I don't usually post two chapters in one day, but this is an exception. I have had Chapter 4 written for weeks now and I posted it on Archive of Our Own, but I forgot to post it on here, which I just remembered to do after finishing Chapter 5. So, this hopefully isn't going to be a usual thing.
Betty adjusted her grip on her steering wheel as she went through the plan again in her mind. Archie had told her his plan to save Riverdale High while she made them coffee this morning. While she had not agreed to any teaching position yet (because who knew how her boss would react to her requesting an extended leave of absence), Betty had agreed to at least pitch their idea to a potential donor, who happened to be her cousin.
After graduation, Cherly had apparently retreated into isolation with Nana Blossom at ThorneHill. She rarely ventured out or accepted visitors. Archie had hoped that Betty would be able to get inside and have a conversation with Cheryl because they were family, hopefully succeeding where everyone else-including Toni-had failed.
Unlike her sort-of boyfriend, Betty had her doubts. Toni had been the love of Cheryl's life. Cheryl had never come out and admitted it to her (that wasn't how their relationship worked), but Betty was a trained observer even before she joined the FBI. The way that Cheryl had looked at Toni could have lit an entire room by itself and it had been obvious to anyone who paid attention. Shutting Toni out had to have hurt her cousin deeply. If she could shut out the love of her life, Betty was sure that she would have no problem doing so to the cousin that had not spoken to her in seven years.
"This is going to be great," Betty sarcastically muttered to herself as she drove through the gates of ThorneHill after inputting the gate code that she remembered and somehow still worked.
She made short work of parking her car and walking through the front door, which was-thankfully-unlocked due to the construction going on.
Betty recalled her memory of the layout of the expansive mansion from her sparse visits over the years, hoping that she would be able to find Cheryl soon. She quickly found Cheryl standing in the living room in front of a giant canvas with Nana Blossom sitting in her wheelchair nearby, looking out the window. Cheryl clocked her entrance almost immediately.
"Well, well, well. I'll be. If it isn't my one and only Cousin Betty."
Betty grinned as she heard the familiar name coming from her cousin. "Hi, Cheryl."
"What do you think of the renovations? Nana and I have been working on renovating Thornehill for years now."
"It's impressive."
Cheryl had always been perceptive when it came to Betty, even before they discovered that they were cousins (third-cousins, technically, but neither girl had ever truly cared to make the distinction). So, it came as no surprise when she quickly snuffed out that the blonde was here for something besides catching up after seven years apart, leading two very different lives.
"Come out and tell me the real reason you are here, cousin. We both know that you didn't come to comment on the architecture."
"Could we go outside and talk? I could use some fresh air," Betty said instead, glancing at the construction workers all around. Cheryl took a few moments before she sighed dramatically and climbed down from her stool.
"Very well. We shall discuss everything outside."
Seeing the heels that her cousin wore, Betty extended a hand to help Cheryl down from the stool and allowed her to loop their arms together when she reached the ground. Instinctively, they went out the back and started walking towards the maple forest behind the mansion.
Sometimes, Betty was still in shock at how she was related to Cheryl Blossom and that they were somehow close. Neither girl could have ever pictured such a thing when they were freshmen or new sophomores. They kept their relationship behind closed doors-choosing to appear friendly in public, but almost as close as sisters in private.
They walked in silence for a short time before Cheryl finally turned to Betty and said, "It's good to see you, Betty."
"You too, Cheryl. I missed you."
"Then why did you never return?"
"Life got it in the way, I guess," Betty shrugged. "I work for the FBI now, so I keep some pretty insane hours. Although, there was a part of me that never expected to return to Riverdale after I left."
"I expected as much. And my cousin in the FBI...well, I think we all saw that coming."
"What about you? I heard that you spend practically all your time shut up in the house with Nana Blossom."
Cheryl sighed. "You've spoken with Toni."
"She's worried about you and now I am, too."
"Have you ever thought about the damage that our families have done to others?" Cheryl asked out of the blue.
"Where is this coming from?"
"Just answer the question, Elizabeth."
Sensing that she was starting to get the root of why Cheryl had isolated herself for all these years, Betty breathed out deeply before she said, "Every single day, Cheryl. Every single day."
The legacy of the Cooper and the Blossom-albeit distant-had weighed heavily on Betty since the day that she realized she was a Blossom and that her father was a ruthless serial killer. It was something that she had strived to get out of, mainly by choosing to bring Riverdale's worst criminals to justice, even if they were family. When she joined the FBI, it had been to try and repair some of the damage her father did by saving others.
"I do, too. And that, Cousin Betty, is why I stay at ThorneHill. Riverdale has a long memory and the memory of my-our-family's crimes are still fresh in their minds."
"I think you may be wrong about that."
"Why?"
"Riverdale is currently in anarchy-thanks to Hiram Lodge. He's almost succeeded in dissolving the entire town. Trust me, no one is thinking about the Blossom family right now," Betty hastily explained, majorly simplifying the complicated situation in town.
"And why tell me this now?"
"Riverdale is on the verge of being dissolved-like within the next twenty-four hours. With the dissolution, the funding for Riverdale High disappears and with it, the rest of the town. We hope that by making Riverdale High a private school that we can delay those efforts long enough to save the town. Our only problem is that we need a donation."
"You need money," Cheryl stated.
"We need money," Betty repeated.
The conversation tapered off as they approached the maple forest and slowly turned around again to walk back to the mansion as the conversation started to come to an end.
"I can't promise anything, but I'll look into it."
"Cheryl...I know that the Blossom legacy is a heavy burden to carry. You see the legacy I have to carry. And if there is one thing I've learned while working at the FBI, it's that legacy cannot define who we are. Every day, I walk into the FBI, people look at me and see the daughter of the Black Hood. And instead of shutting down or fighting them, I lift my chin and prove that I am not my father; I prove that I am a better person."
"It's not that easy," Cheryl said quietly, wiping tears from the corner of her eyes. They stopped walking and Betty turned to face her cousin to ensure that she got her message across.
"No," Betty shook her head. "It's not. In fact, I feel a little bit like dying every time someone looks at me and only sees my father's crimes. But I bear it because I know that I am better than he ever was. I'm not saying that saving Riverdale High will wipe away our family's crimes because it won't. But it will be a start."
KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.
Archie jumped in surprise as someone knocked hard against the door. Immediately, his hand went to the waistband of his jeans where he kept his service weapon stashed. He kept one hand on the gun while he peeked through the peephole to see who was at the door.
He relaxed as soon as he caught sight of Betty on the other side. Archie let out a soft chuckle as Betty looked directly at the peephole with an eyebrow raised; she knew exactly what he was doing.
Opening the door, Archie said, "Are you trying to get shot?"
"Please. You would never shoot me. We both know that I'd shoot you before you got the chance to shoot me," Betty replied, walking right inside with her arms full of bags of cleaning supplies.
"How did things go with Cheryl? She said no, didn't she?" Archie sighed.
"No. She promised to think about it and get back to me. Cheryl is trying to work through some personal stuff right now," she said, summarizing her conversation with her cousin while still being intentionally vague. Archie got the message and backed off the topic.
Instead, he shifted his attention to the cleaning supplies in front of them. "It looks like you cleared the shelves."
"Felt like it. I tried to get anything I thought we might need and couldn't borrow from my mom."
"Now the question is where to begin?"
Betty looked around the messy kitchen before turning to look at the even messier living room. She took everything in before saying, "Let's start with the rooms that you are going to use the most. It's likely that this is going to take us several days at least and you should be able to use the bedroom, bathroom, and probably the kitchen too."
"Sounds good to me," Archie replied, grabbing some garbage bags. "Let's get to work."
Cleaning his house reminded Archie a lot of fighting with Betty the other night. It was a mindless task; one where their rational minds could take a backseat and let muscle memory do all the work. They didn't speak much outside of asking the other to hand something over or to look over their work before moving on to the next room, but Archie didn't mind. He and Betty had always been able to communicate without words (though there were definitely a few times when they should have used words).
They started cleaning the bedrooms first, which was a good call. As they moved through each room, they quickly discovered that the mess was much worse than upon first glance. Betty's shopping spree proved to be useful, though Archie bet that they would have to restock on supplies before the day was over. The bathroom was next.
Besides the lingering smell of Jingle Jangle, it was fairly clean, which made the bathroom a quick fix. The shower curtain was toast (again, the smell of Jingle Jangle), which Betty had somehow predicted by buying a new shower curtain.
After that, the pace began to slow down a bit. The hours of deep cleaning everything were starting to catch up with them as they picked up the garbage in the living room and kitchen. The upstairs was clean (for the most part, the hallways still needed a new coat of paint) and with exhaustion setting in, they decided to move on to easier tasks.
"Think we should call it a day?" Archie asked after taking a short break.
"Probably," she sighed.
"Alright, I'm going to take this trash out and then order some food. Does pizza sound good?"
"Pizza sounds great."
"Great."
Archie froze as he realized just how sweaty he actually was. Glancing down at his shirt, Archie knew that there was no chance he was presentable to go pick up the food. "I should probably shower first."
"Me too," Betty said, glancing down at her own sweat-drenched shirt.
"You can go first," Archie stammered.
"No, you can."
"I insist."
"It's your house."
Their arguments trailed off as they stared at each other with lust swirling in their eyes. One moment they were simply standing there staring and the next they were rushing up the stairs to the bathroom, ripping off their clothes as they went.
I was going to make this chapter a little longer, but it felt a little forced when I did that, so that's why this chapter is a little on the shorter side. But to make up for it, here is a semi-long author's note explaining this chapter.
Cheryl locked herself in Thornehill for completely legitimate reasons. She felt overburdened and judged for her family's crimes, even when she had nothing to do with any of them. This is a situation that no one in Riverdale would understand except Betty, and possibly even Veronica. But since I simply cannot see Veronica and Cheryl ever having that kind of discussion about their families, it was Cheryl and Betty that had the conversation instead. And because Betty had been dealing with the backlash from her father's crimes at the FBI, she was the perfect person to talk to her and explain that they cannot let family legacies define them. That they have an opportunity to change the Cooper and the Blossom names into a force for good.
It is also obvious based off their interactions that Betty and Cheryl have a much better dynamic than Betty and Polly. Betty, I feel like, has too much history with Polly where SHE has had to step up and be the voice of reason because Polly's been spiraling ever since losing Jason. With Cheryl, it seems they are more like equals than anything else and their dynamic reflects that in this story. I hope that makes sense. If not, I'll try to clarify, but these are just my views of the show after years of being a casual viewer and only watching a few clips here and there when I'm interested.