This is probably my fastest update ever. Huzzah :D No interns again :C But I guarantee that they'll be in the next chapter. :D
No particularly proud of this chapter. I just hope you guys don't hate it. And don't worry, peeps! Zack survives! I wouldn't make Duncan totally kill him. At least not yet. -shot-
Disclaimers bore me. Please just remember to read, review, and enjoy!
His head and pits damp with sweat, Zack continued to bolt across the island, a protective Duncan on his heels. He was almost too afraid to look back, but he still did. He had to know how Duncan looked. When he did, though, he wished he hadn't. Duncan's face was scrunched in fury and his steel blue eyes were dead set on him, determined to catch him no matter what.
When Zack refocused his attention on the path ahead of him, he screeched to a halt. He had no idea that they had been running so far, since the punk had chased the gamer all the way to the other side of the island, on the thousand foot tall cliff. Zack heavily caught his breath, peering over the edge of the cliff. He had no idea how his sister worked up the courage to jump off of it. It was making him queasy just looking at the dive down.
He finally turned around to look at Duncan, mainly because he was surprised that he hadn't brutally murdered him by that point. The seventeen year old's fists were so tightly balled up, Zack swore that he saw a vein popping out on one of his knuckles. But that one couldn't even compare to the one that was bulging on his sweaty, red forehead. They were about ten feet away from each other, but both stood in silence, except for their loud, exhausted panting. After taking a few more seconds to catch his breath, Zack finally spoke up and said, "Duncan, dude, I can totally explain what happened back there."
"Don't waste your breath," Duncan barked, pushing one of the long sleeves to his shirt up. "I got a pretty good view of what you were doing." He pushed the other sleeve up, and Zack could tell he was preparing himself for the upcoming pummeling.
He quickly shook his head and held his hands up defensively. "No, you don't understand! Selena was-"
"Under the influence of one of Chris' retarded schemes," Duncan interrupted, slowly making his way toward the younger boy, "So you decided to take advantage of her." As he got closer, Zack knew there was no escape, since he was barely on the edge of the cliff.
"No, no, I would never do that!" Zack cringed as Duncan was barely two inches away from him, staring him down. His hands were still held up defensively, as if that would protect him from Selena's scary big brother.
"Yeah, that explains why you did it," Duncan growled, grabbing him by his green scull t-shirt and he let out a yelp as Duncan lifted him completely over his head. He let out several pleas to be released, but they fell upon silent ears. "Let this be a lesson to you, you little twerp," the punk silently said. He took several steps closer to the edge and looked at the rocky waters below. Shutting his eyes in anger, his volume heightened and he yelled, "NOBODY MESSES WITH MY SISTER!" With a grunt, he harshly tossed Zack off and watched as he flailed around and screamed. After he heard a splash, he smirked, dusted his hands off and walked away.
Zack's screams were still echoing on the cliff walls.
*T*S*R*
Deep in the woods, Keith wiped the sweat off his forehead, looking at what he and his new partner had just set up. He proudly grinned, and turned back to Marilee, who was testing one of the knots on the ropes for their creation. "Well, was this a great idea or not?"
Rolling her bright blue eyes, she stood up and dusted off her hands. "We'll see whether or not it was when we catch Bridgette." The two stepped back and looked at what they had just set up.
Referring back to last season's survival episode, Keith suggested they set up a trap to catch the crazy surfer girl. He knew how to make a net trap that would catch Bridgette the second she stepped on it and Marilee slowly agreed to give it a shot. They had taken some rope from the Arts and Crafts Center and created the net and the ropes that would pull the net upward and close it with little chance of escape. The duo made sure to cover the net with stray leaves and twigs and to hide the ropes as best as they could.
"Are you sure this will work, Keith?" Marilee asked, tossing another twig onto the hidden net.
"Sure, it will. We used top-" He paused and took a surprised glance at her.
She arched an eyebrow and asked, "What?"
"Did… Did you just call me 'Keith'?"
She crossed her arms and looked at him, wondering what his point was. "Yes. That's you name. What's it to you?"
"Well," He awkwardly scratched the back of his head and continued, "You usually just call me 'skater boy' or 'pervert' or 'my brother's girlfriend's greasy-haired, girl-obsessed little brother' or-"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Marilee interrupted, casually shrugging. "But that was before I gave you a second chance. I figure you deserve a second chance for me to call you by your first name, too."
"…Okay." Keith grinned. "Cool." He turned back to look at the pile of debris covering their work and said, "So, anyway, it'll totally work." Suddenly, the sound of distant footsteps could be heard crunching closer toward them. "She's coming!" He whispered, grabbing Marilee by her wrist and dragging her into a nearby bush. They each squatted down, listening as the steps got closer and closer to the trap. The snap of a rope was heard, signaling them that the perpetrator had been caught. The trapped camper screamed, though it didn't sound quite like Bridgette's scream. "Yes, we caught her!" The two rushed out of the bush so they could release Bridgette and take her back to camp, but were met with a different face looking down at them from the net.
"Owen?"
Owen looked at them, confused by what had just happened. He stuck his meaty arm out of one of the holes in the net and waved at them. "Hi, guys." He let out his signature laugh and asked, "Um, how did I get up here?"
Marilee looked from Owen to Keith, giving him a glare. He sheepishly grinned and shrugged. "At least it worked."
She scoffed and pointed up at the portly boy dangling above them. "Big, freaking deal! You caught Owen! I could have done that with a snickerdoodle and a handful of corn chips!"
"Oooooh," Owen moaned happily, his mouth salivating at the description. "That sounds great! Could you get me some?"
They ignored the two hundred and ninety six pound teen and Keith told her, "It would have worked if Bridgette had walked into it!"
Shaking her head, Marilee said, "You know what, never mind. Let's just catch her the old fashioned way. Come on." She motioned for him to follow her, but he grabbed her wrist, making her stop. "Wait!" He pointed up to Owen and asked, "Shouldn't we help him down?"
The fashionista looked up at Owen's sad face, her expression blank. She looked at Keith again and shrugged. "He isn't on our team."
The skater boy thought for a second and nodded. "True." He started walking with her, yelled "Good luck, buddy!" over his shoulder, and the duo disappeared from sight.
Owen let out a sad yell as he squirmed around, trying to break free from the net. He stopped for a second, looking around. He yelled, "Does that mean I'm not getting my snickerdoodle and corn chips?"
*T*S*R*
Geoff awoke from his unconscious slumber and rubbed his head. He got quite a bump from the fall he took when he fainted. "Wha? Wh-what happened?" All the memories of what had just happened flooded in his mind and he gasped. "Bridgette!" He stood up and frantically turned his head this way and that, looking for her. Even though he could tell she was long gone, he still screamed, "What do you mean you want to break up? Bridgette?" The party boy started running in a random direction and continued to scream things that he thought would make her take him back.
"I can change, Bridge! Really!"
"Is it because I told you your ponytail looks like a big banana yesterday? I'm sorry!"
"If it's my breath, I'll buy some stronger toothpaste!"
"It's because I forgot to tell my mom you were a vegetarian that one time you came over for dinner and she made a meatloaf, isn't it? C'mon, at least she made a salad, too!"
Despite Geoff's yells of apology, the surfer girl didn't pop out and automatically forgive him. After a while, he just gave up and sat down by a shady tree. He clutched his throbbing head and panted heavily, his mind boggling at the fact that his girlfriend had just dumped him. Staring down at his sandals, he thought about what had just recently happened.
"How could she dump me like that?" Geoff asked the Confession Can camera, obviously trying to hold back tears. "If she wanted to break up, that would have been fine! But it would have been nice to not have to hear that news when she was all wacked out on Chris' wacko elixir, you know?"
Tears were brimming up in Geoff's eyes as he continued to stare at his feet, barely able to stomach looking at anything else. He had never felt this kind of sadness before. Of course he had been sad before, just not this badly. His heart felt so terrible, like it had literally been broken in half by Bridgette's hyper break up. All his life, whenever Geoff had been hurting, he just thought of something positive about the situation to cheer himself up at little bit. This had worked during numerous depressing occasions, like his parents' divorce, and even during his cancer-stricken uncle's funeral. With his parents, it was that his mom and dad were both finally happy after years of disagreements and arguments. Not to mention the fact that he and his siblings were glad they didn't have to get in the middle of their fighting. His uncle had been in pain for almost two years from his cancer, and he was finally comfortable. That was the positive point to that.
But no matter how hard Geoff tried, he couldn't find the silver lining in his current cloud.
No longer caring about his pride, Geoff let his heartbroken tears quietly slide.
*T*S*R*
Candace's feet were tired from walking around so much, so she went to find a place to rest. She went toward the campfire pit, where there were plenty of seats for her to pick from. She was pretty surprised to see Cody there, too, sitting on the stump closest to Chris' oil drum. "Hi, Cody!" she perkily greeted, taking a seat next to him.
He looked up at her, giving her a small gap-toothed grin. "Hey, Candace. What's up?"
"Oh, I just wanted to take a break." She looked at the items in Cody's hand and asked, "Ooooh, what are those?"
Glancing down at the items, he said, "Just a few cupcakes from Owen's new secret stash."
"Really?" Candace cocked her head slightly. "I thought only me and Izzy knew where that was."
Cody shrugged and replied, "Well, he showed it to Zoey, too. And then she told everybody with a pulse."
Candace nodded in understanding and Cody asked, "You want one?"
"Sure! Thanks!" She grinned even bigger as Cody placed one in her hand. She took a big bite and sighed happily. "So you have any luck finding Selena?"
The techno geek shook his head. "Nope. You?"
"None." An idea formed in her usually empty head and she decided to give it a shot. "Maybe we'd be more likely to find her if we searched as a team."
Cody nodded, liking the idea. "Yeah, that sounds cool. I think everybody else has pretty much done that, anyway."
After finishing their cupcakes, the two stood up. "So, where do you wanna start?" Candace asked.
Cody scratched his head, deep in thought. "Um… I don't think anybody's looked around the Arts and Craft center yet. Wanna start there?"
"Sure!" The newly formed duo made their way toward said center, while Cody thought, Helloooooo, Gwen Replacement!
*T*S*R*
Selena bounced toward the Bears cabin, where she noticed that Courtney was searching for her.
At that point, Selena would have gone into the Confession Can to complain about the ways that Courtney annoyed her, but the elixir had somehow erased her memory of where the outhouse was.
She made sure the former CIT didn't notice her hiding near the side of the cabin, bent down, and grabbed a small rock. She thrust it in Courtney's direction and it hit her square in the back of her head. The pink lover cackled wildly as Courtney frantically looked around, yelling her demands to know who did it. She heard Selena's loud laughter and quickly found her hiding spot. "There you are, you little brat!" She grabbed Selena by her arm and dragged her over to a nearby picnic table, pushing her onto the seat and glaring at her. "What do you have against me?"
Selena, acting surprisingly calm, even under her circumstances, crossed her arms over her braless chest and told her, "You think you're so superior to everyone, don't you?" Courtney couldn't think of a response, so the crazy girl kept going. "You think you're way too good for my brother, but in reality, he's way too good for you!" Returning back to her crazier state, she giggled and added, "And your freckles are silly looking!"
Courtney stared at her, mouth agape at her comment. "Duncan? Too good for me? How on Earth do you figure that?"
"He may be mean to people sometimes, but at least when he is, he has a reason to," she commented, yanking at her own hair. "You're just mean because you're a total cow."
"I am not mean!" she screeched, , stomping her foot. "I'm a-"
"Yeah, yeah," Selena waved her hand nonchalantly, bored with her brother's girlfriend, but still goofily grinning. "You were a CIT. Sing a new song, why don't you?"
"I was going to say that I'm a perfectly nice person, thank you very much," Courtney snootily replied, crossing her arms angrily.
"Whatever, Prissy Pants," Selena giggled, standing up. "I still think my big bro could do better than you. Like a blood-thirsty bear or a coconut."
Courtney ignored her weird but harsh reply and grabbed her wrist, dragging her toward the campfire pit. Selena tried to break free, but Courtney's grip was pretty strong. Trying to think of a way to escape, Selena pointed to their left with her free hand and yelled, "Look, Duncan's flirting with LeShawna!"
"What?" Courtney released her due to her shock and looked at the direction she had pointed toward. As hard as she looked, she still couldn't see her boyfriend or the loud sister. Coming to her senses, she turned around to find that Selena had disappeared. It had been a trick! She grunted in frustration and kicked a nearby clump of dirt.
Trent and Gwen came rushing toward her, screeching to a halt. "Where's Selena?" Gwen asked, looking around for the girl. "We thought we saw her with you."
"She tricked me and escaped," Courtney embarrassingly and angrily admitted, looking down at her feet. Her hands curled into fists and she threatened, "I swear, when I get my hands on that little-"
"Woah, Courtney, calm down," Trent said, holding up his hands. "I know what she said to you at breakfast wasn't exactly nice, but it's not like she meant to say it."
The brunette looked up at the musician and glared at him. "So you're trying to tell me you're not the least bit mad at her for calling you Senor Butt Chin?"
Trent shrugged. "It was kind of embarrassing, but I know she would never say it out loud if Chris hadn't given her that elixir. It's the same with what she said to you."
"Yeah," Gwen agreed, touching her boyfriend's arm slightly as she added, "And it's not like everybody else has never thought that about you…" Seeing Courtney's glare, she quieted down. "Sorry." She shrugged. "Just trying to make you feel better about it."
"Well, you didn't," Courtney snapped, turning away from them. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to find my boyfriend's twerp of a sister…" She walked off and Gwen and Trent slowly backed away, not wanting to deal with her and her bad mood anymore.
*T*S*R*
"Um… Hello?" Owen called out, hoping help would come. He had been dangling for a while and he was getting restless up in the itchy, leaf and twig-filled net. "C'mon, help me out here!" He wiggled around and made the net sway back and forth. "Hello? Hello!"
He heard quiet footsteps, sounding like they ere coming from two small beings. It was revealed to be Zoey and Grace when they walked under him, carrying several sugary treats in their hands. Grace had chocolate smeared around her mouth along with a giant chocolate bar in her hand and Zoey had tied the ends of several red licorice whips together to make a huge necklace and was also sporting a few licorice bracelets and holding a few free ones in her hands. They were too busy eating to notice Owen.
"Are you sure it was a good idea to take this much candy from Owen's secret stash?" Zoey asked, looking worried.
"Of course it was!" Grace reassured her, taking another bite of her giant chocolate bar. "It's not like he's gonna miss it. He's kinda dumb."
"Hey, I got straight C's last school year!" Owen protested, making the net wave even more.
Zoey screamed in fright and clung onto her evil counterpart, both making sure they still had a good grip on their goodies. "A ghost!" she screamed and looked around wildly.
Grace rolled her dark brown eyes and pried Zoey off of her. "Don't be silly." She took a few more nibbles of the chocolate and told her, "It's obviously an invisible ninja. You'd still be able to see a ghost. Duh!"
"I'm not a ghost or an invisible ninja!" Owen cried out. "Look up!"
They obeyed the mysterious voice and looked upward, seeing the plump boy dangling above them. "Oh, hi, Owen!" She waved and held up the hand with the licorice in it. "Want some?"
"You know I do, but I'm kinda stuck," Owen explained as he dug around in his pocket. "I need you guys to cut me down!" He pulled a Swiss army knife out of his pocket and tossed it down. It landed right in front of them.
Even though the blade was inside of it, Grace and Zoey looked at it like it would spontaneously spring to life and bite them. "But, Owen, I'm not allowed to play with knives!" Zoey told him, shaking her head no.
"Fine, you do it then, Grace!"
"No can do!" Grace yelled up at him, not looking guilty at all. "My daddy says I'm not allowed to use knives, either!"
"Oh, come on!" Owen screamed. "You attacked Cody and gave him a black eye!"
"Yes," Grace admitted, taking a pause for dramatic effect. "But note how I didn't do it with a knife." She finished off her chocolate bar and grabbed Zoey's hand, dragging her away. Before they were out of earshot, she yelled over her shoulder, "Ask someone bigger to help you!"
Owen was silent for a minute until he silently mumbled, "Man, this sucks. I can't even go to the Confession Can to talk about how much this sucks!" He let out a loud, depressed wail and slumped.
"And I'm hungry."
*T*S*R*
Marilee and Keith had wandered around the woods for quite some time, but still found no Bridgette. They tried begging, bribing, and even threatening. Well, Marilee threatened. But even that didn't make the surfer girl appear.
But after a while, they heard some small crying sounds. "Did you hear that?" Marilee asked, heading closer toward the noise.
"Yeah. You think it's Bridge?"
She didn't answer at first until she hid behind a bush and peeked out over it to find out what the source of the crying was. "No," she told him. "It's…" She walked around the bush and toward the person that was crying, now practically wailing. "Geoff?" Keith was shocked by this, so he followed and saw that it was indeed Geoff.
He was laying under a giant oak in the fetal position, rocking back in forth and bawling. Keith had expected Marilee to make fun of how childlike and weak her older brother was acting, but she surprised him. She knelled down next to him, rubbed him lightly on his shoulder and gently asked him, "What's wrong, Geoff?"
Geoff stopped rocking and the bawling had stopped, but he didn't respond to her question for a few quiet moments. After a while, though, he got up and groggily said, "Br-Bridgette dumped me!"
Marilee's newfound gentle look was replaced with one of rage and she sprung back up. "She dumped you? She waited to do a serious thing until she turned into Crazy Girl?" She clenched her fists and her brows scrunched angrily. "Oh, that trampy, sleazy, skank ho of a-"
"Um," Keith waved a hand, reminding her of his presence. "She's still my sister, you know."
She calmed down, but her expression was unimpressed. "That's not my fault." Bending back down over Geoff, she grabbed his arm and started pulling him up. "C'mon, up you go, Geoffy." She struggled at first since he was cooperating, but she finally got him up on his feet.
With a sniffle, Geoff sighed. "Okay, okay, I'm up."
"You wanna help us find Bridgette?" Keith asked, hoping that would cheer the sad party boy up.
Geoff's eyes widened, filling with tears. "Br-Br-Bridgette!" He plopped back down on the ground and curled up again, rocking back and forth, screaming muffled cries into his knees.
They both stared at him, Keith looking guilty for bringing her up. As Geoff continued to wail, Marilee looked at Keith, miffed. "Nice going, genius."
*T*S*R*
Trent and Gwen, who had decided a while ago to ignore Duncan's orders and grouped up to find their wacky teammate, were taking a break. They had found a nice, sunny spot on the beach, with a great view of the ocean. It was actually kind of pretty in the right light.
Just as they were about to share a kiss, Gwen saw something emerging from that water that made her gasp in fright. "What the heck is that?"
Trent squinted, but the thing was too far away for him to see. "I don't know." He grabbed a big piece of driftwood that was nearby, preparing to defend him and his girlfriend with it. "I'll handle it, babe. You just wait here." He wandered closer to the shore, getting ready to attack. As the creature reached the shore, Trent held the driftwood high above his head, letting out a battle-like cry. The thing screamed, and covered it's face with it's arms, bracing itself for the hit. Just as Trent as about to hit it, he took a better look at it and dropped his weapon. "Zack? Dude, is that you?"
"What?" Gwen ran over to the two and saw that it was indeed her little brother. Duncan's toss had thrown the gamer into a large mass of seaweed and it had stuck to him, pretty much covering every part of his body except for his face. "What happened to you?"
Zack's face looked very frustrated. And wet. "I. Don't. Want. To talk about it." With that, he stormed off to remove the salty seaweed from his body.
Trent and Gwen exchanged a confused look, shrugged, and walked in the opposite direction to find Selena.
*T*S*R*
Duncan decided to search the woods again, since his sister seemed to particularly like hiding there. As he wandered farther and farther, he heard… music? "What the…?" He followed the tunes until he came upon a partially barren part of the forest. He found Selena, twirling three hula hoops on her waist, with Britney Spear's Womanizer blaring away. "What are you doing? Where'd you get the hula hoops? A-And where's that music coming from?" There was no stereo nearby and it wasn't coming from Chris' intercom.
Selena looked around, shrugged, and grunted something that sounded like 'I dunno.'
Duncan shook his head and mumbled, "Whatever." He walked over to her, grabbed her hoops in mid-spin, and yanked them over her head, tossing them aside. As if like magic, the music screeched to a halt.
"Hey!" Selena shrieked, stomping her feet childishly. "I was using those!"
"I don't care," Duncan barked. He grabbed her by her wrist and dragged her away. She was cooperating strangely well. After a few minutes of awkward silence, Duncan asked, "And what was up with that poser stuff? You know, back at the lodge?"
Selena dug her heels into the ground and stopped them both. Duncan turned around to face her as she talked. With a giggle, she told him, "'Cause you're always trying to be all tough all the time, but deep down, you're like a marshmallow; a big gooey goo ball!" She bounced up and down for a few seconds while Duncan's expression flashed to one of fury.
Duncan got a tighter, more painful grip on her wrist and glared at her angrily. "I am not gooey," he growled.
Selena laughed right in his face, making him flinch a little at her loudness. "Pul-leeze!" she scoffed, sticking her tongue goofily out of the corner of her mouth as she did. "If you weren't a good guy deep down, then why would you care so much about Zackie-kins giving me a lil' squeezey squeeze? Huh?"
Duncan's expression softened a bit, for he knew he couldn't actually answer her honestly without admitting that she was right. "Yep." Selena smirked. "That's what I thought."
"I am not soft," Duncan stated, crossing his arms. "Got it? Okay, just wanted to clear things up." He sat in the same position, motionless for a few seconds, as if he didn't know what to do next. Then he reached toward the camera, trying to find a certain button. "How do you turn this thing off again?"
The punk's expression returned to it's usual scowl and he continued to drag her away, until his foot stopped him. "What did I just step in?" He released Selena and yanked on his leg, but to no avail. He heard laughter behind him and he turned around and found out that it was, no surprise, Selena. "What do you do?" he silently growled, reaching out to pull her toward him to fill her with some fear, but she had wandered too far away for him to reach.
"I knew you and the rest of the team were going to try and catch me, so I set some traps!" She stuck her tongue out at him, which made him struggle to grab her more. She pulled out a jar filled with white gooiness. "I smeared some of this sticky mayonnaise I took from Chef all over the ground in random places!"
Selena tossed the jar at her brother, and he luckily caught it. Twisting the container around so that the label was facing him, he read the label and angrily told her, "This is Super Glue, you idiot!" He threw it back at her, and she clumsily caught it.
"Whatevs," she laughed. Twisting the lid off the jar, she stuck her hand in the jar and took a heaping handful. "It still tastes great!" She shoveled the glue into her mouth and miraculously swallowed it.
With a final childish cackle, she ran off, glue jar still in her hands. But before she was out of earshot, she yelled, "Oh, by the way, I told Trent you cry whenever you watch ET!" She bolted, not even seeing Duncan yanking on his leg more viciously than ever, determined to catch her. And strangle her to death.
Yeah. He was a real softie.
*T*S*R*
After another half hour of crying, Geoff finally agreed to get up and look for Bridgette with Keith and Marilee. "You feeling any better, Geoff?" Marilee asked as they made their way toward the mess hall. "Now that you're up and about?"
"No," Geoff bluntly said, playing with a loose thread on his shirt to keep himself from crying again.
She sighed and looked at Keith, angering. "This is all your fault!"
"What?" Keith yelled, "How is this my fault?"
Marilee sighed again, steaming down. "It isn't. I'm just used to saying that to people."
They had reached the area between the mess hall and the cabins and paused. The skater boy looked around, then luckily noticed something. "Dudes, look!" He pointed over to the campfire pit and the rest of the group immediately knew what he was pointing at. Bridgette was in the campfire pit, standing on top of Chris' oil drum, dancing around stupidly, even though there wasn't any music.
"Yes! We'll win for sure!" Marilee happily shouted, dragging the guys toward the surfer girl, getting ready to claim their victory.
*T*S*R*
Zack had successfully cleaned himself off and walked in no particular direction, muttering curses at his friend's older brother. After a while of walking around and not realizing where he was, he discovered that he had wandered to yet another unfamiliar location. And a very weird one. There was a giant, building smack in the middle of a wide, open field. It wasn't rustic like the dinky little cabins; it was practically futuristic looking. A brightly lit sign next to it revealing that it was Chris', Chef's and the interns' secret location. "Not exactly subtle, Chris…" Zack mumbled, walking closer to the building.
He saw something on top of the building, almost making him faint.
Selena was on top of the six story building, on the very edge, teetering back and forth.
Sniz-ap! Another cliffhanger! Haha, sorry 'bout that, folks. Thought it would be more… dramatic.
But what's in store for our siblings next? Will Selena survive? Will Duncan get his foot unstuck? Will Geoff confront Bridgette about the break up? Will Owen ever escape? Will Selena put her bra back on? Find out the answers to all these and more on TOTAL SIBLING RIVALRY!