Beca followed The Junks into the empty American Idol house. The other women had gone out to the club again, presumably to celebrate. Even Flo and Lilly went, but they probably just wanted one last night before they went home.
It'd only been ten days, and people were starting to get kicked off.
It was weird how weird that felt.
For some reason, it felt like they were all supposed to be there. Knowing that the house would get quieter as people were kicked off the show felt wrong.
They were all supposed to be there, together, singing.
Regardless of the fact that Lilly and Flo were celebrating their last night, Beca decided to go straight home. She wasn't going to push her luck and get alcohol in the mix again.
She couldn't trust herself not to find someone.
A certain redheaded someone.
Even though Chloe hated her, Beca was still drawn to her. That was new. Beca was usually pretty respectful of the "fuck off" vibe, having employed it herself more than a few times. But with Chloe, Beca couldn't keep her eyes off the redhead.
Especially when she sang.
Beca blamed it on the fact that Chloe had that kind of star quality that demanded attention. Everyone felt pulled into each note, and each turn of her hip as Chloe danced across the stage, they had to. It was Chloe.
Honestly, she'd probably win this thing.
Looking back at the night, Beca felt confident that her performance had gone well, too, and Liza had even called her "a revelation!"
But she was tired.
She had felt it onstage earlier as she waited to sing. Felt the pressure to look unaffected, and felt the fans and castmates alike shooting her mean looks.
Beca was exhausted by it.
She was tired of pretending she didn't care about performing well.
Of pretending she didn't care about Chloe, or what other people thought about her.
Beca didn't realize she put so much energy into being standoffish.
"You did really good tonight!"
Beca was halfway across the dining area when the voice called her back. She spun around to see that Emily and Katherine had detoured to the kitchen. Katherine was sitting at the counter, watching Beca, and Emily was across from her at the sink.
The girl looked just as nervous as she had when they met.
"Thanks."
Beca continued towards her room, only to be interrupted by the younger brunette once again.
"You could- like, you could stay up. With us," Emily offered. "Last week we made popcorn and talked about the show, while everyone else was out. Just the performances, not the drama. It's just to figure out our own feelings about it, before I go online to look at anything."
"It calms me down," she added when Beca didn't say anything. "We had to start doing it during, what, solos, Mom?"
"After those first episodes of Hollywood week started airing," Katherine confirmed.
"I'd watch everyone doing so good, knowing I was coming here to perform instead of them, and I'd freak out," Emily laughed. "I'd go on Twitter and Facebook, and all these people would be so mad that their friend or favorite didn't make it. I started to feel really guilty that I did make it."
"Not to mention all the gross people objectifying my underage daughter, and the rest of you, too," Ms. Junk added.
"Ew, wait, what?" Beca jumped in before she could stop herself. "I mean, I've seen what they say about me, but…?"
She gestured vaguely in the direction of Emily with an incredulous look, and Katherine nodded.
"Most of them are really nice," Emily butted in, but Katherine waved her off.
"We knew what we were getting into," the mother sighed. "Perverts, the lot of them, but that's why I'm here. And that's why we talk about the shows first. It gives us some perspective."
Beca nodded with a tight lip smile as the microwave chimed. Emily grabbed her bag of popcorn and emptied it into a large bowl, putting in another bag to cook. A silence fell over the group as Emily busied herself with drinks and popcorn toppings.
Katherine, however, was watching Beca.
Beca could feel it, could see it out of the corner of her eye. Ms. Junk was looking at her expectantly, she could sense it, and she fought the instinct to look over.
She didn't really want to hang out with a teenager and her mom.
And she didn't really want to talk about the show.
But this was an olive branch, a real one, one that let Beca out of the self-isolation she had forced herself into for the last few days. It was starting to wear on her. She didn't know how much longer she could act like she didn't care about the show.
Or about Chloe.
She was good at being alone, but this much spite was starting to make her feel lonely.
So maybe if she just...
Nah, she couldn't do it.
She couldn't be around two of the most positive people in the house without dying of boredom.
It would have been different if it was Amy, or CR, but the Junks?
They'd drive her crazy.
"I think I'm just going to-"
"Beca!" Katherine cut her off suddenly, and excitedly. "Did you tell Emily the good news?"
"Uhhhh…"
"What good news?" the younger brunette asked.
"Beca's going to work with you on your song tomorrow," Ms. Junk finished with a twisted smile.
Beca paled and immediately started to backpedal out of the situation, but Emily's squeals drowned it out.
"Wait! Are you being serious?!"
Beca looked between the Junks. First, at Emily, as the young singer tried to hide her excitement behind a poorly constructed and unbelievable frown. Then at Katherine.
The elder Junk had her brow dropped, and her lips slightly pursed, as if to say, "you get one more chance, Beca."
"Uh, yeah," Beca swallowed. "We can collaborate or something."
"Man! Yes!" Emily cheered. "Who else feels like a winner tonight!?"
Ms. Junk laughed, and Beca tried not to roll her eyes. But she was smiling too.
The joy was almost childlike.
Which made sense, because Emily was basically a child.
"Can you sing it for me?" Beca went on, and both Junks turned to her, surprised.
"I might want to put some stuff together tonight," she explained. "I don't know. Is it, like, pop?"
"Yes! Maybe," Emily shot back. "Sing? Right now? Right here? Right here right now."
"Yeah? Is there a problem?"
The microwave dinged again, and Emily added the second bag to the bowl. She took a deep breath.
"It'll be better than when I sang it at auditions, I guess. But, okay, I'm not quite finished with it though," she sighed. "So let's not be a dick about it."
"Emily!"
"Sorry Mom, that was crass, wasn't it?" she laughed. Another deep breath, and then she started to sing.
When tomorrow comes,
I'll be on my own.
Feeling frightened of
the things that I don't know.
When tomorrow comes, when tomorrow comes, when tomorrow comes.
And though the road is long,
I look up to the sky,
Darkness all around-
Emily stopped singing.
"That one, I'm not-" she stammered. "I'm still kind of tinkering with that verse. Nothing's really set yet."
"You're good, dude," Beca replied.
The young woman really had a phenomenal voice, and it was fun to hear her sing something she wrote for herself, for her tone.
"Keep going."
Emily smiled broadly, then closed her eyes.
I got all I need when I got you and I,
cause I look around me
and see a sweet life.
I'm stuck in the dark,
but you're my flashlight.
You're getting me, getting me through the night.
Emily broke from the melody and started snapping and swaying, then playing imaginary drums and guitar.
Good, Beca thought, she has some ideas about accompaniment.
The younger brunette cut suddenly and ended the song on a wild trill.
You are my flashlight.
"It's- it's good," Beca said. "It's a really good start. I'll put some stuff together tonight, and I'll meet you out here in the morning."
"Woo!" Emily whooped, swinging her fist around her head like a lasso. Her mom cheered as well and got up to join her.
"Beca for the win!" Katherine yelled, and Beca suppressed her laugh, but not her cringe.
"All right, I'm just gonna-"
Beca pulled her headphones off and rubbed her eyes. She'd been at it for an hour - oh, make that hours, if the clock in the corner of the screen could be trusted.
It was nearly 2 AM.
Beca wondered absentmindedly if anyone else was back from the club yet.
She listened to the quiet house around her.
If they had come back, they'd gone to sleep, along with the Junks.
Beca was happy with what she'd put together so far, as it'd definitely save them time tomorrow. She had built the library of sounds that she wanted to use - a basic piano, then a modded piano, with trap and dubstep type 808s and snares. She set up a channel for her midi so she would have all the right sounds available to her.
Now, it was time to set up the song file.
She opened a new window in her mixing software and started singing Emily's song softly to herself. Emily was singing it slow, but Beca wanted to speed it up - maybe not right away, but sometime in there - and the key…
Beca tried to hum the song again, picking notes out on her midi.
Had Emily sung in D? C? The woman had a low range, but C was typically too low, especially for those notes at the beginning.
Wait, Emily said she had sung it for her audition, right?
Beca flipped over to a new tab and pulled up YouTube, searching for Emily Junk's audition for American Idol. A few videos popped up from the official page - last week's Cheap Thrills, and Emily singing Say A Little Prayer during groups. One that looked like her solo from Hollywood week, too. Beca found the audition and put it on.
Emily looked younger, even though it wasn't even six months ago. Jeanclad, and wearing a patterned white top, the tall brunette had hunched slightly, trying to take up less space as she introduced herself to Plaza, Posen, and Perry.
The last of which was trying to get the girl to come out of her shell.
"Well, whenever you're ready, Emily," Katy Perry sighed sweetly, and Emily took the same deep breath that Beca saw her take tonight.
As she sang the song she wrote, Emily changed.
She stood up straight, and her face opened up, blossoming with every word. Hey eyes were closed, but her smile widened as she sang, and Beca found herself grinning dumbly at the screen.
Emily was just so cute.
And more than that, she was a badass singer.
A powerhouse, really, that could hit the high notes when she remembered to actually sing them.
(Which she didn't during the audition, and again tonight.)
(So maybe the key wasoff!)
But as Beca watched Emily perform, she realized that that confidence only came when Emily sang. And it didn't transfer to everything.
She needed to find that starpower in her movements, in her stage persona.
Right now, as Beca watched the song come to a close, Emily looked like a kid.
"That was the best performance we've seen all day," Katy Perry gushed. "And how old are you?"
"Fifteen. I'll be sixteen next month," Emily responded with a smile.
"At fifteen, I was smoking cigs behind the local theater," Aubrey Plaza offered with a funny, old-timey voice. Perry and Posen turned to her.
"I wasn't really," Plaza sighed. "But her talent intimidates me."
Posen glared, then turned back to Emily.
"You're pretty young," she said ruefully. "I'm not sure that you'll be able to take that confidence that you have when you're singing and translate it to a stage presence that can command a crowd."
Woah, Beca thought. Posen and I actually agreed on something.
"I totally get that," Emily nodded. She leaned down to pick up her bag. "I'll come back in a couple years."
"Wait!" Perry jumped in with a laugh. "We haven't said no yet!"
Beca laughed. Emily almost walked herself off the show before it even started.
Wait, was she actually enjoying American Idol?
Beca tried to brush it off as the scene played out. The judges agreed to give Emily and chance, and they gave her a golden ticket to Hollywood. Emily was flabbergasted, but as she ran out to her mom, Beca saw that Katherine wasn't surprised.
She told Emily that she knew all along, and Jesse agreed as he addressed the camera with a platonic hand clapped onto Emily's shoulder.
The video ended, and the recommendations for more of Emily's performances popped up on the screen. Beca queued the solo performance and began to watch.
Each time, Emily would come onstage like she didn't belong there. Even with her group, it looked like she had wandered onto the wrong stage and decided to make the most of it.
And even up until last week - tonight's performances weren't online yet - Aubrey Posen kept telling her that the lack of confidence was killing her.
To be honest, it was killing Beca too.
Emily was one of the strongest performers, but she couldn't work a crowd.
It was like Emily forgot they were there when she performed.
Maybe it was just because she was younger, so she didn't have quite the awareness that some of the older performers had.
But Posen had been trying to tell her, and it hadn't gotten much better in the last couple weeks.
Beca couldn't help but wonder if the same thing was happening when Posen gave her feedback on her performances.
It was hard though, to stand up there and get feedback then remember it next week.
And Beca couldn't expect Carl to remember what every woman was supposed to work on.
The Cheap Thrills clip ended, and another one began to autoplay, this one being an Amy's group from Hollywood week. Beca sat, entranced by Amy's solo as she dominated the group of contestants.
That is, until one of the particularly high notes of Wide Open Spaces fell out of pitch. She was a little off on the next note, too, having come out of the previous note at the wrong tone, but then she righted her melody and finished strong.
"Great performances, everyone," Posen grinned. "Except, Amy, you were a little pitchy on your solo."
Holy shit, Beca gasped.
I finally know what pitchy means.
Video after video, Beca watched as other contestants sang their hearts out only to receive harsh remarks from the judge Aubrey Posen.
CR, Stacie, Ashley, and others too - almost all of them.
Except this time, instead of rolling her eyes and flicking off in Posen's general direction, Beca could understand.
Even with her own feedback, on her own songs, as those videos had popped up too.
She heard what Posen was trying to tell her - focus on the song, not the performance. Remember this is a singing show, so vocals come first.
Beca actually agreed with Posen.
As awful as it was.
And the performers would come back and make the same mistakes. It was so hard to watch; with Beca's ear for music, she could hear exactly what wasn't right.
If it was one of her mixes, she'd have paused the track and made the correction right then. Tweak down the emphasis on "ride," scale up the end of the "time." This section's too slow, let's pace that out or change the tempo.
It would be easy.
But here, the judge had to tell the performers exactly what was wrong.
Which is what Posen was trying to do.
Beca was reeling. She'd spent - oh god, it was after 3:30 - she'd spent an hour and a half watching American Idol clips and agreeing with Aubrey friggin' Posen.
What was happening to her?!
She closed her laptop and climbed into bed, but her mind was still wide awake. She hadn't even checked the key for Emily's song; she had completely forgotten.
She flipped on the TV and, to her surprise, found that the whole house was linked to the same DVR system.
All of the episodes of American Idol sat there, staring at her, begging her to watch.
Well, she thought sleepily as she queued up Hollywood week, episode one.
Maybe one episode wouldn't hurt.
"Well somebody looks tired!"
Beca stumbled through the threshold of the pool house, RedBull in hand. It was after eleven, but Beca felt like she hadn't slept at all.
Probably because she hadn't.
Six episodes. She watched six episodes of American Idol in the middle of the night. She was through solos - she skipped hers and Chloe's episode, couldn't quite do that one yet - and started in on the groups. Say a Little Prayer had been interesting, and so had Wide Open Spaces by The Chicks.
Amy was definitely a stand-out performer of the latter, along with Stacie, and Beca was surprised to learn that Emily was the only person out of the four minors that got through from her group. There were a few others, but most of them got kicked out during the last round of solos.
Beca yawned sloppily and adjusted her equipment in her hands.
The Junks were already in the studio, of course, but otherwise the space was empty.
Perks of a day off, Beca reasoned.
"I'm fine," Beca grumbled, swigging a generous gulp of her energy drink. "I was working late. Research. Whatever."
Emily jumped to her feet, bouncing from one to the other.
"Did you work on the song? Do you have anything?"
Beca nodded, then paused.
"Not, like, not anything recorded," she said, and Emily's expression fell.
"Oh, it's cool, I get it," she sighed. "Maybe when I have something more real, we can work together."
"Woah, no," Beca laughed. She moved across the space, towards the desk with the mixing board, and began setting up her equipment.
"We're going to work on this today. I have some stuff picked out. You were ready to give up that easily, like your audition?"
The Junks swiveled around, and Beca felt them staring at her even though she was underneath the desk. She finished plugging in her laptop, then she crawled out and looked between the mother and daughter.
"What?"
"You watched my audition?" the younger said, and Katherine just smiled smugly. Beca scoffed.
"I couldn't remember the key of your song," she said defensively.
Why had she mentioned the audition?
Her brain was still struggling to turn over this morning, and she grabbed the near-empty can of RedBull to finish it off.
"But you watched them give her notes?" Katherine hummed. Beca felt her skin coloring.
"Look, do you want my help or not?" she snapped, and Emily shot to attention.
"Of course!" she nodded reverently. "Yes, I do!"
Katherine only laughed and shook her head. Beca returned to her equipment, connecting the midi to the laptop, then the laptop to the charger and the soundboard. Something chimed on, and Beca clicked on the notification to get the hardware set up.
"So what key is it in?"
"Hm?" Beca looked up. "What?"
"What key is Emily's song in?" Katherine pushed, gaze set on Beca. Emily looked between the two of them before she spoke up.
"Yeah, I actually don't know," she sighed. "I tried to figure it out, but I can only pluck it out on the piano, I don't know the notes or what they mean. I never studied them, to know. Like there's an F sharp, and a C sharp, but… I don't know... "
Beca opened her mouth once, then shut it.
She hadn't rewatched the audition to figure it out.
Her eyes narrowed on Ms. Junk as the older woman started to laugh.
She knew she didn't know the key.
"Shut up," she growled, and Katherine only laughed harder.
"What?" Emily said. "I don't get it."
"Nothing, hun," her mom told her. "Go turn on the keyboard and play the notes for Beca here. She'll find it."
Emily shrugged and skipped across the room to the keyboard, turning it on and starting to pluck out her few notes.
"Thank you," Beca mumbled to Katherine, and the older woman held out a mug that Beca had missed before. Inside, Beca could see steam rising from dark liquid.
Coffee.
"No problem," Katherine hummed. "I'll leave you girls to it."
It turned out Emily sang the song in D, but with Beca's persuasion, she was able to raise it to E flat. She could still hit all the notes, and they were crisper, and the 808s sounded better to Beca.
Plus Beca was able to put a few high harmonies in there as well.
They walked back towards the main house in the late afternoon, and the song basically completed. Beca still wanted to tweak a few of the build-ups, as they weren't quite cresting the way that she wanted them to.
But the whole process had been really fun.
It was cool, building something from scratch. Emily had an idea for what she wanted it to sound like, but it was Beca that took the vague melody and aggressive air-guitar and turned it into something else.
Sure, it was more of a "club mix" than a pop song, but they'd worked on a piano version too.
They were about to go back inside when Beca looked up through the sliding glass door. The first floor was packed with women. They hadn't noticed Emily and her approaching, and they were laughing at something Amy was doing with a baguette.
The smile fell from Beca's face, and instead her mouth reset in a hard line.
"You should hang out with all of us," Emily tried. "They would, like, forgive you or whatever. I know it's complicated but-"
"It's not complicated," Beca scoffed. "They hate me."
"They don't hate you," Emily sighed. "Really. It's, like, the opposite. Like Chloe is still crazy about you."
"What?"
Emily closed her eyes tightly and bit her lip. Her eyes flitted inside, then to Beca.
She pulled Beca away from the door, out of the window's breadth.
It was cold, and getting colder as February came to an end in LA. The sky was overcast and threatened rain overnight.
Beca was glad; the perpetual sunshine of LA was really messing with her brain. She missed the Georgia storms, the ones that shook the windows and blew the power out.
"Look, I shouldn't say anything," Emily whispered. "It's totally not my place. But Chloe still wants to, like, be with you. She tells people to stop talking shit about you, and she was seriously pissed at Stacie for hitting you. Like, they fought all day. I swear she's in love with you."
Beca blinked rapidly.
Chloe didn't hate her?
Wait, Chloe loved her?
"But you can't say anything," Emily went on hurriedly. "You have to talk to her yourself. Because after you tried to apologize and stuff, she got really sad. Like seriously sad. And then, when she was practicing her song this week, she just kept crying."
Beca thought a moment, then nodded.
She'd have to make it up to Chloe, in a real way.
She needed to watch the show.
It was going to hurt. A lot.
But she needed to watch Chloe for Chloe, see how the redhead felt about her.
Beca had downplayed Chloe's part in all of this, written it off as her own imagination and then a fabrication of the show.
If she watched the episodes with them, watched Chloe and accepted that what she was seeing was fact, then maybe she'd see it.
And then maybe she could apologize for real.
"I won't say anything," Beca said. "But I'm not going to hang out with all of them. They don't want me there."
Emily shrugged and nodded.
"Not yet," she replied sadly. "Will you at least show them the song?"
Beca sighed.
"Whatever," she sighed out in acceptance, and Emily squealed, beelining to the door.
Beca followed close behind, stepping in after Emily and jostling the equipment in her hands.
Emily was already talking a mile a minute about how Beca had mixed her song and helped her record it, and all the tips Beca had given about singing, and the harmonies they sang.
Beca alternated her gaze between the wall and the floor, not daring to look around at the other contestants. She could feel them looking at her, whether out of anger or surprise, she couldn't tell.
They probably assumed she was back in her room like always. So seeing that she wasn't, that she was in the pool house with Emily, was weird in itself.
"Well quit yappin' about it,'' Amy cut in, effectively silencing Emily. "Let's hear it."
Emily glanced to Beca, who gave a simple nod. She made her way to the pit, past Amy and CR, and stood at the built-in shelves by the TV. She grabbed the aux cord from the sound system and plugged it in.
"Play the piano one first!" Emily called, and Beca looked back up towards the main room.
Chloe and Stacie were on the couch, with CR leaning against the back of it. Amy was at the dining table with Ashley and Jessica. Katherine was in the kitchen with Flo, and Emily, who had wandered over there. Lilly was there too, hovering in the shadow of the stairs.
They were all there.
She spun back around and busied herself with her laptop. She pressed play on the piano version, and her simple melody started. Emily's voice joined, then drums. It wasn't until the second pre-chorus that the strings started, and Beca listened for when she started singing harmonies.
It was beautiful.
Simple, but beautiful.
Emily's voice was really powerful, especially bared like it was now.
The whole thing had a Fray/OneRepublic vibe that Beca could appreciate, but it wasn't really something she was drawn to.
The song ended, and the women started applauding, much to Beca's surprise. She turned around to see them cheering for Emily, who was grinning as she curtseyed.
Well, all but one.
Chloe's eyes were on Beca, steadfast and true. They were full of tears, and shock, and Beca quickly turned back to her laptop.
She pressed play on the club version, and soon snapping snares and modded piano filled the first floor of the American Idol house.
Amy and CR whooped, and Ashley and Jessica jumped to their feet with a cheer. The women were up and dancing around each other. Stacie got up from the couch and threw an arm around Emily, pulling the younger brunette into a dance. Katherine clapped along.
Beca felt her face pulling into a wide smile. This was all she wanted: to see her music make people get up and dance. It was liberating, and intoxicating, to see everyone enjoying the remix.
Even if they hated her, the song was good, and it made them want to move.
It was her actual dream.
Her eyes scanned across as Flo stepped between Ashley and Jessica to dance with them, and Lilly looked like she was beatboxing. The smile stayed as he eyes moved, settling on Chloe last.
She tried to prepare herself, but she still wasn't ready for the redhead's gaze. Perspective narrowed, and it was like they were the only ones in the room. Chloe was watching her, expression indeterminate, with wide, shining eyes. Dimly, Beca was aware that the song was ending, but now she heard it like she was underwater, lost in a sea of blue.
She felt her breathing stuttering as she tried to suck in breaths.
How could she think that this was faked?
That what was happening wasn't real?
The song began to loop, but Beca didn't notice. Chloe's eyes were shifting, from something like awe to heat. Fiery passion under red locks, and she was angry, Beca could see it. Her eyes turned, and her nostrils flared, but that heavy layer of anger blanketed something else too.
Arousal.
It hit Beca square in the jaw, much too close to where Stacie had hit her, and Beca almost physically recoiled under the metaphorical blow.
Chloe was pissed, but she wanted her.
Maybe it was the rhythm of the song, or the fact that Beca had made it, Beca didn't know.
It was potent, though, and Beca knew that if she stayed under that gaze any longer, she'd combust.
She unplugged her computer roughly, and the song cut off.
There were groans and shouts, and Beca blinked.
Right, there were other people here.
"Nice one, shortstack," Amy groaned. "You killed the mood."
"Not surprising," Stacie spat, but Beca ignored her as she busied herself with her equipment yet again.
"Yo, you really make that, DJ?" CR called out. Beca gathered up her things and took off to her room.
"Well, we did," Beca replied over her shoulder. But Emily was there then, stopping her from going down the hallway.
The younger brunette pulled Beca into her arms as she shook her head.
"No, guys, it was all Beca," she practically sang. "She knew what key to put it in, what harmonies to use, the tempo, everything. She's like a musical genius."
"Are you gonna send it to Plaza?"
"Why would she send it to Plaza?"
Beca froze.
It was the first thing Chloe had said since they'd come inside.
She was approaching slowly, as were the other women. Beca had been so close to her room before, and now everybody was in the kitchen, watching her.
She could feel the transition between hardwood and carpet under her feet, but Emily was still wrapped around her, holding her in place.
And the rest of the women were staring at her.
"You didn't know?" CR responded from her place at the bottom of the stairs. "Beca's been sending mixes to Plaza, and her friend's been playing them at the club. First it was that Bulletproof mix from last week, right, Beca?"
Beca nodded dumbly as Emily grabbed tighter. She wanted desperately to get out of the situation.
"And then last night, she played that one again, along with Bust A Move/212 mix," CR explained. "He might've played others too. The only reason I know about the Bust A Move one was because Plaza was actually looking for you, shorty. She wanted to introduce you to a producer that liked your stuff."
Emily squeezed so hard Beca thought she was going to pop.
Either from that, or from excitement.
She couldn't believe it.
It was actually happening.
She might actually get to make music for a living.
"Beca!" Emily screamed in her ear. "That is so cool!"
And they were all there, staring at her. These women who had been there for her, and then let themselves be pushed away.
They were back again, ready to support her if she let them.
She felt them holding their breaths, like they were waiting for Beca to decide whether to brush it off or not.
"That is… insanely cool," Beca breathed out, and Amy whooped. CR clapped as she laughed, and Jessica and Ashley cheered. Flo rushed forward and piled on top of Emily to hug Beca.
"Okay, not that cool! Ah!"
Amy tried to hug too, but by that point, Beca had wrestled free and was headed back to her room.
"I have to work on songs!" she yelled over her shoulder, and she heard the group laugh, but they let her go. The door closed behind her, and she leaned against it with a sigh.
Things were looking up.
Friday was scheduled to start with the theme and song choice of the week again. By the time Beca was out in the main room, everyone was already settled on the couch. She resumed her place against the pillar by the entryway.
Cameras were rolling, and Aubrey Posen was already there, this time wearing a bright red top under a leather jacket.
Beca realized with a start that she needed to get some more clothes for the show this week.
She'd officially run out of outfits.
"Is everybody finally here?" Posen asked, shooting Beca a pointed glare. "Are we ready to get started?"
The women cheered, and Beca gave a roll of the eyes as Posen quieted everyone.
"Okay, so this week is 80s week!" she sang out, and the women cheered again. "We're going to do a big group number mashup, and I've already worked with Carl on the parts and solos. And we're doing it a cappella!"
Chloe and Stacie cheered, but everyone else looked a little nervous as they clapped.
"Each performer will sing one song that, again, will need to have been made famous by a woman."
Beca scoffed, and Posen's expression tightened, but she didn't look over.
"We'll have a couple of guest mentors that will be here Monday," she went on. "So they won't be involved in song selection. And since the group number is a little bigger this week, we'll be rehearsing that all day tomorrow and most of the day Sunday."
"'We'?" Amy asked, and Posen grimaced.
"Yes, 'we,'" she replied through a tight expression. "Because I'm going to be your coach on Sunday!"
Now everybody looked really nervous, and Beca couldn't blame them.
She'd watched the remainder of episodes last night - in the secrecy of her own room, of course - and she now understood why most people were scared of Posen.
The woman was relentless in making each performance perfect and, because of her background on the show, she knew exactly what she wanted out of everyone.
The trouble was, she could only give them bits of feedback.
It seemed like that was going to change this week.
Even Chloe looked nervous when Posen talked to her. Beca had gone back to watch all their episodes, too, and she was surprised to see that Chloe didn't really know how to act while Posen gave her notes.
As for the rest, the parts they had together. Beca was okay. It hurt at first, but as she watched, Beca felt the pain turn into something else.
Beca thought back to the way it felt to watch Chloe sing this time, hearing the notes low in her stomach. First, the joy and happiness on Chloe's face made her feel guilty, as she knew she was going to hurt that happy woman.
But then the camera zoomed in, and Beca watched Chloe's hands move the neck of her guitar as she sang Edge of Seventeen.
She couldn't help but wonder about how it'd feel to have those hands on her again.
Curling at the edge of her hairline, short nails scraping her neck as Chloe's hips moved against her.
Beca sniffed suddenly.
Last night, it was okay to let herself get ridiculously turned on and take matters into her own hands, so to speak.
But right now, it probably wouldn't be appropriate.
In the span of the last two days, she'd binged the entirety of their American Idol experience - well, from Hollywood week to now, as the last episode was posted last night.
And because of it, she had a much clearer view of what the show meant to everyone.
Amy didn't need the show; she was rich. Like, real rich. Her dad had died in a freak yacht explosion, and Amy had inherited millions of dollars.
Jessica was doing the show because it was her fiance's dying wish. That was an intense episode.
Chloe had her own thing going on, but a lot of her interviews centered on the other performers.
She'd even mentioned Beca a few times. She spoke of Beca in an inspired, wistful way, with her gaze off in some distant corner of the room.
She obviously cared about her, which made Beca feel super weird.
The show was just a fun thing for Flo, who had her own juice truck business. Stacie was the same way, because the woman was a graduate level research scientist, pursuing a masters in microbiology.
(How was that even possible?)
Besides Beca and CR, who was failing pilot school, Aubrey Posen was the only other person who really needed this show to work.
But the woman was going about it all wrong. She was limiting the range of music for the performers, which was making it harder for them to pick songs they could sing.
By only letting the contestants sing songs by women, or forcing them into awful group numbers that tried to shove them all into the same box, she was stifling them.
She needed to celebrate the differences.
She needed to help them find their voices.
But it wasn't like Beca wasn't about to tell her that.
Posen dismissed the group of contestants from her lecture, and they all started towards the pool house to work with Carl. They got their pages for the group number, and Carl gave them each a copy of the arrangement so they could listen and practice. The parts were already broken out by each person and group.
Then came song selection. Fat Amy said she wanted to sing Like a Virgin by Madonna, and Beca just laughed. The group turned to her, and Beca stopped suddenly.
"What?" Amy scoffed. "Don't think I can hack it?"
"No, it's not, uh," Beca stalled. She took a deep breath.
"If anyone's watched the show, they're not going to believe that you're singing Like a Virgin," she said, and CR and Ashley gave a slight chuckle.
"Yeah, that's the point," Amy laughed awkwardly. "Hit 'em with the comedy."
"But remember what Posen said- I mean," Beca started, then stopped.
She didn't want the whole group to know she watched the show.
She took a beat, then sighed.
"Last week, Posen said she wanted more range from you," she sighed.
"Awh yeah, she did, didn't she?" Amy said. "But what does that mean?"
Beca looked at Carl, who just waved his hand to let her continue. She didn't dare look around the group.
Their looks might make her lose her nerve.
"Try something real, not performative," she said. "Pat Benatar, maybe. Something emotional."
Amy swallowed thickly.
"We Belong always makes me cry," she said softly. "Reminds me of my only true love."
Beca laughed.
"Exactly," she replied with a quick nod.
A silence fell over the group before CR spoke up.
"Posen called me 'pitchy'," she sighed. "What the fuck does that mean?"
Again, Beca looked to Carl, but he was only smiling widely.
"Beca, why don't I sign up everyone who's ready, and you can talk to everyone who doesn't know what they want to sing yet?" he asked with all the innocence of a teddy bear.
Beca rolled her eyes; she didn't believe for a second that he wasn't forcing her into helping, for the sheer reason that she was decent at it.
But then Stacie and Chloe were talking to him, and CR was still looking at Beca, so the small brunette sighed.
"'Pitchy' just means you're falling off of a note, probably because you're unfamiliar with the key or the song," Beca started to explain. "You're singing songs that are higher than you're used to?"
"Hell yeah I am," CR groaned in response. "She won't let us sing any songs by men!"
"It's not a huge problem," Beca said with a laugh. "There's plenty in your range, especially from the 80s. Here, look."
By the time they were done, CR, Amy, and Ashley were belting Angel of the Morning as Carl got them signed up. Ashley and Beca were going to work on an arrangement for I Think We're Alone Now, because they'd have to change the key for her range.
When Beca looked up, Stacie, Chloe, and Jessica were gone, and the Junks were on their way out. Carl appraised her from his place at the piano as the rest of the women walked out of the pool house.
"Anyone ever tell you that you could do that for a living?" he asked, and Beca laughed.
"Help people? No, no one," she replied. She scrubbed her hands over her face.
"What, are you worried about your pick?" he asked. "What are you going to sing?"
"Well," Beca sighed, pushing a hand through her hair.
"I have a plan."
Songs are Flashlight but the Sweet Life remix from the PP2 soundtrack and then the Math Club remix from when they were working in the studio that didn't make it to the album for some reason? Kinda weird but it's on Soundcloud.
We only have like a couple chapters before the whole "enemies to lovers" fic I accidentally built comes to fruition. We're building. Beca's getting better. Thanks for reading, luv u.