Talent show! Remember I said DJ and Peyton were going to have to work for a win? Let's see what happens…thanks for reviewing, OmniIBIBUltraInstinctGodzilla, Gucci Mane LaFlare, lordgemini and thedragonrooster.

After breakfast that day, we were all sent to the bleachers in front of an open-air amphitheatre.

"Are we gonna see a musical?" Lindsay said excitedly. "I love musicals, especially the ones with singing and dancing!"

"How many musicals don't have singing and dancing?" I whispered to Katie on one side of me. We both silently giggled.

Trent waved to one of his teammates. "Gwen, saved you a seat." Gwen sat beside him, smiling. She actually looked a lot less threatening than she had on the first day, but I could tell that was because she liked him. Maybe she wasn't as much of another Duncan as I'd thought. She was certainly quieter than him from what I'd seen, but then she'd been so sleepy last challenge, she'd barely managed to function.

Eventually, Chris told us what the challenge was. A true summer camp favourite – a talent show! Three campers from each team would perform, to be judged out of nine by Chef. The camper with the highest individual score would win.

Courtney immediately grabbed a spot for herself as a violinist, which I thought was pretty unfair. Then she conducted auditions. Katie didn't audition at all, because the only thing she'd done was make up dance routines with Sadie, "And they don't work on my own," she told me. Tyler auditioned with yo-yo tricks, but only tied himself up.

Harold tried to audition, but Courtney called out "Next!" before he had a chance to do anything more than take a breath. She was also really cruel to Bridgette about her doing a twenty-minute handstand, saying it would only be cute if she was a monkey. Considering most apes' feet were clones of their hands, I thought it was more impressive with a human, but I didn't want to say so. Not when I wanted a spot in the talent show. I gave Bridgette a sympathetic glance, though, just to let her know I thought Courtney was being needlessly harsh.

DJ and Geoff were my main contenders. DJ did a pretty ribbon dance (he was every bit as good as he'd said – better, if anything) and Geoff did cool skateboard stunts. I did the most acrobatic hip-hop routine I'd ever learned, which I thought was somewhere between pretty and cool. Geoff made the cut because skateboarding stunts were a bit more special, but it was still between DJ and I.

"I'm gonna be on TV, man!" Geoff said excitedly when he was first chosen.

"You're already on TV, Geoff," Bridgette reminded him, her eyes flickering towards the nearest cameraman, who was happily filming.

"Oh yeah." Geoff then came closer to the camera and called out "Hello out there, dudes!" I would have been mortified to make a dumb mistake on TV, but the way Geoff had just taken it in stride…well, I had to admire that. He'd really taken the heat off him. Maybe one day I'd learn to do that – not take myself too seriously.

As it was, we never had to make the choice who to cut. It was actually Bridgette's fault. Courtney was practising her violin while everyone else on the team was hanging around.

"So, can you really stand on your hands for twenty minutes?" Geoff asked Bridgette.

Bridgette held up a bar of chocolate. "Wanna bet that I can't?"

All the boys started betting on it. I had a wrapped gumball on me, so I joined in. "But I'm betting that she can do it," I laughed. "We can divide your guys' things between the two of us." I looked towards my other friend. "Unless you want to add to it, Katie?"

Katie shrugged. "I don't wanna risk it."

Either way, Bridgette turned herself over. "Okay, twenty minutes, starting – now!" The thing was, her ankle got caught in a rope on one of the light fixtures. Unfortunately, it was the light directly above Courtney. Bridgette was walking back and forth, but then the rope broke, and…disaster!

Courtney managed to get out of the way and only got a light cut on the side of her head (bandaged up by Chef), but she dropped her violin in a panic and it took the full force of the light. There was no way it could have survived that. Courtney actually started wailing, although I don't think she was actually crying.

"You – you killed my violin!" she declared, sounding more heartbroken than angry.

"I didn't mean to!" Bridgette protested. "There must be something we can do." She even tried to pick up the pieces and put them back together, but the violin broke into even smaller pieces.

"Well," I said softly, "At least…we've still got three acts. We can still win this, Courtney."

Courtney looked up and said "You'd better. It's the least you could do after I lost my act."

So it was two dance acts and one stunt act. At least my acrobatics would set mine apart from DJ. I was nervous, actually. I'd never danced for a competition before, just a performance. I just had to hope Chef appreciated solo hip-hop.

Well, with what happened, I had every right to be apprehensive. All of the competitors were hanging out backstage, and Courtney was with the three of us, talking us through.

The Gophers got to start and they put on Justin first. I had to watch from backstage, but from what I could tell, all he did was pose.

"Okay, I don't know what that was," Chris said afterwards, "But dang, you got some moves, bro!" He got a six from Chef. Not bad at all.

DJ, however, screwed up. He started off fine, but then got his ankles tangled in the ribbon and that was the end. He got a two.

"Don't worry, we know you're better than that," I whispered as he came offstage. "It was just a fluke. We saw how good you are."

"I guess the competition part got to my head," DJ whispered back. "Thanks, though, Pey."

Trent was the Gophers' next competitor, with his guitar. "This song goes out to someone special here at camp," he told everyone before he started playing. As he sang a song about having a fun summer romance, I noticed Gwen resting her head on her hands with a dreamy smile. Even though she still had all the forbidding makeup and clothes, her expression just softened everything completely. Who would have known how approachable she could look if she would only smile like that more often?

Trent got an eight out of nine. So I had to get top marks if I wanted to get anywhere.

So how did I do? Well, I didn't choke. Or screw up. The same thing happened as it did when I usually performed – I had to concentrate so much on dancing and smiling that I didn't have enough headspace to worry about my score. And both the Bass and Gophers applauded me. Katie cheered me loudly and even Duncan wolf-whistled. When he saw me looking at him, he grinned, and I couldn't help returning the smile, although I'm sure I was blushing. Maybe he could be okay some of the time. I still couldn't find it in me to like him, but I was starting to realize that if I didn't piss him off, we'd get along.

"Pretty graceful stuff, Peyton!" Chris said as he returned to the stage. "Let's see what Grand Master Chef thinks!" The Chef-O-Meter gave me a seven. "Pretty good, but the Gophers still lead with Trent's love song!"

The Gophers' third act came from Heather. She had been wearing a leotard, tutu and toe shoes in pale pink, so I'd expected a ballet act. But instead, she sat on a stool. "Originally," she told the audience, "I was going to dance for you. But instead, I want to celebrate team spirit with a collaboration."

I didn't realize what she meant until she took out a book and said "So, with words by Gwen, performance by me, enjoy."

Before she got past the first sentence, I got what she was doing – reading Gwen's diary out loud to both the whole campsite and everyone who was watching the show. Yes, that was right, she read Gwen's diary. Okay, not the whole thing, but I soon got what it was on about.

"Okay, so I'm trying to ignore him," Heather read in a dramatic voice, making fun of the passage, "But he's just so cute! If they had custom-ordered a guy to be a distraction to me here, it would have been McHottie. We just totally connect. He's pretty much the only person I can relate to here, and I know it's a cliché, but I love guys who play guitar."

Even from backstage, I saw Gwen slide off the bench and run away. I saw Heather turn her head to watch, before she closed the diary. "Thank you."

"That was so mean." Courtney remarked to me.

"Totally mean – what's that getting her?" I wondered out loud.

Totally nothing, actually. Chef didn't even rate her. That was good, but we still needed Geoff to save us, otherwise Trent would win.

Except he broke his skateboard.

We had no idea what to do. Katie couldn't do anything. Bridgette could, but we knew there was no way a twenty-minute handstand would get a top score. Tyler wasn't any good, and Duncan's only talent was carving a picture of his skull into a tree.

I thought about it. "Send Harold out!" I told Courtney. "We never got to hear from him during the audition."

Courtney looked guilty, but she asked. "What could he possibly do?"

I gave a sigh and said, "I don't know, but he told me he has some unusual skills."
We did end up sending him out. And boy did he deliver. I'd never heard anyone beatboxing before, but even if I had, I would have known Harold was among the best. I couldn't believe he was better than any track, any drums, just with his mouth.

And Chef voted accordingly. For the second time in a row, Harold had given us the win! I didn't do what Courtney did, which was run out and hug him in front of everyone, but when we were walking back to the cabins, I spoke up.

"Mad skill number two, right?" I asked, grinning. "How many are there?"

Harold smiled back. "You'll find out," he said happily. "I thought I was screwed when Courtney wouldn't even let me audition." He paused. "I kind of guessed you spoke up for me," he added. "She never would have chosen me on her own. Thanks."

"No problem," I muttered, blushing a little. "I figured lightning might strike twice."

Make that three times. Justin went home, but after the elimination ceremony, Gwen called around our cabins and asked Harold about borrowing his red ant farm. Twenty minutes later, Heather's screams echoed across the campground.

We were all in bed by that time, but I giggled at the sound. "Sounds like Gwen got her revenge," I said.

"Not sure I approve of using ants," Bridgette sighed from above me, "But she did kind of deserve it after what she did."

"I mean, just reading someone else's diary is major evil," Katie chimed in. "Reading it out loud to the whole world is, like, fairytale stepmother evil!"

"People sometimes make out that I'm mean," Courtney admitted, "Just because I get things done. But I would never read another girl's diary without permission."

I frowned. "So…are we going to talk about what we actually learned from it? I mean, it's not bad, what we learned. I'm not going to talk about it to them, obviously, but I don't think it's a problem. If anything, it's cute."

"I don't think we should talk about it," Bridgette said firmly. "I talked to Gwen a little during the break days. She's nice, but she's pretty closed off – almost shy. We've got her back, obviously, but if she doesn't want anyone to know, we shouldn't talk, especially not behind her back."

"I agree," Courtney said. "Just forget it ever happened. Except knowing that Heather is a vicious bitch, of course."

We all giggled, hearing the swear in Courtney's precise teacherly voice.

"What?"

Katie answered. "Just you seem so much like an adult most of the time. We didn't really expect you to swear like that."

Courtney looked amused herself. "Well, I don't often do it. But sometimes the situation just calls for it, and I know we have cameras and this is a family show, but they don't have to show this part. Now," she went on briskly, "I'm going to sleep. Goodnight, girls."

""Night!" we all chorused.

That's the talent show. So yeah…Peyton did better than Justin, but not as good as Trent. I always found it weird that the scale only went to nine, but whatever. Considering Phobia Factor started the same night The Sucky Outdoors ended on, we've got another break, but I'll probably put the next episode in it, too. And don't forget, that was the episode Katie left in originally…