As soon as Pidge got out of the med bay, her mom started yelling at her. As if Pidge cared. Her main focus at the moment was Alex's welfare.

"You're already on thin ice, Katie," her mom said. "Don't pull any more stunts, got it?"

Pidge nodded. Her mom was already ticked, much to Pidge's discontent, that Pidge had ran away. Now both her parents were mad, because of course, they had been reviewing security feeds when they saw the scene of Pidge cussing Lance out after he accidentally stabbed Alex. (Of course, Shiro had cooled her off, but Pidge still blamed Lance.)

However, her parents said they'd discuss it later by themselves, which kind of scared Pidge. There were still a few months before takeoff, and Pidge did not want to spend the whole time grounded.

It wasn't really fair, though. Pidge's parents disagreed on punishing her for going off into space so many years ago, but of course, her mom won that argument. Also, Matt had started dating an alien before introducing her to their parents, and had convinced Pidge that he was dead, and their mom wasn't mad at Matt.

"Good," Mrs. Holt continued, "now, go to your room, and you can leave once you're done throwing your little temper tantrum."

So Pidge left, rolling her eyes once her mom could only see the back of her. At sixteen, being emotional should not still be called a "temper tantrum."

Besides, the last time she'd had one was when she was ten, when Matt would annoyingly call her "Pidge." At least now she had a logical reason to be mad. And hey, she hadn't cried. Not yet, anyways.

Once Pidge reached her room, she grabbed her phone and messaged Shiro.

Pidgeotto: did she choose the cast?

A few worrying minutes, then a response.

SpaceDad: Yeah.

Pidge sighed in relief.

PDO: good. You still in there?

SD: No, sorry, but the medics started almost immediately. Your dad said you can go see her after it's finished.

PDO: will do. Thnx.

SD: You're welcome. Also, you do know that it was an accident, right? Lance wouldn't have purposefully hurt someone you cared about.

PDO: you did that once.

SD: We both know that's different. And, from the way Keith told me...well, he and Lance think you like Alex. They set you up so you could get to know each other, and it went wrong.

PDO: well...they're not wrong. But please don't tell anyone. Especially Alex's brother.

SD: What's different with him?

PDO: don't tell anyone this, either, but I may or may not have been eavesdropping, and...Alex thought I was a boy when she first saw me. As far as I know, she just thinks she and her brother know that. But she likes me anyway. I don't think her brother's ok with that yet. Now he's shaken up with her injury thing.

SD: As are you. Do you want to go do something to get your mind off it? Like, I don't know, leave the ship and find an arcade or whatever?

PDO: well, Matt wanted me to help him give his gf a tour this morning, but that was hours ago. Maybe we could go back to my house and infiltrate his room?

SD: Depends. We can't go that far, if you don't want to wait very long after Alex's back up again to see her.

PDO: oh, yeah. Um...we could snoop around in the kitchen. Maybe prank Hunk, too.

SD: Not a bad idea. Meet you there?

PDO: sure

Pidge smiled. She put her phone down, and made her way to the kitchen.

The kitchen was full of food, ranging from space goo to exotic alien things to normal Earth food. Pidge wondered if there was any peanut butter in that mess. She'd probably steal it, though, seeing as she'd have nothing to use to bribe Hunk for it.

A few seconds later, Shiro appeared.

"You got here fast," he remarked.

"Yep." Pidge said. "'Cause, food."

Shiro shook his head, laughing. "All right, but we can't steal half the kitchen."

"Fine."

The two started going through the food, which was surprisingly organized, and found a bunch of long-needed Earth food...including peanut butter.

"Can I at least take all of this?" Pidge asked Shiro, holding up three huge jars of peanut butter. Shiro rolled his eyes.

"Take one."

Pidge sighed. "Ok."

Once they were done, Pidge and Shiro went to leave. But then, the lights, which had been untouched, turned on. Hunk now stood in the doorway.

"What are you guys doing with all that food?" He asked.

"It was her idea!" Shiro spat, pointing at Pidge. Pidge glared at him.

Hunk raised an eyebrow. "Put the food back."

Pidge stuck out her tongue. "Whatever."

She and Shiro put the food back.

"Anyways," Hunk said, "if you're so interested in the food, Pidge, would you mind helping me take a survey?"

"What?"

"I intend to please the passengers of the ship," Hunk shrugged. "So, I'm taking a survey of everyone's top three foods. Then I can make, like, a menu or whatever, so everyone gets what they want."

"That...that actually sounds fine."

"Great! I already had Veronica make a program design so everything'd go faster." Hunk pulled out his phone. "Sending the link now."

Pidge's phone was back in her room, so she checked her helmet-screen to see that she got it.

"I was thinking, maybe start with the Garrison kids: first the MFEs, then all the others, then the commanders, paladins, and everyone else."

"Ok. I'll take the Garrison kids and the commanders, if that's fine with you."

"Of course. And yourself."

"Obviously."

Shiro was glancing back and forth between the two, then left. Pidge left too, and went to her room. She got her phone and messaged the MFEs on her self-made server.

Pidgeotto: Hunk's taking a survey. Top 3 fav foods?

A few annoyingly long minutes, then replies.

Feliz-Nadia-d: chocolate, hard-boiled eggs, + any type of smoothie

Leafy: anything the Garrison doesn't let us have (I dunno, cookies, milkshakes, brownies, whatever)

Kinkade: potato

Pidge stared at the screen.

PDO: potato? What kind of potato?

KK: all potato

FND: wth, Kinkade

KK: just potato. Pick 3.

PDO: ok...

FND: yo, Griffin. Where u @?

A few more minutes, then finally:

Keith-is-trash: what

PDO: dude...plz change ur username.

Lance-is-trash: fine

PDO: no.

GriffinBoi: ok??

PDO: yes. Now, the kitchen ppls want to know ur 3 fav foods.

GB: k. Anything with lactose.

PDO: that's both very specific and very broad, but ok

FDN: Alex is intolerant so he does this out of spite

PDO: oh

Well, Pidge thought. That must suck.

Pidge was about to exit that convo and get Veronica's, Curtis's, and the others' answers, but then Griffin sent another message, outside the group chat.

GriffinBoi: btw, Holt, u get first shift w/ Alex.

Pidgeotto: srsly? Ur gonna wait til tonight?

GB: h*ll no. I'm still visiting when she's up. Just thought I'd let u 2 be alone. So u can tell her urself.

PDO: tell her what?

GB: one, u got star-eyes for her. Two, I know u were eavesdropping. U know what she thinks. And...what she thought.

Pidge groaned.

PDO: ur really annoying. But thnx. I'll try.

GB: ha. Ur welcome. I owe you, anyway. If u hadn't lashed out first, who knows what Iverson woulda done if it was me.

PDO: true. C ya.

Pidge exited and went to message Veronica, then got a message from Iverson.

Iverson: Cadet Griffin's up. Her brother said you got first shift.

Pidgeotto: yeah. On my way.