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They aren't at a particular age. It's just that age between playing house with girls is dumb and everyone wants to grow up to be a superhero or a princess. The time when kids are making messes, tattling on each other, leaving finger paint murals on the walls, and really don't want to eat their vegetables.
That time in a child's life when they've already heard every fairy tale and folk story imaginable and never get tired of hearing them over and over.
The time when they're supposed to be learning to read so they can read the tales themselves.
It's also that time when kids just make up words and don't bother learning until it somehow gets installed in their minds.
Carlos loves telling stories he hears and changing them in weird ways. Like how Goldilocks gets eaten by the three bears and then the bears celebrate by eating more. There's also something about robots and pirates. It doesn't make much sense, but it makes the boy pleased.
His friends listen to his stories, Kendall and James jumping in with their own ideas. Sometimes Carlos adds the ideas. Sometimes he shakes his small head and tells him that no that would NEVER happen. But aliens and robots and some kind of monster can.
Go figure.
Logan often tries to tell him that his stories make no sense and tries to correct him on how the stories really go but Carlos never has it. He won't stand for it. These are his stories and he's telling them how he wants to tell them.
Logan tries to bring up copyright infringement but naturally his three friends have no idea what he means so he stops and lets Carlos continue.
One day Carlos decides to tell one of his stories is during a night he's spending over at Logan's. It's just the two of them, which is odd because usually the four of them are doing things together. But Kendall had gotten in trouble in school for talking back to the teacher and James' family is out of town. So it leaves the two of them together.
Logan is always the first to fall asleep. Carlos is the last. Easily amused and curious he sits up where he is on Logan's bed, it being big enough for the four to squish together normally so there's more room then this usually. Logan knows he shouldn't say anything but he can't help it.
"What is is Carlos?"
The older boy is sitting there, staring at the opposite wall that Logan starts to think he might have actually fallen asleep with his eyes open. But then Carlos turns to him with a big smile on his face and it causes the other to jump in surprise. "I was thinking about if the seven dwarfs were ninjas!" Logan blinks a few times before he understands.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
The small brunet slowly nods, "...alright...what about them?" As soon as the words leave his lips he knew he shouldn't have spoken. There was no way he was going to get any sleep now.
"Well, like, would the evil queen have succeeded if the dwarfs were ninjas?" Carlos tapped his small fingers against his chin as thought about it. Logan could see the story brewing in his friends mind.
"Like, the evil queen would never make it to Snow White!! They'd know she was on her way and smash the poisoned apple!",the small Latino clapped his hands together so loudly that Logan feared his parents would walk in and tell them to go to bed. No such thing happened, but he couldn't help but worry.
"Then she wouldn't need Prince Charming to save her because she would have the ninja dwarfs to protect her! Besides, he didn't really do much anyways." Carlos had his legs crossed and chin propped in one of his hands. "Like...Snow White accidentally wanders into the dwarfs house after running away from the evil queen that's really a robot from the future, right? And Snow White doesn't know that the dwarfs are ninjas when she gets to the house and falls asleep on one of the beds. Because they're ninjas they hide and wait to see what she's doing."
"Wouldn't the ninjas just attack her on the spot?",Logan frowned, scratching his head at the thought. Ninjas were supposed to be silent, deadly killers.
Carlos glared at him, "Ssssh! I'm not done!" The glare didn't go away until Logan sighed and nodded. Carlos cleared his throat and went quiet as he tried to remember where he was in his story.
"Oh! Right! So, the dwarf ninjas come out when she's sleeping! And they're all curious how some girl found their ninja hide out in the woods that's supposed to be hidden by like some magic spells! So, they know she's really special, right?" Carlos went silent and Logan noticed he wanted him to agree. So Logan just nodded, not daring to say anything.
Carlos grinned and continued. "So, the ninja dwarfs go and let her sleep and when she wakes up she freaks out that they're there because she didn't see them."
"Because, they're ninjas." Logan sighed.
Carlos nodded with a big grin, "RIGHT!" He cracked his knuckles as he thought. "So, Snow White explains that her step mom, whose is really a robot, tried to get a cyborg to kill her and take her heart because her the evil queen needs it to become human and that the cyborg wouldn't kill her because he's part human so he totally understands human feelings and doesn't want her to die. So the dwarfs decide they're going to take good care of her as long as she cleans their house to make sure no on else manages to find it."
"But wouldn't the evil queen find it to give Snow White the apple?", Logan scratched his head, tempted to look for his copy of the story but Carlos glared yet again at him. For interrupting him or trying to change his story, the brunet couldn't tell. So again he sighed and went quiet.
Carlos grinned as he started telling his tale once more.
"Like I said, they're ninjas so then they'd be prepared. Plus they know she's evil. And they make sure the magic is up so that she can't get to the house. And the animals are keeping track of what's going on and see some scary old lady on the way and they all run over to see her for their own eyes and of course they know it's her because only an evil queen would be that ugly and so they kill her before she can get to Snow White." Carlos had gotten up and was jumping on the bed, acting like he was fighting some imaginary-thing. Logan wasn't sure. He just hoped his friend didn't make too much noise or make a big mess.
He could hope but it didn't change the fact that Carlos was probably going to break something -or himself- and more than likely leave a mess in his wake.
Carlos gave one last jump, falling back onto the bed on his butt causing Logan to bounce in his spot. He had thought Carlos would have toppled off the bed, but he was lucky.
"And they kill the evil queen and they and Snow White live happily ever after!", Carlos threw his small arms in the air in a 'ta-dah' fashion and looked at Logan with a big cheesy smile.
Young Logan knew there were several many plot holes in Carlos's story. There always were. But he just nodded and clapped. Logan blinked. Very anticlimactic story. But his friend seemed rather pleased with it.
Logan clapped his hands together very quietly, still afraid of his parents hearing them. "Very nice story Carlos." The Latino beamed, smile growing. "Really? You liked it?" Logan nodded, not knowing why his friend was so surprised.
Carlos threw himself at his friend, tackling him in a hug that sent them both spilling over the edge of the bed, causing a loud 'thud' sound.
Logan winced but wasn't in too much pain. Even if he had been the one that had been fallen on and hit his head it was alright. Because Carlos was just pleased, giving a toothy grin with how pleased he was.
Then suddenly light flooded into the room, going across both young boys making them both look up. In the door way was Mrs. Mitchell, looking at them both. "Boys. What are you doing? It's late." She didn't look surprised. None of the parents were ever surprised when the boys broke rules. They were wild kids.
"Logan likes my story!", Carlos had his small arms wrapped around Logan's neck and was hugging him tight. Logan gave his mother an apologetic look but kept quiet. His mother sighed and shook her head, but smiled. "I'm very glad Carlos. But you two need to go to sleep. Alright?" The two nodded and Carlos pulled himself off his friend and crawled back into bed, Logan following after them.
When they were settled in the bed the door was closed and the two stayed quiet for a few moments until they were certain Mrs. Mitchell had left and went back to bed.
When he was certain she was gone, Carlos threw his arms back around Logan. Logan blinked, wandering why Carlos was so happy and pleased. "Carlos?" Carlos blinked at him, "Yeah?" Logan looked at him a long moment then sighed. "Why don't you tell me another story?" Carlos grinned, "Oh! Like The Little Mermaid fighting an army of super zombies?" "Sure."