He turned the key and pulled it out of the ignition, shoving the keys into his pocket as he slid out of the pickup truck. He circled the vehicle and pulled a few cardboard boxes out of the bed of the truck, carrying the stacked boxes in his strong arms while he left the parking lot to find his dorm building.

Beck wasn't looking forward to university, and the only reason he was even attending was because he was being forced to by his father, a professor here at Barden. He'd been lectured on the importance of education by both of his parents, actually, and he believed his father was conspiring against him with his mother, despite the divorce that separated them many years ago.

On his way to the building, he saw a guy his age in the backseat of someone's car. He was singing loudly and playing air guitar, and Beck couldn't help but manage a tiny smirk despite himself. It took a lot to get someone like him to crack a smile. He might've even chuckled when the car took off, sending the guy careening into the car seat in front of him. What a dork.

He reached the dorm without too much difficulty, aided by a colored campus map he'd snagged on his way, tucking it into his back pocket as he continued on his way. When he found the correct building he ascended the stairs to the fourth floor, which was unfortunately where his room was located.

Beck was the first to arrive and he started to unpack his box before he settled onto the bed lazily. He wondered vaguely what his roommate would be like, and decided against going back out to get the rest of his stuff from his truck. He just wanted to get settled.

As his dark blue eyes began to droop with exhaustion, he heard the door open.

"Hey," a voice called out, and Beck sat up to greet its owner.

That's when he realized he knew this guy. He laughed.

"No way, air guitar guy's my roomie? What's up, man?" Beck asked him.

"Not much, bro, just bringing in some stuff, and thanking the university gods for not giving me some nerdy roomie," the guy admitted with a smile, sitting a few boxes on the floor by his bed, "I'm Jesse, by the way."

The kid actually extended his hand for a handshake. With a bemused grin, Beck didn't get up nor shake the hand offered to him. Handshakes made him uneasy, anyway, as he was always concerned that his grip wouldn't be firm enough and someone might notice.

"Beck," he responded coolly.

"Like the singer?"

The shorter guy rolled his eyes, like he hadn't heard that one before.

"No."

"Okay…" Jesse seemed to be taken aback by his rudeness, but Beck honestly didn't care what he thought, "What's your favorite movie, Beck?"

Beck shrugged.

"You have to have a favorite movie." He sounded genuinely bothered by the fact that Beck hadn't chosen something.

"Says who?" The sarcastic boy retorted.

Jesse sighed, obviously trying very hard here.

"Okay, fine, what's the last movie you saw?" he tried again.

"I don't know, I don't really like movies…"

"You don't like—how can you not like movies?!" Jesse gasped, pulling out a massive DVD collection from within his cardboard box, holding a few close to his chest like they were his children.

Beck never had been a huge movie buff. He'd seen a few, obviously, but never really cared much to see anything if he could help it.

"I get bored halfway through and turn it off." He explained with another shrug.

"The endings are the best part!" Jesse was getting mildly annoying now.

Beck ran a hand through his hair and adjusted one of the spikes in his ear, he had them gauged slightly and since it was a new thing for him, his ears were bothering him a little. They were itching more than anything. But it was totally worth it.

"Can I ask you something and you promise not to be offended?" His roommate prompted, leaving Beck nervous about what it was he was going to say.

He wondered if he was passing as male, or if Jesse had picked up on the fact that he was biologically female and was about to say something terrible to him. It had, after all, taken a lot of convincing to get the college board to allow him to have a roommate at all, but with a signed doctor's note and the promise that he was on hormones, he'd actually been able to do so. As his mom put it, all Beck wanted was a 'normal college experience.' He didn't want it to be ruined especially not on the very first day.

"Uh, I can't promise not to be offended if I don't know what you're gonna ask me," he finally replied honestly, not meeting Jesse's gaze.

Jesse nodded, "fair enough, I was just wondering if you were like, goth or emo or something, you know. With the piercings and the black nail polish and the way you dress, you look like you should be in a band," he noted.

Beck chuckled, "I don't identify as either of those things, or anything at all. I just like black, and I like the shit I wear, end of story. I was in a band back home, but quit so I could focus on my own music."

He wasn't sure why but moments later he was explaining to Jesse about how he wanted to be a DJ, and how much he loved making music. For the first time he seemed to find something in common with his roommate, who didn't want to DJ like he did, but at least had an interest in music too. Although Beck thought the idea of doing movie scores was a little dorky, he also had to admit it was kind of cool. With Jesse's obvious passion for film, he could see him doing something like that.

After bonding a little with Jesse (not that he would ever admit it to anyone), Beck was visited by his obnoxious father. In an effort to get away from him and an unavoidable pep talk, he excused himself to join Jesse at the activities fair, even though he wasn't remotely interested in joining any of the groups on campus.

He and Jesse looked around and he stopped at a promising DJ booth that disappointingly, turned out to be for Deaf Jews. Beck was walking with his roommate when he locked eyes with the only good-looking girl he'd seen since stepping on campus.

She was a redhead – he had a serious hard on for gingers, his last ex had been a redhead – and the bluest eyes he'd ever seen. Trying to be casual, Beck approached her booth, manned by the redhead and an uptight looking blonde girl.

"What are the Barden Bellas?" he asked, reading their sign.

"We're one of the four acapella groups on campus," the redhead explained with a smile.

"And the best," the blonde cut in.

"We're the tits," she shrugged as if that was a completely normal statement to make, "and we're looking for recruits."

"Females only."

"Right," Beck nodded, he'd only wanted an excuse to talk to the pretty girl, "well, I'm Beck, and you are?"

"Too busy for this!" The uptight one said briskly, walking off and shoving flyers at random girls that walked by, leaving Beck and the redhead alone. Jesse had wandered off somewhere in the distance.

"I'm Chloe," the redhead said finally, giving him the kind of grin that made him weak in the knees.

Beck grinned back at her, "it's nice to meet you, Chloe, I hope I'll see you around."

With a slight wave that he immediately regretted, Beck joined his roommate across the way, apparently watching and listening to one of the other acapella groups on campus. This group was apparently called the Trebles, he learned from the nerdy looking boy Jesse was talking to.

He listened to the guys sing their rendition of Whip It, honestly impressed by their voices despite how the leader (he assumed he was the leader, he was arrogant enough) sang with an expression on his face resembling that of someone passing gas.

Jesse joined in on the singing (who knew he could sing?) and grabbed some flyers, giving one to Beck. He wrinkled his nose at the idea and shoved the flyer deep into his pocket, something he forgot about until the next morning when he found it there.

He rolled his eyes when he found the flyer the next morning, crumpling it up and throwing it in the garbage on his way to class. Yeah, right, like he'd ever sing with a group of guys. It was one thing to be in a band, and it was an entirely different animal to sing without instruments with an entire group of males. The whole thing just sounded incredibly lame to him.

Beck was thankful when he found out that Jesse had earlier classes than he. That gave him alone time to get dressed, which was a lengthy process for him. As a transgender guy, he bound his chest every day to keep it flat, so no one would catch on and so that he could feel more comfortable in his body. Binders weren't easy to put on nor were they enjoyable to wear, but it was necessary to live his life. He also spent an unprecedented amount of time choosing his outfits, because half the time nothing ever looked right or masculine enough on his small frame.

He had to admit he'd bulked up a bit since starting testosterone but not as much as he'd hoped, and so he vowed to start going to the gym to work out between classes. He definitely had enough time to do so, but Beck had never really been the type for exercise. This would have to be an exception.

Once he was dressed for the morning in his jeans, t-shirt and layered plaid button up, he put on his sneakers and a beanie, slinging his bag over his shoulder as he made his way out the door. Beck hated school, and he didn't think college would be any different.

Classes were boring no matter what, he figured, and so he wasn't looking forward to attending them. More often than not, he decided, he probably wouldn't attend. Hopefully attendance wasn't mandatory, he'd heard that the policies were lax with some teachers, and hoped he was lucky enough to get those kinds of teachers. He was smart enough to get the material without attending anyway, if he did the work and reading outside of class, he'd be fine.

Just as expected, classes totally sucked. He had decided to skip Philosophy, which sucked the most, and was lying down for a nap when his father decided to drop by. Of course he got a lecture on how he should go to class and his father basically demanded that he join a campus group. Beck mentioned the radio station that he and Jesse had both started interning at, but his father didn't seem to think that was enough. He wasn't really listening until his dad admitted that if he tried this year and participated and did well, if he still wanted to go to LA next year, his father would actually help him do it.

Beck had wanted to move to LA to start his music career for years, and so this was what lit the fire under his butt. He was contemplating the different campus groups, wondering if maybe he could just convert to Judaism and pretend to be deaf, as he made his way to the gym to run on the treadmill.

He was thankful when he saw there was no one else in the room and Beck stepped onto the treadmill with his headphones on, probably looking ridiculous wearing oversize DJ headphones when he was supposed to be exercising. He started out at a brisk walking pace and sang along to the music playing on his iPod, since no one else was around.

He wasn't sure when she got there but he saw a flash of red that made him jump. Beck lost his footing and fell off the treadmill, cursing as he banged his knee against the exercise equipment. The girl immediately jumped to his aid and his cheeks burned when he realized this was the same girl from the acapella booth he'd met on his first day.

"Shit," he hissed, pulling his headphones down to his neck and inspecting his knee.

"Are you okay?" she asked, bending at his side and bringing her fingers gingerly to his leg, "Does this hurt?" she pushed down harder than he expected.

"Fu—no, no, it's fine," Beck played it off like it wasn't hurting as bad as it was, not wanting to look stupid in front of Chloe and wondering if she even remembered him.

"If you say so," Chloe smiled that infectious smile of hers, "your voice is really amazing."

"What do you mean?"

Shit. He'd been singing. She'd heard him singing.

"I love Titanium, it's my lady jam," Chloe referenced the specific song he'd been singing moments before his unfortunate treadmill accident, "and you sing it really well."

Beck shrugged, "if you say so."

"You should consider trying out for the acapella auditions tomorrow, I mean, I don't want to help out the competition, but you're obviously talented and I think you should share your gift with the world," even though what she was saying was goofy and ridiculous, Beck found himself agreeing.

Retiring from the gym to put ice on his now swollen knee, Beck said goodbye to the redhead, thinking about whether she was right. His father did say he should join a campus group, and from what he'd heard from Jesse, his friend was going to try out as well. He'd heard Jesse singing the same awful Kelly Clarkson song around the dorm several times, apparently this was the audition song.

Beck wasn't sure if he could bring himself to sing that song, though, and so he mostly blew off the idea until Friday right before auditions were coming to a close.

I'll just sing something else, he told himself, trying to think of some way he could be creative and interesting, so that he could outweigh his obvious disadvantage with not performing the designated song.

He thought he was too late when he stepped onto the side of the stage, but Chloe waved him forward wearing an excited grin that he couldn't help but replicate.

Suddenly he was stealing the cup from her table (getting a glare from her blonde friend) and performing his rendition of Lulu & the Lampshades "You're Gonna Miss Me." Everyone seemed genuinely impressed with his audition, and the blonde must have been, too, because she looked like she'd been sucking on a lemon. She was probably pissed that someone as awesome as he was would be joining one of the opposing teams. And Chloe's blue eyes were trained on him the entire time, making him so nervous that he could barely concentrate. He could've swore that she was into him, but Beck told himself that if she knew the truth about him, she'd run away screaming just like the others had.

He didn't find out until later that he'd been accepted by the Trebles, the very same group Jesse had been inducted into. They had a ridiculous induction ceremony before most of them got ridiculously wasted. Most of the Trebles, it seemed, resided in a house together on campus complete with hot tub, and Beck learned that the leader with the gas face was apparently named Bumper. He didn't like him at all, but he couldn't deny that he was a good singer, and Beck thought maybe they would have a shot at winning competitions together.