CHAPTER ONE: Meeting Lucy

A petite girl stepped out of the yellow taxi, dressed in a blue flannel with a gray tank top underneath, dark-wash skinny jeans, and a pair of converse. She walked to the trunk of the vehicle, grabbing her laptop bag, leaving the rest of her luggage for the university's carriers.

"Hi there! Welcome to Barden University!" a blonde girl appeared out of nowhere, "What dorm?"

"Oh, um, Baker Hall," Beca answered.

"Right," the blonde chirped, "now what you're going to do is–"

Okay, boring. Beca thought as she tuned out the girl, looking around, taking in the campus. Then, a car pulled up next to her, the backseat window was rolled down, revealing a boy with curly brown hair singing Carry On My Wayward Son. He noticed her outside his window and turned to face her, still singing, adding an air guitar to match. She watched him with a smirk and amused eyes, internally laughing when the car took off again and he was slammed back into his seat due to the force. Weirdo.

Beca turned back to the blonde just as she finished her rambling, handing Beca a campus map and the official BU rape whistle, advising her to not use it unless it's actually happening. Beca took the item into her mouth, walking away from the girl. Somebody had one too many cups of coffee this morning. She made her way to Baker Hall and into her room, where she found a dark-haired girl lounging on one of the beds.

"Hey! You must be Beca. I'm Lucy," the girl greeted politely, closing the book she was reading, hopping off the bed.

"Nice to meet you, Lucy," Beca replied, dropping her bags on the spare bed. At least I didn't get stuck with a weird ass roommate. "When did you get here?"

"A few hours ago. I didn't even bother unpacking yet." She pointed to her suitcases in the corner. "Are you going to the Activities Fair?"

"Oh yeah, there's an Activities Fair," Beca realized, "Mind if I tag along with you, if you're going? I don't know anyone here."

"Yeah!" Lucy responded. "I don't know anyone either. All my friends went off to either Harvard or Tennessee State. When do you want to leave?"

Beca looked around the room, debating whether she should unpack first. Fuck it. "Now, I guess."

"Great!" Lucy says excitedly. "Let's go!"

Beca and Lucy walked toward the quad, which was filled with booths and banners, talking and getting to know each other.

"I'm studying pre-med," Lucy said. "It runs in the family. Mom is a nurse, dad's a surgeon. My brother is studying for his PhD at Dartmouth."

"Wow," Beca breathed, "that's a lot to live up to."

"Yeah," Lucy shrugged, "but it's not like I hate medicine, ya know? I really do want to be a doctor."

Beca smiled, "It's nice to have a dream, huh?"

"Yeah," Lucy laughed. "What about you?"

"I was raised to believe dreams were impractical," Beca said cryptically, walking to a booth that caught her eye.

"Excuse me?" Lucy shouted after her, confused. "You're telling me you don't have a dream?"

"No, I'm telling you I was raised to think that dreams were impractical. I never said anything about not having one," Beca explained, picking up a pamphlet from the table.

"What's your dream then?"

Beca read over the pamphlet for a moment before holding it up for Lucy to read the bold letters of the front page: Barden Dance Company.

"Dancing," Beca smiled simply.

"Are you two interested in joining our dance company?" a tall blonde asked, walking up to the two.

"Not me," Lucy replied before pointing to Beca, "she is."

The blonde turned back to Beca with a smile, reaching out her hand. "I'm Melanie, captain of the Barden Dance Company."

Beca took the girl's outstretched hand and shook it, "Beca."

"BDC is a state-known modern dance company. We meet three times a week: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. We perform throughout the southeastern region, and we also have gigs now and then," Melanie informed. "Plus, if you're a member, you get studio time whenever you want."

Beca smiled politely, waving her pamphlet before walking away with Lucy, "I'll see you at auditions."

Further into the day, Beca had picked up two more flyers. One was for an internship at the university's radio station and the other flyer advertised an acappella singing group, The Barden Bellas.

"Hi, any interest in joining our acappella group?" a redhead asked as Beca and Lucy were walking by, handing them a flyer.

"Oh, right!" Lucy said. "This is like a thing now."

"Oh, totes!" the redhead agreed. "We sing covers of songs without any instruments. It's all from our mouths."

"Yikes," Beca mumbled, arching her eyebrows, and Lucy silently laughed beside her.

The redhead continued, "There are four groups on campus: The Bellas–that's us, The BU Harmonics–they sing a lot of Madonna, The High Notes–they're not particularly motivated, and then there's The Trebles. So, are you interested?"

Beca opened her mouth, but she couldn't find the right words. "Sorry, it's just... it sounds really lame."

"Aca-scuse me?" the blonde finally spoke. "Synchronized lady dancing to a Mariah Carey chart topper is not lame."

"We sing all over the world and we compete in national championships," the redhead added.

"On purpose?" Lucy asked, jokingly, elliciting a stifled laughter from Beca.

"We played at the Cob-Energy Performing Arts Center, you bitch," the blonde stated. Beca and Lucy both raised their eyebrows at the unexpected retort.

"What Aubrey means to say," the redhead jumped in, covering her friend's outburst, "is that we are a close-knit, talented group of ladies whose dream is to return to the national finals at Lincoln Center this year. Help us turn our dreams into a reality?"

Beca eyes widened as Lucy bit on her lips, both undoubtedly thinking about what it's like to have a dream. Finally, after some thinking and neither of them saying a word, Beca smiled kindly and said, "I'll take the flyer," before walking away with Lucy.

After walking around some more, The Barden Cheer Squad had Lucy hooked with their impressive routine of backflips and splits. Beca found out that Lucy was on her high school's gymnastic team in her freshman year, and she had made tryouts for the school's cheer team three years afterward. When the sun came down, they had dinner at the university's diner, talking animatedly about how excited they were about starting college. After dinner, Beca could have sworn she saw a familiar face walk into the diner with his friend as she and Lucy were paying for their respective meal, but she didn't want to think much on it.

Beca finished her quick email to her aunt, grabbed the pamphlet she acquired today off her desk, and plopped onto her bed. Lucy had fallen asleep an hour prior, claiming to be exhausted from today's fun. She opened the piece of paper again for the umpteenth time, reading the words over before letting sleep consume her:

Auditions!

Friday, September 16, 2012

or

Saturday, September 17, 2012

3:30 PM

Barden's Dance Studio

Hey there, this is my first story so go easy on me, will ya?
I don't know about you guys, but when I watched Pitch Perfect for the first time, I was more intrigued with the dance routine than the singing.
Then, one morning, I just woke up with this idea in my head and I've been planning it out ever since!
Let me know what y'all think! Thanks for reading!