Friday Night

Part I of a (possible) three-shot written by: Cendrée

(I do not own Ned's Declassified.)

"Moofie?" Ned questioned while stuffing close to a whole slice of pizza into his mouth. Tomato sauce stained the corners of his lips and she was splattered with bits of crust and cheese when he spoke. Gross.

It was so boy-like of him not to have any regard for manners. Moze would have rolled her eyes at him, but that would have been a tiny bit hypocritical considering the very unladylike size of the bite she had just taken and the fact that she probably had sauce on her chin. Instead, she just raised a disapproving eyebrow and wiped the partially chewed pizza bits off her face.

He at least had the decency to look sorry.

After actually swallowing, Moze spoke. "What did you say?"

Finishing off his bite, he took a swig of soda from one of the many cans sitting on the table. They must have polished off more than eight cans between them, and the night was just beginning. "Do you want to watch a movie?"

"Well, it is movie/video game/pizza night."

He nodded in agreement. "My point exactly. We've eaten the pizza," he motioned to the box in front of them and then finished off a piece of crust. "We've played the video games--"

"And I beat you at every game we played," Moze supplied helpfully, grinning.

"Hey. One game was a tie." Ned glared at her, all the while struggling to keep the smile off of his face. He continued, "Anyway, we've played—"

Moze was not one to be dissuaded. Especially when she had more than earned her bragging rights—which she definitely had tonight, after winning every game they had played. (Okay, well, one game was a tie. She should have won it though.) "Well, I still kicked your butt. I thought you were supposed to be the 'video game master' or something—"

With startling swiftness, Ned shoved her off of the couch. She plopped on the ground, wide-eyed with surprise. He frowned down at her but the second he processed her expression, he burst into laughter.

He was laughing at her? She pursed her lips and stared up at him with what she felt was a very offended look. But that made him laugh even harder, so much that he fell sideways on the sofa, sprawling across its length, his body shaking with mirth. Some part of Moze's mind noticed that Ned had grown considerably and now his legs were too long for the couch and had to be draped over the edges. Hmm. Was he really taller than her now…?

"Oh—," he couldn't even form a sentence without it being broken by laughter. She didn't even understand what was so amusing anymore. She touched her face, self-consciously, wondering if she had food or something on it. "Moze—!" More laughter.

"'Oh Moze,' what?" She demanded, shaking him slightly. She was getting a little irritated at his relentless laughter. "What is wrong with you?"

Ned looked at her for a few long beats and then started cracking up again.

He was being so annoying. Whatever he was giggling at, she was sure that it couldn't be that funny. She certainly wasn't amused…well, okay, maybe just a little. The sound of his laughter was just very contagious. He had such a nice laugh, it was loud and warm, and it made her feel good, happy—

It was too hard to resist. She watched him nearly choke on his current soda and spill at least half of it all over his shirt and couldn't contain her laughter any longer.

"I don't—," she started, her words now punctuated by suddenly uncontrollable giggling, "—understand!" Wait, what didn't she understand? She couldn't remember what she was talking about; all she knew that Ned was covered with generic brand soda and it was apparently the funniest thing she had ever seen.

Ned was positively hysterical as well, even covered with cola. He seemed to be having convulsions on the couch and he was clutching his stomach with one arm and reaching for her with the other.

(She wished he hadn't because she suddenly wasn't finding the situation as hilarious. In fact, she had the strangest desire to be held by the arm that was stretching for her. But it went away as he pulled back, thank goodness. And then Ned squeaked as he tried to calmly inhale and they both fell back into a fit of laughter.)

"What is happening in here?" Ned's mom walked into the family room, prepared for the worst. She spotted her son, squeaking and having a fit with his shirt drenched; Moze, who was laughing so hard she was now snorting; and the soda cans littering her table. Mrs. Bigby grinned and shook her head. "Ah. Well, I think that you guys have had enough soda tonight."

She walked over and started to clean up the soda cans, taking care to pick up all of the cans, not just the empty ones.

"Mom!" Ned protested, still trying to catch his breath from the laughter, "Some of those are still full!"

Mrs. Bigby looked at her son. "Yes, dear, I know that. But if you two drink any more, there's no possible way you're going to sleep tonight."

A stray giggle escaped Moze as she looked at Ned. He was staring at her beseechingly, obviously wanting her to help support his point. He really wanted that soda. Moze sighed but played along. "But we don't usually sleep on movie/video game/pizza night anyway…"

Ned nodded in agreement, eying the confiscated soda longingly.

"Let me rephrase that then, my darlings," at this she patted Moze and Ned on the head affectionately. "If you two drink any more soda, then you will be bouncing off walls for the rest of the night and there is no possible way that I'm going to be able to sleep."

"She's got a good point," Moze said to her best friend who was busy making puppy faces at his mom though she didn't seem to be affected in the least.

"Shhh!" Ned hissed at Moze, losing the pitiful look for a more frustrated one. "She's going to think she's won!"

Mrs. Bigby broke into laughter. "Ned, sweetheart, I always win." He sent her an intense glare, which was also unsuccessful. She responded by laughing again and ruffling his hair affectionately.

Moze watched the pair contentedly and chewed on another piece of pizza. "Well, she is a lawyer, Ned."

"Whose side are you on?!" Ned exclaimed, pointing a reproachful finger at Moze.

The accused girl grinned, "Well, maybe if you hadn't pushed me off the couch—"

Ned's mom smiled and shook her head again. Gathering all of the trash, she slipped out of the family room, calling out to them as she left. "Goodnight, Ned. Goodnight, Moze."

They both replied, though Ned was decidedly less enthusiastic and a lot more bitter, which made Moze laugh again.

"Well, I thought she was being pretty reasonable," she told him, struggling to get off the ground. Her sides were hurting from all the laughter and that made it a little difficult to move.

She took a quick break, leaning against the side of the couch and finishing off the very last slice of pizza. She offered her half-eaten crust to Ned. He stared at it, suspicious, then snatched it from her with narrowed eyes and quickly shoved it into his mouth, as if she was going to change her mind and take it back.

"Yeah, you would," he replied as scornfully as he could. She just laughed at him and resumed her attempts at getting up.

His eyes turned curious as he watched her pull herself up and stand. "Hey, where are you going?"

Moze rolled her eyes and offered her hand to him. "Like you mentioned earlier, it is movie/video game/pizza night, and we haven't watched a movie. Or eaten popcorn. So I was going to go make some."

He took her hand after a moment of deliberation. Then he gave her a wide, mischievous grin and tugged, pulling her down on to the couch, holding her tightly against him. Moze made a surprised sort of "what-the-hell-are-you-doing-Ned?" noise that jumped a few octaves as a pair of very blue eyes came a little too close for comfort. Much to her horror, her heart had started racing and she could almost feel the blush that was starting to take over her face. What was wrong with her tonight? Maybe it was all the soda she drank…

"First one to the kitchen gets to pick the movie!" He chirped loudly in her ear, letting go of her and bounding off the couch. She was left with an empty, grease-stained box of pizza and a dazed expression on her face.

"Ugh," she thought, pulling herself off the couch. She could see Ned doing some sort of victory dance in the kitchen. Making sure her heart-rate had gone back to a normal level (it was definitely the soda, she was sure of it); she reached for the pizza box and went to go face Ned and his idiocy.

He was really such a pain sometimes.

It's about time I posted this! (It's been sitting on my computer for a long time, like most of my other stuff.)
I decided after seeing the social studies episode that I would write something about movie/video game/pizza night. And being the Noze fan that I am, I wanted to have Moze realize that Ned might be more to her than just her best friend; I wanted to show Moze starting to acknowledge that she has feelings for him.

Okay, so this story is still unfinished, as in this isn't the end and also in that I haven't written the ending yet. And hopefully posting this part will encourage me to finish 'cause I don't want to leave it the way it is. And I have more written (a chapter two, if you will) but so far it doesn't seem to really be ending the way I want. (And this is the reasoning behind the "(possible) three-shot" at the top.)

So, if I can actually focus on this story, I should be able to post the next part soon.

Feel free to give me feedback, guys.