She smiled as she walked down the hallway to her locker to grab some books, feeling all happy inside. Along the way, she noticed Claire and Dylan (a artist and a cheerleader) talking and holding hands. "Love is in the air." Jess thought brightly.
She arrived at her locker and picked her books for her second class of the day, Biology she took with Autumn, Julian, Payton and Nishan. She rushed to the classroom and she found the group sit but huddled in a group. "Hey, guys" she greeted.
"What's up?" she asked curiously.
They stopped their hushed discussion and looked up at her. Autumn stood up. "Hey, Jess. We just having a discussion. We were thinking about having a school overnight to celebrate the school and you know, bring us all together."
"Hmm... That's not a bad idea. I'll talk it over with the student council and see what we can get done," Jess said thoughtfully.
Autumn nodded and she sat just as Mr. Phillips came in, starting their first class of the day. During free period, Jess went to the student council and discussed the idea of them organising a school overnight, the idea of which they were not averse to. They said that within one week, they would have everything prepped for the event to happen.
One Week Later…
The student council Jessica managed to successfully organise the school overnight. The picnic tables was holding an assortment of snacks; s'mores, chips, cookies, salsa and cupcakes, all arranged with the Preps help. Tents had been set up near bonfires which the jocks were helping light up. The nerds and gamers had brought a projector which they were setting up for some gaming. Jess could see Nishan and Tommy looking at the stars with a telescope some distance away.
"Who want to play video game?" James asked
"Me!" Jess called. "I love video."
"Your into video game?"
"Course I am I also played roblox."
"Maybe we could play together sometime."
"And that constellation to your right? That's Taurus," Jess could hear him say.
"I see it! Fun fact... I'M a Taurus!" Eric enthusiastically said.
Jess chuckled at this and thought, 'Looks like Nishan's made a new friend.'
Just then, Autumn ran up to her. 'Hey, Jess. So what do you think about the overnight so far?" she asked.
"This was a brilliant idea, Autumn. I'm glad we managed to organize something like this," Jess replied.
Autumn beamed at her response.
"Hey! Jess!" A voice called out.
Jess and Autumn turned around and saw Payton waving them over. "I'm trying to get people gathered around the campfire for some good old spooooky stories. Want to come?"
"I LOVE scary stories! I'm in!" Autumn said enthusiastically.
Jess shrugged, "I'm game!"
They walked over to where Payton, Julian, Nishan and some other students were huddled around a bonfire. Jess sat next to Payton, who was spotted next to Julian. Autumn was sitting on his other side. Once everyone was seated, Payton cleared her throat, "I'll tell the scary story first! Once upon a time, there was a girl getting ready for her Prom night. She tried on all of the dresses in every store... pink ones, blue ones, red ones, yellow ones-"
Nishan murmured, "Hoo, boy!"
Payton continued, "And she curled her hair and put on all her makeup and was all ready for her date to arrive. She went to sit by the door... and waited... and waited... and waited... The time came for the dance to start, and her date still wasn't there! She waited another hour, then another, and finally she realized... He wasn't coming!"
"What? That's it?" Nishan asked confusion written all over his face.
Payton snapped her fingers, as if remembering something, "Oh wait! There's something about how the Prom was held in an old orphan insane asylum... but I forget how that part goes..."
Everyone gave her a blank look until Autumn broke the silence. "So, who's next? How about you, Jess? Think you can tell a better scary story?"
"I don't know."Jess responded, unsure of whether she should tell her story.
"C'mon, Jess. Give it a go," Julian encouraged her.
Jess nodded and sighed, "Okay, I'll do it."
And she began narrating her ghost story. "Once, there was a school just like this one... and one dark and cold night, they had a campout just like this one," she began.
"Oooh, spooky," Autumn interjected.
"There was a group of people sitting around a campsite trying to get a fire going. Then a cloud passed over the moon, and it was pitch dark... When the sky cleared, and they could see again, all but three people were dead... torn to pieces by a mysterious assailant! The three left were... a preppy party girl... a nerdy mad scientist tech guy... and a sweet, artistic girl."
Fifteen minutes later…
The faces of the students looked ashen as Jess continued narrating the story. Jess had to restrain herself from laughing at the looks on their faces. They looked like they were about to pee their pants.
"The last victim reached up. With their dying breath, they pulled off the killer's mask, and saw the face of the artist!" Jess finished.
"What?! Artists are a peaceful people!" Autumn exclaimed.
"I could see it. All that angst...It's always the quiet ones." Nishan remarked.
"Hey!" Autumn pouted.
"See? That's exactly what I'm talking about!" Nishan pointed out.
"Well, Jess, the night's almost over!" Payton said.
"Yeah! It was a good night. Kinda sad it has to end, though." Jess wistfully said.
"Though I'm kinda surprised no-one has coupled up here at the bonfire," Payton commented.
Jess smirked at this and asked rhetorically, "Sure about that?" and she pointed her head towards Autumn and Julian. Autumn's head was lying on Julian's shoulder and they were holding hands. Autumn looked up at Julian and she smiled at him before planting a gentle kiss on his lips. Julian blushed at this and he turned to look at Jess, who winked at him and smiled.
Jess was drawn out of her flashback when Payton began handing out cupcakes to everyone. "I don't know who brought these, but they sure look good," Payton remarked.
"Let's take a picture guys!" Autumn said enthusiastically.
Everyone huddled together for the photo. "Okay everyone! Say bonfire!" as she snapped the photo. The group posed, cupcakes in hand. Once done, they dispersed. Suddenly, Julian's phone buzzed with a text. As he looked down at the text, Jess was about to have a bite of her cupcake, that is until Julian smacked it out of her hand with a yell, "Don't eat that!"
Jess gasped in shock and asked, "What the hell?"
Julian just shook his head and showed Jess the text he got. Jess's eyes widened in understanding and surprise. She looked at Julian and they nodded their heads in understanding. They went round the camp stopping people from eating the cupcakes. From one student to another they went yelling, "Don't eat that cupcake!"
The other students were understandably shocked but they took the duo's word for it and helped them spread the word round.
Jess looked around for anyone still with a cupcake in hand. She saw Autumn and Nishan about to devour the treats. Problem was, they were on different sides. Talk about dilemmas. She ran for Autumn, bounding over tree roots and slippery patches of grass.
"Autumn! Don't eat the cupcake! It's a prank!" Jess shouted.
Autumn froze, the cupcake barely touching her lips.
"A prank?!" Autumn exclaimed.
Jess pulled it out of her hands and she panted, "Hearst High. Ipecac. Long story."
Jess spun around... and saw Nishan running a chemical analysis on the cupcake with a pocket lab kit. "Hmm. Ipecac. Odd choice of frosting, if I may say so..." he said to himself.
She let out a sigh of relief and led Autumn back to the campfire, where the others had gathered once more in confusion.
"Would someone please explain why we had to throw away perfectly good cupcakes?" Payton enquired.
"Those perfectly good cupcakes would have had you living on the toilet the whole night, sweetheart," Jess replied bluntly.
Payton's mouth formed an 'o' and Autumn asked, "Who would do such a thing?"
Just then, a car pulled up next to the campfire, and a group of Hearst High cheerleaders rolled down the windows...to reveal the faces of Kara, Mia and the other cheerleaders from Hearst.
"How's the little campout going? Enjoying your cupcakes?" Kara asked gleefully.
"Of course you would be the ones behind this prank," Jess snorted.
"Just a little present from us to you, sweetheart," Mia said, blowing a fake kiss to her and twiddling her fingers.
"Yeah? Well, it turns out that your stupid plan was too stupid to work. No one ate your cupcakes!" Payton pointed out angrily.
Mia gasped in shock, "What?! How... how'd you know?"
"Someone must've warned them. No way they're smart enough to figure it out on their own. Don't worry, girls. We'll figure out who the traitor is," Kara sneered.
"You know what that means war." Julian agreed.
The rest of the night went on without a hitch, though for Jess, she felt that there was more drama on the horizon. And boy, was she right.
Jess, Julian and Payton played pranks on Kara dumping expired coffee on her car, fake spiders, vandalise her car with spray paint. They dashed off Kara screamed. "Whoever did this will pay! Principal Warren will have them expelled