Natalie Aponte

== Summary ==
Natalie Aponte is a contestant from Mystery Island. She became iconic due to her pizza submission in That's Hot.
== Gameplay ==
=== Mystery Island ===
==== Pizza ====
Natalie started her journey on the Sylvaner Tribe, where she did her job well but mainly faded into the background with no major presence nor alliances. This all changed on Day 4, though. The previous day, it was time for a brand-new challenge, That’s Hot. Natalie was in charge of making the entree course. With Rian and Jada having already submitted the dessert and appetizer respectively, a lot of pressure was on Natalie. Time was running out and there was still no submission from the girl. Her original plan was to make a pasta dish, but after arriving home very late at night, she decided against making such a time and effort consuming meal at 11pm. Instead, she took out a slice of pizza, microwaved it, slapped some sauce on it, and called it a day. Her photography was slightly messy and even included her feet. It stood out considering the other near perfect entries on the tribe. Jada can recall how she literally laughed out loud when it was sent. In addition, Kathlyn and Adrian both loved making memes of it. The Koochie Killerz group chat was absolutely filled with voice memos of everybody laughing. Surprisingly, it scored higher overall than both of the Merlot Tribe’s submissions, and Sylvaner won the challenge. The pizza kept haunting her through the entire game, and by the twelfth day she realized she just had to embrace it.
==== Actually Kicking Ass ====
After the tribe swap, Natalie ended up on Merlot. After losing the first challenge and effortlessly voting off Ollie for low participation, Merlot dominated every other challenge and Natalie made it into the merge. At this time, Ailish O’Hara joined the game as a surprise twist, and she soon became Natalie’s only reliable ally. They were even together in real life at the time of Ailish’s debut! Both of them fell short in the first immunity challenge, but it was not a necessity as Corri was public enemy #1 and word made it through the grapevine pretty quickly to take her out. She was later sent home in a 9-1 vote. The auction followed, where Natalie failed to win any items up for grabs. She later flopped in Where U At?, but similarly to the last cycle she avoided everyone’s radar. Bailey was expelled but would’ve been voted out that night anyway. At this time, the Koochie Killerz were the dominant alliance, whereas Natalie, Ailish, and Rian were on the outside with no hope of getting in. To the surprise of many, she absolutely proved her competitive worth in Entanglement, scoring 339 and winning individual immunity! The score was the second highest in the entire history of The Gauntlet, only being beat by Allyson Leary’s score in All Stars 2. Kathlyn was eliminated for having the lowest score. Natalie and Ailish voted for Emilee as she was a strong competitor, but the rest of the Grigio Tribe voted out Ailish. Just like that, her closest ally was gone, and she was left in the dark on her best competitive day. She lost the challenge the next day, and the Koochie Killerz were planning on a vote split between her and Rian as they did not want to explicitly choose, completely ignoring the fact that this would warrant a revote. Fortunately, the decision was made for them as Rian received a penalty vote and was out of the game. It was the final five and the pressure was on for Natalie. In Photo Roulette, she was fierce and was extremely close to taking the win, holding a lead for multiple rounds. Unfortunately, Meg bested her and won immunity, and Natalie was voted out. For her ambition, courage, and pizza, she won the Hero Award at the end of the season and later voted for Adrian to win as a member of the jury.
== Personality Assessment ==
==== Mystery Island ====
* Favorite Color: Purple
* Favorite Food: Pizza or a Chicken Bowl
* Favorite Store: Aeropostale
== Trivia ==
* No relation to Ayla Aponte.
* She is the only one with an audio diary in Mystery Island: The Complete Confessions.
* Loves sesame chicken
* Not a fan of rice, especially white and/or plain
* She placed 7th out of 7 in the Christmas Special.
Category:Hero (Award)