Hi, I wrote pitch perfect posens on my hollyragsdale account like idk 12 years ago lol. But then I was gonna remake it and then I got locked out of my account and now I wanna keep writing it. So here's the story so far I'm already working on another chapter. I hope you enjoy the revamp
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"Shit, shit, shit," a girl burst out of an apartment building and into a quad that was flooded with early morning sunlight. It was empty, except for a few fat squirrels and the occasional bird. All of the students in the surrounding buildings were fast asleep, clearly utilizing their first weekend back at school, but this girl was not one of them, she was late.
The only cause of disturbance to an otherwise peaceful morning, a continuous stream of cuss words slid out of her mouth while she pulled her long hair into a loose ponytail and unlocked her bike from the rack. She let the bike fall noisily to the ground as she bent over shoving the laces of her doc martens into the boots. She stood back up grabbing the bike and took off at a running start, stomping in the heavy combat boots, she jumped on smoothly, pedaling furiously to pick up speed as she tore away from the building.
She was halfway across campus when her phone started to ring, she groaned loudly but pedaled even harder, ignoring the continuous chiming as she flew past the occasional early riser or grounds worker. Just as her phone stopped ringing she skidded to a halt outside an auditorium where she less than gracefully dismounted her bike.
Not bothering to stand it up in the rack, she pushed the bike roughly in the right direction and hoped for the best. Her feet pounded the ground as she ran toward the entrance to the building, not slowing down as she reached the push door.
BAM
The girl lay flat on her back, staring at the sky in disbelief, trying to figure out what life choices she had made to end up where she was currently. After a few seconds she let a rush of air out of her lungs followed by a groan, when her view of the sky was suddenly disrupted by a dark shape. She screwed up her eyes against the light and recognized who the dark shape was immediately.
"Holy shit are you okay?" the standing girl asked stunned, she offered her hand to the girl on her back, helping pull her gingerly to her feet. "I mean, I didn't see anything...from where I was standing...right over there...I just saw you...on the ground...right now...the doors locked," she finished awkwardly. "Holy fuck you really ate shit-Um, I'm Beca, are you here for auditions?"
"Yeah," the girl answered, feeling herself over for injuries, only wincing occasionally. "I'm Amber, nice to meet you," she stuck her hand out and shook Beca's.
Beca continued to stare at her, still amazed that this girl was able to stand upright after the collision she just witnessed. "Fuck, dude that was...are you sure you're okay?" she asked uncertainly, "Like you're not gonna drop dead with a concussion or something that's gonna make me have to do paperwork with the dean?"
Amber chuckled, "Don't worry, I'll try my best to die only once I'm out of your immediate presence. I thought auditions were at eight?"
"Well, that seemed like a good idea in theory, until everyone went to the Treble's party last night, I figured I'd do everyone a favor and push it back an hour. I didn't see you there," she commented dryly as she pulled a set of keys out of her pocket and unlocked the auditorium door.
"I'm not much of a partier," Amber responded distractedly, her phone was ringing again and there was a flood of texts coming in at the same time. She clicked silence and tried to catch her breath while Beca pushed the door open.
She turned back around to face Amber, a small smile on her face, "You don't seem at all embarrassed by that, dude," she motioned to the door that she was surprised to see didn't have a body print on it.
"Oh you know," Amber smiled broadly showing off bright white teeth, "can't be embarrassed if nothing ever bothers you."
Beca narrowed her eyes at the much taller girl, why was she so familiar, and somehow completely different? She glanced over Amber quickly; she seemed cool enough, she was wearing oversized black overalls, a bandeau bra, with an oversized denim jacket, and doc martens, it looked like she had tattoos scattered on her hands and side, and she was pulling her long hair out of the pony tail it had been in.
"You can take that," Beca nodded to the ringing phone as she stepped through the door finally," doors open in 30, good luck" she said, closing it quickly behind her, leaving only a crack open so she could wink at Amber before snapping it shut.
"Hello?" Amber said staring after Beca through the closed door shaking her head to herself, a lazy smile on her face.
"Why the hell haven't you been answering your phone?" a voice snapped at her, immediately bringing her back to reality. "Auditions started 30 minutes ago, Amber."
"They got pushed back, it's fine, Bree-" Amber chose to leave out the fact that if they hadn't been postponed she would have been a half hour late.
She had barely finished speaking when her sister plowed on, "I wish you would have let me tell them you were coming, it only would have helped you. This is when all of your work pays off or where you find out it was all for nothing. Where you either become a Barden Bella or let the women of the family down. Do you want it to be all for nothing? You know what, don't answer that," Amber rolled her eyes and sat down on the brick wall lining the auditorium's entrance, running her free hand through her long, dirty blonde hair as she relaxed on the ledge, this was the same speech she had heard 14 times over in the last week alone.
She would be lucky if she could get a word in edgewise with her sister so she was content to let her rant until she got it all out, "-sometimes you make yourself sound tired."
"Mm," Aubrey Posen had been going on for about ten minutes at this point throwing in phrases like "bel canto," "breath support," and "perfect intonation." Amber had been getting away with her "mm's" and "yeah's" up until then, but this seemed to have been one too many for her older sister.
"Are you even listening to me, Amber?" Her sister paused, sounding annoyed that the younger girl wasn't hanging onto her every word.
"Ah. No. No, Bree, I'm not," Amber sighed, biting her lip to quiet the laugh that was threatening to escape from her, but failing to remove the laughter in her voice. "Look, I'll call you in a bit, I'm just going to hang out before auditions, decompress, relax a bit, you know, center." Her voice was playful but serious. "But I love you and I'll let you know how it goes."
Her sister immediately began to protest, but was interrupted by someone in the background of her side of the call, "Aubs, leave her alone, you know she's going to do great. Let her get her chi aligned." It was Aubrey's life long best friend and former Barden Bella: Chloe Beale. Chloe's mom was best friends with Aubrey and Amber's, so the three girls had known each other since birth, which meant Chloe had spent 18 years refereeing fights between the two sisters.
Aubrey took a deep steadying breath, "Fine, but listen real quick, Amber, I get you do your own thing, I stopped trying to change anything about you years ago," Amber opened her mouth to protest this statement, Aubrey most definitely hadn't stopped trying at all, " but this is one thing that's really important...to me. So, please try your best, you're so talented and you have so much to offer, I think if you actually applied yourself to the Bellas you would find inspiration for success in other areas-"
"Aubrey," Amber replied slowly, "I didn't get up at 7:30 in the morning to NOT make it onto the Bellas. And I've found success in the areas that I care about, thank you very much," she added hotly, clearly getting annoyed with her older sister.
"You have dreams," Aubrey replied offhand, unaware that she had hit a nerve with her younger sister. "But I think it's about time you actually focused on succeeding at something that you can carry through life-"
"Foul on the play!" Amber, whose temper was quickly approaching its bursting point, heard Chloe say in the background. "Aubrey, that's not fair, Amber has different goals than-"
"No, let her keep going, Chloe, I would love to hear about how I'm wasting my life and will amount to nothing again. Really." Amber insisted sarcastically.
"Amber, quit being so dramatic, I just want what's best for you. And if I don't push you in the right direction you'll make the wrong choices," Aubrey explained, as if this should have been obvious to everyone involved in the conversation.
"Aaaaand time," Chloe called in the back, "that's all you get, Aubrey. I'm calling this before it gets out of hand. Let her go. Amber, crush it, dude. Can't wait to be your official sisteeer!" she sang the last word, to which Amber jokingly gagged.
"Thanks, Chlo. I'll call you after, asshole, I promise, okay?"
Only after her sister agreed that it was okay did Amber hang up.
She slid off the wall onto the ground, leaning with her back against it and her legs sticking out straight in front of her. Slowly the other Bellas, who Amber only recognized from Aubrey's pictures, and people who Amber assumed belonged to the campus's other a cappella groups arrived and filed through the door Beca had unlocked almost a half hour earlier.
Amber passed her time waiting with some light internet stalking; she hadn't heard too terrible much about the current Bella members as she and Aubrey had only recently begun to mend their somewhat precarious relationship, so she spent the last 15 minutes before auditions began giving herself a crash course from Chloe and Aubrey's instagrams.
As time drew closer for auditions more and more people joined Amber in the queue outside the auditorium. She had made her way through all the Bellas except for Beca when a boy came through the line to get their information and to tell everyone they would be calling them in one at a time and to please line up orderly; it was time. After claiming her space at the head of the line Amber directed her attention back to her phone.
Beca Mitchell.
That was one name she did know, well besides Fat Amy, for obvious reasons. Amber might not have spoken to her sister for the better part of two and a half years, but her mother did and for nine straight months last year anytime Aubrey called and Amber overheard the conversation she was sure to be screeching about "Beca effing Mitchell."
Chloe had assured Amber when the two girls had graduated a few months previously, that Beca was actually the tits and Aubrey was just being Aubrey. She had pointed her out in the crowd to Amber; the brunette had looked grumpy from afar, but Amber had watched as her face split into a smile when a goofy looking guy ran over to her, picking her up and tossing her over his shoulder.
She hadn't planned on meeting the tiny brunette for the first time while she was laid out flat on her back after running straight into a locked door in front of her, but Beca was the person she had been most excited to meet at Barden.
"Hey, you're up," the boy was tapping her on the shoulder. She looked up from her phone that was some 94 weeks back in Beca's instagram, shoved it into her pocket and followed him through the door. "So just walk onto the stage, they'll talk to you, you'll sing, you'll leave" he said in a bored drawl as he walked her toward backstage, "Beca picked Tears Dry On Their Own-"
"Amy Winehouse?" Amber asked when they reached the wing.
The boy shrugged, "break a leg," he nodded her towards center stage where lights were shining brightly.
She walked out, her footsteps echoing loudly in the mostly empty auditorium. Beca and the Bellas were huddled together almost dead center with their trophy proudly displayed between them, the other groups were scattered around in the rest of the seats waiting to hear the auditions.
"Hey there, what's ya name?" Fat Amy had spoken first, the Australian was looking suspiciously at the new arrival, as if trying to decide if she would fit in with their group before she had even opened her mouth.
"Amber," the girl cocked her head to the side slightly, smiling down at Fat Amy, amused at how the older woman was looking at her.
"You got a last name or you think you're like Madonna or something?" Amber turned her attention to Cynthia Rose who was chuckling at her own joke.
Before she could answer however Lilly made a near silent comment, "She looks like a girl I did time with in Montenegro-"
"It's just Amber for now. Never been to Montenegro," she interrupted, "and haven't been arrested. Yet," her eyes danced happily as she caught Beca's eye, the corners of her lips had curled into a small smile, Amber assumed she was thinking about her own arrest the year before.
"Alright, just Amber, take it away then," Beca motioned for her to take the floor.
"I think you're coming from a good place," Chloe insisted, she was laying upside down on her bed, her phone in front of her face scrolling absentmindedly while Aubrey lay flat on her bedroom floor. When there was no response she threw her phone by her side and rolled over so she was looking down on her friend, "You guys are just sort of fundamentally different people. And that's okay," she added hastily, "you and I are too.
"But, I think what's important is that you just guide her," Chloe raised her eyebrows at the suggestion she was offering Aubrey, implying that this was in fact the best option, "instead of telling her that she needs to do this this and this or she won't succeed."
Aubrey threw her hands over her face and rubbed her eyes, "You're kind of just sounding like a mini version of your dad and Amber's made it known she is not going to be pushed around by your dad," Chloe laughed here. Aubrey couldn't seem to find the humor in the situation. "My point being," Chloe plowed on, "is that if Amber's going to succeed now, it's going to be because she makes it happen, not because you've controlled every aspect of what she does from here on out. You got to let her be."
Aubrey groaned loudly before she looked at Chloe, "It's just so weird that we were raised the same way and came out so different-"
"Thank god for that," Chloe interrupted earnestly, "I've already had to put up with you for 22 years imagine if I had had to deal with two of you." This comment earned her a scowl and a well aimed slap that almost made contact.
45 minutes later
"So how was it?" Chloe and Aubrey asked in unison, they were huddled around the phone at their kitchen table, each clutching a steaming mug of coffee.
"It went really well," I think they were super into me-"
"Were they pumped when you said you were Aubrey's sister?"
This question was met with a brief moment of silence, "Oh, yeah. I didn't mention that."
Chloe stifled a laugh and placed her hand over her mouth, avoiding eye contact with Aubrey who was looking very offended.
"And why, might I ask, is that?" the older Posen questioned angrily. "You said you were going to at auditions!"
"Ahhh," her sister paused again, Chloe was practically shaking trying to contain the laughter that was threatening to bubble out of her. This sounded like the makings of a monumental sister fight between the two, the likes of which had kept Chloe entertained for most of her childhood. "Nothing too horrible, Bree, just like...I don't know you were their captain, that's a lot to live up to, and I want them to see me for me, not because I'm your sister."
Chloe looked down at the phone impressed with how Amber had diffused the situation,while Aubrey looked taken aback by the offhand compliment she had just received from her little sister. "Not to mention, you did vomit all over the practice hall and terrorize them for most of last year," and there was the comment the two women had been expecting.
Aubrey rolled her eyes while Chloe finally burst out laughing, "Okay, but she does have a point, mama," the red head managed to choke out between peals of laughter.
"Fuck both of you," Aubrey retorted angrily.
"Yeah, whatever, Bree," Amber answered, utterly nonplussed, "look if Beca talks to you guys don't give me up."
2 hours later
"How did you guys sit through that last year?" Beca groaned over the phone. "The amount of people that, I'm sorry, had absolutely no talent that we had to sit through and listen to today was absolutely ridiculous."
"Well everyone hated us last year so it was a little easier," Chloe offered consolingly. "But tell us! How did it go? Did you find your girls?"
"Yeah I think so. This girl named Flo, she'll definitely be a huge help with choreography since we lost you, Chloe."
"Oh, sweet, sweet Beca," Chloe answered sweetly, "you will never be able to replace me."
Beca laughed, "Okay, fine, Chlo, I found someone that will hopefully fill your void-"
"Wait, can you find someone to fill my actual void?" the red head questioned much to the displeasure of Aubrey, who crinkled her face in disgust.
"Gross," Beca mumbled before moving on, "Um," she paused, "okay then. So Flo and then there was this other girl named Amber. She was actually really good." Beca paused again and laughed, "Aubrey, you would hate her, I think she's about as opposite you on the Bella spectrum as I am. She seems really cool-not that you're not cool, Aubrey, that's not what I meant, at all, I-I'm gonna stop talking."
Aubrey's face was flushed red and she looked annoyed, Chloe however was doubled over she was laughing so hard, this was going somehow better and worse than expected. "She sounds like a bitch," Aubrey replied through gritted teeth.
Music pumped through headphones while fingers tapped away furiously at a keyboard. Beca Mitchell, turned to her synthesizer to mess with a few knobs before dragging her eyes back to her laptop. She was in the middle of something good here, this was a mix that had been stuck in her head for days and she finally had the time to sit down and work on it.
She was messing around with some chord progressions when the door of her dorm burst open revealing Fat Amy, she spun around in her chair and glanced over at her sleeping roommate, pulling her headphones around her neck at the same time. "What are you guys doing?" she hissed, luckily the roommate remained asleep.
"We came to ask about what the kidnapping situation for the night is," Fat Amy whispered loudly, while Lilly trailed into the room after her. "Lilly here is really excited to...procure the victims-"
"No, no," Beca said concernedly, "not victims, we're not procuring victims." She glanced nervously at Lilly who seemed disappointed at this statement, "We're just picking up the new girls. Tell me you know that, Lilly?"
Lilly nodded her head slightly and Beca sighed in relief, "Okay, so, you guys pick up Flo and I'll get Amber tonight. Everything starts at 7:30."
Amy muttered to herself as she stared off into the distance. She snapped back to a second later and saluted Beca, "Aye-aye, captain, we'll grab Flo tonight. See you later, Becs," the Aussie called over her shoulder as she followed Lilly out the door.
Beca got up and followed them to the door, "Lilly, tell me that you understand you're only supposed to bring her to the practice hall. Lilly, no chloroform!" Beca yelled at the two Bellas' retreating backs.
Amber Posen had gotten lucky, unlike most incoming freshmen, and quite a few older students, she had her own apartment on campus. Well, it was Aubrey and Chloe's old apartment that her father had continued to lease for her, but regardless, it was hers now.
After auditions she rode back to her new home, enjoying the peaceful morning on campus. She locked her bike up at her building before she found her car in the parking lot: a 1963 Mercury Comet convertible; her 17th birthday present from her mother, and grabbed the last remaining boxes of possessions she had left to bring inside.
Carrying two precariously stacked boxes she made her way inside the building toward the elevator in the lobby. Struggling with her arms full she tried to press the call button with her hip, but missed multiple times.
"Need help?" a voice asked brightly, a hand snaked by Amber's waist and clicked the button for her before even receiving a response.
"Thanks," Amber mumbled from behind her boxes.
As the elevator doors immediately dinged open one of the boxes was lifted out of Amber's arms, "Oh, you don't have to do-" she stopped speaking. "Oh, hi." She smiled radiantly at the girl who was standing on the other side of the box and whose sparkling blue eyes she found herself looking into; she was a head shorter than Amber was, her hair was dyed pink and piled into a messy bun on top of dirty blonde roots, and piercings littered her nose.
She smiled back at Amber who felt her heart thud uncomfortably in her chest, "Hi," she responded, stepping into the elevator while keeping her eyes trained on Amber. "You coming?" she asked playfully as she moved to the side to make room for the other girl.
"Oh," Amber repeated again, blushing slightly as she hurriedly took her spot beside this stranger. The girl continued to watch her in a bemused sort of way as Amber tucked the box under her arm and pushed the button for the third floor.
"I live on the third floor too," she stated, not bothering to hide her excitement. "Is this your first year living here? I haven't seen you around campus before, I definitely wuold have remembered seeing you," her eyes danced happily as she questioned Amber.
"Yeah, I'm actually a freshman."
"Woah a freshman with an apartment...who'd you have to kill for it?"
Amber rolled her eyes at the girl, "No one. This sounds horrible, but my dad's rich, my family's made a lot of donations to Barden for like fifty years now, so…" she trailed off. She didn't particularly like talking about her family's money, "But, it used to be my sister's apartment so it was easy enough," she shrugged as the doors opened slowly to reveal the third floor.
"Eh, can't help who you're related to," the girl joked to Amber's enjoyment.
"After you," her new friend nodded for her to walk through the doors first. Amber smiled slightly to herself, trying to ignore the warm feeling growing in her stomach, perhaps this girl was just very friendly.
Amber led the way down the hall and stopped outside her door, "3C? You're 3C? So you must be Chloe's sister," the girl was beaming again and Amber was trying hard to concentrate on unlocking and opening the door.
"Actually," Amber pushed the door open and stepped to the side to let the other girl through, "Aubrey's my sister."
"Hm," the girl placed the box she was holding on the floor then cocked her head to the side and studied the younger Posen curiously. Now that she had put the box down Amber saw a plethora of tattoos covering her arms and quickly glanced over the ink, letting her eyes rest on each piece for a few seconds only before moving on to the next. "Never would have thought Aubrey," the girl with the pink hair said after a few moments of silence between them.
Amber's face split into another smile, "And why do you say that?"
"No offense to your sister, but she's a little uptight," the girl said bluntly.
This earned a chuckle from Amber, "You're right," she agreed, nodding her head, "we're about as polar opposite as they come."
"Then it sounds like I look forward to getting to know you, Ms Posen," the girl smiled, but it faltered after a second, "I realize that makes it sound like I don't like your sister. I just meant that you seem cool and I want to get to know you." She said all of this very quickly and in a hushed tone before looking around awkwardly and then offering Amber an uncomfortable smile. "So do you sing too?" she added in an attempt to cover up her awkwardness.
"You're weird," Amber smiled at the girl, " you're not saying anything about my sister that someone else hasn't said to me before, so don't trip. And yeah I do, I actually just auditioned for the Bellas this morning. So big things on my horizon," she droned jokingly.
"I'm Amber by the way," she extended her hand out to the girl who took it in her own ring clad one.
"Lincoln Bennett," the girl responded while slowly shaking Amber's hand with a lazy smile splayed across her face. "Can't wait for you to sing for me sometime then, you can give me a personal Bella concert," she grinned toothily at Amber who blushed while she exited the apartment and crossed the hall. She stopped at the door directly across from Amber's and turned around so her back was to it. "This is where I live," Lincoln slapped her hand on the door behind her, "so I'll see you around, Amber Posen."
Her hand that was resting against the door searched for the doorknob for a moment before she turned the handle and allowed herself to fall back into the apartment, she kept eye contact with Amber until she was almost falling over, at which point she jumped back up and stood up straight. "Forreals, dude, I'll see you around."
Amber laughed at the other girl with a grin on her face, "Most definitely," she responded as Lincoln kissed the air between their apartments and snapped her door shut. Maybe going to Barden wasn't going to be a complete waste of Amber's time.
"Oh, hey, man!" Beca had been waiting for the elevator when the doors opened revealing Amber. "You made that easy!" She was holding a velvet bag in her hand and noticed Amber looking from it to her. "Oh right this, blah blah blah you made it into the Bellas, I have to kidnap you for the initiation," she rolled her eyes.
Amber raised an eyebrow, "Do you have to put that on now or can we wait until we get there."
Beca looked down at the bag in her hands and considered it carefully, "Ah, yeah we can put it on when we get there, seems excessive to do it before. Hope you didn't have plans?" she asked as they headed out into the night air together.
Amber looked at her curiously in response, "You were headed out just now when I ran into you."
"Oh," she nodded her head in understanding, "no just this-"
"How did you know what time I'd come pick you up if you made it?" it was Beca's turn to fix Amber with a curious look.
Amber stuttered for a second, "I was just going to grab something out of my car but I ran into you instead. So. We can just go if you want, I don't need it that bad." She trailed off, letting the sound of their footsteps fill the silence that had arisen.
"So are you a sophomore and I just haven't seen you around before?" Beca asked, finally breaking the silence.
"Um, no, actually I'm a Freshman, it's my first year here."
"And you have an apartment? That's rad, I still have a dorm with a roommate," Beca sounded bitter about the situation. "You know, our old captains used to live in your apartment? I couldn't believe it when I saw your address on the call sheet. Crazy odds."
"Hm, that is weird," Amber casually offered.
"You would have liked them, they were cool. Well, Chloe was, Aubrey was a bit of a tight ass. I think she was well intentioned, but man she gave me hell almost up until the last second," the brunette chuckled fondly at her memories of the former captains. "But it all worked out in the end, she might be crazy, but I'd consider her a friend. She was also a great example of what not to do as the captain," Beca laughed loudly at her own joke this time.
Amber tried her best to keep a straight face and was beyond grateful when they arrived at the practice hall and their conversation was interrupted by the bag being placed over her head in preparation for the ceremony.
"I promise to uphold the duties and honor of a Bella woman," Amber and the dark haired girl named Flo who was standing beside her recited back to the group of women across from them.
"And that's it, there's nothing else weird that comes after that," Beca said, handing them each a Bella scarf. "Congratulations, ladies, this could be the beginning to some questionable years of your life! Now let's go party!"