As evening rolled in, Mike finished training and headed back in high spirits with three members of the Cooper family.
That afternoon alone, he'd squeezed another +3 Constitution points out of Aaron.
Meanwhile, Katie left Regina's house in a daze.
That afternoon had completely expanded her worldview.
First, she'd stumbled onto a little secret hidden in Regina's notebook. After that, the rest of the time was spent upstairs in the living room, learning cheer routines with the overly enthusiastic Amy—for the entire afternoon.
Because she'd joined the Perfect Body Club, Katie had also been required to join the school cheerleading squad.
With the summer league about to start, Amy—who could never sit still—had choreographed a bold, high-energy opening routine specifically for her daughter's cheer team.
Just thinking about those flashy, over-the-top dance moves made Katie cringe.
But compared to the spicy choreography, Regina's notebook—packed with secrets—worried her even more.
After a night of inner conflict, Katie went early the next morning to see her close friends: Janis and Damian, both seniors.
Damian's dimly lit basement became the trio's secret headquarters.
There, Katie told them everything about Regina's notebook.
Punk-rock Janis was instantly fired up.
"That's amazing, Katie!"
She never expected Katie to uncover Regina's secret in barely over a week. Janis went on excitedly,
"If we can get our hands on that notebook and make it public, Regina that bitch would be totally finished—social suicide!"
Imagining the scene made Janis grin ear to ear.
She'd been waiting for this day for a long time.
"No," Katie said firmly, shutting the idea down. She explained her concerns.
The notebook could ruin Regina, but it involved too many people. If things spiraled out of control, the consequences could be far worse.
That wasn't something kind-hearted Katie wanted to see.
Janis, though desperate for revenge, calmed down after hearing Katie out.
After a long pause, she finally said,
"Fine. Even without the notebook, we can still take Regina down."
She drew the attention of the other two toward a small chalkboard in the basement and picked up a piece of chalk.
"The only reason Regina can act so untouchable is because she has a huge following at school.
If we make those followers abandon her, she's nothing."
Katie nodded along, completely absorbed.
"So… how do we do that?"
"Simple." Janis wrote two words on the board: Body and Charm.
"As long as Regina loses these two things, she won't be the Queen Bee anymore."
"Sorry to interrupt," Damian said, raising his hand. "As much as I hate to admit it, Regina is insanely charming. And with how obsessed she is with her body, there's no way we can mess with that."
"No—before, we couldn't. But now we can," Janis said, turning to them. "Because we have Katie."
She laid out her plan.
Basically, Katie would use her status as a member of the Perfect Body Club to offer Regina free imported "cosmetics" and "diet products."
Then, little by little, swap the cosmetics for cheap knockoffs—and replace the diet products with ones that actually cause weight gain.
From the ground up, they'd turn Regina into someone people found repulsive.
Seeing that Janis's plan targeted only Regina—and already believing Regina deserved some kind of punishment—Katie immediately agreed to cooperate.
Once the long-term plan was set, Janis proposed a short-term move as well.
Since Katie was on the cheer team, she'd find a chance to ruin Regina's cheer uniform.
Just imagining Regina, the team captain, forced to wear a damaged uniform on the field was already hilarious.
After that, the two girls continued hashing out details on how to mess with Regina.
Watching Katie get swept up in Janis's momentum, Damian finally spoke up.
"Katie, do you remember what your original goal was? You're trying to win Mike. And Regina isn't your only competition."
Katie had already heard rumors about Mike getting close to girls in his class. Just yesterday, she'd even seen him sitting next to another girl.
Thinking about that, Katie fell silent, unsure what to do.
"Katie, don't overthink it," Janis reassured her. "Once you deal with Regina, those junior girls won't stand a chance against you."
Even as she said it, though, Janis sounded a little unsure. Her personal grudge against Regina was clearly clouding her judgment.
Still, for Katie—who had no idea what to do—those words gave her strength.
She imagined that once she became the Queen Bee, she'd definitely be able to win Mike back.
And with that thought, her resolve to take down Regina hardened even further.
---
At the same time, on the last day of the weekend, Mike decided not to train.
Instead, he went over to the Coopers' house to watch an NFL game with Coach George and his family.
In front of the TV, George watched the game while explaining the rules and tactics to Mike.
A professional football game is divided into four quarters, each fifteen minutes long. Two quarters make up a half.
Teams get a two-minute break between quarters, and a twenty-minute halftime break.
There are three ways to score in football:
Touchdown: An offensive player carries the ball into the opponent's end zone for 6 points, with an extra point attempt afterward.
Field Goal: The kicker boots the ball through the goalposts for 3 points.
Safety: A defensive scoring play. If the offense is tackled, forced out of bounds, or commits a penalty in its own end zone, the defense scores 2 points.
On TV, an exhibition game between the Cardinals and the Longhorns had reached the third quarter.
The Longhorns had possession but were pushed back deep near their own end zone by the Cardinals' defense.
One more bad play, and the Cardinals might get a safety.
Safeties are rare in normal games unless there's a huge gap in skill between the teams.
As the Longhorns' four downs were about to run out, George shouted excitedly,
"Damn it—if you don't want to give up a safety, put the punter in already!"
Out of sympathy for the underdog, George had clearly put himself in the Longhorns' shoes.
Four downs: The offense has four tries to advance ten yards. If they succeed, they get another set of downs. If not, possession changes.
Punt: When the offense knows it can't make ten yards, it can kick the ball away on fourth down to force the other team to start farther back.
Sure enough, just like George predicted, the Longhorns' coach called a timeout on fourth down and sent in the punter.
"That's it!" George pumped his fist.
Even though things looked bad for the Longhorns, there was still the fourth quarter.
And in football, anything can happen.
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