A/N: Covers the end of Beca's first semester in Australia and into her second. Part 2 to come in a few days. Also Beca's dorm is modelled off dorms from a different Australian uni, and I don't know much about USYD in general so as much as these are now primarily set at USYD, it's AU USYD.


"Hey, band auditions are today," Josh reminds Beca as he takes a seat across from her in the dorm cafeteria at breakfast. "I saw you on the list, right?"

"Yeah, I'm on there," Beca answers, trying to force her tone to sound a little more upbeat than it usually would. She was up early - for her standards, anyway - for the audition, because she'd had to slot it in before a day full of classes. Why they couldn't run them on a weekend or another day, she's not sure, but she's not about to ask Josh - the band director - this.

"You're usually kinda quiet, you okay with singing in front of other people?" he asks, and Beca has to fight to stop herself from laughing.

"I've done it a few times," she answers, instead, and he nods before their conversation moves on.

Beca certainly doesn't eat all her meals in the communal cafeteria, but she's come to eat here more than she would've expected. She's grown to like having just a bit of socialisation in every day, and not always just with her closest friends. It's different, but generally the only people that sit near her she'd be happy to talk to, so it's okay.

The audition process is extremely casual, she knows this. The competition between the dorms is fierce, but they're all just students, and her dorm is particularly relaxed about anything extracurricular being the smallest by far. They're not uncompetitive, they just value fun more than winning. Beca puts some, but not too much, effort into choosing something to sing, and she runs through it to herself one time and then a second time reluctantly in front of her friends because they ask. She puts more effort into constructing a fake musical history to give Josh or Elaine, whichever of the band directors ends up at her audition.

She's quietly relieved when it's Josh, she doesn't get on super well with Elaine. They're not enemies or anything, but they're certainly not friends. She wouldn't sit with her at a meal, and she's pretty sure they've never spoken, which is something that she can't say about too many people in the relatively small dorm. The interview setup is relaxed, a few chairs thrown around a table in the music room. Beca sits slightly angled across from Josh, because straight across is too awkward, and he smiles at her.

"So, few questions first. You're wanting to sing, yeah?" Josh asks, and Beca just nods, prompting him to continue. "Do you have vocal training?"

"Yeah, quite a bit - ten years or so," she replies, Josh looking visibly impressed as he writes it down. It wasn't technically a lie, either - her parents put her in singing lessons when she was about six, and she kept them up until just after she dropped out of school to be in Seven Keys.

"Any performance experience?" He goes onto his next question, and Beca nods, trying to frame her answer.

"Yeah. I was vocalist in a band with a few friends for a while before I came over here, we did a few gigs," she answers, feeling a little guilty for the vast underselling she gave. Few gigs, national and international tours, same thing, right?

"Sounds like you got a lot, then, it'd be great to have someone like you as lead vocalist, we're probably looking for three total... you want to sing something, so I can check you don't somehow suck?" Josh's tone turns joking, and Beca gives half a laugh.

"Yeah, sure," she answers, standing up and stepping away from the table slightly as Josh indicates for her to do so.

Beca starts partway through a verse, only giving a verse and a chorus, but she knows it's enough. Josh smiles and jots something down on the paper in front of him as she sings, looking back up and giving her a wide grin when she finishes.

"Yeah, there's a high chance you'll be lead vocals, but official list will be up in a couple days hopefully," he tells her, and Beca nods, unsure what else to say. "Also, you should probably be sitting here, not me."

Beca just laughs and shakes her head, before saying goodbye to Josh and walking out of the music room and off to get ready for class. She's trying to be cool about it, but just quietly, she's kind of excited to do something like this again.


"Does that mean I'll get to see you perform again? Because we both know what went down the last two times that happened," Chloe asks, walking hand-in-hand along a street with Beca a few days later after they've been out for dinner. They've settled in to weekly dates and seeing each other at least every couple of days, and it's nice. It's comfortable. Chloe was a little worried they might lose some kind of spark without distance and drama, but they hadn't in the slightest.

"If you come to the dorm band comp I guess you will... but no hotel rooms this time. I'll totally still-" Beca pauses, glancing around them, and Chloe is a little confused until she finishes, "I'll totally still go down on you though."

"Beca!" Chloe exclaims, feeling herself blush at the unexpected comment and Beca's sly grin. "Not what I meant."

"You complaining?" Beca teases, and Chloe can't help but squeeze her hand a little tighter, and pick up her pace a little.

"Nope."

"Will you go to the band thing?" Beca quickly reverts the subject and Chloe almost wants to laugh.

"Yeah, I know it's usually a fun event and I like watching you perform. Aubrey and Amy might come too," Chloe nods, loosening her grip on Beca's hand back to what it was before to match Beca's calming down. As much as she'd love to drag her home and into her bed, this walk was nice too. She had always loved Sydney, but she loved it more when she could experience it with her girlfriend. She couldn't help but let out a happy sigh as Beca started lightly swinging their hands between them, and she felt every muscle in her body relax as she glanced over to see the light smile she was giving her, returning it in kind.

"You know..." Beca draws out her statement, a few minutes of comfortable mostly-silence later as they walk leisurely in the vague direction of Chloe's house, Chloe sensing a sudden wash of nerves invading Beca's demeanour.

"Yeah?" Chloe prompts gently when Beca doesn't continue.

"Everyone has started talking about how they're going to wherever their parents are between semesters, and I don't mind at all that I'm not going back to California but like..." Beca pauses, taking a deep breath, "I kind of miss my parents. And Tristan, and the kid. And I didn't expect to... and I miss Ashley, too."

The statement surprises Chloe a little, because it came completely out of the blue. Beca barely mentioned her family, and although Chloe sometimes wondered - especially with Tristan and his young family - everything seemed fine.

"Do you talk to them often?" she asks, carefully, looking up to see they're almost at her house.

"Ashley yeah, but the others not so much. I only talk to Tristan every few weeks, and the parents every couple..."

"It's totally normal to miss them. Even though you're not super close with them. Could you work out regular FaceTime or something to try and help?" Chloe suggests, and Beca nods, considering the idea quietly in her own mind.

"I didn't think it'd be weird not talking to them because I thought I didn't much anyway, but I guess I did more than I realise. I should talk to the mother about it..."

"It can be like that. When I first moved here I thought nothing of leaving my parents, even though I am close to them. And they're only an hour away! But it was hard, I had to keep going back every month or so for a weekend or something at home, until Sydney became home. It'd be hard if you can't do that," Chloe empathises, her hand squeezing Beca's comfortably as they finally reach her house.

"I think part of me just misses having someone mothering me. Even though I kind of hate it," Beca admits as they step inside, and Chloe laughs.

"Come back to Wollongong with me for a bit, my Mum will mother you!"

"Not gonna lie, it's tempting," Beca grins, playing along at what she knows was a joke, although fully aware that she's serious under it all and Chloe probably is too.

"You know, seriously..." Chloe starts, slightly hesitant, the two girls now sitting on Chloe's bed despite the fact that Aubrey and Amy are both out.

"Yeah," Beca responds, when Chloe doesn't continue, looking to see Chloe raise an eyebrow.

"How d'you know what I was asking?"

"You weren't ever joking. Neither was I. I want to meet your Mum, and see your hometown and all that kind of stuff," Beca responds, turning shy as she finishes.

"I'm glad. I want you to as well. I also want you to call your parents more, but my mother will definitely try and step in and be your Australian Mum. She's like that," Chloe grins, and Beca leans her head on her shoulder.

"Sounds wonderful. And I will... sometime. I don't even know what time it is over there..." Beca reaches for her phone, making a small noise of surprise when the screen shows a text from her Mum, timestamped 3 minutes ago.

"Hi Beca, I hope everything is still going well in Sydney. It's been a while, would you be free to FaceTime tonight? I'm up early anyway!"

"So I have a text from her asking to FaceTime now," Beca tells Chloe, who nods as she gets up from the bed and walks over to her desk.

"Call her. I can leave the room if you want but I should probably finish something up for an assignment tonight so like..." she gestured towards her laptop.

"Nah, you can stay," Beca tells her, before quickly typing out a reply to her Mother, an incoming FaceTime call appearing on her screen only thirty seconds later. She takes half a second to check in the mirror on Chloe's closet that she looks fine, before leaning back against the wall behind the bed and clicking accept.

"Beca, it's been so long! Hi! Where are you?" Her Mother greets her excitedly and Beca almost wants to laugh.

"Hi Mom. Yeah, it's been too long. I'm at Chloe's, although I don't know how you recognised I'm not at my place only seeing the wall."

"Yours are darker. Why are you at Chloe's?" She asks, and Beca glances over the top of the phone to see Chloe smirking to herself over the other side of the room.

"Had a date tonight and just got back here a little while ago."

"Oh? Why'd you come back to her place?" Beca's Mum feigns innocence, clearly trying to make Beca flustered.

"Muuuuum," she whines, shaking her head. "You know Chloe is in the room and can hear you by the way. I thought you were nice and that would be fine but..."

"Of course I'm nice, don't imply otherwise. What've you been up to, anyway? Did you get lead vocalist for the band at your dorm?"


"Okay, Elaine has had to step down from this because something else has come up, so you've just got me directing now," Josh explains, at the dorm band's first meeting a week and a half after auditions. Beca feels a little sorry for him, but he doesn't seem fussed. Yet. "First thing is to work out a set of four or five songs to fill a twenty minute set, and I want to finalise those before the break so if you want you can start learning them on your instrument over the break," Josh continues, handing around a list of possibilities, "these are all songs that I think would suit our vocalists - Beca, Alicia and Kristen - and that I can acquire sheet music in enough forms to adapt for everyone, although if anyone wants to help me with that I'd be glad..."

Beca scans her eyes down the list as she leans against a table beside Alicia and one of the guys - Sam, she thinks - who is maybe on drums or maybe strings, she can't quite remember. This is a large-form band competition - there's 11 of them here - so she honestly thinks the hardest part will be coordinating everyone because that was hard enough with her, Dylan and Chris. Near the bottom of the list she feels a wave of panic wash over her, seeing one of Seven Keys' songs listed. It's not Chloe - it's a song called Today, from their second album - and she only slightly co-wrote that one, but it's still there. She isn't really sure how to take that.

"So, any immediate thoughts?" Josh prompts, and the room falls silent for a second before people start to speak up. Their first song is unanimous - something by Capital Cities, because it so readily permits so many instruments - and the second suggestion is almost unanimous, but Beca quickly speaks up.

"Uh, I'm sure it's fine, but I don't think I've heard of this one?" she says, not sure exactly who she's directing it to, hearing a lot of shocked gasps.

"How could you not have heard The Horses? Even not as a meme?" Sam turns to her, and she shrugs.

"Oh! You're American!" Josh exclaims a moment later, "that'd be why."

Soon, Alicia had brought it up on her phone, and Beca shrugs after a while and adds her acceptance. Two down.

"What about Today? The Seven Keys one? It's a nice upbeat one, I bet we could hype it up a fair bit?" someone from the back of the room suggests. Beca starts quietly drumming her fingers on the table behind her, trying not to be offended when a few people need a reminder of what it sounds like.

"I can put a video up here? If I can just get the screen to work-" Josh goes to turn to the AV cabinet, but Beca quickly stops him, needing to do something to stop that happening.

"Didn't admin say the screen isn't working in here? We can listen, we don't need to see anything, better than wasting time trying to get it to work," she looks pointedly at him as she speaks, and he looks confused for a moment before shrugging.

"Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, we'll listen," he brings something up on his phone, plugging it into the speaker system. Beca tries not to react as she listens to the song, watching as Josh stares intently at the video evidently playing on his phone. Suddenly, he looks up at her, and she sees a question in his eyes that she doesn't know how to respond to. Instead, she gives him an apologetic smile and shrugs. He looks away as the song ends, and the room starts debating whether it would be suitable. People are, generally, in favour, but there is a concern from the flutist and trombonist about their place in it. Beca knows where they could go, but she stays quiet.

"Any thoughts, Beca?" Alicia asks her, and she's definitely been zoning out, so she know she looks double-startled in response.

"Uh, um, not really?" She answers, trying to play it off casually and non-committal.

"I think we could kind of... leave this as a possibility, but I actually need to talk to some people about whether we can use it, because of uh, I just remembered-" Josh cuts himself off, clearly not convincing anyone in the room.

"Didn't they break up? There'd be issues getting access to the proper sheet music if they're out of contract," Beca quickly adds - a total lie, but still - and Josh nods.

"Yeah, that."

Somehow, everyone is satisfied, and a new song is brought into discussion.

They finish the meeting with three definite choices and a pile of maybes. Beca rushes off as quickly as she can, trying to escape Josh's imminent questioning, but of course they had to put their room numbers on the applications and she knows exactly who the knock at her door is five minutes later, when she's in the middle of freaking out over text to Chloe.

"Come in," she calls, reluctantly, spinning around in her desk chair and facing the door as it opens and Josh steps in.

"So you were in more than just a band with some friends?" he asks, a tinge of humour to his tone, and Beca relaxes slightly. Okay, he's not going to be weird about it, and he asked her in private. Good signs.

"I guess you could say that… I'm trying to keep it quiet, though. Evidently," she explains, cautiously, nodding when he motions to ask if he can sit on the bed.

"Yeah, no, that's cool, I won't say anything. Um, do you actually have an opinion on that song? Would it be weird for you to sing it with different people?"

"I don't know. And, um, I only had a really small part in writing that one so it's not weird that way or anything… I do know how to fit in the other instruments, we played with some extra synth stuff in it when we were producing it originally that could swap out for instrumental… But would it be unfair for the whole competition thing?" Beca asks, trying to snap herself out of the old mindset she evidently still fell into very easily when talking about music.

"I'll have to ask the organisers, I think. Are you cool if I ask someone on a confidentiality condition?" Josh asks, and Beca nods. "Great, I'll do that… By the way, I'm not going to ask you to, like, formally help me out or anything… but is it cool if I tap you on the shoulder if I need help with some of the arrangement stuff? You seem to know a bit."

"Yeah, I tried my hand at producing some of our stuff, so if you get stuck or anything, sure," she answers, still feeling too sorry for what he's got ahead of him to say no. She always liked that part, anyway.

"Awesome, thanks so much. I'll get out of your hair – and I'm trying not to be nosy, but one question… If you quit being in a professional band, why be in a highly unprofessional temp uni one?" he asks, clearly confused.

"I liked the job, didn't like the lifestyle that came with it," she answers, shrugging. At this rate, she's going to get so efficient at answering that question.

"Makes sense. See you around," Josh replies, standing up and walking out of the room, and Beca quickly spins back around to her computer to respond to the many replies Chloe had sent to her earlier freaking out.