Early the next morning, all was quiet in the Bella house.
Beca slept peacefully on her bed in the attic room she shared with Amy, one arm curled comfortably around a particularly large body pillow. She breathed lightly, enveloped in tranquility, totally unaware all of that was about to change.
"You ready?" Stacie whispered to Amy, who was already up and dressed, brandishing an air horn that she'd been saving for a special occasion. This would simply have to do.
"You guys, I don't think this is a good idea," Emily squirmed uncomfortably next to the two seniors, clutching her own air horn reluctantly. "Shouldn't we let them sleep? They're gonna be really mad. We shouldn't even be in here right now."
"This isn't the time to get cold feet, Legacy," Amy resolved," We've got a bet to win. Oi, where's Lilly? I thought you said she was coming with us."
At that moment, Lilly seemed to materialize out of the darkness on the other side of the room. The three girls jumped in shock, trying not to make any noise as they recovered.
"Lilly! You can't just sneak up on us like that," Stacie hissed, trying to keep her voice reduced to a whisper. Lilly shrugged and muttered something unintelligible to herself. Beca rolled over, still asleep in spite of the commotion surrounding her bed. Stacie glanced at her three friends, who were watching carefully for her signal. She held up three fingers, then folded each one into her fist as she counted down. 3-2-1-
Amy pressed her air horn, relishing her delight as the sound erupted from the small container and filled the entire room. Emily joined in, using one hand to protect her ear from the sheer volume of the device. Beca immediately sprang out of bed. All signs of relaxation had vanished and were replaced with a look of complete terror.
"Dude!" She shrieked, her voice reaching unbelievably high octaves, "What is the matter with you?"
"Up and at 'em, Bec," Stacie smirked, "You're late."
"It's 5 a.m. on a Sunday," Beca spat. "The only thing I'm late for is your funeral. I'm going back to bed."
"Not so fast," Amy wedged herself between her roommate and the bed. "We all voted, and we decided to move conditioning to this morning."
Beca stared blankly at the girls, hoping that this was all a weird, food induced dream.
"So you should probably dress comfortably or something," Emily blurted out, "Jessica and Flo have a whole new regimen planned and it's not going to be easy."
Stacie clamped a hand over Emily's mouth and gently tugged her towards the door.
"And that's enough information from this one," She joked, and pushed Emily out of the room. She turned back to Beca with a serious look on her face. "Meet us in the living room in 10 minutes, ready to roll. Lilly, make sure Beca doesn't go back to bed."
"I'll bring my cattle prod," Lilly muttered, nodding seriously.
Stacie suppressed a chuckle and led Amy out of the room, where Emily was waiting for them on the stairwell. The freshmen rubbed her eyes, trying to fight off sleep. Stacie slung an arm around the younger girl as they walked down the stairs.
"C'mon, Em, let's get some coffee in you before the fun starts."
"It would be more fun if it started after 8 a.m." Emily groaned,"How are either of you even awake right now?"
"I've got dingo blood in my veins," Amy explained, "I only need 5 hours tops and I'm good to go."
"I didn't go to bed at all last night," Stacie shrugged.
"I'm definitely gonna need some coffee before another one of your stories, Stace," Emily noted, and wrinkled her nose uncomfortably.
"I was up writing a paper, you dork." Stacie jabbed her playfully, "But if it's stories you want, then let me tell you about this one time-"
"Nope I'm good thanks!" Emily pulled herself from Stacie's grasp and scurried around the corner into the kitchen. Jessica and Flo were perched on the kitchen counter, animatedly discussing their plan for the morning over cups of coffee. Cynthia Rose sat on one of the bar stools, scrolling aimlessly through apps on her phone. Ashley bustled around the kitchen, grabbing a few more mugs from the cupboard as she noticed the arrival of the other girls. Ashley deftly pushed a mug into Emily's waiting hands, who accepted it gratefully. She was so glad she'd learned to drink coffee when she came to college. Stacie inhaled a deep breath, taking in the scent of the beverage warming her hands.
"Ash, you're a saint." Stacie remarked, taking a long swig of the caffeinated beverage.
"Don't you forget it," Ashley crowed proudly, with a toss of her hair that went directly into Jessica's face. The blonde coughed and sputtered as she tried to brush Ashley's hair away from her mouth, much to the amusement of everyone else in the room.
"Where's the ginger?" Amy scrutinized, peering around the kitchen curiously. She started opening up the larger cabinets and examining them with her signature dramatic flair.
"Literally why would she even be in the cupboard," Jessica rolled her eyes at the Australian's antics. Amy continued to examine the cabinets, one by one, making sure to let the doors to each slam loudly as she moved around the kitchen.
"Just trying to stay one step ahead," Amy tapped her own nose, her eyes bright with confidence. "We can't afford to give her or Beca the element of surprise."
"We're already like four steps ahead," Cynthia Rose reasoned, and checked her watch. "We set a timer and told Chloe that she had 15 minutes to get ready for conditioning this morning. She'll be down any minute now."
"She's gonna be a tough nut to crack," Jessica mused. "When we told her that we were working out this morning she practically thanked us. She said it was a great idea and that she was excited to kick off the morning together."
Stacie practically spit out the coffee she'd just sipped- this was very good news. Chloe was clearly trying not to show her irritation with the new routine that the Bellas had proposed. After two years of living in the same room, Stacie knew exactly when to call Chloe's bluff, and this was it. She'd spent countless mornings listening to Chloe repeatedly hit 'snooze' on her alarm. It had practically been the soundtrack to her college experience thus far. Chloe was a morning person, more than say, Beca, but never before daylight. It was Chloe's relentless optimism that would preserve her in this scenario. Beca, on the other hand, would have a much more difficult time masking her irritation. If they could keep Beca and Chloe at odds long enough, one of them would crack. Stacie was sure of it.
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At 5:30 in the morning, the quad at Barden University was completely deserted. Not a single soul frequented the park. There were no students studying on benches, playing frisbee, or even hanging hammocks in the trees for some well deserved relaxation. The Bellas were the only ones occupying the space, as far as Chloe could see. The quad was kind of creepy this early in the morning, Chloe thought to herself. Anything could happen to them and there would be no witnesses- at least they were in a large group, she reasoned. She trusted that the self defense classes she'd dragged Flo and Ashley to last semester would come in handy if necessary.
Still, she couldn't stop herself from doing a quick headcount to make sure all of the girls were there. It was second nature at this point. Chloe scanned the flock of Bellas, counting eight heads bobbing up and down in conversation a few feet ahead of her. That couldn't be right. She scanned again, this time, trying to identify a face with each head she counted. Flo and Jessica were doing cartwheels, Ashley was trying to jump on Amy's back with limited success, Lilly was collecting stray items that had been left on the quad for god knows what purpose, Cynthia Rose sauntered up next to Stacie-
Emily.
That's who was missing.
Chloe's eyes widened- someone had woken her up and told her where they were going, right?
"She's between Jessica and Ashley," Beca said smugly, sidling up to the redhead. Chloe looked at her blankly. "Emily. She's right up there. I figured you'd be back here, secretly counting everyone. Old habits die hard, right, Beale?"
Chloe glanced back at the group, studying them intently. Sure enough, Emily's head popped up right where Beca had said. The eighteen year old was being persuaded to jump on Ashley, who was now clinging to Amy like a koala. Chloe shook her head, trying to hide her amusement. This was not going to end well.
"Fine, you caught me," Chloe laughed. "You know I can't help it!"
"Well you need to," Beca deadpanned. "If I have to pretend like I'm okay with running around at this god forsaken hour, then you need to at least pretend you're not trying to keep everyone alive every second of the day."
"You're an absolute delight in the morning, you know that?" Chloe shot back, not appreciating confrontation so early in the morning.
"Is that sarcasm, I detect?" Beca asked, feigning innocence. Chloe was still not amused.
"Maybe I should just throw the bet."
"What?" Beca jumped, looking truly alarmed. "Dude, c'mon. You wouldn't."
"Maybe I would," Chloe grinned slyly. "Maybe the mental picture I keep getting of you having to sing a very soulful rendition of Hips Don't Lie on an international stage, is more compelling than helping you win this little bet."
"No, no no I take it all back, you can count whoever you want whenever you want, just please don't leave my team," Beca pleaded desperately, clinging to Chloe's arm. Chloe knew she had hit the exact right mark to make Beca walk back her grouchy comments, but it was too fun not to keep going. "And I'll do your laundry or whatever for a whole week."
"Deal," Chloe said, grinning brightly. "But just so you know, I would've stayed for free."
Beca glowered at the redhead, but soon a smile was tugging on the corners of her mouth.
"That," Beca pointed to Chloe, "That little display of total manipulation is exactly why we're going to win this thing.
A few feet away with the rest of the Bellas, Stacie turned to address her teammates.
"Jess, Flo, you're on," Stacie smirked.
The two girls waited for Chloe and Beca to catch up with the rest of the group, then exchanged knowing smiles. Flo directed the group over to a large grassy area, where she led the group in a series of stretches and warm up techniques.
"Hope you're ready to break a sweat," Amy chortled as she passed Chloe and Beca, running around in light circles.
"This is hazing," Beca complained through gritted teeth, "God, I miss Aubrey."
"What happened to pretending you were okay with this?" Chloe chastised her, smiling the entire time to not raise any attention from the other girls. "If you're giving up this easy, guess you better brush up on your spanish-"
Beca quieted herself immediately and focused on the task at hand. After Flo finished leading the girls through warm ups, she set up cones at varying distances across the field. She then handed off control to Jessica.
"I've been waiting three years for this," Jessica gloated, placing her hands on her hips with pride. Beca shuddered, and glanced at her teammates, who also seemed slightly alarmed.
"Well at least you're not letting the power go to your head," Ashley said sarcastically, rolling her eyes at her roommate. Jessica ignored her.
"We all know that we need to step up our game for Worlds," Jessica began, looking down the line at the girls. "We need to stay sharp. We need to spice things up. We need to be strong-"
"As a coursing river?" Amy quipped, earning laughs from the group.
"I love that movie," Jessica's exclaimed, then grew serious again. She wanted to prove she and Flo could handle this. "We're only as strong as our weakest link, so we need to make sure that everyone is equally balanced in their abilities. We win together, we lose together, and today we're working out together."
"I completely agree," Chloe spoke up, nodding enthusiastically.
"We thought you might," Flo grinned, turning to Jessica.
"Line up, ladies. We're doing suicides." Jessica directed, pulling her phone out of her pocket. The other Bellas faked shock, even though they'd been briefed the night before that this would happen. Beca grimaced, but forced a smile. "Everyone is participating, no exceptions. I'm setting a timer on my phone for five minutes. Our goal as a team is to complete 10 cycles of suicides within that time limit. Let's do this!"
Jessica lined up with the other girls and queued up the stop watch on her phone. On the count of three, she dropped the stop watch and all of the girls began running from the starting point to the closest cone, then back to the beginning. Each time, the girls ran to the next furthest cone and back to the starting point, progressively running further and faster. Just like the day before, Stacie had no problem enduring this exercise. Jessica and Flo, both naturally athletic, had no trouble maintaining the same pace as her. A few seconds behind them were Chloe and Emily, with the rest of the Bellas trailing behind. Amy and Beca brought up the rear.
"Oh my god I think I'm dying," Amy moaned between labored breaths. Beca ignored her, trying to keep up an adequate running pace. She did not want to know what Jessica had planned for anyone who could not complete the ten cycles in 5 minutes. Amy called after Beca, trying to sound particularly helpless. "Beca I'm serious. My arm- it's twitching- it's-"
Amy slumped to the ground, laying motionless. Beca cursed under her breath and ran back to her roommate. If something really was wrong, she'd carry too much guilt that she should have done something to help her friend. Beca bent over to check Amy's breathing, and suddenly felt herself being yanked to the ground with a loud thud.
"DUDE! I AM GOING TO MURDER YOU," Beca protested as Amy was up and running again, at a surprisingly quick pace.
"Then you'll have to catch me, short stack!" Amy laughed gleefully. She truly enjoyed any opportunity to inject chaos into a situation.
Beca was furious, but channeled her irritation into her running. Surprisingly, every single Bella completed the number of cycles Jessica had outlined in the five minute time limit. The girls caught their breath, feeling proud and excited by their physical accomplishment.
"See?" Chloe said proudly, motioning to the girls around her. "See what we can do when we put in some extra effort? This was great, you guys."
"Oh, we're not done yet." Jessica dismissed her, and Chloe looked back in surprise. "This was a test of agility. But if we're going to compete internationally, we also need to work on endurance. We'll do core and strength tomorrow. But for now, we're going to run to the student union and then back to the house."
"The student union? That's the opposite direction from the house," Chloe criticized, unable to hide her displeasure. Jessica gave her a smug smile, and hoped they were on the brink of cracking her self control. Chloe immediately doubled back, and put on her best smile. "Which is perfect, because we'll have to run twice as much. Great idea."
The Bellas exchanged disappointed looks. They had been so close to running Chloe over the edge. Emily sighed, and bent over to tie her shoe. She was so over running around, and had a feeling this was just the beginning of a very exhausting day.
The girls began jogging towards the student union, running on a curved path that weaved in and out of a wooded portion of the quad. It wasn't so bad breathing in the morning air, watching the sun rise above the trees and warm the ground with its light.
Flo began running at a quicker pace, buoyed by a level of energy that was puzzling to the rest of the girls. Nonetheless, they matched her pace and began to feel the adrenaline kick in. Flo and Stacie began weaving in and out of the trees, hopping over stumps and things in the way for an added challenge. Some of the other girls followed suit. Lilly let out a shriek of excitement and joined them. When they reached the end of the path, Stacie spotted a rectangular picnic table and called back to the group.
"Ultimate challenge! Watch this!" Stacie shouted gleefully and ran at the table full force. Stacie swiftly stepped on one side of the bench and launched herself over the table, landing gracefully on the ground on the other side. Jessica and Ashley followed suit, using a similar strategy to Stacie's. Chloe reveled in the challenge and ran, with a determined look on her face. Beca was amazed as she seemed to literally float over the table, no problem. Lilly practically flew, totally clearing the table without any help. After some egging on from Fat Amy, Emily came next, and Beca instinctively felt her throat tighten. Emily was very sweet and intelligent in most ways, but she was not especially coordinated. This was not going to end well.
Emily ran towards the table, and stepped on the bench, using her momentum to jump over the other side. Beca let out a sigh of relief, until the legacy's foot slipped on the other side, leading to a scream as she collided with the ground. In an instant, both Stacie and Chloe were at Emily's side, helping her to her feet. Emily struggled to put weight on her left ankle, which Beca was pretty certain she'd sprained. Beca shot Chloe a pointed look, trying as hard as she could to telepathically tell her to let-it-go-or-we-will-lose-this-bet. It must have worked, because Chloe caught Beca's eye and reluctantly stepped back, leaving Stacie to patch up the legacy.
"Way to go big or go home, Legacy," Amy congratulated the younger girl in a teasing tone. "I respect your commitment."
"Quit being so salty," Cynthia Rose scolded the Australian. "Not a good look, girl."
"Don't worry about it, Em." Chloe couldn't stop herself from speaking up. Emily's head snapped up as she heard Chloe's voice. "We've got stuff at home to patch you up."
"But," Stacie reminded her firmly, "Beca and Chloe will not be doing the patching. Rules are rules."
"She wouldn't have jumped if Amy hadn't instigated," Lilly spoke up, garnering everyone's attention. "So it shouldn't be her. I will do the honors."
"Actually," Emily said, smiling brightly, zeroing in on the older blonde. "I think that's exactly who should have to help me. Unless you can't handle that-"
Amy froze in her tracks, not wanting to back down from the challenge. She gulped, and turned to face the newest Bella.
"No problem, aca-child," She said, patting her head condescendingly. "I'll take such good care of you that you'll be handing me adoption papers by the end of the day-"
"You have to be nice to me."
"I'm a peach to you-"
"No sarcastic comments or calling me stupid." Emily listed her demands, with a confidence the rest of the Bellas had never seen before. "You have to actually have conversations with me and pay attention. You have to get everything I need when I need it."
"This is ridiculous," Fat Amy muttered under her breath.
"Chloe would do it." Emily pointed out, gesturing to the redhead. "Wouldn't you?"
Chloe nodded, amused, by ultimately uncertain about what was happening.
"So unless you want to forfeit the bet, you have to do what I say," Emily said in a sing song voice. Amy inhaled deeply, and turned the other Bellas, who were waiting expectantly. They desperately needed her to take one for the team.
"I'll do it."
Emily grinned happily through her pain, in spite of the confused looks Stacie was shooting her. They would talk later, Emily was certain of that. But for now, she was being hoisted on to Amy's back for a piggy back ride back to the Bella house which was kind of amazing. She turned to Ashley and Beca, who were walking next to her at an even pace.
"You know, I think I'm going to like this bet," Emily remarked with a satisfied look in her eye. Maybe this would work out in her favor after all.
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I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
The bet is just getting started, and as you can hopefully tell, a lot of different dynamics are going to come out as time goes on. I thought it would be fun to give Jessica a little spotlight since she gets so little attention in the movies. Emily is kind of a wild card in all of this, so it will be fun to test where her loyalty lies in different situations.
Thank you for your follows and reviews! If you have any ideas that you would like to see, I am always open to suggestions. Thanks for reading!