As Homecoming unfolded this week, it became clear that this year would see miscommunications, mishaps and accidents, and classes had to find ways to overcome them.

One example: The freshmen planned to use Jessie J’s “Bang Bang” and the sophomores planned to use this same song as well as Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda.” Both songs include lyrics that the class advisers deemed inappropriate for school. Both classes ended up using the instrumental versions instead.

Adding to the freshmen’s woes was the confusion over decorations.

According to freshman class president Kyle Wang, the freshmen began their Homecoming preparations months in advance, before they were made aware of the rules: specifically that the freshman class is not allowed to use wood in their Homecoming decorations. (Only juniors and seniors are permitted to use wood decoration pieces.)

Unfortunately, their key piece was a wooden backdrop that they spent a lot of time making. As they set up their decorations, they were offered a choice: Put up the backdrop and be disqualified, or leave it out and stay in the running.

“We saw the other [classes’] decorations,” Wang said. “The freshmen were probably not going to win in the first place, whether or not we had the wooden board.”

They ultimately decided to use their wood-based decoration and were disqualified.

This wasn’t the only decorations-based problem. Juniors also had issues when a part of their decorations was torn and destroyed.

According to leadership teacher Rebecca Marshburn, there was no vandalism involved: The juniors’ roofing paper began to melt due to the heat, and this is why it came off.