#hw205

The following season hadn’t gone well, to say the least. She’d ended up with a ragtag group of women. They had taken forever to learn the routines, and the snarky brunette her co-captain Chloe had insisted on inviting questioned Aubrey at every turn. They’d bombed their first performance, forcing them to start a singing telegram business to pay their entry fee to regionals, and they’d barely made it to the semi-finals. At the semi-finals, Beca, the snarky brunette, improvised during the first song, messing everyone up. Aubrey had called her out, and the girl stormed off, quitting the group. They’d gotten third in that competition, just missing her chance to redeem herself at the finals.

However, Aubrey felt a glimmer of hope when the ICCA officials contacted her during Spring Break to let her know the winners had been disqualified, offering the Bellas a spot in the finals. Aubrey took this to mean their luck was turning around. The group had seemed so excited at that first practice back, but they’d all asked for Beca. Chloe confessed that she’d texted her, but she didn’t show up to practice.

After an hour of running the routine over and over again, the group was a disaster. Aubrey had lashed out at everyone, even her co-captain Chloe. The group had gotten into a huge shouting match, and Aubrey had ended up projectile vomiting all over the auditorium floor.

Chloe and Fat Amy (a girl who would never have been a Bella before this year) had been chasing her, trying to get the official pitch pipe when Beca walked in and called them out on the ridiculous behavior. She apologized for her improvisation, and Aubrey finally let her back into the group.

After some calmer discussion where the group shared some little-known facts about themselves, Aubrey finally stood up, took a deep breath, and asked, “Beca, what do we do?” She tossed her the pitch pipe.

Beca dropped it the second she’d caught it and screamed, “Oh my god!”

“What’s going on?” asked Chloe.

“Okay, guys, I guess I have something else to confess,” said Beca. “I’m a witch.”

“Witches are real?” asked Cynthia Rose.

“Yeah, but not like The Wizard of Oz. I’m a good witch, but you sure as shit won’t find me flying around in a bubble. And the bad ones aren’t green.”

“What does this have to do with the pitch pipe?” asked Aubrey.

“It’s cursed. By an evil witch,” said Beca. “It actually explains a lot.”

“Come again?” asked Aubrey.

“I come from a long line of good witches. My mom, my grandma, and my aunt are all witches. Every female along that line is a witch. We’re born that way.”

“So, can you fly?” asked Fat Amy.

Beca rolled her eyes before rising up in the air, doing a lap around the perimeter of the room, and landing back in her spot.

“I thought witches use brooms to fly,” said Chloe.

“Common misconception.”

“Can you turn someone into a frog?” Lilly asked quietly.

“Technically, I probably could. But it’s against coven rules to change the form of a living being.”

“So, what’s going on with the pitch pipe?” asked Aubrey.

“I can’t touch something that’s been cursed by an evil witch. It burns,” said Beca. She turned over her palm to reveal a circular shaped burn mark.

Chloe picked it up. “It’s not even hot.”

“Not to you. It’s my special gift. I can detect cursed objects. My mom can heal, and my grandma can see the future. My aunt moves objects with her mind.”

“I bet you have some fun parties,” said Fat Amy.

“So, now what?” asked Aubrey.

“First, let me clean this up,” said Beca. She stood over the puddle of vomit and waved her hand. The mess was gone in an instant. “Okay, I need someone to put the pitch pipe in a bag since I can’t touch it. I’ll take it over to my grandma and see what she can do. Aubrey, what can you tell me about this?”

Aubrey explained how Alice had left it on her doorstep. She’d been very stressed, but she’d simply assumed it was her intense desire for redemption.

“I can’t believe I didn’t think of this earlier,” said Beca. “You have all the classic signs. Alice wasn’t even very creative with this curse. My grandma should be able to lift the curse easily.”

“What do you mean?” asked Aubrey.

“It’s a pretty common curse. It takes every negative aspect of your personality and kicks it up tenfold. How long were you and Alice in the Bellas together?”

“Three years,” said Aubrey. “But she wasn’t the captain until my junior year.”

“So, she knew you’d be seeking redemption after Pukegate. The curse simply made it so you’d make yourself and everyone around you miserable until you achieved your goal. You are probably already feeling a little better having handed the pitch pipe over to me. You only need to be the owner of the object for the curse to work.”

“Then, why was I willing to hand it over to you?”

“I guess your will was even stronger than the curse. I’m impressed,” said Beca. “Okay, before I snap over to my grandma’s, I need to ask everyone to please keep the fact that I’m a witch to yourselves. Otherwise, I need to do a memory spell, and those are a bitch to get right. I might end up erasing something important. I’m not too great at them.”

The group agreed, and Beca snapped her fingers and disappeared.

“I guess when she said snap, she meant it,” said Cynthia Rose.

“Why didn’t she tell us she can teleport?” asked Stacie.

“I don’t know, but I’m glad we know what was going on,” said Chloe. “I’ve been worried about you all year, Aubrey.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I was afraid you’d bite my head off,” said Chloe.

Beca reappeared a few minutes later with the pitch pipe in hand. “Grandma cleared the curse. It’s as good as new. Did you want it back, Aubrey?”

“No, I think you earned it,” said Aubrey.