Gwen's POV

That bullhorn is going down. I jumped off my topo, início bunk like a ninja, throwing on my clothes as fast I could, then rolling on some cerceta, verde-azulado lipstick as I went outside with everyone else. Chris was standing at his usual clearing.

"Alright, everyone's here, challenge time!" He sang, much to our annoyance. "Today, we're going to have a sort of different challenge." He said smugly.

"What are you going to not try and kill us?" Noah asked with his arms crossed.

"Of course I am." Chris replied.

"Ugh! Shut up everybody so I can hear what the lame-o host is going to say!" Heather screamed.

"I'm just going to let that slide for now. Anyways, Today's challenge is going to be a wicked-awesome robot fight!" The host announced. The only people that cheered were Harold and Cody. But hey, it couldn't be that bad. I mean, they're probably the only two people here that know how to build a robot. "Teams have three hours to assemble their robots out of whatever they want. Anything's free reign as long as it isn't from my private trailer. First come first served. We meet back here when time's up for the war!" Chris explained enthusiastically.

"Robots? Yes!" Harold exclaimed before high-fiving Cody.

"Alright, Guys, we've got to figure something out!" Duncan exclaimed to his team, and they circled into a huddle. I looked back to my team.

"Alright, We leave Harold, Cody, and Fanzilla here to plan, while the rest of us go searching for parts. Clear?" Heather whispered to us. All of us nodded except for Courtney.

Confessional

Courtney: Ugh! Who died and made Heather team leader? That's supposed to be me!

End Confessional

We all broke and scattered all about. I was looking around one of the many storage sheds when Heather walked in.

"Go somewhere else, I've got this place covered." I assured her, but she came up to me anyway.

"Did you see Courtney this morning?" She asked me, her eyes intent and focused.

"I slept late, so no, sorry." I answered. Hm, I never thought I'd be apologizing to Heather for something.

"Well I did! I'm usually the first person to wake up, but when I got up this morning, Courtney was already awake and dressed. She had her travesseiro covering her lap, but I could tell what she was doing." Heather explained.

"So, um, what was she doing?" I asked.

"Texting!" Heather exclaimed. She was getting all worked up over Courtney being on her PDA again? It's some condition of her contract, we're all used to it por now.

"I'm not seeing the importance." I answered her.

"Hello? She knows we know that she's allowed to have that stupid thing, so why would she hide it?" Heather asked, which is when I started to get why Heather so suspicious.

"Oh." I said slowly. "Well, what do you think she was doing?" I asked curiously.

"I don't know, but keep an eye on her." She said seriously. Then, she turned on her heel and walked out, but not before she pointed to some shiny metal naco, pedaço, hunk of crap. "And grab that thing." Was her last demand. I went over to pick up the item which looked like a chá kettle, and then I heard some voices through the thin wooden walls of the crappy shed. I stopped breathing to listen to the conversation.

"I don't know what she was doing." The voice was saying. It was calm and peaceful, and so I deduced that it was Bridgette.

"Duh. She was obviously texting." I didn't even have to think about who that was, I knew him too well.

"Yeah, but why would she hide it?" Bridgette asked.

"I don't know, but we should stay out of it. Mama always says that curiosity killed the cat." The use of the word "Mama" could only mean DJ.

"Yeah, but cat's have nine lives. That means I've got like three left!" Duncan protested.

"Hey, bro, if you guys want to get all up in Courtney's business, fine, but I'm staying out of it. Uh-uh." DJ said. They continued talking, but I couldn't hear them, as they were apparently walking away from the building I was in. I grabbed the kettle, waited for complete silence, and walked out.

Confessional

DJ: I am not helping them get up in her grill, that girl scares me. It's probably just nothing.

Gwen: Okay, I've got to stop overhearing conversations.

End Confessional

About two hours later, I was walking through the wooded area, my hands filled with various broken lixo I found. There were a few things I was sure would be useful in building a robot, like the old bus engine, the TV remote I found, and a few batteries. Then, there were the few things that I wasn't really sure they would be useful, and kind of just grabbed so the Killer Cavemen couldn't. That, though, was really only the saw and the showerhead.

As I was walking, Chris' bullhorn blasted throughout the campgrounds, followed por his voice.

"Time's up! denunciar back within ten minutes, or you items don't count!"

Luckily, I was close, and had made it within five. I was the last of my team to get there, but it didn't matter since I had at least contributed to our supplies. LeShawna, Courtney, Heather and I were the only ones standing. Cody and Harold were kneeled down on the ground over a large sheet of paper. both had pencils and were muttering things to each other as they continuously marked up the crisp white sheet. Sierra was on the opposite side of the paper, sitting Indian style and staring dreamily at Cody. I dropped all the stuff I had found on topo, início of our pile. I then looked approvingly at our collection.

"Wow, great job, guys." I complimented my team.

"Thanks." Duncan said as he walked por with his own pile of metallic technology. He had just arrived with DJ and Bridgette. I half-smiled at him as he walked by.

"Good job, teams. You guys are all lucky to have gotten here on time. Well, I've got to get my hair tweaked, so you guys have until tonight to put your robots together, and then it's battle stations!" Chris exclaimed excitedly and waved slightly at us before leaving our teams to our own devices.

"Harold, baby, you guys got a plan?" LeShawna asked, looking over the scrawny redhead's shoulder at the paper.

"Yeah we are!" Cody exclaimed, standing up.

"Yay!" Sierra squealed in a high-pitched voice. She then clutched Cody's neck, nearly suffocating him for a moment. Courtney snatched the paper up off the grama to get a better look. We all peeked over her shoulders at it as well. Boy, it was confusing. There was a picture of a robot in the middle, that we knew for sure, but other than that, nothing. It was all science mumbo jumbo. I looked over to the killer Cavemen. Geoff and Duncan were hoisting what looked like a chunk of a demolished trailer on topo, início of a pair of trash can legs under the instruction of Noah. Lindsay appeared to have the job of screwing and hammering and nailing.

"Alright, hold it just like that." Lindsay was saying to Duncan and Geoff, who were noticeably under strain.

"Keep it steady." Noah said with hand gestures.

"Shut it man!" Geoff yelled irritably.

"Yeah, you try holding this thing up while the genius takes an hora to secure it!" Duncan added. Lindsay then gasped with excitement.

"Oh, I'm a genius? Thank you, Darren!" Lindsay squealed with an innocent smile. Noah rolled his eyes.

"I see your point." He said simply. Tyler then intervened.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Tyler asked defensively.

"Look, no offense, dude, but Linds is just...not the brightest crayon in the box, dig?" Geoff asked as he tried out different ways of holding up the huge naco, pedaço, hunk of metal.

"My Lindsay can do anything she wants!" Tyler defended his girlfriend.

"Except think." Noah said laughingly.

Confessional

Tyler: Man, sometimes I can't stand my team! I mean, there's nothing wrong with Lindsay. She's as smart as they come.

Geoff: Dude needs to chill out. It's not my fault his girl's got the IQ of a baseball!

Bridgette: We are having some serious communication problems on this team. If we were a couple, we'd need marriage counseling.

Heather: This is GREAT! The losers are all fighting, which means they're not focused, which means they won't finish, which means they'll lose, which means we'll win. *smiles*

End Confessional

Tyler furrowed his brow and went back to being a spectator. I brought my attention back to my teammates and smiled upon realizing we were getting it. Well, actually, Cody and Harold were getting it. They were the ones actually doing any constructing, everyone else from my team was doing something else. Courtney and Heather were sitting on the wooden steps of one of the nearby buildings. Courtney once again had her PDA out and was either texting or leitura something. She had the side closest to Heather shielded with one of her hands, but Heather would still try to sneak a peek every once in a while. I'm telling you, something's up with that. Sierra was watching Harold and Cody put our robot together. Albeit she was mainly watching Cody, Harold was there, too, so it still counts. LeShawna had run off to get a quick shower, claiming she needed one after running around in the woods. Chances are she's probably just relishing the peace and quiet.

I laid down on the spot, propping my upper body up with my hands outstretched behind me and my legs stretched on in front of me. I then got an idea. I pulled my diary out of nowhere, sometimes I don't even know where I keep the thing, and just started writing. It was just a sort of aleatório entry, talking about everything and anything. I was in the middle of composição literária about my alliance with Heather when I felt a disturbance in the ground seguinte to me, and someone sit down. I didn't acknowledge them as whoever it was limply wrapped an arm around me. I could then tell por the black cuff on their wrist that it was Duncan. He still didn't get any acknowledgement, as I was determined to finish this diary entry. But then I felt his face seguinte to mine. Ugh! He was trying to read my diary.

I slammed the black boot shut and looked at him. He was looking away at nothing in particular.

"Ha-ha. Very funny." I said sarcastically. "This is personal, you know." I advised him, shaking my diary up and down slowly.

"What's it matter? I bet it's all about me anyways." He said with a smirk. I laughed at his arrogance.

"No, it's not." I corrected him.

"You sure about that?" He questioned. His face was still near mine.

"Positive." I answered with a smirk which mimicked his. At that moment, we would have kissed, but Geoff came over and dragged Duncan away por the back of his shirt. Duncan's red converse kicked up dirt and uprooted dandelions and grama as he slid along the ground. He got an annoyed look on his face as he pointed up at his blonde friend.

"I will so pound you for that!" He threatened. I giggled and went back to composição literária in my diary for a moment, but couldn't help but hear Geoff and Duncan's conversation, or rather argument.

"We need you with our team!" Geoff was saying to Duncan, who had just gotten up off the ground.

"We screwed the trailer thing on, and DJ and Tyler are taking care of the rest, you don't need me for squat!" He shouted back.

"I meant we need you focused on the game, not your girlfriend, who may I remind you isn't on your team!" Geoff responded. They got in each other's faces and growled.

Confessional

Geoff: We need Duncan to win, man, no doubt. And he can't help us do that when he's too busy charming his girl who isn't on our team!

End Confessional

"We're done!" Cody screamed. Every member of our team, me included, rushed to the scene. LeShawna got there last, of course. The robot was sure a sight. It was a small thing, standing at maybe three and a half feet. It was made out of a ton of silver, brass, and gold objects, as well as a few electronic items. Harold pressed a button on the remote control I picked up, and the robot's light bulb eyes lit up, and it began to walk in a straight line. We all gasped.

"Guys, this is amazing!" I exclaimed.

"You sure did good, baby!" LeShawna complimented her on-and-off boyfriend, who smiled sweetly at the praise.

"Is it good enough for a kiss?" Harold asked, closing his eyes and puckering his lips. LeShawna raised a brow at the boy and clapped a hand over his mouth.

"Don't go there, boy." She said with tons of attitude.

"Yeah, guys, but there's only one problem: look at theirs!" Courtney pointed to the other teams. They weren't even done yet, and their robot was almost as tall as Chef. That basically meant that their controller could make a wrong mover and cause their robot to fall, but they'd still win, since the fall could easily crush our puny little robot. We all looked worriedly at the two creations.

"Don't worry, guys, we had two geniuses put this together, they have to have some type of defense, right?" I asked my entire team, who simply stared blankly at me. I kept that fake smile on my face until Chris waltzed over to us.

"Time to fight!" He said with an evil smile. Harold pressed a button on the remote, and the robot stopped moving. He hesitantly picked up his and Cody's machine and placed it in the middle of the clearing seguinte to the Cavemen's monster. If I was our little robot, I would b whimpering and scared to death right now. Chris, now fully clad in a referee camisa and whistle, walked in front of the throng of people also known as us. "It's time to battle!" He roared. "Go!"

Each robot came to life and started doing different operations. Ours was shooting bright green paintballs out of where its hands should have been, while the other teams, being operated por Noah, was stomping hard, making out little guy unsteady. I watched with my coração in my throat as the two bots went at it, occasionally doing some strange, but rather impressive ability. It was getting intense, the two were now both running out of options. Our paintball supply was low, and their supply of acorns being shot out of the huge thing's eyes were also getting scarce. Finally, Harold announced the worst.

"We're out of ammo!" He exclaimed frantically. Sierra groaned in worry.

"Cody! Do something!" She cried.

"I can't! We don't have anything left!" He replied. My coração started to sink with the feeling of loss when Heather tossed something into the ring. It was a microwave that we hadn't used. It smacked the opposing team's bot in the head hard enough that it knocked the head right off, and then after that came down the rest of the mechanical beast. The robot, did unfortunately crash right down onto our poor machine. It didn't matter, though, we had won!

"Yes!" Heather exclaimed. We all cheered as the Killer Cavemen began to vehemently protest.

"Dude! She like, totally cheated!" Geoff screamed.

"Throwing things in the ring? Psh, that ain't fair." DJ huffed.

"C'mon Chris, what the heck was that?" Duncan added.

"Relax Dudes, it's not like they won anything." Chris said carelessly.

"So we're voting someone out again?" Bridgette asked, still in awe at what just happened in the ring.

"Nope." Chris said. That got us all confused.

"So wait, we don't get a reward, but they don't vote someone off?" I asked, pointing to the Cavemen.

"Exactly." The host confirmed.

"I don't get it." Lindsay said.

"For once she isn't alone!" Courtney said. "What are you talking about?" She demanded of him.

"My cable's out, so I needed something to do." He shrugged. Now, we were the ones that were being protestant. I didn't even know what the yells were saying, although I could imagine that they weren't pretty. Chris finally gave in. "Alright, alright, chill, I'll give you a reward." He said.

"Thank you." Courtney said with a smug, Brilhante Victoria look on her face. Chris excused himself for a moment and left us alone. We all mingled for a few minutos with each other. I talked to Bridgette for a minute, and it felt good. I think I'm actually starting to get to know her again. I felt a tap on my shoulder and swiveled around to none other than Duncan. He put his arms on either side of my waist as I stiffly put mine around his neck.

"Now about before..." He trailed off with a smile.

"I'm back!" Chris sang. I pouted and looked apologetically at him as I ran over to claim my prize with my team. Chris was standing there with one, shiny black laptop with the charger coiled up on topo, início of it. "I feel it's only fitting that since the challenge had to do with technology, that the prize be too. The Screaming Squids get to keep this laptop and use it for the remainder of the competition." He explained. I picked the device up out of Chris' hands and held it over my head in my team's direction. We all hooted and hollered. There was an outlet in the girl's cabin, so we were set since we knew Chris had internet here to answer all his fã mail vis E-Mail. "Now, it's dark and my hyperbaric sleep chamber is awaiting. Shoo!" He said, pushing the air por him. Heather took the laptop out of my hands and began to plan out who could use it an when as we walked back to the cabins. i walked a little slower, just because I wanted to relish the beautiful night I guess. As I was walking, I was pushed into a árvore with full force por you guessed it, Duncan.

He had his arms on either side of me, so escape was not an option. I put either of my hands on each of his shoulders and looked for.

"And that was necessary because...you wanted to talk?" I guessed, even though I knew it was wrong.

"Talk is cheap." He answered, not breaking away from our stare-down.

"That's good, I'm broke." I answered.

"Well then it's a good thing I'm not." He said. We were once again about to kiss when Heather called to me from the cabine steps.

"Gwen!" She screamed.

"Seriously?" I yelled back, even though she didn't know that she had interrupted something. I was about to apologize to Duncan, but he was already gone. I glumly walked into my cabin, but not before Heather whispering in my ear.

"Courtney's got the computer tonight. I'm watching what she does. She whispered. I nodded and did my usual night-time routine before crawling into cama like everyone else but Courtney had. I could see Heather on a bottom bunk with one of her eyes open. I did the opposite of Heather and shut my eyes, just waiting for the rustle of the trees, which came, and was of course accompanied by:

"'Night, Pasty."