Well, damn. I forgot to credit after all .. Missing Him, the fic that the first part of mine is inspired on, belongs to screwtherulesihavmoney.

Review time!

Concave Patterns: Yeah, though now I'm doubting anyone will win. How else would Total Drama, The Musical come to be? :/ Anyway we'll find out in a few hours (omg!).

E-D-Songy-12: Thanks! I will! :)

Jhinra: Oh, there's nothing wrong with psychoanalyzing. I do it all the time! And thank you, that's exactly what I'm trying to do. Dig up the reasons why she turned into a bitch. =D

~The Machine~

# Chapter 2: An Outburst and a Conviction #

Two days later, the Playa de Losers residents were preparing for a second Aftermath. Geoff and Bridgette were on a reunion with the producers, and Courtney, now more desperate than ever to get on the show, was also preparing to face Gwen for the first time.

When Bridgette came back, she found Courtney and pulled her aside.

"Courtney, I have something to tell you, okay?" the blonde said, gripping her arm.

"What is it, Bridge? I'm busy," Courtney let herself be led away by the blonde surfer as she finished typing a reminder of her train of thought in her PDA.

"Tonight in the Aftermath, you may see a clip…" she bit her lip before continuing. "that… you may not like. But remember that things are not always what they seem to be, okay?"

Courtney looked at her friend skeptically. "Bridgette, you're talking gibberish. What are you trying to say?"

Her blonde friend looked around in the manner of a person who was divulging something she shouldn't be. "Just- just remember that! Okay?"

Courtney didn't get the situation. She didn't like not getting stuff.

"Oh, and a letter arrived for you," Bridgette squeezed a piece of paper into her hands, and disappeared off to the studio.

Courtney stared after her, wondering what would be awaiting for her in the Aftermath. She suspected it had to do with Duncan; Bridgette had that same look on her eyes as whenever they talked about him and Gwen.

The surfer had spectacularly taken Courtney's side in the conflict since day one, believing Courtney when she told her it was Gwen who was making advances on Duncan, and that Trent, Courtney and even Duncan to some degree, were innocent.

Bridgette was one to stand up for her friends through everything, but she was also one to take sides. And although the majority of the Playa de Losers residents were on Team Trent, not many of them liked Courtney, and anybody rarely defended her.

And while it was true that Courtney alone was like a whole army in one person, Bridgette still felt that someone needed to look out for her.

Courtney shook these thoughts and concentrated on the letter on her hands. It was from Michael.

It read:

'Baby girl: (Courtney cringed at this)

You won't be happy until you get on that show, isn't that right?

Tell you what—I'll get you a new lawyer and we'll give it another try. I will be paying this time—lawyers work better when they can see cash, rather than just the promise of it.

Give me a call.

-Dad

Courtney wondered briefly on his sudden change of heart, before she reached the end of the letter and her mind was occupied with another thought…

Bastard insisted on her calling him dad! He probably didn't take her seriously when she told him she would never refer to him by anything other than Michael again. He had never taken her seriously.

Courtney cleared her raging feelings to concentrate on the dilemma at hand.

Should she take up on his offer? She really did want to win the lawsuit, and he was right, lawyers did work better when they had the fruit of their efforts on eyesight…

On the other hand, it was painfully obvious that Michael was trying to buy her yet again, and accepting his offer would mean a serious blow to her pride, not to mention a battle lost that she would never live down.

Courtney still pondered on this as she entered the Aftermath studio, and let herself fall on a seat exhaustedly. Ooh, what to do, what to do?

Ugh. No time now. She had to focus on the show, on Gwen and on finding out what Bridgette was talking about.

She had a hard time keeping quiet, especially after Gwen came out, but she pulled through. After all, her lawyer had advised her not to comment on the state of her lawsuit, and useless as said lawyer might be, she was never one to go against a legal procedure.

She finally exploded when Gwen brought up Duncan. She was overcome by anger at the goth still claiming vehemently thet were only friends, when it was so obvious they were more.

As for when Gwen tried to tell her he was only interested in her, as if she was going to buy that—as if she believed a word either Gwen or Duncan said to her anymore.

And after that, when Geoff presented that first part of the never before seen tape, she felt relieved. That maybe, things weren't as bad as she had thought, and for the first time in her life, she was willing to admit she might had overreacted.

And then, it came on.

The clip Bridgette had been talking about, no doubt. If Courtney's gut feeling wasn't enough then the intense gaze her blonde friend was directing at her when the clip ended confirmed it. (1)

Courtney unlocked her eyes from Bridgette's guilty ones and looked back at the giant screen, where her worst nightmare was displayed for the whole world to see.

Geoff was having the time of his life. "Only one centimeter between their lips…" Geoff was absolutely right! That was totally unacceptable!

Courtney directed a murderous glare towards Gwen, the girl who had just been fooling around with her boyfriend on the giant screen. The goth actually looked frightened for a second –her scary face was scary, even more so when she was mad- before changing her expression.

Courtney still wasn't thinking straight when she sprung up from her seat. She couldn't quite remember what she had said then, just that she was angry and she was yelling. She was only concious of her anger taking the best of her as she stormed off the stage.

At some point she must have pulled out her PDA and dialed her lawyer's number, because soon she was bombarding the mumbling man with questions on how the lawsuit was going.

After hearing the exact same answers as two and five and ten days ago, she hung up.

And then, reality slowly set in.

The first thing she noticed was that she was in the darkness.

She had walked out of the studio and on to the dock, where there was no lighting. She had been yelling on her phone in complete darkness, and when she hung up, she was left in silence.

As soon as she became used to her new surroundings, Courtney started to wonder what to do now.

She knew the show would go on for quite a while, so she might as well head back to her room, and finish that law book she needed to read in order to make sure her lawyers were getting everything right. Courtney turned on her heel, in direction of the bedrooms.

Any onlooker would only see a fierce-looking girl walking with long, determined strides. But inside Courtney was dealing with raging feelings and a million thoughts racing back and forth in her head.

If there was something Courtney couldn't handle, it was feeling helpless.

She had never before in her life been in a situation in which she was forced to watch from the side-lines for so long. She absolutely could not wait to get a hold of Duncan and give him a piece of her mind.

Nobody cheated on her. Nobody.

Nobody suddenly decided to transfer their affections to another girl without a previous agreement, or at least a notion.

Her pace became quicker, and she felt ten times more determined to get on that show.

But once she got to her room, she found she couldn't focus on the book. Her mind kept wandering off to Gwen with Duncan, and the desire to get back on the show that, ironically enough, was keeping her from doing just that.

Bridgette walked down the hall long after the Aftermath ended. After a long, tedious, and completely useless talk with Geoff, she still had one last thing to do; checking on Courtney.

She knocked on her friend's door, and was met with a screech of, "I'm busy!"

"Courtney, it's me," Bridgette said, not at all fazed by the response.

After a second, the blonde heard movement inside the room, and then the door was opened. "Come in," Courtney said with a slight frown, glaring at something in the distance. Bridgette took no mind in the expression, knowing she wasn't upset with her, if at all; that just seemed to be her default expression as of late.

"Are you okay?" the blonde asked, sitting down on the bed, among many stacks of paper and a few books, most of which were opened on a particular page. Loose papers seemed randomly scattered around, but Bridgette knew everything must have its specific place and purpose, and sat lightly to avoid disturbing the chaotic order and getting yelled at by an angry CIT.

"Oh, just dandy," Courtney rolled her eyes, sitting next to her and picking up one of the books. "Try suing a reality TV show with completely worthless lawyers. I have to do all the work myself."

Bridgette nodded. "Do you want to talk about what happened on the show?" she asked patiently.

Courtney turned to look Bridgette in the eye, for the first time giving her her full attention. "If I want to talk about it?" she repeated in a murderous tone. "Of course I want to talk about it! I want to rant forever about that no-good, two-timing bastard and that worthless, boyfriend-stealing goth witch!!" she yelled in murderous rage as she stood up suddenly, sending papers flying everywhere. Then, as soon as she had exploded, she calmed down again. "But– my time is better spent planning how to get back on the show. And tell him myself."

Bridgette took a moment to regain her composure and for her eyes to return to its normal size. Normally it would be the place of the best friend to chastise and talk down the guy that had made their friend suffer, but Courtney was already doing that herself.

…In truth, she was taking it better than she had expected.

"Well, I'm sorry for showing that clip," she said instead, tucking a lock of blonde hair behind her ear.

"It wasn't you, it was Geoff," Courtney pointed out, going back to the book.

"Yeah, but I knew about it, I should've stopped him" Bridgette was so surprised at the lack of response from Courtney, that she failed to realize she was digging her own grave.

"You could hardly do anything if you tried." Courtney dismissed her just as absently as before. "Fame's so up in his head he probably wouldn't have even listened to you. No offense," she added.

"None taken, it's true." Bridgette frowned. "I tried talking to him after the show, you know."

"How'd that go?"

"It didn't do shit."

Courtney looked up, surprised at her friend's unusual outburst. "Bridge!" she mock-scolded.

The blonde giggled alongside with her, until she realized she should be steering the conversation towards her.

"So, Courtney. Aren't you even a little… sad?" Bridgette tried.

Courtney rolled her eyes dismissively. "Oh, please. As mad as I am with her, Gwen did me a favor. If he didn't cheat on me now, it'd be later. Now I don't have to worry about him distracting me from the competition," she finished with a pleasant smile. "Especially when I'm this close to getting back."

"Oh, that's right, when's the big trial?"

"In two days." Courtney said happily, with what Bridgette was sure was her first honest smile of the night.

The brunette then went back to reading. Bridgette leaned back on her arms and they stayed in silence for a few moments, the blonde thinking quietly to herself.

After a while, Bridgette broke the silence, sharing a thought she'd had some time ago. "Just for the record, I don't think Duncan likes Gwen."

"I disagree. They obviously have the hots for each other," Courtney said in a eerily calm way.

"But, I mean, why would he like her? It's not like she's anything special," Bridgette said with an almost casual maliciousness.

"Beats me," Courtney said scornfully. "But he does."

The blonde turned to her friend. "How can you be so sure?"

"I already worked it out," Courtney took a stack of paper out of the dozens covering her bed and handed it to Bridgette.

Bridgette took it and read:

Courtney's Detailed Ananlysis of how Duncan and Gwen have the hots for each other:

Bridgette's eyes widened when she realized she had in her hands a stack of easily a hundred papers filled with Courtney's tiny cursive, and turned to look at the expectant face of her friend with a slightly disturbed, do-you-actually-want-me-to-read-this expression.

After a moment, Courtney sighed in defeat, "Fine. Just read the first three points."

Bridgette accepted this and read:

Point 1. Gwen: "Wow, who knew you were such a sucker for the A type?"

-Gwen, trying to talk me down in front of Duncan. Clearly indicating she was attracted to him and saw me as an obstacle she had to get out of the way.

Point 2. Duncan: "Whoa, you wanna make something of it?"

Gwen: "You can do better that."

Duncan: laughs and tackles her.

-Duncan failing to defend me and merely laughing instead demonstrates that A. he's trying to decide between me and Gwen, and doesn't want to ruin his chances with her by defending me, and/or B. he doesn't care for me enough to go out of his way to save my honor.

Point 3. The 'oops' look on both their faces when they realized their position. Not the look of two 'friends', as they so eloquently put it, playing around. That was sexual tension in its purest form.

"Wow… You really thought this through." Bridgette said. "Courtney, did you do all their dialogue by heart?" she asked, worried about her friend's sanity.

Courtney rolled her eyes for what seemed the hundreth time that night. "Of course not. What do you think I am, a lunatic? No, I rewatched the whole Aftermath a few times on my PDA." She explained, not reassuring her friend at all.

Looking over the pages, Bridgette realized for the first time just how pissed off Courtney really was at Duncan.

"Soo, you two are never going back?" she asked, although she already knew the answer to that question. She had seen Courtney and Duncan together, seen how happy they were around each other. No matter how much Courtney insisted she didn't care, she couldn't necglect all that as easily as she would like to.

"Nuh-uh… at least not until I can assure it's under my own terms." Courtney said proudly, contradicting Bridgette's thoughts.

But the blonde knew not to be fooled. Her friend was in denial, and she would come to realize the truth eventually. Then again, Courtney was stubborn enough to stay in denial for ages and never realize she was, in fact, in denial.

Needless to say, Bridgette wanted to probe further, but her friend had left her hardly any opening. She looked around trying to figure out a new approach, and suddenly smiled as a plan ocurred to her.

"Tell you what." She stood up and reached for a notebook. "You don't wana tell me anything, fine." She ripped a page and handed it to her. "Write it here."

Courtney took the paper and frowned. "What makes you think I'm not telling you something?"

It was Bridgette's turn to roll her eyes. "Promise me you'll do it."

"I don't see how…-"

"Just trust me," she cut her off with a smile.

"…Fine" Courtney grumbled, looking at the piece of paper as if it was offending her.

"Oh, and Court?" The alluded looked up. "Don't narrow your eyes so often, you'll have ginormous bags by the time you're twenty." Courtney's eyes immediately widened self-consciously.

As her friend left the room, Courtney rushed to the bathroom to make a home-made facial.

1: I always thought that after the clip, when Bridgette looks towards the peanut gallery, she's checking on Courtney.

~The Lighthouse