Noah's Gambit Chapter 4: A Greek Tyler-agedy! Part II, a total drama series fanfic

Addendum: A portion of Chris's dialogue and the end portion of the Author's Notes has been cut due to a change in direction of the story.

Authors Notes: Yes, I know it's not Sunday. Yes I know that Sunday past a long time ago. But I swear that this will be the last super long hiatus. Currently juggling a lot of stuff at the moment, but because the next chapter is a non-competition chapter, I should be able to bang that out in a relative jiffy. Probably a week or so. Apologies again for the long wait, I really shouldn't have set a strict and short deadline for myself.

Anywho, welcome back! I'll keep this brief, but welcome back! A lot of crazy stuff happens this chapter, so have fun for the ride! I'll see y'all at the end for a singular endnote and the latter half of Authors Notes :)

I humbly present: A Greek Tyler-agedy Part II

As the camera slowly faded to the next scene after the commercial break, the seven competitors that were just at the wrestling challenge were walking behind Chris and Chef, mostly keeping to themselves. An air of tension surrounded the teens ever since Sierra's and Courtney's intra team conflict and Duncan's blow up at the former.

In front were the Amazons who seemed to be the most fractured, with Courtney and Sierra walking far apart from each other. Heather couldn't help but wear a muted smirk, thankful that the designation of persona non grata was off her back for once after the fan girl tried to smack down Courtney.

Making up the rear was Team Chris. Things were a bit better for them, but not by much. Tyler was under an avalanche under his own thoughts about Noah while Duncan seemed to be brooding about something silently to himself as he walked.

This left the only chatter to be between Owen and Cody, bridging the two teams in the middle of the pack.

"Sorry for getting a bit too serious back there, haha." Owen nervously chuckled, remembering how he launched his friend to the stratosphere.

Cody waved his hand away, "S'all good, this is the Codemeister you're talking too." The tech geek puffed out his chest, flexing his non-existent muscles, "Not even a scratch!"

The big guy smiled, about to reply, before both of their eyes turned to Chris who had clapped his hands, "Hop to it people! Noah and Gwen should be done with their challenge in a few minutes… hopefully." He turned to Chef, whispering, "Maybe you can go after them, just to speed things along?"

Chef responded with a grunt and a nod before dashing off from the group, deeper into the Odeon. Everyone near the front of the walking group, primarily the Amazons, looked up from their thoughts and blinked in confusion as Chef sprinted off, with Heather narrowing her eyes as she watched him.

(Confessional: Heather)

She stood up, arms crossed. "Why would Noah get off his lazy butt other than to scheme with weird goth girl. Ugh!" Her foot stamped on the metal ground, "If only I can figure out what they're saying! But if Chef's going to 'speed up' whatever they're doing, it's not like I can't come and watch…"

(End Confessional: Heather)

The Queen Bee darted her eyes from left to right before sprinting towards the Odeon herself. Everyone in the group was too preoccupied on their own thoughts to care where Heather and Chef went, save for Duncan, who kept his eyes locked onto the former colonel until he was out of sight in the pillars. "Finally…" His eyes scanned the group walking in front of him. Chris was now talking on his walkie-talkie, Courtney and Sierra were walking far apart from each other, and Owen and Cody were still deep in conversation.

That left only Tyler, hands behind his back and looking at the ground by his lonesome. Duncan smirked. This was his shot.

"Hey," Duncan grabbed Tyler's arm, causing them both to walk a fair bit slower.

The jock spun his head around, a bit surprised and confused, "Wha-"

Duncan put his finger to his mouth and hushed him, his eyes still locked on the group. As soon as the rest were a good distance away that they wouldn't be in earshot, the punk continued, "How do you feel about voting for Noah tonight?"

The jock seemed to wince at the name but then gave Duncan a weird look, "Uh, we haven't lost yet." The weird look turned to a frown, "Did you throw the match against Courtney because you wanted us to lose?"

The punk was surprised with Tyler's bluntness, but he rolled his eyes, "I just came back from two weeks from sleeping on benches every night and you think I'd purposely screw us over so I can sleep on one again?"

"Whoa, sorry dude! I didn't know." Tyler held up his hands as they continued to walk. "But, uh, why Noah? He's a good guy… kind of. I guess?"

"Why not?" Duncan snorted. He put his hands behind his head and shut his eyes, trying to come off as indifferent as possible. Opening them, he could see Tyler was still giving him a wary look. The punk sighed and tried to put on the sincerest voice he could, "I've seen how chummy him and Owen are, alright. If we're on a losing streak, then they can just pick both of us off."

"Huh," Tyler rubbed his chin in thought, glancing at Owen farther up the pack. Duncan let him think for a moment before the jock eventually replied, "I guess you make a good poi- wait a second," Tyler frowned, "If you want to get rid of Noah so badly, then why did you lie to Al last night when he asked you to vote with us for him?"

Duncan's eyes widened. Crap. "Look, I-"

"Settle down, people!" Chris called out from the front, halting the group from continuing to walk. "We're just going to wait around here til' Noah and Gwen come back."

Double crap.

As Duncan and Tyler inevitable caught up to the others due to them stopping, the punk grit his teeth and decided to go for a tactical retreat, gruffly telling the jock, "Just give me your answer after the challenge," before taking a few paces away from him.

Tyler gave the punk a wary look as he sauntered off, but quickly looked over towards the direction where Noah and Gwen were supposedly still doing their challenge at: the large maze of pillars. He hummed a soft sigh as he ruminated over Duncan's proposal.

The camera slowly zooms in onto a shot of the Odeon, with Gwen walking backwards. She held up her trash can lid in fright, "Here boar, boar, boar…"

"I take it you haven't had any luck finding him either?"

The camera spun around, revealing Noah walking to the side of one of the pillars that was just blocking his view. His hair was a mess and the arm of his sweater vest was torn off, but aside from the black eye he still wore from Tyler accidentally slugging him this morning, he looked fine. Gwen couldn't help but feel relief seeing him in once piece, considering last he saw him she was running away from an irate bear, "No." She blinked, remembering further back to their last conversation and glared, "How did you get away?"

Noah sensed the anger in her voice but decided not to press it, "After you bolted I thought I was pretty much toast." Taking a moment to yawn, he continued, "Until Sierra's favorite chew toy came falling from the sky and knocked the bear out."

Gwen squinted, "Sierra's favorite… oh Cody! Wait, from the sky?"

The bookworm shrugged his shoulders, "I have no idea. As soon as he realized he had collided with a bear he turned and sprinted off." He let out a sly smile, "Though if it had to do with a challenge, I'm glad I made the right choice in doing this one."

"Well good for you," Gwen pivoted around and began to pace away from him.

Noah rolled his eyes, but he followed her, "Message received. I was being a dick."

"A major dick."

"Yes." Noah frowned, though at himself and not at Gwen, "Despite this screwing my plans," He paused, "You gave me the heads up about going public about your relationship, even though I was originally going to blackmail Duncan about it. You could've easily told me nothing. I honestly couldn't say if I would have done the same if the roles were reversed."

"Gee, that's so nice of you." The goth rolled her eyes as she walked, still not facing the bookworm.

Noah sighed, "The point is: I'm sorry. Despite my feelings towards Duncan, you obviously care about him and it was rude for me to call him an idiot. Especially since we became friend-ish last night."

The goth turned around to face him. She looked more intrigued than angry now, which gave Noah a fair bit of relief. "Since when do you care about being rude to people?"

"I usually don't, but that was over the line, even for me." Noah smirked, "The next time I want to talk shit about Duncan, I'll do it behind your back, like a civilized person."

Gwen chuckled, "Alright, apology accepted." She extended her hand for a handshake, with Noah receiving it.

"Too kind, horror show, too kind."

Gwen rolled her eyes with a smile as she heard the nickname and turned back around, intent on finding the boar again.

"Besides, it's not like we even know Duncan is going to tell Courtney today."

The goth froze, turning around to the bookworm, "What?"

Noah blinked, "I just meant," He shook his head, "Never mind."

"No, what did you mean?" Gwen squinted her eyes, "I told you that he was going to tell her today, after the challenge."

"And he probably will." Noah waved his hand, walking past her, "So we can drop it. Now let's find that bear before it finds us. I doubt Cody is just going to fall through the sky and save my ass again."

Despite his attempt at brushing off, he failed to placate the goth, who continued, "You don't seem that convinced. Do you not think Duncan is going to follow through?"

Noah paused, biting his lip, "What does it matter what I think?"

"I'm just curious." Gwen took a few paces forward, "Why would you think he would lie to me?"

"I never said he'd lie to you," Noah spun around to face her, "I just don't think he'll actually tell her."

"So you do think that!"

The bookworm froze. He had just Pheonix Wright'ed himself… again. From yesterday in the Cargo Hold to right now, it seemed Gwen could always find a way to stump the normally quick with his words bookworm up. A pregnant pause passed between them, with only a short gust of wind breaking the silence.

He eventually cleared his throat, "I think-"

*Ding, Ding, Ding! *

Before the bookworm could finish, an all too familiar bell had sounded throughout the area, leaving both teens to bite back a swear.

"Time for a song!" Chris quickly shuffled behind the two and instructed with a smile as the small black and white emblem with a music note appeared in the bottom right corner of the shot, "This time with music. Gwen, although this is a duet, only Noah has to sing." He snickered before continuing with a smirk towards Noah, "Chef's still majorly peeved at you, bro." With that last jab out of the way, the host quickly shuffled out of frame leaving the two remaining teens exchanging nervous glances.

[SONG TIME: GREEK MIX!]

Chef, still in gladiator garb, was sitting next to a marble column with a bouzouki in hand. He cackled softly, no doubt happy to put Noah in an uncomfortable position, before strumming the first few notes that began the song. The camera cut to two columns, with Noah and Gwen leaning out from the both of them as the bookworm begun the first lyric, albeit in a bored monotone,

"I hate we have to do this; I truly do…"

Gwen gave him a wary look before continuing with,

"If you mean just singing, then I don't think that's true…"

Chef continued to strum on the bouzouki as the scene changed to a knocked over pillar. Noah popped up from it and looked in both directions before continuing the song,

"Duncan seems to like you, so I just may be wrong..."

Noah was shrugging his shoulders as he walked, trying to maintain his faux nonchalant attitude from when they were talking before. Gwen walked out from behind another pillar that was behind the fallen one. She gave the bookworm an annoyed look and had her left hand on her hip as she spoke,

"Come on. You can't just BS' your way through this… yet."

Noah seemed to sigh and look back at Gwen with a realization that he wasn't going to get out of this.

The music stopped for a brief moment and the shot cut again to another scene. The camera was zoomed in farther, as one could see Heather peeking out of one of the pillars in the background with a glare before Noah walked in front of her. The music, no doubt added in post, began to pick up and change into a mixture of a guitar and the bouzouki that Chef was strumming,

"There's just no way he'll come clean."

Gwen was walking behind the bookworm, her face now perplexed as she sang,

"It was his idea, what else could he mean?"

As the shot zoomed out a fair bit, the camera could show that Noah and Gwen had stopped near a marble statue of Duncan and Courtney wrestling during the sports movie challenge of Total Drama Action, with the C.I.T shoving a baby diaper in the punks' mouth. Heather popped her head out from behind another pillar as Noah turned to the goth with a bored expression, gesturing to the statue,

"He no doubt meant it then. But there's no way, he can stand up against her-er-er-er!"

Noah at first sang with a certain twang of smugness as he thought about Duncan groveling to Courtney only to turn back at the last possible moment. However, as he sang the final note in his verse Gwen looked down at to the side nervously, prompting him to glance with concern in her direction.

The music took a quick and quiet lull as the shot quickly cut to Owen and Cody with the others, the former cupping his ear towards the direction of the Odeon. The blonde turned with a grin to his shorter friend and spoke, "Noah has such a great singing voice!"

Cody swooned, cheeks tinged with pink, "So does Gwen…"

Chris quickly popped out from frame and shushed them both as the music slowly began to crescendo back to its original volume.

The camera skipped back to Gwen and Noah, with the camera zoomed in onto the awkward face of the latter,

"I may be wrong, he could do it,"

Any attempt to maintain neutrality was dropped now as Noah sang awkwardly in attempt to reassure her as the camera quickly zoomed back to reveal that the duo was standing next to another statue, one of the scene during the Rock n' Roll movie challenge during Total Drama Action of Courtney hoofing Duncan in his jewels with a guitar.

"Save it for later, you're about to get bit!"

Gwen sang sharply as she pointed behind Noah. The bookworm spun behind himself and swore as he saw himself face to face again with the bear that he only narrowly escaped from last time. The bear jerked his head forward and almost snapped Noah's right arm clean off, but the bookworm managed to spin around in time and sprint off with the bear in hot pursuit.

"Killer, killer, boar-bears a killer!"

Gwen was dashing after Noah early on with a distressed look. She was racking her brain of some sort of thing that could save Noah… until. With a lightbulb going off in her head, the goth sang and pointed!

"You've gotta stop what you're doing! Lead him to that pill-ar!"

Noah glanced back to see what Gwen was pointing at and saw a large pillar slightly to the right of where he and the bear were at. Immediately he realized her idea, and the bookworm ran diagonally to the right slightly to just barely scrape by the pillar. The bear was not so lucky, as the it collided with the pillar with a roar of anguish before slumping to the ground with a low grumble in concession.

"Woah, thank you so much. I was almost history…"

Noah sang in a subdued tenor as Gwen approached him and the now groggy boar-bear. Gwen gave a small smile of relief for a moment before glancing to the ground, seeing that the medal had fallen off the bears neck from when it crashed into the pillar. Not saying a word, she quickly bent down while jogging and nabbed it before making her way towards Chris and the other competitors, leaving a face palming Noah behind as the music of the bouzouki began to peter off.

"No, I should thank you. You gave me vic-tor-y-y-y-y!"

Gwen jogged back to the area that the rest of the cast was waiting where half of Team Amazon and Duncan were now grouped together in front with smiles to greet her, save for the rest of Team Chris, Sierra and Heather.

"Nice one, Gwen!" Courtney held her hand up, prompting the goth to slap it for a high-five.

"Uh," Tyler awkwardly butted in between the two, earning a glare from the C.I.T and a look of confusion from Gwen, "Is Noah hurt… not that I want him to be!" He shook his hands defensively, "But-"

"Unfortunately, I am still alive." The shot turned to Noah walking back towards the group with a bored expression on his face.

"Unfortunately is right," Duncan grumbled. Tyler's face lit up with relief that Noah was actually okay before turning pale white again knowing that he was now near him again.

"Great Hamilton's ghost!" Owen gasped before dashing over to his friend, putting him in a bear tight hug, "You're okay!"

Contrary to his usual reaction from his spine being utterly demolished by Owen, Noah actually smiled, "Miraculously, yes." As Owen put his friend down, the latter gave a side-eyed glance over towards Tyler and Duncan, "Gwen come up with a good plan to knockout the boar, which is why I'm not in a body bag right now."

"Well," Gwen chuckled, taking a step forward near the two boys, "I shouldn't take all the credit. You worked well as bait for the bear to crash into the column."

Noah smirked back at her before glancing over towards his teammates sans Owen once more, "She's right."

Duncan was downright seething now and Tyler looked like he was about to make a reply, but a curt hand wave from Chris silenced them both as the host walked out of frame, "Next event, moving on!"

Though the jock still wanted to speak, "Noah, I never wanted you to get hurt-"

Chris leaned over from out of frame and bopped Tyler sternly on the nose, "Moving on!" The host was about to pivot and walk away but stopped, deciding instead to take a glance over at Duncan and Noah. He pointed over to the two incredulously, "You both got shiners." Both boys glanced at each other before covering their blackened eyes as the host spun back around with a laugh, "Looks like you two have something in common after all…"

Besides for a glare, both boys didn't say another word to each other as they followed the lead of the host to wherever their next challenge was at, along with the rest of the cast. Though when everyone returned to mostly their previous conversations, Gwen eyes lingered on Duncan for quite a while before returning her attention to Courtney.

(Confessional: Gwen)

She sat with her hand propping up her chin, "Duncan had all the time in the world to tell Courtney when we were gone, and he clearly didn't…" The goth, on the verge of getting frazzled, took a deep breath for a moment in order to calm herself down, "It's fine, Noah was just trying to get under my skin or whatever because he's mad our deals off, that's all. Duncan is probably trying to wait until after the challenge to do it. Why would he avoid to do something that was literally his idea?" She paused, "Right?"

(End Confessional: Gwen)

(Confessional: Noah)

Seated, he pinched his forehead with his eyes closed as he groaned, "This is… not good." He sighed, opening his eyes and returned his attention towards the camera, "I still don't think Duncan is actually going to tell Courtney today. He might try, but he'll crumble under pressure. But Gwen saying that he was the one that suggested it instead of her getting him to do it begrudgingly like what I thought would have happened means he's gone more rouge than I thought."

He nodded his head, almost as if he was agreeing with himself, "Despite his vote might being useful in the future, Duncan's too much of a wild card to be kept around now. Now that he told Gwen he was out on our deal and especially with Heather onto me. I have to boot him instead of Tyler now." He bit his lip, "Meaning I need to convince him and Owen."

(End Confessional: Noah)

(Confessional: Heather)

She had her arms crossed with an annoyed look, "Ugh, with the acoustics in there I couldn't make out a word of what they were signing about… But it seems like weird goth girl and mister sarcasm seemed to be debating about something." A sinister smirk formed on her lips, "And going off by the reactions of everyone when they got back, I have a pretty good idea on who might know that certain something." The smirk formed seamlessly into a look of determination as the Queen Bee stood up from the toilet,

"Sierra blowing up at Courtney earlier finally put those losers' searchlights onto someone other than me for once, which is a perfect opportunity to do some sleuthing. An opportunity I will not slip by."

(End Confessional: Heather)

As Chris was leading the cast to the site of the next challenge, with Chef sights purely set on Duncan again, most of the teens were filling each other in on what happened in their respective challenges.

"So you fought Duncan and Owen… with Cody?" Gwen raised her brow to Courtney.

The C.I.T replied with a curt nod and sighed, "Correct. Chris had apparently deemed him one of the ones competing before I could talk him out of it, without even telling us." The C.I.T sight moved from her goth friend to the geek up in front of them, walking next to a saddened Sierra.

"So wait, when he flew out of the ring were you wrestling against Owen and Duncan together?"

Courtney blinked, returning her gaze to her friend, "How did you-

"Noah told me that Cody crashed into him in and the bear earlier on in my challenge with him." Gwen explained, her eyes as well moving to her short stature friend. "I would never have known if Noah hadn't told me, he doesn't look like he has a scratch on him."

"Hm, he does seem to be a quick healer." Courtney unconsciously narrowed her eyes at the tech geek as if she was evaluating a potential threat. Realizing who she was speaking to, she quickly broke her glare and returned to her friend, "But to answer your question from before, no. Like I said, Chris didn't even tell us that he considered Cody the one we picked for the challenge, as Sierra jumped in immediately after Owen knocked him out. She sprang to attack Owen and, well-" Courtney glanced to the ground for a split second before continuing, "Then she attacked me."

Gwen's eyes widened, her gaze immediately shifting to the tall tan skinned girl, "What?"

"Cody came back and I said something… less then kind towards him." The C.I.T crossed her arms and frowned, her gaze as well focusing on the two in question as they walked in front. "It totally interrupted my fight with Duncan, so he threw her to the ground." Courtney's frown turned into a sweet smile, "He can be sweet sometimes. After Sierra got under control he may have threw the challenge at the end."

"H-he did?" Gwen nervously bit her lip, trying to contain her shock. That was… very unsettling to her, given their circumstances.

"Of course he didn't need to do that, I would've crushed him either way," She took a wistful glance at the punk farther up, "But it makes things easier all the same. With you besting Noah, we have a score of two to one. If Cody and Sierra just stay in their lane, I have no doubt we will win immunity."

"Y-yeah, no doubt." Gwen looked back to her mocha-skinned friend weakly, praying that her now frazzled demeanor wouldn't prompt Courtney to probe her with any questions. Sadly, she did, but not in the way the goth was expecting.

"You've been… awfully close with Noah the past few days."

"Hm," The goth blinked. Where did that come from. She glanced ahead of her, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible, "We've hung out a few times recently."

"In the cargo hold yesterday night and this morning." Courtney pursed her lips, as if she was trying to talk in the most delicate way possible yet trying to mask her annoyance. It wasn't working, "And you both volunteered for the challenge today." She shook her head. "Perhaps I'm mistaken but I'm not exactly fond of that… guy." Her nose wriggled, "And I was under the assumption until recently you weren't either."

Gwen frowned, "Why are you grilling me on this?"

"Because I don't trust him, Gwen." She eyed him up farther up the pack, "Putting aside from his ear grating sarcasm, he seems to be quite crafty. Plus, he's in lockstep with Owen in terms of votes so-

"If you're worried he's trying to kick off Duncan, don't be." Gwen cut her off. "He told me he's gunning for Tyler next."

Courtney was in a slight daze after hearing that piece of information, but when she fully digested it Gwen could tell she masked a smirk before saying, "I wasn't even worried about that, Gwen. I'm worried about you. I just don't want you to get tricked by him."

And Courtney poked the exactly right bear, "I can take care of myself, Courtney. You have no right to pry whatever's between Noah and me." Gwen paused, inwardly cursing at herself for wording that sentence in the most suspicious way she could, "Just." She shook her head, "Can we just talk about something else?"

In a rare concession of defeat, Courtney shook her head with a sigh, "You're right, I'm sorry. I do see Noah as a threat in the future, but I shouldn't have interrogated you about it, especially when he hasn't done anything significant yet."

"It's… cool." Gwen didn't expect her to surrender so quickly, "Just try not to do it again, I guess…"

The two girls returned to simple small talk, though with a new spray of awkwardness between them.

(Confessional: Courtney)

She sits with her legs and arms crossed, "That was a major misstep on my part. Gwen is my friend, and interrogating her about who she hangs out with on a personal level isn't cool." Her eyes narrowed, "But this is a competition. Gwen is someone who I'm hoping will be a strong ally to have in this game. I don't want to have that squandered by whatever potentially Noah has up his sleeve in terms of an alliance." She closed her eyes, pinching the rim of her nose, "If they're just friends, then… whatever. I just hope it just doesn't come to anything more than that." She paused for a few seconds before letting out a little laugh, "I doubt they'd ever become a couple, but considering Gwen's relationship troubles in earlier seasons, who knows?"

(End Confessional: Courtney)

Meanwhile, farther up the pack, Owen was filling Noah on what the last challenge was like.

"So you were the one who knocked Cody fifty feet in the air," Noah snickered, shaking his head, "Should've known."

"Yup! I might've got a little too into the wrestling thing, hehe." Owen blushed with a coy smile, scratching the back of his hair.

Noah gave a genuine smile to his friend, his bubbly attitude setting his nerves at ease. Quickly though he remembered what he decided to do before and quietly whispered, "Looks like we'll be back in economy once this is all over."

"Aw, why?"

"Duncan and I are both exhausted so we both probably won't be much help in this challenge and we have to win it just to tie." Noah held his chin. "We should start thinking on who we want to vote for tonight…"

His large friend bit his lip, a nervous look dawning on his face as he finished listening to the bookworms' thoughts. "Uh, yeah, winning does seem pretty hard I guess…" He looked up to both Tyler and Duncan walking in front of them by a fair margin and sighed, "Voting for someone else so soon after getting rid of Al though…"

Noah had to bite his tongue in order to keep himself from trashing arch villain and took a different tact, "I might not like him at all, but I know how hard it was for you to vote for him. Especially with you losing Izzy two challenges ago." He sighed, looking up to his larger friend. "I can't thank you enough for going through with it in order to save me."

Owen's pupils dilated like a cat who just spotted a mouse as his lips quivered, "Aw Noah, that's so sweet of you!" To the bookworms chagrin he picked him up and pulled him into a tight hug.

"N-no problem," He gasped, trying to keep his voice a whisper, "but we still need to decide on who to vote out tonight… and I think it should be Duncan. "

Owen's bubbly attitude turned to nervous hesitation, "Oh, you do?" He set his friend down as they continued walking. "I thought because you were so mad at Al that you'd be angry at Tyler and maybe wanted to vote for him."

Really? What was with this 'I thought you hated Tyler' business coming from everyone?

"I'm only angry with him because of this," Noah jerked his thumb to his blackened eye, "I could care less if he spent time with Alejandro." That was a lie. He certainly was peeved that Tyler allowed himself to be charmed by the Arch-Villain as it gave Alejandro another pawn to run roughshod in the game, but he didn't want to press it with Owen. "And I'd rather deal with someone who accidentally hit me in my sleep then someone who tore off my pants on national television." That was true. Even before he had heard from Gwen about Duncan's plan on telling Courtney, he certainly tolerated the jock a heckuvalot more than the delinquent, despite his previous intention on voting for the former.

"Duncan just got here though, and, well…" Owen looked down, twiddling his thumbs, "I kind of missed him."

Noah couldn't help but role his eyes, "I'm sure he missed you too Owen, but look," He gestured nonchalantly to the punk out in front being watched over a hawk by Chef, "He was only brought back because Gwen and Courtney found him. Now he has a black eye and is being followed around by Chef the whole challenge. He wants to be voted off; we'll be doing him a favor."

Owen bit his lip, looking towards the delinquent, "I don't know. That doesn't sound like Duncan… Especially now that he can smooch with Courtney again, cuz I think they did a lot of that last night in First Class." Noah's eyebrows shot up for a split second before he composed himself as Owen giggled. That piece of information was very interesting, and honestly flared of his anger a bit, but he let it pass for now.

"It doesn't sound like him because he's too prideful to admit it. Remember the episode on the first season where Duncan found a new bunny for DJ back on the Island after Geoff and Bridgette let it get eaten by a snake?" Noah brought up, trying to keep the conversation focus.

"What!?" Owen whispered loudly, "I don't remember that."

Technically it got eaten by a shark, as it ate the eagle who took the snake, but Noah didn't have time to reminisce on the finer details, "They didn't tell anyone at the time, so only the people who watched the episode on television knew about it." He explained, "Duncan found a new bunny for him and fooled DJ into thinking it was the old one. Courtney found out he had got a new bunny but he told her to keep quiet about it."

Owen's mouth was a gape, and he looked towards the punk again, "Duncan did that? That was so nice of him!"

The bookworm rolled his eyes and put a hand on his shoulder, "The point is Duncan has pride. He would never admit that he wants to get voted off. Do you see what I'm saying?"

Contrary to anything Noah would have expected, Owen put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a goofy grin, "Silly Noah, I can't see what you say. I can only hear what you say."

Silence.

"You got that joke from Izzy, didn't you?"

"Yup!" Owen giggled, "Sorry I was waiting a while for a good time to say that."

"Hilarious." The bookworm deadpanned, "But do you understand what I'm saying."

That moment of levity soon faded as the big blonde sighed, "Yeah. I just hope we win so we don't have to vote off Duncan. I like all of you guys on the team!"

"Hopefully we won't." Noah smiled patting his friend on the shoulder, inadvertently smirking at the downtrodden punk in front of him, "hopefully we won't."

After a white flash, the camera focused on the shot of the Odeon that Noah and Gwen just trudged through before panning down to see the cast and Chris standing next to two rows of hurdles. Two sets of two poles with red flags on the top held up a starting line with a checkered raceway banner signified both the starting and finishing lines.

"Welcome to the hurdles event, the ultimate test of speed and flexibility." As Chris began to explain the challenge, the shot changed to a more zoomed in version of the host and the cast before panning to the right, showcasing each of the hurdles, "Players must leap higher and higher over these hurdles," the camera quickly cut to a shot of the finish line, "while they race for the finish line. First one to cross wins the gold." The camera cut back to a normal shot of Chris. "And since Heather and Tyler are the only two yet to compete, they'll be going head to head."

The shot turned to the both of them, with the Queen Bee saying, "Sorry, but I'm fast and flexible." Heather stretched her leg behind her back as she smirked.

The jock didn't look the least bit intimidated and quickly hopped in the air, thrusting his legs behind his shoulders and landing on his hands as he touched the ground, "Nuh-uh, Heather! I took sweaty moksha yoga! I'm as flexible as the Tasmanian Angel!"

"I think you mean the Tasmanian Devil, Tyler" Noah deadpanned.

Tyler's face immediately turned white, "Oh, uh, sorry! I guess I mea-" for some inexplicable reason, the jock had tripped up on his hands and slugged himself in the chin before tumbling down to the ground. "Ow."

(Confessional: Gwen)

She stood up before waving her arms away from each other, "No man should be that flexible." She paused, "I mean should've been that flexible. Tyler didn't look so well after Owen and Noah had to help untie himself from his yoga pretzel."

(End Confessional: Gwen)

The shot quickly snapped to Heather and Tyler in starting position on the line. The latter was trying to psych himself up, "No sweat, these hurdles are just like goalies in hockey… except they're more of them… that I have to jump over…" The jock gulped.

Chris was next to them as well, holding up an air horn, "On your marks, get set, go!" Both competitors began to sprint off as the host blared the horn.

Tyler was way out in front at first and tried to jump over the first hurdle. He almost cleared it, but the toe of his shoe clipped the hurdle causing him to stumble and fall, "Darn it!" Heather, while slower, kept a more consistent speed and sailed over the hurdle no problem. Tyler quickly jumped up and tried to catch up to the Queen Bee. He did so once again, rocketing past her, but his speed tripped him up again, now colliding with the first hurdle, "Oof!" The hurdle toppled over to the side with Tyler trying to scramble over it as the Queen Bee jumped over hers.

This was a fairly consistent pattern for most of the hurdles, until Tyler's speed could no longer compensate for him colliding into the hurdles resulting in Heather being a great deal ahead of him.

"Hahahaha!" Duncan couldn't help but splutter out in laughter on the sidelines as Tyler collided with another hurdle. He cupped his hands and called out, "Keep doing what you're doing dude, this is a riot!" Tyler poked his head out of another hurdle he was twisted up in and glanced at Duncan. His face was ablaze with embarrassment and he sighed.

Noah noticed this and gave Duncan a scowl, "Real encouraging."

The bookworm was half expecting the punk to match his hostility but he instead just chuckled back, "Come on. Don't tell me you don't find this funny."

As Noah opened his mouth to reply, he was cut off by Chef skidding to a stop behind Duncan before quickly pulling back the towel,

*WHIP*

"Sing it!"

Duncan collapsed to the ground, groaning in falsetto as Noah smirked, "No, but that was." Duncan grumbled on the ground as Noah took a few paces forward and called out, "Just ignore him Tyler! You have to get up or we'll lose!"

"Yeah!" Owen piped up beside him, "We're all rooting for you, including Lindsay!"

"L-Lindsay?" Tyler stammered, shaking his head. Taking a quick breath, he narrowed his eyes. His girlfriend lost to Heather to a race in Total Drama Island which led her to get kicked off and now he needed to beat her in a race or he might go home!

"Don't worry baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaabe!" With a shot of intense adrenaline, the jock leaped up into the air and sped off. He continued to yell in a high pitch, blocking out all other sounds around him as he now seemed to leap over each hurdle with ease… almost as if they have gotten shorter and shorter. He closed his eyes during the final stretch as he skidded towards the finish line like a baseball player, creating a dust cloud around him.

"He did it, he actually did it!" Chris bellowed, "Tyler has made a come from behind victory against Heather!"

"Yahoo!" Tyler jumped up in the air as a triumphant jingle played.

"Well…"

A record scratched sound played and the jock froze in midair.

"You would have done it." Chris crossed his arms with a devilish grin. "If you had run in the right direction."

"Huh?" Tyler landed to the ground, "What do you- oh." The jock stood wide eyed. He was in fact right where the starting line was, near the two teams and all.

"Wonderful," Noah grumbled. "Why did I think this would happen…"

"Hilarious. But lame." Duncan sang quietly in a low baritone.

"Idiot!" The jock wacked himself in the head with his hand as he collapsed to his knees. "How could I have messed that up!?"

Chris unsuccessfully stifled a bout of giggles as he approached, slapping Tyler on the shoulder, "No clue, dude. No clue. But don't worry, your team still has a chance to escape elimination."

The jock looked up at the host with a ray of hope, "We do!?"

"Yup! At our next destination!" Chris snorted, turning to the girls plus Cody, "Because Heather has won it for Team Amazon!"

Amidst the eruption of cheers from the winning team, Heather had walked back from the finish line and blew a strand of hair out of her face, "As if there was any doubt."

"And," Chris did an about face towards the men, "We'll be booting another member from Team Victory-lite out of the plane." The camera flipped to show a shot of both Noah and Duncan standing next to each other. "Probably got a lot of people to talk too about that, I'm sure." The shot then swiveled to Gwen, who was biting her lip in nervousness.

He turned once more, waving his hand to signal the teens to follow, "Back to the jet people!"

As most of the teens turned to follow the host Tyler was still kneeling down by the starting line, "How could I have mucked that up…"

"Get up."

The jock looked up to see Heather standing over him, her hand outstretched. Cautiously, the jock grasped it, her helping him rise to his feet, "Thanks?"

"Don't mention it." The Queen Bee turned to walk away. She took a few paces before stopping, "Just ignore Noah and Duncan. Those losers couldn't have done half as well as you did today."

Tyler frowned, "I didn't do well at all."

The Queen Bee bit her lip in frustration, but continued, "Duncan has gotten far twice now due to dumb luck and Noah's only still around because he has someone as gullible as Owen to manipulate. But pushovers like them can turn out to be real problems if you keep them around for too long."

"Wha-"

"Just my thoughts." And with that Heather walked away to leave Tyler stewing in ever more confusion.

A brief clip of the Jumbo Jet flying against a starry night sky played before the static of a confessional occurred.

Confessional: Tyler

Both hands are in his hair as he stoops down in a sitting position, "I let down my team so hard! I could've totally beaten Heather if I ran in the right direction!" He pauses, sitting up right, "And what's with all that stuff she said about Noah and Duncan." He frowns, "Not like I'm gonna listen to anything she says. I can totally figure out what I have to do on my own… which is-

Tyler gasped as the door to the confessional flew open, with Duncan poking his head in. "Jock-squawk, I need an answer."

"Dude!" Tyler glared, "You can't, like, burst in here like that!" He looked from side to side before cupping his hand with a whisper, "I could've been with Lindsay doing… you know… stuff."

Duncan rolled his eyes, "She isn't on the plane, dorkstrap. Now what's your answer? We gotta boot someone's butt off the plane in thirty minutes."

Tyler bit his lip, nervously glancing to the camera and to Duncan before eventually saying, "Alright, I'll tell you outside."

End Confessional: Tyler & Duncan.

"Well?" Duncan held out his arms to the side, looking at the jock impatiently. He had led Tyler back to economy class, where the two were sitting on opposite benches. It was currently dinner time, so Noah and Owen were at the dining area whilst the Amazons were eating like queens (and a singular king) up in First Class, so the area was all to themselves.

Tyler massaged his chin as he thought, "I'm kinda-sorta there…"

"Well is there anything I can say to you to turn you from a 'kinda-sorta there' to a 'there'?" Duncan demurred in a bored monotone, rolling his eyes.

"Actually, yeah!" Tyler snapped his fingers with a smile, happy that he came up with something to narrow down his decision. That smile quickly faded as his tone became more accusatory, "I'm fine with getting rid of Noah, but the thing is that I don't really trust you, ya know?"

"Pffft." Duncan snorted, putting his arms around his head, "Are you still peeved Court and I voted off Lindsay last season?"

"No." Tyler crossed his arms, before blinking, "Uh, well, yeah, actually a little bit I guess, but that isn't the reason I don't trust you." He frowned, "Al talked to you last night about voting for Noah and you lied to him. How do I know you aren't lying to me and will vote me off like with Al?"

Duncan froze, biting his lip. His pause only lasted a few seconds, as he quickly shook his head, "Dude, come on. The reason I want to get rid of booknerd is because him and Owen are tight. You and Al are also tight."

"Oh," Tyler deflated. "That… sorta makes sense. You still lied though!"

"So?" The punk guffawed, "It's a competition. You think your little Lindsay didn't lie to Courtney when she, Beth and Harold tried to vote her off?" Duncan leaned back in his seat and pulled out his pocket knife to inspect as he continued, "But unlike your girl and mine." The delinquent paused as that last word escaped his lips, before continuing on, "I don't hate Al; I barely know the guy." He pointed his knife at Tyler, "But I did sense that you and him were all buddy-buddy. He had to go."

The jock was pursing his lips throughout the entirety of Duncan's explanation before nodding his head when he finished, "Oh okay, that's cool then. I mean, it really sucks that Al had to go, and I don't like lying, but you were put in an awkward position I guess."

"You don't know the half of it," Duncan grumbled softly.

"Huh?"

"So do we have a deal?" The punk spoke curtly, standing up and taking a few paces before extending his hand to Tyler.

"Yeah, I guess so." The jock didn't seem all too enthused, but he spoke without hesitation. He stood up as well, about to extend his for a shake before a pause, "Uh, on one condition."

"Shoot."

"I was in an alliance with Al so I wasn't really worried about the game too much, but now since he's gone…"

"You want to team up past this vote?" The punk spoke flatly with a hint of disappointment in his voice.

"Just until the merge or so," The jock let out a low chuckle, "Funnily enough, your reasoning kind of pushed me to ask for it. You and Owen go way back. I don't really want to get booted by you guys if we lose again."

Contrary to anything Tyler would have expected, Duncan actually cracked a smile of his own at that, "Right call. We would've totally dumped you. But I'm fine with possibly ditching the Big Guy later down the line if it means we get to boot Noah now."

"Cool," Tyler clasped his hands with Duncan and they shook hands.

An alliance was born.

"Now that's all settled," The punk patted his stomach with a smirk, "You want to head over to the… whatever the hell the eating place this season is called for some chow."

Tyler chuckled with a shake of the head, "Sorry, I need to find someone to talk to before the ceremony I think. See you at elimination though." The floor made a squeaking sound as Tyler pivoted on his gym shoes out of the economy.

Duncan raised his unibrow as his new alliance mate walked off, "Weird dude. Way less annoying then last time, though."

As the punk began to walk out of economy class towards the dining area, an actual smile on his face. He had Tyler on deck to oust Noah, what could go wron-

The punk froze, "Shit."

He had completely forgot his promise to Gwen to take care of that.

The punk pivoted around and walked as slow as he could until eventually he made his way to the entrance of First Class. His mind was utterly devoid of any way he could possibly explain to her that they were over, and he was racking his brain to come up with a plan until suddenly the door opened. The person standing at the doorway made the punks heart jump right into his throat.

"Hey," Courtney smiled sweetly at him, "What's up?"

A little while after Duncan and Tyler were wheeling and dealing, Noah and Owen were at the dining hall eating and, well, more eating. The bookworm was hoping the jock would come to dinner soon as he needed his vote to oust the punk, but as the clock ticked down, he was getting ever more nervous.

"So," Owen said after gobbling down his seventh gyro, "Was it scary being in that Olimar thingy?"

"Odeon," Noah corrected, swallowing his first, and last, gyro for the night, "But when the boar wasn't chasing me, it was actually a pretty nice. Gwen and I talked the whole time."

"Oooh yeah, Gwen's a hottie." Owen giggled to himself, beginning to make work on his eighth gyro, "And a really cool friend."

"Yup."

A pause.

Noah sighed as Owen began to wiggle his eyebrows at him, "I didn't mea-"

"Duncan?"

"Noah?"

Cutting himself off, the bookworm turned his head to see both Tyler and Gwen walking out of the entrance way, approaching the both of them. Contrary to how they recently looked, the jock had a face of determination whilst the goth bore one of nervousness.

"Hey guys!" Owen cheerfully waved to them. He held up the plate of gyros he and Noah were sharing, "Want any?"

Tyler and Gwen exchanged an awkward glance before the jock deferred to the goth to go first, "Thanks Owen, but I already ate." The goth spun her head from side to side, "Is Duncan around, though?"

The bookworm instinctively narrowed his eyes, "No," he shrugged gesturing to the seat next to him, "But he hasn't eaten dinner yet, so if you want to wait for him with us be my guest."

"Actually," The jock stepped forward, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck. "Is it alright if we could talk privately, man."

This was… unexpected.

Noah stood up and nodded his head, "Sure." He turned to Owen as Gwen sat down beside him, "See you at elimination and," he paused, his eyes glancing towards the goth. "if my wings aren't scorched by flying too close to the sun, I'll tell you how wrong you are for actually thinking the third Alien movie is the best."

He pivoted around and followed Tyler as they walked out of economy class, leaving the two season one finalists behind at the seated table. Gwen watched him leave until he and Tyler rounded a corner before turning towards Owen, who's eyebrows was still wiggling suggestively.

"Uh, what are you doing?"

"Whoops!" He placed his hands over his forehead before chuckling, "When they start they don't stop I guess, haha."

The goth gave her friend a weird look as the camera faded to black.

"So, trying to face your fear of me head on?"

Tyler had led Noah back to Economy class, where they were currently seated across from each other on the benches.

The jock chose not to reply to that, instead breathing in deeply for a moment before saying, "I just want to clean the air between us."

"Clear the air." The bookworm corrected. "Doubt you could ever "clean" this air." He cast a glance towards the curtains that led to the dining area, "Between Owen after dinner and Chef's cooking, I'm surprised the ECCC hasn't shut this place down for pollution." [1]

Tyler laughed before continuing on, "About the Alejandro vote," Noah raised his eyebrows, "I was never angry with you about that." The jock looked down, "Al told me before the vote about… someone being really sneaky about something. That kind of made me distrustful about everyone, including you." Tyler broke out into laughter again, "Heck, I thought you had some big ol' alliance I wasn't aware of and was orchestrating eliminations and stuff."

"Hilarious." Noah drawled, clearly not amused. "What made you think otherwise, then."

"Originally, I thought you made a deal with Duncan or something that got Al kicked off." Noah's eyes widened. "And I was super certain of it when he tried to get me to vote for you when you were off during your challenge with Gwen." The bookworm bit his lip as the jock continued, "But I talked to Duncan earlier and he told me that he only voted for Al cuz he saw how close we were and how he's only gunning for you for the same reason." The jock began to smile, "And I felt so relieved! There isn't any super-secret alliance like Heather would do or anything, it's just people being strategic. Isn't that great?"

Noah grit his teeth, "Fan-tas-tic. But you didn't tell me if you were going to go through with what Duncan has planned."

The bookworm already knew his answer once he saw Tyler's face immediately drop, "Sorry dude. I think I sort of have to. You and Owen are super close and can pick us off if we lose anymore challenges." He once again went back to awkwardly scratching the back of his hair, "I hope this means we aren't still cool or anything."

Much like Tyler's face a moment ago, Noah's stomach fell to a giant crater. He had waited too long, and had lost the jock to Duncan. That would force a tiebreaker, and against the punk Noah didn't like his chances of winning one.

"It's fine," Noah tried to mask his sense of impending doom, "We're cool." Tyler smiled before the bookworm raised an eyebrow, "Just to humor me, what did Alejandro tell you before elimination last night."

"Huh?"

"You said that he told you someone was sneaky. Who was it and what did they do." Noah was blunt. He was on borrowed time, but hopefully he could somehow continue this conversation long enough so he could figure out what he could do to change Tyler's mind.

The jock bit his lip, taking a few moments before eventually answering. "Okay, I'll tell you, I guess. But like, it isn't someone who you'd expect. It's… Owen."

"Hm?" It took all of Noah's willpower to maintain his nonchalant façade he had.

"Al told me that Owen told him during the Amazon challenge that his parents put him up to lying about being bankrupt over the cheese-cellar last season in order for Chris to try to get him back in the show." He shook his head, "I know his folks put him up to it, but that's really low." Tyler's eyebrows arching to form a bitter frown, "I mean, my Lindsay got eliminated because she made a mistake anyone could have made, but Owen gets to comeback over a lie? It's messed up."

As Tyler was talking, Noah felt like he was a rat in a maze. The exit was flipping the jock to his side or at least making his vote not be for himself. And he was hopelessly lost in the labyrinth, coming to dead end to dead end. Why did he make the mistake of waiting until dinner to talk to Tyler? Duncan had already got to him, and the prospect of a tie was looming ever larger in the bookworms' mind. Unless it was a mental challenge or luck based, the punk would throttle him.

All that hard fought work he did would be for nothing.

No more million dollars.

He would be separated from Gwen…

…

Wait, what?

"You okay, bro?"

Noah almost jumped up in his seat as his attention returned to the jock, a concerned look on his face. Tyler had stopped relaying to him the narrative Alejandro wove for him that Noah knew from the start was a load of crap. The bookworm opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. What could he possibly say? There was no way he would vote for Duncan now that he had gotten to him first…

But maybe he doesn't need to…

All at once, a light-bulb flashed in Noah's head. Alejandro's skulduggery may have saved him!

"Sorry…" Noah spoke slowly. He needed each word to be perfect in order for this to work, "You telling me this made me realize that this isn't the only thing Owen did."

Tyler cocked his eyebrows, "What do you mean?"

Noah pinched his leg through his pants as he thought quickly of how to bring this to fruition until he got it, "He did something else… less than goodly."

Goodly? Great, he totally won't think you're lying at all now…

"Goodly, huh." Tyler repeated to himself a couple times before looking at the smaller boy with intrigue, "What did he do?"

Noah blinked,

I stand corrected.

"You've got to understand that he was put on enormous pressure by his parents to do this," The bookworm let the last word fade slowly out of his mouth, tempting the jock to ask more.

"Come on dude, tell me!" Tyler almost pleaded.

Noah held back the slightest of smirks, "Alright, I'll keep it straight with you. You remember how Owen was one of the judges during the tiebreaker with Lindsay and DJ?"

"Of course. He, Chris and Heather gave DJ the win even though he didn't even try." The jock gripped the bench til' his knuckles were white, "That killed me."

The bookworm took a pause before continuing right away. Unlike his gambit yesterday initially, he felt a stab of wariness before initiating this one. He was about to lie about someone, despite all odds, he actually sorts of valued as a best friend of all things. But in order to save himself… "Heather convinced Owen to dump Lindsay before the judging started. And he agreed."

"WHAT!?"

Tyler jumped out of his seat like a firecracker, before grabbing his face, "What-how-why-who-where-when-Bag Jo-Truncan-Yetep-"He took a deep breath, "No way! How do you know that!?"

Noah wiped the spittle Tyler sprayed on him through his near nervous breakdown and stood up calmly, "He told me."

"Why, why would he do that then!" The jock grew red in the face, "Why would he listen to Heather of all people!"

The bookworm shrugged his shoulders, "He told me she tricked him somehow. He wouldn't get into details."

"I… I don't believe you!"

"Why?" Noah snorted. "You seriously think I'd lie and throw my best friends reputation under the bus…" He spoke that last part of the sentence a hair slower, but the jock didn't notice.

"Then you're wrong somehow!" Tyler now was glowering at the bookworm, "Owen would never listen to Heather of all people to get rid of my Lindsay!"

"Oh, you mean like he'd never listen to Justin to blackmail Gwen?" Noah stood firm, glaring back towards the towering jock, "Or how he'd never accept Chris's offer to come back and stir up drama over a lie?" He took a step forward, "How is this different from those?"

Tyler's eyes slowly widened as memories from watching the second season dawned on him. He staggered a few steps back before collapsing onto the bench, holding his head. "Why did you tell me this? You two are super tight. Wouldn't you want to protect him?"

"I told you because I'm voting for him."

"What!?" Tyler sat up fast as lightning on the bench, bug eyed. "Y-you just told me you guys are best friends!"

Noah breathed in deeply, closing his eyes. The darkness made it easier to lie, "He is. But in a competitive environment he's too unpredictable. If we send him home, we'll be doing him a favor."

"We!?"

"Yes." Noah opened his eyes, "He's racked with guilt over this stuff, Tyler. He'd never quit because his parents are forcing him to compete, but he'll be grateful if he gets voted off. That's why I'm asking you to join me in helping him out."

"I… I don't know." Tyler stood up and walked towards the door before pausing, "I'm… with Duncan."

"Getting rid of Owen still gives you both a majority." Noah said. "Just think about it."

As the bookworm saw the jock sprint out of economy class, his eyes turned to the window. Closing them, he spoke softly, "Once Duncan is gone, I'll tell Tyler what happened. He'll be pissed at me, but I'd still have Owen…"

His eyes fluttered open as a question loomed over his mind.

Would he still have Owen?

After a brief flash of static, the shot opened up on each of the four members of Team Chris is Really Really Really Really Hot in the voting confessional in four squares. Noah and Duncan made their votes quickly while Owen hesitated for a bit before eventually stamping his. Tyler took by far the longest on screen, so long that the other three were shown leaving the confessional as he deliberated but he eventually stamped one with a solemn expression before the camera went to static.

After the static, the shot opened up on Gwen peering behind the Tiki's as the camera pans to the left to show Chris standing in front of Team Chris is Really Really Really Really Hot as their emblem flashed overhead. Tyler and Duncan were sitting on one side whilst Owen and Noah sat on the other. Both jock and blonde were nervously rubbing their arms whilst the latter of the duos wore incredible poker-faces.

"So, here we are." The host opened up with a shrug, "Let's look at why. Noah volunteered for, and lost, the first challenge. Which is why you're all here." The host walked a couple paces leftward for the camera to reveal an opened plane door with an intern carrying a parachute standing next to it before pivoting back around, "Plus he got saved by a girl. Funny? Yes. But not helpful."

"Tyler blew it in the hurdles. Which means no tiebreaker. Whichis why you're all here. Plus," Chris held back a laugh, "he knocked himself out cold and ran in the wrong direction while trying to out man a girl. All this, while his own girlfriend was watching at home."

"What does Lindsay have to do-"

"And Duncan. He lost his first challenge back and managed to start a bet between the crew over how many times he'd get whipped by Chef. Plus, if he lasts much longer, we'll have no idea how he'll injure himself next." The host grinned.

"Pffft." The punk snorted to the side.

Chris held up the passports in his hand and grinned, "Your choice was not so clear. And even if not, I will present them! In a close call the person taking the drop of shame is-

…

No one! It's a tie!"

"WHAT!?"

Everyone but Noah jumped out of their seats, including Gwen out from her Tiki.

"Ah, Gwen." Chris smiled, stuffing the passports into his pocket, "Thought you might show up here to see your new boyfriend gone, potentially."

Noah, Duncan, and Gwen all stared with intense venom before the host walked forward and slapped the bookworm on the back, with a cheesy grin. "I meant Noah of course. Everyone assumed since how much you guys been talking for y'all hooked up."

"I knew it!" Owen held his hands to his chin and squealed.

"We are not dating." The bookworm deadpanned.

"Ohohoho," Chris leaned into the bookworm as he chortled, "I wouldn't worry about who's smooching who right now my former assistant! Because you and Duncan are the ones who tied in the votes!" This revelation led to another round of gasps,

"What!?" Tyler jumped so far that he nearly smacked his head against the ceiling. He spun around towards Noah, his face downright furious, "What the hell! You told me you were voting for Owen! If I would've listened to you Duncan would be gone!?"

"Huh?" Owen blinked out from his lovey dove-y stupor. "L-little buddy?"

"Okay," Chris took a step forward so he was between Tyler and Noah, "We have to wrap this up soon so let-

"No!" Tyler stomped over towards Noah, shoving Chris out of the way, as a shocked trio of Duncan, Gwen, and Owen looked on, "I'm tired of being a doormat!" He roared towards the host before facing a shell-shocked bookworm, "So you just lied to me!? Lied about your friend!? All to save yourself!?"

"Tyler," Gwen took a step forward, grabbing his shoulder, "You need to calm down."

The jock, who was on a warpath, eyes' met the goths and took a step back, "I-I'm not going to hurt him." His rage boiled again as he turned to an expressionless bookworm, "I never wanted to hurt you ever, Noah! I thought you were cool! Even if you badmouthed Al behind his back, I thought we were friends! But you just lied to me even when I was so up-front with you!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Duncan awoke from his daze and stood up.

"Yeah!" Owen leaped down and stood in the way between Tyler and Noah, his face in a rare hardened frown. "You're acting crazy, Tyler! Would Al want all this fighting and yelling?"

At the mere mention of Alejandro, Tyler staggered back. After nearly twenty seconds of deep breaths, the jock answered, "I should've listened to what he said in the first place. You both are blinded by the money."

"What?" Owen croaked.

"I-I'm sorry." Tyler didn't even answer the blonde as he reached down to help Chris, who was on the floor after he accidentally shoved him, "I lost my cool, I'm sorry. "As the jock helped the host to his feet, the flabbergasted Noah felt someone touch his shoulder and turned to see Gwen,

"Are you okay?" Her black eyes seemed to pierce his emotionless ones, sparking them back to reality and himself to the real world.

"I'm fine, I knew Tyler wouldn't do anything." Even in this moment, he knew he had to let her know that this wasn't really Tyler. Just a Tyler who's been betrayed. "This will be fine; I just need to-

"You're lucky I don't just eliminate you for that, Tyler." Both teens turned to Chris, who was on his feet dusting himself off, "But I can't, because no one will be eliminated."

"What was that?" Duncan, cocked his unibrow.

"This was just a reward challenge." Chris nodded his head, now back in the swing of things. "I actually was thinking of not telling you guys the vote count, but I'm so glad I did to see this red fire cracker pop." He jabbed his thumb at Tyler's chest before frowning slightly, "But seriously, touch me again and it'll not be pretty, dude." He went back to being jovial, turning to the rest of the contestants. "I'm sure you have a lot to discuss before our next destination… which is a good thing! Don't ya think?"

Instead of an answer, Tyler just turned and walked out of the door, grumbling to himself. Duncan soon followed, passing Noah with a chuckle, "Don't know what you did to piss him off man, but thanks for making this game a whole 'lot easier…"

"I can still tell her." The bookworm turned with a glare.

But Duncan didn't even glance back at him, "Sure! Like anyone going to believe someone who managed to piss Tyler off."

Noah, and even Gwen, glared at the punk as he exited the ceremony area following Tyler, leaving the latter two and Owen standing in an awkward triangle.

"Noah…" Gwen spoke with her voice slightly cracking,

He tried to ignore her for now, "I didn't tell him I'd vote for you Owen." It was scared Noah how easy he could lie, "He's just confused. Let's go back to economy and steer clear of them for a while, okay?"

"O-okay." Owen solemnly nodded his head and began to follow Noah as they slowly began to walk out the door.

"Noah!" Gwen quietly whispered, making the bookworm stop and turn. Those black eyes piercing his soul once more.

"We'll talk tomorrow; I can't deal with this right now." And with that, Noah left her to wallow in utter confusion.

As Gwen stared dumbfounded for a good minute after Noah, and anyone else, was out of earshot, Chris popped up behind her, putting her shoulder around her, "Want to know a secret?"

The goth groaned, her eyes looking up to the ceiling, "What?"

"That was totally not going to be a reward challenge." He gave the goth a cheesy grin before turning to the camera to sign off the episode, "Which makes the next challenge an elimination one! How will Noah make it out of this one? After that reality check during the challenge, will Sierra stop obsessing over Cody? And did Duncan tell Courtney that they were over?"

Gwen's eyes turned to Chris, "Did he!?"

Chris ignored her, "All this and more will be revealed on Total Drama World Tour!" The camera faded to back on the cheesy grin of Chris and the distraught face of Gwen as the episode concluded.

Endnote:

[1] - The ECCC (Environment and Climate Change Canada) is the Canadian equivalent to the Environmental Protection Agency here in the USA. Kind of weird they don't call it the "Department of Environment and Climate Change", right?

Authors Notes: Pretty crazy, right?

Seems like Noah's Gambit may be turning into Tyler's Existential Crisis, but not to worry. The next chapter will primarily focus back on Gwoah! Gotta keep this slow burn romance chugging along, right? Speaking of which, here are a few questions I kind of have for y'all to see if I'm moderately succeding or epic failing, lol:

1. Do you like the Gwoah dynamic?: If I'm not getting this right, then oh boy, that's not good at all...

2. How did you like Tyler's increased focus/how I wrote him?

3. How's my Courtney?: Trying to make sure I get a good mix of calm Courtney and TDA-onwards Courtney.

4. How'd you like the song?: Like or dislike the format? Like or dislike the lyrics?

5. What is your favorite Mario Kart character?: I'm just curious, mines Daisy! :D

6. What did you think of Noah's Second Gambit?

Don't want to bore y'all with everything I'm curious on, but feel free to talk about any of these (or anything not on the list) in the reviews! I mostly have this list here cuz for some fics, even fics I really like, it's hard for me to organize my words for stuff so reviews kinda come out overly verbose. Hopefully with this template that helps mediate that! (Unless you like to write a lot! Feel free to! :D)

Anywho, have a great morning, mid-day, afternoon, evening, or whenever you find yourself reading this! :)

-ewisko