"I think it went well last night."

The Wombats were sitting around a table eating breakfast when Gwen broke the silence. She was referring to the conversation that the teens had as a group the night before.

Brick nodded emphatically. "Gwen, I told you that you could be a great leader."

Gwen smiled at the praise before a familiar voice cut in to ruin the moment. "A great cult leader, maybe. Anything else? Please."

Zoey rolled her eyes. "Heather, can't you ever just let something go?"

Heather was about to yell at the indie girl for sticking up for the goth before James interjected. "Can we please just go one day without arguing? Heather, you don't like Gwen-slash-Leshawna-slash almost everyone here. We get it. Just enjoy winning for once."

Confessional

James: Heather now thinks that I want to take advantage of her for some reason. She thinks I was lying when I told her about all that stuff in my head. I don't know how to handle this. At least with Hong Kong and China, I knew they hated each other. This? I have absolutely no idea how she feels about me.

End of Confessional

Gwen looked down the table. "I'm with 'Canada's Pride' here," she teased. "Just shut up and enjoy your five-star meal."

Zoey looked down at her pancakes. "I really don't get how they can afford to do this every episode. How does this show get a big budget?"

Brick tried to stifle a burp. "I think the viewing public likes to see us get put into situations we wouldn't normally find ourselves in. I try not to think about it, but you know what I do think about?"

"What?" Zoey inquired.

"How you, Dawn, and Gwen have to do our dishes for the next week." He pointed his thumb at James. The two guys smiled and high-fived, glad to have any excuse to not do basic chores.

"I mean, I officially can not condone underage gambling, but unofficially, I say we go double-or-nothing." James tried to keep a straight face but a grin leaked through.

Heather had been left out of the conversation but noticed something. "That reminds me, where is the weird hippy girl?"

Brick's eyes darted around before he answered. "I saw her out meditating when I went on my morning run with James." Under the table he kicked James in the shin to get him to follow along.

James bit his tongue at the pain before agreeing. "She said she rose with the sun. I don't entirely get her but she seems nice."

Confessional

Brick: She was in the woods with Lightning. By themselves. They were dressed when we passed them, but still. (smiles) Nice. I'm proud of Lightning. Soldier's shown real growth. (thinks about what he said, then panics) Not like that! Not what I meant!

End of Confessional

Dawn walked through the doors of the spa hotel at that moment. "I'm famished. Please tell me we have some cruelty-free eggs left."

Zoey slid her plate over. "I saved you some. Whoever Chris hired really knows their way around the kitchen."

Chef poked his head out of the kitchen. "Thanks, maggot. I hate you a little less now."

Chris's voice boomed over the in-house PA system. "All campers gather in front of the loser's cabin in five minutes. Things are going to get caliente today!"

The Wombats ended their breakfast. Zoey reflected on Chris's word choice. "This has to be an Alejandro challenge, right? That's why Chris used one of the few words of Spanish he knows."

"Is there anybody else who that could be a hint for?" Gwen asked.

"I won the Running of the Bulls and briefly dated a flamenco dancer. Other than that, nah." James shrugged.

Brick turned to the Olympian. "How do you win the Running of the Bulls? It's not a competition."

"I outran the bulls to the stadium. I even gave 'em a head start and then almost got gored. It was a good time."

The other Wombats looked slightly concerned, but their concern was overshadowed. They had arrived in front of the Muskrats' cabin, where they looked fairly upset.

Lightning spoke up. "Man, last night sucked! The sha-Lightning can't go back to a normal bed after that spa hotel."

Dawn whispered, "You didn't." She giggled a bit before regaining composure. Only James and Brick had heard the comment and they looked at each other wide eyed.

Confessional

James (jaw dropped): That means… (starts pumping his fist) Let's go Lightning!

Brick: Wow. Can't say I was prepared for that. Hopefully the others don't know.

End of Confessional

Chris stood in front of them, unbothered by the whining. "Today's challenge is going to be a fun one. For me. I've noticed that there's some real hatred between two particular campers, so this is going to be the first joint challenge of the season. Today, our challenge is based on the star-crossed relationship between Alejandro and Heather!"

The gathered campers gasped in horror at the idea. Alejandro had been chewing some gruel. He promptly spat it out into the nearest person's face, who happened to Courtney. He mumbled a hasty apology before turning to Chris.

"Chris, I know you've done some bad things before, but por favor, tell me this is a joke!"

Chris was unfazed. "Nah my man, I'm as serious as the plague. We're celebrating the 6-month anniversary of the best relationship on this show!"

Harold looked around, puzzled. "Six months of what? I thought they broke up."

Heather gritted her teeth. "We broke up six months ago today, dork. Chris, you're fucking evil."

The host just laughed. "Wow, Heather, language. Why did you ever try to date her in the first place?"

Alejandro shrugged but gave the host a knowing wink. Heather rolled her eyes and turned away from her ex. When she turned, she was facing James, who tried his best to give her a reassuring smile. With another huff, Heather turned away from him as well.

Dawn was worried. Her mind had been extremely sensitive to the auras for a few days, and the ones surrounding Alejandro and Heather were pure black. Maybe this challenge led to the violence in Izzy's vision? She'd have to keep an extra-tight leash on Heather for the duration of the challenge.

Gwen smirked. Seeing her mortal enemy in discomfort? This had to be karma finally paying off. She looked over at Leshawna. The two giggled in anticipation, knowing that whatever Chris had whipped up would be an intense emotional ride.

Chris saw the effect that his brief monologue had on the gathered crowd of kids and decided to push the envelope even further. "Unfortunately, this challenge is not for the whole team. This is going to be a mano e mano challenge celebrating some of the high points of the Aleheather relationship."

Lightning began to ask a question before Dawn jumped in. "It means one vs. one. You know, like the Oklahoma drill in football."

Zoey turned to Brick. "Since when did Dawn have an interest in football? I thought it went against her morals."

Brick nervously replied, "Well, I'm sure she has some hidden depth to her. I mean, I want to go to fashion school. Did you know that?"

"Yeah...I think you mentioned it earlier."

Confessional

Zoey: Dawn, Brick, and James are all acting weird. I have to figure out what's going on.

End of Confessional

Chris returned to his speech after the brief interruption. "Now, having Alejandro go against Heather would be unfair...for Heather. So, we're going to have a Wombat stand in for her in every challenge. After careful planning, and after looking at Internet trends, we decided that we'd have James fight for his fair maid's honor."

James's eyes bugged out of his head. He tried to push out a question ("Why?") but only got choking noises in return.

Alejandro looked none too pleased either. Facing Heather would have been easy. He had a reservoir of anger about the breakup that he could have used to dominate the challenges. Instead, he now had to face the second-most capable (after himself, of course) camper on the island. He looked over at his ex and scowled. "Anything I do today, I do for the Burrosmuertos family name, not for her."

Chris clapped his hands. This was shaping up to be a real ratings booster. "Unfortunately, Al, that's not true. Each of the challenges today will be to earn Heather's favor. You two will be representing your teams in this best of three series. The three challenges will be as follows: a hurdle race like the one in Greece, a walk over a tightrope reminiscent of our journey over Niagara Falls, and if the series comes to it, a final sword-fighting match just like the World Tour finale."

James shook his head in disbelief. "This challenge is set up to screw one of us over. Whoever loses is gone tonight. Chris, you at least have to pretend this show is fair."

Alejandro joined in half-heartedly. "James is right. This is madness."

Confessional

Alejandro (smirking): I'm not going home tonight. I can best James in the competition, but even if I can't, I have Lightning and Courtney in an alliance. If one of them can get Izzy, I'm safe no matter what. Losing Noah stings a little, but no matter. I will not lose.

End of Confessional

The host merely shrugged. "I can eliminate both of you right now, then. We'd lose both the 18-34 and the female 35-49 demographics, but that's not my problem. What'll it be?"

The guys looked at each other. They had no choice other than to participate. Alejandro's pride wouldn't let him back down, and James… well, James had a whole cocktail of emotions about the situation. Each looked back at Chris and nodded.

"Great! Now, we're going to go into our first challenge, the hurdles. You may remember from World Tour that Alejandro lost this challenge to Heather because he tried to show off on the last hurdle. Well, because both our contestants are guys, we added some, er, improvements to the hurdles! There are now some rusty saw blades sticking up from the middle. If your kiwis happen to land on the blades…" Chris didn't need to finish his sentence. The guy campers that were left whimpered slightly, and Chef had to turn away entirely.

Alejandro was limbering up when a thought crossed his mind. "Chris, this first part is a running challenge. Since my esteemed competitor is an Olympian, surely he should have a penalty to start?"

"Great catch, Al. I almost slipped up there-almost. James, your running penalty is in effect."

"But, the 110 meter hurdles is fifteen seconds at longest! If you give me any penalty, I'll lose!" James sputtered.

"You guys seem to think I care about you or your problems."

James was utterly befuddled. He opened his mouth to complain before Heather silenced him. "Are you afraid that you're going to lose, Canada's backside?"

"That was pretty weak, even by your standards." Gwen retorted.

"Shut up, goth. At least I actually have two guys fighting over me."

Alejandro favored Heather with his most menacing smile. "Believe me, mi 'amor', if I could I would graciously allow James to win this challenge."

Chris basked in the glory of the challenge. "Such hatred! Hahahahaha, this was a great idea. Anyway, less yapping more dashing. Campers, I'll use the standard two command start. James, you will have to wait five seconds after the gun to start racing. Alejandro, you go with the gun."

James's face hardened. Any kind of race got him into the zone and this was a race that he was definitely not favored to win. He hadn't done hurdles in a few years but still had impeccable technique. He glanced over at Alejandro, who was showing off to the crowd. This would be tough but maybe not impossible. The sawblades on the hurdles would definitely slow the race down slightly, hopefully enough to give him a chance. All he needed was one bad hurdle from Alejandro and he was right back into it.

The two guys lined up and looked at the course in front of them. There were ten hurdles of escalating height, each with a rusty sawblade mounted in the middle. The rest of the campers huddled behind the two racers nervously. Nobody except for Izzy had ever seen James race before so they doubted his speed immensely. Alejandro had long ago proved that he was a master at running but James was still an unknown.

Chris raised a starter's pistol. "Runners, set."

Alejandro remained standing, putting his left leg behind his body and shifting his weight forward. James put his hands on the ground with his right knee on the ground and his left knee at a 90 degree angle to his body. He put his right leg back, and assumed the classic sprinter's starting stance.

Chris held the runners in this position for ten seconds to psyche them out. He then fired the pistol into the air, which was Alejandro's signal to start running. A bald eagle dropped from the sky, shot by Chris's pistol.

"Wow, our American viewers are not gonna like that one...James, go!"

With the five second penalty enforced, James exploded out of his stance and began chewing up ground.

Alejandro had used his advantage well, clearing three hurdles and beginning the fourth before James could even start running. After clearing the fourth, which was noticeably higher than the three before, he took a quick peek back.

James was already on the third hurdle and moving quickly. He had almost made up the penalty distance. The look on his face scared Alejandro. The normally easy-going runner's eyes were slitted and his mouth was drawn tightly. Nothing other than the hurdles was registering for him This was the mythical "game face". Alejandro had to kick it into a higher gear.

The hurdles started to get dangerous at the seventh of ten. At that point the hurdles were Olympic regulation height and also had Chris's added incentive. Alejandro reached the seventh before James reached the sixth. Mierda, he thought. No showing off this time. As he leapt over the seventh hurdle, he could feel the sawblade take a stitch off the underside of his designer jeans. He could see that James had essentially caught up to him and he knew that the Olympian would win the race if they continued at their current pace. Alejandro decided that he'd have to use a mind-game in order to get the win.

As both runners cleared the eighth hurdle, with James slightly ahead, Alejandro let out a little scream. James immediately slowed and turned towards his competitor, expecting to see Alejandro balled up in pain. Instead, he saw Alejandro smirk at him before continuing his pace. James swore under his breath and tried to regain his momentum, but it was too late. Alejandro had gotten an advantage and put it to good use, winning by .1 seconds over the Olympian.

James walked away from the finish line, shaking his head in disgust. He'd forgotten who he was racing against and it cost him. He was one challenge away from being eliminated, and from never seeing the other campers again, and he was fully aware of it.

His team gathered around him in an effort to reassure the distraught runner. However, Heather wasn't feeling nice today.

"What the hell was that, you idiot? You fell for literally one of the oldest tricks in the book. Chris kept telling us you were fast and smart and so far you're neither. You're just as useful to this team as Gwen is pretty: not at all."

"Alejandro, was she always this loud?" James asked.

"Sometimes more than others," Alejandro replied with a wink and a nudge.

Heather's face turned beet-red; whether from anger or embarrassment, nobody could tell.

Confessional

Zoey: I still can't believe she had a boyfriend.

Gwen: That's kinda scary to think that they could have had kids. Can you imagine little Aleheathers running around? (shudders)

End of Confessional

"Dude! Kid's show!" Chris yelled. "Regardless, Alejandro won the first challenge. That'll get him an advantage for the second one."

Courtney thought back to Chris's original monologue. "What advantage can he use on a tightrope?"

"Well done, Courtney. The advantage Alejandro gets is a safety harness."

The guys both jolted at this. "You said what now?" James inquired.

An intern rolled up a video projector showing a live feed of the next challenge. Chris began to point out what the guys had to do. "Similar to the Niagara Falls challenge from World Tour, you have to cross a tightrope over a high fall while carrying some weight. We've made this version a little more extreme, though. The rope is thinner and is greased, and you're doing this over a rock quarry instead of a waterfall. Turns out Boney Island's waterfall may or may not be used for a challenge later on, so we can't reuse locations."

Chef chose this moment to pop in. "Ay Chris, did you get pinewood or rosewood for that coffin? The mail guy is here and he wants your signature."

James paled but nodded. He mentally locked himself in. If not for the challenge, then to avert certain death.

Chris led the two competitors to the rock quarry while the others stayed behind to watch on the video projector. Before they left, Izzy whispered something in James's ear. His eyes widened, and he nodded.

On the walk over, James tried to strike up some conversation. "So Ale, what would you do with the five million?"

"I'd pay for some better healthcare. I carry both external and internal scars from being left to suffer in flowing lava and then promptly being jammed into a robot suit for over a year. The rest of the money, I'd invest in an effort to buy Heather's father's business so I can bankrupt their family."

"Ah. Nothing fun, like buying a stadium or throwing a party?"

"If I did either, I bet you can guess who would not be invited to either one."

James smiled a little. "Don't you think that's a little far? People can change, just gotta give it some time."

Alejandro turned. "Listen amigo, I can tell you have some interest in my ex. We're different people but I must warn you, it's not worth it. Didn't you hear how she talked to you after you competed in a challenge for her? You're a handsome guy (obviously not as good-looking as me, but still), you can do better than Heather."

James was reflecting on his words when the party of three arrived at the rock quarry. The two guys stepped up to the ledge and looked down.

"I changed my mind. I'll go with a good insurance policy." Alejandro mumbled.

"Hey, uh, Ale, if I die, can you delete my browser history?" James quipped. He was looking straight down at a 200 meter drop into a bunch of jagged rocks and his only salvation was across a thin rope that had been doused in kitchen grease with no safety harness. Gallows humor didn't even come close to describing it.

Chris turned to the camera. "Who's going to die first? Will we have to actually pay out on a life insurance policy? Will I become more sadistic? Tune in next time to find out, on

TOTAL

DRAMA

SEND-OFF!"

Courtney approached Izzy. The redhead was anxiously watching the screen to see how her friend would do. Courtney made sure that Leshawna and Harold weren't looking before whispering in her ear.

Izzy considered what she heard. It was devious, sure, but it was a sound strategy. She didn't like being secretive like that but the payoff could be huge. She knew that she shouldn't trust Courtney but this was simply too good to pass up.