first_in_time | Trivial Matters [For Splendid

"I've never been to an army base before," Rose told Barbara as they pulled up outside the community hall, "do you think we'd be able to drop the boys home and have a look?"

"We don't have clearance. We wouldn't be allowed in." Barbara smiled at her friend.

"But you snuck in."

"That was different."

Dressed as nicely as they thought necessary for a fund raising trivia night, Barbara and Rosie locked the car and disappeared inside to find their table. Rosie looped her arm around Barbara's, as she often did, and grinned when she saw all the men in uniform. Barbara was having a little more trouble locating Ian - a great number of them looked the same from behind - then she saw him turn to laugh at something Stephen had said.

"Come on!" she said brightly to Rosie and the two women picked up their pace to meet their group.

"Gentlemen, this is my friend Rosie," Barbara told him once they'd joined up and she could reach for Ian's hand with her own. "Is there any reason uniform is being worn this evening?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

splendid_roman

Ian smiled at Barbara and Rosie. "The village committee has an army representative, so we're here representing the base. We won't all on the same team, though." He grinned at them. "This is Stephen and Alan." He indicated each of his friends who'd turned to see the women.

Both Stephen and Alan grinned at Rosie just as much as she grinned at them, and they shook her hand. "It's so lovely to meet you," Stephen said.

From:

first_in_time

Barbara thought they were all laying it on a bit thick but they were all grown ups. They could live with themselves afterwards.

"How has your week been?" she asked Ian while Rosie giggled at the two men now showing off by putting the other down. Barbara figured that they'd be arm wrestling by the end of the first hour.

From:

splendid_roman

"Muddy," he replied. "We played rugby in the rain." He didn't consider there to be anything unusual about that. "Rosie seems to be doing better," he whispered, although Rosie was too busy being entertained by Ian's friends to hear.

From:

first_in_time

Barbara nodded. "I think it was more the shock than anything else," she said and gave her a sympathetic look. Barbara didn't want to go into details as they weren't her details to give.

"If you three are finished, we should probably find our tables," Barbara told Rosie and two men. "Ian and I will get everyone a drink."

Edited Date: 2014-02-02 09:43 am (UTC)

From:

splendid_roman

"We will, will we?" Ian said to Barbara, but that didn't stop him from taking her over to the bar.

While they were gone Stephen and Alan found a table nearby and both tried to pull a chair out for Rosie.

"So how has your week been?" Ian asked, as they waited at the bar.

From:

first_in_time

"Slow," she replied and leaned against the bar while the waited to be served. "It was pretty much the same thing each day and now I get to see you. So you could say that things are starting to look up."

From:

splendid_roman

He smiled. "They are definitely looking up," he agreed. "And I am relying on you if there's a history round."

From:

first_in_time

"I'm relying on you if there are any questions about sports," she replied, chuckling.

The man running the bar approached Barbara and Ian to take their orders. She asked for three beers and two wines and split the total with Ian.

"I think I might even rely on you if there are questions on basic science or how things work," she said while carrying the wine to their table.

From:

splendid_roman

"I can definitely manage science," he said chuckling. He held the beers carefully so he could carry all three at once and relied on Barbara to navigate them to their table. "Stephen and Alan will know the sports questions too."

From:

first_in_time

"I'm not sure they're going to be in much of a mood to answer questions this evening," she replied, eyeing the boys at either side of Rosie and listening to everything she had to say as though it were the most fascinating thing. "It might just be you and I against the other teams."

From:

splendid_roman

"Perhaps we should have split them up," he said, looking over at them, but it was too late now. "Maybe once it starts they'll pay attention." There was only so much talking they could do while everyone needed to listen to the questions.

They did at least look up when Ian and Barbara arrived back at the table and put their drinks down, although only briefly to acknowledge they had drinks.

From:

first_in_time

Barbara sat next to Ian and rubbed at his leg. At let everyone was getting on well enough and there wouldn't be arguments. At least not until Rosie made a decision between the two. If she made a decision.

She looked at Ian, keen to tell him how dashing he was in uniform when something else caught her eye. She leaned a little to her left to get a better view.

"Look at that," Barbara said and nodded to where Brown was sauntering into the hall with his arm around a tiny, all most frightened looking woman. "Do you suppose that he actually found a woman willing to actually let him touch her?"

From:

splendid_roman

He frowned as he watched them walk in. Brown did look like he was showing this woman off. Perhaps she was shy and nervous to meet his friends. "I suppose there's someone for everyone, although I think she has terrible taste in men."

Brown saw Ian looking and scowled at him. Ian smiled back, thinking that Brown wouldn't dare do anything with this woman watching. He was right - Brown just went over to the bar and ignored Ian.

From:

first_in_time

"I don't know. I've got a funny feeling." She watched the two of them for a moment longer at the bar. "Something doesn't feel right but you're probably going to tell me I'm overreacting because he's so repulsive to us."

From:

splendid_roman

"Maybe." It was hard to tell what the right reaction was, given what Brown was like. "I suppose we should give him the benefit of the doubt, given that we don't know her." Ian would still keep an eye on them this evening, though.

From:

first_in_time

"I suppose we should," Barbara replied and finally looked away.

Across the table, Alan was trying to challenge Stephen to an arm wrestle. Barbara rolled her eyes. "You haven't ever been like that, have you?" she asked Ian.

From:

splendid_roman

"No, never," he said, glad that Stephen and Alan were too pre-occupied to listen to and call him on his lie.

"Are they always like this?" Rosie asked Ian.

Ian chuckled. "There's a shortage of women around here."

From:

first_in_time

Rosie was happy and that was all which mattered to Barbara.

"I think we need more passing out days and village trivial nights," Stephen said after he'd won their competition, "since girlfriends bring beautiful women with them."

Rosie blushed.

From:

splendid_roman

"And the girlfriends themselves are beautiful, of course," Alan added, not to be outdone.

Rosie giggled; Ian rolled his eyes.

From:

first_in_time

Barbara hated herself for blushing at that. She covered it up by checking the time.

"It's alright," she said to Ian, "only another few minutes and they'll only be able to talk if they're giving answers."

"Oh, I don't mind!" Rosie told Barbara quite happily.

From:

splendid_roman

"You'll only encourage them," Ian said to Rosie, but he was smiling as he said it.

"We like being encouraged," Alan said, smiling at Rosie. "Please encourage us as much as you like."

Ian shook his head and pulled the sheets of paper and the pen towards him, so he could write the answers to the quiz questions, once they started.

From:

first_in_time

Barbara took the pen away from Ian and drew a little flower in the margin. Once it was finished, she passed the pen back.

From:

splendid_roman

Ian raised an eyebrow at her. "I never knew you had an alternative career as an artist," he said, a twinkle in his eye.

From:

first_in_time

"Only if by being an artist you mean drawing silly little things on the edges of paper," she said and too it the pen back to draw a little heart on top of her flower and a crown above that.

"Right," a voice boomed over the P.A system, "we should probably make a move, shouldn't we?"

An elderly man stood behind a lecturn and held a microphone. Barbara could hear the rustling of his papers over the speakers.

"Since we didn't give out numbers this year we're going to need table names, so if you could all take a minute to do that before we begin, and write it at the top of the paper."

"The Roses!" Alan suggested.

From:

splendid_roman

Ian rolled his eyes.

"Can you think of a better name?" Alan said.

He might have been able to if he'd thought about it earlier, but being forced to come up with one on the spot, he couldn't. So he just sighed and wrote 'The Roses' at the top of the paper.

"The first round is General Knowledge," the man said. It seemed like this was where the science questions would come up because he asked about the makeup of an element and Ian wrote it down while most tables were discussing it.