A/N: We're almost at the end, I plan on two (maybe three) more chapters, and hope to finish them before the end of the year. If anyone want some distraction during the next week, the HWL finals are starting tomorrow (5 Dec, the men's are already underway), and I bet there is a livestream available somewhere. Anyway, thanks for the support!


"Okay girls, this is it. I know we didn't have the smoothest end of the season, but that doesn't mean we can't win this. We have been through alot this year. We worked hard and made each other better. We battled through the bad times and celebrated the good times. And now we have one more task, reward ourselves. We celebrated reaching the playoffs, now let's win them."

The girls started cheering, but Aubrey raised a hand to indicate she was not done yet. Everybody went quiet and waited for the end of the speech.

"Now, I would normally give you some last minute advice or remind you of something we practiced, but I'm not going to do that today. To be honest, I don't think you'll need it. Trust yourself, trust each other and trust your training. Let's do this!"

Now the girls broke into howls and cheers. Amy led the yell and everyone shouted at the top of their lungs. They broke the huddle and ran to their positions to start the game. They were feeling hungry. The whole season had been working up to this moment, making it to the playoffs, but they were not done yet.

They ended their season in second place, with Naomi's team in first. This meant that they would have to play the champions of one of the other three districts. Since they were second, they weren't awarded the home field advantage. If they won, they would have to battle for a finals spot in the semi-finals. Just three games were standing between them and the championship.

But they weren't looking that far ahead right now, they were just focussing on winning this one game. They all knew what their opponents could do, they had looked at game footage, stats and every game report they could find. They knew the specialities and weaknesses of each of the girls and exactly how to deal with that. They had been preparing for this game for two weeks. They were ready.

Aubrey had lost the toss, so their opponents would start the game. As soon as the whistle blew everybody started moving. Barden started out with a full-court press. The girls were chasing the ball deep into their opponent's half. Their pressure soon forced the error, which won them the ball. The opposing team played using a man-to-man cover in defense, but Aubrey and Beca devised a game play to break down their defense. The attackers would be covered at all times, so they planned a different approach. Beca took the free hit near the circle and Aubrey rushed forward. She received the ball while running full speed and surprised the defenders. They all had their own attacker to cover, so nobody was left to stop Aubrey. With incredible speed she hit the ball goal-bound. The goalie was beaten and Barden was ahead.

A little over an hour later the Barden girls were gathered in a circle, jumping up and down. They had overcome their first challenge on the way to the championship. Aubrey tried to calm the girls down, but it was no use right now. All the hard work from the last few weeks had paid off and everybody felt relieved. Aubrey could relate to that, so she let the girls celebrate for now.

They were in control from the moment they scored the first goal. The girls executed the plays they had worked on perfectly. After halftime the opposing team switched their defensive strategy, but Beca had predicted this, so Barden already had the answer. Sure, the game wasn't entirely flawless, they still conceded one goal, but they were definitely on the right track, and they had another week of practices before their next game.

Aubrey looked at her tiny co-captain but didn't see her amongst the girls on the field. She looked around and found her near the dugout, dragging Chloe towards the girls.

"You are a part of the team, you should celebrate with us," she heard Beca say. Chloe looked hesitant, but still followed her girlfriend towards the Barden team. As she joined the girls broke out in cheers again, and they embraced Chloe in an awkward, sweaty group hug. Beca was still at her girlfriend's side trying to fight the girls off.

"Watch the shoulder guys," she shouted, which prompted the girls to step back. They started to calm down a bit to Aubrey's relieve and made their way over to the dugout. Each of the girls gave Dawson a high five, or in Amy's case a big sweaty hug. Aubrey was one of the last girls to reach her.

"You did well out there today, Aubrey. You are a really talented player, but more so a great captain for your team. You know, you would make a great coach one day," Dawson told her.

Before Aubrey could properly respond she was tackled from behind. A large brunette pressed her lips against her cheek. She then proceeded to try and turn Aubrey around. Aubrey threw an apologetic glance at Dawson, who smiled at her before walking towards Beca and Chloe.

"You were great today, babe. And you are totally hot when you are in captain-mode," Stacie said. Aubrey wanted to respond but was silenced by the Stacie leaning forward and kissing her. She wrapped her arms around her girlfriend. She couldn't believe she has gotten this lucky.


The busride back to Barden was one big party. Music was blasting and the girls were singing along at the top of their lungs. Beca was surprised that most of the girls were actually really good singers. She had heard Chloe sing before around the house, so she knew her girlfriend was quite talented, but she had never expected this from Aubrey.

When Miley Cyrus came on Beca rolled her eyes. She had refused to sing along up to this point, and was definitely not going to start now. Chloe was singing in her ear, and when she turned around she saw that all the girls were looking at her. She turned back towards the window and tried to ignore them, but they started singing increasingly louder as the chorus was ending. She looked at her girlfriend, and instantly knew that was a mistake. Chloe's eyes were big and she was looking at Beca in a way she knew her girlfriend couldn't resist.

"So I put my hands up!" She had finally given in and all the girls were cheering. Chloe was smiling at her and pressed a quick kiss to her cheek in between lines. God, she loved this dorky redhead. It was nice to see Chloe smiling again, the last few weeks have been mostly forced smiles that didn't quite reach her eyes. Beca wanted to make everything better for her girlfriend, but the only thing that would heal Chloe's shoulder was rest. And that didn't combine too well with Chloe's bouncy character.

When they were almost back at Barden it was already dark outside and Beca's throat was hurting. Once she had joined the girls with singing, it was hard to stop and so most of the ride was spent singing along to the most embarrassing songs. Stacie had whipped her phone out at one point and recorded some of the singing, but Beca wasn't too worried, since she still had some blackmailing material herself.


The next week was similar to the two weeks previous, the girls focussed almost solely on training. Beca even tried to skip a few classes to prepare training drills, but Chloe forced her to go. She knew it was for the better and she hadn't been on top of her classes lately, so she listened to Chloe without too much protest. She still didn't like it.

They were well prepared and excited for the next game. Even more so because it would be a home game. The guys would all come and watch, and they made a point of inviting the entire student body to come as well. Although hockey wasn't such a high-profile sport at Barden, the girls still got quite the attention for reaching the semis. This meant a lot of extra pressure to perform well, but everybody was confident..

Jesse was already on the field when the girls came out of the dressing rooms to start warming up. He pulled Dawson and Chloe aside. They called over Aubrey a moment later and Beca was left to lead warm up. She could she Aubrey and Chloe arguing, Aubrey shaking her head and Chloe looking disappointed. The discussion didn't last long, because soon Aubrey was back and Jesse was walking off the field towards his teammates. Before Beca could say anything, she was cut off.

"Don't ask, Beca. We will talk about this after the game."

She let it drop and concentrated on warming up her muscles. From time to time she glanced at her girlfriend, who was organizing their dugout, talking to Dawson or just looking at the team. Chloe looked mad, which wasn't something that happened often. Beca wanted to go over there and talk to her and hug her, but she knew now wasn't the time to get into that, it would have to wait until after the game.

The game got on its way, and Barden found out they weren't just 11 girls in the field. They had their fans cheering them on, which gave them the extra strength to push through. This game was clearly harder than the last game, and they hadn't expected anything less. But they were also better than the last game.

They were strong from the beginning, working together as a team, passing at the right time, backing each other up and finding each other without looking. Nothing could stop them. And at every play there was a crowd of people cheering, giving them just that bit extra to run a little faster or shoot a little harder.

Of course, their opponents fought back, but Beca could see them lose faith every time they lost a ball. Every time the crowd cheered Barden on, their opponent got more insecure. They started making more and more mistakes. They had held Barden off until halftime, but just barely. When the girls stepped back onto the field, the difference was all too clear. Barden was looking strong, fit and sure, while their opponents looked small and weak. The first goal broke them. The one goal lead was doubled quickly and Barden just kept going. Two turned into three, then four, and Stacie even got a last minute goal in to make it five.

After shaking hands with their opponents, the Barden team ran a cool down run around the field and thanked the crowd. They never had this many people come and watch them and the support was amazing. Beca could swear she saw some people from her classes with Barden T-shirts on, even people she never spoke to. She saw the guys standing near her dugout and next to them was her father. He looked so proud, and Beca made a mental note to thank him for coming later.

She would have walked over immediately, if she hadn't looked over at her girlfriend at that moment. Normally Chloe was the first person to hug Aubrey when she came off the field, but now she was acting like the blonde wasn't even there. Aubrey tried to approach her, but as soon as she saw the look on Chloe's face she aborted her mission. Beca went over instead and pulled her girlfriend into a hug.

"Babe, is everything okay? What were you and Aubrey arguing about?" Beca asked.

"I'm fine. I'll tell you later, you should get showered first," Chloe answered, before pulling her face in an obviously fake smile. Beca looked at her for a moment longer, but knew she wasn't going to get anything out of the girl, so she nodded.

"But we're going to talk about this later, okay?"