Author's 1st Note: Hello fellow Bechloe lovers!

I can't tell you enough how thankful I am to have all of you guys read and follow my work. It really means a lot to me and makes all of the time and effort I put into these stories worth it.

This is my newest Bechloe fic. I wanted to try something a little different with this one. Since most of my stories are written from Beca's POV, I decided that this time I would give Chloe a voice and write the entire story from her POV. I'm finding it to be a nice change.

This story is also kind of like another High School AU, but really only in the sense that the characters are in high school. This story will have a different kind of twist to it compared to my last high school fic.

So, without further adieu, I give you: "Maybe In Another Life"

Enjoy! :D

"Chloe! Come on, sweetie. We gotta go!"

The young redhead knew her mother was calling for her from downstairs, but she couldn't leave. Not yet. She needed a few more minutes to remember her room; the way it looked, the way it smelled. But most importantly, Chloe needed to remember the way it had been her escape for the last twelve years.

She was standing at her bedroom doorframe, mindlessly staring at the empty space in front of her as she reminisced on the "good old days." She was so lost in her thoughts, that she hadn't heard her older brother, Chad, coming up the stairs, and she jumped when he tapped her shoulder.

"Hey." He said. "What are you doing? It's time for us to leave."

Chloe was pretty close to her brother. They were only a year apart in age, and despite a few minor disagreements every so often, they actually got along pretty well. He was always there for her whenever she needed him, and he had been her biggest supporter when she came out as a bisexual in the eighth grade.

Overall, Chad was more than just her older brother. He was her best friend.

Chloe looked at him with sad eyes. "Aren't you going to miss this place?"

He stuck his hands in his pockets, glanced around the empty room, and shrugged. "I mean yeah, I guess. But come on–" He nudged her arm. "Aren't you at least a little bit excited that our new place is gonna be bigger and a hell of a lot nicer than this one?"

This was true. Chloe's parents had opened their own real estate agency a year prior and in a short amount of time, it had grown to be very successful. Affording a larger home had always been a dream of their's, and her parents were beyond ecstatic that it was finally coming true.

But Chloe sighed. "I guess." And she turned to face her brother. "But what about school? Aren't you going to miss your friends? Aren't you going to miss Lacey?"

Chad's demeanor fell a bit at the mention of his ex-girlfriend's name and he looked away. "Lacey and I... broke up."

"Oh..." Chloe said, unaware of this new information. "Sorry about that."

Chad shrugged it off. "Eh, it's whatever. She wasn't the "serious relationship" type of girl anyway. It's probably for the best."

Chloe wasn't sure what to say, but before she could think of anything, their mother was calling for them again.

"Chad! What are you guys doing up there? Let's go!"

Chad widened his eyes. "We better get down there before she kills us both."

Chloe knew he was trying to be funny, trying to lighten the mood in any way possible, just to cheer her up, but Chloe still didn't smile.

"Yeah, okay." She gazed at her empty room one last time, took a deep breath, and then finally let it go. "I'm ready."

The new neighborhood was nice. Nicer than their previous one had been and the house was as big as Chloe's parents said it would be.

It was a two story home, with a basement and attic. It was painted white, which went well with the blue shudders that surrounded it, and there was a prim path of granite stones leading up to the large porch.

Chloe laughed as she looked at it, realizing it looked like the typical suburban house you would see in a classic movie. She huffed a strand of red hair out of her face just as a hand grabbed ahold of her shoulder.

"Isn't it beautiful, honey?" And although Chloe was still bummed about leaving her old life behind, she couldn't exactly disagree with her mother. Because, yeah. It was.

Chloe nodded. "Yeah, mom. It's nice."

Claire could sense the lack of excitement in her daughter's voice. "Oh, sweetie." She turned her daughter around to look at her. "I'm sure you'll grow to love this place." Chloe's weary expression didn't change, so the older woman tried again. "And who knows? Maybe you'll meet someone special out here." She winked, but Chloe only quirked a dubious brow at her.

"Yeah." She snickered, doubtfully. "We'll see about that."

Moving the boxes and furniture out of the Uhaul trucks was tiring work, but between the four of them, the Beales were able to get everything out in just three and a half hours.

It took them about another three hours to get all of the bedroom furniture upstairs and set up enough so they could all get a good night's rest, and by seven o'clock, the family had taken a break and ordered a pizza.

They sat down at their dining room table– which was temporarily located in the living room– and enjoyed their dinner together, many scattered boxes still randomly stacked around them as they ate.

The meal had been quiet for the most part, but then Chloe's dad cleared his throat and broke the awkward silence.

"So what do you kids think of the new house?" His smile was hopeful and expectant, and Chad was quick to give his honest opinion.

"I like it." He said, glancing over at Chloe. She was keeping her eyes fixated on the slice of pizza in front of her and he kicked her under the table to grab her attention.

"Oh!" Chloe yelped, straightening herself out from her previously slouched position and plastered a fake smile across her face. "Yeah, dad. It's– It's great."

The older man smiled satisfactorily, while Chloe rubbed her shin under the table and she shot Chad an ominous glare.

After dinner, Chloe was asked to throw the empty pizza box into the recycling trash bin. It was located outside, along the driveway, and when she went out there to fulfill the request, Chloe hadn't noticed the blonde that was approaching her until she was already tossing the cardboard box into the blue container.

"Hi."

Chloe almost jumped at the voice, but smiled when she saw the girl's friendly face. "Oh, hello."

The blonde extended her hand. "I'm Aubrey." She said. "What's your name?"

She seemed like a pretty straight forward person, which was gripping, but Chloe responded with her name and shook the girl's hand.

"Oh, that's cute. Welcome to the neighborhood, Chloe."

The redhead smiled. This girl seemed nice, too. "Thanks."

"So do you have any siblings? Pets? Or is it just you and your parents?"

Chloe chuckled at her blunt curiosity. "No pets, but I do have an older brother. His name is Chad."

"Cool." Aubrey said, not hesitating to continue her interest. "What grade are you guys in?"

Chloe wasn't used to strangers asking her twenty questions right off the bat, but Aubrey seemed like a nice girl, and after all, if Chloe could make at least one friend before she attended her new school on Monday, then that would be great.

"I'm a junior this year and my brother's a senior."

Aubrey's face lit up. "No way! I'm a junior too! Maybe we'll have some classes together."

Chloe smiled, brightly. "Yeah, totes. That would be awesome."

"Okay." Aubrey started, straightening herself up. "Well I have to get going, but I wanted to make sure I introduced myself." She started to walk backwards and gestured a thumb over her shoulder towards the house that was right next to Chloe's. "If you want to hangout this weekend, let me know." She smiled again. "We're neighbors."

Chloe grinned. "Okay, sure." And waved her goodbye. "It was nice meeting you!"

After officially meeting her new neighbor, Chloe made her way upstairs to her new room and scanned the foreign territory. It was larger than her previous one had been and what Chloe could appreciate the most was that it came with a walk-in closet. Chloe loved shopping, almost as much as she loved singing, and she couldn't wait to fill up the new space with brand new clothes.

Chloe smirked as she looked around the open space. "Hmm..." She hummed to herself. "Maybe this won't be so bad after all."

She walked over to her backpack and removed the portable speaker she had stored inside of it. Chloe could never get any work done around the house without some kind of music playing in the background.

She selected her favorite playlist and rose the volume up all the way up. Thanks to the extra square footage in the new house, Chloe could blast her music all she wanted and her family wouldn't hear it as loudly as they would have in their old house. She didn't have to worry about being told to turn it down.

Which, okay, was pretty freakin' cool.

Chloe had spent two hours unpacking and organizing her belongings. At one point she called Chad to help her rebuild her desk, but other than that, Chloe managed to get half of her room done all by herself.

It was an interesting experience, setting up her new room. Chloe felt like there was already some kind of freedom and independence there. She couldn't pin point exactly what is was that made her feel this way. She thought that maybe it was because her new room was located further down the hallway, away from her parent's and brother's bedrooms, instead of being right next to them like it had been at her old house.

Whatever it was, Chloe was enjoying it. It made her think that maybe this move was going to turn out a lot better than she thought it would.

Chloe was still carelessly singing and dancing around to her music as she color coordinated her new closet, when she heard a knock on her door.

"Come in!" Chloe shouted, smiling when her brother came into view. "Oh, hey." He didn't say anything at first and instead simply grinned at her. Chloe cocked a curious brow at him. "What?" She asked.

"I knew you were going to like this place."

Chloe's face fell and she playfully narrowed her eyes at him. "Who says I like this place?"

Chad barked a laugh. "Ha!" And used a finger to twirl around in Chloe's direction. "Your horrible singing and clumsy dance moves are a dead giveaway."

The gasp that escaped Chloe was dramatic and she punched her brother in the arm. "Excuse me!? I sing beautifully and you know it!"

A low chuckle rumbled from Chad's chest. "Alright, alright." He said, rubbing the now sore spot on his arm. "You got me there."

"That's what I thought." Chloe grinned, crossing her arms and nodding her head triumphantly.

"Chloe!"

The redhead couldn't hear her mother from where she was standing in her closet, but Chad could.

"Hey, turn down your music." He said. "I think mom's calling you."

Chloe quickly ran over to her desk and lowered the speaker volume. "Yeah, mom?" She asked, poking her head out of her room to find her mother standing at the other end of the hallway.

"Can you put everyone's bedsheets to wash, please? I want all of us to have fresh sheets before we sleep in them tonight."

Chloe looked back at her brother and stuck out her tongue in annoyance as she rolled her eyes. It made Chad laugh. "Okay!" She said, smiling back at her mother.

"Thank you, sweetie!"

Chloe turned back into her room and put a hand on her waist. "How come she didn't ask you to do it?"

Chad shrugged. "I'm her favorite. Accept it."

"Pfft..." Chloe tittered. "As if."

"Oh, and Chad!" Claire was hollering again. "Could you please help your father organize all the tools in the garage? Thanks, love!"

Chad's shoulders instantly fell and Chloe smirked at him. He already knew what she was going to say, so he beat her to it. "Don't." He said, and Chloe couldn't help but laugh as he drawled out of her room in defeat.

It had already gotten dark outside by the time Chloe collected all of the bedsheets and made her way downstairs. She struggled to open the basement door, her arms filled with the different colored fabrics, but when she finally got it open, she furrowed her brow in confusion.

The light was already on.

"Um... Mom?" She called out, her mother nearby, working in the kitchen.

"Yeah, honey?"

"Did you leave the basement light on?"

There was a moment of silence as Claire thought about it. "Mmm, nope." She said. "Maybe one of the boys did."

Chloe stared at the bottom of the basement, apprehensively. If she were being completely honest with herself, Chloe had to admit that she was kind of scared to go down there. The basement was giving off an eerie vibe that made her uncomfortable.

But then again, when Chloe thought about it, basements were supposed to make you feel that way, weren't they? That was normal, wasn't it?

With a shimmy of her shoulders and a quick deep breath, Chloe sucked up her nerves and took the first step down the rickety staircase.

Her pointless fear started to fade away with every continuous step she took, and when Chloe reached the bottom, she peeked around and took in the parts of the basement she could see from where she was standing.

It wasn't as bad as it seemed. Sure it was old, and smelly– paint chipping off of the walls and a few spider webs here and there– but there really wasn't anything to be afraid of.

Chloe laughed at herself. "Really, Chloe? How old are you, nine?" With a shake of her head, Chloe made her way around the right side of the stairs, noticing a large, but faint stain on the cement ground as she walked.

She started to aimlessly sing "Titanium," by David Guetta, to herself as she reached the washer and dryer and detangled the individual sheets from the large bundle she had originally brought down.

One by one, Chloe tossed them into the washer, gaining volume in her voice the more she got into the song. When she finished loading it up, Chloe poured the detergent and fabric softener into their proper dispensers and turned the dials to the correct settings before pressing the "start" button.

"Wow..."

Chloe immediately stopped singing and froze in place when an unfamiliar, and certainly unexpected, voice suddenly came from her right side. She willed herself to turn and look in that direction and she screamed when she saw a young, brunette girl quietly watching her from a shadowy corner on the other side.

"What the fuck!" Chloe cried, and to her surprise, the brunette screamed too, looking equally as terrified as she did. Chloe's breathing increased in panic and she quickly shuffled backwards until she was pressed up against the closest wall. "Who the hell are you?!"

Author's 2nd Note: Well that's something you don't typically find in your basement! xD

Follow me on Tumblr at "not-so-average-fangirl" for sneak peeks and other work.

Stay tuned for more!