pitch perfect is still not mine. sadly, neither is chloe.

The first class was typical. They reviewed the syllabus, introduced themselves, and wrote a small essay so Chloe, Miss Beale, could evaluate them individually. She seemed like a great educator, objectively, allowing them to bring in coffee, laughing with her students, and exuding a sort of charisma that made it difficult not to like her. Beca went through the hour on autopilot, trying desperately not to think about what was happening and how this development would affect her relationship with her imprint, if they could have one at all.

She did manage to catch, however, the nervous, fidgety way the redhead glanced in her direction too often to be casual, like Chloe thought Beca might climb onto her desk and describe what it was like to kiss the Lit teacher to the whole class.

When, finally, the bull rung, Beca had already packed her things away and was just two steps from the relative freedom of the hallway when she heard, "Miss Mitchell, a moment please?" Stacie snickered quietly, kissed her cheek, and flounced off to her Stats class with a quiet, "It'll be alright, Becs."

"I knew you tasted like trouble." They were alone now, Chloe, Miss Beale, ugh, leaning on her desk with her arms crossed and her perfectly shaped eyebrow raised.

"Uh…"

"I mean, are you two even legal? How in the hell are you working at a club and still attending high school? Were you even going to tell me or-"

"Whoa," Beca held up her hands to stop the rant, stop the wildly flapping hands. "Calm your tits, Red. Stacie and I will be nineteen in two months. Her father, Luke who is our… brother of sorts, and I own the club so, yeah, we get away with some things."

"Nineteen? What-" her sentence was cut off by the warning bell for the second period and they both startled.

Beca ran a hand through her hair and adjusted the bag over her shoulder. "Shit, I'm going to be late. Can I get a pass, Miss Beale?"

"I'm sorry, yeah, of course." Beca watched her open the desk drawer and fish out a notepad, plucking a lady bug pen out of an empty coffee mug atop the desk and smiled a little. "Beca, listen..."

"No, no, no, it's alright. I realize this isn't some YA romance novel. I'm not expecting you to risk your career, your reputation, on something as small as a kiss between strangers. How about, can we just, can we be friends, though?" Beca accepted the late pass and shoved it, along with both her hands, into the pockets of her black jeans anxiously.

The redhead's entire body seemed to slump with relief and she exhaled loudly. "Yes, yes I'd love to be friends, Beca. Thank you for being so understanding." And the wide smile she directed towards the brunette was so, so bright, Beca actually squinted her eyes a little.

"Cool, so, does that mean tomorrow you wont be constantly looking over at me like I might spontaneously word vomit all the sordid details to the whole school?" the DJ smirked watching a cute blush spread across the teacher's face.

"Ohmygosh, I'm so sorry," she hurried to apologize, taking a step forward. "It's just that this is my first year here and its such a big step up from my last job and, and you're laughing?"

"I was just messing with you, dude. I guess I should get to class, though."

"Oh! By the way, you might want to warn Stacie that Aubrey is the AP Chemistry teacher."

Beca snorted on her way out the door, "Of course she is." Because it would never be easy for them, would it?

Weeks passed in a blur. Beca texted Chloe during a particularly boring lunch one day and they immediately started up an ongoing game of twenty questions. Chloe, it turned out, was bold and hardly hesitated to dive right into personal questions. Beca wouldn't deny her but that didn't mean she was used to, or even good at, this communication thing.

C: #1 why haven't you graduated yet?

B: wow, uh, well I missed a year of school when I had to move here. Stacie, the loyal idiot, refused to start high school without me. so we are both a year behind.

B: what's your current favorite song?

Graciously, Chloe hadn't asked about her parents and Beca was dreading the day that inevitable question came along. They were only on question five currently because they kept getting distracted with other things to talk about; music and books and their friends, for the most part, and the brunette found herself falling into the easy, exciting friendship at an alarming rate.

The redhead stopped watching her uncertainly during classes and now seemed to watch her only for her own amusement. Occasionally, the boys in class would try their hand at flirting with the hot young instructor and Beca would unconsciously start growling. Stacie would then have to reach across and smack her arm and rifle through her bag for an extra pencil because Beca had snapped hers in half.

Once, Beca stayed up too late the night before working on a new mix and overcompensated with the amount of coffee she consumed that morning. Her leg bounced through the entire class, continuing through the last thirty minutes when they were told to write quietly. Chloe weaved through desks like a dancer in stilettos, peeking over students shoulders, making sure they were all on track. When she passed behind Beca's desk, she softly dragged her hand along the line of the brunette's shoulders. Beca's knee jerked, violently, up and straight through the desktop above her lap. "Uh… my bad?" Stacie didn't bother to hide her giggles.

Chloe would often rant about songs that got stuck in her head and, while her tastes were a little too pop for Beca's liking, the DJ couldn't stop herself from weaving Chloe's song into, through, and around songs of different genres. She would save those mixes to a memory stick and tape it to the teacher's apartment door just before they usually got back from work. If, in the morning, Beca found a post-it suggesting more songs or a baggie of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, they didn't talk about how students and teachers probably shouldn't be exchanging presents this way, and Beca was just fine with that.

Stacie and Aubrey seemed to be playing the 'no, of course there's nothing going on' game just as well. It was rare that Beca didn't see a folded up note bearing Aubrey's name in Stacie's perfect cursive when she was covertly taping her own things to the same door and she often found a separate baggie of snicker doodles, which she hated but Stacie adored, next to hers in the morning.

During AP Chem, Aubrey glared at Beca throughout the whole class and she still has no idea why. It isn't like Beca has any control over her best friend spewing every chemistry related innuendo at their teacher, pumping a fist in the air every time Aubrey blushes.

It isn't until the middle of October, mere days before her birthday, that the blissful bubble Beca managed to half convince herself was her new reality shattered like the screen of her phone she later threw at her bedroom wall.

She held it in, kept the pain and the anger and even the hint of humiliation to herself for an entire afternoon until she broke down during her weekly Sunday dinner with Stacie and her parents, Natalie and Mark Conrad.

Somewhere between "Can you pass the potatoes?" and cutting up her pork chop with far too much enthusiasm, the venting started. "I imprinted on our literature teacher and I came home from a run this morning to see her letting out some flabby, frat, douche bro and they smelled like sex and I wanted to puke but she waved and said hello like it's all just fine and then she hugged me and I couldn't stop her and the stench was all over me. I had to scrub so hard in the shower."

Mr. and Mrs. Conrad silently stared at her, Stacie reached under the table to firmly hold her hand, and Beca could see Mark, whom she was very close to, doing his best to mask the disappointment that the day had finally come when Beca imprinted on someone that was not his daughter. Beca knew he was happy for her; he would never wish for her to settle, it was just that he couldn't currently pick anyone better for Stacie than Beca.

After the impromptu confession, Stacie gave her own, not only to relieve some of the pressure on Beca to spill all the details, but because she had been waiting for her friend to be ready to tell her parents, as a show of solidarity or something. The rest of the dinner was spent filling in Natalie, full to bursting with happiness and excitement, and Mark, thoughtful but attentive, on the when's and how's and the progression of things. After dinner, Beca helped Mark clear the table and start on dishes, and the smooth routine perfected over the four years she lived with them helped to calm Beca's nerves.

"Do you think she feels anything for me?" she asked because Mark was fully human, like Chloe, and sometimes Beca zoned out when he and Nat started talking about how she courted him and persused him and how he felt about it at the time.

"She feels it, Becs, I promise." His voice was deep and the rumble of it never failed to soothe Beca since she met him at fifteen and all she knew was that he was two feet taller than her and she'd never seen so many muscles in her life. "The bond grows differently, slower, in us than it would for you and Stace. This Chloe, she probably doesn't understand why yet but she feels drawn to you, intrigued."

"I can work with that, I guess. I mean, I know I shouldn't have been surprised, should have probably expected it. She's young and gorgeous and brilliant; of course she isn't celibate. It's just- I've never felt wounded like that before. I should probably get used to it, though."

"Mm. Seems you and my girl are playing the long game with these ladies. My advice is to make the most of it, savor the early days of getting to know her, but don't forget to guard your heart, pup."

The following days were tough. With Beca scrambling to pick up the pieces of her pride, and other gooey emotions she preferred not to speak of, while keeping in mind what Stacie's mother whispered to her during their goodbye hug. "In my experience, the strongest relationships are between lovers who are also each other's best friends."

She wondered if Chloe noticed, or even cared, that every time she saw them, Beca and Stacie were holding hands or the taller brunette's arm was slung around her shoulders.

Wednesday afternoon, Chloe found Beca sitting alone on a bench near the duck pond in their complex. The DJ was staring out into nothing and trying not to think at all when the redhead silently sat next to her and didn't speak for several minutes.

Finally, "Can we talk?" and Beca sighed, nodded a yes. "Are you okay? You seem a bit off the past two days."

The brunette chewed her lip, debating how to play this conversation. She chose honesty. "I don't want to ever lie to you, Chloe, so no, I'm not really okay right now, but I don't particularly want to talk about it, either."

Chloe was quiet for a few moments but her brow was creased in thought and Beca knew her well enough to understand she couldn't hold her questions in for too long. "Is this about Sunday? Because I-" and she cut herself off, expecting Beca to interject, maybe, but Beca stubbornly refused to guide this discussion after she said she didn't want to talk. "Was it awkward for you?" she settled with.

And keeping with the straightforward honesty, Beca replied, "Yes."

"Oh, I-" she reached over to cover Beca's hand. "That wasn't my intention, I swear. I just wanted to say hi. I'm sorry."

Beca flipped her palm upwards and slotted her fingers into place. She almost wished their hands didn't fit so well. "Don't be, please. I shouldn't have been surprised. You're a grown woman. We aren't together." She turned her head away from Chloe's sad face because it hurt.

"Hey, Becs," suddenly a soft, soft hand wrapped around the back of her neck and fuck, "I know this is hard for you," her face was guided back around and Chloe's forehead rested against her temple. "It isn't easy for me either."

Beca chose to stay silent and enjoy the moment rather than continuing the conversation. They weren't going to get anywhere with that topic, anyways; they couldn't. They wordlessly adjusted themselves so Beca could wrap her arm around Chloe's shoulders and the redhead's cold nose was in her neck. Beca waited for the sun to start setting before she spoke again.

"Stace and I wont be at school tomorrow or Friday."

Chloe hummed sleepily and lifted her head to look at her. "Mm. Why not?"

"Tomorrow is my birthday, Friday is hers. We have-" and Beca hesitated because she couldn't say that the pack skips school to shift into wolves and run wild through the woods all day. "Long standing traditions to uphold."

Chloe eyed her suspiciously but shrugged it off and wished her a good time. "We're having a joint birthday party at the club Friday night. It's a masquerade. You and Posen are invited; free entry and you'll be on the guest list if you're interested."

The teacher said she would talk to her friend about it and they mutually agreed it was time to go inside. After a soft goodbye at Chloe's door, Beca almost ran straight into Aubrey and Stacie sitting on the stairs to the second floor, talking quietly. "Whoa, sorry, guys." She moved to step passed the duo but Stacie, loyal and loveable Stacie, must have seen something in her expression because her hand shot out to grip Beca's wrist. "Okay?" Her green eyes darted towards the door Chloe disappeared into and back to Beca's stormy blue eyes. "I'm okay, Stace, I promise."

Once Beca let herself inside and was probably on her way to a relaxing shower, if Stacie knew her at all, the brunette returned her attention to the beautiful blonde sitting next to her. Aubrey was looking at her strangely.

"You two are very close." The chemistry teacher nodded towards the door near them.

The smile came to her face without thought and so did the reply, "Life partners. Without being a couple, or whatever." And they laughed together before the blonde's face went soft and wistful. "Yeah, I get it. Chlo and I were like that, once upon a time, before Brad."

"Hm. I'm not sure if you really want my opinion on that." They bumped shoulders playfully.

"No, probably not."

a/n: so, i wrote a steca sex scene because i couldn't get it out of my head. they will do the deed in a future chapter because it's important to the story but i'm wondering if you guys want the sordid details? or just the gist of it? let me know.