Just to clarify this story takes place a little after the end of Mean Girls - so it is set in the September after most of the movie. Hence the references to Gretchen and Karen's summers.

Chapter 4

It was tricky, but Gretchen managed to avoid Karen for the rest of the day. She had never been so relieved that her friend was such a poor student; they only shared three classes on Monday and all of them had been in the morning. Unfortunately she had to sit beside Janis in French and for several terrible moments Gretchen had been afraid the brunette outsider would actually try and talk to her. The gods of high school must have been smiling her today however; Janis never said a word and merely smiled at her enigmatically from time to time.

Gretchen felt as if at any moment the ground would open up beneath her feet and swallow her hope. Not that that would be so bad if it got her out of her current problem. What do you do if you fall in love with a guy your best friend is already in love with? A voice in the back of her mind that sounded more than a little like Regina George urged her to go for it.

I mean, it was not like Karen had any sort of a claim on Mike was it? She had only met him once and then for only a few moments. That Gretchen herself had spent only a little more time with him was neither here nor there. Gretchen knew she had shared something special with him.

And yet…

A year ago if you had asked Gretchen Wieners who her best friend was she would have loudly told you that it was Regina George. A few months ago and the answer would have been Cady Heron. As recently as last week it would have been Trang Pak. But if you had really pressed Gretchen who was the person she held dearest in her heart of hearts she would have admitted it was the girl who had held her hand on the day of her grandfather's funeral. The girl who had gotten her ears pierced at the same time and helped her pick out her first pair of earrings. The girl who had been the only one to catch her when she fell.

'Shut up Regina,' Gretchen muttered to the part of her mind that sounded like the old Queen Bee.

Considering how sucky she was feeling about the whole situation generally it felt pretty good to say that to Regina, even if it was only the Regina in her imagination.

That night she drove over to Karen's house. Inspiration failed to strike, and as she neared her friend's home panic began to set in. Gretchen was nearly physically incapable of keeping a secret at the best of times and this was not the best of times.

Luckily it was Karen herself who came to the rescue. After an epic hug that rattled Gretchen to her toes the blonde had enthusiastically told Gretchen about her summer. This was the first time the two girls had really had a chance to talk since… god the end of school last year and Karen had a lot to talk about. Apparently it had been mostly spent on some idyllic Greek island visiting her cousin Sophie.

'Here listen,' Karen had insisted shoving an iPod into Gretchen's hands. 'Sophie told me about them – they're called ABBA and they are the coolest.'

'Ew, aren't they from the seventies,' had been Gretchen's first reaction, but after listening to a couple of tracks she had to admit they were pretty awesome.

Then she heard 'The Winner Takes It All' for the first time… and promptly burst into tears.

'Oh my god honey,' squealed Karen hugging her. 'Is it Jason?'

Of course it wasn't, or at least he wasn't all, but Jason was at least something she could grasp, could get off her chest. So she opened up to Karen and told her about that whole awful, awful day in July that Jason had smashed her heart into a billion pieces.

Karen was angry, she was sad, she was deeply sympathetic, and as Gretchen lay her head on the blonde's shoulder and let her tears flow she thought how good it was to have friends. Or a friend… who else was there?

After a long, long time Karen finally asked her about Mike.

'H-he wants to meet you,' Gretchen said as calmly as she could.

'Coolness,' squealed the blonde, bouncing up and down on her bed in glee.

'But,' said Gretchen, 'I, er, said that you were very busy and, I, uh would have to see when you are free. Because you see I can get more info on him for you, so you can just wow him like that.' She snapped her fingers.

An impressed Karen nodded enthusiastically. 'Oh my god Gretchen you are so smart! And such a good friend!'

'Yes I am,' said an utterly miserable Gretchen. 'Yes I am.'