nick's pov

it took forever for us to start streaming because dream couldn't find his headphones anywhere. he said he had left them out on his desk, but they weren't anywhere in his room. karl and i were helping him look until i found them in thalia's room, the left ear chewed off by percy. dream reprimanded percy, who ran off whining, and borrowed thalia's headphones.

after that the wifi completely cut off and we had to reset it. it took half an hour before we could connect our computers again. we had barely started streaming when my phone went off with a text from thalia.

thalia🤠
do you want red or blue doritos

nick
um red
are you grocery shopping?

thalia🤠
yeah i'm making tacos tonight if that's okay with you and dream

nick
sounds good
can you pick up some of
the cookies i like please

thalia🤠
already got three packs in the cart

nick
between the two of us, that'll only last tonight

thalia🤠
i'll grab a few more but most of them have sprinkles and i hate having to pick them off😩

nick
i'll eat the ones with sprinkles and you can have the plain ones

thalia🤠
this is why you're my best friend🍄

nick
why did you use a mushroom

thalia🤠
it was fitting
the symbol of our friendship is now a mushroom

"sapnap!" george yelled over karl's phone, causing me to jump and drop my own phone.

"what was that for?" i asked, bending down in my chair to grab my phone.

"you haven't been paying any attention to us for the past two minutes," george whined.

"clingy much?" karl teased.

"go be clingy to your boyfriend,"
i said. "sapnotfound doesn't exist."

"it's karlnap loser," karl said as he put his arm around me. "i get sapnap and you get your green blob."

"fine, i'll go talk to dream. at least he cares about me," george huffed before ending the call.

"gogy's moody today," tommy said over the discord call.

"when did the child join the call?" i asked.

"i'm seventeen years old," tommy said angrily. "i'm not a child!"

"you are," karl and i said in sync.

i put my phone back in my pocket and karl started setting up the game. we decided to keep building in thalia's world because she made some good plans for the houses. we finished eight town houses and the main pathway before we started on city hall.

"so what are we in this town?" karl asked.

"what do you mean?" i asked, only half paying attention.

"well thalia named herself the mayor. are we citizens?" karl asked. he threw me some torches as i thought about that.

"i'm her favorite so i get to be vice mayor," i decided.

dream joined the call right then, after being late from having to restart his entire computer and re-sign into minecraft. "what's up?"

"we're deciding who gets power positions in this world," i told him.

"me obviously," dream said with a little scoff.

"i'm vice mayor," i told him. "you can be a city clerk."

"what does a clerk even do?" dream asked. "just the name clerk sounds so boring."

"if one of us married thalia, would that give us power?" karl asked.

"that's a great question," i mused. "you could be like half mayor then."

"i don't think it works like that," dream commented.

"shut up dream," i said. "i'm asking thalia."

i grabbed my phone and called her, putting her on speaker so karl could hear too. "thalia," i said when she answered.

"snapback," she responded.

"i'm going to ignore that in the interest of asking an important question," i told her.

"no, you cannot go through my underwear drawer," she said.

"what the heck is wrong with you?" i asked. "you're disgusting."

"i'm only kidding," she said lightly. "what's the question?"

"if you're the mayor, does your husband get to have some power?" karl asked, leaning over me to make sure she heard him.

"only if you're the husband,"
thalia said. "i won't marry anyone other than karl jacobs."

"did you just bite your lip in a really cringy way?" i asked, knowing full well that she had.

"i plead the fifth," thalia said.

"okay so if karl gets to be your husband, what is everyone else?" dream asked.

"nicky can be the vice mayor, dream is my bodyguard, and george is my advisor," thalia said after a moment.

"am i getting paid?" dream asked.

"i'm literally buying you groceries and making you tacos tonight. that's payment enough," thalia told him.

"fine. i'll accept the position," dream said.

"if you didn't, i'd have to kill you," thalia said dramatically.

a donation came through and i waited for it to be read as karl tapped his hands on the desk.

"hey sampam, give us thalia content or give us death," the donation read. it was from someone named snapmapsimp.

"thalia did you say that?" karl asked, giggling.

"did i say what?" she asked. through the phone, i could hear someone talking in the background, most likely peyton.

"did you send that twenty dollar donation?" i asked.

"why would i send you money when i'm already buying you groceries?" thalia asked, a bit of an attitude with the question.

"yeah it definitely wasn't her," dream commented. "the fans just really like her, for some reason."

"probably cause i'm a cool kid," said thalia.

"i think that's it," someone said from thalia's end of the phone. it was definitely peyton, although i didn't know why they went grocery shopping together.

we talked for a few more minutes before thalia hung up to check out. we kept building in the world and i added a garden around the new house i had built thalia. i put some mushrooms around because they were her favorite, which i had to explain to karl and dream.

"dude, you're a simp," dream said.

"i am not!" i protested. "it's called friendship, idiot."

"you're in love with her," karl teased. "it's literally so obvious."

"guys, i am not in love with thalia. she's my best friend," i told them, continuing to add nice touches to her new house.

"sapnap, you literally built her house next to yours," dream pointed out. "that screams clingy."

i rolled my eyes at that and said, "it's also next to george's house," i said. "but that doesn't mean i'm clingy to george. that's your job."

"yeah but it's different with you and thalia cause you loooove her," karl said, making a weird face at me.

"i do love thalia because she's my best friend, but it's not at all romantic," i said. it was all platonic because we are best friends. nothing more to it. and that's how we both liked it.

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