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“And that’s another two points for the Knights!”
Beca barely even glances up from her phone when the announcer proclaims the fact, seeing as the team is up by fifteen points. She figures she’s not really missing anything anyways.
Normally Beca wouldn’t even be at a basketball game, but her roommate and self-proclaimed best friend Stacie is on the team, and she liked to drag Beca out of the apartment once a week so she could watch her play. She was also technically there to “cheer on the team,” but she figured Stacie should be grateful she’s there at all.
Barden University’s women’s basketball team was actually pretty decent. They were currently number two in their conference, so at least Beca didn’t have to watch the team lose every week.
Still, no one really went to the women’s games. Beca thought it was dumb, since they won way more than the men’s team did, but because the world was full of sexist jerks nobody cared about the girls. The average crowd was about fifty people, all spread out through the admittedly small basketball arena. Beca recognized most of them due to the fact that the same people went every week.
So Beca went to the games because Stacie wanted her to, and because she felt bad that no one really went to them. Even so, that didn’t mean she really knew what was going on or payed attention all that much.
Beca hears the announcer say Stacie’s name and number, so she looks up from the game on her phone to see what was happening on the court. The team is high fiving Stacie and moving into their positions for foul shots, Stacie standing behind the line. The tall brunette makes the first shot easily and sinks the second as well. Half-hearted applause follow as the game resumes, and Beca feels a twinge of sympathy for her friend.
Maybe she actually should be more supportive. At least a little bit.
So, when Stacie sinks a 3-pointer a few minutes later, Beca cups her hands around her mouth and yells, “Atta girl, Stace! That’s the stuff!”
Stacie turns to look at Beca and smiles widely, blowing her a kiss. Beca rolls her eyes affectionately and winks sarcastically in return. One plus of no one attending women’s games was that she could always sit court-side, right behind the cheer squad from where they stood lining the court, making it easy to interact with Stacie like this.
One of the cheerleaders glances briefly over her shoulder at Beca when she shouts for Stacie and Beca can see an amused grin on her face. The girl is pretty. Like, really pretty. Which, Beca supposes is a given since she’s a cheerleader, but still.
Wow.
She’s got shiny red curls that tumble freely down her back, stopping somewhere in the middle of her shoulder blades. Her sleeveless, short skirted uniform shows off tan, toned arms and legs that look as smooth as silk. And her ass-
Well, Beca doesn’t want to objectify anyone. As a fellow woman who does not want to be seen as piece of meat, she knows she shouldn’t.
But hot damn.
Beca’s never really paid attention to the cheer squad before. They’re always just there; turning around to cheer at the empty seats whenever the team scores, performing once or twice during halftime and timeouts. They’re a constant presence that has never really caught Beca’s attention.
For some reason (a pretty redheaded reason, to be specific), Beca finds herself paying a lot more attention to the cheer squad for the remainder of the game. She notices how they all stand the same; hands behind their backs, feet shoulder-width apart, heads held high. They’re always super in-sync, which boggles Beca’s mind, because it’s not like any of them ever shout out instructions at any point. They just know what to do.
She finds herself becoming more and more curious about the redhead. What was her name? What year in school was she? How long has she been on the cheer squad?
Was she single?
Beca shakes her head at the thought. She probably wasn’t single. Someone that attractive was surely taken by an equally attractive person, which sucked. Even if the redhead was single, Beca wasn’t good-looking enough to stand a chance. Beca, in all her combat boots, worn-out flannel, ear monstrosity glory was definitely not a good fit for this beautiful human masterpiece.
Still, a girl could dream, couldn’t she?
Before Beca knew it, the final buzzer signaling the end of the game was going off and the school’s fight song was blaring over the speakers. The team rushes towards each other and celebrates their victory out on the court for a moment before rushing off to the locker room. Beca stands up and stretches out her stiff limbs in preparation of climbing the steps out of the arena. From there she would meet Stacie outside the locker room to go get dinner.
She can’t help but steal one last glance at the redhead, though, and turns her head to where she is chatting with some of her fellow cheer squad members. To her embarrassment, the girl happens to look in her direction in the same time and the two of them make eye contact. Beca feels herself blush and immediately looks away. It had been no problem staring creepily at her for the entirety of the game when the girl had been facing away from her, but being caught in the act was a completely different story.
Beca makes her way up the stairs quickly to go meet Stacie, feeling thoroughly humiliated.
She hates basketball.
* * *
The redhead is at the next game Beca attends, too. Which isn’t a surprise, exactly. She is a cheerleader, after all.
Stacie’s surprised at Beca’s lack of reluctance at being dragged to the game. Usually it’s only after promises of buying her food that Beca agrees to go, but today Beca had simply rolled her eyes and let herself be led to the car.
Not that Beca would ever tell Stacie why, exactly, she was more eager to go, of course. That would surely provoke weeks of teasing comments that Beca did not want to deal with.
Beca sits down in her usual seat by the sidelines and watches the team warm up. Like always, she’s there before anyone else has shown up, including the cheer squad. Stacie had to be there super early since she was on the team, which meant that Beca had to be there early as well.
Today, however, Beca didn’t immediately pull out her phone to entertain herself with. She would never admit it out loud, but a (big) part of her was eagerly awaiting the cheer squad’s arrival.
Their arrival comes about fifteen minutes before the game is supposed to start. They all walk down the tunnel together, conversing and laughing as they make their way to their spots on the sideline, and Beca’s eyes immediately latch onto the redhead from the last game. She indulges in a brief moment of checking out the cheerleader before feigning indifference and turning her attention back to the team.
She actually ends up lost in thought, focusing so hard on not looking at the cheer squad that she doesn’t notice someone approaching.
“Hi there.”
Beca blinks in surprise and moves her eyes away from the court to see the redheaded cheerleader standing in front of her, separated by the barrier separating the seats from the court. The girl rests her arms against it casually, pom-poms grasped firmly in her hands. Her eyes are blue, like bluer than the sky blue.
For a moment, Beca completely forgets how to speak. All of her basic motor skills fail her because the hot cheerleader that she’s quickly grown a crush on is talking to her.
Say something, her brain tells her. Say anything. Don’t just stare at her, you useless idiot.
“Uh, your eyes are really blue,” is the thing that comes out of her mouth.
It would honestly be best if she just knocked herself out now. Or, at the very least, change her name and flee the country.
Luckily, the girl doesn’t seem too weirded out by Beca’s apparent lack of social skills. A smile lights up her face and she giggles. “Thanks,” she gushes, then looks at Beca expectantly, as if she’s waiting for her to say something else.
Beca, unfortunately, does not currently possess the ability to say something else. So she sits there, like an idiot, saying nothing.
The girl’s smile turns into more a smirk. “I’m Chloe, by the way,” she says when it becomes clear Beca’s not going to speak.
“Beca,” Beca squeaks out, followed by another awkward pause.
“I’ve seen you at a lot of games before,” Chloe starts again. “Do you know someone on the team, or are you just a big basketball fan?”
A snicker escapes Beca at the implication that she was a sports fan, and the thought allows her to shake herself from her internal panic. “No, definitely not a basketball fan. My roommate’s on the team,” she manages to say without sounding too nervous. “Number 10, Stacie Conrad.”
Chloe turns around to look for Stacie, and she nods her head in recognition when she spots the tall brunette. “That’s super cool,” she says, facing Beca once again. “It’s also super cool that you come to support her every week.”
Beca shrugs like it’s no big deal, because it really isn’t. “Yeah, well, I usually get free food afterwards, so,” Beca clicks her tongue. “There’s at least one good reason to come.”
Chloe raises one perfect eyebrow, a sultry look sliding onto her face. “Is that the only good reason to come?” she asks slyly.
Beca cheeks heat up at what she thinks Chloe’s implying. She knows that Chloe caught her checking her out last week, and now the redhead was using that as ammunition to tease her. Beca opens her mouth to respond, though she’s not sure exactly how, but Chloe’s name gets called by one of her fellow cheer squad members, beckoning her over.
The redhead smirks and gives Beca a once-over that sends heat shooting through Beca’s system before turning around, skipping over to the person who called for her. Beca watches her go, thoroughly shocked at the other girl’s actions. It was almost as if Chloe had been… flirting with her. Which was absurd, because Beca had already established with herself that the cheerleader was way out of her league.
But just maybe….
Chloe continues to surprise Beca throughout the rest of the game. Beca tries not to stare, she really does, but once again, she can’t help herself. The only problem is that now, every time Chloe turns around to cheer, she looks right at Beca. She shoots Beca blinding smiles and subtle winks that cause Beca’s face to burn, which seems to bring great amusement to the redhead.
When the cheer squad rushes onto the court to perform during a timeout, Beca is mesmerized. Sure, all the cheerleaders are good dancers, but Chloe seems to be really giving it her all. Her movements seem more sensual, more purposeful, and the way her eyes keep flicking over to Beca lets Beca get a pretty good idea why.
By the time the game ends, Beca doesn’t even know where she is anymore. It feels like she’s stepped into an alternate universe; one where hot, cheerleading redheads are somehow interested in her- or, at least, interested in teasing her.
Honestly, Beca’s not picky. She’ll take the attention, no matter what the purpose behind it is.
Beca hadn’t been paying attention to a single second of the basketball game, too focused on the game that Chloe was playing instead. She looked at the final score as the fight song blared on over the speakers to see that Barden had won again- big surprise. The team runs off the court and the spectators start leaving, so Beca figures she should get up as well. She stands up onto stiff legs and looks down to see Chloe approaching her once again.
“So it was, Beca, right?” Chloe checks once she’s close enough to Beca. Beca nods her head quickly. Chloe smiles and her next question is said more teasingly than the first. “How’d you like the game?”
Beca chokes a little. “It was fine. Good, great. Fun,” she coughs out weakly. She clears her throat. “I thought it was great,” she tries again, more clearly this time.
“Good, I’m glad,” Chloe says, all pretenses of teasing gone from her tone. “I had fun, too.” Beca blushes and Chloe looks over her shoulder to see the rest of the cheer squad starting to walk out of the arena. “Well, I guess I have to go. See you at the next game?”
Beca nods her head rapidly. “Yeah, definitely,” she says too quickly.
Chloe giggles. “Good. See you then, Beca.”
With that, the redhead rushes off to join her group, leaving a flustered Beca standing rooted to her spot. Beca replays the way her name sounded coming from Chloe’s lips over and over in her head, and a goofy smile sliding onto her face.
She walks up the steps to meet Stacie with a little more gumption than usual. When her roommate finally emerges from the locker room a while later, she gives Beca a curious look upon seeing the smile on her face. “You seem awfully chipper,” she says as they start to walk out to her car. “Did your angst subscription finally expire, or are you just actually enjoying the games now?”
Beca swats her arm as the taller girl laughs, scowling. “You’re hilarious,” she deadpans. They reach the car and Stacie unlocks it before the two of them climb in. “You know, this is why I never let you know when I’m in a good mood,” she grumbles as she puts on her seatbelt. “You always make fun of me when I do. I think you hate seeing me happy.”
“Au contraire, my little friend,” Stacie counters as she starts the car. “I care deeply about your happiness. You’re just too much fun to tease about the littlest of things because of how worked up you get.”
Beca huffs and crosses her arms over her chest, pouting a little. “I hate you.”
Stacie leans over and places a loud, wet kiss on Beca’s cheek, which immediately causes Beca to make a noise of disgust and wipe the wetness away. “That’s too bad,” Stacie says in a sing-song voice as she starts to pull out of the parking lot. “Because I loooove you, little one.”
Beca rolls her eyes. “Whatever,” she mumbles. “Where are we eating? I’m starving.”
* * *
The next few weeks pass by in much the same fashion. Game day rolls around, Beca pretends to be grumpy about going to the game while secretly being really excited, Chloe flirts with her throughout the match, and Beca goes to get food while Stacie teases her.
By the second week of Beca talking to Chloe, Stacie had found out exactly why she was always so smiley by the end of the games. The intuitive athlete got enough bench time during blowout matches that she was able to watch Beca and Chloe closely, and soon discovered their flirtatious behavior.
Stacie teases Beca about it relentlessly, and Beca hates it.
But also, Chloe was cute and funny, so she couldn’t exactly be totally upset about the whole situation.
One Saturday game is following the normal routine, with Beca currently staring dedicatedly at Chloe’s amazing arms, when a timeout is called on floor. The teams huddle up separately while the sponsored entertainment starts up: the kiss cam. Beca just rolls her eyes because of how awkward the whole thing was. There wasn’t enough people at the games most of the time, so it always just showed the same five or six old married couples at every single game.
The old people didn’t seem to mind, though. They were steadily getting bolder and bolder every time they were shown, which made Beca feel uncomfortable in all sorts of ways.
She’s wrinkling her nose in disgust at two people getting pretty steamy on the cam when a shadow suddenly looms over her. Beca shifts her attention in front of her to see Chloe propped up on the barrier in front of her, waving at the camera to get its attention. Beca’s eyes widen.
“What are you doing-” Beca starts to question before she’s cut off by Chloe leaning over the barrier, grabbing onto the collar of Beca’s flannel, and pressing their lips together.
Beca thinks she sees stars when Chloe’s lips touch her own. Her hands flail uselessly for a moment before winding into that damn red hair she loves so much as she sinks fully into the kiss. The kiss doesn’t last too long, though, and soon enough Chloe is pulling back and looking at Beca, the corner of her bottom lip snagged between perfect white teeth.
“I hope that was okay,” Chloe says smoothly. “I was getting pretty tired of watching old people make out.”
Beca swallows and tries to form a coherent thought in her brain. “Uh, yeah, totally fine,” she stammers out. “I do not mind at all.”
Chloe giggles and leans in to give her one last peck before pulling back all together, returning to her spot on the sideline. Her cheer friends elbow her and tease her, but the smile on Chloe’s face never falls. She looks back at where Beca is still sitting in shock and winks at her before turning to give her full attention to the game.
Beca, on the other hand, pretty much remains in a daze for the remainder of the match. She thinks someone gets injured, and maybe Stacie makes a couple 3-pointers, but she honestly doesn’t know. Her eyes just follow the ball lazily as her mind tries to process the kiss.
She’s just getting her wits back when the final buzzer goes off. The cheer squad dances to the fight song as the team runs off the court, and as soon as they’re done Chloe’s in front of her again.
“Do you want to get food?” the redhead asks, and Beca thinks this is the first time she’s ever heard the other girl sound nervous. “I know you usually go out to eat with Stacie after games, but I’ve been kind of really wanting to ask you out for a while now.”
Beca smirks at her confession, Chloe’s shyness making her feel bolder. “I might be down for that,” she says with fake nonchalance.
A smile brightens up Chloe’s face. “Are you sure Stacie won’t mind?”
Beca snorts. “Honestly? I couldn’t care less if she did,” she replies, standing up so she and Chloe can climb the steps towards the exit. “In fact, it almost makes this whole thing even better if she does get upset.”
Chloe laughs and reaches down to lace their fingers together, causing Beca to blush at the small action.
Okay, so maybe basketball games weren’t so bad after all.