CHAPTER THREE: Bellas Auditions

"Beca!" Jesse hollered as he walked through the entrance of the radio station. "Do you want the blueberry bagel or the ham-and-cheese sandwich?"

"Blueberry, please!" Beca yelled, turning around to see Jesse walking toward her, his arm extended with her lunch clutched in his hand. Taking the bag from him, she smiled, "Thanks, nerd."

"No problem," Jesse shrugged, unwrapping his sandwich and taking a bite out of it.

Beca hesitantly picked at the brown paper bag that held her bagel. Jesse eyed her carefully, "What?"

Beca walked over to stand next to him, extracting a white envelope that had her name inscribed in beautiful calligraphy on it out of her jacket pocket. "This was slid under my door this morning."

"Who is it from?" Jesse asked, his eyes concentrated on the little object.

"BDC," Beca whispered quietly.

"Did you open it?" He mentally slapped himself after asking it.

"No, dork, I have xray vision and I already know what it says without having to open it," Beca quipped.

"Okay, that was a stupid question," Jesse admitted sheepishly and Beca could only smile at his dorkiness. "Why don't you open it?"

Beca gave him a dumbfounded look before hanging her head. "I'm scared," she said, her voice below a whisper.

"Why? You know you killed it at auditions! Go on, open it," Jesse encouraged.

Beca looked up at his sincere face, absentmindedly thumbing the envelope. He gave her his best you-can-do-it smile before placing his hands over hers, ignoring the electric shock he felt and helped her open up the parchment. Beca glanced down to the envelope, pulling out the card within it. Unfolding it, she read nervously, her eyes moving quickly across the paper. Jesse stared at her intently, taking in her features and expression, his heart beating faster when he saw her eyes lit up and her lips form into a smile.

"I got in!" Beca screamed excitedly once she finished reading, and to both of their surprise, she pulled him into a hug.

Jesse, though stunned at her gesture, returned the hug happily, wrapping his arms around her waist. "I knew you did," he mumbled into her sweet-smelling hair. Realization washed over her as Beca pulled away abruptly, coughing at the awkwardness.

"Uh, well," Beca stuttered, walking away from him, "it says the first rehearsal is on Monday and they'll also be giving us the key card to use the studio whenever we want."

"That's great!" Jesse smiled genuinely, missing how she felt in his arms.

Beca took a deep breath, reading over the card again, "I don't know what I was so afraid of."

"Yeah, what was that about?" Jesse asked, looking at her curiously. "I mean, four days ago, you came back from auditions and you were so sure you did well. What happened?"

Beca only stared at him, not knowing how to reply to that. In truth, she didn't know why she was so scared; she just woke up this morning, spotted something under the door, realized it was from BDC, and went into a panic attack. Thank god, Lucy was there to calm her down.

When Beca didn't answer, Jesse quickly apologized, "I'm sorry. That was out of line. I don't, I didn't mean–"

"No, it's okay," Beca interrupted, smiling slightly at his nervousness. "It's just..." she trailed off, closing her eyes, trying to recollect her thoughts. "I just grew up in a home that lacked any forms of encouragement."

"Tough parents?" Jesse asked, half joking.

Beca stared at him once again, scrunching her nose lightly, looking like she was internally debating herself whether or not to tell him something. After some thought, she finally whispered, avoiding eye contact with him, "Yeah, tough parents."

Jesse, catching the rising awkward tension, changed the subject, "If it makes you feel any better, I'm scared shitless for my Trebles audition today. It's in," he checked his watch to see it was just past noon, "five hours."

Beca laughed at his terrified look before realizing something. "Oh yeah! That lame acappella thing!"

"It's not lame!" Jesse defended. "Synchronized nerd singing is not lame."

"Really, nerd? Do you even hear yourself?" Beca asked, arching her eyebrows.

"Okay, just a tiny bit lame," Jesse admitted, pulling his thumb and index finger close together and shrugged.

"Did you see the Bellas video of last year?" Beca laughed. "Lucy showed it to me. Priceless!"

Jesse, who looked thoroughly confused, asked, "What video?"

"Oh my god, you haven't seen it?" Beca said, her laughter dying down. "Come here," she produced her phone from her back pocket, working on the screen to pull up the video. "You have to watch this."

"Eek!" Lucy shrieked, jumping up and down.

"Shit, Lucy, way to kill my eardrums," Beca glowered, rubbing her ears.

"I'm sorry," Lucy exclaimed, "but I'm so happy for you! BDC, Beca!"

"Yeah, I know," Beca laughed at her friend. "You're more excited than I am."

Lucy finally stopped jumping and had the 'I-just-had-an-awesome-idea' look on her face, "We have to celebrate!"

Beca's eyes widened. "Oh, no. No way, Lucy."

"Why not?" Lucy pouted.

"Because me joining an activities group does not require a celebration."

"Please!" Lucy begged, extending the word desperately.

Beca couldn't help but laugh and give in, "Only dinner. You're paying since this was your idea and we're celebrating when you join the cheer squad, which you will also be paying for."

"I'll take it!" Lucy clapped excitedly. "We'll leave at five and make it to the restaurant before six.

"Whatever, I'm going to shower," Beca sighed, hiding a smile.

Beca made her way to the shower room, quietly singing her current favorite song, Titanium by David Guetta. She continued singing as she turned on the shower head, letting the water run, oblivious to the two other occupants in the shower room with her.

"I'm bulletproof, nothing to lose," she sang, unaware of the shower curtain moving behind her, revealing a redhead. "Fire away, fire away. Ricochet, you take your aim–"

"You can sing!" the redhead stated excitedly.

Beca whipped around to see a naked girl, whom she recognized as the girl in that acappella group at Activities Fair, smiling at her. Fucking shit! "Dude!" Beca exclaimed, reaching out to pull the shower curtain back.

"How high does your belt go?" the redhead asked, stepping into the area with Beca, turning off the running water.

"My what? What are you-oh my god!" Beca screamed, facing her body to the wall.

"You have to auditions for the Bellas," the girl smiled.

"I can't focus on anything you're saying right now until you cover your junk," Beca muttered quickly, her eyes trained on the ceiling.

"Just consider it. One time, we sang for Prince. His butt is so tiny, I can hold it with like one hand."

"Seriously? I am nude," Beca stated.

"Will you sing Titanium for me?" the redhead asked.

"Dude, no!"

"Not for that reason," the girl rolled her eyes. "I'm not leaving here until you sing."

Beca, resigning, turned around, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'm bulletproof. Nothing to lose..."

At this part, the redhead joined in, harmonizing perfectly, "Fire away, fire away. Ricochet, you take your aim. Fire away, fire away. Shoot me down, but I won't fall. I am titanium."

Beca found herself actually enjoying singing with this girl. The way their voice melted together to form a rich new sound absolutely amazed her. The two girls finished and after an awkward silence, the redhead perked up, "I'm Chloe," she said. "Yeah, I'm pretty confident about all of this." She gestured to herself.

Beca scrunched her nose. "You should be. I'm gonna, you know, shower."

"Oh! Right!" Chloe realized, waking out of Beca's shower and closing the curtain behind her.

"I'll see you at auditions!" Chloe yelled.

After finishing getting ready, it was still a bit early to leave so Lucy decided on reading a book to pass the time. Beca was sitting near her desk, brushing her hair, when a piece of paper sticking out of the desk drawers caught her attention. She reached for the paper, tugging it slightly and it came sliding out. The Barden Bellas.

She didn't know what came over her, but she weirdly had a sudden urge to want to audition. "Lucy, can we leave a bit early? I have to stop somewhere."

Lucy, looking up from her book, said, "Yeah, sure. I'm ready so let's go."

Together, the two made their way across the quad with Beca leading them toward the auditorium. When they reached Beca's destination, Lucy read the words etched on the wall: Barden's Performing Arts Theatre.

"Beca, what are we doing here?" Lucy asked hesitantly.

"Okay, I know I'll sound crazy," Beca paused, "I want to audition."

"For acappella," Lucy stated simply and Beca nodded. "You?"

Beca nodded again. "Well, who am I to stop you?" Lucy sighed, smiling. "Go ahead, knock'em dead. I'll be sitting in the back."

Beca quickly hugged her best friend before jogging toward the back entrance, where the auditioners were told to meet. She found a group of people sitting on the floor, talking, and among them was Jesse.

"Beca, what are you..." Jesse, who was sitting with his back against the wall with another boy next to him, started to ask, but trailed off when he noticed she wasn't going to answer.

Beca ran up to a boy in plaid who was holding a clipboard. She figured he was the one running the auditions. "Hey, hi. I want to audition."

The boy looked extremely surprised and confused. "I'm sorry, but we closed sign-ins thirty minutes ago. Plus, the last one just went in. You don't have time to prepare."

"What's the song?" Beca asked quickly.

"Kelly Clarkson's Since U Been Gone. Sixteen bars," the boy replied. Shit.

"Damn," Beca muttered under her breath. She knew of the song, but she didn't listen to it often.

"I'm sorry," the boy apologized.

"It's okay," Beca responded with a smile. "It's not your fault. I should have shown up earlier."

Beca walked over to Jesse and slumped down next to him. "What's wrong? What happened?" Jesse asked.

"Believe it or not, I wanted to audition, but I can't learn a song in under five minutes when I've only heard it maybe three times, four tops," Beca sighed, closing her eyes, ignoring the stage door opening, probably releasing the last auditioner.

After some silence, she heard Jesse's voice singing beside her. "Here's the thing, we started out friends. It was cool, but it was all pretend-end. Yeah, yeah. Since you've been gone."

The boy sitting next to Jesse caught on and started the guitar line. "Sing," Jesse whispered encouragingly, staring into her eyes.

Beca took a deep breath and began, with Jesse supporting her voice, "Dedicated, you took the time. Wasn't long till I called you mine-ine. Yeah, yeah. Since you've been gone."

Beca smiled as she got the beat of the song. "And all you'd ever hear me say is how I pictured me with you. That's all you'd ever hear me say."

Beca could only focus on Jesse's eyes as she sang with him. "But since you've been gone," she was surprised at herself for being able to hit that note, "I can breathe for the first time. I'm so moving on. Yeah, yeah. Thanks to you, now I get, I get what I want. Since you've been gone." Her voice faded away and Jesse genuinely smiled at her, but his eyes were locked on something behind her back.

She turned her head to see Chloe and Aubrey, the blonde she saw at the Activities Fair. The boy in plaid was standing behind them and he smiled, giving her a knowing look and a thumbs up. Sneaky bastard. Note to self, thank the dude later.

"Thank you for auditioning, Beca," Chloe said before grabbing the blonde and pulling her away.

Beca turned back to Jesse and he gave her a smirk. "You knew!" she screamed, punching him, trying to be angry but ended up letting out a laugh.

"Tommy brought them in and started talking to them so I had to catch their attention somehow," Jesse shrugged, rubbing his shoulders where she just hit.

"Thank you," she whispered. "You too, Tommy!" she shouted over her shoulder. "Thank you!"

"No problem!" Tommy yelled back, laughing.

Lucy ran up to Beca in her heels, which Beca shook her head at because only Lucy would be able to pull that off. "What happened, Beca? I didn't see you go on!"

"Relax, I auditioned. Unknowingly," she gave Jesse another punch, "but I auditioned."

She got up from the floor, Jesse and his friend following. "How d'you do?" Lucy asked.

"She was amazing," Jesse answered for her, making Beca blush just a bit.

"I wasn't that great," Beca rolled her eyes.

"She was fantastic. Right, Benji?" Jesse said, directing to his friend.

"Oh, yeah, you have a great voice," Benji mumbled shyly.

"Thanks," Beca smiled.

"Alright!" Lucy exclaimed. "We should go, you know, to that celebratory dinner you promised me?"

"Oh! Right! I was hoping you'd forget about that," Beca sighed. Turning to Jesse, she asked, "Would you like to come to dinner with us? You can come too, Benji." She added, noticing the sadness flicker in his eyes.

"We would love to," Jesse replied with a grin.

"Great! Let's go! I need to get my sexy ass drunk!" Lucy said excitedly, walking quickly away, Jesse and Benji right behind her.

"Wait! It's only dinner!" Beca screamed, not moving from her spot. "Who said anything about drinking?!"

Realizing they weren't stopping, she jogged after them, yelling, "Lucy McCarthy! I swear to god, if I have to clean up your puke tonight, I'll murder you right after I break up this friendship!"

Hello! This chapter's early because I'll be busy tomorrow and Thursday. It's a family thing.
This chapter might not be that polished though. I apologize if anything is confusing!
Reviews make me feel warm inside and keep me motivated so let me know what you think!
Thanks for reading!

By the way, you can check out my one-shot "Baby Daddy" and let me know what you think on that too!
I'm also thinking about writing another long one-shot (maybe 10,000 words).
It'll be about how Beca, a party girl, will show Jesse, an uptight know-it-all, one night of absolute fun before starting their last spring break.
How do you like that idea? Let me know!