Chapter Text
Everyone at North Shore agrees on exactly three things:
Regina George always gets what she wants.
Cady Heron has somehow become the only person who isn’t intimidated by her anymore.
And whatever is happening between them is either going to end in a fistfight or a kiss.
No one’s sure which.
Chapter 1;
North Shore High had a way of making ordinary things feel like public events.
Someone tripped in the hallway? There’d be a version of it on Instagram before lunch.
A couple broke up? Half the school would have an opinion by third period.
So when Regina George started lingering by Cady Heron’s locker every morning—even when she had absolutely no reason to be in that hallway—it didn’t take long before people noticed.
“You’re early.”
Cady didn’t look up from her locker as she spoke. She already knew who it was.
“I know.”
“That’s… unlike you.”
“I contain multitudes.”
Cady snorted.
Regina leaned against the neighboring locker with the kind of effortless confidence that somehow made everyone walking by glance over for at least a second.
She looked annoyingly put together for eight in the morning.
“I hate when you laugh at me.”
“No, you don’t.”
“…No,” Regina admitted. “I really don’t.”
Cady finally shut her locker.
“What are you doing here?”
Regina blinked innocently.
“Can’t I say hello to my friend?”
“You called me a menace yesterday.”
“You are a menace.”
“You stole my fries.”
“They looked lonely.”
“They were on my tray.”
“They were emotionally lonely.”
Cady rolled her eyes so hard it almost hurt.
“You have issues.”
“I’ve been told.”
For a second, neither of them moved.
Then the first bell rang.
“Oh,” Regina sighed dramatically. “Guess I’ll have to survive Calculus without you.”
“We’ve literally never had Calculus together.”
“I know.”
“So why—”
“I just wanted to walk you to Biology.”
“…You don’t even go this way.”
“I know.”
Cady stared.
Finally, Cady laughed.
“You are such a loser.”
Regina gasped.
“I cannot believe you’d say that to my face.”
“I just did.”
“Mean.”
“Says Regina George.”
“I’ve changed.”
“You called Gretchen’s shoes ‘a cry for help’ this morning.”
“They were.”
By lunch, the rumors had evolved.
“They’re definitely dating.”
“No, they’re definitely fighting.”
“I heard Regina made Cady cry.”
“I heard Cady made Regina cry.”
Karen, who had somehow overheard all of these within fifteen minutes, sat down across from Janis.
“I think they’re flirting.”
Janis didn’t even look up from her sketchbook.
“I think you’re the smartest person at this table.”
Damian nearly choked on his drink.
“It’s actually painful.”
“What is?”
“The amount of unresolved tension happening in this school.”
Karen frowned.
“What’s unresolved tension?”
Janis gestured vaguely toward the cafeteria.
“Cady.”
Regina had just stolen a grape off Cady’s tray.
Cady responded by stealing two.
Regina looked offended.
They argued over fruit for approximately thirty seconds before Regina smiled—that real one, not the practiced one—and Cady smiled back without realizing she’d done it.
Karen watched thoughtfully.
“…Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“I thought they just really liked grapes.”
Gym was worse.
Not because of the class itself.
Because Coach Carr had made everyone pair up.
“I’ll take Regina,” someone volunteered.
“No,” Regina said immediately.
Another hand went up.
“No.”
“How about—”
“I’m with Cady.”
Coach Carr sighed.
“They don’t get to choose.”
“We literally just did,” Regina replied.
“You are making my life difficult.”
“I do that to everyone.”
Cady looked suspiciously amused.
“You know,” she said while they stretched, “people are going to think we’re attached at the hip.”
“They already do.”
“…Does that bother you?”
Regina hesitated.
For just a heartbeat.
“No.”
The answer came quieter than either of them expected.
Cady pretended to focus very hard on tying her shoe.
“Oh.”
That afternoon, rain hammered against the school windows.
Everyone rushed toward the buses.
Everyone except Cady.
She stood beneath the front awning, digging through her backpack.
“Seriously?”
She checked every pocket.
Nothing.
Her umbrella.
Gone.
“Looking for this?”
Cady turned.
Regina stood a few feet away, twirling a navy-blue umbrella like she’d been waiting for this exact moment.
“You stole it.”
“I borrowed it.”
“You took it without asking.”
“I knew you’d say yes.”
“I wouldn’t have.”
“I know.”
Cady laughed despite herself.
“You are impossible.”
“So I’ve heard.”
The rain only got heavier.
Regina clicked the umbrella open.
“You coming?”
“It’s one umbrella.”
“So?”
“We’ll both get soaked.”
Regina shrugged.
“I don’t really mind.”
Neither of them moved.
The space beneath the umbrella wasn’t very big.
It would mean walking close enough that their shoulders touched.
Close enough that people would notice.
Close enough that it might mean something.
Regina held the umbrella out anyway.
“Come on, Heron.”
Cady looked at the rain.
Then at Regina.
Then back at the rain.
“…Fine.”
She stepped underneath.
Their shoulders brushed immediately.
Neither of them said anything.
The walk to the parking lot couldn’t have been more than two minutes.
It somehow felt like the longest two minutes of Cady’s life.
By the time they reached Regina’s car, one side of each of them was soaked.
“You know,” Cady said, brushing wet hair out of her face, “you are objectively terrible at sharing an umbrella.”
Regina smiled.
“I wasn’t really trying to stay dry.”
Cady frowned.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Regina opened the driver’s door.
“I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She got into the car before Cady could ask what she’d meant.
Across the parking lot, Janis watched Regina drive away.
Damian appeared beside her with two vending machine cookies.
“…Did you see that?”
“I have eyes.”
“They shared an umbrella.”
“They shared one fry yesterday.”
“They’re getting worse.”
Janis accepted a cookie
.
“Give it another month.”
“You think they’ll figure it out?”
Janis looked toward the road where Regina’s car had disappeared.
“No.”
She smiled to herself.
“I think everyone else will.”
End of Chapter 1.