A/N: Hi! Hope you had a great weekend, here's chapter 11. It's a short one and it's all Jesse, but what happens on this one will play an important part later on the story. As always R&R, thank you for the interest you have shown on all of this :) Enjoy.


The minutes turned into hours, the hours into days and the days into weeks, and in the blink of an eye January was left behind and February took over. The Barden Team had made enormous progress, they hadn't have problems with finding their sound despite their different origins and they had managed to integrate everybody's talent into their musical numbers, and despite some minor incidents (like Alice's constant indiscipline and her vain attempts at hitting on Jesse to make Beca angry, or The High Notes rebelliousness) it was all in full swing and they were ready for Locals. However, Jesse wasn't happy –he was worried. He and Beca kept struggling financially, and although he was having the time of his life preparing everything for the tournament he was afraid he was wasting his time on it instead of looking for other sources of income. Beca was the one who had a stable job and brought more money into the house while he bounced from one temporary job to another, and this bothered him because he didn't want Beca to carry all the burden since they lived together and split all the bills. He wished to gain more money or to have a more stable job, but the truth was that with a bachelor of music degree and little-to-none professional experience his chances of becoming a film score composer were pretty slim. He hoped that with their move to Los Angeles his job opportunities would increase, and he could finally pay Beca all the money he owed her.

However right now he needed to have a question answered, one that had bothered him for a couple of weeks. He took advantage of the fact that Beca was away working and he called Gail Abernathy-McKadden.

"Yes?"

"Hi Mrs. Abernathy-McKadden, I'm Jesse Swanson."

"Jesse! What a nice surprise to hear you again! How's everything going?" She asked him, as happy and chatty as always.

"Great." He answered, but he wanted to cut right to the chase. "Hey listen, the reason why I called is because I have a little question regarding the tournament that I hope you can answer me."

"If it is on my power, my child."

Jesse took a deep breath, thinking in how to formulate his question in a proper way.

"I would like to know if the ICCA is giving us something for participating in it."

"Oh, you mean a prize? I thought it was weird that you didn't ask when we had dinner last month."

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to be rude…"

"I wouldn't had taken it as something rude, but reasonable. After all there's a reason why they say nothing in life is free, right Jesse?"

"Well…" He said, uncomfortable.

"Anyway, the answer is yes. The ICCA will award the winning team with ten thousand dollars."

"To divide them between all the members of the team, I assume."

"You assume wrong. If you win, then each one of you will walk away with ten grand."

Jesse almost dropped his phone to the ground.

"You are joking, right?"

"I never joke with money, Jesse."

"Ten grand for winning an a Capella contest?"

"Is it too little for you?"

For some people ten grand were nothing, but definitely not for Jesse.

"On the contrary, I think is great!"

"We understand most of you have just graduated and that's the time when people generally struggle more with money, you said it yourself when I called you that Sunday. "Beca and I are on a tight budget". I guess ten thousand grand will help you two a lot. "

"They would, they definitely would." He said, trying to contain his enthusiasm.

"Well, now you have an extra motivation to win the tournament. Has my answer made you happy, Jesse?"

"It has. Thank you, Mrs. Abernathy-McKadden."

"You're welcome. Feel free to tell your fellow team members about it so they feel motivated, too."

"I will, thank you again."

"Have a nice day."

"You too."

After he hang up, Jesse remained sat on the chair for a while. His brain was working like crazy. If we win, Beca will get 10 thousand dollars and so will I. It should be enough for her to pay her debts and for me to pay mine, and with the money we have saved we can move to L.A. and then everything is going to change for us. I should start looking for something so we have a more stablished plan before moving. At that moment he switched his computer on, but immediately turned it off again as another thought had crossed his mind.

Jesse knew that if he wanted to fulfill his dream of becoming a film score composer he needed something more than a bachelor of music degree. He needed a special talent, advanced studies, contacts and experience. He had the first, but lacked the other ones. He came to the conclusion that he had to use his talent in his favor to get everything else, so after a long consideration he realized that maybe L.A. wasn't the right place for him after all –at least, not in that moment. If I want to play in the big leagues, I need the proper training for it. He said to himself.

And then he entered the Berklee School of Music webpage.