Chapter Text
Regina’s offer to use the studio after closing meant that they were only able to rehearse at 9 pm most days. Cady doesn’t consider that this could be a potential issue until she goes to leave for their first practice, an oversight on her part.
“Mom! Janis and Damian are here to pick me up, so I’m going to head out.”
Betsy rounds the corner just as Cady is going to open the front door. “What? It’s a school night, where are you going this late?”
“Um. I have dance practice.” Cady fidgets with her sleeves. “It’s not even that late, mom.”
Betsy frowns. “Honey, I’m not so sure how I feel about this whole thing. I mean, why do you even need another extracurricular to your schedule?”
Cady bites at her lip, and for a moment she considers telling the truth. But then she meets her mom’s eyes, so earnest and worried, and she feels the words die on her tongue. “Mom, please? I just really want to do this. I’ve already done all my homework and studying for the day, and I’ll go straight to bed as soon as I get back.”
Betsy hesitates, studying her daughter for a long moment that has Cady’s heart racing, anxiety bubbling in her stomach. Finally, Betsy lets out a heavy sigh. “Okay, okay. But the moment this starts to affect your grades, you stop, alright?”
Cady grins. “Got it! Thanks, mom!” She presses a quick kiss to her mother’s cheek before rushing out the door and getting into Damian’s car, letting out a breath of relief the moment she’s inside.
Janis turns to look at her as Damian pulls away from the house. “What took you so long?”
“My mom isn’t crazy about the whole dance thing. Especially since our rehearsals are at night. She thinks it’ll pull my time away from school.”
“Yikes.”
“You haven’t told her about how the interview went?” Damian glances at her through the rear view mirror.
Cady huffs, leaning her head back into the headrest. “God, no. She’d be so disappointed in me for lying. Besides, it’s not even important at this point. All that matters is that we make it to state and I can show the admissions lady that I’m totally fun and interesting.”
“Cady, we’re not just gonna make it to state. The goal is to win. There’s gonna be a bunch of talent scouts and other admissions people there. Your future isn’t the only one dependent on how this competition goes,” Janis reminds her.
Cady lets out a slow breath. Right. This wasn’t just about her. She brought the team together, she had to see this all the way through. She refuses to ruin their chances for them. “Yeah. I know.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine. I mean, if we’re gonna have Regina George choreograph for us I’m sure this’ll be a piece of cake,” Damian offers.
“I don’t get why she won’t just help us with qualifiers from the start,” Janis grumbles, crossing her arms.
“Maybe if Cady asks really nicely and bats her eyelashes at her she would.” Damian tosses a teasing grin at her when they stop at a light, and Cady flushes.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” She insists forcefully, reaching forward to flick his ear. He chuckles, exchanging a look with Janis.
“Caddy, you stare at her like she’s one of your textbooks and you want to study everything about her. Are you even going to be able to focus at rehearsals if she’s around?”
“Yes!” Cady feels slightly offended by Janis’s question, and feels even more offended by the disbelieving hum she receives in return. They bicker for the rest of the car ride, Damian jumping in every now and then with remarks that just seem intended to further fluster Cady.
They arrive at the studio and find the rest of the team waiting. Quietly, Cady leads them around to the back entrance like Regina said, unsure if her boss has left yet. She peers carefully around the corner, just in time to see Regina conversing quietly with an older man as he makes his way in the opposite direction.
As soon as he’s gone, Regina turns and spots Cady poking her head out. An amused smile appears on her face as they lock eyes, and Cady can’t help but grin back at her. Regina tilts her head to gesture at the door, but Cady can hardly process it until Janis pushes past her.
Cady isn’t blind, okay? Regina’s objectively one of the most attractive people she’s ever seen. Everyone with a functioning optic nerve thinks that. It’s a perfectly valid reason to stare a little, and Regina doesn’t really seem to mind, judging by the way she’s currently smirking at Cady.
Damian is obviously trying to muffle his laughter, and Cady glares at him before following the others inside.
And so begins her new normal, where nearly every night she’s at the studio practicing. Janis and Damian, despite being the most experienced dancers in the group, don’t know much when it comes to choreographing for so many people. They only have a few weeks left until qualifiers, so they try to come up with a relatively simple routine to just get them through.
Gretchen and Karen pick it up rather quickly, and occasionally offer up their own input and ideas. Kevin works with Damian to pick out a song for them, and then easily learns the routine. Shane does his best, throwing himself fully into their rehearsals with an intensity that reminds Cady of the fact that he’s an athlete. He’s inexperienced, but he’s eager to learn, and he seems to naturally catch on to the movements. There’s not a thought behind his eyes while he dances, but somehow it works in a way Cady doesn’t think she’ll ever understand. Shane also decides to dedicate himself the title of “Official hype man”, since he wants to contribute, and it’s oddly endearing rather than obnoxious when he starts cheering loudly whenever someone is showing off on their own.
Cady, on the other hand, doesn’t feel like she’s getting better at all. She knows the steps, has them memorized from beginning to end, but she feels awfully off balance whenever she tries to replicate them. She practices them over and over, both during the group rehearsals and alone in the confines in her room, or sometimes at school with extra help from Janis and Damian. She runs through the entire routine in her head while in class, but it doesn’t help, and she can feel herself getting slightly frustrated over it. She doesn’t get it, she’s been putting in the work and studying and practicing, but she doesn’t see signs of improvement.
Furthermore, despite the rest of the team being able to learn their parts relatively easily, when they try and bring the entire thing together Cady can tell they aren’t in sync. It shows that the group has just formed, that they aren’t all completely comfortable together, because the way they move around each other is unfamiliar and tentative. She can tell Janis and Damian are concerned by the way they look at each after each run through, and feels anxiety gnawing at her stomach whenever she thinks about qualifiers, but she tries to just focus on getting better each rehearsal.
Regina’s around while they rehearse, but she doesn’t ever get involved, clearly holding true to her word about only helping if they make it past qualifiers. She lets them in and then locks up when they’re done, and that’s mostly the extent of her addressing the group. While they practice she tends to stay in the office upstairs, but on some days she sits nearby with a book or her phone. Cady catches her watching them on occasion, an unreadable expression on her face, and Cady desperately wants to know what she’s thinking.
Sometimes, Cady notices Regina’s eyes following her for extended periods of time, but whenever she looks back Regina glances away. It’s slightly distracting, especially when Cady gets so flustered she trips over her own feet and ends up on the floor, but she can’t really be that upset about it when she catches Regina ducking her head down to hide soft amused smiles. Cady swears she sees the other girl blushing, but she tries not to let it distract her. She can try and figure out whatever that’s about after qualifiers when she’ll be seeing more of Regina anyway.
+++++
On a particular Friday night, Cady ends up heading to the studio alone. The group didn’t have practice planned for today since everyone’s schedules didn’t line up, and Cady figured she should at least let Regina know so she doesn’t spend an hour waiting up on them.
The studio isn’t far from her house, and she’s familiar with the walk there by now, so she doesn’t bother trying to get Damian to drive her. She arrives later than she usually does and peers in through the front window to make sure Regina’s boss isn’t around.
She doesn’t see him, but her eyes immediately find Regina. She’s standing directly in front of the mirror, holding on to the bar in front of her with one hand. Her other hand is holding on to what Cady knows is her injured leg, carefully stretching out the muscles. Cady can see Regina’s eyes are closed through the reflection, the smallest crease between her brows. After a moment, she lifts her leg up onto the bar and leans forward, and Cady decides she should probably stop staring at her like a creep.
(There are voices in her head that sound distinctly like Janis and Damian calling her a stalker, but she chooses to ignore them.)
Cady finally pushes the front door open, and Regina immediately startles, her leg coming off of the bar.
“Hey,” Cady offers a smile, waving once Regina’s turned to look at her.
Regina blinks, tilting her head. “Hey. Just you today?”
“Yeah.” Cady nods and steps closer. “We couldn’t get everyone together for a practice today, so I just wanted to come tell you so you wouldn’t wait up for us.”
“Oh. Thanks. You didn’t have to do that, I probably would’ve just locked up after like fifteen minutes anyway. If you guys can’t be on time, that isn’t my problem.” The teasing smile on Regina’s face lessens the effects of her words, and Cady laughs lightly.
“So 15 minutes is where you draw the line, that’s good to know.”
Regina nods seriously. “Very generous of me, I’m aware.”
Cady shakes her head, ducking her head down to hide the ridiculous grin on her face. After a beat, she glances up again and tentatively says, “Sorry if I was interrupting something. Now that I’ve delivered my message I’ll probably head home again.”
Regina shakes her head, waving a hand dismissively. “It’s fine, I was just stretching. Have to get back into shape if I’m gonna be choreographing for you guys, right?”
Cady frowns, not really sure how to interpret the edge that seems to have crept into Regina’s voice. She watches as Regina turns to grab her bag, turning her back to Cady.
“You know, you don’t have to over exert yourself for us or anything. I appreciate you helping and all but last time -“ Regina cuts her off.
“Cady. I appreciate your concern, but I can look after myself just fine.” There’s a bite to her words now, her tone defensive, and when Regina turns back to look at Cady her jaw is clenched tight.
Cady must look mildly panicked (she really didn’t mean to strike a nerve) because when Regina meets her eyes she takes a slow breath and just barely softens. “Look, my knee was only being a bitch last time because I hadn’t been practicing or keeping up with the shit I was supposed to be doing. I’m starting to do my stretches again now so that in a few weeks when I start helping you guys I’ll be fine to dance again. But I’ve got it handled so you should focus on your own dancing.”
Cady nods immediately. “Right. Sorry. That’s really not my place.”
“No, it isn’t.” Cady winces at the iciness in Regina’s tone, her hands coming to nervously fidget with the bottom of her shirt. There’s a beat of tense silence, but eventually Regina runs a hand through her hair and asks, “How did you get here?”
“Oh, this place is like a 20 minute walk from my house.” Cady shrugs.
Regina raises an eyebrow. “It’s 9 pm.”
“Um. Yeah?” Cady tilts her head, confused. Regina immediately looks away, which makes her even more confused.
Regina clears her throat. “I mean it’s dark and you’re a woman. You shouldn’t be walking alone this late. Come on, I’ll drive you home.” She slings her bag over one shoulder, heading over to the switch to hit the lights. Her voice leaves no room for argument, so Cady follows when Regina starts walking towards the door.
“I used to play with lions as a kid, so my sense of danger is slightly skewed, I think.” Cady comments idly, because she really hadn’t considered that walking here might not have been a good idea. She certainly wasn’t going to bother anyone for a ride, and she wanted to see Regina, and that was enough cause for her to head out.
Her comment makes Regina pause, turning to stare at Cady. “What does that mean?”
Cady giggles at Regina’s bewildered expression. “I spent the first couple years of my life in Africa. My parents were researchers there.”
Regina nods slowly, processing this information as she turns to lock the door behind them. “And you were just…allowed to play with lions?”
“I probably wasn’t allowed but,” Cady shrugs, smiling innocently.
Regina chuckles under her breath, shaking her head slightly. “Okay, even if you were a feral child, I’m still driving you home.”
“Hey!” Cady protests before realizing she doesn’t really have an argument for that. Regina also seems to notice judging by the smirk that grows on her face as she looks at Cady with an eyebrow raised. Her expression makes Cady flush and she quickly looks away. “Whatever.”
Regina leads her over to a jeep parked behind the studio, and Cady tries not to stare so obviously as Regina gets in the driver's seat. Her eyes linger on Regina’s hands gripping the wheel for longer than she thinks is normal.
Cady inputs the directions to her house into Regina’s phone and tries to stop her knee from bouncing. Her mind is running over their previous conversation when she suddenly realizes the implications of what Regina said earlier.
“Wait,” She blurts, a grin starting to spread on her face. “You’re already planning on choreographing for us?”
“A deal’s a deal. I don’t go back on my word.” Regina glances at Cady, glaring lightly when she catches sight of the smug expression.
“Well, yeah but we haven’t made it past the qualifiers yet.”
“So what? I’m just preparing in case you do.”
“But you think we have a real shot. Otherwise you wouldn’t be preparing at all.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“It’s implied.”
“Shut the fuck up or I’m ditching you on the side of the road.”
“Considering I’m only here because you were all worried about me, I highly doubt that.”
“I wasn’t worried. I’m just aware of the fucked up reality we live in as women, something you apparently aren’t aware of.”
“Which implies you’re worried about me.”
“Cady. Shut the fuck up.”
Cady dissolves into giggles, laughing at Regina’s annoyed expression. Once Regina hears her, Cady catches the way she has to bite her lip to stifle a smile, and Cady feels something warm and affectionate spark in her chest as she stares at her.
She can’t help but be disappointed when they pull up to her house, wishing she lived farther from the studio. Cady looks at Regina, and she so desperately wants to ask for her phone number, telling herself it would make everything with their practices in the studio way easier. But wouldn’t Regina have offered it by now if she wanted to?
She realizes she’s been looking at Regina for too long and immediately loses her nerve. She reasons that this way she has an excuse to physically see Regina more often anyway. Maybe after qualifiers when Regina is their official choreographer she’ll work up the courage to ask, but for today she settles with a flustered grin. “Thanks for the ride.”
Regina nods, her voice hardening slightly in reprimand when she says, “Don’t walk around alone at late hours again, dumbass.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll see you next week?”
“Yeah.” Regina watches as Cady climbs out of the car, and Cady realizes that Regina’s waiting for her to get into the house before she leaves.
The action makes her grin stupidly wide, and since she has no poker face, she has to dodge her mom’s questions about what has her so happy. The smile doesn’t go away though, and Cady doesn’t regret a thing.
+++++
The weeks go by faster than Cady would like, because suddenly it’s already November and the competition is directly upon them. It’s their last rehearsal before qualifiers, and all that they’ve been doing is running the routine over and over. They definitely all have the steps down and can make it through without getting lost, but it’s not enough. They still don’t move like a coherent team, and Cady doesn’t know how they fix something like that.
Finally, after another run through, Janis comes up with another idea. “Hey, Kevin, can you play a different song? Something with a good beat. Let’s try and freestyle, maybe loosen up a little bit.”
Damian lights up. “Oh, definitely. I think we’re all worried about qualifiers and it shows in our dancing. Let’s just relax guys.”
Kevin plays a new song, and the group quickly forms into a circle with Janis in the middle. Janis’s dancing is familiar to Cady by now, but that doesn’t prevent the quiet awe she still feels watching as her best friend closes her eyes and lets herself go. Janis has always looked most like herself in moments like this, and Cady catches the exhilarated grin on her face as she moves in time with the beat.
The group comes to life as they cheer Janis on, all of them bouncing with the music and shouting words of encouragement. Janis reaches out and pulls Shane into the middle to replace her, and finds her own spot on the outside.
Shane looks momentarily lost, but he quickly starts dancing too, a goofy expression on his face as he makes sure there’s enough space before he does a backflip. Cady lets herself get lost in the excitement, briefly thinking about how this feels like the most fun they’ve had as a group since rehearsing started.
Shane pulls Gretchen into the middle after him, and she falls easily into step, laughing delightedly when Shane starts loudly chanting her name. His energy really is contagious, and Cady thinks he definitely deserves the title of hype man.
They keep going like that through the rest of the song, everyone taking turns in the middle of the circle and freestyling their own moves. She sees Regina leaning her head back against the wall a few feet away, watching them with her bottom lip pulled between her teeth. Cady’s brow furrows when she catches something almost sad flash across her face. She doesn’t have time to dwell on it because suddenly Damian pulls her in after him, since she’s the only one who hasn’t gone, and she has no idea what she’s supposed to do. There aren’t any steps she’s been taught for this, so she defaults to awkwardly stepping side to side, her shoulders tense.
The group continues cheering for her, but she can tell they’re waiting to see her do more. Cady swallows harshly, bringing her arms into the movement and wondering how long the appropriate time is for staying in the middle of a dance circle.
“Come on, Cads, feel free to get loose,” Damian tries to encourage. “You gotta just dance how you feel.”
“This is how I feel,” Cady calls out, her voice more defensive than she means it to be. There’s a pause, a tense moment of silence where the group is clearly unsure of what to do, and Cady feels her cheeks flush in embarrassment. The music gradually comes to an end, and she immediately stops her pathetic attempt at freestyling, her hands coming to fidget with the bottom of her shirt.
“Okay, uh, good rehearsal everybody.” Janis places a reassuring hand carefully on Cady’s arm, obviously sensing her anxiety. “Freestyling is about getting out of our heads, and that’s what we have to do at qualifiers this weekend.”
She feels Damian come to her other side, clapping her gently on the shoulder even as he addresses the group. “We’ll see everyone tomorrow and it’s gonna go great!”
Everyone returns the sentiment, starting to gather up their things. Cady finally glances up and catches Regina watching her, her head tilted curiously to the side. Surprisingly, there’s no judgment on her face, but Cady can only imagine how pathetic she must’ve looked in the eyes of a dancer like Regina.
She looks away with a sigh, heading over to gather up her own bag. Janis and Damian hover behind her, and she can practically feel their concerned looks even with her back turned.
“Caddy, don’t drive yourself insane over this. Seriously, we can work on the freestyle thing more after qualifiers, it’s gonna be fine.”
Cady tries to believe Janis’s words, taking a slow breath and swallowing harshly against the lump in her throat. “Yeah,” she croaks out, offering a shaky smile. “Totally.”
They don’t seem at all convinced, but Damian smiles at her all the same. “Come on. Let's get out of here. We all need a good night's rest so we can kill it tomorrow.”
Cady turns to follow them out, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach. She startles when a hand wraps around her forearm, and her eyes shoot up to find Regina standing next to her.
“Good luck tomorrow. I’m sure you guys will be fine.” Regina’s voice is low, her eyes boring into Cady. She offers a small smile, her hand warm against Cady’s skin, and Cady feels some of her anxiety ease. Janis and Damian pause a few steps away at the door, giving Cady a pointed look that Cady does her best to ignore.
“Thanks. I hope you’re ready to choreograph for us.” Cady grins, managing to exude way more confidence than she currently feels. She can’t help but be a little smug that in the end she did manage to get Regina to soften to the point where she even offered this deal to them.
Regina lets out a low chuckle, shaking her head. “Yeah, I guess I should be.” She reaches forward and grabs Cady’s phone from where it was poking out of her bag, holding it out so Cady will unlock it. Cady blinks, but does it without question, watching with wide eyes as Regina makes a new contact and puts her number in.
Regina hands her the phone back, smirking at Cady’s stunned silence. “Text me after qualifiers? To let me know how it goes? We could even meet up to talk about it, if you want.”
Cady tries not to let her jaw drop at Regina’s words, her fingers fumbling to put her phone away. “Okay!” It comes out sounding way more enthusiastic then she means it to, so she quickly clears her throat and looks away. “I-I mean, yeah, sure, I guess.”
That gets a genuine laugh out of Regina, and Cady stares in awe at the way her nose scrunches up, her breath catching at the noise.
“You should go. Your friends are waiting on you.”
Cady turns and sees Janis and Damian are just outside now, obviously pretending like they aren’t staring at her and Regina’s interaction. “Right. Okay. I’ll text you tomorrow.”
Regina nods, offers another small smile and repeats an uncharacteristically soft, “Good luck.”
Cady feels her chest warm and quickly turns away to join her friends before she says anything stupid to embarrass herself further.
+++++
The whole team is buzzing with energy as they wait to get called up. The qualifiers are a much smaller affair than state will be, with a space cleared out in the center of the room to perform in front of a panel of three judges. Only the teams in their region compete to make it through, and Cady has counted about a dozen so far, including the Lions from their own school who give them a dirty look as they walk by. This would be the first time their team, still temporarily named TBD, performs in front of an audience, and she can’t help but overthink every judgemental look thrown their way.
Cady tries her best to settle the nerves in her stomach. She’d been hoping to get early admission into Northwestern, but last night she received an email saying there wouldn’t be a decision on her application until the spring. Ms. Norbury even included a personal note at the end, saying “I can’t wait to see you dance at state!”. It definitely didn’t make Cady want to slam her head into a wall or anything.
They only need to make top 6 to qualify for state, something she repeats over and over as she follows Janis and Damian through a few warm up stretches. Gretchen hasn’t stopped bouncing since they walked in, and eventually Karen just pulls her in to dance around their small space, the two of them spinning in circles together. Cady’s eyes follow the two of them, slightly jealous at how easy they manage to move with each other. Shane looks like he’s running through a warm up that would be better fit for football, but Cady’s certainly not going to tell him to stop, especially since he’s gotten Kevin roped into it too.
She kind of desperately wants to text Regina, and hasn't been able to stop thinking about the new contact in her phone ever since Regina typed it in. She spent a totally normal amount of time just staring at her phone last night, thumb hovering over Regina’s name. Regina had included a pink heart emoji too, and Cady was trying very hard not to get hung up on what that meant.
She did refrain from messaging her (barely) because Regina said to text her after qualifiers, but Cady’s self aware enough to admit that that will probably be the first thing she does as soon as results come out.
Her attention is drawn by the next team that goes up to perform, and Cady feels a lump of panic steadily building in her throat as she watches them because they’re really good. At the very least, they are far more in sync than Cady feels when she dances with her team. She keeps a mental log of the scores the judges give each team, and she’d like to say they at least have a shot, but TBD is second to last on the lineup, which means she has plenty of time to overthink the entire thing. Normally Janis and Damian would notice and help calm her down, but they seem just as wound up judging by the way Janis is aggressively gnawing on the inside of her cheek and the way Damian is tapping a frantic rhythm against his own thigh.
Someone comes by to let them know they’ll be up in ten minutes, and the group quickly comes together in a huddle. There’s a pause as Cady looks at everyone, unsure of who exactly should be giving the pep talk right now considering they all seem equally anxious. Janis and Damian tended to lead rehearsals, but Shane was supposedly the hype man.
When everyone’s stare lands on her, she realizes with a start that she’s been dubbed the group leader, which if she thinks about it kind of makes sense, since she brought everyone together and has been organizing all their stuff recently. Still, it’s almost laughably ridiculous considering how awful she is at dancing. Regardless, now really isn’t the time to be bringing that up, so she swallows back her nerves and takes a shaky breath.
“Okay, I know we haven’t gotten to practice as much as some of the other teams, but that doesn’t matter. All of us have been working like crazy these past few weeks, we’re ready for this. Regardless of how this ends, I’m glad all of you took a chance on this team and I’ve genuinely had a lot of fun dancing alongside you guys. We’re not done yet, though, because we know the routine backwards and forwards, all that’s left now is to show the judges how talented each of you are so that we can go on to win at state, right?”
“Right!” Shane yells, his enthusiasm earning them a few looks from the nearby teams, but Cady finds she doesn’t really care at the moment. The others echo the sentiment, and somehow it seems like Cady’s little speech has eased some of their nerves, their previously worried expressions replaced with determined looks.
Cady’s glad she was able to have that effect on them, because personally, she’s a little concerned she’s about to have a panic attack in the middle of the dance floor.