Chapter Text
“Did you hear there’s a new girl this year?”
Regina sighed and pushed her cheese fries around with her fork. “Why should I care?”
Gretchen shrugged. “I heard she’s an international student from Kenya. So fetch.”
“What is fetch?” Regina was immediately regretting joining this conversation. She usually tuned Gretchen and Karen out unless they said something useful to her. Why should she care about some random new girl showing up junior year?
“It’s, like, slang from an old movie. Juno, I think.”
Gretchen kept talking, saying that the girl was weird, and she sat on the floor in one of her classes, and no one would talk to her, and blah blah blah…Regina was more bored by the minute. Regina felt like junior year was going to be completely uninteresting. Freshman year had been about conquering the school. Sophomore year had been about getting a boyfriend (one she dumped that summer, so that was sort of a waste). Senior year would be her chance to win prom queen and start dating college guys.
Junior year was…what? More parties? Another talent show? More boring high school boys? One more Spring Fling crown? None of it was especially exciting.
“Where is she?” Regina heard Karen ask Gretchen. “I wanna ask her if she’s ever touched a tiger.”
Gretchen looked around the cafeteria. “No idea. I don’t even know who she’d sit with.”
Regina stopped listening for the rest of lunch. The rest of the day went by without anything of note happening, as did the rest of the week. She went to class, hung with Gretchen and Karen, and got asked out several times, and as usual, absolutely none of the boys talking to her were at all interesting.
Just like Aaron. Just like Shane. Just like Kyle. Just like every fucking guy that she’d ever pretended to like. That was why she was excited to date college guys; one of them had to be at least a little attractive to Regina. She was just way too far out of the league of all the boys at North Shore.
It wasn’t until Tuesday of the next week that anything eventful happened.
Regina saw Aaron talking to a girl that she didn’t recognize.
The first thing that Regina noticed was that this girl’s fashion sense was terrible. Awful. She was wearing some horrible oversized red…maybe jersey? Regina really couldn’t tell. Her shoes were some ugly brown hiking boots, and her hair was pulled back in a ponytail.
She was a travesty. Total loser.
The second thing that Regina noticed was that this girl was really pretty. She was so pretty that Regina felt a little intimidated by it, and Regina never felt intimidated. If this girl knew how to dress even a little bit, she’d probably get a lot of attention.
The third thing she noticed was that this girl and Aaron were laughing a lot as they talked to each other. Aaron only laughed that much around girls when he thought they were hot…hell, he barely talked to a girl if he wasn’t trying to get a date.
Regina narrowed her eyes. There was no way that Aaron was going to go from dating her to dating this little cute loser. Her ego couldn’t take it.
She made a mental note to keep an eye on them and find out everything she could about this girl.
—
So, as it turned out, the girl she’d seen had been the same one that Gretchen had been yapping about on the first day of school.
Cady Heron. Homeschooled kid from Kenya. Newest member of the North Shore mathletes.
Regina laughed to herself. There was absolutely no way that Aaron would go for a girl like that. She was too nerdy and sweet and shy to keep Aaron’s interest. Not that Regina really cared about Aaron, but the thought of him with that girl… Cady Heron …made Regina just a little ill. She didn’t really want anyone dating him (she’d rather he die alone, to be honest), but Cady dating him felt especially upsetting to her.
Regina found herself watching Cady at lunch. It was just about the only time that she saw the girl outside of the occasional random passings in the hallways after school. She was easy to find in the cafeteria now that she’d started hanging out with the grade grubbers. Regina wondered what she’d look like if she wore her hair down and changed her makeup. Did she wear any at all? She had to. No one naturally had skin that smooth and flawless.
Occasionally, Regina would compare her body to Cady’s. Regina was a lot taller and curvier, but Cady was smaller in pretty much every way. Aaron would probably like being with somebody smaller than him. Regina imagined that if she were a guy, that would probably have a certain appeal…holding someone as small and cute as Cady. Leaning down to kiss her on her lips...on her neck…
Regina usually shook herself out of those thoughts pretty quickly. She chalked it up to weird insecurities she had about being too big. She’d put in some extra time on the treadmill and feel a little better.
Weeks went by like this, with Regina watching Cady and making sure that she didn’t get anywhere near Aaron. She was starting to think that the day she’d seen them in the hallway had been a fluke; she hadn’t seen them talking and laughing since then, so maybe she’d read too much into it.
Until Halloween.
When she saw Cady walk in wearing the absolute stupidest costume that she’d ever seen.
What the fuck was Cady doing there?
Regina glared at her from across the room. The corpse bride getup made an entire room scream, and Regina watched as Cady looked confused and deflated before taking out the fake teeth.
God, the girl looked like a total mess. Better without the teeth, but still ridiculous. Regina quickly edited the outfit in her mind…maybe a shorter, tighter dress would make it better. Cady would at least look sexier like that. At least the wig and the makeup weren’t completely horrible.
Regina whipped out her phone.
Regina: Is that the new girl?
Gretchen: In the weird scary costume? Yeah, that’s Cady.
Regina rolled her eyes, reading the name for the first time. Now she understood why she’d heard so many people call her Caddy around school….so weird.
Regina: Yeah
Regina: How did she know about this party?
Gretchen: Give me a couple mins to ask around.
Regina stood there impatiently and kept glaring at Cady. It wasn’t long before she felt her phone buzz in her hand.
Gretchen: OMG AARON INVITED HER
Gretchen: CADY LIKES AARON
Gretchen: PEOPLE THINK HE MIGHT LIKE HER BACK
Regina was livid. She watched Cady smile as Aaron walked towards her. He said something that had her laughing and batting her eyelashes and Regina felt like she was on the verge of killing someone.
Regina wasn’t jealous. Regina was not a jealous person.
But Regina was controlling and Regina was possessive.
There was no way that Cady Heron was dating that boy.
As soon as she saw Aaron stop talking to Cady (after she spent a few more seconds staring at Cady’s dumb smile), she walked up to him.
“Hey,” she said, grabbing his arm. “I need to talk to you.”
“Me?” he asked sarcastically. “I thought you were done talking to me when you started talking to Shane last summer.”
“Shut up,” she said, but she tried to make it sound flirty. It was hard…so hard…because Aaron Samuels was the most boring person she’d ever spent time around. “I just wanted to check in. We haven’t talked in a while.”
“Yeah, I wonder why,” Aaron said. “Can we do this later? I’m trying to take this drink to Cady.”
Regina put her hand on his arm. “I just need a minute, okay?”
Aaron sighed. “Fine. Whatever.”
“I just wanted to say…” Regina forced some tears to her eyes. “God, I didn’t know this would be so hard for me.”
“Wait…what?” Aaron said, looking confused.
“I guess I just have a lot of unresolved trauma…from how things ended with us.”
“Regina, you dumped me-”
She cut him off. “I just got scared that you didn’t see the real me. That you were just using me.”
Aaron shook his head. “No, it wasn’t like that-”
“I just wanted something real,” she said, blinking her eyes. “If that’s not what you wanted, I can try to understand that.”
She could feel Cady’s eyes on them. Good. This show was for her, afterall.
“Gi, I swear, I really liked you,” Aaron said, pulling her into a hug.
Regina worked to hold back her smile and keep her tears. She had him right where she wanted him.
“Liked?” She asked, pulling away and putting a hand on his cheek. She saw him glance down at her lips. “Did I…did I really lose you?”
He shook his head, and she pulled him into a kiss. It was…just as gross as she remembered. His arms wrapped around her waist, and she almost gagged when his tongue went into her mouth. She pulled away and immediately glanced at Cady.
She’d made her point.
Cady couldn’t want Aaron. Aaron was Regina’s to take or leave as she pleased.
The look of devastation on the other girl’s face made Regina immediately irritated. It wasn’t like Aaron was anything to cry over like that. Why did Cady even want him so badly? What exactly had they talked about in math class that made her act like her heart was breaking? She’d only known him for a couple of months.
Cady ran out of the room and something in Regina wanted to follow her and figure out what Cady thought was so fucking special about Aaron Samuels.
But Aaron pulled her away, and she tried not to think of Cady’s face scrunched up and crying before she left the party.
—
By Monday, everyone was talking about Regina getting back with Aaron at the Halloween party. She was already bored with it, but it at least meant she’d win homecoming queen again (it was usually only for seniors, but they’d changed the rules when Regina had gotten a huge majority of the votes during her sophomore year).
She stood on a podium on the football field, waving to everyone with Aaron by her side. It was a total repeat of sophomore year, except this time, there wasn’t the novelty of being the youngest homecoming queen ever. There wasn’t the hope that maybe eventually, she would like it when she touched or kissed or slept with Aaron.
It was just…more of the same.
Regina kept the smile on her face as she looked through the crowd.
Eventually, she saw Cady…Cady, who she still watched at lunch (when Aaron wasn’t shoving his tongue down her throat). The other girl seemed sad, and every once in a while, Regina would catch her looking at Aaron. It would only last for a second before she’d see Regina looking straight back at her, and then she’d blush and look away.
Regina had considered inviting Cady to their table a few times. She figured it might be fun to shove Aaron in her face a little, since she clearly still had a thing for him. She stopped herself, though. She didn’t want to deal with Gretchen questioning her, and she didn’t want to risk Cady getting anywhere around Aaron. The chances that Cady could lure Aaron away from her were slim…but they weren’t zero. Aaron did like a pretty damsel in distress, and with all the pouting, Cady fit the bill.
Right then, Cady was looking between her and Aaron, and the longing was so clear on her face that it made Regina’s stomach turn. She perked up a little when Aaron waved in her direction, and Regina’s smile fell completely off of her face for a split second before she put it back on. Once he looked away, Cady deflated and went back to staring at the boy like she was completely heartbroken.
What was it going to take to get Cady to stop looking at Aaron like that?
Regina decided that she needed to get to know Cady better, if only to see if she was really any threat.
–
The next day, Regina found out when Cady’s free period was and where she tended to spend it (which was, of course, the library, just like the rest of the nerds). Regina skipped her class and found Cady at one of the tables. Regina took the seat on the other side of the table, and Cady looked up, alarmed.
“Hey, are you Cady?” Regina said, smiling at the other girl.
Cady nodded. “Um…uh, yeah. That’s me.”
“You’re in my boyfriend’s math class, right?”
“Oh, Aaron?” Cady said, and Regina didn’t like the correction. She’d stated her possession of him for a reason. “Yeah. He sits in front of me. Why?”
“Well, he said that you’re really good at math, and-”
“He said that?” Cady asked, perking up.
“Yeah,” Regina said. Cady was really showing how new she was. Nobody else would dare interrupt her like that. “Well, he said you were a total math nerd. Like you were obsessed with math or something.”
“That’s not exactly how I would put it,” Cady said, sinking into herself a bit. Regina wanted to feel good about it, but she just…didn’t.
Yeah…this girl was a threat if she could make Regina feel even a little bit of remorse. Those eyes and her soft little voice could have Cady wrap pretty much any guy she wanted around her finger if she ever figured out how to use them. Regina knew she needed to keep her close.
“Anyway, I was wondering if you could tutor me. I’m failing Algebra, and I don’t wanna have to retake it next year.” Regina turned up the charm full force and reached across the table to grab Cady’s hand. “You’d be doing me such a huge favor.”
Cady blushed, and Regina bit her lip. She couldn’t believe that Cady still looked so good with a blush like that. She supposed it was because Cady’s blush wasn’t all blotchy and uneven. It just brought attention to cheeks that were already adorably round.
“I-I-sure,” Cady said, knocking Regina out of her thoughts. “I can do that. I just have to do it on days I don’t have mathletes. Do you wanna meet here after school or-”
“No, we can go back to my house,” Regina said. “If that’s okay with you?”
Cady glanced down at their hands, and Regina hadn’t even realized that she’d started to rub the back of Cady’s hand with her thumb. She fought the urge to snatch her hand away and slid it onto her half of the table instead. Cady immediately seemed to relax a little.
“That…that works, too.” Cady said.
“And could you not mention it to Aaron?” Regina asked. “I’m sort of embarrassed that I need a tutor.”
Lie, but Aaron knew she didn’t need a tutor (she wasn’t amazing at math, but she was good enough to pass on her own), and she didn’t want to deal with him getting in the way.
“Sure,” Cady said. “Your secret’s safe with me.”
“Great! Meet me at my car when the bell rings.” Regina stood from the table. “Bye, Cady.”
“Bye!” Cady yelled back, and someone shushed her.