Beca found herself sorting a massive stack of CDs in the radio station. "This is what my life has become," she muttered to herself with a sigh. It turned out that only two people ever put their names on the radio station sign up list, so they both were brought in as interns. Apparently Beca should have read the job description closer. She didn't realize that the duties included such thrilling skills as "CD sorting" and "coffee making" and "never going in the booth ever" and "not having sex in the studio." And she certainly didn't know that "putting up with the annoying male intern constantly bothering you while trying to put the moves on you" was part of the gig.

The other intern - Jesse Swanson - was also a freshman. He was from Micanopy, Florida. It was a tiny town just outside of Gainesville. He had planned on attending the University of Florida, but he just couldn't pass up the offer from Barden and their music program. He had two brothers and one sister. He loved movies. They were like his favorite thing ever. How did Beca know all of this? Because Jesse told her… the first day there. He also talked about a lot of other things that Beca tried to tune out, with which she was only partially successful. Then he asked her out. Twice. Well, twice back to back. On the first day, it was actually four times. Then several more times in their other shifts together. He wasn't a bad guy, necessarily. Annoying, yes. Beca actually knew that if this was the old Beca, she would have probably agreed to one of the invitations. Jesse was the kind of guy that she gravitated towards in high school. He was upbeat and funny and passionate. He loved music - he was planning on auditioning at the a cappella try outs coming up. He badgered Beca about auditioning too. She threatened to make him into a soprano, so he dropped it. Yes, those were the same a cappella tryouts from the yellow flyer on her desk that the blue eyed redhead had tried to rope her into. And, no, she had notthought many times about that interaction in the last few days, thank you very much. And she was not bothered by the fact she had thought more times about the blue eyed redhead than the brown eyed dork from the radio station. And had not spent time lying awake wondering why, of the two, only the redhead ever seemed like something worth pursuing.

After about twenty minutes of sighing and sorting, Beca closed her eyes and tilted her head to the ceiling and rolled her shoulders.

BE-CAW!

Beca felt someone suddenly grab her shoulders and heard the scream in her ears. Heat flooded through her body and she felt a white hot rage explode into her extremities. She swung her fist around and bellowed.

"MOTHER! FUCKER!"

Her fist connected full on with the attacker's chest. A loud whoosh of air was expelled and the body flew back into a rack of CDs, knocking dozens off onto the floor with a clatter of breaking plastic. Fear was pulsing through her. She wanted to run, but she didn't know which way to go. A body and a pile of CDs blocked her exit. Taking a few panicked breaths she swung her head back and forth, trying to come up with a solution. She heard a groan at her feet. The man was standing up. Beca grabbed the front of his shirt and jerked him to eye level. Shock registered in her eyes when she realized it was Jesse. All of the panic and fear and rage twisted her face into something terrifying. She clenched her teeth and growled out, "Don't EVER! Fucking! Sneak up on me again!" She roughly pushed him away and stood with heaving breaths coming out.

Luke, the station manager, raced around to corner and saw the scene in front of him. "What the hell happened out here?"

Beca swung towards Luke and jabbed a finger at Jesse. "This son of bitch attacked me!"

Luke's eyes widened in shock and he swung his gaze to Jesse. For his part, Jesse's mouth dropped open. His eyes became wild in confusion. "No I didn't! I didn't attack anyone!" Luke looked back and forth. Beca kept breathing heavily, glaring at her fellow intern. Jesse defended himself again. "I was just being silly. I snuck up on her and grabbed her shoulders. She flipped out and punched me."

"You can't just jump on people, Jesse!" Beca was trying to use some of her breathing techniques to calm down. Mostly she wanted to cry and go home. She knew she overreacted, but seriously. "Dude… it is nighttime. I'm alone in here. I didn't hear the door." She hoped that her comments would diffuse the situation, or at least keep people from thinking she was crazy.

Luke looked back and forth between the two interns. He hesitated a bit on Beca's face and narrowed his eyes for a second. "Jesse, that wasn't cool. Beca why don't you head on out. Jesse, clean up this mess." He spun on his heels and strode back down the hall.

Beca looked briefly at Jesse. He softly spoke up. "I'm sorry. I was just being dumb." Beca nodded slightly, grabbed her stuff, and headed out.

Several afternoons a week, Beca could be found sitting with her back against a tree listening to music - her large headphones perched on her head. A book or her computer across her lap. She liked being outside. She definitely liked being away from Kimmy Jin. And she really liked this tree. It was a little off the main walkways of the school. Huge branches provided nice shade even on the hottest of days. And if she positioned herself just right, her tiny body could hide from the sight of people walking by on the sidewalks. It was like hiding out in the open, which was oddly liberating.

On this particular day, she was enjoying the overcast skies. They brought a degree of melancholy to the campus. She was listening to one of her many playlists, letting the music wash over her like the approaching rain. She was absorbed in one of her moodier playlists. She wasn't wallowing in despair or anything, but sometimes it just felt good to allow the natural valleys move through organically - not forcing them out too soon to project a happier image to those around her. After fifteen minutes, Beca felt like she wasn't alone any longer. The small amount of sunlight breaking through the clouds disappeared from Beca's face. She opened her eyes and looked in the direction of the disruption and was confronted with blue … eyes. And red hair. And a mouth moving with no sound coming out.

Beca lifted her headphones from her ears and heard, "… I was walking by and thought that was you and it was!"

Pursing her lips, Beca nodded and said, "Yup. It's me."

The red haired girl broke out a huge smile and sat down in the grass facing Beca, who raised her eyebrows in surprise at the invasion of her private spot.

"What are you listening to?"

"Uhm . . . it's a playlist . . . that I made …"

"Cool!" The redhead smiled and nodded. "Does it have a theme?"

Beca studied the girl in front of her. She was really pretty. And she kept staring at Beca with her blue tractor beams, causing the freshman to blush. "Um, … I was just wondering … did you … need something?"

"Well, other than having you try out for the Bellas?" The girl grinned and continued, "I just wanted to see how you were doing."

Shaking her head, Beca responded, "I don't even know you."

The girl extended her hand to Beca. "I'm Chloe Beale. We met the other day at the Activities Fair."

"Yeah … I remember." The hand just hung in the air, waiting for Beca's. Rolling her eyes, Beca grasped her hand and said, "Beca Mitchell."

"Hi Beca Mitchell. Now we know each other."

Beca looked around, wondering if someone was about to bust into the scene with a camera, laughing and yelling that this was a stunt for TikTok. This Chloe girl was too nice, too sunny to be for real. Beca chuckled and said, "You must really be hard up for singers."

Chloe tilted her head for a minute, thinking. "Well, yeah, we do need more people to try out. But that isn't why I stopped."

"Then why did you?"

"I wanted to talk to you."

Beca stared some more, looking for some kind of hidden agenda in those eyes. But they were just blue eyes. Bright blue eyes. She coughed and broke eye contact "Um….Why?"

Chloe's smile returned. "You intrigue me."

Beca just looked at Chloe the tractor beam pulling at her. "I'm not that intriguing."

Chloe shrugged. "I'll guess I'll have to find out for myself."

Beca had no idea what was happening right now. This random stranger (well sort of random) … (who Beca had not been thinking about semi-regularly, just saying) just plopped into her day. And, based on the way this conversation was going, Chloe wasn't planning for this to just be a one time thing. Who does that? This isn't third grade. Is this how college operates? There are just people running around, sitting with and attacking random students? It was certainly strange. What was more strange was that Beca didn't really mind. Which was something that she was unable to explain to herself. Stranger danger and all that. Plus she liked being alone, sitting under her tree, enjoying the gloomy weather. She shouldn't take kindly to random redheads dropping into her sphere of solitude. Especially blue eyed ones who made her feel weird. Her stomach was churning, being close to Chloe. But the rest of her actually felt calm. Really calm. Hasn't felt like this way for a really long time calm.

A rustling broke Beca out of her mental gymnastics meet. Chloe was getting up. "Well, I'll let you go back to your playlist."

"Oh … ok." Beca looked up and continued, "You don't have to go. It was … fine … you know."

Chloe broke into a big grin. "Thanks! But I do have to go. We have a Bellas meeting" Beca nodded in understanding. Chloe started to head off. "I'll see you at the audition, Mitchell!"

"I don't sing, Beale!" Beca sat in the grass, watching as the redhead disappeared in the distance. She didn't feel so gloomy any more. Even though the sky threatened rain, Beca felt quite sunny inside.