Surprisingly, Betty beat Jughead to the school that next morning. She sat outside Riverdale high waiting for her partner who arrived five minutes after she had.
"You're early." Jughead said, with amusement in his voice.
"It's a lot easier to leave the house when Jules is watching cartoons." Betty replied.
The pained expression on his face made Betty bite her tongue, she wished she could take back what she'd said. "Come on, let's go inside. Today's a big day." Jughead moved on, pushing past her as he entered the school.
Betty begrudgingly trailed behind him and only stood by his side when they reached Patricia Fellows' office. Jughead knocked twice and the door opened.
"Good morning, assuming you're Betty Cooper and Jughead Jones?" The woman with curly black hair and dark skin said.
"Yes, hello Ms. Fellows, we just have some questions about Alison, Becky and Colleen." Betty got straight to the point.
"Of course, come on in." Patricia opened her door and made her way around the pin sized office to sit behind her desk.
Jughead and Betty sat in the two chairs in front of her wooden desk. "What can you tell us about Alison?" Betty stated, as she started the recorder seconds after they'd sat down.
"Alison was my flyer girl. She was one of my most talented girls on the squad. She was on the dance team too. She planned on going to the New York School of Dance. I was going to help her with her audition video. Before...all this happened." Patricia's voice trailed off, she dropped her stare from Betty to her fidgeting hands on the desk.
"Was she popular with the other girls on the squad?" Jughead chimed in.
"Alison? Oh yes, she was the favorite. Everyone loved her, she was talented, a hard worker, and kind to everyone she met."
"Sounds like the perfect girl." Betty said, "how was she academically?"
"Good, A's and B's, she was a talented young woman. She could've done anything she wanted. It's so unfortunate what happened to her. And Becky and Colleen." Patricia blinked quickly and dabbed her eyes with a tissue.
"Okay, how about Becky?" Betty moved on, in no mood to deal with Patricia's emotional problems right now.
"Becky was the co-captain. She was who the girls called Colleen's bitch. Becky had an attitude and was smarter than anyone I've ever coached. She was part of the science club, a mathlete, and on the engineering team. How she was able to do it all is beyond my knowledge. I never understood why she was so easily bossed around by Colleen, in, my opinion, she was a much better and more promising person than Colleen ever was." Patricia explained, her eyes momentarily glancing around the room, Betty wrote this down on her yellow notepad. Why would she look around like that if Colleen was dead and her parents weren't even around to listen?
"She doesn't seem to fit the cheerleader mold." Jughead observed.
Patricia shook her head, "she wanted to go to Yale. Her parents really stressed academics, she wanted and needed to be well-rounded in order to have a shot at going there."
"How about her socially? Did she get along with the girls on the team? She must've been pretty social since she was in so many clubs." Betty pointed out.
"Surprisingly no. Even though she was Colleen's number two, she usually kept to herself. During practice she'd put in 110% everyday, maybe talk to Colleen and a few of the girls a little but she was always the first to leave practice. Sure she had other commitments but it seemed like she wanted to avoid any type of social interaction with the girls."
"Hmm, how was she with the other clubs she was apart of?" Jughead asked.
"Not sure, you'll have to ask the coaches there. I only know about their cheerleading life. For personal life, talk to their friends and families." Patricia admitted.
"Okay, thanks. How about Colleen?" Betty transitioned.
Patricia sighed, rubbing her temples, Betty made another note. "Colleen Meriweather was...entitled. To put it lightly. She was the captain, a natural born leader who loved attention and the spotlight. She'd do whatever she could to have it too. She liked to have her way, she was particularly difficult to coach sometimes." She paused and continued on, "academically, she was an A student. Although I think her parents might have gotten involved sometimes."
"What do you mean?" Betty and Jughead asked in unison. They locked eyes for a second and Betty felt her cheeks slightly heat up.
"This is just a rumor but the girls were saying something about her dad coming in after school and having a few choice words with some teacher. I can't remember which though." She admitted.
"What did the girls think of her?"
"I don't think they were fond of her, but they voted her captain for reasons I don't really know. Maybe she threatened them or something. Debate suited her well, she loved to argue her point and be right in the end."
"You said Becky was Colleen's bitch." Betty had to swallow back her own laughter, she never thought she'd say something like that during an interrogation. "Can you explain that more?"
"Well, I would talk to the girls more about that. Basically, from my knowledge of the term is that Becky would literally do anything Colleen asked of her without asking questions or defying her."
"That doesn't make any sense." Jughead filled the brief pause.
"Yeah, but the girls will have more information about their personal lives. Is there anything else?" Patricia asked, Betty noticed that her eyes were darting around the room and she began to conceal her fidgeting more.
"Yeah, was there anything or anyone suspicious or unusual hanging around practice or around those three girls before they were killed?" Betty questioned, fully aware of Patricia's nervous behavior.
Patricia paused and leaned closer to Betty and Jughead, "there were two. Some boy with blonde hair, he was in their grade, I think he was Colleen's boyfriend. I don't remember his name, but then, the physics teacher Thomas Thacker started hanging around practice more."
Betty and Jughead exchanged looks, they'd have to investigate Thomas more before interrogating him. As for Colleen's boyfriend, they'd have to speak to the girls. "Okay, thank you for your time Ms. Fellows." Betty stood up and shook her hand.
"Some of the girls should be here. I'll go get them now." Patricia said in a hurried tone as she quickly rushed out of her office.
"Suspect?" Betty turned to Jughead.
"Duh, did you see how nervous she was throughout the whole questioning?"
"Good, I wasn't the only one who noticed." Betty said in a hushed tone as two girls walked into the office. Jughead and Betty stood up as let the girls take their seats.
The brunette with icy blue eyes and a waist as thin as a twig batted her eyelashes at Jughead. Betty felt her fingernails dig into her flesh, she shouldn't be jealous or intimidated by a high schooler, especially over the fact that she'd been over Jughead for nearly five years.
The other girl looked almost exactly like Cher from Clueless. The blonde hair, brown eyes and plaid clothes. "Thank you for meeting with us." Betty began.
"I just can't believe it, you know? Colleen was a goddess, how could she be dead?" The blonde girl dabbed her eyes with a tissue.
Jughead rolled his eyes at Betty, they both knew this was going to be a long interview. "What are your guys' names?" Jughead asked, trying to keep the questions going.
The brunette flipped her hair, "I'm Danica, that's Hadley."
"Can you guys tell us a little about Colleen, Alison and Becky?"
Hadley started, "well, Colleen was beautiful. The prettiest and most popular girl in school. She dated Quinn Garrows, quarterback of the football team. God he's sooo hot. Everyone was in envy of her."
"Did Quinn ever come to practice?" Jughead asked.
"No, he had football practice everyday until seven. He never went to any of our practices." Hadley answered, inspecting her manicured nails.
"Okay, what about Becky?"
"Becky? She was really quiet you know? Didn't really talk to anyone, but she was Colleen's bitch. She's so lucky." Hadley sighed, Betty was about ready to slap this girl upside the head. She made Colleen sound like the Regina George of Riverdale High.
"What do you mean, Colleen's bitch?"
This time Danica chimed in, "she was Colleen's wing girl or whatever you call it. Basically she'd always stick by her side and do whatever Colleen asked of her."
"Why? She doesn't seem to fit the profile." Jughead said.
"I don't know. All I know is Becky wanted to get on top, she was always looking for a way to dethrone Colleen. Becky was smarter and more talented than Colleen but Colleen had to keep her in check. Colleen put people in their place and Becky would always be second best." Danica explained.
"How about Alison then?" Jughead moved on.
Both girls groaned and rolled their eyes, "ugh perfect little Alison." Hadley hissed.
"Jesus Christ she was annoying. She was the coach's pet, coach Fellows worshipped the ground that girl walked on. It was so disgusting." Danica whined.
"You both obviously didn't like her at all. What about the other girls?" Betty wanted to keep moving.
"How should I know what they thought of her. Alison was nice to everyone, the little bitch. But no one saw through her, not like I did, you know?" Hadley scoffed.
"What do you mean?" Jughead inquired.
"I mean that she had this nice girl act on the outside but only me, Danica, and this guy Jude saw who she really was."
"Jude? Who's that?" Betty leaned forwards, finally getting somewhere.
"Ugh, Jude is so strange. Bleached blonde hair, wears black baggy jeans and oversized shirts. They used to date at the beginning of the year, but they broke up for some reason, rumor has it that she caught him cheating on her with Becky or she cheated on him with Colleen's boyfriend Quinn. I don't know, it was a bad breakup, the whole school was buzzing about it for weeks." Danica went on.
"Coach Fellows said something about a blonde haired boy watching practice, was that Jude?" Betty asked the girls.
"Yeah, that was him." Hadley said as she filed her nails, Betty was already tired of her attitude.
"Did he date any of the other girls on the squad or just those three?" Betty questioned.
Hadley and Danica both looked at each and were quiet before Danica answered, "Jude is a weirdo, but the hot and mysterious kind. He's charming but dark, every girl is a sucker for that. I'm not surprised Alison went out with him, she probably did it to rebel against her parents, she was always bitching about them anyways. As for Becky, I hardly know anything about her, but I know she couldn't stand Alison, too peppy for her, she wouldn't have gone after Jude without good reason. As for Colleen, she liked to piss people off, even though she and Alison were on good terms, if she wanted to bang Jude, she would've done it. And Jude has that sexy outsider vibe, I think that if everyone on the squad had the chance, we'd all sleep with him in a heartbeat."
Betty was beyond thankful that she had left all this bullshit high school drama behind her, she'd hadn't missed it one bit. "Huh, okay then. One last thing, what can you tell me about Thomas Thacker?"
"Thacker? He's some science teacher right?" Hadley asked, Betty nodded. "He's nerd hot I guess. I think him and Colleen were fighting about her grade, but Daisy said that after practice one day about a week ago, she saw them sneaking off somewhere inside the school."
"Did she see where they went?" Jughead asked.
"I dunno, we can ask her." Danica said, biting her lip and making eye contact with Jughead.
"Okay." Betty said hurriedly, resisting the urge to bitch slap Danica for trying to seduce someone almost ten years older than she was. "Thank you both. This was very helpful, if any of you or the squad has any more information about these three, please don't hesitate to come talk to us."
"You're welcome, figure it out, yeah we didn't really like Alison and Becky but they didn't deserve what happened to them. And Colleen's a queen, she didn't deserve it either." Danica said as Hadley began to sniffle again. She was such a sad sap, Betty thought to herself, rolling her eyes when the girl's backs were turned as they left the office.
---
When Betty and Jughead left the school, Betty already had theories buzzing through her head. "I want to investigate Jude and Thomas Thacker more. Jude certainly fits the basic incentives, the jealous and shady boyfriend who wasn't afraid to 'play the field' as they say."
"I think that's a good start, Thacker seems pretty shady too, especially if he and Colleen were fighting about her grade. Maybe we can talk to Daisy about what she saw too." Jughead added.
"I agree." Betty was silent for a second, Jughead turned to look at her.
"What?"
"I also want to look more into Patricia Fellows too." Betty pursed her lips and sucked in a sharp breath.
"You think something's up with her?"
"I've just got a feeling that she isn't who she appears to be on the surface. She seemed like she was looking over her shoulder the entire time we interviewed her. And she definitely loved Alison almost too much from a coach's standpoint. And I don't see her treating the other girls fairly either." Betty thought aloud.
"Agreed, but why kill Alison if she liked her so much?"
"Jealousy maybe?" Betty hypothesized.
"Jealousy? Of what?"
"Maybe Alison was achieving everything Fellows wanted at her age. Maybe she was a harder worker and felt as though she deserved the credit instead of Alison." Betty theorized.
"Let's look into it, at least it gives us another suspect." Jughead agreed, then felt the mood darken between them.
Betty sensed it too, "Jug? Are you okay?"
Jughead turned and his stone cold stare pierced Betty's soul, "she's mine right? Juliet is my daughter isn't she?"
A/N: hehe had to throw that in there. What do you think of my suspects? I think there's some good leads in here. Next update coming soon!