Hey guys! I would just like to apologize for two things here; one, sorry it's been over a week. I got hit with writer's block. Also, I'm working on a Christmas story that has been calling my attention lately. Number two, most of this chapter is directly from the movie, but there are some added parts. Hope the wait was worth it!
Chapter 9
Chloe's POV
"Sopranos in the front, altos in the back." Aubrey calls out to the girls the next day at rehearsal. I stand in front of the whiteboard, pretending to watch Aubrey. "As you can see, Kori is not here. Last night, she was treble-boned." After much discussion last night, Aubrey and I decided that it's the perfect excuse for Kori being gone. "She has been disinvited from the Bellas."
"That oath was serious?" Mitchell asks sarcastically, and I have to try twice as hard to keep the small smile on my face at her blunt rudeness.
"Dixie chick serious. You can fool around with whoever you want to, just not a Treble."
"That's not going to be easy. He's a Hunter." Stacie points toward herself, and I sigh lightly at the momentary disappointment on Bree's face that I know no one but me noticed. I also know that she's not disappointed because of her mission idea, but that Stacie's straight, or at least into guys.
"You call it a dude?" Mitchell asks in shock, and Stacie nods.
"Stacie, the Trebles don't respect us, and if we let them penetrate us, we are giving them our power."
"Not a good enough reason to use the word 'penetrate.'" Fat Amy says, and I chuckle lightly.
"So, does anyone here have anything to confess?" Aubrey asks, standing in front of Mary Elise (who we caught making out with Unicycle last night and chose to wait until today to say something (Bree's idea, not mine)). She looks down, but Aubrey doesn't back away, just gives her an even more pointed look.
"It was an accident, I-"
"Turn in your scarf and go." Aubrey holds her hand out expectantly. It takes her a second, but she takes the scarf and unties it from her purse, handing it to Aubrey. Aubrey conducts her out of her chair.
"Slut." Fat Amy fakes a cough.
"Take your chair." Mary Elise grabs her chair and leaves, dropping it in front of the door and letting out a sob as she runs out of the building.
"Was that necessary?" Mitchell asks, and I fight the urge to groan.
"This is war, Beca. And it is my job to make sure that my soldiers are prepped at go time with three kick-ass songs sung and choreographed to perfection. And there are only four months until regionals. So if you have a problem with the way that I run the Bellas, then you should just…" She gags and covers her mouth, and I move over to her in comfort as she tries to keep the "bile" down. It's all an act, really, but we have to keep up appearances.
In a loud enough whisper where I know the rest of the girls will hear me, I say, "Don't stress, Aubrey, relax. We don't want a repeat of what happened last year." Aubrey turns back around as Lilly raises her hand and asks a question that no one hears. "What are you saying?" Mitchell turns to look at us with wide eyes as Lilly repeats her question.
Suddenly, Lilly grabs out a tablet and pulls up YouTube, playing the video General Posen created. Some of the girls laugh, and Stacie says, "Oh, click on 'Guy Pukes on Cat.'"
"Enough! It happened. It's over." Aubrey redirects the girls' attention to her. "We will practice every day for at least two hours, seven days a week. And I trust you will add your own cardio."
"Why cardio?" Mitchell asks, and Fat Amy interrupts before either Bree or I can respond.
"Yeah, no, don't put me down for cardio." She raises her hand in the air.
"Ok, moving on." She walks over to me and motions for me to start handing the packets that I'm holding out. "This is a list of all the songs we have ever performed." General Posen sent us a list of all the Bellas' old songs, which we typed up and printed off. "And you will notice that we only do songs made famous by women."
"There's nothing from this century on here." Mitchell comments.
"Because we don't stray from tradition." Aubrey responds, only to get a sarcastic smile from Mitchell in response. Choosing to ignore it, she continues, "Now, this is how we'll become champions." She flips over the white board, revealing the elaborate plan we came up with last night. "Now, I want each of you to come with me individually to work on vowels. Stacie, you're first." She walks over to the piano, Stacie quickly following after her. I grab my phone and play Candy Crush, sneaking glances at Mitchell from the corner of my eye every now and then. She just seems to be talking to Fat Amy the whole time.
After the rest of the girls go, Aubrey calls out, "Alright, cardio! Run up the stairs!" They all groan, and Aubrey leads us all up the stairs. "Come on ladies, let's go! Go, go, go! Pick up your knees!" We all follow her. "Faster, faster! One, two, one, two, one, two!" I can't help but smile when I realize that these are the same exercises my dad made me do when I was a little kid, and when Aubrey and I make eye contact, I know she's thinking the same thing.
"Pick up your knees, Chloe! You got this!" My dad called out to me as I ran around the bunker, bringing my knees up as high as I could- which wasn't very high, considering I was five years old. "You can do it!"
Suddenly, I tripped and fell, landing flat on my face in the dry, desert sand. "Chloe!" My dad was next to me within seconds, helping me up on my knees and brushing the dirt and sand off my shoulders. "Are you ok?"
"I'm ok, Daddy." I smiled up at him, and his grin widened in return. "Just a scratch, right?"
"Yeah, baby." He chuckled and stood me back up. "Just a scratch."
"Knees up, knees up! Go, go, go! Let's get up!" Aubrey's voice brings me back to reality, and I blink back the unexpected tears in my eyes. She halts at the end of the stairs and starts smacking everyone's backsides. Once I run up, she holds her hands out for a double high-five, a soft look in her eyes. "Yes, Chloe, nice!" Once I pass by, she yells, "Amy! What are you doing?"
Amy pops up from the middle of the seats and says, "I'm doing horizontal running."
"Horizontal running?" The rest of us girls make it back down to the bottom, panting. Once she recovers from her shock, she calls out, "everyone go to Chloe for choreography." We decided that I would help the girls with the dancing, since I'm better at it.
"Stacie? You first." I call out to her, and she sighs before meeting me by the mirror. "Ok, I want you to sing 'Since You've Been Gone' normally first."
"Ok?" She asks, then starts singing.
"No." I grab her hands when she starts running them all over herself. She lowers them back down for a millisecond before grabbing her breasts. "No, no." She only lasts another second before groping herself again, and I sigh. "Ok, we'll work on this, ok?"
She sighs and gives me an apologetic smile. "This is what I'm used to, sorry."
"It's fine." I then walk to the middle of the room. "Girls? Watch this." I do all of the choreography from last year's set. Aubrey also comes in and decides to help, which is a little bit of a shock. We give all the girls a try, and they don't do terrible. I try my hardest not to give Mitchell a sarcastic smirk when she turns back to me, looking confused. A couple of the girls (like Stacie, shockingly).
"What are you doing?" I ask Mitchell as she tries again in the mirror, unable to hold back a smile at her epic fail. "Here, let me help." I move in behind her and grab her arms, internally celebrating at how uncomfortable she feels right now.
"I know… I can do it." She complains as I move her arms in the right motions.
"Didn't seem like it to me." I retort, and she gives me a blank look through the mirror.
"Alright girls, let's try this." After a little more freestyle, we line the girls up in order and decide to try the choreography, with Aubrey directing and me singing. "Five six seven eight."
Left you all the way, is the part I get to before Aubrey finally calls out, "Ok, I'm calling it."
"Hey, Aubrey. Did we just learn the same choreography from the video?" Mitchell asks, and Aubrey's eyes meet mine in a millisecond of shock.
"Ok, don't forget to pick up your performance schedules." The girls all rush to her except Mitchell, who just rolls her eyes. "We have a gig next week. That's right. Next week. You guys, it's the Sigma Beta Theta's Annual Fall Mixer." Eventually, all of us girls circle around her, Mitchell included. "Ok, hands in, Bellas." None of the girls react except us two, putting our hands together in front of us. "Hands in, aca-bitches!" This gets the girls to quickly react. "Sing ah, on three-"
"Ahhhhhh!" Fat Amy sings.
"No, no, no. It's actually on three, Fat Amy."
"Ahh." She responds, earning a couple laughs.
"Alright. On three. One, two, three!" As she says three, some of the girls start singing. "Ok, we will work on that first thing next time." She dismisses the girls, and they start chatting amongst themselves as they disperse. "Beca, a word?"
I blink in shock as I watch Beca turn around; we never talked about this last night. "What's up?" She asks nonchalantly.
"You know you'll have to take those ear monstrosities out for the Fall Mixer."
"You really don't like me, do you?" I can't help but quietly snort at her question.
"I don't like your attitude."
"You don't even know me."
"I know you have a toner for Jesse." Hold on, what? She never told me she was going to accuse Mitchell of this; hell, we know they're related.
"A what?" She asks, laughing sarcastically.
"A toner. A musical boner. I saw it at Hood Night. It's distracting."
"Yeah, that's not a thing, and you're not the boss of me, so…"
"You took an oath." Aubrey sounds like she's getting mad.
"That oath cost you two girls already today. I'm pretty sure you need me more than I need you." Aubrey takes a deep breath, and I get ready to intervene before she calls out after Mitchell.
"I can see your toner through those jeans!"
Mitchell whirls around and yells, "That's my dick!" then proceeds to walk away. I take this moment to walk up to Aubrey.
"Everything ok?" I ask her with an easygoing smile, and she runs her hand through her hair with a sigh.
"We better have our shit together for SBT." In a whisper, she adds, "And we need to do something about Mitchell."
Choosing not to respond to the last part, I say, "I'm not worried. I think we're going to be aca-awesome." She turns and flips the board back around.
"Seriously though. I'm running out of ideas."
I groan. "I know, I know. Have you talked to Stacie yet?"
She shakes her head. "No. I don't know what to say."
I chuckle as I say, "Well, it's not like you're actually asking her out, right?"
"I hate that I have to use her though." She flops in one of the chairs and takes a long swig from her water bottle. Before I can respond, her phone rings. "It's General Posen." I nod, and she looks around the room before answering, putting it on speaker. "Aubrey and Chloe here."
"Beale, Aubrey. Any updates?"
I shake my head, forgetting he can't see it. "Not yet, sir. But we're working on it."
"Well, you better work fast." He snaps, and both Bree and I flinch in response. "I want her eliminated as soon as possible."
"You still want the information though, right?" I ask, and Aubrey shoots me a small glare.
"Of course I want the information. Just get it, alright?"
"It's not that easy, sir. She has walls." Bree responds quietly.
"Find a way to get past them. Next time I call, you better have something to tell me." With that, he hangs up, and Aubrey looks up to give me a worried look.
"What are we going to do?" She whispers, and I sit down next to her and grab her hand, rubbing my thumb over the top of her hand lightly.
"We'll figure something out. We always do." I glance around the room and spot a small bag sitting on the floor with BM on it. "Hey, doesn't that belong to Mitchell?"
Her brow furrows. "I think it does…" She stands up and grabs it, rummaging through it. "There's nothing in here that could help us, though." She hands it to me, and I peek inside to see nothing but a few pens, a pair of earbuds, and some old gum wrappers.
"This is sort of disgusting."
"Yeah." She nods, then her face lights up. "This is the perfect opportunity! Go and give this back to her, and try to get her to talk. At least a conversation."
I shrug. "Alright." After all, it is a good idea. "See you later, Bree." I give her a quick hug and kiss on the cheek before leaving.
It only takes me about five minutes to get to Baker Hall, and I knock rather ferociously on her door.
"Who the hell-" Mitchell cuts off when she opens the door, her eyes raking up and down my body. "What are you doing here?"
"I, uh, just wanted to return your bag." I hand it out to her, and her eyes narrow suspiciously as she slowly reaches out to grab it. "You left it at rehearsal."
"How did you know it was mine?"
With a grand, false smile, I say, "It has your initials on it, Beca."
"Oh." With that, she takes the bag and says, "Well, thanks." Then slams the door shut in my face.
"You're welcome, asshole." I mutter under my breath as I turn around.
She's a bitch, I quickly text Aubrey, and I can practically hear her laugh as she texts back.
Are you just now realizing this?
Shut up. I put my phone back in my pocket and head back to Aubrey and I's apartment, feeling a ball of frustration and disappointment in my stomach at the- once again- failure of getting Mitchell to open up.