Chapter Text
Harold's skilled hands quickly ran through the steps of solving a Rubik’s Cube, it was all muscle memory by now. He twisted and contorted his fingers to spin the squares into their rightful place. On the bus ride, he had gotten his personal best time down to 29 seconds; he had been working towards that sub 30 for a while, and he was proud of himself for getting there. Every time he solved the cube, he’d ask a different person on the bus to shuffle it for him to solve again. Technically, he did solve it in a measly 4 seconds, but he didn’t count it because Lindsay barely altered his completed cube because she thought she was supposed to be solving it.
As he got off the bus, lazily fumbling with his Rubik’s Cube, he heard Heather and Gwen arguing behind him. He and Heather had extensively discussed her mean tendencies at the Playa Des Losers, but no matter how much he tried to convince Heather to be the bigger person in her rivalries with Gwen and his luscious Leshawna, she didn’t listen.
Suddenly, he was sent stumbling into Leshawna, and he fell to the ground. The cube in his hands went flying, breaking apart into 27 smaller cubes that rained down on his head.
“Sorry, Leshawna.”
“No harm done.”
Heather had also fallen down, landing crouched near his outstretched arm. She shot a glare at Gwen, who Harold suspected had pushed her, and she brushed herself off and stood up, though not before sweeping some of the pieces of Harold’s Rubik’s Cube towards him. That was nice of her.
Harold remained sprawled on the ground as he listened to his fellow castmates talk. He heard Leshawna enticing Heather with the possibility of buying “a lot of hair weaves” with the million. Seeing Heather reach into her bag to pull out a dull, greying wig, he agreed with Leshawna: Heather should get some better hair.
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Sweet. Leshawna saved him a seat next to her on the cart. And she also grabbed his bags too. How considerate, what more could he ask for?
Chris told everybody to keep the talking to a minimum, even when addressing him, so Harold busied himself by looking at the set designs and various buildings around the film lot rather than trying to engage in conversation with Leshawna. It wasn’t hard to stay occupied with the Western set, the trailers, the lame-o-sine, craft services, the awards ceremony stage, the space themed set. They drove through the rocky, cratered surface of the fake moon, and he looked around in awe. “Woah, cool, is this a dream?”
Chris went on to explain how a giant animatronic monster would be chasing them for the day’s challenge. And soon, as they all pushed and shoved their way off the cart, Harold found himself being thrown onto the ground by Duncan. Gosh, he hated that guy. He quickly picked himself up, and ran to catch up with the rest of the group.
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The monster would never find him here, Harold thought. He was hidden in a closed umbrella on the beach with only his lower body sticking out. From the high vantage point that was the monster’s line of sight, surely he was invisible. Hiding was obviously the best course of action. There was no way he could outrun the massive monster, so using his small relative size to his advantage and sneaking past would be the most beneficial way to avoid being caught by the monster.
That was before Leshawna ran past and snatched his umbrella. “C’mon string bean, I hope you can run. We’ve got a challenge to win!” And that was when Harold realized he had made a major oversight in his plan: that to win, a person had to get to the trailers first, and the main goal of his plan was only to not get caught.
He ran with her, mentally thanking her for not letting him essentially sit the challenge out. To prove to Leshawna that he would have no problem keeping up, he compared himself to a prong horned antelope, the fastest land mammal after the cheetah. However, they were blown off their feet, careening into the sand as the monster let out a roar and snatched them up into the air with its scaly claws.
They were only held in its grips for a few short moments before being released above a bouncy house. Harold’s heart pounded as he plummeted down. Thankfully, he and Leshawna landed in the bouncy house. The wind was knocked out of him as he ricocheted back up above the borders of the bouncy house, and this time he was sure he would land outside on the dirt. Harold, with what little breath he had, screamed out his dying words. If this was the end, these would be the most important words ever uttered from his mouth, “I love you!”
“Say what now?” Leshawna yelled as they safely landed back in the bouncy house.
Gosh, it was embarrassing that the only other people in the bouncy house were Bridgette and Geoff, meaning that they were one of the first few people to get caught. Even more embarrassing was that they were a couple that affirmed their love for each other as often as they made out, so that made his rejected declaration of love all the more desperate. But he wasn’t someone who was easily embarrassed.
Bridgette and Geoff went back to making out, and Harold and Leshawna were forced to face each other. They’d had this conversation before, and it always ended with neither relenting. Leshawna would assert that she wasn’t ready for any relationship and that they were moving too fast, always with the promise of “later.” Harold wouldn’t give up pursuing her, unable to put off his feelings for a later date.
“Harold, you know how I feel…”
“I know, I know, but you know how I feel too.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Exhausted and somewhat defeated, they rested their backs against each other and tried to tune out the sound of Gidgette and fall asleep.
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He was awoken by not the sound of someone screaming as they fell, but by a robotic whirring as the monster tenderly sent Justin down in the bouncy house. Harold, still half asleep, stared at the male model, how could he not. The smooth, soothing voice of Justin asked what they were all looking at. “You,” they said in unison.
Harold thought about striking up a conversation with him, but Justin had scooted over closer to Geoff and Bridgette. He decided it would be better to go back to sleep.
His napping was disturbed again by the arrival of Lindsay and Heather. Heather demanded her wig, and the monster unceremoniously dropped it in front of her. Really, the wig was more trouble than what it was worth.
Heather retreated to the far corner of the bouncy house, so there went another potential person to talk to. However, Lindsay situated herself next to Harold. Finally, someone he could talk to. Lindsay wasn’t considered an intellectually stimulating conversationalist, but he’d take what he got.
They quickly got into discussing who, of the people who weren’t caught, were most likely to win. Harold thought it would be Duncan; as much as he disliked him, he could admit the punk was good at challenges. Lindsay thought it would be Tyler. Despite being reminded that he wasn’t competing this season, Lindsay still thought he would win this challenge.
Soon some of the others joined in, and they placed bets on who would win. Harold chose Duncan, Leshawna chose Gwen, Bridgette and Geoff chose DJ, Lindsay chose Tyler (but everyone else allowed her another guess) and she also chose Beth, Justin chose Trent, and Heather chose not to participate.
After a while, they heard the monster stomping its way towards them, and soon four people were hurtling down. Beth, Gwen, DJ, and Trent were out. “Yes!” Harold cheered. Duncan was still in the running. Huh, that might be the first time he was ever happy about that.
Everyone else gave him weird looks, and Harold explained, “We all bet on who would win, and I chose Duncan.”
“Ohh.”
Now they were taking sides: would Duncan win, would Owen win, or would Izzy win? Harold kept his bet on Duncan, as did Leshawna, Gwen, Bridgette, and DJ. Betting on Owen was Geoff, Lindsay, and Beth. Betting on Izzy was Justin, Trent, and Heather, who now joined in. Now, we wait.
Some time later, Duncan showed up. Guess Harold didn’t win, oh well. Harold, Gwen, and DJ switched to Owen, and Leshawna and Bridgette switched to Izzy. After the initial buzz of Duncan’s arrival died down, and many hours passed without either Owen or Izzy showing up, they all retired to sleep.
Ten hours had passed when they were finally jolted awake by Chris’s air horn, and Owen (Yes! Harold did win!) finally made it to the trailers. He let the air out of their bouncy prison, and everyone went to part two of the challenge.
As they made their way to the craft services tent, Heather nudged him. “Alliance?” she grinned her wicked smile hopefully. Gosh, if he had a dollar for every time Heather asked him to join her alliance the past few days, he could buy a new shirt.
As he did with all the times before, he assured her that he wouldn’t vote for her, but firmly stated that he wouldn’t join in an official alliance. He wasn’t comfortable with that level of commitment yet, but Heather persisted in her pursuit.
Oh shit. Realization washed over him. He was Leshawna, and Heather was him. Gosh, that sounded weird, but it made perfect sense. Heather was just like him, continuing to ask for commitment when the other person kept saying they weren’t ready, and he was in Leshawna’s position. It finally clicked, whatever Leshawna felt for him, he understood through what he felt for Heather.
Was it weird that he kinda liked Heather’s constant, pestering interest in him? Did Leshawna like having his devotion without the commitment? Harold truly did consider and could see himself allying with Heather, but did Leshawna really see herself in an actual relationship with him in the future? These questions were too much for now, and Harold could feel a headache coming on. He would have a sleepless night pondering over his thoughts.