Outer space movies? Well, that one was pretty good. By the way, everything about Hillwood can be found in my fic "Being In Hillwood". It's based on the show "Hey Arnold!", so that will explain the characters' names. Don't own it.

Thanks for reviewing, SuperKitty4789, GIANTPANDAMAN, lordkalel, Nicky Haugh and DannyPhantom619.

Derick Lindsey: Really good question. Your guess probably happened, but Stephanie didn't know or hear about it, since she was more involved in what was happening among the girls.

We had a break for the next day. According to Chris, the last week would be the next challenge (elimination), semifinals (which would take place for longer than just a day and one more elimination), then the final – which according to him would have three of us in the finale. So this would be our last break for a while. That meant that I might have two days after the finale to chill before I got to fly home. Hopefully, I could crash at the Aftermath studio, or better, one of my friends' houses. I'd heard so much about everyone else's families already.

I got Lisa's letter about the last few episodes, the one she'd sent before my call.

Dear Stephanie,

We just got the fairytale movie episode. I think you should wear dresses more often – you looked great, and your acting and singing was good too. Harold meant it when he said he was going to listen to your song and think of Leshawna. But then she sent him a message saying that if he did that, she'd have to kill him, so...OK, when we watched that, it was funny.

Spoiler alert – we had to send off a prized possession for you. I won't tell you what it is yet, but expect something important to you to come to the movie lot.

I checked your emails recently. Our friends from Hillwood keep emailing you, because they're watching Total Drama, and all rooting for different people. (We lived in Hillwood for a short time a couple of years ago). Rhonda says she's surprised Heather didn't win the first season, but she's happy. Phoebe rooted for Gwen last season, but now she says she thinks Beth deserves the money. Lila says the same, but then, she's all for picking the underdog.

Also, I should mention, interesting superhero episode. I liked your Queen Claw thing, but Courtney was kind of right about Lindsay – Wonder Woman already existed. But I would've been angry enough to accuse Courtney of stepping on an invisible jet if I was Lindsay, too. She's getting so irritating.

Anyway, good luck once again! See you in a week...at least, I hope.

Love Lisa.

I didn't have any other letters, though. But that night, we were all woken up by music playing through a speaker.

Chris was dressed in a loincloth again. "Good morning, cast. Or should I say...good middle-of-the-night! Hope you're all well rested and ready to go where very few men and even fewer ladies have gone before!"

But we weren't going back to the Stone Age this time. No, this time, the genre was outer space. And, just as Lisa had said, I got a surprise item from the outside world.

I looked at everyone else's before I opened mine. Beth got a candy promise ring from her boyfriend – apparently he said it was a sweet gift because she was sweet. Harold got his numchucks. Courtney got a picture she didn't show anyone, and she almost cried.

Duncan seemed the most passionate about his item. "Scruffy!" he exclaimed. It was his pet tarantula. "Aww, I wuv you, Scruffy."

I admired the spider. "He looks just like you." I teased Duncan. The spider had neon green dyed fur, and it was cute. At least, until it landed on Harold, who started screaming.

"Scruffy, no!" Duncan scolded him. "Bad killer spider!" But he seemed cool with holding it. And more affectionate than he'd ever been with Courtney. Or Gwen or even me, for that matter.

My item? I opened my box and found...oh wow. My family had put together an album of photos of me. The earliest ones from when I was first born, to right now. There was ones of me holding Bart at the age of three, holding Lisa when I was five, hanging out with Tasha when we first became best friends at seven, playing pranks with Bart, teasing Lisa, hugging Mom, running rings around Dad, playing with Maggie as a baby. There were pictures of me in Hillwood, including one of me wearing this awful silver belt one of my friends got me when he had a creepy crush and had his name carved on it to tell everyone I belonged to him. There were pictures of me graduating from junior high. The last pictures were cut out from magazines and promotional pictures from TDI and TDA, and they brought tears to my eyes.

There I was, sitting on Owen's shoulders on the first day, doing the trust challenge where Harold caught me from the trapeze, searching for the suitcase with Team E-Scope. And there I was at the movie lot, with Gwen and I having our arms around each other's shoulders (Trent was standing next to her), me pushing the laundry cart in the prison challenge, and me as Princess Stephanie.

In the last pocket, Mom had written a note: Keep going, sweetheart. We're all so proud of you!

I almost wanted to cry, but I didn't. The others would never have let me forget it! Instead, I ran to the confessional, blinking back tears. "I can't believe it! I thought I'd never miss my family as much as I do now. I love you too, Mom. I can't wait to come home...with the million!" I added with a grin.

"All right, gang." Chris said. "Time to blast off to the great unknown! Everyone knows that a good outer space movie has three things in common: One, zero gravity is always a trip. Two, the G-forces are killer. And three, everything is recycled in space, including number one and number two."

"Gross!" I exclaimed. But no one else was as horrified.

We got dressed and were directed to a thrill ride set. According to Chris, zooming up and down on a pretend space shuttle on a rollercoaster would act as a simulated version of being in space, because we would constantly float as if we were in zero gravity. And as for us...our first challenge was to sleep in zero gravity conditions. We each had a pillow to take into the "space shuttle", but nothing else.

"Is that thing even up to code?" Courtney questioned.

But there was no questions answered. Soon, we were all floating with our pillows.

Sadly, I don't think anyone was getting much sleep, not with everyone who wasn't trying to sleep. I mean, seriously! All I wanted was a bit of sleep.

"Duncan, can I have your pillow?" Courtney asked. "Mine floated off somewhere."

"No can do, babe." Duncan said coolly. "I already gave it to Scruffy." His pet was tied to his pillow. "Zero gs can be tough on the little guy."

Beth occasionally licked her cherry-flavoured ring.

"I think you're making a mistake, being exclusive to one guy." Harold told her. "Why tie yourself down when you can keep playing the field? Like moi."

"And this pointless discussion is brought to you by crazy Harold, while Beth enjoys her ring and Courtney gets jealous of her ex's pet." I announced. "Can the four of you please shut up? I want to actually try to sleep."

Eventually, we all did fall asleep...only to be woken by an announcement that we'd been "hit by an asteroid" and an alarm going off.

"We have to manually override the navigation system!" Harold cried. Duncan shoved him in the direction of the joystick, and he pulled it.

To be honest, we were all pretty tired by morning. We were let out of the shuttle. Beth came out last. "Well, Harold?" she said. "Aren't you gonna offer to help me down?"

"Wasn't planning on it."

"Is this about Harold's comment on playing the field last night?" I asked. "Take no notice, Beth. You can do what you want." And I wasn't completely convinced that the candy ring was from a boyfriend, anyway. Her Brady should've done better than that.

The reward for averting the problem was picking the order of who was in the next challenge. The order ended up being: Harold, me, Duncan, Beth, and Courtney.

The morning was pretty boring. We weren't going to finish the challenge until after lunch, so I spent most of it hanging out with the others. Duncan was busy bonding with Scruffy, so I stuck with the girls. So as to keep myself in the good corner with Beth and Courtney, I talked strategy with the latter while giving the former a makeover (sadly, it didn't really work – Beth looked like a little girl no matter what I did).

Then we had chilli for lunch. I was reminded of the Chilli Cook-Off back home, and I told everyone the story from years ago. "Our police chief made his chilli with these Guatemalan peppers and it made my dad, who was like the man with the pepper-immune tongue, scream and drink everything he could find. Then he came back for a few more of those peppers, ate them calmly, and then disappeared all night. Later on, he told me that he'd been put on a quest by a spiritual coyote who'd told him to find his soul mate...and it turned out to be Mom the whole time. After all that!"

Duncan teased a bit by imitating a coyote howl. "What's your dad's name again, Stephie?"

"Homer." I answered.

Duncan howled again. "Homer, find your soul mate!" Another howl. "Take a guess, she's at your house with your kids!" I giggled, and Courtney scowled.

Of course, the reason we had chilli for lunch was because of the challenge Chris had set up for us – spinning around in something that he'd named the "Vomit Comet", a little robot pod that we all had to go in. Once we screamed uncle, we could stop. But thing was, if we did barf, the people after us would have to take the pod without it being cleaned. Ugh. Lucky Harold, going first.

But just after he got in, Duncan looked panicked. "Hey, where'd Scruffy go?"

We all saw the black-and-green creature inside the pod scuttling onto Harold's face. But then, Chris started up the Vomit Comet, and within seconds, Scruffy was squished onto the back of a nauseous nerd. The guy didn't even last six seconds, and when he got out, he practically fell onto Beth.

The smaller girl pushed him away. "Harold! For the last time, I'm off the market!" She held out her (rapidly shrinking) ring.

Duncan grabbed Harold by the front of his shirt. "Where's. My. Scruffy?" That's when we saw the squished spider. And when Duncan's first reaction was to break down momentarily (although he did threaten to beat Harold up after the initial shock), I knew how upset he was.

Courtney stepped forward and put a hand on his shoulder. "There, there. Scruffy is in a better place now."

Me, I thought more about it. Finally, I said "Scruffy lived a good life. All good things end far too soon. And if Scruffy was as much like you as I imagined, I think he'd want you to continue on, and even win this game."

I was up next, but as Chris said "Harold sucked, but he managed to keep his lunch down, so at least you'll have a dry ride." So I was thankful for that, at least.

Now, I'd been on all the theme park rides you can count. I'd screamed on a Fear Fall and a Corkscrew Coaster, but spinning around at the speed of light in a teeny tiny pod with a stomach full of chilli is bound to make anyone barf within a few seconds. Harold had survived, but had barely made it through a few seconds. I only gave a scream of "STOP!" after I barfed.

"Sorry, Duncan." I said weakly as I got out. "But you're next, and I had to hurl."

"Twenty one point zero five seconds." Chris told me. "Not bad, but not really great either. But I'm deducting ten seconds for puking. Duncan, you're up next!"

He managed to beat my time, but also got a penalty for barfing.

"Sorry." I said. "Guess my barf didn't exactly help matters." I'd called out to stop just after I puked, so it only got on my shoes. Duncan got barf – both mine and his – all over him.

"Seriously gross, Stephie, but after that, guess I can't fault you for it." Duncan said weakly. We exchanged smirks, but I had to stop when I saw Courtney glaring at me.

She pulled me to the side. "The rest of the girls' alliance will refuse to do it!" she hissed. "As long as you vote with us tonight, we'll have strength in numbers! Are you in, or do you just want to flirt with him all the time?"

I rolled my eyes. "Grow up!" I hissed back. "Duncan and I are friends – that's all. And even if I wanted to be with him, get a reality check. He's crazy about you. Yes, we agreed, remember? Girl alliance. It's you, me and Beth until the boys are gone."

But Beth – shock horror – decided to go ahead and do the challenge anyway. In fact, she broke Duncan's record, and didn't barf. And since Courtney refused to take a turn, Beth got immunity.

Needless to say, that was the last straw with Courtney. The three of us had a major argument that night.

"I can't believe you went against me like that!" Courtney shrieked.

"You deserved it for being so mean and bossy towards me!" Beth snapped back.

"This alliance isn't called 'Beth and Steph do whatever Courtney says'!" I added.

"Well, if that's how you two feel, the girl alliance is over!" Courtney scowled.

"Fine!" Beth and I chorused.

After Courtney stalked off, I spoke up. "What about us? We both lured Courtney into our alliance, but didn't really talk about what we would do. But...well, I'm going to be honest with you." I looked Beth in the eye. "I've toyed with the idea of being in an alliance with you and Lindsay since the start of the season. Now that Lindsay's gone, it's just us left. Are you in?"

I held out my hand. Beth eyed it thoughtfully. Finally, she smiled and shook it. "I'm in!"

I smiled. "Right. Thing is, I'm assuming you're going to vote off Courtney tonight?"

Beth nodded, with a confused look on her face. "You aren't?"

I shook my head. "I figure that if she and I end up in the finale, I'll get most of the support." I explained. "And if she doesn't get immunity again, we can vote her off at the end of the next challenge. I think I should go for the most likable contestant besides you. And that's Harold."

Beth paused, frowning. "But we can't really be in an alliance if we don't vote the same way, can we?"

I gave a sigh. "I think we can, Beth. I have one rule encompassing all alliances – I don't vote you off, you don't vote me off. My second and less important rule is this: If one of us is in trouble and helping won't hinder us getting closer to a win, we help. So, as long as you don't vote me off and help me out if it doesn't stop you from winning, we're cool. And I'll do the same."

"I don't know if I'd call that an alliance..." Beth said slowly. "But I guess that's the best I can get right now." She managed a smile.

The camera gave all of us a chance to say our thoughts behind our votes at the elimination that night. I didn't hear Beth, Duncan or Harold's, but I was fourth. I looked up at the camera. "Nothing personal. But you're too smart to keep around."

And then I heard Courtney's. "Back off! There's a reason this is called secret voting, people!"

Harold was the one left without a Gilded Chris Award. He began to walk towards the Lame-o-sine.

"Get on with it, Doris." Duncan called out.

Harold replied by running back and pulling Duncan's shorts down before Chef tossed him into the vehicle. The delinquent shrugged. "I kinda had that coming."

I grinned, but then Courtney smiled slyly. She got as close to Duncan as possible and started whispering something. Whatever it was, it made him smile.

Then Courtney smiled at Beth and I. "Don't wait up for me, girls." she said. "We-" her and Duncan, "-have some things we need to talk about...alone."

Courtney was in the boys' cabin with Duncan all night. I did peek through the window before I went to sleep though. Courtney was sitting on Duncan's bed with him with a stack of paper, pointing at something. Boring.

All the same, when Beth and I were getting ready for bed, I began to chant softly "Duncan and Courtney, in the trailee-"

"K-I-S-S..." Beth began, but then she saw me looking at her weird. "What?"

"That's the kids' version of the song." I scoffed. "Haven't you heard the other version?"

"There's another one?" Beth looked hopelessly confused. "I've only heard the one."

"So I understand." I muttered. "There's two more versions, actually. There's one that says N-E-C-K-I-N-G. But my one goes like this: Duncan and Courtney in the trail-ee, doing something they shouldn't be.

Starts with S and ends with X, oh my gosh, it must be-"

I didn't finish because Beth started giggling. "Are you serious? And is that really what's happening over there?"

I shrugged. "I don't think so. As far as I know, Duncan didn't bring protection, and Courtney's kind of a prude anyway. I think she just wanted to talk some things over with him. But to be honest, I think they should. That might get Courtney to loosen up a bit!"
This time, Beth and I both nearly collapsed with giggles.

Sorry about the gutter thing, but come on, I HAD to do that. I've been looking for somewhere to use that and this was too good a chance to pass up. Just to be aware, Beth and Stephanie got the girls' cabin to themselves instead of Courtney dragging Duncan in there because in this version, he's already the only guy left. And Stephanie's in the final four!