"Room in that hot tub for one more?"
Cody jumped in surprise, letting out a small eep as he realized he was no longer alone.
Bridgette stood outside the hot tub next to him, giggling slightly at his skittishness. She was in her wetsuit, and Cody suddenly remembered that she was waiting for him to say something.
"Oh, uh, sure," he said, his voice lackluster, "Make yourself comfortable."
Bridgette's smile dimmed considerably, but she nodded at him anyway and joined him in the hot tub. She relaxed immediately, going limp as the deluxe hot tub worked its magic on her sore body, the damage done from Dodgebrawl being reversed in seconds.
"This is amazing," Bridgette groaned, eyes closed in bliss, "Our hot tub barely even works anymore, and you guys have been hogging this? How did you even build it?"
Cody, who had turned his attention back to staring at the lake, just shrugged.
"I, uh, have some experience building hot tubs and other things made out of wood," he said, thinking of the time he had built Gwen's face in Sweden, "With eleven people, it wasn't that hard."
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed as Bridgette's smile fell, and immediately felt guilty. Here she was, just trying to talk to him, and he was blowing her off like a total douche.
Some friend he was.
Unbeknownst to him, Bridgette was going through her own bit of mental turmoil. It was pretty clear that Cody wasn't himself right now, and it likely had to do with what had gone down today. She had, of course, witnessed the fight between him and Noah, but she didn't know the full extent of their relationship. Also, he seemed more upset when he had gotten back to the court than he had when he left - had something else happened?
After a brief bout of indecisiveness, Bridgette decided to rip the bandaid off instead of dancing around the issue.
"Cody," Bridgette called out gently, grabbing his arm, "What's wrong?"
Cody wanted to protest, to say that he was fine and was just relieved to not have gotten voted out, so he opened his mouth to protest -
But nothing came out.
Cody sagged down deeper into the water, as if he was trying to lose himself in the bubbles.
"Do you ever feel like no matter what you do," Cody began quietly, still avoiding eye contact with Bridgette, "Or no matter how hard you try, nothing you do will make a difference?"
Bridgette blinked. That was… not what she expected.
"Noah's a good guy," Cody continued, oblivious to the look of surprise Bridgette was giving him, "He's just a bit callous to strangers, I think. I really thought I could get through to him and show him that being a team player mattered, but it just blew up in my face and I could've gotten voted off because of it."
"Well, that was his choice," Bridgette responded, "He chose to be snarky and rude instead of playing to win, and he got eliminated for it. That's not your fault. You were only trying to help."
Cody just sighed. "It would've been better if I just didn't bother with him. I should've just known it was a waste of time, the same way I should've just left Heather alone."
"Heather?" Bridgette raised an eyebrow. "What were you doing with her?"
"She was pissed that Lindsay and Tyler had snuck off in the middle of the challenge together," Cody explained, "And was going to drag her back."
"Isn't that a good thing, though?" She responded, still slightly confused, "Why shouldn't she want Lindsay to actually compete in the challenge. It's what got Noah eliminated, after all, and the two of them seem kinda close."
"Heather didn't care that Lindsay was skipping the challenge," he reiterated, a bitter look on his face as he recounted the memory, "She was mad because she was with Tyler, because he's on your team. She wouldn't have cared if Lindsay had snuck off with Justin or Trent."
Bridgette was immediately reminded of the conversation she just had with Courtney, and grimaced.
Those two really were similar in all the wrong ways.
"Okay, that makes sense then," she admitted, "But what do you have to do with this then?"
Cody stewed over the question for a moment. Why did he get involved? It's not like anything would change because of his interference.
Well, nothing beyond being targeted by Heather.
Cody shrugged slightly. "Part of it was seeing the way Heather had been treating Lindsay so far, I guess. She hasn't exactly been nice to her, and I knew she was gonna go ballistic this time."
Before continuing, Cody hesitated. Was he really going to spill his guts to Bridgette like this? She was a nice person, sure, and was his friend, but did she really want to deal with all his baggage?
Did she deserve to?
Bridgette noticed his reluctance to continue, however, and nudged him slightly to get his attention back on her.
"Hey, if you don't want to talk about it anymore, that's okay!" She reassured, giving him another smile, "Today's been a stressful day for everyone, we've all been through a lot. If you want to talk about it some other time, it's no big deal."
Cody briefly blushed at her close proximity, before mulling over what she had said.
If he wanted to, she would drop the conversation, and he could just let his feelings bottle up in the hopes of them going away. That idea was rather appealing, but when did it ever work out for him in the past?
The answer was never.
"I think I need to get this off my chest, but I appreciate the offer," Cody replied, grateful, "I just… I keep thinking that every time I see a problem that I have to fix it. If something is going wrong, I need to do anything and everything I can to stop it from happening, or do my best to limit the damage, but then it just makes everything worse because I can't handle it and shouldn't have been involved in the first place."
Cody sighed bitterly. "Guess that just makes me an egocentric idiot, huh?"
That really was all he was, huh?
Cody got a fresh start, and suddenly he thinks he's just able to solve all the problems he and anyone else has ever had to deal with on the show?
What a joke.
At least last time around he didn't keep sticking his nose in places it didn't belong.
"Cody, look at me," Bridgette said, pulling the geek out of his depressing thoughts. He turned towards her, eyes downcast, before she tilted his chin up with her hand, forcing him to look her in the eyes.
"There is nothing wrong with trying to help others, even if you aren't the best suited for the job," she began, her eyes trained on Cody's, "Even if you didn't change much in the end, you still tried, which is more than anyone else here can say. That doesn't make you an idiot, but you know what I think it does?"
Cody shook his head, and Bridgette's smile grew. "A guy with a big heart. You shouldn't give up just because things don't work out once or twice, you know?"
That advice was so much more valuable than Bridgette could ever have known.
Cody finally smiled, eyes noticeably brighter, much to Bridgette's delight.
"Thanks, Bridgette," Cody said, voice cracking slightly, "You're a really great friend."
Bridgette smiled back.
She was so glad she told Courtney to stuff it.
–
Despite his spirits being in a somewhat higher place thanks to Bridgette, Cody was still mildly despondent come morning.
Sure, Bridgette had done a pretty good job cheering him up, but it didn't take away from the fact that he had still failed the last challenge. The Gophers' hopes were riding on Cody, and he'd let them down. He'd seen the disappointed looks he'd been given last night, and someone (probably Heather, if he had to guess) had actually tried voting him off instead of Noah.
Cody had thought he was friends with everyone on the Gophers, or at worst neutral to them.
Apparently, that wasn't the case.
With all that considered, Cody decided to start taking things a bit more seriously. Sneaking out of his cabin at the God-forsaken time of four in the morning wasn't the most fun thing in the world, but it meant he could get out and go do what he had to do without any prying eyes following him.
At least, he thought that would be the case.
Gwen's eyes followed Cody as he hurried off into the woods, her mind alight with curiosity.
She could leave him to his own devices, and he did seem rather upset after everything that had happened yesterday.
On the other hand, nobody would know if she did follow him, and it couldn't hurt to find out what he was up to…
Her mind made up, Gwen abandoned her plans of sketching the dock, and stealthily followed behind Cody as he made his way into the forest.
–
Cody let out a gasp as he struggled to perform another pull up, the branch he was hanging off of creaking ominously before it finally gave underneath his weight, snapping and sending Cody falling onto his back. He got up, frustrated, and threw the branch as far as he could, losing sight of it quickly in the dark.
"Wow, didn't take you for an ecoterrorist, Cody."
Cody jumped, surprised, wondering who the hell was up this early besides him.
Then he remembered a certain girl he had watched the sunrise with a few days ago.
"What're you doing out here, Gwen?"
Gwen smirked.
"I could ask you the same thing."
Damn. She got him.
Cody shrugged awkwardly. "I don't know," he began, unsure, "I just wanted to try and workout, I guess?"
"Four in the morning is a hell of a time to get a workout in." Gwen rolled her eyes playfully. "Besides, you don't seem like the kind of guy who enjoys that sort of thing, either."
Cody just sighed. He didn't really want to talk about it again, but Gwen probably wasn't going to just let him off the hook.
"I just wanted to let out some frustration after yesterday," Cody admitted, looking down, "I feel better than I did last night, but it was a lot."
Gwen nodded in understanding. "Yeah, Noah was a total prick," she agreed, "Why were you so adamant on getting him to play, though? If you didn't storm off after your argument, there's a chance we would've won game three or four. Not a big one, but still."
Cody looked away again, knowing that he'd pour his feelings out for her. Gwen just had that effect on him, even all this time later.
"I don't exactly have a lot of friends back home," he said shyly, "Or, well, any. I thought this place would be a good way to meet new people, try new things, you know?"
He flopped down onto the grass like a puppet with its strings cut, staring up at the night sky as he reminisced.
"I think Noah's a good guy. Hell, I think everyone here is a pretty nice person if you take away the competition. I've seen him alone the past week, and thought 'Hey! He looks like he could use a friend too!', and I thought that talking to him about the challenge and giving him some encouragement and a push to get involved would work."
Cody snorted.
"Clearly I was wrong."
Cody couldn't see it, but Gwen bore a sheepish, almost guilty look as she laid down nearby.
"You could've fooled me," she said quietly, "When you first arrived on the dock, you immediately reminded me of one of those annoying prep kids from my high school."
Cody let out a harsh, bitter laugh.
"That'll be the day."
Gwen cracked a small smile. "I'm glad we agree. Those snobby brats are the worst. Oh man, there was this one time…"
Cody and Gwen sat together in the woods for a good while, trading stories and laughs for hours, until their stomachs finally won out and sent them to the main lodge together.
By the time the sun had come up, Cody's frustration and anguish over Noah were long forgotten.
Too bad he'd have plenty of other problems soon enough.
–
Two days later, Cody sat together with the rest of the Screaming Gophers on the amphitheater's bleachers as they awaited Chris's arrival. He sat next to Owen on the bottom row, allowing Gwen and Trent to have their little moment without his interruption.
He idly observed the rest of the campers' interactions with each other as he waited, boredom growing with every passing moment. Katie and Sadie were gossiping, Owen was staring at Justin in pure adoration, and Lindsay was blowing kisses and waving to Tyler.
Wait, what?
Cody glanced back at the blonde in confusion, who was too busy making goo goo eyes at her boyfriend to notice. Similarly, Tyler was too enamored with Lindsay to pay attention to Chris as he began announcing the challenge. Cody quickly zoned back in, but spared Heather a glance as he turned back to face Chris.
She looked pissed, burning a hole into the back of Leshawna's head, but surprisingly wasn't interfering with Lindsay's flirting.
That was weird. Hadn't she kept that to a minimum last time around? What was stopping her this time?
A small flicker of hope bloomed in Cody's heart.
"Okay, this week's challenge is a summer camp favorite," Chris continued, unaware or unconcerned that a few campers hadn't exactly been paying attention, "A talent contest!"
Owen and Lindsay cheered, causing Chris to give them a dirty look before continuing.
"Each team has eight hours to pick their three most talented campers. These three will represent them in the show tonight! Sing, dance, juggle, anything goes as long as it's legal!"
Cody hid a muffled chuckle as Duncan snapped his fingers in frustration, not wanting to draw Chris's attention to himself like Owen had.
"You'll be judged by our resident talent scout, former DJ, VJ, and rap legend… Grand Master Chef!" Chris announced with flair, "Who will show his approval via the Chef-o-meter. The team that loses will send one camper home tonight! Good luck!"
With that, he stepped off the stage, allowing for both teams to come together and create a plan for the challenge.
Cody followed the rest of the Gophers back to their cabin, knowing that it was going to be a long day.
–
"Okay, I'm the team captain," Heather began, "So here's how it's going to work!"
"Wait," Gwen said, standing up from the cabin's steps and locking eyes with Heather, "Who said you were team captain?"
"She did!" Lindsay said, oblivious to the tension between the two, "Just now!"
"Lindsay, Beth, and I took a vote, and I won!" Heather explained, a small smile on her face despite the fact that it convinced no one.
"Threatening them to vote for you isn't exactly democratic."
Right before Heather could respond, no doubt something hateful on her lips, Trent came back to the group from the mess hall, a small present in his hands.
"Hey Gwen," he said, willfully ignorant of both Heather and the tension that was pervading the group, "Snagged you an extra muffin."
"Trent," Heather began sweetly, a polite smile quickly replacing her ugly scowl, "You're cool with me leading this project, aren't you?"
"Right on," Trent responded, unbothered, "Go for it!"
"Good!" Heather said happily, "Beth, Lindsay, and I will be the judges!"
Gwen looked like she wanted to argue further, but between not wanting to cause a scene in front of Trent and the fact that no one besides Leshawna looked willing to back her up, she settled for a scoff.
"Whatever."
–
The auditions went pretty similarly to how they went originally for the Screaming Gophers. Owen burped the alphabet, Gwen ditched the team to go do anything else, Heather did her ballet performance, Izzy did her weird snake dance that hypnotized Owen, and Justin sexily put out the fire Beth started.
Cody didn't bother auditioning after Heather had decided on who would be in the contest - all he had talent wise was his keyboard, and he sure wasn't good enough to outplay Trent and his guitar, not that he even wanted to.
He didn't follow Gwen into the woods, either. All he did last time around was act like a colossal creep to her, and he wasn't about to give a repeat performance just to make sure the timeline didn't change.
Besides, it was cute seeing all the little moments Gwen and Trent were having together.
That meant he also didn't bother going swimming with Owen at the dock, splashing Gwen and Trent and ruining their date, so he had a lot of time on his hands until the show. Cody had originally planned to try and stop Heather from stealing Gwen's diary, but he couldn't exactly prevent the theft from happening in the first place. He wasn't about to go into the girl's side of the cabin, sit on Gwen's bunk, and tell Heather it was off limits.
Besides, this time around, he shouldn't have even known that Gwen had a diary, much less that Heather was looking for it. Cody was at a loss.
And what did Cody do when he was at a loss now?
Go for a run to clear his mind, of course!
He just hoped his mind would be clear enough to give him a plan on how to stop Heather this time around.
–
Heather strode up to Bridgette and Courtney confidently as the two awkwardly talked backstage about their plans for the talent show. The fact that Courtney had bandages wrapped around her head only confirmed what Lindsay had told her Tyler said.
"Bridgette!" She called out, getting the surfer girl's attention, "Too bad about the accident, I guess you're going to get your fifteen seconds of fame after all!"
Bridgette looked at her in disbelief. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Oh, nothing! No one would sabotage their own teammate!" Heather said friendlily, pretending to think about what had happened, "Unless they maybe felt threatened?"
Heather hid a smirk as Courntey looked at her in surprise, and a smidge of understanding. This really was too easy.
"Hey! Maybe that's how you Gophers operate, but the Killer Bass have more class than that!" Bridgette protested, furious, "We're a team!"
"Well, I guess you'll go down as a team too!" She shot back, amused, "Oh, and easy on the chips. You don't want to sink that surfboard of yours, do you?"
Bridgette and Courtney both froze at that one.
It was so worth the bag of chips to the face Heather received.
—
Confessional: Heather
"What a bunch of losers! It's so easy it's almost not fun!" Heather complained, before letting a dirty smirk slide back onto her face.
"Almost."
—
Confessional: Bridgette
"She did not just go there!"
Bridgette looked angry, but also a tad nervous as she glared at the camera. "I don't know what Heather's game is, but it isn't gonna work on us!"
She suddenly sagged, remembering the way Courtney had looked at Heather with a small amount of understanding in her eyes,
"I hope…"
—
Confessional: Courtney
"I don't trust Heather," the C.I.T. began, looking at the walls of the confessional nervously while tapping her fingers together, "But she might've been onto something. Bridgette seems nice, but she was pretty upset after our talk last night, and then I saw her and Cody hanging out together in the Gopher's hot tub!"
Courtney then glared at the camera, eyes hard.
"She better hope she doesn't mess up this challenge."
—
"Welcome to the very first Camp Wawanakwa Talent Contest!" Chris announced to the small audience, "Where six campers will showcase their mad skills, and desperately try not to humiliate themselves. First up for the Screaming Gophers is Justin!"
Cody figured that now would be as good a time as any to sneak away backstage and try to do something to keep Heather from reading Gwen's diary out to the world. He hadn't really come up with a plan beyond attempting to convince her it would be a waste of time and just put a target on her back, but Cody was iffy on if that would work or not.
Lucky for him, he started moving just in time for everyone to be awed by Justin's performance, allowing for him to move unnoticed behind the stage.
Most of the campers performing were in one big group, giving each other varying degrees of encouragement, while Heather for some reason (he couldn't fathom why) sat alone confidently on the other edge of the stage. As he approached her, he was unsurprised by the fact that she was holding Gwen's diary in her hands, reading from it like a Christian rediscovering the Bible.
"Is that Gwen's diary?" He questioned once he got close enough, causing Heather to immediately freeze and slam the book shut, "What do you have that for?"
Heather struggled for a moment at first, trying to figure out exactly what to say to him as she desperately looked over at the rest of the performers, hoping none of them had overheard.
"How the hell do you know what this is?!" She hissed at him quietly, grabbing him by the t-shirt and pulling him close.
Cody shrugged. "Lucky guess. What are you doing with it?"
He played dumb, staring at her intently as he rubbed his chin, pretending like he was thinking about why she would have it.
"Gwen asked me to hold onto it for her!" Heather smiled to herself confidently at the quickly constructed lie, but twitched as she realized that Cody hadn't bought a single word of it.
"If that was the case," he began slowly, as if he was still confused, "Then why were you reading it? Also, shouldn't you be warming up for your ballet performance?"
Cody then gasped dramatically, really striking fear into Heather's heart. "Wait, you didn't plan on - hmpf!"
Heather quickly covered Cody's mouth with her hand, before waving off Geoff's concerned look - he was the only one relaxed enough among the other performers to realize that not only was Cody there, but that he seemed to be about to shout something out.
Geoff, for whatever reason, just nodded and smiled, giving Heather a thumbs up as he turned back to Bridgette and Courtney, who had been too busy watching DJ bomb his performance to notice anything amiss.
—
Confessional: Geoff
"Heh, my bro Cody is smooth!" Geoff laughed, "Dude has been making the moves on Heather since the first day, and now look at him! All his work is paying off!"
Geoff smiled lazily at the camera.
"I wonder if he could help me out with Bridgette…"
—
Cody was just about ready to lick Heather's hand to get her off of him, but before he could, Heather pulled him even closer to her with her other hand.
"Despite your total lack of subtlety, and the fact that you shouldn't even be back here," she hissed, "I will explain myself to you if you promise to be quiet."
Cody nodded slowly, and Heather removed her hand from his lips. She nodded approvingly once he didn't speak up, and after a moment started talking.
"Yes, this is Gwen's diary," she began, putting a hand up to keep Cody from interrupting, "Yes, I'm going to read it for my talent. No, you will not stop me from doing so. I'm not afraid to kick you where it hurts."
"But why?" Cody questioned quietly, "That isn't exactly going to wow Chef, and what has Gwen done to deserve this? All you're doing is putting a target on your back, and if we lose you'd probably be the one going home."
Heather simply scoffed at him. "You clearly don't understand how this game works, dweeb. The Bass are completely bombing right now. Courtney got a stagelight dropped on her head by Bridgette, DJ just embarrassed himself, and Justin and Trent are both going to get high scores. Bridgette isn't exactly going to be wowing Chef by doing a handstand," she explained, "And even if we do lose, I know I won't be going home."
Suddenly, an absolutely nasty smile appeared on Heather's face. Cody gulped.
"Besides," Heather said, "Don't you want to see what Gwen wrote about you?"
Cody froze. "Gwen wrote about me in her diary?"
Heather rolled her eyes. "She wrote about everyone in this thing. Gothy isn't exactly one to mince her words."
She then tossed the book at Cody, who caught it instinctively. He looked at the book with concern, but also hesitation. Was he really about to stoop to Heather's level and invade Gwen's privacy the same way the queen bee had?
Heather just rolled her eyes again, seeing his hesitation. "Page sixty-four, halfway down. You should really read it."
And just like that, his intrusive thoughts won out.
Cody slowly opened the book, the page already earmarked for convenience by Heather.
We totally connect. It doesn't hurt that he's one of only like three people here that I can actually deal with, and one of those people is a real wackjob.
That guy is insane. One moment he's happy, the next he's blowing up in Noah's face, the next he's acting like someone killed his pet. It's almost like he's a completely different person from the guy I hung out with the first morning here. It's almost like he's trying to mold his personality into whatever he thinks will earn him points with whoever he's talking to at the moment.
I didn't realize they allowed schizophrenics on this show, or I would've invited my parents to come join me.
Cody's hands were shaking.
Had Gwen actually written this?
This had to be some sort of sick joke from Heather, right? He looked down at the diary again, and sure enough, the handwriting looked identical to the rest of the page. Besides, Heather wouldn't write stuff in the diary in the first place - she was just going to read it out loud to everyone, she didn't plan on someone else reading it.
He looked back up at her, and Cody would've sworn he saw an ounce of pity in her eyes.
"I don't know what kind of beef she has with you," Heather said seriously, "But at least I'm straight with the people I don't like. It's kind of messed up for her to act like your friend and then turn around and write this kind of stuff."
Heather gently grabbed the diary back from Cody, before giving him a genuine smile.
"You should just go back to the bleachers and enjoy the fireworks. She totally has this coming."
Cody just nodded, almost robotically, and turned back the way he came, utterly defeated.
The thought of just running away with the diary while he had the chance never crossed Cody's mind.
—
Confessional: Heather
"Even I'll admit what Gwen wrote about Cody was a bit much, but that just proves me right!" Heather sounded very pleased, grinning brightly at the camera. "That girl is a total psycho, and it'll be wonderful to see their little friend group fall apart."
Heather turned her nose up.
"She was probably the one who voted for him yesterday too! The next time we lose a challenge, she better pray we have a better target to vote for."
—
"Yo, dude, where were you?" Owen asked Cody as he rejoined the rest of the Gophers, "You totally missed it! DJ bombed and Trent almost got a perfect score! The Bass are screwed!"
"That's great, Owen."
Cody just slunk down in the bleachers, wishing he could curl up and die right then and there.
Did Gwen seriously think that little of him? If so, why did she, often going out of her way to do so, interact with him so much? Over the last two days, after their early morning talk, Gwen, Trent, and Leshawna had roped Cody into their friend group, hanging out for a good portion of the free time that the cast had.
Why would she willingly interact with him if she really thought of him like that?
Again, the thought of Heather writing that in the diary just to mess with him popped up in his head, but he dismissed the idea. There was writing before and after that little blurb about him being a loser freak about how dreamy Trent was, so it wasn't like Heather could've just written that in.
Cody just sighed. If this was what Gwen, one of the people he considered his better friends on the island, thought of him, what did everyone else think?
Cody feared that answer more than he feared Sierra.
"Let's hear it for Bridgette!"
Cody watched numbly as Bridgette walked out onto the stage on her hands, before remembering what was about to happen.
After her first burp, he ducked behind the bleachers, fearing the worst.
There was so much vomit.
After all was said and done (Cody wasn't going to bother describing the horrors), Bridgette laid on the stage, frozen, surrounded by her own puke. She looked absolutely mortified, and Cody really couldn't blame her, his heart going out to the girl even despite his own fear that she thought about him in a similar vein to how Gwen apparently did.
As though she had just regained the ability to move, Bridgette stood up shakily, before running off in shame, far away from the rest of the contestants.
Nobody followed her, all either too disgusted or too shocked to notice.
Except for Cody.
He really, really, really did not want to talk to other people right now, especially not people he was close to.
But Bridgette had been there for him before, when he was at his lowest.
He owed her this much.
—
Confessional: Bridgette
"Going home won't be so bad," Bridgette said quietly, tears gently streaming down her face, "I-I could always work at the Surf Shack."
—
Cody didn't have much of a clue as to where he could find Bridgette, especially with her massive head start, but lucky for him he didn't have to search for long.
The sound of sobbing clued him in pretty quickly once he had gotten back to the cabins, and it only took one glance around the area to find Bridgette on the Dock of Shame.
What an apt name for it right now.
Cody grimaced at the thought.
He wasn't sure exactly on the what to do or how to try and comfort Bridgette, so instead Cody just walked over to the fallen girl and took a spot next to her on the dock.
"Please," She begged quietly, "Just leave me alone."
Bridgette hadn't even looked up too depressed to care. Cody wondered if she even realized it was him sitting next to her.
He really wished someone like Geoff was here in his place.
"It's not that bad." He tried, wincing as she just started crying harder.
"It's not that bad? Today I've broken Courtney's violin, dropped a light on her head, cost us the challenge, and humiliated myself in front of the entire world in the most disgusting way possible!"
Bridgette dropped her head into her hands.
"It was nice while it lasted, I guess."
Cody sighed. It was time to bring out the big guns.
"Bridgette, you're going to have to trust me on this." Cody said quietly, "But this isn't the end."
"How could it not be?!" She shot back, incredulous, "It's not like anyone isn't going to vote to get rid of me! I can't even blame them."
Just like that, all the fight left her, and she just leant forward, crying into her arms again.
Cody sucked in a breath. He really was going to do this, huh?
Very slowly, Cody gently wrapped his arms around Bridgette, bringing her into a rather loose hug. He held his breath, hoping she didn't kick him in the nuts or slap him -
With a shuddering breath, Bridgette wrapped her arms tightly around the geek, crying even harder into his shoulder as he rubbed small circles on her back.
"I-I-I just t-thought…" Bridgette tried, before breaking down again.
"Shh, i-it'll be okay," Cody said, overwhelmed at the entire situation as Bridgette shook her head in protest against his neck. Between the smell of puke, Bridgette's fierce crying in his arms, and the crushing emotional damage he had suffered earlier, Cody was really close to just checking out of today entirely.
But he forced himself not to.
"Look, what happened was… bad," Cody admitted, while continuing to attempt to soothe Bridgette with his hug, "But people probably aren't going to dwell on it for as long as you think. Right now, Heather is reading Gwen's diary, and stirring up a nightmare for my team to deal with. People are going to be focused on that a lot more than what happened with you."
Cody didn't know if he was helping or not, but Bridgette did seem slightly quieter now, so he pressed on. "And Harold showed me some wicked beatboxing the other day - it might even be good enough to win you guys the challenge! If it isn't, then yeah, you might get voted off, but hey, that's going to happen to everyone here eventually. Stuff happens. If you're worried about how the people here think of you now, then just know that anyone who really cares about you will look past this. Everyone has their embarrassing moments, we're no different."
He paused, unsure if he wanted to continue, but that was enough.
Bridgette pulled herself out of his arms with a sniffle, but she had a smile on her face.
A very, very, very small smile, but a smile nonetheless.
"Th-thanks, Cody," She said, voice all over the place, "You're a really great guy."
She pulled him in for another hug, this one just as tight as the last.
Cody smiled for the first time in hours.
At least he had one friend here.
–
Cody arrived back to the amphitheater alone, Bridgette having gone back to the cabins to clean herself up in case the Killer Bass did lose, wanting to leave with dignity if it really came down to it.
Judging by the stares he got as he came back, as well as the cheering of Harold's name that was coming from the Bass bleachers, that wasn't going to be the case.
Cody wondered just how much of Gwen's diary Heather had read, considering most people were either staring at Trent, Cody, Heather, or the spot Gwen had likely been sitting at before she ran away in embarrassment.
At the very least, it seemed that Heather had read the full page of her confession of love for Trent, and her absolute disdain for Cody.
No one said anything. Hell, no one even moved beyond Owen awkwardly walking over and patting Cody on the back until Chris had told them to make their way over to the confessionals to cast their votes.
Cody knew where his vote was going.
—
Confessional: Heather
"Some people thought I was mean to Gwen for spilling her secrets," Heather began cockily, "Whatever. All I needed was four votes against Justin. Beth and Lindsay were easy, Izzy's just crazy, and Owen? Piece of cake!"
Heather grinned.
"Besides, even if the others vote for me, there's no way Cody does. I'm just glad he didn't read the rest of Gwen's diary. I don't know what was up with her on the day she wrote all that weird shit, but I'm sure glad she did! That was the only negative thing about him she had written, but it was plenty. There's no way their little clique survives."
—
"Kudos to you all for an incredible night of entertainment!" Chris began, "Music! Drama! Barfing! Crying! We really had it all, great work everyone!"
"There is only one marshmallow left on this plate." His tone changed quickly, sobering up the two remaining teens that sat at the bonfire. "Justin, you reminded us all that looks matter. A lot. And Heather, you're full of surprises! But reading another chick's diary out loud to the whole world? Man, that is wack! No kidding that's really messed up dude, even if she did write some pretty fucked up stuff in there."
Everyone briefly glanced at Cody, causing him to stare at the ground sadly.
"Oh, please," Heather said, getting irritated, "Just give me my marshmallow already!"
Chris sighed. "Justin I personally think this is very wrong, but tonight your hotness just wasn't enough. The last marshmallow goes to Heather. Time to catch the boat of losers, brah!"
"Later brah!" Heather waved, taunting Justin as he walked off, head hung low.
In an awkward silence, the remaining Gophers walked back to their cabins, defeated. No one bothered to try and say something - they all knew better.
Cody wasn't sure whether or not he enjoyed Heather's screams later in the night once Gwen had dumped Harold's red ant farm on her.
—
A/N:
Yeah, this probably didn't go the way most people thought.
To be short, Cody has been pretty fast and loose with his given mood throughout the show so far. Happy when around other people, sad/melancholy when alone or thinking no one is around, scared whenever he's reminded that he somehow traveled back in time and is sort of living a lie. Also super mad at Noah for no discernible reason at first.
Gwen notices, writes it down in her diary, and then regrets it the next day when she has a heart to heart with Cody, realizing she's just misunderstood him and he really is just a nice guy trying to make some friends. Too bad she never thought to erase what she wrote, but hey! No one would ever steal her diary and read it to the world!
Also, if you couldn't tell by me adding her as a character tag, I didn't originally plan on writing Bridgette this much. It just writes itself at this point!
Also also, this chapter was written even later than usual, so if there's anything that A) Doesn't make sense story-wise or B) Seems like a pretty big typo or whatever, please let me know and I'll fix it/clear it up right away, I just really wanted to get this chapter out ASAP.
Hope you enjoyed it! Longest chapter so far! Remember to review (if you want), I love reading your opinions!
