Chapter 7
The next period started too soon in Beca’s opinion. Once the bell sounded, Beca and Jesse bounded down the stairs, pushing open the door at the bottom. Soon, they were immersed back in the hectic traffic of the hallway. Kids to their right and to their left whizzed passed them, hardly giving them a second look. With a kiss to her hand, Jesse was off to his next class, promising to meet up with her again soon. A smile glazing over her face, Beca joined the masses, shuffling down the hallway towards social studies.
…..
The sound of a rapidly clicking pen brought Beca’s head up from her notes (which was actually just a book full of doodles and sketches). The source of the incessant clicking noise was a familiar redhead not seated very far from Beca. Chloe was staring intently at the SMART board, jotting down notes as quickly as humanly possible. That might’ve been the reason why she didn’t respond when Beca tried to get her attention. Her constant whispers of “Dude! Chloe!” were futile.
Their teacher, too deaf to hear Beca’s calls and too old to care, continued on with her lesson, proceeding to talk about the ancient Incas and their civilization. The sound of her monotonous voice could be effective as a lullaby, Beca thought as she struggled to keep her eyes open. As if by magic, temporarily waking Beca up, the teacher called out that the rest of the period would be devoted to group work. The sounds of desks scratching the floor filled up the room, but Beca was more concentrated on moving up to the seat next to Chloe.
Sliding into the chair, Beca grinned at the red-head. “Beca!” Chloe exclaimed, pulling her into a brief side hug, “I didn’t even know you were in this class!” Chloe’s eyes lit up, animatedly talking while turning her desk to face Beca’s.
“I might’ve skipped a few times,” Beca explained, laughing it off like it was nothing. She turned to glance at the boy in front of them as he passed back a packet of work to the two of them. Work that, Beca Chloe thanked the guy and continued to gush, “Is it because of Jesse? I saw you guys go up to that old library. You know, he has only ever taken me up there. It’s pretty special to him.” Chloe winked, creating a slight pink color brush over Beca’s cheeks.
“Of course not. It isn’t Jesse who is repelling me from this class. History is history. I don’t think I am in desparate need of learning about ancient civilizations,” Beca picked up the packet in front of her, flipping through the pages with her nose scrunched up. She threw her name upon the line at the top, but she knew she really didn’t care for the work. Chloe, on the other hand, started to rave about her life since Beca had moved, while still managing to fill out the questions in her neat, cursive handwriting.
Dotting her last ‘i’, Chloe began, “We really need to hang out Beca. It’s like I don’t even know you, well I mean you do seem pretty similar to how you were when you were younger, but you know what I’m talking about.” It was like Chloe talked a hundred words per minute, not even stopping to take a breath. Beca looked at her, trying to catch every word before Chloe’s next sentence came flooding over the first.
“You know what,” Chloe said, with her eyes sparkling with excitement, “You should….No, you have to….come over my house on Friday. I and some of my other friends are going to have a movie night.” Placing her hand on top of Beca’s, she smiled brightly. “We’ll have a chance to catch up and you can tell me all about New York. I want to hear everything!”
Beca crossed her arms, turning her body slightly away from Chloe’s. “Um, I’m not too sure if that’s a good idea. I mean, no one knows me. I’ll just make it awkward,” Beca mumbled.
Chloe leaned towards her, trying to catch Beca’s gaze with her own. “Beca,” she said, “That is something you never have to worry about. They might not know you, but I’m sure they will in a matter of hours. You don’t know how much we’ve all missed you.”
Giving a soft smile to Chloe as she nodded her on, encouragingly, Beca gave the redhead a hug. After a few seconds they broke apart, “You know who else will be there? Only that one guy who you seem to be hanging out with all the time. You know the one? His name starts with a ‘J’.” Chloe winked, nudging Beca’s side and laughing at her scowl.
“You are coming!” Chloe was now sporting a wide, easy grin, “You have no choice. I’ll get Jesse to pick you up.” Beca just rolled her eyes in response, accepting her fate, but still insisting that she drive herself. Since the class was almost over, Chloe begrudgingly let Beca copy her answers, adding that she would have to help Beca learn how to take better notes. After all, Chloe’s papers looked so neat and professional that Beca was sure she would get into any college of her choice if she had just send them in as her application.
Taking both of their papers to the front of the class, Beca deposited them in the pile. With one more encouraging look and a giant wave just after the bell sounded, Chloe left the class, walking briskly to her next one. Beca, in turn, threw her bag over her shoulder and headed out of the room, just to be almost knocked over by the body coming her way.
Before yelling at the aggressor, Beca looked up to see it was Luke. “You almost got yourself a nice punch in the face,” Beca joked, glancing at the boy at her side, “Don’t scare me like that.”
“I’ll try,” Luke responded before collapsing onto the locker next to Beca’s. Taking her books from her to add to his own pile, Luke followed Beca as she paced down the hallway.
Throwing an arm around her shoulder, Luke turned her and began walking in the opposite direction, “Not that way, Beca. I have something that might make up for our almost collision.” Pushing the door open with his foot, he led her into an nearly computer room, tossing their stuff into the chair opposite from the computer he sat down in front of. Beca watched him wave the mouse around the pad, lighting up the black screen.
CLUB ATLANTA: URGENT LOOKING FOR DJ FOR THIS SATURDAY $1000.
Luke watched her expression fade from confusion to amazement, trying to soak in all of her excitement. “Oh my god, Luke. We have to go!” Beca practically yelled, earning her a ‘shhhhh’ from a neighboring teacher. “Enough money for you to buy that new mixing board and for me to have some cash so that I won’t have to raid your fridge everyday,” Luke said, already pulling up an email on his phone, “And you don’t even have to worry because we got the gig.”
Beca hardly ever jumped up and down, but now, she thought, was a good exception. It was rare they ever played at a big club; their gigs were mostly in unknown bars strewn across the city. Finally, they were taking big steps to getting their music known. “I think it was that mix you finished a few months ago that really did the trick.” he mused. “It was difficult convincing them, since none of the owners knew us, but after hearing our tracks, they said yes without hesitation.”
Luke pulled Beca into a hug, expressing his joy but also trying to calm her down so they wouldn’t get kicked out of the computer lab. That must’ve been it; people they didn’t even know actually liked their music enough to hire them. That meant something right? That meant that maybe they could actually make it when the moved to Los Angeles, right? Beca’s mind was swirling. What songs should they play? What equipment should they bring? How awesome would it be to finally get her hands on a new mixing board?
Beca was content, thinking about how much she missed playing gigs back in New York. For a brief few seconds, she wished she was back there, playing music every night, before her mind became crowded with visions of Chloe and Jesse. They didn’t want her to go and she was sure she hadn’t spent as much time with them as she would’ve liked but why was it always her first instinct to leave? Beca threw those thoughts out her head, just happy she and Luke could find jobs here in Atlanta. Listening to Luke talk about the details, Beca made a mental note to reserve two tickets for her long lost friends.