The sun rose and the contestants sleepily got up. The clouds were gathering and there was a slightly stronger breeze today; but it was otherwise normal.

Ruby was up bright and early today, and she greeted the contestants with a sleepy smile. "Good morning contestants! How did you sleep?" she says into the mic, which reverberates throughout the field.

"Ugh..fine? I guess?" groans Sand as they cover their ears from the reverberation. Ruby laughs quietly. "Well, that's good. Anyways, you know the rules! Same as yesterday, and also, here!" she explains as she drops a chess box, checker box, and Monopoly box on the grass in front of them.

"How did you get these??" Estella asks as she picks up the chess box and looks at it. Ruby shrugs. "I spawned it from somewhere." she says.

Despite the confusion, everyone just rolls with it and decides to play Monopoly for the time being.
•••••••
Ruby turns to PC, who is now slowly waking up. As PC looks around, they see Ruby standing there; smiling at them. "Good morning!" she says.

PC groans. "Whatever." they grumble as they try to go back to sleep. Ruby sighs and sits on the floor, deciding to play on her phone.

PC falls asleep, but only for a split second, before waking after hearing a loud crash sound. "WHAT THE HELL!?" they exclaim as they look around the room in shock.

Ruby giggled. "Sorry PC. I didn't realize my headphones weren't plugged in.." she said as she places her phone down.

PC scoffs before going to sit back down. But as their about to sit, Ruby gets up and approaches them.

"PC? I wanna tell you something.." she said as she looks PC dead in the eyes. PC sits down and nods. "You can tell me, but maybe later because I'm still tired." they said.

Ruby nodded and went back to her corner, continuing to watch videos. "I know what she wants to tell you. She l-" says the Parasite, but PC mentally shuts it up again.

"SHUT. IT." they growl as they lie back and try to drift off to sleep.
•••••••
"I win!" Mari exclaims as she happily places her Pawn in front of Cherry's King. Cherry let out an exasperated sigh. "Good game, Mari." she says.

As they put the chess game back, Seb reaches for the checkers box. As he grabs it, he hears lightning crash nearby.

"What the..." says Dakii as it looks at the sky, which had now darkened. The lightning was becoming more persistent, and there was a light drizzle.

"Uhm..PC?" says Estella loudly. A groan could be heard before PC answers the mic. "What..?" they say, clearly annoyed.

"It's raining. Maybe we can have something to protect us?" says Lyri as she motions up to the clouds. PC looks up, then scoffs.

"It's just rain. It's not like it's gonna rain acid." they say nonchalantly. As soon as they say that, lightning strikes down.

"Please PC!" Aria pretty much yells at them, PC sighs and forms a small tent around them.

"What the-??" says Seb, confused. Jamie felt the tent's roof. It was pretty tough material, so it kept the rain out perfectly! Though, they just hoped it was able to not be incinerated by lightning.
••••••••
"Wow..didn't expect it to storm." PC says, a bit startled. Ruby comes up to them and pats their back, seeing that PC was shaking slightly.

"It's okay. The weather can be unpredictable. Though, we probably shouldn't have brought them to a secluded, open forest area." she says. PC sighs defiantly and goes to sit down.

"Well, with the contestants now trying to survive an unexpected storm; what did you wanna tell me?" they say as they glare at Ruby.

Ruby turns red as she nears PC, stating them in the eyes. "PC..I.." she starts, but hesitates.

"Mhm?" PC says as they motion for her to keep going. "I..like..y- you..." Ruby stutters out nervously.

PC looked shocked. "You like...me?" they say, almost as startled as when the lightning came down. Ruby nods. "I have been since our first interaction..!" she says.

PC looks down and smiles softly. But their parasite wasn't exactly pleased. 'Ugh, that brat is gonna get in the way of the plan if she makes advances on PC. So..I guess I'll take matters into my own hands..' it thought as they go silent, scheming.
•••••••••
Chapter 2- me

Word count- 745

Book by: Me