I don't own Pitch Perfect. If I did, there would MOST DEFINITELY be more DonaldxLilly in the movie. Because I ship them. Like, so much. Hence this (probably crappy) oneshot. ENJOY!
Before auditions
Major, my older brother, made me promise to step out of my comfort zone. For the first couple weeks of college, I didn't think I was ready to make friends yet. But when I saw a flyer asking for people to audition for an a capella group called the Barden Bellas, I thought that this was my chance to finally do something other than go to class and stay in my dorm all day.
Most people gave me weird looks because I blurted out strange things in my too-quiet voice, but being weird is how you know if your friends are real or not. And I only wanted real friends, not fake ones. The people that actually wanted to try and get to know me were my real friends, and I opened up to them and was more normal than I was around strangers.
Auditions
"Hello, my name is Lilly Onakuramara, and I was born with gills like a fish."
The blonde girl sitting at the Bellas' audition table gave me a weird look, while the redhead next to her asked me, "what?"
"Hello, my name is Lilly Onakuramara, and I was born with gills like a fish."
The blonde girl kept looking at me as if I were an alien, while the redhead smiled at me and motioned for me to start singing.
I knew that I had talked and sang too quietly, but I couldn't help it. It was like a natural defense mechanism against predators.
Aca-Initiation Night
"The sopranos- Jessica, Mary Elise, Lilly." Aubrey said, pulling the bag off of my head. I looked around at the other girls who were being de-bagged, and let myself smile a bit. I had finally joined a group on campus, and maybe now I could make some real friends.
After pledging to never have sexual relations with a Treblemaker and drinking the 'blood of the sisters that came before us', we headed to the outdoor auditorium for Aca-Initiation Night. Aubrey told us to prepare to 'soften the beach', and she let us go mingle and dance.
I was by the drinks table with Stacie and Cynthia Rose. Fat Amy had confessed to me her belief that Cynthia Rose was a lesbian, and that made me more aware of what Cynthia Rose did, which, in turn, made me believe in what Fat Amy had said.
Cynthia Rose and Stacie went off to dance, leaving me at the drinks table alone. I didn't really mind; being the way I was, I was used to being alone for extended periods of time.
"Hey," came a voice from next to me.
I looked up to see one of the Treblemakers smiling at me. He was taller than me by about five inches, was Indian, and wore hipster glasses.
"I'm Donald," he said.
"I once set fire to a clown," I whispered in reply.
"Sorry, what was that?" he asked as he awkwardly leaned down closer to me.
"I once set fire to a clown," I whispered again.
Donald straightened up and smiled at me. "I hate clowns. I think you did the world a favor,"
Maybe not all Treblemakers were bad.
But the oath…I didn't want to get kicked out of the Bellas and lose my chance at making friends.
So I smiled at him, and walked away to find one of my fellow Bellas.
Riff-off
The Treblemakers beat Aubrey to the center of the abandoned pool, singing Mickey right in her face. She huffed and walked back to us. One of the BU Harmonics cut them off with Like a Virgin (Madonna, of course) and Aubrey got an idea. She told us to prepare for Hit Me with Your Best Shot, and went back out to cut the Harmonics off.
She started singing, and the rest of us joined in, walking forward to clump around her. I didn't really know this song that well, but I went along with the beat and even beatboxed a little. The rest of the Bellas couldn't hear me, and I was sort of glad. I'd kept my fascination and growing skills in beatboxing to myself, because I didn't want any of the Bellas to laugh or insult my skills, or work me harder than I could.
A high girl from the High Notes cut us off with some song that didn't make any sense, and her group was cut off. The next category was Songs About Sex, and I was relatively confident that Stacie would come up with a song.
Cynthia Rose ended up starting us off, beating Donald to the middle with S&M by Rihanna. Stacie went out to help her, and the rest of joined a bit afterwards. The Trebles cut us off, but Stacie went back in with another song. She only got to sing a couple of lines before Jesse, Beca's boyfriend-not-boyfriend interrupted her, and the Trebles seemed about to win when Beca completely surprised all of the Bellas with a rap song that I only started to recognize when she started to sing.
I didn't want to be the first one to back her up, because that would make people notice me, so I smiled widely at Beca until Fat Amy joined in with her. Then, I went to help them in a group, singing the background.
I ended up near the front of the group, really close to the Trebles, and I started to shoot at them with an imaginary rifle. For once in my life, I kind of felt like it was okay to be myself in front of a bunch of other people, and that no one would care about what I did. Not caring about how I looked with the imaginary rifle, I continued to shoot at them while beatboxing.
I saw Donald looking at me and smiling, shaking his head a bit. I smiled back a little, and changed the direction of my imaginary rifle so it was pointed at him. He smirked and touched his chest subtly, as if he had been shot. I decided to stop the interaction, lest Aubrey take notice and start keeping watch on us like she was with Beca and Jesse, so I turned back to Beca as she finished the song.
We ended up losing to the Trebles, and the frontman, Bumper, picked up the prize and began showing it off to us, taunting us with it. I ignored him, as did most of the other Bellas, and he proceeded to go over to Amy and annoy her privately. Before we left the pool, Aubrey made us promise to write a list of things we did wrong, Beca interrupted and, as usual, they had a mini-fight.
I said goodbye to everyone, parting with a few comments about drag queens and babies. I went back to my single room and lay down in my bed, and allowed myself to think about what happened at the riff-off.
I was happy that we'd worked together and had fun, and I hoped that I could become friends with these girls.
Maybe I could even be friends with Donald, too.
Regionals
We were late, I knew it as soon as we walked in to the theater where the Sockapellas performed up on stage. Aubrey told us not to watch them, because they had no craft, so I looked around the auditorium, catching the eye of Donald. As soon as I saw him, I looked away. Now was really not the time.
We were called up to the stage not long after, and I filed on with the other Bellas. I knew we looked like a trainwreck, because not all of us looked…good…in the uniforms. Aubrey blew the pitch pipe, counted to four, and we started singing I Saw the Sign. Aubrey made it through her solo this time, and everything seemed to be going relatively smoothly. Even though I could tell that our set was boring and had been done many times, I put as much effort as I could into my part, trying to make it perfect.
We were singing just the way Aubrey wanted us to, until Turn the Beat Around, which was where Fat Amy got her solo. As soon as she started singing, I could tell that the audience perked up a bit. The judges started nodding and smiling, writing stuff down on their score sheets, and the energy levels in the room went from 'about-to-fall-asleep' to 'this-set-is-actually-entertaining'.
Our set ended with a bang, as Fat Amy got so into it she took off her outer jacket and threw it somewhere, then ripped open her inner shirt to show everyone her tank top. The audience cheered wildly.
We ended up in second place, while the Treblemakers beat us and got first. Up on stage, I could see Donald smiling broadly at the audience. At one point, he caught my eyes and gave me a thumbs up, mouthing a 'good job', and I couldn't resist smiling back and mouthing 'you too'.
Semi-finals
Our bus broke down.
Right after we finished our a capella of Party in the USA, the bus started to sputter and make weird noises as it slowed and eventually stopped.
Aubrey looked astonished, while Fat Amy tried to play it cool. We ended up calling Bumper and asking if he could come and pick us up. Apparently, he'd laughed and hung up on Fat Amy, but the Treblemakers' bus came to pick us up a while later, much to our surprise.
All of us filed onto their bus, sitting opposite the Treblemakers. I was the last Bella on the bus, and there was no more space on the row where the Bellas were sitting, so I ended up sitting behind Donald, who was driving.
I could hear him beatboxing confidently while driving. I think it was just second nature to him. He stopped beatboxing to call out "Nine miles, guys," and I took this as an opportunity to beatbox for him. Donald hadn't judged me before, would he judge me on this?
Throw caution to the wind, Lilly.
I began quietly beatboxing to a classical piece. I could feel the nerves creeping up on me, because Donald was really the only person besides for my brother and some of his friends that I had ever beatboxed in front of at that point.
"Hey, that's pretty good," he said, turning his head slightly to look at me.
I smiled at him. "I set fires to feel joy."
"That's adorable," he replied, his eyes on the road.
Was that serious?
He wasn't giving me any strange looks, or acting weird or shying away. Donald either didn't care about me in any way, or he actually cared about what I had to say.
That rhymed.
I kept smiling at him, and added a little of my beatboxing to his as we drove the last nine miles to semi-finals.
(which were a disaster. We lost Beca and didn't advance.)
One week after semi-finals
"Hey," Donald said, sitting down next to me in the library.
I smiled at him in response.
"How've you been? You know, since semi-finals and not advancing."
"We lost Beca," I think all of us discovered that losing Beca was probably worse than not advancing, even if the season was over for us.
"Oh," he replied, taking out his books.
We sat and worked in silence for a while.
"Hey, by the way, have you heard of the beatboxing club thing here at Barden?"
I looked at him blankly.
"It's basically a bunch of people who love to beatbox, and we meet up sometimes at random locations and just have a good time together, you know? Like, it's an opportunity to grow beatboxing-wise and to show your skills."
I continued to look at him blankly.
"So, um…they're having some meetings over spring break, if you were interested. Just…you know. Since I heard you the other day and I thought you were pretty good, it's a cool opportunity to learn."
He probably thought I was completely ignoring him. I was honestly just trying to process all the information.
"I mean, Bumper's letting us go home for spring break, and I didn't know if you had any plans…"
I was probably genuinely creeping him out with my bug-eyed stare.
"So I won't be around, but if you're interested I'll let you know about the meeting times."
He started packing up, then stood, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.
"Sorry. I was just suggesting something. Uh…sorry for disturbing you…really sorry about your loss…"
Donald, Bumper's right hand man and the self-proclaimed ladies' man of Barden, apologizing to me and acting awkward? This was obviously something new.
"Wait," I called out softly as he started walking away.
He must've had really sensitive hearing, because he turned around almost right away.
"I'd like to…I mean I'd like to know about the beatboxing thing."
Donald grinned. "Right, so if you can give me your number? I'll text you all you need to know."
"Yeah," I said quietly, writing my number down on a slip of paper.
"Great, well, I'll text you then."
"When I was seven, my puppy was run over by a motorcycle."
He laughed, and walked off.
Two weeks after semi-finals
I was on the quad studying with Fat Amy and Beca, when Beca checked her phone and groaned in frustration. Even though she had quit the Bellas, we still hung out with her when Aubrey wasn't looking.
"Look guys, I've got to get to the radio station. I'm gonna be late if I don't leave now," she told us.
"Yeah, sure girl. Have fun with Jesse!" Fat Amy smiled innocently at Beca as she packed up her stuff.
Beca glared.
"Don't forget to give your new mix to Luke," I whispered. Because Fat Amy and Beca were sort of easy to be around, I felt like I could talk to them about normal things. I still wasn't confident enough to speak at a normal volume, but I was getting there.
Beca nodded at me, and walked away.
As Fat Amy and I watched Beca's retreating figure, Fat Amy got a text from someone.
"Ah, him," she said in a sort of indifferent tone.
"Who?" I asked.
"Bumper. I'm gonna go finish him like a cheesecake! He really pissed me off this time," Fat Amy replied, acting as if this was just another normal day.
"Wish me luck! The pudgy dingo can be vicious!"
I smiled and waved at her.
As Amy walked off, I spread out my books and continued studying for my Anatomy exam.
"Hey," I heard from next to me, as a person sat down and spread out his books.
I looked up. "I'm studying body parts."
"Yeah, I can tell. Anatomy? You want to be a doctor when you're older?"
"I once ran over a squirrel."
Donald laughed. "Did you study its body parts?"
I let myself smile a bit.
"Mind if I study next to you?"
"I'm allergic to bees."
He smiled softly. "I'll take that as a yes…?"
I nodded.
After all, this wasn't a sexual relation, right? We were just members of rival 'organized nerd singing' groups, as Beca would say, studying together on the quad.
Spring break: day 1
336-275-9016: hey, it's donald
Lilly: i'm a professional ice skater
Donald: sounds fun, want me to take you sometime?
Lilly: actually…
Donald: you don't know how to ice skate, do you.
Lilly: the ice skaters look nice, okay? So I like it
Donald: I can teach you, I'm a certified ice skating teacher
Lilly: sure.
Donald: just kidding, I'm not
Lilly: figures
Donald: right. So, the first beatboxing meeting should be tomorrow at 6 PM, at the pool
Lilly: where we had the riff-off?
Donald: yeah
Donald: you just show up, and you can watch or participate, it really doesn't matter
Donald: there are loads of new people who show up every time so they don't bother with names or anything
Donald: you can just chill and talk and socialize
Donald: it's pretty cool
Lilly: sounds fun
Donald: yeah, it really is
Donald: I've been going since freshman year
I locked my phone and shoved it into my bag. First day of spring break, and I was doing absolutely nothing. Major was off with his graduate school friends, mom and dad were enjoying some time alone, and Sakura, my younger sister, was on a cruise with her best friend. Beca, who was also staying at Barden for spring break, had asked me if I wanted to hang out sometime, to which I'd agreed. But that wasn't until later in the week.
I resorted to studying in my single room all day, and eating sushi for dinner.
Simple and boring, just like the rest of my life had been.
Spring break: day 2
At 5PM, I started getting ready for my first ever beatboxing club meeting. Since I'd spent most of the day in my pajamas, I washed up and made myself presentable, then headed out to the abandoned pool.
I arrived to be greeted with a crowd of college-age students, like me. No one really paid attention to me, since it was pretty loud there and there were a bunch of people standing alone. The acoustics of the pool made everything echo and seem twice as loud as it was. I stood around watching everyone for a good half hour, but then I decided to go join the line of people waiting to face off with each other.
I was at the end of the line, really trying to pay attention to my surroundings. As I drew nearer and nearer to the front, the nerves started kicking in. What if everyone made fun of me? What if I really was terrible, and Donald had just been trying to make me feel better that day on the bus?
Those terrible thoughts ended when I saw one of the newer people, like me, face off against someone who was a lot better than them. I saw the more experienced beatboxer helping the newer one a bit. When the newer beatboxer finally called it quits, everyone clapped and cheered for him.
This actually looked fun.
Spring break: day 5
Donald had texted me earlier in the day, informing me of another beatboxing meeting going on later. I showed up and immediately joined the line, getting really into it. For the past week, I could feel my confidence building as I got better, and had started opening up and talking to people around me at the meetings.
I had just finished my first round, admitting defeat after lasting three and a half minutes against one of the more experienced guys. I was back in line when I got a text from Aubrey.
Aubrey: good news, aca-bitches! Footnotes were disqualified, Bellas advance to the finals! Practice starts Monday, 8 AM sharp!
I jumped up and down excitedly. This meant we had a chance to compete again. Maybe Beca would come back, and maybe the break gave Aubrey enough time to change her mind about our set.
First practice after spring break
"Give me the pitch pipe, you bitch!" Chloe screamed, running around Aubrey's giant puddle of vomit to wrestle for the pitch pipe. Fat Amy joined in, and after a moment's hesitation, so did I. After all, I didn't agree with Aubrey's tyranny.
Fat Amy ended up knocking me off into Aubrey's vomit puddle. I was shocked at first, but eventually decided to make a vomit angel. I mean, jumping off and exclaiming 'ew' wasn't going to get the vomit off, was it? Might as well make something of it.
Beca walked in then, asking us what was happening. Aubrey took this opportunity to grab the pitch pipe, standing up and brushing herself off.
"Nothing," she said calmly as I sat up, "this is a Bellas rehearsal."
Some Bellas rehearsal this was.
Ashley came over in her pink tracksuit to help me clean up. She helped me out of my cardigan, getting a gray towel and draping it over a folding chair for me. I thanked her quietly and sat down along with the other Bellas. At this point, Aubrey had completely deflated, saying something heartwrenching about her father and his belief that if at first you don't succeed, pack your bags.
Really, even my dad doesn't believe that.
Beca, who had been let back in the group, convinced us to go around the group and say something about us that no one knew. I thought for a bit. What should I say?
When it was my turn, I looked at everyone in the circle. "I ate my twin in the womb."
I could see the 'what?' on everyone's faces.
"And do you guys want to see a dead body?"
I contemplated adding in something about my newfound beatboxing ability, or my strange relationship with Donald, but I kept quiet.
Aubrey, strangely, admitted that she had been in love with Unicycle for four years. This probably meant Bella-Treble relationships weren't completely terrible now…right? Beca and Jesse could finally be happy, and maybe Fat Amy and Bumper could solidify whatever was between them—though I doubted it since it was Bumper, after all.
And maybe Donald and I could actually be friends...or...
Be quiet, Lilly.
Beca's first time running the group
"Chloe, are you ready to take the lead?" Beca asked.
Chloe nodded.
Beca took a deep breath, and started the background of the song. We all joined in, and Chloe started singing 'Just the Way You Are' by Bruno Mars. Then, Beca started mashing in Nelly's 'Just a Dream'.
After we finished the song, I decided that now was finally the right time to open up to the rest of the Bellas.
"I think I have something that can help us out," I said shyly. The rest of the Bellas looked shocked.
"Whoa bitch, no need to shout," Fat Amy smiled at me.
I went on to tell them, in as little words as possible, about how Major had a friend that used to come over all the time, who had taught me the basics of beatboxing. I told them about the beatboxing club and the meetings I'd went to over spring break, and how now I was pretty confident in my ability.
Beca smiled broadly. "That's awesome. We finally have a beatboxer! From now on, our sets are going to be so great…" She trailed off, probably thinking about what to include in our finals set.
Day before finals
It was 7:53 AM, and I was all the way across campus with only seven minutes to get to the gym for practice. I clutched my bag to my chest and speed-walked as fast as I could, eyes trained on the ground. All of a sudden, I collided into a hard surface, almost falling over had it not been for two arms reaching out to steady me.
"Hey," Donald said with a smile. "I haven't seen you around in a while."
"Yeah," I replied quietly. "Beca's been working us pretty hard, it's a completely new style for all of us so…"
Over the past couple of weeks I'd opened up to Donald as well, mostly because he always came over to study with me on the quad or in the library, and because of the rest of the Bellas' 'encouragement'.
"Right. Well did you hear about Bumper? He completely ditched us yesterday."
"Really? No, none of us knew...Jesse hasn't been talking to Beca at all."
"Yeah, Jesse's pretty upset. I'm sure he'll get over it though."
I nodded.
"So, are you doing anything right now? Wanna grab a coffee or…"
I shook my head. "I can't. I have practice…final runthrough and everything."
"Oh. Um…yeah, that's cool. I get it. Uh…so I guess I'll just leave you then."
I smiled at him and kept walking. Five steps in, I realized that I was honestly going to be late if I didn't start running, so I awkwardly broke into a run. I could hear Donald's laughter from behind me, since I must've looked pretty stupid.
"I'll set fire to you," I called over my shoulder, and I immediately heard the laughter stop.
Finals
The Treblemakers were up before us, singing 'Bright Lights Bigger City' and 'Magic'. Benji, Jesse's roommate, had joined in place of Bumper, and I think that everyone thought he was a good replacement. Both Unicycle and Donald beatboxed through the first part, then Unicycle took over the beatboxing while Donald jumped out for his rap.
While the Treblemakers' set was really great, I had full confidence that we would win first place.
We filed out onto the stage, all in blue and black with our scarves included somewhere in our uniforms. Beca blew the pitch pipe, counted to four, and we started singing. Aubrey and Chloe had their solos, then it was my turn to start off the more upbeat portion of the set.
"It ain't ever about the money."
As soon as I finished my solo, the crowd started cheering. I quickly slipped into the beatboxing part of our set, and followed the choreography with all the other Bellas. This wasn't just about performing in front of an audience; for the first time we were letting ourselves have fun on stage, getting into the song. I saw Aubrey dancing her way out of her jacket about halfway through her song and letting her hair down out of its bun, Stacie adding a little of her dancing into her solo, and Beca letting go of her hard exterior. Even if we didn't win, to me, we would always be first place.
We finished our set to wild cheers and screams from the audience. Squealing in excitement, we all group hugged on stage, then went to our seats. Jesse was over by our row, obviously for Beca, and they obviously had made up because they started kissing. Fat Amy herded us to our seats, telling us to let Beca and Jesse have some time to themselves.
My seat was right behind Donald's, and he turned around to congratulate me.
"Really good job up there," he smiled.
"Yeah, thanks. You too."
"Seriously. You guys deserve first. Were you beatboxing?"
I smiled shyly at him.
He was about to say something else, but was cut off by the announcer going up on stage to present the awards.
"In second place, the Barden University Treblemakers!"
Their fans cheered happily as they went up to accept the second place trophy.
"And in first place, also from Barden, the Barden Bellas!"
The whole audience erupted into cheers, and all of us stood up, running back to the stage for the trophy. Beca took it, grinning and hugging us all again.
Two days after finals
"Hey," Donald said, spreading out his books by me.
"Hi," I responded, moving my books over to make room for him.
"Did I ever tell you how great you were at finals?"
"Um, yeah. Tons of times."
"Well, great job," he laughed, reaching over to mess up my hair.
"Donald!" I exclaimed indignantly, taking my mini-comb from my bag and combing my bangs to perfection again.
We studied in silence for a while.
"You know, we never had that coffee."
"What coffee?"
"The coffee I asked you out for that day before finals."
"Oh, that coffee."
"Yeah. So…wanna go out for coffee?"
"Now?"
"Now or never, Lilly. You either get all this," he said, gesturing down at his body, "or you get none of it."
I laughed as he stood up, extending a hand to me.
"You coming or what?"
I took his hand and he pulled me up and into him, so I was pressed up against his chest.
"You're lighter than I thought," he said jokingly, tucking a stray hair behind my ear.
"Yeah," I breathed softly, looking up at his eyes.
He leaned in, stopping just before his lips touched mine.
"Is it okay if I kiss you right now?" he asked, serious but with a touch of laughter in his voice.
"Do it or I'll set you on fire," I whispered, smiling.
"That's adorable," he whispered in response, repeating what he'd said to me that day on the bus.
It's safe to say that Donald and I kissed that day.
So, here's my oneshot on Donald and Lilly's relationship throughout the year, as well as some of Lilly's background and her POV of the events in Pitch Perfect. There's not much DonaldxLilly in there, because they really didn't start talking to each other until semi-finals, in my opinion. Plus, Lilly's Asian, and I tried to portray her as a follower of rules, so she would be less likely to go against Aubrey's oath. I know it's not great, because I'm honestly not that great of a writer, but...I had fun writing this, so I hope you have fun reading it. Let me know if there's anything else you want me to do, like more oneshots or a Donald POV, or whatever.
Please read, review and favorite. Check out my other Pitch Perfect story, Nothing But Treble, or my Harry Potter story, Never Expected This. Um...so, that's it. Feedback is welcomed, please no flames, if you don't like it then just click away.
Love you all,
fifiswims