Chapter Text
Nothing is cut and dry here. If you’re looking for a story with a clear cut “good guy,” you’ve come to the wrong place. If you don’t want to see people make questionable decisions, I suggest that you bow out now. People do stupid things for love. Scratch that. People do stupid things for lust. Or like. Or caveman style “she pretty.” People do stupid things for money. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have a good reason. That’s up to you to decide. I’m just here to get things started. To help you understand what we’re dealing with here. And in order to do that, we need to rewind. You ready? Let’s start.
It all would have been fine if it wasn’t for The Rule.
Betty Cooper had moved in with the Lodge family when she was only four years old. When her parents died in a car accident, they left custody of their daughter to their closest and oldest friends, who also had a daughter only one year younger than their own. So Betty and Veronica went to their first funeral and then Betty’s limited belongings were moved into the Lodge’s guest bedroom. From that day forward, it was Betty’s.
Betty was fairly certain that her parents had always imagined her growing up with Veronica anyway. Having sleepovers, braiding each others hair, sharing secrets like only best friends would. Betty was also fairly certain that even if her parents were still alive, this never would have happened.
Veronica grew up taking advantage of all the things her name had to offer her, while Betty refused to indulge in any of the perks of living in the Lodge manor. It’s not that Betty faulted her for this, it was just one of the things that made the two girls realize how different they really were.
Veronica favored dresses, nice blouses, fine jewelry. Betty preferred a nice t shirt or flannel, something that gave her the freedom to get messy working on cars down at the garage in town. She’d started working there for free back in eighth grade, after begging the owner to give her a chance. She’d started getting paid for her work a year later. Veronica would never set foot near anything that could get that kind of grease on her outfit of the day. As a matter of fact, Veronica would never work for her money when she didn’t really have to.
All of this was fine. They’d never be the best of friends, but it was someone their age to hang out with on the family vacations and occasionally watch a movie with in the manors media center. Not every relationship was meant to be best friends forever and always.
But one of their biggest differences had been known in the household for as long as they could both remember. Veronica got her first crush in third grade and had been talking about the boys of Riverdale ever since. A boy had a crush on Betty in the third grade and she had punched him on the playground when he got too close to her.
It was this fact that blew up in their faces a week before the Homecoming Dance Veronica’s sophomore year of high school.
“Daddy.” Veronica had said hesitantly, pushing her mashed potatoes around her plate at the dinner table.
“Yes?” Hiram answered from his seat at the head of the table, raising his eyebrows at his daughter.
“I was asked to the Homecoming Dance. I’d really like to go with-“
He didn’t even let her finish the sentence.
“No. You’re not ready to date.”
“I’m 15.” Veronica tried to keep an even tone, but her frustration was already clearing boiling underneath.
“And Betty is 16. You don’t see her dating.”
Veronica looked across the table at Betty, who only shrugged at her and ate a mouthful of mashed potatoes.
“Betty and I are two very different people.”
It was Hiram’s turn to look at Betty. Even though he already knew the answer, he asked. “Are there any boys at your school that you’re interested in?”
Betty scanned through the student body in her mind and gave a quick shake of her head. “No. They’re all pigs.”
Hiram turned his gaze back to his daughter. “They’re all pigs Veronica.” He said this like it was a stone cold fact.
But Veronica was not going to lose so easily. The look she gave Betty was half pleading, half pure exasperation. “Oh come on, they are not all pigs and you know it.”
Betty refused to make eye contact with Veronica, buttering her bread as she replied “All the ones I’ve met are.”
Veronica could feel herself losing traction. “It really doesn’t matter anyway. No one asked her to the dance. I’m the one who has a date.”
Hiram’s eyes were shining with triumph.
“You don’t have a date. And as a matter of fact, until Betty starts dating, I don’t see why you should either. She’s clearly got her head on straight and I trust her judgment.”
That was Veronica’s tipping point. “That is completely unfair. I’ll never date then! She thinks they’re all pigs but they don’t like her either! She scares them! How am I ever going to get a boyfriend if this is going to be a thing now?”
“I guess you won’t get a boyfriend. Because this is a thing now.” Hiram’s tone said this was the bottom line, and just like that the conversation moved on. “Pass the salt.”
It was a year later, and the rule was still standing. Many a guy had tried to ask Veronica Lodge on a date, and each and every one of them had been shot down. Sometimes because she wasn’t interested, but more often because her father stood by the rule he had made like it was written in stone. Betty wasn’t dating, so neither was Veronica. It wasn’t lost on either of the girls that this was just his trick to keep his daughter from dating, but no matter how many glares Veronica shot at Betty across the dinner table, she wasn’t going to date anyone.
For Betty’s part, it had nothing to do with Hiram or Veronica that she wasn’t putting herself out there with the boys in her class. She didn’t like them and they didn’t like her. She kept to herself, working at the garage and really only bothering to communicate with two people from her school: Toni, the only other girl who worked with her, and Toni’s girlfriend, Cheryl. It had long been obvious that she had no desire to talk to anyone else at her school unless they said something to really piss her off in class and she felt a point needed to be made.
Going into junior year, Veronica had just about given up on ever seeing the light of day for any “normal high school experiences.” But the first day of school held the promise of a new start. And that promise was somehow held within Archie Andrews as he adjusted his sweater and climbed the steps to his new high school.
He’d moved to Riverdale over the summer. For most kids, it wouldn’t have been ideal to move across the country right in the middle of their high school career. But for Archie, it was the opportunity of a lifetime. He’d gotten to his junior year fighting the upstream battle to recognition at his old school. He was fairly certain that half of his old class wouldn’t even notice that he was gone. At Riverdale High, no one knew that he’d failed entirely at being anything special, that he’d been the school mascot or that he’d been shot down by Valerie Brown in the middle of the dance floor at Sophomore Spring Fling.
When he arrived at his locker on the first day of school, Archie Andrews was ready for a change.
Have you ever heard of the domino effect? One thing happens and it sets into motion a series of events that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. Don’t jump to conclusions. Archie Andrews is not who this story is about. We haven’t even gotten to that yet. But although he may not be the shining hero of our story, he was the person that set into motion that events that will follow.
On that day, Archie Andrews looked across the hall from his locker, to see a dark haired girl at her own. She put in her combination and glanced casually over her shoulder, seeing him and offering a smile. Archie closed his own locker to see a boy watching him from 2 lockers down.
“Hey.” He said cautiously, and the other, better dressed boy shot him a smile. “Who’s that girl?”
“Veronica Lodge?”
Archie looked back across the hall as the girl carefully pulled a heavy looking book from her locker.
“Maybe?”
The boy two lockers down shook his head in disappointment. “You’re going to drown here.”
“Excuse me?”
Archie’s look of shock only egged the other boy on.
“I can see it on your face. You think this is exciting, being in a new place, new people. Theres a pretty girl with a locker across the hall who does her lipstick just right every morning. But this isn’t your fairytale, my friend. This is the Thunderdome.”
“That seems extreme.”
“It’s not.” The boy walked closer and stuck out his hand. “I’m Kevin by the way.”
“Archie.”
“Archie. Of course that would be your name.” Kevin sighed like this should have been obvious to him from the get go. “Archie, do you see that door at the end of the hall?”
Archie turned and scanned the wall to see a door marked “Varsity Locker Room.”
“Um yeah? Boys locker room?”
“That” Kevin gestured, “is not the boys locker room. That is the VARSITY boys locker room. Unless you can secure a spot in that room, nothing extraordinary will be happening to you around here. And Veronica Lodge will not be giving you the time of day.”
Archie checked the other side of the hall again, where Veronica was closing her locker.
“She looks like a nice girl.”
“She is a nice girl. But she doesn’t date. And if she did, it would be someone like Reggie Mantle. Not someone like us.”
Even though Archie didn’t have a clue who Reggie Mantle was, he nodded. He had a pretty good idea of what Kevin was implying.
“Have you tried?”
“To date Veronica Lodge? No.” Kevin laughed. “To date Reggie Mantle? Yes. In any case, Veronica’s dad doesn’t allow her to date.”
Archie took this information in one ear and out the other. On one hand, he’d only ever seen her and didn’t yet know anything about her. On the other hand, he was still interested in finding out more.
As he started his day, he ended up in second and third period with Veronica herself, and when he ran into Kevin again for fourth period, he already had his mind made up. On their way to lunch, Archie broached the topic again with more confidence.
“I want to ask Veronica Lodge to go on a date with me.”
Kevin didn’t even look at him as he grabbed a lunch tray.
“Not this again. You barely know her.”
Archie followed him down the line, but his mind wasn’t on lunch right now.
“I’d get to know her more first. But she’s in my Lit class and my Econ class. I talked to her.”
Kevin rolled his eyes and slid a greasy slice of cheese pizza off of an almost empty pan.
“Well that was bound to happen at some point.”
“She’s good at Econ. Like she excels in it, answering every question, easily explaining things to other people. I’ve never understood Econ in my life. She’s not just pretty, she’s incredibly smart.”
“I’m sure that’s why her dad doesn’t want her to date. He probably knows that his daughters a catch.”
But Archie wasn't budging. There was something about Veronica that he just felt drawn to. He couldn’t place it yet, but he knew that he’d never find out unless he gave it a real shot.
“I’m sure he has to let her date at some point.”
“You’re right.” Kevin said, handing his student ID to the cashier. “And that point is when Betty Cooper dates.”
“Betty Cooper?”
Kevin gestured across the room to a small table where three girls sat. One was a red head, sitting tall and exuding an air of confidence. To her right was a girl with pink hair, eating an apple while she listened to the red head speak. And on the other side, a blonde, completely engrossed in a book instead of the conversation.
“The blonde.” Kevin said.
“What about her?”
“She lives with the Lodges. She’s basically Veronica's sister, their parents were best friends. But then when we were really young, I was three, Betty must have been four, her parents died. They left her in the Lodges custody so even though they never adopted her, she’s like their other daughter.”
This wasn’t clearing anything up in Archie’s brain.
“That's really sad but I’m still not following.”
Kevin started to make a beeline for an empty table at the back of the cafeteria. “Betty doesn’t date. I heard Veronica’s dad made some kind of rule that Veronica couldn’t date until she did. All the guys talked about it in the locker room after gym last year after one of them got shot down. Three or four more of them tried and they all got the same answer.” Kevin slid into a chair and Archie mirrored him. “V can’t date until B does.”
“And Betty’s never dated anyone?”
“No. Everyone’s kind of scared of her at this point. When she was a freshman, apparently she tried to make a move on Reggie and he turned her down. She got super pissed when everyone found out and stopped talking to everybody. She only talks to Toni and Cheryl because her and Toni work together. Trev Brown asked her out last year on a dare. I was there and I have to say it was iconic.” Kevin said this last part with a smile.
“What happened?”
“He went up to her while she was getting her books from her locker and put on this ridiculous flirting face, even leaned up against the locker next to hers like it was a 90’s rom com. He asked her if she was going to some party that was happening that weekend. She said ‘are you going to be there?’ He nodded, said yes, got this big smirk on his face. She looked him right in the eye and said ‘Then no. I’d rather eat glass.’ Then she turned around and just walked away.”
“Shit.”
Kevin nodded and picked up his greasy pizza. “No one is going to ask her out after that.”
“Well, we’re just going to have to find someone who will.”
Kevin let out a theatrical sigh. “I just said no one would do it.”
“There’s got to be someone around here that has the balls.”
“I’m telling you, there’s no one here who has the balls that would actually even talk to you. Sure, maybe the scariest guy in school would have the balls, but theres a reason no one talks to him either.”
“Who’s the scariest guy in school?”
Kevin shrugged. “Probably Jughead Jones. Just because he never talks to anyone and no one knows what to expect from him other than that he rides a motorcycle and his dad’s the local gang leader.”
“Do you think he’d do it?”
Kevin slowly swallowed a bite of his pizza and looked at Archie like he was from another planet.
“I don’t know. But you’re not going to ask him.”
“Where can I find him?”
Kevin considered Archie for a moment before letting out a sigh of surrender.
“After school. He goes to Pop’s most days, the local diner. Gets burgers and fries and stuff. We can go there.”
“So you’re going to help me?” Archies grin widened and Kevin shook his head in disbelief.
“Has anyone ever told you that you’re like a golden retriever?”
This only made Archie smile more.
Kevin laughed. “No. I’m not going to help. But if there’s going to be a trainwreck, I’m definitely going to be there to see it.”
So Archie and Kevin went to Pops after school. Archie thought to himself how this year was supposed to be different. How he wanted to be more confident. How he wanted to not be invisible. And he walked up to the booth where Jughead Jones sat alone with a cheeseburger and fries and slid in across from him.
Jughead looked up from his burger in confusion. “Can I help you?”
“My name is Archie Andrews.” He stuck his hand out. “I have a proposition for you.”
Jughead looked from Archie’s hand and back up to his face without setting down the cheeseburger in his hands.
“A proposition?”
Archie set his rejected hand down and pushed through.
“Do you know Betty Cooper?”
Jughead let out a short laugh. “Yeah. I know her.”
“I want you to ask her on a date.”
“Why?” Jughead’s eyes immediately became shrouded with suspicion.
“You’d get a date with a pretty girl.”
Jughead set the cheeseburger down. For a moment, Archie thought he was making progress, but then Jughead’s hand reached for the fries.
“I don’t date.”
“Just this once.”
Jughead leaned back in the booth, studying Archie.
“I don’t have the time. I need to get a job.”
“It’s only one-“
Jughead cut him off with a short nod.
“I’m telling you no.”
Archie's stomach filled with nerves. He wasn't prepared for blatant denial like this. As he slowly got up, the gears in his mind were turning rapidly. According to Kevin this was his only option. Standing at the end of the table, about to walk away, he realized it.
“What if it was a job?”
Jughead had already picked the burger back up and was mid bite when he twisted his face to look at Archie.
“Excuse me?”
“What if I could pay you?”
A look of disbelief crossed over Jughead’s face. “You want to pay me to ask a girl out?”
“Yes.”
The burger went down again.
“Are you trying to embarrass this girl? I don’t want any part in that.”
Archie shook his head emphatically.
“No. I just want to ask her sister out and she can’t go unless Betty goes on a date too.”
“What kind of bullshit is that?”
Archie glanced over to where Kevin was standing a few booths away. His new friend gave him a half hearted thumbs up.
“I don’t know.”
“You really like this other girl?”
Archie nodded even harder. “She’s awesome.”
“Stop acting like a bobble head.” Archie froze in place before Jughead continued. “How much are we talking?”
“Ten bucks.”
The intimidating boy let out a short laugh. “Are you joking?”
“Fifty bucks.” It was all Archie had. It seemed a reasonable amount to pay for his ticket into a good year.
“One date?” Jughead looked him right in the eye.
Archie gave one short nod, trying to exude confidence.
“Done.”
Remember what I said earlier? Questionable decisions. It’s hard to say who’s decision here was more questionable, but there are variables to this situation that you don’t yet know. In any case, we’re all caught up now to where our story really begins. There’s one more thing that you might be wondering before we get started. Who the fuck are you to tell me what’s going on here? You don’t need to know that yet either.
Just remember what I said. Don’t jump to conclusions. People do stupid things for reasons that they find justified. Don’t tell me you haven’t done it.
Maybe this can serve as some sort of cautionary tale.
Maybe it will go in one ear and out the other, the same way Veronica’s situation did for Archie. Who’s to say?
Regardless of any of that, the first domino has been pushed.
So let’s get on with it shall we?
Betty
One day down. Betty Cooper was thinking, climbing the steps to Riverdale High. Only upwards of 200 to go.
In Betty’s humble opinion, Riverdale High School was trash. The way things operated within the walls of the school was completely ridiculous. The football stars running the show, the cheerleaders being peppy and popular. It was just like every high school movie ever. And Betty couldn’t wait until her senior year came to a close and she could run as far away as possible.
But was not the end of the year yet. It was only the second day. So she walked to her locker and tried not to make eye contact with anyone around her. She’d see Toni third period, but until then, she’d be wearing her blinders. Like anyone ever had anything to say to her anyway.
“Excuse me.” A deep voice came from her right as she stood at her locker. She ignored it, switching out her history textbook for her English notebook.
“Excuse me.” The voice said again. It didn’t seem like it would be going away anytime soon.
“Are you talking to me?” she said it half heartedly, still refusing to give the voice her full attention.
“Is that so shocking?”
She turned to see a dark haired boy in a leather jacket. She'd seen him around before. Jughead Jones. He was a total loner and there was some kind of rumor about him that she couldn't quite remember.
“Do you ever talk to anyone?” she asked him, as blunt as possible.
“Touche." She saw a smile pull at the side of his mouth. "But I could say the same to you.”
“At least I have friends.” She shot back.
Jughead- what kind of name was that? Jughead?- let out a deep sigh. “This is off to a great start.”
“What is off to a great start? You still haven’t told me why you’re here.”
She watched as he switched his face from a slight grimace to what seemed to be an attempt at a smolder.
“I wanted to know if you’d like to go on a date with me this Friday night.”
Betty looked around her. No one else was paying attention to this little exchange at her locker. She felt like she was in a parallel universe.
“Have we ever even spoken before? I don’t think we have.”
His smolder was turned down a few degrees by this fact. “I’m not sure.”
“You’re not sure?” she widened her eyes at him and he just stood there like the idiot he clearly was, not knowing how to respond. All Betty could do was sigh.
“You know, this is a ringing endorsement. An impressive attempt. But the answer is no.”
She slammed her locker door and walked off, not looking back.