Chapter Text
Cady swiped her hands nervously over her pants, taking a few steadying breaths to calm her anxiety as her mom pulled up in front of Northwestern University. She was about to attend her first admission interview, and she needed it to go perfectly.
This was what she had been working towards for the entirety of her high school career. Her resume was perfect, with a well calculated assortment of AP classes, student government, and she even volunteered at a local animal shelter. Anything to make her application fully rejection-proof, even if it meant sacrificing things like her sad excuse of a social life or the concept of free time. But it was all going to pay off, today, when she aced this interview and got accepted to her dream school.
Most people in her grade thought it was strange that she was so set on one specific school, but Northwestern was where her dad had gone, and where her parents met, so Cady had grown up going to football games and alumni events and hearing about the great love story of Chip and Betsy Heron, and it was near enough to Evanston that she could still visit her mom regularly. The school practically felt like home already. If home had a less than eight percent acceptance rate, that is.
She’s pulled out of her thoughts when her mom flips open the little notepad where they’d been drafting out all her interview answers. Cady takes another breath, steadying herself for one last run through.
“Okay. Strengths?” Betsy has a proud grin on her face, already confident in her daughter and knowing she has everything memorized.
“Intensity, intelligence, drive, compassion,” Cady recites easily.
“Weaknesses?”
“Single-mindedness. Which, if you think about it, can technically be a strength.”
Betsy nods, beaming at her and setting the notebook down. “You’re perfect. This is just the first step. And then, before you know it, you have a PhD and are continuing the long line of Dr. Herons.”
“Yeah, okay, I’m gonna focus now, mom.” Cady cuts her off, knowing her mom can ramble on these tangents and she really doesn’t want to be thinking about that right now.
“Right, of course.” Betsy leans for the stereo, slyly turning it on and letting music filter into the air.
“Mom. What are you doing?”
“I’m putting you in the zone. This is the song I listen to when I need to get pumped up.”
“Please don’t say pumped up.” Cady pauses, blinking as she realizes they usually don’t carry music to play in their old car. “Did you bring this just for this moment?”
“Absolutely.” Her mom starts dancing in her seat, and Cady flushes in embarrassment when she sees how many college students are passing by them.
“Mom. People can see us. People are watching.”
“Cause they’re jealous.” Betsy starts singing along, and Cady lets a startled laugh out. Her mom could be overbearing, but they’d been through a lot together, so Cady would put up with her being a little mortifying sometimes.
Still, she makes her way out of the car, unsure how much longer she can sit and watch her mom dance and wave her arms around the way she is. She idly thinks that Janis and Damian would love to be here to witness this. “Okay, I’m gonna go.”
“Good luck, love you! You’re gonna be great!”
Cady calls back a quick acknowledgement before straightening her blazer with a determined breath. This is what she’s been preparing for, she’s going to get into this college and she’s going to honor her dad’s legacy and it would make her mom happy and everything would be perfect.
+++++
“I’m first in my class. I am a national merit scholar, 4.0 GPA. I volunteer three times a week at a local animal shelter near my house. I am also student government treasurer and -”
Her interviewer wasn’t intimidating, with a small frame and thick glasses and kind smile, and had introduced herself at the start as Mrs. Norbury, so Cady is doing her best to stay relaxed and at ease because she always says things without thinking when she gets flustered and that is the last thing she needs right now. But Mrs Norbury cuts off Cady’s well rehearsed speech, and she tries not to immediately panic.
“Honey, I’ve received a dozen applicants with resumes that look just like yours.” Mrs Norbury admits. She leans forward, stares at Cady like she’s trying to pry into her brain and Cady resists the urge to shift. “I want to know more. What are you passionate about? What gets you out of bed in the morning?”
Cady stiffens. This wasn’t a question she had rehearsed with her mom. “Um. I listen to TED talks every morning.”
“That’s a little sad.”
Cady frowns. She likes TED talks.
“I’m looking for applicants that are change-makers, that are willing to take a little risk. Not someone who’s just filling the box, I want an applicant to blow the box up, you know what I mean?” Cady doesn’t. Mrs Norbury is a lot more eccentric than she was prepared for, and she’s not sure she really likes where this interview is going, but she nods anyway like she understands.
“Look,” Mrs Norbury continues, her voice softening just a touch. “I am just trying to figure out who you are, who you really are. What’s your passion?”
Cady just shrugs, feeling a bit lost, and admits, “Northwestern.”
It feels like the right answer, and it’s the true one, because she’s spent the past four years not caring about anything other than getting in to this university, but Mrs Norbury looks a little disappointed by it.
“Okay. This was great, thank you so much for coming in -” And Mrs Norbury’s voice has slipped back into that professional courtesy instead of her previous excitement at getting to know Cady, and Cady can feel her dream slipping away from her.
“No, wait, please.” She scrambles for something to say. “This is all I’ve ever wanted. My-my dad died when I was 12, and my mom’s been working two jobs just to support us, and I need this.” It gets Mrs Norbury to pause at least, and look back over her resume again with a sigh.
“Oh, you go to Northshore High! Haven’t some of the dancers from your school won the state competition a few times?”
She’s right, and Cady knows she’s right because Janis and Damian had been raving about it nonstop. Her best, and only, friends were both dancers, and had spent the past few months practicing like crazy so they could make their own team and make it to state.
A lightbulb goes off in Cady’s head, and before she can really think about it she’s saying, “Yes. I’ve been working on continuing that legacy this year.”
Mrs Norbury lights up. “You dance?” Cady nods slowly. “Why didn’t you say so, I definitely misread you Mrs Heron. I mean, dance, that takes emotion, power, grit! Here I thought you were all resumes and transcripts.” Cady tries to keep her expression carefully neutral, even as her heartbeat pounds in her ears. “You’re the most exciting applicant I’ve seen all week.”
She lets out a breath at that, feeling relief flood through her veins, ready to bid final goodbyes and get the hell out of this interview, but as they both stand Mrs Norbury says, “I’ll see you at the state competition, then!”
“You’re going?” Cady can’t fully conceal the tremble in her voice as her stomach sinks.
“Of course! I wouldn’t miss it!”
Shit.
+++++
Cady sits in the school library and drafts three different emails to Mrs Norbury, where she admits to lying and grovels for forgiveness, before she gives up. Her mom had asked dozens of questions about the interview, and Cady had given vague answers about it going well, but there’s been a lump in her throat ever since because she thinks she may have just blown her one chance at getting in to Northwestern.
Just then, she gets a text notification from her group chat with Damian and Janis.
Damian: Hey!! We still meeting for lunch today?
Janis: yeah, you’ve got to tell us all about how you impressed the lady at your interview with all your nerd shit
An idea grows in Cady’s head. Maybe, she’ll just make it so she didn’t lie in her interview. After all, her best friends were some of the most talented dancers she knows, and if there’s one thing Cady’s good at, it’s studying, and she had easy access to the perfect teachers. She quickly puts her stuff away and races to meet up with them.
She gets to their lunch table, slightly out of breath. “Hey! I need to ask you guys for something, and it’s gonna sound absurd at first, but I just need you to bear with me.”
“If you want me to help with your science project again, the answer is no. You electrocuted me last time,” Janis answers without looking up from her food.
“It was a very low voltage!” Cady defends immediately before shaking her head. “It’s not that. I need to learn how to dance so I can compete at state with you guys.”
Damian looks at her with an eyebrow raised before dissolving into chuckles. “That’s a good one, Cads.”
“No, I’m serious.”
“But…you don’t dance.”
“I don’t dance yet.”
“No, you don’t dance at all.” Janis blinks at her. “Remember that time we played Just Dance on Damian’s switch and you somehow managed to break the lamp that was across the room?”
“Look,” Cady cuts Janis off before she can bring up anymore embarrassing stories. She collapses onto the bench next to them, letting her head fall into her hands with a groan. “I really screwed up my interview with Northwestern, and I may have led to admissions lady to believe I’m a dancer.”
“What? Why would you do that?” Damian’s voice is mildly concerned now, and both him and Janis are giving her their full attention. They both know how important Northwestern is to her.
“I-I don’t know!” Cady’s gestures with her hands, frantic. “She kept talking about how she wanted to shake things up, and turns out I’m a boring robot with no personal context, and my entire life is basic. And Northwestern doesn’t want boring people, so I-I panicked, and said the first thing I could think of that wasn’t boring, and the admissions lady got all excited about it. So now I have to compete at the state competition or else she’ll know I was lying and then I won’t get into Northwestern and I’ll die on the streets alone.”
There’s a pause as they stare at her.
“Well, shit, Cady.” Janis finally breaks the silence.
“Of course we’ll help you.” Damian interjects, glaring at Janis until she’s rapidly nodding her head. “I mean, we need to find more people for our team anyways, so.”
“Yeah, yeah, we’ll just teach you. Not like the competition is only in a few months. And we were planning on finding actual dancers -” Janis jolts, winces like Damian has just kicked her under the table. “But it’s fine! I’m sure you’ll pick it up in no time.”
They grin at her, and Cady feels some of the crushing panic that’s been ever-present since the interview ease. “We’ll start tomorrow?”
Janis and Damian nod, and Cady thinks maybe they can actually pull this off.
+++++
Cady arrives to Janis’s house with her backpack slung over her shoulder, stepping into the backyard and immediately sitting at the patio table. “I’ve been doing some research.”
“Into…dance?” Janis asks cautiously.
Cady nods, eagerly pulling out her laptop. She didn’t sleep much last night, was instead studying dozens of videos and movies to try and prepare. “I’ve gathered up all the ingredients we need to make an award winning dance team. We need an incredible DJ for music, we need someone who can do backflips, because for some reason there’s always someone who does those in every good team, we need some diverse styles, and, most importantly, we need an amazing choreographer to bring it all together.” She scrolls back through her notes. “I’ve been looking at some of the previous competition winners, and there’s this girl, Regina George. She captained the winning team three years in a row. Maybe we could get her to choreograph for us.” She misses the bewildered look Janis and Damian exchange, but Damian chuckles lightly and it draws her attention.
“Yeah, Cady, honey, everyone knows who Regina George is. She was the best dancer in the state until she tore her ACL. Nobody’s seen or heard of her in like, two years. We’d have a better chance convincing Ariana Debose to choreograph for us.” He sighs when Cady gives him a blank look. “The point is that we don’t even know where she is right now.”
“I already found her. I checked her old instagram and went from there.”
Janis laughs. “So, you stalked her.”
Cady flushes. “Look, we want to win this, right? If we want to win, then we need the best, and from what I can tell, that’s Regina. We just have to convince her.”
She pulls up a video that she had found last night, playing it for Janis and Damian to see.
Regina’s magnetic. Cady had spent an embarrassingly long time going through every video she could find of her, telling herself it was for the sake of research. But Regina is gorgeous, with pretty blonde hair and piercing blue eyes and freckles dotted along her cheeks, and she moves so fluidly, like she was specially made just to be a dancer. Cady’s no expert, but even she can tell Regina’s a total prodigy. She dances circles around everyone around her in every competition, her expression perfectly aloof like she’s not even trying. She makes it look so natural, so easy, but Cady can’t look away from the way her body moves.
“So, basically, you want to convince this hot stranger, who you stalked, to choreograph for our currently nonexistent dance team,” Damian summarizes once the video ends.
“Yeah pretty much.”
“You know what, I respect your confidence.”
“Delusion might be more accurate,” Janis comments idly. “Come on, enough about other people, let’s get your ass into shape.”
Cady takes a breath and nods. She prepared for this, right? And with teachers like Janis and Damian, she should be dancing like a pro in no time.
+++++
Oh how wrong she was. Her first lesson did not go well. She spent hours with them, just trying to get the basics down, but she kept tripping over her own feet or forgetting what move was next, and she could tell Damian and Janis were slightly concerned, judging by the looks they kept exchanging.
Cady just didn’t think her limbs were built for dancing. She felt so awkward and uncoordinated the entire time, and was sure it showed, but she was trying not to be discouraged. They had time, and she would approach this just like any big exam - by studying non stop until it clicked. Besides, her lack of dance ability wasn’t their only concern, which is what brought her to a small studio located on the edge of town.
She wouldn’t call it stalking, despite what Janis and Damian kept insisting, but it did take a fair amount of detective work to track down where Regina ended up after her graduation last year. Janis wasn’t kidding when she said no one had heard from her in two years, because after winning state during her junior year, it seemed like Regina dropped off the face of the planet.
But, when Cady peers through the window into the large open studio area inside the building, she immediately spots her.
Regina’s watching over a class of kids as they run through a routine, and Cady feels her breath catch in her throat at seeing her in person. She’s just as beautiful as she was in all the videos, wearing a pair of black leggings and a cropped shirt that revealed a glimpse of her toned midriff. Her blonde hair was tied back in a high ponytail, a few strands framing her face.
She flinches when Regina glances away from the kids and makes direct eye contact with Cady through the window. Her blue eyes narrow slightly, brow furrowing, and Cady immediately ducks down and back out of sight, heat rushing into her cheeks. Oh god, now she really did look like a stalker.
She takes a few steadying breaths, willing herself to calm down and be normal so that she could make a better first impression and successfully convince Regina to help. She’s prepared a solid list of reasons, and she runs through them in her head while she waits.
As soon as it looks like the class is done and the children start exiting the building, Cady straightens and heads inside, letting the door fall shut behind her.
Regina’s standing at the top of a set of stairs that overlook the studio. Cady swallows nervously, willing her voice not to shake when she asks, “Are you Regina George?”
Regina turns, her head tilting to the side as she looks at Cady. “Depends on who’s asking.”
Cady tries not to shiver at hearing her voice for the first time.
“I’m Cady. Um, Cady Heron.” Regina begins making her way down, not bothering to look up at Cady as she talks. “I’m starting a dance team at Northshore High.”
She’s barely gotten the words out before Regina’s immediately saying, “I’m not interested.” She waves a dismissive hand and strolls casually past Cady, heading over to a set of cubbies along the wall and reaching for a bag. Cady pretends like the way Regina grabs a towel and wipes at her brow isn’t incredibly distracting.
“We would like you to be our choreographer for the following reasons:” Cady tries to stick to her script. She was prepared for this, and she was determined to at least get through her entire pitch, regardless of how much Regina tried to brush her off. “One, according to my research of every dance movie ever made, we have a very important ingredient for winning - a can do spirit.”
Regina interrupts her again with a throaty laugh, shaking her head slightly as she turns. “That’s not how dance works.”
“Well, that’s why we would need you.” Cady steps closer, even as Regina swings a backpack over her shoulder.
Regina just hums. “No, I’m good.”
“Okay, reason number two.” Cady hesitates, but Regina is already moving to walk past her towards the door, so she continues. “This is a chance for you to overcome your demons, due to your, uh, knee injury, right?”
Regina pauses, and Cady sees her hands tighten around the strap of her backpack. She turns to look at her, really look at her for the first time in the entire conversation, and Cady does her best to hold her gaze.
Regina leans in slightly, and Cady freezes. Regina’s expression is closed off, even as her eyes dart over Cady’s face. “Don’t come back here.” There’s a coldness to her voice now, a subtle warning that wasn’t there before. She lingers for a moment longer before heading for the back door.
Cady lets out a breath, frustrated. “Okay fine. We’ll just win the state competition without you then.” She bites back a grin when it gets Regina to hesitate. She presses further, keeping her tone casual and starting to make her own exit. “And I’m sure you won’t go insane, you know, being slowly eaten up by all that unrealized potential.”
“Wait, hold up.” Cady stops, smothering a smile before she turns to look at Regina again. Got you.
Regina bites her lip, eyes narrowing at her. “Can do spirit?” She repeats Cady’s earlier words, waiting for her to nod before continuing. “What about skill?” She crosses her arms.
“Oh, we’re extremely skilled.”
Regina lets out another low chuckle, an amused smirk playing at her lips. “I can spot a fake anywhere.”
Cady shrugs and forces herself to remain nonchalant. “Well then you must know that I’m the real deal.” She tries to straighten her shoulders and ooze that easy confidence that Janis and Damian always seem to carry with them.
Regina just raises an eyebrow, eyes flicking up and down her form before she shakes her head. “God, look at you. The way you carry yourself, your posture, you are one hundred percent not a dancer.”
Cady isn’t fazed.“I still have time to learn.”
“Why would you want to enter a dance competition when you don’t know how to dance?”
“Fair question.” Cady sighs, figures she could at least be honest about this. “I may have lied to the Northwestern admissions officer, which means now I have to put my money where my mouth is.”
“Give up.” Regina’s rebuttal comes immediately and she shrugs. “Go to community college, I can’t help you with this.”
Cady juts her chin out and shakes her head. “That’s not an option. I don’t give up.” She lets out a disappointed sigh and heads for the door. She can feel Regina watching her the entire time, but she refuses to look back.
The Regina she talked to in there was not the same girl Cady had seen in all the videos, and Cady needs time to reconsider her approach. Regina seemed to have no interest in getting involved at all, and Cady’s a little put off by how quickly she told her to give up. There’s no way Regina was as successful as she was with an attitude like that, Cady just had to find a way to bring the prodigal dancer part of her back. She doesn’t even consider trying to find another choreographer - she wants Regina, and Cady Heron does whatever it takes to make her goals happen.