Hive Chapter 2

A Mysterious Newcomer Joins Them at Trivia

Photo by Colton Jones on Unsplash

It was about a 15-minute walk from her apartment to trivia. Twelve if she was running late and had to hurry. Eighteen if she was catching up with her mom or sister on the phone while walking. Today, it took almost twenty. It was so gorgeous outside; she couldn’t help it. It was one of the last warm days of fall. Sunlight filtered through the trees lining her street, whose leaves were brilliant shades of amber and crimson. Despite the warmth, the air still had a hint of crispness. Today, as she looked at the sunlight filtering through the trees, she felt nostalgic for something, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on what. It was a feeling she had more and more as her age crept closer to thirty.

Before she knew it, she had arrived at her destination: an understated brick building nestled between a sports bar and a liquor store. In the front, a large window was bordered by wooden trim painted a deep green. In the center of the window, the bar’s name was written in golden cursive letters: O’Malley’s.

Averie and her friends had been coming here for years. The first night they stumbled upon it, they were in their early twenties. Averie, Maeve, and Jennifer were friends from college who all moved to D.C. the fall after graduation.

For the first few months they lived there, they had a hard time making new friends. The three of them hardly ever went out, afraid to leave their comfort zone and try new things in the city.

That night, they decided they were done with all of that. They were going to go out and be adventurous.

They chose a club at random and spent nearly two hours in Averie’s old apartment getting ready. Averie put on her favorite dancing playlist, largely featuring recession pop music. Maeve made them the worst mojitos Averie had ever tasted, and Jennifer curled everyone’s hair. It was still one of Averie’s favorite memories of the three of them.

The club itself was less fun. The lines were too long, the music was too loud, and the drinks were too expensive. They ended up leaving much earlier than they expected. While they were walking home from the metro station, freezing, not a jacket between them, a door next to them opened, and they heard music and felt a warm blast of air. Wordlessly, they decided to go inside for a bit to warm up for a song or two. They ended up staying until the bar closed, singing, or more accurately, yelling, along with covers of their favorite songs.

After that, they found themselves winding up at O’Malley’s more and more often when they went out. About a year later, Jennifer met Caleb through a mutual friend, and he introduced them to Nate. Somewhere along the way, Maeve had a date with someone from a dating app. There was zero romantic chemistry, but they decided they were destined to be friends, and that was how they met James. The three of them became O’Malley’s regulars, too.

Two years after they first discovered O’Malley’s, Averie was walking by one day and noticed a sign promoting their trivia on Tuesday nights. After some convincing, Averie got everyone together one Tuesday. After that, they became regulars at trivia. They didn’t all make it every time, but it had become an enduring tradition Averie looked forward to every week.

Averie stepped through the doorway. O’Malley’s was fairly large but still felt cozy. The main bar was to the left of the entrance, and to the right were several standing stables. Beyond the bar was the doorway to the backroom. On the weekend, O’Malley’s typically hosted local cover bands on the small stage in the back. During the week, however, the room was filled with dark brown square tables that were somehow always sticky. Averie made a beeline for their usual spot: two square tables pushed together against the wall to the left of the door, close to the stage where the trivia MC sat.

The bar was filled with patrons in their late twenties and early thirties. An excited hum of conversation filled the air, along with the smell of fried food and spilled beer. They had unassigned assigned seats after going to trivia at the same place for almost two years. Jennifer and Caleb usually arrived first and sat in the two seats closest to the wall. The two were the only official couple in their group of friends, although Maeve and Nate had a habit of flirting at house parties and pretending it never happened the next day.

Averie and Nate were usually the next to arrive. Averie wasn’t quite sure what Nate did. He always said he was a project manager and then strung together some buzzwords when Averie asked for clarification but never actually elaborated on what sort of projects he managed. All Averie knew was that he was compensated quite well for it.

Today, Averie had beaten Nate to the bar. She slid into a seat next to Jennifer, who threw her arms around her as soon as she sat down.

“Averie! How are you?”

“I’m good!” Averie smiled. Jennifer’s energy was infectious. “How’s Gus doing?”

Gus was a cat that Jennifer had recently adopted.

“He’s doing good! He’s finally getting used to us and my apartment, but he still runs under the bed whenever we make noise or move something too close to him.”

Jennifer and Caleb had been dating so long that he practically lived at Jennifer’s apartment. Averie was pretty sure that he would move in with her once his lease was up.

“Jennifer says I’m not allowed to watch basketball at her place anymore,” Caleb said with an expression of feigned exasperation.

“You’re so loud! Gus thinks you’re trying to kill him or something.” Jennifer tried to sound annoyed, but they were both grinning at each other.

A waiter appeared, bringing them two large plates of cheese fries, which Jennifer and Caleb had ordered before she arrived. She and her friends ordered an assortment of drinks, and the waiter disappeared back into the kitchen.

“Once he’s a little more settled in, you should come meet him!” Jennifer said.

Averie opened her mouth to say something but was cut short by James’ arrival.

James was a high school history teacher, and he dressed like it. Most weeks, he wore loafers, khakis, a plain button-down shirt, and some variation of a thrifted blazer. He was currently teaching honors U.S. history to tenth graders, but he wanted to teach AP World History. The school he taught at was in Maryland, so he was usually a little late if he had to stay after school for some reason. Still, he usually got there before Maeve, who had no excuse for being late besides that she was usually running late.

Today, however, Maeve was running very early by her standards, and she arrived ten minutes before trivia was set to start. From her appearance, you would never guess that she worked in consulting. At work, she wore nondescript dress slacks and button-down shirts, but as soon as she got home, she changed into her own clothes as a small act of defiance against corporate norms. Today, she wore her favorite pair of overall shorts over a graphic t-shirt, accompanied by a pair of colorful earrings and her favorite tote bag, a tie-dyed piece she got at a local art fair. Her hair was up in a bun, and there was a smear of paint on her elbow from her most recent art project.

Maeve sat down next to Caleb and across from Jennifer, Averie, and James, and the five of them settled into their familiar conversation. Caleb asked Maeve what art project she was working on. Jennifer began updating James on a mutual friend’s relationship drama. Averie listened in, glad to know that dating in this city sucked for someone else, too.

Around them, the other tables steadily got more crowded. On stage, the trivia MC was getting set up. Their waiter reappeared with the drinks they had ordered. Maeve grabbed a menu and frantically scanned the drinks section, but the waiter said he would give her a few more minutes to decide.

“Where’s Nate?” Maeve asked once the waiter left. “He’s usually here by now.”

Maeve was right. Nate was hardly ever late to anything.

“I’m sure he’ll be here soon,” Caleb said.

Sure enough, the five of them had barely touched their cheese fries when Nate arrived.

Nate would never admit it, but he liked to make an entrance. He was social with a big personality, so every time he walked into a room, the attention turned to him. Maeve was the first to spot him. “Nate!” She called as he walked through the doorway. The rest of the group turned towards him and greeted him with a chorus of “Ay!”, and “Nate!”, but Averie couldn’t help but stare at the woman who stepped through the door after him.

Stare wasn’t the right word. Averie couldn’t look directly at her. Every time she tried, she got lost in the contours of her face. Averie’s eyes traced a misplaced strand of dark brown hair down her forehead to her nose and lips and chin. The newcomer reminded her of someone, but she couldn’t decide who. One moment, she looked like an old movie star from one of her mom’s favorite movies, Chicago. The next, like a model Averie had seen on a cover of Vogue.

Nate stopped in front of the table and followed Averie’s gaze. “Everyone, this is my friend Emily. She just moved to D.C.”

Emily.

Emily smiled. She said something. Maybe she was saying hi.

Nate gestured towards the chair next to Maeve for Emily to sit down, and took the one next to Maeve. Without meaning to, Averie turned as Emily sat down so she could continue to stare at her side profile. She followed the lines of her collarbone to her neck, and her neck up to her chin. With each passing moment, Averie could make out more and more detail.

Emily wore her wavy dark brown hair down, softly framing her face on either side of her subtly rounded chin. Her full lips and smile were entrancing, but the most striking part about her was her eyes; a piercing pale blue, almost translucent under the bar lights. Averie finally realized who she reminded her of. She looked like an actress from a show her aunt loved called The White Lotus.

There was a short pause while everyone tried to work out what to say next. Fortunately, Emily spoke up.

“It is so great to meet you. Nate has told me such great things about his trivia friends. I don’t know many people in the area, and I’m looking for ways to meet more people. What sort of stuff do you like to do around here?” She asked.

Averie shook herself out of her stupor. She looked around at her friends, who were all intently studying the new arrival. Even Nate couldn’t seem to look away from his new friend.

Jennifer spoke first, eyes still fixed on Emily. “Honestly, I’m not as social as I should be these days. I mostly meet people through mutual friends at house parties or something. I’ve always wanted to join one of those kickball teams that play on the National Mall, though. It seems like a fun way to get to know people.”

“Oh yeah, I did one of those with my coworkers once. It was a lot of fun, although we weren’t very good.” James offered, oddly monotoned.
“Didn’t you go to the playoffs?” Maeve said, not turning to look at James when she asked.

“Most teams do, so don’t be too impressed,” James said, “and we only made it because we were undefeated at flip cup. No thanks to me, though. I’m horrible at flip cup. And kickball. I didn’t contribute a whole lot to that team.”

As James spoke, his normal cadence returned to his voice. Everyone around the table cracked a smile. Averie, feeling more like herself, smiled too. She looked around the table, but no one met her eyes. They were all still focused on the newcomers.

“Flip cup?” Emily said, her delicately arched eyebrows slightly furrowed.

“Yeah. After the kickball game, the teams all go to some bar and compete in a round of flip cup. Whoever wins gets points, but not as many as you would get for winning the game of kickball,” James elaborated, his voice growing louder and more excited.

Emily still looked confused.

Averie immediately felt compelled to do whatever she could to make the new arrival feel comfortable.

“I think it’s pretty much just a D.C. thing,” She offered quickly, although she wasn’t sure that was true. Flip Cup was pretty widely known, but maybe it wasn’t a common post-game activity in other areas.

“Yeah, other cities can enjoy team sports without drinking.” James joked.

Averie felt a jolt when Emily smiled along with the rest of the table.

Before anyone could reply, their conversation was interrupted by feedback from the MC switching on the microphone. Averie tore her eyes away from the newest arrivals and looked at the MC.

They had been coming to trivia long enough to know him by name. Or at least by his first name: Jerome.

Jerome was sitting at a table up on the stage. Every week, he wore a variation of the same outfit: a patterned short-sleeve button-down shirt, khaki pants, sneakers, and silver wire-framed glasses that matched his septum piercing. Averie was convinced he wore glasses entirely for cosmetic reasons. This week’s button-down was covered in small tigers and leopards. He had a laptop open in front of him with several colorful stickers on the back; one was for a local brewery, one was a picture of a kitten, and the rest were too small to make out. His right hand rested on the laptop’s mouse pad; his left hand held the microphone connected to a large speaker sitting on the stage beside him. Once the crowd quieted down a little, he spoke into the microphone.

“I hope you’re ready; it looks like we’re going to have some stiff competition.” He said with a friendly smile, looking around the room. “Tonight, we are joined by last week’s victors, Risky Quizness.” He pointed to a table in the back, and they cheered. “But I see some new faces as well. As always, all of our ​tap beers are half off tonight, so” he drew out the next few words in an impressive imitation of ​a wrestling commentator, “let’s get ready to stumble!” More cheering, this time from the whole crowd.

“We have some fun categories this evening, including one from last week’s losers,” he paused and looked over at Averie’s table while they clapped. Nate let out a loud “whoop!”

“So let’s get into it.”

“First up...” he paused for dramatic effect, “The Personal Lives of U.S. Presidents!”

While he spoke, a stack of papers was passed around the room. Averie took one from the table next to her. It was an answer sheet with a blank space at the top for their team’s name and four sections, each numbered one through ten, with space to write their answers.

More and more trivia places were switching to trivia apps that teams would use on one of their phones, but Averie much preferred the traditional pencil-and-paper approach. It helped prevent cheating scandals like the one that rocked a bar a few blocks up the street just last month.

Jerome continued. “Alright, US presidents. This category will be a mix of multiple-choice and short-answer questions. I’m only going to read the answer choices aloud twice, so make sure you’re paying attention.” He paused for a moment to make sure that most of the teams were, in fact, listening. “First question: which US president had the most children? Legitimate​ children, that is. Who knows what those guys were getting up to in their spare time.” He chuckled. “Was it: A. ​Calvin Coolidge”

Averie had to strain to hear the MC because her companions had resumed talking to the latest arrivals.

“B. John Tyler C. James Garfield or D. Grover Cleveland. For a bonus, how many children did he have? You must guess within 2 of the correct answer.”

She turned away from the stage and towards her friends.

“Did you guys hear that?” Averie asked.

“What was the question?” Jennifer asked.

“What president had the most kids, and how many?”

Hearing Averie’s words, everyone, except for Emily, subtly shifted their attention toward James, who was the most likely to have the answer. “What were the options?” he asked.

“John Tyler, Calvin Coolidge, James Garfield, and Grover Cleveland.” Averie recited.

Now faced with a task, whatever had overcome them disappeared and her friends were back to their usual selves.

“It was probably someone from a long time ago, like the 1800s. I don’t think any of them after 1900 would have had that many.” James reasoned.

“Oh, yeah, definitely not any of those guys that we all know were from the 1900s,” Nate said, although his face made it clear he had no idea who that included.

“I think Coolidge was in the 1900s,” Jennifer offered.

“Yes, he was,” James confirmed. “I’m not sure, but I think Cleveland was around the early 1900s too.”

“How many do you think it was?” Maeve asked.

“More than ten,” James confidently replied.

“More than ten? That’s so many!” Maeve looked genuinely surprised to consider that anyone, even in the 1800s, ever had more than ten kids.

“People had a lot of kids in the 1800s because so many of them died in early childhood,” James said matter-of-factly.

Maeve gazed off into the distance, her mouth slightly agape and looking like she was beginning to contemplate childhood mortality.

“So, like twelve then?” Jennifer interjected before Maeve could reply. “Or do you think it’s more?”

“Less than twenty, for sure.”

The debate went on. Averie looked at Emily, who was quiet. She was just sitting there, hardly moving and smiling so large her cheeks must have hurt. Averie figured she didn’t know a whole lot about history. Averie could relate.

Before they had answered the question, Jerome spoke into the microphone again.

“Just put John Tyler,” Nate hissed to Caleb, who had taken on the responsibility of team scribe. That was the answer that James seemed to have arrived at. “And guess a number between twelve and eighteen.”

“Which US president was a star football player in college and turned down offers to play for the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers?”

“A pro football player president?” Jennifer asked, incredulous.

“If we can have a TV star president, we can have a football player president.” Maeve said.

“Yeah,” Jennifer said, “but the TV star ruined everything, remember?”

“Which one?” Averie asked, grimacing.

James shushed them.

Jerome’s voice sounded from the speaker. “Was it: A. Gerald Ford B. Lyndon B Johnson C. Jimmy Carter or D. Harry Truman”

“Which president was really yoked?” Nate asked.

“I don’t know,” Caleb said. “Back in the day, athletes weren’t nearly as big as they are today.”

“There were also plenty of ex-military presidents,” James pointed out, “so the yoked thing could be misleading.”

Nate made no indication that he heard their answers. His attention had drifted off back to his date. Jennifer looked off into the distance in thought. “When was the NFL founded? It’s gotta be someone after like 1940.”

The group quieted for a moment.

“We really need to make a friend who knows stuff about sports,” Jennifer said when no one offered an answer.

“Hey,” Caleb said indigently. “I know stuff about sports, just not sports like a hundred years before I was born.”

“Wait, what were the options again?” Nate said, his attention returning to the group.

“Uh..” Averie had no idea. All of the presidents’ names ran together.

Jerome looked around the room, smiling. He could clearly tell many groups ran into the same issue and forgot the answer choices.

“I’ll repeat the question.” He said. “Which US president was a star football player in college and turned down offers to play for the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packer? A. Gerald Ford B. Lyndon B Johnson C. Jimmy Carter or D. Harry Truman.”

James and Jennifer were still trying to make their best educated guess, but the rest of the team split off into other conversations. Maeve had asked Emily something about her job, and Nate was hanging on to her every word. Averie listened in, curious to learn more about their newest team member.

“Well, it just seemed like such a great opportunity I couldn’t say no,” Emily said, her cheeks looking a little flushed. “I’m glad I did, but now that I’m here, I don’t know many people.”

“You can always hang out with us!” Maeve blurted out.

Part of Averie agreed. She wanted to spend more time with Emily and get to know her. But Averie was annoyed that Nate and Maeve invited her to such an important event for their friend group without consulting anyone else, even if it was just weeknight trivia.

Maeve’s enthusiastic offer made Emily smile again, and all of a sudden Averie felt annoyed at Maeve for being the one to suggest it.

“I would really like that. I’m so glad I met Nate, he’s the best. And now you guys.”

“How did you and Nate meet?”

“Last week I was having trouble using one of the machines at the gym. I had never seen one like that before. He took pity on me and showed me how to adjust it.” A giggle punctuated her sentence.

Averie raised an eyebrow. Nate wasn’t the type to go up to strangers in public, even if he thought they were cute.

“Alright everyone, this is the last question of the round, so you have two minutes to submit your answer sheets and grab one for the lightning round.” He pointed at a stack of paper on the table next to him.

Each round was five questions. Averie didn’t even realize that she had missed the last two questions while Emily was talking.

The chatter resumed, a little more frantic this time as teams raced to finalize their answers. Caleb was showing James their answers to get his final approval. Maeve was craning her neck to see the paper too.

“Don’t worry, we got this in the bag,” Jennifer reassured them. “We have a history teacher on our team.”

James didn’t look as confident. “I wouldn’t be so sure. I haven’t even thought about U.S. history since college.”

Caleb and James finished and handed the sheet to Averie, who brought it up to the front table and grabbed the new answer sheet.

While she was grabbing the paper, Jerome’s voice sounded once again over the speaker. “It is time for the lightning round! For this round, I will give you two names of famous people from throughout history, and you will answer if they could have met.”

Averie took her seat again.

“Anne Frank and Martin Luther King Jr!” Jerome called out.

“That one’s easy, I’m pretty sure they were born in the same year-“

“Leonardo da Vinci and Christopher Columbus!”

“I feel like that’s a trick question-“

“Charlie Chaplin and 50 Cent!”

“There’s no way.”

“Alexander Graham Bell and Neil Armstrong!”

Averie noticed that Emily hadn’t spoken since the conversation moved back to trivia.

“Alright!” Jerome said loudly over the crowd. “Moving on!” The crowd quieted a little bit. “Next category is our bonus, Recession Pop!”

Averie leaned forward and began shushing her teammates.

“Question one: what song did Will. I. Am write the night of President Barack Obama’s inauguration?”

Averie was pretty sure she knew the answer. She was about to say it, but caught sight of Emily, who had been sitting quietly, just watching them. Averie was struck by the overwhelming need to make Emily feel included.

“I’m not sure I know this one. Emily, do you have any ideas?”

Her friends, who had all been chatting about the question, once again immediately turned their attention to Emily. She blushed slightly.

Averie wanted to kick herself for putting her on the spot. She tried to think of a way to redirect their attention, but Emily spoke.

“How am I supposed to know all of those guys from the 1900s? James is the history expert.”

Everyone around the table laughed. And kept laughing, a little too hard and without a hint of irony. Emily joined in. The overwhelming emotions Averie had experienced just a moment before vanished, and she sat dumbstruck, wondering if Nate’s new friend knew who Barack Obama was.

“It’s ‘I Got A Feeling,’” Averie said. No one heard her.

“It’s ‘I Got A Feeling,’” she said again, louder. Still, no one paid her any mind.

She leaned over and tapped Caleb. “It’s ‘I Got A Feeling.’”

He finally looked at Averie, face still warped into a grin, and wrote down the answer.