2008

Standing in the middle of her backyard, Beca Mitchell lightly dribbled her soccer ball between her feet. It was a typical Georgia-summer afternoon, sunny and hot, to say the least. She knew her parents were inside talking to their new neighbors that had just moved in across the street but she was more content outside, kicking the ball around by herself.

"You play soccer?" a voice inquired.

She turned to find a young boy who looked to be about her age. His brown hair was cut short and his facial expression reminded her of a puppy. She stared blankly at the boy wondering who he was and where he came from and most importantly why he was talking to her.

Sensing this, the boy took a couple steps forward and said sheepishly, "I'm Jesse. My family just moved in across the street a couple days ago and your mom invited us over for lunch."

Beca looked at the boy skeptically for a moment before replying, "I'm Beca. And yes I do play soccer. What's it to you?"

"I just wanted to know if you wanted someone to play with. I used to play soccer before I moved here," Jesse said, raising his hands up as if he were surrendering.

Beca thought for a moment. She really was tired of playing soccer by herself. Her dad always seemed to be too busy with work and her mom didn't know how to kick the ball correctly. It would be nice to have someone to play with who seemingly understood the game as well as she did.

So, with a sigh, Beca passed the ball to Jesse who stopped it with his foot.

"Aww yes!" Jesse exclaimed, "You know Becaw, we're gonna be best friends! I can feel it. Your new nickname is Becaw by the way."

Beca couldn't wrap her head around this kid. He seemed to be talking at 100 words per second. But Beca decided she could handle his enthusiasm and they continued to pass the soccer ball back and forth, not a care in the world.

Present Day

"And THAT'S the story of how me and Becaw became besties for life," Jesse said. The now high school juniors were sat at their lunch table talking amongst themselves.

"You know Jess, I feel like everytime you tell that story I regret that day more and more," Beca deadpans as the whole table laughs.

Sat across from Beca were 3 of her closest friends, Stacie Conrad, Emily Junk, and Ashley Jones. Her closest guy friend Jesse Swanson was sat to her left and empty spaces to her left were reserved for her the other members of their friend group, Benji, Amy, Alex, and Mj.

Their friend group was diverse, everyone with their own hobbies. There were the athletes: Beca, Jesse, Stacie, and, Alex; the "nerds": Emily, Benji, and Ashley. Mj was a special case seeing as she was both athletic as well as nerdy. Amy, on the other hand, seemed to always be in some sort of situation but surprisingly managed to mantain her grades to at least a B. Their group was an odd collection, yes, but they kept each other grounded. They were like a strange little family.

"So has anyone seen them?" said Ashley, gesturing to the empty seats.

"Well, I know Mj's somewhere formulating her master plan to romance her lady love, Cameron," Jesse replied, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Dude...gross," Beca grimaced. "That eyebrow thing is disgusting."

"Oh you're just jealous you can't do it," Jesse shot back.

Beca rolled her eyes before replying, "Benji and Amy had a club meeting to go to."

Just then, Mj walked through the cafeteria doors and made her way to the table. Plopping down in the seat next to Beca she said, "Wassup peeps? I totally got the best idea to win Cameron over. It's for suresure gonna work, I can feel it. Can't you guys feel it? Oh my-"

"Hey hey hey slow down there lovesick puppy," Stacie said, chuckling. "What's the big plan?"

"Ah ah can't tell you 'cause you're gonna jinx me. It's totally gonna work though. I gurantee it," Mj said grinning

"Can you at least give us a hint as to how you're gonna woo you're cheerleader?" Beca asked, nudging Mj a bit as the rest of the group nodded in agreement.

"Nope. I already have enough stress with this whole assembly thing homie. I can't afford sabotaging myself and revealing my plans"

"Oh yeah, how are you guys feelong about that? Must be exciting getting your Letterman's this year?" Emily said.

At Barden, after being on varsity for any sport for 2 years, the athletes get their Letterman's at a big assembly in front the whole school. Since Beca, Jesse, and Mj all made varsity for their respective sport their freshman year, this was the year they would be presented with their Letterman's.

"I'm kinda nervous, not gonna lie," Jesse said slightly shrugging. "But I'm also really freaking pumped. Like, we're getting Letterman's guys!"

"Well this has been fun, but the bell's about to ring and we gotta get to Biology, right Mj?" Beca said as she picked up her lunch tray.

Mj had been staring into space with a dreamy look on her face. "Huh? Oh. Yeah. Bye you guys!" Mj said as she snapped out her daze and gathered her backpack and gym bag before leaving the table to go join Beca.

"Alright folks. It's time for our first lab so you know what that means? Assigned partners! Woohoo! Your partner for this lab will also be your partner for the rest of the semester, so that's fun," Mr. Russo said as he passed the lab instructions out.

Beca never had a problem with Mr. Russo and could in fact relate to the sarcasm he expressed from time to time. Looking at the lab placed in front of her, Beca cringed slightly.

"Fetal pig?" she mumbled. Looking up she met Mj's eyes from across the room. She didn't look too enthused about the lab either but she was sitting next to Cameron which was a win in Beca's book for sure. She winked at Mj before turning to face the front of the classroom.

"Ok everyone has a paper? Cool," Mr Russo said before turning back to his computer. "Now I'm going to project your lab pairs on the board just give me one sec guys."

The projection screen lit up and displayed the lab partners.

Beca quickly scanned the board for her name. Nope, nope, nope, oh Mj got Cameron, nice, nope, ah hah Beca Mitchell and...

"Chloe Beale?"