Chapter Four: I Feel So Close To You

Chloe returned to the mansion's parlor, where Charlene was patiently waiting for her, while Beca scaled the east wall to return to her bedroom where she slept happily until noon, feeling more at peace than when she had awoken. Not surprisingly, the images that wove in and out of her subconscious were those of Chloe dancing under the shower of petals.

When the midday sun got too uncomfortably warm for her to bear, Beca pushed herself out of bed and strolled into the dining hall in the middle of everyone's lunch. Despite her lateness, there were a still number of empty seats, which told Beca that she wasn't the only one who decided to sleep in for the weekend. Aubrey, Jesse, and Luke, however, were not one of those people. Sitting at her usual place at the head of the table was Aubrey, with Jesse and Luke on either side of her, arguing about which the better 80's movie was, The Breakfast Club or St. Elmo's Fire.

"Hey!" Jesse greeted when he spot Beca approaching. "Wow! Good morning, Miss Sunshine!"

Luke chuckled and even Aubrey couldn't hold back an amused smirk.

"What?" asked Beca, clueless.

"What's got you all smiley today, Becs?"

"Oh." It was only then that Beca realized that the corners of her mouth were upturned and her cheeks were beginning to ache; she must have been smiling nonstop since waking up. Not wanting to reveal the reason why, she just shrugged it off and said, "I'm always happy when I wake up to food."

Three pairs of eyes watched her closely as she walked over to the buffet table and piled food onto her tray. The table was set against the large windows that, like her bedroom's, faced the gardens. Beca couldn't stop herself from smiling again when she saw that a few of the fallen flowers had made their way to the stone steps.

"Seriously, dude, you're freaking me out," said Jesse. "You're not normally this happy."

"Shut up." Beca rolled her eyes, taking the seat beside him and getting started on her lunch. Partly out of curiosity and partly to get Jesse off her back, she turned to the older two and asked, "So what do you guys do for fun around here during the weekends?"

Luke paused to swallow before answering, "What normal people do on weekends: chill out, do homework, or train. Sometimes we go out of town. Last year I had this mate from India and we tried to get a cricket team going on but not enough were interested. Aubrey here," Luke jerked his thumb toward the blonde, "tried to start all-female a cappella group but nobody wanted—"

"I'll join!" Jesse sputtered eagerly.

"What part of 'all-female a cappella' did you not understand?" asked Aubrey with a bemused expression.

To save himself from answering, Jesse lowered his head and shoved a forkful of food into his big mouth. Beca rolled her eyes again, as she always did when Jesse was being an idiot, and turned back to Luke. "Hang on, you said you had a friend from India, and he's—unless I've been blind the past week—not here anymore? So you can actually leave this place?"

"Well, yeah," said Luke as though it were obvious. "You can't stay here all your life. Most people come to Barden to learn to control their powers. Once you have, it's your choice to stay or to leave."

"Luke and I choose to stay," explained Aubrey, "to take over teaching the younger students and to develop our powers further with the Professor's help. He is, after all, on the forefront of that experiment."

"We've actually had several people go through Barden, it just doesn't look like it because they often leave after a year or two," Luke shrugged. "We've also been rejected a number of times by kids who could already control their powers, or simply didn't find it too much of a bother."

"There are people like that?" asked Jesse.

Aubrey nodded. "Few are lucky enough to discover special abilities that are attuned to their everyday activities; for instance, athletes with super speed or super strength. Years of discipline and training have allowed them to control their powers at an earlier age, even if they didn't know they were special."

"Also, not everyone's powers are as glamorous as other's," added Luke. "We've seen some as simple as being able to change the color of objects, to something as pointless as being able to grow hair at an extremely fast rate. Not exactly abilities you'd want to go to a special school to train for."

"Huh..." Beca nodded and turned back to her plate. She felt slightly comforted by the fact that her powers weren't the worst on the spectrum of possibilities.

They resumed eating in silence until Aubrey cleared her throat. "Beca?"

"Yes?" answered Beca, mimicking the blonde's tone when the situation was reversed a few nights ago.

"Luke told me what you said yesterday."

"Oh." Beca swallowed. "Look, I'm sorry—"

"Don't be. I understand what the situation looks like and I just wanted to assure you that we," she pointed a Luke and herself, "are keeping our eyes and ears open. We... we care about Chloe's safety just as much as you do, you know."

The tips of Beca's ears turned red.

I guess I may have overreacted a bit yesterday. I seriously have to find my chill when it comes to this crush.

"Thanks," she mumbled sheepishly.

Aubrey nodded and finished her drink. She was just about to get up when Beca remembered something else about the night they rescued Chloe. "Oh, hey. Any news on what those creatures were? At the mansion, the ones that attacked us?"

"We told the Professor about them the morning after we brought Chloe in," said Luke. "He said he'll do the research and let us know."

"So far, he has nothing to report," said Aubrey. Seeing Beca's expression she added, "The Professor's a very busy man, Beca. As you know, being the headmaster of Barden is not his only occupation. I'll try to get the information myself when I can."

"Thanks. And again—sorry. I swear I'm not trying to be a pain in the—"

"Beca, stop. You're only asking for the same things we are," Aubrey said with a rare smile. And with that, she left the dining hall.

"So… cricket anyone?" Luke asked eagerly after a pause.

Beca and Jesse exchanged looks before shaking their heads in unison.

Even though Chloe's kiss was enough to get Beca through the weekend without seeing Chloe again, Beca was still glad to have a distraction from the redhead's absence: her first ever training simulation was scheduled on Thursday afternoon with Jesse. Since they had inadvertently taken part in an actual mission already, Luke deemed the two ready enough to take the test a month earlier than normal, and Thursday was the perfect schedule for the students since it was followed by a long weekend holiday; they wouldn't need to worry about missing class if they incurred any injuries.

"Good afternoon and welcome to your first cooperative training simulation," Luke's voice greeted them from the speakers near the control center. "Your mission: rescue the thirty-seven individuals trapped in the burning building. Please note that you will not only be graded by your success, but also by the way you handle the mission in its entirety. Well, then, it's a beautiful day to save simulated lives. Good luck!"

The metal doors in front of Beca and Jesse opened and Beca immediately felt a wave of heat blow over her. A five-story building was on fire in front of them but they were, for a moment, too much in awe to care. The simulated environment even included fake roads, trees, and other surroundings. It was easy to forget that they were in a giant metal box underneath the mansion.

"I wonder where the fire department is," muttered Beca sarcastically, eyeing the building unconcernedly. "Jesse, scan the locations of every target, and surround the building with a cushion of soil, please."

Jesse tapped the keys on a high-tech tablet they had been trained to use throughout the past two weeks at the school. Beca knew that the older blondes were expecting them to barge, gung-ho, into the fray on their first training simulation, but Beca wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of being right. In fact, she had already come up with an unorthodox strategy that would certainly get them points for creativity. While the computer completed the scan, Jesse manipulated earth surrounding the building, crushing it into five-foot tall piles of relatively soft, powdery soil. The strength exercises he had been doing with Luke had greatly improved Jesse's ability and range, which made him very happy.

"What about locating the source of the fire?" Jesse suggested when done, returning to the tablet.

"Yeah, sure." Beca stretched her arms and legs lazily.

Luke only said to rescue the people trapped in the building.

"Scan reads: five on the ground floor, ten each on floors two to four, and the last two on five," reported Jesse. "Electrical fire. Hazard points on every floor."

"Tsk, tsk. No one remembered to unplug their vibrators."

"We could do without the jokes, Mitchell," came Aubrey's harsh voice from mission control.

"Roger that," Beca winked at the patch of sky from where she knew Aubrey was watching them. "All right, Jesse, let's get these people out. You start rescuing from the bottom up, I'll work top down."

Without waiting for a response, Beca ran toward the building and leapt over the soil easily. When she was close enough, she felt the walls with the back of her hand—warm, but not scorching—and began her climb to the fifth floor balcony; even before she began training, her ability to scale buildings with ease was no surprise. Peering through the windows, Beca found the two simulated targets crouched on the floor nearby.

"That's convenient," she shrugged, reaching her arm in and helping one, then the second, out onto the balcony with her. "Now jump."

"I-it's five floors—"

"Yeah, so?"

Deciding not to wait for Luke to program a response, Beca gave the two rescuees an encouraging push off the balcony. She looked over the railing to see if they had landed safely on the pile of dirt, and gave them two thumbs up when they did. Then she leapt down to a fourth floor's balcony. No windows were open this time so Beca had to kick one down to get in.

Just as the glass broke on her shoe, the sudden access to oxygen caused the flames inside to surge toward the window, which Beca dodged just in time.

"Huh," she breathed.

"You okay, Beca?" asked Luke.

"Uh, yeah. I thought I just…" It may have been the adrenaline playing tricks on her mind, but Beca thought she had actually pushed the flames away from her.

"Do you need medical attention?" asked Aubrey.

"No, no," assured Beca, snapping out of her daze. "I'm good. Proceeding with the mission."

"Okay."

Beca and Jesse continued clearing the building until all thirty-seven individuals were out and safe from the fire. Jesse pressed a button on his watch to signal the end of the mission.

"Simulation complete," a computerized voice sounded. After a few seconds, it gave the verdict. "Time: one hour and twelve minutes. Grade: C+."

"What?"

The burning building environment dissolved back into the large metallic training room. Beca and Jesse rushed to the mission control room to confront the blondes about their score.

"Hey, what gives?" whined Jesse. "We saved everyone, why the hell did we only get a C+?"

"Yes, you did save everyone," commented Aubrey, bringing up the stats on the computer. "But you also failed to completely extinguish the fire—"

"That wasn't part of the mission objective!"

"—failed to avoid twelve minor burn injuries on your targets," continued Aubrey, ignoring Beca's outburst. "And caused two sets of broken ribs from a five-story fall." Aubrey glared at Beca on the last one.

Beca threw her hands up in exasperation. "I'd at least give us a B."

"I don't give the grades," shrugged Aubrey.

Jesse narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Luke. "Did you give us a C+ to make me look bad in front of Aubrey?"

"I don't give the grades either, mate," chuckled Luke good-naturedly.

Jesse kept his eyes narrowed. "Oh, it's on, pal," he muttered so softly that Luke couldn't hear it.

"What?"

"Seriously," interrupted Beca, "this simulation is rigged—we deserved a better score than that. Plus, containing the fire was not part of the mission."

"I told you it wasn't just about saving the thirty-seven," Luke reminded her patiently.

"You might think these tests are scored on team efficiency and how well you use your ability in the given situation. But, going beyond what is asked and being aware of the external circumstances are important measures of success as well," said Aubrey. "Leaving the area before the fire was contained without even waiting for the fire department to arrive was a pretty dangerous mistake."

"Still, a C+?" grumbled Beca. Normally she didn't give a damn about her grades, but this wasn't regular school and Beca was particularly proud of how she handled the mission… except for the part about leaving the fire. "We have superhuman agility and earth manipulation going for us. How did we not handle the situation in the best way possible given our abilities?"

Aubrey merely shrugged and made her way to the door.

"You manipulate electricity and Luke controls metal!" Beca continued to yell after her. "How could you two have done better in a burning building?"

Aubrey paused with her hand on the doorknob. "We didn't. We got a D."

After they all had a laugh over making Beca and Jesse's first training simulation the one Aubrey and Luke had nearly failed, they agreed to meet up at the campus' indoor pool to cool down. They had the whole weekend to do their other hobbies but, with most of the students still having classes, they wouldn't get another opportunity to have the pool all to themselves.

Beca was pleasantly surprised to find that, in the two weeks she'd been at Barden, Aubrey wasn't as insufferable as she had expected her to be. Beca got to see that, while Aubrey was indeed uptight and overly critical, it was mostly when it came to anyone using his or her powers recklessly or unnecessarily, since she took her job as Head Girl very seriously. It was also why Aubrey was so irritated with her at them that night at the old abandoned mansion; Beca sort of had a reputation of using her superhuman agility for less than moral purposes. Beca still loved to get on Aubrey's nerves occasionally, but nowadays she has learned to know where to draw the line.

As for Luke, Beca saw that his relaxed and carefree but disciplined manner made him the perfect older brother figure for all the students at Barden. She grew to look up to him when it came to combat training, and she appreciated that he would always give her feedback on how to improve.

Despite their difference in personalities, Aubrey and Luke seemed to both share the same care and concern for everyone at Barden. Beca soon came to understand that what made Barden a home wasn't the institute itself but, frankly, Aubrey and Luke. Being the first ever students, they pretty much knew everything about life at the institute and about having special powers, so they were attuned to all of their needs. It shouldn't have come as a surprise when Beca came to actually consider the two as her friends.

Beca arrived at the pool first, after carelessly changing into modest swim shorts and a tankini top. While waiting for the others, she decided to lie on one of the beach chairs and flip through a nearby magazine about sailboats. Jesse and Luke arrived together a few minutes later, still bickering about movies, and for once, Jesse's outfit didn't make Beca roll her eyes.

But Luke's certainly did.

While Jesse was wearing ordinary, loose swimming shorts and a towel draped over his shoulder, Luke was sporting a hideously orange Hawaiian shirt and tight black Speedos.

No wonder Jesse looks so smug, Beca mused. He isn't the biggest dork in the room for once.

Then Aubrey walked into the room next, wearing a black bikini top and matching shorts, with a beach bag on her arm. She had her hair tied up in a ponytail and was smiling widely. Beca grinned at her, having never seen the blonde looking so casual.

"Guess who decided to join us?" Aubrey said in a singsong voice. She stepped to the side and revealed a shy Chloe in a navy blue one-piece swimsuit she had borrowed from Aubrey. Beca's jaw dropped—and she wasn't even ashamed to admit it because, damn. If she had thought Chloe was gorgeous before...

The dark color of the swimsuit contrasted well with her skin (now a light peach compared to pale two weeks ago) and she had her hair up in a messy bun with a few lose strands framing her face. The way she looked bathed in the light of the sunset did things to Beca she couldn't explain.

"You both look very beautiful," Luke greeted them smoothly.

With one look at him, Aubrey threw her head back and laughed at his shirt. Even Chloe hid a giggle behind her hand. Feeling gravity pull her toward them, Beca got up from her chair on the farther end of the pool and approached them.

"Oh, there you are—I mean, you're looking pretty good, too, Becs," teased Jesse. She rolled her eyes and punched him on the shoulder.

"Hi, Chloe," Beca greeted the redhead, trying hard not to smile too widely or look too excited. "I'm glad you're here."

"I promised I'd find you when I'm free, didn't I?" Chloe winked and Beca swore her heart stopped beating.

"Come on, let's get this party started!" cheered Jesse, attempting to lure Aubrey and Luke away to give Beca and Chloe some alone time, like the great wingman he was. "So, Aubrey, what's up with Luke's shirt, huh?"

Luke raised his eyebrows. "What? Hawaiian shirts are coming back in fashion."

Aubrey crinkled her nose. "They never were in fashion, Lukey."

Jesse scowled at the pet name. "Even if it were, I don't think you're pulling it off, Luke."

The Brit shrugged. "Fine," he said, pointing a remote to the sound system in the corner. "I guess I'll just—take—it—off!" He began unbuttoning his shirt seductively to the music. Beca spared a glance at the commotion and was sufficiently impressed by the British boy's chest and abdominal muscles. With the hideous shirt completely off, Luke in the black Speedo didn't look so bad, especially since it highlighted what ought to be highlighted.

"And the chess match continues," Jesse grumbled through gritted teeth.

Even Beca had to laugh and catcall when Luke twirled his discarded shirt over his head and thrust his hips to the music.

"All right, all right!" interrupted Jesse in the middle of Aubrey's wolf-whistle, manually lowering the volume of the stereo. "How about we put on some better music… uh, Becs, some help?"

Beca sighed and turned back to Chloe to ask for a minute to set up the music.

"Sure—oh, wait!"

Beca turned around.

"You, er, you have soot on your face," observed Chloe, squinting at Beca's face. "Where on earth have you been?"

Hearing sniggers from behind her and realizing that she had been literally ashen faced since the training simulation, Beca called out while violently rubbing her face, "Thanks a lot, guys. Real mature."

Chloe gave a tinkling laugh. "Here, let me." She brought the corner of her towel to Beca's face and gently rubbed her soot-covered cheek.

The feeling of the soft towel and Chloe's hand against her, their skin only separated by less than an inch of cloth, sent shivers down Beca's spine. She could feel the heat rushing to her cheeks and her eyelids droop.

I could stay like this forever…

Beca blinked. Chloe was smiling at her, with both hands behind her back and clearly not on the sides of Beca's face anymore. The brunette cleared her throat awkwardly and mumbled, "Thanks."

Jesse was smirking when she finally got over to him by the stereo.

As the evening progressed, their small cool-down attracted more and more students, until eventually it escalated into a full-on house party. Luke had taken charge of the pool bar, where he was serving drinks to the over-21s and punch to the rest. Jesse had lit up the grill and was preparing a variety of grilled meats and vegetables for dinner with the help of the resident cook. Aubrey was, not surprisingly, scanning the room every now and then to keep the party in check and make sure that no one underage was drinking. But otherwise, she seemed to be having fun socializing with the other students.

That left Beca in charge of the music. Though sitting by the sound system all night with her laptop sounded like a drag, on this particular night she wouldn't have minded since Chloe was sitting with her the entire time.

"Are you sure you don't want to mingle with the others?" Beca asked her. "Tell you what, I'll queue up a set and then we can leave."

Chloe replied with a grin and a shrug, "Whatever you want. I just like talking to you."

Beca smiled. When she was confident that her lineup would sustain the energy of the party, she took Chloe by the hand and led her to a less noisy and less crowded spot to continue their conversation. They mostly kept things light, in keeping with the party's mood. They didn't touch on Chloe's private lessons with the Professor, even though Beca had really wanted to ask, because she thought that Chloe deserved to have fun for once. Since it was Chloe's first party in God knows how many years, Beca told her about what the youths were into these days (with much sarcasm, derision, and eye rolling on her part), while Chloe would recount more memories from her childhood.

"So you're starting to remember more stuff then?" asked Beca.

Chloe nodded. "I'm even starting to remember awful things about the beginning of puberty," she laughed, scrunching her face in embarrassment.

"I can't wait to hear all about it."

Beca was having such a good time with Chloe, learning about both the fun and awkward times in her life. She didn't want the night to ever end.

"What about you?" Chloe asked, after recounting a story of how she and her mother got escorted out of a theater for booing too loudly at the movie. "Any fun childhood memories?"

Beca hesitated. The last thing she wanted to do was be rude to Chloe, but she also never talked about her childhood with anyone. If Jesse only hadn't been present during it, she wouldn't have told him either and no one would know if Beca Mitchell even had a childhood.

"Um, it wasn't very happy," she confessed. "I wouldn't want to bum you out."

Chloe nodded understandingly.

"We probably had very different experiences growing up," she continued. She didn't want to talk about it, but she wanted Chloe to understand. "Yours was happy. Yours had, well, a whole family."

Chloe looked Beca in the eyes. "And yours didn't?"

"My dad walked out on us when I was eight," Beca said matter-of-factly. "No note. No good-byes."

This was always how she responded to questions like this: straight to the point and unemotional. This was what turning hurt into anger and anger into indifference looked like.

"Then... how about a time before that?"

Beca opened her mouth to automatically say "It's okay" but shut it when the words "I'm sorry" never came out of Chloe's. She wasn't expecting a question; usually when people found out about her family situation they offered sympathy or hypotheses as to why her father had left. Only Chloe had asked to look to a time before that, so Beca didn't really have an answer ready. She considered the question seriously.

"Hmm."

In her mind, Beca revisited life before her dad left, and tried to look past the pain she had been avoiding for so many years. It was easy; she was an expert in ignoring them anyway. When she found the older memories, they felt comfortingly familiar—like meeting an old friend and picking up where you left off. Out of all that she remembered, Beca decided to play it safe and chose a memory that didn't involve either of her parents.

"Okay, I got one," Beca announced, adjusting her sitting position to face Chloe. "This was in first grade, and we had one of those class trips to the zoo. I wasn't, um, a very obedient kid—" Chloe giggled at Beca's proud confession. "—so I strayed from the group about five minutes in. I ended up at the aviary, where I saw this zookeeper holding a bird in her hands. She saw me alone but was nice enough not to take me back to our teacher. Instead, she asked me if I wanted to help fix the bird's broken wing and I said 'hell yeah!' So I held the bird while she bandaged him up. Then she told me that it was a sparrow, and that he was new at the zoo so nobody had named him yet—"

"She let you name the bird?" gasped Chloe excitedly.

"Yup! Guess what I named him?"

"What?"

"Jack," laughed Beca. "Jack the Sparrow. And that was way before those pirate movies so I had no idea—"

"Jack," repeated Chloe distantly. "My dad's name was Jack."

Chloe had told Beca stories of both her parents but she never mentioned their names. And judging by the look on Chloe's face, she was only remembering now and was upset for forgetting her own father's name.

"Uh, that's cool," Beca said with an attempt at being cheerful. "Funny coincidence, huh?"

The crowd of partying young adults suddenly fell silent and someone turned down the volume of the stereo. Beca and Chloe turned to where everyone was looking and saw that the Professor had turned up at the doors, with Charlene dutifully behind him.

"Sorry to interrupt your party, kids!" he said jovially. "I'm just here to fetch Chloe."

Beca's heart sank but Chloe was already putting her yellow cup down and rising from her seat. Beca felt the instinctive urge to grab her wrist but saw no point in doing that. Chloe stood up on her own, so it wasn't her place to tell Chloe what she should or shouldn't do.

From across the room, seeing that neither of the two was going to object, Aubrey stepped forward. "Please, Professor," she said. "Let Chloe at least stay for dinner; we were just about to start. You can join us, too, if you'd like. Besides, it's a holiday tomorrow—you could both use a break."

The Professor looked thoughtfully between Aubrey, Chloe, and the comically frozen party scene in front of him. He scratched his chin a few times before nodding. "I suppose I see no harm in that," he said. "Have fun with your friends tonight, Chloe. We can meet tomorrow at 9AM sharp." Then he turned to Aubrey. "Thank you for your invitation, Aubrey, but now that my schedule's freed up I think I'll take on Mr. Wang's offer for a breakfast meeting. Could you please arrange that for me, Charlene?"

His raven-haired assistant nodded curtly. Seconds later, Charlene was speaking Mandarin into her phone with her back turned to them while the Professor gave Aubrey final farewell points.

"I trust you'll keep the party from getting out of control," he was saying.

"Yes, sir. No underage drinking and it'll be over by 2AM at the latest."

"Oh, you can let them have just a little. They're supervised by the strictest twenty-one-year-olds I know!" he laughed, waving to Luke at the bar. His proclamation injected life back into the party; the small crowd of students yelled a chorus of "Cheers, Professor!" and the music started up again.

Chloe sat back down and grinned at Beca. "Looks like you're stuck with me."

"Just when I thought I've had enough of you," the brunette joked in reply.

Dinner was soon served, which gave Beca and Chloe the opportunity to mingle with the other students. Beca chatted with Cynthia Rose about life in the Big Apple was like while Chloe thanked Aubrey for sticking up for her and learned more about how the regular students' trainings went.

The rest of the night went surprisingly well for an impromptu party: Beca amused everyone by having a burger-eating contest against Bumper, and winning. ("I've been training half my life for this," said Beca, high-fiving Jesse, who, in her opinion, made the best burgers in the world.) Jesse and Luke had started a tag-team beer pong match, with Jesse and Chloe against Luke and Beca; the girls tossed the ball while the boys drank. Luke and Beca eventually won and Jesse accused Beca of using her powers. She asked how agility could have helped her win at beer pong, to which he responded with a loud belch.

Someone had inevitably yelled "Shots!" at some point of time in the night, so Beca and Chloe both had their first ever shot, laughing at each other wince as the alcohol burned their throats. Some of the older (and braver) students played a variation of spin-the-bottle involving the spinner doing something wild (and often suggestive) to whomever the bottle pointed to. Beca covered Chloe's eyes playfully when Stacie was made to do a body shot off of Aubrey, but Chloe grabbed her hands and pulled them down.

While Chloe watched in open-mouthed amusement, Beca was very conscious of the fact that Chloe hadn't released her hands, but was holding them against her body. From her place slightly behind Chloe, it was almost as though Beca were hugging her. Beca tried her best not to imagine what it would feel like to tighten her arms around Chloe, pull her close, inhale her sweet scent, and kiss her neck—but of course she failed to.

Loud cheers snapped Beca out of her daydream and Chloe twisted around—still keeping a hold on Beca's hands. "I want to dance with you," she said mischievously as the next track came on. It was Beca's own upbeat remix of Calvin Harris' Feel So Close.

Beca's eyebrows shot up in surprise and confusion. It was an unusual request, since Beca had not approached the dance floor at all the entire night. The only evidence Beca gave of knowing how to move her body to music was the occasional head bob and foot tap.

"I—I don't dance."

"Oh, come on," said Chloe, dragging her by the wrist. "Everyone dances!"

Beca allowed herself to be dragged—not that she could refuse Chloe any day of the week—but, for luck, she snatched the shot Cynthia Rose was about to take and threw it down her throat, hoping it would lower her inhibitions and make the imminent act of dancing more bearable. Out of the corner of her eye, Beca saw Jesse sniggering as she obediently followed Chloe to the dance floor.

"Jesse told you I hate dancing, didn't he?"

Instead of answering, Chloe grabbed Beca's other hand and spun her, forcing the tiny brunette to face her on the dance floor.

'I feel so close to you right now.'

If Beca had ever imagined dancing with Chloe at a party, the scene would not have gone like this. Later on Beca would realized that, having been secluded from society throughout her adolescence, Chloe obviously hadn't picked up on the modern day grindfest. Not that that's what I want her to do, Beca's thoughts added hastily. If anything, Chloe's style was very old school.

"Nice moves, Red," Beca laughed as Chloe did some sort of swing dance with a twist.

"My parents were really into dancing in the 80's. Come on!"

'There's no stopping us right now.'

"How do you even know this song?" Beca yelled over the music getting louder as it approached the drop.

"Do I live under a rock?" Chloe rolled her eyes. "I have a radio in my room. Now dance!"

Beca laughed at the irony of her statement and gave in, actually ending up having a good time dancing with Chloe. She didn't feel self-conscious about their silly dance moves because everyone else had joined in and, more importantly, seeing Chloe having fun was the only thing Beca wanted to be conscious of.

Eventually, the party gradually wound down. Most of the other students had either gone back to their rooms or paired up to have a deep conversation in some corner. It had gotten chilly as the night wore on so the girls had covered up in ponchos and the guys had put on shirts—hideous orange Hawaiian ones included.

Beca, Chloe, Aubrey, Luke, and Jesse were themselves winding down at the sitting area near the hot tub. Aubrey was sitting between Jesse and Luke on the sofa, while Beca and Chloe shared a large wicker armchair. Beca tried not to think too much about how close she was to Chloe, and how their slightly damp (from swimming) skin glued them together.

"So, Aubrey," Jesse was saying with an air of nonchalance. "How long have you and Luke been going out?"

The pair of blondes exchanged slightly exasperated looks. "We're not dating," clarified Aubrey, as though it were a question often asked.

"Mm-hmm," Jesse hummed in a high-pitched tone. "And Luke, what's your say on that?"

"Well, I've known Aubrey for almost ten years. If I had wanted to date her I would have done something about it already," shrugged Luke. "A girl like Aubrey doesn't come around too often so someone should really make his move before he loses his chance."

Beca smirked and Chloe giggled at Luke's obvious hint but Jesse only narrowed his eyes suspiciously, thinking it was a trick. Aubrey rolled her eyes and made an effort to get up. "Come on, it's time to clean up," she said. Chloe stifled a yawn behind her hand. "Not you, Chlo. Get your butt in bed, you still have to meet the Professor in a few hours."

The redhead nodded sleepily and stretched her limbs once she had gotten off Beca's lap. Beca had started helping Aubrey gather stray cups and plates when Chloe held out her hand. "Walk me to my room?" she asked with an irresistible tilt of her head.

Beca's heart raced at the invitation and thrust the dinnerware into Jesse's hands. Without sparing the others another glance, she took Chloe's hand and followed her out the door, but not before yelling, "I'll be right back!" over her shoulder.

"No, you won't!" Jesse yelled after her but they were long gone.

Chloe was practically skipping through the hallway, tugging Beca along with her by their joined hands.

"You don't look very tired to me," laughed Beca. When Chloe merely smiled mischievously back at her, she gaped in surprise. "Wait a second, did you fake a yawn just so you could get out of cleaning?"

"Hmm, maybe."

"Oh, you wily… minx."

Chloe raised an eyebrow. "I got you out, too, didn't I?"

Beca paused. "Yeah, all right."

They finally arrived at the grand wooden doors that Beca remembered led to an antechamber that in turn led to the Professor's quarters. If this was where Chloe was staying, then Beca suspected that there were more rooms back there besides the Professor's office and bedroom. Probably his other personal things, Beca thought grimly.

"So… this is me," said Chloe, turning to face Beca and leaning her back against the doors.

"Yup," Beca replied awkwardly. "I... I had fun tonight. Hanging out with you."

"Me, too. Thanks for teaching me all about everything I've missed." Chloe smiled then bit her lip nervously.

"Anytime," mumbled Beca, her eyes trailing down to Chloe's lips before catching herself and clearing her throat. "Well, I guess it's good night then."

If Beca hadn't been too focused on kicking herself for being too awkward, she would have noticed the flash of disappointment on Chloe's face.

"Good night," Chloe whispered, slowly turning to face the door.

Beca felt time slow down as Chloe twisted the doorknob and at that moment, Luke's words echoed in her head, in her own voice. 'A girl like her doesn't come around too often, either. You should make your move before you lose your chance.'

Before she could form a sentence in her mind, Beca blurted out, "Chloe, wait—can I... can I kiss you goodnight?"

If your 'move' is making her realize how pathetic and desperate you are, you totally nailed it.

Kicking herself was too lenient a punishment this time. But instead of the look of surprise and painful embarrassment that Beca expected to see, Chloe let out a huge sigh of relief. "Thank God. I was wondering how many hints a girl had to drop."

It was Chloe's honest and charming, girl-next-door response to Beca's awkwardness that sealed the deal. Beca was officially, now and forever, head over heels for her. In that moment, she split-secondly processed the entire night—getting to know more about Chloe, having the most fun she ever had at a party with her, and ultimately her small but significant gesture to erase Beca's insecurities—and truly felt like she was (dare she say it?) in love with this beautiful girl.

Beca closed the distance between them in two strides. She looked into those mesmerizing baby blue eyes (wide in surprise at Beca's speed but excited nonetheless) before dropping down to her lips. The kiss was innocent enough, with Beca's lips only softly grazing Chloe's before the redhead leaned closer and deepened it. Beca's spine tingled at how perfectly they fit together. There was no awkward positioning or hasty pushing between the two of them. Beca pulled Chloe closer by the waist.

Although it didn't feel like it, the kiss was in reality quite short; they pulled back at the same time and rested their foreheads together. After sufficiently breathing each other in and smiling like idiots, they bade each other good night.

A/N: Credits to Dr. Shepherd and the writers of Grey's Anatomy for the line, "It's a beautiful day to save lives."

Also, I apologize; I didn't realize the action in this chapter was brief and only in the first act when I wrote the previous author's note. But nothing's really happening (yet) so Beca has to settle with easy training simulations for the time being.

It's not relevant but this fic follows the movies' timeline so this would be set in 2011, the year before Beca entered Barden, hence the Calvin Harris song that was popular that year.

Author's Commentary: This chapter was quite fun for me to write because not only does it have Bechloe (!) in it, but it also showed that the characters are still relatively young and live relatively normal lives, all things considered. Also, I never stay long at parties but I imagine this is what constitutes a successful one? Haha.