This portion picks up after the semi hits Beca's cab in Portland when she's on the way to the hospital.
Through Aubrey's coaching and a bit of mediation, Chloe learned to better handle the stress vibes emitted by her soulmate ring. Late one evening, she lay on her back, imagining what meeting her soulmate would mean for her life. Her ring had been going through a range of color changes all day. Red to orange to blue and even green. She hoped she could bring some stability to her soulmate's life once they finally met.
Chloe turned onto her side and thought about the possibilities. While she didn't know if such a thing was possible, she tried to channel as much positive energy through her ring as she could. Without warning, her ring changed colors again. Purple. A deep, dark purple. Chloe flipped on the bedside light to ensure her ring wasn't black. Relieved to see that it wasn't, Chloe studied her ring more closely. She'd never seen this color before.
"What do you think this means?" Aubrey had come over the moment her friend called her with the news. Chloe and Aubrey sat cross-legged on Chloe's bed.
"The meanings of the colors aren't exactly set in stone, Chlo." Aubrey picked up Chloe's hand and examined the ring. "I have seen this color one time before, though, on my high school choir teacher's ring in high school. You remember the one who didn't meet her soulmate until well into adulthood."
"Is this the one who got married because she and her first husband hadn't met their soulmates and didn't want to grow old alone?" Chloe drew her knees up to her chest.
"Yeah, that's the one. I remember my teacher's ring being that color for a while. After she and her soulmate actually met, she found out that he had issues with kidney stones," Aubrey explained.
"Oooh, I've heard those are excruciating. My mom had kidney stones." Chloe scrunched up her face. "She said for men, the pain is equivalent to having a baby."
"For my teacher's soulmate, the deep purple appeared during the time he was battling the kidney stones. Maybe something happened, and your soulmate is in a lot of physical pain." This, of course, upset Chloe that she couldn't help the person she was to spend the rest of her life with. Aubrey put her arm around Chloe for a comforting hug. "You can't change things right now, Chloe. Just be you."
"Honey, Beca, open your eyes, honey." Beca's mom ferociously gripped her daughter's hand. The heart rate monitor began to increase tempo. "It's time to wake up, Beca." Her daughter looked so helpless. The tiny brunette was dwarfed in the hospital bed, wires and tubes protruding from what seemed to be every part of her body.
Beca shifted slightly and began to vocalize. A low groan emitted from the back of her throat. "Beca? I'm here." Her mom tried to keep her voice calm like the nurses instructed. Not wanting to leave her daughter's side, she reached for the call button. "I think she's waking up," Beca's mom said when the nurse entered.
A low, protracted, inarticulate moan streamed from Beca's throat. "Whaaaa," Beca struggled out. "Make it staaawwwppp." Her eyes flew open and latched onto her mother's. "Mom, mom! I hurt. Everything fucking hurts." Then her body relaxed as her eyes slid shut.
The nurse looked at Beca's mother, syringe in hand. "I gave her some additional pain medication along with a sedative." She placed a comforting hand on Beca's mother's arm. "I know it's difficult to see your child in pain, Ms. Mitchell. But her waking up is a good thing. Pain is a good thing. This means she's still alive. I'll let her doctor know she regained consciousness."
The next time Beca woke up, she was still confused. "I don't understand, Mom," Beca whined. "What's going on? Where am I?"
"You were in a car accident, sweetie. You're in the hospital," Ms. Mitchell replied.
"Mom, I hurt. Why do I hurt so bad?" Confusion still clouded Beca's face.
Her mother explained that she had multiple fractures of her right arm and several cracked ribs. "Your right side is practically one large contusion."
When the nurse came in, he said Beca was doing well. He pressed a device into her hand. "This is a patient-controlled analgesia pump which will allow you to control your own pain medication without being able to overdose yourself. Push the button whenever you feel the need."
After the nurse left, the doctor came in to check Beca out. Afterward, only she and her mother remained. "I thought I'd lost you, Beca. The accident was pretty bad. I should have never insisted you go to Barden. It's my fault you are hurt."
"Mom, accidents happen. I could have very well been on my way to California and had the same thing occur."
Chloe knew she had to not concentrate on her soulmate ring to prepare for the Fall semester of her final year in her undergraduate studies. The different flashes of colors still disturbed her, particularly when her ring would turn purple or red. Yet, Chloe had finally gotten to the point where she didn't allow the mood of her soulmate didn't affect her own.
She and Aubrey had moved into an apartment right off-campus together for their final year. They had inherited the co-captain roles of the Barden Bellas by default since the other members had all graduated. Aubrey and Chloe were determined to make their final year better than the three they'd had. The only thing that had kept them from giving up was their friendship and mutual love for singing.
"This is going to be the year of the Bellas," Aubrey said enthusiastically as she formatted the flyer for the upcoming student activities fair. "How does this look?" After a few adjustments, the pair deemed their handout ready and sent it to the university print shop for copies.
"What's been going on with your ring?" Aubrey inquired. "Have the colors stabilized any since all that happened at the beginning of the summer?"
Chloe looked at her hand and sighed. "I try to not pay it much attention. But come to think of it, the colors haven't been as… vibrant. Intense, I guess. Maybe things are calming down for them. There are still flashes of orange and bouts of purple, not as much red as before." Chloe shrugged. "I've been trying to put it out of my mind like you said, Bree."
After getting out of the shower, Beca stood in front of the mirror and looked at her right side. Her ribs were slowly improving, but the full-body bruise down her side to her upper leg was at that ugly healing stage - hideous to look at and still painful to the touch. As well, her arm was still in a cast from her wrist to her upper arm.
Beca struggled to dress for her flight to Atlanta. Because of the cast, she wore tank tops and loose flannel shirts that worked well with the plaster mold. She finished packing and headed downstairs to visit with her mother. Her father had insisted on coming to Portland and flying with her to Atlanta. Despite her unfortunate bitterness of the situation, Beca was secretly happy to have help with her luggage.
"You know, through all this, I've been watching your soulmate ring. Since the accident and all." Beca's mom traced the ring on her daughter's finger. "Your soulmate seems to have a happy essence. Your ring is almost always yellow."
"My soulmate ring is broken, Mom," Beca lamented. "Nobody can be that happy all the time. Besides, I don't believe in soulmates." She pointed to her mother's platinum ring. "Yours turned that color when you met dad, and look how that turned out."
"Oh, my jaded daughter," Ms. Mitchell crooned as she brushed her daughter's hair from her forehead. "Your soulmate has their work cut out for them. Anyway, are you packed? Your father will be here soon."
"Yeah, I only have two suitcases. My mixing equipment was smashed in the accident, so what else is there." Beca shrugged. "I can't believe dad's flying with me like I'm a child."
"You think you can wrangle those bags on your own?" Her mom tapped on her cast. "Go easy on your dad, Beca. He's trying." Beca rolled her eyes. Her mother gave her 'the look.' "I'm not supposed to tell you, but he's going to replace your mixing equipment when you get to Georgia while you wait on the insurance settlement."
"Do you have the flyers?" Chloe chirped. "The banner is already set up on the quad. I'm so ready to find a new group of Bellas."
"We have a chance to leave a legacy with a whole new class of Bellas," Aubrey claimed. "I'm excited." She excitedly clapped her hands.
The friends made their way to the quad and began recruiting new blood to fill in the holes. Some students passed by without stopping, while others were polite enough to stop and listen.
Chloe stopped one girl who she knew. "Hey, Barb! Gonna audition this year? We have openings." Chloe tried to hand her a flyer, but Barb pushed it back towards her.
Barb rolled her eyes. "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 baloney. The word's out. The Bellas are the laughing stock of a cappella. Good look recruiting this year.
As Barb walked away, Chloe was shaken. "This. Is. A TRAVESTY!" Chloe sang. "If we can't even get Barb to audition, we can't get anybody."
"Take the dramatics down a notch," Aubrey commanded, straightening her back as she looked around for the next student to approach. "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. Keep flyering. We have a tradition to uphold."
"How about we just get good singers," Chloe said through a forced smile. "Oooh," she said, pointing to one girl wearing bulky headphones and a flannel shirt over a casted arm. "She's cute."
"Are you blind, Chloe? She's so not Bella material."
Ignoring her, Chloe handed the girl a flyer as she took off her headphones. "Hi! Any interest in auditioning for our a capella group?" Chloe chirped.
The girl eyed the flyer then looked Chloe and Aubrey up and down. "A capella. Oh right, this is a thing now."
"Totes," Chloe pipes. "We sing covers of songs but do it without any instruments. It all comes from our mouths!"
"Yikes," the girl responded before telling Aubrey and Chloe she wasn't really a singer and not interested. She shoved the flyer into her back pocket and walked away.
Once Dr. Mitchell and Beca made it to Barden and checked her into the dorm, he tried to help her unpack. Beca insisted she didn't need his help and needed to rest. "The flight really wiped me out, Dad."
"Make sure you check out the quad tomorrow. In the springtime, students study on the grass." Dr. Mitchell was trying his best to make a connection with his daughter.
Beca sighed. "I don't want to study on the grass. I don't need college, Dad. What I need is to live in LA, work at a music label, start paying my dues." She started throwing clothes into the drawers on her side of the dorm room.
"Oh boy, here we go again. Beca, your mother and I almost lost you. I'd like to have you close to me for a while. Besides, while you are here, everything is paid for. Barden has an excellent Music Production program. Having that type of experience will make you more marketable when you do go into the workforce."
"Great. So instead of getting real-world experience in what I actually want to do with my life, I'll spend four years studying on the grass." Beca's sullen attitude frustrated her father.
Dr. Mitchell finally told her about the activities fair the next day. "Get involved with a club or something. You might find you enjoy it. On Saturday, we'll go pick out your new mixing equipment."
The following day, Beca wandered around and found the dining hall and grabbed a cup of coffee and a few granola bars. She struggled to open one with her teeth since her cast didn't allow her to get a good grip with the fingers on her right hand.
Beca then meandered through the quad. She could envision students sprawled on the grass, under the large trees in the spring, just as her father said. She'd never admit that to him, but she knew he was trying.
If Beca were being completely honest, she'd say she was pretty excited about Saturday. Her old mixing equipment had been smashed to smithereens in the accident. Plus, it had been ancient anyway. Beca's father was buying her state-of-the-art tabletop mixing equipment and a new laptop. The set-up would work perfectly in her dorm room.
The activities fair was interesting. Beca signed up to intern at the campus radio station. She watched some total geeks play a version of earthbound Quidditch and learned that there were actually four a capella groups on campus. She didn't even know that was still a thing. Two particular girls stood out - a super chatty redhead and a bitchy blonde. They seemed like friendly people, but that wasn't her type of thing.
After seeing everything the fair had to offer, Beca made her way back to her dorm room after walking around the activities fair. She hadn't walked that much since before the accident. Hopefully, she could sneak in a nap before dinner time.
"Chloe!" Aubrey's face lit up. "Look, look!" She grabbed her friend's hand and pointed to Chloe's soulmate ring. "It's platinum; you met your soulmate!"
The co-captain's mouth dropped open as she looked down at her now silver ring. "B-b-but… the quad was full of students today. My soulmate could literally be anybody."
"No," Aubrey replied. "You had to have met your soulmate before your ring turns, talked to them. That narrows down to mostly the people who were at the booth that means… your soulmate is probably female."
Chloe grinned. "I'm down for that."
Aubrey went to the supply closet and pulled out chart paper and markers. "Then we have to do some detective work."
"Wait a minute." Chloe ran up to her bedroom and returned with a journal. "I've been keeping track. This will help."
Aubrey flipped through the log her best friend kept with meticulous notes of dates, times, and colors. "Seriously? You kept a record of your soulmate ring colors?"
Chloe shrugged. "They've been all over the place since the beginning of our junior year. So I started tracking them. I know, I'm silly." Aubrey told her actually she was brilliant. Despite being exhausted from working the activities fair all afternoon, the friends began to make notes of critical patterns and dates of seemingly important events.
"I can't believe I've met my soulmate," Chloe giggled. "Now, I just have to figure out who they are."
