“And here are your accommodations!” Said the cheery little bumble bee as she opened the door into the room. I always hated living in hives. No space, everyone is friendly to a creepy extent, and the walls were so thin you could everything anybody was saying. The little bumblebee with the poofy hair and the bright, glinting black eyes fluttered her wings. If she was expecting a tip or something, I was dead broke.

“Thanks.” I said gruffly. The little bee looked slightly disappointed.

“You’re welcome, sir. But you must understand we have very strict rules here at the hive. You must follow every one of them and come to work every day.” She said.

“Whatever.” She huffed and flew away down the hallway. I looked around my new home. It was a small hexagonish shape with bright flowery furniture and a tv, a fridge, a stove, and a couple other doors off the side, probably leading to the bathroom or bedroom. The wall facing me was transparent and allowed me to look on the entire hive. The lights in the room were bright and had flower lamp shades. It was cozy, to be sure. I’d never lived in such nice accommodations. But it wasn’t for me.

Being a wasp in a hive full of bumblebees wasn’t going to make me very popular. Wasps were notorious for picking on other bees, and I was no different. But I needed a job, so I had to make the best of it.

I walked over to the tv and chair in front of it, slumped down, and turned the small screen on.

All the bumblebees, I expected, were fat, hard workers, and really, really… happy.

Gross.

I hated happy bees. They tended to buzz too much when they were happy.

The walls of my new home were so thin I could hear somebody next door singing loudly, and some maggot crying and crashing into things on the other side.

Somebody knocked on my door. I stood to answer it and found a chubby little bee, staring up at me with his huge eyes. That was another thing I didn’t like about bumblebees. Their eyes were too big for their own heads.

“Howdy, neighbor!”

“What do you want?”

“Oh!” He said chuckling. “A bit touchy, aren’t we? My name’s Cleatus, I just came to meet you. What’s your name, friend?”

“Name’s Stiff, and we’re not friends.”

“Nice to meet you Stiff!” He looked inside my apartment. “Nice place!”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s very nice, now will you go away?”

“Oh sure! Didn’t mean to intrude!” I shut the door and slumped back down in the chair. The tv was only playing comedies, nothing interesting. So I tuned into what I heard from the neighbors.

“… OH IM A BUMBLEBEE! What a time to be alive, workin’ for the hive!” Someone singing on one side.

“… Jimmy hit me!”

“Now Jimmy!” Maggots on the other side.

“…you sure we can pull it off?”

“If we sneak in when nobody’s looking, we’ll never be noticed.” Now this was interesting. Two voices coming from above.

“Let’s start now. It’ll be easy, as long as nobody knows.” I stood from my chair, opened my door, went up the stairs to the room right above mine, and knocked. There were sounds of scrambling from inside and then the door opened.

“Can I help you?” Said a chubby bumblebee opening the door. He looked shocked to see I was a wasp.

“Yeah, im just meeting my new neighbors. What’s your name?”

“Buzz.” I shoved past Buzz into his apartment and looked around. It was completely empty, except for a card table and another bed sitting at it.

“What do you want?” Asked Buzz, shutting the door.

“I heard you talking up here.”

“Ridiculous.”

“These walls are very thin.” The other bee chimed in.

“You get outa here. We don’t want any trouble with a wasp.”

“I don’t want trouble. I want in.” The bees stared in amazement at me.

“In what?” Asked Buzz.

“In whatever you’re planning. This place is living hell for a guy like me.” The bumblebees looked at each other then at me.

“You want to help us… steal the honey supply and then escape?” Asked Buzz.

“Yes.” Buzz shrugged.

“We’re glad for the help.” He said, shaking my arm. “Never imagined a wasp would want to help anybody.”

“If it’s stealing honey and getting out of here, then I’ll help all I can.”