A/N: So I've a few things to mention, first of all sorry for taking so long I had a weird time this spring and then college exams and everything was just up in the air! Alas, I am back and I'll try to stay with regular updates!
The second thing is, the timeline of this story obviously coincides with the movie so I'm working with a script and I'm going to try and stick with it as much as possible but obviously, the movie only follows Beca and it also has months of gaps for me to work with, so some things will be different!
If you've any questions go ahead and shoot and if you're not on this you can always drop me a message on my tumblr, which is ask !
Hope you enjoy! T x
Returning to college was a lot harder than Chloe thought it would be. Not for herself particularly and Aubrey seemed to be fine, you know, her perky preppy self. But Chloe knew, she heard all the names people were calling Aubrey behind her back, some of the freshman even had a video of the Bella's most infamous performance on their phones. It took all of Chloe's might not to smack them silly, but that was not a Bella thing to do.
Chloe smiled to herself, since when was she a fully fledged Bella? She thought back to her first three years at Barden and her mind flashed back to a younger version of herself, doing things just to spite the other Prue and the rest of her aca-posse. So occasionally Chloe would get called to the deans office and she'd say the same thing every time.
"Students of this college should not be allowed to have that video and ridicule it!? It's bad enough that other college and other a Capella groups will have it to torment the Barden Bellas but to have it within your own home? It's practically treason, mutiny, whatever! You need to take action Sir and if you don't I suppose we're just going to be having this conversation every week!" The fiery redhead would then storm out, for good effect.
She wasn't a bad person and the majority of her rebellious phase was behind her, but it was still a huge part of her. Chloe Beale was not someone you took advantage of and therefore you did not take advantage of her friends.
Aubrey didn't know about Chloe's heroism. Not until just before the activities fair for freshman.
She went to the Deans office to ask if she could move away from the sports teams, remembering one year when an over excited first year had tackled one of his friends right into the Bella table and smashed it clean in half, but as she raised her hand to knock on the door she heard a familiar voice.
"I'm sorry Sir but its not just about the Bella's image. I could care less about the prim and proper outfits and the stupid traditions. It's about one girl who's life is being mocked because of a medical condition. What makes it any different from kids making fun of a kid in a wheel-chair? Or somebody with down-syndrome?"
"Chloe, listen it's not.."
"No Sir you listen!" Chloe was getting impatient and really tired of having to visit the dean almost every week.
"Did you know her parents have kicked her out? She asked me not to tell anyone but this is something you need to know. There is nothing "harmless" about this, she is in a bad place and if she finds out what's going on and what they're all saying about her..." Chloe moved closer to the Dean putting both her hands down on his desk and enunciating every word.
"It. Will. Break. Her." Chloe got up slowly trying to let that sink in, but the Dean seemed unbothered by all this. Just another trivial matter. Chloe couldn't help the anger that surged into her next. She flipped over the chair beside her and rose her voice even more spitting every syllable at the obnoxious man before her.
"And you're not gonna have to stop me going after those kids Sir because I won't be! It's past that at this stage, I'll be coming after you and I will get the board of directors behind me. How happy do you think they're gonna be when they find out you've let incessant bullying, that was reported several times, go unresolved?"
"Do not threaten me Chloe because what I can do to you is much worse." The Dean said calmly rising out of his own chair. He walked over to the knocked over chair and placed it back into position.
"I will put up a notice in the staff offices letting lecturers know that if they find someone with the video that they must be sent straight to my office. I will also send out an e-mail banning the video." The redhead smiled triumphantly.
"But listen to me Chloe, this will blow over. In another month or so there will be another funny video craze, most likely something to do with cats. And everyone will forget about Aubrey's episode." Chloe shook her head violently.
"What about next years first years? It won't stop un.."
"CHLOE. Please I'm trying to meet you half way here. I cannot control everything, but that does not mean you can become a vigilante." The redhead scoffed, she wasn't trying to be a superhero, she was just standing up for her best friend.
"I mean it ." The Dean walked towards the door and placed his hand on the handle.
Chloe followed him and stood with her arms crossed still unimpressed by the Deans lack of support.
"If you take matters into your own hands once more and this is not an empty threat, you will have to be punished and whether that's a suspension from activities or your course or worse." He paused to let that sink in.
"Only time will tell." He opened the door slowly and smiled falsely.
"Goodbye, Miss. Beale."
Chloe rolled her eyes and stormed out the door, whizzing past the blonde who had ducked behind a book-shelf. The redhead took out her phone and sent Aubrey a quick message.
Was talking to the Dean we've got a good spot, closest sport is Quidditch! I'll be down in two sorry it took me so long x
The blonde watched as her roommate spun out the door and towards the main square. She felt her phone vibrate and pulled it out of her bag reading Chloe's message.
Why was she lying? Why couldn't Chloe tell her that she had heard some kids spreading shit about her? Aubrey felt the tears fall down her face and quickly ran to the bathroom for a touch up.
On one hand Chloe was looking out for her and trying to protect her but on the other she had lied and broken a promise. Aubrey's mind battled with her heart until she came to a conclusion.
As she was reapplying her lipstick, noticing how close a shade it was to Chloe's hair. She stopped dead.
"Dammit Posen, you're only going easy on her because you've got a stupid school-girl crush on her."
She shook her head and flattened the creases on her bright pink dress.
She needed to concentrate. She may have been the laughing stock of the college but having Chloe protect her made her look like a coward too. She was going to make the Bella's her new project, show the entire college that she could come back from this. She was strong. She could prove it to her dad too. Captain the team to a first place trophy at finals.
She smirked at herself in the mirror and a part of her brain that she wanted to ignore added the final touch to her masterplan. And make Chloe fall in love with me along the way.
Chloe arrived down at the square surprised at the lack of Aubrey. The blonde despised tardiness but Chloe figured it was some higher power helping her out. At least this way she had a little time to cool down after her conversation with the Dean.
The redhead found the table marked "Barden Bellas" and stuck a flier to the front of the desk. she split the rest into three piles, one for her one for Aubrey and one for the table.
The blonde arrived moments later and handed Chloe a clipboard. She looked fierce and perhaps a little scary but that could just be determination. The Bellas did mean a lot to her.
Chloe stuck her fliers into the clipboard and turned to Aubrey reminding her of the important first impression smile. She started breathing deep and pulling her face into the biggest grin she could, but Aubrey didn't seem to be in the mood she just nodded and but an average smile on. Well, as average as a smile could get, but it was still welcoming.
Aubrey tried to talk to a few girls and Chloe watched as each looked her up and down seeming to recognise her and then laugh her off. It wasn't a pretty sight and it hurt Chloe more than she was showing.
"Maybe try someone who wanted to join last year.. Just so we have some names on the sign-up sheet?" Chloe asked Bree nodding her head to a junior who had auditioned for the Bella's the last three years.
Her shirt was obscenely opaque and the girls could see right through it, which was definitely not what any Bella should be wearing but Aubrey approached her anyway thinking maybe Chloe had the right idea. If there was names on the sheet it might encourage freshman to join. Look desired to be desirable.
"Hey Barb. You gonna audition this year? We have openings.
Aubrey said brightly trying to usher the girl towards the table.
"Now that you've puked your way to the bottom, you might actually consider me? I auditioned for you three times and never got in because you said my boobs looked like baloney. The word's out. Bellas is the laughing stock of a Capella. Good luck auditioning this year. Douche-b's." And with that she strutted off. "It hit Aubrey how light her insult was and imagined all the things Chloe had been getting in trouble about. She turned to the redhead suddenly panicky.
"Has everyone seen that video?" She whispered to herself.
"My God. This is a travesty." Chloe sang fanning herself with her hand. "God, if we can't even recruit Baloney Bard, then we can't get anybody." That probably was not the brightest thing to say and Chloe wanted to hit herself in the face right now because Aubrey did not need that. But the blonde seemed fine as she reassured Chloe.
"Just take the dramatics down a notch, okay?" Aubrey turned to the nearest girl.
"Hi do you wanna-"
Chloe shook her head as the girl ignored Aubrey and continued walking.
"We'll be fine. I am confident that we will find eight super-hot girls with bikini-ready bodies who can harmonize and have perfect pitch. Okay? Hi would you like to be a member of..." Ignored again
"Just keep flyering. We have tradition to uphold." Aubrey whispered to Chloe out of the corner of her mouth.
Chloe raised an eye, that was a bit ambitious at this stage of the game.
"How about we just get good singers?" She smiled turning to her roomie, but she wasn't the only one who heard.
"What? Good singers? What?" A blonde girl in a green shirt turned to face Aubrey and Chloe's stand. Her accent gave her away as Australian straight away, even though by looking at her you wouldn't guess it. She wasn't tanned at all and for some reason Chloe had an image in her head where all Australians were born beach ready snorkel and all, right from the womb.
"Hi. Can you sing?" Aubrey asked almost patronizingly and yeah sure this girl wasn't traditional Bella material but Chloe and Aubrey had always promised themselves they wouldn't be like Prue and the others.
"Yeah." The girl replied.
"Can you read music?" Chloe and Aubrey took it in turns questioning her.
"Yeah."
"Can you match pitch?"
"Try me." The blonde smiled and Chloe turned to Aubrey almost for permission. Aubrey nodded and Chloe let out a crisp note and waited. The Aussie repeated it, maybe in a slightly more shrill tone but it was the same pitch for sure.
Chloe again let out a note and waited for the girl to reiterate. Which she did, again. She even added her own little run at the end, which wasn't perfect but Chloe gave the girl kudos for trying she smiled gleefully at Aubrey.
"Yeah. That was a really good start." Chloe smiled at her kindly.
"I'm the best singer in Tasmania." The girl said proudly
"With teeth." She added smiling at the girls, showing off her pearly whites.
"Love it." Chloe giggled to herself.
"What's your name?" Chloe asked still smiling.
"Fat Amy." The girl replied.
"Um...you call yourself fat Amy?"
"Yeah, so twig bitches like you don't do it behind my back." Aubrey's mouth opened in shock and Chloe intervined quickly avoiding a confrontation, not that Aubrey was a fighter but she wasn't too sure about this Amy.
"I will see you in auditions, Fat Amy." She said handing her a flier.
"I can sing but I'm also good at modern dance, olden dance and uh..mermaid dancing. Which is a little different. You usually start on the ground." The Aussy went on to say. Chloe kept her serious face on and gave her an ooh of interest. This girl was either absolutely nuts or a complete and utter genius. The redhead just wasn't sure yet.
"It's a lot of floor work. " Amy said as she wriggled on the floor, it was definitely a sight to see.
"I can see that." Chloe nodded once more smiling at the girl.
"A few more encounters like that and we're bound to make a full team!" Chloe smiled at Aubrey after they had helped Amy of the floor and sent her on her way.
"A few more encounters like that and I'll be sure this is Barden Asylum not Barden University." Aubrey replied shaking her head and scribbling something on her clipboard.
"Just keep an eye out Chlo."
Chloe smiled and nodded and turned to scour the crowd, clipboard in hand ready to pounce.
But that's not what happened.
Chloe's eyes searched the crowd and came to a halt on dark blue eyes. Sparkling, almost grey. Covered in black eye liner, if it was anyone else she would say too much but not on this girl. She had brown hair, parted slightly on the left. It was tucked into a pair of huge headphones so Chloe couldn't see quite how long it was. The girl was tiny but there was something so big about her, something so important.
"What about her?" Chloe blurted her hand flinging towards the small brunette who was slowly making her way towards the Bellas table.
"I dunno, she looks a little too alternative for us." Aubrey said after checking in the direction of Chloe's hand.
But Chloe couldn't have that, she needed to know about this girl and who was Aubrey to say no anyway? This girl was almost exactly like Chloe and Aubrey in their first year in University. The alt look and the I-really-don't-care-what-you-think-so-just-go-away attitude, besides they were Co-Captains so Aubrey couldn't make all the decisions. With that in mind Chloe jumped forwards and handed the girl a leaflet.
"Hi, any interest in joining our a Capella group?" Chloe smiled broadly, it wasn't even her fake get-people-to-sign-up smile. It was a genuine smile that had somehow been caused by this tiny
alt girl.
"Oh right. So this is like, a thing now?" The girl asked sceptically raising her eyebrow.
"Oh totes. We sing covers of songs but we do it without any instruments. It's all from our mouths." Chloe said excitedly pointing to her mouth, as if this young girl didn't know what a mouth was.
"Yikes!" The brunette said smiling at how the redhead had missed how wrong that had sounded.
From Chloe's perspective 'yikes' wasn't a straight up no so she jumped into action.
"There's four groups on campus. The Bellas. That's us. We're the tits. The BU Harmonics. They sing a lot of Madonna. The high notes. They're not particularly... motivated. And then there's..." Chloe pointed across the green to the treblemakers who had at this stage drawn a crowd.
"So are you interested?" Chloe snapped back to the brunette hoping not only for the sake of the Bellas but some other reasons too, that the girl would say yes.
"Sorry, its just, it's pretty lame." Chloe smiled not letting this get her down, she admired the girl being able to speak her mind so freely in a new environment. She was about to go on another spiel about how when she started she thought it was pretty lame too but she didn't have to because Aubrey cut in obviously feeling offended.
"A-ca-scuse me? Synchronized lady dancing to Mariah Carey chart toppers is not lame." Aubrey spat and Chloe had to suppress her own giggle because when Aubrey said it like that, it did sound lame.
"We sing all over the world and we compete in national championships." Chloe tried to cover for Aubrey bringing the world of a Capella down. She was desperate for this girl to join the Bellas and she didn't know why.
"On purpose?" The girl smirked. It was cute and she was quick, Chloe liked that.
"We played the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, you bitch!" Aubrey moved forward looking as if she was about to throw down with this tiny first year.
Chloe stuck her hand in front of Aubrey and nudged her back a little.
"What Aubrey means to say is that we are a close-knit, talented group of ladies whose dream is to return to the national finals at Lincoln Centre this year. Help us turn our dreams into a reality?" She tried to turn on her charm, adding a sweet smile at the end.
"Sorry, I don't even sing, but it was really nice to meet you guys." The brunette said raising her hand in a goodbye and walking on to the next line of stalls.
Chloe nodded towards the girl and quickly took her eyes off her, knowing that she couldn't be distracted from the job at hand. Aubrey mumbled something and Chloe barely registered it, she was in some what of a daze.
The rest of the day went the same way too, she couldn't really remember many of the audition candidates, her mind constantly returning to the small brunette. Chloe was dumbfounded, she hadn't even heard her sing but there was something about her that she just wanted more of and she was in a blissful world of her own just thinking about that girl. She wasn't even sad that she didn't catch the girls name, she just believed that she would definitely be seeing her again. That prospect alone kept her happy, Aubrey however was very far from happy.
After coming down from what she had heard at the deans office, she thought she could cool off and get through the day and find some decent, apt ladies for the Bellas.
But it seemed all of the days events were strategically placed dominoes. Each bad thing falling into the next and by lunch time Aubrey just wanted to go home and cry and sleep and maybe eat and sing sad songs.
At first when baloney barb confronted the girls about how they'd take anyone now that Aubrey had brought them to the bottom, she didn't think that was much of a big deal but as the day progressed each word seemed to be truer than the last.
Aubrey had thought that perhaps the years of a good reputation woudn't be scratched by something as miniscule as last years upset, but then she thought back to when it had actually happened, It had most definitely mattered. She looked across at Chloe who was completely in her own world, her eyes searching the crowd some how frantic and lazy at the same time. Her goofy first year smile plastered across her face.
How could she be so relaxed the girls who had been invited to the auditions were, well less than par in Aubrey's opinion.
It made Aubrey even more agitated, maybe Chloe was stealing glances at Tom across the way. He was at the swimming booth clad in nothing but his speedo's.
She glanced at the sheet in front of her and gladly put the image out of her mind. She had more important things to concentrate on and when she had first put this years National Championship at the top of her priorities list she had not realised how dyer the prospects of having a team was looking this year.
She'd like to say that was because of her turning into a bitch for her final year, but she knew it probably wasn't.