Chapter 1
Chloe hummed quietly to herself as she doodled on the side of her textbook. The page she was at described in great details what to do when someone was choking and her professor’s voice was explaining the content of the PowerPoint out loud to the class in a monotone voice. It was fair to assume Chloe was not listening.
“Miss Beale.”
She looked up in surprise and stopped humming. The woman at the front looked at her with an annoyed expression.
“Please pay attention,” Mrs. Applebaum said for the fourth time today. Chloe smiled, not bothered by the stares from everyone in the class.
“Sorry,” she said and the teacher resumed her teaching. She looked at the little butterflies that she drew and finally paid attention to her class.
“It’s time to explain your final project. Starting next week till the end of the year, each of you will get assigned to one of our sport teams, assist a medical trainer and help out our beloved athletes. Some of you will be paired with another student on the same team because there’s not enough for all of you. You’ll help out when they get injuries and make sure they’re healthy and ready for their games,” Mrs. Applebaum explained as she passed some papers explaining the full assignment to the class. “Think of it as an unpaid internship,” she said and laughed when a few students groaned.
Chloe flipped through the pages quickly and without raising her hand, asked a question. “How do we know the team we’re gonna be with?” Barden university had over 30 sports teams ranging from a women’s golf team to a male water polo team and there’s certain teams that she really didn't want to be paired with.
“You should receive an email from the medical trainer you’ll assist some time this afternoon. All of them received a list of names and picked depending on your schedules and your free periods.” the teacher explained and Chloe nodded in understanding. She just hoped it wouldn’t interfere with her Bellas practice because Aubrey was already strict enough for her liking.
She loved Aubrey, they had been best friends since their freshman year, but Chloe couldn’t deny that something had gotten into Aubrey this year, making her completely obsessed with the idea of winning. She missed when being in the Bellas just meant having fun while singing.
The bell rang and everyone got up in a ruckus. Chloe made her way to the Bellas residence where she lived alone with Aubrey since all the recruits they had gotten this year were Freshmen and first years weren’t allowed to live out of the dorms. She passed a few people she knew on the way and smiled at them, exchanging a few words of courtesy when she could. The redhead was well known around the campus, given the fact that she was kind and friendly to everyone. Chloe Beale loved being kind, her parents had taught her from a very young age that nothing made a human richer than kindness in their hearts and she believed that 100%. She believed in people and she loved them. She loved human interactions and fed off on it.
Aubrey was a little bit more cold towards people and even she couldn’t resist the Beale charm. It was like a magic power, the blonde had told her once and Chloe had laughed at the remark.
“Hey Bree!” Chloe said, opening the front door and she heard a faint yell back from Aubrey’s room upstairs. She sang to herself distractedly as she went to the kitchen, grabbing a snack and opening her laptop. She yelped in excitement when she saw she had an email sitting in her inbox and clapped to herself.
She was excited for this project, it was a chance for her to meet some people she didn’t necessarily hang out with. Acapella and sports were two big things in Barden but they hung out in very different crowds so Chloe couldn’t say she was friendly with any athletes, except maybe Tom who was in the football team. Hence why she didn’t want to be paired with one of the male football teams. Things had ended weird between them.
“Are you okay?” Aubrey rushed in the kitchen, looking around like she was expecting to see a fire.
Chloe nodded with excitement, her apple long forgotten on the side of her laptop. “Look!” she said, pointing to the email from a Luke Allen that they both read at the same time.
Dear Chloe Beale,
I am the athlete trainer with the Barden Dames, the Division III women’s hockey team that we have here at our university. I am happy to announce that I picked your name to be my assistant during the next few months as you learn what it is to be a health professional. I know your major is currently animal studies but you never know when the need for first aid may arise, on humans or animals.
You may start your training at our next practice, scheduled for next Tuesday at 4PM. We practice at the Arena Kennedy every time.
You can see I linked our full schedule to this email.
Please don’t be afraid to contact me if you have any questions.
Luke Allen
They finished reading at the same time and Aubrey looked at her with a puzzled expression.
“What about the Bellas?”
Chloe sighed, a little bummed that this was her friend’s first reaction but she wasn’t that surprised. “I’ll talk to him about it and I’ll juggle the two. Isn’t this exciting, though?”
The blonde seemed to realize that her best friend was really excited about her school project and smiled, putting a hand on her shoulder. “That sounds really fun, Chloe.”
Chloe smiled and read the email again. Like he said, the assignment didn’t really have anything to do with her major but she was still a people person and she loved connecting with other human beings. If things went well, she could make tons of new friends and that was always something that made her happy.
…
Tuesday arrived quickly and Chloe practically skipped to the arena. She was so excited for the assignment and she was pretty sure Aubrey was only happy she was participating in this because the ginger would finally stop talking about it. She had been talking non stop about it since she found out who she was going to work with, trying to guess how the team worked and now she could finally calm down a little. After all, she knew a thing or two about teams and she wondered if there was the same bond that she had with the Bellas in hockey teams.
She thought she dressed appropriately, going simple with jeans and a blouse but she wasn’t too sure about it since she truly had no idea how things worked inside an arena. If someone asked her what she knew about hockey, the only thing that she could answer was that there was ice involved.
She pushed the glass doors open and was instantly met with a whiff of cold and she realized she should bring a jacket next time. On her right, there was an office with a closed door and on the left, an area with vending machines and a small canteen. She walked over to the hallway on the other side of the room and smiled when she saw the windows that let you see the ice rink. The zamboni was currently cleaning the ice as she passed through the hallway that led to a bunch of locker rooms. On the bench next to the rink, she could see one player sporting the green Barden uniform, already ready to play and another person who she assumed was the coach. She could hear chatter from the locker room at the very end of the hallway so she guessed that was where she needed to go since the schedule Luke sent told her only the Dames were practicing today.
“Chloe?”
She looked behind her and a young man with blond hair and a scruffy beard was walking over.
“Yes?”
He smiled at her, “Great I was hoping that was you. I’m Luke,” he extended a hand and she shook it with a smile. “I see you got familiar quickly with the arena.”
She blushed shyly. She had always been a bit too curious for her own good and she couldn’t count the number of times she had gotten lost as a kid because she ran off to go see something shiny that had caught her eye.
“Sorry, I just assumed that’s where I needed to go,” she said apologetically and he shook his head.
“No worries. You had the right idea, that’s exactly where we need to go. I figured I’d introduce you to the players and while they play, I’ll explain everything that I do. If you have any questions, don’t be shy to ask me.”
“Okay good because I don’t know anything about hockey,” she said truthfully and he laughed and nodded. He gestured at her to go first and they made their way down the hallway until they stopped in the room where the loud chatter was coming from. Most of the girls had finished putting on the uniforms, a couple of them tying their skates and there was one that was practically half naked.
“Woah!” Luke said, averting his gaze from the tall girl who was only wearing a sports bra and the bottom half of her uniform. “Stacie, can you please finish getting dressed, the practice starts in 10 minutes.” He turned to Chloe. “That reminds me, Chloe, here we have one rule: no sex in the locker room.”
Chloe‘s eyebrows shot up, not expecting him to say that and she wondered what happened to make this rule a thing. Stacie grinned and threw a wink at her when she noticed the redhead.
“Hey Luke, who’s the hottie?” Stacie said, moving over to her station to finish getting dressed. At those words, the chatter all stopped and Chloe took a look at every girl individually as Luke explained who she was. It was a very diverse group of girls that all looked like they had nothing in common but the ginger guessed that was the beautiful thing about finding a passion you like and working in teams.
“This is Chloe. She’s going to be with us for the rest of the season because the sports department from the university made an arrangement with the First Aid classes. She’s kind of an assistant to me to help out when you guys all get hurt at once,” he joked
“You mean when one of us gets hurt and you already have Beca on your plate so you can’t help us before you deal with her,” one of the girls said and everyone laughed at the comment, even Luke. Chloe quirked an eyebrow, trying to figure out who among them was Beca but nobody spoke up.
Luke looked at her to explain, “Beca… likes to play dirty but she’s our best player. Her social skills are left to be desired, though.”
“Second best player,” a girl corrected, standing up and walked over to Chloe on her skates to salute her. “My name’s Fat Amy. I’m the goalie.”
“You call yourself Fat Amy?” Chloe said slowly.
“Yeah so twig bitches like you don’t do it behind my back.”
Chloe’s mouth snapped shut and a girl rolled her eyes, pushing Fat Amy out the door. “My name’s Cynthia-Rose. Defense,” she said, looking Chloe up and down and winked at her before joining Fat Amy in the hallway.
One by one they introduced themselves to Chloe and the redhead smiled kindly at every single one of them as she tried to remember all their names. So far, she had met Stacie, Fat Amy, Cynthia-Rose, Jessica, Ashley, Emily, Flo, some girl whose name she thought was Lilly (she wasn't sure since she spoke so quietly) and she was blanking on the rest of the names.
Luke made sure that everyone was gone from the locker room and led them in the same direction that all the girls took; towards the ice rink.
“They’re all nice, you’ll see. It can be a bit intimidating at first but they’re all fun. Loud and messy, but fun,” he reassured her and Chloe nodded, looking at all of the players in the middle of the ice who were surrounding a blonde woman. “That’s Gail, the coach.”
Chloe nodded in understanding. “Do you mind me asking why you're here when it’s just a practice? Do they really need a medical trainer every time they’re on the ice?”
Luke laughed like she had just told a very funny joke. “Yeah, you’d think they would only need me for the games but not with number 47 back there.” He pointed a finger at a small girl who was facing her back to them. Chloe read MITCHELL on the back of her jersey and was standing next to a CONRAD which Chloe remembered to be Stacie. Even with skates on, Mitchell looked so small next to the girl. “That’s Beca Mitchell. The captain.”
“Oh?” she said to show her interest.
“I’ve seen a lot of women play on this team.” Luke said as the girls all broke away to skate circles around the rink. Probably a warm-up. Number 47 passed right in front of them but with the helmet and the speed, Chloe didn’t have time to see what she looked like. “None were like Mitchell. Fast, agile. It’s like the stick is an extension of her left arm. She’s small so people underestimate her but she’ll body check you in the barn before you can say her name.”
“Is that allowed?” Chloe said, suddenly scared that this game was violent. She wasn’t a fan of violence.
He laughed. “Nope. But she still does it. Gail keeps saying she’ll suspend Mitchell if she keeps doing that but she knows it won’t happen. They need her too much. The team sucked before she got here. She makes them better.”
Chloe nodded and watched Gail gather up the women in a circle around her. She threw a few instructions at them and soon the girls all got into some kind of formation. Chloe’s blue eyes followed #47 as she skated effortlessly to the middle of the ice with the puck. Soon, Gail whistled and Beca instantly got in action, going from 0 to a 100 in a matter of seconds. Two girls rushed towards her and Chloe closed her eyes, anticipating the three girls to collide violently but Luke nudged her side.
“Watch this.”
She opened her eyes just in time to see Beca let the puck fly between the legs of the defense, twirl around the player and take it back before another one could get a hold of it. She skated backwards for a few seconds and turned to hit the puck towards the top right corner. The goalie made a move and caught the puck in time and Beca hit her hockey stick violently on the ice.
“Damn it Amy!” she said, letting Chloe hear her voice for the first time. “All that for nothing.”
“Better luck next time, short stack,” Amy replied and put her hockey blade in front of Beca’s skates so she’d trip but the shorter girl dodged it in time.
“Hobart! What did I say about tripping the girls with your hockey stick?” Gail said from the side.
Amy was silent for a moment. “... Do it?” Gail sighed.
“Let’s do it again!” she said, letting the girls get in position again and she skated slowly to the bench where Chloe and Luke were. “I know you,” she observed with narrowed eyes.
Chloe stopped herself from rubbing her arms to warm herself up and stood up instantly, remembering her courtesies. “I’m Chloe Beale. I’m in the Barden Bellas, maybe that’s where you know me from.”
“Oh yeah,” the coach said. “You guys suck.”
Chloe pouted, feeling hurt and sat back down while Luke cleared his throat awkwardly. “She’s gonna be with me for a while because of her First Aid training class.”
“Good. We need all the help we can get,” she said and a loud noise interrupted their conversation and they all turned to see Beca on her butt facing the boards, her hockey stick flying 6 feet away from her. Chloe looked at Luke with worried eyes.
“Do we need to go help? Because that definitely looked like it hurt.” She imagined the player collided hard with the sidelines, maybe her head even hit the glass. Luke shook his head, drawing something in his notebook.
“She’ll be okay.” He looked up at Beca. “Sometimes I think she forgets to brake and she figures the boards will do the job. Hasn’t worked that well so far but she keeps doing it.”
An ADAMS skated to her and offered her hand to help her get up. It took a long second before the captain finally accepted the hand and got up with her help. Chloe heard a snicker from somewhere and Beca mumbled a “Shut it, Conrad” before picking up her stick again.
The ginger held back laughter when she saw a girl skate around with the word JUNK written on the back of her jersey. That was a very unfortunate last name. The amusement stopped when Junk got close to Beca and yelped.
“Beca you’re bleeding!”
Everyone stopped and looked at their captain who looked so small compared to everyone else. Beca made a move to touch her nose but was stopped by her helmet. Gail skated rapidly to Beca, leaving Luke and Chloe at the bench.
“Told you they needed us even in practice,” Luke said like he wasn’t even worried for Beca that much. “Here, since it’s your first day. I’ll give you the honor. You can go back to the locker room.” He handed her the first aid kit and Chloe bit her lip nervously, looking at the two women coming back their way. Gail tried to put her arm around Beca’s shoulders to help guide her but the girl moved away instantly in a shrug. She opened the door that led to the bench where Chloe was and instantly made her way in the direction of the locker room without sparing a look at them. Luke chuckled, “She knows what to do.”
Chloe followed the girl, looking at the 47 on her back with her heart beating fast with nerves. Mitchell took off the helmet, revealing dark hair in a low ponytail and brought her hand to her nose. Chloe didn’t move from behind the girl, waiting.
“Fuck,” she murmured to herself. She turned around to face Chloe and the latter finally had a chance to see what the infamous captain of the Dames looked like. Even with blood coming out of her nose and dripping down her chin onto her green jersey, Chloe’s mouth dried up as she looked at one of the most beautiful girls she had ever seen. She had sharp features, cold blue eyes and a lot of piercings on her ears. Her hand was hanging mid-air with blood on it, like she was trying to catch it while it dripped. Some hairs were sticking to her forehead because of the sweat but it almost looked like she was glowing and her face was red, proving just how hard she was working out there. They were the same height since the girl was in skates but she wondered what their height difference would be without them.
Beca waved a hand in front of her face. “Dude! Who the fuck are you? And get me a tissue!”
Chloe’s eyes widened and she came back to reality, opening the kit and handing the hockey player a few tissues who grabbed them without a thanks. She wiped her face the best she could and leaned her head back, pinching her nose. It was clearly not the first time that something like that happened since she seemed to know what to do. Beca blindly sat down on a bench and sighed, not even glancing at Chloe.
The redhead sat down on the bench opposite of her, uncomfortable in the silence. Chloe didn’t like it when it was too quiet. That’s why she surrounded herself with friends as much as she could and if she couldn’t, she would always be singing or humming to herself. Silence meant empty and Chloe worked hard so that her life was far from empty. So it could be full of love, kindness, friends, everything.
“I’m Chloe. Chloe Beale. I’ll be helping out with Luke.”
Beca side-eyed her and didn’t answer. She just looked her up and down and then she looked at the ceiling again. Chloe squirmed awkwardly on her seat.
“You’re Beca, right?”
“Yup,” the hockey player said. After a while, she looked at the tissue now drenched in blood and wiped a few times to make sure she wasn’t still bleeding. When she noticed she wasn’t, she walked over and disappeared in the bathroom attached to the locker room. Chloe hugged herself for warmth; it was warmer in the locker room but she had been next to the ice for a while and she was really cold.
A few minutes later, Beca came out with the dry blood all wiped from her face, except for the jersey where it had dried and stained. Chloe stood up.
“Do you want me to take a look at it?”
“No.”
“You don’t need anything else?”
“I need you to let me go back on the ice.”
Chloe’s mouth snapped shut and she tucked a strand of red hair behind her ear. “Right, sorry.”
Beca just looked at her shivering lips and said, “Next time bring a jacket, Red.”
She walked out the door, passing right by the ginger, without another word. Chloe ran her fingers through her hair and sighed.
“Well that went well.”
Instead of being annoyed at the hockey player, she found herself intrigued. She wanted to find out why Beca seemed so against starting a conversation with her and why the hell she would get injured so much that it was a running joke in the team? She went back to the ice rink and looked at Lilly who was skating in tight circles around Beca as the latter stood in the middle, the shaft of her hockey stick close to her chest. She was determined to become friends with Beca. Something was pulling her towards her.
“How did it go?” Luke said, pulling her out of her thoughts.
“Is she always like this?”
He laughed in response and the rest of the practice went by without anything else happening. She didn’t get to share more words with Beca because the girl was the first one out of the locker room since she didn’t talk much with anyone like the rest of the girls. Chloe was chatting with Jessica (or was it Ashley?) when she saw the number 47 leave without even saying bye to anyone.
On her way out, Luke caught up with her. He offered her a boyish smile. “How was your first day?”
“I really liked it,” Chloe said sincerely, because she did. She got along well with the girls and she could see herself having fun with them. “Beca’s something else, though.”
“Yeah,” he said in a chuckle. “She has her moments where she can be a really good motivator but other than that, she sucks at the talking thing.”
“She seems nice.”
“She does?” he asked, almost surprised. Chloe turned to him with a smile. She had a knack for reading people and Beca was definitely in her radar now.
“Yeah.”