A/N: ...Sorry for not updating in a while... Here's the poem that Geoff wrote as consolation: "Dear Bridgette: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. One one-thousand. Two one-thousand. Three one-thousand. Four one-thousand. Five..." ...You get the gist.


To say that the Screaming Gopher girls didn't get along was an understatement. Their arguments could be heard clearly throughout the island (this time it was about someone leaving the hot water on in the shower...), and the guys could care less about keeping the peace.

It's one of the reasons why Courtney was glad to be on the Killer Bass team. Sure, she found some of her teammates annoying but at least they all get along.

...Most of the time.

Courtney was sitting on her bunk while Sadie was off doing something off on the wall with a glass in hand (she gave up trying to figure out all of the things Sadie and Katie did on the island). It was a quiet, peaceful morning until Bridgette walked in.

"Good morning," sang Bridgette. Sadie gave a small smile and a wave back. Courtney didn't even look up at her causing Bridgette to frown. She walked over and sat on Courtney's bunk. "Oh, come on. You can't stay mad at me for getting us kicked out of the hunting camp."

Courtney sighed. "You were throwing the mounted animal heads-"

"If Geoff never showed them to me and then didn't try to scare me in the middle of the night then-"

"Hush," Sadie half screamed. "They're finally saying something interesting!"

Courtney's eyes quickly shifted over to Sadie. It finally dawned on Courtney what was going on. "You can't eavesdrop on the guys," she scolded. "That's an invasion of privacy!"

Bridgette shrugged back. "As if they don't do this to us," she reasoned.

"They do what-"

Sadie loudly shushed the two of them.

It stayed silent for a few moments, but eventually, Courtney got curious. "So what are they saying?"

"Not entirely sure," Sadie admitted. "But it does sound like the guys are irritated at Harold."

"Great," Courtney mumbled. "The challenge hasn't even started, and Harold already managed to piss off half of our team."

"Aw," Bridgette said gently. "Don't be like that. I'm sure Duncan will calm right down once you cuddle with him again..."

Courtney just narrowed her eyes at Bridgette.


For once, Courtney didn't mind that someone else took over as leader. It was a cooking challenge. A skill that Courtney's parents didn't believe in teaching when takeout existed. A skill that she tried to teach herself and nearly burned down the kitchen in the process (her parents sold all of their kitchen equipment after that).

To make matters worse, she was partnered up with Duncan and something told her that he didn't do much cooking in juvie. Or maybe...

She looked over at Duncan. "So, learn any useful skills in juvie for this cooking?" Duncan just stared at her. "...Any advice for food in general?"

Duncan thought for a moment. "Never let your family bring you food as gifts. Unless you wanna get jumped."

...We're so screwed.


The good news was that Geoff found a recipe for cannolis. The bad news was that it was Chef's recipe. The probability of its edibleness was questionable, but they just had to go with it.

Courtney studied the recipe while Duncan leaned on the counter looking bored.

"Alright," said Courtney while still looking at the recipe. "So according to this, we need to make two things: a pastry and a custard. I guess we can each do one part. Any thoughts?"

When she didn't hear a snarky comeback, she looked up at him and saw that he wasn't paying any attention. Instead, he was watching DJ fill up a pot of water. It seemed like a normal thing to do when making pasta. Still... She looked at Duncan from the corner of her eyes and noticed the small, mischievous glint in his eyes.

He was definitely up to something, but she didn't have time to decode it now.

She snapped her fingers in Duncan's face startling him. "Unless you learned how to make a perfect cannoli in the last five minutes, I suggest you start working on making the pastry." He rolled his eyes at her but walked off to grab the ingredients.

When she looked back at DJ, she noticed that the water in the pot had somehow gotten onto Harold. Even though DJ and Geoff made it seem like it was a mistake, Bridgette's glare told her that something was going on.

This better not get in the way of us winning the challenge.


While Courtney carefully measured her ingredients before mixing them together, she noticed that Duncan basically guestimated how much of each ingredient he needed. It was driving her nuts.

"You know that baking is all about precision, right," Courtney asked in an irritated voice. "It's not like cooking where you can just throw things in and keep adding more as you go along."

Duncan paused what he was doing to look up at her. "And here I thought you didn't know anything about cooking or baking."

She could feel her cheeks turning red. She was definitely not going to admit that. Not while the challenge was still going on at least.

"I'll have you know that I can cook and bake just fine."

"Uh huh," Duncan replied in a bored tone. He went back to his task. "That's why you didn't fight to be the team captain instead of Geoff." Before she could answer back, he slid his bowl over to her. "So, since you can bake, what does the princess think of my pastry dough?"

She glared at him but took a look into the bowl. It looked... Exactly like what dough should look like.

She went back to her task and ignored the smug smile on his face.


A couple of hours later, Bridgette cautiously walked over to Courtney with a nervous smile on her face.

"Hey, friend," Bridgette said slowly.

Courtney let out a deep breath. "I'm not mad at you anymore. Hell, your dish is probably the only one that will give us a chance at winning."

Turned out that when DJ said he knew how to make pasta sauce, he meant he knew how to make it from scratch. Thank god for that. She looked over at her empty cannoli shells each with different shades of brown. It turned out neither Duncan nor her knew how to correctly fry food, and it showed.

"Good," Bridgette said excitedly. "Because we have to talk about what's going on with the guys." She shook her head. "I mean, purposely spilling water is one thing but a thong? Really?"

Courtney nodded her head in agreement. "This is getting ridiculous. I swear if they try to do it again-"

The sound of clapping stopped her. Both girls looked up to see Harold coming back in with his pajamas. They gave each other a look. They knew what they had to do.


Courtney followed Bridgette as she dragged Duncan and Geoff outside by their ear. When she finally let them go, the guys looked like they were about to complain but stopped when they noticed the look on the girls' faces. They were pissed.

"Boys," Bridgette said in a stern tone. "Care to explain why you are purposely trying to tank our challenge?" Geoff opened his mouth as if he was going to protest, but Bridgette lifted her hand stopping him. "Because of you two, Harold and Sadie weren't able to make their appetizer, and there are only thirty minutes left."

Duncan rolled his eyes. "Did you really just bring us out here to lecture us, mom?"

"That said," Courtney continued choosing to ignore Duncan's comment. "We know how you can get back at Harold."


The Killer Bass were walking back to their cabin while still celebrating their victory. Courtney walked a bit behind the group deep in her thoughts.

She wished she could let go and be happy that they won. But she couldn't. She failed.

6/10. Barely a passing score.

"Why so glum, Princess?"

Courtney looked up and saw that Duncan slowed down so that he could walk by her.

She could give him a snarky answer, but honestly, she didn't have it in her.

"I failed," she said.

He gave her a questioning look before his eyes widened in realization. "You know it was a partner challenge, right? For all you know, it's my fault that we got that score."

"No. I know I failed. You were right. I don't know anything about cooking or baking." She let out a small laugh. "Maybe I don't really know anything. Nothing I've done has prepared me for these challenges. Not like..."

"Hey, whatever happened to just living in the moment," he asked her. Courtney didn't respond. "I know you weren't just saying that you wish you went to juvie." He looked over at her, but she remained silent.

He sighed. He really wasn't sure what to do in a situation like this. He looked back at where they came from and slowly began to come up with a plan.

He took her arm and walked her back to the kitchen.

"Hey," she said while trying to pull his hand off of her arm. "Where are we going?"

"We have a few hours before our dinner," he answered. "It's enough time for you to perfect your cooking skills so you don't fail the next time."


Duncan took out the ingredients to make the cannoli while Courtney studied the recipe. This time, she was going to make sure that she nailed it.

She couldn't help but look over at Duncan every now and then. She couldn't believe that he was doing this with her when he could spend his time literally doing anything else.

She thought back to when they made the cannolis during the challenge. They both didn't know what they were doing, and as much as she hated their score, she had to admit that she did have fun… Especially when she covered Duncan with custard. He looked… cute. She started to blush.

Duncan finished placing the ingredients on the counter before turning to Courtney. "Alright, what's first, Princess?"

Right. The cannolis. "Umm… Flour."

He slid over the bag to her, and she used the correct measuring cup to scoop out the flour.

Then, she paused. She looked at the bowl and back at Duncan.

"Um," he said. "I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure you pour it in the bowl."

I'm really going to do this. She dumped the flour on Duncan.

"What the hell," he shouted while trying to get the flour out of his hair. "What was that for?"

Courtney started laughing. He didn't look as cute with flour all over him instead of custard, but it did the trick. "Sorry, I had to get something out of my system." She stopped laughing and tried to be serious. "I'll do it for real this time. So we need flour and sugar-"

Duncan poured the sugar right on top of Courtney. She tried glaring at him but her smile betrayed her. "We're supposed to be making cannolis!"

"Hey," he said in between laughs. "You started this."

Her smile slowly turned into a smirk.


Courtney and Duncan spent the rest of the time throwing the different ingredients at each other. Yet by some miracle, they put together enough ingredients to make one shell and enough cream for it. Carefully, he helped her deep fry the shell and inserted the custard.

Courtney smiled at the cannoli. "I think this definitely looks better than the first one we made."

She looked up at Duncan who was smiling at her. This was really sweet of him. Without a second thought, she hugged him tight and kissed him on the cheek. Before he could realize what was happening, she pulled away.

"Thank you," she said. "We better get going before Chef sees what we've done to the kitchen."

She headed to the door not noticing that Duncan stayed behind feeling the spot where Courtney kissed him.


While in the cabin, Sadie squealed excitedly while going through all of her clothes. "Finally! A chance to dress up! I've been waiting for this moment." She considered a white dress for a moment before throwing it in her "rejection" pile. "What are you guys planning to wear?"

Bridgette shrugged as she tried to avoid Sadie's flying clothes. "What I always wear I guess? I didn't really pack anything else..."

Courtney hummed in agreement as she finished applying her lipstick. "We're still on the island after all. No five-star dinner can make this place fancy."

"Aw," Sadie said. "You guys are no fun."

"I doubt it'll even be a real five-star dinner," continued Courtney. "Knowing Chris, it'll probably just be something edible for once."

Sadie pouted and looked over at Bridgette hoping she'd say something positive to counteract Courtney.

Bridgette shook her head. "She's right you know."

Sadie held her head up high. "Well, I have faith in this show so I will still dress up."

"Yo," they heard an intern yell from outside. "Is the pizza here yet? It's almost time for the Killer Bass's dinner!"

Courtney raised an eyebrow at Sadie who grumbled as she begrudgingly stuffed her clothes back into her bag.


Around midnight, Courtney paced around the campsite keeping a lookout. Besides a wolf howl, it was surprisingly quiet that night. All the campers who didn't know the plan were fast asleep. She let out a sigh of relief.

Courtney shook her head as she thought about the day's events. It was a ridiculous notion to think that Harold would listen to any of the guys if they just confronted him or humiliated him in front of them. No, Harold didn't respect them enough to change his behavior because of that.

No, his humiliation needed to happen on a much larger scale.

She stopped pacing when she saw Duncan jogging up to her. "Well," she whispered.

Duncan stopped for a second before speaking. "I gotta say, I'm surprised you could even think of something like this. I think I'm falling for you."

She rolled her eyes back at him trying to cover her blush. "I came up with nothing. You can thank my parents' crazy clients for this."

"Princess," he teased. "Are you breaking attorney-client privilege just to help me? And here I thought that breaking a rule would make you break out in hives."

She lifted her hand to slap him, but he caught it before she could so she glared at him. "Is he a deep sleeper or not?"

He laughed but still nodded his head. "Yup. Dead like a log."

She stiffly nodded her head. "Good." She pointed to the spot next to her. "Make sure to place the bunk here. The girls and I will be there tomorrow."

"Still can't believe you got all of them to agree to this."

"Yeah, well, Bridgette can be surprisingly persuasive." She looked up at the sky. It was about to get pitch black. "You better hurry and get it done. It is almost curfew after all."

He smirked at her. "Why hurry this? We're already breaking the rules. What's one more?"

"No, we're not," she replied. "I already asked the producers for permission."

"You did what?"

"You do know this plan involves damaging property, right? I had to make sure we wouldn't get in trouble."

He shook his head. "There's so much more I have to teach you."

"Not all of us want to become criminals," she replied.

"Not everyone can." He studied her for a moment. "I think I can break it out of you..."

She shook her head and walked away feeling his eyes burn into the back of her head. After all, in the end, she was still a product of her parents' teachings. No one would be able to break through that internalization. Not any time soon at least.