Disclaimer: I don't own 'Mean Girls' or any of the movie characters (though I wish I did).

This story is set shortly after movie, so the Plastics have already broken up.

Chapter 1

It was raining again. You didn't need to be psychic to work that one out, but Karen Smith was (sort of). As it happened she was not along to report to the weather this time, but if anyone had asked her she could have told them with absolute confidence that it was raining.

'We should be there now,' said Carter, the camera guy who was driving them to Robertsville. 'You ready?'

'Absolutely. Ready as I'll never be,' said Karen enthusiastically.

'It's 'ready as I'll ever be' Karen,' pointed out Linda the sound girl. Karen rolled this over in her mind a little. Come to think of it that did make more sense.

'I'm both,' she said generously. She looked out at the rain, refusing to let it dull her happiness. This would be her big break – she could feel it.

Ok, ok so maybe covering a Mathletes competition for the school TV was not the greatest thing ever, but everyone had to start somewhere. Probably even that Dan Cronkite guy (or whatever his name was) had started small. And he wasn't even psychic!

When they finally arrived in the neighbouring town of Robertsville Karen managed to maintain her enthusiasm for fully ten minutes. Then she fell asleep. Luckily Linda poked her with a pencil so she was awake to do the bit at the end.

'Like how exciting was that!' she said to camera. She looked nervous for a moment, then looked at Carter and mouthed 'who won?'

'We did,' he mouthed back. Linda buried her face in her hands. It was going to be another one of those days, she could just feel it.

'Oh look, it's my friend Cady,' said the blonde as she waved at the redheaded girl to come over. 'Cady, Cady over here!'

'Hey Karen,' said Cady, 'what did you think?'

'Oh you were great!' said Karen cheerfully. 'Very funny!'

'Er… funny?'

'Totally!'

'Well, thanks Karen. I couldn't have done it without the team,' said Cady, who was trying very hard not to break out into an entirely inappropriate grin. 'Especially Mike.'

She pointed out a guy standing nearby and the bottom fell out of Karen's world. Mike was cute. He was beyond cute. He was as if Johnny Depp and George Clooney had a baby together. Karen's jaw dropped.

'Karen?' Cady was speaking to her.

'Totally,' repeated the blonde. She pulled herself together a little. 'Thank you Cady. Now to have a word with the hero of the day: Mike can I have a word?'

She practically ran over to Mike.

'Hi,' she grinned at him foolishly. 'I'm Karen Smith.'

'Hi,' he said, blushing in a way that made Karen melt. 'I'm Mike Sedzikowski.'

'Oh, I love Spanish names!' Karen gushed. It was a stupid thing to say she knew, but it was the only thing that came to mind.

Mike laughed pleasantly, though Karen couldn't think of what she had said that was funny. She turned very red.

'So…,' he said with a smile, 'do you want to interview me?'

Karen suddenly remembered she was holding a microphone. 'Of course…' she stuttered.

Unfortunately the only question she could think to ask was 'how long have you liked math?' Actually this was not the only question but Karen realised that 'do you have a girlfriend?', 'do you want my phone number?' and 'will you have my babies?' would seem a bit out of place.

Somehow she managed to babble through the rest of the interview without swallowing her own foot. After it was over Mike turned another one of those smiles on her.

'So I guess I will see you in school right?'

Karen nodded dumbly, having temporarily lost the power of speech.

'Cool. You know I didn't know any of the other girls liked this sort of thing. Besides Cady I mean.' He smiled again.

Another nod.

'Well, I'll see you around Karen Smith.'

Thirty seconds later Karen rediscovered her ability to speak, but by that time Mike had long gone.

She conducted the rest of the interviews in a daze, but luckily no one seemed to notice.