Part I: Love
Chapter 1
In a book, the author wrote that everyone gets a miracle. He was right. You know, I could have won the lottery, written the best movie score in history, met my idol, but none of those would beat my miracle. Falling in love with you.
November 21st 2014
Jesse Swanson was sitting in his English class, in Cross Keys high school, DeKalb County Georgia (directly northeast of Atlanta), United States, North America, the Earth, the Solar System, the Galaxie. That's where he sat. He sat in his English class listening to the teacher talk.
There was one minute left and Jesse knew everyone was counting down the seconds. "You must turn in your assignment in two weeks," his classmates groaned. "Class dismissed," his English teacher always knew when the bell was going to ring. It did and the noise of closing books took over the classroom. Students started talking and then you could barely communicate with anyone. When the door opened, it was even worse. The sounds of shouting and talking were taking over the halls.
Jesse always stayed a little longer in the class to avoid the noise and the people, 7 minutes to be exact. He would wait till the teacher and him were the last one there and he would leave. At his locker, he was always joined by his best friend Benji. "Jesse, I discovered this new trick and I'm sure you will love it," Benji always said that. He would come at his locker, babble about his new trick and then walk with Jesse to his house.
Jesse lived very close to his school. He walked for 9 minutes every morning and every night. Benji and him would arrive home, he'd say hi to his mom and bring Benji in his room. Benji would show him the trick and Jesse would congratulate him. Right after that, Benji would talk about Star Wars.
It has been like that for the past two years. Nothing exciting would happen in his life. Even when he had a girlfriend it was as boring as it was now. His life was scheduled. Jesse knew it, he let it happen for years. Until now.
Saturdays were even more boring. Jesse would always go to the library for an hour and a half and go back home eat his dinner and watch a movie with his family.
The previous day, his teacher told his class they had to read a novel, more than 300 pages the teacher precised, about young adult fiction and then write an essay about it. Jesse decided to go to a bookstore to buy a book. He looked around for awhile.
Books weren't his thing. Movies were his thing, but not this. He tried to find a book with a good cover. He knew about the "Don't judge a book by its cover", but he wasn't sure how to find a good book. He took out a book to read the first paragraph.
The way I figure it, everyone gets a miracle. Didn't happen to me, Jesse told himself and continued reading.Like, I will probably never be struck by lightning, or win a Nobel Prize, or become the dictator of a small nation in the Pacific Islands, or contract terminal ear cancer, or spontaneously combust. But if you consider all the unlikely things together, at least one of them will probably happen to each of us. I could have seen it rain frogs. I could have stepped foot on Mars. I could have been eaten by a whale. I could have married the queen of England or survived months at sea. But my miracle was different. My miracle was this: out of all the houses in all the subdivisions in all of Florida, I ended up living next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman.
Our su-
A lady who worked there tapped his shoulder.
"Do you need help," she caught him a little off guard.
"I need to find a good book to read," she look through the books and pulled one out with a blue and black cover.
"This is one of my favorite books," she handed it to him then left.The Beginning of Everything was written in a weird font. He decided to buy both books, because both looked good. He was going to chose between the two. He had so much time on his hands, he was probably going to have time to finish both in a week. He bought them and went home. He entered the house, said hi to his parents and went to his room. He opened the book the woman gave him and started reading.
Sometime I think that everyone has a tragedy waiting for them, that the people buying milk in their pajamas or picking their noses at stoplights could be only moments away from disaster. That everyone's life, no matter how unremarkable, has a moment when it will become extraordinary—a single encounter after which everything that really matters will happen.
My friend Toby came down with a bad case of tragedy the week before we started seventh grade at Westl-.
"Jesse Jesse," he looked away from his book and saw his little brother, James, at his door.
"I beat the game. I beat the game," James started screaming. Jesse laughed and watched his brother run across the hall screaming the same words over and over again.
Every Sunday morning, after the normal routine, Jesse would go see his movies, well his family's movies. He did have some of them in his room, all placed on bookshelves, when he got that the bookshelf quickly turned into a movie shelves, but he was still going to use the actual term. He would make sure they were placed nicely, there's was no dust and that they were well ordered alphabetically by title.
Jesse didn't care how much people would think it was weird, he had nothing else better to do. Sometimes, he even caught his brother stealing some of his movies.
Mondays. Everyone hated them. All the students were in a mood. Jesse figured they hated Mondays, because they realized they had to come to school for the next four days. Jesse walked down the halls and walked to his locker. The warning bell rang and the groans coming out of the teens were hilarious and Jesse laughed every time. The groans were the loudest on Mondays. Jesse didn't mind Mondays, he was't sure why.
Jesse decided to stay a little longer at his locker to read a bit more of his book. He had 6 chapters left and he couldn't wait to finish it. He didn't have time to finish the last page of his chapter last night. He opened his book, but immediately was interrupted by someone.
"Can you tell Mr. Harris I won't be there at his class," Beca Mitchell said. She said to him. He didn't even know she knew him.
"Sure," he wasn't sure what to say, but he if he said no, he'd be dead.
"Thanks nerd," she walked away from him. The bell rang and Jesse walked quickly to class.
He didn't know what just happened. Beca Mitchell actually knew him. Beca was known for ditching and he did not know how she got away with it, but he couldn't imagine the numerous times she had to go in detention for skipping or not doing her work or any other kind of thing Beca Mitchell did. He wouldn't have guessed that she knew him. They never spoke. Never made eye contact. Their names weren't meant to be next to eachother. They were completely different may he add. They had one class together, US History, and she sat in the back right corner of the class; she was never there.
The days went on and nothing happened well other than Beca Mitchell talking to him and finishing his books and homework. Nothing out of the extraordinary happened. He woke up at 7:00, went to eat his cereal or toast, put his uniform, brushed his teeth and made sure his hair didn't look like a mess, he walked to school in the morning, spent time in the cafeteria or media room or gym, got to his classes, ate lunch with his friends,went back to his classes, walked back home with Benji, did his homework after Benji left (5:34), ate supper, took his shower (every two days), went to sleep (9:36).
It was Friday and lunch. He went to the cafeteria, got his food and sat at an empty table. Benji would join, then Hat and Donald. Hat and Donald were juniors, like them. They became friends through their different taste of music and being the only ones to arrive at 7:23 one morning in Jesse's sophomore year. They realized they had chemistry class together and then the year went on and they became friends.
"Yo Jesse," Donald said when he arrived at the table.
"I have a friend, who's a senior at another school, was invited to his brother's party, who studies is at Braden University, it's at his house and he invited me and told me to bring people with me," Donald talked about going to Barden in the future. Jesse wasn't sure where he wanted to go.
"So wanna come," the second he asked that, that was the most exciting thing that has happened to Jesse in weeks.
"You have to come," Benji said.
"Sure," he simply said, trying to keep it cool.
"So it's tonight at 9. I'll drive us there and we'll have a blast."
"I'm just going to Donald's house mom. I might stay over," he closed the front door and Donald's car appeared out of nowhere. He ran and entered the car in a swift move. An hour and thirty minutes later, he was at someone's house. It was a large house with a large parking area. The parking was filled with cars and they had to park in the streets though.
"Who lives here," Jesse asked Donald.
"Bumper," Jesse's jaw dropped. "The stuck up ass hole" Donals laughed at Jesse description for him.
"Who named the poor guy?" he commented and he chuckled at his own words.
"He invited us, so be thankful. Now go have fun." Donald and Hat left to go somewhere in the house and Benji went in the backyard.
The place was filled with people. They were drunk, naked or just screaming. No one was bored.
Jesse went to the backyard where there seemed to be less noise and noticed some familiar faces. "Everybody in the pool," Chloe Beale was shouting at everyone to get into the pool.
Chloe was also a junior at his school. She was Beca's best friend. And Stacie's and Amy's and Emily's friend too. He wasn't sure what she was doing here.
She jumped in the pool and kept shouting at people to come in the pool. "The pool is not happening Beale," a girl's voice said. He searched for the person who said that and saw Beca Mitchell.
He wasn't sure what she was doing there either. "Sorry Red, but I only swim nude," Amy said. Were all of her friends here.
"I kinda like this shirt," Stacie said.
"It sorta looks cold," Emily said. Her friends were all there.
"Come on, everyone in the pool" Chloe kept shouting.
"Seriously, it's not happening," after Beca said that, everyone started shouting again.
He went to get a drink and found Benji. "You see Emily there," Benji pointed at her.
"Do you think I have a chance," Jesse took another look at her again. She was drinking her drink pretty quickly and it probably wasn't her first one.
"With the looks of it, you do," Benji started nodding his head.
"I can do this," he started walking towards her.
Benji had a crush on her ever since he met her. Jesse didn't know how they met exactly, but Benji keeps telling him that he'll tell him at their wedding. He kept filling his cup and at one point, he didn't know what he was doing.
Jesse woke up in a strange place. By strange he meant not his house. He had a huge headache and it was slowly killing him. He realized he was sleeping on the floor with plenty of other people. "What happened last night," he whispered. He stood up and his head hurt him even more. He quickly went to the kitchen looked through all the drawers and cabinets.
After thirty minutes, Jesse made himself a drink that made his hungover go away. He found it on Google and when he tested it, it worked. He told his friends about it and they started using it right away. He finished his small glass and started making more.
This is the moment after a party where he should try to remember what he did the previous night. Jesse told himself. He didn't sleep with anyone, he didn't have tattoos, everything seemed fine.
A girl walked in the kitchen with sunglasses. It did not take him that long to realize it was Beca. "Beca," he whispered/shouted.
"Shh. Don't shout or talk to me," she said.
"Why are you wearing sun glasses," he asked.
"Not too loud nerd," she was literally holding her head. He looked at the Cure
"here take this, it will help you," her head turned to him and she took the glass he had filled for her.
"This shit actually works," she said, in a very surprised tone after drinking a glass full.
"So why are you wearing sunglasses inside. Is it to hide or something, because if it's to hide, it's just gonna make people notice you more," he grinned at his question.
"No I'm not hiding, I'm hungover," The next words he was going to say were going to be more exciting than finishing his books.
"What made you come to this party," solid question, he told himself. "A friend. She's a really uptight, bossy, control freak bitch, but she's cool, sometimes. How about you nerd."
"Brother of friend's friend," she nodded. "How did you make this thing," she asked. "It shall remain a secret," she looked at him and his grinned was plastered on his face. "Actually I found it on google," Beca laughed and Jesse laughed her.
"What's going on here," a girl said. Jesse turned around, but Beca knew exactly who said that.
"Swanson here, has a cure for hangovers," Beca told Chloe. "Where," the red-head demanded. Beca started waving the glass around and Chloe grabbed it.
"So why do you know this cure thing," Beca asked.
"I know I don't seem like the party kind of guy, but I figured it would be useful," Jesse answered.
"This taste really good. Damn," Chloe said.
"This shit works right," Beca told Chloe.
People started walking in the room and Chloe and Beca kept telling people Jesse had some cure. It turned out he didn't have enough and Jesse had to make more for everyone.
"Hey guys, I'm back," Jesse slammed the door and walked to the living room.
"Hi honey" he heard her mom shout from the kitchen. His brother was sitting on the floor playing another video game.
"Hey little bro," his brother didn't reply and kept playing his game.
"Hello son," his father was reading the newspaper on his ipad.
His brother was obsessed with video games. He played so many games, they had shelves full of them. He stilled loved movies, that ran through the Swanson blood. James was a smaller version of Jesse with a different haircut. He looked up at Jesse and Jesse tried to be the best role model he could be.
His brother failed his level Jesse knew it was the only time where he can talk to him. "James we're playing basket ball. No complaining," he took his brother's arm and pulled him up.
"But I'm not done this level." His brother complained.
"I said no complaining," Jesse kept pulling him. "But-," James was trying to get back to his game.
"No buts," Jesse interrupted.
"I'll give you five bucks," Jesse let James go and James was out of the house before Jesse. He knew money would get James to play with him. He knew his little brother best. He knew how to push his buttons, what he liked or disliked. He knew everything about his little brother.
Jesse really hoped something was going to happen at school this week. He walked into his school and Benji was already at the cafeteria eating. "Hey Benj," Jesse joined him. He waved at Jesse.
"So what's going with you and Emily," Jesse didn't get the chance to ask him and he got home with Chloe.
"I flirted with her with my magic tricks and she was totally into me, at least I think she was," Benji finished his last bite and discarded his stuff.
"I have to go finish something. I'm so sorry, but see ya," Benji said. Jesse nodded in understandment and Benji left.
"Swanson," he heard someone say. He turned around and Stacie was walking quickly towards him.
"How the fuck did you make that thing," she demanded.
"What are you talking about?" this girl has to start being more specific, he muttered, he hoped she didn't hear anything.
"The drink you made Saturday morning. duh," He giggled a little.
"My friends and I swore to never tell," she started smiling like the Joker from Batman.
"Donald's your friend right," he nodded his head and her smile became even wider. She slowly started walking backwards and soon was gone.
"Jesse, Jesse," someone shouted at him as he entered the room. Chloe was smiling and waving at him. He walked towards her desk.
"Hey," he simply said.
"Did you know we had U.S History together" he knew, but he didn't exactly think about it everyday.
"Yeah isn't it cool," the teacher entered the class and everyone went to their places.
"Miss Mitchell, you're here," she smiled from her desk. The class turned around at Beca.
"Stop looking at me like I'm a fucking alien," she said and they all listened to her.
At the end of the class Chloe came to see him. "Come and eat lunch with us," she said. Beca joined her and waited for her friend to leave.
"I'm already sitting with my friends," Beca whispered something in her ear and Chloe hit her arm.
"We'll join you," Beca rolled her eyes.
"Okay," he smiled and they started walking out of the class to go to the cafeteria.
For once, he wasn't the first to the table. After he got his food, Chloe and Beca joined them and the guys were awfully surprised. Emily and Stacie figured they had to join too. "Fat Amy decided to not come today," Emily said.
"What do you guys usually talk about," Chloe said in a charismatic tone.
"Music," Benji said with a smile "and our lives" he continued by saying.
"I think I know someone who likes that subject," Chloe elbowed Beca and she rolled her eyes while the redhead giggled.
"I rap and beatbox, they sing," Donald said.
"Well I like movie soundtracks," Jesse said and Beca snorted. "What's wrong," Jesse asked her.
"I don't like movies," Jesse looked at her shocked. "Any?" Jesse asked.
"Watched a porn movie not too long ago. Didn't mind that," she took a bite of her lunch.
"She falls asleep through everything," Stacie informed Jesse.
"She fell asleep during the Hunger Games," Emily told Jesse.
"Nothing happened in the first five minutes. Naturally, I fell asleep," Beca defended herself.
"If you don't like movies, you don't like puppies," Jesse said.
"Wait. Do you like Star Wars. Let me rephrase. Have You watched Star Wars," Benji asked.
"No. It looks stupid. It's just a bunch of guys fighting with laser swords or whatever," Beca said.
"Star Wars is the best thing in life," the guys laughed at Benji's passionate fanboy spirit coming out.
"What's so special about it," Beca asked and Jesse and Benji gasped while the other guys were laughing and choking on their food.
"It had one of the biggest cinematic reveals of all time," Jesse said.
"Darth Vader is Luke's father. Nothing special," Benji and Jesse gasped again.
"Nothing special" Benji asked offended.
"You haven't even watched the movies and you know the whole reveal," Jesse said.
"Vader means father in German. His name is Darth Father," she finished her sentence in a serious tone and frowned.
"So you know German," Jesse asked her. "Don't ask me where she learnt it. One day she din't and then the next day knew German," Chloe told Jesse after Beca dodged the question.
"You know, we've been hanging out with those girls for awhile," Donald said in the morning.
"I don't mind cause I get to see Stacie. I'm just sayin."
"Well do you mind it," Jesse looked at each of the guys.
"Hand in your assignments," the teacher asked the second the bell rang. Jesse hand it in and went back to his seat. He had chosen to write about the book the lady suggested him. He'd written a solid assignment that should get him a good grade. That's the only things his parents want from him. When they saw good grades, they didn't bother him too much about school, exactly what Jesse wanted.
"I'm here, I'm here," Emily came running in the class.
"Here's my assignment," she handed her paper to the teacher while taking a deep breath.
"Where were you?" Jesse always wondered how she ended up with that name. It wasn't a last name everyone wanted.
"I was in the washroom," she took more breaths
"And then I didn't hear the bells and I was talking with my friends and well I'm here," the teacher didn't say anything and Emily went to her seat. He had forgotten he had English with Emily until this week.
At the end of class, Emily came to see him. "You know, class is over," she said. She was holding her books and playing with a pencil.
"I usually stay in class a little longer."
"I guess I'm joining you," she sat down on the chair of the desk next to Jesse's. She placed her books on the desk and Jesse saw that she had a notebook.
"What's that?" Jesse pointed at the notebook.
"It's a notebook," she replied.
"What's inside," She took it and handed it to him.
"I write songs in it," she gave him a sign that meant "yes you can open it" and Jesse looked quickly through the pages.
"Well lyrics, I write the music after," he stopped at one page and read a few lyrics from it. The page had words crossed out and some lines circled.
"When tomorrow comes. I'll be on my own. Feeling frightened of the things that I don't know. When tomorrow comes. Tomorrow comes. Tomorrow comes," he read out loud.
"The song is called Flashlight," he nodded and flipped through more pages.
"So you write music," Jesse handed her notebook back.
"Yeah and Beca hates me for it" she laughed at what she said.
"If you ever need help to write a part, I can help."
"Really?" Jesse got up his seat and handed her his hand to get her up.
"You write music," she said as he was pulling her up.
"I want to make scores in movies you know. So I can write music," They walked out of the class and she followed him to his locker while they were talking about what they wanted to be when they were older.
Benji came running to his locker. "I swear this new trick will blow your mind," Jesse slammed the door to his locker and Emily waved awkwardly at him.
"Oh," Benji blushed a little. "Emily, I'm so sorry. I had no idea you were standing there," an awkward silence followed after that.
"So I guess Benji and I are gonna head at my house. It was nice talking with you."
"Can I come?" She asked. "Of course. But shouldn't you tell your parents to not pick you up."
"I usually go to Chloe's house on Fridays and then she brings me back home the next morning."
"Okay cool," They walked out of the school and continued talking about their future.
"Jesse, Benji, Emily," Chloe shouted at them. They stopped walking and turned around.
"My friends and I usually hang out on Friday's you guys should come," Chloe said out of breath.
"Sure," the guys said in unison.
"What are you doing here Emily?" she asked. Emily was going to reply but a car was honking at her.
"See ya soon," Chloe started running towards the honking car and Benji and Jesse looked at each other.
"Do you know where she lives or at what time it is?" Benji asked Jesse.
"Don't worry boys. I know everything," Emily said. They kept walking to Jesse's house and Jesse knew Benji was slowly getting more attracted by her after every word she spoke.
Disclaimer : I do not own Pitch Perfect or Google or the Joker or The Hunger Games. All rights go to their respective owners.
First book paragraph : Paper Towns by John Green
Second book paragraph : The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider
Song used : Flashlight by Jessie J
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AN: Just a little idea I had in mind. It's been lingering in my mind for a long time. If you think things are moving too fast, well Jesse's life was dull for three years...I wasn't going to write about Jesse being bored all the time. Also if you think the guys are becoming friends with the girls way too fast well.. you know Chloe.
I'm trying to make 10 chapters. It has two parts. Part I is Love and Part II is Lost. I'll see how I'll plan the other chapters. Dates will be at every beginning of a chapter and then there shouldn't be many marked like in The Years Apart.
Also, I always forget to say this, but English isn't technically my first language. I do learn it, but I'm not the greatest at it.
I'm sorry to say no every character will be in it. But I put mostly the main ones and few other random ones. Sorry for errors and make it a great day or get a good night sleep.