Chapter Text
Reggie never knew what to do whenever Conelly approached her. For her it was just another day in the art room at Bethune Middle, working on one of her sets for her figures. Over time, Reggie had gotten better and better at the creation of her sets, even if they were just for her. A few times, Conelly would walk by and simply watch Reggie at work and would smile. That would be enough to send Reggie into a blushing mess. Why was she always like this around her?
Today was one of those days, as Reggie sat alone after school simply building her newest set. Stop-motion… That was something that made its way into Reggie’s head a lot of the time, ever since Conelly brought it up during one of their first conversations. Of course, every conversation’s end led to Reggie escaping back to Endless Island to beat up some trees or something else. Her feelings always came out in beating things up. She hadn’t even told anyone how she felt about Conelly, and why would she? They would probably think she’s weird or something.
“Hey Regina.” A cool voice came from behind Reggie. The Endless Islander immediately perked up, and began sweating, at the beck and call of Conelly.
“H... HI CONELLY!” Reggie managed to yell pretty loudly, before calming herself down and laughing nervously. “Haha, sorry… I didn’t know you… you’d be there.” Reggie laughed again, as Conelly looked past her.
“Oh wow, Regina, this is the best set you’ve done yet!” Conelly complimented, walking around Reggie and looking at the table. Reggie blushed hard at the compliment, and really wanted to hide her face in the dirt like an ostrich and escape from her own internal embarrassment.
“THANKS. I mean, t…thanks! I’ve been, uhm, working hard on this one for a while!” Reggie said, trying to keep herself calm and cool, which was never quite easy when Conelly was around.
“That’s cool. Always awesome to see you keep making these sets. They just keep getting better.” Conelly said, lifting up one of Reggie’s figures for a moment and smiling. “And it all works well together with the figures you put them with! You could totally make a stop-motion with this kind of set-up.”
“I… I don’t know if I’d be good at any of that stuff, haha.” Reggie laughed again as Conelly sat down next to her.
“Well, Regina, I could definitely help you out! I got a good camera for that kinda stuff!” Conelly said, smiling again to Reggie. Reggie looked down a bit, trying to hide her face. Conelly was always so nice to her, but Reggie always fled when it mattered. Steeling herself, Reggie decided she wouldn’t do that this time.
“H… how would you do that?” Reggie looked up a bit.
“Well I finally got, after like a year of protesting, this school to let me start my own movie club! It’s really great because we can use the school’s cameras and stuff!” Conelly said, getting excited herself. “I’ve been thinking of all these great ideas that Shaun, CJ, and I could do! But the more that I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve wanted to do something different from what I usually do.”
“Different?”
“Yeah! That stop-motion idea has stuck with me since I first mentioned it to you! There’s so much more we can do using stop-motion compared to what we usually do! But think about it, we could definitely make some clay models or something to go with your sets and then Shaun and CJ could voice them and…” Conelly went on and on about the great ideas she had, and Reggie couldn’t help but sit there and listen to her ideas. Rarely did Reggie have good experiences off of Endless Island, but sitting here with Reggie made her feel just like she did on Endless! “Sure it’ll be a lot of work to make it, but if we all work together I’m sure it’ll come out great! So what do you say, Regina? Do you wanna join my club?”
“YEAH IT SOUNDS FUN!” Reggie coughed into her hand for a moment, before laughing a bit. Conelly laughed too. “I mean, y…yeah! It sounds fun.”
“Great! Our first meeting is tomorrow in the A/V Room! Right after school, I’ll be waiting!” Conelly got up from her seat and walked towards the door. “Be sure to bring your sets with you. I wanna see what we can work with! See you tomorrow, Regina.” She waved and walked out the door.
Reggie could only blush hard.
YOU IDIOT WHY DID YOU DO THAT, YOU’RE JUST GONNA MAKE AN IDIOT OUT OF YOURSELF! Reggie thought to herself. She needed to blow off steam. And she knew exactly the place to do so.
“Why do feelings gotta be so stupid!? Why do you gotta be so stupid?!” Reggie said, punching a tree as hard as she could. The hardy wood was shredded to pieces by Reggie’s super strength. She was definitely trying to get all her emotions out like she usually did. It never did well to keep all those feelings bottled up after all. A good punching session, though, did wonders for Reggie on the other hand.
“Woah dude, you’re really going at it today.” She heard a voice come from behind. Reggie turned around to see Todd and Esther, both must have just arrived on Endless. “I don’t think those poor trees really deserve it though.”
“Ugh, I’m just punching a few trees, guys! Getting that proper exercise and all that junk.” Reggie said, cracking her knuckles a bit, before turning her attention back to the trees and continuing to work out her embarrassment and other feelings.
“Come on, Reggie, if you’re not feeling the best, you know you can always talk to us!” Esther said, watching and wincing a bit as another tree made a gross cracking sound.
“Ughhhh.” Reggie groaned. “Why do feelings gotta…” She wound up her punch. “Be…” She threw her fist. “So complicated!?”
“Woah, I think that’s definitely a new record for how far you’ve hit a tree.” Todd said, whistling as he watched the tree fly into the skybox. “But dude, what kind of feelings are you talking about?”
Esther made some sort of noise, her eyes sparkling a bit.
“Ahhhhhhh! Reggie, do you have a crush on someone?!” Esther said, grabbing Reggie and pulling her near her.
“A crush? Oh, I totally don’t have one of those! NOPE! Not a single one! HAHAHAA!” Reggie’s tough girl attitude completely melted at the mere mention of a crush.
“Come on, Reggie, you definitely have the worst poker face.” Todd said, rolling his eyes a bit. “Is this why you’ve been doing your best to lower the local tree population?”
“Who is it? Come on, Reggie, this is super exciting! You only get your first crush once!” Esther let go, as she piled the questions onto Reggie, who just crouched over into the sand and began to draw in it with her finger. She mumbled a little bit, as Esther raised an eyebrow. “What was that Reggie?”
“Con…y.”
“Could you say that again, I don’t think I quite heard you.”
“I SAID CONELLY, AHHHHHHHHHHH!” She yelled into the sky, letting her voice echo through the air. She took a few deep breaths, calming herself down. “Oof, I needed that for sure.”
“Conelly? You mean that girl who’s always behind the school with her video camera?” Todd asked, cocking his head a bit.
Reggie blushed and looked down at the sand again.
“She invited me to her movie club today, and for some dumb reason I said yes.” Reggie admitted, going back to drawing in the sand.
“Oh, Reggie that’s so exciting!” Esther said, ever the romantic. Suddenly things made a whole lot more sense. Esther remembered the dance, and Reggie must have reacted badly to seeing Conelly there. No wonder she was acting so weird and selfish that night, it was how she dealt with her feelings. Even if it did not go well for Esther, it made sense. “You should totally go to the club work with those feelings!”
“Feelings are dumb, though…” Reggie complained into the sand. “I act like a total doofus around her, and I don’t… I don’t want to be dumb around her.”
Todd smiled and helped Reggie to her feet.
“Come on, dude, you got the two best friends to help you with this. If I can deal with my feelings like a total champ, I’m sure you can too!” Todd said, putting his arm around Reggie.
“Me too! I may not have Todd’s experience, but I can help too, you know if you want me to.” Esther said, coming close to Reggie too.
“Ughhhh, fine!” Reggie said in a complaining tone. Deep down though, she was incredibly appreciative of her friend’s efforts. Yeah, starting tomorrow she would be a whole new Reggie! Hopefully, she could even get a full sentence out to Conelly without dying internally.