An hour later everyone was once again assembling at the audotorium, separating by teams into their sides of the benches. Noah and Gwen arrived together. "Gwen, you made it!" Trent exclaimed. "I saved you a front-row seat," he said, standing to offer it to her.
The girl brushed her green hair back. "Thanks, Trent." The boy headed off to go backstage and prepare. Gwen and Noah exchanged a quick glance. She sat and he peeled off, taking a seat in the back furthest from the stage.
"I'm really excited about tonight's show," Beth said to Lashawna as they approached. "What about you?"
"Yeah, it should be fun," the black girl agreed. They both selected a mid-row seat.
Owen and Cody arrived as well; Cody sliding onto the bench beside Noah. He was almost surprised the teen hadn't chosen to sit next to Gwen, considering his behavior earlier in the day. "Where've you been all day?" Noah inquired, eyebrow lifting.
"Owen was showing me his bottlecap collection. It's actually pretty impressive." He chuckled.
"Sounds riveting," Noah responded.
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"It's every cap from every bottle of pop I've drunk since I was nine," Owen explained. He tipped back a bottle of Cannonball, quickly draining it in several swift chugs. He quickly drew the back of his hand across his mouth. "I've got over ten thousand of them," he grinned, showing off the bottlecap. He beltched loudly, rattling the walls of the bathroom stall.
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Duncan, Tyler, and a couple other stragglers sat down and after a quick head-count, Chris began the show. Justin started things off with several poses he'd learned while being a junior model, earning an 8/10 approval from Chef Hachett. DJ was next with his ribbon dancing, and while it was pretty, Chef must not have been terribly impressed since he gave him a 5/10. Trent took the stage with his guitar next, blowing it out of the water with a 9/10. Not deterred, Courtney followed with her violin solo.
Trent rejoined Gwen. "That was a really nice song," the girl said.
"Glad to hear you liked it," he smiled, the two of them got lost momentarily in one another's eyes.
Courtney finished and was awarded a 9/10 as well. "Good going, Princess!" Duncan wolf-whistled from the stands. She momentarily scowled his way and took a bow to the applause.
Out of the corner of her eye, Gwen saw Noah slip off casually into the woods. That was her cue. "Oh shoot. Um, I'll be right back," she said to Trent. "I've gotta go to the bathroom quick." She stood and headed around backstage. It didn't take her long at all to find Heather, who was stretching in her ballerina outfit. "Hey Heather," Gwen approached the girl.
"What do you want?" she snapped.
"I just wanted to say good luck." The goth put her hand on her chest to convey her 'sincerity', "I know we've had our differences these past couple weeks, but I honestly think you're our best chance of winning tonight."
"I'm glad to hear you finally realized that," Heather put her hands on her hips, just above her tutu. "But I don't need your luck."
Behind her, Noah was searching around. It didn't take him long to locate Gwen's journal near the pile of Heather's neatly-folded day clothes. He inserted it into his cargo pocket and pulled one of his own books out of the other pocket, replacing it. He gave a thumbs-up to Gwen and vanished back into the woods.
"You're probably right," Gwen admitted, smiling. "Oh, I think you're about to be on. You don't want to miss your curtain call!" She turned and left.
"Hmph," Heather huffed. She picked up Gwen's diary and drug a stool out on stage. She addressed the crowd, "Originally, I was going to dance for you. But instead, I want to celebrate team spirit with a collaboration." The Gophers looked between one another confusedly. "So with words by Gwen, performance by me: enjoy." Heather cleared her throat and opened the book. "The region was putrid with the carcasses of decaying fish," she began strong, her tone gradually becoming less certain the further in she read, "and of other less describable things which I saw protruding from the nasty mud of the unending plain?" She flipped a couple pages, searching.
"I don't think Gwen wrote that…" Cody spoke up uncertainly.
"…Cyclopean monolith? Gigantic scaly arms…? Dagon, the Fish-God? But this…" Heather stammered, flipping several more pages hurriedly, "This isn't…" She looked up as laughter began to break out among the campers. In the very back row, Noah held up Gwen's diary with the smuggest expression she'd ever seen on the teen.
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Heather fumed. "I am going to kill that little—!"
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"Noah likes H.P. Lovecraft?" Gwen grinned. "Oh, he gets two more awesome points just for that." She held up two fingers.
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A hook extended out from backstage. "No, wait!" Heather cried out. "I changed my mind— I'm going to dance after all—!" But before she could get any further, the hook had nabbed her around the middle and forcibly drug her off-stage, every camper still laughing their asses off.
"Talk about one stinky performance," Chris emerged, wafting his hand in the air in front of his nose. "Doesn't seem like Chef found it any too fresh either," he commented as it was revealed Heather had scored a 2/10. "Speaking of… Bass, think you can do any better?"
"Right on!" Geoff exclaimed. "Time to shred, dudes!" He leapt onto his skateboard, only to snap it in two in his enthusiasm. "Oh man… that's not so good…" he scratched his head under his hat as he evaluated the two halves.
"Shoot!" Courtney came as close to cursing as she ever did. "Back-up plan, anyone?"
The Bass ended up sending out Harold, who turned out to be one amazing beat-boxer. Scoring a 10/10, he put the Bass' total points at 24, which was five points ahead of the Gophers' 19. Which meant the Gophers were indeed facing another elimination.
—
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"Successfully out-smarting Heather has to be the most satisfying thing I've done here on the island so far," Noah revealed, the smug grin still present on his face even now. "Our team lost, but we lost with all the beauty, grace and dignity of a ballet dancer."
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"I think the look on Heather's face will last me a lifetime. No matter what comes, Noah's good in my book," Gwen hugged her journal to her chest.
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"Okay, the shrimp knows now to play hardball," Heather folded her arms calmly and shrugged. "That's okay. I know I can't get the support to have him voted off tonight because of that stupid frisbee game, but trust me, I will find a way to have him booted off this island. In the meantime," she smiled coyly, placing both her hands down on her knees, "It's a simple matter of separating the wheat from the chaff."
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The Gophers gathered around the campfire once more, some looking more comfortable being there than others. The first four marshmallows were quickly distributed to Gwen, Trent, Noah, and Cody. The brown-haired boy lifted his marshmallow toward Noah in a faux-toast. Noah smirked and 'clinked' his on Cody's in celebration before popping it in his mouth.
Owen, Izzy, Lashawna and Beth got theirs next, bringing it down to just Heather and Justin for the last marshmallow. Chris evaluated each camper. "Justin, you used your beauty to 'ooh' and 'ahh' the crowd tonight. Might've even paid off for your team if it hadn't been for your self-elected 'team captain'." All eyes went to Heather. "Heather, I don't think it's any exaggeration to say that you were terrible out there," Chris continued. He put his hands on his hips. "Seriously. If it was your plan to throw the challenge, wouldn't you have done it a little more… I don't know, elegantly?"
"Not that I don't appreciate constructive criticism, Chris," Heather said with fake sweetness, "But you seem to have forgotten to give me my marshmallow."
The television host looked unimpressed. "Unfortunately, she's right. The last marshmallow goes to…" he let it draw out regardless. "Heather," he tossed it toward her. He gave Justin a sympathetic look, "Sorry, brah. Boat of Losers awaits."
Justin stood, back hunched, and left toward the Dock of Shame. Lashawna moved her head from one shoulder to the other and back again, "Mm mmm! I hate to see him go but I love to watch him leave!"
"He does have a really nice butt," Owen said. Many of the campers shot him a look.
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"D'oh! Why did I say that?!" Owen smacked himself in the head. "I meant he was a real asset to the team!" He chuckled, eyes defocusing, "Heh, ass-et."
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Noah stood and, without excusing himself, began to head back to camp. As far as he was concerned, the ceremony had finished and there wasn't any point in hanging around. He'd gotten about halfway there when he felt a hand encircle his wrist.
"Noah, wait up!" Cody said.
"What for?" the dark-haired boy asked, tone flat.
"For this," Cody said, and half a beat later, he threw his arms around Noah, hugging him tight.
Noah blinked in surprise; he didn't reciprocate it at first, but eventually returned the embrace, albeit a little uncertainly. "Where did that come from?" Noah asked when the other had let him go.
"I really missed you," Cody admitted sheepishly, kicking the ground. "I wish we'd spent more time together today."
Noah's tongue prodded the inside of his mouth.
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"So all day Cody ignores me, and then, at the very end of the night, he gives me a hug?" there was a noticeable strain of annoyance in Noah's voice. He gave a quick sigh. "The thing is, I know I'm not in a position to tell Cody he needs to choose between me and Gwen," Noah stated simply. "All I can do is enjoy the time we have together currently and hope he eventually gets over her." He pointed at the camera, "And that's not 'pessimism'. That's being realistic."
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"Yeah. Sorry," he made the apology with slight reluctance. "I should've gone to the waterfront with you. I guess I let my jealousy get in the way."
"Are you kidding?" Cody floundered, "I'm sorry. I was only thinking about what I wanted; I shouldn't've been so selfish."
The two of them stood looking anywhere but each other a long moment.
"So… are we cool?" Cody asked hopefully, breaking the silence.
"Consider it water under the bridge," Noah agreed. Cody glommed onto him once more, snuggling his face into his sweatervest.
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"I was so worried we were going to have a fight…" Cody confessed, tapping his fingers together. "Or worse… break up." He swallowed roughly. "I know lots of relationships go through rough waters sometimes, but I want this thing between Noah and me to last." His eyes then widened and face flushed red. "I— I-I'm not saying me and Gwen don't still have a shot together. All I'm saying is Noah and I get along. Yeah! That's what I meant to say. Eh heh…" he gave a nervous chuckle.
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"It's possible I let him off a little easy," Noah conjectured, "As much as it pains me to admit this, Cody's too cute to stay mad at for long." He cleared his throat, "The hugs may have helped too."
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"So…" Noah drew out, slipping his hands into his pockets as the two of them resumed their route to the campground, "Seems you were right about that whole 'playing frisbee with the team' thing," he mentioned, looking to get onto a different topic.
"Told ya," Cody grinned.
"You also told me we'd win the challenge," Noah stated, a hint of teasing evident in his voice.
"Well we would've if it hadn't been for Heather; we were leading by three points," Cody said. He scratched his head. "What was up with that anyway? First of all, I really don't think Heather and Gwen would collaborate, and second, Dagon the Fish-God?"
"No idea," Noah lied.
"Oh well," Cody shrugged. "Guess it worked out in the end." He wrapped his arm into Noah's elbow. "We're both still here on the island."
"And I intend to keep it that way," Noah smirked. He bowed his head enough to give the shorter teen a brief eskimo kiss.
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Cody hugged himself in delight right there in the stall. "Make that I really, really want this to last," he corrected. He gave a long, happy sigh.
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