I Still Hold Out Hope That Maybe Someday I'll Be Worth More

"Alright, let's keep this movin'!" Kendra clasped her hands together after staring vacantly at the sky for a few minutes.

"Wait, voting is already done?" Emma asked.

"Yeah, don't you remember?" Kathryn reminded. "Time is weird here, she can manipulate it like it's clay."

"Excellent recollection, Kathryn!" Kendra condescended. "Gold star for you! Alright, why don't we start off with you, Emma? The same as the order we introduced your transformation in!"

"Sounds good!" Emma optimistically said, standing up next to the imposing Southern woman and looking back at the faces of eight antagonistic women and one Charlotte."

"Well, it looks like the audience didn't really want to give you a major makeover," Kendra told her. "'Bigger is Better' only got about 19% of the vote."

"That's fine, I like my physique as it is," Emma held her hand to her chest.

"Well, you aren't going to be keeping your relationships as is, because 'With Rose-Tinted Glasses' is your transformation this round, with just under half of the vote!" Kendra continued.

"Which...one is that?" Emma asked.

"It's the threesome one," Kathryn called out from back where everybody else was sitting.

"Ohh...I guess that's not bad," Emma shrugged. "Better than that other compromising situation one, I didn't really want a double whammy on those kinds of transformations."

"Um...okay, well that's that then," Kendra perplexedly said, still not used to Emma being more Laissez-Faire with her transformations. "Charlotte, you're up!"

"Alright! Let's get this done with, I'm pumped for the challenge!" Charlotte excitedly said, full of energy as always.

"Oh, that reminds me, what is the challenge?" Becca pointedly asked Kendra.

"That's on a need to know basis right now, and you don't need to know," Kendra told her. "You'll find out in due time. Anyways, Charlotte, which transformation do you really not want out of the three you were given?"

"Uh...probably the carried away one," Charlotte admitted, shrugging. "Out of those three, the influential one is probably the most useful one of the three, to be honest."

"Well, despite you having the most one-sided vote last time, with one of the options getting over four fifths of the votes, you actually had one of the closest votes this time," Kendra said, more to the audience's benefit than any of the girls'. "But you'll be happy to know that 'Getting Carried Away' only got about 22%, and 'Dionysian Mysteries' only got just under 41%!"

Kathryn did the math in her head, realizing what Charlotte hadn't realized yet.

"Wait, there's not enough votes left for anything to beat it..." Charlotte said after thinking for a minute.

"You're correct!" Kendra excitedly said, happy that her little trick had worked, at least once.

"Doesn't that seem like the worst transformation to give to a girl who's a lesbian?" Mandy rhetorically asked. "Especially with that clause about how her inhibition lowering is doubled whenever she's around Turner? Isn't that just never going to be an issue?"

"Maybe, but that's not my job to worry about these things," Kendra neutrally shrugged. "Bring it up with everyone who voted for that if you have a problem with it. Hell, I'm sure Charlotte doesn't exactly mind."

"No, not at all," Charlotte, likewise neutrally, said.

"Anyways, Abigail, you've been quiet this morning, you ready to get your transformation?" Kendra continued.

"...hmm...?" Abby, half-asleep, responded, earning her a nudge from Becca. "Oh! What happened?"

"I said, you ready to get your transformation?" Kendra repeated.

"Ready as I'll ever be, I guess," Abby grumbled. "It's too early for this, could you not have picked a better time to do this at?"

"No can do, as I said before, we have a busy day the rest of the day," Kendra rolled her eyes. "Regardless, what do you think of your choices? Any you're particularly worried about?"

"They're all the same, aren't they?" Abby remarked. "I guess...'Homewrecker' is probably the worst one? The bonus points one doesn't seem like too big of a punishment, and the fetish one doesn't seem too bad, because Turner appears pretty vanilla."

A few people's eyes turned over to Turner, who was silently watching everything happen with his head in his hands. At the mention of his name, he perked up a little bit.

"Wha-huh?"

"See?" Abby said, vindicated. "He's pretty tired, too! It's not just me!"

"Alright, well, Abigail, your transformation was, thankfully for you, not the one that you didn't want!" Kendra got back on track. "You now have 'The Perfect Alternative', enjoy on your night with Turner! I'm sure that'll lead to some...very fun nights together."

Abby looked abashedly at Turner, before looking away. Her forwardness that was usually present wasn't really sticking around at the moment, and she didn't exactly know why.

"Lauren!" Kendra called. "You've also been quiet, but unlike Abigail here, that's not uncharacteristic of you. Get on up here!"

Lauren had actually put herself together quite well earlier in the morning, putting on a decent set of clothes and not looking like a tattered mess as she often did. She wordlessly stood up, walked over to where Kendra was standing, and looked over at her.

"Lauren, how has your week been?" Kendra asked, trying to get something other than an indifferent yet unwelcoming glance from the former babysitter. "You haven't exactly done anything this week, have you?"

"I went on that date you made me do," Lauren simply responded.

"I'm sure, no...I'm positive that your roommate missed you while you were gone with Turner," Kendra prodded.

"Why should I care?" Lauren snorted.

"Alright, fine, I see how it is," Kendra fake-whined. "Be that way. I'll just tell you how your transformations were. Funnily enough, actually, you were very similar to Charlotte in your votes. Last round, one option ran away with it, but this time, we actually have a tie! Both 'Sharing is Caring' and 'A New Beginning' were tied, with 3/8 of the votes apiece!"

"You're gonna do the tie split veto thingy again?" Sara asked.

"Precisely!" Kendra excitedly rubbed her hands together. "And girl, do I just have the thing for you. Your transformation is gonna be 'Sharing is Caring!'"

"Any reason for that?" Kathryn asked, eyeing the host suspiciously.

"Actually, there is, which I'll get to when I talk to Liam here!" Kendra swiveled dramatically over to Liam, sitting with his head down.

"Me?" he unenthusiastically asked for clarification.

"Yes, you, get on up here!" Kendra encouraged, waving her hand with Lauren still standing beside her looking indifferent.

"Alright, fine, whatever you say," he glumly trudged over to the two girls expectantly waiting for him.

"You and I have a storied history over this round, don't we?" Kendra started.

"Don't tell me, you're going to go on some elaborate chain of segues and go on about how I got the transformation called 'We'll Go Down in History' or some stupid shit like that," Liam winced.

"Um...no?" Kendra looked confused. "Although that would've been a good idea. I was just mainly talking about how you and I made that deal about halfway through the week, and I see that you've been making good use of it, haven't you?"

Liam adjusted the neckline of his tee shirt that he had gotten about five years ago for free. "I guess, you might say that."

"Well, you might not be able to make much more use of that, because your transformation was 'No Point in Denying It'! Enjoy having a girlish body that rivals that of Abigail! By the way, Lauren, that was the reason that I didn't give you that 'A New Beginning' transformation, because we would just have two people that-"

As Kendra droned on and on about her apparently very in-depth reasoning for choosing what she did for Lauren's tie-breaker, Liam heard her voice go out-of-focus as his body started changing, until he had, well, a body that rivaled Abby's, just like Kendra said. Miraculously, none of his clothes had gotten ripped in the transformation, but his shirt and jeans were feeling incredibly tight on his enhanced frame.

"Alright, and that's that!" Kendra said with an apparent lack of regard for Liam's current mental state. "Mandy, it's your time!"

"Hmm...I wonder if I can convince Lauren to use that sharing transformation on me," Paige wondered as she reveled in everybody else having to go through hell and back while she got to sit back and not have to worry about her fate. "I'm pretty sure she wouldn't hesitate to say no to getting rid of some of that...problem, right? Then, I could maybe actually do something about this stupid transformation of mine so it wouldn't be necessary for me to relieve some tension...I'll have to talk to her about that during the break."

"Alright, do your worst," Mandy snidely remarked to Kendra, wanting to be out of here as soon as possible so she could check up on Liam.

"Yes ma'am," Kendra said with faux-compliance. "Well, neither I nor any of your other co-contestants will be doing that more often, because 'Everybody Wants to Rule the World' only got less than a fifth of the vote. Your transformation this round will be 'They Call Me Mama Bear', so you better get ready for people to come to you if they're in a little bit of a bind, whether that be literally or figuratively!"

"Literally?" Sara echoed, remembering one of her transformations from the round before.

"Why not?" Kendra shrugged. "Weirder things have happened in this game. Speaking of weird things happening in this game, Kathryn, you've been a bit of a firecracker in this game recently, haven't you?"

"No, I'm just the only one who's got the guts to stand up to whatever you throw at me," Kathryn corrected.

"Call it whatever you will," Kendra dismissed. "What're you hoping to get out of this?"

"If you're asking that literally, I'm hoping to get a one-way ticket back to Virginia out of this, but something tells me that you're not going to take that too kindly," Kathryn sarcastically responded.

"You're absolutely correct, that's not in the cards for you," Kendra confirmed. "What is in the cards for you is 'Insider Threat'! Looks like the audience really did want to make you into an assistant for Turner. Once is an anomaly, twice is a coincidence, but this time I'm willing to accept it as a pattern, so I'm not vetoing it this time. That and you've been uncharacteristically nice to me the past few days, which I'm grateful for."

"Wait, so we can earn our way out of a transformation that we don't like just by sucking up to you?" Becca confirmed.

"Perhaps, but I don't know how you're planning on digging yourself out of the hole that you've dug yourself into over these past few days," Kendra smirked at the orange-haired girl.

"That's useful information," Mandy silently thought. "I may not be in the good graces of really anybody here, but I could try to get on Kendra's good side to get a bit of an advantage, right? Any sort of help would be better than where I'm at now."

"And on that note, Becca, you're up!" Kendra continued.

"Whatever, let's get this over with," Becca dryly said.

"Becca, Becca, Becca," Kendra shook her head. "What am I gonna do with you? You've been on a downward spiral over the past week, and you've been quite the cockblocker for everybody else here."

"Well that must mean that I'm doing something right," Becca countered. "It's not like I'm trying to get my boyfriend to sleep with someone else, right?"

"If that's your main goal here, then you are doing a good job at it, but you're doing a horrible job at playing the game, something that may come back to bite you in the ass," Kendra pointed out. "Speaking of something biting people in the ass, your transformation is going to be 'Just Like We Planned'!"

"That's actually...the best transformation that you had on my list," Becca said out loud.

"Yeah, unless she changes it," Paige piped up, earning her a dirty look and a shushing gesture from from Becca.

"Paige does raise a good point, but I'm actually fine with this result," Kendra responded. "You might think it's fine now, but just wait until you can't stop thinking about having kids with Turner, then you get hit with a bout of morning sickness in the middle of a challenge, it's gonna be a whole thing."

"Doesn't mean it's any worse than your other plans for me," Becca rolled her eyes.

"Onto our last contestant!" Kendra said after Becca sat back down gingerly. "Sara, you had an exciting date night with Turner, didn't you? I mean, the point totals don't lie, you managed to get...what was it...nine points last night?"

Sara didn't respond, her face just turning red as Becca stared her down.

"At least someone here knows how to play the game well," Kendra continued. "Well, you and a few other people actually did something worthwhile with their night, but I digress. You had a few interesting options, which one do you not want?"

"Umm...probably not 'Spread the Love'," Sara admitted. "I'm not a big fan of leaving it up to random chance, and I know I would forget about it all the time and be really confused about what would happen the next day. All that being said, it wouldn't be completely terrible having someone be obsessed with me, but it could get really old really fast."

"Well ain't that unfortunate, because the transformation that won this time around was 'Spread the Love' with a tad under half of the vote," Kendra raised her eyebrow.

"I guess that's not too bad, at least I didn't get-" Sara began.

"I'm not finished though," Kendra interrupted. "I'm actually going to veto this one, in favor of 'A Different Kind of Sex Therapist'."

"Why...?" Sara asked.

"More variety, mainly," Kendra answered. "Emma's transformation is already pretty similar to this, with her getting 'With Rose Tinted Glasses'. Plus, I just think there could be much more interesting situations as a result of this one."

"Okay then, well, that's not too bad. It's not like it's always going to be a problem," Sara shrugged.

"That's the spirit!" Kendra did an arm pump before clearing her throat and moving on. "Alright, a few more housekeeping items before we get to the challenge that I know you all have been looking forward to...especially since some of you seem allergic to getting victory points in other ways. We had two additional polls for you girls, one ranking your dates and the other ranking, well, you. Let's look at the date rankings first!"

1. Sara
2. Abby
3. Emma
4. Kathryn
5. Charlotte
6. Liam
7. Mandy
8. Lauren
9. Paige
10. Becca

"Congratulations to Sara and Abigail for having their dates at the front of the pack! Sara, I'm giving you two victory points for an extraordinary night out with Turner, and Abby, you get one point. That should incentivize the rest of you to do better on your date nights with Turner. Make them memorable! There was actually a big break between the top six of you and the bottom four, it seems like people didn't like your lackluster dates or whatever you did, Paige."

Sara: +2 VP!

Abby: +1 VP!

"I'm not going to subtract any points from you at the back of the pack, nor will I ever, but you all should still shoot for the stars," Kendra informed. "If one of your dates really gets over the top votes compared to second place, I might give you three, or heck, even four victory points for that date. Keep that in mind, ladies. Now, onto the other poll, which will give you your bonus point additions for this round!"

1. Abby (+3500 BP) 2490 -> 5990 BP
2. Sara (+3380 BP) 1980 -> 5360 BP
3. Emma (+2740 BP) 1585 -> 4325 BP
4. Charlotte (+2400 BP) 1745 -> 4145 BP
5. Kathryn (+2360 BP) 1810 -> 4170 BP
6. Liam (+2040 BP) 1950 -> 3990 BP
7. Becca (+1360 BP) 2620 -> 3980 BP
8. Lauren (+1080 BP) 1770 -> 2850 BP
9. Paige (+960 BP) 1450 -> 2410 BP
10. Mandy (+880 BP) 1400 -> 2280 BP

"As you can see, those at the top got a lot more than before, and those at the bottom got a lot fewer than before!" Kendra addressed the girls. "That should be a wake-up call to those of you at the bottom, because you won't have as many coming in as before if you continue like this. In addition, I'd like to congratulate Emma and Abby for staying in the top three, as well as Charlotte for being our highest climber! Unfortunately, with a highest climber comes a lowest faller, which goes to Becca, falling from second place all the way to seventh. As for you three; Lauren, Paige, and Mandy, the bottom of the pack seems to be calling to you, eh?"

"At least I'm trying here," Paige remarked.

"That you are, and you can win this game with just victory points," Kendra relented. "You can't always come in first in challenges though, and those BP can be used for very useful purchases. Ask Emma, who spent almost half of hers last round."

"Yeah, and I didn't get anything with it," Emma retorted. "I bought a hint for the challenge and it didn't give me shit."

"Maybe you should've looked deeper into everything and paid more attention then," Kendra shrugged. "It's not an answer to the challenge, it's a hint. Regardless, there is one more thing before we get ready for the challenge, the order that you all are going to go on a date with Turner. This week, it will go in the following order: Kathryn, Sara, Paige, Lauren, Charlotte, Liam, Mandy, Becca, Abby, Emma. Any questions?"

Everyone was silent.

"Alright, well, I'd advise that you all put your swimsuits on for this next competition," Kendra finished. "You wouldn't want your nice clothes getting wet here, because we're going to be doing a lot with water. Meet back on the beach in thirty minutes. Turner, you're coming with me until that starts."