Challenge time...again! Well no. I lied. It's the end of the second week, and letters are coming! Thanks for reviewing, Gage the Hedgehog, GirlPower54, Johnathen (sorry, I'm only doing the first three seasons) and Bloody-Asphode11 (well, I didn't know, and besides, he didn't just go home – one of Lisa's letters will explain what he did while he was in Canada).

I actually had a better time than I expected, with Leshawna away for the night. Although Lindsay and Beth clearly preferred each other's company to mine, they included me in all their "girl time" sessions and we spent all evening talking. It was like one big sleepover, especially since we knew we had a break and letters were coming the next day. If it wasn't for Heather glowering at us all night, things would've been perfect. Beth and Lindsay were really starting to grow on me. Beth was so nice and friendly, and a lot smarter than she acted, while Lindsay may have been dumb, but she had one of the kindest hearts of any idiot (including Dad, even at his best).

I only had one letter, this time. It was from Lisa, and surprisingly short.

Steph,

We got the Western episode a few nights ago. It says the next show coming up is an...Aftermath? Apparently, Geoff and Bridgette are co-hosts and will be talking to Izzy and Trent. And speaking of Trent – the poor guy! I don't know what happened to him this season. If Gwen's still there, tell her that I understand why she dumped him, but that he needed her support and she shouldn't have done it.

Also, I should warn you. Justin is trouble. He says that this time, he's in it to win it, and that's why he keeps trying to get Beth to do everything for him. Don't fall for his looks, please! I know he's gorgeous, but be careful!

Gotta go now. I haven't finished my homework, and I know you've got some to do between challenges.

Lots of love and good luck,
Lisa

Leshawna, who had arrived back, had no letters, but she was happy. She told me all about how she got to hang out with Leshaniqua, her favourite cousin, and what a great time they had at the spa. I was happy for her, but crazy jealous, too. I must've looked like a nightmare with no makeup, greasy hair and my roots showing clearly.

We thought we might have an extra break when we spent a whole morning and half the afternoon playing soccer (me and a couple of the guys) and cards (everyone else).

Everyone was scoffing the sandwiches from lunch. For some reason, they tasted better than anything Chef had ever made before. Beth had taken most of them herself, but everyone kept taking them.

Beth and Lindsay were already making plans to hang out and braid each other's hair. "That would be so fun, right, Steph?" Lindsay said. She was starting to get my name right, finally, but I frowned.

"Braiding hair? Um, you two go ahead. I'm going to..um...cut off half my hair so Heather has a wig?" That made the three of us laugh.

Heather glared at us, saying "Some of us are trying to keep up our strength to actually win the competition."

"We don't think there is one today." Lindsay told her.
"There better be. I am here to win a million dollars and the sooner I eliminate you pathetic spineless followers, the better."

I glared ."Who are you calling a spineless follower?"

Heather tossed a sweet smile over her shoulder. "Oh, I wasn't referring to you, Stephanie. You're not a spineless follower. You're a copycat outcast. I mean, even though I can't stand Gwen, at least her goth look was something she made up."

I couldn't help being furious at that. If she was saying I copied Gwen...well, no way. I didn't look like Gwen at all! I only wore red and black, not blue, green and black like Gwen. Nor did I ever wear skirts or thigh-high boots (although I did want boots like Gwen's).

But there was a challenge. Chris called us to one of the studios, even though he didn't show up. Then, he was falling from the top of the building, impaled on a set light.

We all started screaming, and Justin said "Guess the producers don't like paying overtime."

"I'm worth every dime." Chris was suddenly alive again. He explained that the impaling thing was all special effects, and that he had a packet of fake blood attached to him. And fake blood could only mean one thing!

"Are we doing horror movies today?" I asked eagerly.

Chris grinned. "Right you are, Stephanie!"

Lindsay looked at Beth. "I can't believe how unscarable you are! You didn't even scream!"

"I did on the inside." Beth told her "I just can't do it on the outside." She explained that when she was ten and getting her tonsils taken out, her doctor's earring fell in her throat and her screams only came out as a gasp.

First, to decide which team got which challenge, it was time for a scream-off. We had to pick our scariest teammate to make us scream. Whoever gave the loudest screams out of their team, they got the better challenge.

Justin wanted to be the killer, but Izzy argued. "I am such the better scarer! My own dog is terrified of me!"

"But you're cute as a bug in a rug!" Owen said, giving her googly eyes. Lindsay tried to say something, but I talked over her.

"Izzy, I'd agree with you, but Owen refuses to be scared of you, so I think I should do it." I argued. "I'm scarier."

But Justin and Izzy continued to argue.

"Look at my scary face!" Izzy demonstrated.

"That's not scary, that's adorable!" Owen exclaimed. Izzy gave him a disturbing glare. "This is a scary face."

Suddenly, Lindsay spoke up, her voice suddenly stern and bossy. "Beth is going to be our serial killer, and that's final!" Everyone else was shocked into silence.

But not me. "Beth may not be able to scream, but she's not scary, either." I argued. "I'm scary, Izzy's scary. You, Justin and Owen aren't scary, either. You have to pick one of us, and since I'm the only one who's standing up to you, I think I should do it. One scream can be sacrificed in honour of bigger screams."

I won that argument, but Lindsay was clearly annoyed with me.

Everyone had to do a different scene. Justin would be walking in the woods, Lindsay would be in one of the Port-A-Loos, Beth would be in a dark alleyway, and Owen and Izzy would be in a living room, making out.

Luckily, I made Justin scream louder than he meant to, because the minute he screamed, he gasped out "Stephanie! You made me strain my vocal chords! What if my voice never recovers?"

"Sorr-ee." I gave a sigh, making sure not to look into his eyes. "Your voice already recovered."

Lindsay screamed much louder than anyone else on set ever could have. I must've really scared her, because she actually got some use out of the toilet she was sitting on.

I didn't bother to try to scare Beth, but the make-or-break of the whole challenge was Izzy and Owen. Unfortunately, they were too busy making out to get too scared.

However, the good news was that I'd already won. The Gaffers' killer was DJ, and the only person to get scared was Heather – and that was because she had to kiss Duncan. I don't know why – he was the best kisser I knew of.

When DJ terrorized Harold, he did scream, but he wasn't quite as scared as Justin was. Leshawna couldn't beat Lindsay's scream of true terror...and then, shame. While Heather's scream of disgust beat Owen and Izzy's courtesy scream, I'd already won the last two rounds, so we had the win.

But then, while Duncan and Heather finished their scene, Chef came up as the psycho killer and freaked both of them out, as well as DJ, who fainted.

So before we started the rest of the challenge, we had to wake up DJ.

"Is he okay?" Beth asked, looking concerned.

"I think he's saying something." Leshawna said quietly.

Sure enough, DJ began saying something. "..Momma?"

I frowned. "Is he hallucinating, or just dreaming?"

After we pulled him back up to the couch, Heather slapped him in the face. That woke DJ up, but the first words out of his mouth were "I need to see Chef."

Heather slapped him again. At Leshawna's protest, she said "What? He's still talking crazy."

But Chris was anxious to start the next part of the challenge. As the losers, the Gaffers had to sleep in the craft service tent.

But while our team was sitting around a campfire, Chris told us what to do. We had to scare the Gaffers out of the tent before dawn.

"Oh," he added, "Just so you know, I told them some cockamaime story about a security guard who died on set." Then he walked off, looking pleased with himself.

"Okay," I said to my team, taking charge, "Let's think about what scares the Gaffers. Leshawna's scared of spiders, DJ's scared of snakes, Harold is scared of, but admires, ninjas, Heather's scared of sumo wrestlers, and Duncan's scared of Celine Dion standees." I paused. "Speaking of Duncan, this is going to be hard. He knows horror movies."

The minute I'd finished speaking, Lindsay spoke up, again sounding bossy. "Listen up, Grips! There's one way to get them out of the tent, and I have an idea!"

I put a hand on her shoulder. "Linds, with respect, can you shut up? I'm the one who watches horror movies. You were the one who freaked out in the last challenge. Give me this one!"

"No!" Lindsay argued. "I'm sick of everyone bossing me around. I could lead this team just as well as anyone, and you haven't even listened to my idea yet!"

Okay, to Lindsay's credit, she worked out a way to scare Heather and Duncan enough to get them out. "Let's dress Owen up as a security guard and have him sing Celine Dion songs while flexing like a sumo wrestler!" she suggested.

I folded my arms. "Good...but what about ninjas?"

"I know! I know!" Izzy called out. "You've got black clothes, right, Steph? You and I go in and scare Harold out as ninjas in all black."

I frowned. "Okay...but does he have his numchucks with him? If he does, that might be a problem."

"I'm pretty sure he keeps them beside his bed in the trailer." Justin offered. "I'll go check they're still there." He spent ages in the trailer (probably spotting some tiny imperfection he had to spend an hour perfecting), but he resported that they were there, and gave them to me.

Lindsay paused. "We're missing Leshawna and DJ, right?" she said. "Any ideas, people?"

There was a pause.

"Come on!" Lindsay said impatiently. "I'm doing all the work here, team!"

"Thanks, Lindsay." I snarked. "I'm pretty sure Izzy was the one with the ninja ideas." I paused, and said..."Okay, while we have Owen appear as an apparition of the security guard/sumo wrestler/Celine Dion wannabe and me and Izzy appear as ninjas, you three others pour tomato sauce on the wall from the kitchen. They'll think it's blood, and I know that'll scare DJ enough. You guys know how much he hates scary movies."

As a matter of fact, our plan actually didn't go too badly. DJ went screaming out of the tent the minute the walls started bleeding, before Duncan could tell him the "blood" had the wrong consistency (dammit!). But Harold just clung to Leshawna when Izzy and I went for him. Eventually, they were both sent running out of the tent.

But Duncan and Heather stood their ground. Well, Heather was inching towards the door and eventually made a run for it, but Duncan didn't budge.

"Lame special effects." he said coolly. "I know it's you, Owen."

Owen stopped his (actually not too bad) singing and gave a sigh. "All right. You got me."

But we were determined to get the whole team out of the tent before the night was through, and Lindsay, again, told everyone what to do.

"Stephanie," she said, "You're the one who knows Duncan the best. What else is he afraid of?"

I thought about it. Finally, I said "Appearing soft. Okay, what about this. Let's parody I Know What You Did Last Summer. Duncan made a ton of 'nice guy' moves that most people don't know about, but I know all of them."

I gave them some top-secret information that only Courtney and I had known prior. DJ's Bunny II, the fact that he kept a photo of Courtney under his pillow and most of all...the gentle way he'd kissed me.

"You guys were dating while he was with Courtney?" Beth asked, round-eyed. "Seriously? Isn't that, like...cheating?"

I shrugged. "Whatever. If it had worked out, he would've broken up with Courtney in the kindest way possible. What she doesn't know won't hurt her. And none of you five are going to tell her, understand?" I said menacingly.

Izzy was the only one who didn't look scared when I said that, but all five of my teammates nodded.

It took us until about an hour before sunrise, but Duncan was eventually just about scared out of the tent by our We Know What You Did Last Summer And We're Gonna Tell Everyone tactics.

But when the Gaffers returned the next day from the Gilded Chris ceremony, they told us what had happened.

"DJ quit before we voted. He had made an illegal alliance with Chef, and decided to leave because of it."

I never would have expected sweet, kind-hearted DJ to be in an illegal alliance. But I did suspect that Chef had just bullied him into it. I wasn't going to hold it against DJ, and I would miss him.

To be honest, I'm glad to get rid of DJ finally. This plotline was not fun. Now I can get onto the Leader Lindsay plot. A couple more episodes, and we'll meet Admiral Lindsay Her Hotness.