Nine Point Three
⧊
"Football players behaving badly, what else is new?" Veronica muttered as her, Rosemary, Kevin, Betty, Angelina, and Ethel all walked down the dark hallway with their flashlights. All of them were dressed in black except for Rosemary, who was wearing Reggie's letterman jacket. "Steubenville, Glen Ridge. The coach's son being the ringleader. I mean, just how depraved is this town?"
"Color me impressed," A new voice spoke, causing Rosemary to scream and Angelina quickly covering her mouth. All of them turned to see Cheryl Blossom standing down the hall. "A, B, and E with B, V, and R. What would your holy roller mother say about this, Betty?"
"Holy crap, Cheryl," Rosemary gasped with her hand on her chest. "I love you, hun, but I have no idea what you're saying and you just scared the crap out of me."
Cheryl quickly sent Rosemary an apologetic look before turning back to Betty and Veronica.
"What are you doing here, Cheryl?" Betty asked.
"And where did you get those thigh-high boots?" Kevin asked in awe. "They're amazing."
"Right?" Rosemary turned to him quickly. "I have the same pair and they're gorgeous."
"Trev told Valoria, who told Josie, who told Ginger, who told Tina, who told me," Cheryl shrugged as she walked over to them. "And I thought I would help out."
"Help, or derail our investigation?" Betty questioned, causing Rosemary to roll her eyes.
"Get over yourself, Betty," Rosemary muttered, all of them turning to her with looks of shock and confusion. Cheryl smirked at Rosemary as if she was about to say the same thing.
"Hey, guys," Ethel's voice called from the boy's locker room. "Get in here."
All of them walked in to see Ethel holding a Red notebook. She flipped it open to see pages dedicated to football players, lists of girl's names and their ranks filling up each page.
"Trev was right," Angelina spat in disgust. "They didn't even bother to hide it."
Ethel flipped to Chuck's page where they saw all of the lists of girls under his name. Rosemary scanned it and two names stuck out to her. Veronica and Angelina. Veronica had the words 'new girl bonus plus one' written next to it, and a total score of nine. Angelina had the words 'shy girl bonus plus two and a total score of eight point five.
"New girl?" Veronica asked in disgust. "Is that what I'm reduced to? Nine points?"
"Better than 'Big girl'," Ethel sighed, pointing out her name. "Seven point five."
"Or 'shy girl'," Angelina muttered angrily, walking away from the group and the playbook, muttering that she was going to wait in the hallway and keep watch.
Ethel flipped the page and it opened up to Jason Blossom's page, which was filled top to bottom with names. In the center of the page was written 'Polly Cooper' in blue pen.
"Polly's in this book," Betty muttered. "Under Jason's name."
"I'm so sorry, Betty," Veronica tried to comfort Betty, but she had already walked away from the group to take a breather.
Rosemary snatched the book out of Ethel's hands and flipped through the pages, her eyes landing on Reggie Mantle's page. She scanned over every name on the page before she saw it. Her name.
Rosemary Holland (Goody-two-shoes bonus +1, Wrestler bonus + 2) = 9.3
Rosemary felt anger bubble in her chest and she yanked her phone out of her pocket, taking a picture of the page and shoving the book back in Ethel's hands, who flipped back to Jason's page.
"This isn't..." Cheryl muttered to herself. "Jason would never..."
"It's right there, Cheryl," Betty snapped, turning towards the ginger girl. "God, your brother hurt my sister. This is what guys like Jason and Chuck think about women. We're objects for them to abuse. And when they're done with us, they shame us into silence. They have zero remorse for the lives they destroy."
"Maybe I don't know Jason," Cheryl murmured to herself. Rosemary sighed and pushed back her anger, wrapping her arm around Cheryl's shoulder and rubbing her arm. Cheryl pulled out of Rosemary's hold and walked over so she stood in front of Betty so they stood face-to-face.
"I'll take a picture," Veronica said as she took a picture of every page. "We'll show it to Weatherbee. It'll be the perfect cover for your expose, Betty."
Rosemary's phone buzzed and she sighed, pulling it out of her pocket to see a text from Reggie Mantle himself, which made her blood boil.
From: Reggie
Pop said you called out sick from your shift, you feeling alright, Ro?
Rosemary scoffed and shoved her phone into her back pocket. She felt her eyes well up with tears and she quickly wiped them away with the sleeve of Reggie's jacket. She thought of when Reggie comforted her outside of Cheryl's, him driving her to Pop's, they're nightly conversations when he would visit her during her shift, and him offering her his jacket when she was cold. And she was angry.
"Yeah, but... No," Betty's voice snapped Rosemary back into the present. "These girls deserve justice, don't you think, Cheryl? Do you want vengeance? You wanna go full dark, no stars, Veronica? I'm with you. And I have a plan."
"Great," Veronica smiled, clapping her hands together before turning to Rosemary. "Rosie, you in?"
"Can't," Rosemary muttered. "I have a certain nose I need to break, again, so if you'll excuse me, ladies."
Rosemary stomped out of the locker room, bumping into Angelina on her way. The two exchanged an awkward glance before Rosemary continues to stomp all the way out of the school.
⧊
Rosemary burst into Pop's, her eyes darting around in search of the Asain football jock. Her eyes landed on Jughead, who sent her a tight-lipped smile. When he saw her bright red face, tear stained cheeks, and puffy eyes, he went to stand up and comfort her. Instead, he froze when she spun on her heels and stomped right over to Reggie Mantle.
Reggie was with Moose, the two of them both having a burger with fries and a milkshake. When Reggie noticed Rosemary, his face lit up and he sent her a toothy grin.
"Ro," Reggie cheered. "You're here. Come on, I'll get you a milkshake, on me."
Rosemary sent him wicked smile before taking his milkshake off the table, taking a small sip from it, and then dumping it all over his head. Everyone's attention was drawn to the scene at the sound of Reggie and Moose gasping in shock. She then grabbed Moose's milkshake and poured it on Reggie's head as well. Reggie sat there soaked in vanilla and banana milkshake with a shocked look on his face.
Rosemary took a couple fries off his plate and put them in her mouth before picking up the entire plate and dumping it on his head. She did the same with Moose's plate, leaving Reggie now covered in vanilla milkshake, banana milkshake, fries, and burger components.
Rosemary was far from over though. She grabbed the ketchup and mustard from the table and took the caps off both, pouring both over Reggie's head. To finish off his entire punishment, she swung her fist, which was still broken, right into Reggie's nose, sending him flying into the booth. The people in the Chock'lit Shoppe gasped in shock from the aggressive behavior.
Casually, Rosemary removed Reggie's jacket and dropped it over his food covered body, which was laying in the booth as he clutched his nose. She turned to Moose and sent him a glare before walking over to Jughead's booth, sitting across from him and pulling his milkshake towards her.
"You're not going to dump that on my head, are you?" Jughead asked, only receiving a glare from Rosemary.
"No, but would you like me too?" She spat, causing Jughead to hold his hands up in surrender. The duo sat in silence for about an hour, Rosemary finishing Jughead's milkshake while he wrote his novel. When she had finished her milkshake, Rosemary rested her head on the table and slowly fell asleep.
Jughead looked at the time on his laptop to see that it read two AM. He sighed and closed his laptop, putting it in his bag and then nudging Rosemary. The blonde groaned and smacked his hand away, not moving from her spot.
"Come on, Rosie," Jughead sighed, getting up from the seat and placing a hand on both of her shoulders. "Call your dad, tell him you're sleeping over my place tonight."
"Mhm," Rosemary hummed, standing up from the booth and rubbed her eyes.
She let Jughead lead her out of Pop's, and soon the two were walking down the street. Rosemary reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out a cigarette and lighter, much to Jughead's surprise. She lit the end and placed her lips around it, taking in a deep breath before pulling the cigarette and releasing a puff of smoke.
"Since when do you smoke?" Jughead asked in confusion. Rosemary just shrugged and took another drag, offering for Jughead to try it. He politely declined.
"So are we going to talk about what happened?" Jughead asked after a few minutes of walking. Rosemary rolled her eyes and ignored him, taking another drag from her cigarette. "Seriously, Rose. You poured two whole meals over Reggie Mantle's head, punched him in the face, and then threw his jacket at him. Something must've happened."
Rosemary was quiet, her hazel eyes shining from the streetlight they walked under. Smoke clouded around her and Jughead wondered how long she had been smoking and why didn't he realize it before. Jughead noticed she was shivering in her white tank top and slipped off his denim jacket, wrapping it around her shoulders. She sent him a thankful look before slipping her arms through the arm holes and placed the cigarette between her lips. Rosemary took a deep breath and dropped the cigarette, stepping on it and then turning to Jughead.
"Jughead," Rosemary spoke with such an emotionless tone, it made Jughead frown. "I-I forgot I have something else to do with Betty and Veronica. You keep heading to the projection booth, I gotta go."
Rosemary turned and before Jughead could stop her, she was already walking away, lighting a new cigarette and putting it between her lips. Instead of chasing after her, though, Jughead took a deep breath and sighed, turning around and continuing his way back to the projection booth.
Rosemary pulled out her phone and made a quick phone call, asking for an old friend to pick her up. She waited under a streetlight, smoke clouding around her head like it clouded her thoughts. A few moments later she heard the sound of a loud motorcycle and she rolled her eyes, her head turning down the road to see her ride driving down the street.
"Did you really call me at two-thirty in the morning to get a drink?" Asked the male voice from the bike. Rosemary rolled her eyes and dropped her cigarette, stepping on it before taking the helmet from the guy's hand and putting it on her head.
"Shut up and take me to the Whyte Wyrm, Sweet Pea," Rosemary muttered, wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her head on the large snack patch on the back of his leather jacket.
"It's been a long day."