peaked in high school | karl jacobs

seven | 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬

2018

Penelope walked up the sidewalk, awkwardly balancing her brand-new board game in her arms.

She had been telling Sean all about it during second period and he told her that he would play it if she didn't talk about it at lunch.

She talked about it anyway, and he was about to be forced to play it anyway.

She repositioned the large box to hold it in her right arm and knocked on the door with her left, smiling at it.

It opened with a clunk and swung open. Her mouth popped open at the sight of the person standing in front of her, before it transformed into a giant grin, showing all of her teeth. "Karl! What are you doing here?"

"I'm back on winter break!"

She squinted at him, puzzled. "It's the first week of December."

"Exactly why college is better than high school."

She rolled her eyes at him, still smiling. "Well, can you let me in? I got this new board game and Sean and I are going to play the hell out of it."

"Sean's not here."

She tilted her head in confusion and quickly cleared her throat. "What?"

"He's at the dentist's, I think."

"Oh, shoot." She groaned, her eyes shifting up in annoyance. "He's such a jerk. He listened to me talk about us playing this all day and didn't tell me about his stupid dentist appointment."

"Do you still want to come in?" Karl smirked. He opened the door wider and stepped back to invite her in.

She shrugged and walked in.

Already familiar with the Jacobs' residence, Penelope made her way to the dining room, Karl following close behind, and set the board game down on the table. She pulled out a chair and plopped down.

"What am I supposed to do for however long that stupid dummy's going to be gone?" Her hands fell in her lap and she looked down at them, picking at her fingernails.

"I can play it with you until he gets back. Unless you realize I'm the better person to play board games with, and you never want to play with him again." He joked, sitting down across from her.

She looked back up him and laughed, immediately reached over and brought the box closer to her to open it. She analyzed all of the pieces with wide eyes, handling everything with extreme care while Karl watched from the other side of the table, struggling not to smile.

After she had softly and lovingly taken everything of interest (which let's be honest, was everything to Penelope anyway) out of the box and on the surface of the table, Karl carefully got up from his seat, as not to disturb Penelope and her happiness of unboxing a new game, and moved over to sit in the chair next to her. He leaned over closer to her so their shoulders were touching and they read the instructions, figuring out the rules and everything involved together.

She had changed a lot since Karl had seen her last, and it was nice. They were always close, but how he felt about her had changed.

She had always been more of like an annoying little sister who was attached to the hip to his actual annoying little brother, but now, as the two hung out without the comfort and connection of Sean, he realized that they didn't need a mediator to spark mutual interest.

She felt more like a friend, Karl smiled to himself at the thought.

"So, you have to go through like a bunch of steps before you can even play during your round?" He asked, squinting at the instruction book.