Reluctant lovers- TDWT Aleheather retelling

Chapter 13

Even though she reeked, the first place she went to after the challenge was the galley. She was pretty sure Alejandro was the reason that Sierra had made herself useless. Except she couldn't be sure because he hadn't looked at her, he only looked vaguely amused and anyone could be amused by the thought of Chris being in a boy band. She chuckled to herself as she leant against one of the counters. She boiled the electric kettle and opened the box of peppermint tea while she waited for Noah. She would need that insider information from Noah if she wanted any chance of getting the upper hand on Alejandro. Especially with that strange interaction they had while they were waiting for the medic. She frowned as she thought of it. He was being so stupidly stupid and it really got to her. She hoped that he would stop flirting with her because, even though she didn't want to admit it, it had legitimately thrown her off and she felt almost as dumb as the others that Alejandro had kicked out of the game. She scowled, she seriously needed to do something about him because it would be too dangerous to let him continue to be such a big contender. Noah came in and she poured the hot water in the mug, steeping the tea bag in it. Noah looked around briefly, there were people lining up for the showers just across the hall so he lowered his voice.

"Nice bandages," he said, gesturing to the bandages wrapped around her hands and knees that were already starting to bleed through. She blocked out the memories of the events that had played out before she got bandaged and waited for him to tell her something actually important. He rolled his eyes. "Our neighborhood snake has been making allegiances with everyone on his team. I thought you should know that there's an exception to that rule and that that exception is Owen," Well it's not like anyone sane would want to be near Owen, he reeked. But surely Alejandro wasn't petty enough to ignore Owen and prioritize his annoyance over strategy. "He does the same thing you do when you're about to lose your shit. I'm assuming that he has an issue with him." Huh. What he had said to her earlier had been true, she really didn't know him. Maybe she was giving him more credit than he deserved.

"Has Owen done anything to him?"

"Not that I know of." She took a moment to consider. Why else would Alejandro avoid Owen? Owen always assumed the best of people, maybe Alejandro wasn't bothering to manipulate him, but that didn't explain why Noah had seemed to note his frustration. She also despised the fact that Noah had compared them again. The same thing she did? What was he insinuating? Through this she made a begrudging realization. It was almost as if the world had spelled it out for her, she needed to get to know Alejandro. Her disgust must have shown on her face because Noah let out a huff of amusement.

"Do what you will with that information." He turned and walked off. Heather knew that if Alejandro made it any further in the game that she would have to get to know him at some point. 'Know thy enemy' or whatever. But seriously? She would have to work way harder next challenge to make sure that he was gone. She thought about what Noah had told her. Alejandro had gone out of his way to make alliances with everyone except Owen, he thought he had an allegiance with Noah but obviously didn't. So he would have his vote, Tyler's vote and Izzy's vote, leaving him completely safe. The sneaky jerk. Thankfully, Izzy's vote could easily be swayed, and it was also possible that she hadn't taken anything Alejandro had tried to say into account. Which led her to wonder who he would try to vote out. With startling clarity, she realized why he hadn't made any moves on Owen and why he seemed to dislike him. He was the main deterrent to success in his team, the other deterrent potentially being Noah, which would have been why Noah gave her this information in the first place, because if she could find a way to get Alejandro out of the game, he would be much more secure in his own team. Apparently Noah wasn't afraid to be snakey himself. Well now she had figured out both sides of the story, she needed to make sure whatever she did next convineianced herself the most.

By getting Alejandro out, Team Chris would suck almost as much as Team Victory, which meant that all Heather would have to do is wait till the merge and work like hell to get rid of the rest of the competent people. But if she let him stay, he could take care of all the other people while she did all the other stuff, then he could eliminate all the strongest players and she would only have to focus on getting rid of him. The issue with that was that she was number one on his hit list. But she knew what she needed to do. 'You're good at manipulating. Manipulate him.' Noah once said and she intended to do just that.