Stepping onto the dock, Chris greeted the audience. "Last time, on Total Drama Island! The teams were told that the challenge was going to be to cook a three course meal. Of course, we couldn't make everything easy for them. So instead, they had to find all the food they needed in the woods. Some chose this moment here to sabotage the other team." It cut away to Jeremy dumping all the flour off the cliff. "Others, found themselves lost." It cut to Arianna and Jack, wandering around aimlessly in the forest. "Some even had some run in with the wildlife." It cut to Robin standing in front of a bear with Bella and Christopher behind him. "But when the ingredients were all gathered, that's when it was finally time to get to cooking. While the Screaming Gophers were more organised." The camera switched over to show the three teams of two working together to create a perfect dish. "The Killer Bass couldn't help but find themselves in the middle of an argument." It showed David and Josef getting mad at each other. "When it was all said and done, the Screaming Gophers won the challenge thanks to Talia's leadership in the challenge. While it was down to the wire between David and Josef, the latter was the one who was sent packing. Now that Josef is gone, will things begin to shake up? Will the Killer Bass finally break free from the curse? And will we ever get our boat back? Find out this time! On Total! Drama! ISLAND!" And then the camera turned off.

(?)

A group of three adventurers were walking down the stone path leading to the castle.

"Remember…" Jack spoke up. "I'll handle the conversation." He pointed over at Robin. "I don't trust him. And you're a rogue." He pointed over to Marisa.

She frowned slightly. "What does that have to do with anything? I should at least be able to say something."

Humming in thought, Robin shook his head. "I think you're just against elves, honestly."

"Robin…" He let out an annoyed sigh. "There's no way you don't ruin this for everyone. I guess I should just be thankful you can't cast any spells. Dealing with that would be hell."

The voice of the narrator… I mean… Cameron… Spoke up. "As you approached the castle entrance, the doors slowly creaked open to make way for you. Inside, you could see that the entrance was guarded by two guards. One on either side."

"I'll greet them politely." Jack crossed his arms. They were back in reality, and not the in game world.

"As will I." Marisa smiled.

Robin stayed quiet.

Seeing that he wasn't going to say anything, Cameron continued. "The three of you make your way down the long corridor. At the end, the King sits on his throne. Laying eyes on you, he seemed disinterested. 'And what may you be doing here?' And yet, he seemed to recognise you."

Jack slowly smirked. "I approach the King. 'We are here about that quest you need adventurers for. It's to my belief that everyone who has attempted it has perished. But I will reassure you, we are not like them.'"

"The King ponders what you say, before shaking his head. 'And how am I to know your words hold true? I've heard many lies told by people who looked stronger. What makes you different?'"

This time, Marisa spoke up. "I take a step forward. 'Unlike them, we have the experience to back up our claim. Appearance isn't everything you know. Nor do we have the confidence to act recklessly.'"

Jack was relieved. It seemed at least Marisa knew what she was doing.

However, what he feared came to pass. "My turn." Robin called out. "My character looks directly at the King. 'If you worry about strength, would it not be fair to put our skills to the test?' He placed his hand on the hilt of his sword."

"The King pondered this for a moment. Slowly he nodded his head. 'Very well then… I can have some of my top knights test out your strengths.' He waved his hand over to call the knight-"

"Robin." Jack seemed ticked off. "You just wanted there to be combat, didn't you?"

He shrugged. "I'm a fighter, that's what I wait for every time. Maybe if somebody let me take the wizard, we wouldn't be in this mess."

Marisa shook her head. It always turned out like this.

"Hey." Catrina called out softly, looking down at the table. "I'm not sure if you realised this, but this is a cafeteria table." She was holding a tray. "This is meant for people to sit down and eat. Not to play your nerd games."

"Just use the other table." Jack shook his head.

"Oh." Her eyes lit up with fake hope. "Why didn't I think of that?" She moved over to the Killer Bass' table. "Mind if I sit with you-"

"No." Historia narrowed her eyes.

Once she had returned, the DJ placed her tray inconveniently in the way of the game. "Go play in one of the cabins or something. Not where people eat."

Cameron let out a sigh. "It's probably for the best." He collected his dice. "It's time we break for food anyways."

Jack crossed his arms. "I don't think I can go back to Chef's cooking after last night. They should just let us cook our own food from now on."

The sound of something metallic flew right next to his head.

"A-alright! I get it!" The critic panicked, standing up. "T-the food here is great!"

Confessional: Jack

"He calls himself a chef, and yet he can't handle a bit of criticism. He has nowhere near enough skill to be worried about something like that. Nobody is ever going to like his foo-" He stopped talking when he heard some footsteps outside. "H-hello?"

That's when the meat cleaver broke through the wall of the confessional, and Jack screamed like a girl.

Back at the cafeteria, with the Killer Bass. They were lamenting over their last loss. This had been the third time, and they were now down to eight people.

"Why the gloomy expressions?" David looked around the table, a smile on his face. "Sure, we lost someone, but it was Josef, so who can really be sad here?"

Historia poked her food with a fork. "I personally think it was a bad decision."

"Oh?" The shady guy raised an eyebrow. "Mind sharing with the class what your decision would have been?"

She grumbled under her breath, and moved onto her food.

Nila let out a sigh. "Hopefully now, we can end our losing streak."

"Huh?" Christopher hummed in thought. "I thought we ended our losing streak in the talent show."

"Some streak break that was." Enima rolled her eyes. "We ended right back here."

Jeremy shrugged. "It's not that bad. As long as we're all still here."

"How can you stay so optimistic?" The unbearable scholar narrowed her eyes. "Don't you care that we've already lost three teammates?"

The surfer thought for a moment before smiling even more. "Not really. We voted them off, after all."

David slid over next to Jeremy. "See? This guy gets it! Worrying about the past will only cause us to lose more. For now, we should focus on who's left, and how to win. They outnumber us by two people again, so there's a chance that they have an advantage on us. We can't let that happen."

He was right. Enima shook her head, an amused smile on her face. "Guess you're right. Whatever the next challenge may end up being, we'll just have to crush them completely, won't we."

"Speaking of which… It's been two days again." Christopher pointed out. "Do you think we'll get another challenge today?"

"Possible." The mysterious girl shrugged. "Knowing Chris, if he doesn't go a certain amount of days without a challenge, he dies."

The boy blinked a few times. "I think he should get that checked out at the doctors."

Alright, she was already done with this conversation. Standing up, Enima made her way to the entrance. "I don't feel like being here anymore. If there's a challenge, I'll be there."

Confessional: David

"See? The team dynamic is already doing better. All we had to do was get rid of Josef. Sure, there are a few problematic people left, but it's more manageable."

Outside

While the entire Killer Bass team had sat down to eat together, not everyone from the Screaming Gophers had gone to eat. Notably, Xi had skipped out on breakfast this morning. Instead, he was leaning against one of the trees on the outskirts of the forest. "Hmm…" He was waiting for someone, and it didn't take a genius to realise it had to be Eleanor. "Guess not today."

"Xi. What are you doing here?" A different voice called out.

When he opened his eyes, he would see Jared approaching him. "Eleanor and I had started this tradition where we would go and pick berries first thing in the morning, and yet… she has failed to show up."

That seemed to concern the cadet. "Do you think she's gone missing?"

He shook his head. "No. Not at all. She's very savvy when it comes to nature. I doubt she could get lost in a forest." He leaned his head back onto the tree. "It's more likely she is talking to someone else." But enough about her. He let out a small chuckle. "I was wrong to assume Talia wouldn't guide us to victory. And for that, I apologise."

Jared let out a sigh of relief. "Yes, that girl is amazing…" Slowly, a smile formed on his face.

Xi wasn't dumb, and realised what kind of smile that was. "You almost seem smitten by her."

"S-smitten?" He took a step back. "N-not at all!" A blush overtook his face. "Why would I…?"

The psychologist shrugged. "You seem to come to her defense when I had some objections."

"Well… that's…" Jared closed one of his eyes. He wasn't sure why he did that. "Maybe…" Maybe Xi was right. "Not that I wouldn't…" How would he formulate this? "She's very capable." He finally answered, tipping his hat down.

Letting out a chuckle, Xi patted him on the shoulder. "I see what you mean. Though, I'm not sure how well a show like this is for something like that."

"What do you mean?" Jared was far too deep in thoughts to make the connection himself.

Was he not as smart as he assumed? Xi let out a sigh. "Because of the nature of this game. There can only be one winner, so at one point, the two of you will part ways. Who's to say that you will ever reunite.."

Well, that was something he wanted to avoid. "Maybe I can get her number or something…" He trailed off. Seems he had completely dropped the part where he didn't have a thing for her. "What do you think I should do?"

Ah, he was asking him? That could prove useful. "Well, the only advice I can give now is to just keep talking to her. Maybe even prove yourself." He hummed out in thought. "Though, you don't even know what she likes, or if she even has any interest in you.."

"Hmm…" Jared brought a hand to his chin. "I… You're right. I haven't done much to prove myself yet." That was when his conviction was sealed. "I'll do that in this challenge." He tilted his hat downwards. "Mark my words."

Xi shook his head, before chuckling a bit. "Don't get too ahead of yourself… You might end up losing focus and costing us the challenge."

He clenched his fist. "R-right. I won't let my thoughts get in the way." He glanced away. "I'll leave you to your devices. If I see Eleanor, I'll send her this way." He felt like he had to move away from the conversation.

Now Xi was alone, left to wonder when Eleanor would show up.

Bathroom

Talia found herself a bit preoccupied at the moment. Sitting in front of her was Eleanor, who was looking forward into the mirror. "I thought this was just going to be a one time thing…" She let out a sigh.

The gardener shook her head. "Today just felt like a day that I wanted to get my makeup done… I still don't really know how."

"And until you learn how… I'm not letting you handle my makeup." She added some blush to her cheeks. "Barely noticeable, but still adds some charm." Then her gears began turning. "Are you doing this… to impress someone?" She narrowed her eyes.

"Huh?" She seemed confused. "Why would I want to impress someone?"

"Oh… nevermind…" She placed a hand on her forehead. "I just thought you might have had a crush on someone. You've been spending a lot of time around Xi, so."

Eleanor blinked a few times before her confused look turned into a smile. "Oh, no. I'm not into him like that. He's just my alliance partner."

"Alliance… partner?" Her eyes drifted to the side.

Then came the realisation she probably shouldn't have mentioned anything. She quickly covered her mouth. "You… You didn't hear anything from me!"

Crossing her arms, Talia got deep into thought. "Are you sure you aren't just being used?"

"Used…?" She glanced to the side. "No… I wouldn't say so. We just agree on someone to vote out. I won't vote off someone I don't want to vote off." There was a pause. "Like you. I'd never vote you off, so you don't have to worry."

That was reassuring… just by a bit, though.

"What about you?" Eleanor looked back at her. "You worked pretty well with Jared."

She shrugged. "He's just who my partner was. Nothing more than that." She trailed off. "He's just one of the only people here who hasn't gotten on my nerves yet. You're the only other person." She stepped away from the gardener. "Alright, it should be done now."

Taking a glance at the mirror, a big smile appeared on her face. "I look wonderful." Looking back at the waitress, her smile only grew. "Thank you for today. And for last time."

"Don't mention it." She shook her head. "Anyways, I'm going to go now."

Guys Cabin (Killer Bass)

It had been some time since breakfast happened, and the three remaining guys had moved back to their cabins.

"To think we've lost two of us already." David said, lying down in bed.

Jeremy hummed out in thought. "It's a bad thing, honestly. Don't the girls outnumber us by a lot now. They're five…"

"Hey!" Christopher quickly sat up. ."This better not be moving towards starting a guys alliance." There was a pause. "Unless Bella is also included."

Jeremy narrowed his eyes. "But then it's not a guys alliance."

David let out a laugh. "I'm not saying we should form an alliance. It's just that it feels so quiet now…" He rested his head back onto his pillow. "No wannabe host to yell at us for a loss. Good riddance."

Christopher frowned slightly. "As much as he was a problem to the team, I don't think we should be celebrating the fact that we sent someone home.

Was he going to have to hear this the entire time? The shady guy let out a sigh. "Anyways, moving on. We should figure out who to vote off next."

That seemed to catch Jeremy's interest. "Did you have anybody in mind?"

"Hmm…" He hummed out. "Yes, actually. I was thinking we could go for Enima or…" He had another name in mind, but it was best not to mention that one. "She doesn't feel like she's done much. She's just been there. I think she's trying to flirt with Historia, but that girl is dense."

Christopher thought for a moment. "Actually… I'm not sure who we should vote off. Isn't that a pessimistic approach?" He stood up. "Yes! We won't have to vote anybody else off if we keep winning."

"True…" David got off his bed. "But we always need a backup plan…" He glanced towards the door. "Especially because I think today might be a challenge."

Christopher shook his head. "Well, I think tomorrow will be a challenge."

After a few seconds, Chris could be heard over the intercom. "Would the campers please meet up at the beach for their next challenge?"

With a cocky grin on his face, David pointed outside. "What was I telling you?"

Christopher wasn't having any of it. "Well that doesn't mean there won't be a challenge tomorrow."

Jeremy walked past both boys. "Let's just go. I'm hoping for a good challenge today."

Beach

When both teams finally arrived, they would see Chris standing a few feet away from the water. "Welcome campers! Today's challenge will be something a little more simple." He trailed off.

A huge wave of relief washed over all the campers.

"But equally as dangerous."

Bella paled up, having encountered a bear in the last three challenges. "Are there going to be bears?"

"What, why would there…?" Chris began to ask, before shaking his head. "There should be no bears involved in this challenge."

Marisa raised her hand up. "Is it some kind of water related challenge?"

"Why would you say that?" A wave slowly made its way up the shore, almost reaching the campers.

Historia narrowed her eyes. "Why else would we be at a beach?"

The host let out a sigh. "Yes! This challenge will involve water. In fact, this challenge will be water sports of different varieties. Think swimming, boating, stuff like that."

Jeremy raised his fist in the air. "Alright Killer Bass! This is where we turn the tides."

"Ah! Tides…" Christopher understood the joke.

"Um…" Eleanor spoke up. "But what about the unfair advantage we have here?"

Chris shook his head. "There's no need to worry about that. I've already got a solution in mind. For this challenge, there will be ten events. Each member must participate in one event. However, two people from the Killer Bass must participate in two events. To keep it fair, you know."

"Not it." Historia shook her head.

Hearing the chance to stand up and make a mark on her team, Nila spoke up. "I believe I should be one of the people that goes twice." She pointed to Jeremy, remembering he was a surfer. "As should he."

Confessional: Jeremy

"I was wondering when a challenge like this would pop up." He scratched his chin in thought. "We're five challenges deep, and we live on an island. It was bound to happen eventually. Now I'll be able to prove my worth to my team."

Marisa raised her hand again. "Will we be able to know what the events are beforehand?"

"Yes!" He pointed to a notice board that was always there. "That will be the signup sheet. There, you will decide as a team who will participate in every event. Unlike the first challenge, this one isn't a race. You will all be given individual points for each event. The team that earns the most points will be declared the winner."

"And… in the event of a tie?" The journalist continued with her questions.

Clearly, it was too many questions. "A random event will be chosen for a rematch. Any more questions?"

"What's for lunch?" Jeremy called out.

The host was no longer there.

The first person to approach the notice board was Arianna. "We should figure out who's doing what, and go change into our swimsuits."

Looking through the list, the ten events seemed to be swimming, diving, surfing, fishing, boating, jet skiing, scuba diving, rafting, wakeboarding, and kayaking. "Hmm…" Jared brought his hand to his chin. "Does anyone have any strong preferences?"

"Give me the boat!" Catrina called out. "I'll destroy the competition with that!"

The cadet shrugged. "Anything else?"

Eleanor raised her hand. "I could try fishing. I've done that before, so."

Confessional: Eleanor

"Besides… Had I known today was going to be a water challenge, I wouldn't have asked Talia to do my makeup. But it's alright as long as I don't go in the water!"

"Scuba diving!" Cameron declared, excited. "There's no way I wouldn't do that. It sounds exciting."

Arianna was marking down everyone's preferences. Honestly, she had her own thoughts. She would have taken the boat one, but Catrina had beaten her to the punch. "Alright, I'll choose…" None of them were great options. "I'll take the jet skies." That was her best chance to not make a mess for herself.

Looking around at the rest of the team, Jared slowly nodded his head. "Then give me the swimming one. It's one of the only ones left that require any strength."

That left only five events for five people. Surfing, diving, rafting, kayaking, and wakeboarding.

"Hmm…" Marisa hummed out in thought. "Does anyone here have any preference? I'm not too picky."

Xi looked through the list, before crossing his arms. "I'm not really much of a water person. I dislike swimming, after all."

"I'll take diving." Talia spoke up. "It's the only other one I can see myself doing well in."

Letting out a defeated sigh, Jack spoke up. "Just give me kayaking. It shouldn't be too hard. I've seen people do it before."

"Wakeboarding." Robin spoke up. "That should go well, shouldn't it?"

That left only Marisa and Xi to sort out the last two. "Xi, what do you want to do?"

Thinking for a moment, he looked at her. "The honour is all yours. If there's one you prefer, then by all means, take it."

She was hoping that the others would take everything, and she would just do what was left so she didn't have to choose. "I'll go for… Rafting." She wasn't confident in surfing… And she knew who exactly would be sent up from the other team. She wasn't going to set herself up for failure. That could go to Xi.

"Surfing it is." He seemed unaware of what he was just thrown into.

Now that it was all sorted, Arianna snapped her fingers to get everyone's attention. "Alright, let's all get changed." Which meant the author had to describe swimsuits. He's just… so happy.

Moving onto the next team, they had a bigger problem. Mainly the disadvantage. Sure, they had already chosen Nila and Jeremy, but… "What exactly should we take?" She was looking over the list.

Jeremy raised his hand. "Well, I'll take surfing, since I do that back home."

David looked at everyone who was left. "Well, I can do the jet ski. I don't really trust most of these people to operate a vehicle."

Mindy raised her hand. "Actually, you should let me drive the boat!"

Thinking it over, he shrugged. "Works for me."

"I'll take fishing." Enima offered. "I should be the best suited for that." She leaned forward with a cocky smile on her face.

Historia's frown worsened the more she saw the options get taken. "Shouldn't I be the one taking the boat? My mom owns one, so I would already know how to-"

Cutting her off, Mindy spoke up. "Yeah… But I already claimed it. Sorry." She wasn't sorry at all.

Seeing that she was out of options, it only left her with the next best thing. "I'll go diving." She finally said.

Jeremy could wait till everyone else has selected at least one, but that's not the type of person he was. "Rafting. I had to do something like that in the first challenge anyways. I think I'm more suited for it."

Three options left, and three people to take them.

Bella frowned. None of these were appealing. Not even the ones that had been taken already. Although… One of them did catch her interest. "The scuba diving one… I think I can do that one."

Showing concern, Christopher spoke up. "Are you sure? That one seems the most dangerous out of all of them."

Was she sure? No… Not at all.

Confessional: Bella

"The real reason I chose that one was…" She seemed a bit embarrassed. "I don't often get to witness aquatic life, so I'll take any chance I can get."

That left Nila and Christopher to sort out the rest. "Hmm…" The trainee hummed out, looking at him. "Are you able to do either of these?"

Looking at the two remaining events, he smiled brightly. "Nope! But today is always a good day to learn."

That was not the answer she had been hoping for. Out of the two… One was more difficult than the other, and might require more strength. "I shall take kayaking, leaving Christopher with the wakeboarding."

With that, both teams had their choices made.

"Alright, listen up campers!" Chris called out, eager that everyone had chosen so quickly. "I will now tell you the order in which everyone will go up." He took a look at his notebook. "Round One: Swimming. Round Two: Diving. Round Three: Surfing. Round Four: Fishing. Round Five: Jet skis. Round Six: Boating. Round Seven: Scuba. Round Eight: Wakeboarding. Round Nine: Kayaking. Round Ten: Rafting." He put his notebook away. "And if a tiebreaker is needed, I will randomly choose one of the previous events to redo. This will force the two people who had done the event to participate again."

So events were set, and pairings made.

"Good luck." Marisa called out to the other team. Despite trying to avoid a Jeremy matchup, he was still her opponent. The game was rigged for her from the start.

Hearing her opponents, Nila let out a sigh of relief. Jack seemed like an easy opponent, with Jared being the only person that might pose a threat. She looked over at the rest of her team. "Shall we get changed?"

Cabin (Screaming Gophers)

The first person who had finished changing was Jared, who waited patiently for the others. His swimsuit just consisted of dark blue swim trunks with some black lines running vertical. And also since he was shirtless, his muscles were visible. "How long does it take to change…?" He mumbled out, waiting for the others.

The new person to join up was Arianna. Her swimsuit was a two piece. For the top portion, it was a mixture of red and blue, with frills. As for the lower part, it was just red with some frills. She also had some sunglasses on. She glanced over at Jared. "Nobody else is done?"

He crossed his arms. "It would appear not."

The next person who was done was Xi. Like Jared, he had a rather simple swimsuit. His started off black, but slowly faded to white the further it went down. "Didn't think I would have to wear this so soon. I thought I could make it further."

Next up, Talia was the one to walk up to the group next. Despite her personality, it seems she went for a cute pink for her two piece.

Which almost caused Jared to break entirely.

Once she noticed that someone was staring, she narrowed her eyes at him. "Do you have a problem?"

He blinked a few times before shaking his head. "No, I do not."

Letting out a sigh, Xi hung his head low. "As I thought."

Soon, the rest of the gang started to appear, with Robin having enigmatic purple trunks. Jack's being solid red, Catrina going for more of a techno look with black and neon green, Eleanor had her swimsuit match her light blue hair, Marisa still wore her sunhat, but her swimsuit was a similar colour to Eleanor's.

Then, walked in Cameron. "Ready team?"

"Is that…" Arianna narrowed her eyes, noticing the dragon pattern on the trunks. Guess he was the only one who had something like that.

He seemed proud of it, however. "Jealous!?"

"Hmm…" Marisa hummed out in thought. "Not really, but I like it."

"We should hurry up." Jared didn't care about how everyone was reacting. "We don't want to be disqualified for not showing up."

Robin shook his head. "The other team left after us. I'm sure they haven't even finished getting changed."

Beach

One segue later, and Robin would be proven wrong. The team of eight had already completely changed, and was waiting for the Gophers.

Nila had switched over to a white swimsuit with a red border. Now that her legs were exposed, she seemed to have a scar on her thigh.

Bella was the only person to have a one piece, with it being a light green coloured.

Historia's swimsuit was white, but it didn't have a red border like Nila's did.

Christopher, similar to Cameron, had designs on them. This time, though, it was animal designs. Because in his opinion "animals were cool".

Mindy's swimsuit was light blue with a black border. It also seemed to be one size smaller, but she knew what she was doing.

David's swim trunks were maroon, similar to his shirt, however it faded to black as it reached the pants legs.

Enima's was similar to Arianna's with the frills for her swimsuit. The only difference was that the colour for her swimsuit was purple.

And lastly… Jeremy-

"Jeremy." Nila said softly. "Did you forget to change?"

He glanced down at his usual attire. "No. This is what I wear to go swimming."

"But… That is your normal attire." She pointed out.

He cracked a smile. "I'm always ready to go swimming."

Enima shook her head. "It's not worth thinking about. We have to focus on the challenge."

She was right, so she'd drop it.

Because everyone had gathered at the beach, Chris spoke up again. "May I have the first two campers for swimming come up?"

Both Jared and Nila took a step forward. They took a glance at each other.

Confessional: Jared

"I thought now would be a good time to impress Talia, but if my opponent is Nila… things might start to get a bit complicated. The girl seems unassuming… But being a military trainee. She's probably got more experience than I do. But I'm not going to let that bring me down. I'll win a point for the team."

The two were both standing in the water, looking out in the distance, where Chris stood on a platform, floating on the water. "For this part, you must race over to me. The first person to climb onto the platform wins a point for their team. On your marks!"

"Good luck out there." Nila said to her opponent.

He was a bit caught off guard by the formality, but he wasn't going to be rude. "Yes, good luck to you too." Although, if he did lose, at least it would be to an opponent like this.

"Get set…"

The silence waiting for Chris to call out the last part was driven with anxiety. It was an uncomfortable wait as the two kept trying to jump ahead into the water.

"... GO!"

Both swimmers reacted at the same time, diving into the water. At first, it was neck and neck, but Nila began to pull ahead rather quickly. Despite Jared's training, it seemed she was more suited for physical activities.

But… Then he'd be letting his team down, and he couldn't do that. "Get back here!" He started to speed up in a vain attempt to close the gap with her. The scary part was… it was working. Slowly by slowly, he was catching up to her as she made no attempt to speed up.

After only a few more seconds, he finally overtook her at about the halfway mark. He would have given a cocky response, but he knew better if Nila was going to be his opponent. Besides, he was nowhere near the end of the race yet.

And that's when it began to happen. The boost of speed he had received through determination was starting to wear out. He was running out of energy really quickly. "No… Not now…" He mumbled out, realising that Nila would catch up.

Though, that would turned into did as she overtook him. "Please do not use all your stamina." She frowned at him.

He tried to pick up the pace again, but at this point, it was too late, Nila had taken the lead, and she had begun to speed up. There was no hope for him.

Soon after Nila made it onto the platform, raising her hands in the air.

"And the first point of the challenge goes to the Killer Bass!"

Jared stopped moving forward, feeling dejected.

Confessional: Jared

"Well…" He hummed out in thought. "So much for that plan. How was I to know my opponent was going to be Nila?" He shook his head. "No matter. I'm sure the rest of the team can pull through."

"Um…" Nila called out. "J-Jared!"

Hmm? He opened his eyes to look over at her. "What is it?"

She pointed at an area around him. "S-shark!"

S-Shark!? He turned his head, and sure enough, there was a fin of a shark sticking out of the water. "Crap!" He would swim away, but was paranoid that any sudden movement would cause the shark to attack him. He knew next to nothing about sharks except they could kill him.

Nila jumped back into the water, swimming over to him.

"Are you crazy!?" He called out, seeing her willingly swim over to the shark.

"Slightly." Was her answer as she joined up with him. "I shall be here to guide you."

It was a bit humiliating to be saved like this, but the cadet didn't want to take any chances. "Alright…"

The shark kept circling the two of them, but eventually left them alone when the water became too shallow.

"Thank you…" He mumbled out.

Confessional: Jared

He shook his head, looking somewhat dejected. "Not only did I not win a point, I had to be saved. Though, I suppose I could have just tried swimming away on my own." He crossed his arms. "That means I must do something heroic in return."

"Chris…" Historia was standing next to Talia on a platform. "Is this… Safe?" The platform was floating around in the middle of the water, and each wave threatened to tip it over board.

The host waved his hand dismissively. "If it wasn't, I wouldn't be here."

"But…" She narrowed her eyes. "You aren't."

The camera panned back to show Chris safe on a boat. "Exactly!" He called out with the megaphone. "For this event, all you need to do is do a freestyle dive. This one is points based, so wherever has the better dive will score the point."

Historia's face paled up a bit, looking at the water below. "I've never done any of this." She glanced over at Talia. "Hey, fellow blonde." She never bothered to learn her name. "You're probably in the same boat as me, aren't you."

"Nope." Was the cold response. "I've dived plenty of times." Talia looked at the water below. "Although maybe not like this."

Which meant that Historia was hopeless in this situation.

Confessional: Historia

"So what? Is it really going to be nothing but these types of challenges?" She seemed disappointed. "At this rate my team isn't going to keep me."

"Talia!" Chris called out. "You're up!"

She glanced over at the ladder leading to the diving board. "Here goes." She climbed up. Once at the top, her balance was almost completely thrown off because of the waves, but she managed to keep her ground. Once she moved over to the edge, a smile appeared on her face. She was already confident in her victory, it seems. Taking a deep breath, she bounced a few times before committing to the dive.

By the time she hit the water, her body was entirely vertical, and her hands pierced through the water. Nothing extravagant, but she wasn't going to put in more effort than she needed to.

"Very nice." Chris called out. "A bit plain, but still nicely done!" They weren't experts, so he couldn't fault them too much. "Historia! You're up next!"

The girl froze slightly, glancing up at the ladder. "R-right! Just gotta… climb up there, right?"

The host blinked a few times. "Yes." He called out into the megaphone.

Letting out a sigh, it seemed like she didn't have a choice.

Talia watched her move up the ladder with a raised brow.

Confessional: Talia

A small smirk had formed on her face. "Twenty bucks says she falls off the diving board."

Reaching the top, Historia didn't pull herself up onto the board yet. She held onto the top of the ladder, trying to wait for the waves to settle down. But this being the ocean didn't seem like it would offer her a chance. "Alright…" She didn't want to be yelled at again, so she pulled herself up the board. Keeping her center of balance low, she managed to make it to the edge of the board. Probably further than what Talia had assumed she would make it. "I've got this…" She gave herself a confidence boost. Getting ready to leap, she didn't quite make it off the board as she intended. The platform was hit with an awful wave, and she fell right into the water.

Talia watched her land in the water, a smile on her face.

"That was it? That wasn't a dive, you just fell." The host called out.

Once she resurfaced, she flipped the host off. She didn't hear him, but she assumed he made a rude comment.

"With that, that's a point for the Screaming Gophers! It's all tied up now!"

Confessional: Historia

She was still drenched in water, and her hair was covering most of her face. "This is humiliating…"

Campsite

Now that Talia was done with her event, she didn't really see a need to still be in her swimsuit. She wanted to get changed as quickly as possible. She heard the sound of some footsteps behind her. "Hmm?" She turned to look at who was following. "What do you want?"

Jared had been following her for a bit, and he felt kind of guilty to have been following her. "You aren't going to watch the rest of our team participate?"

She shook her head. "I don't really want to wear…" She glanced down at her body. "This right now."

"Why not, I think it's really nice-" Probably not the best thing to say.

Talia raised an eyebrow. "You do?" There was a pause as she glanced to the side. "I'm still going to change." She turned back towards the direction she was going. "It's unfortunate that you lost your challenge like that. Your opponent seemed an entire league above."

Jared winced slightly. She didn't have to remind him of that. "And you did pretty well for your challenge."

She felt like they were hollow words. She hadn't really done anything exceptional. Her opponent was just someone who had no chance of winning. "If you say so." She sent him one last glance. "You can return to the others, I'll join up really soon."

Well that was a bust… "Alright, see you. Don't take too long. The team needs encouragement." He turned around to head back. He slapped himself in the forehead. "I'm really bad at this." He mumbled out.

As he walked away, Talia hummed to herself as she made her way to the cabins.

Beach

Back on the shore of the beach, the new two campers who would be going up were ready.

Xi had been provided a surfboard by Chris, while Jeremy had his own.

This was a bit of concern for the former, who raised an eyebrow. "Is that your own?"

"Oh, yeah!" He showed it off. It seemed a bit rough around the edges, but that was probably because he hit a floating rock on his way here. "I've been surfing for years."

Soon, Xi came to the slow realisation.

Confessional: Xi

"Marisa did this on purpose, didn't she?" He crossed his arms, a furious look on his face. "That's the only reason she made her choice so quickly after it was down to rafting and surfing. Trying to make me look bad, aren't you?"

Letting out a sigh, Xi shook his head. "Well, may the best man win."

"So… me?" Jeremy smiled at him. He wasn't even being humble about all of this. "You don't look like much of a surfer. You're like… Business goth."

Well that was a new one. The oddity of the sentence got a chuckle out of him. "Doesn't mean I won't try to at least beat you."

"That's the spirit!" The surfer called out.

Chris made his way onto the shore with the two campers. "For this event, it isn't a race, or a point based system. It's a survival match." He pointed at a wave in the distance. "By the time that gets here, it'll reach a reasonable height. All you two have to do is make sure you're the last one standing."

"So… Is sabotage on the table?" Jeremy asked.

Frowning slightly, Xi crossed his arms. "Why is sabotage the thing your team is always thinking about?"

"Because we need to win." Good answer!

Once Chris gave the signal, both boys dove into the water with their surfboards. Jeremy was obviously the one who peeled off first. "Aren't you going to catch up?" He called out.

Xi… had other ideas.

Confessional: Xi

"Chris can't fault me for being a little bit late to the wave, can he? I'll just minimise the time I have to survive. I doubt it'll make a difference, but I'm not going to throw myself into a situation where I can't win."

Just like he wanted, Jeremy was the first to reach the wave. Once he had gotten his balance, he stood up on the board. And his apathetic nature shined more here when he didn't really seem bothered by the wave. He seemed to be in his element. He turned his attention over to Xi, who had just gotten to the wave. "Stand up slowly. Try and keep your balance low until you're confident you can stand up more."

Confessional: Jeremy

"I know this is a challenge, and our team is far behind, but I can't help but try and teach someone how to surf." He crossed his arms, a smile on his face. "We need more surfers in this world."

For a moment, Xi was going to ignore his advice entirely. Why would he listen? He was on the opposing team, and had just spoken about sabotage. Still, he could feel that Jeremy was speaking from the heart. Taking his advice, he managed to stand up a bit on the board. Sure, his balance was still off, but this would be better than he would have gotten on his own. Jeremy really did want to help. "Huh, to think you'd actually-"

"Leg sweep!" Jeremy called out, sticking his leg out when he approached him, knocking him off.

"And a second point for the Killer Bass!" Chris called out.

Once Xi resurfaced, some of his makeup was running off his face.

Confessional: Xi

He was sitting down, reapplying some of his makeup. "What the hell was I thinking? Of course he wouldn't help me out." He crossed his arms. "Though, it kind of miffs me that I wasn't able to tell what he was feeling when he said those words. Guess he doesn't wear his thoughts like a badge."

With the score now being 2-1 for the Bass, it was Eleanor and Enima that were up next.

"Chris." Enima called out. "I know this is the one I signed up for. But doesn't fishing feel… less exciting."

Eleanor shook her head, a smile on her face. "I don't think so. Fishing can be pretty exciting."

The mysterious girl narrowed her eyes. "I would have preferred something else. But I doubt any of them knew how to fish." She placed a hand on her hip.

Chris approached the two. "Are you ready?"

"Hey" Enima looked at him. "How are we going to be doing this? Are we just going to be doing it from the shore?"

The host shook his head. "No, you'll take these boats out to the water." The camera panned out to show that there were two boats there. They were always there.

She looked like she wanted to say something, but shook her head. "Works for me." She took the boat on the left.

"How do we win? Do we catch the biggest fish?" Eleanor jumped into her boat. She had seen her father operate one before, but she wasn't exactly sure how to get it running.

"Exactly!" Chris called out. "The person who comes back with the largest fish after five minutes is declared the winner."

Enima frowned. Five minutes wasn't a lot, but she eyed the gardener. She worked on a farm, so what the hell did she know about fishing?

Once the two campers found a spot to begin fishing, the process began.

True to her own thoughts, Enima was actually pretty good at this. By the time half the time was up, she had already gotten three fish. And, because she didn't care about them, she let them flop around miserably in the boat. "Quit it, will you? You aren't flopping out of here." She glanced over at them. Besides, they weren't even that big, so if she lost them, it wouldn't be a complete loss.

On the other hand, Eleanor had only caught one fish, and she was struggling to reel in another one. "Come on…" Not to mention she was much closer to the shore due to her inexperience in operating the boat.

Confessional: Eleanor

"I know it's a bit out of my domain, but I've been taken out to fish before. I just… That was two years ago, and I've only gone twice." But then there was a hopeful sparkle in her eyes. "I can't let my father down."

As the time grew near, Eleanor still hadn't found another fish besides the original. All that hope she had slowly began to wilt away. "Maybe not…" Just as she was ready to call it a day, she felt a tug on her line. "Hmm?" She began to reel it in, but it was fighting back. "I think I caught a big one!" She declared.

Enima, who had managed to catch two more, glanced over at her direction. "... What?" She didn't like the sound of that. She still had time left, so she figured she could at least try and stop this from happening. Moving over to the controls for the boat, she began making her way over to Eleanor.

The gardener was having the fight of her life as the fish tried to pull the fishing rod into the water with her. "Oh no you don't." She sat herself back down, wrapping her legs around the legs of the chair. She was a bit caught off guard when she heard the sound of a different boat. Was time already up? "Oh!" Never mind, it was just Enima paying her a visit. "What are you doing here?"

After inspecting the fish Eleanor had, and looking at the line, a smile crept up on her face. "Just seeing how you're doing. There's only a minute left, so…" She trailed off. Her eyes moved over to where the line was. "Besides, I don't think I can let you catch this fish." She took out a knife she had on hand. It was the one Nila had given her a while back. Twirling it around, she jumped onto Eleanor's boat. Her plan was to simply cut the fishing line.

The gardener didn't understand what her plan was, she just saw a knife and panicked. "G-get away!" She called out. She reached over for her fish, which she had placed neatly in a bucket, and threw it at the mysterious girl.

Now, Enima viewed her as a pushover, so to have her fight back so quickly didn't exactly cross her mind. When the fish connected with her face, she felt herself losing balance, before slipping off the edge.

All this happened, while Eleanor was still trying to catch her fish.

"S-Sorry!" She called out, still fighting for her life.

Almost as if to reward her, she finally managed to pull out the fish she had been fighting for. And it trumped her old one by a longshot.

"That's perfect!" Feeling like it was best to not risk Enima doing anything to her, she quickly left the poor girl in the water.

Enima climbed back on her boat, laying flat on it. This is the part she would make a confessional, but she doesn't get any.

Letting out a sigh, she moved over to the boat's controls. She didn't get to see the fish Eleanor got, but she could only pray it was actually smaller than anything she had collected.

Chris watched as both girls docked their boats on the shore. "Time's up!" He called out, even if they were right there. "Show me what you managed to catch!"

Enima sorted through her floor fish, eventually pulling up the biggest one. "I caught this one."

Eleanor, upon seeing that, had a huge grin on her face. "I caught this one!" She held it out. It was about twice the size of the one Enima had caught. And she seemed to be holding it without a problem.

Well, it wasn't even close, so Chris provided no buildup to the reveal. "This point goes to the Screaming Gophers!"

Enima mumbled some things under her breath before chucking the fish back into the water.

The gardener, however, kept onto hers.

Confessional: Eleanor

She was still holding onto her catch. "I wonder if I should cook this to serve to everyone tonight. I made fish a few days ago, but that was only for the challenge. I had to make something different after that." The fish began to flop around wildly. "Woah there-" The camera cut just as the fish broke free and began terrorising the girl.

Beach

Marisa had been hanging around the beach, watching how the others performed. When she witnessed Enima's and Eleanor's performance, she couldn't help but frown. "Hey." She turned towards her alliance. "Did any of you see that?"

"See what?" Cameron was currently playing cards with Jack.

The latter, who seemed too busy to even send a glance her way.

Walking up to her, Robin looked out at the water. "Yes, I did. They tried to sabotage Eleanor, didn't they?"

She frowned. "Exactly. They are trying to win through any method. I think Jeremy did something similar earlier when he kicked Xi."

The tactician shrugged. "Then I say we play their games."

"No!" Marisa quickly called out. "We aren't like that. Besides, we still have the player advantage, so we don't need to stoop to their level."

"Yet."

"Never." He was really a handful. "We should still try and win fair and square."

"Come on now." Jack called out towards the duo. "Are you two just going to keep sitting there waiting for your turn? We are part of the last four events. Relax a little." He smiled at them.

Still, Marisa felt uneasy. Currently the points were tied up, but how long before their methods cause them to lose. "Alright…"

"What? No DnD?" Robin sat down in the sand.

Cameron blinked a few times. "Have you tried rolling dice in the sand?"

The tactician reached into his pocket, pulling out a d20. "Sure I have." He let the die drop, but it didn't roll. "See? Seventeen. That's a great roll."

Works for him! "Either way, we're playing cards right now." Specifically with the deck he stole from Chris. "Poker, if you want to know."

What an odd game to play in the sand, but Marisa didn't really care. "Yeah, I'm down."

Confessional: Marisa

"I think altogether, we're in a good position for the team. An alliance of four against six people works well. The only downside is that we're an obvious alliance. Which is why we should try and get a fifth person with us. Although, I'm not sure who would join us." She hummed out in thought. "Although, I doubt the others are going to be thinking strategically. They might just vote off whoever lost them the challenge."

Close to the beach

Xi had been watching the situation with the four campers going down. It was obvious they had formed some kind of alliance. Which meant they were the biggest threat of the team. Two eliminations away from tying for majority. "Hmm…" He heard someone walking back to the beach. When he glanced over towards who it was, he saw Jared, looking rather dejected. "Did she reject you?"

He shook his head. "No, not really. I never got the chance to say anything." Not that he would have asked her out. He had more class than that. "She's really hard to start a conversation with."

Xi let out a chuckle. "Well, it sucks to be you." His attention turned back towards the group of four. "But I think it's time we worry about something else."

Following his gaze, Jared narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?" All he saw was a group of friends playing dumb games.

Letting out a sigh, the psychologist shook his head. "You and I view the world differently, it seems. Let me paint you a better picture. That group there, they get along very well. Because of that, they probably won't vote each other off."

"Are you saying they are in an alliance?" He finally realised the point he was trying to make.

Xi nodded. "Precisely. And that means the likelihood that they vote together is high. If we let this go on for too much longer, the chances that they'll outnumber us is great."

That could be an issue. "So, are you suggesting we vote one of them off?" That didn't feel right. At least not to him. "I don't think we should just do something like that…"

Seems he was being a little difficult. No matter, Xi was going to get his way. "I'm just saying we should keep an eye on them. Besides, we don't have to decimate them. At best, we'd just have to vote out their leader." His eyes narrowed on Cameron. "That one right there."

"Hmm…" Jared brought his hand to his chin. "I guess without leadership, the rest of the alliance wouldn't know what to do." Not how that worked, but it's how he believed it worked.

"Exactly." Seems they were finally on the same page. "There aren't many more opportunities we'll have to vote them off. So we should take a chance as soon as we can."

Jared tipped his hat down. It seemed underhanded, but an alliance of four was powerful. Maybe even too powerful. "Give me some time to think about it. Besides, that's only if we lose again. Everyone should make sure that doesn't happen." He lifted his hat back up. "I'm going to head back towards the beach. Gotta make sure nothing bad happens." Moving past Xi, he offered him a wave.

The psychologist let out a sigh. "We'll see how this turns out soon…" If he could get Cameron out soon, his plans could start fully.

Ocean

Arianna was sitting down on the jet ski. It had been a while, but her dad had brought her out to do this a few times. She ran a hand through her hair, turning over to look at her opponent.

David seemed a bit out of his element. It was obvious that he hadn't done anything like this. However, when he realised Arianna was watching him, he flashed a smile. "Don't feel bad when I beat you, princess."

Oh, is that how he was going to play it? She changed her expression to one with a bit of concern. "H-hey… Go easy. I've… Actually never done this before. You seem like you know what you're doing."

The shady guy raised an eyebrow before a grin appeared on his face. "Of course I have. I got a jet ski for my fifteenth birthday." He lied. "But I can't guarantee I'll go easy on you."

Arianna frowned a bit, looking the other way. "O-oh… Alright, that's fine."

Well now he wasn't sure what to think.

Confessional: David

As usual, he was leaning back against the wall. "I think she chose the wrong person to try and fool." He rolled his eyes. "Like an open book." His eyes drifted to the side. "Although, pulling some punches might end up making this more fun. Especially if I can make her think she's playing me."

Chris was currently on his own jet ski, holding a megaphone. "On your marks… Get set… GO!" He called out.

The two racers sped off, heading towards the goal. For this event, it wasn't a straight line. They had several tight turns and corners. All they had to do was complete a lap around the course.

For the most part, David kept the lead solid. He glanced back towards Arianna, who seemed to be struggling. "Hmm… so she really hasn't done this before." Still, he wasn't going to fall for her actress routine.

However, the girl was a bit furious. Didn't seem like he was falling for her bit at the start. "Dammit…" Maybe she put on too many alligator tears for him. Still, from the looks of it, he didn't seem to know just how much experience she actually had. She would overtake him on one of the many turns.

With how cocky David was acting, it was only natural that he had it all come falling down after the second turn. "Huh?" He had decided not to take the turn as tightly as he could have, which is exactly when Arianna managed to pass him.

She waved at him, a smile on her face. "See you at the finish line."

"Oh hell no." Girl was a liar to the core. He leaned forward. "Alright bitch, is that how you want to play?"

Still, she wasn't dumb. She took every future turn as tightly as she could, while maintaining full speed the entire time. She did occasionally glance at David to see if he was catching up or not. While he was slowly closing the gap, she knew it didn't matter. The race was almost over, and there was no hope for him. Deciding to add insult to injury she smiled at him. "Thank you for going easy on me. You're really a nice guy."

His vein visibly popped when he heard that. "You come back here!" He called out, but it was too late.

She had passed the finish line. She stuck her tongue out at him before peeling away towards the shore.

"The Screaming Gophers win another point!" Chris called out.

Once David reached the shore, he was greeted by Jeremy.

"Hey, you lost."

"Thanks, dickwad."

Confessional: David

For once, he was sitting up straight. "Alright, I'll admit that I might have acted rashly, but how the hell was I supposed to know that she had experience in this stuff before." He crossed his arms. "Whatever. If we lose, it's not going to be my fault."

Back on the ocean, it was time for the next event.

Catrina was looking at the controls for the boat she was going to be operating. "Well… first of all…" She might have overestimated just how qualified she was for this. "Yes, obviously…" She glanced over at Mindy, who was in the boat next to her.

She seemed to be having similar issues, but she wasn't afraid to mess around with the various things. It didn't take her long to figure out how to operate the thing. She glanced over at Catrina. "Got things figured out?" She leaned forward, hands behind her back.

"I-Huh- Of course!" She lied, sitting down. "Why wouldn't I have things figured out?" While she wasn't sure, she had seen Mindy, so she had a pretty good idea on what to do. Adjusting her headphones, she looked through her phone. She needed a good song to set the mood for this race.

Confessional: Catrina

"Some people would say it's wrong to be so obsessed with music. But things become so much easier when you have a soundtrack for your life!" She pointed at the camera. "Besides, it makes me feel like I can do anything."

Chris pulled up on the same boat he always had, with the same megaphone in hand. "On your marks, get set…" There was a long pause before his phone began to ring. "Oh, hold on. Gotta take this." He answered it. "What is it?" After a few seconds, his expression changed to a smile. "You found him?" A longer pause. "Alright, chase him back over here. We'll get it back." He hung up the call. "Sorry about that, Chef brought me some go-"

Well that sounds like go, so good enough for the girls.

Both sped off. Unlike the jet ski race, this one was a straight line. The only downside was that they had to deal with the harsh waves.

Both girls were doing pretty well for themselves despite not having used a boat before.

Catrina glanced over at Mindy. "Thanks for teaching me how to do this." Might not be the best time to taunt her, but she didn't care.

The artist glanced her way. "I didn't teach you anything." Seems she was unaware. Humming in thought, she eventually smiled. "If all you did was watch me, then we are both kind of lost on what to do." Her eyes moved over to the waves. It rocked the boat, which got a bit of air time. Because the boats had the same speed, and they were going in a straight line, it was down to the luck of the waves. Unless… Mindy turned to look at Catrina. "My team really needs a win under their belt, so I'll be sabotaging you."

"Yeah, that's OK-" The words finally registered. "Wait what-" She didn't have enough time to react as she felt her boat get rammed. "Hey! Watch it you bitch!" Is that how she wanted to play? She could stoop to her level. However, when she went to ram her boat, Mindy moved away.

"Nice try." She teased her before winking. With the momentum of the waves, and moving back in, she was actually able to knock Catrina off balance.

"H-hey!" She called out before plunging right into the water.

"Sorry!" Mindy called out as she sped away from the scene of the crime.

Eventually, Catrina resurfaced. "Goddammit…" It was slow to dawn on her just what exactly this meant. "W-wait?" Her music had stopped. When she tried to turn on her phone, it refused.

Confessional: Catrina

She was furiously tapping away at her phone. "No-no-no-no!" And the worst part is she couldn't even search up how to fix this! "Rice!" She eventually called out. "Rice can fix it… Right?"

With no opponent to stop her, Mindy crossed the finish line without any issue.

"And a point for the Killer Bass!" Chris called out. "The teams are both tied up with three points each. With only four more events, it's still anyone's game to win!"

Beach

"There it was again!" Marisa called out. "Mindy rammed into her boat and threw her off."

"Hmm…" Originally, Jack hadn't been one to care, but seeing it happen for half of the events. "I honestly think we should return the favour." He crossed his arms.

Cameron slowly stood up. With round six done, it meant it was his turn to go up. "Don't worry. I'm going up against Bella. I doubt she'd try to sabotage me."

Robin shook his head. "It's always the quiet ones you want to watch out for."

Letting out a sigh, Marisa spoke up. "Don't do what they've done to us. It won't look great."

Cameron flashed her a thumbs up. "You've got this!" He was going to play fair and square.

Campfire

Having just come back from the kitchen, Catrina was pissed off. "Goddammit!" She called out. She placed her phone in the bag of rice she had collected. "Fire." She commented, like a caveman.

Once she arrived at the firepit, she saw someone else there. "What are you doing here?" She raised an eyebrow.

Moving his hands away from the fire, Xi looked over at her. "Just cooling off. The water was surprisingly cold…" He trailed off.

"You fell while surfing?" She sat down on the stump next to him, extending her phone over to the fire.

Raising an eyebrow, Xi continued speaking. "What happened to you? You seem to be in the same boat as me."

"Don't talk to me about boats." She narrowed her eyes. "Mindy rammed her boat into me and I fell into the water."

Oh? A similar fate that he received. He let out a small laugh. "Similar to what Jeremy did to me. That team is nothing but cheaters."

"Huh?" She looked over at him. "They've been doing that the entire time?"

He crossed his arms. "Seems they can't accept a loss."

Catrina gripped onto the bag tightly. "Bunch of cowards, if you ask me…" She placed the bag on the ground. "I want to get my revenge back. Because from the looks of it… I won't have a phone for the rest of the summer…"

"Hmm…" Xi's eyes drifted to the side. "There's still a chance." He crossed his arms. "If the teams tie, there will be a tie breaker, right?"

"Yeah, what of it?" She narrowed her eyes.

"Well, I've just gotten a brilliant idea." He chuckled to himself. "If it comes to that, we could try and rig it so you go up again."

She wasn't exactly following his line of thought here. "And what would that accomplish?"

"Chris said that for a tie breaker, he would pick a random event. Then, the two who participated in that event would have a rematch. All you'd have to do is enact your revenge on Mindy."

Slowly realising what he meant, her eyes lit up. "Ah hell yeah! Then we have to make sure it happens."

Xi shook his head. "No. We only do it if it comes down to it. We aren't trying to risk ourselves losing. Besides, if you don't get the opportunity this time, there's always the future." He took a glance at her phone. "I doubt it will be good to work, even with the rice."

Her face paled up. "So… truly no music…"

If that was the most of her concerns, it amused him. "You'll be fine. Besides, you're here to win, after all. Why let something like that get in the way?" He wasn't going to let another potential ally go home.

Feeling a bit of resolve, she clenched her fist. "You're right! Either way, she's going to pay for what she did."

Confessional: Xi

He had his eyes closed, and arms crossed. "Compared to Ashton, I see a lot more potential with this one. She's short tempered, and doesn't seem to have a strict moral code. She's willing to get revenge, so that's what I'll play off."

Ocean

Now it was time for round seven. The scuba diving event.

Both Bella and Cameron were wearing the appropriate gear for the job, and they were currently standing on top of a platform.

Chris, still refusing to stand on such a thing, was off to the side, on his boat. "For this next event, it's going to be a race. However, it's not just a race. You have to collect something from the bottom of the water."

"Is it anything specific?" Bella called out, holding her hands together.

"Yes. Yes it is." He pulled out an image. "At the bottom of the ocean, there should be a vase there. Hopefully it's in one piece. There will be one for each of your teams. The first camper to bring the vase back onto the platform wins the event. Understand?"

Cameron lifted up his hand!

"Yes?" He figured he should humour him.

"How much oxygen do we have?"

"Enough."

Good enough for him! He gave the host a thumbs up.

Bella, on the other hand, was a bit concerned. "Wait… how much is enough-"

"GO!"

Cameron reacted first, jumping right into the water.

"H-hey! Wait!" The nature lover was behind by five seconds, but she jumped in too. Underwater was rather beautiful and peaceful. When she looked around, she was amazed at the sights she was witnessing.

Confessional: Bella

"If I didn't want to become an ecologist for land, I might consider becoming a marine biologist. Underwater just seems so fascinating."

Admittedly, she was getting a bit distracted by the coral and beautiful fish. "Wait…." She hummed from inside her helmet. The challenge! Right!

When it came to Cameron, however, he was fully focused on the challenge. He didn't have any time for the wild life around him. He kept swimming down towards the ocean floor, which was further than he would have assumed, given they were still pretty close to the shore. He saw some movement to his right, but he ignored it.

Meanwhile, Bella saw that same movement and froze up. She wanted to warn him, but it was impossible to do so. Her eyes remained transfixed on the shark circling around the area.

Cameron, none the wiser, kept descending. When he finally reached the bottom of the ocean, he glanced around the area. He had to find two vases, and take the right one.

However, while looking around, he felt a shadow move over him. Had to be Bella. He took a glance at her only to realise Bella must have transformed.

Confessional: Cameron

"Wow!" He exclaimed, excited. "I didn't know Bella was a druid. Picking a shark was a smart choice!"

When he glanced beyond the shark, however, he would see Bella panicking. "Ah!" So she summoned a shark. Makes sense. But he had no time to worry about that. Instead, he glanced over towards the floor of the ocean, eventually spotting a vase with the Screaming Gophers logo on it. "Got it." He mumbled to himself, picking it up.

He didn't make it very far as the shark pushed him against the ground.

Now… Bella wanted to help, but she wasn't sure how much help she would be against a shark, and it wasn't worth the risk of two people dying. Instead, she landed on the seafloor, and found her vase. Sending one last look at Cameron, she swam away. And she was going to win, but something else caught her attention. "Wow…" Like before, she had gotten distracted by the sea life around here. For someone like her so interested in the ecosystems, it was a dream come true. She glanced over at Cameron, who was still struggling with the shark and figured that she could spend a bit of time looking around.

Little did she know just how much of a beast Cameron was. "Get away!" He called out, despite nobody being able to hear. He smashed the vase right against the shark. It cracked, but didn't shatter.

Injured, the shark quickly swam away to find other prey.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Cameron looked around for where Bella went. However, not seeing her made him think that she had already won.

Imagine his surprise when he resurfaced, and Chris greeted him. "Do you have the vase?"

He was a bit confused, but he raised the vase.

"This round goes to the Screaming Gophers!"

Maybe she really did turn into the shark?

Confessional: Cameron

He was holding the vase in his hands. "It's a little damaged, but I wonder if Chris will let me keep it!"

Meanwhile, Bella was still swimming around the ocean floor, looking at all the new kinds of fish around. She was like a kid in a candy store. As the fish swam around her, she eventually came to a realisation.

Confessional: Bella

She had a slightly concerned look on her face. "Do you ever feel like… You're forgetting something." She was still holding onto the face. She smiled before shaking her head. "I think I'm overthinking this."

Ocean

The next event was the wakeboarding, and both Robin and Christopher were ready.

Christopher looked a bit nervous. "I've never done anything like this. It should be fun!" He looked over at Robin, who seemed calm. "What about you? Are you excited?"

He glanced over at the boy. "Hmm… Not particularly. The only thing exciting that awaits me is beating you."

Well that didn't seem to go as he thought it would. "Oh! Well I'm sure it will be a fair and balanced race."

"Race?" Chris blinked, shaking his head. "No. This isn't going to be a race. Who reaches the end first won't matter, as you aren't in control of the boats." He moved to the side. "Instead, you will be tasked with collecting as many floating flags as you can. The person who collects the most by the time they reach the finish will win the point for their team."

Oh! That sounded pretty easy. At least Christopher thought so. "How many are there in total?"

"Each boat will pass by twenty flags. Make sure you don't miss them." He turned his attention to the other two boats. They were currently being operated by unnamed interns. Would they ever become relevant to have names? No. "On your marks… GO!"

This caught the two interns by surprise, and they began to speed off.

Robin held on pretty well, but Christopher almost failed right then and there. "I didn't have time to get set!" He called out as the boat pulled him away.

Of course, the tactician wasn't going to let himself freak out. If he just stayed calm, he could collect all the flags. One by one, he gathered them all without fail. He glanced over at Christopher.

"One flag, two flags, red flag, blue flag." This time, he was right about the colours.

Robin frowned slightly.

Confessional: Robin

"Despite how unprepared he was… He was actually managing to keep up with me. Now, I don't care what Marisa says, I think it's time for a little payback."

"Wow!" He called out. "You're doing pretty good." He moved all of his flags into the hand holding onto the line. He left his other hand holding one flag. "You can have one of mine as a reward." He chucked it over at Christopher.

Putting zero thought into it, he opened his hand to catch the flag, only to-

The camera cut off, and it zoomed out to show Chris watching it from his tent. How did he get here so fast? Well clearly this scene was happening later.

"Let's play a game, shall we? How does Christopher fail spectacularly here? Does he A. Open his hand that was holding onto the line, or B. Open his hand that was holding all the flags? Let's take a look.

When the footage began to play out again, Christopher opened the hand that held out all of the flags, causing them all to fall into the water. "Oh-" He reached out with both hands, only to cause him to go off course because he wasn't holding onto the line anymore. "Wait-" He called out before his wakeboard ran into a floating rock.

Robin smiled as he watched his sabotage play out. "And he was none the wiser." He didn't bother collecting any more flags. In fact, he dumped all the rest of the flags but one into the water.

Once both boats arrived, Chris walked up to them. "And the winner IS…" He looked over at Robin. "Do you… only have one flag?"

He crossed his arms. "One flag is all I need. You can compare me to Christopher if you want."

The host glanced over at where he should have been, but found nothing. "Well, one beats nothing, so the winner of this round is the Screaming Gophers!"

Confessional: Christopher

He hummed out in thought. "I'm starting to think I might have been played."

Beach

"Hmm…" Nila hummed out. There was still time before the next event, so she was trying to figure out what to do.

"What's wrong?" Jeremy had been sitting on the beach for a while, drawing things into the sand.

"Nothing…" She frowned slightly. "But we are currently down two points, and there are only two events left. We are for sure going to need to rely on a tie breaker."

That was the big issue here. The surfer tilted his head to the side. "You and I are the ones left, right? Then it's a no brainer we'll win. Besides, have you seen what their team has to offer? It was a good thing you went up against Jared, because he would have gotten a point in any other event. But Jack seems like a pushover."

That did reassure her slightly, but her fears were persistent. "Still… I do not believe we should act confident yet. The water is unforgiving."

Jeremy laughed a bit. "The water isn't unforgiving." His expression darkened. "The water doesn't care about anything. Saying it's unforgiving implies that it could be forgiving. It's neithe-"

He was hit in the back of the head by David. "Alright, weird kid." He looked over at Nila. "You got this? Chris is calling for you."

Sure she was confident. But uncertainty was still a factor.

Forest

When she had signed up to do the kayaking, she thought it would be on the beach. Not… here. "Um… Chris. Is this safe?" She looked over at the host.

The duo were staring down the rapids that Jeremy and Catrina previously went down during the first challenge.

"Do you want me to answer that honestly?" He knew the two wouldn't like the answer.

"No…" Jack shook his head. "I'd rather not know the answer to that." He moved closer to his kayak. Both of them were being held by a rope.

Well, if her opponent had no verbal concerns, she moved closer to her own kayak. "Good luck out there."

"I don't need your encouragement." Jack moved into his kayak, adjusting himself. "So, does this end when we reach the end of the rapids?"

"Pretty much." Chris moved away from the rapids.

Once Nila was in, the two didn't get any sort of warning. Instead, both of the ropes were cut, and the two were sent flying down the rapids.

"Chris!" The critic called out. "If I don't make it down there in one piece I'll-" Oh now he was too far to hear.

Chris shrugged before walking away.

Nila held onto her paddle, manoeuvring herself around the tight turns of the rapids. "Are you still alive?" She called out to Jack, who had fallen behind her.

"Don't act so condescending." He narrowed his eyes. "I am doing just fine."

"But-" Seems her genuine concern was mistaken for mockery. "Sorry…" Despite that, she felt herself getting a bit angry.

Confessional: Nila

"How come I am the only one who is trying to act civil with the other team? My team is trying to sabotage, and I am trying to win fairly. But to be rejected when I am concerned for their safety…" She seemed ticked off.

She could have continued to play nice and stay by Jack, just so someone was there in case he got hurt. But it was becoming very clear to her that he didn't want that. "I will see you at the finish line in a few minutes."

"Few minutes?" He repeated. "What the hell do you mean by that-"

Nila had a challenge to win, and now she was motivated to crush him. Taking hold of her paddle, she began to steer herself down the rapids, using the paddles as effectively as possible. She was picking up speed that Jack couldn't even begin to achieve.

"H-hey!" He yelled out in desperation. "Hold on!" He tried to catch up to her, but he hit a rock on the wall and fell down into the water. As Jeremy said, the water did not care, and he found himself pushed down by the current.

Normally, Nila would have looked back when she heard something was off. However, right now she just wanted to get her win and get it over with. Once she finally reached the bottom, she took a deep breath.

"The winner for this round is the Killer Bass! Are they finally going to make a comeback?" Chris called out when Nila reached the end.

Then she heard the sound of someone being pushed around without a care in the world. "Jack!" She finally snapped out of it.

His body slowly washed up where the rapids ended, but he was unresponsive.

"Chris! He might be dead!" She ran up to him.

Being the wise man, he did the best he could do. He grabbed a long stick and poked his body.

"Oww…" He mumbled out.

"Still alive!" The best doctor money could buy.

Slowly getting up, the critic spit out some water.

Confessional: Jack

"I don't know why life thought I deserved that." He crossed his arms. "All I did was try and win the challenge. It's not like I did what the other team did. And yet they continuously walk away with victory?"

It was finally time for the last event. It was rafting. Down the same rapids that the last two campers had gone down.

Marisa stood on one side of the rapids, while Jeremy was on the other.

"You know, I don't like what you did to Xi back there." She had her arms crossed.

The surfer thought for a moment. "Hmm? What do you mean? I gave him advice on how to surf."

"I'm talking about kicking him down. That wasn't fair, was it?" The journalist narrowed her eyes.

The expression on his face faded away. "Weren't you the one who set him up for failure? I'm sure it was down to you and him, and you let him take surfing. Must have been too afraid to face off against me."

She was finally realising what was going on here. "You choose rafting just to face me. Why?"

Well, probably not the reason she was thinking of. "Just so show you can't escape me." He stroked his chin, humming in thought. His eyes seemed a bit unfocused. "Also we arrived on the initial boat together. Since then, we haven't interacted much."

"Besides the flour you threw out last challenge. Are you just trying to get in my way-"

"What are you two doing?" Chris walked up to the two of them having a rather dramatic confrontation.

The surfer shrugged. "Build up."

"Yeah, go away. We're being dramatic." She crossed her arms.

These two were weird.

"This is the last main event of the challenge." Chris announced, looking at the two of them. "The Screaming Gophers are currently leading by one point. The Killer Bass's only hope right now is to win this round and tie. But they have to win twice in a row just to win at all. They are at a severe disadvantage." He turned to look at both campers. "Can both campers please step onto the raft?"

Marisa carefully stepped onto hers. She had never been on a raft before, so she was going to play it safe.

Jeremy however just jumped right on, without a care in the world.

Like last time, there wasn't any warning. The ropes that held the rafts were just cut, setting both campers down the rapids.

Marisa had to try and gain her balance back before she was able to do anything. When she looked over at Jeremy, he was doing pretty fine. "Rafting is different from surfing, but you seemed to be handling yourself fine."

"Surfing requires a sense of balance. You need to make sure the water doesn't overtake you." He held onto the paddle he was given to steer the raft. "A great sense of balance can take you a long way in life."

Here he was, offering advice again. She narrowed her eyes. This is normally where the sabotage happened. Still, she tried her best to get her sense of balance back. "Is that all?" She gripped onto the paddle. The first turn was coming up.

While Jeremy was able to take it without any issue, Marisa was having a hard time not scraping the raft against the side. "Where's the part where you sabotage me?"

He frowned at such an accusation, looking over at her. "Because you don't seem very fun to sabotage. Besides, if I tried, you might get the upper hand on me."

He was playing smart. Xi had no way to counter him, but now that the platforms were bigger, anything could go wrong. "You always gave off the impression of an airhead."

He tilted his head to the side, frowning. "I thought I was a little more than just that." He turned his attention back forward.

Confessional: Marisa

"He'll regret that." She crossed her arms, a confident smile on her face. "He should have taken me out when he had the chance."

She didn't want to sabotage, it wasn't her style. But hey, accidents happened. She began getting more control over her raft. Inch by inch, she caught up to the surfer. "Don't feel bad, but I think you might be losing."

Jeremy had completely forgotten about her. Raising an eyebrow, he looked over at her. "And what do you think you can do?" He turned to face her completely. He held out his paddle. "I don't need this. I can just throw it at you and let the current do its job."

A subtle smile appeared on her face. "You and I both know you don't have the balls to do that."

Seems she struck a nerve, because there was zero hesitation for his next action.

He lunged his paddle at her.

Expertly, Marisa managed to avoid it. "Now you have nothing." She was going to win it for her team. She moved over to start paddling her raft. She was able to catch up to Jeremy, and slowly began passing him.

Confessional: Jeremy

He raised his hands in his defense. "Now… Maybe I acted too rashly."

He had to think of someone quickly, or else his team would be going to another elimination ceremony. And honestly, the love of the ceremony should be spread evenly amongst both teams. So he did the only rational thing he could have thought of. He stepped right onto her raft.

"H-hey!" She called out, looking at him. "What are you doing?"

"I need a new paddle." He smiled at her. "And it just so happens you have one, so how lucky of me!"

Marisa gripped onto it tightly. "Your team has to stop trying to sabotage ours."

That was a good thought! So much that Jeremy even pondered it. He let out a small laugh. "Nah!" He reached over for the paddle.

Well, it was self defense, so not really sabotaging. She took a swing at him.

"Woah!" He managed to get out of the way at the last second. "I can't believe you would try to hit me."

"Didn't you just throw your paddle at me?" Marisa narrowed her eyes.

Jeremy ran a hand through his hair. "Always living in the pa-"

"A minute ago."

"Always living a minute ago…" The surfer let out a sigh. "You're better than that."

He was beginning to get on her last nerve. "Seriously. Just get out of here."

He shrugged. "If you insist!" He jumped back onto his raft. "Oh, by the way. Hope you've been paying attention to what's up ahead."

"Huh?" She glanced to the side, realising the tight turn that was coming. A turn that she was not going to take very well. "Wait!" She tried to paddle the raft to a better part of the rapid, but it was too late, her raft had picked up too much momentum and slid right off onto land. "You get back here!" She called out, feeling defeated.

Jeremy offered her a two finger wave as his raft continued doing the rapids.

When he finally arrived at the end, he stepped right off.

"The winner for this event!" Chris began to say. "Is the Killer Bass! Which means…" He trailed off, realising exactly what that meant. "It's a tie! We'll have a tie breaker shortly!"

Nila, who was still waiting at the end, looked over at the surfer. "Where is Marisa?"

He shrugged. "She crashed. She's not that good at handling water."

She raised an eyebrow at that statement.

Confessional: Nila

"I do not believe that for a moment. Our team has to stop doing this…"

Beach

Everyone had gathered up at the beach again. With the points tied, it was likely that any of them could go up again. Even more likely that it would be Nila or Jeremy.

"Campers." He held out a bowl with many different pieces of papers in them. "For the tie breaker, like I mentioned before, we'll be drawing from here. Whichever event gets selected will have a rematch between the two campers." He stuck his hand into the bowl. "And the event that's getting repeated is…" He pulled out the paper, and read it over. "The boat race!"

Catrina froze up slightly. She knew Xi said he'd try to swing it in her favour, but actually did it! She took a look over at Mindy, who didn't really seem to mind this matchup.

Confessional: Catrina

She seemed to have a boost in confidence. "Time for round two! I'll make her pay for what she did!" She gave herself a fist bump. "Not only that, but I'll win the challenge for my team in the process."

Confessional: Xi

He had his arms crossed. "Honestly, it was quite easy to rig this. Chris just left the bowl unattended in the cafeteria. I just rewrote all the entries. Now let's see if this works out the way I'm hoping it does."

Ocean

The two boats were set back up in the location they were originally for the challenge.

Mindy offered a smile over to Catrina. "Why do you seem so excited? The results are going to be the same."

The DJ pointed to her. "Because I'm aware of what tricks you're going to pull this time! I'm ready!"

Oh, that was cute. "Is that so? Well, I'd like to see what you do differently."

Chris slowly approached the duo. "I'm looking for a nice friendly game out there." There was a five second pause before he let out a laugh. "Nah, knock each other out. The winner is whoever's boat crosses the finish line first." He put the megaphone next to his mouth. "On your marks… Get set…-" He stopped when his phone began to ring. "Hold on." He picked up the phone. "What is it? I'm in the middle of something here." While nobody could make out what the other person was saying, it was clear it was Chef. "You're bringing him here? Did you get him?" A pause. "Wait, you're still chasing him? Nevermind. Just hurry up. We'll need that boat for tonight." He hung up his phone, looking over at the duo. There was a pause as his smile returned. "GO!"

The two were caught off guard, but Catrina made sure she reacted quickly this time. Her boat left before Mindy could get moving.

Confessional: Mindy

She let out a sad sigh. "My one weakness… Listening in on other people's calls."

Now, with Catrina ahead, there was no reason to do anything. Unless she was unlucky, it was just a straight line to the end. However, there was something else on her mind.

Confessional: Catrina

"The entire point of doing this was so I could get revenge." She crossed her arms. "I'm not going to just win without doing anything." She rubbed her hands together. "Time to make a bold plan. Chris said that only our boats had to cross the finish line. Never said anything about us."

Positioning her headphones in such a way that the boat would continue to move on its own, she turned to look at Mindy's boat. She took a deep breath to pump herself up before running towards the back of her boat. Jumping off, she landed right in Mindy's boat.

"H-hey!" She was caught off guard by that, but she couldn't exactly leave the controls.

The DJ pointed at her. "You ruined my phone and headphones! You thought you could get away with it?" She tackled the artist to the ground.

The boat slowly came to a stop as the two girls began fighting.

"Why did you bring electronics with you in the middle of the ocean?" Mindy yelled out as she tried to defend herself.

For a moment, Catrina stopped her rampage. "Oh, because music soothes me."

The artist also stopped struggling, finding no flaws in her logic. "Oh yeah, that makes sense."

There was a long pause before the two began fighting again.

Mindy managed to kick the girl off. Her first action after that was to get the boat moving again. If she didn't, she would lose. "Just get off the boat already!"

Once Catrina got back onto her feet, she glared at the artist. "No! You made me lose, so it's only fair I make you lose!" She pointed at her. Her expression calmed down a bit. "And also get revenge for what you broke."

"Now's not the time!" She narrowed her eyes. "Kick my ass after the challenge."

"But that's just what you want!"

There was a pause as Mindy looked at her like a dumbass. "I- Yes- That's why I just said it."

"Oh! Well, you want to know what I think about that?" She lunged forward.

Now they were fighting at the controls.

From the beach, everyone was watching this go down.

"We have to stop them!" Nila called out, running towards the water.

David placed a hand on her shoulder. "No, let them fight." His eyes were focused on something else entirely.

"Wait!" Jared called out. "We have to stop them!" This might be his chance to be some kind of hero. Looking around, he eventually spotted the jet ski. He would use that.

What everyone was freaking out about was what lies beyond their boats. A much bigger boat was coming their way.

The first of the girls to notice was Mindy, who was much more alert. "H-Hey!" She called out. "We have to get out of here-"

"Oh? So now you want to run away-" Catrina had begun to see, until she realised something was coming their way. She first noticed it when it hit her own boat. "Slow down!" She yelled out to the boat coming their way.

The person driving the boat was distracted by something behind him. Seems he was getting chased by someone else. When he heard someone call out to him, he turned to face him, only to reveal Ashton. "What the fuck-" He called out before ramming into the boat.

Catrina got knocked back, and hit her head on the side of the boat before being knocked off.

Mindy managed to stay on, taking control of her boat once again.

"Catrina!" Jared finally arrived at the scene, seeing her slowly sink to the bottom. Without even thinking about it, he jumped into the water.

She was sinking rather slowly, so he was able to catch up to her. He quickly raised her to the surface, gasping for some air. "I got you…" He said rather calmly as he brought her over to the jet ski.

On the other boat, Mindy had managed to recover, and was heading straight to the finish line. Catrina's boat was a nonfactor, given that Ashton had knocked it off course.

Speaking of which, he had found himself slightly beached after the incident. "Oww… that the hell…?" He rubbed the back of his head before seeing everyone on the beach looking at him "Hey! What's up? Do I get to rejoin?"

Chris slowly raised his megaphone. "No, but thanks for the boat."

"Dammit!" He slammed his fist on the boat.

Soon, Jared came back, holding an unconscious Catrina. "Does anyone know how to save her?"

"You mean you don't know how?" David raised an eyebrow. "Some cadet you are."

Jeremy let out a sigh. "I've done a lot of work as a lifeguard." He didn't want to, but everyone else was watching, so.

He attempted his best to get the water out of her lungs. After a few times, she spat out the water. Eventually, she opened her eyes.

"Huh…?" She seemed dazed, looking around. "Did I… Win?"

Oh right, there was a challenge going on. "The winner of the challenge is… The Killer Bass!" Chris called out, to add insult to injury.

She leaned her head up to see that Mindy's boat arrived first. "D-dammit…" She let her head hit the ground.

Jared picked her up. "Let's get her to the infirmary."

Talia watched him carry her away, and let out a sigh. She followed him.

Chris turned to look at the Killer Bass. "Congratulations on your second win of the season!" There was a long pause. "It's the fifth challenge… Do better." He walked away.

"It does not feel like a good victory." Nila frowned, looking at the ground.

David shrugged. "Hey. At least this time the other team tried to sabotage."

She was starting to get ticked off. "They only tried to hinder us because you have all been doing the same!" She glared at most members of the team. She pointed at Mindy. "Had you not done that earlier, none of this would have happened!"

The artist crossed her arms, looking slightly guilty.

Enima rolled her eyes. "Oh, cry me a river."

They weren't taking this seriously. "I…" She was about to blow a fuse. "I am going back to the cabin."

Confessional: Mindy

She let out a heavy sigh. "She's probably right… Catrina wouldn't have done that had I not…" She trailed off.

Infirmary

Jared placed Catrina down on the bed, making sure she was fine. "She seems fine. She didn't inhale too much water." He hadn't seen Talia follow him, but he knew she did.

"She's reckless." She crossed her arms, looking down at her. "Because of her, we lost the challenge."

He clenched his fist, knowing that to be partially true. "While yes, that is true. We can't discount what the other team has done throughout the challenge. Especially since Mindy started the entire thing." It was hard to put the full blame on Catrina. "Besides, Ashton was the one who messed everything up again. So can we really put the blame on her? Had he not shown up, it's likely that she would have won it for us."

Seems he wasn't getting the point she was trying to make. "Still, we have to vote someone off, and someone like her would be the perfect target."

"Perfect… target?" Jared clenched his fist. Was that really true? Sure, she had lost the challenge, but to call her the perfect challenge. It felt wrong voting her off. "Give me time to think about it."

Talia let out a sigh. "Alright. If you come up with a better target then, let me know." She began to walk away, before stopping. "You acted pretty quickly out there. Everyone else seemed to freeze up on the beach." It looked like she was going to say something else, but she left before she could.

Typing his hat down, the cadet let out a sigh. "This game is getting to me…"

Confessional: Jared

"There's two very distinct people to vote for…" He still had his hat tipped down. "I'm just not sure which I should vote for… It feels wrong voting either off."

Seeing that Catrina was mostly fine now, the officer slowly left the infirmary.

The only part he hadn't noticed was that she was awake to hear the entire conversation.

Confessional: Catrina

She seemed rather dejected, hugging her own legs.. "I'm just a failure, aren't I? Had I not…" She trailed off. "There's no point in me staying, is there? They're going to vote me off. Besides, I need to go get myself a new phone."

She sat up from the bed. She was feeling fine now, thanks to Jeremy and Jared. She needed to figure out what she would do. With a sigh, she got off the bed and made her way towards the exit.

When she stepped out, she felt a presence standing right outside. "We need to talk about some things." Xi had his arms crossed, looking down at her.

"Huh…?" They had spoken earlier… Was he mad that she had failed him?

He extended his arm out. "I'm willing to offer you a deal…"

A deal…? Her eyes were fixed on his hand.

Elimination Ceremony

The ten campers (Christopher could not attend) made their way to the ceremony. It had only been their second time here, but it wouldn't be the last.

Chris sat on the other side of the fire, holding a plate. On the plate, there were only nine marshmallows. "Screaming Gophers. I bet you didn't think you would end up back here, did you."

"It was bound to happen again." Robin shook his head.

Marisa let out a sigh. "It was nice having only gone once… But we won't be back here again."

"Yes, that's what they all say." He hovered his hand over one of the marshmallows. "Your team had the advantage of nobody having to repeat a challenge-"

Jack scoffed. "Was it really an advantage? They just sent out their two best twice. Combined, they won four out of the eleven events. In fact, three of their players won six out of the eleven events. Hardly seemed fair."

There was a long silence. "Are you done?"

"Yes." He replied softly.

Jared shook his head. "He's right, though. It seemed to benefit them more than it did us. Was that intentional?"

"It doesn't matter!" The host called out. This ceremony was getting off track rather quickly. "When I call out your name, you are safe." He reached over for a marshmallow. "Talia."

She caught the first one.

"The next one goes to… Arianna." She received the next one.

Grabbing the next two, it was a double feature. "Robin, Eleanor." He threw them out.

This time, the tactician didn't even bother catching it. He didn't want it.

Eleanor was pretty happy. "Oh!" She called out. "Who wants me to cook the fish tonight?"

Cameron stood up with glee. "Yeah! Let's have a fish dinner to celebrate-" He paused. "Well, there isn't really anything to celebrate, is there?"

Xi shook his head. "Sit down and let the ceremony play out, please…"

Sitting back down, Chris got back to the marshmallows. "Marisa."

Marisa wasn't surprised. She still hadn't had a target put on her back.

"The next one goes to… Jared." He threw the other one at him.

He caught it in his hat, staring down at it. Maybe a little too long. He didn't seem too happy.

That left only three marshmallows on the plate, and still four campers left. "We are down to the last three marshmallows." Chris looked at who remained. "Cameron, Catrina, Jack, and Xi… One of you is going home tonight." In order, he called out to all of them. "Cameron, last time someone seemed to have it out for you. Do you think they still do?"

"Nope!"

Well, good enough for the host. "Catrina. You were the only person on the team to participate in two events, and you failed them both. Had you not let your ego get to you, it's likely you could have won."

"I… I know…" She held her arm.

"Jack, you failed your challenge today, and unlike the others who failed theirs, you didn't put up much of a fight."

He crossed his arms. "Physical activity isn't exactly my forte."

And lastly… "Xi, you also were one of the people who lost a challenge today. And your loss was pretty bad. Jeremy went on for an hour after you fell off. A rather pitiful performance."

He waved his hand around. "Just give me the marshmallow already!"

Well, he didn't have to be rude about it, but. "Xi." He tossed him the next one.

The psychologist kept his eyes closed when he caught it.

"The next one goes to… Jack."

"That's what I thought." He caught the marshmallow.

That left only one marshmallow. "Cameron… Catrina… This is the final marshmallow of the night."

Cameron didn't seem too worried. He had won his event after all.

Catrina, on the other hand, was sweating bullets. She hugged her knees again, looking at the ground.

Lifting it off the plate, he waved it dramatically. "The final marshmallow of the night GOES TO…"

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"Catrina."

The entire ceremony froze. Or more so, Marisa felt herself freeze. "H-huh?" She blinked a few times.

Catrina caught the marshmallow. As soon as she did, she quickly darted away.

The journalist had missed that completely. "What do you mean Cameron was eliminated?" The math didn't add up-

The DM stood up proudly. "Well, it was fun while it lasted!" He didn't really seem to care that much.

"B-but!" She tried to counter.

Jack crossed his arms, glaring at the host. "Clearly there's been a miscount. There's no way he would be the one going home."

Robin shrugged. "They both started with CA, so maybe they counted wrong."

Chris shook his head. "Nope. The votes don't lie. Cameron was eliminated."

It was… impossible. "Don't tell me you're OK with this!" Marisa called out to him.

Cameron didn't really seem to mind. He smiled at her. "Hey, I knew what this game was all about. Some strategy has to be made." He moved over towards the direction of the dock. "It was fun while it lasted!" He waved off. "Maybe we can continue our game when this is all over!" As he watched off, Marisa could only bite her nail.

Confessional: Marisa

She shook her head. "No matter which way you look at this, this was all planned out. The votes wouldn't add up like this if they didn't… Someone made a game move, and I'm going to figure out who."

Cameron arrived at the dock of shame, where the boat of losers was waiting. It seemed a bit damaged, but he didn't seem to mind. When he stepped on, he found Chef there, but he also found someone else. "Oh! Ashton! What are you doing here?"

He had a hand on his hip. "They wouldn't let me join back up, even after I pulled a cool stunt like that!"

"You almost killed Catrina!" The DM said nonchalantly.

Ashton paled up. "I DID WHAT!?"

"Quiet down you too." Chef barked. "I don't wanna hear you two talking the entire time."

Of course, being quiet wasn't exactly Cameron's style. "Aw come on, Cheffy! Join us!"

This was going to be a long and annoying ride…

Back on the dock, Chris walked to the edge. "And that concludes this episode of Total Drama Island! Now that's what I call a blindside. How will the nerd gang recuperate after a loss like that? Was there actually foul play like Marisa seems to assume. And will Nila finally lose her mind over her own team? All those and more will be answered next time on Total! Drama! ISLAND!" Then the camera cut off.

Votes

Catrina: 4

Cameron: 6

Campers Remaining: 17

Screaming Gophers

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Arianna Rodriguez: The Popular Girl

Catrina Rwuicks: The Outgoing DJ

Eleanor Eden: The Sweet Gardener

Jack Bunda: The Cynical Critic

Jared Caertas: The Law Abiding Cadet

Marisa Campbell: The Excited Journalist

Robin Fuego: The Snarky Tactician

Talia Wayward: The Rude Waitress

Xi Loung: The Manipulative Psychologist

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Killer Bass

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Bella Fiore: The Quiet Nature Lover

Christopher Hide: The Happy Go Lucky Idiot

David Talon: The Shady Guy

Enima Palapeli: The Mysterious Painter

Historia Lenz: The Unbearable Scholar

Jeremy Cloud: The Fearless Surfer

Mindy Misuto: The Mischievous Artist

Nila Darabond: The Soft Military Trainee

Eliminated: Jenna, Matthew, Ashton, Josef, Cameron

It was still at night when Marisa decided to take a walk. None of it made sense… Something wasn't completely adding up.

Confessional: Marisa

"It's basic math… But our alliance of four voted together. We all voted for Catrina… Which means that for Cameron to go home instead, that means the rest of the team had to vote for Cameron. That's six people all working together in an alliance…" She crossed her arms. "An alliance I'm not part of."

The only reason she was even walking around was because she could focus more if she was pacing. And the girls of her team might not appreciate her pacing in the room.

However, as she kept walking, she began to hear weird sounds… as well as this sense that she was being watched. "Hello?" She turned around to face whoever might have been following her, but found nobody. When she realised that she might be just a bit paranoid, she continued to walk.

But there was the sound again. More distinct than ever. But it wasn't coming from the ground. It was coming from the trees above. She darted her eyes towards the branches, and that's when she saw it.

A figure draped in a costume, wearing a mask.

It took her a second to recognise where she had seen them before. She narrowed her eyes.

"You… You were at the talent show."

The figure didn't say anything for a bit. Instead, they chose to stare down at her. When they finally spoke up, their voice was unrecognisable. "You sense that something was wrong at today's ceremony, don't you?"

What did this figure know…? "Yes. I do. Why do you ask?"

"Because you're right. Something is very off." They reached into their costume. "I've checked the confessionals… And something doesn't quite line up."

Her eyes lit up slightly. "You have to tell me what went wrong!"

The figure remained still. "No… That wouldn't be fun." They pulled out what looked like two cassette tapes. "Instead, I'll only offer you a guiding hand." They dropped them onto the ground. "After every challenge, I'll offer you two voting confessionals. My choice, of course. However, that doesn't mean you should just wait for me. Do some research of your own."

Marisa moved over to them, picking them up. "Huh…" She was unsure about all of this. "How did you get access to this? And where do I even play this?"

"That's not something I can answer. As for the second thing, you're smart. You can figure it out yourself."

The journalist frowned. Some help this person ended up being. Looking down at the two tapes, they were labelled "Marisa" and "Catrina". Why would she need to see her own vote? Although, this could help prove that it's authentic…

But that wasn't the only question she had on her mind. Looking back at the figure. "And why are you doing this? How does it benefit you in any way?"

"It benefits me more than you think it does…" They trailed off. "Maybe I'm someone on your team… Or maybe I'm someone from the other team who wants to watch chaos unfold. Either way, in the end, this only benefits myself and you."

Marisa took a glance back towards the two tapes. If this benefits her, there is no reason for her to ignore it. "Alright, thank you." She looked back up, only to see the figure was gone. She let out a sigh. She'd need to figure out where to play this. Maybe Chris had something. Putting the tapes in her bag, she moved back towards her cabin.