Courtney's P.O.V.

"I just noticed something." I commented, pausing where I was leading the hike.
Duncan looked at me with a raised eyebrow.
"Izzy wasn't at the clearing."
"Duh, crazy girl got lost." Heather rolled her eys and kept walking.
I bit my lip. You never knew what Izzy was doing and for all we know she could be up in the mountains, causing landslides to whoever passed.
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Gwen's P.O.V.

Ugh, why is it so hot here? And what's with all the bugs? I thought, lashing out at the many insects circling my head. And where was Duncan? I wanted to hike with him, talk to him for a while....
"Gwen, wait up!"
I groaned and stopped. Of course it was Cody.
"Hey," He panted.
I started to sprint, hopefully his short little legs wouldn't catch up with me. I darted up the mountain slope and managed to dodge him. I slumped against a tree, wondering where I should go next. Then I heard voices nearby. I peered out from behind my tree. There was a small group of people parading through the forest. In front was Courtney, leading them along with a map. A few feet behind her were Heather and Duncan, talking loudly.
"....I told you not to cut all those branches! Now we're being followed!" I managed to pick out Heather's voice.
"Relax, it's only Cody."
"Relax, Duncan?! Really?! Do you want to be followed?! I thought you wnated to win!" Heather snarled, stepping over a branch that crossed her path.
"Yeah, another million would be nice."
"Then stop leaving a trail!"
"You guys I'm trying to read here. Do you want to distract me and go off course?!" Courtney snapped without turning to look at them.
"Well we're being followed anyway!" Heather growled, throwing her hands in the air.
"And you two arguing doesn't help!" Courtney whirled around. "Duncan stop cutting branches out of the way and both of you shut up!" She spun on her heel so she was facing the mountains again.
Duncan and Heather frowned but remained silent. I burst out from the trees.
"Hey everybody! Mind if I walk with you?"
Heather frowned and glared at me while I thought I heard Courtney growl under her breath. Great so they both hate me. Then maybe they'll go away and I can be alone with Duncan.
I glanced at him and noticed that his usual smirk was gone and he looked a little depressed.
"What's wrong?" I asked serenly and gazed at his goreous pale teal eyes.
He looked down at me and composed his face back into it's signature smirk. "Nothing."
"Oh, that's good! So do you guys mind if I walk with you?" I stared at Courtney and Heather sideways.
They exchanged a glance then Heather turned to me. "Sure, Gwen!" Sure exclaimed in an over-sugary voice. She flashed a huge smile at me.
Then Heather and Courtney led us along, whispering to each other.
So I was pretty much alone with Duncan. Yay!
"So Duncan, how's the challenge going?" I asked, watching his face.
"Pretty good." He looked a little cautiously at me.
"That's nice." I replied, lost deep in his eyes. I leaned closer to him.
"Uh, okay then." He turned away, not interested in the conversation.
"So who are you voting off next?" I questioned, trying to turn his attention back to me.
"Um, my team hasn't lost since I got back."
"Oh, right. But if you're not on Team Amazon, why are you traveling with them?" I shot an icy glare at Heather and Courtney.
"Aren't you on Team Amazon too?"
I shook my head to straighten my thoughts. "Yeah,"
Duncan frowned at me then kept walking.
"No wait!" I grabbed his arm. "I want to tell you something!"
He tried to shake me off which was weird.
"Duncan!" I took his face in my hands and turned his head so he'd look at me. I shifted closer to him. "Duncan I l-"
I was cut off as Courtney tripped over a huge red and black snake that crossed her path. It was 5 feet long and several inches thick. I let go of Duncan's face and squeaked in fright. I was terrified of snakes.
Duncan ran over to Courtney as soon as he was released from my grip. She was lying on the ground, clutching her ankle.
"What happened cupcake?" He asked in concern.
"Cupcake, that's a new one." She smiled faintly.
"What happened to your ankle Courtney?" He frowned.
"Ouch, I think I twisted it when I tripped over the snake." She winced. "Do we have a first aid box?"
"Nope." Heather frowned.
"Great, now we have to bind it in leaves! Luckliy I have CIT training on how to do a makeshift cast." Wow, on the ground with a broken ankle in the middle of Australia and she still goes on about her CITness.
"Gwen, get me some long leaves from that banana plant. Heather could you pass me that vine over there? Great thanks-"
"What do I do?" Duncan cut her off.
"You stay here with me." Courtney cooed and gazed into his perfect eyes. Those perfect eyes I'd been staring into a few minutes ago. He belonged with me.
I watched as she leaned towards him to kiss him. I turned away with a sob and went to fetch the banana leaves.
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Courtney's P.O.V.

"What is taking her so long?!" Heather complained. Gwen wasn't back with the leaves yet.
I was pretty sure I knew why she left. She'd probably seen me and Duncan kissing and the jealous little manstealer - uh, I mean Gwen! - couldn't take it. I wondered with a flash of guilt why he stayed with me. I winced as I remembered what happened when he broke his ankle.
Then Gwen came rushing back with an armload of banana leaves.
"S-sorry," She panted. "I took so long."
I took the leaves from her hand and started binding them around my ankle. "It's fine." I muttered in hate.
"Oh, good. I was scared you'd be mad at me." Gwen beamed.
"Well we don't want that to happen do we?" Duncan asked with a smirk as he helped me to my feet.
They al laughed and Gwen shot a flirty smile at Duncan who smirked back at her.
I narrowed my eyes at him. He turned around and noticed my icy gaze. "Oh come on Court, you promised you'd act like your old self again. You weren't jealous then."
"I would have been. Luckily no one was trying to steal you from me." I glared at Gwen with all the loathing anyone could ever muster. She stopped laughing and shrunk away loooking scared.
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Izzy's P.O.V.

"Come on this way!" I laughed and crawled along the bottom of a branch. Then I realised no one was following me. Oh well, I must have lost them. i wonder if i'll find a monkey! Yeah I love Australia!
I continued to crawl along until the branch ended then jumped across to the next tree and continued to do this until I ran out of trees and was sitting on a mountainside. "Wow that was fun!" Then I remebered no one was there.
"Oh well!" I sang out into the afternoon air. I listened intently until I heard echoes.
"Yeah it echoes! Echo, Echo, Echo!"
I giggled to myself and listened to the echoes in complete content.
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Heather's P.O.V.

Courtney and I were still leading the group, despite her twisted ankle. She lumbered along, managing fine. We discussed what we were going to do about Gwen in muted whispers again. We considered voting her off when the teams merge (yes when the teams merge, our team is flipping awesome!! Well except Gwen. And Cody isn't that much help either...). For now we'd have to settle for getting her off our tails.
"We could find that snake again. Did you see her face when she saw it? She's terrified of them!"
"Eew!! I'm not touching that slimy thing!!!" I screeched in muffled tones.
***Personally I love snakes. Anyway, on with the story.***
Courtney rolled her eyes. "We can get Duncan to carry it for us."
"No! We need him to distract Gwen for now."
"Fine, what's your idea? We push her off the path and ditch her?!" Courtney snapped.
"That's not a bad idea actually. But we need to get her dizzy first so she has no idea where to go."
"And how are we going to do that?! We're not playing pin the tail on the donkey!"
"No, what are we five-year olds?! It's a bit of a sacrafice though."
"What?" Courtney looked cautious now.
"Well seeing as she likes Duncan we could get him to-"
"No!!" Courtney interupted me in a scream. "I'm not letting that vile little-"
I covered her mouth with my hand to silence her screams. "Keep it down." I hissed and released her after she nodded.
"I'm not letting that vile little manstealer kiss Duncan!" Courtney whispered with hatred dripping out of every word.
"Fine we'll just push her off then and she can follow us, seeing as you can't run that fast!"
"I can run fine!"
I glanced down at her ankle then shot her a quizzical look.
"Okay fine, I can't!"
"Can't do what Princess?" Duncan asked, suddenly behind Courtney. Gwen was trailing behind him looking upset that he was ignoring her.
"Can't run." She admitted and lowered her gaze to stare at her ankle.
Duncan tipped her head back up gently with his finger and gazed into her eyes. "I'll help you."
And he picked her up gently in his arms. I kind of expected Courtney to yell at him but she laid her head on his chest and closed her eyes.
Gwen frowned and looked near tears. That's what she deserves. Courtney opened her eyes breifly and smiled and winked at me. So we kind of lost our chance to push Gwen then. And we couldn't discuss it in front of Duncan. I sighed. How would we get rid of her now?
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Gwen's P.O.V.

I started crying as I watched Courtney be carried away in his arms. No one heard me; I'd learned to cry silently a long time ago.
I closed my eyes and I could see an image of Courtney looking over Duncan's shoulder to glare at me. She smirked and I saw devil horns grow from her head and a pointed red tail added to her features as well.
I snapped my eyes open and shook the image out of my mind. She wasn't evil was she? And Duncan had told her something about promising to be her old self again. So....back in TDI? When she was bossy and uptight and obsessed about reminding us of her CIT history. But she was less evil then. And totally preppy.
I sighed and stiffled another sob.
We strode along for another half hour, tears still streaming from my eyes. My vision blurred from tears and the next thing I knew they were gone.
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Duncan's P.O.V.

Heather and Courtney were laughing their heads off as we sprinted through the woods. Finally Heather stopped, panting and laughing hysterically.
"Okay, why are we laughing?" I asked, placing Courtney down on a flat rock.
"'Cause we finally ditched Gwen." Courtney giggled.
"Uh, why are we ditching Gwen?" I questioned.
"Because we hate her." Heather smirked.
"Why?"
Their smiling faces both fell into frowns. "Well for one she's weird and evil and we're sworn enemies." Heather growled.
"And, she's trying to steal you from me in case you haven't noticed." Courtney snapped, her voice drowned in loathing.
Wow, they were pretty devious. I smirked.
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Izzy's P.O.V.

I was still sitting there echoing into the valley below me. Then I a few shapes unlatched themselves from the darkness. It turned out to be Duncan, Courtney and Heather.
"Hey guys!" I called out to them. "Do you know what the challenge is? I got lost."
"Stay in the caves for three nights." Courtney sighed. I noticed she was limping.
"What happened to you?"
"Tripped. Twisted ankle." She winced.
"Oh. Well have fun with your challenge!"
"Izzy, you're doing the challenge too." Duncan reminded me.
"Oh, right. Well goodbye!" I kartwheeled off into the shadows.
I landed in a heap on a cave floor. "Hahaha! That was so much fun!"
I could see the sun setting from the cave's opening. It was beautiful but it was too bad i had no one to enjoy it with.
"Hey where's Big O?" I asked myself.
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Tamara's P.O.V.

Bree and I had to split up to find all the competors. So far I'd only found Owen and Noah trying to ditch Sierra (she was asking for toenail clippings). That meant the rest if team CRRRRH was either lost or already at the caves.
Then I saw a silouhette in the trees. As I stepped closer I realised the person was crying. It was Gwen.
"What's wrong?" I asked, laying a comforting hand on her shoulder.
She raised her head to reval a tear-stained face and bloodshot eyes with bags under them.
"D-D-Duncan and H-H-Heather and C-Courtney," She spat Courtney's name in hate. "D-ditched me."
"Oh. You're this upset over that though? You know Duncan always-"
"THAT'S NOT IT!" She screeched, cutting me off. "HE DIDN'T STOP THEM! HE LOVES ME, WHY IS HE DOING THIS?!"
I shrunk away from her. Gwen had turned psycho. I screamed and booked it as fast as I could away from her.
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