Chapter Text
I wanna know you
But can’t make it right
There’s something on my mind
There's something that I
Wish I would’ve told you but you just don’t seem
To wonder what I’m doing when you’re close to me
Oh yeah
There’s something on my chest
I wish I would’ve said
I think it over and it might be true
I’m only overthinking when I’m close to you
-Close to You by Dayglow
--
Karl hates improv.
Sure he loves theatre, he likes to sing the songs and act and pretend like he’s someone else for a while, it’s comforting to him in a weird way. He got into it in 7th grade when his mom signed him up for auditions against his will since he “never does anything after school”. He rolls his eyes, straight A’s don’t come easy. But he enjoyed the plays. He played major roles since there were little guys to cast due to the fragile masculinity that filled the highschool, Karl didn’t care if anyone thought he was “unmanly”. Being open with his sexuality and painting his nails, he already got weird stares from others, but he’s used to it. He kind of liked the idea of being different in a crowd full of the same faces. He grows out his fluffy brown hair, he wears huge sweaters with funky rings, and he doesn’t care. It’s refreshing to finally not care after years of trying to fit in. In 8th grade he came out as bi to his mom and Alex, both supported the hell out of him so he didn’t have to worry about anyone else, cause they were the only ones that mattered. Now he was in 11th grade and he feels as if life couldn’t get any more comfortable.
Yet, Karl couldn’t sit still in the auditorium seat, he turned to his best friend who was chomping down on an apple. He grinned at the boy’s absurdity.
“What?” Alex questioned, noticing Karl’s stare, “I’m hungry! I skipped lunch to retake that stupid history test,” Karl didn’t respond and simply just shook his head. His friend was an idiot. He couldn’t get over the fact that in 30 minutes he was going to go on stage with a bunch of strangers and make shit up, FOR FUN. What kind of mind game is that?
Karl was good at school, and pretty good at acting, but could NOT for the life of him improvise. He’s bad under pressure.
Just like his mom, his friend Alex always got him into things without asking him, forced him to “get out there more”, it was exhausting.
“Yeah okay okay I get you want me to mingle with new people but, improv? Really?”
“Trust me dude, you need it. I’m like you’re only friend. It’s sad, sad!” Alex responds wittily, taking another bite of his apple. Karl smiles at the other’s expression.
“You’re just being mean now,” Karl shoots back while shifting in his seats, he hates sitting still.
A few minutes later and an apple finished, a tall man in a tweed suit appeared on stage. He could hear Alex try to stifle a laugh, Alex found anything and everything funny, especially in situations where you aren’t supposed to laugh.
“Alright who’s ready for a little improv?” Karl was all of a sudden hyper-aware he was there. He looked around at the other people nervously, thankly there weren’t many people. He noticed a girl with pink hair, thin black glasses and a friendly smile sitting behind them. She looks nice. Karl thought. Make a note to talk to her. He noticed a girl next to her with pretty brown hair grinning at her, She looks nice as well.
A few rows back he sees what looks like to be a couple (they were holding hands so Karl just assumes they are). One has brown hair and a soft face while the taller one had beach blonde hair with bright green eyes. They seem sweet. Finally he sees 3 teens sitting next to each other, one is tall, like TALL tall. He has fluffy brown hair similar to Karl’s but a bit longer with greyish eyes. The other tall boy has a red and white shirt with blonde hair and a funny look on his face like he just told a really funny joke. The shorter teen had short fluffy brown hair and a kind smirk looking up at the blond, they seemed like a fun bunch. Karl shifted his focus back on the teacher and felt a bit more relaxed. He felt not as intimidated, those people seem nice, and not at all like people who would beat him up for wearing a collared shirt under his chunky knit sweaters. After all, it is an improv class.
“I’ll be your improv teacher-well improv instructor. One does not TEACH improv, one observes. Improv is all about finding yourself and being able to speak without someone telling you what to do, unlike most teachers-” the guy went on and on and Karl felt as if he was being lectured about the importance of this made up practice. He felt himself reach for his phone but Alex swatted his hand.
“Ow! What the heck Alex” Karl whisper-shouted. “Let the tweed man talk! You need to hear this, it's very important!” Alex whispered back. Karl side-eyed Alex and turned back towards Mr. Tweed.
“I’m Mr. Valez,” Ah nevermind, Mr. Valez. “Let’s begin shall we, everyone arise!”
Everyone starts to get up from their seats, but Karl is still glued to his. Alex looks giddy until he turns to see Karl still planted to the chair. “Man he said arise! Arise you doofus!” Alex taunts. Karl rolls his eyes and starts to remove himself from the chair. “Why did you bring me here, just to suffer?”
“To mingle Jacobs!” Karl starts to hate the word “mingle”, he sighs deeply. Sometimes, he hates Alex.
“On stage thespians!” Mr. Valez declares. Alex grabs Karl’s arm and drags him on stage, while the rest of the people in the theatre follow suit.
“Let’s start with introductions!” He starts. Everyone starts to form a circle all of sudden, he feels as though he missed a step, maybe it’s an unwritten rule in the improv world to just form a circle? He joins the circle along with Alex who is still smiling like a mad man. Why is he enjoying this so much? He knows for a fact Alex could not give a crap about improv. He plops himself down, he notices the pink-haired girl sit down next to him on the other side along with her brunette friend. Karl smiles at her and she smiles back.
“Now, who wants to go first,” and the room fills with silence. Oh boy. He watches as Mr. Valez scans the room like a hawk stalking his prey, preying on the innocent, choosing his next victim. He looks directly at Karl and Karl feels his cheeks begin to heat up. “You!” He says looking directly into Karl’s soul. Oh god.
The room’s eyes land on Karl, he starts to feel as anxious as a person could get. “Me?” He says aloud, like it’s not so blaringly obvious he was talking about him. Mr. Valez nods enthusiastically. “I-I’m Karl-” he starts. “Arise when you are introducing yourself in improv Karl!” he interrupts, sort of startling him, he quickly gets up. He could feel Alex’s eyes on him burn and could practically feel Alex try to hold his laugh in as he struggles to get up. “I’m Karl,” he repeats. God could it get any worse?
“And what do you like to do Karl?” It just got worse. He hates talking about himself. He looks down at Alex who just shrugs at him. He’s no help at all. “Uh I-”
“Shit I’m so sorry I’m late!” he was interrupted by a voice across the room who just entered the room. His deep voice echoed throughout the auditorium as he traced it back to his face. Wow. His face.
All Karl could think is what the fuck a guy who looks like that was doing at an Improv class.
He looked as out of place here as Karl did, but in a different way.
He looks like your average highschool jock. Shoulders broad, short cut brown hair, green sparkling eyes and teeth as white as snow. And though he looked like he could star in a highschool rom-com, he still looked different than the other jocks at his school. Different, in a good way. He looked kinder, like his words could mean the world to him. Like he could hold Karl and make him feel like puddy in his arms. He looked like he could say Karl’s name and make him melt in his shoes. God he was so gorgeous. He could feel his face turn from an embarrassed heat to a soft blush as he locked eyes with the boy. The boy smirked at Karl, he could feel his stomach do a backflip.
“I-football practice ran a bit late-” He continued. So he is a jock. Karl wasn’t shocked at that necessarily, but he was shocked at the fact that a football player made him feel so weak in the knees. Like he could tumble over.
“Ah yes a football player late, where’s the surprise there?” Says Mr Valez, a bit rude to say out loud. He watched as the pretty boy’s face fell into a half-frown. “Alright join the circle won't you?” The boy quickly obeys and rushes over to the circle. He decides to sit right in between the pink-haired girl and Karl’s feet.
“Of course when you said you could come you show up late, nice one Sapnap” says the blonde boy holding the brunet's hand across from Karl. Sapnap. His name is Sapnap.
“It’s not my fault coach decided to give us a pep talk!” He responds. Mr. Valez clears his throat, interrupting their friendly dynamic. “Oh Sapnap, is that the late one’s name? You’ve wasted enough of our time, interrupting Karl, I expect an apology from you to him right now,” Karl could feel his heart grow faster. Oh god oh no oh god oh no-
The brown haired boy looks up at Karl with a smile, and oh, Karl could see his dimples. He felt like he could die right there right then.
“Sorry for interrupting you Karl, go on,” Karl didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know his body could feel so helpless as he struggled to decide what to do with his hands. Karl nodded down at the boy. “Uh thanks I guess” Sapnap looked down at the floor, seeming embarrassed. “I’m Karl, I uh- I like to do theatre and I love the fall-”
“Ahh a fellow theatre kid! Why do you like the fall Karl?” Mr Valez asks. For a guy who just yelled at a kid for interrupting Karl he sure does like to interrupt Karl.
“I guess I like the fall because I like the weather, I like wearing sweaters and I love pumpkin scented stuff. Oh and candles, I like candles. And Halloween, an underrated holiday. I could bathe in leaf piles-” Karl realized once he starts talking he cannot stop, the room feels warmer with this new presence. With Sapnap in it. He looks down at the boy to see if he’s paying attention at all, and the boys stares back up with sparkling eyes and a crooked smile. He kept ranting on and on about fall and watched as the boy grew more interested in his thoughts. It felt nice for someone to just listen for once.
“That’s nice Karl. I like you. How about the pink-haired lady next to Karl?” he says, Karl sits down and smiles a bit. Alex nudges him. He turns to see Alex winking at him, god knows what that could mean. He instead focuses his attention on the pink-haired girl who seems like a potential new friend.
She stands up, smiling brightly. “Hi I’m Niki! I like Pokemon and Minecraft, I love the spring because of the pretty trees and I like wearing skirts,” she said. Karl liked those things as well, so he gave her a grin when she sat back down. “Ah yes, of course I know Niki. She's been doing improv with me for a while, I just thought all you new people would like to get to know her. She’s a peach-” Karl tuned out the blabber-mouth of a teacher and focused his attention on the boy next to him who was fiddling with his hands. He looked a bit nervous, and anxious. He wonders if he does the same thing before a big game, or before a big exam. He thinks about how adorable he finds it that he does that. He snaps out of his haze after a while.
The circle continues. Sapnap’s friends are George and Dream, who’ve been dating for a while now, as they mentioned in the introduction. Niki’s friend is Puffy, who also shares her love for Pokemon. The younger trio’s names were Ranboo, Tommy and Tubbo, who were sophomores who Karl assumed liked to cause chaos wherever they went. Despite that, Karl liked their energy. Alex introduced himself as “Quackity” which was his online alias that Karl likes to tease him for a lot, but the room didn’t bat an eye at the sentiment, which Karl found comforting in a way. Sapnap was last, that’s what he got for being late I guess. He arose from the circle.
“I’m Sapnap,” he started, he swore he could see Mr. Valez roll his eyes. “I don’t usually go to things like this but uh my friends made me go to uh meet some people I guess. I don’t mind trying new things out as well. Especially when they come with their benefits-” he paused, and looked down at Karl, which made his heart stop. What does that mean? Karl blushed deeply as he saw the smirk begin to form on Sapnap’s pink lips. “And uh-my real name is Nick. But most people call me Sapnap. So uh yeah. And I play football, but y’all knew that-”
“Okay that’s enough thank you Nick!” Mr Valez said. Sapnap nodded dejectedly and slapped his hands a bit as he sat back down. “Now, let’s start improving!”