Electric Tacos (Wattys 2023)

TEN

The following week went by too slowly; Science was a drag, soccer was torture, swimming was fine, track was fine, but the highlight was art.

Mateo got the top grade in his art project and was flying high on the compliments until they went to meet Fur Ass for another run-through.

This time, they did the whole play and tried to immerse themselves in their characters.

It was tiring, but they had finally the cast selected and were going for their first dress rehearsal. They ran through the whole show, twice; once with Fur Ass narrating and the other time with Mateo, but Ricky couldn't wait for it to be over.

He just wanted to go home, relax and watch some TV in peace:

"Mateo, you need to tighten up your accent to be Hector." He said.

Mateo nodded. "I know. I'll channel my Dad."

Ricky smirked. "Good call. Wanna come to my place?"

"What are we gonna watch?"

"I was gonna play some card games, and put on some movies." Ricky said, "It'll just be us two, Jay went home to sleep, and Chuck's hangin' with his cousins."

Mateo nodded. "I can call my Dad later."

"I'm going to hang around with Pammy, George, Max, and Yelena."

"Where?" Mateo asked.

"To the cinema to see Cocktail and then get something to eat after."

Mateo nodded. "Okay, me and Ricky are going to chill now."

Ricky fake retched. "Come on, we're gonna go now before we catch cooties off them."

They walked back to Ricky's, and were greeted by... Tito?

He was dressed in a pair of freshly ironed khaki pants, a tucked-in white t-shirt, an overshirt, his good boots, and an expensive-looking hat.

"Why're you here, Primo?" Ricky asked him as he wiped the sweat from his hands, onto his shorts.

"I'm helping your Pops set up his new coffee machine, and I'm fixing the fridge too." Tito said, "You two gonna stand there all night?"

Ricky nodded as they walked over to the lounge, opposite the kitchen/dining area. Pops was sitting at the table, Dory was playing with some action figures opposite him, and Jose was watching TV.

Ricky reached over to try and grab the remote, but Jose held it down. "Hey! I'm watching that!"

Ricky smirked. "Watching what?"

"The Golden Girls," Jose said back, crossly.

"Are you my abuela or hermano?" Ricky asked.

"Shut up." Jose hissed. "And go away."

"Loser!"

Pops rolled his eyes. "Behave–"

"--Ricky's trying to change the channel, and I was here first!" Jose yelled.

Pops shook his head. "Enrique, go in the basement, you should know better by now."

"But the TV here is better," Ricky argued. "And we've had a long week."

"Go!" Pops yelled. "Stay down there for a few hours, hasta luego."

"Why?" Ricky glared. "And why do you defend Jose and Dory soo much?"

Tito was working away in the background, but he paused to look over at them. "Ricky, just go, please."