Night time Cousins

"I'm done," Carl called out as soon as his time to be off came. It didn't matter to him if he got fired for not working overtime. He wanted to go home and be with his dad. Preferably catch some sleep since his cousins Bob and Danny were coming over at night. He had to work tomorrow too.

"Carl, just five more minutes, please," Janette begged but Carl clocked out and was already walking out the door.

Carl put on some headphones and walked out to his T450, a flying car with shuttle features during flight. It didn't break down easily either. He was proud of it. "Sleep is for wimps, but I could use some before my cousins come partying," he told himself.

Turning the key, the car roared to life and lifted into the air. Then he put it in drive and joined the other flying cars headed downtown. Where he was going the GPS knew. Not good at directions, he relied on it heavily. Sometimes the GPS got the place wrong and he would wander around until the police came to the rescue. Unlike others he didn't have a phone. His money went to rent the house. His father was on retirement. And forgetful. Still, Carl was determined to make it. He self published his books and had little luck with sales. Advertising didn't help much. Still, he didn't give up. Half an hour later he made it home and parked the flying car in the garage. His father was home as well.

"Bob and Danny are bringing their cousins over, which makes them your cousins too. They are young ones, so need to child proof the house real quick before they make it over. We got five hours. You better get some rest before the party starts. Those dark eyes isn't going to go over well with the party," Carl's father said.

"Finally you get some sense. But cousins bringing more cousins over? I thought that I had only a few cousins around town. Well, I better get some sleep," Carl said and headed to his bedroom without another word.

Four hours later Carl woke up to hearing a bang nearby his window. Well, his cousins did have a noisy flying car, so that must be them he thought as another bang exploded nearby. He got out of bed and made his bed in a hurry. Then he went downstairs to see his father already opening the garage door. Another party he thought as he observed the decorations of the house and wondered what exactly was the party for. Then Bob and Danny came walking through the door greeting them with huge hugs. Two more people came walking in as well and all they did was shake hands and said hi shyly. He didn't blame them. So Davis and Juniper were the two younger cousins he had. It didn't seem like he was cousins with them, they were like strangers in the house.

"Do you have a TV? I could hook up my Switch game to the TV and we could all play on the switch. I got race car games as well as Mario and Snake and more. You tell me which game you would like to play and I could hook you up with that game. Multiplayer is allowed on most of the games. How about it? Let's get this party started," Juniper said. "Oh, cranking up the volume is a must to hear properly as well. It wouldn't be a party if the volume isn't loud LOUD."

"Give me a break. We can play on the Switch but not with the noise cranked up loud. Okay, just for this night. But if the neighbors report us in then we'll need to lower the volume. Neighbors don't like loud music. Got the cops called on us once before for that. I can't afford for it to happen again. So, race cars sounds like a good pick. And did you bring any food?" Carl asked before bags of food came flooding in. "Looks like that answers my question."

"Ton of food. All the junk food our car could carry. We'll be gone before the neighbors are home. I know their curfew. Midnight in bed. No questions asked. So race cars it is. I win. I'm a pro at race cars. Just give me the controller and I'm off. Too bad we can't race around town without getting into trouble. There is the rules to abide by. But in games we can crash like there's no tomorrow," Bob said enthusiastically.

"Right. I prefer not to be involved in any crashes thank you. The whole fun of the game is to try to be number one. If not number one then close to number one. I've been number two a few times. The tracks have to be easy for me. Okay, let's get the game started. I'll go first along with Danny and Juniper. Davis want to give it a shot? Four people can play at the same time if I remember right," Carl said.

"Sure, why not? Better than watching," Danny said.

"I'll play on this electric guitar. How does it work?" Bob said picking up the electric guitar. He plugged in the speakers and then plucked a few chords. The guitar sound vibrated through the entire house. Loud noise- the neighbors could call the cops again Carl thought as Bob continued on. Then Carl focused on the video game.

Loud knocking on the door and shouting caught Carl's attention after a while. He ran to the door and opened it up. There on the doorstep were two police officers and he groaned. The party was over for the night. The neighbors had tattle tell on them. He let the police officers in and hurried to his cousins to warn them. The music stopped and was silenced. Glancing at the time, he saw that it was midnight. The neighbors would be very cranky and for a good reason. The police officers handed each of them a ticket before leaving. His cousins left for the night and now he was able to get some sleep for work tomorrow. He had to wake up at four in the morning. All over again.

Prompt: Family Ties
Word Count: 1051
Contest: "BlackAdder's Cantina Space Opera Contest"