I CAN SEE YOU; jesse swanson x fem!reader

[ 00. prologue ]

| y/n's pov |

I WAS SITTING in the back of my parents' car as they pulled into a parking lot in Barden University. As my dad was stuck in some traffic, my mom turned around to talk to me.

For someone who had been stressing about me going to college in the first place, she was surprisingly calm the entire drive there and when dropping me off.

"Make sure you call us after you're settled in, I want to know about everything. Maybe join some clubs, you know—" My attention was stolen by a car pulling up beside us, a boy in the back seat singing along to the music playing.

Carry on Wayward Son, a song I knew due to my high school friend's obsession with Supernatural.

"Don't you cry no more, no!" He made eye contact with me and grinned as he sang to me, mimicking an air guitar. He was really cute and I couldn't help but smile as his parents drove off, him jolting back in his seat and disappearing from my view.

"—Oh, and if you see Bumper, make sure to tell him I say hi." My mom finished talking as my dad parked the car.

Bumper Allen was, of course, my mom's best friend's son. He went to Barden University and was a few years older than me. And he was also a huge jerk.

I didn't like him at all. He always found a way to piss me off. Every single time he saw me.

"Yep." I picked up my backpack and opened the car door. "I'll call you guys later tonight. Bye."

"We love you!"

"Love you too." I moved to the trunk of the car and pulled out one of my suitcases.

Two guys in campus t-shirts come over and start taking my bags from the car and loading them onto a cart of some kind.

"Hey," A clearly bored young man in a Barden polo came up to me. "You a Freshman?"

"Yep."

He gave me directions to my dorm and keys and then basically ran away immediately after.

As I made my way down the hall, I had to check my phone for my dorm room multiple times. Maybe I forgot, so what?

I eventually made it inside. The room was empty so I picked one of the beds for myself and started to unpack my things bit by bit.

When I was almost done unpacking, the door swung open and another girl came in with a wide excited grin on her face.

"Oh, my God! Hi, you must be Y/N." She greeted, dropping her bags on the bare bed on the other side of the room.

"Yeah, hi." I smiled, turning my body to face her. "You're Stacie, right?"

"Mhm."

"Nice to meet you."

I continued to set up my CDs on my shelf beside my wide collection of DVDs. I had more, but I left them back home, only bringing my favourites with me. I knew I would end up buying more eventually anyway.

"Ooh, what kind of music do you have?" Stacie asked, leaving her bags discarded on her side of the room and walking up to me, looking over a few of my CDs.

I had somewhat of a large variety of music, but it could've been better.

"Hey, do you wanna check out the activities fair?" Stacie asked curiously. "I saw it outside on my way here."

"Don't you wanna unpack or something first?"

Stacie looked back at her bags before shaking her head at me. "Nah, it'll be fine."

"You sure?" You looked at the bare side of the room. "Because that'll be really annoying in a few hours when you're tired."

She unpacked maybe half of her stuff and I helped her out with her bed and a few other things before we left the dorm together and headed to the activities fair.

As Stacie locked up the dorm, I noticed the cute boy who sang to me in his car leaving a room with another guy just down the hall.

The cute guy lived in the same building as me.

Stacie and I made it outside and were met with several different stands and tables for different clubs and groups.

It was honestly pretty cool.

Though some clubs did seem a little weird, I pushed it from my brain and went walking.

Stacie spotted something, I wasn't sure what because she spoke very quickly when she was excited, and she ran off.

I looked around at a few different stalls before finding a sign-up sheet for the school's radio station as an intern.

I wrote my name and phone number down. I liked music, so it seemed like it could be interesting.

Eventually, after looking at a few other stands, I bumped into Stacie again, who was holding a flyer for the a cappella group, the Barden Bellas.

I knew all about them. They were Barden's all-female group and just a year earlier, one of the girls threw up everywhere on stage.

I saw that part live, because I went to watch the Trebles with my mom and Bumper's mom.

Before that fiasco, I did think they were pretty good.

Stacie ushered me over to their stand and the two girls there, Aubrey and Chloe, seemed more than happy to force a flyer into my hand.

"Would you be interested?" Chloe asked as I read over the flyer.

"I mean, this is pretty cool." I smiled.

"Oh, yeah it is." Chloe nodded.

"This year, we're going to crush those Treble-jerks." Aubrey muttered and glanced behind them.

I saw the Trebles, led by Bumper, singing by a wall.

Beating Bumper did seem like a great option. Especially considering how amazing he thought he was.

"Yeah. Sounds great." I nodded.

"So, we'll see you at auditions?" Chloe asked. "Both of you?"

"Definitely." I replied and Stacie nodded. "It was nice meeting you."

I smiled and Stacie and I walked away together.