A/N: And here it is! Sorry for the delay folks, I was totally ready to upload it the other day when went down… Then I decided to ad a jello scene and here we are.
Alright so it's pretty self-explanatory if you read it but this is what if our lovely Pitch Perfect characters working in a boring paper company office when cameras came in to start filming them. There are some moments that are similar to the show but I'm trying to really embrace the PP characters and follow where I think they would take it if they really did work in an office.
It is Bechloe end-game (der) but because I have given Tom such a hard time in my other fics I've taken him out. This will be a slow burn, starting from when the cameras first arrive and ending on the night that they see the documentary for the first time (it won't take 9 years like in the show though) and will most likely be a bit longer than Fight Song.
I just started a tumblr (I'm still learning it though) but come say hai! Awesam-blog
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
"I will kill you."
Beca looked up in surprise. She had been so focused on re-creating the beat in the song that she had forgotten where she was. Work: the most boring place in the world. She slid the chunky headphones off and shrugged apologetically to her desk mate as she dropped the pens she'd been banging on the desk. "My bad."
Bumper barely acknowledged her as he continued to type.
Beca looked around the room, searching for something to entertain her. She'd only been at work for half an hour and she was already losing her mind. She unconsciously started tapping her desk again and was rewarded with a glare from her desk mate.
She sighed and stood up, crossing the short distance to the receptionist desk that only sat 5 feet from her workplace. She leaned on the counter and popped some of the courtesy candy into her mouth.
"I'm bored," she groaned after a few moments when the receptionist seemed to be ignoring her.
"I can tell. It's going down, fade to Blackstreet. The homies got RB collab' creations, bump like Acne, no doubt," the receptionist sang without taking her eyes off of her computer.
Beca smirked, her usual reaction when her best friend tried to rap. "Was I loud?"
"You can't listen to No Diggity and not be loud."
"I love that you know Blackstreet."
"Dr. Dre is my homie yo," the woman joked, trying to contort her fingers into gangster symbols but only looking like a massive dork.
"Oh god. Never do that again."
"Why? Do I embarrass you? Are you ashamed to be seen with me? Am I ruining your badass street cred?"
Beca chuckled and popped some more candy. "I don't even know where to start. What are you working on?" Beca stretched onto her toes in order to lean over and try to see the computer screen.
The receptionist tilted it to make it a bit easier, showing that it was Solitaire. "It's getting pretty intense. I think I'm gonna win," she grinned.
"I'm impressed Beale. I'm turning you into such a hard worker." The day that Chloe Beale had started at Dunder Mifflin Paper Company had been the best of her short life. Beca had started as a junior salesperson straight out of high school, five years ago, with her boyfriend. She had wanted to move to LA to pursue her dream of becoming a big time music producer but hadn't been willing to accept her father's offer of paying for it if she went to college. Jesse had convinced her that the commission from sales would cover everything. Five years later and she didn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. This place just seemed to suck the dreams right out of you.
Chloe had started a little over a year ago after she finished college. She had wanted to teach music to disadvantaged youths but that didn't actually pay the rent. Her best friend had gotten her the receptionist job after the redhead had started seriously considering becoming an exotic dancer. The red hair and bright blue eyes had immediately become the only part of coming to work that Beca liked. She was a bubbly breath of fresh air and the only thing that kept Beca sane from the menial task of selling paper.
"Well what can I say, you are a fantastic influence," Chloe smiled. "Speaking of working hard, how is the number one salesperson doing today?"
"Correction! Number three salesperson," Bumper yelled from his desk. "I have been number one every quarter since I started here and Jesse is number two. Beca is only better than Benji and that's because he is a complete nerd."
"Nerd alert!" Came Donald's voice from the accounting corner.
Bumper leaned back in his chair and punched Benji in the shoulder.
"Ow," Benji pouted, looking up at his desk mate, Jesse, for help.
"Lay off Bumper," Jesse defended.
"Whatever," Bumper shrugged before going back to his work.
Beca rolled her eyes and turned back to Chloe. "I think I've only made 4 sales this week. But I've barely gotten any complaints so let's count this as a success."
Chloe laughed, a musical note that seemed out of place in this dreary building. Chloe was always telling Beca that she'd make a good salesperson if she could drop the sarcasm and actually attempt being nice to customers. The brunette wasn't willing to make any huge effort for a job she had less than zero interest in.
"Attention! Attention! Attention!" Fat Amy yelled as she came out of her office. Most of her employees continued working, ignoring her completely, but some glanced at her. "Naked men, naked women, naked people!" Fat Amy yelled again, finally drawing everyone's attention and a few sighs at what was sure to be another pointless interruption from their work. "Meeting in the conference room. Go, go, go!"
Her workers slowly saved their work and trudged into the small room that was filled to the brim with uncomfortable folding chairs.
"Amy you need to run all meetings by me first," Aubrey, head of HR and sent directly from corporate in an attempt to lessen the amount of law suits Amy's humour created.
"Er, no I don't. I'm the boss, that's like god here. You are the devil."
"Amy-"
"Fat Amy."
"I'm not going to call you that."
"Then I'm not going to call you Satan."
"Good."
Amy's lips pursed as she created a new nickname in her head. "I will call you bitchsen. Like Posen but-"
"Bitch. I get it. Clever." Aubrey sighed. "FAT Amy. These unnecessary meetings are just wasting work time and-"
"Unnecessary? Are you saying yesterday's meeting on how to break up with four of my boyfriend's was unnecessary?"
"Actually, yes."
"Well you know nothing because that meeting was very successful. We got a lot done."
Aubrey pinched the bridge of her nose. "Can you just tell me what today's meeting is about?"
"No." Fat Amy walked into the room and slammed the door behind her, right in Aubrey's face.
Aubrey fought to keep herself from stress vomiting all over the carpet before opening the door and finding a seat. Luckily there was one right next to her best friend and flatmate. She had gotten Chloe a job her after the woman had booked an interview to become a stripper. The redhead deserved better but Dunder Mifflin was good enough as a starting place while the ginger decided what she wanted from the rest of her life. Not stripping.
"Friends and family… we are gathered here today to celebrate the union of myself and becoming an Internet sensation," Fat Amy started the meeting.
Groans filled the room as they realised that once again Amy had called a pointless meeting. Amy powered through the noise, not even noticing that her staff found these meetings annoying.
"Last month I secretly filmed a video of you guys working for a day-"
"Secretly? You basically pushed the camera in our faces," Stacie argued.
Amy waved a hand, dismissing the comment. "I submitted that video to a Network that was looking for an American workplace to use for their documentary."
"What?" Aubrey screeched. "You can't do that without talking to corporate."
Amy waved her hand again. "It doesn't matter because we won! The cameras will be here soon."
Chatter broke out, some excited, some annoyed, some confused or indifferent. Aubrey ran from the room, needing to call corporate for how they wanted her to respond to this latest obstacle.
"Sounds fun," Chloe commented.
Beca rolled her eyes and slouched further into her chair. "Sounds sucky."
"Oh come on! We'll be like actors." Chloe's face was full of a contagious excitement that Beca was fighting very hard not to catch.
"No. It sounds like an invasion of privacy and yet another thing to stop us from doing our job." Beca paused as she considered what she just said. "Wait. Actually that sounds pretty good to me."
"Exactly," Chloe beamed.
"Alright you win this one Beale."
"So what does this actually mean?" Fat Amy asked over everyone's conversations in what sounded like a horrible English accent. "I'm glad you asked Lily-"
"Wait. That accent was Lily? She's not British," CR interrupted.
"How do you know? I've never heard her talk," Stacie commented.
All of the workers turned and looked at Lily who was sitting silently in the corner. She opened her mouth, moving it as if she was speaking.
"Nothing," Jesse said, sitting the closest to where she was.
"ANYWAY," Amy continued, "Each of you will be wearing a hidden microphone at all times and the cameras will film continuously throughout the day. They will even interview some of you for sound bites about how great I am."
"Why us," Donald questioned. "We just sell paper."
"Just sell paper?" Bumper snapped. "Paper is the most important thing in the world! Without paper we wouldn't have-"
"Thanks but no thanks Bumper. They want to film what it is like to have the world's sexiest boss," Amy commented.
Beca and Chloe shared a smile. Fat Amy was more like the world's worst boss.
"So is this going to be shown anywhere? Because some of us may be illegal immigrants facing deportation if we are found," Flo said.
"Are you here illegally?" Stacie asked.
"No but the man whose boat helped me sneak into the country may say otherwise."
"Erm, uhh, I don't know," Fat Amy shrugged, moving on from Flo's comments.
"How long will they be filming us for? And can I show them my fantastic dance moves and angelic singing voice?" Bumper questioned.
"Don't know. No and no." Amy looked through the door that Aubrey had left open and saw people with cameras and heavy-looking black boxes arrive. "And here they are now."
"What?" Aubrey screeched into the phone. "How can you possibly agree with her on this?"
"Aubrey we both know that the paper industry is in a decline and the Barden branch is months away from downsizing. This documentary would provide useful publicity," Alice, the Vice President of Northeast Sales at Dunder Mifflin, said.
"In what way will Fat Amy ever be good publicity?" Aubrey argued.
"Well if she isn't at least we'll have cause to fire her. It's a win-win. Let her have her fun but supervise as normal," Alice ordered.
Aubrey sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose again. The day wasn't even halfway over and already a migraine was forming. "I understand."
"And that's why I knew you'd be the right person for the job. Goodbye Aubrey."
Aubrey didn't have a chance to answer before Alice hung up on her. She rubbed her hands across her face, preparing herself for what she was about to face.
"Can I please have everyone's attention?" Aubrey asked as she stood at the head of the room. She'd finally finished quizzing the producers and cameramen about what they were actually doing there and needed to share it herself, knowing Amy wouldn't. Only Chloe looked up from her computer, a smile on her face to show her friend she was listening. "Now!" Aubrey yelled, her voice loud enough to shake the grey walls.
She finally had everyone's attention.
"They will be here, filming, for a year. We will be required to wear microphone packs at all times so that they can hear our conversations. Before they start filming we will be signing waivers that give them permission to use any and all footage they obtain into a documentary after the filming is complete. Their main objective is to film the everyday lives of working Americans and as such they may follow you out of this building. There are limitations on what they can film. They can not film nudity or anything else that you feel violates your right to privacy, and as such bathrooms will be off-limits. Any questions?"
"How will this affect our work?" Donald asked from the far corner of the room.
"Not at all. When you are free they may ask for sound bites but they are under strict guidelines to not interrupt your daily business in any way. If you feel their presence is negatively affecting your duties then come and see me. Anything else?"
"Corporate Oked this?" Beca questioned with a raised brow.
Aubrey sighed and gave a non-committal shrug. "They believe it could positively affect the company."
"Filming Fat Amy for a year will positively affect the company?" Beca pushed.
Aubrey glared down at the shorter woman in front of her. "Yes. Any other questions?" Her voice was clipped and she was barely keeping it together.
Beca chewed the inside of her cheek to keep her face straight as she slowly raised her hand. The blonde's glare was almost violent as she took a slow step towards the brunette. Beca smirked back, refusing to back down, and tension filtered through the room. Everyone was so focused on watching to see who would break first that no one noticed that the cameras began to roll, catching their first footage of life inside the office. The silence continued with the stalemate, both women had their eyes locked on each other, daring the other to blink. Aubrey broke first, her light stomach churning from her stress and trying to force its contents back up through her throat. Beca still refused to lower her arm, wanting Aubrey to blow and being prepared to stunt roll out of the firing range. A year and a half working together and Beca had only caused Aubrey to puke once. She was ready to build on that.
Aubrey was seconds from blowing when Beca lowered her arm, sagging her shoulders and dropping her head in defeat. She had been prepared to go all the way but a small voice five feet away had spoken a soft 'Beca' and she was powerless.
The blonde swallowed and covered her mouth as she took a step backwards and turned away. Chloe was by her side in seconds, rubbing a comforting hand over her back to calm her down, sending a grateful smile Beca's way. The brunette smiled back and watched as the redhead worked her magic.
"I work at a paper company; do you really think I give a shit about the environment?" Beca said into the phone cradled between her cheek and shoulder as she stacked a house of cards on her desk. She heard a light chuckle and glanced up to see Chloe shaking her head at her.
'Be nice,' Chloe mouthed.
Beca rolled her eyes and placed another card onto her creation. "No I will not give you a discount on recycled paper out of a moral obligation. If you have such a problem maybe you should use the dead leaves on the ground right next to your gas guzzling vehicle of choice."
She grinned in victory when she finally heard the dial tone that meant she could hang the phone up. Seconds later and another ringtone sounded, this time from Stacie's desk. Beca had almost finished her house when the sound of a bell ringing came from the leggy brunette, announcing she had received another complaint. It happened so often that people-Cynthia Rose-had started running betting pools to see how many she would rack up each quarter.
"What's the total so far?" Amy asked as she came from her office.
"5 today, 14 for the week and 59 for the month so far," Stacie announced.
Amy grinned and gave Beca a congratulatory high five. "Not an all time high but still decent."
Beca smirked. Any other boss and she'd be fired. She really should be fired, she was a horrible employee and she made no commission, but it never happened and she still clocked on and clocked off, wasting her days away.
"Hey Beca," Jesse called from his desk when Amy had gone back into her office after growing bored of standing around and watching them work.
"Yeah?" Beca returned, barely lifting her eyes from her cards as she considered ways to reinforce the base.
"Want to see a movie tonight?"
"It's Friday," Beca answered in a tone that strongly implied that Jesse had just asked her the most stupid question known to man.
"Yeah. Right. My bad," Jesse shrugged, still watching and waiting for his girlfriend to spare him a glance that never came. He sighed and turned his attention back to his computer. They had been best friends all through high school but Beca had always turned down his attempts to make them more. She had eventually agreed to a date just after senior year and they had been together for a little over 5 years. Jesse was a patient man, especially when it came to the woman he loved, but even after 5 years his roommate was a man-Benji-and Beca still kept him at arms length. For four years every Friday had been date night but for the last year it had meant him alone in his dark room watching movies alone. A redhead had changed everything for him.
Beca added another column to her masterpiece and was about to snap a photo when her desk rocked and the entire thing fell down. She immediately glared at the smirking culprit. "Seriously?" Beca growled.
Bumper shrugged and picked up his phone to make a call.
Beca flicked a pen his way and then ducked as it flew straight back. She was considering a rebuild when a 'psst' caught her attention. She looked up at the not at all subtle redhead that was trying to inconspicuously wave her over.
"You pssted," Beca greeted as she leaned both arms onto her favourite desk.
"May I interest you in assistance for a prank?" Chloe whispered.
Beca grinned. "I really am corrupting you. What would Aubrey say if she knew you wanted to help me perform 'unprofessional actions'?"
"Probably the same thing she said when Bumper told her that it was me who unscrewed his chair."
Beca dropped her chin onto the smooth surface and blinked at her friend. "What? You mean how she gave him an hour long lecture about false accusations, gave him a warning, and then wrote me up when I was innocent?"
Chloe fluttered her eyelashes and gave Beca her most innocent puppy dog expression. "I have no idea what you mean? Why would I unscrew his chair? That's so dangerous!" Chloe actually sounded scandalised and Beca couldn't help laughing at her.
"So what did you have planned?" Beca asked.
"I'm not sure. You're the mastermind. Don't you have anything brewing?" Chloe asked, excitement shining in her eyes.
"I'm not sure your up for it Beale," Beca teased, eyeing Chloe up and down as if she was truly evaluating her.
"Sir, I aim to misbehave, sir," Chloe joked, adding a mock salute.
"Very well," Beca grinned. She may hate movies but Harry Potter was an exception that proved the rule. "Where do you stand on jello?"
"Kinda shaky," Chloe joked, making herself crack up as Beca could only shake her head fondly.
"We can work on it tonight," Beca said once Chloe finally calmed down. "Oh speaking of tonight we need to swing by my place after work."
"Why?"
"The record I picked for tonight is much too precious to bring in to this dump so I need to pick it up on the way to your place," Beca explained.
Chloe tilted her head, her brows creased and her eyes narrowed. "The record you picked? It's my turn?"
Beca unintentionally mirrored Chloe's head tilt and facial expressions. "No way! It's my turn."
"Nope. You picked Jimmy Savile to listen to last week. It's my turn."
Beca's eyes widened slightly and she pouted as she realised Chloe was right. This had been a tradition between the two women ever since Chloe's first week in the office. Neither could remember exactly who asked or who came up with the plans that first Friday but ever since it was just the two of them spending that night together every week. It had evolved from a night of easy conversation into a routine that involved them taking turns in sharing a record that they thought the other would either love or need to listen to, marathoning a random show on Netflix and mountains of odd conversation and snacks. They had both grown to crave their Fridays, even turning them into all weekend-long sleepovers on occasion. "I have a REALLY good one this week. Can we swap?" Beca pleaded. "You can have my pick next week then you have two in a row."
Chloe considered the offer for a few seconds. "I get to pick the snacks."
"Fine."
"Redvines."
"No."
"Too bad. I'm sure your record will still be just as good next week."
Beca groaned. "Fine. Redvines." She was craving some classic rock tonight and although Chloe generally picked good music she didn't want to risk another Keisha fiasco.
"Yey." Chloe actually bounced in her chair and clapped her hands for a moment.
"You're horrible."
"You don't mean that," Chloe said with a smile. There was movement in the corner of Chloe's eye and she looked to see that a camera had been recording their entire conversation without her realised. "Oh."
Beca glanced at what Chloe was looking at and rolled her eyes so hard Chloe was sure she'd seen brain. "This'll be super annoying."
"They kinda remind me of the spiders from Hunger Games," Chloe commented, referring to the way they were wearing their cameras and could move silently and freely without being heard, just like the cameramen in the novels.
"Sure," Beca agreed easily, although she had no clue what Chloe was talking about.
"You'll agree when you see the movie," Chloe said.
Beca squinted her eyes at the redhead. "And why are you so sure I'll be seeing the movie?"
"Trust me," Chloe winked.
Beca opened her mouth to reply but the conversation was cut short when the phone on her desk began to ring. With an annoyed groan Beca pushed herself off of Chloe's desk, popping a candy, and made her way back to her desk and her annoying desk mate who appeared to have created a wall of folders between their desks while she was gone. One swipe of her arm and they were crashing to the floor along with Bumper's phone and almost everything from his desk.
"Whoops, sorry," Beca shrugged, not at all meaning it. She sat in her creaking chair and picked up her phone. "Dunder Mifflin this is Bumper Allen, how can I annoy you today?" Bumper immediately hit her phone, disconnecting the call. "Oh. It looks like we were disconnected. I do hope they call back," Beca said sarcastically as she left her phone off the hook and restarted her card house, ignoring the insults and jibes Bumper was sending her way as he collected his things from the floor. Only a few more hours until Chloe night.
Amy put down the train she had been playing with and looked out of her open office door. The cameras had spent barely anytime on her, in fact they had spent the most time either focusing on Beca and Chloe or Stacie for some strange reason. Well… the Stacie part was obvious. She was wearing a low cut shirt and a tight skirt high enough that nothing was left to the imagination. Amy decided to take charge, this was her step to stardom and she'd make it happen.
"Hear yee, hear yee," Amy announced as she stepped out of her office, garnering some attention. She looked into the closest camera. "I say it's time to introduce you to everyone. I am the jester and this is my court! I'm also the king." The camera followed Amy over to the receptionist desk. "Here we have Miss Chloe Beale. She's purely eye-candy."
Chloe pouted and glanced at Beca who gave her a sympathetic smile.
"Actually I do a lot here. I-"
"No one cares," Amy cut her off as soon as the cameras began to pan off of her. She moved quickly, taking the camera away from the redhead and over to the sales team. "This is sales, the heart and soul of Dunder Mifflin. Back in the day this was where I made the magic happen. I still hold the record for most sales. This moody midget is Beca Mitchell, the great BM."
"Nope," Beca shook her head as soon as the nickname left Amy's mouth.
"This is Bumper Allen. The cabbage patch kid."
"Nope," Beca muttered again, shaking her head and smirking when she saw a camera zooming in to catch her reactions.
"Here we have Benji Applebaum. Magic man."
Beca shrugged. That was acceptable.
"If only he could pull an ability to talk to girls out of his hat."
The joke earned Amy some laughs at Benji's expense.
"Last and arguably least is Jesse Swanson." Amy looked him up and down. "Sorry dude I have nothing."
"Beard," Bumper joked, reaching his hand out for a high five but only receiving frowns. He dropped his hand and slumped over his keyboard, going back to work.
"Moving along." Amy led the cameras over to the accounting corner. "Here we have the brain of Dunder Mifflin. Accounting. Donald Walsh and Flo Flauntez."
"Fuentes," Flo corrected.
"Forentes."
"Fuentes."
"That's what I said. Here we have Lily Onakuramara. I'm not entirely sure what Lily does here but I know she does it well. Right Lily?" Amy said as she moved over to the next desk clump.
Lily's mouth moved, shaping silent words that not even the microphone packs could pick up.
"Nothing. This is Stacie Conrad. She is in charge of customer service, which basically means fielding calls about customer complaints or feedback."
"99% of which is thanks to Beca," Stacie winked into the camera, somehow making the completely normal statement sound unnecessarily dirty.
Amy kept moving, knocking on the office door just behind Stacie's desk. "Here we have Cynthia Rose Adams. CR looks after the warehouse, right CR?"
CR glared at Amy from her desk where she was obviously in the middle of an important phone call. "Dude."
Amy closed the door. "So that's everyone."
The camera panned over to the blonde in the corner who was rolling her eyes at Amy's comment.
Amy followed the camera's movement. "She doesn't count. She's corporate."
"It's five guys!" Donald announced from accounting. Everyone immediately started packing up and turning off their computers to leave.
Beca had already turned everything off so the second Donald made the announcement she was out of her chair and at Chloe's desk, waiting for her. She was already holding her own bag which was bulging with stolen items for later but she grabbed Chloe's bag too and opened the door for her when she was finally ready to go. They quickly made their way out of the building and were almost home free when they realised a camera had followed them to Beca's car. Aubrey and Chloe usually carpooled except on Friday afternoons when Chloe went with Beca.
"Umm. What's happening?" Beca asked as she glanced at the man following her.
Aubrey was nearby, heading to her own car when she heard Beca's question. "If you had listened earlier then you'd remember me telling you that they would sometimes follow you outside of work as well."
"Yeah. No. Don't put me down for that," Beca shook her head.
"You already signed that they could."
"But why?" Beca whined, hating that this was interfering with her Chloe time.
Aubrey shrugged. "Beats me. They must see something in you that I don't."
Beca glared at the blonde until she got into her car to leave and she turned to Chloe. "What do we do here?"
Chloe was smiling, somehow enjoying the fact that the camera had decided to follow them. "C'mon Becs it'll be fun! We'll probably even forget that he is there." Chloe jumped into the passenger seat.
"Doubt it," Beca grumbled as she climbed into the front seat and the cameraman scrambled into the back.
"You're going to blur my address out, right?" Beca asked as they pulled up outside of her house.
The cameraman once again refused to say anything but he nodded to indicate that they wouldn't be sharing her address with the world.
Beca groaned as she got out of the car, waiting for a moment so Chloe could make her way around the car, before heading up the walkway side-by-side. The door was already unlocked, her dad's car in the driveway, so she headed straight inside.
"Hey dad!" Beca called as she moved straight to the stairs, not wanting to spend more time than necessary here. Chloe didn't seem to agree because instead of following Beca up the stairs she wandered into the lounge room in search of Mr Mitchell.
"Hi Warren," Chloe greeted politely as she droped down onto the sofa beside the armchair Mr Mitchell was sitting in.
"Afternoon Chloe. Lovely to see you again," he greeted warmly, flicking the TV to mute and putting up the newspaper he'd been reading. "What do you two have planned for your Friday night?" he asked, aware of how important Friday nights were to his daughter.
"Same as usual. We're going to listen to music, watch some TV, and see if Beca can eat her body weight in sugar."
"Sounds delightful." Warren looked up from Chloe's smiling face to see the cameraman standing behind her. "Hello?"
"Oh! That's my groupie. I'm famous now," Chloe joked.
"Nope. That's one of the weirdos that Amy decided to let follow us around. We have no choice," Beca explained as she walked into the lounge room holding a vinyl record and an overnight bag. "Let's go."
Chloe rolled her eyes but stood from the couch. "See you soon Warren."
"Yeah. Bye dad."
"Bye girls," Warren chuckled. His relationship with his daughter had been strained since the divorce. Beca had blamed him for being the one to end the relationship and she hadn't forgiven him when her mother had decided to leave for an extended holiday to find herself. A holiday she still hadn't returned from even after 6 years. Beca had shut him out, refusing to talk or even stay in the same room together for more than five minutes…well that was until Chloe Beale. The first time Chloe had entered the Mitchell residence was the first time that Warren had seen Beca smile; a true, genuinely happy, smile. Chloe had asked them to all have dinner together and Warren had never been as grateful for another person in his life. He had seen the changes in his daughter over the past year. He could see how much lighter she was becoming, how much she was coming back to life after her dreams had been drained out of her. He knew he was partly responsible but he refused to let her move across the country with no solid plan and no degree to fall back on.
"Umm Beca?" Chloe asked with her head titled as she counted the amount of jello boxes in the cart.
"Yeah?" Beca answered, glancing over her shoulder while still facing the various jello options.
"Why so much jello?"
Beca looked at the cart quickly before looking back at Chloe. "Do we need more?"
Chloe squinted her eyes. "For what?"
Beca smirked and her eyes shone with mischief. She leaned over and opened the bag that was sitting in the cart, revealing most of the contents of Bumpers desk.
Chloe tilted her head to the other side, blinking and trying to figure out what Beca had planned. She picked up a stapler and saw B.A engraved on it. She dropped it back down with a gasp. "You want to set all of his stuff in jello!"
"Yep." Beca grabbed two more boxes of jello and dropped them into the cart.
"You are a devious mastermind," Chloe complimented.
"Thanks," Beca accepted easily, moving behind the cart and pushing it with Chloe walking close enough for their shoulders to brush.
Chloe glanced at the cameraman, still following them, and back at Beca. "You realise that you will probably get fired once this airs, right?"
Beca shrugged, not caring in the slightest.
Chloe's eyes widened when a thought occurred to her. "Oh god! So will I!"
Beca stopped suddenly, letting go of the cart and turning herself to fully face her best friend. "Crap Chlo I didn't even think of that. Listen we can put it all back and-"
Chloe winked and cut Beca off by quickly leaning in to whisper into Beca's ear, hoping the microphones wouldn't pick it up. "It'll be worth it."
"You sure?" Beca asked when Chloe pulled back and she could finally breath again. She had no idea why her body always decided to stop functioning when the redhead was too close but she had grown accustomed to it and was adjusting to her awkward new way of life.
"Yep," Chloe assured.
"Alright. Then let's make this year epic."
"Good plan."
Armed with Redvines, hot pockets, popcorn and sugar galore the pair finally arrived to Chloe's house after the sun had set.
"Hey Bree we're home!" Chloe called out as she walked into their shared apartment. It was a decent size with a separate kitchen/dining room area and lounge room. Chloe and Aubrey had their own rooms and their own bathrooms, something that Beca was more than grateful for with the amount of time she spent here.
Chloe paused outside of Aubrey's room when she didn't hear a reply from her blonde friend. "Aubrey?" she called again, knocking lightly. No answer. The receptionist looked at Beca who just shrugged, not in the least caring where the bitchy blonde was and actually glad that this would be a night without her yelling at them to keep it down. "Did you see her car outside?" Chloe asked.
Beca shrugged again. She couldn't exactly say, 'No I was too distracted by how your eyes look under the light of the moon'. That's not what friends say to each other, right? Then again it's not something she's ever said to Jesse, or even thought about Jesse.
Chloe sent Aubrey a quick text, checking that she was fine, before leading Beca into her room where the record player sat. It was actually Beca's record player originally but the redhead was the only person who could be trusted to take care of it properly. It had been a Christmas gift from her mother and was the most precious thing Beca had. It made sense for it to live with the most precious person Beca had. Plus it was the pinnacle of their Friday nights.
"You ready?" Beca asked as she watched Chloe flop down onto her pink-covered fluffy bed, her body bouncing on the mattress. Chloe bent her knees to her feet were kicking in the air and dropped her head onto her hands. The cameraman had followed them into the room and was standing against the wall. Chloe had been right though, Beca barely noticed him at this point.
"Hit it."
Beca smirked and placed her record into the player, moving slowly and gently to avoid any scratches. As soon as the loud rock music filled the room Beca turned to watch Chloe's reactions.
The redhead recognised the song straight away and jumped from the bed to start an air guitar solo. Beca grinned, this was exactly what she needed, and the perfect way to end a crappy week was to watch Chloe dance around her room, the perfect embodiment of the music Beca loved so much. Chloe placed her imaginary guitar on her bed so that she could sing along with the song.
Back in black I hit the sack
I been too long I'm glad to be back
Yes I am
Let loose from the noose
That's kept me hanging about
I keep looking at the sky cause it's gettin' me high
Forget the hearse cause I'll never die
I got nine lives cat's eyes
Using every one of them and runnin' wild
Chloe pointed to Beca from across the room and Beca only rolled her eyes lightly before giving in and singing along. She couldn't hide the fact that this was her favorite thing to do with Chloe and had long since openly admitted to loving it.
Cause I'm back
Yes I'm back well I'm back
Yes I'm back
Well I'm back back
Well I'm back in black
Yes I'm back in black
"You take the next verse," Chloe yelled quickly as she grabbed her air guitar again, actually pretending to strap it on over her shoulder as Beca kept singing through her laughter.
Back in the back of a Cadillac
Number one with a bullet I'm a power pack
Yes I am
In a bang with the gang
They gotta catch me if they want me to hang
Cause I'm back on the track and I'm beatin' the flack
Nobody's gonna get me on another rap
So look at me now I'm just makin' my play
Don't try to push your luck just get out of my way
Chloe jumped onto her bed, rocking the whole thing and making it bang against the walls. Beca laughed and turned the music up even louder so they both had to scream to be heard. It definitely wasn't good for their throats or for Chloe's relationship with her neighbors but it was amazing.
Cause I'm back
Yes I'm back
Well I'm back
Yes I'm back
Well I'm back back
Well I'm back in black
Yes I'm back in black
Chloe grabbed Beca's hand and pulled her up onto the bed. They both started bouncing, not even caring about the damage they were doing to the cheap bedframe.
Well I'm back yes I'm back
Well I'm back yes I'm back
Well I'm back back
Well I'm back in black
Yes I'm back in black
Ho yeah
Oh yeah
Yes I am
Oh yeah, yeah oh yeah
Back in now
Well I'm back, I'm back
Back
Back
Back
Back
Back
Back in black
Yes I'm back in black
Outta sight
The song faded out and the record player crackled slightly before the next song started playing. Neither woman noticed as they had both suddenly realized their positions. They had their arms wrapped around each other in a hug as they stood in the middle of Chloe's now very messy bed. Beca's eyes flicked down to Chloe's lips quick enough for her to see Chloe do the same.
The music was more than loud enough to drown out the sounds of Aubrey coming home, until she slammed her way into Chloe's room and yanked the knob to turn the music done to a much more appropriate level. Aubrey glared at the pair before storming back out of the room without another word. Slowly the two women withdrew their arms and put space between them.
"Redvines and Netflix?" Chloe offered, breaking the silence that had fallen.
"Sure," Beca replied, her voice cracking slightly. This was just a normal night with her best friend… why did it feel like more?
In the corner of the room a cameraman texted his boss: I have the perfect story.
A/N: I'm Australian so it is pretty much law for me to like AC/DC. I like to believe that Beca is cool enough to do the same :)
So let me know if this idea works and if I should keep it up or if it's a dud. Also, if there are any pairings you really want to see just let me know and I'll do my best to put in a good variety of them (unless they involve Beca and Chloe because they only belong together). Peace.
Next time - Legacy the temp.