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It was the first official day of summer. Which meant having friends over and sitting around in glorious nothing, knowing that you could do whatever you liked with zero responsibility. The pure peace of no looming homework over your head, the peace knowing you wouldn’t have to get up early, but instead sleep in (meaning late nights and later mornings would be a constant).
Granted, after a couple hours, one got tired of the nothingness.
“Impulse, I’m bored,” Tango said, laying upside down, off the couch.
“Fun,” Impulse answered, eyes not leaving the screen, fully focused on beating the enemies in front of him. Tango had given up the controller a few minutes ago, having been defeated one too many times by this particular Metroid boss. Giving up meant now he had nothing to do.
“There’s nothing else to do, is there?” Tango sat up, staring at Impulse blankly.
He just shrugged.
“What’s the point to life? What’s the point of our lives if all we ever do is this? Never beating the game, always dying time after time, gaining no ground. What’s the point?”
Impulse stopped him where he was. “Stop being existential. You’re fine.”
“But I’m bored.”
“Duly noted.”
What was worse was being ignored by your best friend, who was too focused on what they were doing, to the point where they couldn’t do anything else? Impulse would be here all day, switching from game to game — probably stuck on some first person shooter after awhile.
“I’m going outside,” Tango resolved, unsure as to what he’d get up to outside, but being outside sounded much more interesting than being stuck here.
He went, almost grumpily out. But that changed a bit, as he spotted someone across the street. There was a science experiment going on, as was obvious by the kid’s lab coat and the beakers along the table. There was a brewing stand to his left and a cauldron on the ground.
He was up to something. And Tango, curious as he was, needed to know what it was.
But he couldn’t stare, or he’d be spotted. So Tango went back into the house to get his spy gear. He ran back to the bedroom, rummaging through his chest of random “toys” (as Impulse liked to tease him about) — legos, a few action figures, a few programmable entertainment items that definitely weren’t toys, and remote-controlled cars. Somewhere down there, he should have his walkie-talkies and spyglass.
It took a couple minutes before he found it. He had to take out a lot of stuff before coming across them at the very bottom. Before being chastised for still having things Impulse considered himself too cool to have, Tango threw everything back in the chest and ran back to the living room.
“Pst. Impy.” He poked his head around the couch.
Impulse looked down at him blankly.
“There’s something weird going on across the street and I need you to help me figure it out.”
Impulse paused the game. “What’s “something weird”?”
“Well, it’s this kid. I don’t know who he is. I just know he does weird stuff during the afternoons. Like, creating explosions and mixing potions. I want to know what he’s up to.”
Impulse looked like he was about to roll his eyes. “You could just go over and ask.”
“But that’s not interesting! And I’m bad at talking to people!”
“You’re not bad at talking to me!”
“New people! New people like this guy are strange,” Tango said. “What’s he going to think if I just walked up and asked him what he was doing?”
“If he’s doing strange stuff already, I doubt he’s going to find you strange. But if it makes you feel better… I’ll go over with you,” Impulse decided, not very excited. (He was always grumpy when pulled from a game.)
“Really?”
“Yeah. If you don’t bring those things with you.” Impulse pointed to his collection of very important spying items.
“Awww man.”
“That makes you look sillier than walking up to say hi.”
“Fine.” Tango dropped them on the couch and led the way outside. He had to check multiple times that Impulse was coming, given just how long he took to get up from the couch. But they did make it outside, after a few minutes.
“See. Isn’t it strange?”
Impulse nodded. “He’s got a lab coat and everything.”
He seemed very intent on his project, not ever noticing Impulse and Tango were watching him.
“And you just want me to go up and ask him what he’s doing.”
“Yeah. It’s not that hard.”
Tango started the long trek across the street, mind trying to spin different scenarios of how this would go down. What if this guy didn’t even want to talk to anyone? What if he was just as awkward as Tango? What if he was upset to be distracted from his projects?
Nobody just wanted to talk to the weird neighbor kid across the street. Tango didn’t even know his name!
Why was he doing this?
“Stop being dramatic,” Impulse said, the second time of the day. “I can hear your worst-case thinking.”
“You can?”
“You’re always worst case thinking. I can practically read your mind, Tango. You’re fine. Most people like having more friends anyway.”
“Except maybe you, mister video game addict.”
Impulse did roll his eyes at the comment, not amused in the slightest at the tease. The back and forth did end though, as they made it to their destination (which made it sound like an hour long travel when in reality, it was just a few steps).
Impulse pushed Tango forward, letting him take responsibility for whatever friendship was about to begin (or never be existent, these things could go horribly wrong, after all). “Uh, hi. What are you doing?”
The “scientist” jumped up a little, proving to be very unobservant. “Oh my goodness! When did you get here?”
“Uh, a second ago. We’re like spies. Very sneaky.”
The neighbor nodded. “It’s not very nice, to sneak up on that. But I can appreciate the spying abilities. I’ve tried it myself. Not very good at it…” He trailed off, unsure of how to continue.
Tango was also kind of confused as to where to go next either, but asked once more the burning question. “So what’s all this?”
“This is my lab. I’ve, uh, proved to explode my room too many times and set off the smoke alarm even if nothing’s actually wrong. So I’ve had to move it outside.”
“Ok. And what project is this?”
The kid grinned, and with much excitement, told of his creation. “This is my test number one-o-four of making an invisibility potion. I’ve been trying to do it all year, but it’s not working out right. But once it is complete, I’ll be able to sell it to the world to get rich off of people’s love to prank their friends!”
“You could also spy on a lot of people that way,” Tango suggested.
“That I could… I could be watching you sleep, and you wouldn’t even know it!”
Tango laughed at such a comment. “Not like I’d know anyway, since I’d be asleep.”
“That is true… Anyway, what’s your name? I don’t think I’ve seen you around, aside from when you get home from school.”
“Tango. And this is my buddy, Impulse.”
They shook hands. “Name’s Zedaph. Friends, that I do not have, would call me Zed.”
“Well, nice to meet you, Zed.”
Zedaph beamed at the shortened name, probably dying to be called it.
“Do you actually not have any friends?” Impulse asked, the first word since he’d came over.
“Uh, no. Not really. I mean, if you count family as friends. Don’t have any siblings, but a few cousins a few states out.”
“How do you not have friends at all?” Tango asked. If Zedaph was willing to talk continually, then he’d continue to ask questions.
“Well, uh, my parents enrolled me in this social group. Said it’d help me make friends or something.” He scrunched up his nose. “A dumb ‘homeschool group’ or whatever. Anyway, had a rough morning as was, and going new places is all really anxiety inducing and stuff.” Zedaph moved back to his potion, starting to measure things out. Tango watched him closely, noting that he did look a bit anxious even now. “Had a panic attack about an hour in. It was really loud and the people there were a bit exclusive. I was forced to be there for the semester, since it did cost a bit. It was horrible, and I never want to go back.”
His long story came to a close, but he still focused on stirring at his cauldron. “Sorry for rambling,” he said after a moment of awkward silence. “I uh, don’t talk to people much, so I might’ve went a bit overboard there.”
“No, you’re good. I asked.”
Zedaph looked a bit concerned about it anyway. “Would you, uh, like to see some things explode? I’ve been testing out a bunch of chemical reactions. I want to see how many different ones I can do in a span of a minute!”
“Sure. Show us around your fancy laboratory here!”
Zedaph continued to guide them along his experiment table, taking them inside even, to show them what he’d been up to. If it had been Zedaph coming over to meet Tango, it would have been a lot different. They probably would’ve stood awkwardly outside.
But Zedaph didn’t question if the company were safe or not, and showed them to his room, where he had the coolest set-up. A laptop in the corner, Star Wars lego sets along shelves, and five giant boxes dedicated to what seemed to be a science addiction. Saying that he was an aspiring scientist was putting it lightly.
“So, uh, since I’ve told you all about me and stuff… what are you into?” Zedaph asked, a bit hesitant, as if he wasn’t sure if that was the question he was supposed to ask.
“Well, I like the engineering sort of science. Like moving signals from one place to another. I’ve got a lot of little circuit kits that I’ve been trying to get better with.”
“Tango’s also like, obsessed with video games,” Impulse added, as if he too wasn’t obsessed.
“Yeah. I’m going to make my own game one day,” Tango said proudly.
“Oh! That’s cool! What kind of game?”
“Probably some puzzley, adventurey game. With limited amounts of lives and lots of monsters.” Granted, the idea was generic and like every other game to exist, but Zedaph seemed very intrigued.
“Do you have any specific ideas?”
Tango nodded. “I’ll have to show you it sometime. I have a bunch of drawings of different creatures and ways to design your little avatar.”
With interest in the other person being a both-sided thing, it was very obvious from the first day that they’d get along well. “Hey, Zed. Do you want to come over to my house, now? I have a bunch of video games and stuff.”
He seemed a bit hesitant at first. “I’ll have to ask, but I’d like to.” He ran out of the room, back in less than a minute. “I can! I just have to clean up the sciencey stuff. I’ll be over there quickly though!”
They parted ways for the minute, waving bye even though Zedaph would be coming over in a couple minutes.
“See, I told you it’d be fine.”
“And you were right,” Tango said, annoyed that Impulse was right, but obviously really excited to have been hanging out with someone like Zedaph. And to be neighbors. Of all things!
It was strange that Tango had never actually met him, considering they both were pretty science-obsessed. But they could make up for the time that Tango didn’t spend going over to meet him.
This seemed like a pretty good start.