(Dear Mandy,
I've updated. You can stop threatening me on Twitter.
Dear Kylie, Mari, and Rhyleigh,
I've updated! Thank you for not threatening me on Twitter!
Dear Mandy (again),
Seriously though. You can stop threatening me on Twitter.)
Hello everyone! It's been far too long, and I'm terribly sorry about my extended absence. Thank you all for favoriting and following and reviewing, and I really hope you like this next installment!
Disclaimer: I don't own Pitch Perfect, Boys Like Girls, or anything else that may or may not be familiar. I don't even own my name. I own nothing, guys.
PART II
"If you ever ask me how many times you've crossed my mind, I would say once. Because you came, and never left." –Ritu Ghatourey
So this is progress, he thought to himself as he leaned back into his seat slowly, in an attempt not to disturb the sleeping girl resting on his shoulder.
:-) :-O ;-D
It started with an eye roll.
Well, no. Actually, it started with him burning his hand on that stupid hot plate. (It actually wasn't because she what unintentionally distracting him this time. It was because he was legitimately oblivious enough to not notice when his lab partner turned it on.)
The class stared semi-quietly as he yelped loudly and gripped his wrist. He blew on the palm of his hand frantically and winced as his skin darkened to a twisted shade of burgundy. Ms. Abernathy-McKadden (or, Ms. McKay) sighed heavily, before grabbing her passes from the top drawer of her desk. The reason why her chemistry class couldn't pay attention during safety week was beyond her.
"Alright Mr. Swanson, I assume you'll need someone to walk you to the nurse," she breathed as she scribbled on a stack of white slips. (Ms. Abernathy-McKadden had a thing about hallway buddies ever since an incident that occurred last year involving a sophomore, a bathroom pass, and a stink bomb.) Ripping one off the top, she shifted her eyes up and scanned the room briefly before letting her eyes rest on the back row of tables.
"Miss Mitchell," she called. Jesse swiveled around slightly in time to see Beca, lift her head from her lab and raise her eyebrows slightly behind her goggles. "Help me out here?" Ms. McKay requested, the pass outstretched in Beca's direction. Beca opened her mouth slightly, already gearing up to whip out her It's-my-first-week-here-and-I-don't-know-where-the-hell-anything-is defense. "I don't even know wh—,"
"I do." Jesse piped up, turning Beca's irritated gaze in his direction. "I know where the nurse is."
"Great!" Ms. McKay breathed, exasperated already. "Consider it a free tour."
The look on Beca's face spelled out that she didn't want any kind of free tour. In clear English, in fact. Jesse didn't know if it was the look of desperation and annoyance on Ms. McKay's face that made Beca reluctantly slide off her goggles and walk slowly to the front of the room, or if it was because she had changed her mind about the free tour. Jesse was betting on the former, though.
Grabbing the pass from Ms. McKay, Beca pushed the door open and leaned her back against it, waiting for him to trot through the frame. When in the hall, he stayed a couple of inches ahead of her, with his head shifted to the side slightly, as if to make sure that she was still following him. "So, how do you like Barden so far?" She didn't answer, and he chuckled to himself as he fell back a few steps to align his right side with her left. "It's pretty great, huh?" he tried again. She stayed silent and he kept talking as if she had answered him. "Yeah. Absolutely. So, you look like the kind of girl who's into Justin Bieber." He said, feigning seriousness.
"That...is insulting." Beca said as she turned to face him with a disgusted look on her face. Jesse smiled to himself. Victory. "Ahh. She speaks!" Beca turned back to face the front and she kept walking, her arms crossed.
"He is a disgrace." She muttered.
"I know."
"He should be deported."
"Like Canada would want him back."
Beca shrugged as she kept walking. "So," he began again. "If you don't like Justin Bieber, what kind of music do you like?"
She shrugged again before answering. "I don't know. Anything, really." He smiled. "It's pretty great, huh?" She turned to him and raised an eyebrow.
"Music," he elaborated. "It's such a little thing, but it's just everywhere. Ever wonder what it would be like if there was no music?"
Beca blinked and stared intently at Jesse's jawline. He had caught her off guard by going all Yoda on her after 2.5 seconds of knowing one another, but it was kind of impressive that there was someone who seemed to appreciate music like she did. Music was her only ally over the past several years. It was what had kept her house from seeming so empty when her mom went out, and it was what kept her sane when she was feeling her worst. Music was her everything.
"Guess not." She murmured as they turned to the main hall of the school.
"I don't know. Just something to think about, I guess." He murmured as he shuffled further down the hall.
"You know, this is some pretty deep stuff coming from the guy who thought that it would be a brilliant idea to pet a hot plate." Beca snarked.
"That…is not what happened at all."
"Oh, really now?"
"In fact, that hot plate attacked me."
"Well that's interesting."
"I was just minding my own business and the hot plate decided to burn me on its own accord." Jesse said nonchalantly while waving around his injured hand.
Beca rolled her eyes and stifled her smile. "That hot plate sounds like a feisty guy."
Jesse laughs as they come to stop at the door of the nurse's office.
"Well, here we are!" Jesse chirped, just a hint disappointed that their journey was over. Beca nodded towards the door quietly. "Yeah. Miraculous, isn't it? There were no hot plates in the halls to come out and attack you."
"That's only because you were here, though." Jesse made no motion to go through the door, so Beca placed a hand on his shoulder to steer him in the right direction. "Good thing I was here to protect you, then. No need to thank me."
Jesse relented to the pressure she was putting on his shoulder and started inching his was to the door, his face flushed. Beca looked at him curiously.
"Um, got a problem with the door there?"
Jesse shook his head rapidly, keeping a calm expression on his face. "No, no. That's not it. Just…nurses. You know." He mumbled.
Beca raised her eyebrows and looked at him with a cheeky expression on her face. There was no way that this guy was for real. "You're scared of nurses?"
"Not just any nurses."
"So what I'm hearing is that you're scared of nurses."
"Certain nurses!"
"Let me get this straight." Beca said, barely containing the smile that was slowly spreading across her face. "Not only do you have a terminal fear of animated hot plates, but you also have an issue with nurses?"
"Their hands are always cold, and they smell like antiseptic and tears. Everyone has fears, black shirt girl! I'm sorry. I would call you by your name but I don't know what it is."
Beca laughed lightly and opened the door, nudging Jesse through. "Dude, it's just a school nurse. They don't even carry anything but Popsicle sticks and Band-Aids. The worst thing that they can do is take your temperature and call your parents."
"I still don't know your name, you know. That's a key part of building a friendship." Jesse got out before Beca rolled her eyes and pulled the door closed the door behind him.
(Despite the fact that he talked to her every day after that, she didn't tell him her name for another week.)
I've got a closet filled up to the brim
With the ghosts of my past and the skeletons,
And I don't know why you'd even try.
-Hero/Heroine, Boys Like Girls
He was annoying.
She didn't know where the flashing sign was that read "Beca Mitchell needs a friend," but it was somewhere apparently, because Jesse Swanson had seemingly made it his personal mission to be her friend. It was almost flattering. It was almost cute, even, the way that he would caw her name in greeting.
("Be-CAWWW!" A voice behind her crowed as she climbed out of her dad's car. She almost didn't turn around. Instead, she attempted to ignore whatever it was as she kept walking.
That is, until she heard it again.
"Be-CAW!" the voice trilled again, closer this time. She begrudgingly turned on her heel as Jesse scrambled to catch up with her. "What's up, chem-buddy?"
"Was that a bird call? Is that what that was?"
"Of course not. Hey, can I borrow yesterday's notes?")
And the way that he would automatically nudge her shoulder when their teacher told them to grab a partner.
("I would have actually grabbed you, but I didn't want you to cause me bodily harm." he said during class one day as he gathered their materials.
Beca leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms in faux-protest. "Who says I want to be your partner? What if I wanted Nicole to be my partner?" He spluttered as if it were absolutely outrageous for her so suggest such a thing and chuckled heartily. "Beca, please," he mused as he passed her their directions. "We both know that I am a far better partner than Nicole."
She simply rolled her eyes as she grabbed her goggles.)
And how he would always wait for her between classes.
("Don't you have somewhere to be?" She questioned as he stood next to her desk, one hand on the strap of his bag. He smiled down at her as she slowly slipped her binder into her backpack. "Well wherever I have to be, you have to be too, so here I am."
It was also annoying that they had most of their classes together.)
He wanted to be her friend, she could tell. Too bad she didn't need friends. Beca's mission ever since her mom sent her off to live with her dad was to get through the rest of high school with her head ducked, and then she would be off to L.A., and off to a new start, where her muddy past couldn't follow her. She didn't need Swanson and his friendly intrusiveness fucking up her plan. And she swore, if that weirdo threw her one more juice pouch...
(Beca raised an eyebrow as he slid a juice pouch next to her tray. "Why?" she questioned as he slid into the chair in front of her, pulling his own juice pouch and a bagged lunch out of his backpack. "You didn't get milk," he observed. "So I thought you might be thirsty."
Beca stared quizzically at the plastic pouch. "How do I know you didn't do something to it?"
Jesse stared at her for a minute before letting out a little laugh. "It's sealed, Beca. It has the little straw on the front and everything."
"That doesn't prove anything."
"The little straw proves it, Becs."
"That's not proof, Jesse."
"It's logic, Beca!" He laughed again, before reaching over to nudge the juice pouch a little bit closer to her. She waited a few more seconds before accepting it.)
…she was going to scream.
:-) :-O ;-D
Being her friend wasn't an easy thing, Jesse discovered. Beca Mitchell was hard-assed, and guarded, and stoic, and he was pretty sure that she didn't know what fun was. (After all, who doesn't like movies, for God's sake?)
But at the same time, Beca Mitchell was clever, and smart, and funny and interesting. She was a strange kind of charming, that made her sharp edges and dark shadows seem a little bit softer when he was around her.
So, yeah, he was hooked.
:-) :-O ;-D
Jesse Swanson was a nuisance, Beca decided. He was pushy, and cheeky, and a motor mouth, and so. Damn. Cocky. He's impossible.
But at the same time, he was funny in a dumb way, and witty in a dumb way, and caring in a dumb way, and sometimes likeable. In a dumb way.
So…yeah. She'll keep him.
:-) :-O ;-D
She didn't notice that he had worked himself into her routine until she noticed that she had stopped questioning his presence. It was just silently understood that they would eat lunch together, and that when he sat down, he would place a juice pouch on her tray (Preferably Strawberry-Kiwi. Any other flavor was fine though, except for Fruit Punch. Fruit Punch was unacceptable). And that they would be Chemistry lab partners. And that he would walk with her to her English class before he went to World History. And that when they would get out of their respective language classes, his being Spanish and hers being German, they would speak in bad accents until they got to their lockers.
("That's not even a real accent," Beca protested as they walked side by side, nearing the end of the school day.
"It's totally a real accent, Becs. You've never been to Micronesia. You don't know how they sound over there."
"I know that they don't all sound like asthmatic teenage girls.")
It was also assumed that he would do homework at her house on Tuesdays, and she at his on Thursdays. And that they would go off campus for lunch on Fridays.
He had taken up a good percentage of her schedule, but she didn't feel suffocated, or uncomfortable. Not by a longshot.
In fact, Jesse Swanson was a nice addition to her life, if she were to be honest.
Keep that to yourself though.
:-) :-O ;-D
He knew that they really were best friends when she told him her middle name.
"Elijah?"
"Yup." He nodded.
"Seriously?"
"Uh-huh."
"…Elijah?"
"Something wrong with my middle name?" Jesse asked with mock offense.
"No, no. No. Nothing. Nothing at all." She said, quickly glancing back down to her German homework trying to hide her grin.
"Beca." He asked knowingly nudging her shoulder.
"Hmm? No, it's nothing really. Just…you know. Who names their kid Elijah?" she asked, breaking out into laughter.
"Middle name!" he insisted.
"I can honestly say that I've never met someone named Elijah.
"Middle name."
"Jesse Elijah Swanson. Your initials are half of your first name, you know that right?"
"Three-fifths." He corrected.
"That is so weird."
"Well not all of us can have perfect middle names like I'm sure you do, Becs."
"No." She shook her head and pushed her hair behind her ears as she re-addressed the vocabulary in her lap. "Well, I mean Elijah is pretty bad, but mine is still worse."
"What is it?" he asked, leaning forward resting his hands on his knees. She shook her head and gently pushed his forehead back with her fingertips. "Dude, no. Why would I tell you that?"
"It's part of the best friend code! We're best friends, and so now you have to follow the best friend code!"
"I don't remember signing a contract like that."
"It's an implied agreement, Beca. Very hush-hush."
She rolled her eyes and kept her eyes on her paper, fully prepared to ignore him and let the middle name discussion blow over. "Come on, please? I told you mine! And you laughed at me! That was hurtful, actually."
"I did not laugh at you!" She insisted, looking up to grin at him. "I laughed at your middle name!"
"Same difference!"
"No it isn't! Your middle name isn't even that bad, actually. I mean versus Vivian—,"
"Vivian?"
Her eyes widened as she realized her slip-up. "Shit! No, wait—,"
"That's adorable!"
"Jesse—,"
"Rebeca Vivian Mitchell."
"Swanson, I swear. If you tell anyone, no one will ever be able to find your body for validation!" she threatened, holding the end of her pencil up to Jesse's nose. Jesse swallowed thickly, because the little brunette could be crazy scary when she wanted to be. "Point taken."
"Good." She nodded, lowering her pencil and going back to her homework. It was silent for a minute or so as the two scribbled through their workbooks. "So…Vivian, huh?" Jesse eventually asked.
"Stop talking about it."
"…okay."
"You're gonna make me regret telling you, aren't you?"
"Of course…Viv."
"Jesse."
"It's like Vivaldi! Can I call you Vivaldi?"
He got a bruising punch to the shoulder for that one.
He later decided that it was completely worth it.
:-) :-O ;-D
Since they were best friends and all, Jesse figured that it would be only right that they were field-trip buddies as well. Needless to say, Beca was less enthusiastic than he was.
"You mean to tell me thatit's not enough that I have eighty percent of my classes with you, and lunch, and that you bother me every chance you get, so now we have to be field-trip buddies too?
"Beca, it is completely necessary that you are my field trip buddy. And I resent that! I don't aim to bother." He said. "I aim to provide delightful company."
"You're doing a fantastic job."
"Why thank you." He smiled, and then paused. "That was sarcasm, wasn't it?"
"Big time."
"I had a feeling."
Ms. McKay clapped her hands as she moved onto the next lesson, signaling to the class that she was done informing them about their upcoming trip to the planetarium, considering that they were in their astronomy unit. As Ms. McKay turned to pull down her star map, Jesse poked Beca in the shoulder with the eraser of his pencil.
"So you're my partner, yes? When Ms. McKay asks for your choice partner's name, you're gonna say 'Jesse, aka the best partner in the world,' right?"
Beca smiled as she brushed his pencil away. "Why are you bugging me about this?"
Jesse's eyes widened as he put his pencil down. "Because! Not only are we required to be partners," Beca opened her mouth to protest, but Jesse waved her snarky comment off. "We are so required to, Beca. This is our bonding class. Anyways, there's that, and the fact that there is a certain someone with whom I would rather not be partnered with if you would be so kind as to catch my drift," Jesse tipped his head to the right several times, as if to signal that Beca should look in that direction. Leaning back slightly to see around Jesse's head, she caught a glimpse of Tracey Marsinko doodling in her notebook and repeatedly glancing up to stare at the side of Jesse's face.
"Wow, really? You're still on that thing with Tracey?" Beca asked, wrinkling her nose and turning back to face Jesse.
Since Beca left, Tracey Marsinko had developed a long lasting crush on him. She would always sit as close to him as she could in their shared classes, she would always wait by his locker to say hello, she would always invite him to sit with her at lunch (even though he always declined politely), and she would always be the first to offer him a pencil if he lost his (even if it was her only one). He had even heard that she had cried to the counselor to get a schedule change when they didn't have any classes together at the beginning of freshman year, but he was pretty sure that that was just a nasty rumor. He would have thought that after five years of friendly rejection she would have gotten the message, but she hadn't let up yet, so he figured that the emotional postman was running behind.
"Nope. No, there is no thing with Tracey, nor will there ever be, and I would greatly appreciate it if you didn't encourage her by leaving me up for grabs. Her grabs, to be specific."
Beca laughed quietly at the terrified expression on his face before turning back to focus on Ms. McKay. The nerd was being overdramatic in her opinion. One day with Tracey Marsinko attached to his hip wouldn't kill him.
Despite this, when Ms. McKay asked her who she wanted to be partnered with a week later, she rolled her eyes, blatantly ignoring Jesse's cow eyes desperately staring at the side of her head, and with a heavy sigh said, "Jesse, I guess."
(She pretended not to notice his enthusiastic fist pump under the table.)
:-) :-O ;-D
This is progress, Jesse thought to himself all day as he and Beca ambled around the planetarium with their class. They pretended to pay attention to the enthusiastic chatter from Ms. McKay as Jesse cracked astronomy jokes and Beca pretended not to be amused.
("What kind of saddle do you put on a space horse?"
"Huh?"
"A saddle-lite! You get it. Because horses wear saddles?"
"Trying to explain it doesn't make it any less lame."
"You liked it, don't lie now.")
Seriously. He did this all day.
("When do astronauts have lunch?" he inquired over their sandwiches and juice pouches.
"I don't think I want to know."
"At launch time!"
"I was right. That was terrible.")
All day long.
("What kind of plates do they serve food on in outer space?" he asked as they got ready to board the bus home.
"I don't care."
"Flying saucers!"
"I'm going to tell Tracey that you need a bus buddy."
"Okay, wait. I'm done. I swear.")
He finally stopped talking when they were on the bus, thirty minutes into the ride home and she leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder, letting her eyes flutter shut.
He realized that they were different now, versus when she was new and he had to grasp at straws for conversation. She would talk to him effortlessly and she had stopped trying so hard to keep from smiling. He learned things that he thought he would never get to know, like how she loved John Mayer and hated raisins, and how she was allergic to pineapple and cats, even though she liked both. And that she was terrified heights and the New York City subways. And how she loved music, and that she took flute lessons for three years, and in the meantime, taught herself how to play the piano. And how when she was nine, she liked sitting on her roof at night, counting as many stars as she could before she got tired and snuck back inside through her window.
They would sometimes talk about nothing.
("Top five favorite artists. Go." She commanded as she sat down next to him in Calculus.
Jesse tapped his pencil on his desk as he tried to think. "The Beatles,"
"Okay."
"Simple Minds, Christina Aguilera…" He paused.
"Come on Swanson, keep going." He sighed and looked up to see her staring intently at him. "The Bee Gees," he smiled.
"Oh my God."
"And…Journey," he finished.
She grinned. "You left out Michael Jackson. And Aerosmith. And Coldplay." Jesse groaned remembering how much he liked Michael Jackson, Aerosmith and Coldplay.
"You should have said top ten!")
And sometimes they wouldn't talk at all.
(Beca stared intently at his face. She wasn't going to blink first. There was no way.
Jesse stared back equally as determined. He wasn't letting her win again.
They were going on three minutes now. No talking and no blinking. Those were the rules. First prize? The last juice pouch and a week's worth of bragging rights. Her eyes were watering now, and he was itching to tell her the hipster joke that he found on the internet. She needed to blink and he really, really needed to talk. It got to the point where Beca could barely see the pained expression on his face through her watery eyes, so she caved.
"Damn it!" she grumbled once her eyelids fell shut.
"Yes!" he cried, throwing a fist in the air triumphantly. "I am the master!"
"The master dork, maybe."
"You, little bitter Beca, shall not bring me down. I am the Grand Master Champion of the world!"
"Well that went to your head faster than I thought it would,"
"Where's my phone? I'm gonna play We Are the Champions.")
She was letting him get to know her bit by bit, and this gave him and endless amount of opportunities to notice that she was a beautiful person, even when she was trying to cover it up, and this observation had very little to do with his tiny crush on her that grew every day. Despite this, he loved their friendship. It was worth more than his collectable LEGO Star Wars set (which he did not still play with, because he was a responsible, mature, nearly sixteen year old boy, damn it).
Definitely progress, he reaffirmed as he laid his head back and closed his eyes for the rest of the ride.
Hopefully this didn't disappoint! I've been working on it for quite a while! (As you can probably tell considering that I published this in November. :P)
So, the next part will be finishing up their high school experience I believe, then we move onto Barden University, and then...maybe an epilogue? I've already extended this story far more than I was planning considering that this was supposed to be a three, maybe four shot. I would have put the high school section in one part, but it dragged on a little bit too long for me!
Anyways, excuse my ramble, I hope you guys enjoyed this part! If you did, or if you didn't, review, please? Thanks for reading!
PEOPLE WHO I WISH I COULD REPLY TO BUT ALAS I CANNOT
Anaeira: Oh, thank you so much! I'm so sorry that this update was this late. It's not over yet! I promise!
Angie515: Thank you! I'm so flattered! :)
potterfreak2: Haha! No sweat, friend. I'm so glad that you liked it! And psssh. I don't mind at all. :) Thank you for the cookie!
fiona glenanne: Oh, it's not the end! Promise! :)