Okay, NOW we'll go to London. And yes, I stole "And the obvious award goes to" from Noah when he was on the show Skatoony. Thanks for reviewing, IllusionSign and timothysch22.

"Why are we in Loser Class?" Heather complained. "We won last time, or didn't lose, anyway." We'd won, if you recall, but Sierra spoke before I had a chance to reply.

"Chris said he needed First Class, for a secret special guest." she said. "And whatever Chris wants-"

"Chris takes, from us." Heather finished.

Gwen had gotten sunburned on one of her hands (I'm not sure how it happened, but the rest of her skin was still pale as anything), and Courtney was actually being nice when she made a mix that cooled the burn. Even though it had bird faeces in it, I was genuinely surprised that Courtney was being so nice to Gwen.

Sierra was on what appeared to be a pizza box she was using as a laptop, claiming to be updating Twitter. She paused, looking at the amount of characters she had left. "What else can I say?"

Noah, sitting next to me, crossed his eyes and mimed typing, speaking in an imitation of Sierra's voice. "Considering buying myself a life on Fred's List, but having trouble deciding, because they are all such a major improvement." Owen laughed, drenching Noah in his mouthful of milk.

"Dude, gross!" Noah snapped in his normal voice.

Owen apologized. He'd been eating a lot of peppers in Jamaica, and had since brought litres of milk to cool his tastebuds. He'd brought both with him, and now made what he called nose-shakes. I personally thought they were gross, but that was okay. Tyler had been drenched in one himself, and he didn't find it funny after that, and Alejandro whole-heartedly agreed with me. After the concept began turning into a conversation, he left, saying "Excuse me. I have to be...anywhere but here."

He still hadn't returned when Chris let us know via intercom that we weren't going to be able to land in our next destination and would have to jump. And Chef might have miscounted the amount of parachutes we needed, which were waiting for us in the elimination room (after I heard that, I bolted into the room and snatched up the first parachute). I was first to the ground, and looked around.

"I remember going here!"

It was London. Yeah, last time I'd been here, Dad had gotten in trouble with the Queen, but we did some fun stuff, and Lisa even met J.K Rowling and asked her what happened at the end of the Harry Potter series (of course, we now knew he married Ginny).

I remember, because Rowling had scowled and answered "He grows up and marries you. Is that what you wanted to hear?" Of course it was.

"Ooh, London!" squealed Sierra, clutching at Cody's hand. "Did you know Queen Mary the Second married when she was only fifteen?"

"Cool." murmured Cody. "Could I have my hand back, please?"

Once we were all down safely, we all piled into the double-decker bus, and that's when Heather asked a question. "Where's Alejandro?"

"Yes, where is he?" Chris said annoyingly. "The answer in a moment, but first...gun it, Chef!" The bus sped off at an alarming speed. Chris gave us his introduction, telling us about London. Once he was done, he told us about Scotland Yard, the detective business. And about Jack the Ripper, the killer from Victorian times. "Today, you'll be tracking that bad boy down...but be careful! Jack's also hunting you. And that's why Team Chris is Really Really Really Really Hot is down a man." We were on our way to the Tower of London

"The Ripper got Al?" Owen exclaimed. "Not Al!"

"Do you think he's okay?" I asked, before realizing I'd heard another voice say it in unison.

"Because wow, big advantage for us, yay!" It was Heather who had spoken. And she'd sounded just as concerned as I had up until then. What was up with that? Was she just playing hard to get all season? I hoped not.
Although I wouldn't say it, I liked Alejandro more than I'd ever admit. He'd been so nice to me since I joined the season, and although he'd been friendly to pretty much everyone (especially the girls), it felt as if it was just me. If Heather liked him too, I could seriously end up hating her more than I already did. And I already couldn't stand her.

Worse, Team Amazon had an advantage. Gwen knew a lot about the Ripper, as she said, and Courtney knew a lot about the Tower of London. I knew a little about both, but not enough to impress my competitors, so I kept it quiet.

The first thing we had to do was find our first clue to the tower. We'd search through the tower to the Ripper's lair and the way to win was to catch him before he caught us. Our first clue was to...strip a guard. "Your clue is hidden in his uniform, so one of you has to strip him down to his gitch until you find it.

"Whoa, strip a dude?" Tyler said. "I'm out!"

"Up to you, bro. A million bucks, all I'm saying." shrugged Chris. "And while you're at it..." Ding-ding!
The musical number bell chimed. We all groaned, but began a song.

"It's creepy how they stand there, and don't even blink!" sang Owen, standing beside one of the guards. "I don't wanna see his bum, all naked and pink!"

Noah nudged our guard. "Hey buddy, can we bribe you to strip yourself down?"

"Yum-Yum Happy Go Time Fish?" Owen offered.

"Don't kill him, you clown!" Noah and I said quickly.

Team Amazon were staring at their guard. "No way, I can't strip him," Courtney sang, "Duncan will freak!"

"And I'm allergic to uniforms..." added Heather.

"Okay, that's just weak." Gwen informed her.

Sierra pulled Cody into a hug, singing "I can only strip Cody, and he can only strip me!"

"Okay, so then, I have to do it?" said Gwen. "Um, hello, injury!" She held up her sunburned hand. "Ow!"

"If we're gonna find that clue," Courtney sang.

"There's only one thing to do!" Heather added in.

"Force someone to strip him down!" Sierra clarified.

"And sorry, Gwen, that's you!" all three girls sang together.

Meanwhile, Noah, Owen and I kept tying at rock, paper, scissors. "If we're gonna find that clue," Noah sang,

"There's only one thing to do..." Owen continued.

"Force someone to strip him down!" I caroled, and we all pointed at our other team member.

"And Tyler, dude, that's you!"

I can't remember the rest of the song. All I remember was Gwen tricking Sierra into stripping their guard by putting a photo of Cody's face on him. Meanwhile, Owen tried on the guard's hat. "Hey, guys, check this out!" he said, before putting on a high-pitched voice with an English accent. "I say, I'm the queen! Oh, heavens, I think I ate too many royal beans at the royal luncheon!" He struggled. "Hang on, stay with me here..."

"Don't do it, Owen!" I begged. "And I've met the Queen – my dad nearly got arrested when he crashed into her carriage. Please don't!"

As it was, he didn't. But we didn't find out until after we'd nearly finished stripping the guy that the clue was in his hat the whole time!

Noah glared at Owen, and so did I. But as it turned out, we had to go up to the top, where we found a rack. We'd have to stretch someone on it to get the next clue.

Tyler cheerfully volunteered. "I'm flexible to the extreme, bro!"

"Quick, tie him down before Alejandro shows up and makes me do it just because I'm shorter." Noah instructed. Owen obeyed, and I raised an eyebrow at Noah.

"Do you have a problem with Alejandro?" I asked. "Your tone was pretty harsh."

"And the obvious award goes to..." muttered Noah.

"So why don't you like Al?" Owen asked. "He's great."

"I don't trust the guy." Noah answered. "He's like an eel, dipped in grease, swimming in motor oil. Slippery. Think about it. He's like Heather, only with social skills."

I frowned. "Okay, so he pulled a few tricks. I don't think that means he's just like Heather. I mean, it's a reality show. He's not as bad as you think, Noah-it-all."

As Noah put his hands on the wheel, Tyler began to scream, practically sobbing. "Oh, stop! It's too much! Stop!"

"...You do realize we haven't started yet, right?" Noah said.

Tyler relaxed. "My bad. I'll go silent, sweaty yoga-ish monk dude styles." And he kept his word. When Noah actually started turning the wheel, he shut his eyes tightly and gritted his teeth until we got the clue.

I grabbed it. "If your teammate can still use his feet," I read, "Bring him down for something to eat." An obvious reference to the banquet hall, and so we set off at a run.

Owen spoke up. "Hey, guys, know what's hilarious?"

Noah stopped running. "We forgot Tyler!"

"How is that hilarious?"

And that's when we heard another scream from Tyler. We all headed back to the room with the rack.

"Sorry, dude," Noah began, "But you got so good at being quiet, that-" He cut himself off as we all cried out the same words.
"No! Tyler!" The rack was empty. Tyler was gone.

I sighed. "This means we've got to find the Ripper faster. He's got two of our teammates!"

We found the clue in the banquet hall, although Owen was attacked by corgis. I would've guarded the door, but being alone had gotten Tyler and Alejandro caught, so I stuck with the guys.

Noah read it. "The Ripper's most natural place has two levels that make up the space."

I looked over his shoulder at the next line. "Go use your sack to bring the guy back at the red starting line to the race."

All of us thought this was simple. Noah even said it. "Easy-peasy."

"Double-decker bus?" Owen suggested.
"Yeah! So there is a brain in there!" Noah said with a bit of a smirk. "You've been holding out on us."

"Holding out?" Owen repeated. "I told you I smuggled some wieners off the plane."

I punched Owen's shoulder fondly, knowing it wouldn't hurt him because of his extra weight. "Don't worry, bud, he doesn't mean anything like that."

But Owen was still not observant enough to notice when a dark figure jumped down and grabbed a struggling Noah and I. But he noticed when the Ripper locked us in the driver's compartment.

"Nobody locks my little buddies in the corner!" Owen cried, bringing out the corgis to attack the Ripper. Except they went for the wieners, and once Owen tossed one to the Ripper, the corgis attacked, and we got him. Owen let us out.

Soon, we were back on the plane. The rest of the competitors were fine, and Courtney and Gwen, the uncaptured members of Team Amazon, also had someone in their sack.

"You guys were so stupid to be worried." Heather said airily to her teammates.

"But it was reassuring to see some were concerned." Alejandro added, glaring at Noah.

"You were watching everything?" my sarcastic teammate said, his eyes wide with anxiety. "Wow, that's awkward." No one would have wanted to hear anyone say something about them like what Noah had said about Alejandro, and everyone knew it. Noah was a dead man walking, as far as this competition went.

He quickly tried to divert attention by announcing "But hey, we caught the Ripper type guy!"

We all gasped at the reveal. "Old Man Jenkins?"

Chris ripped the mask off again, and we all gasped yet again. "Ezekiel?"

The homeschooled creep growled a bit.

"Found him in the cargo hold, homeschooling with the rats." Chef explained.

"I was going to let him back in the game if he could avoid getting captured," Chris said, "But since he could not..." He was thrown out of the plane, and we turned to Courtney and Gwen.

"Well, Chris wanted a criminal." Gwen theorized. "So...okay, we didn't catch the right one, but..." she pulled the sack off, and we all gasped at the familiar face.

"Duncan?"

My delinquent friend stood up. "You brought me back here." he scowled. "Where's the stupid exit again?"
But Chris wouldn't let him go. In fact, he declared Team Amazon the winners, even though they caught the wrong criminal, and put Duncan on our team. He was even allowed to vote someone off that night!

I stayed away from my team, because I didn't want anyone to influence my vote. I just knew that Alejandro would want me to vote for Noah, and vice versa, but tough. I knew Alejandro would probably be able to talk me around to kicking Noah off, but I liked the sarcastic sardonic guy, and he was one of my Team E-Scope pals. And I wasn't about to vote against Alejandro. No way. So I picked Tyler, the klutziest member of our team. Nothing personal, he was just not much of a help to our team.

I did witness one interesting thing before the elimination. Courtney was yelling at Duncan for leaving the game, but then she gave him a hug. "I'm not really mad," she said, "I just missed you."

I grinned at Duncan over her shoulder and waved. He grinned back, but as Gwen passed, his eyes met hers and he said, directly to her, "Every time I ran from the cops, I thought of you."

Gwen turned and walked away, but I followed her. "What are you going to do?" I whispered.

Gwen gave a sigh. "I don't know. I only just got to friend-ish terms with Courtney and I don't want to jepoardize that, but..." she sighed. "Why did we have to bring him back, and why did he have to say that to me?"

I gave a sigh. "Look, Gwen, it's simple. Let him be with you...off-camera. Get him to let Courtney down easy as soon as he can, and don't reveal your relationship with him until after the game is over. I've done it before, and Courtney has no idea that I ever kissed him, let alone that we dated for even a week. Do that, and there's no risk."

Gwen smiled slightly. "I...guess that might work. Thanks, Steph."

Despite any efforts I could've made that night, Noah got three votes, enough to get him kicked off.

"Goodbye, buddy." Owen said. "I'll win for you!"

"Miss you, guy." I added.

"Whatev." Noah said in his usual calm tone. "Just beware of eels." But whatever he said, he knew he'd lost this one.

Well, at least I had someone else to talk to on my team. It would be great to hang out with Duncan again, just like we did on the last two seasons.

Really, Steph? Is it going to be that easy for you any more? I legitimately won't be sure until I write it. We'll see. Let's not forget that Stephanie doesn't like Courtney much, but is very close to both Duncan and Gwen. How will she react?