Chloe
Chloe's alarm went off at the same time every day. She picked up her phone, turned off the alarm, stripped off her pajamas, and put on her bathrobe. Her roommate Aubrey had insisted on a "shower schedule." Since Chloe had the earlier class in the mornings, it was easier to have her shower first. She'd been annoyed at first, but it quickly became a habit. Weekends were a bit looser, but she almost always showered first on those days.
She started the water, stripped off the robe, and stepped in, letting the water help wake her up. As she washed, she began to sing.
Every single day
I walk down the street
I hear people say,
"Baby's so sweet"
She loved singing, and she couldn't resist the acoustics of the shower. Nobody lived in the apartment next door, so she generally sang loudly and proudly. She and Aubrey had been watching Rent the night before, inspiring that morning's song choice. As she sang:
Cryin' - "Oh Honeybear - are you still my, my, my baby?"
She could have sworn she heard a voice say Joanne's line from the movie: "Don't you dare!"
She assumed the movie line was in her head. It wasn't Aubrey's voice, and the apartment next door was empty, wasn't it? She paused for a second before continuing to the chorus.
Take me for what I am
She'd just finished the Maureen character's line:
Cause every night - who's in your bed?
Who's in your bed?
Kiss Pookie
She was shocked to hear a response from the other side of the wall.
It won't work.
I look before I leap
I love margins and discipline
I make lists in my sleep
Baby, what's my sin?
She stood in stunned silence as the mystery person on the other side of the wall sang the Joanne character's part. Her voice was amazing, and she obviously knew the lyrics by heart. Just as the voice was beginning Joanne's first chorus, she continued with Maureen's response lines.
"Joanne": Take me for what I am
Chloe: A control freak
"Joanne": Who I was meant to be
Chloe: A snob, yet over-attentive
"Joanne": And if you give a damn
Chloe: A lovable, droll geek
They continued the duet, perfectly in sync, as though they were professionals who did this every day.
Take me baby or leave me
Take me baby
Or leave me
Guess I'm leavin'
I'm gone!
Chloe turned off her water, hollered: "Nice singing with you!" and dried off. She waited for a response, but she never heard one. She finished blow-drying her hair and left the bathroom.
"Interesting performance this morning," said Aubrey.
"Good morning to you," said Chloe.
"Good morning," said Aubrey. "But, seriously? What was up with that?"
"I always sing in the shower."
"Look, I'm used to your lack of volume control, in a lot of situations, but I think that's the loudest I've ever heard you sing in the shower."
"I had a duet partner," said Chloe.
Aubrey immediately lowered her voice to a whisper and hissed, "Seriously? Who? Where? You're supposed to let me know when you have someone over!"
"No, nobody here," said Chloe. "I think somebody moved into the apartment next door."
"What?" asked Aubrey.
She told Aubrey how she'd started singing, the response line she thought she'd heard, and then the voice had joined her in singing "Take Me or Leave Me" from Rent.
"Seriously, she didn't miss a beat," said Chloe.
Aubrey simply shook her head and went into the bathroom for her shower. Chloe headed to her room, finished getting ready for school, grabbed some breakfast, and then headed out of the apartment. She lingered by the front door for a few minutes, hoping to see the source of the beautiful singing voice face to face, but nobody walked outside. She headed to her car and drove the short distance to Barden University.
Beca
Beca shut off the alarm on her phone and drowsily walked into the bathroom. She was glad that she'd had the foresight the night before to make sure her towels and toiletries were unpacked. She'd just moved into her apartment the day before. Her dad had wanted her to live in the dorms at Barden, but she'd accidentally-on-purpose registered for housing just a little too late, forcing herself to live in an off-campus apartment. Her dad had offered to let her stay at his place, but the idea of having to stay with him and Sheila the stepmonster was even worse than being forced to go to college. Her mother had backed her up on this idea, stating that their daughter would be robbed of the college experience if she had to commute from her dad's. Beca had only seen her dad a few times a year since the divorce, and she hadn't lived under his roof for any longer than a weeklong scheduled visit in ten years. The man had conceded, and he'd even gone so far as to pay her rent and pay to ship her car all the way from Seattle to Atlanta. He'd acted like he was doing her a favor, but Beca thought both were fairly small expenses since her tuition was free anyway.
She'd just started the water and stepped under the shower spray when she heard a voice coming from the next apartment over. She chuckled to herself. It figures I move in next to someone who sings in the shower, she thought. A few lines into the song, she realized that the voice was gorgeous and they were singing a song from her favorite musical.
Without thinking, she immediately hollered, "Don't you dare!" at the point in the song when the "Joanne" character said it. She heard the voice pause for a second before continuing.
She figured she might as well play along since the person had likely heard her, and they hadn't stopped. As soon she heard the "Kiss Pookie" line, she went ahead singing Joanne's part.
Just as Beca expected, the voice continued with Maureen's parts. When they were done, Beca smiled. She hadn't sung with anyone since finishing high school a few months prior.
When the voice called, "Nice singing with you!" Beca froze. She'd been so wrapped up in singing, she'd forgotten that she was singing with her next-door neighbor through the shower walls. She didn't know what to say, so she didn't respond. Why am I so awkward? Beca asked herself.
She got dressed for school and headed out the front door to her car. She was relieved she didn't run into the neighbor on her way. Sure, she'd enjoyed singing, but now she was feeling self-conscious about the whole thing. She checked the time and realized she had the time for a quick drive-through for breakfast on the way.
She parked, got her things together, and got to class, finishing her breakfast burrito as she walked. She sat through three classes of professors sharing their syllabus, thinking she may die of boredom already. She grabbed lunch in the dining hall, and, just her luck, she ran into dear old Dad.
"Hey, Bec, how's your first day of college?"
Beca rolled her eyes. "Boring."
"So, have you been out on the quad yet? In the springtime, all of the students study on the grass."
"I don't want to study on the grass, Dad. I need to move to LA and get a job at a record label and start paying my dues."
"Oh boy. Here we go again. Beca, DJ'ing is not a profession. It's a hobby. Unless you're Rick Dees or someone awesome like that - "
"That's not…" Beca was so mad she couldn't find the words. "I want to produce music. I want to make music, Dad."
"But you're getting a college education first. For free, I might add. End of story."
Beca happened to glance at a flyer sitting on her lunch table. She checked the time on her phone and saw that the activities fair it was advertising was going on right then.
"Whatever, Dad. I'm going to the activities fair." She threw away the rest of her lunch and headed out to the quad. She'd lost her appetite anyway.
Chloe
Chloe and Aubrey stood at the Activities Fair at the Barden Bellas' table. They were the two remaining Bellas, as the rest of the group from the previous year had either graduated or quit after a rather embarrassing incident at that spring at the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella. A nervous Aubrey had projectile-vomited in the middle of her big solo. Chloe blamed a lot of it on their previous captain Alice's version of a pep talk she'd given them before performing. Chloe wondered why Alice felt that calling both of them "slutbags" and saying "don't eff up your solo" was going to help. Anyway, the two friends were determined to find new Bellas.
"I will stop at nothing to take those dicklicks down," said Aubrey as she saw their rival group, the all-male Treblemakers, performing one of their songs on the other side of the quad. The group had been winning the ICCA's every year since before Chloe and Aubrey had come to Barden, and their leader, Bumper, especially enjoyed poking fun at the Bellas. The puking incident had only made matters worse.
Chloe saw a student walk by, a girl by the name of Barb who had auditioned for the past three years and hadn't been chosen for the group.
"Hey, Barb! Gonna audition this year? We have openings!" Chloe said, giving her the brightest smile she could.
"Oh, now that you've puked your way to the bottom, you might actually consider me? I've auditioned three times and never got in because you said my boobs look like bologna," replied Barb.
She put her hands on her waist, moving her cardigan aside, showing huge brown nipples through her white shirt. Okay, so Barb's boobs did look like bologna. Why she never wore a bra, Chloe had no idea. However, it had been Alice and the other previous captains that had made that decision. The girl had a nice voice, and she was sure they could strongarm her into wearing a bra - preferably one with pads.
Before Chloe or Aubrey could say anything, Barb continued. "The word's out. The Bellas are the laughing stock of a cappella. Good look auditioning this year, douche-b's." She left with an eye-roll.
"Oh my god. This. Is. A TRAVESTY!" sang Chloe. "If we can't get Bologna Barb, we can't get anybody."
"Take the dramatics down a notch," said Aubrey.
"You're the one who got us into this hot mess!" replied Chloe.
"We'll be fine. I'm confident we'll find eight super-hot girls with bikini-ready bodies who can harmonize and have perfect pitch," said Aubrey. Chloe could see her friend was forcing a smile.
Aubrey switched to what Chloe knew was her "game face" when several hot girls walked by, ignoring the flyers that Aubrey had shoved in their faces.
"Just keep flyering. We have a tradition to uphold."
"How about we just get good singers?" asked Chloe.
Aubrey looked at her like she had ten heads, but a student had overheard Chloe's comment and walked up to take a flyer.
"What? Good singers? What?" asked a blonde chubby girl with an Australian accent.
"Hi!" Chloe greeted the girl brightly. "Can you sing?"
"Yeah."
"Can you read music?"
"Yeah."
"Can you match pitch?"
"Try me."
The girl matched all three notes Chloe tried, stretching the last one out way too long. She let out another note when Aubrey signaled her to stop.
"That was a really good start," said Aubrey. Both friends chuckled. This one was a character.
"I'm the best singer in Tasmania," said the girl. "With teeth." She grinned, showing them her teeth.
"Love it," said Aubrey.
"What's your name?" asked Chloe.
"Fat Amy," said the girl.
"You call yourself 'Fat Amy'?" asked Aubrey.
"Yeah," said Fat Amy. "So twig bitches like you don't do it behind my back."
Aubrey and Chloe looked at each other, both more than a little amazed at the girl's boldness.
Aubrey handed her another flyer. "I will see you at auditions, Fat Amy."
Beca
Beca headed over to the activities fair. She really didn't intend to join any clubs, but she figured she'd look and see what was there. If nothing else, it would kill some time before her next class.
She spotted a booth that read: "F-Word: A Collection of Feminist Voices." She chuckled at that. Another read "Dudes with Ponytails, est. 1988." There was a cycling club. She hadn't ridden a bike since she'd gotten her driver's license, and that bike was in a shed back at her mother's house across the country. No, she wasn't joining that group.
There was a club called "RIAC." When Beca got closer, she saw it said: "Running In A Circle." Two very enthusiastic students - a woman and a man - saw Beca looking and immediately seized the opportunity to sell Beca on a membership.
"What is this about?" Beca asked.
"So, basically what we do is we join arms in a large ring and we run clockwise and sometimes we'll do variations on that," said the woman.
"It's really about motion, health, energy, mimicking the earth's orbit around the sun," added the man.
"So, you guys run in a circle," said Beca.
"And, so can you!" exclaimed the woman.
"Umm...I'm gonna look around little," said Beca.
"Around!" exclaimed the man.
"You would do so well here," said the woman as Beca left, somehow managing not to laugh at their ridiculous club.
Beca continued to look at different activities. She got excited when she spotted a booth that said: "Barden DJs."
She walked up to the booth and began to examine the display. She heard a voice behind her say, "Ahhh, yeah, DJs." She turned to see a heavyset blonde girl. The girl pointed to the display poster as she read, "Deaf Jews."
Two excited young men wearing yarmulkes turned and greeted them by saying, "Shalom!"
The blonde girl said loudly, "That's not a word but keep trying. You will get there."
Beca chuckled. She wasn't Jewish, but even she knew that was a real Hebrew word. "Not a lot of Jewish people where you're from?"
"Uhhh...no. But I did do Fiddler on the Roof in high school. It was, like, me and some Aboriginals. It was really Jewish. It was full-on Jew."
Beca continued to walk through the fair. There were a bunch of guys in swim caps and speedos. Yuck, thought Beca. Had she been questioning her sexuality, that sight would have sealed the deal. No, she definitely didn't like men.
Her thoughts were further interrupted when a pretty redhead handed her a flyer asking if she wanted to join their a cappella group.
"Oh, right, this is, like, a thing now," said Beca as she looked over the flyer.
"Oh, totes," said the redhead. "We sing covers of songs, but we do it without any instruments. It's all from our mouths."
"Yikes," said Beca.
She went on to explain the a cappella groups. Their group - The Bellas - she said were the "tits." The BU Harmonics was a group that sang a lot of Madonna. The High Notes, she said, "weren't particularly motivated". Beca took one look at the group, confirming the reason for their name. She pointed to a group of guys who were singing "Let It Whip." She didn't name the group, but Beca didn't really care.
"So, are you interested?" asked the redhead.
"Sorry...it just...it's pretty lame," said Beca.
"A-ca-scuse me?" asked the blonde, clearly offended by Beca's words. "Synchronized lady dancing to a 'Mariah Carey' chart-topper is not lame."
"We sing all over the world and we compete in national championships," added the redhead.
"On purpose?" asked Beca.
"We played the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, you bitch!" exclaimed the blonde.
"What Aubrey means to say is that we're a close-knit, talented group of ladies whose dream is to return to the national finals at Lincoln Center this year," said the redhead. "Help us turn our dreams into a reality?" The redhead gave her the sweetest, most hopeful smile.
"Sorry, I don't even sing," lied Beca. "But it was really nice to meet you guys."
She walked away, wondering why she'd said what she'd said. She'd been in choir in high school and she'd loved it. The truth was she'd been rattled by the redhead. So, as usual, she'd shot the poor girl a witty comeback instead of trying the group. She hadn't even remembered to ask the redhead's name. She only knew the blonde's name - Aubrey - because she'd heard the redhead use it.
She reminded herself she was putting up with college until she could convince her dad to leave her alone about college and help her move to LA. She didn't have the money to do it on her own, and she knew that her father had saved up a bunch of money for her college education. He could just give that money to her to help her move, couldn't he? He wasn't paying her tuition - just her rent for her apartment.
Beca looked at the time again and headed toward her next class, knowing it was going to be more listening to a boring professor babbling about their syllabus and attendance policy.
Beca did, however, manage to find a booth advertising internships at the college radio station just as she was leaving the activities fair. That was something she might actually enjoy. She grabbed an application and quickened her pace to her next class.
A/N: Song used: "Take Me or Leave Me" from Rent (movie version)