AN: Thank you for all those views and PMs. I'm glad you all like the story :) This entire chapter is based on my version of how things went at the activities fair. I'm sorry if it looks like I'm dragging out the story all I can say is, it might be worth the wait. :)
If she thought studying on the quad was bad, the activities fair was worse. There was a huge crowd of people at every booth. The older students were gathering around trying to woo in the newbies to join them. There were the average frat boys shouting out their slogans in order to attract pledgers, the nerds with their clever booths of Hogwarts or LOTR, the recreations people showing off their flexibility and abs and then there were the singers. Beca had although 'gone with her super-close friend Kimmy Jin' to the fair, her roommate had disappeared the minute they entered the crowd. She spotted Kimmy Jin at the Korean Association stall whose subtitle was 'Korean or GTFO'. Talk about racism, she shook her head and casually began walking through the crowd, hoping to find somewhere she can fit in.
A frat girl stepped in front of her and smiled so hard that Beca could see all 32 of her pearly whites, from the incisors to the molars. "Hi there! Phi Theta Kappa is an international honor society that provides members with many opportunities and I personally feel that all new students should strive to reach the academic standards to gain acceptance into this organization. If you have a 4.0 GPA you can join our sisterhood right now." She tilted her head and the smile never left her face. For a second, Beca thought she was looking at the live version of the 'Overly Attached Girlfriend" meme.
"Do I look like I have a 4.0 GPA?" The brunette raised her brow and smirked at the girl who looked baffled.
"Excuse me, alt girl. I was talking to her," she threw her head to the other side and flipped her hair then pointed at a barbie girl who was standing beside Beca the entire time.
"Ok then. Does she look like she has a 4.0 GPA?" Beca laughed shaking her head and pushed past the two idiots. Her eyes followed along the booth signs as she hoped she would find something worthwhile. She caught the sign 'Barden DJ's' and paced towards it. At last, someplace she could be comfortable. However, the sight before her crushed the jumpy feeling she had. DJ's was apparently an abbreviation for "Deaf Jews".
"Shalom!" The guy behind the booth greeted her pleasantly and the short girl simply smiled.
"That's not a real word but keep tryin'. You will get there." It was hard not to laugh after hearing that. Beca tilted her head towards the right and saw a rather over-weight girl, with "I don't give a shit" attitude. The heavier girl looked the short, brown haired, alt girl up and down and then flashed a toothy grin at her.
"Not a lot of Jewish people, where you're from?" Beca said stifling her laughter.
"Uh. No I did do Fiddler on the Roof, though. In high school." She leaned against the booth table and nodded. "It was, like, me and some Aboriginals. It was really Jewish."
Okay, Beca thought and shook her head, grinning goofily. There was a possibility she had found someone she could get along. She wasn't exactly a mute when it came to talking to people, she just considered it was best to avoid them. Especially those bubbly cheery girls. This girl however had a sense of humour and if she were Beca's friend, the 5 years won't be so horrid.
"I'm Beca. What's your name?" The honey-eyed girl extended her hand politely trying to seem courteous.
"Fat Amy." She chimed in looking at Beca's hand weirdly. "Do you want to shake hands? In Tasmania we fist bump people in the face if we like them but that's how we have a lot of toothless people in Tasmania."
"Ok no hands. You call yourself Fat Amy?" Beca retracted her hand and could barely control the fit of hysteric laughter that was threatening to erupt.
"Yeah so skinny bitches like you don't do it behind my back." Fat Amy stated as a matter-of-fact.
If Beca wasn't laughing so hard, she would have been offended. "Alright then Fat Amy it is." She snickered.
"So since we're like super close friends now, will you come check out this booth with me?" Fat Amy looked at her excitedly and already began dragging her by the arm. Fat Amy bulldozed through the crowd while Beca clutched her arm, clinging for her dear life.
"This is so beautiful I'm gonna cry." Fat Amy squealed coming to a halt and Beca tried to catch breath.
"What…huh?" Beca bent forth and grabbed her knees then lifted her head staring at the banner above the booth, 'Sing till You Drop'.
"Sing till you Drop is the coolest thing ever. A pair of singers compete for the trophy and a possible record deal in the collegiate Sing Till You Drop competition. The boy duo from Treblemakers of Bumper and Donald wins every time. But not this year. I'm going to finish them both like a cheesecake." Fat Amy ogled at the booth as she told the shorter girl all this in a breath.
"If you want to win, then audition for the Bella's." The animated voice seemed to emitting from underneath the booth table. Both, Beca and Fat Amy leaned forward and tried to look behind.
"OW!" The table bumped up a little followed by the sound of wincing. After a second of huffing and wincing, a girl stood up from behind the table and looked at them beamingly. The flaming red hair. Beca recognized the girl in an instant and it seemed it wasn't one sided because the girl stared at her for a long time.
"Uhm can your love at first sight wait? I need to sign up and then go to bathroom. I've been holding a bucket-load of pee since I first came on campus." Fat Amy coughed and tapped the table slightly, causing the blue-eyed redhead to jolt back in surprise and look at the other girl who was standing next to Beca.
"I'm so sorry. Hi I'm Chloe. I'm a Bella!" She bubbled with excitement and placed the sign-up sheet in front of Fat Amy.
"I bumped into you today." She uttered and looked at Beca again who was still taken aback by Fat Amy's comment. What the hell was she talking about?
"Huh," she refocused and looked at the taller girl who had introduced herself as Chloe. "Oh yeah. You did. I almost fell too." She nodded holding back her smile and trying to look unyielding but the guilty expression on the redhead's face made the smile come on reflexively. "I was joking. It was no biggie. Although I didn't think you noticed considering you were in such a hurry." She shrugged.
"I did." Chloe blurted out and for a second it seemed she regretted her words. "I mean I looked back and saw, um, you. I was going to come back and apologize but you were gone." Her voice was cheery but Beca could see a faint hint of red burning against her pink blush-on.
"Oh." It was all Beca could manage given how awkward the situation was getting.
"Sorry to interrupt again guys," Fat Amy looked at them and her lips twisted into a sly grin, "But I was wondering if you can tell me more about how this works. The auditions and all."
"Oh yeah totes," Chloe seemed relieved and looked over at Fat Amy. "So there are four groups on campus. The Bella's, that's us. We're the tits." She winked. "The BU harmonics. They sing a lot of Madonna. The High Notes. They're not particularly motivated. And finally the…Treblemakers" She gritted her teeth. "Basically 20 duos, five from each group have a riff-off and a total of 8 are selected, two from each group, to compete against other colleges at Lincoln Center. The High Notes rarely compete so it's usually just 6. Auditions are solo and you're teamed up with someone later." Chloe smiled and took the sign sheet from Fat Amy.
"I'll see you at auditions…Fat Amy?" Chloe stared at the sheet and rubbed her eyes as if trying to make sure she had read correctly. She looked up bemused but Fat Amy was already gone.
"Where'd she go?" Beca looked around confused as to why Fat Amy would drag her here and then leave her just like this.
"Probably went to pee." The ginger shrugged and placed the sheet before Beca. "But its aca-awesome we got two cool people for the Bella's after being at the stall for just 5 minutes. Aubrey would be stoked. The Bu Harmonics who were here before us just got one in two frigging hours" She squeaked and even though her voice was one of the cheery voices that annoyed Beca, the brunette however didn't seem to mind it at all.
"Um I'm not signing up. No offence this is just lame." Beca shrugged and stuffed her hands in the pocket of her waist coat. Chloe face drooped into a sad expression and the brunette felt a sudden pang of guilt in her stomach for being the cause of that sadness.
A hand came out of nowhere and snatched the sign-up sheet out of Beca's hand. "Aca-scuse me?"
Both, the ginger and the brunette, turned to look at the intruder with the voice and the hand.
"Aubrey…" Chloe winced but the blonde was too busy glaring at Beca to pay any attention to her. "We performed at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, you bitch. We even sang back up for Prince once!" She stepped threateningly close to Beca and pierced her honey coloured eyes with her daggering greens.
"Woah." Beca backed her head and sneered. "It was really nice to meet you." She turned her face towards Chloe and smiled, "but I don't even sing so...yeah sorry." She avoided looking at the blonde and began walking away.
"You're too alt for us anyway!" Aubrey shouted and Beca grinned to herself. First day and she had found, a weird boy who sang to her, a racist roommate, a friend who had ditched her in an awkward situation, a bubbly red-head who should have been something very annoying but she had taken some sort of likeness to her and finally a blonde who looked at her like she was sour milk.
She didn't feel like seeing the rest of the activities fair anymore, but she knew if she wanted to save up for LA, she needed to get at least one job. Sighing to herself, she went from one stall to the other. From random naked dudes dancing to girls in high school cheer-leading outfits, she had seen it all. The radio station was an option but the intern positions had been already filled and it wasn't a paid job anyway. The only two viable options were joining the cafeteria kitchen staff or the janitorial team. Both of which paid substantial money. She debated over the two choices in her head, weighing out the pros and cons and ultimately ruled in favour of the kitchen staff, solely because it would be less disgusting to cook for other people than to scrub the toilets. She hurried to the last row of the stalls where the crowd had evaporated to a mere eight or nine people. Spotting the kitchen staff booth, she rushed forward and signed it without looking at anyone and grabbed the job pamphlet of the table before hurrying away to her dorm.
Her first day had not been an entirely great experience. She could only hope the next day would be better.
AN: So no radio job. My apologies to all those who were looking forward to that scene. The kitchen job fits more into my plot. I'm sort of a pessimist at heart so I do not believe in love at first sight. Hence the "no instant bechloe omg i love you feels". Sorry about that too. I'll try to keep the AN's brief but sometimes I need to point out things like "NO DISRESPECT TO FAT PEOPLE OR KOREANS." Anyway I hope you like the chapter. Next one will hopefully be posted tomorrow. Don't forget to like and Review :)
