THE group entered the school's gym, which was a gigantic room with a lot of stair-like benches on both sides of it along with a shiny, polished wooden floor. The gym had four exit doors on each side, and a big, digital screen on one side, put in a position so it could be clear for the people presumably sitting on the benches. It also had worn-out dark decor from the previous day, which made Mal roll her eyes nervously in dismay.

The kids at her school did not know how to properly decorate a gymnasium for the homecoming dance.

She spotted Griffin standing at one side of the location, ordering people like some kind of king ordering his servants. She rolled her eyes again, hitting her palm against her forehead in annoyance.

"This is going to be a long day."

Felix squeezed Mal's hand gently as the group walked towards the center of the room.

"Hi, guys!" Mal began in her best normal, cheerful tone, "Where do we start?"

Griffin rolled his eyes at her enthusiasm, taking occasional glances at the couple's hands. "Great, the squad is here! Now you get to save the day, huh?" he spoke sarcastically, gritting his teeth.

"With that kind of decoration we just might." she started, making Felix chuckle lightly, "Anyways. I think we got this if we change, like, everything."

Griffin took a quick look around the gymnasium, then stretched his arms out as if to question her words. "What are you saying? This honestly looks great!"

"No, it doesn't, Griffin! We've been trying to tell you that for the past thirty minutes." a voice called from the further corner of the room. A girl with long, dyed-blonde hair, dark brown eyes.

"Shut up, Josie!" Griffin yelled, rolling his eyes.

"Maybe you just need to listen to other people sometimes, Griffin," Felix smirked, taking occasional glances at his girlfriend as he held her hand.

"You shut up too, Barbie doll! You're not supposed to be here anyway."

"He is. His name is on the list, and their names too. You shut up, Griffin."

That caused everyone in the room to giggle lightly.

"Fine! Do you want to listen to her? Go on, Mal. Steal the spotlight like you always do with your gorgeous-ass boyfriend and tell us what to do!"

That moment, Han leaned in towards Felix with a questioning look on his face. "Is he jealous or something?"

"Yes, he definitely is," Felix replied.

Mal sighed and rubbed her eyebrows, feeling the pressure of Griffin's loud voice ringing in her ears. She needed him to stop talking.

"Please, just stop yelling. Okay? We can do this together if we listened to each other's opinions and tried to make sense of everything."

Felix noticed her annoyed, exasperated tone. Turning to her, he squeezed her hand tighter as to reassure her.

"Baby, is the noise bothering you?" he asked, pulling her away from the group by a few steps.

She nodded. "Yeah. I suffer from Acousticophobia. I tried telling him that, a while ago of course, and he never listened to me. He doesn't even care, Felix." she turned to him, an exhausted expression over her face. "It doesn't matter anyway. I can't leave until the hour is done, so..."

Felix stared at her for a moment, a sad glimpse in his beautiful, blue eyes.

"It's going to be okay, baby. I'm going to be right here with you, and you have the guys here too to help you out."

She faintly smiled, then reached out to tap his cheek gently.

"And that's why you're the best boyfriend ever."

They both giggled at that as Felix muttered a word of gratitude.

"And you're the best girlfriend ever. I mean it, Mal."

"Okay!" Karan, a shorter boy of Indian heritage began, interrupting the awkward tension between Griffin and the couple. Griffin took a step towards them.

"You said to start decorating this shit hole because homecoming is in a month. Right, Ava? So tell these two lovebirds to leave each other's mouths and start decorating!"

Ava rolled her eyes, then stood up from her spot on the floor. "Jeez, calm down, Griffin. What has gotten into you?"

Karan clapped his hands together to get their attention one more time, coughing awkwardly in the process. "Guys, can we please set our differences aside and work together to finish off homecoming?"

Everyone sighed at his sentence. Mal rubbed her eyebrows anxiously one more time before she turned to the other students, who were eyeing her every move.

"We need to start by the lighting, creating a pathway, and creating confetti balloons. And we need flour. A lot of flour."

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