Day 2 of school was now in action.

After the whole food-fight mishap, I think the teachers decided that they couldn't trust us enough with an unsupervised lunch. So, to no surprise, some of the teachers had to start eating with us so they could keep an eye on everything.

For some strange reason, George had come to school with clout goggles on today, which was very much out of pocket, but oh well. At least they suited him. But it was beyond me how he didn't get dress-coded yet...

In the world of Sapnap, he was back to wearing sweatpants and hoodies since it wasn't the first day anymore. I shook my head at his very unstylish antics, but it was obviously a joke of course. I don't think Nick could ever look bad no matter what he wore, but I made him promise to at least let me paint his nails one day.

In other news, Tommy and Tubbo were sitting with us at lunch today which was pretty exciting.

"Yeah, I couldn't stand to be with that disgusting insect over there," Tommy commented, referring to the kid he got in an argument with yesterday. "He chews obnoxiously anyway, I couldn't deal with that shit."

"Me neither, it's a wonder why he chose to sit by us of all people," Tubbo added.

"He probably just wanted to be friends with a British person," I suggested. "Like, how some kids forget that other cultures exist so if someone from another country moves to America they feel the need to cling onto them like a leech."

Nick snorted. I looked over at him, raising an eyebrow. What was he laughing at?

"What?" I asked, curiously.

He looked over at me. "Oh nothing really, just reminiscing. Reminds me of how I clung to you like a leech when you first moved in, except you weren't moving in from another country, just another neighborhood," he chuckled.

I smiled as I remembered it fondly.

5 years ago

"Karl? Can you get the door? I'm busy cooking dinner right now, and my hands are full," my mom called from the other side of the house.

"Sure thing mom!" 12 year-old-me responded.

Whoever was at the other side of the door knocked again loudly, making sure to do it in some sort of weird rhythm. Musical.

I opened the door to find another boy, slightly shorter than me, standing on the opposite side of the doorway. "Hi!" He waved. "My name is Nick, I live across the street." He smiled.

I smiled back and noticed that he held his hand out, so I took it in my own. He shook it very furiously and for a very obscure amount of time. "Uh hi, I'm Karl," I managed to get out while in my state of distraction from how fast he was shaking my hand.

He finally let go. "Karl. That's a nice name," he complimented. I nodded my head in appreciation. "I'm gonna come inside now," he said, and without warning, he invited himself into my house and walked straight to the kitchen when he smelled the food cooking.

"Oh who's this?" My mom asked when I walked into the kitchen, following behind Nick like a lost puppy.

"This is Nick, he lives next door." I answered.

"Hello Ms. Karl," he waved, smiling. My mom smiled and waved back.

"Hello Nick, you can just call me Mrs. Jacobs. Are your parents home? Do they know you're here?" She asked, obviously out of concern that his parents might be worried about his whereabouts.

"Yeah, my parents told me I could come here. Is it alright if I stay for awhile? I want to be friends with Karl," he said.

"Of course dear, stay as long as you like," she replied.

<>

"Those were good times," I concluded, nodding once. "Do you even remember what we did when you first came to my house?"

"I dunno man," Nick responded. "I think we just played Minecraft because that's when I told you my Minecraft name was Sapnap I think."

"Ohhhh yeah, now I remember."

"Oh you guys play Minecraft too?" Tubbo spoke up, and me and Nick both nodded. "That's cool. So do me and Tommy. We play a lot."

Tommy spoke up. "We should all play together some time. Hey-" his attention was diverted when he looked to the doors of the entrance. "NO WAY IS THAT WILBUR?" He yelled, effectively grabbing the attention of everyone in the lunch room.

Wilbur looked like he wanted to die on the spot right there, but having already been spotted, he decided to at least be decent and walk over to our table.

"WILBUR I DIDN'T KNOW YOU WENT TO THIS SCHOOL!" He yelled, motioning towards the seat on the other side of him for Wilbur to sit down. Wilbur reluctantly took a seat and looked at me helplessly.

"I didn't know you went here either, Tommy, I guess you just moved," he replied, scratching his head awkwardly.

"Yeah but now that we're both here we can be best bros," he said, whilst slinging his arm around Wilbur's shoulder. "But not better bros than Tubbo, because he always comes first," he added.

"Awwww, thanks man," Tubbo said, giving Tommy a fist bump.

I looked over at Sapnap and noticed he was being a bit quiet. He was looking down into his lap, where his hands were fiddling with each other, and it looked off.

"Sapnap are you alright?" I asked, concerned. He looked up at me almost as if he was surprised, but slowly shook his head and looked back down. "Talk to me," I urged, leaning in closer so that no one could hear me besides him.

"There's nothing to talk about, Karl." He shrugged it off, and even though he was so persistent with it, I wasn't going to give up.

"I think there is," I responded. When he still didn't look up, I decided I needed another way to get his attention. So, with logic and reasoning getting the best of me, I decided to lay back in my seat and rest my head on his lap, looking up at him, so that I was in his direct line of vision. He seemed confused for a moment.

"Karl what are you doing?"

"What are you doing?" I directed the question back at him.

"Just thinking," he decided. "That's all."

"About what?"

His lips parted slightly, as if he was about to answer, but every time his mouth opened it would close again. It reminded me kind of like a goldfish. It wasn't very funny though, considering something was clearly wrong. "I- I don't know," he finally stuttered out.

"Of course you do. Do you not want to talk about it? Is it a sensitive topic? Would you rather talk about it at my house, after school?" I noticed that he was subconsciously playing with my hair, but I didn't mind. I let him do it because it might have been some form of coping strategy.

"I- I guess. Yeah. That would be alright." His voice was monotoned but he smiled at me nonetheless, so I figured he was being genuine. It's not like he had a reason to lie to me anyway. I mean, it's not like there was some big secret he was keeping between us.

"Okay," I smiled. "You can stay as long as you want after school, my mom is on a business trip right now so it's just me."

"That's fine," Nick confirmed.

I heard Tommy's voice from above the table. "Hey where did Karl go, he just disappeared-"

I stuck my hand up and waved it over the table. "I'm here!" I spoke loudly, knowing it was probably being muffled by the table. Unfortunately, I accidentally hit Nick in the face with my arm, causing me to giggle when he flinched. "Sorryyyyy-" I apologized quickly.

He sighed, in a playfully annoyed way. "It's fine Karl I couldn't stay mad at you anyway," he joked. He was looking into my eyes.

I noticed he had been looking into my eyes quite a bit more recently. Strange.

I didn't bother breaking the eye contact though, because it didn't seem to make him uncomfortable. I just continued to look at him, wearing the same smile on my face, until it was broken when the bell rang signaling that lunch was over.

"Alright well, see you after school?" I asked again, getting up from my current position and picking up my lunchbox.

"Of course," he responded.

Would've updated sooner but I recently got into demon slayer so my time has been occupied 👺