Dallon flew backwards, his head smashing into the wall behind him. He held his hand cupped under his mouth as blood streamed down like a waterfall.

"RYAN!" Brendon screamed, running over to Dallon.

Ryan stormed off upstairs. Moments later, a bedroom door was heard slamming.

"Holy smokes!" Patrick yelled.

"Dal-o, you alright there?" Andy said.

All nine of them swarmed Dallon. Dallon just sat there feeling dizzy. He ignored all their questions as he tried to get his head straight.

All he saw right now was red.

Not from anger toward Ryan.

But blood.

Blood.

Gallons of the stuff.

Give them al-

Okay okay sorry I got a little carried away there.

Anyway, it wasn't really that interesting. I mean, just picture a lot of commotion, some tears (from guess who), and loads of blood. There, I summed it up for you. But Dallon was alright. Brendon took him to the bathroom while the others carried on without a leader. Brendon lead Dallon into the bathroom and had him sit down on the counter next to the sink. He opened the closet and pulled out a washcloth (unfortunately it was white) and ran it under cool water.

"Listen Dal... I'm so so sorry about Ryan. I don't know what the hell is going on with him, it's absurd. He just gets so frickin' ahead of himself. I swear he's never done that before, I guess he just want-"

Dallon placed his finger on Brendon's lips. "Shhh it's alright."

Brendon's stomach flipped. That was his thing. Anytime Ryan was babbling or upset about something he would lightly place his finger on his lips to silence him. It left him feeling dizzy.

Dallon continued. "Don't worry about it."

Brendon leaned against the wall opposite to Dallon and sighed, rubbing the space between his eyebrows with his thumb. He was so tired. Yes, he was physically tired from the long day of challenges but also mentally drained. Ryan was acting so crazy lately. Not just the few days they've been on their vacation but a little before that. Brendon had hoped this trip would smooth things out but it was doing the opposite and brining out the crazies in both of them.

"Ryan's a different person than he was when I met him." Brendon sighed. "We used to be... oh I don't know. Why am I even telling you this?"

"No it's alright. I am here to listen. Go on."

"We just...we got to get along so nicely. Now I can barely be around him. I just wish I knew what happened. I am so confused." He stopped talking in fear he might cry.

"Well I think he's dumb. He is so, so lucky to have you. He is wasting his chance with a great man like yourself, Brendon." Dallon said, a careful smile growing on his lips.

Brendon just stared at Dallon's eyes. He stared deep into them. And he liked what he saw. Dallon was a simpler man. He was easy to understand and not as dramatic as Ryan.

"B-Brendon?" Dallon whispered. "Why are you locking the door?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the chaos of the kitchen
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"OKAY CAN SOMEONE TELL ME WHERE THE HELL THE FLOUR IS? I KNOW IT SPILLED THIS MORNING BUT I THOUGHT IT WAS ALL FINE NOW!" Frank screamed, trying to be heard over the loud noises of the kitchen.

"JOE SPILLED IT AGAIN!" Andy hollered back from across the kitchen.

"WHAT?" Frank yelled again.

"JOE SPILLED IT AGAIN!" Andy replied.

"WHAT? SPEAK LOUDER!"

"I SAID: JOE. SPILLED. IT. AGAIN."

"ANDY! ARE YOU EVEN TALKING TO ME? I SAID WHERE IS THE FLOUR?"

"YES FRANK, I AM. I SAID IT SPILLED AGAIN."

"IT SPILLED AGAIN? HOW?"

"JOE SPILLED IT BY ACCIDENT. HE SLIPPED ON THE RAW EGG THAT GERARD DROPPED AND THE FLOUR CANISTER FELL OUT OF HIS HANDS."

"OH CRAP, WHERE IS IT? AND WHY DID JOE EVEN HAVE FLOUR? ISN'T HE ON NACHO DUTY?"

"WHO KNOWS. IT'S IN FRONT OF THE STOVE."

"OKAY THANKS, ANDY!"

Frank sighed and fought his way to the stove. There were waaaay too many people swarming around the kitchen. He ended up as the half-leader since Brendon and Dallon were still gone. He wrote down everyone's tasks that they volunteered for. Since this round was just a snack, there were far too many people and not enough jobs. Pete and Mikey ended up getting the wonderful job of "Morale Boosters." They just had to make sure everyone was motivated and excited.

Leader: Dallon (if he ever shows up)

Cupcakes: Patrick, Frank, Gerard

Nachos: Ryan, Joe

Water: Andy, Ray

Napkin Folder: Brendon

Morale Boosters: Pete and Mikey

It was tough deciding what to make without a leader. They were also missing Ryan because after a group vote, they all decided Ryan should spend ten minutes in time out in his room. They continued planning without him. Pete explained that Patrick was good at making red velvet cupcakes and Andy and Joe agreed. For their second snack, Mikey had suggested they make nachos. The two kind of had nothing to do with each other but it was all they could manage, Gerard had suggested mixed nuts as a side dish but everyone thought it was stupid and random. Nobody thought it was a good idea. They all made up excuses.

"I hate almonds."

"Maybe a member of Pierce The Veil is allergic to some kinds of nuts."

"Mixed nuts belong with gourmet fruit gels, not cupcakes."

"I'm too tired to make them."

"I think the meal has to be bigger than that."

"We might burn them."

(Of all the excuses people made to avoid the mixed nuts, the one about burning them was the stupidest. It was quite obvious the nuts did not need to be cooked so therefore there was no risk of burning them. Or maybe it was the excuse of being too tired to make them. That was very pitiful as well.)

After only a few tears, Gerard gave up. For a drink, Ray and Pete liked the idea of lemon water. Easy to make yet more sophisticated than regular water. Nobody wanted to bring up the possibility of serving any kind of alcohol after the incident that occurred moments before they started the challenge.

"Gerard where's that flour?" Frank asked when he finally made it to the stove.

"Next to the cracked egg on the ground. Be careful though, the egg shells kinda hurt your feet if you step on them too hard."

"Nobody cleaned it up?" Frank asked.

"Well Joe over there is busy with the mop."

Frank turned his head to Joe who was standing next to the dinner table mopping up an entire spilled container of sour cream from the nacho platter they were making. Frank sighed and squatted down next to the flour. He used the measuring cup he brought and scooped the amount of flour he needed into it and went back to his cupcake station. He was instantly greeted by an angry teammate.

"Frank, where have you been?" Patrick asked. And why is Gerard over there? I need everyone's help. I've been waiting for you to return with flour for way too long."

"Sorry sorry it spilled and I had to scoop it off the floor. Gerard was getting the eggs like you asked but he dropped one and he's waiting for Joe to finish using the mop."

"What? You scooped it off the floor?" Patrick asked. "Frank that's nasty."

"Sorry but what would you have done?"

"Okay fine I would have done the same thing."

Pete and Mikey waked by carrying their homemade pompoms.

"You can do it! You you can do it, do it! You can do it! You you can do it!" They cheered, shaking their pompoms in sync. They weren't really much of pompoms, just a bunch of coffee filters stabbed through the tongs of forks. There were no real pompoms kicking around the house so they had to settle for homemade ones. They spiced it up by ripping the edges of  the coffee filters to make them flutter more.

"Somebody shut them up." Patrick muttered under his breath, stressed about the cupcakes.

Pete started screaming. "GIMME A C!"

"C!" Mikey chanted.

"GIMME A U!"

"U!"

"I swear to god, if they spell out the entire word cupcake I'm going to-" Patrick started.

"GIMME A P!"

"P!"

"GIMME A K!"

"K?" Mikey questioned, knowing Pete was spelling cupcake wrong but not caring because Pete was so darned cute.

"GIMME AN A!" Pete continued.

"A!"

"I'm gonna shoot myself before they get to E." Patrick whispered.

"GIMME A C! I MEAN K!"

"C-I-MEAN-K!" Mikey said in one breath.

"Uh guys can you please stop?" Frank asked quietly. "You're stressing out Patrick."

"GIMME A- wait what?" Pete asked dropping his pompoms to his side.

"You're stressing Patrick out, would you mind doing that somewhere else?" Frank said.

"Oh uh. I guess so." Pete said.

He and Mikey moved over to the other side of the kitchen where Ray and Andy were working hard on making the lemon water. It was just as disastrous as the cupcake station.

"GERARD! GET OFF THE THE COUNTER." Ray yelled. "GET BACK TO YOUR OWN STATION."

Andy turned around to look at Gerard. Gerard was all the way on the opposite side of the kitchen next to the stove mopping up a raw egg he dropped. Nowhere near Ray. Nowhere near a counter.

"Huh?" Andy asked, puzzled. Gerard wasn't near the counter, nor was he even near the place Ray was looking.

"GERARD! GET. OFF. OF. THE. COUNTER. WE ARE TRYING TO MAKE LEMON WATER HERE. IT IS QUITE THE ARDUOUS TASK."

"Ray? Ray, Gerard is over there. Not on the counter. You're yelling at a lemon right now."

Ray pointed at the lemon on the counter in front of him. "No! This is Gerard and he needs to get off of the counter!"

"Ray!" Andy said, confused. "It's a lemon. Stop it!" He grabbed Ray's pointing hand. "Please stop."

That's when they noticed Mikey and Pete standing near by, ready to start their cheering.

"Hey Mikey?" Andy asked. "Why is Ray confusing Gerard with a lemon?"

Mikey sighed. "It all started a little while back. We were having a party at my house and Gerard showed up late, as usual. Ray started yelling that there was a walking lemon coming through the door. When we looked it was just Gerard. He had dyed his hair a bright, neon, lemon shade of yellow. From that day on, Ray had some thing weird going on where he always mixed up lemons and Gerard. It got so bad, Gerard had to dye his hair back to it's old color, before he dyed it yellow. To this day Ray still mixes them up once in a while."

"Oh my gosh that... wow. Okay then. How do we make him stop?" Andy asked.

"Just give him a friendly slap across the face." Mikey said. And he demonstrated by whipping his palm across Ray's face.

Ray blinked and went back to his task of slicing the lemons.

"See?" Mikey said. "He's all set now."

"Who's all set?" Ray asked.

"Nobody." Mikey answered.

Just then, Joe ran by with his hands in the air. "Guys! Where is Dallon?! And Brendon? Seriously we need a gosh darned leader."

"I'll go look for them." Ryan said. Ryan had just returned from his timeout upstairs.

No Ryan I need you to finish that cheese sauce for the nachos." Joe said. "Have you put the chili powder in yet?"

"No..." Ryan mumbled.

"Well? What are you standing around for? Go do it!"

Ryan scurried off to find the chili powder.

"I can go look for them." Frank offered.

"Thank you." Joe sighed

Frank went off to continue the search. Meanwhile, Pete and Mikey went back to cheering on the water group.

"Pour that water! Pour that water!" They chanted, even though it was hard to cram that many syllables into a regular beat.

"The art of making water with a hint of lemon is a complicated art." Andy said.

"There's a lot more to it then just 'pouring water' like you might think." Ray added.

"Yeah. You  wouldn't understand." Andy said, shaking his head.

They heard commotion to their left as Frank shuffled past them in a hurry.

"Franky-boy, you all right?" Ray asked.

Frank turned to them. His face was deathly pale. His hair was slightly messed up. He looked scared and nervous and disgusted all at once.

"Frank? You okay?" Ray repeated, concerned.

"Yeah." Frank choked out, clearly disturbed by something.

"You look like you just saw a ghost!" Pete said.

"Oh I saw something. Not a ghost though."

Ray rolled his eyes. "Classic Frank." He murmured, before going back to his work. Frank was in one of those weird moods again, wasn't he?

"Say, have you seen Dallon and Brendon?" Mikey asked.

"Oh believe me. I saw them." Frank said, feeling dizzy.