At Miss Minty's sweet shop, Vivo's friends were just hanging out together and having sweet treats together.

At one point in the conversation, Roxie asked, "Hey, do you think Vivo and Gabi are doing ok so far?"

Vincent said, "I don't know, but it's best we don't find out now. We don't want to risk spoiling their time together."

Novella chuckled, "Speaking of 'spoiling', how is everyone doing on their part of Stella's second idea?"

Tiago said, "Uh, I'd say we're doing a...mind-blowing job! They're gonna love what we've got planned!"

Charlotte said, "And it was a great idea to get the girls in on the plan, too."

Vincent said, "Of course. They're as close to Gabi as we are to Vivo. Why wouldn't they want to be in on it?"

Stella said, "Well, I'm sure Gabi and Vivo will be pleased to see what we have. But of course, that's gonna have to wait until after they've spent their quality time together."

However, Charlotte looked over, "Uh, and how do you spend 'quality time together' when you're not together?"

Roxie snickered, "Uh, I'm pretty sure you can't."

That was when Charlotte pointed over.

"Then what's he doing here?"

They all looked over to where she was pointed...and were a little surprised.

Especially Stella, "Wha--Huh?"

The next thing said was said simultaneously.

"Vivo?"

Vivo came into the sweet shop.

But that wasn't the strange thing.

Vivo came into the sweet shop...without Gabi.

When he saw his friends, he approached them.

While they'd like to be happy to see him, they were more confused.

Stella asked, "Vivo? Wh-What are you doing here? And...where's Gabi?"

Vivo answered, "She's with the girls."

Roxie asked, "What? Why?"

Vivo explained, "Well, we both pretty much agreed that it had been a while since we had hung out with our other friends, so..."

Stella was skeptical, "Uh-huh..."

Vivo caught on, "It's fine! Really! So, what are you guys planning for today? And...mind if I join you?"

Stella first asked, "Uh, Vivo? Are you sure spending this time with us is a good idea?"

Vivo responded, "Of course. Gabi's spending time right now with her friends, so she's fine."

Vivo chuckled.

Although, he slightly chuckled with nervousness.

With slight hesitation, his friends agreed to let him join them for today if he wanted.

But...they knew he wasn't exactly dealing with the obvious problem the way he should.

And they were quite certain Gabi wasn't either.

***

Gabi met up with the girls at the smoothie bar.

She had also requested to spend the day with them.

And just like Vivo's friends, the girls knew that this wasn't such a good idea.

But also like Vivo's friends, they let her join anyways.

***

Gabi and Vivo were now just spending the entire day with their own friends...without each other.

They were trying to have fun in their friends' company.

But...they weren't having a lot of success.

In fact, it seemed to make the two feel a little worse.

But every time their friends noticed, the two instead just tried in vain to hide their discomfort.

***

At one point, Vivo and his friends went to the beach.

Vivo was mostly just sunbathing and enjoying the sun.

"Ah, this is just what I needed today. A nice relaxing day at the beach with all my friends."

Roxie quietly mumbled to the others, "Well...not exactly all."

Vivo just continued to relax.

However, he noticed that some other beach visitors were kids with their beloved pets.

And they were all having a great time and having fun together.

It didn't exactly go unnoticed by Vivo.

Seeing all these kids with their pets suddenly made it a little hard for him to relax.

And that didn't go unnoticed by his friends.

They looked at each other with deep concern.

Stella asked, "Uh, Vivo, are you sure you're doing ok?"

Vivo replied, "Yeah...I'm doing fine."

***

The girls were on a glass-bottom boat tour.

They were rather enjoying being able to see the underwater world.

Gabi said, "So cool! It's like having the nature channel right under your feet!"

However, as the boat went over a coral reef, the tour guide pointed out two sea creatures with a familiar relationship.

"And here we can see the amazing clownfish living within a close friend of his; the sea anemone! These two living creatures of the sea actually have a very special kind of relationship called mutualistic symbiosis. See, the clownfish is given a home of safety by the stinging anemone and in return, the clownfish gives it a free housecleaning service, ridding it of parasites and nasty predators. That is a friendship worth noting!"

All that talk about having a special friendship suddenly got Gabi down.

The other girls saw and knew Gabi wasn't doing as well as she wanted.

Becky quietly whispered to Eva and Sarah, "We have got to do something."

The other girls nodded in agreement.

And Vivo's friends felt the same way.

***

The next day started the exact same way.

After a sadder than normal morning routine, Gabi and Vivo agreed to go off on their own to meet their other friends.

They were just determined to ignore these hard emotions and try to bury them by having fun with their friends.

But they were both unaware that being continuing to do this, they would just make everything worse for themselves.