Post by Amanda Kimmel on Mar 31, 2012 22:35:11 GMT -5
Episode Four: Uninvited Guests
Yet again, another Tribal Council was looming, and fifteen would become fourteen. The game had only just begun, but Amanda was enjoying herself. She was in an amazingly beautiful green desert with some of her best friends, hosting a game she loved.
All that was missing was her boyfriend.
“I’m going to call Andy and see what’s up with him,” she stated. “Tribal’s not for three hours.”
She dialed.
Ring…
Ring…
Ring…
Ring…
It prepared to go to Andy’s voicemail. Amanda knew Andy always had fun making those. It clicked.
Andy said, in the most wooden, emotionless, robotic voice possible: “Hello, and thank you for calling Pikachu’s Pizza. To place an order for carryout or delivery, please press 1. To plan your next party or make a reservation, please press 2. To speak directly to a manager, please press 3, or to leave a message for Andy [unintelligible], please do so after the beep.”
Beep.
Amanda laughed uncontrollably into the phone. “Oh my God Andy, that’s…” her sentence was cut out by the laughter. “I haven’t laughed like this…” she couldn’t finish. “I haven’t laughed like this since your ginger-haired bastard joke.” Amanda regained her composure, still laughing. “Anyway, hun, I’m just wondering how you’re doing! I miss you so much and I know you miss me too. Wuv you!” She blew a kiss and hung up.
“What’s so funny?” Parvati asked.
“Andy’s answering machine, no doubt,” DD replied. “I remember his last one where he said he was a state Senator and that if someone had a problem, they should call a Democrat.”
“There was also the one for the ‘Americans Against Dust Bunnies Society’ which was just hilarious,” Parvati added.
Amanda was still laughing. “This one’s even better than either of those.”
“Is it something I can top?” Bobby interjected.
“I don’t know. Let’s see…” Amanda started laughing. “I can’t do it that well! Hold on.”
She dialed. She put the phone on speaker.
Ring…
Ring…
“Hey honey!” Andy said.
Everyone at the table laughed.
“What?” Andy shouted.
“Oh hey, love!” Amanda spoke into the phone. “Sorry, I wanted them to hear your new voicemail.”
“I just got your message, you loved it that much, huh?”
“Tell me about it. Could you recite it for everyone?”
“Sure.” Andy cleared his throat. “Hello, and thank you for calling Pikachu’s Pizza. To place an order for carryout or delivery, press 1. To plan your next party or to make a reservation, please press 2. To speak to a manager, please press 3, or to leave a message for Andy [last name], please do so after the beep. Thank you.”
Parvati and DD were guffawing the whole way through; Amanda was laughing uncontrollably; DD started rolling on the floor. Bobby was rather amused and intrigued, and obviously plotting a way to be even funnier.
Amanda took the phone off of speaker, still laughing. “You know, I love you so much.”
“I miss you so much. I really can’t wait until we can, y’know…”
“Duh.”
A thunderous sound could be heard from outside. However, it was sunny.
“Uh,” DD said. “What is that?”
Bobby went outside on the porch to look. He ran back inside quick.
“Stampede!” he yelled.
“Oh dear,” Parvati was worried.
“Where’s Erik?” Amanda asked. “Who else is missing?” Amanda quickly released her phone was still on. “Uh, Andy, I gotta go!”
“You’re a goddess, you can handle it! Love you!”
Click.
“He’s right,” Amanda stated, meditating in a Zen-like state.
“This is not a movie,” DD commented. “No stones are going to rise from the woodwork.”
“Laser eyes,” Parvati stated.
Amanda’s eyes glowed with bright blue light.
“Right,” DD corrected herself. “Maybe this is a movie.”
It was almost instantaneous that the lyrics of Taylor Swift’s “If This Was a Movie” got stuck in Amanda’s head.
Come back, come back, come back to me like
You would, you would if this was a movie
Standing in the rain outside until I came out
She missed Andy. She knew he’d calm her down. He always had a way of doing that: Making her smile. That’s why she loved him so. That and he actually listened to her.
Her train of thought was interrupted by a hand waving in her face. “Hello, earth to Amanda!” DD said.
“Oh, wait, what?” Amanda asked.
“Stampede’s passed. Went nowhere near us.”
“Oh, good, good.”
“You’re horny, aren’t you?”
“You would know best,” Amanda spoke softly.
DD rolled her eyes. “I suppose.”
“What? You still have your Hidden Immunity Didol, right?”
DD almost looked embarrassed. “My phone is in my boobs right now.”
“The Didol was last night,” Bobby cut in.
“Shut up, Bobby!” DD was now embarrassed.
“It’s true.” Bobby complemented his comment with a sarcastic grin. DD laughed. This was why she married Bobby: He made her laugh, he listened.
“So, does anybody, like, know where Erik went off to?” Parvati changed the subject.
“Nope,” Amanda replied.
DD shook her head. Bobby shrugged his shoulders.
“Clueless, hm,” Parvati said out loud.
“Do you know something I don’t?” Amanda asked Parvati.
“Me?”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe not?”
“Maybe.”
“You are up to something.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe not,” DD interjected. “This is getting pointless.”
“Are you up to something?” Bobby asked his wife.
“Maybe, maybe not,” DD replied.
That night, Amanda arrived at Tribal Council. The place was a mess. The chairs were scattered everywhere. The fire was out. The voting urn was a ways away from its pedestal. Thankfully, the structure was still intact, even if some of the brush had fallen due to the shaking of the earth.
“Stampede got the better of this place, seems like,” Amanda muttered to herself. She began adjusting the chairs, and the cameraman began working on getting the fire going again. She would have asked for more help if it had been a bigger mess – it wasn’t anything two people couldn’t handle.
Twenty minutes later, it was all straightened out. The castaways were set to arrive in fifteen, so Amanda killed some time playing Solitaire on her Android.
“Solitaire?” the cameraman asked. “Why not Angry Birds or something?”
“Too addictive, I can keep track of my time this way,” Amanda replied.
“Oh, right,” the cameraman replied.
“You can play a game too.”
The cameraman took out his flip phone and looked at it.
“What, don’t even have Tetris on that?” Amanda asked.
“I should get set up.”
As the cameraman got his equipment ready for filming, Amanda beat two games of Solitaire in six minutes. She sheathed her phone and made sure everything was ready. Fifteen people would soon sit before her and purge one of their own in a game that had become less and less predictable given its very nature.
“I’m really loving this twist,” Amanda said to herself. “But these Tribals are hard to manage…”
The remaining fifteen Americans soon arrived, and it was time for the drama... and a predictable departure.
Amanda was tired when she got off the jeep back at the lodge. This Tribal Council had been tiring on her and she was ready to get to bed.
Erik was waiting outside the lodge. “Hey Amanda!”
“Erik,” Amanda replied, “where on earth have you been today?”
“Somewhere.”
Amanda’s tired eyes looked at him with an intriguing suspicion. Erik smirked.
“What’s so funny?” Amanda asked.
“Nothing. Come on in.”
Amanda suddenly facepalmed. “Oh my God, I completely forgot. Did you guys get Treemail written?”
“Yup,” Erik replied. “Don’t worry about it.”
Amanda went in. Tacked onto the bulletin board in the front was a poem in writing all too familiar, but Amanda’s tired state made her unable to deduce who wrote it:
Another twist rings in your hearts so true
Timing matters with everything you do
Everywhere you go, every move you make
There is something you need to grab and take
Don’t run around to look like you’re a fool
Just remember to come back with the jewel
“This is good, thanks,” Amanda commented.
“You’re welcome,” Erik replied, still smirking.
Amanda got even more paranoid. “What is it?”
“You look tired, you should probably go to bed. Bobby and DD are in their room already.”
“No doubt loving. I’ll go talk to Parvati in mine and hit the sack.”
Erik raised an eyebrow and followed Amanda to her room. She opened the door and turned on the light.
“Oh my God!” Amanda exclaimed. “Andy?!?”
Lying on her bed was Andy, wrapped up in the bedsheets and looking at her romantically. “Hey honey,” he began. “Did you miss me?”
As detailed at Tribal, this will be posted at 9 PM tomorrow and will be a 24-hour semi-live challenge. A twist will occur at challenge time. What is it? You'll find out
