Veronica discreetly pulled Betty aside by lacing her arm through her's and pulling her closer to her side before their cheer practice and decided to put her plan into action.
"Hey B I was wondering: How would you feel about a sleepover on Friday? My parents aren't home all weekend and I could really use some girl-time." She begged and Betty sent her a bright smile that Veronica noted bitterly she hadn't seen in several weeks.
"Sounds great V, but I promised Reggie we'd go to the movies on Friday. Maybe Saturday?" She asked hopefully and Veronica accepted with an enthusiastic nod and started planning their night in detail before they had to break apart for practice.
Betty felt the way her body reacted well to the physical exercise. It felt relieving in a way that made her tense mulches relax. She stayed after the others left, and put her own music on the sound-system. Swaying her hips, Betty did a choreography she had never done before and she felt absolutely great about it. It was daring, sexy yet powerful. She practiced it, again and again for hours until at last it felt perfect. She made a mental note to show it to the other Vixens before she headed out, grabbing her gym-bag and walked out to the football field where they boys were rounding up practice. Reggie smiled at her and waved before he went to shower, indicating he would be out in a bit. She tapped her foot a little impatient and checked her phone, completely unaware of the Serpents that were slowly creeping onto the beaches now that the football players had left the territory. They spotter her quickly tho and stopped dead in their tracks.
Obviously they all knew who Betty was. They had seen her around as Jug's girlfriend and they had definitely seen her around after the incident. However, many of them didn't know what to think of her. On one side she had been hurt badly and they all felt partly responsible seeing as it was Serpents who had done that. One the other side she had thrown three of their own in jail and a serpent never turned on their own. So most off all, the remaining Serpents just wanted to steer clear of Betty Cooper. Not dealing with her at all was a lot easier than picking sides. Seeing Betty Cooper now however, in her cheerleader uniform with her curly blond ponytail and her boyfriend's football-jacket hanging lazily around her shoulders were a lot more real than they could handle. When Betty came around the Wyrm she was always dressed the part. In dark clothes, usually a lot of leather and with a haunted yet firm expression on her face, that made it easier for them to respect her and what she had gone through. Now that she looked like the American dream, she was resembling everything they resented about the north-side and it made it that much harder to choose between her as the hurt victim and their own who were locked away. Just as they were about to make their presence known to her, Reggie and Archie came out of the locker-room to pick her up. Reggie tensed when he saw the Serpents and in an instant he was standing in front of Betty as if to shield her from their gaze. He knew they were outnumbered, he wasn't stupid, but it didn't stop him from glaring daggers their way. Reggie hated the south-side, he had been taught too his entire life. Seeing how they hurt Betty only made his hatred grow. Having them here, at his school, on his football field, close to his girlfriend, was more then he could handle.
"Betty, lets go." He growled and took her by a firm grip on the elbow. Betty looked up confused to his sudden roughness then she too saw the gang members hanging around and the color temporarily drained from her face. Then she disappeared into Reggie's side as if she could be invisible to the gang-members that way and let him lead her out with his arm wrapped tightly around her waist. Archie followed after them while keeping an eye on the Serpents to make sure no one followed. The three of them got into Reggie's car together and Reggie dropped Archie off at his front door before he speed off fast past Betty's house without stopping. Archie stared after them with a light frown, not liking the way Reggie's temper seemed to rear its head. He knew the other boy had anger issues it was what made him such a damn good player on the field but it also made for an unstable character. Reggie had been on his best behavior these past weeks because of Betty but now he wasn't so sure about the other boy's intentions. He kept and eye on her room but she didn't return home. He sent her a text, asking her to meet him in the morning so he could walk her to school. When she didn't answer he sighed and turned off his bed-light, hoping she would have answered by the next day.
He woke up before the sun was up. At first he thought it was the purring rain that had woken him up but then he heard the sound of a door banging against the frame downstairs. Instantly he was on his feet, grabbing a baseball-bat and mentally prepared for a confrontation with the black hood. He followed the sound into the garage and warily turned on the light when he entered, deciding it was better to be able to see his attacker. He quickly dropped the bat when he saw it wasn't the black hood in his garage. It was Betty. She was completely soaked from the rain and her eyes were puffy and red from crying.
"Betty! What on earth are you doing here?" he asked her and hurried to her, grapping a blanket to wrap around her small wet frame.
"I am sorry I didn't mean to wake you!" She apologized but Archie just shook his head and put an arm around her.
"What happened Betty? Why are you crying? Did Reggie-" Archie already felt his anger raise at the thought of Reggie hurting Betty but she shook her head and pulled her legs up beneath her.
"No no, Reggie is a sweatheart…" She trailed off but she didn't tell what had caused her to find her way into his garage in the middle of the night. Eventually she sighed.
"Can I sleep on this couch? I can't go home, my mom… She'll grow another leg. Please Arch?" she begged and he couldn't deny her when she did that so he nodded and wrapped the blanket tighter around her.
"Of course Betty, anything. Won't you feel safer inside the house tho?" he asked her but she just shook her head.
"No, no one knows I am out here anyway, it is fine." She assured him and he reluctantly went back to bed after making sure the door was locked and blocked. But he tossed and turned for a half hour and eventually went back downstairs to check on her. He stopped when he heard voices, or perhaps it was just one voice.
"Thank you for tonight – Yeah it got really close – We need to figure out a better way – I don't know how they found us!" She exclaimed and it occurred to him then that she must be speaking to someone on the phone. He let her have her privacy for now, but swore to himself he was going to figure out what she was hiding.