I Love You, Babe
Chapter 1
Two weeks in since Beca started Barden University and it was finally Friday. This was her first class for acapella and even though she was primarily a DJ, she had secretly always had a thing for organised nerd singing. Beca had made a few new friends already but she was glad her best friend Jesse was at the same uni doing a similar course. It was nice to have him around.
"Becaw!"
Beca grinned as she heard Jesse's voice from behind her.
"Hey dude" she greeted him as they both made their way to their 9am lecture.
They made it to 1pm and the pair had an hours break before their next classes. They sat in the cafeteria eating their lunch and talking about their assignments.
"I just don't understand why I have to research the music that cavemen made when I'm on a popular music production course." Beca complained, poking her pasta with her fork. "How is that going to help me become a producer?" she continued.
She looked up from her plate to find a tall handsome guy sit down next to her and stared with a smug expression on his face.
"Uh… Do we know you?" Jesse asked.
"No but you should" he said, pointing at Beca and winking.
"What's your name?" the small brunette asked.
"Tom"
"Ok, Tom. Fuck off" she said, deadpan.
Jesse giggled at the look on his face and added "My girlfriend isn't really a people person" and raised his eyebrows as if to say: 'you have no chance'.
Tom, taken aback, got up and walked away with a disappointed look on his face.
"Thanks babe" Beca says, exaggerating a wink.
There had been a few times in the past where random guys would hit on Beca and they would never believe her when she told them she was gay. So to compromise, she and Jesse agreed that they would just pretend to be dating to get rid of the douchebros asap.
2pm; the best part of the week, she could feel it. Beca made her way to the classroom and found a group waiting outside already. She figured they were there for acapella because they definitely didn't look like your typical group of friends. More like the random winners of raffle prizes.
"Hey, are you guys here for acapella?" Beca asked.
"You bet your bottom dollar we are!" a blonde girl with an Australian accent called back. "The name's Fat Amy" she added as she walked forward.
"You call yourself Fat Amy?" Beca asked.
"Yeah so twig bitches like you don't do it behind my back" she snorted, gesturing to the group with her head.
"Ok… Erm.. So shall we go in now or…?" Beca asked awkwardly.
"Yeah, let's do this!" Amy shrieked, making some of the girls cringe and laugh.
The group walked into the class and Beca followed behind, putting her bag on one of the empty chairs as she entered. The group arranged their seats around the piano and introduced themselves as they waited for their tutor.
Heads turned to the door as they heard movement coming from outside it. Seconds later, in hurried a petite woman with gorgeous red hair and arms full of sheet music.
"Hey guys, sorry I'm a bit late" she sang. She dropped her bag onto the floor and put her papers on top of the piano before sitting down and smiling to the class. "I'm Chloe".
Her smile was friendly and seriously beautiful. Her eyes scanned the room to see all the new faces before doing a double take on Beca. Chloe's heart skipped for a second as she thought how attractive the girl was and Beca blushed at the lingering eye contact.
'Oh my god, she's beautiful' Beca thought to herself. 'And she's looking at me, oh jeez, what do I do?'
"Anyway!" Chloe almost shouted as she pulled herself out of her daydream.
"Today I thought we would just do a few warmups, have a jam and see what we're working with here" she smiles. "I've brought some sheet music so if you like anything, we can make a start now or you can choose whatever you like and we'll start it next week" she slapped her hands on her thighs and took a deep breath.
"First things first we need to assign leadership roles" she explains, pulling out a notepad and pen.
"So there's… nine of you girls here. Cool stuff. Do you want to pick your own roles?"
"Can I be in charge of the social media?" Stacie asked. "I have a large following online so I should be able to get a decent number of followers for any pages we set up."
"Yes, sounds great!" Chloe replied, asking for her name a writing it down.
'Oh she's really enthusiastic' Beca thought to herself. 'What if my resting face weirds her out?'
"So we'll need someone to report back to me at the end of any sessions where I'm not required to teach and let me know how the practicing went on." Chloe said, crossing her legs and looking around.
"Yeah I'll do that" Beca answered.
Chloe smiled sweetly at her. "Great, what's your name?"
"Beca"
"Beca" Chloe repeated softly. She shook her head and made a note of it on her roles list "Ok cool".
Cynthia rose a questioning eyebrow.
By the time the rest of the roles were assigned and the group had done a few exercises, the two hour class had come to an end. They had managed to have a quick listen to Chloe's arrangement of Locked Out of Heaven and agreed to start learning that first.
"Awesome work today, ladies. I'll have all your copies of the music printed for next week. Have a good weekend" she chirped as she waved them goodbye.
Beca took her time packing away and waited until everyone but Chloe had left. She threw her bag over her shoulder and shyly walked over to the redhead.
"Hey, great class today. I mean, we didn't do much singing but like… It was good. And you know, none of the singers here are tone deaf so that's cool." Beca rambled.
Chloe giggled and nodded her head. She finished putting the last of her papers into her bag before turning to the shorter girl.
"I'm glad you had fun" she replied, smiling softly.
"So erm, how often will you be here? I know you said sometimes you're not timetabled to teach us or something."
"Basically, I will be teaching every Friday for two hours for the first month or so and then I'll only teach for the first hour" Chloe explained. "And closer to the recitals you'll organise some extra rehearsal time and you'll keep me updated on those too" she smiled.
"Ok cool. So do I add you to our group chat or text you or something?" Beca asked, playing with the strap on her bag.
"Well, usually you'd email me" she laughed.
'Oh god that was stupid, Beca' she thought.
"But I'll give you my number in case you need to reach me quicker" she smirked, reaching out her hand for Beca's phone.
The brunette fumbled for her phone and opened it to a new contact and handed it over to her tutor. After taking a few seconds to type in her number, Chloe gave the phone back and smiled. She turned around to pick up her bag and felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She took it out to see a message from an unknown number.
"Hey" it read.
"So that's my number" Beca smiled. "Let me know if you need anything or whatever".
Beca then scurried out of the room, waving goodbye.
'Well that was stupid. What would she need me for?' She kicked herself for being so uncool.
Beca slid into her car and started for home. It was a little further away from campus than last year but it was a lot better than sharing a room with someone who would continue to shoot daggers at you and hardly communicate. She got out of her car, pulled out her keys and let herself in, heading straight up the stairs to her bedroom.
"Love you babe ;)" came a text from Jesse.
She threw her things down onto her bed and got undressed ready for a shower. She wrapped a towel around her and picked up her phone, sliding it open and writing a text.
"Love you, babe" she sent and plugged it in to charge.
After her shower she put on her pyjamas and climbed into bed, grabbing her phone to see what Jesse had replied. She scrunched her face seeing there was no reply so she slid open her phone again. It had been half and hour and he usually replies quickly, as he always has his phone with him. Beca laughed to herself and started to type a new message.
"Babe, are you mad at me?" and sent it.
They always made fun of clingy couples that can't do anything without their other half or always ask if they've done something wrong if they don't get a reply straight away. She chuckled to herself again.
"At least I know I'm funny" she said out loud.
After a few hours of writing music, Beca called it a night. She brushed her teeth and hopped into bed, taking her phone to check for messages. Again, there was no reply from Jesse.
'Weird' she thought.
She opened her texts and her heart sunk. She hadn't sent those texts to Jesse.
"Fuck"