FINALE: Shoot your shot (Episode 15)
SUMMARY
It's here – the long-awaited finale of Total Drama Rematch. After 6 intense weeks, there are only 2 campers left standing to compete for 3 million dollars. This finale has it all: horses, ice cream, unwashed T-shirts, squirrel suits and a dashing race to the briefcase. It's going to be a dramatic conclusion and an emotional rollercoaster. No cap!
AUTHOR'S NOTES
The finale challenge is the same as canon. I actually really liked "Soar Losers." The major changes mainly involve the finalists and the eliminated campers' roles during each segment of the finale. This way more people are involved and they are not reduced to NPC-type background characters.
Aug 9 2024
10:47 am
Wayne stood on the cabin steps staring at the sun, lost in his thoughts. It had finally come. Today was the big day, the Stanley Cup final. Game 7. He would be going up against his former teammate and probably the best player here. And though he had had a slight crush on her at the beginning of the season (OK, maybe more like the entire season), Wayne knew he had to put his personal feelings for Julia aside. But could he do that?... He had to. If he didn't… well, Wayne may as well kiss the money good-bye.
Wayne didn't exactly like his odds today either. Despite being athletic, he had only won one immunity challenge during the whole merge. And he had technically shared that immunity with Julia.
And while he was glad it had been the most recent challenge, Julia's four immunities were staring at him right in the face constantly reminding him how formidable and dangerous she was. She had been very close to winning the ice baths and the memory game which would have brought her to a total score of six immunities in a single season. A perfect run!
He shivered. Just how badly did Julia want the money? And how much would she be willing to hurt him today?
Wayne was desperately hoping the final would involve hockey in any way even though this was not likely. Truth be told, Wayne was a lot more afraid of Julia than she was of him. But he couldn't let her know that. He could not quit. He had a duty to win today for all those who had fallen victim to her antics. He could not let them down.
Wayne suddenly heard the crunching of leaves on the ground as he saw Julia's shadow moving towards him.
"Morning fellow finalist," Julia waved lightheartedly as she made her way over from the girls' cabin. She sat down on the steps and looked up at Wayne with an expression that was much too cheerful.
Wayne snorted. "Save it Julia," he scowled.
Julia was not bothered by Wayne's cold attitude and let her shoes rest on the steps comfortably.
"Oooo touchy… why so moody Wayne? We worked hard to get to this point! I mean, two Panthers in the finale? Amazing. I'm SO proud of us!" she clapped her hands and playfully nudged his Timberlands with her sneaker. She was fully aware of their conversation a few hours ago when they had been mouthing off to each other. Still, she wanted to see if Wayne had cooled off after a good night's rest.
Truthfully, Julia had not slept well last night. This surprised her because she thought she would sleep peacefully after finally removing the annoying, season-long thorn in her side that was Emma. Yet Julia had stayed awake for hours as she replayed her final conversation with Wayne at the dock. It had bothered her a lot. He had looked so determined and when he rejected her hand, it had hurt her like never before. But she couldn't let him know that. Otherwise, he would know for sure that he was her biggest weakness. Her biggest and best-looking distraction...
Wayne bit his lip and took a disgusted step back.
Julia sighed and stood up. It looked like he was still upset with her. She was done playing with him.
"OK, seriously… why are you so upset?" she frowned as she made her way over and stood next to him. Wayne was doing his best to ignore her by counting the number of scratch marks he saw on the wooden railing. Julia was delighted to see that he was not moving away from her.
Guess he still cares about me she thought, satisfied. This was excellent news for her because it meant she could distract him in the finale. The $3 million was already hers.
"Is it because you know you don't stand a chance against me?" Julia said softly in his ear.
Wayne continued not to respond which was highly unusual for him. Normally, he would walk into the finals loud and exuberant. Trash-talking the opponent to throw them off guard was tradition where he came from but for some reason, today he remained silent and still.
"Whatever, I'm ready to hear the excuses when you lose to me," Julia smirked.
Wayne could not ignore her anymore. It was just the competitive side of him coming out.
He turned to her furiously.
"Today is payday Julia! I'm going to make you sorry for everything you've done. All the bad stuff you did this season to Rajie, Millie, Damien, maybe even Caleb. I'm starting to think you did something dirty to him – "
Julia cut him off with a harsh laugh. "I did. Does that make you mad?"
Wayne exploded with rage. "I TRUSTED YOU! I WAS ABOUT TO FIGHT HIM FOR YOU AND IT TURNS OUT YOU SOMEHOW TRICKED US ALL, RIGHT?" He stood over her, glaring.
Julia blinked, astonished that Wayne was getting so riled up in the morning before the finale had even started. She backed up slightly but stood her ground.
"Well that's your own fault for being so easy to fool. So what? Now you're the great big hero? And I'm the villain?" she said fiercely.
"Yeah, and villains never win," Wayne snarled.
"Haven't met me yet," Julia raised an eyebrow.
Wayne slapped his forehead in amazement. Julia really thought she could win? "You wanna know why they don't win? Because they get KARMA. All of your bad deeds will have a punishment!" he yelled in her face.
Julia scoffed and leaned back coolly. "Well then… OK… if you really believe in this so-called 'karma' – she made air quotations – "Like, who is she? I've heard rumours she exists but I've never seen her in real life. Anyways, just to fuel your anger more I might as well tell you in detail everything I've done this season. Maybe it'll give me some inner peace. It might even give you some motivation! Listen carefully K?"
Why she felt the need to do this, she did not know. Perhaps it was just her ego getting the better of her. Or maybe Julia just wanted to list all of her achievements to remind herself that she truly belonged here. She took great pride in how she played this year.
"Save your breath, I'm not listening," Wayne said through gritted teeth.
Julia ignored him and plowed on with her story, trying to recall every single little detail of her entire journey. It had been perfect. Julia didn't think anyone in the history of the game had played as good as her. All the pieces had fallen into place from the very beginning. Julia felt as if it had been written in the stars for her to be a finalist. With the right combination of luck, tenacity, physical gifts and cunning nature she had eliminated everyone who stood in her way. There was only one person left.
"Since the teams, I was plotting to get myself to this finale the easiest way possible. I picked Ripper, Zee and Chase because of their room temperature IQ and how easy it would be to kick them off. I also picked friendless Millie purely for elimination fodder – "
"Millie is my friend. And the others too," Wayne's voice shook angrily. To hear Julia talk down on Millie like this was infuriating. He had not forgotten the way Julia had stared Millie down after receiving the final marshmallow.
Julia rolled her eyes. "Fascinating…." she said sarcastically. "I shot straight for Axel and Nichelle to be my alliance partners because I knew I would be able to get rid of them whenever I wanted. They were so desperate to not get their butts kicked early this time, it was kind of cute. The original plan was to have all three of us make it to the merge but then the baking challenge came. When I saw how Nichelle was taking over, I – "
"Decided to sabotage our cupcakes," Wayne finished. He had not forgotten about that one either. "I always thought it was funny ours tasted salty… but then I REALIZED. IT WAS YOU WASN'T IT? IT HAD TO BE YOU! I had an odd feeling… everything bad this season is because of you!"
Julia clapped her hands obnoxiously right in front of Wayne's brick-red face. "Awww. Very good. You're smart… kind of? At least you're aware of what's going on… and excuse you, I made this season enjoyable! I literally carried it on my back!" she declared proudly.
Wayne snorted. Did Julia really believe that? She was in her own class of delusional.
"So you got rid of Millie and Nichelle during the team phase. How about Zee?"
Julia threw her head back and laughed. Hadn't she just told him about Trout Trio? Regardless, Julia didn't mind explaining it to Wayne nice and slowly. She was also thrilled he was asking questions as it now showed interest on his behalf.
"Didn't need to do anything. He somehow found a way to get himself voted off just as I expected. I already saw it in our first season and I knew he would do it again. He's just a stoner goof. Totally expendable and not worth my time," Julia drummed her fingers along the railing to produce an irritating TAP-TAP sound but Wayne was not fooled. This was no ASMR, it was her way of riling him up on purpose.
Am I expendable to her as well? Wayne thought miserably.
He took a deep breath. "OK… now the merge," he whispered with a slightly shaky voice. "This is where things get really bad eh?"
Julia's face lit up. They had reached her favorite part of the story.
"Yup! Right away, MK comes up to me and proposes an alliance. I originally declined due to our history but then she tempted me with knowledge. Knowledge is key in this game, you know that right? Well, it was a list of all the challenges for the season. Totally legit, no mistakes," Julia said coolly. It felt great to finally tell someone she had cheated this entire time. After keeping her mouth shut the entire season, Wayne's reaction told her that it had all been worth it.
His jaw fell to the floor and his eyes bulged out of their sockets. "WHAT?!" he yelped. "SO IS THIS HOW YOU'VE BEEN WINNING ALMOST EVERY CHALLENGE? I THOUGHT YOU WERE JUST REALLY GOOD AT THE GAME. YOU'RE AN… IMMUNITY-FRAUDSTER! A… A COUNTERFEIT CHALLENGE-BEAST! A PHONY CHEATER!" he shook a dramatic finger in front of her face.
Julia threw her head back into the air and laughed at the elementary insults. Julia had a feeling insults didn't come naturally to Wayne. He's trying though. That's cute she thought.
"I mean I'm not going to lie. That list really helped but… I still would've found a way to win immunity even without it. That's just how I am," Julia said plainly.
"Yeah. Whatever," Wayne rolled his eyes. Though he did not want to admit it out loud, part of him felt this was the truth. Julia most likely would've found a way to win immunity without the paper because he had already seen it in their first season. She was the challenge beast of their generation and she always clawed her way out of every situation, no matter how hopeless things seemed. Wayne had not forgotten about her act with BearTrap last night. Her ability to fight her way out of a corner was what Wayne admired about her but –
Wayne confessional: *smacks forehead* AGH! STILL thinking about her! STOP IT!
Julia laughed once again. "So anyways that's how we won the first merge challenge. We were able to get crystal clear maps of Boney Island and got both treasure chests easily. MK also packed some handy items to get us through Black Lagoon easily, like a machete and a flamethrower to burn the snakes – "
"Should've burned yourself then," Wayne muttered.
For the fourth time this morning, Julia laughed into the air. And it was a genuine laugh as well! Julia found it slightly adorable the way Wayne's brow furrowed whenever he was angry, and the way his eyebrows also disappeared into his cap whenever they were raised slightly too high…
She flipped her hair and put her elbow on his shoulder. As she moved her face closer to his, looking up at him deep into his irises, he stared hardly at the birds flying in the distance.
Mullet, mullet, mullet Wayne told himself desperately. Don't get distracted! Mullet, mullet, mullet…
"You… are…. a really funny guy Wayne! Anyways, we got our treasure but then I saw you. I tried to stop you from going to Black Lagoon because we already had the chest. I mean there was no point for you to go – "
Wayne turned to Julia and looked at her incredulously. He let out an insane laugh. "YEAH RIGHT! HAHAHAHA! You're still lying to me?! YOU EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE THAT BULLSHIT?!" He removed her resting arm off of his shoulder and moved away from her slightly.
This was unbelievable, even for Julia. Even after all of the horrible things she had done this season, she was still attempting to gaslight him? And the lie too… not even a particularly good one at that!
For a second, Julia looked angry that Wayne had pushed her away but she swiftly recovered. "Believe whatever you want. It's the truth. I really did try to stop you from going but MK wouldn't let me," she shrugged.
Wayne confessional: *snorts* Not falling for that!
"Of course we knew ice baths would be next. We practiced every night in the showers but then MK actually got into the control room and filled two tubs at the end with hot water," Julia smiled mischievously.
"And those were the ones you slipped into… while the rest of us FREEZED OUR BUTTS OFF! YOU GUYS TALKED OVER US BECAUSE YOU WERE SOOOO COMFORTABLE!" Wayne roared as he put the pieces together in his head. "ALL THAT TALK ABOUT SIBERIA WAS A LOAD OF SHIT! TCHA!"
Julia nodded and smirked at Wayne's tomato-red face. She felt she was in complete control of this conversation. This was how it should always be. With her staying composed and the other person losing their minds.
"Yup. We were able to mess with everyone's heads. They couldn't fight back because they were shivering so badly. We also brought the little Priya-Damien-Caleb disaster back to life, but the biggest reward was finding out Damien had the idol."
Wayne blinked. "Wait… you found out during the ice bath challenge? That's odd… but how? When did that happen?!" Wayne could not recall Damien spilling the beans and announcing to the world that he had the idol. That would be extremely foolish.
Julia grabbed his chin, ran a finger along his chiseled jawline and laughed.
MULLET, MULLET, MULLET.
"Awww, you're asking questions now! I like it. I'll fill you in. Let you know exactly how I got what I wanted. Remember when I announced to everyone I had the idol?" Julia smiled.
Wayne did not respond and only shot her a filthy look so Julia, with her hand still on his chin, moved his head up and down in a nodding fashion for him. She smiled. She was the ventriloquist and Wayne was the puppet. He scowled.
"Yeah, I was bluffing. MK was observing everyone's reactions. Everyone looked surprised but the person who really had the idol, Damien, couldn't hide total fear and panic from his face. To make sure we really got the right person, I fibbed and made up a random hiding place. Once again, predictable as always, Damien's face revealed it all when he relaxed. Everyone else looked puzzled and shocked that it was in the 'outhouse', but Damien looked relieved. From that moment, we knew we got the right person. Damien isn't very good at hiding how he's really feeling."
Julia accompanied this statement with a cruel laugh.
Wayne confessional: *looks surprised* Wow, that was a pretty tactical move ain't gonna lie… I mean… studying facial expressions and reactions? Jules was not fooling around this season eh?
"But you are… you're a snake! A witch!" Wayne blubbered.
Julia's mouth formed a comedic-O as she mockingly put her other hand to her chest. "Ouch. Words hurt you know?" she drawled.
Finally, Wayne gathered the courage to push Julia's hand away. A funny thought had just occurred to him.
Wayne slapped his forehead and laughed to the sky. "But you lost that challenge! HAHA! YOU CHEATED AND YOU STILL LOST TO EMMA? Do you know how hard you have to suck to lose even when you're cheating?! It's like paying the refs and still losing the game!"
"Well we didn't know about the tiebreaker… and how good Emma was…" Julia blinked furiously. She hated being reminded of her first merge challenge loss of the season. Especially losing to Emma.
"Yeah, Emma's a much better player than you Julia. She should be in the finals, not you. CHEATER!" Wayne spat.
Julia smiled. "Nice try Wayne but I see what you're doing. You're trying to get into my head but too bad, it's not going to work. Cute try though."
Wayne breathed angrily as his chest heaved up and down. He had certainly underestimated Julia's mental strength and her ability to stay level-headed at all times. How could he break her? He needed to find a way. Fast.
Julia continued with her story. "Then we had to work on Damien. Now that we knew he had the idol, MK and I needed to get our hands on it. Only problem is, we didn't know where it was. So we wrote him a letter saying we knew he had it – "
"That's right! He came to me and Raj panicking. We told him we didn't get those notes so he must've freaked out! I didn't think he actually had the idol at the time though!" Wayne gasped.
"He did. And we had a feeling he would wake up early to check up on it. At night, it would be too dark for him to navigate, guy's such a chicken and in the day we hang out or do challenges. So the morning after we planted the note in his bed we waited outside his cabin and there he was sprinting like a goof, panicking and sweating" – Julia laughed mercilessly –
"We followed him to his hiding spot and then to the campfire stumps where he tried to hide it like an idiot. Don't know why he thought that was a good place but it must've been reverse psychology. Put it somewhere we hang out in all the time so no one would think to check. Wrong. We swiped it away from him without a second thought and now the idol was ours. More on that later."
By this point, Julia magically pulled out a water bottle and took a long sip. It was hard work being the bad girl. Julia offered Wayne a sip to which he declined.
"Then the archery challenge," Julia's eyes flashed hungrily. "I wasn't lying and neither was Caleb. I really was whacking his head annoyingly and he really did pin me at one point. As soon as he laid hands on me, I vowed to make his life a living hell. I was going to ruin him by playing with everyone's emotions. What I lied about were some of the bruises and the severity of the situation. MK applied makeup skillfully to my back, arms and shoulders before the ceremony but I went a step further and gave myself a few real bruises to sell the idea to Emily. It wasn't my intention for Emma to get Emily but I'm glad she did because it really made you guys believe that Caleb had hurt me. And your reaction especially, it was SO good."
Julia clapped her hands loudly. Wayne flinched. He found it was difficult for him to stop his legs from trembling as he was now filled with a burning rage. It had all been a lie!
"That's right! I TRUSTED YOU. BIGGEST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE!" Wayne roared. How could Julia do that to Caleb? She didn't even seem bothered by what she had done. No remorse to be found, whatsoever. Wayne had always tried to see the good in Julia but now… he was questioning whether or not there was any good to be found. Was it too late for her?
"You couldn't stand to see Caleb hurt me!" Julia laughed. "So yeah! Caleb was easily eliminated, everyone thought he hurt me and I got rid of another physical threat later that night. I was pleasantly surprised about the double elimination, weren't you? Well that's how I get rid of another thorn in my side, Axel. A decently strong player but she was also catching on to me ever since I got rid of Nichelle. She needed to go and now was the perfect time."
"And now let's go back to the precious idol." Julia began playing with her fingernails, staring down reminiscently. One of the best plots of the show, no doubt.
"It was such a powerful weapon for us. You see, basic players would just use it to save themselves from elimination, but MK and I realized we had other uses for it… like blackmailing Damien! Why use the idol instantly when we can toy with Damien, string him along, and force him to do our bidding in order to win his prize back? He was so desperate, you should've seen the amount of times he begged for the idol back." She let out an insane laugh as Wayne looked at her horrified.
"So that's why Damien was acting funky around Emma…" Wayne bit his lip. He had already heard this from Emma the other day but for some reason, it sounded a lot worse when Julia was narrating. She sounded like she had found great enjoyment messing with Damien and Emma's friendship.
"Yup! His job was to accuse Emma of stealing his idol, breaking their bond and friendship. We were also able to secure his vote with us, that's how we got rid of – "
"Rajie… so Damien was the third vote… I knew it. I just didn't understand why he did it. Emma told me he was being blackmailed but I didn't know it was this bad…" Wayne clenched his teeth in frustration. He felt he had been doing that a lot recently but seeing Julia talk about Raj's elimination so casually, the one she had orchestrated… it did not sit well with him at all.
I didn't know she was THIS bad either he thought sadly. He wanted to like her, he wanted to change her but after everything she did this season…
"But surely you can't be mad at Damien right? I mean, now that you understand what happened to him?" Julia chuckled. "Later we had no choice but to play the idol. I won immunity but I couldn't let MK leave just yet – "
"Why not? I'm surprised you didn't backstab her Julia. Wouldn't that have been more in-character for you, huh?" Wayne said roughly. "You could've let her go and then used the idol on yourself in the final four."
"Maybe…" Julia acknowledged this point with a nod. "But I wasn't ready to say goodbye to her just yet… and I liked seeing your faces as your votes got nullified. You all thought you were safe and then the panic on your face… hilarious…."
"NOT FUNNY! I ALMOST HAD A HEART ATTACK!"
"Don't worry you would have nothing to worry about… But that brings me back to my main point… you Wayne," Julia put a hand on his shoulder.
"You see you might think that the reason you made it this far was because you were strong, athletic, whatever… but the truth is you've been under my protection this whole time. There were so many chances to get rid of you… believe me, MK wanted to… but I always stood up for you. It's because of me you made it to the finale! You should be thanking me!"
"Shut up. That's not true!" Wayne roared. His bottom lip was shaking greatly. Had he really only come this far because Julia had given him a free ride? Wayne did not want to believe this. Surely he couldn't be a fraudulent finalist?
Julia smirked. He still couldn't accept the truth? "Unfortunately you might have got the worst ending of them all. You came farther than anyone else just to lose at the end. It really is a tragedy…" She fake-sighed and stared at the ground.
"Don't make me laugh Julia. YOU'RE GOING DOWN!" Wayne got up in her face but this time it was not to give her a kiss.
Julia looked up at him fearlessly. "Do you really think that? Who's going to stop me? I've destroyed the competition, played them all like a violin!"
"I will… it has to be me… because you can't win today. After everything you've done! NO WAY!"
Julia shook her head from side to side while she maintained eye contact with her final competitor. "Wayne you don't get it. You've already lost. Didn't I tell you? I already know what we're getting… and I'm not telling you…"
"Guess what? It'll be just like the ice baths and the memory game. You know what we're getting, but you'll still somehow found a way to choke and lose…" Wayne smirked.
Julia narrowed her eyes. "We'll see about that…" she whispered.
Wayne opened his mouth to retort one final time before the all-too-familiar loudspeaker turned on for the final announcement –
"Wayne, Julia please make your way to the dock. It's finale time!" Chris said gleefully.
The two finalists of the season exchanged one last cold glare before stepping off of the steps and heading to the dock.
11:00 am
Julia and Wayne arrived at the dock a minute later, making a great deal of noise. This was mainly due to Wayne's boots thumping loudly on the wooden planks as he trudged angrily. Julia was keeping a far distance away from him, trying to calm herself before the finale.
Julia confessional: *sighs happily* My greatest strength is not letting my emotions get the better of me and being in control of every situation.
Wayne and Julia did not say hello to Chris and instead stood to his left and right respectively, looking daggers. It was hard to say who was angrier.
"Wayne, Julia I hope you both slept well. You two look happy," Chris joked.
The finalists did not smile.
Chris cleared his throat. "It's time to meet your fellow eliminated competitors!" he pointed up ahead to a large white yacht in the distance which was slowly making its way from open waters to the dock.
"WHAT'S UP WAYNEERR!" Raj waved from the bow of the ship, his body slightly over the railing as he leaned forwards. Behind him, Bowie chuckled as he kept a protective hand on Raj's shoulder in case he flipped over and fell off.
Wayne looked up eagerly. It really was everyone! Raj, Bowie, Emma and Damien were at the very front. Axel, Nichelle and Zee were behind them, smiling. At a higher level deck was Caleb, Priya and Millie who were all waving happily. Hanging over the railing with only her legs to hold her was Scary Girl with a goofy grin. And near the back at the steering wheel was Emily, Ripper and MK.
MK gave Julia a friendly wave to which she returned a little smile. Even though they had been separated for only a few hours, Julia had greatly missed her favourite partner-in-crime.
Wayne did a double-take. Someone was missing!
"Wait, where's my boy Chase?" he said puzzled.
"WOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOO!" a loud, exuberant voice called from behind the ship. Wayne craned his neck around to get a better look and guffawed. There was Chase in a bright orange life jacket, filming himself water-skiing. He looked like he was having the time of his life!
Emily parked the yacht to a halt just before the dock. With the press of a button, a smooth set of stairs uncoupled from the yacht and connected to the dock. One by one, everybody got off.
"Nice to see you all again!" Chris announced happily as he stared into each familiar face. "As you can all see, there are two people left competing for the grand prize of 3 million big ones! Wayne and Julia. Pick a finalist to root for and then head to the appropriate chariot!"
"Chariot?" Wayne poked his ear to make sure he had heard that right. Julia looked just as lost until Chris pointed behind them to the sandy beaches. Two large wooden chariots waiting to be pulled. They had been so focused on getting to the dock they hadn't even noticed it!
The 14 losers immediately took off sprinting to the chariot of their choice. As many shoes crunched against the sand, Wayne couldn't help but notice most of his fellow campers were heading towards one direction.
Confessional – Wayne, Raj, Bowie, Emma, Damien, Priya, Caleb, Millie, Axel, Nichelle Ripper, Zee, Chase (Scary Girl is looking creepily through the top window from the outside):
*taking up the whole confessional, all the girls are sitting on Caleb's lap*
WAYNE! WAYNE! WAYNE! WAYNE! WAAAAAYNE! *Zee opens up his soda and douses them all in orange soda*
Julia and MK confessional (Julia) : *realizes she has a single supporter* O…K… *clutches arm nervously* *MK blinks*
After Chase and Zee helped Ripper climb up into the back of Wayne's chariot, Chris whistled. Wayne's chariot had 13 people while Julia's chariot only had a single passenger.
"The finale will consist of three parts. First, you must carry your chariots up the mountain until you reach the top for the second part where Emily will be waiting. There, you must cross a great, big chasm with nothing but a singular wooden beam to keep you upright. Finally, get into your squirrel suits, fly to the ground and race to the dock where the case with the money will be waiting for you!"
"Sorry? Did you say SQUIRREL suits?" Millie said thunderstruck.
"Furry finale? I can get behind that," Zee shrugged as he took a sip of Orange Sunshine.
"Wait a minute!" Priya gasped as a horrifying thought hit her like a brick. "Did you just say the chariots have to be pulled up the mountain?" She stared hardly at Chris for confirmation to which he nodded.
"That's right!" he replied, smiling.
"And I'm guessing that means it includes the people in the chariot too…" Priya said slowly, turning to her fellow Wayne supporters nervously. She knew what this meant but it seemed the others hadn't caught on yet.
"Yup! Finalists, you must carry everyone inside of your chariot!" Chris declared.
The faces of Wayne's supporters all fell.
"WHAT!? OH HAIIIILLLLL NO!" Damien shrieked.
"UH… I SUPPORT JULIA NOW!" Emma said frantically, already lifting her leg to get out of Wayne's chariot and hop into Julia's.
"Me too!" Millie added, doing the same.
"Nope, no switching!" Chris smiled cheekily, pointing for them to remain still in their chariots. Emma went back into her chariot and frowned. Priya, Millie and Damien scowled. The only two people who seemed pleased with this predicament were Julia and her one and only supporter, Mary Kate. They high-fived each other audibly and stared triumphantly at those sitting unhappily in Wayne's chariot.
"Sorry losers," Julia drawled as she laughed into the air. Everything was going so well for her today!
Julia confessional: It's perfect. The universe is basically begging for me to be the winner.
Priya confessional: *slaps forehead* UGH! HOW did I not see that coming? That was such a Chris thing to do! I'm getting sloppy!
"To make things fairer for Wayne, since he obviously can't pull 13 people we're giving him two horses – Marvin and Stewey," Chris said, pointing to two Newfoundland Ponies, one golden-brown and one jet-black.
Julia scowled. She always liked it when her opponents stood no chance of winning so this news came as a great misfortune for her.
Meanwhile, the others shrivelled up their noses at the rather foul stench that had arrived with these two companions. Something like a mix between rotten eggs and burnt rubber. Ripper inhaled deeply much to everyone's disgust.
"Nothing like the smell of freshly baked morning bread! Sweet Little Julias has got some serious competition!" Ripper flicked his eyebrows at Julia tauntingly while everyone else laughed loudly.
Julia turned slightly scarlet and scoffed while she pinched her nose.
Ripper confessional: *points to himself* Right now, I'm just messing with her! I'm a real strategy person!
Wayne's face lit up. "Sweet! I know how to ride horses. My uncle's got a farm back in Saskatoon. Used to ride on em all day! Giddy up horsey!" he tapped Marvin, the jet-black horse's head to which Marvin simply neighed.
Bowie confessional: *fidgets* Well… at least we have something…
Chris clapped his hands and stared proudly at this year's finalists.
"Along the way there may or may not be a few minor distractions. Now! Any final words?" he chortled, knowing full well what the answer was going to be based on their extremely concentrated faces.
"NOPE!" Wayne said plainly, avoiding Julia's eyes.
"We have nothing to say to each other!" Julia said fiercely, staring coldly at Wayne.
"Before we begin, finalists shake hands!" Chris snickered. He was going to force Julia and Wayne to interact with each other one final time before they took off. The finalists sighed exasperated before turning to each other.
Julia extended her hand out playfully with a fake smile. Wayne glowered at her and took her hand suspiciously. Their fingers locked in with each other's briefly as they eyed each other deeply. Wayne did his best to ignore her soft, long fingers which he once touched during the baking challenge. A time when he had truly liked her…
Julia looked up at Wayne with a relaxed expression but this quickly changed. Suddenly, she furrowed her brow, curled her lip into a sneer and squeezed Wayne's fingers as hard as she could. She was attempting to break his fingers and crush them mercilessly into a pile of dust. Any moment now, she was expecting Wayne to scream in pain and fall to the ground but… it did not come.
Wayne merely smiled. "Hey, you're almost as strong as my six year old cousin. Keep working on it Sterling!" Wayne whispered into her ear.
Julia's jaw fell as she looked up at Wayne horrified. She had done no damage to him! Wayne winked cheekily to a visibly offended Julia. If this was a sign of what was to come… she was in big trouble. Julia's heart began to pound against her chest, in slight panic.
Julia confessional: HOW?! He didn't even flinch!
Wayne confessional: *clenches teeth in pain and rubs hand* OK, not gonna lie… that hurt a lot buuuut… she didn't need to know that! *winks*
"On your mark…" Chris suddenly said.
Wayne ran to his horses and chariot. Julia gave him one last uncertain glance before heading to her chariot.
"Get set…"
Wayne cracked his neck left to right as he patted Marvin and Stewey's heads. Julia grabbed onto the handles of her chariot, slightly nervous. She was still slightly shaken about her failed handshake with Wayne.
MK patted Julia's shoulder reassuringly. She looked up smiling before staring straight ahead. Now she had to be completely focused. She braced her feet, ready to take off. Wayne had the horses but she had the horsepower. She would need to run extra hard.
"…go!"
Chris blew the iconic horn, signalling the start of the Rematch finale.
At once, Julia took off. After a few seconds of running by herself, Julia blinked and glanced back at the starting line where Wayne was unmoving. She laughed to herself.
Julia confessional: Guess that 'advantage' wasn't much of an advantage after all
"Julia, FOCUS!" MK called from above.
"W – wha? Oh right… OK!" Julia nodded as she finally stopped looking back at Wayne and concentrated on going up the mountain.
From above in his hot air balloon, Chef was narrating the sequence of events. "Julia takes a commanding lead and Wayne is… neighing?" He adjusted his binoculars to make sure he was seeing things correctly.
"NEEAUGH!"
"What is he doing? That's not how you talk to horses!" Axel said indignantly. The survivalist was fully prepared to drop down and show the hockey captain how it was done.
"NEEAUGH!" Raj neighed. He tapped Axel's shoulder. "Watch, it'll just take a minute. I've seen Wayne do this before!" he said confidently. Axel frowned, still doubtful.
"I hope so…" Bowie said uncertainly.
Raj confessional: Just a few more neighs and we'll be up and running! Trust the process!
"NEEAUGH! NEEAUGH! NEEAUGH!" Wayne had actually started stroking the horses' manes and was puckering his lips, doing his best to horse-whisper.
By now, the others had begun to lose faith. Priya and Caleb looked down at Wayne concerned.
FFFFPPPTTTTT!
Damien screamed as he had just received front row tickets to the horse-farting show. Green lines emerged from Marvin's ass and slowly travelled up to those sitting in Wayne's chariot. Everyone covered their noses except for Ripper who inhaled once more.
"Damn, got some real power there," he guffawed. Millie turned to him, mortified.
Millie confessional: *stares stone-faced* No comment.
"How about this? Everyone, PUSH THE HORSES!" Chase said, pointing below at the stubborn horses who now had their faces buried in the sand while continuing to fart noisily.
"Can we even get out of our chariots?" Nichelle said unsurely.
"I think we can!" Ripper nodded. "Chris said Wayne had to carry us all to the top of the mountain but he never said anything against helping him kick-start these dumb mutts!"
In a split second, the horses raised their heads out of the sand and turned to Ripper annoyed.
"UH…" Ripper gulped, staring apprehensively at their snarling teeth.
"What did you just do?!" Damien yelped.
Ripper confessional: Since when can horses understand English? I thought they only knew Chinese!
As Ripper cowered in fear and tried to hide behind Axel, all of a sudden a great, powerful force was felt in the carriage. Before they knew it, their carriage had seemed to weigh a solid 230 pounds less. What was going on?
Caleb landed on the ground next to Wayne with a solid THUD! He bent his knees and locked eyes with Marvin and Stewey. Then he reached out a large hand and began running it through their soft manes. This seemed to calm them down instantly.
"Awwwwww," all the girls and Bowie said with sparkly eyes. Caleb continued to run his hand through their manes as tenderly as possible. At least they were no longer growling.
Chase snorted. "What's so cool about that? He calmed down a few angry ponies. BIG DEA – OW!" Chase winced as Emma nudged his ribs.
Though the horses had calmed down, there was only one problem. They were still not moving.
Caleb confessional: It's just like kittens. Right now, I'm doing everything I can to make sure we get these horses back on track. Wish I could get them to move though…
"Any idea how we're going to get them to move?" Wayne said slowly. He tried to wave a hand in front of Stewey's face but Stewey merely looked at Wayne glassy-eyed as he continued to eat patches of grass.
"I'm not sure. Wasn't really focused on the 'get-your-kitten-to-move' class. I always thought the 'get-your-kitten-to-calm-down-so-that-it-doesn't-scratch-your-face-off' class was more practical," Caleb sighed.
Priya giggled and extended her hand to Caleb. She was really proud of him for doing the best he could. "Aww it's OK babe! You did great!"
Caleb took her hand and beamed.
"Hmmm anyone else got any brilliant ideas on how to get these lazy mules to actually get going? We need to figure something out fast!" Bowie said urgently. "Before Julia's lead grows too big!"
Everybody huddled in a circle and began thinking in silence.
Julia, who had taken an early lead, had just left the sandy beaches and was now on grass. She did her best to not look back as she gripped the handles of her chariot tightly and focused on putting one foot in front of the other. Nothing could stop her! Except –
MK whistled. "Chris wasn't kidding about the distractions. I see ice cream, pizza, donuts… hey is that all of the phones Chris took from you?"
Julia shook her head, temporarily flustered. She could care less about the excessive junk food but her precious babies?
"W – Wha – where?!" Julia's eyes rounded as she did her best to avoid looking to her sides.
"To your left," MK replied. "Wow, they look so nice… wrapped all snugly in their wittle cases – "
"Not – helping…" Julia said through clenched teeth, looking visibly annoyed.
"Well, I'm not gonna help you the whole time… that would be weird," MK said cheekily. Though she could not see her face, MK knew Julia had just smiled to herself.
Wayne attempted more aggressive neighs but the horses were still not moving.
Wayne confessional: These boys aren't moving… so we gotta MAKE EM MOVE!
Wayne put two fingers into his mouth and whistled to his teammates. "Alright fellas. I'm gonna need some help! We're gonna push these guys. Who's with me?"
At once, Axel, Bowie, Raj, Ripper, Caleb, Damien, Chase and Zee jumped to the ground to help Wayne out. Before they knew it, they had found themselves in a rather strange and unique position.
Half of them had their hands pressed against Marvin's ass cheeks, ready to give him a gentle push while the other half had their hands against Stewey's ass cheeks.
Bowie confessional: *shakes head* Don't ask…
Zee confessional: *looks at his fingers in amazement* Wow! Never thought I'd ever get to feel horse cheeks. This is the best show ever! They're so firm too! Not as firm as Chase's though.
"ON THREE!" Bowie roared to the group. "ONE… TWO… – "
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!
"EEEEUUUUGGGGHHHHHH!" Bowie howled as he collapsed to the ground, gasping for air. Little clouds of horse fart escaped from his mouth as he coughed them all out. Ripper, Zee and Chase, whom he had been working with, had moved out of the way at the last second and narrowly escaped the toxic fumes. They rolled around on the floor, roaring with laughter while Bowie glowered at them, unamused.
"What did you feed them? GOSH!" Bowie muttered.
"Beans," Chef promptly replied from above.
Raj Bowie confessional (Raj): *nudges Bowie affectionately* Now you know how horse fart smells like! I'm kind of jealous, I'm still not familiar with the smell!
Raj Bowie confessional (Bowie): *raises hands as if he's done with life* Believe me babe, you do NOT want to know. Ugh, guess that's what happens when you get struck with Trout Trio for a group project. *scowls*
Priya's face suddenly lit up. How could she have forgotten? This whole time? The answer was so simple.
"That's it! EVERYBODY! IN THE CHARIOT. I KNOW WHAT TO DO!"
Priya confessional: Mom, Dad. Never thought this would come in handy one day but thank you.
Once Axel and Chase helped Ripper climb back into the chariot (he struggled on his own), Priya ran back a few metres. The horses were still hunched over feasting on bits of sand.
Priya took a deep breath. She had one shot. And she was going to aim for Marvin as Stewey seemed to be the lazier one. It was time to put everything she had learned at how-to-start-a-horse-that-won't-move camp to good use.
Priya bounced on the balls of her feet before taking off, extending her right leg right up Marvin's –
WHAM!
Marvin jumped up, completely startled at what he had just felt ram into his butthole. It had hurt. A lot. Marvin bolted off at once. Stewey had no choice but to keep up. Their chariot was moving! Wayne and his team cheered.
"Priya, jump!" Caleb motioned for Priya to jump into his arms as their chariot was rapidly moving away from her. Priya took off after the chariot, flipped gracefully into the air and giggled as she joined the others and felt Caleb's hands under her armpits.
"Nice one!" Caleb said breathlessly. She really was amazing to him. She could do everything!
"WOO HOOOO! GIDDY UP HORSEY!" Priya laughed into the air. "AND NOW WE'RE MOVING GUYS!"
"WOOOOO! WOOHOO-YEAH! WOOHOO-YEAH!" Wayne's entire team cheered.
Wayne confessional: We're in business! It's time to win this thing!
Now that the horses had started to move, Wayne felt it was all smooth sailing from here. He leaned back and closed his eyes. It was not his intention but by doing this, he completely missed all of the distractions that had been set up: pizza stands, burgers, chips, sodas, ice cream, donuts, Julia's phones…
He was in such a good mood he was not prepared to hear Chef's voice from above.
"AH AHH! No moving with the chariot until your whole team is inside!"
Wayne jumped up and looked around. "What…? Who are we missing?" he muttered groggily. Everybody in his chariot shrugged and turned around themselves to see who had abandoned ship.
Ripper, Chase and Zee were way behind at the pizza stations, noisily munching on pizza slices and laughing to themselves.
"Dudes, they got free pizza!" Zee chortled.
"FREE PIZZA!" Chase roared into the sky as he cleanly deep-throated two slices.
"You guys gotta try it out! NO vegetarians welcome of course!" Ripper guffawed, cheese strings now covering every inch of his large, greedy chin.
Priya blew steam from her nose. "Of course it's them. It's always them. WHEN IS IT NOT THEM?" she shrieked.
"Seriously guys? Now is not the time for your FOOLISHNESS!" Axel bellowed.
"We need to get those three back into the chariot now or else Wayne is going to lose!" Bowie said, staring at the Trout Trio apprehensively. He had seen how easily they had demolished cupcakes and now it seemed they were going to do the same with all of the pizza boxes!
Wayne's eyes lit up. He had a plan!
Wayne confessional: Gotta get these boys back on the ice!
Wayne leapt off of his seat and ran to the pizza station, grabbed the boxes and began running back to the chariot. The Trout Trio looked up at Wayne who was now running with their box of freshly assorted pizza slices.
Wayne whistled. "ALRIGHT BOYS! FOLLOW THE PIZZA TRAIN! HOOT! HOOT!" he yelled as he held the pizza boxes high above his head so that the Trout Trio could see them.
"I think you mean Choo-Choo!" Nichelle corrected him.
"No, he means HOOT! HOOT!" Millie giggled.
Immediately, Ripper, Zee and Chase started chasing after Wayne. They flailed their hands all over the place as they desperately reached for a slice but Wayne was much quicker than them!
Chase confessional: *tomato sauce all over his mouth* DUDES! That's OUR pizza!
"Brilliant Wayner!" Raj cheered. "Now we can eat pizza and get a free ride! Isn't this day just the best?"
Bowie laughed and nodded in agreement. Were the day's troubles over? Not yet –
"Wayne! The ice cream! Get the ice cream!" Emma popped her head next to Bowie and pointed at the ice cream station. She jumped up and down excitedly like a little kid.
"Emma!" Bowie said sharply. They could not allow Wayne to lose concentration!
Emma grinned weakly. "Sorry… it's just… these horses obviously rolled around in manure before coming here. I just want something yummy to distract me from them!"
Emma confessional: OK fine… I JUST WANT ICE CREAM OK? I'M SORRY! NOT MY FAULT IT'S 30 DEGREES RIGHT NOW!
Wayne skidded to a sharp stop and threw the pizza box into the chariot. The Trout Trio jumped up and crashed onto the carriage. Damien and Axel moved out of the way as Zee, Ripper and Chase rolled around on the floor fighting for the last few pizza slices, slapping each other's hands repeatedly.
Axel confessional: *stares stone-faced* I've seen warthogs act less barbaric
"What flavours does everyone want?" Wayne panted. It had been a rather tiring run but he was always down to help his friends out. If they wanted ice cream, he would get them ice cream.
"STRAWBERRY! GET STRAWBERRY!" Raj jumped up and down excitedly.
Bowie looked over at Raj and shrugged. Truthfully, a bit of ice cream couldn't hurt. "Uhh… vanilla I suppose?… BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN I'M BASIC!" he emphasized this point greatly with a sharp finger.
"CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH!" Emma clapped her hands.
"SAME!" Damien added.
"ME TOO!" Millie said.
Wayne confessional: Chocolate chip cookie dough looking pretty popular here eh? *laughs*
"BIRTHDAY CAKE!" Priya yelled to Wayne's back as he began running to the ice cream station to scoop up everyone's orders.
"NONE FOR ME, I'M ON A CUT!" Caleb laughed. "The bulk is done!"
"We'll share!" Priya giggled as she slapped his hand playfully. Caleb wrapped his arms around her waist and laughed into her shoulder.
"Sounds good to me!" he said flirtingly.
"MANGOOOO!" Nichelle hollered.
"ROCKY ROAD!" Axel added.
"Aight! Waffle cone or bow – ?" Wayne began as he started scooping some strawberry ice cream, looking between the waffle cones and the bowls.
"WAFFLE CONE!" everybody said simultaneously. Wayne jumped up and almost dropped Raj's order.
"Toppings? We got – "
"SPRINKLES, WHIPPED CREAM AND FUDGE SYRUP!" everybody said together once more.
Wayne chuckled as he fulfilled everyone's request. Two minutes later, he held 10 ice cream cones in his hand (he gave himself cookies and cream), and very smoothly ran back to the chariot, balancing all cones in his hands without letting a single drop of ice cream fall to the ground.
Team Wayne cheered loudly as he passed everybody their ice creams. Wayne took a leaf out of Priya's book and rammed his Timberlands up Marvin's rear end. Marvin shot like a bullet and Stewey had no choice but to follow. Wayne leapt high into the air and landed squarely in his chariot seat, without dropping a single scoop of his triple-layered ice cream cone.
"Wow, good job Wayne!" Priya said impressed as she licked the birthday cake ice cream she was sharing with Caleb.
"Cookiesncream? Wise choice brother," Damien winked at Priya recalling their talk before the tower challenge. Priya giggled into her hands.
Damien confessional: *licks his ice cream* Priya was right! It IS one word! That's craaaazyyyy! Wait a minute. WHY AM I EATING MY ICE CREAM IN THE CONFESSIONAL?!
"THANKS WAYNE!" Emma gave him a thumbs-up.
Everybody nodded in agreement to express their sentiments and licked their refreshing scoops of ice cream happily. They were in a much better mood now.
11:32 am
Julia gasped for breath as she reached the top of the mountain and came to a stop. Waiting to greet her was Emily Mclean who waved cheerfully at Julia's exhausted face. As Julia made her way over, Emily tipped her white baseball cap.
"Julia, welcome to part two. Congrats, you're in the lead!" Emily pointed to a wooden beam which covered the length of the entire chasm.
"Start crossing until you reach the other side. Your squirrel suit will be waiting for you there."
Julia nodded. Wasting no time, she put one foot on the plank, stumbled slightly but quickly regained her balance. She took a deep breath, tightened her core and began moving forwards at an extremely slow pace, all while doing her best to avoid looking down.
Julia confessional: Am I nervous? Pfft, no! Puh-lease, I have 12 years of dancing experience. I can handle a little walk and balance.
MK bit her lip nervously as she watched Julia wobble ever so often. But overall, the crossing was going rather smoothly. Julia had reached the halfway point and there was still no Wayne to be found.
MK looked down. OK, that was a lie. There was a Wayne to be found but he was only halfway up the mountain. Julia had plenty of time to cross the entire chasm before he even reached the top.
"MK, T shirt cannon? You can knock off a few Wayne supporters with it!" Emily said playfully as she offered MK a cannon loaded with three white, unwashed T-shirts.
"Don't mind if I do," MK cooed as she eagerly took the cannon.
All of a sudden, MK felt a cold, icy energy behind her.
"Brrr…why did it get so chilly all of a sudden?" she shivered, without looking back. MK had a feeling she knew what or more specifically who was behind her at this very moment.
"Hi Lauryn," Emily waved jovially. "Wait… weren't you supporting Wayne in the chariots? How did you get here?"
"Wayne was going too slow and the ice cream station didn't have any flavour I liked. So I hiked up here all by myself! I'm guessing there's no blood cherry and raspberry guts ice cream here right?" Scary Girl pouted.
"Nooo…" Emily said slowly. "Anyways… T shirt cannon?" she held out another cannon.
Without even speaking, Scary Girl took the cannon, aimed it at Julia's backside and shot a T-shirt.
MK blinked. "What the fuck?"
BANG!
"AHHHHHH!" Julia screamed as the T-shirt hit her squarely in the back and she fell to the river below.
SPLASH!
Julia confessional: *Grumpy, wet Julia dripping water all over the seat* Ugh, and here I thought I actually had another supporter. *wipes water off of her*
Julia swam to the ladder and began climbing back up. Thank God there was a ladder to bring her back up directly. Julia would have preferred an elevator but… this was the next best option.
As Julia climbed back up, doing her best to ignore her wet clothes which were starting to smell oddly like toilet water, she glanced to the side of the mountain. Wayne's chariot was almost to the top!
Julia cursed and began hastening her climb. Finally, she reached the top.
Julia gripped MK's shoulder tightly. "MK, give me cover. If anyone tries to shoot me, shoot them back!" she said scathingly. Julia was slightly disappointed MK had just let Scary Girl shoot her off the first time.
MK nodded. "Gotcha," she replied. Just in case, Julia decided to pocket a T-shirt cannon and bring it with her.
Julia turned to the person who had been responsible for her first and hopefully last fall into the river.
Julia cleared her throat and stared into Scary Girl's eyes. "Scary Girl. Listen to me. Wayne's team believes in…. angels and…. Heaven and… whatever… that's not good right?" she said slightly breathlessly. Julia was getting tired and desperately wanted to finish this part of the challenge soon. She had to find a way to get Scary Girl on her side.
"Well… you're right…. that disgusts me!" Scary Girl nodded her head slowly.
Julia cheered in her head, glad that she now had an accurate shooter on her side. "Good… so… shoot them down for me K?"
"OK!" Scary Girl licked her lips hungrily, ready for the thrill of knocking more people down into the river.
Finally Julia thought as she began crossing once more.
Scary Girl confessional: Angels and Heaven? *cringes* That sounds like the opposite of a nightmare! EW!
11:46 am
After a long, grueling ride uphill, Wayne pulled the horses to a stop. They had finally made it to the top of the mountain. Wayne cracked his back. He desperately wanted a half-time break but there was simply no time for that.
Emily waved as Wayne stepped out.
"Wayne and others! Welcome to part two, crossing the chasm! Everybody, grab a T-shirt cannon and feel free to shoot Julia off if you want to!" she clapped.
"Oh yeah! We can do that!" Emma pumped her fist.
"Nice!" Nichelle cheered, already imagining her being the one to knock Julia down into the river.
MK gasped as she felt 12 bodies run past her and grab a T-shirt cannon. She looked ahead. Julia was a little over halfway across but still had a considerable distance to go.
MK confessional: *adjusts T-shirt cannon onto her shoulder* Gotta stop these goons!
Wasting no time, Wayne's teammates assumed position, aimed their T-shirt cannons at Julia and fired.
POOF! POOF! POOF!
"AHHH!" Julia yelped as she felt three T-shirts collide with her backside. By some miracle, she had managed to stay upright on her feet though it had been a very close one. Perhaps one more T-shirt would have finished her off…
POOF! POOF!
"OW!" Damien and Nichelle said as they fell backwards. MK had just shot two T-shirts right into their faces and was about to fire more at Priya and Emma. Unfortunately for her, they were quicker to react.
"HEY!" they both said angrily as they whipped around and shot T-shirts at MK.
POOF! POOF! POOF! POOF! POOF! POOF!
MK received six shirts to the face and collapsed. Emma and Priya high-fived each other but their celebration was short-lived. To their other side –
POOF! POOF!
"AHHH!" Emma and Priya screamed as Scary Girl's shirts hit them squarely in the front.
Scary Girl jumped up and down, waggling her tongue excitedly. It seemed Team Wayne had to deal with her first before they could deal with Julia.
Axel scowled and shot a T-shirt right into Scary Girl's open mouth. As Scary Girl blinked slightly confused with a T-shirt now in her mouth, she chomped down on it hard and crushed it to pieces. Axel gulped.
Suddenly, Scary Girl paused. Then she slowly began to widen her grin in a creepy manner until her mouth was covering half of her face. She cracked her head and spun it around 360 degrees. Twice. And then… silence.
Everybody, paralyzed in fear and too nervous to go closer towards her, stared at the now still Scary Girl.
"Uhhh… what do we do now?" Caleb said as he helped Damien and Nichelle back up.
Suddenly –
POOF! POOF! POOF! POOF! POOF! POOF! POOF! POOF! POOF! POOF!
Scary Girl's head started spinning around in all directions. Left, right, up and down. T-shirts were now flying everywhere and everyone was doing their best to dodge.
"DUCK!" Caleb grabbed Priya's hand and covered her.
"Duck, goo – OW!" Zee cried as a T-shirt knocked his Orange Sunshine soda out of his hands.
Scary Girl laughed crazily as she hit Millie, Axel, Bowie, Raj and Ripper. All five fell to the ground, groaning. Scary Girl was elated; she had never had so much fun before. It was pure joy hitting everybody with T-shirts. However, during her frenzy, she missed one person who had crouched low and was peeking through one of the gaps in the deck railing.
Chase stuck his tongue out in concentration as he aimed the cannon directly at Julia's back.
POOF!
"EUGH!" Julia grunted as she felt a great force hit the back of her head. Julia fell forwards and almost fell into the river once more had it not been for her legs which she had just wrapped around the wooden beam.
As she dangled upside-down, hanging on the beam with nothing but her shoes to hold her up, she fired a T-shirt right back at Chase.
"WHOA!" he jumped out of the way and crashed to the floor. That had been a close one.
Julia smirked, satisfied. She hadn't gotten a direct hit (it was harder to aim when you were hanging upside-down after all), but she had still sent a message back. That alone was a win in her books.
Julia braced herself as Millie and Priya fired more T-shirts at her. Luckily for Julia, they both just barely missed her as she swivelled around side to side.
Ripper stared at the upside-down Julia incredulously. "SOMEBODY JUST SHOOT HER WITH A T-SHIRT ALREADY! SHE'S UPSIDE DOWN FOR FART'S SAKE. HOW HARD IS IT TO – OW!"
POOF!
Ripper fell to the floor as MK shot another T-shirt at his head. She was back in the game.
"Maybe we can just wait for her to tire herself out? She can't hang by her feet all day unless she's a monkey…" Millie muttered. At once, Nichelle aimed her cannon at Julia.
"Oh noooo. This ends now," Nichelle said fiercely as she shot another T-shirt.
POOF!
This time, the T-shirt had hit Julia's abdomen sending her falling into the river once more.
"WWWAAAAHHHHH!"
Julia's screams echoed across the cavern as she landed with another little splash. Team Wayne cheered loudly and high-fived each other. Nichelle stared down at the falling Julia with a triumphant smirk. Then she turned to her fellow Wayne supporters and gave a graceful bow. Emma and Axel ran up to her and gave her a hug.
Nichelle confessional: *T-shirt cannon on her shoulder* Did I do that? Yes. I. did. That's payback honey!
"WAYNE! GO!" Nichelle roared.
"Thanks Nichelle!" Wayne gave her a thumbs-up and began to move at a faster pace now that the T-shirt commotion had subsided.
"Wayne… might wanna hurry… Julia's coming back up and she is not happy!" Bowie narrowed his eyes until they were almost fox-like. Sure enough, what he could see below was Julia's pronounced scowl as she swam back to the ladder. Bowie chuckled as he noticed she was slapping the water rather violently.
"Oh honey! No need to look so CYNICAL! You're not doing your face ANY favors by clenching your teeth like that!" he shouted from above. Behind him, all of Wayne's supporters and Emily roared with laughter.
From the water, Julia pointed a sharp finger up to Bowie. "Mouth off to me like that one more time and I swear I will COOK your little lasagna-haired-ASS on the gril – "
"PFFFT! The only person getting cooked right now is you hun," Bowie waved her off. "Why don't you just admit you're getting COMPLETELY CHARRED?"
Julia scowled but did not hurl another insult. She had to focus on getting up.
Julia made her way to the ladder and looked up, panicking. In the distance, she could make out Wayne's figure running along the beam. Immediately, she began to hasten her climb. A minute later, she was back on top.
Emma, Bowie and Raj all stuck their tongues out at Julia who shot them a dirty look. It was the whole world against her. But she was used to this.
"UGH! GO FUCK YOURSELVES, ALL OF YOU!" Julia shrieked as she began tying her hair into a bun. She was going to sprint the beam this time and for that, she would need to be as dynamic as possible. This meant she couldn't afford to have her long hair hitting against her face.
"Oh she MAD, MAD!" Chase goaded as he made googly eyes and pointed at Julia.
"Whoa! Careful Julia, stress can cause aging!" Bowie teased as behind him, Raj, Millie, Caleb and Priya howled with laughter.
Axel stuck her tongue out and made a wet raspberry noise.
"You're all going to look real dumb when I win this thing!" Julia shrivelled her nose in disgust.
"GURL, puh-lease. Focus on crossing this chasm first before talking all that trash HMMMM? You've been stuck on it for a while, haven't you?" Bowie retorted with a sassy fluttering of his fingers.
Julia responded by giving Bowie a finger of her own. The middle finger. Bowie's jaw dropped as Julia turned away from him.
Bowie confessional: HOW RUDE! Kidding, I would have done the same to her…
Wayne continued to run along the plank, cockily smirking to himself. He whispered excitedly under his breath and laughed in his head at the thought of Julia falling into the river. Speaking of Julia –
Wayne's heart skipped a beat as he heard loud footsteps behind him. Someone was coming up right behind him! But who?...
Who else? Wayne thought miserably, wondering how Julia had even caught up to him so fast.
Suddenly, the footsteps came to a halt.
Wayne confessional: Did Julia really fall down into the river again? That'd be pretty funny eh?
She had not. The brief moment when her footsteps had stopped was due to her leaping high into the air. Next thing Wayne knew, Julia had landed on his shoulders and he was now carrying her across the chasm.
"HEY! What are you doing? Get off!" Wayne cried as he tried to shake Julia off of him. She only continued to stare straight ahead. After all, it was very comfortable for her sitting on top of Wayne. She was right. It did feel nice to be given a Piggyback from him.
Wayne couldn't believe it. He was really giving her a free ride across the second portion of the finale! Hadn't he done this with MK back in Episode 1? It was time to get rid of her!
Wayne tried to flail his body in all sorts of directions in hopes of throwing Julia off but she did not budge.
Julia found Wayne's attempts to throw her off to be nothing more than a great nuisance. She leaned into his ear. "Stop resisting and keep moving forwards. Or else I take you down with me and we both fall got it?" she whispered threateningly.
Wayne's jaw dropped. So she would rather they both go down?
Wayne confessional: "Stop resisting?" What is she? A COP?
Meanwhile, everyone else stared hesitantly at Wayne. What to do?... They constantly raised and lowered their T-shirt cannons, struggling to make a decision.
"Do we shoot her?" Chase asked blankly.
"We can't! We might hit Wayne too!" Emma yelped.
"We should at least try! GO FOR THE HEAD!" Ripper roared as he raised his T-shirt cannon and aimed it right for the back of Julia's head. Millie put a hand on Ripper's cannon to stop him from shooting.
"No, she's just going to drag Wayne down with her if she gets hit," Millie said keeping a watchful eye on Julia and Wayne. Indeed, Millie knew exactly what kind of person Julia was. "She has really fast reflexes and it's the exact kind of thing Julia would do. If she doesn't win, no one else is allowed to."
"Good point," Chase conceded as he lowered his T-shirt cannon as well.
Raj scowled as he also lowered his T-shirt cannon. "Leave it to Julia to put us in a tricky situation!"
"WAYNE!" Axel yelled. "Watch out for any backstabbing from Julia. Don't let your guard down even at the very end!"
Wayne continued to run, deeply disgruntled. Meanwhile, Julia kept her eyes fixated on the end. They were almost across. Julia knew what she had to do before they got to the other side. She was getting ready to backstab him. But could she do it? Julia felt torn. She didn't want to hurt him but for some reason part of her felt she had to. It would be the only way to ensure she kept a large lead.
Wayne confessional: Wow, I can't believe Julia didn't double cross me!
"We're almost done!" Wayne whooped as he saw the wooden beam coming to an end.
"Yup we are! And this is where we say good bye!" Julia smiled mischievously as she raised her T-shirt cannon high above Wayne's head and brought it down with great force.
SMACK!
Wayne's head immediately began to swell with redness. The hockey captain groaned in pain, stumbled around with slurred speech for a few seconds before falling to the depths below. Next thing he knew, he was speaking in gibberish.
"One double decaf capped decappin the captain camping at the cabin no cap!" his voice echoed as he fell.
Meanwhile, Julia had already jumped off of Wayne. As she soared through the air, she laughed coldly as she heard Wayne's screams below.
"SHOOT HER! SHOOT HER NOW!" Nichelle shrieked as she pointed desperately at a flying Julia.
POOF! POOF! POOF!
T-shirts flew through the air but Julia managed to land on the ground, unscathed. She had successfully crossed to the other side. Many campers huffed angrily at this. Chase threw his T-shirt cannon to the ground in frustration and Bowie rolled his eyes.
"Later losers!" Julia waved mockingly as she turned around to retrieve her squirrel suit.
"SHUT UP NERD!" Ripper spat from the other side.
Meanwhile, Wayne poked his head out from the water and threw up a fish.
Zee looked over the railing. "Whoa, he's really good at fishing," he said to Raj who grimaced.
Wayne looked up miserably and stared open-mouthed at Julia running away, laughing into the air. He sighed. Part of him felt hurt that she had betrayed him without a second thought. It looked like he really did mean nothing to her. Even worse, her lead was getting bigger and bigger the longer he stayed here. But even if he did climb back up and cross the chasm successfully, Julia would surely win. She was too far ahead.
Wayne confessional: It's over… Julia is just way too good at knocking people into water!
Wayne hung his head. Raj gasped. Was he seeing things right? Wayne was committing an athletic sin!
Raj confessional: *brings hands to face* Is he… FORFEITING?
"Wayner get back in the game! You can't let Julia win the cup, If she wins we all lose! Think of all the fans you'll have disappointed!" Raj clapped his hands.
"If she wins, the hockey season's cancelled next year!" Bowie said.
"BOWIE! DON'T SAY THAT!" Raj snapped.
"It's OK hun! Not real remember? I'm just trying to motivate him," Bowie whispered.
"OH right!" Raj laughed.
"SNOW OWLS NEVER QUIT! HOOT! HOOT!" Millie poked her head between Bowie and Raj.
"HOOT! HOOT!" Raj echoed.
"Uhhh... yeah! HOOT! HOOT!" Bowie said awkwardly, feeling it would be weird if he didn't hoot with the others.
Wayne looked up in awe. "YOU'RE RIGHT MILLIE. RAJIE. BOWIE. THEY SURE AS HECK DON'T! LET'S GET THISSSSS!" Had he almost thrown in the towel? That was ridiculous! Luckily he had his friends to help him get back on track.
Everybody with the exception of a grumpy-faced MK cheered as Wayne began to climb back up.
Millie confessional: I know right! Never thought I would be the one to get Wayne back in the game! HOOT! HOOT!
With no Julia to distract him, Wayne was easily able to run on his tip-toes across the entire chasm. MK had raised her cannon twice but each time, she was met with 10 cannons to the face from Wayne's supporters. She had no choice but to lower her weapon and scowl.
Wayne's boots reached the other side and he sighed happily. That had been the toughest section of the day but he had to put it behind him and focus on the final part – racing to the case. Wasting no time, he grabbed his squirrel suit and took off after Julia.
AUTHOR'S NOTES
This concludes the first chapter of the finale. Tune in on Saturday where a new Total Drama champion will be crowned! Who's it gonna be? Wayne or Julia?
This finale has 3 parts: carrying chariots across the beach and up the mountain (Part 1), crossing the chasm and dodging T-shirt cannons (Part 2) and flying to the ground in a squirrel suit and racing to the case on foot (Part 3).
I decided to assign the non-finalists a specific section to shine in so if your favourite character hasn't been doing much up until this point, don't worry. Their turn will come next chapter. Admittedly, it is difficult to use everybody but I tried my best.
So far, I chose:
Part 1: Priya, Caleb, Ripper, Chase, Zee, Emma
Priya: got the horses to start moving due to her training
Caleb: calmed the horses down when Ripper insulted them due to his background working at a kitten orphanage.
Ripper: talked some trash to Julia and held up Wayne's chariot for some pizza (comedic relief)
Chase: gave the idea to push the horses and held up Wayne's chariot for some pizza (comedic relief)
Zee: held up Wayne's chariot for some pizza (comedic relief)
Emma: asked for ice cream
Part 2: Nichelle, Millie, Bowie, Raj, MK, Scary Girl
Nichelle: shot Julia off
Millie: encouraged Wayne to get back in the game when he almost gave up
Bowie: talked lots of shit to Julia and had an entertaining back and forth
Raj: encouraged Wayne to get back in the game when he almost gave up
MK: shot at Wayne supporters
Scary Girl: caused pandemonium when she shot T-shirts everywhere and hit lots of people (comedic relief)
That's 12 characters so far + 2 finalists who got their moments. This means Axel and Damien get their highlights in Part 3. Sorry if you were expecting more from them right now, but Damien especially HAS to be involved in the final part of the challenge. Maybe you can guess why he is the ONLY one who can help Wayne.
See you on Saturday!