And fifty grand, I reminded myself, thinking of the contract I'd signed with glee. Even if I was voted out first, I'd still get that fifty grand. That helped things a lot.
As I rubbed my eyes and adjusted to the sunlight, a shoe nudged mine from across the seats. I blinked and looked over in the boat…and stifled a groan. I recognized that killer tan, the messy black curls, and rakish smile. Kip.
He winked at me and mouthed a greeting. "Hey, sweet thing."
I rolled my eyes. Thank God I wasn't going to be on his team. I'd had enough of that shithead last time. If he thought we were going to team up this time, he was sorely mistaken. I ignored his attempts to reconnect and gazed at the others in the gently rocking boat.
Most of them looked familiar in that "I've seen you somewhere" sort of vibe, but I couldn't picture where. That was what I got for not keeping up with current reality TV, I supposed. Last season had soured me on future shows. There was a tall, dark haired guy seated next to me and I glanced over at him reflexively.
He smiled.
I smiled back, and then flinched. Oh shit. Was that going to be read by the cameras as flirting the moment we were heading toward the island? I panicked, my gaze skittering back to the cameraman filming at the prow of the boat. Sure enough, he'd panned in my direction. Hell. Was I going to have to avoid every single guy on the island in order to ensure that I wasn't painted as the Island Whore again?
I supposed I could go for an all-girl alliance, maybe. I'd need allies. That was rule one of Endurance Island: team up and take out the competition. At least until you got to the end. Then it was every man - or woman - for themselves.
Still, I was skittish after my heinous editing from last time. I'd have to play it careful. I raised a hand to my eyes to shield them from the sun and skimmed the rest of the group, carefully keeping my gaze off of Hunky McHunkerton.
There were three people from my season that I could tell. Other than Kip and myself, I recognized Leslie and Emilio further down on the boat. They were seated next to each other, and to me, that was a bad sign. Leslie and Emilio had started out on the same team last time and had more or less bullied the others and ran the show. They'd been picked off at the merge, but to see them together again meant that they were probably going to try and pull the same sort of tactic. It was bad news for anyone against them.
But it was good news for me. I could always team up with them, I supposed. Emilio was g*y and Leslie already had a husband, so it wasn't like they'd be seen as potential romances for me. I filed that in the back of my mind. Near them, a guy and a girl sat, holding hands, their fingers interlocked. The girl had a short, Miley Cyrus-esque buzz cut for her brown hair, and the blond guy she was holding hands with seemed super confident. They looked familiar, too, but the way they were gazing avidly at the island, I guessed they were from a different reality TV show. Next to the guy at my side, there was a gorgeous redhead that I did recognize, but from gossip magazines. Sunnie someone or other, a woman who was famous simply for being famous. There was one of those on every TV channel lately, but I remembered Sunnie had been on a season of House Guests recently. That meant that the others seated near her were probably from the same show, if they'd pulled four from my season. I wondered at the others. Were they from similar shows or something else? There were two athletic girls dressed in matching jogging suits that I probably should have recognized.
Not for the first time, I wondered where our clothing was. In every other season of Endurance Island, each person was assigned a color - I’d been yellow - and your name was plastered across your chest and back so the audience would have an easy time remembering who you were. Now we were heading to the island, and there was still no bag of gear. Maybe it’d be part of the first challenge, and I grimaced at the thought of having to fight for my own clothing.
Then again, they did say that this season would be a tough one. I was starting to wonder what I’d gotten myself into.
Then I looked over at Kip’s smug face and decided that the opportunity to knock him down a peg would be worth it. After all, my reputation couldn’t get any worse if I added ‘villain’ to my resume, could it?
The boat bobbed its way to the shore, eerily silent. It felt like we were waiting for something, but what? I gazed at the other contestants. They wore the same tense, anticipatory look that indicated we were all waiting for some big reveal.
Then, a motorboat started.
I jumped; someone across from me did, too. We’d been so on edge that the sound had caught us off guard. It wasn’t our boat, either; the sound of the motor came from the distance. And even though we weren’t supposed to speak, someone near me snorted with derision.
Ah yes, I knew who this drama llama was.
A fancy red speedboat came into view, a solitary man in khaki at the helm. Even though it was a windy day, his perfectly hairspray-shellacked brown hair didn’t move an inch. From a distance, I could see his pearly white smile gleaming against his tan.
Chip Brubaker, the host of Endurance Island.
He pulled the speedboat up alongside our wooden boat in a dramatic fashion, and the cameras turned to him. Every season, Chip had a big entrance. Endurance Island had made him an even bigger star than any contestant, and he milked it for all it was worth.
Chip pulled his boat alongside ours, and I saw people lean forward, waiting for the go.
“MAKEUP,” Chip yelled, waving an arm frantically. “Where’s makeup? We need to reshoot my entrance. My hair’s a f**king disaster.”
Cameramen sprang into action. I blinked as cameras went down and someone pulled out a radio. “We need makeup for Chip,” a man murmured into his walkie-talkie and then clicked it off.
Sure enough, another speedboat started in the distance and pulled up alongside Chip’s as a woman climbed on board. She began to dab Chip’s face with powder and then combed his stiff locks.
Next to me, the sexy guy crossed his arms, his entire pose screaming you’ve got to be kidding me. I felt the same way. Here we were, baking in the sun and thirsty, and Chip wanted his helmet of hair fixed. But we were stuck. I knew from my experience last season that everything waited on Chip, and Chip knew it.
Eventually, Chip’s hair was refreshed, and he sped away, only to drive up again a minute later so the camera-crew could film it anew. This time, he gave the camera a beaming smile, ignoring us.
“On this season’s Endurance Island, our players are returning for a second chance to show their stuff in the most wild, most difficult season we’ve put together. In a game full of twists and turns, this year will be even more outrageous and more challenging than ever before. Competing for the million dollar prize and a chance to call themselves the winner are sixteen former contestants from a variety of shows. From winners to losers, sex kittens —”