Chapter Text
The rest of the week passed pretty normally at least from what Carlos noticed. It was embarrassing to say, but even though he wanted to be a scientist and was very detail orientated that typically only applied to his experiments. When it came to what was going on around him not so much. Maybe that was why he didn’t understand why sometimes Kevin would look at him and laugh, or why Dana looked at him with fond exasperation. Then there was Cecil. He still seemed a bit nervous around him, but he was pretty nice. Cecil kept trying to invite him out. Carlos felt bad that he had to keep turning down the offer, or completely missing it as an offer until later on and feeling like a jerk about it. Cecil was turning out to be a really nice friend and he would really hate if he messed it up. Fortunately, Carlos had been able to avoid being interviewed by either brother. Truthfully he was pretty sure he was going to end up tied to a chair in the recording booth soon if he didn’t willing do one soon. The notes continued as well, but the message was basically the same so he stopped paying them any mind. It was now Saturday. Nathalia had already left for the day to hang out with some friends she had made. Enzo and Catalina were with Maria in the backyard as their father tried to finish setting up some of the outdoor furniture. Dana had told Carlos to be ready around four so he was simply working on some experiments until then. Carefully and with no chemicals of course.
“Carlitos?” Carlos looked up at his mother, pulling his goggles down.
“Yeah mama?”
“There’s two young men at the door asking for you.” Confusion filled Carlos. Who would be there? He dropped his goggles off on his dresser, leaving the lab coat on for now. He saw Maria at the front door first with the twins peeking around her.
“So your name is Carlos now huh?” He asked his siblings. Maria made a face at him.
“Ew, no way. Why would I want a name like Carlos?” She teased.
“Yeah, it’s such a gross name.” Enzo said with a large grin.
“It’s not a gross name it’s a nerd name.” Catalina laughed. A familiar laughter entered the house from the front door.
“Move out of the way you little monsters.” Carlos nudged them out of the way.
“Why if it isn’t our favorite scientist!” Kevin greeted happily, smile growing in that eerie way it was prone to.
“Hi Kevin.” Carlos spotted Cecil standing just to the side of his brother, “Hi Cecil.”
“Hey-hi. Hi Carlos.” Cecil tripped over his words, eyes glancing off to the side and face turning a slightly purplish red. The first time Carlos had actually seen the blush he had been worried, but Kevin had been there an assured him that it was normal for his brother.
“What were you up to? Your siblings were telling us about an experiment? They said something about chemicals and an accident?”
“You’re okay, right?” Cecil looked genuinely worried, eyes looking him over as if to see if there was any injuries at that moment. Carlos felt his own face heat up. He rubbed the back of his head in a nervous habit.
“Yeah. I’m fine. Uh, they were talking about something I did a while ago.”
“It’s the reason we moved here.” Enzo informed with an impish grin on his face.
“He decided to mix chemicals because ‘science’.” Maria informed with a look to her brother.
“Our house wasn’t safe to live in anymore.” Catalina added.
“Well you better be careful from now on. I would hate if I lost another friend to a chemical accident.” Kevin informed with a wink.
“You’ve lost another friend?” Maria asked hesitantly, glancing to Carlos in question. Kevin nodded. Carlos noticed Cecil roll his eyes at his brother, but he didn’t correct him.
“So what was our resident scientist working on?”
“Do you have to refer to me as that every time?” Carlos sighed as his siblings snickered.
“Of course! Everyone has a title! Dana is the Intern, Cecil is the Voice, Lauren is the-”
“Kevin!” Cecil interrupted. Kevin and Cecil seemed to have a silent conversation before the attention went back to Carlos.
“So?”
“It’s just with time. I’ve noticed that most of the clocks refuse to sync up. I’ve tried with several of our clocks alone and I even picked a few up from the store. They are always fifteen minutes apart if they’re digital and the blue analog clock keeps jumping between 3:15 and 6:66 which I’m not even sure how that happens since analog clocks don’t even have the function to show 6:66. I’ve run several different experiments but I haven’t been able to figure it out and that was before the green one started walking away!” Carlos didn’t realize he had started to ramble, messing his hair up in frustration until his sister placed a hand on his arm.
“Carlitos, have you been staying up late again?” Catalina asked with a frown. Right. He sounded crazy. That was a great impression to make.
“Did you buy your clocks from Walmart?” Kevin asked casually.
“Huh?”
“Walmart? The clocks?”
“Uh, yeah. Yeah I did.” Kevin nodded,
“Yeah. They do that a lot.”
“They… do?”
“Yeah. No one knows why but Steve thinks it’s a government experiment.” Kevin shot a smirk at Cecil at this though Cecil was looking at the ground, hands tense.
“It would be interesting to know why the clocks work the way they do, right Cecil?” Kevin nudged the other boy. Cecil nodded in agreement, mumbling something under his breath.
“I could show you the experiments I’m running.” Carlos offered.
“Neat!” Cecil’s voice cracked as he responded. Carlos was distracted when there was a strangled noise from beside him. Maria was covering her mouth but her eyes crinkled at the sides to show she was smiling. Whatever it was had her practically glowing.
“What?” Maria just shook her head. Catalina and Enzo had smiles that said they knew something that Carlos didn’t. This wasn’t an uncommon look. It was what they did to tell him he was missing some social cue that was obvious to anyone who had a greater social interaction skill than that of a serval. Though now that he knew he missed something it was going to bug him. Sighing he turned back to his friends. Cecil was staring very determinedly at the ground. Kevin was snickering but he stopped when Carlos looked back at them.
“Well, come on. We have to get going.” Kevin grabbed his arm.
“Uh, hang on- my lab coat-”
“What’s a scientist without a lab coat anyway? You look fine! Trust me a lab coat isn’t the oddest thing someone could wear I mean one day Cecil-”
“Kevin shut up!” Cecil squeaked, voice pitching higher. Kevin laughed again as he started to pull Carlos along. Carlos turned to Maria.
“I’ll be back later, okay?”
“Yeah. I’m going to call Varya.” Maria managed before bolting. Carlos sighed. Of course she was going to gossip about this. Carlos just sighed, letting Kevin chat happily as he dragged him through the unfamiliar town. Every once in awhile Kevin would drag Cecil into the conversation who was a little more confident away from Carlos’ siblings, which wasn’t surprising with how they could be. It wasn’t long before they were at the high school and entering the gym. There were a lot of people actually there, surprisingly. A large banner read ‘Welcome to Night Vale’ with another one under it reading ‘Carlos the Scientist.’
“Everyone is going to think that’s my actual last name.”
“They already do.” Kevin informed happily. It was probably his fault that they did.
“Well now that our guest of honor is here let’s get this party started!” Dana called happily as she hit the music.