Alice kicked her white sneakered foot into her air to get herself back up into a sitting position while rolling her shoulders glad that her work was done. Well, at least it was in the planning slideshow that Madeline made and presented earlier to get a rough schedule as to what should be done on the float on the days that were somewhat blocked.
She was covered in a ton of silver glitter, and she grimaced when she stood up to try and brush it all off her skirt which was proving to be harder than she had first thought. Tyler came over to grab the rest of the materials that she was working on, and she thanked him in advance considering that she wasn't doing much of the heavy lifting.
Madeline stepped up on the float and put a fake smile out to the ground which drew groans from the nearby boys who were in their little huddle talking about who knows what. She herself was never in the group to talk with boys comfortably as the others were since she had always found it awkward.
Then again, it wasn't as if she was popular with them either since during her first year when she got confessed to, she had thought that they were alone but his friends were hiding behind the pillars of the academy to overhear everything. She had honestly turned him down in front of all of his friends who were rooting him on from nearby came out after they believed she did him an injustice.
Perhaps so, but shouldn't she be allowed to have a say in who she likes? It was awkward, and the rumors spread like wildfire until it died down by another person's downfall. It was like that in the academy which Alice hated since the students who would call each other friends would revel when one misstepped instead of uplift them.
She was lucky considering the fact that no one cared about her too much to try and dig into her wrongdoings in the past to fabricate a weakness. The people here were like that, unfortunately. Overall, it had gotten better, but the people here were born to compete with one another with their wealth and bloodlines secure.
Madeline grabbed her purple plastic tiny karaoke microphone which was totally just a children's toy and brought it to her lips with a smile. "I just wanted to say that I love you all."
Alice covered her surprised laugh at the random confession that was supposed to give the others energy instead everyone groaned. She glanced back to the supervisor who was sitting in the corner and was uninterested in anything except for her novel that her nose was stuck into which was why Madeline felt able to lead with a teasing intro.
Daniel brought his hands over his mouth with a grin. "Shut up!"
Madeline slid a look over at him but returned to her natural stride. "I just wanted to say that I'm proud of all the hard work that you put in today."
"Does that mean we're done?" Owen called while some guys elbowed him from asking a ballsy question.
Madeline gave the group another fake smile, and they all knew that she was playing around. "Let's use all the time up today, shall we? It is our first day after all."
There were a few grumbles but light laughter accompanied it. The group didn't seem to be lacking any energy at all. At this rate, they might as well finish it all tonight, but they had already all discussed a total of four days over the next two months to get everything into order.
It seemed as though lots of people did skip the building process which she knew that Madeline wouldn't take lightly and will likely put the names towards the dean to do remedial work. It wasn't her problem though.
She wouldn't let her observation of the fact that Noah was a no-show slide, but it overall did fit his character judging by how at ease he would have been if she hadn't disturbed his secret hideout last week.
Alice fluffed her hair out of its bounded position which was tied into a loose ponytail and slid the black band to her wrist since she didn't want to get any harsh crease lines in it after she blow-dried it so carefully last night.
Pulling at her button-up, she was getting a bit stuffy inside the gym and forgot her water bottle in the classroom which was a pain. She didn't want to go all the way back to grab it though, and she retraced her steps to ensure the best way to there tomorrow morning instead.
With that decided, she would have to suffice with going to the bathroom to find the water fountain that was nearby. She didn't want to go alone, and she cast her eyes over at Claudia who was still peacefully gluing on flowers.
Alice threw the bait first at Claudia. "I'm going to the bathroom."
Claudia glanced up and lifted the glue stick in her hand. "Sorry, darling. You're on your own."
Alice sighed. "Yes, ma'am. As you wish."
"Just go if you want to take a breather quick," Claudia said reading her mind.
"Okay," Alice said as she stood. "I'll be right back."
Claudia narrowed her eyes at her. "You better not go to the convenience store."
"You know I won't. I don't like to go to the one on campus anyways."
"I'll be sure to visit your parents later to relay that information."
"They'll be happy to hear it."
"Yes, got to promote my dear friend's store."
"Of course," Alice winked. "I'm going."
Claudia nodded with a quick snap of her wrist shooing her away which was a good decision since Alice would forget to do so while in the middle of talking and end up getting carried away.
Alice inspected the bits of pieces of random objects in the making still in the gym from previous students in their float-making duties, but she couldn't tell the theme from ordinary black triangles.
It was still interesting to look at since she didn't have any idea as to what it could be at all. It wouldn't be good to poke around too much anyways since it should at least be somewhat of a surprise later at the fair.