I remember exactly how angry this episode made me the first time I watched this season. How many more of you had the same reaction? And now Heather's my favourite character. Weird turnaround. Thanks for reviewing, OmniIBIBUltraInstinctGodzilla and lordgemini.
We got a break the very next day, so I actually saw Leshawna moving her stuff into her trailer and finding the note I'd left there. I pretended to be reading Dracula, but I looked up enough to see her face soften as she read it, and then glance around the campground, including on me. Again, I pretended to be reading, even assuming a serious expression, as if I was reading about little children calling Lucy the Bloofer Lady and the harrowing attempt to save Mina from suffering the same fate as her best friend. I wondered if I'd do the same as her fiancé if Leshawna was my Mina and Dracula – or any other hungry vampire – went for her. Probably, I thought. But then I wasn't particularly afraid of Dracula and maybe being a vampire wouldn't be so bad. But I'd have to live through weeks of getting sicker and sicker before the transformation happened, like Lucy did. But I'd still do it.
Nothing much else happened during the day. I did the usual things. Apart from reading, I went swimming with Bridgette, chatted to DJ (this time, we were looking back on the challenges we'd done) and speculating with Gwen about what was to come (and exactly how many things could make us not vote off Heather to reassure ourselves she couldn't win).
The next morning, though, everything changed. First of all, Leshawna lost her trailer because of Chris firing something, so she had to move her stuff back into the cabin after Chris had called us to the amphitheatre in pirate-speak. You know, calling us "maties" and all that.
"Did I miss Talk Like A Pirate Day?" I whispered to Bridgette as we walked there together, just trying to make her laugh. I succeeded, but she just shrugged in answer.
Chris was dressed up like a pirate, and spent almost the whole explanation talking in pirate-speak. When asked what was under the sheet behind him, he replied (to Geoff) "All in good time, laddie!" It turned out that we were all going to have to hunt for keys to a treasure chest each. He confirmed that we'd get some kind of prize out of whatever chest our key opened, and that someone would get invincibility. But you'd have to be super lucky to pick that out, assuming you even got one. "Now, come and pull a clue out of this bucket," he said as Chef took a few steps forward with a bucket full of little wooden pieces, "Or you'll have to walk the plank!"
"A – a bear?" Owen stammered, staring at his clue.
Chris dropped his accent to tell him, "I was hoping you'd get that one, dude." Okay. So he wanted someone to eat Owen?
On the bright side, Heather got Chef's fridge. How on earth was she supposed to get the key with Chef standing over her? Chris specified she wasn't allowed to get caught.
My clue looked horrifying. Lots of low oval leaves, all over the place, and a hand in them with painful red bumps all over it. I knew exactly what that meant. Poison ivy! Was the key worth it?
We just had to finish the challenge at a certain time, when No-One's-Mate Chris would call us back to open the chests.
I'll be honest here. I found the key nestled in a poison ivy patch pretty easily. Thinking about how to get it out without getting a rash and wondering whether I should just risk the rash itself took a little thinking. In fact, about an hour's thinking.
I finally got an idea from realizing that when I didn't want to touch hot things at home, I used oven mitts or a tea towel. So I didn't have mitts here – I did have a towel! I'd have to wash it after I used it for this, of course, but I got my key out. And my skin stayed fair.
While I was waiting for everyone else to finish, I wrote another letter to Leshawna. I was starting to feel like I could tell her within the week. So I wrote To my favourite cabinmate,
I really wanted that trailer too, so I'm sorry you lost it. Our host really should be called Chris McGrubby, because he's certainly not a clean businessman. I know he doesn't pronounce it ma-clean, but who cares? I thought you'd rather hear that than me rehashing all my compliments over. I suppose when I tell you in person that you make me want to be braver every day, you'll be more into hearing that? I know I'm writing to you every day now, but I found my key easily and had time to kill. And as a little hint because I want to get my courage up to talk to you soon, I loved hearing all your community service volunteer stories the other night.
Love from…oh, you know the drill.
Just as I'd finished placing the note on Leshawna's bed, the door suddenly opened and Lindsay, covered in bee stings, came in. She looked shocked to see me, but quickly smiled. "Oh, hey, Peylan."
"Peyton." I corrected her. She was always getting names wrong. She seemed to remember Heather's all right, but that was about it. Sometimes she got Gwen's name right, but that was only one syllable. This was actually one of her better attempts. You should have heard some of the things she tried calling me, all starting with P but that was all they had in common.
Lindsay was looking sort of furtive and guilty, so I decided to cut her a break and leave in case she needed to do something secret like I had.
I wasn't the only one finished by this point. Duncan was lounging on his cabin steps, apparently having had no trouble with jumping through a hoop of fire to get his keys. Trent and Gwen had both gotten theirs, etc.
I was back in the cabin reading Dracula about an hour before Chris was meant to call us back when Gwen rushed in, not even seeming to notice me, and started sobbing into her pillow. I didn't even know what was going on, but I couldn't leave my friend crying.
I waited until her sobs were starting to subside, and then came over. "You want to talk about it?" I asked softly.
Gwen raised her head a little, her eyes still red, but before she could answer, Leshawna came in. Her clothes were a bit torn and had some scratches, but she had her key. The second she saw Gwen's tear-stains and red eyes, she asked "What's up, girl?"
Gwen looked up at her, and instead of answering, said "How'd you get all scratched up like that?"
"You should see the crocodiles!" Leshawna said, grinning. "What about you? What's up?" She sat on one side of Gwen. I tentatively sat on the other, and Gwen, now able to speak clearly instead of crying, told us the whole story.
Apparently, she'd been sent some letter, allegedly from Trent, to meet him at the Dock of Shame at five. She'd done it, and the only thing she'd seen was him and Heather…kissing. Really. We knew this didn't add up. Trent had been interested in Gwen all season. Heather had definitely been saying something to him, but he had to be partly at fault, too.
Leshawna and I exchanged furious glances. I think we both had the same thought.
"You take the campsite and the dock, I'll take the forest," she said. "Tell as many people as possible."
I nodded and we both took off. I found Duncan (still on the cabin steps) and Geoff (just about to come up from the septic tank where his key had been hidden) and told them that we needed them to help us vote off Heather after what she and Trent had done. We knew someone would get invincibility, but if it happened to be Heather, we'd have to vote off Trent instead.
Neither of us found Owen to tell him (although we did tell him later), but I did manage to find Lindsay, and ask her, "Do you know anything about that letter Gwen found in the cabin? What's Heather been telling you to do now?"
Lindsay's face looked guilty again and she just said, "I don't know what the letter was meant to do – I just had to write what Heather said and leave it on Gwen's bunk."
"You didn't think to ask?" I questioned.
Lindsay shrugged. "Friends trust each other, right?"
At that moment, the intercom rang out. "All right, campers! Meet me at the campfire in ten! And bring your keys!"
We did. Owen actually showed up halfway inside a bear's mouth, and Geoff stank from his trip through the septic tank, but they had their keys. I mean, not everyone had found their key, but most people had.
My chest, by the way, had a weird little set of what looked like some kind of inking thing. Like fake tattoos or something. Geoff got cologne and Duncan got pop and chips. Other people had various different things that seemed pretty random. Owen's key didn't open any chests – apparently there were a couple of duds. Chef had to tranquilize the bear before it would let Owen go, but at least he did it.
Heather got a gift basket. "Oh, and look!" she said, holding up a certain card. "An Invincibility Pass! Lucky me." Fine, fine, we'd vote off Trent, but it stung that we couldn't take out Heather this time.
I went to the confessional to talk as well as vote. I looked straight at the camera. "I kind of know Heather must have said something to make Trent do that to Gwen, and maybe he didn't know she was there, but still, no excuses. I need to take someone out, and Heather's immune. And whatever she said, I don't really want to keep someone who'd listen to her."
Chris didn't even try to keep the tension up during the elimination. He just threw ten marshmallows, calling names, until the plate was cleared and Trent was left without one.
"What?" the guy gasped. "But I thought I was getting on so well with everybody!"
"I guess you were wrong," Heather said smugly.
Gwen suddenly spoke up. "You don't even care, do you?"
"Hey," Heather shrugged, "Just playing the game."
"Why should you care?" Trent said, glaring at Gwen. "You think I'm a cliché."
"Where'd you get that from?"
I think we all guessed Trent's answer before he pointed at Heather. So apparently that was one of the things she'd said – no wonder he'd been willing to kiss another girl.
Gwen hadn't even voted Trent off. When he asked how he'd gotten so many votes, Leshawna spoke up. "My bad. I jumped the gun on that one – told everyone to turf out you or Heather."
"And I helped," I added softly. "I sort of assumed Heather was first priority."
"But tonight, I'm invincible," Heather added, her smugness only growing. "So that leaves poor old Trent here."
We all knew we'd been played, but Gwen was ready to forgive Trent. As for him, he told her to fight for both of them and that he'd be cheering her on the whole way at home. They even almost kissed in front of everybody, but Chris pulled them apart at the last second. "Trent, you have an appointment at the Dock of Shame and a ticket for the Boat of Losers!"
We never actually got the full story of what else Heather had said about Gwen until we saw the footage (we got to watch all the kept footage after we lost and before it was cut down further to fit the run time but I'll explain that later), but it no longer mattered. What did matter was that she paid. As Heather went off to the showers, Leshawna turned to me. "There's some scissors in my smaller case," she said. "You know, in case you wanna help me out again."
I didn't know what she meant at first. But then it dawned on me. "Doesn't she have a lot of clothes?" I frowned.
"She'd hate to lose even one piece more," Leshawna said with a grin. "And don't worry about stealing my fire. I have a date with the shower pipes." (I later found out she'd attached sewage to the shower pipes in the cubicle Heather was using, so the shower wasn't exactly cleansing – don't worry, she switched things back so we could all have regular showers the next morning).
So of course I cut up some of Heather's clothes. Not all of them – I left her pyjamas and anything no one saw, and I couldn't cut up the ones she took with her to put on after her shower. Heather didn't even catch me at it. Lindsay did, but she said nothing at all to stop me, not that she could.
She did ask "Why are you cutting up Heather's stuff?"
"Because of what she did to Gwen," I replied without looking up. "Are you going to tell her it was me?"
When I turned to look at Lindsay, she shrugged. "I guess. If she asks me."
Inwardly, I shivered at what Heather might do to me if she knew, but I remembered my resolve – be brave. Leshawna had done plenty of things to Heather and she'd made it out. I didn't have a diary for Heather to read, and I doubted she could steal my crush, even if she knew. She could tell the whole camp that I was a lesbian if she knew, but I was pretty sure she'd be the only one to have a problem with it – and I couldn't be sure she would even feel that way, just pick on me for it because she'd figure it was a weak spot for me. So I kept my face straight and pretended I didn't care whether Lindsay told or not.
Heather said that her problem with Trent and Gwen was that dating meant an alliance. Really, I think she just wanted to ruin Gwen's life again. Also, I liked having Peyton sort of take on a sidekick role to Leshawna. The more time she spends with the girl, the more comfortable she gets, and the more likely she is to say something.
Also, as a side note, you probably noticed that I left the snake clue out and put poison ivy in there instead. This is a nod to the planning stages of this story, where I had Peyton also do the poison ivy spa treatment. I didn't really want to use the snake with someone who wasn't as masochistic as Izzy, and since it's been confirmed that there is poison ivy on the island after Katie and Sadie's experience, I figured, why not?
