"Good morning, campers! Rise and shine for your second challenge!", blared Chris' voice from outside the cabin. Carrie woke up with a start, immediately shielding her head and torso with her arms. Breathing heavily, she realized that the shout wasn't Mama's voice, and she wasn't about to drag Carrie into her closet.
She lowered her arms and saw that her fellow teammates were staring at her in confusion. Carrie ignored them and began rummaging through her suitcase for her clothes for the day. Pretty soon, as Carrie looked up again after getting dressed, the rest of the girls had gone back to ignoring her. That is, except Gwen, who was giving a very strange look at Carrie.
Carrie flipped her necklace, with a cross dangling on the end, out from under her shirt, and then left the cabin. As she pondered why Gwen was giving her that weird look, she found herself thinking of her teammates.
Ever since the first challenge, Heather had contented herself with ignoring Carrie's general presence, something that Lindsay dutifully followed suit on. Izzy proved herself to be an even bigger challenge to live with than Katie ever was, considering her practically insane characteristics.
Leshawna, Gwen, and Beth also pretty much ignored Carrie, letting the shy girl fade into the background, just as she preferred it.
As for the boys on her team, Carrie hadn't really interacted with any of them since the first challenge, except for Owen that is. Speaking of which...
Owen's rather large form walked up to Carrie, smiling at her through his own drowsiness. "Morning.", he said, stretching and yawning.
Carrie gave a tight, but somewhat affectionate, smile. "Good morning.", she said.
As Owen began talking about what they were going to eat for breakfast, Carrie turned to the Bass' side of the yard. There, Cody was trying to take a look at Eva's MP3 player, only for the jockette to bite at him.
Cody continued to be somewhat of an enigma to Carrie. Many times, over the past three days, she had caught him staring thoughtfully at him. Whenever she had caught him doing this, he would walk off nervously, innocently whistling.
Carrie was becoming almost annoyed at this behavior, but chose not to confront Cody about this. She had never been particularly good at confrontation.
"I Wonder what the challenge is going to be today?", said Owen, innocently. Carrie shrugged, as Chris walked back into frame.
"Woah, Chris.", said Heather, in a simpering voice. "Those new shorts make you look really hot."
Carrie could at least say this about Chris Hargenson back in Chamberlain; she didn't try to hide her toxic personality, even from the teachers.
"Thank you, Heather.", said Chris. "Your next challenge will begin with a run around the island." This wiped the smirk off of Heather's face.
"Um, Chris, I don't think that leaves enough time for breakfast.", said Owen, looking genuinely worried.
"Breakfast is reserved for those who complete the challenge, Owen."
"Oh, so your funny now?", said Eva from the other team. As she tried to pummel their beloved host, Carrie sighed in relief.
She was pretty good at track and field back home so she thought that this challenge would be a cakewalk.
Carrie breathed in and out, as she jogged along the shoreline of the island. It had been a while now that she had seen or heard any of the other campers. She had previously been running alongside the likes of Noah and Beth, but she had eventually left them behind when she caught her second wind.
She was now running all by herself, between the campers who were actually good at running and those who were quite terrible, not to mention those who chose to walk instead of run.
She did feel bad at leaving Owen behind, but it was blatantly obvious he wouldn't have been capable of keeping up with herself. She grunted to herself, as a sharp pain ran up her leg. A blister was forming on her heel.
She stopped for a moment, bent over to adjust her shoe, then stood back up to continue her run. She was just looking back to see if any of her fellow Gophers had caught up, when she was suddenly face to face with Cody.
Carrie yelped in surprise and fell backwards onto the ground, her hands already shielding her face from harm.
"Woah, woah, woah!", said Cody, surprised at Carrie's over the top reaction to his sudden appearance. "I'm not going to hurt you. I couldn't even if I tried." Carrie lowered her hands, and saw that Cody was right.
He looked downright exhausted, sweat caking his red face and his chest heaving with effort. Cody reached out a hand, and Carrie reluctantly took it. Well, as long as he's here... "Why do you keep following me around, watching me?", she said, her voice rising slightly.
Cody looked around nervously, his chest still heaving from the effort of running. He must have used all his energy just to run up to Carrie's position... but why?
Cody finally looked Carrie dead in the eye. Carrie immediately dropped eye contact, only to look back up sharply at Cody's question. "Are you psychic?"
Carrie's eyes bugged out; so, he had seen it when she had flexed Owen and her into safety last challenge. Carrie began to back away, breathing heavily. "You are, aren't you?", he said, excitedly, reading her nervous expression like an open book. "Man, that is so co..."
"Just leave me alone!", Carrie managed to yell, and she darted away, heading up the shoreline back to camp.
Carrie eventually made it back to the campgrounds. Another flannel-shirt wearing intern directed her too the mess hall. Outside the building, Bridgette, Geoff, and DJ were doing stretches, after having been among the first to arrive. Bridgette tried to wave at Carrie, only for the latter to ignore her and head inside.
Eva, who Carrie wouldn't be surprised if she had been the first to arrive, gave her a sour look from one of the tables, then went back to her music. Carrie plopped down into one of the seats at the Gopher table, thinking hard. Despite what Chris had said, any kind of breakfast wasn't here. Her stomach gave a low growl of hunger, but she ignored it.
So, someone knew her carefully kept secret. It was inevitable that someone would find out, but why did it have to be here, in this carefully monitored environment. Carrie's breathing became erratic. What if the cameras had already caught her bit of psychic pushing in the first challenge? What if copies of the recording of Cody asking if she was psychic were already being made?
The cameras that Chris employed were always either held by a cameraman or conspicuously taped to an object, like a tree. Carrie hadn't seen any of the type when Cody had talked to her, but what if Chris had more subtler ways of getting his precious footage?
As more and more people arrived from the run, Carrie tried to control her anxiety: We'll deal with it later. We'll deal with it later!
Eventually, Owen, a seemingly unconscious Noah, Leshawna, and Harold walked through the doors, the last four to arrive. Since the three Gophers had arrived before Harold, everyone assumed that the Gophers had indeed won. Carrie however was more skeptical; if last challenge was any indication, then Chris wouldn't have a mile long run be the challenge for the day.
"Who's hungry?!", said Chris, walking up to a conspicuous looking curtain. He pulled the curtain back to reveal a veritable feast of food. Even Carrie's mouth began to water at the sight, and, like everyone else, she rushed to grab a plate.
However, as she was waiting, she realized that this must be some sort of ploy on Chris' part. Looking around at everyone gorging themselves on food, she grabbed a small turkey leg, and sneaked off from the buffet.
"The Awake-a-thon!", said Chris. "Whoever's the last awake during the challenge will win for their team."
Ah, that was his game; the running and eating of the Thanksgiving meal was just to make it harder for them to complete the challenge. She looked around to see everyone else looking admittedly impressed at the depths of Chris' deviousness.
As the campers were herded towards the campfire pit, Carrie saw that Owen was already looking like he might pass out at any minute. As she proceeded to shoulder Owen along, Carrie thought to herself about what Chris had said about this challenge. This'll be an easy one, my ass.
Carrie managed to last the rest of the day and the following night, pretty miraculously. As she yawned to herself, she scooted herself around the stump of wood she had claimed for herself the day before. They had not been allowed to leave their chosen seat in the campfire pit since yesterday afternoon, except for the occasional bathroom break; most likely so it would be easier to keep track of who had and hadn't fallen asleep.
Every other camper was still awake at this moment in time, including Owen. In fact, the party guy was practically brimming with energy. "Woo-hoo! Staying awake for twenty-four hours?!", yelled out Owen. "I could do that in my sleep!"
No one pointed out the lack of logic in that statement, as Owen moved next to Carrie. "Are you ready to win this thing with me, Carrie? Woo-hoo!", he said, holding up a hand for a high five.
Carrie smiled, gave a weak, "Woo-hoo.", and placed her hand on Owen's own. No sooner had she done that, then Owen toppled over, fast asleep.
"And we have our first camper to take a trip to unconscious-ville.", announced Chris, from behind his podium.
Carrie sighed to herself. Now, she was truly alone in the crowd. As the day wore on, Carrie's eyes became steadily more and more droopy. She struggled to stay awake second by second, until finally she...
"Oh, Beth, Lindsay, Carrie? Can you come over here please?" Carrie blinked her eyes open, and shuddered noiselessly to wake herself up. She began making her way over to Chris, assuming he had been the one to request their presence. She was mildly surprised, however, when she saw Lindsay and Beth moving in the opposite direction. She turned, and saw that it was Heather who had asked for them.
Carrie's mouth went dry. Heather reminded her all too well of Chris back at home, so she had tried to stay out of her way since arriving on the island. Look's like her luck in that department had finally run out, she thought as she made her way over to the queen bee.
"Hey, guys, thanks for coming.", said Heather, a fake smile plastered on her face. "So, I've got this plan to take me and three other girls into the final four of the competition, and I chose you guys."
Lindsay and Beth both gasped dramatically, while Carrie just kept her face blank. "Unfortunately, if I'm going to take you guys to the final four, you'll need to do whatever I say from here on out.", continued Heather, now glaring at the three other girls.
Lindsay and Beth both nodded their heads vigorously, giving spoken assurances that they would, while Carrie found herself looking down at her old, ratty shoes. "No... no, thank you.", she said, quietly and meekly.
Lindsay and Beth didn't hear her, so excited that they were going to the final four, but Heather did. "Um, excuse me?", she said, incredulously.
Carrie managed to look up into Heather's face. "I don't really want to be in an alliance with you."
"Why not?", said Beth, who was now listening.
Carrie, who didn't have a good enough reason besides not liking Heather all that much, could only shrug in response.
"Cassie, I think you should, like, think about this first.", said Lindsay. "Heather's really smart; if she says she can get you to the final four, you should listen."
"She's right you know.", said Heather, a dangerous look on her face. "Do you really think you could make it all the way to the final four with just... well..." Heather left the last part of the sentence unspoken.
Carrie already knew that she wasn't the prettiest, richest, or smartest contestant on the island. Heather was probably right in that regard; there was no way she would make it without a stronger camper helping her. But, even so...
"I'm sorry, I just don't think it's a good idea for me to...", Carrie trailed off as she began backing away.
For a second, Carrie was sure Heather would hit her. Then, she smiled that obnoxious fake smile. "Fine, have it your way. Just don't come crawling back to me when you need a vote."
She then turned back to Lindsay and Beth, effectively cutting Carrie off from the 'friend' group. Carrie breathed a sigh of relief, and went back to her seat.
Carrie awoke with a groan. She sat up off the ground, stretching and smacking her lips. She rubbed her eyes, then looked about her general vicinity. She was still in the campfire pit, lying down next to the stump she had chosen for herself. She must have fallen off it when she had finally fell asleep.
She looked around at her teammates, trying to get a gauge on whether or not they were winning. Many of the remaining campers, both Gopher and Bass, were picking themselves off the ground, as Chris stood among them. "You five stay with me.", said Chris, pointing to Gwen, Trent, Heather, Duncan, and Eva. "The rest of you, hit the showers. For goodness sakes, you stink."
As Harold zipped out of the pit, for some reason holding his crotch, Carrie saw a shadow loom over her. She looked up, startled, to see Cody. He lowered his hand down to help her up, which she awkwardly took. As she brushed dirt off her backside, Cody said, "I'm sorry if I startled you earlier during the run. I know your shy, and I guess it was kind of silly of me to believe you had psychic powers." He chuckled, and Carrie nodded her head mutely.
"I just really thought something strange had happened when you and Owen had jumped from the cliff, but it happened so fast I must have been mistaken." He chuckled again, and Carrie gave a small smile, partly out of relief.
"Do you want to walk back to camp together, or...?", said Cody. Carrie shook her head, and Cody shrugged and walked away.
Carrie looked back to the five remaining campers. At least we have the numbers advantage, she thought, looking at Gwen, Heather (who kept shooting her spiteful looks), and Trent (who looked incredibly glazed over).
After Gwen managed to win the challenge for the Gophers, Carrie walked back to her cabin after brushing her teeth for the night. Looking forward to a nice night's rest, she looked back momentarily to see the Bass returning from the elimination ceremony. Eva was not with them. Carrie was somewhat grateful for that; Eva was another camper that Carrie usually avoided, after she saw her break one of the bathroom stalls' locks.
Carrie quietly slipped into the Gopher cabin. It was already dark inside, so Carrie tiptoed silently to her bunk. However, once she got to her bunk, a loud scream erupted from her bed. The lights flew on, and an extremely tired looking Gwen was glaring at her.
"Look, I need my rest after sticking my neck out for this team today.", said Gwen, dangerously. "I don't know what you're playing at, but do it silently."
Growling at Carrie, she strode back to her bunk. Carrie looked around for the source of the noise she had heard, only to see most of the other girls glaring at her.
Carrie sighed, then pulled up her bunk covers. Sitting on her bed was a walkie-talkie. She picked it up, then heard a whistle from nearby. Heather's bunk with Lindsay was nearby, and Carrie could see Heather triumphantly waving another walkie-talkie with a rotten grin on her face.
Carrie got into bed nervously. Once the lights turned back off, she stared back up at the now dark bottom of the upper bunk. Chris had done far worse to her back in Chamberlain than Heather had just done, but Carrie had a feeling that Heather was just getting started with her...
So, it's been an unspeakably long and terrible hiatus since I last wrote on this story, but I'm back now! Hope you all continue to enjoy!