Sadie was still bawling her eyes out on the dock when Bridgette approached her, feeling bad for the girl despite knowing that it was her and Katie's fault that they had lost in the first place.
The rest of the Killer Bass, aside from DJ and maybe Tyler, all seemed to take some sort of twisted satisfaction from getting rid of Katie. Bridgette could understand it to an extent - she was annoyed by them sometimes as well, and they did cost the team the challenge - but she could only feel pity once Sadie had begun to wail.
Bridgette gently placed her hand on Sadie's shoulder, but it seemed like the girl didn't even notice.
"Katie would want you to keep going!" Bridgette tried to encourage, "I know this is hard, but you'll see her again after the competition!"
Sadie just kept crying.
"C'mon, let's go back and join the others!" Bridgette tried, tugging on Sadie's shoulder, trying to pull her up.
She didn't have much success.
"No!" Sadie wailed, gripping onto a board from the dock, "Katie! I miss you!"
Bridgette sighed. This was gonna take a while.
–
Eventually, Sadie stopped resisting, allowing for Bridgette to gently guide her back to the campfire pit where the rest of the Killer Bass sat, defeated. Her tears had slowed a tad, but it seemed like there wasn't going to be a stop to the sobbing anytime soon.
Courtney glanced over questioningly as the duo approached, one of Sadie's hands in Bridgette's, the other still gripping onto the piece of the Dock of Shame she had been clinging to. As Bridgette set her down on one of the stumps, she began to cry in earnest again, gripping onto the plank for dear life.
"It was a long goodbye." She said quietly.
Courtney just rolled her eyes.
Bridgette couldn't blame her.
The Killer Bass (minus Sadie) all looked up curiously at the sound of approaching footsteps, before their stares turned to glares as they came face to face with the Gophers.
"What do you guys want?" Courtney said snidely, although there was no real malice in her voice, "Come by to rub it in?"
"We got some extra dessert after our Tuck Shop party," Trent explained, a cool smile on his face, "Thought you might want some."
"So what," Courtney questioned with a glare, "You're just being nice?"
Bridgette honestly couldn't understand what Courtney's deal was. This was the first time the Gophers had extended an olive branch to them since the teams were formed, much less since Heather and Courtney had begun their petty rivalry as captains.
Besides, that jelly looked pretty good!
"Okay," Gwen admitted with an eye roll, jerking a finger at Owen, "Owen stank up our cabin, and we need some time to air it out."
Owen farted, as if to confirm Gwen's testimony. Trent, who was right next to him, got the full blast from it.
"Dude, ew!"
Beth walked up to the two Bass girls, jelly platter in hand. Right as Bridgette was about to take it out of her hands with a small smile and thank you, Courtney squealed at it in fright and leaned back, almost as if she was trying to get away from it.
"Ew!" She squeaked out, before recomposing herself, "I mean, no thanks! I'm good!"
Duncan blinked. "What, are you on a diet or something?"
"No!" Courtney denied fervently, "I just don't like green jelly, okay?"
Beth, seeing as she was getting nowhere with Courtney, decided to walk over to DJ, ever the gentle giant. However, in an even weirder reaction than Courtney, DJ gasped.
"Snake!" He screamed, slapping the offered dessert out of Beth's hands and into the air, before it landed at Leshawna's feet.
Bridgette sighed. It looked so good, too!
"Chill out, brotha!" Leshawna said, amused, "It's just a gummy worm!"
DJ slumped. "Sorry for tripping," he said, slightly embarrassed, "Snakes just freak me out!"
"I feel you," Tyler said, putting his hand on DJ's back reassuringly, "Chickens give me the creeps, dude!"
"You're afraid of chickens?" Gwen asked, dumbfounded.
Duncan (barely) tried to hold in his laughter. "Wow, that's," he began, chuckling all the while, "That's really lame, man."
—
Confessional: Gwen
"So, suddenly everyone's having this big share-fest by the fire," Gwen began, "Like Beth went on and on about how her mortal fear is being covered by bugs, Harold's afraid of ninjas, even Heather admitted she's afraid of sumo wrestlers!"
—
"What's my greatest fear?" Gwen repeated, "I guess being buried alive."
Bridgette half-listened as the group went around admitting their fears, still interested in the topic despite where her current attention was being focused.
Cody sat one stump away from her, the only person between the two being Sadie, who had finally stopped crying to laugh at Tyler's admission of chickens being his greatest fear. The guy looked terrified, eyes darting around the group as if someone, or something, was waiting in the dark to jump out at him.
Bridgette suddenly realized it was her turn to speak up, Izzy having just agreed with Owen that flying was something she'd never do.
"Being left alone in the woods," She admitted, a frown on her face at the thought. She was always an ocean girl, feeling the calmest when in water. The forest was foreign to her, dark, eerie, and if the rumors were true, there were a lot of unfriendly creatures that lurked out there in the night.
Yeah, she'd have to pass on that.
"Oh, okay, I change mine!" Lindsay burst out in response to Sadie, "Bad haircuts are soooo much scarier than a minefield!"
Bridgette's, and everyone else's, eyes then turned to Cody. He didn't look good.
Cody didn't notice, eyes trained firmly on the ground as if he were forcing himself to not look anyone in the eye. He was sweating, and his hands were shaking.
"Get on with it, geekwad!" Duncan jeered, "Or are you too chicken to share your fear? Even the guy afraid of chickens at least admitted it!"
Cody froze, pupils shrinking back in fear even as he continued to stare at the grass.
Finally, he whispered something unintelligible, something that made Trent (who sat on the other side of him) and Sadie to freeze as well.
"Speak up!" Izzy called out, getting impatient.
Some of the other teens had clearly noticed Trent and Sadie's reaction and were a bit put off, but their curiosity overruled their hesitation.
"Being stalked by a crazy person who's obsessed with you." Cody repeated.
That was… oddly specific.
But that told Bridgette something.
And it was something she really didn't like.
"Oh, please!" Duncan scoffed, "Like anyone would be obsessed with you. No offense, but you need to get a better fear!"
"Oh yeah?" Trent glared, standing up for his friend (something Bridgette desperately wanted to do but was too shocked to act on), "Well what about you, smart guy? What's Duncan's big bad phobia?"
Duncan looked around nervously, and with his similarly hesitant admission of 'Celine Dion music store standees', most of the other campers forgot about Cody's… rather offput demeanor and admission.
But not Bridgette. And by the looks of things, she wasn't alone.
She glanced worriedly at Cody, who had returned to nervously staring at the shadows. His eyes met hers, and he froze.
Cody offered her a jerky, nervous smile and wave, as though that would suddenly assuage Bridgette's worries.
They did not.
–
Bridgette didn't get the chance to talk to Cody later that night, as most of the campers had gone to bed pretty quickly after their fears were shared and the fire started to die out.
Come morning, though, she knew something was up.
The campers had all (miraculously) gathered for breakfast at the same time, nearly enjoying their meal of flapjacks and sausage. Bridgette ignored the sausage of course - she was a vegetarian, after all - but even her pancakes went mostly untouched due to her concern for Cody.
He didn't look at all better than he had last night. In fact, the opposite was true - he had dark bags under his eyes, flinched at the slightest sudden sound or movement, and was seemingly becoming even more paranoid.
Bridgette certainly wasn't the only one to notice anymore, though. Trent, Gwen, and Leshawna kept giving him nervous glances, and it looked like even Heather of all people had tried saying something to him, but he either brushed them off or outright ignored them.
This wasn't the Cody she knew.
Bridgette had finally had enough when Owen… sort of took Cody's food away from him, devouring it in a single bite, to no reaction from her friend.
She began standing up, both in protest and worry, when Chris decided it was the perfect time to pop in out of nowhere.
"Campers!" Chris began, an absolutely diabolical grin on his face, "Your next challenge is a little game I like to call… Phobia Factor! Prepare to face your worst fears!"
Oh no.
Oh NO.
Bridgette, along with everybody else, froze in terror.
"Our first victims… Heather!" Chris announced, "Meet us all in the theater, it's sumo time! Gwen - you, me, the beach, a few tons of sand? And Bridgette! Get ready for a nice, long, and lonely nature retreat!"
"Wait," Lindsay said, confused, "How did they know those were your worst fears?"
"Because we told them?" Gwen responded incredulously, slapping her forehead in regret.
Lindsay and Beth shared a confused look. Or rather, Lindsay looked at Beth confused, and Beth didn't know how to respond.
"At the campfire, last night!" Trent reminded her, patting Gwen on the back gently.
"Wait… they were listening to us?"
"It's a reality show, Einstein," Gwen snarked, "They're always listening to us."
"That's, like, eavesdropping!"
Bridgette could not believe this girl had made it to high school.
"Hold on!" Duncan interrupted, "We had a challenge last night, what happened to our two days off in between?"
"You'll have an extra few days off after this one," Chris said flippantly, "Now where was I… oh right. Chef Hatchet, didn't you have a special order for Tyler here today?"
Chef grinned, pulling out a deep frying skimmer from the boiling oil it was trapped in, revealing a thoroughly fried chicken, and offering it to Tyler.
Tyler, looking nervous, had the courage to pick it up and take a bite, but all bets were off when a live chicken popped its head out from the neck he had just bitten off and clucked at him.
Bridgette had never heard somebody scream so loudly over livestock.
"Anyways…" Chris said, no doubt amused at the jock's reaction but still wanting to move along, "Bridgette, you're up first! Your six hours in the woods starts… now! Better get a move on if you want to score your team some points!"
Reluctantly, Bridgette made her way to the exit of the main lodge, to the cheers of Geoff, DJ, and Sadie, and began her trek into the forest.
But she was hardly concerned about herself at that moment, or her petty fear of the woods.
All she could think about was the look of complete panic and desperation on Cody's face.
–
Heather watched along with the rest of the campers (minus Bridgette) as Beth walked with trepidation up to the inflatable pool that contained her fear.
Roaches, flies, spiders, worms, beetles, centipedes, you name it - all the nastiest and absolutely sickest creatures God had created were in that pool, awaiting Beth's choice.
DJ and Geoff hurled, while Owen fainted on the spot.
Heather was slightly envious of Bridgette at the moment. At least she wasn't here to see this.
The only people who seemed unbothered by the wretched pool were Duncan, no surprise there, Harold, who just seemed to be enamored by the insects, and Cody.
Heather had noticed Cody last night as well - the paranoid looks, the terror in his voice when he spoke, the fear that was just a bit too specific to Cody for it to be normal. Today he had looked even worse, going as far as to ignore her when she tried asking him what was wrong.
In his defense, she may have shouted at him and caused him to lock up, but seriously? If today's challenge wasn't so disturbing she might have done something to remind Cody exactly who was talking to him.
Back to the present, Heather was gaining a begrudging amount of respect for Beth, her every step taking her closer to the bug pool…
Right up until she was right about to stick her leg in, a roach flew onto her face, and she passed out in the same manner as Owen.
Great.
"Well, that was anticlimactic," Chris commented, "No point for the Gophers yet! But both teams will have the chance to put points on the board right now, thanks to Lindsay and Sadie!"
Chris gestured back towards the main lodge, where Chef Hatchet stood behind two barber's chairs, a blindfold on and scissors in hand.
"Many don't know this, but Chef Hatchet is a gifted hair stylist!" He said, causing Lindsay and Sadie to glance at each other nervously, "He even does my hair! However, this time around Chef will be wearing a blindfold, seriously impeding his vision and his hair cutting skill. Which one of you ladies is up first?"
Lindsay screamed.
Sadie followed suit.
"Really?" Chris said, shaking his head, "And here I thought Sadie would appreciate a makeover."
Heather facepalmed.
At least things were still tied.
–
Things were no longer tied.
Leshawna, unsurprisingly, had run for the hills the moment Chef appeared in his stupid spider costume, somehow screaming in a higher pitch than Lindsay ever could.
What a weakling!
At least Owen and Izzy had both gone up in that rickety old plane to get points. She didn't know what Izzy had done to get that oaf to go along with her - last time she had seen him he was on all fours, grabbing the grass as tightly as he could between his sausage fingers - but it was the only thing keeping Heather from losing it at the moment.
At some point while they were in between challenges, Chris had announced that Harold had gotten a point for the Bass. Heather didn't know how that was even possible, considering his fear was ninjas of all things, but she knew she needed this point if the Gophers wanted a chance to win this.
If Harold of all people could face his fear, who wouldn't on the Bass?
It was a shame that meant Heather had to stare down a several ton ball of lard in nothing but a diaper.
"And Heather steps up to the plate!" Chris commented behind her, doing nothing for her absolutely shot nerves, "Can she score a point for the Gophers? I personally doubt it!"
Heather tried, she really did. She stared at the giant of a man in fear, quaking in terror as he ran straight at her, before she folded and curled up into a ball right before he would've tackled her.
Somehow, that actually worked, and the sumo wrestler tripped over her, careening off the stage and rolling out of sight.
"Yikes! It looks like the Gophers just lost again!"
Heather was on her feet immediately, glaring daggers at Chris.
"What do you mean we lost?!" She screeched, without any of her usual poise, "I got up on stage! I fought that sumo guy! He got knocked off stage!"
"Ah ah ah, cool your jets, Heather!" Chris said mockingly, "While it's true that you did technically beat the sumo wrestler, you did so through an act of cowardice, curling up in a ball, and not through actually facing your fear."
"Does that matter?!" She snapped, "I won!"
"As a matter of fact, it does!" He responded cheerily, further provoking Heather, "It isn't about win or lose, it's about facing your fears head on! Sure, you probably would've been bodied if you did so, but you would've been defeated with dignity, and that's all that matters. Just look at Harold! He got his butt kicked by those ninjas, but he faced them without hesitation. That's what I call a victory."
Harold nodded in confirmation from the bleachers. "It's true," he explained confidently, "Those ninjas really humiliated me and my mad skills. They even gave me a swirlie!"
At that juicy tidbit of information, the rest of the Bass leaned back in disgust while Harold simply smiled.
"Ugh, whatever!" Heather spat out finally, before giving her team a onceover, "Wait. Where's Cody?"
Chris just chuckled. "He's doing some errands for me at the moment, but don't worry, everyone's fear will be addressed today!"
For some reason, that didn't exactly soothe Heather's nerves.
–
Trent watched, concerned, as Chris began to bury Gwen in a glass box on the beach.
"There's enough air in there for an hour," he said to her, leaning down to get closer, "You only need to last five minutes!"
"As long as we decide to dig you up!" Chris interrupted.
"Not funny Chris!" Gwen hissed at him, causing Chris to just roll his eyes.
"Sheesh! Take a pill."
"I'll be listening the whole time," Trent reassured, handing Gwen a walkie-talkie, "Just yell for me if you panic and I'll dig you right up!"
Trent knew that the fact that he had to slide the box closed on her didn't exactly help.
"Goodbye cruel world!" Gwen announced miserably, as Chris finally got to fully rebury her.
Once she was fully in the sand, Chris turned back to the remaining contestants.
"Now that we've got that taken care of," he said, swiping his hands together to remove any remaining sand, "DJ! I think it's time we take a walk back to the amphitheater and let you take a crack at a snake! You guys get a move on, I'll be right behind you!"
Despite some grumbling (and a shriek of fear from DJ), everyone complied, slowly marching back the way they had come, leaving Trent, Chris, and a buried Gwen on the beach. Trent raised his eyebrow at Chris in confusion, causing the host to chuckle.
"Don't worry about it, dude," he said nonchalantly, "I'm just waiting for someone I told to meet here… and there he is! Speak of the devil, am I right?"
Trent blinked realizing Cody had finally turned back up, this time carrying a burlap sack that seemed to be around halfway full.
"Uh… h-here you go, C-chris." Cody said, stuttering like wild and twitching uncomfortably, "S-s-some of the s-stuff you wanted, uh, w-wasn't-t there."
Chris just smiled, unbothered by this news. "No problemo, my good man!" He threw an arm around Cody's shoulder, causing the smaller teen to flinch uncomfortably. "Just leave that here, I've got one more thing for you to do!"
Cody tensed up, still enough that Trent thought he had stopped breathing, but nodded stiffly nonetheless.
"Awesome!" Chris praised, "You just got a nice little walk through the woods to go on, should take around, say, twenty minutes! Maybe you'll even see Bridgette on the way!"
Chris waggled his eyebrows for emphasis on that last part.
It took Cody a moment, and Trent thought the guy was gonna protest, but he just sighed in defeat and nodded again, turning back the way he had come from, towards the cabins.
Trent just stared in confusion. Had Cody even noticed that he was standing right there?
"What's that all about?" He asked Chris, concerned, "He looks horrible right now!"
Chris merely waved him off.
"Let's just say Cody's challenge is a bit… different from the rest of yours."
–
"Trent, you okay? Are you still there?"
Trent frowned. Not at Gwen, but at whatever Chris was doing with Cody.
"Yeah, I'm here, I'm not going anywhere," he sighed, "Just… worried."
"Worried?!" Gwen shrieked, "About what?! Am I stuck down here? Is the water rising? Am I gonna die?!"
Shit.
"No, no, no!" Trent exclaimed quickly, "Nothing like that! You're doing great! You've only got three minutes left!"
"Thank God."
Trent smiled, but it wasn't like anyone would see it.
"I need some kind of distraction!" Gwen insisted through the walkie-talkie, "Tell me why you're worried!"
Trent winced.
"It's about Cody."
Gwen didn't respond for a moment.
"You noticed too?" She said, quieter now, "I thought I might've been the only one. He looked really shaken up last night, and it was even worse today. Did he ever come back?"
"Yeah, just a minute ago actually," Trent replied, "Chris had him doing some errands or something, but whatever it was it didn't help the kid at all. He looked awful."
"Oh, well what -"
Trent froze as somebody tapped him on the shoulder, turning around quickly to come face to face with a mime.
Trent screamed, his instincts forcing him to run and do nothing else as he sprinted as fast as he could off the beach, Gwen and Cody long forgotten. He turned around after a second, and sure enough, the mime was chasing him.
That just forced him to run harder.
"Trent?" Gwen called out, to no avail, "Trent?"
No one heard her as she began to scream for help.
–
Trent heaved in lungfuls of air as he stood on the Dock of Shame, having finally outran the circus freak that had somehow been able to keep up with him for all this time.
He idly wiped the sweat from his brow as he looked around nervously, still paranoid of being caught by the mime again.
Sure enough, as he looked behind him, Trent came face to face for the second time with the French menace.
He screamed, but there was nowhere to run but the water. He reared back in fear, preparing for the inevitable -
Wait, the water!
Trent dove head first into the cold lake, gasping for air as he surfaced to watch the mime take in a large breath, intent on jumping in after him.
"Stop!" Trent called out fearfully, "Uh, your makeup will run!"
The mime paused, and after another moment, nodded its agreement and walked away, head held high. Chris clapped from the dock, having seen the whole thing.
"Nicely played, Trent," he began, "Unfortunately, you're in the same boat as Heather. You beat the mime, but without actually dealing with your fear."
"What?!" Trent said, outraged, "I totally conquered my fear!"
"Oh, really?" Chris's smirk was dangerous now. "I guess I should just call him back to make sure then. My mistake! Oh Pier-"
"Wait!" Trent shouted desperately, before relaxing in the water, looking down sadly, "I give."
"That's what I thought, my good man!" Chris proclaimed confidently, "That means it's currently two to three in favor of the Bass! Unfortunately for them, it's Geoff's turn!"
Trent climbed back up onto the beach just in time to watch Geoff's challenge begin, Chris pelting the party dude relentlessly with a cloud of hail. He screamed and tried to run, and suddenly Trent didn't feel so bad about his own loss.
"Can you make the cloud go lower, and pelt him harder?" Trent asked Chris, fully invested in this challenge.
"You are one sick dude!" Chris said with a straight face, before letting his smile slip out, "But yeah. Check it!"
On cue, the seemingly magical cloud that Chris was controlling with a joystick and buttons got even closer to Geoff, who began his screams anew as his head was fully submerged by the dark cloud.
"Geoff, bro!" Chris called out, "You know if you just stay still and let it happen, you'll get a point and it'll be over quicker, right?"
Geoff's hat popped out of the cloud immediately.
"For real, man?!" He asked desperately, "I thought I was supposed to outrun it!"
Geoff immediately came to a stop, and after a few seconds of suffering the hailstorm ended, much to Trent's dismay.
"Aw, man!" Trent said, "I really wanted to see you bury him in hail!"
Wait. Bury?
Trent froze.
Gwen was still buried.
Fuck.
–
The moment Bridgette's watch started beeping, she booked it out of the woods like a bat out of hell.
To be honest, a bat would probably lose that race.
The first few hours hadn't been that bad. Sure, the lone squirrel or two had absolutely terrified her, but she stuck to her guns and held fast against her gut telling her to run. The paranoia had been running wild in her body, but because nothing was happening she was able to focus on that feeling and ignore the rest of the world.
After that, Bridgette was pretty sure she started to hallucinate.
Around an hour before she was supposed to finish, she heard an absolutely otherworldly squeal coming from somewhere in the woods. It didn't sound close to her, but she really couldn't tell.
The only reason Bridgette hadn't gotten up and ran the second time she heard the squeal was because it was accompanied by a really bizarre sight.
A girl, who looked to be a year younger than Bridgette at most, with dark skin and long purple hair done up into a large braid, had started appearing out of the corner of her eyes for moments at a time. She didn't seem to notice Bridgette, too focused on something else while quickly popping in and out of bushes, but Bridgette certainly noticed her.
It was at that moment that Bridgette decided nothing could be weirder than what she was currently seeing, and decided to simply lie back and hope whatever fever dream had begun for her would end soon.
The muffled giggles and sounds of a camera clicking were not very reassuring.
Regardless, she had made her way back to camp relatively quickly, and found herself to be the only one that was missing from the rest of the campers. Tyler was the only one who was actually doing anything, being curled up in a ball inside of a chicken pen.
"And with Bridgette's win over nature complimenting Tyler's rather… lame act of courage, the score is now teetering on a three to six beatdown in favor of the Killer Bass! It's all coming down to the final three challenges!"
"What?!" Heather shouted, "There's no way you're counting this, he's in the fetal position!"
"Maybe so," Chris shrugged, "But he still did what I asked him, and got in the pen with the chickens. Look, one of the babies likes him!"
Bridgette and most of the female campers cooed at the tiny yellow ball of fluff that had hopped its way over to Tyler, chirping cutely at him before nuzzling up against his leg.
"Tyler, bro," Chris began, "If you pick up that baby chicken and give it a pat on the head, you're good. You won't have to wait the extra two minutes."
It looked like it physically pained him to do so, but Tyler slowly, carefully, and nervously reached his hand out to the baby chick beside him. Without instruction, it hopped into his open hand happily, chirping as Tyler brought his other hand down to rub its head gently, a small smile on the jock's face.
—
Confessional: Tyler
"Okay… maybe I was a bit of a wimp for being so afraid of chickens," Tyler blushed, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, "But they really weren't that bad, I think!"
Tyler suddenly grinned.
"And you know what that means?" He asked, "It means Tyler is finally pulling his weight on the team! Woohoo! Killer Bass all the way, baby!"
He jumped up in excitement, only to bang his head on the ceiling of the confessional, accidentally knocking himself out.
—
As Tyler pulled himself out of the chicken pen, the chick he had been holding chirped sadly. It tried running after him, but was stopped by the small chain link fence that had been installed around the chickens.
"Aw, it's okay, little guy!" Tyler said guiltily, "You can't come with me! You've got your whole family over there!"
The chick burst into tears.
"Chris, man," Tyler said, getting uncomfortable, "Help me out here?"
"Sure!"
Chris easily plucked the little chicken up by the scruff of its neck, before gently passing it to Tyler, who looked at him in confusion.
"Little dude's imprinted on you!" Chris explained, "That means he's yours now!"
"What?" Tyler asked, dumbfounded.
"Aw, sweet dude!" DJ cheered, patting him on the back, "That means we've got two team mascots! I've got Bunny, and you've got your little chick!"
"But I've never taken care of an animal before!" Tyler exclaimed, "What am I supposed to do?"
"Don't worry man!" DJ replied, "I'll teach you. It's easy, and super rewarding!"
"As sweet as this is," Chris said, impatience getting the better of him, "We still have two challenges left to decide the winner!"
"But Chris," Harold interrupted, "You said the score was six to three! Even if Cody gets his challenge done, there's no way he could tie it! Besides, Courtney doesn't even have a fear!"
"I was getting to that, Harold." Chris glared at the redhead, causing him to shrink back awkwardly. "As I was saying before someone rudely butted in, these final challenges have some… interesting aspects to them."
Bridgette looked over at Cody, who was shaking like a leaf at this point. Courtney was putting up an unimpressed stare for the cameras, but Bridgette could tell it was a facade.
What was going on?
"As you may have noticed, Cody has been noticeably absent from the challenge today." Chris continued, "That's because his fear is a bit tougher than most to truly catch the scope of. Cody's actually been going through his challenge this entire time, but through different stages of it!"
—
Confessional: Cody
Cody looked awful. His hair was ruffled, clothes were torn, and there were lipstick stains all over his face.
"There are three different stages of stalking," he said quietly, looking down in shame, "The first is noticing it. Personal belongings and similar items begin to disappear for no reason, the hair on the back of your neck stands up, things like that. Then there's part two, where you are actively being stalked by the stalker, and you know it too."
Cody let out a shuddering breath.
"And finally, stage three…" he paused for a moment, almost in shock, "When the stalker gets a hold of you…"
A choked out sob was heard.
—
Cody didn't know why Chris wanted him to grab him a list of things from the Gophers' cabin. Sure, he didn't really mind doing it, but it was weird nonetheless.
What could Chris want with his pillowcase, a pair of Trent's shorts, or one of Owen's floaties?
As Cody got to digging around for the items, a strange yet familiar pattern was beginning to come back to him.
Out of all the things Cody was looking for, he couldn't find anything that belonged to him.
Weird.
Hell, the last time his stuff had gone missing like this was when -
Cody froze, slowly coming to a dark realization.
No. Not again.
Please.
He was out of the cabin a moment later.
There was no chance he was going to be alone anymore today.
–
Why did this have to happen?
How did they find her?
Was this even real anymore?
All these questions and more were flying through Cody's head at a mile a minute, his mind being overwhelmed with a fear he thought he finally had escaped.
It seemed some forces were stronger than time travel.
Cody knew it was Sierra the moment he had noticed one of his spare shoelaces missing in the morning.
But… how?
And why? Couldn't Chris have had Chef, or an intern, or literally ANYONE else in the world do this?
Cody didn't even have time to think about these questions as he walked through the woods, careful not to make too much noise.
It's not like it would matter though - it was only a matter of time before Sierra found him. He was pretty sure the flashes of purple he was seeing out of the corner of his eyes wasn't just his paranoia anymore.
The quiet giggling made it infinitely worse.
–
"Stalking is a big deal, and a multi-step fear," Chris said, "So far, Cody has dealt with two of those steps, earning two points for the Gophers, meaning the score is actually five to six! Of course, if Courtney does her challenge now, that means none of this matters. So what do you say, Court?"
Courtney's mask was starting to crack.
"W-what are you talking about?" She asked ridiculously, "I'm not afraid of anything!"
"Maybe so," Chris replied, "But we're always watching you and your reactions, remember? We saw that little freak out over the green jelly, Courtney!"
Courtney froze.
"As you can see, right over here we have this nice pool of green jelly, and a simple diving board! If you jump in, you win your team the challenge, easy peasy. If not, Cody has the chance to do the funniest thing ever and force a tie. So which will it be, Courtney?"
Bridgette no longer cared about the challenge. After what she had heard, there was nothing on her mind other than Cody's well-being, and judging from his quivering demeanor he clearly wasn't in a very good place.
"No way!" Courtney shouted, "I'm not doing anything with that jelly, it's like sugary, jiggly snot!"
At the stares she received from some of her teammates, she paused and tried to backtrack.
"B-besides!" She stammered, "There's no way Cody can handle whatever challenge he has left, look at him!"
Bridgette had finally gotten to Cody's side, ready to do something, anything, to help him, but she was shoved to the ground immediately.
"Hey, what do you think you're -"
"Everybody, meet Sierra!" Chris announced, loud enough that Bridgette was completely cut off, "She's a Total Drama superfan with over three blogs dedicated to the show already, and an unhealthy obsession with Cody. We thought she'd be the perfect fit for this challenge!"
Sierra immediately latched onto Cody, who went deathly still, almost like a deer in headlights as she looked at the rest of the cast in amazement.
"Oh! Em! Geeee!" She squealed, "It really is you guys! This is amazing! I never thought I'd get to be on Total Drama, this is so going to be on my blog when I get home!"
Everyone, Chris included, leaned away from her in fear. Bridgette instantly recognized her from the woods, the purple hair and loud squealing a dead giveaway. Had she been there stalking Cody? Could Bridgette have done something?
"Chris?" Bridgette asked, terrified, "Isn't this going too far? Like, way too far?"
"Shut it, homewrecker!" Sierra snapped at her, causing Bridgette to jump back in fright, "You're just jealous because I'm with Cody, and you're all alone!"
Bridgette did not know how to respond with that. This was so messed up on so many levels.
"Sorry, Bridgette, but if Cody wants the win this is what he's gotta do," Chris said, a small frown on his face as he observed the pair, "Alright, Cody, real simple. Last five minutes alone with Sierra, and you win. Run away or tap out, and the Killer Bass secure victory. Are you ready?"
Cody could barely move, let alone respond thanks to the death grip Sierra had on him. It looked like it took him all his strength to nod in confirmation, before he practically went limp in Sierra's arms.
"Alright, everyone," Chris finished, "Let's give those two some privacy!"
It took Chef, Chris, Courntey, and Geoff to prevent Bridgette from rushing over to try and help Cody.
—
Confessional: Sierra
"I've been a HUGE fan of Chris McLean with my mom ever since his Fametown days!" Sierra exclaimed, "And Total Drama is his greatest show yet! I've watched every episode at least ten times so far! I can't believe I'm actually on the show, with Cody, doing a real confessional! I've always dreamed this day would come!"
Sierra sighed dreamily.
—
Trent didn't really think he'd ever have a least favorite five minutes of his life, but Total Drama was full of surprises.
He and the rest of the teens waited with bated breath at the bonfire pit for Cody to appear in their field of vision, running from that psycho Sierra chick.
Trent loved the guy, and had a lot of respect for him, but even he didn't delude himself into thinking Cody could take any more abuse today. Besides, it wasn't as if anyone on the team would actually vote him off!
However, Trent's fears slowly rose in him until a small beeping noise went off on Chris's watch, prompting Chef Hatchet to go back to camp in search of the two.
Chris forcing them all to wait to see what had happened might've been good drama, but damn was it awful to experience. Bridgette looked practically catatonic, Heather looked more concerned than Trent had ever seen, and there was a general sense of unease and worry that pervaded the group.
Trent wasn't sure what the worst case scenario would be for when Chef finally came back, but he was convinced that it was what had played out.
Chef was carrying an absolutely wrecked Cody over his shoulder, and Sierra was nowhere to be seen. Cody looked like he'd been through hell - his shirt was torn, his hair was all over the place, he was dirty…
And was that lipstick on his face?
He was there in a heartbeat the moment Chef set him down with the rest of the campers, Bridgette and the rest of the Gophers right behind him.
"Dude…" Trent began, helping him to the ground, "You didn't have to go through that. You could've just taken the loss."
"Why would he, though?" Owen asked, causing every head to snap towards him, "I mean, that girl seemed really nice, right? Why would she hurt Cody, just because she's a stalker doesn't mean she doesn't like him?"
"Oh, you sweet summer child." Leshawna muttered, Izzy nodding her head in agreement.
"As heartwarming as this scene is," Chris interrupted, "This is a thirty minute show. We've kinda gotta speed things up from here, ya dig?"
Several people ignored him.
"Well, we tied, so what are we going to do?" Courtney asked.
"I'm glad you asked!" Chris said, "What we're going to do tonight is something totally different from any campfire ceremony before it. Tonight…"
He paused for dramatic effect.
"Both teams will vote! Anybody can go home tonight, anybody can vote for anybody!" He finished, a sly grin on his face.
Trent groaned.
As if today couldn't get any worse.
–
Cody sat down quietly after voting, exhausted after the day's events, immediately being fretted over by Trent, Bridgette, and Leshawna.
He was the last one to go vote, and had taken by far the longest. Sierra had not been happy to let him go after Chef had come to retrieve him, and their ensuing fight left Cody taking quite a few hits due to being in the crossfire.
At least it was over now. She couldn't hurt him anymore.
He hoped.
"Alright campers, let's go over this one more time!" Chris began, "All seventeen of you cast a vote tonight for anyone of your choosing who did not complete their challenge, regardless of teams. This means that the following people are immune - and don't bother walking up here to take your marshmallows, you've been through a rough day. I'll just toss them."
"Gwen."
"Bridgette."
"Harold."
"Owen."
"Izzy."
"Geoff."
"Duncan."
"DJ."
"Cody."
"And lastly, Tyler."
With that final marshmallow, Cody dimly realized that meant Tyler was safe. He wouldn't be going home tonight.
The future was going to change.
"Honestly, this was a really poor showing, Gophers," Chris began, tut-tutting them, "If it wasn't for Cody carrying the challenge, it'd just be one of you going no matter what! Regardless, the following people are safe."
"Beth."
"Lindsay."
"Trent."
"And lastly, Leshawna."
Heather, Courtney, and Sadie all stared as they realized one of them was going home. Heather seemed confident, but Cody knew her well.
There was a bit of fear in her eyes.
Sadie and Courtney were a lot more open about their feelings, both looking positively terrified.
"Heather, Courtney, and Sadie. What a trio!" Chris said tauntingly, "All three of you not only failed your challenges spectacularly, but have also been annoying the crap out of your teams! No matter who's going, everyone will probably breathe a big sigh of relief, huh?"
Silence.
"..."
"Just give me and Courtney our marshmallows already!" Heather said, irritated beyond measure.
Chris shrugged, tossing them into the duo's waiting hands.
"Sorry, Sadie. Looks like you're outie!"
Sadie froze, turning to her team in disbelief. Tyler and Bridgette seemed mildly surprised, but were both too preoccupied with other things (Tyler and his baby chicken and Bridgette with Cody) to say anything.
"Bye-bye, honey!" Heather taunted, "And by the way, you already have an awful haircut. Anything Chef could've done would've been an improvement!"
That was the last straw for Sadie, who burst into tears in a manner similar to the night before, and ran off to the Dock of Shame, ready to be reunited with the only person that had mattered to her on the show.
Cody just shook his head as he retreated back to the cabins quietly, trying to slink away as fast as possible to see if his stolen items had been returned from Sierra.
However, somebody grabbed his arm, causing him to flinch in fright and spin around to see -
Bridgette, Trent, and… Heather?
All of them were looking at him with varying degrees of concern and/or worry, causing him to relax slightly.
"Cody," Bridgette began softly, "Can we talk?"
He really didn't want to, but he nodded anyway and allowed the trio to lead him away from the prying eyes of the other campers.
It was gonna be a long night.
–
Duncan was pacing nervously in front of the confessional, worried about the vote.
He wasn't worried about himself, no. He knew he was safe - he had actually done his challenge like a man and gotten the point, something Princess and Tweedle Dumb had failed to do.
Seriously? Green Jelly? She talks all that smack, and can't even jump into a pool of food?
He just hoped she didn't cost herself the game with that move.
Duncan groaned, slamming his head against the outhouse wall.
"Careful, criminal, or you might knock one of your piercings loose!"
Duncan glared at Heather as she approached, hate in his eyes.
"What the hell do you want?" He spat, "I'm kinda busy at the moment, if you couldn't tell."
Heather scoffed. "Yeah, busy trying to figure out how you're going to keep your little girlfriend on the show."
"Can it."
Heather grinned. "That bad, huh?"
"Are you just going to talk shit or do you want me to get everyone to vote you off instead? I'm pretty sure I could get the votes!" Duncan threatened.
"Funny you should say that," Heather began slyly, "Because I have a pretty big web of my own, and I'd hate to endanger either of our valuable 'friends'!"
"What are you getting at?" Duncan asked.
"Well, I know I'm at risk of being voted off, and so is Courtney," Heather said simply, "I know you're pretty tight with most of your team, and I have my own alliance. Together, we can ensure that nobody who shouldn't go home tonight goes anywhere."
She stuck her hand out expectantly, but Duncan just scoffed.
"Oh yeah? How can I trust you?" He asked rhetorically.
"Touche," Heather admitted, "But couldn't I say the same for you?"
Duncan glared at her one more time, before groaning and sticking his own hand out as well.
"I'm sure I can sway some votes our way. Now, who did you have in mind?"
—
A/N:
Yeah, remember when I said this would take longer? I lied, I guess.
Up the Creek will definitely take more time.
Anywho, yeah some funky stuff happening this time around, from Sierra to Sadie to Tyler. Future is changed for good now, time to see where it takes us!
Let me know if you liked the style of this chapter, where we see most of it through the eyes of others, and not Cody. I don't have plans for any other chapters being like this, but if people really like it there might be a few spots I can implement it. Most of it was because I didn't just want to focus on Cody alone here, and I thought it would be interesting to see how the other main people in his circle reacted to what was happening, speaking of…
Yeah, I don't know, I had the tie in mind for a while, mainly because I don't like how the episode portrays some of the challenges, hence me changing the rules. But I didn't want anyone from the Gophers to go, and Tyler's got a future, so sorry to the Sadie fans out there!
Let me know if this wasn't very polished in comparison to other chapters, I was pretty tired writing this.
See everyone next time!
P.S. Sorry to anyone who's reviews I haven't responded to, I got a bit busy over the weekend and lost track a bit. I'll be better about it in the future!