It was a beautiful and sunny day in Los Angeles, California at around 10am and Carlos woke up from his peaceful sleep and yawned. He sat up in bed and started stretching before he got out of bed.
He got out of bed, grabbed his black shiny helmet from the side of his bed and placed it on his head then walked out of the room to take a shower.
After he was finished his shower it was around 10:30am and Carlos was starving. He slid down the swirly slide to see his best friends Kendall & Logan watching SpongeBob and James spraying tons of Cuda hairspray in his hair which smelt really bad but nobody told James that.
He looked at the kitchen and saw Mrs. Knight wasn't there. She always made the boys & Katie breakfast every morning. Carlos frowned. "Good Morning Carlos" said Logan as he waved at him. Carlos smiled at him. "Hi Logan, Where's mama knight?" asked Carlos curiously as he was sitting at the end of the swirly slide.
"She went out shopping with Katie for Christmas presents" Kendall said. Christmas was in less than 2 weeks and she had to get busy with buying the presents for the boys.
Carlos sat up and walked towards the kitchen to get himself some cereal. He opened up the bottom cupboard and grabbed the box of Lucky Charms, his favorite cereal. He opened up the drawer to grab a spoon and then he noticed he was missing something.
He needed to get a bowl. Carlos looked around for the bowls and noticed they were all the way at the top. Way too high for Carlos' reach.. He sighed and he reached up as high as he could but he couldn't reach the bowl. He then started jumping up and down to grab it but that didn't work either.
Carlos was getting very frustrated so he climbed onto the kitchen counter. He finally made it up and then he stood up on his knees. He opened up the cupboard and he saw all the bowls. He reached up as far as his arms could go to grab the bowl.
He was so close to grabbing the bowl but then his knee slipped and he fell off the counter making a huge crashing sound. Kendall & Logan never noticed because the volume of the TV was too loud but James heard what happened. He dropped his hairspray and he ran over to Carlos by grabbing his hand and helping him up.
"You okay buddy?" asked James worriedly. "Yeah..I'm fine" said Carlos as he rubbed his helmet.
He was very lucky he was wearing it or else he would've got a concussion. James smiled at Carlos and noticed that the cupboard where all the bowls are stored was still open and that the Lucky Charms box was out so he figured out that Carlos was trying to get a bowl for the lucky charms.
James reached up and grabbed the bowl. Carlos watched James as he grabbed the bowl for him. He didn't have any problems getting it. He didn't have to climb onto the counter like Carlos did nor jump or reach up on his tippy toes. James gave the bowl to Carlos.
"You've could've hurt yourself badly, you're too small to reach up there. Next time ask me for help" said James. Carlos felt hurt. James called him small. Ever since middle school he was always mad fun of for his height and that brought back many bad memories.
James didn't even notice he hurt Carlos' feelings. He just smiled at him. Carlos grabbed the bowl from James and placed it on the counter, grabbed the milk out of the fridge and poured it into the bowl and then added the lucky charms. He put the spoon into the bowl and started walking upstairs.
"I'm eating breakfast in my room" he stated and then slammed the door.
James gave Carlos a funny look and then joined the other boys who were watching TV. Carlos sat on his bed and ate his Lucky Charms in sadness. He wasn't that small for his age! Or was he?
Carlos tried to forget about James calling him "small" and after finishing his cereal he decided to go down to the lobby to read his new comic book he got yesterday.
He stayed there for about 2 hours reading and when the book got to an intense part the booked was knocked out of his hands by Kendall. "Dude, do you want to play lobby hockey?" he asked as he held two hockey sticks in front of him. Carlos' face lit up and then he took the hockey stick that was Kendall's right hand.
"You bet I do!". James, Kendall, Logan and Carlos were playing lobby hockey for about 30 minutes and the teams were James & Logan vs. Kendall & Carlos. James' team was winning by 2 points. Kendall grabbed the ball they were using with his hockey stick and started running down to the opposite teams net and did a powerful slap shot at the net but he missed.
The ball hit the back wall very hard and bounced back landing on top of a lamp.
Carlos saw the ball was on top of the lamp and he quickly yelled "I'll get it!". Carlos wanted to prove he wasn't small and he could get the ball for the guys. He ran over to the lamp as the other boys watched him try to get the ball. Carlos looked up at the lamp and saw the bright orange ball sitting on top of the lamp.
He tried reaching up but he couldn't get it. Carlos didn't want to embarrass himself so he went over to the front desk to ask Mr. Bitters to get the ball that was stuck. He nodded and went over to the lamp to grab the ball. Carlos was happy but then he saw he put the ball in his pocket
. "How many times did I tell you boys you can't play lobby hockey! Your not getting your ball back now!" He chuckled and walked away with it. Kendall dropped his hockey stick and punched Carlos in the arm hard.
"Why did you ask Mr. Bitters to get the ball? You've could've got it but no, you have to be small for your age! Why can't you be taller like me, James and Logan?" Kendall said. He was frustrated with Carlos. Carlos looked down. "Sorry." Carlos was even more upset now.
First James and now Kendall called him small! He hated it so much! Logan put a hand on Carlos' shoulder. "It's okay buddy. How about we all go to the new water park place that just opened up down the street?"
said Logan as he pointed outside. It was extremely sunny out and very hot, too hot for December but that's California weather. Kendall, James and Carlos all nodded and then all high-fived each other. 45 minutes later all of the boys were wearing their swim shorts and they arrived at the water park place.
There were tons of people, mostly kids were running around all over the place screaming and having a great time going down all the waterslides. They were all amazed at how awesome all the waterslides were, they were the biggest they've ever seen.
Kendall looked around and pointed at a huge purple waterslide that was called "The Torpedo". 'Let's go there first!" he said. Carlos smiled and started running towards the waterslide.
"I'll race you all there!" he said as he was still running and the other 3 boys ran after him.
When they got to the slide they were surprised that there was no line and just as they were about to run up the stairs to go on it a lifeguard stopped them. "You need to be over 5'8 to go on the waterslide!" he stated as he pointed at a chart which had a line at the top.
"If you're taller than that line, you can go on it." Kendall and James measured up with the line and they were taller than it so they were allowed to go on the slide.
They high-fived eachother and ran up the staits, Logan measured up with the line and he was just taller than it, but not by much. Logan smiled and started walking up the stairs.
Carlos measured up with the line but he frowned when he looked up and saw he smaller than the line. "Sorry buddy, your too small to go on" said the lifeguard.
Carlos was furious at this point. That was the third person who called him small today. He frowned and ran off very fast and Logan saw it all. 'Carlos wait!' yelled Logan as he ran down the stairs and chased after Carlos.
Carlos was a faster runner than Logan so in a few seconds he was out of Logan's sight. Logan ran around the water park for about 5 minutes calling Carlos' name. He looked to his left and saw Carlos sitting on a bench with his head in his hands and it looked like he was crying.
Logan walked over to him and sat next to him hugging him. "Are you okay buddy?" Logan asked feeling bad for Carlos. Carlos just shook his head and still had his head in his hands.
Logan sighed and lifted up Carlos' head and saw his face was all red from crying. Logan brought him into a big hug. "Do you want to talk?" Carlos frowned! "I hate how I'm so small! I hate how I'm smaller than you, Kendall and James, I hate how everyone calls me small, especially Kendall & James! I hate it so much!" Carlos practically yelled at Logan. "Logan hugged Carlos tighter.
"I know what you mean Carlitos, people call me small too" Carlos' eyes widen. "What? People call you small" he asked. "Yeah sometimes, but I just ignore it. Today I tried to reach up to grab a bowl from the cupboard but I couldn't but Kendall helped me get it."Replied Logan. Carlos sighed.
'The same thing happened to me this morning." Carlos looked down at the ground again. "I hate how I look, why I can't be as tall as Kendall and James?" he signed. Logan looked at Carlos straight in the eyes. "Carlos you have to like yourself for you who are and what's most important, I love you for who you are."
Carlos had a big smile on his face. "Really Logie? You like me for who I am?" said Carlos. "Of course I do buddy! That's why your one of my best friends." Carlos brought Logan into a big hug and hugged him tight. "Thanks for being one of my best friends Logie"
"Logan smiled. "You're welcome Carlitos"
There was silence for about one minute until Kendall and James walked over to them. "Woohoo! Best water slide ever!" yelled James as he wiped his wet hair that was sticking to his forehead backwards and Kendall did the same thing" Carlos teared up and looked down at the ground.
Logan stood up and grabbed Kendall & James. "You do realize you made Carlos really upset by calling him small, remember middle school?" said Logan who was crossing his arms.
Kendall & James had flashbacks of middle school where everyday Carlos was picked on for being small and being shoved into a locker everyday by Jett Stetson & Dak Zevon and getting beat up by them. "Oh my god." Said Kendall and he and James both ran over to Carlos and gave him a big hug.
"We're so sorry we called you small! We didn't realize about what happened, you know where" said James. Carlos looked up at them 'It's okay." And he hugged both of them back and then Logan joined in for the group hug.
"Hey how about we all go get icecream!" said Kendall. They all nodded. "Last one there has to pay for everyone!" James yelled and then started running off,
The other three boys laughed and ran off after James.