Okay, so like…I was bored, and I was tempted to write a story. ^_^In fact, this my first one-shot, and it was inspired by one of the fellow fanfictions called "Starting an Apple". I've been reading a bunch of some of the cutest one-shots evah, and so, Imma start my own one-shot legacy. This is just one of those cute little drabbles you write off a whim, you know? XD Be expecting a flood of other one-shots pouring out of me soon….

*Okay, listen, this story is really choppy, and weird, and stupid.* Be warned, and no, I own nothing.

Anyhoo, there is no slash. There never will be. Not from me, anyway. I think it's gross, so if that's what you're looking for, hit the back-button. Please.

Ahem…so…Onward! XD

Through out life, you will never, ever, meet a person who doesn't like to talk a lot. It just can't happen. Unless you're a hermit. But assuming you're not, there are many, many people within earth's population that enjoy babbling on, and on, and on, and…on…And, the very young, seven year-old Latino whose name was known to be Carlos Garcia was one of these people.

And that's why it was extremely strange when the young boy refused to talk at all—he didn't even mutter a word, in fact. It was especially concerning, because this had been going on for days, and he had not talked. He did not open his mouth, and it wasn't even just talking. He wouldn't open his mouth when he yawned, he held his nose when he had to sneeze, and he only cleared his throat when he had to cough. The kind of clear your throat when you want to get someone's attention, thing. And therefore, he didn't open his mouth.

He didn't even talk when he was supposed to in school—he was marked absent twice because he wouldn't say "here" when the teacher was calling attendance, and he wouldn't answer questions, either. The teacher called on him, even though his hand wasn't raised, and he would just sit there, with his mouth glued shut, and he had these huge puppy-dog eyes. Of course, his friends couldn't help but be concerned.

The fourth day of his silent-streak was when it especially came to his friends' attention.

Mrs. Hamilton, the second grade math teacher, was standing in front of the room, using her yard stick to point to various numbers and such on the chalk-board, eyeing her students—Carlos in particular—carefully.

Kendall peered over a few rows, to see his friend gnawing on his eraser anxiously. His eyebrows were furrowed, as though he was fairly disturbed—and he had looked like that ever since his silence fit started. In fact, he didn't even smile.

Talking was one thing, smiling was another…especially for Carlos. The laid-back, fun-loving, happy-go-lucky kid never smiled. That really meat something. Next to smile, he hadn't communicated at all with his friends—he hadn't gone over to their house to watch Daily Movie Night, like he usually did. Kendall, James, and Logan did spent a fair amount of time, trying to get in contact with him, but he never answered the notes, he never answered the phone, and of course, he didn't talk.

"Psst…Carlos!" Kendall called, in the quietest-possible stage-whisper he could manage. He was slightly chagrined, when Carlos noticeably cringed, and looked back at Kendall with the utter most irritation.

He didn't say "What", of course. That was asking for too much.

"Are you okay…?" Kendall questioned, still in that loud whisper. James and Logan had noticed Kendall's attempt at communication, and peered at Carlos also, eager to see if he would respond.

Of course he didn't.

Instead, he just narrowed his eyebrows as though he really didn't want to talk, and waved his hand, not saying "hi", oh no, but rather as an indicator not to talk to him. James, Kendall, and Logan all did as verbally commanded, but were rather upset at Carlos's choice of action. Was he mad at them? What could they have possibly done wrong?

But it was too late. The teacher had sighted the bait.

"Carlos!" she said.

Carlos looked at her with those signature puppy-dog eyes, but apparently, she wasn't buying it this time. Teachers sure are smart, man…

"Why don't you come up here?" she urged. She kept her voice gentle, and set her yard-stick down on the chalk-board sill. Folding her hands in front of her pencil-skirt, she verbally invited Carlos to join her in front of the room.

He merely shook his head. Seriously, the teacher knows Carlos didn't like to be, let alone talk, in front of people, lately. Now she was just being mean. Really mean. Of course, Carlos's seemingly perpetual silence wasn't going to continue—not with the teacher, anyhow.

"Come one," she demanded once again.

Carlos just sat. Sat with those big, brown, puppy-dog eyes, with the most distraught face Kendall, James, and Logan had ever seen. Noticing his wayward behavior, a few of the fellow classmates had begun leaning across aisles, and whispering to each other—some taunts, and others concerns. It was especially irritating when giggles rang through the room. Like, it wasn't bad enough that Carlos didn't want to talk for some odd reason, but now his peers were teasing him about it. People these days. As expected, the teacher, growing impatient, walked up to the desk Carlos occupied, and forcefully towed him by his rather small arm to the front of the room.

Placing her hands securely on Carlos's shoulders, so he couldn't get away, the teacher looked contently at the classroom, and smirked. "Carlos," she said, not making eye-contact, for Carlos only went up to her knee, and it would have been annoying for her to look completely down at where her feet would be—not to mention painful on the neck. "Why don't you tell us, what twenty plus thirty is," she continued.

This must have been a trick question…or some kind of reaction test. Whatever. But, as expected, Carlos only nervously shook his head, and shifted a little bit in attempt to get back to his seat, but was securely held in his spot by Mrs. Hamilton's grasp.

"You don't know the answer? I know you do. Go ahead and talk…"

Carlos's face suddenly grew even more sober. Not only did shake his head (more vigorously this time), but he also through in a loud "Mm-mm!" His classmates giggled, once again.

After many uncountable times of similar attempts to get Carlos to at least open his mouth, Mrs. Hamilton finally declared "That's enough", and sent him back to his seat, along with a detention slip for Monday of next week, in aversion for disrespect for the teacher. It's not that he was disrespecting the teacher, he was just not talking to her. Totally different. And anyway, it's not his fault she was totally taking it personally. After all, he wasn't just ignoring her, he was ignoring everybody.

After several awkward moments more in the classroom, the bell had rang, as if on cue, and the class was dismissed for the end of the day. Kendall, James, and Logan, had speeded their gait to catch up with Carlos, but to their surprise, he had speeded up as well.

"Carlos!" Logan called. "Wait up!"

He kept walking.

Thank goodness it was Saturday.

It was the day after that fateful moment in class, and Carlos, as usual, was sitting by himself, on the edge of the dock near the big lake, blocks away from each boy's house. It was winter time, and therefore it was cold, but Carlos was also near a lake, which made it colder, and he was in a T-Shirt, and athlete shorts. Sitting in front of a freezing lake, in summer attire, when it's like…twenty degrees outside? Was he crazy? He must have known what he was doing, because he wasn't even shivering—he was just staring at the water, kicking his legs, and squinting thoughtfully, as though his mind were fairly industrious.

James, Logan, and Kendall, being Carlos's closest friends, obviously noticed his strange behavior, and they agreed to meet him on the lake one day…for a chat. It may be disengaging—it depends on Carlos. They had all developed their own theories;

"Maybe his throat really hurts."

"Maybe his tongue is swollen."

"Maybe he's just becoming shy…"

Okay, so that last one was definitely out, but there was effort in thinking of it. Not only did they notice Carlos's sudden change in talking patterns, but they also noticed that the lake seemed to randomly be his new favorite place…Maybe because he got to be alone…they were soon to find out.

Dressed in their warmer attire, James, Kendall and Logan, casually approached Carlos, who was sitting in the spot they were expecting, and invited each other to sit next to him. Standing all of five feet away from the small Latino on the dock, now was when they were spontaneously planning out their strategy. Those boys were good at many things.

Planning was not one of them.

"I think James should talk to him."

"Why me?"

"Well, because I don't want to do it!"

"I don't want to do it, either, make Kendall do it!"

"I'm not doing it…I won't do it right! Saying the wrong things at the wrong time is my life story! My. Life. Story!"

As one could foresee, the three friends ended up engaging in a bicker-war, remembering to remain quiet enough so Carlos wouldn't hear them, and leave. Eventually, after many individual quarrel moments, James ended up getting pushed forward against his will, to consult Carlos on his silence problem. After all, who would want to do this? If one of them said the wrong thing at the wrong time, like Kendall indicated, their friendship could end, and then it would be the-person-who-talked to-him's fault, and the rest would be history…

Back into reality, James walked slowly and carefully up to the young boy, his friends following behind, and gradually, he sat down next to him.

Carlos turned his head to see who it was that had sat next to him, and when he saw that it was his three friends there, wearing the fakest smiles he had ever seen, he quickly raised himself to leave to avoid conversation, but alas, was unable to, for James had pulled him back down to his conventional position.

"Wait—" James said, when he noticed that 'I don't want to deal with this right now' look on Carlos's face. "Just talk to me for a second."

Carlos crossed his arms, and pouted. Couldn't the world just leave him alone? Seriously, everywhere he went there were people…

"Carlos," Kendall started, eyeing the young boy carefully. "You haven't been talking lately…"

"Thank-you, Sir-Points-Out-The-Obvious-A-Lot," Logan remarked.

"Let me finish. –And, we're worried about you. You usually love to talk, and sing, and be funny…what happened to 'old Carlos'?"

"Yeah," Logan agreed. "And after all, without you jabbering all the time, it's starting to get quiet enough to think, and that means now we don't have an excuse to not focus on schoolwork."

Kendall and James weren't expecting to rely on humor, but okay, whatever. It seemed to be working, because…

Carlos actually smiled…

Like, not a toothy smile, but just a small ear-to-ear smile—though his lips were still together. But it almost counted, because hadn't smiled since he started not talking, so it was kind of making progress…kind of.

"There it is!" James emphasized. "The famous Carlos-Smile he all know and love! But now, not only do we have no excuse for not focusing on school, but we have no boring lectures to fall asleep too! Do you know how many nights I stared at the ceiling, wondering where the heck my Carlos-Sound-Box went?"

Once again, they hadn't planned on counting on humor, but it was really working, because now, his shoulders start to shake a little bit, and his smile got even bigger, and that meant…

Carlos was giggling.

Unfortunately, he still managed to keep his mouth closed, but they were really getting somewhere now.

"Remember when you used to opera into your toothbrush?" Kendall suddenly brought up. "It's a shame you never open your mouth anymore. That poor toothbrush had hopes and dreams of becoming a microphone."

And that did it. Carlos looked at his friends, and his smile grew bigger, and suddenly…

He laughed.

It wasn't like a fully-blown-out break-down "LOL" laughing drill, more like a silent giggle-fit. Bit it didn't matter.

Because Carlos opened his mouth. And when he did, it was made clear why he had kept it shut.

Carlos lost his first baby tooth.

Yeah, most people lose their first baby tooth when they're like…five…but losing baby teeth really late ran in the family.

And Carlos had lost one of his two front teeth, so there was this gap, that somebody could make they assumption he was embarrassed about. Seriously, it's kind of embarrassing, when you lose one of your most visible teeth, and there's this huge gap where it used to be. Not attractive. Coming to this deduction, James put a hand on Carlos's back, who accepted that he could not longer keep up with his none-mouth-opening-policy, and continued to smile, despite his missing dental element.

"Carlos," James began. "Everyone loses their teeth eventually. It's really nothing the world hasn't seen before—nothing to get embarrassed about."

"Yeah," Logan agreed. "And you had us seriously worried. It's okay that one of your teeth fell out; and it'll grow back eventually, anyway."

"But it'th not ju'th that…" Carlos stammered. Gasp. The first time he talked in a week…and…quite strangely…

Now, we were digging into things. Not only was Carlos embarrassed his first tooth was gone, but he was forced to talk with a lisp, too. That was understandable—talking with a lisp is embarrassing. Seriously, who was he, Tweetie Bird?"

All three boys tried hard to hold back laughs…much to Carlos's chagrin. Noticed the embarrassed flush on Carlos's face, James quickly retired from his gigglefit, and wrapped his arm around Carlos's shoulder.

"Look. Everyone faces times like this in their life. I had a lisp, when I lost my tooth, too. When somebody teases you, just go ahead, and accidently spit on them on purpose."

Carlos laughed. What James said made no sense at all, but it was funny. And it did make him feel better.

"And besides," Kendall continued. "We don't think any less of you for not having a tooth. You're our best friend, no matter what you look like, or how you talk."

Logan and James nodded in agreement, and Carlos's grateful smile couldn't possibly get bigger. "Really…?"

"Really," all three boys chorused. And when James, Logan, and Kendall all say something at the same time, they really mean it.

Carlos reached out his arms, and all four of them embraced in a hug.

So Carlos learned a lesson… a few lessons. First, it doesn't matter what the heck other idiots think. Second, if your friends can't appreciate you when your appearance changes, they're not your friends. This is like one of those corny, almost important mural stories that nobody really cares about…

Uhhhhhh….yeah. So that's where it ends…and um…yeah. Extremely cheesy. Tell me what you think, if you're not feeling too lazy at this moment. ;-)