AN: Just a heads up guys, this chapter is pretty long as I've discovered that this adds up to 5,025 words in total including this AN, so…yeah. I won't be surprised if any of you decide to read this chapter in little bits at a time. Anyway, that's all I wanted to say, enjoy! :)

Chapter 23 - Cyclone

I barely got any sleep last night, just like any other night I had spent here. The reason for this was because I was stressing so much about today's trial 'Cyclone'. I had seen Cyclone being performed on the show for years and on TV, it actually looked quite fun, however, in real life, I was absolutely terrified because of all the worst case scenarios that could happen. What if I slipped over in a water trail? What if I tripped and then fell on a vital part of my body, thus injuring myself badly? What if both of those happened and I ended up completely embarrassing myself in front of Gracie? Oh… I couldn't let that happen, I had to be as careful and cautious as possible to not let that happen, but then again, there were no promises being made during a trial like this.

Basically, Cyclone consisted of the four remaining campmates working together to climb up a raised floor holding a huge foam star each. When the klaxon sounded, one contestant had to jump in a ball pit filled with water, climb out, then make their way up the course to a yellow star mark printed onto the ground. Through gales of wind from wind machines, water from massive water pistols, and the slipperiness of the rapids on the ground, they had to place themselves and the big star on top of the printed mark, then just lie there. Next, the second contestant would jump in, then work their way through the same process, so on and so on. I knew exactly how this trial worked, yet I still worried.

I groaned and rolled over in my bed, letting a heavy sigh escape my mouth as I felt my body temperature rise to the point where I was feeling clammy. I sat up, lifted up my left leg, and touched the back of it. Jeez, I was really quite warm, so I decided to pull back my duvet and let the cool atmosphere engulf me. On top of that, I tried to focus on breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth so I didn't grow even hotter. That only helped a tad, but the more I tried to tell myself to keep calm and collected, the more heavy my breathing became.

After some time, it occurred to me that I was putting too much pressure on myself, so I stretched my limbs and grunted softly whilst I sat up on the edge of my bed, and it was only then when I gradually felt a horrible sensation well up in my stomach, which made my breathing more audible and heavy. Oh god… I felt like I was going to be sick… It was as if an actual cyclone was taking place in my stomach. I closed my eyes and gulped.

"Ludwig? Are you alright there?" I heard Jack ask through the distortion of my vision.

"My tummy…" I muttered as I felt my temperature rise back up again.

Jack walked over and sat down next to me. "What's wrong? You look a bit…flushed."

I breathed in heavily and put a hand to my cheek. "Yeah. I'm very hot…and nauseous. I think it's because I'm so worried about Cyclone today."

Jack looked around him for a moment before putting an arm around me and asking, "Is it normal for you to get worked up like this in certain situations?"

I hesitantly nodded. "Yeah, sometimes. It depends on how many worries I have alongside that."

"Oh…what worries are you having at the moment? Or…would you prefer not to say?"

I took a discreet glance around at the two remaining beds in which the two girls were sleeping and decided to make doubly sure that they were not in the slightest bit awake so that they wouldn't hear what I was about to say. When I had done this, I turned back round, faced Jack, exhaled loudly and began talking in hushed tones just in case the girls did wake up.

"My feelings and physical states are all over the place at the moment because of the thought of messing up on Cyclone and not earning a star for anyone at all. I'll be on camera the whole time and I just know that my mind is purposely going to manipulate my body into falling over multiple times and…and…it's going to be so embarrassing!" As I was speaking, Jack looked back at me and nodded sympathetically. "And what's more? I'm going to be doing all of this in front of Gracie as well, and if I fail, then she's probably going to think that I'm a loser. This is my chance to show her and the public what I'm really made of and that I'm not scared of anything, but in actual fact…I'm crapping myself."

"I know." Jack said. "I'm actually a little nervous about this now that you've expressed your worries, but it's fine. Just keep on saying that everything's going to be fine…"

"Everything's going to be fine…" I repeated, closing my eyes.

"Yes…you've got it…" Jack said, which made me sense that he was clenching his fists and staring me down, and that made things really quite creepy because of the fact that my eyes were closed. On top of that, my nausea and my hot flushes were crawling back, thus making me lose my nerve with this…therapy I guess this was classed as.

"Everything is going to be f- Oh!" I opened my eyes and put a hand to my chest. "I have to stop; I'm putting pressure on myself again."

Jack instantly shrunk back and he looked a little guilty. "Oh, sorry. Right, do you want to head up to the sink and cool yourself down then? You're looking all flushed again."

I blinked slowly and nodded. "Yeah, I really need to cool down."

With that, I stood up from my bed, slipped on my boots and began walking off in the direction of the washing area, which wasn't much of a washing area since nothing was there apart from a sink and mirror, a tin bath, and the mini waterfall behind it. With a deep breath, I walked over to the mirror and looked in it, feeling a hint of surprise since I was expecting the upper half of my face to be cut off, but sure enough, I noticed minor issues with my facial appearance. Despite the excessive amount of dried water drop stains on the glass, I noticed that the bags under my eyes were so huge that they might as well have been classed as briefcases. I also saw that my face was glowing a pale pink colour and there were stationary sweat drops on my forehead and temples, so I whipped off my t-shirt in the vain hope that the chill in the atmosphere would calm me down, but it didn't.

I put my hand to my heart and bent over the sink, feeling as if I was going to be sick any minute, so I tried to focus and stare at a certain object; that was my tactic to distract myself from the bad things. So, I brought my eyes up to my reflection in the mirror and I stared into my eyes that were beginning to droop ever so slightly. Unluckily though, none of this seemed to work because I caught onto the sight of the whites of my eyes looking all bloodshot, most likely showing that the fact that I hadn't got much sleep over the course of three weeks was evident. Oh my god… I thought, This experience has well and truly broken me.

Just at that moment, I heard the scuffing of footsteps, which caused me to turn around, but what I saw next instantly made me wish I hadn't because it was Gracie. The moment I turned around and looked at her, she squealed and covered her mouth with her hand, and that was when I realised that I was still standing there with my shirt off! For a minute, we both stared at each other stammering, until I finally put my shirt back on as quickly as I could and tried to act normal.

"Uh, hi Gracie." I said, feeling my cheeks flush a little.

"Hi, Ludwig." Gracie replied, still sporting a somewhat surprised expression on her face. "You…You don't look very well."

Relieved that she hadn't mentioned anything about my little mishap, I let a discreet sigh escape my lips, but I still cringed nonetheless. "Y-Yeah. I woke up feeling all hot and nauseous and…I just needed a bit of time to myself."

When I finished talking, I noticed Gracie biting her lip and looking a bit guilty. "Oh, sorry. Should I go back to Main Camp?"

"Oh no, that wasn't an implication for you to leave, I mean, obviously you can if you want to, but now that I think about it, I could use some company."

With some hesitation, Gracie walked over and sat down by the edge of the mini waterfall. She patted a space next to her for me to sit, and I did, and almost immediately, we both started talking in a surprisingly casual way for I thought that just because I was sat beside the girl I was madly in love with, I would go all dribbly and speechless, but luckily, I found that I could actually speak proper words. After some time, we both heard running footsteps in the distance and we turned around to try and find out where the noise was coming from. It was Lily.

"Guys! You have to come back to Main Camp! A piece of paper has just come in and it says that we need to get ready for Cyclone." and with that, she beckoned for us to follow her and she disappeared through the trees back to Main Camp.

As me and Gracie stood up and began walking away, I plucked up the courage to say to her, "Um…sorry you had to come across me…topless. I was all hot and flushed and I thought that taking my shirt off would cool me down. I never thought anyone would see me."

Gracie smiled supportively. "Don't worry, it's okay. I don't mind, after all, I'd say that we're more or less a family in this camp. To be honest, families normally tend to…let's just say be open a little bit, which is why I wasn't too shocked seeing you with your shirt off."

The moment Gracie wasn't looking at me anymore, I felt a long sigh of relief drag out in my mind. Speaking of Gracie, I had noticed that for the past week, she had acted quite giddy and nervous around me for a reason that I didn't know. Maybe she had seen how angrily I talked about Alex and she worried that I would probably get that angry at her for whatever reason, which was why she was nervous. Or maybe, just maybe, given her previous behaviour such as her giggling, blushing and giving me nice compliments, she liked me back…? I had also noticed that some of the time when talking to me, she had lacked eye contact with me, which I had to admit, I had done whilst being in love quite a lot, so that was quite a big green flag. Anyway, all I had to focus on was looking at the piece of paper in the bucket Lily had told us about, and I found lots of pieces of material as well.

We were all given fancy outfits to wear during the trial too, the four of us being obliged to wear one of a different colour. Mine was dark blue to match my hair, Jack's was orange, Gracie's was purple, and Lily's was deep red. The outfit basically consisted of sparkly t-shirts and shorts with our names emblazoned on the back with capital letters and a cape attached to the back of our shirts, almost as if to make us look like superheroes. As I stood by the sink staring into the mirror, I actually felt rather cleansed because I felt so grateful to finally be wearing clean clothes, even if it meant it tightened my skin and made me look a little daft. Just then, I was distracted by Jack shouting, "Lud, come on!" and I immediately halted with examining my appearance and ran after my campmates for our last ever trial.

Once we got there, my eyes widened, for what was in front of me was quite a sight. The props and the setting of the trial was much, much bigger than I anticipated. On TV, it looked so small, but right here, it looked so massive that I figured I'd get lost on the raised floor due to paint, water and wind hitting me left, right and centre.

Speaking of which, I saw a few cannons situated by the sides of the raised floor, which were most likely going to be used to spray water and paint in our directions to obscure our vision whilst trying to place our stars on our marks. Also, I caught sight of what looked like a wind machine to cause the water and paint to create even more destruction to our appearances, and I had to admit, I was really quite nervous about doing this. For a moment, I felt like speaking up and saying that I really didn't want to do this, but then again…what would Gracie think of me? Nevertheless, my legs still vibrated as soon as Mark came into my sight.

"Hello, everybody!" he shouted, walking onto the ramp we were all standing on. "Welcome to Cyclone, your last ever trial! Are you guys excited?" There was a moment of silence where we all looked at each other before letting out little uncertain, uncomfortable noises which made Mark chuckle. "Oh, nervous, eh? Well, I can assure you that nothing dangerous can really happen during this trial, but just in case something dangerous does happen, then there will be medics everywhere to keep an eye on you. Now, from having seen this show before, you should've been made aware of what Cyclone is like, but let me explain it in greater detail. Each of you will be given big yellow foam stars and in ten minutes, you all have to run up this raised floor and place yourselves and your stars onto each of those yellow star prints you see over there on the floor."

We all turned around to see where Mark was pointing, which made us more wary and understanding of the trial. After all, I was one of those people who understood things more if it was explained to me a second time. However, Jack asked a question which made both of the girls put on considerate faces. "Is there a specific order for us to go in, like age order or something?"

Mark put a hand to his chin and looked at us for a while before replying, "We were actually going to just let you guys choose which order to go in, but I suppose to prevent anxiety and negative feelings and stuff like that, we will ask you to get in age order. Oldest goes first, youngest goes last. Right, Ludwig. When's your birthday?"

"30th September." I replied, and after that, Mark carried on with asking the rest of my campmates when their birthdays were, which Lily replied with 23rd November, and Jack with 4th March.

"Okay, which leads us to Gracie. When's your birthday?"

Gracie bit her lip nervously before replying, "2nd April…" before looking down at the floor.

"Right, great! Now, get into age order and get ready to warm up for the trial! Good luck!" and with that, Mark walked off the ramp and got behind all the machines, holding a megaphone which I guessed was to try and communicate with us due to all the noise and the wind.

Whilst we were all being given goggles to shield our eyes, I noticed Gracie standing by herself in another place on the ramp. Her right leg was bent and bouncing uncontrollably, she had her index finger in her mouth, and she was even sniffling quite a bit. Oh my god. My heart felt like it was being torn to shreds; I could not just leave Gracie all distressed like this, so I sidled up to her.

"Hey, Gracie. Are you okay? You're not worrying too much about this, are you?"

As soon as Gracie heard my voice, she instantly took her finger out her mouth and tried to look innocent, which, as much as I hated to say it, was pretty daft because I knew nerves and stress so well that I could practically smell it. "Er…" she looked around her, then back at me with apprehension in her beautiful eyes.

"I-It's okay to be nervous about this, that is quite a way to go up that floor." I said, my mind hovering between whether to place a hand on her shoulder or not and also thinking that this was advice I should've given myself. "I'm sure you're going to do amazing, I mean, you've gotten nine to ten stars on all of your trials, so surely you're bound to succeed in this."

"But…why?" Gracie asked.

I summoned up all my courage and placed my hand gently on Gracie's shoulder. "Because I believe in you, and I believe you can do this."

Gracie glanced down at my grubby hand on her shoulder then up into my eyes, which were trying their best to look supportive and kind, and as she did so, her cheeks turned a light shade of pink. "Oh…thank you…" she giggled nervously before giving me an appreciative nod and lining up with the other campmates, which made me do the same.

As I stood next to all my campmates waiting for the klaxon to sound, I closed my eyes and focused on breathing in through the nose, out through the mouth in order to relax myself and stop thinking about the fact that it was all the more terrifying that I had to go first. At last, the klaxon sounded, and with adrenaline pumping through my veins, I grabbed my foam star and leapt into the ball pit filled with water. It took a moment for me to recover from the frigidity of it, and when I did, it seemed like my surroundings had gone from being all calm and tranquil to a complete massacre during the time I had been underwater, and it was truly a sight that I never expected to be met with.

However, I knew I couldn't dilly-dally because I had ten minutes to work through this, and if I didn't get to my mark quickly enough, then it would be even more bad for my campmates since they would have less time to get to their marks, so I brushed off all the cold and crawled up the raised floor on my belly and knees. It was the only safe way I could get through this, if a little bit embarrassing too given the fact that I was crawling about on the floor with my backside in the air, but luckily, it seemed like my campmates didn't care about that whatsoever. Instead, over the noise of the wind and the water spraying, I could hear them all shouting my name and words of support, which made me crawl faster.

I felt splats of paint explode onto my head and water soak my skin, and for a moment, I stopped halfway between the ballpit and my mark, letting myself calm down and catch my breath before beginning to scrabble across the floor again. Even though my vision was blurred slightly by my goggles, I could see the yellow star mark on the floor and that I was about half a foot away from it, so I hurled my weary body forward, placed the star on it and pinned it down with my elbows. Next, I heard a splash behind me and that was when I knew Lily had jumped into the ball pit, which made me turn around to look at her. I didn't care if I craned my neck, I just wanted to keep an eye on my campmates' progress.

I observed as she kept falling over in the slippery trail of water and even from my angle, I could see on her face that she was struggling to keep hold of her star, let alone make it to her mark, so I called out, "Come on, Lil! You can do this! It's not far now!"

Lily glanced over at me before giving me an acknowledging nod and crawling along the floor exactly how I had done, and soon after that, all four of us were one step closer to being victorious on our last trial. However, now I didn't feel very victorious of myself because all I had done was get a little bit wet in a ball pit, then crawl about ten metres up a raised floor and now my only purpose was to lie there and vainly hope that my campmates wouldn't fail me, which felt like quite a bad job to have, and I sort of wished that I was the youngest here and not the oldest. But then…I really wouldn't want to be in Gracie's situation, that being, she was stressed and being put under pressure to run all the way up to the furthest mark in the midst of wind, paint and water.

Now that I thought about it, I really wouldn't want that. The moment that thought flooded into my mind however, I noticed that Jack had just passed me, scrabbling around on his knees and making his way towards his mark, and that was when I thought, who knew that lying here doing nothing could cause time to go even faster? Due to all the noise flying around the clearing, I didn't really see the point in cheering my campmates on because they probably wouldn't be able to hear me, but despite that, I knelt up and shouted, "Yes, Jack! Come on! You've got this!" and in return, he turned around, gave me a little thumbs up, and crawled along further and further until he finally reached his mark and signalled Gracie to jump in.

I instantly turned around and faced the ballpit, my adrenaline pumping round my body because I knew that Gracie felt very vulnerable in this position right now and my heart ached for her. If only I could have the strength to whisk her up into my arms and throw her onto the other side of the raised floor so that she wouldn't have to go through the process of slipping over multiple times and embarrassing herself, but…I didn't, and that hurt me. After a few seconds, Gracie emerged from the water and began shuffling along the floor on foot, her star adorably tucked underneath her arm and as she moved closer to me, she got caught in a stream of water and she landed on top of me, causing me to lose my grip on the star and the floor. I dug my nails into the tarpaulin lining the floor, but it was no use.

Even digging my heels into the ground didn't prevent me from tumbling into the ballpit and rising up a few seconds after feeling disorientated. I scrambled out of the pit, staring up at Gracie all the while as she looked back at me as if she were a rabbit in headlights. However, as much as I wanted to stare at her, I knew I couldn't because I had to get back on my mark and it was just as well since she looked away and tried to do the same as me. I used the same strategy I used when crawling up here first, and luckily, I made it to my mark faster than I imagined, then all I had to do from there was watch as Gracie kept on slipping and falling over in the water streams, but there was nothing I could do apart from shout her name, cheer her on and hope that she could hear me clearly.

That seemed to do the trick because by now, she was moving faster and closer to her mark, but just as she was about to throw herself onto the floor, we all heard an ominous noise that sounded like thunder, and soon, we instantly knew what it was when a hatch at the top of the raised floor opened, revealing a tidal wave of pink coloured water and red balls from a ball pit, and that was when it felt like everything around me had darkened. Oh, I felt a little cold… Within a split second, the water had wiped Gracie off her feet, then Jack, then Lily, and that was when I thought, oh crap. At that moment, a tidal wave whacked me in the face and sent me tumbling all the way back into the ball pit again, and along with me, all of my campmates.

I rose up from the shallow pit of water and balls, shivering with the cold water that had just chucked itself over my weak body. My campmates all did the same, except for Gracie…who wasn't with us! Instantly, I bashed the balls out of the way to see if I could catch sight of Gracie's form under the water. Eventually, I did, but she wasn't moving. I reached underwater, grabbed her arms, pulled her onto the ramp we originally started on, and laid her out on it. She was soaking wet and her eyes were shut, and it was only a couple of seconds after that when she began shaking. That was when I panicked.

"Help! Gracie needs help!" I yelled over the ruckus of all the machines. "Help her!"

The moment I started shouting, Mark caught sight of us crowded around Gracie on the floor and he immediately hurried around, turning off all the machines and hollering out to medics to treat her quickly and see what was wrong with her. I knelt right next to her, watching her chest move up and down as the medics felt her forehead and checked her heartbeat.

"Gracie's perfectly fine." one of them said. "She's just unconscious, but she has a pale red patch on the right side of her head, which signifies that she's been knocked out." When all of us looked up and made little surprised noises, the medic said, "Don't worry though, she will wake up soon, but we suggest that you keep on talking to her in order to soothe her awake again. Do you think you could do that?"

Me and my campmates looked at each other before nodding slowly and as I looked down at Gracie's unconscious, vulnerable little face, my heart ached for her and I couldn't help but reach down and gently touch her hand. I was immediately startled as it was cold to the touch. Despite the medic's words, I wasn't sure if Gracie was going to be okay, but just as I was thinking this, a little sputter came from her mouth, and her eyes blinked open. I let go of her hand for I really didn't want her to be scared after coming to and finding out that I was holding it, but that wasn't too successful because as soon as she saw me and my campmates knelt over her, she let out a scream of terror and then we had to calm her down and reassure her that she was safe and with friends.

"But…what about Cyclone?" Gracie asked once she was all calmed down.

All of our heads turned to Mark, who was standing there shaking his head. "Well, I don't think we should carry on with Cyclone, not after what's just happened, but listen to me, Gracie. Even though this trial was interrupted because of your injury, please don't feel like a failure. You were so close to reaching the end, and I have to say, even if you didn't have an injury, you would've still won for your team, so don't feel bad in any way."

I smiled at Mark's words towards Gracie. "Exactly." I said, smiling broadly. "You're like our little heroine!" I held out my hand and helped her to her feet slowly. "Now, let's go back to Camp. I suppose you need a sit down after all that adrenaline."

Gracie sighed and nodded, and as we all turned our backs on the trial's set up, we waved goodbye to Mark and made our way back to Camp. On our walk through the trees, I kept on turning to Gracie and attempting to talk to her and keep her occupied, but I just felt like it wasn't the right time to do so. She just needed some space…