some headcanons on calicheer
This is just a translation of my og tiktok post, but I'm not a eng native speaker so there might be some mistakes.
Nobody asked, but here are my small headcanons for calicheer
(1) Billy and Chrissy met by chance. After a PE class, the coach noticed his basketball skills and invited him to the school team's practice. Back then, Billy still didn't know his way around the school and got lost. Annoyed, he fished a girl in a cheerleader uniform out of the crowd – someone who clearly ought to know where the gym was. He got lucky; the girl was heading in the same direction. They walked in silence, having only exchanged names. Chrissy was clearly uncomfortable in his company, while Billy didn't care. At the gym, they went their separate ways.
And then, as often happens, once you accidentally meet someone, you start seeing that person everywhere. That's what happened to Billy: he began noticing a flickering red ponytail with a green velvety scrunchie in the crowd. He started running into her by the gym, inadvertently catching her eye in the cafeteria, meeting on empty staircases between floors. At first, they didn't speak, only nodded to each other. But soon, Billy decided to take action. Using his status as the new kid in town, he figured he'd ask Chrissy about any cool places and, preferably, have her keep him company while exploring them. And that's how their communication began.
(2) Billy used to consider all his achievements solely his own, regardless of whether anyone had helped him or not. With Chrissy's arrival, all his victories became shared. He scored the winning point, leading the team to victory? That's because he's a handsome devil, and Chrissy was cheering him on throughout the entire match. He managed to pass that dreaded English test? That's because Chrissy hit him with a dictionary (albeit accidentally) while they were at her house. He was able to replace a long-rusted part in the Camaro that was hanging on by a miracle? Chrissy found some old guy selling parts below market price who even gave solid advice on other issues.
(3) Billy isn't a fan of girls marking their territory on him. He can do the marking himself, but none of his past flings were allowed to. Until Chrissy came along. Billy lets her leave a trace of her lipstick on his jaw. It's not very noticeable to others, but Billy feels it throughout the entire school day and, to his own surprise, it doesn't irritate him.
(In fact, he sometimes secretly likes it. When yet another girl tries to cling to him, he simply points to the lipstick smudge without a word, not even looking at her, and walks away, openly smirking.)
(4) At first, Chrissy didn't realize Billy was flirting with her. To her, his flirting was too subtle, until it became so overt and obvious that Billy seemed more like an idiot than a normal person. But even then, Chrissy still had her doubts, until she finally decided to ask him outright one day. In that moment, Billy wished the ground would swallow him whole. All that time he'd been flirting, and Chrissy hadn't reacted, Billy had assumed she was just playing hard to get. The reality turned out to be simpler, and Billy couldn't accept it for a full five minutes, until he finally bleated in response to Chrissy's question: "Yes, I've been flirting with you for the past six months." And so, he put an end to their dancing around each other.
(5) To celebrate her high school graduation, Billy took her to the ocean, to his native coastline. At first, he didn't say exactly where they were going, but Chrissy understood the trip would be a long one (and secretly guessed Billy was taking her to California). Those long three days of driving, surviving on fast food (well, Billy did; he splurged on more decent meals for Chrissy) and cheap motels, were all worth it the moment they found themselves by the water at dusk. Billy savored the evening breeze and the familiar scent, watching Chrissy as she cautiously moved closer to the water, taking off her shoes to feel the cool touch of the small waves lapping at the sand.
"I knew this view would suit you!" Billy shouted a little later. Chrissy turned to him, and Billy continued to gaze at the way the ocean merged seamlessly with the sky, at the dark waves roaring and splashing behind Chrissy, with only pinpricks of stars above her head. Amidst all that expanse of the night, Chrissy shone like the brightest star in Billy's eyes.
(6) The initiator of the first kiss was Chrissy. When Billy realized she wasn't the type of girl who jumps into bed at the first call, he had to change his approach. This made him hesitate and handle situations less smoothly, as he now had to consciously process them in his head to gauge how Chrissy might react.
Thus, Billy once nearly missed the perfect moment for a kiss, but luckily, Chrissy took the initiative and made the first move. The kiss was as innocent and awkward as could be on Chrissy's part, but Billy was thoroughly pleased with it all nonetheless.
(7) Initially, Max regarded Chrissy with suspicion, as she was genuinely sweet and quiet compared to the girls Billy typically chose for his "relationships." Her wariness only increased when, even a month later – usually the deadline for Billy's flings – Chrissy continued to occasionally ride in the car with them and appear at their house. The situation wasn't helped by the fact that Chrissy was genuinely kind and polite. Many of Billy's exes had tried to act sweetly towards her, either so she would put in a good word for them with her brother or to put on a show for Billy himself. Chrissy did neither and always seemed sincerely interested in trying to connect with Max whenever they ended up alone together.
Max only began to warm up to Chrissy when she noticed changes in Billy. First, she noticed he was more restrained with Neil when he tried to provoke a fight. Then, she saw that he had stopped growling at her as much for small mistakes. And the final turning point was Billy becoming more tolerant of Susan; he was still cold, but he stopped looking at her like a wolf and even began helping her when needed instead of just ignoring her.
After all this, Max began to see Chrissy differently, although she still felt awkward around her.
(8) Billy considers Hawkins a shithole and therefore doesn't have a very high opinion of the people in town. So, he once decided that Chrissy absolutely had to learn self-defense. He explained his decision to her by saying that he actually talks to the guys at school and knows what kind of sketchy thoughts crawl around in their heads, and he can't always be by her side.
Chrissy tried to protest at first, having lived in the town her whole life and knowing how things are here, but Billy, of course, wasn't listening, already completely fired up by the idea.
And imagine his surprise when, at the very first training session, Chrissy showed quite successful results and even managed to take him down, only slightly out of breath. After that day, he stopped underestimating the hidden strength of cheerleaders.
(9) The first horror movie Billy convinced Chrissy to watch with him was Psycho. After that film, she felt anxious every time she showered and was afraid to close her eyes for too long. This feeling only intensified when she used the shower at Billy's house, as she suspected he might reenact the famous scene from the movie as a joke.
After that, Chrissy swore off watching movies with him altogether, but through persistent coaxing, Billy eventually managed to change her mind. Of course, the first thing he showed her afterward was The Thing. For a while, Chrissy felt uneasy again, and Billy didn't help matters by whispering in her ear after training sessions that Tommy was acting strange and seemed oddly afraid of a lighter's flame.
The next time Billy managed to persuade Chrissy to watch a movie together, Max immediately whisked her away to her room upon seeing The Burning cassette in his hands. She spent half the night telling Chrissy about Wonder Woman comics while Billy pestered at her door, pleading for her to open up and insisting he was only joking and never actually intended to play that film.
(10.1) The introduction to Chrissy's brother went extremely poorly. Chrissy had managed to invite Billy to her house for the first time when her parents went out on a date, leaving her in charge. According to Chrissy's calculations, they would have just enough time to watch a movie before Billy would likely have to sneak out the back door to avoid her parents. She had struck a deal with her younger brother beforehand: he wouldn't snitch on her, and in return, she would do his literature homework.
When the appointed hour came, Chrissy was a bundle of nerves and nearly dropped the bowl of popcorn when she heard the rumble of the Camaro's engine in the driveway. After letting Billy in and ushering him to the living room, she rushed off to put the final touches on their evening plans. Meanwhile, Douglas, a boy far too pompous for his age, came downstairs from the second floor to gawk at the mysterious guy his sister was dating, who had arrived in such a cool car. Billy immediately rubbed him the wrong way, as Douglas deemed him a delinquent who was utterly unfit for their family's status.
(10.2) Douglas decided to share his undoubtedly crucial opinion with Chrissy immediately and, without taking his eyes off Billy, tried to slip past him into the kitchen. The whole scene looked utterly absurd, and Billy, partly as a joke, decided to scare the kid by making a sudden feint in his direction. Douglas, of course, got scared, jerked sharply to the side, and slammed the back of his head hard against a cabinet in the hallway, falling to the floor. Billy immediately rushed over to him, trying to convince him not to scream or cry—to avoid getting an earful from Chrissy, since he was partly to blame for what happened (though he would deny it to the end). He tried everything, from trivial things like threatening to scare the kids at Douglas's school if necessary, to the most valuable offer: letting the boy sit behind the wheel of his car.
In the end, Billy managed to talk Douglas around, but he didn't yet know that the boy would prove to be extremely shrewd. In the future, Douglas would use this situation every time Billy showed up at their doorstep, threatening to tell Chrissy how he'd almost died because of Billy if Billy didn't do what he asked. After several such incidents, Billy decided to tell Chrissy everything himself, exactly as it happened, preferring to face a disapproving look from her rather than something worse if Douglas were the one to spill the story.
(11) Billy tries not to smoke in Chrissy's presence and for at least twenty minutes before meeting her, because she once complained that the smell of his cigarettes gave her a headache. For the same reason, a pine tree-shaped air freshener appeared in his car, which he regularly replaced as soon as the scent began to fade.
Along with the pine tree, Billy's Camaro acquired a few other updates. One day, a pair of bobblehead dogs—a bulldog and a dachshund with gold chains around their necks—appeared inconspicuously on the dashboard. A plastic bag of small hard candies took up residence in the glove compartment, and in the sun visor pocket, next to the car documents, lay photos from a photo booth that Chrissy had persuaded Billy to use together on one of their dates. Even his cassette collection became significantly diluted with pop music, not that he complained much, since it turned out Chrissy had pretty good taste even in that.
(12.1) Chrissy has serious issues with being unable to forgive herself even for minor mistakes. Due to her mother, she grew accustomed to being a perfect, polished picture for the people around her, to the point where she sometimes doubts if there's anything of worth in her beyond her appearance. She is used to agonizing over all her actions while simultaneously forcing a smile, brushing off help, or apologizing for a mistake.
Billy was initially irritated by her constant apologies, sometimes even angered by how she would put on a smile and seem to glaze over. They argued about this more than once—or rather, Billy would scold and yell while Chrissy listened without objecting. When Billy went too far, crossed a line, and realized it in the moment, he was filled with long-lasting remorse. He realized he was acting like his father, even though he had vowed long ago never to become like him.
(12.2) It was then that Chrissy noticed that behind Billy's words lay not only a sincere acknowledgment of his mistake but something larger, something familiar to her as well. She was the one who started the conversation about their home problems; she was the first to pull a thread in that tangled skein, wanting to understand Billy and what lay behind his feigned aggression and anger. In response, Billy began pulling at her threads, too.
After this opening up, Billy tried to become more patient with Chrissy. If he noticed himself getting irritated, he would walk away to calm down. If he noticed Chrissy worrying because something wasn't perfect or she didn't look quite right, he would try to soothe her in his rough-around-the-edges way. He gradually began teaching her his own kind of disorder, that a little chaos is normal. And gradually, she was truly able to become more forgiving of herself and realize that insignificant mistakes weren't worth all that anxiety and nerves.
(13) As they grew closer and began revealing their innermost selves to each other, they started learning from one another. Thanks to Chrissy, Billy was able to draw out from beneath the calloused shell, hardened over years of his father's abuse, something truly soft and bright, something precious—something he thought he had lost with his mother's departure.
Chrissy, in turn, came to realize that she had a voice. A voice strong enough to stand up for herself and assert who she was. A voice with which she could openly oppose her mother, a voice with which she could say a loud and clear "no!"
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