| When Words Fail | Jesse Swanson x Reader

Solo [9]

Claire sung her best as the group's practicing came to an end, and she breathed heavily as Aubrey broke away from the group in a huff.

  "I should have taken that cardio tip more seriously." Amy panted as she dropped her arms to her side. A few girls, including Claire, looked over at her with a knowing look.

  "How much have you done?" Aubrey asked as she returned to the group.

  "You just saw it." Amy responded as if Aubrey had asked a stupid question. Aubrey ignored Amy as she turned to Chloe, who stood in the middle of the slowly dispersing circle of girls.

  "Chloe, you've gotta be able to hit that last note." She told her as she unscrewed the cap from her water bottle and took a sip.

  "I can't! It's impossible, it's because of my nodes!" Chloe responded frantically. The girls echoed her with bored tones of voices.

  "Well," Aubrey shrugged as she walked forwards, "If you can't do it then someone else needs to solo." Aubrey took another drink of her water bottle.

  "I think Beca should take my solo." Chloe smiled as she motioned towards Beca. Claire smiled, looking at a slightly confused Beca.

  "Yeah, Beca would be excellent. But, also, some else might be equally as excellent. And, they might be shy and not wanna come forward and say they wanted a solo." Amy told the girls through gritted teeth. Claire looked back to Aubrey as she crossed her arms over her chest.

  "Well, Beca doesn't want to solo, so..." Aubrey trailed off with a shrug.

  "I would be happy to do it as long as I got to pick a new song and do an arrangement." Beca shrugged, glancing back at Claire. She gave her a reassuring smile. Claire had to admit, she was tired of the old timey song Aubrey was having them learn, too. She knew just as well as Beca that they wouldn't win with it.

  "Well, that's not how we run things here." Aubrey smiled with a glare in her eyes. She turned back to the piano and began flipping through a stack of papers.

  "Aubrey, maybe Beca has a point, maybe we could-" Claire started to persuade her as she stepped forward, but Aubrey cut her off.

  "A Ca-scuse me?" Aubrey asked with an offended tone. Chloe and Beca both looked back at Claire with a sympathetic looks. "You can song Turn The Beat Around, and that's the last I want to hear of this." Aubrey nodded with the same smile, but everyone could see the anger in her eyes.

  "That song is tired, we're not going to win with it. If we pull samples from different genres and layer them together, we could-" Beca started to object, but Aubrey cut her off as well as she turned back to her. She still wore the fake smile and hate filled eyes.

  "Okay, let me explain something to you because you still don't seem to get it. Our goal is to get back to the finals, and these songs will get us there. So excuse me if I don't take advice from some alt girl with her madlib beats because she's never even been in a competition." Aubrey smiled wider. "Have I made myself clear?" She asked, losing her smile as she looked down at Beca. Claire's jaw locked as her gaze reached Beca. She didn't like that Aubrey was talking to her friend as if she was a child.

  "Crystal. I won't solo." Beca smiled as she backed up.

  "Fine. Fat Amy?" Aubrey asked as she returned to Claire's side. Claire rubbed Beca's back as Amy responded, and they both turned to leave the group as they heard Fat Amy clapped her hands together with joy.