AN: Okay, so this one is based off of the One Call Away music video, which is what the asterisk (*) in the chapter title means. Although in this case, the music video and song are so closely related that I suppose it could be considered to be based on either.

Anyway, hope you enjoy.

Edited: Thought I had forgotten the asterisk. Just realized I can't put one. Love it when things don't work out the way I'd like them to. Oh well. From now on, if the story's based on the music video instead of the song, I'll just put it in the author's notes.

Beca Mitchell had always been drawn to music. She loved everything about it. Listening to it, playing it, arranging and rearranging it, creating it.

That was exactly why she found herself strolling through the halls of her university, following the soft sound of Gabriel Fauré's "Pavane, Op. 50" instead of simply going on a walk and listening to her music as she had previously planned.

The small brunette had finally arrived at the doors to the classroom wherein the beautiful song was coming and saw students hurriedly gathering their belongings and fleeing, both excited and relieved to finally be free for the rest of the day.

Once the path was cleared, Beca entered the room, unsurprised that it was one of the dance studios wherein the soothing melody was coming. Firstly, this was a perfect ballet song and secondly, any other type of room except for a music classroom and it probably would've been a bit unusual.

The music was still playing through the speakers for some reason, even though the class was over, so the tiny music-lover scanned the room. Her eyes quickly landed on none other than Stacie Conrad doing some post-rehearsal stretches.

It honestly still surprised her that the tall brunette was a dance major.

Sure, she definitely had the body for it, but Beca was under the impression that her hobbies were exclusively nail care, the E! Network, and sex and not artistic and expressive movements of the body.

Or at least that's what she'd heard about the girl.

Truthfully, they'd never actually met yet and she'd kind of like to keep it that way.

Stacie, on the other hand, wanted the complete opposite.

She wanted to know the other brunette. She was intrigued by her. She seemed to be constantly noticing her whenever she was around or thinking about her when she wasn't.

She'd noticed the shorter girl walk into the room. She'd noticed Beca watching her stretch. Hell, she even remembered noticing her exit the taxi that'd brought her to this University that first day. She was always noticing Beca Mitchell and to say it freaked her the fuck out was an understatement.

You see, Stacie was not the kind of girl who did relationships. She was the kind of girl who went out to bars with her friends basically every single Friday or Saturday night to pick herself up some good lays.

Well, that all seemed to stop the second she'd watched Beca Mitchell first step foot on campus and that was what scared her so much.

Stacie Conrad no longer felt the need nor the desire to go out and have one or two one-night stands every week.

All she could seem to think about nowadays was this shorter, mysterious, beautiful brunette.

How she barely ever spoke to anyone except for a select few. How she was almost always seen wearing her black, oversized Beats headphones. How she almost expertly trod the line between natural and alternative makeup. How her breath-taking, navy-blue eyes seemed to pierce through anyone she looked at.

Like how they were piercing Stacie right now.

"Wait, what?"

The dancer glanced up and sure enough, those striking orbs were most likely unknowingly staring back at her and they even held eye contact with hers for a little while.

Stacie was so entranced by Beca's natural beauty and her stunning eyes that she completely froze, abruptly stopping mid arm stretch, and just stared at the girl with a completely straight face.

It must've weirded the tiny freshman out enough to snap her back to attention though because all she did was offer an awkward smile, before walking away and putting her headphones on.

Though it was a short and seemingly meaningless interaction, Stacie smirked to herself as she resumed her after-class routine, counting it as a successful one because she could've sworn she'd spotted a light blush on Beca's cheeks when she walked away.

"Maybe Miss Mitchell isn't quite as immune to me as I thought she was."

The next day…

Stacie confidently walked through the halls towards her class with a seemingly permanent smirk on her face.

For the very first time since having first seen the shorter brunette, they'd actually acknowledged each others' existences!

Sure, it seemed like a small victory, but every little bit helped in her opinion.

Stacie, still feeling pretty good, entered her classroom and found one of her best friends, Chloe, already there.

She sat down beside the redhead with a big smile and greeted her happily, "Good morning, Chlo."

"Good morning to you too, chipper," Chloe returned with just as much enthusiasm, but that was more usual for her, "Is there a reason why you're so cheerful right now? You're reminding me of…well, me."

"Well, let's just say I've officially interacted with a certain short brunette for the first time yesterday," the tall freshman bragged.

"What? You and your mysterious crush finally talked for the first time?" the ginger eagerly responded, "Congrats, Stace!"

"Well, I never said we talked," Stacie corrected her friend.

"Um…okay," Chloe said, very confused yet intrigued, "So then, how exactly did this interaction go if there was no speaking?"

"Well, I was doing my stretches after dance class yesterday and then she just walked in and started watching me—maybe even checking me out," the taller girl recounted enthusiastically, "So, I looked up and she looked so pretty that, I don't know, I just froze. I think I kind of freaked her out a little because she just put her headphones on and walked away."

The redhead eyed her, completely baffled. "Um…okay. Uh, I get now why you'd count that as an interaction I guess, but then…why are you so happy? She walked away before you got a chance to actually talk to her."

"'Cause she totally blushed when she was walking away!" Stacie gushed.

"Well, I'm glad that you're optimistic, Stace," Chloe replied, "but she could've just been blushing because some girl she doesn't know was staring at her…"

Stacie remained undeterred. "Eh. Whichever reason it was, God, she was still so cute doing it and—"

She was about to go on, but she cut herself off and slyly nudged her best friend with her elbow, nodding towards something behind them.

It was her "mystery girl."

Beca had just walked in and was grabbing a seat only two rows behind them and a little to their right. She had her headphones on as usual and looked gorgeous as always even in just a simple grey t-shirt and jeans.

Chloe subtly glanced behind them and then looked back at Stacie, nodding her head once with an approving smirk. Her expression absolutely screamed, "Good choice!"

The tall brunette smiled back and looked behind them as well and was pleasantly surprised to have caught the girl's eyes when she'd glanced up from her phone.

The tiny moment was soon ruined though when a brunette guy, Jesse Stacie believed was his name, sat down beside Beca and immediately draped an arm over and around the back of her chair, putting a genuine smile onto her beautiful face.

Stacie's smile instantly fell and she directed her attention back to the front of the room, slumping down into her seat.

"Aww, Stace," Chloe whispered sympathetically, having seen what had happened as well, "I'm so sorry."

"Don't be," the lithe freshman stated in a dejected tone, "She was never even mine to begin with, so…"

Weeks had passed since having found out that Beca and Jesse were dating and Stacie didn't think she'd be able to take much more of it.

On the bright side, she didn't think she would have to.

She, Chloe, and their other best friend Aubrey, were sitting on the floor together, their backs against the wall of a wide, open section of hallway. The tall brunette had her laptop resting on her thighs as she checked Beca's social media accounts in a completely non-creepy way.

Her latest post on Instagram was from several weeks ago and it was a picture of her and Jesse on a coffee date. The caption was "My Superman."

That kind of sucked.

However, much more recently, there was a slightly cryptic tweet from this morning on her Twitter page that said, "Is this how love is supposed to feel…?"

Score one for Stacie.

Well, sort of.

It didn't make her feel better at all that Beca may be going through some issues with her boyfriend, but it admittedly did give her a little bit of hope.

"Stace," Aubrey started, snapping her friend out of her thoughts, "You know that this is borderline stalking, right?

"And besides, what is it about this alt girl that has you so hung up on her?"

"Okay, one, I'm not stalking her, I'm just…seeing what she's up to. Two, don't call her 'alt girl.' And three, like, just look at her," the lithe freshman defended herself and Beca, "How can you not think she's beautiful?"

"Yeah, Bree, just imagine her without the heavy eyeliner," Chloe helpfully suggested.

"And the tattoos and the ear monstrosities," the blonde added disapprovingly.

"Aubrey!" Stacie scolded the uptight girl.

"She's right, Bree. That's not really fair," the flame-haired girl, ever the equalizer between her two friends, pointed out, "I have a couple tattoos of my own and you don't call me alternative.

"Besides, hers are all really pretty. And the piercings aren't that bad. At least they're all in her ears and not in weird places.

"Well, as far as we know."

"Okay, fine. Sure, she's pretty," Aubrey begrudgingly admitted, but then countered, "But you barely even know her. Plus, she's still taken."

"Come on, Bree, leave her alone. Love is in the eye of the beholder," the redhead, also ever the romantic, said, "And we don't know for sure what she's saying in this tweet, but it's not too promising about that Jesse guy."

"Whoa, whoa. Um, back up there for a second, Chlo," the brunette told her friend, "Okay, yeah, I think she's beautiful and…special and I think about her a lot, but…love is kind of a strong word, especially for two people who've yet to even speak to each other."

No, Stacie didn't love Beca. Not that quickly and suddenly. They'd never even spoken before.

Besides, she wasn't the type of girl to fall in love, that easily nor at all.

It was impossible…

Right?

Sometimes, Stacie questioned why she had allowed Aubrey to convince her into signing up for this stupid amateur short film competition.

"Just give it a try. Broaden your horizons. Who knows? You might end up loving it and being good at it and it could become your second choice after dancing," she had said.

Lies.

The tall brunette had an even higher respect for filmmakers now than before though because she couldn't even come up with a genre, let alone a plot and this thing was due in a couple of months. All she had was a cool moviemaking method idea, but that was all.

Oh well.

Nothing she could do now except find this damn book that Aubrey had recommended about working with film tape and ace this thing. God bless that blonde, uptight scholar for her internal library.

"Hoh-kay, let's see…film animation, film distribution, film industry—where the hell is this damn book, Posen?" Stacie thought as she passed in between two bookcases and rounded the one on her left.

Imagine her surprise when she found a certain small brunette with heavy eyeliner. She was leaning against one of the bookcases on her right, headphones hanging around her neck, and reading a music-related magazine.

She must've heard her stop or she must've seen her in her peripheral vision because she looked up and met Stacie's eyes. She didn't say anything though nor did she give the taller girl a chance to say anything before simply walking away. Again.

They were a couple months into the semester and Stacie still had yet to actually speak to Beca.

However, she was getting closer to that possibility since she'd signed up to dance in the big show at the end of the semester after having seen the tiny musician's name on the list.

Still not creepy.

The tall brunette still wondered why Beca had signed up. She didn't really seem like the type to care about this sort of thing. Although, she of all people knew that you should never judge a book by its cover. Maybe it was just an opportunity for her to showcase her talent and she'd taken it no matter what.

Anyway, Beca was sitting at the piano, going over her sheet music, while Stacie was stretching just a few feet away from the beautiful girl at the beautiful instrument.

This was her chance.

She was right there, everyone around them was busy getting the stage organized, and both of them were just hanging around there in silence.

The dancer watched in admiration as the musician wrote down what she assumed were little notes about the music.

"Wow. I never thought I would find something as simple and meaningless as someone being a lefty so cute," Stacie thought, taking a step closer to her crush to finally try to speak to her, but it seemed that today was just not their day.

As always.

All of a sudden, Jesse burst past the curtains and grabbed his girlfriend by the arm, practically yanking her off of the piano bench as well as forcing her to drop her sheet music, which seemed like an excessively rude detail.

He was obviously in a really bad mood and his girlfriend appeared to be the target wherein he aimed his discontent.

"Beca, why the fuck did you sign up for this stupid shit?" the brown-haired boy questioned, his voice loud and demanding, "You knew I was planning a date for tomorrow, but now it turns out you have a rehearsal? I even had dinner reservations for before we saw that new action movie."

"Just move the reservation date. We can go Saturday," Beca suggested, her expression and tone annoyed.

"No, tomorrow's gonna be the last day it's in theatres," Jesse said, getting frustrated with the short girl, "Why can't you just bail on rehearsals tomorrow?"

"I can't bail on rehearsals," the small brunette refused, ripping her arm from her boyfriend's grasp, then crossing both of hers.

"But you can bail on one of my movie-cations?" the taller of the two asked in an offended voice, "You know how sacred they are to me. I'm getting my girl more interested in what I love and I'm getting to spend time with you."

"Jesse, I've told you a million times that I fucking hate most movies, okay? And you forcing me to watch one almost every single fucking night is never gonna change that!" Beca shouted, "And besides these rehearsals are important to me!"

"Of course. Your fucking music is always more important than me! Am I never your first fucking priority?" Jesse yelled back, trying to grab at his girlfriend again, but she wouldn't allow it.

"Oh my god! I can not fucking deal with this anymore!" the tiny musician exploded, backing away from the other brunette, "I'm done. We're over, Jesse."

Beca rushed out of the auditorium without another word, ignoring Jesse's calls after her.

Stacie watched the brown-haired boy shake his head and throw his hands up in defeat, before walking off in the opposite direction of his now ex-girlfriend.

"Wow. Insulting her passion, then letting her go like it's the easiest fucking thing ever," the dancer thought bitterly, "What a fucking dick."

Feeling the need to just make sure that she was okay, Stacie stealthily followed her crush.

She slowly and as quietly as possible pushed the door open about an inch and was met with a sight that made her heart twinge.

Beca hadn't noticed her presence as she was angrily pacing back and forth in the hall, raking her hands through her hair and trying to fight back tears.

She let out a frustrated groan, before practically throwing herself back against the wall and sliding down into a sitting position. Her shoulders and back shook as she failed to keep her emotions in check.

Stacie so badly wanted to go sit down beside her, pull her into her, and let her cry onto her shoulder.

However, she figured it wouldn't be very welcomed since they barely knew each other and this was meant to be a private moment.

Instead, she watched as the girl who she just then realized she was falling for broke down right in front of her, knowing she couldn't do anything to help her.

Later that night, Stacie pulled up into the alley beside one of the local theatres and parked her car. She climbed out and opened the backseat door. She then pulled out a box filled with everything she needed to finally finish this stupid competition.

She knew that she wasn't going to win after having heard what some other people had managed to put together. She didn't have the skills nor the drive and that was fine with her. She'd never had huge expectations for this anyway.

She still had to show something though, so she'd put together this cute, little story, using rearranged film tape from old movies.

It wasn't good, but it wasn't bad in her opinion. It was presentable.

Well, as soon as she finished putting it all together.

Beca wandered around the streets of the city, in desperate need of some air and space.

Unfortunately yet as expected, Jesse had been at the door of her dorm room, waiting for her to return so that he could beg for her forgiveness and for her to take him back like the foolish, movie-obsessed lover of happy endings that he was.

She, of course, had refused though.

Anyone who didn't understand how important her music was to her and who would insult it like that was not someone with whom she wanted to be.

Besides, she'd been quickly losing interest in him and his "movie-cations" that he'd force her to take part in, no matter how often or loudly she'd protest.

"He accuses me of loving my music more than him when he has a literal library of movies that I've never been allowed to touch. Well, same goes for my music equipment. What a fucking hypocrite."

At some point during her walk, Beca had meandered around and found herself at one of the theatres and on the marquee was a pretty interesting-sounding title and the last showing was about to start in a couple minutes.

"Oh right. They're playing the entries for that amateur filmmaking competition Jesse was thinking about entering, but then decided he was 'too good' for," the small brunette recalled, "Well…not doing anything anyway."

Stacie slumped back into the chair at the desk in the projection room as she released a bored sigh.

She had finished putting her short film together earlier and had just finished her second showing.

"Just one more," she tiredly thought as she looked at all of the film tape that she hadn't used, which was hung up everywhere in front of her, "Now, what the hell am I gonna do with all of this?"

The tall dancer shook her head in disappointment at the waste of material. She then moved to sit on the chair beside the window for the projector to watch a couple of the seats slowly become occupied.

"Cool idea, crappy efficiency."

Now, she didn't expect there to be many people in the first place. Add the fact that it was her last showing, she actually expected there to be virtually no one.

However, she was mistaken.

There were a few people, including a certain tiny yet beautiful brunette.

Her eyes widened to nearly the size of frisbees when she noticed the girl walk in.

For one thing, Stacie was pretty shocked to see Beca.

She had made it quite obvious that she did not enjoy very many movies (either that or Jesse had terrible taste, despite being a filmmaking major), so why she had decided to come watch some rookie's short film competition entry was beyond Stacie.

Another thing was that she had just broken up with her boyfriend that afternoon.

If she were Beca, she wouldn't have even wanted to leave her bed, let alone her dorm room, even though she had been the "dumper" and not the "dumpee." Chloe probably would've had to force her to get out and by the looks of it, Beca was alone, which made Stacie feel kind of sad.

Although, she didn't look like she was exactly thrilled to be out either and that was also definitely not okay with the tall brunette.

Beca shouldn't be the one feeling crappy for having broken up with her asshole of a now-ex-boyfriend. It should be Jesse kicking himself for having treated such an amazing girl like her like shit and then letting her go with almost no fight.

Stacie furrowed her eyebrows in thought when she suddenly got an idea. She was sure she would embarrass herself doing this, but she was also certain it would make that girl smile and that would so make it worth the humiliation.

Quickly, the tall freshman scanned through the unused film tape and grabbed all of the ones she'd need. She hurriedly started putting together an all-new montage, knowing how crappy and choppy it would look but not caring at all.

Once the new footage was ready, she wrapped it around a film reel, replaced her short movie with it, and rapidly yet carefully fed it into the projector part.

Stacie eagerly pressed the "start" button and watched as the projector started up. She then let her eyes settle onto her crush to see her reaction, her teeth nibbling on the corner of her lower lip.

Beca watched the first clip and noticed that it was definitely not the beginning of any kind of film.

This person, for some reason, decided to start their movie off with the climax of some old, black and white movie. There was a western "damsel in distress" tied to a railway and a train coming right at her.

Then the video suddenly cut to the next slide, which was a clip of the hero of a different movie kicking down a door and bursting into a room, probably to save his girl in need of help.

"What the actual fuck?" Beca thought as she watched the horribly organised and edited short film.

She was picky, but this was just shit.

She turned to see who the creator of this awful film was when she met eyes with the one and only Stacie Conrad.

The taller girl was sitting at the window for the projector and looking right at her. She then sent her a little smile that made her feel…special maybe? As if the crappy movie was possibly made specifically for her…and that kind of made her lips turn slightly upward too.

Still smiling a bit, Beca turned back to the screen and watched some more of the video.

This clip was of an animated mouse in a superhero costume, flying downward and using some kind of lightning superpower out of his hands.

The next was back to the second movie and it was the hero and his girl being reunited after he had saved the day. They very over-dramatically threw their hands into the air and then flung their arms around one another in celebration.

Finally, a bunch of other celebratory scenes started playing and she really started to understand what Stacie was trying to tell her now.

"Wow. Never heard of the Miss Conrad being such a softie."

The thought made Beca smile even wider as she kept sharing glances back with the girl, who was also grinning very broadly.

As the clips continued on, they surprisingly got even worse and people even started throwing popcorn at the window, but that did nothing to deter either of the brunettes' smiles. They just ignored everyone and continued staring and smiling at each other.

After the movie, Stacie was cleaning everything in the projection room up when she finally heard the unmistakable voice of her crush sound from behind her, "Hey. Stacie, right?"

The taller brunette spun around and came face-to-face with Beca Mitchell, who was talking to her at last!

"Hey. Yeah. Yeah, it's Stacie. And you're Beca, right?" the tall freshman responded as casually as possible, as if she didn't already know her name.

Internally, she was literally celebrating the fact that they were finally speaking to each other.

"That's right," Beca replied, nodding slightly, "So…about your movie"—Stacie held her breath, hoping she wasn't about to tell her how creepy and weird what she'd just done was, despite the smiles they'd shared—"Look, I know we don't really know each other, but…I can't help but feel like that montage was some kind of…message…to me specifically."

"Oh, it was," the tall brunette answered very bluntly and not entirely gracefully, which made her crush laugh a little, "Look, you're right about not knowing each other much, but I've seen you around a lot obviously. I also watched you break up with Jesse and I'll be honest with you, that was probably one of the smartest choices I've ever seen anyone make."

Beca furrowed her eyebrows in slight offence, but before she could say anything, Stacie continued speaking as she slowly inched closer to the other girl, "Sorry. No offence and you probably didn't really want my opinion anyway, but…

"It's just, I've seen him treat you like total crap and I can't stand that. You deserve so much better and that's…what I wanted to show you in my video."

She was going to shut up then, but decided to add one more thing, "I also…really like you, so that would be another thing I had against Jesse. So…yeah."

Okay, maybe adding that part had been unnecessary.

"I've heard you're pretty forward and you definitely did not disappoint," Beca chuckled, "Well, I really appreciated the video and the honesty. And…"—she got closer to the taller brunette as well—"I guess if you're gonna be that honest, then I should return the favour. Another part of the reason why I broke up with Jesse was because…I've seen you around too and I also really like you. Like, a lot, heh."

Okay, or maybe it had been necessary.

"Would you like to go on a date with me on Saturday night?" the shorter brunette asked with a nervous smile, even though she was already 95% sure of the answer.

"Hm…let me think about it," Stacie teased, pretending to ponder the question, which earned her a cute, little smirk and an expectant head tilt, "Yeah, I suppose I can do that for you."

"Shut up, you dick," Beca laughed as she raised herself onto her tiptoes so that she could place a quick kiss onto the taller girl's cheek, "Thanks again for making a really shitty day much better. And I can't wait for Saturday night."

"I'll be counting the minutes," the taller freshman lovingly responded as she played with the tiny musician's dainty fingers.

"God, you're so cheesy," Beca chuckled, "It's late. We should be getting back to our dorms. I'll see you around, Stace."

"Indeed you will, Bec," Stacie called after the exiting brunette.

Even after Beca left and Stacie realized she had more stuff to put away, she was still smiling like an idiot.

It had taken months and months of yearning, but it had finally paid off! She had a date with Beca Mitchell! Nothing could bring her down at this moment. She couldn't wait to tell Chloe and brag to Aubrey that she was right to have waited.

Once everything was in order, Stacie grabbed her jacket and went for her keys in her pocket but felt something extra. A piece of paper. Curious.

She excitedly took it out and discovered that it was a note from Beca.

"Loved the crappy and cheesy video. Can't wait to see you again. Can't wait to talk to you again either, but maybe it won't have to be too long.

xxx-xxx-xxxx

Beca

Btw, your editing skills are for shit ;-P"

Stacie didn't care that she was out in the open. She excitedly squealed and hopped up and down in celebration as she internally chanted, "I got her number! I got her number!"

She eagerly entered the number into her contacts (and yes, she added a heart at the end of her contact name) and composed a new text.

"Good job getting that note into my jacket, creep :-P" –Stacie

"Also, I'll have u know, I made that video in less than 10 mins and I made it just for u, Bec" –Stacie

"Trust me, I could tell" –Beca3

"With both statements" –Beca3

"And I'd rather be a creep than walk away without leaving you with my number ;-)" –Beca3

"Look who's the one being so forward now ;-P" –Stacie

"But u know what?" –Stacie

"I'm completely fine with that bc at least now u know that if u ever need me, I'm only one call away."

AN: Thanks for reading.