Thank you for the support last chapter!

Chapter 2

The next morning, Beca feels as though she's sleepwalking through the halls of Barden. She's had worse nights, but that doesn't stop the fact that having to calm Macy down from three nightmares, as well as waking up occasionally with a small foot in her back, makes for a crappy night's sleep.

Macy has always been prone to nightmares. Ever since the accident, they've been sort of a normal occurrence. But, following their last placement, it seems as though the nightmares have been happening much more frequently and with multiple of them occurring in just one night. It's not a fun time.

Beca turns down the hallway back in the direction of the high school classrooms, trying to get Macy's heartbroken face out of her mind before she goes to class. The kid had practically begged her not to leave, tears threatening to spill onto her cheeks during the entire conversation. After promising her – multiple times – that she was not going anywhere and that she would simply be in class for the entire day, Macy eventually reached a consolable level and was able to go into the classroom.

After watching her from the window, Beca was even more saddened by the fact that Macy didn't turn to greet any of the kids sitting around her desk. She simply walked in, head down, and sat in her seat as if she were the only one in the room. Sure, Macy has always been a quieter child, but it still hurts Beca to think that she spends the entire day by herself, alone with her thoughts.

"Beca!"

Exhaustion still tugging at her eyelids, it takes a second for Beca to recognize that someone is actually calling her name. She glances upwards, turning her attention further down the hallway, to where Chloe has started walking towards her, waving enthusiastically.

"Um… hi?" An uneasy smile appears on Beca's face. She had been expecting to see the redhead in class, but Beca had also assumed that they were going to break off from each other after yesterday. The girl clearly had her own friends and her own life; one that most certainly did not need to include Beca.

Chloe's excitement doesn't waver as she reaches Beca. "How are you? How was your night?"

The fall into step beside each other, Beca not really knowing what to say. She's never really been good at small talk, and it's not like there are many people that care what she has to say. But, there's something about Chloe, standing in front of her with her piercing blue eyes staring at her, that gives Beca the courage to answer. "It was fine. How was yours?"

Chloe groans dramatically. "The English reading took me forever. And, honestly, who names their son 'Happy'? It doesn't really make sense to me and the name is sketchy."

Surprising herself, a soft chuckle escapes Beca's lips. "It's Willy you got to look out for. He's the sketchy one."

Chloe walks a little faster so she's in front of the brunette, shuffling with her back to the crowd so that she can continue the conversation. "Did you already finish the play?"

Beca's face pales slightly. She did not think this through, and now the conversation is going in a direction that she does not like. "Um… no, just the first act. Like we were supposed to."

"Oh." Chloe can't help but let her smile falter slightly. She couldn't keep her mind off of the mysterious brunette all night. It's not every day that a new student started at Barden – especially a month into the school year – and even so, Beca's quiet demeanor was puzzling for Chloe. She seemed nice enough, but Chloe was sure if Beca's stand-offish behavior, and her reluctance to truly talk to Chloe and her friends, is just her personality or if it is a defense mechanism.

Chloe also couldn't stop thinking about the light fluttering feeling that she felt in her chest when she had first laid eyes on Beca, but that's not the point.

Examining the brunette carefully – as she had the day before – while Beca keeps her eyes trained on the ground in front of them, Chloe can't help but notice the sluggishness of her posture, and the way her eyes are drooping slightly.

"Are you okay? You seem a little off today."

Beca's eyebrow quirks upwards. She's known Chloe for twenty-four hours at most; how would she know what Beca being 'off' would look like? "I'm fine. Long night."

Chloe's smirk grows. "Oh yeah? Someone keeping you up?"

The first thought to cross Beca's mind is, you have no idea. But one look at the girl's teasing expression, in addition to her statement being punctuated by a rather suggestive wink, makes Beca's face scrunches in disgust. "What? Dude, no!"

A melodic laugh emerges from Chloe's mouth as she falls back into place beside Beca, nearing their English classroom with each step. "Don't worry, I'm just giving you a hard time."

Heat rises to Beca's cheek, turning her pale skin into a dark shade of pink at what Chloe was insinuating. It's hard enough for Beca to carry on a normal conversation with one of her classmates. But witty banter that results in the protective walls that she's built herself, crumbling? That doesn't normally come for months. And here Chloe is, twenty-four hours after meeting her, and Beca is stumbling over her words (in a way that's different than normal).

That can't be a good sign.

Beca was relieved when Chloe led the pair into their English class, and while Aubrey and Stacie greeted her, they kept their conversation between the three friends, which was fine by Beca. It allowed her to calm her heart, whose beat had picked up immensely after the short interaction with Chloe, and avoid any and all eye contact from her classmates. She was perfectly fine with slipping into the shadows, and that's exactly what she did.

The brunette kept to herself for the first few periods, only speaking a few words when spoken to (most of those instances coming from Chloe, of course), and otherwise trying to focus on the monotonous droning of her teachers as they stood at the front of the room. Naturally, her mind drifted to her sister more often than not, but after a few minutes of worrying, Beca returned to thinking about the lecture.

Unbeknownst to Beca, the trio of senior girls that have been friends since Kindergarten, spent the majority of their morning classes thinking about her. Besides Chloe wondering about who this Beca girl really is, Aubrey found herself becoming annoyed by the presence of the brunette, and Stacie couldn't help but notice the way Chloe kept glancing over at Beca.

All three of them were determined to figure the girl out, but how they were going to do that, none of them really knew.

Stacie leans back against her chair in physics, her pencil lightly tapping against the desk as she stares at the problem on the board. She's never had as much of a challenge with any science class as she does with physics. Chemistry? She flew through the majority of the curriculum on her own. Biology? Piece of cake. But, physics? It makes her brain hurt.

Next to her, Beca's own pencil has been placed beside her notebook, and the girl couldn't seem more uninterested in what's going on around her. Her arms are crossed over her chest, once again covered in a loose flannel – was that the same one from yesterday? – and the blank expression on her face is evidence enough that she is zoned out. Stacie glances quickly over at her paper, trying not to be surprised when the problem is worked out with a circled answer at the bottom, while everyone else in the class is still working.

Stacie leans over to Beca's desk, the taller brunette lowering her voice to a whisper. "How did you figure it out that fast?"

Beca, snapping back to reality, shifts slightly so that Stacie isn't right up against her. "What?"

"The problem. How did you figure it out?" Keeping one eye on their teacher, Stacie nods to Beca's work. "I've been struggling for the last five minutes."

Sighing, Beca sits up slightly, pulling Stacie's notebook over to her. She keeps her voice low, not really being able to afford a trip to the Dean's office, and notices the girl's first mistake. "You're supposed to be calculating the magnitude of the centripetal acceleration, not the overall acceleration."

At Stacie's blank stare, Beca tries again. "You have to derive the equation from the properties of the two triangles. Then you'll be able to solve." She circles a few things on Stacie's paper, before writing it out quickly. "Make sense?"

Eyebrows furrowing in concentration, Stacie tries to wrap her mind around Beca's instructions, before it clicks. "Yeah, I think so. Thanks."

Not feeling the need to answer, Beca leans back against the hard metal of her chair, her eyes drifting around the room. Most of her classmates are still working, the majority of them writing something on the paper and scribbling it out again in frustration. It's not her fault that she took physics her junior year at a completely different school that just so happened to use the same textbook.

Something in the hallway catches Beca's attention as she continues to scan the room. At first, she doesn't know what it is, assuming that she is imagining things, before a small brunette peeks her head around the corner of the window. Macy looks uneasily around the classroom until she catches her sister's eye, whose heart stops in her chest. "Shit."

Stacie barely has a chance to look up from her problem before Beca is pushing herself out of her chair and walks up to their teacher. Stacie watches as the brunette whispers something to Mr. Kennedy, before leaving the classroom. She turns around in her chair, looking out into the hallway just in time to see Beca pulling a small girl into an embrace. They stay like that for a moment, before Beca starts leading her down the hallway, and, even from that far away, Stacie can see the resemblance between the two.

A soft breeze blows through Beca's curls, sending a chill down her spine, as she waits in the quad for Macy after school. Students spill from the main entrance, some of them heading to the student parking lot, while others stand around talking to their friends, creating roadblocks for those running to catch their bus. The bell only rang about five minutes ago, but Beca can't help but feel a little nervous about the fact that she can't see Macy in the midst of all the chaos.

She had once again come looking for Beca to ensure that she was still at the school, this time pulling her out of physics class. Luckily, because Macy had spotted her so quickly, the resulting increase of anxiety was minimal, and Beca spent the majority of their break together asking Macy about her morning and making sure that she was doing alright. Of course, she had to face a line of questioning from Stacie upon her return to class, but all Beca gave her were a few noncommittal murmors, not feeling at all obligated to explain her whereabouts.

Much to Beca's surprise, she didn't see Macy for the rest of the day, which is why her heart swells even more when she sees her little sister break free of the crowd, her hands clutching the straps of her backpack.

Beca stands from her position on the bench, grinning as the twelve-year-old wraps her arms around Beca's waist. She runs her hand over Macy's braid, placing a firm kiss on the top of her head, before pulling away from her little sister. "How was the rest of your day?"

Macy slips her hand into her sister's, instantly feeling calmer than she has in hours. "It was okay." She runs her finger over the dark, chipped nail polish on Beca's fingernails. "How was yours?"

"Oh, you know," Beca waves her free hand in the air in front of them, "I love sitting in class for eight hours learning a bunch of meaningless crap."

They cross the street quickly, moving with a group of twenty or so other students across the crosswalk. They discovered yesterday that Barden is only about a half-mile away from Fig's Diner, the small restaurant that Beca has been working at for a little over a year. It also happens to be where she met (and currently works with) her best friend, which is an extra bonus.

At her sister's silence, Beca tries again. "But seriously. How was the rest of your day? How was lunch? Did you sit with anyone?"

Macy avoids her sister's gaze, not wanting to tell her that she spent her lunch period in a bathroom stall, away from the hustle and bustle of the middle school lunch rush. As much as she would love to be comfortable enough to go out and introduce herself to someone sitting at a random table, at this point, it's not worth the irregular breathing, the chest pains, the nausea, and the sweaty palms that would accompany such an endeavor.

Knowing full well what her silence is suggesting, Beca squeezes Macy's hand in hers. "Don't worry about it, munch. There's no rush."

Beca, unfortunately, is not experiencing the same problem that Macy is. She had sat with Chloe, Stacie, and Aubrey, again today, but this time, found it much harder to stay out of the conversation. Stacie went into a rant about how she didn't understand why Beca was so good at physics, leaving both Aubrey and Chloe to question how that happened. Then they started questioning the curriculum at her old school, automatically assuming that the school she came to Barden from, is the same one that she took physics in. All Beca wanted to do was eat her (barely edible) hamburger that she had chosen for her meal, but none of the girls seemed to want to drop the subject.

Beca was not a fan.

The pair turns onto a long stretch of a busy road, having to raise their voices to carry on their conversation over the roar of the mid-afternoon traffic. "Do you have a lot of homework tonight?"

Macy shrugs, her shoulders barely being able to hold the weight of her backpack. In all honesty, she has homework in every class, and some leftover from the makeup work her teachers gave her yesterday. Just the thought of trying to figure it out overwhelms her.

"Well you can start it at the diner, and I'll help you when I go on my break, alright?" The younger girl nods, already knowing the drill. They've been doing this little song and dance for a while now. "I get off at six again tonight, so we'll probably have dinner with Jack when we get back."

"Okay."

They take the next corner, the diner starting to come into sight. It's not the largest of buildings, but it's surrounded by a rather large parking lot, which sets it apart from the rest of the city. There are some cars parked outside of the restaurant, but it doesn't look too busy yet, especially considering school just got out. Hopefully, it will be an easy day for all parties involved.

Holding the door open for her younger sister, Macy leads the pair into the fifties-themed diner, their eyes slowly adjusting to the harsh lighting, the black and white checkered flooring, and the bright red seating. As Beca had suspected, only a few customers are sitting and eating, but, other than that, Fig's is relatively empty. Another waitress is sweeping over by the jukebox that doesn't work, but both sisters instantly turn their attention their friend standing behind the counter, working something out on a piece of register tape.

At the ringing of the bell that's attached to the front door, Cynthia Rose looks up, half expecting there to be a group waiting for a table. Instead, she sees two familiar brunettes entering the restaurant.

Abandoning her failing attempt at balancing the cash register, Cynthia Rose pushes her way out from behind the counter, grinning as Macy picks up the pace, closing the distance between the two. The older woman wraps her arms around the girl, lifting her slightly as she lets out a laugh. "Hey, Shorty!"

Macy holds on tight to Cynthia Rose, laughing slightly at the nickname about her height. She wraps her arms around the twenty-something-year-old's neck as she feels her feet lift from the ground, the embrace tightening around her. Even though she just saw CR yesterday, Macy loves spending time with her. And, after spending a little time apart, it's been harder to say goodbye.

Beca watches fondly as her best friend greets her little sister, relishing in the fact that Macy is so comfortable around her. It wasn't always like this, but Cynthia Rose managed to wriggle her way into Macy's heart faster than anyone Beca has ever seen.

As Beca tosses her backpack behind the counter, grabbing a clean apron as she does so, Cynthia Rose places Macy back on her feet. "How was school?"

Similar to how she answered Beca, Macy shrugs. "It was fine."

Cynthia Rose rolls her eyes, mocking Macy slightly. "Fine, fine, fine… you sound like your sister."

Beca ties the apron around her waist, smirking at the two. "You should take that as a compliment, Mace."

Macy grins – the first sign of true happiness that Beca has seen on her sister's face all day – as Beca and CR slap palms, before hugging each other briefly. As they pull apart, Beca asks, "How has it been here?"

"Eh, the usual. Breakfast was busy. Lunch was steady." Cynthia Rose has been managing Fig's for almost two years, and while it's not the best job, it pays the bills. She reaches down and takes the end of Macy's braid between her finger, twirling it around a little as Macy tries to swat her away. "What do you think, Mace? French fries or mozzarella sticks today?"

Pursing her lips, she thinks briefly, before exclaiming, "Mozzarella sticks!"

CR chuckles, "You got it." She drops the braid, pointing in the direction of the empty counter, where seven stools line the edge. "Hop on up there and I'll go put the order in."

Just like she does every afternoon, Macy takes the seat directly in front of the cash register, plopping her bag on the counter in front of her. She knows that she has to stay out of the way when it gets busy, and she knows that CR and Beca are working, but at this spot, she can see everything that's happening, and still have conversations with them every once in a while.

With Macy settling into her seat, Beca follows Cynthia Rose into the kitchen, greeting the kitchen staff as she does so. CR punches Macy's order into the computer, only briefly looking up when Beca perches herself on the counter beside her. They've had the conversation countless of times, and CR knows what Beca is going to say before she even opens her mouth. "You don't have to do that, you know. I can pay for them."

CR waves her off. "Not a big deal." Getting Macy an afternoon snack was actually one of the ways that CR managed to break through some of the walls that Beca's sister has built around herself. It became a routine when Beca started working at the diner. She'd arrive with a slightly younger Macy, who wouldn't talk to anyone besides her sister, and CR would bring her over an order of fries, or onion rings, or mozzarella sticks, without a word muttered between them. CR knew from the moment that she interviewed Beca that there was something special about the girl, and after meeting the girl's younger sister, that feeling was solidified even more. "How'd she do today?"

Beca sighs, gathering her curls into a messy bun on top of her head. "She came to find me again. Said she wanted to make sure I wasn't gone."

CR sits down beside Beca, letting out a puff of air. "I mean, I guess it makes sense. Y'all weren't together for like three weeks."

Beca cringes. "Don't remind me." Those last three weeks were the longest weeks of her life, and she hated the fact that it was her fault that Macy wasn't sleeping beside her. "She's still not sleeping through the night." Not that she ever slept through the night before, but previously, Beca could at least get a little sleep.

"Well, that explains why you look like shit."

"Gee. Thanks," Beca deadpans, trying not to let her mind drift to the conversation she had with a certain redhead this morning.

CR holds her hands up in surrender, the two chuckling slightly, before falling into a brief silence. "You're doing good with her, Bec. You always have. Don't beat yourself up about it."

While Cynthia Rose, Beca, and Macy spent the afternoon at Fig's, Aubrey, Stacie, and Chloe spent their own afternoon spread out on the carpet of Aubrey's bedroom. The three of them got back to her house shortly after school ended, each one of them proclaiming that they have a boatload of homework, but none of them having any interest in doing it. Instead, they sit merely a few feet apart from each other, each one of them scrolling through one app or another on their phone and engaging in relatively mindless conversation as they have done together for the last thirteen years.

The girls had met on the first day of kindergarten at Barden, and while none of them are sure who spoke to who first, or what exactly transpired in Ms. Penny's classroom, they were attached at the hip from that moment forward. They've been through a lot together and have made countless memories that are proven by the photos that line each girl's bedroom. Chloe isn't sure what she'd do without either one of them, and she knows that Stacie and Aubrey feel the same way.

Even so, this afternoon, in particular, Chloe is struggling with carrying on a conversation with her best friends, as her mind continuously finds its way back to the mysterious brunette.

Beca hadn't really seemed too interested in conversing with the group today, and while Chloe was a little disappointed, she understands that she's still probably feeling overwhelmed from starting at a new school. That didn't stop her from trying to get Beca to talk, though. In fact, she kept trying to come up with easy questions that didn't require any sort of personal answer, but even those responses from Beca seemed lackluster.

It was frustrating, but it's not like Chloe is going to give up.

"Chlo? Chloe, are you even listening to me?" Chloe blinks herself back to reality, looking up from where a random video on Instagram was playing on her screen, over to Aubrey, who is waiting for her with raised eyebrows and slightly parted lips.

Chloe puts her phone to sleep, offering her a meek smile. "Sorry. What'd you say?"

Aubrey rolls her eyes as Stacie laughs quietly to herself. "I asked you if you had started the paper for Mrs. Donnelly yet." Before Chloe has a chance to tell her that no, of course, she hasn't started a sociology paper that's due in three weeks, Aubrey cuts her off. "What were you thinking about anyway?"

"I think you should be asking her who she is thinking about, Bree." Stacie looks up from her phone, amusing herself as Aubrey's mouth widens in shock, and color rushes to Chloe's cheeks. The taller brunette had been watching Chloe all day, which was easy to do because her attention was solely focused on their new classmate.

Aubrey shifts so her feet are tucked underneath herself. "What are you talking about?

Knowing that she can't keep a secret from either of the girls, Chloe sighs. "I've just been thinking about Beca. Something's different about her and I can't figure it out."

"That's not all you've been thinking about…" Stacie muses quietly, more to herself than anyone else, but both Chloe and Aubrey hear her. The result is Chloe narrowing her piercing blue eyes in the girl's direction, warning her to tread lightly.

Aubrey, on the other hand, ignores Stacie's comment. "What do you mean, 'different'?"

Chloe shrugs, leaning up against Aubrey's bed. "I don't know... haven't you noticed that she doesn't talk, like, at all? And she never really pays attention in class, and she never really makes eye contact…" Well, there was that one time when Beca's navy blues met her own orbs, but Chloe isn't about to bring that up.

Stacie reaches into the center of their little circle, plucking a chip from the bowl. "She might not pay attention in class, but that girl is smart. She finished a physics question in like three minutes flat when the rest of the class was struggling to get past the first step."

"Maybe she's just quiet." Aubrey, too, offers some sort of explanation, not wanting to discredit Chloe's feelings, but also not feeling as confused by Beca's actions as she is. In fact, Aubrey was a little surprised when Chloe had walked into English with her this morning. She had just assumed that the two would part ways following yesterday's introduction.

Chloe shakes her head, "No… that's not it."

With the shorter brunette slipping back into her mind, Stacie starts to think about her behavior as well. She had naturally assumed that the girl was quiet, just like Aubrey had said, but hearing Chloe's concerns, she can't deny the fact that there's something off about Beca. "Well, she has a little sister. Did you know that?"

Chloe sits up straighter, turning her full attention to Stacie. "What? No! How do you know that?"

Stacie's eyes widen in surprise. Resisting the urge to tell Chloe to chill out, Stacie just answers her question. "A younger girl was standing outside our physics class today. Beca saw her and ran out of the room like her pants were on fire. The kid looked exactly like her, so, unless she's her daughter…"

"Stace, that would mean Beca would've been, at most, six years old when she gave birth." Aubrey shakes her head in disbelief. That girl never takes anything seriously.

Stacie groans, "I know, Bree, it was a joke." With Aubrey and Stacie starting to go at each other, Chloe is left to her own thoughts.

If Beca had a little sister, that would explain why she was coming from the middle school wing this morning. Chloe had just originally assumed that she was lost, but it would make sense that she was just dropping her off. Even so, what doesn't make sense is why Beca would keep it a secret. Stacie, Aubrey, and Chloe had all told them about their own families – with Beca's eyes widening when Chloe told her that she has four older brothers – but Beca hadn't said a word.

In all honesty, nothing about this situation makes sense.

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