Author's Note:

Thanks again to jandjsalmon for beta'ing this chapter and all her help overall. Also thanks to zombiekittiez whose advise on community theatre I continue to use through the development of the story.

Chapter 4: Whither Wander You

"So what do you want to know?" Betty posed the question to the dark haired woman opposite her.

Veronica clapped her hands together in delight and Betty was taken aback slightly at Veronica's eagerness to know more about the company. She could see the thoughts racing through the brunette's head as she formulated her first question.

"The red headed girl over there with Kevin." Betty followed Veronica's gaze, seeing where Kevin was currently talking with Cheryl. Well, where Cheryl was currently talking at Kevin and he seemed to just be nodding along and trying to get a word in when he could. "How much drama is she, exactly?"

"Cheryl Blossom. My sister-in-law is quite the handful." Betty responded, waiting for the look of shock to leave Veronica's face which was the usual response when she told someone that she was related by marriage to Cheryl Blossom. Poor sweet Betty Cooper.

"Sister-in-Law?" Veronica repeated.

"Yep." Betty took a sip of her drink before explaining. "My older sister Polly married Cheryl's twin brother, Jason. It was quite the scandal when they ran away together after Senior year."

"Wait, back up a second, there are two of them and your sister married one of them." Her incredulity had Betty laughing out loud.

"Yeah, but Jason and Cheryl are nothing alike, not really. Jason is actually quite nice and he loves my sister and that's enough for me. Also twins run in their family." Betty got her phone out of her pocket, scanning through the pictures looking for the most recent photo Polly had sent her of the twins. "This is my niece and nephew," she said proudly as she turned the phone around so that Veronica could see the photo of the two red haired 3 year olds, both smiling big for the camera.

"They are very cute." Veronica smiled at Betty who felt a twinge of sadness that they weren't still living in Riverdale and she did not get to see them nearly as much as she would like.

"They are, and they know it. Polly has her hands full with those two." Veronica handed Betty back her phone, which she placed back in her pocket. "But to answer your original question, Cheryl is drama personified."

"I kinda guessed. She has that air about her."

"Just a word of advice don't get on her bad side. I find it's just best to stay out of her way. She always gets what she wants."

"We'll see. I'm not one to back down from something." Betty envied that kind of confidence that Veronic clearly had in spades. She could tell that she was someone who knew who she was and what she wanted. She wouldn't be the kind of woman who would pineafter a boy the majority of her adult life without doing anything about it.

"Oh, here is my Helena and my Hermia." Kevin must have extricated himself from Cheryl's grasp. He leaned over the back of Betty's side of the booth to drape his arm over her shoulder and gave her a goofy grin. Kevin was a lightweight and already well on his way to an early night. "So how excited are we?" His tone was light and joyful, obviously someone was having a good time.

"Very excited Kev," Betty said, her face and tone of voice conveying the exact opposite.

"Betty was just being kind enough to give me the goss on the rest of the company."

"She is, is she?" Kevin eyed Betty curiously. "So, what has she told you so far?" Kevin took a seat in the booth next to Betty who slid over to let him to sit. He seemed particularly interested in what Betty had shared with their new troupe member.

"She told me about our resident Drama Queen."

"Yeah, Cheryl is a little highly strung. She just tried to convince me to recast Dilton."

"You have to admit Kevin it is an odd choice." Betty added, still trying to work out if Kevin was serious in his casting or it was some elaborate rouse to mess with Cheryl.

"I don't think it is Betty." Kevin took a sip of his drink, musing over his thoughts. "You didn't see his audition. He sold it completely. He is our perfect Bottom." He held out his glass waiting for one of the two girls to cheers him, Veronica clinked her glass against his.

"Well, just as long as we don't have the whole backstage crew on the stage we should be all right," Betty answered, her eyes unconsciously flicking towards the bar where Jughead was wiping a glass but obviously still watching them. Her hands below the table flexed as her fingers came in contact with the bandage covering her fresh wounds, as she was reminded of their conversation earlier. How he had tried to reach for her.

"Don't worry, Betty. I'm sure Jughead will have everything under control behind the scenes. You don't need to worry about him." Kevin replied smugly. Betty's eyes darted back to him at the table as she tried to hide whatever expression it was that he had read from her face. He couldn't know what she was thinking surely.

"Jughead? Mr. Dark and Broody behind the bar?" Veronica asked for confirmation indicating to where Jughead was serving drinks and talking to some of the regulars. Betty forced herself not to glance again in his direction, her eyes trained on the glass in front of her. She took a long sip from her drink, revelling in the feeling of the alcohol slipping down her throat. As she set her glass down again she noticed that both Kevin and now, Veronica were watching her with interest.

She tried her best to wipe any expression from her face, to blankly stare as to not give anything away.

"Yeah, he's a little moody. Always has been. But he mainly keeps to himself, doesn't he, Betty?" Kevin turned to Betty who looked up at him, searching his eyes carefully, trying to work out what, if anything, he knew, before deciding that it didn't matter anyway it was all in the past.

"Well, then," Veronica's tone indicating that she was ready to change onto a new subject. "I would like to know more about the other red head in our little group. I am very much looking forward to some late night rehearsals with that one," she said suggestively. Betty felt her skin prickle at Veronica's words as what she had feared the brunette's intentions towards her crush had come to light.

"Archie," Betty let out. "His name is Archie Andrews." Veronica surveyed the look on Betty's face.

"You two aren't…? Are you? 'Cause I don't want to be that girl." Betty imagined that Veronica had definitely been that girl before. Betty knew that men were attracted to women like Veronica and she was definitely the type to enjoy that kind of attention.

"No, they're not." Kevin chimed in and Betty shot him a look to keep quiet. Veronica held up her hands in surrender.

"If you've got something going on with him I'll back off."

"He's not my boyfriend, he's not my anything." Betty dismissed her feelings. In truth she knew that she was no competition for Veronica, why would Archie ever choose her?

"But you want him to be?" Veronica narrowed her eyes at Betty, looking for her confirmation.

"Well yeah, but..." She did didn't she? He was Archie Andrews, the perfect man, the one for her. She hadn't spent all these years chasing him for nothing. She didn't know how she felt about sharing that with Veronica… but she had never had an ally before. Kevin had always been against the idea of her and Archie. Maybe it wouldn't be so horrible to tell someone else.

"Well, Betty, consider me your fairy godmother sent from Manhattan. You want that boy over there, I will make it happen, if my name isn't Veronica Lodge." Betty noticed the grimace on Kevin's face, but she couldn't help pulling herself up to sit a little straighter in the booth. Maybe with Veronica's help this might be her year after all. "So, we need a plan." Veronica suggested, lacing her fingers together.

Betty took a deep breath as she got ready to enter the small theatre, the scene of the crime. Where a week previous she had completely lost herself on the stage before running out in a panic. She could already start to feel the anxiety building.

She had spent the previous night rehearsing her part while also sending a slew of text messages to Kevin, confirming her character's motivations and asking him multiple questions on her intended performance. Kevin's last message had informed her that he was now turning his phone off and any further messages would go unanswered. Betty was determined not to lose herself on that stage again.

She pushed through the doors and was greeted with the usual busyness that occupied the theatre during the production. The familiarity of it all calmed her nerves slightly. She pulled her ponytail tighter and continued to walk across the room towards the stage.

"Betty!" She turned in the direction of her name and spotted Veronica over by the front row of seats, waving at her emphatically and motioning for her to come and sit beside her. She waved back and started to make her way over when she noticed that Archie was sitting on the other side of her new friend. Hesitating for a second, Betty's heart started to race and Veronica nodded at her to encouragingly seeing the obvious panic in her eyes.

"Hey, Veronica," she greeted in an attempt to sound casual. "Archie." Her voice was squeeky when she looked towards him and she mentally kicked herself for being so awkward around him.

"Hey, Betty. Are you all prepared?" Archie asked her.

"Yeah, I am. Stayed up most of the night." Awkward.

"That's dedication," he replied with a good-natured smile. "I'm still learning my lines." He gave a short laugh, and Betty found herself giggling along with him like a school girl almost as a reflex. A practised response.

"Well, I thought maybe after rehearsals we could all come over to my place, it's not far, to practice some more." Veronica spoke sending a quick wink in Betty's direction. It seemed that Veronica was serious in her commitment that night at the Whyte Wyrm to help Betty.

"I would love to," Archie eagerly responded, and Betty just nodded her head in agreement. She assumed that Moose would be there as well as part of the pair of 'stage lovers'. She hadn't noticed him when she had walked in and quickly glanced around the room but couldn't see him. She guessed that he could be meeting with Kevin in the theatre office.

"Is Moose here yet? I didn't see him on the way in."

"He isn't here yet. He texted me this morning," Archie replied, pulling out his phone looking through to see whether there were any further messages. Before pulling up the most recent one. "Yeah, he said he was going to be here."

"Kevin won't be impressed if he's late," Betty knew that there was no room for slacking off with Kevin in charge. He ran a tight production and if you took that for granted it didn't matter if you had dated the director before or not, you would be cut.

At that moment Kevin entered the main room from the door to his office. He took a quick look around surveying who was present. Not all the company was in attendance today, he had requested just the 4 lovers and a small handful of stage crew in case anything was needed. Betty had seen Jughead seated at the back of the audience seats when she had entered, but she was determined not to let him affect her. She was here to rehearse and nothing else, at least where he was concerned. She wasn't even going to look at him if she could help it.

"Where's Moose?" Kevin asked almost immediately, turning towards Archie waiting for an explanation.

"I was just telling the girls here that I got a text from him this morning telling me he was coming, but I've heard nothing since." Kevin let out a frustrated groan, he swore that actors were the bane of his existence sometimes. He pinched the bridge of his nose, taking in deep breaths, before speaking again.

"Okay, it's fine" He raked his hand through his hair. "Veronica and Archie if we can get you rehearsing first, give him some time to show up along with finding a damn good excuse for why he is late." Betty took a seat in the front row as Archie and Veronica approached the stage.

Betty hated to admit that Veronica was a perfect Hermia, the way she delivered her lines and matched so well with Archie, even though he had to keep looking down to read his lines before saying them. She could see Kevin shifting in his chair, displeased not only with his absent lead but also the one who was still reading almost completely from the script, seemingly without even trying to learn them. Archie always delivered on the night, a flawless performance, but it was a trial throughout most of rehearsal.

Kevin made them repeat their scene a few more times. Betty wasn't sure whether this was the perfectionist in Kevin or the fact that he was buying more time for Moose to show up. When he didn't, Kevin motioned to them to take a seat, while commending Veronica on her performance and urging Archie to learn his lines, or at least make an attempt learning them. Archie flashed a smile at him, which Kevin dismissed, Betty wished she was as immune to his charms as he was. If he flashed the same smile at her she would be putty in his hands.

"Okay, Betty, your turn." Kevin turned towards her and she noticed the gentleness that his tone had taken on when he addressed her. His look one of support as she approached the stage, she brushed her hands over her sweater pulling it down over her hips, straightening her appearance as she made her way up the short set of steps which all of a sudden seemed like an entire staircase. She cleared her throat before she delivered her monologue.

"How happy some o'er other some can be! Through Athens I am thought as fair as she."

She looked towards Kevin who was nodding his encouragement and she continued, feeling that familiar rhythm and confidence wash over her as she continued.

"But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;
He will not know what all but he do know:
And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,"

The words were flowing from her lips in a way that she could remember, the words came easily to her mind, her arms and hands moving to convey her emotion.

"So I, admiring of his qualities:
Things base and vile, folding no quantity,
Love can transpose to form and dignity:
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind:
Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;
Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:
And therefore is Love said to be a child,
Because in choice he is so oft beguiled."

She took in the rest of the room as she spoke, making eye contact with each member who was present her confidence growing and growing as she did so. Her eyes drifted to the back row, where Jughead was sitting. She swore she saw a smile on his face in place of the usual scowl. She wrote it off as a trick of the lights.

"Pursue her; and for this intelligence
If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:
But herein mean I to enrich my pain,
To have his sight thither and back again."

She finished her speech and shifted her attention back to Kevin who was smiling back at her.

"Great Betty, just great, you did seem a bit lost in the middle there but, there is a lot to like there. Let's go another time."

She completed her speech again and again the words flowed through her, she felt that she had her strength and confidence back, her previous panic attack becoming more and more a distant memory. She breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that she had once again cemented herself as a valuable member of the company.

"Okay, let's have you try the confrontation with Demetrius."

"Um, Moose still isn't here?" Archie spoke up from the front row, still seated next to Veronica. Betty noticed Kevin pinching the bridge of his nose again, he seemed to do that a lot whenever Archie opened his mouth.

"I am aware of that Archie, thank you." There was a clear frustration in his tone. A missing lead was a serious matter and Betty knew the pressure that Kevin placed upon himself for the production to do well. "Jughead get up here, you're reading against Betty."

There was a sharp bark of laughter from the back of the room, and Kevin spun around to face Jughead who was still casually reclined in the back row his feet up on the seat in front of him.

"Hurry up." Kevin spoke authoritatively in what Betty affectionately referred to as his 'director's voice.' Jughead gave a loud sigh which spread through the acoustics of the room, before pulling himself up from his seat and making his way to the stage.

"I'm tech crew, Kevin," he said indignantly as he stood across from Kevin, who was still staring him down.

"Trust me, Jughead. I am well aware of that, but you see I'm the director and I need you to go stand up there and read from this book." Kevin spoke as if explaining something to a naughty child, and Betty covered the smile on her face with her hand as she watched the exchange. Kevin thrust a worn book into Jughead's hands with force, his frustration starting to show. "Do you think you can handle that?"

"Well, Archie here seems to manage without too much trouble so…" He sighed once more and then slowly made his way up onto the stage and stood opposite Betty, who was attempting to look at everyone else in the room except the one in front of her. Just when she felt everything was snapping into place.

He stood across the stage in front of her, a copy of the script in his hands as he looked up towards her. He was clearly unhappy to be brought up on stage, to be opposite her anyway. She had just gotten her confidence up and now she had to deal with this. She swore that Jughead Jones had returned to this production just to torture her. She was going to kill Moose when she saw him next.

"Jughead if you can start from "I love thee not."

"I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.
Where is Lysander and fair Hermia?
The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me.
Thou told'st me they were stolen unto this wood;
And here am I, and wode within this wood,
Because I cannot meet my Hermia.
Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more."

Betty watched as his lips formed the words of the prose of Shakespeare, this wasn't the first time she had been captivated by the sound of words leaving his lips. The way his low tone read through the lines of the play, created a low stirring in her, which she tried to push down, not letting it creep to the surface. She was jolted back to the room by a loud cough.

"It's your line, Betty," Kevin told her, from his chair.

"Right." She berated herself for her distraction. She took a deep breath to clear her head, making the words easier to find.

"You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant;
But yet you draw not iron, for my heart
Is true as steel: leave you your power to draw,
And I shall have no power to follow you."

She spoke her words emoting her feelings into them, pouring them in. She had felt them before. Feelings of longing for a love lost came easily to Betty. She paused then allowing him to fill the space.

"Do I entice you? do I speak you fair?
Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth
Tell you, I do not, nor I cannot love you?"

They weren't his words, but still they cut her deep and her heart twisted painfully. Her fingers were pressing into her palm, not hard enough to mark her skin but she could feel the scars under the very tips of her fingers. It was enough of a reminder to bring her back to the present. Blinking back what she refused to accept was wetness from her eyes, she prepared to make her next line when the sound of Kevin's phone ringing broke the tension that had developed on the stage. Betty watched as he put the phone to his ear and took a deep breath to calm her pounding heart..

"This better be good, Moose." He paused before speaking again. "No, okay, I'm on my way." Betty watched as Kevin's face moved from frustration and anger to one of concern. He was already putting on his jacket as he continued the phone call. "Thank you." He turned his attention to the rest of the company who were present who were waiting anxiously.

"Kevin, is everything okay?" Betty spoke up first, already making her way towards her friend.

"Moose has been in an accident, two broken legs, he's still in surgery." His face was pale and he couldn't keep the worry from his voice. "I'm heading over to the hospital. Apparently he still has me as his first contact on his phone. We will resume tomorrow. I'll email details to everyone." With that, Kevin walked out the door.