A/N: Unfortunately I'm going to be starting school soon and updates might get a bit slower than usual as I begin to cry over homework. And as always super special mega thanks to Mary for being the magical beta that she is and beta-ing this when she was crazy busy and everything. She's just aca-awesome.
"So like, she just came up and invited you to her Barbie mansion? Just to fix your potato sack of a backpack?" Amy said, so surprised she almost knocked their beaker off of the heating plate.
"It wasn't a mansion," replied Beca defensively. "It was like, weirdly nice. The whole thing. She is just genuinely really nice."
"Well paint me red and feed me to the crocs."
"I'd rather not."
"Yeah, blue's more of my color anyways," Amy mused, picking up a small bottle of clear liquid. "Attracts more Tasmanian men that way during mer-dancing."
"Crazy is more of your color. Dude, that's hydrochloric acid!" Beca smacked Amy's hand down before she could add drops to the now bubbling beaker. "We don't even need that for this lab, Christ. Read labels, dude."
Amy shook her hand in mock injury. "I thought you weren't the labels type, Miss Hobbit Lavigne."
"Well in chem lab I am 'cuz I don't feel like dying," Beca said, placing the hydrochloric acid far from Amy's reach. "And fuck you man, I can rock a tie better than her."
"Oi, chill. You've got your boxers in a bunch," Amy then wiggled her eyebrows. "It's 'cuz you haven't seen your ginger mistress- I mean seamstress isn't it?"
"Shut up," Beca snapped, coloring slightly as she looked down and pretended to focus on the lab instructions.
Friday marked four days since her encounter with Chloe Beale, but her mind kept replaying it like a broken record. The whole ordeal was probably so little and so insignificant in Chloe's mind that she was sure Chloe would have forgotten about it completely by the following day. Beca swore people like her all blended together to people like Chloe, like some sort of Popular-O-Vision ingrained in the minds of all of the members of the high school social hierarchy. But to her surprise, she had awoken to a text from Chloe the following morning asking her how Beca the Builder was doing with her mom's car, and if she needed another ride. Stunned, Beca had typed back a quick "I'm ok, but thanks", for she had managed to scrape together enough cash for a new part that she had easily installed late that night.
And, as if Chloe was hellbent on bewildering Beca further, she smiled and waved at her in the hallway that day and continued to do so throughout the week. The day before, she'd even stopped at Beca's locker after school with a warm smile and a slight scent of strawberries that clung to the air around her, further enhancing the redhead's bubbly aura. Beca had simply looked up at her in surprise, forgetting her locker combination twice before she successfully opened it. Just as Chloe had opened her mouth to say something, a blur of curled blonde hair and perfect posture whisked Chloe away, babbling in a tense voice about chorus practice, and Beca was left alone with a "hello" almost escaping her lips. Just as she was trying to figure out why she felt strangely disappointed, Chloe had managed to turn around and give a wave and a smile before she and the blonde blur of Aubrey Posen turned the corner,causing Beca to roll her eyes and hide her smirk with the locker door.
There was a faint rustle next to her that made Beca snap back into a significantly less redheaded reality, and she lurched across the lab table to seize the wrist of the long haired, tight lipped girl working next to Amy.
"Lilly," Beca said, voice like iron. "We both know that chemical is flammable and I sure as fuck know you're not going to use it as academically intended."
The girl blinked, grumbling softly, grip tightening around the small bottle.
"Yeah I don't like this school either, but let's keep it intact today, just for shits and giggles," Beca said, not loosening her hold. Her eyes widened in fake worry, "Oh, think of what Smokey the Bear would think of you! A skilled pyro in the making, the horror!"
Lilly's stare intensified, but she pushed the bottle into Beca's ringed hand.
"Beca Mitchell turning down sending this place down in a ring of fire Johnny Cash style," Amy said, shocked. "Goodness gracious great balls of fire."
She ignored Amy with a roll of her eyes. "Good move, Lil. There's unfortunately only room for one girl on fire, and unless you're considering taking up archery, I think you're beat."
Lilly gave her a final glare and a threatening mumble before returning to the lab.
"I think I've done my community service for the year."
"You'll be winning the School Spirit award next. Just like me when I won Most School Spirited with Teeth back in Tasmania," Amy agreed with an enthusiastic nod. They turned their attention to their experiment, working in a somewhat productive, though mostly sarcastic fashion until the bell rang.
"Yo gimme a shout later," Amy yelled over the final bell signaling the end of the day. "After you, y'know, do your time in the slammer, yeah? Phillip's buying me two pizzas and a few glowsticks for the rave later."
"Will do," Beca replied, not bothering to ask who in the world was Phillip and why Amy was going to a rave as they both made their way to her locker. "Ugh, the whole thing is so fucking stupid."
"As stupid as letting a dingo loose in the middle of the summer solstice."
"I swear you make these up."
"You give it a go then," Amy gave her arm a shove, nearly sending her careening into a freshman. "Tell me how it flies."
"It's on my bucket list," Beca deadpanned, tucking her hair behind her ears as she examined the messy state of her locker.
There was a buzz of a phone and soon Amy was talking. "No man, I said no peppers and double the mushrooms, not the other way around you wank."
Beca smirked slightly as her friend continued to give Phillip shit, grabbing a few notebooks she needed for the weekend and shovingthem into her bag.
"Yo Bitchell I gotta go," Amy said as she covered her phone a bit. "Before I slap this guy for not knowing proper Italian cuisine. Later, yeah?"
"Later," Beca said, giving Amy a wave and shutting her locker. She shouldered her bag, slung her beat up headphones around her neck, and set off for her hour long punishment, on a Friday of all days.
"Dude," Beca threw a piercing stare at Lilly, who was crouching by an open socket. "Not today."
Lilly paused, considering the warning. Beca was now walking backwards to keep her eye on Lilly and pointing back and forth from her eyes to Lilly's hunched frame. "Watching you, Eternal Flame."
Once she ensured that Lilly was not in fact going to flambé the hallway, she pivoted to collide with a wall of red.
"Beca?"
"Chloe?" Beca said, registering that she had practically run into Chloe's chest and backpedaling in a heartbeat, face red.
"Hey!" Chloe beamed, apparently unfazed by Beca's bumper car imitation. "Where're you headed?"
"Detention," she replied, looking at the ground.
Chloe frowned. "On a TGIF? That's stupid. Who for?"
"Wickey."
"More like-"
"An obvious rhyming alter ego name invented by our inner fifth grader? Yeah," Beca smirked.
"Right," grinned Chloe. Her hair fell in long red waves around her face, making her lively blue eyes stand out even more so than usual, and Beca found it impossible to look away. "Too bad."
Beca shrugged. "I save this block of time every week for the consequences of my rebellious tendencies so it's fine. I call it The Breakfast Club Hour."
Chloe laughed. "You're cute. I meant it's too bad because I was going to ask if you wanted to grab coffee right now."
"Oh," said Beca, heat creeping into her face. "Sorry."
"It's fine!" Chloe said, waving a hand. "Another time."
"Yeah," Beca said, a twinge of disappointment in her voice. "See ya."
She resumed her walk to detention, suddenly cursing its existence more than ever as Chloe watched her go, a small smile starting to spread on the senior's face.
"So Ear Spike, what are you here for? Deflate a volleyball with that thing?"
Beca crossed her arms and kicked a foot up on the desk, unfazed. "What're you here for, Bumper? Accidentally inhale your tennis racket with that big mouth of yours? Kirby would be proud."
"That's enough!" Coach Wickey barked, eyeing the two from behind his wire framed glasses. The middle-aged man resumed eating his sandwich sloppily, crumbs littering his protruding stomach.
The poster teacher of physical education, Beca thought rolling her eyes to the ceiling and slipping on her battered headphones to drown out the sound of his chewing.
"No music!" Wickey shouted, moustache quivering in anger. She made a show of pulling off her headphones and letting them rest on her neck, holding in a sigh.
"How does that shit even still play?" Bumper asked rudely, pointing to her headphones.
"The same way your mouth keeps moving, Pac Man," Beca shot back, throwing a death glare in his direction.
Coach Wickey looked up again, daring them to continue. He was famous for holding people back later than the scheduled time, sothey both fell silent. Beca tapped out an impatient beat on her ripped jeans, glancing at the clock. With forty six minutes to go and nothing to do, Beca slouched forward, forehead resting on her arms, bored out of her mind. She was just about to pick at a frayed thread on her flannel when the door opened.
"Excuse me, Coach Wickey?"
Beca blinked in disbelief, recognizing the bubbly voice and looking up at the visitor at the door.
"I have a real quick favor to ask, if that's okay," Chloe Beale bounced into the room, brightening the atmosphere with her smile. "The senior student council is doing a school wide survey and I was wondering if I could maybe borrow a student here for it?"
"Kiss ass," Bumper muttered as Chloe and the teacher continued to talk. "She probably sucks a lot of Wickey di-"
"Shut the fuck up," seethed Beca, hands curling into fists. "You don't even know her."
He gave her a once over. "Like you do."
Beca opened her mouth to retort when she heard her name.
"Beca?" Chloe was looking at her with an expectant expression. "Come with?"
"Uh sure," she said, surprised. She smirked at the look of astonishment on Bumper's face and flipped him the bird, gathering her stuff and following out Chloe out the door.
"Uh, is this survey long because-" Beca began, her question withering under Chloe's beaming smile.
"Yup," Chloe grinned. "It's gonna take the rest of detention. And we can only complete this survey at the nearest Starbucks."
Beca's eyes widened in realization."You-"
"It's my rebellious Breakfast Club Hour now," Chloe winked and grabbed Beca by the arm. "C'mon, Bender, let's go."
Chloe pulled her along as they rushed towards the exit, Chloe giggling and singing random bars of "Don't You Forget About Me" while Beca laughed along with her, already under the spell of Chloe's warm infectious energy.