"Why do you do the things you do?"

That was definitely not a question Flower had an immediate answer for, as she and Pencil lied down on the field, looking over the canal. The one they sailed across to just barely scrape by a team victory.

"I don't really know." Flower said, looking over at Pencil for a second, she was still just watching the water, "I wish I never did any of it."

Pencil had a lot of thoughts on her mind right now. For one, this was...tonal whiplash from someone like Flower. Just the other day, she was screaming at her and her BFF, calling them stupid and all sorts of mean names...being as much of a 'Flower' as ever and, now, she was acting like a completely different person.

"You can see why I don't wanna just drop my guard though, right?" Pencil responded, "At least, not right now."

Flower nodded to that. She knew her and Match maybe weren't her most frequent bully victims, (That prize would probably go to either Bubble, Icey or Woody.) but they were certainly up there.

"You don't need to," Flower responded, rubbing her arm awkwardly. "But for right now, we're supposed to be working together, right?"

Pencil had to think about that. On one hand, yeah, it was true - they were teammates, both out for the same goal. On the other hand, however, it was a bit suspicious that Flower would start acting nicer right before this big competition. Maybe it was a coincidence? The fact she knew about the balance beam not being the only challenge didn't help much, though.

"Teammates?" Flower sat up some, offering a hand to Pencil.

Pencil hesitated for a second, just long enough for Flower to get nervous, before she shook her hand.

"Teammates." Pencil said, resting fully back now, "I just really hope I never end up like you, Flower."

Flower really had to bite her tongue hearing that, and not just because it was an insult.

Flower woke up the next morning, sprawled out on the ground. The speaker box wasn't exactly nice enough to give any of the contestants beds to sleep on, so most of them settled for patches of grass on the ground. Pencil was already long gone, though.

"Guess what, Flower?" The Announcer said, suddenly approaching her, "You won a win token."

Flower gave a wide smile. She almost forgot about those. Even just having one might swing odds in her favor really quick. Not wanting to raise more suspicion though, she'd just try to feign ignorance.

"Oh uh, what's a win token?"

The Announcer, not gaining any suspicion, explained.

"As you remember, you were the one to grab the ribbon, that means you did better than the rest of the contestants. If you are about to get eliminated, you can use your win token to void half of your votes."

That explanation would go on to prove inaccurate, as the Announcer would later decide you could only use one before the votes were announced but, nevertheless, Flower would hold onto the green token close to her chest.

"Now it's time for Cake at Stake."

Despite not being on the eliminated team this time, Flower couldn't help but want to check out the scene. She saw the Squashy Grapes, all gathered on the cream-colored platform the Announcer had set up, a pink and red decorated cake sitting beside him, about to be cut up into nine pieces.

"If you receive a slice of cake, you get to stay for another day. If you don't, you leave the battle." The Speaker Box explained, "But don't worry, you'll be treated with TLC."

The other contestants didn't seem to flinch at that, not realizing what it meant. Flower, meanwhile, froze up fully when she heard those words again. Part of her felt guilty just by changing the past, since she'd be subjecting someone else to stay in that cramped, awful place, likely for the same amount of time she did. She didn't wanna say anything now though. She just held her breath, watching the scene unfold.

A small metal sign appeared out of the ground, showcasing the vote number. Only seven? Weird to think that, in a few years' time, that number would be reaching over six digits.

"Now it's time to pass out the cake" the Announcer said. "Leafy, you got zero votes."

Leafy's smile at that was cut off as a slice of cake collided with her face, splatting against it.

"Needle, you also got zero votes." The Announcer said, "Same with Ice Cube, Pin, Teardrop and Coiny."

It took every single one the Announcer named to get pink frosting all over their faces before he went, "Maybe I should turn down the throwing speed of the tosser."

"Spongy." He turned to face the largest among them, "You're also safe with zero votes."

The sponge was thankful enough to catch the cake in his mouth. That was the last of the ones with zero votes.

"Tennis Ball, you didn't do anything good, but..." Tennis Ball got hit dead on with the slice of cake hurled at him, "You're safe with one vote...so is Sam, whoever Sam is."

Flower completely forgot about that but... it was a valid question. Who was Sam? Why did that vote even go through?

The votes now came down to Eraser and Snowball, who both glanced at each other.

"Snowball, Eraser." Announcer started, "Both of you got more than one vote."

"What did I even do?" Snowball retorted, looking rather offended by this.

"Wasn't throwing Spongy in the water kind of your idea?" Eraser retorted, "Besides, they obviously couldn't keep watching if it weren't for me!"

"Well, our ratings are about to tank then." The announcer said, seemingly not that afraid.

"Wait, what?" Eraser's eyes widened at that.

"Because Snowball is safe, at two votes."

Snowball caught his cake with one hand, as the Announcer finished,

"And Eraser is eliminated, at three votes."

"Wha-?!" Eraser looked like he was about to protest, only to let his arms fall to his side, "Fine. Where do I go for the TLC?"

"Oh, don't worry." The Announcer said, a long metal plate appearing below him, "You're given an all-expense paid trip there."

Without any warning, the metal plate shot upward like a catapult. Eraser let out a scream as he was tossed into the far distance, the rest of the team watching as they went from ten members to only nine.

Flower looked on, watching Eraser fly away. She knew exactly where he was going. Where...she had inadvertently sent him. She only hoped he could handle it.

"Don't worry so much, Flower." Bubble appeared beside her unexpectedly, catching her off guard, "At least he's getting some TLC for his effoirts. That's gotta be noice, roight?"

Flower kept Bubble in ignorance, at least for right now.

Flower looked on at the next competition in fear. From here on out, this was uncharted territory, more or less. She knew, at least, it was some sort of obstacle course. She remembered BFDI 23, there was a rock wall to represent the course, but that's more or less all she knew about it. Before the obstacle course started, Announcer noted something,,

"Cherries, you are missing a team member."

Oh yeah! Blocky was eaten by one of those fish monsters, right? She forgot they didn't have a Master Recovery Center yet. That was gonna make things complicated.

"If you don't find that team member in the next hour, your team automatically loses."

Instantly, most of the team began running past the starting line, eager to get going. Flower, however, knew at least one person had to go and find their missing friend.

"Go on ahead! I'll find Blocky!" She called out to her group, most not stopping, except for Pen.

"I'll come with." Pen offered, following alongside Flower.

Now comes the real question. Just how the heck were they supposed to find the one specific fish who ate Blocky in the first place? The canal went on for miles, and the two of them were supposed to find it in under an hour?!

What seemed to be a fool's errand was thankfully solved in around two minutes, Pen pointing out the green fish right on the shore.

"This one must be it!" Pen pointed out, Flower looking on in confusion.

"How do you know this one specifically ate Blocky?" Flower asked, while Pen just shrugged.

"Just trust me on this. I've got a hunch." Pen said vaguely, and he'd soon be trying to force the fish's mouth open with his hands, which the fish did not respond well to.

It was at that point that Flower finally got a good look at the monster in the first place, as Pen tried to force its jaws open. It was huge, first off, covered in thick green scales. Say, wait a minute...this situation felt... familiar. She wasn't competing at that point,of course, but she was there...

----

Flower couldn't believe her luck for a second. Not only had she been unfairly eliminated, not only did her personally-built Announcer Crusher not work just because Golf Ball's stupid head was in the way, but here she was, soaring through the air after her machine promptly exploded.

If this was the 'TLC' the Announcer promised, it definitely wasn't the 'tender loving care' Flower was hoping for.

She didn't even know where she was flying right now. She looked down and saw the canal fly past her. One thing that did strike her as odd though, were that...Pencil, Blocky, Pen and Spongy appeared to be wrestling some sort of fish.

Man, she wished she was down there to make fun of them.... and win Dream Island, since she was still mad about that.

Where exactly was she going to land, anyways?

----

Oh yeah...hadn't Blocky been outside the fish's mouth when they had been wrestling it? Flower turned away from Pen for a second to look around...and lo and behold, she saw someone walking up from the shore, covered in water and looking rather tired.

"Blocky!" Flower called out, Pen finally averting his attention from the fish as he ran in the direction of his friend, the fish's tongue just missing him.

"How did you get here? I thought you were eaten!' Pen asked.

"Oh, it tried." Blocky laughed, "but it missed me by a-woah!"

Flower wasted no time, taking both of them by their arms and running back in the direction of the track.

"Come on guys, we don't have much time to lose!"

Flower would soon lead the two down the spiral path to start the course proper...Blocky absentmindedly falling off, but Flower chose not to dwell on that. So much for saving him, though.

The first true obstacle they had to face was a wall rising slowly out of the ground...one Pin was currently stuck upside down on. What's important, though, was that a few other people were already there. Good, they didn't lose too much time thanks to Blocky.

"Okay, how do we get over?" Pen asked. The two noted who else was there; GB, TB, Rocky and Woody. Woody would, surprisingly, be the first one to try and reach over Pin, only for her to slap him away.

Flower quickly caught her wooden friend before he could slide too far and would soon lift him up.

"You're a real jerk!" Flower growled at Pin, holding Woody up.

"Oh, what was that Ms. Kettle?" Pin asked, feigning surprise, "Yes, I'm absolutely the jerk here."

Flower rolled her eyes at that childish remark and would quickly order, "Pen, jump with me!"

Pin didn't know what they were planning until the two of them, Flower still holding onto Woody, would jump onto the moving wall at the same time, their excess weight causing it to lean the other direction. GB was about to climb up as well, only for Flower and Pen to step off, causing the wall to suddenly snap back into place, sending GB and Pin flying right off thanks to the momentum - and off into the pit below.

"Sorry!" Flower called out, setting Woody down as the two landed into the failure's waiting room. She watched as Woody would quickly rush ahead, not wanting to be left behind in the race.

"We gotta go, Flower." Pen reminded her, as the two would make their way further up onto the course, after him.

TB sighed at that, before he would get a running start...and bumping his head against the wall inefficiently. TB looked back for a second...there was nobody else behind him at the moment to help. Cutting his losses, he'd jump off the ledge to be with the rest of the losers.

Flower kept on her way, soon coming across a rock wall...oh yeah, this was the part she had to do in the big recap challenge, wasn't it? A couple of people were there. Aside from Woody, there were Leafy, Needle and Icey, who were all helping each other, Teardrop and Firey, who were all doing it solo, Spongy, who was doing...his best and the alliance, who were already near the top.

"This is like, super easy" Match commented, unintentionally jinxing herself as a large boxing glove would appear right out of the wall, sending the group collectively to the ground. Thankfully, Bubble avoided popping on impact.

"Need some help?" Flower went over to ask them.

Match looked like she was ready to tell Flower off, but Bubble stood up and went, "Sure, we could use some."

Pencil gave Flower another look, one that said she wasn't sure whether or not she could trust her, but...they were still teammates.

"I can help too!" Pen chimed in, breaking the tension from not wanting to be left out.

The climb up the rock wall was thankfully much easier with five people helping at once. They were almost at the top too...until another boxing glove came out, knocking out Needy and causing her to send Pen down with her by way of proximity on her way down. Thankfully, the other managed to avoid the falling Needy and stay on.

"Aw, seriously?"

Flower heard that and looked around in confusion...she forgot David wouldn't be around for another couple of episodes.

"Go on without me!" Pen called up to the other four, who were already just a few more steps away from the end. Flower grit her teeth at that, feeling sorry for him, but knew she had to focus on the task at hand.

The alliance, plus Flower, got up at around the same time as Leafy, Needle and Icey. Woody would climb up to join them a few seconds after. The eight of them would come across a rainbow platform. One that would send them down to the final portions of the course.

As they all got on, they all got a moment to relax some. This was stressful as is and, even with this moment of levity, the tension was high with the Squishy Cherries.

"Thanks for the help, Flower." Bubble tried to remedy this with the compliment, as Flower scratched the back of her petals nervously.

"Oh it's nothing, I'm just trying to pull my weight." Flower said. The answer seemed to go fine for some of the others...except for one.

"Oh bla bla, trying to pull your weight" Match would fold her arms and mutter to herself, this mocking not going unnoticed by Flower.

"Match, are you okay?" She'd ask, a little taken aback by this.

"Do you think we're stupid or something?" Match finally let it out, glaring at her, "A big competition where you have a chance to be let on to, like, a big, super cool island and only now are you, like, acting all nice and friendly?"

"I-uh..."

"Match, we're teammates for now." Pencil tried to calm down her best friend, but didn't help much.

"And you think she's gonna, like, stick by it?" she asked, still seeming angry, "She bossed us around constantly, she made fun of our cheering, she popped Bubble for the fun of it! Flower is going to be Flower, no matter what!"

...Ouch. Flower always knew people felt that, but to hear it outright was something completely different. Woody, meanwhile, looked like he wanted to speak up...but quickly decided against it. No use making Match mad at him, too.

"Match, be nice. A loit of people pop me for fun." Bubble chastised, before putting an arm on Flower, trying to assure her again, "If you're really troiying to be nice, Flower, we'll support you. It's loik you said...never too late."

"Thanks, Bubble." Flower smiled at that, while Match just folded her arms, turning to her best friend.

"Ugh, Pencil, don't tell me you, like, really believe this crap."

Pencil sweated a bit as her own BFF was glaring at her. Did she trust Flower? Should she trust Flower? She wasn't sure. That talk at the beach opened her up to the idea somewhat, but she wasn't sure if it really was an act or not. Pencil was about to let out some kind of response until...

Crash!

The elevator suddenly stopped with a thud, alongside the sound of Ice Cube shattering from a bowling ball trick Leafy was trying.

"Did you need to hold it right over her?" Needle said, looking very unimpressed.

"Oh well. Race, remember?" Leafy reminded her as the two would run ahead, the Squishy Cherries not far behind.

The next obstacle was similar to the first one, in a way. It was a long pit with a slowly lowering wall, making the jump slowly tighter and tighter.

Thankfully, for the Cherries, Leafy flubbed the jump almost instantly. Unfortunately, Woody ended up being just as unlucky, getting snagged on the lowering platform just enough to fall in. Flower, the alliance and the others made it through fine, at least.

With the finish line in sight, the next step was the chairlifts.

They could see a few faces ahead of them. Firey was one (hanging onto a chairlift by his arms so as to not burn a hole in it), alongside Needle and Teardrop. Pen finally managed to catch up as well. On the upside, more of their team was here than the Squashy Grapes.

Firey managed to reach the top first, alongside Needle and Teardrop. Once the two noticed that Cherries were the last ones on the lift, an idea crossed both of their minds.

The remaining ones on the lift didn't get a good view until they were almost at the end...where they saw Teardrop holding Needle upward, her sharp bit pointing toward the cable pulling the chairs.

"Uh–oh."

In one swift motion, TD cut the cable with Needy, which sent the chair flying downward. Another surge of panic shot over Flower. While the alliance would all fall down into the waiting area, Flower would pull out all her strength and attempt to jump toward the other side.

It was a close shave, but Flower managed to grab the edge of the next platform and pull herself up, just in time to see Firey, Needle and TD all heading to the next area.

The penultimate goal was to "find a needle in a haystack."

Continuing their newfound teamwork, Needle would simply hold her own head up to the scanner, pocket her new win token and make it through, letting Teardrop in with her. Boy, Announcer really did not think this challenge through.

"How are we supposed to even do this?" Flower asked, in a bit of frustration.

"Don't worry, I got this one." Firey said, simply leaning into the hay, burning it away in one quick flash, leaving behind a second needle.

After getting the two in, they were quickly met with...the two tubs. Oh yeah...the Speaker Box did mention that, didn't they?

"When you get to the end, you will try to get as much water into your team tank as you can in the remaining amount of time. At the end of the hour, whichever team has more water wins."