#Damian was invited by people form school to go to the mall

[moonlight-stalker]

# 71 Dc x Dp

Damian was told not to come back from the mall with any animals he doesn't instead he comes home with a toddler dressed up as a cat

[makesyoubrave]

HIIII first of all I am in love with your stories. You're like the best kajsksjs second of all, for the prompt thing... Maybe... They're friends, but Janis gets jealous and Regina confronts her about it/makes fun of her cause she knows she has feelings for her?

This is the story about how the gang schemes to get Regina to realize/admit she has feelings for Janis. It's kinda messy and pretty stream-of-conscious, but a long thought out story will be coming soon, so here is a messy appetizer to that main course ;) 

Read on Ao3 here

Regina and Janis are friends now. It defies all the odds but they are. And it’s absolute fucking torture for Regina. And not in the way you might expect. It’s absolute torture because now she has to confront things she has been pushing to the side for years.

Janis, though, is kind-of having the time of her life.

It was around September that Janis figured out that Regina has feelings for her, and Janis has been soaking it in ever since. Sure she’d had to process and unpack it with Damian’s help but after that, she realized, until Regina figured out just what was making her act the way she was acting, that Janis was going to milk this experience for all it was worth. Maybe push Regina into action a little.

Janis is over lying to herself and pretending to be something she’s not so that night in September when Damian asked her if maybe she wanted Regina to like her Janis had just stared into the distance for a while before looking at Damian and whispering “well I’m screwed.”

It was true, Janis had lots of feelings for Regina George, and she knew that Regina George had a lot of feelings for her, but she knew she couldn’t push Regina directly or the other girl would lash out or run away (she might have shed her outer layers and reverted back to being a pretty good person but she hadn’t completely changed) Janis knew Regina would have to come to terms with this on her own, she just wanted to speed the process up a bit.

So she schemes. She gets Damian’s help, and then accidentally enlists Gretchen one day when Gretchen comes into the art room to ask Damian’s opinion on her outfit for something or other and finds them next to a chalkboard with the start of a seven-step plan.

Gretchen squeals. She still really wants to make everyone around her happy, though she’s learning slowly how to not get walked on, and how to find self-worth without praise from Regina or Cady. But when Damian shushes a protesting Janis and tells Gretchen the plan she’s 100% in.

“Awwww, I’ve been keeping people’s secrets for years, you think I don’t see how Regina looks at you with those big eyes and the expression of terror?” Gretchen says to Janis when she looks and see’s Janis’ look of utter shock.

Damian cackles.

•••

The first stage of their plan is dubbed “Make Regina notice Janis” and has three parts. The first is to just up Regina’s exposure to Janis and make sure Janis is flaunting what she’s got while Regina is paying attention.

Janis changes her routine at school, making sure that she walks down the hallway going the opposite way from Regina at least twice a day. Regina doesn’t quite strut down the hall the way she used to. She’s not always flanked by Gretchen and Karen because now that there aren’t weird rules and weirder expectations the two girls are free to just walk to their own classes. And the effects from Regina’s tango with the bus have left her in flats instead of heels, and she tires easily.

But the hallway still parts for her like it’s the Red Sea. Regina hasn’t ruined anyone’s life in probably 6 months and she’s been actively nicer to people, but old habits die hard, Janis guesses.

But every day after Homeroom and every day after Lunch Regina walks down the main hall of campus with at least two people with her. It’s usually Gretchen and Karen but sometimes it’ll be Cady, or Damian, or Aaron or even Kevin. Somedays it’d been Janis, but now she makes sure to leave both lunch and homeroom really fast to get to her locker so she can be there when Regina starts her strut down the hall.

It’s a warm fall day when it firsts really works. For the last two weeks Regina has stared at Janis for the few seconds they pass each other, and Janis has either grinned at Regina or said hi, and Reinga has always responded. But on this particular day, Janis starts walking down the hall as soon as she sees Regina. People respect and like her after her stunt in the gym last year and there isn’t a ton of traffic because most people are coming straight from the lunch hall, so she has a pretty clear shot as she shakes off the small lingering nerves and flips her hair over her shoulder and stalks down the hallway towards Regina (flanked by Gretchen and Damian today).

When Regina comes into view, the student body has parted so that it’s only the two of them in the hall, there’s no way Janis couldn’t see Regina or Regina couldn’t see Janis, but as they get closer Janis sets her focus to the space above Regina’s head. Regina, for her part, does exactly what Janis expected; she stares at Janis as she gets closer, and her eyebrows contract when she realizes that Janis isn’t going to look at her.

At the last second, Janis can manage before she’ll have completely passed Regina, she sends her most dangerous and seductive smirk over to Regina and winks, before continuing on.

It takes everything she has to not turn around and watch the reaction, but Gretchen and Damian come over after school and gush for like twenty minutes about how Regina had stopped dead in her tracks so fast Gretchen had barely missed bowling her over by Damian pulling her out of the way. Regina had then stared, eyes wide, at Janis’ retreating form for a good ten seconds before she’d snapped back to the present reality, blushed, and turned, wide-eyed, to Damian and Gretchen who had both pretended nothing had happened.

It makes Janis grin ferociously to imagine.

•••

Regina's on the brink, literally anything seems to have her a complete mess. When Janis laughs, Regina blushes. When Janis grins at her, Regina pales. When Janis walks away, Regina watches. When Janis speaks to her, sometimes Regina stutters or blinks rapidly before she can speak. She finds Janis working in the library, pen in her mouth and she swoons. She finds Janis goofing off with Damian and the mathletes in the parking lot and giggles. She finds Janis playing with some puppies one of the teachers brought in to de-stress the kids and Regina almost faints at how fucking cute/hot it is.

Damian loves the material he has to work with, but he sees that one area has been a little underdeveloped. So he comes up with this idea to play into Janis’ passion. So he plays the long game. He knows that Janis has an art-show right before Halloween and he plans to use that. She’s constantly rushing home after school and holing herself up in her art studio/garage.

He walks up to Regina one day at the beginning of October and tells her he wants to go to the mall and look at shoes. Regina immediately agrees. So after school, they get in Regina’s car and are on their way to the mall when Damian cusses loudly and tells Regina that he left his wallet at Janis’ the night before (which was true, he’d shoved it in the seat of the couch in the garage). She rolls her eyes and turns the car around, driving to Janis’.

When they get there Regina makes to stay in the car, but Damian insists that once he goes in he doesn’t know how long Janis will keep him and she might as well come in with him. Damian almost cackles at how easily and quickly Regina agrees to his flimsy excuse, but he holds it together.

They walk into exactly what Damian had hoped. Janis has soft music with a strong beat playing through her garage and she’s in her painting clothes, shorts, socks, a tank top and flannel (all covered in paint) with her hair tied up at the base of her neck. She’s got paint on her forearms where she’s rolled up her flannel, and she’s got paint streaked on her legs and one green streak on her forehead and one red one on her neck. She’s perspiring a little, but her eyes are focused and intense. She’s stretching when they walk in and Damian glances at Regina out of the corner of her eye and sees the girl’s eyes widen, and her mouth almost drops open. He decides to let it go for a while, and as soon as the tension seems to lean towards growing stale he opens his mouth to speak.

He takes a while fake looking for his wallet and Janis pulls over a stool for Regina to sit as Damian first checks most of the garage and then ventures inside. Janis turns down the music but continues to paint as Regina sits and watches. Janis has to bite her lip to stop her grinning or laughing at the expression deep in Regina’s eyes.

Damian comes back in and guesses he’s pushed far enough, “finds” his wallet and drags Regina, who stops to mumble a soft “the painting is really awesome, Janis” before she lets herself get dragged out.

Damian lets Regina process through the drive to the mall, because the girl looks like she really needs it.

•••

Two weeks later, Janis invites everyone to her art show and Gretchen enlists Karen to work her part of the plan. They approach Janis after school the Thursday before her show (on Saturday) and ask if they can help her get ready before her big moment. Janis looks skeptical, but she’s truly friends with these girls now, so she nods.

“On one condition… you don’t make me wear pink.”

“Of course silly, it’s not Wednesday.”

They stay true to their word, and honestly, they don’t even really alter Janis’ look that much. It’s a pretty formal event, and Janis has already picked out her outfit. They veto the shirt she’d picked, and replace it with a semi-sheer button down from Gretchen’s closet. It goes well with Janis’ silver blazer and silver shoes with her customary black skirt and decorative tights.

Gretchen straighten’s Janis’ hair and pulls it back to show-off the shaved side (freshly buzzed) while Karen focuses on Janis’ makeup. She tones down the eyeliner but gives the girl a sparkly silver smoky-eye and contours her bone structure from naturally-sharp to holy-fuck. She and Gretchen confer and decide on a nude lipstick and they help Janis pick out jewelry. It’s Karen’s idea for her to wear the bowtie, Janis’ idea to run downstairs and splatter it with paint, and Gretchen’s idea to load as many rings onto Janis’ hands as possible (she’s been friends with Regina long enough to know that girl will notice and appreciate the attention being brought to Janis’ long fingers and strong hands).

Regina shows up with Damian, Cady, and Aaron to the art show and she’s flabbergasted. Janis has a section of the gallery that’s all her own and while the gang mostly walks around the whole thing (one of the artists paints animal studies and Cady drags Aaron over there for a good portion of the night) Regina can’t really pull herself from the front right corner of the room where paintings with deep colors and broad strokes and abstract shapes and emotions that spill off the canvas and directly into Regina’s heart live.

Janis had been in the back with another artist and the gallery owner when Regina and the gang showed up and when she exits, Gretchen in her blue dress and Karen in her bubblegum pink one and Damian in his purple suit jacket are wandering around the gallery while Aaron in a navy suit stands with Cady in her dark purple pantsuit looking at a painting of a lion, Kevin and the mathlete dudes goofing off by the door with Shane fucking Ohman and she grins, her life full of amazing people. Then she sees Regina in a white dress with silver shoes. Regina’s facing away from her, staring at Janis’ favorite piece she has in this exhibit. It’s a painting of a figure on the other side of a window, walking towards the window in the pouring rain. It’s all blues and greens and browns and purples and the figure is just open space on the canvas.

As Janis rounds the corner, staring much more at Regina then at her painting, she sees the expression on Regina’s face and something constricts in her chest. She feels like she can’t breathe. When Regina turns towards her and that look is then directed 100% at Janis she stops in her tracks. Regina is looking at her with pure awe and a little bit of something that scares Janis a little. But Janis likes to think of herself as someone who walks towards the things that scare her, not away, so she walks towards Regina.

Regina opens her mouth as if to speak, but she can’t and she just shakes her head. Janis feels herself blushing and she ducks her head.

“I can… uh… I can walk you through it if you’d like?”

It’s a credit to their friends that all of them let them have this moment and wait until Regina looks like she might actually faint before they bombard Janis with praise and hugs.

Regina looks wildly at Damian and then at Gretchen and after they take Janis out to ice cream, Gretchen takes Regina home with her and listens as a wide-eyed and flabbergasted Regina admits that she likes Janis.

Gretchen texts Damian once Regina’s passed out from exhaustion.

“On to stage two”

•••

Damian has to credit most of stage 2 to Gretchen knowing Regina really well. She calls Damian after the art show and tells Damian that now that Regina has admitted that she likes Janis she’s going to throw up a lot of walls.

“She doesn’t think Janis is gonna like her, which is a valid thought, so she’s going to just retreat?” Damian asks.

“Not in the way you might think. It’s like… she’s going to try to pretend that Janis doesn’t really matter to her, but she’s also going to kind-of rip herself apart because obviously, Janis does.”

Damian nods.

Stage 2 of the plan is called “The Jealousy Stage” and they don’t even have to do all of the work.

A week after the art exhibit, Regina, who’s back to full strut, is stalking down the halls, looking to walk past Janis’ locker on her way to English class, when she spots a girl in the grade below them leaning against Janis’ locker.

The girl is a grade B bitch. (Regina gives her a grade B because she’s no Junior-Year-Regina). She’s tall and she’s got freckles and bright green eyes and long brown hair and tan skin and she’s gorgeous, Regina can admit that. And she’s leaning towards Janis and grinning and Janis is fucking blushing.

Regina isn’t one of those people who could blend in and figure out what they’re saying, but she tries her best, slowing her pace and pretending to read something on her phone as she passes. She overhears.

“Your art gallery was so gorgeous, and I just had to meet the artist.”

“Thanks”

“I was wondering if you’d like”

Some dude next to Regina shouts and then almost pees himself when Regina spins on him, murder in her eyes. She softens quickly and rolls her eyes at the sophomore dude who’s on the wrestling team. He scampers off.

“Sure!”

Regina looks at Janis and Janis is blushing deeply and Regina sees red. She’s about two-thirds of the way into a brutal plan to ruin the life of that bitch - Morgan maybe? When Janis notices her standing there.

Morgan or whatever her name is long gone.

“You ok, there Regina?”

Regina stands up straighter. “Fine, was she bothering you?”

Janis looks at her curiously, then smirks. “Nope. See you in History later.” And then she’s gone. Regina is fuming.

She stops the closest junior, this girl who Regina has seen around but honestly cannot remember the name of, she’s on the girl’s soccer team and she shows up to a lot of the parties Aaron throws.

“You’re going to find out what Morgan Michaels wants with Janis Sarkisian by the end of the day,” Regina says with no argument. The girl - Caitlyn - looks at Regina real hard.

“Morgan went to Janis’ art-thingy and was super impressed or whatever and now she wants Janis to paint a picture of her…”

Regina stares at her, shocked.

“I was literally standing right next to them when it happened.”

It’s then that Regina remembers that the doctor’s had said it might take a while for her hearing to get better after the bus. It’d been so long that she’d kind of forgotten what that meant for her ability to hear conversations from a distance away, never having needed that power before, relying on Gretchen.

“Why do you want to know?”

Regina just stares at her and then walks away. (Two months later when a rumor starts spreading through the junior class that Caitlyn is a slut, Regina hunts down the stupid dude who got rejected by her and started the rumor and no one knows what she did or said to him but they do know that he left that day early, crying, and the rumor was squashed by the end of the day.)

•••

Two weeks later when Regina walks into the studio and sees Janis working on a painting of fucking Morgan Michaels, she almost sets the room ablaze just with the power of her eyes. It takes Gretchen’s pleading, Cady’s eye-rolls, Karen’s puppy-dog eyes and Damian’s no-nonsense attitude to get her to tell them what’s wrong.

It’s Gretchen who calms her. “If Janis and Morgan were like… a thing… don’t you think Janis wouldn’t spend every weekend with us and she’d maybe like… even talk to Morgan during the day?”

Regina has to admit that that sounds legit.

“It’s like the basic laws of attraction, Regina, duh.”

They’re at lunch the next day when Cady bites the bullet. “So you and Morgan…”

Janis almost chokes on her food. “Ha! No, that girl may be ridiculously hot and totally into me, but I can’t stand being alone with her for longer than like, twenty minutes.”

They’re all shocked when that doesn’t actually make Regina feel better.

“Yeah, like I’m sure Janis wouldn’t say the exact same about me, or worse.”

Karen pipes up quietly from the corner. “If we’re all just going to pretend the evening at the art gallery doesn’t exist, then why don’t you like… try to hang out with her for longer than twenty minutes and prove her wrong.”

They haven’t seen Regina this determined in a while.

•••

They end up going to a drive-in. A fucking drive-in. Regina won’t admit it but she’s kind of floored by the idea and desperately wishes it was a date. She wishes it, even more, when they’re sitting in the bed of Janis’ dad’s truck on the small couch from her garage that Regina and Janis and Damian had put in the bed early that night. She’s sitting there, far too close to Janis, who is chuckling at the Hitchcock thriller they’re playing that night, and Regina feels overwhelmed by the emotions.

The movie ends and they strap the couch back down and get back in the truck and Regina realizes that sitting in relative silence and watching a movie probably doesn’t count as solid alone time, so she hurriedly suggests they go get milkshakes. Janis grins.

They end up spending much more than twenty minutes together, and when Janis drops Regina off after a night of laughter and teasing and lingering looks, she desperately wants to kiss her, but she doesn’t. Because while everyone else might know that Regina George is head-over-heels for Janis, all Janis can see is that Regina is attracted to her, and she refuses to get her heart broken by Regina George again, so she’s putting the ball firmly in Regina’s court and she leaves.

Regina could scream with frustration.

•••

Aaron throws a party the next weekend and Damian and Gretchen get to work. They coordinate schedules to make sure that Janis gets to the party before Regina, knowing that if they get Janis on the dance floor when Regina enters, that Regina might just short-circuit enough. They’re hoping they’re going to get to stage 3 tonight; actualization. Whereas Stage 1 was mostly Damian’s doing and Stage 2 Gretchen’s, Stage 3, while set in motion by their plotting, is entirely up to the two girls.

Regina gets to the party, opens the door, walks through, grabs a drink, talks with Kevin and the mathletes for a little, says hi to Shane, and then walks towards the room with the stereo. She walks through the doorway and she stops.

In the middle of the dance floor, grooving like she doesn’t care who sees, is Janis. She’s dancing brightly with not a care in the world, a huge grin on her face, wacky dance moves with just the right amount of rhythm. Regina has a flash of imagining pulling Janis close to her and moving to the music, and then she’s back in the moment, watching a care-free Janis dance with Karen and Damian, and she leans against the door-frame and smiles.

“When are you going to stop kidding yourself?” It’s Aaron, standing with a red solo cup, leaning against the other side of the doorframe.

Regina doesn’t even try to deny it, just looks at Janis and back at Aaron. His face softens a bit at the expression on her face.

“I know you, Regina, don’t turn this into some sort of game or scheme. You talk a big talk about not caring what people think, and going for what you want but…”

Regina’s face is pained. “Janis isn’t people… she’s Janis. And I don’t deserve her.”

“Six months ago, I would have agreed with you. But tonight?” Aaron allows his thought to trail off, rests his hand on Regina’s shoulder for a second, and then leaves.

When Regina turns back towards the dancing mob, Janis makes eye contact with her and waves, carefree and happy and Regina rolls her eyes fondly and smirks. Janis keeps staring at her, cocks her head to one side a little and grins. It makes Regina’s heart flutter.

She maintains eye-contact with Janis as she stalks across the crowded room, gets up in her personal space (drowns out Gretchen and Damian squealing in the background) and grabs her by her jacket and pulls Janis to her.

“I would really like to kiss you right now.” She says, searching Janis’ eyes.

Janis grins “Fucking finally” and she lets Regina pull her in. Damian gives himself a round of applause. Gretchen starts tearing up and Karen rushes over to hug her, scared something is wrong. Cady grins and Aaron smiles and Shane and the mathletes whoop from the corner and while Regina rolls her eyes and Janis smirks, they both think... they couldn't have gotten luckier. And then Janis flips them all off and drags Regina outside so they can continue, uninterrupted.

•••

They’re the talk of the school for the next two weeks; “Were you at Aaron’s when Regina expressed her undying love for Janis?” “Dude, watching Regina and Janis make out was like… totally bonkers.” “I really hope they’re happy, but don’t you think that’s a little weird of a combo? Like a year ago didn’t they hate each other?” “I heard Janis Sarkisian put Regina George under a love-spell and now… they’re getting married in Iowa”

Some of the comments are more realistic than others. When Regina George struts down the hall, holding tightly to the hand of her girlfriend, Janis Sarkisian, and kisses her on the cheek when she drops her off at homeroom, she literally could not care less about what anyone has to say; all she can feel, is that she’s finally actually getting her second chance, and she’s not about to mess it up.