TDI: Interesting Beginnings

Not So Happy Campers - Part 2

Deep breath in, deep breath out...

Ayana repeated this mantra as she stood near the edge of the cliff, looking at her feet (away from the deep waters of the lake) as the height of it just made her stomach turn.

The wind hits the revealed parts of her body with its might, and she ends up closing in on herself silently, maybe even to keep her breathing in check?

Don't freak out. No one would even help you even if you did.

Stupid island. Stupid definition of an island - a body of land surrounded by water on every side - stupid me for not knowing how to swim.

So worthless. So useless. She'll let her team down if she refuses to do the challenge. They won't see any reason to keep her on the team.

They won't see anything to keep.

"Hey." Bridgette puts her hand on Ayana's shoulder, giving her a worried look. "Are you okay?"

Ayana turns her head towards her, finding small comfort in her features. "... I'm fine."

"We're very high up, aren't we?" She gives her a comforting smile, squeezing her shoulder just in case she needed it. "Don't worry. The water's pretty deep, so none of us will hurt ourselves when we jump."

Soon enough, the campers huddle together, the Bass all stood on the left side of Chris, while the Gophers huddled over on his right side. The host wasted no time announcing the first challenge;

"Campers, today's challenge is three-fold! Your first task is to jump off of this one-thousand-foot-high cliff, into the lake!"

"Piece of cake." Bridgette muttered to Tyler, who stood beside her.

"If you look down, you will see two target areas." Chris speaks up once more, the host now showing off two circles that were made on the surface of the water down there. "The wider area represents the part of the lake that we have stocked with psychotic man-eating sharks."

Ayana's eyes widened as other people gasped. There are sharks now, too? How were any of them supposed to survive something like this?

"Inside that area is a safe zone. That's your target area, which we're pretty sure is shark-free."

"Huh?" Leshawna glares at him from her place. "Excuse me?"

"For each member of your team that jumps and survives, there will be creative supplies waiting below." Chris ignores her interruption by simply continuing to speak, his arms now crossed behind his back. "Inside each crate, there are some supplies you'll need for the second part of the challenge: building a hot tub!"

Everyone stared at him blankly in silence, none of the teenagers knowing if he's being serious or not.

"The team with the best one gets to have a wicked hot tub party tonight! The losers will be sending someone home."

"Let's see..." Chris squints his eyes at all of them, his smile stretching out onto his face. "Killer Bass, you're up first."

Bridgette stared down the cliff, instantly wishing she hadn't. "Wow, ok then...so, who's up first?"

She turned to see that nobody on her team was eager to make any moves to get the jump over with.

"Hey, don't sweat it guys! I heard that these shows always make the interns do the stunt first to make sure it's survivable." Owen speaks up, trying to reassure everyone.

"So? Who's up?" Eva asks her team.

"Ladies first." Duncan purrs at Courtney.

However, with a great sigh, realizing she was the closest one to the edge, Bridgette looked back down.