Author's Note: Hello, I would just like to apologise for what I said in the previous chapter's author note. I am grateful for every single one of you for reading, reviewing and favouriting this story. Sometimes, writers need feedback, J.K Rowling wouldn't have completed the Harry Potter series if the money had stopped, and like everyone, fanfic authors need motivation too.
Elizabeth: I write for myself, and for other people. In some ways, what's the point of having a gem if you can't show it off to the world, there isn't much point, is there? I believe you got the wrong end of the stick as to what I was insinuating, and I believe you were feeling quite passionately since you then told me exactly what to do.
Everyone Else: Thank you for everything you guys have said since the start of the fanfiction, I love you all to pieces, and wouldn't change this for the world. I guess I see other authors get loads of reviews on their stories, it's all praise, I guess I just thought no one wanted to give me any praise, which made me rather upset.
However, thank you to everyone who opened their laptop in order to address how I spoke to you.
It was immature and wrong, I'm sorry.
Becky, xox.
PS: Line breaks signal the jumps in time, I used to do time gaps purely with italics and not with the line break, but see what you think and I can always change it, especially if it is several line gaps per 50 words. :)
Hey, bring it on baby, all your friends
You're the shit and I love that body
You wanna ball, let's mix it, I swear you're good, I won't tell nobody
You got a BFF, I wanna see that girl, it's all women invited
Hair do's and nails, that Louis, Chanel all up in the body
President's in my wallet, no rules I'm about it
Blow the whistle for the hotties
I got it, shawty, it's never too much, can't be doing too much
10 to one of me, I can handle that love
Outta of my reach, we can all get buzz
Holla cause I'm free, to whatever it's no rush
Chloe all but ran through the quad, a bag containing various pieces of sheet music in her hand, ready to be thrown into the trash. She knew that Aubrey would be pissed about her sister's sudden presence within the house the younger Posen was currently captain of, but neither woman could do anything. After all, Cassandra Posen was on track to graduate from Harvard Law School with top honors, something Chloe knew Aubrey was loathe to do-the blonde would much rather follow her dreams in the arts after her grandma had offered to pay for Aubrey to take Fine Arts on top of Pre-Law and Politics.
It was hard work, but hard work is fun when you're raised like a cyborg.
"Chloe, why is my sister's car in the parking lot?" Aubrey's emerald eyes were filled with fright and anxiety, something Chloe knew all-too-well led to the blonde making out with white porcelain.
The redhead caught her breath for a moment, "she's carrying out a Bella exception." Chloe could see the desperation flood into her ex-best friend's demeanor. "They're the other side of campus, Bree, you're wearing heeled boots."
"If you're not here to win get the hell out of Kuwait." Aubrey promptly kicked her boots off, handing them to Chloe, "you keep them, I just need to save our Bellas."
"But Bree, it's been four years."
Aubrey shook her head, tying her hair into a high ponytail before looking the redhead dead in the eye, "she leaves unsatisfied, I'm shipped off to Europe for seven months. Barden is my home Chloe, I'd do anything to save them."
In all honesty, Chloe had never thought she'd ever see the - normally - well put together captain standing in front of her, wearing only socks on her feet, ready to risk throwing her knee out of action again to save the one thing she loved more than Chloe - their Bellas.
"'Indiana State Champion's Olympic Dreams Erased Due To Stair Fall.'" Chloe looked Aubrey dead in the eye, they both knew full well what had happened.
"Stair fight."
Chloe couldn't stop the smile on her face at the sight of her best friend running again, it had been so long since Aubrey had even walked onto an athletics track.
"Go get 'em." Chloe's lips curled upwards into a smile, she was such a good motivator sometimes.
"You came second?" Tobias Posen III's voice echoed through the ground floor of the Posen mansion.
He was staring his youngest daughter down, his blue-grey eyes boring into those of emerald green with flashes of gold. The teenager moved uncomfortably under his gaze, her eyes moving to avoid anything that could remind her of the disappointment she had just caused to her family name.
"Dad, he's an Olympic Athlete I-"
Tobias' arms folded, "you should have won." He shook his head, "you've been running since you could walk. You have great sponsors and a National Title under your belt, you can't afford to be beaten by yobos in beanies. What if it was a girl, Aubrey-Rose, would you be more disappointed then?" Aubrey cringed at the use of her full first name, her throat growing dryer and dryer with every second that ticked by according to the large grandfather clock that stood in the grand hallway.
"Yes father, of course father." The feeling resurfaced, the taste trailing up her throat and onto her tongue, making her taste buds expect and wait-for the worst to come. "Daddy I-" Her protests were cut out by her hand flying to her mouth, the bile moving up her throat and refusing to go back down.
Rosalind Posen watched as the blonde runner sprinted up the stairs, trying to close the distance between herself and her faithful toilet. She looked to her husband, Tobias close to his maximum anger, and sighed.
He was definitely going to chase her.
"Cassie, get the hell out of this house!" Aubrey marched her way down the long hallway The Bella house laid claim to (she was so done referring to it through its official name). "No one invited you, no alumni allowed."
The older sister turned around on the heel of her Jimmy Choo shoes, no doubt a gift from her father. "Ah, Aubrey-Rose, always a pleasure."
"My name is Aubrey." Bile was, once again, rising up her throat. "A-U-B-R-E-Y. Pronounced: Or-Bree."
"Tobias, don't follow her."
"She lost." The man's words were laced with disgust and hatred for the one person who could never continue to bring pride to the Posen name, "Aubrey-Rose Posen never loses."
"Is it now? Because, at this moment in time, I think you should be focussing on The Bellas, not what everyone calls you." The taller and more intense woman began circling her younger. "Aubrey, Captain Puke, Sir Pukerton, Lady Pukerton, Aubrey-Rose, Loser, Disgrace, Mistake and Pukegate Posen." She stopped and folded her arms, "none of those jump out as positive for our family do they, Aubrey-Rose?"
The Bellas scurried upstairs, not wishing to get too involved with the exchange happening between the two sisters.
The man dismissed his wife's wishes and took off upstairs, in hot pursuit of the nauseous teenage blonde. "Aubrey-Rose, get back here!"
"Dad, no!"
In the split second that Aubrey's hand had moved from her mouth in order to speak, her dinner lurched from her stomach, covering her father in vomit. The smell was putrid, causing Aubrey to almost pass-out on the floor.
The pressure had won.
"I lead The Bellas just fine, sure, we've had hiccups, hasn't everyone?"
"No! They haven't!" Cassie grabbed her sister by the hair, a fistful of blonde stuck within a snake-tight grasp, pulling continuously.
"Ow!" Aubrey's hand flew to her sister's. "Cassie stop, that hurts!"
"How fucking dare you!" Tobias knotted his fist into his daughter's hair, pulling the poor blonde to her feet, "this suit was from the governor, and you just ruined it with that disgusting puking of yours!"
"Daddy I'm sorry." Her eyes were filling up with tears, the desperation and apology coming through in her voice. "I didn't mean to, I can't help it." She tried to pull out of his grasp, but to no avail, "Why do you pretend that my vomiting is my fault?"
"Because it is your fault, Aubrey-Rose, because you can't handle stress."
Her shoulder banged against the wall with half the force her father was capable of.
"Does it now?" Cassie pulled on the fistful of hair, "what about now?"
"Cassie let go!" The older woman began dragging her sister up the stairs. "Ow, ow, ow!" Aubrey's knee hit the newel post at the top of the banister. "Holy shit!"
"You're such a disgrace to the Posen name!"
"You were a mistake!" Cassie's forceful shaking of her sister caused Aubrey to bang against the wall, the already weak joint buckling under the force of the impact.
Crack.
Tobias Posen hadn't even registered what had happened until a series of thuds finished with a high-pitched scream.
"My knee!"
He had pushed his Olympic Hopeful daughter down the staircase, shattering her knee.
