I headed out to the parking lot, the tote bag filled with Maddie's belongings thumping at my side with each step. She'd sent the group chat a text from Ian's phone telling us all to meet up at her house, so I was headed back to Roy's car to ride with him.

I couldn't believe she did it, but there were already videos up on The Seven's app to prove it-- and if I needed more proof, we'd already gotten our points, which was a relief. Since the band stopped after only a few notes, I was pretty sure I messed up my countdown and shut the lights off early-- although on second thought, there was a good chance how anxious I'd been was to blame, too.

To my surprise, they got the lights back on pretty quickly. The bulbs only took a few minutes to light back up, and the band had been instructed back into position by the time I'd left the bathroom. I could hear them finishing up their set as I walked past rows of vehicles, looking for Roy's light blue car.

I spotted him then, leaning against the driver's side, his red flannel shirt swaying behind him in the breeze. I tried to ignore the way my stomach seemed to do flips just at the sight of him, telling myself I was just still reeling from the challenge, even though I knew that wasn't why I had butterflies.

He tucked his phone into his pocket as he greeted me with a smile. "Hey, you got the stuff?"

"Yup, all her clothes and her phone." I nodded, letting out a huff of breath in an attempt to relax. "I can't believe she really did it."

"Me neither. As soon as I got pulled out of that bathroom, I thought it was all over for us."

"Tonight didn't really go as planned, huh?" I almost had to smile at the unlikelihood of it all. "One more thing wrong and it probably would've been the end."

"I feel bad that Maddie had to step in, but... it was kind of a relief," he admitted, eyes cast downwards. "I wasn't really looking forward to it."

"Really? I was." Somehow, the joke left me without me overthinking it. As soon as I said it his eyes snapped back to mine, and the way his face lit up made me blush even more than I already was. I shook my head, smiling in embarrassment. "I- we should go. They're probably already waiting for us at Maddie's house."

"Hey, I didn't get to ask you my question. Y'know, from the bathroom," he explained, refreshing my memory. With all the chaos, I'd honestly forgotten about it.

I raised my eyebrows in anticipation. He hesitated, swaying slightly and scuffing his shoe against the parking lot.

"Well, I know it's short notice, but... would you want to go to homecoming with me? Or, you know, if- I don't know," he stumbled over his words, the stutters only making my heart hammer harder in my chest, "If you don't like dances, maybe we could just... hang out or something."

I couldn't help the grin that spread across my face, my stomach twisting with excited nerves. Roy-- sweet, funny, cute Roy, who most likely had no shortage of girls to ask-- wanted to go to homecoming with me.

"I'd love to," I answered, practically bouncing on my heels. Something dawned on me, my excitement faltering, smile falling. "But I don't have a ticket."

"Well..." Roy shifted his weight back and forth, a hand rubbing at the back of his neck. "I've been meaning to ask for a while. On Friday I realized it was the last day to buy tickets and that I still hadn't asked you, so I kind of bought you one in hopes that you'd say yes when I finally did."

I smiled at him in disbelief. It was nerve-wracking enough for me to be around Roy when he was outgoing, but the moments where he got shy were the ones that seemed to send my heart pounding. "Of course I'd say yes."

He shrugged a shoulder, blushing, which of course made me blush, too. Before either of us could say more, both our phones went off, dinging and chiming in unison. I reached into the tote bag for mine, lazily trying to find it among all of Maddie's clothes. I figured it was probably Ian telling us to hurry up.

"Woah," Roy's eyes went wide as he looked at his screen, the light illuminating his face and highlighting his surprise as typed in his password. "They sent us another poem already."

He shifted so I could see his screen and pulled up our chat with The Seven, which had a new message at the bottom.

"We should go," I said, heart now pounding for a different reason. "We don't have a lot of time to prepare."

♧

Maddie quickly ushered me and Roy inside and up to her bedroom. Ian was sitting backwards on her desk chair, a thoughtful look on his face as he rested his head on his crossed arms. He gave a wave as we entered, straightening slightly.

"Make yourselves comfortable," Maddie said, getting on her bed and laying on her stomach across the purple sheets. "We have a lot to talk about."

"Yeah," I agreed, heading over and sitting on the beanbag resting near her closet. Roy followed and plopped down next to me on the squishy seat. I could feel my face heat up as his leg rested against mine, commanding almost all of my attention. "We have what, twenty-four hours to figure this whole thing out?"

"Well, there's something I should say before we talk about that," she admitted. Her face flushed with color, much like I was sure my own was thanks to Roy's proximity. "I don't know if Daniel still wants to be in the group. We had a fight tonight, so... I don't know."

"Are you guys, like... did you break up?" Roy asked, sounding uncertain of the question.

Madeline raised her shoulders, sighing. "Not yet, but he won't call or text me back. Anyways I just thought you guys should know, so in case he wants out, you'll know why. But Jade's right, we need to talk about the challenge. We're supposed to spill something red on the homecoming queen when they give her the crown-- do we all even have tickets for the dance?"

Roy and I nodded, but Ian shook his head. I figured Maddie was supposed to go to the dance with Daniel, and I couldn't help but wonder if they'd sort out their argument by tomorrow night.

"That might make things more difficult," she said, biting her lip as she thought for a second. "On the plus side, they're holding the dance in the gym, which we have access to thanks to your keys."

Ian nodded. "That'll make it easy to set up a bucket of..." he trailed off, waiting for someone to fill in the blank.

"Well, they used pigs' blood in the movie, but I doubt they care about being that specific." I checked my phone for the time, sighing at the numbers. "Red paint is what I was thinking, but all the hardware stores are probably closing soon."

"Then we'd better get going," Maddie said, rolling off the bed and onto her feet.