Disclaimer: Characters you recognize are not mine.
A/N: So this idea came to me and it was really supposed to be a short little drabble. It got out of hand and I'm sorry for that. This story is inspired by one of the deleted scenes on the DVD, which can also be found on Youtube for anyone who's interested, call "Holiday Transitions." And, like I said, it just got a little out of hand. I hope everyone enjoys!
"We Sing to Pass the Time"
Beca takes one look at the offending item in Aubrey's hands and gives her head a firm shake. "Dude, no." She's aware that those are the same words she uttered the night she was "sworn into" the Bellas and informed that she would be drinking the blood of her past sisters, but Beca's pretty sure her tone is even more forceful this time, her horror growing stronger with each passing second.
Aubrey gives her a look that Beca has come to refer to as "The Beca Look" because she's the only one who ever warrants such an annoyed glare. "Yes." Aubrey snaps back, thrusting the costume in her direction. Beca keeps her arms crossed over her chest. "Take it." The Beca Look only gets more annoyed.
Beca starts shaking her head but Chloe swoops in for the save, reaching out to take the costume from Aubrey before Aubrey can decide to choke Beca with it or something. "It's really not that bad." Chloe assures Beca and the rest of the Bellas with her ever cheerful smile. "It's kind of fun actually."
"It's how we're going to get money to pay for Regionals and the rest of our appearances." Aubrey says, giving Beca one last Look before addressing the rest of the group like some sort of dictator. "Since we're not exactly in high demand for performances on campus."
Chloe holds up the offending costume, which Beca thinks might look cute on an eight year old child in a Thanksgiving play. It's a Pilgrim style outfit, complete with polished buckles. Beca's sure there's an equally offensive hat somewhere else. "We have more." Chloe says, as though reading her mind. "Several costumes for each holiday. Last year, we were so popular that people were requesting that we sing for all sorts of holidays. I loved the Arbor Day costume."
Beca glances over at the rest of the Bellas in an attempt to gauge their feelings on this whole scheme. At first when Aubrey had informed them that they were going to using the "Barden Bella Aca-Gram" as a way to make money to pay for the bus and anything else they might need in their quest for the Lincoln Center, she'd thought Aubrey was kidding. Or at least she'd hoped that she was. Clearly not the case.
And no one else seems to be having trouble with the idea of dressing up to commemorate various holidays while knocking on people's doors to sing to them. A few of her fellow Bellas are even smiling at the idea, which is pretty much the opposite of what Beca feels like doing right now.
Fat Amy rubs her hands together, nodding. "Oh, excellent. I once dressed up as a kangaroo for Australia Day and nearly got into a fight with a real kangaroo." Everyone turns to the study the blonde. "Don't worry though. He knew not to tangle with me." She assures them.
"I really don't feel comfortable doing this." Beca says, turning back to face Aubrey. "I mean, I might have joined this group but I still have my dignity."
Aubrey glowers at her and Beca wonders if it's possible for smoke to really come out of people's ears like it does in the cartoons, because it really looks like Aubrey is going to start smoking at any minute. "Well, Beca, if you feel like you're too cool to participate in Bella related activities then you can kindly show yourself the door." She points a well-manicured finger toward the entrance of the auditorium.
Beca shifts her weight but doesn't make a move to leave, because for some unknown reason a part of her really enjoys being in the Bellas. Aubrey gives her a smug smile. "Okay, well, now that we've got that settled let's start working on some of the new songs."
Beca regards herself in the full length mirror on her closet door and suppresses the urge to groan. She hasn't dressed up for Halloween since she was like ten. Not even in high school, when all the other girls found the sluttiest outfits they could and acted like they were costumes. She's just not really a holiday person. Ba humbug and all that.
But she's dressed up now. At least this costume isn't as bad as some of the other ones. Cynthia Rose looks like some sort of deranged vampire/werewolf/tree crossbred. Beca readjusts the cat ears so they sit properly on her head and wrinkles her nose, which has been painted pink for the occasion. Her cheeks are streaked with black whiskers and she's pretty sure she's going to die of embarrassment before she even gets to the dorm room of the person who's going to be receiving the Aca-Gram. She doesn't understand the point of the whole thing anyway. If someone actually paid money to send her one of the things, she's pretty sure she wouldn't be there friend anymore. Seriously, who pays to have someone sing a sixty second song about Halloween or going to a basketball game together or whatever? Though Beca did notice that there are a few break-up requests on their list and she really hopes she can be the one to deliver that news. Nothing says Happy Thanksgiving like "I'm breaking up with you and I also might have given you herpes, sorry."
There's a knock on the door and Beca panics and the makeup and cat ears make her reaction look comical. Beca quickly yanks off her tail as she hurries to the door, opening it a crack in hopes that whoever is on the other side will quickly go away. But it's Jesse and while she's (annoyingly) happy to see him, she also knows he's not going to be easy to get rid of.
"So, I was just in the area and-" Jesse pauses, really looking at her for the first time. "Are you wearing cat ears?"
Beca feels her cheeks redden in embarrassment as she reaches up to yank off the ears. Of course, there's nothing she can do to change the fact that she still has a pink nose and whiskers and at least she's going to die of embarrassment now and not actually have to go through with the whole singing thing.
Jesse grins, reaching out and pushing the door open the rest of the way so that he can get a good look at her. "Do my eyes deceive me? Have I stumbled upon Beca Mitchell celebrating a human holiday?"
Beca rolls her eyes at him. "Very funny." She sticks her tongue out at him. "It's a stupid Bellas thing." She mumbles.
"A Halloween party? And you didn't invite me?" Jesse puts his hand over his heart. "I'm offended. Hurt even."
"No, not a party." Beca assures him. She turns to go back into her room, picking up the ears and tail as she goes and Jesse follows her, flopping down on her bed. "It's this stupid thing we have to do to try and raise money."
Jesse nods. "Yeah, Bumper mentioned something about that. He said you guys did it last year and he said that-" But Jesse catches himself before he can repeat whatever offensive comment Bumper had made on the subject. He clears his throat. "I think you look adorable."
Beca wrinkles her nose at him, which only makes Jesse's smile grow. "I don't want to look adorable."
"Oh, so you want to be a sexy kitty?" Jesse arches an eyebrow. "Meow." He winks at her.
"Oh my God no." Beca tosses her tail at him. "Please don't ever do that again."
Jesse waggles the furry tail at her, laughing when she lunges forward to snatch it away from him. "Though, I do have to admit that I'm a little jealous of the person who's going to open their door and find you on the other side." He says, still smiling. "How do I order one of these things?"
Beca pins the tail back onto her pants. "I'm never telling you that. This is embarrassing enough. You don't want to make it worse." She jams the ears back onto her head, hardly caring that her hair is sticking up and the ears are askew. She wants everyone to know that she is not doing this by choice.
Jesse gets off the bed and comes to stand in front of her, reaching up to help straighten her ears. Beca hopes that he doesn't notice the quick little intake of breath that she does now that he's standing so close and she tries to focus on things other than how good he smells and what it might be like to kiss him. Of course now she's looking at his lips and Jesse meets her eyes and Beca wonders if there's a limit on the amount of sexual tension that a person can withstand before they explode.
Jesse clears his throat and takes a step back and Beca can't decide if she's relieved or disappointed. Both, maybe.
"I think you're all set." Jesse says, giving her a nod. "So I guess I can't interest Kitty in a cup of coffee?" He teases, his usual demeanor returning and helping to dispel some of the tension in the room.
Beca shakes her head. "I've got to get this over with. Plus, I don't think anyone should actually be seen with me looking like this." She gestures to herself.
"Nah, I think it's cute." Jesse tells her. "No, not cute. Badass. Hardcore. You're one hardcore kitty."
"Can you please stop calling me kitty?" Beca questions, picking up her phone and keys and stuffing them into the pockets of her black sweatshirt. "It's starting to get awkward."
Jesse follows her out of her dorm like a faithful puppy. "How 'bout Catwoman?" He snaps his fingers. "You should have totally gone for the whole Catwoman look instead. Not like the Michelle Pfeiffer version but the Anne Hathaway one. You could have totally pulled that off."
Beca gives him a slightly confused look and Jesse just gapes at her. "Are you serious? You haven't even seen Batman?!" Beca continues to stare at him. "Really? Do you even know Batman…is anything I'm saying making sense to you?"
"No. But that's not exactly new." Beca remarks.
Jesse shakes his head. "I don't even know why I'm surprised."
It's nearly Christmas and all Beca really wants this year is to never have to knock on someone's door and sing to them again. Of course arguing with Aubrey successfully is out of the question, so she keeps trudging from one dorm to the next, trying to get through this as quickly as possible. Beca had thought that maybe her stint in jail would give her some street cred and convince Aubrey that she was too tough to be messed with but it only seemed to make Aubrey even more angry at her. Beca only has to belt out (and by "belt out" she means "hurry through") two more renditions of "Silent Night" and hand over two more Christmas cards before she can ditch the jingly reindeer antlers and get on with her life.
When Beca has delivered her last card (and by "delivered" she means "threw at the door because there was no one home") she starts the trek across campus back to her dorm room, buttoning up her coat to cover up the hideous reindeer sweater that Chloe let her borrow. When she'd taken the sweater from the girl, Beca had been unable to keep from laughing, begging Chloe to tell her that she'd bought it as a joke. Even though Chloe had assured her that that was indeed the case, Beca still has her suspicions.
It's been a relatively mild winter so far and the temperature still isn't unbearable, which means there are still plenty of students hanging out on the green, tossing Frisbees and footballs and running in circles and just enjoying a little bit of freedom in between studying for finals. Beca figures that she wouldn't have even noticed Jesse if her eyes hadn't been automatically drawn to "their spot" under one of the only trees large enough to provide enough shade to make watching movies outdoors possible. And there's Jesse, his back against the trunk of the tree, computer on his lap, his focus on the screen.
Beca's steps falter slightly when she notices him there and she feels a tug in her chest, the urge to call out to him or go over there. They haven't talked since their argument the night she'd been arrested and Beca feels guilty about the way she handled everything. She knows that the stress of going to jail and seeing her father standing there was to blame for blowing up at Jesse and she knows that he would understand all of that if she could actually bring herself to explain it but she can't and so they haven't talked. She's been telling herself that she doesn't miss him, that not sitting under that tree with him working on her music or listening to him talk about movies doesn't bother her. But seeing Jesse there now pretty much throws all of her pep-talks out the window. Because she does miss spending time with him, even if she can't verbally admit it.
As though he feels her eyes on him, Jesse looks up and spots her standing there and Beca feels like an idiot and not just because she just realized that she was still wearing the reindeer antlers but because she's just standing there starting at him like a total creep. Beca knows that now would be the perfect time to walk over there and apologize but her feet feel frozen in place.
Jesse raises his hand in a wave and again Beca thinks all she has to do is walk. One foot in front of the other. Twenty feet, if that. But she just puts her head down and keeps walking back to her dorm. Running away is always easier than apologizing.
For some reason people still keep ordering these stupid Aca-Grams and Beca is pretty sure that they have enough money to pay for their bus and new uniforms (not that they'd ever actually get new uniforms) but Aubrey keeps the sign-ups open and keeps handing out dorm room numbers and song requests.
One afternoon after Bellas rehearsal, Aubrey saunters over to her holding one of the dreaded cream envelopes and Beca wonders if the Aca-Grams have become Aubrey's own personal form of punishment. "Here's another one from that clingy Georgina girl." Aubrey informs her, handing over the envelope.
Beca flips open the card and laughs at the hand-written note inside. Clingy Georgina has been the only positive in this entire horrible experience because she keeps sending Aca-Grams to a guy who doesn't want anything to do with her. Not that she can take the hint. Beca figures it would be sad if she wasn't getting so much enjoyment from the whole thing. This is the first time she's getting the chance to deliver Clingy Georgina's message and she's eager to see what this guy looks like. He must be some stud.
Beca goes to stick the card into her purse but Aubrey reaches out and grabs her wrist. "Dude, what the heck?" Beca questions, looking up at the other girl with a bit of fear in her eyes. She wouldn't be surprised if Aubrey just suddenly snapped and decided to kill her.
"I received a complaint about one of your last deliveries." Aubrey informs her. "What's the proper way to handle the person not being at home?" She arches an eyebrow.
Beca clears her throat. "Come back another time." She mumbles, hoping if she just plays along she can get this over with.
Aubrey nods. "So you do know. You do know that it's not just to leave a carefully and thoughtfully written out card on the ground where anyone could pick it up." She looks as though this is some sort of personal offense and Beca decides it's best just not to say anything. "I don't think I can trust you on your own anymore. So Fat Amy is going to go with you."
Fat Amy holds up her fist for a bump but Beca just gives her a look. "Oh yeah! Fat Amy and Beca delivering Aca-Grams." She doesn't seem bothered by Beca's lack of enthusiasm. "I was thinking we could like dress up like cupids and maybe ride on clouds…"
"I'm not wearing any more costumes." Beca interrupts her, deciding that she has suffered enough injustice. Aubrey gives her a scandalized look. "Sorry." She leaves the auditorium before Aubrey can really rev up her engines and launch into a diatribe.
When Fat Amy shows up at her dorm the following day, she is indeed dressed like cupid, complete with wings and a bow and arrow with a heart shaped tip and Beca just sighs because she feels like she's the one that's going to look like an idiot if she doesn't at least try. Kimmy Jin takes one look at Fat Amy, gives Beca a disgusted look and leaves the room, slamming the door shut behind her.
Beca finds a red sweatshirt and throws that on, figuring it'll at least look like she tried. As it turns out, Fat Amy has brought along on extra pair of wings for her and Beca doesn't have the energy to protest as she lets Fat Amy slip the wings onto her back.
"Figured you would want this." Fat Amy hands over the bow and arrow. "You seem like you have a lot of aggression."
Beca notches the arrow into the bow and fires it across the room, where it falls uselessly onto Kimmy Jin's desk. "Sweet. I can work with this."
Turns out that firing arrows into the crotches of unsuspecting men who have just been serenaded actually makes the whole experience enjoyable. The other positive aspect is the fact that Fat Amy is more than happy to stand there and belt out sappy love songs to the people on the receiving end of the Aca-Gram while Beca can just stand there and let her true unhappiness show. And then shoot people with arrows. It's pretty much the best time she's had.
They save Clingy Georgina's Aca-Gram for last in order to build up suspense but when Beca looks at the hall name and room number, she feels a little bit of dread pool in her chest. It's the same hall where Jesse lives, though the room is on a different floor, which is a relief because she figures that if Georgina's unrequited love was Jesse she'd probably shoot herself with the arrow.
Beca figures that the likelihood of running into Jesse is small but she still isn't looking forward to taking that chance. But it's not like she can just refuse to deliver yet another Aca-Gram to this poor guy, even though he'd probably thank her for it. Plus Fat Amy seems all gung-ho about the whole thing, so there's that.
When the door opens, Beca isn't sure who's more surprised: she and Fat Amy or Bumper, who is apparently the recipient of all Georgina's craziness. Bumper groans and rests his head against the door jam. "Can't you aca-bitches take a hint and go away? I don't want anymore of your pathetic songs." He informs them. He gives both Beca and Fat Amy the once over and a grin slowly spreads across his face. "Aren't you two just adorable? You look like a fat cream puff with wings." He says dismissively to Fat Amy. "And you're like reject Victoria's Secret angel." Bumper reaches out toward Beca's wings.
Beca swats his hand away. "Forget this. I'm out." She did not sign up to get teased by some douchebag and if Aubrey has anything to say about it she'll just peg her with an arrow too.
"Wait, you girls haven't sang for me yet." Bumper protests. "Guys," he calls over his shoulder, "come listen to this. They're going to serenade me."
Bumper opens the door wider and Beca sees that every member of the Trebletones has somehow managed to gather in Bumper's dorm room, including Jesse, who gives her a look of surprise when their eyes meet. Beca looks down at her feet quickly, wondering if this moment could possibly get any worse.
"Aren't you supposed to be singing or something?" Bumper questions and a few of the guys laugh on cue. "Cat got your tongue? Is this a preview of what's going to happen next time you guys take the stage?" Bumper laughs and the others join in.
Jesse rolls his eyes. "Dude don't be a dick." He mumbles. He wishes that Beca would stop looking anywhere but at him. He wishes they had never fought, he wishes he could have just told her how he felt, he wishes that she wasn't so closed off all the time.
Bumper looks over his shoulder at his teammate. "Oh right, I forgot she's like your girlfriend or something." Jesse doesn't miss the way that Beca narrows her eyes at his words.
"He's not my boyfriend." Beca responds tersely. Honestly, she doesn't even know why she's still here. Something about the sad puppy dog look on Jesse's face is making it hard to just turn around and leave.
Bumper laughs, shaking his head. "I knew that dude was gay." He says conspiratorially to the other guys around him. "No man willingly watches that many chick flicks."
Beca shoots Bumper in the crotch with her arrow, putting a little more force behind it then she normally would have used. Her aim is dead-on and Bumper groans, dropping down to his knees and curling up into a ball. Beca smirks. "Happy Valentine's Day, dick."
Beca spins on her heel and heads for the exit as quickly as she can. She doesn't bother to wait for Fat Amy or stop to care about the looks that she's getting from people because she's still wearing her wings. She just wants to get back to her dorm and just forget everything.
"Beca! Wait!" And, curse her stubborn feet, because she actually stops and turns to see Jesse jogging over to her and Beca hates how badly she wants to meet him halfway. But she stays put. Jesse comes to stand in front of her and they stand that way for a minute in uncomfortable silence. Finally he holds up her heart-tipped arrow. "You forgot this."
"Thanks." Beca mumbles, snatching the arrow away from him. She wishes it were real so she could stab herself in the head with it and just put an end to all this. Because this really sucks. This awkward thing she has going on with Jesse…it sucks. It's been months since they parted ways outside of the police precinct and she still just can't say that she's sorry.
So Beca does what she does best and doesn't say anything at all. She turns and starts back toward her dorm.
"Hey!" Jesse calls after her and Beca looks over her shoulder. "Thanks for shooting Bumper in the balls Hawkeye."
Beca doesn't have any idea what he's talking about, so she figures it's some sort of movie reference. "Oh, I didn't do it for you." She assures him, but there's just the tiniest hint of a smile on her face so Jesse can't help but think that yeah, she pretty much did.
They lose at Semi-Finals and even though Beca stutters out something about trying and putting herself out there, she still feels like it is her fault. To make matters worse, she fights with Jesse again because he's always, always there to see her at her worst and even though he does nothing but try to help her, it's somehow too hard to deal with. By the end of the night, Beca has no one and she likes it that way.
Well, she doesn't. But she tells herself she does.
Beca makes no plans for spring break and doesn't want to talk to anyone. Things turn around when Luke offers her a block of time at the station to play her music and then invites her out to a party. She wants to refuse but she's in college and isn't she supposed to be partying and hanging out with dudes and drinking and all that? She leaves after she learns from Luke that Jesse is the reason that he even started listening to her music in the first place and gave her the studio time. Because of course. Of course it was Jesse. Somehow it's always Jesse.
Instead of doing nothing all break, Beca rents pretty much every movie from the Barden library and makes popcorn and stays in her pajamas all day as she watches them one right after the other. She wants to text Jesse but pretends that she deleted his number instead of reaching for her phone.
They win at Lincoln Center and Beca finally understands what people mean when they talk about being so happy they could cry. Because she sort of feels like crying. And if there happen to be tears in her eyes…well, there aren't. It's just the glint from the stage lights. By the end of their performance, Beca hadn't really care about the trophy or first place or any of it. All she cared about was getting to Jesse and making the past few months go away. But the first place win doesn't exactly hurt either.
For the rest of the semester, Beca hangs out with the Bellas and spends her time with Jesse and letting him start to get to know her past the walls that she's put up. It's not easy, but she doesn't exactly hate letting him in. Over the summer, they stay in touch through text messages, e-mails, lengthy phone calls and even a few visits. When her parents both separately question her about Jesse, she denies that he's anything more than her friend. Beca doesn't even mind so much that she can tell that they know she's lying.
No one was more shocked than Beca when Aubrey informed her that she was handing over the pitch pipe and putting Beca in charge of the Barden Bellas. At first Beca wasn't sure that she could handle the pressure, but it's not exactly like the rest of the Bellas can keep their noises out of anything so it's not like she's doing it alone. Plus, she doesn't want to anyway. Nothing felt better than when they all worked as a group, trusting each other and just having fun. That's what Beca wants the Bellas to be like this year. She doesn't care about winning or taking home another trophy. She just wants to make music and hang out with her friends and she wants any new girls looking for a place to fit in to feel like they belong.
Though, Beca quickly realizes that there are a few perks to being in charge. She can put the new recruits through a few initiation rights, like the delivering of the Aca-Grams. She'd sworn that she was never going to put on another costume and sing another rendition of "My Funny Valentine" in her life, but it doesn't take Beca long to learn that because she's the captain, she can decide who does have to dress up like Cupid and flutter around singing cheesy love songs. And it'll be funny to watch the new Bellas gripe over the costumes and try and figure out a way to make the Pilgrim outfit sexy.
Beca realizes sometime around Halloween that she hasn't once thought about going to L.A. Instead she's focused all her time on the Bellas and her classes and the station and, of course, Jesse and she couldn't be happier. And yeah, she's more surprised than anyone, thank you very much. She'd used to think that she'd have to strike out on her own, to go across the country and become some mysterious music producer to be happy. Now Beca realizes that all she needs to be happy are a bunch of crazy girls and one dorky boy.
Sophie, one of the new Bella recruits, comes trudging into the auditorium one afternoon before rehearsal dressed like a sexy witch, complete with a pointy hat and fishnet tights and a disappointed look on her face. "He sent me back too." Sophie announces as soon as she steps into the auditorium.
Beca looks away from the whiteboard, capping her pen. "What are you talking about?"
"That guy who keeps ordering all the Aca-Grams." Sophie takes off her hat and tosses it onto the floor. She's definitely the most dramatic Bella now that Aubrey is gone. "The one who keeps ordering them and then sending us away. Remember, he did the same thing to Angie and Susan?" Sophie explains.
Beca has heard the other girls talk about this mysterious guy who keeps ordering Aca-Grams for himself, but she's never really paid much attention to it. Fat Amy and Stacie have been in charge of handling all the Aca-Gram orders and dispatching the new recruits to deliver them, so Beca has pretty much let it all go over her head.
"He says we're not the right girl." Angie chimes in, making a face.
Beca makes a thoughtful noise when she realizes that all the freshmen girls are looking at her like they expect her to solve the problem. She thought that the guy was just lonely but now he sounds a little creepy. "What's the dorm room number?"
When Sophie tells her, Beca can't help but smile and roll her eyes. "Of course."
Later that afternoon, Beca knocks on the door of the appropriate dorm room and when the door opens, she winks at the guy on the other side. "Aca-Gram." She blows him a kiss.
Jesse grins. "Finally. Halloween dreams do come true." He gives her the once over. "And you're even dressed as the sexy kitty. My favorite."
"You dork." Beca walks into his dorm room, shaking her head at him. "If you wanted me to show up at your door dressed up like a cat, you should have just said something."
"Now you're making it sound creepy." Jesse tells her. "It's not even like that. Unless there's a Batman costume involved."
Beca holds up her hand. "Okay, I'm going to stop you right there." She remarks. "Please tell me you did not sexually harass the rest of my girls."
Jesse grins at her. "'My girls.'" He repeats. "Listen to you, Miss Captain of the Barden Bellas." He puts his arms around her waist and pulls her to his chest. "What happened to running away to L.A.?"
Beca shrugs, slipping her hand around the curve of his neck. "I don't really feel like running away anymore." She admits.
Jesse leans in for a kiss while reaching up and pulling off her cat ears. "Meow." He says against her lips.
Beca pulls away and swats him on the shoulder. "You ruined it. That perfectly cheesy movie moment we were having. You just ruined it." But she's trying not to smile.
And Jesse really loves her smile. "You know you wouldn't have it any other way."
And really, she wouldn't.