Challenge Accepted

"Heh, it's giving me a choice," Lauren responded.

"What are your options?" Turner asked, prompting Lauren to turn the card so Turner could see the face of it.

You have two options:
Option 1: Get 200 BP back. Not as much as you came in here for, but that's to incentivize you to choose the alternative.
OR
Option 2: Wear a cheerleader outfit (Chosen by Kendra) for the remainder of the round. You will get your 500 BP back, as well as an additional 250 BP per day. If worn for more than 5 days, you will also receive 3 VP

"How fitting, they give that one to Charlotte's roommate," Turner remarked.

"Well, I already spent a lot of my BP earlier this round, so I really could use a lot more, especially with my transformations," Lauren thought out loud.

"Wait, what did you spend it on?" Turner wondered.

"Eh, that's not important," Lauren dismissed. "But with that being said, I think I should take this, right?"

"Well...you could just get your BP back," Turner countered. "No harm, no foul, as it says. This is gonna be chosen by Kendra, right? I don't necessarily think that would necessarily be a modest cheerleader outfit."

"Fuck it, you only live once, right?" Lauren said, accepting the second option. "I've been trying to be a little less reserved while I'm here, so I'm taking it."

Lauren: 1350 BP -> 1850 BP

Turner watched in astonishment as Lauren was suddenly shrouded in a wispy cloud. Small rainbow-colored particles flew off of the magic around her as she started to lift into the air. After a few seconds of that, she slowly descended back to the ground and the cloud faded from around her. What stood before Turner was a Lauren that looked very different from the one previously in her spot. Her little makeup was replaced by a full face of it, almost as if she was about to a high-class event. Her sensible sneakers had been replaced by white shoes. Previously, she had been wearing a button-up shirt and jeans, but that was thrown out the window for a skimpy skirt that ended around mid-thigh and a crop-top that was just big enough to not show anything but was small enough to be tantalizing.

"Well?" Lauren asked somewhat expectantly.

"You look like you came straight out of my alma mater's cheer squad," was all that Turner could come up with on the spot.

"I'll take it," Lauren responded, sarcastically raising her right foot in a faux-cheer pose. "Guess it didn't really affect my brain, though. This feels really weird to me."

"I'm still surprised you took it," Turner admitted.

"Honestly, me too," Lauren concurred. "It feels weird to be throwing caution to the wind this often, but I kinda like it, if I'm being honest."

"Who are you and what have you done with Lauren?" Turner joked.

"Oh, so you think just because you've known me for two weeks, you have me all figured out?" Lauren raised an eyebrow.

"I mean, not really, but I can tell that you normally weren't like this," Turner backpedaled. "Are you sure there wasn't a mental transformation at all in there?"

"Yeah, I'm sure," Lauren softened. "I'm just thinking a lot more clearly than I was last week. Rooming with Charlotte may also have had something to do with it, because doesn't she have that contagious energy transformation too?"

"Right, completely forgot about that," Turner slowly nodded.

"Speaking of, I wonder what she's up to," Lauren muttered almost under her breath, but it wasn't quiet enough to where Turner didn't pick up on it.

"What do you mean?" Turner asked.

"Well, she seemed like she hit some sort of breaking point earlier today," Lauren recalled, omitting the part where she was the one to cause it to her. "She's normally free-spirited enough, but it was like she had the chaotic energy of Emma added to her for some reason. Kathryn took it upon herself to look after her, but it seemed like it wasn't going super well when I left."

"Of course Kathryn did, that seems like the sort of thing she would do," Turner sighed. "But Charlotte acting like a hyperactive seven-year-old is a little weird, that doesn't seem like the sort of thing that she would do normally."

"Who knows," Lauren shrugged. "Anyways, let's blow this pop stand, it's getting a little late and I'm getting hungry."

"Lead the way," Turner said, gesturing her out as he held the bookstore door open.

As Lauren left in front of him, Turner noted that she looked a little brighter than normal. It wasn't like Charlotte levels of excitement, but he noticed she looked a little freer than normal. He just chalked it up to her being content with what happened today.

"It's really not like her to take a risk like that though," Turner noted. "For all her self-destructive tendencies, gambling isn't one of them, from what I've heard."

With her walking in front of him, he was able to admire the cheerleading outfit from behind. The top looked even more skimpy from behind, with it having a large amount of the back cut out, leaving a few inches of fabric holding the two halves together. The blue skirt seemed a bit more modest than the top from behind, but not by much. It still teased the view of her upper thighs...

"Stop it, dammit," Turner chastised himself. "This woman is ten years older than you, and you're ogling her like you don't have a girlfriend."

"Or another girl in your corner named Sara," he heard another voice say.

"What?" he asked aloud. "Who said that?"

"Said what?" Lauren stopped in her tracks and looked back, a bit concerned.

"That voice...someone said something about Sara..." he admitted.

"I didn't hear anything," Lauren honestly said, shrugging and turning around to continue walking back to the hotel.

"That was weird," Turner thought. "I wonder if Kendra was put up to this."

---

Emma walked lazily along the shoreline as the sun was setting. It had become her tradition to watch the sunset over the ocean. There wasn't anybody here to do it with, though. Normally either Charlotte or Sara would show up; the former out of fear of missing out and the latter out of the kindness in her heard, or so Emma guessed. That wasn't really important, though. She was just happy to relax as opposed to her hectic college life.

"I'm gonna need to find a new swim top," she said to nobody. "Since mine is probably in the middle of the ocean at this point, after it was lost a couple of days ago."

It was then she had an epiphany.

"Wait!" she suddenly sat up. "That's what the dream was about the night before! My swimsuit was getting washed away by the ocean! Was that what that whole hint for the challenge was?"

Her face contorted into a frown as she continued thinking. "But that wasn't really about the challenge itself, that was just what ended up happening to me during the challenge. Was that the whole plan? Was me losing my top scripted somehow and Kendra just wanted to warn me about it?"

She was cut off by hearing a door slam and Paige walking out of her and Becca's bungalow.

"Great, I don't want to have to talk with her again," she sighed deeply, preparing herself for the worst.

However, Paige didn't walk onto the shoreline, or even look her way, even. She wasn't alone, either, as Charlotte was basically glued to her, all but hanging onto the taller girl's shoulders as if it was all that was keeping her alive. After walking a few doors down, they went into Charlotte and Lauren's house and shut the door hastily.

"Well that was weird," Emma thought. "Charlotte seems like that last person Paige would use for her personal gain, although maybe she's just trying to manipulate her somehow because she thinks Charlotte is an easy target."

"Kind of like she did with me," she added out loud, flinging a clump of sand into the relatively tranquil water.

"Kind of like who did with you?" the voice of Kathryn said. Emma whipped her head around to see the imposing girl staggering down the stairs. She looked haggard, as if she had been chasing after someone all day.

"Woah, what happened to you?" Emma asked, her voice full of surprise.

"I don't really wanna get into it, let's just say I've been chasing around someone for a few hours," Kathryn waved, plopping down right next to Emma and laying down in the sand. "Hey, I like that blonde streak in your hair, is that new?"

"Wait, what?" Emma blinked.

"Yeah...?" Kathryn slowly said, confused.

"Ah shit, I haven't been dyeing my hair since I got here," Emma rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I have blonde hair, I just don't usually keep it blonde."

"Why not?" Kathryn asked. "It looks good on you."

"I just got tired of people calling me a dumb blonde," Emma admitted. "I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, and people always correlated that with my blonde hair in high school. I know it was small, but I just dyed my hair brown just so people would shut up about that."

"And that worked?" Kathryn continued, a little blunter than she meant to.

"Eh, it helped a little," Emma shrugged. "Wasn't like a magical fix, but I just always kept it brown since then because that was kind of my style."

"I think you should let your blonde hair grow out again," Kathryn offered. "I think it looks better, to be honest."

"Y'know, I think I might," Emma nodded. "Oh, sorry to change subject, but why was Charlotte with Paige? Do you know anything about that?"

"Charlotte's with Paige?" Kathryn asked incredulously, before pinching the bridge of her nose. "Of course, I leave her alone for fifteen minutes and that's who she ends up going to. Where did you see them going?"

"Her and Lauren's place," Emma answered. "Wait, what are you doing?"

As Kathryn got up, she said "It's a really long story, but I've taken it upon myself to keep her safe for the time being, at least until her date night with Turner where she can blow off some steam."

"What happened to her?" Emma continued, trying to keep Kathryn there in an attempt to have some company on the beach with her.

"You remember Lauren's transfer transformation, where she can transfer her...y'know...to other people?" Kathryn asked, to which Emma nodded. "Yeah, she did that and gave it to Charlotte. And do you remember Charlottes inhibition transformation? That happened, so she's kinda been acting like a sex-crazed nymphomaniac. That's why I've been following her around, ergo, why I look like this."

"Wait!" Emma called out as Kathryn started to walk away. "Can you...sit here with me? I know Paige and Charlotte isn't the best combo, especially in this situation, but...it's probably better than Charlotte and Turner."

"That's true, Turner probably won't know what to do...and it'll tank her date night if she's still like this tomorrow," Kathryn mused. "Alright, sure, but if I hear that Paige did something to Charlotte she didn't want, I'm blaming it on you, capisce?"

"Capisce," Emma echoed excitedly as Kathryn sat down next to her.

---

Abby was driving herself insane. She had normally been the more rational of the Reed sisters, but right now, she felt like she was running her head into a brick wall. Either that or her brain was on one of those hamster wheels, constantly turning but not going anywhere.

"Why can't I get him out of my head?" she wondered.

For some reason, her brain today decided it wanted to replay the memory of Turner seeing her completely in the buff during her date night last week.

"And why am I not finding the thought disgusting?"

Was it another one of Kendra's ploys? Was the host giving her this little mental push in the hopes that she'd jump off the deep end during her date night this week? Because that wasn't going to happen.

"You hear me?" Abby said in the hopes that Kendra was spying on her. "That's not going to happen! I'm not gonna play your deranged, depraved porno game!"

Silence responded her in a perfect microcosm of how Kendra likely felt about her little act of defiance.

"Figures," she kicked the tail of the blanket which had made its way to the floor. "Well, sue me for trying to make his life a little less crazy."

As she sat down on the bed, her eyes naturally drifted over to the vacant side of the bed where Lana normally slept. She hadn't been back in the building since early afternoon, after Lana had told her the tale of how the malevolent host had wished upon a star and caused her to tumble into who knows where while she went on a rant about how Lana was "ignoring the whole point of the transformation she had been given".

"What a hellspawn."

She laid down on the bed to try and get some shut-eye, but all that accomplished was making the mental video which was playing on repeat look even more vivid.

"It's not even like I have a transformation affecting this, why the hell has this just randomly started coming into my brain?" she asked nobody, in hopes it would bring her some relief.

She quickly went over all of the people's transformations that she could remember, to try and see if there was someone who could be accidentally causing her to feel this way. Twenty transformations was already a little too much for her to think of though, and this was one of those times where she wished she had the photographic memory of someone like Kathryn.

Remembering that she had a notebook in her room, she tried to write down as many as she possibly could, coming up with about fifteen of them. One of them looked a little close, which she made a mental note of.

"Kendra did say something about Charlotte's energetic demeanor being contagious, right?" she recalled. "But what would that have to do with me feeling this way about Turner? It's not like she's attracted to Turner, she's a fucking lesbian for Christ sake."

None of this was getting her anywhere, so she decided, like she had many times before, to take a walk on the boardwalk. Lo and behold, looking out on the moonlit beach, she saw Emma and Kathryn.

"Might as well join them," she shrugged. "Better than keeping this to myself".

---

"You sure you're not gonna leave me early in the morning this time?" Turner teased.

Lauren's face blanched quickly, but then turned a deep red with embarrassment as she remembered what had almost happened last time she was **** to share the bed with Turner and had left the suite early in the morning.

"N-no, I won't do that-" she began quickly apologizing.

"Woah, hey, hey, I was just messing with you," Turner backpedaled. "I'm not mad about that, I understand things happen sometimes."

"Oh thank God I don't have to explain that to him," she breathed a sigh of relief. "I know he's a fully-grown adult now, but I can't stop seeing him as if he's still a young boy, and I couldn't bear possibly having that conversation with him."

"Hey, you okay?" he asked, sensing her lack of response.

"O-oh, yeah, I'm all good," she shakily responded.

"Bravo, Lauren," she thought immediately after. "Couldn't have possibly sold it any better than that. That shaky voice just totally conveyed how okay you really were."

"You sure?" he pushed a little farther, to try and get her outer shell to crack once more like it had on their previous date a week ago.

"I promise...I'm okay," she coldly responded.

"Well, if you say so," he resigned, internally cursing that he wasn't able to see what was truly plaguing her.

She wordlessly exited the main room to go look out on the balcony, like Paige had done the night before when she had needed some additional help.

"Should I follow her out there?" he thought. "I guess I probably should...it's not unlike her to be this standoffish, but I just want to solve whatever it is that's bothering her."

A few seconds later, he went out onto the balcony to try and see if he could get more from her.

"I told you, I'm fine," she responded, a bit more annoyed than last time.

"Listen, Lauren, I can tell you're not-" he began.

"Oh, you can tell?" she sarcastically repeated, turning to face him with fire in her eyes. "I bet you can, because you have me all figured out after these two fucking weeks we've known each other, right? I bet you have this perfect mental model of the broken-down Lauren that you think you can just 'fix' or whatever, don't you? Because I'm some sort of damsel in distress who needs the big, strong, all-knowing, all-powerful, magical man to come and sweep me off my feet, and I've been given that gracious opportunity by Kendra. You don't know shit about me! And as I told you the last fifty times, I'm fucking fine!"

Turner bristled and backed up a few steps at the sudden outburst of emotions from Lauren. The two of them stayed in that position for a few seconds, her looking over at him heavily breathing and him looking back, taken aback by her sudden 180.

"I know you think that I don't know much about you, Lauren," he began, treading lightly. "And you'd be correct. I have only known you for two weeks. Previous experiences be damned, because they were 15 years ago. But what I do know is that this isn't healthy, for you to just bottle everything up like that."

"Oh, look at you, the sudden psychiatrist!" she crowed. "Hey, maybe you should get a degree in psychology instead of Abby, that seems like it'd suit you well because you just figured me out perfectly! Go worry about the other nine girls in your harem, because I'm a perfectly capable person who can figure things out for herself!"

"That's not how this is at all," he rebutted. "I'm not gonna care about you less because there are nine other people I have to care about."

"Well, it seems pretty fucking obvious," she rolled her eyes. "You've known them for a whole heck of a lot longer than you've known me. As I said, I can handle myself, got it?"

Turner continued standing there, not exactly sure what to do or say. It was obvious that talking to her would go nowhere, but going inside and leaving her like this would likely only make things worse.

"Listen, Lauren-" he tried again.

"I said, 'Got it'?" she growled.

"This isn't-"

"That's not an answer."

Turner sighed in defeat, retreating back into the room. This wasn't how he expected the date with her to go. It seemed so unlike Lauren to lash out, at least from what he had gleaned from her. Maybe she had finally hit her breaking point and was letting all her pent-up aggression out on him?

"What was it that she said about Charlotte hitting her breaking point earlier today?" he tried to recall. "Maybe that has something to do with why she's acting this way? Maybe Charlotte did something to her that set her off and she got reminded of it by being put in this cheerleader uniform or something?"