go big or go home

karl

ᴛʀɪɢɢᴇʀ ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢꜱ ʟɪꜱᴛᴇᴅ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴏᴘᴇɴɪɴɢ ᴀᴜᴛʜᴏʀ'ꜱ ɴᴏᴛᴇ

☆

karl is currently marking english books, despite it not being his job to do so.

he's sitting in bed with his back arched uncomfortably as he reads through his class' work. at the same time, his laptop is sitting on the bed next to him, streaming a recorded copy of a lecture he had attended last week.

he's having to go over it again because he hadn't taken in any of the information the first time around, far too busy replying to a ridiculous number of emails concerning the wedding. if he knew that catering and accommodation would both contact him multiple times a day, he would've chosen not to cover those factors.

even this time around, he's hardly listening to the lecture. he's too busy focusing on these english books and trying to make sense of the messy scribble of children's writing. speaking of which, he recognises this particular handwriting.

karl flips the book to see the cover and, as expected, is met with a very messily scribbled out 'leo'. he smiles to himself, going back to the page he was marking, and writes 'great work!' next to the 4/10 score. he adds a smiley face too, to helpfully distract the child from her lower-than-usual score. leo's a high attainer, and she's very much used to full marks. though, karl remembers her having a bad day when they'd done this test.

you're not meant to have favourite students, and that is a rule that every teacher knows, but karl can't help it. leo is so wholesome, and just about the only thing at work that gives karl motivation when everything else feels like it's draining the life out of him. being a teaching assistant is harder than it seems. the highlight of his day is always the one-on-one work he does with the high-attainer and, if he could adopt leo as his own, he would.

the amount of times he's watched matilda with sapnap and joked about becoming miss honey and taking leo is getting ridiculous. he is sure that sapnap would love leo too and he hopes that, when they have a kid one day, they will be as much of a light as the pupil.

karl thinks that the worst part about his current situation is that he isn't even meant to be marking the books. really, he should have his full focus on his lecture, taking notes and paying attention, but he isn't.

the class teacher just seemed too busy today and, when she asked him to help, karl didn't feel like he could really say no.

sapnap is always going on about how karl is a pushover, but he doesn't think that being kind makes him weak-willed. though, it is true that his kindness can become a weakness when he's trying to balance his full-time job, college, the stress of his upcoming wedding, his social life, and spending time with his fiancé.

speaking of his fiancé - karl knows that sapnap is out in the lounge. he heard him come in a while ago and talk to tina, and he heard tina say that karl has been busy this evening.

even if he hadn't overheard them, karl had also received a text from his fiancé. the ravenette was just making him aware of his presence, and telling him to come out when he's done with work, and karl has been pretending that he didn't see the sweetly worded text.

karl has been really snappy recently, getting all short-tempered and blunt, and that isn't him. he's never been like this before, not ever, and he hates himself for it.