Chapter 2: Part 15

A loud, but muffled tapping sound echoed throughout the school. "Good morning, students," Monokuma spoke into the microphone in a monotone voice. "It's 7 am. That means all the food and water is back. Have a good day. Yawn."

Kaede's eyes slowly opened her eyes and sat herself up in her bed, but Kaede wouldn't get the chance to slowly gain real consciousness. Suddenly, her blankets lifted up and out popped Ibuki, right on top of her.

"Good nom, nom, nomming!" Ibuki said cheerfully. "Ready for today, Kaede?!"

"GYAAAAAAAH!" Kaede shrieked. Needless to say, Ibuki's sudden appearance woke up. "Jeez, Ibuki, how did you even get into my room?"

Ibuki smirked. "Ibuki picked your lock!"

"W-what?!" Kaede's face went pale. "Ibuki, that's a terrible thing to do here!"

"It's ok, Kaede! It was just me! Anyways, we got to stop standing around!" Ibuki grabbed a hold Kaede's wrist. "We got to get Sayaka! So, let's go!"

Kaede stumbled out of her bed as Ibuki dragged towards the door, but the piano player planted her feet onto the ground. "W-wait a second! I'm not dressed yet!"

"Don't worry!" Ibuki said as she snatched some of Kaede's spare clothes. "You can't just expect me to just-"

But Kaede's pleas were cut off. Ibuki kicked open the door and dragged Kaede out into the hall in her underwear, the cold air creating goosebumps across her exposed skin. Blushing a deep shade of red, Kaede quickly and haphazardly threw her clothes on as she stumbled after Ibuki.

Tying the rest of her hair with a hairband, Sayaka had finished getting ready for the day. She adjusted her shirt and went to open the door, but a loud knocked at her door caused her to jump a bit. She opened the door to see Tenko standing just outside. The aikido master smiled at her friend as she greeted her.

"Good morning, Sayaka!" Tenko said cheerfully.

"Good morning, Tenko," Sayaka smiled back. "You're back to being as peppy as usual."

"Yep! I'm excited for this party. Mainly just because of you, Kaede, and Ibuki's show. I just know you three will be amazing!"

"Aww, thank you," Sayaka said. "Still, I'm sure there's plenty of other fun things planned for the day."

"Sure, but this? I finally get to see you and Kaede perform!"

"SPEAKING OF KAEDE!" a voice called out, gaining the two girls' attention.

Just from around the corner, Kaede was flung out into view, failing to keep her balance and face-planting onto the floor. Her hair was a mess, her shirt buttons were mismatched with each other, and her shoelaces weren't tied. Ibuki slid into view after Kaede and lifted the piano player back up. She spun her around and stood her up straight.

"Here are the one and only Ultimate Piano Player and Ultimate Musician!" Ibuki sang.

"Um, you ok, Kaede?" Sayaka asked.

Kaede shook her head with an irritated huff. "She broke into my room and dragged me out here before I could get dressed."

Sayaka giggled. "I guess she's just excited for the day."

Kaede knelt down to tie her shoes. "Speaking of which, what else are we doing today? Outside of us performing I mean."

"Hehehe," Ibuki stroked her chin. "Ibuki has some ideas rocking around her noggin."

Kaede stood back up after tying her shoes and began to fix her shirt buttons. "Like what?"

"It's a surprise for everyone!" Ibuki said. "Come on! We gotta go meet everyone!"

Ibuki grabbed a hold of all three girls and pushed them down the hall.

Taka and Mondo were the first people to enter the cafeteria. Taka paced back and forth as he tugged on his jacket collar and wiped sweat from his forehead. Mondo, on the other hand, was sat at one of the chairs with his feet kicked up onto the table. Mondo was quite comfortable in his seat, but sitting back, doing nothing except watch his bro walk in circles made him tap his foot against the table.

"Bro, calm down," Mondo said with some force. "Just relax and do it how I showed you."

Taka halted his pacing and took a deep breath. He turned around to face his bro. "Hey there, Yonaga," Taka said to Mondo.

"Stop, stop!" Mondo waved his hands. "You're supposed to be natural. Saying her last name isn't how people talk to each other."

"It's how I talk to people," Taka frowned.

"Bro, just try it again."

Taka took another deep breath before strolling over to where Mondo sat. "Hey there, Angie. You having fun?" Taka cringed at his intentionally poor grammar.

"Nyahaha," Mondo laughed in a high-pitched voice, doing his best to impersonate Angie's voice. "I am! This party is just great!"

"Th-that's good to hear," Taka said with a shaky smirk. His acting was already beginning to fall apart. Not only were his lines unnatural, but Mondo mimicking a high-pitched, accented voice nearly made him burst into laughter. "Hey, was there anything you've been wanting to do?"

Mondo tapped his chin and stuck his tongue out. It's clear that the rough and tough biker dude's impression of Angie was ridiculous. The visual and audio contrast would make anyone laugh their asses off. "Hmmm, I haven't had a chance to go to the game room."

"Oh, well, why don't I go with you?" Taka asked.

"Aww, that's so sweet of you," Mondo said. "I'd love that!"

"Ok," Taka scratched the back of his head. "So, am I supposed to ask her out now?"

"No, not yet. You have to play some games with her."

"What?" Taka gasped. "Then when am I supposed to ask her?"

"Right at the end of the night."

Taka gasped again. "I have to wait the whole night to ask her for a date? Why can't I just ask her right there and then?"

"Bro, you don't get it. A chick's more willing to go out with you if you prove how cool you are."

"Are you sure about this? I still believe you're misinterpreting our interactions."

"Dude, trust me. You just too nervous to admit it. Now, let's try asking her out."

Taka sighed before straightening his posture and smiling. "This night was certainly exciting, wasn't it, Yo- Angie?"

"Nyahaha," Mondo once again spoke with a high-pitched voice. "Yes! It was indeed a great spectacle of art!"

Taka huffed. "She doesn't take like that," he muttered under his breath. "If I may so bold, I would like to request we spend time together the following day!"

"Dude, you got to be more causal," Mondo commanded.

"I wish to go out with you tomorrow."

"More casual."

"I want to hang out with you tomorrow."

"More casual!"

"I WANT TO GO OUT WITH YOU!"

"What's going on here?" a deep voice called from the cafeteria entrance.

Both of the boys paused and turned to entrance to see Sakura with an amused smirk across her face and a firm grip on the shoulder of a still handcuffed Kiyo. Having been caught in a compromising position, both Mondo and Taka were pale as sheets and sweating bullets. However, Mondo would buff his chest out and place his fists on his hips, standing much like a classic superhero would.

"We're just talking about sport," Mondo said in his best attempt to save face.

"Is that what you call it?" Sakura chuckled a bit as she dragged Kiyo into the room.

"I must again thank you for looking after Shinguji for us, Ogami" Taka said with a smile.

"It's no problem," Sakura said as she sat herself and Kiyo down at the table.

"I must ask, when will I be considered trustworthy enough to be let free?" Kiyo asked.

"You still obsessed with your sister?" Mondo asked as he sat himself down.

"I love her as strongly as I always have," Kiyo answered.

"I think that should answer your question."

"There is still time for you to improve though, Shinguji," Taka said.

As the conversation died down, more of the group entered the room. Kaito, Chiaki, and Shinji entered the room and sat themselves down towards the ends of the table. After them was the group of Sayaka, Ibuki, Kaede, and Tenko. While Sayaka, Kaede, and Tenko sat down normally, Ibuki had a large notepad with her that she placed upon the table before she sat down.

"Ah, good morning, Mioda!" Taka greeted. "I hope you slept well enough for your party today."

"Of course!" Ibuki smiled as she patted her hands against the notepad. "Ibuki got a sold five hours of sleep after planning this party!"

Sayaka turned her attention to the punk rock girl. "What?" she gasped. "You only slept five hours last night?"

"Yeeeeeeeeeeeeep!" Ibuki answered. "Ibuki needed to plan out this party. It has to be the biggest party possible! It has to better than Woodstock!"

"Uh, isn't Woodstock like a giant multi-day music festival?" Kaito asked.

"I don't think I could party for days," Kaede said with a frown.

"Well, Ibuki of course knows that, duh!" Ibuki waved her hand. "But it's still going to ROCK! Today will be a party and tomorrow will be a time for everyone to sleep."

"I can't wait to see what you have planned, Ibuki," Chiaki said with a smile.

The sound of shoes clacking across the floor caught the attention of everyone's attention. Just entering the room was Chihiro, but the programmer didn't look the same as before. Instead of the jacket, skirt, and slip-on shoes, Chihiro wore a dark green golf shirt, brown cargo shorts, and pair of plain, white sneakers. Chihiro was no longer dressed like a cute, shy girl. He was instead just himself. A short, kind of skinny boy. There was a brief moment of surprise from the group, it was a sudden change, but after a few seconds everyone at the table gave the programmer smiles and nods of approval. Mondo especially made sure to give a thumbs up to Chihiro. Then there was Tenko.

Tenko inhaled large amounts of air and did heavy exhales as she stared at Chihiro. Sayaka turned to the aikido master and tried to grab her hand to calm her down, but Tenko stood up from her seat.

"Tenko, hold on," Sayaka said as she tried to reach after her friend.

However, Tenko stepped out of the pop idol's reach. Tenko stormed around the table and made her way over to Chihiro. Mondo shot up from his seat and stared daggers at Tenko.

'I don't care if she is a chick,' Mondo thought. 'If she does anything to hurt the kid, she's going down!'

Tenko stopped herself and looked down at Chihiro. Chihiro gulped down some saliva as he looked up at Tenko. He stood his ground. He was scared, especially since Tenko had an emotionless glare in her eyes, but Chihiro knew he couldn't back down. He made his decision to be who he was. It was Tenko's turn to make a choice.

Tenko rose her hand up into the air, her fingers closing up into a fist. Chihiro closed her eyes shut. Tenko let out one final exhale before dropping her hand.

Chihiro shook as he waited for the impact, but it never came. Chihiro slowly opened his eyes and saw that Tenko was no longer going for an attack. In fact, she never was. Tenko instead had her hand stretched out and held it in front of the programmer. Chihiro relaxed himself and looked back at Tenko.

"I'll try my best to be nice," Tenko said.

Chihiro smiled and shook Tenko's hand. Mondo let out a huge sigh of relief as he sat back down in his seat. Meanwhile, Sayaka smiled at how far Tenko had matured and clapped lightly for her friends. Chihiro smiled at Sayaka before looking towards the rest of the group.

"So…this is me," Chihiro said. "I hope that I don't cause any confusion."

"Of course not, Fukisaki!" Taka said. "We shall respect your decision!"

Chihiro smiled and sat himself down at the table. Tenko followed suit, and once everything calmed down, the room began to fill up with the rest of the student body. Of course, Celestia had her group of darkly dressed goths to sit with her and Angie had her group of new devout followers to sit along side herself. Then Mikan and Rantaro entered, followed by Mahiru, Nekomaru, Mukuro, and Gonta. Then Miu dragged Nagito by his collar and tossed him into a seat. Finally, Ryoma and Leon got into cafeteria. Once everyone seated themselves, Ibuki jumped to her feet and held up her giant notepad.

"Ladies and gentlemen-men-men," Ibuki spoke out loud, imitating a microphone echo. "I, Ibuki Mioda, have planned out the most hardcore-core-core, the most rocking-rocking-rocking, most awesome group party in the history!"

Ibuki opened up her notepad and presented to the rest of the group. Inside it was a fully detailed schedule that filled out the entire page.

"First, we're going to be having breakfast," Ibuki explained.

"Duh!" Miu stuck out her tongue. "We didn't need to tell us that, dumbass."

"But!" Ibuki held up her finger to hush Miu, "after breakfast, we're all going upstairs to do our first activity, an art contest!"

"Oh~" Angie's eye lit up. "That does sound like fun!"

"Yep!" Ibuki said. "After that, we can go to the library to do…whatever you want in the library! After that, it will be lunch time."

"And before you all ask, I have already prepared both lunch and dinner for you all," Teruteru explained.

"And after we eat lunch, we'll go up to the game room to play whatever's in there!" Ibuki continued. "Video games for Chiaki, Hifumi, and Chihiro. Card games for Celeste and Nagito. Darts for anyone brave enough to face Ibuki! That should be able keep us busy for dinner. Then, that's when Ibuki, Sayaka, and Kaede all perform for you guys!"

Ibuki's finger moved down to the last item listed. "Then we end the day off with a pool party!"

"You certainly packed the day up with activities, Ibuki" Kaito said.

"Must I really have to wait through hours of tedium just to finally play games I enjoy?" Celestia asked dryly as she twirled her locks.

"I don't know, this sounds like a lot of fun," Rantaro said with a smile.

"Yeah," Chiaki smiled as well. "It's just what we needed after everything that has happened."

"Well, what are you all waiting for?!" Ibuki asked. "Dig in so we can get this party started!"

The group then had breakfast. It wasn't too eventful. Everyone had what you would expect. Cereal, pancakes, eggs, fruit, etc. As soon as everyone finished their meals and placed them in the sink, Ibuki immediately kicked her chair out of the way and dashed out the door into the hall. Everyone was a bit stunned by how fast Ibuki was to get to the action. Although, after spending so much time with the rock star, they shouldn't have. With a few awkward chuckles and smiles, the group slowly, but surely got up from their seats and exited the cafeteria after her.

There was small worry in some of the students that the art room wouldn't be big enough to fit all of them, but stepping into the room proved that there was much more space inside the art room than they thought. Granted, most of them had to line up against the back wall of the room to slightly squeeze everyone in. Ibuki stood in the center of the room with two drawing pads on both sides of her. Ibuki smiled at all of her friends.

"So, here's how we'll do this!" Ibuki said before pointing with both of her index fingers at the group. "You are going to split up into teams of two. And every round, you send one member of your team forward to be the artist." Ibuki picked up a stack of cards. "I, Ibuki, will pull at card with a description and each artist will have a minute to make the best drawing of the description they can."

"Wow, Ibuki," Kaede's eyes lit up. "You really thought this whole thing through."

"Yeah," Sayaka spoke up. "Did you really come up with all of this last night?"

Ibuki crossed her arms as she chuckled. "Of course! Ibuki wouldn't skip sleep for nothing!"

"Ok, but isn't having Angie on a team cheating?" Leon asked.

"Hmmmmm," Ibuki stroked her chin. "Hey, Angie? You okay being a judge instead?"

"But of course," Angie said with a smile as she moved to the center of the room. "I'd love to see how you all express yourself through art!"

"Great! Now to split up into teams!" Ibuki turned back to the rest of the group. She scanned her eyes across each of her fellow students and choice the teams. Team A would consist of Kaito, Sayaka, Mahiru, Ryoma, Celestia, Gundham, Peko, Kirumi, Mukuro, Nekomaru, Chiaki, Kiyo, Kaede, and Leon. Team B consisted of Taka, Sakura, Mondo, Hiyoko, Hifumi, Teruteru, Rantaro, Nagito, Gonta, Mikan, Miu, Shinji, Chihiro, Tenko, and Ibuki herself.

Angie clapped her hands together and smiled at the two teams. "I just can't wait to see how you will all do," she said. "Why don't we begin Mukuro and Rantaro?"

Mukuro pointed to herself. "Me? Why me? I'm not an artist."

"Everyone begins their art journey differently," Angie said. "Give it your all."

Mukuro looked back to the rest of her team, hoping any of them would be willing to swap places with her. Instead, they all gave her encouraging nods and thumbs up.

"You got this!" Kaito said with a smile.

Mukuro groaned and turned her attention to Rantaro. The lime-haired boy smiled and held his hand out to the soldier. "Best of luck," he said.

"Kick that bitch's ass, Limey Boy!" Miu cheered for Rantaro.

The two students sat themselves at the drawing pads. Mahiru shuffled to one of the corners of the room and readied her camera to begin taking pictures for the rest of the day. Angie gleefully drew a card from the deck of suggestions and read it aloud.

"The two of you will draw a picture of a couple kissing," Angie said.

'Crap!' Mukuro thought to herself.

"Each of you will have a minute," Angie said, ignoring Leon. "Draw, draw, draw!"

Both of the students snatched their pencils and went to work as fast as they could. Rantaro was a natural at drawing. True, there wasn't enough time for proper shading and details, but his line work was clean and smooth. In just around 30 seconds, Rantaro managed to create an outline of two figures standing close to each other. It was simple. It was comparable to the simple portrait of Alfred Hitchcock from the old "Hitchcock Presents" series. Mukuro on the other hand was struggling. Immediately, her first line was jagged and she tried to erase it.

"Don't do that, you idiot!" Leon shouted.

Mukuro would've killed Leon at an earlier point in time, but it was far too past that. She went back to drawing. It didn't get any better for her. The rest of her drawing was jagged, any mistake she made she'd attempt to correct by simply drawing over it again, and by the end of it her drawing looked more like one misshapen person with a line down the middle rather than two people kissing.

"Times up," Angie said as she checked the clock. Angie would gleefully skip over to where both artists and examined their work closely. Upon seeing Rantaro's art, a large small creeped across her face, but turning to Mukuro's picture wiped it away.

"After examining the two drawings, I declare Rantaro the winner of this round," Angie announced.

"That goes without saying," Hiyoko snarked.

"Aww, but Gonta like both arts," Gonta said with a childlike frown.

"Yeah, what the hell was that even supposed to be?" Leon pointed at Mukuro's drawing. "Why does it have three legs?"

"I-it doesn't," Mukuro said as the harsh judgement of her friends embarrassed her. "That's supposed to be the guy's other leg."

"I thought that was his dick," Miu commented.

"I wouldn't mind if it was," Teruteru smirked.

"Maybe if you didn't mesh their heads together, it would be easier to see," Nekomaru commented.

"They aren't mesh together," Mukuro frowned.

Angie gently placed her hand on Mukuro's shoulder. "You must not let criticism kill your desire to create. You should instead let these critiques drive you to improve."

"Indeed!" Taka smiled. "Failure is only the first step towards self-improvement."

"Yeah, and besides it's not like we're trying to insult you specifically or anything," Kaede said.

"I was," Miu said quickly.

"Shut up, Miu," Mondo fired back.

Mukuro sighed and crossed hers before making her way back to her group. Rantaro returned to his group as well where he was met with a smiling Mikan.

"Th-that was a really good drawing, Rantaro," Mikan complimented her friend.

Rantaro smiled back at the nurse. "Thanks. I actually used to draw short stories for my sisters when they were younger.

That was one point for Team B and zero points for Team A. The next two "contestants" stepped. Team A's Gundham Tanaka and Team B's Hiyoko Saionji. The two of them sat down at the drawing pads and turned to the next blank page. Hiyoko smiled up at Angie, ready to make her friend proud. Angie drew another topic card from the deck.

"The next picture you will draw is a racecar," Angie announced.

"Any specific kind of car Ms. Yonaga?" Hifumi asked.

Angie double-checked the car. "Nope. Choose which ever car you'd wish to draw."

Hiyoko smirked as she picked up her pencil. 'I'm totally going beat this goth loser,' she thought to herself. 'All he knows how to do is play with stupid animals and watch dumbass anime…I hope Hifumi doesn't find out I thought that.'

Gundham chuckled to himself. "You don't stand a chance, child," he said in an intimidating manner. He picked up a pencil.

"Begin!" Angie cheered.

At that exact moment, Gundham's dark disciples popped out from his coat and all of them grabbed pencils as well. Together, they all began to draw.

Hiyoko gasped. "Hey! That's cheating!"

Celestia giggled. "Don't act so bitter, Hiyoko. Perhaps if you were also "entuned with the dark forces" you would stand a chance against Gundham."

Gundham smirked at Celeste's praise. In complete synchronization, Gundham and his dark disciples drew the racecar. Gundham started with the basic outline of the vehicle, while Phoenix and Raijin drew the tires at the bottom of the car. From there, Khan drew other important details like the side mirrors, grill, and spoiler at the end of the car. Then, Mephisto was left with the detail work, drawing a car number and decals that sold the idea that it was a racecar part of a major racing organization like Nascar. The picture over all looked like it was drawn with a car model as a reference, and the five of them only accomplished that in around 20 seconds.

Hiyoko growled as she had to work at double the pace just to keep up with Gundham. Her basic outline for the car was…not the best. It wasn't awful. Honestly, Hiyoko's line work from the car's trunk to its roof to the front hood was smooth and clean. It wasn't until Hiyoko worked on the wheels when Hiyoko had trouble. Her lines with the wheels overlapped with the rest of the car and they were two different sizes. She began to panic. She rubbed her forehead as she worked on the windows, which turned out to be misshapen and placed far closer to each other than needed.

"Times up," Angie said.

Hiyoko dropped her pencil and grabbed a hold of her wrist. Drawing as quickly and with as much force as Hiyoko used left her with an aching cramp. Gundham and his dark disciples gently laid the pencils back down before Gundham crossed his arms and his animals slipped back into his coat. As Angie stepped forward to examine the drawings, she caught sight of the frowning Hiyoko. Angie knelt down next to Hiyoko and held her hand.

"Do not fret, dear Hiyoko," Angie said softly. "I can teach you after this party."

Hiyoko looked up at Angie and gave her a weak smile.

Angie stood back up and announced the winner. "Gundham is the winner of this round."

Gundham smirked. "It was only natural."

"I'm quite impressed, Gundham," Kirumi said. "I had no idea that you were an artist."

"I've drawn many dark glyphs and icons to many demons and gods! A simple car is nothing to the Overlord of Ice."

'Perhaps I can rely on you to create more aesthetically pleasing art, Tanaka,' Celeste thought to herself.

"Still, if you didn't have your pets, maybe Hiyoko would've won," Tenko said.

Gundham grit his teeth. "They are not simple pets! They are my dark disciples!"

"Yeah, yeah, you like animal shit," Miu rolled her eyes. "Can you just move on already?"

Gundham huffed as he and Hiyoko returned to their teams. Before Hiyoko could go to the end of the line, she felt a light tap on her shoulder. The small blonde turned around to see her old redheaded friend, Mahiru.

Mahiru smiled at Hiyoko. "I thought your drawing was great, Hiyoko."

Hiyoko paused for a moment before giving a simple nod to Mahiru. With that, the two of them would return to their teams.

The two teams were tied with both of them having a single point. The next two artists were chosen. Kaito and Hifumi stepped forward and sat down with new, blank pages open to them. Angie drew a third card from the deck.

"This next one should be fun!" Angie said with a smile. "The two of you must draw a dance party!"

"Oh, that will be fun," Kaito said before picking up his pencil.

'NYEEE!' Hifumi thought to himself. 'I really can't miss this up. Ms. Yonaga is probably keeping an eye on how well me, Hiyoko, and Teruteru do. I don't want to be kicked out of this group. I don't want to be alone again!'

Hifumi picked up his pencil and got to work. His style of art, of course, leaned to a more anime-inspired look. More specifically, a style that wouldn't be out of place from a magical girl show like Tokyo Mew Mew. Hifumi drew three cute girls with big eyes and frilly dresses all swaying their hips. It was only shocking to see Hifumi draw such a detailed picture in such a short timeframe, but he did have a long history of drawing. Kaito…was not an artist. At all. As if the universe had to offset Hifumi's art, Kaito only drew a bunch of stick figures scattered across the page before ending it all off with one circle hanging from the top of the page.

"Time's up," Angie said as she clapped her hands together. She examined both of drawings. Despite her almost ever-present smile, Angie couldn't help but cringe at the low effort Kaito put into his artwork. However, turning her attention to Hifumi's drawing put a smile across her face.

"Congratulations, Hifumi!" Angie said to the round boy. "You win this round. I knew you had some artistic skills you haven't shown us yet."

"Th-thank you, Ms. Yonaga!" Hifumi said as he sweated nervously.

"Kaito, what the hell was that, man?" Leon asked.

"Yeah, that looked like shit," Mondo complained.

"What?!" Kaito gasped. "I thought it looked great!"

"I mean, it was just a bunch of stick figures," Chiaki said.

"And what's with the ball at the top?" Sayaka asked.

Kaito pointed to the drawing. "It's a disco ball."

Everyone leaned forward to get a better look at the ball at the top of the draw. After a second, they all spoke in unison. "Ahhhhh, ok."

"It's still just stick figures though," Kaede said.

"Gonta likes it," Gonta said.

"Shut up, Gonta," Miu snapped.

"Don't tell Gonta to shut up!" Kaito snapped back on Miu on Gonta's behalf. "He's backing me up!"

Team B had taken the lead with 2 points, leaving Team A with only one. It was Ryoma and Taka's turn as both of them sat down with new pages to draw on. Angie pulled out the next topic card.

"This next topic is a cat sleeping in a small bed," Angie read the note out loud. "Begin!"

Both Ryoma and Taka snatched their pencils and got to work. Ryoma's lines were clean, smooth, and only a few strokes of his pencil, he created an easily recognizable outline of a cat balled up in a bed. With the remaining time he had left, he shaded the outline in, giving the image depth. If Kaito was a bad artist, Taka was an awful artist. Kaito had the excuse of drawing simply stick figures. Taka used simply geometric shapes with no shifts or curves. He made a triangle for the head, a rectangle for the body, and a circle for the bed.

"Time's up," Angie said. She took a step forward and immediately saw just how badly Ryoma blew Taka out of the water. Ryoma's looked like it could be hung up in a museum. Taka's looked like a third grader's art doodle. Before Angie even announce the winner, someone spoke what everyone else thought.

"Sorry, bro, but your drawing sucks," Mondo said.

"Wh-what?!" Taka gasped. "It does?"

"Bro, just look at Ryoma's then back at yours."

Taka leaned towards Ryoma's art and his eyes immediately went wide. "I believe I understand where you are coming from. Good work, Hoshi! Your skills have overshadowed my own!"

"Yeah, you did a great job, Ryoma," Kaede smiled at the small man.

Ryoma sighed as he put another candy cigar in his mouth. "You're being too kind."

"Don't be like that, Ryoma," Sayaka smiled at him as well. "You should draw more often."

Ryoma's lip twitched slightly. Sayaka could've sworn it was a smile, but just as quickly as she saw it, it disappeared. Yet, that small moment was enough for Sayaka to confirm to herself that Ryoma was good or at the very least was proud of himself. With the concern for her friend settled, she turned her attention back to the art contest ahead of her.

I was really trying to push this part to at least get past the library section, but I was already taking too long with this part. I've made you all wait too long, I made myself take too long. So, here we go. Still, I like to think I put a lot of heart into this. This whole party is going to be filled with character interactions, bonding, and one special thing; fun. These kids have been and will be going through it, so they need to have fun.

I thank you all for being patient with me. I hope you're all still enjoying this story and my writing style. I'm worried that things are dragging a bit. Let me know how my pacing is. Same with my grammar. I still want to get this chapter done by the end of the year, then get 3 and 4 done next year. So, please leave your comments and thoughts and keep on reading.