Let's keep going. Thanks for reviewing, Gage the Hedgehog and totaldramafan2.

Our third-week break got me three letters – one from Tasha from just after the hospital movie challenge, and two from Lisa – one from that time, and one from just after the horror movie challenge.

I read Tasha's first:

Steph!

Wow, those last few episodes were a blast! As for the Aftermath – well, poor Trent. And I'm sorry that Gwen got eliminated – there's some clips online of retrospectives, and Gwen was terrified when she heard there was an aftermath show.

Did everyone recover from the pizzas? Hope so. Anyway, everyone at Springfield High is talking about you and the show now. Our group is all rooting for you, but we're all debating who should go next and who should be in the final two. We're all gunning for Heather again, but Azure and Sunshine are both saying Justin should go. Well, he has been acting like a jerk recently. I didn't even notice him in the first season - didn't Heather get people to kick him off to cover herself after she read out Gwen's diary?

Stick it out, Steph! If Wikipedia is right, you've got fifteen more genres to go through. Good luck on 'em!

Love Tasha.

Next, I read the first one from Lisa.

Dear Stephanie,

You really gave Mom a near heart attack with that illness thing last episode. I started working out it had to do with the pizzas or staying up all night when you, Duncan and Leshawna were the only ones not on stretchers, saying that you thought you were going to die. And yeah – but it's weird that it took longer for it to kick in with Duncan. I mean, Leshawna was the only one that didn't eat any of the pizza, right? Good job on that, by the way. But in case you wanna know – Leshawna fake cried to get the reward. She was desperate to hang out with that cousin she had. And yes, Chris meant it when he said Bart got to fly over in case you got the reward. He got back just before the prison movie episode aired, and told us everything he knew. He got a tour around the movie lot while you were barricaded in quarantine, he said, and he sneaked into the trailers. Did Duncan mention that he'd lost a hook recently? And speaking of which, he brought your black cowboy hat home with him. Did you know you'd lost it? (I hadn't noticed it going missing, but when I checked, yeah, it was gone).

Did you have to go along with that whole blackmailing Gwen thing? I know what happened with her and Trent was wrong, but still!

Anyway, that's all for now.

Love, Lisa

The last one was shorter:

Stephanie,

I know I already wrote to you after the hospital movie, but we just saw the horror movie challenge and I realized I forgot to tell you about the family.

Dad started rooting for you this episode. With you and Lindsay arguing, he decided he liked your character better. Mom got pretty frustrated with him seeing you as a character rather than his daughter.

Bart was really disappointed that there wasn't much gore in this episode – you know what he's like with horror movies. But good for DJ, standing up for himself and doing the right thing.

Maggie's still missing you a lot. She loves kindergarten, but she brings back drawings of you every day she has art. She's drawn a lot of Total Drama-based pictures, actually. She's glued to it and keeps drawing you hanging out with people on the show. She seems to especially like drawing Lindsay. I'm not sure why. But speaking of Lindsay, the reason she was getting bossy was because Heather called her a spineless follower. Then she said being bossy felt "almost better than being pretty". If she's still being bossy now, that's the reason. (Guess that explained the whole "Admiral Lindsay Her Hotness" thing).

Everyone sends their love. We're rooting for you!

Love Lisa (and family)

I spent the rest of the day catching up on coursework, only stopping to go to dinner, and later on, talk to Leshawna about the Gaffers-minus-Heather alliance. "Are we still going to try it while the guys are mad at you?"

"I'm holding off for awhile." she admitted. "But if they start coming around, will you be ready?"

I nodded. "Yeah. But you'll forgive me if I don't tell the boys that straight out, right? I don't want Duncan to hate me momentarily, and Harold gets so moody if I do anything he doesn't like."

In the trailer the next day, the other girls were complaining about Courtney getting back in the game while we got ready for the day. Leshawna was also snapping at Heather about leaving her in the safe.

"You stole my spa day." Heather justified. "Do the crime, do the time."

"Wasn't your spa day! Besides, I could've starved in there, people!"

"I seriously doubt that." Heather eyed Leshawna's bulk. True, she was plump, but that didn't mean she wasn't beautiful.

"And what was it you planned at doing at the spa without washing your hair?" Leshawna said furiously.

"Good point." I jumped in.

"Oh no!" exclaimed Lindsay, who was brushing her hair. "I've got my hair in a knot! Beth, could you-"

"Here." Heather said in an obviously fake sweet voice. "Let me." She tugged.

Lindsay gave a squeal. "Heather! I think you pulled my eyes into the back of my head!"

"Not a bad idea." Leshawna commented. "With Courtney on your team, you better watch your back."

"She's so bossy." Beth added.

"And uptight." I put in. "And last night, I heard her arguing with Duncan. Sounds like they've broken up momentarily." This was true. Courtney had been yelling at him about hooking up with Gwen. Then she accused him of flirting with me. Some girlfriend, not trusting him.

"And it's not like we needed another know-it-all on the show." Lindsay finished.

"Oh, really?" Heather said.

"Ow!" Lindsay cried as the bald girl yanked the hairbrush again. "I was talking about me! Now that Bossy McSmartypants is back, no one's ever gonna listen to me ever again!"

"Sorry, did you say something?" Leshawna and I said at the same time.
"But seriously, Linds," I said, "How many ideas did you actually come up with? From what I got, Beth told you everything you had to say."

Heather finally got the knot out of Lindsay's hair, just as the door opened to reveal the girl we'd all been talking about. "Hey, girls."

We all frowned. Courtney gave us an annoyed look. "Isn't anyone glad to see me?"

Heather approached her and touched a strand of Courtney's brown hair, saying in the creepiest voice ever "Great to have your hair..." Then she realized what she was saying. "...here! Here! It's great to have you here, Courtney!"

But at that moment, a sound reverbrated through the camp, before I could say something (like saying in front of all the girls that Heather's lack of hair was making her lose her mind). That was our cue to go and find out about today's challenge (it was going to originally be a reward challenge, but with an extra competitor, it meant it would be another elimination challenge).

Chris was dressed in a loincloth, having just made the sound with a giant horn-like thing. But before he could start the challenge, he had to state a bunch of rules that would apply to Courtney. Like getting a PDA to contact the outside when the rest of us only got letters.

"What?" cried Beth. "That's so not fair! I'm the one with the boyfriend!"

"Care to take that up with her legal department, Beth?" Chris replied. He continued on. Courtney also got to have the same nice food that Chris and the producers got, while us contestants were stuck with Chef's slop. We all thought this was unfair.

Chris smirked at Courtney. "Let's see your lawyers get you out of this one."

In my opinion, Courtney's rebuttal was pretty weak. "What? I'm still sleeping in the girls' trailer!"

Chris added that she still got more comforts there, like a goosedown pillow and better quality sheets. "And her own private bathroom!"

See? Unfair.

"Those are the new rules." Chris said. "Let's call them 'Courtney's Rules' in honour of Courtney, who gets special treatment. And an unfair advantage." He was clearly enjoying this.

"Nice." Duncan remarked. "Our spoilt princess didn't waste any time hooking herself up."

"And you didn't waste any time hooking up with Gwen after I left..." Courtney retorted, "And then hooking up with Stephanie after Gwen left."

I shot a death glare at Courtney. "Oh yeah, I wish."

"While I'm flattered that you're obviously still hot for me," Duncan said, "My relationships are none of your business."

"You're on TV! They're everyone's business!"

"Than at least the whole world knows that I play by the rules. Most of the time. What, don't think you can win the million bucks fair and square?"

"I could kick your three-timing butt with my eyes closed and both hands tied behind my back!"

Soon, they were at each other's throats again, just like on the island before they hooked up. It was too bad Duncan and I had agreed to just be friends, otherwise I would hook up with him in a heartbeat, even if it was just while I was in Canada..but that would kind of make the friendship a bit weird.

But Chris decided to get to the challenge. "Today's challenge – the period movie!"

"Ooh, I love period movies!" Beth gushed. "All the pretty petticoats and dresses with puff sleeves..."

"Do we get wigs?" Heather asked excitedly.

I nudged her. "Look at what Chris is wearing. Somehow, I think we're going further back than you're thinking, when girls who lost their hair had to stay bald. You could play a good injured cavegirl, who got her hair clawed off or something."

But she did get a wig – a red one with a bone in it, which somehow suited her.

And yeah, we were doing movies in the Stone Age era, although Beth had to explain it to Lindsay.

"No talking!" Chris ordered. "Cavepeople grunt and look confused. Which means for once, you're all perfectly cast!"

First, we had to get dressed up in loincloths, just like Chris.

"You'll look perfect, Duncan." Courtney said slyly. "You're already a total Neanderthal."

Not that Duncan didn't look kind of hot in the loincloth, actually. I managed to find a dark brown furkini and wore that – the only dark colour in the wardrobe.

As Courtney complained about some kind of claw being in her furkini, I noticed Heather looking at her strangely. She sneaked up, holding scissors up to Courtney's hair, but quickly snipped the tag off the furkini when the brunette turned. "Um, there! Got it!"

It was time for the first challenge. Chef handed out flints to each of us. We had to go and look for firewood, and then make fire with the flints. The first team to make fire won the advantage.

Okay, so after Harold's run-in with killer beavers and another attempt from Heather to cut off Courtney's hair (yes, that's what she was trying to do), Duncan made fire.

Oh, and Courtney accused him of hooking up with Gwen and I again.

"Courtney, did you say that to Gwen?" I asked. "What did she say?"

"She's a liar." Courtney muttered. "I know what I saw. And don't tell me you didn't hook up with him either!"

I rolled my eyes. "All right, I admit it. I hooked up with your boyfriend." I said in a sarcastic tone. "But I hooked up with him on the island and right now, we are just friends."

As I expected, my tone kept Courtney from seeing my words as truth (even though it was), but she didn't press the issue any further.

So yeah, we got fire first, and we all started cheering.

"You obviously gave me fake flints!" Courtney yelled at Chris. "Nobody could start a fire with these ridiculous props!"

Oh, no? Lindsay set a fire with the flints pretty easily. But we'd still done it first.

We had a few hours' break for lunch. We got to make confessionals, and I even talked to Duncan.

"So...what's the deal with you and Courtney?" I asked. "You guys together or not?"

"She says she's dumped me." Duncan answered. "I'm not going to run after her, even if that's what she wants. But I'm pretty sure she still wants me."

"As evidenced by her accusing you of hooking up with two of us." I grinned. "I almost wish I had."

Duncan gave me a warning glance. "Don't go getting any ideas, Stephie." he said. "Besides, if you get sent to hospital from Courtney maiming you, I won't be visiting."

I laughed. "All right, all right. We already had this conversation. You're not into me, we can't be together, long distance relationships don't work, blah blah blah. I bet I could try to hook up with one of the single guys on the aftermath if I get eliminated."
"You wanna bet on that?" Duncan said, his blue eyes lighting up.

"What if I don't get eliminated?"

"What if you do?"

"Okay." I sighed. "If I get eliminated before the sixth week begins, I'll bet you five bucks I can get Trent, DJ, Ezekiel, Noah or Cody to hook up with me. If they verify my story, I win."

"You're on."

I should add here that I didn't get a turn in the confessional during the break. I was waiting when an intern ran in. Heather was making a confessional about having cut off a lock of Courtney's hair, and I heard her yelling at the intern. "No, you can't have it! It's mine! Well, it was Courtney's, but I took it, which makes it mine!" But then Chris called me back before Heather was done.

We didn't win the advantage when Chris called us back, though. Apparently, they'd reviewed the footage of this morning, and they'd seen Duncan using his lighter. So we got tiny bones, and the Grips got giant ones. According to Chris, we had to fight each other on two podiums in a tar pit. We had to try to knock each other off our podium.

"Gaffers, since there's five of you, one person will have to sit out." Chris added. I looked around at my team. Duncan and Leshawna were the strongest, so...

"Fine." I sighed, when Harold and Heather both looked as if they'd kill me if I made one of them sit out. "I'll do it."

We got off to a good start. Leshawna got rid of Lindsay easily. But then a pterodactyl got hold of Heather's red wig, and she nearly fell off the podium, then got caught by Beth, who then let go and won.

Leshawna cheered, and Duncan nudged her. "Hey, whose team are you on, anyway?"

"Yours. And hers. But it's kind of lose-win, know?"

The beavers went for one of the podiums while Harold was up there, but both he and Justin fell in, which left Duncan against Courtney. And only one podium was left standing.

"Quit trying to make out with me." Duncan laughed as Courtney steadied herself against him.

"All you're going to kiss is the end of my bone!" Courtney yelled. But nearly both of them fell, grabbed onto each other...and then kissed.

I giggled, and called up "Hey, casanova, quit flirting and shove her off!"

But as it turned out, his attraction to Courtney was too much. She made like she was going to kiss him again, and then hit him in the most sensitive of places, and he was down.

The Killer Grips had won, and us Gaffers were going to elimination.

There was no contest in who to vote off. Who hadn't helped us much? Who was a strong competitor on their own? Who had spent more time worrying about her lack of hair than winning?

Chris threw awards to me, Duncan, Leshawna and Harold.

Heather gasped and stood up. "What? You voted me off? Me?"

I shrugged. "Hey, at least you can go and get a decent wig now. By the way, I count this as payback for everything you've done. If you wanna move past everything you did last season, I'll be happy to pretend it didn't happen."

Well, the first Queen of Mean was gone. But as I knew, once one queen bee was gone, another was there to take her place. And this one was preppy and competitive.

Yeah, I do think that Courtney was just as bad as Heather this season. Well...not really...but she was still pretty horrible. And yes, I kicked Heather off an episode early and decided to make this an elimination challenge, instead of the next one. After all, Stephanie has to have a space to compete in the sports movie challenge...and I see her as being...well, not particularly weak, but weaker than Leshawna and Duncan.