CW: brief mention of a miscarriage

I made sure to make a pot of coffee and bring some in my tin thermos before I left. There was still half a pot on the counter in case my father bothered to wake up and have some.

I cursed under my breath when I arrived at the Cooper residence. I had seriously hoped Mama and Papa Cooper had left for work already, and I certainly was not prepared to face Alice. So I did the only thing any teenage boy has ever done in this situation. I grabbed a ladder and knocked on her second story window. What? Not everybody does that?

Betty looked surprised but pleased to see me as she let me in. I put my finger to my lips and whispered "shhh" since I didn't want to let on that I was there. We spoke in hushed tones.

"What are you doing here?"

"We said we would investigate today, remember? I have some news, though. I ended up talking to my dad after all and he said your mom was technically a serpent at one point in time, but that it was brief. Is there anyone on her side of the family we could talk to?" She sat on her bed pensive for a moment.

"Mom says my grandma died before I was born but my grandpa is still around. I'm not particularly close with him. Do you think he might know? Whatever the truth is, I want to find out." Whatever reasons Betty had to figuring this out about her family, she clearly had a sense of curiousity and adventure in there, too.

We decided to meet up with her grandfather, so I took off down the ladder and she met me at the door a few minutes later. Within three steps, we were stopped by someone I had momentarily forgot about.

Archie Andrews. Of course Betty's neighbor would notice the ladder and see us together. I just rolled my eyes, mentally preparing for him to join us even though it felt a lot safer being just Betty and me. It's not exactly well known information we're looking into, and somebody obviously wanted it that way.

"Hey guys, where are you going? Can I come?" Betty smiled at him and I felt a bit disgusted, though I'd never say anything. If there was one thing I hated, it was the way Betty looked at him like he meant everything to her when he looked at her like a reliable old backup truck.

I piped up before I could stop myself. "Don't you have football practice today?" Archie blushed, having forgotten.

"Yeah but I still have a few hours. Plus I have to make it up to Betts for being a goof the other day." He smiled up at her and I rolled my eyes.

"Well come on, then. We haven't got all day. Betty, does he live at River Oak Retirement?" It was a retirement home built when the Feds had lots of money to give but now the well was running dry so only the wealthier families could abandon their aging relatives there.

I was out in front as the two talked behind me, holding hands. I tried not to listen, but they seemed to be arguing about something and then I realized I may have misjudged Betty about wanting Arch to come with us. He looked a little spooked when we came upon the building and decided to take off.

"Shall we?" I offered Betty my arm and she took it as we walked up to a building with creepy gothic architecture. We signed in and Mr Smith was rolled into a visiting room, waiting for us.

"S'good to see you, Polly. Don't visit so much now that yer older." It was fairly common for Betty to be mistook for her slightly older sister, something I never really understood since the only thing that looked the same to me was the long blonde hair.

"Grandpa, it's me, Betty." She put her hands on his and he smiled up at her.

"So it is. What's the special occasion? Did I forget my birthday again?" He had a twinkle in his eye. Having visitors clearly meant a lot to him and I only wished we were there under better circumstances.

"No Grandpa, but you can have some of my merangues if you want." She fished out the bag and it was almost empty. He graciously took two from her. "We actually came by-" and at this the old man finally seemed to notice me, "-to see if you could tell me about Grandma Smith."

"Grandma Campbell."

"What?"

"She would be Grandma Campbell. Kathlyn Campbell. I don't know why you're asked me about her when you can just go see her yourself."

"You're going senile, Grandpa. Grandma is dead, mom told me so."

He huffed in frustration. "Well alright. The thing about Kathlyn was that she was a total fox. She had everything you could ever want in a woman with one fatal flaw. She was the daughter of the gang leader for the since disbanded Scorpions, and thus was broke. My parents admitted she was a dream, but did not approve due to those mitigating factors. We eloped when she turned 18 and she became pregnant. No, not with your mother. This pregnancy didn't work out for some reason, something that caused quite a rift between us. I blamed her a bit but she held herself entirely accountable. Her own body rejected our baby. It was devastating. To get her out of her slump, we tried again and had your mom. It made her feel a lot better but there was a festerin' scar that would probably never heal, still."

"Wow I never knew. But why did mom join the Southside?"

He was silent for a few moments. "I was hoping you wouldn't ask. I'm not exactly proud of it, but we were hitting financial hardships at the time and I went to my father. He said he would take me back but not the wife and kid. Alice was already a teenager, so I figured why not. At least one of us would be taken care of. Kathlyn and I separated and Alice made her way just as I trusted she would. She did pretty good for herself, too."

"Thanks gramps. I'm doing a genealogy report for school and this really helped." She squeezed his hand and looked ever so sincere that it scared me. If Betty could lie like that with such an honest face, what might she be hiding from me?

We walked back to Betty's house, but my mind was still reeling. What if Mr Smith wasn't senile? What if Kathlyn really was alive? It was also a lot of information to take in all at once. Betty's grandma seemed to parallel me in a sense. Wrong side of town, gang royalty, not wanting to be involved...

"Hey Jug, Veronica called and asked if we wanted to go to the Bijou and catch the matinee before you have to leave for work. What do you think?"

I shrug. "Sure, why not." Throwing myself into something mindless seemed like exactly what I needed as the lives of one Cooper and one Jones got inexplicably complicated.

Archie drove us to go pick up Veronica and somehow we talked us into playing Chinese Firedrill at the red light. My foot was barely in the door when it turned green and we went barreling down the road. I thought I saw an older woman looking at me as if she saw a ghost. Or maybe she was the ghost. Yeah a mindless movie with friends was exactly what the doctor ordered.

Wait. If Betty's grandma was the daughter of a gang leader, does that make her honourary gang royalty, too? That was definitely a piece of information I hoped would never get out, even if it could potentially get Chuck Clayton off my back.