Disclaimer: "Welcome to Night Vale" is property of Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor.

Summary: A fundraising is happening in the Night Vale High School's football field, some revelations are made and there's a complaint or two about romance novels (or lack of thereof).

2. Pins & social media stalking

Night Vale is confusing.

Those are Carlos's thoughts as he waits on the hallway for the rest of his friends to join him. There is a little fair-like thing going on in the football field, a fundraising of sorts. He had already went there, just to take a look and see if it was worthy going back there later with his friends. It looked fun and he even bought something.

He bought a rainbow colored pin, which now was latched to his flannel's lapel.

He hadn't come out to his friends the day Cecil asked to know his name, but he hadn't said he was straight either. So far, the only one who knows for sure is Dave. He had built quite a friendship with the boy; he felt he could say they had truly become good friends.

"There you are!" says the boy in question approaching next to all of their friends and beaming when he sees Carlos' pin. "Hey, man, look! Can you believe they had these?!" he asks excited, pointing at the pin that adorns his Dr. Who t-shirt. Unlike Carlos' it has only three stripes; pink, yellow and blue. "I bought like three!"

"What are you going to do with three?" he asks jokingly, even when almost feeling the stares from the others, he tries really hard not to look at them, though.

"One goes in my backpack, other in my clothes and one in case I lose either one, see? All planned!" he answers like is the most obvious.

"Carlos, baby" Rochelle says sweetly, it is not hard to see why Louisa keeps saying she is the group's 'Mama Bear', "stop looking like a deer caught in the headlights, nobody is going to say anything, okay?" then she points at her own shirt. There is a pin there too. It has four stripes: black, grey, white and purple.

"Yeah, it's cool" Nilanjana chimes in.

Carlos blinks, clearly surprised, but then he smiles and thanks them. His heart feels heavy with acceptance and he has never felt like that before. He loves the sensation. If this keeps up he is going to cry…, of joy, of course. However, Dana approaches them and instantly does a double take on Rochelle's pin.

"Disappointed, Cardinal?" she jokes.

"Got my hopes up for a second, not gonna lie" she points at hers, it has a lot of stripes in pinks and reds with a kiss mark on a corner. She then turns to Carlos and Dave. "You guys got one too, cool!"

"Yup, may as well attract some potential suitors" Dave states, making Dana nod in agreement. "I wonder…" he says thoughtfully, before putting on his other two pins. "In theory, this will attract more people who might be interested" he explains to his friends.

Carlos makes a move to remove his.

"Maybe I should…", but Dave's hand stops him by gently grabbing his wrist.

"Nope! I will keep at least one of mine on, if you keep yours", he smirks at him. "Gay-Pan solidarity, dude"

"I'm keeping mine on too!" Rochelle joins.

"Me three!" adds Dana raising a fist in the air and jumping a bit, making her sailor pink skirt swish a little.

"What are you doing with so many pins on, Lab Rat?"

Everybody turns to see Earl, followed by Cecil. Earl's pin has three stripes: pink, purple and blue and is latched on one of his uniform's short sleeves, next to a badge that must only exist in Night Vale, while Cecil fidgets nervously with his rainbow colored one, attached to the velvety purple vest he is wearing over a white dress shirt. Carlos thinks he looks really cute when he is nervous and smiles at him. He smiles back.

"I'm proving a theory, Boy Scout" Dave retorts, rolling his blue eyes and crossing his arms, then smirks again, smugly. "You just proved me right".

The group then takes off to their next class. Night Vale High School has a small population that is always decreasing in numbers, given the perils of daily life in the community; therefore all of the classes are grouped out by age, thing that Carlos doesn't mind too much, knowing that it allows him to be with his friends. As they enter the Literature class, which he knows is one of Cecil's favorites, he notices said boy watching him sideways. Has he noticed the pin? He hopes so…

Carlos likes Cecil; he was kind to him from day one, but… Cecil scares him. No one has ever said about him the things the purple-eyed boy does; no one has ever showed that level of pure and unmistakable adoration for him before. And he also doesn't want to hurt Cecil, (which has nothing to do with whatever Earl and Dana plan to do with him if they feel Cecil is unhappy, which in itself is a possibility scary enough) and a small part of him feels that he is the one that is going to be hurt if the other boy ever decides to take his rose-colored glasses off and see him how he really is.

How he is even supposed to act? He treats Cecil like he will with any other friend, but will be lying if he said that their contact happens purely on school-related hours. They day they met, as they finished lunch and were heading to their next class. The Palmer boy handed him his phone number and told him to call him if he ever needed anything while flashing him a flirty smile.

Cecil Palmer is, scientifically speaking, the only thing keeping Carlos from losing what sanity he has left to the strangeness of this town. Every time he doesn't understand something, he calls Cecil, and he is more than happy to help him. He just wishes he could do more for the other boy, help him like he helps him.

The closest he had been to do so was inviting him to have a coffee in a café near the school to, Dios…, he freaking took him to the café to help him with his homework. It was the only thing that Carlos could think of in which he could be helpful, because, despite Cecil's enthusiasm about science, he is terrible at it. However, the Venezuelan boy definitely had to give him bonus points on the enthusiasm department. He tries to understand, really tries.

And he is not going to lie, either. Cecil is… a very good-looking boy, with a voice warm and sweet like honey and a face to match. He has a healthy respect of boundaries, unlike some grow-ups he has met in his life. The moment Cecil saw that the way they were sitting in the café, so next to each other their arms were pressed against each other's, was making Carlos uncomfortable, he backed away, leaving a few inches of space between them. He appreciated the gesture.

When he snaps out of his thoughts of Cecil Gershwin Palmer, he realizes he is only a block away from his house. Usually all the group does the trip back home together. Stan and Louisa don't, though, since the boy's parents had gifted him a car for his birthday (his dad is a business man and his mother a lawyer, so to say they're wealthy is an understatement) and he lives in the general opposite direction, Earl had a Scout Meeting at the entrance of City Hall, Cecil and Dana got a call from the radio station they're both interning at, Nilanjana was picked up after school by her father, Mark is down with the flu, while Dave and Rochelle decided to stay after school to see what they can do about the school's lack of a science club.

He doesn't mind walking alone; he just thinks it's curious that in a group as big as theirs no one else had to take the path home that day.

He sighs and enters the house. As expected, his siblings are already home, since his father picks them up, because the middle school is right next to the elementary the youngest member of the family attends. He can practically hear in his head how his sister Carla complains about it. All she does lately is complain, it seems.

"Carlos, hijo, is that you?" asks his father from the kitchen.

"Yeah, it's me!" he announces taking off his bag but not leaving it by the door, since he knows it bothers his mother to no end, to be honest, he wishes they could just speak Spanish at home, it will make the place feel a little bit more homey to him. However, Fabian is still having trouble adjusting to the changes (he is not the only one) and switches back to Spanish without noticing, it's not strange, he is only eight years old after all, but to help him everybody has agreed to speak English around him so he gets adjusted faster. He can see the logic behind that, begin exposed to the language constantly makes you fluent at it, he wonders if he can help by explaining things to him in English when he helps him with his homework before dinner tonight.

He enters the kitchen and leaves his school bag on a chair, he has homework to do. His father is working on his computer. Realizing he never asked, he wonders if he should perhaps ask his father about his new job. He retired as cop after an injury in the line of duty; luckily it had nothing to do with guns or bullets. He now works as a consultant for the company that moved them to Night Vale. He had heard something about the library? But Cecil had told him the library is extremely dangerous, and that the librarians are horrible monsters, so he rather not think about that.

"How was your day?" his father asks, still typing away in his laptop.

"Fine, I guess, do you want a glass of juice?" he offers after serving one for himself, his father nods. "Here you go. What about your day?"

"Thanks" he takes the glass. "Fine, I still don't have to go to the central yet, but they're surely keeping me busy". He frowns, before pointing at his son's chest. "Nice pin, is it new?"

"Hm?" Carlos looks down, noticing he had forgotten to remove it. He may have been closeted in school before today, but his family knew, he had come out on a dinner a year ago when he was sixteen. Everybody took it pretty well, his mother even thanked him for trusting them enough to let know and gave him one of her biggest hugs. Still, he didn't know what they would think about him wearing a pride pin. "Uh… this? Um, there was a fundraising at school and…" he starts to ramble.

"Looks nice on you" his father cuts in. "Just remember the rules, okay?"

"Okay" he says, biting his lips.

The rules, the infamous rules his father had set upon him and his sisters, they're rules about the kind of boys that he allows to date his children. They're pretty simple: no delinquents, no lazy good for nothings, no junkies, they better be respectful, if they're older than Carlos, then we're going to have a problem,that kind of thing. His father is kind of old fashioned in that sense, but he agrees with those rules, especially with the last one, he doesn't want his sisters dating guys that are older than him; it's weird and he would feel they're begin taken advantage of. There is, however, a second part of the rules he doesn't like so much: you better tell them your father used to be a cop and knows how to use a gun and hide a body, and that I have an alibi! He doesn't imagine himself telling Cecil that… not that he would have to! Why would he? Cecil is just a friend!

He enters his room, it's a simple room. The walls are painted a pastel blue and have a couple of George Michael and Nirvana posters hanging in them, while the carpet is a navy blue color. He takes off his shoes and leaves them by the door; he also puts his school bag on the chair by the desk and connects his phone to the charger, leaving it in the bedside table, next to the lamp.

'I don't know why I worry' he thinks, seating in the desk while fidgeting a bit with his pin, 'Papá didn't even flinch that time when I came home from school with my ears pierced or when I started using pearl earrings, he wouldn't really care about a silly pin…'

An hour later, his homework for the next day is done. It's kind of an inside joke of the family that Rosa and Mauricio Marron had spent all the brain cells points on their oldest son. He is the smart one; it's what his sisters say. He is going to do great things, his mother says. But for now, this smart boy is going to rest a bit, he picks up his phone and checks his messages; Dave had sent good news regarding the science club situation that he promises he will expand on tomorrow's lunch; Rochelle had created a new group chat by the name of #NerdsAssemble, which makes him chuckle, Louisa has used it to send them some memes. He checks his social media, he used to only have a Facebook, but Dave and Mark convinced him to get an Instagram, which he doesn't know what for, he is not that good-looking to post that many selfies anyways.

He is scrolling past some stuff that Dave had added to his main page when he sees it.

Wait a second… is that…? Checking the user name, he realizes he is seeing a picture from Cecil's Instagram account: Ceec_GP. It's not a bad photo, very aesthetic looking, even. In the picture, the purple eyed boy is facing to the side, eyes closed, a smile on his face as he seems distracted, not seeming to notice the camera, while the sun shines over him. He is wearing a t-shirt with the Night Vale Community Radio logo over a side of his chest over a dress white shirt and a flower crown. He looks so cute.

"Look at this cute picture my friend DanaCard took of me!" the info says.

There are a couple comments on the picture, but he doesn't bother to read them, he can already see that Cecil looks beautiful; he has eyes, after all. Curiously, a scientist is always curious (even if said scientist doesn't have a degree that proves he is one yet), he taps Cecil's user name, making it change color and display his full profile. It's one beautiful photo after another. He finds himself scrolling through the other boy's photos. There are selfies, pictures at the radio station, some others with Dana, Earl or both, even some with a strange purple creature with spikes on it's back (those ones are all blurry for some reason, and you can't really see much) that he assumes is his friend's cat Khoshekh. Cecil looks amazing in each one of them. He stops in one in particular.

In that shot, Cecil just faces the camera, smiling and dressed in a black and white striped and long-sleeved crop top, the smile on his lips is painted a dark purple that makes his lips look fuller (he is not surprised, he knows Cecil wears clothes of both genders and, man does he know how to flaunter them), he is holding a laughing little girl in his arms that Carlos recognizes as Cecil's baby niece Janice, daughter of his older sister Abby. He knows it's her, because Cecil has her picture as the screen lock image on his cell phone.

"My sister is working double shift today, so I get to spoil my little princess! #TheCutestLittleThing #ILoveMyNiece", reads the info.

He smiles again, how can someone be as cute as Cecil is? He had learned that his beauty was actually natural; Cecil didn't wear purple-colored contacts, nor bleached his hair for it to look white at the top. Hell, he had come to learn those "tattoos" that ran up his arms and seemed to move if you weren't looking directly at them, weren't even tattoos, but birthmarks he shares with his siblings. Funnily enough, Cecil's older brother Cal does work in a tattoo parlor just out in the edge of town, though.

If he has to choose a word to describe him… it's exotic. Cecil is exotic. Is that why he is so drawn to him?

"Ey, Carlos, what are you doing?" someone asks.

He yelps, startled and almost drops his phone, finding one of his sisters standing behind him. Luckily, it's Carolina. Carla would have given him hell.

"Ay, Dios, ¡Caro, me asustaste!" he pants in Spanish with a hand on his chest. "What do you need?"

"Were you stalking someone online or was I high?" she asks knowingly with a smile on her face.

"Stalking? What are you talking about?" he feigns ignorance, and it almost sounds convincing, because he didn't knew browsing someone's photos on social media of all places was considered stalking. "Oh? Is that the book I lend you?" he says, barely hiding the relief in his voice at finding another subject of conversation in his sister's hands.

"YES and I'm very disappointed!" she says, shoving the book into her brother's hands with a frown. "They don't end up together, Carlos!"

"Um, Caro, this is a crime thriller, romance is not part of the main plot… also, it was never established they would-…"

"Come on!" she cries exasperatedly. "You know I love romance sub-plots! Do you have anything else I could read?"

"Well, I don't have any romance books…" he answers lamely, scratching the nape of his neck and biting his lips. Their father has forbidden any trips to the library, which he knows breaks Carolina's book-loving heart and, as an older brother, it breaks his heart in turn. An idea quickly pops into his head. "You know what? I have a female friend that loves romance books as much as you do, I will give her a call and see if she has any books she can lend you, okay?"

"Okay, thanks, Carlos!" she answers, quickly enveloping him in a hug that he reciprocates.

Carlos smiles as she leaves the room. Well, seems like he has to text Rochelle now and ask her for a hand.

Notes on the pins from the beginning:

Cecil and Carlos = Gay pride flag.

Dave = Pansexual pride flag.

Rochelle = Asexual pride flag.

Dana = Lipstick Lesbian pride flag.

Earl = Bisexual pride flag.

Spanish to English translations:

"Ay, Dios, ¡Caro, me asustaste!" = "Oh, God, Caro, you scared me!"

Monday, April 1st.