Girls: May, Bonnie, Elodie, Ji-Soon, Tess, Aditi, Sasha, Winnie, Winter, Andrea, Nicky, Letty

Boys: Char, Lucien, Tony, Tsu, Brandon, Dominic, Jacque, Marco, Paul, Ben, Iggy, Ketch

"Last time on North Pole Showdown," Embarc began to narrate the events that took place last episode. Flashbacks occurred. "The contestants were put into groups of four in the North Pole's snow. Each group needed to outmaneuver an ice golem attacking them. After some time of brainstorming and hilarity coming along, each group managed to trick or defeat an ice golem. Some examples were blowing one up, crashing through its head, or simply letting the ice golem think they will wait for it to return with a gift."

A quick scene showed an ice golem coming back to the snow spot where Sasha, May, Ji-Soon, and Letty were. The ice golem carried an ice sculpture of Ji-Soon. When it noticed the four were not there, it frowned. After that, flashbacks continued.

"In the end, the group that managed to make it back to Santa's workshop were none other than Char, Winter, Winnie, and Iggy. Who each now have a present to open."

The flashbacks ended. Embarc was shown with the cast inside the dining hall of Santa's workshop.

"What will these presents reveal? Find out now on North Pole Showdown!" Embarc announced joyfully with a radiating smile.

(Intro Plays)

Three cameras pop up from their hiding spots. One from outside the igloo ceremony, another coming out of an evergreen tree with snow on it, and the last one popped up from a toilet. The camera drone showing footage flew into a window to get out of the bathroom.

Dear Mom and Dad I'm doin' fine,

The camera drone displayed Embarc in her office with papers pasted all over the walls. The papers had pictures of the contestants on them and red arrows all around for Embarc to figure out what kind of ships the hostess could do with the cast.

You guys are on my mind.

Ketch stood next to Embarc and saw the camera drone inside her office. He poked Embarc's shoulder with a finger to let her know. The hostess tried to grab it to remove the footage, but the drone evaded her and went out a window.

You asked me what I wanted to be

The drone caught Tsu hugging his Clover Warrington body pillow in the cold snowy weather. A polar bear took the body pillow from Tsu to hug it for itself.

And now I think the answer is plain to see,

Tsu demanded the polar bear give back his body pillow, but the creature roared at him. Tsu ran away while the polar bear gave chase on two feet. Iggy laughed at Tsu's predicament from a distance. He was then pelted by a snowball at the back of his head.

I wanna be famous.

The culprit who hit Iggy was revealed to be Winter who leaned on a wall of a wooden house. She turned around with a smile and noticed Jacque observing her with his arms crossed and a suspicious look on his face. The camera drone went inside the wooden house.

I wanna live close to the sun,

Elodie showed taking baked cupcakes out of an oven and placing them onto a table. Paul and Andrea sat at the table with the former wanting to swipe cupcakes for himself despite a 'Do Not Touch' sign being next to the sweets. Andrea slapped his hand away.

Go pack your bags, 'cause I've already won,

At the other side of the table, Tess painted some happy little trees on a piece of paper held by an easel while Nicky sat on a wooden chair to play her violin.

Everything to prove, nothing in my way

The two girls were startled by Dominic, Tony, and Brandon breaking a hole in the wall with each of them racing each other on a snowmobile. The camera drone followed them after the three made another hole in a different wall to leave the house.

I'll get there one day.

The three boys crashed into a giant pile of snow. Marco recorded them with a camera nearby while Lucien and May were each sleeping peacefully on a snow angel that someone must have made on the ground.

Cause, I wanna be famous!

Aditi observed penguins waddling next to her outside Santa's workshop with a snowman right by her. Bonnie came out of the snowman which prompted Aditi to run away from her. Bonnie frowned and Char came to pat her shoulder to make her feel better. Which got the redhead to grin.

Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na!

Winnabelle excitedly rode on Rudolph the red nose reindeer in the field of reindeer that was fenced. Ben and Letty watched Winnabelle making noise which caused the two to stop reading a book they each had in their hand. The former looked at the pageant disaster with annoyance while the latter dismally sighed.

I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous

Ji-Soon displayed one of her cosplays for Santa's elves on an outdoor wooden stage. Striking poses for delight. One of the elves took a picture of her with the camera's flash on in his hand.

I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous

Santa Claus dragged Sasha by the arm out of his fridge because she started eating his ice cream with a spoon. The contestant held onto a bowl of ice cream as the jolly man brought her outside in the snow with the rest of the cast sitting. The entire cast whistled as the song finished. The camera drone zoomed out to reveal the show's title on a wooden billboard.

(Intro Ends)

"Alright you four, open your gift," Embarc said to Iggy, Char, Winnie, and Winter.

As the four winners from the previous challenge unwrapped their present, a bunch of elves were fixing the hole in the ceiling made by Elodie, Marco, Andrea, and Lucien. The five were each on a ladder. All of a sudden, a polar bear laid on the roof and grabbed an elf for itself from the open gap. The polar bear then ran away on two paws as it took the elf away.

"We lose more of our kind like that," An elf told his group.

A different elf sighed. "I'll start the search party," This elf said. He began climbing down the ladder while the other three continued patching the hole.

Iggy managed to open his present first.

"Ha, I unboxed it first," Iggy told the other three winners smugly.

Winnie frowned upon hearing that.

"That's great man," Char told Iggy and gave him a thumbs up with a smile. "Nice to see you having fun."

"Oh," Iggy was surprised to see that reaction. "Uh, thanks."

"Too busy gloating you didn't check what's inside," Winter told Iggy with a teasing smug of her own.

Winter took out a blue card with a white snowflakes design on it. She flipped the card to read what was written on the other side.

"Congrats on becoming captain on your team," Winter read.

Her, Iggy, and Char became excited upon this reveal. Winnie however did not feel much enthusiasm being captain of a team.

"Awesome!" Iggy exclaimed contently. "I'll take Dominic, Paul, Tony, Jacque, and Ketch."

"An all boys team?" Dominic raised an eyebrow at the decision making.

"I like the sound of that," Ketch smiled.

Jacque did not look too pleased having to team up with Dominic. He could care less about Tony. Tony on the other hand seemed to be fine with this. Paul's eagerness showed the most excitement from the six boys.

Embarc giggled at Iggy.

"Love that competitive spirit Iggy, but I'm not letting the captains decide who is going on which team," Embarc said smiling. "You contestants hardly know each other. So, what better way to form teams by simply making it random?" She clapped her hands together repeatedly.

Several elves came into the dining hall. Each elf carried a yellow gift box with a blue ribbon tied to it. All the contestants minus who won the first challenge took one. The elves left the dining hall. Including the ones who patched the roof.

"Each gift contains a card with a specific color on it. The campers who get a red card will be in Iggy's team, a blue card for Winter, a green card for Char, and a yellow card for Winnie," Embarc explained.

"I just realized that means there will be four teams," Ketch said with a smile.

"You figured this out now?" Ben looked at Ketch deadpanned.

"I hope we're not teammates," Tony told Ketch who frowned.

"Focus everyone is opening gift time," Embarc reminded.

All the losers of the last challenge ripped apart the wrapping paper from their gift and opened the gift box containing their card. Embarc smiled at the results.

"Nicky, Ben, Tess, Tony, and Ji-Soon," Embarc called to the five contestants as a camera displays a medium shot at each of their names being called. "You five received the red card. Which means Iggy will be your captain."

"Not statistically the best teammates I can get," Iggy admitted somewhat disappointingly. "But is not the worst outcome."

"I'm glad you care so much about your teammates already," Ben stated sarcastically. "That's surely not going to backfire on you."

"I can make this work," Iggy assured confidently.

"Ey don't worry about it. You got one of the boys you wanted. I'll make sure to help you carry this team," Tony told his captain just as confidently. "Because let's face we both need to carry this team."

"We-we're r-right here you know," Nicky stuttered, already not liking the feeling of being consider carried.

"Especially the child. We definitely need to make sure the child doesn't screw up," Tony informed Iggy.

"I'm eighteen," Nicky pouted.

Tess went to comfort Nicky by putting a hand on the violinist's shoulder.

"Don't listen to them Nicky. I know you can contribute well to the team," Tess said with a sweet smile.

"Th-thanks," Nicky showed gratitude.

"This is going to be so awesome!" Ji-Soon exclaimed excitedly. She hugged all her teammates tightly except for Iggy. "I can't wait for the campfire stories and talks about each other. Is going to be so much fun!"

"You have a tight grip," Tony admitted.

"I can even be tighter," Ji-Soon responded cheerfully.

"In what ways?" Bonnie wondered to herself.

"Okay Ji-Soon, you can hug your teammates later. I have to announce the other teams and their captains," Embarc told the cosplaying queen.

"You got it Embarc," Ji-Soon understood and stopped hugging her teammates.

Iggy went to his team proudly and smirked at the other captains.

"Get ready to lose on the second challenge by me and my team," Iggy boasted.

Winter rolled her eyes with a smile while Winnie frowned.

"I look forward to it," Char told Iggy in a polite manner.

Iggy stared at Char for a second dumbfounded.

"I'm looking forward to when I know my full team," Winter said eagerly. "But considering I already see the folks who have a blue card, there isn't that much of a need of figuring it out."

The contestants holding a blue card were Jacque, Lucien, Letty, Sasha, and Tsu.

"Alright genius, what's your so call statistics on that team?" Ben told Iggy dryly.

"Better than ours on paper," Iggy answered, much to Nicky's dismay.

"I don't know dude, I wouldn't call Jacque valuable," Tony said and then snickered at the sheisty dude.

"You're not worth the time for me using my voice," Jacque responded calmly, though he did look a bit annoyed by that comment.

Sasha looked at Letty with a friendly smile. Letty smiled back; glad she will be teammates with the one she enjoyed spending time with during the ice golem challenge.

"Alright, I'm in a team. That's nice," Lucien said with tired eyes. "Now I can do this." He immediately fell asleep, with his head hitting the table. This did not bother his slumber.

Tsu was deep in his thoughts, processing on how to approach being in a team now and striking conversations.

"Already plotting schemes?" Winter joked to Tsu as he approached him. "A bit too early don't you think? Could save that for at least another challenge."

Tsu continued to be deep in his thoughts, ignoring Winter.

"Well, I'm sure we'll figure out who goes home on my team first," Winter continued to mess around. "Isn't that right team?" She looked to Jacque, Sasha, and Letty.

"That is correct," Sasha replied.

Letty nodded with a small smile. Jacque on the other hand was smirking at Dominic. The racer narrowed his eyes at Jacque.

"Char," Embarc called out the big gentleman's name. "Give a warm welcome to your teammates. Bonnie, Marco, Andrea, Brandon, and Aditi."

All of Char's teammates looked quite eager to be with him on the same team. Brandon was the first to approach the gentleman and put out his hand for a shake.

"Looking forward to us as teammates," Brandon said kindly.

"Likewise," Char smiled and shook hands with Brandon. Then he looked at the girls on his team. "Is a pleasure to be the captain of this team," he told the girls.

"The pleasure is all mine," Bonnie responded with a grin.

Andrea noticed the creepy grin on Bonnie's face and immediately started worrying about her safety on the team. Marco stayed busy looking at his twitch channel on his phone, noticing the amounts of subscriptions he is getting because of him being on the show. Aditi ate a marshmallow on a stick. Which she just happened to have on her.

"And finally, Winnie's team," Embarc announced. "Which consists of Elodie, Dominic, May, Paul, and Ketch."

Winnie looked at her teammates. May slept on the table. Paul picked pocket the day dreamer's sweatpants to snatch her wallet. When Paul opened the wallet, nothing was in there, but he still put the wallet in a pocket of his torn jeans. Elodie mixed some chemicals in two flasks and created a small explosion. This created grey ash onto her face. She sneezed from the ash.

Ketch on the other hand squeezed ketchup from a bottle onto a hotdog. Ketch placed the ketchup bottle on the table so that he can use both of his hands to eat his hot dog. Paul proceeded to steal his ketchup bottle.

"A riveting team is it not Jones?" Dominic approached Winnie with a smile. It was hard to tell if he was being sarcastic or not.

Winnie did not answer Dominic. She looked at her team with concern. Which made Dominic look at his teammates and smirk.

"Alright teams, time for official names," Embarc told the cast.

"Oh, will each team make up a name?" Tess wondered eagerly.

"Nope," Embarc answered happily. "Iggy's team is officially known as the Superior Snowstorms."

A red circle appeared on screen. The circle had a symbol of strong winds and snow falling.

"That's an awesome name," Iggy said contently. "Already demonstrating how my team will dominate the others." Mixed feelings came from his team.

"Winter's team will be officially known as the Sunny Snowflakes," Embarc continued on.

A blue circle appeared on screen with a drawing of a sun behind snowflakes on it.

"That… doesn't make much sense," Winter pointed out. The rest of her team agreed with this.

"Don't worry it doesn't need to," Embarc assured. "Char's team is now dubbed as the Gleeful Gingerbreads."

A green circle appeared on screen with a smiley half eaten gingerbread in it. The half eaten part being its lower body.

"Nice team name," Char said. His teammates agreed.

"Lasty, Winnie's team. You all are now the Shining Stars," Embarc revealed.

A yellow circled appeared on screen with several stars in it. The Shining Stars were doing their own thing, not really paying attention except for Dominic and Winnie.

"How come our team does not get a double S name?" Brandon asked Embarc.

"I couldn't come up with another double S name at the time I was making team names," Embarc admitted.

"That's okay," Marco was fine with this, placing his phone in his pocket. "That means when my team wins, we can shout GG to our opponents."

"G…G?" Aditi tilted her head at Marco confused. Andrea did the same, perplexed as well.

"GG means good game in gaming lingo," Marco explained.

"That is new for me," Aditi admitted.

"As well as I," Andrea added.

"You two seem innocent," Bonnie observed. "I like that a lot."

"I've played a few racing games in the past," Brandon revealed.

"Sweet dude," Char replied. The two boys shared a fist bump.

"Alright contestants, now that the teams have been revealed is time to talk about a bit more stuff about Santa's workshop," Embarc informed. "Right now, as all of you can see we are in the dining room and kitchen of Santa's workshop."

"When are we going to meet Santa Claus? Is one of the biggest reasons I signed up to be part of the show," Winter revealed.

"In due time Winter," Embarc answered. "As I was addressing, there are a few extra places you all can hang out in Santa's workshop. Such as the visiting bedrooms, festive hangout lounge, and the confessional outhouse."

"An outhouse doesn't sound like a happy holiday to me," Jacque told the hostess.

"I'm obligated to include it," Embarc stated. "Which stinks, figuratively and literally. Figuratively because is technically iconic and literally because the outhouse is next to the spot where the reindeer do their business."

The wooden outhouse looks old with holiday lights on the roof. An elf opened the door of the outhouse, nauseated by the smell inside and passes out on the snow.

"Places you cannot trespass in Santa's workshop are my room, the Clauses room, the toy factory, and the workshop area itself," Embarc explained.

All the contestants understood.

"Now, one more thing I should mention," Embarc took out a card from her short shorts pocket. "This chestnut color card with three chestnuts as a symbol guarantees you coming back into the game if you are eliminated. However, is too soon to hide this. But let it be known I will hide it eventually." She put the card in her curly hair. "Whoever has this card and is eliminated, you can come back into the game anytime you want in the team phase. This card is useless for trying to return to the merge."

All the contestants nodded.

"Good, now, you all may head to your room to unpack your belongings. The elves brought the luggage from the plane and place them at the dead end of where the bedrooms are. If any of you need help to know where the locations are at just ask the elves working around. Oh, and tomorrow there will be a challenge. That is all," Embarc finished giving information.

Confessional – Iggy

He sat on the seat cover of a toilet. There were stickers of various holiday festive cheers such as snowmen, gingerbread men, cookies, candy canes, and Christmas trees on the wall behind the track star.

"Yeah, I can definitely smell the stench of reindeer poop. Hope Embarc puts some odor spray around here. Trying to get stuff off your chest can be distracting with the mierda around the corner," Iggy admitted. "Anyway, I told the truth about my team. From the looks of it, despite our awesome team name the Sunny Snowflakes have a more well-rounded set. It looks like Letty is the weakest asset to the team."

Iggy shrugged and continued to talk. "I'm going to train my team to be the best one here. Because even though I will win the competition, I don't want to go through so many elimination ceremonies before the merge."

Confessional – Winter

"Being the captain of the team means all eyes are on me on how to direct my teammates in the upcoming challenges. I know how public perception works so I'm going to keep doing what I do best. Messing around and making myself seem empathetic. Being captain is also beneficial in other ways. But for now, I rather not talk anymore in case someone is eavesdropping me."

Confessional – Char

"Don't know much of my teammates since we're just getting to know each other but they look quite welcoming. To be honest, I'm a bit nervous leading the Gleeful Gingerbreads. I've led plenty times before in group projects, but I don't want to let anyone down. Still, I'm going to keep smiling and use the best of my abilities to help my team win challenges."

Confessional – Winnie

"I'm not too happy being captain. Is a lot of pressure. Reminds me of those pageants I had to go to impress the audience and judges. One single mistake can cost me the trust of my teammates. And I've done plenty of mess ups on stage." She frowned. "But I also don't know who to put in position to lead the team. I just met all of them. And the last thing I want is to put someone as the leader, does a poor job, and I get blamed for it. Is only the first day and things aren't looking good for me."

The Gleeful Gingerbreads entered their room. The room had six twin size beds, each of them with a red quilt covering the mattress and pillow. At the end of the wall in front of the group is a closet for their clothes and other belongings they brought upon for the show.

"The beds look comfy," Brandon smiled at the sight. He went to the nearest bed on the left to put his luggage on top of it.

"Disappointing the beds are twin size. Barely any room for two people to be on it," Bonnie said as she went to the bed next to Brandon.

"How is that disappointing?" Andrea wondered as she made her way to the bed opposite side of Brandon. "The beds provide enough space for comfort."

"Well." Bonnie smiled at Andrea. "Since you asked. Is disappointing because…"

"Oh sweet, LucastheDragonboy just sent me ten bucks," Marco interrupted, getting excited for his Twitch channel.

Aditi put her luggage on the bed next to Andrea. She sniffed the red quilt on her bed and sighs happily. "Peppermint flavor, how outstanding."

Char already had his luggage on the bed next to Aditi while Marco made his way to the bed next to Bonnie's bed. Marco kept looking at his phone.

"We have time before going to sleep. Why not talk about each other for a bit?" Char suggested. "I'll go first." He sat on his bed. "I enjoy reading poetry and romantic novels. Have any of you read a Rose in Winter? Is a pretty good book."

"I actually did a review of that book one time on a commentary stream in my channel," Marco revealed as he took clothes out of his luggage. "I was expecting it to be pretty clique with its romance, but it took some interesting turns. Not going to spoil it for the rest of the group here."

"Never judge a book by its cover," Char said smiling to Marco.

"I remember watching the movie version," Brandon got into the conversation as he took out tools from his toolbox to check on them. "My friends told me they cut out stuff from the book."

"Books that come into movies always do that," Marco replied.

"What's with the tools?" Aditi asked Brandon as she approached him with curiosity. "Are you an inventor? Crazy scientist kind of deal?"

"More like a mechanic," Brandon answered happily as he held a wrench in his hand. "I like to drive cars, fix them, see what makes them tick, rebuild. Is really fun."

"Why bring your toolbox to a show where you won't need it?" Bonnie asked. "Pretty sure the show provides the tools if we need to do like a sled race challenge."

"I pretty much bring them with me all the time," Brandon answered causally with a shrug. "Besides, you never know when they could come in handy."

"Well then, I definitely look forward to having a handy man on the team," Bonnie said in a flirtatious way as she did a terrible pose on the bed to get Brandon's attention. "And I don't mind helping fiddle your toolbox."

"Can you… um… not pose like that? Is kind of creeping me out," Brandon asked kindly.

Bonnie simply laid down her bed.

Confessional – Andrea

She sat with great posture on the seat cover. "My teammates appear to be welcoming, but it doesn't look like any of them have the same hobbies as mine which is a shame. Though I am ecstatic how well we are getting along. Hope it will last long. I've seen how this competition gets to people."

The Sunny Snowflakes already settled in their room. All their belongings and clothes are inside the closet of the room except for Tsu who put his luggage under his bed. The room was identical to the one the Gleeful Gingerbreads have, and it will continue with the other two teams.

Winter immediately noticed the status of her team. Other than the fact Lucien slept on his bed no one brought up a conversation. Things were too quiet to her liking as she believes they all were planning something in her eyes.

"For a team call the Sunny Snowflakes it sure isn't bright in here," Winter joked with a smile. "I understand if none of you want to talk because of shyness and all that, but we should strike a conversation with each other. Part of this show's theme is the holiday season. Spending time by a warm fire anyone?"

"There's no fire in here," Jacque told Winter, sitting on his bed. He had one leg on the bed with his elbow on the knee. "We six don't know each other that very well and I'll rather it stays that way until the next challenge arrives."

"Why can't we just talk about each other? Small things to get things going," Winter suggested.

"I rather not," Letty answered. "Ji-Soon was really persistent on that and I didn't like it."

"Same boat over here," Jacque said to Letty. "Want to target her for the next challenge?" He offered half-jokingly.

"I'm… not sure," Letty admitted.

"Depending on the challenge I would not mind helping out at the request," Sasha smiled at Jacque. Then she looked at Letty. "Sounds like a good plan to me Letty. But if you wish not to go with it, I understand and will back down from it."

Jacque raised an eyebrow, curious as to what Sasha's game is.

Letty rubbed her arm, trying to figure what to say. "I…"

"Isn't it a bit too early to start targeting someone?" Winter questioned Sasha and Jacque. "Other than you not really liking her what has she done to be considered a threat?" She asked Jacque.

"Nothing, but people have voted others off and targeted for far less strategic reasons," Jacque smoothly answered.

"I'm curious as what gives the qualifications of being a threat in your perspective," Sasha said to Winter as she walked up to her captain.

"Okay let us discuss a different topic," Winter replied.

"Ah, so you want us to conversate about ourselves but not you," Jacque smirked.

"No, my intentions are for us to get along before going all strategy crazy for no reason at the moment other than to make yourself look like a target," Winter countered. "Because already going after Ji-Soon gives an impression of you having ulterior motives."

Jacque continued to smirk as he got up from his bed. He put his hands in his pockets. "I'm going for a walk," he said to his teammates. He opened the door of the room and left.

Sasha made mental notes of Winter and Jacque.

"I'm going to the festive lounge, since no one is in the mood of getting to know each other," Winter told Sasha, Letty, and Tsu with disappointment in her voice. She left the room.

Sasha looked at Tsu who was in his thoughts. Then she looked at Letty.

"Targeting someone on the other team this fast might make that team want to target us in upcoming challenges," Letty explained her reason to not go along with Jacque's plan.

"Hmm, that doesn't sound too bad of an idea," Sasha admitted. "But we will not do that since you feel like is not the best option."

"Why are you okay siding with my thoughts?" Letty asked confused.

"Just want you to feel welcome," Sasha answered kindly. "Now, I need some company on exploring this place. Join me."

"Sure," Letty smiled.

Letty and Sasha left the room. Which left Tsu alone with a sleeping Lucien.

"Finally, they left," Tsu said to himself.

Tsu grabbed his luggage from under his bed. Then he went to close the room's door and took out a body pillow of Clover Warrington from his bag. He hugged it and kissed it.

"Ah Clover, how I idolize you," Tsu hugged the body pillow tighter.

"Dude, that's incredibly weird," Lucien said now awake. His face was monotone.

Tsu's eyes widened as his cheeks flushed red. "You're supposed to be asleep," he said.

"I was," Lucien stated. "And now I'm not."

"Please don't tell anyone about this," Tsu begged.

"You brought a body pillow onto a reality TV show with cameras watching almost all our movements. Really this is your fault, but I'll keep my mouth shut about this," Lucien replied tiredly and uncaringly about this. "Is still repulsive you have that."

"Is not repulsive. I'm a typical plain average guy," Tsu said, getting annoyed.

"Whatever lets you sleep at night," Lucien commented and then went back to sleep.

Confessional – Winter

"Iggy said that my team is considered to be the best one out of the four groups. And honestly, I rather have Iggy be the captain of this team. I can already tell my teammates are more strategy focus than just hanging around and having fun. Letty definitely has some brains to her as well, but I needed to cut her off before more strategy was discussed. I'm actually considering trying to convince Iggy to switch teams with me because my plan coming here is practically in the toilet."

Confessional – Jacque

He smirked confidently. "Winter speaks of ulterior motives, but I can tell she's on the same route as me. Just with a different method. Also, it feels darn good to have Sasha on the team and not Dominic. And not because I find Sasha attractive or anything like that. Is because I have a feeling Dominic has tricks up his sleeves."

Paul entered the Shining Stars' room carrying a sleeping May to a bed. He put his teammate down gently on the bed and threw his luggage into the room's closet. The force of impact by Paul's strong throw caused the luggage to open up and pop out the kleptomaniac's clothes.

"Done," Paul smiled and went to sit on a bed next to May.

"It would be nice of you not leaving your clothes like that on the floor," Dominic told Paul, carrying a bass guitar case and his own luggage bag.

"Nah, I don't need to hang them up," Paul replied. "Thanks for bringing my bass guitar."

"You were carrying sleeping beauty McCarthy," Dominic stated.

As Dominic gave Paul's bass guitar back Elodie and Ketch arrived at the room with their bags.

"Must be a grand honor to have a well-known bakery in Paris," Ketch told Elodie happily, the two having a conversation as they entered.

"Yep, my parents' bakery is one of the best in ze town," Elodie replied contently. She put two briefcases on a bed. "Is also great to be a teammate of a restaurant owner."

"Co-owner of a restaurant. And really is just a burger shop," Ketch corrected as he put his luggage on a bed.

"A baker and fast-food guy on the same team? That's pretty good luck," Paul grinned. "We don't even need food service here. You two can make the meals for our team."

"I doubt the kitchen staff or whoever runs the food in this workshop will allow them to do that," Dominic told Paul as he put his luggage in the closet.

"Is worth a try," Elodie beamed happily. She opened one of her suitcases to reveal a bunch of flasks and liquid chemicals in glass jars. "I don't mind baking sweets for my team." She took one of the jars and started to shake it. "What about you Ketch?"

"Sure thing!" Ketch gave a thumbs up.

"I wouldn't mind treating you to a sweet time," Paul flirted with Elodie.

"Oh my, aren't you upfront," Elodie smirked. "I should warn you I can be quite explosive."

Winnie, standing at the doorway with her luggage smiled at her teammates.

Confessional – Winnie

"I will admit upon looking at the reveal of teammates they… didn't leave me the best impression. I really shouldn't have those thoughts though, that's what my mother would think. Not to say my mother is awful because she's not but… anyway, I like my teammates. They are getting along and having nice conversations. I would talk too but being the leader feels like no matter what I say can affect the dynamic. I rather stay quiet and let them speak."

Confessional – Dominic

His backed leaned on the outhouse wall with a foot on the toilet seat cover. "I have to admit, the team selecting went far worse than I expected. Conroy is not on the same team as me so that's already a downside. But also, the fact Jane and Heinz will be considered keepers on the team since both have culinary experience. Which already makes the shift in power in this team less for me. If I want to make sure I win, I need to strategize carefully."

The Superior Snowstorms were the quietest out of the four teams. Which is a bit surprising given who is on the team. However, they got along well at least for now. Iggy did pushups, Nicky played her violin, Ben read a book, and Tess painted a portrait of Ji-Soon. Ji-Soon posed for Tess as the artist continued her work on the paper held by an easel.

Tony was the only that did not do much. He simply had a toothpick in his mouth as he watches his teammates do their thing.

Confessional – Tony

"Their doing their thing nothing much else I can do. I'll wait until the challenge to find who are the wackjobs on my team. Blows that I can't deal much with the boys since we are all on separate teams." An idea occurred to him. "Or maybe we can?"

As the night went by, Winter had the necessity to use the bathroom. She decided to remove the quilt on her, get out of her bed, walked to the room's door to open and close it when she left. She wore pretty much the same clothes as her regular outfit with the difference being black ankle-length socks. Once outside to head to the outhouse, she encountered Lucien using a telescope.

Lucien wore a galaxy printed sleep pants and a periwinkle sweater. He looked into the telescope.

"You should be sleeping right now," Winter told Lucien as she walked to him, the snow making footprints of her feet. She stood next to him. "What are you doing?"

"I was hoping not to get caught so soon in my stay," Lucien stated as he continued looking through the telescope.

"You didn't answer my question. Why are you awake at this time of night? We have a challenge tomorrow," Winter said in a more demanding tone.

"I'm stargazing," Lucien simply answered. "You should join me."

"And be tired tomorrow? Which means my team will likely want to kick me off for being a bad leader," Winter looked at Lucien with disappointment. "If this is a so call 'strategy' then is pretty tasteless."

"I can vote with you if we lose the next challenge," Lucien stated, now looking at Winter and not his telescope.

"Are you that lonely that you need someone to be by your side?" Winter questioned as she raised an eyebrow.

This got a good chuckle out of Lucien. "No, but I don't mind someone watching the stars with me. After all you suggested to the team that we should get to know each other."

"How do you know that? You were sleeping," Winter wondered.

"Not quite. I didn't fully sleep until you and the others except Tsu left the room," Lucien revealed.

Winter sighed. "I don't like the night sky."

"How come?" Lucien pondered.

"You do not need to know that," Winter rapidly answered. "Just know that if we lose a challenge tomorrow because of you don't count on me aiding for help. I've pulled nights such as these myself when animating, but I know I need to stay focus on leading this team." She left to the outhouse.

Lucien watched her leave as he thought about what she said. He decided to keep stargazing and look through his telescope.

The morning came by and some of the Gleeful Gingerbreads started to wake up from their beds. After waking up from his slumber, Marco rubbed his eyes and then went to the closet to grab his phone. He immediately went to his Twitch app to login. He wore a very baggy purple shirt with orange shorts for pajamas.

"Hey, hey everyone," Marco greeted his audience on Twitch. "For those with me, I'm going to give you all a tour of Santa's workshop."

"Not to be downer but I don't think is a good idea to be reliant on Twitch for the time being," Brandon suggested. "Especially since that could be a distraction for the upcoming challenge."

After removing the quilt over him, Brandon revealed himself to have on a white t-shirt and black boxers.

"I would also like to point out that your followers are going to watch the show anyway whether you're on Twitch or not since this is being filmed," Char pointed out.

Char had on a right-sized indigo pajama dressing gown.

"That makes sense," Marco smiled at the two. "I'll give my followers a tour and then put a halt on the streaming. See you all at breakfast."

Marco left his team. Char, Andrea, and Brandon noticed a tent on top of Aditi's bed.

"Um, Aditi, are you in there?" Andrea asked the wanderer. Her hair was draped while wearing white pajamas and a matching sleeping mask on her forehead.

Bonnie chuckled at this as she kept her quilt over her body except her neck and head.

Aditi popped her head out from the tent to look at Andrea.

"Sorry," Aditi apologized. "I've stayed in so many tents I tend to make one myself in order to sleep. A force of habit. But I'm willing to take this down during our second night here."

"How big is the tent?" Bonnie asked Aditi, smiling a bit.

"Only room for one," Aditi answered contently.

"Figures," Bonnie slightly frowned.

"As long as you're comfortable on how you sleep with or without a tent is fine with me," Char assured Aditi.

"Thanks Char," Aditi showed gratitude.

"You can also come out of the tent," Brandon told his teammate. "We don't bite."

"I sure do," Bonnie grinned.

Aditi got out of her tent in a cow onesie. This confused her teammates in the room except for Bonnie.

"Looks like there is a moo moo here and a moo moo there," Bonnie joked as she stared at Aditi and briefly glancing at her teammates.

"That looks cute on you," Char told Aditi. "Do you wear that every night?"

"Only when I'm in a house or city," Aditi answered happily. "I'm glad all of you like it. I also have a chicken onesie. I could wear that for tonight."

"I would love to cock a doodle do your feathers," Bonnie continued to try and get Aditi's attention, but it was not working.

"Anyone want to guess what today's challenge will be?" Brandon asked the group.

"I'm hoping for a baking contest," Andrea politely answered as she gets from out from her bed.

Bonnie stared at Andrea's butt. "I would get a good view on that bakery of yours if that's the case."

"I don't have a bakery," Andrea said and turned around to look at Bonnie. She did not understand her teammate's innuendo. "Although I guess making one will be nice. Oh, I can ask Elodie for a job at her parents' bakery. Thanks Bonnie!"

Andrea went to get her clothes in the closet and left the room. Bonnie face palmed.

"I'm going to explore some of the land here," Aditi told her teammates as she went to get her everyday clothing out of her closet. "I'll join you all for breakfast shortly."

"Char, can you get my clothes from the closet?" Bonnie kindly asked as Aditi left the room.

"Sure," The big gentleman replied happily and went to get Bonnie's clothes.

As Bonnie raised her body to sit on the bed, Brandon noticed she did not have a shirt or bra on her due to the fact the farmer covered her chest with the bed's quilt.

"Did you sleep naked during the night?" Brandon asked curiously.

"Yep," Bonnie answered with a nod as she grabbed her clothes from Char. "I waited until all of you slept first before taking them off. I'm just comfortable without them when sleeping."

"Marco could get banned from Twitch if he catches you naked on his stream," Brandon joked.

Confessional – Bonnie

"My teammates are way too innocent. Which isn't a bad thing, but that means is going to take some time to get some action with at least one of them. Though honestly, I want to get in Paul's pants first and see how that goes."

Wearing their everyday attire, Ketch and Elodie went to the open kitchen to see if any elves were there. Seeing none, Elodie entered the kitchen and search for cooking utensils.

"What are you doing?" Ketch asked his teammate, standing near the entrance of the kitchen.

"Going to make pancakes, bacon, and eggs for our teammates and the others," Elodie answered happily.

"But the elves aren't here. We can get in trouble," Ketch warned.

"The elves do plenty enough of making, buying, and wrapping gifts," Elodie countered as she opened a bottom cabinet. She took out some pots and placed them on the large kitchen counter. "We'll be doing the elves a favor."

"Well, considering this is all in good nature they probably wouldn't mind it like you said," Ketch finally agreed. He entered the kitchen and went to the fridge to check on the items of food. "I'll work on the bacon then."

"Very well big boy," Elodie flirted and teased. "I'm sure the bacon you make will look crispy as you."

Ketch slightly blushed as he took the foods Elodie and him need to make breakfast.

Andrea was about to enter the open kitchen to talk with Elodie but noticed Ketch there. She got shy and decided to leave the area.

Confessional – Elodie

"Being flirtatious at times is quite fun. I did it to a lot of boys back in my town. Until zey saw me as some crazy mad scientist. Which is not true. I only blew up my high school's cafeteria once. Or was it twice? I don't exactly remember."

All the contestants in their regular clothes ate breakfast at the dining room of the workshop. Embarc walked in and noticed Elodie and Ketch working at the kitchen. Curious, she entered the kitchen.

"What are you two doing?" Embarc asked the two happily.

"We were making breakfast," Ketch answered.

"For the contestants," Elodie clarified."

"That's sweet," Embarc smiled. She took a notepad and pencil out of her hair to write something down.

"Are we in trouble?" Ketch wondered worryingly.

"Nope, in fact this makes things more interesting," Embarc answered as she continued to scribble with a cheeky grin. "However, I have to announce today's challenge. Which means you two won't be having breakfast since the kitchen is now close."

"Oh apologies," Elodie said. "It should only be a couple of minutes to make our…"

"Kitchen is close. End of discussion," Embarc stayed joyful. "Now shoo-shoo, head to your team's table."

Elodie and Ketch slightly frowned as they headed out of the kitchen.

Confessional – Embarc

"They looked so cute together, didn't they? I would honestly continue watching them make breakfast for themselves, but my duty as host is priority right now. Plus, the chef elves are already the cooks for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Which means they are getting paid by the producers to do this. I'm not having them slack off and earn money without lifting as much as a spoon."

"Campers, I hope you all enjoyed your breakfast," Embarc said to the contestants who finished their meals. "Because now I'll be announcing today's challenge!"

"And that challenge is?" Tony wondered impatiently. "We don't have all day."

"Funny you should say that Tony. Because today's challenge is technically all day considering it is a talent show challenge," Embarc informed. "Each team will have…"

"A repeat of a Total Drama challenge already?" Dominic questioned. "Thought we'll have a more Christmas theme for the first challenge."

"One, don't interrupt me again when explaining," Embarc told the racer happily with her left eye twitching a bit. "Two, this show isn't connected to Total Drama. Yes, is being produced by the people who own the franchise, but this is not connected to Total Drama whatsoever. Hence why is call North Pole Showdown and not Total Drama North Pole Showdown. So, this talent contest challenge isn't a throwback or a 'I ran out of ideas' sort of deal. Everyone has that clear?"

Several contestants gave her a nod.

"Good," Embarc nodded back. "As I was saying, each team will select two teammates to perform at the camp ampi-theater built for this occasion to display their talent for a surprise guest. This guest will give a ranking from one to ten for each camper participating after seeing their talent.

"Surprise guest?" Sasha wondered.

"Why not have Santa Claus or you be the judge?" Ben asked curiously.

"Because Santa and I are too nice and would give everyone participating in the challenge a high score. I rather bring someone in that is harder to please," Embarc answered nicely.

"I'm guessing the actual start of the challenge will be at night like in Total Drama's first season?" Winter questioned.

"Got to get the ampi-theater decorated with lights and that holiday goodness. It will look much better at night so yes," Embarc replied. "Which means there is plenty of time for each team to decide their selectors and more time to practice before getting on stage."

Winter let out an annoyed sigh.

"Since there are four teams, how will winning and eliminations work around here?" Brandon asked.

"Here's how that will go. The winning team will receive a gift that can be valuable to use in the next upcoming challenge and a delightful dinner. A team coming in second place will receive only that dinner. Third place team gets gruel for dinner while last place also gets gruel but needs to eliminate a teammate," Embarc explained. "Now with that out of the way, challenge starts an hour after sunset, don't be late."

The Superior Snowstorms were outside on the snow. Elves were running away from a polar bear in the background.

"Alright Snowstorms listen up," Iggy took charge of his team with a confident smug look. "I know all of you are not as talented as I am but today we need to figure out who will be joining me for the challenge."

Tony looked annoyed, Ben had a deadpanned expression, Nicky began to feel nervous, and Tess simply smiles.

"Hooray Iggy!" Ji-Soon exclaimed. She clapped joyfully and repeatedly.

"Ey bozo, how come we have to show you our talents and you can just automatically put yourself up for the challenge?" Tony questioned. "Why don't you show us what you're made of?"

"Because my talent is going to wow the special guest," Iggy boasted.

"Dude, we don't we know what the interest are from this guest Embarc has for us," Ben stated. "I suggest you display us your talent and let the team decide whether is worth putting you up or not."

"Fine, just don't go blind seeing me perform my brilliance," Iggy replied assuredly.

As Iggy went to grab some stuff for his talent Tess walked to Nicky to stand close to her.

"I'll vouch for you to play your violin on stage," Tess whispered to Nicky.

"What? Bu-but I don't know if I could per-perform in front of so many people," Nicky whispered.

"Is alright to be nervous. Everybody goes through that. Just imagine everyone in their underwear," Tess suggested.

Nicky looked at Tess and imagined the traveling artist in her underwear.

"I don't think is working," Nicky told Tess.

"Nonsense," Tess said cheerfully.

In the meantime, Ben sat on the snow and started to read a book. Ji-Soon sat next to him.

"What are you reading?" Ji-Soon asked nosily.

"One of the books of Parry Hotter," Ben answered.

"Oh, are you into fantasy books?" Ji-Soon questioned.

Ben read in silence a bit before responding. "Yes."

Ji-Soon scooted closer to Ben, getting him slightly annoyed and uncomfortable.

"What other fantasies do you like?" Ji-Soon wondered.

"What do you mean by that?" Ben asked with confusion.

"What other books do you read? How often do you read books?" Ji-Soon continued with the questions.

"You know when someone is reading a book it means they want peace and quiet," Ben stated dryly.

"Well, we are in a peaceful place," Ji-Soon said joyfully.

"It means for you to zip it," Ben replied coldly.

"Oh," Ji-Soon realized. This did not stop her from being cheerful as she casually gets up and runs to Tony.

"Hey Tony, what kind of talent do you have?" Ji-Soon wondered as she ran up to the Brooklyn Boss.

Confessional – Tony

He had a basketball in his hands. "Might as well humor her a bit. Told her I'm good at basketball. Which I am good at it, but I doubt the special judge will be into me performing trick shot slam dunks. Ey, I don't know. Can't be worse than Iggy's talent. Whatever that is."

The Sunny Snowflakes were in a different section of snow. All of them were standing.

"Okay team," Winter called out. "One by one I need someone to come forth and show their talent. As captain I want to make sure we win the first challenge."

"So that you don't get eliminated first, right?" Jacque joked.

Winter narrowed her eyes at that.

"How come you're not going to show us your talent?" Tsu asked his captain.

"Besides staying awake for long hours and being trilingual the best I have to impress is animation. But animating even for one minute of film can take hours and lots of concentration. Something I don't believe I have time to do," Winter answered. "Speaking of time, Tsu get over here and show me your talent."

"My talent is cosplaying and acting like that character," Tsu said, not getting close to her captain.

"Well, what kind of character you can cosplay as that doesn't require too much time to make the outfit?" Winter asked.

"I can go for something plainer," Tsu answered.

"Who though? There's plenty of animes that have cookie cutter characters to choose from," Winter said, needing to know.

"Yes!" Tsu cheered. "Another anime fan!"

"Okay Tsu is great we have a common interest, but I need you to tell me who can you cosplay as?" Winter pleaded.

"Probably isn't going to work out anyway. Most of these talent stuff acquires some form of song or dance. Or at least something that isn't a model act," Lucien told his captain.

"I'm not doing a modeling act. I'm simply displaying an outfit from an anime to show off its finesses," Tsu countered.

"Like I said," Lucien stated. He then yawned which caught Winter's attention.

"Why don't we sneak in Embarc's office to see if there's anything that reveals the surprise guest for tonight?" Jacque suggested. "That way we know the person and what their interests can be."

"Embarc told us not to go into her office," Sasha reminded.

"Pretty risky to do that," Winter agreed with Sasha.

"Anybody else got a worth noting talent then?" Jacque asked the team.

Tsu scoffed at him.

"I can… juggle," Lucien revealed in a drowsy state.

"Alright, we have a first act then," Winter told her team. "Lucien's juggling."

"He doesn't look in good condition to do that," Tsu told as he looked at Lucien's tiredness. He was still ticked over the astronomer and Jacque not wanting him to perform.

"Trust me, he will be when the night arrives," Winter assured with a confident smile.

Confessional – Winter

"Look I know is risky to put sleeper creeper as an act considering I know he didn't get enough sleep. But you know what? The acts on stage start at night. Lucien should be fully awake by then. If he performs terribly, I convince the team he's a liability. If he performs well, it makes me look good as captain. A win-win if you ask me."

The Gleeful Gingerbreads stayed at the dining room. The whole group were at a table. Char sat on the opposite side of his teammates to look at them.

"Alright team, like Embarc mentioned we need two acts for tonight's challenge," Char reiterated. "What do all of you have?"

"I'm good at video games," Marco told contently.

"Speed running?" Char hoped.

"No," Marco answered.

"Oh," Char made sure not to look like he was disappointed by that.

"I pretty much know how to fix anything with an engine added to it," Brandon casually.

"That's a neat talent," Andrea smiled at the mechanic.

"But is there any engine needing to be fixed?" Aditi believed this will not help for this particular challenge. "And if we bring Brandon something to fix on stage how long will that take?"

"Those are some good points," Char said. "Sorry Brandon, but your talent doesn't seem suitable for this."

"I mean we can try to find a broken-down snowmobile for me to fix," Brandon offered.

"I have craftsmanship, gymnastics, and parkour flowing through my veins," Aditi exclaimed excitedly.

"I would like to see that," Bonnie smirked. "What outfit will you be wearing?"

"The whole team hasn't decided on that act yet," Char mentioned.

"The one I have on, why?" Aditi asked Bonnie.

"It will really impress the judge if you do gymnastics in a swimsuit," Bonnie suggested.

"That feels unnecessary," Andrea piped in.

"We don't even know if the judge will like that," Brandon added.

"Who wouldn't like a hot chick doing gymnastics in a swimsuit?" Bonnie rhetorically asked Brandon.

"My rooster onesie is in the closet though," Aditi said, confusing hot chick for her pajamas.

Bonnie blinked twice at her in a dumbfounded state.

"You sure we can't find a broke down snowmobile?" Brandon asked Char.

"How about Andrea and Bonnie's talent? We haven't heard from them," Marco added to the conversation.

"Sure," Char allowed in a relaxing matter.

"Well, I can do baking, drawing, sketching, and painting," Andrea revealed. "I can wow the judge with sweets or a nice portrait."

"Sounds good, sounds good," Char nodded twice. "What about you Bonnie?"

All of Bonnie's teammates noticed her perverted smile.

"I'm capable of removing my clothing in ten seconds," Bonnie said proudly.

The boys on the team had their eyes widened by this. Aditi sat there confused.

"Ew, gross," Andrea backed away from Bonnie with disgust. "You are not stripping naked in front of us and the wide audience."

"Let's see what our captain has to say," Bonnie told the elegant angel. She looked at Char.

"Um, any other talents you have?" Char asked the farmer.

Bonnie slightly frowned. "I can eat through a peach in five seconds," She replied.

"Much better," Andrea said calmly.

"I'm afraid to ask how you're able to do that," Brandon admitted to Bonnie.

"Alright team let's pick who will be our two acts tonight," Char said. "When I say a member's name, raise your hand if you want the person to be part of the acts."

Confessional – Char

"Not the results I expected, but Andrea couldn't decide whether to bake or draw for the judge. That left Bonnie doing her eating peach act and Aditi to perform her gymnastics. With her regular clothing on. Bonnie's face reeked of disappointment from that, but my teammates voted. Speaking of Bonnie, I should help her out with her flirting game. She's going way too hard on Aditi and Andrea. You got to smooth talk those two. I haven't had the chance but when I do it to them Bonnie will realize she's got to play calmer."

The Shining Stars decided it would be for the best to discuss who will be the two performers presenting their team in their room. Each member sat on their own bed. Everyone on the team noticed Winnie had trouble trying to talk.

"We're all friends here Winnie," Elodie assured the pageant disaster.

"Take deep breaths," Paul advised. "Whenever me and my bandmates feel nervous before going on stage we do that."

"You're in a band?" Elodie asked excitedly for confirmation.

"Yeah, I'm the one who plays the bass guitar in the band," Paul confirmed. "I was hoping for my bandmate Davy to be in the show with me since we both signed up, but I was the one who got confirmed."

"That's terrible," Dominic said uncaringly. "Anyway, you're a bassist. Which means you have musical prowess. Which also means we already have an act for tonight's challenge."

"Um, Winnie is the leader. Isn't she the one who says who gets to be in the challenge or not?" Ketch wondered.

"True, but apparently she forgot to speak proper English," Dominic told the burger flipper.

Paul did his best not to chuckle from that comment.

"I haven't at all," Winnie told Dominic with a gentle smile. "Is just that I've never been a leader of a team and I don't want to disappoint you all."

May went to give Winnie a hug.

"I feel that," Ketch said sympathetically. "My sister Ranchie always takes charge at The Hienz Flip-A-Burger we own. Whenever she gets sick, I have to step up and it's pretty hard."

"Why don't I be in charge of the team then?" Dominic offered, hatching a plan. "At least for this challenge until Winnie finds herself ready to lead."

"That's very kind of you," Winnie agreed. "I'll let you take charge on deciding who acts today."

"Splendid idea Jones," Dominic gave a proud thumbs up.

"I've worked around in my parents' bakery before, so I have leadership skills on my own," Elodie said to her team, wanting to take charge.

"Too late, Winnie made her decision. What is your talent?" Dominic asked the pastry gal.

Elodie opened her mouth to try to convince her team to let her lead, but decided it was not worth it to her at the moment. "I make pastries and bombs."

"Uh, what kind of bombs?" Winnie asked, frightened by this.

"Cupcake bombs is usually my go too," Elodie clarified.

"Admirable Jane, but not quite what we're looking for to impress the judge," Dominic declined. He looked at May. "What can you bring to the table Summers?"

"I can sleep standing up with my eyes open," May answered joyfully.

"Are you sleeping right now?" Ketch questioned.

May immediately fell to the ground which spooked Winnie.

"Relax, she's not dead," Paul assured Winnie. "We can still see her breathing."

Dominic examined Winnie's outfit. "By any chance you have participated in beauty pageants?" He wondered.

"How do you know that?" Winnie questioned.

"I don't, I'm just wondering if you have been in those since a friend of mine used to wear outfits like that for pageants. Especially the tiara," Dominic explained.

"Dude, we have a pageant girl in our team?" Paul became excited. "Might as well give us the win now. No way we can lose with her and I performing."

"Wait," Winnie tried to get her team's attention. "I'm not…"

"I can see us unwrapping those gifts for getting first already," Ketch said contently as he rubbed his hands together.

"Guys, please," Winnie continued trying to get them to listen to her.

"Then is settled. Winnie will perform first while Paul does the final act," Dominic informed. He noticed Winnie's uncertainty which caused him to smirk.

"Guys, we don't even know what she'll be performing," Elodie pointed out.

"Who cares, a pageant star is going to give us the win anyway," Paul brushed the concern aside.

Winnie slightly frowned.

Confessional – Winnie

"I'm a disaster at performing in pageants! I'm totally going to mess up my act for tonight. I don't even like doing beauty pageants. I do them to make my mother proud. Even though, now that she is watching this, she'll probably not have me participate in them anymore. I'm sorry mom, is not my calling."

Confessional – Dominic

"I see potential of me outlasting all these losers. Sure, I put Winnie on the spotlight. But that makes it better if she fails to win tonight's challenge. No one will want her to lead since she has no spine. Which means I can take charge and put this team in shape."

"Hurdles? You're going to impress the judge by doing hurdles?" Tony was baffled at seeing Iggy placing hurdles on the snow.

"Obviously," Iggy replied to his team.

"Come on man you're not going to impress any judge by just jumping hurdles," Tony complained.

"And your basketball trick shots would do any better?" Iggy retorted as he stretched himself as preparation to jump the hurdles.

"We get it you both like sports," Ben stated dryly as he read a book. "Let's move on."

"What made you want to do track?" Ji-Soon asked Iggy.

"We are getting nowhere with this," Tony said before Iggy can talk. He looked at Ben. "Ey man, assist me on this will ya?"

Ben shrugged, not really caring.

"You two, help me knock some sense on our leader over here," Tony insisted to Tess and Nicky.

Ji-Soon cheered for Iggy jumping over the hurdles.

"Nicky can play the violin," Tess told Tony. "She managed to tame an ice golem with her extraordinary skill."

"Finally, someone useful for this challenge," Tony spoke joyfully. "How come you didn't speak up when Iggy was hogging the spotlight?"

"Well, I, um," Nickey hesitated to answer.

"Geez kid forget I ask," Tony apologized in his own way.

Nicky sighed. "I'm eighteen."

As Iggy took a break from jumping the hurdles, Ben approached him. The bookworm had his book in his hand.

"Impressive right?" Iggy said with a smug. "I knew all of you will see it my way."

"I don't care about sports," Ben stated.

"Well you should, you could definitely need it with that twig of a body you have," Iggy responded.

Ben rolled his eyes. "Nicky will be playing her violin for act one while Tess will paint for act two," He told Iggy.

"What? But I'm the captain of this team," Iggy replied appalled. "I need to be in this challenge."

"You're about to be captain crunch if you don't let 'em girls perform," Tony threatened.

"Fine," Iggy gave in while narrowing his eyes at the two boys. "Just so you know is not because of intimidation. Is because as captain I have a duty to do what's best for my team."

"Maybe we can do a duet of music and painting together," Tess offered Nicky.

"I'll make cosplays for you two then," Ji-Soon chimed in. "Though I wonder which option I should go for to make you two look even more stunning."

"Th-that won't be necessary," Nicky assured the cosplayer.

Confessional – Iggy

"Winning this show's first challenge will bring a lot of positivity to my team. And it will make me happy and not want to be going this game solo. Is why I don't play sport teams and heavily focus on track. I don't have my teammates weighing me down. But I have to put up with it for the time being."

Nicky was not going to be the only one playing the violin. As it appears, Sasha played her own violin to impress her teammates. However, the only teammates watching her were Winter and Letty. Lucien slept on the snow as the harmonious instrument played while Jacque and Tsu were not with them.

Sasha finished playing the violin and took a bow. Winter and Letty clapped repeatedly for her.

"I guess that settles it. Sasha and Lucien will be performing tonight for the Sunny Snowflakes," Winter settled. "Team is dismissed. Well, half the team, I guess. If anyone needs me, I'm going to be building a snowman."

"I shall join you once I put my violin in my room," Sasha said delightfully.

"You should be practicing the violin," Winter stated. "Don't want you to forget your notes."

"Don't worry, I'll make sure to have plenty of practice before the challenge starts," Sasha assured. "I would rather bond with my team leader. Get to know her better. That's what you want us to do correct?"

Winter stared at Sasha for a brief moment before turning around. "That is my intention."

"Good," Sasha smiled. She looked at Letty. "After you put my violin back in our room join us on making a snowman together."

Letty nodded.

Confessional – Winter

"Call me crazy but I question Sasha's logic on not practicing her violin playing right now. She has hours before needing to perform. Okay sure, she wants to bond with me. Which I can play along fine, but we have a challenge to win. Also, I don't like the fact Letty is quiet and mostly speaks with Sasha. The quiet types tend to lean on others. Meaning Sasha probably already has an extra vote. Hmm, I guess chatting with her won't be too much of a waste."

Confessional – Sasha

"I understand where Jacque is coming from. Unite the team to target someone specific, try to see if there are any personal motives from our captain to weaken her credibility, make the challenge easier by discovering who's the surprise judge. I can tell he's here to win it all. While those are strategies are great, he's leaving out a key aspect of the game. A key which I am going to unlock."

Speaking of Jacque, the shiesty dude walked around the hallways of Santa's workshop minding his own business. He came across Steve the elf walking towards his direction. He pretended to accidentally bump into Steve and caused the elf to fall. Steve landed on his left elbow and butt.

"Come on man I'm not that short," Steve told Jacque with a glare and annoyance in his voice.

"Sorry dude, had my head in the clouds at the moment," Jacque lied and helped Steve up. He dusted off whatever seeable dirt was on the elf's clothes. "There you go."

"Whatever," Steve replied. "Just watch where you're going next time."

"Will do," Jacque nodded.

Once Jacque could not see Steve anymore in his view, he opened up his hand to reveal a ring of keys he pickpocketed from the elf. He smirked to himself and walked to the door of Embarc's office. It took a few tries to figure out the correct key to open the door while making sure no one was coming either path of the hallway, but ultimately, he did it. Once entering the room, he turned on the lights with the switch. Then he locked the door.

To his right was Embarc's bed. The sheets had a Christmas light pattern to it as well as the pillow and quilt. To his left was the security camera footage all around the workshop and outside of it. What caught Jacque's interest is in front of him. A bulletin board with tacks holding a picture of each contestant in a close up shot. That is not all. There were red strings connected from one picture to another except for Winter whose picture did not have strings connected to anything. The strings were also held by tacks.

"What the?" Jacque wondered in confusion as he approached the bulletin board. He looked at his picture with strings on it.

Observing around some more he noticed a notepad on one of the panels of the security footage. He grabbed the notepad as he looked at the many TVs showing what is being filmed. Like the one of Embarc standing behind him.

"Hey there Jacque," Embarc greeted happily.

Jacque spooked out but did not demonstrate it too much. As soon as he turned around Embarc swiped her notepad from his hand.

"I didn't hear the door open," Jacque said astonished.

"That's because I've been in my office this whole time," Embarc replied cheerfully, creeping out Jacque a bit.

"Why didn't you just not let me in then?" Jacque questioned.

"Because I want to see the look on your face being caught in your trouble makings way," Embarc answered with a smirk. "Now…" She put a corner of her notepad on Jacque's chest. "You broke one of the rules. I should disqualify your team on the spot and let you figure out a way to escape tonight's elimination."

Jacque's eyes widened at that.

"However, I'm not going to do that. But from now on you are in cleaning duty for the outhouse for today and the next two," Embarc stated seriously. "Understood?"

"You sure I can't…"

"Save the charming for the other contestants. Do not enter my office again," Embarc interrupted.

"What's with the bulletin board?" Jacque asked.

"It doesn't involve murder that's all you need to know," Embarc answered. "Now get out before I change my mind."

Jacque opened the door and left the room. Embarc then closed the door. The hostess sighed to herself and then gazed at the bulletin board.

"Man, you really dropped potential ships with that stunt," Embarc said to herself.

Confessional – Jacque

"Okay, I'm definitely playing way too hard at the moment. I need to chill out and let my team do their thing. For a moment I thought I screwed myself in the worst way possible. I don't know if Chris would have done the same thing to me, but I know now not to get on Embarc's bad side. Man, cleaning the outhouse for three nights is going to suck."

Confessional – Embarc

"Santa and the gnomes always knock on my door. That's how I knew someone was trying to sneak into my office. I hid myself behind the door when it opened so that Jacque couldn't see me."

Paul sat on a stump while rocking out his bass guitar near the reindeer stables. The reindeer were into this. Each one shook their head up and down to the rhythm. Paul stopped playing once he saw Elodie and Dominic coming towards him. Elodie carried a tray with glazed donuts on it.

"Oh sweet, are those for me?" Paul wondered excitedly.

"Two of them are for you," Elodie answered. She gave the tray to Dominic who holds it. Then she took napkins out of her beret to use to take two donuts and give them to Paul. "Some sweets while you practice and to check how you're doing."

"I'm doing great now that you're here," Paul flirted.

"Don't depend on me so much," Elodie played around the flirting.

Dominic took a donut with his hand to take a bite.

"You're not going to have one?" Paul asked Elodie as he put his bass guitar on the snow.

"I'm fine," Elodie assured happily.

"You sure? These donuts you made are really good," Dominic encouraged.

"I don't eat sweets," Elodie told the two.

"A pastry gal that doesn't eat sweets? That's weird," Paul admitted. "Why not?"

"I don't want to get into details about that," Elodie said. She grabbed the tray from Dominic. "I'll be on my way boys." She left in a hurry before either Dominic or Paul can tempt her into eating a donut.

After Paul finished eating his first donut, he looked at his second. He used the napkin to wrap it completely. "I'll save this one for Tess."

"Speaking of Tess, her and the other teams have valuable items from what I've seen," Dominic informed.

"Valuable you say?" Paul smiled widely at this.

"Well, we both saw all that luggage in the hallway. Who knows what kind of stuff everyone brought in," Dominic pretended to wonder.

Paul grinned while Dominic smirked.

Confessional – Dominic

"I don't know if he'll do it or not, but considering I saw him taking May's wallet earlier today maybe he will try to steal from others. Not sure, but hey, if it happens, I can throw him under the bus or I can use him as extra vote. If it doesn't happen, then there's nothing to be scared of either."

Confessional – Paul

He stood inside the outhouse holding a large red drawstring bag. He let out a mischievous chuckle. "This is going to be good. Call me the Grinch because I'm going to ruin someone's Christmas."

He thought about what he said. "Wow that was lame as hell."

While Aditi was practicing her gymnastics, Char and Andrea were making sure Bonnie did not do anything inappropriate while watching the wanderer practice her act. This left Marco to be alone at the festive lounge siting on a couch, playing a videogame on a gigantic flat television screen.

The festive lounge was the largest room shown of the workshop so far. Three couches were there formed like the letter C to be facing the TV. Each couch had four seats on it. There were bean bag chairs across the place. An air hockey table in the back. Also in the back were tables with tabletop games on top. Also on the tables were chess, checkers, cards, and dominoes. Other fun stuff was a ring target for shooting darts, a basketball arcade game, and a large paper sticked to a wall to use for painting. Lastly, the television screen was on top of a cabinet which contained all sort of video games and consoles to use.

At the moment Marco played a fighting game. He did not display any pro levels of gameplay, but he did know his basic combos for the character he picked to play.

"Hey man, you got a second controller?" Brandon asked, appearing from the entrance of the festive lounge.

Marco paused the game and smiled at his teammate. "Sure man," He said and went to get an extra controller from the cabinet.

"Are there any racing games?" Brandon wondered as he sat down on the couch Marco sat at.

"Have you ever played Merio Cart? The deluxe version is here," Marco asked as he took out a controller from a cabinet.

"No, but as long as you tell me how the buttons work, I can get the hang of it," Brandon said.

Marco tossed a wireless controller to Brandon who catches it. Once he replaced the current videogame with the Merio Cart one, he went to sit on the couch with his teammate.

"Are you streaming right now?" Brandon asked Marco.

"Nope, took advice from you and Char. I'll get back to the grind tomorrow for a bit," Marco answered contently.

Brandon did not think that is a good idea but decided not to say anything. "How does the buttons work?"

"A is for accelerating the vehicle," Marco started to explain. "L and R buttons to drift on turns, Y is for…"

"How do I select my character first though?" Brandon wondered and then laughed.

"Oh right," Marco realized. "Use the joystick to switch characters and a to select the one you like."

"Hmm," Brandon looked at the character screen. "Lots of options here. I guess I'll go with this one."

Confessional – Marco

"How do you manage to randomly select the best character in the game and then select the best vehicle parts for the character as well? I don't want to say Brandon lied to me of him not knowing how to play the game, but you got to wonder the chances. Is it because he is a mechanic and knows his karts well? Speed involving? Stuff like that? Dude crushed me at some points."

Confessional – Brandon

"I feel like Marco was going easy on me because I was winning more races than him. I'm just here to have fun and get some nice gifts from Santa Claus if I win. I'm hoping there is a racing challenge at some point and if there is, to be in that challenge and not be eliminated when it comes."

As the night began to rise after sunset, Paul readied himself to steal goods from the others while they were preoccupied with their own things. He entered the Sunny Snowflakes' room with a grin. He went to the closet to swipe anything he found interesting into his drawstring bag. First, Jacque's DVD collection of horror and action movies, a pack of cards, and a basketball.

Paul found toy trains with Letty's name on it, Lucien's telescope, and Winter's drawing utensils. All went into the bag. Suddenly, he heard footsteps coming down the hallway. As he was just about to hide under one of the beds, Tsu walked inside the room.

"Dang thought I wouldn't be caught this soon," Paul believed. "Oh well."

"Are you stealing items from my teammates?" Tsu asked suspiciously.

"…Yes," Paul confirmed.

"You have another sack?" Tsu wondered.

"…Yes," Paul nodded.

"Alright, let's steal from the others together. Just don't take my stuff," Tsu declared.

"Wait, you want to help me steal?" Paul looked at the plain cosplayer.

"Sure," Tsu shrugged. "Seeing people reacting to their belongings being gone is quite the despair."

"Okay then," Paul smiled. The two shared a fist bump.

Confessional – Tsu

"I hope my queen Clover Warrington is watching such an act. She's the best yaoi manga creator ever conceived. She will definitely be proud of this."

A montage showed Paul and Tsu stealing items from every contestant in a team's room except for the Shining Stars. A bunch of books from Sasha and her violin. Romantic novels and tap-dancing shoes from Char. Brandon's toolbox, Andrea's paintings, and Marco's phone that he left on his bed.

Both managed to put the hurdles Iggy used inside the bag. Including as well were Ben's massive pile of books, a pack of Tony's toothpicks, and Nicky's violin. Courtesy of Paul taking it again.

Tsu approached the Shining Stars' room to open the door, but Paul stopped him from entering by putting his hand on the door.

"No way, those are my teammates. I'm not stealing from them anymore," Paul said to his partner in crime.

Tsu looked at Paul disappointed. "Where are we going to hide the bag?" He asked.

Paul and Tsu placed the bag behind the igloo elimination ceremony.

"There, a spot where no one will find it unless they're exploring the back of the igloo," Paul told Tsu.

"Perfect, let's get out of here," Tsu replied.

Unbeknownst to the two, once they walked away a polar bear came by. It sniffed around for something until noticing the bag. The polar bear teared a part of the bag with its claw to see what is inside. Two violins and several books came out of the hole the polar bear made. The polar bear sat on its butt and took one of the books to read it.

Now night, Embarc put on the finishing touches to the amphitheater made out of wood. The finishing touches were Christmas lights all around the amphitheater.

"Perfecto," Embarc said in Spanish happily. Once she turned around on stage, she noticed the teams except the Shining Stars were panicking for some reason around the seating area full of chairs.

"What do you mean you don't have your violin?" Winter said quietly to Sasha. Her team was in a huddle. "You are supposed to be practicing with it."

"I was, but I took a break from practicing and left it on my bed," Sasha revealed with frustration. "We need to look for it."

"The challenge is going to start soon. We don't know how long it will take for us to find it," Jacque noted, irritated as well.

"Look, is fine. Lucien's juggling skills can get us a high number," Winter assured.

"You mean the guy sleeping on a chair at the moment?" Tsu told his captain with a raised eyebrow.

The Sunny Snowflakes glanced at Lucien sleeping on chair.

Winter growled as frustration increased within her.

"Who was the one that put two these up for the challenge?" Jacque smirked at Winter.

Winter got up close to Jacque and put her index finger on his chest. "The only reason I don't send you on stage to make a fool of yourself is because I want to win," She said with a glare.

"Noted," Jacque continued to smirk.

"Looks like you'll need someone to perform in the challenge," Tsu smiled happily. "I'll just make a cosplay on the spot with my sewing kit." He presented his sewing kit on his hands to the team.

Winter, Sasha, Letty, and Jacque looked at Tsu with confusion.

"Dude, there's nothing on your hands," Jacque said to Tsu.

"This isn't the time to joke Tsu," Winter added.

"Honestly I'm having a hard time on how we can win this challenge at all," Sasha viewed pessimistically.

Tsu looked at his empty hands and scowled in anger.

"With Lucien dreaming about stars or whatever we need to have at least someone perform. That way we have to time to wake him up if he's in a deep sleep," Jacque informed the group.

"And who's going to do that?" Winter asked through gritting teeth.

"Oh, there might be a way to win after all," Sasha suddenly got an idea. She looked at Letty with a warm smile.

Lety noticed her teammates except Tsu and Lucien looking at her.

"I guess I can show off my talent," Letty accepted.

Confessional – Tsu

"I told that blonde bassist playing barnacle head not to steal anything from me! Ugh! I didn't see him put my sewing kit in the bag," Tsu exclaimed enraged. He crossed his arms and then frowned. "I guess is not so bad. I'm suffering despair too for a bit."

"So, what you're saying is that when you came back from using the bathroom the hurdles you used to perform your gymnastics weren't in the spot you put them?" Char asked for confirmation.

"I asked some of the elves around if they took the hurdles but none of them did it," Aditi replied, confused on how the hurdles were taken.

"You think Embarc had something to deal with it?" Brandon asked his team.

"I doubt Embarc would sabotage a team by taking the hurdles away to a place we can't find them," Andrea believed. "Playing mind games with the contestants is fair game, but the other goes against the show's regulations."

"You read the whole contract?" Marco wondered astonish.

"Doesn't everyone?" Andrea supposed.

"What are we going to do without the hurdles?" Brandon asked Char. "Doing a couple of backflips and handstands is nice but I don't think the judge Embarc has in store for us will give an automatic ten just for that."

"I know what can give us a ten," Bonnie grinned.

Char carefully thought about this. He went to Aditi and put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay wearing your swimsuit while doing gymnastics on stage?"

"I mean, it shouldn't be an issue. After all is for the team, right?" Aditi smiled at her companions. Her teammates nodded.

"Then it is settled. Bonnie will be performing her act first. And then Aditi will go next when called," Char affirmed.

With the Superior Snowstorms, Nicky breathed in and out heavily into a brown bag while Tess massaged her shoulders. Ben read a book standing while Tony tapped a foot on the snow.

Iggy and Ji-Soon arrived at their team running. They stopped slowly for them to talk.

"I couldn't find the hurdles," Iggy mentioned, a bit of panic sounding in his voice.

"What happen to that proud confidence you had hours ago?" Tony mocked.

"Our best act lost her violin," Iggy reminded. "And we don't have anyone else besides Tess to perform."

"Oh, me, me, me!" Ji-Soon encouraged, jumping and down excitedly with a hand raised in the air. "I can show off many cosplays that I can make. Just give me five minutes. Oh, I wonder who I should cosplay as? There are so many options like…"

"I can do decent standup comedy," Tony interrupted.

"Go for it Tony," Iggy allowed. "I doubt your skills one hundred percent and think you'll do bad but is worth a shot."

"Geez stronzo, keep the compliments going why don't ya?" Tony said sarcastically and rhetorically.

"You'll be after Tess," Iggy instructed.

"Oh, I can make a cosplay for you to fit the humor you're going for," Ji-Soon got close to Tony.

"No thanks," Tony denied.

"You sure?"

"Yes"

"How about now?"

"No"

"Now?"

"No"

Ji-Soon waited for two seconds. "How about now?"

Tony screamed with aggravation.

The Shining Stars were the most confident of the team. Except for Winnie who felt tremendous pressure on performing. May sat on a chair sleeping.

"We're going to win this!" Ketch cheered.

Elodie sprinkled some edible glitter on May's nose to get the daydreamer to sneeze.

"What did I miss?" May asked her teammates.

Dominic watched the other teams having great nerves over winning the challenge. A casual smile formed on his face.

"Okay teams," Embarc called out from the stage. "Today's challenge will be starting now. First, I need everyone to be seated."

All contestants sat on a chair.

"Good. Here's how the order will go of who gets on stage. First, a Superior Snowstorm. Then a Sunny Snowflake. Followed by a Gleeful Gingerbread and lastly a Shining Star. For the second acts of each team, we will start backwards," Embarc explained.

Ketch raised his hand confused.

"That means the Shining Stars will start first in the second round," Embarc clarified.

Ketch still had his hand up with the same confusion.

"Followed by a Gleeful Gingerbread, Sunny Snowflake, and a Superior Snowman," Embarc further enlightened.

Ketch lowered his hand.

"Now, introducing tonight's judge. Everyone, give an applause for Yasmín," Embarc announced as Yasmín got next to her on stage.

Standing at five feet and seven inches with light brown skin, Yasmín gazed at the contestants with black eyes. She had a lean build to her combined with curly black hair with dyed blonde tips at the end of the curves. One of her noticeable features is acne on her face and a necklace that contains a pack of cards. She wore black shoes, blue jeans, a black shirt with a pink circle in the middle of it, and circle round glasses.

No one gave Yasmín an applause.

"As expected," Yasmín stated indifferent.

"Don't take it too bad," Embarc encouraged. "For some reason all of them are grumpy."

"Oh, me? Nah I ain't taking it bad," Yasmín assured while looking at the contestants. "Is not like I'm the judge for this challenge and I can make any team win as I please." She smiled at the end.

All contestants now applauded for her. Some of them begrudgingly did so like Jacque, Iggy, and Elodie.

"There we go pendejos," Yasmín smirked.

"I'm glad she's not the hostess," Marco said to his team quietly.

"Go ahead and sit in the front row Yasmín. The first act will begin shorty," Embarc instructed.

"Well, I wasn't going to sit with any of the contestants in the first place," Yasmín replied as she walked off stage to take her seat.

"Alright Superior Snowstorms, bring in your first act for the challenge," Embarc announced as she looked at the team.

Tess immediately got up from her seat and went on stage as Embarc walked out of it. She held in her arms an easel, paper, brushes, and bottles of paint. She quickly set them up and started painting to her heart's content.

Yasmín yawned, already bored.

Thanks to the power of editing, Tess' two-minute painting only felt as long as ten seconds. Tess then presented her art to Yasmín.

The painting displayed Yasmín wearing her glasses, a black tank top, brown shoes, and long dark green pants with palm trees on them. The Yasmín in the painting sipped on a juicy opened pineapple with a straw to her mouth.

"Impressive," Yasmín admitted, appearing pleased. "I like how you manage to make it resemble me in a realistic yet cartoonish way. Drinking from a pineapple is a nice touch as well. Though I get the feeling you painted me to get more points. Effective, but that doesn't necessarily work with me. Feels like you're trying to please too hard."

"Huh?" Tess looked at Yasmín confused. "But I wasn't…"

"So, for that I can only give you eight points. Still impressive painting," Yasmín said.

"Uh…" Tess tried to think of way to get a perfect score. She accidentally applied paint onto her hair and face with one of her brushes as she thinks. "If I give you my painting, will you give me a perfect ten?"

"Eh, sure," Yasmín shrugged. "I can probably sell that painting for a nifty price. A bunch crazy fans of this show would probably want to keep that as a collector's item."

The Superior Snowstorms cheered.

"Is that fair?" Winter questioned Embarc.

"Yasmín is the judge for this so I'll allow it," Embarc answered, sitting next to Yasmín. "Sunny Snowflakes, you're up," She announced as Tess walked out of the stage.

"You did great," Paul told Tess.

"Thanks," Tess smiled and went to her team.

Confessional – Letty

While seated, she held an archery bow in one hand while holding two arrows in the other.

"Got to make sure I get a good score for my team. Not because I'm on the line of being voted off if I don't, but because I don't want to disappoint my teammates."

On stage, Letty stood with her shoulders in a perpendicular way to a ring target in front of her on stage. She placed her feet as a squared stance, nocked the arrow and gripped her bow. Then she gripped her bowstring and prepared her draw. She shot her arrow to ring target and got a bullseye.

Letty's teammates clapped for her. Yasmin looked slightly impressed. Letty prepared herself to shoot another arrow. She closed one eye and fired, the arrow piercing the one that was already in the bullseye.

"Whoa," Yasmin became shocked, as well as the rest of the contestants watching.

Embarc smirked upon seeing this.

Letty turned to face Yasmin, waiting for her score.

"Well done, you managed to score your team ten points," Yasmin announced.

The Sunny Snowflakes cheered for Letty as she took a bow.

A flash of light displayed on screen to transition to Bonnie on stage holding a peach. Yasmin appeared slightly annoyed yet curious on what is the purpose of the peach. She felt like she was wasting her time in this act.

Bonnie grinned and then went eating through the peach in less than five seconds. It was completely gone from her hand. Various contestants were either shock, amazed, or simply found the talent meaningless.

"Oh my," Ji-Soon covered her mouth with her hand, clearly enjoying that. "That must have been one really good peach."

"So, what's my score?" Bonnie asked Yasmin.

"Eh, not the most exciting thing, but credit where credit is due, you ate that peach extremely fast without having to take a break. I'll give it a seven," Yasmin answered.

"If you pump up that score, I can rock your world before you leave," Bonnie offered with a small smile.

"Oh gosh, let me think about that, no," Yasmin denied quickly.

"Worth a shot," Bonnie shrugged.

Another flash of light came on to transition to Winnie on stage. She held twirling batons, one in each hand. Dominic went to put the ends of each twirling baton on fire with a lighter.

"Break a leg," Dominic whispered to Winnie before running off stage.

Winnie had no idea if Dominic was being encouraging, joking, or actually meant it. She looked at Yasmin, Embarc, and the contestants watching her. Nerves started to settle in, her legs quiver with fear.

"What's going on?" Ketch whispered to his team. "Why isn't she wowing the crowd?"

"I don't know man, but it looks like she caught stage fright," Paul answered.

May tried not to look rude but she had to yawn.

"Are you going to entertain me or what?" Yasmin questioned Winnie.

"Uh…" Winnie started to twirl her batons, going faster by the second.

Everyone watched the flames on the batons circle around, getting them interested in the performance.

"There we go, she's getting it," Elodie smiled.

"She still looks like she has no idea what she is doing," Dominic pointed out.

Winnie tossed a flaming baton into the air to catch it when it descends. However, she panicked upon seeing it come down and jumped out of the way, letting go of the other flaming baton in her hand. Once the other baton come down on the one dropped, it created a large flame of fire. The camp amphitheater started to burn as the flames consumed it. Winnie quickly exited the stage.

"My stage!" Embarc put her hands on her head as she watched the burning stage in horror.

A bunch of elves came in a firefighter truck to put out the flames on stage. Steve turned on the valve from the fire hose to get water running into the hose. When another elf rotated the brass nozzle of the hose, the water came out frozen.

"Anyone got any better ideas?" Steve asked the elves assisting him.

Yasmin laughed all the way through the commotion.

Confessional – Winnie

She started to tear up. "Dangnabit, I failed so hard. Now my team is going to lose and vote me off." She covered her hands as more tears came out. "What was I even thinking? This isn't the first time I set a place on fire with twirling batons. For a moment I actually believed I was going to ace it but now I look like more of a fool."

The elves managed to put out the fire by connecting the fire hose to a large tube of foam that was placed near the firefighter truck. All teams were sitting on chairs, looking at Embarc and Yasmin in front of them. Each camper wanting to know what will happen next.

Embarc appeared distraught and annoyed that the stage she built was burned down. Yasmin on the other hand smiled all the way.

"We lost, didn't we?" Dominic asked Embarc, pretending to be sad.

"Big time," Yasmin answered. "I would give Winnie ten points just because everything turned out hilarious, but Embarc won't approve of that. So yeah, you six on that team whatever I could care less about the name is up for elimination."

"Don't we get another performance though? I totally wanted to bust some tunes on my bass guitar," Paul asked and then shredded his bass guitar with his guitar pick.

"The stage has been burned down and I'm not in the mood to have more performances. Which means the challenge is officially over," Embarc answered. "Shining Stars will be heading to the igloo elimination ceremony. Superior Snowstorms and Sunny Snowflakes were tied at ten so that means they get gifts and wonderful dinner. Gleeful Gingerbreads will be stuck with gruel."

The Superior Snowstorms and Sunny Snowflakes cheered. The Gleeful Gingerbreads were alright with the results. Only Dominic appeared content for him and his team losing.

Looking around, May noticed a polar bear walking on two paws, carrying a drawstring bag that is teared on the top. The polar bear was also reading a book.

"Hey everyone, check this out," May called, getting everybody's attention.

Tsu and Paul immediately recognized the drawstring bag and both their eyes widened in fear of getting caught.

"Is that my psychology book?" Sasha squinted her eyes to see the polar bear reading one of her books.

"My violin!" Nicky noticed her violin inside the bag due to the teared hole.

Letty decided to shoot an arrow at the bag. She got into position with her bow and arrow and fired. The bow pierced through the bag, allowing the items stolen to drop. The polar bear felt it was no longer carrying much weight and looked behind to see the items on the ground. The polar bear gasped then turned to look at Letty before slamming Sasha's psychology book on the ground.

The polar bear growled at Letty and readied itself to charge at the vacant virtuoso.

"Zis is not good," Letty said, preparing to run away from the polar bear.

The polar bear launched itself in the air to tackle Letty and whoever gets in its way. Thankfully, Embarc took out a blowgun from her hair and used it to shoot a tranquilizing dart at the polar bear, making it fall asleep in the air. The polar bear landed with a large thud onto the ground, breaking the ice underneath it, and causing itself to drown into the cold water.

"I hope the animal activists don't breathe down my neck for that," Embarc wished. "Then again I can just tell the editors to cut this part out of the full episode."

All the contestants huddled around the items stolen.

"Why would a polar bear steal some of our stuff?" Marco wondered, taking his phone.

"Better question how does a polar bear fit through the doors of the workshop," Tony added as he grabbed his pack of toothpicks.

Tsu formed a mischievous smile on his face as he took his sewing kit. "Actually, I don't think the polar bear stole all of our stuff. Maybe it found the bag," He told the cast.

Paul narrowed his eyes at Tsu.

"What are you trying to get at?" Iggy wondered.

"Well, think about it. Which team does not have their belongings in this pile?" Tsu replied and then looked at the Shining Stars not collecting any of their items.

"So, one of them is suspect of taking our stuff?" Char raised an eyebrow.

"It was him!" Nicky pointed at Paul as she hugged her violin in her arm. "He stole my violin before, and I bet he did it again with the rest of the stuff."

Confessional – Paul

"Usually, I'll be enjoying the thrill of potentially being caught, but since my team lost this actually makes me annoyed. Especially since Tsu ratted me out. Yeah, I didn't need to steal his sewing kit, but I felt like it because is fun."

"Tsu helped me steal all this stuff," Paul tried to get the contestants to turn against the plain cosplayer.

"Why would I help steal from you when you stole my sewing kit?" Tsu replied, pretending to feel saddened.

"Because you wanted to help me," Paul answered.

"I would never do such a thing that will effect my teammates," Tsu said proudly, even doing a heroic pose.

Some of Tsu's teammates did not believe that.

Confessional – Jacque

"I smell bull**** on that. That Tsu guy is terrible at hiding his intentions with such dramatics. But hey, I don't mind pretending to side with him for now. Got to keep your enemies close anyway."

"Hello, Shining Stars need to head to the igloo elimination ceremony remember?" Embarc reminded.

"Can we do some planning on the votes before?" Dominic asked.

"As you six make it over there, sure," Embarc answered happily.

"Good," Dominic pulled aside Paul and May. "You two and I need to talk."

Confessional – Dominic

"Paul and Winnie are definitely in the bottom two no doubt about that. My plan now is to get rid of Winnie. She's basically fodder and will not contribute much throughout her stay. Getting her out also allows me to take control of the team, which I'll excel at. Basically, I convinced Paul and May to vote Winnie off. Paul needs to listen to me since he has kind of been outed as the thief. I'm confident Ketch and Elodie will go for Winnie as well."

At the Igloo Elimination Ceremony, each Shining Star sat on a stump. The boys sat on stumps in the front while the girls sat on stumps in the back. The team's symbol appeared on screen.

"Shining Stars, welcome to North Pole Showdown's first elimination ceremony," Embarc greeted with a wide smile on her face. Then she jumped up and down with joy. "This is so exciting! I get to eliminate someone. Isn't that fun?"

"Not the one who gets eliminated," Ketch admitted.

"Well, you all signed up for this game," Embarc brushed the comment off.

An elf came to give Embarc a tray with five candy canes on them.

"Thank you," Embarc told the elf before it left the igloo.

"Do we have to eat the candy cane when one of us gets it?" Elodie asked, getting anxious.

"You're technically required to, but I'll allow you not to eat it if you're safe. You still have to catch it though," Embarc told.

Elodie sighed with relief.

"With that out of the way, all of you have already casted your votes. Let's begin with giving a candy cane to those who received no votes," Embarc told. "Those being Elodie, May, and Ketch."

Embarc tossed a candy cone to the three who names were called. Dominic wondered why he received votes. Did May and Paul vote for him?

Embarc raised up one candy can in her hand. "The next contestant safe is…"

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Winnie bit her nails nervously, Paul crossed his fingers together, and Dominic glared at the candy cane.

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"Winnie," Embarc tossed the candy cane to the pageant disaster who catches it. Both Dominic and Winnie were surprised to see this.

Confessional – Elodie

She had her arms crossed with a proud smile on her face. "Yeah, when Dominic was voting in the confessional, I reminded my teammates that he is responsible for putting up Winnie first. So when one puts it that way is his fault we lost the challenge. Though I don't know if I was able to convince every teammate of mine to vote him off."

"Paul and Dominic. I only have one candy cane left on this tray," Embarc said happily. "Whoever does not receive this last candy cane will be eliminated from the competition. Dominic, you're partially the reason why your team lost in the first place."

"Excuse me?" Dominic raised an eyebrow in denial. "Winnie performed horribly. She should be in the bottom two."

"Paul, you're in the bottom two because you have been accused of stealing precious items from the other team," Embarc continued talking.

"I don't know why I'm in the bottom two. I stole from the others not my teammates," Paul told, being worried. "Except for that time I took May's wallet and Ketch's ketchup bottle."

"You did what?" Ketch and May said at the same time.

"That's up to you find out why if you stay tonight," Embarc replied to Paul. "Anyway, the last candy cane goes to…"

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Dominic and Paul glanced at each other, scared to be the first boot.

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"Paul," Embarc finalized. "Congrats on staying."

Paul caught the candy cane Embarc tossed to him and sighed with relief. Elodie and Ketch smiled while May looked like she was sleeping again with her eyes open. Which she probably was. Dominic boiled his hands into fists, trying not to cause an outrage.

"Dominic, you have been eliminated from North Pole Showdown," Embarc confirmed. "I wish you can stay more, but I can't rig the votes. I mean I could, but then I'll face many lawsuits and I don't want to ruin my parents' reputation."

"None of you have seen the last of me," Dominic warned his ex-teammates before standing up.

"Well yeah, you'll be back in the finale," Elodie replied, getting up from her stump.

"We'll see about that," Dominic smirked.

"How is he supposed to go home?" Paul asked Embarc.

"I have a way, but everyone else needs to leave the igloo," Embarc instructed.

Confessional – Winnie

"I was thinking voting for myself after how much I messed up, but then that's quitter talk. Sure, I'm terrible at pageants, but I have a lot to prove to my family back home that just because I'm not good at pageants, doesn't mean I am bad at everything else. And to make sure that happens I have to keep competing."

Confessional – May

"Dominic told me to vote for Winnie, but let's be real Paul turned himself into a liability. The other teams will be targeting us if he stays as a taste for revenge. Sadly, that sounds like it will happen given what happened here. Oh well."

Dominic and Embarc stood outside the igloo.

"What are we waiting for?" Dominic asked Embarc.

"Ho! Ho! Ho!" The voice of Santa Claus was heard.

"For him," Embarc smiled brightly.

"No way," Dominic could not believe this, getting excited.

"Yep," Embarc nodded. "When a contestant gets eliminated, they get a ride with Santa Claus to their home."

Santa Claus parked his sleigh and reindeer in front of Dominic and Embarc.

"Don't ask for any gifts though because the point of winning this competition is to get a gift of a lifetime," Embarc told Dominic.

"Oh, trust me, I'm not going to," Dominic assured with a smile.

Embarc nodded. "Take him away Santa."

Dominic gave a goodbye hug to Embarc before entering the sleigh. Santa commanded his reindeer to fly into the sky. A camera then focused on Embarc.

"Twenty-three contestants remain. Plenty of drama and craziness in store for all of you watching. Who will be the next camper eliminated? Find out next time on North Pole Showdown!" Embarc ended the episode.

Teams

Superior Snowstorms – Iggy, Ben, Tony, Nicky, Tess, Ji-Soon

Sunny Snowflakes – Lucien, Jacque, Tsu, Winter, Letty, Sasha

Gleeful Gingerbreads – Char, Marco, Brandon, Bonnie, Andrea, Aditi

Shining Stars – Paul, Ketch, Elodie, May, Winnie

Placements

24th – Dominic

Author's Note: Is been a while since I have updated this. Hopefully you readers enjoy it. I do not think I am ever going to write another talent show challenge ever again if I do more SYOCs. This is the third time I have done it and the hardest. I am hoping the next chapter will be out sooner.