Long way round

chapter 8

One week later.

Beca moved rather mechanically as she went through the latest rendition of the choreo that her and the other Bellas were learning. Aside from Stacie, who had done most of the work between the pair of them on the choreo sequences, Beca knew the routine best. Of course, that didn't stop the busty brunette from calling out, "Beca! If I didn't know better, I'd think you and I didn't spend four hours yesterday getting all this ready. If you aren't going to put the effort in, why don't you just let the others work at it, alright?"

Mumbling an apology to Stacie, Beca walked over to the bleachers to watch as the rest of the girls reset at Stacie's command and started over. Beca tried really hard to pay attention to the girls as they sang the song, knowing it would be up to her more so than Stacie to catch mistakes as they blended the songs that she and Stacie had selected a week and a half ago. Her mind was as distracted now though, as it had been for the last week, and she wasn't really able to focus on anything that was going on. Her mind kept flashing back to what had happened after she'd stormed out of the radio station and found help from a very unlikely source.

"I could use someone to talk to, if you have some time?" Beca asks softly. Of all the people in the world to have a conversation about her boyfriend with, her dad was never the one she pictured. But right now, she just doesn't know who else to turn to.

"Of course sweetheart, come on in." He says, stepping aside to let her come in. She starts to head towards the kitchen, but after a seconds consideration she changes her mind and heads towards the living room instead. Her dad took a seat in one of the chairs in the living room as Beca threw herself into the couch, somehow managing to take up the majority of it despite her small size. Beca watched as her dad simply leaned back into his chair, content to sit and wait for her to start talking while she toyed with the cord for her headphones, still uncertain where to begin, or even why she had come here.

"So... How are your classes this semester?" Her dad asked her after a few minutes of silence. He was probably hoping that starting off with innocent questions would at least get them talking.

"Oh, you know. Boring." Beca replied, in her typical terse manner.

"Well honey, you were the one who said you wanted to stick around at Barden. For which I was quite delighted, might I add."

"Yeah, well, the classes are still rather boring." Beca replied with a smile.

"And how's that singing group you're with? The Bellas? Things going well over there?" He asked, still trying to get the conversational ball rolling.

"Yeah, the Bellas are cool. Now that Aubrey isn't controlling everything like an aca-Nazi, it's pretty chill there. I think the girls made a good decision last year to nominate Stacie as the other co-captain. She really does know her choreography, which I'm basically useless at." Beca said, starting to talk a little more animatedly now that they were onto a "fun" subject. "We actually work pretty well as a team, her doing the dance stuff while I take care of the music. We're getting ready for a fundraiser thing at some frat house in a couple of weeks, should be pretty cool..."

Her dad hid his smile behind his hand as he watched how his daughter seemed to "wake up" while talking about the Barden Bellas. The way her eyes lit up and how she really got into talking about them, well it was something he'd never seen from her before except when she spoke of her work as a "DJ". "That's great, Becs. I'm glad that you found these girls, they seem to be making some good changes on your outlook towards college, that's for sure. With the exception of that incident last year where you had been arrested, I think the Bellas are a good influence on you."

"Dad... I told you about that, I explained it on the way home from jail. It was all a big-" Beca started to say, not really wanting to get into this conversation again, but her dad interrupted her before she could get going.