Under My Skin
Prologue: A Simple Enchantment
There was one Chinese restaurant in the vicinity of Barden University and tonight, it belonged to the Barden Bellas. Fresh off of their second place finish at Regionals and in dire need of some bonding to iron out their rough edges, the girls were taking a night off to just eat and come together as a group.
It had been Chloe's idea and after nagging her roommate Aubrey for a full hour about how they weren't cohesive and needed to bond, the blonde finally relented and freed up some of their precious fundraising money that was reserved for Sectionals. Secretly, Aubrey knew that certain members of the group, mainly her and Beca if she was being completely honest, weren't getting along and that they could never win at Sectionals unless they were on the same page. So, while it hurt to give up some of the money from their hours of doing sing-o-grams on campus for the holidays, it was going to a good cause and Aubrey would allow it.
The girls were set to arrive in exactly one hour, but the names of two of the Bellas were spilling off of the lips of two darkened figures standing in the alley between the restaurant and the book store next door. The shorter of the pair was holding a pair of wrapped fortune cookies in her hands and was trying to calm down the taller, if barely, half of the duo. The taller figure was bouncing back and forth on the balls of her feet and was terribly anxious about what was about to go down inside of the cozy restaurant.
The smaller girl, let's call her G, glared at the taller girl, L, and snapped "Get your shit together. If you want to pull this off, you need to be cool! Okay, so do you understand the plan?"
"I have a really bad feeling about this." L shook her head nervously, the ache in her gut growing as time slipped away. "What if it doesn't wear off or what if they catch on when we're eating?"
"That's why you need to keep a straight face and pretend that you're an actress or something." G growled as her annoyance for her partner grew. "I know that you're not that bright, but honestly this isn't that hard. So, just act normal and we'll be okay. If you screw this up, I'll kill you and that's a promise. I can't stand one more minute with Beca acting like this and I'm sure you feel the same about Aubrey. Right?"
"Yeah, I do and it's driving me crazy! They're driving all of us crazy! So, I just have to make sure that each of them gets a cookie. That's not too hard."
G managed a slight smile, one that looked particularly haunting on her stony face, and tried to sound confident as she assured her. "Yeah, just make sure that they each get one. All they have to do is eat it and in the morning, the switch will happen. It'll last 72 hours and hopefully by the end of that time, they'll have their shit together too. Or at least they'll be a little less annoying."
"Hopefully." L smiled, finally believing that maybe they would be able to pull this off. "So, they just wake up in each others' bodies? Don't get mad, but that sounds a little risky. Are you sure that this has worked before?"
G thrust the fortune cookies into L's hands and exclaimed "Yes, I'm sure! I wouldn't have suggested it if I wasn't certain and it's not risky. My grandmother was the best healer in her village and she did this stuff all the time. It's an old enchantment and it works. You have nothing to worry about. Now, what's your plan?"
"I'm going to take them inside and give them to a waiter. I'll give them a description of Beca and Aubrey and then I'll just sit back and watch."
"That should work. What if he gets confused and hands them to one of the other girls. What will you do then?" G asked, wanting to cover all of their bases.
L shook her head and murmured "Oh God, I don't know! Oh shit, I didn't think about that."
"Don't think about it then." G reassured her, not wanting her to freak out and put the whole mission in limbo. "If it happens, we'll take care of it but it's not going to and you need to chill out. You should get in there and get this started, but I'll text you tomorrow once it all goes down. Good luck."
L nodded as G slipped back into the shadows of the building and said "Yeah, I'm going to need it."
L walked into the restaurant and fished through her wallet for some money to bribe the waiter with. When she found a $20 bill buried underneath some change, she searched for a waiter and smiled when she saw a young man placing place mats onto a table marked reserved. It had ten chairs placed around it and L knew that it was for the Bellas.
She touched the young man on the arm and asked "Hi, is this table reserved for the Barden Bellas?"
"Yeah, what's it to you?" The young waiter smiled, obviously flirting with the very beautiful girl that stood in front of him. Score!
"I can make it worth your while to do something for me." L held the bill out while smiling teasingly. Two can play at this game, perv. Prepare to meet the master of flirtation!
The man reached out for the bill, but L took it back and said "First, listen up and then you can have it. I'm eating dinner here with my friends in a little while and I need you to make sure that they get one of these fortune cookies. They're very special and it's important that they each get one of them."
"Special? Are these drugged?" The waiter asked while looked down at the cookies. "It's going to take more than $20 for me to let that happen. I really don't care what you do, but I think the health department and my uncle that owns this place would be pretty pissed if something creepy went down. You're not going to kill them or rape them or something?"
"No! Do I look like a psycho?"
The young man smirked and was about to say something sarcastic, when L cut him off. "Don't say anything, that was a rhetorical question. I'm their friend and they just have a special fortune inside of them. It's a surprise and if I gave them the cookies it would spoil everything. If I give you a description of the girls, could you make it happen? Please?"
She flashed him puppy dog eyes and he wiped off the table, pondering it for a second as she grinned at him. He couldn't say no to a face like that and gave it a few more anxious moments before he answered. "Okay, I'll do it. You have to promise me though that nothing bad will happen. I seriously don't want to get in trouble, even if it is over a pretty girl."
"You won't, I promise." L smiled while handing him the money. "So, the first girl's name is Beca and she's tiny. She's like five feet nothing and she has brown hair and lots and lots of eye shadow. She'll most likely be wearing scary boots and weird earrings and flannel. Definitely some flannel. Do you got that?"
"A short, grunge girl. That's not too hard. Who's next?"
"You're doing great!" L grinned while patting him on the shoulder. This wasn't that hard after all! "The other girl's name is Aubrey and she's tall, taller than me, and she has blonde hair and she's really pretty. You might not think so when you see her though because she also looks pissed off most of the time, but she's just really stressed. She'll be in a dress and if I know Aubrey, it'll be coordinated with her shoes and purse. So, who are you looking for?"
The man rolled his eyes and sarcastically replied "A grunge girl and a Stepford wife. I think I can handle that. I'll just keep these separate and at the end of the meal, I'll pass the cookies out to each member of your party. Usually we just put them with the bills, but I'll make an exception for you. Can I get your name too?"
L just smirked, cocking an eyebrow and kissing his cheek, before she turned around and teased "That's for me to know and you to never find out. Thanks, handsome!"
And so the plan was hatched. In exactly twenty minutes, the Barden Bellas would be dining and laughing and enjoying themselves in the small bistro. L would be keeping cool and everything would be perfect. If it all went to plan, they would be done in an hour and then off to a local bar for karaoke and even more fun.
Fun. That was the operative word in this whole plan. L knew that this wouldn't be any fun for her, but it needed to happen. Beca and Aubrey were aca-annoying and this had to work. It just had to.
A/N: What do you think? I've never done anything like this before, but I couldn't stop myself when I saw this prompt on Tumblr. I wish I knew who came up with it though so I could give them some credit.
Anyway, who do you think G and L are? They won't be revealed until the end, but I've probably made it aca-obvious...
