Episode 7: M-AH!-ze of fears
AHHH! The final 11 must run for their lives as they face their greatest fears in a maze. There will be Thanksgiving tears, buzzer beaters, tennis lessons, confronting the past, changing of the guard and more! This... is... Phobia Factor 2024!
AUTHOR'S NOTES
This challenge is based off of Disventure Camp Season 1 Episode 3.
July 16 2024
7:10 am
Caleb was walking along the campgrounds with Priya. Both of them had gotten up at the crack of dawn and they were ready to hit an early morning run together. They had already mapped out their route.
Starting at the dock, they would go down to the sandy beaches, run along the perimeter of the island, through thickets of trees and forests and then return back to where they had started. It would be perfect! Just the two of them running side by side as they enjoyed the early morning sunrise. It would give them plenty of opportunity to get to know each other on a deeper level.
Priya confessional: *sighs dreamily* OH YEAH! A RUN around the island counts as a first date, right? Soooo romantic! *gives herself puppy eyes*
"Think you can beat me? My record is 22 minutes and 13 seconds," Priya winked as they stretched on the dock. Always had to pump some blood into the legs first.
Caleb whistled in appreciation. "Ooo, that's pretty fast. But to be honest, I think I can beat that. I cover more ground with each step after all." He pointed to his large shoe size and grinned, confident that this would be a major advantage for him.
Priya shook her head. "Just wait until you cramp up halfway. Happens to everyone. If you don't train for situations like these, it can be… difficult to say the least," she smirked.
"Well if I ever fall, I trust I can count on you to bring me back up to my large feet?" Caleb said flirtatiously. Priya giggled.
Priya confessional: *points to space* Was that flirting? That HAD to be flirting! Bring him back to his LARGE feet. *dies of laughter*
While Caleb was glad he had just made Priya laugh early in the morning, he had one question burning in the back of his mind. A question which would make him understand Priya a bit more…
"Speaking of training… how do you feel about your parents making you do all of that training when you were younger? Did it not ruin your social life? I mean, I know how that feels because growing up, I only went to the gym and the library to get in a few hours of study. Didn't really know how to talk to many people as you saw in my first season… it's why I tried reaching out to people this time around…" Caleb said gently. He did not want to Priya to think he was bashing her parents.
Priya sighed and looked at the ground. "Well… I don't know… I never really gave it much thought… but I think deep down I didn't want to go to half of the camps I went to. I mean, archery and catapult camp were pretty cool but card-stacking and world-record-tissue-folding were kinda… eh… excessive I guess…"
Caleb chortled. World-record-tissue-folding? Had he heard that right?
"Well… I might be overstepping boundaries here but… I think you should – hang on!" Caleb cut himself off, having just seen MK in the distance doing the most bizarre thing he had ever seen.
Caleb confessional: *blinks baffled* What is she doing?!
"You go on without me, I'll catch up with you in a minute," Caleb said, doing his best to look natural and avoid staring at MK. Priya didn't seem to see her at the moment and Caleb preferred to keep it that way.
Priya blinked. They hadn't even started running yet! It looked like she would have to wait just a bit longer before getting alone time with him.
"Um… OK! Hurry though or else I'll be long gone!" she giggled.
"Oh believe me. I'll catch up in no time!" Caleb grinned.
Priya broke into a run. "NOPE!" she called over her shoulder.
Caleb waited for a minute to make sure Priya had gone far enough before he slid over to MK.
"What's up?" Caleb asked curiously. "What… is that?" he frowned at the mannequin MK had propped up against a tree.
"Naked dummy," MK replied, shivering.
"Is that our challenge today?" Caleb asked starstruck. He recalled MK's useful little advantage – her trusty, handy-dandy sheet of challenges. If she was doing something as odd as this, it could only mean one thing. She was preparing for what was to come.
MK sighed. "Nope just mine. Yours will be something different."
"I'm guessing you… need to make out with it?" Caleb pointed at the mannequin which had fallen pathetically to the ground.
MK jumped. "EW NO! I just finished stripping him down to his boxers, that's all," she said casually.
"SORRY, WHAT?!" Caleb squealed.
"It's a challenge where we have to face our fears," MK explained. "Wanna prepare with me?"
Caleb hesitated. If it was a challenge involving phobias… a little preparation did sound tempting. That way, he wouldn't be walking into the challenge blind. It would certainly calm his nerves if he knew he had prepared sufficiently for his phobia and yet –
"MK I don't know… I'm still not completely on board with this cheating. It's not the right way to play. I mean, did you see our team last challenge? We crushed that puzzle together, like a real team! Besides, how do you know they really got our fears correct?"
"You're scared of tearing your pectoral muscles," MK said, ignoring Caleb's protests.
Caleb flinched. "OK HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT?!"
"I'm telling you, they got the phobias right!" MK insisted. "You can't rely on them not knowing your fear." She snorted and picked up her naked mannequin, ready to give him clothes and strip him down once more. Maybe she should even try using her teeth to see if she could really do it…
"But still.. I'm gonna play it fair today again," Caleb said proudly.
MK rolled her eyes. Honour, yuck. "Fine, whatever. I'm just going to put his clothes back on and try this again." She bent down and started putting the dummy's pants back on.
"Well you might wanna hurry up. In case Priya sees you. She should be back near this area in 15 minutes. Good luck…" Caleb called over his shoulder as he went down to the sand to stretch his legs one final time before taking off for his run.
Caleb confessional: I'm not feeling too bad about this challenge. I mean, they're not actually going to make me tear my pec on live television. *laughs nervously* Children wouldn't be able to sleep at night if they saw that!
1:49 pm
"Attention campers. Challenge time! Make your way northwest until you see a giant maze!" Chris announced.
The Panthers and Orangutans made their way 30 minutes northwest of the cabins. They were standing in front of a tall, moss-covered maze with thick vines and branches covering the 10 metre tall walls. Like their first challenge, this was clearly not a natural part of Wawanakwa and had been installed by Chris.
Chase was squatting with his hands in front of him eagerly.
"Looks like we're racing through a maze!" he deduced. He was excited; running was his speciality.
Chase confessional: I'm super good at running through mazes. You could say I'm a real maze runner *Winks*
A few minutes later Chris, Chef and Emily came out of one of the entrances to the maze. Thought it was hard to tell, they all looked deeply disgruntled as if neither of them wanted to be here. The campers wondered what horrors were waiting for them inside the maze for the hosts to come out looking this unhappy.
In an instant, Chris' frown vanished and he replaced it with his usual goofy grin.
"Alright everyone. Today's challenge is a twist of a previous challenge we did many years ago. Prepare to play… PHOBIA FACTOR PART 2.
"Teams will have to run through a maze and face their fears at different checkpoints to progress to the next checkpoint. This is a race. You will work your way through the maze. Once you have passed all checkpoints, the first team to get to the exit wins! The flashing arrows above will guide you in the direction you should be heading so you're not completely lost."
Caleb blinked. A race, did he say? He had just discovered a major problem!
"Wait… but how is that fair? We have six people and they only have five!" he protested, throwing his hands up. If the Panthers had five checkpoints and they had six, the Panthers would surely finish first assuming they were evenly matched.
Chris shrugged. "Meh, their checkpoints are more spread out than yours," he frowned, struggling to see the problem. How were there already objections?
"Aww what's wrong Caleb? Can't handle a little cardio?" Julia sneered.
Caleb scowled.
Chris briefly glanced at his daughter who did not appear to be in a mood to talk today. Emily stared down at the ground and nervously adjusted her light-pink-tinted sunglasses. Ripper briefly stared, wondering what was going on with her.
Chris cleared his throat. "Uhhh… failure to face your fear will come at a cost of a 30 minute penalty. Ouch!... Now for your fears! We asked your family, your friends, made alt accounts to follow your social media – "
"Uhh... stalkers much?" Julia said, disgusted.
Chris blinked twice. "Yeah… anyways, we've got your phobias down to a tee! They're incredibly accurate so you can expect that we got your fear correct. You might want to start mentally preparing to face it."
Chris' eyes gleamed in gleeful anticipation. He looked at Emily once more. She still had her head down and was shifting her feet uncomfortably. He cleared his throat nervously. "Now, Emi here…uh… she's not too thrilled with some of the challenges I set up. Thinks some of them are too 'much' whatever that means…" Chris frowned slightly.
Emily closed her eyes.
Now Ripper was really curious what was going on. He was wondering which fears Emily of all people considered to be too harsh.
Wanting to get this challenge over with sooner rather than later, Chris kick-started the challenge with the usual blare of his horn.
"Anyways, with all of that out of the way your challenge starts now!" he announced.
BEEP!
The Panthers and Orangutans instantly took off.
"GO! GO!" Priya commanded, leading her team into the east entrance.
"LET'S MOVE!" Julia yelled into the air as her team followed her into the west entrance.
Emily sighed as she watched the Panthers enter the maze. She had objected to one challenge in particular because she knew it would be too hard for him. No pleading in the world, not even from his own daughter, could cause Chris Mclean to switch the challenge for something easier. The best Emily could do now would be to hope for the best and believe that he could do it, though she knew deep down it would be impossible for him.
"Good luck Ripper…" she whispered, playing with her hair anxiously.
"Relax Em it'll be fine! Let's get back to the control room and watch all the panic unfold! YEAHHH!" Chris ushered Emily and Chef away to the safety of the surveillance room where they would be able to see every camper at their designated checkpoint.
"Alright guys! We can't waste any time! Suck it up and face your worst nightmares!" Julia said sharply. She was sprinting faster than anyone else, leading her team. Unlike Caleb, she didn't find their numbers advantage to be such a big advantage. In fact, she was expecting harder tasks for them to even the playing field.
"We got this in the bag!" Ripper punched his fist enthusiastically.
"Easy for you to say!" Wayne said appalled, his voice cracking slightly.
Wayne confessional: *whimpers* I'm trying not to freak out over here! Chris said they know our fears but hopefully that was all just mouth!
"There's the first checkpoint. Up ahead!" Axel pointed. Her 20/20 vision caught the first checkpoint before the others.
"Wonder who's up eh?..." Wayne muttered, hoping against all odds it would not be him.
The Panthers came to a halt and Julia turned on a screen. Chris' face, magnified, popped up. Chase gave a small scream. The Chris on their screen grinned cheekily and pulled out a piece of paper from which he read off.
"First up… CHASE!"
Chase gulped. He had not expected to be first. "ME?! Already? NO way!" Chase backed up, and eyed the screen apprehensively as if it was about to explode. Chris droned on.
"Hmmm... let's see... interesting… fear of losing all of your subscribers and becoming irrelevant!We got the perfect challenge just for you buddy! After this message, the screen will momentarily go blank. Then a window will pop up, displaying your channel with the number 11, 635, 272 representing your subscriber count."
Chase guffawed. "Damn, that was a while ago. I'm sitting at 12 mil now, how could you guys not get that?! Try to keep up!"
Julia and Axel rolled their eyes.
Chase confessional: And the best way to keep up with the number of subs I actually have is to subscribe to THREE GUYS AND A GIRL IN A BEACH HOUSE! *winks and flashes a grin displaying shiny white teeth*
"Your task is to watch our bot drop this number all the way to zero. It should take no longer than five minutes because the decline will be pretty dramatic. If you can sit through five minutes of watching your sub count drop all the way to zero, you can go through to the next check point!" the screen-Chris concluded.
Chase's jaw dropped and he stopped laughing. Zero?... ZERO?!
"No way!" he threw his hands up and turned away from the screen shaking slightly.
Julia rolled her eyes once more. She was not going to let Chase take a penalty under any circumstances. "Why are you freaking out? It's literally a bot, it's not real. Probably just a program that wipes out everything clean," she hissed, refusing to believe this man-child could not sit through five minutes of watching his sub count drop.
Chase choked. "I… I can't do that though! I'm too important to be punked like this! My numbers are too high, I pull in millions of views a month. To go all the way to zero is INSANE!" Chase roared, staring defiantly at his teammates. How could they not understand him? This was his life!
"It's fake!" Wayne repeated, exasperated.
"For the last time, not real," Julia said hysterically. "Once you finish this, you can check your phone and still see a cute little 12 million. I have double the number of followers on MySelfieGram by the way."
Chase glared. Why was Julia boasting about this? Everyone knew MySelfieGram was the easiest social media platform to gain a large following. Bots flooded that place!
"Whatever… I'm not doing it!" He crossed his arms and put his nose up in the air in a stuck-up manner.
"Seriously? This is basically a freebie," Ripper muttered, disappointed in his fellow alpha for chickening out of what would probably be the easiest challenge of the day.
Axel was infuriated at her teammates for being so lax on Chase. She took a different approach, the only way she knew how. Straight-forward, clear, brash and to the point. "SUCK IT UP!" she yelled in his face. "IT'S FIVE MINUTES YOU CLOUT-CHASING, FAME-LOVING, ATTENTION-SEEKING MORON." She stomped her army boots on the ground, creating a cloud of dust.
This did not intimidate Chase in the slightest and he stood his ground.
"Nope! Not doing it! And you guys can't make me!" he said boldly. Without any hesitation, Chase pressed the button for the 30-minute penalty.
30:00, 29:59, 29:58…
Julia was flabbergasted. "Wh – w – w- why?!" she spluttered. She had never seen anything so ridiculous. Their 30-minute penalty had commenced and all they could do was sit around and wait. Julia, Axel and Ripper all glared at Chase.
Wayne ruffled the back of his hair. "Damn, starting with a penalty right away? Rough first period I guess… hopefully we can make a comeback though!"
Julia snorted. They would be lucky to win at this rate. Julia was assuming the Orangutans were not going to take any penalties.
Meanwhile, the Orangutans were making their way to their first checkpoint. "OK everyone remember, we have six members versus their five," Priya hollered. "We can't afford to take any 30-minute penalties or else we're guaranteed a loss."
Everyone nodded in agreement. The stakes were high. If they lost this one, anybody who failed to step up and face their fear was definitely getting the boot. Every face was filled with dread and uncertainty as they did not know who would be going first. Finally, they reached the first checkpoint.
Emma turned on the screen and just like with the Panthers, a pre-recorded Chris popped up. "First up…. The big boss man himself, CALEEEB!"
Caleb shuddered, remembering what MK had told him a few hours prior.
"So… today the gym bro's going to be pumping some iron! Let's see… fear… of… death by bench press! We've seen your 1RM videos so we know how much you can roughly handle. So! You have to load up this bar with 395 pounds and keep bench pressing until you TEAR YOUR PEC!" Chris grinned maliciously and rubbed his fingers salivating.
Caleb's eyes popped out of his sockets.
"WHAT?! ARE YOU INSANE?!" Caleb could not believe he had to injure himself on purpose!
The pre-recorded Chris seemed to have anticipated Caleb's reaction because he quickly chuckled. "Hehe… I'm just kidding. The real challenge is to load up this bar with whatever weight you want and start repping out. However, there is a target amount you must get to. You must bench press a total of 10,000 pounds across all of your sets." A new icon popped up on the screen displaying a long green line. Right now a total of 0 pounds had been lifted. Caleb figured that as he performed reps, this line would move to the right.
"10K pounds in 30 minutes should be easy for CDawg1500!" Damien cheered. Damien had seen Caleb's gym videos and was not worried for him in the slightest.
Priya nodded. "Is that 350 a 1 rep max or for reps?" she asked Caleb feeling slightly guilty since she could have sworn he had already told her. Hadn't he already told her this back on the first day? How had she forgotten?
"Reps," Caleb promptly replied. "My 1 rep max is actually 455. But…" he broke off and looked at the bar lost in thought for he had just realised a strategy to finish this quickly and efficiently.
Caleb confessional: So I want to finish this challenge as fast as possible. You would think that would mean loading up the bar with as much weight as you can handle. But if I do that I'll be taking 3-4 minutes of rest between each set… which is too much time wasted.
So it's time to lower the ego, drop the weight and finish this as fast as possible! *performs a front lat spread and grins confidently*
"I'm going to go for 100 reps of 100 pounds. I think that's the easiest way to hit 10,000 as fast as possible. 100 pounds is light weight, that's not even a plate! I think I'll take at most one rest just to catch my breath. I'll be going lightning fast though I promise! I should be done in no time!" Caleb announced to his team.
He took off his salmon-pink dress shirt to reveal death-star delts, a thick, succulent chest, wings for lats and grizzly, muscular arms. The cherry on top was the bicep vein. Emma and Priya fanned themselves in admiration.
Priya confessional: *fans herself* Did I mention how hot that is? Lowering his ego, dropping the weight and using his MIT brain to hit 10,000 pounds as efficiently as possible?! EEEEE!
"Priya, can you spot me?" Caleb asked as he placed himself beneath the barbell.
"Really… OK…?" Priya said slowly. Priya wondered why he was asking for a spot with a weight he could do in his sleep.
Caleb confessional: OK I know I don't need a spot for 100 pounds… but still, I just wanted Priya to get a really nice up-close view of my chest getting a pump. *chuckles*
Caleb took a deep breath.
Priya looked down at him anxiously. "Ready? Lift on 3! 1…2… LIFT!"
Caleb and Priya unracked the weight together before Priya took her hands off the barbell. It was all Caleb from here. Truthfully, Priya felt she didn't even need to do anything except sit back and watch.
"LIGHT WEIGHT! YEAHHHHH BUDDDYYYYYY!" Damien clapped his hands three times to hype Caleb up.
"WOOOOOO! CRUSH IT!" boomed Raj.
Caleb began cranking out reps as fast as he could with the bar touching his chest and coming back up. From where she was standing, Priya was able to see Caleb's large pecs in action.
"Wow…" Priya said mesmerized. She could stay here and watch all day. As Caleb performed his reps, the line on the screen moved to the right, much like a loading screen.
After about a minute, Caleb had performed 100 reps of 100 pounds, with a total weight of 10,000 pounds lifted. "WOOOOO!" Caleb roared as he banged his chest. "Easy! Let's go! Priya, mind passing me my shirt?"
Priya giggled as she tossed Caleb's dress shirt back to him.
"Made that look easy," she said impressed.
"I didn't even break a sweat!" Caleb said happily as he put his dress shirt back on. He felt he had gotten off relatively easy with this challenge and was feeling better now that he had gotten it over with.
"Alright guys, next checkpoint!" Priya announced happily. The mood of the Orangutans compared to the Panthers who were currently taking a penalty was night and day. The Orangutans smiled as they took the early lead and headed off to checkpoint two.
30 minutes later, the Panthers' penalty was finished. Julia stood up and shook Axel who had fallen asleep.
"FINALLY! ABOUT TIME! Chase, you are SO dead if we lose this!" Axel pointed threateningly at Chase who carelessly said, "Yeah, yeah I know…" Already, he was starting to slightly regret his decision.
The Panthers sprinted to the next checkpoint, following the arrows. Each of them knew that they couldn't afford any more penalties. After a few more minutes of running, they saw the familiar-looking checkpoint and another screen. Axel turned the screen on.
"Next up for the Panthers is… WAYNE!"
Wayne jumped back. "Oh man… me?" he whispered.
Julia looked up at him. "Who else?" she said coldly, still bothered by the unnecessary penalty. "Alright, let's see what he has to do." They leaned closer to the screen.
"Oooo… a very common fear among athletes… missing the game-winning shot!" Chris announced.
Wayne shut his eyes and swore.
Wayne confessional: *face-palms* It's true. Ask anyone who plays sports, they'll tell you the game-winning shot is the most nerve-racking thing ever. The only thing scarier than that is a buzzer-beater game winner.
"Your challenge is to lace up these skates and get on the ice! We have five dummies who will be controlled by Chef. The score in this imaginary game is 2-2! You have possession, you must score a goal within 3 minutes!"
Wayne gave a small smile. This challenge wasn't as bad as he thought!
"That's plenty of time! NO big sweat!" he puffed his chest proudly.
"And… eh… why not? Let's throw a buzzer beater in there too!" Chris added menacingly.
Wayne felt his stomach drop. "WHAT?!" he exclaimed. Chris went on through Wayne's whimpers and little noises of protest.
"So! You have to time the shot to go in at the absolute last second! We don't want you scoring with a minute left to play! Therefore, you must keep the puck away from the robot players and score a buzzer beater!"
Wayne blanched. Now the pressure was on. "Oh man…" he said softly. He did not feel so well. All of a sudden, it felt like his stomach had tied itself into knots. A persistent, dull pain was twisting his insides and it refused to let go. But… he had to do it for the team! Chase had already taken a pointless penalty and Wayne did not want to have to do the same.
Wayne grabbed the skates provided to him on the rack and started lacing up. He stared at the mini rink that had been set up for him, devising a strategy. He did not know how good Chef was at controlling these robots so his goal was to keep the puck as far away from them as possible. And preferably, he wanted to stay on his side of the rink to have more space.
Julia came up and stood next to him, looking at the rink with slight concern. "5 on 1? Yikes… pretty bad odds…" she said hesitantly, looking up at him with a crease in her forehead.
Wayne looked down and gave her a wide grin. "Yeah… they don't stand a chance," he said cockily.
Julia flipped her hair and laughed. She welcomed his confidence. It was time to see if he could back it up.
Wayne put on his helmet and went on the ice.
"GO GET THAT BUZZER BEATER DUDE!" Ripper cheered. Behind his back, Wayne gave a thumbs-up.
Wayne skated over to the puck. The instant his stick touched it, the robots came to life. Wayne kept his eye on them as he skated backwards, keeping the puck under control between his stick. And then –
Two of the robots started charging towards him.
So it was gonna be like that huh? Wayne thought fiercely under his helmet. One robot was coming from his left side, the other from his right. Wayne hit the puck with just enough force to go between the legs of the left robot but stop before it could reach the other three. Wayne bolted past the left robot and reclaimed his puck. Now four of them were coming towards him, encircling him. He was surrounded.
"Oh no!" Julia screeched as she grabbed Ripper's arm instinctively. She knew Wayne was good but was he really that good? How would he get out of this situation? He was basically trapped!
Ripper gave Julia a cheeky grin and she quickly let go, looking revolted. Wayne, however was perfectly calm. He knew that these robots were being controlled by Chef and Wayne knew he was a much smarter hockey player than Chef.
Wayne confessional: *taps helmet* Time to deke these boys out!
Wayne looked towards his immediate left and shifted his shoulders slightly so that they were facing the same direction. He put power into his foot and began skating. All four robots, believing he was going to go left, quickly rushed to block him yet as soon as they had begun moving left, Wayne changed course impeccably fast. Using his body and stick, he switched right and escaped.
"Get head-faked!" he laughed at how easy it was to fool Chef with this basic move he had been practicing since he was five years old.
"Chef… you're horrible!" Chris complained from the control room. "Didn't you see that head fake coming from a mile away?"
Chef rolled his eyes and tried to focus on playing.
Out of pure spite and because he was feeling so confident, Wayne decided to crosscheck a robot for no reason. The robot flailed its arms uselessly as it collapsed awkwardly to the ground and then got back up, arms still flailing around. Wayne threw his head back into the air and guffawed.
"That's a foul! RED CARD!" Chef roared, sending spit flying everywhere on his screen.
Wayne looked up.
30 seconds left to play.
"I have to keep this puck away from them, can't let them ever get possession," he constantly reminded himself under his breath.
"Let's see how you like THIS. Hit em with a little spin!" Wayne spun his body around a robot who did nothing but stare confusedly.
"NOPE!" Wayne taunted. Wayne looked up.
15 seconds left.
He had to start making his way to the net if he wanted to score. Wayne began skating up the rink towards the enemy goalie. The other robots were heading back to defend.
10…9…8…
Wayne eyed the clock nervously, hands trembling slightly.
7…6…5…
He stopped looking at the clock and instead kept his eyes only on the net.
4…3…2…
Here it goes, he thought. Wayne used the heel of his blade to pull the puck towards himself. Two robots converged on him. At the last second, Wayne quickly switched directions again and shot.
"It's going in!" Julia called excitedly as soon as the puck had left the stick.
1….
BANG!
The puck released from the impact with the stick and soared through the air between the other two defenders and flung into the net.
Wayne confessional: *dances* WOOOOOOO! Time to hit the celly!
Wayne threw his helmet into the air, pumped his fist and screamed his lungs out in joy. It was almost like he had won the cup. But even though it wasn't the cup, Wayne was overjoyed for conquering his fear of the buzzer beater game winner. Wayne looked up ecstatic as the score changed 3-2.
"MVP! MVP! MVP!" he roared. Wayne turned to see his teammates' happy faces.
"AH! THIS GAME WAS RIGGED!" Chef threw down his remote in frustration and walked out of the room to take deep breaths.
"WAYNE YOU DID IT!" Julia ran up to him and gave him a hug. He looked at her in surprise.
"Backhand toe drag?" she asked in a flirting manner, touching his arms affectionately. She was just happy to move on from this checkpoint. He had finished rather quickly.
Wayne, who was sweating even from a three minute game, grinned. He had completely forgotten that Julia said she played hockey. Had the TikTok challenge really been that long ago? Time was certainly flying!
Perhaps it was because he had just shot a buzzer beater game winner and he was simply too excited or maybe he just liked Julia speaking in hockey terms but at that very moment he felt daring. He wanted to do something risky because he felt he was ready for anything! And so he decided to shoot his shot. He grabbed Julia's shoulders and laughed. She blinked and looked up at him incredulously.
"OK Sterling, let's be honest with each other. You like me. I know you like me. Everyone in this stadium knows you like me so how about a little kiss? For the cam?" He leaned towards Julia's shocked face and puckered his lips, ready to accept a nice warm kiss from her… But she did not return it.
Julia pushed Wayne's hands off of her and stepped backwards, disgusted. "WHAT?! Ew! No. Gross. I don't like you! I like the fact that you won.. and that you're good at hockey I guess…" she twirled her hair nervously and looked down.
Wayne chuckled. Was he seeing red on her face? He was not hurt for he knew she was lying!
Wayne confessional: *stares at the camera deeply with a cheeky smirk* She likes me.
The Orangutans had reached checkpoint number two. Damien turned the screen on. Chris' familiar face reappeared. "And… up next for the Orangutans is… Raj!"
Raj gulped.
"Oooo… a very common fear among athletes… missing the game-winning shot!"
Raj confessional: *face-palms* It's true. Ask anyone who plays sports, they'll tell you the game-winning shot is the most nerve-racking thing ever. The only thing scarier than that is a buzzer-beater game winner. But… at least I'm not doing that! *laughs*
"Your challenge is to lace up these skates and get on the ice! We have five dummies who will be controlled by Emily. The score in this imaginary game is 2-2! You have possession, you must score a goal within three minutes!"
Raj wiped his face gratefully. This wasn't so bad!
"At least it isn't a buzzer beater!" he cackled to his teammates who were looking pleasantly surprised at Raj's calm reaction.
Chris continued as if he had just heard Raj. "And… eh… why not? Let's throw a buzzer beater in there too!"
Raj stopped in his tracks. "WHAT?!" he yelped.
"So! You have to time the shot to go in at the absolute last second! We don't want you scoring with a minute left to play! Therefore, you must keep the puck away from the robot players and score a buzzer beater!"
Raj blanched. "Oh man…" The pressure was on. Now he was nervous.
A minute later Raj was all laced up. He took a deep breath, staring at the wide rink in front of him.
"5 on 1? How is that fair?!" Emma exclaimed from behind.
Raj answered without turning back. "It isn't… for them," he smirked. But this was just a façade. Internally, he was panicking hard. His heart was pumping well over 100 beats a minute. He was getting massive déjà-vu. The score, the ice, the nerves… it was all too familiar for his liking.
Raj confessional: Aw man… I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. You see the thing is, when I was 12, I actually missed the game-winner in our junior league division finals. Final score 2-2, I missed, we went to OT and ended up losing 4-2. Wayner was the only one who talked to me in the locker room after that game… *sighs*
Raj skated over to the puck. The instant his stick touched it, the robots came to life. Raj kept his eye on them as he skated backwards, keeping the puck under control between his stick. And then –
Two robots began to charge towards Raj, one from his left and one from his right. Raj narrowed his eyes, trying to remain focused. Without warning they lunged straight at him. Raj growled and went between the legs of the robot to his left. The robot turned around stupidly while Raj zoomed past it and continued skating backwards, still keeping his eyes on the robots as they moved slowly towards him.
Raj took a deep breath. Though the game had just started, he felt he was being too passive. It was time to show them his real skills and set the tone – he was not messing around.
Raj confessional: What am I doing? I'm a MASTER baiter! Time to kick it up a notch. *grins*
Raj paused. The robots stopped and stared at him.
"What…is he doing now?" Chris muttered as Emily kept her hands on the controller, watching Raj carefully to see what his next move would be.
Raj took another second to smirk before moving his stick at the speed of light, left to right. The puck was now a big black blur as it moved back and forth between his stick. The robots spun their heads confused. Back in the control room, Emily, Chef and Chris were spinning their heads.
"Where is it?" Emily shrieked. Her jaw had dropped in shock as she stared at the lightning-fast puck.
"Just charge him!" Chris said, utterly perplexed. How could a puck move so fast?
Emily moved three robots towards Raj who at the last second, bolted past them.
Raj charged towards the 4th robot who was defending. He shifted his bodyweight and stick towards his right. The robot thinking he was going right started turning accordingly but at the last second, Raj went left, taking great care to pass the puck behind his back.
"Sorry buddy!" Raj taunted as he pinched the robot's nose.
He whipped around. Two more robots were charging towards him so Raj crosschecked them both. Desperate move but it had worked. Or had it? Immediately, they recovered and charged towards Raj.
"Damn, these boys are tough!" he said through gritted teeth. Raj pushed the puck further up the rink with his stick, charging towards two more robots. He looked to his right with his head while moving his shoulders slightly in the same direction. The robots, believing he was going to go right made to cut him off, but at the last second, with remarkable agility, he changed course and shifted his body to the left.
The robots spun around stupidly once again and tripped over each other as Raj roared with laughter. Head fake, successfully executed! Raj was having such a good time but then -
"RAJ! THE CLOCK! LOOK AT THE CLOCK!" Emma yelled, waving her hands frantically.
Raj looked up, sweating.
10…9…8…
His heart dropped. Already? He had to start making his way over to the net. He abruptly turned and sprinted along the ice.
7…6…5…
By this point, he stopped looking at the clock and instead kept his eyes only on the net.
4…3…2…
Here it goes Raj thought as he adjusted his handle one last time, ready to give this puck the most powerful slapshot of his life.
1….
BANG! The puck released from the impact with the stick and soared through the air between two defenders and flung cleanly into the net.
BEEP! signalled the end of the game.
The Orangutans erupted with applause. Emma and Priya jumped up and down, hugging each other. Damien and Caleb pumped their fists and even MK gave a little smile.
"YES!" Raj leaped up and punched his fist mid-air in celebration. He had done it, he had conquered his fear! "MVP! MVP! MVP!" he cheered as he performed donuts on the ice.
Raj confessional: Bowie. I know you're watching. That one was for you. *winks and blows an air-kiss*
The Orangutans reached checkpoint three, feeling much more alive and determined. They had gotten through their first two challenges quickly. MK pressed the button to reveal another Chris. "Up next... it's Emma!"
Emma's heart skipped a beat. She knew what was coming.
"Hmm… OK so a lonely childhood eh? Hate eating alone? Interesting… And lots of obsession over getting that dream beach body… lots of magazines… looks to me like it's two major fears! So let's combine them both into a challenge! You have to eat this giant plate of Thanksgiving food, filled with the greasiest, sauciest, calorie-dense foods all by yourself! And THEN, you have to go for 8 minutes on the Stairmaster!"
Emma looked mortified as the pre-recorded Chris howled with laughter. Making fun of other people's insecurities made him laugh?
"Is that going to take longer than 30 minutes?" Damien walked around and contemplated the dishes set up in front of them. "Thanksgiving food is filling. I see turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, dinner rolls, cornbread, whole lot of gravy, green beans yuck…"
Emma confessional: Normally I LOVE Thanksgiving but that's because it's ONCE a year and it's special. *looks at stomach and groans*
"So basically I have to stuff my face and then burn calories right after?!" Emma shrieked. "That's messed up! And I have to eat alone?!?" Emma started to feel she could not do this… but… she couldn't quit now or else she'd be the first to take a penalty for her team and that would feel even worse.
MK snorted. "I don't see what the big deal of eating alone is. Why do you need to eat with someone else? Personally, I wouldn't mind the peace and quiet of eating alone…"
Emma looked at MK as if she had just slapped her.
"It's a big deal to me! I hate eating alone! Don't judge me!" Emma hissed.
Priya stared at Emma empathetically. "Emma? What do you want to do? If you don't want to do it, it's OK…" She half-meant this. This was a hard challenge but at the same time Priya did not want to lose and she would probably lose her mind if they did.
Emma stomped her foot. "NO! I can't be the first to take a penalty!" she growled. "Everyone else has done their part so I have to do mine. I have to go now, we're wasting time" – she turned to the dishes set up in front of her – "Let's see… I think I can finish this plate in 10-ish minutes, Stairmaster for 8, that's much less than 30. OK!" Emma took a deep breath and committed by seating herself at the table.
The worst part of it all was that this plate actually looked scrumptious unlike Chef's usual cooking. But it looked a little too heavy, with too much sauce and gravy smothered everywhere. It made her feel slightly nauseous and she hadn't even taken a bite yet…
Emma picked up her fork and knife, hands shaking intensely. She took a little bit of turkey with gravy sauce and shoved it down her throat. What started off as an easy challenge quickly became a nightmare for her and she was starting to regret ever taking the first bite. The first bite had not been so bad but after a while, the heavy sauces and overwhelming amounts of food still left on the plate made Emma sob between each bite.
Another piece of turkey, another bite of stuffing, another scoop of mashed potatoes, another group of green beans… and that horrible sauce which was starting to become really disgusting to her taste buds. Halfway through her plate, Emma was full-on crying so that it looked like she was eating Thanksgiving and drinking her own tears.
Emma confessional: *gravy sauce all over her mouth as she takes deep breaths* Wow… I. Am. A. Mess. It's called emotional eating, people!
The Orangutans stared pitifully at Emma.
"Damn, this one is pretty tough… that's a lot of food," Caleb said in a hoarse voice. The plate really did look like something someone of his size should eat. "Emma doesn't look too happy…"
Priya's voice quivered with rage at seeing Emma suffer like this. "Producers are messed up for coming up with this! Did they think this was funny?!"
Back in the control room. Chris was watching with a manic glint in his eyes while Emily and Chef were looking deeply concerned. "HAHAAH look at her face! HAHAHAAH! I love this game!" Chris was rolling around on the floor in fits of laughter. "OOP – she forgot to wipe cranberry sauce off of her chin. HAHAAH!"
Emily rolled her eyes. "Hilarious…" she said sarcastically, trying her best to ignore the obnoxious laughter coming from her father.
Chef glanced at Chris in disgust. Was he slowly turning back into his All-Stars self?...
Ten minutes later, Emma had finished her plate. It had been challenging for her but she had done it. She rubbed her stomach and groaned. There was no time for breaks. She had to get on that Stairmaster now if she wanted to finish as fast as possible. Emma hopped on and it began to move at a pre-determined speed. It seemed she had to move at 100 steps a minute.
"THIS IS WAY TOO FAST!" she cried. Even though she was used to hard leg workouts and intense cardio (she was a soccer player after all), the difficulty of the task had been magnified due to all the food she had shoveled down earlier. Emma tried to control her breathing and focus on one step at a time, but she could feel herself falling slowly. How long had it been? Surely two minutes. It had been 25 seconds. Emma whimpered and without thinking, grabbed on to the rails.
Chris' voice suddenly came from the megaphone above. "AH, AH, AH! No, no, no, no, noooo! No grabbing on the rails. That wouldn't be a Stairmaster now would it? Start again!"
"WHAT?!" Emma yelped. "OH NO!" She immediately let go. The timer reset and she was back to eight minutes. Emma felt like pulling her hair out. This was so unfair!
"Emma, deep breath!" Raj cheered. "YOU CAN DO THIS!" He felt he had to step up and support Emma during her troubled moments, just like Bowie had done in the TikTok challenge.
Emma gave a nervous cough of laughter. She was grateful Raj was supporting her. But she had to concentrate. The timer had reset to eight minutes after all. If she didn't start moving, she would have been better off taking the 30 minute penalty. Bracing herself for what would most likely be the toughest cardio session of her life, she let go of the rails and the clock started ticking down again.
7:59, 7:58, 7:57…
Gosh, time was moving so slowly. Emma did not want to look at each individual second because that would make her feel worse. Instead, she tried to think happy thoughts to distract her as she mindlessly lifted her legs up, one after the other, in a rhythmic left-right-left-right motion.
Emma bit her lip and closed her eyes. She thought of her Grade 10 girls' soccer MVP award, hitting a million subs on Three guys and a girl in a beach house. And then she thought of Bowie. Her best friend here. Oh, how much she missed him. Her happiest memory with Bowie was of course when he had comforted her during the TikTok challenge and how he had dissected the routine in a way that was easy for her to digest. How much Bowie had cared about her. Emma closed her eyes and laughed a little as she replayed the scene in her head. Maybe she should even replay it twice…
Emma looked down.
4:01… 4:00… 3:59…
Halfway there! she thought happily. Just have to keep thinking happy thoughts.
Her teammates who were watching her apprehensively, did not know why Emma was laughing so much when there was a ridiculous amount of sweat rolling down the side of her face. They also did not understand how she was getting through this difficult challenge, but whatever it was… it was working. And they had to encourage her.
"Yes Emma, keep it up!" Priya whooped.
"Axel!" Chris said as the Panthers reached the third checkpoint. "Fear of… the zombie apocalypse!"
Axel narrowed her eyes. It was her biggest fear alright but oh was she ready. She had been preparing for a doomsday scenario ever since she was 5 years old. Axel's confidence was shown through a little smirk, as her lips pointed up to one side slightly.
Axel confessional: Those zombies are soooo dead *laughs quietly*
"We are about to give you a VR headset. Put this on and battle until all zombies are wiped out. Once you die, if you die that is, the 30-minute penalty will begin. Good luck because there's a lot of them! If you make it to the end, this game should be over in 15 minutes," the screen-Chris read from a piece of paper. "So… do you accept?"
Without hesitation, Axel nodded fiercely and cracked her knuckles savagely. At once, a smooth, black VR headset dropped from above. Axel caught it and put it on. Immediately, she felt herself leaving behind the world where her teammates were and entering a new one. A world where the world was burning, the sky was polluted with a hazy orange, and the lack of vegetation and trees was evident. A world devoid of happiness and life.
Axel landed on the grey ground on her left knee. She looked around. This was not an unfamiliar place at all. In fact, she was in Camp Wawanakwa only with different colours. That was a major help for sure as she would know where to hide. The first place she wanted to go?… the boathouse where there would surely be useful weapons waiting for her. Axel turned around. She was at the very top of the iconic cliff. To get to the boathouse waiting at the very bottom, she would have to either dive or run back down.
Axel instantly settled on diving. 1,000 foot high cliffs were nothing. Without a second thought, Axel leaped into the lake sending a large splash. Holding her breath, she began to swim back up to the surface until she felt a tugging sensation on her ankle. Axel looked down horrified. Underwater zombies?! she thought incredulously.
Sure enough, there they were. A mass of green and blue fleshy skin slightly camouflaging with the seaweed. It was holding on to her ankle with a very firm grip. It did not want to let go so it was up to Axel to make it release her with a –
BAM!
A powerful kick to the face as the bottom of her army boots collided with the underwater zombie's face. It gave a cry of pain and fell to the bottom of the lake slowly, closing its eyes in defeat. Phew close one Axel thought relieved as she came up to the surface and brushed her wet hair out of her face. Now it was time to get to land.
ZING!
Axel's heart skipped a beat. "WHAT WAS THAT?!" she yelped, looking at her feet. Something had just brushed past her leg, narrowly missing her. But what? Another underwater zombie? A shark?
ZING!
ZING!
ZING!
Axel saw it this time. Tridents. Flying at her from below.
Axel confessional: *looks impressed* Underwater zombies throwing tridents. Well done guys, you did your research. *claps hands*
Chris confessional: *giggles* Nah, we just play Minecraft.
Axel immediately began swimming towards shore. She had to get out of here. If she just stayed put and floated around, she would get hit by a trident for sure.
ZING!
A narrow miss yet Axel still kept her eyes on land. Finally, she made it. Axel turned around and gave one last look at the now still water. The zombies had gone back to the depths of Wawanakwa Lake.
Now Axel quickly tied her hair to a bun. It would be more practical that way when fighting zombies. At least she wouldn't have to worry about annoying hair pulling.
Axel ran to the boathouse, punching two zombies squarely in the face along her way. They disintegrated into dust. Other than that, there did not seem to be many others lurking around… why was that?
BANG!
She kicked the door to the boathouse open. It fell cleanly off its hinges and she crouched down, whistling happily.
She was impressed with the selection. It looked like everything she carried around with her in her survival bag. Axel settled for the machine gun and machete which she strapped on to her back. As she turned around to leave the boathouse and find a vantage point, she heard a low growling.
Grrrrrr…
Axel's heart plummeted. At least 100 zombies were blocking her exit. They were right outside the boathouse, walking slowly along the dock in unison like a giant zombie marching band. Now she knew why she hadn't seen many before. It seemed they had been waiting for her to go into the boathouse and trap her. As if they knew she needed weapons… Axel had to hand it to them. These zombies were a lot less braindead than she had thought.
Axel grabbed a dusty, black bandana lying in the corner and tied it to her head because why not? Feeling extremely bad-ass she loaded up her machine gun, tapped it twice and growled. She would use the gun first and whenever she ran out of ammo, the machete would come.
"COME ON! TRY AND KILL ME!" she roared as she stood her ground and faced the zombies.
As if they understood English, they suddenly sped up their slow, drawn-out walk. Axel adjusted her stance one last time before flashing a cocky smirk and firing.
"RAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Axel roared crazily as her machine gun went RA-TA-TA-TA-TA. She was easily mowing down zombies. They all fell hopelessly to the ground, some even splashing into the water to become rotting, decaying corpses in the lake. Very soon, blood and brains littered the dock looking very much like the aftermath of an intense battle.
Axel reloaded. Though she had killed many already, she felt the wave of zombies rushing towards her would not stop as the ones who died were constantly being replaced by more behind them.
Axel killed what must've been at least 300 zombies before her machine gun made a funny noise. She looked down frustrated. It had jammed. Axel cursed, feeling Chris had fed her a bad gun on purpose. Axel had no time to reach for another gun as the zombies were closing in on her fast. So she decided she was going to charge at them first.
Axel unsheathed her machete, adjusted her bandana one more time, and then sprinted head-on to a group of six zombies. Her boots clanked loudly against the ground as she ran. Though her heart was racing, she was not afraid. She was excited. This was what she was born to do. At the last second, she leaped high into the air and brought the blade down swiftly on the first zombies' head.
Axel confessional: BOOM! BRAIN SHOT! *dorky thumbs-up*
The zombie, now with a large machete through its brain, screeched in pain before Axel removed it and kicked him to two of his other zombie buddies. They collided and fell to the dock, crashing through the planks which snapped under their combined bodyweight. Axel fiercely swung through the necks of three more zombies, killing them all in one motion. Their heads rolled around on the dock while their bodies continued to move around for a few more seconds before collapsing.
15 minutes later and after killing at least 200 more zombies with nothing but her machete, Axel's entire upper body was covered in scratches and cuts. And still, the zombies were coming in one after the other. She struggled to catch her breath as she crouched on the dock, one hand on her machete, the other on her ribs. She was getting tired. And her eyes were starting to feel heavy –
WHAM!
Axel gave a cry of pain and fell to the floor. Apparently, one of the zombies had rammed into her from behind. Hard. Axel cursed. She was getting sloppy. She made to get up slowly but stumbled and fell once more. Axel looked up at the horde of zombies standing above her, surrounding her on all sides.
Axel hung her head. So this was how it would end. Losing a zombie challenge and getting a 30-minute penalty? How unfortunate…
Suddenly she heard a shrill noise in the air. She looked up. Her jaw dropped. A great big ball of light was heading towards her! Axel covered her eyes with her arm, bending down and avoiding the blinding light as it came closer and closer…
CRASH!
Axel felt a ripping of the earth while she continued to cover her eyes. She could hear the screams of a hundred zombies as they all withered away. It got louder and louder until –
Axel woke up, groaning with a headset on her. Suddenly, it was removed.
"Congrats Axel! You survived the zombie apocalypse! You may go through to the next checkpoint!"
Axel blinked. Staring down at her and smiling were her teammates. Julia had removed the headset and thrown it to the side. She extended a hand and helped Axel back up to her feet.
"W – what happened?" Axel said breathlessly as she checked her arms for cuts but there were none. She was extremely confused. The last thing she remembered was a great big ball of light hitting the earth and wiping out all zombies.
"I don't know but let's get out of here!" Wayne urged her with a vigorous nod. Axel nodded slowly and took off in a sprint.
The Panthers gathered around checkpoint four. Wayne turned the screen on.
"JULIA!" Chris gasped dramatically. "The queen bee herself… see, we couldn't find much about you and your fears. Which is weird because even though you have 24M followers on MySelfieGram a lot of your life is kept private. We almost couldn't find your fear. Almost. We really thought it was going to be something petty like Chase's or not winning prom queen but we were surprised!"
Julia's eyes were slits, staring angrily at Chris. "Julia's biggest fear is – " He cut off.
Everyone stared blankly. For a moment, Julia's heart skipped a beat, thinking she could walk away scot-free. And then all of a sudden, they heard a loud rumbling from beneath them.
With a giant WHOOSH, a thick, sticky golden substance shot out from the ground, nearly drenching them all. "Marmalade?" Julia said confused as some of it landed on her fingers and hair. And then it hit her.
"THAT'S JAM FOR OLD PEOPLE!" she grabbed her hair in panic.
Chris came back on his screen. "OLD PEOPLE!" he giggled.
Julia confessional: *shakes head flustered* There is nothing worse than old people. Their sole purpose is to remind the youth that it won't last forever.
The surprises were not over just yet. For out of the pile of marmalade popped two peculiar elderly men. Each was dressed as if they were about to play a tennis match.
"You look like Chris," Ripper said straightforwardly.
Chris, who was watching from the control room scowled. "WHAT?!" he shrieked as he shook his fist in the air. "We don't look anything alike! Look at his lame hair!"
"BAH! Chris looks like me!" the man to the right joked. "The name's Pete!"
"He should call you Daddy!" the man to the left guffawed. "Gerry by the way!" he smiled and waved at the Panthers. As usual, Pete and Gerry took a moment to laugh obnoxiously at their own jokes.
Ripper blinked. "Jerry?! Aren't you Nichelle's stunt double?"
Gerry temporarily stopped laughing and frowned. "What? Who's stunt double?" He had never heard of this women in his entire life. And what a preposterous name she had, Nishell!
Pete massaged his best friend's shoulders. "Well… Gerry is a stunt double but not a stunt double for that person... He's been in tons of movies himself! Used to work for Hollywood you know…"
Julia crossed her arms and leaned on one leg sassily. "I literally don't even know you. When was your last movie, 1972?" she spat. This was how she typically handled something she was not fond of – by attacking it relentlessly and throwing everything she had at it.
"We don't know you either!" Pete fired back.
"Yeah, literally who are you? Do you think you're IMPORTANT?!" Gerry roared.
Julia's eyes twitched. "YOU SLIMY LITTLE FOSSI – " she began but her words were drowned out by Gerry's obnoxious laughter.
Julia took a step back and shivered. "So old… so wrinkly… so disgusting…" she said after each step back.
Gerry sternly pointed at Julia. "HEY! I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW MISSY, ONE DAY YOU'LL LOOK LIKE US. WHY, BACK IN MY DAY I WAS A… hang on…. what do you kids call it these days?..." – he put a thinking finger to his chin – "OH I KNOW….A CHAD!" He flexed his thin arms in a front double-bicep in front of the Panthers' doubtful faces. Only Pete and Ripper seemed impressed.
"COOL!" Ripper said admiringly. Chads and sigma males always earned his respect.
"I like this guy! HE'S GIVING ME REAL ALFALFA ENERGY!" Gerry beamed at Ripper.
Ripper, Gerry and Pete burst into laughter so now there were three men obnoxiously laughing in unison.
Julia couldn't stand this sound and felt she had to cut it off. Now. "I WILL ALWAYS BE YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL!" she yelled to their unbothered faces, flailing her arms everywhere. Pete and Gerry exchanged glances.
"That girl is shallower than a kiddie pool," Pete chuckled.
"DAHAHAHA! Good one Pete!" Gerry high-fived Pete. "Let me give it a go. She's shallower than the ankle-deep puddles I used to ride my bike over on my way to grade school," he said scathingly.
It was Pete's turn to return a laugh and a compliment. "DAHAHAHAAH! Gerry I love you man!"
THUD!
Julia slammed her foot down and took a sudden step towards the tennis rivals. Did they seriously think she was going to let them make fun of her and get away with it? "Oh yeah?" she curled her lip. "You two wanna go?! YOU WOULDN'T LAST A DAY IN A ROAST BATTLE WITH OUR GEN –"
"PFFFT! Oh please we're not scared of you!" Pete interrupted, sticking his tongue out at Julia.
"Zip it KAREN! DAHAHAHA!" Gerry added, pointing at Julia bravely.
Julia looked like something heavy had just struck the side of her face. Did she really just get called Karen by these two, these two morons?
Julia clenched her fist. "WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME? YOU DID NOT!" she screamed, wide-eyed. By this point, Chase and Ripper were holding their sides, failing to contain their laughter.
"Glad to see someone from your generation can take a joke unlike KAREN here. DAHAAHAHAH!" Pete howled with laughter.
Julia had enough. She was going to fight them and she wasn't going to hold back. All that talk about respecting your elders didn't concern her. Why respect your elders when they clearly didn't respect you? Julia decided to go easy at first just to see how fragile the tennis players' egos were.
She swiftly made her hand into a telephone sign and put it next to her ear mockingly. "Ring, ring. The 60s called for you Dino nuggets. Better answer it," she drawled.
Gerry reacted immediately. "OH HOW HILARIOUS!" he thundered. Julia flinched. "HOW ORIGINAL! AN AGE JOKE! MAKING FUN OF US FOR BEING OLD?! YEAH! WE'VE NEVER SEEN THAT BEFORE! SOOOO WITTY!"
"SIT DOWN KAREN!" Pete said once more, pointing a sharp finger at Julia.
The Panthers stared perplexed at Julia who, for the first time today, looked completely flustered and was at a loss for words.
Axel confessional: *chortles* Something tells me these guys really like the word "Karen"
The pre-recorded Chris continued lazily. "Your job is to converse with Gerry and Pete for 10 minutes. You can ask them anything! I'm sure they've lived very interesting lives. Just have a good conversation with them. There's no such thing as sitting around and saying nothing. If Gerry and Pete feel you're not engaging with them enough, they'll press this red button which will mark the start of your 30 minute penalty."
Julia put her hands to her head. She had already hated seeing old people at her local supermarket but now she was being forced to interact with them? "I CAN'T DO THIS!" she screamed.
Chase made a wet raspberry noise. "Oh come on! We've already had a penalty. We can't afford another," he snorted. Julia shot him a filthy look.
Axel elbowed Chase in the ribs. She couldn't believe the guy who had chickened out from the easiest dare was lecturing Julia.
"Well unlike yours, her penalty is actually justified. Interacting with these two goons should count as community service," she said maliciously. Pete lifted his middle finger and stuck his tongue out. Axel did the same. Pete's jaw dropped.
Gerry + Pete confessional (Pete): *shakes fist angrily into the air* The disrespect of today's youth!
Gerry + Pete confessional (Gerry): I hear ya Pete. NO appreciation for these whippersnappers!
"NO!" Julia shook her head and contorted her body to the ground.
"JULIA!" Wayne grabbed her wrists and bent down next to her. "It's OK! You can talk with them, I know you can! It's not like you're going to age 50 years just by talking with them for ten minutes. By the end of the conversation, you'll still be young – "
Julia looked at him, nodding her head.
"and athletic – "
Julia nodded once more, staring at him desperately like a lost child.
"and totally hot and stuff."
Julia froze.
Wayne's face turned to horror as he realised what he had just said. He had accidentally said the quiet part out loud. Julia seemed to have noticed this as well because she looked at the ground awkwardly, avoiding Wayne's eyes and then made her way to Gerry and Pete who were sitting in a circle.
Wayne confessional: Did I just… say that? *laughs awkwardly* No way!
"OK, I'm going," Julia snivelled, regretting this decision already. But she had committed. It was time to follow through. "Just ignore their wrinkly hands, their aged eyelids and everything will be OK," she muttered to herself as she got closer and closer to them.
"Atta-girl!" Gerry whooped as Julia sat cross-legged in front of them. Julia felt like a toddler attending circle time. She hated circle time.
"Alright," she sighed, throwing her head back exasperated. "What do you wanna talk about?"
"Do you hate us?" Pete asked.
"Yes."
"Why?" Gerry asked roughly.
"Because you're old and ugly."
"Julia, stop being so close-minded," Gerry consoled her. "In all seriousness, you do know you're going to look like us one day?" For the first time today, Gerry was not laughing and looked at her seriously. Julia bit her lip and stared uncertainly at the ground. Unfortunately, this was the truth and she knew it.
"We're serious when we say we were studs back in our day. Check these photos out!" Pete said jovially as he pulled out a black and white photograph from his pocket, revealing a handsome, 200 pound man with muscles that could rival Caleb's. Gerry did the same, revealing a lean, aesthetic physique.
"Wow… you were both cute…" Julia said, getting ahead of herself, and instantly hating that she had said that. She eagerly took the photographs and stared in awe.
Gerry chuckled. "You know you remind me of my high school sweetheart? She moved away and we didn't have cellphones like you guys did. My dumb butt never got her number. She even looks like you!"
Julia clapped her hands. This could only mean one thing. "Then she's pretty!" Julia smiled.
Pete nodded and clapped his best friend on the back. "Oh yeah… I remember I was always jealously third-wheeling Gerry and Natalie. We called them Gertalie… or was it Naterry?"
Gerry chuckled. "Both worked, Pete my guy!"
Natalie. For a brief moment, Julia's heart had skipped a beat but she quashed all her worries by telling herself there were many Natalies around the world.
"Natalie?... That was your girlfriend's name?..." Julia said sweetly.
Gerry nodded. "Oh yeah… we went to prom together! Good old days…. Oh, she looked incredible…" He stared reminiscently into the sky as if he was watching the scene all over again.
Julia decided to push her luck. After all, she had to keep asking questions to show she was engaged in the conversation. "Natalie who?..."
Gerry turned to Julia quizzically, wondering what she needed with that information. Such a strange question indeed. "Natalie Sterling. Knock-out I TELL YA," he replied.
Julia's mouth fell to the floor. She closed her eyes and fell backwards, kicking her legs randomly and made a noise like she could not believe what she had just heard. It was impossible. There was no way it could be true!
"What? Did I say something wrong?" Gerry asked, slightly hurt at Julia's reaction. Pete shrugged.
Julia took two deep breaths before answering. "That's my… GRANDMA!" she shrieked.
Gerry leaped into the air like he had just sat on a thumbtack. "WHAT?! WHOAAA! Are you sure?"
Julia wiped her eyes. "Yes, it has to be. Our family takes our mother's surnames instead of our dad's! Sterling comes from my mother's side. Natalie Sterling, Judy Sterling, Julia Sterling. Did she go to Rocky Heights? 1973-1977?"
"Yeah, she did!" Gerry nodded his head as he gave Julia a very wide grin. Julia groaned. They had to be talking about the same person.
Pete slapped his thigh multiple times like he had just found Eureka! "OHO! That means Gerry 50 years ago would be dating you today!"
This way of thinking did not make Julia feel better. On the contrary, she felt like burying her face in the ground. How could he say something so awful? So gross?
"EWWW!" Julia said revolted. She was used to saying this about lots of people.
Gerry blew steam from his nose angrily. He hated being 'EW'd' from these kids. "Remember how I LOOKED 50 YEARS AGO?!" pulling out the photograph and shoving it into Julia's face once more.
At once, Julia stopped. "OH right… never mind…" Julia immediately thought of the 'my-grandfather-stole-many-girls'-hearts-back-in-the-day' trend on her social media. Guess there's some truth to the trend Julia thought miserably.
Gerry chuckled and decided to forgive Julia for her heartless comment. "What intrigues me most…" he said, leaning forwards and turning his head suspiciously. "You said you were popular? What, 24 million followers on that… socialist media or whatever?"
Julia nodded happily. "And growing…" she smiled.
Gerry's brow furrowed as he continued. "You see the thing is… Natalie was not. She was always doing her own little thing in her own little world. Gardening and baking. I thought that was adorable," he chuckled.
Julia stopped. What did he just say? It could not be. There was no way her own grandmother, or anyone in her family really, was ever unpopular. This was not allowed.
"WHAT?!" She brought her hands to her head in pure shock. "NO! SAY THAT AGAIN! MY GRANDMOTHER WAS NOT POPULAR?!"
"She wasn't just NOT popular. She was UNpopular," Gerry winked. "Made fun of… got stuff stolen from her all the time… bullied by the popular girls… yada-yada. It wasn't the best part of her life so I can see why she never mentioned it with you during Friday night dinner or something…"
Julia rubbed her forehead which was starting to hurt slightly. Though she had never met them, she already hated the girls who had mistreated her grandmother. Only she was allowed to do that!
"Let me guess… you never bothered to ask her about her teenage years did ya?" Pete asked accusingly. Bet it was all about you, you, youuuuuu…." He said mockingly.
"You're right… I never bothered to ask," Julia nodded, staring at the ground. What was this feeling she was experiencing? Shame? Embarrassment? She never thought she would feel that.
"Yeah. She didn't even win prom queen like you!" Gerry added.
Julia winced. This was too much. Perhaps Julia could handle her grandmother being unpopular (after all, there was no social media back then so it was probably harder) but not winning prom queen even in the 70s? There was no excuse.
"What a disgrace. I need to cut her off from the family tree immediately. I'll still take the inheritance though I guess…" Julia whispered through shallow breathing.
Pete chortled. "How about a kiss? For old times' sake? Come on you two!" he said jokingly, pointing between Gerry and Julia.
"Pete man, you trying to send me to prison? DAHAHAHA! Why would I shoot my shot with a teen?" Gerry erupted with laughter.
"Persistence is key!" Pete joked once more.
"For a restraining order," Julia muttered, staring revolted at the tennis rivals.
Gerry and Pete blinked. Suddenly –
"DAHAHAHAAHA! RESTRAINING ORDER!"
"HAHAHAAHA! PERSISTENCE IS KEY FOR A RESTRAINING ORDER!"
"DAHAHAHAHAHA! IM GONNA USE THAT ONE FROM NOW ON!"
"ME TOO!" they both said, holding each other by the shoulders, wiping tears. What a witty line from Sterling!
Julia briefly looked at them in disgust while they had their eyes closed but quickly changed back to a weak smile when they looked at her.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
"Oh goody, would ya look at that Pete? Ten minutes is up already!" Gerry sighed. He really wanted to share his 1986 Wimbledon victory story but perhaps that was a tale for another day…
Julia scrambled to her feet, stumbling slightly. It was finally over.
"Well Gerry, what did you think? Worthy of a penalty or nah?" Pete chortled.
Julia's eyes widened. She would not accept a penalty after all of that. Thankfully –
"Ahh Pete m'boy let her go," Gerry shrugged.
"GET OUT OF HERE!" Pete roared.
Julia flinched but she didn't need to be told twice. She turned around quickly and left without another glance at the tennis rivals, Gerry and Pete, who she could still hear laughing maniacally in the background.
Julia knew one thing for certain. She would never take tennis lessons from these two buffoons.
"Priya! Fear of… disappointing your parents!" Chris said. "Since Total Drama is such a huge deal to them, failure to know anything but everything about TD must be a pretty big blow for them! It's… TRIVIA TIME!
"On your screen, you will see a series of questions. Each question will ask about a certain aspect of Total Drama whether it's on past or current contestants, past challenges and overall general knowledge of plot in the previous episodes. These questions will all be multiple choice. To select your answer just press the corresponding button you see above on the screen. To pass this, you must answer all 25 questions correctly.
"The instant you get a question wrong is when the 30 minute penalty will kick in. So If you answer the first 24 correct and get the last question wrong, it's a 30-minute penalty starting from that moment! Think carefully, it's all or nothing…"
Priya stared at the screen-Chris incredulously. Had she heard that right?
Priya confessional: *visibly freaking out* I have to get ALL questions right?! That's crazy!
"Come on Priya, you got this! NO one knows Total Drama better than you," Damien whooped behind her.
"You could probably get those 25 questions in 5-10 minutes. Just take your time, relax and you'll be fine," Caleb nodded as he rubbed her shoulders encouragingly. Priya gasped for air.
"But – but – " she spluttered. Do I really know everything? she thought incredulously. Even though she had prepared her whole life for Total Drama, self-doubt was creeping up at the worst possible time. But for some reason her teammates seemed to believe in her. They were all looking at her in admiration.
Priya nodded. She was going to go in. Suddenly, a sliding door opened and Priya knew she would be separated from her team. She would not be able to see them and they would not be able to see her. She took a deep breath before walking in.
"Guys, if I get a question wrong – I – I'M SORRY," she cried out over her shoulder.
"Don't worry you'll be fine! GO PRIYA!" Emma cheered.
"Just remember, whenever you're in doubt it's C! It has to be C!" Raj said, jumping up and down excitedly.
Priya cough-laughed as her teammates cheered him on. As soon as she went through the sliding door, it shut itself with a loud BANG! Priya was on her own now. She gulped and made her way to the screen a few feet ahead of her.
"Please press any button to begin," a robotic-like voice said.
Priya hesitated slightly before slamming the space bar. At once, the screen displayed the first question and a clock began ticking down 10 minutes. 10 minutes?! She had 10 minutes to answer 25 questions?! There was no mention of a time limit this strict!
"Classic Chris, I bet he 'forgot' to tell me I had 10 minutes," Priya muttered agitated as she began to read the first question. She tried to ignore the lump which had formed in her throat or how thirsty she was after all the running she had done today.
Question 1: How many of the following previous contestants were bald at some point in the series?
Dakota, Heather, Dave, Scott, Sierra
A. 1
B. 2
C. 3
D. 4
E. All of the above
Priya counted on her fingers just to make sure she was not missing anybody. "The question says 'at some point' which means that's Dakota, Heather, Dave and Sierra," she whispered to herself. Suddenly Priya stopped. Had Scott ever been bald? She felt this would have been an easy question if she was casually sitting on bed at home eating Cinnamon Toast Crunch but now she was panicking. She could not afford to get even one wrong. A deep breath and –
No, Scott was never bald she told herself firmly before slamming option D. A DING! indicated she had gotten the answer correct and it was time to move onto question 2.
Question 2: What was the name of the personality who was most athletic and an accomplished gymnast?
A. Mike
B. Mal
C. Svetlana
D. Vito
E. a and c
Priya hesitated. Was this a trick question? She was debating between c and e…
Priya confessional: *puts hand to chin* OK that is just confusing! Isn't Mike technically Svetlana? In which case it would be e? But… Mike isn't really a 'personality', that's literally who he is… The others pop up depending on the circumstances…besides, it wants a single name not two sooo…
"Alright Raj, lucky C!" Priya said pleadingly as she closed her eyes and prayed. Another DING! And it was time to move on to the next question.
"Not bad so far… " Priya muttered.
Priya looked up at the clock. 7 minutes left. She had gotten through 11 questions in 3 minutes. Question 9 had taken her a bit longer than the others ("How many total confessionals did Heather have in Total Drama Island 2007?"). Priya had hesitated a bit before simply choosing the highest number out of all the options available which was correct.
Question 12: Who was the only contestant to never merge in any of their seasons? (Not including comebacks)
A. Bridgette
B. Izzy
C. Jasmine
D. Lightning
E. Zee
"Unlucky Izzy," Priya calmly selected B. Another DING!
*Montage showing Priya hard at work*
Priya wiped some sweat from her forehead and saw that she had 5 minutes left. She had whizzed through the middle section pretty fast. She was feeling good about herself! But when she saw the next question, her heart stopped.
Question 24: Wayne and Raj have colors on their hockey sleeves. What is the proper order in which these colors appear (from bottom up)
A. light blue, beige, navy, orange
B. light blue, navy, orange, beige
C. beige, navy, orange, light blue
D. beige, orange, light blue, navy
E. navy, light blue, orange, beige
Wishing that she had paid more attention to Wayne and Raj's jerseys, she shook her hair nervously. This was the first question she didn't know! 23/25 wasn't good enough to avoid a penalty.
I have to get this! Let me be smart about this. I don't have to know the order, I just have to know what comes last. If it's beige I'll have more work to do. If it's not, I'm done. Priya thought smartly. For some reason, the colour orange was jumping out at Priya but she wasn't sure.
Orange definitely seems familiar at the top… Priya thought. It looked right to her… in which case it would have to be A!
DING!
Priya breathed a sigh of relief but not for long as question 25 was probably the most annoying one she could have ever dreamed of getting.
Question 25: What is Harold's full name?
A. Harold Norbert Chee Doris McGrady V
B. Harold Cheever Doris Norbert McGrady V
C. Harold Doris Norbert Cheever McGrady V
D. Harold Norbert Doris Cheever McGrady V
E. Harold Norbert Cheever Doris McGrady V
Priya swore and buried her face in her hands. She instantly knew she was not going to get it and that it would have to come down to luck.
Priya attempted to use basic reasoning in her head. Though she did not know his full name off by heart, she knew certain parts which left her with A, D or E to choose from.
Priya confessional: UGH! I know "Norbert" comes second and "McGrady" comes last but I don't know how to finish!
Priya's heart thumped as she began to panic. She had been stuck on this question for two minutes and she now had a minute left. Ugh! It had been going so well up until this point!
She took a deep breath and stared hardly. "OK I know it's not B or C," she said with a shaky voice. "I'm sure there was 'Cheever' there, not 'Chee' so it can't be A. That's just there to throw me off. It has to be D or E…"
Priya sighed. From here it was impossible to guess.
45 seconds left.
Priya stared between D and E, wide-eyed for 30 more seconds. She desperately tried to ignore the sweat in her armpits.
15…14….13… the clock ticked down noisily.
Priya had to take a chance. If she was right about everything so far, there would be a 50/50 chance. Her hand trembled and she pressed E…
The game stopped for a few seconds. And then, to Priya's delight –
DING!
She had done it! She had gotten 25/25, after correctly guessing the last one.
Priya confessional: *writes into hand* So it's Harold Norbert Cheever Doris McGrady the fifth. NEVER FORGETTING THAT EVER AGAIN!
"Correct!" the screen-Chris said as the door opened and Priya ran out to hug her teammates.
"WOOOOOOO!" she cheered as she hugged Emma, Caleb, Raj and Damien. They all fell to the floor, laughing and celebrating. One of the most stressful tests Priya had ever taken was finally over. The Total Drama Extravaganza Quiz!
"DAMIEN!" the screen-Chris boomed as Damien yelped. He knew what was coming and had been dreading this moment ever since they entered the maze.
"FEAR OF… RATS! You have to let this giant bulbous rat crawl all over your body for 3 minutes as you lay strapped to this contraption. You won't be able to move during the 3 minutes but you can certainly scream!"
Damien sunk to the floor howling. "OH HO HO NOOOO! AHHHHH!" he screamed. It was so unfair! He had spent an entire year preparing for challenges and Phobia Factor had certainly popped up. But he could never bring himself to do it properly. The furthest he went was petting a toy plushie rat. The real thing would be infinitely worse, much more filthy…
"You'll be fine," Caleb clapped Damien on the back. "Just pretend it's a slightly uglier hamster and you'll be okay!"
Damien turned incredulously to Caleb. "Sorry, slightly uglier hamster?!" he squealed.
MK rolled her eyes. "Just do it," she said bluntly.
"NO! I CAN'T!" Damien said frightened as he put his hands to his head. He was about to press the penalty button but –
Priya stopped his hand. "Wait Damien!" she said sternly. Damien blinked and looked at her quizzically. Priya took a deep breath.
"OK…so I know we can't force you to do anything but… it's three million dollars!" Priya protested.
That is true…. Damien thought grumpily.
Damien confessional: *sighs and looks up* I didn't want to be the first person on my team to not do a challenge! The things we do for three million bucks…
Damien chuckled as he shook his head. "I can't believe I'm doin' this… but… aight! Let's get it!" He pumped his fists in anticipation. Priya laughed, ready to cheer him on.
Damien laid himself down snugly into the contraption waiting for him. As soon as his whole body was inside, he heard a scary-sounding CLICK! and his entire body was being held down by strong cuffs. Here we go Damien thought nervously, contemplating on whether or not he should just close his eyes to ease the pain.
"Release Chuck!" Chris chortled.
Damien looked up fearfully. Was it too late to tap out? Suddenly –
Through a tube, a giant rat was crawling and making its way over. Any moment now, it would drop down to Damien's face. Surely, enough a few seconds later it had done just that. As soon as the rat's furry body came into contact with Damien's face he began panic-screaming.
"AHHH! OHOHOHO! NOOOOOO! WHYYYYYYYYYYY!"
Chuck the rat moved along Damien's face slowly, taking great care to tread on his nose. Finally, it began making its way slowly up to Damien's eyes. Damien whimpered as he got an up-close view of the rat, coming closer and closer. The rat, now magnified, blinked curiously at Damien.
"NO! STOP!" Damien yelped, as his entire forehead became sweaty. "I'M WARNING YOU! MY DAD'S THE PRIME MINISTER OF CAN – AHHHHHHHHH – DAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Doing her best to ignore his screams, Priya tried to give Damien words of encouragement though this was not easy. He was screaming so loud. "Damien! You have 2 and a half minutes left!" she said cheerfully.
This was not good news for him. Damien's heart skipped two beats. It had only been 30 seconds… 30 seconds?! Damien wanted to thrash his legs around but the cuffs were holding him down so the result was him shifting awkwardly side to side as hardly as he could. For some reason, the rat was really enjoying his face. It was free to walk all over his body and yet it was choosing to hang around Damien's face!
"WHAT AM I?" he roared. "RAT-FACE?!" How could he get through two more minutes of this?... And then it hit him!
Damien confessional: Pay attention fellas. This is how we do it where I'm from. 416-Represent! *stands up proudly*
"OH YEAH?! YOU UGLY, BOY. I'M BOUT TO COOK YOU AND YO RAT HOMIES AFTER THIS CHALLENGE. MAKE MYSELF SOME REAL RATATOUILLE! CHOP Y'ALL UP!" he roared as the rat continued to crawl innocently along his chin.
Raj and Caleb exploded with laughter.
"Is he talking shit to a rat?" Chef chortled, staring in awe at the screen.
"I… guess he is?" Chris said astonished. Was this Damien's strategy to get through the challenge?
"STINKY, MUSTY, CRUSTY BOOTLEG MICKEY MOUSE – "
Another minute of the rat trotting its toes on Damien's mustache and then – he was finished! Damien immediately stood up and kissed the ground. Caleb calmly picked up the rat and set it free.
Damien chortled as it scurried away. "That's right! I ain't scared of you! Scurry along BUCKTEE!" he yelled at it.
"Damien! THAT WAS AWESOME!" Priya giggled as she jumped into his arms and gave him a giant hug. Damien laughed. After a few seconds, the two let go.
"Let's get to the next checkpoint! Just one more and then we done!" Damien said happily as he brushed his jacket in case of any rat hairs. The Orangutans nodded and continued their run to the final checkpoint.
AUTHOR'S NOTES
OK, this chapter had a lot of stuff! I really liked this challenge from Disventure Camp because it can give each team member a moment to shine while still being a team challenge.
In case you haven't noticed, Caleb's bench press is a little running gag. People keep saying different numbers for his bench press, but it's always around the same range: 350 - 400.
Wayne is getting slightly more aggressive with his Julia crush. I know the MKulia fans might not be so happy about this but (without spoiling too much) we still have 8 (and a half?) episodes left + a special. That's all I will say for now...
I HC Damien is from Toronto (area code 416).
Do not worry. I certainly do not ship Julia with a tennis rival (ew). Gerry and Pete are just meant to be obnoxious and annoying here.
I wanted to give them their own moment because I was a little disappointed at how little they spoke in canon. LMFAO to them calling Julia a Karen.
Next chapter will have MK and Ripper face their fears. Which team is winning?