Chloe Beale took a deep breath and faced herself in the mirror. She was still standing in the Bella's dressing room. The other girls had already left. She was alone and trying not to hyperventilate because not only was she in the Lincoln Centre for the ICCA's with the all female a capella group, The Barden Bella's, but she had just been horribly and bluntly dumped via text message. Chloe still clutched her iphone in a death grip with said text message still open on the screen.
[13.05] Shay – I can't do this any more. You're not the one for me. See you around.
It took everything in Chloe's body not to smash the phone on the floor. It had been expensive and she had to work hard to be to afford it, so she didn't. The text message could be easily deleted while the phone wouldn't be easy to replace. She sighed while rubbing her temples and closed the text message before she straightened herself up and met her own eyes in the mirror's reflection.
"You are a Beale. You are a Bella. You're damn right aca-amazing!" she said quietly to herself, failing miserably to convince herself that she was worth something at the moment. She felt her shoulders sag with misery when the lights in the dressing room began to flash signaling the two minute mark till the Bellas performed. "Fuck!" she squealed, grabbing her yellow and blue Bella scarf. "I'm so fucking dead!" Her wonderfully obvious inner voice told her as she began running towards backstage, heels clicking as she did.
Skidding to a halt, Chloe tugged the scarf around her neck in a hurry as she crept towards the rest of the Bellas and their impending doom. She couldn't help but chew her lip as she met the worried and somewhat nervous looking gaze of Aubrey Posen, her best friend and room-mate. She too was worrying her lip as Alice, the head Bella, gave her somewhat bitchy pep talk. Behind her, the Treblemakers where finishing up their rendition of Rhiannas "Please Don't Stop The Music". They where so screwed and everyone but Alice seemed to realize this.
"Chloe look at you! You're a mess. You're unfocused. You're unreliable," Alice directed her voice towards Chloe all of a sudden, she grabbed the Bella scarf from around Chloe's neck and began retieing it while the other Bella's began to surround them. "And your breath smells like egg. Like, all the time." Alice smirks in a far too bitchy way and she tightened the scarf a little too much for Chloe's liking. Alice stepped back and snapped her fingers towards Aubrey who stepped up beside her best friend looking as prim and together as always. "I can't believe the Bellas are being passed onto you two slut bags after we graduate." She gritted her teeth and turned her attention fully onto Aubrey. "Just don't fuck up your solo," she threatened, turning away as Aubrey gave one of her fathers bizarre quotes, to which Alice coldly told her to shut up. Aubrey squeaked quietly in shock and shot Chloe a look of pure terror. The red head forced a smile to try and calm her friend, her scarf still tightly wrapped around her neck.
"I'm fine," Aubrey muttered as Chloe gave her a questioning look and then plastered a large brilliantly fake smile across her face. They watched in silence as the Treblemakers finished their set, Bumper, their intolerable leader, being his usual douchey self as he came of the stage mocking them in a ridiculous manner. After their usual hands in and harmonizing circle, they headed out onto the stage.
Alice started them off breaking into Ace Of Base's "I Saw The Sign" while the rest of them synchronisingly danced their routine and harmonized. Both Alice and Aubrey had now taken over the solo, that's when hell broke loose and the Bellas lost the finals, brutally.
###
Beca Mitchell flicked the volume louder on her Mac successfully drowning out the sounds of her mother and her newest boyfriend a few rooms down the hall. She'd heard the same thing for years after her parents had broken up; she didn't need to hear it again. She clicked away at her mixing program, mashing together any and every song she came across, just to see what happened. It was her love, her life. She wanted to do this for the rest of her years: to go to LA, to mix, to DJ, to produce music.
It was her life, her drive, her passion. It kept her going through the divorce, through the endless line of new boyfriends, through the dwindling interest from her mother. As much as she disliked the idea, she'd jumped at the offer her father had given her: get out of her mothers house, attend Barden University, and maybe, just maybe, get her dad to set her up in LA afterwards. It was worth it in the long run, regardless of the pain it may cause in the middle. She left in four months, and her mother didn't even seem to give a damn when she told her.
Her life wasn't a sob story, but it wasn't a joy filled one either. She was the only child to Samantha and Michael Mitchell, the couple that weren't quite in love but weren't quite not in love. When Michael realized he could and did find someone better, he left. He didn't even take Beca with him. He left her with Samantha, the woman who worked 20 hours a week and spent the rest with a wine glass in her hand and a man 10 years her junior hanging off her hip.
A loud thump outside Beca's room jolted her out of her mixing and into the real world. She blinked and slipped her headphones off her head, eying her bedroom door that was plastered in its stickers and music posters.
"Mom?" she questioned and the door flung open, her clearly drunk mother stumbling through the door frame.
"Beca!" her mother called, trying to find her footing as she stood. "You playing with your music again? Itsss not gonna get you no where!" her mother slurred slightly, wobbling again.
"It gets me far enough from here though,' Beca shot back, smacking down the lip of the Mac and setting it off her knees and onto her unmade bed.
"Ha! I highly doubt that! You'll be back," her mother spat, dark blue eyes glaring at Beca. Beca hated how she shared the same eye color as her mother. She hated how she shared the same small, but sturdy frame as her mother and the same shade of hair color as her mother. She just generally hated how she resembled the woman who had given her life.
"Not if I'm gonna end up like you!" Beca yelled, clenching her fists tightly together.
"Urgh, your just as impossssible as that father of yours!" Samantha grumbled, swaying again. She lent back against the door frame of Beca's room, her eyes still glaring at Beca lazily.
"Samantha?" a male voice called from down the hall.
"Coming sweetie!" Samantha called and Beca glared harder, remembering her mother calling her that as a pet name when she was a small child. "When are you leaving again?" Her mother shot back at Beca.
"4 Months."
###
4 Months Later...
Beca had taken a plane into Georgia and now sat waiting for her taxi to turn up. She was surrounded by her luggage and her Mac was on her knees, a new mix in the works blaring through her headphones and drowning out the sounds of everyone else who milled around her. She hated airports. Surprisingly, since most people loved them. She hated how the crowds were huge, and there were always people hugging and crying and kissing and what not. There was too much noise, too much air pollution, just too much emotion in one building. Thus, the volume of her music. It was so loud she didn't even notice the taxi from "Decature Cab Company" pull up in front of her. The driver, an elderly man with a ragged white beard and a bald head, stepped towards her gingerly and spoke loudly.
"Beca Mitchell?" She jumped and slapped down her laptop lid.
"Yeah that's me," she muttered, tucking the Mac into its own bag and standing to help pack her stuff away.
Within the hour, the taxi had pulled into the Barden University campus, driving past students and parents, car after car, and huge buildings that looked more like castles than anything else. It was slightly intimidating and very, very busy. Beca hated busy. Crowds where not her thing, at all.
Finally, the Taxi came to a halt and she climbed out, rushing to the boot before the taxi driver could grab her Mac bag.
"I got it, thanks," she muttered and she tugged it free from the boot to then sling it over her shoulder. She stepped away from the taxi as older university student, who had appeared out of no where, started unpacking the boot of her stuff. Beca drew in a deep breath and scanned the area around her only to see more students unpacking cars with the help from older uni students in bright yellow and green polo shirts. The air smelt fresh though, not smoky like the airport. That was a plus.
As she tried to grab a quiet moment, another student jumped out of no where and started to rattle off some speal of how to get to her dorm, Baker Hall, and rape whistles. She was cute, but not in an over overwhelming way, just cute. Friendly. It was probably what got her the gig that she was doing. Beca found her mind wandering as the older girl continued to talk. The sound of Kansas playing drew her attention to the car that pulled up beside her. Inside, a boy, probably her own age, sang the words loudly and fluently.
"DON'T YOU CRY NO MORE!" He sung, catching sight of Beca and turning to face her as he air guitared in a dorkish manner. In seconds, he was gone, his parents, presumably, driving off towards his dorm block. She couldn't help but smirk as the boy was thrown around in the back of the car.
###
"I don't feel like it,"Chloe muttered, pulling a brush through her wavy red hair and then flattening her hands down the front of her dress. She had somehow let Aubrey convince her that staying with the Bellas and keeping it going was worth it, even after last year's disaster at the ICCAs.
"It'll be worth it, I promise!" Aubrey called out as she brushed her teeth in their bathroom. Chloe sighed and stepped out of her room, grabbing the satchel with Bellas' flyers and poking her head into the bathroom.
"Let's get it over with then," Chloe grumbled as Aubrey flashed her that brilliant smile again. Aubrey was in her favorite color today, a brilliant pink, with her blonde hair curled and flicking at the end, a look of pure determination on her face as she strode from the bathroom
"Come on, Chloe. Smile, we might even see something, or someone interesting!' Aubrey said with a far too cheery tone. Chloe simply sighed and headed out of their shared dorm. They where lucky that they had gotten each other as dorm mates and then progressed into friendship, it made rooming much easier and more open.
10 minutes later, they where at their pre-set up Barden Bellas booth handing, or at least trying to hand out flyers for their all female a capella group. As Aubrey surveyed the rest of the activities fair, she found herself watching the Treblemakers singing away behind them. Aubrey gritted her teeth and glared.
"I will stop at nothing to take those dick licks!" she said through gritted teeth as she turned away, her grip on her flyers tight enough to turn her knuckles white. Chloe found herself chewing her lip again, worried about her friends scary drive to destroy the all male group.
"Hey Barb!" Chloe called out as she spotted a girl who had auditioned several times for the Bellas but had been turned down by Alice each and every time. "You gonna audition this year? We have openings." A lot of openings, Chloe thought, remembering it was only her and Aubrey left. Barb laughed and shot them down with ease. Chloe came to realize that the words hurt and that she did care about being in the Bellas more than she realised. This was a travesty. They needed to be back on top, but with just the two of them, that was near, no, it was impossible.
"If we can't even recruit Baloney Barb then we can't get anybody!" Chloe muttered, worrying her lip again. It was a terrible habit that she couldn't help but do. Aubrey flicked her head back, her hair waving slightly, and took a deep breath. She oozed confidence, bringing herself to stand tall.
"Just take the dramatics down a notch okay?" Aubrey said softly, reaching over to pat Chloe on the shoulder. She was trying to convey support but sounded more peed off than anything else. Chloe took a deep breath and nodded as she followed Aubrey around to the other side of the booth.
"Well you're the one who got us into this hot mess," Chloe found herself speaking her thoughts aloud making Aubrey's tone became more annoyed.
"I am confident that we will find eight super hot girls with bikini-ready bodies who can harmonize and have perfect pitch. Okay?" Chloe stepped back a little as her friend snapped at her. She nodded and tried not to pull too much of a face as Aubrey continued to try and pawn off the Bella's flyers to anyone who passed.
An hour must have passed, at least, and only one person seemed interesting enough to Chloe to let into the Bellas. A plump Australian girl who called herself "Fat Amy", matched pitch perfectly, and had a decent sense of humor. She made Chloe smile with genuine entertainment for the first time in months. Fat Amy was going to get her vote even if she didn't get Aubrey's.
It was after Fat Amy had wandered off with a flyer in hand that Chloe saw her. The little alternative girl that Aubrey turned her nose up at. She was gorgeous. And Chloe was staring, almost too obviously. She was short, but not in a bad way, with skinny jeans, combat boots, a red vest and some sort of flowy cream waistcoat on. Her hair was such a dark brown color that Chloe want to call it chocolate and run her hands through it. Her throat went dry and she pointed her out to Aubrey while her eyes stayed trained on her during her approach. Chloe ignored her best friend and spoke to the girl, thrusting a flyer into her hands.
"Hi! Any interest in joining our a cappella group?" Chloe asked, her voice filled with confidence as the alternative girl took the flyer and laughed to herself.
"Oh, right. This is a thing now." Her voice was sweet and ran over Chloe's skin like velvet. Besides her, Aubrey grimaced and gritted her teeth while Chloe kicked her in the ankle to stop her.
"Oh totes!" Why did I say that! "We sing covers of songs but we do it without any instruments." Chloe kept eye contact the entire time, drowning in the deep, dark pools of blue that where the nameless girl's eyes. "It's all from our mouths!" Oh god, kill me now!
"Yikes!" the girl said, a sarcastic smirk plastered to her face. Chloe's defensive walls melted when she smirked. She wasn't over her breakup, but that smirk was pushing her to be over it quite easily. Chloe couldn't stop her word vomit as she launched into pointing out the other a cappella groups around them before asking the girl if she was interested. Chloe didn't catch her reply, but Aubrey clearly did as she launched into her defensive mode, calling the girl a bitch and driving her away. Chloe still couldn't take her eyes of the alt girl as she walked away, her eyes taking in the sight of the brunettes ass as she disappeared into the crowds.
Chloe clearly saw the sign.