Courtney has had it with Sadie. She could listen to Sadie's stories about her and Katie's adventures on the island. She could ignore Sadie's obsession with Justin. Hell, she could turn a blind eye to Sadie's lack of skills in challenges (as long as they win, of course).
But learning Sadie and Katie's routine? That was the final straw.
Bridgette could sense something was off with Courtney but wasn't prepared for Courtney's explosion.
"Enough," Courtney shouted. Bridgette could've sworn she felt the floor shake a little from Courtney's words. "I can't do this anymore!"
Sadie laughed missing Bridgette's signal to her to stop talking. "You'll be fine, Courtney! I promise the dance isn't that bad."
"Yes," Courtney said with her teeth clenched together. "It will be that bad! Having you here without Katie is just miserable!"
Courtney closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. When she opened her eyes, she saw Sadie staring at her with tears in her eyes.
"Look, Sadie-"
Sadie ran out the door before Courtney could say anything else. Bridgette followed her leaving Courtney alone with her guilt.
By the time Courtney reached the main lodge, her anger had fully disappeared. She felt dizzy. It's been a while since she allowed her true feelings to let loose like that.
Over the years, she's learned to suppress how she truly felt. It was how she was able to maintain a relationship with her parents when she was sure they were close to disowning her. It was how she was able to practice the violin for so many hours despite the blisters that would open up on her fingertips.
The last time she exploded was at Duncan. At least at that time, the challenge had already been over, and she got to rest on her bunk.
This time, the day just started. She didn't have the luxury of healing over time.
She looked over at the opposite end of the table where Sadie and Bridgette were sitting together. Sadie was chattering excitedly to Bridgette, who just politely nodded back. She couldn't sit with them. Not after that embarrassing episode.
She turned over to look over the guys she was sitting with. DJ was busy feeding Bunny, and Geoff looked lost in thought while scribbling something down in the notebook beside him. She scowled at both of them in disgust. She was starting to remember why she mostly hung out with Bridgette and Sadie...
She then looked over at Duncan who was getting food from Chef. He wrinkled his nose in disgust.
"Yeah," she heard Duncan say. "I get that we're not at a five-star resort, but this is worse than what I ate in juvie." Chef just glared back. Duncan shrugged before walking away.
She sighed. She wished she had an easy time expressing how she felt without automatically suppressing them.
She heard a sneeze from behind her, causing her to jump a little. When she turned around, she saw Heather behind her.
"Still obsessing over him, I see," berated Heather.
Courtney rolled her eyes. "Not that it's any of your business but no. I was making sure he wasn't going criminal."
Heather hummed back not believing a word Courtney said. "You know he's only into you because you're a new toy to him. Soon, you'll become boring to him, and he'll move on to the next girl."
Courtney realized she must've made a face because she saw Heather smile in satisfaction before walking away. She shook her head. "God, I wish we just left her in the freezer."
"Nah, brah," Geoff said finally looking up at her. "You're thinking too small. She was already locked up in the freezer. You have to one-up it. Like..." He scratched his head for a moment before an idea hit him. "Taking away her makeup bag! She wouldn't be able to survive without that."
"Excuse me," DJ said in disappointment while covering Bunny's ears. "But can we not talk about this here? There are children present!"
While Chris explained the first challenge, Courtney thought back to Heather's words. While last time Courtney could talk herself out of taking what Heather said seriously, this time, she knew there was some truth to what she said.
From what Courtney witnessed at her school, relationships lasted as long as the spark was still there. And for the so-called "bad boys" at her school, the spark never seemed to last long. Courtney witnessed too many girls crying in her school's bathroom to know that was true.
She watched Duncan as he tried to avoid Chris's obstacles while also helping DJ to reach the top. How long was Duncan actually interested in Heather before moving on? Maybe it only ended because they ended up on opposing sides. It wasn't like it took long for Duncan to move on to her.
Then again, she doubted that Heather had the same conversations with Duncan that she had. Maybe he felt something deeper for her than a quick spark and wouldn't be easily swayed into moving on to another girl so quickly.
"Well," she heard Duncan say. "You don't see that every day."
Confused, Courtney looked up to see what he was talking about. Her eyes widened. He was checking out Gwen!
She felt herself slouch down. Why did she ever think that he would feel something deeper for her? He's a high school bad boy. Of course, it would've only been a matter of time before he moved on from her.
She felt a hand come on her shoulder and tried to shake it off, but the hand stayed firm. She turned her head to see it was Bridgette.
"Hey," Bridgette said in a worrying tone. "Are you okay?" Courtney tried to smile to reassure Bridgette, but Bridgette frowned back. "You know you can tell me anything. I really don't want you to explode again today."
Courtney wanted to laugh. What was she supposed to say? Hey Bridge, I'm just upset that a guy I've known for almost two weeks doesn't like me anymore.
Luckily, Geoff ran up to them. "Bridge," he said. "We have to go. We're doing the next challenge together."
Bridgette stared at Courtney for a second more before turning to Geoff and nodding. When she walked away, Geoff handed over Bunny to Courtney.
"Take care of the little guy," Geoff said quickly while walking away. "I have a feeling DJ and Duncan are gonna be stuck like that for a while." He then tipped his hat at her and ran after Bridgette.
Courtney looked back at the rest of her teammates. DJ and Duncan were still hanging upside down while Sadie and Harold tried their best to jump up to them. She shook her head.
"Guess it's just you and me little guy," she whispered to Bunny.
An hour later, Bridgette found Courtney in her bunk ranting to Bunny. She looked over at Sadie and raised an eyebrow.
Sadie shook her head back. "She was like this when I arrived too half an hour ago."
Courtney stomped her feet causing Bridgette to snap her head back at her. Courtney was now glaring at Bunny, who was sleeping soundly on her pillow.
"I thought us girls were supposed to stick together," she mumbled angrily at Bunny.
"To be fair," piped up Sadie. "I think Bunny's a guy."
Courtney narrowed her eyes at Sadie causing her to squeak before quickly running out of the cabin.
"That's just great," Courtney continued to mumble. "He's probably just another hound dog. Who did you leave behind when you decided to follow DJ? How many hearts did you break?"
Bridgette slowly walked over and gently carried Bunny far away from Courtney. "Okay, I could understand why you were upset at Sadie but Bunny? Seriously, what's going on?"
"We're losing," Courtney yelled.
"No," Bridgette replied calmly. "We're tied. Geoff and I just won our challenge."
Courtney scoffed. "What do you want? A fucking medal? That's what we should always be doing!"
"Hey," Bridgette said with a raised voice. "You need to simmer down with the attitude."
Courtney pouted but stayed quiet. She laid down on her bunk and covered her face with the pillow.
Bridgette sighed before sitting on Courtney's bunk. "Is this about Duncan?"
Courtney lifted her pillow. "Who said this had anything to do with him?"
"Your face," Bridgette replied. Courtney glared at her. "Seriously, you're only this upset when you think Duncan doesn't like you for some dumb reason. So what made you come to the conclusion this time?"
Courtney stayed silent while Bridgette sat patiently. Bridgette's eyes then widened with realization.
"It was his comment to Gwen, wasn't it?" Courtney avoided eye contact with Bridgette. Bridgette growled. "That fucking idiot." She quickly stood up and walked out of the room and slammed the door.
Courtney sat up curious about what was happening. She could hear yelling at the guy's side of the cabin and things being thrown around. After a few minutes, it stopped, and Bridgette stormed back in. She threw something toward Courtney, and Courtney scrambled to catch it.
When Courtney inspected what she caught, she almost screamed. "A pocket knife?"
Bridgette nodded before taking it back from Courtney. "Duncan's most prized possession," she replied casually. "If you're bad, you get your stuff taken away. He can get it back once he's learned his lesson."
They heard a knock on the door. "Hey, Bridge," they heard Geoff say while he opened the door slowly. "Can you please give Duncan his knife back? He's really-" He stopped when he saw Bridgette's glare. "Nope. Yeah, you're right. I'll just wait outside for you to go surfing." He quickly closed the door shut.
Bridgette turned towards Courtney and smiled sweetly. "I'm starting to think that he's a keeper."
Courtney groaned as she walked back to her team. She couldn't believe that she felt bad enough to let Sadie shoot apples at her. Now, she had another concussion. Luckily, it didn't seem that bad as Chef basically kicked her out of the infirmary as soon as she woke up (Note to self: look into the legality of havingno one with a medical license on set).
She wasn't sure if she actually was okay though because she could've sworn she saw Duncan with a bunny. Which couldn't be possible since Duncan had been against keeping DJ's bunny from day one. She couldn't remember exactly how many times she had to stop Duncan from taking Bunny into the kitchen ("Rabbit had it coming using my pillow as a toilet...").
She thought he would've been glad that Geoff got rid of Bunny but now...
She shook her head of any good thoughts. For all she knew, she could be giving him too much credit. It wouldn't be the first time. Maybe he was leading the poor bunny into the kitchen.
She sighed as she tried to catch up to Duncan.
Courtney would be lying if she said she's never seen Duncan being nice before. It was just that she's only seen him do nice acts toward her when they were alone together. The act would be quick, and once Duncan was back with their teammates again, he would act like the aloof jerk he prided himself in being. It always made her wonder if she just imagined the things he did for her.
She waited until Duncan was alone before announcing her presence. "I can't believe you found a new bunny for DJ. You're a good guy."
His eyes widened in shock, but he quickly hid it with a nonchalant attitude.
"You're actually nice," she continued speaking mostly to herself than to him.
He scoffed at her in return. "He wouldn't leave me alone, weird rabbit!" When he saw that she wasn't going to drop it, he sighed. "Okay, fine, I did it. Are you happy now? Listen, don't tell anybody, okay? I don't want 'em to think I'm soft or anything."
She smiled at him. "Your secret's safe with me." She started walking away but stopped and turned towards Duncan once again. "Just please stop threatening to turn bunny into rabbit stew."
He smirked. "I keep no promises, Princess."
After convincing her teammates to vote off Sadie, Courtney sat on the steps of her cabin with Bridgette and Leshawna (in Courtney's book, anyone who locks up Heather in a freezer is trustworthy). She traced her finger over a freshly carved skull on one of the steps.
"I see you gave Duncan back his knife," stated Courtney. Bridgette nodded. "So did he learn his lesson?"
Bridgette shrugged. "If what he told me is true, then he never needed the lesson, to begin with."
Leshawna let out a small laugh. "Girl, you can't what they tell you. I work with troubled kids all the time. They just tell you what you wanna hear so that you'll leave them alone."
"No, it wasn't like that," protested Bridgette. "It was like... I saw a different side of him."
Courtney nodded in agreement. "Same. He's nothing like Heather described him to be. He's actually... nice."
Leshawna scoffed. "Why would you even listen to Heather, to begin with?"
"Hey," Bridgette said shaking Courtney's shoulder. "What did he do to make you think he's nice?"
"It's a secret," Courtney replied. She then looked over at Bridgette. "What did he do to make you see a different side to him?"
"I'll tell you if you tell me your secret."
Courtney looked between Bridgette and Leshawna. She knew that Bridgette would be able to keep the secret. They've opened up to each other many times before, and she knew she could trust her. Leshawna on the other hand...
Well, if Bridgette trusts her, then maybe I should too.
"I saw Duncan find DJ another bunny," Courtney confessed with a smile.
Bridgette's mouth dropped open. "What? But he kept complaining about Bunny living in the cabin with them!"
Leshawna laughed. "I knew he was all talk. He's no bad boy."
"I wouldn't go that far," Courtney said. "I mean, he still did go to juvie."
"For what?"
Courtney thought for a moment before shrugging her shoulders. "He never told me." She shook her head. "But enough of that. Bridgette. Spill."
Bridgette paused before answering. "Let's just say he's been working on something important, and he needs his knife to do it."
After voting, the sky was pitched dark. Bridgette led the way to the cabin, opened the door, walked in, and screamed.
Sadie and Courtney ran inside and turned on the lights. On the ground laid Bridgette and a broken mug.
Bridgette groaned when she realized what she tripped on. "Seriously? I'm telling Geoff that gifts are banned from this room!"
"How do you know it's a gift from Geoff," asked Sadie.
"Well, did either of you bring a mug to camp and leave it on the floor?" Both girls stayed silent. "That's what I thought."
The ceremony was over, and it wasn't as satisfying as Courtney expected. Instead of hearing sobs, she heard squealing for the past half an hour. She had to cover her ears.
After about fifteen more minutes, she felt someone's hands remove her hands from her ears. She turned back to snap at the person but stopped herself when she realized it was Duncan.
"No need for dramatics," he said. "The squealing stopped twenty minutes ago."
She scoffed. "You say that yet I can still hear it ringing in my ear." She glared at him as he chuckled while sitting on the stump next to her.
She looked back behind her and saw that Geoff and Bridgette were quietly talking to each other while DJ and Harold attempted to teach Bunny some tricks. There's not that many of us left...
"By the way," Bridgette said loud enough for Courtney and Duncan to hear. "No more gifts. I mean it this time. I tripped over your mug, and I already used up all the glue to fix your bank."
Geoff blinked back in confusion. "What mug?"
Bridgette studied Geoff. When she determined he wasn't lying, she turned towards Courtney and shook her head.
"Strange," Courtney whispered. "Do you know how a mug ended up in our cabin?" She turned towards Duncan, who was now sulking. She could've sworn he was muttering something to himself.
She knitted her eyebrows together in worry. Was it something I said? She reached out to grab Duncan's arm. His muscles tended up for a second but quickly relaxed at her touch.
"Duncan," she asked gently. "Is something wrong?"
He closed his eyes and let out a deep breath before turning to her and smiling. "Nothing," he replied casually. "Just remembered I needed to do something. Later." He stood up and saluted her. Then, he walked towards the woods.
"Wait, you can't go into the woods! It's pitch black!"
Duncan turned around to smirk at her. "While I'm touched that you care, I've done this many times to know my way around." He then ran off before Courtney could say anything back.
"It's true," Geoff interjected. "He's been constantly going into the woods whenever he could."
"But why," questioned Courtney.
Geoff shrugged. "He never told us."
The rest of the team stood up to go back to the cabin, but Courtney decided to stay back to make sure Duncan made it out of the woods okay.
