Jughead Jones sat across the street from the blonde-haired beauty, watching as she laughed at something Kevin said. He was loathe to even know Kevin's name but during the timeframe of studying the blonde – Betty Cooper – Jughead had learned about all of her friends. The redheaded quarterback home from college for the summer, Archie Andrews and his girlfriend, Veronica Lodge. The two were Betty's closest friends. Jughead learned that Betty's favorite color was periwinkle blue and liked eating sundried tomatoes but not sliced carrots. She wrote with her right hand but did everything else with her left. She had startling green irises and hair the color of honey.
Her mother was a neurotic woman who calorie counted and smacked Betty a time or two if she brought home anything less than A. Betty was valedictorian her senior year and was taking some local classes at the community college while saving to go up to Yale. She had an older brother and an older sister, Polly, and Charles. She was scared of heights and hated the color pink. He had more but those were the basics. He and his best friend, Sweet Pea Connor spent the last three months learning everything there was to about Betty Cooper.
Why, some would dare to ask. And the answer to that question was simple: they wanted to know the girl they were kidnapping. Back up and rewind, right? The next brave person would dare to ask why they were kidnapping America's Sweetheart. Well, Hal Cooper, her father, borrowed some money from FP Jones, a dick of a man. And the idiot didn't pay him back. He borrowed money and then lost it all again. Hal had a gambling addiction.
And, FP was mad as hell. You didn't borrow from the king of the serpents without returning it. That was too much to assume something that someone could do. And Hal had assumed he could. He had made the mistake of not paying FP Jones II back. And FP always came to collect his dues. So, he had Jughead and Sweet Pea learn the intricacies of the Cooper family.
There was Alice Cooper, a bitch as sharp as a knife with a silver tongue to prove it.
Charles Cooper, the oldest of the three Cooper children, and the most dimwitted. He scraped by on a hockey scholarship and the grades of a chimpanzee.
Then there was Polly Cooper, the middle child. Known to have had a scandal with her second cousin, she was much quieter these days. Kept her head down and worked. Some would say why she was the prime option for an abduction and Jughead would be inclined to agree with them.
That was, until he researched the third child.
Betty Cooper, nineteen years old, and the youngest of three siblings. Smart. Kind. Dedicated to her volunteer work and her hours she clocked in as a candy-stripe girl at Riverdale General. Quiet and shy. Best friends to Archie Andrews, Riverdale's very own golden boy, and Veronica Lodge, the ice princess from Manhattan. Straight A student from kindergarten to college. Worked on the newspaper at Riverdale High, (ha, Southside's was a joke). Never touched a drug a day in her life or drank a drop of alcohol.
For obvious reasons, she was their best bet at kidnapping and Jughead had Sweet Pea start following her. Stealthily of course. Mission Impossible style and all that shit.
Well, Sweet Pea started peeling back the layers of Betty Cooper's homelife and the idyllic American girl wasn't getting the idyllic American life. Hal Cooper had a gambling problem as long as his arm and owed several debts. Alice drank and swung a fist a time or two. Polly and Charles were neglectful; didn't care about their baby sister, and her best friends? Were too busy fucking each other to pay attention to her.
So, no one would miss what wasn't there in the first place, right?
The plan was to take her and hold her hostage for a month, tops. Lock her in the basement of the Wyrm for the first week and then let her stay in Toni's apartment. Toni Topaz had volunteered to watch over her as long as Betty Cooper stayed in her lane.
So, here they were, Jughead and Sweet Pea. They were watching her walk into an empty house, a house that would be empty for at least six hours, and they were waiting. For nightfall. They were going to steal her when the shadows came out to play.
Sweet Pea spoke up just then, voice quiet from lack of use. "I've got about ten minutes until the sun goes down."
"We're going to wait an extra ten minutes just to make sure no cars drive by. White-picket suburbia is the best and worst place for nosy nellies," Jughead replied quietly, flicking the ash off his cigarette. He didn't give two shits less about polluting the northside with his cigarettes. They could use a little tarnishing to their name.
"I'm still supposed to tie her up?" Sweet Pea asked.
"Yes. If she fights," Jughead said, stomach churning ever so slowly. He hadn't been raised to scare women, but FP was desperate. Then again, so was Hal. "And put the cloth in her mouth. We cannot have her screaming. You know boy-next-door will be over here if that's the case."
"I thought he was with Lodge tonight?" Sweet Pea checked.
"She's with Hermione at their mother-daughter dinner. I told you this last night," Jughead sighed.
"Right."
Sweet Pea wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed but he was the quickest. He could pick a lock faster than anybody Jughead knew and he was stealthy. It's why his dad had him go with Jughead to kidnap the blonde. If Fangs had gone…well, he'd probably ruin the whole thing by apologizing. He always did wear his heart on his sleeve.
Ten minutes later the sun was setting.
Another ten minutes and the men were sneaking across the yard.
Thanks to Sweet Pea knowing how to jimmy the lock, it was child's play to get into the house. They had their masks on and crept into the living room where Betty was sitting on the couch, working on her college homework.
Jughead cocked his gun and pointed it at the back of her head. "Be quiet and this will go one of two ways."
She froze, turning around ever so slowly as she raised trembling eyes to Sweet Pea and Jughead. Her breathing turned heavy, as if she were having a panic attack, and Jughead thought that might be an issue. He nodded at Sweet Pea, who walked up to her with his own gun raised. "You've got exactly a minute and a half to lead me to your bathroom so you can take one of those Ativan I know you have. Then we're going to tie your wrists and blindfold you.
"W-What do you want?" Betty whispered, but Sweet Pea was already ushering her to her feet and frog-marching her to the stairs.
Jughead was busy with the letter he was leaving for the Coopers – for whenever Alice and Hal returned. He counted to ninety while writing the letter and then Sweet Pea was back downstairs, guiding Betty towards him with the gun pressed to her back.
Jughead took out the zip ties, securing her wrists together, and running the pad of his thumb discreetly along her inner wrist in what he hoped was a soothing motion. Betty had tears streaming down her cheeks but wasn't putting up a fight. He could afford a little generosity here. "Don't be scared. Do as we say, and you'll be back home in no time."
"This is kidnapping," Betty whispered, and then Sweet Pea was tying the cloth around her mouth.
Jughead threw the sack over her head and then they were stealing to the night, dancing along the shadows that told stories of the night.
They'd answer questions tomorrow.
Right now, they had to go.
