A few days later, the group stood outside the Scarabia Dorm, with students preparing items for the trek to the oasis. "All right," Kalim happily says. "Jamil's back in the action, and we're done with our winter break assignments! You know what that means: let's all throw a grand holiday party!" The students cheer at the news as they continue their preparations.
Jamil sighs. "Have you considered NOT throwing a party every other day?"
"Oh, what's the harm?" Azul says with a small smile. "What could be nicer than a little celebration to commemorate the season?"
"The camels are all loaded up with food and drink," Jade announces as him and Floyd join with the group.
"And I've got my swimsuit!" Floyd excitedly says. "Can't wait to dive right into that oasis."
"Then it's time for a parade!" Kalim announces. "Bring on the elephants and the peacocks, too!" He shouts and the students happily nod at his decision, the elephants and peacocks already out mostly because the students, or Jamil, expected this to happen.
Grim looks at the sight with excitement. "Yeah! To the oasis we go!" He happily shouts, making Angel giggle.
"Funny how we dreaded this, but now we're happy to go through the desert, huh, Grim?" Angel says with a smile.
"Well, that was different," Grim says as the group start off walking off the dorm and into the desert sand. "This time we got a party waiting for us!"
As the group start to walk through the desert, they saw that Kalim was walking alongside them, not on his elephant, but walking beside Jamil while Jamil sighs at his concerns. "Are you feeling better now, Jamil?" He asks. "Let me know right away if you need a break."
"Enough," Jamil curtly says. "I told you that I'm fine now."
Grim runs past the two and look behind at the group. "Let's hurry to the oasis and get this party started! Woo hoo!"
"I'll teach you two how to swim!" Floyd says with a smile.
"Ha ha, I can hardly wait," Jade says with a smile as well. Angel looked at the two and giggled as they all start their trek through the oasis. While they were walking to the oasis, Angel noticed that the mood around Scarabia the past few days have become livelier than when they first arrived. The students were happily talking amongst themselves, not letting the decorations of statues, animals, and food distract them for the impending party at the end of their journey. She even went up to some of them and they apologized for their harsh treatment during their 'prison sentence' in Scarabia, while Angel happily accepted and understood, knowing that it wasn't their fault and that the circumstances were to blame. They appreciated her understanding, even some of them blushing as she apologized for the commotion and damaged she and Grim caused (i.e the wall to their original guest room), hoping that no bad feelings were between the two. Kalim overheard the conversation and even assured them that his family will take care of the damages, reminding everyone of Kalim's status once again. She even went to Jamil and they conversed for a moment, checking up on each other after the whole debacle, but even Angel could notice a change in Jamil, seeing that Azul kept pestering him and Jamil constantly shutting him down, releasing out quips and smart comments time and time again while Azul only chuckles, mainly happy at the fact that he could be gaining a friend, or in his case a future connection, on the way.
"Don't push yourself too hard, Jamil," Azul says with a smile. "You may lean on me if you need to."
"I'll pass, thank you," Jamil curtly says. "I'd rather not be indebted to you in any way. You should be more concerned about not shriveling to nothing in the desert heat."
Kalim and Angel observe the conversation and laugh. "Aha ha ha! You're all such good friends now!" Angel agreed with the statement, reminding her about two boys constantly arguing.
Grim just sweat drop at the two. "That didn't sound friendly to me at all!"
"Hey, should I remind a certain monster that you have the exact same conversations with other people, specifically two people who constantly gets us in trouble" Angel remarks and Grim looks at her.
"It's not my fault that I have two idiots who wants to associate with me," Grim says with a smirk. "They just can't help being drawn to the next headmage!"
"Gonna be hard for you to do that when you're as teeny as L'il Jellyfishy here, Sealie," Floyd says with a smirk.
"Quite indeed," Jade comments.
Grim angrily looks at the twins. "Hey, I don't need to hear that from you two!"
"Aha ha ha!" Kalim laughs. "Good to see that everyone here is becoming great friends!"
As they were walking, something catches Jamil's eyes, the familiar blue hue coming into view. "I can see the oasis now," he says as everyone follows his line of vision.
"Myah!" Grim ecstatically exclaims. "I can't wait to stuff my face!" He says as the group gets closer to the oasis.
"Yeah, this gonna be the best party ever," Kalim says with a smile. "We're gonna go all-out! Let's race! Last one to the oasis is a rotten egg!" Grim nods and the two took off running, leaving the five behind.
"I swear..." Jamil sighs at the two. "Where do they find all that energy?" He says as the group catches up to the two.
After a few minutes at the oasis, Kalim looked at the decorations placed around, content with the set up. "Okay, that should take care of everything," he says as he turns to everyone. "Go on, everybody! Eat, dance, and sing the bad times away!" The students cheer at the announcement and happily followed instructions, some getting food, some heading to the water to cool off, and some even dancing while others talked amongst themselves. "Come on, Jamil. Let's dance!" Kalim excitedly says as he looks at Jamil.
"I-I'm good, really..." Jamil says as Kalim grabs his arm and drag him to an open space to the dance. The five watched as they danced, surprised at how limber Kalim was while Jamil hesitantly joined in, matching his speed and rhythm.
Angel and Grim looked at them in awe while the trio observed them. "They're both quite limber," Jade comments. "Have you considered taking dancing lessons from them, Azul?"
"I think not. Some things are too tall of an order for merfolk," Azul says as he pushes up his glasses, trying not to let his emotions get to him.
"Let me in on the fun, guys!" Floyd shouts out to the two. "Come on, L'il Jellyfishy and Sealie. You're coming too," Floyd says as he grabs Angel's arm and Grim followed and dragged her towards the two, which Kalim was happy to allow since he offered a dance circle for the five. It's was quite hard to follow Kalim and Jamil's rhythm since they were dancing like professional dancers, but Floyd didn't care, his movements sloppy and just enjoyed himself. Eventually, just being with the three made Angel and Grim dance without a care in the world, smiling and laughing altogether with the group, or at least with Jamil giving out slight smiles every now and then.
"...eeeyyy! Heyyy..." A faint voice calls out to the group, confusing everyone as they look around, trying to locate the source of the voice. The students looked perplexed as well, seeing that the students were looking around keeping tabs on who was here, which proved to be even more confusing as they counted that everyone in Scarabia Dorm were present.
Grim looks out and spot someone running in the desert. "Who's that runnin' up from across the desert?" He asks while everyone look at the desert, seeing two figures heading towards the oasis. As they come closer, Angel and Grim gasp at the figures in surprise.
"Heyyy! Angel! Grim!" Ace calls out as they approached the two, out of breath from running through the desert.
"Are you two okay?!" Deuce asks in concerned while they catch their breath.
"Ace and Deuce?!" Grim says in surprise, while Angel look at them in confusion.
"Sheesh, this place is HOT," Ace exclaims as he huffs. "Feel like summer over here!"
"What's wrong, guys?" Angel asks, confused at the two's appearance. "I thought you went home for the holidays."
"Uh, I'M the one who should be asking that!" Ace says as he glare at her, surprising her.
"Your text said, 'Trapped in Scarabia!' Then we couldn't get through to you..." Deuce says with worry.
Angel looked at them in confusion, still not understanding the situation. "A text? I don't think I sent a text..." She looks over to Grim, seeing that he was looking at them with eyes wide.
"Oh yeah," Grim says as he looks away from her look. "I guess I did tell you to contact them." Angel thinks back, remembering how she thought it wouldn't be good to ruin their vacation and realization occurred, and she glared at Grim, him trying to avoid her glare. "I knew you guys wouldn't be much help, and here you are, showin' up after everything's already solved."
"What?!" Ace exclaims. "Look! The mirror gate wasn't open, so we couldn't warp back with magic! We had to take public transportation all the way back to campus!"
Deuce looks around, seeing that students were looking at them in surprise, some of them carrying on with their previous engagements with others watched the scene. "I'm kinda lost here," Deuce says. "You guys seem like you're having a good time. I'm not seeing any emergencies."
"I'm sorry guys..." Angel says as they look at her, realizing what she was wearing and blushes at the sight. "I'm so confused. I didn't send you a text about an emergency."
"WHAT?!" They exclaims. "Then who...?" Ace asks as their eyes head to Grim, seeing that he was avoiding their eyes. "Grim, you little...!"
"Who's this?" Kalim says with a smile as he joins the group. "Friends of yours, Angel?" She nods, while Ace and Deuce look at Kalim in shock.
Floyd smiles at the two. "Heya, Crabby," he greets. "Are you here to hang out?"
"Crabby...?" Deuce mumbles in thought.
"Yeah, I'm in the Basketball Club with Floyd," Ace explains as he looks at Jamil looking at him. "Jamil's in the same club as us too, actually."
"Ooh!" Kalim happily exclaims. "Well, then! Any friend of Jamil's and Angel's is a friend of mine!"
"Again, I am NOT your friend..." Jamil retorts only to sigh as Kalim ignores him. "You're not listening, are you?"
"Anyway, you came all the way here, so by all means, join in the festivities!" Kalim says to Ace and Deuce.
"We have pizza and pasta over here," Azul announces to the two.
"What would you like to drink?" Jade asks while the two look at them in shock.
"Geh! The Octavinelle boys!" Ace exclaims as he look at the two smiling at them.
"What are you doing with them?" Deuce whispers to Angel and Grim.
"We were in a whoooole heap o' trouble while you guys were off schmoozing with your families, y'know," Grim states. "Sit down and I'll tell you all about the Great Grim's exploits."
"What ARE you rambling about...?" Ace says with a sigh, looking at the two. "Oh well. I guess as long as you're okay..." He says with a smile as Angel just giggles at them.
"Yeesh. It's one false alarm after another with you guys," Deuce says in relief, at least happy at the fact that nothing bad happened to the two.
"Aw, you really were worried about us," Angel says as she giggles. The thought made her realized that the people in front of her were her people she could trust, her true friends. After all, they ran to make sure she was okay after Grim's stunt, even though it was a false alarm but she still appreciated the effort they took to check up on her. She felt a warm feeling spread inside her as the realization comes, some of her doubts ceasing to exist as she watches them talk to Grim, probably over some argument that Grim started. She smiled as they looked at her, blushing at the fact that the smile looked so natural and genuine. "Thank you both for coming for us."
They both looked away, trying to hide their blushes. "Meh, no big deal," Ace bashfully says. "There wasn't much to do at home other than play video games anyway."
"A-and it'd be a real jerk move to ignore you after we told you to message us if anything came up," Deuce bashfully adds.
Grim deadpans at the two while Angel giggles. "You guys just gotta keep up that image, huh?"
Kalim claps, getting everyone's attention. "Okay, back to partying! Bring on the food and crank up the music!" The students cheer. "This is going to be the best holiday ever!"
"YEAAAH!" The students happily exclaim while they enjoy the party.
Jamil watches everyone mingle and have fun while he sighs. "I am surrounded by simpletons," he quietly says as he watches everyone have fun.