As Cody sat on the bleachers of the Dodgeball Court of Wawanakwa, he had to admit to himself that he was always a curious guy, whether he chose to speak on his curiosity was usually when he felt the moment was right.
Camp Wawanakwa had many things to be curious about like why were the mattresses so stiff, Why the communal bathrooms were so dirty, and he even wondered why one of Chef's sloppy joes crawled around the Mess Hall(no seriously, was he the only one who noticed)?
Heck, the campers he was competing with also piqued his curiosity. Something about Gwen was alluring to him and that did interest him, he also wasn't sure why Katie and Sadie decided to wear the same outfit, and he was also curious on why even Owen was attracted to Justin.
But today, a certain someone had come to his mind.
"I'm glad someone is trying today." Heather squinted her eyes at Noah who was reading his book with a smirk on his face but once Heather called him out, he looked up for a brief second to say,
"Oh sorry." He then put on a fake smile and weakly cheered, "Woohoo, way to throw those murder balls," he immediately started reading his book again, "Go team go."
"Nice team spirit." Heather scoffed before turning to the Bass, likely to start taunting them, but Cody was more focused on the bookworm.
He didn't know much about Noah but Cody knew that Noah was at least kinda smart, if his smart aleck personality was anything to go by, heck he even had a bit of a conversation with Noah after the Awake-a thon after the accidental ear kiss they shared.
It was nighttime and by now the Awake-a thon was over, Cody decided to head over to the communal bathroom to brush his teeth, but as soon as he walked in, he was greeted to the sight of Noah furiously thrusting his toothbrush across his teeth and then spitting out the toothpaste, wiping the rest of the lingering substance off his lips. Once the two locked eyes, awkwardness immediately pooled the air.
"Uh… hey Noah. How's it going?" Cody asked with a sheepish smile.
"Well after a few grueling days of that torture Chris calls a challenge, I am getting ready for a good-night sleep, or at least as good as sleeping in the cabins can be." Noah rolled his eyes, not ditching his sarcasm for a moment.
"True that." Cody chuckled nervously but when he noticed the cynic's face did not change, he then asked, "How come you were brushing your teeth so furiously?"
Noah looked taken aback by this but masked it with a look of annoyance, "I ate Chef's slop, my breath probably smells like crap."
Cody raised an eyebrow at this before saying, "We didn't eat a lot of Chef's food this challenge though."
Noah's eyes widened and for once since Cody met him, he looked sheepish. Cody wasn't sure why at first but then he realized a certain incident they shared together.
"Noah, I'm not mad about the ear kiss. It was clearly an accident." Cody was quick to reassure the bookworm.
"Yeah well it was absolutely humiliating." Noah found anger rising in his voice, "I would not be surprised if it ends up being aired given how 'hilarious' people find incidents like that to be. It was an accident for crying out loud. Soon people will probably be mocking me about it, wondering if I will ask you out or when the wedding is, or some nonsense like that and it's just… UGH!"
Cody was surprised to hear such vigor from who seemed to be the most apathetic person in this cast, it made him feel weird. Even if he only knew Noah for a few days, he thought he had his personality all figured out.
"I didn't know you cared so much about that stuff." Cody admits, still a bit shocked at what he heard.
"I don't. I could care less about what those juveniles think of me. However I do not feel like being subjected to it on a constant basis." Noah scoffed indignantly.
"Hey, you're not the only one who'll have to suffer it. I was also involved in that… moment." Cody said, trying to cheer him up.
Noah chuckled a bit before giving Cody a smirk, "I guess that helps."
Noah then began to walk off but not before turning to Cody one more time but for once he was smiling a regular smile, "Oh and Cody… thanks. I really needed to vent."
After that, he left the room but a warm feeling spread to Cody after watching Noah leave, and so he smiled, it felt good to help Noah out.
Back in the present, Cody wondered why Noah was constantly sitting out despite the clear signs that people were not fond of his behavior. He noticed that Heather was talking to Justin, Owen, Leshawna, Izzy, and Beth, they must be the ones playing the next round. He may as well see what's going on with Noah. He was curious.
"Hey Noah." Cody whispered quietly, he was surprised to see Noah turn up towards him.
"Hmm, what is it?" Noah asked blandly.
"How come you're sitting out so much? Heather clearly wants you to participate." Cody asked, clearly confused.
"Because I really care about what her highness thinks of me." Noah drones, clearly not caring about any of this.
"I don't know if you've noticed but the rest of the team is starting to get upset with you too." Cody spoke nervously, hoping he wouldn't cause Noah too much stress.
"Why would anybody care if I participate? I'm literally the scrawniest guy here." Noah scoffed in disbelief, not seeing the big deal about this.
Cody could not believe he was hearing this, Noah was supposedly really smart and yet somehow he could not tell that he was annoying people with his attitude.
"That may be true but you saw me on the court earlier, you could be a good help if you put some effort into the game, maybe even win a round for us." Cody added, deciding to sit next to Noah to properly continue his conversation with the cynic.
"Sports are not my forte Cody. Have I not made that clear?" Noah crossed his arms.
"Ugh." Cody groaned before harshly adding, "Look, you're acting lazy and hardly showing any positive attitude towards the team. I know you don't care what people think about you but if you keep acting like this, they will vote you off. Don't believe me, I saw Leshawna glaring at you earlier, Heather's not the only one annoyed here."
Noah was about to retort to that argument once again before he realized that he did see Leshawna showing some disdain earlier at the corner of his eye, he just didn't bother to notice it properly until Cody mentioned it. Plus Noah did have to admit, his sarcasm could definitely annoy people, he did use it on his siblings to mess with them after all. If all of this was a sign…
Then he may be the next guy voted off.
Soon a whistle broke him from his thoughts, and Noah soon turned to the field where the newly awoken Duncan was on the field. He, Courtney, Geoff, Katie, and DJ were all sending confident glares at the Gophers. Surely this wouldn't go too bad, they've lost so many times that it was laughable.
A mere few seconds later proved Noah wrong. Not only did the Bass dodge all of the balls, but they all aimed for one Gopher each, and every time, they succeeded. They ended up winning by a landslide.
Noah was beginning to pale. Cody could actually be right about his chances of staying in the game.
Soon the Screaming Gophers gathered back up, and Heather began speaking up, "Okay. Not that Noah here cares," she began pointedly, "But we are not losing another game to these guys? And where is Lindsay?"
Heather huffed before exiting the arena, and which was good for Noah, he knew what he needed to do now and he had to do it fast.
"Look…" Noah began warily, much to the shock of his fellow teammates, "I may not be much of a sport's guy but… I definitely know we need to win."
"What was your first clue, stringbean?" Leshawna asked pointedly, and while Noah would love to retort a snarky remark back at her, he had to keep his cool.
"Alright, I just need to know, what did you notice was different about this round than other rounds?" Noah asked curiously.
No one bothered to answer, all seeming in thought but then Beth spoke up,"Well I definitely found that they were all aiming their balls at one person each."
Noah then thought over what their next move should be. If the Bass were aiming at one person, than what could they do to counter that?
An idea soon found its way into him, it was so simple in concept but might be difficult in practice.
"I think I know what we should do, all we need to do is not waste our dodgeballs. If we let the Bass get too many, they'll crush us for sure." Noah explains to the group, "And since my lack of participation clearly annoys you, I'll play this round. Who else is playing?"
Heather was not happy right now, Lindsay was supposed to be with the team and playing dodgeball with the rest of them, but noooooo, she had to ditch them, and she had a very good idea of who she was with.
She then heard giggling under the dock and saw that Lindsay and Tyler seemed to be really enjoying themselves down there. As such, she let out a loud gasp which alerted them of her presence, good, they deserved to fear her.
"This is so against the rules." Heather glared hatefully at Lindsay from below who seemed sheepish at the sight of her alliance leader's rage.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it." Lindsay spoke with fear.
"Hey, can't you just chill out?" Tyler asked Heather, trying to keep the peace.
"Why don't you dodge this!" Heather cried out angrily before throwing a canoe cover on Tyler, causing it to go through him but he still felt the pain.
Noah had to get an ice pack from getting eliminated so early in the dodgeball match by Duncan but he was hoping his plan would work but considering Beth was the only one left, things were not looking so good.
Soon, Heather had returned with Lindsay in tow, in which the Queen Bee had directed Lindsay to her seat in the bleachers, "Sit down, and stay there."
"Okay." Lindsay gulped before Heather asked, "How are we doing?"
She was answered with Beth getting hit by a dodgeball and falling to the ground.
"Damn it!" Heather groaned in frustration before noticing Noah had an ice pack on his face, "What's with the ice pack?"
"I actually played. Told you, sports are not my forte." Noah grumbled.
"You actually played…" Heather asked in shock to which she got a nod from Noah. Heather was actually kinda impressed to be honest, she never thought Noah would actually try to play.
Meanwhile, Tyler was returning to the Bass side of the court himself when Courtney called him out, "Where were you?"
"Nowhere!" Tyler lied.
"You were with that blonde gopher girl weren't you?" Courtney asked angrily.
"No… maybe… so?!" Tyler asked with an annoyed shrug.
"So?! She could've been getting you to expose all of our secrets." Courtney reminded the jock but once Tyler saw Lindsay absentmindedly playing with her hands, he doubted Courtney was right.
The final match was a madhouse, players were coming in and out left and right. It was the tie breaking game, everything was at stake. Even Noah played a bit during the round, and once Geoff had brought Harold in, he was at the back of the court. And therefore, the last remaining Bass member on his team while Owen was the last on the Gopher's team. It seemed pretty obvious who was going to win.
"Sorry dude, but you gotta go down." Owen apologized happily as he held up some dodgeballs.
"Good night Harold." Duncan sighed.
Soon Harold did some karate poses and then gave a taunting motion to attack, Owen took that as a challenge and began tossing dodgeballs at the nerd but he was able to dodge every one of them spectacularly by making ninja poses.
"Time out, time out." Courtney made a T sign with her hands.
Chef blew the whistle signifying a timeout and soon Geoff gave Harold a thermos and Harold started drinking out of it.
"Man, you got great dodging abilities, where did you learn them?" Tyler asked happily.
"Figure skating." Harold explained.
"Harold, that was awesome! But dodging isn't enough." Geoff told him.
"He's right." Courtney nodded in agreement, "To win this, you either have to throw him out-"
"Which you can't do." Duncan points out bluntly.
"Or catch the ball. Can you do it?" Courtney asked.
"Definitely." Harold replied confidently.
"Awesome, now go catch that ball." DJ said happily.
Soon Harold and Owen got on the court and the Killer Bass were chanting Harold's name.
"Cowa-" Owen began circling his arm with the ball in hand before letting it go, "BUNGA!"
Owen threw the ball and soon it hit Harold which everyone gasped at but it wasn't as it seemed because once he recovered, Harold held up the ball in his hand.
Owen was out.
"The Killer Bass win!" Chris announced.
The Killer Bass immediately began cheering and immediately picked up Harold to carry him away from the court.
"Gophers, what happened?" Chris asked the team who had just lost their winning streak.
"Some people didn't have enough team spirit." Heather glared furiously at Lindsay who gulped, but Noah secretly smirked, he may not have been doomed after all.
We then see the campfire ceremony with the Screaming Gophers all at the elimination ceremony.
"Screaming Gophers, you have all cast your votes and made your decision, if I call out your name, come up and claim your marshmallow." Chris smirked.
"Owen, Gwen, Cody, Trent, Heather, Beth, Justin, Leshawna, and Izzy."
Noah and Lindsay both looked at each other in worry before Chris held up the last marshmallow, the tension was thick, both had excellent reasons to go home but in the end, the last one safe was…
"Noah."
"What?!" Lindsay asked in shock.
Noah just smirked as he took his marshmallow from Chris as Leshawna went to comfort Lindsay, "Girl, don't take this personally. We get that you have a thing for Tyler, but you shoulda saved it for after the challenges."
Lindsay turned to Heather for some sliver of hope, but Heather just shrugged with a deadpan expression on her face, it was true then, Lindsay's fate was sealed. She sadly walked to the dock with a solemn frown on her face but as Noah watched Lindsay walk down that dock, he had a horrifying realization, that could have been him. He could be eliminated right now, and lost out on the chance of winning a hundred thousand dollars.
Noah may not care a lot about anything, but he knew one thing.
He cared about winning.
Author's Note: I know most people prefer to send Justin home here, but Lindsay also had a reason to go since she pretty much ditched the team to walk with Tyler. I felt that was a good enough reason to send her home and save Noah. Lindsay was really annoying this season with how hopelessly oblivious she was to Heather's evilness. At least here, she will be spared from her one-note role earlier than canon.