CHAPTER 1.
6.48
It was the exact time Ethan saw when he laid his eyes on the luminous numbers of his alarm o'clock. He stared intensely at the time, silently prying for it to hurry up, but after a good 30 seconds of ferocious fight, the young brunette had to cry uncle. He sighted loudly when the numbers stayed unchanged and laid quietly on his back on his bed. Feeling bored almost to death, the brunette started to sing in order to pass the time. His cheerful voice resounded in his tiny room that was his bedroom and he fidgeted under the sheets, dreaming up a guitar between his fingers. Verses and choruses followed one another, he was singing his head off without hitting a single wrong note.
Eventually, as soon as he saw the clock show 7 o'clock, either after a whole four-different-songs concert, Ethan rushed out of his bed. He ran, his cuddly toy safely tucked under his left arm, until the end of the corridor where he opened the door, as delicately as an overexcited and lacking of dexterity four-year-old could open a door, while trying to not wake the person on the other side. In the bed was his mother, sleeping like a baby. Tiptoeing, Ethan approached the motionless bump and jumped on it.
"Mommy, wake up!"
Unfortunately, the form stayed steadily frozen under the sheets. Not even a single hair had moved. He placed a leg on each side of his mother's slim body to straddle her and shook lightly her shoulders.
"Mommmmmmmyyyyyyy, wake up," he murmured.
Suddenly, two big irises opened wide, taking Ethan by surprise. Two hands grabbed Ethan by his midsection and tickled him mercilessly. The little boy erupted in giggles and squirmed wildly, kicking his feet in the air to get rid of Beca's offensive hands.
"Momm-Mommy st-stop!" the toddler exclaimed between giggles.
However the tickling only grew more intense, stroking Ethan's armpit, an area more than well known by his mom as his weak spot. Ethan laughed harder, tears of joy were tricking down his face and by the sight of them, the DJ knew she had accomplished her mission.
"Hello, little monster," Beca said, a big grin playing on her lips.
"Hi mommy," chuckled the boy with a smile just as big plastered on his face.
"Did you sleep well?" she asked before kissing his forehead.
"Yeah!"
"Ready to go to school today?"
Ethan and Beca had moved in a couple of weeks ago. Ethan was already used to his new environment but when it came to school, he was still anxious. New teacher, new classmates, new friends…
The little boy merely nodded and let himself be carried by his mommy's arms, the comforting and unique odor that was emanating from her seizing his nose. Once they arrived at the bottom of the stairs, Beca headed towards the kitchen and put him down on a chair. Like every morning, Ethan thrashed around while she put out the bare necessities for their breakfast. She placed a bowl of milk with cereals in front of him and helped herself to some coffee.
"Mommy, why don't you ever make us pancakes?"
"Remember when there was smoke everywhere and the fire alarm set off? That's exactly why I don't make pancakes."
Ethan chuckled at the memory of the giant shambles mess caused by this fiasco and how it had angered his mommy and a smile slipped on the DJ's lips. No sound was as great as hearing her son laughing, except maybe the 'I love you' he used to whisper while he was all wrapped up in her arms. Yeah, that was definitely the best thing of the world.
Before she even knew it, they were dressed and ready to go to the school. Hand in hand, the two walked along the houses and turned with a surprising ease. However, Beca was focused, careful not turn the wrong way and she was grateful that Ethan, for once, willingly kept his mouth close.
As soon as they turned the last bend in the road, they arrived in front of a big building -from now on known as Ethan's school-. Kids were already running by the playground, some cried as they saw their parents leave, some were throwing rocks at each other: a real nightmare in Beca's eyes. The DJ saw a school supervisor and headed towards him, Ethan following closely behind.
"Excuse-me," asked the DJ and the supervisor turned around. "Hey, I registered Ethan here about a week ago, we just moved in the neighborhood. Can you show me th-"
"Ethan Mitchell?"
"Hum, yes." She replied doubtfully, that was weird that he knew her son.
"I'm Mister Smith. Ethan is in my class this year, you are?"
Hearing this, Beca's eyebrows shot up in surprise. This guy didn't look like a teacher, but more of a surfboard-er coming out straight ahead of celebrities magazines pages. The young man eyed Beca, not by disdain but by indecision. A woman that young could be either Ethan's sister, either his mother.
"Beca Mitchell. Ethan's mother, the little bad-ass guy next to me."
The blond knelt at the toddler's level and Ethan hide behind his mother's legs, tightening his grip on his mother's hand to be sure she didn't flew away.
"Hi Ethan, I'm Mister Smith." He said in a warm voice and extended one of his hands to the boy. Shyly, the young brunette shook it. "I'm going to teach you everything you need to know this year. Would you like to come with me? I can present you all your new classmates if you want. They're very cool."
Rather than answering straight away, Ethan looked at his mother, his eyes silently asking if he should follow the blond or not. She knelt and nodded to him with a smile. The little boy brought his arms around her neck and Beca did the same with him. She took a deep breath, letting her child's odor invade her spirit and whispered 'I love you' to him. Ethan tightened his grip straight away and replied 'I love you too' before letting go completely.
"See you later, mommy," he said with a big grin on his face and ran to the playground next to Mr. Smith.
Beca looked at her son rushing away. He already had gone to pre-school last year, she was used to seeing him leave but she couldn't help but feel the sting in her heart she felt every time. With one last look, she saw Ethan played with a blond girl in the sandbox, he was laughing cheerfully. She already knew what it meant: she was going to find sand in the house for at least the three followings days. Knowing that her son was in a secure environment, she headed to her own torture room: college.
A glance at her watch told her she was going to be late for her first day of school of the year. She walked faster and eventually arrived face to face to buildings naked of all students. Beca went to her class, quietly thanking her father for showing her around a few days ago and thus avoiding her 15 minutes of intense research to find her classroom. Once she had arrived, she knocked and waited for the angry 'enter' before crossing the door of her economy class.
Behind the lectern stood a man in his late fifties, his short hair going gray and his glasses as thick as oyster's shells had a grave and accusing look written on his face. He raised an eyebrow at this unexpected entry.
"I'm delighted to see you honor us of your presence, miss," he mocked.
"Sorry, they told me to go to hell. I couldn't find it at first but I'm here now!" she smirked, sarcasm lacing her voice and took a place in front of the very stupefied eyes of her classmates and a horrified professor.
With a triumphant entry like this one, she had all interest to watch her step until at least the end of the year. A real challenge for the brunette, who couldn't keep her sarcastic remarks for herself more than 2 hours. Quickly taking out her stuff, she started to take notes.
After 4 long endless hours for Beca, the bell eventually rang signaling the end of her agony. She picked her stuff up and walked out of the class. She didn't need any persuasion to stay with her new professor.
The DJ headed towards the nearest supermarket, considering what was left in her fridge -she was going to have to buy something to eat something. Warded off of her cart, she walked along the shelves with a surprising agility for such a young woman. This was the result of multiple years of shopping with a toddler sat in the cart, Ethan's hands would travel through the shelves and add un-programmed articles to the cart. Beca had quickly learned to keep a reasonable distance from the shelves and to navigate as efficiency as possible between them. Turning at full speed towards the fruits and vegetables, she failed to see another cart, which lead to an awful sound and to spill all the articles of inside the other cart on the floor.
"Oh, shit! Sorry, I'm so sorry," said Beca to the young ginger whose the cart was now on the floor.
"I could have you arrest for breaking the speed limit and attempted murder with the speed you were going at," the redhead smiled.
"I don't mind the handcuffs," replied Beca with a smirk and a wink before kneeling to pick up the other woman's purchases.
The redhead joined her, sliding one by one the articles back into her cart. "I think you got it wrong though -you're supposed to hit on people who spark your interest. Not literally hit them," she smirked.
Beca shook her head, this girl definitely had some repartee and the DJ liked it. She took a moment to look at the woman she was talking to. She was a ginger, slightly tanned (more than Beca anyway), young -one or two years more than her tops- and a face all but too cheerful for un-adverted eyes. The DJ hasn't encountered a traditional grand-ma who was buying food for her old cats.
Once the last item was picked up, the brunette stood up and blinked at Chloe's angelic grin, showing her perfectly aligned teeth.
"Chloe," said the woman and offered her hand for Beca to shake.
"Beca," she replied as they shook hands.
"An uncommon name for an uncommon girl. It's pretty, though."
"Thanks. Chloe's great too."
"I'm great, so of course my name is too. Now, if I could have my hand back so I can head towards the registers ?"
Beca realized she was still shaking Chloe's hand. "Oh, sure," she handed back the hand to her owner.
The ginger flashed her one last smile and left so Beca went back to her frantic race between the shelves, a smile on her lips. There was something in this girl that had poked her interest. Maybe her daring or her audacity, Beca didn't know exactly where her attention had been poked.
Once she had swallowed up her pasta, and had learned her lesson of this morning, Beca decided to go out. A morning spent between four walls was way enough for her and the beautiful sun outside put her in good mood. Armed with her laptop and her headphones, she went to the closest park and found a spot under a tree. Comfortably set, she put her headphones and let the music carry her.
This was what her daily life consisted of for 4 years now. Everything centered around her family, music and class. Of course, her toddler was her priority then class, which let her more or less time to mix. But Beca wasn't the whiney kind of girl: she was going to succeed her studies and make her father, his wife -Sheila- and her child proud of her. No matter the sacrifices, she was going to succeed. If she hadn't had Ethan, she would have move to Los Angeles and would have thrown herself headlong into music. But with a child waiting at home for her, the DJ had given up this idea, and instead she had studied hard to find a job and provide her child with everything he had needed. She hadn't banned the music from her life. On the contrary Beca had passed her passion that run trought her veins to her son. At only 4 years old, the little boy already had the melody entwined in his life, and the DJ was proud to give him this gift.
Lost in her thoughts, Beca was only extracted from them when the music stopped and when, through her eyelids still closed, she noticed the lack of sun.
"Well, look who's there," said a female voice.
Recognizing Chloe's tone of voice, she removed her headphones from her ears then the DJ pushed herself up on to her elbows and screwed an eye open. "You're blocking the sun."
Instead of replying, the ginger sat next to her, a big smile on her face.
"What are you doing?" Beca asked, her eyebrows frowning. The DJ wasn't the most sociable person in the world but she still knew that 'you're blocking my sun' was far from an invitation to sit next to her.
"I'm sitting, obviously," replied Chloe simply. "You know, Beca, the supermarket's lighting doesn't do you any justice."
"Was that a compliment?" Beca smirked.
"Indeed, it was."
"So, what owe me the pleasure of this invasion of my personal space?"
"I was thinking that without a cart in your hands, I wouldn't risk a lot coming to talk with you."
"This cart thing is going to follow me forever, isn't it?"
"I'm afraid it is," Chloe replied with a devil smile.
"You know, just because I don't have a cart doesn't mean I'm not dangerous. What tells you I'm not a criminal on the run with the Interpol on my tail?"
"In this case, I'll have to take out the handcuffs," said Chloe, remembering the brunette's words from earlier.
Beca raised an eyebrow at Chloe's brashness. This girl was definitely something else. "Should I be worried and have a restraining order filled against you?"
"Come on, I'm fantastic, you'd be missing out."
"Wow, and modest on top of that."
"I can't help the fact I'm awesome," she shrugged. "So, what were you doing?" The redhead asked, heading the conversation on a whole new subject.
"I was mixing music."
"I'd have bet you were into music." Chloe said confidently.
"How come?"
Chloe shrugged. "Pretty sure that underneath all this make up and the sarcastic attitude was hiding a… a softer and more passionate side. A sixth sense, I suppose."
"Hey, I don't wear that much make up, and I would like to say that my sarcasm is an integral part of my super and awesome personality."
"And I'm the one with modest issues," Chloe smirked. "Who's this?" asked the redhead, motioning the wallpaper of the laptop with her chin. "Is he your little brother?"
The picture showed Ethan delivering a big sweet kiss on his mother's cheek, who was grinning from ear to ear.
Beca scratched the back of her head and the ginger saw the brunette's face lighted up with a new emotion on her face. "That's Ethan, my son."
"I wouldn't have pegged you at the mom type. How old is he?"
The brunette was surprised, that wasn't the reaction she was used to have. It was generally more along the lines 'WHAT? You have a son? In like you slept with someone and fell pregnant?' and then, people nailed her as the high school whore. "Hum… He's 4."
"Only four and already as cute as his mom."
Beca and Chloe kept on chitchatting. Well, mostly Chloe talked and Beca answered at her questions sometimes telling one of Ethan's weird adventures, which the ginger had have a good laugh over. The DJ cherished this moment. It had been a long time since she hadn't had a conversation with another human being that wasn't 4 years old or that wasn't her parents. And, oh my god, what a pleasure. She was enjoying herself so much she almost lost the track of time. Glancing at her watch, the brunette saw it was time to go pick up her toddler from school.
"Hey, I'm sorry but I have to go."
"Must you?" pouted Chloe.
"You're worst than Ethan," Beca smirked and nodded her head. "Unfortunately, all the good things have to come to an end, so me and my gorgeous body must go, otherwise I'll be late."
"I understand, a hobbit has his obligations," said the ginger with a smile. This earned her a slap on the shoulder from Beca. "I really enjoyed myself this afternoon with you, Beca. See you soon," the ginger said as she went away.
Biting her lower lip, she couldn't help her eyes from wandering onto Chloe before she eventually stood up and went to her son's school.
As soon as the bell rang, a wave of children rushed outside and she pinpointed a familiar small brunette head running towards her. She knelt and opened her arms wide, Ethan threw himself of all his body on his mother, hanging his own little arms around Beca's neck.
"Mommmmmmmmy!" shrieked Ethan.
"Hey, baby," the DJ placed a kiss on his temple. "How was school today?"
Ethan un-tangled himself and took her by the hand. "So cool! Mister Smith is super kind and guess what!"
"What, sweetheart?"
"I managed to count to 50 and he gave me a candy!" exclaimed Ethan.
On the path leading home, the little boy didn't seem to control the flood of words that was coming out of his mouth. He was definitely really happy of his first day in his new school. Beca was grinning goofily at hearing her son so content. Maybe after all, this new place would do both of them good.
Hope you liked it.
