Chapter Text
Urgh gross.
Beca's first thought after walking into the locker room to change out of her PE clothes was gross. She never quite enjoyed PE and especially dodgeball and moving her body trying not to get hit at by a ball aimed to you. But highschool as it was had dodgeball and she needed to pass PE to actually graduate and get out to actually start doing what she wants for her life, music.
Music, which naturally flows out of her during the quiet. She made it a point to get changed last so she doesn't get stuck in a room full of teenage girls, girls that chatter whilst doing their make-up and girls that squeal on just about anything. So when she entered the room the last horde of girls are getting out. After she settles and opens her gym bag the quiet room envelops her and because she is Beca, music naturally flows out. She starts humming the tune of 'Titanium' as she changes. After getting out of her gym shorts and putting her ripped jeans on, and Titanium now in its chorus, its beats building, the bass echoing in her ears, she can't help but sing. Rustling out of her shirt, "I'm bulletproof nothing to loose fire away, fire—" a startling noise of clattering disturbs her singing. She looks back and there she was, Chloe Beale wide eyed looking at Beca, her tumbler rolling away from her. "Beca you can sing? Why didn't you tell me?! Oh my gosh, BECAA!" The red head still looking at her while talking strided towards her until their shoes were almost touching. Once Chloe arrived in front of her she widens her eyes more as if to ask Beca, waiting for her answer.
Unfortunately for Chloe the brunette can't really string any words at the moment, her mind is only focusing on the fact that she didn't — doesn't — have her shirt on, that she was showing so much skin. Desperately trying to cover up, she pressed her shirt in front of her and slowly backed up. Unfortunately for her Chloe only followed her stepping forward until she was in Beca's personal space the toes of their shoes touching. Beca's back bare besides her bra pressed against the cold of the metal locker doors. "How high does your belt go?"
And Beca merely gapes at the redhead not quite getting what she was asking which the redheads only reply to was a rise of her eyebrows and an encouraging smile. "Dude..." Was the first and only thing that came out of Beca's mouth after gaping. In her head Beca Mitchell was thinking this was probably a nightmare, a nightmare that she was having whilst drowsing off at their science class, because in no reality was she trapped between a locker and a Chloe in an empty locker room. "Can you sing for me?" if her silence is any indication of the anxiety running through Beca's head Chloe doesn't acknowledge it but proceeds to just add more questions to the many questions she already started to ask Beca.
A breath, a sigh, and a tilt of a head to look at Chloe properly in the eye, Beca finally calms herself to say something. "Dude, first of all can you move out of my personal space" her free hand—the one not holding her shirt to her chest—signals for Chloe to back up and that prompted the redhead to actually look at her surroundings, to register that she was very close to Beca and immediately moves two steps back with and apology but she comes back to looking at Beca again, the curiosity and excitement in her eyes not leaving. "Second of all I don't think I need to tell you that I sing..you never asked and I don't see the need to tell, so.." she just shrugged at her reasoning. "but you have such a beautiful voice" Chloe looks earnestly at her, taking one step and holds Beca's free hand, smiling as she says it directly at Beca. "Third of all, I don't know what a belt is and lastly no, I don't want to sing," there Chloe's eyebrows meet, they crease at her forehead, and her lips pout tilting towards the right. "but Beca your voice.." there was a whine, almost, with the reply. Another step, a tighter grip on the hand that she was already holding, bright blue eyes poring at hers as if urging. "come on, let's sing, titanium, right?"
~bulletproof nothing to loose~ Chloe starts nodding at Beca to follow her and Beca doesn't know when and how it started. When did she start doing things because of Chloe and how did Chloe make her. But she finds herself lost in those blue, blue eyes that her mouth betrays her and music—Becas music—as it is follows not only the quiet but also the radiance of the redhead infront of her.
And yes, it probably started there, the radiance.
Third grade, 20XX
Beca was a grumpy eight year old or at least that was what most people taught of her, her and her quietness, of her avoidance to people and other kids, of the seemingly constant wrinkle in her forehead. So Beca was dubbed as grumpy. Grumpy, as her father (affectionately) called her.
It was the start of the a new school year and she was sitting by the window, second to last row of chairs when Chloe Beale skipped inside the classroom. With her redhead and curls free, with her toothy smile, with her wrists full with colorful bracelets and grumpy eight year old Beca Mitchell's first thought was radiant. A word she only recently learned because of a commercial on TV, after which she had asked her father what it meant, and her father, an English professor, gave a very good definition "Well, my grumpybeca, radiant is a word we use when describing something as shining or something bright."
Young Beca loved the word, during the night as she sat in her bed reading 'Anne of Green Gables' she couldn't help but write the word again again on the book margins. Anne was someone young Beca thought was radiant. Beca loved Anne and her imaginative world, and her talkative, fearless self. As grumpy as Beca was, she was drawn to the brightness of the character.
So when Chloe Beale walked into that room, Beca's first thought was radiant. She doesn't know if it was the red hair that she immediately associated with her favorite character, or maybe it's the blinding smile plastered across Chloe's face as she walked in, or maybe it was the general energy that she carried around her, but eight-year-old Beca Mitchell thought of Chloe Beale as radiant.
It was also probably that radiance that made her agree to partner up with the redhead for their school project. Beca young as she is enjoyed her solitude and in cases of things involving her socializing with people she chose not to, even on group projects. Most of the time their teachers allowed students to pick their groups or to do it individually and most —well all the time— Becas choice was to do it by herself. So she wasn't too happy when their teacher announced that it was mandatory to do it in pairs.
Unfortunately or fortunately radiant red head new to town Chloe Beale had eagerly went up to Beca's chair and asked if they could pair. Which wasn't exactly unexpected as Chloe at that time had acted as a magnet to the brunette ever since she walked in the classroom. Their chairs were right next to each other and Chloe immediately took on to talking with Beca. Normally, Beca would have already scowled at Chloe and made her cry as she did with others that tried to form a friendship with her before but this new kid only smiled and continued pestering her. It was truly something bizarre to Beca how someone as radiant as Chloe Beale was attracted to her rather "dark" attitude. Years down the line she would think about it as well and would ask Chloe about it wherein which the redheads only reply was "I don't know..? Maybe I'm kind of like a moth to a flame but reverse? haha"
Anyway, Beca ended up pairing up with Chloe Beale on the school project and that's the start of their quirky kind of–friendship.