A/N: Hey guys! Thanks for still sticking through this fic. And thanks for all the support so far! Hope you enjoy this chapter.
So, here is chapter 5 with the forever staple shower scene, Emily really feeling the difficulties associated with getting Beca on the right path.
I don't own pitch perfect.
If there was anything that Beca learned the last few days, it was to just simply accept whatever this crazy re-do in life throws her way. Frustrating as her current predicament may be, she really didn't have much of a choice on anything. Emily insisted that this was what must happen and that Beca should trust her because she simply had her best interest at heart.
Sure, she had to endure Jesse's constant annoying grin at her whenever she was at the radio station every time he reminded her that she was now a Barden Bella.
And sure, she also had to figure out how to juggle her upcoming internship duties – which starts in a week – with her studies and her now new responsibility. On the plus side, she's lived through the study and internship part, which meant she could somehow predict what was going to happen next.
Or at least she hoped.
The downside is being a Barden Bella was going to drive her insane at best.
Hence the incredibly long hot shower she was taking in the private bathroom of her shared rooftop suite with Amy to relax.
The first week of Bella duties wasn't so bad. Emily kept bringing up the opinion that she was a musical genius, not that anyone else could forget that, and now she had Chloe breathing down her neck on some epic playlist. Not that it was too much of a pain, it was just that the redhead couldn't quite make up her mind on what the theme should be and she liked to very much try and invade Beca's space every chance she could to pick up that exact same conversation they were having.
Truth is, Beca wasn't sure if she hated it or not, Chloe's invasion of privacy. She just knew that it was doing something to her. What it was, she wasn't sure.
And Beca really didn't want to think about it for now.
Then there was Amy. She wasn't a terrible roommate. Sure, Beca's still annoyed that she had to break her lease and all to move to the Bellas house. Her dad – the one who insisted she move into the house with 'those nice acapella girls' – handled everything, because of course this made him happy.
Of course.
Really, so far, the only bad thing about Amy is her random comments – that Beca mostly tunes out – and her habit of pinching spare bills in Beca's jacket pockets – because who else would even dare try?
Beca hasn't really interacted with much of the Bellas yet, she was mostly keeping to herself, so she has yet to form an opinion on them.
Beca took a deep breath, clearing her mind as she let the warm water hitting her soothe the tension in her muscles. She turned around, and closed her eyes, doing her best not to think.
There was so much happening, so much going on.
Was helping the Bellas win the Worlds her test? She wasn't sure.
She really didn't know.
And she really didn't know what she should do with all these new people she was meeting. She had a year, and then that's it. The stupid timer that appeared every midnight was her awful reminder of it.
So what should she do? She doesn't want to leave attachments behind.
She really just wanted answers. Straightforward, nothing vague or cryptic.
But that isn't life.
Life is living days when you don't know why terrible things keep happening, or why you keep getting hurt.
Not until you've reached the end and had a time to reflect on it.
Which made it harder for Beca, because she most definitely did not want to fail this test.
But the first time she went through this lifetime, she didn't care much about it, she only looked forward, eyes kept on the forward.
So what exactly did she miss? What was she supposed to learn?
The quiet wasn't doing anything to clear her head so Beca started humming, focusing on the song itself so as to not get too wrapped up in everything.
Because maybe if she filled her head with music she could chase away the noise of her thoughts.
And for once, maybe she could focus on the now.
With humming seemingly working, Beca decided to softly sing the song. Amy doesn't usually get back until late, sometimes she doesn't actually get back until the next day, so she technically had her opportunity.
Because of course Beca Mitchell was maybe, kinda, definitely avoiding singing in front of the Bellas so that they don't find out that she does, in fact, sing and make her sing parts for their performances.
She's still really much against the idea of competitive acapella singing.
So maybe she got more into the whole thing, singing more confidently than she was seconds ago.
No one would hear her anyways, right?
Wrong.
As evidenced by her sudden yelp when the shower curtain was abruptly pulled open, Beca jumping towards one corner of the shower as she instinctively grabbed one edge of the shower curtain to cover herself with.
"You can sing!" Chloe said excitedly, almost breathlessly.
"Dude!" was all Beca could muster up as a complaint as she tried to catch up to the whole thing.
"Sorry, I was looking for Amy. She borrowed twenty from me earlier, and I'm ordering pizza and they only accept bills at the moment, some weird system malfunction thing, but then I heard you sing! And it's actually pretty amazing."
"Um, you do now, I'm still naked here." Beca pointed out.
But Chloe simply scoffed and ignored the comment. "That was Titanium, right? David Guetta?" she went on. "That song's my jam. My 'lady jam'."
And Beca pretty much wanted to ask what she meant when a though occurred to her… and nope…
Nope, you're not going there Mitchell.
Resist the urge… fight it… don't even dare think about those impure thoughts…
Chloe made a comment about how the song really builds and Beca pretty much just wanted to switch the still running water of the shower to the coldest possible setting.
Mitchell! Stop! Don't even think about it!
So Beca cleared her thoughts and tried to focus on how the whole invasion of privacy to the next degree that was going on.
"Don't you think this weird at all?" Beca practically squeaked as she pulled as much of the shower curtains as she could to cover up her body from an amused Chloe who reached out past her to turn off the shower.
"No, should it be?" Chloe replied with a chuckle, looking at Beca like a kid on Christmas day.
Like she just opened the best present ever.
"Dude, I'm naked!" Beca protested. And on the days to come when she would think about the whole thing again, replay it in her head, her tone was very much firm and commanding.
Of course the truth was her voice was quaking, and she sounded very much confused on whether she was asking Chloe a question or pointing out the obvious fact.
"So?" was Chloe's reply, quirking an eyebrow at Beca's direction.
Beca visibly gulped – although she was convincing herself that she didn't – with her cheeks bright red as she bite her lip to stop her from rambling on all flustered with what would most likely be a nonsensical argument against Chloe.
Because by then – what with Chloe's close proximity to her and all – her brain pretty much turned into goo.
Chloe took a deep breath and sighed. "Fine." she softly said, her tone sounding kind and understanding.
And Beca hoped she was probably finally getting the level of sketchy inappropriateness of the whole thing was.
But alas, she was wrong.
Because she was met with a sly grin from Chloe when she went on. "Will it make you more comfortable if I'm naked too?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
And Beca would be lying if she said that the way Chloe had asked her didn't send shivers down her spine.
Get a grip of yourself Mitchell.
"I mean I could join you." Chloe then suggested, acting as if she was about to take her clothes off, her fingers lingering over the hems of her shirt. "I've already gotten pretty wet myself."
If Beca thought her brain had turned to goo seconds ago, well, this time the goo most likely evaporated already.
What with her head overheating, barely even processing anything.
Sure, a tiny part of Beca knew Chloe meant that she's gotten wet with the running water from the shower earlier.
Oh… but those other thoughts in her head was fighting really hard.
Mitchell… speak… do something!
"No!" Beca managed to peep.
Chloe laughed and shook her head. "I'm not leaving until you sing Mitchell. Come on, sing with me?"
Beca looked very much hesitant but it would end the blessing of this torture – Beca wasn't thinking straight, clearly – then she had no choice.
Besides, she got the feeling that Chloe wasn't exactly someone who would take no for an answer.
Beca nodded as she tried to gather enough strength to look Chloe in the eye and sing with her.
Chloe beamed at her, realizing she's won.
And with all honesty, as soon as she looked into her eyes, Beca couldn't understand why the girl in front of her was giving her a heart attack but for some stupid reason she was happy about it.
So happy that despite being a flustered, fumbling, rambling mess – if her incoherent thoughts was anything to go by – that she was actually genuinely smiling.
This girl might be death of me… she thought to herself as she took a deep breath to get herself to relax a bit.
…ironic considering the circumstance, Mitchell, but she might really well be…
And with that she sang.
With Chloe jumping in, singing with Beca, forming a wonderful harmonious melody.
And for the first time ever, Beca felt herself unable to breath.
But she didn't mind it.
Because of this inexplicable pull she felt along with it.
Chloe's head was in her hands, sitting on the piano stool. It's been a week since she's tried to get the Bellas in shape for the Worlds but all her battle plans and ideas kept falling short.
It was during days like these that she wished she still had her best friend, Aubrey, around. Her specialty, after all, was whipping the Bellas into shape. Chloe still couldn't quite figure out how they got Aubrey to agree to use modern songs for their second chance at Nationals when the two of them were still co-captains of the Bellas, he stubbornness and one-tracked mind had always been her downfall, but when she did, it was her strict regimen that got everyone ready in such a short time.
Not that Stacie was a bad co-captain the coming years, it was just different.
Like something was missing.
And Chloe couldn't quite figure out what it was.
Sure they've been dominating the ICCA the past couple of years, but that was due to half their hard work and their own ingenuity in a sense. The Bellas wanted to reinvent themselves over and over again each year, keeping their competition on their toes. But they never had their own sound, most of their performances were based on a video or a mix they hear on the campus radio once in a while.
Somehow Chloe knew they need that, they're own sound, if they're ever going to redeem themselves at the biggest stage they were competing in now, the World acapella championships.
And maybe, just maybe, she told herself she could let go now, she could move on.
One last Bellas performance that would top off the rest and she'd find the courage to leap into the real world, no more purposefully failing Russian Lit, no more delaying tactic.
She was ready to grow and move on.
Really, she wasn't sure what she was holding onto in the first place. Perhaps it was the fear of the unknown, perhaps it was the safety of having a family with the Bellas that had her stay, the feeling that something made her special every time they won, the rush, Chloe wasn't really sure. She just knew that someday she'd have to leave the halls of Barden and move forward.
Like her best friend did – not that they don't stay in touch, they're always on Skype calls with each other, but still.
Chloe groaned, she had so much to think about and she really didn't have that much time for it all. Considering their practices for the last week was pretty much fruitless, she was starting to lose hope they'll ever have a shot at winning the Worlds.
"You okay?" she heard Beca ask. Chloe looked up and sighed as she saw the Bellas all filing in for another unhopeful day.
Beca looked at her expectantly for an answer as she thought about it and shrugged. Beca gave her a tight-lipped smile. "Okay, then. Well, I still don't have any definitive set-list made, sorry." she then said. "But I've been playing around with a few idea in mind."
"Like what?" Chloe asked. "Because trust me, any idea would be welcomed right about now."
Beca smirked. "Well…" she said before turning around to leave Chloe hanging for a minute or two. Chloe watched as Beca gathered all the Beca's at their main rehearsal space. She grabbed a few sheets of paper from her bag, handing them their copies, before turning back to Chloe to pull her along to join them.
"Alright, so…" Beca started to say.
"Hang on, Emily's not here yet." Flo immediately interjected.
"I mean, can't blame her. We aren't supposed to start yet." Stacie then said. "We still have a few minutes to go and she did say her last class was on the opposite side of campus."
"She can catch up whenever." Beca replied before rubbing her palms together, trying to get on with things. "I noted which parts you guys should sing and color-coded a few sets because they're form different songs. Um… I suppose you guys should know how each goes so…" she went rambling on.
Chloe watched curiously as Beca tried to figure out how she should go about things. She first started with Lilly asking her to give her a beat. Beca gave a bit of demo how she should go. She then turned to each of the Bellas, showing them how they should each go about their parts, humming pieces and letting them give it a try a bit before putting it together.
"You real do have a nice voice." Beca mumbled as a compliment when it was Chloe's turn, her cheeks blushing a little and Chloe couldn't help but wonder if it was because she remembered their little shower encounter the day before.
If anything, Chloe couldn't help but wonder if she came up with this in the last twelve hours or so because last time she checked with Beca, she still has nothing much to give the Bellas.
"Alright, you nerds? Got it? Wanna give it a go?" Beca then asked as each of the Bellas tried to go over their parts. She was met with various versions of 'yes' before she checked the time. "Um, I suppose since Emily is still not here, I can sing her part for now."
"Thought you said you can't sing shorty?" Cynthia Rose then asked, giving her a suspicious look but Beca just shrugged.
"I said I don't, not can't, there's a difference." Beca then mumbled as a reply before clearing her throat. Chloe watched as she awkwardly shuffled towards the center of the group as she faced the Bellas. She totally looked out of place for some reason, but Chloe thinks that's just because she's still trying to get a feel of them and get comfortable with this whole acapella thing she seems so opposed to.
"Um, right." Beca then said, taking a deep breath. "Okay, Lilly, give us a beat, Amy and Flo, get ready for back up."
Lilly started, getting right down to it giving a slow and steady beat. Beca let her get the hang of it. Beca looked over to both Flo and Amy to start laying down the rest of the rhythm, their voices blending pretty well. Once everyone seems to be digging just the background beats, Beca pointed at Chloe and Chloe started immediately, Flo and Amy quick to provide much needed vocal support for some lines.
First things first
Imma say all the words inside my head
I'm fired up and tired of the way that things have been
Beca then pointed at Stacie and Cynthia Rose, their voices blending into one with their small bit of duet.
Just a young gun with a quick fuse
I was uptight, wanna let loose
They were off to a good start, or so Chloe would say so herself, except Beca didn't want to stop. They found a momentum so they kept going at it. She pointed back at Chloe who picked up on her part.
Second things second
Don't you tell me what you think that I can be
I'm the one at the sail, I'm the master of my sea
Before pointing back at Stacie and Cynthia Rose.
Have a seat in the foyer, take a number
I was lightning before the thunder
And finally Beca sang what was supposedly Emily's line, with Stacie and Cynthia Rose giving her vocal support, and Lilly, Amy, and Flo keeping the melody.
Whip, whip
Run me like a racehorse
Pull me like a ripcord
Break me down and build me up
I wanna be the slip, slip
Word upon your lip, lip
Letter that you rip, rip
Break me down and build me up
That's when everyone starts to sing their respective parts for the chorus, their voices blending it to an amazing mix of harmonies. Amy and Flo were joined by Ashley and Jessica as they constantly sang the song about thunder while Cynthia Rose, Stacie, Chloe, and Beca sang the other half of the chorus which was from a different song. Lilly maintained in keeping the base beat that was shared by both songs.
Whatever it takes/Thunder, feel the thunder
You made me a, you made me a believer, believer/Lightning and the thunder
Whatever it takes/Thunder, feel the thunder
You break me down, you build me up, believer, believer/Lightning and the thunder
Whatever it takes/Thunder, feel the thunder
Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins/Lightning and the thunder
Whatever it takes/Thunder, feel the thunder
You made me a, you made me a believer, believer/Lightning and the thunder
Whatever it takes
Beca looked over at Chloe, pointing at her to sing her part again.
Third things third
Say a prayer to the ones up above
All the hate that you've heard has turned your spirit to a dove,
And with everyone totally getting into the sick beats they were making, she didn't even need to prompt Stacie and Cynthia Rose for their parts.
Kids were laughing in my classes
While I was scheming for the masses
Beca jumped on her part looking more comfortable now, like the very beats of the song were the beats of her heart, and the rhythm and melody they were producing were the blood in her veins.
And Chloe couldn't help but be mesmerized.
Whip, whip
Run me like a racehorse
Pull me like a ripcord
Break me down and build me up
I wanna be the slip, slip
Word upon your lip, lip
Letter that you rip, rip
Break me down and build me up
As they hit the chorus a second time, everyone was totally feeling it, sounding more and more like the Bellas Chloe knew that it was giving her goosebumps.
If possible, they sounded even better than before.
Whatever it takes/Thunder, feel the thunder
You made me a, you made me a believer, believer/Lightning and the thunder
Whatever it takes/Thunder, feel the thunder
You break me down, you build me up, believer, believer/Lightning and the thunder
Whatever it takes/Thunder, feel the thunder
Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins/Lightning and the thunder
Whatever it takes/Thunder, feel the thunder
You made me a, you made me a believer, believer/Lightning and the thunder
Whatever it takes
Chloe saw Emily walking into their rehearsal space just they repeated the chorus, Cynthia Rose sustaining the high notes in a few of their lines.
They sounded absolutely amazing,
And it looked like Emily was just as equally amazed with what she was hearing.
Whatever it takes/Thunder, feel the thunder
You made me a, you made me a believer, believer/Lightning and the thunder
Whatever it takes (ohhhh)/Thunder, feel the thunder
You break me down, you build me up, believer, believer/Lightning and the thunder
Whatever it takes/Thunder, feel the thunder
Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins/Lightning and the thunder
Whatever it takes (oh-ohhh-oh)/Thunder, feel the thunder
You made me a, you made me a believer, believer/Lightning and the thunder
Chloe returned her attention to Beca, a huge smile on her face.
And if anything the brilliant DJ was looking rather proud of her little accomplishments with the Bellas.
Whatever it takes
The Bellas erupted in cheer as they finished, Beca giving Chloe a smug grin as she found herself feeling pretty elated herself.
"Okay, we need to hear the songs that mashup was from. Seriously, that was amazing!" Stacie then commented and Chloe couldn't help but agree.
As she turned to ask Beca the same thing – figure out the original artist and tracks – Beca bit her lip and looked slightly panicked.
Emily had the same expression on her face as she seemed to have realized something, rushing towards Beca and asking if they could talk for a minute or two.
Chloe couldn't help but wonder what that whole thing was about as Emily was practically in a rush to drag her out of the rehearsal space to have a quick word.
But she didn't press on about it now. She was still on a high with that brief performance, Beca's little stunt was something they definitely needed to feel reinvigorated for the Worlds.
And even with all the worries Chloe had at the moment, she had a feeling they were on the right path.
With Beca by their side, they would conquer the Worlds.
Perhaps, she was that missing thing, Chloe wasn't sure.
All she knew was that was one aca-awesome performance.
"You know why I'm dragging you out here, right?" Emily asked as Beca gave her what would pass as an innocent smile.
Truth be told, Emily wasn't sure if she would hug Beca – because that was an amazing performance she just orchestrated – or be frustrated with her.
"I mean, Chloe's been bugging me about idea…" Beca tried to give her an excuse, "And I wasn't really planning to do it without your go ahead but she was looking gloomy when I got here for practice – which, by the way, is your fault in the first place – so I decided to just go with it."
"You can't use songs that haven't been released in this timeline yet!" she then exclaimed, doing her best to keep her voice low. "Beca, while you're allowed to re-live a year of her life, you can't exactly – and by that, I mean you are not allowed to – mess up the future by using a song that's not gonna be released for like a year or two more even if you already know it because we're not in some pocket universe! We're in real life and right now the future is more like a dream that has not yet set. Everything we do now will have definitive ripple effects, do you understand? Like, this is live reality right here."
"Geez, okay, okay." Beca then replied. "No more stunts like that."
"Promise me Beca or I swear…"
"Angels can swear?" Beca then interjected with a chuckle.
Emily looked at her with a blank expression. "Okay, first of all, we're guardian angels. We're kind of down the order of things and we're closer to human beings than anything that in some alternate universes we actually are humans… you know what? I'm not gonna go into the complicated details. By swear I meant promise. I promise you Beca, there are dire consequences if you mess something up with tampering the timeline in a major unprecedented way."
"I mean, aren't we sort of doing that?" Beca then argued.
Leaving Emily even more frustrated because technically, yes, they are.
But they were here to fix things and make sure that things that were meant to be actually happens this time because the original timeline in this universe that they're trying to fix got so messed up because the things that were supposed to happen didn't happen in the first place.
And seriously how was she going to explain that to her charge?
Emily must have looked like her brain was about to overload because Beca quickly changed her usual indifferent attitude and sounded concerned and sincere the next minute when she apologized again.
"Okay, okay, sorry. I'll stop asking ridiculous questions." Beca then replied as an answer.
Emily took a deep breath to calm herself. "Just promise me you won't ever do that again."
"I promise." Beca quickly replied still looking at Emily slightly confused. She definitely looked like she wanted to ask more questions but Beca held them back. "Should we go inside now? Pick up practice?"
"Yes. Just shrug if they ask about the song. I'll think of something to get their minds off of it." Emily grumbled as a reply.
Yep, this definitely wasn't going to be easy.
And her hardest challenge haven't even shown up yet.
A/N Pt 2: Okay guys, full on focus on this fic now! I needed a break from work so I ended up finishing this chapter :P I'll try to get the next chapter up next Saturday or Sunday as I do need breaks from work, I just don't have that much time to spare for writing, hence still irregular updates. I'll do my best to keep an everyday/every other day upload schedule after my hectic phase (around mid-April?) to be consistent with uploads and let you guys know if I'm gonna miss the next one or not/if there will be delays on a previous upload. :)
BTW, the Imagine Dragons Mashup is by Sam Tsui. I saw the video about a year ago (when I started writing this fic :P) and thought it would be perfect to incorporate here. Check it out on YouTube for an eargasmic experience ;)