Introducing Scene: Hal, (the black hood) has just gone to jail under several charges of Homicide and the attempted murder of his wife and daughter, Alice and Betty Cooper. Polly, Betty's older sister, taking advantage the situation, convinced her mother of the powers of the farm. Attempting to do the same with Betty. After numerous trials and refusals with Betty, Polly and Alice leave, moving out to the farm together. Leaving Betty behind. For a few months, the blonde female lives on her own. Refusing to tell anyone of her issues except for her dear friend Veronica, for fear of shattering any last pieces of her reputation as the perfect girl next door . With the rare emotional support of Veronica when needed, the female gradually finds a way to get back on her feet. Getting a job at Pop's Chock Lit shop and supporting herself day by day. Life begins to smooth out for the Cooper teenager until one warm March morning before school.
Chapter One; An Unexpected Visit
'Beep! Beep! Beep!' the shrill call of an alarm rang through the Cooper house. Signifying the start of Betty Cooper's day. Groaning, the blonde sat up. Not snoozing her alarm until she was completely out of her bed and awake to avoid the risk of falling back asleep. It had taken the teenager three months, but she had finally gotten her morning schedule to a point. 5:00- Wake up. Shower. 5:30- Get dressed. Make breakfast. 6:00- Makeup. Head out for school. Betty's schedule ensured she was never in a panic to rush out of the door. Raking her hands through her hair, the female yawned and headed for her bathroom. Turning on the water and laying out towels and a fresh outfit. Stripping off her pajamas, the female stepped into the shower. Allowing the warm droplets of water hitting her skin to distract her from any thoughts of stress or work that lay ahead.
After a few moments of relaxing in the shower, Betty stepped out and wrapped herself in a towel. Ringing out the water in her hair with a smaller one. Once her hair was dry enough, she set down the towel heading back into her room and sitting down on her bed for a moment before getting dressed. Laying back, the blonde stared up at the ceiling that had shielded her from so much over the years. Sighing gently, the teenager smiled. Something told her today was going to be a good day. Sitting up, she glanced over at the outfit she had chosen which was laying on her dresser. Standing up and walking over, she grabbed her clothes and began to get dressed. Slipping on her undergarments and a pair of white skinny jeans. Mid way into pulling on her shirt, her doorbell rang out. Announcing someone at the door. Strange. Betty didn't recall making plans with someone this early. No matter. Pulling her shirt on all the way, Betty grabbed a hair-tie and began pulling her hair up into her neat, signature ponytail. With her hands raking her hair into place, she headed down the stairs. Another round of bombarding doorbell ringing starting again.
"Just a sec!" The female called out towards the door.
Looping her hair tie once more around before reaching for the door handle. Unlocking the door and twisting the metal knob, she swung open the large wood door. A look of surprise crossed the blondes face, quickly replaced with joy as she greeted her guest.
"Jughead! What're you doing here? You usually only walk me on Friday?" Betty said, both happy and confused at the sudden visit.
In the doorway stood Jughead, his motorcycle helmet under his arm and his beanie pulled on over his messy black hair.
"Betty. We should talk." The male said, his face a mix of anger and concern.
The blonde stopped in her tracks. Nodding and stepping out of the way so he could come in.
"Yeah- yeah sure. What's up?" The blonde said, racking through her mind trying to find what he may want to talk about.
Had he found out? No, of course not. Veronica had promised not to tell anyone.
"Where's your mom? Is she home?"Jughead questioned, looking around.
He already knew the answer. She was gone. Had been for months. The day previous, him and Veronica had been bickering. As they did on occasion, when Veronica spewed out that he was a terrible boyfriend for not knowing. Once Jughead asked for explanation, everything had come tumbling out. The truth about Betty. Her real reason for constantly being tired, the actual need for her job at pops.
"We're home alone right now. She just headed out. Heading up to visit Polly at the farm for a bit." The female responded almost too naturally. That's what she had been telling herself since they left.
Jughead let out a small laugh. Covering his eyes with his hand for a moment, she was lying.
"Jughead.. what's wrong?" The Cooper questioned, reaching out for his hand.
Pulling away, the irritated teenager stormed up the stairs, Betty following close behind. Turning at the top of the stairs, he headed for his girlfriend's parents room. Bursting through the door and looking around. Before him lay a barren room. Void of any life or human interaction of any sort.
"Jug… I can explain. She's-" Betty began, Jughead quickly cutting her off. Standing outside of the doorway staring at Jughead gently.
"Just out visiting Polly, right?" He said, turning back to her with a scowl. "When will you stop lying, Betty? Veronica told me everything. Ev-er-ry-thing!" The male said, breaking up the last word into it's beginning syllables.
"She what?" The female coughed out, her face going pale. "No. You! You weren't supposed to know. Nobody was!" The female said, clenching her hands into fists.
"And why not, Betty? Do you not trust me, or Archie? What reasoning could you possibly have behind keeping this sort of secret from me?" Jughead said, throwing his hands up into the air.
"No! Of course not! I trust you, I do! It's just-" the female paused. Searching for some way to word it without sounding selfish.
"Just- what, Betty? What?" Jughead said, impatient.
"I want the one good aspect of my life to remain, normal! Being the perfect girl next door is all I have left." Betty shouted out, she could feel the pressure of tears in her eyes. Blinking them back, she awaited some sort of reaction out of Jughead, a response of any kind.
"Betty, you don't have to be the perfect girl next door! Not around me, not around Arch or V." Jughead said, taking a step towards the blonde.
"I know I don't have to, Jug! But I want to be! My father is a murderer, my mother and sister are both part of some barn cult! Some part of my life has to be normal!" Betty choked out, blinking viciously in an attempt to rid her eyes of tears. "I… just wanna be normal, Juggie." She said, shifting her eyes to her feet as she spoke.
"Betty. Look at me." Jughead said, walking over and cupping her cheek. Tilting her head back up so he could meet her eyes. "Normal or not. You're still my Betty Cooper… and I'll love you. No matter what. You hear me?" Jughead said, looking into her soft green eyes.
"You're lucky I'm not wearing makeup Jughead Jones. Because you would have just ruined it." Betty said, with a small laugh.
"Well I do hope you'll forgive me, but I don't think I'm too sorry. I'm still upset at you for keeping this secret from me." The male said, moving his hand down from her face to her shoulders. "I'm worried about you. If I had known I could have helped." He said, looking at his girlfriend gently.
"That's exactly it, Jughead! That's why you shouldn't know. You shouldn't feel the need to help me! You were in the same situation as me at one point, worse even! And look at you now." The female paused, taking a breath to collect her thoughts. "You ended up with some aspect of your family back together. If I have any chance at that, I have to solve this on my own." She said, bringing up her hand to grab his off her shoulder. Intertwining their fingers as the Raven haired male thought of a response.
"Betty, there was a period of time where I stayed with Archie while everything smoothed out. You know that." The male said, pointing out the facts that his girlfriend had so obviously ignored.
"Yeah but-" She began, Jughead cutting her off.
"No buts. We both know that I started doing better when I stayed with Archie. You need people surrounding you a home. You shouldn't be alone so much." Jughead said, pausing so she could process his thinking. "Now, I'm not giving you an option on this because you're stubborn and with how previous portions of this conversation have gone, I'm assuming you won't be fond of this idea immediately." The male began. Pausing once more.
"Alright. I'm listening." The teenager said, somewhat confused as to what her boyfriend's mind could have conjured up as a solution.
"Four out of seven days of the week, I'm staying here, or you're staying in the trailer. Either way. You're in the same residents as me so I can confidently say I know you're getting enough sleep, eating, and everything is alright in that busy brain of yours." Jughead said. The statement wasn't up for debate. After being in the dark for so long, he needed some piece of mind that he helped.
"Fine. We'll talk about this later. Right now though, we need to get to school." The female said. She was somewhat irritated by the persistence of her boyfriend, yet also relieved. Being alone had grown tiring. Though she wasn't sure having Jughead on her about sleeping and eating was her idea of good company either.
"Good. Have you eaten yet?" The male asked. He knew that she would probably want to put on some sort of makeup, as she did most days. So if she needed to do that, he could go make her some breakfast. When the blonde shook her head, Jughead released her shoulders. "You go finish getting ready. I'll make you some food. Does toast sound okay?" The male asked, heading towards the stairs.
"Actually there are some grapes in the fridge. If you could just put some of those into a bag that'd be great." The female said with a smile, Jughead nodding and giving a thumbs up in response as he headed down the stairs. Turning and heading towards her room, she sat down and began on the small task of applying her makeup. Downstairs, Jughead fished through the fridge. Pulling out a large bag of green grapes and grabbing a few off the stem, washing them off and setting them on the counter while he fished around cabinets and drawers for a bag to put them in. After a moment, he found them in a small drawer next to the stove. Pulling a plastic baggie from the box within the drawer, Jughead walked back over to the counter with the grapes. Scooping them up and placing them into the bag. Zipping it shut. Almost a second later, Betty came hopping down the stairs. Walking over to Jughead with a smile, she grabbed the bag. Thanking him with a kiss.
"We should get going. We'll have to run at this rate." The female said, opening the bag and popping a grape into her mouth.
"I rode my bike here. Let's just ride it to school" Jughead suggested in response. Nodding his head towards the helmet he had left by the front door.
"Fine. Just this once, though. My hair always gets messed up somehow on your bike, though." The Blonde responded, taking his hand and heading towards the front door. The two headed down her drveway and towards Jugheads motorcycle and off towards the rest of their day.