Well, I just wanted to say thank you guys so much for the constructive feedback last chapter! That one was a very difficult one to write, but I promise that was the most that script format will be used in a chapter. To me, I just wanted to make sure to capture Emma's reaction to what Noah did and said in that particular chapter. But, I was so happy to hear how much you all enjoyed my Aleheather interaction! As I keep saying, Alejandro and Heather as both characters and a couple is just my favorite thing ever, even after all these years. So, I am so happy to hear you guys enjoyed how I portrayed them in the previous chapter. Particularly with Heather still playing hard to get with Alejandro despite being engaged to him. XD I could just totally see her being all over him in private, but being in total denial when she knows others are watching to keep herself from seeming weak out in public. But, what else would we expect from our favorite love to hate queen bee, right? Haha. Anyway, this chapter kind of jumps back slightly with it being Noah's perspective following the morning after he completely entrapped Heather and Alejandro into an alliance with him. Enjoy!

(Noah's POV)

We were all in the dining hall sitting at our separate team tables.

Even though I was hardly eating, and that had nothing to do with the food… well okay, honestly kind of the food too considering Chef's usual subpar cooking, and that's talking about him on a good day.

Mostly I wasn't eating since Alejandro and Heather were practically giving me the most subtle yet intense death glares from across the table.

But, after last night… not hard to guess why?

Sure, those two saying they were engaged, yeah definitely not surprised there.

Believe me, I'm about as shocked as I was at the season 3 finale as I am here… which was not shocked or surprised at all. Even though in my mind I have no idea what evil cult leader and/or greater demon they have lined up to officiate their future wedding since I just can't see what sane minister and/or judge would want to be anywhere near them.

But, hey, to each their own.

What I am still kind of surprised about was how they actually fully agreed to all my terms.

Term 1 was obvious in that they couldn't double cross me to vote me out or else I'd tell everyone everything.

Term 2 was they had to include me in all their voting decisions. Which then crosses over to Term 3 that they would not vote out Owen on the condition that I'd get Owen to vote with us too but not tell him anything about our agreement.

Which is fair since Owen is by far the worst person to tell a secret to that I have ever met… well apart from my sisters.

Hey, I love the big guy and I'll always have his back like he has mine… but I don't trust him with any secrets unless I actually want everyone to know about something.

But, I think they seemed okay with it just because that would always make sure that whoever we vote against is eliminated by default.

And honestly it makes no difference to me with the rest of my teammates.

If any of them go… so be it.

Although at least we are in agreement of keeping Brick around. Brick's not a bad guy and at least he doesn't creep me out like Dawn or seem untrustworthy, i.e. Scott.

Sure, I can appreciate Scott for being one of the few people I've seen other than me and Heather to totally stick it to Alejandro, but otherwise at this point… dude, Scott's number 1 on my 'boot list'.

The other day I fell out of my bunk after having something.

Possibly a dream I don't want to talk about that maybe had to do with Emma, but shut up because that doesn't matter and…

3 days ago

({No POV})

All the guys, with the exception of Alejandro who was already getting ready before everyone else and Brick who was out for his morning 5 K, were all still sleeping.

Noah was slowly but surely drifting toward the end of his bed with a slight smile on his face until he accidentally tossed himself a smidge too far over the side of his bunk and landed stomach first on the floor with a loud thud for quite the rude awakening.

He let out a strained groan, obviously in pain and flustered with himself over how he got there.

"Ugh, well this can't possibly get any…" He started to strain out.

Well until Owen, still fast asleep from a food coma the night before, also rolled out of his bed and landed right on Noah.

Noah immediately started yelling, though muffled, for help and tapping out on the floor and on Owen's side with his semi-free arm in the Hope's of waking him up to get him off.

But, unluckily for Noah, this was one of Owen's heavy sleeper moments since he was just total dead weight on him.

Noah's yelling for help seemed to have finally woken up Scott, but Scott just looked down at the floor and shrugged before just stretching out and yawning, not even remotely looking bothered to help or care at Noah's plight.

Scott hopped down in his boxers and grabbed his white cut off hanging on the bed post and also putting on his jeans and shoes, still completely ignoring Noah's situation.

Brick finally walked in after his run as he started, "Good morning guys, how's… whoa!"

Brick immediately saw the situation and ran right up before continuing, "Don't worry teammate! Corporal Brick McArthur never leaves a man behind!"

Brick immediately started trying to push to get Owen off of Noah, and being a fairly strong guy, was able to shift Owen off a little until Noah's face was able to show as Noah strained out, gasping for air, "FINALLY!"

Though Brick was continuing to struggle as he said, ever the optimist, "I think I'm getting it! But, we just need a little more muscle. Scott, c'mon, front and center."

Scott, who seemed more concerned with finishing tying his shoes, stood up and said, "Yeah, hard pass, Sergeant Sap."

"What the hell man?! Are you serious right now?!" Noah called out, clearly pissed off and borderline enraged with Scott for doing nothing to help. Particularly he was angry since he knew Scott was there the whole time and did absolutely nothing.

Scott shrugged and said, pulling out his pocket knife as he started walking out, "Not my problem, chicken legs. Figure it out."

Scott walked out of the cabin right as Brick somehow managed to pull Noah out from underneath a still comatose Owen.

Brick extended a helping hand down to Noah as he asked, "Hey, you okay there, soldier?"

Noah grabbed on to Brick's hand to get onto his feet as he responded, still slightly traumatized and very agitated and angry… but not with Owen since that wasn't the first time that happened, "Well pretty sure my entire rib cage is shattered, but otherwise okay. Thanks."

Brick smiled and gave Noah a salute before saying, sounding proud and good natured like he usually does, "Not a problem, Noah! That's what good teammates are for."

Brick then proceeded to sit on his bunk and take off his boots before looking like he was gearing up to head to the showers.

"Yeah, emphasis on 'good'." Noah spat sarcastically and bitterly as he glared out the screen door at Scott leaning against a tree outside as he whittled a stick he picked up with a smirk on his face.

Present

(Noah's POV)

So, yeah, Scott can literally go suck it and get carted back to whatever trash pit backwoods hell he came from at this point as far as I'm concerned.

And you can tell I mean that in the nicest way possible.

But, whatever.

At this point you could say I'm kind of stuck in this vicious circle of blackmail called an alliance. But like I said in the confessional, and probably by far the longest confessional I've done ever, I'm willing to do almost anything it takes to win at this point.

So… if I have to pretty much be in an alliance with Bonnie and Clyde's more mentally twisted equivalents just to get ahead here, so be it.

And not to sound totally cocky here but, I was kind of enjoying the fact I had both Alejandro and Heather under my thumb screws right now.

Not many people could say they were able to underhand both of them simultaneously, but then again I'm also not an idiot and both of them are very well aware of that.

Hey, Heather and I have known each other since we were 16 on season one and she was just lucky our whole team decided to turn against me after the dodgeball challenge, but she definitely knows what I'm capable of just like I do with her.

Then Alejandro… you know, apart from both of us hating each other's guts, he knows just as well as Heather how smart I am.

Also, they knew it was my word against theirs since people are way more likely to believe me than either of them.

Also, just look at me.

Sure my physicality may be lacking since I've never been remotely athletic ever in my life… and nor have I ever had any interest in physical activity in general when it comes to sports in particular, but I have been technically and unintentionally mentally preparing for this kind of situation my whole life.

I grew up the youngest of 9, I have an IQ of 180, and I was never bullied in school once the entire time I was there. All it took was bribing the biggest, angriest, and also stupidest lunk head in my class to practically be my bodyguard at recess in exchange for doing his math homework when all I wanted to do was read undisturbed.

So I dare them to even try to test me.

"Hey Noah, is anything going on? Al and Heather look like they're really mad at you or something." I shot my head next to me at Owen, who was eating Chef's breakfast scramble like it was nothing as per usual, and giving me a confused look.

But I think he saw me, Alejandro, and Heather all glaring at each other so… yeah.

Though I was determined to keep up my end of the deal as I picked up my fork and replied, staying nonchalant, "Don't worry about it, big guy. It's nothing for you to worry about. I got this."

Owen seemed to be satisfied with my response as he went back to eating, but I turned my attention back to Alejandro and Heather.

I took the opportunity to smirk in their direction and I could see Heather especially digging her nails into the table to release her anger, knowing I had them.

Hey, might as well try to have some fun with it.

2 weeks later

(Emma's POV)

Finally! That didn't just take forever.

I thought I was never going to find that stupid book. Of course, I was being totally scatterbrained and returned it to the university library before taking down all the information I needed for my works cited page for my paper.

So far I feel like all I've done is write papers this semester so far.

But, if there's anything I've learned when it comes to writing college papers… It's almost like an exercise in mental patience and torture.

Like they want to distract you with writing about things that don't matter to distract you from studying the things that actually do.

Either way, writing papers has always been my least favorite academic activity and that's exactly why I am always determined to get them out of my way as soon as humanly possible so I can put more of my time into studying what I actually need to study for my exams.

I decided not to waste my time any further and decided to just take out my phone and take a picture of what I needed from the book.

After I got everything all lined up and was about to take a picture, I heard a snap shot sound… a sound that did not come from my phone.

My body locked up as I felt something.

Slowly, I looked over to my left and saw what could've only been a hand holding a phone around the corner of the bookcase behind me for a split second before immediately disappearing once I looked fully in that direction.

Immediately, My eyes went wide in paranoia and fear as I ran over and looked all over to find any sign of anything.

What… the hell… was that?!

I looked all over the general area, over the railing to see if anyone down on the main floor looked suspicious, and I looked again in both places.

Nothing.

I leaned against the railing for a second as I kept trying to collect myself and just think about everything. Well particularly whatever the hell that was?!

Seriously?! Who the hell is following me?! And why?!

I felt like I wanted to have a complete breakdown right now but… ugh, I don't know?!

C'mon Emma. I know you're totally freaked out but what can you do?! You don't even have any solid proof right now other than a celebrity gossip magazine page that would just make you look even more crazy to anyone you'd show at this point.

Ugh… dammit.

I took a deep breath and decided to just go home.

I walked out of the library and was halfway back to my apartment when I realized the light bulb in my bathroom went out this morning and I still needed to get a new one. As much as I really didn't want to and just wanted to go home, especially after… whatever the hell that was at the library, I had to keep going.

I stopped off at the store and got the light bulb and had to stand a little bit in line behind a few other people.

And considering the person currently in front was this 80 something year old man trying to count out exact change… yeah, I was going to be here a while.

I just started looking around until I realized I was in front of a magazine rack, which at first made me want to kick it over after all the trouble and paranoia these stupid things have cost me… but I held back.

The last thing I need is to be kicked out of a store today.

I was about to roll my eyes and pull out my phone until I saw something that caught my eye.

It was near the bottom of the rack where all the older magazines seemed to be and it had a picture of the full Total Drama cast for this season on the cover, including Noah.

I picked it up and it appeared to be a special edition that was one of those meet the contestants type issues where each person got their own section about themselves.

I scanned through the pages until finally I got to what, or who, I was looking for.

There was a picture of Noah leaning against a wall with his arms crossed and doing his usual smirking eyebrow waggle thing that immediately almost made me go into a full on Noah daze right in the middle of the check out line… and also only reminded me of how much I missed him.

Just like everyone else, he had a full article about himself, but it was finally my turn to check out and as much as I was even shocked by me even doing this, I got the magazine.

Shut up…

After that I got back to my apartment and got out my laptop to finish my works cited in an attempt to be productive and try to ignore the fact that I was still sure I was being followed or something.

Ugh... get it together, Emma.

I just finished up when I saw a notification pop up almost immediately on the screen.

Christina Bisset (Mathai) and 2 others have invited you to chat.

I sighed, seriously contemplating.

After I got home from the race and immediately went on my social media accounts, that I rarely ever used until recently, to look up and connect with Noah; I immediately saw that I had three friend requests that immediately popped up from people who I didn't even know.

I was even going to deny them until I saw a blatantly obvious running trend between them.

They were from three different women.

Christina Bisset (Mathai), Hannah Patel (Mathai), and Sarah Gregorski (Mathai).

After feeling like an idiot for a fraction of a second, I realized they all had the same maiden name and had a very obvious resemblance between the 3 of them especially… they definitely were Noah's sisters.

At first I was trying to figure out why they wanted to link up with me, but I figured they were just curious about me and wanted to look into me since I was Noah's girlfriend.

Which is fair because even I admit that as an older sister especially, I always look into the guys that Kitty dates.

Yeah, Kitty has only had 2 serious boyfriends, one from her first year of college that I literally couldn't stand and her high school boyfriend Kyle who I was okay with, but my sister has dated quite a few guys and I do look them up just to make sure they aren't total creeps or bad influences or anything like that.

Anyway, they were Noah's sisters and I didn't want to reject their requests.

Actually, I kind of wanted to make a really good impression since I was surprised they didn't hate me for unintentionally putting their brother in a temporary slump of depression.

But, I didn't question it at this point.

Especially since his sisters actually seemed really... nice. Well, particularly Christina.

She was the one who reached out to me first and seemed really eager to get to know me, not that all of his sisters weren't like that in all honesty.

It pretty much got to the point that about a week into messaging, they all started including me in their 'sisters chat' they do once every other week.

But… I've yet to accept and actually talk to them yet.

Mostly because I'm usually busy and two… okay I'm nervous.

I don't know what they're going to say to me or what they want from me?

As I kept looking at the notification and hovering over 'ignore'… I bit my lip and pressed 'accept' before I had any other chance to think about it.

Okay Emma, get a grip. This is your first chance to make a good impression on Noah's family.

You can do this!

I took a deep breath to collect myself and try to straighten myself out as much as possible.

Besides… maybe I can look at this as an opportunity to learn more about Noah? Especially since I can't talk to Noah right now.

I waited as I watched the chat start to buffer and get all four of us synced for the video chat.

Well, this could get interesting…

Okay, this chapter was definitely a bridge chapter for what will happen next. But I do hope you guys in particular enjoyed that look at an interaction between Noah and his 'team'. Particularly how some were more helpful than others, but c'mon Scott's a villain and I could totally see him just leaving someone high and dry like that just because he felt like it… even if now he's on Noah's hit list because of it. Haha. So, who keeps following Emma around? Will Noah's 'alliance' with Alejandro and Heather hold up? What will Noah's sisters tell Emma? Find out next time! As always constructive feedback is always appreciated and just thank you for taking the time to read in general. :)

Stay Classy everyone!

Dexter1995