Humor Me

Humor Me is a Canvas slice of life | romance webtoon created by Marvin.W; it updates the first of every month. In this Webtoon, the main character is Charlie, a tomboyish high school girl, who works to take care of her younger brother after her mother died and her father is MIA.

The webtoon was first released on Tapas, in July 2015 then on Webtoon Canvas in February 2016.

Synopsis
''Charlie's goals in life are pretty simple : get her High School diploma, become a legal adult, take care of her 4 y/o way too literate brother and make sure social services don't realize their dad has run away. So grabbing the unfortunate interest of one famous James Hardford sure wasn't part of her plans, especially when he (like about everyone else apparently) thinks she's a boy!''

Characters
Charlie Summers

Charlie is a 17 y/o girl in her last year of high school. She looks very androgynous and since she wears the male uniform for practical reasons, people thinks she's a boy, but she doesn't really care. Her goal is to lay low and never have to interact with them anyway. She's the type to avoid conflict at all cost but when faced with no choice, she knows how to stand for herself. Her life revolves around her brother and she's very bad at interacting with people without resorting to heavy sarcasm and improbable feats of acting (which she's pretty good at).

Lucian Summers

Lucian is Charlie's three-almost-four-year-old brother. Like his sister, he's pretty terrible at socializing with his peers, especially since he's a vocabulary sponge and talks a lot better than any kid his age. Other than this particularity, he's a little blonde ball of sunshine, always optimistic (especially when it comes to his dad) and loves his sister fiercely.

James Hardford

James is a 19 y/o teenager who's the embodiment of most people in Charlie's school (he goes to the University part) : he's very rich and a bit of a prat. In addition to being an heir to an influential family, he's also famous for his modelling. For now, James is a bit immature, a lot paranoid and doesn't seem to see the consequences his actions have on Charlie's life. He has an older brother and a younger sister, is apparently pretty bad at school and passionate about photography.

Louis Thornberry

Louis is James's best and only friend since they were kids and the son of the school's principal. He likes thinking out of the box, meddling in people's lives and knowing everything about everyone. He takes an immediate interest in Charlie right after meeting her since she looks like a perfect way to bring chaos into his and James's lives. He's not a bad guy but his love for drama makes it easy for him to sometimes forget about other people's feelings.

Fitz Montgomery

Fitz is a waiter at Isaac's, a local Butler Café. He's a very friendly guy who, like Louis, is a bit nosy but in a good way. He loves making new friends and is a hard worker, very loyal to his friend Isaac, the coffee shop's manager. He loves watching Charlie act and took an immediate liking to her. For now he seems to be one of the only characters able to make her smile and not get her thorns out (except for Lucian of course)

Isaac Davis

He's the manager of "Isaac's butler café" and Fitz's friend. He's a nice guy who alternates between hard work and very sudden impromptu naps.

Lisa Hackman

She's a rich annoying and popular girl in Charlie's class. She seems to really admire James and is pretty condescending with Charlie.

Jason Summers

He's Charlie and Lucian's dad, a man-child with no sense of responsibilities. He left them about 3 years ago, when Charlie was 14 and Lucian 1 and sends them letters and money from time to time. He thinks they can access his bank account to take whatever they need there (which they can't). Since he fled, he became a famous actor going by the name "Jason Hides".

Other characters

Amy Hardford : James's 6 y/o sister

Miss Penny : Lucian's teacher at daycare

Professor Collins : Charlie's old literature teacher, he seems to be the only one in the school staff who actually cares about her

Chapters summary (/!\ Spoilers !)
VOLUME 1

Chapter 1 : Meet Charlie (ep 2-5)

Charlie goes to school after dropping her brother at daycare to start her senior year at Hillgate, a prestigious high school and university where she's a scholarship student. She doesn't seem to be on good terms with her schoolmates and everyone there thinks she's a boy (she wears the male uniform). She meets Louis, the friend of the school's most famous student : James Hardford. He seems to take an instant interest in her but she doesn't have time for him and slips away.

Chapter 2 : Little Lucian (ep 6-9)

After her part time job at a local library, Charlie fetches her brother Lucian from daycare. Despite being a very intelligent kid way too articulate for his age, he seems to always forget that his sister is a girl. There seem to be an issue with their suspiciously absent father, but the siblings apparently have a well oiled routine to take care of themselves. When Charlie puts Lucian to bed, he forces her to say goodnight to a poster of their dad who is a famous actor going by the name of "Jason Hides".

Chapter 3 : Unwelcome rescue mission (ep 10-14)

Charlie has a bit of time between school and her part time job so she decides to try "Isaacs' butler café" a new coffee shop that just opened. There she meets Fitz, a friendly waiter who helps her identify James who's trying to drink his coffee in peace but is bothered by some paparazzi. In her quest to find a seat, she tries to help James by acting like his cousin. Her plan backfires and he reacts very badly, thinking she's a fan trying to get closer to him. Fitz ends up helping her get away by using the café's back door while James has to run to escape the reporters.

Chapter 4 : The pervert and the borrower (ep 15-19)

He manages to lose them and ends up in front of Lucian's daycare where he meets the little boy. They end up having a bit of a surrealist conversation during which Lucian invites James to his birthday (an offer promptly shot down). The kid then goes back to his schoolmates and his apparent nemesis : Eugene, a little boy who likes to fight with Lucian and make fun of the fact that his mother is dead. Miss Penny separates them but doesn't take Lucian's side since she didn't hear Eugene's barb. Lucian is pretty happy when Charlie finally comes for him at 7pm.

Chapter 5 : Girl on a mission (ep 20-22)

Charlie has a bit of an argument with two of her pretty crude classmates who think she's being too harsh even though they were trying to include her in their "joke". She then meets professor Collins who "asks" her to bring a pile of books to the Uni library. Once in the uni building, she meets Louis who starts asking questions and is soon joined by James who immediately thinks she's doing this to meet him again. She manages to escape, fed up. James describes their first meeting to Louis on their way to the principals' office (who also happens to be Louis's dad)

Chapter 6 : The princess and the ostler (ep 23-28)

Charlie stumbles upon a little girl named Amy who lost her brother. She decides to help her find him but soon realizes that said brother is none other than one James Hardford. He immediately thinks the worst of her and pushes her against a wall where she hits her head. He then decides to follow her to see if she's going to the police station but she's just going to the pharmacy and then heads home (where James realizes who her brother is).

Chapter 7 : One lousy rainy day (ep 29-33)

James is taking photos in a park when it starts raining. He takes shelter in Charlie's library and confronts her about what happened with his sister, still thinking she tried to use Amy to get to him. He then denounces her to the school board (part-time jobs are forbidden at Hillgate until the end of high school) so she has to resign to be able to bluff the school about her situation. James confronts her at school in an isolated classroom but a mysterious girl watches them from afar and doesn't seem too happy about their interaction.

'''Chapter 8 : Sandy, was it ? (ep 35-40)'''

Knowing she has successfully escaped getting thrown out of school, James drags Louis into following her to gather some proof. They end up at Isaac's and merely end up watching her use her acting skills to help a (pretty ungrateful) classmate who's about to get scammed. Fitz tries to start a friendship with Charlie and invites her for a drink whenever she has time. James merely concludes that Charlie's acting skills makes her even more suspicious than he thought.

Chapter 9 : Good resolution (ep 42-47)

Charlie is looking for a new job in the paper during class but soon has to stop to go to the infirmary, someone put mirror shards in her desk and she hurt her hand. James and Louis are talking about her in another part of the school and Louis ends up confronting James about his appalling attitude towards Charlie since the beginning. James hints at a similar situation two years prior which apparently ended badly but finally swears to lay off Charlie's back and stop following her. He decides to go to the cemetery to visit his grand-mother's grave but sees Charlie from afar and follows her to the grave she's visiting. It's her mom's and she starts reminiscing while watering the plants. She used to have a happy family with a level headed, slightly sarcastic mother, and a boisterous and playful father. The years go by and Charlie's mother starts developing a sickness. By the time Lucian is born, she's too weak to go back home so 13 y/o Charlie rolls up her sleeves to take care of Lucian and the house on top of school so that her dad can stay as much as he can with their mom at the hospital. The flashback ends when she tells her dad that she got the scholarship for Hillgate. Back to the present, James catches himself trying to photograph her and realizes he's going a bit far.

VOLUME 2

Chapter 10 : Morning mail (ep 48-56)

Charlie and Lucian receive a letter from their dad (we also get a glimpse at their neighbour Mrs Pence, an old lady who takes care of Lucian whenever Charlie can't). Charlie improvises the content to make it look like he's a great dad who knows all about Lucian but in truth, there's no way for her to write back and she can only take whatever money he sends (he thinks she can access his bank account like she used to when she was the one in charge of the family's finances but he has a new bank now which she doesn't have access to.) At school, James wants to know why Louis hasn't looked at Charlie's file (thanks to his dad) but the principal cut Louis's access until he agrees to study at Oxford. Louis then sees Charlie being bullied in the cafeteria and decides to intervene by throwing James under the bus as a diversion. He tries to help Charlie who refuses, especially when James manages to escape the other students and joins Louis. They let her go but Louis confirms that he really wants to get to know her more because it's actually more fun without his dad's files. James keeps thinking he has to keep an eye on her too, just in case.

Chapter 11 : They keep calling you a boy (ep 57-65)

At school, the caretaker (who seems to hate Charlie) starts an argument with her (after drenching her in water) but she's saved by Prof. Collins who seems increasingly worried about her. While she walks away, some boys send a football right in her face and she faints. Louis (who has seen it all) immediately come to hear rescue and bring her to the infirmary. The (worst) nurse (ever) immediately flees her responsibilities and asks Louis to change Charlie's clothes before she gets sick (she thinks Charlie is a boy too). Alone with Charlie, Louis finally accept that he might have been wrong about Charlie's gender and that she is indeed a boy. He starts undressing her and realizes that he was right all along. When Charlie wakes up, he wants to know why she's masquerading as a boy. Charlie answers that she just lets people assume because it's easier, that the male uniform was cheaper for her to mimic and that she cut her hair for personal reasons. Flashback : 14 y/o Charlie just got her first part time job but her dad is opposed to it. They argue, especially since he's not bringing back much money and Charlie is worried about their finances. Jason ends up accusing her of looking and acting too much like her mother. She storms out, telling him to get a grip or stop getting in her way. Dejected, he realizes how useless he is to her and leaves, not seeing that she just cut her hair to help him get over his wife's death.

Chapter 12 : His number one fan (ep 66-70)

Back in the infirmary, Louis finally tells Charlie why James is reacting that way towards her. Two years prior, a fan of James (who looked a bit like Charlie) who used to be very nice and supportive, took a turn for the worst, actively being mean to other fans, stalking and harassing James, and finally ended up trying to use Amy to get closer to James. Charlie now understands his paranoia but asks Louis to clear things up with him so that he stops bothering her but he refuses. She finally gets mad at him and tells him she doesn't need him and James to wreak havoc in her life and disregard her privacy. Louis apologizes for undressing her while she was unconscious but doesn't seem to want to stop being nosy. He then tells Charlie that she should simply tell James that she is a girl. Charlie (who is quite irritated at this point), replies by re-enacting a scenario where James loses it and wants to kick her out of the school (and follow her so she doesn’t follow him). Louis (who realizes this is spot on and would probably happen), agrees to keep referring to Charlie as a boy, then gives her a new uniform sweater. The chapter ends by them having a small conversation of Louis telling Charlie to tell her peers when they bother her, and Charlie replying that he should ask people before undressing them against their will.