Chapter 1

It was the third round of the Riff Off, and only the Bellas and the Trebles remained. As the wheel landed on "anthems" Aubrey immediately thought she had this in the bag. Before anyone else did anything, she stepped forward and started singing.

As the first few lyrics from Van Halen's "Jump" echoed around the empty pool, she was met by stark silence from her teammates. Noticing that the other Bellas hadn't joined in, Aubrey turned to look at them and Fat Amy gave her a shrug, indicating that she didn't know the lyrics. Deciding to keep on trying, she turned back to where the opposition leader, Bumper was staring at her, a demeaning smirk on his face.

Aubrey kept on going, singing the next line.

"Come on princess, just give up." Bumper snarled from a few meters away. That's when Aubrey started feeling the bile rise up her throat, and before she knew it her projectile vomit was making a classic bombarding appearance.

The pool erupted with disgusted screams and Aubrey ran off, climbing the wall and running out of the pool precinct. She ran until she reached the outside of the building and slumped down against the wall in the wet grass.

As she wiped the remnants of the vomit from her mouth and hid her face in her hands she heard a voice. The voice came closer as it continued on from where she'd left off with the song.

Jesse continued singing as he approached the blonde, he offered his hand. Aubrey stared up at it for a few seconds before he just grabbed her arm.

He got into the chorus as he pulled her off the ground. A smile graced his lips as he held both the blonde's hands.

It was quiet for a while before she pulled him into a tight hug.

"That was so embarrassing." She mumbled into his chest as he tried to figure out what to do since they weren't that close. Eventually he just hugged her back, holding her tightly in his arms.

"Great song choice though, blondie."

Aubrey just groaned as she tried to hide from the embarrassment, not even stopping to wonder why the dark-haired freshman was comforting her.

"Aren't you supposed to be flirting with Beca?" Aubrey eventually said as she pulled away from Jesse and wiped the tears that had made their way onto her face. Before he could respond she added, "which by the way is against the Bellas code."

Jesse chuckled, "I wanted to see if you were okay." He said with a kind smile. Aubrey noticed the way his smile complimented his face and somewhat wished he would keep smiling at her the way he was.

She nodded, "I'm fine. Just a little stressed," the blonde smiled. "And embarrassed," she added with an awkward laugh and a glance at the ground.

"Hey," Jesse stepped closer to her, lifting her head to look at him, "you sang beautifully."

"Uh," Aubrey was almost never at a loss for words, "t-thank you Jesse." He smiled at her before stepping back a bit and she noticed something change in his expression.

"I better get back to Bec-, uh, the party." He smiled, a little more awkwardly than before, and walked back towards the pool.

Aubrey nodded before turning to walk away, that is until she realised she'd left her jacket and purse at the pool. Turning around she caught up to Jesse.

"Jesse, wait!" He stopped and looked at her.

"Forget something?" The brown-haired boy asked nonchalantly.

Aubrey just nodded and they continued their walk to the pool in silence. When they reached it they saw some of the Bellas hanging out on the edge of the pool, almost each of them with some sort of alcohol in hand, nothing too excessive obviously.

"Bree!" Chloe yelled as she ran towards her best friend. "Are you okay?" She asked, the concern evident in her voice as she put her hands on each of Aubrey's shoulders.

"I'm fine, Chlo." She said with a smile. "Sorry about earlier, you know with the vo-"

Chloe cut her off, "it's fine," she said with a sympathetic smile, "join the party." The energetic redhead said as she grabbed Aubrey's hand and led her to where the other Bellas were gathered.

"We forgive you, blondie." Fat Amy's strong Australian twang resonated above all else. A series of approving sounds were heard from the other Bellas. As Chloe handed her a drink Aubrey leaned over to her best friend,

"Hey Chlo," she said quietly.

"Yeah?" The redhead replied as she took a sip of the beer in her hand.

"I was actually thinking of heading off, I just came back for my stuff."

Chloe made a sound somewhere between a groan and a sigh, "nooo Bree! I don't wanna stay here without you."

Aubrey groaned, "I have to talk to you about something, please Chlo."

Chloe looked at her friend, smiling a little smile, "ooh, what is it? Is it about that Treb-" Aubrey grabbed the redhead's arm and pulled her up.

"Shh." She hissed as she grabbed her jacket and purse. Chloe giggled and grabbed her stuff too.

"Alright, we're heading off girls." Aubrey announced and started walking off, pulling Chloe behind her.

The bubbly girl turned as Aubrey continued pulling her after her, "Aubrey wants to tell me somethi-"

With a sharp yank from Aubrey the redhead stopped talking and followed her out of the building, despite the calls and cheers from the Bellas.