It was 8:30 am at Vienna. It was quite busy outside with cars driving everywhere and people going to work. In one of the tall buildings was the place of JoWood Studio. Joe had his own office, then there was the room for the rest of the crew where they could all discuss their ideas. In that room, everyone from the crew waited for their director. Markus was smoking near a window like he usually was. On the radio, they talked about today's national Pie Day, but barely anyone paid attention. Michael while cleaning his glasses only rolled his eyes after listening closely to the information of the day. He notified:
"Pie Day is actually on January 23rd. I can't believe they made up this nonsense for this season."
Thomas and Boris sat next to him around one table and both nodded as a sign of agreement.
"Why, I would like to have a piece of pie!" said cheerfully Nick sitting behind his personal desk.
Markus only retorted:
"You know, Michael, there are people who will to fool others for their benefit."
"Oh gosh, I hate these kind of people!" face-palmed Michael.
Kelsie was in the other room which was smaller and served as a kitchen. While making drinks for her colleagues, she heard this conversation through opened door. She wanted to join in with a reasonable question:
"Then why do you guys listen to this channel every morning?"
"That was Nick's choice!" replied loudly Markus so she could hear it.
Nick got awkwardly shocked and tried to explain:
"Hey, hey! I'm not listening to the stuff they're saying! They choose quite the catchy songs in their music sequence."
The twin cameramen had nothing to say as they just looked at Nick with blank faces. Then Kelsie finally showed herself from the door.
"Thomas, we're out of black coffee. Would you mind having something different?"
This information didn't please Thomas at all. He angrily hit the table with both hands with serious expression. His twin brother tried to calm him down along with Michael. Nick thought to himself for a short time and suddenly said:
"Man, I bet Woody is still in his pyjamas right now!"
The other guys laughed a little at this thought, except for Kelsie who had doubts about this possibility.
"No surprise, he's already at the workplace." acknowledged Markus.
"I'd try to call him just for fun!" was Nick's idea and he dialled the number on his phone that could be found on a notice-board with other numbers of the crew members. The unsure female editor asked:
"Are you sure about that? He lives in a neighbourhood unlike us."
"Don't worry, I'm pretty sure he won't mind." he replied while waiting with the phone on ear "Besides, it's already 8:45, a perfect time for an average man to wake up."
In Blue Highway it seemed pretty calm everywhere. Woody was already awake sitting in his kitchen still wearing pyjamas. He was eating a bowl of cereals while also reading newspaper. Such quiet moment was appreciated in the place where that one neighbour could make a lot of noise. The silence didn't last long as Woody's phone suddenly rang.
"Hello?" he picked up.
"Hi there! It's me, Nick!"
The call quite surprised the young man.
"Hello, Nick. How did you get my phone number?"
"Eeeh... from Joe!" was a short answer from Nick.
"Oh, okay. Why are you calling me at this time anyway?"
"Say, are you still wearing pyjamas?"
"Excuse me?" the random question shocked Woody.
It came out of nowhere! He then heard what he could make out Markus saying:
"Nick, you're an idiot…" and Kelsie saying something unclear to his ear.
Afterwards Nick tried to explain his weird attitude.
"No, no, no, I'm just asking. Don't be shocked! I made a bet with Markus and Kelsie and it involves you being in pyjamas right now."
"Oh, is that it?" Woody calmed down a bit.
He was slowly getting used to his colleagues, naturally he also tried to adapt to their humour.
"Well, if this does satisfy you, I'm in pyjamas just having breakfast."
"Ha! I knew it! Told ya!" said Nick to Kelsie who only replied:
"Sure, whatever."
Woody of course didn't know what was up with that speech. Even though he was told it was a bet, he couldn't help but to think something felt fishy about this kind of bet. Perhaps Nick was playing around with Kelsie, but one couldn't really tell what was going on without hearing the full story. Neither they could tell if Woody had a good sleep at all. His morning wasn't perfect at all.
"Well, I would sleep a bit longer if it wasn't of Rottweiler's lousy dog. He sometimes barks at people passing by." he explained his case.
"That sucks. And whatcha planin' to do before shooting?" asked curious Nick.
"I'm going to spend some time with my friendly neighbour."
"Cool! And what exactly are you goi-" the phone was suddenly dragged away and Markus said:
"We'll still see you there at the same time."
"Okay then."
They both hung up and Woody moved on with his day.
He believed that at least the forenoon would be great for him, because a day before Shelly invited him for a pie she baked. Such invitation couldn't be refused by polite gentleman. They both set up a small table and two chairs in front of Shelly's house. Then they just sat down and enjoyed the warm and bright sunshine. Their sweet treat had juicy blueberries inside. Nothing seemed to ruin the good mood of these two kind people. Little did they know that Roger was watching them from the window. His red-yellow eyes gazed on the deliciously looking pie. All he got from his mouth were only few greedy noms with a bit of drooling. Even he wanted one, he seemed to be the only person in the neighbourhood without a pie. The old buffoon certainly watched football instead of news. However blueberry didn't look that appetizing in his eyes. Such tiny blue fruit only reminded him the goodie-good-good neighbour who happened to be eating it. He hated him and so he did the fruit. But he had a plan.
Back outside Woody was saying jokes to Shelly.
"One day a zebra went with penguin to visit photographer. He asked them: 'Would you like a photo in colour?'"
Shelly giggled at the funny story after realizing that the two animals were black and white! The giggle suddenly stopped when she noticed Rottweiler getting out of his house. Woody was on guard prepared to protect Shelly if needed. To his surprise the grumpy neighbour only followed the sidewalk skipping the empty house next to him. He stopped at the one which happened to belong to an old lady. There was a pie cooling on window of the lady's house. Roger without any hesitate took it for himself. Woody and Shelly were the only witnesses.
"That greedy pig!" said disgusted young man.
Who dares to steal a pie from a kind old lady? Rottweiler, that's a correct answer. They desperately watched the thief returning back inside.
"Poor Mrs. Edel, she most likely forgot about her pie on the window. It surely got cold already." said worried Shelly.
"Yeah, I don't think Rottweiler will enjoy it if it's not in the tasteful warm state."
He then checked his phone and noticed it was just an hour till the crew arrives in his house. He immediately stood up saying:
"I'm sorry, but I've got to go."
Curious friend only asked:
"Really? What's the matter?"
This stopped Woody in one place.
'What should I say to her? I can't just tell her that I'm going to shoot a new episode for a show!' he thought for a while, trying to look like he is only trying to find appropriate words.
"You see… My friend from outside of the neighbourhood got a promotion… and it is very important to him, so I felt like to congratulate him in person."
"I see." she quietly answered back and watched how her kind neighbour went into his house.
Once inside, the host of the show got out his map from the drawers and looked at it while sitting on chair.
"Let's see… Rottweiler is going to have his own Pie Day as I clearly saw earlier. Surely I could ruin his pie by adding different ingredient."
He also noticed his newest note - the picture in the hall.
"Oh yeah, there's also that terrifying picture of Rottweiler's mother. Maybe I could make it less scary."
Just when he said it, he heard a small racket and Rottweiler's grumpy yelling from his house. Typical sound to hear in this neighbourhood. Woody got curious and went to check every window where cameras were hidden while shooting. For the bathroom camera he noticed Roger picking up different plastic bottles from the ground that most likely fell when he opened a cabinet. While putting them back in, he only left two bottles on the washbasin. His observation was interrupted by knocking on the door from the obvious Joe's crew.
He let the crew inside so they could prepare for the shooting. While that was going on he put his own black marker pen into his pocket as well as the superglue he took from Rottweiler's house. He was stopped by Markus who wasn't holding any camera at the moment.
"Hey there, you could try to do more extreme pranks on that couch potato."
"More extreme? Like… nastier pranks?" Woody wasn't very sure what he meant at first.
"Yeah. He deserves all that junk you got from him back. Honestly, he is worse than my tutor." the young man didn't quite know who Markus talked about, but he did agree on Rottweiler getting all the pain he cost back.
"He sure does deserve it. Not to mention he also hit an innocent mailman few times before." he said to the cameraman.
Joe ordered everyone to get on their positions and mentioned one more thing:
"Make sure none of you will shake the camera while laughing... like Nick in the last episode."
Luckily Nick had a break from holding camera. Either way, the rest of the crew laughed a little at the awkwardly smiling redhead. At last, Joe looked at the host of the show.
"Well, Woody. Show me what you have got."
"You got it, Joe." Woody winked at the director, checked if anyone was outside and when he made sure the area was clear, he left his house.
