Salmon is For Desire

Salmon Is For Desire Prologue
The camera panned in to show Chris McClean, standing in front of a obvious green screen background of some hearts. Rose blossoms fell  dramatically around him. “Last time on Total Drama Colors!” The host announced, batting a petal out from in front of his face. “The contestants had a little… shower. Some people did great for their team,” The camera flashed to show pictures of Gaile and Jillian getting Bailey knocked out of the competition with a perfectly placed water balloon, “while others didn’t do so ‘cool’.” The images changed to a rapid fire montage of literally every other contestant getting out. Chris laughed as the camera returned to him.

“Who’s gonna screw it up for their team this time? Can the Polar Bears keep it together after Matt’s abrupt elimination?” Pictures of the Polar Bears flashed up on the screen, Arizona standing alone in the middle of her other teammates. “Will one of our teams be the first to lose two contestants? How have the Pandas gone for so long without losing anyone?” From the images that flashed up, it was clear that Chris meant this as a jab, since the Pandas team was obviously extremely dysfunctional. “And what does this challenge have to do with my lovely backdrop?” As Chris said this, the screen behind him switched to a bunch of salmon fish raining down at the same pace as the ever persistent blossoms, which were starting to layer up around Chris’ knees. “Find out the answers to all these questions and more on this episode of Total! Drama! Colors!!!” Chris spread his arms out and was hit in the head by an actual salmon just as the theme song faded onto the screen.

Salmon Is for Desire Part 1
 The Contestants are assulted by pin- err...salmon as they're split up into groups for breakfast; and it's revealed that the challenge is going to be a kissing relay! 

Plot
Mallory jolted awake, a thin layer of sweat covering her body. It was really too early to be awake, it looked like it was still dark outside. She must have been having a nightmare, but the details were already slipping. She had a vague thought that it had something to do with a construction zone, but she forced away the memory as soon as it came into her mind. She figured she should get up and get moving. Mallory swung her legs over her bed, promptly tripping over her cluttered floor as soon as her feet touched down. She really should get things cleaned up, it hadn’t even been four episodes yet. She’d have to figure out how to do laundry sometime, then she could pick up some of the bigger clothing piles.

A few minutes later, Mallory was freshly dressed and ready for the day. She opened her door and slipped outside, unintentionally colliding with Derby, who was on his way downstairs. He’d woken up early too, despite the fact that he’d stayed up later than he’d wanted to last night, working on a new drama story featuring a lot of characters based on the people he’d met on TDCO. Mallory went sprawling from the force of the impact, and Derby went reeling and hit the wall. The two took a moment to reorient themselves, and Derby straightened his glasses, which just kept getting more and more abused as the show went on.

“Sorry about that!” Mallory chuckled a little as she pulled herself to her feet. “I didn’t think anyone else would be up this early!”

“It’s fine, Mallory, don’t worry about it.” Derby had been expecting to get a few bruises when he signed up for Total Drama. He extended his arm cordially to Mallory, and she grasped onto it, inwardly thanking Derby since she was worried about possibly tripping again. The two headed over towards the elevator, and Mallory pressed the button.

“That was quite the intense elimination from your team yesterday.” Derby continued on the conversation in what he hoped was a friendly matter, since he really knew little about Mallory other than her fascination with bombs.

“Yeah, we’ve got a lot of drama going on. It’s mostly between Alice, ‘Zona, and Matt, I think. Arizona seemed pretty mad at us yesterday, though, and I don’t really know what’s wrong.” The elevator arrived, and the two entered, letting the doors shut behind them. It seemed to be functional today, and Derby pressed the button for the ground floor.

“How’s your team?” Mallory really didn’t know much about Derby, and she figured now was a good time to at least hear about the Penguins.

“My team is…” Derby pondered this for a moment. “A little crazy, but really quite good.” This was as honest of an answer as he could give. Though his team was a little on the wild and disorganized side, they really did all have their hearts in the right place, and they always did their best in challenges.

“Lucky,” Mallory said with a small huff. “I’d switch with you, I could do without any team drama.”

Derby laughed a little, and the elevator door dinged. “I don’t think Chris would let you do that, but I’m sure things will work out splendidly with your team.”

The elevator doors slid open slowly, and a shower of pink streamers suddenly bombarded the pair from the outside.

“The first lovers have arrived!!” Chris cheered from the loudspeakers, and Mallory and Derby brushed the streamers off their faces.

“Lovers??” Mallory looked confusedly at Derby, and he simply shrugged.

“You arrived together, so you’re lovers. Waiter, take them to their table!” An intern dressed in a cheap looking suit walked up to the pair and grabbed both of their hands, pulling them to a little table with two seats. It had some food on it already, and the two were forced into the chairs, looking bemusedly at the pink heart balloons and streamers hanging all over the dining hall.

“Enjoy your breakfast. We spent a lot of money on the decorations.” Chris’ voice clicked off again, and Derby and Mallory stared into one another’s eyes, both finding this a little ridiculous.

Derby shrugged again and picked up a plate, extending it to the girl. “Pancake?”

Next awake was T, scrubbing at their eyes as they walked into the hallway. They looked sleepy, early morning hours really getting to them. Their collection of paper stars was getting pretty big though, and they decided that staying up late had been worth it. The audience, knowing what would happen to the teen when they went downstairs, waited with bated breath to see who would be meeting up with T in the hallway.

A door opened and Dakota exited his room, camera bumping against his chest. He turned to head towards the elevator, before seeing T out of the corner of his vision. “Hey there! Ummm, it’s T, right?” Dakota crossed his fingers, hoping desperately that he’d remembered it right.

“Yes, that’s right.” T smiled, and Dakota beamed. The camera boy could tell that T looked a little nervous, and he decided to help him out a bit with the conversation.

“You want to go down with me? I know things must be crazy on your team!” Dakota might not remember everything, but the yellow team had fights often enough for it to stick in his brain.

T nodded. “They can be pretty wild, but most of them are actually very nice.” The teen stepped forward, and they and Dakota walked together into the elevator, where the streamers had been swept out for reuse. The doors closed, and the two headed downstairs.

“Well, I know Ry is nice!!” Dakota pipped out happily, and T looked at him questioningly.

“I can’t say I’ve talked to him very much,” they said honestly, Ry being one of the people they had few opinions on.

“I know you’d love him if you ever got a chance to make friends!” Dakota grinned as the elevator landed, and the doors creaked open.

“Speaking of love…” Chris laughed, and steamers bombarded the two, pressing their small bodies against the back wall. “Hello to our two new lovers!!”

“Lovers?” T looked very anxious at this, and an intern started dragging the two off into the room where Mallory and Derby were spreading syrup on their heart shaped pancakes.

Dakota glanced at the teen with concern. “It’s okay, T. We both know we aren’t in love.” The two were pressed into their seats, and T calmed a little at Dakota’s words.

“I really would prefer for us to just be friends.” T admitted with a smile, and Dakota nodded.

“Don’t worry about it! Only… can I take a quick picture of you? I like having pictures of all my friends!” Dakota pulled up his camera, and T hesitantly nodded.

“Okay, one, two, three!”

SNAP!

The camera flashed back upstairs. Gaile wandered out of her door, tapping buttons on her Tamagotchi. She’d gotten new batteries in it, and she was busy setting her virtual pet back up. A ways up the hallway, Benny emerged as well, stretching and yawning. He was still a little tired, but he’d actually managed to get a little more sleep than usual last night, and he was hoping it would help him out in the challenge. Gaile reached the elevator first, and she pressed the button, still unaware that Benny was approaching her from down the hallway. Finally, just as Benny was about to say hello, she turned and saw him. She wasn’t prepared for the presence of the boy so close to her, and she screeched slightly, dropping the Tamagotchi.

“I’m sorry, Gaile!” Benny was significantly more awake due to the girl’s scream, and he hastily picked up the toy, handing it back to her. Gaile accepted it graciously, though she groaned as she looked at the screen.

“Aww, this is wicked unfair! Restarted again!” The girl pouted a little and pressed a few of the buttons, and the elevator door opened. The two entered, and Benny looked sadly at Gaile.

“Gaile, I really am sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you.” Come to think of it, this was slightly ironic, but neither of the pair commented on it.

“Nah, it’s okay. The batteries died last night, so I was just doing a new g-”

“ELEVATOR!!” Came a yelp from down the hall, and the familiar shape of a girl pelting on all fours came rushing towards the slowly closing doors.

“Oh no,” The contestants already in the elevator said in an almost silent exhale, before Selene was upon them, barely making it through before the doors clanged together.

“Hi!!” The girl was wriggling from the excitement of the start of a new day. “Morning!!”

“Morning, Selene.” Benny said with a tired sigh, and Selene gave him a nuzzle on the arm. She turned to do the same to Gaile, but found that the girl had shrunk back against the elevator wall.

Selene looked back at Benny questioningly, still squirming.

“Gaile? What’s wrong?” Benny asked with concern, and Gaile smiled faintly.

“I’m sure I’ll be okay. I just… don’t like dogs.”

“Wolves!” Selene corrected her. “You like wolves!”

“N-not particularly.” Gaile shook her head, and Selene looked confused as to why someone would possibly not like wolves.

“Family.” The girl, who was still on all fours, said, as if this clarified everything.

“Selene, it’s okay. Don’t push it if she’s scared.” Benny ruffled Selene’s hair, pulling her attention back to him as the elevator landed on the bottom floor.

As was the case before, the three were attacked with streamers as the doors slid open. Benny and Gaile put up their hands to cover their faces, but Selene jumped around in excitement.

“Fun!!” The girl shrieked, before Chris’ voice came on over the loudspeakers.

“Ooooh, polygamy. Scandalous.”

“What?” All three of the contestants said at once, some more knowledgeable about what polygamy was than others. Before anything was straightened up, however, they were yanked from the elevator by interns, and thrown into chairs in the dining hall. A third chair had been dragged over, and the table space was a little squished.

“Eat up, lovebirds!” Chris clicked off once again, and Selene instantly obeyed. Benny and Gaile exchanged an extremely confused glance, but they started eating as well, digging into the strangely pink colored scrambled eggs.

Bailey bounded out of her room, tugging down the edge of her shirt. It was clear she’d quickly thrown on her clothes, but it was already getting late and she didn’t want to be the last one downstairs! She rushed along down the hallway, slamming right into a door which had just been thrown open. Bailey crumpled to the floor, groaning, and Kiki quickly ran to her side.

“Bailey? Ya okay??”

“Ugh.” Bailey rubbed her head. Was everything spinning, or was that just her? Gradually, things straightened back up, and she could actually see the member of the yellow team leaning over her. “Kiki?” she questioned, double checking that her eyes weren’t tricking her.

“Yeah, it’s me.” Well, Bailey seemed to be okay now. Kiki, enjoying her new height benefits, reached down and offered the other girl a hand up, which she accepted graciously. “Sorry 'bout that, I didn’t see ya comin’! What’re ya in such a hurry for?”

“I just wanted to make sure I wouldn’t be the last one downstairs, but I guess there’s still a lot of people asleep!” Bailey and Kiki made their way to the elevator and pressed the button for it to arrive.

“I don’t think ya need ta be worried 'bout bein’ the last one down, since you’re movin’ pretty darn fast! No need for the rush though, I doubt Chris would start anythin’ without ya.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Bailey grinned at the other girl as they stepped together into the elevator. Bailey’s head was still a little scrambled, but she’d survived worse injuries than this. “So, you ready for the challenge today?”

Kiki looked up at Bailey with an eyebrow raised. “I don’t think I’m ever ready for a challenge on Total Drama. Especially cuz of my crazy team.”

Bailey nodded in sympathy. “They do seem like they fight a lot!”

“Lot is an understatement.” The two shared a brief laugh as the elevator landed and the doors opened.

''Bam! ''The same streamers as before came rocketing into the room, now looking a little tattered. Bailey, in fact, was knocked over from the force, since she was still a little rocky on her feet.

“Get up and smell the roses, Bailey! Love is in the air!” Chris laughed from the speakers, and interns yanked the two out and shoved them into chairs.

“Love?” Both girls questioned, Bailey, the asexual, questioning it a little further than Kiki, the lesbian.

“Eat your breakfast.” Chris was gone again, and the two looked down at the food on the little table. It did look better than usual.

“Well, eat up, I guess.” Bailey shrugged and tore into the pancakes, Kiki joining in with lots of breakfast vigor.

With a book open in her hands, Jillian was next to emerge into the hallway. She was reading up on how to build fires in the wilderness with limited supplies, and it was really interesting! She hadn’t been able to do nearly as much reading as she’d wanted to so far, since the show was really wild! Enraptured in the information, Jillian didn’t notice a loop of rope lying completely unsuspiciously on the floor. Not watching her step, Jillian stepped right into the middle of it and…whomp! Up she went into the air with a yelp, book falling out of her hands. She was dangling upside down now, and her heart was racing a mile a minute. She knew how to get out of one of these, though. Carefully, Jillian reached up to work on untying it, trying to calm down.

“Keh heh hehe heh heh!!” A maniacal laugh came from down the hallway, and Dennis came rushing out of his room. He walked over briskly to inspect his prey, grin so wide that it was stretching his face. “Like my lil’ prank, Jill?” He looked up and snickered. Jillian had paused in her unknotting.

“It… sure was something,” she said quietly. She could untie a trap, but she was not good at talking to people.

“Aww, Jill-Jill, it’s all in good fun! It’s just the way I show my love!!” Dennis blew Jillian a kiss, and with anxious fingers, she went back to trying to get free. The blood was rushing to her head, and making her start to feel dizzy.

Dennis noticed that Jillian’s face was starting to get just a little bit red. Maybe he shouldn’t push it. He didn’t want her to like die or anything. “Want me ta get ya down from there?” Dennis had just finished his sentence when Jillian fell to the floor, having succeeded in getting loose. She wasn’t looking too hot, though. “Jill?” He leaned over, making sure that the girl was still alive.

“C-can we never do that again?” Jillian mumbled, already starting to feel the bruises.

Dennis breathed a slight sigh of relief, inwardly happy that the girl wasn’t dead. “Aww, look, you’re fine! No harm done, no harm!” Dennis leaped up to grab his rope and coiled it back up. He didn’t want to lose that!

Jillian, noting that Dennis’ attention had switched, attempted to pull herself to her feet. Nothing seemed like it was broken, and her book seemed alright too. She was still a little wobbly, but she should be okay. She began making her way towards the elevator, and Dennis hurriedly followed her.

“Ya aren’t mad at me, are ya? It was just a harmless prank!”

Jillian had actually been leaving because she wanted to read, not talk. Now, though, she was being forced into conversation. “It’s fine, Dennis.”

The elevator arrived, and the doors opened. Jillian entered, clutching her book, and Dennis looped the rope around and around in circles in his hands as he trotted behind her.

“Ya don’t talk much, do ya?”

“Not really.” Jillian shook her head and rubbed her leg, which was starting to twinge.

“Well, ya should lighten up. It’s not much fun playing pranks on ya when you’re all quiet.” When people were quiet after a prank, it either meant that they were really mad, or like actually hurt or something. Dennis was really in pranking to hear the other people screech and thrash around a little, like Lavender did all the time.

Jillian was just opening her mouth when the elevator landed on the bottom floor.

The streamers bombarded the two in the face, Jillian trying to turn around to get less damaged than she already was. Dennis, however, laughed, snatching up a streamer from the air.

“This is great! Who did this?”

The streamer was yanked from Dennis’ hand as interns grabbed the two from the elevator.

“I did it!” Chris’ voice came on once again. “And streamers aren’t the only things hitting you guys. No… love is hitting you too!” It was clear that Chris was running out of creative things to say.

“Love?” Dennis questioned as he hit the chair. “Nah, man, I don’t do love.”

“Well, you do now! Jillian, encourage him.”

“What??” Jillian looked rather overwhelmed and put on the spot. “I- I don’t-”

“Ughhhhhh.” Chris groaned over the loudspeakers. “Eat your breakfast, spoilsports.” The microphone clicked off, leaving both of the two looking uncomfortable. Dennis, trying to blow off the whole love thing, pulled out a fake spider from his pocket and set it next to Jillian’s arm.

Alice stretched as she exited her room, singing a song. “I’m bulletproof~ Nothin’ to lose~ Fire away, fire away…” Her sweet voice carried down the hallway, also carrying up to the room of a certain rebellious teen. Mika threw her door open and stomped out into the corridor.

“Alice!” she yelled down to the other girl. Alice paused in her song, turning around to notice Mika’s quite upset expression. The manipulative girl decided that, instead of having a one on one confrontation with someone who could quite possibly break one of her bones, she should hop in the elevator and deal with Mika when she had Arizona and possibly Mallory to back her up. Alice reached the end of the hall and jammed her finger on the button to call the lift, glancing behind her anxiously. Mika was gaining on her.

The elevator arrived quickly this time, and Alice hopped in, pressing the button to close the doors. For some reason, however, they just stayed open!

The scene cut to Chris in a secluded control room. He was holding down a 'Doors open’ button, and it was clear that he was overriding Alice’s attempts. Chris chuckled and sighed. “I love my job.”

The screen flashed back to Alice, just as Mika stepped inside the elevator. The doors slid shut instantly, and Alice groaned. “Hello, Mika.”

“We have somethin’ to talk about, don’t you think?” Mika said forcefully, taking a step towards the other girl. From this closer angle, it was visible that Mika had pen splattered on her face, making Alice snicker a little. “What the 'ell are you laughing at???” Mika looked really angry, and Alice had to remind herself that she had to be nice to people on the team other than Arizona.

“You just have a little something…” Alice gestured to Mika’s entire face, and Mika scowled, thinking that, with the way she was acting, Alice was lying.

“I don’t care about my f***ing face. What I care about is the fact that you’re a backstabbing, lying little b****.” Mika forced Alice backwards a step, and Alice’s back hit the wall.

“Calm down. I didn’t do anything.”

“Oh yeah? I know you got Matt eliminated.”

Alice scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous. Matt betrayed Arizona.”

“No, you betrayed 'Zona. And if you don’t do your best in this challenge and stop being a damn liar, we all know who’s gonna be goin’ home. ”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you should watch your back. Arizona doesn’t like how you betrayed her in the challenge.” Alice’s eyes were cutting. “You wouldn’t want to do anything to make her even more upset, would you?”

The two girls were caught in an intense glaring battle as the elevator hit the bottom floor.

Mika, unprepared for the doors opening, was caught off guard as the streamers hit her on the back of the head. “What the hell???” The girl yelled as she was knocked off balance. Alice took this opportunity to walk around Mika to regain dominance, until both girls were yanked off their feet by the interns grabbing their hands.

“Come on, ladies. Let me see your loving smiles!” Chris laughed over the speakers, and Mika snarled as she was slammed into a chair.

“What the hell is going on???”

“Oh, shut up and eat your sausage.” Alice pushed the full plate of meat over towards Mika, fixing her with another death stare.

“Yes. Thank you, Alice.” Chris was evidently still mad at Mika from yesterday, and he clicked off the speakers instantly. Mika grabbed the plate from Alice and, without hesitating, pushed it right off the edge of the table.

Back upstairs, the number of contestants left was dwindling. Lavender finally emerged from her room, with hair freshly washed, blow-dried, and full of products. She looked distastefully at her clothes from TDCO, which really weren’t very complimenting at all. She’d really had to step up her hair and makeup game to try and make up for it, and since another boy was gone already, she was running out of options. Lavender stood by the elevator and pressed the button.

A little ways up the hall, Arizona exited her room, still scowling. She didn’t know what was going on anymore. Matt had clearly been a huge jerk to her. But no one else would tell her the full story on anything. At least Alice seemed like she was trying to protect her, but Mika clearly had a problem with the other girl. Nothing really made sense to Arizona, and it was causing an unusual flow of negativity.

She knew someone was standing by the elevator from their breathing as she approached, but she didn’t quite know who. Arizona was just about to open her mouth and say hello, just to engage the other person in a two second conversation so she’d know if they were on her team or not, when Lavender’s voice piped up.

“Be honest with me, Arizona.” She fluffed up her hair and turned to face the other girl. “Do these clothes make me look ugly?”

Arizona stopped and scowled, waiting for Lavender to pick up on her mistake. Lavender only blinked at her, confused as to what she’d done wrong.

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. I know the answer is yes, they’re too baggy and not flattering at all.”

Arizona gritted her teeth. “I don’t know what they look like, Lavender. I don’t know what anything looks like, because I’m blind.”

“Oooooohhh.” In all her team drama, Lavender had completely forgotten. “Do they feel pretty, though?” Lavender reached forwards to guide Arizona’s hand to her clothes, but before she could get there, Arizona crossed her arms.

“I’m sure they look nice.”

Lavender brought her arm back to her side, fidgeting a little. She didn’t have much experience talking to people who couldn’t experience her beauty. “Thanks, 'Zona.”

“Yep.” The elevator finally came, and Lavender entered instantly, extending a hand to Arizona.

“Need any help?”

“No, I can walk forward three steps on my own.” To prove this, Arizona stepped into the elevator, waving her cane in front of her to make sure she didn’t hit the back wall. The doors slowly slid shut.

This was really very awkward for Lavender. She found herself almost wishing she was locked in the elevator with Dennis. At least he could look at her. “It’s good that you’re still here, after the elimination yesterday.”

“Mmmhm.”

Maybe Arizona didn’t want to talk about that. “So, do you, like, miss being able to see?”

“I wouldn’t know.” Arizona, who had been born blind, retorted. She really wished she hadn’t gotten in the elevator.

“Oh.” The two trailed off into silence as the elevator hit the bottom floor.

“Love!” Chris stated as streamers blasted into the lift. Arizona was knocked backwards by the assault, and Lavender shrank into the corner, trying to protect her hair. Interns grabbed the two and yanked them towards the tables. Arizona nearly fell flat on her face from the unplanned jerk on her arm.

“Love?” Lavender smiled brightly as she hit the chair, with only a slight wince of pain. It really was high time they had a bit of love on the show. Maybe she could get with one of the boys… Derby, perhaps, or maybe Benny-

“Love between you and Arizona!”

Lavender let out a slight groan, almost imperceptible by anyone except the girl who had been forced to super-train her hearing. Arizona looked even more sullen than before, and Lavender knew she’d made a mistake. “Well, 'Zona, love it is!” Lavender batted her eyelashes in full winning charm at the other girl. Arizona, surprisingly, didn’t see it.

Next out of her room was the Baroness, fixing up her do-rag. She’d slept in later than she’d wanted to, as her curtains had been pulled shut, so she hadn’t risen instantly with the sun. Hopefully breakfast wasn’t done with yet, she had to get her morning ration of fruit. The Baroness rushed along the hallway, passing another door just before it opened. Feeling the presence of a new person in her space, the Baroness turned around to see who else but Ry emerging from his room. “Ahoy there, lad!” The Baroness piped out.

Ry yawned slightly, having woken up late because he had stayed up until past 3 AM working on adding something for Matt to his elimination hanging tree painting. It was a lot of work, but he was quite satisfied with how it was coming out. “Morning.” Ry mumbled, making his way towards the elevator.

“Ye seem ta be quite tired today! What’ve ye been up ta?”

“Working on the painting.” Ry stretched and rubbed his eyes. “I was adding a guitar for Matt.”

Oh, yeah. The Baroness remembered Ry talking about that. “Well, I’m sure it’s turning out mighty fine! Maybe I could pop in 'nd see it sometime.”

“Sure.” Ry pressed the button, and the elevator arrived almost instantly. The pair stepped inside together, and the doors shut.

“Do ya suppose the other contestants are all down at brekkie already? I’d hate fer us ta be the last ones down.”

“I’m sure we’re fine. They wouldn’t start without us.”

The elevator began making its way downstairs, when a light suddenly flickered on the sideboard. They were making another stop.

One floor down, Ashley exited her room, carefully checking that the door was locked. She’d left late so she could ensure that no one else would still be upstairs once she headed down for breakfast. The hall seemed to be empty by now, and she was finally ready to leave.

The door felt securely locked, and it didn’t give way as she rattled the knob. It gave her a little security, at least, though she was still worried that someone might be able to sneak in anyway. There wasn’t really any time for moping around, though, if she was going to get to breakfast on time. Ashley couldn’t stand it if she ended up late and got something stupid like an auto-elimination. The girl paced down the hallway and pressed the button for the elevator to arrive, completely unsuspecting that anyone else might be inside.

The elevator arrived a moment later, and Ry and the Baroness went silent as the doors opened. Ashley walked into the lift, eyes downcast. When she lifted them a moment later, she took an unconscious step back. Both sides fixed the other, or others, with a stare as they inwardly tried to formulate what to say.

Ashley appeared to be experiencing a fight or flight response, seeing as she was outnumbered, but it was too late. With a BANG, the doors slammed shut much faster than they had before, and the three were trapped. Ry was first to make a move, taking a threatening step forwards.

“What’s wrong, Bitchley? Not in the mood for a conversation?”

Ashley scowled and stood her ground, summoning up enough strength for an argument. “I don’t really feel like it right now, Henry, so do us all a favor and just shut up.”

“Feelin’ guilty about something?” The Baroness stepped forwards now too. She didn’t want to get too involved in this fight, but she needed to show Ashley that betraying people on your own team wasn’t acceptable, even in this game.

It was two vs one, and Ashley’s only solace was that soon she’d be able to eat breakfast alone, or with people who at least weren’t so outwardly aggressive. Ry was quite itching for a fight with Ashley, especially after she’d gotten him out in the last challenge, and the way she’d treated Dakota.

“All that betrayal wearing you out?” Ry lifted an eyebrow and took another step forwards. “Tired from breaking Dakota’s camera? And from getting Todd eliminated?”

“You don’t have proof for any of that, and if you did, who would believe you?”

“Don’t ya at least feel some guilt 'bout bringin’ yer own team down?” The Baroness was surprised that someone could actually be so heartless. She knew now why Ry hated Ashley so much.

“I’m doing what it takes to win. If you were smart, you’d be doing the same.”

Ry took another step, and Ashley was finally forced to fall back to avoid him being right in her face. “Well, I will be doing the same. To you. Enjoy getting a taste of your own medicine, Bitchley. You f***ing deserve it.”

The elevator hit the bottom floor.

“What tha 'ell??” The Baroness burst out, as the very worn out streamers hit the three in the face. No one lifted their arms to block their faces, however, in some show of will power.

“Way to be slow, lovebirds!” Chris called out as each of the three was grabbed by an intern and pulled to a table. They were all thrown into chairs in very close proximity to one another, slamming down quite painfully.

“You really need to work on your loving smiles. I’m not convinced.”

The people at the table all glared at one another. It was clear that no one was feeling loving at all, and the festive atmosphere was only making their anger worse. The Baroness was the first to grab some food, picking up an apple and biting into it threateningly. Ashley and Ry followed suit with other pink themed breakfast items, and for the moment, the table was silent.

The camera decided to do a brief pan over all the tables, seeing as all of the contestants were now down at breakfast.

“Arizona, could you pass me the syrup?” Lavender fixed the girl with a blindingly bright grin.

Arizona made no move to grab the syrup she couldn’t see. “I don’t know where it is,” she said flatly, and Lavender realized her mistake.

“Oh, it’s okay, 'Zona! I’ll get it myself.” Lavender leaned across the table, just reaching the sugary bottle when she heard someone call her name from across the room.

“Watch this.” Dennis hissed to Jillian, before turning his attention to the pretty fellow member of the yellow team. “Hey, Lav! You’ve got some syrup in your hair!”

Lavender’s hands instinctually rose up to pat down her perfect locks, turning to Dennis with a scowl. “No I don’t, Dennis.”

At this moment, Dennis chucked a bottle of syrup at Lavender’s head, the amber liquid making a perfect arc across the room. It hit Lavender before she had time to duck, lid bursting off to drip sticky sap all over her hair. Jillian stared on in horror as Lavender made an unearthly screeching noise.

“My mistake!!” Dennis yelled to the other table, before facing Jillian again and starting to laugh his head off. “That was pretty great, wasn’t it? Oh man, did you see her face when she was about to get hit??? She was like 'aughhhhhhh!’, ahaaaaaaaaaa, whew, that was good.”

“I-I’m not sure she liked it very much.” Jillian didn’t really know what to think about this, other than that she was very glad not to be in Lavender’s position.

“Aww, Lavender’s cool with it all, no worries, no worries. I just like ta get a rise outta her every now and then, that’s all, here, you try.” Dennis shoved a plate of butter into Jillian’s hands, and the girl gulped.

“I-I don’t really know about this, I don’t think I really should-”

“It’s fine, it’s all cool, everyone loves a good prank!” Dennis scouted around for a good victim. “Here, look, Benny isn’t turned towards you. Just call his name and then…wham!” Dennis slammed his hand down on the table, and Jillian jumped. “Hit him right in the smacker!!”

“That seems kind of mean…” Jillian trailed off, looking at the butter in her hands.

“You’re takin’ all this too serious, Jilly. Just throw it, everyone’ll laugh, everyone loves a good prank.” Dennis knew he was close to convincing her. “Watch, I’ll start ya off. Yo, Benny!”

Benny turned around from where he’d been trying to keep the fragile peace at the table of three. “Yeah?” he called, not really sure who had yelled his name.

“Go for it Jill, just try it.” Dennis nudged Jillian in the ribs, and she could feel the peer pressure working. She didn’t want to disappoint Dennis. Taking a deep breath, Jillian picked up the butter and threw it lightly at Benny’s face.

Benny didn’t know what was coming towards him until it was too late. Splat!Thankfully, Jillian had thrown it gently enough that it didn’t hurt the boy, but it still made quite a mess across his forehead, fat dripping down his cheeks. Dennis gave Jillian a high five, glad that he’d ended up sitting at a table with her. Jillian gave a tiny smile, torn between feeling guilty and proud.

“Funny!!” Selene shrieked from the other table. Benny looked really silly covered in butter, and she leaped onto Gaile to get her to share in the excitement.

Gaile collapsed backwards when Selene pounced, inwardly terrified. Benny swiped off his face with a napkin before reaching over to push the two girls apart.

“N…not funny.” Gaile whimpered, and Benny fixed Selene with a stern look, made silly by the piece of butter which slid down his nose. Selene giggled for a moment, though she stopped as Benny’s gaze intensified. Like a dog that misbehaved, Selene looked morosely over to Gaile. She looked around for something with which to remedy her mistake. That bowl of strawberries looked nice. Selene nudged the red fruits over, glancing up into Gaile’s eyes to make sure she wasn’t mad.

Gaile was really more emotionally traumatized than angry, but she could appreciate a gift, even if it was from Selene. She reached forward and pulled out a berry, taking a small bite.

Yes! Gaile accepted it!! Selene couldn’t contain her happiness, and barked with joy. Then, she leaned over and licked the butter off Benny’s nose, laughing as Benny squirmed under her. Mmm, it really was tasty!

Gaile wrinkled her nose in disgust from across the table at the fact that Selene would just eat butter on its own. But then again, Selene would probably eat anything.

A few tables over, Bailey and Kiki were done with breakfast. They were both pretty bored by now, watching the other tables talk with limited interest.

“Soo…” Bailey leaned across the table, glancing at Kiki’s toned biceps. “Wanna arm wrestle?” She could probably take Kiki down, but even if she couldn’t, Bailey was really bad at thinking things through beforehand.

Kiki hadn’t arm wrestled in a long time, but she wasn’t one to turn down someone who wanted to have a go with her. “Why not? Left arm or right?”

“Umm,” Bailey made two fists to try and figure out which of her arms was stronger. “Right.” She pressed her elbow onto the table, using her left hand to sweep aside all of the breakfast plates. Kiki joined in on the other side, and the two soon had a good playing field. Kiki let her arm down with a thud as well, and the two clasped hands.

“Ready to lose?” Bailey asked, quite overconfidently.

“Not likely, thrill-seeker. One…”

“Two…”

“Three!” The girls yelled together, and each began straining to force the other’s arm to the table. Bailey was holding her own fairly well, and the two were kept relatively stable in the middle. Their arms were shaking.

“Give in, Bailey.” Kiki locked eyes with Bailey, and Bailey grunted with effort.

“You wish.” Despite saying this, however, Bailey was losing. Her arm was wavering more and more.

In another minute, the match was decided. Using up all her strength, Kiki pressed Bailey’s arm down until she finally heard the thud of flesh hitting wood. Bailey groaned, collapsing forward on the table.

“Good game, Bailey. Ya held up for a lot longer than most people I’ve wrestled.” Kiki had to admit it, she was impressed.

“Thanks.” Bailey rubbed her arm a little, and it slowly started feeling better. Breakfast still wasn’t over, though. “Wanna go again?” Bailey placed down her left arm, and Kiki gave her a sly grin, bringing her arm up to join in.

“You’re on!”

Mika and Alice were fixed in an intense glaring match, which was significantly hindering their eating of breakfast. Alice slowly chomped down on a piece of pancake, and Mika took a sip of orange juice without breaking eye contact.

Alice swallowed down her food. “I wish we had some sausage,” she said flatly, holding Mika’s gaze.

Mika set down her glass without looking at it. “I bet you wish for a s*** ton of things you don’t deserve.”

“You should work on your attitude. No one likes someone who’s angry all the time. You’ll get thrown in prison.”

Mika ground her teeth. “Well, bein’ a b**** on national TV probably isn’t earnin’ ya any favors.”

“Are you planning to tell the whole team about this? Arizona would never believe you.”

This fact was quite true, and made Mika pause momentarily. “She’d believe me,” she said, slightly less certain.

“Sure she would.” Alice lifted an eyebrow and broke eye contact purposefully as she brought her own juice to her mouth. And for some reason, it didn’t feel like Mika had won.

“…and that’s exactly how to make a pipe bomb!” Mallory rounded off her conversation proudly.

Derby looked at her, wide eyed. “That’s fantastic! I never knew there was so much chemistry involved!!”

“Yep. It’s a lot to keep straight, but I think the end result is worth it!” Mallory beamed, glad she’d found someone who actually wanted to listen to her. “What about you, Derby? What do you like?”

Derby pulled his bookbag onto his lap, tapping the front of it with his fingers. “I’m an author,” he stated, loving how sophisticated it sounded. Thankfully, Mallory didn’t just laugh him off, like some people did.

“That’s neat!! What do you write about?”

“Well, I’ve been drawing inspiration from people on the show,” Derby admitted a bit nervously. “We do have quite a lot of interesting people in this season!” As he spoke, Derby slipped the notebook he’d been writing in out of the bag and laid it carefully on the table.

Mallory looked around at all of the quirky people in the room and nodded. “True that!” The two found themselves eying the unopened notebook.

“So, can I read something from it?” Mallory blinked her eyes at Derby, and he grinned.

“Oh!” Derby exclaimed quietly, not used to having peers interested in his writing. “Uh, sure!” Hopefully Mallory wouldn’t be offended that he’d made her a mad scientist type in his latest story. Derby flipped open the book, and began reading. “The full moon shone brightly in the otherwise pitch black sky, casting its eerie glow down on the…”

“It really is unfair for people to intentionally misgender you.” Dakota frowned, not understanding why anyone would do that. “Or call you by your birth name when you’ve said you don’t want them to. Have you talked to people who are higher up, like your teachers or parents?”

“I’ve tried, but sometimes they don’t stop.” This breakfast had gotten very deep very fast, but T liked being able to vent out their feelings. They hadn’t made very many friends they could confide in since they’d joined in TDCO. “I can handle it if I need to, but I don’t really like to.”

“You shouldn’t have to deal with any of that.” Dakota nibbled on a piece of toast. “You’ll be famous now, though! You can tell them that when they try and pick on you.”

T laughed lightly. “Thanks, Dakota. I might just have to try that.”

“Yeah, do anything you want, just don’t let people shoot you down. It really isn’t worth it.” Dakota was glad he’d bumped into T upstairs. It sounded like T really had a lot on their mind!

“I’ll work on it when I get home. Thank you again.” T reached forward and grabbed a pastry, smiling at Dakota as they did so.

Dakota lifted up his camera again. “Can I take another picture of you?” T looked much more comfortable around him now, and those were the kinds of pictures of friends Dakota really wanted.

“Of course.” T glanced over to the camera, and they were still smiling as their face lit up with a flash.

The Baroness eyed her two table mates, quietly sipping her glass of orange juice. She was moderately happy to be seated with Ry, but their other partner was certainly less than pleasing. The pirate glowered downward at Ashley, who was picking at her food. The Baroness silently contemplated why Chris would call the three of them ‘lovebirds’, and desperately hoped it had nothing to do with the challenge.

Ry bit into his usual breakfast, a slice of toast, no more pleased about the circumstances than anyone else at the table. He was content with the silence that’d settled over the table. He glanced up at the more tolerable of the two girls, missing the Baroness’s gaze by a split second, and followed her stare to Ashley. He rolled his eyes and scowled, hoping that this arrangement would be over soon.

Ashley’s face was a deep set frown as she picked at her eggs. Of all the things that could happen today, she couldn’t believe she had to be stuck with these two for breakfast. As she glanced up, she caught Ry looking at her. Her expression darkened in response, glaring at the boy.

“What do you want?” Ry muttered as he matched her glare.

“You’re the one staring at me, Henry,” she retorted half-heartedly, not really wanting to get into an argument.

“The lad’s allowed to be lookin’ where he pleases, hag,” the Baroness joined in, glad to defend Ry and insult Ashley at the same time. Ashley let out a heavy sigh. “Can’t we just sit here in our mutual hate in silence?” Ashley said sharply, as she stabbed her fork into her eggs, though she didn’t lift any to her mouth. Ry and the Baroness’s eyes widened at Ashley’s comment, used to the tone but not used to her wanting what seemed like a momentary truce. Their gazes met, unsure of how to respond. After a moment, Ry shrugged, not really wanting to fight at the moment anyway, and he went back to eating his breakfast. The Baroness glared one last time at her enemy, then returned to her food, allowing the temporary tension filled arrangement.

“So, how was breakfast?” Chris waltzed into the dining room, a grin wide on his face.

Some contestants gave him a glare at this impertinent question, others shrugged or nodded, since several tables had actually made friends from the experience.

“Great!” Chris clapped his hands together, and it was clear that he would’ve said this no matter what the response had been. “I bet you can’t guess what today’s color is!”

“Pink.” Everyone in the room said simultaneously, taking a guess from the colors of the streamers, decorations, and food.

Chris scowled. “No! The color is salmon!”

Everyone blinked slightly, caught unprepared. A few people started snickering, and Chris’ frown intensified.

“Sorry you all didn’t notice. And maybe they don’t sell salmon colored streamers at the dollar store!” Chris took a deep breath to calm down, and did a pan through of the colors to regain some dominance. In the elimination hotel, Alexandria and Todd were used to this by now, but Matt leaped up in horror as his shirt lit up.

“Now, your challenge today has to do with breakfast. Any guesses?”

Lavender’s hand shot up. “Is it merge time?” She asked quite desperately, hoping that’s what Chris meant.

“No. It’s way too early for that. Anyone else?”

“Something to do with love?” Bailey ventured, rubbing her sore shoulders.

“Yes! Good job, Bailey!” Chris’ tone sounded slightly patronizing, and Bailey frowned. “Today’s challenge is… a kissing relay!”

Several people in the room blanched at this statement. T was especially upset. “Is this something we all have to participate in?” they asked quietly, and Dakota rubbed their hand.

“Yes! Everyone must participate, or risk an auto elimination. If you want to practice, you’re seated at lovely tables of two or three…”

Everyone locked eyes with their partner or partners. No one leaned forward for a kiss.

Chris groaned. “Uggggggh, you guys are the worst. Better get those lips limbered up though, and meet me at the forest in fifteen minutes!”

“Wait, question!” Dennis pumped his arm back and forth in the air, and Chris turned slowly towards him.

“Yes, Dennis?”

“Why’s the color salmon? What’s that gotta do with the love theme?” Dennis wasn’t really interested, but people always got ticked off when you asked them questions.

“Salmon is for desire.” Chris laughed at how clever this pop culture reference was. Very few people in the room actually got the joke, however, and Chris rolled his eyes. “Ten minutes. Hurry up!” With that, Chris walked out of the room, leaving everyone else to sort themselves out.

“It’s been a pleasant breakfast.” Derby extended his hand to Mallory, and she shook it, laughing a little at the formality.

“Yeah, we’ll have to talk more soon!!” Mallory handed Derby his notebook from the table, inserting it into his waiting hands.

“I can finish the story today perhaps, and then read it to you?”

“That sounds awesome!!” The pair both grinned, and walked off to join their teams.

“Don’t worry, T, I know you’ll do okay in the challenge. Just tell your team what’s wrong, I’m sure they’ll understand!” Dakota smiled supportingly, and T nodded, though they weren’t really sure about their team understanding anything.

“Thanks for trying to help, Dakota. It was nice talking to you.”

“You too! Good luck!!” Dakota watched T exit with some sorrow, slightly worried about them. Hopefully they could pull through in the challenge. Dakota had his fingers crossed.

“I think you’ve had enough sugar, Selene.” Benny pulled the bottle of syrup out of the wolf girl’s hands, and she pouted, vibrating slightly. The boy turned to Gaile, holding Selene at bay. “I guess this is where we split up.”

“Yeah, I guess it is.” Gaile admittedly didn’t have a completely terrible breakfast experience, except a few problems with Selene. “I hope you do rocking in the challenge!”

“You too!” Benny smiled, Selene nodded rapidly, and the two teams split.

“If you ever wanna do something else together, just let me know, 'kay, Bailey?” Kiki had enjoyed  her breakfast, and the arm wrestling had been a good challenge for her.

“Sure! I’ll make sure to figure out something for us to do together!!” Though Bailey’s arms were sore, she’d had fun too, and she looked forward to hanging out with Kiki again!

“That was a pretty swell breakfast, eh Jill?” Dennis elbowed Jillian in the ribs, and she smiled slightly.

“It was an experience, that’s for sure.” Really, Dennis wasn’t half bad, and Jillian had found him to be a good table partner.

“Yep, I know you loved it, don’t worry Jilly Jill, I’ll make sure I teach you more tricks before it’s too late!” Jillian seemed like she might be up for some pranking, if Dennis could just get her to go a little more wild.

Jillian’s tiny smile changed to a tiny grin. “I might like that.”

Mika and Alice stood up with no words. Mika made sure to exit her chair from the side that wasn’t where the sausages still coated the floor.

“Watch what you say.” Alice said pointedly.

“Same ta you.”

The two exited in different directions, even though they were on the same team.

“Well, Arizona, it’s been a pleasure. I hope I’ll be able to see you again sometime!” Lavender unintentionally made a seeing reference, and Arizona’s face turned even more sullen. She couldn’t totally blame Lavender though, because it really didn’t seem like the girl had been trying to make her feel bad. Maybe they could talk more later, if Lavender started becoming more aware of what she was saying.

“Thanks, Lavender.” Arizona shuffled off, and Lavender watched her go with a sigh.

Ashley stood up instantly once the tables were freed, and Ry and the Baroness rose up to meet her. Ry walked around the table to bring his foot down across Ashley’s toes, light enough to be a warning, heavy enough to remind her of her bruises. Ashley caught his wrist in defense, applying harsh pressure. The two were locked together in what looked to be a halfway fight, neither one making another move.

“Watch your back.” Ry finally growled and twisted his arm out of Ashley’s grip, pressing down her toes one more time before turning to walk away. The Baroness glared at Ashley before joining him.

“We still gonna paint 'er door?” The Baroness hissed to Ry, and he nodded.

“Hell yeah we are.”

In her split second of alone time, Ashley took as big of a bite out of her eggs as she could manage. Then, she too left to join her team.

From inside his car, Chris fake swiped at his eyes. “True love,” he said with a slight sniffle. “So touching.”

The moment was almost sappy for a second, until Chris started snickering. “Not! This is Total Drama, not Total Lovebirds! And trust me, this challenge is gonna put the kids through the wringer! Who will come out on top? Will any of the teams actually finish?” Chris shrugged. “Who knows! Find out after the break on Total! Drama! Colors!!” The last thing seen was Chris’ grin, before the camera faded to black.

Staff

 * Chris McLean
 * Chef

Contestants

 * Alice
 * Arizona
 * Ashley
 * Bailey
 * Benny
 * Dakota
 * Dennis
 * Derby
 * Gaile
 * Jillian
 * Kiki
 * Lavender
 * Mallory
 * Mika
 * Ry
 * Selene
 * T
 * 'The Baroness'

Salmon is for Desire Part 2
'''The Contestants gather into the forest upon cue to prepare for a smooch-tastic challenge; a kissing relay. Contestants mingle, clash, but most importantly, kiss. '''

Plot
The show faded back in on the contestants as they arrived at the forest. Everyone was standing by their teams (or if not, they quickly moved to be with them as Chris rolled up in his car). The woods were very thick, and though the contestants peered around to their best abilities, they were unable to see more than a few feet inside, causing a sense of apprehension about what could be lurking in there.

“Penguins.” Chris called, placing a marker in the dirt.

“Pandas.” Another marker was placed down, a few feet from the last.

“Polar bears.” Marker.

“Parrots.” The last marker thudded into the dirt.

The contestants all blinked over at Chris, not really sure what they were supposed to do.

Chris groaned and rolled his eyes. Clearly, he’d expected them to automatically understand this. The host’s eyes travelled around the group of contestants, calling names at random. “Uhh, Bailey, T, Mallory, and Jillian.”

The four contestants all sprang to attention.

“Go stand by your team’s marker,” Chris explained slowly, as if he was talking to small children. The teens quickly rushed to their places, feeling just a little, or in some cases, quite a bit, embarrassed.

“Good.” Chris nodded, examining the four. “You four will be starting the race.” Chris nodded and turned away, leaving the members of the teams to look to one another with confused glances. T rose their hand into the air to ask a question, but Chris ignored them, and they took their hand down with shame. Dakota gave them an encouraging smile, and they gave a tiny one in return.

“Now then, for the rest of you.” Chris rubbed his hands together gleefully. “I’ll be taking you one by one into the forest to stand by a marker like these.” He gestured to the markers in the ground, each of which had a little picture of the team’s mascot on the top hung like a flag. “Except…” Chris pulled out a blindfold. “You won’t know where you’re going until you get there! The point of the race is that, after you get found, to find another person on your team, and kiss them. Then, find your way out of the forest, and meet me back here. Everyone got that?“

Alice lifted her hand. "How do we know if we’re the last member of our team?” she blurted out, before Chris could interrupt.

“You don’t!” Chris crowed happily. “Better hope your team can communicate, otherwise,” the host chuckled, “you’re kind of screwed! Now, Alice, Baroness, Kiki, and Dakota… You’re first!” Chris waved the blindfolds in the air tantalizingly, and the contestants, minus Arizona, who had no idea what was being held up, gulped.

One rapid fire montage later, all of the contestants were arranged sporadically in the forest, some more willingly than others. Bailey, T, Mallory, and Jillian, were all still standing outside of the forest, shifting back and forth on their feet a little. It had been a long wait, and they were all starting to get kind of tired and antsy.

Finally, Chris stood in front of the four, ready to begin. “Remember, you must kiss the first member of your team that you run into. Are you guys ready?”

Jillian rose her hand quietly. She wanted to try and figure out what happened if they ran into someone from another team. “Umm, Chris?” The shy girl asked quietly. “Wh-what if-”

“Great! You’re all set!!” Chris rubbed his hands together and lifted a blow horn into the air. “Onetwothreego!” he shouted in one breath, blowing the horn loudly and making all of the contestants in his vicinity jump up. Slightly confused and dazed, Bailey was the first to clear her head enough to recognize what was going on, and she raced into the woods. The other contestants slowly followed suit, stumbling off to begin.

Left alone, Chris climbed over to a podium, sitting in front of a large number of screens showing flashes of every contestant in their spot. Only four of the cameras had any real action going, showing Bailey, T, Mallory, and Jillian carefully threading their way through the woods.

The screen zoomed in on Bailey to begin, the girl ducking and weaving under branches and past bushes. She really had no idea where to begin in a challenge like this, and she was considering climbing a tree like she had done in the blue challenge. At least that would give her a little guidance. However, as soon as she placed her palms on the bark, a huge siren came from her shirt, and she fell backwards in shock.

“Uh uh, Bailey. No cheating. You have to stay on the ground.” Chris’ voice came on loud and clear through her shirt speaker and Bailey sighed despondently, before continuing her walk.

Just a very short distance away, in a slight clearing, the Baroness leaned on her marker, waiting impatiently and trying to calm down. It wouldn’t be that bad. She only had to kiss someone from her team, and they were all pretty chill. It wasn’t that big of a deal.

Bailey pressed her way past a thick bush, and emerged into the clearing. The Baroness jerked her head up upon hearing the girl’s approach, and the pair of two girls locked eyes.

“Umm, hey.” Bailey hadn’t expected this to be quite so awkward, and she definitely hadn’t expected to be kissing the Baroness.

The Baroness also found this very awkward, and she pressed more forcefully onto the marker. “Ahoy,” she replied, though her voice had lost its usual enthusiasm.

“So, I’ve never, uhh, really kissed many people before.” Bailey chuckled a little, rubbing the back of her head, and the Baroness nodded quickly in agreement.

“Same, lass.”

“Do you just want to get it over with?”

“Aye."

The two girls looked really uncomfortable with the whole deal, and the scene was very tense and unromantic. Bailey forced herself a few steps closer so that she was standing directly in front of the Baroness. Neither girl closed their eyes in preparation of the kiss as Bailey leaned forward.

It certainly hadn’t been what either girl had been expecting, what with how tense they both were. The kiss was a fleeting brush of lips, and it lasted only for a few seconds before the pair pulled away. It hadn’t been too uncomfortable, however, since they’d both had a mutual agreement that they really didn’t want to do anything.

As the two Penguins split up, an over exaggerated kissing noise played from their shirts, and Chris’s voice came on.

"Well, that was awk-ward. Baroness, you’re next. Bailey, come meet me outside. I trust you remember the route.” Chris’ voice clicked off, and the swirling shirt colors faded back to their original salmon.

Bailey was ready to bolt right out of the forest, and she quickly whirled around, face slightly flushed. Just when she reached the edge of the clearing, however, she heard a voice calling her back.

“Bailey?” The Baroness called, and Bailey turned hesitantly back around to see that the Baroness’ face was flushed just like her own.

“I be glad ye were the lass who found me.” The Baroness gave Bailey a shaky smile, and the other girl returned it.

“Me too, Baroness. Good luck out there.” With a brief wave, Bailey was off, weaving her way back to where she hoped the starting line was.

As soon as Bailey left, the Baroness gave an almost imperceptible shudder. With a deep breath to steel herself, the pirate forced herself off, with the hopes of finding someone as quickly as possible so she could get the challenge over with.

Mallory stumbled along through the forest, her clumsy tendencies not serving her well in this challenge. The woods seemed unnaturally crowded with low hanging branches, stumps, and rocks, and the girl could hardly go three seconds without tripping over something. At least worrying about the ground kept her from thinking about the upcoming kiss. Thankfully, she only had to worry about kissing someone else, not being kissed, and her team really wasn’t horrible. Sure, they’d had a lot of problems lately, but maybe things would ease up a little now that Matt was gone. She’d honestly be okay kissing any of them. If some kissing action was what the show wanted, that’s what Mallory would provide! Mallory triumphantly picked up her pace… and promptly tripped on a root, falling into a prickly bush.

Arizona clung tighter to her marker as a series of pained cries and shouts of, “My arm!”, “My leg!”, and “My other arm!” filled the air. Once it finally got quiet again, Arizona, knowing that it was Mallory who had just gotten injured from the sound of her voice, called out.

“Mallory?” At the moment, she was really more concerned about figuring out where she was rather than remembering the challenge that was ahead.

Only moments later, Mallory came stumbling through the brush. Though Arizona couldn’t see it, the girl was covered with tiny scratches from her battle with the bush, and she winced a little as she finally cleared through the branches and leaves.

“‘Zona!” Mallory cheered, very pleased to have found someone so her part of the challenge could finally be over.

Abruptly, this was the moment when both girls remembered they would have to kiss one another. Arizona’s face paled a bit, and she looked quite mortified at the thought. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she’d known she would have to kiss a girl, but she hadn’t really thought about it until now.

“So, do you wanna just…” Mallory trailed off, circling her hands around in the air in an attempt to finish her sentence until she remembered that Arizona couldn’t see them. She took a cautious step forward instead, resolve slightly down since Arizona didn’t look too happy about the whole thing.

“Oh, uhh, yeah. Sure.” Arizona hadn’t really had many kisses thus far in her life, especially not with girls she’d only known for a few weeks. For some reason, the thought of kissing anyone on her team brought to mind thoughts of Matt, and her face flushed even more.

It seemed like Arizona was ready to go, and it would probably be better for the both of them if they just got it over with now. Mallory took a few more quick steps forward, until she was standing right in front of Arizona.

Arizona could hear Mallory’s breathing, and she knew that the other girl was very close. She swallowed nervously.

Suddenly, Mallory felt a bomb go off in her brain. “Chris never said what kind of kiss we had to do, right?” she asked as she pulled backwards slightly.

“What… kind of kiss?” Arizona didn’t really know what Mallory was getting at.

“Like, tongue, lips, or… cheek kisses.” If this would make things go more smoothly, Mallory was all for it.

At the realization that they could probably just get away with a cheek kiss, Arizona felt herself release the tension she hadn’t known she’d been holding. “I don’t think he said anything about it,” Arizona said slowly, not wanting to get her hopes up.

“Well, let’s try it and find out. No harm in giving it a go!” Mallory stepped back towards Arizona. Leaning in, Mallory pecked Arizona on the cheek, and as she pulled away, both girls waited anxiously.

A sudden loud smooching noise came from their shirts, and the pair jumped a little. “Not gonna lie; that was pretty smart.” Chris spoke through the shirt speakers, a tiny bit of both pride and disappointment in his voice. “Arizona, you’re moving on to find someone else. And Mallory…”

“Yeah?” Mallory was already turning to exit the clearing and head back to the starting line.

“I’ve gotta keep things fair, and your team only has four members. So, Mallory, you’ll be staying here! Whoever is last will have to come and re-find you to give you a kiss.”

Mallory would’ve put up a protest, but it hadn’t been that bad. As long as the Polar Bears moved quickly, it would all work out.

The swirling lights on their shirts turned off, and Chris was gone.

“Good job, ‘Zona. See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“No, it was actually pretty good.” Arizona turned around, before facing Mallory one last time. “…Thanks, Mallory.” Arizona said with a slight smile, and Mallory grinned. Arizona hadn’t smiled in a long time.

“Sure, no problem! Now, go out there and win us the challenge!”

“Okay!” Arizona looked a little pumped up, and she carefully threaded her way from the clearing.

With a slight sigh, Mallory leaned forward on her marker, and started waiting.

T padded through the forest carefully, making sure they didn’t trip over anything on the ground. They didn’t really see a need to run, since the forest was so cluttered that speed would be unlikely to give them more of an advantage over if they were simply very cautious. It was actually quite soothing for them as they noticed the sunlight shining through the treetops, casting an angelic glow around them and the nature. T paused, watching as a squirrel skittered up a tree, before following its path to the tree cautiously. Looking up, the animal’s gaze met the contestant’s, and they could’ve sworn they saw it smile at them. Suddenly remembering that they were in the middle of a challenge, they scurried away from the tree towards what looked to be the opening to a clearing where they hoped their next teammate would be with the marker, not unlike the gentle creature they’d been fascinated by.

Much to the hooded teen’s delight, there was indeed a member of the Pandas standing in position, waiting to be kissed. Well, one could assume he was waiting for that, but his facial expression and body language said another thing. Ry was standing with his arms crossed, leaning on a tree with one ankle looped behind the other. His eyes were hard and glaring and he had a slight sneer. The expression sent shivers down T’s spine. It was quite clear that Ry was not interested in this PDA filled challenge. Still, Ry had a game to win, so here he was, reluctantly ready to kiss someone. T didn’t want to risk upsetting the skagemo. Ry was a serious threat in the game at this point, and the last thing they needed was a threat coming after them.

“H-Hi, Ry.” T mumbled quietly.

Ry looked over towards the teen and gave a half-wave.

“W-Well. Should w-we just get this o-over with?” T inquired nervously.

“I guess. But don’t expect me to call you after this.” Ry said with an eye roll; joking to try ease some of the awkward and unsettling tension.

T gulped and closed their eyes, bracing themselves for impact.

Ry kept his eyes shut as well and leaned in, eager to get this over with, like ripping off a bandaid.

The two teens could feel the other’s body heat getting closer and closer as they got nearer to one another.

T was only inches away from Ry’s face when they pulled back suddenly, covering their face with their hands. Their face was beet red and their hands were trembling slightly.

Ry opened his eyes when he felt T pull away, sighing at the sight. “Oh, come on. I know you don’t want to do this. I sure as hell don’t want to do this. But we have to. We have a responsibility to the team.” Ry had always been somewhat annoyed with T, and it made them quiver more.

T shook their head in their hands. “I don’t think I can. It’s just t-too uncomfortable.” T whimpered.

“Look. I am NOT about to lose this challenge just because you refuse to participate, so hold still.” Ry stated blankly and lunged forward to kiss T on the lips.

As soon as the kiss happened, though, T felt their entire body tense up. It was then that a feeling of panic erupted through T, causing them to shove Ry back from them, not exactly sure of their own actions. They froze in place and watched the scene unfold before them. They realized they had just made a huge mistake.

Ry, much like T themself, hadn’t expected this at all. He stumbled back, feet tripping over an exposed root, causing him to slam into the tree he’d been leaning on. In a shocking case of events, he tried to move forward again, only to stumble on the same root as before, tripping forward. Instead of landing on the ground, his face slammed right into T’s shaking and balled hands.

With a pained yelp, Ry was down on his hands and knees, one hand clasped tightly over his face while the other supported his body.

“Holy f***!” Ry managed to cry out.

The over-exaggerated smooch sound played from their shirts the very next moment.

“OOOH!! That’s gonna leave a mark! Well, awkward and extremely painful kisses count so you’re on to the next person, Ry. T, head on back to the start!” Chris’ voice disappeared.

Ry wiped his lips off with his jacket sleeve, and T covered their face with their hoodie. Now only their nose and the lower half of their face could be seen. “I-I’m sorry, I j-just-” Unable to get the right words out, they turned away and ran back toward the starting line where Chris would be waiting for them.

Ry decided not to say anything else and instead took off into the forest, in search of the next Panda. It wasn’t until he opened his eyes- or rather attempted to open them- that he realized he was unable to see a thing.

Jillian slunk through the forest, her nerves on a super high. She had hardly ever kissed anyone, and it was hard for her to so much as talk to the other people on her team. But now she had to kiss one of them, and she was first. That meant that she had more pressure to get things figured out than the others would, and she didn’t know if she could handle it.

A fleeting image of Todd flashed through her mind, and Jillian instantly closed it out. She couldn’t think about Todd. He was eliminated. She had to focus on the challenge at hand.

It was really more like an adventure, and the forest location helped complete the illusion. Jillian could handle having an adventure, she was good at that. The girl took in a deep breath and set off with new vigor.

A little ways away, Ashley was twisting her marker around, driving it deeper into the forest ground. Though it was a relief for her to not have to kiss Ry or the Baroness, she wasn’t on very good terms with most of her team at the moment. The thought of even talking to Gaile or Dakota made her stomach twist, though it was a different reason for each.

Ashley’s thoughts were interrupted as Jillian threaded her way into the clearing, hardly rustling the branches of the bush next to her. Jillian looked up and suddenly met Ashley’s eyes, and the two stared at one another for a few seconds, until finally Jillian blinked and looked away. It wasn’t very ideal for Jillian to have to kiss Ashley, who seemed to be in a turbulent mood. But at least she wasn’t kissing Gaile, the thought of kissing one of her closer friends made her even more anxious than she was already.

“Well, come on. Let’s get it over with.” Ashley sighed, straightening up, and beckoned Jillian over. The girl approached cautiously, blushing furiously. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she’d been hoping to kiss Dakota, as the thought of kissing another girl was even more uncomfortable than a normal kiss would be.

Once Jillian got close to Ashley’s foreboding face, she just couldn’t keep her nerves contained. “Sorry, I just-” Jillian giggled anxiously.

Ashley’s nervous and cautious expression quickly morphed into one of annoyance. “Just what? The only thing you just need to do is kiss me so we can win this challenge!” Ashley exclaimed, not wanting to prolong this for any longer than they had to. She realized how silly she must have sounded, but she was dead serious.

Jillian nodded in understanding, trying to calm down. She knew Ashley was absolutely right. She’d have to take one for the team, quite literally. She found herself wishing even more she had ran into Dakota, or even Gaile, rather than Ashley.

Ashley, more than ready to be over with this challenge so she could go back to her room and lock herself once again into solitude, grabbed Jillian by the shoulders and pulled her in front of her face. Jillian opened her mouth to protest but Ashley glared and she quickly closed it again.

Ashley then took a deep breath to try to alleviate the nerves that were returning to her. She was kissing a complete stranger, she should just suck it up and do it. But on the other hand, she was kissing a complete stranger and that was something she couldn’t forget.

Jillian stood still as a statue, tensing up in her grasp, panicking again as she saw Ashley close her eyes tight and lean forward.

‘Nonono.’ Jillian chanted in her head.

At last Jillian could feel Ashley’s warm breath on her neck, and seconds later felt Ashley’s lips pressed against hers, perhaps more harshly than she would have liked for one of her first kisses.

The kissing sound rang out from the two girl’s shirts and Chris McLean’s nagging voice began to tease them.

“Didn’t seem like you were all that into it, eh Jill? Still, it counts. But only barely. Ashley, get to steppin’! You have a Parrot to kiss! And Jill?” Chris called just as the girl had started heading back towards the start. “You get another kiss. Surprise! Stay here and the last person of your team will come and find you. And try to be a little more steamy next time.”

A little worried, Jill shuffled over closer to the marker, wrapping her arms around herself. Just as Ashley was beginning to flee, she thought of something she wanted to ask.“Uh, Ashley? I-”

“Don’t.” Ashley hissed and took off running further into the forest, leaving Jillian to wonder what could possibly be wrong.

The scene flashed back over to show what The Baroness was up to. She was continuing to venture into the forest in search of the next Penguin in her path, albeit very slowly. Her eyes were full of sadness as she wove through the trees and bushes. She really didn’t want to kiss anyone. Along with being aromantic, love, romance, and public displays of affection just weren’t her thing, and she had however long it took to find another Penguin to convince herself that she had to do this. She’d already kissed Bailey, but it still didn’t stop her from being reluctant about doing it with someone else. The pirate was so preoccupied in her own thoughts that she didn’t notice the small hole in her path. Before she knew it, the Baroness had tumbled to the ground with a yelp of pain. “Woah, are you okay?” a voice called out from a little farther away.

The Baroness looked up and met eyes with a red-faced boy, who was standing on his hands in an effort to keep himself awake. It took her a moment to flip the image around and see it was Benny.

The Baroness cocked an eyebrow at her teammate in confusion.

“Aye, Lad. I’ll be fine. But, blimey, what are ye doing? Yer face be lookin redder than an ape’s behind.”

Benny laughed and kicked off of the tree he was leaning on, flipping himself upright.

“Woah… Head rush.” he droned with a dazed look. “I was standing on my hands.“

The Baroness rolled her eyes and stifled a laugh. "Aye, I could see that. But why?”

“Oh! I suppose it could look kinda funny if you walked up on it. I was trying to keep myself awake. I want to actually help the team from now on.”

"Well as a member of yer crew, I ‘preciate it. But if ye don’t mind me askin’,  is it really that hard for ye to stay awake? Do ye not get any shut-eye?”

“Well, I guess I could tell you. The reason why is-” Benny started to explain.

“Enough chit chat, love birds! Just kiss and move on, you’re wasting precious airtime!”  Chris called at the two through their shirt speakers.

Both teen’s faces instantly heated up from embarrassment. It didn’t take long for the tense air to build back up between the two, mostly from the Baroness’ side. “Ye be…ready to lock lips?” Baroness asked as she stood up and headed over, irrational fear evident on her face.

“Woah, you make it sound like we’re about to elope,” Benny told her, eyes darting around. People always eloped in the movies, before they were attacked on the road by flesh-eating zombies! The feeling of being watched edged up on him. It took him a quick slap to his mental state to realize this wasn’t a horror movie, but a reality show. Then again, it was practically the same thing, since Chris had set a serial killer on people before. Plus, he had them kissing in the middle of the forest; the epitome of old horror movies. Benny’s nerves rocketed back up, but he knew he’d have to pick up the pace for the Baroness, who was looking particularly petrified.

“It be feelin’ like it. I be more accustomed to plunderin’ booty, not me matey.” Baroness admitted to him, face still flushed red.

Her shoulders tensed up as she bent forward, knowing it was best for her team. She didn’t want to be key hauled for being an applepate; however, she still stopped mid-lean. Subconsciously, she was chastising herself for being so afraid to kiss him. Before she could break from her self-disciplining, however, Benny had already leaned up, pecking her lips in a soft kiss, and pulled back, with a confident smile on his face. “Hey, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” he laughed, suddenly stopping when he noticed the Baroness’s reaction.

The Baroness reeled back in almost terror at what had happened, not expecting the kiss to occur before she was ready. As the sound of the smooching playing from their shirts, she grabbed Benny by the collar of his shirt.

“That was a sneaky movie, Benny, but I’ll count that!” Chris’s voice cut through the air, but he stopped when he noticed some nice drama forming on the screen.

“Ye be bold to have taken me by surprise, ye bilge rat!” Baroness seethed, obviously hating what had happened.

“B-Baroness, I didn’t mean to!” Benny was in a panic, eyes widening, fear taking over his features. If he hadn’t been awake before, he definitely was now.

The expression on his face made the Baroness come slamming back to her senses as she realized what she was doing. Hastily, the Baroness released Benny, tears pricking at her eyes. “I…I be sorry, lad!”

“I said, enough chit chat!” Chris’s voice sounded, cutting the apology short between the two. “Get moving, Benny! You’ve got lips to smooch!”

The Baroness’s eyes met Benny’s for a brief moment before they strayed back to the forest floor, unable to keep him in her sights.

“Baroness, you’ll be joining me back at the start! Hope you can do it!” Chris laughed, referencing the blindfolds he’d administered at the start of the challenge.

“W-Well, good luck…Baroness,” Benny mumbled, rubbing his arm as he turned to make his way into the dense scenery.

“Fair winds, me bucko,” she awkwardly called after him, lifting her head up to make her way through the forest back the way she’d come, tears trickling down her cheeks.

Arizona was slowly making her way through the trees, waving her cane cautiously. The forest placement of the challenge was proving to be kind of difficult for her, and she was covered in tiny scrapes from falls or collisions. Still, Arizona was determined to persevere. It really hadn’t been that bad kissing Mallory, and it gave the girl some hope for eventually picking things up with her whole team. If Mallory really trusted that she could do this on her own, that meant that two of the team members believed in her. And from there, Mika would have to bend.

Distracted with her thoughts, Arizona kept her cane too stationary, and a large root to her left side caused her to tumble to the ground. Reaching her hands up as she pulled into a sitting position, Arizona could feel blood staining her fingers.

Just a short distance away, Alice was pacing around her clearing, deep in thought about the state of things on her team, when a sudden thud from the nearby forest startled her, causing her to jump up. “Hello?” Alice questioned cautiously, hoping that it was just another competitor nearby and not some forest wildlife who would love to find a tasty snack standing alone in the middle of a clearing. “Who’s there?”

“Alice?” Arizona turned her head towards the girl’s voice, trying to orient herself. “It’s Arizona!”

Alice breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn’t Mika who had found her. She didn’t want to be kissing her if she could help it, the thought made her sick. “‘Zona, where are you? Can you come towards me?”

Arizona lifted herself slowly, first to her knees, then to her feet. She didn’t feel like she was cut in any other places, and she shook out her legs to be sure. “I think I can! Keep talking for a second?”

“Uhh, okay! I’m standing over here in a clearing that’s about twenty steps long and fifteen steps wide. The marker is right in the middle, and that’s where I am now. The forest is pretty thick around the clearing, but I think you could get through if you-” Alice was interrupted by Arizona’s arrival into the clearing. Taking a quick look up and down the girl, Alice gasped. “‘Zona, what happened? You’re all cut up.”

“It’s a little hard to avoid everything with, well, you know.” Arizona waved her cane around in the air as a symbol for her being blind. “I’m fine, though.”

“Are you sure?” Alice was most notably looking at Arizona’s face, which was dripping with some blood.

“We can fix it after the challenge. Right now, we need to keep going.” Taking a few steps forward, Arizona found herself right in front of Alice, orienting herself by the subtle noises the girl was making. “Now, Mallory and I found out that it was okay if we just did cheek kisses, so I’m just going to give you one, okay? I just need to…” Reaching forwards, Arizona swiped the air next to Alice until she was properly oriented on the girl’s shoulder. From there, she just slid her hand up until she was resting it on Alice’s cheek.

Alice, who had initially flinched away from the girl’s touch, relaxed once she realized what Arizona was doing. She was admittedly glad that she wouldn’t actually have to be kissing Arizona, because, as much as that would be a nice bonding activity, she wasn’t really into the whole kissing a girl idea.

Drawing her hand down, Arizona leaned in and brushed her lips across Alice’s cheek. It was much easier this time around, and she was thankful Mallory had already done the kiss with her. While Alice admittedly tensed up at the kiss, Arizona really wasn’t a half bad kisser.

A loud smooching sound blared from the shirts as Arizona pulled away, and Chris’ voice came on. “You guys are really taking all of the fun out of this, but whatever. Alice, time to move on. Arizona, meet me back here at the starting line, and try not to break your arm or anything.”

“So, I just keep doing cheek kisses?” Alice questioned, stepping back.

“Yep.”

“And you kissed Mallory? Even after what she said?”

Arizona felt her blood run cold. “What did she say about me?”

“I don’t really know if it’s my place to tell.” Alice paused, as if she was really cautious about divulging this information. “She was just worried about you, Arizona, and she said she thought you were going to hurt yourself in the challenge because of the forest, you know? She was just showing concern, I think.” Alice’s tone was sickeningly sweet, and Arizona had lost her smile.

“Thank you for telling me, Alice. At least someone on the team is honest with me.” Muscles locked tight, Arizona turned around to head back into the forest, and Alice slipped away on the other side of the clearing. Just before she was about to step into the trees, Arizona remembered. “Wait, Alice! Mallory’s still out there! You have to go find-” But Alice was gone.

The camera flashed over to a more secluded part of the woods where Dennis was casually reaching into his pockets to retrieve something. Overwhelmed by boredom, he had decided that he might as well do something while he was just standing by the marker. After a few seconds of fake spiders, buzzers, and other prank memorabilia falling from his pockets, he retrieved his handy dandy… paddle ball.

“Ya can’t get stuck in a forest and not have a paddle ball on ya,” Dennis mumbled, furrowing his brow while he untangled the ball from around the handle.“Okay… One, two, th-”

“Stupid branches!” The sounds of a distraught teammate came to his attention. The ball missed the paddle and hung loosely by its thread. Dennis knew from their voice that it was Ry, but to be honest, he really didn’t want to risk hearing a “Shut up, Dennis!” from him. “Kehehe… he’ll figure it out. One,” he began again, sending the ball back into the air. But the loud ''SNAP! ''of something breaking behind him caused him to jump. The ball once again missed the paddle and smacked Dennis square in the nose. “YEOWCH!”

As Dennis rubbed his nose in annoyance, his way shorter teammate fell right out of the bushes and tumbled to the ground. “Son of a b****…” Ry muttered, eyes still not working right. He dusted himself off as he slowly stood up, bumping right into Dennis and reeling back. “If that’s you B****le-!”

“KEHEHEHEHEHE! Woah there, kid! Whadja do in the forest? Did’ja find some mushrooms or somethin’?” Dennis laughed. “If ya did, then I want some!” He knew that even if Ry had found some mushrooms, he would likely horde them to himself.

He stopped and stared at his teammate, noticing something off about his appearance, namely on his face. There it was, ugly as a prank gone wrong: a black eye. “Kehu, what’s with the shiner?” he finally asked when Ry had stopped dusting himself. “You get into a fight, Ry Ry?”

“I didn’t take mushrooms, you straw hatted idiot!” Ry snapped. His hand quickly went up and covered his black eye. He was already annoyed with T, so Dennis was just making it worse. “And no, I just stumbled out of the forest and fell to the ground because my name is Mallory,” Ry muttered vehemently, sarcasm dripping from his tone.

“Oi, I ain’t no idiot, but I’ll give ya the straw hatted part.” Dennis’ was grin still spread across his face. He crossed his arms and tilted his head this way and that. “’Sides, ain’t that your seein’ eye?”

Ry’s scowl deepened, and he neglected to answer. Dennis’s smile didn’t fade from his face, however, since he was used to Ry’s attitude by this point in the game. “Well, ain’t we supposed to kiss or somethin’?”

The surprise of that question caused Ry to stop and lower his hand. “Oh, s***…”

“Ry, we don’t have enough funds to keep censoring you like that,” Chris’ voice popped up through his shirt. “It’s bad enough we have to do that with Mika nearly every single time she shows up on screen, so keep that toilet mouth to yourself!” Chris cut himself off and left the air tingling with nothing but the two boys and their breathing, until Ry finally spoke up again.

“I’ll just curse more, you s***head.”

“KEHEHEHEHE!” Dennis broke out into laughter, holding his stomach.

“Whatever…” Ry muttered. He turned to Dennis and crossed his arms, waiting on him to quit his laughter. “It’s not that funny, you know?”

“Nah, that’s hilarious! You gettin’ lectured over cursing is like me gettin’ lectured over ping pong–!”

“I have lectured you about that!” Ry spat back, annoyance clear on his bruised face.

“Come on, shortstack, let’s just kiss already!” Dennis chuckled, waving off Ry’s comment.

“Fine…” With that, Ry slowly leaned forward, body tense and exhausted. If he knew what would have happened next, he would have pulled away and ran.

Before he knew it the warm wet feeling of a tongue pressed against his lips and went straight up his face, stopping at his forehead. If Ry could see, he would have swung and punched Dennis, but all he could do at this point was stand in complete and total shock, horror etched on to his face. His mouth had turned down into a complete frown while hanging open as well, giving him a rather comedic expression. If he didn’t have a black eye in his left eye, both eyes would have been as wide as the sun above the forest. The strands of hair that normally covered his right eye were now sticking straight up from the saliva getting in them. His body was absolutely still like a statue and his hands were twitching a little.

The sound of the overdramatic smooching noise didn’t even break him from the shock.

“KEHEHEHE! What’s wrong there, Strawberry Shortcake?” Dennis asked, oblivious to his own mistake. The only thing he could see was Ry’s terrified expression, causing him to break into more laughter, creating an echo that rippled through the forest.

“WOAH!” Chris’s voice sounded through their shirts. “Dennis, you realize that only Selene and animals kiss like that, right?! Never mind… I’m counting it for her, so you get the kiss credit too! Still, YE-UCK!”

“Aggghh…” Ry moaned out in disgust, finally starting to come to. “H-His…to…ngue…”

“Yeah, yeah, Ry. We all saw that!” Chris laughed. “Dennis the Menace gets to proceed ahead while Ry…gets to see his way back to the finish line!”

“Welp! I’ll be seein’ ya, Ry Ry!” Dennis called out. He turned and ran through the dense forest, leaving only the slapping of his flip flops against his feet as any clues that he’d been there.

“It…w-went in my mo…mouth…” Ry stammered. He turned on his heels and only managed to take one step before tripping and falling on to the ground.

The cameras flashed to another part of the forest, revealing a rather frightened looking T, whose blue eyes were scanning the area for any signs of danger near them. If there was one thing T was not, it was athletic.

Hearing the sounds of rustling near them, they froze almost immediately. The likelihood of this becoming dangerous for them was very real, considering there were probably bears in the woods here. One could not be too sure on a show like this…

“Wooo hoooooo!!!!” Suddenly T heard the excited noises of Bailey swinging past them at a terrifying speed, causing them to nearly jump right out of their skin.

The daredevil, not noticing the other, slammed her boot into a tree, stopping her swing. Jumping down from the tree, she smiled and turned around, tugging on the line she’d been using to swing. With the push of a button, something came hurdling back, clunking to the ground with a loud thud.

T stopped and gasped, realizing that what they saw was actually Bailey’s leg landing on the ground a few feet from them.

“Hey, T, buddy!” Bailey greeted them, smile spread across her face. “You mind getting me that??” She laughed, leaning against the tree she’d landed on.

“Oh, ah, sure…” T softly spoke, reaching down and delicately bringing up the leg to their grasp. “You…have this just…with you?” they asked, voice shaky from the fact they were technically holding a body part.

“Oh, yeah!” Bailey laughed, reaching out and taking her leg from them. “You’ve got that right, buddy!”

“I-I would have never guessed!” they told her, eyes lighting up in slight awe. Bailey was always doing crazy things, and she only had one real leg!

“Hey, T, can I ask you something?” Bailey spoke up, strapping her leg back up through her pants. “Your gender?”

“Oh, that? I’m agender,” they told her honestly, smiling slightly.

“Really? What’s that mean?”

“Well, when you’re agender, it means that you do not identify as male or female.”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Bailey moved forward now, legs fully working again. “You don’t have a gender??”

“N-No,” they mumbled, face suddenly filling with fear that she would suddenly reject their explanation as fiction. “It’s just.. something else. Another gender.”

“Cool! That’s actually awesome for you to know who you are inside and out! Man—Oh, dude! Ahhh, shoot, what should I call you??”

“Well, my name,” T told her honestly, gently tugging at the strings on their hood.

“Oh, I knew that much, but I want to know, like, would you be mad if I kept using ‘dude’ or ‘man’ near you? I know that it would be awful rude, and I’ve had girls be mad at me for using those words in front of them, so I had to change it to ‘dudette’ and ‘girl’!”

“I don’t mind either one, to be honest with you,” T told her. “I just do not wish for you to call me a male or female; I prefer to be called a person or if you would use ‘they’ to refer to me.”

“Can do, buckaroo!” Bailey cheered, patting their back, causing them to flinch. “So what’re you doing looking so lost out here??”

“Oh, I…I did get lost out here…” T admitted weakly. They glanced around nervously. “These woods are so dangerous…” they mumbled, laughing softly.

“Oh, right! I was actually trying to go to higher ground to look around, but Chris is like ‘no climbing, Bailey!’ so I had to bend the rules a little bit!” She gestured up toward the tree branches.

“So you used your leg like a grappling hook?” they asked, glancing at her false leg for a swift moment.

“Exactly! I can’t climb the trees, but I can swing from the trees! It gives me such a rush!” she burst out, before turning around and pausing. “Hey, you wanna try it out??”

“N-No,” T confessed, shaking their head. The thought of doing something like that was far too dangerous in their mind. “Just being in the woods is scary enough…”

It was then that the bushes began to rustle nearby, causing T to gasp loudly and rush over to stand behind Bailey, shaking like leaf. “Is it coyotes or bears? Have they come for me?!” T clung to her leather jacket, frightened eyes as wide as the moon.

As they whimpered from their hiding spot, a small bunny came hopping out of the bushes, stopping in front of them with their whiskers gently twitching at the sight of the teen strangers. Their eyes were almost as big and innocent as T’s.

Glancing back over her shoulder at T, Bailey raised an eyebrow and whispered, “Stay calm; it can probably smell fear.”

“O-Oh, haha,” T meekly laughed, eyes lowering to the rabbit in front of them. They wondered why it wasn’t fearing them even though Bailey was there.

“Huh, that’s weird; I’m so used to rabbits being scared of me when they see me!” Bailey laughed, bending down to reach out toward the bunny. However, it reeled back and nearly raced off. When T stepped forward, though, it paused, almost completely calmed by their presence.

“Woah! How’d you do that??” Bailey glanced down at them, eyes wide.

“My family says that I just naturally have the ability to calm others. It’s seemed to work pretty well on my team so far, it’s kept them from attacking one another a bit,” T told her, eyeing the small creature in front of them. Bending down, they slowly reached out their hand and gently rubbed two fingers on top of its ears.

“Wait, is your team really that unstable?” Bailey asked, glancing over at them, having not talked to many of the Pandas. “I’ve seen how Dennis and Lavender attack each other, but… your other teammates are unstable, too?”

“Oh, you wouldn’t believe it, but Ry is… really sadistic,” T told her, confirming her statement. “During the fire challenge and water challenge, you should have seen the spark in his eyes while he did damage. Kiki, on the other hand, can become rather aggressive… During the fire challenge, she almost punched poor Lavender when she accidentally threw water on her.”

“I would have never guessed, T! I thought it was only Dennis and Lavender that had tendencies to get rowdy. Dang, my team is only like that when Selene goes off and we have to chase her, your team sounds a lot more chaotic than mine!” she told them, watching in awe as the rabbit nuzzled T’s hand.

“Would you like to pet it?” they asked, turning to her. They normally didn’t talk much, but Bailey just had a personality that meshed well with theirs.

Bailey’s eyes lit up. “Yeah! That would be amazing!”

Ashley walked through the forest, still in a bad mood after her kiss with Jillian. Why couldn’t people just do something for the team? She was still exhausted from trying to keep her room from being broken into again and slapped branches away from her face, getting cuts across her arms. It felt like she had been walking forever. She couldn’t decide who would be worse to run into. She was sure Gaile had betrayed her by now, but Dakota’s betrayal was even worse, even though he had apologized. It felt like nearly the entire cast was pitting themselves against her. All she wanted to do was go back to her room where she could be alone and not have to worry about any of this, but she had to complete the challenge. At this point, she couldn’t afford to lose.

Finally, she stepped out of the brush into a small clearing. A small ray of sunshine came through the canopy. If she wasn’t so distracted by the challenge, she would have admired the sight. She almost walked straight through the space, then she heard a small “click!” from the corner.

Dakota stood there, quietly taking a picture of a squirrel in a tree to not disturb it. When he heard footsteps he turned, startled, and the squirrel ran off into the tree.

Ashley’s face fell upon seeing the boy and she quickly looked away, but Dakota stepped up to her.

“Hi, Ashley!” he said in a chirpy tone, trying to keep the mood light.

“Hey, Dakota,” she replied, still not looking at him.

A few moments passed in awkward silence before Dakota spoke up again.

“Ashley, I really am sorry about what happened, I never meant to-”

“Let’s just kiss and get the challenge over with, okay?” Ashley said roughly, cutting him off. She was done hearing his apologies. She’d said she’d forgiven him, and even though it hadn’t been true, she didn’t want to hear any more about it from him.

Dakota flinched away from the harshness in her voice. “I just meant that-”

“Just kiss me!” Ashley shouted in frustration. Her tone shocked Dakota and he stepped backward. Ashley sighed.

“I’m sorry. Let’s just do it, okay?” Without waiting for Dakota to say anything, Ashley began to lean forward.

As she got close, she could feel Dakota’s breath on her face, and suddenly her heart was beating rapidly. Dakota’s eyes were closed and she decided to close hers too, hoping that would make it easier.

Their lips had only just touched when Ashley pulled away. Dakota’s eyes snapped open, and he saw that Ashley’s face was beet red.

The cliché lip smacking sound erupted from their shirts, causing the short boy to jump in surprise. “Ha! I love when two teenagers struggle to just get a kiss out of the way!” Chris’s voice came laughing from the speakers. “Well, I personally don’t, but I’m sure someone does! Just look at those ratings! Ashley, you’re done here! Take your attitude and your butt and get back to the starting line! Don’t get eaten by a bear on your way here…or do. Dakota, you need to continue on and find your next teammate! Just don’t stop and take pictures every ten seconds!” With a final chuckle, the host’s voice cut off.

Ashley’s face was still red when Dakota looked back at her, preparing to leave the clearing to find his next teammate. She was looking at the ground as if trying to make the flushing stop, but it actually seemed to be getting brighter. It was honestly one of the nicest expressions he had ever seen on Ashley, and he quickly took a picture.

When she heard the “click!” of the camera, Ashley’s head shot up. She looked at Dakota, who was still holding up the camera, and her face grew even redder.

“Delete that!” she barked at Dakota. Shocked by her loud response, Dakota fumbled with the camera, his fingers clumsy on the buttons as he tried to delete the picture.

Ashley growled in frustration. They were wasting precious time that they didn’t have.

“Just go!” she yelled, and Dakota ran out of the clearing, clutching his camera and giving one last look backwards before he disappeared into the brush.

Her cheeks still flaming red and her heart still beating fast, Ashley turned and made her way back the way she’d came.

The camera panned back through the forest, stopping on a member of the Penguins who was running at maximum speed through the forest.

Benny panted as he rushed through the trees. It was all he could do in this situation to distract himself from the encounter from before. Had he really messed up, though? It was what he had to do for the challenge! The Baroness wasn’t really mad at him, right? She’d seemed angry, but he couldn’t understand why.

Stopping to catch his breath, Benny leaned over with his hands pressed to his knees. He hadn’t stopped running since he’d left the kissing crime scene.

Abruptly, he realized his mistake and turned this way and that, checking the area around him. In all horror movies, teens who ran off alone were killed, along with couples and those who stopped to kiss one another in the creepy forest. This prompted a serious question in his newly awakened mind: should he run to hurry up in the challenge or should he walk to avoid his certain fate?

“Take one for the team, Benny,” he chided himself, rising up and taking off into the forest before immediately tumbling over a branch with a shriek of terror. The bent and jagged branch dug into his jeans, imitating the feeling of a hand wrapping around his ankle.

“Z-Zombie!” Benny cried, yanking at his leg in an attempt to break the branch’s grasp. However, he soon noticed the brown appendage was actually the dead limb of, not a body, but a tree. “O-Oh, hey there, tree branch…” he mumbled softly. He picked it up, unhooked it from his leg, and gripped the base of the stick tightly.

One could never not need a weapon, right? Chris could have totally released something dangerous and evil in the forest, so it would be a good idea to be protected.

Lifting the branch up in a fighting stance, he slowly crept through the forest, eyes on the lookout for anything that could attack him. It wasn’t long until he heard the faint sounds of what sounded like a lone wolf howling nearby.

“Wolves, Chris?” He moaned, closing his wary eyes. Of all the creatures he could send into the forest, why would it be wolves? Didn’t he normally do bears or radioactive sharks or Chef in a mask?

A shallow breath helped him start gathering his thoughts. If that was a wolf howling, then he’d be in for a fight, but if it wasn’t a wolf howling, then what would it be?

“Awhooooo!” He heard the noise again. Benny stood up straight and focused on the sound. It was high pitched, so it probably wasn’t a real wolf, and it sounded more like a stray dog rather than—SELENE!

Wait, but if he found Selene, then he would have to kiss her. Who knows what unspeakable kisses she could have in store for him. He really didn’t want a tongue bath! But… he didn’t know who had been kissed already… or if Baroness had kissed anyone before him.'''

“Shoot, this is what happens when someone doesn’t listen to instructions!” he lectured himself, slapping the stick against the ground. At least for now he had his wits about him, but he was really going to have to keep working at it if he wanted to keep this going. Maybe there would be a library he could go to in order to find sleeping tips if he couldn’t get on the internet…

“I’m fixing this sleep schedule if it’s the last thing I do,” he muttered, moving forward toward the sounds of the howling.

As he drew closer, however, Benny started to recognize that the howling not only belonged to Selene, but  it also sounded kind of more like a dog kennel howl than a wolf howling at the moon howl. He didn’t really want to dwell on why he could tell the difference.

“Selene!” he called out, not bothering to announce it like a question. She’d know it was him, and he knew it was her. Finally, Benny entered the clearing to see Selene crouched on the ground.

“Benny! Benny, friend!” Selene panted. She jumped forward toward the other boy as he approached her, arms flailing dramatically as she was stopped short. Upon investigation, it could be seen that she was tied to a tree on a rather short leash. It was a clever strategy by the interns to keep the naturally restless girl from running off.

“Tied to tree!” Selene whined, scratching behind her ear rapidly with her hand. “Want run! If run, then finish challenge. Help team!”

“Okay, but we have to kiss before that can happen,” Benny told her, pushing her back so that she didn’t strangle herself while trying to get the rope off. “Can you do that, Selene?”

“Yes!” she promised, eyes darting around the forest.

“Once we kiss, then I can untie you, alright?”

“Yes! Kiss!” Selene’s body posture stretched, and she wriggled as Benny told her that. If she were described as something right now, then it would be a puppy going for a car ride.

Benny took a deep breath, leaned forward, and closed his eyes. It wasn’t like she could kiss him in a way that he didn’t expect. Honestly, he kind of expected a strange kiss from her since she was a rather…wild child.

What he didn’t expect was how sloppy and wet the kiss was, sending him into a shocked state for a mere moment. Her tongue slid from the bottom of his neck all the way up his face and even into his hair. He would have a wonderful hairstyle similar to bedhead for the rest of the day; it was ironic how much that fit his state of being since he didn’t exactly feel like he needed a nap.

“Oh, gross, Selene!” he yelled, taking a quick swipe at his face. “Couldn’t you have just licked my lips only instead of my face?!”

“No,” Selene told him honestly, eyes sparkling. “Again! Selene like licking you! And then…”

Abruptly Selene came lunging at his face, and Benny barely had time to shriek before she briefly nipped his chin. “Benny leader! Leader!” Selene barked, a wide smile on her face.

“G…gah.” Benny stuttered, lost for words. He couldn’t erase the picture in his mind of Selene’s teeth hurdling right at him.

“Leader! Leader!” Selene jumped around in tiny circles, and Benny tried to regain some composure.

“How about I just untie you…?” he asked, shaking his head a little to distract from his slightly shaking hands.

Finally, the familiar smooching sound echoed from the their shirts, causing Benny to shudder, dragging his hand down his face at the memory of the kiss.

“Okay, it was kind of gross, but, hey, I’ll allow it!” Chris laughed through the speakers of their shirts. “And nice biting too, Selene, extra kudos points there.”

“Leader!” Selene grinned and looked up at Benny expectantly.

With that out of the way, Benny began to untie Selene’s leash around the tree, ignoring Chris as he explained what he already knew to do. If he made it out of this forest alive and didn’t run into a serial killer, he’d be relieved.

“—And, Selene, you get to move–!” Before Chris could even finish his speech, Selene gave Benny another quick lick and raced off, leash flailing behind her like a cape.

“HEY, I WASN’T EVEN DONE EXPLAINING WHAT TO DO!” Chris yelled through the speakers.

“You go, Wonder Dog,” Benny softly mumbled, rubbing his eyes and heading back into the forest, ignoring Chris once again as he complained about Selene running off and leaving before he could even finish his speech.

Hopefully, he could make it back to the finish line before the others… He wasn’t sure if he could exactly say he knew his way out. “I kind of wish I’d been sent in first,” he muttered, dropping his stick weapon behind him and continuing on back to where he hoped he’d come from.

Alice wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead in disgust. If she ever got a chance to watch this episode in the future and she saw that her makeup was ruined, she’d never let Chris hear the end of it.

“Ugh, this sucks!” she whined uncomfortably. Her blue dyed hair was started to flop flat from her hike. She was so sick and tired of this, were there like no more Polar Bears left or something?

“Hello?! Are there any Polar Bears nearby?!?” Alice screeched at the converging rows of trees.

“Depends who’s askin’.” a voice called from close by. The blue haired girl spun around in a full circle, long hair spinning along with her. Well, at least her hair still had some volume left.

“Mika, is that you?” she called in hopes she’d finally found someone in this mosquito infested forest. Momentarily, she forgot her hatred of Mika, but it came slamming back a few moments later.

“Like I said, it depends on who’s askin’,” the voice of Mika repeated, only annoying Alice further.

“It’s me, Alice,” she responded through gritted teeth. “Your teammate.” Why was Mika the one she had to find?! Of all her teammates, it had to be Mika! Angrily, Alice stalked towards Mika’s voice until she stepped into her clearing.

Mika scoffed at the sight of the girl. Her thoughts pretty much were the same as Alice’s, only with added vulgarity. “You look like crap,” she told her, eyes narrowing.

Alice, chose to ignore that comment. Even though it was Mika, she was glad she found someone here. “I can’t believe I found you!” She pulled back her lips into a forced smile.

“I can’t believe you f***in’ did either,” Mika shot back, her tone taking on a more hostile version of itself. So Alice was trying to play the innocent card with her now?

“Excuse me?” Alice asked. Was Mika calling her an idiot? This was unbelievable! First her hair was ruined from the hiking to find her teammate and now Mika was making fun of her intelligence!? “I’ll have you know that this forest is really dense, Mika! Of course, you wouldn’t know that, since you’ve just been standing here and doing nothing!”

“Save it you, you bilge rat!” Mika spat back, receiving a confused stare from Alice in return. “I heard Baroness say it a few times, and I wanted to say it myself. Now seemed like as good of a time as any. But since that’s too complicated for ya, I’ll dumb it down. You’re nothing but a f***in’ fake a** c***!”

“Don’t be so mean to me, Mika!” Alice’s eyes widened in fake surprise and hurt. “I’m so nice to everyone, I don’t know why you’re so mad at me! It was all Matt’s fault that we lost the last challenge, remember?”

“Oh, right, it was totally bloody Matt’s fault that someone upset Arizona!” Mika seethed, clenching her fists.

“But I don’t know who could have upset her! She looked fine before I walked in on her and Matt that day!”

“Buy a bolt and shut that trap of yours!”

All Alice could do in this moment to keep herself from breaking character was to sweetly smile at Mika. This only infuriated the other teen further, however, and resulted in her raising her hand and curling it into a fist.

“Oh, dear! Don’t hit me!” Alice called out, raising her hands up to block her face. “It wouldn’t look good on you if we….lost this challenge and I had to tell the team about how you hurt me!”

Mika hesitated at that remark, fist lowering. However much she hated to admit it, she knew the blue haired manipulator was right to say that. She had Arizona wrapped tightly around her finger and even if Mallory didn’t fall for it, there would still be a tie breaker. Mika didn’t want to risk getting the boot because Chris forced them to sing a song or dance to a brainwashing pop song.

Suddenly, Mika groaned, remembering the challenge at hand. “Let’s get this over with, because I ain’t too fond of kissin’ the likes of you!”

“Aw, you’re so mean to me, and I don’t know why,” Alice fake pouted.

“Just shut your mouth before I change my mind and deck ya!” Mika’s fists were still clenched but not raised.

The two teens slowly began to lean forward. The impending kiss was making Mika more and more tense and angry, she hated that she was having to kiss one of her enemies. It was like losing her dignity or something. When she could finally feel the breathing of Alice on her face, she moved forward to get the kiss over with, smashing their lips together in a rough encounter. When Mika finished the kiss, she thrust her arms forwards and shoved Alice backwards, making her fall to the ground.

In the moment of silence that followed, Mika just glared down at Alice, the blue-haired girl’s body frozen like a statue. The only reason she moved was because of the over-exaggerated kiss noise playing through their shirts.

“If I put you two in a room together, I bet I could bump up the ratings a whole lot!” Chris laughed through the speakers.

“Two come in and one comes out!” Mika muttered.

Alice, who was still filled with shock over the push, glared down at her shirt to have something to focus on. “Chris, you’d better pay for my clothes, hair, and makeup being ruined!”

“Uh, let me think about that…” Chris mocked her, going silent for a few seconds to emulate thought. “No! Now, you get to come back to the starting line while Mika goes and kisses the last Polar Bear! You better hurry up, though, I’m sure the other teams are already on their way back, as we speak!” He lied to them, enjoying their frightened reactions.

“The last Polar Bear?” Alice questioned, before coming to a quick realization. Mallory must still be out there. “Oh, Mika?” Alice sang out, making the other girl whirl on her in anger.

“Screw you Alice!” she burst out, not wanting to listen to a word that fake b**** had to say. Quickly, Mika turned around and ran off into the forest, calling back, “THIS AIN’T OVER, ALICE!”

All Alice could do was smile and wave as she vanished. “It isn’t over? I think it is~! I’m not thinking about it, so it must be over, Mika dear'.”

Dennis adjusted his straw hat to shield his eyes from the sun as he walked directly into a bright area of the forest. He had just finished his part of the challenge with Ry and was now looking for Lavender. Boy oh boy, he couldn’t wait to give her his surprise! It wasn’t something he could give to Kiki, so he had to find Lav.

Since he had dropped most of his props to get out his paddle ball, he was down to two options: stick a stray spider in her hair or do something without any props. He could attempt both, but time was of the essence so he would probably only be able to accomplish one. As he turned a corner he caught the scent of something that made his wide grin even wider: Lavender’s perfume.

“Ahh the sweet smell of a teammate about to get got! Kehehe!” Dennis chuckled.

He then began to sniff out the area like a hound in search of Lavender. Luckily for him, the perfume scent was strong, and he found her in just a couple of seconds.

Lavender was standing on her marker, filing her nails with determination. She didn’t see Dennis as he walked up, making him chuckle even more.

“Oh, Lavvvv!” Dennis called in a sing song voice.

Lavender immediately looked up and stared at him with disbelief. Of course, it just had to be him of all people! It couldn’t be Kiki, T, or even Ry! She had to get the worst person on this team!

Shaking her head, she lowered the nail file in front of her, holding it like a sword. “Dennis, you better not do anything! I swear to everything if you do anything to me, then I will throw you into next week! Ohhhh, why couldn’t you be anyone else!?” Lavender whined, stomping her foot.

Dennis approached the fuming girl with a certain swagger in his step. “Aw come on Lav. I’m just having a little bit of fun is all. You know that’s how I show my love. C’mon. You ain’t even a liiittle happy to see me?” he asked her mockingly.

Lavender glared as he got closer to her marker. It was bad enough that she had to have him in her company but she had to kiss him, too! Out of all the much more suitable boys in the world!

“No, I’m not happy to see that wretched face of yours!” she countered. There was pure hate in her features at this point. She wrinkled her nose and turned her head away. “I swear it’s like you just want to make my life miserable or something!”

“Nah, I ain’t got time to just make one person’s life miserable! I gotta show everyone just how much I love them! Kehehehe!”

“Then why do you always have to target me!? Why not T or Ry or Kiki!?”

Dennis stayed silent for a moment, then tapped his chin. “Well, you just make it easy! Ry’s too smart, Kiki’s got that muscle, and T don’t respond much! You just make it alllll worth it!” Dennis then broke into a soft laugh, enjoying how her face scrunched up in irritation. To him, this was nothing but humor; who cared if she hated him when he could just fill up a balloon with her own shampoo and throw it in her face later? Or he could give her some spiked up hair like that one anime guy.

“You’re just so…UGH!” she complained, stomping her foot again to try and look threatening, though it really just made her look childish.

Dennis was unphased by Lavender’s rage and continued to laugh at her and jeer. “Well then, I guess this is your lucky day! You get the pleasure of kissin’ yours truly!” He gave a little bow.

Lavender’s eyes widened in horror, reminded again of the inevitable kiss. “N-N-NO!!” she objected in a shrill screech.

“Oh, I think you can find it in you, Lavender. Unless you’d rather get sent home when your team votes you off because you don’t finish,” Chris taunted through her shirt speaker.

“Ugh!! Who died and made you king of this challenge?!” Lavender asked, adding to the laughter of Dennis.

“Nobody died, but I’m still king here, Lavender! So you either kiss his face or you get to kiss a boot as it kicks you off this show!” Chris once more taunted.

“Erg…” Glancing over toward Dennis, her face contorted in disgust. Kissing him would be the worst thing to ever happen to her. Unless… “Who’d you kiss before? I know that adorable cutie, T, started the challenge. Did you kiss T or…?”

“Eh, I got ta kiss Ry Ry; he wasn’t too thrilled.”

Oh no… Well, Kiki was probably a way better kisser than this jerk, at least. “Fine, I’ll kiss you, but you’d better not get any ideas!” she warned, hesitating as she leaned forward.

Dennis smirked slyly and leaned forward to kiss Lavender. He had a plan brewing in his head and he was just itching to implement it.

He abruptly thrust his arms around Lavender and dipped her down to where her head was almost at ground level. Lavender was protesting the entire time, slapping Dennis’ shoulders and head.

“HEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! PUT ME DOWN!!” she screeched. The sheer anger and horror that was splayed across her features became evident. What could he have planned now of all times?! “IF YOU DO ANYTHING, I SWEAR-!”

Before she could even finish her sentence, she noticed Dennis’s mouth open above her, resulting in the worst case scenario. When he suddenly burped above her and sent a disgusting stream of air right into her face, a scream ripped from her throat, loud enough that everyone as far away as the starting line could hear it. It was also pretty obvious to them what had happened.

“YOU DIRTY PRICK! YOU’RE SO DISGUSTING!” she shrieked, slamming her balled up fist into his chest to send him sprawling backward.

Just before he fell back, he planted a big wet one right on Lavender’s lips. He cackled maniacally as he was shoved away. Now all he had to do was watch the end of his prank unfold. He was laughing so hard he had no way to stabilize himself as he fell and he sprawled out on the ground, still laughing like a hyena. The over-exaggerated smooch played from their shirt speakers.

“Keheheh, that sure was a good one huh, Lav?” Dennis taunted her and wiped a tear from his eye.

“I AM SO SICK OF YOU AND YOUR VILE PRANKS!” she screamed, stepping forwards, hands balled into tight fists. “WHY CAN’T ANYONE-!”

She was cut off as Chris started talking loudly over the speakers. “Alright, you two! It’s time to get a MOVE ON since time is money!” Chris responded, a cackle sounding through the speakers. “Dennis, you and your fake spiders get to come back to the starting line while Lavender goes to smooch the last person on your team!”

“God, I’m gonna throw up.” Lavender moaned and wiped the Dennis off her lips.

“Aww, come on. Ya know ya-” Dennis started to tease her again before Chris shouted at him through the intercom.

“GOOOOO! No more chit chat!”

Lavender groaned loudly and turned on her heels. “Go kiss a porcupine next time, since you’re both a bunch of pricks!” She shot back at Dennis before rushing through the forest, still wiping at her mouth.

Dennis managed to pull himself together enough to stand up again, managing to utter soft ‘keh’s every once in a while. He turned back the way he came and rushed off, flip flops slapping the soft ground.

The camera flashed back to another part of the forest, revealing the two contestants from before. T had taken to clinging to Bailey’s side while Bailey was tromping through the forest, hacking and slashing the branches and bushes in their way.

“Dang, this place is huge!” she commented, swatting another branch out of her face. “You think there’s anything dangerous in he—Wait, dumb question. Of course, you think so!” She laughed, pausing at the silence behind her.

“Hey, what’s wrong, T?” Turning around, Bailey bent down as she noticed their frightened expression.

“W-Well, I just feel guilty…” they admitted, lowering their eyes to the forest floor.

“What? Why?” Bailey asked, turning back around to continue her trek through the forest with them. T was always so nice from what she’d seen so far since she’d hung out with them. Why would they feel guilty about something?

“Well…” they started, until Bailey suddenly stumbled through the brush and Chris’s voice broke through their speech.

“Welcome back to the world of the single!” Chris’s voice laughed, completely ruining T’s chances of explaining themself. “Did I interrupt something??” he asked, knowing far too well that he did.

“It feels like this happens entirely too much…” T mumbled, walking over to stand next to Chris. Suddenly, they noticed that another had already made it here before the duo: Arizona.

“How did you make it here so fast?!” Bailey asked with T nodding along in surprise. They remembered that Arizona had actually been brought in after them, right? Where was Mallory?

“You’re very talented, you know?” T mumbled, a small smile on their face. “It took me forever to find my way back, and I was the first to go in.”

“Thank you,” Arizona softly replied, mind still on what Alice said, despite her saying she didn’t want to know. What had Mallory said about her? Did Mika say something about her too? It was just too much for her to handle.

“Totes my goats; that’s the same with me!” Bailey laughed, highfiving T next to her. “T here totally helped to keep me company! They even taught me how to fold origami stars while we walked!”

“Origami stars?” Arizona asked. Her head tilted. “That sounds interesting enough, but I prefer my pages in books, if you don’t mind.” Her body was tense and her tone sounded reserved, indicating she desired to be left alone.

“HUSH!” Chris hissed, shoving a hand their way. “I’m trying to create ratings here, not bonding! So one of you punch the other or just shut up.”

“Y-Yes, sir,” T quickly obliged, turning their attention to the ground.

Selene continued rushing around the forest, making amazing time as she passed several other contestants that weren’t on her team. As she ran, she let her tongue hang out of her mouth, completely content. She was determined to help her team this time!

Bursting through a thick bush, she skidded to a stop, panting loudly. It wasn’t because she had run out of breath or seen a teammate. No, it was because of the bush she had just ran through. The berries on it looked absolutely stunning, a delicious dark purple color. Leaning forward, she opened her mouth only to hear a scream behind her.

“SELENE, NO!” Derby, who had been standing nearby, threw his book, which he had retrieved from his satchel, at Selene. The book smacked her upside the head and caused the Wild Child to yelp.

“No, Selene! Those are ivy berries!” Derby yelled, unable to move from his mark. “Those will kill you!”

“BAD BERRIES! BAD BERRIES!” Selene screamed and backed away from the bush.

“Derby! Derby save Selene!” she continued with a big smile. She was truly grateful that her teammate had stopped her from eating those berries, even if it had hurt when he threw that book at her.

Derby let out a content breath. He had managed to save a life today, grateful he knew his knowledge of berries from research for his…stories.

“So… I see you found me, Selene,” he mumbled, eyeing the girl in front of him. With his knowledge of her so far, he knew this experience might go terribly for him. She tended to be more rambunctious than the other teammates. Playing his cards right was vital in this situation, so he stood up straight on his marker and cleared his throat.

“I suppose we should kiss now, correct?”

Selene nodded her head so rapidly that if she were an actual dog, her ears would be flopping up and down.

“Help team win!” Selene barked.

She then positioned herself in front of Derby, and rose up, standing like a human would. For a second it looked like Derby might actually get a normal kiss!

“Exactly,” Derby stated gently. He couldn’t mask his surprise when Selene actually stood upright in front of him. Had she seen other humans kiss before? He didn’t doubt it since she was able to audition for this show and come here alone.

Derby bent slightly to be in front of Selene’s face, his eyes closing and his breathing becoming softer. This was only to calm his mind down to evaluate this situation fully. Tilting his head slightly to the left, he moved his upper body forward and went in for the kiss.

Though this was going a lot different than the kiss with Benny, Selene totally knew what to do! She ground her feet into the dirt and puckered her lips, leaning towards Derby. Once their faces were right by each other, Selene smiled and stuck her tongue out, swiping it up from Derby’s chin to his hairline, dousing him in saliva.

“Kiss!” Selene yelped, jumping in a circle. “Like Benny!”

Derby’s entire expression changed from calm to horrified in only a few seconds. The feeling of saliva slowly dripping down his face caused his eyes to widen in horror.

At first he stood there in complete silence, disgust and disappointment evident on his face. All of his preparation for this kiss gone to waste! All of his writing on kissing had gone completely to waste!

“Selene, why on Earth did you lick my face!?” he inquired, his hand wiping down his face once more.

“Wrong?” Selene asked innocently. Her head was cocked to the side and she had a childlike gleam in her eyes as she stared at her teammate, confused. She hoped that she hadn’t upset him. This was how she always kissed.

Realizing his mistake, Derby sighed softly and shook his head.

“I’m sorry, Selene; no, you did nothing wrong.” He should have guessed this situation would take place. “We-”

Suddenly the smooching sound sounded from their shirts, surprising them both.

“EWWW. That was disgusting. What’s wrong with you people? Now get to the starting line, you two! You’re done!” Chris ordered through their shirt intercoms.

Selene then turned and started sprinting through the forest towards the finish line.

“PENGUINS WIN!” she chanted over and over triumphantly as she ran.

Derby was taken by surprise when his teammate suddenly sprang into action. He shook his head and took off after her.

“Selene! Wait for me!” he called, racing after the girl. He only managed to grab on to her leash-like rope to keep hold of her as she took off even faster, the two racing through the forest to the finish.

The camera flashed over the forest for a brief moment, showing the sun had moved since the start of the challenge. When it lowered into the forest, a hand swooped across the screen, batting  a branch out of the way. A blur of a black shirt and tan skin came rushing across the screen. Upon zooming out, it was clearly Mika stomping through the dense and hard to navigate through forest.

“I can’t believe that b****! How am I the only one who’s seeing this rubbish!?” Mika ranted, her hands formed into fists. “Now that Matt’s gone, we don’t have a bloody leader and I know that stupid wanker is going to try to take position! She’s worse than the Head Mistress back at my f***in’ school!” Her rants were rather loud and echoed back to her. It didn’t take long before she turned around and yelled “Who’s there?!” when it was really just her own voice.

“F*** that c***!” She swore, slapping the branches aside even harder. Alice was her sworn enemy, even more of an enemy to her than Chris at this point. It was one thing taking down Matt, but she wouldn’t tolerate Alice messing with the rest of the crew, especially since she was tricking ‘Zona!

Bursting through a bush, she shook her tired and angry head, leaves and twigs falling out of her hair. If she could just turn people against Alice, then she wouldn’t be struggling in the first place. The only problem was that Alice was sneakier than Mika had been when she painted the roof of her school. “Exposing a rat as slippery as her will be my toughest work yet, but I know I can f***in’ do it.”

The camera took this moment to move on to Mallory whose posture was slightly hunched over from lack of activity. All this time she’d spent here was maddening. She had nothing to toy with, nothing to grab, and nothing to make a bomb out of! How long had she been standing here again? Three hours? Four years? She really couldn’t tell.

She sighed in complete boredom. “This is just fooking great!” she whined, shoulders slumped. “I can’t do anything and I haven’t seen my team members in years!” Reaching into her pockets, she tried to find anything in them.

When it was obvious that they only had pocket lint in them, she slapped her forehead, keeping her hand over her eyes. “Why did I leave my things back at the hotel?! I could have been pretending to eat the forest with Godzilla right now!”

Moving her hand down her chin, she was startled to see the face of Mika right in front of her. Mallory leaped backwards in shock, stumbling over her feet.

“Yo.” Mika grumbled, not looking the cheeriest she’d ever been.

“HYUGH! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!” Mallory laughed, placing her hand over her chest. “I thought I’d summoned Godzilla with my mind or something!”

“What the f*** did you just call me?”

Mallory took a moment to realize what she said and held up her hands, waving them frantically. She could see how Mika might take offense to be called a giant monster with scales. “Woah! Nononono! That’s totally not what I meant!” she quickly backtracked in an attempt to mend the moment.

“Oh, whatever. I guess me and the ‘Zilla ain’t much different; I mean, we both just wanted to tear down the bloody establishment.” The other smirked confidently, though Mallory wanted to disagree about that entire sentence.

“R-Right, of course you—he did!” Mallory quickly spoke up, saving herself from actually going into a long rant about Godzilla being nothing like that. “It’s freaking great that you found me, though! I’m the last one of this kissy kiss challenge!”

“How do you freaking know that? And why are you here anyway? I thought I was kissing ‘Zona or somethin’.”

“I was the first one to kiss someone, duh! Then Chris was all, like, ‘Mallory, you stay here, because you need to make up for the loss of your teammate, blah, blah!’” The way she spoke made Chris sound like a crabby old lady.

They both stared at each other for a second, then burst into laughter, Mika’s mood increasing slightly from her confrontation with Alice earlier.

“I DO NOT SOUND LIKE THAT!” Chris’s voice shouted from the speakers in their shirts. This only made both girls burst into even louder giggles. “GET TO KISSIN’ BEFORE I GET TO-!”

“P***in’?” Mika interrupted him, only to receive a slight shock from her shirt. “OW! What was that for, McLame?!”

“That was for trying to soak my perfectly windblown hair in the last challenge! Do you think this stuff takes the interns five hours to make look nice for nothing!?”

“Five hours?” Mallory asked.

“Yeah, five hours. They do it early so I can wake up looking as fantastic as I fell asleep.” His voice came through the speakers in a huff, causing the two girls to shake their heads at each other with a smirk reading ‘really?’ “Now get to kissing! We don’t have all day to hear you curse about your problems! I have problems, too, you know?! Like how Chef is late with my coffee!”

When Chris cut off, Mika mumbled a soft, “Don’t get your knickers in a twist, Chrissy boy.”

“HAH! I love that!” Mallory laughed in response. “You know, we should slay this fooking challenge! Come on, I’ll kiss ya here and now!”

At first Mika took it as a joke and expected to stand here and dread it, but Mallory planted a kiss on her lips at the near speed of light. However, their noses clashed together and both of them had to step back from the sudden pain coursing through their faces.

“AGH! MY FACE!” they yelled at the same time. Both turned their attention to each other in confusion about how they had the same pained cry.

“Well, it serves you right!” Chris’s voice echoed in the speakers after the over-exaggerated kiss noise played. “Get yourselves back to the finished line and be lucky that I’ve got my coffee now or I’d throw some obstacles your way! McLEAN out!” His voice cut off, leaving the two girls standing there alone.

“He’s still McLame,” Mika mumbled.

Mallory nodded in agreement with her. “Let’s get rolling! The Polar Bears will be back on top, like King Kong!”

“Or like King Do–!” Before she could finish her sentence, though, Mallory had grabbed her hand and went racing into the dense brush.

The camera panned to another part of the forest, showing the shortest member of the Parrots, Dakota. Placing the palm of his hand against the bark of a tree, he took a deep breath and glanced around, trying to find his bearings. It had been a while since he’d seen anyone, having stumbled upon another team at one point, scurrying away to avoid them. He knew that some would be walking back like Ashley, but he didn’t know if they might try and stop him from finding another Parrot; Dakota had no idea who to trust anymore after his talks with Ashley and Ry the other day.

He pulled his hand down and searched around the area. If he could just find one of his teammates, then he’d be happier. He didn’t really know who he had left to kiss, just that it wasn’t Ashley. He didn’t really remember who had gone first out of their team… Had Ashley been the first one? So he’d either be kissing Jillian… or Gaile. He and Gaile had kissed before, but it was only the cheek the last time. This was a real lip kiss… No, he could find Jillian and that would be alright.

To distract himself, he continued down the path, every once in a while letting his eyes wander to find new things to take pictures of. Reaching up, he clutched his camera and snapped a picture of a nearby bush which was surrounded by a ring of light, finding it magical how the flowers were only just starting to bloom.

“Jinkies!” He heard someone say nearby, breaking him from his thoughts and causing his camera to fall back against his chest. “Is someone there?”

“Gaile?” Dakota asked, lifting his head up and glancing around. To Dakota’s delight, there she was, standing at a marker only a few feet away. She had been playing with the Tamagotchi that was connected to her belt loops. She looked up from the game to see who had startled her and couldn’t help but smile.

“Dakota! Thank goodness it’s you! I couldn’t picture anyone else finding me but you and maybe Jillian!” The blonde exclaimed with twinkling eyes.

Dakota wasn’t exactly sure what Gaile meant by that, seeing as he’d learned about sexualities recently. Did Gaile not want to kiss Ashley because she didn’t like her or because of something else…? She clearly was alright with kissing Jillian, so why did she not want to kiss Ashley, too? Why wasn’t Ashley on her list?

Maybe they bonded like sisters! That had to be the reasoning behind it. “I’m glad I found you, too!” Dakota exclaimed, making his way fully into the clearing. Seeing Gaile fully in the lighting nearly made him gasp; the lighting was so perfect in the clearing, revealing her hair in almost an angelic golden glow. Raising his camera, he quickly snapped a picture of her. “I almost found another team earlier, and I didn’t know if Chris would make another challenge where I had to kiss them or something!” He laughed, grinning at Gaile.

“I mean, you never know with Chris. He has made contestants do some pretty wack things.” Gaile chuckled, nerves growing as each second passed. She knew eventually a kiss would have to happen, and she couldn’t help but hope that this time maybe cheeks wouldn’t be involved. Thinking like that made Gaile’s heart start to pump harder and she hoped her face wasn’t turning red.

“The first challenge was really fun, though!” Dakota told her, trying to remember everything that happened during that challenge. He did know that it had to do with sledding down the mountain, so he figured it was probably a lot of fun. “I didn’t care much for the second challenge though, because of all the stuff that happened on the team, but it was still fun to hang out with you and Ashley in the meantime! And then I don’t really remember the third challenge…but I think it had some water.” He chatted away. “I hope I don’t have anyone throw anything at my camera this time around!” He half-joked, half laughing and half serious.

“HEY!” Chris’s voice shouted from the speakers on their shirts. Both of them jumped, having not expected Chris to jump in so soon. “This is a half hour show, so get kissing or get losing! It can’t be too hard for you two to do it again, so pick up the pace!”

“Aww, put a cork in it..” Gaile whispered jokingly.

Dakota nearly giggled at Gaile’s remark before it struck him what Chris said. “H-How can Chris say that, though? He couldn’t have seen what happened in the hideout, right?”

“Dakota, dude, cameras….everywhere.” Chris pointed out, tapping the screen from where he was seated as if they could see it.

Gaile giggled, blushing beet red, and clapped a hand over her forehead, clearly embarrassed that Chris had probably been able to see and had seen everything that had happened to her since she got there. He’d seen the sink debacle, the flailing when she couldn’t reach her shoe in the closet, and her getting stuck in the elevator.

“We get to see all the adventures you guys go on! I don’t have time to mention them all now though, because it’s a HALF HOUR SHOW!” Chris shouted and cut off communication so they would kiss.

“I-I guess he’s waiting on us.” Gaile stammered, face turning red. Her face had begun to actually burn brighter than a Lite Brite. In a few seconds her and Dakota’s lips would be clashing together and the thought drove her mad.

Dakota, on the other hand, was much calmer. He knew the kiss was coming and he’d already kissed Ashley, so how hard would it be to kiss Gaile, too? She was a nice girl just like Ashley was, and he’d kissed her cheek before! This wouldn’t be any different.

The only thing the two had in common was their beating hearts. After the silence became too much for them to handle, Gaile let out a tiny breath and leaned over, her lips puckered.

Dakota saw this and leaned into the kiss. Though it was brief, the kiss sent fireworks through Gaile’s chest, and both giggled when they pulled away.

The obnoxious and ridiculous smooching sound played from both of their shirts, breaking them from any thoughts. “Great job, you two chatterboxes!” Chris’s sarcastic voice broke through the air between them afterwards. “Dakota, come back to the starting line and Gaile….”

“Yep?”

“Go kiss someone instead of talking their ear off! We can only handle a time warp once a year, you know?” With those words, he cut off communication with the two of them.

“That was nice!” Dakota told her, smiling even bigger than before.

“T-Totally wicked!” Gaile responded, trying to hide her burning cheeks by placing her hand over her mouth. They had actually kissed on the lips.

“I’ll see you back at the finish line! I hope we win this time!” Dakota cheered, waving at Gaile as he descended back into the woods.

“Be careful, Dakota!! This place can be gnarly!” she warned, waving back at him and swiftly turning around. “Best day of my life,” she whispered, heading into the dense brush once again, this time with her eyes uncovered. Now she was off to find… Ashley? Since Dakota had just kissed her, that meant that Jillian had kissed him, so… ugh. Better to just think of the last kiss, which was still making her heart flutter.

“I can’t believe that jerk!” Lavender screamed as the camera flashed to where she was storming through the forest. The forest here was a lot darker than where she had been earlier. Wiping furiously at her lips, she stared down at her hands. Her lipstick was smeared all over them.

“After this stupid challenge is over, I’ll run him through the wringer, or tell Kiki he called her a ‘pear-shaped dream!’ I hope she beats the everloving crap out of him! Burping into my face?! I’m the best looking person on this show!” she ranted, hands balling into fists.

Stumbling over a large root, she groaned and slammed her fist into a tree. A large amount of leaves came tumbling down on her head, scattering through her locks. “I hate this stupid forest!” she shrieked. “It goes on forever!” Truthfully, she had only been walking five minutes, but it felt like an eternity to her.

Brushing a hand through her hair, she felt her fingers catch onto a tangle and nearly screamed in anger. Why was she so unlucky today!? She wished that T had found her first, so she could have at least kissed a cute person!

“At least T wouldn’t have been a jerk to me! Everyone on this team hates me, and I don’t know whyyyy!” she whined, stopping to try and brush through her hair with her fingers.

“The only one who doesn’t hate me is T!” she shrieked, her voice echoing through the forest.

“Oi, you okay ova there, Lav?” Kiki’s voice called to her, sounding both slightly annoyed and slightly concerned.

“Kiki?!” Lavender’s head shot up. “At least something’s going right today!” She quickly found the clearing Kiki was standing in, but got her hair tangled in a low-hanging branch just as she was about to walk in. “Auggggh!” she screamed in frustration.

“Can’t ya spend one minute without griping about something or another?” Kiki crossed her arms over her chest. She could use just one day without hearing Lavender’s screaming. Just yesterday she’d witnessed Lavender screeching about another one of her hairspray containers going missing. It was obvious that Dennis had taken it, but she still knocked on every single door on her floor trying to find it. She even blamed T at one point. The only reason she had stopped at all was because Ry threatened to strangle her with her own hair.

“What?!” Lavender exclaimed, marching forward in anger. “I already had to deal with one jerk today, so I don’t need to deal with another!”

Kiki just shrugged. “Alright, Aunt Lav. Don’t get ya panties in a knot, ya broad.” She warned her, trying to keep her hands from balling into fists. Anyone else who had done this to Kiki would have had their faces pounded in, but she knew that punching Lavender in the face could be the reason she got the boot if they lost this challenge.

Lavender started to swipe at her face, tears beginning to flow down her cheeks. “I just can’t stand this show right now! Everyone hates me!”

“Woah, Lav, you cryin’?” Kiki asked, taken aback by the sudden display of tears. She was used to the hot chick being angry and throwing a tantrum or hiding somewhere with T to calm her down, but tears she wasn’t used to. Where was T when you needed them? “Uh, look… We ain’t mad at ya for bein’ all… you sometimes,” she told her awkwardly, never good at comforting a crying person. Back home, crying was a form of weakness and meant you needed a punch in the arm, but she knew Lavender would take it like a baby if she did that.

“R-Really? But you guys o-obviously hate me!” Lavender whimpered, her mascara running down her cheeks. “The only member of this team that doesn’t hate me is….is T! They…They like me and help me and comfort me, but everyone else just….just makes me feel so stupid!”

Kiki had to bite back the urge to say she was as bright as night sky over China, but she resisted the urge and kept her face serious. “Ain’t nobody here who hates you!” she finally responded, clearing her throat. “You ain’t stupid, so you shouldn’t think that! Anyone who can make their makeup that nice is smart.”

“Y-You really think so…? Does this mean you’ll let me do your makeup?” Lavender asked. Her face began to brighten up. “I mean, your cheeks could use a little blush and your eyes could-”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Kiki stopped her, raising her hand up in response. Makeup was for everyone in one way or another, but Kiki only put on war paint.

“But I-”

“LAV!”

“Alright, alright! Point taken…” Lavender mumbled, “But if you just wore a little lipgloss…”

“What’d ya say?!”

“Oh, nothing!” Lavender said loudly.

“Whateva, but don’t expect me ta call ya my ‘best female friend’ just because we bonded ova this s***,” Kiki told her. Then that it dawned on her that the challenge was still happening and they seriously needed to get moving. “Right, but now we got ta kiss. Ya held me ova tha time limit on this operation, hottie.”

Lavender didn’t even seem to mind what she said, smiling. “You think I’m hot?”

“Lav, we ain’t got time for you gettin’ all happy ‘bout me complimentin’ ya! Pucker up and let me do the work,” she ordered, serious tone back in her voice as she reached out and grabbed Lavender.

She dipped Lavender like Dennis had, but simply gave her a kiss on the face, actually able to construct it better than most men Lavender had kissed in her past.

The sound of the smooch didn’t even seem to break the two apart when they kissed, though. Lavender quickly began to realize she’d kissed Kiki for nearly five seconds now; this was way too long for her to be kissing a girl.

“HEYO!” Chris called out from their shirts, causing Kiki to drop Lavender in surprise, ruining the moment, on Kiki’s side. “Well, you two kissed way longer than you were supposed to, but that was impressive! The best kiss I’ve seen in my life!”

“Really!?” Lavender asked, eyes brightening up at the compliment.

“Nah! I’ve seen better kissing before, but you should have seen your face! It was like a compliment actually meant something!” Chris laughed, then cleared his throat. “Alright, you two need to get your butts in gear and head for the starting line! You’d better hope you get there first, because you two wasted a lot of time with your little chat there! Good luck and get MOVING.” The communication cut off, leaving an awkward silence between the two girls. After a few moments, Kiki, knowing they needed to get moving, grabbed Lavender’s wrist and the two began sprinting back through the forest.'''

The camera switched locations to show a lonely, tall girl standing in a familiar location. Her black flats had small droplets of dirt and mud splattered on them from her initial trek through the forest. It was evident from her face being sweat-covered that she had been in the sun for the extended time since she and Ashley shared a kiss. Not one to break rules, though, she remained by the marker and sadly stayed in the scorching sun.

“I hope someone comes soon…” she mumbled to herself, dusting off her skirt sadly. She really wanted this challenge over as soon as possible!

She paused and stared up at the sky above her. If they did lose… “I just hope if we lose, they don’t think back to my fainting and hold it against me…!” Her face flushed red in thought about that.

Would she be next to go?! She couldn’t go now! She had to be strong and prove herself to the team! She could be useful… She was tall, smart, and nice to everyone, right? She certainly wasn’t like Dennis was to Lavender… She was more of the T of her team and they were really well-liked, so she…she stood a chance! “Be nice and useful…” she chanted to herself. “Nice and useful…”

Nearby in the forest, Gaile was wandering around in search of Ashley. She knew the team was super close to completing the challenge and she knew that they needed to win. With her not on Ashley’s good side at the moment, she had a huge target on her back. She turned around when she thought she heard someone speaking very quietly.

“Please be a Parrot..” Gaile pleaded fate and began approaching the sound. “Hello??” she called out as she got closer.

Jillian turned when she heard the sound of grass being rustled near her, then smiled when the sound of her time nostalgic teammate called out. “Gaile?! Is that you??” she called back, voice full of hope that she hadn’t started to hear things in her loneliness. “If it is you, then… who was the main character of the Rugrats?”

Gaile giggled and shook her head, now only a few steps away from who she recognized to be Jillian. “Most people would say Tommy Pickles, but I totally disagree. It’s a trick question since all the episodes feature a large cast of main characters.” she replied in a confident voice.

With that, she pranced up to her teammate happily. “I’m so glad to see you here!” she exclaimed, full of blissful joy that she was kissing Jillian and not Ashley. Jillian was totally a person she wanted to kiss more. “Wait… why are you still here? You were the first one, right?”

“Chris told me to wait for another member of the team to find me, to make things fair since we only have four people. I guess the message didn’t get passed along very well, though. O-Oh, wait! I’m so happy to see you, too, Gaile! I was worried that the challenge was over and Chris didn’t say so or I missed something!” She told her, her face filled with slight fear. It wouldn’t be the first time she missed a chunk of a challenge, but she had hoped that would have been the last time. “I…also didn’t know that it was a trick question,” She confessed. “I always considered Tommy the main character of the Rugrats!”

“I see how you’d think that! A lot of the episodes do feature Tommy, but there are also a ton that feature Chuckie, Angelica, and even Phil and Lil as the main character! It just depends on who Klasky and Csupo wanted the story to be about that episode!” Gaile explained with confidence.

Jillian giggled at Gaile’s passion for 90’s cartoons, but was immediately given a quick reality check. She was in a challenge and this was probably the last person in their relay, based on how long she’d been waiting. They could be in the lead right now! “As much I’d love to continue this conversation, I do believe we have a challenge to win..” Jillian half-whispered. She had an adventurous gleam in her eye.

Gaile grinned widely. “That’s the AMAZING Jillian that I know! Let’s do this thang!” Gaile cheered and prepared herself for the next sequence of events.

Jillian tugged at her hair nervously.

“Hey… Just pretend that we’re in Paris. You just done a long day of exploring and sightseeing and now you’re meeting a friend. You have to exchange des bises to be polite.” Gaile suggested, hoping the adventurer in Jillian would help make the situation less awkward.

Jillian nodded and closed her eyes, trying to imagine herself in the place Gaile described.

Gaile grabbed onto Jillian’s shoulders lightly and leaned forward, kissing Jillian’s left cheek once as Jillian kissed Gaile’s right cheek, and likewise with the opposite side.

Then, just as the two girls pulled apart, Jillian was suddenly blinded as a photo of the Amazing Alexandria hit her right in the face. Stumbling backwards, she tore off the photo, and both girls stared at it in disbelief.

“W-what? Where did this come from-?” Jillian asked, right before the exaggerated kissing sound played twice from their shirt speakers. Hesitantly, the girl let the photo loose again, and it flapped away in the wind.

“Woooahh. Two for the price of one! I hope you guys know that there isn’t any special reward or bonus or anything like that for that… Oh yeah, and I suggest you two get moving.” Chris taunted.

Gaile and Jillian shot each other a smile and took off rushing deep into the forest, hoping that they would make it back first. Gaile especially was hoping they would win, because if they lost, she knew it would be her leaving tonight.

Kiki was running through the forest, Lavender in tow. As she batted tree branches aside and crushed sticks and dead leaves underfoot, she barely had time to turn around to check on her whining teammate.

“Slow down, Kiki!” Lavender screeched. The tree branches were swatting her face, and leaves were sticking out of her hair. This was a nightmare!

“No, you wanna lose this damn challenge, Lav?!” Kiki called back, swinging her arm up to slap a tree branch out of her way.

“No! I just don’t want to-“ Before she could finish, the tree branch swung back and slapped her across the face, but since Kiki had her wrist held tightly, Lavender had no choice but to keep moving.

Kiki heard what sounded like a wolf nearby, along with a person hastily trying to protect themself from certain doom, but she knew better than that. It was Selene and Derby trying to beat them to the punch! That wasn’t going to happen on her watch!

Abruptly, Kiki stopped as she noticed something out of the corner of her eye, bracing herself as Lavender bumped into her.

“Why’d we stop?!”

“Just shut ya trap!” Kiki told her, hushing her. What she saw was a rather large tree branch braced against another tree. Without a moment’s hesitation, she sent her foot barreling into it, causing it to go flying to where Selene and Derby were making noises.

“BAD TREE! BAD TREE!” Selene screamed in the distance, much to Kiki’s delight.

“Let’s get movin’!” Kiki ordered, grabbing onto Lavender’s wrist and taking off again.

Derby was busy trying to get Selene to calm down from where she was barking at the tree branch, yanking on her makeshift leash. As he struggled with the leash in his hands, he glared in the direction of the two girls running away. “Alright, ladies, if you want to play unfairly…” Reaching up to his face, he removed his glasses and reflected the sunlight coming through the trees above them.

“Selene, look!” he yelled, tightening his grip on the leash and pointing after Lavender and Kiki. The light reflected off of Lavender’s back pocket, easily catching Selene’s attention.

Gasping loudly, Selene instantly forgot about the whole tree incident. “SHINY!” she screamed, taking off after the two girls and tugging Derby behind her. He knew he’d have rope burn after this challenge for sure. Somehow, he managed to keep the light shining on Lavender’s back pocket as they ran until they managed to surpass them.

In an area not very far away, Mallory and Mika were powering their way through the forest, slapping, jumping, and cutting away anything they needed to in the process.

“We’ve got this in the bag!” Mika yelled triumphantly. She craned her neck to see around her taller teammate, then cheered when she saw the finish line dead ahead. “GODSPEED!” she cheered, prompting Mallory to immediately pick up the pace.

“IN THE NAME OF GODZILLA, WE’RE GOING TO WIN THIS CHALLENGE!” Mallory whooped alongside Mika. She slapped another branch out of her way and confidently threw herself forward.

The screen then split into 4 sections to reveal that all the teams had finished their relay at about the same time, and each of the last pairs were racing towards the finish line and their victory. A fifth section appeared on the screen, showing all of the contestants who had completed their part of the relay standing near the finish line, peering out into the trees for their team.

“It’s gonna be a close call!” Dakota said excitedly and took a picture of the finish line. “Go Gaile!! Go Jillian!!” he called out into the forest. Nearby, Ashley rolled her eyes at the mention of Gaile’s name.

Arizona’s eyebrows rose anxiously. “What? A close call? Between who? Who’s winning?” she asked.

“Everyone! We’re all neck n’ neck!” The Baroness chimed in.

It was true, as the members still active in the challenge now seemed to all be right next to one another on-screen. The screen panned over each pair.

Selene was still running full speed ahead, her tongue flapping out of her mouth. Derby was breathing heavily, desperately trying to keep up with his teammate as he held onto the leash.

“Selene…*huff* I know we have a challenge to win… *huff* but can’t we slow down?” Derby pressed.

Selene shook her head.

“Penguins win challenge!” she cheered gleefully and ran even faster.

Derby groaned, exhausted, but continued to follow the girl.

Mika and Mallory were only a few feet behind them, not showing any signs of exhaustion. Mika was used to having to run pretty far whenever she got caught doing something and Mallory had a height advantage that gave her stride a pretty good distance.

“I think we can do this!” Mallory exclaimed and reached up to tighten her ponytail.

“F*** yeah, we can!” Mika agreed with a determined expression.

The pair hopped over tree roots and dodged holes that threatened to trip them up with extreme precision. Nothing was stopping this dynamic duo!

After a spur of adrenaline that helped them pass Lavender and Kiki, Gaile and Jillian were right on their heels.

“Just a little further, Jill!” Gaile called out encouragingly, panting as she ran.

But when she looked over at her much taller teammate, she found that Jillian was hardly breaking a sweat. Like Mallory, her height gave her an advantage in this challenge.

“Let’s do this!” Jillian shouted, excited. The two sped up, powering towards Mallory and Mika.

Derby was starting to slow down a little, growing weary from trying to keep up with Selene, and found himself being passed by Mika and Mallory, who cackled in delight.

“Sorry Derby! It’s nothing personal!” Mallory called out to her friend as she passed him.

Derby waved his hand at her to show that he knew it was just the challenge. As he ran slower and slower, Gaile and Jillian also passed him.

“Come on Derby Derb! Channel your inner Salt and Peppa and ‘Push It!’” Gaile cheered, accidently making an 80’s reference instead of a 90’s one.

Derby snickered as he realized Gaile’s mistake, but nodded and took another deep breath. He had to win this! He once again began to pick up speed, though his sides were aching from exerting so much energy.

The camera then panned back pretty far to reveal Lavender and Kiki bringing up the rear. While they had been about even with the rest of the teams, an unfortunate fall into a hole by Lavender had slowed them down.

Now, Lavender was running while holding onto her hair, which was slowing her down even more. Her teammate, however, was running as fast as she could, and she was starting to leave Lavender in the dust.

Kiki took a look behind her. “Let’s go, Lav! We need to catch up!” Kiki growled.

“I’m trying! I’m not a runner!” Lavender cried in protest.

“NOW YOU ARE! LETS MOVE IT!” Kiki barked and kept running without her teammate.

Lavender pouted her lower lip and tried to run a little faster.

Back at the starting line, the rest of the cast was gathered by the finish line in anticipation.

“I think I see someone!” Bailey called out.

“I do too! It’s-” Dakota started.

“SELENE!” Benny cried, practically jumping up and down in delight as he saw his teammate hoofing it towards the group.

“GO SELENE! GO DERBY!!” Bailey cheered as her other teammate appeared.

“You’ve got this in the bag, mateys!” The Baroness cried out, delighted.

“There’s someone else behind them!” Dennis exclaimed.

“It’s Mika and Mallory!!” Alice cried out.

“GO POLAR BEARS!” Arizona shouted gleefully.

“We’re gonna win!” Bailey cried.

“No! We are!” Alice exclaimed.

“Wait a second…” Ashley mumbled and squinted as another pair appeared in the distance.

“It’s Jillian and Gaile!!” Dakota cried out.

Mika and Mallory were finally beginning to feel exhaustion from their run, and at that moment, Gaile and Jillian pulled ahead of them.

“GO PARROTS!” Dakota cheered and snapped a picture of the duo.

The flash stunned Selene. She reached up to her eyes and yelped like a puppy, frantically wandering around.

“Selene?! Are you ok?!” Derby inquired and rushed to her aid.

Gaile and Jillian tried to run past the duo but Selene barreled right into them and sent them tumbling to the ground.

“Oooh!” Chris exclaimed with a wince.

Still on their heels, Mika and Mallory also were unable to avoid the chaos and tripped right over the Parrots. They all landed in a heap of moaning and tangled limbs.

This moment of chaos provided Lavender and Kiki the perfect opportunity to catch up.

Mika saw them approaching the heap and grabbed Mallory by the arm, pulling her out of the tangle. They both rose to their feet and took off running yet again.

At the starting line the two other Polar Bears were hooting and hollering in disbelief and joy at what had just happened. Alice was screaming about Lavender and Kiki so Arizona could tell what was happening.

“COME ON!” Arizona cheered on her team.

Derby had managed to calm down Selene, and the two were now trailing Lavender and Kiki, back at full speed.

Gaile and Jillian had also been able to free themselves from the tangle and managed to pass Derby and Selene.

At that moment, the finish line broke and Mika and Mallory crashed through, claiming victory for the Polar Bears.

“POLAR BEARS WIN!” Chris shouted into the cameras.

“OH F*** YES!” Mika swore and rose her arms into the air triumphantly.

Mallory, Alice, and Arizona were screaming at the top of their lungs, relieved that they would stay another day.

Shortly behind them Lavender and Kiki rushed into the finish line, followed by Gaile and Jillian, and finally Derby and Selene.

The Parrots and Pandas all cheered as they realized they were safe.

The Penguins, however, stood with slumped shoulders and sad frowns on their faces.

“We lost…” Bailey whimpered.

Derby nodded at his team in disappointment.

Selene sat on the ground and slumped over, a sad look in her eyes.

The Pandas all cheered, rejoicing that they had gotten second place until Chris gave an evil laugh that sent chills down their spines.

“What’s so funny?” Lavender asked accusingly with hands on her hips.

“I just find it funny that no one noticed,” Chris taunted jeeringly.

“Noticed what?” Dennis asked with a smirk. He was always loved a plot twist.

“Hey, where’s that skinny little emo kid?” Kiki suddenly asked, causing everyone to turn and glance around. T’s expression became terrified. They were worried that maybe them giving Ry a black eye had caused him to go missing.

“Yeah, Pandas', where is Ry?” Chris suddenly asked, voice sounding smug.

“I just thought he was so short we couldn’t see ‘im!” Dennis confessed.

“If Henry isn’t here, then… the Pandas lost!” Ashley suddenly perked up, receiving a glare from Kiki. She wasn’t all over this girl’s attitude and her calling Ry by the wrong name, but right now, Ry deserved the hurtful comments, which she began to store up for his moody butt when he got there.

“Where even is he?” Lavender asked, crossing her arms.

“M-Maybe he’s hurt,” T suddenly mumbled, catching Kiki’s glance. They did have a point there…

Chris suddenly cackled, receiving confused glances from everyone around. “I can show you where he is,” he offered, waving his hand for them to group around him. Gesturing to the big screen, he pulled up the video image of a cursing and stumbling Ry. He seemed completely out of it. It was evident that something had happened, since he was tripping over extremely visible roots on the path.

“I knew shortstack got a hold of some ‘shrooms! He was just holdin’ out on me!” Dennis mumbled, yelping as Lavender jabbed him in the ribs. “Geez, I was just kiddin’!”

“I’m so sick of him!” Kiki burst out in anger, slamming her fist on the table, much to T’s displeasure. “He acted all high an’ mighty, but then he costs us tha challenge?! When he gets back here, I’m goin’ ta kick his small a-”

“Actually, Kiki!” Chris cut her off, waving off her angry glare she sent his way. “You might wanna see something I found hi-larious!!”

“What could I possibly want ta see at a time like this?!” Kiki interjected. Her voice was filled with venom.

“Well, back in the forest,” Chris started, side-glancing at T. “Our little star-ter–Get it? Because T makes paper stars?–had a little accident with our missing Panda!”

Chris turned back to the screen and began to click around, rewinding the footage to T and Ry’s meeting in the forest.

“Look. I am NOT about to lose this challenge just because you refuse to participate, so hold still.” The red and black haired Panda stated blankly on the screen and lunged forward to kiss T on the lips.

As soon as the kiss happened, though, T shoved him back against a tree. T froze in place and watched the scene unfold before them.

Their teammate stumbled back, feet tripping over an exposed root, and slammed into the tree he’d been leaning on. In an attempt to move forward, he stumbled on the same root as before and fell. Instead of landing on the ground, however, his face slammed right into T’s shaking and balled up hands.

With a pained yelp, he was down on his hands and knees, one hand clasped tightly over his face while the other supported his body. The rest of the scene became a long censor beep. Chris paused the footage and laughed.

“Okay, but watch this!” he told the cast members as he rewound the footage. He then began to play it over and over and over again in front of them, cheerfully calling out, “Fast forward! Rewind! Fast forward! Rewind! Fast forward…..AND PAUSE! Oh, it’s just like Total Drama Island all over again!” he laughed, receiving no humored sounds from anyone, not even Dennis.

T just stood there in complete shock that Chris was outing them like this. The fact that they’d hurt their teammate was enough for them to lose sleep over! Now Chris was outing them?! T couldn’t believe this! They turned toward Kiki. Her face was devoid of emotion as she watched the paused screen.

“You guys are sooo boring! Let’s play it one more time!” Chris clicked the screen to play the scene again, causing T’s eyes to well up with tears.

After the video ended, everyone’s eyes slowly went to T, who pulled their hood over their face in terror. They hadn’t meant to do it… they had just been startled by the kiss!

“I-It was an a-accident!” T stammered, pulling their hood back slightly to reveal their face. “I j-just… I’m not…I had a b-bad experience and th-the kiss scared m-me! ” they cried, receiving some solemn stares from everyone around them; most of them looked rather annoyed.

“T, I was about ta give Ry an ear beatin’ so hard, he’d be deaf in one ear, too!” Kiki told them, arms crossed. “Why didn’t ya even try ta tell me!”

“I-I didn’t think this would happen!” they blurted out, only to see Kiki slowly shake her head at them, eyes full of disappointment.

“Gee, T-bag, I thought he’d run into a tree or somethin’, kehu…” Dennis told them, mouth a few centimeters less than a full smile. It was still funny to think that something like this could have happened, but it had cost the team the challenge.

Lavender pulled out her nail file and began to slowly drive it across her nails. Although she was pretty sure she’d be safe in elimination after this fiasco, she was still disappointed in T.

T turned their head to look at everyone around them, hoping someone would defend them. All they got were heads quickly turning away, angry glares, and one simple and sympathetic wave from Dakota. Ashley had hidden her mouth behind her hands, but her mixture of pleasure and mild disappointment from this turn of events was clear in her eyes.

“Alrighty, then! PANDAS, you get to go vote on who you want to get the boot, while you others go take a shower and brush your teeth; you all smell horrible and look like a trainwreck!” Chris spoke again, standing up from his comfortable chair.

“Chef, go get Ry and bring him back to vote!” Chris told the towering male next to him, who’d been forced to play ‘get me this’ all day for the shorter man. With a heavy sigh, he obliged, muttering under his breath about how he didn’t ‘get paid enough for this.’ as he went into the forest

Chris turned toward the camera, his charismatic smile planted on his face.

“And that concludes another thrilling challenge! There was love, hate, and a just bit of violence. That makes for some great ratings! Will T be able to survive the storm coming from their teammates? Will Lavender eventually murder Dennis? And what is up with Ashley lately? All these questions will answered in time… maybe. Just stay tuned to Total. Drama. COLORS!” Chris cheered as the camera zoomed out to show the cast walking back to the hotel, exhausted.

Staff

 * Chris McLean
 * Chef

Contestants

 * Alice
 * Arizona
 * Ashley
 * Bailey
 * Benny
 * Dakota
 * Dennis
 * Derby
 * Gaile
 * Jillian
 * Kiki
 * Lavender
 * Mallory
 * Mika
 * Ry
 * Selene
 * T
 * 'The Baroness'

Tempest In A T-Pot (Salmon Is For Desire Part 3)
Another shocking, and rather quiet,  elimination ceremony goes down, leaving one team without T|peace, and leaving only 17 contestants remaining.

Plot
The camera came back on to reveal the elimination area, where all of the contestants were sitting on benches, waiting for the ceremony to begin. Mika and Alice glared at each other from opposite sides of where the Polar Bears were located. Mallory and Arizona sat caught in the middle, Mallory looking a bit nervously between the two, Arizona facing straight forward, ignoring everyone on the team except Alice. Ashley sat on the far end of the Parrots next to Jillian. Dakota and Gaile sat on Jillian’s other side. The three of them kept casting glances over at the red-headed girl, who was looking pointedly away from all of the teams, gazing out beyond the elimination area. At one point, she looked back at Jillian, who looked visibly relieved to still be on her good side. In contrast to the other, tension-filled teams, the Penguins sat against the back bleacher, all slumped together in relief. They’d been saved from elimination, but they couldn’t help but sneak glances at one another, wondering who they would have voted for. Selene gazed obliviously towards the Wall of Shame, panting happily. Benny, the day finally catching up with him, was beginning to doze off. Bailey kept looking sorrowfully at T, and the Baroness had her gaze fixed on the ground, ashamed with her performance in the challenge. Derby glanced between the other teams, noting their wordless tensions.

The Pandas sat, isolated, in the middle of the bleachers. Glances and glares were cast between members of the team, mainly directed towards T and Ry. Ry sat with his arms crossed, glaring at T as best he could. T sat uncomfortably in the middle, feeling the eyes of their teammates and other contestants all fixated on them. They shrunk into their hoodie and looked around. Other than a slightly comforting glance from Lavender, a smile from Bailey, and a wave from Dakota, all they received were cold looks.

Chris emerged from around the corner of the brick wall, holding four small baggies of salmon-colored bracelets. Chef walked behind him, struggling with some much heavier buckets of salmon-colored paint.

“Welcome back!” Chris stated, grinning. Only the Penguins gave him smiles in return. “Look at all those happy faces!” Chris continued. “I knew having a kissing challenge would be a great idea!”

He tossed three bags of bracelets to the non-losing teams. Jillian distributed them for the red team, Mallory for the green team, and Derby for the blue team. The contestant’s arms were looking quite colorful at this point with their expanding collections of bracelets.

Chris looked at the Pandas, shaking his head. “I’d like to say there was an obvious loser, but, honestly, you all screwed up pretty horribly today. Ry, your swollen eye cost your team the win when you couldn’t make it back to the finish line, and T, your unfortunate reaction to a kiss was what caused it in the first place. Lavender, your poor running abilities and your encounters with nature slowed your team down. Dennis, you wasted time with that prank and your endless chatter. Kiki, I’d say you’re the only one who’s safe today.”

Chris ripped open the last bag and pulled the bracelets out one at a time. “The first bracelet goes to… Kiki.” He tossed a bracelet to her and she pushed it on. “…Dennis.” The boy slipped his on, fiddling with something in his pocket as usual. “And… Lavender.” The girl gratefully accepted her bracelet.

T and Ry both looked up, realizing that there was only one more name to be called. Chris held the bracelet up as dramatic music began to play. “And the final bracelet goes to…” Ry leaned forward a bit in his seat. It was only just beginning to sink in that he might actually be going home this episode. His heart rate sped up and he uncrossed his arms, now in a bit more of a panic. T sat anxiously, still pulled into their hoodie. They knew they had messed up, and felt disappointed that their mistake might result in their early elimination. Both teens looked nervously at Chris as he held out the moment for as long as possible.

“…Ry.” Chris tossed him the final bracelet and he put it on, relieved. A growl came from the red team’s seats when Ashley heard the name as she realized that Ry wouldn’t be eliminated.

T slumped in their seat. They had seen it coming when Chris rolled the tape of them hitting Ry, but the reality was really hitting them now. They looked around sadly and were met with pity-filled glances from their teammates.

“Sorry, T,” Kiki said, looking away. Their other teammates followed suit, except for Ry, who just glared at them.

T quietly walked to the front and stood by the Wall of Shame. The other contestants seemed like a mob to them as they came down from the bleachers and picked up their buckets of paint, and T shrank back against the brick. They felt horrible about what they had done, and wished they could change it. And they had no idea what would happen to their team after they left!

Now that they were all about to throw paint on them, everyone looked slightly guilty. T was one of the nicest cast members, and no one really wanted them to go home, even after what had happened earlier.

Chris stepped onto the bleachers and began to count down.

“3…”

T looked at the cast members around them. Most of them avoided their gaze, looking at the ground, sky, or anywhere else.

“2…”

T looked down at themselves and abruptly took off their hoodie, handing it to Lavender. “Can you put it somewhere safe?” they asked. “I don’t want to get paint on it.”

Lavender nodded, giving T another quick smile before placing the hoodie on the bleachers.

Without their hoodie on, T looked vulnerable and even smaller than usual.

“1…”

SPLASH!

The contestants threw their paint lightly at T, who covered their face with their hands at the last second. They shivered slightly from the coldness of the paint and missed their hoodie, though they were glad it was still clean. They stepped away, revealing their salmon-outlined silhouette on the wall. Their eyes teared up a tiny bit as they realized the game was over for them. Lavender handed them their hoodie, and they held it gently on their arm. “Thank you,” they said quietly, and Lavender nodded.

“I’ll miss you, T,” she said, and waved.

Bailey and Dakota waved too, and T smiled, the knowledge that they had made some friends making them feel better about being eliminated. They waved back and stepped around the corner, looking back and saying “Goodbye!” as they vanished from sight.

After T was gone, Chris looked back at the remaining contestants and shook his head. “Wow, guys. Way to eliminate the nicest competitor this game has ever seen,” he said, ignoring the fact that his showing the video clip was the main reason T had been eliminated.

After T was gone, Chris looked back at the remaining contestants and shook his head. “Wow, guys. Way to eliminate the nicest competitor this game has ever seen,” he said, ignoring the fact that his showing the video clip was the main reason T had been eliminated.

“For the winners…” Chris gestured to Chef, who pulled out a large bag from under the bleachers. Reaching inside, Chris explained, “You know how T makes those star things? Yeeah, we were gonna make you fold your own, but the interns brought my coffee late, soooo… they got to do it inste- ow!” Chris cursed under his breath as one of the stars poked his hand. He pulled it out, confused by the shape, but not so much that he wouldn’t give them out. Some of the contestants’ eyes widened as they recognized the form.

“Is that a-” Mallory started as Chris threw the star to Arizona. Alice quickly pulled her out of the way, and the light blue paper star flew past them, zinging by Arizona’s ear until it got stuck in the wall.

“A ninja star?” Mika finished for Mallory, wondering just how close they’d come to their deaths on this season.

“It’s actually called a shuriken,” Derby added, before Dennis called out, “Don’t nerd out too much there, Laminated! Kehehehe!”

“Yeah, okay, I don’t know what you’re supposed to do with those, but whatever.” Chris reached back into the bag and threw more death stars at the girls, everyone ducking away and retrieving theirs after they landed. Mika, Alice, and Mallory got stars in light green, light yellow, and light red, respectively. The paper shuriken were at least as big as each girl’s palm, and they took two hands to hold properly.

The Polar Bears, sans Arizona, all just kind of stared at their useless gifts. They were more pointless and dangerous than their Alexandria wands, which was saying something. In only a few seconds, Mallory started slowly and carefully running her hands along hers to look for the folded bit, in the hopes of unraveling it and using it for something else.

“Now get back to the hotel. But try not to get too lovey dovey in there or anything. The kissing challenge is o-ver, and you guys were honestly super gross. Speaking of which… I’m gonna go take a shower. Eugh.” Chris shuddered before walking off, Chef following him with the empty paint buckets.

Ashley was off like a shot from the Parrots, stalking back to the hotel in such a way that it made everyone step back a little. When she was just outside the amphitheatre, she paused, and with a pained sigh, she turned around and beckoned to Jillian. She couldn’t exactly let Gaile and Jillian get too friendly, or she’d be kind of screwed.

Jillian glanced between Dakota, Gaile, and Ashley, looking quite frozen. Were they springing a choice on her now? Like, choose sides? Hadn’t at least Dakota and Ashley been friends? As if to confirm her suspicions, Dakota gave Ashley a tiny wave, but she just looked down in response.

Gaile sighed. She knew she’d have to relieve Jillian of her misery. “Better go see what she wants, ‘kay? We can walk together later. Don’t worry about it.” Gaile gave Jill a friendly smile, and Jill gave her one in return. Then, the tall girl was off, jogging to catch up to Ashley, who looked like she was regretting this decision more and more every second.

“Well, I hope Jillian’s alright.” Gaile confided in Dakota, giving him a sideways glance.

“Why wouldn’t she be?” Dakota blinked over at Gaile, and she sighed. Still, she wasn’t going to let Ashley ruin the moment.

“Hey, Dakota, I saw a really cool spot near the hotel with some tiny baby bunnies. Want to come with me and take a picture of them?”

Dakota gasped. “Of course!!” The two set off together, Dakota’s camera lightly bumping him against the chest as they walked.

Meanwhile, Arizona and Alice were attached at the hip as usual. Still, as Mika watched them, she knew she just couldn’t this go on any longer.

“Hey, ‘Zona!” Mika hollered as she got close to the pair, and though Arizona ignored her, Alice whipped around and fixed her with a stare so full of hatred that she stopped dead in her tracks.

“Come on, Arizona.” Alice said, simperingly sweet, and the pair walked off together, Arizona unaware as always as to what was going on.

“Auggggh, goddamn it!!!” Mika yelled, throwing her paper star to the ground. Swooping in from the side, Mallory picked up the star and looked down at the girl.

“Mika, what’s up?”

“Stupid Alice! Stupid Arizona! I just- AUGHHH!” Mika was so completely done with Alice’s fake attitude that she couldn’t even finish her sentence.

Mallory looped her arm in Mika’s and placed the star back in her hand. “Here, walk with me, Mika. I’ll show you how to turn this into a different weapon of mass destruction!” Fixing her with a lopsided grin, Mallory began walking, and Mika was forced to accompany her, her blackened mood very slowly starting to get better.

The penguins all broke apart as they headed back towards the hotel, Bailey sparing a last glance towards the still fresh paint splatter on the wall. She really had enjoyed her time with T earlier, and she was gonna miss that little person. Finally turning around, Bailey was greeted by the Baroness.

“Aye there, lass. Missin’ the young mate?”

“Just a little.” Bailey smiled wistfully. “We got to hang out some today, and they were pretty wicked.”

“I didn’t get ta talk to ‘em much, but they seemed like a fine hand.” The Baroness beckoned up towards the hotel. “Wanna walk with me, bucko?’

“Sure!” Bailey exclaimed, and the pair started walking, quickly passing Selene, Benny, and Derby. Selene had gotten off her leash, and she was bounding excitedly around the two boys.

“Safe! Paint! Bracelet!” The girl barked as she ran faster and faster. Derby and Benny looked at one another in dismay.

“Should we… try a leash?” Derby questioned, looking at the bouncing girl.

“Nah. Just watch this, and follow my lead.” With that, Benny turned and started walking away.

Derby, who was quite confused, stared at the boy’s retreating back until he suddenly noticed that the whirl of activity around his feet had stopped. Selene was likewise staring at Benny, and in a moment, she bounded forwards to trot along beside him. Bemused and admittedly impressed, Derby headed off to join the two.

Finally, the Pandas were left alone, still standing in a half circle around the fresh paint splatters on the wall.

“Well, way to go, guys. I don’t think T did anything that wrong.” Lavender huffed, still feeling T’s ghostly hands as they handed her their hoodie.

“Yeah, right.” Ry scoffed, rubbing his sore eye. He could see out of it now, but it was still inflamed, and the skin around it was colored was a nasty purple.

“Aww, come on, Lav. You know the saying, eh? Less T, more me? Keheheheh.” Dennis leaned over to playfully bump Lavender’s side, but he pushed a little too hard totally on accident and sent her sprawling over onto the ground, landing right in a puddle of paint. “Whoops!”

“UGH! T was the only good thing to ever happen to this team!!” Lavender screamed, thudding her arms against the ground and sending up more splashes of paint in the process. “AUGH!”

“Simmer down, Pandas. Geez, ya’d think we could hold it together for a couple of minutes.” Kiki stepped forwards and grabbed Dennis’ arm. “Dennis, stand ova’ here.” KIki dragged Dennis over to the far side of the circle. “And Lav, ya can stay there. And I don’t want anymore of this fightin’! Which one of ya’ll wants to be eliminated next if we lose, huh?”

“Well, I’m going back to the hotel. That is, if I can see to get there.” Ry turned around and started making his wobbly way back.

“Wait, Ry Ry! I’ll come with ya.” Dennis scurried over to join Ry, and Kiki just managed to see him placing a tiny fake spider in the other boy’s hair. Meanwhile, Lavender was still sitting on the ground, eyes glazed over.

“Come on, up ya go.” KIki reached down and pulled Lavender to her feet. “Now come on with me back ta the hotel and ya can get all cleaned up.”

“I miss T.” Lavender mumbled, and Kiki nodded, looking back at the wall.

“Me too, Lav. Me too.”

The camera abruptly flashed back to Chris, who was sitting in his car. “Wow. Talk about one crazy episode! Geez, can you believe they eliminated T?” Chris shook his head, but the grin on his face was pretty unmistakable. “How long will Arizona turn a blind eye to Alice being so evil? Is anyone ever going to legitimately hook up on this show? And are the Pandas really going to be able to hold it together now that their peacemaker is gone?” Chris chuckled and grinned even wider. “I doubt it! But find out the answers to all those other questions next time, right here on Total. Drama. Colors!” The camera showed one last shot of the contestants straggling back to the hotel before the screen faded to black.

Cast
Staff
 * Chris McLean
 * Chef

Contestants

 * Alice
 * Arizona
 * Ashley
 * Bailey
 * Benny
 * Dakota
 * Dennis
 * Derby
 * Gaile
 * Jillian
 * Kiki
 * Lavender
 * Mallory
 * Mika
 * Ry
 * Selene
 * T (Final Appearance as a contestant.)
 * 'The Baroness'

General

 * This episode marks the first time the Plaid Pandas have lost a challenge.

Continuity

 * This episode continues on with the Mika/Alice conflict started in the previous episode.
 * This episode marks the second time the Paisley Polar Bears have won the challenge.