"It's about the limit of what I can tolerate," Mingmei said. "Tasty though."

"Cantonese isn't even all that spicy, normally," her mother joined in.  "This is more Szechuan, you know."

"Sure, but Indian sure is," Mingmei said.

"Exactly!" said her father.  Her mother was more skeptical, but moved on to another subject.

"And how was your day, Mingmei?" she asked.

"It was okay," Mingmei said. "Nothing exciting happened."

"You were on the phone for a while," said her father.  "How are your friends doing?"

"They're okay. It's a friday with nothing happening," Mingmei said.

"Aw, that's a shame," said her mother.  "You should get out and do something!"

"It's okay, I'm kinda tired," Mingmei said.

"Well, don't let yourself just sleep all the time," said her father.  "You're young!  You should enjoy that while you can."

"I guess it couldn't hurt," Mingmei said, pulling out her phone and texting Leann and Lihua. You guys up for a get together? Maybe stream a movie?

Sure!  When should we come over?

Anytime now. I'll get snacks, what do you guys want?

Do you have any more of those shrimp-flavored crackers?  Those are so good!

I'll pick up some of those then.  Mingmei texted.

"I'm just gonna hit up the convenience store and then Leann and Linhua are coming over."

"Good!" said her mother.  "You have to live life, you know."

"Back in a bit," Mingmei said, heading out.

Soon she had snacks.

Mingmei went back home to wait for her friends.

Soon enough, they arrived.  Leann had brought a large supply of pop; Lihua had brought DVDs, which was odd in this modern era.  They look home-burned.

"Oh no! My friend, the pirate," Mingmei said.

"Oh, I think they're a little bit more interesting than that," said Lihua.  "You can't stream this stuff..."

"Eh? What do you have?" Mingmei asked.

"I found footage of some interesting, um, live sporting events," said Lihua.  "I'll show you in private.  I mean, you know, without parents."

"Let's head to my room then," Mingmei said.