New year, new start.

Is exactly what Chloe told Aubrey over and over on their pre-school year vacation in Ibiza. They had needed to let off steam. Their course of action was lazing on beaches by day and partying by night to forget about the world, if only for a little while. Chloe who had been the little beacon of positivity in Aubrey's life, believed it, and Aubrey had to fake it until it was true.

It had to be true, right?

Chloe and Aubrey returned to Barden, now the only two Bellas left. Everyone else either having graduated or dropped the a cappella group due to that one little incident. Ok maybe it wasn't that little of an incident. Maybe it was a big incident, and Aubrey was nowhere close to living down the extreme embarrassment of barfing during the performance at Lincoln Center. Add onto that they had both just came out of bad relationships. One of them had to be positive.

New year, new start?

Right.

Aubrey was determined to not let anyone make her feel worthless again. What had started out as drunken hook ups with Unicycle, she'd only learned his name was Michael after they'd actually started dating, had gone awry. He'd been hooking up with other women. Plenty of other women.

He was hot. And he knew it. He acted sweet. And knew how to use it to his advantage to get what he wanted and for a while Aubrey had fell for it. But that was the past.

New year, new start.

New Bellas. That was a place to start.

Someone on campus wouldn't have had access to youtube and not have seen the video. Aubrey had been instilled with an all or nothing attitude from her father. She was currently at nothing with all to gain. She was a Military Brat, never having lived in one place for very long but somehow she'd stayed friends with Chloe since her dad had been stationed in New Orleans. As her dad always said
"If all you're squadron dies, recruit replacements to die instead of you."

There had to be more Bellas.

Right?

So wrong.

Chloe needed the Bellas more than Aubrey did, which was a big part of why Aubrey was determined to make it all work. For Chloe. They had been like each others family for most of their lives, and only had each other now they were both at Barden. No, that was harsh. They were never an "only". They were like sisters and Chloe had always wanted a sister, again.

Positive thinking. Chloe would rarely let herself think back on the past, not that it upset her like it did when she was twelve. When she did let her mind think about her sister, her mother, she thought of them with fondness, not sadness. She didn't miss Maura, who had been a family friend of the Beales since before Chloe had been born, whilst she had been away at college like she thought she was meant to either. Maura, she could never bring herself to call her mom, had taken in the teenage Chloe and given her pretty much everything.

Chloe had broken up, well it had ended, with Lana, over the summer. Lana had been a Bella, and they had been on and off and off and on all year. Chloe had wanted it to be more, thought it was more. Chloe had learned to leave the subject well alone of them going public with their relationship, always having caused arguments she could never win.

Chloe had convinced herself for a while that she was happy to live in secrecy with Lana but it just wasn't as fulfilling as she needed or wanted. When she pressed and pressed one too many times for them to come out as a couple therefore she'd be effectively outing Lana, Lana just couldn't do it. Chloe never hid her sexuality but Lana lived deep in the closet, and it drove Lana away from her.

Lana graduated and left.

Left Barden.

Left Georgia.

Left Chloe's life.

Chloe wouldn't let herself be someone's dirty little secret again.

Aubrey had only found out about Lana once it was over. She had been too distracted by Unicycle and her own crap fest of a relationship to see what her best friend had been dealing with. And then classes were over for the summer and she couldn't be there for Chloe every day like she wanted to.

They had both returned to their own families for the summer but when they met up at Chloe's home near the end of the break Aubrey found Chloe to be a shell of herself. Chloe had hidden her pain, they had talked, texted and skyped nearly every day but Aubrey had been clueless to her friends true pain. Aubrey had thought she had been handling her own break up badly. Boy had she been wrong after she compared herself to Chloe.

Aubrey had spent a few days, okay maybe a week, stalking Unicycles facebook page before blocking him. She had let herself cry once and accidentally cried one other time, and that was it. She kept her emotions bottled and in check.

It killed her to see how Chloe had been handling hers. Killed her that she had known nothing about it up until that point. And yet when she thought back to their conversations it had been so apparent and she was just too preoccupied with her own life to take notice.

She made a vow to never let Chloe get hurt like that again.

The Chloe that Aubrey met up with at the end of the summer wasn't Chloe. Chloe was an open book, a free spirit, she was happy. But the Chloe she encountered had looked drained, pale with dark circles under her eyes. Aubrey had to know what had her friend in such a state and it hadn't taken much prodding. Chloe had been at breaking point. A hug and a shared bottle of wine and it all came pouring out about Lana. How she had fallen hard for Lana, how it ended and then it was as if Lana had died. It was like the entire year previous hadn't happened, everything she had felt hadn't meant a thing.

Aubrey and Chloe continued after the one bottle of wine, and got totally wasted and talked and talked until they felt they had been exorcised of their past demons. The next day waking up to see that a drunk Aubrey had booked them on a flight out to Ibiza. So they went. And it helped. The sun helped. The sand and the sea helped. Time with Aubrey helped.

Chloe had started the summer out moping and depressed but by the time the school year had come around again Chloe had returned to her usual sunshine self. The holiday had a lot to do with that. Aubrey had a lot to do with that.

New year.

Georgia smelled like a new start. The trees, the grass, gosh Chloe could even smell the sunshine. Chloe needed the new start and more importantly felt ready for one. The day was beautiful, and Chloe was able to once again appreciate the little things in life that always made her smile. Today it was the piping hot cup of coffee Aubrey had ready for her next to fresh bagels from the store when she woke up, and the way her own new blue dress made her eyes pop.

The two women stood tall and tried to project how proud they were to be Bellas as they were out at the Activities Fair. Aubrey was tense and nervous about recruiting new Bellas. Aubrey felt like she was trying to adopt Chloe new sisters, as well as find some hot singers. Chloe had tried to calm her and give her words of encouragement that morning over breakfast.

New start.

They stood behind their booth, gaining bitchy remarks, references to Aubrey's faux pas that had went viral last year, and general complete ignorance from the female population of Barden.

Aubrey walked around the table onto the path, shoving more flyers in unwanted hands. Chloe followed. She'd follow Aubrey into battle if she asked. Aubrey certainly treat a cappella like war.

Aubrey had said she wanted hot and talented, and they had come up diddly nope so far. Chloe thought all the girls were hot, not in a sexual way, but like everyone is beautiful so why not just try and find good singers first and foremost?

Aubrey wasn't down with that. Aubrey wanted to have the best. Wanted to win. Would be the best. Would win.

It was starting to feel futile when Chloe spotted the hot part of the criteria across the quad. Hot in a sexual way. She felt her eyes all over this woman. A small framed dark haired woman with intense eyes and the most elegant profile when she turned in the sun, reminding Chloe of herself back when she'd went through an alternative phase in high school.

Time moved slowly. Chloe had that moment, when you just know this person's going to be something special in your life, and there's nothing you can do but hold on tight and go along for the ride. Then time sped up, way too fast.

Beca was sick of her life, and it was only her first day. She didn't want to be there. Most people have a gap year before college, but she felt like this was going to be her gap year before she moved to L.A and got on with her life, if she could even make a year, a month, a week at this place. Stagnant. Beca was over college already.

Beca was sick of finding fuck all at the activities fair, though she'd met someone called Fat Amy who had good craic, so that had to be a plus right? But nothing she could actually say she'd take seriously in the way of passing her time here.

Well there was always Quidditch if all else failed.

Wow, a smile, how could a smile be so bright and powerful? But it was and it pulled Beca in towards another booth when all she wanted to do was run from the smile. She pushed the fact that it made her heart just literally miss a beat behind her blockade that nobody was allowed to pass. Ever.

Chloe couldn't really remember the first conversation between her and Beca. Her heart pounding too fast in her chest, too loud in her ears. She thinks she tried to talk up the Bellas, make them sound as awesome as she truly thinks they are. She thinks Beca was an angry elf that kept putting a cappella down. She feels like she begged her to audition anyways because of how Beca was making her feel.

Alive.

She thinks it didn't go well. Like at all.

Beca thought a cappella sucked, and music was her life, but she wasn't afraid to tell these two women that a cappella did indeed unequivocally suck. She admired when the blonde called her a bitch, touché, she was being one. That was her. Defensive walls up.

Then she saw how her words were hurting the red head. And she felt a pain in her chest, a crack in her armour. She needed to leave. Like now.

Beca was gone and Chloe couldn't remember her going.

"She's not right for us Chloe," Aubrey touched Chloe's arm bringing time back to normal speed. Chloe and Aubrey knew each other so well Chloe knew exactly what Aubrey meant, that she wasn't right for her. But she was, Chloe had felt it. "She even said she didn't sing."

"I-I don't remember that." Chloe looked around for Beca, dazed, but she was gone.

"Yeah you sort of spaced out… Now Her," Aubrey waved her hand up and down as the most gorgeous tall drink of water walked by them across the path. "She's hot!"

"But can she sing?" Chloe tilted her head up to Aubrey. Aubrey saw Chloes pupils wide and dilated. She knew Chloes thoughts were still on the woman they'd just met. Aubrey wouldn't let Chloe get hurt, she'd try to keep a closer eye on Chloe this year.

"At this point I really don't care." Aubrey looked exasperated.

"Excuse me!" Chloe shouted gaining the tall woman's attention. "My friend," she motioned with the flyer in her hand to Aubrey. "Aubrey here," Aubrey plastered a big smile on her face trying to hide her sudden embarrassment thanks to Chloe. "She thinks you're hot. Hi, I'm Chloe."

"Stacie." Stacie smiled and nodded, rolled her eyes a little. She knows she's hot, so whatever, but then she sees how wide the blonde's smile is. Stacie is amused by how much the blondes cheeks and chest had flushed. This woman did not in any way need to be intimidated by her.

If you asked Stacie to go into her lab and build a perfect woman, she'd come out with somebody akin to the girl in front of her. She was down to tease her a little.

"You think I'm hot huh?"

"Uh…"

"She does, yes." Chloe smiled brightly at Stacie, not that Stacie really noticed not having taken her eyes off Aubrey.

"Uh.. I'm not blind." Aubrey's mouth clamped shut when the words come out without her own knowledge. She forced a tight lipped smile. She wouldn't be intimidated, dammit.

"You're hot too." Stacie waited for a reply but nothing comes out of Aubrey. "So you wanna give me a flyer?" Stacie reached out, her hand lingering in front of Aubrey. Chloe, who is amused by the entire scene, hands her one. "What's this...?"

"We make music with our mouths." Chloe says, looking briefly at her friend. Aubrey wishes she could run away. Any moment and she's going to hurl. She knows it.

And then Stacie laughs lightly, and all's right with the world. Beside Aubrey, Chloe is trying to sell Stacie on a cappella but Aubrey couldn't tell you anything her best friend is saying. Her entire mind is filled with the beauty in front of her, and focused on not bringing up her morning coffee and bagel. She hadn't seen someone this hot since she first met Unicycle, this time the year previous at the Activities Fair. Aubrey thought briefly that she would happily go through the heartbreak again if only to spend one night with this woman, and she hated herself for thinking that. But she's still thinking about it.

And then Stacies walking away.

And Aubreys locking her attraction away in a little box, tight in her chest. She needed to live with her head and not her heart, or her hormones.

"See you at auditions!" Chloe called over. Chloe placed her hand on Aubrey's arm to reassure her. Aubrey looked pointedly at her before returning her gaze to Stacie. When she looked back up Stacies looking at her over her shoulder, imprinting every inch of Aubrey to her mind. Slow. Aubrey swears she saw Stacie wet her lips. Yep. Aubrey knew she was in trouble. And a part of her didn't care.