Despite her own emotional state when it came to her love life, Stacie couldn't help but believe Fat Amy when she said the Barden Bellas deserved a break and wouldn't regret making the trip to California and have Spring Break at Coachella, because if nothing else, she believed partying at the music festival in the middle of the desert with the Bellas would definitely help her out of her funk.
Unless there was a mix-up with Fat Amy's reservation that left them without room and board, while their flight back wasn't scheduled until the following Saturday.
"This can't be happening." Chloe groaned, collapsing onto a bench just outside the hotel.
"I'm sorry, you guys," Fat Amy offered weakly. "I must have missed the part about confirming the reservations."
Beca glanced up at the sky, and squinted at the afternoon sun through her sunglasses. She turned back to her friends, desperate for a plan that took them out of the heat. "Okay. So it's, like, Friday, right? The first weekend basically just started, so we only need to figure out what we'll do until Sunday, and then we can just scout the other hotels for checkouts and…"
"Everything's booked." Jessica reminded. "Didn't you hear the guy? They're full up until next weekend and with a waiting list in case of cancellations. It's probably the same everywhere."
Stacie blew out a breath. "We're doomed."
"We can get tents and go camping," Ashley suggested.
"Rental for space and tents are long gone," Denise pointed out. "Even if we had a van, I don't think we'll get parking."
Lilly repeated Stacie's sentiment of "doomed".
"We can say we are performing and avail of the room and food they will provide," Flo piped in.
The Bellas all turned to look at her with consternation.
Cynthia Rose sighed. "I'll call up family, see who can—"
"Chloe?"
The Bellas all turned to check who had spoken, and saw two girls about their age nearby. And they looked really excited to see Chloe.
Chloe took a minute, but recognition finally dawned and she brightened, walking over and sharing a quick hug with the newcomers. "Patty! Trina! What are you guys doing here?" She rolled her eyes, realizing the stupidity of asking college-age girls what they were doing at Coachella during Spring Break, and shook her head. "Never mind."
One of the girls, a girl with short dark hair, laughed along. She nodded at the gathered group of girls. "Did you get kicked out of your hotel, or…"
"Reservation mix up." Chloe answered, making a face.
The other girl, with light brown hair tied in a French braid, smiled wryly. "It happens. So what's Plan B?"
Chloe shrugged in a gesture of helplessness.
The two girls glanced at each other, and then at the Bellas.
"We really should ask first." French Braid pointed out.
"But it's Chloe." Dark Hair argued.
Beca raised an eyebrow at the statement.
Especially since it seemed to win the argument. The girls turned back to Chloe and the rest of the Bellas, French Braid explaining the situation. "We rented a house. It's within walking distance to the venue if you're really fit. It's two bedrooms, but there's already four of us; but if you want, you can squeeze into the living room. It's not much, but—"
"We'll take it." Chloe said quickly.
"Chloe…" Beca started reluctantly.
"We don't know these people," Fat Amy reminded Chloe.
Chloe frowned, and then realized her social faux pas. "Oh! Right." She smiled at the girls, and then at the Bellas. "Barden Bellas, these are Patty, and Trina. They graduated from Barden two years ago. Trina even used to be a Barden Bella."
"I didn't know you could quit." Ashley noted.
"If you piss your captain off bad enough." Trina, the girl with dark hair, answered dryly. She looked at Chloe. "I'm still amazed you and Aubrey stuck it out."
Chloe smiled faintly. "You know us."
Trina laughed. "That, I do." She glanced over at the gathered group, and pursed her lips in thought. She glanced at Patty. "Two batches?"
Patty rolled her eyes. "You're paying for gas."
"Deal." Trina nodded. She turned back to the Bellas. "The van can't hold everyone at one time, so split up. One group will stay with me for grocery and supply run, everyone else will go with Pat to the house. Tell your friends what you need."
Patty glanced at the building behind them, and nodded. "Stay here, I'll get the van."
Trina went with her to drop off the packages they already carried, while the Bellas conferred among themselves on who would stay or go. Beca agreed to go with the first group, which consisted of Fat Amy, Cynthia-Rose, Flo and Lilly, all of whom she worried could say (or in Lilly's case actually do) something to perplex their hosts, while Chloe got the group of Ashley, Denise, Jessica and Stacie, who actually knew what the Bellas would need as food and supplies.
Beca just hoped Chloe and Stacie would listen to Denise and Jessica and won't load up the Bellas with a supply of power drinks and sugar, because she wanted Coachella Valley to remain standing after the festival was over.
The ride to the house was decent – the van fit six people and possibly at least two more comfortably, it ran well and the air conditioning was working, which was all Beca needed to know – and Patty was friendly without being too nosy or curious, although she couldn't help but wonder out loud why a group of college-age girls would travel all the way across the country without more definitive plans for transportation and lodging.
There was a moment of awkward silence, since Patty had expected something simple like it was a spur of the moment decision, or they had won the tickets from somewhere, while the answer was a little more complex than that.
Finally, Beca admitted, "Stacie's been in a kind of a funk, and Amy decided we should be celebrating getting to the ICCA Finals again."
"Also—" Flo began, and Beca rolled her eyes.
"And I wanted to listen to some new music that hasn't reached popular radio, maybe it'll help me with our sets." Beca added.
Patty nodded. "Well, celebrate away. We're only renting the house, so don't damage anything, but there's a large outdoor pool area, knock yourselves out."
The Bellas in the van glanced at each other, suddenly excited; just because they would all be crammed into the living room to sleep didn't have to mean that was all the space they would be limited to. The weekend was already looking up. And when they got to the house they were renting, Beca felt her jaw drop, because as someone who had lived in apartments and the suburbs, she had a disproportionate idea of what homes were supposed to look like.
Like, she's been to mansions – the Bellas had been invited to perform at the Governor's Mansion a year ago, so she knew mansions – but she was pretty sure split-level homes in a gated community didn't usually get rented out.
As Patty went inside to inform the other house guests of their additional head count, bringing with her some grocery bags, the Bellas struggled to unload their bags and those of the other Bellas' from the van. Once they were done, Patty reemerged into the living room with a bottle of water, and smiled at them.
"I've told Reg and Tonya. They're cool with it, but they're really into the parties, so they're more nocturnal than anything. Try not to be too loud, especially before lunch." Tanya informed them. "Speaking of lunch, there's water and…" - Patty made a face - "more water in the fridge. There might still be cold pizza from last night, I'm not sure, but just help yourselves to whatever. There are bathrooms on either side," she motioned to the two hallways, "but we haven't figured out how to use the shower to the right, use at your own risk. There's also a changing room with a shower by the pool, if that's something you're gonna do." She glanced around, and went over to the nearby kitchen counter, picking up a laminated sheet. She handed it over. "House rules."
"Seriously?" Fat Amy asked, as Beca took the list.
"Seriously." Patty nodded. "Trina met the woman who owns the house; I wouldn't disobey anything on that list." She shuddered, recalling her friend's chilling tale, before she smiled brightly at the Bellas. "Welcome to Coachella."
It may not have been the best start to their Coachella experience, but even Beca had to admit, by that evening, the outlook for their week ahead had definitely improved. Given how exhausted they all were, the Bellas had voted to skip out on Friday night's festivities, agreeing to an early start the next day, but judging from the way the Bellas, along with their hosts – Patty, Trina, Regina and Tonya – were all drinking by the poolside, their early start was going to be a little later than any of them had previously planned.
All four of their hostesses were also from Barden, which provided some shared experiences and common ground, but Regina had moved to UC San Diego her second year, while Tonya had dropped out her junior year to take a year-long art course in Spain, and hadn't felt inclined to finish her degree since being an artist for hire was working out.
Chloe wasn't as well-acquainted with Regina or Tonya, the two girls being closer to Patty and knew Trina through her, with only vague recollections of Chloe. But Chloe only had two standards when meeting people from Barden both past and present, and neither of them had crossed that line yet, so she was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Besides, the house they were staying in was awesome.
Their impromptu party started to wind down when Regina and Tonya left when a car came by to pick them up to check out the other parties happening in the area, having received an invitation the previous evening; and Patty decided to go to sleep after she remembered one of the bands she wanted to see had an early set the next day. Trina followed not soon after that, eventually leaving the current set of Barden Bellas to themselves.
"Why did you book us for a whole week when you could only get passes for the first weekend?" Cynthia Rose asked Fat Amy, because now that their initial plans hadn't panned out, questions seemed necessary.
"There are tons of parties we could go to." Fat Amy insisted. "What's the point of getting away if we don't really go away?"
"We can always just sit back and relax." Chloe added. "No pressure."
"Yes, pressure: the passes cost money." Fat Amy reminded.
"I think Chloe meant we can take it easy for the next few days." Stacie told Amy.
"We have food, we have shelter, and starting at 11 every day, we have music." Jessica quipped.
"What more do we need?" Beca agreed, lifting her beer in a silent toast in Jessica's direction.
Denise suddenly paused, and turned to Beca. "Jesse's okay with you skipping on the Trebles' semis?"
Beca winced. "He was eventually? It's not like it's easy to get tickets to Coachella, and have everything supposed to be set up. He couldn't exactly complain about that, right?"
Before anyone could comment on that, Flo pointed at the structure across the pool from them, a house smaller than the one they were staying in but still larger than an average outdoor shed. "What's that?"
"That's a pool house." Stacie answered flatly.
"A house just for a pool?" Flo questioned.
Fat Amy looked over at the structure in question, and wondered, "Why couldn't we stay there?"
"Amy, we're already squatting in a living room because you couldn't check to confirm a reservation, should we really be pushing our luck?" Beca asked wearily.
Fat Amy rolled her eyes, not bothering to confirm or deny Beca's assertion, and instead continued the conversation thread regarding the structure. "You know what happens in pool houses, don't you?" On cue, she and the rest of the Bellas, with the exception of Beca, all intoned, "bow-chicka-wow-wow."
Beca rolled her eyes at them. "Or it's there in case someone wants their privacy."
"For sex." Stacie added.
"No," Beca shook her head. "For some peace and quiet. To be alone."
"And have sex." Stacie said.
"Besides," Beca continued, ignoring Stacie as she gestured around them. "There's pool access from the two bedrooms and the living room. That looks like the room with the most amount of privacy."
"For sex." Stacie insisted.
Beca threw up her hands, giving up.
"Okay," Chloe clapped her hands, calling everyone's attention. "Gates open at eleven. Six stages. Do we stay together or split up? How are we doing this, and what are we doing first?"
In the end, they don't really establish much in terms of their plans for the next day, because everything was contingent on what time they would be waking up; considering the lateness of the hour and they had been drinking, it was hard to estimate what time that would be.
When they decided to call it a night and moved inside to prepare their sleeping arrangements, to which there was the lengthy discussion of how they would all fit in the allotted space, and who were the lucky two who got to sleep on the couches.
While the Bellas argued over each other about the space, and after the disaster with their hotel room suite, Beca took the initiative to confirm Fat Amy's festival passes were legitimate, which they thankfully were.
Their first day in California hadn't been a complete disaster, Stacie conceded, sitting at the dining table on a seat looking out to the pool; it wasn't exactly early in the morning, but the rest of the Bellas were all asleep and she didn't even know where the other girls in the house were, only that there had been a pot of coffee already made and still warm on the machine. Despite the inconveniences and terrible luck the Bellas had initially encountered, she had to admit that the weekend ahead, with the music and activities that they were sure to find in and around the festival, not to mention the prospect of working on her tan before they had to leave and head back to Georgia, were exciting prospects and just the right kind of distraction she could have wanted or needed. She hadn't said anything the previous day, and she was still reluctant to actually admit to it now, but when they had been turned away at the hotel, her first instinct had been to call up Aubrey and ask for her advice. Calling Aubrey had also been her instinct when she'd learned who Trina was and how she knew Chloe, when they had first seen the house and its luxurious amenities, and even they had been discussing how they could get the most out of their Coachella experience.
She hated to admit it, because admitting it meant her heart was overruling her head, but she missed Aubrey.
But missing her didn't automatically mean Stacie was ready to deal with everything being with Aubrey required, and she still wasn't sure if she could be so willing to come in second to Aubrey's job.
And she gets it, she knows Aubrey doesn't have a choice, it was her job, and Aubrey had shown that if she could put Stacie first she would, but for the first time since they had started their relationship, since that moment in the elevator in Philadelphia, Stacie really understood why Aubrey kept trying to draw the line in their relationship. Because Aubrey knew she wouldn't always be around. She knew just how tempting it could get, when there were people who could keep you company when you felt lonely and alone.
Stacie bit into her slice of cold pizza, looking out at the pool, and thinking about Aubrey's ultimatum.
Figure out what you want.
She wanted Aubrey. That was easy. She wanted the girl she had first met, the girl who had been on a narrow-minded quest towards ICCA redemption and knowingly and willingly made herself the most hated person in the room because she wanted to drive a group of novice Barden Bellas to perfection. She wanted the girl in Philadelphia, who was rediscovering herself and who that person was, coming to terms with who she had once been, who she had become, and who she believed she still could be. She wanted the girl who gave up plans for President's Day to spend Galentine's Weekend with Stacie and her friends.
She wanted the girl in a hotel room in Atlanta, newly graduated with a whole life ahead of her, goals and ambitions within reach, and when asked what she wanted most in that moment, she had looked Stacie in the eye and said "you."
So she wanted Aubrey. She missed Aubrey. She loved Aubrey.
She just wasn't sure if that was enough. Especially not with the way things have been, not when they could resent each other so easily just for not being able to be physically present.
Something caught Stacie's attention out of the corner of her eye, and she shifted her gaze from the pool to check it out except then all coherent thought left her brain.
As if conjured by her thoughts, Stacie watched as Aubrey, hair up in a tight ponytail, dressed in exercise gear with headphones and her phone on a band around her arm, emerged from the side of the house, clearly using the pathway that led directly to the backyard, and walked up to the pool house, dangling a set of keys in her hands.
She watched, frozen, as Aubrey suddenly stopped in place, as if aware she was being watched, and turned to look in the likeliest of places.
Their gazes locked, shock crossing Aubrey's features, probably mirroring Stacie's own.
It was only after Aubrey shook herself out of their staring contest and disappeared into the pool house when Stacie finally managed to release the breath she had been unknowingly holding, and she sighed softly as she let the name reintroduce itself to her entire being. "Aubrey."