She's a Nerd

"Did she have to come?" Hiro asked as he and Vanellope walked into his school; San Frantokyo Institute of Technology. Behind them wandered Tafftya, Vanellope's friend since 5th grade and the "she" within Hiro's complaint.

Hiro had met and befriended Vanellope in the Cafe his aunt owned (which doubled as a living space, since he lived in two floors above it). They hadn't clicked automatically; Hiro had actually caught Vanellope trying to pick another customer's pocket. Instead of calling her out automatically and causing chaos in the shop, Hiro coughed and looked Vanellope in the eye, to which Vanellope sheepishly responded to by slipping the wallet back in the customer's back pocket. He pulled her to the back of the shop and had her wait there until the police came. She didn't beg for him to be silent about it.. She just sat on the counter, crossed her arms self-assuredly, and waited. At first, Hiro thought her indifference to the situation was because he was the only witness, but it turned out not to be the case. When the police arrived, they simply sighed a thank you to Hiro and left with a warning for Vanellope to, of all things, take her medication. With that, they left. Hiro, confused, decided to talk to Vanellope. Amongst learning her passion for race car driving and video games, Hiro learned she had kleptomania, the reason why the police decided not to arrest her. After that, Hiro learned to keep an eye on her. Which lead to them often talking, which also lead to their friendship.

Well, that had occurred only a year ago. Taffyta Muttonfudge and Vanellope Von Schweetz had a much longer history. And Taffyta was… overprotective, no matter how many times she denied it. She made Hiro always feel under deep scrutinization when she was around. But, like he said, Taffyta was Vanellope's best friend so, it was hard to prevent Vanellope from inviting her along to anything.

Vanellope was applying for schools, and Hiro begged and begged for her to at least come and take a look at the school. Vanellope finally gave in under one condition; Taffyta came along.

Hence her answer to Hiro's complaint being, "A doy."

Hiro rolled his eyes and looked to the right of him at Taffyta at the end of their three person line. It resulted in the colliding of narrow-eyed gazes. Hiro cringed; of course.

Hiro decided he had to try and shake her off; Vanellope was here and that was all that mattered. He introduced her to all his friends: Gogo (to which Vanellope responded to her electromagnetic disks with a "Oo, gimme the heads up when you're done. That'll make a wicked race car."), Wasabi ("Superman says keep going; then you can make glasses so you can shoot the lazers out of your eyes. Then all you have to do is find the right underpants!"), Honey Lemon ("The pinkness dyed my hair some more."), and Fred ("Oh you poor, poor child.").

Hiro knew when Vanellope acted like that, she wasn't being serious. He saw her at one of her race competitions; Vanellope could definitely mean business. Hiro sighed in defeat. He'd really liked the idea of Vanellope going to his school. She'd already brought her Vanellope Candy joy to his work when she came. He really had hoped…

Vanellope caught the look of defeat on Hiro's face. They were in his office, where they'd stopped for a break. Vanellope and Taffyta had been talking about their next race meet when she had.

" 'naw, you going ta miss me when I go to my meet?" Vanellope teased.

Hiro laughed lightly.

"Miss what; you're name calling or your pick-pocketing?" Hiro teased back.

Vanellope pushed out her bottom lip and pretended to pout, adding to her act by putting her hand over her chest.

"You hit me right here, Cat Lady."

"I'm sure I did, Hair Dye." Hiro played along and grabbed some of Vanellope's hair (gently; he wanted to make fun of her, not yank out her head), "Could've shown I saw your real hair color somewhere."

Vanellope snorted. "Can't say anything about your hair. I doubt you even wash that."

Hiro responded to her by sticking out his tongue, to which Vanellope replicated.

"Get a roof!" Taffyta chimed in after a second or so.

Hiro had forgotten that she'd been there. And that he was still playing with Vanellope's hair. Both teens turned bright red and added to the distance between each other (Hiro also pulled his hand out of Vanellope's hair.) There were a couple more seconds of Hiro and Vanellope standing awkwardly and Taffyta crossing her arms and smirking before Hiro coughed.

"So, I'm guessing that going to SFIT isn't appealing to you…"

Vanellope shrugged.

"Sorry Brainiac, I'm just not Geekly enough."

The sentence only caused a sigh from Hiro, but a look of doubt from Taffyta. Hiro had decided that he'd had enough of the strangely nicknamed girl (at least Vanellope's name was chosen by her late parents) and ignored it, ushering them outside. When they made it to the car, Taffyta surprisingly allowed Vanellope to drive without a fight. Even stranger, Taffyta gave Hiro shotgun too.

The car ride was filled with suspicion. Actually, it probably wasn't. Rather just Hiro's perspective clashing against a (suspiciously!) quiet Taffyta's. Vanellope remained content with the fact that she was driving and spouted out a little bit of conversation while they drove. Not very long into the drive, Taffyta spoke up.

"Hey, Nell, can I borrow your phone? Left mine on my desk at home."

Vanellope shrugged and responded with a "sure", which was followed up with her taking her phone out of her left pocket.

Taffyta leaned forward and snatched the phone.

"Thank-a-you."

The seemingly mundane conversation was forgotten to Hiro until her recieved a text from Vanellope's number a few more minutes into the drive.

Watch this & shut up about it ~ Taffyta

Hiro looked and his phone and then back at Taffyta who promptly sent him the death glare. Right. He had to "shut up about it".

"Hey, Nell?" Taffyta asked, leaning forward "What was the game you programmed with a character named after you in it called?"

Vanellope blushed.

"Uh, you mean the one I made when I was twelve? Sugar Rush."

Hiro looked over at Vanellope. What? Taffyta leaned back.

"Riiight. Candy themed. So, you ready for next race?"

Vanellope seemed to be back in her comfort zone.

"Ohhh yeah. You ready to get beat?"

Taffyta snorted.

"I dunno, Rancis got a new car."

Vanellope shook her head in a way Hiro was worried he was going to have to take the steering wheel from her so that they didn't swivel.

"No way. It's a twin-turbocharged V6; not bad, but no match for a flywheel diesel hybrid."

"Hybrid? You've been talking about go all electric for forever!" Taffyta said, "Never ever really did."

Hiro rolled his eyes. Who says "Never ever really did"? A little redundant. Suddenly, it clicked in his head Never Ever Really Did. NERD. So that was where she was going with this. Hiro leaned back and decided to play along.

"Hybrid? Electric? Why not just gas? Geez." Hiro said.

It hit Vanellope where he'd intended for it to go.

"Why not just gas?! Other than the air murder? It's just way faster. 0-130 in 3 seconds! A hybrid, Taffyta, combines the elements and gives it a boost. Not to mention, the arrow dynamics sky rocket."

They'd parked at Taffyta's house since hers was the closest to the school. Hiro decided to take advantage of the end of the conversation to tease Vanellope.

"Video game programming and race car engines. Not geekly enough, huh? Are you sure?"

Vanellope stared at Hiro in shock.

"Excuse me? Are you calling me a..." Vanellope trailed off.

Taffyta snorted.

"Well, if he doesn't, then I am; Vanellope Von Schweetz, you are a total nerd."

With that, Taffyta exited the car to go back into her house. Hiro was laughing at Vanellope while he got a text.

Vanellope assumingly caught a glimpse at her name and leaned over in confusion.

See? ~ Taffyta

Vanellope shot up and rolled down her window.

"TAFFYTA, GIVE ME MY MOD DAMN PHONE!"

A/N: I thought this would be funny. A small dose of Vaniro (I know, just small, but cute enough) as added for some flavor. Then there was the Taffyta involvement, which I don't think I've seen at all. I mean, Taffyta has been a part of the Fics, but never directly. Hiro's point of view was pretty necessary too. I don't think I could have written it in either of the girls' perspectives. By the way, I just when on a Google search for the whole car part. Never checked to see it=f it was true, it just look smart so I was like "Meh, who cares if I look like an idiot. Derrrp."

Finally, a one shot that doesn't leave you questioning what happens next. And a finally for me since this was only 1000 words. I went easy on myself ^.^ Still, I hope you liked it!

~ Sam

P.S. Review, favorite, and WRITE YOUR OWN VANIRO! I did the math; my fics make up about 30% of the Vaniro fics on FF. I'm am not, in any way, proud of that.