Mark King

Counselor/Asst. Choreographer of HSM - 20- he/him

[mark-marking]

victor-the-grouch‌:

“Hold on. What? Like…me, dancing?”

Trying to stay composed after Mark grabbed his hand was one thing. When Mark said ‘teach you this move’, what Victor heard was ‘guaranteed to end in embarrassment’.

There was a part of him that wondered if he should’ve lied and said he wasn’t free when Mark had initially asked him to come. But he dismissed the thought. There was no point in trying to kid himself. It wasn’t as if he would’ve said no. Besides, it was for work.

“Um…I guess I could try.”

Shit! Why did I say that? I don’t know how to dance!

“…But if I end up walking all over your toes, remember this was your idea.”

“Thanks so much!” he beamed before clapping in front of his face. “Okay, so the move itself is really simple, but it’s the speed I’m a little worried about. So, it’s just a chene step clap chene step clap, but it’s pretty fast. Watch.” He walked up to his phone, went to the appropriate part of “The Nicest Kids in Town”, then stepped back and waited for the appropriate time in the music, then spun quickly to the left, then to the right, clapping on the appropriate beat. He paused the music and looked at Victor, fixing his bangs out of his face. “What do you think? Possible?”

[mark-marking]

victor-the-grouch‌:

“…a dance thing?” Victor echoed. Even without specifics, it already sounded like something that was going to be out of his element.

“Uh, not much,” he answered, rubbing the back of his head. “…I’m not really a performer. Why?”

“Perfect!” he exclaimed, taking Victor’s hand and leading him closer to the mirrors. “I’m going to try to teach you this move so I can see if even the least experienced kids can learn it and do it up to speed.”

[victor-the-grouch]

@mark-marking

Victor wasn’t sure why he was being summoned to the dance room. He could only assume it had something to do with the sound system, but he had to wonder what problem was confusing enough to actually need his expertise.

He stepped into the room and gave his roommate a wave. “Hey.” He cleared his throat. “What did you need me for, exactly?”

[mark-marking]

“Hey! Mark greeted, then sighed. “Thank god you’re here, I need your help with a dance thing.” He got up from his splits on the floor and walked over to him. “How much dance experience do you have?”

[mark-marking]

notevenpeter‌:

the lack of surprise on mark’s face definitely surprised peter. but his reaction to that revelation was sidelined by mark’s offer to teach. he did promise to make the best out of his summer at camp shining stars.. “yeah, sure. please, that would..that would be amazing.” he responded with a big grin.

Mark’s smile grew huge at him agreeing, placing his towel next to a nearby tree and taking off his shirt and shoes. “You wanna go get changed and meet me back here for your first lesson?” he asked encouragingly.

[mark-marking]

victor-the-grouch‌:

More time passed, and Victor still hadn’t heard a single word from his roommate. It was unusual. Silence was one thing, but this was unnatural, and he wasn’t sure how much longer he could take. He kept waiting, until he couldn’t handle it anymore. He had no choice but to resign himself to defeat.

“Okay, for the love of God, please say something. This is getting creepy.”

“Yes!” Mark celebrated before laughing. “I stayed silent longer than the introvert! I should get a trophy!” He shook his head, unplugging his laptop to bring it over to Victor. “Good thing, too ,because I found you in a post.” He sat at the edge of the bed, handing the other man the laptop with the meme Mark had wanted to laugh at in the silence.

[mark-marking]

dakota-the-wildcat‌:

“Yup!!” Dakota said gleefully. “What’cha gonna do ‘bout it?” She asked. And, with that, she took off, up the path for one more swing into the water. She was sure a splash war would be waiting when she resurfaced.

“I’m going to give you my mean face!” Mark threatened, scrunching his nose before chuckling. “So scary, right?”

[mark-marking]

TEXT | HSM CAST & CREW

Calvin: Hey, cast! Hope your weekend was awesome. Can't wait to see you all for blocking tomorrow! This Friday camp is having a movie night, and I'm pushing for a High School Musical triple feature. What do you guys say? :D

Mark: UM YES PLEASE? As long as we're allowed to sing or dance along. I may or nay not know all the choreography to every dance looooool

[mark-marking]

notevenpeter‌:

He splashed his bare feet on by the water. “Uh..” Peter slowly shook his head. “I-I..I’d love to. It’s just..I don’t know how to swim.” He explained, his hands behind him as he did so.

Mark tried not to let his surprise show on his face and shrugged. “Want me to teach you?” Mark had helped teach his little brother when they were little, and Mark definitely knew how to teach better now, so this should be a piece of cake.

[mark-marking]

victor-the-grouch‌:

Victor had absolutely no problem spending time in silence. He practically thrived on it. This was no problem for him. 

He noticed Mark nodding his head, and he half expected it to turn into full-on dancing. He supposed that would still count as “doing our own thing,” and dancing was technically silent.

He kept waiting for his roommate to say something. Probably enthusiastically, maybe some comment about whatever he was looking at. But he found himself yet to have his expectations met.

Mark definitely smirked a bit every time he caught Victor looking at him expectantly. He was really hoping Victor would be the first to speak, since Mark had just logged into his instagram and there was a funny theatre meme that he wanted to share, but he was too stubborn to say anything until he felt like he was going to explode.

[mark-marking]

dakota-the-wildcat‌:

Dakota shrugged. “I’ll take the ‘adorable’ part.” She made sure to splash Mark on her way back up for one more go on the rope swing, since he had splashed her with his last jump.

Mark rolled his eyes with a giggle, sitting in the water with most of his body above it. He lifted his arms to protect his eyes when she splashed him, then shook his head. “That was on purpose!”

[mark-marking]

victor-the-grouch‌:

Victor raised his eyebrows. He was expecting at least some resistance to the challenge. He’d be surprised if Mark actually succeeded. Either way, he was interested to see how it would play out. 

A smirk pulled at his lips while he started his playlist on his ipod. He made sure his headphones were tilted so an ear was still free to listen. He wasn’t going to miss it if Mark blew it. 

Mark had to admit he was tempted to hum along to the song that came on, but he kept control of himself. He did find himself nodding his head to the beat, but that didn’t count; he was still making no noise.

He responded to an email from his mom before trying to subtly peek over at how Victor was doing, interacting (or more accurately not interacting) with a silent Mark.

[mark-marking]

notevenpeter‌:

Peter was sat by the lake. He had bought swim trunks on a whim last weekend, even though it was no surprise to him nor to people he had confided in that he had no knowledge about swimming. If he was back in San Francisco, he wouldn’t have minded. But here at camp, it had pulled a feeling from inside him - a dread. FOMO, they called it. Everyone else can swim and have a good time but he’d be hearing the Jaws theme song in his head. At Mark’s words, Peter turned, incredulous at the claim but knew that there were campers that was already planning it beforehand. “Y-you’re going swimming? Right now?” He asked as he waved Mark down.

Mark waved back, happy to see Peter. “Hey! Yeah, that’s where I’m headed, you wanna join me?” he asked, tossing his towel to drape over his shoulder. Mark would love to hang out with the kid to get to know him better, since the dancer boys had to stick together, after all.

[mark-marking]

dakota-the-wildcat‌:

Dakota rolled her eyes. “Oh, whatever. Like you need experience and qualifications to get a job. Totes lame!!” she said, holding out the last word.

It was all she could get out before Mark was swinging again, and she got a splash to the face.

When he swam up, he responded to her joke with an eyebrow raise. “Oh? So you think you can just walk onto broadway without any experience? How adorably naive,” he teased with a big smile. This time, he just swam to the shore, deciding he was done with the rope for the day.

[mark-marking]

victor-the-grouch‌:

Depite his best efforts, Victor still ended up complementing the other. He rolled his eyes and mumbled, “whatever.” As if it would do anything to redeem his pride after doing yet another nice thing.

“I’m not sure you could handle spending any length of time in silence. I’m tempted to pick the second option just to see if you could do it.” he said.

Mark arched an eyebrow, tilting his head at the challenge. He slowly got up from Victor’s bed and walked to his own, getting out his laptop and plugging his earbuds into it. He only put one in, though, wanting to be sure he could hear when Victor inevitably admitted Mark could be silent for as long as he wanted. He pressed play on his playlist and started checking his email.

[mark-marking]

dakota-the-wildcat‌:

Dakota waved from her place in the water. “Okay. Byeee!” she said. “Ooh! If you’re leaving, can I have your job?” she asked. She didn’t have nearly enough technical knowledge to choreograph a show, but it was fun to joke about.

“Heck no! You’re not qualified!” he teased back, still swimming towards the shore. “Try teaching kids since you were one yourself, Dakota!” He chuckled before going back up to use the rope again. He didn’t even bother trying to top Dakota’s reference, just having fun on the rope before cannonballing into the water.

[mark-marking]

victor-the-grouch‌:

Victor could swear he could actually feel his brain momentarily short-circuit before he could answer. The eyeliner (and, frankly, his eyes in general) looked really good. And he hadn’t been expecting Mark to bat his eyes. If he didn’t know any better, he might’ve thought Mark was flirting.

“I can’t take all the credit. I only bought it. You did – “ 

He wasn’t sure how to finish the sentence without embarrassing himself. Mark, of course, got credit for his face. And for making the eyeliner look good. But Victor didn’t want to tell him that.

 “…that.”

Mark wiggled his eyebrows. “That might be the closest thing to a compliment I’m ever going to get from you, so thank you!” He winked again before turning back. He closed up the eyeliner before walking over and sitting on the edge of Victor’s bed. “So, what’s the plan for tonight? Want to hang out? Or just both of us do our own thing on our phones or laptops in silence?” He smirked, knowing that was probably going to be the option Victor chose, but he still had to try.

[mark-marking]

dakota-the-wildcat‌:

Dakota laughed. The context of song lyrics gave her another idea. She was surprised she hadn’t thought of it before. “Ooh! Okay, okay, okay!! I got one!!”

She ran up, excited for the reference she had in mind. “WE’RE BREAKIN’ FREE-EE!!” She wasn’t sure if it had been the right key, but she didn’t care. She was having fun.

Mark literally facepalmed, groaning. “How did I not think of that?!” he exclaimed, shaking his head. “That’s it. I quit. I’m a terrible choreographer. I’m handing in my resignation.”