Gwen's back in the came, but what other drama is forming?

Gwen's POV

I awoke on the boat's bench alone. I sat up straight and looked around. The barco was once again docked back on Camp Wawanakwa. Duncan and Heather were off in the distance, definitely arguing over something until Heather strode over to me, the sun that was just rising casting a bright glow on her supermodel-esque frame.

"Come on." She said softly to me, offering her hand. I used her wrist to pull myself up off of the barco and back onto the dock where just a few days atrás I was sent home. We started walking towards the clearing that we would go to every dia in the mornings. We were coming up onto it when Heather called out to Chris, who was explaining the challenge to everyone else, Duncan included. He was keeping a steady gaze on Alejandro.

"Chris!" Heather called, using her irritated voice.

"What?" Chris whined in return. I swear, he sounds like a five-year-old when he does that.

"I brought something back for you." Heather said triumphantly.

"Uh, I think you mean we!" Duncan corrected the girl. He was promptly ignored.

"Well, what is it?" Sierra asked.

"And what do you mean por 'back?'" Courtney asked with an eyebrow raised in suspicion.

"Is is Gwen?" Cody asked eagerly. I was watching this whole show from behind a árvore Heather had hid me behind.

"Hm. For once you're actually right, dweeb. Gwen! Get over here!" She called to me. I took a deep breath, plastered on my best fake smile (because, let's face it, I was happy to see them, but I wasn't happy to see all of them!), and stepped out from behind the árvore trunk, revealing myself to the others.

"Gwen!" Bridgette gasped. He wiggled out of Geoff's grasp and ran over to hug me. I wrapped my arms around the surfer girl as well, but kept my eyes open to gauge other people's reactions. Courtney's face was priceless. Her mouth was basically dropped down to the floor in pure shock, and her pupils had shrunk to the size of circular thumb tacks. Alejandro's basically mirrored hers, so I suppose I had hit a double-whammy in that department. Cody and Sierra were "EEEEE" ing like Katie and Sadie at a caqui, cáqui celeiro sale, LeShawna was smiling sweetly at me, DJ was giving me two thumbs up and a smile, Noah was unfazed as usual, and the duo that made my return possible were smiling triumphantly at their win. Geoff's expression was harder to read. He looked nervous, sad, and guilty all at the same time. Maybe I'd feel bad for him if he wasn't the one that cased this in the first place. Chris hollered over the commotion.

"Stop!" He screamed. We all fell silent to listen to the host's words. "What makes you two think I'm going to let Scary Girl back into the game anyways?" He asked Duncan and Heather. The two of them smirked at the pergunta as Heather handed him a pile of tattered papers.

"These would be all of the votes that Alejandro switched to get Gwen to go instead of who was actually supposed to go." Heather explained as Chris inspected each and every burnt and browned sheet of paper.

"Hm. Interesting." He muttered before looking back up at us. "So really, these pages are so beat up that I can't read a word, but I think having Gwen back would give us mais ratings." He said. I stood with the other teens with baited breath and watched nothing but Chris' mouth as he spoke. "So I'll let her back in."

"YES!" Everyone but the threesome cheered.

"Now shut up so I can explain the challenge!" Chris snapped at us. We hushed immediately and I stood with my team again while Chris started to explain.

"Today's challenge is going to take us to a happy place." Chris stated.

"So, what, we're going a million miles away from you?" Noah asked while laughing amusedly at his own joke. Stifled giggles and squeaky whispers filled the air from me and my fellow competitors.

"No." Chris said with an irritated look on his face. I meant the mountains!" He exclaimed. Our faces fell.

"The only people that the mountains are a happy place for is well...no one!" LeShawna exclaimed.

"Well then you better become no one fast, because the first challenge is a race up to the mountains." He explained, motioning with his hands to the mountains all the way out in the woods of the island. "On these!" He finished as two interns walked out with leashes, each of them tied up to a huge, gigantic bear. One of them snapped its jaw and full set of huge, pointy teeth at us, and we all fled to tho behind the red boathouse. I peeked out with the rest of my team.

"Uh, do you think this is really a good idea, Chris?" Sierra asked, pointing the bear.

"Hey, where'd those two interns go?" Duncan asked. We all looked over to the bears again and noticed that the two interns that were standing there just a minuto atrás were now absent.

"Of course it's safe." Chris assured us cheerily. "Go!" he screamed. Hesitantly, we walked out of hiding and towards the deadly duo.

Confessional

Bridgette: This shouldn't be hard. After the incident with Bruno, I've got killer skills when it comes to bears.

LeShawna: What is this host trying to pull? LeShawna don't do near-death experiences. Uh-uh.

End Confessional

Still in a tight group, all of the members of my team started to quietly make our way towards the beast. Once we had gotten within a foot of the thing, it roared and lunged for us, but since it was tied to a tree, it didn't reach us, but still!

"Okay..." Courtney said nervously, "I think we need a different approach." She said with her wide eyes glued to the big brown bear.

"Any ideas?" I asked my teammates. Courtney's onyx eyes suddenly lit up.

"Me!" She screamed, raising her hand in the air. "Cody, get me some duct tape. NOW!" She yelled after Cody didn't mover right away. The nerdy por stumbled over his feet at the brunette's harsh words, but once he found his footing had taken off. Ugh, it was so annoying! I didn't want to listen to Courtney, knowing what she did and all, but I'd rather do that then get eaten por a bear. Cody returned swiftly with a big roll of silver duct tape clutched in his grasp. Courtney took it from him and pulled us all into a huddle. "Okay, so someone should tackle the urso and embrulho, envoltório this around his mouth." Courtney explained.

"Like a muzzle?" I asked her. She nodded. It was odd, though. The nod wasn't sarcastic or competitive, it was just a nod. I pushed my thoughts away for now and instead focused on who should be sent to do the deed.

"Who are we gonna send?" LeShawna asked the circle. No one volunteered outright until Heather grabbed a hold of Cody and pushed in the direction of the snarling bear.

"Sierra! Look!" Heather screamed to the tolet, violet haired female with a fake distress to further elaborate the illusion. Sierra gasped, roubou the duct tape from Courtney and sprinted over to the árvore nearest the bear. She climbed up it faster than a monkey could ever do and looked at the urso ferociously. I was scared for the boy that the urso was sniffing.

"Get you hands off him!" Sierra yelled, and with one leap off the branch, was securely latched onto the varmint, despite it's harsh shaking. While she was wrapping the silver tape around the mouth and nose of the bear, I took a peek at the Killer Cavemen's progress. They had untied the rope from the árvore tronco, porta-malas and it was now being held por DJ, I'm guessing he refused to actually try to help the animal, what with his curse and all.

Noah, Geoff, Alejandro, and Duncan were all calmly seated on the creature's back while Bridgette sweet-talked the animal.
"Who's a good bear? Oh you are, you are! Good boy!" Bridgette said in a stupid baby-like voice. The urso then grinned at the blonde as he willingly let her hop onto its back. "Let Go, Deej and hop on!" She ordered the big fellow. He released the thick rope and jumped onto the bear's back all in a matter of seconds. The urso began stomping wildly in the direction of the mountains. I snapped my head back to Sierra, who had secured the bear's mouth using the entire roll of duct tape. Without a segundo thought I hopped on behind Sierra, and a now seguro Cody was soon to follow. He tried to embrulho, envoltório his arms around my waist, but one dirty look put him in his place. The other three girls hopped on as well, Heather snapping the rope as she got on. Within segundos we were off, running through the forest. I shut my eyes when the impact of the wind on them became irritating, but I still relished the feeling of freedom as the wind shot through my hair and invigorated my sentences. It's official, I need to get into horseback riding.

I felt us run up an incline, a high one. I shut my eyes tighter as I felt our traction begin to fail, but our trust urso pulled through for us and brought us to the topo, início of the mountain...last.

"We lost?" Heather asked in angry shock.

"It appears so, doesn't it, Sweetheart?" Duncan asked his now former partner in crime derisively. Now that they're not working together, they're back to despising each other again. I liked it. It was weird when they were semi-cooperative with one another, so I was glad to have it this way.

"See guys?" Bridgette cut in, "I knew we could win this!" Bridgette said with her eyes shut. She was also smiling from ear to ear with one fist in the air.

"I'm just glad I didn't do anything to the little guy." DJ said with a relieved sigh. Chris then strode over to our teams with his sunglasses and a smile.

Your seguinte challenge is going to be to get your urso from this mountain to that one." Chris explained, pointing to a mountaintop of this height about a quarter of a mile away.

"Alright!" LeShawna exclaimed, mounting the urso again. "Giddy up, Sugar!" LeShawna said to the bear.

"...using those." Chris finished, Sure enough, running from this side of the mountain to the other were two thin and skinny wooden planks. This wasn't going to end well, I just knew it. "And since the Killer Cavemen the first part of the challenge, you guys receive full use of my helicopter for this part of the competish." Exclamations of:

"Cool!", "Sweet!", and "Alright!" lingered through the air and were only rivaled por our sad sighs.

"So...Have fun!" Chris yelled, tossing the keys over to one of the members of their team. Our team looked on in disappointment as Duncan, Noah, and Alejandro boarded the chopper. Heather then groaned frustratingly.

"Who needs that stupid helicopter. Let's mover it!" Heather commanded us. She started yanking on the rope around the bear's neck, and it actually started to pull the brown-haired beast across the board. We all walked at a steady, slow pace along with it until we heard the helicopter above us start to make odd noises. You could see the three boys in the front window, and they were freaked. Duncan had the wheel, and, of course, was driving like a psychopath.

"Left, Amigo, left!" Alejandro could be heard screaming.

"Your other left!" Noah yelled as the helicopter jerked from side to side. We had por now almost reached the finish line. The aircraft then suddenly sped up and flew not even an inch above all of our heads until crashing into the side of the mountain. Everyone gasped. I held my breath, mostly concerned over the safety of my boyfriend. There was assorted volumes of coughing coming from the rubble as three soot-covered heads popped out of the wreckage. I pulled the one with the green hair out and pulled him close to me, just happy he was safe.

"I thought you were dead." I whispered.

"You're not getting rid of me that easily, Babe." He said laughingly. I giggled and pulled away from the guy just as Chris came stomping over, fuming mad.

"YOU DESTROYED MY HELI!" He screamed the loudest he's ever screamed in our presence. He looked sadly at his steaming wreckage, which Chef was now extinguishing.

"Sorry, Chris, we didn't mean to-" Alejandro began.

"Get out!" Chris screamed.

"But we aren't in anything." I pointed out.

"Yeah, and what about the winner?" Courtney called to the angry man.

"GO. AWAY!" He screamed. None of us wanted to see steam pour out of his ears at the moment, so we all retreated back to camp.

Later, I was sitting on the porch when the evil trio came trudging out of the forest. They were mad at each other.

"Forget this, Dude!" Geoff was screaming at Al.

"But what about all our plans?" Alejandro asked the other two, who were walking away from him in the directions of their cabins. Courtney turned and looked at the desperate Latin.

"Look, Alejandro, I like you...but it's over for now. We need to give it up or start over." Courtney said with genuine sympathy. None of them spoke as they took off in certain directions. Courtney came right up to me. "Gwen?" She asked me unsurely. She was speaking softly and almost lovingly.

"What's up?" I asked casually.

"Look, I think you pretty much that I helped Alejandro and Geoff get rid of you the first time around, but I'm really sorry. You're back now, though, so it's good. Truce?" She asked, holding a hand out for me to shake. Her little speech took away my ability to function.

Confessional

Gwen: Did I miss the other signs of the apocalypse or something?

Courtney: Okay, so it wasn't a total lie. I'm out one alliance now, so Gwen's my only hope of getting rid of Heather! I need her!

End Confessional

I was seriously contemplating taking her outstretched hand when a loud call came over the campsite.

"Bed. NOW!" Chris growled. Man, he was mad. I looked up almost apologetically at Courtney before walking into the cabin. I thought about her as I did my usual before cama routine. She must have some sort of angle, but I don't know what. It was torturing my mind, not allowing me to sleep until those famous words tickled my ears pink:

"'Night, Pasty."