Disclaimer: I do not own Pitch Perfect, or any of the movies mentioned (Old Yeller, 1957)
She truly felt like an idiot for choosing to take health class her senior year. It's not that Beca was avoiding it, in fact, she doesn't actually care about the class. It was the fact that seeing that stupid boy with that boyish grin everyday for a semester was almost unbearable to think about.
Almost.
It was the third of January, and the clock read 15 minutes before 8:00. In true Beca fashion, she came into the unfamiliar classroom as the first to arrive. She never liked hanging out in the halls before class begun in the mornings. For a crowded school, Beca mostly liked to keep to herself to drown in her music, so she opted to just stick herself in an empty classroom that she liked before school started. It became habit once her best friend graduated two years earlier.
Beca stands in the front of the room, pondering where to sit. There were three sections of desks, each with four rows consisting of two tables. The desk she chooses is to the right side of the room, the row right before the last. She pulls out her phone, then a pair of ear buds, and leans back into her chair until it was touching the desk behind her. She pulls her feet out to prop onto the desk in front of her (Hey, it's not like there was a teacher— or anybody— around to tell her to take her fee). The ear buds are in her ears and her fingers begin to twitch for her mouse to tweak the small error in her current mix as the first couple students begin to compile and gather around the desks on the left side of the room, near the windows. Then comes a nervous group of freshmen girls, and they all stare at Beca as if approaching her would cause her to bite someones limbs off, before taking the seats in the row in front of her tentatively. Finally the teacher comes in and Beca immediately tucks her feet under her desk and placing all four legs if her chair flat on the ground. A couple more freshmen enter the room and occupy random seats, none of which are next to her. She takes her ear buds out as the final bell rings, the seat next to her still empty. The loud-speaker sounds and good 'ol Pat the attendance lady leads the school in the pledge of allegiance, then promptly welcomes the students after a long two weeks of winter break before telling them to have a great day and signing off.
"Welcome to your first day of health class, students. My name is Mrs. Keener—"
Some guy knocks on the door that Mrs. Keener had just shut, and once she opens it, he stumbles in. He shakes his head clear of any spare melting snow droplets, and he's out of breath (probably from running through the halls). The knees of his jeans were wet (probably because he tripped in a puddle on his way over here) and his hands are wiping the back of his jeans. Beca lets out a quiet snort at his appearance and the scene he was causing.
Beca suddenly realizes who this guy is, and her soft chuckles come to a halt. It was that boy.
The boy walks in as Mrs. Keener was giving her traditional welcome to health class speech, and she looks over at him, clearly irritated.
"Do you have a pass?"
He shakes his head apologetically. More droplets fall out of his hair.
"Well, it's the first day of the semester, so I suppose I can let one tardy slide. Take a seat. I was just about to announce to the class that where you sit, is the seat you will be assigned for the next semester. Choose wisely." She narrows his eyes at him while the class watches where his own wander off to. He tries not to take too much time choosing which of the three seats he could take.
There was the group of the (not-so) nervous freshmen girls in front of Beca who suddenly ogled at his appearance, (not-so) subtly raising their eyebrows to the empty seat in their area. There was a seat in the front, next to a guy with a bush of brown hair atop his head and a magicians cape, someone Jesse came to recognize as Benji from their various classes together. Then there was that empty seat. Next to her.
"Well, we haven't got all day."
Jesse feels the blood rush to his cheeks, gives a small shrug, and casually walks over to the empty seat next to the girl, setting his backpack on the floor next to him. He can hear the collective sighs of disappointment in the rows in front of him and softly laughs before turning his head to the girl next to him. Her head is facing the front, her hair brushed to the side so that he couldn't see her face. He simply grins and directs his attention to the teacher in front of the room.
Beca's trying to avoid his gaze and silently curses him for choosing the seat next to her when he had the opportunity to choose the giggling freshmen or the magician. But of course he chooses to sit next to her for an entire semester.
Of course.
Her thoughts drift off to some place out of the class room, not noticing the slight nudge she feels at her side. He jabs his elbow slightly harder into her side again, catching Beca by surprise. She pushes the hair out of her face and tilts her head up to glare at his grinning face. He hands her the paper Mrs. Keener passed out, and she takes it before quickly turning her head away from him to read the thing. She feels his stare burning into the side of her head, but she ignores it and chooses to read the paper instead. Her eyes wander over the class syllabus and lands on the 5th bullet point, widening at the sight of it. She opens her mouth to ask Mrs. Keener about it, but a blond-haired, blue-eyed girl sitting right in the middle of the room, beats her to it.
"Mrs. Keener, so, like," She smacks her gum loudly, "it says 'baby project', and like, is that the thing where you take care of the eggs, for like, two weeks?" Beca watches as the girl obnoxiously begins to blow a bubble, then proceeds to pop it inside her mouth. She takes the chance to glimpse over at the boy, whose facial expression was a mix of confusion and curiosity.
The teacher smirks. "Actually, the school finally got the funding to get actual fake babies to use. We'll be using them this semester onward." She pauses for the class to react. Many of the students groan, others start raising their hands to ask questions, and some are frozen in their seats, such as the boy next to her. She simply rolls her eyes and all that runs through her mind is, 'why didn't I take this class earlier?'.
"For how long will it be?"
"Who the hell decided to do that?"
"Will we be having partners?"
"Why are you so cruel?"
"Please, calm down. It's the first day of the new semester and some of you already hate me." She groans, causing the class' riots to die down. "It'll only be for one week opposed to two weeks with the eggs. And yes, you will get partners. We have plenty of time until this project, though."
Now Beca really wishes she had taken this class earlier.
Mrs. Keener suddenly dives into the syllabus, talking about each subject briefly. Beca learns that the first subject they'll be going over is community building. Lovely.
Squinting at the clock, Beca realizes that they still have forty-five minutes of class left, and she sighs. Finally, the teacher remembers to take attendance and whips out her clipboard.
"Rebeca Mitchell"
She raises her hand slightly and feels the boy push upwards on her elbow, straightening her arm all the way. She looks at him, startled and a bit irritated, before talking.
"I go by Beca." She informs Mrs. Keener (and the class), and the middle-aged woman nods and smiles. She waits until she looks away before smacking the guy in the shoulder, her lips pursed together as he lets out a yelp. A few set of eyes briefly look over at them, and Beca turns away from him with a satisfied smirk playing on her lips.
"Jesse Swanson"
His hand shoots up into the air and the girls in front of him start ogling him some more, and he begins to feel uncomfortable so he sets his hand down. Beca notices and bites down onto her lower lip to keep from laughing.
Mrs. Keener finishes up roll and announces a game they were about to play. It was one of those 'getting to know everybody' games that teachers always made students play at the beginning of the year or semester, no matter what grade you were in. There was simply no escape to these games.
Apparently, this game isn't actually a game. All they actually do is state facts about themselves in a circle for the rest of the period. Through this 'game', Beca learns that the magician really likes close up magic (she actually had couldn't tell), a girl named Jessica really likes horses, and Jesse has a pet corgi named Spike (from Old Yeller, he adds). She shares that she likes music, and someone asks what kind, but she just shrugs her shoulders because she likes anything that had a good beat. And finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the bell rings so she quickly shuffles her things together and scurries out out of the classroom. It's like she can finally breathe again.
But then, she hears his voice again and blinks, her strides getting faster as she tries her best to get to her class as quickly as possible.
"Hey! I know you!"
"No you don't." She rolls her eyes because, well, of course he does. They were just in the same class together, sitting next to each other actually.
"Yeah, I do! So," She wills her legs to walk faster, and they oblige. Why can't he leave her alone?
"Which class do you have next?" She sees her destination coming closer and closer and breathes a sigh of relief.
"American Government. 313." She says, arriving closer and closer to the classroom. She sees his face fall a little because the class is coming nearer and nearer, but he instantly brightens up.
"Oh, I have psychology. See you later, or tomorrow, or something." He scratches the back of his neck before he takes his first step down the flight of stairs that leads to the second floor.
Beca can't resist. "Yeah, don't wanna be late, you know, again." He whips his head around and grins, almost tripping down the stairs in the process. She lets out a quiet chuckle before entering the classroom.
"Ay! Flatbutt!" Fat Amy waves her down in the cafeteria, her face full of food. A laugh escapes Beca's mouth as she walks over to the Australian and sits across from her. The blonde offers her a slice of pizza, but she declines before digging into her own bag to find the wrap and apple she packed for the day.
"What's up? How was health class? Y'know, if it were up to me, I'd make sure to show everyone a video of dingoes in heat. That's what they did in Tasmania." She tells the brunette. Beca's eyebrows are raised and she opens her mouth to reply when Stacie comes over and sits next to Amy. The brunette is groaning as she's taking out her nile file from the depths of her bag.
"Ugh, that Benji kid kept pulling magic tricks in psychology, it was the worst. A dove popped out of nowhere and almost took a shit on me. Ms. Pinches didn't even do anything. She was actually encouraging him."
Beca and Amy snort a little as Stacie crossed her arms. "It's not funny. So, what's new? Any new transfers I should be aware of?" Stacie winks and Beca shoots back a face of disgust.
"No, Stacie. Not that I know of."
"There's a new guy who works at the library. Except, he had no teeth.." Fat Amy pauses to take a bite of her pizza, "Beca here was about to tell me about her health class."
"There's not much to talk about. Well, that for that stupid baby project, instead of eggs this year we're using actual fake babies. I seriously should have taken that class earlier."
Fat Amy makes a face and chews thoughtfully into her pizza. "Aw man, that sucks, flatbutt. I accidentally cooked my children.. But I passed!" She triumphantly shakes her fist in the air.
"Ew. I accidentally crushed mine while I was.. busy enjoying some festivities.. with this one college guy. I ended up failing" Stacie sighs at the memory, blowing a strand of hair out of her face. Beca scrunches her nose in disgust over her friend. Despite being one of the smartest people in the state, Stacie wasn't a saint. Her slut status seemed to be more popular than her brains in town.
"Hey! Beca! Be-caw!"
Oh no. Not again.
Stacie turns her head to find the source of the noise, a smirk slowly creeping on her face. "Isn't that Jesse Swanson? He's in my psych class. I wouldn't mind climb—" She shuts her mouth once he approaches, then turns to Fat Amy. "Amy, will you come with me to get my lunch? It's in my car." She waits for Amy to disagree, but surprisingly she gets up and follows the brunette. "We'll be right back, shawshank!" She assures Beca, then proceeds to leave the two alone.
Those bitches.
"Hi!" He smiles, takes a seat next to her, and pulls out a sandwich from his backpack. Beca just stares at him for awhile, utterly confused at why he was even bothering on talking to her when she refused to make eye contact, and well, any form of interaction, with him during class.
"Uh, hey?" Beca takes a slow bite into her apple, the noise of the fruit's skin cracking as she rips it between her teeth being the only sound that's made.
Doesn't he have any friends to eat with?
"Dude, I don't mean to sound like I don't want you here or anything, but uh, why are you here?" She finally asks after a few minutes of silence between them, the only noise coming from the background conversations throughout the cafeteria.
His eyes come up from the juice pouch he's holding to meet hers. Truthfully, he has no idea how to answer her question. He's curious to know her, and seeing her in the cafeteria (where he's never seen her eat in) he went straight to her, no actual reasoning behind it.
He tries to not take too much time devising up an answer. "Hmm, well, I thought, hey, there's my seat buddy Beca Mitchell, and, like this morning, the seat next to you was empty, so of course I had to go seize the opportunity and take it. It's only fitting that I, your seat buddy, stick by your side. It's destiny, Beca."
She watches him closely, trying not to break into a smile at his more than childlike answer. "You're a weirdo."
She's expecting him to reply, but he doesn't, so she looks at what's distracting him when she almost chokes on her apple. She notices that he's pulling off the crusts of his sandwich when she glances at the contents inside of it, and suddenly she's biting the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing.
"Peanut butter and jelly? Crustless?" She can't help it; her laughs spill out of her mouth and she's fighting to not snort.
Jesse looks half embarrassed, half lost puppy. "PB&J is a classic! Don't deny it! And crusts... well they just suck." The lost puppy look fails to disappear off his face, and she's still in the midst of laughing, but eventually he joins her.
Once their laughs die down, he speaks up again. "I do know you. I sang to you. On the first day of school of freshmen year. Then again in sophomore year, and last year.. And then this year! I remember because you're always in a taxi." His grin is wider than it should be and she bites her cheek again. Of course she remembers this guy, he sings to her every year on the first day of school before seemingly disappearing for the rest of the school year. She sees him sometimes out and about in the hallways, but they've never actually talked to each other or had classes together, which Beca was grateful for. And it's weird how he somehow finds her every year, in that taxi, and sings the same song without ever finding out her name.
"So, what's your deal? Are you one of those dark and mysterious girls, and she takes off her glasses and that amazingly scary ear spike and you realize that she was beautiful the whole time?"
"I don't wear glasses." She deadpans.
"You're halfway there."
She gives him a long look and in response, Jesse just shrugs and smiles smugly. Her ringtone blares out of the vibrating phone on the table, startling both Beca and Jesse. She checks the caller I.D. and shoots Jesse an apologetic look.
"Just, uh, um.." She slides her finger across the screen and the pixels slowly disappear to reveal a set of blue eyes beaming through the screen.
"Hey Beca! Do you have time for this? Where's Amy and Stacie?"
"Yeah, I mean, it's lunch—"
"Who's that?" Chloe asks, her face suddenly up closer to the screen, leaving Beca a nice view of her nose. She turns and sees Jesse trying to sneak a peek over at the screen, but she immediately turns the phone away from him.
"I should probably get going then, Beca. I'll see you tomorrow, I guess." The boy shuffles his stuff back into his backpack then stands up to leave.
"Oh, and yeah, I am a weirdo. And so are you. It's a good thing we're gonna be best friends—"
"Woah there buddy, that title's already taken." Chloe chirps from inside the screen, interrupting Jesse. It doesn't seem like he hears though, because he continues to talk.
"—and or lovers!" He finishes over his shoulder as he whooshes past behind her, allowing Chloe to see the boy one more time.
"Please don't say lovers." Beca immediately shoots back, but it's too late. He's gone and she returns her eyes back to her phone, where Chloe was smiling widely at their little exchange.
"Ooh, Beca! Who was that? That was really adorable, plus, he's cute! And you'll be future lovers." The redhead winks, causing Beca to groan. She plugs in her earbuds to avoid further embarrassment from Chloe that could be heard publicly.
"Don't say lovers, Chloe. And how would you know? You barely saw the guy."
"Okay, fine. Stacie texted me. I can't believe after four years, Jesse Swanson finally mustered up the guts to actually talk to you! He's so adorable, Beca. You'd be such a cute couple! Future lovers!" Chloe rambles, making sure to draw out the 'o' in that last word as Beca rolls her eyes.
"Chloe, let's not talk about this right now. Or, ever. And stop saying that."
"Aww, but Beca! You know—"
"Did you hear that, Chlo? I think the bell just rang. I'm gonna head to class. Bye!" She wiggles her fingers in front of the camera, flashes a fake smile, and presses the 'end call' button before Chloe could protest.
A/N-
Hi everyone! This will be a short fic, probably about 10 chapters. The idea literally came out of nowhere and it wouldn't leave so this happened.
First Pitch Perfect story, let me know what you think :) Hope you enjoyed!