Duncan followed Courtney back to the campfire, much to her obvious annoyance. He didn't say anything to her, however, and she was left to her own thoughts, wondering what the next challenge would be and what her strategy for the rest of the game would be, since she'd still been unsuccessful in forming any alliances. It was lucky her team were too stupid to vote strategically and were easily persuaded to vote off Katie, their weakest player.

The team stared into the fire in silence for what felt like an eternity, until Bridgette returned from the dock with a bawling Sadie, who was carrying a plank of wood for some unknown reason. It seemed Sadie wasn't taking Katie's departure too well.

"It was a long goodbye," Bridgette said by way of explanation as she sat down next to Courtney.

The sound of footsteps caused the Killer Bass to look up and see the Gophers approaching. The group stopped by the fire, looking smug and Courtney stood up to face them.

"What do you guys want?" she asked snarkily. She wasn't in the mood to play nice with the enemy. "Come by to rub it in?"

"We got some extra dessert after our tuckshop party," Trent grinned, "thought you might want some," he offered. Beth held out some kind of dessert that looked suspicious at best.

"So what, you're just being nice?" Courtney scoffed doubtfully. She was sure the Gophers had some kind of ruse up their sleeve, and whether it was a harmless prank or a more sinister plot, Courtney was not going to fall for it.

"Okay, Owen stunk up out cabin and we need some time to air out," Gwen admitted. Okay, not as devious as Courtney had originally thought, but not exactly altruistic either. Beth walked up to Courtney with holding their peace offering.

Courtney shrieked when she realised what it was. Green jelly. She hated green jelly even more than she hated Duncan's green Mohawk. But, she knew everyone would think it was super weird to be freaked out by jelly (as everyone at her school had thought last year when she'd gone home crying after a food fight incident in the cafeteria) so she quickly covered her reaction with a fake smile.

"I mean… no thanks," she said nervously, hoping no one thought anything of her outburst.

"What, are you on a diet or something?" Duncan asked. Courtney groaned inwardly. Of course Duncan would have to push the subject. Didn't he know when to shut up?

"No! I just don't like green jelly, okay?" she snapped. Duncan frowned at her overreaction but Courtney just folded her arms haughtily to let him know the conversation was over. Thankfully, Beth left her alone and made her way over to DJ. Duncan, ignoring Courtney's obvious wish to change the subject, opened his mouth to ask her why she didn't like green jelly, but was stopped (to Courtney's relief) by a high pitched squeal being emitted from DJ's mouth.

"Snaaaaaake!" he cried, hitting the jelly from Beth's hands and across the campfire where it landed at Cody's feet. The short boy picked it up with a grin.

"Chill dude," Cody said reassuringly, "it's just a gummy worm!"

"Sorry for trippin'," DJ hung his head in shame, "snakes just freak me out." Tyler placed a reassuring hand on DJ's back.

"I feel you," he said. "Chickens give me the creeps dude," he confessed.

"You're afraid of chickens?" Gwen said incredulously, clearly judging Tyler's weird phobia. Duncan snickered in agreement. Courtney was oddly glad she'd said nothing about the jelly thing.

"Wow, that's… that's really lame, man," he mocked.

"No, you know what?" Beth interjected, sticking up for Tyler. "I'm totally afraid of being covered in bugs. It's my mortal fear. I think it started when I was eight, and my Mom left me outside playing by the apple tree. There was this big gust of wind and then out of nowhere all of these gross bugs were covering me. I had nightmares for weeks! My mom said-," Beth went on until Heather interrupted her.

"That's enough!" she snapped and Beth fell quiet. "I think we all know that most terrifying thing in the world is sumo wrestlers!" Heather said. Someone went to laugh but turned it into a cough when they saw Heather's death stare.

"Nuh-uh," Harold disagreed. "Ninjas are way scarier than sumo wrestlers!" Courtney rolled her eyes. Everyone here was a bunch of babies! As the rest of the group began to tell their worst fears, Courtney listened intently, all the while thinking how glad she was that she didn't have any fears. Especially not ones as stupid as the rest of the people on the island.

"I'm not really afraid of anything," she said smugly.

"Bologna," Duncan coughed under his breath, though not very subtly. He smirked at Courtney, and she knew he was just doing it to get a rise out of her, but she'd be damned if she let him get to her. She turned on him, giving him a look of disgust.

"Oh really? Well, what exactly is your phobia, Mr. Know-It-All?" Courtney challenged. Her words had the desired effect as Duncan immediately wiped that smug grin from his face and looked slightly nervous. The group stared at him expectantly. It was Courtney's turn to look smug now as Duncan gulped, clearly not wanting to reveal whatever embarrassing phobia he had. But eventually he surrendered and stammered out the thing no one expected to hear.

"Celine Dion music store standees," he admitted in defeat.

"Ah, ex-squeeze me?" Cody laughed, "I didn't quite get that!"

"Dude, did you say Celine Dion music store standees?" Trent said with a hint of mockery. Duncan covered his face with his hands in embarrassment. Courtney was having the time of her life. After what Duncan had done to her last night (and tonight as well), it was nice to see him squirm.

"Ooh, I love Celine Dion!" Lindsay squealed. "What's a standee?" Courtney rolled her eyes at the blonde's newest idiotic comment.

"You know, that cardboard cut out thing that stands in the music store," Trent explained.

"Don't say it dude!" Duncan scolded Trent.

"Kinda like a lifesize but flat Celine," Trent continued, ignoring Duncan's discomfort. Courtney had never been happier to hear Trent talk.

"So if we had a cardboard standee right now…" she said teasingly, smirking at Duncan.

"Shut up!" he covered his ears as Courtney smiled to herself. At least now she knew his weakness. She was definitely going to use this to her advantage. She finally had the upper hand in this relationship. If it could even be called a relationship, since all it involved was Duncan being as annoying as possible and Courtney hating him.

"What about you guys?" Duncan quickly blurted, trying to get the attention away from his Celine phobia.

"Okay, well, I hate mimes," Trent shrugged nonchalantly, not embarrassed by his fear at all, "Like a lot." Courtney rolled her eyes. He should be embarrassed by it, it was ridiculous. "Alright, Courtney, you're afraid of something!" Trent accused, seeing her disdainful look. "Spit it out."

Courtney considered for half a second saying she was scared of green jelly, but thought better of it. After all, it wasn't really a phobia, she just… didn't like it. She wasn't actually like… afraid of it. Or so she told herself.

"Nope! Nothing," she said proudly.

"That's not what she said last night," Duncan snickered to Geoff and DJ. Courtney fumed on the inside but managed to keep her cool.

"Duncan, did you ever consider that maybe I was just humouring you and your stupid story?" she said haughtily.

"Sure, sure, Princess. Whatever floats your boat," Duncan said, clearly not believing a word she said. Courtney seethed at his words. Princess? That nickname was really starting to get on her last nerve. What right did he have? She would have no more of his insolent attitude.

"Shut up!" she snapped. She immediately regretted her outburst, but she vowed not to let her temper get the better of her again. Look at what happened to Eva. The worst part was, she'd somehow already lost the upper hand she'd thought she had only a few minutes ago. What was it about this guy that made her blood boil and her skin burn?

Courtney and Bridgette had to put up with Sadie's incessant crying all night that night. It was pathetic really. How could one person be so attached to another person that being without them for even a few hours sent them into despair. Even if they were your soulmate. It just further proved to Courtney that dependency on other people made you weak.

She traced over the lines on her chest lightly. She couldn't really feel them, but she knew they were there, taunting her. And though she'd been able to forget about them for a few hours, it was always there in the back of her mind. Someone on this island could have the power to make her feel something, if she let them.

But she couldn't let them. She knew the moment she let her guard down would be the moment she would be destroyed. The whole soulmate thing was just a fantasy anyway. Just because someone was your soulmate didn't guarantee that they were always going to be there for you. Her own parents proved that.

She sighed as she closed her eyes, trying to shut out Sadie's sobs as she drifted off to sleep.

Duncan knew he'd regret telling everyone about his fear of Celine Dion music store standees, he just didn't know he'd regret it this much. Of course Chris, that sadist, would create a challenge out of making them face their mortal fears. At least he didn't have to go first.

Everyone walked outside the mess hall to find a blow up pool full of worms.

"Oh my god that is so gross," Courtney screwed up her nose when she saw it, her hand gripping onto Duncan's arm. So much for not being afraid of anything, he thought to himself. He ignored her though, annoyed at her for making fun of him last night, although he had had the last laugh.

He focused his attention on the pool, or at least he tried to. Courtney had yet to let go of his arm and he could feel the heat from her palm causing the skin under her hand tingle, even through his shirt. He thought about pointing out to her that she was still touching him, so obviously she must like him. But somehow it meant more to him to have her hand there than to try and achieve his goal of getting her to admit she liked him.

Beth completed her challenge with surprising ease for someone who was supposedly deathly afraid of being covered by bugs. It seemed even Owen was more disturbed by the bugs than Beth was and Duncan scowled to himself, thinking the other team was already cheating somehow.

Things were going terribly for the Bass, as per usual it seemed. They had yet to score a single point and DJ was shivering in his boots just looking at a tiny snake. The rest of the team was shouting encouragement to him, but Courtney was just feeling desperate. They could not afford to lose again today.

"It's the smallest snake ever, DJ!" she called to him impatiently. "Come on!"

"Yeah, but it's slimy and scaly…" DJ whined. "And slithery!" he cried.

"We need this point, DJ!" Courtney yelled unsympathetically. "Suck it up!" Her remarks received a collective head shake from the rest of her team. "What?" she snapped. "We're heading back to Loserville people," she said defensively.

Courtney stared DJ down as he finally took a deep breath and approached the snake. The team cheered as the big guy defeated his fear and held the snake on his finger.

"See?" Courtney said primly. "Fear is only in the mind."

Duncan stared at the standee. It was finally his turn to face his fear and he was not happy about it. Why did everyone have to watch? Didn't they have something better to do?

"I can't do it," Duncan muttered, staring at the standee. He saw Courtney stand up and got ready for a verbal beat down like she'd given DJ. DJ may have taken it from her, but there was no way Duncan was going to let her boss him around. But to his surprise she just walked up and stood next to him.

"It's alright Duncan," she said kindly. "Look, she's pretty. She's nice!" she gestured to the standee. Duncan was all of a sudden not sure if he was more scared of the standee or of Courtney actually being nice to him. She was just playing him so he'd help win the challenge, right? Like that time with the dodgeball? And even though he knew it was just an act, something about Courtney being close to him made his heart do backflips.

"That looks really… real man," Duncan said nervously. He stared at Celine Dion. Celine stared back. Nope, the standee was definitely more terrifying than Courtney. She was so flat! And staring. Like she could see into his soul. Duncan shivered.

"Dude, she's made of cardboard!" Tyler yelled. "Get in the game!" Duncan grimaced. He knew they needed this point if they had any hope of winning. But that didn't make it easier.

"Hey," Courtney whispered. "It's okay if you can't do it," she smiled sweetly. Duncan's heart lurched. What was this girl doing to him? He glanced at the Celine standee and took a deep breath. Some part of him wanted to hug the fake Celine even if just to show Courtney that he could. He felt a warm, soft hand slip into his and he glanced down in shock.

"Alright, I'll try," he said with a shaky smile, somehow gaining some newfound courage. Not that Courtney's gesture meant anything to him. It didn't make his knees weak and it certainly didn't make him want to kiss her. Courtney smiled back at him.

"You can do this," she said encouragingly.

"Okay, okay," he breathed. He took a run up and barged at the standee, throwing his arms around her, closing his eyes and imagining it was Courtney and not Celine Dion. Although he knew from experience that the real Courtney was a lot nicer to hold than a piece of cardboard. The team cheered and Duncan turned to Courtney with a look of pride on his face. She was impressed right? She was cheering with the rest of them.

She ran up to him and threw her arms around him and Duncan felt his heart swell. The rest of the team approached and Courtney dropped her arms hurriedly. Duncan felt a little disappointed but he was still on a high from his victory. And he wasn't talking about getting over his fear of Celine Dion.

Tyler was the last person on their team to face his fear. All he had to do was sit in the pen with the chickens for three minutes. So why was he freaking out so much? They were just chickens.

"Tyler, this is the last challenge! Quit being such a baby!" Courtney screeched at him. "You have to do this, or we're going to lose!"

"Actually," Cody interjected, tapping on a calculator he'd pulled from god knows where, "if you do the math, you can't possibly win. The score's seven to three," he said gleefully.

"Not necessarily," Chris said mischievously, "we've got one more challenge said up," he chuckled?
"Who?" Courtney demanded in confusion. He couldn't possibly mean her could he? "It can't be me," she continued. "But I didn't…" she trailed off. She hadn't said anything about the green jelly right? So they didn't know. She hoped.

"You didn't have to!" Chris grinned. "We're always watching you and your reactions," he wiggled his eyebrows. Courtney's heart dropped. So they'd noticed her reaction to the jelly after all.

"I knew it!" Lindsay cried. "Didn't I tell you they were eavesdropping?" she said in outrage.

"Oh who cares?" Courtney said dejectedly. "It's not going to make a difference." It was then that Chris announced he would give triple points to Courtney if she could complete the challenge. Everyone on the island gathered around a wooden pool filled with green jelly, where a diving board stood, ready and waiting for Courtney.

Courtney stared up at the diving board in despair. It was bad enough she had to touch the jelly at all, let alone dive into it. This seemed beyond unfair. Everyone else had totally easy challenges!

"You're afraid of green jelly?" Duncan asked in amusement.

"Shut up!" Courtney snapped. How could he be so cruel when just half an hour ago she was helping him face his fear (his totally ridiculous fear) of Celine Dion music store standees? Her fear was nowhere near as stupid as that! And yet somehow she felt the need to justify herself. "Only the green kind! It's like… sugary… jiggly… snot!" she cried desperately. Just thinking about it made her sick to her stomach. And there was Duncan looking at her with a bemused expression on his face like he had just won whatever nonsensical game they were playing. And they were playing a game weren't they? Courtney had thought she was winning for a moment there, when she'd slipped her hand into Duncan's and felt his pulse quicken. But now, she wasn't even sure what the object of the game was, let alone whether or not she was in the lead.

She sighed dramatically before making her way up the ladder, complaining the whole time, though she knew there was no point. Chris would never back down, and if she didn't do it, her team would lose again, and it would be her fault. And she didn't know if she could convince them not to vote her out again.

"That is just cruel! It's probably warm by now," Courtney heard Gwen say to her team. "Warm, green jelly. Snotty, bouncy… eugh!" Gwen shuddered. Gwen was now officially Courtney's least favourite person on the island, other than Chris of course.

"You're not going to make me quit!" Courtney yelled down defiantly. Gwen could try and play mind games with her all she wanted. She was not going to lose this challenge.

"That's it, keep climbing!" Duncan called up to her. Courtney almost lost her footing at hearing Duncan's encouraging voice. Was he mocking her or was he being genuine for once?

"She's just trying to psych you out!" Bridgette yelled. Well, Courtney already knew that but it was nice to have her teams support. If she got through this challenge maybe Bridgette wouldn't make a bad alliance member. They could team up with Sadie and take down the boys.

"Like you said Courtney, it's okay if you can't do it!" Duncan repeated her own words back to her. She appreciated the sentiment but she wasn't an idiot. If she failed this challenge she was a goner.

"It is? But we'll lose!" Courtney heard Bridgette say to Duncan. So much for being a supportive team member.

Courtney finally reached the top of the platform and stared down into the wobbly chartreuse coloured jelly in dread. She had never felt such an overwhelming feeling of anxiety. If she jumped into this jelly it would get in her hair and her eyes and her clothes and her shoes and between her toes. She imagined the squelchy feeling and the horrible stickiness that would cover her body. She covered her face with her hands.

"I can't do it!" she sobbed. "I'm coming down!" she called. She knew she was totally pathetic. But she just could not bring herself to dive into that vat of gross jelly. She knew her team was disappointed. But what did it matter now anyway? They could just send her home, they'd all agree on it. It was her fault they'd lost and she deserved to go, though she never thought she'd hear herself say it.

She couldn't face her team, she was too embarrassed. She slunk away to the confessional where she intended to justify herself to the world, but instead she found herself bursting into tears and crying about how weak she was. She knew she had to get it together, this wasn't the person she knew she really was. There was still hope. She could still try to form the alliance with Bridgette and Sadie. And maybe… no, Duncan would never go for it. Whatever fleeting moment they'd had today was over the second she stepped off the ladder.

Courtney dried her eyes and ran off to find Bridgette and Sadie.

"Bridgette, Sadie," Courtney said, finding the girls in the cabin. "I have a proposition to make," she announced.

"Yeah?" Bridgette asked.

"What if the three of us formed an alliance and tried to get rid of the boys? Tyler first, obviously," Courtney proposed. Bridgette and Sadie glanced at each other.

"Look, Courtney…" Bridgette says kindly, "we feel bad, but you lost us the challenge today. That means it's your turn to go."

"The way you voted out Katie when we got lost," Sadie nodded. Courtney looked at the girls pleadingly and tried to reason with them, but it seemed their minds were made up. Courtney sighed and decided to leave them alone. She knew they we're right, and it's not like they owed her anything. She'd never tried to be friends with either of them.

Courtney knew it was coming. She looked at Tyler nervously. They were the only two without marshmallows. Though she was 99% certain she was leaving tonight on the boat of losers, she thought maybe there was a 1% chance the girls had reconsidered her offer.

"The final marshmallow of the night goes to…" Chris paused for dramatic effect. "Courtney!"

Courtney looked up in surprise. Was this real life? She caught the marshmallow Chris threw to her with glee. She lived another day! The girls must have thought better of voting her out after all.

"You'll get that chicken next time, dude," Duncan grinned at Tyler, patting him on the shoulder. He winked at Courtney as Tyler stood up and made his way to the dock of shame. Courtney gave Duncan a quizzical look, but he had already looked away. What did that wink mean? Had he had something to do with Tyler's elimination? Or did he just think he was super funny as usual? She soon got her answer as they all started making chicken jokes.

"Okay, that's enough!" she ordered, standing up. She was annoyed at herself for letting herself think for a moment that Duncan cared enough about her to convince the rest of the team to vote for Tyler. But someone must have. She glanced over at him only to find him staring at her. He quickly looked away, but she was certain he was looking at her. She sighed to herself, wondering when she would stop feeling so confused.

Hey guys, (if anyone is actually reading this story lol) I'm sorry but I think this might be the last chapter before I go overseas, which means there won't be another chapter for three months. Sorry for the inconvenience.