After Barden

by Stuckinmycocoon

Chloe worries that they'll lose touch after graduation, and determines to be the glue that keeps them together if that is what is needed. These are short, yearly drabbles from Chloe's perspective about what happens in the five years after the Bellas all graduate, during which Beca plays a big role. Canon compliant through PP2.

2. The First Year

The First Year

Chloe settled into her bartending with a fair amount of ease. Years of mixing drinks at parties had prepared her surprisingly well, and it suited her outgoing personality. Also, the tips were good. It was just about enough to move out on, but after a long discussion with her mother and a separate one with her father, she decided to save instead for a year and see where she was at. Sure, bartending wasn't all fun and games, like the times she had to clean up vomit, or the people who threatened her when she cut them off but she could usually flirt her way out of any mess. Except for the one time when that one man almost….better not think about the bad stuff and he was banned from coming back anyway.

She really enjoyed her volunteer work at the afterschool program. The elementary school she was working at didn't have the money for a music program, or to pay the salary of a music teacher, or to buy any instruments. Fortunately, with a background in a cappella, Chloe didn't need instruments to make music. She started an a cappella choir, and the kids loved it.

She gushed about it when she talked about it to the other Bellas. She bragged to Emily how her kids' choir could beat Emily's Bellas. She reminisced with CR about being that old and being in a kids' choir. She told Stacie that it was almost like being part of the Bellas again, like she never truly left. Aubrey called her their fearless leader, and said she could lead them to ICCAs, if only they were in college. Fat Amy wanted to know if they needed a mascot, if only she were back in the States. And Beca helped her come up with setlists over Skype, and it almost felt like they were back in the Bella house, doing it together for all those years.

She heard about Beca's conquests in L.A. too. How she started DJing at small clubs before getting bigger gigs. How her contacts at Residual Heat in Atlanta finally paid off in getting her a job with a producer in L.A. and how it only took seven months, with a Beca-patented eye roll. And Chloe was really happy for Beca. She knew she could do it. She was really going somewhere.

And that is why she wasn't upset when Beca started to get slower to respond to emails, and how she didn't have time to Skype as much anymore, leaving Chloe to manage the setlists on her own in the last months. But no matter, she had an excellent teacher in mash-ups after all.