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Beca stepped out of her dad’s office. She had just gotten an earful from her dad, because she had gotten an F in German and then a D in math. Her dad was always strict on her school results, especially languages and math, since he hoped his daughter would one day work for the international trading company that he owned with his college best friend Mark Beale.
Beca had told her dad some lies about difficult new content and how strict her new German teacher was. She had to, it’s not like she could tell him how she messed up her German presentation because she could see the cheerleading squad practicing out on the field from her spot in front of the classroom. Or how she had been staring for 15 minutes during her math test when the cheerleading captain had come in to get something from the teacher.
Just as they stepped out onto the work floor, the elevator doors opened. There she was again. The cheerleading captain, Chloe Beale, most popular girl at Beca’s high school, also: daughter of her dad’s business partner and best friend. So practically there was no escaping Chloe for Beca. And it was about to get worse…
“Chloe, how are you?”, her dad called out to the redhead.
Chloe politely answered: “I’m great Mr. Mitchell, thanks for asking.”
“Hey Chloe, I heard from your dad that you do very well in school, and I want to ask if you could tutor Beca? She has recently hit some difficulties in both math and German.”
“Oh, of course, Mr. Mitchell. I’d be glad to help.”
Beca turned red at the idea of spending one-on-one time with Chloe. She put her number in the phone that Chloe handed to her and awkwardly waved when Chloe moved on to go to her dad’s office.
So that’s how her tutoring sessions with Chloe Beale started. They met biweekly at the local library, which actually helped for Beca’s concentration. Usually Chloe would explain something to BEca and then they sit side by side doing their homework. Beca would sometimes pretend she needed Chloe’s help from time to time, but otherwise she spent a large part of the time gazing at the redhead, who was focused on her own homework. The brunette also found that she was better able to focus in school, now that she wasn’t looking to see the redhead all the time. Incidentally she would dream away, thinking about the next study session and how pretty Chloe looked in the light that fell through the old library’s stained glass windows, but most of the time she was able to pay attention. She had almost aced her next German test, but she had soon realized that it would look suspicious to go from a F to an A at once. On top of that it would probably mean the end of her sessions with Chloe and she would have to go back to catching glances in the school hallways and brief meetings at the office. So she had expertly tweaked her test before handing it in, scoring her a C- and her meetings with Chloe continued.
Again Beca and Chloe were supposed to meet at the local library for their tutoring session. Chloe was running a little late and Beca was leaning against a brick wall in the afternoon sun. An elderly couple stands in front of the library, looking around as if they are lost. Becas pushes off the wall and approaches them.
“Hi can I help you?”
“Hello, Entschuldigung, we sind, wie sagt man, we are lost. Our English ist nicht zo good.“
"Kein Problem, kann ich Ihnen helfen?“
"Ist dass das Museum?“ The couple asks as they point at the building.
“Nein, hier ist die Bibliothek, das Museum ist an die Main Road, Hauptstraße.”
“Könnte Sie uns vielleicht den Weg zeigen?”
“Also, Sie gehen gerade aus bis zum Ampeln und dann gehen Sie Links. Und dann wieder gerade aus, nach ungefähr 200m gibst das Museum am Rechter Seite.”
"Vielen Dank“
"Kein Problem, einen schönen Tag noch!“
Chloe stood there with her mouth hanging wide open. She couldn’t believe what she had just heard. Beca was speaking German with these tourists as if she herself was born in Germany. There was no way the brunette was really having trouble with her German class. Chloe needed to find out what was going on.
"Hey Becs, how about we study at your house for a change?”
“Uhm, okay?” Beca responded, slightly thrown off by the unusual request.
They arrive at Beca’s house and end up in the brunette’s bed room. Because Beca’s desk was filled with her mixing equipment, they sat cross-legged on the bed facing each other.
“So Becs, what do you want to start with? Math or German?”
“I’d like to start with German, I have this presentation and I can’t even form a proper sentence.”
“You sure about that?” Chloe mutters under her breath. Beca doesn’t hear, she is distracted by Chloe’s cleavage of which she has a particular nice view right now.
“What?” Beca asks.
“Nothing, let’s get started. What is the topic of your presentation?”
“It has to be about a city in Germany, I picked Cologne.”
“Okay, did you do some research already?”
“Yeah, I have some articles, wait I’ll print them out.” Beca pushes some buttons and gets up. “I’ll grab them from my dad’s printer.”
As Chloe waits for Beca to return, she gets up and looks around the room. On one of the shelves she spots a bunch of trophies. Some are sports trophies, but most of them are for academic achievements. Quite a lot of them are actually for math contests.
“Chlo, what are you doing?”
“I was just looking around, and then I found these trophies. Care to explain how someone who struggles to get a C in Math used to be a Math champion? Oh and Becs, I also saw you and the German couple today, whilst you’re at it please explain that too.” Chloe’s tone is slightly hostile.
Beca’s face turns deep red and her eyes drop to the carpet. She remains silent.
“Beca, I’m waiting.”
Beca still can’t say a word, and she is fighting against her tears. She sobs and a tear drops on the carpet.
As soon as Chloe sees this, she rushes forward and grabs Beca’s shoulders.
“Hey, Becs, what is it? I promise I won’t be mad.”
Beca chokes on her sobs. “I just want to be close to you.”
“Excuse me? I didn’t quite catch that?”
“I failed on purpose. I just want to be close to you. I mean, I want to hang out with you, but I knew you’d never want that.” Beca is still sobbing.
“Hey Becs, calm down, now tell me what’s going on exactly.”
“You confuse me, I don’t know what this is, but I can’t help wanting to be near you. But why would you want to hang with someone like me? You’re awesome and gorgeous and popular.”
“Ahh, Becs, do you have a crush on me? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?” Chloe says softly and hugs the brunette. “Hey, Becs, it’s okay, you’ve nothing to be ashamed of. These things happen. And for the record, you are pretty awesome and gorgeous too.”
Beca shows her a faint smile. “Thanks, but you’re a girl…”
Chloe pulls the collar of her shirt out and looks down in it. “Yep, can’t argue with that.”, she jokes. Then she continues more seriously: “It’s okay to like girls, Becs, some girls like girls, some girls like boys, some girls like both, and some girls don’t quite know yet. I know it’s scary, but it’s going to be okay. Trust me.”
Beca nods politely.
“So if we can now agree that you are actually a German and Math Genius, I’d like to get some ice cream together, way more fun than sitting here going over this boring schoolwork.” Chloe says as she grabs her hand and practically skips out of the bedroom.
‘Yeah, this crush wasn’t going to go away soon’, Beca just knew it.