This will follow some parts of the movie(s) as a general foundation, with variations to take character's abilities and back-stories into account but will eventually branch off more as things progress.
Rating it M from the get go as I know there will be more mature themes later on (from smut to fighting) so people don't get reading and have the rating change on them.
This will eventually be a Beca/Chloe fanfic so if you don't like that then don't read :)
Trying a different (more typical) writing style here so very open to reviews and constructive criticism to keep improving.
As the taxi pulled up, Beca felt a familiar twisting of nerves settle in her gut.
She had never really fit in, even among others like her, because none of them were really like her.
The driver pulled to a stop and twisted round with a smile.
"That'll be-"
Beca had already seen the dash so quickly handed over the money, telling him to keep the ample change as she rushed to get out and away from having to keep any conversation with him.
It wasn't anything he had done wrong, Beca just wanted to keep to herself, it was easier that way, fewer questions, fewer comments. She had been hurt enough times to know she'd rather be alone.
Hurrying back, she pulled her bags from the trunk, taking extra care with her laptop and mix board, her two most prized possessions besides the modified headphones she had sitting around her neck.
Slinging them all over her shoulders, she began to make her way to the dorms as it was impossible to miss with the sea of new students all moving their stuff in.
As she waited to cross the road, a car pulled up and the guy in the backseat became even more enthusiastic with the air guitar he'd been rocking as he turned to face her.
She was about to humour him with a small smile when he howled out the window in place of the lyrics bursting from the speakers.
She instead leveled a hard glare at him and he seemed to realise he'd messed up as his face dropped, but he was thrown back into his seat as the car jumped forward through an opening in the tide of people before he could do anything more.
Sighing, she hiked the bag slipping down back onto her shoulder and crossed, looking for the tables they'd been told about to collect keys and student cards.
Eventually spotting the flags, she quickly joined the fastest queue and kept her answers to the point with the chipper student sat behind the desk.
The lines moved quickly as most students had already collected everything and were just finishing moving in so Beca was glad she'd decided to arrive a bit later.
Thanking the girl, Beca quickly moved on, her keys and pass in hand.
She knew her bluntness could come across as rude so she tried to remain as polite as possible besides her short replies.
Hiking the bag up once more she quickly followed the directions she'd been given and soon found herself in a two-bed room.
Her heart sank at the sight of the second bed, already covered in her roommates things, she'd been praying for one of the single rooms, even if they were barely big enough to move around in.
Sighing, she set the bags down on the bed in a heap, besides her laptop bag, which she gently placed on the desk by her bed.
As she went about setting everything up, her ears perked at the sound of the door opening.
Her roommate stepped in, followed by three others who were all laughing at something she had said before entering about her roommate clearly chickening out and giving her a room to herself.
When their eyes met, Beca saw a familiar look of disgust, though slightly less usual was that this time she could sense it was purely because she was there and not because of the physical mutations she sported.
Beca could tell instantly that the girl was anything but happy to see her standing there, and if she were the type to strike up conversation, Beca would have told her she felt the same about being there.
The girl walked silently over to her desk, picked up a few items from it and left promptly, followed by her friends.
As soon as the door shut, Beca could hear their laughs, their comments about her appearance and many familiar jokes floating behind them as they eventually got lost among all the other voices Beca could hear.
It took Beca more time setting up her desk to a perfect layout than it did to unpack her three bags of clothes.
All her things were just haphazardly thrown into sort-of groups in the drawers and she didn't bother to hang anything up, knowing all her clothes could take being folded without reminding the world that some people don't want to live by an ironing board, or own one at all.
Just as she thought about starting up a new mix for a few songs she'd heard on the radio in the taxi, she could hear her father was coming up to see her, already lecturing new students about behaving appropriately.
Beca decided to wait, as she knew her love of music was a real conflict point between the two of them, and she really didn't have the energy to deal with his adult tantrums over her having dreams and ambitions that weren't perfectly aligned with his plans for her.
Sighing, she sat on the bed and waited for him to talk with about ten other people on the two minute walk from the front door to her room.
He knocked, despite knowing she'd heard him and she called out a tired "come in".
Popping his head round the door, he looked pleased to see she'd unpacked.
"So you're not planning on running the first night?"
"I figured making it look like I'm willing to stay would give me a headstart tonight".
"Come on Beca, it's not that bad. Just think, college is the best time of your life, you just don't know it yet".
"Doubt it. You'll be lucky if this place gets a year out of me".
"Look, I know you don't like it but you need to learn how to deal with people. And I don't mean lock yourself in a room to play around with this music stuff for hours until you're calm again".
"But don't you get it, when I'm producing music for a living I won't have to lock myself away to do that because people will actually want me to make music".
"Bec-".
"No, forget it. I am not dealing with your lectures again".
Her dad sighed, running a hand through his rapidly diminishing hair in frustration.
"I only want to make sure you have a safety net, something to fall back on if this music… thing… doesn't go the way you thought it would".
He paused, thinking for a moment.
"Look, I do really appreciate that you came here. Can we make a deal that you give this place at least a year, if after that you still want out, I'll help you start on your way?"
He seemed to sense Beca's excitement as he held up a finger.
"On the condition that you join at least one society or activity for the year. Give this place a proper go and if you still want out, then I won't have much to argue for you to stay".
Beca all but growled at the prospect, but grudgingly shook his hand to seal the deal as she knew she wouldn't get a better one.
"Oh and dad?"
He paused at the door.
"Is there any way for you to get me into one of the single rooms? I don't care about the space but… I just..."
A flash of sadness crossed his face as he realised what she was talking about.
"Yeah, I'll see if there are any spares for you to move into".
"Thanks".
It was quiet but she knew he'd heard her as he gave a small smile before heading out.
Sighing, she pointedly ignored looking in the mirror as she pulled her headphones on and finally lost herself to the music to forget about everything.
It was hours later that she felt her stomach rumble and noticed she'd not only missed lunch, but was on the tail end of dinner.
Saving her work she quickly threw a hoodie on, pulling her hood up to cover her ears and tucking her tail up the back of the hoodie as she made her way down to the cafeteria, wishing not for the first time that she could just make them go away like other shapeshifters.
The smell made her mouth water and stomach grumble.
She knew she had an awful habit of forgetting to eat when she was working with music but never really made any effort to fix that so it was a consistent problem that wasn't really a problem for her.
As she entered the dining hall, the first thing she noticed was how full it still was.
Sighing, she scanned the crowd looking for a quieter space to eat alone but found nothing that suited her.
Instead, she walked up to the buffet and grabbed one of the take-away boxes before loading it up with a generous helping of the lasagna that had just been put out.
As she turned to the dessert options, she felt someone collide with her, thanking her reflexes when she was able to catch them both upright without dropping her food or making too much of a scene.
A mass of red filled her vision as apologies were thrown her way, leaving her with a feeling of whiplash as the person continued on their way, barely pausing to catch their breath as they hurried towards the doors.
Beca stood where she was for another moment, still slightly stunned as she got a better look at the red-head as she exited the hall, chasing after some guy by the looks of things.
She couldn't help but roll her eyes at that but didn't spare it a second thought as she grabbed a pudding and made her way back to her room to eat.
Her phone lit up as she finished the last of her food so she quickly scanned the message, relief flooding through her as she read her father's message telling her he managed to snag her a spare solo room.
She immediately packed her stuff up and hurried over, almost worried the room might disappear if she wasn't fast enough getting there.
Walking into the small space, Beca couldn't help but smile as a weight of worry lifted off her.
Unpacking once again, she took a little more care, deciding she'd humour her dad for the year despite knowing it wasn't her ideal. It was still a better chance than he'd ever given her before and she intended to take full advantage of it at the end of the year.
She set up her laptop once more at the desk and listened through the mix she'd been working on once more to go over in her head as she made her way to the showers, knowing most people would have finished using them by this hour.
Finding the space empty, Beca was quick to get her shower over and done with, not thrilled by the use of just a curtain over each stall before dressing and strolling back to her room.
Beca felt a wave of tiredness wash over her as she dumped her shower bag and flopped into bed, not caring about her wet hair as she drifted off into a surprisingly peaceful sleep.
The blaring of an alarm Beca didn't remember setting roused her from the dreamless sleep.
Groaning, she rolled over to grab her phone, silencing the alarm before reading the reminder she'd set. It was the start of the society fair and as much as Beca wanted to roll over and go back to sleep, she knew this would be the easiest way to find something to pass the year with.
Growling under her breath, Beca managed to drag herself out of bed and set about the task of trying to tame the mane her hair has become before throwing on a pair of jeans and an old hoodie that had become something of a comfort blanket to her, tucking away the visible reminders that she was different. A light drizzle gave Beca a good excuse to keep her hood up, preferring the anonymity it gave her to the stares she knew she'd get without it, and she knew from previous experience that people would form very inaccurate opinions of her based of her mutations and she actually wanted half a chance to join anything she might actually be interested in
The fair was still surprisingly crowded despite the weather so Beca stuck to the sidelines, carefully dodging through the crowds to check over the stalls, taking note of the ones she would come back to once there were fewer people around them.
After a full circuit, she stopped by the booth for the campus record store, signing up for an interview to cover some night-shifts for the campus radio, knowing it would be a good way to keep herself busy for the nights she knew she wouldn't be sleeping anyway.
Besides that, she couldn't see any one thing she really wanted to do and as she wandered down one of the rows for the second time, a flash of red filled her vision before a brilliant blue captured her attention.
"Hi there! Would you be interested in joining our acapella group? We perform musical numbers without any instruments or backing tracks and actually compete on a national stage every year!"
Beca stared for a moment, trying to catch up to the girl stood in front of her.
"Chloe! What are you doing!?"
The redhead turned to face a tall blonde girl who looked like the very concept of the girl - Chloe - talking to Beca was offensive.
"Trying to get some new members of course".
Beca cleared her throat before the blonde could speak again, sensing the tension in the moment and not wanting any part of it.
"I'll save you an argument, I'm not interested".
"But…"
Shaking her head, Beca started to move, trying to get away before Chloe could get another word out.
She wasn't so lucky as she found her way blocked.
"At least take a flyer. Our auditions are Thursday evening and I'd love to see what you can do".
Taking the paper that was shoved into her hand, Beca scanned it before walking on again, placing it on the table for their booth once she was past the redhead.
"I don't sing".
The blonde looked very smug, to the point where Beca almost changed her mind on the spot just to spite her, that and the heartbroken look the redhead was sending her way but she wasn't about to admit either had any effect on her as she continued on her way.
There was not much else left for her after that. She did consider signing up to the movie society but found she couldn't stomach the idea of putting herself through movies on a weekly basis, even for just one year as she found the fairytale endings boring, predictable and totally unrelatable.
Eventually, she decided to bite the least painful bullet and signed up to the art club, figuring she'd be able to keep her head down and get on with things once every other week while still meeting the deal she'd made with her dad.
Glad to have something lined up, she quickly made her way back to her room to gather together some demos for the radio interview, figuring she'd try to finish her current one as well.
Once again, she found herself working through to the end of dinner, running down to quickly grab something to eat before heading back up to her room, wanting to reply to the email she'd just received giving her an interview time the next afternoon and confirm she'd be there.
Beca was up all night finishing up the first mix and also started three new mixes, finishing two to the point she deemed them worthy of being heard by anyone else.
She was sometimes glad she didn't need as much sleep as others as she knew she'd be exhausted today if she did. Even if she hadn't decided to work on some mixes, she knew she wouldn't have slept at all worrying about the interview.
As her stomach rumbled it's reminder that breakfast was starting about now, Beca found herself wishing that she didn't need to eat as much in the same way she didn't need to sleep as much as others.
Heading down, she was the only student there, a few of the staff were still setting out the breakfast buffet and Beca was quick to grab herself a small box before slipping back to her room.
She listened to the CD she'd filled with some of her favourite mixes to make sure once again she was happy she was sharing her best work as she ate, going through questions she thought she might be asked and hoping she didn't pull one of her awkward moments out for the interview.
Figuring she'd be safe for a shower, she decided to beat the hungover masses and was glad to hear nothing when she walked in, once again finding a stall out of the way and rushing through the shower, moving quickly as she heard the door open and another shower start up.
Back in her room, Beca forced herself to relax and focus on the music rather than the level of stress she was already feeling trying to prepare herself mentally for the year ahead despite it not even having properly starting yet.
By the time she had to head out to the interview, Beca had managed to second guess and send herself into a panic over every choice she'd made from the music choices to her outfit. She forced herself on her way despite her brain telling her to turn tail and adopted her favourite 'fake it 'til you make it' attitude as she made her way over to the record shop.
She arrived with enough time to browse around a bit before turning towards the stairs when she heard a pair of footsteps heading up.
She was slightly taken back when the guy from the taxi led the way up, turning to thank the blonde guy following him, which allowed Beca to release the breath that had stuck in her throat when she thought he was the one she'd have to interview with.
The second guy nodded her way and asked her name before motioning for her to follow.
The first guy seemed to be staring, probably trying to remember where he'd seen her but with her beanie on, she was pretty sure he'd have trouble placing her.
Ignoring him, she followed down the stairs and was surprised to see the rows of shelves stretching through the basement, all filled with records, with boxes scattered around and overflowing with more vinyls waiting to be shelved.
It was about 15 minutes later that Beca found herself shaking hands with the guy as he gave her the days and times for her three shifts and confirmed she had enough music to fill a three hour slot for each session without repeating. She knew she had over a thousands mixes, some she wasn't as keen on admittedly, but she knew she'd have no risk of having to replay anything for a while without it being requested so was excited to be able to put her tracks out there.
She wasn't expecting to be given a place right off the bat so was in a slight daze as she made her way out of the basement and through the shop.
As she stepped out, Beca readjusted her beanie before moving off towards the dorms, but felt an unease settle in her gut that was similar to when someone was staring at her. She realised the guy from before was jogging over to her and that automatically put her on the defensive but he seemed to realise and slowed down, holding his hands up as he approached the last few metres.
"Hey, Beca wasn't it?"
Nodding, she carried on walking, sighing quietly as he fell into step beside her.
"The name's Jesse".
Again, Beca nodded.
"Listen, I was trying to figure out where I'd seen you before and when you walked down, it hit me". He nodded to her back, as if to remind her of the tail she had poking out from the bottom of her hoodie having not bothered to hide it as it was more easily overlooked than her ears. "I wanted to apologise for howling at you out the car window, thought it would have been funny but your glare kinda said otherwise".
Beca felt her ears twitch in annoyance but quickly tamped down on her rising irritation as she knew it was unwarranted at this point.
"It's okay, not the worst thing someone's ever done when they see my mutations. I do appreciate you saying sorry".
She was genuinely and pleasantly surprised by it if she was being completely honest, very few were even civil towards her when they saw her ears and tail and decided to make fun of them, much less apologise for potentially upsetting her after the fact.
He grinned and looked relieved, though he seemed to have another thought a moment later, which brought Beca's guard back up a bit where she hadn't even realised she'd let it down.
"Why the hat?"
"Sorry?"
"Why the hat? you didn't have it on last time".
"Oh, I can't use my headphones with it on and with all the travelling to get here I would rather listen to music and deal with the stares than the other way round".
"Oh..."
Beca could tell he didn't really know where to go from there so was fine to just walk on in silence, not knowing or really caring all that much about where he needed to go seeing as he was the one who chose to walk with her.
"Hey, I know this might be a bit forward especially seeing how our first interaction went but would you like to grab coffee sometime? Can be as co-new-radio hosts if you don't feel up for anything more?"
"Sorry, nothing against you but I'm not really a 'meet for coffee' kind of person".
"Anything else you are up for?"
"Not really, I prefer to keep to myself". The two had reached Beca's dorm so she shrugged, nodded a goodbye and made her way back to her room without a second thought.
She flopped down on the bed and couldn't fight back the grin that had taken hold when her mind went back to her having a spot on the campus radio station right off the bat. She'd told Luke that she wasn't a big talker so was happy to take shifts where people would either be too tired or too drunk to listen to any chatting and just play her mixes, which seemed to suit him just fine as he gave her the graveyard shifts on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays starting in three weeks once the freshman activities were over as the radio had a a set program through the freshers' orientation weeks.
She decided to start gathering together a few collections of mixes for the first few sessions before picking out a load of new songs she knew she wanted to play around with and setting up some new mixes with some of them, queueing the rest for when she had extra spare time.
The rest of the day was lost to mixing and by the time her stomach growled, Beca had another two almost completed, with only the final tweaks and perfections to make which, like pretty much every mix she'd ever made, would be something she keeps coming back to for weeks until she's unable to think of any more changes to make.
Beca kept to that rhythm over the weekend and somehow managed to convince herself to go to her introduction classes on Monday despite feeling like she'd rather do anything but sit through a few hours of lectures. She stayed hidden under her beanie and hoodie as she stuck near the back of the groups to avoid drawing attention to herself as she found isolated seats near the back of every lecture hall to minimise the potential for staring.
As the week drew on, Beca found her mind drifting to the acapella group Chloe had tried to get her to join. She couldn't figure out why she had lied about not singing, lying was not something Beca enjoyed or condoned having been lied to enough herself through her life, but the thought of being on a public stage, showing off everything that she tried to hide, everything that made her even more different than most with powers just made her stomach churn.
She loved to sing, it was a good outlet for her when things got too much for her when it came to her powers, it was a way for her to get a lot out without taking any chances with her abilities that could get someone hurt if she couldn't maintain control. Some guy had once joked it was her own way of howling to the moon, and while coincidentally yes, she did tend to like to sing to the moon a lot, she brushed off the idea with a growl and a glare and rammed the suggestion into the dark corner of her mind with the rest of their jibes at her in the hopes she'd forget them all.
She sighed and rolled over, figuring she'd forget about it in time, but had a bad feeling that redhead's expression at her refusal would stick with her for some reason.
And sure enough by Wednesday, Beca found herself thinking about the tryouts far more seriously than she'd ever admit to anyone.
Trying to shake it off she decided to head down for a late shower, figuring she'd have them to herself seeing as it had just gone midnight. The mix she was currently working on looped in her head and she didn't notice that she'd started to hum a little, morphing into quiet singing as she started up the water.
Normally she was on high alert when using the showers but had her guard down tonight, having figured she was alone so when Beca heard a familiar voice pipe up from behind her, a panic rose to blind her.
"I knew it! I knew you could si-"
Spinning round, she shoved the redhead back, yanking the curtain closed and yelling for her to go away.
Her voice cracked and she could hear Chloe step towards the curtain in response.
"Hey, I'm sorry, are you okay?"
Beca could feel her control slipping and that didn't help the panic bubbling in her chest as her body started to heat up.
"Just go away… Please"
Her voice had shifted and had the edge of a growl to it at this point, which raised alarm bells in Beca's head as she felt a familiar pressure building inside her. She knew she had to get herself under control before she did something she'd regret and Chloe didn't seem to be getting the hint.
"Are you sure, you don't sound okay?".
"I need space. Please go away".
"I… Okay…"
Her voice had shifted again, it was more of a growl than words but somehow Beca figured she must have retained enough control to still be able to form words as Chloe was able to understand and respond to her.
Beca could hear the hurt and regret in the way Chloe's voice shook but she was too focused on trying to wrestle herself back in control to spare a thought to trying to assure the redhead that it wasn't anything wrong with her, aside from the serious lack of understanding of personal space required to go barging into someone else's shower stall.
It took a few minutes for Beca's breathing to slow, for her to feel like she was fully back in the room as herself and once she finally felt able to finish her shower and get dressed, she could sense she was truly alone this time.
She couldn't help but sigh, both in frustration and relief.
She couldn't have that side of her get out. She hadn't even been here a week and that was the last thing she wanted to ever happen again, much less somewhere she was stuck for a whole year.
With another deep breath, Beca dropped her shower bag in her room before heading out for a long walk in the night, hoping the increasing chill in the air would help refresh her, help her feel less like she'd nearly lost control in the worst possible way.