The Bella's love any excuse to party. Especially Chloe. However, Beca does not.
"But Chloeeee," Beca groaned. "It's not even Halloween! Why are we dressing up for a stupid costume party?"
"Because it's fun! Don't you just love parties?" chirped Chloe.
"I mean, yeah," Beca began. "Who doesn't love any excuse to dance to good music, eat junk food and get drunk? But c'mon, really? It's back to school party, and school already started."
"It's still kinda back to school season. After all, it's only the beginning of the semester, Miss Grumpy Gills."
"Whatever. Close enough," said Beca, not at all interested in the exact specifics of the date.
"Oh live a little Beca," sighed Chloe, getting a bit annoyed at her friend. "All the Bellas are going, and the Trebles are too. Get out of the house. Socialize. Have fun. It won't kill you."
"I hardly even go to classes at our real school, let alone a party for going back to a school that doesn't even exist. And what's more, is that it's not even college; it's a high school. Man, I can't wait till school is actually almost over instead over just starting," whined Beca. "Besides, what am I even supposed to wear?"
Suddenly, Chloe got a glint in her eye and a grin a mile wide appeared on her face.
"No. Ohhhhh no no no no no. I know that look," Beca said, suddenly very wary of her best friend. "Whatever you're thinking about Beale, you can stop."
"Ooooh Becs, you're gonna love this idea. How about we—"
And that's how Beca Effin' Mitchell found herself standing at the bottom of the staircase at the Bellas house in red suspenders and glasses taped up in the middle. She had a mustard yellow cardigan on and high waisted black shorts that were combined with grey thigh high socks. She felt absolutely ridiculous and incredibly self-conscious looking like a nerd, but all of that went away when she heard clunking down the stairs.
Beca looked up and her jaw about dropped to the floor at what she saw. There stood Chloe, in Beca's lace up combat boots, wearing skin tight black pants, dark red lipstick and a flowy top with a raccoon on it. She had red nail polish on, and two Love Is Louder bracelets around her left wrist. To top it all off, Chloe had also borrowed Beca's leather jacket and had the hood of her shirt up, making her look like a true rebel.
"Damn Beale. You kinda look like an older, hotter version of me at age 14," Beca complimented awkwardly.
"Sup, nerd?" said Chloe, in a grungy sort of way. Beca was slightly taken aback at the totally different sound coming from her friend's mouth. Instead of sounding like the happy-go-lucky voice Chloe usually talked in, she sounded like someone who could totally do some serious screamo punk music. 'Must be her nodes' Beca attributed it to, as she continued to stare in shock at Chloe's complete transformation.
"Well," said Chloe, voice suddenly back to normal, "Are you ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be," was the reply.
Walking into the Trebles house, Beca made a bee line to the snack table and immediately filled up two plates. As she brought Chloe's plate back to her, Beca took a moment to look around at the rest of the people at the party. She saw Jessica and Ashley, Flo, Fat Amy and even Lily there. Between the Bellas and the Trebles, there was basically every stereotype represented. Jocks, cheerleaders, nerds, skaters and even some who were dressed as something Beca couldn't easily identify. On her way back, however, Beca was cornered by a very large, and very drunk boy who was dressed as a football player.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" slurred the Treble, as he closed the distance between them. "A little nerd."
Beca, as badass as she may be, was actually a bit nervous. This guy had at least 100 pounds on her and was probably a whole foot taller than she was too. In addition to being pure muscle, he also looked like he could do some serious damage to her, if she tried to fight back.
"Hi," Beca squeaked. "Umm, excuse me, I need to go now."
"Why? You don't look like you're having a good time yet. But don't worry. I can fix that."
Just then, Chloe approached the two. She had been waiting for Beca to return with their food, and when she didn't return, Chloe got a bit worried, so she went to search for her tiny friend. When she finally found her, Chloe's blood immediately started to boil. There was Beca, trapped against a wall looking like she wanted to be anywhere else but where she was at the present moment. When Beca looked over his shoulder and saw Chloe, she let out a sigh of relief. Beca knew Chloe wouldn't let anything bad happen to her. Unfortunately, the drunk Treble was at least aware enough to track Beca's gaze, and his eyes fell upon Chloe, who was rapidly approaching the pair.
"Heyyy. Look who it is," the over confident boy said, abandoning Beca for a second and turning to face Chloe. "Wanna join us? We were just getting started." He gestured to Beca who had scooted a bit away from him so she was out of his reach.
"You may have just been getting started, but I'm ending it," Chloe snarled, and she punched the Treble in the face. As the intoxicated boy wobbled from the hit, Chloe turned it up a notch, and kicked him in the balls. "Don't mess with my best friend, you big bully."
Once the girls had decided the threat was neutralized, they went into the kitchen, seeing as Chloe was going to need some ice for her hand after the punch she had packed.
"Wow Chloe. You really lived up to the badass rebel costume you picked out for tonight," Beca said, once they were alone. "Thank you for coming to save me. I don't really know what I would've done if you hadn't," she added sincerely.
"Don't mention it," Chloe said, brushing it off. "You would've done the same thing if it were me in that situation. That's just what friends do."
With those words, Beca decided that she had had enough mushiness for a while, and said, "Well, what do you say we go back to the party? We've wasted enough time already."
"Wait. Is Beca Mitchell willingly going to be with other people?" Chloe said sarcastically. "Never thought I'd see the day."
"Well, sometimes things, and people in life will surprise you," Beca replied.
After that night, aside from that one incident, Beca decided that she did like costume themed parties after all, and was very thankful to Chloe for having dragged her out of the house. The Bellas continued to have epic shindigs throughout the school year, in addition to actual Halloween. They had luau themed party, a safari party, and even a 90's party. Beca and Chloe consistently had great costumes. Despite the many themed parties the Bellas had, sometimes they would also just wear costumes and onesies for fun. Chloe seemed to enjoy sticking to animals, choosing to dress up as a bumble bee, a mouse and a monkey, just to name a few. Beca on the other hand, preferred to mix it up a bit, electing to go as things like Indiana Jones, a jedi from Star Wars and even Ariel from the Little Mermaid.
When the Bellas had their 'Awkward Family Reunion party', Beca was so into it, she went all out as 'Martha the crazy cat lady who does crafts', while Chloe embraced her party girl side as 'drunk cougar Aunt Sharon'. By this time, it actually was nearing the end of the school year. What once Beca couldn't wait for, was rapidly approaching, and she found herself actually wanting time to slow down. Beca wouldn't admit it, but she was going to miss all of her awesome nerds over the summer. School and parties may end, but by putting herself out there, the memories that Beca made while attending Barden have been totally worth it, and she is finally realizing it. 'However', Beca thought as she looked at all the pictures from the photo booth arranged on her cork board, 'at least I have concrete evidence of how weird all of my friends are'.
A/N: This is an idea I had, inspired from the pictures of the back to school themed costume party that the Pitch Perfect cast had on May 17th 2014, where Brittany was a rebel and Anna was a nerd. Obviously it made me think of what I could do with parties and various costumes in general. I got the other party ideas from pictures the cast has posted throughout the years. This is not technically a Sendrick fic, but I totally imagined it as one when I wrote it.