Catch of the Game

1- September

The locker door closes, chipping the nail polish on Karl's thumb. He lets out a sigh and considers if it's worth it to try and fix it between classes or not. He pulls out the emergency purple nail polish from his backpack and starts to put a coat over top the ruined polish. The bell rings as he's finishing it, and he runs to the last class of his first day, praying that he doesn't smudge the new purple polish.

By the time Karl gets to his science class there's only one seat left at the back of the class. The back row is usually dedicated to the football players, none of which Karl plans on getting to know. As the new kid in 12th grade, he plans on just getting through the year under everyone's radar, then leaving the small town to go to college somewhere far away.

He sits down and the boy with a white bandanna sitting next to him turns around and politely introduces himself. "Hey! I'm Sapnap."

"Umm hi, I'm Karl." He gives a small wave.

"Oh wow, I love your nail polish. I've always wanted to paint mine but I think I'd mess it up," says the football player.

Karl smiles, silently thanking his past self for taking the time to fix it. "It's not too hard to do once you figure it out, it only takes me a couple minutes."

Sapnap giggles, "you're probably way better at it than I am."

Karl looks at Sapnap and notices the black piercing on his nose. "Maybe I am, but you can pull off that septum piercing, and there's no way I could," Karl says, laughing.

Sapnap tilts his head at Karl, inspecting his face. Karl cheeks redden at the sudden attention.

"I bet you could. A silver one would look good on you."

The red on Karl's cheeks gets deeper. He takes the opportunity to look away when the teacher starts talking.

A few minutes into the teacher's droning speech about what the class is going to be like, Karl feels a tap on his arm. He looks over confused and the boy sitting beside him smiles and gestures at a small folded paper by Karl's elbow. Confused, Karl opens it up to read what's inside.

Here's my number so we can text about homework and stuff :) 

Karl looks at the teacher unsure about what the cell phone policy is, but they're facing away so Karl pulls his phone out of his pocket and puts the number in.

K: hey:]

S: can you believe that we have homework on the first day of this class!? it's ludicrous

K: yeah this class seems pretty hard

S: you busy after school? we could work on it together and get it done twice as quickly

K: sorry my parents are forcing me to finish unpacking >:T

S: :( some other time then

Eventually the bell rings and Karl grabs his bag.

"Bye! Have fun unpacking, see you tomorrow!" Sapnap says.

"See you later!" Karl waves at him.

Sapnap walks off with the other athletes in their class and Karl loses sight of them after walking out of the school. He lets out a sigh once he's alone and plugs in his headphones. He feels himself blush slightly thinking about the boy in his last class. He shakes his head to try and get rid of the thoughts, knowing that he's probably just being used for homework answers again.

He's glad he figured out the route to his house beforehand because the roads in his new town are confusing. They weave in and out of the forest that surrounds the whole town and stretches off into the wilderness. When he lived in New York it was easy to navigate the streets, and he's not used to all the paths and winding roads and random shortcuts through the trees.

He doesn't mind this small town too much though. The trees are nice and he can see a lot more stars now. It's kind of comforting.

He puts his hand on the door handle of his new house and wills the thoughts of the nice boy out of his head.