x

Chapter Five

The fifth thing at Christmas that's such a pain to me:

Five months of bills!

(Sending Christmas cards

Hangovers

Rigging up the lights

And finding a Christmas tree)

"Beca," Chloe whispers from somewhere in the dark, "Are you awake?"

"No." Unfortunately, she is. She has too much on her mind to sleep, and she is freezing - even if she is buried under a mountain of blankets.

"So you're talking to me in your sleep?"

"Yes." Beca nods even though she knows Chloe can't see her. "Why are you awake?"

"It's too cold to sleep alone," Chloe answers.

Beca sighs. "Well, if someone would go down into the basement and turn the electricity back on…"

Instead, Chloe crawls over top of her and wedges herself between Beca and the wall.

Okay, now Beca is definitely awake. "Dude, what are you doing?"

"You know people have kept from freezing to death by sharing their body heat with one another?" Chloe finds the edge of the blankets and slides underneath them until her side is pressed up against Beca's stomach. "I'm keeping us alive. You can thank me later."

Judging by the way Beca's heart is thudding in her chest, she's certain that she's actually about to die from an arrhythmia – and Chloe will be at fault. "You know there are other people in this house to keep alive, right?" She reasons the sudden heart palpations stem from how rarely she shares her bed with another human.

"They're all sleeping in the living room together," Chloe replies, "You're the only one who needs me."

"I thought you were awake because it's too cold to sleep alone."

"It is, and you're up here sleeping alone."

Beca can't deny that she is warmer with someone beside her – and it's not quite as uncomfortable as she thought it would be. Then again, she has gotten used to Chloe having no regard for her personal space.

"I'm sorry about what happened with Jesse," Chloe says.

"It's fine." Beca stares upward at the ceiling. "He said he just needs time to think about what happened."

"I don't understand what there is to think about," Chloe says, "It was an accident. You didn't even do it. Stacie did."

"Either way, Aubrey has seen me naked now."

"So have I."

God forbid he ever finds that out.

"You know he does this all the time." Chloe rolls over to face her. "He takes things aren't even big deal and blows them out of proportion and makes them your fault."

"I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the fact Aubrey has seen me naked."

"Beca."

"We all have flaws, okay? He puts up with all my crap."

"I never feel like I'm putting up with you," Chloe comments.

"We're not dating."

Chloe is quiet for a moment before responding, "I know." She pauses. "But we do live together, so I see way more of your flaws than he does."

Beca raises her eyebrows in the dark.

"Do you realize you never turn the sink all the way off? You always leave it dripping."

"I don't do that."

"Also, when I ask your opinion on something, or ask you anything really, you always answer abruptly. You never elaborate. Everything is a one word answer."

"No."

"You always slurp when you get to the bottom of your drink. You never put your jacket away. It's probably hanging over the back of the couch right now."

"I'm actually wearing it, thank you."

"Oh, and-"

"I get the picture. I'm insufferable to live with. At least I'm not the person who felt the need to label everything – including the label maker."

"And, even though you haven't seen Aubrey in forever, you're still always mocking her."

"It's just too easy."

"The point is no one here blows those things out of proportion, and we live with you every day," Chloe says.

"Why do I feel like you have secret meetings where you talk about those things behind my back instead?"

Chloe snuggles in. "I'm just saying, maybe you're better as friends."

Beca's cheeks puff out as she exhales. "I thought you came in here to sleep."

Chloe nods. "Night, Bec."

"Night, Chlo." Beca isn't getting any sleep tonight.

xxxxx

Chloe is fast asleep and Beca is still wide awake staring at the ceiling when the sound of the delivery truck wakes her up. She turns to face the sun peaking through the curtains. What is going on out there? She pushes all of the blankets back and stands up to walk to the window where she can watch the biggest box she has ever seen being unloaded into the front yard – followed by several other smaller, but also giant boxes. "Hey, Chloe."

Chloe stirs.

"Chloe."

She sits up with a stretch and a yawn.

"Did we order something?" Beca asks.

Chloe just looks at her groggy and confused.

"There are boxes that make up half the size of this house in the front yard right now."

"What?"

'What' exactly. They stare at each other for a few moments before Chloe climbs out of bed and follows her down the stairs – neither of them even bothering with shoes. "What is this?" Beca demands of the delivery man.

"I don't know," he answers, "I just make the delivery. Enjoy."

Slack-jawed, Beca watches him leave. "You're sure we didn't order anything?" she asks Chloe.

"I didn't order anything."

Beca marches back up the stairs and into the living room where everyone is still fast asleep on the floor. "Guys." No one moves. "Guys! Whoever ordered a package, it's taking up the entire front yard."

That gets them up. They file into the yard, still clad in their pajamas. All the boxes say is Home Depot.

"Are we building a new house?" Beca asks, "Because I could live in one of these boxes – comfortably."

"Lilly and I pulled decorations this year," Cynthia-Rose says, "We thought since we don't need to pay to compete this year, we could go all out."

Beca blinks. "How much did whatever this is cost?"

"$1,000," Lilly whispers.

Beca's throat goes dry. Why didn't they just keep the same jobs they had last year? Nothing went wrong last year. "You do realize that we're not making any money by fundraising either, right? That's like five months worth of utility bills!"

"Not like we got utilities right now anyway," Cynthia-Rose says.

Beca looks at Chloe, who is just staring wide-eyed at the giant boxes. "You have to send this back."

"You don't even know what it is," Cynthia-Rose says, "You never wanna have any fun."

Beca's eyebrows shoot up. "I am the one who brought fun to this group."

No one responds to that.

"Cynthia-Rose is right," Chloe says optimistically, "It could be something you might like. Also, didn't you say you wanted giant lawn decorations?"

"Yeah, when we was hanging up the lights," Cynthia-Rose adds.

"The only thing I want to see come out of those boxes are return labels." Beca steps back toward the porch.

Cynthia-Rose scoffs and they all descend on the boxes – everyone except for Chloe who moves to stand beside her. "Do you wanna get coffee and put our shoes on?"

To be honest, Beca forgot she was barefoot because it's warmer outside than it is inside their house.

"You can't make them send it back. Might as well see what it is." Chloe offers out her hand.

"We can make them send it back," Beca argues, ignoring her hand as they walk inside, "We're in charge of the money. This is why there should be a clear budget for Christmas. I didn't even use our money on the tree that you guys don't want. I used my own."

Chloe gets out the french press and lights the gas stove with a lighter once they're in the kitchen. "That's a few dollars out of the thousand we don't have to worry about then."

Beca collapses down into a chair.

"I think you're freaking out because of Aubrey."

"This has nothing to do with what happened with Aubrey."

"I mean in general. You're graduating this year and-"

"We," Beca corrects her, "We are graduating this year. You're not failing Russian Lit again or Maps. Dude, you've taken those classes so many times, you should be able to teach them."

"-and Aubrey hasn't really had the time to come visit. You want her to see that you did a good job. That's why you won't stop talking about her and you keep taking jabs at her."

"You guys keep bringing up Aubrey," Beca replies, "And I don't care if Aubrey, who would have lost the ICCAs without me, thinks I'm doing a good job with Christmas. She doesn't even celebrate Christmas; her dad is Southern Baptist but he's never home and her mother's side of the family is Jewish. She said she grew up celebrating Hanukkah until she joined the Bellas."

"It's sweet that you remember that."

"She blessed my heart then threatened to shove a menorah up my ass and light me as a candle when I told her I didn't want to listen to her music in the car anymore." Beca stops. "Are you laughing?"

"What?" Chloe asks, turning her back to her, "Of course not. I just meant you want her to see you've done a good job on general. You know, that you've carried on The Bellas' legacy well. And you have."

"She already knows that. We've won the ICCAs every year since I joined."

"Then why are you freaking out?"

"Because there is a satanic tree hanging from the living room ceiling, the power is out, Aubrey was sent a nude photo of me, that pissed off my boyfriend, and there is a giant thousand dollar 'I don't know what' bought by Cynthia-Rose and Lilly that is currently being set up in front of the house. We also have to face that we aren't winning the ICCAs this year, not because we're not good, but because we're not allowed to compete."

Chloe pours the boiling water into the french press.

"You know what, you're right. I just shouldn't care about any of it."

"That's not what I said."

"Let them set up whatever it is they bought," Beca decides, "We have five months left in this house – where we probably won't have utilities, and then they'll turn it into another frat house, because The Bellas are over." Judging by the look on Chloe's face, she shouldn't have said that.

"We could still hear back from The Worlds," Chloe says, "We entered late. But no one else has been chosen to represent the United States yet."

"How are we going to pay for it?" Beca asks, "We're a thousand dollars shorter than we were before."

"Maybe Aubrey will have some ideas."

"We don't even know if we're in," Beca reminds her.

"I'm sure we are." Chloe places a mug down in front of her. "Fat Amy showed her vagina to the president. What's more patriotic than that?"

"I can think of many, many things."

xxxxx

"You're going to love it," Cynthia-Rose says.

Whatever it is, it took them hours to set it up. Beca passed on the opportunity to watch them put it together in favor of having the house to herself – and, okay, maybe Chloe stayed inside with her, but it was still more relaxing than a house full of people.

She slowly stands up from the couch, not feeling at all ready for this.

"Should we blindfold her?" Emily asks.

"Not if you want to remain a Bella," Beca answers and follows them back to the porch.

It's…terrifying.

Chloe lightly clutches her arm.

Taking up the entire yard is a twelve foot skeleton wearing a Santa hat and sitting in a sleigh being pulled by nine full-size (if not bigger) skeleton reindeer. The part of it that's scary is mostly that next to Skeleton Santa sits Lilly – grinning.

"I – I have no idea what to say right now," Beca admits.

"It's better than you thought, right?" Cynthia-Rose asks.

Before Beca can think of an answer, Fat Amy decides to voice her opinion.

"It's too skinny."

"It's a skeleton," Stacie points out.

"It could still be big boned," Fat Amy argues.

"Oh," Stacie says, "We should buy a single bone and put it between his legs and-"

"It's big enough," Beca says, "And it doesn't need any more bones."

Stacie huffs.

"Stacie's right," Fat Amy says, "Instead of big boned, it could be big bonered."

"If I am going to be forced to look at this thing until Christmas is over, nobody is putting a penis on it," Beca replies.

"You sure you straight?" Cynthia-Rose asks.

"Where are we going to store it later?" Beca approaches it from the side. She's taken aback when one of the reindeer moves and nearly leaps back into Chloe's arms. "Oh my god!"

"It's motion activated," Cynthia-Rose says, "Watch." She walks by the deer and they all turn their heads to look at her.

"This is not a Christmas decoration." Beca shuffles away from Chloe. "This was made for Halloween."

"It's like The Nightmares Before Christmas," Emily says gleefully, "You can get away with watching it during both holidays."

"I wish we woulda found it sooner," Cynthia-Rose says, "We coulda kept it up October, November, and December."

"Maybe I would love it more if it looked alive," Chloe comments, then perks up just as Beca thinks they're on the same side, "We should put Christmas sweaters on the reindeer."

Suddenly everyone has suggestions ranging from putting tinsel on their antlers to strapping a giant jet pack to it and flying it. That last idea was Lilly's. Still, no one has answered where they're going to store this thing once the holidays are over.

xxxxx

It turns out that sweaters aren't made to fit giant skeleton reindeer. They have to be cut down the back and then hand sewed back together once the sleeves have been slid over the two front legs. And since there are eight of them and nine reindeer, they all have to do their own – with the agreement that Rudolph will be saved for Aubrey when she arrives. And, okay, maybe Beca is a little bitter that Aubrey isn't even a Bella anymore yet she still gets the head reindeer. If anything, Beca has more in common with Rudolph than Aubrey does.

"I can't believe you talked me into this."

"Your reindeer looks great," Chloe says, decorating the reindeer beside hers. She insisted that Beca have Dasher and she have Dancer. Apparently everyone, besides Beca, has a favorite reindeer. Fortunately, the 'best' reindeer is just one more thing none of them agree on, so there was no argument over who would decorate each one.

But she still thinks she should have been appointed Rudolph.