Improv Show
Monday came sooner than Jake thought it would. He spent all weekend looking for jobs so he could have a little cash on the side. He hardly saw his roommate, but never really asked where he had been or where he was going since Jake was just as busy. He figured he was probably larping or something. He didn’t know what the kid did in his freetime. Not yet, at least.
Classes were simple. They finished up introductions in speech. A small prompt in english. When sociology hit, it wasn’t too bad. Strider sat in front of him again and threw up some weird hand sign when the teacher did roll call. Then they broke up into partners. He was paired with another kid in his class, but he felt as if someone was staring at him the whole time, so he was incredibly uncomfortable. He didn’t want to look around and awkwardly made eye contact with someone.
When lunch came around, he sat with his usual crowd. About twenty minutes into lunch, however, he felt the eyes staring at him again. He looked up and saw Strider once more, staring in his direction. Jake shifted uncomfortably and turned his attention back to what his peers were talking about.
“So, who all is going to the improv show tonight?” Jane asked the table.
“Well, Feferi and I thought it would be kind of fun to go.” Eridan said with a shrug.
“I want to go and hopefully see that enchanting blonde from our class Friday,” Kanaya said in a dreamlike fashion. A chuckle went around the table. Every since Rose introduced herself, Kanaya had been smitten.
They all made plans to meet at the theatre around nine, right when the doors open. They all wanted to sit in the front and to do that, you have to arrive early, duh. After lunch, they didn’t have prod together, so they parted ways.
Jake had an interview at a museum at three, so he was just going to dick around until then. He had a couple of hours to kill. “Eridan, want to go downtown with me? I have an interview and need to get out of my room,” he said with a small laugh. The hipster shrugged. “Why not, maybe I can find some cool antiques.” Jake nodded and they headed downtown. It was only a couple of blocks, so it wasn’t too bad.
The basics were there; an abandoned theatre, a few coffee shops, thrift shops, a store that claimed it was going out of business, a nerd store, a few bars and pubs, etc. They didn’t really stop in anywhere, just looked at all of the different stores from the windows. Before Jake knew it, his watch beeped, signalling it was time for him to go to his interview. “Shit, time flew. You can either wait for me or ditch me,” he said to his roommate. Eridan shrugged. “I was thinking about checking out an antique store backaways. Text me when you’re done.” Jake nodded and they parted ways.
After an hour and a half, Jake exited the museum with a job. He was stoked to start working there. He was just doing mostly background work - monitoring kids tours, cleaning, set up, etc. He called Eridan to see where he was and he was still in the same store as he said he would be in.
Once Jake arrived, Eridan waved him over. “Look at this!” he said, pointing at something in a display case. It looked like some sort of fancy ring. “Don’t you have enough-”
“Jake, this is an antique, rare…” Eridan’s words fell on deaf ears as Jake thought he saw something from the front store window. A few seconds later a loud couple of people came in. That’s right. Strider. And someone else, who looked a lot like him. A brother, maybe? They were being rather loud and annoying.
A lady comes out from the back of the store. “Oh, no you don’t, you get right on out of here! I don’t tolerate loud noises in this place.” One of the guys scoffed. “Chasing out perfectly good customers? Fine. We didn’t want to buy anything anyway.” One of them knocked something over and Dirk stood there, staring at Jake. The dorky teen gulped and clenched his jaw. The two jocks left.
“Sorry about that. The older one has been coming in here for a while now, making a racket of the place. But it’s usually when Sollux is here.” The woman shook her head, confused. “I don’t know what brought them here this time.” She turned to them. “I’m Aradia and my father owns this store. Let me know if you need anything!” She skipped to the back room and giggled.
Eridan and Jake stood there. “Dude, what the fuck was that?” Jake shook his head. He had no idea. “Did they purposefully come in here?” Jake shrugged. “You better keep a look out.” Finally, Jake looked back at Eridan and nodded. “Uh. Yeah.” He shook his head and sighed. “We should probably head back and get ready for the improv show? Dinner is in about an hour anyway.”
When they arrived at the caf, their usual group was there. Once Eridan and Jake sat down, Eri immediately began to tell them what happened in the store. Jane gasped. “Oh my gosh, Jake! What if he’s going to kill you?” Jake rolled his eyes. “He’s not going to kill me. Maybe he was just trying to remember where he knows me from.” Jake shook it off, everyone was reading too into it. It was probably nothing. Of course, that’s what Jake has been telling himself.
The subject quickly changed about the way the evening events were going to transpire. It seemed that after dinner, everyone was going to clean up and then meet at the theatre. Luckily, the campus wasn’t huge, so everything was within walking distance.
After dinner, they all went to clean up for the show. It was common courtesy to look at least a little nice when going to see a show of any kind at a theatre. Eridan and Jake took turns showering and once they were done, they started to head for the theatre. On the way there, it seemed there was a racket on the way to the theatre. “Vote Strider for president!” There were obnoxious laughs and Dirk was randomly shaking people’s hands. When Eridan and Jake started to pass, they tried to go under the radar, but Dirk walked over and shook their hands. “Hello, Dirk Strider here and I think you should vote for me for the next president.” His friends laughed loudly behind him. One of them was the kid from earlier. Dirk quickly moved on, leaving Jake confused. He looked at his hand where the other had touched him and then looked at Eridan. “What the fuck?” he asked. Eridan shrugged. “It’s best not to ask.” They shook their heads and headed on their way.
They met up with their friends from earlier and sat down in the front. They were on their phones to pass the time, joking and laughing about various things. Then the opening song started and everyone was getting pumped. The improv kids came out and there Gamzee was. He looked so excited...and stoned. Come to think of it, he also looked stoned in class. Was this his personality? Whatever. That didn’t matter right now.
The first thing the crew asked for was a theme. So many things were shouted out. “Wild West!”, “Horror Movie!”, and “Porn!” The guy at the mic laughed. He looked directly at the group who said it and said into the mic, “Of course, leave it to the baseball team to make it about porn because they like nothing more than to see two dude pretending to have sex with each other.” The theatre roared with laughter and Jake looked back, seeing the kid’s earlier’s face turn a dark red under his sunglasses, which, why was he wearing those here? THat didn’t make any sense.
“Haa! Gaaaaay!” Someone called from the other side of the room and Jake looked. It was Dirk. “Oh, football boys aren’t any better. They’re usually the ones who go for the BDSM though.” More laughter. Dirk’s face turned bright red as well and he tried to laugh it off. Then he looked in Jake’s general direction, he was wearing glasses though, so Jake didn’t know if he actually looking at him, but the feeling that came over him? He turned back around, nervously laughing as he sat there.
The show continued on as they group did various games and skits. It was actually really funny and Gamzee seemed like a natural. He was a sophomore, so he knew how it all worked, so it made sense. He wondered who all else would join the improv crew. Jake kind of wanted to do it himself.
By the time the show was over, everyone was wheezing or crying or both. They stood to leave, congratulating Gamzee when they came off stage. “Why thanks, man. It’s awesome that you dudes came,” he said in his usual, lazy drawl. A kid came running down the aisle. He had a mohawk and he was very small. He jumped into Gamzee’s arms. “You did amazing!!” he exclaimed. Gamzee stumbled back a little and laughed. “Hey, little dude. I’m glad you liked it.” After a moment, it seemed like the kid realized what he did and his face turned red. He jumped off of Gamzee and blushed deeply. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t sweat it, T. All is good.” As if Gamzee just remembered everyone was there, he smiled. “Oh yeah! Where are my muthafuckin’ manners? This is Tavbabe.” Tavros’ face headed to a bright red color. “He’s here on an honor’s scholarship. Gonna get himself a nice engineering degree.” Tavros nodded shyly. Jake smiled. “Well, it’s nice to meet you Tavros!” He shook hands with the kid and then noticed that it was nearly eleven and he still had class. “Yikes! I need to get going! I will see you later!” He waved at the two and started to head out with his friends.
When they arrived at the dorms, Jake collapsed on his bed. He decided to check his pesterchum because he realized he hadn’t done that in a couple of days and TT was probably wondering where he was. He noticed there were a couple of unread chats from yesterday and felt bad. He began typing:
golgothasTerror [GT] began pestering timaeusTestified [TT] at 23:15:
GT: Greetings, old chap!
TT: Are you always going to use that as your greeting?
GT: I can switch it up if you want to?
TT: Nah, it’s good. You just always use it.
TT: It has become you.
GT: Well, what can i say? I am a simple man.
TT: Terror, you really are something else.
GT: Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
TT: You can guess.
TT: Well, I’m off to bed for the night. College has be worn out.
TT: Talk to you another time.
GT: Tata!
timaeusTestified [TT] ceased pestering golgothasTerror [GT].
A few minutes later, Jake was out like a light.