Page 124 of When In Doubt

Once everyone’s set up, Megan takes to the stage again, flicking through her notecards until she finds what she’s looking for.

“Alright, we’re gonna warm everybody up with some general knowledge.” Megan claps her hands before launching into the questions.

“Don’t fucking write that!” Ryan hisses at Mack as he records the answer to question six. “Justin doesn’t know shit. It’s Paleolithic first, then Neolithic, then it’s the Bronze Age.”

“Fuck you, man!” Justin argues back. “I know what I’m talking about.”

“You clearly don’t!”

“He’s right,” Freya chimes in. Justin doesn’t hear her at first, but Mack smacks him on the arm to get his attention. “Neolithic is second, it started with the development of agriculture.”

“Well, what the fuck were we eating before we could grow shit?” Justin scowls into his drink.

“I don’t know.” Ryan shrugs. “Meat and shit. Like, hunting with spears.”

Freya nods, tucking her arms in closer to herself. I give her thigh a reassuring squeeze. I know she doesn’t like confrontation, but this is how we are on the crew. It’s basically how we show love.

“Okay,” Mack says as he crosses out our previous answer. “Majority vote wins, we’re going with Ryan’s answer.”

“Whatever.” Justin huffs, and I kind of want to smack him upside the head. He’s been acting like even more of a jackass than usual tonight, and it’s starting to piss me off.

“Okay, folks!” Megan calls from the stage, thankfully putting an end to Justin’s pouting. “Hand in your papers, then we’ll move on to the picture round!”

Turner makes another lap, taking away everyone’s answer sheet and dropping off new ones, his trademark frown never moving an inch.

“By overwhelming demand, and by that I mean my own overwhelming desire to put this round together, we’re doing period dramas.”

Ryan groans, Jenna slumps in her chair, and Justin starts muttering under his breath. Mack smiles a little, giving me a smirk when I look at him. I know how many of these movies Joni’s had him watching, he could probably pick them out in his sleep. Freya straightens up next to me, her energy brightening.

“In your teams, you have five minutes to go through each of the stills in front of you and answer which movie they’re from.” Megan announces.

Freya immediately leans forward, starting to scan down the page.

“Number one is Barry Lyndon,” she says.

“Got it,” Mack replies, already recording the answer.

“Two is Sense and Sensibility.”

“I’m gonna go get another drink,” Justin says, standing. He almost knocks into the table and I shoot him a glare.

Jenna gets up to go with him. “I’ll keep an eye on him. You two seem to have this handled.”

Freya and Mack don’t acknowledge their departure—they’re on fire, only disagreeing once.

“It’s Downton Abbey,” Mack says, his pencil already touching the paper. Freya all but smacks his hand away.

“It’s Gosford Park.”

“Are you su⁠—”

“I’m sure. Michael Gambon was never in Downton.”

“Fuck, you’re right.” Mack jots down the correct answer.

It only takes them two of our five minutes to get through the list. Freya shoots up from her stool, hand in the air when they finish the final question. “Done!” she yells, and Megan looks over at our table, as does most of the bar. Realizing that all eyes are on her, Freya shrinks back into her seat, going beet red.

“Sorry,” she murmurs sheepishly. “I got a bit overexcited.”