Life in the Nerd Lab: Pizza Party

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The realization only struck Hiro when the clock struck eight. "Hey. I just remembered I haven't eaten dinner."

"Neither have I," Honey piped up, sticking her head out from behind the wall. A quick survey revealed that Go Go and Wasabi had forgotten as well.

"What is it with you people?" Wasabi exclaimed, seemingly unaware that he had done exactly the same thing. "You guys can spare the time to eat, right? Nothing's due?"

"Nope," Hiro said, waving off a chastise from Baymax on the importance of regular meals. "I just got carried away with this coding, that's all."

Honey picked up her purse, preparing to head out the door. "We can grab a quick dinner at the canteen, then, and come back to work. I'm hoping to finish this tonight."

The fourteen-year-old made a face. "Blech. I'm bored of canteen food. How about we--"

Before he could finish, the lab door burst open, and Fred swaggered in, bearing several flat square boxes. "Everyone hail the great Fredzilla!" he shouted. "You are forever indebted to me, because...I got pizza."

"Awesome!" Hiro was the first to react as Fred slipped a box into his hands. The friends gathered around him as he lifted the lid, revealing the joy of college students everywhere. A warm steam wafted up slowly from the jumbo-size pizza, which was covered in thick, gooey cheese and slices of savoury pepperoni. "Oh, boy," he whispered in almost reverent awe, before Go Go broke the anticipatory silence and pulled off a piece. 

"I can't wait any more," she said, before taking a bite. "Dig in."

For a few minutes the only sound in the lab was that of contented chewing, until the calories lifted them out of a work-and-hunger-induced stupor and loosened tongues. The five teenagers settled wherever they could find a seat: sprawled on the floor, crammed onto the armchair with two others, perched on the table. Baymax watched the proceedings quietly. Wasabi, his own plate perfectly clean, watched in horrified disgust as Fred crammed an entire piece of pizza into his mouth. Hiro, not to be outdone, devoured two slices in as many minutes. Baymax cautioned Honey against eating while messing with her experiments, while his owner accused Wasabi of downloading a lab safety database on the robot. Go Go scarfed her portion down quickly, and then returned to her work, but Fred stopped her.

"Exams are over, nerd!" he said, plugging in a laptop and opening Netflix. "Relax. Live it up a little. How about a movie?"

Hiro, already slightly overexcited, perked up. "What movie?" He leaned over the back of Fred's armchair and poked at the touch screen. "Let's watch Avengers 4!"

Go Go stretched out and leaned against the wall, yawning comfortably. "Hiro," she said, "You've seen that at least five times."

"Six," he corrected absently. "Hey, look! Star Wars Episode 8!"

It took them quite a while to pick a film. Wasabi quickly said no to Honey's offer of The Book Thief (because war movies tended to make him cry), and proposed Star Trek instead. They all felt bad shutting down Fred's suggestions, since he had brought the pizza and movies, after all, but no one felt up to sitting through three hours of explosions, monsters, and bad special effects. Finally Go Go put her foot down and told them to hurry up, and they decide on a compromise, also known as a potentially five-hour movie marathon.

"We can't watch three movies," Wasabi protested weakly.

"We can watch three movies," Fred replied, pointing out that finals were over and it was Friday night.

He then pulled out another plastic bag that nobody had noticed before, and produced potato chips and soda, prompting cheers from Hiro and Honey. They pooled chairs and cushions (Honey had somehow managed to stash three large floor cushions in her lab), rigged up a system that projected the movies onto a clear wall, and settled in for their impromptu party. 

The movie marathon had mixed results. It was hard to believe that Honey had persuaded the rest into watching Annie, but they seemed, surprisingly, to enjoy it, and Fred belted out "Tomorrow" along with the actress, albeit slightly off-key. As for Hiro, he fell asleep halfway, then jerked awake near the end. He reacted more enthusiastically to Jurassic Globe. Although the two girls kept commenting on how inaccurate everything was, Hiro and Fred got caught up in the formulaic but still exciting storyline, with the latter yelling "WHOO! DINOSAURS!" every once in a while.

By the time they got to the third film, however, the appeal of hobbits and dwarves had diminished somewhat. Honey rubbed her eyes--they had started to ache. "How about we wrap up, guys?"

"I'm good with that," Go Go said as Wasabi started to clean up the mess of candy wrappers and plastic cups. "'Kay, Fred. How much do I owe you?"

"Wha-?" The boy looked up from where he had been gushing about the dinosaur movie on his blog and frowned for a while before realising what she was saying. "Nothing, man! It's on me!"

"Come on, Freddy," Honey said, joining in the conversation. "We can't let you pay every time. And this was a lot of food. Expensive, too. If we split it up it's pretty manageable."

"I have money!" Hiro waved around a ten-dollar bill he'd found in his pocket.

Fred shook his head, putting his hands out to stop them. "I'm rich, remember? I'll let you pay next time."

"That's what you said last time," Hiro observed.

"Yeah, man," Wasabi chimed in as Hiro tried to force the bill into Fred's hands. Honey threw her hands up expressively as the teenage boy fought Hiro off.

"I'm paying and that's it!"

"I will fight you," Go Go said, making a rare joke but folding her arms in seriousness.

"I'll help," Hiro added, ready to chase Fred around the lab with a wallet. They took off, Fred ducking under inflatable weather balloons, Hiro swerving past counters, Go Go cornering them and holding out a few notes defiantly.

"Nope!" Fred said, slamming his laptop shut and making a quick escape. "Bye guys! Great having ya!"

They watched helplessly as the door swung shut.

"Guh." Go Go groaned and bent to pick up the last of the pizza boxes, but Hiro snickered.

"What?"

"He's going to have a...surprise when he next does his laundry. If he ever does his laundry."

~~~

Three days later, Fred was about to hand Heathcliff some clothes to wash when something fluttered out of the pocket of his cargo pants. Raising his eyebrows, he picked up the bunch of papers and then laughed for three solid minutes.

Attached to the fifty-dollar bill was a note in Hiro's enthusiastic print:

I win this time man. HA! IN YOUR FACE! 

You couldn't outwit the one and only Hiro Hamada.

Thanks for the party, though. We really needed a break.

Fred smiled. The little sneak.