Redux
Courtney heard the rap on the door. Honestly, she hadn't slept a wink, the idea of him just... being there making her unlike herself-- giddy and heart pumping like it should have when she was a teenager. (At age nineteen, she counted herself as an adult rather than a teen.) She had stepped onto the front porch when the door slammed behind her, undoubtedly waking her cabin mates (and the dead) if they hadn't already woken up.
Duncan was standing on the porch, hands shoved in his pockets in a typical Duncan-like fashion. "Princess," he said, standing straighter, letting the lone light on the porch-- the lit end of a cigarette-- drop to the deck.
She drummed her fingers on her leg, her arms held stiffly to her sides. "I.. really missed you," she finally confessed, stepping forward.
--
Heather's eyes remained open for twenty minutes after the screen door to the cabin-- the one that let in all the horribly sticky hot air and the mosquitos that fit through the large holes in the mesh.
She could hear Duncan and Courtney mumbling to each other, the occasional string of audible words straining through-- "I missed you," and "Princess," making their rounds.
Then, they were silent-- either making out or just holding eachother, and the screen door creaked open and then slammed again, the sound of Courtney shuffling back to her bunk, the bed creaking as she settled in, and Heather found herself drifting to sleep.
--
At breakfast the next morning, Heather noticed Courtney was wearing a choker-- black satin with an ivory clasp at the back. She guessed it was a gift from her not-so-secret delinquent boyfriend. She also would wager to guess that she was hiding a hickey under there.
Bridgette eyed the mocha-skinned girl with a hint of laughter in her eyes, digging her elbow into her side teasingly while motioning to the spikey-haired rebel, while Courtney blushed. The laughter from the blonde girl made her shake slightly, her bob hair cut swaying slightly.
Heather spooned what appeared to be oatmeal into her mouth-- she didn't need to be part of their games.
Gwen eyed her warily, tossing her bright blonde hair over her shoulder, while Trent eyed her.
--
Standing on the dock, Chris smiled at the campers, though to them, it was more like he was baring his teeth.
"Hey, Campers," he said, smoothly, looking over the tired contestants. "Today we're going to do a special challenge."
Collective groans. Heather put her hand to her forehead.
--
"I don't know why we bother with this," she later confesses to the camera, "It's like, even if you do great, you'll just end up getting voted off because people don't like you."
--
"We've decided that the cliff dive was a little too easy, so we're going to do a relay." Chris grinned, his teeth gleaming menicingly in the hot sun. "Everyone has a task that can easily be done in under ten minutes. We had the interns test it," he motions to the interns standing behind the camera, some with stiches and others with slings holding up twisted, mangled looking limbs.
Chef looks especially pleased.
"Chef thought this one up all by himself. First, one member of each team will take their baton and dive off the cliff. A swimmer will wait at the baton and swim to shore. The next member of the race will take a bike," he gestured to the two bikes-- Heather's and Lindsay's from season one, "and ride to the mess hall. In the mess hall, the next team mate will be waiting, where Chef will hand them a bowl of his most putrid dish. They must finish it to move on. They will walk the baton to the stage, where the next person must do twenty push ups. They will then take it up to the cliff, hand it to the next diver, and repeat the process. The first team to finish wins immunity."
Chris grinned wider, "Lions, one of you will have to sit it out. You have three minutes to decide who will do what."
--
The Lions pressed themselves into a huddle. Heather spoke up first. "I think I should do the first dive. Bridgette can swim really fast so we leave her to get to shore."
"Why should we listen to you?" Courtney countered, brow quirked.
"Because I actually paid attention to people's strengths instead of standing frozen at the top of a cliff." She sneered, allowing herself to revert back to sixteen years old, if only for a moment. "Besides, do you want to dive?"
Courtney shut up.
"Let Courtney ride one of the bikes, considering the fact that I don't think she can stomach Chef's food or do twenty push ups. Owen can eat the first time, and then DJ can do the push ups and walk the baton to..."
"I'll dive next," volunteered Thomas, his machismo showing.
"Then we'll let..."
"I'll swim." Ethan spoke up, looking to his teammates.
"Ethan will swim, and we'll let Gwen ride the bike to... Richard, who'll eat." She spoke with such firm resolution that he didn't object, though he didn't really want that challenge.
"And then either Seth or Jamie will do the push ups." She looked to the two of them.
"Can either of you do push ups?" She asked, staring at the small boy and the waif.
Jamie shrugged, "I could try?"
Seth shook his head. "No."
"I guess Jamie it is, then."
Chris blew his whistle. "Everyone go suit up! The race starts in ten minutes."
Everyone ran.
--
Heather put on her swimsuit, still damp and cold from the dive the day before. Shuddering, she made her way to the cliff, climbing swiftly to the top. The cold fabric clung to her form and she felt Chris' eyes on her as she waited for the competition-- quickly approaching, Aimee.
Luckily for her, she was only half way up the cliff when Chris handed her a yellow metal cylinder, yelled "START" and shot off a pistol-- where the fuck did he get permission for that?
She ran, baton in hand, diving swiftly into the water. Swimming up, she looked around. She spotted Riley, who had the same artificial look on her face that Chris did-- teeth bared in a smile, but then she spotted Bridgette.
Handing her the slippery baton, she heard the splash of the sporty redhead dropping into the water and handing the red baton to the brunette who was waiting for her.
--
Bridgette swam fast-- faster than she had swum in a long time, considering she usually liked to idle about in the warm beach water.
Handing off the slippery piece of metal to Courtney, she sighed in relief as she got the bike Heather had made all those years ago, and set off running. She rode the bike at a somewhat relaxed pace-- fast enough to keep a good distance from the pony headed bike, but not too fast-- she didn't really like the wind tearing at her face.
Pulling up to the hall a good two minutes or so before Quinn, who was on the pony bike, she handed the baton to Owen, who obviously had a clear advantage over Jacob, a skinny asian who looked disgusted at the very prospect of this challenge.
--
Owen took the baton, devoured the smashed jellyfish and codfish oil mix (which was raw), and set off jogging towards the stage.
He handed the baton to DJ, who went about doing the push ups. He didn't exactly have an advantage besides the time-- Duncan undoubtedly did tons of them in juvie.
DJ was on push up fourteen when Jacob came, looking green around the gills and handed the baton to the former delinquent, who doubled DJ's pace, and finished barely after the large jock.
--
DJ and Duncan both sprinted, full on, to get back to the top of the cliff where Thomas and Geoff waited.
--
Geoff dived, while Thomas jumped.
Trent swam to Alexa, while Ethan raced to Gwen.
--
Gwen got in her old bike-- they had put her own and Duncan's out, and she wasn't sure how Duncan's even worked.
Alexa didn't either, but it still went on hyperspeed and she only stopped when she fell off it and it ran straight into the confession cam.
They both handed off their batons at the same time.
--
Richard ate it all, but threw up after he got to Jamie.
Alexa had handed the baton to Cody, who ate it all in no time flat, considering "he had eaten worse."
--
Izzy was clearly the winner in the push ups, as she had done three before Jamie had done one.
--
Later, in confession, Gwen would admit that while she didn't trust Heather, she thought she did a good job on the leadership-- it wasn't her fault that Izzy seemed to radiate physical energy.
--
"Well, Lions, I'm disappointed to say that you have to vote someone off. And you chose..."
He opened the vote. "Seth."
Seth looked at the others, feeling betrayed, but he didn't say anything-- he simply left, empty handed and broken hearted, to go hang out with Talula at Playa de Losers.
--
Heather curled up in her bunk, and she could hear the others moving around.
Gwen eyed her warily again, and there was another knock on the door.
--
Heather grimaced into the cam. "I'm already so sick of this place."
--
End chapter two.
