The people of the party started to congregate into a different layout, leaving an empty circle in the middle of the main room.

"What are you guys doing?" Meddy asked, standing in the middle of the circle.

"Did you set up the Spices and Malokos?" Protoman muttered to Ring.

"Of course I did!" Ring hissed back, still whispering. "I'm not stupid!" She looked up at Meddy's confused face. She cleared her throat and spoke. "We do this to honor all of our special guests! So let's all give a hand to our new co captain of cheerleading, Meddy!"

Everyone clapped and hollered. "Co captain? Really? I can't believe it!"

"You can't believe it, huh?" Ring said, her tone sarcastic. "Well, can you believe this?"

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Roll still saw the charging Malokos from her angle behind the plant. She was pretty close to Meddy, so she saw their purple horns too.

"It's now or never," Roll said to herself. Right before the sheep viruses made contact with Meddy, Roll sprang out from behind the plant, the dive pushing Meddy out of the way. Roll, however, slid into her place and took the hit.

Next came the Spice viruses, which were suspended tightly to the ceiling, but then dropped and fell on Roll's head. A purple cloud of their spores enveloped her, causing her to cough.

All the pink Navi heard was the unrelenting laughter of the partygoers.

But when the spores cleared,

Ring stopped laughing at what she saw. "Roll? What are you doing here? That was meant for that twerp Meddy!"

"Twerp?" Meddy said. "Ring, that hurt my feelings. Why did you say that? And what do you mean that was for me?" Her face lit up. "Wait, was I only the special guest just so you could embarrass me?" Meddy teared up and put her hand to her heart. "I thought we were friends!"

"Friends?" Ring said. "You have given yourself way too much credit. I was hoping to milk you more for good publicity, but your new exchange student charm has worn off, so I don't need you anymore."

"But," Meddy said. "We're friends. We hung out together, we cheered together. Did that mean anything to you?" Her voice cracked, tears streaming down her pale face.

"Oh, grow up!" Ring spat. "You don't get anything you want if you play fair. Nice guys finish last, little girl!" Ring began to walk away, but after she said, "Oh, and another thing, you're off the team."

"Wait!" Roll shouted, stopping Ring. "Meddy's right! How could you do that? Someone put their trust in you, and you abuse it? You're lower than scum. You may not want Meddy as a friend, but I would take it and value it as more precious than all of the gold in the world!"

Ring froze, but Protoman had a more visible reaction of anger. "Lower than scum? You don't call my girlfriend that!" He stomped over to Roll's location, sword drawn, ready to attack her, but she still held her intense gaze.

Roll's face contorted into fear, but just as Protoman was about to make his first strike, Megaman burst in through the front door.

"Roll! Are you okay?" Megaman shouted, not caring if he embarrassed her. He turned to see Protoman looming over her. He marched in between them. "Hey, back off!"

"Why don't you make me, tough guy?" Protoman challenged.

Megaman saw his sword, poised to cut. He whipped out his Megabuster, just in case it came down to fighting. Like Roll, he held his glare at the red Navi, never wavering for a few seconds. The air in the room was electric, everyone silent.

Protoman did the same thing, but noticed Megaman's intensity. He lowered his sword. "I see you mean business." He turned to the crowd who'd just taken a collective breath. "We did prank someone, right?" The people were still silent.

Ring, however, was furious. "How could you do that?" she shrieked. "You and I are going to have a long talk." She grabbed his wrist and dragged him away into another room.

"I don't know about you guys, but I want to get out of here." Roll said.

"Agreed." Meddy and Megaman replied at the same time.

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Roll retrieved her books from her locker and slammed it shut. On the other side of the door, Meddy stood.

"Meddy, what are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to say thank you for coming to my rescue last night." Meddy confessed, her hands behind her back and her head down.

"Well, I figured I owed you for sticking with me at cheer tryouts." Roll bashfully responded.

"It's nice to know I have a true friend who would jump through rings of fire for me." Meddy concluded. The bell rang. "We're late. We should go." They parted their ways to their respective classes.