You make my dreams – hall & oats: chapter 3
Chloe waved through her window as she rolled it down. "Nice car!"
"Yeah, you-you too!"
"Bet yours is best in snow!" She called sarcastically, honking lightly and winking, making Beca laugh and blush further.
"Haven't tried it yet!"
Chloe glanced up at the traffic lights and saw it had turned amber. "See you at school!"
She drove off quickly, giggling at her rear-view mirror, which displayed a shocked and flushed brunette fumbling to change gears and drive off after her. They kept stealing glances as they drove, making faces at each other.
"Oh my god," Chloe laughed to herself as Beca cranked up her cassette player. You make my dreams by Hall and Oates was playing, and as they were waiting for the next traffic light, Beca pointed to Chloe and began to mouth along, but when Chloe broke out into singing the backing oohs, Beca laughed and followed her lead.
As Beca sang, for once she didn't feel as though she was making a fool of herself. In fact, she didn't feel anything remotely similar to regret or embarrassment, only a genuine warmth she hadn't felt in its entirety with anyone other than Stacie in a very long time. It was crazy to think that she and Chloe had only met yesterday, and only spoken twice – driving to school alongside her, laughing and singing across lanes was something as unique as it was electrifying. So what if she had the smallest, tiniest most miniscule crush on Chloe? It would probably go away when they became friends. It was nothing to even think about or act upon. She should just let herself enjoy having more than one friend for once. No sneering necessary.
They reached the school and drove off to their respective parking spaces. As Beca parked, she made a mental note to find out where Chloe's locker or homeroom was, or what classes she took this year, so she didn't have to spend every day watching Stacie at her cheer practices just to find a way to talk to the redhead. On the other side of the carpark, Chloe was beaming as she parked, now in the best mood for her first full day of school. As she got out her car, she spotted Aubrey standing against the wall and reading, clearly waiting for her.
"Hey, Bree!"
Aubrey glanced up and put her book back in her bag. "Good morning, Chloe,"
"What's up?"
"I figured you'd probably forget where your locker was so I came in early…on the one day I don't have an extra-curricular before homeroom, so be very grateful," Aubrey said half-seriously, giving her cousin a side hug before beginning to lead them inside the closest entrance.
Chloe giggled. "I am very grateful, Bree. I actually had such a great ride to school. I thought I'd totally forget the way but then I ended up driving next to Beca and we drove side by side the whole time-"
"Beca Mitchell?" Aubrey asked sharply.
Slightly taken aback by the blonde's harsh interruption, Chloe's eyes widened. "I can't remember her last name-"
"Is she short with dark hair and too much eye makeup? And she wears all these dark colours like she's constantly at a funeral, and always glaring at the sun? She looks like a female Dracula."
Chloe pouted a little. "I…I guess, but Bree isn't that a little mean to say? She's been really friendly with me, I met her and Stacie yesterday at try-outs, and they came to the diner and she was really-"
"Annoying?"
"Cute, Aubrey. She was really cute."
Rolling her eyes and huffing out a humourless chuckle, Aubrey led them down a flight of stairs. "Chlo, I'm warning you. That girl is rude. She's vicious and she's unkind and she's always in detention or late or…fucking up someone else's day. Not to mention she never comes to gym class. The only good thing she has going for herself is that she can sing but she just embarrasses our music teacher by not turning up to concerts. I'd suggest you cut ties with her."
"Aubrey, come on, can't you let me decide who I want to be friends with?" Chloe frowned, grabbing Aubrey's hand to lead them to one side of the hallway and talk properly. "I don't know why you hate her so much, but she was really normal to me and really funny with Stacie."
"Yeah, she's funny, alright." Aubrey muttered. She leant in closer to the redhead. "I heard she got drunk at a party last year and kissed a girl."
Chloe shrugged. "So? It was probably spin the bottle."
"Chloe-"
"Bree, look – on the way to school we literally sang and laughed and made faces at each other. It was like I was driving with someone I knew my whole life. I don't know how to explain it properly, but I really like her, I think she's cool! And she knows my favourite Hall and Oates song."
"Chloe, she's weird."
"So am I!"
"Chloe." Aubrey snapped, scowling. "I'm not going to repeat myself again. I'm telling you to stay away from her."
Getting increasingly frustrated at her cousin for ruining her mood, Chloe pouted as she weighed up her options. Choosing to just make Aubrey happy, she huffed. "Fine, Bree, I'll be careful. I don't see what someone I only met yesterday can really do to hurt me, but whatever."
"Good." Aubrey smiled at her, a little forced. "Come on, we need to go to your locker."
As luck would have it, they barely made it a few steps down the hall before Stacie and Beca rounded the corner opposite them.
"Hi!" Chloe said brightly and instinctively.
"Yo, Chloe, I hear you're a traffic lane performer, pretty cool," Stacie winked at her as they passed, and Beca nudged her in the side.
"Hey, Red," Beca smiled, before her eyes flitted to the pissed off blonde standing next to her. "Posen, hi bestie!"
Aubrey rolled her eyes. "Bite me, boho."
"Hey, now, aren't we going to be civil this year, Posie?" Beca raised a brow, smirking as Stacie stifled a laugh.
"See you in Chem, Aubrey," Stacie said in amusement as her and Beca walked off down the corridor.
"Jeez. That tension made me wanna blitz." Chloe eyed her cousin as they turned the corner, watching as Aubrey gritted her teeth and gripped her bag.
"Stupid hobbit." She grunted. "You see why I hate her so much?"
Chloe made a high-pitched, uncertain noise. "You weren't so nice to her either, Bree. You called her a boho,"
"For good reason, Chloe. Let's go."
Unable to see her cousin as being anything other than overly harsh and protective, Chloe huffed exasperatedly, following Aubrey to their lockers.
"Change of subject. Do you wanna see who I chose for the pyramid?" Aubrey grinned, already picking up a paper folder and taking a laminated sheet from it.
"Only if I'm not on the bottom," Chloe retorted, making Aubrey scoff.
"Please. I would've made you vice-captain if Coach wouldn't have thought I had too much favouritism. This pyramid pains me a little bit. The standards weren't nearly as high as last year. See for yourself,"
As they spoke, Chloe was reminded that Aubrey was fun so long as she wasn't being over-bearing. The redhead couldn't imagine that others thought the same. They spoke until first period – Aubrey even shocked her expressing genuine interest for seeing the new movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off that was coming to cinemas in a few weeks, and they made plans to watch it together. Chloe half-suspected that Bree had felt bad for arguing with her earlier, because when Chloe first moved here earlier that summer she had been talking a lot about a poster she'd seen for the movie. She had to push thoughts of movies and Jennifer Grey right back out of her mind, though, because she had English first period and that required a whole lot of attention.
Unfortunately for her, it took a little longer than it should have for Chloe to find the English corridor and a senior pointing her in the wrong direction before she was finally able to walk into class five minutes late.
"Ah, you must be Chloe," Miss Berry said, putting her chalk down against the blackboard and walking over to the door to lead her in.
"Hi, I'm sorry I'm late, I got lost." Chloe smiled shyly, though it turned into more of a grimace at the course of chuckles that erupted around the room. She blushed.
"Don't worry, it's a big school. It took me twenty minutes just to find the entrance!" Miss Berry joked "Go and find a seat, Chloe, and your classmates can catch you up,"
The classroom was set up in long desks of two, and the redhead's stomach did a funny little flop. As eager as she was to make friends, being known as the confused new girl wasn't exactly her favourite to conversation starter. Chloe looked around before her gaze settled on the last empty space at the back of the classroom, and the smirking brunette seated alone on the table. Chloe grinned – her luck was looking up already.
All remnants of Aubrey's warnings had evaded her as she sat and turned to look at her friend. "Beca,"
"Red," Beca smiled, but kept her eyes focused on Miss Berry.
"Are you gonna be in-"
"Shh, I'm learning." Beca hushed her.
Raising her brows, Chloe reached into her backpack and pulled out a notepad and ballpoint. She pushed it in between them.
What did I miss?
Introduction to Gothic literature, we're studying Wuthering Heights and Dracula this semester
Cool
I thought WH was romance
Gothic romance – Dracula has a lot of romance too at times
I've never read either of them
Can I copy your notes?
I didn't take any
I've read them both before
I didn't peg Hall n Oates singer to be an avid reader too
It's a hobby, living up to my expectations
?
Dad's an English teacher
Cool! I bet you're good at essays too
Ehh
Bree made it seem like you don't care much about school
You asked Aubrey about me?
Not exactly
We aren't the best of friends, I wouldn't expect her to have anything nice to say
She didn't really…but I also didn't listen to her! I think you're awesome
Ditto red
No one's ever called me red before. Except for in kindergarten. I had a red coat. Little red.
That's cute
Do you live near me if we took the same route to school?
That depends where you live dude
We moved into the empty place that was round the corner from the diner
Wait do you know why they had construction there yesterday?
I live near there, like a few roads away
I think they're just replacing the sign
"Taking notes together to save paper, that's a clever idea, girls,"
Beca and Chloe jumped, swivelling round to see Miss Berry peering over their shoulders with a wry smile.
"I'm sure there'll be plenty of time to get to know each other outside of my classroom." She said, pointedly but with little frustration, chuckling as the girls muttered their apologies.
For the rest of the class, Beca more or less watched as Chloe took her own notes. She had nothing else better to do, already knowing the synopses of their comparative literature, and she'd be lying if she said she didn't find watching Chloe fascinating. Entertaining, even. The ginger was entirely focused, holding her tongue between her lips as she wrote, her baby blues growing big at new information. Each time she caught Chloe's eyes she either smirked or blushed, and there was no in-between. It was useless attempting to avoid them; they were enchanting. Not that she'd admit that to anyone, of course. But they were. In fact, everything was enchanting about Chloe – she certainly wouldn't have sung across the road for anyone else. Beca didn't get the chance to mention their journey to school that lesson, as Chloe clearly meant to impress on her first day and Beca didn't want to jeopardise that or her learning just because she knew what was being taught already.
As they were packing up, Chloe took out her timetable and showed it to Beca. "Do you have Geography next?"
"Nope, I've got History," Beca made a half apologetic face.
"Ugh, lame." Chloe sighed. "Where is Geography?"
"Literally round the corner, it's impossible to get lost on the way there," Beca laughed. Finally remembering her mental note, she took another peek at the timetable. "I have French last period too, though. And we both have art, theatre and music tomorrow,"
"Oh my god, yay!" Chloe bubbled. "We have all the best classes together,"
Beca narrowed her eyes at her. "I wouldn't call French one of the best classes, but whatever you say, Red," she slung her backpack over her shoulder. "Au revoir,"
"Bye, Beca," Chloe giggled.
History went by quickly – there was little space for Beca's mind to wander when faces with the facts of the economic crises of the Mid-Tudor period. Hell, there wasn't even much space for the facts themselves, but Beca was pretty good at memorising and wasn't phased by their teacher giving them a pop quiz at the end of the lesson. Their lunch was early today, and Beca had her free period beforehand, which she spent in the spare music room, reading and brainstorming lyrics. She got to lunch in good time, getting her tray before the jocks came by and pushed her aside, or worse squashed her up against the counters. Stacie came in only a few minutes later, and Beca followed her around as she took her food and moved to find them a table.
"Dude, I seriously wasn't gonna talk about this again or even think that much about her because you know I wanna, like, actually focus a bit this year, but she's in my English class. And she'll probably be in one of my classes this afternoon too. I didn't ask but like-"
"Oh my god," Stacie rolled her eyes, yanking Beca down to the table. "Okay, this is the most excited I've seen you in like a month. I think it's safe to say that you're in love now,"
Beca glared. "No. I don't know, it's weird, we get along really well and I literally only met her yesterday. The only person I've ever gotten along with is you."
"Only cause we've always known each other. You think we'd be friends if our parents weren't?"
"Shut up, that's not the point I was making."
"I think we would be. I bet we would've met in homeroom and you would've fallen in love with me,"
Beca scoffed. "You're way off, Conrad,"
"There was that one time…"
"Fuck off, we kissed for a dare,"
"Best kiss of my life," Stacie winked.
"You fucking threw up afterwards."
"Uh, yeah, cause Aubrey's mom can't fucking cook and poisoned me!" Stacie grumbled, pushing the food around on her tray. "I can't believe we used to be friends with Posen,"
Beca made a retching noise. "You know I've blocked that out of my memory."
"Mhm, sure…so you were telling me about how obsessed you are with Posen's cousin?" Stacie moved her chin into her palm, looking across the table at her best friend with wide blinking eyes.
"Right, I- she's unavoidable, you know? If I can't avoid her, how am I supposed to not talk to her? She lives near me, she works at the diner, she actually seems pretty cool and she said she's not listening to stuff Aubrey says about us. You know when you just connect with someone? And I think I sort of impressed her when I told her I'd read Wuthering Heights and Dracula already, and-"
"Beca." Stacie said calmly. "You know you need oxygen to speak, right?" she laughed as Beca clamped her mouth shut and glared. "Look, I think it's pretty cool that you actually found someone other than me to talk to, it'll make my days a lot easier. And Chloe does seem really cool. Just don't forget that she's related to Aubrey. Not only is that the most complicated relationship you could get into, but it'd also make spending holidays with Chloe really fucking difficult for you, and-"
"Dude!" Beca exclaimed piercingly. "It's not like she's a lesbian, is it? Shut up."
"What? It's obvious you're gonna be in love with her by the end of the week."
Beca huffed. "Being friends with Chloe will definitely be a good thing. I won't have to put up with your warped crap all the time."
In their role call that afternoon, Miss Berry came up to Beca and Stacie after taking down everyone's names and sending someone to the office with the register.
"Beca," she said lightly. "I know you probably know a lot of what we're learning this semester, but please remember that Chloe is coming from a different state and I'm sure she needs to pay a lot of attention to come to terms with the difference in learning,"
"Yeah, I know, sorry. It won't happen again, teach."
In French, Beca and Chloe sat together and once again, Chloe placed her notebook between them.
Bonjour
Bonjour. Ca va?
Oui, ca va, bien que la pizza au déjeuner était assez discutable, je suis toute excitée d'aller au restaurant plus tard et de manger de la nourriture appropriée
Geez, they don't teach us that in class
I'm kinda fluent in French…I said 'although the pizza at lunch was pretty questionable so I'm excited to get to the diner later and eat some proper food'
Kinda fluent?
Ok I'm fluent. I lived in France for 2 years when I was a kid
That's so cool oh my god where else have you lived?
Italy, London, Spain, Florida, LA and Mississippi
Damn so are you even gonna be in Atlanta for long?
Yeah I think my parents want me to stay until graduation and if they have to move I'll stay with Bree
Oh cool
Moving around that much is lucky though like I've never even been to Europe
It's fun but also kinda lonely :-( calling Bree and writing letters with her meant she was like the only constant friend I had
Not so lucky
I know some German because my mother's side is German but I'm definitely not fluent
No kidding! I wanna learn german, I wanted to take that class but it was full when I tried to
Well Red we need to trade languages…
Seems like it :-D
Okay shh as much as I enjoy our notetaking time together I at least need to pass this class
It was Chloe's turn to smile and watch Beca this time. She knew she had nothing to learn doing French, and she was hoping to be able to change next semester. She didn't have any homework to do like she usually would in a class she wasn't interested in but watching was just as fun. Whenever Beca would get frustrated with the language she huffed or muttered under her breath, glared at the blackboard until she understood (or until Chloe pointed something out to her). Whilst Chloe knew some would think Beca scary, she just thought her to be pretty adorable, and certainly not vicious like Aubrey had said. Whenever she mispronounced a word she blushed, and the way she continuously checked the textbook in their writing exercise truly showed just how much she cared about doing well. Chloe couldn't help but find that endearing.
Beca was on Chloe's mind for the rest of the day – she wondered what her and Stacie talk about, what Beca's interests were, how she felt about certain foods or how she felt about change. Chloe had never truly gotten the chance to think so intensely about a new friend before, but for once she knew she had time to truly get to know Beca, and the ease of their conversation only highlighted how they were meant to be close. They were hitting it off in a way Chloe hadn't with anyone before, not even her ex-boyfriend back in Florida. Hitting it off in a friendly way, though, duh. Chloe assumed that this just must be how it feels to quickly become friends with someone. Unbeknownst to Chloe as she eventually pried her eyes away from the little brunette to do the writing task, Beca looked up and caught sight of Stacie standing at the door. The sat in a place in the classroom where only their table could truly see outside the little window in the door, and Stacie was tall enough to lean into it and catch Beca's eye. Beca frowned at her warningly, knowing the leggy brunette had a free period. Stacie drew a heart with her finger against the window and made kissy faces at her, then pointed to Chloe and made a face that was clearly intended to seem similar to a climaxing pleasure. Beca reddened entirely and scowled further, discreetly putting up her middle finger at her friend as she leant her chin against her palm. Stacie clearly silently cackled and blew another kiss before walking off.
"You okay?"
The breath hitched in Beca's throat at the sound of Chloe's voice, and she whipped round to look at her and gave a jerking nod. "Mhm!"
"You've gone all red," Chloe giggled quietly.
Beca shrugged and gave a pointless chuckle. "It's hot in here,"
As Beca and Chloe were leaving French at the end of the day, there was a crowd loitering towards the notice boards. Beca noticed Daisy rushing away from the crowd in tears.
"Oh, Bree must've posted the cheer squad!" Chloe squealed.
"Oh, shit, so soon? Wait, where's Stace-" Beca looked around, though she couldn't see much more than shoulders in her general line of vision. She huffed and started to push through the crowd, eventually finding herself in front of the noticeboard and standing next to her best friend.
"Holy shit!" Beca exclaimed loudly, breaking out into a wide grin as she read Stacie Conrad to the left underneath Aubrey's name. Aubrey was on the top of the pyramid.
"Stace! You finally put the legs to good use, oh my god, look at my little girl, all grown up and at the top of the fucking pyramid! Fuck yeah, Stacie!"
Stacie groaned loudly, and a few people laughed at Beca's exclamations.
"You are so fucking annoying, this isn't a big deal, airhead." Stacie laughed.
"Stacie, baby, bubby, sweetheart!" Beca said, grabbing onto her shoulders and looking up to her. "You strong bitch! Let's go celebrate!" she turned Stacie and jumped on her back before the other brunette could protest, and Stacie laughed louder.
Chloe watched as the two bounded off down the corridor, oblivious to anything other than their own antics. She loved how close they seemed, and almost couldn't wait to get to work so she could talk more with her new friends (she also definitely wanted to see what a celebratory Beca looked like).
Yeah. She loved Barden already.
sorry I haven't updated this in so long! I've been super busy with uni applications and going through the Oxford application process...but alas, I fully intend on continuing this and a few other fics too! I'll have a little more time now to write and I'm super excited to continue this fic. Please let me know what you think :)