Episode 6: 12 angry campers

The final 12 go to court. Using nothing but their own problem-solving skills, campers have one hour to determine who stole the purse and make a little cheat sheet for their teams' presenter. Who will drop the hammer? And who will be sentenced to the Dock of Shame?

Enjoy the full episode today! I didn't split it into two parts because the challenge is relatively simple and also because I will be busy this Saturday. Episode 7 (Part 1) releases next Wednesday.

July 12 2024

8:08 am

"6…7….8…." Julia counted out loud as she repped out another set of heavy squats. Finally, she placed the barbell on the rack, took a staggering step back, then collapsed to the floor panting. She gazed up at the glass ceiling of the gym with an amused expression. Julia was very happy. She had come here to put her mind at ease and to remind herself she had made the right decision.

You did good, you did good she had kept telling herself throughout the whole workout. Julia closed her eyes and laughed to herself as she replayed the scene of her swapping sugar for salt… and the looks on her teammates' faces when they had no clue what was going on and blaming Nichelle for it all… and the fact that she had gotten away with it too… all without significantly tarnishing her reputation as the team leader… it had been so sneaky, so clever…no one had suspected her…

Julia opened her eyes to see a figure standing above her, with their hands on their hips.

"OMG!" Julia yelped frightened. In no time at all, the figure quickly bent down, extended their hand, grabbed Julia by her top, and pulled her in viciously towards their face. Julia now realized she was face to face with Axel. This was certainly an early morning surprise.

"WHAT… ARE YOU DOING? WHY ARE YOU GRABBING ME?" Julia tried to get Axel's hands off of her but Axel did not let go. She only tightened her grip and narrowed her eyes to slits as she stared at Julia suspiciously. Julia was so close to Axel's face she could count the wrinkles that had formed on Axel's forehead.

Axel eyed Julia with pure loathing. She wanted to make the message crystal clear.

"Look sister, you may have everyone else fooled but not me," Axel whispered dangerously.

"What are you even talking about? Ugh, let go of me!" Julia said sharply, still trying to pry Axel's hands off but failing miserably. Julia knew exactly what this was about.

Axel was fuming. Clearly, Julia was not listening.

"I don't know how you did it but I know you were responsible for the salty cupcakes and getting rid of Nichelle. I want to tell you this… if you ever think of betraying me, it'll be the last thing you ever do GOT IT?" Axel spat as Julia's eyes rounded in fear. And with that, Axel roughly pushed Julia to the ground where she sat in temporary shock. Julia could not believe Axel had the audacity to stand up to her like that and…give her a warning?

Axel, feeling satisfied, turned to leave but Julia was not going to let her go without saying something manipulative. Something to spin the situation into her favor. Something to think about…

"Axel… you should really watch yourself and your accusations. I mean, turning on your own alliance member? Is that really the wisest move to make when we're outnumbered 4 – 2?" Julia said softly. Axel and Julia were the only two in the gym, so Axel was still able to make out every word Julia was saying.

Axel froze. Julia smirked, knowing full well Axel's brain was now absorbing her words.

"I…well – " Axel began, struggling to refute this statement.

"And I find it funny how you think I orchestrated Nichelle's exit. When… if you think about it… the guys outnumbered us 4 - 3 at the time… they probably ganged up together and took her out… I mean, with her taking leadership and all she had to accept full responsibility for her epic-fail cupcakes… see? They had a legitimate excuse…" Julia droned on, curling her lip in a snarky fashion behind Axel's back.

Axel's lip shook as she tried to comprehend what Julia had just said. For some reason, her brain just could not see Ripper, Chase, Zee and Wayne being strategists.

Axel confessional: *shifts awkwardly* OK I know it's been a few days since Nichelle was eliminated and I might be accusing Julia for nothing but I mean… since when did those three buffoons start using their brain? And don't even get me started on Ripper. *looks up and blows her own hair*

Axel turned around. "But… but… those guys are complete morons! They couldn't come up with that!" she protested. Axel's face had now flushed and she checked for any open windows. Hopefully, they weren't listening….

Julia scoffed at Axel's attempt at a rebuttal.

"They may be morons, but that doesn't mean they can't count. I mean, if we look at them all, numbers play a biiiiig part of their lives one way or another. Right? Chase is obsessed with views and his sub count, Ripper keeps track of how long his fart records are, Wayne sees numbers every time he plays hockey whether it's on people's jerseys, the scoreboard, the ticking clock… I mean, they very well could've done it… and personally I think they did…"

Axel stared at her feet awkwardly. She had come in here, so sure of herself that Julia had sabotaged them… but now?... Julia's words were making a lot of sense… Nichelle very well could've just been victim to a simple gender war instead of Julia somehow finding a way to sneak salt in which Axel didn't even have any evidence for. It had just been a very strong hunch after all… she had definitely overreacted.

Axel confessional: *shivers* Oh man. I hope Julia's not too mad at me. If I don't have her, I don't have anybody…

Julia smiled to herself as she watched Axel think. Now that the tide had shifted, she had to continue pushing so that Axel would never think to accuse her again.

Julia seized Axel's hands and looked at her with an emotional expression. "Axel, do you really think I would betray Nichelle NOW? When the guys outnumber us? Why would I do that? I said we would stick together!"

Axel backed up, slightly startled. "Well…. I just thought you were jealous of Nichelle taking over and somehow got your revenge…" she said truthfully.

In her head, Julia laughed to herself. So Axel was not as bone-headed as she looked.

"Noooo… look, I'm just as surprised as you are about the salty cupcakes but… Nichelle must've made an honest mistake. Or " – Julia put a thinking finger to her chin – "Ohhhhh… who knows? Maybe one of the guys sabotaged our cupcakes by putting in a bunch of salt… the point is, whether Nichelle was responsible or not doesn't matter, the numbers matter. The guys realized this and sent her home. That's all there is to it," Julia said firmly.

Axel nodded and gave a little shudder. "I guess.. you're right…" she mumbled. She felt so horrible she had accused Julia, her only ally here. What had she been thinking?

Julia nodded and fed Axel a fake smile.

Julia confessional: Wow. It's so easy it's almost not fun… almost *smirks*

Julia took a sip of water. "I feel bad for Nichelle. She was doing so well… I mean, winning the paint challenge, destroying the Tiktok challenge, fighting Caleb in the horror challenge… only for it all to crumble in the baking one…," Julia sighed, feigning disappointment. "I guess some people just don't like seeing strong women succeeding… which is why it's super important we don't lose any more team challenges! Or else, we're screwed! We have to win everything until the merge hits! And… we have to learn to trust each other… if we want to survive… we need to work together…" Julia squeezed her fist.

Axel nodded. The look in Julia's eye was so intense, so determined.

"OK… alright Julia… sorry for accusing you…"

"Axel, I forgive you… bring it in, girlfriend… sorry I'm all sweaty…" Julia gave a little laugh.

"That's fine… thanks Julia…"

Axel and Julia embraced each other, one with a genuine smile, the other smiling nastily behind their partners' back.

Julia felt satisfied with her verbal barrage today. She had managed to keep Axel in her good books and would dispose of her later when she needed to…. Because as much as Julia found Axel's physical skills useful, nobody was allowed to try and intimidate her and expect to get away with it… Axel's days were already numbered…

Julia confessional: I obviously can't get rid of her now since I just got rid of Nichelle but trust me. She'll be at that resort within the next two weeks. *nods with an evil smile*

10:11 am

The final 12 were standing in a grand courtroom. Giant banners of the teams' logos were draped on the giant wall, next to a large flag of Canada and a framed picture of scales of justice.

Chris was wearing a crisp black suit which looked ridiculously odd on him. It was almost as if formal and Chris didn't mix well. Chef was wearing an identical suit only in size XXXL and Emily was wearing an indigo, one-button blazer along with black, ankle-length dress pants.

Ripper made googly eyes at Emily though she did not seem to notice. Ripper sighed unhappily.

Ripper confessional: *twiddles thumbs nervously* OK I thought Emily and I would be back to normal by this point but she's still not talking to me as much as I want…

It was time to make a drastic move. Ripper was about to enter foreign waters he had never ventured in before but with big risk came big reward. Ripper cleared his throat and stared directly at Emily's eyes.

"Hey Emily… " – he took a long pause and a deep breath before continuing – "That suit SLAYS!"

He grinned unnaturally wide and chuckled to himself for he had just said the s-word, a word he never saw himself saying in a million years.

Temporary silence as Emily blinked stupidly and kept her eyes frozen on Ripper. Chris, Chef and his fellow competitors had paused as well.

Julia confessional: *tries to stay composed but miserably fails. Immediately bursts into laughter* Nooooooo *slaps her thigh in fits of laughter*

Chase confessional: AHAHAHAHAHA *rolls around the confessional howling*

Caleb confessional: DAHAAHAHAHAHA *bangs his forehead repeatedly*

Chef confessional: DAHAHAHAHAHAAH! * rolls around kicking the air*

Zee confessional: AHAHAAHAHAH *wipes a tear from his eye and shrugs* I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHY WE'RE ALL LAUGHING *sips soda*

Now the entire room was filled with loud laughter as Ripper ducked under a table, red-faced and embarrassed. His only consolation was the fact that he had made Emily laugh. Hopefully, it would be worth it.

Chris attempted to carry on as if nothing had happened though it was rather difficult with Chef laughing obnoxiously in the background. He looked around at them all energetically.

"Today, we're playing lawyer and testing your critical thinking skills!" He waved a thick black book around dramatically. "Every year, thousands of purses get stolen. In front of each team will be a riddle about a missing purse. Both teams will have 60 minutes to crack the case and decide who the thief is. After, a representative from each team will be presenting the case to me, Emily, Chef and another special guest."

Priya gave a small gasp. If Owen had been the special guest for the baking challenge, she had a pretty good idea who would be coming in today to help with a challenge involving courtrooms, judges, law…

Zee, however seemed to be thinking differently. "I wonder who the special guest is today…" he said slowly, rubbing his chin. "Could it be… Thomas Jefferson? Always wanted to meet that guy…"

Axel and Chase exchanged glances.

Chase confessional: *looks to the side* Yeah, I'm not going to ruin Zee's day again and tell him there's no possible way he can ever meet Thomas Jefferson. And hopefully I won't have to pretend to be Thomas Jefferson. Not sure how ancient American fossils even sound like!

Chris smiled.

"Thank you for asking me once again Zee. I'll get to that in a minute. Anyways, the representative will be selected via a different process. Instead of picking someone to speak for your team, the opposing team will decide who is presenting the case. The presenter will not actually be in the same room solving the case with the rest of their team. Their job is to just present the case. Presenters will be sitting in another room for an hour and then when it's their turn, they will come back to this room and present for 3 minutes in front of the judges."

"Wait… but how will they present a case if they don't know anything about it?" Priya asked, confused.

"That's where these come in," Emily promptly replied, waving around a red envelope and a black ink pen. "Red envelopes and a pen. You get to prepare a cheat sheet, 50 words max, going all over important details. The presenter gets to use this as an aid."

"50 words max and we'll be checking," Chris repeated. "Now 50 words may not be enough for the presenter. That's what's going to make this hilarious! Whichever presenter gets not only the correct answer but also goes through as few leaps of logic as possible and argues their position better wins."

"So these notes have to be super precise people! Give the presenter key highlights, just enough for them to piece everything together smoothly!" Priya hissed to her team. The Orangutans nodded.

Chris clapped his hands. "Now… please I'd like to take a moment to welcome our guest. She's a feisty, hot-headed and determined woman who'll argue her case even for the last Snickers bar, and she'll certainly phone up her lawyers if you dare to cheat her out of a million bucks. COME ON OUT…

COURTNEY!"

BANG!

Right on cue, the wooden doors flew open and a woman with silky, shoulder-length chocolate-mousse brown hair entered. She had her nose tilted jauntily up in the air and was walking along the hall with an air of importance, as if she was used to being treated like royalty.

Courtney, wearing an emerald pin-striped suit, waved at everybody as she strutted around like a fashion model lawyer. With each step she took with her high heels on the wooden floor, a striking CLACK! CLACK! CLACK! noise echoed across the room. As usual, whenever she entered a room, Courtney exuded poise and a hint of importance.

Priya confessional: *puts hands on face* WOW, Courtney. The strong, intelligent, independent woman who… never won a season somehow?

Priya fanned herself dramatically as Courtney strode in.

"Your hair is gorgeous! #cutest-laywer-ever," Julia complimented Courtney who acknowledged her with a nod and a smile.

"Thank you!" Courtney said gratefully as she walked up and slid into a chair at the very centre of the judges' table.

"Well, now that you've all met Courtney, it's time for each team to pick the other teams' presenter. You have 2 minutes to discuss and then I will ask for a name. Get to it!" Chris said.

The Panthers huddled in a circle.

"Alright, who are we going with?" Julia said.

"Not me. I get nervous presenting book reports. I can't do this!" Chase looked around at his teammates pleadingly.

Axel rolled her eyes. "Relax, we're picking for the other team," she said stone-faced.

"Oh… right…"

Axel confessional: See what I mean?! Don't even bring up the time when him and I pretended to be Betty Crocker. That was all MY idea! *points to herself*

Julia momentarily looked over at the Orangutans who were also in a huddle. She did not fail to notice Raj looked rather melancholy and was standing a little farther away from the circle than everyone else, almost as if he didn't want to be here. Julia smiled triumphantly now that she had an easy target.

The strategy was simple. She was going to exploit Raj's depression to give her team an advantage.

"What about Raj?" she asked, briefly locking eyes with Wayne.

"Uhh… he's not feeling too well…" Wayne said slowly, looking over at his best friend concerned. Why was Julia targeting Raj when he was feeling down?

"Which is exactly why it should be him!" Julia clapped her hands. "If we pick Raj, he's going to have a hard time presenting the case because he's too worried about whatever he's got going on in his head and then we win easily!"

"I don't know…" Wayne stared at his shoes uncomfortably.

"Wayne. Are you playing for us or for them?" Julia snapped accusingly. "Pick a side!"

Wayne stared at Julia incredulously. He saw exactly what she was doing and he couldn't believe Julia was manipulating the situation to make him out to be some traitor! He was about to retort but Chase interjected.

"Yeah Wayne. Come on! I agree with Julia, it's the easiest way to win."

This did not improve Wayne's mood. Before he could say anything though –

"All in favor for Raj?" Julia asked with a hint of impatience in her voice. Wayne was outvoted 5-1.

"Fine!" he conceded under his breath. He had no choice but to agree because now the whole team was looking at him skeptically.

"OK guys between Ripper, Zee and Chase who's the dumbest?" Priya enquired in her team's huddle.

Emma snorted. "I'd say they're equal intelligence. Flip a coin."

"You know Ripper has made some smart moves..." Damien said slowly, recalling some of Ripper's highlights last season. "Remember last season when he helped Millie in the finale? And he shut his butt with a pillow!" As disgusting as it was, it had been one of Ripper's more clever tricks. At the very least, it demonstrated his ability to use his brain when he needed to.

"Chase also played dead to get rid of the bears," Caleb nodded.

"Zee didn't know where milk came from," Emma added.

"Definitely Zee," everyone said in unison. The answer could not have been more clear.

Priya noticed Raj was not looking focused today. He was standing slightly outside of the circle, isolated from his teammates, not looking at anybody but staring at the ground glassy-eyed.

"Hey Raj, are you alright?" she asked softly.

Raj shook his head from side to side and his eyes adjusted out of his trance.

"O – oh yeah!" Raj said, putting on a fake smile. He gave a thumbs-up and a cheeky grin to Damien as well. It was the least he could do to make things right… Because despite their moment of reconciliation last challenge, deep inside Raj still felt slightly guilty.

Raj confessional: I feel horrible for the way I accused Damien last challenge! I honestly don't know if I deserve his forgiveness *hunches over and sighs*

"Alright, time's up!" Chris announced, staring around eagerly. "Orangutans who are you picking to represent the Panthers' spokesperson?"

"We pick Zee!" Emma said, pointing directly at the soda stoner who looked extremely happy to hear his name.

"Awesome!" Zee cheered, failing to notice his teammates face-palming behind him. Of all the people, they had chosen the one who would probably lose this for the team.

Julia confessional: OK… not gonna lie… that was a major blow…. Time to hit back!

"Smart move," Chris nodded in agreement. He turned to the other team. "Panthers?"

"We pick Raj," Julia pointed a sharp finger tauntingly at the miserable Raj who looked up, puppy-eyed. Raj did not say anything but merely looked down at his feet.

"Uh-oh…" Damien muttered.

"Wow…" Priya said bitterly. "We really thought you guys would have the decency to choose someone who isn't feeling down, you know… like normal human beings with empathy?"

Julia sneered. "Oh I'm sorry," she said sarcastically because her tone clearly indicated she was not sorry at all. "Is it illegal to pick Raj or something? No? Exactly."

Priya stomped in frustration while MK smirked behind her back.

MK confessional: *claps hands* Perfect. If I'm lucky, Rajie can join his boyfriend soon and that'll be another physical threat out of the way.

"Alright then. Zee, Raj please follow Emily into the room next door where you will have to wait for an hour. The rest of your team will be cracking the case right here!" Chris said, signalling for them to leave.

Raj and Zee followed Emily into the room next door. Once Emily came back and gave Chris the thumbs-up, he nodded and turned to today's guest.

"OK! Now that everything's settled… Courtney? Would you like to do the honours?" he said cheekily.

Courtney smiled. "It would be my pleasure," she said, staring around at the campers in admiration. She had just felt a wave of nostalgia, seeing a new group of kids about to partake in a Total Drama challenge. "Orangutans, Panthers," she boomed, looking up at the clock. "Your one hour to crack this case and prepare a cheat sheet for your presenter starts… NOW!"

Chairs scraped against the wooden floor as everyone scrambled to read the problem which lay on the table in front of them.

An elementary school teacher in Toronto named Mrs. Pertsch had her purse stolen. The thief had to be Jonesy, Caitlin, Jude, Nikki, or Jen. When questioned, each child made three statements:

Jonesy: (1) I didn't take the purse (2) I have never in my life stolen anything (3) Nikki did it

Caitlin: (4) I didn't take the purse (5) My daddy is rich enough, and I have a purse of my own (6) Jen knows who did it

Jude: (7) I didn't take the purse dude (8) I didn't know Jen before I enrolled in this school dude (9) Nikki did it dude

Nikki: (10) I am not guilty (11) Jen did it (12) Jonesy is lying when he says I stole the purse

Jen: (13) I didn't take the teacher's purse (14) Caitlin is guilty (15) Jude can vouch for me because he knows me since I was born

Later, each child admitted two of their statements were true and one was false. Who stole the purse?

The Panthers began reading the problem together, gathering around Axel who held the paper for them all to read. After about 10 seconds, when most of the team was reading Caitlin's statements, Ripper grabbed his hair and started pulling strands out. "WHY IS THIS SO HARD?!" he roared as he smacked his head in frustration.

Julia stared at him appalled. "It's… literally only been 10 seconds… we're going to have to put some more time into this if we want to solve it you know?…"

The Panthers, thinking that they should just move on from Ripper's outburst, looked at the sheet once more but not for long. Now it was Chase's turn to say something.

"OK here me out. What if we just assume it was a guy? I think I read somewhere we account for 83% of shoplifts in Canada. So maybe we can just assume it's Jonesy or Jude. At least I think they're guys… does anyone know if Jonesy is a girl name or a guy name?!" He stared around, extremely proud of himself for coming up with this brilliant reasoning. Unfortunately, no one else seemed impressed.

Axel snorted. "So that's the argument we're going to give Zee? It was most likely a guy? You know I CAN'T BELIEVE they picked him instead of you. You're not much smarter than he is," she hissed venomously.

Chase wasn't just going to sit here and take the punches from Axel. He did not know why she was swinging so hard. Clearly, she did not know just how smart he really was…

"I'll have you know I got my IQ score. Guess what it is? 99! HAH! That's 99 percent!" he puffed his chest out proudly.

"Wow OK then! This puzzle should be no match for your 99 IQ brain!" Julia cheered sarcastically.

BANG!

Julia flinched and turned to the source of the noise.

Ripper had just slammed his fist on the table once again to get everyone's attention. He was going to work through this with brute force. "HERE!" he pointed. "Let's assume (1) is the lie and (2) and (3) are truths." He stared hardly at the paper, licking his lips.

"And if that's incorrect?" Axel immediately asked accusingly. She was doubtful of Ripper's critical thinking skills and already concluded in her mind that this was not going to go anywhere meaningful.

"Don't rush me!" Ripper belched. "Then… we…uh…. taste and adjust…." He scratched his head and began reading everyone's alibi one by one.

"So if (1) is a lie… that means… Jonesy stole the purse… OK…. (2) is a truth… yeah, OK… (3) is a truth… so Nikki and Jonesy stole it? Hang on…." He had already run into a wall. Therefore, it was time to work around this.

"I'm guessing now we assume (2) is the lie?..." Julia said coldly.

Ripper scratched his head angrily again. "OK if (2) is the lie, then (1) and (3) are truths meaning Nikki stole it! Notice how we keep going back to Nikki? It's Nikki! It's gotta be Nikki!"

"Wanna read her statements first to see if it actually makes sense?" Julia asked skeptically. She highly doubted Ripper had already got the answer.

Ripper sniggered. "No need to! Julia, we've covered two scenarios and we keep getting Nikki. That girl is guilty as charged!" He felt so confident he reached his hand out for the black ballpoint pen Axel was holding but she did not give it to him. Axel wanted to confirm with the others if Ripper was actually correct before he wrote down anything stupid.

"Wicked strategy Ripper!" Wayne cheered.

"TOLD YOU GUYS. I'm gifted!"

Julia snorted. "You're gifted all right… tell me which of Nikki's statements are the truth and which one is the lie then…" She flashed her eyes excitedly, waiting to see Ripper's brain malfunction in real time.

Ripper shifted nervously. So Julia wanted to put his big brain to the test again did she? Well she would be sorry for that. "Well then we just start all over again. OK if (10) is the lie, then… yeah (10) is the lie because she's guilty as farts! But… (11) is the truth… wait what? Jen stealing is the truth? OK then it's Jen! Wait…"

Ripper pulled his hair, wondering what on earth was going on now. How had he run into another wall? Worst of all, he didn't know how to recover.

Axel threw her pen on the table and pulled her hair as well. "AGH, STOP YOU'RE JUST GOING IN CIRCLES," she shouted, desperate for Ripper to be silent so that she could concentrate on the problem.

"Hey at least I'm trying!"

Ripper confessional: Darn, thought I had that one! Aren't these kids in elementary? There's no way I'm being outsmarted by a bunch of 10 year old nerds!

"See? This would all be easier if we just assumed it was a guy," Chase said angrily. For him, this was the worst challenge so far – even worse than the Tiktok one. There was nothing fun about sitting here and reading a piece of paper. He was far more interested in the birds outside the window.

"Will you shut up about the guy part?" Julia hissed.

Wayne couldn't stand to see his teammates bickering like this. As usual, he had to take charge, revert everyone back on course and get them to focus on the main task. "OK everyone chill!" he raised his voice slightly. "Let's just sit here for a few minutes in silence and really think this through. That sound good?"

Axel nodded. "Yeah, sure."

"Fine," Chase said.

"OK," Ripper grunted.

Wayne confessional: Used to leading the team back home… when things get chaotic, gotta take a step back and think! *puffs chest proudly*

Meanwhile, the Orangutans had all gathered around Priya who held the paper. "Alright everyone… what's the strategy here?" Caleb looked quizzically at his teammates. The Orangutans seemed to be in agreement that before reading the paper, they should come up with a strategy on what they should be looking for.

"Start by looking for any sentences that flat out contradict each other or say the exact same thing," Emma piped up. "We can work from there."

"I was just about to say that!" Damien said cheerfully. "Good idea Emma!" The two exchanged passionate high-fives as MK rolled her eyes. Friendship? Gross.

MK confessional: *rolls eyes* Yayyyyy, Emma can get the spotlight again. Honestly, the more the better. I want to lose to get rid of her traitorous butt but if she keeps proving herself to be a threat, she could have a huge target on her back later on…

Damien confessional: *claps hands eagerly* Do I smell another alliance/friendship on the horizon? Yes I dooooo

Chris, Chef, Courtney and Emily all looked below at the campers who were busy at work. One of Chris' butlers was coming up to them with a bottle of ice-cold lemonade. "Courtney… which team has got this in the bag?" Chris asked through a sip of lemonade.

Courtney took an elegant swig of lemonade before responding. "Well, the Orangutans are my clear pick to win. There's Caleb who's about to go into MIT for mechanical engineering, MK who's proven to be extremely resourceful last season, Damien who recently won gold in the Canadian chemistry competition, Emma who averaged a 4.0 GPA for every single semester in high school as well as leading her school team to 2nd for BC's women's math competition, and Priya who's following my footsteps and going to Cambridge for her undergrad.

"Now I know you're not supposed to have favourites, but I like her. Anyone who studies the game as rigorously as her deserves to win. Reminds me of the time I studied every single New Orleans 1970s court cases when I was digging through the archives. You'd be surprised to see what you'd find in there…" She took another sip.

Chris stared mind-blown at Courtney. She had really studied everyone before coming here! "And the Panthers?" he asked cheekily, knowing full well she did not think too highly of them.

Courtney nearly choked. Should she be nice or should be honest? "They're… in big trouble… and that's putting it mildly. They have a lot of big personalities, too much ego. I do like Julia though, I know she's a really fierce competitor which is always nice to see. I wonder if she can lead her team to a win today though..." It did not seem likely.

"I take it you watched Reboot 23'?" Chris deduced for how else could Courtney possibly know so much about these kids?

Courtney nodded her head. "Legally of course. To support the show," she said proudly.

"Funny, Duncan told me he pirated it. Watched it all through a mega file on September 10 when it apparently dropped in Italy. A whole month before the Canadian release," Chris laughed into his glass, eyeing Courtney eagerly for her reaction.

Courtney pursed her lips and her brow furrowed. "Of course he did," she said disapprovingly. "People don't change. I'm not saying I expected much from him, but… I never thought he would stoop so low. Please tell me he at least supported the official release?"

"So… forget about the teams," Chris ignored her. "Who's your favourite to win this season then?" Chris was really intrigued to hear Courtney's winner pick.

Courtney paused for a bit. "Well… I know I said I liked Priya… but… historically double winners just don't happen. So I'm going with Julia."

"Why Julia?"

"As I said, she's fierce. I found myself rooting for her last season surprisingly. I loved the raptor scene – "

"We all did," Chef chortled.

"One of the smarter villains we've had for sure…," Chris said. "I mean, if it weren't for the raptor, she could've went through the whole season without anyone knowing the real her!"

Courtney nodded. "My other pick is… a little underrated… but I think Wayne has potential…"

Chris violently spat out his drink. "Wayne? Seriously?! Chef and I placed bets before the season and Wayne was near the bottom! Dude just seems like the definition of good but not good enough."

Courtney raised an eyebrow doubtfully. "Well… I don't think so…he's athletic, gets along well with everyone, but he's also got a sweet side to him where he stands up for people who have trouble standing up for themselves. Did you see him put his foot down and talk back to Julia when she was bullying Millie? I think that can get Wayne really far, top 4 minimum.

"I also wouldn't count Emma or MK out yet either. Emma's got a lot to prove now that she's not so focused on Chase, good riddance by the way, and MK is full of…. surprises. So those are my 4 picks. Julia, Wayne, Emma, MK."

Chris chuckled as he just realized something. He cleared his throat nervously because he was entering seriously dangerous territory now. "Three of your four picks have something in common which can be seen as slightly problematic to some of our audience. Don't you think you're being a bit rac –"

Courtney cut him off sharply. "Don't you dare accuse me of racism Mclean. OK, three out of my four picks happened to be white. Fine. But you can swap any one of them out for Damien who I personally think is the dark horse of the season – "

"Oh he's a dark horse alright," Chef chuckled as Chris too burst out in laughter.

Courtney frowned. So these two were still childish after all this time?

"Just a joke, SHEESH!" Chris retorted upon seeing Courtney's unamused glare. Could this show not push boundaries anymore? They got away with so much stuff back then!

Courtney confessional: *crosses arms unimpressed* As I said before, people don't change. *looks around at the outhouse walls* Hey, it feels good to be back here! Looks a little bigger too… *camera pans out*

Raj and Zee were standing around nervously in the room next door. Raj paced back and forth sweating while Zee decided to open the curtains to let sunlight in. Zee took a deep breath as he proceeded to open a window. "Ahhhhh," he said peacefully, closing his eyes as he felt the gentle summer breeze tickle his face.

"Dude, aren't you nervous? We're…we're going to court!" Raj said incredulously at Zee. He could not believe Zee was acting so calm and stoic.

Zee took a carefree sip of his soda and shrugged his shoulders. "Nahhhh. We're going as the people presenting our case, we're not actually guilty!" he winked reassuringly.

"I don't think it's any less stressful being a lawyer," Raj muttered as he ruffled his hair. "I just hope I can focus." He closed his eyes and hung his head.

Zee's brow furrowed. "Raj my bromigo, what's buggin you?" he asked empathetically. "You've been looking super down today my friend. And I DON'T LIKE IT." Zee was going to do whatever it took to make Raj's day better. Maybe he would even offer him a soda.

Raj, who often had trouble opening up to others ever since Bowie's departure, was pleasantly surprised to see himself tell everything to Zee in an open and transparent manner. Zee was simply too chill to ignore. And Raj knew Zee would be understanding. Next thing Raj knew, he found himself spilling everything to Zee.

"Bowie being gone… it's just so hard to get over… " Raj said slowly. "and Damien… I feel awful for accusing him… I just feel like I'm in a downward spiral and I can't get out… one bad thing happening after the other…" He wiped a tear from his eye and turned his head into his shoulder. How many more bad things were going to happen to him? What did he do to deserve this?

Zee took a sip from his orange sunshine soda before responding. "My brotha… we can't change the past. But we can move towards a better future!" he winked at Raj. "Snow falcons never quit. TOOT! TOOT! You have to carry on for Bowie, and Damien said he forgave you in the cupcake challenge. Remember? REJOICE MY FRIEND! It's all goooood!"

Raj laughed nervously as Zee wrapped his skinny arm around Raj's blocky shoulder.

"Soda my G?" Zee smiled as he waved the orange can.

Raj laughed and gladly accepted the soda.

Raj confessional: Wow… AHAHAHA. He's a little confused, but he's got the spirit. He's a real snow owl! HOOT! HOOT! Wow, we're really recruiting more eh? Millie and Zee hooting? *laughs*

After a few more minutes of silent reading among the Panthers, absorbing everybody's side of the story, Wayne had come up with an answer. "Jonesy stole the purse! It's Jonesy!" he boomed confidently.

Wayne was so sure of his answer he was not prepared to be immediately challenged by Julia who glanced at him incredulously. "Jonesy? Jonesy?! You mean Jude right?" she asked, looking around at her other teammates to back her up.

"NO. JONESY!" Wayne repeated a little too loudly.

"A – are you sure?" Julia frowned at the paper. "I thought it was Jude. Besides, he's speaking in bro language. Ew. That's a major red flag."

Chase threw up his hands and laughed hysterically. "See? What did I tell you? After all this time, you two are debating between two GUYS!"

Julia rolled her eyes. She was not quite ready to admit Chase had somehow been right.

Ripper flung his hands to his sides. "OK, I think it's pretty clear you guys don't know what you're doing. Let me solve it!" He was going to solve this problem by himself because that was what alpha males did. He reached for the paper but once again Axel was not willing to give him anything.

"Please, if we give this paper to you, you might end up eating it like you did the cupcakes," she snorted. She was still holding a slight grudge from the baking challenge and how the Trout Trio had ruined their chances of winning.

"OK look I'm not the dimmest bulb in the room, but even I wouldn't do something that stupid! Give it!" Ripper growled.

"Oh yeah? Take it from me then… if you can," Axel raised her eyebrows tauntingly.

"Guys –" Wayne began to interrupt their childish argument but it was too late. Now Axel and Ripper were engaged in a tugging match for the paper. They were pulling back and forth on it. It was stretching, stretching, stretching until –

VVVVVVVVRRRRRRIIIIIIPPPPPPPP!

What had been a single sheet of paper before ripped cleanly in half. Axel and Ripper blinked stupidly as they looked at each other holding a piece.

"Great… that's just WONDERFUL…" Julia said sulkily, leaning on one arm with a bored expression. Though she had led the baking challenge as baking was her wheelhouse, she had little desire to lead this intellectual puzzle.

"AGH!" Axel said furiously. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE YOU BIG BLOB OF COOKIE DOUGH?"

"ME?! YOU'RE THE ONE WHO RIPPED IT!" Ripper protested.

Priya and Caleb briefly looked up at the argument ensuing between Ripper and Axel, both of whom were making lots of noise with their constant bickering.

"You're right Courtney, people don't change," Emily smirked.

"Will you two SHUT UP?" MK yelled across the courtroom as she held her ears shut in annoyance. Emma's brow furrowed as she tried to avoid looking over at the disturbance. She was concentrating on the problem in front of her as best as she could until –

All of a sudden, Emma gasped in excitement. She had just found a glaringly obvious contradiction. "HERE! Look at what Nikki's saying!" she pointed excitedly at the paper as her teammates leaned in.

"(10) and (12) are basically saying the same thing. They can't be a truth and a lie at the same time, which means they're both truths," Emma said happily.

Caleb squinted at (10). "I am not guilty" he said out loud. He looked over at (12). "Jonesy is lying when he says I stole the purse." Emma was right! "Major breakthrough Emma!" Caleb cheered. "So then… if (11) is false…Jen didn't do it…OK… we can cross her off the list of suspects."

"That means Jonesy is lying about Nikki stealing, meaning (1) and (2) are true. Jonesy didn't steal the purse either…" Priya continued the chain of reasoning. They were gaining momentum now, crossing out more and more suspects.

"Jude also be lying with (9). That means (7) and (8) are true! Jude is out too," Damien whooped.

"Nikki, Jen, Jonesy, Jude, didn't take it. That means it's Caitlyn," MK finished. She rolled her eyes. "Of course the spoiled little princess stole it."

"We should probably check to see if it makes sense," Emma said excitedly, dropping her voice to a whisper. She did not want the other team to hear them even though they were on opposite sides of the courtroom.

Emma used her finger to go through the main points. "(8) is true which means (15) is a lie. (13) is true and since Jen has two truths and a lie just like every other kid (14) is true. Caitlyn is guilty! DONE!" She pushed her hair out of her eyes and sat back laughing in relief. Now they just had to communicate this idea in writing to Raj.

"YES!" Caleb fist-bumped Damien.

"Alright who wants to write all of that down for Raj on this paper?" MK held up the blank sheet and the pen.

"Who got the neatest handwriting here? I already know it ain't me…" Damien said, reddening slightly. He would rather not have his teammates know about his messy scrawl.

Mk shrugged and flipped over the problem sheet. "Only one way to find out… everyone write here, 'MK is the greatest.' Most legible gets to write the cheat sheet."

"I think I'll just write my own name thanks…" Priya said slowly.

"Fine… everyone write down their own full name…" MK began to write her full name before passing the pen to Damien. The pen began making its way around the team from Damien to Emma to Priya and finally to Caleb. After Caleb finished, they all gathered their heads around the paper to compare each other's handwriting.

Mary Kate Noguchi

Damien Nyarko

Emma Mackenzie Patterson

Priya Bella Anand

Caleb Deltois

Immediately, they all agreed some were not going to be chosen.

"Well… I think me and Damien are out of the running," Caleb said, scratching his head awkwardly.

"Surprise, surprise. Girls have neater handwriting than boys… who would've known?" Damien mumbled, highly embarrassed because Emma and Priya were giggling a little too much.

"Well I like Priya's handwriting," Emma pointed to Priya's neat American-typewriter-style letters.

"Priya it is," Damien agreed.

"Alright Priya, go for it!" Caleb cheered, handing Priya the pen and giving her a thumbs-up.

Priya took the pen, blushing slightly, and began writing while the rest of her team clapped their hands simultaneously, making sure to make as much noise as they could.

"AYYYYYYY PRIYAAAAA," they chanted. Damien and Caleb were banging the table with their fists. Priya laughed nervously. She knew why they were doing this but she also didn't want them to get too carried away. She didn't want her hand to accidentally slip across the page. "Guys, calm down!" she giggled, briefly glancing over at the Panthers' table to see their reactions.

Chase and Ripper stared sour-faced at the Orangutans' obnoxious celebrations. Axel was doing her best to focus on the sheet in front of her but her eyes were not moving and it was clear she was thinking of the Orangutans. Julia twirled her hair between her fingers and stared sulkily at the window, as if she wished she were anywhere but here.

"45 minutes left!" Chris announced.

"That's gotta be a record," Chef whistled impressed. "Finished 45 minutes early and they have all that time to high-five!"

Courtney gave an approving smile. She was confident the Orangutans had not only finished first, but that they had also gotten the answer right.

Chase turned around and ruffled his hair in a stressed manner. "I should have paid more attention in math class…. or any class really…" he mumbled.

"Ugh it's so over….," Julia played with her hair in agitation.

Wayne stared at his team incredulously. He could not believe they were all giving up when they still had 45 minutes of play time! And their attitudes…. It was the attitude of quitters! Wayne clapped his hands three times to get their attention.

"Panthers, listen up," he said loudly. "It's not over yet. We can still do this!" He punched his fist into his hand determined.

Julia scoffed. "Oh really? It's been 15 minutes and we've barely made any progress. You do realize we have to not only solve it, but write our thoughts out in a way so that Zee of all people will understand it? We're so done. I'm just glad I'm beautiful because school is obviously not for me."

"Fine! If you wanna quit like a little buttknuckle, go ahead! But I'm going to do my best even if I don't get it. Because SNOW OWLS NEVER QUIT. HOOT! HOOT!" Wayne seized the paper from Axel's hand and walked over to the far end of the table, away from his teammates who were still glaring at the Orangutans.

Julia, however cast him an anxious look behind his back.

Julia confessional: *scoffs* Did he really just use my signature word against me?

Wayne had plenty of experience with his opponents taunting him on the ice. The key was to not let them get to you and focus on the game, even if you were down in points. Even if the comeback seemed impossible…

Wayne's brow furrowed. He had expected Ripper, Chase and Axel to quit but he thought Julia would at least try her best. Didn't she want to win? Maybe Wayne was wrong about her winning attitude…

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and started reading Jonesy's points once again.

Wayne confessional: Ain't gonna lie. I'm disappointed in Jules. I thought she was tougher than that… But now it's up to me to solve this tricky puzzle! I'm trying to translate this to hockey terms but it's sliiiiightly challenging.

*scratches back of head* I thought if I just changed Jonesy to GORDIE HOWE things would be easier but apparently not!

Emma confessional: Wow, we finished early and with 45 minutes left! But I think it's time to gloat! *winks*

Emma skipped gleefully to the judges, stopping right in front of Courtney. "Hey… there aren't any rules against taunting the other team are there?" she asked earnestly.

"Nope," Courtney smiled. "Trash talk and banter are completely legal here. I did it myself in my Total Drama days… actually, I still do…"

Emma laughed and gave a thumbs-up before turning around and heading back to her teammates to share this exciting news.

As Wayne re-read Jonesy's line for the 43rd time, he temporarily got distracted by Emma's voice which echoed across the room. "How's it going guys?" she asked sassily.

Axel looked up from her rudimentary activity of counting how many scratch marks the table had. "We're doing just fine. Get out of here!" she yelled back.

"Reeeeeally?" MK put her hands on her hips. "Who's carrying your team? Ripper or Julia? That's how you KNOW it's bad."

"SHUT UP NERDS!" Ripper pointed a harsh finger towards the Orangutans' smirking faces.

"Come on guys. Clock's-a-ticking and you're still not done?" Caleb clicked his tongue cheekily. "We're just gonna high five and chill!" Caleb and Damien exchanged loud high-fives which reverberated across the entire room.

Axel, Ripper and Chase's eyes twitched in annoyance.

Axel confessional: *grasps hair angrily* There is nothing more obnoxious than a bunch of smart BRATS bragging about how SMART they are. HARVARD HOOLIGANS! *punches the air*

Caleb confessional: *flexes bicep* We have a whole all-star line-up of brainiacs. That other team doesn't stand a chance!

Julia raised her head from the table. She had almost dozed off. "Hey, if you don't mind…why don't we compare answers? I bet you guys are wrong but I would love to hear your logic just so I can dissect it!" she clapped her hands happily, gesturing for them to shout out their answer.

"Nice try, but we're not giving away anything," MK smirked. "Our advice? USE YOUR BRAINS AND THINK!"

Emma and Caleb stuck their tongues out.

A muscle twitched underneath Julia's eye.

"We're trying but you guys have all the smart people!" Chase retorted without thinking. At this brutally honest remark, his teammates all looked at him offended. Ripper and Axel were giving Chase eye-daggers and Julia opened her mouth dramatically.

Chase was taken aback and he did his best to recover. "Wha – ? I'm not saying we're dumb guys! I'm just saying they have all the academic peop – IT'S JONESY OR JUDE RIGHT?" he said desperately as he collapsed to the floor on his knees begging for confirmation.

The Orangutans paused for a few seconds. Then –

"AHAHAHAHAHHHHAHAHAH!" they all burst out laughing. Chase blinked stupidly. Why were they laughing? Was it because he was so horribly wrong? Or was it because they were going to laugh at him regardless of what he said to try and trick him?

Chase fake-laughed, not really knowing what was going on, but then his eyes fell on Emma's face and a wave of realization hit him. Instantly, he knew her reaction was genuine. How many times had he seen her laugh like that before? That meant… Jonesy and Jude did not steal the purse!

Chase confessional: *blinks amazed as he tries to process what he just saw* Whoa, maybe it's not Jonesy or Jude… I totally planned that… well now we at least know who it's NOT!

"Whatever!" Chase bellowed and he quickly motioned towards his team to huddle in.

"Guys, it's not a guy," he whispered aggressively. "Did you see their reaction?"

"Oh yeah?" Julia raised an eyebrow doubtfully. "How do you know they're not just laughing at every option we say to throw us off?" she hissed.

Chase shook his head furiously. "Trust me, I know Emma. That was a genuine reaction. She was laughing like that because my answer was so unbelievably stupid to her. That means I must be wrong!"

Julia hesitated. On the one hand, nobody here knew Emma better than Chase. On the other, it was Chase they were talking about. She couldn't believe they had ended up in a situation where they had to trust Chase but time was running out and desperate moves had to be made.

Julia firmly grasped Chase's shoulder. "You're sure?" she asked in a serious tone, staring right into his eyes. Julia wanted him to realize he had to be absolutely sure of this before they proceeded.

"Positive," Chase swiftly replied.

"OK… so two down… three to go…someone tell Wayne that," Axel said.

"I'll do it," Julia volunteered, standing up to head over to the far end of the table where Wayne was visibly agitated. He had taken his hat off and was whispering to himself aggressively.

Wayne was in the middle of reading Jude's statement with a confused expression when Julia sat down next to him.

"How's it going?" she asked curiously, leaning with one hand over her head trying to see how much progress Wayne had made in his time alone.

"Not. Good," Wayne replied, fanning himself in frustration. Being next to the window with the sun beaming down over his head was making him extremely sweaty. He looked over at the judges' table where there lay a nice big jug of ice-cold lemonade and licked his lips, longing for a glass.

"Well, according to Chase, it's not Jonesy or Jude," Julia said in a low voice.

Wayne looked over at Julia mind blown. "A – are you sure?" he looked down at the paper once more appalled. Well… that certainly helped! This meant he only had to focus on the other three alibis.

Julia shrugged. "Hey, he seems pretty convinced so let's just roll with it and see what works."

"I guess we were both wrong then, huh Sterling?" Wayne chuckled to himself.

Julia leaned in closer until her hair fell over Wayne's shoulder. She narrowed her eyes as she began to read Caitlyn's prompts.

Wayne looked at her startled. "What are you doing?" he asked baffled.

Julia rolled her eyes. "What does it look like? I'm helping you!" she spat. "Now that we crossed out two people, it should be much easier."

"Welcome back teammate!" Wayne cheered. Both Wayne and Julia continued to stare hardly at the paper in concentration.

Julia's brow furrowed as she scanned Nikki's statements. Two minutes later, she had noticed something odd… Julia grabbed Wayne's arm with one hand while she pointed at the paper with the other.

"Wait I just realised something. Look at what Nikki's saying," Julia whispered.

Wayne looked at Julia puzzled. Had she really found something? Wayne stared at the paper with a blank expression. "Yeah?..." Wayne said skeptically.

Julia sighed. She would have to spell it out for him. "(10) and (12) can't both be true and false. They're both true meaning (11) is false."

Wayne let out a giant gasp. "OHHHHHH," he boomed as he realized what Julia was saying. Axel, Chase and Ripper suddenly turned around.

"Did you solve it?" Axel asked excitedly.

"He'd better. Why else would he be shouting like he just found Oreos?" Ripper mumbled.

"I see!" Wayne said, slightly out of breath. "So if Jen and Nikki didn't do it… and we know that Jonesy and Jude also didn't do it… then… it's Caitlyn!"

"Wow you are so smart. I only did like 90% of the work for you," Julia said sarcastically.

"Hey, we still gotta write all that down!" Wayne said ignoring her. "Who wants to write?" he reached for the envelope and the pen.

"I mean first we gotta check if Jonesy and Jude are actually cleared. We kind of just assumed they were innocent," Julia said irritated as she looked down at Jonesy's statements once again. "I'll check. The rest of you decide who's writing," Julia barked to her team.

"Well who has the best handwriting here?" Chase looked at his teammates. When no one volunteered, he had a funny feeling they were all like him and that their writing looked like pure chicken scratch.

"OK, how about this? Everyone write down 'GO SNOW OWLS!' and then we'll compare!" Wayne suggested.

"I think I'll just write down my own name thanks…" Axel said slowly. "Got it? Everyone, write your full name down on this paper."

"Why our full name?" Ripper grunted, reddening slightly. "I think my first name is good enough!"

"IT'S JUST SO WE HAVE MORE LETTERS TO COMPARE, STOP YOUR BELLY ACHING MAN!" Axel hissed.

"FINE!"

Axel wrote her name down before passing it on to Wayne who passed it to Ripper and finally to Chase. The four of them stared down and immediately the boys began to laugh hysterically while Axel gazed in shock, horrified at what she was seeing. It was almost as if the writing got messier and less legible as they went down the page.

In fact, the best handwriting objectively belonged to Axel because at least some of the letters were legible. Wayne's looked like a toddler had just begun to learn how to write, Ripper's looked more like messy shapes than actual English and the only reason Axel could tell what Chase wrote was because she already knew his last name. If she hadn't, she would never have been able to tell what it said.

Axella Trelles

Wayne Erikson Grezetski

Ripper Ruffalo

Chase Maxwell Peralta

"Ripper, dude!" Chase banged the table with tears in his eyes. "What does that even say?"

"Hey! It can't be that bad if my teachers seem to understand me pretty well," Ripper retorted. "What does yours say?"

"Did you guys do this on purpose so that you wouldn't have to write?" Axel hissed agitated.

"I swear that's how I write all the time," Chase chuckled, putting his hands up innocently.

"Same," Wayne guffawed.

Axel sighed. She was going to have to take one for the team… Unless…?

"Yup, we're all good," Julia announced carrying the problem paper between her fingers. "So, who's writing?"

"Who do you think?" Axel showed Julia the paper.

Julia's jaw dropped as she tried to comprehend what she was seeing. "Seriously?!" she hissed. "There's no way you three actually write like that. UGH! Axel, it's all you!"

"A – actually Julia," Axel said nervously because the way she had accused her earlier this morning was still fresh in her memory. "I was wondering i – if your writing was any better?" Axel gave a cheeky smile.

Julia blew steam from her nose angrily.

"Do I have to do everything around here?" Julia snapped. She felt she had carried the team enough for today and was not in the mood to write.

"You do have the prettiest handwriting though, I'm sure," Axel cooed.

Julia narrowed her eyes. "Fine!" she said abruptly, snatching the pen from Chase's hand a little more aggressively than usual. He leapt back frightened. "I'll write. If we lose today though, no one is allowed to vote for me, got it?"

"Yeah, yeah whatever. Just get on with it!" Ripper ordered.

Julia rolled her eyes as she sat back down irritated and proceeded to start writing notes for Zee.

"So… Courtney, whatcha been up to?" Chris asked.

"I graduated top of my undergraduate class from Cambridge, did my masters at Stanford, passed my bar exam with flying colours, and now I'm a full-time judge in my district," Courtney replied proudly. It had been a rough 10 years but she had managed to get through it. All of those stressful cases, sleepless nights and internships had been worth it.

"That's right… if I recall… you're in charge of the Pickering riding area? Gotta remember to avoid that place…." Chris muttered. He had the funny feeling Courtney would not go easy on him if she was handling his case.

Courtney snorted. "Please, if you ever came up before me, you'd be in bars for life for your atrocious crimes…." This was the truth. Emily stifled a giggle.

"Courtney! Can't I get a pass? We go way back!" Chris said slightly hurt.

"Very funny. You think you can bribe me with memories? I'm not as corrupt as you want me to be!" she growled.

Desperate to talk about something else other than Chris' shady past, Chef swooped in.

"Let's change the subject. How's Duncan?" Chef interjected.

"What?" Courtney said thunderstruck both at the sudden change in conversation and the particular topic they had steered into.

"You two married yet?" Chef goaded.

Courtney blew steam from her nose and slammed her cup on the table, spilling a generous amount of lemonade. "TCHA! As if! I'd rather prosecute him then have him put a ring on me," she snapped.

"I do see a ring though girl! Congratulations!" Chef marvelled, staring stunned at the big diamond ring on Courtney's right ring finger. He had just noticed it. Courtney blushed and wiggled her ring around for them all to see.

"Who's that from? Sco – " Chris began but Courtney cut him off with an abrupt reply.

"A cute boy I met at Cambridge. He treats me like I'm the Queen! Name's Emmanuel. He's from Romania," Courtney sighed into her hand and stared at her ring dreamily.

Chris frowned. Who even was this Emmanuel kid? "Fascinating…" he said sarcastically. "It should've been Scott but whatever…"

Chef's ears flapped at these words and he looked at Chris incredulously. "Scott? You mean Duncan right?"

"No, I meant Scott…" Chris replied slowly, clearly seeing that this conversation was heading down the same path as 'Heather-Julia'.

Chef gave a fake laugh. "Chris man, wasn't you gushing about Gen 1 kids just a few days ago? Now you like Gen 2?"

"Are you dumb?" Chris retorted. "All I'm saying is Scottney is much better than the toxic Duncney! Remember the love triangle disaster?"

Courtney frowned. That's strange and extremely out of character for him she thought suspiciously. She thought Chris of all people would've loved the love triangle fiasco simply due to all the drama it had brought. But apparently this was not the case… perhaps he was just trying to show her a new side of him. Courtney, however, was not buying it. He was clearly putting on an act.

BANG!

Chef slammed his fist down on the table and Courtney leapt off of her seat. "DUNCAN!" he roared.

"SCOTT!" Chris spat, red-faced.

"DUNCAN!"

"SCOTT!"

"DUNCAN!"

"SCOTT!"

BANG!

"ORDER!" Courtney shouted as she banged the table with her hammer.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked up.

Courtney looked down startled. "Oh no, not you guys…. keep doing what you're doing. I meant order for these two boneheads over here," Courtney announced to the campers as she pointed to Chris and Chef's embarrassed faces.

"Ohhh," everyone said in unison as they turned back to their work.

Courtney looked at Chris and Chef intensely. "Seriously you two. I'm so over the two guys who I fell slightly heads over heels for when I was just a stupid emotional teen. I've done my work, focused on my career and now I have a soon-to-be husband so I would really appreciate it if you stop telling me to get with Duncan and Scott. I'm – so – over – them."

"Erm, anyways…" Chris said awkwardly. "Em, I think it's time to check up on Raj and Zee next door. Give them their attires."

Emily nodded and stood up, holding identical beige collared dress shirts, navy dress pants and jet-black blazers. She swiftly exited the main room and opened the door which lead to the next room.

As the door to their room creaked, Raj and Zee turned their heads. Raj's heart was thumping. So it was finally time…

"Um… I already graduated high school," Zee said slowly, wondering what the fancy attire was for. Were they going to a wedding?

Emily rolled her eyes. "Which is a miracle because seriously, how did that happen?" she muttered. "No but for real, these are just your suits for when you present your case."

"Is it time? We don't even have the envelopes yet!" Raj said panicking as a lump formed in his throat.

"Relax. You still have 30 minutes. I just brought you your outfits so you can change into them early. The envelopes will arrive in about 25 minutes. Get changing," Emily barked as Raj and Zee flinched.

"Five minutes left!" Chris announced.

Priya went up to give Emily their red envelope. Though they had finished way earlier, they had been holding on to the envelope until the last minute in case anybody from the Panthers tried to take a peek. Julia also went up with her teams' envelope.

As the two walked up to Emily side-by-side, they glared at each other from the corners of their eyes. It was Priya's first time being alone with Julia ever since the horror challenge, in which they had had a very personal fight. Though she had lost that one, Priya hoped to come out on top today.

"Ready to lose again Priya?" Julia whispered slyly from the corner of her mouth.

"Face it Julia, you've already lost," Priya smiled.

Julia narrowed her eyes. "We'll see about that…" she said coldly.

Finally, they each passed their envelopes to Emily's waiting hands. She disappeared into the room next door to give these envelopes to Raj and Zee.

As soon as the door burst open, Raj adjusted his collar nervously. Now the envelopes were here! He could see them in Emily's hands.

"Remember, no opening them until you present the case," she winked.

"Wait… not even a peek?" Raj said frightened. He had completely forgotten that the whole point of this challenge was to go in blind and unprepared. The first time he would ever see the contents of the envelope would be when he was presenting! He desperately hoped he would not fumble the puck and read their notes properly. Zee took a carefree sip of his soda again as if this news did not bother him in the slightest.

"Nope," Emily laughed. "You're just going to have to wing it. Dad thought it would be funnier that way." Emily stood with Raj and Zee for another five minutes silently, waiting for the timer on her phone to go off. Finally, in what seemed to be too soon for Raj's liking, it went off.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"Alright, it's go time!" she said happily, nodding at them both. She opened the doors and gestured for them to follow her to the other room where everybody else was waiting.

Raj took a deep breath and gave Zee one last look. "Good luck Zee! And… thanks for making me feel better!" he said happily.

Zee smiled back at Raj and winked. "Anytime brah!"

CLACK! CLACK! CLACK!

Their dress shoes echoed across the floor as they walked side-by-side apprehensively. As they walked into the main room, they noticed their teammates were all sitting at benches. The Orangutans and Panthers both cheered noisily for their presenters as they continued to walk to the benches at the very front.

BANG!

Chef sealed the doors shut and now it was time for the presentations to begin.

"And… up first for the Orangutans… it's… Raaaaaaaaaaj!" Chris announced dramatically as if he were commentating on a football match instead of a court case. The Orangutans cheered and clapped for Raj who made his way to the podium nervously. His hands kept shaking and slipping as he continuously adjusted his collar and the red embossed envelope.

"HOOT! HOOT!" Wayne whooped behind Raj's back. Raj gave a little smile. With Zee's pep talk and his best friend and teammates cheering him on, Raj felt a lot more comfortable in his suit which was slightly too small for him. His chest was practically bursting out.

Raj confessional: *puts on a serious, game-face* I got one shot. Time to make it count.

Raj took a deep breath, exhaled, then made his way to the microphone. He tried to ignore the four judges staring down at him from their high chairs rather intimidatingly. A deep breath and he was off.

"Your honour, my name is Rajesh Kapoor and today I will be presenting our teams' solution to the thief-purse mystery," he started confidently. He briefly eyed the clock which had begun counting down three minutes.

3:00… 2:59… 2:58…

Ignore the clock and focus on the game Raj told himself. "Our verdict? Caitlyn is guilty!" he boomed, cutting straight to the chase.

At this theatrical reveal, loud gasps were elicited from Chase and Ripper. The answer was clearly a surprise to them. Julia and Wayne briefly looked at each other smiling as they fist-bumped. So they had gotten the answer correct, at the very least.

"The first clue comes from Nikki's statements," Raj droned on, trying to ignore the hot sun shining down on the back of his sweaty neck. "Statements (10) and (12) are merely saying the same thing meaning statement (11) must be false. That means –"

"Sorry, wait!" Courtney cut him off sharply.

Raj blinked and stopped talking. He looked up at Courtney slightly scared. Had he already screwed up? What was going on? A lump had formed in his throat as he mentally prepared to be chewed up and spit out by the intimidating Courtney.

"I just wish to ask… why is that? Why must (11) be false?" Courtney asked suspiciously. She really wanted to test these kids, scrutinise every little detail to make sure they understood what they were talking about.

Raj briefly glanced down at his notes before responding promptly, "Because logically a statement cannot both be true and false meaning (10) and (12) are both truths since each child admitted to telling two truths and one lie."

"Excellent! Carry on," Courtney smiled, satisfied.

The Orangutans cheered silently. Each of them was immensely proud of Raj for performing under pressure. Being nitpicked by Courtney was no easy task. Unsurprisingly, Wayne found himself cheering for Raj as well.

"Nice one Rajie!" he whispered happily though his smile faded when he saw Julia looking at him with disgust. "What?..." he asked, genuinely wondering what she thought was so wrong about cheering on his best friend.

Julia did not respond and only rolled her eyes. Unlike Wayne, she was not amused that Raj was doing well. She had chosen him, expecting him to be an easy target because of how defeated he had looked before… what had happened in that other room with Zee? Whatever it was, she was deeply furious that Raj's mood had done a 180.

"Since (10) and (12) are truths, Nikki did not do it. This means (3) is false so (1) and (2) are automatically true. Jonesy is also cleared," Raj continued.

Courtney nodded. While Chris, Emily and Chef were trying to follow along with the problem sheet in front of them, Courtney had already memorized each statement and the corresponding number so she was able to follow Raj's logic without burying her nose in a piece of paper.

"And since (11) is false as we said before Jen is also innocent."

Caleb nudged Priya affectionately. "Great work Priya! He's on a roll! You must've put some pretty good notes!" he whispered.

Priya blushed and put her hands to her mouth to stop giggling so much.

"Keep it up Raj!" Emma whispered excitedly.

"Finally, based on statement (9) which is false because we have already cleared Nikki, it means (7) and (8) are true. Jude is clear as well."

Chris gave an obnoxiously loud yawn as he took a noisy sip of lemonade. He was feeling slightly drowsy. It had been a long day. Courtney cast Chris a disgusted side-eye.

"Therefore, by process of elimination, Jonesy, Nikki, Jude and Jen have been cleared. This leaves Caitlyn, the… spoiled…. princess… b*tch…?" Raj faltered as he brought the paper to his face and squinted his eyes to make sure he was reading that right.

Priya's jaw dropped. When did that get in there?

MK smirked.

MK confessional: *points to herself proudly* Yeah, I did that!

"To… uh…. be the one to… steal the purse," he concluded strongly.

RING! RING!

And with that, the timer that had read 3:00 before was now at 0:00.

As his teammates all stood up and loudly applauded, Raj sighed in relief, glad that it was all over. And from the approving looks on Courtney's and Emily's faces, he had a strong feeling he had done his part.

"Well done!" Courtney nodded. "You may take a seat Mr. Rajesh Kapoor."

Raj bowed and skipped happily back to his seat, spreading his arms along the back of the bench as he gave Zee a thumbs-up.

"Excellent!" Zee said, genuinely happy for his friend.

"And now recognizing the gentleman from the Panthers, Mr. Hezekias Pancho," Courtney said courteously. Nichelle, Axel and Julia clapped their hands.

"HOOT! HOOT!" Wayne and Raj cheered.

"You got this buddy!" Chase said, leaning forwards to clap Zee on his back.

"Squash em with your big brain argument!" Ripper roared.

Zee chuckled and nodded, as he stood up and pocketed the envelope into his pants pockets. He did not feel the need to use it.

Julia's eyes widened. She had not failed to notice Zee shoving the envelope with her handy notes into his pocket… almost as if he didn't intend to use it… but that was ludicrous!

"Zee, WAIT!" she called out desperately. "Why are you putting the envel – "

Zee waved her off with a jovial hand wave as he walked up to the podium with a little rhythm to his stride. "Don't worry about it Julia. It's all good!" he said cheerfully.

Julia scowled. Things were absolutely not good. He was going to screw things up for the team, she knew it…

Zee stood before the judges and proceeded to present his argument with a commanding voice. "Your honor, I would like to start off by saying that nobody is perfect. We've all made mistakes in our lives, things that we deeply regret…"

The clock had begun counting down. 3:00… 2:59…2:58…

"What is he babbling about?!" Julia hissed in Wayne's ear, staring at Zee lividly.

"I think it's just a prologue, y'know before we get to the meat and potatoes of the speech…" he replied with a little smile.

Julia hesitated. For some reason, she did not think this was true at all and that Zee was about to go off on a wild tangent but she couldn't interrupt him now. Those were the rules. It was all Zee from here…

"So today you wanted to find out who is guilty? I ask you… Why?" Zee asked harshly to the judges with a manic glint in his eye.

Courtney blew her nose aggressively. "Seriously? Just get on with it!"

Zee shook his head. "Nuh-uh. No way hombre. This is very important. Instead of finding out who stole the purse, I think we should approach from a more pathetic view."

"EM-pathetic," Julia whispered through gritted teeth.

"Sorry, I meant polenta view," Zee corrected himself. "We need to look at their surroundings, their environment to understand why people act the way they do and why they do bad things. Because, bad environments and bad homes can shape bad people."

Courtney snorted at what she perceived to be a stupid stoner who had somehow stumbled his way into court. His arguments were weak and could be dismantled very easily. "Very insightful. They can also create good people. I mean, I can literally give you a list of accomplished CEOs who grew up in poverty and homelessness!" she snapped.

Zee immediately retorted, pointing a cocky finger at Courtney as he continued rambling. He enjoyed the thrill of squaring up with a lawyer who had more experience than him. "But for some people, it's not that easy! Which brings me to my point. The point it, it doesn't matter who stole the purse. Because they may have been doing it to feed their family or because they thought it was the right thing to do!"

Courtney snorted again and rolled her eyes. "And your proof is…? You can't just make those assumptions. Where in the question does it say 'This person is broke and on the brink of starvation so they need to steal Mrs. Pertsch's purse in order to make ends meet?' "

"It doesn't but we can safely assume if an elementary kid is stealing a purse, he must want what's inside of it and that would be cash," Zee rebutted. "Cash to buy some food!" he turned around to his teammates who were all staring at him in horror.

Zee chuckled. Why did they all look so worried? He was doing a great job going back and forth with Courtney the lawyer.

"Or they just don't have morals. Or a basic understanding of law," Courtney grumbled.

"And how bout' food stamps? Food banks? Those are always an option," Chef added.

"The kid was feeling lost and helpless. And you wanna know why? Because they're oppressed. You wanna know who's doing the oppressing? YOU GUYS!" Zee's voice suddenly rose tenfold and he pointed an accusing finger dramatically at each of the judges.

The Panthers, Orangutans and judges all briefly jumped out of their seats in shock.

Benches scraped noisily as Zee took a dramatic step forward. "Putting children in jail or Juvie just because of one mistake? YOU'RE THE ESTABLISHMENT! THE COURTS ARE PART OF THE ESTABLISHMENT, THEY LOCK PEOPLE AWAY FOR NO REASON AND OFFER LITTLE TO NO SYMPATHY FOR THE VICTIM'S FAMILIES. WHICH IS WHY – "

"But – " Courtney protested.

By this point, Julia had buried her face in her hands. She was mentally preparing to walk to the elimination ceremony tonight. From the moment Zee had opened his mouth and refused to look at the contents of the envelope, Julia knew it was over yet part of her had desperately hoped for Zee to stick to the script. What he was doing was beyond anything she could ever have imagined. How is he this stupid? she raged.

"We're not going to send Michael or Little Timmy to jail. WE'RE SENDING ALL OF YOU TO JAIL! WITH NO PAROLE OR BAIL!" Zee looked up fiercely at the judges.

At these words, Chase and Ripper stood up and clapped loudly. Meanwhile, Wayne was cry-laughing into his hands as he buried his face. All that work for nothing! Axel and the Orangutans could do nothing but stare at Zee open-mouthed in pure shock.

Zee confessional: Man, did I kill it or whaaaatt? I'm a voice for the voiceless!

Courtney stared at Zee, trying to comprehend if she had finally found someone with lower IQ than Lindsay. How was this even possible?

Courtney was waiting for the punchline, for Zee to say it was all a joke and that he would present a legitimate argument but… it did not come. And when Courtney realized this man, Zee, was serious, she slammed her hammer down. "Who's Michael? Little Timmy? Please stick to the names given in the original case!" she spat.

"Are you seriously trying to lock the judges up?" Emily asked in disbelief.

"You can't do that," Chris said slightly nervously. He was getting flashbacks of prison.

"FURTHER PROOF OF CORRUPTION IN THIS COUNTRY!" Zee yelled passionately. In his own mind, he was a legend fighting to take back Canada from the corrupt courts. Which is why he walked over to his side, ripped the Canadian flag off of the wall and draped it around his shoulders like a cape.

As he stood there hugging his Canadian flag cape tightly, Courtney snorted. Who was this delusional superhero? He was no Captain Alberta, that's for sure…

Another BANG! from the hammer.

"ORDER!" Courtney thundered. "It's clear to me that we're talking to a literal human vegetable. I hereby dismiss him out of the courtroom for disorderly conduct. Sentenced to the dock of shame. Case closed."

"Nice try Courtney, you're a judge but you can't decide who goes to the dock," Chris smiled. This was the feisty attitude he always loved to see. "That power is still in the hands of the campers. We're a democracy you know… but… with that being said… I think we have an obvious winner here. To make sure, my fellow judges and I will just discuss it for a minute – "

"No need to. Anybody with two neurons touching knows who won today's challenge," Courtney interjected.

"Yeah, you're right…THE ORANGUTANS!" Chris declared, much to nobody's surprise. The Orangutans all stood up and hugged Raj who was crying tears of joy. He hoped Bowie was watching him. Raj had to fulfill Bowie's promise… he had to win… and today had been a great day.

Raj confessional: *looks up happily* Wow. I SURVIVED COURT-NEY! I'M FREEEEEEE!

"Panthers, sucks to be you again," Chris said holding back a laugh. "Second elimination in a row?! You know what that means, it's time to vote your third player out!"

Julia swore and buried her head into her hands. Wayne looked down at her, defeated. Axel, Chase and Ripper stared blankly at Zee who gave them all a hearty thumbs-up.

7:26 pm

[Soundtrack 1]

Wayne, Julia and Axel seated themselves on stumps closest to the front while Trout Trio hung out at the back.

"Panthers… second time in a row for you… not good… who will it be this time? There were certainly lots of poor performances today…" Chris said, turning his head towards Chef.

"RIPPER!" Chef boomed.

"What did I do this time?" Ripper asked annoyed.

"You were talking in circles, going all over the place confusing the crap out of your teammates. If it weren't for your bumbling obnoxious self, maybe your team could have made more progress sooner!"

"AXEL! Arguing with Ripper and even tearing up the sheet in half was a big blow to your team. Your temper got the better of you today again."

Axel bowed her head ashamed.

"CHASE!"

"Whaaat?" Chase asked confused on what he had done wrong today.

"I just find it stupid how you kept assuming it was a guy with zero evidence. Though you do get bonus points for extracting useful information by correctly interpreting Emma's reaction."

Chase confessional: *points to himself like a rock star* That's right! If it wasn't for me, we wouldn't have made much progress with the puzzle. MVP-ERALTA!

"And ZEE! Failing to present even a half-decent argument for your team, you just rambled on about some imaginary sob story and even tried to kick the judges out of their own courthouse, the nerve you got…" Chef scowled.

Zee smiled as he massaged the Canadian flag which he was still wearing proudly on his shoulders.

Chris stepped forward. "And the marshmallows go to…

…Wayne…

…Julia…

…Chase…

…Ripper…

You are all safe."

They all caught their marshmallows, grateful to survive yet another elimination ceremony. Julia's eyes widened slightly as she looked at Axel. Though she knew how powerful Trout Trio was on this team, surely even Chase and Ripper would realize just how badly Zee had messed up today?

Regardless, Julia was feeling confident. At worst, it would be a draw. She and Wayne had already discussed voting for Zee before this. Speaking of Zee, he continued to stare at Chris calmly, the flag now rustling along his backside as a slight evening wind kicked in.

"Axel and Zee, one of you is about to be sentenced to Playa des Losers! The final marshmallow goes to…

Axel squeezed her hands into fists as her foot trembled. Zee was still maintaining a laid-back expression.

"AXEL!"

Axel sighed gratefully as Emily tossed her the last marshmallow. Julia gave Axel a small wink.

"WHAT?! NOOOOOOOO!" Chase and Ripper sank to the floor on their knees.

"Aw man…." Zee's shoulders drooped in disappointment. How could they vote off the only man who was single-handedly fighting to save Canada?

Zee stood up and raised his fist into the evening sky, the flames of the bonfire casting a striking shadow of the soda lord. "No harsh feelings brahs! I'm leaving here a martyr. I have no regrets. I PROMISE WE'LL GET JUSTICE ONE DAY!"

"What is he talking about? Is he serious?" Chef stared at Zee concerned.

"Dude.. .we're not in court anymore," Chris said, slightly annoyed. "You can drop the whole court charade. Pack up your sodas and follow me!"

"Aw man…" Zee said disappointed as he hung his head. What did Chris mean by 'charade?' This was not an act. This was very real to him!

"Cya buddy!" Chase snivelled though no tears were coming from his eyes. He was just being dramatic.

"Take care dude," Wayne and Ripper said together.

"Bye Zee," Julia waved solemnly. This was the only person who she, for whatever reason, felt slight empathy for despite his antics today.

Zee confessional: I'm seriously considering being a lawyer now! I think I got what it takes. As long as I drink soda though, not a huge lemonade person...

Zee humbly sat down on the Boat of Losers with his large briefcase of sodas. As it took him away from the island, he smiled to himself. It had been a long, hard day for Zee the lawyer.

THE END

AUTHOR'S NOTES

When Chris talks about the "toxic love triangle" I don't want anyone to think I am ruining his character. Courtney was right. He doesn't believe anything he says. He is only saying that to present himself as a better person because he is still uncomfortable about Courtney refusing to give him a pass for his past actions. Don't worry, he is still the selfish narcissist he always was.

The names Jonesy, Nikki, Caitlyn, Jude and Jen are from 6teen, another show produced by FreshTV. Mrs. Pertsch is named after Jennifer Pertsch.

I basically made Zee get eliminated the exact same way as his first season, proving he didn't learn a single thing LMFAO. His surname comes from "panko" breadcrumbs, idk why I chose that but it sounded right to me.

I put a lot of my own HC into my work to make the characters more interesting/ less bland. This doesn't mean it is official! For example, I'm slightly projecting myself onto Emma because she is one of my favourites. Tbh, I highly doubt she is actually good at math HAHAHA. She strikes me as more of a liberal arts/political science student. In general, I HC that she is very book smart and that she just lacks emotional control. But again, if I'm being really honest in the actual Reboot I don't think she's that smart at all… but that's OK. I still LOVE her!

Since my timeline had Reboot Season 1take place in summer 2023, it wouldn't make sense for the Italy airdate to be April 10 2023 (which was actually when the episodes dropped). So I just changed it to September 10 2023 instead. A quick reminder to not pull a Duncan and support official releases in your country (like Courtney). Numbers are looking good so far according to Terry!

VOTES

Zee: Axel, Julia, Wayne

Julia: Zee

Axel: Ripper, Chase

Explanations:

Axel voted for Zee (she is in an alliance with Julia)

*OFF-SCREEN* Julia and Wayne talked to each other and agreed to vote off Zee

Ripper voted for Axel for arguing with him and tearing their sheet. Chase just copied Ripper.

HIGHLIGHTS

o Intellectual challenge never done before (Originally was supposed to be another frickin obstacle course *rolls eyes*… thankfully I scrapped it)

o Courtney Cameo (where she is actually talking)

o New interaction unlocked (Zee-Raj)

o Zee's early boot (*slightly controversial take*). In my rewrite, the story is the most important part. Comedic reliefs who serve little to no relevance to the plot will be eliminated early. This was a major problem I had with Rematch (2024). IMO, humour should never be more important than a good story. Him lasting until the final 8 unfortunately led some people to call him overrated.

I'd say for the 6 episodes Zee was in I gave him many memorable and funny moments/lines. Might be slightly controversial as well, but his humour felt stale to me in the Rematch. The funniest thing he ever did was shove his own shorts into his mouth (Gerardo Gismondi should get major credit because the voice and delivery is carrying Zee's humour in Rematch, not necessarily the actual line itself).

I feel I made him funnier here. His whole purpose was to be Ripper's wingman alongside Chase and to have funny moments here and there. And what a way to go out, attempting to arrest the judges. Don't worry. There will be plenty of funny Zee in the resort episode, the finale and the special.

CONFESSIONAL TOTAL

Who will have the most confessionals in the end?...

Julia: 36

Bowie: 25

MK: 24

Emma: 22

Raj: 22

Damien: 21

Caleb: 19

Ripper: 18

Chase: 17

Axel: 16

Wayne: 15

Nichelle: 12

Zee: 12

Priya: 11

Millie: 5

Scary Girl: 2

Emily: 3

Chef: 2

Chris: 1

Courtney: 1

Shark: 1

ELIMINATION ORDER:

1. NO ELIMINATION (Reward challenge)

2. Lauryn "Scary Girl" Marinus (16th)

3. Millie Williams (15th)

4. Bowie Lupaul (14th)

5. Nichelle Ladonna (13th)

6. Hezekias "Zee" Pancho (12th)