Still in Jamaica. Thanks for reviewing, IllustionSign. BTW, Stephanie's psycho friend from Hillwood is featured heavily in my "Hey Arnold"/ "Simpsons" crossover "Being In Hillwood", so you can find out more about Stephanie's friendship with him there. And yes, I had to make the joke about Arnold's clothes...yes, I know the "skirt" is a long shirt.

It was quite nice to have some time to chill out. We were only in Jamaica for a week, since the Aftermath show raised enough money for the rest of the show to go on, but it was nice while it lasted. No competition, no strategies, just hanging out. I was especially glad because Gwen and I finally got to talk again.

"So what's your team like?" I asked.

Gwen smiled wanly. "Courtney's not so bad. I didn't realize it, but she's actually more...tolerable than I realized. We originally bonded over hating Heather, but now...we're...not friends, but friend-ish. Sierra's nuts, yeah, but she's all right as long as no one gets too close to Cody." She gave a sigh. "Sadly, Cody wants to be around me, so I have to watch how nice I am to him. Especially since the Amazon, when Sierra agreed to vote with Courtney and I if I was more distant with him. What about your team?"

I shrugged. "I kind of miss Izzy, but the others are pretty nice. Tyler's a total klutz, but at least he's nice, and he tries. Owen's still a giant teddy bear. Noah is actually really really funny. I mean, I remember when he was on your team in the first season and wouldn't play dodgeball – but now, he's actually trying to win stuff. And Alejandro is..." I trailed off, trying to think of the right word. Finally, I settled on "...awesome. He's really smart, he knows how this game works, and on top of that, he's got the skills to win challenges and is nice to everyone."

Gwen raised her eyebrows. "It sounds to me like you've got a crush."

I looked at the ground. "Maybe...enough about me. Have you?"

Gwen's face went a bit less pale. "Um...maybe...if I tell you, promise you won't tell anyone else?"

"I swear." I said. Finally, she whispered it, and I looked at her. "You said 'you think' you might. Are you sure, or not?"

"I'm not." Gwen said seriously. "That's part of the reason I don't want you to say anything. I only confided in you because you're the only person I know I can trust on this show. Not to mention you've been in this position before, haven't you?"

I frowned. "How did you know about that?"

"Please." Gwen rolled her eyes. "It was obvious. You joined his alliance instead of voting with me and Leshawna. You spent more time around him than anyone else. And again, she-" she looked over at the brunette she was referring to, "Had no idea."

But we both agreed, we weren't going to betray each other. No matter what happened, I wouldn't betray someone who was as close to me as Gwen was. Yes, I'd said that better someone else than me in a game like this, but if it was Gwen and I had a tiny chance to stay, it wouldn't apply to her.

When we finally were sent the money from the Telethon, had fixed and fueled the plane, it was time to go. But first, Chris gave our team any emails we might've gotten in that week.

I had two that weren't from Lisa, for once. The first was from Azure, my craziest female friend:

Hey, Steph!

Bet you didn't expect to hear from me, huh? Well, I figured it was my turn to email. We've been watching the World Tour episodes, and we haven't caught up to Canada, but the Telethon aired live in America at the same time so Americans would donate too. So we haven't seen the episode in Jamaica that they mentioned or the one before that yet, but we just got the one in France.

We got to see that picture you did in the Amazon episode. Nice pic – that Alejandro guy IS totally dreamy! Oh, but yeah...don't fall for him. In the Telethon, Leshawna literally sang a whole song about how she wants to take him down. I donated a bit just to stop her from dancing, and I have the box of plastic Total Drama Fishtails from the Japanese episode to prove it. And Sunny was so worried about you guys that she actually donated enough money to receive one of the unused tubes of lip gloss Lindsay brought to wear for the season, but never finished using.

And Tash, Mel and Laura all donated because it got them a raffle ticket to a dinner with DJ, by DJ (so he was the first one kicked off after France, huh). Everyone thinks he's totes adorbes, and plus, he's single, right? Although actually, Sunny made another donation because she likes him that much. I wonder if that means we get a free trip to Canada if one of us wins?

And everyone at school was talking about you and the Telethon. I heard some of the girls from your math class discussing how long they think anyone's going to last, and a lot of them want Alejandro to win.

Anyway, good luck. Listen, DON'T come home without the money this time!

Love Azure

My other email was from my psycho friend in Hillwood, Thaddeus Gammelthorpe, although no one called him that. He'd been "Curly" for most of his life, and although he'd said in one email that he'd attempted to find a new nickname, he gave up and was probably going to be called that for the rest of his life. We'd been good friends, even though he was only twelve right now. His email was nice to read, too:

Hey, babycakes (that was his nickname for me – he also liked "princess" but decided it was too girlfriend-ish and saved it for his crush, Rhonda).

I should probably have written to you in the summer when you were first on this reality show thing, because our gang could talk about nothing else. Everyone was rooting for someone else – and we even had an event where everyone cosplayed as someone from the first season – I was Harold (I wanted to be Izzy, but I didn't have a green skirt or top...I guess I could've asked Arnold for a boys' skirt or kilt or whatever it is)! And Rhonda actually let me hang around her for once – she was Heather, and I got her attention by acting quiet, like Harold, and pointing out that they teamed up in the special. Oh, and she made Nadine dress up like Lindsay.

And speaking of blondes, guess who dressed up as Geoff and Bridgette without conferring. I swear, I didn't know Helga owned anything blue, but then I didn't know Arnold owned anything pink. Everyone KNOWS they like each other now, but they sure didn't act like the real couple! Hahahahah! (I was used to him including laughter in his emails).

Anyway, this season...hmmm. Lucky I realized that you weren't for me when you were here, or I'd be just about ready to kill that Al guy right now. As it is, you haven't seen the way he smiles whenever he's got an evil plan. Watch out! Oh, and on the Telethon, Rhonda was boasting about how she got her dad to pay enough so that she got the winning ticket for that dinner with DJ. Remind me to murder him if I ever meet him.

Lotsa love!

I wish I could've shown the message to Izzy, since I think she would've gotten along well with him, but who knew. At least DJ wouldn't see it, although I wished I could've warned him. And what would he make of that snobby little brat, Miss Rhonda Wellington-Lloyd? I'd certainly never liked her.

But after an hour of peacefully reading the emails, Chris called us all into the plane, and this time, all of us had to travel in Economy class.

So yeah, a bit of a breather chapter. Hope you liked it.