Do we really need a break day between canoe races and paintball? There probably was one, but this episode is going to be kind of important, so let's go already! Thanks for reviewing, OmniIBIBUltraInstinctGodzilla, thedragonrooster and lordgemini.

We had another rest day after Katie left, but nothing much happened, so I'm going to skip to the next day. Chris woke us up by flying low over us in a helicopter or something, then it was a long line up in the girl's room. I was second-to-last in line.

"What's the hold-up?" asked Bridgette, in front of me.

"Heather needs her private time," Lindsay, who was at the front, explained.

Leshawna scowled. "How long is Queenie gonna be in there? I got urgent business!"

"She could still be a while," Beth, also at the front, said apologetically.

"That's it, I'm going lumberjack style," Gwen declared, stalking off.

By the time Chris called us to the campfire pit to get briefed, Heather was still in the bathrooms and just about everyone had to do the same as Gwen. Oh, and poor Beth had to help Heather lotion her peeling back. Just about everyone knew by now that Heather had conned both Lindsay and Beth into an alliance, and was milking it like crazy by making them to everything for her. Lindsay ran off the second she heard the words "lotion" and "peeling", which is why Beth got stuck with that job.

For breakfast, we were just given little tins of beans. Owen ate most of them. Well, it wasn't even as good as Chef's slop – at least that was warm. I suppose it was full of fibre, but still. I just had to hope that it didn't have too much of an effect on Owen's gas. We knew from the other Gophers that he was always sharing it, and if it got any worse, us Bass would probably have to take our share.

Chris told us we were going hunting. Harold, however, recognized the brightly-coloured rifles. "Isn't that a paintball gun?"
"Why, yes, Harold," Chris replied, "It is!"

"So we won't be killing anything?" Bridgette questioned. I knew by now that she was a devoted vegetarian and animal-lover, despite finding the forest intimidating. She still ate fish, but that was the only exception.

"Negatory," Chris said to her question. The story was that half of each team would be hunters with paintball guns (orange paint for Gophers, blue for us), and the rest of the campers would be deer. The hunters were meant to hunt the other team's deer.

We had less hunters since there were seven of us, not eight like the other team – three instead of four. They were Geoff, Bridgette and Harold. The hunters DJ, Courtney, Duncan and I would have to watch out for were Lindsay, Beth, Leshawna and Owen. I didn't know how effective they would be at tracking, but we'd have to try and stay away if we saw any of them.

It gets worse. Everyone got a pair of paintball glasses, but past that, the hunters got to wear caps. Chris made all of us deer wear noses, antlers and little fluffy tails.

"Take these off, and your team is toast," he said, basically forcing them on Duncan. Well, I didn't mind too much. It was a little funny, really.

It was just wandering through the forest at first. "At least we get a headstart." Courtney said.

"I don't know about y'all," DJ said, "But I'm outta here." And he literally started running away on all fours, like he really was a deer.

I couldn't help giggling. "Really cute moves, Deej!" I called after him. I turned to the others. "I'm splitting off from you two, too. Better a hunter finds one of us than three of us." I went to leave.

"Just be careful you don't run into the killer with the hook!" Duncan yelled after me, laughing. I laughed too. Duncan himself still scared me, and the way he'd told the horror story was scary, too, but that kind of threat didn't bother me. It was like the catty comments I sometimes got at school. Did Duncan really think that kind of comment would rattle me?

We can't have been in the woods for more than three hours. At one point, I ran into Trent, but he was another deer, so we just exchanged "hi"s and went on our way.

I'm not sure when it happened in the game, but I think it was within the half-hour before Chris called us back. I was just happily walking when I felt something explode on the back of my ankle, and I looked down to see a splash of orange paint.

I immediately whirled around. Leshawna waved at me cheekily. "You might wanna keep your eyes open next time!" she called. "That was just way too easy!"

That made me feel brave. "I'd so get my own back if you'd dyed my hair with the paintball!" I called back, smiling just a bit too sweetly, looking her straight in the eyes. "I'm letting you off since you didn't do that or dye my clothes." (Or shoes – it hit just above them and splattered up rather than down, just missing the cuff of my leggings).

Leshawna laughed at me. "I'll be back to test that once I've found your teammates!"

As it was, when we were all called back, she was one of the four others covered in both orange and blue paint. Yeah, even though she was a hunter. Beth was, too, and Lindsay had quite a bit of blue paint on her. Heather was drenched in paint, too, but at least she was a deer.

But none of us were in worse shape than Cody. Apparently he'd been found eating chips in the woods by a bear, and…well, the bear hadn't been happy with him. He was currently so bandaged up that he could barely talk, and he certainly couldn't do anything more for the moment.

"Anyway," Chris said, "Since three of the Gophers are dripping in paint…make that four…and some of them aren't even deer, the Killer Bass win!"

Harold finally noticed two of our deer were missing. "Hey, where are Duncan and Courtney?" As he spoke, two figures, with antlers interlocked, finally arrived.

Gwen smirked. "Oh, this is too much."

Owen started to chuckle. "Duncan, you sly dog, you!"

"The girl can't keep her antlers off me," Duncan said with his own smirk. Courtney's foot shot up and Duncan's eyes immediately started watering. Well, I suppose that was one way to shut him up. Now if only I could be so brave.

After that little altercation with Leshawna that day, though, I remembered exactly what it was I'd liked about her. It was that confidence – and today it felt like it had been enough to make me brave, too, even if I was no longer feeling that way. Usually, I wouldn't have dared to say anything like that, and certainly not while making eye contact. I was thinking about it, even while Bridgette told me what happened and why the three girls were splattered with both teams' paint colours (apparently they came across Leshawna, Beth and Heather arguing and shooting each other – Beth having turned against Heather, which was nice – and just shot all of them, with Lindsay, who had been on the sidelines, also getting hit). Maybe it was time I started making my thoughts known. Just because I was too shy to say it out loud didn't mean I couldn't do that. I mean, I had a notebook in my suitcase…

That night, I wrote, To the coolest girl in this cabin,

I know you don't really know me and you probably think it's really lame that I'm just writing and can't tell you who I am, but I just wanted you to know that I really, really like you and admire you. You just have no fear and all the confidence, and it makes you even more beautiful than you already are. And just so none of the girls in your cabin get the idea that this is for them if I can't find where to leave it, I'll just say that this is for someone who threw her teammate off a cliff on the first day. I knew I was going to like you straight away. Oh, and by the way, you also made a really gorgeous hunter today.

Love, your secret admirer (I just hope I'll be able to stop being secret someday).

I delivered it while the Gophers were at their Campfire Ceremony, and luckily, I didn't have to resort to guessing. I saw a large, deep purple (really sexy colour in my opinion) bra hanging off one of the top bunks that I knew was too big for any of the other Gopher girls, so I quickly climbed up and placed it on the pillow.

I was neither happy nor sad after I saw the seven Gophers get back to the cabins (back in the safety of my own). I mean, I suppose we got our numbers equal again, seven for seven. But Cody going home was for the best, and I was sure it would have hardly any bearing on what happened next. Apart from the one time he won the first dodgeball game, I hardly knew he was there.

Still, I hoped he'd recover from the bear attack soon.

Finally, a little bit of development in the Peyton/Leshawna thing. Whether Harold will also start sending her notes…well, we'll see. But his style of courting is a bit more convoluted, while Peyton's just laying it out straight. And more the way girls would do it, which is not quite as..erm…spicy, as Chef puts it.