Beca found herself sitting outside on the quad, her Mac book resting lightly on her knees as she mixed together David Guetta's hit "Titanium" and "500 miles" by the Proclaimers. It was getting there, her mix. It was really getting somewhere and she was proud. She'd never admit it out loud, but she was pleased and proud of herself. This is what she wanted to do. She wanted to get somewhere with this: creating music, making music, producing music. It was her love, her life, her everything.
Ever since her parents divorced, it was her outlet, her safety net, her metaphorical "Fortress Of Solitude". That, and her secret Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles graphic novels were what took up most of her time. She set her Mac aside on the grass, her headphones hiding her ears and blasting her mind full with a beat. Beca lent back on her rucksack, closing her eyes to the world around her.
She drew in a breath, feeling only the music, listening to the tempo, the melody, the way the different sounds and lyrics swarmed together.
"Ahhh!" she screamed as someone took the headphones from her head. "What the fu-"
"Hi to you too." Chloe grinned down at Beca. The redhead girl stood above her, her waist bent so their faces were parallel. Her cerulean blue eyes shone with mischief and her smile was teasing and oh-so-kissable. Beca swallowed dryly and shifted herself till she was sitting up, she felt a little too vulnerable lying below Chloe.
"Dude, sorry. I just- I wasn't expecting that. I was really into that song."
"That, and it was pretty loud. Was it a mash-up?" Chloe flopped down onto the grass next to Beca, getting herself comfortable. She wore ripped faded jeans and black converse all-stars with a long sleeved grey top. The collar was shaped into a deep V that cut down into her cleavage, which Beca had a great deal of trouble not looking at. The younger, smaller girl shifted about on the grass and Chloe watched her with intense eyes, a smile still playing on her lips.
"Er... Yeah, it was kind of a mash-up, but I don't talk about my work."
"You made it? Oh now I have to listen!"Chloe reached for Beca's headphones and the smaller girl reacted quickly, snatching them away and cradling them to her chest. Chloe blinked, a little shaken by the sudden movement by the smaller girl, but still gave her a soft smile. "And you mock me for loving a cappella," Chloe teased, resting back on her hands, her eyes trained on Beca's darker blue ones. Beca could feel the blush creeping up her cheeks and frowned sullenly.
"This is different. This is my escape," she muttered, tucking her headphones into her satchel.
"Well aren't you a sweet little mystery. All deep and stuff." Chloe smiled softly and gazed at the other girl, taking in the way Beca's brown curls fell about her face, the way her navy eyes were curious yet, at the same time, held a shield up. "So, what are you taking this year?" Chloe couldn't help but be interested in the smaller girl.
"Philosophy, Music Management, and English Lit," Beca replied, fiddling with the zipper of her satchel.
"Oh! Philosophy 101 with Dr. Hayes? I TA for him!" Chloe said excitedly and Beca half expected her to start clapping her hands in happiness seeing that the red head was practically bouncing on her spot.
"Yeah, with Dr. Hayes. My dad wanted me to take at least one "interesting" class, as he puts it," Beca muttered, her words dripping with sarcasm.
"Oh Intro to Philosophy is great! And, of course, I'll be there. I help with the Freshmen classes." Chloe winked and smirked at Beca. It was then that Chloe realised that Beca's body language was not at all opening towards Chloe. Beca was clearly still getting used to life in Barden.
Everyone was packed in so close with no real escape from being in crowds, classes, shared dorms, or overly packed quads. It made Chloe wonder what background the brunette had come from. "Well, you seem quite chatty today so, maybe I could meet you for coffee? Somewhere quiet?" Chloe asked, pushing herself to her feet in one swift motion. Beca blinked, trying to form words quickly.
"Coffee? With you?"
"No, with your other overly attractive redhead friend." Chloe smirked at her own witty sarcasm. Beca blinked and frowned. "Yes, with me, weirdo." Chloe stuck her tongue out and began to walk away, stopping briefly to call over her shoulder, "I'll take your silence as a yes!"
Chloe flicked her red curls over her shoulder as she walked away from the small alt girl. She couldn't help but smirk as she felt Beca's gaze on her as she walked away. She knew others were looking since the quad was quite busy that afternoon, but she was more bothered about the freshmen that was watching her.
And she knew Beca was.
Chloe headed away, being true to her word and heading down to the Philosophy class were she hoped to see Beca crawl into minutes later. She wasn't lying when she told Beca that she was a Teaching Assistant for Dr Hayes. It's what she wanted to be, a teacher, in a way. So, in her senior year, she had opted to help out in the class she already took to be able to help easily. Dr. Hayes, the balding, ancient teacher of the Philosophy class had a certain soft spot for Chloe. He had always leered over her and spent that extra few minutes answering her questions so, he was more then happy to accept her as his TA.
Being a Teaching Assistant for Dr. Hayes didn't seem all that bad now, not with the promise of seeing the small alt girl in his class. Chloe found herself wondering what Shay would think if she saw her now. She was over Shay, mostly. She didn't care what the older girl thought of her, didn't still have dreams of their past together, and didn't expect the daily phone call any more. She didn't care what Shay was doing, who she was seeing, or who she was sleeping with. Chloe knew she was well and truly over the older lesbian and now found herself crushing quite hard on the freshmen that was Beca Mitchell.
But what if Beca wasn't gay? What is she was 100% straight and Chloe's gaydar was completely wrong? These thoughts didn't actually faze Chloe. She knew she had a certain pull over many of her fellow students. She had already been asked out on several dates and the first month of the new school year wasn't even over yet.
Chloe smirked and continued on to Dr. Hayes' class room with a slight bounce in her step and a wiggle in her walk. She had made up her mind; Beca would either be her best of friends or her girlfriend before the Halloween break.
"Hey, hey Chloe!" the redhead turned as Tom skidded up beside her. He loomed over, his wide set of
shoulders and build making him almost a head taller then her. He smiled softly and fell into step besides her, "What you doing later? I was thinking maybe we could hang out?" Chloe smiled softly and felt like patting the football player on the head.
"Sorry, lover boy. I've got plans, but maybe next time."
###
"Beca? Beca, wake up." Her father was poking her, quite roughly, on the leg. Beca groaned, shifting slightly on her bed. The warm, comfy feeling going away suddenly as she opened her eyes and saw her balding, professor of a father staring disapprovingly down at her. "Funny, this doesn't look like your Intro to Philosophy class," he commented, his words dripping with sarcasm. Beca shifted around, feeling out of her comfort zone as her father sat perched on the end of her single bed and sofa. She pushed herself into a sitting position and tried not to glare at him as she spoke.
"I'm posing an important philosophical question." Her father glared slightly and Beca felt her anger rising. "If I don't actually go to that class, will it still suck?" she smirked her trade mark smirk, hiding the fact that she, in fact, was avoiding classes all together.
And bumping onto the redhead, again.
Beca didn't think she could handle seeing Chloe twice in one day when the redhead refused to leave her thoughts for longer then a few minutes. She knew she had developed a crush on Chloe Beale because she had the same butterfly feelings in her stomach that she'd gotten before over other girls.
She remembered how she felt about Lizzie, her first girlfriend.
She was all sweaty palmed and stumbling over her words; then Sarah, and then Toria, her last girlfriend before she left for Barden. Each and everyone of them had her falling over her words, unable to think straight, and generally being a fool.
But this Chloe Beale, this redheaded senior, made her more nervous and unsure than any other girl had ever made her feel. And Beca kind of liked it, though she didn't know what to do about it. She realized then that her father was still talking to her and she just wasn't listening.
"Look, honey." God I hate that, Beca though, stupid pet names. "College is...it's great. You get to create memories here; I see it every day!" Beca made an audible sigh and climbed down from her bed, leaving her father sitting there and Kimmy Jin, her hostile room-mate, staring a little too intently at her computer screen. As she walked to her wardrobe to change her top, her father scanned her room. He took in the vinyls stack on the shelves, the novels and the graphic novels, the posters and the mixing equipment on her desk. "You just have to give it a chance Beca! You've been here, what, a month now? Do you have any friends?" Beca glared slightly at him, thinking about the LGBT group at the Coffee Cup and the redhead who was always lingering in her mind,
"Kimmy Jin is my friend."
"No!" Kimmy Jin displayed her un-friendship very quickly. So quickly that Beca was taken aback slightly. She flicked the fingers to the Korean girls back and looked back to her father.
"You gotta get out there Bec. You gotta try something," her father muttered as he began pacing the length of her side of the shared dorm room. Beca tried to tell her father about her intern-ship at the Radio Station and he instantly dismissed it, thinking her hopes and dreams were ridiculous in an instant. Regardless of saying he would help her get set up in LA, he was still insistent on the whole "college experience". There was no winning with her father. Beca realized and simply nodded as he spoke to her.
"You gotta try something new Bec. Join one club on campus. And if at the end of the year, you still don't wanna be here. You still wanna go off to LA and be P. Diddy," her father scoffed. "Well, then you can quit college. And I will stay true to my word and help you move to LA."
"Seriously?" She honestly thought he would go back on his word.
"Yes, seriously. But I really need to see it Beca. This is college! Join in!" he headed out her dorm door, set on leaving, but stopped as he opened it. "And I'm getting you a philosophy tutor." With that, he was gone, disappearing out of the door.
###
Beca never showed up for the philosophy class and Chloe found herself more disappointed than she wanted to let on. As she left Dr. Hayes's classroom and headed back to her dorm, the redhead found herself frowning hard and overthinking.
Did Beca avoid the class because of her? Was the invite to coffee too much?
What if Beca really wasn't gay and she was just setting herself up to be broken again, just like what Shay did to her. Maybe it would just be easier to date one of the actually open lesbians on campus.
She knew a fair few: there was Lisa, the English Major, who was short, blonde, and curvy; Tina, the brunette who was a Sports Major, making her all long and toned; Rachel, who had cut her hair butch-short over the summer and wanted to be a Biologist; then there was Violet, who had always made her feelings about Chloe very well known. Violet liked Chloe. She had liked her since she started Barden two years ago. She had followed her around for the first few weeks till she realized Chloe and Shay where together, but by then, Violet and Shay where also together, on the side. But Shay was with everyone on the side as Chloe had found out towards the end of the relationship.
Then there was Tom, who was sweet and cute and quite a good kisser when he thought about it. But he was also a boy and Chloe was pretty sure she was a girls girl.
The redhead kicked the toes of her sneakers against the pavement as she walked by herself, intent on flopping on her bed and listening to old soft rock, the type that was always about love and heartache.
Thinking of Shay and her lack of game with Beca did that to her. It drove her to listening to sad songs written by Blondie or Heart, maybe some Wet Wet Wet or Bon Jovi.
"Hey red!" a voice, an Australian voice, cut through Chloe's thoughts and she stopped dead in her tracks as the girl who spoke, the blonde Tasmanian, Fat Amy, stood before her, grinning wildly.
"Hi, Fat Amy," Chloe replied, managing a smile.
"So, I heard that auditions are soon! I'm so excited! I'm going to crush it and lead you Bellas to victory!" The larger girl grinned in an almost manic fashion and Chloe nodded, still smiling.
"We'll we have to hear you sing first and compare you to everyone else. It's only fair, you know."
"Oh yeah. I don't want to just be given a place on your team without the other losers trying out first, but you heard me match pitch with you. I mean, I was like, better. I was voted the best harmoniser in Tasmania." Fat Amy grinned wider, if it was even possible, flicking her blonde ponytail over her shoulder.
"Yeah, you where pretty good Fat Amy," Chloe said, actually meaning what she said. The blonde had matched pitch perfectly and harmonized very well in their brief encounter at the activities fair. Chloe had to admit, she had been impressed by Fat Amy.
"Is that short brunette gonna be there?" Fat Amy asked, shuffling her texts books in her arms slightly.
"No idea, remember she said she didn't sing."
"Yeah, but I bet she turns up. All the girls who say 'I can't or don't sing' usually can. Well, I'll see you later, Red." Fat Amy gave a small wave and headed off past Chloe, harmonizing loudly to herself.
"Shoot me down, but I wont fall, I am titanium..." Beca continued to hum the rest of the song, pushing the communal shower door open and heading into the wet room. She had kicked off her shoes earlier and tucked them, along with the rest of her clothes, into one of the lockers outside of the main shower room. Only one other locker was taken, so she figured she was pretty much alone.
Since it was nearly midnight, Beca wasn't surprised. She liked the shower with some privacy and she couldn't get her head around her mix. Finding the right song to go with "Titanium" was so difficult she been unable to settle or mix, so a shower was planned to sooth her brain and give her some non-thinking time.
She headed deeper into the shower room and right towards the back of the block. Pulling the shower curtain back, she stepped in, slipping off her blue fleece robe, and hit the water. The warm, soothing droplets of water cascaded down her naked body and Beca let out a sigh of approval, continuing to sing the song that was stuck in her head.
"You can sing!"