Amy, could you come here for a minute?"
"Aye aye cap'n," The overweight blonde sauntered over to her group of friends consisting of Chloe, Beca, and Jessica as Aubrey left the room. "Good okay, we're all here." the redhead continued.
"Amy, we need your help with a certain 'shipping'," Beca stated.
"What do you mean?"
"We need it to uh..." Becq scrunched up her eyebrows trying to word what she needed to say. "Sail, per se."
"Ah, now which one? You need to know all my Bella ships are lesbian ones first."
"Oh yeah Amy, we know," the shorter blonde Jessica added while rolling her eyes. After she had been paired with her best friend Ashley, she had learned to never ask about the Australian's lesbian ships again.
"We need help with... Staubrey was it?"
"Oh!" Amy snapped her fingers upon realizing. "They're my favorite besides you and Beca!" Amy shouted.
"Thanks Amy! We love being your OTP!" Chloe beamed as she leaned down to kiss Beca on the cheek. The alt girl blushed and grinned at the contact. "Anyway, we need your help to get them together."
"I don't know guys," Beca started. "I thought Aubrey was more of a person to do things on her own and not be forced into it."
"True shortie, but-"
"Don't call me that." Beca's eyes darted to Amy's as she spoke with anger clear in her voice.
"Sorry, Beca. Anyway, what if she can't do it in time? What if she graduates without telling Stacie? I mean, how many years does she have left of grad school here?" Amy countered. After Aubrey's graduation, her and Chloe both decided to stay at Barden for grad school so that they could stay and monitor the Bella's, and Chloe wanted to stay close to Beca. And who said Aubrey didn't want to stay for someone?
"Four," Chloe answered.
"Oh..."
"Yeah, so we don't need to push it." Beca concluded. "Plus, Aubrey's way too busy for a girlfriend this year. She's so focused on winning she doesn't even realize whenever Stacie is too busy looking at her boobs to dance." Amy got annoyed and rolled her eyes at the stubborn brunette, but quickly regained her composure.
"So if Stacie is always looking at Aubrey's boobs, does that mean she likes her?" Beca, unable to answer looked at the ground. "AND, if we didn't push you and Chloe, you wouldn't be a thing! You're just like Aubrey. Really stubborn, Beca."
"Does that make me Stacie?" Chloe questioned. Amy shrugged her shoulders and answered.
"Well, you both are terrible with physical boundaries."
"You got that right," Beca looked over at Chloe who was grasping her arm.
"Oh... Sorry." The redhead quietly spoke as she lifted her arms off of her girlfriend's. The four began to discuss further into the subject, unable to agree on anything. While Beca and Jessica were both against it, Jessica because she was pretty sure Aubrey wasn't gay, and Beca was positive pushing the captain would just make her madder, Chloe and Amy agreed it would be a good idea to get Aubrey less stressed, and Amy just thought they would look cute together.
"Jessica's right, does Aubrey even like girls?" Beca asked. She looked over to Chloe for an answer while the taller girl fiddled with her hands. "You're the best friend, is there something you not telling us?"
"Well, you didn't hear it from me, but Aubrey does really like Stacie. She's the only one in the group she ever compliments on dancing when we're alone." Chloe responded sheepishly. She had stayed up with Aubrey countless nights going over the Bella's weaknesses and strengths, and her friend couldn't help going on and on about how great Stacie was at dancing, completely ignoring her mess-ups and all the times she had groped herself. Chloe secretly assumed Aubrey just liked it when Stacie did it, but decided to not make any comments regarding that.
"See Beca? Why can't you just understand that they like each other, so they should be together?"
"FINE! Okay? Fine, we'll make a plan, we'll get them together, happy? Now how's it going to go? Who's doing what?" Chloe grinned as Beca shook her head then looked at the blonde across from her. "How about you Jessica?"
"Fine, but if this ends up going awoll, I never had a part in it, got it?" Though she was afraid it wouldn't end well, she was excited. She has never interacted with most of the girls and any chance to become friends with them sounded good to her.
"Oh! I should make a bet with CR about how long it will take for them to get together!" Amy proceeded to walk over to the African American when Chloe grabbed her collar. "What?" The Tasmanian looked cluelessly at Chloe.
"You can't take advantage of her gambling problem again!" Chloe scolded the overweight girl. Ever since she found out Amy had own two hundred dollars in a bet of when her and Beca would get together, she had been stopping Cynthia Rose from betting anymore money.
"Fine, fine. But, I do have an idea of how to get Stacie and Aubrey together." Amy removed Chloe's hands from her shirt and sat down. "Now, instead of what we did with Bechloe," Amy started. She had always used their ship name, finding it quick and easier and super adorable. As she spoke, Chloe remembered what went down that day.
"Aubrey, why are we in the gym? Rehearsals aren't today," Chloe asked.
"Just calm down, you'll understand soon. Just sit over there." The blonde pointed to a metal seat next to one a small brunette was already sitting in. As the redhead walked over, she became increasingly nervous. This had to have something to do with her crush on Beca, she just hoped it wasn't revealed.
"Ready?" She heard in the distance."
Stacie stepped into the light, backed up by the other Bella's. "Hey guys... So since you're too stubborn to admit your feelings, we're doing it for you!" She exclaimed. The sound of the pitch pipe echoed through the room. "1...2...3"
"Chloe, I know your sister turns everyone on
But you're the one I want" the group began to sing
From behind her, Beca was pushed off her chair and picked up. "What the...?" She began as Chloe was thrusted into her arms. "What are you guys doing?"
"Amy what the hell?" They heard Aubrey shout. "You said this would work!"
"It usually does!" They heard the Tasmanian yell back.
"Guys! Stop! Was this an attempt to get me and Chloe together? I really don't think it worked if it was." The short brunette yelled.
"I don't know Beca, romantic gestures are pretty great." Chloe turned to face Beca. "I wouldn't mind letting them think it worked." The taller girl winked.
With that, Beca blushes and looked at Chloe, then down at her lips. She began to lean in, and Chloe met her halfway. 'Aws' erupted through the gymnasium as they kissed.
Chloe sighed happily at the memory. "Anyway instead of the whole dancing singing thing, we have a sleepover and play truth or dare. We dare them to kiss each other or something, probably get some alcohol to make Aubrey loose, and boom, relationship."
"I don't know how that automatically transfers them into a relationship, but it sounds like a plan!" Jessica smiled.
Super duper Staubrey line break
"A sleepover? Really Chloe? What are we, five?" The talk blonde raised an eyebrow at her roommate. Her best friend had been spending twenty minutes so far trying to convince her to have a sleepover with the rest of the Bella's this weekend. Though the pestering was annoying, she stood her ground.
"Come on, Stacie will be there," Chloe grinned with a wink. The redhead smirked (Something she learned from a Ms. Beca Mitchell) when Aubrey began to consider.
"Well… It is another bonding experience I guess…" Aubrey began. Chloe gave her a questioned look, but smiled nonetheless. "What? That's really the only reason this is going to happen, alright? So drop it." The taller friend turned on her heel and entered their apartment.
"Great! So I'll invite the Beca's." Chloe grabbed her phone and ran into her room. When she fell onto her bed, she started texting in a new group chat, 'Operation: Staubrey' consisting of her, Beca, Jessica, and of course, the leader, Fat Amy.
[Chloe 3:23] alrght guys, Aubrey said yes!
[Beca 3:24] awsome! see u guys tmrw
[Jessica 3:24] I can't believe this is actually working
[Fat Amy 3:24] Operation Staubrey is a go!
Chloe grinned and put down her phone to go check on Aubrey in the kitchen. "So… are you positive the only reason you're allowing this is to make it a 'bonding experience'?" she asked, putting quotations around bonding experience. It was obvious it wasn't just that, the mention of Stacie did cause her friend to blush.
"You can't tell anyone. This can't go anywhere. But… I may have a small 'crush' on Stacie."
"Oh my god! Seriously? This is aca-amazing!" Chloe screeched. Aubrey covered her ears and became frustrated.
"No Chloe, you can't tell anyone! I have school and the Bella's and my father would never approve of me dating a girl if she even liked me!" Aubrey began flustered and put down her cooking tools. "It won't go anywhere, this is a secret. I forbid you from allowing it to go anywhere."
Chloe sighed. She looked up at her friend. "You're doing fine in school. The Bella's are doing good with just Beca's leadership, and who cares what your dad thinks. Make decisions for yourself instead of worrying about everything else in the process. Be a little adventurous. You never know what could happen." With that, she walked over to stove to start dinner for the two. "You'll never know if you never try." She whispered loud enough for Aubrey to hear.
"Who says she even likes girls." Aubrey muttered. Her shoulders sagged at the realisation she might not even be gay. If the statistics are one out of every ten girls, and it seems already 5 Bella's are gay (Aubrey, a lesbian, Cynthia Rose, also a lesbian, Beca, a lesbian too Chloe, bisexual, and Denise, a lesbian who she was pretty sure was dating Cynthia Rose) so the statistics are already thrown off, that leaves almost no reassurance that Stacie could like her too.
"Who says she doesn't?" Chloe always saw the glass half full. She was optimistic and had a strong feeling Stacie did like her friend. "I've seen her checking you out during practice like seven times. It gets distracting you know," Chloe giggled seeing her friend blush. Getting Aubrey to be confident about herself could transfer over to their spin the bottle game and Amy was right, it could very well lead to a healthy relationship.
"Alright, I'm done talking about this, can we just eat?"
"The food's almost done, don't worry. I can't wait for the sleepover tomorrow!" Chloe squealed.
Across campus, Beca was having almost the same conversation with a taller brunette. "Dude, I'm like seventy-five percent sure that Aubrey likes you." They had been talking for almost thirty minutes about the different Bella's and had somehow come to the topic of Stacie's crush on the older girl.
Stacie scoffed. "Oh please, she basically hates all of us. Plus, she has shown no interest in me since the beginning of last year." The taller girl shook her head, there was no way their captain actually could like her. They were almost exact opposites. Stacie didn't realize she was thinking out loud until Beca countered.
"Opposites attract right?" Beca raised an eyebrow. She was right, her and Chloe were complete opposites, the bubbly redhead was open and physical with everything while Beca was closed off and hated any type of contact with people. Until Chloe showed up, of course. The alt girl looked up at her friend expectantly of a retort.
"Psh, still, there's no way. Anyway, when's this sleepover?" She wanted to change the topic as fast as possible, but make it seem like she wasn't in a hurry.
"Tomorrow, at like, seven. We can walk there together if you want. I don't want to go alone in fear of actually using my rape whistle." She looked over at the whistle on top of her desk and shuttered. Why they gave people that, she was still scared.
"Sounds good, I gotta get going though, school work's a pain." Stacie slung her bag over her arm and walked out as Kimmy Jin entered. She wasn't exactly the best person to talk to about anything, because for one she didn't care, and two she basically hated Beca and anything she would do.
"Ugh, white girl's still here." She sneered. Beca laughed, the nickname still staying.
"Thanks Kimmy Jin, but lucky for you I won't be here too much tomorrow." Beca shared. She thought she almost saw her roommate smile, but it might've been her imagination. She almost never smiled.
"Good, I have company." the asian muttered, opening her school bag. As she sat, Beca pulled out her phone and began to text in the group chat that was just used a while ago.
[Beca 3:54] its offcial Stacie likes Aubrey
[Chloe 3:54] rlly? how do u know?
[Beca 3:55] just admtted it when she was my room
[Fat Amy 3:56] Aca-believe it!
[Jessica 3:57] Srsly, HOW is this working? I don't, how, I- HOW?
[Chloe 3:58] Crap! Aubrey's asking wht im doing texting at the tble! gtg
[Beca 3:58] see you guys tmrw
The next day Beca and Stacie were chatting while walking over to the Aubrey/Chloe apartment. Their topics ranged from school to the captain, who Stacie was definitely trying to avoid talking about. Her toner was becoming clearer with every word, and Beca would smirk anytime the tall girl would get flustered talking about her. Though the latter of the two would deny it, the alt girl definitely knew her hunches were right in that Stacie would in fact be up for kissing the captain.
"Listen, dude, it's fine if you like Aubrey. You two would make a great couple. You can even be my OTP." Beca consoled in her friend.
"OTP?" the other girl raised an eyebrow. "Amy is really rubbing off on you, huh Mitchell?"
As Beca kicked a rock, she shrugged. "I guess, the amount of lesbian fanfiction she reads really affects what type of words she uses. I got use to it." She looked up. "You already admitted it, don't be afraid of someone hearing you say it outside of my room" Beca spoke, then an idea popped into her head. "I don't see why you can't just-"
"Don't do it!" Ever since Stacie had revealed her favorite Disney Movie, the DJ had no problem in singing one of the songs whenever Aubrey was mentioned.
"Kiss the girl?" Beca inquired as Stacie pushed her over. They were both having a laughing fit by the time they got to the older Bella's room. When they knocked, Aubrey opened the door and Beca cocked an eye at Stacie, who proceed on slapping her arm.
As they entered the apartment, Chloe greeted them and hugged Beca, kissing her on the cheek. Stacie visibly frowned, obviously irritated by the PDA. The shorter brunette noticed, sporting the same smug look. The girl afraid of commitment might've wanted it after all, what a turn of events. "Alright everyone, Beca and Stacie are here! Time to get this party started!" Chloe shouted.
As the girls continued walking, they could see Amy had started serving drinks while Denise and Cynthia were dancing. Man, they are SUPER discreet, Beca rolled her eyes, her sarcasm seeping through into her thoughts. Jessica and Ashley were conversing by the kitchen counter while Chloe went back to talking to Aubrey and Lily. That's right, Lily was talking. It surprised Beca and Stacie more than they thought it would, as they made their way over to their favorite blonde and redhead, stopping for a drink first of course.
"Hey guys, whatcha talkin' 'bout?" Beca asked. She wasn't a heavy drinker, just a couple of gulps and she could miss a few syllables. Chloe, obviously, knew this and always was able to refrain Beca from taking too much in and consequently ruining her life.
"Oh, ya know," Chloe started as she took Beca's drink. "Oh my god what is this?" Chloe half-shouted, her eyes growing wide. "I told you to stop drinking Amy's "Tasmanian Special"! It literally has the strongest vodka ever!" The bubbly girl almost mad scolded, Beca lowering her head in shame.
"Sometimes I forget, she can be very persuasive with her words."
"It's fine baby," Chloe kissed Beca's cheek, soliciting a groan from both Stacie and Aubrey. "Oh calm yourself, just because you're single doesn't mean the rest of us have to suffer. Anyway, we were talking about a game of 'Truth or Dare', sound reasonable?" Chloe winked. It was all apart of their plan to get 'Staubrey' to happen as Amy put it. They just had to get Aubrey to agree.
"Listen Chloe, it doesn't seem like a good idea, we're all females and-" Chloe put a finger to her lips to cut her off.
"No, you listen. You need to loosen up! I'm a little tired of poise Posen! Let go a little, please? For me?" The redhead pouted, knowing Aubrey could never resist it no matter how bad the gesture was.
Aubrey put her hands up in surrender. "Alright, alright fine. Let's get everyone in a circle." The blonde, still unable to completely let go of control, was able to sit everyone perfectly in a circle, obviously letting Stacie sit next to her. She clapped her hands together to get everyone's attention, even the ones completely inebriated. "Who's first?"
"Oh, I'll go!" Beca feigned enthusiasm, slightly agitating Aubrey. "Cynthia Rose, truth or dare?" Beca knew she couldn't off the bat immediately ask Stacie to kiss Aubrey, they needed it to be believable that it was just out of spite, not planned.
"I'll go with truth, start easy." the African American woman stated, right in between Lily and Denise.
Beca rubbed her hands together, already stitching her favorite expression onto her face. "Are you dating anyone?" Beca raised an eyebrow. She knew she would get the truth, Cynthia could never lie in this game and if anyone else did she would get surprisingly mad. Not throw-a-lamp-at-a-wall mad, and not puke-everywhere-when-I'm-stressed mad, but irritated the player couldn't trust the rest of the group.
"I.. uh.. yes?" The big girl flinched. The rest of the group gasped, except for Beca and Chloe, they had been making a bet with Fat Amy about it for a while. Both of them smiled as the Tasmanian handed them both ten dollar bills. "Wait, you were betting on it?"
"Well we all kind of suspected you and Denise were a thing, me and Chloe were just boss enough to trust our gut." Beca explained.
Jessica was next to Ashley and Chloe, her head formulating the exact times the kiss could happen. Cynthia Rose as usual would either call on Stacie, Lily, or her, always trying to pry knowledge of the quiet blonde. Then Stacie would ask Aubrey, or Lily would ask Chloe, and Jessica would most likely ask Ashley to keep things interesting. That would lead onto more possibilities but she knew that by the end of the night Aubrey and Stacie would kiss. The timing just needed to be right.
"Lily, truth or dare?" CR had spotted the Asian sitting quietly per usual, and decided asking her would result in either a psychotic homicidal remark, or something whispered that was unintelligible by all near.
"Dare," she shyly stated.
"I dare you to phone Donald, and tell him you're going on a date tomorrow at eight." The girls 'oohed' sans Aubrey, who was curious as Lily whipped out her phone and pressed his name.
"How do you already have his number?" Aubrey shot Lily her death glare as Lily waited for the Indian boy to pick up.
"No reason…" the black haired girl mumbled. The girls remained quiet as Donald answered the phone. When she completed the dare, Donald willingly accepted. The Bella's squealed in delight, Aubrey's glare now moving to Cynthia Rose, the girl who started this.
"Sorry not sorry."
The rest of the time circulated upon random dares and suspiciously easy questions. When it was Chloe's turn, she tried to suppress her grin. "Stacie, truth or dare?"
"Dare, obviously. It's like you don't even know me." The tall brunette giggled drunkenly.
"I dare you to-" the redhead put a hand over her mouth to quiet her laugh. "Kiss, kiss Aubrey."
Everyone became quiet as the blonde in question turned red. She cocked her head to meet Stacie's stare, who surprisingly wore a grin. Well, not surprising for Beca or Chloe or Amy, or even Jessica, but for Aubrey. As she leaned in, Aubrey closed her eyes and gulped, her nervous self sending food from early in the morning up into her mouth. Again, she swallowed. As they slightly puckered their lips, they met in the middle. Slowly but surely, it became a passionate, sloppy kiss in their drunken state. No one said anything, but Amy secretly squealed as her second OTP had began their descent towards the relationship she had always destined them to be. Then, Aubrey opened her eyes, and realized what she was doing. And ran to the bathroom.
A few minutes later Aubrey heard a few quiet taps on the hardwood door she had barricaded herself behind a few minutes prior. "Bree…" she heard a voice call out. She momentarily froze, she recognized the voice easily and before she knew it she could make out the sound of the spare key jingling in the lock. Damn. She knew Chloe kept it when she became nervous or nauseous, which in this case she was both. What had just occurred was more than she had ever gone with either gender. Yep, Aubrey Posen had never kissed anyone. She was raised to believe physical interactions weren't needed in academics and social skills were only barely requirable, that had been the only reason her dad had put her into the public schooling system.
She was ripped from her thoughts as the door knob was slowly turned next to her and the crack in the door slowly grew larger. She subconsciously swallowed whatever was left in her dry throat and looked up from the floor to the face that had peaked it's way through the opening. Stacie. "Hey," she heard the girl almost whisper out. Aubrey was always mesmerized by the almost perfect voice (In her opinion) but now she was scared by it. What could she have to say after that? Stacie doesn't do relationships, she slept around and most likely played with emotions.
She was probably playing with yours, the blonde thought to herself. Finally making eye contact Aubrey slowly opened her mouth to make a statement regarding the subject Stacie was no doubt going to bring up at that moment.
"Before you say anything, I get it. I'm Stacie Conrad, the slut, the girl that would never develop feelings for anyone, I'm just a ditzy player. I've heard it before Aubrey, and though I've come to accept it from some who don't even know me, I can't have you think that about me. You mean too much to me for me to know that that's what you think I'm like. Sure, I love sex, but do I really not want a relationship? A girl or guy to call my own? Sure that's possessive but is it really to high of me to want that?" Of course it was a rhetorical question but Aubrey still felt like it deserved an answer, but before should could shell out a 'no' Stacie continued. "I do Aubrey. I want it with you. I want to be yours and vice versa. You're the only person I've ever had feelings for that I hadn't questioned, hadn't pondered on whether or not they were true or whether or not to bail before I had enough time to admit them. I want all that hand holding stuff. The cuddling, the movie dates, the dating in general. Fidelity, something I had never done before. I want that Bree, I want that with you."
After her rant, she huffed a little since she had not taken much breath during the spiel. Aubrey took it all in, could the girl who she had thought she knew really had wanted this, with her? A person so unavailable and so against the idea of relationships really think they could work out?
"I… Okay."
Stacie blinked. She had gone off on most likely the longest rant she had ever done on a subject she thought she might never bring up, and she gets barely two words in response? "What… what do you mean 'Okay'?"
"Okay. Let's date. Let's see how this goes. I like you Stacie, I really do," Aubrey began to gain confidence, finally standing up. "I think we could work out. You may be four years younger than me, and maybe my exact opposite, and I may still have absolutely no idea why I'm drawn to you, but I am, and that's all that matters. I want to give 'us' a shot." she gestured between them with the last few words.
Stacie's demeanor visibly changed, her posture straightening and her eyes almost lighting up at what she had just heard. "I… Just a second." She had slowly backed away from the door before rushing over to Beca and basically knocking her over. "We're going outside for a sec, 'kay guys?" she calmly spoke before ripping the short girl out of the apartment.
When they had reached outside of the building, Beca finally got out of Stacie's firm grip. "Dude, what was so important you had to drag me out here?!" the frustrated brunette asked.
"I'm gonna try really hard not to scream right now," Stacie started with her teeth clenched. "But I may be dating Aubrey Posen."
"Wait, seriously? Dude, nice!" Beca grinned, high-fiving her best friend.
Beca smirked. Maybe Operation Staubrey wasn't such a bad idea after all.
