Your Voice - Donald Walsh

FOUR

Turn the beat around 
Love to hear the percussion
Turn it upside down
Love to hear it
Love to hear it
Love to hear it
Love to hear percussion

Blake was performing the choreography to the best of her ability, and though it wasn't great, to her credit, it was significantly better than some of the other girls. They were off key, off beat, and the group watching at the fall mixer was cringing away from them. Blake would too, if she was honest.

"Stop, stop this, stop." The SBT guy said, frowning as he walked closer, his collar popped like it was 1986. Aubrey ran forward, her face contorted in worry.

"I'm so sorry, Howie, I know we're not performance ready-"

"I wanted hot Bellas. Not this barnyard explosion. I'm not paying for this. Let's go, come on." He said, waving them off of the small set of steps they were performing on, and escorting them off of the frat house property. The girls all walked slowly back toward their lecture hall, somewhat miserable in their flight-attendant-like attire.

"Well, I hope you all remember the way you feel right now, so you'll never want to feel this way again. Chloe, your voice didn't sound Aguilerian at all. Chloe, for serious, what is wrong with you?"

"I have nodes!" Chloe admitted, stopping and putting her hands on her hips. Blake raised an eyebrow.

"What? Oh, my god." Aubrey said, horrified.

"I found out this morning." Chloe said, holding a hand over her face as she began to tear up.

"Is that like, an STD, or..." Blake trailed off.

"Vocal nodules." Aubrey told her, glaring. "The rubbing together of your vocal cords at above-average rates without proper lubrication." She explained.

"They sit on your windpipe and crush your dreams." Chloe added.

"Isn't that painful? Why would you keep performing?" Beca asked, frowning.

"Because I love to sing." Chloe replied.

"Yeah, it's like when my lady doctor told me not to have sex for six weeks and I did it anyway." Stacie said, shrugging. 

"You should really listen to your doctor." Amy said as she shook her head slowly.

"The key is early diagnosis." Chloe said, breathing deeply. "I am living with nodes. But I am a survivor. I just have to pull back. Because I am limited. Because I have nodes."

"Chloe, this is horrible." Aubrey said, wiping a tear from her eyes.

"Well, at least it's not herpes." Amy said, shrugging. Blake nodded, pursing her lips in agreement.

-

Blake walked through the studio, shelving records. Luke had the day off, and so did Jesse and Beca, leaving Blake alone to handle the station. Luke set up an automatic recording, so she didn't need to do any broadcasting or music playing, just stacking and maintaining an all around cleanliness. Which she did anyways.

There was actually a program in the station, kind of like a library, where you could come and take out music to listen to. You needed a CD or record player, obviously, but it was cool. Blake had tried it out a few times. They also had a small selection of movies, but Blake had every single one of those, so it wasn't worth it for her. However, she did get a few visitors looking for music. And two just so happened to walk in.

"Shut up, man." Bumper grumbled, wiping his face.

"You just need to pick a few songs, man. We'll mash them up like we always do. Plus, you might even get inspired tonight." Donald replied, shrugging as he put his hands into his pockets.