“If we don’t and she’s voted out, it will be three against five at the following vote. We have no choice.”
“Right, but if we save her, she’s all ours.”
“She already is,” Dale said shaking his head.
Marooned Rule #4
The losing tribe is to gather at an expulsion ceremony calledThe Council. They will discuss strategies with the host of the show and then vote off one member from their tribe. An immunity idol may be played to protect the bearer from elimination.
A couple days later, the West tribe lost our first challenge, and we ended up at our first Council. Although the general assumption among the five people calling the shots on the West tribe was that Marsha was going home, the Dork Quad had other plans. After the votes were cast, Dale pulled the idol out of the front of his pants and handed it to Marsha. All five votes for her, which came from Gene’s crew, did not count, and our four votes for Gene were enough to send him packing.
It was a great moment for the four of us, as we’d successfully sacked the quarterback. Our first target had been a matter of great debate. Would it be best to cut the head off the dragon (Gene), or just weaken him by gouging out his heart (Summer)? In the end we chose to go big, and I could almost hear the cheers going up on couches across America as the Dork Quad took on the power players and won.
Dale got his second injury that day: a black eye after running into a pole during the blindfolded portion of the challenge. But it wasn’t just the eye and the toe. Dale was a walking disaster. Everywhere he went, injuries followed. An insect bite swelled to epic levels. A stinger on a palm bush caused temporary paralysis of his right calf. An ingrown toenail tore open and bled for days. Rashes, pink eye, split lip – you name it, Dale had it. Kenzie and I gleefully began chronicling all his injuries because, well, we had very little else to do all day long. And really, Dale was my favorite subject. Teasing him had become like my full time job. I loved the dude. He just rolled with everything. It soon became clear that I’d completely underestimated this carpool dad. Dale was cool enough just as he was.
Things changed drastically after Gene exited the game. There was a shifting of power, and Carl, understanding he was on a sinking ship, was the first to switch allegiances. Seemingly overnight, Kenzie, Marsha, Dale, and I were in charge of the game, and we were sitting pretty. The nicer spot in the shelter became ours, and the others were now asking our opinion on everything. It would have been easy to get a big head and treat the others as Gene had treated us, but practical Dale was always there to keep us in check, reminding us that the game was always changing, and that any pompousness we displayed now would come back to bite us in the butts later. Of course, with Dale’s luck, he’d be the one with the sore ass.
So instead of going over the top cocky, we appointed Dale as our new quarterback, which, in hindsight, probably wasn’t the best fit. Yes, he had the smarts, but poor Dale had absolutely no athletic abilities, and it became clear almost immediately that he’d never thrown a football in his life. This was a man more comfortable programming computers than conversing with actual living, breathing human beings.
Although I really couldn’t talk, as I’d been the one standing in the shadows, letting everyone else make the big decisions. During that very first discussion over whom to kick out of the game, Dale noticed me acceding to the others. He pulled me aside and encouraged me to speak up, saying if I didn’t voice my opinion that the others would view me as weak. It was an eye-opening moment for me. I hadn’t even realized I was holding back. Normally Jake did the thinking for the both of us. I just blindly followed along and was happy for it. I’d never thought to question the division of power, as it had been that way our whole lives.
That’s not to say I did everything I was told. Sometimes I just liked opposing Jake to piss him off. But when it came down to the big decisions, I always deferred, never feeling smart enough or informed enough to insert my viewpoint. But out here there was no Jake, and I needed to step up and make my voice heard. And so, for the first time in my life, I was standing on my own and was actually surprised by how much I liked it.
The next two weeks saw a thinning of the herd. Summer was the second casualty, although I had to admit I missed her yoga sessions on the beach. Aisha followed Summer out of the game. Kenzie led the charge on that one. Although I would have preferred wiping Bobby off the roster first, Kenzie was adamant that it be Aisha next and presented enough supporting facts to persuade the rest of us.
Seeing Aisha leave made it all seem very real to me. We were knocking people out that were liked and respected in order to further our own games. It felt dirty, in a thrilling sort of way. Aisha was a genuinely good person and I liked her, but Kenzie had been right – we needed to win challenges in order to stay strong because in only a week’s time the East and the West tribes would merge into one. It was crucial to our survival to get rid of the least essential player in challenges, and that was clearly Aisha. She had been our weakest link from the beginning. Her long, thin flamingo legs, although I’m sure were awesome in high heels on a runway, were not exactly beneficial when it came to being stuck in three feet of mud. In the end, Aisha had been right: no one took Miss Nevada seriously.
* * *
Iclappedmy encouragement as Kenzie twirled around, doing some ballerina move on the sand. Aside from a dance class when she was five, Kenzie told me she hadn’t worn a tutu since. And it showed. I knew nothing about ballet, and even I could tell she was awful. But that was the point. Kenzie didn’t care who saw. She was just having fun, not worrying about appearances. I liked that. After one particularly horrible pirouette, she lost her footing and fell to the ground.
I walked over to her as if I was going to help her up but instead nudged her with my foot and said, encouragingly, “You suck.”
Kenzie laughed, as I knew she would. She was fun like that.
“Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to be a gentleman and help me up?”
“I’m just going to stand here.”
She stuck her tongue out at me and collapsed onto her back. “Fine. Go for a walk by yourself.”
I smiled down at her. Damn, I enjoyed our daily walks. I got bored sitting around the camp. In the real world, I was inherently a lazy person, but at least I had stuff to occupy my time, like music or video games or television. Out on the island, it was just chores and endless talking. And, unfortunately the person doing the majority of the latter was Marsha. Good God, that woman could talk. Sometimes I just needed a break, and Kenzie was my go-to pal for such things. Luckily she didn’t mind keeping me company. She was always up for a stroll.
I bent over and extended my hand. She grabbed it, but instead of pulling herself up, she yanked me down. I tumbled onto my knees, straddling her. Her other hand went to my side, tickling me.
“Oh, is that how you’re going to play it?” I said, returning the favor.
We tickled each other for a minute before she grabbed my other hand and panted, “Stop, I can’t take it anymore.”
“That’s what they all say,” I answered smugly, swinging my leg off her and plopping my ass into the sand. She sat up too.
“Oh, I’m sure. I bet you’re quite the player back home.”
“What gives you that impression?” I asked.
“This,” she said, gesturing to my entire being in general.
“What? I’m offended,” I gasped. “If you must know, I’m still a virgin and looking for just the right woman to show me the ropes.”
