The Worst Place to be is In Your Own Head

"Ugh, it feels like I just ran a marathon yesterday, but instead of physical exhaustion, it's mental exhaustion," Kathryn said, waking up.

"I know what you mean," Turner agreed. "Mandy, yesterday, did a puzzle with me, which wasn't as mentally taxing, but two in a row is just like a double whammy."

"Oh, well I'm sorry for making you go through that," Kathryn backed up a little bit.

"Don't be, it was a lot of fun," Turner rubbed his eyes. "A huge break from most of the other gals."

"Eh, they're all busy playing the social game like this is Survivor or something," Kathryn said. "Every day down there is like the cheer squad's locker room. At least, what Charlotte said the cheer squad locker room is like."

"That's...I wish I could be down there more often, but last time I tried, Kendra told me to come back up here," Turner solemnly said.

"That was the first night though, right?" Kathryn asked, which elicited a nod from Turner. "She may have just been saying that because she wanted us to 'get situated with our roommates and transformations' or whatever she'd call it. You might be able to come down sometimes, although I doubt you'll have much free time in between Becca today, Sara tomorrow, and then it's transformation and challenge day after that."

"Everyone keeps saying that Sara's got some master plan for her date night with me," Turner said, confused. "What's that about? I don't really know her that well, and she's more of an idealist than an activist."

"I would ask her if she's got some big plan, but last I knew, she was missing," Kathryn grimaced. "Although I suppose I told you that already."

"She might have come back overnight while you were gone," Turner optimistically offered. "Look on the bright side."

"I know, I know, it just worries me," Kathryn sighed. "I suppose I should go back and check though. Thanks for helping me take my mind off everything last night."

"No, I should be the one thanking you," Turner shook his head. "That was the most fun I'd had in a while, we should consider doing that when we go home."

Kathryn smiled wryly, before she said her goodbyes and left the hotel.

"IF we go home," he thought.

She left the hotel with her head held high. It really had been relaxing to do everything yesterday. Some people found relaxation in music, some found it in video games, she found it in deduction, analysis, and puzzle solving. Was that weird? Maybe, but she wasn't gonna complain that her job was relaxing, and she got paid a pretty hefty amount for doing it. Plus, she got to meet Turner through doing her favorite things.

Turning the door handle, she fully expected to be met with an empty room, but to her surprise (and relief), Sara was lazing on the bed, relaxing.

"Sara!" Kathryn excitedly said. "Where have you been?"

"Oh, yesterday?" Sara innocently responded. "Yeah, sorry about not telling you. I went out on the town to try and plan out every single detail of my date with Turner tomorrow."

"That's...why?" Kathryn asked.

"I just don't want anything to go wrong," Sara simply answered. "I'd heard horror stories of some of the other girls' dates and the many ways in which they went awry, and I just don't want that to happen with mine and Turner's. I've got so much planned, there's not really any room for error."

Kathryn didn't really respond to Sara's main point, simply saying "Well, it's good to know you're back." She did feel vindicated by that little spiel though, due to her prior conversation with Turner.

---

"Last night was the pits," Mandy complained to Lauren. "Emma kept talking in her sleep last night, something about water. I don't know what this place is doing to her dreams, but that's not the first time she's talked in her sleep. Although, this was the most coherent it's ever been."

"Charlotte does that sometimes too," Lauren sympathized. "Drives me up the wall whenever she does, but it's not a massive deal."

"Hey, you haven't spoken to Liam in a while, have you?" Mandy inquired.

"No, I haven't," Lauren shook her head. "Honestly, I haven't really spoken to most people in a while, I'm just trying to coast through this and get done without rocking the boat too much. It's nice being here, I don't have to deal with my asshole ex-boyfriend, work twelve hours a day for basically nothing, or sit at home twiddling my thumbs while waiting for life to begin."

"I won't deny that this place isn't without its perks, but I do wish that we had at least a little more agency here," Mandy sighed. "I guess the prize of 'one wish' is pretty great, but I'm doubting the usefulness of that, especially if we'll be transformed several times before that. Whose to say that we can't use that wish to undo all of what happened to us, or that we'll even want to at that point? Some of the people here have changed so much, and it's only been a week. Do you see how irritable Becca's been? How aloof Sara's been? I doubt that they were like that at the beginning, given the brief introduction we had to them," Mandy explained. "I'm just worried that the prize here isn't going to be all that it's hyped up to be."

"I mean, there's no sense worrying much about it, right?" Lauren noted. "We can't really change the situation we're thrown in, why not just see where we end up at the end of whatever this is?"

"That's oddly positive coming from you," Mandy mused. "Has Charlotte been rubbing off on you some?"

---

Becca was on a mission. She had waited for this day for what felt like her whole life, but in actuality had been a whopping nine days. Albeit, it had been nine of the most grueling days ever, complete with several blow-ups, at least two people trying to get with her man, and a voice in the back of her mind that wouldn't shut up about just letting it happen, or heck, facilitating. That urge hadn't gotten much stronger after the first couple days, but Becca didn't doubt that Kendra's eventual plan for her would involve that transformation path in some way.

"I did okay in the challenge, though, right?" she thought to herself. "Sixth place is below average, but there were some girls who did worse than me. Charlotte, Kathryn, Emma, and Abby all did worse. That should mean that I'm in the middle of the road when it comes to the transformations the day after tomorrow, they shouldn't be too ****."

She was determined to spend as much of the day with Turner as possible, and that started now, with getting breakfast. She had a lot of lost time and competition to make up for, and if she had to work harder than anyone else here for points, she was sure as hell gonna try and work her ass off in order to to get as many as she could as quickly as possible.

"Hey Charlotte, up early again I see," Becca greeted as she passed through.

"Where you off to, Becca?" Charlotte asked.

"I'm going up to start my date with Turner," she answered. "Just because most people don't start theirs until the evening doesn't mean that I can't start mine now and spend as much time as possible with him."

"I guess that makes sense," Charlotte nodded. "Well, have fun! I know you've been looking forward to this for a while now!'

"Thanks!" Becca giddily said, her already positive demeanor amplified by Charlotte's infectious optimism.

She continued walking towards the entrance of the hotel with her head held high, smiling. She hit the buzzer at the bottom of the hotel, signifying that she was there. She figured Turner would be surprised getting a visitor already, but it would be worth it.

A few minutes later, he came down the stairs and er heart skipped a beat. As soon as he opened the door to the hotel, letting her in, she threw her arms around his neck.

"I've missed you so much, it's been so hard these past few days," she softly said into his shoulder.

"I've missed you too," he responded.

"So, what have you been up to these past few days?" she asked, then held her hand up. "Wait, actually, hold that thought. We should get breakfast first. I know just the place, come on!"

She grabbed his hand as they started walking across the street to a small diner, the kind that you would find off the side of the highway in a small town. Turner remembered always wanting to get breakfast with Becca in one of these a few cities over that he had heard high marks about, but sadly, it burned down before they got a chance to. It looked like she had never forgotten.

Once they had sat down in a little booth and ordered their food, Becca restated her question.

"So, yeah, what have you been doing?"

"Ugh, where do I even begin?" Turner laid his forehead in the palm of his hand. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I had fun with most of them, but it's just so draining to have to do this. I don't know why they couldn't have given me a little bit more stamina to deal with having to go on ten dates with ten different people back to back."

"Well, there may have been a few...strings...attached if Kendra were to give you any transformations, and I'm sure that wouldn't as popular for the TV show," Becca said in a tone dripping with malice for Kendra. "Anyways, I'm sure I can guess who you didn't really enjoy having around, but give me the details! I'm just curious what you've been up to."

"Well, I mean, I heard through the grapevine that you already got some of the details on Emma's date..." his face turned a bit red. "Then there was Charlotte, who I went to the zoo with, then Abby and I did some skiing and ate some really good mac and cheese."

"Makes sense for her, she really is addicted to that stuff," Becca responded in a neutral tone.

"I don't really remember what Lauren did," Turner continued. "Then, Liam and I went to the arcade. Paige's...I honestly really don't remember what happened there, I've successfully been repressing that memory and getting it out of my head. Mandy and I did a puzzle, and Kathryn did more puzzles with me, although they weren't like your standard jigsaw puzzle, we went to an escape room. That's basically how my week has been, just resting in between all of the nights out."

Becca actually took almost all of Turner's descriptions of his nights out with other girls in stride, although wincing a bit when he mentioned Paige's name. She wasn't entirely sure why she wanted him to talk about his dates with other women, although she had an inkling that it was her transformation bubbling to the front of her mind again.

"Well, sounds like a fun week," she simply answered after they both got their food. "I've been doing better recently. The beginning was pretty rough, you heard about what happened with Emma, right?"

"Yeah, I did," Turner confirmed.

"Yeah, I still feel bad about that, but it's just whenever I see her face, I just can't...stop thinking about it," Becca spun her fork around to indicate her mind going in circles. "Anyways, after that, I've kinda resolved to just not bother anyone else about their night out with you, if you get what I mean."

"Yeah, I know what you're talking about," Turner agreed. "Not entirely sure if that's the best idea in the long run, since it'll probably come back and hit you full-**** the day after tomorrow when Kendra, undoubtedly, announces everything, but I get why you're doing that."

"What do you mean?" Becca asked. "Are you saying that there have been others who have gotten some more victory points other than Emma?"

---

"That was...basically useless," Emma frowned, talking to the mirror in the bathroom. "Welp, there goes 1250 BP down the drain, that's a but of a shame."

She had purchased a hint about the next competition, and she almost expected Kendra to pop out of thin air and give the hint to her, but nothing had happened last night. She had gone to sleep and half-expected that maybe Kendra was just asleep and would give the hint to Emma whenever she woke up, but no dice. It wasn't even like it was early in the morning; Emma had continued her habit of waking up when most normal people would be having lunch.

"Knock knock!" Emma heard coming from the door. It was Charlotte's voice.

After walking over to the door, she confirmed that yes, it was in fact Charlotte, but she had Sara, Kathryn, and Abby in tow.

"Hey Emma!" Charlotte excitedly said. "We're goin' shell collecting on the beach if you wanna come!"

"We've seen some really...interestingly-shaped and designed pieces on the shoreline around here," Kathryn added.

"Sure, I'm in!" Emma accepted, running down the stairs two at a time as she joined the entourage on the boardwalk, making small talk.

As they walked past the wooden beams and onto the sandy shores, the waves crashing on the shore reminded Emma of the dream she had last night, with the water washing away her clothes. She wasn't sure if that was a dream that Kendra had put on her, and if so, what reason she had for doing that, especially since she wasn't with Turner at all. It couldn't be a situation to get her stuck in a compromising situation with Mandy (ew) either, since the transformation specifically said it would be around Turner.

"Ooh, look at this one, it's blue!" Sara picked up one right next to the edge of the boardwalk. "They don't make them like this back on the East Coast!"

"So, Emma, nervous about the next challenge?" Kathryn asked, making small talk.

"A little bit," Emma admitted. "I bought a hint from the BP shop for the challenge tomorrow, but I didn't get anything at all. I expected Kendra to like, come up to me or apparate in front of me or something like that, but nothing ended up happening. I just wasted like almost half of my BP on that! So anyways, yeah, I am a bit nervous, especially since I didn't get any of the help I needed."

"That doesn't seem right," Kathryn mused. "I feel like she should've at least given you something. Maybe she just hasn't gotten to you yet."

"The woman who is capable of inter-dimensional transportation, telekinesis, and mutation hasn't gotten to me yet?" Emma was incredulous.

"You know though, she's a person too," Kathryn reminded. "I mean, heck, we have people who procrastinate their senior thesis papers until three days before they're due, what would make it so she just isn't procrastinating doing this?"

"It's just weird, why would she wait on this?" Emma asked.

"Maybe the hint will come when we actually begin the challenge," Kathryn offered. "Maybe it's gonna be like a puzzle or scavenger hunt...something like that, and you're gonna get the second clue off the bat or something."

"That's probably it," Emma conceded. "I'm just a bit anxious about it all, I don't want to get back-to-back last place in the challenges, especially given what Becca did to me after she found out what I did."

---

"Look, the only people who did were Abby and Paige!" Turner defended.

"How does that even make it better?" Becca raised her voice, gesturing to the scoreboard. "Those are, arguably, the two worst people who it could've been!"

"Abby was a complete accident, similar to Emma, and Paige...you know her, she doesn't take no for an answer!" Turner explained.

"Look...okay...I'm willing to hear you out on this, but you better have a good explanation for this all," Becca calmed down a bit, mostly due to her newfound obsession with hooking Turner up with others.

"Okay, well, I was getting dressed in the bathroom after Abby's date..." Turner began, hoping that referring to her as 'Abby' and not 'your sister' was lessening the blow a bit. "...and I was gonna ask her something, but didn't expect that she would be getting dressed in the room, so I opened the door and...yeah. I didn't see anything though, she was facing sideways."

"And Paige?" Becca cocked her eyebrow.

"Paige...is complicated," Turner rubbed the nape of his neck uncomfortably. "I don't really know what happened, but I didn't feel awake whenever she did anything. It was like I fell asleep, and then woke up and bam, she doubled her score. According to her, she got some prize that would cause me to be in some **** state and her transformation **** her to do something to apologize."

Turner braced for impact. He didn't expect this to happen this early in the night, this seemed like something that would happen later, after he would've had a blast with Becca throughout the day. However, Becca didn't say anything, she just took all the information and her face slowly softened.

"So that was all?" she calmly asked, surprising Turner and herself.

"Yeah...?" he confirmed. "You can even see, everyone else is where they were at the beginning of the week."

Becca bristled a bit, but then backed off. That cycle continued a bit as her two urges fought with one another in her mind; Her implanted desire to set Turner up, and her innate desire to be his only lover.

"This can't continue forever," she thought to herself. "I can't keep getting upset at this. At the beginning, I thought that this would be something that would able to be fixed, but we're in too deep for this to not be the new norm. My only hope is that I can win in the end and use my wish to do something here."

"A-alright," she shakily said. "Can we...can we just go back to the hotel room? I'm a little tired. I mean, I had this whole thing that I planned today, but things have gone...not as I really planned."

"Of course," Turner assented.