FIRE AND ICE , c. blossom

chapter three

"i know what you need, cheryl. because i know who you are. you'd rather people fear you than like you. so you traffic in terror and intimidation."
cheryl swallowed. "you're rich, so you've never been held accountable. but i'm living proof... that certainty, that entitlement you wear on your head like a crown... it won't last. eventually, there will be a reckoning. or maybe..." veronica stepped forward. "—that reckoning is now. and maybe, that reckoning... is me. betty and i come as a matching set. you want one, you take us both. you wanted fire? sorry, 'cheryl bombshell', my specialty is ice."

~♛~

"that was quite a show, vee." gracie smirked. "finally someone told her off."

veronica smiled to herself. "thank you, jones."

"my question is, why are you being so nice? i mean, i can imagine the crowd you ran with in new york." betty asked.

veronica sighed. "when my father got arrested... it was the worst thing ever." she explained. "all these trolls started writing horrible things about us. we'd get letters and emails saying my dad was a thief... that my mom was a clueless socialite... and that i was this spoiled, rich-bitch-ice princess. and what hurt me the most was, that the things the trolls were writing— were true. i was like cheryl. worse than cheryl. so when my mom said we were moving to riverdale... i made a pact with myself. to use this as an opportunity to become maybe, and hopefully, a better version of myself."

"so what i'm hearing is, you're hot and rich?" gracie chuckled.

"completely missed the point, but yeah, sure. let's go with that." the lodge girl shrugged.

"that's a lot of pressure." betty sympathised. "when polly and jason go together, it meant everything to her and nothing to him. and things got weird, super intense and toxic... and my mom turned on polly. she said polly wasn't her daughter anymore and all these other awful things. jason hurt polly. but my mom is the one who broke her."

since she was already aware of this story, gracie had her attention somewhere else, and she called out to her red-headed best friend who has just finished football practice. "archibald!"

he jogged over towards the three girls, removing his helmet and revealing his carrot-top hair.

"hey, teen outlander." veronica greeted.

"hey. nice outfits." archie smiled at the two girls that were clothed in their new cheerleading uniforms.

"betty here has something she wants to ask you about the back-to-school dance." veronica encouraged. "go on betty, ask."

"i- i was wondering if you wanted to come with m— with all three of us."

"huh?"

gracie shot betty a look. "all three of us? ha— if you think i'm going, elizabeth, you've got another thing coming. i'm going to pops and sitting in a cozy booth with a burger and fries, thank you very much."

"that's sounds good, can i join you?" veronica asked.

"it's your first dance at riverdale, ronnie, you should go and you should have someone to go with. even if it's just a friend." betty said.

"i mean... i'd love to—" veronica shrugged reluctantly.

"i'm not really in the headspace for a dance." archie said.

"i'm never in the headspace for a dance." gracie groaned.

"oh... um, that's okay—" betty nodded in disappointment.

veronica quickly changed her tune after seeing betty's expression. "uh-uh. change of plans. totally unacceptable guys! take a break from being a tortured musical genius, archiekins. and gracie, take a break from being a hater of school-spirit and a thief, and come and spend a blissful evening with not one, but two newly-minted river vixens at the school dance!"

archie chuckled, he had been convinced. "okay. yeah— okay. fine." he smiled at veronica. "bye."

"go hit the showers, you stink of shit." gracie scrunched her nose up at him, before he jogged away.

"what do you say gracie?"

"yeah... i'm still not convinced." she began to walk away.

veronica grabbed onto her arm. "come on, cee. come and spend some time with us at the dance. for me?"

she grinned at the raven-haired girl. "you have a really strange way of turning a no into a yes."

"it's a gift." veronica proudly smiled.

~♛~