My original plan for this oneshot was to write a series of drabbles that centred around Carlos, DA, and a telescope. Each drabble was kind of meant to establish a different chapter in their romantic lives, but it worked out quite differently from what was originally planned. I'm not sure how well the drabbles fit together but I was happy enough with it to post.

Much thanks to EverAfter153 for being my Beta and helping me out with some of the dialogue! And if you like Carlos/DA, I recommend checking out her amazing fics as well!

Warnings: Major C/DA fluff

Of Telescopes and Chemicals

Our doubts are traitors
And make us lose the good we oft might win

-Measure for Measure, 1.4

It never rained on his birthday.

Never. Not in his fourteen - no - almost fifteen years of existence. July 24th was always some sacred day where it never dared to downpour. There had been one close call last year where it had drizzled a bit the day before, but he had never seen weather quite like this on his birthday.

Instead of the bright sunny day he was usually rewarded with, the weather today was one of the worst Carlos had ever seen: it was raining heavily, the winds were strong, and he could have sworn he had heard some hail thundering down on the roof of his house a few hours earlier. Carlos was just waiting for the lightning and accompanying thunder to make the day complete. It was like Walkerville had completely forgotten it was his birthday. The blasphemy.

It was lucky that he hadn't actually planned a birthday party that day, saving it for the next week when Arnold would return from his trip to Germany. Instead, Carlos had simply invited only his closest friends to join him in moping around in the miserable weather.

Predictably, Dorothy Ann was the only one who actually arrived at exactly the time he had stated. She had never seemed to have gotten the concept of 'fashionably late', but Carlos wasn't complaining. He always found that, whatever the weather or the situation, his mood always brightened whenever he saw her, and this time felt more pleased than usual when she got up on her toes so that she could kiss him on the cheek.

"Happy Birthday, Carlos!" she greeted him brightly and handed him the present.

"T-thanks, DA," Carlos said, taking the gift. The cheek she had kissed was burning, but he tried to ignore it. "You know you really didn't have to - "

"Don't be ridiculous," she said quickly, looking past him into his living room. "Am I the first one here?"

"Aren't you always?" Carlos grinned, closing the door behind her. And she was always the first one there. He had been counting on it this year too: there was something he had wanted to show her before anyone else had a chance to see it first. "Hey, you won't believe what my uncle got me for my birthday."

"What?" Dorothy Ann was still smiling brightly, and there was now a hint of curiousity spread across her face. He waited for her to close her dripping umbrella shut and couldn't help but notice that, despite the conditions she had just escaped from, Dorothy Ann Parker still looked like the most beautiful girl to have ever set foot in Walkerville. Her blond hair was slightly damp, especially near the ends that came down just past her shoulders; the rain had made it slightly frizzy too. Her eyes were the same brilliant blue as always and he saw a bit of purple eyeshadow on her eyelids. She hardly ever wore makeup, only ever on special occasions. He smiled.

Dorothy Ann, who had finally managed to close her umbrella shut, placed it in the little stand next to the door and turned back up at him. "What?" she asked again.

"Just come on," Carlos grinned and grabbed her wrist. Gripping the soft material of her periwinkle blue sweater lightly, Carlos then proceeded to drag her towards the staircase.

"Carlos, what - " Dorothy Ann looked slightly baffled, but let herself be pulled up to his bedroom without much resistance. Her nose wrinkled slightly at the smell of old socks as she stepped inside and sat on the foot of his bed while Carlos, who had completely forgotten about the underwear he'd left laying around, hastily stuffed it away in his laundry basket.

"Well," he said, hoping she hadn't noticed the white boxers dotted with red polka dots.

"Well what?" Dorothy Ann frowned and he saw her scan the room. "What did your uncle - " then she let out a startled gasp. "Carlos, oh my gosh... Carlos!"

She leapt up off the bed in a flurry and dashed to his bedroom window where a large, handsome telescope was poking out. "Carlos, oh my - a celestron - new model - why - you - your uncle gave this to you?!"

She looked nothing short of positively shocked, just like Carlos had predicted she would. He grinned, stuffed his hands into his pockets, and said, "Thought you'd like it."

"Like it?! I - " Dorothy Ann let out a low moan. Her hand was now hovering over the telescope as though she was afraid to touch it. "Carlos I can't believe - I'd give anything - anything to own one of these - "

"You can come over whenever you like and use it," said Carlos quickly. "I really have no idea why my uncle spent this much on something like this for me. Mom thinks it has something to do with the fact that they've kind of been fighting lately - arg!"

Whatever Carlos had been about to say next had been knocked out of his head when Dorothy Ann suddenly threw herself at him and hugged him tightly.

"You'd actually let me touch it?!" she squealed excitedly and then whirled away from him to stare at the telescope in glazed reference. "I'd be afraid break it.."

"'Course I'd let you touch it," Carlos said, looking at her as if she were crazy just suggesting otherwise. He rubbed the now sore spot on his chin where Dorothy Ann's forehead had bumped it just a few seconds earlier in her enthusiasm. Visions of him hugging her back and lifting her up to his lips that had overcome him when she'd touched him, faded away soon after she pulled away.

She beamed at him and turned back to the telescope. "Too bad it's raining. The odds of these clouds clearing up tonight aren't very high unfortunately... hmmm.." and she looked morosely out the window.

"Sounds like a job for weatherman, eh Ralphie?"

Carlos and Dorothy Ann jumped at the noise and whirled around to face the two figures now standing together under the doorframe. Wanda had just nudged Ralphie who had turned very pink.

"Happy birthday, Carlos," Wanda said brightly, handing over her present. Carlos accepted it with thanks, and then lead the party of four downstairs, back to the basement.

xxx

"So when are you leaving?" Carlos asked casually as he played with the frayed end of his mother's favorite picnic blanket.

"Next Tuesday," Dorothy Ann replied.

It was the first day of August, roughly a week after his fifteenth birthday party. The two of them were lying outside in Carlos' backyard on the same blanket, watching the stars. The rain had cleared a few days after his birthday. The weather could not have been any hotter now and tonight there was not a cloud in the sky. The stars were twinkling above, and the lights from the fireflies were shining around them. One flew under his nose; he batted it away.

There was a silence between them at the moment. Carlos lounging on the blanket and lazily watching the fireflies as they flew in between their heads, Dorothy Ann sitting at the base of the telescope the two of them had brought down earlier that day and thumbing through one of her books.

"This next Tuesday?!"

She gave him a funny look. "Yes, that's what I said."

"Oh, just wondering. How long will you be?"

"I've already told you," she said with a slight hint of impatience. "Until the end of August - the 30th I think." She closed her book and started to rub the lens of the telescope clean with the sleeve of her sweater.

It was true she had already told him, but Carlos had kind of been hoping that the answer might be different this time. That maybe she would decline the invitation from her parents to go with them to England to visit some relatives. That maybe he had convinced her last week when the two had gone with the rest of their friends to an amusement park to stay here for the rest of the summer. That England couldn't have possibly offered anything better than that.

"You know it'll be really boring here without you."

He had told himself before she arrived to act nonchalant about the whole thing, but he had to say it. It was true - he was going to be bored out of his mind when she left. Which might have hard for some people to contemplate, because of the fact that two of his best friends were Ralphie Tenelli and Wanda Li. And if one thing was certain, there was never a dull moment when one was around either of them.

But for some reason the fact that Dorothy Ann could find a physics textbook just as, if not more, exciting as Wanda found bungee jumping, amused him more than anything. Even more than one of Ralphie's practical jokes. In that sense, Dorothy Ann was probably the weirdest girl he knew. It fascinated him.

"You'll bring me back a souvenir, right?"

She laughed. "Yes, of course. Don't worry." And, still smiling, she reached up and tightened a hair tie holding up one of her blond pigtails.

He'd wondered if she'd done it on purpose when he'd opened the door to let her in earlier that evening. Sporting pigtails that is. He hadn't seen her in pigtails since the end of fourth grade. Why'd she have to pick the day she was leaving him for almost a whole month to have them again?!

It was actually painful. He'd forgotten how... cute she looked in them. They were longer now than they had ever been when they were younger, going all the way down to her shoulders and curling slightly at the ends. They were driving him mad. Carlos shook his head. As he watched one flop down onto the checkered blanket when Dorothy Ann was stretched onto her back, he had the sudden urge to reach out and play with a strand. He used to do that a lot when they were younger.

He resisted, though it was hard. He was resisting a lot of things he wanted to do right now. But he just took a deep breath to try to calm himself down, and searched for something else to do. Then - before he could stop himself -

"Your hair that way makes you look like a nine year old."

Her head snapped up from the book, and she fixed him with a glare that was a combination between outrage, confusion, and hurt. Carlos was staring back at her slightly horrified with himself, trying to figure out what exactly had just come out of his mouth.

"Your hair that way makes you look like a homeless person," she retorted.

"What's wrong with my hair?" he replied indignantly - his hair was thick and black, and always sort of ruffled in what he liked to think was a sexily messy style. It seemed to work on most females - but perhaps DA was the exception to the rule. Damn the luck.

"It's always falling in your eyes!" she told him irritably. "And you hardly ever brush it."

"My hair doesn't need to be brushed," he told her loftily, stretching back out on the blanket.

"Vanity will get you nowhere in life."

"Tell that to Phil - do you know he styles his hair in the mirror after P.E.?"

DA let out an enraged gasp, then grabbed her book, got to her feet and stomped toward the back door.

"You're terrible!" she snapped over her shoulder. "Just because Phil can read, and you can't!"

"I can read!" Carlos hollered after her. The fact that these were the last words he might hear from her for a month had completely slipped his mind. "Just because I don't quote British literature off the top of my head!"

"DA, your father's here." Mrs. Ramone poked her head out the back door, and was nearly knocked over as Dorothy Ann stormed past her into the house, muttering about infuriating boys and the virtues of Janes Austen.

Carlos, meanwhile, remained outside with his telescope for so long that his mother began to wonder just what was making her oldest boy brood like that.

xxx

"You know what I think would be neat," Dorothy Ann said one day. Exactly three months after his fifteenth birthday in fact. Carlos only remembered the date because he had had an essay due that following day on an opinion topic of his choice. October 25th. It had been hounding him for a few weeks now, but, as usual, he had left it until the last minute.

It was a late evening and Dorothy Ann was sitting on the windowsill in his bedroom with her cheek pressed against the window. The heavy rain was lashing at the windows and dripping down the glass outside.

Dorothy Ann came to his house often. Of course she did, she was one of his best friends after all. But she always seemed even more eager about it now that he had (apparently) some amazing, state of the art telescope sitting in his bedroom. This time however, there was no chance of seeing any stars outside: she had come over to brainstorm with him about the same essay she had to write. She had finished long ago though, and was now merely distracting Carlos from doing his own work. He didn't mind though.

"What you think would be neat?" Carlos questioned. "If I was made MVP of the Walkerville High soccer team again for the third time in a row?" He grinned arrogantly. Carlos was currently lounging casually on his desk chair with one foot resting on the foot of his bed. A hand was lying lightly on his forgotten English homework.

"No," DA said, shifting slightly in her seat. "If it was raining like this, but you could still see all the stars."

Carlos laughed, "What?"

"If you could see all the stars on a rainy day like this," Dorothy Ann repeated, sounding far off, like she was in her own little world.

Carlos snorted and turned back to the half finished essay. "You wouldn't think that was neat if it happened. You'd die of a heart attack if anything was that unscientific."

"I would not!" Dorothy Ann snapped, taking her cheek off of the window and turning to look at him crossly.

"Would to! You'd rush off to the library and check out every book that had to do with the possibility of rain without clouds." Carlos, his homework already becoming uninteresting again as DA challenged him, dropped his pen and swivelled his chair around so that he could face her. He had no idea why he like to push her buttons so much. Really he didn't. He didn't do it nearly as much to Wanda or Keesha or Arnold or anyone really. Just her.

"I would not!" she repeated hotly. "I can accept the occasional phenomena! The world is full of surprises like that, I'd be surprised if there weren't any at all! In fact, in the chaos theory..."

Maybe it was because she had the best reactions.

Carlos couldn't help but smile fondly at her and she explained to him the facts about probability and chaos in better detail than his science teacher probably could. She was determined, that was for sure, and stubborn. All of his closest girl friends were like that. Wanda would be all over his throat if he ever dared to insult the Mariners. Phoebe was terrifying if he ever mentioned anything about there being nothing wrong with eating meat. And Keesha never really seemed too interested in the things he said to her in argument anyways. Evidently she was too sophisticated to argue over such mundane things as rightful ownership of a pen or who of their group could finish a three foot long hoagie whole. Carlos was still determined to believe that Ralphie could do it. Besides, when Keesha called him immature she actually meant it. Whenever Dorothy Ann said it, he just knew it was her just telling herself that he was at least a little more immature than herself. It was almost as if she was trying to remind herself why she shouldn't give in and to cross the boundry between best friends and lovers and was worried she wouldn't be able to restrain herself for much longer.

That, or he was just being a little too hopeful.

Yes, Dorothy Ann was definitely different from the other girls. She actually seemed interested in what he had to say, and though she contradicted him and seemed to find him nothing short of irritating when he did argue with her, he could tell that she enjoyed their bickering. Just as much as he did. He loved having someone who challenged him back. It kept things interesting. He would have thought two stubborn and opinionated people would have had a hard time becoming such close friends. Maybe it was because that it wasn't so much they always disagreed with each other, they just liked bickering. Or maybe he just stuck by her all these years because he found her so damn interesting. What kind of girl would have thought of wishing for a clear night sky in the pouring rain?

He also loved the way her cheeks grew hot with fury, and the way her eyes would never leave him when she made her point. Sometimes he argued with her just so he could have an excuse to watch her eyes light up the way they did when she was angry.

"So" he continued as she crossed her arms, "You think it's possible then? For all the stars to be visible when it's raining like it is today"

"I never said that," Dorothy Ann hesitated. "I just meant that - oh nevermind!" and she turned away from him, reaching into the bookbag that rested at the bottom of the telescope and pulling out her copy of Pride and Prejudice.

Carlos watched her bury her nose into her book with some sort of frustration and turned back to his homework. He'd never get it right.

xxx

One of the knobs on his telescope had broken.

He wasn't sure exactly when the piece broke off, but he figured it might have had something to do with the soccer ball he had tossed aside in that general direction that one day after practice.

He brought the little piece of metal to school, hoping that maybe Dorothy Ann would know how to fix it. The two had only one class together, English, and sat close to each other. He didn't show her until they sat down in their usual seats, despite the fact they had walked to school together.

Dorothy Ann looked positively horrified when he presented it her.

"You broke it?!" Her eyes were popping. "How could you! Carlos! I can't believe you could be so irresponsible - "

"Can you fix it or not?" he interrupted.

"Well I - I could take a look at it I suppose, but honestly Carlos.." she looked as though she was ready to give him a lecture on how to properly care for his things, "You need to learn how to take better - "

"Thanks DA," he interrupted, grinning. "You're the best."

He saw her turn faintly pink, and her mouth fell open slightly - no doubt about to tell him off - but she appeared to think better of it and smiled instead. She extended an arm so that she could take the piece from his hand, but stopped after she had gotten a hold of the metal. Carlos, who had felt her warm hand graze his own while holding onto the piece, now seemed to be finding it difficult to let go. He felt her stop tugging at it and simply letting her fingers rest over his for a moment. He smiled at the desk, since he was avoiding looking at her, and for a moment, everything felt right.

Then the door of the classroom banged open again and their hands jumped apart. Ralphie Tenelli had just made his grand entrance into the classroom, and, for a split second, Carlos couldn't even remember why he was best friends with him.

"Just don't let it happen again, because if it does, I'm not helping you!" Dorothy Ann's voice was hinting at stern, but Carlos wasn't fooled. He could see the corners of her mouth twitching. The threat was meaningless, but he played along anyway.

"Awn, DA.."

"Well, maybe it'll force you to became more careful," she said, slipping the knob into her pink book bag. Carlos rolled his eyes and Ralphie, who was sopping wet, having just come in from the downpour outside, squelched down in the seat between them.

xxx

"That's Salalmelik," Dorothy Ann explained with what was undoubtedly perfect pronunciation of the star in question. "It's diameter is more than one hundred times that of our sun! Isn't it beautiful?"

So intent on the skies above, Dorothy Ann didn't seem to realize that she was speaking to the telescope. Carlos could not see what star she was referring too, as she was the one using the telescope at the moment. He decided to humor her.

"Sure, it's really something, DA."

"And look! Hamal!"

Boy she looked happier now than she had just a half an hour earlier when she'd shown up on his doorstep just after his family had finished eating dinner. He had been very surprised to see her at that hour, looking close to tears and throwing herself in his arms almost a second after he had opened the door. It had really brought his mood down: when she was depressed, he felt depressed. It was all he could do to make her a cup of his famous hot chocolate (he had to make sure the smell of it wouldn't waft its way through an open window though - Arnold had an amazing sense of smell when it came to detecting his beyond amazing hot chocolate and Carlos had only made enough for two) and bring her up to the telescope sitting in his bedroom.

It had been about her parents. Carlos didn't like to bring them up often. They were sort of an example of a now loveless marriage based upon a spark that had fizzled out years ago. He suspected that the only reasons Richard and Elaine were still together was for the sake of their two children. Neither of them seemed willing to do anything much about their dull marriage. It kind of bothered Carlos to be around them when they were trying to act as though they were perfectly in love and head over heels for each other. He could tell it bothered Dorothy Ann too. She often escaped to Carlos' house to escape her parents.

She had told him that she sometimes envied his family; he'd told her she was pretty much part of it already.

"You're really something if you manage to memorize all of those star names you know," Carlos said, resting his elbows on the windowsill.

Dorothy Ann turned sharply at the comment. "What's that supposed to mean?! So what?! How come no one ever makes fun of you for knowing all the soccer players in the - the - "

"Walkerville Bears?" Carlos helped her out.

"Yeah! At least something like the stars is a little more - useful."

Yes, she was definitely feeling better. "Hey! I resent that!"

"Honestly Carlos, what's the point of watching a bunch of - "

"I like it," Carlos interrupted. "Besides, you watch a lot of my games."

"Yes well that's different," Dorothy Ann turned quickly back to the telescope. She suddenly seemed keen on dropping the subject.

Carlos shrugged and leaned back on his arms. "It helps me take my mind off things too."

Dorothy Ann's hand, which had been fiddling with a knob on the side of the telescope, faltered. She leaned away from the lens and said, "Watching the stars does that for me."

"I know," Carlos said, holding back a smile.

xxx

In November of that year, there was a meteor shower announcement that soon left and excited buzz all over Walkerville. As Carlos had predicted, Dorothy Ann had asked politely if it would be possibly for her to come over the night it was due and borrow his telescope. Carlos, of course, had agreed to let her the moment she'd asked. He'd have to have gone completely insane to decline a request like that.

The night was clear: every star that was possible to chart visible. Dorothy Ann, predictably (as she was always one to be overprepared), had come over with a pile of books and charts.

"Just to refresh my memory," she had told him when he'd asked why on earth she had brought all the books over when she probably knew every fact there was to know about meteor showers already.

The meteor shower hadn't been the only reason for Dorothy Ann coming over. She had already asked him earlier that week if she'd help her make a batch of cookies for the school's bake sale the next day. Phoebe, a member of the student council, was always in a panic when events like this rolled around. In charge of raising funds for various animal shelters across the state, she had insisted that each of her friends bake one batch of cookies. Carlos couldn't help but feel more than pleased when he was the first one Dorothy Ann had come running to in a panic: she couldn't cook to save her life.

"DA..." he practically had to drag her away from the telescope. She had already set it up on his porch outside, and had been fiddling with the knobs, trying to adjust it so that she could get the best view possible. "We making the cookies or what?"

"Oh, yes of course..." DA wasn't nearly as excited about the prospect of baking a batch of chocolate chip cookies as Carlos was. He saw her take one last longing look at the telescope, before following him back inside of the house and into the kitchen. He didn't expect her to be as excited about this as he was; in fact, he knew she was dreading it. It was with a quiet smirk that he pulled out the bag of flour and watched DA pacing nervously around the kitchen, waiting for him and looking like she wanted nothing more than to prove him wrong about her abysmal cooking.

He got the last laugh, just like he knew he would, but for some reason didn't rub it in this time. He just didn't feel like it, which was weird, because this sort of thing was his specialty. So that when she struggled to crack her egg over the bowl, instead of teasing her and pompously showing her how it was really done (which is what normally happened), he found his right hand reach over for hers - to help - until it grasped her wrist. He then slid his hand down so that it was resting over her fingers and so that his own fingers could wrap around so that he could feel the egg's cold shell himself. He had been planning to lead her hand over to the rim of the bowl so that she could crack it properly, but got distracted.

Her skin was soft, and it looked so pale in comparison to his own. Carlos had momentarily forgotten about the egg, and so, apparently, did she. He felt her wrist slacken in his very loose grip, and her eyes stared at the entwined hands as though there was something far more interesting behind them.

Carlos found himself wanting to avoid eye contact with her too, so he did just that. The clock was a far safer sight for the eyes it seemed. At least it didn't make him want to break out into a nervous panic and do something stupid. He couldn't quite bring it to himself to let go of her wrist though.

They stood there motionless for a few more seconds; Carlos' heart was in his throat the entire time. And then he felt her warm hand - the other hand - graze the top of his own fingers. He swallowed, and he heard the egg finally thud into the bowl from her loosened grip. He snuck a glance at her: she wasn't looking at the bowl anymore, she was looking at him.

And that was the first time kissing her seemed like an option, like something that was actually doable. It was a strange fruition, to say the least. And the actual realization of the fact ended up being more than Carlos could take, so instead of just leaning in a few inches to close the teasing gap between their lips, he made some wisecrack about the egg she hadn't been able to break properly.

She looked positively scandalized and instantly pulled her arm out of his grasp. Carlos could do nothing more than watch her storm off in the direction of the screen doors back outside, mentally kicking himself as he so.

It would never go right for him, would it.

xxx

It rained on her sixteenth birthday. Though rain on her birthday wasn't exactly as rare as it was for it to rain on his birthday, hers being right at the end of January. Ralphie had used to ask Carlos all the time whether it bothered him going after an older woman. The question usually had the same response: Carlos furiously denying any implication that he did actually have an interest in DA and then pouring whatever drink he was holding at the time over Ralphie's head.

Ralphie hadn't asked the question in awhile however, not since Carlos had been holding a rather thick milkshake one day.

Carlos walked to her house without his umbrella, protected from most of the water by his old blue rain jacket. Dorothy Ann's present was wrapped and stored safely in the large pocket inside his coat. It wasn't too far of a walk. Just four blocks of suburban houses.

He was the last one to arrive, despite it being so close. A half hour late in fact, and DA didn't looked too pleased when she answered the door. It wasn't his fault though. Well, not exactly, but the only reason he was late was because he was wrapping up her present. Wanda had stopped by earlier while walking her dog Percy. The cocker spaniel mix had found the present in its original wrappings and decided that the violet paper would look better strewn all over the living room floor.

Dorothy Ann forgave him rather quickly though, and warmed up to him immediately after he had said, 'Happy Birthday' cheerfully and hugged her. He later wondered what exactly had brought on that little bought of insanity - he had been avoiding initiating such physical contact for a bit now, worrying about not being able to control any... urges he might be feeling. She on the other hand, didn't seem to have any problems with the physical contact, having hugged him countless times in their many years of friendship: when he had managed not to embarrass her at their class's musical recital that one year, whenever he had his own birthdays, whenever he'd won a soccer game, and right before the few times he did actually go away for summer vacation. She never seemed to have much of a problem with it, which made his day and bothered him at the same time.

Dorothy Ann's birthday party was a small one, like it always was. She had only invited her eight closest friends, and a few people she had become close with that were involved in the literature club at school. She had also invited that bastard Phil Johnson. Why she had, Carlos did not know, nor wanted to know, lest he spend the rest of her birthday with his head in the toilet thinking of the two of them lip locked in some empty classroom during break.

He nearly did have to make a dash for the bathroom when he'd seen the present that moron had given her. A bottle of perfume. And not just any bottle of perfume. Her favorite. He didn't know the specific brand, only knew there was a little picture of a lilac on the strip of paper tied around the bottle's neck with a violet ribbon. He had seen it in her room more than enough times to be able to recognize it.

Carlos slumped back into the couch cushions with a scowl, not watching the two, and trying to ignore DA's delighted gasps of, "Oh Phil! How did you know! This is my favorite!"

All the presents had finally been opened before it was Carlos' turn to hand his over. DA smiled at him expectantly when she'd put down the Mariners T-shirt from Ralphie and pulled a lock of her blond hair back behind one ear.

Carlos quickly glanced at Phil, and then at the window behind him. The rain was still going on strong and showed no signs of stopping soon. "I'll give it to you a bit later, okay?" he told her.

DA looked surprised. "Oh - o-okay.."

Which was followed by an awful awkward silence, broken a moment later by Wanda shouting, "So who dares to pay me for finishing the rest of this hot dog?!" indicating to the sausage that had dropped behind the couch earlier that night.

DA avoided Carlos for the rest of the party. Carlos wondered if she'd mistaken his comment for something like, 'I'll give it to you a bit later, because I'd forgotten your party was today.' He hoped not, but also kind of did. He'd rather the reason she wasn't talking to him and spending most of her time chatting to that pretty boy Phil instead, be that she was sore at him. Rather than her actually preferring that moron's company over his.

Most of the guests left the party at around eleven thirty. Carlos lingered around with Ralphie to help her clean up, even though he hadn't spoken to her since he'd told her that he would give her her present later. She let him do it without question, and assured Phil, who had stayed behind as well, that she did not need anymore help and that she would see him on Monday morning in Physics class.

Phil looked a little disappointed at this, but left politely with a smile and a 'see you soon, DA!'.

'Good riddance,' was all Carlos could think of to mutter under his breath. Only Ralphie heard him.

"You didn't forget it was her birthday today, did you?" he asked, raising an eyebrow and looking at his friend, almost ashamed.

"No!" Carlos hissed back, keeping his voice low so that Dorothy Ann, who was in the next room, couldn't hear him. "I just - I just wanted to give it to her - you know.." he hesitated, "...alone..."

Ralphie's brown eyes widened, and then his mouth stretched into a grin, which turned quickly into a smirk. Carlos hit him upside the head before DA could notice and hissed, "Get out of here!"

"Don't let me stop you," Ralphie winked, but he obliged and went back inside the kitchen to tell DA that he too would be leaving.

Carlos shut the door behind him and then quickly rushed over to the hall closet, where he had hung his jacket, the present still tucked safely inside. He pulled it out carefully and made his way back into the kitchen.

Dorothy Ann was drying the dishes he and Ralphie had already washed. She didn't acknowledge the fact that he was there, but he knew there was no way she couldn't have heard him enter.

"DA?" he said. He saw her stiffen and whirl around; a damp towel was still clutched in one hand.

He saw her glare. "What?! Carlos - " and then her eyes landed upon the package in his hands. Her mouth dropped open. "You didn't forget - ! "

"'Course not!" Carlos replied fiercely. "I wouldn't have said what I did if I had known you would have jumped to such a stupid conclusion.."

"Well what was I supposed to think?!" Dorothy Ann snapped. "Why else would you have told me you'd give it to me later..."

"You could have trusted me. I've only known you for what, 10 years?"

Dorothy Ann's mouth opened, and then closed it again. Carlos took the opportunity to continue what he had originally wanted to say.

"I wanted to give it to you - alone," he murmured. "When Phil wasn't watching..." he added under his breath, so quiet that he knew she couldn't have heard him. Carlos saw Dorothy Ann frown at him, and then at the present curiously. He couldn't help but notice that her face had turned a bit pink when he had said those words. He also couldn't help but thank his father for the tan he had inherited that tended to hide his own blushes rather well.

"Well... Can I open it now?" Despite the sudden rosy cheeks, Dorothy Ann kept her cool.

"Not yet," Carlos said, now starting to smile again., his confidence growing. "Come with me - " He walked over to her and took her by the hand. It was still damp and soapy from the dishwater, but he didn't really care. He held onto it firmly and lead her to the back door.

"Outside?" She looked at him as though he had gone insane. "Carlos - it's pouring out there!"

"I know," Carlos grinned, letting go of her hand reluctantly so that he could open the door. He gave her a little push when she didn't budge. "Come on, don't you trust me?"

DA just looked at him with her mouth slightly open, still giving off the impression that she thought him nothing short of mad. She did walk through the open door into the rain though, and Carlos quickly followed suit.

"Close your eyes."

"What? Why? What for?" Dorothy Ann suddenly smiled. "Carlos - hey! Are you unwrapping my present!"

"Hey! Keep your eyes closed!" Carlos said, teasing her, hiding the present behind his back.

With one last skeptical look, Dorothy Ann obliged. She crossed her arms, making no objection to the rain pounding down onto the two of them. Carlos stuffed the wrapping paper into his jean pocket and glanced at the porch light, which had turned on the moment it had detected the motion outside. He hadn't planned to give it to her like this, but now that they were actually outside, the idea just popped into his head and he knew it wouldn't go away until he followed through with it.

"Okay," he said, holding the black umbrella above her head. "Tilt - tilt your head up and - " He knew it was unnecessary, but he couldn't help but reach out with his hand and guide her chin upwards with his fingertips.

"Carlos," she laughed. "What are you - "

"Okay, now you can open your eyes."

And as soon as he saw her eyes snap open, he closed his shut tight. He was too afraid to watch. He was feeling more nervous that he could ever remember, and he didn't really know why. Of course she would love it. He knew she'd appreciate it, maybe not as much as the pricy bottle of perfume from Phil, but it was definitely worth something.

To tell the truth, Carlos had originally had no idea of what to get her. None at all. He knew he wanted something special, something sentimental this time. Something that would make up for the book on kinetics he got her last year. Then, finally, it had come to him.

Earlier that month, Carlos had done something he hadn't done for years. He had visited his old, third grade teacher. Infamous in many respects it was true, but Carlos couldn't have been happier to see Ms. Frizzle again after so many years.

Boy had she been surprised to see him standing in the doorway of her old classroom that day. But she had gotten over the suddenness of the visit very quickly. She was just as Carlos remembered: eccentric, goofy, and somewhat crazy. And she told him that he was just as she remembered. She'd asked him what grade he was in now, how he was doing, how his family was doing, and then finally, after their exchanges of various pleasantries, asked him why the sudden visit.

He had told her it was about Dorothy Ann's birthday, and the look in her eye after he had said this was far too knowing. He had told her his idea for a present, and asked her if she could help. He had told her he had every chart of the western hemisphere's night sky he could get his hands on, and a bottle of white paint.

Valerie Frizzle had smiled at him in a way that made Carlos very nervous - she always knew what was going on, didn't she? And then handed over to him a bottle of her own white paint. She told him to use that instead, so that's just what he did. And with it, he had painted the stars, as carefully as he could, all over the underside of the black umbrella.

His stomach contracted in excitement as he heard her gasp. He couldn't stand it, he couldn't stand not being able to see her anymore; he opened his eyes again.

She was no longer looking at the underside of the umbrella. She was looking him right in the eyes, positively beaming. "Carlos - I can't - I can't believe you - "

And, with a choked laugh, she leapt at him, almost knocking the umbrella out of his hand. Her lips met his with such ferocity that Carlos left momentarily winded. And then his brain somehow managed to figure out what was going on, and he responded back so enthusiastically that the umbrella actually did fall to the ground as he wrapped his arms around her and lifted her up off the ground.

He couldn't remember how long it lasted, didn't care that in a few minutes he'd be soaked to the bone, and for some reason, felt tears welling up in the corners of his eyes. He wondered how long exactly he had been trying to make this moment happen. Make this moment absolutely right and perfect. He had never expected her to get there first.

She pulled back from him eventually, the two of them gasping for breath. He leaned in again, not wanting to stop. But Dorothy Ann looked suddenly fearful.

"The paint on the umbrella!" And she quickly picked up the umbrella he had dropped.

"Did the rain wash it off?" Carlos had completely forgotten about it (could he really be blamed?).

Dorothy Ann shook her head, smiling again. She held the umbrella back up high, over both their heads and tilted her head back up to look at it, her cheek resting on his chest. The umbrella held safely now in her hands, Carlos reached out and wrapped his arms around her again, looking up at the underside of the umbrella with her. He couldn't help but think that he had, of course, achieved the perfect gift. Though the task could get tedious at times, for Dorothy Ann, Carlos had spent every hour he could spare looking through his telescope and trying to get everything exactly right. Every star he deemed important was there.

But what made the underside of the umbrella so brilliant had nothing to do with Carlos' painting, rather the paint itself and the remarkable effect it had caused. It was more realistic than he could ever have hoped. The stars were actually twinkling against the black skin of the umbrella, and once or twice, Carlos even saw a shooting star whisk past. Silently, he breathed a sincere thank you to the woman that had made it all possible.

A thought suddenly struck him, and he looked back at Dorothy Ann. He found her eyes, and tried to follow their gaze. They seemed to be looking in the direction of the star that he and the rest of their friends had given her on her eighth birthday, but he wasn't sure.

He felt her shift suddenly, and her eyes turned away from the umbrella and up to him. He was startled to see tears in them.

"Thank you for the stars Carlos."

The light of another shooting star flashed in her blue eyes and Carlos could think of nothing else to do but kiss her again, hoping that he never had to let go and wishing that the rain would never stop.