Okay. Break day. I know no one likes Episode 5, so we'll make this one a treat before the blocked-shit storm (I am so sorry for that joke). I have fun facts to make the episode bearable, but we'll get to that. Thanks for reviewing, OmniIBIBUltraInstinctGodzilla, iwashere01 and blee7442.

I made an effort to talk to some of the Trout other than Damien on the rest day. Not the guys – I said hi to Zee when I saw him, but I didn't see much of him, and I kept right away from Ripper and Chase. I'd never minded social media livestream Chase, but the real-life dude just didn't seem quite as nice, and far more clueless. And I already knew Ripper was a typical bully, so I didn't want to talk to him.

No, I wanted a chance to talk to Priya and Millie. I just wanted to get to know them, since I saw them every day and we had never talked. They appeared nice from what I had seen of them, and if I made it to the merge, I needed to try to get in good with as many people as possible – maybe even make more friends. I sat with my usual friends at breakfast, as usual, but finished early and hung around near the Trout's cabins. When the girls came back, I managed to catch their eye and I smiled.

"Hi," I said shyly. "Um, I know we're not on the same team and we haven't talked much, but I thought I might as well, you know, say hi, talk a bit, you know, if you're not doing anything…"

Priya looked like she was about to say something, but Millie got in first. "Sure. We do have stuff to do, but if you want to talk first, we can spare a few minutes."

Priya looked a bit anxious, like she wasn't so sure they had time, but she smiled and the three of us sat down on their cabin steps. I started just telling them general stuff about my life and how I got onto Total Drama, and about what I wanted to do with the money. "So," I said, after talking about my desire for a dog that would have the best of everything, "What brought you guys to Total Drama?"

"My parents," Priya said without hesitation. "They're major Total Drama fans. I'm hoping if I win this, they'll let me go to medical school."

I frowned. "Let you? Like, you're going to use the money for that?"

Priya shrugged. "I guess. They want me to be on other reality shows once I win here, but I might be able to make a deal with them. They've been training me all my life for this show, but I'm more interested in doing well in school. I'd like to work in surgery, but I'll settle for GP training if I can't do that for some reason. I've done tons of survival challenges and finished First Aid as part of my training, so that gave me a taste for it."

Millie had been scribbling something down in her little notepad as we spoke, but at that point, she looked up, so I asked "What about you, Millie? What are you planning to use the money for?"

Millie looked nervous, but she said in a shy voice, "I'm writing a book about…um…my experiences here. That's why I brought this with me. The money might help me get an agent, or self-publish it or something. I mostly came here just to have something to write about."

"Don't bother asking her to show it to you," Priya added playfully. "She hasn't shown any of her notes to me yet, either. Obviously she wants it all to be a secret until it's published."

All three of us giggled. Then Priya said "Well, we better get moving. We've got a lot to do before tomorrow's challenge. But maybe we can talk more another time. Maybe even after the show." She shot to her feet.

Millie stood up less rapidly, and she gave me a sweet smile. "See you later, Tansy," she said as she followed Priya to the cabin.

I was glad I'd spoken to the two girls. They were easy to like. It was a shame they weren't on my team.

I only found Damien in the afternoon. He'd been holed up in his own cabin until then. When we finally saw each other, he started by handing me something small and round. "I know we're not on the same team and you can't vote me off or anything," he said, "But I hope I can rely on your support."

I looked at the object properly. It was a little button, with a picture of Damien on it with a no entry sign pasted over him. What? Why was he making a whole campaign out of it?

"I told you to just ask your team!" I protested. "You don't have to campaign so hard. I'm not sure buttons are really the way to go."

Damien shrugged. "They couldn't hurt. I'll still ask them, but I asked them last challenge and everyone else voted for Ripper or Scary Girl. I've already asked Zee and he said he'd do it. He loves the buttons."

I shrugged and pinned the button just below my flowery collar. "I'll wear it if you want, but when did you ask them?"

Damien shrugged. "When we first started talking about it after the challenge?"

"Yeah, get in earlier," I advised. "Tell the others before the challenge. Then tell them again if you lose, then they'll remember. They should be happy they're not being targeted."

Between advising Damien in the afternoon and getting to know his girl teammates in the morning, I hung out with Emz and Bowie like I usually did. Unfortunately, Bowie said nothing at all about either of the hockey bros, and I didn't like to ask. We just discussed what had been going on.

Bowie hadn't known that MK had played a major part in us getting the skull last challenge. "So that's what she meant when she said 'we'd' done it," he said. "The rest of us thought she hadn't done anything at all. How did she know the shield would get you there, though?"

I shrugged. "She wouldn't tell us anything. I still don't like her, but at least she was doing something. Julia spent half the time on her phone again."

"To be fair, she took a turn with the hose," Emz pointed out, "But I know what you mean. She wasn't paying much attention most of the time."

"And yet she was the one threatening to vote me off for being nice to the other team a few days ago," I said, a little crossly, 'Even though I was trying to help Damien get voted off, not stay."

Bowie grinned when I said that. "Good move. If you're nice to the other team, that's fine with me, like I said, but if you're doing it to make sure someone gets kicked off, that's also good. Damien's not the weakest on his team. If he wants to go home, I have no problem with you helping him. It might help us before the merge if you keep in good with that team."

I giggled a little. "So I'm our group's double agent? I only like two thirds of the team, but keeping in good with them might be good into the merge as well. We can always use an extra vote, and I want to contribute more than just being that."

Emz looked at me with a serious tone in her blue eyes. "Look, Tansy," she said, "We're friends. We're working together, but we don't just see you as an extra vote, or a double agent, come to that. We want you here as your friends."

"That's right," Bowie added. "We're friends first. I don't work with people I don't like unless there's no other option. This time, there was an option. I wouldn't have chosen everyone on our team if we could have swapped them out."

I nodded. "Yeah, that's why I'm working with both of you. I'd swap Priya and Damien for MK and Julia any day," I said, laughing. "At least they try hard and don't spend their lives on social media or making sarcastic comments all the time."

The three of us laughed and turned to less serious subjects, like whether that meta movie about Barbie in the real world would be worth watching, or how senior year was going to be at our respective high schools (I'd found out by now that Emma's school was two hours away from mine, but Bowie's was just fifteen minutes away, so we probably lived quite close to each other). It was easy and light.

Kind of like how I wished it was for more of Total Drama. We'd been here a week, and already, it seemed to be getting harder.

Well, I got through a short chapter about a break day! Next will be the challenge.