Chapter Text
Regina George was one of the best footballers in the world, she was unfazed in times of stress, she could handle anything life threw at her.
Well, anything but Janis Imiike.
Regina considered herself a pretty emotionless person. She didn’t like people, and she didn’t care what they said about her. She’d learned very early on not to dwell on the opinions of others. There were four and only four exceptions, her younger sister Kylie, Karen and Gretchen and her best friend Shane. That was it, there was no fifth exception, and it was definitely not Janis Imiike.
Because Regina did not care one single bit what Janis thought about her, not one bit.
Like now, she was completely unfazed at the glares she was shooting her way, and she didn’t feel any sympathy at the sad smiles, the corner of her mouth tipping up just an inch. Not at the way her eyes crinkled just slightly around the edges, or that she was chewing her gums, her nervous habit. (They were probably bleeding by now). Her hair was pulled back tightly, so different from how she usually wore it, wild and untameable, frizzy and curling under the tips of her ears.
Okay maybe Regina cared a little bit about what Janis thought about her. But a perfectly normal manageable amount. The swirling in her stomach was because she was anxious for the game.
So why was her heart clenching? Her eyes welling up with tears?
Regina was a lot more anxious about this game than usual. She did everything she always did, had a long sleep, woke up at sunrise to stretch, ate her usual pre game breakfast. She believed in herself, in her talent, knew what she was capable of. Everything was the same, everything should have been okay, but she was going up against Janis, so it wasn’t.
She felt dizzy waiting for the whistle to blow, her arms shaking just slightly, a lump in her throat. She breathed in deeply, exhaled. She was going to be okay.
She was Regina George, she was fine, and she was going to destroy the American team.
The whistle blew, the sharp familiar sound that Regina had craved since she was a child, it was almost soothing. It helped her force her mind into game mode, nothing else mattered but this. She was good at focusing, narrowing her thoughts and worrying about nothing but how badly she needed to win. Her desire to be the best overtook everything, all her worries disappearing. She’d aways been like that, no matter what was going on in her life, Football was there for her. It was her everything. Some may call it an unhealthy attachment, Regina would call it a lifestyle.
The game had started. The Americans were vicious in their attack and her team knew that defence was vital.
Tori had the ball, blonde ponytail swinging as she passed to Gretchen who passed to Karen and Regina ran to accept. The ball was hers. She was ready to score she- an American darted in between kicking the ball away.
Fuck she lost it.
Regina took another deep breath in.
The Americans passed it back and forth, taunting them. Every time Regina stepped forward, they moved back, passing the ball far away and refusing to make a move into the other half of the field. Regina wanted to tackle Heron to the ground and knee her in her stupid face that was glaring at her like Regina had just murdered her dog. Was it because she was Janis’s best friend? Maybe. But Regina still wanted nothing more than to wipe that stupid smirk off her face. Surely Janis wouldn’t be too mad if she punched Cady?
Heron passed to Janis, it was smooth, effortless, behind her leg and at the perfect angle so Janis could receive it as she was running at the perfect time so Janis could kick.
The ball flew through the air.
Please Lucy please catch it,
Lucy did not catch it.
The ball was perfect, straight into the upper right corner of the net, narrowly escaping Lucy’s fingertips by just an inch.
Fucking hell of course Janis scored.
Regina felt anger burning up in her stomach, she felt the self-hatred and the jealousy and the pointless anger at the world. God she really was useless.
She kicked the grass, uncovering the wet dirt under the pitch. She knew she needed to calm down, if she made a big deal about this, then the press would have a field day and her coach would murder her viciously, potentially with a football to the head. Not only that, but she would look like a stupid out of control child in front of Janis.
And that seemed considerably worse than being murdered with a football.
The half time siren sounded, giving Regina an out and she stormed off the pitch running straight into the change room. She sunk down onto the bench, knees to her chest and breathed in deeply. Her therapist had been trying to drill into her the importance of controlling her anger issues, deep breaths, journalling her thoughts. All that shit.
Usually it worked, but not today. Today her anger was more than out of her control, it was bubbling, brewing in her chest and it took everything in her to keep it in. She felt like was going to explode.
Stella, the captain, had a pep talk to give but Regina couldn’t focus, she was so mad. The team sat around the room on benches, drinking water and getting ready for the second half as they listened to her talk. Regina sat still, eyes focused on the ground, trying her best to control her breathing.
“We’ve got this guys,” Stella finished up, retying her blonde ponytail. “Work as a team, follow the defence strategy we set up last week and keep trying to score.”
Everyone started to filter out the change-rooms, chatter drowning out the sounds of Reginas’ heavy breathing, leaving Regina who was angrily trying to braid her hair again.
“Gina,” Her friend and teammate Karen tapped her on the shoulder lightly. “Don’t be sad that you missed the goal, it’ll just make it worse. You need to get rid of the feelings and then you can score, and we’ll win, I know it.”
Her smile widened, toothy and bright. Karen’s happiness was addictive, contagious and Regina felt marginally better. Her hair was pulled back tightly and braided, frizzy baby hairs escaping the bucketload of hair gel she piled on every game day. There was a light sheen of sweat on her skin and she seemed to glow, bright and shiny.
Regina sighed; Karen was right she needed to keep a clear mind if they were going to win.
“Thanks, Kare bear,” She smiled.
Karen swept her into a tight hug, despite the fact they were both dripping in sweat. Regina held her tight, breathing in the familiar smell of Karens strawberry scented shampoo. She could always count on Karen to make her feel better.
Calm down, get rid of your feelings and you can do this.
Karen really was the smart one.
23 minutes into the second half and Regina had the ball between her pink boots. She was almost at the goal, almost, so so close. But she had been playing long enough to know that attempting to score when Karen was in a much better position was just stupid. It would be selfish, and she had far outgrown such an attitude.
So, she passed to Karen who brought her leg back and kicked straight into the net, a perfect goal, a beautiful goal.
Regina almost screamed she was so excited. She ran up to Karen and lifted her up into the air, “Thank god for you Karen.”
“It was basically your goal,” Karen shrugged, still smiling ear to ear, her cheeks dimpling just the slightest.
The game was tense, the score sitting tightly on a draw. Heron almost scored but Lucy caught it, thank God for Lucy. In the 71st minute Stella almost scored, but it was slightly too high, scraping the top of the net.
The game felt more drawn out and tense than usual. Her team was primarily focusing on defence, to them a draw was acceptable as long as they didn’t lose, it was a friendly after all. But not to Regina, she needed to score, needed to feel like she had something, anything over Janis. It was selfish and petty, but it was how she felt.
Finally, at the 86th minute Regina received the ball from Stella and angled it straight into the bottom left side of the net, narrowly scraping away from the tip of the goalkeepers' gloves.
Oh my god yes.
Gretchen and Audrey ran up to pat her on the back in congratulations and Regina jumped up and down in excitement. She had never been this excited about scoring a goal in a friendly, but this was personal.
It was 2-1 to England, they had this.
The next 8 minutes was filled with desperation from the American team and a steady defence from the England. The final whistle blew, and her team let out a collective sigh of relief.
“We won!” Regina wanted to scream. Instead, she hugged Karen and Gretchen and politely shook hands with some of the Americans. Not Janis.
This was a good mood booster for the start of their world cup prep, the last match before the competition. It showed their country that they were ready to dominate at an international scale and most importantly it made Regina feel better about herself.
Regina’s happiness was short lived.
As she left the pitch, hand in hand with Karen and Gretchen, she caught sight of Janis and felt the pit in her gut expand. Janis was frowning, her eyes fixed on her green boots, chewing her bottom lip. She looked disappointed, she looked anxious, and it made Regina’s heart clench. All she wanted to do was go over to Janis, wrap her arms around her and tell her it was okay.
But she couldn’t.
Regina looked up to the scoreboard, the looming 2-1 to England.
It made her think back to a similar match, 2 years ago.
The match that had started it all.