Chapter 20

Betty and Jason watched as Midge stormed out of the diner followed by her father. They both noticed the death glare that Midge was giving them on her way out.

"What was that about?" Betty asked.

Jason shrugged confused himself.

"Who cares? Let's not let it ruin our first date," Jason said.

Just then there was a crash from the adjacent table as Maria who had been bringing drinks to that table had dropped her tray in shock. Jason and Betty looked over at the table to see Maria as well as the two patrons who were also students at Riverdale High, Bobbi Suarez and Tono Diaz, were all staring at them in disbelief.

"You're dating?" Bobbi asked.

Both Betty and Jason gulped visibly. Bobbi was a notorious gossip and even had her own gossip column in the school newspaper. Neither of them wanted the scrutiny that would come from Bobbi Suarez announcing their relationship to the whole school.

"It's our first date," Jason said. "But if you're intent on blabbing about it to the whole school then that's probably going to ruin it and make it our last date too."

Bobbi and Jason stared at each other for a long moment.

"Fine, but I want an exclusive interview with your sister about what happened between her and Midge," Bobbi said.

"I can arrange for you two to talk, but I can't promise she'll tell you what you want to know," Jason responded.

"That's enough, I can get her to talk," Bobbi said.

"Your funeral," Jason said. "We've got a deal."

He turned to Maria.

"Do you think maybe we could get a booth so we have some privacy?" Jason asked.

"Uh, I, uh, yes," Maria stammered apparently still surprised that Jason and Betty were on a date.

She led them over to the booth where Midge and her father had been sitting. She wiped off the table before they sat down and went off to serve her other customers.

"Sorry about all of that," Jason apologized once they were alone.

"It's not your fault," Betty said.

"I know you don't like all this attention, I remember how uncomfortable you looked at that medal ceremony," Jason said. "I could have chosen somewhere a little more private."

"It's fine really," Betty said. "Besides I love this place. I come here all the time with my sister and my friends."

"So what are you ordering?" Jason asked as he looked at his menu.

"I'm think of getting the all-day breakfast," Betty replied. "Kind of hungry after all that work on the farm today."

"How's the steak here?" Jason asked.

"My dad loves it," Betty replied. "You should get it with the garlic mashed potatoes. They go so well together."

"Sounds good," Jason said.

Just then Maria came to take their order. Jason ordered the steak as Betty had recommended and Betty ordered the all-day breakfast with scrambled eggs and white toast.

"So Betty, tell me something interesting about yourself that I might not know," Jason said as they waited for their food.

Betty stifled a laugh at the question. There was a lot that Jason didn't know about her, she thought to herself; and she certainly wasn't about to reveal those secrets.

"Like what?" Betty asked trying to stall for some time to think of something.

"Like what do you want to be?" Jason asked.

"I've long wanted to be a writer," Betty replied.

"Like a journalist or a novelist?" Jason inquired.

"Both if I could," Betty answered. "I like all types of writing. But what about you?"

"What about me?" Jason asked.

"What do you want to be?" Betty inquired.

"It might seem a little corny, but I've always kind of wanted to be a police officer," Jason replied.

"That's not corny that's admirable," Betty said. "Plus I think you'd look good in a uniform."

"I know right," Jason agreed.

"You know it's only September, but why don't we both be police officers for Halloween," Betty suggested.

"That's a great idea!" Jason exclaimed.

They chatted for a little while more about what good places were to get costumes until Maria returned with their food. They were about half-way through eating when they heard the door to the diner fling open.

"Where is he?" came the angry voice of Jason's sister Cheryl.

As Betty watched Jason slowly slunk down in his seat nervously like he was trying to hide under the table. However Cheryl quickly spotted Betty and stormed over to their booth.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" Cheryl asked angrily.

"Cheryl I…" Jason began to reply.

"I wasn't asking you Jason," Cheryl cut him off crossly, she then stared at Betty.

It's wasn't Betty's initial instinct to make a spectacle of the situation, but since Cheryl seemed determined to Betty decided to oblige her. Betty stood so that she was face to face with Cheryl, the two girl's just inches apart from each other.

"Is something the matter?" Betty asked calmly.

"Yes, you're here, with my brother, instead of being at my pool party this afternoon," Cheryl said.

"Pool parties aren't really my thing," Betty stated with a shrug. "And I like your brother and he likes me so I don't see what the problem is there."

Betty was so close she could see Cheryl's jaw clench. Clearly Cheryl had expected Betty to be thrown off simply by the fact that Cheryl had confronted her; Cheryl was used to intimidating people with her mere presence. But Betty wasn't one to easily be intimidated. The two girls continued to stare at each other for a several moments as the entire diner silently watched them.

Finally Cheryl took a breath and then looked down at her brother.

"So you like her Jason?" Cheryl asked.

Jason stared nervously up at his sister and just nodded.

"Alright, fine," Cheryl said looking back at Betty. "But you hurt my brother and you and I are going to have a big problem."

"Alright then," Betty agreed.

The two girls stared at each other for another moment before Cheryl turned and walked out of the diner without another word. As soon as Cheryl was gone Betty could feel the eyes of everybody in the diner staring at her. She quickly sat down again and looked across the table at Jason who had a surprised expression on his face.

"What the hell just happened?" Jason asked in disbelief.

"I think Cheryl gave us her blessing, or well her version of it," Betty replied.

"Yeah but why?" Jason asked.

"Maybe Cheryl cares more about you than she lets on," Betty answered.

"I'm not going to lie, if that's the case then this is possibly the best date ever," Jason said.

Betty didn't respond but just smiled.

They finished their meal and when Maria brought the bill Jason paid.

"So do you want to go see a movie?" Jason asked.

"Dinner and a movie? Isn't that a little cliché?" Betty replied.

"Do you not like cliché?" Jason inquired.

"I don't mind it, but I prefer spontaneity," Betty said.

"Spontaneity, alright," Jason said. "Then come with me."

He got up and held out his hand. Betty looked up at him for a moment before taking his hand and letting Jason lead her outside to his car. He opened the passenger side door for Betty and helped her in before getting in himself.

"Where are we going?" Betty asked.

"You'll see," Jason replied.

They drove around for quite a while, seemingly in circles. Betty noticed that the sun was starting to get low in the sky. Finally Jason pulled down a road which Betty realized was for Pembrooke Golf and Country Club, a rather exclusive club on the north-west side of town.

"What are we doing here?" Betty asked.

"You'll see," Jason replied cryptically.

They pulled into the parking lot, there weren't a great many cars since most golfing was done for the day. Jason got out and quickly ran around to open Betty's door for her. He then took her hand and led her over to the golf carts. They got in one and Jason began driving it out onto the course.

"Okay what are we doing?" Betty asked curiously.

"You'll see soon," Jason answered with a slight smile.

She noticed that they had gone off the course and were driving up a hill. When they reached the top Jason stopped the cart and put on the parking break.

"Um, Jason what…?" Betty asked confused.

"Look," Jason said pointing forward.

Betty finally realized that the sun was setting before their eyes. From up on this hill they could make out the silhouette of the water tower from the nearby town of Greendale.

"Oh wow… it's… it's beautiful," Betty said.

She felt Jason's hand reach over and grasp hers. They sat there just holding hands for the next few minutes as they watched the sun slowly sink below the horizon.

"Wow that was really amaz…" Betty began to say.

She was cut off as Jason suddenly leaned across and kissed her on the lips. Betty was surprised at first but soon began kissing back. The two of them kissed for several minutes before they finally broke it off.

"Wow…" Betty breathed. "That was... just wow!"

"Thanks," Jason said. "I'll admit I've had some practice."

"Well you certainly made my first kiss memorable," Betty commented.

"Really that was your first kiss?" Jason asked surprised.

Betty nodded.

"If I'd known that I would have made it more special," Jason said.

"No that was perfect," Betty said. "I thinking trying to make it more special probably would have ruined the moment."

"You have a point there," Jason agreed. "So are there any other firsts you want to cover this evening?"

"Not tonight," Betty replied with a chuckle. "We'll see how things go though."

"Still want to see a movie?" Jason asked.

Betty glanced at the time on her phone.

"I told my dad I would be home by ten," Betty said. "I don't think there's time for a movie."

"But you're not ready to call it a night just yet?" Jason asked.

"If you've got something we can do…" Betty said.

"Do you like to golf?" Jason asked.

Betty shrugged, "I've never tried it before," she answered.

"Well why don't we hit the driving range?" Jason suggested.

"Sure, I'm willing to give it a try," Betty said.

Jason started the cart back up and they drove back down. They stopped beside his car and Jason opened the trunk and got his golf clubs out, they then drove over to the driving range.

There were buckets already filled with range balls available and Jason grabbed one as they walked out to the range. There was only one other person there hitting balls.

"So have you ever swung a golf club before?" Jason asked.

"No, but how hard can it be?" Betty asked.

"It's trickier than you think," Jason replied.

"Well let me try," Betty said.

Jason reached into his bag and pulled out a club and handed it to her. Betty looked at it and then at the clubs in his bag.

"Why can't I use that big one?" she asked pointing at the club with the largest head.

"That's my driver, that's actually one of the hardest to learn to hit straight." Jason answered. "You should always start learning to swing with the irons since those are the clubs you use most during a round."

"Okay, what's this 5 on here mean?" Betty asked.

"That's just to show the loft on the club, the higher the number the more loft it has," Jason explained.

"Okay, give me a ball and let me try this," Betty said.

Jason dropped a ball onto the pad and Betty took a stance as she lined up to swing.

"Okay, now lock your pinky and your index finger," Jason said. "And bend your knees a little."

Betty did as he suggested.

"Now just take a nice and easy back swing keeping your eye on the ball and then swing, but remember keep your eye on the ball the whole time," Jason advised her.

Betty brought the club back. She was a little nervous about possibly hitting the ball too hard, the last thing she wanted to do was smack the ball an impossible distance. But it was dark out so if she did make such a mistake then it could probably be explained away as having lost sight of the ball.

Betty swung down at the ball, but the club only hit the top of the ball smacking it down into the ground. The ball bounced up into the air and hit the metal roof of the shelter that covered the tee boxes. Betty let go of the club with one hand and snagged the ball out of midair before it could hit her.

"Nice reactions," Jason commented.

"Sorry," Betty apologized.

"Don't worry about it, you just hit the top of the ball," Jason said. "Happens even to the pros. Just try again."

Betty dropped the ball and took her stance once more. She took a deep breath and then swung again. This time she solidly connected with the ball and it sailed out but then began curving to the right till she lost sight of it.

"Uh…" Betty said wondering if she'd done something wrong.

Jason let out a low whistle.

"That was a wicked slice," he commented.

"Slice?" Betty asked.

"When the ball curves to the right like that," Jason said. "It means you sort of opened your hands as you made contact and put a spin on the ball that made it curve that way. You want to try and keep your wrists as stiff and straight as possible through contact. But you made good contact, you hit it pretty far."

Jason dropped another ball so she could try again. Betty lined up and took another swing. This time the ball flew straight and true landing about 160 yards down the range.

"Nice!" Jason commented patting her back. "That was extremely good for a beginner. Let's see if you can do that again."

Betty quickly was able to figure out how hard to hit the ball, but the trick was to make sure she didn't always hit it perfectly, which was quite easy for her. For the next hour she and Jason both hit balls down the range, laughing at each other's major mistakes; Jason more so at Betty's even if they were intentional. She didn't want to emasculate him by showing off how good she actually was.

At about 9:30 they finally stopped and went back to Jason's car and Jason drove her home. Betty and Jason kissed good night, it wasn't quite as long or passionate as their kiss up on the hill had been; and then Betty walked up the driveway to her house. As she got to the front door she could hear that Jughead was still yelling at his video game.

When she stepped inside she saw her father was waiting by the door.

"You have 27 seconds to spare missy," Hal said.

"Oh knock it off Hal," Alice called from the living room. "How was your evening dear?"

"It was great, a lot of fun," Betty said. "We had dinner at Pop's then we went to the country club to watch the sun set and then we hit balls at the driving range."

"Golf?" Hal asked a little surprised.

"Yeah, it's surprisingly easy," Betty said. "For me I mean, the hard part is trying to not be so good."

"Of course," Hal grumbled.

Hal had a bag of golf clubs in the garage, but about half the clubs in the bag were broken from when he had smashed them after a bad shot. He hadn't gone golfing in several years because he couldn't afford to keep buying new clubs, and he had been advised to avoid things that made him angry.

"Hmm, well I guess this boy doesn't sound that bad," Hal said as he went back to the living room.

"Well I'm going to go to bed," Betty announced. "Good night."

"Good night," her parents both said.

Betty went upstairs. Polly was in the room sitting on her bed texting with one of her friends.

"So how was your date?" Polly asked.

"It was interesting," Betty replied.

"Tell me all about it," Polly said. "And remember our deal, I want every last detail."

Betty flopped down onto her bed and then began regaling her elder sister with every detail of her date with Jason, from dinner, to her first kiss, to the driving range. The story went well into the night.

A few blocks away a family was unpacking after a busy day of moving. The father was unpacking boxes in the living room/dining room while the mother was in the kitchen putting dishes away in their places in the cupboard. Just then the doorbell rang.

"Barry that's probably the pizza guy!" the father called. "Could you get that?"

Upstairs their son Barry, a slightly shorter than average teen with brown hair was setting up his room.

"Where's your wallet so I can pay him?" Barry asked.

"It's on top of the boxes near the door," his father replied.

In an instant Barry was downstairs at the door cash in hand. He opened the door to see the pizza guy standing there, he looked to be about the same age as Barry.

"Hey, did you guys just move in?" the pizza guy asked.

"Yeah why?" Barry responded.

"Just curious, welcome to Riverdale," the pizza guy said handing him the boxes. "My name's Adam Chisholm."

"Barry Allen," Barry replied taking the pizza.

"You going to be attending Riverdale High?" Adam asked.

"Yeah, starting Monday," Barry answered.

"Cool, well see you there," Adam said heading back to his car.

"Wait, I need to pay you for the pizza," Barry called out.

"Consider it a housewarming gift," Adam shouted as he hopped in his beat up Honda Civic hatchback.

Barry waved good-bye before closing the door. He then opened the lid and took a deep whiff of the pizza.

" I'm gonna like this town," Barry commented to himself.

A new arrival in Riverdale is sure to make things interesting. And Betty and Jason seem to be pretty serious after just one date. Will Bobbi Suarez keep her word, and what will happen between Betty and new student Barry Allen (because we all know something will). We shall find out. Please read and review.