Chapter 20 - Ten Star Dinner

"Alex Sharpe…" came the name that I had been waiting to be announced.

It was late into the morning (well, it certainly felt that way) and me and my campmates were all sitting around the fire pit. This was a public voting meeting, which meant that two contestants were going to be voted off since we were told that it was a double elimination today. Mark was standing in front of us and reading our names off a piece of card, saying whether each one of us was staying or leaving. One name had already been announced, and that was Maggie Titan, which was quite sad because I had seen Maggie's attitude change from sassy to kind due to Scarlet and Poppy leaving about a week back.

When Alex's name was announced, meaning that he was finally leaving Camp, I swore that inside me and my campmates' heads, there was a mega party going on with music, drum and bass, coke and streamers exploding everywhere. It was extremely difficult for me to contain myself and the moment Alex disappeared out of Camp, all of us started cheering. Trust me, I don't think we could've been happier. But now, as I sat staring at the random movement of the fire flames, I actually felt a little bit sad. Why? Because I had had quite a lot of fun trying to get Alex out of Camp, but now that he was gone, there was this awkward feeling inside me that said, that's it, he's gone. Now what's going to happen?

It was like me and my campmates had all worked together to achieve something awesome and now that that thing had been achieved, now what was to come? However, nonetheless, I was still happy that Alex had left. I mean, now I could relax and talk freely with my friends without the feeling that I was being shamed behind my back, or to be more truthful, right in front of me. To be honest, when the show first started, I had found myself suffering quite badly due to feeling as if our little headquarters was cramped and at times, it was going to be far too loud. It seemed that my thoughts about being in Camp were correct. However, now that there were only six of us left, I began to feel much more comforted by how much the quietness in this place had improved.

Sure, there was some noise in camp that every now and then made me flinch, but it was a hell of a lot more quiet and calm than when the show started where there were twelve of us. Going back to the meeting, now that the most toxic, nasty boy had been voted off, I felt that I could act like myself again and it must've been a relief to the others too because they all started acting in a completely different way. In addition, I found myself acting the way I did back at home, such as lounging about on my bed talking with my friends in the most relaxed and carefree way and just genuinely enjoying this experience while I could.

After my breakfast, I decided to take advantage of Alex not being here anymore by having the sudden urge to wander around Camp and decorate my bed with flowers, which was something I could see myself doing, but absolutely not when someone like Alex was prowling around Camp seeking ways to humiliate us. Nevertheless, it was actually quite a fun activity and soon, I had gathered together a sprig of jasmines that were growing through the pathway from Camp to the lake and presently, I was slotting the flowers through the gaps of the timber that held my bed together.

Just before I slotted the last flower through the gap, I lifted it to my nose and inhaled the scent gently. Oh, it was lovely…and pretty too, and I thought that it would make a beautiful decoration to my bed, but as soon as I was about to add the odorous flower to my collection, I heard the unmistakable sound of Gracie laughing, which stopped me in my tracks. She was mindlessly chatting with Cleo with that super pretty happy face of hers, which made me grin from ear to ear. Oh, did she make me want to grab her hands and kiss her all over her face. Looking at Gracie during this moment also caused me to envision something else.

I remembered the scent of that jasmine vividly, and as I watched Gracie giggling and laughing with Cleo, I could just imagine her owning a jasmine scented perfume and I figured that it would fit really nicely with her beautiful appearance and charming personality. I felt my cheeks starting to flush and turn all hot, so I turned round to face my bed. However, it was when I slotted the last flower through the gap when Gracie suddenly appeared next to me and my heart almost jumped out of my chest. She peered over the other side of my bed to get a better view of what I was doing. I expected Gracie to laugh and question me somewhat hurtfully, but instead, she smiled broadly, much to my relief.

"You like flowers?" she asked, as if this was something she had never thought I'd do.

I looked around at my surroundings in panic before gathering my thoughts. "Yeah. I might sound stupid saying this, but I sometimes pick flowers outside occasionally and put them in a vase in my living room. The ones I've had are daffodils, sweet peas, and yellow roses. I love those." After a while, I finally remained silent, for I felt like I had droned on for long enough, but surprisingly, Gracie took this all very politely.

"No, that's okay, it's not stupid at all. Me and my family like putting flowers in our house as well. What other flowers do you like?"

Wow. I certainly hadn't expected Gracie to return her reply with a question. This adorable act of kindness motivated me to carry on confidently with this conversation, so I said, "I've put some hyacinths in water before because I like those, I also like primroses, tulips, and even clematis."

Gracie momentarily bit her lip and smiled sheepishly. "Do you like…snowdrops?" she asked, her cheeks turning a little pink.

I darted my eyes upwards, trying to figure out what was up with her, but I soon understood why she was doing this. She had a flower as her surname! How could I forget and how did I not notice that she was trying to play around sooner?

"Oh!" I laughed. "I actually do. Especially during the winter. That's when they fit right into the cold with their white petals." By now, I had actually thought about Gracie's relation to jasmines so much that I decided to ask her something I hoped she would say yes to. I carefully pulled one of the jasmines out of the gap in my bed and held it up to her. "Uh, you can say no if you want to, but do you want a flower to put in your bed too?"

For a moment, Gracie looked at me as if she was thinking, Well, that was unexpected, but she soon took it in her hands and sniffed it. "Oh…" she sighed. "That's very kind of you. I'll decorate my bed right now!" then Gracie hurried off, her teal hair swinging through the breeze as she knelt down beside her bed.

Aw, well that was lovely. It also made me more confident with talking to her since now I knew she was quick to accept things. I also discovered that we actually had quite a lot in common. I mean, we both liked flowers, we practically had the same sense of humour, and we'd both lost loved ones, so we could more or less comfort each other if we were having an off day due to thinking about their absence, well that was if Gracie actually liked me back, which I wasn't really sure about. However, I didn't have much time to think about it more because I heard a familiar sound coming from the top of the wooden balcony. I recognised it immediately as it was the same wooden bucket being lowered to the ground that I had received my letter in a couple of days ago when I had to work through 'Fright at the Museum.'

I walked over to the bucket once it was on the ground and picked up the piece of paper in it. The moment I opened it up though, my heart almost stopped. My face broke out into the biggest smile and I very nearly let out a scream of excitement and joy, for I couldn't believe what was written on the paper.

Congratulations, Ludwig and Gracie! You have been nominated by the public to take part in today's eating trial 'Bushtucker Bonanza'! This is a paired trial and more details will be discussed when the trial is about to start. Please pack your resources and arrive at the plains ASAP! Do your very best with the trial and good luck!

Mark.

Oh. My. God. It was like a dream I never had, but now I wished I had dreamt of it because I would get even more of a kick out of it because I had wished for it to happen so badly! I found it difficult to keep calm, but eventually, after I had finally found out how to breathe stably, I turned around and faced Gracie's bed.

"Gracie?" I said in an inadvertent high pitched voice.

"Yes, Ludwig?" Gracie replied.

"We're in a trial together."

The moment I finished speaking, Gracie knelt up and stared at me, looking more than a little excited. "Really? Are we?"

"Yes! It's an eating trial and I'm not sure if we're even going to survive through it, but we can try our hardest, that's all we can do." I set about grabbing my bag off of one of the wooden knobs on my bed and making sure everything was in it and in an adequate condition. I seemed to have an affect on Gracie during this moment because she started doing the exact same thing.

"I know." she said, swinging her bag on her back. "But…sorry if I throw up all over the place if I can't stomach a certain dish."

This caused my heart to flutter because she was so adorable when she just jumped to conclusions and imagined the future like that. Oh my word, I couldn't… "No, it'll totally be fine." I said, my mile long smile refusing to fall from my face. "I don't think there'll be any need to apologise if you do vomit because I've heard that those dishes are disgusting and I don't think Mark or any of the rangers will be disgusted by your behaviour and they probably won't blame you."

For a few seconds, Gracie didn't reply, but after those few seconds, she muttered, "Yeah…yeah, they probably won't." She looked up at me, a deep look of gratitude and thankfulness in her stunning eyes. "You know, I was actually worrying about something like that happening, but now I feel much better about this trial. Thanks!"

"You're welcome." I smiled, feeling like a special superhero who always made people feel better and have a sense of freedom and salvation from their anxieties.

At last, we came to a plain, light brown coloured clearing, which was just as well because we were both currently standing in the midst of a little plain with trees surrounding the area. It was like walking into a completely different world. Everything was quiet and calm and all we could hear was the tweeting of jungle birds and the sound of the tall, green giants blowing in the wind. Being in this clearing made me want to take Gracie by her gentle hands and kiss her slowly, for I felt that this was a very romantic and peaceful place to be. However, my reverie was interrupted by Mark emerging from the trees and greeting us cheerfully.

"Hey, you two!" he said. "How does it feel to be doing an eating trial with each other on this fine day?"

Me and Gracie looked at each other smiling. I let out a nervous giggle before attempting to speak, but Gracie started before me, which I was secretly relieved about because one: I didn't feel too comfortable talking when my love interest was standing right next to me, thus I would look like an idiot, and two: it just genuinely made me pleasured from listening to Gracie's soft voice which made me think of butterflies flapping their patterned wings.

In answer to Mark's question, Gracie replied, "Yeah, it actually feels great! I remember when we first started here on this show and me, Ludwig and Jack had to do our first ever trial." Gracie smiled and looked up at me. "And doing an eating trial with Ludwig is bound to be exciting because our first trial went so well."

Oh, wow…now it was as if my heart was threatening to melt away…

"That's amazing!" Mark said, his incandescent smile continuing to blind us. "Now, Gracie, you sit on this side of this wooden table here." He guided Gracie to the other side of some trees, revealing a wooden table sat there with two chairs either side and Gracie sat down on the chair furthest from me. Next, Mark guided me to the one remaining chair, which I sat on, leaving me and Gracie smiling awkwardly at each other. "Right, let me go through the basics of this trial. You will both take it in turns to eat a dish that is set down in front of you to earn stars for your campmates. It's really pretty simple, but the only snag is that if you refuse a dish or if you do eat it and subsequently vomit, the star for that dish is gone. There's no way you'll get it back again." Mark smiled at us supportively. "Are you guys ready?"

Me and Gracie shared a glance with each other, then nodded confidently.

"Great!" Mark chuckled uncomfortably. "Ludwig, sorry about this, but you're up first. Ranger! Bring in the first dish!" and with that, a ranger emerged from the trees and placed a plate in front of me which was concealed by a wooden Australian style cloche. "This…" Mark said as the ranger lifted the cloche off the plate, revealing the most disgusting looking dish I had ever seen with what looked like a small sausage with a skewer stuck inside, swimming in a pool of gravy. I looked up at Mark, hoping that he would soon explain what the dish was, and he did. "...Is Cock au Vag." This sort of amused me but disappointed me at the same time because I loved the producers coming up with rude names for the dishes in order to lighten our moods during the trials.

"What the hell is that?" I asked, grimacing to the best of my ability.

"It's made from sheep's penis and vagina." Mark simply replied, which caused me to bury my face in my hands. "Now, all you need to do is eat both the penis and the vagina served on the skewer to win one star. Go on, you can do it."

With shaking hands, I picked up the skewer between finger and thumb and turned it over. I genuinely couldn't believe this. I was about to eat a sheep's penis and vagina…on TV…in front of Gracie… I took a deep breath and without a second thought, shoved the entire thing into my mouth. I immediately regretted it though, because I tasted the gravy, which in fact had been muddy water and I almost spat it straight out, but I didn't, instead, I chewed through all the toughness and fought off the textures. Soon, I was finished and I swallowed, then wiped my mouth.

"Yes!" Gracie exclaimed. "You did it!"

I instantly felt a burst of pride. I found it sweet but a little amusing that the love of my life was congratulating me because I had just swallowed two types of genitals off an animal, and was most likely about to eat dishes that were inarguably more repulsive. I felt relieved that it wasn't my turn anymore, but I felt bad because now it was Gracie's turn. A few moments later, a plate of food with the same styled cloche was set down in front 0f her and as soon as it was lifted up, I thought that the dish looked at least a little bit more inviting than mine. It consisted of holly leaves and berries alongside some squirty cream and milk with what looked like small, round grey discs sat on top of it in random places.

"This…" Mark said as the ranger lifted off the cloche. "Is Fish P-eye."

Gracie looked at me, then up at Mark in horror. "What? Fish eyes?" she asked.

"Yep. Now, all you have to do here is eat just the one fish eye served on the spoon to win one star. Just let me remind you that you really have to chew through these in order to get these down."

I watched Gracie with every cell in my eyes as she picked up the spoon, shoved it into her mouth and began chewing, making sure that every little bit she had in her mouth was swallowed down. After all, every chew was one step closer to jubilance. However, as soon as I suspected that she had it in the bag, I heard a satisfying sounding pop inside her mouth, and this grey, dull coloured fluid came dripping between her lips and running down her chin. Gracie let out a low retch and by now, I felt so awful for her that I looked into her eyes and gave her the most supportive look I could muster. She stared back at me, as if to say, "Help me!" but unfortunately, there was absolutely sod all I could do about this. Eventually, she gave her last swallow, then opened her mouth to let Mark see that she was finished.

"Great job, Gracie!" he said, clapping, which made me want to do the same. "Right, Ludwig. It's your turn again."

After my second dish, I was really starting to get into the process of it all, but my system totally wasn't. I had already chowed down Baa-klava, which was lamb's brain, Tesquila, which was a drink consisting of blended mealworms, and Crack-ass, which was crocodile's anus, while Gracie had the lovely menu of Gore-deaux, which was a blended deer heart, a witchetty grub, and Spaghetti Bollock-nese, which was chicken intestines. I had no idea how both me and Gracie had eaten and drank all of these foods and drinks without spitting them out. Yes, we had come so close, too close to doing so, but still…they were completely inedible. Well, obviously, we could eat them, but I definitely didn't recommend eating or drinking any of those at a Sunday dinner.

Anyway, now that eight stars had been earned for Camp, it was time for the most important part of the trial. Me and Gracie looked up at Mark, hopeful that he would go easy on us both for these last two stars, but unfortunately, we were both horrifically wrong.

"Now, this is where the trial takes a turn." Mark said. "For these last two stars, you will both be given different dishes where you both have to eat at the same time. If one of you refuses to eat the dish or you spit it out, then no stars will be won, and that's the same thing with whether you both fail." He raised his eyebrows and smiled. "Are you guys ready?"

Me and Gracie both nodded and two rangers came out holding two dishes.

"Right, Ludwig. You have…fermented seaweed, and Gracie, you have…a blended water spider drink."

The moment the cloche was lifted from Gracie's plate, she gasped and covered her mouth with her hands in horror, whereas I was a little astounded; I couldn't quite believe that I was about to eat fermented seaweed. Yes, I had memories of seeing it in the sea while I was swimming and getting it twisted round my toes, but here I was with a whole plate of it right in front of me! And fermented, no less! I took my fork, twisted it around in the dark green stuff and lifted it up to give it a sniff. Ew. I almost retched. It still had that earthy, salty scent to it, but my god was it horrible. I instantly shoved the entire forkful into my mouth, going out of my way to get it over and done with, keeping my eyes on Gracie all the while, who was hesitating more frequently to down her drink, but we kept on giving each other supportive glances throughout the entire time, and eventually, luckily, we both swallowed at the same time.

"Yes! You both did it!" Mark exclaimed. "Well done! You must be absolutely shattered after that trial."

Me and Gracie looked at each other once again as if agreeing with one another.

"Well, you both deserve a good rest. That's ten stars you've both earned, so expect a great dinner tonight!" Mark said as me and Gracie rose up from our seats and began walking in the direction of Camp. "Take care!"

"Bye!" we both shouted back, before I noticed Gracie turning her attention towards me.

"You know," she said, smiling. "You're not bad. You're actually quite good with these trials. I hope you know that I'm really proud of you."

I instantly felt a flutter in my heart. "Really?"

"Yeah. I actually expected you to be quite scared and reluctant, but you just got on with it without a care in the world."

"Wow." I felt a blush form on my cheeks and for a moment, I panicked because I didn't know what to say. "Thanks. I…I didn't expect that from you. I didn't think you'd notice."

Gracie laughed. "How could I not? You were great!"

I laughed alongside Gracie as we both made our way back to Camp, more than ready for a well deserved dinner.