If the interview was a big day for Beca then today was huge. Enormous even. If fact, if the importance of days could be compared to the size of DVD collections, then today was one to rival Jesse's.
Not only was it the training day for her new job, which meant meeting and interacting with a bunch of new people, but it was also the day she was due to finally meet Chloe. That is if no one caught the flu. Or the imaginary flu.
Beca stood in front of the full length mirror in Jesse's room, the only mirror in the apartment aside from the small one above the sink in the bathroom.
"You're nervous." Jesse teased.
"Am not." Beca replied, standing impatiently with her hands on her hips, trying to get Jesse's opinion on the eighth plaid shirt she'd tried on. "What do you think?"
"I think you've got it BAD."
"The shirt Jesse, please."
"Well drawing on my professional fashion career..." Beca rolled her eyes as Jesse paused for dramatic effect, "I think it looks the same as the last 7 you showed me."
"No but this one has short sleeves." Beca insisted as she turned around so her back was shown in the mirror and craned her neck, trying to look at herself, "I think I'm going to try the grey and purple one again."
"I've heard grey and purple plaid is scientifically proven to attract women."
"You have had you?" Beca humoured him as she pulled on the shirt and adjusted it carefully so her bracelets were visible. "Did you learn that in your professional fashion career?"
"Ah yes, yes I did. Purple specifically attracts ummm, brunettes."
Beca laughed. "I don't even know what colour hair she has anyway."
"Ah hah!" Jesse jumped up, pointing his finger accusingly at Beca, "So you admit you're trying to impress Chloe."
"I do not! You started it anyway."
"And you took the bait! What do you reckon this girl looks like anyway? Confident and flirty, she's got to be a brunette."
"How am I meant to know?" Beca huffed and briefly wondered about changing her jeans.
"But if you to guess." Jesse wheedled.
"Blonde." Beca answered shortly and turned back around to face the boy lounging on the bed. "Definitely blonde. Do you think it looks like I've made too much of an effort?"
Jesse grinned again, "Beca my girl, you have got it so, so bad."
Jesse pulled up outside a large building with a neat sign reading 'Bellas' in blue cursive font on the top of it.
"Not exactly where I imagined my first big gig as a DJ would be." Beca mused.
"It's all a bit pretty isn't it."
"Everything's just so perfect..."
"And then there's you," Jesse grinned, "Now get out of my car, I've got places to go, people to see."
"Thanks for the support." Beca deadpanned.
"What can I say, I'm always here for you Bec." Jesse winked cheekily, "And what time am I picking you up?"
"The text said 4."
"The text hey?" Jesse raised his eyes suggestively and Beca sighed. "The text from Chloe by any chance?"
Beca's apparent crush on Chloe (which she swore was a figment of his imagination) had become the boy's new favourite topic to tease her about. She'd resorted to desperate measures to avoid his playful banter, including keeping her phone on silent at all times and announcing she was going for a walk every time her phone rang.
Now Beca simply glowered at Jesse as he raised his hand in a salute and kept a straight face as he told her "Go forth and acquire the target," before tearing off back down the street.
"Idiot." Beca muttered as she turned around and took exactly three steps before she ran smack into a large blonde woman. She flung backwards and staggered before falling backwards onto her butt.
"Wha-who's there? Who was that? I'm armed!" The woman she'd collided with yelled from above her as she spun around.
"Down here." Beca groaned and poked gingerly at her lower back, "Are you going to shoot me?"
"Why would I shoot you?" The woman now seemed confused as she spotted Beca on the ground and leaned down to pull her up
"You said you were armed..."
"Oh right, no I was just pointing out that I have arms. It scares people for some reason sometimes, I'm not sure why. Hey, nice headphones! Are you the DJ? I'm Fat Amy, official bouncer of the Bellas, at your service. You must feel privileged; you've already experienced my bouncing talents first hand!"
Beca gaped at the woman who had paused, trying to figure out how she was meant to reply to any of what Amy (Fat Amy?) had just said.
"You don't say much do you?" Amy continued, her voice laced with a thick Australian accent, "What's you name again?"
"I didn't say-uh, it's Beca."
"Beca...chicka chicka aww..." Fat Amy made some strange sound and moved her hand to imitate a DJ. "I could have been a star DJ you know, back in Tassie I was a real up and comer. I just didn't want to risk it."
"Risk what?" Beca asked, confused.
"Arthritis." Amy nodded seriously, "1 out of 5 DJs are likely to develop wrist arthritis. We had a cat that had it once."
"That sounds serious." Beca raised her eyebrow.
"Oh that's nothing; back in Aus I kept rattlesnakes in my room for 3 weeks. Living on the edge man."
Beca nodded slowly and followed Fat Amy, who had apparently decided their conversation was finished and headed through the doors of the large building.
They walked inside and Beca gave an internal shudder as she spotted the tall blonde form of Aubrey. The blonde, who was surrounded by a group of nervous but excited looking girls, looked equally displeased to see Beca.
"Beca, Amy I'm glad you're here." She called out, sounding anything but. "Come join the rest of us."
The girls Beca didn't recognise quickly sat in the chairs that were set up on the floor, facing a white board that had been set up. Aubrey waited next to the board and watched silently as Beca awkwardly sped-walked to an empty chair.
"Right." Aubrey clapped her hands as she surveyed the group in front of her. "As you know, you have all been chosen to work here at Bellas, starting next week. At the Bellas we will aim for the highest standard in every aspect of what we do..."
Beca started to zone out as Aubrey prattled on about punishment for incorrect uniform and lateness. It was bothering her that Chloe wasn't here, surely she couldn't still be sick? Besides, Chloe had texted this morning saying she would definitely be there. Maybe she was one of the girls sitting around her, but no one had even made any eye contact with her as she walked in. None of the girls looked like Chloe anyway. She wasn't sure exactly what it was she was looking for, but they were definitely not it.
"...Manager Chloe will be with us soon-" Beca suddenly realised Aubrey was saying.
"What?" She jumped up, knocking her chair over in the process.
Aubrey frowned at the interruption and several of the girls looked at Beca strangely.
"Please try and keep up Beca." Aubrey sighed, "I was just saying that since we were all here we should all introduce ourselves, maybe give a few interesting facts -"
"You were saying something about Ch-I mean the manager?" Beca butted in again.
Aubrey narrowed her eyes. "Yes we are all here, except for Chloe who is the manager, and is out the back doing some paperwork. Now that you're actually paying attention maybe you'd like to tell us a little about yourself?"
Now it was Beca's turn to frown as Aubrey sat down with a very satisfied smirk on her face, looking at Beca expectantly. Interesting facts about herself? She couldn't think of any facts about herself, let alone interesting ones.
"Oh ok, right." She started hesitantly. "Well my name's Beca. I'm the DJ here. And uh, I like Djing."
She sat back down quickly and Aubrey rolled her eyes.
"Stacie?"
A tall brunette stood up confidently and smiled widely at them all.
"Hi everyone, my name's Stacie. My hobbies include cuticle care and the e-network."
The girl sat back down again, receiving a smile from Aubrey and Beca glowered. Her introduction had been way more interesting than that. Fat Amy stood up next and gave them all a demonstration of pirate dancing, and eventually all the other girls were introduced.
"Right!" Aubrey stood up and clapped her hands together again. "Now we all know each other, I'll show you around. Follow me through here."
Beca stood up with everyone and followed the boss through to the main dance floor.
"Damn this place looks the goods." A girl called Cynthia-Rose announced with an approving nod as she surveyed the huge room.
"Yeah it's not too bad," Amy agreed, "Reminds me of the club back home in Tassie me and some aboriginals ran. We kept it tight. Think we might have scared the kangaroos though."
"The ones in Vegas are better." Beca heard faintly from beside her and turned around to find Lily staring off into the distance.
Aubrey was ahead and ignored everyone, suddenly coming to a stop and swinging around to face them.
"So there's the stage obviously, and Beca you'll be up there." Beca followed Aubrey's finger to where she was pointing to a little alcove high in the wall above the stage.
"No way." Beca breathed.
"Yes way." Aubrey replied with a smirk, though this time it was almost friendly. "There's stairs to the right of the stage to get you up there, why don't you go set yourself up? I'll send someone up to help you soon."
"Awesome." Beca grinned, unable to contain her excitement despite trying to remain cool in front of Aubrey. She turned and nearly bolted towards the door, shoving it open to find a narrow spiral staircase. She took the stairs two at a time and reached another door at the top, but this one didn't open when she tried the handle. After a moment of panic she remembered the card she'd been given by Aubrey right at the start and tried it in the slot. A light flashed green and she eagerly opened the door.
Beca wasn't one to get excited often, but she couldn't help but gasp when her eyes fell upon the equipment that was all hers to use. The area was tiny, she only had to take a step before she was able to sink into the huge chair provided for her. To her left was a large mac screen, which she discovered all the top DJ softwares already downloaded onto and a folder and usb for all her own music. A few more clicks and she found an enormous list of songs, ranging from everything that was currently on high rotation radio to songs that had been hits over 20 years ago. In front of her was all her equipment, countless dials and switches that would allow her to do whatever she wanted to the music playing. She also had a microphone, presumably for announcing things, a set of headphones marked 'office', and another set attached to the Djing board. She quickly pulled the plug attached to that set and replaced it with her own that were already around her neck. On the computer the screensaver had started so she quickly wiggled the mouse and brought up the list of songs again. She typed quickly and a second later 'Thrift Shop' was booming through the speakers, pumping loudly through the whole building.
"Awesome." Beca breathed in wonder, until her moment of happiness was interrupted by a screaming Aubrey.
"Beca! Volume control please!"
"Sorry!" She called back, despite having no idea where the girl was. Her eyes fell on the microphone next to her and her lips curled as she leant towards it. "Sorry Aubrey." She repeated, putting on a deep voice and smirked as the words echoed throughout the room. She could almost hear Aubrey sigh.
Not wanting to push her luck she decided she should probably actually do something with all of the equipment she had at her disposal. This morning she'd packed a USB with her most recent creations so she plugged it into the computer and double clicked one of her favourites she'd made, a mash up of 500 Miles and Titanium. The song started playing and Beca slipped her headphones over her ears, sliding over to the various dials to work out what each one would do. She was just experimenting with one button that played a high pitched guitar sound whenever she pressed it when there was a yell from behind her and she accidently fell on the board in shock, almost deafening herself with all the sounds that played at once.
"I thought you were meant to be good at this?" The same voice teased from behind her, and a second before Beca remembered where she recognised it from she was wrapped in a tight hug.
"Oh My God, Chloe?" She spluttered, hastily blowing a few strands of flaming red hair out of her face. The arms loosened around her and she spun around to come face to face with a beaming red head.
"Hi!" Chloe grinned happily, "Sorry for scaring you Bug."
It took a couple of seconds for Beca to register what Chloe had called her, since she was too busy being distracted by her eyes. When she and Jesse had been guessing what the woman would look like, they'd never even mentioned her eyes. Eyes weren't usually what Beca remembered about a person, she found the details didn't stick in your head as easily as the colour of their hair or their height. The thing was though, she'd never seen anyone with eyes like Chloe's. You could call them blue and you'd be right, but calling Chloe's eyes blue would be like calling the ocean an area of water, or Mount Everest a rise in the ground. They seemed to sparkle, just the way Chloe's voice always had, and with Chloe's red hair (red!?) they stood out so vibrantly it was as though they were staring straight into her soul.
"Did you knock your head or something?" Chloe giggled as Beca stared dumbly at her.
"Uh no, sorry I just didn't expect - I wasn't expecting-" Beca waved her hand vaguely behind her, "I was busy and I didn't expect-"
"Oh I'm so sorry, did I interrupt you when you were caught in your own little world?" Chloe cut her off and saved her from further embarrassment as she tried to form a sentence. She swept past her and plopped down in front of the equipment. "This stuff is pretty cool! How do you do it?"
Beca took a deep breath and tried to gather her composure, not helped by Chloe who had swiveled around in the chair and was waiting for her.
"Well it's not that simple." Beca tried to explain, and brought up the song on the computer she'd been playing before, opening a program she used at home at the same time and loading the song on. "See I just pick songs that go together well and I try to match up down beats and-"
Right at that moment Beca's phone buzzed and the vibration caused it to spin a circle where it was resting on some dials in front of Chloe.
Update please! Is she smoking hot?
The messaged flashed on the screen briefly before dimming again and Beca gulped, glancing sideways to see if Chloe had noticed anything. If she had, she was pretending not to notice as she stared intently at the screen Beca had up.
"I don't really get it." Chloe frowned and Beca breathed a sigh of relief. "Can you play me that song?"
"Oh yeah ok." Beca quickly selected the mash up she'd been playing before, letting the song start to play quietly.
"Is this as loud as it goes?" Chloe questioned, standing up and leaning over so that her arm brushed against Beca's.
"No there's the volume here but-" Beca tried to explain but Chloe had already reached over and pumped up the volume.
"This is great!" She grinned and Beca blushed. "You really made this?"
Beca nodded, trying desperately to look anywhere but at the girl right in front of her who seemed to be somehow inching closer.
"Beca!" Aubrey yelled again, and for once Beca was glad to hear the blonde's voice. She leaned over the edge of her little alcove and looked down at the tall girl who was standing with her hands on her hips next to Cythnthia Rose and Amy.
"Yes?"
"Is this your song?"
"Uh, yes."
"Make sure you play it on opening night." Aubrey replied and walked off, heading towards the bar.
"It's rockin' homie!" Cynthia-Rose agreed.
"Sounds like one of my own." Fat Amy added.
Beca smiled bashfully and retreated back from the edge.
"Told you your stuff was amazing." Chloe smiled
"Well uh, hey - I thought Aubrey said she was sending someone up here to help me, how come I got you?" Beca tried to deflect the compliment.
"I may have told a teeny tiny lie and told her I knew how to use it. I had to talk to you and thank you for the chicken soup right?"
"Oh yeah, about that, I have to admit something."
"Hmm?" Chloe leaned in again as though Beca was going to whisper a secret to her.
"I didn't get you sick."
"I know that silly!" Chloe giggled.
"No, no I mean I was never sick. I just said I was so I could keep talking to you on the phone."
"What a coincidence" Chloe breathed, her breath tickling Beca's face, rendering her speechless so she could only gulp and nod in response. Her older woman's mouth twisted into a cheeky grin and she grabbed Beca's forearms. "Well, I better go test out the bar, this ginger needs her jiggle juice!"
The girl released Beca's arms and pulled away, sauntering towards the door.
"But it's only three o'clock." Beca replied in a lame attempt to have Chloe stay.
"And?" Chloe called, without looking back.
"...Make good choices." Beca replied weakly and she could have sworn the red head gave an extra wiggle of her butt as she disappeared down the stairs.