A/N: Thanks for the positive reviews, they really help motivate me to write!
Disclaimer: I don't own Pitch Perfect. I wish I did but I don't, and I hate myself everyday because of it!
See what I did there?
Anyway, here's chapter 3!
The bright pastel colors should be the first sign that I'm dreaming. The second, being the wide meadow that I've never seen before. The grass is unnaturally soft and there's not a single cloud in the bright blue sky.
Birds are chirping.
I'm alone, but something doesn't feel right. I'm not quite sure what because the beauty of it all distracts me for a moment. My bare feet take me to the edge of the long expanse of flat land, where it meets the forest.
"Hello?" I call, taking a couple more steps forward.
My voice echoes, bouncing of the trees.
Wait.
The chirping stops.
It's getting darker, and I look up to see thick, dark clouds rolling in at an unusual speed. It doesn't feel like a dream at all anymore, it's a nightmare.
Suddenly, I don't think I'm alone.
Without waiting to find out, I take off at a sprint. Everything looks exactly the same, the only sound being my feet hitting the forest floor.
The temperature drops and I can see my breath fog in front of my face.
"Little girl." An eerily familiar masculine voice speaks and I come to an abrupt halt.
No, not them, anyone but them.
My hands come up to clutch at my ears. "No please, go away."
"Grace," this time, a nasally feminine voice purrs.
I shake my head, tears falling down, memories surfacing from the deepest parts of my mind. I need to get out of here. It's not safe.
"Grace," they say together. "Graaaacceee."
"Hey, Grace," this voice is new. It sounds familiar, but it doesn't bring the bad memories that the other two do with it. I know this one, not as well as the first ones, but I know it. Faceless figures swirl around me, making it harder to breathe.
"Grace, wake up!"
I shoot up from the couch, almost smacking into the figure that's hovering above me, masked in the darkness the shrouds the living room.
The Bella house.
I had refused to sleep in a bed when they offered (Fat Amy didn't, she had said that she needed her 'beauty sleep'), and had instead slept on one of the couches in the living room that was surprisingly comfortable. This way I could always make an easy escape. I think before I fell asleep, Lilly had pulled a strand of hair from my head. Please don't let her clone me or do whatever it is she mumbled about earlier.
The figure in front of me reaches out and I shrink back, still not fully awake.
"Dude, hey it's just me," my eyes adjust to the darkness and I make out Beca's face.
"Beca?" I ask even though I know that it's her.
"Yeah, it's me," Beca assures me, sitting down on the cushion where my legs had been before I had sat up. "I just got back. I had a couple things I needed to get done."
"Okay," I nod.
My hands are still shaking and a sheen of sweat covers my face. I can't see myself well in the dark, but I know that I'm probably paler than a Cullen.
The slightly taller brunette gives me a reassuring smile. "Bad dream?" I nod stiffly. "Want to talk about it?"
"No, I'd rather not think of it," there are some things that you don't share with people. I don't want Beca to look at me any differently than she already does.
She shrugs and grabs the remote off the side table, flicking on the television. Curling her legs underneath of her, she pulls some of my blanket over her lap. "We can just watch some TV then."
Not quite sure why she didn't just go to bed in her room, I pull my knees up to my chest and focus on the wacky antics of the sitcom family that's playing out in front of us. It must be around one because that's around the time when shows like this one are aired.
After a couple minutes, my lack of a good nights sleep starts catching up to me and I let out a quiet yawn. My head is lolling to the side and I shift, unexpectedly leaning into Beca, who stiffens at the contact. I curse myself for my mistake, remembering what Chloe said about her and physical contact, but Beca surprises me by relaxing and leaning back into the cushion, closing her eyes.
A small smile tugs at my lips and I close my eyes, for once in a long time, falling asleep without any fear of the next day.
The next morning I wake up to the smell of pancakes and loud voices. Beca must have left at some point, because I'm alone in the living room. Pausing at the threshold to the kitchen, I take in the sight before me, not something I've really ever seen before.
Stacie is at the stove making the pancakes, while the rest of the girls are sitting around the table laughing at something someone had said before I got there.
"Yo, the squirt is up," Amy informs everyone, meeting my glare. She hadn't used my actual name once since we met.
They all turn to face me and give me various greetings.
Chloe pulls out the chair next to her. "Morning, Grace," she gestures for me to sit down, and I do. "How'd you sleep?"
"Good," I lie easily while she glances to Beca, who's sat across from her and shoots her a meaningful look which is returned with a glare.
Something tells me I was a topic of discussion before I got here.
"Well, I poured blood, sweat and tears into these pancakes, so you'd all better enjoy this rare occurrence," Stacie interrupts whatever would've been said next by placing a huge tray of pancakes in front of us.
"In my country, we only ate bugs and the occasional rat," Flo says meaningfully and I gape at her.
"Anyway…" Beca drawls. "Thanks for breakfast, Stace."
We all say our own thanks as the tall girl takes the seat to my right and start eating.
I have to hand it to Stacie. These pancakes are the best I've ever tasted. Well, I've only had them a couple of times before, but these are so much better.
"So, Grace," the blonde girl, Jessica, I think asks. "Do you go to school?"
Assuming Beca and Chloe had filled them in, I shake my head. "No, I took my GED last year when I was in tenth grade."
"Wow, you must be pretty smart," Cythia Rose comments.
"Not really, it wasn't that hard," I shrug, shoving around a piece of pancake on my plate.
"At least you didn't drop out," Chloe chimes in. "That would've been easier."
"What the ginger means is that it's very admirable that you got your GED," Stacie informs me with a smirk.
The rest of breakfast is filled with the same small conversation and questions: favorite color, music preferences, etc. I try to enjoy it while I can, because I know I'll have to leave soon.
When everyone is finish and wanders out of the room, I help Stacie clean up and she tells me all about the cute guy she met the other day and how she was going to go in for the kill, whatever she means by that. She's talking to me like an adult and that's all that really matters.
With two people working, it doesn't take that long to finish, and Chloe calls everyone into the living room.
It's oddly silent and the red head looks extremely nervous. I glance at Beca for a hint as to what's going on, but she looks nervous too.
"Um," Chloe pausing, searching for the right words. "Bec, maybe you should take this one."
"What? Me?" Beca's eyes widen when Chloe shoots her a pleading look. "Fine. Grace, what Chloe was trying to say is that we think we should call someone to let them know where you are."
What?
I shoot up from my spot on the couch, my heart leaping into my throat.
"No, no, you can't do that! I'll leave right now, please, I can be gone in two seconds. Just don't tell them where I am!"
Beca holds her hand up, silencing me. "Let me finish. We want to tell them where you are, so that one of us can apply to be your foster parent. Not so we can get rid of you," she gestures to herself and Chloe when she says, 'one of us'.
"Wait, what?" I scan each and every one of their faces, lingering on Emily's, because she's the easiest to read if this is a joke. "Are you kidding?"
"We're serious, kid," Stacie tells me. "Chloe talked to all of us and it'd be pretty hard to deny her even if we didn't agree with her. She's got some power of persuasion. Plus, we all think your pretty cool, so we want to keep you around."
I was still frozen. This didn't make any sense. I've known them for less than a day, and they want me to live with them.
Was this another dream.
"So, what do you say?" Cynthia Rose asks me.
Each of them have various expressions on their faces.
Chloe looks like she did when she hit me with her car. Stacie is giving me an encouraging smile, while CR, Ashley, and Jessica give me a thumbs up each. Fat Amy, Flo, and Lilly are squinting at me for some odd reason, and Emily, unsurprisingly is bouncing in her seat. Lastly, my eyes fall on Beca, who's biting her lip with an anxious expression, obviously awaiting my answer.
"I'd love that," I breathe out, tension leaving my shoulders.
They all break out into shit-eating grins.
"Group hug!" Chloe shouts and without a choice, I'm pushed into the center of their circle, pressed up next to Beca, who looks about as uncomfortable as me.
"Get used to it. This happens a lot," she tells me, but can't help the smile on her lips.
Everyone separates and Fat Amy pats me on the shoulder. "Don't worry squirt, I'll be the coolest aunt ever. I'll even make you my famous jungle juice."
I have no idea what that is, but Beca shakes her head firmly. "One, Amy, I'm not sure that's how it works, and two, there will be no alcohol for the kid."
All she gets in response, is a wink.
About two hours later, half of the girls had left to go to class, which left me with Chloe, Flo, Stacie and Fat Amy. Chloe had called multiple numbers until she was put in contact with my social worker, who I haven't seen since I was 14. She left the room for a while to talk to her, presumably so I didn't hear what they talked about. The others were sorting through a pile of mail while she was gone.
Half an hour goes by before she returns and holds out the phone to me. Her expression is neutral, which seems like a hard thing for her to do.
I swallow thickly and clutch the phone to my ear, "Hello?" It comes out as a squeak.
"Hello, Miss Connors," the old, raspy voice of my social worker, Mrs. Michaels, greets me. "It's nice to finally hear from you."
Heat rises to my cheeks as I try and think of a response. "Um, yeah, sorry about that."
"Anyway, I talked to Miss Beale, and she explained what she knows of your situation to me," Mrs. Michaels says. "Normally, I wouldn't let you stay there, but as your previous foster family didn't report you missing right away, we don't have another home for you to be put in right away."
Seriously?
Is she saying what I think she is?
"Of course, I will have to run extensive background checks on all the people living there, and visit in person," she drones on. "and have them fill on piles of paperwork…,"
By now, I've completely tuned her out. The only thing I can focus on is the fact that I get to stay here. This has to be a the best luck I've ever had, which reminds me that something would probably come in the form of a wrecking ball to destroy it.
"…But you'll be staying there for the time being," I catch the last of her words.
"Thank you so much!" I try to keep my voice from cracking with the swell of emotion I'm feeling.
"You're welcome," she responds with a smile in her voice. "Take care of yourself, and tell Miss Beale that I'll be in touch very soon." With that the phone beeps to signal that she ended the call.
Placing the phone down on the table, I look at the four girls who've managed to stay surprisingly silent.
"And?" Flo prompts, waving her hand in a, 'go on' motion
"She said that I can stay for now," I grin and turn to Chloe. "and that she'll call you soon."
Chloe's neutral mask lifts to reveal a smile and crazy look. "Aca-awesome!" She cheers.
"Excuse me?"
Amy looks up from the hate mail that she's reading to inform me. "It's a cappella lingo, squirt. You put 'aca' in front of whatever you want," she smirks when I glare at her for the nickname.
Two can play at that game.
Casually picking up a letter, I fake read it before declaring. "No wonder you get so much hate mail, if you're 'down under' is as offensive as this person claims."
Choked laughter erupts from each of the other girls, but Fat Amy.
She gives me a long look before tearing the letter out of my hands and tossing it back in the bin.
"Don't start something you can't finish, kid," she says slowly, to threaten me.
We both slowly stand up from the table, eyes never parting from each other. She takes a menacing step forward. "I'll sit on you."
Stacie, steps between the both of us before I can seal my fate and states calmly. "Now, guys, how about lunch?"
Each of us exchange one last glare before looking at Stacie.
"Lunch?"
The day had gone on much like the night before, girls leaving for class or coming back, someone always there to stay with me, though.
It was almost six, and everyone had made there way back to the house, ready to wind down for the night.
Chloe had told me that I could share a room with Emily, because there was no way I was gonna share the only other open bed in Lilly's room. I'm pretty sure someone mentioned that she sleeps upside down.
So that brings us to right now.
Beca, Chloe, Emily and I are in the energetic brunette's room. She told me that she had just moved in last week and hadn't had anytime to decorate yet so we could decide together. Something tells me that I'll just end up letting her do whatever she wants because her excitement is hard to say no to, like Chloe's.
"So, your bed is the one by the window," Emily says, sitting down on her own.
I take a moment to study the room. The walls are a pale blue and the carpet is a chocolate brown. It's soft underneath my feet. I sit on the bed, the mattress bouncing underneath me. The comforter on it is really nice, and the pillow at the head of the bed is super fluffy.
A laugh sounds from behind me, and Beca grins when I turn. "You like it?"
"Yeah," I sigh, this was probably the comfiest thing I'd ever slept on. "Best bed ever."
All three of them laugh.
"Cool, dude," she says back.
"So, tomorrow we are going to be scouting our competition, Das Sound Machine," Chloe starts. "They stole our tour and are our competition at Worlds. So now we have to go see just how good they are."
Beca rolls her eyes. "Everyone's going but if you don't want to, I can stay here with you."
The red-head next to her looks like she's about to protest but I quickly cut in, not wanting to cause a rift between the two captains.
"I'll go."
"Great," Chloe grins. "Well I have a Russian Lit. paper to write so I'll see you later!"
She leaves and Beca follows behind her, claiming that she's going to see someone named Jesse, but it sounds like an excuse to me.
That leaves just Emily and me.
I lay back onto my pillow and watch as the other girl opens a book and starts writing, biting her lip. I watch for a little bit before the silence becomes uncomfortable.
"What are you writing?" I ask, and immediately cringe when it sounds like something a toddler would ask.
Brown eyes meet mine and she looks nervous for the first time since I've met her.
"I'm working on the song I auditioned for the Bellas with."
"You write songs?" I ask, interested.
She smiles softly at me and nods. "Yeah, I love music, it's all I've ever known. My mom was a Bella and she told me my whole life that it was the greatest years of her life."
There's a twinge of jealously that settles in my stomach while she talks about her mom and music, but I push it down because I know it's not her fault that my childhood was vastly different from hers.
"That's nice," I manage to smile.
"You want to see?" She gestures to the empty space beside her on the bed and I hesitate, before getting up and sitting next to her. I keep an appropriate space between us while she starts to babble about the song she was working on.
She continues for a while, keeping up the conversation for both of us and occasionally asking me short answer questions.
Normally, I would never be friends with someone as innocent and happy-go-lucky as Emily, but I can't help the feeling of camaraderie I feel when I'm with any of the Bellas.
We talk for a little while longer, before she tells me that we should go to sleep so we're prepared for our 'mission' tomorrow.
I curl up under the covers and close my eyes.
Emily flicks the light out and flops onto her bed.
"Goodnight, Grace,"
"Night, Emily,"