Mike and Lyn arrived outside the school. Mrs. Perkins had driven them there, while Elly and Kelley were arriving by another vehicle. Myra was already there, waiting for the rest of the group to arrive. As Mike walked to the entrance to the gym, he spotted Myra in a maid outfit. She gave the full stereotypical maid bow, saying:

“Welcome back,”

Mike looked at the bowing Myra, flustered. She stood back up straight, giggling.

“That’s all it took? Oh, you’re no fun,” she added.

“Why do you have to do that?” Mike asked.

“I don’t, but I want to.”

“Ugh,”

Mike walked up next to Myra, looking inside the building entrance. Myra turned to face the same way.

“So, ready?” she asked.

“...yeah,” Mike sighed.

Lyn, who was leaving the two to each other, finally came around to join them. She simply had casual wear for the evening, drawing comment from Myra:

“Why didn’t you come in costume?” Myra asked.

“I didn’t have a costume, and I didn’t really feel like it,” Lyn answered.

“You’re just here, then?”

“Yeah.”

The trio made their way in. Generic Halloween-themed music was blasting in the gym. Internally, Myra felt somehow let down by what was present, but she didn’t want to ruin it for everyone else. As they looked in, they saw Johnny and Ashley on the far side.

“Is that…” Mike said.

“Yeah…” Myra sighed.

“Let’s just hope he doesn’t try anything,” Mike added.

“And you should have fun,” Myra mused.

The Halloween prom was so far highly unremarkable. The music was stereotypical at best and trite at worst. All the other entertainment and refreshments were varying levels of lacking. No one seriously complained, because it was secondary to the real point of the prom: time with that student you have the hots for, who you may or may not also have a relationship with.

Incidentally, in this moment Mike was with Elly and Kelley - two who Mike had managed to make some actual form of friendship with while never actually having any horny energy about. Myra had gone off to one of the quieter parts of the prom for the moment, citing noise.

“Hey, Mike, what do you think about my outfit?” Kelley asked.

Kelley’s outfit was an actual costume, based on a character from a video game she had played. It was an ornate, complicated outfit with many bits and bobs which seemed more for flavor than purpose.

“It looks good, very… uh, fantasy-explorer,” Mike said.

Elly took her turn asking for opinion.

“What about mine?” she said.

She took a step to get in close to Mike. Her outfit was ,as she explained to staff, of an evil fantasy mage from a game. This was a lie: it was a black bikini with minor modifications by Kelley, with the addition of a horn headband she got from a thrift store.

“Uwha-- very, um…” Mike stammered.

He took a step back, not expecting Elly to suddenly step forward. Elly pouted, adding:

“You’re not fun,”

She relaxed, and stopped trying to deliberately fluster Mike.

“I’m not gonna try to take you from Myra, anyway. Besides, there’s more fun boys to pester. You should have more fun, live a little! You’re so… distant. You need to get out of your shell more,”

Mike looked at Elly.

“...what do you recommend?” he asked.

“Hmmm…”

Elly looked over at Myra, who was on the side of the hall, currently alone with a drink in hand.

“Try taking a drink of Myra’s soda,” she said.

Mike didn’t fully understand why she’d say that, but she had a point about being distant. Yeah, let’s give this a shot, he thought. He made his way over to Myra to finally try to climb out of his shell a bit.

“Do you think he’ll do it?” Kelley asked.

“Sure hope so,” Elly answered.

The two started wandering to a different part of the hall, when Kelley asked a question to Elly.

“If he wasn’t claimed, would you go after him?”

“Eh- …probably. Little did I know, wallflower boy is a decent person,” Elly mused.

“Think there’s more of him in this school?”

“...Maybe. Maybe I’ll ask Myra about it, she seems to know something we don’t,”