Now, here we are! Who feels like ice cream? Thank you for reviewing, Elizabeth Life Stone and Ali6132.
I was glad to hang out with Zoey again the next day. Gwen came back relatively unscathed.
"Hey, Gwen." Zoey greeted her. "How was your night on Boney Island?"
"Not bad, actually." Gwen answered. "A woolly beaver tried to eat me, so I climbed a tree to the top and slept in the canopy. Fell asleep looking at the stars."
"Wow, what a nightmare!" Courtney exclaimed, putting an arm around Gwen's shoulders. "Luckily, Gwen is super-smart and totally strong, so she lived to tell the tale." I think she was trying to curry favour with Gwen after the whole kissing thing.
"Well, welcome back, Gwen." Zoey said as she, Scott, Mal and I passed.
Scott showed off as we walked to the challenge. He also complimented Courtney, who was giggling with Gwen.
"Hope you three got lots of sleep," Scott told us other RI competitors, "Cause I'm feeling strong as an ox!"
The three of us kept walking, while I threw a comment over my shoulder. "Feeling isn't being, ox boy. Save the flexing for your girlfriend. And get ready to lose to me. Again."
To be honest, the challenge was one of the more entertaining ones. Chris hadn't fed his interns in a week, so our challenge was to make sundaes for them. Unfortunately, that meant going to different endangering places around the island to get the Neapolitan ice-cream – one scoop of each flavour, vanilla, chocolate and strawberry – a cherry on top, nuts, and chocolate sauce.
It wasn't too hard, though, apart from making me hungry. Ice cream was the one sweet treat I could stand. But Gwen and Courtney were still doubling their power by working together. On the other hand, Mal tried to help both Zoey and I. Zoey more, but occasionally, he'd help me out. Like when I nearly slipped on the ice, he stopped me from falling. Gwen was in first place, and she and Courtney decided on "every woman for herself" during the challenge.
Mal took the lead somewhere around the swamp where the cherries were. Gwen and then Courtney got their cherries too, but Zoey got her foot stuck in the bog. It was up to me to pull her free, and then we both grabbed the cherries, evaded the crocodile, and went to the old cafeteria for the nuts. Unfortunately, the Drama Machine was there, and it was there to kill. So Alejandro's old robot suit became more dangerous than him. Huh, never saw that coming.
Scott was in last place, while Mal was still first, with Gwen and Courtney close behind.
Gwen took the lead at the chocolate sauce. Zoey and I got to the sauce, where Mal was, and where a fire flower tried to attack.
"One of you has to beat Gwen, or we're all on the chopping block!" Mal said. "Hurry!"
"Okay!" Zoey smiled. "And if I win, I promise we'll both go to the spa." She gave me an apologetic smile. I bravely grinned back, reminding myself that Zoey was simply making sure he wasn't doing anything evil.
As it was, we were still neck and neck.
"Surprise!' Chris said at the finish line. "Change of plans! You have to eat your own sundae! First to finish wins immunity!"
Courtney pulled a face at hers. Her chocolate was burned...something that happened after Zoey and I had left. I ate eagerly, trying not to feel sick at the chocolate sauce, but enjoying the rest. I had to be slow, though, not wanting to get brain freeze like Gwen did. Scott, who had dirt on his sundae, seemed to enjoy it just as much as I did. He laughed at Gwen's brain freeze.
"Easy to laugh when you have no brain to freeze." she scowled.
"You're just jealous cause I'm almost done."
But Zoey finished first. But Chris told us that we still had to finish our sundaes before we'd get anything else. I thanked God I still had a couple of snacks stashed in my bag.
Courtney was still looking down at the burned chocolate, but she stuffed the rest of it down her throat, grimacing the whole time.
Since Zoey didn't want me to vote Mal off, the choice of who to send home was tricky. On the one hand, voting Courtney or Gwen off would weaken the other. On the other, Scott was getting injured every day and much as he annoyed me, he didn't deserve that.
Eventually, I voted for Scott, and so did three others. He was gone. After he kissed Courtney goodbye, I gave him a hug.
"Keep in touch, yeah?" I said. "But now that you've got a girlfriend, I expect you to behave like a gentleman around me. Got it?"
Scott managed to smile. "Yeah. You know something? Even though I'm not crushing on you any more, I'll kind of miss you, sweethe – Shannon." He cut himself off. "Sorry. Old habits die hard."
I laughed. "Whatever. As long as you don't hit on me any more, you can call me that. See you at the finale, I guess."
It was down to the final five. Me, Zoey, Courtney, Gwen and Mal. Wow.
Yes! Didn't expect that, did you? I know a lot of people were furious at this episode making Courtney's character development disappear, so I decided to eliminate Courtney's chart along with Scott. Courtney still wants to win, but she's not willing to risk everything she's done this season. What did you think of the change?