Stacie Conrad would like to think that as a member of the Barden Bellas, Barden University's resident national a cappella champions – and not to mention being really hot – she would be in the know regarding things she considered important, or relevant, or even just interesting, around campus. And she was friends with Fat Amy, who basically the town crier of all things Barden, for heaven's sake.

There were just some things she just assumed she would instantly be made aware of, should it come to pass.

But then again, she supposed there would be the rare occasion when people would neglect to tell her something. She'd like to think it wasn't their fault, but it's not like she wasn't constantly being seen around campus.

In any case, on one Wednesday afternoon, she made a mental note to take up the matter with her fellow Bellas, even as she made a beeline for a particular library table.

She wasn't being particularly stealthy, but the current occupant of the table was so engrossed in her work she didn't notice Stacie's approach, jumping startled when Stacie loudly and unceremoniously dropped her bags onto the table. "Aubrey Posen. As I live and breathe."

Aubrey turned around quickly, and smiled up at Stacie once she had somewhat recovered. "Stacie Conrad. Always a sight for sore eyes."

Stacie grinned, taking the seat beside Aubrey at the table. "Chloe mentioned having dinner with you last week, but what are you even doing here?"

"Uh," Aubrey indicated the books in front of her. "Coursework."

"But you graduated." Stacie oddly felt the need to remind her. "Like, a year ago."

Aubrey smiled weakly. "I re-enrolled."

Stacie stared at her for a full beat before she asked incredulously, "Why?"

"To earn pre-law credits."

Stacie's next incredulous inquiry was cut short, and instead she wrinkled her brow, confused, and queried, "I thought you were in pre-law?"

Aubrey shook her head. "Business degree."

"Oh." Stacie exhaled. And then she asked, "You haven't gone to come see the Bellas?"

"I have a lot of catching up to do, I haven't really had free time." Aubrey smiled apologetically. "But my new job lets me work from home, so that should change soon."

Stacie nodded, taking in the new development of Aubrey being back in the Barden campus. "We should hang out sometime."

Aubrey looked surprised, but smiled widely at the invitation. "I'd like that."

"Cool." Stacie smiled back. "It'll be fun having the old Bellas back together. We can make fun of Flo and call ourselves the Originals."

Aubrey's smile slightly faltered, but she quickly recovered by noticing the clock behind Stacie. "Shit, I have to go."

"Fine, we won't be the Originals," Stacie frowned, watching her gather her things. "You do?"

"Yeah, uh," Aubrey shoved several of the books in her bag, "Adviser meeting? To discuss all my prelaw and law school options."

"Oh." Stacie nodded, and followed Aubrey with her gaze as the older girl left. That was a little weird, but there was something endearing about Aubrey's tendency to be a total spaz.

Still, it was good to see Aubrey again.

But it would be a few more weeks later after their initial library meeting before Aubrey and Stacie saw each other again, and it wasn't even a result of them following through on their plans to hang out.

After a long afternoon of planning a school project with her groupmates, Stacie trudged home and dropped down onto the couch with a heavy sigh. Not content with her slumped position, she turned towards the person on the opposite end of the couch, tossed aside the magazine she was reading, and lay her head on Jessica's lap. "I hate school."

"Good thing you're not paying for it, then, huh?"

Stacie paused at the familiar voice that wasn't the one she had been expecting, frowned, and peered up at not-Jessica. "You're not Jessica."

"No, she went out to pick up dinner." Aubrey told her.

"And you're here because-?"

"To hear all about your day, obviously." Aubrey quipped.

"Really?" Stacie asked skeptically.

"No." Aubrey shook her head. "Chloe made me come here after my date."

"Oh?" Stacie frowned. "A date?"

Aubrey lifted an eyebrow. "You do know what dates are."

Stacie gave her a narrow-eyed glare. "Of course I know what dates are."

Aubrey chuckled. "Just checking."

"Those are fruits, right?"

Aubrey's chuckles grew into full-blown laughter. "Yes."

"So you're here to gush about the date?"

"Gush? No." Aubrey shook her head. "Oh, no, no. That's a radical interpretation of text. Coffee double date from hell, courtesy of my redheaded best friend who ditched us ten minutes in. And I think I now understand why people don't trust redheads."

Stacie pouted in sympathy. "He wasn't cute?"

"Oh, he was very cute." Aubrey corrected, starting to idly play with Stacie's hair with her hand. "But obviously being set up by his friends so he can have plans other than with them, which is kind of weird."

"Oh, so he was a geek."

Aubrey frowned at the term. "There are good kinds of geeks, though. Guess he's just not my kind of geek."

"Maybe you have the terms wrong. Maybe he's a nerd."

"I've dated nerds before."

"Or maybe you like fellow a cappella nerds." Stacie suggested.

"If this is your way of setting me up with Uni, I should tell you that that crush was a bout of insanity that I am thankfully over."

Stacie arched an eyebrow and guessed, "Lousy lay?"

"Boring conversationalist." Aubrey replied. "And I can't have sex with someone I can't talk to, so that's just a big no."

"So you like nerds you can talk to." Stacie stated. "Who're really hot."

"And can sing. Or dance." Aubrey added.

"So picky." Stacie drawled.

"I have standards." Aubrey shrugged.

"You need to get laid." Stacie argued.

Aubrey laughed. "I went on the date, didn't I? I'm trying."

"Well, now that's just sad," Stacie noted. She smiled up at Aubrey, "And I won't get laid until we find you a hot nerd to bang."

Aubrey grinned. "Brave words there, Stace."

Stacie waved her hand dismissively. "You're totally hot and therefore bangable, this'll be easy."

"We've got to stop meeting like this," Stacie drawled, sidling up to Aubrey by the coffee cart near the library.

"We're not." Aubrey said flatly, smiling placidly at her as she took the cup of coffee the vendor handed her. "I have a class, so I'll see you around, Conrad."

Stacie reached out to touch Aubrey's arm to keep her from leaving, and took hold of the fabric of Aubrey's sleeve to prevent her from escaping. "The Trebles are having a party tonight. Are you going?"

Aubrey laughed. "Neg. I'm not stepping a foot in that cesspool."

Stacie gave her an exaggerated pout. "We can hang out."

"Still no."

"Don't make me sic Chloe on you." Stacie threatened.

"Text me details." Aubrey quickly replied. "I really have to go, though."

Stacie released her sleeve. "Who's keeping you? Stalker."

Aubrey shook her head, blew her a kiss, and continued her exit.

Stacie turned back to the cart, and smiled at the other customer there, a dark-haired girl she shared a few classes with. "Hey, Kara."

"Hey." Kara greeted back. She pointed behind Stacie. "I didn't know you knew Aubrey Posen."

"We were Bellas together for a year." Stacie replied. After placing her order, she asked, "How do you know Aubrey?"

Kara's cheeks flamed, and she vigorously shook her head. "Oh, I don't know Aubrey."

It was a weird reaction, and Stacie had to pause to consider what would have caused it. And she gasped. "You like her!"

"She's pretty!" Kara protested.

"Oh my God!" Stacie laughed. She paused again, and grinned, "this is amazing. Funny, but amazing."

"It's not funny!"

Stacie stopped suddenly, making Kara think she was safe, before Stacie grabbed her arm. "I have an idea."

Kara began shaking her head, but Stacie ignored her. "Shush, Kara, you're gonna like this."

Aubrey was so tired of being the third wheel, even considering she was supposed to be hanging out with friends. She had shown up at the Bellas' house before the Treblemakers' party so she wouldn't have to hunt down Bellas at the party itself, and figured since Beca was (still) dating that Treble, she would have Chloe to herself.

She was very wrong, because Jesse was preoccupied with trying to set up his roommate and best friend Benji with girls, leaving Beca free to hang out with the Bellas, ergo Chloe, ergo Aubrey was third-wheeling. Jessica and Ashley were a package deal, Flo and Fat Amy made their own party, Denise was the only one who could wrangle Lilly, and she'd lost track of Cynthia Rose early on.

And now Stacie had brought a classmate with her, making her earlier invitation to Aubrey to hang out null and void.

While Aubrey wasn't feeling very convivial, the girl – Kara – was at least engaging and interesting, that despite whatever resentment Aubrey had about being made to third wheel, she couldn't help but engage in the conversation.

It was weird, Stacie had to admit, watching someone get past Aubrey's initial standoffish personality and slowly get her to warm up to a conversation in real time. She knew people have said as much about her before, but that had taken her weeks, even months, of slowly getting Aubrey to relax a little and talk to her less as Stacie's Bella captain and more like a normal person.

And Kara was doing it so easily.

Apparently Kara had been in show choir in high school, something she and Aubrey had in common, but they also both loved musical theater and movie musicals. Kara was studying to become a Biochemist, and Stacie wondered why more boys couldn't fake looking half as interested as Aubrey clearly was, asking Kara questions but leaving Kara to talk about her major at length.

After a while, Stacie's cup was finally empty, and she noticed Aubrey's was, too. "Hey, need a refill?"

She didn't know how to feel about the fact that both women seemed to be surprised to see her still standing there.

"Uh," Aubrey hesitated before declaring, "I have an early start tomorrow, I think I'll just head home."

"I should probably go, too." Kara agreed. "I have a seminar to attend in the morning."

"Oh." Stacie frowned at them both, but directed her question to Aubrey, whom she felt she'd barely gotten to talk to. "You can't stay?"

"Yeah." Aubrey confirmed, and smiled at Kara – "It was nice to meet you, Kara," – before turning to Stacie, and offering her a weak smile. "Good night, Stacie."

Stacie smiled back. "Good night, Aubrey."

Aubrey turned to Kara as they headed towards the exit, asking, "I have a car, do you want me to drop you off?"

Stacie's smile faded into a small frown, but she couldn't pinpoint exactly why.

"What did I say about stalking me?" Stacie joked, dragging a seat over to sit beside Aubrey, who was seated near Beca and Chloe, the three of them going over sheet music for the breakdown of the Bella's newest set. At Stacie's interruption, Beca turned to her laptop, where her mixing software was open, while Chloe picked up her phone.

"To bring snacks?" Aubrey offered, reaching into her bag and pulling out a protein bar and showing it to Stacie.

"Chocolate chip?" Stacie observed, taking it. "My favorite."

"Hmm." Aubrey hummed noncommittally, looking over the sheets.

Stacie watched her as she chewed, studying her, before asking, "We missed you at movie night last night."

"I had a date."

Stacie arched an eyebrow. "You did?"

"I did."

"On movie night?" Stacie asked. "With whom? Did you sleep with them?"

"Yes. Nobody you know." Aubrey replied. "And kind of none of your business."

Probably true, but Stacie couldn't stop herself. "What happened to the hot nerd who can sing, dance, and you can talk to?"

"He's pre-med in a band." Aubrey told her. "And don't get your panties in a twist, I'm not seeing him again."

Stacie frowned. "Oh."

Aubrey made a note on the lyric sheet. "I'm kind of helping Beca and Chloe here, so…"

Stacie, however, didn't seem inclined to be going anywhere, and merely looked at her. "So that's still true?"

"What?" Aubrey asked wearily.

"The hot nerd. Who can sing and dance?" Stacie reminded.

"That's not exactly…"

"We've never really talked about this before, but you like girls, right?"

Aubrey blinked, and glanced over to see both Beca and Chloe watching her conversation with Stacie, if albeit silently. Beca looked curious, while Chloe expressed concern. She turned back to Stacie. "Yes…?"

"And it's okay if they're younger than you?"

"As long as they're legal..." Aubrey allowed, drawing out the answer since she had no idea where Stacie's questions were coming from.

"Cool." Stacie nodded, smiling now. "That's great."

"It is?" Aubrey asked hesitantly.

"Yeah!" Stacie nodded eagerly.

Aubrey quirked an eyebrow at how odd she was finding Stacie's behavior.

"Hey, are you free Friday night?" Stacie asked.

"I guess?" Aubrey shrugged.

"And you like, what? Chinese, Italian? Food."

"Anything's good." Aubrey automatically supplied.

"Awesome."

Aubrey smiled hesitantly, trying to catch up with Stacie's enthusiasm. "It is?"

Stacie nodded. "And you think Kara's cool, right?"

"Kara?" Aubrey's smile instantly faded, and she echoed the name blankly.

"Last week, at the Trebles' party?" Stacie reminded. "Dark hair, ye high, loves Wicked?"

"Everybody loves Wicked." Chloe interrupted.

"I've never seen it." Beca admitted.

"You wha—" Aubrey's indignant inquiry was cut off when Stacie grabbed her chin and forced her to turn back to face her.

"Because she likes you." Stacie continued her earlier thread.

"Oh." Aubrey frowned, confused, and meekly offered, "Cool?"

"You liked her, right?" Stacie pressed. "I mean, you gave her a ride home and everything. So you liked her, right?"

Aubrey bit her lip, hesitating. She knew where this was going – everyone did – and she wasn't entirely sure if she wanted it to.

"Just go on a date with her." Stacie urged. "I'll set it up. You don't know, maybe there's something there that wasn't there before."

Aubrey blew out a breath, and gave Stacie a brief nod.

"Bree." Chloe's voice interjected, but Stacie's smile was blinding.

"Awesome." Stacie beamed at Aubrey, kissing her cheek as she stood to join the other Bellas. "You're the best."

"So Aubrey said yes." Was Stacie's opening as she joined Kara at her table in the coffee shop where Kara had agreed to meet her.

"Aubrey said yes to what?" Kara asked blankly.

"To a date."

"A date?" Kara echoed.

"Yes!" Stacie nodded. "You and her. I told her I'll set it up. You're in, right?"

"Yes!" Kara brightened, and happily met Stacie's raised palm in a high five. "A date with Aubrey, yeah!"

"Yeah!" Stacie agreed, glad someone was enthusiastic about the whole thing, because Aubrey was being such a sourpuss. "So she's game for anything, but I think with Aubrey we need to start with the basics, right, like Italian, maybe a movie or some kind of show, a walk in the park..."

"Wait," Kara suddenly interrupted Stacie's roll, holding one hand up.

While piqued that she was being interrupted, Stacie waited.

"You're setting me up on a date with Aubrey, and when you asked Aubrey if she's in, she said yes?"

Stacie nodded.

"Really?"

Stacie frowned at the doubtful tone in Kara's voice. "What? You're totally bangable."

"It's not-" Kara laughed lightly, shaking her head. "It's not that."

"Is it because she's crazy intense? That's a good thing, really. And she's awesome once you get her to relax. Plus she's hot and funny and-"

"It's not... any of that, either."

"Then what is it?"

"Nothing, it's just," Kara shook her head. "I kind of got the impression that she liked you."

"What? Why? No. Why would—no. She doesn't… no." Stacie protested.

Kara frowned at her. "You really don't see it?"

"See what? We're friends." Stacie argued.

"I guess," Kara shrugged. "But I think I'm going to go with no."

"You're really saying no to a date with Aubrey?" Stacie questioned.

"Trust me, I can't believe it, either," Kara agreed. "But," she used her hands to gesture at Stacie, as if indicating her as evidence, "I'm not competing with that."

Stacie frowned at her, confused.

"And I'm flattered, really, but I think I'll hold out for someone who'll look at me the way she looks at you."

Stacie's frown deepened. "The look of fond exasperation?"

Kara shrugged again.

The question that repeated itself in a loop in Aubrey's head, and oddly in Chloe's voice – probably because she hasn't stopped asking it since that day at Bella rehearsals – was: why was she going on this date?

A date that had already been postponed once, and Aubrey had honestly thought the whole thing had blown over when Stacie had cancelled the previous Friday on Kara's behalf; but she had rescheduled it, and Aubrey hadn't been able to come up with a good enough lie on why she couldn't make it.

Because it wasn't like the double date with Chloe, or dinner with Seth: those had been harmless, if maybe a small waste of everyone's time.

Going on a date with Stacie's friend was emotional torture, knowing the girl she had a crush on had set her up on a date with someone else.

But if she'd needed proof – as if their day-to-day platonic interactions weren't enough, but if she'd needed any additional proof – that Stacie just didn't feel the same way, well, this was it.

Which was maybe why she'd said yes. After all, even if she doubted it could really go anywhere – the reasons why they had been put in each other's orbit was too painful to consider – agreeing to the date not only got Stacie off her back, but it would also serve as a long-term reminder of why it had been the wise choice to get a gauge of where she stood with Stacie before confessing to any kind of attraction.

It's not like she'd meant for it to happen. She had returned to Barden with the sole focus of getting prelaw credits; getting to spend more time with Chloe had been a bonus.

But that day on the couch, after that disastrous double date, while she and Stacie had been joking around, witnessing Stacie in such an unguarded moment, seeing past the self-assured girl who played up her sexuality and just hanging out with her at the Bella House, Aubrey had been enthralled. She'd always known Stacie was hot – she hadn't been able to completely be objective of her singing at auditions – but she'd never really just hung out with the girl, even if she'd always sort of wanted to.

And the more she hung out with the Bellas – therefore spending more time with Stacie – the more she'd known her feelings weren't entirely platonic.

She had a crush.

And that was okay. Crushes were harmless, even cute. Stacie was pretty, and hot, and smart and funny and had a background in dance while also unashamedly in collegiate a cappella, but she was also one of Aubrey's closest friends, so risking that friendship was out of the question. It was actually kind of nice to just like someone, without the pressure of making more of it.

More would have been nice, though.

Regardless, she had a date, and if nothing else, Stacie had promised she'd get a free meal out of it.

Aubrey was momentarily confused when she saw that it was Stacie, not Kara, who met her at the entrance of the park she'd been instructed to go to. "Hey, you."

An unusually subdued Stacie smiled weakly back at her. "Hey. You found the park OK?"

"I've been here before," Aubrey told her. As they walked along one of the paths that traversed the park, she queried, "Are we here for Shakespeare in the Park?"

Stacie's expression faltered. "You've done this before?"

Aubrey smiled, trying to be reassuring. "It's fine. You can't have too much Shakespeare. What are they performing?"

"Twelfth Night?"

"I haven't seen them perform that," Aubrey informed her. "And Kara?"

"Uh," Stacie hedged, because she had no idea how to brook the subject of Kara's assertion of Aubrey's attraction to her without possibly pissing Aubrey off.

"Let me guess, she's not coming?" Aubrey surmised. "What, did she say no?"

"No," Stacie shook her head, smiling grimly at her. "She said yes."

"And you're here because…?"

"Because she doesn't think you really wanted to go on a date with her." Stacie admitted.

Aubrey frowned. "I don't understand."

Stacie glanced at her. "She thinks you like someone else."

Aubrey visibly paused, but her step never faltered. "Oh."

"You don't sound surprised."

"I didn't think I was being particularly subtle." Aubrey admitted.

"So it's true?" Stacie asked.

"Just ask me, Stacie." Aubrey told her, leading Stacie away from the main path and towards a less-busy pathway.

Stacie gazed at her and asked, "You like me?"

"Yes."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because it's a crush. People get crushes all the time." Aubrey related. "Is it more than that? Maybe. But I wasn't going to make more of it until we've actually spent time together so I could figure that out."

Stacie conceded that point. She liked to joke to people she was on friendly terms with that they were "bangable", but despite her tendency towards casual sex, she wasn't just going to put it on offer unless she really felt inclined to. Still, though, Aubrey was one of her best friends, and it sucked to know that while Aubrey had secretly harbored a crush, she'd callously been setting her up to go on dates. Well, one. A date.

A date they were currently on.

"Right, so I thought about it," Stacie said, for full disclosure, "And some stuff started to make sense."

"Stuff?" Aubrey echoed.

Stacie smiled weakly. "I'm not a fan of you going out on dates with total randos."

Aubrey chuckled. "What 'dates'?"

"It kind of stung when you ditched movie night and told me it was none of my business if you got laid," Stacie continued. "I thought it was because I was trying to set you up with someone else, but in retrospect I think I kind of wanted it to be my business."

"In retrospect?" Aubrey parroted.

"Yeah, I," Stacie smiled weakly. "After Kara pointed it out, I've kind of been thinking about it a lot."

Aubrey arched an eyebrow.

Stacie stopped walking, forcing Aubrey to do the same, and they faced each other. Stacie smiled at Aubrey. "So I have a theory."

Aubrey nodded.

"And I'd like to test a hypothesis."

"Okay…?" Aubrey asked.

Stacie stepped closer to Aubrey, trying to keep her gaze on Aubrey's eyes but unable to help but looking down at her lips. "I'm gonna kiss you now."

Aubrey bit her lip quickly before she softly consented, "okay."

At the first touch of Stacie's lips on hers, Aubrey vacillated between wanting to lose herself in the moment, or committing it to memory.

Stacie playfully biting her lip solved that dilemma, because hot damn. "Stop thinking."

"Okay," Aubrey acquiesced, and briefly wondered if she would ever be able to say no to Stacie, especially now that she knew what it was like to kiss her.

"Yeah," Stacie murmured after a while, finally easing back to catch her breath, but unable to stop pressing a few more quick kisses to Aubrey's lips, "this is good."

Aubrey smiled into their kiss. "You've reached a conclusion?"

"Or I can collect more data."

"You do need to verify your data."

"Or it can be a long-term study."

"I think I'd like that." Aubrey acknowledged.

Stacie grinned. "Still want to see the show, or do we continue collecting data?"

Aubrey laughed. "As much fun as data collecting is, you promised me a date, nerd."

Stacie kissed her again, but allowed Aubrey to steer her towards the part of the park where the play would be performed. "That's 'hot nerd' to you, Posen."