"What am I doing here?" Beca murmured as she readjusted the strap of her back-bag on her shoulder and eyed Jesse's house. She double checked as she looked at her phone for the third time to see if she walked to the correct house then nodded, "yep, same as last time I checked." She paused. "Why am I nervous?" she wondered and shook her head before she hesitantly walked up the porch and got herself to knock before she decided to go home and pretend that she was busy and couldn't come to help him out with math. Yeah, math! Beca Mitchell was helping out Jesse Swanson with FUCKING MATH. Algebra to be specific. She didn't understand it either. Not the algebra, but the fact that she actually understood algebra. Math made sense to her. It's just following rules and theories to get an answer. It gets straight to the point. She liked that. Jesse, on the other hand, was too busy with movies to do homework at home. And, he told her he'd end up daydreaming in class and not catch a thing the teacher says.

One day, he texted her a picture of a math test he failed. She offered to help. He gratefully accepted. And that's why Beca was at his doorstep clenching her fist in anxiety after she had knocked on the door.

It wasn't long that she heard someone make their way to the door. She forced a smile when a 40 something woman that had the same kind eyes Jesse unlocked the door.

"Hi, Mrs. Swanson," Beca said greeting the woman that seemed in a hurry.

"You must be Beca." Mrs. Swanson opened the door widely, "come on in," she said letting her through. "Jesse, your friend is here," she called loud enough for Jesse to hear as she grabbed her car keys from a table.

Moments later, Beca heard fast footstep coming from the second floor then saw Jesse peek his head from the staircase. He grinned at her and she found it hard not to at least smile at him.

"Jesse, I'm gonna go get your brother from his soccer practice," Mrs. Swanson told her son who nodded. "Mom, wait," Jesse called as his mother walked past Beca. "Did you go grocery shopping?" he asked.

"I got you the juice pouches you asked for," she said.

"And the popcorn?" he wondered.

"Yeah, that goes without saying." she sighed.

"Thanks, mom," he thanked her.

"Sure." They heard her say as she pulled the door closed.

Beca inhaled and looked up at Jesse who was walking down the stairs. He was wearing a pair of sweats and a t-shirt that had the shaka sign printed on it. His hair was going into odd directions, he was in need of a new haircut, but it made him look cute. She, of course, wasn't going to tell him.

"Your mom seems cool," Beca said.

"Yeah, she's awesome," Jesse said as he walked to the kitchen.

"So, I thought, since your so bad at algebra, we go back to basics. When you get the hold of things we'll start on what you should be actually learning." Beca shrugged off her back-bag and was unzipping it when she heard Jesse say, "Okay."

Jesse pulled a couple of juice pouches from the fridge then walked back to where Beca was standing, near the front door, then extended his hand. "Here," he said as he shook the pouch. Beca took it from him.

"Take it easy on me," Jesse said as he began climbing the stairs. "'cause this guy knows less than Jon Snow," he pointed to himself.

"Am I supposed to know who that is?" Beca wondered as she followed him while fumbling with the juice pouch, trying to put the straw.

"Okay, I get your hatred for movies, I'm not saying I understand or agree with—cause seriously what is wrong with you?— but your lack of knowledge of Game of Thrones is really disturbing unless you live under a rock!" Jesse spun around to face Beca who was half listening as she struggled to put the straw while also holding her notes that she figured should have stayed in her back-bag for a while longer.

"Huh?" She looked up.

"Game of Thrones? Dragons? Khaleesi? Ned Stark? Winter is coming?"

She shrugged.

"You need help," he firmly told her.

"Wrong." She took a few steps then turn to face him once she was looking down at him. "You need help to pass math and eventually graduate high school," she said and handed him her notes to hold for her. "Why would you take Algebra in the first place if you suck at it?" she wondered.

"Successful people set achievable goals," he shrugged. "I like a good challenge."

His words got a chuckle a small laugh from Beca that made him chuckle himself.


"Are you seriously using your fingers to count?" Beca asked in disbelief. He was working on Algebra the numbers he'd come across wouldn't be bigger than 10.

"Shut up," he said quickly as he continued to count. She eyed him in amusement then leaned forward to read what he was writing. She was glad he was on the right track. The stuff was easy. He had to get it. And, they had to move to harder things.

"Is this right?" Jesse wondered as he held the paper her way. Beca nodded eyeing it. "Yep," she grabbed one of her notes and put it between them. "I need you to really concentrate now Jesse, okay?" she looked up.

"Okay," he nodded, frowning as he eyed the paper.

"Good," she looked down at the note.

Beca was explaining a theory using an example when she felt Jesse's gaze on her and it messed up with her concentration. Instead of continuing to explain she looked up.

"Your eyes should be down here," she nodded at the paper.

"You're a better sight to look at," he sincerely told her. "Ar, um, you think we could take a break?" Jesse asked as he rubbed the back of his neck. Beca was really good at explaining things. He was picking what she was teaching him but he was easily distracted by her every move. It was becoming hard to focus and ignore the view Beca unintentionally gave him of her cleavage whenever she leaned over to correct him. And, he started to see why Beca told him it would be better if they sat by the kitchen counter instead of his bedroom floor: his neck was sore and he was damn sure hers was as well.

"Sure," Beca nodded and used the pencil she was playing with between her fingers to her hold her hair then rubbed the back of her neck. Her eyes fell on what seem to be magazines under Jesse's bed. "What are those?" she asked as she crawled the distance to his bed and pulled them.

"You're disappointed it's not porn, aren't you?" Jesse chuckled as watched Beca arch her eyebrows while she looked at the notebooks in her hands.

"What are those for?" she asked as she glanced over the content to find pages of musical notes.

"Those are super famous scores," he said and crawled to her.

"Why do you keep them around?" she looked at him.

"I want to write music for movies one day," he told her. "But I'm studying these for now." He took one of the notebooks from her and got up. Jesse walked to where his keyboard was set and played a piece from Lord of The Rings for her.

"That's beautiful," Beca said as she got up as well.

"I know right," he said in agreement.

Yeah, it was both beautiful and a turn on. Seeing Jesse soulfully play the piano was a huge turn on.

"Where's Imperial March from?" Beca randomly asked to get her mind elsewhere as she looked through a notebook.

"StarWars," he grinned. "It's Darth Vader's theme." He began doing the imperial march A-Cappella and made Beca roll her eyes at how ridiculous he sounded.

She had a hard time trying to keep herself from laughing when he did the march and stopped to pretend to be using the force.

"Are you done?" she asked when he stood in front of her and finally shut up. He nodded. "Can we go back to studying?" she wondered. He nodded again. "Good." She pushed past him and went back to the spot they were sitting at. He followed her.

"So," Beca began to say as she sat down and picked up the note. "let's start over, shall we?" she sighed pulling the pencil that was holding her hair up and looked at Jesse to find an odd look on his face. He reached over and tuck the hair that fell on her face behind her ear.

She was caught off guard when he leaned in and pecked her lips. It should have been awkward to look at him afterward. She should have felt weird about it. She also should have pretended it didn't happen and went back to explaining the thing she couldn't remember for the life of her instead of leaning and kissing him back hesitantly.

She pulled away and before she could say anything he kissed her again, only more forcefully this time. In fact, it was so forcefully she fell back on the floor—he kinda guided her, she wasn't sure, she was busy making out with the boy she was supposed to be tutoring.

He pulled away and was having a hard time to control his breathing and instead of using words he found himself humming Han Solo and the Princess theme.

"I assume this is also from StarWars?" Beca asked as she rubbed her thumb against his cheek. He nodded still humming.

"You're a such a weirdo," she rolled her eyes and gently pushed him off of her to sit up.

Jesse, puzzled, watched her grabbed the piece of paper she was holding before he lost his self-control and resumed what she was doing. She glanced up to see if he was following so he nodded.

Beca was damn good at putting up front and ignoring things. She kinda felt bad for Jesse. He had no idea how did they go from making out on the floor to working on Algebra in less than a minute. She didn't know how nor why she let it happen so until she figured that out she was going to pretend it didn't happen.

An hour later,

They heard a knock on the unlocked door. Both she and Jesse looked up towards the door and saw Jesse's mother at the doorway, holding a tray that had a plate of cookies and a couple of mugs of hot chocolate.

Beca smiled at the surprised look on Mrs. Swanson's face, clearly not expecting to find them still studying.

"Beca, if your parents don't mind, stay for dinner," Mrs. Swanson said as she handed Jesse the tray. "Jesse'll drive you home."

"Thanks, Mrs. Swanson," Beca hesitantly said accepting. There was nothing to look forward to at home. Her mother left her money to buy dinner which usually meant she wouldn't be spending the night home.

"Please, it's great to have a girl around in this testosterone-dominated household," Mrs. Swanson sighed.

Beca gave her a sympathetic smile and accepted the mug of hot chocolate from Jesse and watched the woman leave the room. She glanced at her phone and checked the time and was surprised to find that it was already past 6 pm.

"Beca, I don't think my brain can take more Algebra can we stop?" Jesse wondered and had a hopeful look on his face as he watched Beca sip from the hot chocolate.

"Yeah," she shrugged after swallowing. "Just make sure to practice what you learned otherwise you'll forget," she told him. He nodded and got up.

Beca began gathering her notes and organizing them while stealing glances at Jesse who was wandering around the room looking for something. "We're watching this until dinner is ready," Jesse shook a DVD case of StarWars Episode IV: A New Hope.

Beca zipped her back-bag and sighed. The last thing she wanted to do was to watch a movie but Jesse didn't make her want to headbutt with him when she was tutoring him, he was a good student, so she figured watching a movie with him wouldn't be so bad. Besides, she could smell dinner being cooked so she wasn't going to be stuck watching the whole thing.

Jesse grinned at her then walked to the TV he had in his room. "Is that a VHS player?" Beca wondered noting the player that was under the DVD player. "Mmhm," came Jesse's answer as he put the DVD.

"Why do you have a VHS player?" she asked.

"How else am I supposed to play VHS tapes?" he asked back as she straightened up and reached for the remote.

"Are you aware of how far technology has come? I mean, you could easily load whatever you have on a VHS tape into a flash drive or something."

He shrugged and flipped the light switch then hopped on his bed, patting it, inviting Beca to sit next to him. He had a ridiculous amount of pillows which made it easier for her to keep him from invading her personal space again— not that she'd really mind having him on top of her again, his mouth covering hers... Ahem, where were they? Yep, they were about to watch a movie after they finished with Algebra and as they waited to be called for dinner.

They weren't even 20 minutes in when, much to Jesse's disappointment, Beca had fallen asleep. He could tell she was tired and it wasn't the movie that bored her out because it had just started. She was yawning the whole time she was tutoring him and looked like she didn't get much sleep the night before. He, of course, didn't point it out. He just observed and kept it to himself.

Jesse wished he could read minds and know what was going through her head. He didn't regret kissing her but what he regretted was not talking about it and just rolling with the way she just pretended it didn't even happen. He usually avoided making her uncomfortable but it happened and they had to acknowledge it.

He thought it was obvious that he liked her. He was a 100% sure she was aware and felt the same way about him—if he had any doubts they were gone thanks to the way she was kissing him.

But what was bugging him was the way she was handling it: She was ignoring it. And, he just wanted to know WHY?

Jesse smile when Beca sighed in her sleep and held on to the pillow she was holding tightly as she shifted in her sleep in a way she was facing him. She looked vulnerable and sweet in her sleep. He had to resist the urge to touch her by reminding himself of how creepy it would look especially if it woke her up. Staring was enough to stir her from sleep.

"For how was I out?" she asked after clearing her throat.

"Like half an hour?" he shrugged and watched her sit up. She blew a breath and looked around her. "You moving or what?" she wondered eyeing his legs that were keeping her from climbing off of the bed. He sat up and watched her throw her legs over the bed.

"Hey, Bec," he called, planning to bring up their 'kissing incident' when his brother barged into the room.

"Dinner is ready," the younger Swanson said as he held onto the door handle.

"Hi," he nodded at Beca when she tilted her head to look at him and blinked when he flipped the light switch.

"Hey, Ryan, right?" she smiled at him.

"Yep, the smarter, better looking, better at everything, Swanson," he told her with a grin on his face that looked a lot like the one Jesse often sported.

Beca watched Jesse jumped from the bed and in a mere of seconds put his 15-years-old brother in a headlock.

"Didn't hurt," Jesse shouted as he rubbed the spot his brother punched to get out of the headlock and run down the stairs.

Jesse waited for Beca to wear her shoes and began making his way to the stairs.


As they dined Jesse noticed something about Beca. She was faking interest while speaking with his parents and brother. It felt like an enhanced version of herself that people would like better. Which was odd because her cynical movie hating self was likable enough, in his opinion.

Jesse was waiting to be alone with her again to get to talk to her about what happened between them while studying and when he finally was he couldn't find a way to bring up. Yes, Jesse Swanson was nervous and honestly afraid she'd push him out of her life because of one 'incident'.

"So, where are you spending spring's break?" Jesse found himself asking. They were getting closer to her neighborhood and the silence was unbearable.

His question made her chuckle. "At home. Where else?"

"You're not going to your dad's?" he wondered.

"No." She paused. "He's busy with his new girlfriend and I don't want to intrude."

"You don't want to pretend to like her, you mean?" He felt her gaze on his and didn't dare look at her. He was a little smug that he could tell she was pretending in front of him because it meant that he knew her well enough to tell.

"Thanks for the ride," Beca unlocked the door and rushed out of the car not giving him the chance to say anything once he pulled over.

Jesse ran his fingers through his hair then glanced at the passenger seat to spot her earphones. He stepped out of the car and followed her. "Beca, wait," he called as he walked.

"What's up?" She spun around after unlocking the door.

"You forgot these," he said as he held her earphones her way then looked behind her and at the house when he heard a crashing sound.

"Probably mom dropped something." She took the earphones from him. "Thanks for these," she said and was about to get inside the house.

"Or it could be a thief or something," Jesse mumbled as he held her shoulder and walked inside the house carefully.

Beca followed him and locked the door before she dropped her back-bag along with her coat and walked past him.

"Mom?" she called as she made her way to the kitchen. Jesse was about to pull her by the arm and tell her to keep it down but didn't when he saw Beca's mother on the floor. He watched Beca bend down and sigh before she checked her mother's pulse.

"She okay?" he wondered.

"She'll be fine," she said as she tried to help her mother up. Jesse paced to her and held the woman, who was about the same size as her daughter, up.

"Where do I put her?" he asked, trying not to grimace at the strong smell of red wine.

"I usually put her on the couch 'cause I can't take her to bed," Beca shrugged as she poured a glass of water.

"I can." Jesse held her closely and took her to her bedroom.

He stepped back after he put her on the bed and watched Beca cup her mother's cheek and say, "mom, drink this, okay?" her tone was too gentle.

Jesse was surprised when the older woman nodded and drank the offered water. He dragged himself out of the door when Beca began to softly sing to her mother as she stroked her hair, feeling like he was invading their privacy. It was too personal. And felt wrong to be witnessed.

He was leaning against the door when Beca walked out of the room and pulled the door leaving it barely open.

"Mom doesn't deal well with breakups," she said as they walked, satisfying Jesse's curiosity.

He didn't say anything back. He followed her to the kitchen and helped her clear the mess her mother made after dropping the half-empty bottle of wine.

"I'd appreciate it if you kept what you saw here to yourself," Beca said as she dropped the shattered glass into the trash can.

"You don't have to tell me, Bec," Jesse said then frowned when he noticed Beca's bleeding thumb.

"I cut it when you went to get the broom," she said feeling his gaze. "It's fine. Not a deep cut," she added as she eyed her thumb.

"Where's the first aid kit?" Jesse asked.

"That bathroom over there," she nodded at the bathroom after rolling her eyes.

Jesse ran to the bathroom, got the kit and ran back to where Beca was standing.

"Thanks," Beca thanked him after he took care of her wounded thumb. "Jesse, you should go," she added when his phone chimed with a text, guessing it was his mother, and he checked it without sending back a reply.

"You gonna be okay?" he asked.

She gave him a small smile and nodded. He could tell that it wasn't the first time she came home to find her mother passed out drunk.

Jesse was still itching to bring up what happened but the given circumstances were holding him back. He reached over and pulled her into a hug. She usually stiffened before she hugged him back but this time she leaned into his embrace instantly so tightened his hug.

He loosened his hold when he felt her pull away and felt her cup his cheek and rub her thumb against his cheek. He started doing the imperial march A-Capella like he did in his bedroom and grinned when she rolled her eyes.

"You're so weird," she said, slightly shaking her head, and leaned up kissing him softly. He responded instantly.

When he hugged her she figured out why she kiss him a few hours earlier, he was amazing at making her feel better her which explained the fact that she didn't feel awkward when he stole a kiss from her. It was actually a relief.

"You should really get going," Beca said resting her head on his shoulder after pulling away once his phone began ringing in his pocket. She really didn't want him to leave and it was really bad news.

Jesse held her closer to him, ignoring his phone. "You think we could go grab a bite sometime this week?" he asked.

"You mean, go on a date?" she mumbled into his shoulder.

"Yeah, that." He swallowed. She kissed him, that had to mean something, right? RIGHT?

"Yeah, sure, okay, whatever." He heard her mumbled and grinned because he was sure as hell she was blushing. He was about to tease her about it then decided not to. She could very much change her mind and he couldn't let himself blow it.

"Cool," he said and unwrapped his arms from around her. "I'll text you." He began walking backward and watched her nod.

"Jesse, my back-bag—" she tried to warn him but it was too late because he tripped and fell.

"Dude, you okay?" He heard the amusement in her tone.

"I'm okay," he told her as he got up, wincing at the pain. "Good night," he said reaching for the handle and unlocking the door, trying to save himself from the embarrassment he was feeling.

"Night." He heard her say so he glanced at her and waved before pulling his phone that wouldn't stop ringing.


AN: It's so odd to write teenage versions of these characters. I really hope I did alright. Leave your thoughts in a review if you want. Thanks for reading.