I totally agree aaron doesn't get enough love in the fandom. Tho tbf he is just Some Guy. What are your thoughts on him?
Note: this is coming from a place of sadness and evilness. Normally he’s just some plot device to me idk. There is a lot of hcs and thoughts here btw, also feel free to send more asks lmaoo
Hhh mentions eating disorders a little bit btw
So my big thing is that he’s so fucked up from his relationship with Regina. He was a token to her and neither of them really liked each other and he felt so pressured by her manipulation to get back into a relationship with her. With Regina being a deeply closeted lesbian, Aaron is just some token of status and worth, some guy she sort of kind of likes. Whereas I see Aaron genuinely loved her and is so fucked up by it all.
A lot of behaviours Regina displays, he gets so confused when Cady doesn’t display them too. So. I hc Regina has quite a bad ed and is also very controlling of other people’s food/body [seen a lot in how Regina treats Gretchen], and I see her being the same way with Aaron. Sometimes she’d eat some of her lunch, but at a point, he stops packing proper lunches because he doesn’t want Regina’s comments. She’s also intent on him going to the gym every day. He’s very confused when Cady doesn’t act like this and goes on dates to restaurants and eats etc
I hc he ends up with really bad anxiety and, as much as he tries to, he isn’t someone who can actually mask or hide it at all. If he has a panic attack, he’s having a panic attack right then and there. [As opposed to someone like Gretchen who will hide and suppress forever.] He doesn’t realise how bad his anxiety is because he just thinks it’s Normal that he can’t breathe or see or stop shaking when he’s around Regina.
Also, hc he already knows Regina is cheating on him with Shane which is why his reaction to Cady telling him is just “why would you tell me that?” Because he. already knows but it’s easier to let it happen than to confront it ever. He wants to be loved by Regina so badly
He’s deeply mediocre at everything. He’s never been good at anything at all, he’s just okay at everything and it fucks with him so much, especially when he finds out he isn’t even That Good at maths. Aaron can do okay at everything but perpetually feels like disappointment because he isn’t perfect or better. Also following from this, bad relationship with his parents and they’re quite absent.
Older brother to a sister who’s a few years younger than him. He’s very good at being an older brother and sacrifices a lot for her. Following from this, he cooks for her a lot but he isn’t that good at cooking so it’s just the most mediocre and basic things [again, because he’s just okay at a lot of things].
Bonus hcs:
Big brown eyes that go all soft and dark when he’s sad about something
Token neurotypical who understands Cady’s autism so well. This is based off me and my partner, but if somethings too loud for her [like when a train pulls in] but doesn’t go on long enough to need headphones, he puts his hands over her ears. Cady is equally as understanding about his anxiety [however. Cady and Aaron do not date that long because Cady was mostly just a bit hyperfixated and needed to fit in. For awhile, Aaron is convinced this is because he did something wrong even though it Isnt]
Jumps up and down!!! Thank you!!!! < is thinking excessively about Janis and Damian
To note, I mix Barrett!Janis and Auli’i!Janis into a weird mix and Damian is whoever you want
Janis specific hcs:
• Autistic but doesn’t mask anymore, mostly out of spite. Also anger issues. And depression. And trauma.
• Go to coping mechanism is firstly punch a wall and regret it, then it’s do art.
• Her love language is physical touch. She loves to be physically close to people and just drapes herself over whoever’s closest.
• Speaks really good French but frequently doesn’t actually work in the class. She skips classes all the time because they’re just So Much.
• She gets headaches constantly. Whether it’s because she’s stressed of because she doesn’t drink water, that’s not something she’s willing to check.
• Her favourite food is burgers with everything on them.
• Janis’ mum dyes Janis’ hair whenever she’s having a really bad time. Janis struggles to do it herself, so it just becomes a Thing her mum does for her when she’s struggling and needs to change something. Her mum also taught her all the elaborate hair styles she does.
• Following from the above, in the movie musical specifically, I hc every cool hairstyle Cady had, Janis did for her.
Janis and Damian:
• Planned so much of their revenge at 3am on call with each other. Damian has a whiteboard in his room and they would just write the most batshit insane things they might do to get revenge and see what sticks in the morning. This is how they came up with calling Regina&Co “the plastics”.
• Have genuinely known each other forever.
Damian:
• Really good relationship with his mum, but not a very good relationship with his dad and doesn’t see him very often.
• Trans, came out mid-middle school and his mum was so supportive, absolute hype-woman when he chose his name.
• Gets super attached to people far too quickly and doesn’t really know how to deal with the rejection of when people don’t get the same level of attached back.
• Favourite food is pizza.
• Post-spring fling, ends up really good friends with Karen. They’ve always been sort to friends until Regina put a hard stop to it, but he just loves her vibes.
• He has ADHD!
I probably have more but this was getting so long but I am !!!!!! Also not to self promote but I have a Janis angst hurt/comfort fic on a03 [my a03 is ohbrightnewday] which has Janis and Damian!! Also sadness
You're new and you don't know things, you need good friends who can tell you what to think. See you here same time tomorrow. On Wednesdays, we wear pink.
i think i always understood (that a ship could never really love an anchor)
NOTE!! I'm @/letalloursingingfollowhim on a03, where this is also posted The fic on a03
Junior year was supposed to be a fresh start for Janis. Obviously she was over it.
(DO YOU MISS ME? The page said all over, indented five or six pages past the one Janis had inked.)
[A Janis character study with a focus on her past with Regina and friendship with Damian - 2234 words]
Warning for depictions of self-harm (not necessarily with the intent to harm - Janis just punches a wall) and flashbacks.
Everyone said she was better. She had been “better” since the first day of Sophomore year.
They said: “Janis went to therapy! Of course she’s better now.”
And they said: “Oh I know Janis. She’s weird. But she’s better now. She’s normal.”
September was never a good month at school. The change, the adjustments, the quiet contemplation Janis always considered of who the hell she was going to be this year if being herself was too much.
But she was normal now. She was stable. She was better.
French had never been a particularly engaging class for the years Janis had taken it, but it was rare that she ever minded how dull it was. She was good at French, and Madame knew that, so she had the privilege to do as little as possible and still pass with a solid A. This year, Janis sat towards the back of the classroom, although it was further from the corner than she would have preferred, a hiding spot she often took in classrooms – if she was in the corner, she could see everyone before they saw her, assess who was in the classroom, assess how they felt towards her. Janis had done this for years.
In her seat, Janis watched the class with wary eyes, with something curled in her chest, explosive and pounding. Something deep and something old, like a wound that will simply not close no matter how many times it scabs over; something that has already left a permanent scar for existing.
Junior year was supposed to be a fresh start.
Years had passed since Janis was twelve at Regina’s birthday party; now she had Damian, and now, she even had Cady. This all signified she was so much better.
Cady was sat closer to the front, listening intently to their teacher. Janis always admired that about Cady, the subtle facial expressions she pulled when someone spoke, like the whole world was new and exciting, everything an opportunity to explore and sink her teeth into. Perhaps Janis was once like that, she thought.
Now ignoring her teacher, carefully, Janis pulled the thread through one of her drawings, sewing the lines with precision across a multitude of flowers. This always calmed her and would always stop the horrible swirling feeling in her chest when things began to get too much, calmed the way she felt like everything might just combust. She was quick with the threads, her hands moving over and over themselves as she zoned out the sound of Madame droning on and on about the past participle – maybe this would be on tomorrow’s pop quiz, but she didn’t much care. Not for the moment.
The uncomfortable feeling of burning pressure still rested inside her chest, still as deep as when she began to sew, her hands worked even quicker, faster than she had ever seen them work, an unconscious and desperate attempt to stop the way she felt. This would be fine. It was fine.
“Janice?” Her “French name”.
Janis blinked.
“Janice? Ça va? What did I just say?”
They weren’t supposed to do that. They weren’t supposed to imply she wasn’t listening when she was drawing or sewing. They weren’t supposed to do that.
“Bien,” Janis spat, her hands still pulling the thread around and around, the feeling in her chest slowing rising to a peak as she glared daggers at her teacher. It was small, but it felt like the whole world to Janis, constricting her chest and dulling her breathing.
Janis had mastered the look of anger that seemed to penetrate her constant gaze. When she was younger, her stare was something numb, as dull and as muted as she felt for years. But with a blank stare came more comments, more hurtful words thrown at her – for as small and as quiet as she tried to make herself for some time, no one once relented with their harm. So, her solution had quickly become give them the same back. The same anger and spite, something strong and powerful. Janis refused to keep being a victim in her story, but for the strong façade she kept up, the something underneath was still difficult to hide. The something that every single person seemed to think no longer existed.
There was a quiet beat before her teacher narrowed her eyes and replied, “D’accord… Cady?”
Janis watched as Cady perked up, her head bobbing up and down as she gleefully replied to whatever stupid question she was being asked.
It was all stupid Janis thought suddenly.
This class. The way she felt. Her haphazardly sewn piece of artwork. The way people expected her to be better.
It was all so stupid.
She left.
She would have had more rage to it if she wasn’t acutely aware that she was being glared at by everyone as she tossed her drawing onto the table, leaving it aside, as she grabbed her bag and walked with as much confidence as she could out of her French class.
It was worse. The feeling in her chest was worse. The pressure hurt and her bones felt as though they wanted to escape, something just so deep she wasn’t sure she would ever get rid of it.
There was a bathroom at the very end of the third-floor language hallway, something tiny and only ever used by students to smoke - Janis knew it was often unoccupied. It had become her favourite “get away” spot for the past two years and, even thought she had told herself over and over again before the beginning of the year that she wouldn’t ever need a “get away” spot again, she still found herself flinging her backpack to the ground and clutching the sink like her life depended on it after slamming the heavy, blue door shut.
Telling Cady about her want for revenge at Regina seemed like an excellent idea at the time, bringing Cady into it was perfect. Janis knew she would end up on top by the end, but God, if seeing and worse, studying, Regina every single day didn’t make her want to start crying. Or start yelling. Or both at the same time.
In front of the mirror, Janis couldn’t help but stare at herself, half expecting the twelve-year-old girl she once was to stare back too. Instead, her hair was just above her shoulders, half tied up at the back with blue-green ends, her face covered in the most creative make up she could think of. Janis was so unique.
Unique.
A sob rose in her throat.
She never wanted to be like this, to be so different, so unique. Her style was a permanent reminder of what could have been, something that made her ache for a past that didn’t really exist because, and she desperately tried to reason with herself about because… Regina was never her friend. Not really. And… even if she had liked Gretchen and Karen and they were sweet and fun and… it was nothing. It was never real.
It was never real.
The sob broke free from her throat and Janis’ hands trembled as she pushed away from the sink and, shakily, opened the zipper of her black backpack and pulled out the first notebook and pen she could find.
With her eyes wet with tears, Janis sank to the floor and uncapped the pen lid and began to scrawl, her letters looped over each other and merged into the next, crossing over and under and all across the page she had open. It was a mess – she meant it to be messy, it was supposed to stop the tears and quell the infernal rage that began to fill her chest, replacing the heavy, swirling pressure.
DO YOU MISS ME? The page said all over, indented in five or six pages past the one that Janis had inked.
Her letters screamed, large and loud, bold and brash, her pen gripped with fiery intent as she turned the page and kept writing. In a moment, her denim jacket felt far too suffocating, so she tore it off and it landed half way across the bathroom as another sob tore through her chest.
“Fuck,” she growled to herself as, after the jacket, went the notebook, the pages lying crumpled in a pile near the door. That had barely done anything more than add fuel to the fire.
Suddenly, Janis stood up on trembling legs and turned to the nearest wall as a blind rage pushed past anything else. She could remember every fucking detail of being twelve.
Before she could consider anything else, her fist found the linoleum wall and she couldn’t stop herself. Over and over and over, her fist pounded the white linoleum as she continued to sob, everything coming down on her all at once. It was everything all at once and her hand was throbbing, but she did not care. She could not care. Not anymore. She had to get rid of the feeling.
“Janis?”
If Janis had processed the voice correctly, she would have felt an immediate relief of safety, but rather, it sounded distorted, wrong, close to Regina if she listened hard enough.
“Fuck off!” she cried out, still hitting the wall as crimson began to bloom in the new cracks on her knuckles.
“Jesus Christ, Janis!” The voice was Damian, she recognised all at once, who ran over to pull her into a hug, something tight and warm and reassuring.
“Fuck- “she hiccupped, face blotchy and damp. “Fuck…” she repeated, slower, suddenly melting into the hug of her best friend. “Damian.”
“Come here, you,” Damian spoke, slow, as he cradled Janis in his arms, lowering them both to sitting on the floor.
It didn’t matter that this was an unused girl’s bathroom, all that mattered to Janis was that she was suddenly safe and enveloped in warmth.
“I’m sorry,” she croaked, her voice weak against Damian’s arm where she lay her head.
“Don’t you apologise to me, Sarkisian,” Damian replied holding her tighter. “When I got the text from Cady saying you’d just walked out of French class I knew something was wrong but fuck, you don’t make it easy to find you,” he laughed weakly, deciding to not yet look at the damage Janis had done to her hand.
“It – was too much.” Janis replied breathlessly.
“What was?”
“Everything.”
She sounded so weak in the moment, so incredibly defeated. Her chest didn’t swirl with anger anymore, there was no pent-up rage or distress, and memories were no longer littering the back of her eyelids when she closed them tight. Tears were still flowing, but they were silent and choked – she was so tired.
“I don’t think I’m better.” Janis paused, prying her face away from Damian’s arm to look him in the eyes. “I don’t… know. I don’t know.” She had never known.
“You’re not expected to be better, sweetie. Who told you that?”
“I – It…” she took a deep breath. “It was supposed to be a fresh start this year… like every year. I wasn’t going to let… her… hurt me anymore. Not let – myself remember.” Tears began to flow down Janis’ cheeks a little quicker as she spoke and Damian gently wiped them with his free hand.
“You say this every year,” he hummed, like he was musing it over.
“It’s worse.”
“Is it Cady?”
Janis tensed in his arms; her eyes suddenly guarded.
“She likes her, Dame. I can see it. I can see it in her eyes when she spends time with us; she – she likes spending time with Regina and… Regina will hurt her. Or –“she took a shuddering breath, “Or Cady will hurt us.”
“The little slice wouldn’t do that, you’ve seen Cady.”
Janis felt so stupid. She always felt so stupid after she panicked, the raw vulnerability cloying. Why would Cady ever hurt them?
“I know.” She didn’t know.
“Can I see your hand?” Damian then asked as Janis offered her bloodied knuckles to him, wincing as he took her hand softly. “Up we get.”
Standing, blood rushed to Janis’ head, and she was unsteady on her feet as Damian guided her over to the sink, turning the tap onto cold and lifting her hand underneath. It looked terrible, possibly one of the worst he had ever seen Janis hurt her hand before. Blue and purple began to blossom underneath the crimson red of the blood and angry looking swelling.
Underneath the sink, Janis’ hand trembled, both from the pain and the residual emotion that still coursed through her body. Carefully, Damian grabbed a blue paper towel and began to dab at her knuckles and wipe away the dried blood, although it seemed to do very little in making it seem less painful.
“Can I just take you to the nurse?”
“And what? You’ll tell her I went insane and punched a wall?” There was a familiar sarcasm about Janis’ tone that almost made Damian sigh with relief.
“Yeah probably.” He smiled. They could discuss this more later, there was so much more to discuss. “Grab your bag!”
The silent something between Damian and Janis as they left the bathroom together was barely silent, screaming to be discussed at length, but it would do for another day. Another discussion. Perhaps if Janis ever decided to tell Cady the full story.
Random Mean Girls headcanons im unrelenting about [bway musical & movie musical]
• Karen, very platonically, calls Gretchen “honey”, “sweetie” and “baby”, because she knows that’s what people who love each other call each other. Again, it’s so platonic, but Gretchen reciprocates it.
• Janis’ favourite food is burgers and she loves everything on it - as much sauce and salad as possible.
• Cady is autistic.
• Also Cady hates buffets and this was found out because Janis’ and Damian decided it would be a good idea to help her acclimatise to American food. Cady had a meltdown.
• Gretchen has severe but extremely high functioning anxiety. [This is practically canon lmao]
• Gretchen has notes folders on her phone with everyone’s details. She knows your medical history, darkest secrets, favourite food etc.
• Karen is so sensory seeking. She has no idea about her limits because her introception is terrible. She loves crunchy foods and at parties, drinks far too much because she doesn’t realise it’s too much until it’s too much.
• Regina has a terrible relationship with her mum.
• Aaron is very traumatised by his time with Regina and is so shocked when Cady doesn’t display the behaviours that Regina did.
• Betsy Heron has a special interest in parenting and, post spring-fling, her house becomes The safe space for Cady and her friends. [Betsy is autistic too]
• Damian fucking loves pizza. Easily eats a large pizza himself. Favourite food.
• Cady adores chicken wings. Janis tells her she’ll hate them because they’re so messy, but Cady adores them.
• Cady is straight, Janis is a lesbian, Damian is gay, Regina is an extremely closeted lesbian, Karen is pan, Gretchen is unlabelled, and Aaron is straight. [Damian is also trans].
• Karen has dyslexia and several other undiagnosed learning disabilities / neurodivergencies.
• Cady hates the taste and feeling of alcohol. Still drinks at every single party though.
I know ive focused on some characters more, but these are just the headcanons that I’m so about. The hcs that are my definite, if that makes sense. Feel free to send asks and ask more about different hcs!!! I have so many thoughts
snowghoul
romaincrisis
stormborns
kaledo-art
gummygunk
2087
kianamaiart
izzy806
