The scene opened up with the same dock as every other time, with Chris standing smack dab in the middle. He clapped his hands together, ready to start off another great episode. "Last time, on Total Drama Island. It was finally time for the campers to take a break from all the running they had to do. And what better way to do that?" It cut to Cameron attempting to do magic tricks, and failing. "But with a talent show? I asked both teams to elect three members each to perform an act, where they would be judged by yours truly, Chef." It cut to Chef giving a score of five to Josef. "The campers had a bit of a rocky start. The Killer Bass were down two members, and David decided to ditch his team. As for the Screaming Gopher, none of the talents seemed to stick." It showed off Jack spouting off nonsense. "When it finally came time for the show, the Screaming Gophers pulled out with an early lead thanks to Talia and Catrina, while the Killer Bass struggled behind. It wasn't until a mysterious figure, who I can only assume is Enima, appeared." It showed the figure landing down from the lights. "And even then, they needed to hope that the Screaming Gophers bombed their next performance. And bomb it, they did." It showed Ashton being booted off stage. "In the end, it was Ashton that was sent packing when he failed to perform anything at the talent show." Next was a clip of Ashton taking the boat for a joy ride. "What sort of challenge lies ahead this time? Will the team dynamics improve? Find out this time, on Total! Drama! ISLAN-" He was cut off when Chef approached him, whispering something in his ears. "What do you mean we haven't found the boat? You know how much I spent on that?" More whispering. "I don't care that I got it at a discount! We need it for tonight!" Oh well, that was a problem for later. "Will we ever find our boat? Find out this time, on Total! Drama! ISLAND!" And the camera cut off.

(?)

Someone was running through the forest, peering through the trees, trying to find any other sort of movement. They stopped when they finally found exactly what they were looking for. The target. They were walking out in the open, on the path, followed behind by four guards.

When the figure who was hiding peered their head out more, it was revealed to be Marisa. "Alright… Just let them get closer, and everything should be-"

Her plans were thrown out of proportion when Robin stopped right in front of the figures. "I've been looking everywhere for you."

"Nono…" She mumbled to herself. "What the hell are you doing?"

The target looked at him and scoffed. "And who are you supposed to be?"

Slowly, Robin drew his blade. "I'm your assassin…" He trailed off. "Or he's your assassin." He pointed out towards a part of the forest where Jack was hiding. "Or she's your assassin." He lastly pointed to where Marisa was. "We aren't too picky."

"You idiot!" Jack yelled out, revealing himself. He had a fireball at the ready.

Marisa, on the other hand, felt a little more safe with staying where she was. Sure, Robin had ratted out her position, but she wasn't as stupid to reveal herself. Besides, she got such a high stealth roll, so why would she-

"You see a giant ball of fire slowly approaching your location. From the looks of it, it didn't come from Jack."

Well… shit. She didn't have much time to react, but thanks to her swift movement, she was able to avoid any damage. Of course, she was forced to step into the open, where the rest of the combat was happening.

"Alright, let's do this." Robin called out, grabbing his sword. "Jack, fireball us when we get into range."

"Such reckless behaviour. You should consider yourself lucky that I became an Evocation Wizard." He rolled his eyes, still having the fireball ready.

The tactician shook his head. "No, shoot me too. I can tank it. I'll also use the opportunity to make an intimidation check if I don't take much damage."

"Stop!" Jack called out, bringing us back to reality. "Robin, you play too recklessly, it makes it quite unenjoyable for the rest of us." He crossed his arms.

Marisa had a humorous look on her face. "I don't know, I find it quite fun."

Cameron shrugged. "It's not like your character was being hurt by all of this. And you could just not listen to him."

They brought up valid points… Except. "Yes, that's true and all. But giving out our locations was an unwise move and almost cost Marisa her life."

"I… Took no damage. I'm fine." She pointed out.

"Honestly, it seems like you're ruining the fun here." Robin pointed out.

Seeing the tension slowly rising, Cameron let out a sigh. "Let's take a break, shall we?" He stood up from the cafeteria table. "We've been at it for a few hours anyways. I'm getting hungry." He turned towards where Chef would normally be. "Hey! Chef! When is the food going to be ready?"

He raised an eyebrow. "You ain't getting any food today."

"Hilarious!" The DM didn't seem to be taking him seriously. "Seems like it will be ready in an hour." He sat back down. "Should we go and see what the rest of the team is doing?"

Jack shook his head. "I have no intention of seeing them, right now. Not after a loss like that."

"It's been two days…" Marisa tilted her head to the side. "Learn to relax a bit, won't you?"

"... Fine." He glanced the other way. "I guess I might just be worried that because of our first two victories, our team has gotten a false sense of security, and it might lead to an inevitable downfall."

Leaning back in his chair, Robin spoke up. "You worry too much. Even if we do lose, don't we almost outweigh the entire team?" He pointed out. "We're four, so."

Marisa blinked a few times. "Are we in an alliance? I don't believe we ever established that."

Cameron raised his fist in the air. "I would never vote for anyone at this table."

"Likewise." The critic said the only positive thing he'll ever say.

Marisa slowly nodded her head. "Yeah, if we did, we would ruin what we have right here." Her attention turned towards Robin. "You feel the same way, right?"

"Legally, I can't say." It's not like he voted for Jack last time or anything.

"Though… Speaking of votes." Her attention turned to Cameron. "You received a vote last time, what do you make of that?"

He was busy writing some things down before he realised he was being spoken to. "Huh? Oh? That? Yeah, I already forgot about that. It doesn't matter anyways. I'm still here!"

She frowned slightly. "But don't you find it alarming? Some people might want you out."

"Tsk…" Jack shook his head. "I'm certain I might have received votes too. Besides, I don't think it's cause for concern. Had Cameron gone up anyways, he would have likely bombed his performance."

The DM brought a hand to his heart, wounded. "You break my heart!"

With a small humorous grin on his face, Jack stood up. "I think I'm going to head back to the cabin to relax."

Marisa stood up. "I might go and catch some sunlight. Being stuck here for hours isn't ideal."

"Stuck here?" Cameron blinked. "That's such a rude term. You weren't stuck here."

"Finally, free from this prison." Robin called out from the open door. "I forgot what sunlight felt like."

"HEY!"

Killer Bass (Guys)

Even with it being noon, most of the guys from the Killer Bass were still in the cabin. The only one not around was Josef.

"I think the adrenaline from winning has worn off…" Christopher was lying down on the bunk bed, looking at the ceiling. "Do you guys feel the same?"

"Why would there be adrenaline?" Jeremy pointed out. "None of us did anything…" His attention turned towards David. "And he did even less."

The shady guy shrugged. "Hey, I didn't need to do anything. We still won."

That raised a question for Christopher. "Where did you go?"

That only served to annoy him. "I took a day off. Doing so many challenges can get tiring. Besides, I didn't have any talents, so there was no reason for me to do anything, was there? None of you participated either."

"I tried." Christopher defended himself. "They didn't like my talent."

"And Chris didn't let me displace the ocean, so who's really to blame here?" The surfer pointed out.

All bad excuses. Still, David realised he couldn't blame them too much. Taking a look around the room, he formulated a plan. "Hey, what do you think of Josef?"

"His dance was nice!" Well at least Christopher was being positive!

Jeremy, on the other hand. "Seems to think he's some kind of leader. But under his leadership, it feels like we've struggled."

Good, good. Seems they- Seems Jeremy was on a similar page as him. "Exactly. He boasts that he's such a great leader-"

"Does he?" The lost boy didn't remember any of that.

Ignoring him, the shady guy continued. "And yet he has almost nothing to back it up with. We only won last time because the other team only had two acts."

"Hmm…" The surfer seemed to be deep in thought. "Yeah, we sure did." He tilted his head to the side. "Maybe we should have someone else lead us. I say we should nominate Nila. She seems nice."

Not the answer he was looking for, but he'd take anyone else at this point. "Then let's bring it up to her when we can."

"Guys! I figured it out!" Christopher seemed really happy. "Two leaders."

They both ignored him.

Forest

A new day meant it was time to go foraging again. This time, however, Eleanor didn't enter the forest alone. She was already accompanied by Xi, who had joined her the last two days too.

"So, back home, you wake up early and tend to all the crops?" He opened up the conversation.

"My parents think it's best if I get into the habit early on." She knelt down next to a bush. "Besides, I don't mind waking up early. Buuuut…" She trailed off. "It also means that I'm passed out at around nine at night no matter what I do."

"I'm one for waking up early, but even that is too early…" Xi shook his head.

"Oh?" She stopped what she was doing to look at him. "You seem like the type who would stay up late at night."

"Oh please, I may not look it, but I do value being early. I dislike being late to anything." He was done with the bush he was working on, so he moved onto the next. "The bags under my eyes are just a bit of makeup."

"Oh? You know how to do that too?" She seemed somewhat happy. "Talia taught me the other day how to do makeup, but I'm still not good at it."

"..." The psychologist crossed his arms, looking over at Eleanor. "Is that why you refuse to show your face?"

"Um…!" She quickly moved to the other side of the bush to hide herself more. "N-no! Not at all!"

He let out a low chuckle. "You can show yourself, I'm sure it's not that- It's bad." He put it very bluntly when Eleanor showed off her face. "Didn't know the circus was in town."

She quickly covered her face. "I'm still not very good at it! I put way too much. Talia said I should have gotten the basics of it, but I still don't know what I'm doing…"

"Well, I'm always available to offer some guidance, though, makeup is different for a guy." However, now came time for the real reason he had been helping her out. "Say, you and I have been doing this for a few days. And we seem to work well together."

She seemed a bit confused. "Yeah, what about it?"

Guess he would have to spell it out. "I was wondering if you'd be interested in an alliance. I don't see you as the type of person who likes to think about who to vote for."

She quickly glanced away. "N-no… I actually hate the voting part of this game. I voted for Ashton last time because he felt like he deserved it, and he did lose us the challenge… But what if we lose simply because the other team was better?"

Highly unlikely, given who the other team is. "Yes, I get you." He slowly nodded his head. "I was wondering if you'd be fine in leaving the decision making to me? To relieve you of any stress you may face?"

Her eyes lit up a bit. "You'd do that for me?"

Hook, line, and sinker. "Of course. And that way we'd be voting together, so less chances one of us will go home."

Confessional: Eleanor

She seemed really happy. "That takes so much stress away from me." She let out a sigh of relief. "I thought I was going to hate having to choose who to vote for, but at least now I don't have to worry about it." She paused for a bit. "Though, I hope he doesn't vote for people I don't want to vote for, like Talia."

Cafeteria

"Chef… Chef!" Historia called out towards the back, but nothing. "Where the hell is he? Lunch should have been served an hour ago."

"Princess is feeling hungry? I thought you hated the food." Enima walked up behind her.

She narrowed her eyes "Do you stalk me?"

"Yeah." She didn't seem serious about the answer. "But you didn't answer the question."

The unbearable scholar turned back to look at the kitchen. "I do. But I also don't want to starve, and the faster I get used to how disgusting it is, the better." She moved her hand over to the bell, and began ringing it. But still, nothing. "Ugh! Where's Chris? He wouldn't let us starve, would he?"

"No, I'm sure he would." Reassuring. Leaning over the counter, Enima jumped through. "Might as well see what's behind her.

"H-hey!" She quickly followed. "We shouldn't be here. What if we get in trouble."

"You joined me." The mysterious painter countered. "So if we do get in trouble, you're to blame too."

She wanted to counter her, but couldn't think of anything. "Fine."

Unlike earlier, Chef truly wasn't in the back. But the weirdest part of it all was just how clean the place was.

"Surprised by how it looks…" Historia mumbled out. "I thought for sure he would leave it a mess. Something about adding flavour."

Enima moved over to the fridge, opening it up. But it was empty. "Hmm…" She stood up straight, looking at the cupboards. "Is there anything here?" Checking those, they were also empty. "I don't think we have… any food."

Well, that wasn't a good sign. "Then are we going to be forced to get food on our own? I'm not doing that."

"Alright, princess." She rolled her eyes. "I'm sure there's a plan here. Might be related to the challenge, after all. Should we mention it to the others?"

"Yeah, probably. They'd probably like to know too."

But before they could leave the kitchen, they heard a creaking noise behind them. Quickly, they both turned around to be met face to face with Chef. Looking down at him, he gave them a death glare. "And what are you two doing here?"

"Well, you see." Enima tried to at least reason with the cook. "We were growing hungry and noticed you hadn't fed us today. Isn't that right Historia?" She was gone. "Oh you son of a bi-"

The girl was thrown right out into the mess hall. "And stay out!"

"What's his deal?" Historia shook her head.

The mysterious painter sent a glare her way. "Way to abandon me like that."

"Oh, stop complaining. You should have ran. Not like you can reason with him. Besides, we should tell the rest of the team the kitchen doesn't have any food."

"Ri-"

Suddenly, the loud blaring sound of a megaphone could be heard outside. "Campers!" It was Chris, calling out from in front of the mess hall. "Please gather by the mess hall for your next challenge."

The two looked at each other before sighing. "Guess this has to do with the challenge." The scholar opened the door. "Let's see what he wants."

Outside the Cafeteria

Soon, both teams had all gathered, waiting for Chris, who was here only a few moments ago.

"No food?" Josef mumbled out. "Why would he leave us with no food?"

Nila panicked a bit, but turned towards everyone else. "It is alright! I have been in a situation like this before, we should be able to survive if we try and conserve our energy."

"Sleep? Got it." Was the takeaway Christopher was going to have.

"Wait…" Jared called out, having overheard the team a bit. "What do you mean there's no food?"

Enima shrugged. "When we checked in the back, there was nothing, anywhere."

He slowly hummed to himself. "That would explain why there was no breakfast…"

"There better be food." Arianna called out. "I'm not just going to starve all day."

"Relax…" Robin shook his head. "It's probably just a challenge related thing. Maybe us being hungry is important."

Eleanor held out a basket of berries. "Xi and I went and collected some food this morning. Do any of you want some?"

Arianna raised an eyebrow at Xi helping her out, but she didn't have time to think much about it since everyone was taking some of the berries. "Hey- Wait!"

Confessional: Arianna

She was currently eating one of the berries she managed to nab. "I can see that he's starting to at least make some efforts towards other people." She took a glance at the berries. "Did they even fucking wash these? Disgusting." Still, she was a little too hungry. "But it means that I need to be careful with who he allies with. I'm not stupid enough to ignore the fact he can try and go for me at any time. The question is just… Who should I ally with that he doesn't have?"

"I'm not having your filthy berries." Jack narrowed his eyes. "I can tell you haven't washed them yet."

"O-oh…" Eleanor seemed a bit disappointed. "It's just that… we came here right after Chris called us."

Xi shook his head. "Cut her some slack will you. I don't see you providing food for the others."

"Ngg…" That shut the critic right up.

Arianna spent a few seconds looking at him, before glancing away. He would do.

Finally, Chris reappeared, with Chef right beside him. "Welcome campers, to the cafeteria." He clapped his hands together.

Silence.

"Yeah, we've been here before." Historia narrowed her eyes.

Jeremy had a notepad out, writing things down. "Is that with two u's, or one?"

"This will be the location… of your next challenge." Chris continued. "You may have noticed that Chef has failed to provide you… any… food…?" He slowly realised that everyone was eating. "Where did you get all of that?"

Everyone pointed to Eleanor, including Xi. "H-hey! I've been doing that for the past four days!"

No matter, it wouldn't fill them enough. "Now, there are two reasons for that. Reason number one, I didn't want there to be anything in the kitchen before you started. Reason number two! This would be miles more entertaining if you were hungry the entire time." He had a sinister grin on his face. "The challenge today is simple. Each team must prepare a three course meal."

Hearing that, David had a smile on his face. "Alright! Anything else?"

"It's not that simple, so let me finish." This was when the bad part would come in. "The kitchen is divided in two, with each team having a section they can use. Each team is provided with the equipment, and utensils to complete the task. They have also been provided with a list. That list contains several different ingredients you can find on the island. You can cook whatever you want, provided you can find the ingredients first. The more simple ingredients are common, but the bigger they get, the rarer they become. There's only one set of ribs out there, so be careful. The team with the best presentation and taste, wins the challenge. Any questions?"

Several people lifted their hands.

"Good, you have six hours." The host called out as he walked away.

Kitchen (Screaming Gophers)

"Hmm…" Arianna had swiped the list before anyone else could. "There's a lot on this list… and next to no information on where it is."

Catrina took a peek. "At least it's nice enough to provide us with how much there is per item." She crossed her arms, a confident smile. "It means we can spy on the other team!"

"But doesn't that mean they can spy on us?" Marisa pointed out.

"Shit!"

"Where do we even begin?" Xi let out a sigh. "First off, who knows how to cook, in any capacity?"

Eleanor lifted up her hand. "I can cook!" She glanced around at the rest of the room. "Do… do none of you know how to…"

Talia lifted up her hand. "By proxy, I've learned how to cook." She tilted her head to the side. "Or at least what would make a good dish."

The last person to lift up their hand was Marisa. "And I've baked before, but I don't think that's going to be much help."

Xi let out a sigh, seeing that these were the choices they had.

"Might I be so bold to take a leadership role here?" Talia offered herself up. "I've worked around kitchens before, so I feel like I would be the most qualified."

The psychologist looked at her for a few seconds before shaking his head. "I'm not sure if that would be the best idea right now."

Jared stepped up. "I think she seems perfectly qualified. Nobody else has really done much work in a kitchen."

Great, now he was in the way. "I didn't mean it to be rude…" He closed his eyes, trying to keep his temper at bay. "I was just…. Nevermind. It's not important. She can be the leader for this challenge."

Confessional: Arianna

"Folding just like that? Didn't know he was that pathetic. Sadly, I would have offered myself up, but I don't know anything about cooking. Never really had to worry about something like that." She crossed her arms.

Kitchen (Killer Bass)

"Ladies and gentleman." David bowed before his team. "Let me make up for last time by offering myself this time. I know how to cook."

"So do I, you're not special." Mindy rolled her eyes.

"Oh, so now you decide to do something." Josef seemed annoyed. "Thought for a moment you were going to run off again."

The shady guy ran a hand through his hair. "That was two days ago, when are you going to stop talking about it?"

Seeing that tensions were already rising up, Nila stepped between the two of them. "That is enough out of both of you! We are a team. So we should work like a team. We have many different things we have to worry about. We need people to cook, and we need people to get food. I cannot cook, so I will offer to go find some ingredients."

That seemed to have calmed the room down. "Very well…" Josef took a step back.

"Looking through this…" Historia mumbled out. She had already gotten to reading the list provided. "There doesn't seem to be a lot of high quality stuff out there, so we might need to be careful."

David slid over to get a better look at the list. "Hmmm… Yeah. It might be best to have everyone head out and get as much as we can. Even if we don't use it, it's good to keep it out of the hands of the other team, right?"

"Did Chris make any rule about stealing?" Mindy thought for a moment. "Because if we do that, couldn't they just steal everything we've collected."

That was right… The shady guy thought for a moment before snapping his finger. "Nila, you stay here and protect whatever we collect."

"H-huh? Me? Why?"

He shrugged. "You seem like you might be able to kick someone's ass."

Jeremy slowly nodded. "Yeah, she can. She beat up Josef the other day while you were gone."

"She did not." He narrowed his eyes.

"Is there anything specific we should be aiming for?" Bella wanted to get the conversation back on track.

Taking another look at the list, David spoke up. "Yeah, meat would be good to get, but pointless if we don't also get some sort of spices."

"He said it was a three course meal too, right?" Mindy pointed out. "We need an appetiser, an entree, and lastly a dessert. So maybe keep that in mind."

"Sugar could be nice to get, then." Enima pointed out. "I wonder if he has a sweet tooth."

"I'll keep the list with me." David rolled it up. "Are we good to head out?"

"Wait!" Nila called out. "Since we do not have anything yet. Would it not be best for me to head with you?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, sure. But make sure you are back as soon as you get some stuff."

With that, the group set off.

Kitchen (Screaming Gophers)
The team was currently pouring over the list of things they could get.

"Oh." Marisa realised something. "There are some things we could use for baking if we wanted to."

"If that's what you can work with, then yes, we could bake the dessert." Talia hummed out in thought.

"How should we divide the work?" Jared thought for a moment. We are ten, so…" He trailed off.

That's the exact thought that was on her mind. "With three things we have to make, we could divide it so there's two per station, and the four others are outside getting us some ingredients."

"Well, I don't cook food, so." Jack trailed off. "I guess I can offer to find some of the ingredients."

Robin tilted his head to the side. "It might be dangerous." He pointed out. "But I, too, will go."

That was already two people who offered to look for ingredients. Talia spoke up. "I could take care of the appetiser, Eleanor could work on the main meal, while Marisa works on dessert.

"Um…" Eleanor spoke up. "Could Xi help me out with the entree?"

She didn't really see a problem with that. "As long as he wants to."

He shrugged. "Works for me."

Great, another opportunity for the two to interact. As much as Arianna didn't want to do this… "I'll get out and find some ingredients too."

Things were turning out nicely. "Cameron, are you fine with staying and worrying about desserts with Marisa?"

"You've got it!" He declared, not ever in control of his own choices.

"Huh?" Catrina realised that left her with being the one to go outside. "What the hell? Why do I have to go get ingredients?"

Talia shrugged. "It keeps you out of my sight."

"What the hell-"

Forest (Killer Bass)

Stopping at the edge of the forest, David let out a sigh. "We always end up back here, don't we?"

Historia narrowed her eyes. "It's an island with a large portion of it covered by a forest. Of course we're going to end up back here."

"Calm down, will ya?" He shook his head. "Alright, I say we give our major search one hour before we meet back up in the kitchen."

"Any ideas where Chris would hide anything?" Enima took a look around. "I don't suspect he'd hide anything in an easy location."

"Oh, I'm great with finding things." Mindy leaned forward, her hands behind her back. "I'm sure we'll find what we need."

"What do we even want to make?" Historia raised an eyebrow.

David rolled up the list. "I said not to worry about it. We'll just find whatever we can." He pointed forward. "Alright, let's split up!" He tilted his head to the side. "Probably best to split up into groups of three."

Enima quickly moved over, putting her arms around both Mindy and Historia. "Then I'll take these two, alright?"

"Ah- Who ever said-" The unbearable scholar began to say.

The other girl didn't mind, though. "Love it! Let's go."

Jeremy thought for a moment before an idea popped in his head. "I'll go with Josef and Nila."

The wannabe host let out a sigh of relief. Seems he was stuck with at least some reasonable people. "Alright. Good luck to everyone." He moved away.

Nila took one last look at the last group before departing.

Seeing who he had left, David slid in closer. "Alright, it's just going to be us three. But fear not." He showed off the list. "We have the list right here."

Christopher took a look at it. "So, what should we aim for?"

He shrugged. "Whatever we can find."

"Shouldn't we get something to carry things with instead?" Bella suggested. "We might have to make multiple trips…"

David shook his head, a grin appearing on his face. "We won't need to because of this!" He pointed at the shopping cart on the list.

Christopher blinked a few times. "How are we supposed to eat a shopping cart?"

Rolling up the list, the shady guy was annoyed. "I'm already over this group."

Forest (Screaming Gophers)

Jack stood by the outskirts of the forest, crossing his arms. "Are you sure everything is in there?"

Catrina rubbed the back of her head, taking another look at her list. "Well, it's probably the best place to start looking."

Arianna shook her head. "Of course Chris would have us go in there again."

"Wonder if the bears have already gotten all the food." Robin hummed in thought.

"Tsk, it's probably placed out of reach of them." The critic pointed out. "It wouldn't make sense for Chris to have us almost die-" Flashbacks of the landmines came back to him. "He totally just put everything in the open, didn't he?" He realised.

Moving past the group, the tactician turned towards them. "Well, let's not keep our team waiting. Let's return quickly."

Catrina thought for a moment. "We never discussed what kind of food we were going to make, right? So we can't just bring back whatever."

"Marisa mentioned baking, so we'd need stuff for that." Jack pointed out. "Like flour."

"Well, we're in luck!" The DJ proclaimed. "There should be about twenty bags of flour scattered around the island."

Arianna moved in to get a better look. "Let me take a look too. We need back up plans in case we can't collect something." Eyeing the items on the list, she slowly nodded. "Cheese might be a good thing to get. We could use it for the appetiser or entree."

"Don't keep me waiting." Robin called out from further into the forest. "Time is limited, after all. Our six hours are already ticking away."

She mumbled something under her breath before reluctantly following the lunatic into the forest.

Jeremy, Josef, Nila

"Nila." Josef opened up. "You're strong, right? You were able to defeat Chef."

"Huh-" It was an odd question. "Y-yeah. I would say I am pretty strong."

That could work out in their favour. "Then I should task you with carrying all the stuff we find back."

"Huh?" She didn't like that one bit. "Why me? The two of you have arms too!"

The wannabe host shook his head. "It would make it so at least one of us has free hands in case something dangerous happens."

She let out a sigh. "Still, I should not be out here for too long. I have to return to guard our stuff soon."

Jeremy approached the two. "Well, I doubt they'll have anything right now anyways. The only thing they would be doing is sharing ideas on what to make…" He tilted his head to the side, deep in thought.

Josef nodded his head. "Exactly, there's no reason to be security yet. Besides, I think the three of us are able to manage just fine. I'm one of the only people who know what they're doing. Nila, you're our most challenge heavy player. I can see you carrying us through most challenges. And Jeremy-"

"He is gone."

"He's gone." He deadpanned. Turning to where he used to be, he let out a sigh. "Alright, maybe it's just us two. Where the hell did he go anyways?"

Kitchen (Screaming Gopher)

You might have thought it was time for the other team, but it was a lie! It was still the Killer Bass! Or more so just Jeremy. Having thought of an idea, he snuck back to see what the other team was planning. He knew only a small portion of them had gone to gather resources. He stood by the window, listening in.

"So, what did you have in mind?" Cameron placed a hand on his hip. "Baking covers a lot of different areas."

Marisa hummed in thought. "Maybe some brownies. Or a cake could even be good. There was chocolate and other stuff on the list, so I think we should still be in the clear."

Baking? Jeremy tilted his head to the side. This might prove to be good information. If he could get all the flour. He left off, leaving the other team behind.

Still, there were things that needed to be said.

"Jared." Xi approached the duo.

Talia seemed annoyed, but didn't say anything.

The cadet looked at her, before changing his attention to him. "Can I help you?"

He slowly nodded his head. "I want to have a small talk with you. Don't worry. It's nothing bad."

Still, he was a bit sceptical about all of this. "Alright…"

Confessional: Jared

"I don't trust him one bit. For one, he didn't want Talia to take charge. It's not like he was qualified to do it for a challenge like this. And second of all…" He glanced away from the camera. "My mother always said to never trust a book by its cover, but his appearance is highly suspicious. Have you seen his eyes?"

Now that the two of them were outside, they were able to talk in private. Xi crossed his arms, leaning against the wall. "I would like to apologise for my actions earlier. I didn't mean for them to come off as rude. I didn't do it out of malice. Instead, I was doing it out of caution."

Jared still wasn't getting the point. "Explain."

"Last challenge, we had a similar situation with Ashton taking charge of the team. But when all else failed, he was the one to take blame."

"But that was because he was to blame!" The cadet pointed out.

Xi lifted up his hand, signalling him to stop. "Let me finish. I'm not saying that she will be to blame if we lose. But some people might find it easier to place the blame on her if she was the one taking charge. She seems like a good girl, so I was worried she might get voted off if things take a turn South and there's not a specific person to point the finger at.."

Hearing that, Jared calmed down. "Is that what that was about?" It's true that some people might not know what to do if they lost again. "Then I would like to apologise for my reaction back then." He felt a bit guilty now. "I thought you didn't like her as a person."

Xi let out a chuckle. "No, far from it. I think she might be one of the most valuable members of the team. She was one of the few people to step up where it mattered, and I could tell she didn't want to do it."

He had noticed that too. "She seemed reluctant to participate in the talent show, but she did it anyway." He had a smile on his face. "Not many would go out of their way to do something like that." He extended his arm out. "I'm glad we were able to reach an understanding."

Xi took his hand and shook it. "Likewise."

Confessional: Jared

"Like my mother always said! Never judge a book by its cover!" He sounded rather confident when he said that.

Enima, Historia, Mindy

So far, as the most successful group, the three girls had amassed several different ingredients. Most notable, pasta! "Maybe we should just make it Italian themed." Historia pointed out. "We found sauces, so we could probably cook up some alfredo."

Mindy let out a sigh. "I was hoping to go for a more Japanese feel, but we didn't find anything remotely similar. I wanted to make sushi…"

Enima shrugged. "The day is still young. We're bound to find some other things. I know there's rice."

Historia glanced over at the taller artist. "You know how to make sushi?"

She rolled her eyes. "Duh, I'm half Japanese. Thought the last name would tip you off."

"I don't know your last name." She stopped looking at her, instead turning her eyes to the surrounding forest. "Maybe we found enough and can head back."

"Giving up now?" Enima shook her head. "That's a no from me. We can always find more.

Besides, we aren't sure if Nila is back yet or not."

"Ugh, you always try to make me work so much. Mindy, be the tiebreaker."

Said girl was already walking deeper into the forest. "I'm sure we can get more."

Having been outvoted, she simply mumbled under her breath and followed the group.

Confessional: Historia

"It's starting to feel like everyone goes against what I want." She had a hand on her hip, looking off to the side. "Do they do it just to piss me off, or am I being unreasonable?"

"I think you're being unreasonable!" A voice called out from outside.

She quickly stood up. "Who the hell just said that!?"

Outside

David was standing by the confessional. As soon as the door slammed open, he couldn't help but smile. "Christopher said it."

"H-huh?" He was caught off guard. "But I thought you said it."

The shady man shrugged. "Whatever, the point is…" He trailed off. "Why are you in the confessional instead of finding things?"

"..." She remained silent for a few seconds. "Our group went back." She lied.

Sure, he could stick around and ask questions all day, but that would benefit nobody. "Works for me."

"H-huh?" Bella looked over at her. "But she's clearly lying."

Christopher tilted his head to the side. "Why would anyone lie?" As if almost forgetting David's lie.

"Never mind…" She also realised it wasn't worth it.

Enima and Mindy

They had been walking a bit before Enima realised something. "Did… Historia leave us?" She glanced around, finding the scholar nowhere.

Mindy didn't seem to care. "Well, as long as she brought back what she got, it doesn't really matter. It makes it a little more quiet around here." She climbed herself up to a higher part of the rocky terrain. "How far do you think Chris hid things?"

Following her up, the mysterious painter shrugged. "As if I'd know. But if he's going to be eating this food, I don't think he'd want to take too long hiding them. Wouldn't want something to expire."

True, but there were ways around that. Not that Mindy would argue about that. "Here's some more things." She handed over a loaf of bread to Enima. "Not sure how much use that does, but…"

"If we could find some spices, that would be nice. Or even flour." She let out a sigh as she received the loaf. "Or wait…" She tilted her head to the side. "We need garlic, and cheese."

Hearing those two words, Mindy knew exactly where she was going. "Right, if we could make garlic bread, it would go well with the pasta."

"Exactly!"

Taking a deeper look into the forest from their vantage point, Mindy pointed off towards further into the forest. "We haven't gone there yet. We should see what we find and head back soon."

A little more travelling wouldn't hurt them, so Enima was on board. "Got it."

Forest (Screaming Gophers)

Having been travelling for a bit, you'd expect them to have a rather large collection. But they barely had a few things. They each had two items.

Arianna stopped walking, letting out a sigh. "Guys, this isn't working." She finally declared.

This stopped the other three people. "What do you mean?" Catrina was ticked off. They had found stuff! So clearly it was working.

"The rate that we're finding stuff isn't enough. We'll have to go back to the kitchen soon anyways, so maybe it's best if the four of us split up into groups of two. We'd be able to cover more ground."

Robin thought for a moment before slowly nodding to himself. "I think that would be for the best, yes." He walked over towards Arianna. "You're fine with continuing down this path? I think two of us should head back with everything and go somewhere else."

She wasn't going to say no to getting rid of the stuff she had. She handed it over to him. "Jack and I can keep going."

Neither would he say no to this. He dumped all of his things onto Catrina, who wasn't ready in the slightest. "Works for me."

"H-hey!" She tried to protest, but was ultimately ignored.

Confessional: Arianna

She seemed rather confident in herself. "Finally, I can ditch the other two losers. And that gives me a chance to talk to Jack." Her mind wandered off. "Although I'm not sure how willing he would be to cooperate."

"So, how's your game going with the others?" She needed to choose a subject he would be interested in.

He let out a sigh. "It started off pretty grande. Cameron is amazing at crafting a world. Unfortunately… one of the party members brings it down." He took a glance to see if the other two were still around. "Robin finds it fun to try and put the rest of us on the spot due to his antics."

"Why not just return the favour?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Though I am petty, I won't stoop to his level." He reasoned. "Besides, it wouldn't be in my character's nature to do something so reckless like that."

"You mean you don't just play yourself?" This was starting to sound like theatre for nerds.

"Tsk, of course not." He crossed his arms, almost insulted by the fact. "Where would be the fun in that?"

Might as well say the parallels out loud. "So, like theatre?"

"I suppose someone could interpret it like that, yes. But it's much more than that. In theatre, you are forced to read off the lines you were given. But in DnD, you can play whatever character you want, and make up your own lines on the spot."

"Ah. Improv." Was the better term.

Jack mulled over that thought before nodding. "I guess yeah, in its simplest terms. It's nothing but improv." A small smile appeared on his face. "Are you interested in improv?"

"Somewhat." She couldn't lie there, but she also didn't want to get grouped up into whatever game they were playing. "I do it at school, so."

That got Jack thinking. "Do you also do theatre?" He crossed his arms.

Now he was asking about her. Only fair. "Yeah, why?"

He laughed a bit. "It seems to be your vibe, given your attempted performance last time. Theatre is nice. I could never participate myself, but I always enjoy watching it. As long as it reaches my standards."

"I can assure you that the theatre my school performs is some of the best." She didn't want to boast too much and said the best ever, but she found herself to be the best.

"Oh really?" That did get his interest. "If the country wasn't so big, I would say I'd have to stop and see it for myself." Although, that smile slowly faded off his face as he came to a realisation. "Where did we end up…?"

Hearing that, Arianna stopped walking, looking around. They had been talking for a bit, and neither were paying attention. "I… Don't know." And they were tasked with gathering more ingredients… which they clearly failed to do. "We're not lost, are we?"

"If we just retrace our steps, it should be fine." Jack turned around, but even then, everything looked unfamiliar. "This is my fault." He quickly admitted. "I always get so caught up in conversation that I fail to realise my surroundings." He began walking back they way they had come. "Might be best to keep our talking brief."

Well, there went that idea. But she also didn't want to be lost. "Sure." Besides, they still needed to collect stuff.

Kitchen (Screaming Gophers)

Having followed the path back with no issue, Catrina and Robin dropped off all eight things they had collected.

Talia moved over to inspect what they had gotten. "Not a lot, is it?" She eyed the feta cheese for a moment.

Catrina placed her hands on her hips. "It's what we got to start. The other two are still out there. We don't even know what you want to make."

"We figured it would be best to split up, so we had us two return with everything collected thus far." Robin explained. "We will be heading out again soon."

Marisa moved over to check the pile of food. "No flour?" There was a lot on the list, so she had assumed that it would be one of the first things found.

The tactician shook his head. "Nothing of the likes, no." He turned around to head back towards the door. "We shall return shortly."

Talia, on the other hand, was trying to figure out what they would need. "Well, we'll need to serve the appetiser first. So let's figure that out."

"Got anything in mind?" Jared moved over to get a better list of the ingredients.

She hummed out in thought. "Well, we have some tomatoes and feta… Bruschetta bread wouldn't be bad to make." Then her eyes finally landed on Catrina, who was still here. "You haven't left."

"Not until I get a better idea of what you need."

Well, that could be good for them. "We need onions, and maybe a baguette for the bread. Oh, garlic. Balsamic vin-"

The DJ lifted her hands up in defense. "Woah! Woah! That's too much! I'll bring anything that seems important to that!" Without waiting for any objections, she quickly left the room.

"Hmm…" Eleanor hummed out, having completely ignored the conversation that was happening. "I wonder if we could prepare some fish?"

"Fish?" Xi raised an eyebrow. "You'll have to be more specific than that."

"Well, we only have one kind here." She pointed at the salmon. "But it's a very good kind, so I'm sure it could give us some extra points."

Salmon… might not be a bad idea. "But we can't serve it on its own. What else do you propose we make with it?"

That's the part where she blanked out on. "I… Don't know actually. We could figure that out while we wait for them to come back."

"Hmm…" He didn't like the whole strategy, but it might be for the best. "Rice could be good, and some vegetables never hurt anyone." He wasn't really a cook, so his knowledge was severely lacking.

Bella, Christopher, David

"We should… Go back…" Bella was pretty much begging. "We have enough stuff." She was almost completely hidden by all the food she was carrying. How she could carry all of it was amazing.

If the two other boys were shorter, the same could be said for them. "Hey." David called out. "We have to make sure they have nothing to cook with."

"I think it's a great idea!" Christopher's voice was heavily muffled by the stuff pressed against his mouth.

"Besides…" The shady guy trailed off. "We're almost there."

Once inside the kitchen, David let the large pile drop onto the table. "There we go!" He declared.

"What. The. Fuck." Marisa had been watching through the small open window. "You don't need all that stuff!" She pointed a finger at them.

The shady guy shrugged. "Sure I do. You haven't seen my cooking." He lied.

But this wasn't ideal. Nila wasn't back, which meant that there was nobody left to guard the food. "Here." He handed the list over to Bella. "Take this. I'll stay here." He turned towards the window.

Marisa narrowed her eyes. "What, you think we're going to steal it?"

"Yeah."

"Where's your proof?"

"Cameron."

The boy in question had slowly snuck into the room. When he was called out, he slowly snuck his way out of the room, back onto his team's side.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." David pulled out a chair and sat down. "We can do this all day, you know."

Josef and Nila

Now that they were in a more open part of the island, Josef took this opportunity to look at the sky. "Hmm… We've already spent so much time out here already." He was carrying a few things, while Nila had a few more. "You should head back to protect our stuff."

"Oh! Right! What about you?" She tilted her head.

He shrugged. "I have no reason to leave yet, so I'll probably try and find as much as I can."

She moved closer to him. "I can carry your stuff if you want."

"Are you sure? There's a lot of it." Nila was the only person he felt like being nice to. The only person who was willing to cooperate.

She quickly nodded her head. "I should be fine. It is not that far, and it is not that much."

Well, he wasn't going to say no to the offer. "Here." He handed her everything he had.

She didn't seem to react to the extra weight. "See? All fine! Make sure you collect a lot of things."

"Right, right." He watched her leave, before turning his attention further into the forest. "Now where the hell is the flour? How have I not seen any yet?"

Catrina and Robin

She had stayed behind, so she had to run to catch up to Robin, who hadn't bothered waiting for her. "They told me what they wanted to make for appetisers."

He stopped walking, turning to look at her. "And what would that be?"

"It was… huh… Balsamic bread or something…" That was one of the words, right?

Now, that didn't quite add up for him, but he also didn't care enough to ask any questions. "That could be something good." He knew it would be bad. "Seems we are in good hands." He was expecting another loss within reach. "I guess we should get some balsamic vinegar, then."

Yeah! That was the thing they needed. "That's what she said!" She smiled brightly. "Wow, you're so smart."

Of course he was. "Someone on this team has to be." He mumbled under his breath. "The others took the West side of the island, so we should cover the Eastern side. Although, we might have some overlap with the other team, given they all went into the forest."

"They all went into the forest?" She raised an eyebrow. "What's the benefit of that?"

"Probably wanted to have all their options open from the start, and figure out what to cook after…" He hummed out. "An admirable strategy, but in the end, we'll need to see which one works out the most." He climbed up a rocky ledge, turning to look over at Catrina.

"Still… We need to start getting stuff ready now if we want any hope of getting all the food ready." She seemed decently athletic. She climbed that rocky mountain side almost as easily as he did. And not to mention that she was making some form of sense. There seemed to be a brain in there.

"Right you are. The other team is risking the chance that they might not have enough time to cook, while I bet you Talia is already preparing the tomatoes needed in the balsamic bread." He wasn't going to correct her.

After she finally reached the top, she brushed herself off from any dirt she got on herself. "So what is balsamic bread anyways?"

Well shit- "I'll tell you when you're older." He began to walk away.

"H-huh?" She was caught off guard. "Hey! Aren't I older than you? I'm like 97.125% sure I am!" She ran after him.

Kitchen (Killer Bass)

Almost at once, both Nila and Historia returned to the kitchen. The latter being empty handed. "Historia?" She tilted her head to the side. "Where is your food?"

She placed a hand on her hip. "I already brought my stuff earlier. I hid it in the cabinets." She stepped into the room, only to be caught off guard by just the amount of things collected. "What the…?"

David turned his head towards the two girls, flashing a smile. "Impressed, aren't you? I'll tell you what. That Bella girl has really sharp eyes. She managed to find most of this."

They almost seemed pretty set for the entire challenge.

Nila moved over and dropped some of her stuff onto the counter. "Shall we get to cooking now, then? We do not have a lot of time today, and we should make extra room in case we mess up."

Great. Historia didn't want to be here for this part. "I think there's still stuff we can go and collect."

The military trainee quickly shook her head. "If we spend all of our time outside, we will not get anything done at all."

Knowing this was pretty much a battle she couldn't win, she resigned. "Alright, fine. But who here really knows how to cook."

David pointed to himself. "I told you earlier, I know how to cook." He moved over towards the counter, pulling out a knife. "We just need to get some stuff ready for when everyone gets back."

Placing a hand on her hip, Historia spoke up. "Why is the idea of you being a good cook a foreign thought in my mind? What reason would you have to be a good cook?"

He let out a small laugh. "Two reasons. The girl I liked back home was a great cook, so I wanted to be able to help her out at school. And two, it's always nice to be able to cook for my brothers." He hummed to himself as he cut up some vegetables with ease.

The scholar turned to look away. "We considered making some pasta, if that helps you out."

He leaned his head back. "What kind of pasta? That's the important part here."

"Alfredo. We didn't find any tomato sauce." She explained.

Nila, meanwhile, was sorting through all the things they had found. "I am not sure what we should do for dessert, but if we are making pasta, garlic bread would be nice, right?"

He pointed the knife at her. "I like the way you think-"

In an instant, she had disarmed him from the knife, freezing up when she realised what she did. "I- Sorry! Do not point knives at people."

He glanced over at the knife that had landed on the ground, before turning his attention to her. "Alrighty…" He reached over to pick it up.

Confessional: David

"What the hell was that all about?" He was leaning against the wall. "Didn't think she was some kind of scaredy cat." He twirled around the same knife as before. "It's a knife. I know how to use it."

Confessional: Nila

She seemed kind of embarrassed. "Nobody should treat a knife so carelessly. They are easily able to take a life." Not at one point did she look at the camera. "I will let it slip by this time. But next time I will not be polite."

Confessional: Historia

She looked awkwardly at the camera before looking the other way. "I don't know. The others got to have one, so I didn't want to be left out."

Arianna and Jack

It had taken a bit, and while they remained lost far longer than they would have wanted, they did manage to get a decent amount of food.

"Maybe we should have figured out who was better with directions." Arianna looked around, still not really recognising most of the scenery.

"Or maybe… Chris should have placed us on an island with more landmarks." Jack furrowed his brow. "If we get lost and die, the blame will be on him."

"No it won't be!" His disembodied voice called out.

The two of them stopped, with Jack being the first to yell. "Then guide us back to camp!"

"Are you sure you can trust me?"

No, was the first thought that appeared in Arianna's head. "If we follow him, he's more than likely going to guide us on a wild goose chase."

That was… true. "He'd make it so we don't return until it's too late to help out in the cooking portion…" He narrowed his eyes, trying to see further into the distance. "If we keep walking in one direction, we are bound to eventually hit the shore. And then we just follow it until we find the docks."

That seemed reasonable… until they realised something else. "But if we take the wrong turn on the shore, it could be ages before we even make it to the docks."

"True…" Something he hadn't considered. Look. He wasn't an expert out in the wild. He was just good academically. His street smarts were severely lacking. "Then I suppose we must just pray for ourselves."

As if Arianna would pray. "Yeah, we might have to." Her eyes trailed off towards the side, stopping her in her tracks. "Or we follow those two." She pointed out towards Enima and Mindy.

The two in question had found a few more things, but nothing big in comparison to the other groups. "This should be enough, right?" The former one asked.

The mischievous artist shrugged. "I don't know. We don't really know how much the others have. Or if Historia even made it back safe."

"Please, if something got her, we would have found her body by now." The painter began her march back towards the kitchen. "And since Chris hasn't halted the entire challenge, I think she's probably still kicking."

This got a laugh out of the tall blonde. "You say probably, so you aren't even 100% sure."

She shrugged. "Who am I to say how Chris would react? Maybe he would try and keep it under wraps. Say she went missing or something."

While the two of them spoke, Arianna and Jack snuck behind them. Obviously these two were better with directions than they were.

"We should start figuring out what we should make." Enima tilted her head to the side, hoping Mindy would lean in with her opinion.

"Oh, yes! We should! As soon as we stop being followed." She stopped walking.

The two Gophers froze in their tracks as the two girls turned to face them. "Lovely day we're having?" Jack offered with a fake smile.

"What are you two doing?" Enima narrowed her eyes at them. "You better not be thinking of stealing from us."

Arianna decided to take the initiative. "Sorry… We're just lost. We were hoping to follow you back to the kitchen. We won't take anything, we promise."

"I don't believe you."

"Hey!" Mindy called out, giving her a mean look. "We can't just say no to them following us. Besides, they'd just follow us anyway." She turned her attention back to the duo. "Yes, it's fine."

Arianna smiled at her. "Thank you."

Enima still wanted to protest, but figured she had her mind set, so she dropped it. "Alright."

The entire walk back to the kitchen, Enima kept an eye out on the two, while Mindy didn't really seem to care. She was humming to herself.

The thought of stealing stuff did pop up in both Arianna and Jack's thoughts. However, the painter made it next to impossible to actually try something.

When all four of them made it to the kitchen, Arianna was the first to speak up. "Thank you for guiding us back." She acted sincere. "We just got a little lost."

"A little." Jack scoffed, looking away. He did not provide any thank yous. "Let's go." He walked into their side of the kitchen.

It wasn't as much talking as she wanted to, but it was enough. "Here." She offered some spices that she had collected. They wouldn't need them.

"See?" Mindy caught them, struggling to keep everything held up. "We were rewarded for helping her."

Enima grumbled something under her breath as she walked into the building.

"Ignore her." The mischievous artist shook her head. "She wasn't raised right." Getting tired of holding everything, she was forced to retreat into her kitchen.

Confessional: Arianna

"Mindy was pretty easy to fool. Just act nice and give her the worst spices out there. But Enima was kind of a bitch, so if I make the merge, I should watch out for her. Maybe even put a target on her back." She crossed her arms. "Or maybe her team will do all the work for me and kick her ass out."

Kitchen (Screaming Gophers)

"Huh?" Marisa was getting increasingly more panicked with every passing second. "What do you mean you don't have any flour either?" It was even more baffling considering the Killer Bass didn't even have any flour. "We might have to think of something else…"

Cameron raised his fist in the air. "And think we will! But I'm sure they'll find some flour. Just one bag would be enough."

Biting her nail, the journalist glanced away. "How the hell has nobody found any flour yet?"

Cliff

Jeremy was standing by the large cliff, holding a bag of flour. He was humming to himself as he chucked a bag into the water. "No flour for you~ No flour for anybody~" When the camera panned over, it would be revealed that he had a shopping cart full of flour next to him. One by one, he would pick up a bag, and toss it over the edge, sending it flying to its early demise.

Once he had thrown the last one off, he pushed the cart off, probably killing a passing shark on the way down. "And… done." He declared to himself happily.

"Jeremy…?" Seems Josef had finally found him. "What are you…?" He realised there was no point in asking that. It was all laid out in front of him. "Nevermind… I have two things to say… What the hell was the point of tossing them individually if you were just going to toss the cart in anyways."

Jeremy pulled out a diagram. "Well, you see, each bag of flour gave me an individual happiness value when I threw them off the edge. If I would have just thrown them all out at once with the cart, the total happiness I would have received would have been negligible."

Asking that question only raised more questions. Instead of focusing on those new ones, he decided to go with the second thing he wanted to say. "Was that all the flour?"

He nodded his head. "Yes. I checked the list extensively before we split up. And I gathered every single bag of flour."

"...Why…?"

Well the surfer thought it was pretty obvious why he did it. "To get… rid of it? I overheard the other team wanted flour for their dessert, so I figured it would be best to get rid of it all."

"That's a smart move." It almost sounded genuine. Almost. "Except for one key detail…" Josef took a deep breath. "What if we needed that flour!?" He pointed his cane at the surfer. "You have no idea how many opportunities you have shut down with that one stunt!"

Eyeing the edge of the cliff, he shrugged. "I can jump in after them."

"I fail to see how that would help. The flour is already ruined.' Josef let out a sigh, putting his cane down. "Is that all you spent your time doing? Collecting flour to waste?"

"Woah, woah, woah!" The surfer was offended by such an accusation. "I also found the shopping cart." He smiled.

Anger was too tame of a word to describe the emotions Josef felt at the moment. "Just…" He pressed the cane against his forehead. "Let's go back to the kitchen." His patience with this team had pretty much turned to zero.

Kitchen (Killer Bass)

David had spent almost all of his time prepping some food for when everyone returned. Nila had also joined in to help, but on the other end of the kitchen. After her minor outburst, she wanted to be left alone.

"Hey team!" Enima burst into the room, dropping off the stuff she collected onto the table in the middle. "How's progress?"

"Bad." Historia hadn't really been helping out with the prep work. Instead, she's just been sorting through the food everyone was bringing in. "We still don't have any idea what to do for dessert."

"Does that mean we have ideas for the other two?" Mindy hummed for a bit.

Sliding the freshly cut onions to the side, David spoke up. "Mentions of pasta were brought up. I'm fine with that if everyone else is."

Enima shrugged. "Works for me, honestly."

Mindy on the other hand seemed a bit disappointed. "So, nothing Japanese…"

"Do I look Japanese to you?" The shady guy narrowed his eyes. "You're one person out of nine. Nobody else here is." He was sure everyone else was probably fully Canadian. Except maybe Nila. Couldn't tell with that one.

"You know… I've been wondering." Historia took a glance around. "Where are Bella and Christopher? They have the list, don't they?"

David shrugged. "I told them to keep looking for more stuff while I would stay behind and guard the place since Nila hadn't returned yet."

"But I have returned now. You should go out and look for your teammates."

"Tempting! But no." He slid over the mushrooms he had cut. "We have to start worrying about the food now. So we don't need to worry about them." He took a glance around the room. "We're five, let's worry about the appetiser and the main course." How to divide people… He pointed over to Nila and Mindy. "You two can work on the appetiser." Then he pointed over to Enima and Historia. "And you two can help me with the main dish."

The unbearable scholar placed a hand on her hip. "I don't know the first thing about cooking."

Enima narrowed her eyes. "Do you know how to boil water?"

"..." She slowly moved over to grab a pot, choosing to not say anything further.

Kitchen (Screaming Gophers)

Now that Arianna and Jack were able to bring some more ingredients, the first two groups could get started on preparing their food.

Eleanor was currently holding a knife, cutting up some vegetables. "We could probably steam these to add to the rice." She explained to Xi, who was also handling a knife pretty well.

"Yes, I do believe those would go nicely together." While he didn't know how to cook, he at least had taste buds. "So, what other vegetables would go well?" The two had been cutting up some broccoli.

"Ooo~ Carrots go super well with this." The gardener seemed to be in her element, even if it wasn't a garden. "Then after that we can steam them, and get the rice ready. Then we just need to worry about the salmon." She didn't seem that bright in other fields.

Seems she would have more use than just outside of voting. "You are quite reliable, you know." The psychologist smiled at her.

"H-huh-" She wasn't used to getting praised, so she didn't know how to react. "T-thank you!" She glanced away, slightly embarrassed.

As for the other duo, Jared and Talia.

The cadet wasn't exactly sure how to prepare any of the ingredients Talia wanted him to. "Do I dice the tomatoes by hand?"

"Are you crazy?" She narrowed her eyes. "We have tools here…" She reached over into one of the cabinets to pull out a dicer. "This would make the process easier. And then they won't come out looking sloppy." She didn't believe he was that good with a knife, based entirely on how he was holding it.

In his defense, this wasn't his area of expertise at all. "Do I just put the whole tomato in… or?"

"Slice it first." She was trying to hold back her rage at the moment. How could someone not know how to cook in the slightest. "Then dice the slices a few at a time."

Alright! That made sense. He sliced the tomato up, leaving them at a decent size. Following her advice, he moved over to dicing them. "I thought you were a waitress. How do you know how to cook?"

"I can do more than just my job, you know. Besides, when you work around food so much, you see the tricks the chefs use."

"You must be highly skilled at your job, then." He kept trying to make conversation. "Have you ever been made to cook food at your job?"

"I only do that when it's time for my break." She tilted her head to the side. "I like my own cooking above all else."

Seems he was learning a lot about her. "Well, I believe with your talent, we should be able to win this."

Not wanting to be the only one to be talking about herself, and to ignore his compliment, she changed the subject. "What about you?"

"What do you mean?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Do you have a job? You seem like you're in training for something."

Well, he was! Kind of… "Huh… well…" How could he phrase this in the best way possible. "I have been taking some training to become a police officer, since it's my dream." More so he had been attending school and doing that in his free time. "But, no dice yet. I'm still too young."

Talia took a glance at him. "Well, you definitely seem like you train every day." She put down the knife, having finished up with her prep. "Hurry up, there." She looked over at him.

"R-right!" He still hadn't finished with the tomatoes.

As for the third duo…

Marisa was pacing back and forth. "We need to figure out what to do for dessert."

Cameron didn't seem too bothered. "We serve dessert last, so I don't think it really matters right now!"

"But we have to figure it out now." She pointed out. "If we wait till the last minute, we might not have anything. This is how we lost the last challenge."

Well technically they lost because they didn't let him go on stage and perform, but he wasn't going to point that out.

"Maybe we should just go for something simple?" He suggested, looking through their admittedly smaller food pile than the Bass.

The journalist tilted her head to the side. "I don't think simple is the answer. It might not even get us any points if it's too simple. Besides, we have to make it related to what the others are making." Although, there didn't seem to be much of a theme here in the first place.

"Nonsense!" The DM pulled out some things from the pile. "We should just make cake!"

She narrowed her eyes. "We don't have flour for cake."

"Who said anything about needing flour? Not all cakes need flour." Oh, he definitely had an idea brewing.

"Then what are you talking about…?" But before he could even say his answer, it appeared in her head. "Cheese cake?"

He was surprised that she had figured it out. "Yeah! My mom made a great cheesecake back in the day! If we make that! We'll surely win!"

Then there was a chance after all! "Do you know how to make it?"

"Nope!"

And just like that, all hope was out the window.

Catrina and Robin

"Hmm…" The DJ hummed to herself loudly, looking around the forest. When Robin didn't respond, she tilted her head to the side. "HMM…" Still, nothing. "Do you fucking talk?"

"When I feel like it." He finally answered, not bothering to look at her. "I don't remember saying I wanted to speak."

"And yet you chose to speak now. When the hell do we call it a day?"

He tilted his head to the side. "What time is it?"

"Oh." She pulled out her phone. "It's about three in the afterno-"

"Until we find it."

"What was the fucking point of me checking the time if that was going to be your answer?" She was ticked off.

Robin stopped walking. "Because Talia has an idea. If we don't bring back what she needs, we'd be letting her down."

That seemed to calm her a bit. "I guess so… I might not like her, but I don't want to ruin whatever idea she has."

"Don't like her?" He stroked his chin. "That's odd… I don't recall you two interacting."

"We share a room." She pointed out. "We're bound to talk to each other. Besides, she was on the same boat as I was on the way here."

The tactician thought about his boat partner. He never did speak with Bella after that. "Compared to the other team, we don't seem to have any big conflicts with each other. Let's keep it that way." It was almost like a warning.

Would she heed such a warning? It was unknown. "Hey." She said calmly, looking up. "There's some stuff up there."

Robin looked up. "Hmm…" It seemed to be a food package of various things… But it was too high up to even tell what it was. "Are you good at climbing trees?"

Catrina shook her head. "Nope. I'm very bad at it, actually."

"That's fine. I'm amazing at climbing trees." To demonstrate, he started climbing pretty well.

She was taken back once again. "What was the point of asking if you could-"

"Shush. I need concentration to climb." After a few more seconds, he spoke up. "You don't seem to talk much with the rest of the team."

That was the third time- She didn't even care about it anymore. "Well, nobody else is really like me. I'm more outgoing when there are like minded people." She explained. "I find conversations with other people difficult."

"You're having a conversation with me." Robin countered, reaching the height of the tree.

He was right. He was easy to get along with… Well, except for the parts where he pissed her off. "Yeah, I guess you're right." That got her thinking. "Did you ever think of forming an-" She was knocked to the ground by a box.

"Hey. Watch out." He didn't really seem to care. He let himself drop down from the tree, landing next to her. "We got the stuff we needed." He lifted up the box.

"Asshole…"

Kitchen (Killer Bass)

Josef had finally returned to the kitchen with Jeremy. "Status update." He demanded as soon as he entered.

David turned to look at him. "Doing pretty good. Still missing Bella and Christopher, but we've started working on our meals. Pasta sounds good?"

"Pasta…?" It felt a bit basic in his mind. "Could we do something else?"

Placing the knife down, he looked over at the wannabe host. "Not really. We've already gotten everything started." He eyed the boiling water, as well as the sauce he was making.

Seems his ideas would be invalidated right away. "Alright, that's the entree. But was there anything else?"

"Garlic bread." Mindy hummed to herself as she applied the garlic butter to some bread. "This is the starter."

"Wouldn't that best be served with the pasta."

Enima rolled her eyes. "Unless you want to figure out a different thing, then by all means, go ahead."

"Dessert." He ordered. "What's our plans for dessert?"

"We…" Nila trailed off, looking away. "We have not figured that out yet. But it is the last thing we need to figure out, right?"

He saw how things were. Josef let out a sigh and turned his attention to David. "You have no idea what you are doing, do you?"

"This has nothing to do with me, and more so we have to make sure the other people cooking know how to make the food." He pointed over to Historia. "I don't think this girl has ever cooked anything in her life."

"The water is boiling, now what?" She seemed blissfully unaware that she was being spoken about.

Maybe he had some merit to what he was saying, but still. "You could have waited for me."

Slowly putting down the knife he had, the shady guy approached the wannabe host. "Look, man." He narrowed his eyes. "I'm the one who knows how to cook, I doubt you do."

"I may not know how to cook, but I don't need to know how to be able to guide people."

David laughed at him. "Yeah, keep telling yourself that." He moved back over to work on the sauce. "Just get on and help out.

Confessional: Josef

"If we lose this challenge, I hope all blame is put on David here." He crossed his arms. "He didn't do anything last challenge, and now he wants to take charge? I might not know how to cook, but I know more about food than he does. He probably has never had any good food."

Confessional: David

Leaning back in the confessional, David didn't really seem to care. "I know what I'm doing, and I think I have a better standing in this team than he does. Especially since I don't think many people like him."

Confessional: Jeremy

He had a smile on his face. "I think I'll be safe."

Enima shook her head as she finished preparing the garlic bread. "Guess we just have to put this in the oven now."

"Hmm… We still have a lot of time." Mindy pointed out, turning to look at the clock in the room.

"How long does it take, anyways." Jeremy asked, taking a look at the bread. "And that doesn't seem like a lot." He reached his hand out.

The mischievous artist smacked his hand away. "It's only for Chris, so don't take anything."

"But we haven't eaten anything at all." The surfer crossed his arms. "I guess I have no choice." He looked over at Nila. "Can I eat your arm?"

"W-what?" She took a step back. "Who just asks that?"

He seemed disappointed. "Is that a no?"

Enima let out a sigh. "Nobody is eating anybody."

"But it's not entirely off the table." Mindy hummed in thought. "I am getting hungry."

"Then." David walked over to the group. "We can make extra food. I think we deserve to eat."

"Isn't this just what Chris wants?" Josef suggested. "For us to get distracted and eat our limited supplies of food?"

"Yes. Limited." Historia eyed the large stockpile of food they had collected. "We still have hours left, right? Why not just make some food?"

David turned towards everyone. "It might not be cooked food." He put down a platter of vegetables, cheese, and crackers. "But I think this will do."

Josef looked at it for a few seconds before slowly nodding his head. "You know what, I'll accept this."

Everyone took a small break to eat.

"Hey." Jeremy spoke up, after devouring some cheese. "Where are Bella and Christopher?"

There was silence in the room before David shrugged. "I'm sure they are fine."

Bella and Christopher

"Christopher…" She called out softly. Standing in front of a cave. "I don't think this is a good idea."

The boy didn't care. He had a smile on his face. "But I saw a large amount of food in there."

"But… Christopher…" Her face paled up. "There's a bear inside…"

That was true! "But you're good with animals, right? You managed to tame that bear last time."

She quickly shook her head. "I got lucky… I doubt that it will happen again."

But he had so much confidence in her, so he was going to throw caution to the wind. "Let's go!"

"Christopher!" She called out.

Confessional: Bella

"Ugh…" She groaned weakly. "I didn't think my animal affinity would cause this type of problem… I don't want to go in there, but he might die if I don't."

As the two walked in, another group would arrive right behind them.

"Hmm…" Robin hummed out, looking inside. "Did you hear that? There were some ingredients in there."

Catrina was holding onto the stuff they had gathered earlier. "Are you sure we should? We have what we need."

"While you are right, we haven't gathered much." He took a step forward. "Which means that it's likely the other team took most of the things we needed."

"What the hell? Are they trying to keep us from having food?" Catrina realised what was going on. "You know what, let's make sure they can't get any more."

A small smile formed on his face. "That's more like it." He stepped into the cave. "Be careful, Bella mentioned there was a bear in here."

She shrugged. "I'm not scared of any bears. Aren't they scared by loud noises?" She placed a hand on her hip. "I'm not sure you've realised, but I'm pretty loud."

"You are?" Robin pretended to be flabbergasted. "I never would have guessed."

Soon, they'd hear the distant scream of a girl.

"A girl is in trouble!" Catrina called out.

Hmm… They should probably do something about that. "Let's hurry up."

The duo ran further into the cave, where they eventually found the other duo. Christopher clearly being the one who screamed, and holding onto a basket.

Bella was standing in front of him, blocking him off from the bear. "Um…" She trailed off.

"Oh look." Robin hummed out. "It's the girl in trouble." He pointed out towards Christopher.

Catrina moved over towards the boy. "Let me help you out by holding that for you."

"Oh yeah sure." He handed the basket over to her.

"Thanks!" And then she ran.

"Christopher!" Bella called out.

Realising what he did, he mumbled an audible. "Oh."

Robin on the other hand, wasn't as much of an asshol-

Confessional: Robin

"Had Catrina not stolen the basket, I would have. Unfortunately, someone has to play the hero here."

The tactician stood between the bear and the two of them. "Hmm…" He hummed out. "You two are free to go."

"But!" Bella called out. "You can't take on a bear."

He let out a laugh. "Sure I can. It's nothing but a bear."

"And you're nothing but a man." The animal lover called out.

Christopher hummed out in thought. "Hold on, he might be a girl. Robin can be used for both."

Bella realised she was surrounded by idiots.

The bear took a swipe at Robin, but he managed to avoid it. "You two should leave, now!" He ordered.

As much as she didn't want to, Bella knew she wouldn't be able to tame this bear. She grabbed onto Christopher's hand, before running out. "Let's go!"

"Woah! But what about him?" He turned to look back at where Robin was. Hopefully he would be OK.

When the duo left the cave, they both stopped to catch their breath. "Why did I…" Bella mumbled out.

Confessional: Bella

"I feel awful…" She was hugging her knees. "Robin could be dead… or worse…" She wasn't sure what could be worse than death, but the idea was out there! "And it's all my fault for running away."

"This is all my-" Bella began to say before Robin came running out, having not even done anything about the bear.

"Good luck!" He called out.

Confessional: Bella

"..." She stared blankly at the camera.

Seeing that he didn't do anything, the duo was forced to run away some more. "Why isn't anything good happening to us?" Bella called out.

"Huh? But I'm having fun." He called out as they both ran.

Kitchen (Screaming Gophers)

The only pair to have made any decent amount of progress was Eleanor and Xi, who had gotten everything they needed prepped. "Hmm…" Eleanor hummed out in thought. "We should probably start cooking soon. We only have a few hours left."

"Then, shall we start now?" Xi crossed his arms.

"Huh…" The gardener looked around. "But the others haven't started on theirs…"

Talia shook her head. "Don't worry about ours. It won't take long for us." She glanced over at the dessert team. "And what about you guys?"

"Huh…" Marisa trailed off. Her plan had been ruined by some surfer, and she was none the wiser. "Dessert is last, so we don't have to worry about it right now. Cameron and I are figuring out what to do."

"Well…" Jack spoke up. "Is there something specific you want us to find?"

"Flour!" She called out.

Arianna ran a hand through her hair. "But we looked around, and we didn't find any. Isn't it more likely that the other team has some?"

"Then let me do this!" Cameron called out, jumping over to the other side. "Where's the flour!?" He could be heard shouting. After a few seconds, he returned, a hand on his hip. "So, Jeremy said he dumped them off the cliff into the ocean."

Marisa stared blankly forward.

Confessional: Marisa

"Why?"

She let out a sigh, realising that getting flour would be hopeless. "Alright…" That meant they might have to try the cheesecake approach. "Is there any cream cheese?"

Jack sorted through all of their supplies. "No. Nothing like that." He crossed his arms.

They were running out of things. "Graham crackers? Cherry sauce?"

Looking through the small pile some more, Jack placed down those. "Yes, we have those. We just need cream cheese, then."

"Amongst other things…" Marisa was feeling like there wasn't much they could do now. Thanks to Jeremy.

Kitchen (Killer Bass)

Everything seemed to be going well for them. Well, except for dessert, but neither team was doing well for that.

The pasta was almost pretty much ready. The sauce was done, thanks to David, and the garlic bread was ready to go. "Alright." The shady guy pulled out a chair to sit down. "I guess we just wait for time to be up."

"We should use this time to figure out dessert." Nila spoke up.

"Oh!" Mindy clapped her hands together. "We can make something easy, can't we?" She began to dig through the pile of food. "Ice cream!" She pulled it out. "Can't we make a sundae?"

Josef shook his head. "Where's the cohesion here? How does ice cream fit with pasta? We should make something more italian."

"Do you know how to make an Italian dessert?" David narrowed his eyes.

He went quiet for a few moments. "Very well."

Sorting through the stuff, Mindy pulled out various things. "Bananas would be nice, right?" She also had some chocolate syrup and strawberry syrup. "This is going to be such a good idea."

"I think our team will do pretty good." Historia walked over to the platter of food. "How's the other team doing?"

"Well…" Jeremy trailed off. "Judging by the fact that Cameron came here asking for flour, they must be struggling with one of their meals."

Nila shook her head. "I cannot believe you would sabotage the other team like that."

Enima rolled her eyes. "We need every advantage we can get. So it's A-OK to me."

"Your morality is questionable…" The trainee mumbled out.

Kitchen (Screaming Gopher)

Opening the door valiantly, Robin stepped in the room. "We've come to save the day."

Moving past him, Catrina put down all the stuff she had collected. "We got so much stuff. Talia! You can make your balsamic bread!"

"Balsamic… what?" The waitress narrowed her eyes. "Do you even know what I want to make?"

"Nope!"

Seeing the pile that was brought over, Marisa wasted no time in searching through it all. "Here!" She pulled out some cream cheese. "Cameron! We can make it now!"

"Hell yeah!" He moved over to the pile. "Then we have a chance after all!"

Things were looking bright… somewhat.

"Things are coming along nicely." Jared smiled at Talia.

"Seemingly…" She had everything she needed for the bruschetta bread. "We just have to make sure that Marisa and Cameron can manage their part of the meal."

The former was seemingly panicking at the moment. "Alright… I've never made cheesecake before, but how different can it be from regular cake?" She knew the answer to that, but if she kept being delusional, maybe she could make it.

Cameron looked at the ingredients gathered. "It's not rocket science, so this should be easy. And if we lack in this area, we can hope that others will raise us up."

Still, even when they didn't know what the hell they were doing, he remained optimistic. A smile formed on her face. "You're right. I think I'm worrying about nothing." She took a deep breath. "Let's get working on this now."

Jared had watched the entire interaction go down, the smile still on his face. "Compared to the other team, I think we have the best dynamic." He glanced over at Talia. "Good on you for stepping up to guide us a bit."

She slowly glanced over at him. "I haven't really done anything. I have had no say in what the other groups will do. I just put myself here to make the appetisers."

Still, at least they had some ideas on what to do.

"Are we just waiting for the dessert?" Xi spoke up. "We're pretty much ready to cook ours, so."

Glancing at the clock, Talia shook her head. "We still have a lot of time, so hold off on finishing the meals."

Confessional: Jared

"Talia seems to really know what she's doing." Thinking back a bit, he realised something. "Honestly, I don't think there's been a moment where she's messed up. I heard she did great in the first challenge, and she had a high score in the talent show…" Then his smile turned to a slight frown. "I think she's doing better than I am." That can't be good.

Kitchen (Killer Bass)

As time grew closer, the team was getting more nervous.

"Do you think this will be good enough?" Historia placed a hand on her hip.

David waved his hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it. Sure, none of us are really great at cooking. Well, besides myself and Mindy."

Speaking of the girl, she was currently topping the ice cream they had made. "This looks pretty good, honestly. How long do we have left?"

"Just shy of fifteen minutes." Josef called out, staring intently at the clock. "And the duo hasn't returned yet. They always seem to be getting themselves lost."

Just then, the doors burst open. Once inside, Bella and Christopher collapsed on the ground. "I told you we went the wrong way…" She mumbled.

"Hard to focus with a bear chasing after you."

David flashed a smile. "Hey look, they're back."

Shaking his head, the host looked down at them. "It's too late to bring back anything of…" He paused. "You don't have anything, do you?"

Bella quickly got up. "Catrina stole what we had gotten."

Jeremy frowned. "How dare they go ahead and sabotage us like that. We'd never do anything like that."

"WHERE'S MY FLOUR, JEREMY?!" Marisa yelled out from the other room.

David slid over, placing a hand on Josef's shoulder. "Don't worry about it. We already got what we wanted to make. We didn't need to get anything else." He eyed the large pile of food. "If we lose, I'll be surprised."

"Ten minutes!" Chris called out from the cafeteria.

Still, there was a bit of doubt. "I think we'll do great." He moved back over the pasta. "Alright, let's get everything ready now."

Well, everything was mostly ready, but that was cue for Enima to throw the garlic bread into the oven.

Kitchen (Screaming Gophers)

Time was low. And thus, Talia had to take charge again. "We'll need someone to take the food out to Chris, and I volunteer myself for that." She placed a hand on her hip. "I'd advise finishing any touches you have with your food."

Eleanor had finished with most of the food. "Right!" But now she had begun to decorate her plate.

Xi raised an eyebrow. "Do we have time for this?"

Looking back at him, she shrugged. "I thought it would be a good idea to add a little more charm. Maybe Chris would like it?" Soon, her smile faded. "Do you think it's dumb?"

He quickly shook his head. "Not at all. I quite like the idea. It might cause us to win over the others."

Her smile was back. "That's reassuring." Back to decorating she went!

"Alright…" Marisa had struggled to figure out what to do. "I think we might be hopeless…" She finally concluded. "If I had a recipe, this would be better."

"What, like this?" Catrina put her phone down on the table.

Looking at it for a few seconds, she turned to look at the DJ. "How do you get WiFi here…? I don't get any signal."

She shrugged. "I just asked."

"Wait that worked!?"

"Focus!" Cameron called out, looking at the recipe. "We still have time to get this started and finished. Chris still has to eat two meals first."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Would it not technically be four? Or even five…? We aren't the only team."

Arianna shook her head. "Chris never said if it was a team at a time, or if we both went together."

"Let's pray for the latter, then." Marisa quickly read through the recipe. "Alright, we can do this."

Cafeteria

Their time was up, and now came the time to judge. "Campers!" Chris called out.

For the Killer Bass, Mindy walked out of the kitchen, holding the plate of garlic bread. "For you."

As for the Screaming Gophers, Talia slid out of the kitchen on her roller blades. She stopped neatly in front of Chris. "Here is your starter, sir." She placed the plate next to the other one, before taking a quick bow. After that, she slid back to the kitchen.

Most of the rest of the team had gathered outside, mostly to see what Chris would think of the food.

Not that it was anything great, almost nobody knew how to cook.

Taking a bite of the garlic bread, he chewed it for a bit, before slowly nodding his head. "Pretty good. But on its own… it feels like it's missing something." After finishing that, he moved over towards the bruschetta bread. The reaction he had to this was very different. "Who made this?"

"It was Talia and I, sir." Jared called out.

Unlike the garlic bread, he finished up the entirety of the plate. "Beautiful." He called out. "Now, bring out the main course!"

Once again, it was the same two girls bringing out the food. Mindy brought out the bowl of pasta, without much theatrics.

Talia, however, kept going in. Sliding back over in the same position as before, she put down the plate. "Enjoy your meal." She took another bow, before moving back to the kitchen.

The plate of salmon had rice and steamed vegetables on it. It didn't fully fit with the starter, but he was going to try it anyway. The taste of it was great, but… "The salmon is kind of small." He commented. He would have rather had more, but it was whatever. The rice and steamed vegetables were good. The salmon just felt bland.

Moving onto the pasta, he had a more positive response to this. And since he still had garlic bread left, he could enjoy it with that. "Going for an Italian theme, I see. Will the dessert follow suit?"

"Yeah. Sure." David didn't know how to let him down gently.

After finishing the entire bowl of pasta, he called out again. "And lastly, dessert." He called out.

Talia was out first this time, with a plate of the cheesecake that Marisa and Cameron had desperately tried to make.

Marisa was watching from the sidelines, biting her nails.

Cameron took notice and flashed a thumbs up. "Hey! Don't sweat it. He'll love it."

Maybe she was being nervous for nothing. "You're right."

"I know I'm right!" He called out. "I had a bite of it. It was delicious."

She froze up a bit, before slowly tilting her head towards him. "Cameron. That's the only one we made. Did you eat it from that one?"

"Pfft!" He was indifferent. "I'm sure he won't notice."

"Hey." He noticed. "This is amazing!" Nevermind.

A little late to the party, but Mindy finally left the kitchen with the ice cream. It had been drizzled with two different types of syrups, and also had some cookie crumble on it. Oh, and can't forget the cherry on top, with the cut up banana. "Here you go!"

He was still in the process of enjoying the cake, but he could move over and have a few bites of the ice cream. "Kind of basic, isn't it?" He called out, shaking his head. It was ice cream. What was he supposed to do with that? If he wanted ice cream, he would just go and get some himself.

After both meals were done, he fell into deep thought. "After some careful consideration…" He spoke up, standing up in the process. "I think the winner of this challenge is…" He trailed off.

…

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"The Screaming Gophers!"

Jared let out a sigh of relief. Talia had done it for them.

"Bullshit!" Josef called out. "Their meals had no correlation. We at least went for an Italian theme!" He trailed off. "Until we dropped that entirely for dessert."

Chris shook his head. "While you had a better theme, overall, not only did the Screaming Gophers have the better food, but their presentation was far better. Talia made a better waitress than Mindy, and I loved the extra details on the main course."

Josef turned to look at David. "See? You put so much focus on the food, and not only was it not better, we failed to meet presentation standards."

He raised his hands up. "Don't blame me for this. You could have figured that out all on your own."

"Boys." Nila stood between them. "Please, do not argue."

Catrina pointed her finger at them. "Have fun voting someone off for the third time! We'll keep enjoying victory."

Josef sighed heavily. "Very well." He turned towards the exit. "I'll be in the cabins."

David shook his head. "What's his problem?" Then, he looked over at the rest of the campers. They were about to drop down to eight. That was fine.

"Screaming Gophers. I will see you in four hours. Until then, take all the time you need to figure out this vote."

The Killer Bass left, but that left the Screaming Gophers in the room.

"So…" Cameron spoke up. "Huh… When do we get food?"

Chris didn't answer, and simply left.

Eleanor let out a sigh. "I'll get to cooking."

Beach

Nila was standing by the beach, watching the waves pass by. She just needed a moment to calm down before she unleashed hell on the two of them. "Why do we keep losing?" She called out. The first challenge, which is something she should have been great at… she couldn't pull her team through. And the challenge they actually won, she didn't even help out once.

"Hey." A voice called out. When she turned to look at who it was, it was Josef.

"Why are you here?" She tilted her head.

He sat down in the sand. "Probably doing the same thing as you. Just cooling off." He had been pretty ticked off over the last week, and it was starting to reach a boiling point. "Also I wanted to talk to you about the vote." He turned to look at her.

She knew where this was going. "You wish to vote off David, yes?"

"Like a book." Back to staring at the waves. "He seems more like a hindrance to the team at this point. He hasn't offered much in terms of support. And I feel like it might be down to him or I."

Frankly, she didn't want to cast her vote for either of them, but she had gotten along with Josef more. "Alright. I can vote for him."

He slowly nodded his head. "I'll see if I can get the others to vote him off too." He stood back up. "I swear, we'll win the next challenge for sure."

One could only hope. She smiled at him. "Yes, let us hope for that." Once he was gone, her smile slowly faded back to a frown.

Confessional: Nila

"I came here assuming I could easily help win every challenge. But a lot of them have not been physical at all. And with the team constantly fighting. It is only a matter of time before the other team overwhelms us." She held her hands together, looking at the ground.

Cafeteria

While the Screaming Gophers were currently occupying the kitchen, trying to make anything they can for food, the cafeteria itself was being occupied by some of the Bass. More specifically Bella, Christopher, and David.

"You wanted to talk to us?" Christopher tilted his head.

Bella, on the hand, was a little more sceptical. "Are you going to try and convince us to not vote for you?"

He raised his hands in defense. "Yeah, yeah. I know, probably not a great look." His smile turned to a frown. "But I'm more so asking you to vote off Josef."

"Deal." Christopher had no qualms.

"Wait wait!" Bella wasn't going to be easily persuaded. "Why would we do that?"

Hmm… Here he thought she was just going along with it. "Don't you want him voted off? I'm sure you voted for him at least once."

"Huh…" She had, guess she didn't hide it very well. "I voted for him after our first loss…"

"Exactly!" The shady guy pointed out. "And you'd do it, right Christopher."

He was totally on board! "Unless she has a better idea, I'd be down."

The nature lover stood up. "I'm not sure. I don't think our loss this time is entirely his fault…"

She was going to play difficult, wasn't she. No need to press the issue. David let out a small laugh. "Just give it some thought. If you feel like it's better to vote for me, I won't be mad." He stood up, looking over at the door. "The ceremony is in a few hours, so good luck." He waved at them.

Christopher was the only one still sitting down. "What do we do?"

After giving it some thought, Bella was going to give her answer, before a sound interrupted her thoughts. "So… hungry… We haven't eaten today."

"Do you want some food?" The voice of someone else called out. When she looked at who it was, Eleanor was holding a plate of food. "We hadn't eaten yet either, so if you want to join us, you can."

"Finally!" Christopher called out. "The team is finally letting me join-"

"No we aren't." Marisa sat down at the table. "We're just being nice."

"If it was up to me…" Jack crossed his arms. "I wouldn't allow you guys to eat the food we just made."

""We"?" Talia narrowed her eyes. "You didn't do anything, last I checked."

"Tsk."

Bella was going to turn down the offer, but she felt like she couldn't refuse. "Alright, I'll eat with you guys." She turned to Christopher, who already had a mouth full of food. "Huh…"

Elimination Ceremony

The nine campers slowly made their way to the campfire ceremony, sitting down.

Looking at them, Chris shook his head. "Tsk tsk. This is what, your third time here? You know this is only the fourth ceremony, right? How often are you guys going to wind up here?"

"Please… do not comment on our track record…" Nila mumbled out sadly.

"What does it matter to you?" Historia crossed her arms. "What, not entertaining enough for you?"

The host chuckled. "No, it's plenty entertaining for me. I just hope you don't make it a habit to come here every single time."

David waved his hand dismissively. "Are you just going to keep talking, or are you going to get on with it?"

"Alright, fine! Sheesh." He picked up the plate next to him, which only had eight marshmallows. "Campers, tonight, there are only eight marshmallows. Which means… one of you is going home tonight. When I call your name, you are safe." He picked up the first marshmallow. "Nila." He threw one to her.

She caught it, a frown on her face.

"Next up is… Jeremy."

He caught it. "See, sabotage is always the answer."

"But we lost." Historia narrowed her eyes.

"..." He stared blankly ahead. "So it would seem."

"We are literally at the ceremony!"

"Historia."

She was too busy yelling at the surfer to realise her name had been called, so the marshmallow bounced off her head.

"Bella." The next one went her way.

She caught it, but glanced off to the side.

Christopher took notice of this. "Everything alright?"

"Y-yes! Everything is fine!" She held onto the marshmallow tightly.

"The next one goes to…" He hovered his hand over the marshmallow, before picking it up. "Enima."

A smile formed on her face as she caught it.

"Campers." Chris called out, looking at his plate. "I only have three marshmallows left." He looked over at the four people who hadn't received one. Christopher, David, Josef, and Mindy. "Which means one of you is going home tonight." He turned his attention to Christopher. "Christopher. You failed to really bring anything of value today, and you let the other team take the food you had collected. That might have just cost your team the win."

"It did!?" The boy was utterly lost.

Ignoring him, Chris moved onto the next person. "David, you took charge of your team, and yet you failed to make some important realisations. Sure, you made great pasta, but every other aspect of the meal was sorely missing."

He shrugged. "It's not up to me to keep the team floating. There should be a group effort. Besides, I'm the one who came up with the plan to hoard all the supplies. We could have won had we kept doing that."

Moving onto the next person. "Josef… I'll be frank with you… I don't think anybody on the team really likes your presence. You are very confrontational, and seem to try and take charge at every opportunity you can. You've probably rubbed people the wrong way already."

He didn't seem to care.

"And lastly!" His focus turned over to Mindy. "You were the only other person on your team who knew how to make food, but your dishes were severely lacking. Garlic bread and ice cream weren't what you should have served. Not only that, but you failed the presentation aspect of the challenge, when Talia vastly outperformed you."

She shrugged. "You said it was a cooking challenge. You made no mention of how we should serve you."

Letting out a sigh, he picked up the next marshmallow. "The next one goes to… Mindy." He threw it at her.

She knew she'd be safe. There are worse people out there, after all.

Now… It was just the boys… "The next marshmallow goes to…" Oh, was it even a surprise? "Christopher." He tossed the next one to him.

"Yes!" He called out as he caught it.

Which left only David… and Josef.

"Now, from what I know, you two don't really seem to like each other. So worry not, as one of you is going home tonight. So the one who stays can sleep soundly tonight."

Josef sent a glance his way. "It was nice playing with you." There was bitterness in his voice.

"No it wasn't." He went for a different approach.

Slowly picking up the final marshmallow off the plate, he looked at the two boys. "The final marshmallow of the night GOES TO…"

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"David." He tossed him the last one.

"... What?"

The shady guy stood up, catching the marshmallow. "That's what I thought."

"Josef, you have been eliminated from Total Drama Island." The host said solemnly.

The wannabe host pointed his cane at David. "If you think I deserved to go more than this lunatic over here, this team is doomed."

"Hey now." Mindy smiled, leaning forward. "You've been voted off, fair and square. So just accept your loss already."

Taking a deep sigh. "Whatever. Show me to the dock of shame." He walked off, pissed out of his mind.

Nila watched him walk off, shaking her head.

Confessional: Nila

"While I did not vote for him, I believe this is for the best. Sure, he always had the intention of us winning on his mind… He did make it rather difficult to accomplish. Our team has no synergy between each other… I hope that now, we will all be able to work together."

Dock of Shame

Josef had been standing on the dock for half a minute, staring down at the boat.

"What?" Chef narrowed his eyes at him. "You never seen a boat before? You came in on a boat."

"Yes… Well…" He crossed his arms. "I was expecting something a little more… What's the word I'm looking for…?" He tapped his forehead with his cane. "Grandiose? No… Ah! Not run down."

When the camera panned away, Chef was actually on a rowboat. "What do you want from me? Ashton stole our boat of losers, so this is the replacement."

"He… what?" Josef raised his eyebrows. Well that was a first. "Whatever. Just don't bore me with whatever tale you might have up your sleeve." He stepped down onto the boat, creating the most distance between himself and Chef. "If I get treated with this boat, the other's better, as well."

"Yeah, yeah. That's out of my control." Slowly, Chef began to row away from the island. They would be there in a few hours.

"Isn't a rowboat dangerous for the ocea-"

"Shut up."

As the boat slowly rowed away, Chris moved onto the dock, looking over at the camera. "And that concludes this episode of Total Drama Island. With Josef now out, how will the team dynamic shift from that point on? And will they finally be able to achieve a new high? As for the Screaming Gophers, how long will their reign of terror continue on for? Find out next time, on Total! Drama! ISLAND!"

Votes

Christopher: 1

David: 3

Josef: 5

Voting Confessional

Bella

"After thinking about it for a bit…" She didn't seem happy about the choice she was going to make. "I'll vote with David. While I feel like he is using me, it's true I want Josef gone. After he is gone, I'll aim for David. For now, my vote is for Josef."

Christopher

"Don't fix what isn't broken!" He said happily. "I've voted for Josef every other time, so eventually it's bound to work, right?"

David

"Pfft." He was leaning back in the booth. "Josef thinks he can boss me around and complain about how I ran things. No way in hell." He shook his head. "My vote is for him."

Enima

She was humming in thought. "As much as I would love to vote off Josef here, I'm actually going to vote for David. Sure, Josef is annoying, but David didn't really do much to help us out. He told us basic things, and spent the entire time focusing on his own dish. It's not our fault our dishes turned out like crap."

Historia

"Neither." She placed a hand on her hip. "Those two fighting is probably good for the rest of us." She glanced away. "So not only is it a good social choice, I believe it's a good challenge choice. Those two can potentially win challenges for us. However… There's one person who I believe is more of a hindrance, so I'd rather see him go home. That would be Christopher."

Jeremy

"Huh…" He thought deeply about this. "I don't really care, honestly." He smiled, waving at the camera. "I'm safe, so I guess I'm just going to vote for Josef because he called my idea stupid… or something like that. He made a comment about it, but I wasn't truly listening."

Josef

"As if I'd vote for anyone else but David!" He pointed his cane at the camera. "That guy has been almost no help to our team. The amount of times he's caused our loss is getting almost too much for one hand. Let's cut him loose now while he hasn't already done too much damage."

Mindy

She shrugged. "Josef thinks he can come in here and insult how I do things? So what if my performance wasn't that great. That shouldn't have been a factor in the first place! So goodbye you piece of shit."

Nila

She still looked gloomy. "I do not wish to vote for either, but I promised Josef that I would vote for David. And thus, that is who my vote will be for. I am sorry, in advance."

Campers Remaining: 18

Screaming Gophers

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Arianna Rodriguez: The Popular Girl

Cameron Parker: The Eccentric DM

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

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