"So tell me, Archibald, why haven't you ever said anything to Jughead? Encouraged him? Told him to go for the gold?" Kevin is questioning Archie intently, leaning towards him from the chair he's sitting in in the student lounge. "Now, me, I never did because I know he would have run screaming in the other direction."

"Kev, come on. I've known Jughead for forever, man. If you push him he's just going to go all turtle-y on you and hide."

"Turtle-y, Archiekins? As odd as that is, it's pretty apt," Veronica says, crossing her legs from her place next to Archie on the well worn couch. "Though, honestly, I'm a little worried that Betty is who our actual wild card is. What if she's just not interested?"

"That could be true but-" Kevin starts.

"Nah, guys, look, I know Betty and Jughead, we've all known each other since we were kids and if I thought if it wouldn't work I probably would have said something to him already. They've always been really close, you know? Betty's not looking for his interest because she assumes it's not there and Jughead doesn't say anything because he keeps everything to himself. Especially if he thinks he might lose it," Archie tells them with a serious face.

"My, my Archie, look at you being so insightful. Where does this come from?" Kevin wants to know.

"I've had over ten years of being friends with them, you guys. We've all been through a lot of each other's stuff."

Archie tells them about when he got it for the first time, just how different his relationship with Betty is with than the one she shares with Jughead.

It's the start of the summer between fourth and fifth grade and he can't wait to show Jughead his new skateboard. He's only fallen three times since he got it and only needed a band-aid once which, his mom says, is impressive. He thinks so, too.

He's supposed to meet Jug in the treehouse after lunch so Jughead can see Archie's new skills but before he's made it all the way up the ladder he hears what sounds like Betty sniffling and trying not to cry.

"It's okay, Betty, I promise. It's not-"

"It is, Jug! I ruined it, I'm so sorry," he hears Betty wail.

"No, it's fixable, I swear. Remember you always tell me nothing is too broken to be fixed, right? This isn't a big deal."

"But this isn't just anything, Juggie, it's the only one there is!"

"Yeah, but we'll fix it, maybe we can make it better or something. Come on, Betty, you don't need to cry, it's okay."

"It'll always be like its got a scar now," Archie hears Betty whimper out. He can see her face in his head, eyes big and red like the way they always get when she cries.

"Hey, scars are cool, Betts. See? You just made it better then," he can hear Jughead try and comfort her. "Things don't need to be perfect."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course! Just look at Archie. There's only one of him and he's a disaster." He can hear Betty start to giggle and he feels better knowing she's not so upset anymore. Archie decides it's okay to interrupt them then as he climbs the rest of the way up the ladder, still eager to show off his skateboard.

Archie never says anything when he sees a new red button on Jughead's hat two days later covering up the hole he had seen the day Betty had been crying.

"And?" he hears Veronica ask him, curiosity in her eyes. "What does that mean?"

"It means that we're all best friends and always have been but only one of us is Betty's safety net."

"I can't believe I never saw this before," Kevin breathes out, eyes big and a look of clarity on his face.

"What?"

"He's her beanie," Kevin tells them both. "Where did she go after your party, Veronica?"

"Oh my god, you're right. She went to the Twilight," Veronica agrees as they share a look.

"Wait, why would she go to Jug after the party? She was upset?" Archie wants to know. "Why?"

Kevin and Veronica look at each other and with silent agreement they both say, "Cheryl."

Whatever Archie has to say after that is interrupted by Jughead and Betty walking into the student lounge to join them.

"What's up, guys?" Jughead asks as he and Betty take the available seats on the sofa.

"Nothing," he hears three voices say at the same time.

"That's, uh, not suspicious sounding at all but alright," he responds. He's debating questioning them further when he hears Chuck Clayton talking to Veronica about a date that night. It's a terrible idea but he doesn't need to say anything since he can hear Betty already is.

"V, are you sure? He's not known for being the best guy," Betty tells her.

He tunes the rest of the conversation out, he's thinking about the article he's working on for the paper and the inevitable barrage of red pen edits he's going to get from Betty after she gets her hands on it.

"Right, Jug?"

"What?" he asks looking for the source of the question. "I didn't hear you, what'd you say?"

"I said, we need to stay late for the paper tonight so we can't do any Netflix binging with Kevin," Betty answers him.

"Oh. Yeah. Can't wait for my lecture in red on my overuse of semicolons," Jughead says to her with a roll of his eyes.

"Your liberal overuse of them, Jughead, makes me think you use them even in your thoughts."

"I do. How else when my brain know when to pause?"

"Please tell me this isn't your version of flirting?" he hears Veronica whisper to him. He hopes Betty didn't hear that one and by her distraction of digging through the stack of papers in her hand he doesn't think she did.

He sighs and shakes his head and pretends he didn't hear her. Based on the look on her face he thinks that was a bad idea.

"So, Jughead. What's the red button on your hat about?" she asks him. He's a little taken aback by the question. It's out of place and weird and no one has ever asked him before, not even Archie. Only he and Betty know the story and can't imagine why anyone else would even care.

He finds Betty sitting by the bottom of the tree that their treehouse is built on with her hands in fists and an angry look on her face.

"What's wrong?" he asks her, sitting cross legged in front of her in the dirt.

"It's nothing, Jug."

"You're the worst liar, you know," he tells her.

"Says you."

"Uh, Betts, says everyone. Remember when Archie and I were messing around in class and I tripped and knocked over the fish tank? And you tried to take the blame even though I was on the ground in the middle of all the water?"

"You're the one who saved Mr. Flippers! It was totally unfair to make you sit out lunch just because you tripped."

"Okay. How about when Archie and I ate all of the cookies your mom made for Polly's class? You told your mom you ate them all. She definitely didn't believe you."

"That's just because you and Archie had chocolate all over your faces."

"The evidence was against us, Betty. You're a better Nancy Drew than a criminal, you know that," he says to her, waiting for her to spill what's really wrong.

"Jug, she just wants me to be perfect. I'm not and she hates it."

"Hey, we can put salt in all of her shoes? That would be awful to step on. Or we could move all of the pictures in your house an inch to the left. I think that would actually send her screaming."

Betty's laughing by the time he's done talking and he starts laughing with her. Her smile falls off her face as she says, "Sometimes she just makes it so loud in my head, Juggie."

He sighs as he gets up to sit next to go sit next to her, nudging her shoulder as he settles himself down and nods his head telling her, "Yeah, I know." He takes off his hat and sets it on her head. "Here, my dad always says this hat must be the reason I don't listen to him, maybe it can keep other stuff quiet too."

"I think you just don't like to listen, Jughead," Betty replies, but she's smiling again. "And it covers your ears, you know."

"You have no case with no evidence, Cooper."

"Shut up, Jug."

It's a couple of days after she ended up catching his hat on a nail in the treehouse, ripping it a little, that she shows up with a red button in her hand and a small sewing kit she borrowed from Mrs. Andrews with a smile.

"Where did you get that?"

"I stole it from one of my mom's shirts and when she asked me if I had anything to do with it I told her I had no idea what she was talking about and she believed me!" Betty exclaims, jumping a little in excitement. "I thought we could fix your hat with it."

"Sure," he agrees with her and sit with her as she carefully sews on the button, making sure she closes the entire tear.

"You, Veronica Lodge, care way too much about my wardrobe," he answers her. There's nothing significant she needs to know about that story, if anything, it's private because it was Betty upset, not him, and he's not sharing her secrets.

"It was part of the Great Button Heist of 2011, V," Betty says to Veronica. She doesn't say anything else, just smiles at him as everyone gets up to head to their first class of the day.

She's trying to calm Veronica down the next day after her finding out Chuck Clayton put on social media he had given her a "Sticky Maple." She's justified in her anger for sure but she doesn't want to end up in the boys locker rooms yelling at guys she knows won't even care.

They'll be entertained, probably.

As she's listening to Veronica's tirade, she can feel Jughead's presence behind her. She relaxes a little and hopes he can help her put out the fire that is Veronica Lodge, justified or not.

"What's going on?" he asks her.

"Chuck Clayton did what he does best."

"Ah, the Sticky Maple thing. Yeah, he's a dick."

"This isn't helping, Jughead!" Veronica yells at him. "I want revenge and I'm going to get it. I didn't do this and if he won't tell the truth, I'll make him."

"Veronica, he's never going to tell the truth, he's a dick. It's what he does," Jughead tells her, getting a look from Betty that implied that wasn't helping at all. "But what he did do was give you all the power."

"What? How?"

"You control the entire narrative now."

"And you figure this how exactly?"

"Look, if you say you didn't do it, no one believes you. If you get him to say it, no one will believe you because they assume you made him do it for your reputation. But, if you let people think what they were going to think anyway, you control the experience. Maybe you honestly forgot it happened because it was over so quickly. Maybe you didn't want to say anything because it's rude to admit that size does matter and Chuck's just doesn't measure up," Jughead explains to both her and Veronica.

She's laughing and leaning on him while Veronica looks intrigued and angry.

"No one is going to remember what he said you did when all they're going to remember is that Chuck sucks at what he was bragging about."

"You've given me a lot to think about, Jughead. I need caffeine and a plan. I'll see you both later," she says as she stalks off down the hallway ignoring the stares of the other students.

By lunchtime she's heard multiple stories from multiple sources about the varying degrees of Chuck's inadequacy. And Veronica Lodge is from the city. She would know, right? By the time she sees Chuck's smug face again, it's not so smug and looks downright pissed off. She's sitting with Veronica, Jug, and Archie at lunch when Chuck approaches Veronica angrily.

"Why are you lying?" he demands.

"Lying about what? I just think if we were going to have story time, every available edition should be an option. People do so like to have choices, don't you think?" Veronica answers him with a predatory grin.

"You need to tell people the truth, Veronica!" Chuck growls at her.

"Oh, but Chuckiekins, it seems both of our memories of last night are hazy. I can't possibly be sure what really happened when you keep telling a different version of events. I mean, maybe, if say, some jackass who lied then tried to slut shame me was honest about how it really went down started telling the truth then I might reconsider what happened."

"So, if I tell people nothing happened, you'll fix this?"

"Sure, why not? Honesty is the best policy, right?" she responds with a lift of her eyebrow and a serious look at him.

"Fine, Veronica. Nothing happened last night," he says to her with a hard look on his face before he walks away.

"You, Jughead, are a genius," Betty tells him, sliding the rest of her lunch his way.

"Do you think he's going to figure out no one is going to believe him no matter what?" Jughead asks her, grabbing the chips she offered and taking a handful.

"Nope. How upsetting that will be, I'm so sad for him," Veronica says facetiously.

"So, tomorrow is the big day, Betts," Jughead remarks, "are you ready for it?"

Betty's shoulders drop with as she huffs out a breath. "No, not really. I need to know though, Jug. I can't think of anything that justifies anything they did if they sent Polly away."

It's weighing heavily on her mind and has been since she stopped hearing from Polly at the beginning of the summer. Two people don't just disappear for no reason, especially when they were dating and had no reason Betty can think of to run. No one is talking, not her parents, not the Blossom's, not the Sheriff. It's as if the town wants them to forget it all and move on.

There is something deeper going on and she isn't going to stop until she knows everything.