I love this one! Canoes!

We had another break where we got letters. This time, Mom had sent the letter. I could instantly tell by the tear stains.

Dear Stephanie,

We all miss you a lot, sweetheart. We're all watching and rooting for you – we just saw the dodgeball episode. I'm very proud of you for sticking to what you think is right back in that episode where you voted off that tough girl you became friendly with. Your father sends his love.

We're all enjoying the show. Lisa's already made predictions about who's most likely to win, and she can usually guess who will be eliminated halfway through the show – although we all guessed with that boy Noah from the last one we watched. She thinks that the bossy girl from the other team with the long black hair will be around for a long time. (She must've meant Heather.)

Hang in there. It's only six more weeks.

Love Mom.

It was a nice letter, and very cool to get insight, but to be honest, I'd be more interested in Lisa's, because she would tell me what she thought of the other contestants. But the break was a fleeting pleasure. We had another challenge the next day.

This time, we had to canoe up to a place called Boney Island, then take the canoes to the other side of the island and make a fire. Chris would judge the best one, and then we would canoe back. First team back won.

"Oh, and one more thing I should mention." Chris added in an ominous voice. "Legend has it that if you take anything off the island, you'll be cursed forever!"

"Yeah! A cursed island!" Owen exclaimed.

Silence.

"Now, get in your canoes, and let's have some fun!" Chris grinned. Fun for him, maybe.

I paired up with Duncan for the canoe trip. If I hadn't, I probably would've gone with Bridgette, but she was all good – she asked Courtney to be her partner. It seemed they got along okay. I didn't know why, though. In my opinion, Courtney was insufferable, and Bridgette was really cool. But hey, maybe she'd rub off on Courtney. Meanwhile, Harold and Sadie paired up, and so did Geoff and DJ. On the other team, Cody had grabbed Gwen as his partner, while Lindsay and Beth pulled Trent off. Izzy and Leshawna paired up, which left Heather with Owen.

We pretty easily pushed the canoe into the water, since we were both pretty strong. Cody was having some trouble, and refused to ask Gwen to help. DJ was looking worried about the canoeing, and Leshawna was pulling Izzy and their canoe into the water. Owen positively threw Heather into the canoe before pushing it in. When they got in, Owen called out "If this canoe's rocking, don't come a-knocking!"

Duncan and I watched as Heather hit him with her oar. "Poor sucker." I chuckled. "I don't think Heather will ever be into anyone."

Duncan shrugged. "She's hot, yeah, but even I think she's too mean. I wouldn't usually care, but even I have limits."

"So how mean is too mean?" I asked. "I can be mean. And don't deny that you like Courtney – it's obvious. And she can be pretty mean too."

"That's different." Duncan explained. "Girls like you and Courtney – you have attitude, but not like Heather does. At least Courtney is mean because she wants our team to win. And there's a difference between calling someone a bubble brain and reading another chick's diary out loud to the world."

"So..." I paused. "What's your deal with Courtney anyway? I think she likes you too, even if she won't admit it. But how would you get her to hook up with you?"

"Flirt. Duh. She'll respond. I bet we hook up before the teams merge."

I laughed. "Speaking of which, I call off that bet about making her lose her temper."

"Scared cause you're losing?"

"No way. Replace the bet with when you guys hook up. I say after the merge."

"You're on, sister. But don't back out of this one, too, if you think you're losing."

We kept up this kind of conversation the whole way to Boney Island. I caught snatches of conversation from the other boats, too. Bridgette was telling Courtney about this cheesy little heart-shaped bowl she found in our cabin – Geoff left it for her. Izzy was telling Leshawna some crazy story. Cody was trying to ask Gwen out. DJ was giving Geoff dating advice...stuff like that.

Finally, we arrived at the misty onimous island.

Izzy spoke up, looking at the skull formation. "Okay, did you see that skull? How cool is that? It's like this place is haunted or something!"

The Gophers almost overtook us, but not quite. We came to a fork in the road. "Which way are we gonna go?" DJ asked.

"Left." Courtney answered. "Definitely left."

"I don't know..." Geoff began, "I think we should take the one on the right."

"The right trail is wider." Bridgette agreed. Geoff grinned at her. "What are you looking at?" Poor Geoff. I felt a bit sorry for him and his flirting attempts. Then again, no girl likes it when a guy compliments her the way Geoff had back in the camping challenge.

Suddenly, just as we were walking along, Geoff stopped and fell. "My leg!" he cried. "I'm down! I'm down! Oh, it's so unfair! Why did this have to happen now? Why? WHY?"

"Geoff!" Bridgette was the first to go over to help him.

"You've gotta go on without me." Geoff choked out. Courtney tried to, but DJ pulled her back.

It was horrible. Not Geoff's leg – the way everyone was overreacting to it. That said, I went along with it. Geoff just had a splinter, but I figured he deserved to be allowed a chance to get Bridgette's attention. He obviously wasn't a bad guy – just really bad at flirting. Basically the exact opposite of Duncan – not a good guy, even though he does have a heart, who happens to have all the moves on flirting (I could tell because he tried most of them out on Courtney throughout the next two weeks).

We also had a headstart when we made the fire, since Duncan had a lighter. But it was still so small. We just needed more wood. So Harold had the bright idea to put the oars on our fire.

"How are we supposed to get home now?" Bridgette demanded. And after all that, Izzy's homemade fire starter gave the Gophers the win for the fire. But I guess we should thank Izzy. It was her idea to have one person swim behind the canoes and push them. She was telling us to do so just as she and Leshawna paddled by. I could see Leshawna scowling at her helping us, but we needed to do that.

"That might work!" said Geoff, who was finally standing again after Bridgette checked out his leg.

"We need someone big enough to push all the canoes back." she looked around. "DJ, you're the only one who's strong enough."

"You can't ask him to do that!" Geoff protested. "The dude can't swim!" I remembered DJ's look of terror when he first got into the canoe.

After that, even Geoff volunteered to do that, but after the splinter, we wouldn't let him. And you know what? DJ overcame whatever fears he had, pushed the canoes back, and won the challenge for us! Cue cheering here. The Killer Bass rule!

I sat out on the steps for awhile that night. That's how I saw the helicoper of the Royal Canadian Mountain Police. Searchlights beamed down, and a voice boomed from a loudspeaker. "Izzy, we know you're down there! You are under arrest!"

I couldn't help my gasp. What had put Izzy done to get arrested. But then I heard Izzy's voice, very faintly, from the campfire pit. "YOU'LL NEVER GET ME ALIVE!" I heard her laughing as the helicopters flew away, presumably following her. I guess she was the next gone, and I couldn't help wishing I'd gotten to know her better.

When I came in, I heard the sound of breaking glass. Bridgette's bowl – the one that Geoff gave her – had broken. She looked up. "Have any glue?" she asked.

I shook my head. "Nope. Sorry, Bridge."

Sadie wasn't around, but Courtney turned from the mirror. "I wouldn't waste my time trying to fix that." she said.

Bridgette picked up the fragments. "Maybe I would." she murmured softly.

When Courtney left the room, I asked Bridgette a question. "So...I thought you didn't like the bowl. You looked horrified when you first saw it. And wasn't that the reason you went all cold on Geoff for awhile?"

Bridgette shrugged. "I guess I was just overwhelmed. I know what he's trying to do, but the thing is...is he really that stupid, or is it some other reason? I mean, I guess at least he was trying to be nice when he left this."

"He seems intelligent enough when I talk to him." I replied. "Not that I do much. I think he just likes you a lot and doesn't have a clue how to flirt. Try being friendly with him, even if he makes another weird comment like that one about the tent. Maybe he'll relax and stop trying to impress you all the time. That's what makes him look stupid."

Paintball coming up next! I'm looking forward to it. Are you?