Disclaimer: I do not own Pitch Perfect, or any of the movies mentioned (Sixteen Candles, 1984. The Breakfast Club, 1985. Weird Science, 1985)
Somehow, Beca makes it through a month in health class with Jesse by her side. Benji's been paired up with Beca for a project about self esteem (their unit for the next few weeks) and the guy wiggles his way into Jesse and Beca's lunch routine. The two work on their project, while Jesse keeps conversation flowing. It's not until Benji begins to mention his "little" (his words) crush on Jessica, who sat next to him in health class, when Jesse actually stops talking and lets the boy ramble on about his feelings for the girl. On one occasion, he asks Beca for a very surprising favor.
"Beca, can you give me... Advice?" Benji asks, looking sincere and positively adorable in his sweater vest combo. She cocks an eyebrow and sticks a magazine cutout to their poster board. Jesse's missing from their lunch group. He's out of the school, per Beca's request to buy some more teen magazines for their project.
"Depends what kind of advice."
Benji fumbles with his fingers, looking at Beca nervously. "I, um, it's about Jessica."
She sets down her pair of scissors and looks straight at him. "Um, look Benji, I'm not really all that good with love advice. Why are you asking me?"
"Because you're my only, well, friend that's a girl." He says shyly, a faint blush on his round cheeks. She can't help but feel reeled into the sympathy she feels for him and sighs. "Okay, well what do you need help with?" She gives him a small smile, hoping it looked encouraging. She really didn't do the whole advice thing.
"Valentines Day is coming up, and I really wanna take her out on a date. She's so nice, and pretty, and we get along so great... I just, I've don't really know how to ask a girl out, and I've never gone out on a date with a girl, either." He sighs, "I mean, I've asked this one girl out before, to prom. But she kinda laughed in my face." Beca takes a look at Benji's dejected expression and bites her lip. He's truly got Beca cornered, a place where she does not like to be.
"Oh, Benji. Sorry to hear about that." She frowns before speaking again, "Jessica likes your magic tricks, right?"
He nods.
"Maybe you can ask her through that? I really don't know, Benji. I'm not good at this stuff." She cringes, remembering her own past relationship problems.
"No, that sounds great! And I have the perfect card trick to do use. Thanks, Beca!" He grins as she lets out a sigh of relief.
And by that Friday, he does just that during health class. But when he's approaching Jesse, who was sitting in his car waiting for him, after school a week after he asked the peppy blonde out, he's wearing a mortified expression on his face. Valentines Day was tomorrow, a Tuesday, and fortunately, parent-teacher conferences started Wednesday, giving them no limits on time.
"You okay there, dude?" Jesse asks, watching as Benji shuts the car door.
"Jesse, I can't do this. I've never gone out with a girl before, what do I do? How do I do it?" He starts panicking, bewildering Jesse frozen in his seat.
"Relax! You'll be fine, she already likes you, you already get along with her great. All you have to do is to have fun." He reassured the nervous boy, not quite sure what else to say. Benji looks helplessly at Jesse, who's focus was now on the road ahead of him. He suddenly keeps still, his mouth not running and they sit in an uncomfortable silence.
"Benji..? Whats up?" Jesse starts, overwhelmed by the fact that his friend wasn't speaking at all.
"Are you gonna do anything for Beca tomorrow?"
The question takes him by surprise. Jesse's certainly thought about maybe doing... something for the girl. And he's obviously not afraid to flirt with her, despite her not reciprocating those same feelings for him whatsoever. Sure, he may or may not have a tiny (massive) crush on Beca, but he's not dumb. They've only really known each other for a month, after all. Something's telling him that crossing that line with her would be a mistake. It's not like she's shown any actual feelings for him, anyways. He's not sure whether breaking a friendship with her is really worth it, because it isn't. Also, he's got a feeling Beca doesn't 'do' Valentines Day.
Benji seems to have noticed his friends' silence for a while now, and it dawns on him that he may have not... phrased that correctly. "Oh, god. I didn't mean for her, I— I was just wondering if you had any plans tomorrow... I wasn't supposed to say, 'for Beca' out loud." He openly admits, scratching the back of his neck.
"Well, I guess. It's Tuesday, and fifth comes after lunch so I'll probably just make her watch a movie, if that's what you mean."
"Oh, uh, well not really... I was just, I was thinking... Maybe you could, like, come with us? As in, me and Jessica?" Jesse slows to a stop in front of a red light, taking the opportunity to just stare at the boy, completely taken off-guard.
"Dude? Honestly, I think you should just take Jessica out alone, y'know?"
"No, I mean not— not as a double date. I don't know, I just don't wanna be alone? I was thinking... If you go, with Beca of course, and things get weird or awkward between me and Jessica, you'd be there to make them... not awkward?" Benji replies, completely embarrassed to be even asking for his friend to do that.
"Oh, well, I guess I don't mind. You might wanna check in with Beca, though. She's a stubborn one." He laughs a little, maybe a little too nervously, enough for Benji to notice.
"Look, Jesse, you don't have to do it if you don't want to. I get that it might be awkward and all..."
"No, it's fine. It'll be a casual thing, I mean it's at a laser tag place where they sell, like pizzas and burgers and stuff." He says simply, hoping his nerves aren't showing . Benji shrugs, and nods his head a little. "Like I said, you should probably check this in with Beca first."
Benji's front driveway comes into view, and the boy begins to prepare to leave when suddenly Jesse asks an unexpected question that's been bugging him ever since he brought up Beca.
"Is it really that obvious?"
Benji's face pales and Jesse takes that as a definite 'yes'.
"I— ah, nevermind. I'll see you tomorrow, Benji!" Jesse waves goodbye to the other boy and once he's out of sight, he takes a deep sigh. He's been tiptoeing around his feelings for Beca for the sake of their friendship, despite not being afraid to flirt with her. This crush he has on her is definitely no secret, but he didn't think it'd be... that obvious.
Then again, he's made no effort to hide it. And if he's going to admit it, he's kind of.. excited for tomorrow. If she agrees to go (since it seems that she surprisingly cannot say no to Benji), he may be getting somewhere with the mysterious girl. It's been a month, and he doesn't know that much about her other than the basic facts. He's noticed that she's built these tall walls, and he knows that it'll be awhile until he can completely take them down. If all goes well tomorrow, the walls might be taken down, even just a little. Tomorrow.. It should be a good day.
Hopefully.
Valentines Day: Beca's least favorite holiday. It's not that she's sad over the fact that she's single (like most girls complain about on this day), and it's not that she's pissed off at the major excuse for PDA in the halls (because, well, she is), but it's just a sad reminder of how her own parents used to spend the holiday. When Beca was younger, holidays seemed to be the only days where her parents weren't arguing, whether it was over something big or small. Her dad would bring her a rose and a mini box of chocolates, and a bouquet of roses and a bigger box of chocolates for her mother, and her mom would dress up in cheesy hearts and make heart-shaped strawberry pancakes for breakfast. They would go out on a romantic date and pay a babysitter (Chloe, even if she was only two years older, filled the position once Beca turned eight. She never really seemed like a babysitter, though, which she was thankful for. They'd order a pizza and watch TV all night, more like best friends than a kid-and-her-babysitter), and when they got home, Beca would find herself being tucked in by both of her parents (which rarely happened), and she'd smile because for once, her mom and dad weren't fighting. It's not until she started growing older and staying up later when she noticed that they'd start arguing once her door was shut.
The holidays' image was shattered now, in her eyes, anyways.
When Benji so kindly explains his situation to Beca during health class that morning, she can't help but get roped into going. It's like she can't say no to the boy, which both irritates and surprises herself. She feels a little weird having to go with Jesse, but she knows he wouldn't try anything. I mean, they were just friends going out to help their other friend out with a date. Plus, this was an opportunity to kick Jesse's ass at laser tag.
It didn't matter that it was Valentines Day, anyway.
Jesse arrives late, this time he gets marked tardy, and he excitedly tells Beca which movie they're gonna watch at lunch ("Sixteen Candles? Isn't that like a... girl movie?" Beca asks, laughing a little at the blush on Jesse's cheeks. "No! It's a classic. You'll love it." He says, defending himself. She shakes her head, rolling her eyes. "That's what you always say, nerd." "And it's true, and you know it." "You don't know that."), and he gives her a box of candy hearts ("God, you're such a nerd." "You're welcome.") as a Valentines Day gift.
She decides to see what Stacie and Fat Amy are up to before meeting up with Jesse in the library. They're at their usual table, where Fat Amy was puckering her lips in front of a mirror and Stacie was pushing her boobs up over her shirt.
"Flatbutt! You've come to see us!" Fat Amy says happily. "You wanna join me and Stace? We're going to the gym near BU..." Stacie winks as Fat Amy continues to talk about snagging some hot boomers, or dingoes, or something. Beca opens her mouth to decline, when Stacie beats her to it.
"I don't think she'll be able to go, Amy. I bet you," She pokes the blonde with her nail file, "that she," she tilts her head up to Beca's curious face, "has plans. With Jesse." She smiles victoriously once she sees Beca's facial expression. "You know, you two spend a lot of time together... How is he?" She winks again, causing Beca to cringe.
"He's just making me watch another one of his stupid movie education things. It's nothing."
"It's okay, Beca. You don't have to tell me. You'll come around, or I'll get it out of you eventually." She smiles mischievously, making Beca roll her eyes.
"Seriously? We're just friends."
"Jesse's cracked a fat one for ya, Beca!" Fat Amy joins in, only earning a confused glare from the brunette.
"I don't know what that means, and I don't want to know, either. I'm gonna get going. Good luck out there ladies." She clicks her tongue to the roof of her mouth and winks at her two friends before heading off to the top floor of the library, where Jesse was already patiently waiting with his laptop ready at their table. He pats the seat next to him (it's not like he needed to) and he hands her an ear bud, all prepared for the movie.
"Did you know that Molly Ringwald almost lost the part to Ally Sheedy, who plays Allison from The Breakfast Club, which I'm sure you remember." He nods curtly, rolling his eyes at the memory of her falling asleep during one of the greatest movies of all time.
Beca blinks with an otherwise blank expression on her face. "That is fascinating. Tell me more."
"Okay! Ringwald was originally going to play Allison in TBC—"
"TBC?"
"The Breakfast Club. Man, Beca. I thought you'd know this by now. Have I taught you anything?"
She shakes her head innocently and laughs as Jesse buries his head into the table. "Well, go on, nerd."
He lifts his head and smiles. "Yeah, so Ringwald really wanted to be Claire and Hughes let her. Oh, and John Kapelos, the janitor, and Anthony Michael Hall, who was Brian, are the only actors to appear in all three of Hughes' teen movies. We're gonna have to watch Weird Science next." He notes to himself, quickly taking out a piece of paper and scrawling the title on it before stuffing it back into his bag. "Which reminds me, we have to watch TBC again, without you falling asleep."
He wasn't going to let her live this down, was he?
"I'm serious, Beca. Then, I can die a hero. But for now, we're watching this." He taps the play button and Beca finds herself actually paying attention to the movie, this time not falling asleep. Somewhere in the middle of the movie, she remembers Benji's little favor and curses inwardly to herself, thinking she should probably bring it up with the nerd.
"So, how's it going to work?" She asks, disturbing Jesse's concentration on the scene.
"Huh?"
"Tonight."
He pauses the movie and his mouth twists into a weird shape, crinkling his eyebrows together. "Oh, that. I could pick you up? He said six, right?"
She nods.
"Yeah so want me to pick you up?" He asks, not looking at her in the eyes.
She shrugs. "Sure, I guess." She gives him her address and looks at him, his eyes still not meeting hers. She swallows a lump down her throat to clear some tension in the air. "I hope you like to lose, Swanson."
This time, he looks at her straight in the eyes, relieving Beca. "What?! I'll have you know that I am a laser tag connoisseur. You are going down." He grins, only earning a punch in the shoulder. "Ow! Are you intimidated, Beca Mitchell?" He wiggles his eyebrows, making her laugh.
"You keep thinking that, nerd."
Surprisingly, her mother is home after a couple days of traveling, and Beca's greeted by a strong scent of strawberry pancakes on the griddle when she arrives. She tries to escape to her room as fast as possible, but her mom pokes her head out of the kitchen and gives her a wide grin.
"Hey, mom." She sighs, hoping for a quick exchange.
"What's up, love? I'm making pancakes!" Her mom exclaims a little too enthusiastically.
"Yeah, I can smell them." She gives her a tight lipped smile before continuing, "You're home early."
"Well, there's a big storm in Japan right now, so my flights were cancelled. I was in New York and I thought I'd come home instead of staying at a hotel for a few hours. So, do you have any plans for tonight?" She asks her daughter, but doesn't give her much time to answer. "Because I was thinking... Maybe we can go out to dinner and go shopping or something, have a little mother-daughter bonding time. Who needs men, anyway?" She snorts, continuing to flip the pancakes with her spatula. Beca bites her tongue as she quietly grabs a plate and throws a pancake onto it. She sits at the table, cutting the breakfast food into pieces and not talking.
"Becs?"A flash of realization crosses her mother's face, and soon she's frowning. "You have plans, don't you?"
"I sort of... do." Beca shrugs and bites into the cake. "Sorry."
"Oh no... It's fine." She sees the hurt on her mom's face, which turns her stomach into knots. As much as her mom annoyed her, she didn't like disappointing her. "So, where and with who? Amy, Stacie, Chloe?" Her mother asks, taking a seat across from her.
"A group of friends and I are going out to eat dinner in Boston." She lies, blatantly ignoring her mother's curious gaze. If she mentioned Jesse, her mother was going to continuously bother her about it, and she truly didn't need that right now. Her mother's sworn off relationships and men, and she's been trying to rub her beliefs on them onto Beca, and unfortunately, some of it worked. Her mom only seems to do one night stands, and Beca's last relationship ended badly, making the two women unwillingly uneasy about starting a new one. Her and her mother, however, struggled with the same trust and abandonment issues that was left from the divorce.
Beca finishes the last of her pancake before dropping her plate into the sink and retreating to her room, quickly changing into a different top (she wasn't sure whether she should change her whole outfit or not, but finally settled on just changing into a comfier top) and went straight to work on her mixes, hoping to drown out the world (until 6 PM).
Jesse's parked in Beca's driveway, texting her to let her know that he was there. He's both nervous and excited, even if this wasn't a real 'date'. It would be the first time he and Beca have spent together, excluding the grocery store run-in, out of school. He's trying hard not to think too much about what's about to happen when he sees a light go off in the window on the second floor, where a giant oak tree was planted in front of it. The front door of the house flies open and out comes Beca, clad in jeans, a leather jacket, a t-shirt, and combat boots. Another female's head pops out of the doorway, waving goodbye to the brunette. Soon, she reaches his car and sits in the passenger seat.
"Hey weirdo!" He cheerfully greets the small girl and holds up a bag of quarters, showing it to her.
"Oh my god, you are an actual man-child." She snorts, buckling her seat belt as he backs out of the driveway.
He shrugs, then pushes his shoulders out and puffs his chest. "Are you ready to lose, Beca Mitchell?" He challenges, taking a sideways glance to see Beca's facial expression. She's biting the inside of her cheek, trying not to smile. He really had no idea what was about to come when it came to Beca and laser tag. She shakes her head, successfully fighting the laughter that threatened to pour out of her mouth.
When they arrive at the restaurant, an lonely little pizza parlor surrounded by an unhealthy amount of arcade games and, of course, laser tag, the two find Benji and Jessica already seated in a booth in the middle of the place. Benji immediately sees them and waves them over once they're finished ordering their food, a relieved smile on his face.
"Jesse, Beca! I didn't know you'd be here." He laughs nervously, and Beca can't help but smile a little.
"Hey, guys." Beca greets her magician friend and Jessica, who was grinning happily at Benji.
"Well, you recommended this place and we thought we'd give it a shot." Jesse says.
Jessica opens her mouth to speak. "I didn't know you two were together!" She chirps, causing Beca to freeze under Jesse's embarrassed stare. She's not sure why she didn't have the same reaction when Benji asked the same thing only a couple weeks ago. Maybe it varied with the person?
"Oh, we aren't..." He begins, but he doesn't need to finish the sentence before Benji comes to the rescue.
"Jess, they're just friends." Benji says to the girl in the blonde ponytail, who was now showing a bit of blush on her neck. "Oops, sorry... I just assumed, you know, since it's Valentines Day..."
"No, it makes sense. But, yeah, we're just friends." Beca finally says, feeling herself relax.
"Best friends." Jesse corrects, only earning a smack on the chest with the back of Beca's hand.
"Yeah, no. We're just gonna sit over there." She nods her head over to the direction of their booth, "we can hang out after dinner, if you want?" She offers. The two lovebirds nod and Jesse and Beca go sit at their table, waiting for the pizza (that she let him choose, because, he says in his words, "I am the greatest at picking out pizza, you already know that.") they had previously ordered at the counter.
She takes a gulp of her soda, nonchalantly playing with the utensils in front of her. "Look at them. They don't even need us, they seem perfectly fine with each other. I don't even know why Benji needed us."
"Moral support." He shrugs. "Was that your mom earlier? The one waving at you?" He asks, hoping it was a good enough conversation starter.
Beca nods.
"She's a flight attendant, right?" She's honestly caught by surprise at the fact that he remembered when she's only mentioned it once. "Does she, like get you cool key chains from all the places she's been to? Or even better, those 'somebody who loves me got me this shirt' shirts?"
"Why, do you want one?" She asks with a playful glint in her eyes.
"Yes! We can totally get matching ones." He exclaims, grinning widely.
"Totally." She's laughing at his childlike demeanor when their pizza comes and they spend a few minutes chewing in silence. Jesse's finishing the last of his current pizza crust when he finally talks again.
"You know, I've never been on a plane."
Her eyes widen at his confession, because, well, Jesse didn't seem like that kind of person. She sees him as being in one of those families who are all neatly stacked in line, only packing light and eventually coming home with a huge haul of typical souvenirs they bought at tourist traps. "Really?"
His head bobs up and down. "My mom's got a horrible phobia of flying. We travel by car or boat whenever we have Swanson family vacations, though."
Oh. So he could still be in one of those families... Except they'd run into tourist traps along the road.
"Yeah, well, there's nothing fun about flying. There's that constant fear that the metal detector will go off when you walk through, and having to be felt up and all over your body. There's the rude airport workers, that one family who blocks the line in the plane when they're trying to get their bags up in the storage compartment, and that annoying person who sits next to you that just loves to talk the entire flight. And of course, there's the jet lag and stale air recycling through the plane. Trust me, you aren't missing anything." She sighs, wondering how on Earth her mother could survive that job.
"Ouch, sounds rough." Is all he says before he looks back to check on Benji and Jessica, who were seemingly in their own world. "I'm glad we became friends with the guy. Every time I'd see him in the halls, he was always being made fun of for doing his tricks. He's really a great friend."
"Sounds like someone has a crush. Are you jealous of Jessica?" She teases and he rolls his eyes. "You're right, though. I'm happy he's finally got people to watch his tricks and not ruin them. What about you?"
"What?"
"Your friends."
"Oh." He pauses and strokes his chin while simultaneously eating his third slice of pizza. "You mean I'm allowed to have other friends besides you, my very best friend?"
She reaches over to punch him in the shoulder, "You know, you're awfully clingy." He dodges it and raises his arms up in defense. "I know you hang out with that one guy with the unicycle... and that other guy, who wears hats all the time."
"Ah yes, Unicycle and Hat."
She nearly chokes on her pizza. "That's seriously their names?" He laughs in response, this time unable to dodge Beca's throw at him with her pizza crust.
"Okay, well yeah, there's them. There's Greg and Kolio, and Bumper and Donald, who go to Barden University, now. What about you?"
"You know Stacie and Amy, and there's Aubrey and Chloe, who I'm sure you remember from earlier in high school. They go to Barden, too. And yeah, that's pretty much it." She says, feeling awkward telling her these little details about herself. She glances back at Benji and Jessica, who were now heading to the various games around the restaurant. Jesse waits for Beca to finish up before they head towards the games. He's jiggling his bag of quarters happily in his hand, and going for the whack-a-mole machine without asking if she wanted to play.
"Are you actually serious?"
He hands her a mallet and inserts a coin in the slot, grabbing his own and the two go at the machine, Jesse more enthusiastically than Beca. The two make their way around the games.
Pinball:
"Wow Jesse, you made us lose." Beca groans as they leave the pinball machine, "And you didn't have to slap my hand every five seconds, I knew what I was doing!" She rubs her red right hand, glaring at him.
"Sorry, I'm used to playing pinball with two hands." He apologizes, returning the glare.
"I'm not the one who insisted on sharing a machine." She snorts, wincing at the sting he left every time he tried to take over the right side of the machine for her.
"I might run out of quarters!"
Racecar Driving Game:
"Loosen up, Beca!"
"Shut up Jesse, I'm trying to beat you."
"You could totally get arrested for road rage."
She gives him the finger, which only makes him laugh.
She wins.
Then he wins Pacman.
She wins the Terminator game.
He wins the jet-ski game.
And then they're tied in their own competitive game.
They're in the midst of deciding which game to play next when Beca feels a light tap on her shoulder. She turns around, startled to see Benji and Jessica. "Oh, hey guys." She says coolly, smiling through gritted teeth. They have seemed to completely forget about the reason why they were there in the first place, slightly embarrassing Beca. She looks down and sees Benji and Jessica's hands clasped together, and immediately she forgets the embarrassment and smiles.
"Hi guys! We were wondering if you wanted to come play laser tag with us?" Benji asks, his face bright. Beca turns to Jesse and gives him a smirk, which scares him a little. "Sure, sounds great."
"Awesome! Whenever you're ready, we'll be getting ready over there." Jessica points to the laser tag station that led to the arena, and the two leave.
"Okay, nerd. Since we're tied... Whoever wins—"
Jesse stops her mid-sentence. "Woah there, if I win and when I win," He points to himself, then suddenly his face blanks out. "Actually, ladies first. You decide." He offers, bowing to the small brunette.
She smirks. "If I win... You can be my slave for a week. You have to do whatever I want and get whatever I want. This includes no movications."
He cocks an eyebrow and digs his hands deep into his pockets. "That's all? Okay, fine. If I win... You get to be my partner for the baby project."
...Valentines Day suddenly was suddenly a lot more interesting this year.
A/N-
Sorry for the delay, I've been busy with AK47 birthday project stuff on tumblr. This chapter ended up extremely long, so hopefully it keeps you content for another week!
Angie515- Hopefully, the whole Chloe knowing Jesse thing is cleared up in this chapter.
Okay, well once again I put one of those update-y things on my profile, if you're ever wondering how the next chapter is coming along. In the next chapter comes the reveal of the winner and the start of the baby project! Meaning, I need some baby name suggestions! Boys and girls names. And we're ruling out Molly... Because of reasons you'll learn in the next chapter :)
Feedback (and of course names) is much appreciated!