AUTHOR'S NOTES

HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING THE UPLOAD SCHEDULE: OK, it has come to my attention that a lot of readers (mainly on AO3) are being vocal about the fact that I simply have too many chapters. And to be honest, I agree. Therefore, instead of getting one short chapter a day you will get a LONG chapter twice a week. This will start to take place from Episode 4. Thanks for the feedback guys!

12:29 am

Priya jolted upright in her bed. Who in the world is knocking on my window at 12:30 in the morning? she thought to herself incredulously. Priya groaned, rubbed her eyes and turned to face her window. She saw the silhouette of a familiar friend.

"W-what? M-Millie?!" Priya blinked and shook her head twice to make sure she was seeing correctly. There she was. Millie, wet and looking melancholy with a half-attempt at a smile illuminated by moonlight. Had she been crying? It was hard to tell as her tears appeared to be blending in with the rain. In an instant, Priya unlocked the window and Millie crashed onto her bed.

"T-t-t-thanks," Millie stuttered. "It was g-g-getting c-cold out there. P-p-probably should have brought an umbrella with me b-b-but whoops." She shrugged her shoulders and squeezed rain out of her bunny slippers.

Priya closed the window and stared blankly at her friend.

"What are you doing here?" Priya asked gently as she patted Millie's head dry with her blanket.

Millie gave a little sigh.

"Priya, I wanted to see you. We can talk now right? Please?" Millie pleaded as she grabbed Priya's hands and held them tighter than she ever had in her entire life.

Priya was slightly taken aback.

"Uh… of course! I mean, if it can't wait until morning… sure. Why? What's wrong? OH! You look terrible!" Priya finally took in Millie's appearance. Apart from being wet with sticks and mud in her hair, Millie looked like she had been crying all night. Her cheeks were puffy, her fingernails were brown with a shade of green and her eyes were bloodshot red. Priya had barely begun to ask another question when Millie promptly collapsed into Priya's arms, face bent over and crying.

"Priya, I'm so screwed..." Millie whimpered. "When I look at my team, everyone is getting along so well. They all have alliances with each other. If we lose a challenge, I'm definitely going home! And I – I don't want that. I promised you I would merge so we could continue hanging out! I don't know what to do Priya! I have nobody I can talk to on the other team! NOBODY!"

Millie broke down and sobbed uncontrollably, her whole body contorting once more. She had been wanting to let all of that out since the teams were formed and now she had. A great wave of relief had rushed over her.

Everything was going to be alright, Priya would tell her what to do.

"Millie! Hey, hey. Look at me girl," Priya replied shaken by Millie's outburst. Priya grabbed Millie's wrists and stared empathetically at Millie's eyes. "I'm here for you, okay?"

Millie nodded and half-laughed as saliva came spilling out of her mouth.

"Yes, things don't look so good for you right now. But LISTEN!," Priya said fiercely. "You need to step out of your comfort zone and start talking to someone. Anybody! I'm not going to throw challenges for you so you'd better not expect me to. There has to be one person you can talk to. Uhh, let me guess. Julia, Axel, and Nichelle are together?"

"They're like the mean, popular girls clique. I can't talk with them," Millie sighed and stared at the ground with very defeated body language.

"Ripper? Zee? Chase?" Priya enquired, going through Millie's teammates one by one.

"Those three combined have double digit IQ at most," Millie replied nonchalantly, staring at the ceiling.

"OK…" Priya frowned, slightly confused at why Millie was being so judgmental when she was in a situation like this. "Then I guess that leaves… Wayne!" Priya clapped her hands over her mouth as if she had found Eureka. "There's our answer Millie! You need to make friends with Wayne!"

Millie stared skeptically at Priya. Was she serious?

"I don't know if he'll want to talk with me. We're so… different. He's so sporty and outgoing. I'm neither of those things," Millie hunched over and grabbed one arm.

"Millie," Priya sternly said. "You need to stop being so close-minded and assume that you won't get along with anyone. Wayne is really nice. He'll give you a chance, I'm sure of it."

"Really?" Millie asked in awe. Wayne, the popular hockey captain being friends with me, Millie, the bookworm and bottom of the social popularity ladder?

"YES! And then from there, you can give yourself some real leverage and put yourself in a good position on your team!" Priya said excitedly as she sat cross-legged in front of Millie. "Think about it. Wayne gets along with everyone, I'm sure he's hitting it off with the guys and the girls probably find him to be the strongest player and therefore the most useful… for the team challenges that is. They may try to cut him off when we merge but we'll worry about that later. If you get along with Wayne, he can convince anybody else to save you. Trust me."

Priya's words made so much sense but as usual, self-doubt was creeping inside of Millie. She had always hated that but she couldn't help it. It was one of her bad habits.

"I don't think Wayne would vouch for me like that though…" Millie said awkwardly, half-avoiding Priya's eager gaze because she felt so terrible saying this when Priya had just made her victory speech.

Priya nodded.

"Not yet. Because let's be honest. You two haven't even said a single word to each other. So you need to start NOW." Priya pounded her sheets as she said this to really bring the point home to Millie.

"Build a good relationship with Wayne and make sure you're closer to him than anybody else on your team. It should be a little bit easier now that Raj is on my team. They won't see each other as often so you can have more time with him."

For a minute, Millie sat there in silence. Priya let her have her moment. The only sounds now were the pitter-patter of the rain from the storm which had seemed to calm down and the occasional ruffling of feet from Emma's bed.

Priya's eyes circled around the room when she noticed her and Emma were the only two girls from their team in their cabin. I wonder where MK is Priya thought nervously. Priya's smile vanished and became half-worried.

For some reason, she had an ominous feeling about MK's absence at these hours. Something told her MK had not gone to use the outhouse bathrooms across from their cabins. Priya did not recall a door ever opening ever since Millie climbed through her window which meant that MK had been gone for the whole duration of their conversation which was surely at least 15 minutes. Something told Priya that Millie was not the only one going out for a midnight walk. Priya swam in these confusing thoughts, forming more plausible theories of MK's suspicious behaviour when Millie broke the silence.

"OK!" Millie said half-confidently. "I'll – I'll try Priya! I'll do my best to – erm – socialize with Wayne!" Millie rubbed her eyes and smiled at Priya. The blue moonlight reflecting off of her now projected a more confident figure.

"YES!" Priya cheered. She embraced Millie and hugged her like there was no tomorrow. "There's the Millie I know! Never give up, never surrender!" Priya raised her fist in the air. "We're both going to merge bestie! Promise!"

Millie laughed. "T - t - thank you Priya. I feel m - m - much b - b - better now." The two hugged each other for another minute, with Millie never wanting to let go now that she was safe.

An interlocking of their pinkies, they squeezed tightly and giggled and their promise had been made.

Enjoy the Priya and Millie scene! In canon, I felt Priya was too attached to Caleb to the point where she almost forgot about Millie, her best friend! I promise Priya will treat her much better here. I also thought it made sense for Priya to help Millie by sharing her TD expertise and encourage her to make new friends.