"Yes, Archie. I look forward to it too." Cheryl sighed, studying her hot pink-colored nails. "Uh huh. Sure me too." She wrinkled her nose, her hand tightening on the phone. "Alright, I love you too." She smirked. "Bye, hon."

Cheryl snickered. Archie. So gullible. So... naive. Seriously. Cheryl chuckled to herself. She walked back towards the bathroom where she was blow-drying her long luxurious red locks and picked up the hair dryer. She was damn proud of her beautiful hair. It was a good thing she hadn't gotten any gum or hard-to-remove stuff in her crowning glory. She caught her reflection in the mirror and was immediately drawn to her sparkling green eyes. Those same eyes and hair that were the envy of every girl at Prembrooke and now Riverdale. She had inherited those emerald eyes and fiery locks from her late grandmother, Anne Blossom.

Cheryl had always looked up to her. To Cheryl, Anne was a true woman, a paragon of perfection. During her last years, Cheryl would often stay with her grandmother and would learn some of the most important things that all women, according to Anne, should know.

Cheryl walked out of her bathroom and sat on her bed. She picked up a framed picture from the side table. It was her grandmother when she was in her late thirties. Those same gem eyes and red hair. Cheryl was the only one in the family who had inherited those traits. Cheryl smiled fondly at the picture. While other grandmothers would bake cookies with their grandchildren, her grandmother would take her shopping for the latest fashions. While other grandmothers would read stories and recall funny past event with their grandkids, Cheryl's grandmother would sit with her and tell her about her past conquests, and the best way to snag any guy she wanted. While other grandmothers would shower their grandkids with toys and games, Anne would often send her granddaughter makeup, fashion magazines and clothes Cheryl's own Mom and Dad would not approve of.

Well, Nana, Cheryl thought, her hand moving lovingly over her grandmother's face. I've followed in your footsteps... and I love it. And she did. She was the envy of every girl at Riverdale and the fantasy of ever guy. Just like her grandmother was in her time. She had been a man-eater. And now, Cheryl was proud to be one too. She wished her grandmother was here to see her now.

Sighing with contentment, she placed the picture back on her desk and got up. It had been a long day and she was tired. Changing into her PJs, she climbed into bed. As much as she tried, she couldn't shake off her anger completely. But Veronica had gone too far this time. She had to teach that rich brat a lesson, somehow. And that moron Archie didn't do anything immediately either... Ugh. That Archie. She was starting to get really sick of him. He and his stupid plan of revenge on Betty. Personally, she didn't really have much against Betty, even if she was a goody-goody. But if it meant getting Reggie, then she was game. Boy, was she ever game!

Reggie. Now there's a guy, she smiled slyly. The pinnacle of manliness. Cheryl felt a shiver down her spine. She must have Reggie. Not being in his arms, not being able to kiss him was driving her crazy. She remembered when they used to date, before the summer. Cheryl and Reggie. Of course, Reggie wanted to go so much more further than just kissing. But Cheryl didn't let him. Not because she was coy or one of those want-to-be-a-virgin-till-marriage types. But because there was Archie. Him and Reggie hated each other. And when Cheryl was involved, she'd love it when they'd fight over her.

But now she wanted Archie out of her life. She hoped he'd be at least fun like he would be with the other girls or even like Reggie, if it wasn't too much to ask. But no. Of all people, Archie had to fall in love with Cheryl. She sighed disgustedly. Love. There's no such thing as love. Only lust. She turned over to her side. Only fools fall in love. And Cheryl Blossom was no fool.

If I can somehow manage to get Reggie to kiss me, it'll all come back to him. He'll want nothing to do with Betty do-gooder and want to be with me. She smiled. It was worth a shot.


"But why?" Veronica wailed.

"You don't want to let poor Juggie think you took the opportunity to just get away from him and let him do all the work, do you?"

"Well, no but... in case you don't remember, my hair was covered in pudding and I was in no condition to talk to anybody."

"Right. But now you're not. So you could call him and make plans for the project."

Veronica sighed. There was no way she could avoid this. It wasn't as if she didn't want to do the project with Juggie anymore. In fact, before the whole Cheryl episode, she even started to like him. He was more tolerable than she'd have originally thought. She smiled, somewhat affectionately.

"Alright, I'll call him." She sauntered over to Betty's phone and punched in the numbers. Betty came up to her and stood next to her, a huge goofy grin on her face. Veronica gave her a skeptical look. She wasn't good with apologies.

"Yo."

"Juggie, hi, this is-"

"Can't pick up the phone right now. You know what to do," he casually said.

"He's not there." Veronica breathed a sigh of relief.

"Then leave a message!" Betty whispered, half annoyed.

There was a beep and suddenly Veronica didn't know what to say. it was one thing to talk to a person. But leaving a message when you weren't sure what mood they were in, how they'd take the message and how you should say it. That was something else.

Taking a deep breath, Veronica decided to just say it and get it over with. "Hey, Juggie, it's me. Veronica."

"Did he pick up?" Betty quipped.

"I- no, he's not," Veronica started. She placed a hand over the mouthpiece. "What should I do?"

"Leave him a message, dummy!"

"Alright, okay!" Veronica almost yelled in indignation. "Juggie," she began again, her voice hoarse. "Just wanted to..." She couldn't find her voice. Why was it so hard to say sorry? "I just wanted to... apologize!"She yelped out the last word as she felt her arm being pinched. She turned to look accusingly at Betty who only smirked. "I wanted to apologize about tonight. We didn't get our project done and I was wondering if we could maybe meet up tomorrow at the library." There. Done. At least that was out of the way. Betty nodded her head in approval. "See you then, Juggie. Bye." She added quickly and hung up.

"There you go," Betty beamed. She reached for the TV remote. "Now what that so hard?"

Veronica didn't answer. But she realized it had been hard. More than it would if she had been apologizing to someone else. And she didn't know why. She sat next to Betty and reached for the bowl of popcorn, all thoughts of Juggie vanishing as the theme song for F.R.I.E.N.D.S. started.


He let his cheeks puff full of air before letting it out in a loud whoosh. How the heck did this happen?

He raked a hand through his already ruffled hair and let himself drop back in his bed. Staring at the stick-on glow-in-the dark stars on his ceiling, he let his thoughts wander to what had happened earlier in at Pop Tates. Veronica had left with Betty without so much as a single goodbye to him. "Wait a sec... this is Veronica Lodge we're talkin' about. Since when does she care?" He paused. "And more importantly, why do I care?" He let the question hang in the air for a while. The only answer that was obvious to him was...

"Argh!" he yelled before swinging his long lanky legs over the side of the bed and sitting up. After a pause he flexed his right arm. Not much meat there, he thought. He pushed himself up and walked over to the full length mirror he barely ever used. For a minute he just stood there wordlessly. Black pants and a purple T shirt. Slowly, tentatively, he pulled the shirt over his head, followed by his pants. Again, he stood there wordlessly. Slowly, he flexed both arms again and studied his physique. "Not bad," he mused. Not much muscle but at least not much visible fat either. Thank you super-fast metabolism!

Maybe if he worked out a little.. A few sit ups here and there, maybe lifting some weights...

But he knew that wasn't enough to make an impression on Ronnie.

Ronnie. He sighed. There was no turning around it. He was in love with her and that was all there was to it. He wasn't one for denials and was probably the most down-to-earth in the group. Or at least, what was left of the group anyway. For years he'd stay away from relationships and romances. He didn't want all the drama that came with it. He didn't need it. But he couldn't hide it any longer. Archie wasn't with Veronica anymore. He had to do something. But how? He didn't possess the boyish charm Archie did or the charisma that Reggie had. He wasn't filthy rich either, which automatically meant no flashy cars or clothes.

But is Ronnie really into all that? He asked himself. Maybe I'm not giving her enough credit. Maybe she isn't shallow as she thinks. Maybe -

The phone rang, breaking him from his thoughts. He wasn't in the mood to talk to anybody so he let the machine pick it up. After the beep, there was a moment of silence. Then she spoke. "Jug?" His head jerked towards the phone and he made a move to pick it up but stopped. He was in no condition to talk. He could barely speak after hearing her voice, so graceful, so majestic, so beautiful, all of a sudden.

"Hey, Juggie, it's me. Veronica." Jughead smiled. He'd known it was her even if she hadn't said her name. "I- no, he's not..." her voice dimmed and he heard another feminine voice in the distance. Probably Betty. "Alright, okay!" she said, sounding irritated. Her voice dramatically changed to her friendly yet unapproachable tone. "Just wanted to..." There was a pause. "I just wanted to... apologize!" Another pause. "I just wanted to apologize. We didn't get our project done and I was wondering if we could maybe meet up tomorrow at the library. Well," Veronica paused, sounding somehow unsure of herself. "See you then Juggie. Bye" He heard the phone click.

Jughead sighed. He reached for the phone. Yeah. He'd definitely be ready to see her tomorrow. Right after he gave Reggie a call...


"Oh, Reggie..."

Reggie could hardly believe it. It finally happened. And he didn't even have to do or say anything!

They were at Pop Tates, and it was dark outside. There wasn't anybody inside Pop Tates and even Pops himself seemed to be missing. He and Betty were drinking Pops famous milkshakes when suddenly Betty looked him in the eye and kept staring at him. Feeling a little weird, Reggie returned the gaze as steadily as he could. "What?"

"Oh Reggiekins, I've been dying to tell you about how I feel..." she whispered, leaning closer on the table. Reggie felt himself being drawn to her too.

"Yeah?" Reggie grinned, his heart pounding in his chest so loud, he thought the other patrons would hear it if they were here.

"I was such a fool, Reggie," Betty got up from her seat and licked her lips, "to have ever liked a guy like Archie."

Speechless, he only nodded.

"You're the only man for me, Reggie Mantle." Betty climbed on top of the marble top and slowly crawled towards Reggie.

Despite how good this was going, he felt that maybe they were going a tad too fast. And he wanted to take things slowly with Betty. And this was so unlike her... did somebody spike her milkshake or something? he wondered.

Reggie quickly got up from his seat in the booth and stepped out. "Betty, don't you think we're going too fast?" he said, half-nervous, and half wanting to kick himself for wanting it to stop.To Reggie's utter shock and delight, Betty jumped off the table, pushed him against the wall, and pinned him there.

"Oh, are we? I thought you want me to go fast," Betty whispered seductively.

Can't argue with that logic.

Betty closed her heavy-lidded eyes and leaned forward. Reggie did the same thing, hoping his breath didn't smell like the tuna sandwich he just had.

"Reggie...?"

Eyes still closed, Reggie smiled sleepily. "Yes Betty?"

"Where the hell are you?"

His eyes snapped open. "Wha..?"

Suddenly, it wasn't Betty's face he saw but Jughead's angry one. "Where the hell are you!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!" Reggie screamed. The theme song from Jaws played in his head.

"Ooof!" Reggie fell on the ground, his legs tangled up in the sheets.

"Reg! C'mon man, where are you?"

"Huh? Whazza..? Jug?" The world stopped spinning and became clearer. It was Jug. On the phone. He looked at the clock. Only 11:46.

Since it was hopeless to untangle the sheets from his legs immediately, he crawled over to his phone and picked it up. "Jug, what, the hell, man. I was having the most beautiful dream!"

"Well sorry to wake you up from your wet dream, but I gotta problem here. Can you help me out?"

Reggie rubbed the sleep out of his eyes with his hand. "I guess. What's the problem?"

There was a pause. "Well, I have this situation, right?"

"Yeah?"

"And well, this situation requires me to get a little muscular. You know what I mean?"

Reggie wasn't sure what he meant. "Why?"

He heard Jughead sigh on the other line. "Lets just say there's a girl I'd like to impress."

Reggie raised his brows. Jug? A girl?

"And before you ask me who it is, I'll tell you. If you decide to help me out."

Reggie was curious. This was a first. Jug crushing on somebody? "Jug, how about we talk about this tomorrow after school?"

"Thanks, Reg, you're a pal!" And with that Jug hung up.

Reggie smirked. Tomorrow was going to be pretty interesting.


A/N: Just a little something I drew for this chapter. Betty encouraging Veronica to call Juggie. I tried making them look as character-like as possible with my own little touch. Hope you like :) It's on my homepage, since it won't let me post a link here.