Elizabeth "Betty" Cooper...the sixteen year old, picture perfect cheerleader who wrote for the school newspaper, a hobby started by her and her amazing boyfriend's ambition to catch Jason Blossom's murderer. She lived most of her life in an ideal, normal family household until her older sister became pregnant with Jason's baby and dark secrets were soon unveiled. These were the moments her mother became an enemy in her eyes. She had always been a bit strict, but lately, with the mind of a rebellious teenager, Betty had begun to despise the woman who gave birth to her and brought her up with such tender love and care. Where had her attitude stemmed from all of a sudden? Why had her mother suddenly become so obsessed with keeping Betty at home at all times and away from the outside world? One could only guess. Though Betty wouldn't have to guess for long.

One night, Elizabeth had found herself coughing and sneezing up in the family attic as she searched for an old photo album to show her boyfriend, Forsythe Pendleton "Jughead" Jones the Third. Searching through boxes of dusty old dolls and baby clothes, the blonde rolled her eyes at her mother's insistence to hoard all of their memories into their, soon to collapse, attic. She waved a bit of dust out of her face after throwing a cardboard box of stuffed animals aside, finding another beneath it. The top of it read "Alice: High School." Before even thinking of her option to NOT open it, Betty knelt in front of the box and began to look through.

Some old VHS tapes and 8-track tapes were piled up inside as Betty dug through them. She pulled out an old yearbook and opened to the dog-eared page. Smiling down upon the photo of her mother and father as prom king and queen, she suddenly frowned. Her mind had gone to a dark place, once again...something that had been happening all too often lately. The photo sent her to a flashback of her mother's conversation with her about her mother and father's eventful prom night. She remembered how FP, Jughead's father, had almost let it slip that Betty may have a secret sibling out there somewhere and that dear old Dad had suggested abortion to her teen mother at the time.

Why had everything fallen apart lately? Why couldn't Betty go back in time to before Jason's murder and before Polly had gotten pregnant? Things were better then...for her, for her sister, for her father, for her mother. Well...wait! Betty had found something. Her hand felt a familiar weight in it and she pulled out, what she had rightfully guessed was, an old composition notebook. Otherwise known as….an old diary. Her mother's. WERE things better for her mother before? Betty had to know.

With the knowledge that Jughead had been waiting for her long enough, she decided to only read the first page she opened to, intending on hiding it afterward to come back to it later for some more reading. Her thumb found a page toward the end and she opened the dusty thing to read what her eyes befell upon.

"Dear Future Alice, I hope you're still there. Lord knows it's a miracle I've made it this far already. I'm sorry you can't read so much about this passed year. So much has happened since...well, since that night. Well, you know. You were there. I...well, you...well...you and I….WE finally convinced our parents to move to the Northside after IT happened. We tried to run away, but we both know that didn't go as planned. So, turns out we had to tell Mama and Papa the truth about everything. I couldn't keep it a secret anymore. Not after...well, you know. So...here I am. 17 years old and guess what! Today is the day of our senior prom, Alice! I'd say I were excited if only I didn't have to tell Hal the news. If you really ARE there, Future Alice...then you know that yesterday I took my first pregnancy test. I'm filled with joy, fear, and confusion as well as uncertainty. I wish time travel were invented already. Is it invented where YOU are? If so...could you please show up right now and tell me how I'm supposed to tell Hal that I think the baby might be FP's?"

Wide-eyed Betty slammed the diary shut the moment she read those words. Her long lost brother could, in fact, be Jughead's long lost brother?! She looked around in shock before bolting out of the attic and heading to her bedroom where Jughead lay on her bed, playing with one of the knick-knacks on her nightstand.

The 16 year old outcast lifted his head upon his girlfriend's arrival to her room. He smiled at her, though his smile slowly faded when he saw the look of shock on her face as she stood completely frozen in her doorway. "What is it, Betty?" He grew nervous as he noticed one of her hands behind her back. Betty used her free hand to close her bedroom door, locking it behind her. Jughead grew worried as he'd never known her to lock her door before, knowing her mother would kill her had she done so with a boy in the house. "What's going on?" He asked once more with a shaky tone. Her pale, well...more pale than usual, face and refusal to talk was beginning to make his heart pound with aching anticipation. "Betty." He spoke as she finally found the strength to move and sit on the bed beside him.

She stumbled over her words when she first tried to speak. "Re...remember how I told you that I have a long lost brother out there somewhere?" Her tone was eerily quiet and she spoke very slowly.

"Yeah. Why?"

Staring at the floor of her bedroom, Betty found it difficult to look at him if the writings in her mother's diary were true. "Turns out...you may have one, too."

"What?" He smiled, wondering if it were a joke. "A long lost sibling? Do I have another sister or something?" He laughed.

"No...Jug." The intensity in her face caused his smile to vanish. "A long lost brother." Her expression changed to a combination of hurt, sadness, and disgust all in one. "MY long lost brother."

"Wh-what do you mean?" Jughead's expression remained confused. Betty finally held the diary in his sight upon her own lap. Staring down at it, she bit her lower lip, feeling a stab in her heart upon the news. "What's that?" Her disoriented boyfriend asked with a slightly panicked tone.

"It's my mother's diary." She finally looked into his eyes with a hint of panic herself. "From when she was in high school."

"You're not-" Before Jug could continue, Betty opened the notebook to the page she had kept her finger in and handed him the book, indicating that he had to read it.

The air was painfully silent during and after he read the entry. He briefly took off his hat to scratch his head. Returning the crown back to his head of dark hair, he stood, pacing the room. "Jug." Betty, freaking out herself, tried her best to stay calm.

"Might!" Jughead stopped midstep. "She said it MIGHT be my dad's."

"Yeah?" Betty watched him resume pacing.

"So...it could still be YOUR dad's!" He said with hope.

"Yes, of course. But, Jug…"

"What?" He stopped again, looking down at her.

"It still COULD be yours. We could…" She swallowed, finding it disturbing to say. She almost whispered the rest of her statement. "We could have the same half brother."

"Oh my God." He said quietly to himself. "Oh my God." He said a bit louder. "Oh my God!" He whispered loudly. "Well, does it say? Is it in the next entry? Who the father is?"

"I don't know, Juggie! I stopped reading it."

"Well, we gotta read more!" He lunged for the journal on the edge of her bed, but she snatched it quickly, hiding it behind her back again and she walked around to the other side of her bed.

"No. This is my mom's diary. We shouldn't have even read the one entry." Though she felt more than tempted to find out herself, the good part of her knew that it was wrong to invade her mother's past life privacy and she also wasn't sure if she wanted to know the answer.

"Your mom and my dad?" Jughead was trying his best to wrap his head around it. "I wonder what happened there."

"Jughead, no! We're not reading anymore!"

"Well, we can't ask them!" He pointed out.

"Why not?"

"Come on, Betty! We both have liars for parents. If we wanna find out what happened and if we somehow DO have the same brother...we're gonna have to read that diary and we're gonna have to read it now before your parents get home."

Betty's eyes widened once more and she realized...he was right.

"What are you doing?" Betty asked, watching Jughead flip through pages of Alice's diary on the edge of his girlfriend's bed.

"I'm going back to the beginning."

"You're what?! No! We're not gonna invade my mom's privacy anymore than we really need to." She tried to take the notebook back, but he extended his arm too far for her to reach, forcing her face to move closer to his. They suddenly stopped struggling and stared lovingly into each other's eyes before leaning in for a gentle kiss. Soon, the gentleness grew to intensity, which suddenly grew to a very heated kiss and all at once, they both stopped.

"Wait! We, uh…." Jughead began.

"Yeah. We probably shouldn't-"

"At least not until we find out more about this whole…" Jughead sadly smiled.

"Thing." She finished for him with a light nod and a depressing grin of her own.

With a sigh, Jug turned to the first page and began to read aloud….

"Dear Future Alice, I didn't want to write dear diary, 'cause that always seemed kinda stupid to me. So….this is my first journal entry. You and I both know that this was a time in our life where things started to get a bit crazy. Growing up in the home that we grew up in wasn't always easy or fun...but it definitely hadn't been horrible until that first day of high school at Southside...when I first realized how I felt about HIM. The delinquent teenage boy who would change our life forever. Or so...I think. It's only been a year, so I'm not quite sure where you're at in all of this right now. Are you still with FP? I hope you are! Man, I love that boy! I don't care if I have to be a Serpent anymore. As long as I can spend everyday with my Force of Protection (that's what you and I call him because of his initials, FP, Future Alice), I don't mind a little bloodshed. And hell, I've always loved being the tough bitch. Only this time….it may actually end in death. Sure, I love to beat the hell outta someone, but I don't wanna be a killer. That was all evident after today's events. You know what I mean. I won't write it down though, in case the cops get ahold of this or something. Anyway, I'm gonna get back to my English homework. Hopefully I ace this test that's coming and I can become the President of the Red and Black school newspaper. FP thinks I'm lame for being a nerdy gang member, but hey. I don't always have to be part of this gang, right? Eventually I'll get out and graduate and I'll be the best damn journalist there ever was. Or maybe I'll write a novel...or a movie! Hey, Future Alice, are you in Hollywood there?! That would be amazing!"

"My mom was a nerd?" Betty choked on her words.

"Not just a nerd. A nerdy gang member." Jughead added with a sigh. "A nerdy gang member in love with my father."

Betty took the notebook and read another entry, a few pages ahead.