June 16, 2011
Author's note: This is my first stab at fan fiction. I started watching Friends during April while I was doing exams, and fell in love with it. I am a huge Mondler shipper. This chapter came to me when I was working at university this week. Enjoy!
I do not own any of the Friends characters, with the exception of Daniel Bing, Andrew Geller, Matt Hannigan and Rosalie Hannigan. Reviews are appreciated!
I. ~TOW spiders and the human pyramid
Thursday, December 17, 2026 (Jack's POV) – A day in the life of Jack Bing
Hi, my name is Jack Bing.
I am surrounded by small plastic cages containing spiders known as Lactrodectus, or more commonly referred to as the black widow spider. The plastic cages are neatly organized in rows and on numbered trays (mom would love our organization system) and located on the lab bench in front of me (as well as the bench behind me). Each cage is labelled with the spider's hatch date, the serial number indicating the egg sac that the spider originated from and any other necessary information needed for research. (I won't burden you with too much info; I know what happens when Uncle Ross launches into his dinosaur-filled spiels.) A lone cricket chirps behind the freezer. (Damn escaped spider food!)
Perhaps I should explain. I am currently working on my Masters degree at NYU in Animal Behaviour – which includes working on experiments with these spiders. I've always been interested with the creepy crawly. (Aunt Rachel cringes every time I talk about my work while Aunt Phoebe insists on spinning her "crazy" theories on why I am so interested in arachnids or why have all the Bing children turned out to be geeks.) Frankly for me, these spiders have been endlessly fascinating. (I mean come on! Sometimes the female devours the male after formicating!) I should also mention the very unique neurotoxin that these arachnids secrete – lab coats and latex gloves are adequate protection. (I love my dark blue lab coat - so much sexier than the white ones that everyone else wears.)
I am collecting data for my colleague (believe me, he owes me big time) and supervising the three talkative undergraduate students working behind me. They are currently feeding the spiders Drosophilidae, or fruit flies.
I've been stuck in the lab for hours on end in the past few months, and staying up late to finish experiments and papers. I know my twin sister Erica isn't faring much better. In fact I think I got the better end of the deal. You see, Erica is the genius of the family. She's the one with the straight A's, the proud owner of an almost perfect SAT score, a perfect GPA and a score that was top fifth percentile on the MCAT. (I mean can she BE any more smarter!) She's at John Hopkins now, doing her first year towards her M.D. She calls practically every three days and complains about the ungodly hours of work she puts in (such as waking up at the crack of dawn to do neuro-labs) and we trade tidbits of information that we've learned from our respective coursework. We also pool together gossip and share social woes. Erica and I are really close and she's always been interested and supportive of my work. She wants to be a neurosurgeon and I think she is perfectly capable.
I also have a younger brother. His name is Daniel and he's the miracle baby. He looks exactly like our dad, but with the dark hair of our mother. Erica and I have known long ago that we were adopted, and we bear no animosity towards our younger brother. In fact, he fits in well with our rather nerdy selves. He's really good at mathematics (inherited from our father – compared to Daniel, Erica and I SUCK at math – probably explains why we were bio majors in undergrad) and physics and his room is a mini-Legoland where he enjoys building fantastical structures and even programming Lego robots. (Due to his creative exploits, mom has a heart attack every time she sees his room – it's a mess!) He wants to be an engineer or computer programmer when he grows up. (By the way, he's at Cornell doing first year undergrad – mom is happy as Daniel's room is now in a state of mom-standard cleanliness but I also know she's upset as her last baby has flown from the nest.)
Out of the three of us, I visit our parents the most frequently – seeing that I live the closest. (I currently share an apartment near NYU with two other grad students.) My parents are in their fifties now, and according to Aunt Rachel, still just as in love (if not even more so) as they were when they were in their thirties. Dad is vice-president of his advertising company and mom is still working as a chef at a classy high-end restaurant. In fact it's almost Christmas soon, and I can't wait to see everyone. Tomorrow, I will be writing my last exam on biochemistry and finishing up my term experiment. I will be going to my parents' house the next day. (Erica should also be there on Saturday as she's writing her last exam (human physiology) today. Actually, come to think of it, Daniel is already home as he finished finals four days ago – the lucky bastard!)
~ Few hours later ~
The excited chatter of my roommates can be heard through the closed door. (I think they are playing poker or something, not quite certain.) I am sitting in front of a rather formidable biochemistry textbook and flipping through the pages in a rather leisurely fashion while thinking of 101 different ways to kill off my loud roommates. (Did I mention that they are also finished their finals!) They've spent the last hour rubbing it in my face. I will get them back next term.
But I have to say Henry and Kenneth are great roommates. They've been my best friends during my undergrad years and we've been through everything together – the occasional frat party (none of us are hardcore partiers), terrible exam scheduling (poor Henry had four exams within two days), break ups with girlfriends (this refers to Kenneth's inability to understand women) and all sorts of other issues. They were there for me when I broke up with Brooke, which was the only serious relationship that I've ever had (three years and I found out she cheated on me!). Since then I've been on a couple of dates, nothing serious.
Well, back to my biochemistry. (Sigh...)
Saturday, December 19, 2026 (Erica's POV) – A fond memory
I am standing in the room of my childhood. It is painted purple and decorated with framed paintings that I had done. I used to be crazy about art. Actually, I still am. I keep a sketchbook, and during my moments of idleness (or should I say procrastination), I draw. Very few things have changed about my room since I went away to Yale five years ago, aside from the fact that it is missing a few things that I've taken with me to Baltimore, Maryland.
Not surprisingly, Jack and I are really organized and neat people. Having a mom with a mania for cleaning kind of does that to you (although Daniel is a slob). Neither Jack nor I are obsessive about cleaning though – we can sleep serenely through the night knowing that we left our shirts on the ground or even if the picture on the wall is crooked. But I can tell you that I am obsessive about being a neurosurgeon someday and that Jack is absolutely crazy about his spiders. And Daniel is and will always be obsessive about his little problems. (A prime example of said problems would be: "*Given any seventeen integers, show that there is at least one subset of nine integers whose sum is divisible by 9.") No clue where the kid finds his problems, but I do know that he won't rest until he has figured out a solution – and he doesn't cheat either. (This obsession absolutely drives both our parents crazy!)
I look at the clock standing beside my bed. It is noon. Jack should be home soon, Daniel is sleeping in and mom and dad have gone out to do some shopping. (Hopefully for Christmas presents!)
I survey my room. It is filled with pictures of my family and my friends. There's a picture of Jack and I standing against a large maple tree in our backyard with huge matching grins – taken shortly after we had gotten our acceptance letters to college. I was ecstatic when I received my Yale acceptance letter and danced all around the house. Both my parents were so proud. (Mom totally rubbed my acceptance letter all over Uncle Ross's face!) Another picture showed Jack, Daniel, Emma, her little brother Andrew and I in front of a pretty white castle in Disneyland, Florida. (The fireworks were so pretty!) A particular picture on my desk caught my eye. It was the picture of a human pyramid (four stories tall!) created by us and our friends when Jack and I were probably fifteen.
~Saturday, September 14, 2019~ Flashback
It was a relatively cool autumn day in Westchester and everyone was in our backyard, enjoying a picnic lunch that Mom had made. Everyone included Uncle Ross, Aunt Rachel, Uncle Mike, and Aunt Phoebe with all of their children (with the exception of Ben) in addition to our family. Also the triplets of Uncle Frank Jr. and Aunt Alice were also visiting.
The triplets were five years older than Jack and I, but they were always kind to us. Frank Jr. Jr. was studying economics at NYU, Leslie was working as a singer and Chandler (Not my dad obviously!) was studying physics at NYU as well. (She later went to Yale for her Masters and PhD in aerophysics and we became really good friends!)
After we had lunch, everyone was pretty much lazing around, while mom was frantically trying to clean up the mess that everyone had made. The kids including Jack and I were really bored until someone had the bright idea...
"Hey! Let's make a human pyramid!"
The shout came from Andrew. Then, there was silence.
"Okay!" The response came from Aunt Phoebe's thirteen year old son Matt.
A chorus of agreements was then initiated.
"How many layers?"
"I dunno."
"How about five?"
"That requires like fifteen people, no way we have enough!"
"Do we have enough for four layers?"
"That's like nine people right?" (Emma or Leslie could have said this; math was never their strong suit.)
"You idiot! Fifteen minus five does not make nine – it makes ten!" Daniel replied disdainfully.
Andrew broke into a fit of laughter. (He and Matt are the same age) "Owned by an eleven year old!"
"Oh shut up!"
"Okay, we have ten people, so the four layer pyramid is feasible. Rosalie should be on top!" (Ah, Chandler, the voice of reason – and Rosalie is Matt's little sister!)
"Why should she be on top?" Andrew asked. (Frank Jr. Jr. stifled a giggle – maturity was never his forte!)
"Because out of the ten of us, she is the youngest and the smallest? Like we are totally going to let Frank Jr. Jr. be on the top." (Oh, Jack and his sarcasm...)
"Okay! I've got it!" I exclaimed. Everyone turned around and looked at me. "Jack, Chandler, Leslie, and Frank Jr. Jr. are going to the bottom row. Emma, Andrew and I will be second row, Matt and Daniel will be third and Rosalie will top the pyramid! Got it?"
I watched as my brother and the triplets all followed my directions and lowered themselves on the ground. I climbed on to Jack and Chandler while Emma and Andrew shrugged at each other and followed suit. (Andrew was tall for his age, which is why I chose him and not Matt to be on the lower row.) Matt and Daniel found it quite difficult to climb up to the third row, which led to groans and protests from those at the bottom. They struggled quite a bit until my Dad noticed what was going on and gave them a boost and Rosalie got her Dad to lift her up and put her on top. I was pretty sure by this time all the adults had noticed what was going on as there was the familiar clicking of cameras and a smattering of applause. I felt my right shoulder ache due to the pressure from Matt's palm pressing against my back and even more pain from the additional pressure of his knee. Before I knew what was going on, the pyramid had disassembled and I was on the ground surrounded by gales of hearty laughter.
~End Flashback~
The sound of the doorbell of the front door jerks me out of my nostalgia. Realizing that the person ringing was most likely my long missed twin (as I haven't seen him since September), I ran out of my room, down the stairs, through the main living room and began to unlock the door.
Notes:
I. The first part about Jack is based on my own lab experience at university.
II. The * beside Daniel's little problem is an actual mathematics problem that I found on one of Harvard's problem sets webpages. Google "difficult math problems" and the solution can be found on aforementioned webpage.