Disclaimer - All rights belong to Teletoon, Cartoon Network, and the creators of TDI and TDA. No profit is being made in the making of the fanfiction. This alternate-universe episode of TDI contains stunts performed by written teens. Do not try any of this at home (except for the kissing, but with non-family members).
The Kobold Necromancer's Warning - This chapter gets pretty emotional at the end, especially if you happen to like Harold. As a Harold fan, it was hard for me to write this, but I made it through. And if I can, you should do. You have been warned.
Chapter 2 - Elation and Shame
(Challenge 5, Outdoor Survival Challenge)
The Screaming Gophers were pretty much in a bad mood when it came time for the fifth challenge.
Beth had been miserable ever since Justin had been voted off. Gwen was miserable over Heather reading her diary to the world. Cody was miserable because he knew Gwen preferred Trent over him because Heather read Gwen's diary. Trent was miserable because Gwen was so miserable over the diary thing that she wouldn't talk or even look at him.
Heather was over-the-top furious at Gwen for dumping a red ant farm on her when she was sleeping. And she was adamant about Gwen being voted off next.
"You're the one who read her diary to the world," Leshawna snapped at Heather when the queen bee tried to point this out to the others.
"Can it, Leshawna. You'd better not push your limits, because we all know you have a thing for Duncan of the other team."
This caught the interest of the others, because most of them were not aware Leshawna had a thing for Duncan.
"Yeah, that's right, just you try to point blame somewhere else, you skinny white girl," Leshawna shot back. "I'd like to see how many people trust you after you've betrayed a fellow teammate."
"Wow," Geoff said to Bridgette as he helped the surfer girl prepare the tent for the night, "you pitch a tent like a guy!"
Silence. Crickets chirped. Bridgette stared at Geoff with a very unpleased expression.
The silence was broken when Harold and Tyler almost let loose their suppressed laughter, making coughing and wheezing sounds.
"I mean," Geoff hurried to correct himself, "you're not girly about getting dirty and stuff!"
"Gee, thanks," Bridgette replied sarcastically.
Harold and Tyler burst out laughing, earning frowns and glares from the others but the two boys didn't care.
"I wonder if there are any bears out there," Izzy said, grinning impishly. "Wouldn't that be funny if a bear came at us?"
"How would that be funny?" Courtney snapped at the girl.
"I dunno, I think just the expressions on everyone's faces would be priceless," Izzy admitted. "I love scaring people, because some people like my Zeke look so cute when scared!"
The crazy girl winked at Ezekiel, who stared at the redhead awkwardly. Duncan scoffed when he saw Ezekiel shrug and turn away.
"She's totally emasculating you, dude," the punk said to the prairie boy.
"She's just teasing me, eh."
"You let a girl tease you, pretty soon she's gonna be walking all over you."
"Right," Ezekiel replied, his voice now getting sarcastic. "I guess I should take life advice from the guy who's got a record befur he is legally an ay'dult, eh."
"Just trying to help you, dude. You date a girl like Izzy, you're going to be in the hospital or worse."
Ezekiel glared at the punk. "You watch it! I happen to like her very much. I doo'nt insult the girl you like, eh!"
"I don't like any girls here, eh."
"That's a laugh," Ezekiel and Courtney said at the same time.
Later that night, the group had gathered around the fire. DJ, with his new pet Bunny, was looking at them, wondering why a lot of them looked so frustrated.
"Okay people, there's something we need to talk about," Courtney said, clapping her hands to get everyone's attention.
"We gonna sing Kumbiya, princess?" Duncan asked, quirking an eyebrow. "Not my style, especially not the whole holding hands part."
"No, you ogre, I want to talk about loyalty."
" 'Loyalty'?" some of them repeated.
"Yes, loyalty. Specially, I mean Duncan and Tyler!"
The two boys looked surprised as Courtney crossed her arms. "I think we're all aware that you two have been seeing a couple of the Gopher girls on the side."
"No way," Duncan grumbled.
"So?" Tyler declared at the same time.
"Tyler, that's a big sign of betrayal to us," Courtney chastised him. "If you're reaching first base with the enemy, how can we trust you to do your best in challenges?"
"I haven't thrown any challenges for her!"
"What about the dodge ball game?"
"That was... well... we won that, didn't we?"
"After you stopped playing, yes."
Tyler looked like he had been kicked in the guy as Courtney rounded on Duncan. "And you, Duncan! You've been seeing Leshawna, haven't you?"
"I have not."
"Oh really? We should just take your word for it, criminal?"
"Look princess, you're the only one here who believes I'm seeing her."
"Izzy knows you like her," Izzy said. The redhead was sitting next to Ezekiel, and was grinning at Duncan. "Izzy sees the way you look at that girl's can! Wooooo, Duncan likes Leshawna's can!"
"Cut that out," Duncan and Courtney shouted in unison. Izzy did stop talking, but she was giggling.
"Look, I really don't care what you or Tyler do after the teams have been dissolved," Courtney continued. "But I'm not having you two ruin the contest for us because you wanted to score. Got it?"
Tyler realized this was a battle he couldn't argue and win, so he grumbled, "Fine."
Duncan shrugged his shoulders and said, "Whatever. It's not like I fancy Leshawna, as much as you think I do."
"Except that I do," he thought right after he said that, and had to resist slapping his forehead over that thought.
Late at night, Bridgette squirmed uncomfortably among the others. She finally sat up, straining.
"What's the matter, Bridge?"
Harold's wheezy voice surprised her, and she let out a little gasp. "I... gotta pee like crazy, but I'm too scared to go out there."
"There aren't any bears nearby, Izzy was just trying to scare us."
"No Harold, I...," she took a deep breath, "I'm scared to be out in the woods alone."
Harold blinked. While part of his mind wondered how nature-loving Bridgette feared the woods, the other half wondered if it would be inappropriate to volunteer to go out there with her.
"Gross," he thought to himself. "How are you going to ask her that? 'I'll stand out there while you pee?' Harold, you idiot! There's gotta be a better way to..."
He took a deep breath and said, very slowly as if waiting for a bomb to go off between each word, "You know... I... could... sit at the front of the tent... with my back turned, of course! ... And that way... you wouldn't be alone..."
She looked at him for a second, not the weirded out look she had given Geoff over the tent pitching comment. Still, he waited for her to call her something like 'freak' or 'sicko' or 'you're disgusting'.
Instead, she smiled, that pretty, heartwarming smile of hers.
"Thank you, Harold," she said, standing up and leaving the tent. She looked around for him to follow, and he did, still startled she was not furious at him.
He sat with his back to her, and waited. Harold was concentrating on not listening that he didn't hear the bats come flying, but he did hear Bridgette shriek.
Whipping around, he saw a bat had somehow caught itself in the front of Bridgette's face, stuck in her bangs. The surfer girl screamed as she tried to not only pull the bat off, but was losing her balance.
With his ninja-like reflexes, Harold darted over, and caught her. Grabbing the bat with his spare hand, he remember what Possum Scouts had told him about removing bats stuck in your hair.
Just when he had freed the bat, Bridgette's flailing feet kicked one of the burnt sticks from the campfire. The stick, still hot, hit the tent, and it burned up in a flash. The Killer Bass, who all had woken up from Bridgette's scream, looked around in horror.
Then they saw Harold holding Bridgette up, the surfer girl leaning against him for support. Both of them looked very embarrassed and waved sheepishly at their team.
"What," Courtney hissed, "did... you... do?!"
Bridgette swallowed. Courtney, as well as several other members, looked furious. Time to fess up. "I-"
"I accidentally burnt the tent down," Harold shouted before she could say anything more.
"You WHAT?" Courtney shrieked.
"Bats were attacking Bridgette, so I grabbed one of the sticks from the fire pit and swung it at them, and I accidentally let go of it and it hit the tent and," Harold paused as he looked at the ashen remains of said tent, "you know, that did go up rather fast. Was it made of flash fire material, or was it soaked in gasoline beforehand?"
"You... stupid... moron... idiot... asshole," Courtney cursed, holding up her fists. "This is just great!"
"Oh calm down, princess," Duncan snapped, though he too was glaring at Harold.
"I am not going to calm down, he burned down our tent!"
And then she said it.
"Things can't get any worse!"
A drop of water landed on her head. Then a few more. Then it began to pour from the sky. Courtney kept calm for three more seconds before she let out a furious scream.
Being cold and rained on was an awful feeling, and the Killer Bass were miserable. DJ covered Bunny as best as he could, his rabbit's safety most important to him.
Izzy, shivering, scooted over to Ezekiel. The prairie boy took her in his arms and held her close. She sighed in relief, and looked up at him.
"You read my mind, my Zeke."
"I wasn't a'boot to let my Izzy freeze to death in the rain, eh."
"Ooo, I'm your Izzy now? Goody," she giggled, and snuggled up close to him. The two, though still soaked and freezing, had each other's body warmth for comfort.
Geoff saw this and wrapped an arm around Bridgette. The surfer smiled at him appreciatively and curled up against him. Harold saw this, and his heart sank.
"Damn it," he thought as he punched the ground. "Why didn't I think of doing that?"
Early in the morning, Harold woke up first. He looked around and saw Tyler and DJ sleeping back to back, Courtney in Tyler's lap. Duncan slept alone nearby. Izzy was lying on Ezekiel, and it amazed Harold how much the two looked like an actual couple; it was like they had snuggled for years, it looked natural for them.
"I wish I had a camera," Harold said, smirking.
Then he saw Bridgette curled up against Geoff's chest, and he frowned. "On second thought, no. Gosh, I'm such an idiot."
He was still kicking himself for not acting last night when the others woke up. They started walking back to camp, most of them glaring at Harold.
"If we're not the first one's back," Courtney snarled at him, "you are so dead."
"Damn straight," Duncan said, cracking his knuckles.
"You kind of blew it there," Izzy remarked.
Bridgette let out a frustrated sigh. "Leave him alone," she snapped at them.
"Bridgette, he burned down our tent," Courtney remarked.
"No, he didn't! I did!"
The others were stunned, especially Geoff and Harold. "I accidentally kicked that stick when the bats came at me," she continued her confession. "Harold was trying to take the blame, but I won't let you guys vote him off over something I did."
"I don't believe this," Courtney groaned, shaking her head.
"Hey, it's all cool, Bridge," Geoff said, patting her shoulder. "I mean, that tent went up like, you know, that," he snapped his fingers, "so I doubt it could have withstood the rain."
"It could have," Duncan growled.
"Look, let's not focus on the negative any more," Geoff said, playing peacemaker. "Let's not blame Harold, let's not blame Bridgette, it was all an accident; we still would've been freezing."
Though Harold knew Geoff was just standing up for Bridgette, he appreciated how the party man was standing up for him too.
Tyler began laughing. "I don't think you would have complained, Geoff dude. Nor Bridgette, nor Ezekiel or Izzy."
"Ezekiel was a big, nice, wet pillow," Izzy cooed, wrapping her arms around Ezekiel's waist from behind.
Bridgette giggled when he saw Ezekiel flush. She looked over at Harold and smiled at him.
"Aren't they cute?" she asked him.
"Yeah," he said, though a bit distant.
"If only I had been her nice, wet pillow," he thought as he smiled back. "Then again... she stood up for me nevertheless. Wonder if that means something more than just honesty."
(Challenge 6, Phobia Factor)
Neither Bridgette nor Harold were voted off that night, because the Killer Bass made it back first. The Screaming Gophers, who looked miserable before the challenge started, were now miserable, soaking wet, and cramped. Turns out a bear had wandered into their campsite, and kept them all up a tree.
The Killer Bass had no idea why the Screaming Gophers voted off Owen when the victorious team joined them after returning from their shopping binge prize. Heather grumbled something about him calling the bear to their camp, but they doubted this; how could you call a bear?
This mattered not, because after DJ had a bad reaction to a passing snake, the campers all began confessing their worst phobias to the others.
"Izzy hates flying," Izzy confessed. "I could never do it, never ever. It's way too scary."
"Pine beetles," Ezekiel said with a shudder. "Never really recovered from that time when I was a kid and I got covered in them, eh. That's why I hate the outdoors like I do."
"Ugly hair," Katie admitted. "Sadie and I both fear it more than anything. It's so... creepy!"
"Chickens freak me out," Tyler said, then he glared as the other campers laughed. "What? WHAT?! I'm not laughing at your phobias, knock it off!"
The next morning, the campers were horrified when Chris announced that they would be facing their worse fears for the next challenge.
"Oh we just had to go and open our mouths," Bridgette muttered.
The challenge started with a very large vat of bugs of all kinds, made for Beth. Most of the contestants were shaken with fear and disgust, DJ puked hard, and Katie fainted.
Beth simply shrugged, and dove right in. She popped up with bugs in her hair, ears, and in her mouth.
"It's not ath bad ath I thought it would be," she proclaimed, shrugging her shoulders and smiling.
Her team applauded, Katie cheered and fainted again. Beth looked at the camera with bugs in her mouth and cried, "Justin, if you're watching thith, I missth you a whole lot!"
Beth sighed as she sat in the confessional can. "In retrosthpect," she groaned, "I really shouldn't have sthaid that when I was dripping with bugs."
With Beth setting the bar really high, many of the other campers were put on the spot immediately.
Bridgette was left in the middle of the woods and told she had to stay there, alone, for six hours. Katie and Lindsay were given bad hair. Gwen was buried alive in a coffin, with only a walkie-talkie to communicate with the outside world.
Izzy watched in horror as a small plane that looked barely able to fly landed nearby the campers. Chef, wearing a tight stewardess's outfit and a blond wig, beckoned the redhead to join him on the plane.
The crazy girl let out a scream of terror and clung to Ezekiel. "No no no no," she wailed. "Don't make me get on a plane, especially not with that tacky-dressed man!"
"What's tacky about this skirt?" Chef bellowed.
Izzy buried her face in Ezekiel's chest. "Can't my Zeke come with me?" she sobbed.
Ezekiel looked over at Chris hopefully, but the host shook his head. "You're going in this alone, Izzy. Go now or never."
The redhead swallowed, looking at the plane. She started to tremble. Ezekiel felt awful, his heart was breaking seeing Izzy so scared and helpless.
"Izzy," he said to her, trying to stay calm, "you can do this, I knoo' you can, eh." She looked up at him, doubt in her terrified eyes.
"If you pull this off, I'll do something really nice fur you, eh."
This perked her interest. "Ooo, what is that?"
"It'll... be a surprise?"
"Ooo! Izzy loves surprises! Let me at that plane!"
She bounded into the plane and buckled up. Giving Ezekiel a thumbs-up from inside, Chef started up the plane and took off. The campers heard Izzy start to scream in terror as soon as the plane was up in the air.
"Now she's a flying nut case," Chris commented, and laughed. Ezekiel glared at the host.
The other campers were soon facing their fears. It wasn't fun for any of them except Chris, and the other campers really wished they could learn his fear to rub it in his laughing, sadistic face.
Leshawna was to pick up a giant tarantula, but panicked and ran.
Harold was to face ninjas, but he accidentally hit himself on the head with his nunchucks and knocked himself out.
Trent managed to outsmart the mime chasing him, but it left him away from his post of talking to Gwen.
Geoff panicked and ran from a cloud of hail, unable to face it. Trent remembered then about Gwen, and dug her out since her time limit had past; she was not happy about being left there.
Heather had to stand up to a sumo wrestler, and though she ducked as he charged, he tripped and bounced over her, qualifying as a win for her to Chris.
DJ, despite what most people thought, actually managed to pick up a tiny snake on his hand. His team congratulated him, feeling this was a real breakthrough for him.
Then it came time for Duncan's, something he was not proud of. The Celine Dion cardboard music store standee stood there in front of him, seriously creeping him out.
"Give her one hug, Duncan," Chris instructed him. "Just one hug."
His teammates watched him from the Killer Bass patio. The Screaming Gophers watched from the other side. Duncan continued to stare at the standee, trying to not to lose his lunch out of fear.
"Dude, she's made of cardboard," Tyler hollered, "get it together!!"
"Not helping," Duncan growled, though he was still sweating bullets looking at the thing. He looked over at his teammates, some of them looking hopeful and the rest not so much.
He then quickly glanced at the Screaming Gophers, all of whom looked hopeful for him to lose. All that is, except Leshawna. When no one else was looking, she winked at him.
Startled but strangely reassured, Duncan swallowed and ran to the standee. He embraced it in the most forced hug he could muster.
His team cheered, the Screaming Gophers (except Leshawna) sighed in disappointment. Duncan laughed in relief as he let go.
"I did it," he said. "I actually did it!"
"Leshawna, I could kiss you," he thought.
The challenges continued. Cody was sent off to defuse a time bomb, and he didn't look very happy about being left alone.
The plane landed a few minutes later, Izzy leaping out. "I made it, I made it," she squealed with joy, then dropped down and kissed the ground very appreciatively.
"Ezekiel, I made it," she called out as she headed to the others. "Where's my surprise?"
"That'll have to wait, Izzy," Chris Maclean said. Izzy then noticed that all the campers were watching Ezekiel in a spacious circle, and the host was holding a small barrel.
"What's going on?"
"Ezekiel's phobia is next," Chris explained. "So let's see how home school does when covered in pine beetles!"
" 'Covered'?" Izzy and Ezekiel exclaimed at the same time.
Chris poured half of the contents of the small barrel on Ezekiel, the contents being pine beetles. The prairie boy let out a high pitched cry, shivering and hunching over.
"Okay, Zeke man, stay like that for half a minute, don't go anywhere," Chris said, "and you win."
Ezekiel looked absolutely petrified. Izzy was biting her nails. The seconds felt like hours to both of them.
Then Cody's time bomb went off, shaking the whole island. Ezekiel flinched, and then he started twitching and crying out.
"They're biting me, eh," he screamed. "They're biting me!!"
Chris scratched his head. "Pine beetles bite?" he asked. "Oh, well. Zeke, your time is up, you win."
With a bloodcurdling scream, Ezekiel ran for the beach and dove into the water. At exactly the same time, Bridgette came running from the forest, white as a sheet and panting hard.
"There's some kind of trash-covered monster in there," she wailed, before she fell over, whimpering in terror.
Chris burst out laughing. "Oh man, what classic timing! Zeke runs away like a girl, and in runs the girl!"
He continued to laugh, slapping his knee. Leshawna, Duncan, and Izzy were all angered by this quite a lot, and snuck up behind him. The large sister picked up the pine beetle barrel, and, exchanging sinister grins with the other two, dumped the rest of the beetles on Chris.
The host screamed like a girl and ran for the ocean water too.
After Chris recovered, the contest was coming hurriedly to an end. Lindsay and Katie both passed the bad hair test, and scored two points for their team. Both Tyler and Courtney failed to pass their phobias (chickens and green jelly, respectively), and thus the Killer Bass lost.
That night at the bonfire ceremony, the Killer Bass were all still shaken, and those who couldn't pass their tests were ashamed.
It came down to Bridgette, Courtney, and Tyler. Much to Harold and Geoff's delight, Bridgette was given the second to last marshmallow.
Then the final marshmallow was given to Courtney. Tyler looked ready to burst into tears when he realized he had just lost. With hunched over shoulders, he walked slowly towards the Dock of Shame.
"Sorry, Tyler," Chris said in a tone that clearly was not sorry. "Looks like you have to... chicken out."
Tyler stopped, and took a deep breath. "Oh," he said aloud, "what have I got to lose now?"
He turned around and ran his hands through Chris Maclean's hair, ruffling it as bad as he possibly could.
"No no no, MY HAIR," Chris wailed, and ran off screaming, trying to smooth it out. "No-ooooooooooo!"
The Killer Bass burst out laughing, and waved good-bye to Tyler, who felt infinitely better as he walked the Dock of Shame to the Boat of Losers.
As the Killer Bass walked towards their cabin, Izzy stopped in front of Ezekiel.
"Hey, Zeke, you said you were going to get me something if I passed my test," she said, smirking at him.
"Err, yes, I did, eh," he stammered. He nervously rubbed the back of his hand.
"Well? What is it?" Izzy bounced on the heels of her feet, eager.
Ezekiel summoned all his courage, took Izzy into his arms, and kissed her.
The Killer Bass all stopped and stared, their eyes wide and jaws agape. When Ezekiel was done with his kiss, Izzy was the most wide-eyed of them all.
First she smiled, her face flushing, then she scowled. "That's no fair," she cried out, "Izzy wanted to do that to you first!"
She wrapped her arms around Ezekiel's neck and kissed him. As he kissed her back, their teammates, even Courtney and Duncan, burst into cheers and approving catcalls.
Izzy and Ezekiel were so totally in love.
(Challenge 7, Boney Island)
When the campers had to pick their canoe partners, some were very eager to get in the same canoe as others.
Though Trent wanted to be with Gwen, Beth and Lindsay (under Heather's orders) had dragged him to theirs. Thus Cody picked up on this chance and asked Gwen; she was less than thrilled to be in the same canoe as him.
Geoff had waved to Bridgette, but the surfer girl quickly called out to Harold. The lanky nerd was ecstatic deep down, but maintained an almost-professional air about him, trying to play it cool. Still, nothing could wipe the smile off his face.
Courtney grabbed Duncan's wrist and pulled her over to her canoe, claiming she wanted to keep an eye on him. Geoff, feeling dejected, joined a nervous DJ; Izzy and Ezekiel, smiling fondly at each other, joined each other in the final canoe.
Once they were out in the water, Bridgette began spilling her heart out to Harold. "Geoff's been dropping me little hints here and there that he likes me," she told him, "but... he's kind of overdoing it."
"How so?" Harold asked, while thinking, "Uh-oh, does this mean she doesn't like little presents? Better think twice about those poems."
"He left me a present on my bed last night," Bridgette said, cringing. She described the poorly made, heart-shaped box with the really weird message on it, as Geoff was describing to DJ. Both DJ and Harold reacted as badly as they would to hearing about someone throwing up.
Bridgette pretended to strangle herself, gagging. She then shook her head and sighed. "I really don't know what to do," she admitted to Harold. "You're my friend, I was just wondering what you thought I should do."
"Oh snap, this is my chance," Harold thought. "Wait, is it? Yes it is! No it isn't! Gosh! Just tell her how you feel! Tell her! Tell her, tell her, tell her, tell her, tell her dammit, tell her!!"
"I think," he said aloud, "that Geoff's just not good at conveying his feelings to you."
"WHAT?" part of his mind screamed at him. "What the hell was that?!"
"What do you mean?" she asked.
She was looking at him inquisitively. Harold couldn't help but notice how the wind was lightly fluttering her golden bangs and her ponytail. She looked like so pretty and pure and hoping.
"Geoff is just struggling, because he doesn't know how to approach you," Harold continued. "I mean, gosh, we're all stuck on this crappy island with cameras in our face, a host who'd play us for everything he can, and a rival team anxious to see us fall."
"Oh yeah, that's great," he continued to chastise himself in his mind, "help Geoff out in seeing Bridgette! What the HELL are you doing, Harold, gosh you idiot! What the f-"
"But if he likes me, why can't he just come out and say it?" Bridgette asked. "I mean, Ezekiel did that with Izzy."
"Well, that was a little different," Harold said, forcing out a laugh. "Izzy had been cuddling him and calling him pet names. Those two had been staring at each other fondly for some time, they both knew they liked each other."
"True," Bridgette said, nodding as she rowed.
"I mean, she was snuggling him and saying how fond she was of him. You weren't snuggling Geoff..."
"... though you were during the camping challenge, and that should have been me..."
"... and he just doesn't know how to react. He's afraid of rejection, just like all guys are..."
"... just like how I'm afraid more than ever that you'll reject me since you and Geoff are starting to like each other..."
"... and thus, he's trying to slip you little presents, because he doesn't want to risk rejection first hand."
Bridgette stared at Harold for a few seconds. "Oh man, Harold," she said, smiling at him, "are you a psychologist?"
"Well, I do sometimes read these things," Harold admitted, smiling proudly. "My sister has a lot of 'feelings' magazines in the bathroom, and after reading a lot of them, I think I have a good grasp on the psyche of the male and female."
As Harold scratched the back of his head, there was, in his mind, an image of him being throttled by a more aggressive version of Harold. "That's what you say to impress her?!" his aggressive form shouted as he throttled himself, "You IDIOT!"
Bridgette was smiling at him, but this did nothing to soothe his inner self-throttling; he still felt like an idiot.
"Thanks, Harold," she said. "I think I understand now, but it still was a crappy gift."
"Yeah, it kind of was," Harold said, chuckling.
"Kind of? KIND OF?!" he continued to strange himself in his mind. "Geoff gives her a crappy coin container that has two pictures taped together, and a message that says, 'I hope you think of me whenever you drop loose change in here', and you say it was kind of bad?!
"Gosh, you frickin' idiot! Your haikus, at the least, have a flow to them!"
The challenge didn't go well for Harold. Halfway through the contest, Geoff seriously hurt himself, and Bridgette spent every waking moment making sure he was all right. Though Harold wanted to snap at Geoff to get over it, the lanky nerd had a low tolerance for pain, and he would feel like a hypocrite for attacking Geoff over an injury.
Then, when Courtney declared they needed more wood, Harold seriously panicked and grabbed the paddles to the canoes, tossing him in the fire.
"Well, that was unnecessary," Izzy said matter-of-factly while everyone else glared at Harold, "since I got me this handmade fire igniter starter bombarder!
"Ehehehehehe... you all better stand back," she added quickly.
A mushroom cloud of fire rose up, knocking the campers away and sending Chris's helicopter backwards from the rush of wind. Whooping in joy, Chris declared the Killer Bass the winners of the fire contest.
"Be on your way back to Wawanakwa Island," he declared as he continued to hover over the Screaming Gophers.
"Yeah, we'll just rush over there now," Courtney grumbled, glaring at Harold.
"What are we going to do without paddles?" Bridgette shouted, also glaring at Harold.
Harold really wanted to hide under a rock right now, or throw himself in that raging bonfire. Anything to stop Bridgette from glaring at him; he didn't care about the others, just her.
"We don't need no stinkin' paddles," a soot-covered Izzy said as she wobbled over to the others. Ezekiel caught his blackened girlfriend, and she let out a whoop. "That was fun, wasn't it, my Zeke?"
"Wild, my Izzy."
"Wait, what were you saying about not needing paddles, Izzy?" Duncan asked.
"We can prop all the canoes on top of each other, and have someone push them all the way to Wawanakwa," Izzy said. "I did that once, with a bunch of other ingrates who seriously were not putting their backs into it."
"But that'd require someone really strong," Bridgette remarked, looking over the others; her eyes rested on the gentle brick wall. "DJ," she declared, "you can do it!"
"What?" Geoff balked. "You can't ask him to do it, the dude's afraid of water!"
DJ nodded, ashamed. Harold looked between the two, and declared, "I'll do it then!"
The others looked at him, and burst out laughing. Harold went red in the face, and looked away sulkingly. He saw Bridgette trying hard not to laugh, and she managed an apologetic smile.
"Yeah, get real," Courtney said to Harold, holding up one of his arms. "These skinny things aren't going to get us anywhere."
"I'll have you know my arms and other part of my body can be a lethal weapon," Harold replied, then he struck a few karate poses.
"Dream on," Duncan shot at Harold, "but we're digressing. Who'll do it?"
"I will," Geoff declared.
Bridgette gasped and grabbed his shoulder. "You can't possibly do it your condition! You're horribly disfigured," she cried out as she motioned at Geoff's perfectly fine looking legs.
"Then I'll do it," DJ said, punching his palm and taking a deep breath. "I know I can."
"DJ, you sure?" Geoff asked.
"Positive. Ain't no stupid fear of water holding me back!"
It didn't hold DJ back, and the Killer Bass arrived on Wawanakwa Island long before the Gophers.
Izzy and Ezekiel kissed in celebration, and Bridgette and Geoff hugged. Harold watched this, and felt his heart sink all the way down into the pit of his stomach, down his intestines, and possibly right out his butt.
"Great, just great," he said as he walked away from the others, miserable. "I encourage Bridgette to give Geoff another chance; he comes out as a brave, wounded hero to her, and I'm just the IDIOT who burned the paddles.
"Hey, you have no one to blame but yourself."
Both Harold's timid image and his aggressive image began throttling each other. The poor nerd would not sleep well that night, wrestling with his feelings and cursing himself for being so stupid.
(Challenge 8, Paintball Deer Hunter)
Leshawna crouched in the bushes, waiting for someone to come around. She was getting sick of waiting. If no deer came around in the next five minutes, she was going to leave this hiding spot.
Though she wouldn't mind stay there if it meant avoiding Heather. The queen bee had been in a tizzy-fit and a half over losing the canoeing challenge. When Katie had been voted off, the queen bee then vented her frustrations on her alliance members, Lindsay and Beth. Leshawna hated seeing the two sweet girls being treated so badly, but she felt telling to move away from Heather would be degrading; if they were going to stand up to Heather, they'd have to do themselves.
A twig snapped, alerting Leshawna. She looked over to the side and saw Duncan approaching. The punk stopped for a second, looked around, then took a spray can from his back pocket and began spraying his signature skull on a tree.
"This is too perfect," Leshawna thought, an impish grin on her face. She aimed carefully from the bushes, very careful not to rustle them, aimed... and...
P-KOW!
Duncan let out a startled, pained scream as he leapt up, dropping his spray can. Reaching at his behind, his hand came back with orange paint on it.
"Ha ha ha," Leshawna shouted, standing up and pumping her fists in the air. "Gotcha right in that sweet can of yours, Baby Boy."
Duncan growled, narrowing his eyes at her. "That was uncalled for, Leshawna!"
"Oh I disagree, Baby Boy, that was so called for!"
The punk glared at her as he stashed his spray can back in his back pocket. He started running straight at her, hands outstretched. Leshawna panicked and fired at him wildly, hitting him in the chest, the hands, the goggles, but that didn't slow him down.
He tackled her and knocked to the ground. He wrestled with her, trying to pry the paintball gun from her.
"Give me that, sister!"
"No, it's mine, white boy!"
"Give it over!"
"No!"
"Mine!"
"Mine!"
They wrestled for some time, neither giving an inch. Then Duncan did something completely unexpected: he put his hand on the back of Leshawna's head, pulled her face to his, and gave her a big kiss.
Her eyes went wide as every muscle locked up, then relaxed blissfully. She didn't even feel him take the paintball gun away from her, until he separated the kiss from her.
"Mine," he repeated, grinning.
He was about to run away when she grabbed his shirt collar. "Oh no no no no," she shouted, "you do not kiss me and then run off, Duncan!"
"Hey, give me a break, Leshawna, we're on opposite teams... mmmph!"
She pulled him close and kissed him. Now it was his turn for an electric surge to run through his body, paralyzing him for a second and then making his heart soar. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back.
"You're... good...," he panted between kisses.
"You're... the one... who's good, Baby... Boy," she muttered in-between the kisses, which were coming faster.
The two moaned, and then collapsed back down beneath the bushes. This was something they had both wanted for some time in deep secret. Duncan wrapped his strong arms around her, and she held his head in place as they made out.
They were so totally in love.
While Leshawna and Duncan made out in bliss, Heather and Beth argued in hate. Beth had been bossed around by the queen bee too much, and now she was going to take a stand.
"I'm tired of being your little sthlave," Beth hollered at Heather, stomping her foot.
"You little bitch," Heather shouted right back, startling the nearby Lindsay with her harsh word. "You are so dead, do you hear me?"
"The only one who'sth dead is you! Everyone is sthick and tired of being insthulted and degraded by you! The next time we losthe a challenge-"
"The next time we lose," Heather cut in, "you are going on that stupid Boat of Losers, and you can join your boyfriend wherever we sent him!"
Beth gasped. She was silent for a few hurt seconds, much to Heather's delight.
"You mean," Beth started to say, her voice shaking, "that you were the reason... Justin was voted off?"
"That's right," Heather sneered.
"You... you douche bag!!"
Beth picked up her paintball gun and shot Heather right in her bare stomach, pointblank range. The queen bee screamed in pain and fell back, Lindsay immediately by her side.
From the bushes, Geoff and Harold and Bridgette watched in horror.
"So um, what do we do?" Geoff asked over the queen bee's shrieking.
"Wait for her to get up, and start shooting Heather," Harold instructed, preparing his paintball gun.
Bridgette looked at Harold in amazement. "That's... rather aggressive," she commented.
"She deserves it. You heard her, she voted off Justin just to hurt Beth, and Beth is her teammate," Harold said, glaring at Heather from the tops of the bushes. "I despise cruel people."
"Well said, Harold. And so do I," Bridgette said, winking at Harold.
After the challenge was over, Heather and Lindsay and Beth walked back to the gathering place, the three of them soaked in blue paint.
"We couldn't help it that they kept standing in the way," Geoff told Chris, who was eyeing the paint stained hunters.
"Not to mention Heather had grabbed Lindsay's gun, and she and Beth were shooting each other," Harold remarked.
Chris shrugged. "Meh, I guess it's cool. It was really cool footage, but some of it was a lot of better."
He was glancing at others. Cody was in a full body-cast after being mauled by a bear; Leshawna and Duncan were trying to play innocent, but both looked flushed and were continuously glancing at each other; a gleeful Izzy came back with Gwen and Trent behind her, both covered head to toe in Killer Bass blue paint.
"I bagged me a buck and a doe," Izzy declared. "Ain't it great?"
Ezekiel scratched his head as he studied Leshawna. "How'd you get orange paint on you, eh?"
"Oh, that? Um," Leshawna stammered as she tried to think of an excuse other than, "While Duncan and I were engaging in some heavy make-out time, the paint still wet on his body smeared against my clothes."
"The paintball gun leaked," she declared. "Got paint all over me. You should take a look at it later, prairie boy, you know about guns and whatnot, don't you?"
"No, I'm moo'r of an archery person, eh."
(Challenge 9, Cooking Competition)
"How many times do I have to tell you, those aren't mine?!"
"Harold dude, who else could they belong to? DJ, Duncan, and I don't wear briefs."
"Not mine!"
Harold slammed his fist on the counter, furious. It had been like this all day. DJ, Geoff, and Duncan were making him miserable, what with stealing his all his pants, adding hot sauce to his underwear, and feeding him his own underwear in a sandwich.
"I should have joined Cody on the Boat of Losers if I'm just reduced to being humiliated," he thought bitterly.
Standing there in his pajamas, he never felt more humiliated and frustrated in his life. He was used to pranks, he was used to name calling and physical harassment, and he was used to feeling outcast among others.
But what he couldn't stand for was that Bridgette was there in the same room, giggling along with everyone else whenever he was at the end of a prank.
He wanted to cry, he wanted to scream, he wanted to give in and admit that the underwear scattered around the cabin for about a week now were his (but they weren't). He'd do anything to get them to stop embarrassing him in front of Bridgette, but he had his pride. There was a challenge, and his team, though most of them weren't showing it, needed his help.
Harold knew if he didn't pull his weight, he'd be voted off next ceremony; Courtney and Duncan were dying to get rid of him. He didn't know what he had done to upset the two so much, hadn't he won two challenges for the team?
As he tried to focus on his part of the cooking challenge, he saw Geoff stroll over to Bridgette and start chatting with her. That throbbing in his temple, a frustration-caused migraine, started to get worse.
"You look good in the kitchen," Geoff gushed to Bridgette. "Kind of like my friend's Greg's really hot mom."
Harold had to hold back the biggest laugh ever as Bridgette glared at Geoff and shouted, "Excuse me?"
DJ quickly jumped in, grabbing Geoff and pulling him away, muttering something about needing help with the sink or something. Harold decided this would be a good time to talk to her, when she was good and angry at Geoff.
"Or really stupid," part of his mind pointed out. "She's mad, it's not a good idea to talk to a girl when they're mad.
"She is also alone now," Harold reasoned with himself, "and I haven't had a chance to talk to her alone in, like, forever; Geoff has always been around her, it's my time."
When he approached her table, she was furiously chopping at the food with a large knife. Against all better judgment, he cleared his throat.
"Geoff," she growled, not looking up, "it would be best that you don't talk to me for now."
"Um okay, but what if I'm not Geoff?"
Bridgette looked up in surprise, then she smiled. It surprised him how no matter how much she did, it still warmed his heart.
"Oh hi, Harold," she said. "Sorry, just been having some troubles with Geoff."
"Meh, like I told you once before, guy has trouble expressing how he truly feels."
"He compared me to someone's mom," she said, frowning. "Someone's 'hot mom'."
Harold tried hard not to laugh, but a snorting laugh escaped. "Um, sorry."
"No, I guess it's okay," she replied, going back to her food. "It is kind of silly, now that I think about it."
"Gosh," Harold remarked, "you recover quickly."
"Yeah, I'm incapable of carrying a grudge."
"Oh. So, does that mean you're not still mad at me for burning the paddles during the canoeing challenge?"
"You frickin' IDIOT," he screamed at himself in his mind. "You just HAD to go and remind her of why she thinks you are an idiot!"
The surfer girl shrugged. "Harold, I'm way over that. C'mon, you're my friend."
"Really?" he asked, utterly astonished.
"Of course, you goof. What, you think I talk to you or hang out with you because I don't like you?"
She playfully punched his shoulder, and he let out a silly little laugh. "Um, no, I guess you wouldn't," he said.
Inside, he was soaring.
"Right. You know, I confide in you more than anyone else," she admitted. "I don't feel comfortable talking with any one but you over some things."
"Really?" he asked again.
"Yeah, ain't that strange," she mused. "Actually, I don't think I've talked to anyone else here more than you."
Looking back, it seemed possibly true. After the talent show challenge, Bridgette and him had hung out a lot. She had talked about home, her friends, her mom, and what she wanted to do with the hundred thousand dollars if she won. He told her about his hobbies, and even the ones that everyone considered weird, like his skills with a nunchuck or electric keyboard, she seemed impressed; she especially liked hearing him talk about Possum Scouts.
It was why he was no longer nervous to talk with her. They were friends, he should have noticed that by now; he just wasn't used to having friends. Also, after the canoeing challenge, he felt so awful that he couldn't even look her in the eyes.
"Anyway, Harold, can I confide in you about something?" she asked him.
"Yes," he replied, watching her work. Geoff was right, she did look great working in the kitchen. Though Harold wasn't about to compare her to a hot mom; he didn't think it was possibly to call someone's mom 'hot'.
"Geoff's really been sending me some mixed signals," she said. "I mean, he's still playing it from afar like you said he was, but he's also getting up close."
" 'Playing from afar'?"
"Well, I found some poetry that was written for me," she said, her fine features dusted pink with humility.
Harold had to summon all his willpower to hold back a startled choking noise. "She found it?!" he thought, his mind racing. "But I didn't leave any in her side of the cabin-"
"Well actually, I don't know for sure if it was for me, but it was in my bed," she admitted. "It was... so sweet and romantic."
That pink on her face was getting brighter, and it was getting to be adorable on her. Harold would have been flattered if inside, he wasn't panicking.
"I didn't put it in your bed," he thought, trying to send a desperate, psychic message to her. "I did write it for you, but I didn't give it to you in secret, because I knew if I did, you'd-"
"I didn't even know Geoff liked haikus," she gushed, and she held her hands over her heart. "I... I never had a guy write me poetry before, and though I am a tomboy at heart... I still am really flattered."
Harold was in a mixture of horrified desperation and heart-fluttering joy. Bridgette was joyful over his poetry, she was practically swooning, but she thought it was from Geoff!
"No guy's ever written you poetry before?" was all he could say. "I find that hard to believe."
"Why?"
"Gosh, Bridgette, I'm really surprised you didn't have a boyfriend before the show."
She blushed and shook her head. "Harold, don't be silly."
"I'm not being silly, I speak the truth," he said, placing his hand on his heart. "I'm pretty sure five of the guys in this contest have crushes on you."
"Oh now you're just making stuff up," she said, rolling her eyes though still smiling, "you're crazy."
"Naw, I could list them," he said, loving how cute she looked when blushing. "Ezekiel had a little thing for you before he hooked up with Izzy, Geoff sure does, Cody who was on the Screaming Gophers liked you, Tyler told me he thought you were something else, and then there's..."
He stopped suddenly, not saying the "Me," of that sentence.
Bridgette looked up from her work, curious why he stopped. "Yes, who else?" she asked.
"Um..."
"Tell her," his mind shouted, slapping him in the back of the head. "Tell her you wrote that poetry, not Geoff!"
"Um, Bridgette?" he stammered, scratching the back of his head; he really wished he wasn't in his pajamas right now.
"What is it, Harold?" Bridgette asked, confused but having a hunch what he might have said.
"About those haikus... um..."
Bridgette continued to stare at him, waiting for him to answer. Her right hand started to shake from anticipation, and she had to hold it with her other hand.
"Those haikus... I-"
He was cut off when a bucket of water was dumped on his head, bucket included. Unable to see, soaking wet, and very cold now, Harold let out a startled cry.
"Oops, sorry," Duncan remarked, then he grabbed Harold's arm and pulled him away.
"Duncan, what are you doing?! You jerk!" Bridgette shouted.
"I need Harold's help with the croissants," the punk quickly explained.
"Idiot," Harold shouted as he was being led backwards, unable to see anything, and still soaking wet. "What are you doing? You and Courtney are working on those, not-"
Duncan pulled Harold's ear close to his mouth and the punk whispered, "Geoff's seeing Bridgette, not you! Keep your paws off her, you pajama-wearing, underwear-leaving straw pole, and get back to your job."
Yanking the bucket off Harold, Duncan stormed off, back to being bossed around by Courtney. The lanky nerd shook off the shock of what just happened, and looked back at Bridgette. The surfer girl was staring at him, looking very confused and shocked.
Harold sighed, and shrugged at her. He walked over to his station and started working on the pasta. He glanced at her and said quietly, "Maybe later, Bridgette?"
"Sure, when he's not around," she replied, pointing at Duncan.
Harold nodded, and went back to work. Though he was furious, frustrated, and still soaking wet, he couldn't help but be amused about one little thing.
" 'Pajama-wearing, underwear-leaving straw pole'," he repeated in his mind. "That guy's been spending way too much time with Leshawna on the sideline, his insults are starting to sound like hers."
Izzy snapped her fingers as she watched Duncan pull Harold away from Bridgette. "Oh damn," she swore as she sulked over to Ezekiel. "I was really hoping he'd finally admit his feelings to her."
Ezekiel shrugged, a little distracted. He was in charge of getting the table presentation ready, and he wasn't happy about that one bit.
"I mean, I even put some of Harold's poetry in Bridgette's bed," Izzy said to her boyfriend. "How could you not love a guy who does that for you?"
He froze, as if someone had put a gun to his ribs. "Was...," he asked hesitantly, "that a hint?"
"Hmmm? Oh no no," Izzy replied, laughing. "Though still... hmmmm."
The prairie boy sighed as he went back to setting the table. "Well, maybe Bridgette thought Geoff wrote them to her, eh."
She froze like Ezekiel had, and then said a particularly bad word that made him flinch. "If she did, I really screwed things up," she grumbled. "Oh, how could I have been so stupid?"
"You're not stupid, Izzy," he told her. "You were only thinking of how to help Harold."
She sighed and shook her head. "No, I screwed up, Zeke. You have to tell me when I screw up, don't sugarcoat things. My mom tries to sugarcoat things with me, and I don't like it when she won't get mad at me over things she should."
Ezekiel stopped working and looked at her. "Wow, your mom's like that too?"
"Ayup. What, your mom won't give it to you straight?"
"Aye. Mom's not anywhere near strict and dad's too strict, eh."
"Neat, same here," she said, then she wrapped her arms around his waist from behind. "So don't sugarcoat the truth, but don't be too blunt, 'kay?"
"Okay, eh. Though I think if you explain to Bridgette you put them there but not say who from, she might find 'oot herself."
"That's brilliant," she said, kissing his neck. He shivered in pleasure and tried to focus. "My boyfriend is such a genius!"
"Well, why's the genius out here setting the table instead of in the kitchen, eh?"
"Why you bitter, my Zeke?"
"I should be in that kitchen helping," he complained. "I'm the son of two home economics teachers, eh. I knoo' moo'r a'boot the kitchen than all of them put together, eh. I should be cooking!"
"Awww, I know, but there's a reason they want us out here."
"Why?"
"My silly hillbilly, they don't want Izzy in the kitchen; they're afraid I'll light something on fire, so they want you to watch over me."
Ezekiel turned around and smiled at her. "Oh Izzy... would you?"
"Not on purpose! Though it happened the last time I cooked something. Well, the last two times. Okay, three... I mean, four... to be fair, five... but not the sixth time, that doesn't count!"
The Killer Bass won the challenge with flying colors. It was mainly due to the fact that Lindsay's flambé cake became a charred lump when lit on fire, and Chris nearly choked to death on it; Harold's quick thinking and quicker karate chop to Chris's back forced the foul object out of the host's throat.
"Why do we keep losing, you bunch of freaks?" Heather shouted at her teammates.
"That's not gonna earn you friends, eh," Izzy giggled.
"And what is this?!" Heather pointed at a little tiki idol on the table. "I didn't say to use this!"
"I just thought it would be cute," Beth said, walking over and picking it up. "I found it on Boney Island, and I thought that-"
"You WHAT?!" several people, including Chris, shouted.
"Boney Island?! The island I said not to take anything from," the host shouted at her, "or that you'd be cursed forever?"
"I... I didn't know," she choked out. "I'm thorry, I'm tho thorry!"
She reached for the idol but was too afraid to touch it now. Chris watched her run off, and said, "Well campers, it's time for the Screaming Gophers to vote someone off. Again."
Leshawna had also watched Beth run off in tears, and she glared at Heather. "You're going down," she snarled at the queen bee as she scratched her arms, still ripe with her pineapple allergic reaction.
"I don't think so," Heather replied, glaring right back at Leshawna. "If you all know what's good for you, you'll vote off Beth; she cursed us with that doll, no wonder we keep losing."
"Am I the only one," Ezekiel asked aloud, "who thinks this talk of cursed idols is a load of hooey?"
Unfortunately, it didn't seem like hooey to the Screaming Gophers. Beth was voted off, and she walked towards the Dock of Shame with her head hanging.
"That was so stupid of you to take that doll from Boney Island," Heather taunted her.
That did it for poor Beth. She burst into tears, and leaned against the camp sign post for support. Heather cackled and walked off, earning glares from her teammates.
Leshawna wanted to wring Heather's neck, but her friends came first. She walked over to Beth and hugged her.
"I messthed up tho bad," Beth sobbed into Leshawna's shirt.
"It's okay, girlfriend," Leshawna whispered. "We'll get Heather for you."
"Th-thanks."
"Say hi to Justin for us too, won't you?"
Being reminded of Justin, Beth perked up a little. She nodded, and walked to the Dock of Shame.
The next morning, the sun was particularly harsh on Harold's eyes. He groaned and reached for his glasses on the shelf nearby his bunk. When his hand thrashed through a blank space, he lost his balance and rolled out of bed.
"Ow, dang it," he groaned as he got to his feet. "Where's the..."
He stopped when he heard girls giggling, and the sound of splashing. Where the heck was he? He reached into his spare pocket, in case his glasses were there.
But his pocket wasn't there. Nothing was but his bare skin. It very quickly dawned on him that he was naked, butt naked, and outside.
"Hello, Harold," came the chorus of every girl on Wawanakwa Island.
He squinted, and saw Izzy, Courtney, Leshawna, Heather, Gwen, Lindsay, and... oh God, Bridgette, in the water looking at him.
And then it dawned on him again, when the first time really should have been enough. He was NAKED with all the GIRLS looking at HIM!!
Letting out a high-pitched scream, he grabbed the pillow from his bed and covered his naughty bits. Now he was standing there naked and barely covered, almost blind, and all the girls laughing.
And it wasn't just the girls laughing either. He heard the laughter of Geoff, DJ, and Duncan from the water, and barely made out the canoe they were paddling in; being almost blind with his glasses, the whole experience was so much nightmaric.
"Well handsome," Geoff called out, "have you learned your lesson yet?"
"What the hell are you talking about?!" Harold screamed, his voice high-pitched.
"Your underwear, naked dude," Duncan replied. "Don't leave it around the cabin anymore!"
"How many times do I have to tell you?!" he shouted. "It's not mine, damn it!!"
"You wanna keep that charade?" DJ asked. "C'mon dude, we can keep this up until our dying day. I'm sure the girls wouldn't get tired of the peep show."
"But... but," he stammered, near tears from embarrassment and helplessness now, "it's... not mine..."
"Du-uuuuuuuude," Duncan crooned. "No one believes you! Now come on, man up, come clean."
"Yes! Okay, okay," Harold wailed; he was beginning to shake from the terrible shame, his hand barely able to hold the pillow in front of him.
"What's that, dude?" Geoff called out.
"I'll never my stupid underwear around the cabin," Harold sobbed, tears coming from his eyes. "I swear, Possum's Scout honor!"
He did the Possum Scout salute with his free hand, barely able to hold his fingers in the right position.
"Sounds good enough to me," DJ said to the others.
"Pleasure doing business with you, Harold my man," Geoff said cheerfully as he tossed a bag of clothing onto the dock. Harold managed to grab it with his free hand, and, using the pillow to cover his butt, he covered his naughty bits with the bag of clothing.
"I... hate... you all... so much," he hissed under his breath as he stormed off, trying desperately to hold back the tears but unable to.
Ezekiel, who was walking towards the dock, passed by him. He froze, turned around to look at naked Harold; the mortified nerd tripped on a rock as he blindly headed back to the cabins.
Ezekiel looked back at the others, his jaw dropped and eyes wide. "What...," he stammered, looking at the girls and the guys in the canoe, gesturing to Harold before the lanky nerd stumbled into the Killer Bass cabin. "What... him... what?"
"It's his own fault," Duncan called out, cackling.
"Yeah, he wouldn't pick up his underwear around the cabin," said Geoff. "Surely you noticed the crusty underwear left everywhere on the floor."
Ezekiel stared for a few seconds, then he glared at the boys in the canoe. "Oh, you mean this underwear?" the prairie boy asked, holding up a pair of briefs. "The ones on the floor in the Killer Bass cabin, eh?"
"Yep, those are them," DJ acknowledged.
"The ones that have the name 'TYLER' written in them, eh?!"
Silence.
"Um, what?" was all Geoff could say.
"Yeah, I guess since Tyler never had a chance to get his stuff befur he left the island, he didn't have time to pick up his clothing befur he left, eh!"
Ezekiel shook with fury as he pointed angrily at his fellow Killer Bass male teammates.
"You knoo', I only came 'oot here to ask us how we could send them to him, eh! Oh, and," he reached into his pocket, "you knoo' a'boot this stupid tiki doll?"
He held it out for the others to see. "Yeah, Screaming Gophers? I sure hope you're happy with voting Beth off over a cursed tiki doll that was made in Taiwan!"
He pointed at the bottom of the tiki doll, and angrily chucked it in the water.
"Jackasses, the lot of you," he shouted, his face red with anger. He stomped off back to the Killer Bass cabin, heaving in fury. "God, this makes me glad I was home schooled."
More silence.
"Wow," Izzy said, curling one of her red locks around her finger. "He really isn't sugarcoating things. I am so totally in love with that man."
--
--
--
If you're wondering about the ending, I always wanted to make that episode more dramatic and tragic. And since we all know Wawanakwa Island and Boney Island were just sets in TDI, it would make sense that the 'cursed' island and 'cursed' items were a gimick by Chris. Just something that creep would do, hehe.
Don't think I'm making Duncan, Geoff, and DJ the villains, they just took a prank too far; they're not the villains of this show, Heather is.
And do you think it's dramatic, eh? It's going to get worse. But then it will get better, I promise it'll get better, because this will be a happy ending.
