A bit more drama in this one...

Betty was still feeling guilty as she moved around the large lounge of Jason and Polly's house, thinking about Jellybean. She had been telling the truth when she had said to the girl that she thought about her, and that she had been keeping up with her growing up through pictures on Facebook, and occasionally asking Veronica about her, although sometimes that could lead to mentions of Jughead, which she had always avoided. Jellybean had been important to her when she was younger, she used to babysit her, and when she and Jughead got even closer, Jellybean was almost like a little sister to her.

Leaving without saying goodbye to Jellybean had been hard, but it hadn't meant to hurt the younger girl. She hadn't meant to hurt anyone, and now that years had passed and she could look back on what she had done, she knew that in some ways she had been extremely selfish. But she had just needed to get away and put some space between herself and everyone else, let herself grow up alone.

"Betty," Cheryl's voice was sharp and Betty lifted her eyebrows at her friend. "You're not paying any attention," she let out a long suffering sigh, as though Betty was completely incompetent. "It's meant to be going blue, pink and then black," she pointed up at the streamers that Betty had been twisting and hanging around the room. "You're messing it all up, pink then blue then pink again," she sighed again.

"Alright, alright, I'll fix them," Betty muttered, stepping up onto the chair that she had been moving around the room so that she could reach the corners and hang the streamers.

"Is everything okay, Betts? You've been looking forward to this baby shower for weeks, and now it seems like you don't want to be here," Cheryl pursed her glossy red lips together and tipped her head to the side. "What's going on?"

"It's nothing," Betty began, beginning to fix up the streamers. She still believed that black might be a bit of a dark colour for a baby shower, but Cheryl demanded that they weren't going to try and stuff her baby niece or nephew into a stereotypical box and only have the blue and pink.

"It's definitely something," Cheryl stated, but then her eyes shifted to look out the window, and Betty ducked her head down so that she could see through the window as well, and she could see two cars pulled into the driveway. "People are starting to arrive, and Jase just text me and said that he would be back here to drop Polly off in about fifteen minutes, so you're getting out of this for now, but we are continuing this conversation later, you hear me?" Betty just made a non-committal noise and went back to the streamers. Cheryl let out an annoyed huff and walked out of the room, properly to greet the guests and then point them to where they could put down their presents.

For the first few hours, it was just going to be the woman at the baby shower, which unfortunately would also include Penelope Blossom, who still scared Betty, even though she was no longer a child. She didn't so much mind Rose Blossom, Cheryl's grandmother, even though a lot of other people were scared of the older woman, but there had always just been something about Penelope—about both Cheryl and Jason's parents, really—that made Betty uneasy. After lunch, the men were all going to come by, Jason and his father, Archie and a couple of other Jason's friends. Generally, it would only be woman at the baby shower, and Penelope hadn't looked particularly happy about the idea of of men coming by, but Jason had said that it was Poppy's baby shower, and she wanted them to come in afterward, and so that was what they were going to do.

Everything went smoothly, even though there was a small incident where Penelope turned up her nose at the fact that they were serving sausage rolls alongside the sauteed garlic asparagus—apparently sausage rolls weren't quite up to par with what she was used to. Cheryl just rolled her eyes, and then in turn Veronica and Betty rolled their eyes, because only just a few years ago, Cheryl would have been exactly the same as her mother.

Jason and the rest of the men showed up just after they had opened all the presents, and Jason's whole face lit up when his eyes fell on Polly, and Betty couldn't stop her smile. The two of them were so head over heels in love with each other, it made her heart beat a little faster and her mind float to certain Serpent.

"It's not going to be long until we're throwing one of these for Ronnie," Betty said with a grin, nudging Archie in the side as they carried dirty dishes into the kitchen. Archie got a wide, dumb smile on his face and Betty laughed.

"Hopefully more than one," he stated. "Hopefully there'll be three or four more."

"Shit, is Veronica aware of how many ginger munchkins with expensive clothing tastes you're hoping to pop out?" Betty laughed in surprise.

"Maybe we've only talked about one or two, but I'm hoping that I'll be able to wear her down," Archie grinned. It felt good to be talking to Archie, who had been her closest friend when she was younger. Of course they were still good friends as they had grown, but then Jughead had joined their little gang, and Veronica later on as they had gotten older, as well as Kevin and Cheryl, and they just weren't as close as they used to be. She had even had a slight crush on Archie when they had first met, when they were four when his parents moved in next door to them, and their first kiss had been shared when they were six in a sandpit.

She hadn't really seen him all that much since she had been back in town, and she had been worried that maybe Archie was avoiding her because of what had happened between her and Jughead. She couldn't really blame him if he was, but it still hurt a little at the thought.

"Hey," Archie had stopped trying to consolidate all of the food onto just a couple of plates rather than spread out over multiple dishes, and he reached out to touch Betty's arm gently. "Are you alright? Your expression went down real quickly just then." Betty tried to cover up her fallen face with a quick smile.

"Yeah, I'm okay," she told him. Archie didn't look certain, and he paused before continuing.

"Look, is this about...Is this about Jughead? Because—" he cut off when there were a few rapid beeps from his pocket. Archie hesitated, not looking as though he wanted to end their conversation too quickly, but when there were a few more beeps, he took his hand off her arm and pulled out his phone. Betty watched his face as the gentle look he was wearing before shifted, and his eyebrows pulled together and his mouth turned down.

"What is it—" Betty was interrupted when Veronica and Polly came into the room, both with big smiles on their faces until they sensed the grim atmosphere.

"What's wrong, baby?" Veronica asked, coming over to stand next to her fiancee and resting a hand on his shoulder.

"Uh," Archie let out a short, hard breath. "Another kid has died, of a drug overdose. Sixteen year old girl." Polly's expression was pained as she seemed to instinctively place a hand over her swollen stomach. Betty sighed as she leaned against the bench.

"This whole thing is just...It's awful," Polly sighed. "It's horrible."

"What is?" Clifford Blossom asked as he came into the kitchen, carrying an empty margarita glass that he was carrying in. Betty idly noted at the back of her mind that the glass was the one Penelope had been drinking from, and this was about her fourth empty drink, but then she blinked and focused back on what was happening.

"Another girl has been killed," Polly informed him with a pained expression, and she began rubbing her stomach in clockwise motions. Betty took a step to close the gap between herself and her sister and linked arms with her, giving it a comforting squeeze. "From those drugs that are going around." Not one person in the room missed the way Clifford turned his eyes toward Archie accusingly, but he was smart enough not to say anything. Pretty much everyone in the township was blaming the Serpents, but just like Clifford, they kept their accusations limited to nasty looks.

"I don't want this kind of conversation happening at my grandchilds shower," Clifford stated with a stern voice. Steely silence fell over the room before Archie jerked his head in a nod and turned to Veronica.

"I need to go," he said to her quietly. "I need to go and check in."

"I know," Veronica said, her voice soft and understanding. Archie gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and then looked over at the two blonde woman.

"Congratulations again, Polly," he said, attempting a smile but not really managing.

"Text me if you think you're going to be long!" Veronica called out as Archie left, and he waved his hand over his shoulder as indication that he heard her. Veronica sighed as she looked back at the ones remaining in the room. "This whole business is just horrible," she muttered. Polly hummed her agreement under her breath, and Betty pursed her lips together. As much as she hated to agree with Clifford, this was meant to be a happy occasion, and Polly didn't deserve to have the day brought down.

"Come on," Betty squeezed Polly's arm. "Let's go back in there and open your presents!" There was a whole array of presents, most of them purchased by Cheryl and her parents, and Veronica admitted that she had had her mother fly some more things in from Paris. Betty didn't have much in the way of money, but she had definitely blown her budget when shopping for presents, also buying some things for her sister, loading up on Polly's favourite chocolates as well, since the girl was literally going to push a human out of her, and deserved to have her favourite foods handy.

"That sounds like a good idea," Polly gave Betty a grateful smile, and the two sisters lead the way back into the lounge, Clifford and Veronica close behind.

"Pre-sents! Pre-sents! Pre-sents!" Cheryl cheered, clapping her hands together and earning a frown from her mother, who would probably have reprimanded Cheryl about being more ladylike if they were sitting next to each other. Polly sat down on the couch, patting the spot next to her for Betty to take as Cheryl handed her the first present, wrapped up in gold and white paper with a fancy bow on top.

"That one's from me!" Midge grinned from where she was sitting. Betty smiled at Midge, who she never could have seen as an owner of a strip club—one of the big sources of incomes for the Serpents—and the girl smiled back, charmingly. They worked their way through the big pile of presents, Cheryl was getting drunker and had turned the music up louder. Betty shook her head with a long suffering smile as her best friend sang off key. Polly was opening up one of the last presents, which was a family heirloom—a beautiful ruby necklace—from grandmother Blossom, when Betty put her arm around her sister.

"Mum and dad would be so happy for you right now," she murmured in her sisters ear. Polly leaned into her sister, resting her head on Betty's shoulder.

"Thanks, Betty," she whispered, holding the Blossom family heirloom tightly in her hand.

Soooooo? What'd you guys think? Leave a review, make me happy, tell me what you enjoyed, what you disliked and let me know if you want a review :)

Alright, so...My favourite songs haven't really changed, I'm still pretty much listening to The Greatest Showman soundtrack, literally on repeat four times in the weekend. I also fell back in love with Love Me Now by John Legend —that man honestly has the voice of a God and I'm completely head over heels in love with his wife —and also For You I Will by Teddy Geiger, which was one of my favourite songs when I was a teenager. Another one I really like is Stronger by Inna.

TV show wise...Happy! is fucking incredible and so is Black Lightning. Another one I watched the whole first season of in a day was Beyond, although it's not as good as the other two. Not bad though.

I haven't really seen any new movies...Although I'm ridiculously psyched for Black Panther.

Let me know songs, fics, TV series, I love hearing what you guys are enjoying! Look forward to hearing from you beautiful people xx