Chemistry

Beca never wanted to be a teacher, it just sort of, happened. One minute she was attending college to please her Dad and the next she was graduating with a teaching degree with no intention of using it.

Turns out getting a gig as a music producer in Los Angeles is rough; all the rejection, hard work and her financial struggles finally managed to take its toll. Eventually Beca deciding to take a short break from it all and come back home – that was six years ago.

When she moved back to her home town it was difficult to swallow her pride, unable to shake the feeling that everyone was chanting "told you so" under their breath when she was at the store or in the diner. Moving back in with her Dad at twenty-seven probably didn't help her feel any better either, prolonging her wallowing period.

Beca slumped over her desk, blowing the air from her cheeks. Her chin rested comfortably on her forearm as she scribbled some notes on one of the papers she was marking. Chemistry was never her favourite subject when she was in school, but it had always been her strongest; whether Beca liked it or not.

So once she spotted the ad for a Chemistry teacher at the local middle school, Beca applied with the intention of it being temporary until she earned enough money to retry her luck in the music business back in LA – that was five and a half years ago.

The brunette pushed the papers away from her at the sound of the school bell, sitting up straight and stretching out her back. She had another free period before her next class, so she decided to grab something to eat at the cafeteria.

On her way down the busy hallway, Beca was met with a couple of smiles and nods from teachers and the occasional "Hi, Miss Mitchell" from some of the students, but she continued her walk on auto-pilot, not really registering the faces or the voices but replying anyway. The quick shuffle of feet and bustling of students in the hall cleared, all disappearing into their scheduled classes, until Beca was the only one still walking around. She let a small smile settle on her face, just glad of the silence.

One last right turn and she was in the cafeteria; the smell of food taking over the teacher's senses and reminding her she hadn't eaten for six hours. The smell of Doris's signature apple pie made her feet unconsciously move that little bit quicker around the corner, her mind worrying if there was any left.

Beca kind of registered the person walking in the opposite direction of the same corner, but with the food and the hour she endured marking papers, she continued striding forward, colliding with the body she was sure she should have recognised. An elbow was jabbed in her rib, books dropping on her foot and the word "shit" tumbling from her lips.

And of course it would be her.

The one person in the entire school that caused her to turn into one of the shy and fumbling students she teaches on a regular basis. Beca wasn't sure what it was about Miss Beale, but the way her palms grew sweaty and her throat turned dry the moment she saw her was a real pain in the ass. Their interactions were always short, the nervous woman rushing off to just die of embarrassment in her classroom instead of out on the hall.

Beca will always remember the first time she met Miss "call me Chloe" Beale in this very hallway last year. If Beca was being honest, she stopped dead in her tracks, gawking at the other woman who was walking with Mr Howard; the grumpy math teacher; deep in conversation, talking animatedly and Beca could have sworn she saw the flicker of a smile on the older man's lip, which was basically unheard of.

If anyone asked Beca, she would say Chloe's smile could light up a dark village and her eyes could hold the attention of every person in the crowded cafeteria Beca was stood in at the time. The way Chloe's laugh sounded like music or how the tightly fitted top she was wearing really complimented her –

A voice silenced her thoughts, "I'm so sorry!"

Beca was sure she was blushing right now, and not just because she had accidentally head butted the school's music teacher. As predicted and right on schedule, the words caught in the back of her throat and her rapid heartbeat echoed in her ears.

"It's okight."

The woman in front of her shot her a confused look, before giving her a small smile. Beca instinctively shook her head, an almost manic laugh escaping her lips.

"I mean, um, no problem. I started to say OK, but then started saying right half way through. I meant no problem..."

Fuck's sake.

Beca internally cringed at herself, before gathering the items off the ground in an attempt to distract her.

"Here" she said quickly, handing the now laughing redhead her books back.

"I got to go, I hate waiting in line with the kids" she laughed awkwardly pointing to the door of the lunch hall in front of her.

"But they're all in class?" Chloe smiled.

"Yeah, I know, that was just a joke" she sniggered, "I got to-"

"Go, yeah, you said. You should swing by the music department sometime – that way you can't rush off all the time..."

Chloe's smile was playful, but kind. Sweet, but sexy and maybe suggestive...

Nah, of course it wasn't.

"Okight."

Why couldn't she just act like a fully functioning human being around this woman, just once?

"Okight" Chloe repeated with a knowing smile before turning on her heels and walking away, "Bye, Beca" she shouted over a shoulder, her voice echoing down the corridor and long after inside Beca's head.

"Shit", she quietly muttered to herself, as she watched the redhead walk away.

XXX

It had been two weeks since Beca had seen Miss Beale and it turns out avoiding someone for that long in the school building was a lot more difficult than she had first imagined. She started eating lunch in her classroom, then bailing on weekly assemblies, to ducking behind kids in the corridor in order to stay out of sight – OK; she knows it's ridiculous, but their last encounter was by far the most awkward. Even worse than the time she walked into her closed classroom door upon saying goodbye the first time they met...

But Beca isn't sure why this time feels different. There is a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach that refuses to settle and a constant notion that she's missing out on something, but what, she's not sure. It doesn't help that she has been replaying Chloe's words on repeat from the moment she walked away.

"You should swing by the music department sometime."

They had Beca feeling butterflies in her stomach as well as a crushing wave of anxiety at the sheer thought of embarrassing herself further. Maybe it was the way they were said; playful, but genuine, with a hint of something else. A tone that said "Come on, I dare you..."

But she thinks she's reading too much into, after all, she has been thinking about them non-stop for several days – yeah, she's over thinking them.

What posses the chemistry teacher to wander down the foreign hallway of the music department on her free period a few days later is unknown, but there she was, running her fingers in a line across the white washed walls, cautiously peering into classroom windows. Beca really tried to look natural and in different, but the moment she caught a glimpse of the redhead sat leaning over a desk in an empty room to her right, she couldn't help but comically step back, throwing her weight against the wall, praying to any higher power that she wasn't spotted.

God, I'm a mess...

She quickly ran her fingers through her hair and wiped the barley there creases out of her shirt before taking a deep breath. A slow chant of be cool, be cool filled her mind, as she tried to take a step forward, but it was like her feet were refusing to move. Not only could this woman turn her into a blubbering mess, making her forget all the words in her head, but it seems now she also has the power to render her temporarily paralysed.

Beca wanted to turn the corner, no, like Beca really wanted to just waltz in the classroom, shut the door behind her, say something sexy and mysterious, and then just take Chloe on the desk there and then, but the fear of repeating "Okight" or walking into a door was too much – so she was about to turn around and make her way back to her classroom unnoticed when a flash of red and blue became a blur and there was a rather hard force hitting her forehead.

"Ah, shit."

The unexpected impact caused her to squeeze her eyes shut and when she opened them, there she was, mirroring Beca's action.

"Are you OK?" Chloe hurriedly asked, placing a hand on Beca's shoulder.

"I'm okight."

Chloe let out a chuckle, before mumbling something about de-ja-vu. Beca honestly wasn't making a joke; she had just managed to repeat the one (non)word she was willing herself not to say, but it made Chloe laugh, so she didn't really mind.

The hand was still on her shoulder and Beca did her best to try not to think about it and prevent the urge to shrug it off.

"It seems we should probably create some sort of code for when we're both turning corners in this building" Chloe said, finally retracting her hand and taking a slight step back from the close proximity she had been standing in.

"Yeah, you shout 'high', I'll shout 'low'..."

Beca awkwardly laughed, racking her mind for an excuse to leave, or better yet, think of a reason for her unusual presence in Chloe's department if she was to ask.

"So, what brings you to music?"

Damn, too late...

"Just you."

If Beca ever wanted the world to just open up and swallow her whole, she had never wished it would happen more than she did in that moment. She found her mouth moving without warning and she had no idea what words were about to come out.

"The other week you said swing by, so here I am. More like bumping by, seen as that just happened. But bumping isn't a thing, so I guess I'm just walking by rather than swinging by, you know?" she stuttered the words to begin with, but eventually they just kept coming, flowing out of her mouth, showing no signs of stopping.

"But, I wasn't like stalking you or anything, I just thought a spare ten minutes and it's been a while since I've visited the department, so here I am..." she trailed off, shrugging her shoulders

Chloe finally weighed in, smiling brightly at the woman in front of her, "Well, do you want to maybe walk into my classroom? You know, finally have a proper conversation, instead of bumping into each other or you running away?" she questioned cheekily, a slight wriggle of her eyebrows.

Beca was unsure what to say, she didn't think she had made the whole avoiding thing that obvious. If she was in her right mind, she probably would have realised Chloe had said the same thing two weeks ago, but she wasn't, so she froze.

"I don't run..." she mumbled half-heartedly, not daring to make eye contact with her fellow colleague in front of her. Before she had a chance to register what was happening, a hand was wrapping around her wrist and a force pulling her into the room she was unable to walk into a couple of minutes ago.

"C'mon, I've got some candy bars in my draw."

XXX