𝐌𝐘 𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐊 𝐈𝐒 𝐊𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐀 | 𝐑𝐄𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐀 𝐆𝐄𝐎𝐑𝐆𝐄

nine.

regina shot scarlett a small thumbs up from where she stood in the auditorium. she'd called aaron earlier that day, pulling out all the stops as she fake cried down the phone and begged him just to talk with her. just as scarlett had predicted, the boy had taken the bait. the doors swung open and scarlett took a couple of steps back, concealing herself between the curtains on the stage before she lowered herself to the ground slowly so that she would have more leverage whilst trying to capture their conversation.

"you came," she could hear regina's voice clearly. "well, you seemed pretty upset," aaron replied. "which i'm now guessing was an act." regina laughed, the sound hollow and empty. "oh come on," scarlett didn't have to peer out at the blonde to know she had done her signature hair flip with those words. "i was just thinking about us." aaron scoffed at that. "there is no us," he interjected. "don't be like that," regina sighed. scarlett hit record on her phone, knowing regina was turning her act up to the max, she propped it up so that it captured both of them in the frame as best as she could without being spotted. "everyone knows you still have feelings for me."

"i'm with someone else," aaron said, scarlett watched through the phone screen as regina took a step closer to him. he made no attempt to step away. "that doesn't mean you don't have feelings for me," the blonde tilted her head ever so slightly before she ran a finger down his chest. "you know i feel the same about you." she retracted her hand away from him, scarlett knew regina practically had aaron in the palm of her hands at that point, all she had to do was take it a little further and then she'd have him back and scarlett would have her chance with heather. scarlett tried to ignore the way her stomach twisted when she thought about the entire situation, she couldn't afford to let her guilt take over now.

"you have a funny way of showing it," aaron replied. "can't we just start over?" regina asked, leaning closer to aaron. "we were so good together." scarlett's eyes were laser focused on her phone, watching as regina brushed her lips softly off aaron's. "we could try again." scarlett felt the knot in her stomach pull tighter, she no longer knew what the feeling within her was but she knew she needed to pull it together if this was going to work out for both her and regina. "are you serious?" aaron backed away from her and scarlett immediately cut off the video. "yeah," regina nodded innocently. "no- i can't," aaron groaned loudly in frustration.

"i need time," he said finally. "you can't just expect me to forget everything." scarlett peered out just a little, watching the way regina's posture stiffened. "fine," she said before she turned away, leaving aaron to walk out of the auditorium and away from her. once regina heard the door shut behind her she let out an actual laugh, not like the fake one from her interaction with aaron but an actual laugh like she couldn't believe that her and scarlett had created a plan that had actually seemed to have worked - even if it had just confused aaron, it still counted.

"you get it?" regina asked as scarlett emerged from behind the curtains, the redhead waved her phone in the air in response. "yeah," she grinned. "although i must say you wanting aaron back is feeling a little more performative than i originally thought." regina shrugged. "maybe that's just my love language," she quipped. "you're so-" scarlett trailed off because she couldn't exactly figure out how to describe regina. she had thought of her as a cold, self-centred bitch for so long and her opinions hadn't changed all that much but there was an extra layer that she seemed to be uncovering with regina. and she couldn't quite figure out just who the girl really was.

"we should get out of here," scarlett checked the time on her phone. "the drama club has this space in like ten minutes and trust me they will spin so many rumours if they catch us both in here at the same time." she descended the stairs, expecting regina to flounce off ahead of her but instead the blonde halted in her steps, waiting for scarlett to catch up to her. "uhm," scarlett cleared her throat. "do you want to leave before me?" regina rolled her eyes. "it's after school," she said. "literally no one is around." she studied scarlett's face for a moment which made the redhead practically blush from head to toe.

"ugh, fine," she sighed. "i'll go first." she gestured towards scarlett's phone. "send me the video," she continued. "i'll make sure it's anonymous." scarlett frowned at her. "i can do-" regina cut her off before she could even finish her sentence. "no you won't," she replied. "you'll create an excuse in your head and you'll chicken out, i'll make sure that no one can prove the video came from either of us, that way aaron still thinks everything i said is true." scarlett shifted uncomfortably. "isn't everything you said true?" she asked. "i know some of it was over exaggerated but you want him back, right? so you must have feelings for him?"

regina's eyes flickered away from scarlett's. "yeah, sure, whatever," she muttered. "i'm gonna-" she pointed towards the door before turning away from scarlett. "yeah, ok," scarlett stood, a little confused at regina's reaction to being asked about aaron. she'd been weird and defensive about her feelings from the start, scarlett wondered why she'd be so desperate to break up him and heather if she had zero feelings for him. she waited until she knew for sure that regina would be out of the school before she exited, turning the corner and running directly into maria. "oh, hi!" scarlett halted in front of the girl, her voice coming out higher than usual.

"hi?" maria's brows furrowed slightly. "are you ok?" scarlett nodded, fixing a smile into place on her face. "yeah," she replied. "why wouldn't i be?" her friend studied her for a moment and scarlett hoped that the guilt of plotting with regina george behind her friends back wasn't showing on her face. "you just seem...off," maria said finally. "i'm fine," scarlett brushed her words off. "what are you doing here?" she asked, technically school had only ended twenty minutes ago so there was a multitude of things that maria could have been doing. but maria wasn't one to stay behind for anything, scarlett had assumed meeting with regina and setting up their plan after school would be safe, but apparently they needed to be extra careful. "getting my math quiz back," maria waved a folded up piece of paper she was holding in her hand. "and getting a lecture of how i'm not trying hard enough."

"fun," scarlett commented. "are you free now?" maria asked. "you could come back to mine, we could order food and watch movies?" her tone was practically pleading and while scarlett had been trying to avoid spending long periods of time with either of her friends in case she ended up telling them all about her and regina, she couldn't say no to maria at that moment. "sure," scarlett replied with a small smile. "what were you doing in there?" maria linked her arm through scarlett's. "thinking of joining the drama club or something?"

"maybe," scarlett replied. "i don't think it's for me though." maria stifled her laughter. "i think you should go for it," she nudged her friend. "i think you'd be a perfect fit." scarlett scowled at her. "that was not a subtle way of calling me dramatic," she told her friend who smiled wider in response. scarlett returned the girls smile but couldn't help but feel incredibly guilty about the entire thing. she had spun so many lies since she had become involved with regina george and scarlett wasn't sure how much longer she could keep up with it all. it had started to feel like scarlett was playing with fire and she felt like it was way too late for her to back out of her and regina's scheme.