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While Cady does not completely understand what attracts Regina to sports, she knows exactly what attracts her to sports (Regina). Somehow, she didn’t know that Regina was an athlete. When she was coerced into tutoring Regina in stats in their freshman year (because let it be known that she had absolutely no choice), Cady never thought about the athletics department. She worried about her physics assignments, multivariable calculus, reading texts and writing essays about philosophy, and remembering dates and names for her history class. As a first quarter freshman, Cady had the time to think about athletics, but she never did. But now, fall quarter of senior year, she spends most of her free time—of which she doesn’t have much—at Salmon Stadium (also known as Fish Field by the students).
Having a research position at school over the summer means that she’s spending the summer in San Jose instead of going home and seeing her dad, who is somehow always busy during any important functions, but he promised to be there for her graduation and June’s been blocked off in his calendar since Cady committed to SBU (she hopes that he can make it to her senior research presentation, but she knows that wildlife research doesn’t stop for his daughter). It also means that Cady is alone in the house that she’s sharing with Damian, Janis, and two of Janis’s art friends, but Regina effectively lives at Blues Clues since the soccer house is usually full.
The door slams behind Regina as she lets herself in after practice, reverberating through the empty house and into the backyard where Cady’s in one of the wood lawn chairs that she built and painted with Janis right after they moved into Blues Clues last year. Regina plucks the book out of Cady’s hands and plants herself in Cady’s lap.
“Hi there.”
“You’re all sweaty.”
“Yeah, I know I’m gross, you don’t have to tell me. I’m gonna take a shower and if you’re bored of your book,” Regina trails off, winking at Cady and swinging her leg off her lap, sauntering back into the house.
Without a second thought, Cady peels herself off the chair, the lacquered wood sticking to the back of her thighs in the San Jose heat, following her girlfriend into the thankfully empty house.
<>
The first time Cady’s at Fish Field is for Regina’s first exhibition game of the season. SBU is playing the CU Buffs at home and Cady’s never been more excited to watch soccer in her life. She’s still not exactly sure what the offside rule is, even though Regina’s forced her to watch so much soccer and even explained it using salt and pepper shakers in a diner once, as any good soccer dad did to his kid the first time they learn that rule. Cady’s only watched games from the NWSL, the WSL, Lige F, the Frauen Bundesliga, and UEFA Women’s Champions League, but she has no idea what it means to be offside.
She’s sitting at the half line on the home side bleachers, one of very few people in the stadium, the hot, August sun beating down on her, the baseball cap not doing much to provide shade. She feels a little stupid with zinc smeared across her cheeks (Regina insisted that she use zinc on top of her sunscreen, and who is Cady to defy Regina?) and her hair in braids with some ribbons because Regina wanted to do it before she went to do her pregame routine. She puts her feet up on the seat back in front of her, a book open in her lap and sunglasses nestled under the brim of her hat, continuing to read the book that Regina delightfully interrupted while she waits for the team introductions.
Even though it’s just an exhibition game and so few spectators have shown up for the 1 PM game, instead choosing to not sit under the beating sun to watch college girls play soccer. The starting XIs walk out into the middle of the pitch, and Cady jams her bookmark into her novel, watching Regina carefully. As much as Regina wants to get a haircut—she’s mentioned it so many times—her hair is still long and pulled into a ponytail, the waves bouncing as she strides towards centrefield. The spectators are mostly family, so Cady talks with Regina’s roommate’s parents and cheers for each announced player.
When the announcer declares “Number nine, Regina George,” she points at Cady and makes a heart with her hands, as Cady captures it all on video (she’s decided to make something cute to commemorate Regina’s senior season). Not many of the Buffs have family at the game, though a pair of people cheer for their goalkeeper.
The Seals do a cheer and Regina does a quick sprint, a couple shuffles, and takes her position at centre field. As always, she does three jumps in quick succession: one drawing her knees all the way up to her chest, the second where her thighs are parallel to the ground, and the third just straight up, her legs straight. She shakes out her arms and wiggle her fingers, though that motion is nearly imperceptible to Cady and she only knows that Regina does it from all the times she’s watched Regina play, and then shakes out her legs, her left before her right, as always. Facing her team with the ball in front of her, Regina and Cady wait for the ref to blow his whistle to start the game.
Regina takes a moment after the whistle, and plays the ball back to her centre midfielder. Although Cady has no clue how the offside rule works, she’s developed a deep knowledge of how soccer works. SBU keeps possession as the Buffs apply a high press (Cady’s pretty sure that it’s called a high press), quickly breaking the first line of pressure and finding the midfielders with plenty of space. Someone takes out Leila, the centre defensive mid, from behind, and the Seals are awarded a free kick.
Jasper, one of the centre backs, plays the dead ball fast, putting their hand on the ball and distributing the ball to the far side. Cady leans forward in her seat, both feet on the bleachers below her, elbows on her knees, and her chin in her hands. The Buffs are playing quite aggressively, applying a lot of pressure and committing aggressive tackles that sometimes border on dangerous. If Cady didn’t respect the ref because they have an important role in officiating the game, she’d be yelling at him. Jessie is on the receiving end of a nasty tackle that the ref doesn’t call, and Colorado gains possession of the ball. One of the SBU dads stands up from his seat, probably Jessie’s but Cady isn’t sure, yelling at the ref that that should be a penalty.
Colorado gets a shot off, but the shot is high and Hauser doesn’t even have to move. Hauser takes the goal kick quickly, playing the ball short to Nat on the near side of the pitch. Colorado’s high press means that SBU isn’t playing the very possession based game that they’re known for, instead playing the ball over the top, completely skipping the midfield distribution. Sydney, Ellie, and Regina start getting the ball more, and Dani sits higher than she usually does. With the four of them sitting higher, SBU has an overload against Colorado’s three-back line up.
Under an immense amount of pressure, Alexys plays a long ball to Ellie up the pitch, who carries it until she’s met by the defence. She lays it off to Regina, who plays a bounce pass into space, allowing Ellie to continue her run when the defender shifts her focus to Regina. At the corner of the 18 yard box, Ellie cuts in, only to be met with a defender and the one she beat at her heels. Ellie backheels a drop pass to Regina, who one-times it to the top of the box where Dani is making her run, who accepts the ball on her far foot and uses the other to distribute it all the way across the box to Sydney. With Regina crashing the back post, Sydney fires off a shot that skims across the grass that the goalkeeper gets her finger tips to, knocking it right into Regina’s foot and then into the goal.
Regina whirls around, pointing at Cady in the stands as her teammates jump on her back. Cady knocks her hat off, jumping up when Regina scores. The Buffs get the ball on the restart, and the Seals apply light pressure, nowhere near as high as the Buffs on defence. Cady’s eyes follow Regina, not the ball, as she slowly follows the ball at the half line, keeping herself in space between defenders so she can either receive the ball at her feet or make a run up the pitch to chase down a long ball. Matched up against the centre back, Regina keeps moving around, forcing her opponent to track her. Her constant movement is starting to visibly frustrate the defender, and with two arms on Regina’s back, the ball nowhere near them, she shoves Regina hard. Now, Regina is no Neymar so she doesn’t fall, but she turns toward the defender, glares a glare that Cady has felt before.
(“Tes yeux, j’en rêve jour et nuit. Je crois que je t’appartiens corps et âme, mais je ne suis pas certaine.”
“J'aurais aimé que les choses soient autrement, mais je ne t’aime pas en retour.”
“I never said I love you.”
“Well, uh—”
“Get your head out of your ass; it is not a hat, Heron.”)
Baxter takes a quick throw in, finding Leila in space, who immediately drops it back to Baxter. Relieving pressure, Baxter plays a long ball to Ellie, who’s dropped back from the half line and rid herself of her defender. A play right off the practice pitch, Ellie and Regina play a quick 1-2 and Ellie carries the ball up the wing while Regina, Sydney, and Dani crash the goal. Ellie plays a cross in the air, and the ball connects with Dani’s head as she snaps the ball back towards the near post, where it rustles the net satisfyingly.
Cady knows that Regina requires attention to live. She’s a striker for a reason (that being she is a finisher and the more goals she scores, the more attention she gets). Watching Regina gladly share the spotlight, on Dani’s back and vaguely screaming, Cady knows that she’s in love with the woman. Regina said that she wanted to break records in her senior season, but she’s been learning to be a better teammate in these past four years, so she’ll let Dani score.
At halftime, the Seals are up two-nil, and Cady takes the time to reapply sunscreen. She cracks open her book again for the 15 minute intermission, her feet once again propped up on the seat in front of her. Cady sometimes understands what draws Regina to sports. Sitting in the San Jose sun, a slight breeze ruffling the pages of her book, a ball cap over two French plaits, wearing a pair of her own sunglasses (instead of the pair that Regina wanted her to wear that made her look a little bit like a bug), and only feeling like she’s cooking a little in her linen shorts and crop top.
The second half goes much too similar to the first. The Seals are under a lot of pressure as they play their very possession based game, but they break the line by going over the top, finding one of their three forwards or Dani in the 10 role. Regina bags another goal on a breakaway, Jessie having played the ball between Colorado’s 10 and centre back, leaving plenty of space for Regina to run onto it. The Buff’s keeper comes out of the box, trying to cut down on the angle, apply pressure, and maybe commit a safe tackle that would give her defence time to get back. Instead, Regina calmly executes a simple body feint and easily passes the ball into the back of the net. Once again, Regina points at Cady, the grin obvious on her face from across the stadium.
SBU wins 3-0, and Cady is grateful to get out of the sun. Regina stands on the bench against the stands and pulls Cady into a hug, nearly hauling her over the railing.
“I need a shower,” Regina says in Cady’s ear.
“Yeah? Me too. D’you know how long it’ll take you to wrap up or can I drive back home?”
“Wait around for me, baby? I’ll make it worth the wait.”
<>
When fall quarter starts, Cady’s time is mostly taken up by lab work, a couple seminars, and her grad school applications. Regina’s busy with her classes, mostly for her business and marketing double minor, training now that the regular season has started, and browsing broker’s opens around the Bay Area for her dad.
Regina still sleeps at Blues Clues, though Cady is occasionally at the LSBU station. She really hopes that her girlfriend is asleep instead of listening to her 2 AM show.
“Good morning, I suppose, Alpha Rat Pack, though it’s hardly morning. It’s week three and hopefully you’ve dropped the classes that suck. Word of wisdom to any freshmen that are up and listening to my personal hell: just drop the class. Granted, I did not learn this, seeing as I have a seminar that I hate, but I can’t drop this because this is the only quarter it’s offered and I have to take it to graduate. Either way, I have an underground rock playlist prepared for you today, all with relatively low monthly listeners on Spotify. Though, I might’ve kicked up the number of streams with how much listening I did over the summer. I’m Quark, I hope you enjoy the show. And Reggie, you better be asleep.”
Cady spends her two hour show working on the write up for the most recent trials of Dr. Bjazevich's laser lab. She’s writing about the failure of the laser cooling system and listening to 19 Miles Per Hour, remembering how much she loves LSBU and DJing, even though this hobby probably won’t continue after college. Maybe she really just likes having a quiet place to work and listen to whatever music she’s in the mood for.
Cady’s sleep schedule has always been a mess. But now instead of being awake from 1 -11 AM, Cady has time to go back to Blues Clues and sleep in the same bed as her girlfriend for a couple hours before Regina has to get to an early practice or weights. Now, her shifts in the lab are in the midmorning and her seminars are in the afternoon, absolutely killing her usual tactic of getting all of her classes done in the morning so she can work and do assignments in the afternoon.
Regina has a string of away games, and even though it’s not like she’s out of the city for long stretches of time, Blues Clues feels emptier than usual, even though Damian, Janis, and their two other roommates are still in the house. Blues Clues isn’t exactly a house that the school owns (it’s Janis’s aunt’s and she rents it to college students because it’s so close to campus, so Damian and his attempt at YouTube fame live in the house. One of their housemates, AJ, asks to throw a social for the sculpting club that she’s president of, and Damian, Janis, and Gabby are on board. Cady isn’t a big party person, having learned this many times over at Regina’s soccer parties, but she doesn’t want to bring down the mood, so she tells them that she’ll be out of the house that evening.
Regina’s in Malibu, playing against Pepperdine in the afternoon. At 8 AM, Cady fills her water bottle, grabs her container of trail mix and an apple, stuffs her wallet, keys, chapstick, and pocket knife into her tote bag, and drops herself into Regina’s red convertible Ford Mustang to drive the nearly five and a half hours (five, if Cady can speed down the 101 and not get caught), to Pepperdine, just in time for Regina’s 2 PM game. And hopefully, after she gets dinner in Malibu and drives back north to San Jose, the art kids will be out of the house (or at least most of them will be). If not, she’ll sleep at Caution Tape with Regina instead of at Blues Clues.
Cady pulls up one of her playlists that she prepared over the summer for Alpha Rat Pack, the beachy sort of vibes getting her through this drive. She’s going 73 down the 101, the top down and wind whipping through her ponytail, not thinking about any of the work that technically she should be doing instead of impulsively driving to Malibu. Even though Regina has her location, Cady hopes that she surprises her girlfriend.
She arrives in Malibu with an hour to spare, stopping by an In-n-Out to get a cheeseburger and refill her water bottle. Sitting in a sea of orange, Cady gazes out at the ocean before focusing on Regina. She’s hoping that her red SBU hat will be distinguishable enough for Regina to pick her out of the crowd, but she is also prepared to scream.
The stadium announcer starts reading out the names, the crowd of orange-clad people cheering for each Pepperdine player. Each SBU player gets gentle clapping and Cady’s shout of “let’s go [insert name here]” for every one of Regina’s friends. She can tell that Regina already knows that she’s in attendance, so when Regina’s name is called, Cady cheers loudly as Regina points and makes a heart with her hands (Cady is careful to record it without jostling her phone too much).
The breeze from the ocean makes the afternoon a great time to watch soccer, even if sweat from the heat is making Cady’s t-shirt stick to her back uncomfortably. She sits forward, elbows on her knees as always, and watching Regina with a critical eye. She looks unfairly good, her baby hairs fluttering in the breeze and her ponytail swinging as she does her customary three jumps (knees to her chest, thighs parallel to the ground, and legs straight). As per usual, her shorts are rolled short enough that her jersey, which is a little long, is halfway to making it look like she’s not wearing shorts at all, and her socks are pulled over her knees. She shakes out each limb, wiggling her fingers as well.
Pepperdine has kick off, so when the ref blows the whistle and they play the ball, Regina jumps into action. She’s quick to apply pressure on the midfielder with the ball, but she doesn’t force a turnover. Pepperdine is good. They won the WCC last season and Cady only knows this because of Regina, who agonised over the last games of the regular season, desperate to know if the Seals get an automatic qualifier into the NCAA tournament.
Cady’s on the edge of her seat for the entire game. Pepperdine goes up on a corner, the player crashing the back post, rising above Alexys to get the header off and past Hauser’s hands. Halftime comes quickly after, and Cady knows that Regina’s frustrated with herself, even though the Seals are playing well. SBU hasn’t had many shots, and Cady knows that Regina thinks that she should be doing better. She’s always been hard on herself, harder than her dad ever has been when it comes to the family business, even. Cady gets up to fill her water bottle again (she should get a better water bottle and not this silly kiddy bottle with the silicone straw that she sometimes chews on when she has nothing better to do or a stick of gum).
When the second half starts, there’s a completely different energy on the field. Regina plays the ball back to Jessie when the ref blows the whistle. The Seals play with a higher tempo, the ball quicker on the grass. They still play with their same style, trying to find a spot to break the first defensive line and get the ball to the forwards. Regina fires off a shot when Sydney plays the ball back to the top of the box from where she’s dribbled to, at the intersection of the endline and the 18 yard box. The keeper gets a hand on it, tipping it up for a SBU corner. Leila takes it quick and short, passing to Jessie before the Pepperdine defence can get set up. Jessie drives into the box, drawing two defenders. She feigns a cross across the six yard box before laying the ball off to Sydney at the top of the box. Sydney curls the ball towards the back post, right into Regina’s path as she sails through the air and sinks the header into the net.
Staring into the crowd for a moment, Regina points at Cady and blows a little kiss. With the restart, the Seals maintain the harder pressure winning possession back in a completely legal and not dirty at all tackle. They lose possession quickly after, but Cady keeps watching Regina. She might be a couple hundred feet away, but Cady can tell by the expression on Regina’s face that she’s scanning, finding the weakest link, deciding who to take on when she next gets the ball.
The game ends in a tie, and Cady’s waiting at the chainlink fence that separates the pitch and the stands near the corner, her ball cap on backwards and tote tucked between her body and the steel. Regina, with her socks rolled down and shin guards tucked into her waist band, cleats discarded somewhere by the bench, and wisps of hair escaping her ponytail, hugs her over the fence.
Pulling away from the hug, Cady drags her girlfriend into a kiss. She knows that she shouldn’t, especially at a Christian college where neither of them know if they’re going to get in trouble (she genuinely loves going to SBU, a school that’s incredibly accepting for being Jesuit). Regina, always careful to not let herself get caught (her mother always has been intolerant for someone who calls herself a “cooooool mom”), pulls away but her smile firmly on her face.
“Did you drive the Mustang here all by yourself? I’m so proud of you, baby,” Regina smiles as Cady nods. “I should ask Devin if I can go back to school with you.”
Pepperdine players and fans are slowly walking over, so Regina leads Cady away from all the people that could possibly hate crime them.
“I can’t believe you drove all the way down here for me. You hate driving, Cads.”
“Well, I wanted to get out of the house, especially because AJ is throwing tonight and since you’re not home, I decided to come to you.”
“You’re the sweetest.”
Cady feels a presence behind her, very briefly terrifying her that she’s about to be hate crime’d when Regina, uncharacteristically, squeals.
“Dad!” Regina flings herself at her Geoff, careful to not knock him off his feet or make him catch all of her weight.
(Regina’s always been closer with her dad. As a kid, she stood in the corner of the garage, watching him renovate furniture to stage in the houses he flipped for his dad, the safety glasses a little too big for her. When she started playing soccer, he learned everything about soccer and made friends with the other parents so he could help her.
As soon as she understood what he did for a living, Regina begged to be taken to some of the Maison George broker’s opens and open houses. He taught her how to appraise a house in middle school, playing a game where they drove around different Los Angeles neighbourhoods, Regina guessing how much a house costs. In high school, he started teaching Regina how to build her own furniture.
“Handmade furniture raises the value of a house, princess,” he’d said when Regina asked why he builds furniture.
“But you already sell multi-million dollar houses.”
“It also adds an artistic flair. The houses I sell have custom, one of a kind furniture. We sell houses that people want to live in, instead of houses that people buy to add to their property portfolios. It’s cheesy, but I craft everything with love, and you should too. It’s so easy to tell when you’ve created a piece with love, princess. It’s easy to tell when you do anything with love.”
Her mother always thought that Regina should not be in the shop with her dad, that she shouldn’t be on the pitch, that she shouldn’t be in the gym with Shane and Aaron. She always thought that she should be dating one of the boys, but Aaron had really politely turned her down when her mother asked him out on behalf of Regina and Shane could tell that dating was the last thing that she wanted. Whenever her mom pissed her off, Shane was always there to spot her when she needed to squat her anger out and Aaron would suit up in goal so Regina could fire shot after shot at him.
When she was scouted by SBU at one of her club games, her mother thought that the recruiter had mistaken Regina for someone else on her team. Her dad, on the other hand, had picked up his eldest daughter, though he had thrown out his back doing so, cheering loudly.
“That’s my girl. You’re going to be a star, princess.”
“I don’t know if I want to play in college. I want to work at Maison George.”
“Regina, college is for you to be free. You can explore whatever you want! You’ll always have a position at Maison George—”
“I don’t want to be a nepo baby, dad.”
“You could just be a furniture designer and builder if you want, but I know you’re more ambitious than that. We can figure out your future later. You should go play soccer and have fun for four years before deciding what you want to do with your life.”
“That’s not really how it works, though.”
“You’re a rich, white, young woman, Regina. You can do whatever you want. Be privileged and go into university not knowing what you want to do. You know that we have money to spend.”)
Once Regina’s let go of her dad, she spots the two young men who accompanied him, grinning wildly at her gym bro high school friends.
“Oh look, it’s Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. How’d you two idiots get out of Wonderland?” she asks, dapping both of the boys up. While Cady’s met Shane and Aaron before, she’s still unsure of the whole relationship dynamic between them. Instead, she turns to Geoff and hugs him lightly.
“It’s great to see you again, Cady. I didn’t know you were coming out for this game.”
“It was a last minute decision,” she grins. “You know me, I’m her number one supporter, Mr. George.”
“I maintain that I, in fact, am her number one supporter. And you know that you can call me Geoff.”
Their conversation is cut off when Regina screams, having been picked up by Aaron. All three of them are laughing and people are staring, but none of them care. Seeing Regina so carefree is refreshing when she’s always been so careful about her image.
Leila jogs over, yelling “Georgie, get your ass back over here!”
Like children, Aaron and Shane chorus “Oooooh, you’re in trouble!”
Regina flips them off, drops a quick kiss on Cady’s cheek, and jogs over to her team.
“Want to get dinner with us, or do you have to get back to campus, Cady?”
<>
Cady recruits Karen and Gretchen into making signs for Regina before the next home game. Karen tells Gretchen to write “#9 has better thighs than you,” which is by far the best sign that they’ve made. The other two signs read “Regina George: #9 on the field, #1 in my heart” but the third is just a funny picture that Gretchen took last year of Regina, mid header. Karen and Gretchen are only in San Jose for a couple days before they have to go back to Napa so Gretchen can go back to culinary school (Gretchen had dropped out of SBU in winter quarter, changing her mind about going to college and not culinary school, as was her dream. Karen dropped out after freshman year ended, intending to take a gap year before reapplying to schools, but Regina convinced her that she would do well in slower paced fashion, and Karen became Regina’s personal shopper. It’s a role that she’s incredibly well fit for because she has good taste and doesn’t say shit about Regina when she needs a new outfit, unlike her mother. Regina is not too muscular or too masculine for a sparkly dress, thank you very much).
SBU plays Portland on a Thursday evening of Week Four, and Cady, Gretchen, and Karen roll up to sit at the half line on the student side of the stadium (the side with older bleachers), cheer for Regina, and be entertained by the student section. Regina spots them during her warm ups, smiling and waving at the trio before paying attention to her warm ups.
Cady captures Regina doing her little routine when the stadium announcer introduces her as part of the starting XI. Even though she’s known Regina since they were kids, Karen still doesn’t understand soccer. Gretchen’s explanation falls to background noise as the student section starts screaming “Let’s sin!”
The baseball boys that lead the student section cheers start heckling one of the players on the near side, occasionally yelling “If we’re sinners, what are you?” which Cady can’t help but laugh at even though it’s the worst heckle that they could have invented. Cady watches Regina, looking for the patterns she knows by heart at this point. She scans the field in three movements: left, right, and left again. She doesn’t exactly backpedal, instead running sideways. When she doesn’t exactly need to run but she has to move with a little more urgency than a walk, she trots only kind of weirdly. When Regina breaks into a full sprint, her strides are probably twice the length of Cady’s and she picks her knees up. She constantly wiggles her fingers or shakes her legs out at random intervals. She runs around with her middle fingers crossed over her ring fingers. She dribbles with the tip of her tongue sticking out from between her teeth.
Cady tracks Regina as she applies pressure on one of Portland’s centre backs on a goal kick. Portland is sloppy. Regina regains possession when the defender fails at failing at faking Regina out, and she has nearly no angle to get the shot off. Instead, Regina’s a very good teammate and she dishes it to Sydney at the top of the box, who fires a low shot into the far post. The student section goes crazy, jumping against the wood bleachers and screaming, and Gretchen, Karen, and Cady wave their signs. Regina finds them and grins widely, her nose scrunching a little. One of the baseball boys pretends to swoon, even though they all know that Regina is Cady’s.
The goal seems to have shaken Portland enough that they’re sloppy. The Seals, or Sinners as the student section calls them, score two in quick succession, Regina getting both of those assists as well.
After half, Portland is more composed. They keep the Seals out of the box, but that doesn’t stop Regina from firing shots. Her conversion rate is going to be horrible and she’s taken so many shots and none of them have gone in. Multiple sail over the bar or wide, a couple ricochet off the frame, and a handful get either tipped out or saved. Regina’s visibly frustrated. Leaned forward with her elbows on her knees, Cady scrutinises Regina’s movements. She doesn’t need Regina’s frustration to boil over and her to commit a stupid tackle that’ll get her penalised. Luckily, Regina fires a shot off from well outside the box that hits the underside of the bar and bounces behind the line. One of the Portland defenders fails at trying to clear the ball, but the ref signals that a goal was scored.
Regina’s feral scream of “Fuck yeah!” is incredibly audible and she should not be screaming that in front of little kids, but Cady knows that she doesn’t care about being a good influence. She’s never wanted to be a role model.
The Sinners win 4-0, with Regina being credited to all four goal contributions. Cady meanders down towards the snack shack, waiting for Regina to finish her initial debrief and cool down. Gretchen, Karen, and Cady wave their silly little homemade signs as Regina walks over. She laughs when she sees Karen with the bad picture of herself. She punches the stupid image of herself before hugging her best friends.
“I hate whoever decided to make that stupid poster,” Regina declares before she kisses Cady. “Hi baby, I love your sign.”
“You do have really good thighs, Reggie.”
“I know you think that. You’re a biter, you menace.”
Cady smiles cheekily.
“Hey, come to Caution Tape in an hour? We’re not socialing, but we’re having some friends over.”
“How ‘bout you skip the social and come to Blues Clues? No one’s home right now and won’t be back for a while. Damian and Janis are in SF, Gabby is pregaming tonight, and AJ is with her girlfriend.”
“No. No. Do. Not.” Gretchen glares at them. “I am here for two days. Don’t you dare spend tonight having sex while Karen and I are in town.”
“Ugh. Fine. Would you two also like to come over because I have to sleep before my shift tonight?” Cady asks, rolling her eyes.
“Yes, thank you, Cady.”
Regina exhales half a laugh through her nose. “I’ll have Maia drive me to Blues Clues. Grab dinner for us? You know what I want.”
“Course, baby. I’ll see you at home. Love you,” Cady tosses over her shoulder, leading Gretchen and Karen towards the car.
“Love you too, loser.”
<>
Regina tries to convince Cady to walk with her for senior night, but Cady refuses.
“I’m making you a thing, and if I walk with you, I won’t get the footage I need, Reggie.”
“Stop being cute and just walk with me, please. It’ll make me really happy,” Regina says, trailing her hands under Cady’s shirt, her breath hot on Cady’s neck.
“You and your feminine wiles will not change my mind; I’m not walking with you. Shane, Aaron, Kylie, and your dad are already walking with you. You have your gym bros and your family, you don’t exactly need me.”
“You are part of my family, idiot! I want you out there with me. Please?”
She bites down on Cady’s neck, her hands pushing the patterned button up off her shoulders. Cady’s always had a problem with saying “no” to Regina, but she holds fast.
“Reggie. Please let me have this. I want to make you something cute for your senior year. I’ll be there the whole time with your family, so it’s not like I’m going to skip the game.”
“Ugh. Fine.” Regina swings herself off Cady’s lap, patting her cheek and sauntering away. Cady rolls her eyes, knowing Regina inside and out, having been subject to her method of sway by seduction many times before.
Cady laughs at her girlfriend’s fake pouting.
“Oh come on, Reggie,” she whines. “Don’t leave me hanging like this.”
“That’s what you get for not agreeing to walk with me.”
“You suck.”
Regina keeps trying to get Cady to walk with her, but Cady’s resolve stays strong until the day comes. It’s a lovely Sunday afternoon, if a bit colder than Cady would’ve liked. As the last home game of the season (and the last game of the regular season), there’s a small ceremony for the four seniors on the team. The stadium announcer reads out Regina’s name, and she walks out with her sister, dad, and gym bros. Cady’s hands shake a little as she stands on and cheers for her girlfriend.
With her sister and dad on one side and her gym bros on the other, Regina poses for a series of photos before blowing Cady a kiss and sauntering off. Regina’s family finds Cady in the stands after the ceremony, Aaron taking the “#1 in my heart” sign. He’s never escaping the allegations that he and Regina are dating.
As hard as Cady tries to pay attention to the game, she fails spectacularly because she’s just staring at Regina. Regina, in her rolled shorts and long socks, is unfairly attractive. It’s a windy sort of afternoon and Regina’s hair is fluttering in the breeze, making her look majestic. If Cady were a photographer, she’d be doing her best to capture this moment in time. Instead, she commits it to memory. She might be a physics major, but Cady could wax poetic about her girlfriend (and she has, multiple times, on Alpha Rat Pack, but only when she was sure that Regina wasn’t listening). She’s made playlists upon playlists for Regina, though she’s never given any to her, either playing them on LSBU or listening to them while studying.
Cady somehow doesn’t know what happened during the game even though she understands soccer to the best of her ability. Her girlfriend is too hot, too pretty for her to concentrate today. After the game, Regina gets the pictures that she wants with Cady, though she keeps complaining that she looks bad, but Cady can’t stop staring at her gorgeous girlfriend for long enough to dispute her. Post-soccer Regina, or even mid-soccer Regina, has never held Cady’s attention as much as it does today, which she doesn’t understand, but it’s not like this is a bad thing.
“Stop staring at Regina,” Shane elbows Cady lightly, except his version of light is not light at all.
“Stop watching me stare at Regina.” Cady fails at shoving Shane, but not because she’s wimpy, it’s because he’s actually a brick wall in a twig’s body.
“I can’t not watch you stare at Regina, you’re the most obvious person in the world.”
“I’m allowed to be obvious. She’s my girlfriend, afterall. Stop being homophobic, Shane.”
“Yeah, stop being homophobic, Shane,” Regina says, resting her chin on Cady’s head, gaining a couple inches thanks to her studs and being on her toes.
“Hey, stud. You look really hot.”
“Ew, gross, Cads. Not in front of my dad!”
“He’s seen worse, Reggie.”
“Nope. Get out. You’re uninvited from my celebratory dinner. I’m dating Aaron now.”
“Ew!” Aaron whines. “Keep your cooties away from me.”
“I’m really proud of you, stud,” Cady mumbles into Regina’s shoulder after spinning around in her embrace.
“Thanks, baby. I need a shower; I’m kinda gross.”
Cady rolls her eyes because she should’ve known better than to expect anything other than Regina complaining about how she needs a shower, especially after a soccer game.
After an absurdly long shower (sans Cady, actually), Regina and her still damp hair emerges from the bathroom in one of Cady’s LSBU t-shirts that’s effectively a crop top on Regina and a pair of loose cotton shorts. They’re supposed to be meeting Regina’s family for dinner, but as always, Regina is running late. She keeps changing her pants, staying in a different one of Cady’s yellow LSBU shirts that’s still just a little small. She eventually settles on a pair of baggy black jeans and then spends the next 20 minutes on her makeup and jewellery. Cady, who’s been dressed and ready to go for almost an hour, is laying on the floor of her bedroom in Blues Clues. Cady knows better than to try to get Regina to move faster, so she plays Crazy 8 with Shane, Aaron, and Kylie over iMessage, occasionally giving live commentary on how ready Regina is.
Regina calls an Uber (neither of them want to deal with finding parking at Santana Row), and she continues to fuss over her hair until it pulls up at the curb. Only a little annoyed, Cady pulls Regina into the car by the wrist. The two of them are already going to get a lot of static for being late, and Cady doesn’t need to be on the receiving end of Shane’s teasing any more.
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SBU places second in the WCC, which means that the Seals are dancing on. They aren’t seeded and draw first seed UCLA. Even though Cady has lab work, homework, and classes, she still skips so she can drive down the coast to Westwood to watch her girlfriend play soccer for what might be the last time (she has got to stop thinking about it like that, but realistically, UCLA is one of the best teams in the country and South Bay is hardly a blip on the radar). She texts Shane, asking to crash on his and Aaron’s couch for two nights. Thank God Regina pays for gas for her car because Cady can’t afford to pay for gas to drive up and down the California coast (and fucking Regina doesn’t have an electric car yet).
With the top down, Cady winds her way down the 101, even though it’s a less efficient route to LA. It’s an almost seven hour long drive to Shane and Aaron’s bachelor pad (also known as Whey, as in the protein powder) in Brentwood. She plays alternative rock music until she stops in San Luis Obispo for lunch, getting a veggie burger and sweet potato fries from a small diner by the beach. She slightly regrets wearing Regina’s SBU Soccer joggers because they’re not that warm and the wind coming off the ocean has a decent chill. The burger isn’t horrible, but it’s not fantastic. The fries are a little soggy, but they’re sweet potato fries so they’re allowed to not be the perfect amount of crispy.
Shane spams her all the way from San Luis Obispo to Brentwood. Cady wants to throw her phone out the window with every new vibration that is amplified by her cupholder. Her lemonade is room temperature and watered down at this point and there’s no point in drinking it anymore, her back hurts, and she’s almost at the point where she’s too tired to drive. It’s going to be so worth it, and whether or not Regina and SBU beat UCLA, the whole experience is going to be worth it, but Cady hates driving and everything sucks when she has to (realistically, she could have flown, but she dislikes flying even more than she dislikes driving).
Even though Aaron’s offered his bed to Cady, she passes out on their uncomfortable couch that Regina really wants to burn because it’s offensive to her eyes. The game is in the early evening and as much as Cady likes hanging out with Regina’s gym bros, she doesn’t have the time to go to white girls brunch with the boys and she surely doesn’t want to work out with the boys. The idiots don’t have a kitchen table, so Cady sits on the floor of the living room and grades the Physics 231 homework that she’s a little behind on.
On the floor of the Whey living room, Cady makes another bad poster, this time reading “my girlfriend’s better at soccer than yours” and pasting far too many unattractive pictures of Regina mid-header around the words. She had to buy a glue stick for this poster. She’s pretty sure Regina’s going to hate it. It’s going to be fantastic.
Shane pulls his shitty Toyota Prius into a compact parking spot in the incredibly dim underground lot. Cady grows a little more anxious with each minute that approaches, especially because she’s carrying her silly poster in what could be considered enemy territory. She doesn’t like to think about how it could be Regina’s last career soccer game ever, but she can’t help it. Geoff meets them outside the stadium, and they make their way inside to find Karen and Gretchen. The Regina George Hype Squad really pulled up for this game. Karen unrolls her posters and hands one to Shane and Aaron each as they find seats in the packed stadium, sitting nearly pitchside on the away side of the stadium.
Regina looks good during warm ups. All of her shots are on frame and the only ones that don’t go in are saved by Hauser. The rest of the Sinners look good too. Everything looks fluid and like they’ve been playing together for much longer than a season. She knows better than to judge the upcoming game based on the warm ups, but it’s hard to do that when SBU’s soccer looks like a work of art and not soccer.
During the lineup presentation, Regina does the thing where she finds Cady in the stands, points, and makes a cute little heart with her hand. They’re close enough to the players that Cady can see the way that her nose scrunches a little when she smiles at Cady. The whole Regina Hype Squad cheers for every member of the SBU team, getting glares from all the UCLA fans around them. Regina kicks off and the Sinners keep possession of the ball under the high UCLA pressure.
Regina scores early. Cady leaps out of her seat with her stupid sign held high and Shane’s arm around her shoulders as he jumps up and down with her. Aaron is waving the ugly picture from a game last year and yelling “hell yeah Reinoldus!” Regina gives him a disapproving thumbs down at her hype squad, probably because of Aaron’s stupid Nicholas name.
The hype squad gets a lot of dirty looks from people around them and across the pitch for being raucous and rowdy, cheering wildly whenever SBU does anything. SBU is up at half and Karen is screaming when the halftime air horn blows. She’s about ready to square up with the group of youth players that are sitting near them and very obviously UCLA fans. Cady watches as Regina’s teammates rib her a little, a sort of red flush colouring her face, but that could have been waved away as exertion. Unfortunately for Regina, Cady knows that she blushes just a little whenever she gets teased about her girlfriend.
Shane, ever the idiot, gets in an argument when he’s at the snack shack buying bad fries with a college-aged guy who’s decked out in UCLA gear. Cady, who is with Shane to get the squad snacks, texts Aaron to “come get your attack dog please don’t let him get us kicked out.”
Aaron puts his whiteness on display when he approaches them saying “Hey, buddy,” and it takes everything in Cady to not burst out laughing. She wishes that Regina could see this because there’s no way that it’ll be nearly as funny when she retells this. Somehow, they get out of this situation unscathed (Shane’s fries end up on the floor, though). Shane keeps trying to steal Aaron’s plastic fake nachos, so Aaron whacking Shane’s hands like a white mother ends up being Cady’s halftime entertainment.
When Regina steps back onto the pitch, she takes a couple big skips and catches a lot of air, before bursting into an aggressive sprint for a couple paces. There’s so much power in every step that Regina takes and Cady watches the way that her quads flex with each stride. Once again, before the ref starts the second half, Regina does her three jumps, wiggles her fingers, and shakes out her limbs. There’s a grin on her face that’s verging on feral because Cady knows that Regina is hungry for another goal and to play only a little dirty now that she knows the ref doesn’t call everything.
The hype squad picks up the intensity when the second half starts, being the rowdiest, whitest group of people even though Gretchen and Karen are incredibly not white but still acting like suburban dads at their team’s football game.
The ref calls a handball in the box that Cady doesn’t know where the handball occurred but it just means that the Sinners have an opportunity to double their lead. Even though Regina’s not the captain, she holds the ball as the UCLA defenders argue against the handball call. Once the ref gets control of the game again, Cady watches as Regina carefully places the ball on the edge of the spot and rolls it around a little until she’s satisfied. She takes three steps backwards and two to the right. Cady can’t see her face but from all the time Cady spent helping Regina drill penalty kicks last spring because she missed the one that would have seen them win their last game of the season and the NCAA tournament spot, she knows that Regina trains her eyes just above the crossbar, refusing to look at the goalkeeper or goal to not psych herself out. When the ref blows the whistle, Cady knows that Regina closes her eyes, takes a deep breath in, opens her eyes and makes aggressive eye contact with the goalkeeper, and breathes out slowly. Her approach to the ball looks like it did last spring (she rises onto her toes for a second, sits back on her heels, takes three steps in place, and then takes two steps to make contact with the ball), and she opens her hips up at the last moment to slot the ball into the bottom left corner as the goalkeeper dives the other way.
Regina’s never really celebrated a goal by doing more than pointing at Cady (since Cady’s been watching her games), but this time she points at Cady’s sign aggressively and seems to say “Yeah. Read it and weep,” but Cady’s never been too good at lip reading.
Cady’s half expecting the Sinners to park the bus, and evidently so is Geoff as he mutters “don’t drop deep, you’re on the front foot.” Cady has no idea what most of those words mean, but she agrees with him in the sense UCLA weren’t expecting this from SBU and they’re playing with a strong sense of panic.
Since college soccer doesn’t have stoppage time, there’s a very weak chant counting down the seconds until the final whistle, and Regina George’s Hype Squad is already on their feet. When the whistle and air horn blow, the SBU players practically mob Regina, but she’s almost sprinting towards her keeper. After a very brief celebration, Regina goes through and shakes all of the UCLA players' hands, even chatting with a few of the former teammates on the team. Regina gets pulled into an interview before she can meet up with her hype squad, but Cady watches as she talks to the camera, a half grin gracing her face and her flyaways dancing in the slight breeze. She pulls the headset off and jogs over to Cady, sweeping her into a hug. Unsure of whether or not the camera can catch them, Cady waits to properly congratulate Regina. Instead, she grins wildly at Regina, unable to get the words in her brain out of her mouth.
In all the chaos, Cady manages to get a quick kiss out of Regina before she has to get back to her team and do her cool down routine. After the SBU huddle breaks, Cady watches Regina meander over towards the UCLA huddle, waiting for them to break. She watches Regina talk to one of her pretty close friends and former teammate, Siena, before they both jog over towards the endline. Cady has no idea how either of them have any energy left because she was in the stands but she doesn’t have the motivation to run at all. The two of them start jogging across the pitch, picking up the pace slowly until they’re all out sprinting the last third. They’re called full field builds, if Cady remembers correctly, and Regina does them after every training session and game. She’s only a little obsessive about staying in shape and being the best she possibly can be.
<>
The Sinners lose in Pennsylvania on penalty kicks. Cady watches on the TV in her living room, pacing in front of the couch and ignoring the grading that she should be doing. She waits to call Regina. Her girlfriend is a horrible loser and will only be a bitch after a loss until she’s catalogued everything that she (and the team) could have done better. Regina’s always been her own toughest critic.
Regina FaceTimes late at night when she definitely should be asleep on the East Coast and while Cady is doing homework during her LSBU shift. She picks up after double checking that the mic is off and that she’s got enough songs left on her playlist to last the rest of her shift.
“Hey, Reggie.”
It’s dark in her hotel room, just enough light for Cady to plainly see that Regina’s been crying.
“I didn’t want it to end this way.”
“I know. For what it’s worth, you had a fantastic season.”
“I wanted to be better than fantastic. We could’ve had a record breaking season if we beat Penn State. It would have been the furthest that we’ve gone in the NCAA tournament, but no. I choked and couldn’t put the ball in the goal.”
“It’s not on you! Penn State just had a better day, I think. You’re not responsible for the fact that their goalkeeper saved Ellie’s PK.”
“I know that, but I should have scored during regular time. I had so many opportunities and I bottled all of them. I should have created more opportunities for myself. I should have—” Regina cuts herself off, rubbing the back of her hand inelegantly across her nose, a sob bubbling out of her.
“Oh, Reggie. You did so good. I’m so proud of you. I’m always amazed when I watch you play. You impress me every single day, regardless of the result of your most recent game.”
“I should be good at something. You’re a master at physics, Shane builds whole ass houses, Aaron is already working on the business side of my dad’s business, Gretchen’s the chef de cuisine at some fancy restaurant in San Francisco that I’ve already forgot the name of, and Karen is on the way to becoming a fucking stylist! I’m getting a worthless degree and playing a sport that I’m not going to be doing anything with after I graduate.”
“You’re literally a real estate prodigy, Reggie. You appraise houses for your dad’s next branch up here. You’re really fucking good at what you do.”
“Thanks, Cady, but I just do what I’m told.”
“You literally also design furniture?” Cady lets the confusion leak into her voice, her eyebrows furrowing and making a stupid face to properly convey how lost she is.
“Yeah but—”
“Shut your fucking face! No more ‘but’s, Regina. You’re good at what you do, don’t try to convince me otherwise.”
Regina’s face screws up a little, clearly still not believing what Cady needs her to understand. Smothered in a comfortable silence, Regina yawns, and Cady remembers how late it is for Regina, especially because she has a flight back to San Jose the next day.
“Please try to sleep, Reggie.”
“No promises, baby. Have fun with the rest of your shift.”
“It’s always better when you’re in the booth with me.”
“Okay. Love you, Cads. Have a good shift and I’ll see you later.”
“Love you back, Reggie. Stay safe and make sure to offset your carbon footprint from these flights.”
“I hate you, you’re the worst girlfriend I could have asked for. Don’t tell me to offset my carbon footprint, nerd.”
Cady rolls her eyes, knowing that Regina will do whatever is asked of her. Regina ends the call but also texts Cady goodnight almost immediately because she does every night that they don’t spend together (they certainly are not codependent, Regina just knows how Cady likes to be shown that she’s loved and it doesn’t take any effort to do it, so Regina sends the messages).
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Though Cady is hardly an amateur video editor, she does her best to make Regina a compilation of every lineup announcement from her senior season, along with random clips that she recorded either at games, watching them on the TV, or on the way to games. Damian and Janis might not love Regina, but the two of them help Cady out whenever she gets stuck. Cady’s clips of Regina waving to the camera on the TV from whatever pitch she’s at aren’t great (they’re recordings of the TV, often with Cady’s giggling in the background and making half a heart with her hand around Regina).
Every single clip is really bad, but it wouldn’t be one of Cady’s projects if it weren’t comedically low quality. Unable to settle on a track for background music, Janis advises that she doesn’t include any background music and let the funny background commentary run. There’s a handful of erratic clips of Regina’s goals and celebrations where Cady was just too excited and forgot that she was even filming, which have Damian cackling. Cady yelling “That’s my girlfriend!” can be heard in the background of Regina’s PK against UCLA, along with the rest of the chaos from the Regina George Hype Squad.
Regina knows that Cady’s making her something to commemorate the end of her season, but Cady refuses to tell her what she’s making. All Cady does is smile and shake her head “no,” before doing her best to distract Regina (which isn’t too hard). Even though Regina knows that something is coming, Cady doesn’t know how to give it to her. She doesn’t want to be in the same room as Regina as she watches the video, but she also doesn’t want to just email her a file like a coward.
Instead, Cady asks Regina to proofread a script outline that she’s working on for a seminar presentation, just to make sure that all of her grammar looks correct, and she sends her the video instead of the script (Cady does actually have good grammar, but she doesn’t hate deceiving Regina for this project).
She’s sitting on the floor, leaning against her bed and making playlists, when Regina barges into her room through the open door.
“You motherfucker.”
“Did you like the video?”
“I hate you. Stop being so goddamn cute, Cady.”
<>
Regina asks Cady to go to the end of season formal, even though Cady’s never missed one of Regina’s parties and she would do almost anything to not go to parties, including driving all the way to Malibu. Still, Cady will gladly go wherever Regina wants her to.
Seeing as it’s not the official end-of-season banquet, they get dressed up but not too dressy. Regina refuses to let Cady see her outfit before they have to take pictures so she can properly see her reaction, so she sends Cady to get ready at Blues Clues while she gets ready at Caution Tape. Cady lets Damian play dress up with her for YouTube content, even though this isn’t his usual content. Damian does a GRWM but instead of him, he’s dressing Cady and doing her makeup. Cady isn’t really paying attention to the story that he’s telling, but she’s definitely listening to Janis’s quips from where she’s sprawled out on the floor watching them.
Cady ends up in a sort of pastel pink suit: a button up with vertical pink and white stripes tucked into a pair of high waisted shorts, a matching blazer, and a pair of heels. Damian decides that she looks best in her glasses, so he leaves her in them, saying that Regina will love this look.
Damian and Janis walk her to Caution Tape, even though they’re not staying for the party. They refuse to let Cady walk alone, even though it kind of is a waste of time since they will turn around and walk back to Blues Clues. Cady’s still early (she always is), so she helps finish setting up before Jessie teasingly tells her to go find Regina in their shared bedroom. As prepared as she thinks she is, Cady is blown away by Regina.
Her hair is considerably shorter and she now has bangs, she’s wearing a dress with a plunging neckline, but Cady’s eyes aren’t drawn to her cleavage. She finds herself drawn to Regina’s eyes, carefully outlined in dark eyeliner that make her eyes pop and her freckles stand out more than usual. Cady’s immediately obsessed with Regina’s new look, and she knows that it’s incredibly obvious. She’s allowed to be obsessed with her girlfriend.
“So?” Regina asks, teasingly, a crooked grin on her face as she fishes for compliments.
“Shut up,” Cady mumbles, still drinking in Regina’s new appearance. “I hate how pretty you are because it’s not socially acceptable for me to stare at you all the time.”
Regina bursts into a delighted laugh.
“You’re absurd. You can stare at me as long as you want, baby.”
Cady’s never been much of a party person. When she attends LSBU events, she usually finds a chair to sit on in the backyard and watch the rest of her friends play drinking games, dance badly, and smoke sometimes. Regina’s the more social one of the two of them. She doesn’t drink more than a couple mixed drinks, but she’s still the sort of person to find herself involved in every drinking game, dance with anyone, and talk with everyone.
There’s a swing on the back porch of Caution Tape, and that’s Cady’s spot of choice. She watches Regina mingle with her friends, talking with one of Regina's teammate’s boyfriend. AJ sits on the back porch steps with Cady, observing the other soccer girls, their partners, and some of the other athletes that are standing in the backyard. She holds her seltzer between her legs, watching Regina flit between different groups of people, helping set up different drinking games while making sure to not drink too much.
Cady doesn't know the song playing over the speakers, but Regina playfully walks over to Cady on the swing, dancing goofily to the music. Putting her mostly empty seltzer onto the railing, Cady takes Regina’s hands and lets herself be dragged into the middle of the backyard. Regina leads her in a dance, waltzing to the beat of the party music. Cady lets herself be spun around and dipped as Regina wants her to, laughing with Regina when someone (Jessie, probably) queues Chappell Roan’s “Red Wine Supernova.” They’re being dorks, but Cady wouldn’t have it any other way.