If You Think You Peaked, Find Another Mountain

"What the fuck was that?" Liam asked, after hearing yelling out by the beach where the challenge had been a few days ago.

He tentatively walked over to the window, looking to find the source of the scream or any hints that he could pick up, but there was nothing more than the swaying of the trees and the waves lapping at the shore.

"Huh," he said, bewildered. "That was weird, I wonder if someone's hurt or something. I should probably go and check, just to make sure nothing bad happened. I doubt that Kendra would let something terrible happen, but I can see her letting something minor happen for some drama."

He was about to open the door and walk outside to the beach where he heard the ruckus, but as he reached out for the door handle, the door swung open with his roommate walking in, her sister in tow. Becca looked rough, to say the least, as if she had just gotten into a fight.

"What happened?" he asked, concerned.

"What happened?" Becca echoed, her tone full of rage. "What HAPPENED? I'll tell you what happened! Emma decided that my boyfriend was just HERS and this stupid voice in my head that I was cursed with won't SHUT up and keeps telling me that I should just sit back and let it happen! Like I'm some sort of doormat that people like Emma or probably Paige can just use to go to town with Turner!"

Liam let out a low whistle once Becca had stopped talking, her just letting it all spill out with Abby comforting her from beside her.

"I...I don't really know what to say," Liam said, shuffling his feet around nervously. "That...it just sucks. Big time. I mean, she only got six points though, that can't mean she did a whole lot, right?"

"I don't know!" Becca shouted exasperatedly. "I don't know what six points constitutes! It could be something as small as she just accidentally grabbed his hand and they decided to reward her for it or she had sex with him! I don't fucking know! But given that this is a sex-related show, I'm willing to bet the latter!"

"Here's the thing though," Liam noted. "Three people are still ahead of her, and that's from doing well in a challenge, not doing anything with Turner. I can't see how doing well in a challenge should outweigh having sex with the 'master' or whatever they want us to call him. Therefore, I don't think it would be that ****."

"Whatever the case," Becca calmed down a bit, due to a mixture of Liam's reasoning and Abby rubbing her back. "I'm so upset with Emma."

"We can't let them turn us against each other," Abby spoke up. "That's what they're trying to do, they want us to turn on one another so we can have a competition. The producers, Kendra, Paige, Lauren, they don't want this large group of people to stick together, so they're trying to drive wedges between us, and it's working right now with Emma."

"Speaking of the game..." Liam pointed out. "Isn't it your date night with Turner, Abby?"

"It is, but I don't really know if I'm going to go for it," Abby said matter-of-factly. "I'm in last place right now, which I know is a bit risky, but I feel like my sister's well-being is more important than this point in the game."

"No," Becca interrupted. "Go. Go out with him. At least I know I can trust you more than I can trust Emma or Charlotte or Lauren tomorrow. It'll be peace of mind for me today to know that you're with him. I don't want to risk you getting eliminated over this."

"Are you sure?" Abby checked. "I don't want to make you even more upset."

"I'm positive," Becca repeated. "Although, I think we need to get you some clothes, that red sweatshirt of yours is not gonna do it for a night out."

"Well in that case," Abby said. "I have a specific store we need to go to."

---

The sun was still high in the sky, but Turner's piano playing was interrupted by the telltale signal of the doorbell ringing. His date nights didn't usually start until the evening, right?

It was Abby's date night, she didn't really seem like a person who'd start the date early in the day, not just because she was his girlfriend's sister, but also because she appreciated sleeping in.

"Hey there," Abby greeted as Turner opened the door for her. She wasn't wearing that same red sweatshirt anymore, she had changed into a pair of jean shorts and a loose T-shirt that she had apparently just bought, because Turner had never seen that shirt before.

"What's with the bag?" he asked.

"Nothing, really," she said, shrugging. "Although, I will need you to put this on."

She reached inside her bag and pulled out a coat, heavy pants, a hat, gloves, and snow boots. After handing those to Turner, he looked bewildered.

"What...what are you doing?" he looked down at the clothes she had handed him. "You do know that we're on a tropical island, right? We're not in Alaska, what's with all of this?"

"We're gonna go up to the top of the mountain," Abby explained.

"Are you serious?" Turner asked. "That mountain looks like hell to try and climb up!"

"Maybe from this angle," she winked. "Try looking from another perspective though. I'm gonna go get changed, you should do that too unless you want to be stuck up high with nothing but those cargo shorts and a Hawaiian shirt, then we'll head up."

Abby walked off to a side room off of the main foyer of the hotel, leaving Turner standing in the entryway loosely holding the mass of clothing that she had handed him. The last two dates that he had been on were things that he would've never expected; Emma going out with him to ice skate, Charlotte going out to the zoo with him, and now Abby was going to climb a mountain? It seemed insane to him, she had just gotten a less athletic, admittedly hotter, but new figure that she wasn't experienced with, what was she thinking going up to the highest point on the island with him? Was this all a ruse? Would she come out of the room saying "Just kidding"?

Whatever the case, he went up to his room and put on this entire snow getup on, just in case Abby wasn't actually kidding. As soon as he zipped up the jacket and pants, he was sweating like nothing before. It was hot and humid on the beach and around the hotel, not exactly weather that one puts on a snowsuit for. Regardless, he laced up the boots, stuffed the hat and gloves into his pocket to put on once they got closer to the top, and rode the elevator back down to the lobby.

Abby had already gotten changed when he made it down to the bottom, and she actually looked excited about the date that they were going to go on.

"Ready to go?" she asked expectantly.

"Ready as I'll ever be," he responded, walking up to her.

They left the hotel, and she led him down a path that led around the side of the island to the back of the mountain. Turner hadn't really spent much time outside the hotel, almost none in fact, so he marveled in the beauty of the island that they passed through.

"Why'd you have me get dressed before we left?" Turner questioned. "It's been hell trying to walk around here, and I don't know if I'll have energy to climb the mountain?"

"Who said we'd be climbing the mountain?" Abby rhetorically fired back. "I just said we're going up the mountain, not necessarily climbing it."

As she finished her sentence, a ski lift came into view. Turner briefly wondered why there would even be something like this on an island that was uninhabited aside from the ten girls, him, and likely some of the producers, but nothing else here seemed to make sense, so he brushed it off.

"This is really what I brought you here to do," Abby amended. "I'm taking you skiing."

"Have you even been skiing?" Turner asked her, his eyebrow cocked.

"A couple times, sure," she answered. "I went with a couple friends from college, and I heard from a trusted source that you used to go with your friends every winter."

"I used to, yes," he confirmed. "Are you sure you're gonna be able to ski now that you're, well..."

"I'm confident in my ability," she responded, knowing how Turner was going to finish his question. "Also, because I know this is the next thing you're going to ask, they have skis waiting at the top of the mountain for us."

And that was that. Turner and Abby hopped on one of the lift chairs and began their way up the mountain.

"Wow, look at how much you can see from up here," Abby mentioned after they had gained some altitude. "Look, you can see the little group of houses that we stay in, there's the beach where I lost the challenge, there's the hotel, and there's the town. It's amazing how close all of it looks from this high up, even though it's terribly far on foot."

Soon enough, they reached the top of the mountain, and Turner realized that it was a good idea to put all of those layers on before getting up here, because it was blisteringly cold, and he doubted his ability to layer up fast enough before he would've contracted frostbite up here.

Okay, maybe it wasn't that cold, but compared to a tropical beach, it felt like the East Antarctic Plateau.

"Oh, thank goodness, they have a sizing chart here," Abby said when they walked around the corner into what looked like a little mountaintop lodge. "I completely forgot about all of that when I planned this out."

"You planned everything here, but didn't think about the most important part?" Turner teased.

"I would've probably remembered this, but my morning was, shall we say, a little bit hectic," Abby admitted.

"Hectic how?" Turner asked.

"Ah, it doesn't matter," she dismissed. "At least for now, let's enjoy this right now, and we can discuss the heavier topics later."

Turner was a little bothered with that answer, but it wasn't too big of a deal. On one hand, he wanted to know what was going on, but on the other hand, he could appreciate just spending time to have fun, especially with someone who was a thrill seeker like Abby.

"This selection is huge," Turner marveled at the amount of different sizes, shapes, and designs of skis that lined the walls of the ski lodge. "I don't even know where to start, I've always just found a pair that fit and worked with those, but this is...insane."

"How about this pair?" Abby pulled out a pair of tiny pink sparkly skis jokingly.

"Nah, I'll take those next time," Turner said with a laugh. "You're pretty short, you could probably take those."

"Not that short," Abby shot back. "If you really wanted me to take these, you should've had your 'dream girl' be like four feet tall or something."

That struck a chord, and not a pleasant one. Turner wasn't exactly sure what Abby thought of her transformation, but this was difficult to place either in the "friendly teasing" or the "passive-aggressive statements" box.

"Abby, look, I'm sorry, if I were in charge here, it would've never happened, it-" Turner stammered.

"It's water under the bridge," Abby waved her hand. "Don't tell Becca or anyone I said this, but I kinda like it better this way. I managed to get myself more attuned with this new physique, and it hasn't really hindered me much, aside from the first challenge, but I blame that stupid sweater. Anyways, that's enough with the heaviness for now, last one to the bottom of the slope is a rotten egg!"

Abby stepped out of the building, her gear already picked out. Turner wasn't one to turn down a challenge, even one as silly as the ol' "rotten egg" challenge, so he quickly picked out a set of skis and poles that were his size, and joined her out on the slope just in time to hear her say "Catch you later!" and start powering down the hill.

Turner wasn't about to let a little something like Abby getting a headstart get in his way of winning this challenge and being declared 'not the rotten egg', so he quickly started swinging his poles in tandem, digging into the powdery snow, and pushed himself off onto the downhill.

He saw Abby's silhouette coming into view quickly as he navigated the course, dodging rocks and other obstacles in the way. She was moving fast, sure, but he was moving a great deal faster, and was coming up behind her. It was a silly little competition, but he wasn't gonna just lose it.

As soon as he passed her on the left, she got an idea in her head. She kicked her skiing into high gear, with her speed soon matching his as they continued onto a straight segment. Crouching down more, she lowered her center of gravity and allowed Earth, or whatever this place that they were, to do some of the work for her as she then was the one coming up behind him.

The pair approached a turn on the course right as she was about to pass him, and she dug her skis into the snow deeper as she passed him on the inside of the turn. This caused a spray of snow to be launched into the air and give Turner a facial, well, a facial of snow, that is. She briefly heard an exclamation of "What the fuck?" before she powered past him and out of earshot from any expletives he may have been shouting at the moment.

Abby slowed and subsequently stopped her momentum as she arrived at the flat plane signaling the end of the course. A few seconds later, Turner came into view, still wearing the snow on his face.

"Well, it seems like one of us is the loser, and it sure as hell isn't me," she bragged.

"That was dirty," Turner responded, but she could see his face forming a smile underneath, so he wasn't mad about it.

"I'd always wanted to do that," she said. "The courses were always too full to do it, though, and I would've likely gotten yelled at by someone or had my ass kicked, so that deterred me."

"You already did that when we boarded down the mountain along your family's farm," he pointed out.

"Yeah, well, it's different with skiing," she counter-claimed. "Plus, this time, there was something on the line, because I now decree you 'Master Rotten Egg'."

"Well it's still sunny out, did you want to go again, or do something else?" he asked.

"I'm game for another run, but don't think I'll be making this one a competition, I put all I had into that first one," she agreed.

"You're just worried that I'm gonna win now that you don't have the element of surprise," Turner jokingly accused.

"Maybe, or maybe I just want to actually enjoy skiing a little slower," Abby defended.

So it was. Turner and Abby hopped on the next lift heading up, enjoying the view that the mountainside provided as they were carried higher and higher into the sky. Unbeknownst to them, someone else was being asked about their date with Turner back down at sea level, another one which just so happened to deal with frozen water.

---

"So, what, you just wanted to go ice skating?" Sara asked.

"Yes, and that's all I wanted to do!" Emma confirmed. "I know I was at the bottom of the barrel with points, but honestly I was just hoping I could win the next challenge and not be eliminated, without having to do, y'know, with Turner."

"What happened then?" Sara prodded.

"Kendra happened," Emma simply stated with animosity, but then explained further. "You remember what she did to me, right? The one where I'd get stuck in sex-related situations with him?"

Sara nodded, so Emma moved on. "Well, one of those happened right as I was changing into something more fitting to be in a cold room doing physical activity. I just got my hair stuck in my dress. That would've been fine on its own, because I wasn't like naked at that point. But later on during the night, I fell on top of him, which I'm not even sure was Kendra's fault, but I wouldn't be surprised if she orchestrated it. Anyways, when I got up off of him, uh...his dick was..."

"I get the picture," Sara waved. "But what does any of this have to do with six points?"

"I'm getting there," Emma protested. "Anyways, it happened again, the power went out, yadda yadda. But after I fell asleep, I woke up in the middle of the night and it felt like someone was playing a game with the temperature controls, so I cuddled up to Turner to stay warm. He was fine with it, or at least pretended to be fine with it for my sake, but then after I fell asleep again, I had a, shall we say, spicy dream, one that was without a doubt crafted by our very own Kendra, just like the one that manipulated Abby."

"Wait, that's what caused it?" Sara asked, a bit shocked.

"Yep, he told me all about it," Emma said, with a bit of pride which soon turned to a bit of shame as she continued her story. "Anyways, well, THAT happened, and in the morning, I was like 'Fuck it, I've already done something with him, might as well get some more points', and gave him a small kiss. But that was it! Just a quick peck, and a cuddle during the night! It wasn't like we did anything too scandalous!"

"This really isn't my area of expertise," Sara nervously said after a few seconds, feeling a little twinge again. "I would just tell Becca about it, just to clear the air. It'll come out eventually if you don't, so it's better if she hears it straight from you."

"But didn't you say that she was irate earlier this morning?" Emma pointed out.

"Yeah, so maybe not today, but you should definitely tell her sometime soon," Sara amended.

---

"Woo!" Abby said as they reached the flatlands for the fourth time, having taken different paths down each time. "Alright, I'm pretty winded and getting cold, do you want to get get something to eat? It's getting pretty late."

"Sure, sounds good to me, what did you have in mind?" Turner accepted.

"Well, I found this really good mac and cheese place in the little town here, and I know how much you love mac and cheese..." Abby suggested. "It looked like the food truck that we saw in Florida."

"You had me at cheese," Turner said. "Let's go drop off our stuff and get down this mountain."

The two of them dropped their ski gear back up at the lodge and then rode the lift all the way back down to the base of the mountain. Immediately, the two of them began overheating, due to the sharp increase in temperature.

"Actually, let's drop these extra layers off at the hotel before we go out, I don't wanna carry this around, either on my person or in my bag," Abby proposed.

"Yeah, I was about to say that too," Turner agreed.

Walking back to the hotel was a little difficult given the circumstances, but it wasn't too bad. They walked a little slower than going to the mountain, due to the fact that they had been expending energy for a few hours now. The sun had been at its peak when they made it to the top the first time, but now it was just above the horizon, streaking the sky with more colors than a Van Gogh painting. There were purples, reds, oranges, yellows, and everything in between smeared overhead.

"Wow, usually I can't see the sky this clearly, there's always either clouds or light pollution or trees or something else covering the sky back in Virginia," Abby marveled. "This is beautiful."

"It really is," Turner said. "It's a lot nicer to look at this when you're on a tropical island than when you're stuck in traffic on the interstate too."

"Oh, boo-hoo, you have an amazing job in the big city and the traffic is just too much compared to your small town upbringing," Abby taunted.

"You just wait until you have to do that every day...and get teleported to another dimension on the side of the street," he retorted.

"Wait until you get teleported to another dimension while you're in the middle of a shower," she fired back. "And you're only wearing a towel."

"Touché," he responded, as they reached the entrance to the hotel. "Alright, let's get going, I really want to see if this place is any good."

"Get ready to have your socks knocked off," she excitedly said.