Don't Get Me Wrong (Middle of Revamping)

Chapter 26: This is Our Party

One month later...

Today's the first day of our DECA State Conference in San Antonio. The conference lasts for 3 days, and today's just the day for everyone to arrive and settle in. Tomorrow's when the actual competition starts, and the final day is the closing ceremony where we see who qualified for Internationals in Atlanta!

It's also pretty memorable because today is Vihaan's birthday, and tomorrow is the best day of all: Valentine's Day.

Oh, we all love the day where couples can live their best lives and the singles eat ice cream while watching countless romcoms.

Crap, I just totally exposed myself, didn't I?

San Antonio is 4 hours away from Dallas, so we had to get here at 7 in the morning to drive straight to San Antonio, take a quick break at Buc-ee's, and get there as early as we can to find our rooms. We're staying at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, which is in the Downtown area of the city. It's also our competition venue, and it's gigantic.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR VIHAAN, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!" Everyone on the bus finishes singing happy birthday to Vihaan as he blows out the candles on his cookie cake.

Using a knife we brought from Buc-ee's, Vinnie cuts a piece of the cake and puts it in his mouth. Since Vihaan is such a goofball, he licks the excess frosting that's on her fingers and she grimaces while putting on some hand sanitizer.

"Don't stain your shirt, Vi," Deepa laughs at him while he chows down on his dessert, all of us cautiously staring at his smoke-grey DECA shirt to make sure he doesn't stain it with chocolate frosting.

"Not a single smudge," he smirks after he wipes some excess frosting off his mouth with a napkin.

"Hold on, Arjun is calling right now," I tell them as I look at Arjun's name at the top of the screen. I quickly answer the call, and Arjun's beaver face is the first thing I see.

"That face is terrifying," I tell him and he scoffs lightly.

"Where's the birthday boy?" he asks with enthusiasm and I flip the camera to Vihaan chomping his cake.

"Vihaan Khosla, you are literally the messiest eater ever," Arjun quips and Vihaan props his head to my phone.

"Tell me something I don't know," Vi makes straight eye contact with the camera and holds up a slice of cake.

"Happy birthday, dude. Once you guys get here, we'll do something for you."

"Wait, y'all are already there?" Vinnie asks him and he nods.

"We got here like twenty minutes ago. We already set aside our luggage and stuff, so we're touring around the hotel until you guys get here."

Neil turns his head immediately, and he starts smiling dorkily. "Wait, are you saying-"

"Yup, we're all staying in the same hotel."

We're having over 16,000 people from across the state coming today, so there's not enough space in one hotel to keep everyone. Because of that, all of the schools are staying in different hotels across the downtown area.

It's normally by district so that we're with familiar people during our time there.

"Sweet! Bro, we're gonna have so much fun," Deepa chirps excitedly as she comes near the camera.

"I know! My friends and I just finished walking around, and there are so many things here. There are an indoor fountain and outdoor pool, there's a restaurant, this place has everything!"

"There are TWO pools? Sign me up," Vihaan looks suddenly interested and Arjun gives a thumbs up.

"Okay, guys. We're gonna be at the hotel in about 15 minutes, so make sure your things are ready and not flailing around," Ms. Moffkins tells our bus and we all walk back to our seats after being up this entire time.