The next morning everything from the day before feels like a dream. She rolls onto her side and when she sees Dayna across the room, asleep in her bed, she knows that it was all real. She has to see her sister again today and she has to go to Bella rehearsal. But first, she has a day full of classes. She gets out of bed and dresses in her usual jeans and t-shirt; Hanna has always been one to dress for comfort. One time in middle school a girl told her she dressed like her dad on laundry day; since then she's tried to embrace that image.
She walks outside to another unbearably hot day. Georgia summers tend to linger. She rushes to the science building and sighs in relief at the air conditioning hitting her face. She looks around at the room numbers. She isn't surprised at the fact that she's going to be late to her first college class ever.
"Hey Mitchell."
She turns, hoping that her sister isn't also in this building. She is met with the smiling face of Stacie. She is dressed, slightly, more appropriately than she was the night before.
"Hey Stacie, how are you?"
"I'm good," Stacie smiles at her, clearly amused by the difference between Hanna and Beca's dispositions, "you need help finding your class?"
"Uh," She would normally say no, but she doesn't want to be even later than she already is, "yes please."
She hands the sheet with her classes printed out on it to Stacie. She grabs Hanna's hand and she only has a second to be surprised before she is pulled down the hallway. Stacie pushes open the door, not even trying to be quiet.
"Ms. Conrad, I thought I got rid of you last year." The professor says with a smile on his face.
"Don't worry, I'm not here to correct your lectures any more. I have a special delivery."
Hanna's cheeks blush and she walks into the room, taking the first seat she can find.
"Thank you for your service."
Stacie gives a mock salute and a quick wink to Hanna before slipping back out of the room.
The professor looks at Hanna, "What's your name?"
"Hanna Mitchell."
There's a glint of familiarity in the professor's eye and Hanna braces herself for it.
"Well, any friend of Stacie's is a friend of mine, welcome. Just try to be on time from now on."
"Yes sir."
Hanna sinks further down into her seat and opens her notebook to take notes. Throughout class she notices one girl with beautiful brown eyes, long curly brown hair, and a freckle on her left cheek, keeps turning to look at her.
When class is over she is pulled aside by Professor Allen.
"Ms. Mitchell, it's a pleasure to finally meet you. I've been hearing your praises for years from your father."
"Oh." Is all she can say.
She always assumed the stories her dad told were about Beca and the Bellas; Barden's newest pride and joy.
"I'm glad to have you in my class. I hear you're interested in pursuing a career in the science field."
"Yes sir, I'm trying to narrow it down."
"Well, if you have any questions at all, just ask."
"Thank you."
He nods once and she rushes out the door, she has another class to get to.
When her classes are over Hanna feels like her brain is about to melt. She knew that college classes were supposed to be hard, but she thought they would give them a break during the first week. Her backpack has gained several pounds since the day started and her stomach gurgles. She's been too nervous about Bella rehearsals to eat anything today. When she makes it to the student center she drops her bag on the floor and stares blankly at the bulletin board.
"Hanna Mitchell."
Hanna turns. Tuck, the boy she met yesterday, is standing there with a big smile on his face.
"Lost?" He asks.
"My whole life."
He scoffs and looks around. She doesn't seem to be with anyone.
"What are you actually doing here?"
She points to the auditorium door, "I'm waiting for Bella rehearsal."
"You're a Bella?"
He sounds surprised. To be honest, hearing him say it doesn't even seem real.
"Yeah, I know it's kind of lame but-"
"No, it's cool. I'm a treble."
Hanna shakes her head, "I should have known."
The same look of recognition crosses his face and she knows he isn't going to be as kind as Professor Allen to not bring it up right away.
"Wait, Mitchell? As in Beca Mitchell?"
"She's my sister."
"Who knew Beca Mitchell has a little sister?"
"Very few people apparently."
To be fair, almost none of Hanna's friends from high school know about Beca.
"Do you know her well?"
"Kind of. She's dating my buddy, Jesse."
"The loud movie boy." She says knowingly.
They met briefly at Thanksgiving before Beca forced him out of the house; barely speaking three words herself before leaving with him to be with his family.
"That would be him."
He laughs a little, it's light and makes Hanna smile. He rubs the back of his neck.
"I should let you get to practice then."
"I actually have a little more time," She starts, "if you wanna grab a coffee or something."
He bites back his goofy smile, "Yeah that sounds good."
They walk toward the cafe. The sound of other people starts to get louder. Hanna is starting to discover that there are very few places on this campus that you can find any quiet. She woke up this morning to someone banging on another kid's door demanding his bong back; and if that isn't a great start to your day, she doesn't know what is.
"You know you shouldn't drink coffee before you sing. It's bad for your vocal chords."
She gives him a skeptical look.
"If you don't tell Chloe, I won't."
"No worries. She kind of scares me."
This makes Hanna laugh. Out of all the Bellas, Chloe is the least intimidating; a little much sometimes maybe, but if she has an intimidating side she hasn't seen it quite yet.
"Let me guess, you're afraid of Bambi too?"
"Just you wait, you'll see."
"Uh huh."
They each order a coffee and take a seat at a small, two person table in the corner of the large hall.
"So did your sister force you into joining the Bellas?"
"Chloe did actually. I'm not so sure Beca would care one way or another."
"She does favor apathy, doesn't she?"
Hanna shrugs. It's strange to hear other people talk about her sister with such familiarity. She's certain that the Bellas or almost any of the Trebles know her sister better than she does. She fiddles with the lid of her cup, trying to avoid eye contact with Tuck.
"So what's your deal?" She turns the attention to him before he can ask anymore questions, "you just have a strong passion for beat boxing and awful choreography?"
"I was originally going to join the marching band. I play trumpet."
Hanna stifles a laugh, the more she sees of this kid the more of a cartoon character he becomes.
"But I didn't get a scholarship for it like my parents had hoped, so I decided to branch out and try something different. Benji was in one of my accounting classes and he talked me into auditioning last year and it just kind of stuck."
They sit and talk for half an hour before Hanna has to go.
"I should probably get to practice before I'm late and Chloe yells at me." She says, jokingly.
"Have a good first rehearsal. Don't be nervous."
"I'm not nervous."
Tuck smiles, "Sure you're not."
Hanna is taken by surprise at her first rehearsal. It's a lot harder than she expected. Chloe definitely doesn't mess around when it comes to choreography.
"You did good today," Cynthia Rose says, clapping a hand on her back.
"Oh, uh, thanks."
"We're going to grab some dinner. You wanna join?" Jessica asks.
Hanna had to admit that she felt a little out of place in the group. Of course, she was new, but it's more than that. Even though Beca said she was fine with it, she can't help but feel like she's intruding. But she wants to make friends, and if she declines she's afraid they'll never ask her to do anything again.
"Sure."
She's more of a silent observer during dinner. She watches the gentle touches of Jessica and Ashley, how they share everything wordlessly like they're one person. Jessica takes Ashley's tomato and Ashley takes Jessica's onion and they split the small container of mayo. She watches Stacie and Cynthia Rose's easy, albeit sexual, banter. She laughs at their jokes and smiles and it's nice. They don't make any cracks about how quiet she is or how small she is. They just accept her presence like it's always been there and she's grateful for it.
It isn't until the end of the meal that the attention is turned on her; they gather their stuff and make their way out of the dining hall toward Hanna's dorm building.
"So what's it like being Beca's little sister?" Jessica asks.
"Yeah, I can only imagine how moody she was when puberty first hit." Stacie adds.
Hanna shrugs her shoulders and shoves her hands into her pockets.
"We didn't really see each other a lot growing up."
"What do you mean?" Ashley asks.
She's a little hurt that the girls knew nothing about her. Beca has always been tight lipped when it came to her family but she thought that she would have come up at least once in three years.
"When our parents split, I came to Georgia with our dad and she stayed in Seattle with our mom. That's just kind of how it was. Truth is, you guys probably know her better than I do."
She didn't mean for that to sound harsh or sad but it settles a silence over the group and she closes her eyes for a second; she blew it.
"Well you're not missing much." Stacie cracks.
"Yeah, Captain Bitchell isn't as cool as she thinks she is." Cynthia Rose says and the girls laugh.
Relief washes over Hanna and she laughs a little too. She knows Beca has always been a little prickly; she takes after their mom that way. She also knows that their family situation isn't the most normal so she makes a mental note to bring it up as little as possible. When they make it to the outside of Lance Hall they all stop.
"This is me. I've got like a ton of studying to do already."
"Alright, Little Mitch," CR says, "we'll see you at rehearsal tomorrow." She extends her hand, Hanna partakes in an awkward handshake, "we'll work on it."
Hanna smiles and nods, "Okay, see you."
As the girls start to walk away she can hear Jessica say, "I like her," And Ashley responds with a quiet, "Me too."
When she makes it up to her room, Dayna isn't there. She sits at her desk and finally looks at her phone for the first time all night. She has five missed calls from her dad.
"Shit."
She puts it up to her ear and waits for the barrage of questions to start.
"Hanna, where are you?" He sounds upset and she knows the exact look on his face.
"I'm sorry, I know I missed dinner. Bella rehearsal ran long and then the girls asked me to go with them-"
"Bella rehearsal?" The interest in his voice outweighs the anger for the moment.
"Yeah."
"Beca didn't say anything."
She scoffs. She pulls her knees up to her chest and spins around in her chair.
"Did you expect her to? She barely said two words to me the whole time."
"Did you say anything to her?"
Hanna closes her eyes. She didn't want to get into anything tonight but the subject of Beca always sparks an argument between them.
"What do you want me to say, dad?"
She can almost hear him run his hand over his stubble and close his own eyes.
"She's your sister. Say anything."
"I have a lot of work to do."
"You're in the same group now. You're going to have to start trying at some point."
She wants to scream. She wants to tell him he doesn't know what he's talking about, that he caused this, but instead she settles for a simple,
"Yeah okay," When she's sure he isn't going to say anything else she continues, "Tell Sheila I'm sorry and I'll come over another night this week for dinner."
"I will. Good night."
"Good night."
She ends the call and slams her phone down on her desk. She checks quickly to make sure she didn't crack the screen before she puts her forehead down on the cool wood. She hears the door open and she turns to see Dayna walk into the room.
"Hey."
"Hey, late class?"
She sighs and hops up on her bed.
"I don't know why I thought taking a psych class at seven at night would be a good idea."
"Yeah, I can't help you there."
Her eyes light up a little and Hanna already knows that's her tell for when she's about to make a joke.
"How did your rehearsal go?"
"They do not mess around."
"Yeah, you look really sweaty."
"Thanks."
It's quiet for a moment. Dayna scrolls through her phone while Hanna takes books out of her bag.
"Oh, one of the girls in my class mentioned you."
Hanna pulls her eyebrows together, "What? Who?"
"Her name is Lucia. She said that you came in late to your biology class today with some drop dead gorgeous girl."
Hanna nods, "Stacie."
"A Bella?" Dayna presumes.
"Yeah, I got a little lost."
"Didn't you basically grow up on this campus? How are you still getting lost?"
"Just because my dad works here doesn't mean I grew up here," She zips her bag closed, "actually I avoided it as much as possible."
"Why?"
"It just reminded me how different things were, after the divorce. It just wasn't anywhere I wanted to be."
Dayna nods, she had no idea, and Hanna feels a little bad bringing it up like that but she figures she would find out eventually.
"My parents are divorced too. It sucks."
Hanna has known plenty of people with divorced parents. But most of the kids she grew up with who had separated parents either didn't remember the divorce or said it was pretty amicable; which to her, meant that their parents were the kind who bothered to hide the fighting.
"Me and my brothers were shipped back and forth every other weekend and switched off on holidays. What about you?"
"I got out of all that stuff. I haven't seen my mom since the divorce."
Dayna's eyes widen, "How long?"
"I was eight," She shakes her head, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring you down."
Dayna waves her hand and her smile returns.
"Us children of divorce need to stick together, right?"
"Absolutely," They high five and Hanna lets a little laugh escape her, "now I need to shower."
When she climbs into bed later, Dayna is already asleep and it's actually quiet. She closes her eyes but she doesn't fall asleep. She can hear her parents' voices in her head. She has one memory that always comes back to her, no matter how hard she's tried to forget it. There was one fight, the night that her and her dad left that nags at her late at night.
Beca and Hanna are sitting at the top of the stairs. Beca is holding her hand as tightly as she can and Hanna is trying to keep her cries quiet. Her parents have been screaming at each other since their dad got home.
"David, it's been almost nine years. I can't take it anymore."
"You wouldn't dare."
"I would," Their mother's voice was acidic, "don't think I won't. I can't pretend anymore."
"Fine, then we'll leave, if that's what you want."
"You would rather break those little girls up than let your own secret out?"
There's a long silence. They know they're squaring up like two boxers about to go another round. The house is still for the first time in hours and it's scarier than the yelling. Their father appears at the bottom of the stairs and they prepare for him to start yelling at them for listening in on the argument. Instead he comes up the stairs and picks Hanna up.
"We're leaving."
"Where are we going?" Beca asks.
"Me and Hanna. We're leaving. You're staying here with your mother."
Hanna takes a deep breath and squeezes her eyes shut tighter. It seems to make the memory stop, for now. She rolls onto her side and eventually falls asleep.
Chloe walks down the stairs to find Beca sitting in the kitchen holding a mug of tea. She squints against the light that's on above the sink and wraps her sweater tighter around her shoulders.
"Beca, what are you doing down here?"
"Couldn't sleep."
Her eyes don't meet Chloe's.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"There isn't anything to say, Chlo. Hanna's here and now I can't pretend that none of it ever happened."
"You know you've never told me any specifics. I'm not saying you have to, I just, you know you could, if you wanted to."
Beca's lips twinge upward but fall right back into a scowl.
"I don't see the point in talking about it. It happened and it's over."
Chloe grabs Beca's hand and much to her surprise she doesn't pull it away.
"I wish it hadn't, but it did."
Her voice is quiet, she looks up at Chloe and her resolve falls completely for the first time since they met. She lets a couple tears fall down her cheeks. Chloe pulls her into a tight hug and lets her cry. When they pull apart neither of them say anything and Beca is thankful for that.
She knows at some point her and Hanna will have to talk, they can't keep going this way, but she just hopes that when that time comes it doesn't blow up in her face. She wishes it didn't happen, but it did, and there's no turning back now.