Let's find out about what happens in this one! This is where it will start getting interesting...and where I begin to deviate, just a little...thanks for reviewing, Illusion Sign.
I swear, I don't know how it happened. I woke up to find that I was using Alejandro as a pillow...and he was awake. I remembered falling asleep on the benches, but I was completely on my own then.

I immediately sat up, my face burning. "Morning." I murmured.

Alejandro returned my morning greeting, and then said "Is there something concerning you? Because if you're confused about how you weren't in the same position you fell asleep in, you don't have to be. You're a restless sleeper, and more so than usual last night." He shot me a smile that made me feel like I was in heaven. "And I certainly didn't mind. I doubt anyone here would object to a lovely senorita sleeping close to them."

Well, that didn't help my blushes. "L-Lovely?" was the only word I could get out, but I felt so stupid, I didn't want to hear the answer. I ran to the confessional, and didn't come back until I knew the conversation wouldn't pick up again. And when I came back to the Economy Class section, sure enough, Alejandro and Tyler were both awake, and had been distracted by Owen having a nightmare. They were both glaring at him.

"Oh, was I talking in my sleep?" Owen said nervously. "Sorry." He went to the confessional, and as he did, Tyler glanced over at Duncan, who was asleep.

I saw it. Tyler's eyes suddenly went wide, and his expression became nervous. Alejandro saw it too. "Something wrong, Tyler?" he asked. "If you tell me, maybe I can help."

Tyler's eyes flickered around. Finally, he said in a hushed voice, "I saw something-"

But before he could say another word, Duncan opened his eyes and stretched, saying in a pointed tone "Oh wow, that was a deep sleep. Sleep of the dead. You know what I mean, Tyler? Dead."

That's how I knew something had happened with Duncan that Tyler knew, but because of that, I couldn't discover what it was, and why Duncan didn't want anyone else to know. I mean, I couldn't just ask either of them, right? And I don't know why anyone would suggest that I ask Gwen...not that I knew why I'd mention her at all in this case...oh yeah, Duncan seemed more interested in her than Courtney last night.

Well, I wasn't alone with either of them all that flight. Alejandro had picked up on the cover-up, I knew he had, but he said nothing either. It was impossible to know.

Chris called us to the common area to tell us about the challenge – we were recreating the Olympics. "And we're heading to the birthplace of the Olympics right now, in-"

"Greece!" Courtney stated.

"Atlantis?" asked Sierra.

"Mount Olympics?" suggested Owen.

"Wrong, fictional, and...what? We're going to Rome, Italy!" Um..okay. Ancient Greece began the Olympics, but as Owen suggested, we could just have a pizza party there.

"But Courtney was correct." Alejandro pointed out. "The Olympics originated in Greece."

"No, they origi-" Chris began.

"Greece." Gwen cut him off. "They're right."

And Chris dropped one of the interns out of the plane for giving him the wrong info before calling Chef to redirect the plane, leaving us teams alone.

"Prepare yourselves for battle!" Sierra said in a dramatic tone.

"Child's play." Alejandro scoffed. "There's no way us athletes will lose an Olympic challenge to a team with no men, or athletic women."

Poor Cody sighed, and Sierra folded her arms, scowling.

Heather spoke next. "Hope you look good in silver. I'm great in gold."

"I'll be happy to lend you one of our medals, since we'll have all of them." Alejandro told her.

I smirked across at Team Amazon. "We may have more guys on our team then you do – don't worry, Sierra, I would never consider Cody a girl – but try not to make it too easy for us, will you?"

"Um, you're a girl too!" Courtney snapped back at me.

I shrugged. "I do track running at school. No other sports, but I'm better at it than you think. And with some of the other members of my team, we'll be unbeatable." Okay, so Bart could still pin me in a fight, but none of the girls my age could do that. If combat was involved, the only person who could beat me was a guy. And the only one who could go up against me was Cody, and I was sure I could crush him.

That's when I noticed Gwen and Duncan looking at each other. Courtney was watching, too, and she didn't look happy. "What was that?" she snapped at her teammate.

"What was what?"

"You were staring at Duncan!"

"Oh, I was just...you've really gotta do something about that mohawk..."

I sidled up to Duncan. "Your new girlfriend just told your old girlfriend that she should do something about your hair." I whispered.

Duncan's blue eyes hardened. "New girlfriend – did-"

"Tyler said nothing." I assured him. "You're too obvious. Okay, so I don't know what Tyler saw, but it's obviously to do with you and Gwen. And Courtney's already starting to catch on, so you better break up with her – and quick."

Duncan gave a sigh. "Look, Stephie, if I do that, she'll probably kill me right now. And then kill Gwen. That's why I had to be around someone else – whenever I'm properly with Courtney, the only thing that keeps me sane are people like Gwen. I still sort of like Courtney, but to be honest, I can't just go up to her and say 'hey, I'm sorry, I don't think we're gonna work out, let's just be friends'. Either I'm with her, or I'm not, and when I am, she makes me hate her because of how controlling she is. And I like Gwen. She knows me a lot better than Courtney ever will."

I sighed again. "You know, six months ago, when I met you all, I wondered what made me different from Gwen."

Duncan scowled at me. "We broke up, remember? Long distance doesn't work with me. That's all."

I shrugged. "Whatever. But you have to tell Courtney. Like, before she finds out on her own. I've worked it out. And it's only a matter of time before Alejandro does, too. And Tyler's just bursting with the secret – it's better that Courtney hears it from you than anyone else."

I made Duncan promise to talk to her after the challenge, but the challenge itself made things complicated. All the challenges were one-to-one, and Duncan and Gwen both volunteered for the first one – finding their medal, which was tied to a "boar" - a bear with makeshift tusks (I should add here that Chris told Duncan he wasn't allowed to say anything during the challenge unless he sang it, so Chef was watching them the whole time, and would hit Duncan with a towel if he didn't sing).

Then we left them to do some other thing – a fighting match with no rules.
"As the strongest Amazon, I volunteer." Courtney spoke up.

"I'm pretty sure I'm the strongest." Cody flexed.

Courtney laughed at the idea. "As I was saying-"
"That's it!" Sierra interrupted furiously. "I volunteer to fight Courtney!"

With three people on that team, pretty much all of us others on my team except Alejandro went in. And for some reason, he was able to manipulate Tyler into thinking he was doing the klutz a favour by not volunteering. Not that I thought that was a problem.

Tyler got knocked out, but Courtney gave us the win when she yelled at Cody, and Sierra went nuts on her. Soon, Owen and I had both earned a medal.

We took a break, at which point I suddenly heard faint singing. It turned out to be Duncan and Gwen singing the episode's song.

"Oh, it's just between us." Duncan sang.

"Not exactly, someone made a fuss." Gwen reminded him.

"They sure weren't meant to see, but that locked door couldn't secure our privacy..."

At that moment, I bumped into someone beside me and turned to see...

"Stephanie?"

I sighed, finally not sure what was going on. "Alejandro, I only have to assume you're listening to Duncan and Gwen for the same reasons I am...or you're listening in to find out what Duncan's secret is."

Alejandro met my eyes. "I'm going to be honest with you. I do want to find out what Duncan's secret is, but only because it's causing rising tension and it's going to damage our teamwork if Tyler continues to worry about it."

That was true. Although I could add here that we lost the next two challenges. Gwen won her challenge (leaving Duncan knocked out cold, and only Chef left to point him to where we'd be when he woke up). Then, as the only two who hadn't competed, Alejandro and Heather went head-to-head in a hurdles challenge. And we should probably have won. I mean, Alejandro actually tied his hair into a ponytail with his feet before the challenge, and he was a tiny bit ahead of Heather the whole time, even when he walked on his hands for two hurdles' worth.

But sadly, he got distracted, telling us victory was ours, and Heather won.

Then we had a tiebreaker challenge. Two sets of wings were made. One member of each team would use the wings to get one last medal, and win immunity.

"I'll do it!" Cody volunteered. "For all of you..."

He was looking at Gwen, but Sierra pulled him into a hug. "Oh, thank you, Cody!"

Tyler volunteered for us. And both boys had to wear Spartan battle costumes as well as the wings.

"Oh, he's like an angel!" sighed Sierra.

"Those costumes are not authenti-" Alejandro began, but Sierra shushed him.

"Sh! No one cares!"

"This is gonna be a close one." Owen said worriedly.

"Yes, too close." Alejandro agreed. "Someone needs a distraction to slow them down." He went over to Tyler. "Time to pay back that favour. Please tell Courtney what you know about Duncan and Gwen."

That was the moment it hit me. The signs had been there all along, but I'd refused to look at them. Harold's elimination, which I'd seen on TV. Leshawna's elimination. DJ's elimination. Heck, Noah's elimination. And that time Owen disappeared in the Amazon, trying to make DJ a member of our team, the broken board on the bobsledding course.

I'd been too wrapped up in my little crush to see Alejandro for who he really was. Noah was right. He was just like Heather. How could I have gotten that so wrong? And how was I going to get past this?

Tyler's voice broke through my thoughts. "I saw Duncan and Gwen kiss!" he blurted out, and gave a sigh of relief.

"WHAT?" shrieked Courtney.

"Oh, that's a load off." Tyler sighed.
"He said he saw-" Alejandro began as Courtney turned to scowl at Gwen. Chris was getting set to announce to the boys when they could go, but none of us were paying attention.

"HOW COULD YOU?!" Courtney screamed at Gwen. "I thought we were friend...ish! I hate you, I HATE YOU!"

When Chris finally called out "Go", only Tyler began flying. Cody, however, was rooted to the spot.

"Duncan? Duncan?" he said in disbelief. Aw, poor dude. His hopes dashed again.

Duncan appeared, a bit dishevelled from getting beaten up by the bear, but alive. "You called?" He laughed at Cody's outfit. "Nice bikini!" He didn't see it coming. Cody's face hardened, and suddenly, his fist flew up and Duncan was on the ground.

Chef hit the just-punched Duncan with the towel again. "Sing it!" he reminded him.

"Fly, Cody, fly!" Sierra called out, restraining Courtney.

"Cody, stay where you are!" Courtney ordered.

"But we'll lose!" Sierra protested. Courtney glared daggers at Gwen, and Sierra understood. "Oh. Cody, stay where you are!"

Courtney smirked at Gwen. "You are so e-lim-in-at-ed!"

"She's got my vote." Heather spoke up.

"Agreed." Sierra said.

But Cody didn't listen. In fact, he beat Tyler to the medal and won for them.

The minute we got back in the plane, I went to the confessional. "Well, things to think about. First, I am not going to talk to Alejandro any more unless I absolutely have to. I hope we merge soon, then I pretty much won't ever have to. Second, whose side am I supposed to take over this cheating thing? Duncan and Gwen are my friends – they're the people that I've been closest to on this show. But Courtney's the one who needs a friend right now." I heaved a sigh. "Screw it. I can still be friends with Gwen and Duncan. But no one on Courtney's team is going to be the friend she needs, so that's what I'm going to be."

I kept away from Alejandro before elimination. In fact, although I wasn't allowed in First Class, I dragged Courtney to the cargo hold. I wasn't going to force Duncan to talk to her after it all came out, but I thought she should have someone who would let her cry her feelings out. And if I was going to support her, that was the first thing I could do.

"Courtney," I began hesitantly, "I'm sorry about what happened. No matter who I hang out with, there is no way Duncan should have done that to you while letting you think he was still into you. I mean...even if he wanted...I mean, why the hell didn't he talk to you first?"

Courtney burst into noisy sobs. I reached out and gave her an awkward hug, and she relaxed into it, crying all over me. We stayed like that for a few minutes.

"I hate them so much." Courtney gasped out through her sobs. "I want to kill them over and over."

"I know that feeling." I told her comfortingly. "I've had that before." No one had ever cheated on me before, but there had been various other situations. Like that time a certain resident of jail tried to shoot me (but he'd redeemed himself when he saved me from that jungle boy who attempted to kidnap me).

"What did I do?" Courtney whimpered. "Why would they hurt me like this?"

"I don't think Gwen meant to hurt you." I whispered. "She didn't know what she was doing. And Duncan was going to officially break up with you after the challenge. Would you have hated both of them if he'd already broken up with you?"

Courtney pulled a packet of tissues out of her pocket and brushed her tears away. "Yes," she said, trying to steady her voice, "But nothing could make me hate them more than I do right now."

"I can't stay long." I told her. "I have elimination in ten minutes. So if you want to vent any more to me, do it now."

Courtney burst into fresh tears, crying even more about how much she hated it. I told her to stay strong, focus on the game. "Just pretend they don't exist." I advised her. "Trust me, if you leave them alone, that'll annoy them more than if you were mean to them."

Courtney blew her nose on a tissue and managed a watery smile. "I never thought about doing that." she admitted. "Maybe it'll make me feel better to just make like I don't remember who they are. Thanks, Stephanie." She paused. "I thought you were friends with them."

"I guess," I admitted, "But kissing behind your back was wrong. I know you and I haven't ever been friends, not really, but if you ever want to talk, or are feeling down, I'll help out." (Like she said, our alliance in TDA wasn't a friendship).

That's probably one of the kindest things I ever did for anyone, when I comforted Courtney. That said, I voted against Alejandro that night. The pieces were falling into place for me, and I was scared of the damage he could do if he stayed any longer.

But Chris ignored the vote completely. Duncan had gotten the most votes, and instead, he made the intern take the Drop of Shame. "As if I'm going to send Duncan home when the fun's just getting started!"

I hung out with Duncan for most of the next flight. "I talked to Courtney." I told him straight. "She's furious, but I told her to try and pretend like you guys don't exist. Just a heads up. And if it annoys you, whatever."

Duncan shrugged. "Whatever." he echoed. "It's better than having her yelling at me all day." He frowned. "So why did you talk to her? I thought you couldn't stand her."

"She needed someone." I said simply. "No one else was going to help her, right?"

You will notice a change in some behaviours onwards. I hope you think that's a good thing.