Blackmailed by Betty (Jughead Jones III)

The River's Edge Part 2

"Don't make eye contact." Alex recited.

"Text each other schedules to make immediate changes." Archie continued.

"I'll be in the library while you have football or whatever it is you do so we can just meet up back home." Alex finished as the two reached the edge of campus.

"Good luck sis." Archie said looking at her with a smile and quickly hugging her before walking towards a random varsity jacket clad nimrod.

As Alex approached the building she ran into Kevin Keller standing beside Betty and an unfamiliar face wearing a plaid two piece and perfect manicure. "Sorry Kev, daydreaming as usual."

"I swear you'd run straight out of this town if no one stopped you." He said as Alex walked in step with the trio. "Oh! Veronica Lodge, meet Alexandria Andrews. Resident nerd, good for trivial knowledge, slightly fashionable, mostly delusional." Kevin joked.

"Well it seems my reputation is better than last time where I was clumsy, geeky, and the before on those hearing aid commercials." She said nudging the boy slightly before holding her hand out towards Veronica. "It's nice to meet you, I'm sure Riverdale won't be as good as your last place but the people make up for it."

Veronica offered Alex a kind smile and shook her hand before pulling it back and rolling the pearls on her necklace back and forth between her fingers. "Nice to meet you too. Have we met before? You look like someone I've seen and I can't place it."

"Alex here is Archie's twin sister." Betty added with a smile, her eyes quickly passing over Alex and back to Veronica. "We've been neighbors most of our lives."

"Neighbors is a loose term." Alex mumbled with a slight eye roll. "But anyway it was lovely meeting you, hopefully I'll see you around. I have a Jughead to track down before next period." With that she was off leaving the trio to their own defenses as her footsteps trailed off.

"Okay so what's the deal with Alex? Something seemed off between you two." Veronica asked looking at Betty.

"What?" Betty asked with a higher voice clearing her throat straight after. As she twisted her ring around her finger she took in a breath before continuing. "I don't know, I just feel like Alex is always trying to get between Archie and me. Like she doesn't want me to be friends with him let alone anything more."

"Well as someone whose only been here a few hours she knows exactly how you feel about her and if you want to have a single shot of stepping into that family you have to get that girl on your side. Any gentleman would listen to his twin sister over his friend. Well, any smart one."

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"Why do we have to come to this assembly again?" Alex asked Jughead as she sat down in the very back row of the bleachers in the gym pushing her bag between her legs.

"Would you rather be working on your History project?" He asked with a knowing smile as he sat down right beside her and pulled out his laptop. "Why did you choose the history of Greek Mythology anyway?"

"Because I like Percy Jackson. It was a mistake, I know that now. But we aren't aloud to change our topics after we tell the teacher and it's due next Thursday." Alex said with a groan at the thought of having to work on her ten page paper she had been assigned the first class of the day. "Can you edit it for me this weekend?"

"And why would I put myself through that?" Jughead asked without looking up from his computer.

"Because you love me and if you don't then I won't be able to come to the drive in which means no Junior Mints." Alex said as she leaned her head on his shoulder. "And we all know how much you love those. Probably more than me. If I disappeared and in my place was Ju-"

"If I say yes will you please stop talking?" He said suddenly.

"Yep." Alex sat back up but still stayed in her close position beside him. "One more question though, and I don't mean to make things weird, but are you planning on going to the Semi-Formal?"

Jughead seemed taken aback at the thought of going to an organized hormone party. "Alex, we've known each other long enough I think everyone in the school knows the answer to that question." He finished with a scoff and looked right back at the screen not caring that Cheryl Blossom had taken the podium adorned in all black mourning the loss of her brother Jason.

Alex took his disgust as a sign to scoot further to the left leaving him to his own bubble as Cheryl spoke about how the formal would go on to help the students heal. Little did she know that Jughead had noticed the visible movement of his friend and let out a sigh knowing he had upset her. Even though her personality made it seem like Alex was strong willed, she was more fragile than most with no motherly figure present.