Sammy's POV
We received our next tip from the Don Box and I read it, "Make your way to Dracula's Castle in Transylvania. Oh boy..." I frowned at the location.
Sarah and I shared a look of fear at each other.
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Don's POV
"Transylvania. Transylvania," I said with fake vampire teeth in my mouth. I immediately spat them out so my words are understandable.
"Transylvania, home of majestic mountains, old Saxon architecture, and the birthplace of everything scary. Teams must travel here, to this castle, to receive their next tip.
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Sammy's POV (cont.)
"Come on!" Sarah ran toward the shuttle bus and I quickly followed behind. Much to their dismay, the Ice Dancers were angry that all the teams were allowed on the bus. It's a bus, for crying out loud! They're supposed to take multiple people.
"What is this strange feeling?" I heard Crimson ask her partner.
"I fear it may be... happiness," Ennui answered.
That wasn't the only eventful thing that happened. Apparently, Joseé wrecked another half of the set... again since all of us were taking the same bus to the airport. Amazingly, she raged herself out and slept on the bus.
After getting to the airport, we sprinted toward the front of the line to get our tickets until Stephanie forced Ryan into throwing her at the front of the line, making us duck.
When we touched down, the seven other teams and us raced out of the airport. Immediately we were greeted with rain and thunder at the top of the castle from a perched hill. All of us, except the Goths, were terrified.
"Wow, Dracula's castle is even scarier in person," I commented with wide-eyes along with Sarah, who shook her head in agreement. We started running up the hill ahead of the three teams. The Cadets had just passed by us on the way to the top.
MacArthur sped by the Ice Dancers on the way up, "Move it!"
Joseé glared at her and gained a devious smile. Oh boy, you know that's a bad sign, "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see you there!" She pushed Sanders back down the mountain, tripping up Dwayne and Junior, while Sarah and I barely managed to get out the way in time.
"JUNIOR!"
MacArthur turned back to the situation, "Officer down! SHOTS FIRED!" She tackled at the dancers taking them downhill. I jumped over them, while Sarah front flipped out of the way.
"Think those Ice Dancers might be a threat?" I asked her while running.
"They are already," She answered back.
We raced to the Don Box where the Daters had just started celebrating... or at least Stephanie was, "YEAH BABY! First ones here!"
I cleared my throat, "Uh, tie?"
She had wide-eyes," WHAT?! How did you two catch up?"
Sarah replied, "We're cheerleaders. We have athletic ability."
"Wait a minute, how are we the first ones here?" Ryan questioned, "The Goths were ahead of us."
I shrugged, "Well, Transylvania is the birthplace and home to many of the so called sacred goths so... yeah."
"EAT OUR MUD, CHEERLEADERS!" Stephanie had called back to us while she and Ryan ran ahead to the next challenge.
Sarah raised an eyebrow and shook her head at her, "She really needs to loosen up," The other teams at that time had arrived while I took the next tip, "It's an All-In."
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Don's POV
"For this All-In challenge, teams must enter Dracula's castle and find an empty coffin. Whoever took the tip from the Don box must then drag the coffin to the graveyard with their teammate inside and tip it into an open grave. Creepy."
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Sarah's POV
"Complete this task to receive your next travel tip from the local gravedigger. The teammate in the coffin may not help or get out of the coffin at all," Sammy finished reading the tip before sighing in concern.
"Let's go!" I commanded.
While we were there, the Sister and Surfers caught up to us in the castle. We managed to work together for a short time while Brody was telling us one his and Geoff's stories, "...then he screamed 'Dude! That moose doesn't need mouth-to-mouth. It's just a head on the wall!'." We all laughed and ran ahead.
Okay, not all of us laughed. There was the joykiller Emma, who was behind us.
"Whoa! Time out!" she said. "Let's split up. Kitty and I will take this hall, you four can... go somewhere else."
Brody didn't get what she was saying anyway, "Rad idea! Cover more ground. If we find a coffin, we'll call you with our secret signal," Both of them jumped and screeched like kookaburras. It was pretty funny to watch, even Kitty took a selfie of it with her and the Surfers jumping.
"Ugh," Emma rolled her eyes.
"Come on Emma, lighten up," I reassured her. "I mean you should at least make friends and spend time with your sister or else, you'll end up like Sky did back on Pahkitew Island."
"Coming from her, that's saying something," Sammy supported. "Sky did some... stuff back there that kinda left a bad aftertaste."
"Well, I'm not her."
Kitty gasped and pointed to us, "No wonder you two looked so familiar!"
After a while, we were able to find a coffin of our own. Sammy entered in the coffin with a semi-fearful look, and I started pushing her down toward the graveyard. It was a little harder than I expected, but what choice do I have? In fact, I caught up to Chet, pushing his coffin with Lorenzo inside, and Joseé , who was flipping her coffin over to the grave. I felt sorry Jacques; he must've been covered in bruises by now.
"Yo, Chet!" I greeted.
"Hey, Sarah," Chet greeted back.
"Wait, Chet. You knew her?" Lorenzo was surprised at this.
"You knew him, Sarah?" And so was Sammy.
"Of course, we knew each other. We competed in a rhythmic gymnastics tournament 2 years ago," I replied.
"I still can't forget that you won first place, with me behind by just one point," Chet said.
"And I still see you are fighting with Lorenzo here."
"Yeah," Lorenzo scoffed. "Even though his mom married my dad last year, it still doesn't change the fact that we still hate each other."
Arriving at the graveyard, I slowly lowered the coffin into the hole.
"Did we make it?" Sammy asked as she opened the cover.
"Yes," I gave her the message as if I was saying, 'We caught up to the Ice Dancers'.
Jacques got up and gasped, "Is that the gravedigger?!"
We saw a short, gray-skinned man on the other side of the graveyard.
"Well, he isn't the ice cream man!" Lorenzo was frightened.
The good news is Owen and Noah had caught up to us, "There's ice cream?! OH-HO, HO! LET ME OUT!" Owen was delighted that there could be ice cream even though there wasn't any in five mile radius, "AAH!" Noah pushed the coffin down his hole.
"Finally, you two caught up," Sammy said to Noah. She received the next tip for our next challenge, "Ride on horseback to the Romanian Gymnastic Training Center and find the Don Box," Noah and I looked over to the horse whinnying a little aggressively.
All four of us took separate horses to get to the Don Box. Owen was too heavy for one. In fact, the horse was practically dragging its way to the center, "Come on! Giddy up horsey! We can't fall behind!"
"Seriously?" I'll be honest, I was annoyed at the scene, "He doesn't do diet?"
The Ice Dancers briefly passed by us while smiling at the camera (horses included) and they had a good lead... at least until they crashed into a tree.
"Eyes on the road, Dancers!" I called/taunted back to them as we passed them. Even Owen's horse managed to drag past them.
We all arrived at the Don Box and I took the next tip, "It's a Botch or Watch," She gasped in excitement, "We're doing gymnastics!"
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Don's POV
"Gymnastics. Nastics that take place in a gym. Whoever didn't face the bullet ants in Brazil must perform two gymnastic feats. First, walk a balance beam and land a split jump at the center. High school team."
I was suddenly greeted by a pigskin to the crotch.
"Second, complete a flip over this vaulting horse!"
I completely missed the landing mat and that same pigskin hit me in the same place again.
"Get a thumbs up from this local judge, Bela Karaoke-"
Bela grumbled, "I hate everything."
"-and it's a footrace down that road... to the chill zone. Last team to arrive could be headed home." I finished before asking Bela some ice for my injured crotch.
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Sammy's POV
In that instant, Sarah took off into the gym in excitement, "Let's do this!"
Ice Dancers had caught up quickly, "You're not taking first from us!"
"What the heck?" Noah was just as confused as me and Owen were, "Didn't they-"
"No time! Let's just get this done already!" I said, shaking off confusion and ran inside with my friends following behind.
Joseé had just finished her routine and smiled to the viewers at home, "Thank you all! Thank you! Now I'd like to see Sarah try this."
Sarah walked across the balance beam, did a split, flipped over the vaulting horse, and landed perfectly, making everyone stare at her in amazement, even the Ice Dancers. I, on the other hand, clapped at her amazing feat.
"Now that's gymnastics for you," I looked over and saw Noah staring at Emma as she did her routine, "Hello? Dreamer Boy?" I snapped in his face, but he still kept staring at her dreamily.
Sarah walked over sensing he wouldn't move for awhile, "Maybe we should go now..." She left us behind for a second, before I ran off too. Note that I did try to snap him out of it (no pun intended). We saw the Ice Dancers just ahead of us running toward the finish line.
"I can taste it, Jacques. I can taste the gold!" Joseé exclaimed.
"We'll enjoy it for ya!" I taunted as we passed by them. They pushed their speed further, and we did the same thing. We were neck and neck as all of us approaching the chill zone. Sarah and I did the only thing to guarantee us first place: we jumped ahead and landed on the mat of the chill zone.
"Congratulations, Cheerleaders! You've secured first place!" Don announced, making us cheer, "Ice Dancers, second place."
"WHAT?!" They both screamed.
"It's okay, I mean 2nd place is practically silver so-" Sarah started until Joseé screamed and was destroying part of the set, again.
"Um..." I started, "She's gonna... rage herself to sleep, right?"
"Yeah, that's what usually happens when she's mad," Jacques answered as he shrugged in response. We just blinked and walked over to safety.
Surprisingly, Owen and Noah had caught up to us, "3rd place!" Don said to them.
"Woo-hoo!" we shared a high-ten together.