As Jasmine walked across the parking lot Monday after school, she saw Phoebus at his car. It had been a week now since they've talked. They sat at the same table at lunch, but didn't sit together. Phoebus always seemed to make a point to put as many people between them at the table as possible and hurried out of the cafeteria so fast, she couldn't catch up to him.

It was getting ridiculous.

Jasmine ran over to his car. "Hey!" she called out.

Phoebus had just been throwing his backpack into the backseat and looked up. "Not now, Jasmine." He closed the back door and opened the driver door.

Without thinking, Jasmine hopped up on his car and sat down on the trunk. "That's okay, I can wait." She set her backpack down next to her.

Phoebus sighed and closed the door, then walked over to her. He crossed his arms over his chest. "You win."

"Win what, exactly? I didn't realize we were playing a game or in the middle of a battle."

Phoebus rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I'll drive off with you on my car, I don't care." He started towards the front of the car.

"Why are you mad at me?"

He stopped. He hesitated for a second, but turned and walked back over to her. "I'm not mad at you."

"Then what is going on? I thought we were friends, but you've been completely icing me out since Phillip's party."

"Look. This isn't personal against you. I just don't want anything to do with this stupid internet feud between you and Esmeralda and all the drama that comes with it. I know paparazzi and internet scrutiny is normal for the two of you, but I want no part in it."

Well, she certainly couldn't fault him for that. She didn't exactly want a part in it, either. She was still regretting confronting Esmeralda at the party. She had seen the video, but didn't read any of the comments. But, from what she's heard, Esmeralda and Holli received a lot of backlash for what they did. The video itself didn't show much to incriminate them, but it blew up with comments from AHS students who had been at the party calling them out and making sure everyone knew exactly what had happened. Most people sided with Jasmine, but Esmeralda's and Holli's biggest fans came to their defense saying everyone at the party needed to "lighten up".

Right. Like being uptight was the problem here.

"I understand." Jasmine jumped down from the car. "Speaking of Esmeralda: did you see her at all today?"

"No."

Jasmine rolled her eyes as she flung her backpack over her shoulder. "Yeah, that's what I thought. She skipped her afternoon classes on Friday and completely ditched school today. She's being stupid."

"This is the drama I was talking about."

"I know, I'm sorry. But, doesn't it bother you that she seems to be spiraling?"

"Yes, but I'm not letting her pull me down with her. I'm done with her and I no longer care what she does."

That was sad to hear, but Jasmine didn't blame him. Esmeralda was a mess, but she wasn't his mess. "I can't give up on her. Not yet."

XXX

Aurora was running late for the lock-in meeting. She didn't mean to be, but it wasn't exactly entirely unintentional, either. She still wasn't on board with being involved with the lock-in. When Phillip first mentioned it, the prospect of making new friends sounded fun. And it still did. But, she didn't think she'd be so involved with the planning. It was taking up more time than she initially anticipated. And with only a few weeks until the auditions for A Christmas Carol, Aurora needed time to reread the book and maybe watch a couple of the numerous adaptations of it.

Aurora hurried down the hall to the classroom where she was supposed to meet Phillip, Proteus, and Ramses. She hadn't meant to be ten minutes late. She had run into Eric after her last class and stopped to talk with him. Time got away with her. She had gone to her locker after parting from Eric, but didn't have time to really organize herself. She had grabbed her homework and was trying to stuff it into her backpack as she half power walked, half jogged to the classroom. As she was approaching the door, her phone started ringing.

"Shoot." Aurora shifted the textbook, notebook, and folder she was still holding to under her arm as she dug through her backpack to find her phone. When she finally found it, she quickly answered the call and cradled the phone against her shoulder while she tried to balance everything she was holding. "Hello?"

"Hey, babe. I'm gonna be late," Phillip greeted.

"Oh. Okay, I-"

"The student council meeting is going to run long today. I don't know what time I'm gonna make it. Can you take over until I get there?"

"Um..." Aurora reached the classroom. Proteus was already inside, but she didn't see Ramses. "Sure, I guess." She didn't have any free hands to open the door or knock, so she gently kicked the door a couple times to get Proteus' attention.

"Thank you. Love you." Phillip hung up.

Proteus opened the door for her.

"Thanks." Aurora reached up to grab her phone, but her folder started to slip. Instead she tried to catch it, but ended up dropping everything. "Shoot, times two," she muttered, sinking down to the floor. Since her backpack had been open, almost everything inside fell out. All of the papers that had been inside the folder were now scattered on the floor in front of her. She did manage to catch her phone, though.

Proteus knelt down and helped her. "One of those days?" he guessed.

"Sure," she muttered. She grabbed everything and crammed it into her backpack. She could organize it later. Proteus handed her a couple of sheets of paper. "Thank you." She shoved them into her backpack without looking at them.

Once everything was picked up, Aurora zipped her backpack and stood up. She set her backpack on the floor next to one the desks and sat down in it. Proteus sat down next to her and angled the desk to face her.

"Ramses isn't going to make it today," Proteus told her.

"Phillip is going to be late. The student council meeting is running long and he doesn't know how long he's going to be."

"I guess it's just us for now, then."

Aurora nodded. "Phillip told me to take over until he gets here, but honestly I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing."

"Well, today we were supposed to discuss the budget. Both schools will be pitching in some money; I have the amount from Camelot and Philip was going to let us know what your school is pitching in."

"Oh. I don't know anything about that."

"That's fine. We can wait on that until Phillip gets here."

"What else did you have planned for today's meeting?"

"That was pretty much it. We're going to see if the two schools' budgets are going to be enough or if we're gonna have to organize a fundraiser."

"So, there isn't anything we can do until Phillip gets here?"

"I guess we could start a list of the things we'll need to spend money on; get the ball rollin' a little bit." Proteus pulled a legal pad and pen from his backpack.

"Like food?" Aurora suggested.

Proteus nodded. He flipped to a clean sheet and wrote down food.

"I don't really know what else a lock-in requires," Aurora admitted.

"Well, the principals want organized activities to keep everyone busy and prevent... shenanigans. We'll have to discuss possible activities when everyone is here. We'll then submit the list of our ideas to the principals for approval."

"Shenanigans?" Aurora repeated with a laugh.

Proteus smirked and shrugged. "Their word, not mine."

"I don't think there's any way to prevent 'shenanigans' at this thing."