The relationship that both of them held had always been a mystery to basically everyone in town, but not to the people who knew what they were really like. To outsiders, they looked like total opposites, but their few closer friends knew that intellectually, they were like identical twins.
And only Jughead Jones knew that, behind the pastel blue façade that Emily Cooper's life looked like was a whole world of angst, insecurity and uneasiness, that she had always dealt with on her own, at least until he had burst into her life.
Or, as a matter of fact, when she casually burst into his life.
As a seven year-old, she had been struggling getting attention and love from her parents, when the status of the golden child of the family was already occupied by Polly, her sister older by a year.
And after so much time spent to try and look like her, speak like her and act like her, seeing as she got no result of any kind, she decided to just let it go and stop caring.
And that is when the one year younger, beanie wearing little boy came up in her world that she started being herself. There was no more imitating her sister and trying to fit her mom and dad's standards after that.
Their first encounter was actually her initiative.
He easily grabbed her attention, standing out from the crowd of random kids overflowing the school's canteen, wearing the weirdest hat she had ever seen, a hat that she soon would learn was a characteristic element of his wardrobe that he never took off.
While the other kids seemed to want to avoid him, the strange and curious aura that surrounded him probably frightening or intimidating them, she was genuinely intrigued and fascinated by his singularity.
The fact that he didn't seem to care about anything or anyone surrounding him enticed her curiosity, since it was all in all the opposite of her own personality.
So she was the only one to sit at his table that day, triggering his curiosity by just that simple gesture because she looked like any other kid, and any other kid would have just disregarded him and ignore his existence.
So he tried to avoid her contemplating gaze and focus on his food, telling himself that she wasn't here by choice and that it was the lack of seats that had pushed her to come by, until she gently asked what his name was.
That was when he looked up and met the azure colored eyes that were staring at him with both innocence and curiosity.
It took a while for him to respond, and during these few seconds an abundance of thoughts were running a marathon through her head.
For a split second she actually considered him being mute, until he replied with a timid, hesitant but proud voice.
"Forsythe Pendleton Jones."
Now, that was a real problem to Emily Cooper. At home, between Polly, Betty, Mom and Dad, she had no real diction problems.
But her young, teeth-missing self was absolutely incapable of pronouncing a name as complicated as Forsythe.
It seemed almost humorous when she had responded with a big smile, masking her confused state, that her name was just Lily.
She then had extended her hand in order to shake his, having no idea how to greet anyone since this was her very first attempt at making friends, but she knew that adult persons shook hands when they met, so that was her first move.
He had just stared at her in utter confusion, but nevertheless had ended up giving her a sheepish grin, and had shaken her hands, just like a grown-up person would.