleep, but when she woke up due to Harold's snoring, she discovered that she was back in her bunk. She tried stretching out her sore muscles.

Her body was so tired, but she knew that Harold's snoring would just keep her awake. She was tempted to march into the other room and kick him out into the woods.

Courtney sighed and got up to take a shower. She took a look over at the campfire site. It's been 87 hours, and Duncan was the only one left awake on the Killer Bass. She smiled.

She wondered what his secret was.


When she woke up again, it was due to Eva's screaming. What is it this time?

She looked at Eva ready to give her a piece of her mind until she saw the murderous look in Eva's eyes.

She decided it was better to wait outside. Katie and Bridgette agreed and snuck out with her.


Then, Eva started throwing things out the window. DJ, Harold, and Tyler came out to help calm down Eva. Wrong move. She started throwing the stuff towards them instead.

Goddammit, I just want to sleep! "Okay," she said. "Whoever took it better give it up now before she destroys the whole camp."

Luckily, Heather found the MP3 player. Eva must've realized how bad her temper had gotten because for once, she was apologizing.

Courtney just shook her head. Sure Heather finding Eva's MP3 player was suspicious. It still didn't mean she would tolerate Eva's temper.

The rest of the group seemed to agree.


Unsurprisingly, Eva went home. Courtney breathed out a sigh of relief. She didn't like Eva, but she still said bye. Eva threw a stick towards Courtney like a spear. She didn't know why Eva hated her so much, but it didn't really matter now. She was gone.

The team was on a losing streak. Morale was low, and Courtney made sure to give a small encouraging speech as a leader would. She didn't believe in what she was saying, but they didn't need to know that.

Once it was done, everyone headed back to the cabin for some much needed sleep. The next challenge would start in less than ten hours, and between Eva's tantrum and Harold's snoring, nobody got much sleep.

She looked over at Duncan who was walking like a zombie. She felt bad for him. There is no way he's going to get enough sleep before the next challenge. When she saw him stumble, she ran over to hold him up. Luckily, he wasn't that much bigger than her.

"Just let me sleep here," she heard him mumble.

"Not a chance," she said back in a stern voice. "I'm taking you to bed."

He started mumbling under his breath, but he allowed her to guide him towards the cabin and into his bunk. Once she got him into his bed, she quietly left the cabin and gently closed the door behind her. She let out a sigh of relief.

Then, she heard Harold snore and a growling Duncan.

Maybe I should've let him sleep outside...


Courtney laid awake. Harold's snoring just seemed to get louder every minute. Her roommates seemed to agree with her. She could hear them tossing and turning in their bed.

After three hours, Courtney gave up on sleep. She threw off her covers and lazily slipped on her shoes.

"Where are you going," she heard Bridgette ask.

Anywhere but here. "To get fresh air."


Outside was still dark. Courtney didn't want to get lost so she settled to rest on the steps. She could still hear Harold's snoring, but now, it sounded like an annoying buzz. Definitely an improvement.

She heard a cabin door open and close. "Princess?"

She looked back. Sure enough, it was Duncan. "What are you doing up," she asked him.

He sat down next to her. "I could be asking you the same thing."

"I've had an extra 40 hours to get sleep. Unlike you, who hasn't slept in three days."

"Don't remind me." He let out an exasperated sigh. "It's Harold's snoring. I'd love nothing more to shut up the pip-squeak, but... I don't think our team would be thrilled if we lose one more member."

She huffed. "Maybe I should've voted out Harold instead of Eva. Eva's temper was bad, but at least, we'd all be asleep by now." She looked over at him. He appeared to be in a daze. "Hey, you did great today."

He smirked at her. "I know."

And so humble too... "What's your secret? I mean, I've pulled all-nighters before but never that long."

He came closer to her as if he was going to tell a secret. "Juvie is super boring. You have to find different ways to entertain yourself if you want to keep yourself sane."

She nodded. It made sense. Duncan had more free time than she could ever wish for. He was used to doing nothing for hours. Not like me who has to work every hour of every day...

She snapped out of her thoughts when she felt something heavy on her lap. It was Duncan. He finally fell asleep and rested his head on her lap.

She heard him let out a light snore and absent-mindedly started to brush her fingers through his mohawk. It was softer than she thought it would be. She stared at his face. He looks so peaceful... She could feel her heart flutter.

Maybe she is into Duncan.