Well, I promised a break day, and here it is. Thanks for reviewing, OmniIBIBUltraInstinctGodzilla, – , lordgemini, Gucci Mane LaFlare, AnonBrowser and Fritz Electroscreech.

When I woke up the next morning, I did my usual routine, doing ten minutes of yoga.

As I was five minutes in, I heard a creak from one of the beds, and then got a shock when I heard "'Morning."

I jumped, but then looked up to see Bridgette smiling down from her bunk. ""Morning." I replied.

"Is that yoga you're doing?" Bridgette asked. I nodded, and she grinned. "My mom used to do twenty minutes every day. I'd been thinking about taking a class. Mind if I try to copy what you're doing?"

I shrugged, trying not to show how pleased I was that she was taking an interest. "All good. I've been doing it for four years, though, so I'm pretty practised."

Even so, Bridgette proved to be pretty flexible. She even said she'd like to make it part of her own routine, so we agreed to hold a session for ten minutes every morning, on the deck if it was dry in order not to wake the other girls. After that, I went off to take a shower, do my makeup and get dressed.

I managed to cement everyone's names in my head by the end of the break day. Who I chose to hang out with was another matter. I kept right away from Duncan since I didn't have to talk to him, and I avoided Heather. I hadn't spoken to her yet, but I'd heard her calling Gwen "weird goth girl", and I dreaded to think what she'd say about my hair and clothes. I wasn't dressed in the prettiest clothes I owned – I'd chosen practical things on purpose, although I had been careful to bring enough makeup for eight weeks, so that I at least looked decent. As it was, I still had Lindsay coming after me, asking "How come you wore those exercise things? You know, you could really make that hair colour work if you had the right look. You're already halfway there with the makeup!"

I wasn't sure if Lindsay was picking on me or if she just thought she was being helpful, but either way, I let her go on and on about miniskirts and hair extensions and how my shoes really weren't helping before I finally got out "This is how I dress for dance practices, not performances. I have tonnes of other outfits."

Lindsay frowned a little, a blank expression. "Ohhh," she said. "I guess I didn't think about that. Maybe I'll check out your wardrobe another time." She didn't act like she was picking on me on purpose. She smiled the whole time, and acted sweet. It was sort of confusing. Did she really think criticizing me was helpful?

It wasn't like the catty comments other girls made about my clothes, which is why I didn't laugh it off. I felt like the only way Lindsay would shut up is if I made an excuse. She didn't say sorry about it, so I still got the feeling she really was trying to be helpful. She didn't seem that bright, either. Maybe that was why she didn't realize she was being annoying.

Hanging out with DJ turned out to be relaxing. He didn't say too much, and he was really easy to talk to, a really good listener. I was really pleased that he'd befriended me of all people. He could probably have made friends with anyone and everyone, but he chose to concentrate on me.

"You know, a lot of people are surprised when they find out I've been in dance performances and loved it because I'm shy," I told him. "They don't get how performances are different to meeting new people. Do you get it?"

DJ nodded. "Same thing with me. You've probably noticed I'm not the bravest guy here. I'm not great with heights, and I had this experience with diving…I've been afraid of water and especially diving for the last eight years. But I'm not scared of performing. I do ribbon dancing. People don't really understand it when I explain that when I dance, I am the dance. I'm not afraid of performing because I'm not being me, I'm just being the dancer."

I nodded, a smile spreading over my face. "Yes, that's how I feel! When I'm practising or performing, I don't have any room for anything but what I'm doing. I can't do things like worrying what people are thinking or letting myself feel anxious. I have to concentrate, and I have to smile, but there's no room to feel scared, because I'm being the choreography, like the music controls what I do." I paused. "I've never done ribbon dancing myself, though – just jazz and hip-hop. Is it tricky?"

DJ shrugged. "I guess. You have to have total control of the ribbon the whole time, or you get tangled. I've only been doing it for two years so far. I'm getting pretty good at it, though."

We had a lot more in common than just the dancing. Common interests does not a friendship make, but it helped that we had something to talk about. I also just liked this gentle giant who wasn't afraid to share his fears and emotions and listened to me share my own. I felt like I didn't even have to tell him not to tell anyone else – I knew I could trust him. It made me feel easier in my mind – I knew one teammate that would look out for me, and I could look out for him too.

My dormmates varied. I liked Katie and Sadie okay, but they were a bit childish and didn't seem that interested in doing anything except hanging out with each other and checking out Justin. I was nice to them and they were nice to me, but they didn't really seem to notice anyone else and they didn't seem to want anyone else with them. Courtney was more relaxed while the challenges weren't going on. She and Bridgette were becoming friends, and I did hang out with them for a little while. But secretly, I only really felt any real liking for Bridgette, not Courtney.

The one thing I had in common with Courtney was a love for music. But while I channelled it through movement, Courtney was more of a musician. "I've been playing the violin since I was five," she explained to Bridgette and I. "I have it with me, actually. I wanted to be prepared for all summer camp experiences, and I'm expecting one challenge will be a talent show or some kind of music thing. You know how summer camps always have talent shows?"

"This is the closest thing I've ever done to going to a summer camp." I mumbled.

"Really?" Courtney said in an incredulous tone. "Well, lucky for you, I can fill you in on what to expect, both from the point of view of a camper and a CIT. I've been going to summer camps since I was nine. Not as long as eight weeks, but four or six, usually."

That was nice of her, but her bossy, precise tone and the way she drilled me after that put me off her. Bridgette tried to interject a few times, chatting about normal things, but it didn't seem like anything could derail Courtney from her summer camp lecture.

As for the other boys on my team? Geoff seemed okay. He was nice and all, but we didn't really talk. Harold seemed really weird, but also smart. He had this sense of not caring what people thought of him, and I really respected that. It's like he knew he was weird, and was proud of it. I couldn't even talk about the minority parts of my personality. As for Tyler…well…he said very little. All I could really tell about him is that he thought he was a major amazing athlete. Actually, he was so clumsy that I was surprised he hadn't gotten badly hurt yet. Even that day, he tripped on the way down the cabin steps, hit his head on the table in the mess hall and managed to dent the plaster on the wall with his elbow. And that was all before breakfast (which was burned scrambled eggs, by the way).

As for the other team? Well, Lindsay and her "You could make that hair work if you dressed right" lecture put me off her totally, and the fact that she hung out with Heather quite a bit didn't help. Beth seemed all right, except she was tagging along with them. Justin seemed a bit too obsessed with his hand mirror, Noah said nothing that wasn't a sarcastic jab at something (although he did make me giggle), and as for Cody, although I didn't talk to him, I caught him checking me out again, although I don't think I was the only one. He seemed to have narrowed it down from eleven, though, so at least he was being a bit selective. Trent and Owen seemed pretty cool, though, even if Owen was a bit too extrovert for my tastes. Izzy's behaviour continued to be unsettling. I got the feeling from her that she would do anything for fun, no matter how dangerous. Gwen didn't frighten me the way Duncan did, but I didn't see much of her during the rest day and I still wasn't sure of her. I only saw her once, hunched up over what looked like a sketchbook. She wasn't scowling, but her face was concentrated, so I didn't make an effort to approach her. She seemed like she wanted to be alone. And…well, I didn't talk to Leshawna, either. I just didn't know how to approach her yet, although I definitely wanted to say something, anything, to see if there was any chance of anything happening between us. Even if it was just friendship, even just a few friendly interactions, I wanted to know.

On the whole, though, the break day was good. I felt well-rested and ready for anything.

Of course, when the challenges returned, I was going to feel anything but.

Yeah, you know what she's talking about. As a note, the times were very inconsistent. Courtney said it had been one day, Gwen said they'd been on the island for a whole week. So I'm saying they arrived on the first day, the second day was a rest, and the next four days and nights encompassed the upcoming Awake-A-Thon.