Author's Note: Okay, for those of you who are Big Brother fans: I know that the first "week" is more like two weeks. But for the sake of keeping this story moving along and not boring everyone to death, I'm shortening that to closer to an actual week.

"It's time for the first Have/Have-Not competition of the summer!" Lauren called out. "Let's draw bandanas for teams and go out to the backyard." She held out a cloth bag; Callie reached in and grabbed out a blue bandana, just in time to see Brandon wrapping another blue one around his forehead. Great. They were teammates.

If they lost the competition, they'd have to sleep in the Have-Not bedroom - where she imagined there were some insanely uncomfortable or painful beds. She remembered one year when they were airline seats, and another where every bed was at a slope. And they'd also have to eat Big Brother slop and take cold showers. All for the next week. Things that no Big Brother houseguest would ever want to experience, and especially not her. At least she could deal with the cold showers if she had to. She was kind of used to those.

They walked out to the backyard, where a giant inflatable pool of letters sat in front of them, with colored racks matching their bandanas off to the side - blue, green and red. She looked around at who else was on her team: her and Brandon, of course, and then Ginny, Terance and Liam. It looked like a good team, even if she wasn't really sure how much of a competitor Terance was. Especially considering he had been the first one out of the Head of Household competition, and he didn't really seem to have the best attitude about things.

"You will dive into this large pool of letters and retrieve letters to spell out food items on your racks. Whatever each team spells out correctly will earn the entire house that food item for the week. The two teams that spell the most items in ten minutes will be the ones to eat the food that all three teams earned. Houseguests, are you ready?" Lauren read off the card. "As Head of Household, I will not be participating in this food competition."

Everyone nodded, and Lauren started the timer. Ten minutes to spell their diet for the week.

When Callie made her first dive, after Liam had spelled BEER and Ginny spelled APPLE, she rummaged around for the letters to make PIZZA. She found one Z and all the other letters; she just couldn't find the second Z for the life of her. "Hurry it up, bitch," she heard Terance call from the sideline. "I don't want to starve for a week because some prissy little California bitch wants to eat fettuccine alfredo tonight."

It almost made her want to search for the letters to spell it out just to spite him, but she wasn't exactly sure how to spell fettuccine, so she passed on the idea. She rushed by Zachary in the pool, and tripped over his foot trying to reach what looked like it could be the second Z she needed, planting herself face first in the muck. Whatever the substance was in the pool, it was nasty and foul, and tasted much like what she imagined burned liquid rubber would taste like. And she was right. It was the second Z. She placed the letters up on the board and got the answer accepted, as Brandon dove in.

Brandon could have almost punched Terance. Except for the fact that physical altercations were so extremely frowned upon in the house, and he didn't want to be kicked out for defending Callie from this bully's remarks. The last thing Callie was was prissy or a bitch, he thought - Ginny was definitely prissier than Callie, and that was just on their team alone.

Instead, he opened and closed his hand in a tight, balled fist, and imagined the calming waves beating against the shore of his favorite beach back home. He imagined playing his piano. And then, he was calm again.

Callie finally spelled PIZZA - so that was what was taking her so long, needing two Zs - and he dove in, looking for the letters for TACO. Might as well get a little easy-to-spell multiculturalism in this house's diet.

At the end of ten minutes, everyone was covered in the slime, and their food items were tallied up on the board. There was plenty of alcohol, of course, but also plenty of other things - the two teams that won would be eating like kings. There was even filet mignon, courtesy of the red team.

"In first place is...the red team, with 16 food items!" Lauren said, and the red bandanas danced around cheering. Terance glowered in Callie's general direction, and Callie paid stoic attention to Lauren's every word. "And in second, with 14 food items, the blue team! Sorry, green team, that means that you're Have-Nots for the week." Lynn threw her arms down in an exaggerated pout, and Callie had to bite back a smile. At least it meant that two of the more obnoxious people - Lynn and Zachary - were Have-Nots. Even though she could only imagine how much more obnoxious they would be once on the slop diet.

And she'd get to have nice, warm showers after all.

Full House met up in the Head of Household bedroom. "Nominations are tomorrow morning," Lauren said. "Anyone have any strong feelings about who should go up?"

"Well, I can tell you that I'm not Terance's biggest fan after today," Brandon said. "Calling Callie a prissy bitch during the Have-Not competition was -"

"Yeah, that kind of rubbed me the wrong way too," Joy said. "Like, don't be a jerk about it, it's not like Callie was throwing the competition or anything."

"I was tempted to try to spell it, just to spite him," Callie replied. "But I don't know how to spell fettuccine."

"FETTUCCINE. If we ever have a competition like that again and you want to stick it to him," Lauren said. "Sorry, I spent my summers off from college working at an Olive Garden. I know way more about pasta than most southern girls know about soul food."

"It's cool, thanks," Callie said, lounging back into a pillow and playing with the fringe.

"And next to Terance - he seems to be awfully friendly with Lynn and Zachary. I never see him without one or both of them. It's kind of creepy," Joy supplied. "Like, Zach seems like he could be a cool guy, maybe -"

"But Terance and Lynn are toxic, I agree," Lauren said. "They really need to be the first two to go. Should I just put them up next to each other?"

"Isn't that showing our hand a little too early?" Brandon asked. "If we're going to put two of them next to each other, I would rather not call those two out as the absolute worst."

"So Zach next to Terance? That work for y'all?" Lauren asked. As the other four all nodded their heads in unison, she grinned. "Okay, well, I'm going to go fix myself some of Adam's hard-earned chicken, anyone who wants to join me is more than welcome to."

"That sounds good," Adam said, and Joy stood up with them. "You two not coming?"

"I'm just going to stay here," Brandon said.

"Yeah, me too," Callie said.

As the other three left the room, Callie turned to Brandon. "It's nice that you wanted to put Terance up on the block for what he said about me," she said. "Even if you really didn't need to say that."

"He's been horrible to everyone," Brandon said. "You should have heard the slurs he was throwing at Jarrett last night."

"I think I'm glad I didn't." Jarrett and Jude had one big thing in common, and it made her uncontrollably defensive whenever someone used any of the slurs she knew were in use. It was one of the easiest ways to make her the angriest. "Glad to know I'm not his only victim, though."

"You realize this is the first chance we've gotten to be alone since we got here?" Brandon asked. "I didn't think you wanted to be alone with me."

"I was more surprised than anything to see you here."

"As was I." Brandon scooted closer to her on the couch. "I honestly thought, that day when you and Jude pulled out of the driveway for the last time, that it would be the last time I ever saw you."

"I did too."

"So you moved to Los Angeles? Ventura, right?"

"Yeah, I moved up there with Wyatt after I turned eighteen and left the system, but that relationship went pretty far south a short time later. Liked the area, so I stayed."

Brandon bit his lip. Remembering Wyatt was something he didn't like to remember, not in the least. "What about Jude?"

"He's dating some guy - Connor, I think his name is? - that we met while living with you. Still living in San Diego, I see him about once a month or so."

"I always kind of wondered about that."

"Yeah, it was something I wasn't surprised about at all when he told me. I was more happy that he told me when he did and didn't keep it some big secret for very long."

"Callie?"

"Yeah?"

"I missed you." It was short, simple, to the point, and said everything he'd been wanting to say to her since he saw her walk through those doors. Hell, he'd been wanting to say it since he was seventeen and saw her be driven away for the last time.

"I do too."

"I guess we get to start over here in the Big Brother house, though, right?" he said. "You're not my foster sister anymore, and I'm not your foster brother. We're just two twenty-one year-olds being watched by America all day, every day, and playing this crazy game for money."

"That's right, we're not sixteen anymore," she said. "We're not sixteen, we're not held to the obligations we once were."

"Exactly."

"When I was sixteen, I could have seen myself falling in love with you," she said, exhaling sharply. "It was so hard to live with you, knowing that, and then the social worker misinterpreted, and -"

"I know," he said. "I had a major crush on you when I was sixteen."

"All those long nights of you playing your keyboard?"

"Sexual frustration."

"Guess I should have seen that one coming," Callie said, laughing and running her hand through her hair. "Brandon - I don't just want to get in a showmance and then we never speak again after the show's over."

"If we did, there would be nothing 'show' about it," he said. "It would be 100% real, on my end at least."

"And on mine."

The door to the Head of Household bedroom swung open, and Lauren came running inside, holding a cup of liquid close to her chest and shoving the door closed. "There's a big fight going on downstairs between Terance and Andriana. I had to get away. I think hair's being pulled."

"Terance's or Andriana's?" Callie asked.

"Both?"

Callie and Brandon exchanged a look of sadness. Not because of the fight - neither of them were allies, and in fact, Terance was their number one target - but because their little moment had been so cruelly interrupted, just as it was about to get good.

It really was like they were sixteen again, except minus the most immediate and dire consequences.

End of Day 3.

Author's Note: Now that Brandon and Callie have actually had a chance to talk (somewhat), I'd love to hear your thoughts!