It was no surprise that the plane that had just flown over the cabins caused quite the stir inside. The grumbling that followed suit slowly rose in volume as Cody and Gwen took a step away from the cabin and its impending exiters. Just as predicted, the other teenagers began filing out of the cabin, each sporting dark circles under their eyes.

"I was not built for waking up this early, McLean!" Leshawna yelled to the empty sky, though her castmates only covered their ears to her loud voice. The others all rubbed their eyes and yawned as Chris landed the plane not far from them.

"Yes! I can't wait to get my pilot's license!" Chris exclaimed, as the campers once again flinched at the volume. "I was just flexing your muscles for today's…"

The host paused as he reached behind him, out of view of the cast. They were surprised when he turned back around suddenly with a megaphone in hand. "EXTREME! SPORTS! CHALLENGE!"

Everybody held their ears as the sadistic host grinned at their misery. "Could you uh, not use that anymore?" Cody asked.

"WHAT?" Chris asked, suddenly appearing behind him.

"Oh, if you don't turn that dang thing off, I swear I will knock you upside the head!" Leshawna threatened.

Chris snorted and rolled his eyes. "Oh? And I'm sure you've read your contract just in case that were to happen?" Leshawna's silence answered his question so he continued. "If any contestant were to physically attack the host, they would be immediately removed from the game. No ifs, ands, or buts."

"Since when?" Cody asked.

"Since you slapped me!" the host replied with barely concealed anger in his voice. "Well, it's not actually in your contract, but I'd like to avoid any more injuries that aren't from you guys, so it's just a new rule I've made."

Despite the threat being successful enough to silence Leshawna and the other rowdy ones, Chris refrained from using the megaphone, presumably out of fear. "This week you'll be participating in three challenges."

"First up is 'X-treme Sofa Bed Diving', where contestants will be plummet- er, skydiving to an awaiting sofa bed target below, pushed by their teammates. The contestants for this challenge will be… Cody and Harold!"

The two nerds looked at each other and back at the plane standing behind Chris. The right wing fell onto the ground as Chef Hatchet ran up with a roll of duct tape.

"Aw…" Harold sighed, as Cody silently agreed. He could have sworn he heard a snicker from beside him, though when Cody turned, Trent remained stoic.

"But not so fast! The second challenge of the day is 'X-treme Rodeo Moose Riding'!" Chris announced, gesturing at a far-off pen with a mechanical 'bull' in the center. "Contestants will rodeo ride the great Canadian bucking moose for seconds, or get hoofed into a giant pile of socks from the lost and found."

"That stink pile ain't nothing but laundry day back home." Leshawna quipped, only to be met with a devious grin from the host.

"Well then, Leshawna, you should have no problem taking part!" The girl groaned at her own arrogance.

"And Geoff, you'll be joining her for the Bass!"

"Alrighty bro, looks nasty!" he said with a fist bump.

"YOU SURE YOU'RE COOL WITH THAT, LESHAWNA?" Chris pulled out the megaphone again, just to spite the fuming Leshawna. Her fists were clenched, though she held herself back.

"And for the final challenge…" Chris returned to his spot. "X-treme sea-doo water skiing! Contestants will water ski a race course grabbing as many flags as they can before crossing the finish line, while a member from the opposite team drives the sea-doo."

"Uh, Chris? How can we water ski without water? Last I checked, that was pretty impossible," Bridgette asked.

"Oh ho ho, it's really hard. Check it out," Chris laughed. He pointed to Chef, who was attempting to do just that. Unfortunately for him, he failed almost immediately and wiped out. The campers winced as Chris looked on in delight. "That… is even more awesome than I thought it would be!"

"Our skiers will be Lindsay and Tyler, whilst our drivers will be Heather and Duncan!"

The couple looked at each other in delight. "Cool! I can model my new bikini!"

Tyler blushed hard but cheered his girlfriend on, as Heather rolled her eyes at the flirting. Although this didn't go unnoticed by the jock. "What, you afraid Lindsay's cheerfulness might rub off on you?"

"Oh, puh-lease, as if. I'm just worried that Lindsay might get distracted if she focuses on the enemy. Right, Lindsay?" Lindsay turned around at the call of her name and nodded, returning to Heather's side.

"Oh come on Heather, just let them flirt, will ya? Couldn't hurt too much." Cody asked, trying to be peaceful.

In response, she stared at him in disgust. "Don't to me so casually like that. Ever."

"Ahem." Chris interrupted. "Kinda running on a schedule here, guys. Keep the flirting for your own time. Looking at you two, Heather and Cody." They both flinched at the thought.

"Anyways, now for the cool swag! Whoever scores the most challenges gets bragging rights for the night, saves their butts from elimination, and wins a tricked-out multi-massage mobile shower!"

A round of gasps rang out.

"Could it be?" Lindsay asked, starstruck.

"Oh, it be."

"Really? A shower? Couldn't have been something good?" Duncan asked.

All the girls spun to look at him fiercely as the sole girl of his team approached him.

"Listen to me, Duncan. We have GOT to win that shower. I'm sure you're used to crawling around in sewers, but there's no way we're losing out on this," Bridgette said angrily.

Duncan backed off with his hands in the air. "Calm down, Malibu. Sure, we'll win it, not like it'll be hard," he said with a look towards Cody, who shot him a glare back.

"Okay gang, chow for breakie, then report back here for…" Chris pulled out the megaphone yet again. "The X-TREME! SPORTS! CHALLEN-" Leshawna ran up and snatched it out of his hand and threw it on the ground before stomping it repeatedly.

Chris gazed at the broken remains of his torture device sadly as Leshawna was cheered on. "Thank god that's over with," she said calmly before leaving for the mess hall. The teens left the host as they followed Leshawna, grabbing their meals. They sat with their respective teams to strategize.

"So all we need to do is win two of the three challenges," Heather started. "Of course, I'll be trying my best to do my part in the last sport. Plus making Tyler lose his balance couldn't be hard."

Lindsay stayed silent but looked down when her boyfriend was insulted.

"I've got some competition for my win," Leshawna chimed in. "Of anyone on that team, Geoff is the one dude I expect to have done this before. Not sayin' I won't win, but there's no guarantee."

All eyes turned to Cody, as the last direct participant to speak. "Uh, I can try my hardest, I guess. I've never jumped out of a plane before, some I'll probably be a nervous wreck, so just try to catch me just in case something goes wrong."

Satisfied by his answer, the team split off, just as the Bass did. Cody remained in his seat, talking with Gwen and Leshawana as he noticed that Bridgette was holding a piece of paper in her hand. She was talking to Lindsay, who was reading it, confused. Squinting harder, he noticed that there was a large heart on the front, and it finally clicked in Cody's head. Gwen turned to see what Cody was staring at.

"What is that, a love letter?" she asked.

Leshawna followed Gwen's gaze. "Well damn, at least someone on the island's feeling romantic."

"Ugh, I am so done with the romance here. It's so corny I want to barf." the goth complained.

"Jaded by love already, Gwen? Feels a bit early, no?" Cody teased.

Gwen jokingly glared at him for a second, before turning back to face the blondes. "Well, I hope our brilliant detectives over there figure out the mystery, for their sakes. I can tell from here that it's getting heated already."

Cody could only agree as the two already seemed to be eyeing each other down. The teams both finished their meals before the host returned, leading them outside.

"Now remember, ground teams can wheelie their sofa beds wherever they want to help their comrade in landing."

"Hope you don't die, Cody," Trent sneered. "That'd be a shame."

Cody gritted his teeth and balled up his fist, but bit his tongue to stay quiet.

"Well, without further ado… Cody? Harold? It's time."

His feet fighting him every step of the way, Cody followed behind Harold as the two nerds entered the plane. They didn't bother buckling themselves in. Partially because of the upcoming drop they were going to take anyway. But even if they wanted to, the straps themselves seemed bound to break.

Sitting across from Cody, Harold suddenly began to hyperventilate as the plane was turned on. A sudden booming noise coming from the engines to the side only made things worse and Harold grasped his chest.

Cody looked around the cabin as if there were someone else with them. "Um, Harold… are you okay? I-I don't have any medical training, so please don't die right now." The nerd did not seem to be getting any better as the plane ascended.

"My… heart…" he managed to wheeze out before returning to silence. Cody nervously laughed as his fear began to sink in. Looking out the dirty and cracked window, Cody saw that the ground was no longer in his vision, with the only land visible being the distant cliff. It was then that Chris decided to visit them from the cockpit.

"WELCOME TO YOUR DOOM!" Chris exclaimed into a fresh megaphone. The loud sound was enough to shock Harold back to health.

"Gosh! Didn't Leshawna just destroy that thing?"

"Sure, but I've got plenty to spare. And don't worry. While you guys were entering the plane, I got to show it off to her. Gave us a great laugh. Well, me, a great laugh."

Acknowledging the unamused faces he was getting, the host reached into his pocket to find some pieces of paper.

"If you guys could just sign this, that'd be great."

"But I thought we already signed waivers before the show started," Cody said, eying the contract warily.

"Yeah, but these are for organ donation." Silence fell upon Cody and Harold. "I've got a cool cannibal challenge I want to pitch to the producers!"

Cody swiped the documents out of his hand and tore them up, opening the door to throw them out.

"Fine, if you don't want good TV, that's on you guys!" Chris yelled over the ferocious wind. "Here comes the drop anyway."

"Uh, I don't see my target spot." Cody nervously pointed out.

Chris shrugged. "Eh, not my problem. No jumping equals no points for you." He returned to the cockpit.

"So… do you want to go first, or should I?" Cody asked. Harold's face showed no signs of hearing him, as he stared blankly towards the ground. Cody sighed. "I guess that means I go first then."

Making sure his parachute backpack was as tight around him as possible. He chanted to himself in his head.

"Red then blue. Red, then blue. Red. Then blue."

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Cody exhaled and jumped. The rush he felt when the ground beneath him stopped existing was unlike anything he had ever felt before. He was both more scared, and yet more exhilarated than he had ever been. The force of gravity stopped him from being able to scream, yet he tried anyway.

The ground below him was getting closer and closer by the second. Right when he remembered he had a parachute cord to pull, he grabbed the first one he felt and yanked it. Looking at his palm, he has the blue cord in his hand.

Cody's eyes went wide as he turned to his side. Seeing the red cord still dangling from the pack, he pulled that one in hopes that it would deploy the parachute. But instead, he ended up with two colored cords in his hand and no parachute.

This time, he was able to win against gravity and bellowed out a loud yell as he descended rapidly. He closed his eyes so that he wouldn't be able to tell when he would land. The next thing he felt was a repeated touch that when he opened his eyes, was revealed to be tree branches.

He fell through about twenty of them, each one scratching him like crazy. He grunted with each layer he fell through before he finally fell to the ground. Five feet away from the couch he was supposed to land on.

"Oh my god!" Lindsay cried out in surprise.

"Oh crap," Gwen whispered.

Cody groaned as he stared up at his team who returned his gaze. "Aw, come on!" Trent cried. "He lived and didn't get us the point?! What a rip!" Cody wanted to scream at him but only moaned in confusion.

Suddenly, cheering from a distance signaled that Harold had successfully landed on the couch, leading to the Gophers matching Cody's groan. Still aching, Cody slowly pulled himself out of the hole that he had created, with help from Gwen and Leshawna.

He had numerous scratches on his back, and his entire body was aching. And yet, Cody noticed, his entire body was functional. Not only did he live, he was actually able to move! A minor victory, but a victory nonetheless.

"AND THE KILLER BASS WIN! ON TO THE X-TREME! RODEO! MOOSE RIDING!" Chris yelled through the megaphone, though luckily he was far enough away for it to not burst the teens' eardrums.

"Great, now we've got to win two in a row!" Heather complained.

"Let's… not lose hope." Cody cheered weakly. "I mean, Leshawna's up next, I don't doubt her capabilities."

Heather put her nose up. "She better.", she said before briskly making her way back to camp.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, sugar, but I don't think she wants to hear it." Leshawna patted Cody's back, to which he winced.

"I don't know… Maybe she's agitated about the shower?" Cody offered in an attempt to get the heat off of Heather.

"Short stuff, it's Heather we're talking about. She's probably just annoyed you fell wrong. I don't know why you're defending her."

Cody just nodded and sped up, which confused the rest of his team, though they didn't ask him about it. After a few seconds of walking fast, he had caught up to the queen bee, much to her disgust.

"Ugh, what do you want, twerp? Come here to complain about how you failed the challenge?"

"Hm? Nah, I just wanted to ask about how the couch pushing went."

"Oh, you're gonna accuse us of not pushing in the right place? It's not our fault that you didn't know how to-"

"I'm not trying to accuse you of anything, Heather. You just seemed to take a bit of a leadership role in the meeting earlier, so I wanted to ask you about how the team did."

Heather seemed a bit put off by what he said. "Gross, leader of these people? Puh-lease, I'd rather lead a bunch of ants." Heather remained quiet. "But if you must insist, it went fine. Nobody talked that much, thank god."

Cody nodded. "Thanks, Heather." She cringed at his thanks and shooed him away. She ended up doing so as the trees were clearing, so he decided to go back to his cabin to wait for the next challenge.

He sat down on his bunk and moved his arm around, determining which spots were too painful for him to move it to. "Yeah, it's definitely damaged, though I'm not sure to what point. At least I'm sitting the rest of the challenges out."

"Yeah, thank god for that one. We want some points, don't we?" Trent snarked as he entered the room, changing his shirt.

Cody rolled his eyes but ignored the jab. "Was it hot or something when you were pushing? Why are you changing your shirt?" he asked, trying to start a more friendly conversation.

Trent, however, wasn't interested in that type of speech. "Yeah, the temperature was great, thanks for making us do all that effort just to miss anyway."

Cody growled slightly. "You really think this is my fault? You guys were the ones to…" Cody cut himself off before he finished his comeback. "Listen, dude. Why do we have to be on bad terms? Wouldn't you rather be at the very least amicable with the people you share a room with instead of hostile? I don't know what you're problem with me is, but surely we can work it out-"

"You don't know what my problem is? How dare you! You know exactly what you've done!" Trent accused.

Cody threw his hands up in exasperation. "No! No, I don't! That's exactly the issue! Please, please enlighten me as to why you hate me so much!"

"You're a thief! You took both Gwen and Heather away from me. I had a plan for both of them, but then you came in a swooped them up!"

Cody's jaw dropped. "That?! That's your issue! You think I took your girlfriends? Are you crazy?" He paced around the cabin. "I'm not dating either of them! And regardless, they weren't yours to begin with!"

"I know that! But after Gwen wrote that stuff about me…"

"Woah, Gwen didn't write that stuff, remember? She was framed by Heather."

"Oh, yeah, right. But after that, I thought my chance at summer love was over. She was great, but after that, I just had a sour feeling in my stomach about her. And then Heather came along, and she seemed interested in me."

"She did?"

"Yeah, until you came along. She even kissed me. But then she saw you and something happened. Because she stopped and left me there. Alone, yet again. I don't know what you've said to her, but you're doing it just to hurt me."

"What?!" Cody wanted to laugh at the sheer absurdity of it all. "I didn't say anything. And I don't have anything against you. Or, at least, didn't."

"Oh please, I saw you earlier. You sped up just to talk to her."

The nerd put his hands up in defense. "Woah, I was just talking to her about how the couch pushing went."

"Yeah right. You've hated her guts the entire time you've been here, but suddenly now you want to talk to her? Even more about something that mundane? I don't think so."

Cody had to admit that Trent was making a lot of sense. His sudden turnaround on Heather's attitude must seem a bit jarring to those around him. He decided he better keep it more subtle from then on.

"I-I'm telling the truth." He only received an eye roll in return. "Look, hating me isn't going to fix your love life."

"Sure, but hating you is going to make me feel better, so I think I'm fine to keep going."

"You're okay with sacrificing your social life just to make sure I'm miserable. And what about Gwen? You seem content with hurting her, what gives?"

"Like I said, she gave me an awful feeling after what happened. Plus, she's a friend of yours, and not only does she support what you do, she hates Heather."

"Oh, and of course disliking someone who faked your diary entries and made them about how she hated someone she liked is unnatural?"

"The heart wants what it wants, and hates what it hates."

"But, that's so completely illogical! You can't just say that because you don't feel like liking someone!"

Trent opened his mouth to retort but was stopped short when the door behind the two of them opened.

"Would you two lovebirds keep it down?" Leshawna asked. "Chris came back. He said it was-"

"That's right Leshawna! It's time for the next challenge!" Chris' megaphone blared, right behind Leshawna. She shrieked and hopped into the air as the host laughed his way over to the Bass cabin.

"I'm gonna LOSE IT!" she yelled before exiting the cabin. Trent followed behind her wordlessly.

Cody sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose before wincing at his arm which hurt itself in the process. Holding his hurt arm in his other one, he stepped out of his room and followed the growing crowd of people following Chris.

Now free from the challenges, Cody decided to let Chef help him with his arm. He asked to stay close to see the challenge play out. Geoff was up first and lasted a short while. After he fell off, Bridgette approached the duo of Cody and Chef, much to their confusion.

"How's the arm? I heard it wasn't faring too well." Bridgette asked with slight worry.

"Hm? This old thing? It's as good as ever!" Cody boasted, pulling his arm out of Chef's grip and waving it around. Suddenly, a sharp pain shot up his arm and he yelped in pain.

"Good going, fool. Now I've gotta fix it back up again. You kids…" Chef grumbled, snatching Cody's arm back.

"Anyways…" Bridgette said, trying to sway the conversation, "Do you know what a haiku is, perchance?"

"A haiku?" Cody asked before his eyes lit up in recognition. "Yeah, they're the five-seven-five poems, right?" he recalled from his years in high school.

"Yeah, they are!" Bridgette looked elated to see that he had gotten her question right, but Cody shut her down fast. "Is this about that thing you and Lindsay were fighting over earlier?"

Bridgette flushed a bit from embarrassment. "Oh, you saw that earlier?"

"I think everyone did. Was it about that piece of paper you were holding in your hands?"

The surfer looked shocked that he knew what it was all about. "Y-yeah how'd you know?"

"Uh, lucky guess."

"Great save, idiot," he thought.

"Anyway, I have nothing to do with that, if that's what you're worried about."

Bridgette's embarrassment turned to disappointment. "Oh, okay. Thanks anyway." She returned to the group as Geoff tried to hug her but was denied due to his stench.

Chef, who had remained silent since she arrived, finally spoke up. "You know anything about those cards being left around?"

Cody looked at Harold, who was staring at Leshawna intently as she rode on the bull and smirked a bit. "I have a pretty solid idea of what it's all about."

"Trust me, kid, you haven't seen half of it. One look at those notes and, well, let's just say I haven't seen that type of writing since I was finding love. It's intense."

Cody put his hand up. "You can… spare me the details. I'm excited for the 'mystery writer' to come forward, though."

They returned their focus to the challenge just in time for Leshawna to get the win for the Gophers, meaning that it was time for the tiebreaker.

Taking a quick break for Tyler and Lindsay to change, the cast watched as everyone prepared themselves for the challenge. Lindsay was set to ski first, as Duncan revved his engine.

"You think you can handle this ride, princess?" Duncan mocked. Lindsay, unaware, gave a happy nod. The punk wasn't prepared for her to respond in that way but waited for Chris' countdown to start.

Despite his best efforts, Lindsay proved to be an excellent skier, not falling at any point. However, she was so distracted by the thrill of skiing that she missed two of her flags. She returned disappointed, but her teammates cheered her up by saying it was a great performance. Even Heather merely rolled her eyes and stayed quiet, though this could have been her preparing for her own challenge.

When it came time for Tyler to begin, he could barely stand when on level ground. When he was thrust into the mud, he immediately fell, becoming a spinning ball following Heather's ride. Despite his chaotic bouncing and incoherent screaming, he somehow ended up more successful than his girlfriend, with four of the five flags. Heather was furious that he was able to beat them but kept it inside.

"We lost? Damn…" Leshawna lamented.

Cody nodded along. "I broke an arm for this…"

"Well, it looks like the Killer Bass are our winners today!" The team cheered as a round of high-fives went out. "And it looks like the Screaming Gophers…" Chris stopped himself short, falling into silence, which confused the contestants. That is before he suddenly appeared right in front of Leshawna's face. "LOOOOOSSSEEE!"

She jumped back a foot before her face became red with anger. "MCLEAN!" she shouted before lunging at the host, who was too happy with his prank to notice her coming.

"Agh! Help! Guys! Chef!" he yelled, as Leshawna slapped him silly. This went on for another ten seconds before Chef finally answered his boss and dragged Leshawna off of him. Leshawna was able to get ahold of Chris' megaphone and throw it at his chest, breaking it yet again.

"Ahh…" Chris moaned on the ground before being scooped up by Chef.

"Oh shut up ya big baby."

The host whined a bit more before wiping his eyes. "Leshawna, you know the deal!"

Leshawna's eyes widened slightly before she bit her lip and nodded. The others gasped as they realized what was happening.

"Wait, no way!" Gwen protested, as did plenty of others.

"You can't be serious!"

"Not her!"

"You know the deal! Attack me and you get what's coming to ya!" Chris wiped the dirt off of his shirt. Leshawna only rolled her eyes.

"Don't worry y'all. I'm not sure I coulda taken much more of this island. Or much more of Chris, Heather, and Trent." Many nodded in solidarity. The now-eliminated contestant then went and got her bags. The others rushed after her and met up with her on the dock.

"Well y'all, I guess this is it," she said with a wave.

"You had a lot of stuff to give Chris a beat down. I respect it." Duncan said with sincerity.

"We'll miss you Lequisha!" Lindsay waved vigorously as she leaned into Tyler's side.

"Bye Leshawna…" Gwen said, pouting as she crossed her arms.

"Oh, come here sugar," Leshwana said, pulling her friend in for a final hug. "You be strong, ya hear? Beat Heather and Trent's butts, 'kay?" Gwen nodded as she bit her cheek.

"Bye y'all!" she said, stepping onto the boat with all of her luggage. A wave of silence fell over the crowd before one voice rose up.

"Wait!" A wheezy voice yelled, revealing themselves to be none other than Harold. Leshawna's eyes turned to confusion as the lanky teen stepped forward. "Leshawna, my love! I wrote those poems for you!" Bridgette and Linsday's eyes widened as they turned to face each other.

"Harold?!"

"Harvey?!"

"You? You were the one writing all those letters?" Leshawna asked in shock. "Baby, you are some kinda freaky!" Leshawna stepped off the boat and ran to Harold, who also ran to her. She swooped him up in her arms and gave him a long, passionate kiss. When they released, Harold's grin was wide and both of them were blushing.

"Ugh, can we get this fiend on the boat already?" Chris complained from the sidelines. A chorus of boos rang out at Chris who eventually backed off. Leshawna complied, however, setting Harold down and returning to her spot on the boat.

The boat drove off, with everyone remaining silent at the events that just took place. Harold, smugger than he'd ever been, strolled past the many gazes he was getting and entered the newly won shower.

Everyone remained in shock for a while, eventually splitting off to do their own things. Cody decided to return to his cabin with a grin that he just couldn't get rid of. After all he'd struggled through, Harold was able to confess his feelings. For all that had changed, some things were bound to stay the same, huh?

A/N: This is a weird chapter for me. For one, I don't really like the episode it's based on. Like, the plot itself is fine, but the challenges are so boring and disjointed. Plus, one of the major plotlines in this episode is all about Gwen and Bridgette's love feud, which not only loses one of its key players: Gwen, but also can't really include Cody at all.

Trent is such a hard character to write in this story. I wanted him to just be a good villain/rival for Cody, but I needed to give him a reason to be so. In canon, he's one of Cody's best friends, so I had to change him and what happens to him a lot so that he can be different. And slowly he turned more and more into an incel which I really didn't want. That wasn't the type of villain I wanted him to be. I have to try to make him more logical and reasonable so that he's not completely out of character, but not make him in the right, since he's an antagonist. Plus, spoilers, I'm not giving him a redemption arc. Sorry.

Feel free to dislike this Trent and what I've made him. That is totally and completely valid, and even warranted. But I've struggled to write him in the way that I imagined him. It's my fault as a writer, but I've tried to keep it okay.

The second half of this chapter might feel a bit rushed to you, which makes sense since it was. The chapter was getting long, and since Cody had no stake in anything past his conversation with Trent, I decided to speed it along.

Leshawna and Harold get their touching union, even if their positions are flipped. Leshawna is an okay character, but not a super necessary one. She's a good friend for Gwen, but for Cody? She's not ever going to get super close to him, nor are they going to share many plot points. Her elimination might seem unfair, which it is. But without having both Trent and Heather use plot armor to stay in the game, there was no way to get Leshawna out here other than that. I already used the vote splitting thing to get rid of Beth, and it wouldn't work twice in a row, either narratively or in universe.