Okay, challenge #2! Thanks for reviewing, Ali6132 and StarHeart Specials!

We did get a break that next day. The teams mixed, and I memorized everyone's names once and for all. It was also nice to get to talk to Gwen. As it turned out, we both had a younger brother who we liked pulling stuff with, and our style was individuality-based.

"Although I'm not sure why I'm not mad that I met someone that dresses just like me." I sighed.

Gwen narrowed her eyes in thought. "We're not exactly alike in the way we dress. You're just basic black and into being scary, right? I'm more..."

"Traditional gothic." I suggested. "But speaking of scary stuff, are you into horror movies?"

Gwen's eyes lit up. "I love horror movies!" We ended up talking about all the horror movies we'd seen and going through every slasher flick rule we knew.

During the day, I also got to know the guys on my team better. I got that I needed to tread carefully with Duncan, but once I proved that I didn't take crap from anyone and that I couldn't care less who hated me and who liked me, I could tell I'd earned his respect. We became pretty friendly after that.

The next morning, Chris woke us early. Everyone trickled out of the cabins. Eva had her MP3 player plugged in, and Cody nearly lost a finger when he reached for it.

"Morning!" Chris said, with that annoying camera-worthy grin on his face. "Hope you slept well."

"Hi, Chris." Heather said, bright and chipper in spite of it being seven o'clock. "You look really buff in those shorts." I caught Gwen's eye and pretended to gag.

"I know." Chris said, with a wink. "Okay, I hope you're all ready because your next challenge begins in exactly one minute!"

"Um, excuse me," Owen said, "But I don't know if that's enough time to eat breakfast." But with the way he ate, he'd be the only one who'd finish breakfast in one minute.

Chris smirked. "Oh, you'll get breakfast, Owen...right after you complete your twenty kilometre run around the lake."

"Oh, so you're funny now." Eva muttered sarcastically. "You wanna know what I think would be funny-" A couple of the boys had to hold her back from attacking Chris.

"Eva, try to control your temper!" Courtney hissed.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" Eva yelled at Chris.

"A little. You have thirty seconds..."

I don't know what Eva was complaining about. She had some of the most stamina of everyone. She was with a group that was still running. I walked along near Katie, Sadie, Harold and Gwen.

"Do you know how much longer?" Harold groaned.

"Don't walk beside me." Gwen told him.

Heather was just behind us, and she stopped as we passed Owen, lying in a puddle of water. "Can't..catch...breath...must...have...condition..." he said. I passed him as Heather told him off.

I got back after about six of my other teammates had already made it.

Owen suddenly burst in, with Noah over his shoulder. "Clear a table, stat!" he cried. Leshawna finally arrived, and Harold was last.

"What took you so long?" Courtney demanded. "We just lost the challenge!"

But then, it turned out that wasn't even the challenge. But we got a reward for it – a huge feast. A giant buffet – there was at least one thing for every person on that table. Turkey, mashed potatoes, bread rolls, peas, baked beans, and about a million other things. I pigged out – well, everyone did. It tasted like heaven compared to Chef's food, and we all wanted something to eat after that run.

"Okay, campers!" Chris said through a loudspeaker, after we were done, "Time for the second part of your challenge!"

"I thought eating was the second part!" Owen said.

"What more do you want from us?" Gwen asked.

Even Heather agreed. "Weird goth girl is right, haven't we been through enough?"

I turned to glare at Heather. "So she's 'weird goth girl'? What makes her weirder and more goth than me?"

"Okay, weird goth girl 2.0, I'll call you that from now on." Heather said sweetly, smiling at me. "If that's what you want."

That girl was quick, I'll give her that.

Meanwhile, Chris answered her question. "Let me think about that...no! It's time for the Awake-A-Thon!"

We didn't need to be told what this meant. Person who stayed awake the longest won for their team. Was I glad I'd begged a Kindle for my sixteenth birthday and brought it with me. That could keep me awake for a bit.

"So," Gwen said, "What you're saying is the 20k run and the turkey eating frenzy were part of your evil plan to make it harder for us to stay awake?"

"That's right, Gwen!"

All of us were sitting out on the campfire pit, everyone trying hard to keep their eyes open for the next few hours. Owen was the first to fall, at twelve hours. It was so boring. The most interesting thing was to watch everyone else. I kept away from the Gophers, though. No sense in using them to help me stay awake – they'd stay awake too. But it didn't mean I couldn't watch.

Heather pulled Lindsay and Beth aside to talk about something. Gwen and Trent kept each other awake by getting to know each other.

Izzy, Noah, Bridgette and a few others were asleep by the twenty-four hour mark, and not even Chris reading fairy tales with Chef playing the harp dressed as a lamb made me fall asleep. I was determined to win this one.

Courtney lasted quite some time, moving back and forth for a long time. Katie and Sadie were finishing each others' snores. Justin cheated and painted his eyelids so he could sleep without getting caught out – but Gwen and Trent accidentally woke him.

It came to eighty-four hours – three nights and one day, and I was still awake. Duncan was awake enough to play a trick on Harold. When I saw him sneak up to the nerd with a mug of warm water, I raised an eyebrow at him. "You're actually gonna do that?"

"Hey, I've always wanted to pull that on someone." Duncan said. He dipped Harold's hand in the water, and saw the damp patch spread. "Gross, it works!"

I laughed. "Do that to me sometime. It doesn't work on me – my little brother played that trick on me a few times. Never worked."

Noah woke up to find himself making out with Cody. Both of them screamed and ran away from each other.

I giggled. "I just know people are going to start writing yaoi with them when they see this!"

I fell asleep around the time Gwen was begging Chris for a coffee. There were only five people still awake – Eva and Duncan on my team, and Gwen, Trent and Heather for the Gophers.

As it turned out, Gwen won. Duncan fell asleep during a bathroom break. That meant our team lost again.

Things only got worse. Eva discovered her MP3 player having gone missing and started hurling everything out of our cabin. "One of you must've stolen it!" she accused. "I need my music! No one is going anywhere until I get my MP3 player back."

Courtney turned to the rest of us, not tired enough to forget to pretend she was the adult. "Okay, whoever took it better give it up now, before she destroys the whole camp!"

"Hey, guys!" Heather came up, smiling sweetly. "Wow, this place is a real mess." It was true. Everything was outside.

"Someone stole Eva's MP3 player." Courtney explained.

"You don't mean this, do you?" Heather pulled the little device out of her pocket. "I was wondering who it belonged to! I found it by the campfire pit."

Eva's face was the picture of joy. "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"Sure thing." Heather shrugged, walking off. Wow, that was not suspicious at all. Heather was either really crazy, or really moody. She was so mean when she arrived, but then she was sweet. I mean, she seemed to think I really wanted her to acknowledge I was goth (although now I thought about it, as long as it didn't catch on, I'd not bother to make her stop calling me 'weird goth girl 2.0'.)

"So," Eva said sheepishly. "Sorry about that little...misunderstanding. Guess no one stole it after all. Okay...maybe I overreacted a little." It looked like she was going to be a major target for elimination that night.

That's why I talked to her. "You know," I said carefully, "The team really doesn't like you right now, but I think you should stay in this game. Vote with me?"

Eva gave me a suspicious look. "Who did you want to vote for?"

"The way I see it, the only chance that you have in staying in this game is if we vote off someone else." I told her. "I think the other major target right now is Courtney. She's so bossy. I'm voting for her tonight."

Eva hesitated. "Well," she said slowly, "I wouldn't mind getting rid of that bossy cow..." She smiled a little. "All right, Steph. I'll vote with you."

But it was a lost cause. I still voted for Courtney, and I'm sure Eva did too, but it didn't help. I was called up for the second marshmallow, right after Duncan. But Eva was left without a marshmallow.

She glared at everyone except me. Her brown eyes were suspicious, but she could see I was genuinely upset that our plan hadn't worked. "Nice." she scowled. "Really nice. Who needs this stupid TV show anyway?"

"Bye-bye, Eva!" Courtney called out sweetly. Eva turned around and threw her marshmallow stick. Courtney ducked. "Touchy!"

"You just voted her off." I pointed out. "She doesn't want to hear you say goodbye like you didn't vote for her. Watch it, Princess. You'll be following her soon enough."

Courtney scowled at me. "What is your problem, Stephanie?"

"Um, you?" I replied. "Seriously."

But I joined in when Courtney toasted our marshmallows. "To the Killer Bass! And to not ending up here again next challenge!"

Later on, Duncan sought me out on the cabin steps. "Hey, Steph." he greeted me.

"Hey." I said, not looking at him properly.

He lowered his voice. "Don't tell anyone I asked you, but..." he paused. "Don't call Courtney Princess. I claim rights to calling her that."

I shrugged. "Whatever. I can call her anything else, can't I? Why are you so bothered, though?"

Duncan shrugged. "I like seeing her get mad. What can I say?"

I grinned. "We should make a bet on who can make Courtney lose her temper faster."

"You're on, sister." We bumped fists. "Five bucks on whoever makes Courtney lose her temper fastest before she leaves."

"But one rule." I said. "No one tells Courtney about this bet – that's just cheating. She'd lose her temper instantly."

We both tried to get a good night's sleep that night. But I could hear snoring through the wall, keeping me awake after I'd gotten a few essential hours.

I don't know...I just see Stephanie and Duncan being pretty friendly, and her having a major problem with Courtney bossing everyone around. At least she can consider Eva a friend. Sort of. One thing's for sure – Eva won't be out for her blood when she comes back...that is, if Stephanie even makes it that far! Yes, I know when she's going...but you guys don't!