Hey readers! Thank you for showing interest in my story!
Basically, this story is right after Pitch Perfect 2 and it different than the plot of the 3rd movie. This is kind of an ode back to the first movie in the sense that just about everyone is back at Barden and it's some good old Bellas vs. Treblemakers kinda deal, except more focused on Emily and her being the leader.
I hope you enjoy my story :)
I looked up again from the radio for the first time in over a solid 45 seconds, my eyes scanning the rest of everyone's' faces; all of which were filled with controlled anticipation and with their eyes glued to the radio as we listened carefully.
Chloe was on my left, with Fat Amy on the other side of her and finally Aubrey next to Amy.
Beca was on my other side and I was gripping her hand so tight that my knuckles were turning the color of a piece of paper.
I figured I was probably annoying her to death, but she could deal with it. After all, I was allowing them to stay at the house and still be in the Bellas. Although not that I had much of a choice.
Well, I did have a choice since Chloe and Bella officially transferred the Pitch Pipe, and therefore the Bella leadership, to me. And since I was the only one not graduating, there was no one else to argue with any decision I made.
However, Chloe offered to stay another year to help me since I was young to be leading the Bellas. There had never been a sophomore in Bella history that held the role of leader and I had no one to help me, so I accepted her offer and she enrolled in some silly, pointless GenEd class to stay at the college.
Beca, Amy, and eventually Aubrey seemed to like the idea and also offered to help me for one more year, and I agreed to them as well. I knew they meant well and did want to help me, but I also knew that they didn't really trust me to be able to handle my new Bella team by myself.
On one hand, they were absolutely correct. I certainly had no idea how to lead a whole a capella team and it would be even worse if I was by myself with nobody to help. I would have to hold auditions by myself, bare annoying Trebles by myself, come up with dance and song numbers by myself…
Just the thought about all of that gave me a migraine.
Not to mention that I enjoyed their company. Chloe had always been extremely kind to me and still was, obviously. Despite her getting mad at me after the riff-off, she was almost like a big sister to me. Aubrey was a bit more intimidating and I didn't know her as well, but she seemed nice and polite enough and was like another big sister to me. Beca and I were close and I would always come to her with song ideas: and, surprisingly, she'd listen. I guess I never really expected her to be so open to my ideas due to her standoffish nature and my eagerness when it came to just about everything. And Amy...well, Amy was great despite her calling me dumb or stupid in many occasions. I still appreciated her nonetheless.
And also, in a funny way, I knew they needed me. I could tell that they were all hesitant to move on and Aubrey, although she had her job at the camp, enjoyed spending time and competing with the Bellas; or, at least a few of them. The rest of them-Cynthia Rose, Lilly, Stacie, Ashley, Flo, and Jessica-moved on and got started with their own lives and jobs. It had only been a few months since their graduation, as summer was just about over and the school year was starting in less than a week. But they all still had their lives under control as of now. Beca, Amy, Chloe, and Aubrey, on the other hand, didn't and needed at least one more year with the Bellas to truly move on. I had no quarry with it and I respected their decision to stay. I had no room to speak on what their choices were; they were older than me and I didn't want to judge.
At the end of it all, however, them being so eager and quick to help made me feel a bit insecure.
They were here to help, of course, but to me it felt like they were just here to babysit me and make sure I didn't screw up their powerhouse of an a capella group. I knew they didn't trust me to handle everything by myself but, like I said, I didn't necessarily blame them. Though that didn't change the fact that it still made me extremely insecure.
Nevertheless, I also chose Beca to be my co-captain, although she told me she would only intervene if I really needed it. All of them would help with minor stuff and Beca was going to be mainly in charge of song arrangements, but auditions, costumes, choreography, and other major stuff relied heavily on me. Chloe, Aubrey, and Fat Amy were all content with my decision to make Beca my co-captain, which made me feel at ease. At first, I was a bit worried Chloe wouldn't like the choice, but she assured me it was alright and that she would give me a chance at running the Bellas, as did Aubrey.
Amy didn't really seem to care that I was now the leader which made it easier.
"A bit too tight there," Beca said and took her hand from my nearly-iron grip. She shook it out and gave me an easy, friendly scoff. "I was about to lose circulation."
"Sorry," I laughed nervously. "I'm just so freaking nervous." I admitted, snapping out of my thoughts and focusing on the here-and-now.
The five of us were currently awaiting mine and Beca's song on the campus radio station, as the DJ down there promised to play it as a favor to Fat Amy. For what that 'favor' was, I had no idea and I did not want to know, but she told us last week and we had been looking forward to it since then.
Actually, it was mainly I who had been looking forward to it.
Although it wasn't entirely what Beca wanted, due to the fact that it wasn't a real radio station and that the only reason it was being played was because of some favor, but I saw it as a great opportunity for people to hear some of my work.
I made it clear that it was such a big step for us that we made it into a little party, so to speak. Aubrey bought some cheap champagne and we had drank nearly all of it while waiting for the song to play.
"Why're you nervous?" Chloe asked with a tilt of the head.
"I-I don't even know," I stuttered, chuckling through my anxiety. It was the truth—I had absolutely no idea why I was so nervous. I was pale and edgy while everyone else was relatively calm aside from a bit of anticipation. Maybe it was because of just some anxiety or maybe I was worried this was a bit too good to be true. Waiting for my song on the radio, surrounded by ladies that I loved like sisters. It didn't get much better than this. However, I quickly came up with an excuse. "I think it's just the drink."
That was a poor excuse and everyone knew it, since the only reason I was drinking the drink was to calm my nerves; not excite them.
"Lightweight," Amy coughed under her breath, to which Aubrey and Beca snickered, and I glanced to her due to her comment. Although she looked back down, acting as if she had said nothing.
"It's ok," Chloe said with a friendly smile, misreading my still-nervous face for one of embarrassment at Amy's comment. "I was a lightweight too, back when I was around 13 or 14." She looked up with a smile, internally reminiscing. "I remember those days."
I just shook my head while hiding my smirk of minor disbelief, and looked to the radio again.
"How is your liver still functioning?" Beca asked and Chloe's pitch in voice raised in confusion.
"What do you mean? You didn't start drinking before college?"
"Yeah, at 17 I think—not middle school," Beca scoffed and I could heard Chloe about to say something else, but the radio interrupted her once the present song ended.
"This is Brandon from 85.7: Music for the Independent Mind," the person over the radio said and Chloe giggled.
"Remember when you used to work there?" she asked, presumably talking to anyone but me as I had never even worked there and was still staring at the radio.
"Yeah," Beca laughed back. "Too bad Luke isn't there anymore, he-"
"Shhh!" I hushed quickly which was just in time.
"We're going to, uh, kick off this hour with some low-key, not well known music. From 3:00-4:00 today, you're with Brandon Marino, here on 85.7."
"He said 3:00, right?" Aubrey asked Amy. I looked to her fervently and she nodded slowly, a confused look on her face.
"Yeah, but that isn't-" Amy tried to say, but I made an eager and indistinguishable noise from my mouth to shush her.
"Expand some of your, hm...horizons out there, yeah?"
I grabbed Beca's hand again and squeezed it tight, giving a little squeal and beginning to laugh.
"Em," Beca said in a bit of a groan in regards to her hand, but I ignored her and continued to clench onto her hand. The radio host said one more thing, but I was already imagining hearing my song that I didn't even hear what he said. For a second, I thought I heard 'Flashlight' play.
A smile crept along my face as I had fooled myself into believing our song was playing. This was finally the moment I had been waiting for my whole life: this was going to be my big break and my chance for others to hear what I was capable of. All my hard work of writing music and countless nights of staying up late to do so was about to finally pay off. I would finally have something to be proud of and would finally have something to help me stand out.
However, after a few seconds, my delusion faded and I came to the realization that the song playing on the radio was not mine and Beca's song.
It was some random song that I had never heard of and would've never even bothered to listen to if I wasn't anticipating my song and listening to this station.
As I continued to listen to this song that I expected to be mine, my stomach began to twist in an unpleasant way and my knees began to feel weak. My heart felt like it had just dropped into my pelvis and my throat began to tighten.
I knew I wanted to cry due to the sheer disappointment and the brutality of the let down, but I glanced up and saw my four sisters watching me carefully. They all had worried and cautious expressions painted upon their faces. Even Amy—who I would've expected to make some snide comment about my sad mood—had her eyebrows slightly slanted upwards in pity.
"Aw, Legacy," she said quietly as Chloe hugged me, rubbing my back in an attempt to comfort me. Them coddling me made me want to cry even more, but my sense of embarrassment took over and I broke the hug from Chloe politely, giving them all a forced smile.
"It's not a big deal," Beca said nonchalantly with a shrug, although she didn't mean to be nonchalant in a bad way. She knew how much this meant to me as I had been talking about it nearly nonstop for the past week. "Their loss."
"Yeah," I forced a laugh through my smile and sighed, nodding. "Yeah, you're right." I nodded again and quickly grabbed the champagne bottle from the counter and took a swig straight from it to calm myself down. I saw Amy raise an eyebrow out of the corner of my eye in surprise.
Once I removed the bottle from my lips, I gave them all another nod and made it look more confident. "You're totally right. It's not a big deal and it's their loss that they aren't playing it. We made a...kick-ass song. Their loss!"
"Exactly," Chloe smiled.
"I thought you said it was some guy named Kaleb that owed you," Aubrey said, slightly changing the subject and looking over to Fat Amy. I took another swig of the champagne and just polished off the rest of the bottle, placing it on the counter once I finished.
"It was Kaleb," she answered with a shrug. "Not quite sure who this Brandon guy is, but I got a few heads to knock it seems."
I laughed, as I knew she was trying to make me do so in an attempt to lighten my spirits, and everyone else chuckled as well.
I knew deep down this was sort of my own fault. I tended to get overly excited over things and would expect the best out of almost any situation. It was a quality I was proud of and one I knew that others usually appreciated, but it had its downside.
Whenever something didn't turn out the positive way I expected, I felt so much disappointment and it always hit me like a wrecking ball and I hated how it felt. No matter what the disappointment was, it was always the same feeling and just now I had come to the realization that I had hated this feeling and I was done with it.
From this point on, I decided, I would try not to get too excited over something or get my hopes up to early in advance. I smiled a little to myself, confident that this new look on life would work out well for me and my quest to win Nationals this year.
I know—super short. I hope you all enjoyed this first chapter though. Please fav/follow/review!