A/N: Sorry I suck at writing updates. Life happens. What more can I say? And also sorry this update is so much later than I wanted to have a chapter for you. This hasn't been proofread, but it is just a quick little one shot that popped up in my head today. Anyway, even though St. Patrick's Day is almost over, enjoy!
"Oi Chloe!" Fat Amy called from across the Treble's backyard. "Happy Ginger Day!"
"Whaaa?" an inebriated Chloe shouted back to the Australian, from where she and Beca were dancing together with Emily and Benji. "Is that even a thing?" she asked, as she swayed slightly.
"Eh. If it isn't it should be," Fat Amy said, downing the rest of her Guinness in one large swig. "Alright, I'm off to find Bumper. He promised to let me pick the Netflix part of 'Netflix and chill'.
"It's not Ginger Day, it's Saint Patrick's Day," Beca corrected, as she grabbed Chloe's arm to steady her. "And make sure the Netflix part is loud so the whole party doesn't have to listen to you and Bumper "chill".
"No promises, my little leprechaun," said Fat Amy, as she left the two.
"Fight me," Beca hollered at her friend's retreating form.
Turning back to Chloe, Beca took in her girlfriend's current state and asked, "Are you sure you're okay?"
"I'm aca-awesome," the girl replied.
"Are you sure? Can you pass a sobriety test right now?" Beca inquired, lightly pushing on her girlfriend's chest to see if she was capable of standing on her own.
Every time they went to a social gathering, the Bellas rotated through the group as to who was staying sober, so they could take care of each other and make sure all the girls got back to the house in one piece. Everyone took a turn, even the non-maternal-by-nature Beca, who happened to be the designated person for this particular acapella party.
It started when Aubrey had had one too many times of looking after everyone's drunk asses and put her foot down. Nobody had originally forced Aubrey to take on the role of chaperone, but Aubrey refused to let the Bellas disgrace themselves so she chose to stay sober and got her revenge on them the next morning by doing her best impersonation of a drill sargent when they all had hangovers. However, after Beca's freshman year, Aubrey was working on being less stressed, which included letting her hair down once and a while. Turns out the blonde can really hold her liquor and could give Fat Amy a run for her money.
"Stop," Chloe whined, swatting Beca's hand away. "I'm not drunk, you're just blurry."
"Ok, that means yes you are and that you should get to bed."
"Booo, you're no fun. I wanna stay at the party," Chloe said frowning at Beca as she leaned forward to whisper in Beca's ear.
Beca turned towards Chloe and almost collided with her face, not expecting Chloe to be that close to her.
Just then, Stacie walked by them with her latest conquest, "OH, get it girl!" she hooted.
"Get what?" Beca asked the leggy brunette, thoroughly confused.
"You've found your pot of gold! Or should I say, pot of red," Stacie replied.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Beca, aren't redheads like, supposed to be Irish and lucky or something like that?"
"I don't know Stace," Beca sighed, as she rubbed her head. "You're like, one of the smartest Bellas, shouldn't you know that?"
Rolling her eyes, Stacie pulled the boy's hand she had been holding on to and said, "I'll let you two figure that out, I'm busy."
"Oh look, there's Aubrey! Let's ask her!" Chloe said excitedly.
"Yeah, I don't know about the lucky bit or not. You're mostly just insane," Beca said, but followed Chloe over to the bench by the makeshift bar where Aubrey and Jesse were sitting.
"Aubs! I need to ask you something. It's important," Chloe said, waving her hands wildly in front of her. Upon Beca and Chloe's arrival, Jesse stood up and said, "I'll catch you later, ok?" to Aubrey.
Aubrey stared at her friend, slightly frustrated at the bubbly girl who didn't always catch social cues. "Chloe Anne. Did you not see that I was talking?"
"Ooops," Chloe's eyes got big, and sad. "I'm sorry. Are you mad at me?"
Aubrey sighed and looked up at the air. "It's fine." Being mad at Chloe was like kicking a puppy. You just can't. "What was so important, anyway?"
"Umm. Uh… Oh yeah!" Chloe said, her alcohol induced fog making her memory a bit hazy. "What do you know about Saint Patrick's Day?"
"Saint Patrick wasn't actually Irish, he was from somewhere in England, probably Scotland or Wales. He supposedly drove out all the snakes from Ireland though, and we celebrate Saint Patrick's day on March 17th, because that's the day he died," Aubrey rattled off. She continued to go in to the back story of Patrick, but Beca cut her off, not wanting to become too bored by Catholic theology.
"Damn General, how do you know all this?" said Beca, impressed yet again, by the blonde's vast array of random facts.
"Because I read books, Hobbit."
"Ugh, enough with the short jokes already!" cried Beca exasperatedly. "What do you know about how redheads are related to the holiday?" she added, seeing as Chloe was obviously not currently focusing on the topic at hand, and instead solely directing all of her attention on staying upright.
"Oooh! I'm a redhead!" Chloe chimed in, suddenly inserting herself back in the conversation.
"Yes, sweetie we know," Aubrey placated. "And you're lucky, because this is basically YOUR holiday."
"I still don't get the correlation between redheads and Saint Patrick's Day…" Beca interjected.
"Aca-scuse me, but I was getting there, before I was so rudely interrupted."
Beca rolled her eyes but gestured for Aubrey to continue.
"As I was about to say, it's because of the connection between red heads and Ireland, and therefore Saint Patrick's Day. There is a genetic marker mostly found in northwestern Europe. 10-30 percent of the population of Ireland has red hair, even though redheads only make up 2 percent of the global population. Either way though, having red hair doesn't necessarily mean you're Irish, and just because you're Irish, doesn't guarantee you'll have red hair. It's all a stereotype."
"Holy fuck, you sound like a Wikipedia page," Beca stated.
"Again, Hobbit. I read. Maybe you should try it. And if anything, it would be a text book. Wikipedia is entirely too unreliable to be a credible source," Aubrey finished.
"Well, what about the whole 'pinching people because they're not wearing green' thing or rainbows and pots of gold and finding four-leaf clovers and leprechauns?" Chloe asked excitedly, once again interested in the conversation.
"That's all just more stupid traditions, myths and stereotypes," Aubrey said, not realizing how much damage could be done in one sentence.
The smile on Chloe's face quickly disappeared and her eyes dropped to the floor. "Oh."
"Way to go," Beca snapped. Beca was already kind of mad at Aubrey for insinuating that she couldn't read, but thanks to Aubrey, she also now had a drunk and sad Chloe to care for, which she was not pleased about. "Thanks a lot Posen."
Beca led Chloe over to the side of the pool, where the two sat, kicking their feet back and forth in the cool water and talking as Chloe sobered up a bit.
"Ya know, even though a lot of the things you asked Aubrey about really are just for fun, I can think of at least 2 of my favorite Irish traditions that you forgot," Beca mused.
"Hmmm?"
"May the sun shine all day long, everything go right and nothing wrong. May those you love bring love back to you and may all the wishes you wish come true." Beca said.
When Chloe smiled, Beca knew she had done a good job at cheering her girlfriend up.
"It's an Irish blessing my grandmother used to say," she explained. "Blessing people is a favorite tradition of many Irish families.
"I like that one. What's the other one?"
"You're supposed to kiss pretty Irish girls, to bring you luck."
"But I'm not Irish, Bec," Chloe said, confused.
"You're not, but I am," Beca said, as she leaned over to kiss Chloe softly.
A/N 2: Did you know that according to Google, National Ginger Day is January 12th?!