Work Text:
It was coming to the end of summer vacation and the Beale-Mitchell family decided to squeeze in some time with the grandparents in Atlanta with Beca’s dad and then do a family road trip heading south to Tampa to Chloe’s family and spend some time at the beach before the kids start school again.
Their week in Atlanta with Beca’s dad and his wife was great. The kids enjoyed going around the city with their grandpa and playing with their new puppy, Duke, in the backyard and at the park. The kids were worn out at the end of each day, but the family was happy to spend some time with Ben and Sheila before they got busy again with life back in LA.
Early Sunday morning, the Beale-Mitchell’s hit the road bright and early, ready for their six and a half hour drive down to Tampa. Of course, with three kids (one of them being under the age of three), that six and half hours can easily be eight with all the stops they were bound to take for food and bathroom breaks.
They decided to head out early in the morning, before the sun was even up, so that they can spend most of the morning on the road and still have a full afternoon to spend with Chloe’s family in Tampa. With them starting so early, the kids were still very much asleep the first couple hours of the drive. Thankfully, Beca and Chloe were able to get the olders kids up enough for them to bring themselves into the rental van instead of having to carry them in.
Beca was currently driving on I-75, a couple hours into the drive with the sun slowly coming up on the eastern horizon, when she started to hear small yawns and moans from stretching coming from the back of the car. She looked in the window and saw that Oliver was slowly starting to wake up from his slumber.
“Hey buddy, good morning!” she said trying be soft enough not to wake his siblings but loud enough from him to hear.
“Morning, Mama. Where are we?” Oliver responded after a yawn, rubbing sleep out of his eyes.
“We’ve only been driving for a couple hours so we’re still in Georgia bud.” she tried to explain. They hadn’t really passed any major cities that he would know so it wasn’t really any use to explain exactly where they were.
“Oh. Are we almost there?” he asked.
“Hey buddy, good morning!” Chloe said as she heard voices talking while she was slowly waking up.
“Hi Mommy!” he replied. Beca leaned her head to the side, eyes still on the road, to receive a kiss on the cheek from Chloe.
The rest of the car seemed to slowly make their way out of their slumber the next few minutes that passed. Olivia woke next and Eli was the last to wake, though his eyes were still drooping and his head still slouching into his Simba plush.
“Good morning, my loves.” Chloe enthusiastically said as she turned toward the back and smiled widely at her family.
“Mommy, I’m hungry.” Olivia said as she stretched and yawned.
Chloe turned to look at the clock on the dashboard and saw it was around breakfast time.
“Well, it is breakfast time and it looks like everyone’s awake. Babe, what do you say we stop for some breakfast?” Chloe turned to ask Beca, hand reaching over and back to massage the base of Beca’s neck.
Beca rolled her neck a bit, loving the soft massage Chloe was giving her after driving for so long.
Beca nodded and took the next exit off the highway hoping that there was some place to eat. They spotted a Waffle House a couple blocks away from the exit, the couple hadn’t had Waffle House since their days back at Barden. They spent many late nights at the one near campus, fulfilling their late night cravings of waffles, hash browns, and sweet southern iced tea.
The couple shared a look with each other and they both knew what the other was thinking. Waffle House for breakfast it is.
She pulled into the parking lot and Beca’s mouth immediately started salivating in anticipation of the chocolate chip waffles.
“Where are we?” Oliver asked as he unbuckled his seatbelt and started getting out of his seat.
“We’re at Waffle House! Your Mama and I used to go to the one close to us all the time when we were in college. The food was always amazing!” Chloe explained to her son. Well as amazing as southern diner food can get she thought to herself.
As Beca set Eli on the ground to begin making their way into the restaurant, her mind kept going back to those moments in college that was spent with just her and Chloe, or even some of the Bellas after practice ran later than usual. Those were some fond memories that she’d always cherish. Waffle House has a certain charm that will always be dear to her.
She’ll never forget the time that the Bellas had joined them once after a rather grueling rehearsal, essentially coming up with a whole new routine right before finals.
Beca’s Freshman year
“So…uhm…in the spirit of us getting to know each other and sharing our stories. I think it’s time I come clean to you guys about something about myself…” Amy said as they all sat in a corner/section of the Waffle House where they could all still be together. She kept looking around and ducking her head as she made her wait to her seat in the booth.
While normally she loves attention, having all the Bellas eyes on her made her nervous to confess. “Technically, I’m not allowed in the Waffle House establishment…” she admitted.
“What?!”
“What do you mean?!”
“Are you kidding?!”
“Then how are you even here?”
All the Bellas loudly asked their questions as Amy just sat there ducking her head and staring straight at the menu.
“Amy. Explain.” Beca firmly asked.
“Well….uuhhhmmm…Let’s just say, they take the “waffle” in Waffle House very seriously.” Amy vaguely explained to the group.
Everyone just sat in expectation of a more full explanation from her. Amy let out a sigh and continued.
“I literally just got here a couple weeks before classes started. It was a long weekend and I was really missing home, so I had a few extra drinks that I had from home just to drown out my sorrows of being away from everyone I loved.” she said, a bit of sadness in her voice.
“I got a little drunk and stumbled into this Waffle House since it was the closest one to campus. In Australia, we have this dish called a pikelet, which are essentially pancakes here in America, and since I was feeling homesick I just really wanted some.” she continued to explain.
The rest of the girls listened closely with a bit of sympathy for their Australian friend. Most of them know what it’s like to move away from everything you’ve known, to a new place where you know exactly no one. They all could understand where she was coming from.
“Oh no Amy, please tell me you didn’t…” Aubrey caught on to what was happening and tried to get Amy to keep going.
Amy looked up at the group and said, “Yea. I did.” she confessed.
Aubrey just shook her head, thinking she knew the whole story. However, Amy knew what she had to say might be worse than she was thinking.
“Wait, what are you guys talking about?” Chloe jumped in. “Amy, what exactly did you do?”
“I was drunk! I was just really weak, and really missing home. And since this place was the only thing open that late at night I decided to come in but I didn’t want waffles. I wanted pikelets. It has all the basic ingredients of waffle, you just don’t put it in a waffle maker.” She tried to explain as if that justified what she was about to say next.
“I could literally tell them how to cook it but, none of the cooks wanted to do it for me, so I ran behind the counter and started cooking it myself.” she said.
Now Beca caught on to what Aubrey was thinking earlier and just stared at her menu and shook her head. Amy continued to explain what happened that night.
“I guess none of the cooks wanted to deal with a sexy drunk by myself, so they didn’t really stop me. Then the manager walked in suddenly and wondered what I was doing behind the counter in front of the griddle. He saw what I was making and tried to turn me around to walk me back to a seat. I guess I was more drunk than I thought and was just so emotional that I accidentally swung at him.” It was Amy’s turn to look down and shake her head in shame.
“I swear I didn’t mean to! It didn’t even land. But I was so drunk and it was already late at night so the manager decided it was time for me to go home, and apparently never come back. Safe to say he was pretty pissed. I think he was more pissed that I was making pancakes than the fact that I tried to hit him.” she finished up.
She looked up and said “And that, my friends, is why I’m banned from Waffle House.”
The Bella’s all stood there stunned. They didn’t know what to say, if there was even something to say.
Amy put her head back down towards the menu to hide her face.
“Wait, so how are you able to come in here right now?” Beca asked. Amy just shrugged, “maybe this crew didn’t know who I am. I don’t know…”
“What can I get you ladies….” the waitress began asking, then she looked up at Amy.
“Aren’t you that girl that’s not allowed in here anymore? What her name?…”she tried to think. “Oh! Amy, yea Amy that’s it. You’re that Amy girl who’s no longer allowed here.” she said firmly.
Amy’s confidence seemed to be back now that she had just confessed something personal about her besides her real name.
“No… my name is Patricia. Not sure who this Amy girl is, but she sounds like a hoot if she got kicked out and banned from coming here.” Amy tried to give it a shot, secretly hoping they wouldn’t catch on or at least let her stay as long as she was with her friends.
“Oh alright, I’ll bite. Just don’t do anything that could get me in trouble.” The waitress finished as she turned a page in her pamphlet to start taking orders. “So what’s everyone having?”
Present time
Beca was brought back from her reminiscing when Liv bumped her and looked up, “I don’t want waffles, I want pancakes!” She complained.
Chloe saw the glazed look in Beca eyes and knew she was thinking of the story that Amy recalled to them all those years ago about having pancakes in Wafle House.
“Sorry, love. That’s all they have right now.” Chloe tried to console her daughter. “Why don’t we keep looking at the menu to see if there’s anything else. Their hash browns are amazing! And you can put any kind of toppings in it that you’d like. Wanna give that a try?” Olivia nodded but still poured and looked unhappy.
Beca gave it a shot, “You know, I see that they have chocolate chips as something you can put on the waffles. Maybe I’ll give it a try. I’ll let you know how it tastes.” she teased as she nudged Liv’s shoulder.
“No! I want my own! I want waffles with the chocolate chips!” the little girl exclaimed as she tugged on Beca’s shirt sleeve.
“Ok, ok! We’ll each get one and then we can even get a side of peanut butter and it’ll be just like a Reece’s cup.” Beca smiled then winked at Chloe who was watching the interaction from the other side of the both.
Waffle House was a special place for them and they were both glad they got to revisit and share this place with their own family now too.