The benefit of the Cooper's grand house, besides the large trees providing an easy escape route when necessary, was that Madison's bedroom was directly across the hall from Betty's, which was occasionally a pain when Madison was forced to turn down her music, but it came in handy when she felt like eavesdropping on her baby sister. She didn't do it very often since it was rare for Betty to talk about anything worth eavesdropping, but every now and then Madison overheard the perfect material for blackmail.
As Madison swiped some dark plum lipstick across her lips, her hair already tugged into a messy topknot that she hadn't bothered to redo from last night, she glanced away from her mirror, leaning across slightly to catch the word floating across the hallway.
"Betty, this coming year is critical for colleges. Grades are important, extracurriculars, athletics. Maintaining a decent character is hugely important, they do look at that," Alice Cooper's voice travelled down the hallway, her tone insistent as she preached to Betty as if Betty hadn't been telling herself the same thing all summer. The classic back-to-school lecture, Mama Cooper style.
"Mom, I'm a sophomore," Betty's voice replied drily, clearly as bored with the lecture as Madison was hearing it again. Madison had heard a similar version of this lecture herself a year ago, except their mother had been much more insistent on the good behaviour, as useless as it had been.
Alice Cooper wasn't finished though, her voice getting a little more pushy while Madison rolled her eyes, pushing herself up from her unmade bed to go snoop properly. "You've accomplished so much, I don't want anything jeopardising that. I mean, just think of your poor sister."
"Oooh, which one?" Madison interrupted, bumping her hip against Betty's bedroom door to push it open a little more, revealing herself to the other two. "The hot mess you sent away or the delinquent you can't get rid of?"
She raised a playful eyebrow, the smirk slipping up her lips as her mother let out a frustrated sigh. Madison wasn't sure if the sigh was because of her witty comment or because Alice Cooper had just noticed Madison's slightly skimpy outfit, her crop top showing off her belly button as her black leggings hugged at her lower half tightly.
"Didn't hear you knock," Betty said quietly, half under her breath as she turned away from Madison to check her makeup again.
"Good because if you did I'd tell you that you were hearing things and you'd be following Polly straight to the madhouse," Madison shot back, folding her arms across her chest as she watched Betty huffing around the bedroom, stuffing her books into her backpack with much more aggression than the books deserved.
"Girls!" Alice cut off her daughters before the bickering could spill into a war before anyone had even had a proper cup of coffee. "I just…I just mean…Polly was such a shining star before she let that Blossom boy ruin her."
Betty stopped in her tracks to look at her mother, her gaze softening slightly at the mention of the eldest Cooper girl. "Mom, I'm not Polly," she said gently.
Madison was less affected, pushing past Betty to sink into the seat in front of the vanity, examining her make up in the mirror as her fingers toyed with Betty's excessive collection of pink lipsticks. God, could she be any more predictable? Madison picked up the eyeshadow palate sitting on a pile of textbooks, swiping her finger across the deep red shade that looked complete unused. "And we know you wish you were me, but alas. Only room in this house for one Cooper disappointment at a time. Daddy's rules," Madison remarked as she applied the shadow to her own eyelids.
"Madison," Alice's tone sharpened slightly as she raised a carefully shaped eyebrow at her daughter. "That's enough." Her voice held a deeper warning to it as she spoke, her pointed look suggesting a hidden meaning that Madison couldn't be bothered figuring out right now.
"Whatever," Madison sighed, suddenly bored with the entire interaction as she dropped the eyeshadow palate back onto the vanity table with a clatter as Betty marched over to snatch the textbooks, offering a glare to Madison as she did so. Betty adjusted the palate's placement on the vanity, moving it back into its proper place as she looked pointedly at Madison. With a sigh of false defeat, Madison slid off the chair, sauntering back out of Betty's room and ducking into her own room to grab her half empty backpack before heading down into the kitchen where Hal Cooper was sitting at the table, coffee in one hand and newspaper in the other.
"Sup," Madison said to her father, stealing a sip of his coffee before he could protest. "Ugh, how many sugars do you need?" she asked as the sweet taste overpowered her taste buds momentarily.
"As many as I need to get you to make your own coffee," Hal remarked, barely looking up from the newspaper as he took the coffee mug back from her.
Madison sighed, moving over to the coffee machine reluctantly. "Rude," she huffed as she leaned against the kitchen counter and waited for the machine to churn out a cup of strong caffeine to get her through the day.
"Now, Madison…" Hal put down the paper after a moment, folding his hands together as he looked up at Madison. "Remember what we talked about." His voice was suddenly a little more serious, reflecting the warning in Alice's voice only moments ago.
Madison glanced at her father for a moment before pointedly turning away to pour her coffee. "I know," she said back quickly. "I remember that."
"Tell me. Repeat it back."
"I spent the fourth of July out of town. I was over in Greendale partying," Madison recited back, staring at the dark pool of coffee in her mug, watching the steam flowing upwards. "I stayed in Greendale for half the summer break just partying. That's all."
Lies, lies and more lies.
The lies fell from her lips easily, just as they had over the last week every time her father drilled her, reminding her of the story she was to tell if anyone asked. Greendale. Partying. A normal summer break. The same story she'd spent the second half of summer telling everyone else. The story Betty believed to be true. The story her mother was insistent on believing, as much as she knew it to be a lie.
Alice had been home when Hal brought Madison home on the 11th of July. She had spent half of the next day getting rid of the blood stains in Madison's clothes, searching the trembling girl's body for any sign of injury, for an explanation to the amount of blood, washing Madison's hair again and again until the red tint had finally been erased from her dirty blonde hair. Alice had sat there in horror, watching as Hal did his best to pull any memories from Madison's mind, but the middle Cooper child only had one thing to say, again and again. Red.
Red, red, red.
All she remembered was red. Flashes of red.
Red staining her clothes, red staining her mind.
"Madison." Hal's voice was sharp, pulling Madison out of her distorted pile of memories again. Madison jumped slightly, shaking her head slightly as her coffee swished dangerously in the mug, her grip tightening on it as she looked up at her father, tugging a convincing smirk onto her lips again.
"I was in Greendale, partying," she repeated firmly. "That's all."
Hal nodded slowly, lifting his coffee mug to his lips to take a sip. "Good girl," he said as he lowered the mug again, his eyes dropping back to the newspaper, a sign that his interrogation had ended.
Madison had almost forgotten how irritating she found school until she was forced to enter the school property again, almost immediately thrown into a mess of chaos with students all rushing around, yelling and hollering at each other as if they hadn't spent the last few months getting drunk together. It was a bizarre ritual that Madison might have enjoyed more if she had her usual group but that was what she got for being stuck on the North side of town while the rest of her friends took over Southside High without her.
S.O.S ALREADY BORED HERE. READY TO BAIL? - J
Speaking of Southside friends, Madison glanced at her phone as it buzzed, her eyes rolling as she read over the text that was currently hovering on her screen. Joaquin DeSantos, one of Madison's closest friends and one of the many Southsiders who had been kind enough to welcome her into the crew despite her surname. She'd certainly earned her place amongst the troublemakers of Riverdale over the last year, especially recently when she'd solidified her role as the wild party animal in the Southside crowd and finally managed to out-drink Joaquin. The two of them had agreed to get through the first day of school before they ruined their reputations, particularly Madison who had Betty's good attitude to compete with. All of the teachers of Riverdale High were well aware that Madison was nothing like her two sisters but they certainly tried to change that. It was hopeless though, especially when Madison had bad influences like Joaquin encouraging her to skip out on school before first period even began.
She quickly swiped her thumb across the screen, unlocking the phone as she walked through the corridors of Riverdale High School, ignoring the bustle of students all pushing past, all too keen to make a decent impression on the first day back. As much as Madison wanted to march out of the school building right now, she knew she needed to get through just half a day. Half a day and then she could at least tell her father that she'd tried. If she cut school too early she'd have no grounds to argue on.
LOSER. COME GET ME AT LUNCH. U BETTER BRING THE GOODS! - M
She quickly typed out the reply to Joaquin. He didn't reply, but Madison knew he'd follow through just as he always did, acting as her dealer whenever necessary. Lord knows Madison would need a shot of vodka or a hit of something if she was going to maintain what was left of her sanity surrounded by the idiots of Riverdale High. After hitting send, Madison slipped her phone back down her top, tucking it into her bra discreetly but not discreetly enough to be missed by Reggie Mantle who whistled as Madison brushed past him. He was leaning against a locker beside Archie, and while Archie seemed to be intent on ignoring Madison, Reggie was more than willing to leer her way.
"Looking good, Coops," he hollered, throwing a wink at her as she glanced back at him, her eyes flickering across to Archie briefly before lingering back on Reggie when it was clear Archie didn't want to look at her. Reggie's eyes were glued to her chest without a hint of shame and Madison couldn't help smirking as she pushed her chest out a little more, watching as Reggie's eyes widened at the movement. He was so predictable, just like every other boy in this school.
"Only for you, Mantle," she called back, turning away again with full knowledge that Reggie would be staring directly at her arse now. Something about Archie's attitude irked her a little, the way his eyes stayed glued to his locker the moment she appeared. In the back of Madison's mind she couldn't help replaying his words at the diner the night before.
"You know what. Fourth of July. The river."
Archie knew. He knew about the river. Not even Madison knew what happened, not really. She hadn't even known she'd been at the river that day until Archie brought it up. But Archie knew something. He had a piece of her missing memory.
Part of Madison was curious, dying to put the puzzles of her muddled brain together, but a much bigger part of her knew that there was a reason she'd blocked the actual events of July fourth from her mind. She didn't need to put the pieces together to know that the blood on her hands wasn't her own. The only question was if it wasn't her blood, then whose was it?
As Madison wandered through the hallway, the school secretary's voice rang out through the corridors over the loud speaker suddenly, causing all students to halt their boring conversations, all freezing momentarily to listen.
"ATTENTION ALL STUDENTS, A REMINDER THAT YOU ARE ALL REQUIRED TO ATTEND THIS MORNING'S ASSEMBLY WHERE WE ARE HOLDING A BRIEF MEMORIAL FOR JASON BLOSSOM."
A/N: Hey friends! Thank you so much to everyone who left reviews on the first few chapters and I'm sorry this took so long! My muse was a little rusty for a while there but I am definitely still excited to share Madison's story with you all! This was a bit of a short chapter but I wanted to give you all a little look at the Cooper household before we delve into the mystery too much! It's all coming though, don't you worry! Please feel free to leave a review and let me know your thoughts so far! Thanks again for reading! xo