The buzzers on the washers all began going off all at once.


The girls all abruptly turned back to their washing machines and opened them up.

"Ano..." Ai said, pulling a red t-shirt out of the washer containing white clothes.

"What the?" Dave echoed, pulling a similarly ruined pair of pants out of her washer.

The other girls all had the same mess; all the clothes were either dyed red, or bleached beyond repair.

All except for Fawn and Aurore's clothes, which were perfectly fine.

The girls looked at each other in wonder. How did this happen?


Janet happily sipped her coffee as she looked at the girls on her screen as they puzzled about how the clothes could have possibly been destroyed. Little did they know, Janet had each and every one of the washers rigged to ruin clothes with the push of a button. "Don't mess with me." She said, thinking about how most of the girls had mocked her and laughed about her prim attitude.


"Ay Carumba! Who did this?" Krystal said, grabbing a ruined shirt from a random washer.

"Well," Caroline put her hands on her hips frowned. "I say it was Aurore, she's nasty enough!"

"Wait a minute, Chica." Krystal said, returning the shirt to it's washer. "Just because Aurore's been a bit standoff-ish doesn't mean she's out to get you, or the rest of us for that matter! She's done nothing to make us suspect her."

"Yea, man. She's right." Ai said, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "Aurore's probably not that bad, she could be misunderstood and hurt inside, like Edward Scissorhands!"

Caroline gave her a strange look, then rebounded. "Well Edward did it, I know she did."

"Sorry, but I don't think she did either." Dave finally spoke up.

Mingxia agreed, as did Lily (though she was more interested in the fact Justin would now have to wear pink shirts), and when the girls finally stopped arguing, they noticed that Fawn and Aurore were nowhere to be seen.


Aurore and Fawn were already done with their laundry and were each cleaning a room in the mansion. Aurore got Justin's walk-in closet (more like live-in) and Fawn got the downstairs bathroom.


Aurore was thinking while she picked at a small glob of paint on the floor of the closet. She was thinking: 'What is Justin really like? Is he sweet, kind, smart... Who is Justin, really?'

Little did she know, she was about to get her answer.

"Excuse me," She turned and found herself looking into Justin's eyes.

"Yes?"

"I just have to get my jacket really quickly." He grabbed a very formal black jacket from a hook at the back of the closet. "You're Aurore, right?"

"Yea." Well, this is lovely, he doesn't even know my name.

"Cool, then I was right." Aurore turned back to the paint but could still feel his beautiful eyes looking at her. "It's just really hard to get to know people through reality shows. I was hoping people would just give up with the whole 'Pretty boy best-seller' thing and let me live my life, but some people wanted me to do this show and..." He signed.

"And you couldn't say no?" Aurore finished, slight venom in her voice.

"Exactly." He answered, sounding forlorn. "I don't know what it is, but I just can't say no to people."

"Have you ever tried?"

She looked up and met his eyes, feeling as if she were staring into the sun...

He was smiling.

"Well, I guess not." He bent down and sat on the floor next to Aurore. "I guess I'll have to try that, won't I?" He gave her a quick hug and walked away.

In spite of herself, Aurore was blushing.

She was right about Justin.

Now, would he betray her?


Fawn was having no difficulty at all cleaning up the bathroom, and found it to be oddly soothing. All she had to do was give the toilet a quick once-over and scrub the tiles on the floor of the hot tub.

The tiles were patterned with little roses and Forget-Me-Nots. She remembered a story about a Forget-Me-Not fairy that her mother had told her. The little fairy was told a secret and could not keep from telling it to the trees and rivers in the forest, so they whispered it all around and Forget-Me-Not was so sad. Her friend who'd told her the secret cast a powerful spell though, one that made all the trees and rocks and rivers forget the secret. Then she made Forget-Me-Not promise to never make the same mistake again, which she did not.

Fawn didn't know why she remembered that story, but she did. Fawn had loved fairies when she was younger, like many girls did. She grew from fairy-loving to nature loving. She still remembered a few of the supposed fairy spells her mother had told her.

"Fairy friends, hear me now," She began, smiling and scrubbing all at once. "let's clean up, and then say ciao."

She giggled quietly, thinking how she'd once thought that, just by saying those silly rhymes, fairies would come and help her clean.

She scrubbed up the last bit of soap scum on the tiles and stood, admiring her work.

Now to find Janet.


LATER THAT NIGHT


Janet stood before the girls next to Justin. "Ladies," She began. "All except for two of you failed to complete today's challenge. Now, Justin must decide which of you must go home."

Justin, grim-faced, spoke then. "I really wish that you could all stay, so I could get to know you better. I really think you're all great girls, and I would date you all if I could. But," He paused, grabbing a small tray of strawberries from Janet. " I can't."

"The winner of this challenge is..." He looked from Aurore to Fawn. "Aw, whatever, it's a tie between Aurore and Fawn!" He happily handed a strawberry to each girl, and smiled at the both (Fawn looked very flushed, and Aurore looked indifferent).

"The next girl is... Krystal."

"Then Caroline, Lily and Ai."

He smiled at the 'safe' girls and turned back to face Dave and Mingxia.

"Mingxia," He turned to face the girl. "You're an awesome girl, but you're dish kinda stunk and you didn't finish the challenge."

"Yea, but so did Ai's dish, she didn't finish the challenge either!"

"I know." He gave Mingxia a knowing glance, and turned to Dave.

"You did okay in the first challenge, were sabotaged in the second challenge, and didn't finish the third challenge. But, do you know why you're on the chopping block tonight?" She shook her head. "Well..." Justin plucked a remote from his pocket and pressed a button. A large screen popped out of the ceiling and on it was Dave, doing her impression of Janet. "As annoying as she is, you can't be making fun of Janet."

"I'm sorry, okay?"

"I know..." He looked deep into her eyes. "And that's why you're staying tonight."

"Really? Dude, thanks!" Dave, against her better judgement, ran up to Justin and hugged him... then she regained herself and walked away.

"So, that's it? I'm done?" Mingxia said, outraged.

"Not really, Mingxia. You're staying too. I'm not sending anyone home."

"What! Justin, you can't do that, the producer's won't allow it." Janet said, her eyes wide with shock.

"Who gives a rat's what the producers think! I'm not sending home any of these girls, I don't even know them." He smiled and turned to Fawn and Aurore. "But I'm going to get to while the three of us go out to dinner tonight, as a reward for winning."

And then,

Krystal congratulated them both. "You really deserve it."

"Yea, you do." Dave seconded, stepping between Fawn and Aurore and putting an arm around each. "And you, Aurore," She looked at the girl. "Deserve an apology. I'm sorry the rest of us might not have been as... congenial as we could have been. Wadda ya expect though? I'm butch!" She laughed, and so did all the other girls.

Even Aurore giggled a bit.


And there you have it, the first challenge is done! I'll be updating the website either today or tomarrow.