afternoon implosion

Monday started off well.
Heeding the counselor's advice to build relationships with my troublesome 3 Musketeers, I made a point of asking them about their weekend. More importantly, I modified my interactions with them. Instead of standing in the front of the room and directing them to take out their vocab. tablet or write in their journal when they were off-task, I made an extra effort to walk up to them and in my quietest voice remind them of what to do.
It worked very well for language arts. Knowing the 3 Musketeers often struggle with reading comprehension, I made a point of monitoring their work, offering help and encouragement, and gently keeping them on task. It worked so well that before lunch, the trio was sitting together but working quietly and diligently on vocab. and spelling.
The afternoon was a different story.
A colleague notified me that Superstar and Bling had been playing rough in the lunch line. After lunch, I let the class into the room but kept Superstar and Bling outside for a talk.
Things that went wrong: while explaining what happened, Superstar and Bling couldn't keep their hands to themselves -- I ended up standing between them to keep them from touching and pushing. Thankfully, my kids are closer to the runty side of the height spectrum, so it wasn't a problem.
Issue #2: While I was sorting this out, the 3 Musketeers kept opening the door, making faces at Superstar, and provoking him in general.
It's important to note at this point that Superstar, due to certain conditions, often has trouble getting along with his classmates -- as the counselor put it, he doesn't see or understand the effects of certain behaviors and actions. For instance, he tends to invade physical space, not let the other person talk, etc.
But it ticks me off mightily that the other students provoke Superstar. Sure, he can get in their face (literally) sometimes, and he does not always talk nicely to the other students. But I still think they can make the right choice of ignoring him, moving away, etc. if he is being irritating.
I finally sent both of them off to the counselor. Then the 3 Musketeers began their afternoon meltdown.
The class was doing a constructed response based on Friday's math activity, which required students to work in groups putting fraction and percent cards in order from least to greatest. Unfortunately, the 3 Musketeers had missed the activity due to a) sulking and b) talking to a counselor. Despite encouragement to try their best, they refused to complete the CR.
They also did not participate in our introductory lesson on decimals, although they kept up a loud commentary: when is school going to end? why is this so boring? etc. They had swapped shirts sometime during the day, and they then began to ask for permission to go to the restroom together and swap shirts. King wheedled that they "could focus" if they just had the chance to change their shirts.
I am a patient person (I think, although perhaps this year I'm going to change my mind about that), but by this time, I was thoroughly out of patience. I asked all 3 of them to talk to me outside.
Rookie mistake: it's much more effective to talk to them one at a time. Neo and Junior then refused to re-enter the room. King came in but refused to sit down, hovering near the door. He made several attempts to walk out of class but at least heeded my direction to stay inside.
The counselors came and had a good long talk with them. They apologized to me at the end of class.
I'll have a sub tomorrow and Wed. for professional development, something that could not have worse timing. While I'm disappointed that I won't get to keep reworking my approach to these students, maybe those two days will be a good time to reflect and figure out something else I think will work.