A sound like a siren jolted me up out of my bed, and caused me to literally roll out of it. The right half of my body was stunned for a moment, taking time to absorb the shock.

"I'm so going to kill Chris, and then clobber that bullhorn for dessert!" I said through my gritted teeth.

"That didn't sound like Kyle's bullhorn." Lindsay said as she rubbed her blonde hair in the bunk under Heather's, who was putting tons of powder on her already pale face. She was dabbing most of it underneath her puffy eyes.

"Who else would it be, Lindsiot?" Courtney screamed at her. Lindsay scooted backwards on her bunk a little and got a look on her face that was hard to read.

"Shut it, Little-Miss-Know-It-All, She's actually right this time!" Heather yelled back at her as she shut the compact she was painting her face with. They moved to the middle of the room and got into each other's faces while growling. I didn't feel like watching them try to kill each other again, so I did my morning routine as usual.

Right as I was putting my lipstick back in my smaller piece of luggage, we heard the siren-like noise again. Alright, Chris never blows that thing twice in only a few minutes, so it definetly wasn't him. I walked out with all the other girls, who were all dressed by now, and we walked outside.

Izzy was running around the clearing, clad in a police hat, and she was running in circles with a bullhorn, pressing the siren button constantly.

"Hahaha, get out of bed, you lint lickers! It's Daytime! C'mon, seven A.M., Wake up!" Izzy screamed into the bullhorn as she sped up her circle routine. That's when all the guys came out of their cabins on their PJ's with absolutely blank expression on eery single one of their faces.

"What the..." Geoff trailed off.

"Um..." Noah said. I think this is the first time he doesn't have anything to say.

"Haha, I made Noah speechless! Hey, Harold, did you know I can speak camel? Blug, Hurf Pluad!" She yelled in complete gibberish.

"Actually, Izzy, that sounds more like Klingon, the alien language of the-" Harold was stopped by DJ clapping a dark hand over his mouth.

"Sh, I think she might be going through a mental breakdown." DJ whispered just loud enough for all of us to hear.

"You can't have a mental breakdown when you're already a walking, talking one!" Heather yelled obnoxiously, tossing her arms in their sky.

"Well, well, well, someone's a little cranky since their latin boy toy got shipped off." Duncan teased. Heather's response, while hilarious, unfortunately won't make it to the viewers, as she did in fact flash him the middle finger...both of them.

Even I was laughing hysterically at Heather's epic win. Chris walked up in the middle of the scene and stared at Izzy with a brow raised. She was still running in a circle and screaming a whole bunch of nonsense into the bullhorn.

"Um, is he on some Pro-Crazy meds or something?" Chris asked us curiously.

"No, but she should be!" Bridgette exclaimed.

"Totally." I agreed. We smiled faintly at each other. Sometimes it was good to see our waning friendship brighten up, even if it's just a shade of brightness.

"Whatever. Anyways, I came to wake you guys up, but it looks like Psycho Hose Beast did it for you, so yeah. Amphitheater in ten!" Chris yelled, and he was gone as fast as he arrived.

"Now, men, let us clothe ourselves with the grace of competition! For we-" Harold began, but again was cut off by Duncan shoving him into the door.

"Ouch. I got you, Harold, baby!" LeShawna called to the scrawny boy while she literally peeled him off the open door. I turned and started walking to the cruddy stage that Chris had the nerve to call an amphitheater. I saw Heather walking alone and looking a little downcast. I don't have any clue what possessed me to, but I jogged up to her tall and skinny form.

"So Heather, what's wrong with you? Lose the "Ice Queen Of The Year Award" to that darn Wicked Witch of the West again? I always thought she was overrated anyway." I said rather rudely. What? I had no idea why I was doing this anyways.

"Shut it, Gwen! I have to get rid of Courtney. Now that Ale...er...all the other competitors that didn't make it aren't here, I have no one else left!" She complained. The look in her downcast gray eyes wanted me to hug her, but that would be like trying to cuddle with a rabid, hungry, baby lion cub: Dangerous.

"I want her gone, too." I admitted. We then gave each other a look.

"Alliance?" She asked.

"Terms?" I shot back. We had both stopped walking to look at each other.

"Get enough people to vote for Courtney next time we lose, then continue offing the threats." She stated. You may call me crazy, but I think I'm going to do it. Heather stays loyal to her allies for the most part, and I need someone on my team who'll vote with me when we want to get rid of someone.

"And we can't vote each other off for the rest of the competition, even after the merge?" I asked with a raised brow.

"And if one of us gets to the final few, we're on their side." Heather finished.

"Deal." We said at the same time.

Confessional

Heather: I know it might seem stupid to form an alliance with Gothie, but we have a common goal: waving bye-bye to Courtney next time on the dock, and all our other enemies after that. Plus, ensuring someone as decent a player as Gwen would be on my side if I were in the final two gives me a better chance at winning an advantage.

Gwen: I know, I know. Forming an alliance with Heather! But right now I need Courtney powerless, and Heather's apparently the best way to get that done. Plus, if I'm going to make it to the finals, I'm really going to need the back-up.

End Confessional

We made it to the stage last and stomped up the hardly stable steps to the side our team was on.

"What took you guys so long? According to my calculations, you guys visited the amphitheater exactly fourteen times in total first season! You really should know where it is." Sierra advised us.

"Looks like you're all here now, so let me announce the challenge!" Chris screamed as he walked right through the strip of stage in the middle neither team was occupying.

"Oh, Challenge time! Woohoo! Let's do this, right, guys, right?" Izzy asked with wide eyes and an even wider smile while jumping up and down like a talking pogo stick.

"Um, does that white girl seem crazier than usual today?" LeShawna asked everyone.

"No Duh." Noah said flatly, obviously not interested in the fiery redhead on her team.

"Well, don't you think we should try and calm her down?" Bridgette asked.

"How'd she get like that anyways?" Geoff asked.

"Didn't you two go on a date last night?" Harold asked Owen, who was nibbling on a candy bar wrapper.

"Yup. I'm so glad to have my Izzy back!" Owen said as he stared admiringly at his girlfriend. I have no idea what he sees in her romantically, but since I am a girl, and a very straight one at that, I guess I wouldn't know.

"Wow. Where'd you go? Chef's secret donut cellar?" Noah asked his chubby buddy. Owen got this guilty look on his face, looked away, and started whistling. Noah slapped his forehead with his palm.

"Excuse me, Chris, but Izzy needs medical attention." Courtney oh-so-kindly pointed out.

"Yeah, I'm going to second that." Chris said, and with the snap of his perfectly manicured fingers, two interns came out with a stretcher, and soon enough Izzy's wild screeches were nothing but a slight echo. "Alright, now for the challenge: This week's challenge will be an all-out rocking, amazingly wicked BATTLE OF THE BANDS!" He announced dramatically. The two teams cheered. For once, a challenge didn't sound like it would suck.

Confessional

Duncan: Yes! I don't like singing and all, but rocker-style guitar smashing? That *Points to himself* I can do.

Geoff: We are SO winning this, dude! No one on this island can rock and party harder than yours truly. *Grins*

Courtney: I can expertly play exactly six instruments, as well as sing like an angel. Those Killer Cavesuckers won't know what hit them.

End Confessional

"Okay, so each team will be preforming one song of their choice from the songs we sang last season." Chris explained, which is when the disappointed sighing and complaining started.

"I didn't like singing them the first time around." I complained.

"Don't care. Each team also has to find or build their own instruments using whatever items you find around here. Everything is free reign to use as long as it isn't mine. Each song will be judged and scored by Chef Hatchet and yours truly. The team that gets the highest score wins, and the losing team..." He chuckled a bit, "You know the drill. You've got a few hours to work. Rocking starts at dusk! Be there or get voted off!" Chris said as he started down the nearest staircase.

"Wait! What about breakfast?" Tyler asked.

"Yeah, wasn't that cook guy supposed to be here yesterday?" Lindsay asked. The poor girl seems so confused, but it's not like it's surprising.

"If you mean Chef, then yes, yes he was." Chris confirmed.

"Then where's our breakfast?" Lindsay asked.

"Yeah, yeah. Where's the food?" Owen asked as if he was interested in nothing that just happened until the mention of "breakfast."

"Ugh, Chef!" Chris called with an annoyed look on his face. Sure enough, Chef came out with a steel kitchen pan full of biscuits in one hand, and a scarily long set of metal tongs in the other. "Chef is going to pass it out to you guys, that way you can eat while working, and vice versa. Now if you'll excuse me, my tan could use a touch-up." Chris said to us before walking down the rest of the stairs and going towards his private area. Chef started passing out the biscuits, which I were surprised looked so good. I guess that's what hunger does to you. Mine was finally handed out and I officially lost my appetite.

"These are dinner rolls!" Heather complained.

"Yeah, and they're stale!" Duncan pointed out. I tried to squish a little piece of it in between my fingers but couldn't, proving Heather and Duncan's stories.

"I don't give a monkey's wallop! Now get to work, you little maggots!" He screamed at the top of his lungs. He left after that mumbling what sounded like curse words that are far too disgusting to repeat.

"Alright, we need a strategy." Heather said.

"And a song." Cody pointed out, although it was barely audible since he was pretty much speaking to Sierra's back. He was slung backwards over her shoulder.

"We need to sing something we sung last season." I said.

"Oh, I know, let's do Boyfriend Kisser!" Courtney said. she said the last two words louder and in my direction. I rolled my eyes at her poor attempt to insult me.

"No, why don't do one of my wicked raps?" Harold asks.

"I can think of a million reasons right now." Courtney snapped at the nerd.

"Wait, no, let's do the shearing sheep song!" Heather suggested.

"I'm in." I said almost right after she made the remark. "I can play the drums, and we can add a sweet keyboard solo for Harold, and make LeShawna your backup for the chorus." I explained. We smiled deviously at each other.

Confessional

Heather: It's not like I'm "girlfriends" with Gwen or anything now, because *laughs* don't get me wrong, she's still a total freak...but I like the way she thinks.

End Confessional

"Guitar is one of my skillfully played instruments, and I love to show off my talent..." Courtney began. If no one stopped her now, she could blabber about how apparently great she is. I put my index finger on her mouth.

"Heather, go find parts, Harold and LeShawna, comb after Heather and check to see if any small instrument pieces are there. Oh, and Sierra, you'll be introducing us, so practice. And yes, you can take Cody with you." I finished. Each person retreated to go do what I had requested of them. I sat there on the stage for about two hours and decided to check out my progress. I had completely finished putting my black drum-set together, and Sierra and Cody were painting a wicked Screaming Squids logo on the front. I had also completed two microphones, and was in the process of completing one more. Harold's keyboard was still missing a few of its keys, and I needed strings and a couple tuning knobs for the guitars, but we were actually coming along pretty well. I sat on the front of the drum-set and rested an elbow on one of the symbols as I watched the other team on the opposite side of the stage. I saw Duncan walking with a completed electric guitar held over his shoulder. I waved flirtatiously at him and he quickly turned to wave back at me. The guy didn't even give Tyler a warning, and the Head Stock and Neck parts of the guitar smacked the clumsy brunette right in the face. This caused him to crash into their drums, thus destroying the set and taking Duncan down as well.

"Aw, could you be a little careful, guy?" Tyler yelled at Duncan as he pulled a gold symbol out from under his butt.

"This coming from you? Hilarious." Duncan replied sarcastically.

"Smooth, bro." Geoff complimented Duncan as he helped him up.

"Now we have to put this back together." Tyler stated.

"Don't worry guys, I'll do it. You two should probably go see the nurse." DJ suggested.

"What makes you think seeing Chef in a woman's nurse getup is going to make us feel better?" Duncan asked.

"Oh! Don't worry, I'll take care of it!" Lindsay called excitedly. That's when I intervened.

"Uh, yeah, thanks Lindsay, but I think I can handle bandaging up the both of them." I said. I have a feeling that Lindsay playing doctor wouldn't turn out well.

"You know what, Linds? I think you should let Gwen take care of this." Tyler said sweetly to his blonde girlfriend. Her face broke out into a stunning smile.

"Oh alright." She agreed. As I took the two of them backstage, I swear I heard Lindsay say: "Get better, Davie and Timmy!" Ugh, that girl fails. I grabbed the first-aid kit that was always sitting back there, mainly so Chris looks like he takes proper care of us. I took on Tyler's injuries first, as if was for sure the bigger job. I ended up dabbing alcohol on a black eye, and putting band-aids all over his feet. I also tied a long vestige of gauze around his head and sent him off to a waiting Lindsay.

"Oh, Tory! let me kiss your boo-boos!" Lindsay yelled worriedly as he hobbled back onstage.

"Something tells me that his injuries isn't the only thing she's going to kiss." Duncan said as he rolled up his sleeve. I rolled my eyes in reply.

"Okay, so listen," I began to change the subject,"I'm in this alliance right now...with Heather." I whispered to him as I placed a band-aid on a bloody cut of his.

"Did you catch some of Izzy's crazy disease or something?" Duncan asked.

"It's actually a good idea right now. She feels weak without Alejandro I bet, and I feel weak with Courtney, so we're teamed up for now. And trust me, Heather won't want out. We promised each other loyalty throughout the entire game this season, which I really could use from someone on my team." I explained. Duncan was silent, but the look on his face told me that he wasn't going to argue about it with me.

"Gwen! Where are you? We got the rest of the pieces, girl!" LeShawna screamed.

"Got to go." I said to him. "Oh, and try not to crush any more of your instruments, 'kay?" I asked from halfway on the front of the stage.

"Wasn't planning on it." He said. Duncan winked at me, and I giggled at him before turning back to my team.

"Okay, what did you find find?" I asked. LeShawna smiled proudly and handed me a brown sack that made a metallic clanging noise every time it moved. I opened the bag and smiled.

"Perfect."

Exactly an hour later, my whole team and I were standing in front of a full set of completed instruments and microphones.

"Wow Gwen, my keyboard is in the perfect place to amplify the sound properly that so that it reaches the correct decibel lever for-" Harold began, but he was once again cut off.

"We don't speak geek" Courtney sneered.

"The point is that our instruments are good to go, and we've got this song down." I explained.

"Guys, guys! I made out with a rock star!" Lindsay said excitedly, hardly able to stop herself from jumping around like crazy.

"Um, did you just make a lame Ke$ha reference?" I asked her.

"I think so..." She said with that blank confused look on her face.

"Man, who writes this crap?" I asked. (A/N: Well Gwen, that would be me xD)

"What are you talking about anyway?" Sierra asked.

"Tyler's in a rock band tonight, and I just made out with him, so..."

"So, let's start the battle!" Chris exclaimed out of nowhere. He then wandered on stage and stood there. "First up is the Screaming Squids!" He yelled. We all sprung into action and got geared up for a wild performance.

"So, please welcome the best rock band in town because it has Cody in it! EEEEE! I love you Cody! Oh, wait, sorry. Haha. Please welcome the Sca-reaming Squids!" Sierra's voice boomed into her microphone. She skipped off the stage after that and there was silence for a minute. In the dusk you could see the outlines of Chris and Chef sitting at a folding table in beach chairs. The spotlight shone on us, and Courtney began to strum the first chord...

"We are shearing sheep!
We are shearing sheep!
We are shearing...
Yeaaahhhhh!"

I smashed my drumsticks down on either symbol to finish off the song. Sure, the blaring spotlight made me nervous, and my forehead was dripping with sweat, but that was so fun, I didn't even care. We trotted off the stage and somehow pulled off a seven-way high five.

"Woo! That was fun!" LeShawna commented.

"Well, you were a fabulous back-up singer." Courtney commented. We then heard music start to blare and peeked out the curtains. All I could say is, that I've never seen a surfer girl rock out so hard.

"She got stuck! Should've ducked! Worst of luck! Stuck, stuck to a pole! Stuck, stuck, stuck to a pole!"

That's right, the Killer Cavemen did a rock rendition of Bridgette's song from the Yukon, and finished it up with a pretty wicked guitar smashing session courtesy of Duncan.

"Ugh, they were good, but we're way better." Heather scoffed.

Confessional

Courtney: Okay, the Cavemen were good. I'm pretty worried at the moment.

Heather: If we lose, we lose. At least it'd mean Courtney's a goner.

End Confessional

"Alright, teams, ready to see your scores?" A second spotlight shone on the table that Chris and Chef were sitting at, while the other one remained on us on the stage. "Chef, take it away." Chef picked up a square-shaped card that had our team name on it, and underneath that, a hugely written 9.

"Yes!" Harold hissed. Sierra hugged Cody close to her chest, which caused him to start gagging in order to regain some control of his breathing.

Then, Chef lifted another card with the Cavemen's team name on it, and underneath it...a ten. They cheered with delight while we, on the other hand were infuriated.

"Why?" Courtney asked.

"We were way better than those two-time losing streak idiots!" Heather added.

"Maybe you were," Chef started in his gruff voice, but you insulted my breakfast. I don't like when people insult my breakfast." He said menacingly.

"Congrats, Killer Cavemen. Screaming Squids, cast your votes." Chris said. We all hung our heads and sluggishly shuffled off the stage. Your first loss of the season is always depressing, even if you know for sure that you're not being ganged up on. As we walked in the darkness to go vote, Heather grabbed my arm.

"I got Harold's vote, and I think Sierra's vote, too. But we need Cody to make sure our 'objective' is reached." She whispered to me. Cody's an easy person to persuade, especially when he's madly in love with you.

"Got it." I answered. We caught up to everyone else, who were standing outside the confessional waiting for Courtney to finish. I silently tapped Cody's shoulder.

"Ah! Stay away, Sierra! This is my only toothbrush!" He screamed instinctively. His face softened upon seeing my own face. "Hi Gwen." He said dreamily.

"Focus Cody, we need your help!" I said sternly.

"Anything for you." He answered.

"Does anything include voting for Courtney tonight?" I asked him. He looked hesitantly at the ground.

"Your turn, Cody!" Sierra sang, motioning to the empty confessional stall. He continued staring at me as he got in. I gave him a small smile as he looked back, he was my friend so I'd hoped he would help.

"Please?" I mouthed. He gave me a thumbs-up sign and shut the door. I put my hand out behind me to where Heather was standing, and she low-fived it accordingly.

We all turned in our votes then went straight to the campfire ceremony, where Chris was waiting for us. I sat on a log that no one was around.

"Let's begin." Chris said. He pulled the sheets of paper we wrote our votes on. "The votes are clear, and tonight, Courtney will be walking the Dock Of Shame."

"Yes!" everyone but her screamed at the same time.

"What? But, I was a C.I.T.! They're nothing without me!" Courtney screeched.

"...Is what I will say next time you vote her off, since this wasn't a real elimination." Chris finished off his revelation with a cocky smile. We all groaned and slumped back down on our logs.

"Yes! Thank you, Chris! But what did the other team win?" Courtney asked curiously.

"They're at a rock concert in the nearest town. I heard it's an awesome one!" He exclaimed. We protested even more after that. "Ugh! Just go already! Got out of my sight!" Chris screamed at us. I got up and walked slowly to the cabin. Heather walked past me quickly.

"This alliance still stands." She said harshly.

"For sure." I confirmed. After that, I did the usual getting in pajamas and hopping in bed. I felt crappy that I couldn't be out enjoying an awesome rock concert. Or did I feel crappy because there wasn't anybody saying to me...I heard a light rustle in the tree outside my cracked open, and then my thought from before was completed:

"'Night, Pasty."