Cardi‘s parents are nearly hit by a bus as they drop her off on her first day of school, which seems to foreshadow Regina’s unfortunate bus accident at the end of the film.
Cardi also described what it was like seeing Aaron Samuels for the first time, being run over by “a big yellow school bus”.
While North Shore High School isn’t real, it is said to have been inspired by New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, just outside Chicago.
The fictional school has a well-defined mascot (the lion) and colors (blue and yellow), which can be seen throughout the film on posters, workout clothes, and letter jackets.
The mascot fits perfectly with Caddy’s often metaphorical parallels between high school and the African savannah, as lions are kings of the animal kingdom.
When Cardi bumped into Ms. Norbury on the first day of school, it led to the teacher spilling her drink and fumbling around with a box of donuts.
She was clearly wearing brown pants when the drink was spilled on her. But when she took off her soggy sweater, her pants had magically turned black.
Also, when Principal Duvall introduces Caddy, the donut pops up on the box that Ms. Norbury put on the table and disappears again.
When Duvall was in Ms. Norbury’s class, he said his carpal tunnel flared up over the summer and held up his arm in a cast as evidence.
According to ScreenRant, Tim Meadows, who plays the principal, actually broke his hand before they started filming, so they quickly added lines to explain the cast.
element
When Cardi asked to use the bathroom in her science class, the blackboard behind the teacher displayed a list of elements.
One of the elements, silicon, was misspelled. But that may have been a deliberate mistake, since silicone (written on the board) is a commonly used material in plastic surgery, and the school queen bee calls herself plastic.
In the montage of Caddy’s first day at school, she is yelled at by a German teacher. But she later told Damian she was taking Spanish lessons.
There are a lot of brand names that appear and are mentioned throughout the movie , which is initially apparent when Cardi goes to lunch on the first day of school.
The tables she passed had products from Dasani, Coca-Cola, Red Bull, Gatorade, and Doritos.
Later, when a salesperson at a fictional store tells Regina she can’t fit her size five dress, she tells her to try the real-life department store, Sears.
When Giannis and Damian first decided to be friends with Caddy, they both wore statement T-shirts.
Giannis said ” garbage ” and Damian said “I see ugly people”.
These shirts set them apart from their fashion-forward classmates and further cemented their outsider status at school.
To help Caddy adjust to North Shore High, Janis drew her a very detailed map with a cross-section of the dining hall.
It marks the different tables where the school’s many small groups sit, and there are even arrows showing which parts of the lunch line sell different kinds of sad cafeteria food.
She also put up a “You are here” sign next to the soccer field, which is where Giannis, Damian and Cardi sat on the first day.
Next to a row of trees, she wrote: “Makeup area alert! There is sex in these woods.
When Ms. Norberry meets Caddy, Damian, and Janis at the mall before her bartending job, she wears an embellished tank top that the high school students make fun of before they realize who’s wearing it.
The vest is adorned with numerous pins including “Never Stop Learning” and “Say What? There’s also a vintage clown patch.
When Cardi first visited Regina’s home, Mrs. George greeted them in a pale pink velvet tracksuit.
Throughout the film, we learn more about the mother’s affinity for staying young and being with high school students, but this is the first time we’ve seen Mrs. Jerrog trying to be part of the plastic.
As we learn, when the girls told Katie the group’s rules, Wednesday, they wore pink — and apparently, Mrs. George abides by those rules, too.
When Cardi walked in on Giannis and Damian in her “ex-wife” costume on Halloween to scare them, they appeared to be watching “Friday the 13th: Part 2” based on the VHS box on top of the TV.
But there are a few other visible VHS boxes nearby, including one from ” Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets .”
The film’s signature talent show — Plastic Band performing ” Jingle Bells ” and Kevin G rapping — is clearly holiday-themed.
But a flyer in the girls’ bathroom said the event took place on the 27th of October 2003.
Not only is it a bit early for a winter break theme, but that year is the Thanksgiving date, so it’s unlikely there will be a school event on that day.
The plastic band’s performance of “Jingle Bells” in sexy Santa costumes is one of the most iconic parts of the film.
The dresses they all wear are apparently made of shiny plastic material, a possible allusion to their group’s name.
In the scene where Damian hands out candy canes and utters the memorable line, “Four for you Glenn Cocoa. You go, Glenn Cocoa,” on the chalkboard behind him is a line from “Two noblemen relative”.
This play by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher follows three queens seeking vengeance – not unlike the queen bee in Mean Girls .
After winter break, Cady starts taking math exams on 14th <>, which seems to be a rather long wait for scores, especially since the exams started last semester.
Plastic wears funky outfits throughout the movie that go on to become iconic.
Since they have so many rules about what they wear, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to assume they’re against repeating clothing. But Gretchen has put her Argyle sweater back on since her first day at school, when she comforted Regina after her split from Aaron.
Throughout the film, Cardi embraces becoming a plastic and slowly transforms into a copycat Regina George.
One scene of this variation is when she shows up at school after winter break wearing a “C” necklace that looks a lot like the “R” necklace Regina wears throughout the movie .
Regina’s room is large — she says she stole it from her parents — and it’s decorated in rich reds and pinks.
Despite her grown-up tastes, her room is littered with soft toys, including a Hello Kitty on her dresser .
When Cardi first asked Gretchen to “crack,” Gretchen told her that Regina wouldn’t let either of them wear hoop earrings because they were her “thing.” She couldn’t even wear the platinum hoop her parents bought for Hanukkah.
Later in the film, after the plastic kicks Regina out of the group, Cardi cements her status as the new ultimate queen bee by donning a pink hoop at her house party.
When Aaron was looking through photos in Caddy’s room during her party, he came across a guy who rode elephants in Africa as a child, where she grew up.
But based on the size and shape of the elephant’s ears, it appears to be an Asian rather than an African species.
Janis submitted a painting of herself, Damian and Caddy to her art show.
The drawing depicts Cardi at the start of the school year before the makeover — especially her hair, which is styled in the same ponytail she wore on her first day of school.
At the beginning of the film, Cardi mentions that her family moved to Illinois for her mother’s new job at Northwestern University, located in Evanston, just outside of Chicago .
There are also Illinois license plates visible throughout the film, and the Mathletes compete in the Illinois High School State Championships to further cement the Midwestern setting.
Coach Carl is a dubious sex ed teacher at best, and in a second health class scene, he even misspells a common STI .
As he wrote the list on the blackboard, he started spelling Chlamydia with a “K.”
When the girls were called into the principal’s office to discuss the burn book, an authentic Northwest Wildcats pennant hung in the background.
Given the high school’s proximity to colleges, Northwestern may be Duval’s alma mater.
After being crowned Queen of Spring Fling, Cardi used her speech to denounce the title and tossed her crown in pieces to other nominees and students.
It’s a sweet and memorable gesture, but there’s no way the plastic crown is big enough for her to hand out as many pieces as she does and still have a big chunk for herself.
During the Spring Carnival, Mr. Duvall announced that students crowned King and Queen will receive two gift certificates to the Walker Brothers Pancake House.
Also known as the Original Pancake House, this restaurant is a true chain in Illinois.
At the beginning of the movie, Damian implies that Regina is no longer friends with Janis because she considers herself a lesbian, which Regina later explicitly confirms.
Giannis hastily stops talking whenever someone brings it up, but a short scene at the end of the film seems to be the punchline for the joke.
When Kevin catches Giannis dancing at the Spring Fest, he asks her if she’s Puerto Rican, and she replies that she’s Lebanese — possibly implying that Regina just doesn’t know the difference between a lesbian and a Lebanese.
Throughout the movie, Gretchen follows Regina’s rule about not wearing hoop earrings.
But at the end of the film, as Cardi recounts how everyone ended up, the camera pans to Gretchen in the diner, finally donning her beloved hoop.