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“What’s up everybody?” Peter’s arms are crossed and he is leaning forward on a metal table, the sun glinting off it in just a way that makes Peter’s skin go completely white. He adjusts the camera, and now the lighting is better. “I hope you all are doing good.” He offers a tight-lipped smile. His eyes hold a little less of their normal hopeful spark, but it’s still there.
“You guys seemed to like my last Live that I did, so I decided to do another. This time, my very own ‘guy in the chair’, Ned Leeds will be joining us any moment,” he waits for Ned’s request to join the livestream, and when it comes, he accepts it. The screen splits and Ned’s face appears on the stream.
“Ayy, there we go,” Peter smiles to greet his friend.
“Hey Peter,” Ned’s half of the screen seems to spin as Ned tries to find a spot to sit with decent lighting. When he finds a satisfactory spot, he sits and sets his phone up to face him.
“What’s up?”
“Not much.” He answered honestly, looking around to jog his memory. In the background of Peter’s stream, a toaster clunked.
“Oh!” Peter springs up from his seat to somewhere off-screen. He comes back bouncing a hot Eggo waffle between his hands like a hot potato. “Quarantine snack,” he explains while taking a bite and blowing out the heat. “Wanna explain to everyone what we’re doing today?” He asks Ned through a full mouth.
“Oh, yeah, sure.” Ned reaches behind his camera to pick up a box. “So we like to build Legos. A lot,” he shrugs his shoulders and displays the box to the camera. It’s an AT-AT Walker from Star Wars. “This one says it should take forty five minutes to an hour, but we think we can do it in under thirty minutes, right Peter?”
Peter nods. “Right.” His mouth is still full.
“So we’re basically just gonna set a timer for… thirty minutes,” he presses buttons on a kitchen timer that beeps with every touch and then displays it for the viewers to see, the face reading ‘30:00’. “And try to get it all from box to AT-AT within the time limit.”
Peter pops the rest of the waffle in his mouth and brushes off the crumbs from his shirt and the table. “Alright,” he says, grabbing the box and placing it in front of the camera, partially obscuring the view of his face. “I think I’m ready.”
“Alright,” Ned sets the timer down where the camera can see the time left. “Ready, set, go,” he presses the button on the timer and the two of them tear into their boxes. Ned pulls out the instructions first and Peter starts with unsealing the plastic bags that hold the small plastic bricks.
The two of them work dubiously, only muttering the occasional question and answer.
After about twenty-five minutes of near silence (Peter really doesn’t know why people are still watching), the two of them place their last pieces almost completely in-sync. Peter leans back in his seat and Ned stops the timer and shows the face to the camera. The display reads ‘03:46’. Peter picks up his Lego statue and examines it. “You know, Ned?” Ned looks up from his own AT-AT.
“Yeah?”
“I think these probably were made for kids a lot younger than us.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right.”
Peter laughs and sets the Legos down on the table. “Well, that was fun anyways.” Ned chuckles.
“Yeah, it was.” He sighs and his eyes flit off-camera. “Hey, I gotta go. I still haven’t started the calc homework that’s due tonight.”
Peter turns his wrist to check the face of his watch on the inside of his wrist. “Yeah, I should probably do that too.” His shoulders slump. “Online school sucks.”
“Yes it does. I’ll talk to you later, Peter.”
“See ya.” Ned’s half of the screen dissolved and Peter’s half took over the whole screen.
“Well, I hope you all enjoyed watching us build Legos. I know it might seem a little boring to you guys, but it’s the type of thing that we would normally be doing, so… I don’t know. I guess we’re just boring people?” He picks up his phone and brings it a little closer to his face. “I guess it just feels good to have little bits of normal in this weird time.”
“I guess that’s it for today. Thanks for joining me and Ned today. We just wanted to show you all that it is possible to still hang out and have fun with your friends, even if you can’t see them in person. Stay safe and stay home!” With that, Peter ends the livestream and the feed cuts out.