Hello!

I know it's been over a year since I ended this story. I'm posting this section to personally give thanks to all who gave this story feedback... and to all its readers, in general. I never thought I'd be able to accomplish a short novel with over 70,000 words. I've always known myself as a "no-follow-through" type of person. There was a time wherein I envisioned my FF dot net profile to be full of unfinished stories... so being able to close this story really means so much to me as a young adult and as a writer. Then there's the passing of my father in the middle of writing With One Note. I seriously thought I would never write again because of it, but I love writing too much to let it go just like that - so I fought hard for it. I would start typing words and then pause to cry, and then just resume typing whenever I can. With One Note was the very first multi-chapter I got to write 'til the last word, and I have you guys to thank for it as well.

In gratitude, I thought I should do a sort of a 'run-down' of my journey in writing this story...

1-1 The Notorious Bastard.

I couldn't be more pleased with myself the moment I completed the first scene. We are introduced to Beca Mitchell, the tiny girl who thinks she can have the world to her feet whenever she wants... and then, there's Chloe, who immediately grew a peculiar kind of interest in her. My foreshadowing also already started in this chapter. When Sebastian stressed out that he has "a lot of reason" to be concerned, I already built the nature of Beca's health condition, though untold yet.

1-2 Your New Head Bitch.

This was the beginning of Aubrey's personal mini story line. By introducing Regine Posen, I showed the readers that as tough as Aubrey acts around everyone else, in her very own home, in her very own family, she was just an average overlooked member. She was the middle child, and probably because of her father's detachment that she never knew her worth as a daughter and as a sibling. This is Aubrey's driving force to "over-achieve" in all things.

And because we get to know Gregory Haull as Beca's bully in the previous chapter, I found a way to use him as Beca's reason for agreeing to lead the Bellas. With her reckless, happy-go-lucky personality, this Beca Mitchell wouldn't really have a valid reason for joining the Bellas if it weren't for vengeance.

Half of the scene at the cafe was just a filler (the part where Beca was acting weird around Jesse)... but I did manage to give it an explanation in the later chapters, if you guys remember.

1-3 Pocketful of Sunshine.

Chloe opened this chapter, yay! I introduced her "art" side in this one. We also see her getting a crush on tiny ball of rage Beca Mitchell, and figuring out that she may have something more than just that bitchy facade. If you weren't liking Beca yet at this point in the story, it's okay. She's meant to be loathed by basically everyone until the moment she cries because Chloe sang her songs of hate.

The Harana assignment. Beca has this tendency to 'experiment' with a lot of things, given her expected shortened lifespan. She wanted to spice this assignment by making it all about hate. Why hate, though? It's sort of what's inside her all these years. She's angry at all the events - her mother's passing, her Sickle Cell, Haull... everything. Primarily though, Beca only wanted to train the girls' creativity.

1-4 Impending Disaster.

I guess we get to be disappointed that Ashley, being Beca's cousin, could only say as much about her childhood pal. She obviously knows about the gem inside Beca, but like she said... it wasn't her story to tell. Ashley respects Beca's discretion on who to tell about her condition. The first scene of this chapter was the very reason Cynthia Rose believed in Beca until the end. I brushed off the idea of writing this scene, but then I realized it would create a character hole if I didn't give Rosie a concrete reason to "see the good" in Beca. She only learned that Beca's unlikable attitude was because of her own baggage, and that was enough for her to believe in the person hiding inside that facade. One of the themes of With One Note is "going unnoticed." No one really had appreciated Rosie in this story other than Beca.

We get to see Chloe's growing fondness of Beca! When the brunette couldn't remember Chloe from the party, it was just the side effects of having abnormal red blood cells.

Healthy breakfast. Beca likes to serve her girls super healthy breakfast... more often than not, it involved green leafy veggies in a salad. Green leafy veggies are the recommended therapeutic food for anemics, like Beca... and she simply wanted her girls to boost their blood health, because that's one thing that her own body cannot do.

"You own a grand piano?"

"And you're just donating it?"

"Yes. It's okay, really. I might not be using it soon, so I want the Bellas to make good use of it."

"Might?" Chloe said under her breath. Is she dying or something?" She joked, whispering to Aubrey.

Oooopps, Chlo. Too soon. Yeap you guys, one of my crazy foreshadowing.

Oh, and Beca does realize when she's hit someone's nerve, so that makes her a person who does feel, but simply chooses not to.

Thanks to Chloe, Beca is initially saved from getting Aubrey's Harana dedication.

"You joined the Bellas so you can get back at Haull. Didn't you tell me that yesterday at the cafe?"

Beca was silent for a short while. "But it wasn't entirely because of it." Beca spoke. "I mean, some part of me wanted to do this for some other goal. I just can't figure out exactly what it is."

Beca has already felt an attachment to the Bellas as early as this point in the story, she just didn't want to admit it to herself that she actually cares for people... She wanted to win the ICCA's not just to kick Haull's ass, but also to give her girls a celebration.

Jesse Swanson here, as Beca's close friend since middle school, throws wise quotes at Beca, because he plays as her "big bro" who keeps her out of trouble... and well, because Beca has a chronic unstable health condition.

"And the point of socializing with others is that maybe one out of the ten idiots you bump into everyday will like you for you and stay."

"One out of ten... That's reassuring," scoffed Beca.

My brain was screaming BeChloe when I was writing this part. Chloe being Beca's "one out of ten" melts my heart.

This chapter ends with introducing Beca's immediate love for Chloe's blue eyes. Pretty writing tool for facilitating romance between characters? Hmmm, more like, pretty writing tool for characterizing Beca Mitchell.

1-5 But Thanks.

The opening scene was just a filler scene so I can introduce Donald and Stacie's mini plot line. Another foreshadowing: The Fault in Our Stars as Beca's favorite book.

"If this is really a room for two, why is there only one bed?"

If it crossed your mind that Chloe Beale moved mountains to sell the bunk beds and replace it with a single bed for her and Beca, then wow. You got it fucking right. Chloe chose to lie about it because she didn't want to creep Beca out. I mean, come on, Beale. All for a crush?

We see a tipsy Stacie Conrad bumping into Donald in the woods... and she's horny as hell. Fortunately, Donald is a grown man who knows better not to take advantage of the beautiful woman in front of him. This is what Stacie couldn't understand in her later encounters with the Treble. She always thought men only want one thing from her... that she's not one of those girls who gets to experience a higher form of love. Another character internal conflict for y'all.

The birth of the nickname Oh-Chlo! Beca has a thing for forgetting names because her Sickle Cell makes her brain perform a little less than good. Beca needed the nickname to help remember Chloe's name. Now, the conversation about eyes is one of my most favorite part of this story...

"And that's the thing, Becs, - sometimes, those little things that can only be appreciated at a closer view are the most beautiful ones. It's like, they stay reserved under radar because they are so precious to be easily out in the open; the fact that it would have to take a persnickety eye for it to be extremely beautiful sums its worth all up."

This is my most favorite line from this story, to be honest. Chloe Beale right there, unintentionally and metaphorically described the wholeness of Beca's character. At a short glance, you see Beca Mitchell as a worthless unlikable person, but if you take the time and the patience to look deeper (like Chloe and Cynthia Rose did), you'd see Beca for the beautiful person that she is. You get to understand how pain and sadness fucked up Beca's view in life. You get to understand why Beca chooses to behave the way she does. If you set aside her flaws, you'd see Beca. Her kind of beautiful stays reserved from public view because it is rare, and it is precious.

1-6 The Jesse Status.

Now we really get to see Cynthia Rose's personality in action when she fought not having Beca as the recipient of their Harana.

"Please," Beca mocked. "Why skip on the good stuff? Life's too short... like really short."

Foreshadowing point right there.

Aubrey and Declan! Here we get to have more reasons to hate Regine and more to love Aubrey. Beca was right when she wrote in one of her notes that Aubrey Posen was basically Wonder woman.

Paint cans! Uh-oh. Beca was only playing with Chloe but apparently, she had pushed her to the limit already. Well, if it weren't for her leaving the details of where she actually placed the paint cans, Chloe wouldn't have gotten angry at her, the Harana wouldn't have been redirected, and Beca wouldn't have let herself feel pain again. So, thank you paint cans.

1-7: Once a Bitch.

Sebastian was rather glad that Beca was courageous enough to face pain... at last.

Awww, Becs. As if she hadn't had enough pain at such a young age... She didn't let Aubrey hurt her emotionally... but she let Chloe. The thing is, a person can never really hurt us until we let them inside the zone where they can do damage. It was a representation that Beca had let Chloe get past behind her walls (and neither of them really had noticed this completely).

Beca hating Chloe's perfume? Now we know she wasn't trying to be a bitch. She has Sickle Cell, and she couldn't bear strong scents of any kind. Nothing personal, Chlo... but then, she didn't know.

More Donald and Stacie interaction! Oh, and we realize that the reason Stacie was in the woods again was because she was trying to spy on Jesse to know if Beca lost her sanity after the Harana. Everybody hates her, and they have the reason to do so.

Beca ditching the Bellas. I just wanted to prove a point that sometimes, because of our first impression on someone, we tend to falsely judge every single move that they do.

1-8 With Just One Note.

Ohhh! The chapter that gives meaning to the title! Nahhh. Sorry this wasn't it. I added the word "just" in the hopes of utilising a red herring making the readers think that this is the turning point of the story that gave rise to the title... that this is the ultimate note of all. And besides, "with just one note" was in the context of Chloe's character, and our main protagonist here is Beca, so that should've given it away too.

Beca doesn't feel the need explaining to the Bellas that she has Sickle Cell and a dead mom. She doesn't care what people thinks of her, anyway (except what Chloe thinks). Beca loathed the look of sympathy in people's eyes. She doesn't tell her story around because she doesn't want to feel low about herself than she already does. Now, she lets Chloe inside, slowly, little by little.

Rykerr Spence. I don't need to say more about Rykerr. Beca and Jesse explained it in the final chapters. This was the ultimate channel Beca used to show that she cared for Aubrey.

1-9 Favorite Escape.

Beca actually opens a conversation with Chloe about her exceptional aptitude for fine arts. Beca wanted to know why Chloe was choosing to be in a profession that she obviously doesn't enjoy that much.

We learn from Aubrey that Stacie and Donald went down the road of a friends-with-benefits status... and the cupcake Beca handed her was sort of like a "foil" scene to give the dramatics a rest... More importantly, I put that cute scene there to serve as a partial answer, another red herring as to who Rykerr really is. Aubrey was talking to Ryk when Beca knocked at her door, so it could not have been Beca behind the account. Not that it made a lot of difference for most of you, but it was really cute. And because I'm a strong Jaubrey shipper as well, I found a way to merge Jesse into the whole online chat thing.

Let's bring Haull back into the story because she was Beca's initial reason for joining the group.

The story ends with the revelation that Beca got Casa Bella two fully-furnished studios. What a gift, Becs!

1-10 Cornflakes.

Okay, so Chloe got mad because she thought Beca wasn't serious with the Bellas winning the championships. All we get from Beca was that she "seriously doesn't know what to do."

Donald wants the real deal with Stacie, but he gets rejected. Ouch. Much like Fat Amy's initial rejection of Bumper in the second film!

Cynthia Rose and Beca's scene is a beautiful one, because Beca discloses that she's confused and doesn't know what to do to make her girls like her, to make Chloe like her. Because she sucks at dealing with people, Beca tends to make bad choices when socializing. Beca was having a self-esteem crisis that's why she was stagnant at prepping for competition... and this is introduced to us when we realize that it only took one person who believes in Beca to make her maneuver her thoughts around.

The knife art. I've explained this in one of my chapter notes later in the story. It wasn't a filler scene. It was a gateway for you guys to get to know Chloe's inner conflict.

1-11 We Good.

Cynthia Rose's humility points out her 'martyr-like' personality. I developed Rosie's character in this way to prove a point that being open-minded, being a wallflower who can understand things, being a positive-minded person who believes there is good in everybody... it is strength. You don't need to change the world to matter, because just by reminding people about the part of them that glows already makes a difference in their lives. People like Cynthia Rose are greatly overlooked, and her plot line in this story is a homage to all you unappreciated wallflowers.

Donald figures out that he'd rather downgrade to how things were with Stacie than not have Stacie in his life at all.

Beca's fondness over the TV show ANTM... This was just an overview of the real Beca Mitchell that Chloe now gets to enjoy at a closer view.

And the cornflakes... we thank the almighty cornflakes for the progression of Bechloe in this story!

Anyways, I'll do the rest of the fic some other time. If you have questions (about the characters, about events, about my writing, etc) please leave them at the review page or send me a personal message. I'll try to address as many as I can next time. I hope you enjoyed this feat! See you!