Cody surveyed the massive lake from the yacht's deck, his eyes dull as they once more looked over the sparkling mass. The sun's reflection made seeing anything in the waters impossible, he almost had to squint to maintain focus on it, though he had no idea why he cared so much about surveying the lake. After all, he had been in this position dozens of times already.
A small smirk marred his features as he thought about his time spent stuck in this perpetual loop. After his unfortunate first try, he understood the rules of this game very well, that the only person who could win was someone who had absolutely nothing to lose. Heather had been desperate, while Alejandro had been fake until the very end… so, why shouldn't he emulate their behaviour?
It was a vicious cycle that Cody had put himself through. One of constant study, placating, antagonism, pragmatism, all fake, all done out of a wish to fulfill the greatest trick he'd pull in this game. He'd snag the win out from under everyone's noses, and ensure nobody would be able to challenge him. He wanted to laugh, imagining the reaction to poor, pathetic, little Cody one upping every last competitor. It almost distracted him from the pit at the bottom of his stomach.
He tore his eyes away from the lake, and saw the approaching dock. Exhaling deeply, Cody pushed himself off the railing and got ready to depart.
"Cody! The Codester! The Code meister !" Chris' usual greeting had never changed throughout the loops. It made Cody wonder just how scripted the guy was, but he didn't really pay it any mind. It was a show after all.
"Nice to be here Chris!" Cody returned the 'finger-guns' gesture thrown his way, before buttering the host up a bit. "That badminton movie you were in a while back was killer man." This, of course, caused Chris' eyes to light up- the man loved compliments.
"I'd say it's one of my better roles. Good to have you here man." As Chris finished up his greeting, Cody made his way over to the other contestants, standing in the middle. Everyone was a bit too anxious to talk too right now, no matter who he tried in previous loops, it always ended with him being on at least one person's bad side.
The introductions went on as usual, which was also standard. A few times Cody had managed to change it up, but he could never tell how that worked, and oddly it only affected where Tyler and Izzy would land. It seemed everyone had gone over how they wanted to introduce themselves to a tee- and honestly, Cody vaguely remembered talking to himself in a mirror to prepare for his intro onto the show. Was everyone that anxious, or just that artificial?
The only issue with his plan was maintaining a 'lowkey' presence. Obviously he couldn't do that all the time, but it wouldn't benefit him to dodge Eva's bag, or dive for safety when the deck collapses. Both times, he just took the hits as they came, outwardly showing exasperation, but inwardly growing more and more confident.
The teams also never changed, which was unsurprising. All of this stuff had to be decided early on, balance out the personalities properly and all, as it surely couldn't have been a coincidence that a hard ass like Courtney would be paired with a delinquent and a party boy, or how someone like Heather wound up with a goth and a loudmouth. Good TV, yeah?
"Hey man, you coming with?" Cody was snapped out of his daze by a pat on the back from Trent, the guitarist clearly noticing Cody's current mood. Cody just put on a typical toothy grin in response.
"Yeah man, I'll head over to the cabins in a bit. I just wanted to check out the island some more."
"Alright, guess I'll see you back at the cabins. Don't get lost or mauled by whatever's in there, 'kay? Would be pretty bad to lose a man on our first day."
Cody just continued to smile, though once Trent started to leave it shifted into a smirk as he made a mad dash towards the hill. The first day challenge never changed either, and for his plan to work he needed some setup. Finally making it to the hill path they all used to get up there, he searched desperately for something he'd found on one of his later loops.
Grinning, he saw an exposed root, and using all of his strength, yanked it up into a barely visible, but very dangerous tripping hazard. The small gap between the root and the ground beneath would leave the foot of the unsuspecting camper caught, and for good measure, Cody found a jagged rock and jammed it into the dirt in front of the root. Whoever got caught up here would automatically fail the challenge, and if all went as planned a certain someone would get sent home far earlier than in the original timeline.
The pit in his stomach only grew deeper.
"Hey Trent." Cody whispered to the taller boy, grabbing his attention. Chris had already directed the group towards the cliff Cody had been at earlier, obviously bringing them to their first challenge. "You know that goth chick? She was totally looking over at you all through lunch man. Maybe you should go talk to her!"
"You think so Cody?" Trent was always incredibly easy. He found out during the Drama Brothers that he loved 'flashy' girls, and Gwen was definitely that, in a more macabre sense at least.
Cody grinned. "Totally man, I can tell she digs you." Trent raised a questioning eyebrow, but that didn't stop Cody from shoving Trent towards the left of Gwen. "Go get her bro."
Trent looked a bit shocked, even worried, but that quickly cleared up when he caught sight of Gwen, and the two began to talk. He could feel Heather's withering glare focused on the pair, which was to be expected. The popular girl had something against love of any variety. Her glare quickly went away a few minutes later when an unsuspecting Gwen, deep in conversation with a hot guy, found herself face first in the mud, and her ankle twisted at a sickly angle.
Cody tried his best to feel nothing at her scream of pain, followed by whimpering as Trent lifted her up, the goth now limping her way to the top of the cliff, using Trent for support.
"Dang… first day and already an injury. Think you can still compete?" Trent smoothly asked the goth who, in spite of the pain, still seemed enamored with the guitarist.
"As long as it's not anything too taxing I guess."
"Yeah, I'm out." Gwen mumbled as Chris informed them that they would be jumping from the cliff, into the water below. With her limp, she'd be lucky to not slip and land on a part of the cliff that was jutting out below.
"Figured you'd say that." Chris smugly responded, his ever present smile remaining as tight as possible. He pulled out a chicken hat for her. "We're doing this out of order, but you can head on down first, get Chef to check out that leg. But, you don't get off completely free, capiche?" He tossed her the chicken hat, which Gwen begrudgingly put on, as she limped over to the conspicuously never before seen escalator.
"I think I should go with her, in case something happens, y'know?" Trent fretted, looking worriedly at the limping girl. Cody decided this was the point where he would intervene.
"Trent, don't worry. She's a tough girl, and besides, Chris wouldn't want somebody suing him one day in, right?" Cody gave a small smile, which helped calm the taller boy's nerves a bit. So easy.
Everything went on as it had before. While DJ took a trip down the escalator, everyone else on the Killer Bass managed to jump. All except three, Izzy, Courtney, and Sadie. Courtney was in the middle of her speech about how the Gophers would surely lose, while Sadie was bawling over not being with Katie, and just as Izzy would've volunteered in the original timeline…
"Hey Chris, if these two ladies wanna be together, I'll switch onto the Bass!" Cody shouted with as much enthusiasm as he could muster. He caught the brief glare from Izzy, but ignored it. "Besides, I'll do something to really boost the ratings for you if you let me switch."
That piqued Chris' interest, as well as the interest of the others still on the cliff. Just what was Cody going to do?
"You know what man, sure. But, it better be interesting, or else the Bass are getting the handicap if there's a tie."
Cody just smirked. Briefly stretching, flexing his body from side to side, he mentally prepared himself for what he was about to do. Out of all of his loops, it took about fifteen to get this down, and he couldn't have it fail on him now.
Finally, Cody broke into a mad dash, running across the clifftop, past Chris, who just looked on in bemusement. That bemusement turned into full-on laughter as Cody wrapped his right arm around Courtney's waist, dragging the CIT with him.
"H-hey!" Courtney shouted, clearly thrown off by the situation, but not in control enough to throw Cody off. "What are you doing, I could so sue yo-" Her threats were cut off by their screams, the pair falling directly into the lake below.
"Cody, my man!" Chris shouted as he made his way down with Beth, wearing a chicken hat. The Gophers had done their jumps, and had two chickens instead of the original one. "That was freakin' sweet dude. You should've seen Courtney's face, think we'll make that an episode preview on the site!"
"Thanks Chris." Cody nonchalantly replied, ignoring the heated glare from Courtney, as well as a couple former teammates. He didn't mind this though, as the heat would soon enough be off him. "I always know how to get a girl screaming."
Chris just laughed, and moved on with presenting the rest of the challenge. Of course, this time around it went far worse for the Gophers, but their teamwork was far superior to the Bass at this point. It might have even been close, had Izzy still been on their team. Instead, Cody's former team got handicapped by the wonder twins, in addition to their challenge handicap in losing the extra help lugging the boxes.
This all led to the hot tub comparison, where Cody's carpentry skills were put to good use, while the Gophers barely managed to scrape together a pile of scraps filled with water. Their hot tub didn't explode like the Bass' the first time though, so… points for effort?
"Gophers, looks like you're up first for elimination huh?" The originally high spirited team could only groan in defeat.
Cody hummed as he found out about Gwen's elimination later that day. It was a risk worth taking all in all, had Beth been eliminated he would've needed to reset everything. But, Gwen getting eliminated… everything was going in his favor already. He couldn't stand the sight of the goth girl anymore, not after everything that had happened. After everything he did for her, only to drag herself down to his level.
Looking across from his bunk, he spotted Duncan. He'd be tougher to get rid of, but it had to be done as soon as possible. Letting him stay in the game would only aggravate Cody, in addition to being dangerous for any long game plans.
Geoff and DJ could go whenever. The two were far more focused on things outside the game, so much so that it'd be best to leave them to their own devices. Maybe getting rid of Bridgette early would be worthwhile though…
Courtney could stay a little longer, Cody wanted to relish in getting rid of her. The only downside here was that if everything went to plan, Harold wouldn't be the one to deal the final blow.
As for the Gophers, the only major threats were Heather and LeShawna. LeShawna for her social game, and Heather for being a wild card right now. Without Gwen, she wouldn't have any rival to stupidly pursue, which could result in a more cunning foe, but Cody doubted that. Annoy Heather even a little, and she'll show her true colours.
Besides, once he was done with Beth, Heather would be out of the game.
Cody curled onto his side, rubbing his forehead against the cabin wall. Normally, this would be a very uncomfortable position for him, but it helped deal with the ever growing pit in his stomach.
Loop 0083
"Cody?" Gwen asked, startled. It had been two hours into the deer hunting challenge when she ran into the scrawny boy. Honestly, she felt a bit bad for him, probably got bullied based on how quiet and introverted he was, and his childish facial features reminded her of her brother back home. "What are you doing over here?"
"Oh! Gwen!" Cody squeaked in surprise, scurrying back until he hit a tree. Sighing in defeat, he slid down the tree until his butt touched the grass below, looking down at the ground beneath him, the harshness of the sun, as well as the girl above him, keeping him timid. "I was just looking for a place to hide."
Gwen scoffed. "I don't think hiding is a great idea in this challenge. Corner yourself and bang!" She flicked Cody's forehead. "That, and who knows what animals are out here. Imagine if you ran into a bear." She caught Cody's slight shudder, and looked in a bit of surprise.
"You're afraid of bears now? I thought last time it was 'obsessive stalkers'."
"I'm afraid of a lot of things." Cody mumbled out, his eyes still downcast. He was only shaken out of it when Gwen cusped his cheeks in her hands and forced him to face her, the girl he knew from so long ago showing herself to him.
"It's okay to be scared Cody, but you shouldn't let those fears keep you tied down."
Cody's pain deepened when she said this, looking into her eyes, her irises like a dark reflection of the moon. But, as much as he wanted to pull away, he found himself transfixed until she decided to let go, leaving him one final message of hope.
"I don't know what you've been through Cody, but don't let any hang ups hold you back. You've got this, just as much as any of us."
Gwen's smile pierced his soul.