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Bea's POV 

Although I had to confess to finding Eden's nickname for me at least a little funny, I knew that I still needed to answer Axel's question. 

"Yeah, I'm all good," I replied, with a smile. 

For the most part, I meant it. 

Up until this point, being paired with Eden hadn't been the absolute horror story that I had been imagining it to be. 

With that being said, though, it was still fairly bad. 

"I'm glad to hear it," Axel said and his eyes warmed with his kindness. "Hey, I'll see you in a bit, alright? I suppose I better catch up with Owen." 

I nodded in agreement and watched, with some envy, as he rushed off to join his brother. 

Eden turned back to me with an expression of irritation. 

"We better hurry up, unless you want to be at the very back of the line again," she suggested. 

I gave a shake of my head and sped up this time, so she was trailing after me. 

I didn't care. I wasn't about to wait up for her. 

Soon enough, I reached Axel again. 

"God, do you have to walk so damn fast?" Eden's voice spoke from behind me, before I could say anything to Axel. "You're going to make me sprain an ankle...and it definitely would not be worth it." 

Axel's gaze met my own, momentarily, and his eyes reflected some of his empathy. 

"You know, you can say some awful things at times, Eden," he said. Axel was the kind of guy that let people know exactly how he felt. "And I'm beginning to think you're a little oblivious to that fact, too. Do you even think about what you're saying to Bea?" he started to say. 

"I-" Eden started to say, but she was promptly cut off. 

"No. You just keep insulting her or complaining or making her life otherwise a living hell. Don't you have any kindness in your soul? I'm beginning to doubt it," he continued. 

"Axe, stop," I said, though he ignored me. 

"You think just because you're the rich girl, you can do whatever you want, but I'm here to let you know that you most definitely cannot," he said. 

Eden sighed, as a frown became apparent on her face. 

"But I don't think that," she argued. 

Axel exhaled with some impatience, this time around. 

"Whatever," he said, before he turned his back on her and began to move forward through the forest again. 

Eden locked eyes with me for a moment, as her face reddened slightly. 

I wasn't sure that anything anyone would said would have an effect on her, but evidently Axel had struck a nerve. 

"You should really tell your puppet to watch his tongue," she said. 

"He's not my-" I went to say, only to have my voice drowned out again. 

"Oh look, we're finally at the first task," she spoke over me. 

I glanced in front of me to find that Eden was right. We had reached the first challenge. 

We made our way towards it and Mr. King explained to us what we would have to do. 

The rules were fairly simple: we were going to climb up into the trees, with harnesses, of course, and make our way across bridges and obstacles until we reached the end. 

"This'll be easy," I said quietly. 

"Oh yeah," Eden started to say, "Real piece of cake." 

However, when I glanced towards her and saw that her eyes were gazing up towards the bridges nearby, I could tell that she was frightened. At least, a little. She would never admit to it, though. This was Eden, after all. 

I felt as though she liked to put across the idea that nothing bothered her, but there had to be more to it. 

"How are you feeling?" I found myself asking, in some attempt to get to understand her better. 

She met my gaze and shrugged. 

"Fine," she said, with a neutral expression, "And yourself? You're not scared, are you?" she asked me. Of course, she did. She was reflecting how she felt back onto me. 

I smirked at the suggestion. 

"Never," I said. 

The pairs moved forward one by one to receive their harnesses, so they could then make their ways up into the trees. 

Eventually, it came time for Eden and I to grab our harnesses and make our ways up the ladder and into the trees, too. 

"Alright, is the harness secure enough?" one of the assistants asked me. 

I jumped up and down and wiggled a bit, to make sure that it was secure. 

The assistant's eyes brightened with some amusement. 

"Yeah. I'm all good," I said, "Good luck with that one," I added, tilting my head in Eden's direction. 

Eden then wandered past me, so she could be helped into her own harness. 

"Ready?" I asked her, as we came to stand in front of the ladder. 

"No," Eden said, "I mean sure," she blurted quickly, so she could disguise her former conversational blunder. 

I wasn't about to say that I had noticed it, anyway. 

I had been climbing and camping for over a decade, now. I knew what I was doing. 

As I had the skills required to navigate the challenge, I decided to go first. 

That seemed like a good idea at first, until I glanced behind me to find that Eden was still at the beginning of the bridge. 

"Eden, come on. You can do this," I said to her. 

"I know, I just-" she said, as she stepped onto the first wooden plank of the bridge, her arms shaking with what I could only perceive to be true terror. "I'm fine," she continued, as she stumbled onto the next plank. 

We could be here a while, I thought to myself, as Eden slowly made her way across. It was probably a good thing that we were the last pair. 

I couldn't help but smile, though, in the knowledge that I still had the edge, as far as these sorts of tests were concerned. 

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