Betty Cooper stared out the passenger side window of FP Jones' pickup truck, watching unrecognizable trees and farms pass by. She looked around, wondering where her mother could possibly be headed now. Biting her lower lip, she turned to look ahead of her, concentrating on her mother's vehicle, hoping not to lose it so far in front of them. Her nerves eventually got the best of her and she finally spoke. "Juggy? Do you know where we're going?"
"To be honest right now, Betty, I don't even know where we are." He held onto her hand in between the two seats while her heart began to beat faster and harder. "I've never even been this way before." Betty swallowed, unaware if they should continue on in case they lost Alice and got lost themselves in the middle of nowhere. When Jughead saw the anxious look on her face, he thought hard about something to make her feel better. "You know...that was really really sweet of your mom back there."
"What?" Apprehensive Betty snapped out of her own thoughts when he spoke.
"For your, usually supercilious, mom to do what she did back there for Polly was kind of somewhat of a miracle to witness." He admitted, resting his left wrist over the top of the steering wheel, almost like he'd had a driver's license for years. "I'm even a bit impressed with Penelope Blossom as well." He smiled at her, hoping the clutter of negativity in her head was disappearing, even a little. "I never thought I'd see the day when the two prima donnas of the Blossom and Cooper households would cooperate with one another." Jug smirked at his girlfriend beside him. "We must be in an alternate universe or something."
Finally, Betty let out a small laugh, just what Jughead wanted and he proudly smiled to himself, looking back at the road in front of him. They drove on for a little while longer before their journey had begun to come to an end.
"What's going on?" Betty wondered as the truck began to jerk.
"Oh, no, no, no! Not now!" Jughead tried to re-shift the gears as the truck continued to putter. "Shit!" He yelled, slamming both hands on the steering wheel when they came to a full stop. "We're out of gas."
The blonde in the passenger seat lulled her head back in annoyance as she let out an irritated sigh. "Great!" She looked through the back window of the truck, realizing just how alone they were on this road. "The only person close enough to come help us is my mom and if she finds out about us skipping school together to spy on her-"
"Don't worry about that." Jughead said with his cell phone already up to his ear. "I know who can help us."
"What? Who?" She asked, but he didn't answer as he waited for someone on the other end of the phone to pick up.
Twenty minutes had passed since Jughead hung up the phone with their mysterious helper and they stood outside of the truck, leaning against it in the bright, warm sun. Betty put her hand over her eyes to block out the light when they saw the, obviously used, vehicle pulling up behind them. "There they are." Jughead moved away from the truck, stepping toward them.
The driver's side door opened just seconds before the passenger side door did and out stepped a tall kid with dark hair and a nice black and blue shiner over his left eye. He shut the driver's side door and walked around to the trunk of his car. The girl that exited the passenger side shut her door and walked over to Jughead. She had dark skin and long, wavy hair with a smirk plastered on her face as if she would laugh at Jughead's position at any moment. "Well, Jones." She began while the other stranger to Betty opened his trunk, pulling out a full gas can. "I never expected you to be a car thief OR an illegal driver." She crossed her arms over her chest, never warping the smirk upon her lips.
"Save it, Toni." He chuckled before looking to the teen shutting the trunk door tight. "Thanks, Sweet Pea."
The tall kid made his way passed Betty and Jughead, filling the truck with the gas can immediately.
"Betty Cooper, this is Toni Topaz. She and I go to Southside High together. And that over there is Sweet Pea." Juggy pointed.
"Sweet Pea?" Betty replied with a smirk of her own.
"Hey." Toni started. "You're dating a guy named 'Jughead,' I'm not so sure you can talk." She silently chuckled.
"Is he your boyfriend?" Betty couldn't help but feel curious.
"Who? Sweet Pea?" Toni laughed. "No. We've just got each other's back, that's all. Jughead called and said he needed a little help...so, I asked Sweet Pea for a ride." She moved her hands to her hips. "He's a senior."
"Ah." Cooper nodded once before turning around to look at the taller boy. It was then that she saw it. The jacket. "He's a Serpent?" She tried to whisper.
"Yeah." Jughead responded in a bit of a shaky tone. "They both are."
"Oh. So you're hanging out with Serpents now, Jug?" She put her own hands on her hips as well.
"It's just for protection, Betty. I sit with them at lunch and none of the North side haters mess with me." He looked away for a second before looking back into her eyes. "It was my dad's idea."
"Oh yeah? And he told you that himself?" She slightly doubted.
"Yes. The last time I got to visit him before they shipped him off to a more definite prison. Trust me, Betty. You have nothing to worry about." He put his right hand on her lower back and leaned in for a light kiss.
"Done." Sweet Pea closed up the gas tank and headed back to his car.
"Thank you." Betty said in a gentle tone.
"And thank God for the invention of the phone GPS." Juggy joked. "Otherwise we would've never been able to tell you guys where we were."
"You don't need anything else, do you?" Sweet Pea asked with major annoyance in his tone and on his face.
"Uh, no. Thanks, man." Jughead stretched out his hand to shake Sweet Pea's, but the tallest one in the group simply turned around and got back into his car.
"Sorry about him." Toni gritted her teeth with embarrassment and shame. "He's just not used to you yet."
"You mean he just doesn't LIKE me yet." Juggy corrected and Toni slightly nodded.
"Well, I'll see you in school tomorrow?" The female Serpent asked.
"Maybe...our whole plan kinda got ruined by this running out of gas thing today, so Betty and I may need to skip tomorrow too." He ignored the look his girlfriend gave him in the corner of his eye.
"Alright. Well...good luck." Toni returned to Sweet Pea's car and he squealed his tires as he quickly drove off.
"She's pretty." Betty said the moment they were gone.
"Is she?" Jones turned to smile at her. "I only have eyes for one girl." He winked and they kissed again before hopping back into the truck. "So...what do you wanna do?" He wondered, rhythmically tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. "We could go home and try again tomorrow? Or we could drive on for a little bit and see if we can find your mom? Or...we can just give up on this whole thing and you could sit down and have a talk with her?" He knew that last option shouldn't necessarily be considered an option, but he gave it a shot anyway.
"I mean...she may not even go tomorrow, so we'd just be missing another day of school for no reason...which, eventually my parents will find out about. Driving on a little bit seems too risky considering both of our phones are dying, so we won't have a GPS to help us if we get lost. And sitting down to talk with Alice Cooper is pretty much always impossible, so I don't even know what to do." Betty put her seat belt back on and waited for a response from her boyfriend as he looked around, thinking of another option.
"You know...we could just go back home and try again next week?" He refused to give up on helping Betty in anyway he could.
"I don't know." She stared at the long road ahead and debated Jug's second option of driving on until they found Alice's car. She took in a very deep breath and sadly looking back at him. "We should just go home."
"You sure?"
"Yeah." She answered with a sigh before sadly adding, "We missed our chance to really find out what's been going on with her."
"Betty. I'm really sorry." Jughead tilted his head to the side with empathy.
"It's alright. My mom did tell my dad that she would sit down and talk with him tonight anyway, so maybe we'll all learn more soon." She pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear and Jughead turned the truck on after apologizing once more for the mishap. He kissed her again and slowly turned the truck around, heading back into town.
Later that night, Alice and Hal, surprisingly, returned home from work around the same time. Betty had begun to cook dinner already and she had Polly set the dinner table for the spaghetti.
"Hello, girls." Alice happily hung up her coat, walking into the kitchen. "Mmmm, smells good." She gave Polly a kiss on the cheek before joining Betty in the kitchen to help with the glasses and drinks.
"How was your day?" Hal asked the oldest while she set down the silverware.
"Not too bad. My back's killing me though." The extremely pregnant teen admitted.
"Oh, how I don't miss that." Alice poured a glass of orange juice for Betty and Polly and she poured some wine for her and Hal. "What about you, Betty?" The youngest was stirring the spaghetti sauce as her eyes widened when her mother spoke her name. "How was school?"
"Oh. Um...it was fine." Her head began to spin, hoping she wouldn't give anything away about what she really did that day.
"Any homework?" Hal wondered.
"Uh, no."
"No?!" Mr. Cooper helped Alice put the glasses on the table before he sat in his chair. "When your mother and I were in high school, we had homework for every subject almost every night."
"Well, I, uh...I DID have homework. I just, uh, finished it a while ago. That's what I meant." She turned off the stove and poured the sauce into the pot of spaghetti before mixing it all together.
"That's our Betty." Alice said with a prideful smile as she took her seat as well.
Elizabeth brought the food over to the table and set it down in the middle.
"Thank you for buying the groceries today." Hal said to Betty as she sat down.
"Yes, and thank you for making dinner. You really didn't have to." Alice said as she was the first to reach for the pot of spaghetti, setting some onto her own plate before passing it to Polly.
"Well, I just thought it'd be better to have dinner done before you two got home so you wouldn't have to worry about it." She didn't say what she was really thinking, which was that making food first would probably prevent another fight from starting.
"Well, what a nice little gift. Thank you." Hal nodded to his youngest, taking the pot of spaghetti from Polly.
"Oh. Um! Speaking of little gifts. Polly," Alice's grin grew even wider, "...I got something for you and the babies." She stood from her chair and headed for the front room while she continued to speak. "Now, I was gonna wait till after dinner, but I just can't." She was gone for a little less than a moment before she returned with a gift bag. Betty's eyes widened as she knew exactly what was inside. Her heart began to pound and she chugged her orange juice, wanting to steal her mother's glass of wine. "Now, I know that you already have plenty of things for the babies from the baby shower, but...I put this together myself-" Betty suddenly choked on her juice and everyone looked to her as she coughed.
"Betty. Are you alright?" Hal asked.
The blonde cleared her throat. "Mhm. Yeah, I'm fine." Her hoarse voice forced out. "Go...go ahead, Mom." She cleared her throat again before patting her chest, wanting nothing more than to tell Polly the truth. That Alice had NOT put the gift together all by herself and that Penelope had actually came through as a grandmother. But, with the knowledge that that would blow her and Jughead's cover from earlier, she kept her choking mouth shut and listened to the rest, hoping Penelope would SOMEHOW make a way into the story.
"You're sure you're alright?" Alice asked once more. Once Betty nodded, taking another sip, her mother turned her attention back to the gift bag in her hand. "So...I was able to get my hands on these. They're, um...just something for the babies to have as keepsakes from their father."
Polly gasped as she reached out to take the bag from her mother. It was right in that moment...right in the middle of that exchange that Betty saw it. It was as if she had seen it in slow motion and things went quiet around her. As Polly's excited hands reached for the gift bag and Alice's left hand extended it to hand it over, Betty noticed that her mother's wedding ring was gone.
A/N: Hoooo boy! I'm not gonna lie, this chapter was a bit difficult to write. It's 3:25 in the morning and I just finished it. I want nothing more than to write on and on and on, but I should DEFINITELY get some sleep. Please please please let me know what you think in the review/comment section! I promise all will be revealed soon and our lovely FP Jones will begin to make an appearance. Hope you enjoyed it. MWAH!