Amendments

Becca stretched and yawned as she arose with the sun. Typically, her roommate didn't clamber out of bed until the restaurants had already stopped serving breakfast, but Becca really didn't care to keep quiet on her behalf. Or care to do anything on her behalf.

This morning though, she noticed that Paige had this smile plastered on her face as she slept.

"She having some good dream about trying to one-up me?" she wondered as she left, closing the door louder than usual.

Ordinarily, Becca would've headed to the scoreboard to see if someone had made some big moves last night, but the thought of doing that made her stomach churn with unease. Last night was Lauren, and she really doubted anything there happened. Tonight was Charlotte, followed by Liam and Mandy, none of which Becca believed would do anything with her boyfriend on account of their personal lives.

Humming to herself, she slowly meandered towards the plaza, meeting Kathryn there, the other token early riser of the harem.

"Did you see Paige come back in last night?" Kathryn asked a little shakily as she was working on breakfast.

"No, I usually don't bother waiting up for her to get back," Becca answered. "She's never back at a reasonable hour anyways."

Kathryn sighed slightly before Becca followed up with "Why, what did she stick her nose in this time?"

"Charlotte's business," Kathryn simply responded, leaving Becca hanging.

"Charlotte's business?" Becca echoed. "What do you mean, she got involved in 'Charlotte's business', do you think that narrows it down at all?"

"Woah, calm yourself down, you're a little hysterical," Kathryn soothed.

"You can't just say that Paige got involved in something and then decide not to tell me!" Becca countered.

"Of course I can, why should it be your business what someone else spent their time on?" Kathryn responded, using the same logic that Paige had used on her last night.

"Wha-bu-do you even KNOW where we are right now?" Becca incredulously asked.

"Like literally or..." Kathryn feigned stupidity.

"You know what I mean!" Becca angrily answered. "We're on some sort of show about my boyfriend's harem! Don't you think, as his girlfriend, that I should have the right to know where one of the other contestants on this show was and what they were up to last night? Especially if it's his ex?"

"No, not really," Kathryn shrugged, leaving Becca to sputter for a few seconds.

"Bu-why on Earth would you even bring up Paige's whereabouts last night then?" Becca shot back. "Obviously you knew where the two of them were!"

"Yeah, and that's because I was actually out doing something last night," Kathryn explained. "And I just so happened to run into them. If I remember correctly, you weren't even outside of your room past suppertime yesterday, just expecting information to fall into your lap. This isn't the White House here, if you want information, you've gotta go find it yourself here."

"Well that's why I'm asking you," Becca rolled her eyes. "What was Paige up to last night?"

"Don't really know specifically," Kathryn honestly answered. "I just know she went to Charlotte's place and really didn't leave until close to midnight."

"That's what you got me so worked up for?" Becca glared at her. "Just telling me that she was at someone else's place last night? Do you think I don't know that Paige and Lauren are somewhat close?"

"Okay, there are so many things wrong with what you just said," Kathryn noted. "Firstly, Lauren is up with Turner, so Paige was obviously there with Charlotte. Secondly, I wasn't the one who got you so worked up, you did that yourself. Thirdly, that's all I really know that happened. I saw Paige while I was heading back from the beach and Sara told me that Charlotte had gone somewhere with Paige. That's all I know. Draw your own conclusions if you want."

This wasn't the first time that someone had gotten Becca this upset, but Kathryn noted she had been able to do it in record time. She wasn't sure what she was gonna do with that information, but it was still something useful.

"Damn, I thought I was high-strung," Kathryn mused. "It took her two relatively benign statements for her to go off. No wonder she has to be with Turner, if she was with someone who wasn't laid-back, they'd whip each other into a frenzy faster than you could say 'Calm down'."

"What do you think happened with them?" Becca prodded, trying to get some information out of the informant.

"Me?" Kathryn asked, giving her a second to think about it. "Well, Lauren transferred all of her arousal to Charlotte, and she was with Sara, then Paige. Since I don't see Charlotte running around like a crazed maniac right now, I'd imagine she went to bed, so something had to have happened between the two of them to get her off."

Becca looked a little stunned. That wasn't anywhere near the conclusions that she was drawing up. It wasn't even in the top ten.

"Do you think it was Sara?" Becca weakly asked. "Or Paige?"

"Personally, I think Paige," Kathryn admitted. "But that really doesn't mean a whole lot. Not something she can really hold over your head at all."

Instinctively, Becca looked above Kathryn's head at the scoreboard behind her. There, she saw Paige's name in second, but with 39 points instead of the 21 that were there earlier.

"It was Paige..." Becca trailed off.

"How do you-oh, right, she got 18 points last night," Kathryn spun around to see where Becca was looking. "Yeah, looks like it. But hey, Sara's still in the lead, right?"

"What was the prize for the end of the game again, a wish?" Becca recalled.

"Yeah, that was it, at least if you reached 100 first," Kathryn confirmed.

"I can only imagine what she'd wish for if she was to reach the end first," Becca grimaced.

"So that means I should encourage Sara and Turner, right?" her inner mind reasoned. "She's realistically the one who has the best chance of winning against Paige, considering that she's the only one beating Paige in the point race right now. Heck, you could also just encourage everyone to do whatever they want with Turner so that she'll have more competition."

"I guess I should try and reach the end first then," Becca resolved, shoving her implanted desires down.

"Thinking about the endgame already?" Kathryn asked. "Seems to be a lot of that going on here, especially considering this is a dynamic game and it's week 2 here. People have already lost points in challenges, I think Kendra's almost certainly gonna pull the rug out from underneath us at some point."

"No sense in not trying though," Becca pointed out.

"True, but it's not necessarily gonna go your way," Kathryn warned. "Almost nothing here seems to go as planned."

"Yeah, I know," Becca frowned.

"She's gone all the way from irate to acting like my best friend," Kathryn noted. "Almost as quickly as she blew up just ten minutes ago. I have no idea what's going on with her, but that's not something that just happens."

---

Back on the boardwalk, someone else was waking up too. Charlotte wasn't accustomed to waking up all ready to go out on the town, but usually she had a little more decorum than the mess she was currently in. She still had the shorts that she had worn yesterday on, but the rest of her clothing was laying haphazardly on the floor beside her bed. Thankfully, Lauren wasn't in the room, although she had no idea if her roommate had already seen her disheveled state.

The idea of Lauren brought her back to what she had done yesterday, immediately causing her to blush deeply. She remembered Kathryn chasing her all around the island for whatever reason, remembered almost getting caught in some sort of reinforcing feedback loop with Sara's romanticism, and then surrendering to Paige's manipulation.

And now she had to go on a date with Turner with all of that information.

And to top it all off, there was no telling what was going on with Lauren.

Shrugging, she realized it was probably better to have gotten it out of her system with one of the other contestants that, frankly, she was attracted to, than to have this plaguing her on her night with Turner.

"I probably should go apologize to Sara though," she noted. "I'm not even sure why I left her for Paige last night, it's like one moment I was on Sara's lap and the next moment I was making out with Paige."

With newfound resolve, she walked out the door and made a beeline for Sara and Kathryn's room. On her short little jaunt, she ran into Lauren, who was coming back from her date night with Turner. Lauren looked haggard, which most people would've chalked up to her usual worn demeanor. However, Charlotte knew better, and she could tell that something was really weighing on her.

What Charlotte didn't expect is that when she closed the distance, Lauren appeared to be wearing a cheerleader uniform. She made a note to ask what that was about later, but first, there were more pressing matters.

"Hey Lauren!" she cheerfully greeted. "What's up?"

"I'm doing fine, how are you?" Lauren almost robotically responded, causing Charlotte to frown.

"I'm doing good...what's up with you?" Charlotte repeated more quizzically.

Lauren narrowed her eyes, like she was trying to figure out Charlotte's angle here. After a few awkward seconds where Charlotte refused to back down, Lauren sighed in defeat.

"It was my date with Turner," she admitted. "I screwed up."

"Screwed up?" Charlotte echoed. "How so?"

"Something in me just...snapped," Lauren winced, remembering the tense moment. "I don't know what came over me, I just started yelling at him for no good reason."

"Like this morning, or...?" Charlotte didn't finish, but Lauren could tell where she was heading.

"Last night," Lauren answered darkly.

"Did you go back into his room?" Charlotte prodded further.

"No, what could I have done?" Lauren exasperatedly explained, acting as if Charlotte had been there. "I was stood out on the balcony, and I know he wouldn't've done anything had I gone back in, but I wasn't about to try and have some deep conversation with him! So I just...stood out there, until super early this morning when I snuck back down here!"

Charlotte intently listened. This was the most Lauren had been willing to open up to the spunky girl this whole time, and she wasn't gonna waste this opportunity to try and crack through the shell of the older girl.

"Wow, Lauren, that sounds...rough," she treaded cautiously, trying her best to not let Lauren shut down. "I'm really sorry. But...yelling at him? What about? Was it something to do with the competition?"

"The competition?" Lauren repeated back to her, scoffing lightly. "Please, I couldn't care less about the competition. It was...it was my fault. I...I felt guilty about what I had done with you earlier, what with pawning my problems off to you. And...he was trying to get me to talk about it, because he could tell I wasn't okay. Then...it just spiraled out of control."

Lauren stood there, shaking slightly, her cheerleader uniform seeming out of place. Charlotte, noticing this, led her to a bench nearby on the beach.

"Hey, it's okay," Charlotte soothed, rubbing Lauren's back deftly. "We all have our down days, you just gotta deal with them."

Lauren turned to look at her, an eyebrow raised. A brief thought of "Uh oh, I just screwed up badly" flashed through Charlotte's mind, but Lauren's gaze broke eventually with a bitter chuckle.

"It's not just a bad day," Lauren mumbled, flinging some sand into the nearby water. "I've been a mess ever since I showed up on this competition. Seriously, what was Kendra thinking bringing me here? I have to compete with people like his girlfriend, his childhood best friend, his coworker, his friend's sister who is so naturally charismatic for no goddamn reason. Meanwhile, I'm here, with no knowledge of who this guy is. I had a second chance tonight, after I blew it the first time. And you know what I did? I blew it, Charlotte. I accused him of not understanding. He may not be the most supportive person on the planet, but he'd try, at least. That much I know."

Charlotte sat there, letting Lauren's rant sink in as she tried to figure out the perfect response.

"You know, Lauren, you're not the only one who made a stupid mistake last night," Charlotte said, trying to empathize. "I ran into some trouble with Paige."

The mentioning of Paige caused Lauren to bristle. She knew she should be trying to stay on Paige's good side, as one of her only allies, but she couldn't deny the girl's manipulative streak.

"What happened with her?" Lauren asked.

"Oh, you know," Charlotte laughed similarly to Lauren, trying to ease the pain. "The usual Paige charm. Let's just say...after what you had done to me, I wasn't exactly thinking straight, and trying to find release anywhere. I spent...a significant portion of time with her when I had every intention of staying with Sara."

"Sara? Paige? What?" Lauren rapid-fired questions without much substance.

"Did you forget I'm a lesbian?" Charlotte rolled her eyes, her cheeks starting to turn red. "But yes, I was with Sara. And things were really nice. Then Paige showed up, and poof! She was with me in my room, I was missing...several articles of clothing, and didn't feel in control."

"Hold on, let me get this straight," Lauren held up a hand, trying to piece together Charlotte's sporadic recollection. "You were with Sara, yes? And then Paige manipulated you, somehow. Then you and her...did something. And now you're here?"

"It was a whirlwind," Charlotte nodded, smiling wryly. "And I feel terrible about it, especially with regard to Sara. I was actually on my way to apologize to her right now, want to come with?"

"You want me to come with you?" Lauren asked incredulously. "Why?"

"Why not?" Charlotte shrugged. "We can figure out this whole mess together, you can get more connected to the rest of the group."

Lauren pondered for a moment. Her allies, specifically Paige, were seeming more and more like a losing battle. She'd wanted to get involved more, she just hadn't had the motive to do so. The idea of going to talk with Sara and Kathryn seemed like walking into a lion's den, and she could tell Charlotte needed the extra motivation. Honestly, talking with Charlotte about their blunders was the last thing she thought she'd be doing this morning, but here they were.

"Okay," Lauren assented, a small smile forming on her lips. "Misery loves company, right?"

They walked together in an oddly comfortable silence for a moment, a level of connection present between the two that Charlotte could never have dreamed of. As they approached Sara and Kathryn's room, Charlotte took a deep breath.

"Here goes nothing," Charlotte quietly said as she raised her hand and knocked on the door.

The door swung open to reveal Sara, looking surprisingly chipper, given what had transpired last night. "Lauren, what a surprise!" Sara greeted, then her smile faltered as her eyes met Charlotte. "Hey, Charlotte."

"Hi Sara," Charlotte began, fidgeting nervously. "Listen...I...just wanted to apologize for what happened last night. I know I was with you, and probably got your hopes up, and then Paige came in and I went with her...it was messy, and not like me. I wasn't thinking straight, and I feel terrible for what happened."

Sara genuinely smiled and her expression softened, seeing the blonde get worked up over something minor. "Charlotte, it's okay. I was confused, sure, but I know things can get complicated. Especially with Paige," she added, rolling her eyes with disdain.

"I promise, it won't happen again," Charlotte insisted. "I was also hoping if you could...jog my memory of what happened? I remember sitting in here with you, and then...nothing until I was with Paige."

Sara chuckled nervously. "Let's just say...Paige has a way of getting what she wants. I myself don't really know what happened, she just wouldn't shut up until you left with her. And then...well, I'm sure you know the rest."

"So it wasn't anything Sara did?" Lauren said, speaking up.

"No, nothing like that," Sara turned to Lauren, curiosity gleaming in her eyes. "Why do you ask?"

"Just trying to understand the crazy dynamics here," Lauren replied after brief hesitation. "Everything's been a little...intense, and that's not to get into what happened with Turner.

"Wait, what happened with Turner?" Sara implored.

"It's not worth getting into right now," Lauren dismissed.

"Hey, where did Kathryn go?" Charlotte asked. "I mean, not that I'm complaining that she wasn't around to hear all that with her loose lips, I'm just curious."

"She left early for breakfast and a walk," Sara explained. "Said she had to think things over."

"What things?" Charlotte pressed.

"Who knows with Kathryn," Sara responded with a deep sigh. "She's a mystery wrapped in an enigma sprinkled with...uh...more mystery. Although she said she'd be back around now, and she's a pretty punctual person, so..."

Just then, the door opened and Kathryn stepped in. She was carrying a mass of dried reeds that vaguely resembled the shape of a basket. She did a double take after seeing Charlotte in the room, and a triple take after seeing Lauren in tow.

"Hey again Sara," she greeted. "Charlotte, surprised to see you back so soon. Lauren...why are you wearing a cheerleader outfit?"

"Oh yeah, I was wondering that too!" Sara added.

Lauren sighed. "It's...complicated. Remember those Bonus Cards Kendra mentioned at the beginning of the show?"

"Vaguely," Charlotte responded, as interested as everyone else about Lauren's sudden wardrobe change.

"Well, at the bookstore—don't go there, by the way, it's full of smut—Kendra had those bonus cards on display. And y'know, I decided to live a little, so I picked one up. And it was a small BP prize for, well, this. And given that I'd spent a lot of my BP already this round..."

"...You decided to make up some of it in case you need to do it again next week," Kathryn finished.

"Bingo," Lauren answered.

"I'm a bit surprised, if I'm gonna be honest," Kathryn admitted. "You don't seem like the type to make big moves like that. I'd always pegged you as a 'sit back and see what happens' type."

"Eh, the bookstore date was already ruined thanks to Kendra's choice of literature," Lauren shrugged.

"Speaking of dates, aren't you supposed to be on your date, Charlotte?" Sara added.

"Yeah, but I knew I couldn't go on a date with him if I had this weight hanging over me, so thank you," Charlotte smiled brightly.

"Weight?" Kathryn asked, uninvolved in the previous conversation. "Ohhhh wait, was it about what happened last night? With Paige?"

"Bingo again," Charlotte nodded glumly. "But hey, that's all in the past now, bygones be bygones and all that! Anyways, I'm gonna go start getting ready for my date, see you all later!"

---

Turner looked out on the balcony where Lauren had been standing. He hadn't gotten a wink of sleep last night thanks to that girl standing out there all night.

"I was worried things were gonna get even worse with her, and while it didn't really seem like things got better, they at least didn't get worse after that one argument," he thought.

He walked up to the doors leading to the balcony, putting his hands on the windows as if they were keeping him out.

"Was that just a coping mechanism she developed from her relationship with her ex-boyfriend?" he wondered.

Wondering was getting him nowhere, and he realized he had a date with Charlotte to go on.

He sighed, running his hands worriedly through his short, wavy hair. His relationship with Lauren was...complicated at best, and he couldn't help but feel a mix of frustration and concern for her. He had genuinely wanted to connect with her, she seemed like someone who would be really sweet once she opened up, but that sudden outburst had thrown him for a loop, and likely moved their budding relationship back a few steps. Everyone had baggage, but her sudden exclamation seemed needlessly disproportionate. He hoped she was alright, but also realized that there were 9 other women here he had to focus on. It wasn't Lauren's night anymore, it was Charlotte's.

"Charlotte," he murmured to himself, the name a welcome distraction from the current turmoil. Despite the fact that he knew she wasn't into him, he was really looking forward to the date with her. Her lighthearted energy was endearing, infectious even, thanks to Kendra. He also hoped that she'd be able to put the whole situation with Lauren in perspective, after all, they were roommates. Roommates who didn't really talk to one another, but still.

Looking back out to the balcony, he realized he should probably start getting ready. While it wasn't the evening yet, some of the girls were notorious for starting their dates early, and Charlotte was definitely one of those people. Heading back inside, he was determined to put the drama behind him and start this date on a clean slate.

But...something inside him wouldn't let that happen. As he got himself cleaned up, his mind kept drifting back to Lauren. he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something deeply wrong with her. Sure, an outburst from her wasn't entirely off the table, knowing what he did about her past, but it still seemed off. He played back the conversation as best as he remembered, trying to search for clues that would set her off, but found nothing. A part of him wanted to go talk to her, but he realized that was what dug him in the hole even farther.

"I need to giver her some space," he reasoned. "Tonight's Charlotte's night. And if she has some information about what's going on with Lauren, that'd be greatly appreciated too."

He just hoped that Charlotte's infectious energy would be able to distract him enough on their date.