Note: all commentary in italics is from Alice telling the story to Betty! Also, Melinda's face claim is Lana from her role in Deadly Class!
"WHAT do you mean tell me everything? Betty, what's going on?" Becca questioned again, worry edging into her tone.
"I knew my mom knew about the game...I just never thought..." Betty seemed to still be processing whatever information her mother had told her, "Her and FP played G&G when they were young and Becca..."
There was a moment of silence on the other end. The dark-haired girl waited with bated breath.
"Your parents played with them."
Becca didn't miss a beat, "Tell me Betty. Tell me everything."
---
It was our junior year. Phones had cords, Winona had Johnny, and everything smelled like Teen Spirit. The world was a different place and we were very different people.
Back then, a mystery had just rolled into town by the name of Melinda. Not Melinda Mantle though, Melinda Mao.
She was the new girl on the block, her family moving into an old, abandoned Northside mansion the summer before junior year. They were rich, even more so than the Blossoms, but no one could really tell you what they did. Her family was friendly enough, her mom was even the head of the PTA. But they, along with their absurd amount of wealth, largely remained a mystery.
And Melinda was perfectly fine with that.
"Damn it!" A harsh whisper was heard in the stall of the bathrooms as a loud bang echoed across the room.
Hermione Lodge turned at the sight, concern etched into her features. Beside her at the sinks, Sierra McCoy was currently vandalizing the school mirrors with some lipstick graffiti. Melinda sat next to her, leaning against the radiator and smoking a cigarette. The two had taken a liking to each other after bonding over their hatred for their chemistry teacher, Dr. Beaker. Right now, Sierra was Melinda's closest and only friend.
"Everything okay in there?" Hermione asked cautiously, opening the now-unlocked stall door.
None other than Alice Smith sat there, fully clothed thank god, but looking particularly upset.
"God, mind your own business Hermione! Shouldn't you be in a church?" The blonde-haired girl spat rather sharply.
Hermione ignored the dig at her, instead fixating on something in Alice's hand, "Oh crap girl. Are you...?"
Alice quickly stood up, her shoulder shoving Hermione aside as she stomped towards the sink. Melinda merely raised an eyebrow at the two, fiddling with the strings on her black hoodie. She spotted the pregnancy test in Alice's hand, a foreboding '+' staring back at her.
Oh shit...Alice Smith was pregnant.
The Serpent wiped at her damp eyes, adjusting her black leather jacket in the mirror.
"It's probably a false positive," She blew it off, not quite believing her own words, "It happens all the time."
"Like 3% of the time," Sierra put in, quirking an eyebrow.
"No one's talking to you Sierra!" Hermione shot back.
"What's your damage Hermione? You're not the one who's pregnant here," Melinda defended her friend, crossing her arms.
Sierra shot her a grateful smile as the dark-haired girl took another long drag from her cigarette.
Hermione looked like she was going to retaliate, but Alice let out a shaky breath, tears pooling in her eyes. Melinda saying it out loud only made it more real. She was pregnant, at the age of seventeen, and everyone knew what happened to pregnant high school girls. Nothing good, that was for sure.
"What am I gonna do?" She whispered, fighting back a sob in a rare moment of weakness, "I tried to talk to him, and he blew me off for some Vixen he's screwing!"
Alice let out a bitter chuckle, the moment of weakness gone and her bad girl façade back in place. She turned around to look at the mirror, a bitter chuckle escaping her lips.
"Ha, classic FP Jones."
Melinda's jaw dropped; the cigarette perched in her mouth nearly falling to the disease-infested bathroom floor.
"FP Jones?!" Both Sierra and Hermione nearly squealed in unison.
She took another shaky drag from the cigarette and tried to look anywhere but at Alice.
Luckily, a distraction by the name of Penelope Blossom stormed through the bathroom door, effectively ending the painful conversation.
"Well, well, well," The red-haired girl sneered at them, pushing up her thick glasses, "I thought I heard a party in here. Hall passes, ladies? Also, Melinda, that death stick in your mouth is a code three violation."
"You're a code three violation," She mumbled half to herself, putting up her dark hood and inhaling defiantly.
Hermione, ever the good girl, quickly gave Penelope her own hall pass. She looked down at it briefly, before turning her gaze expectantly towards Alice. There was no remnant left of her revelation from before as she looked at Penelope with nothing short of menace in her eyes.
"Oh, it's up your ass, Penelope," She shot back with a smirk.
The red-haired girl scoffed, uncapping her pen and writing something on her clipboard, "Classy as always, Alice Smith. Just curious, were you born with that mouth or is it something Southside mothers teach their bastard babies?"
Hermione gasped, covering her mouth in shock as Sierra let out a disbelieving 'wow'. Melinda, on the other hand, stifled a grin, enjoying the show from afar.
Alice gave a fake smile, pushing off from the sink to come stand in front of Penelope. She backed up slightly, suddenly aware of the Southside girl's menacing form. In one swift motion, Alice's hand shot out and slapped Penelope across the cheek.
"You trashy bitch!" The red-haired girl slapped Alice back before the two of them grappled each other.
The fight descended into chaos, each one of them pulling at each other's hair and pushing at one another while Hermione and Sierra tried to break it up. Eventually, they crashed into one of the bathroom stalls and onto the floor, wrestling each other on the disgusting tilework. Meanwhile, Melinda sat perched on the radiator, watching the scene unfold with a wicked smile as she took another drag from her cigarette.
There was never a boring day at Riverdale High.
While Penelope and Alice were going at it in the girl's bathroom, across the school, something similar seemed to be unfolding in the boy's locker room.
"Come on FP, it's Bulldog tradition," Rick Mantle taunted lightly. Circular yellow glasses sat on his nose while a towel had been wrapped around his otherwise naked waist.
"Streak! Streak! Streak! Streak!" The rest of the football team chanted with him.
Hiram looked appreciatively at him as Rick glanced at the other boy for approval. Before junior year, Hiram Lodge wouldn't have even so much as looked at Rick Mantle. He was a computer nerd, sitting at the lowest rung of Riverdale High's social ladder. That summer though, he'd beefed up, and when he came back in the fall, he'd easily aced football try-outs. Hiram wasn't on the football team; wrestling was much more his style.
But he saw potential in Rick, and the two had become fast friends.
"My arm's in a cast, Mantle," FP protested, showing him his broken left arm.
Rick looked less than impressed with his weak excuse, "Doesn't matter."
The chants of 'streak' grew louder around them.
"Come on Rick, I'm not doing it!" FP shouted defiantly.
This only encouraged them to chant faster.
Fred Andrews suddenly clapped FP on his shoulder, a smirk on his features as he heard everyone go silent.
"I'll go with you," He offered, having heard everything from the next locker over.
"Freddie Andrews," FP cocked his head to the side with a teasing grin, "Why? You're not even on our team."
"No," Fred admitted, "But the baseball team got me to streak last year and it got me some serious cred with the ladies so..."
A smirk slowly grew on FP's face as Fred leaned in close with a matching smile, "Run fast enough and all they'll see is a blur."
FP considered it for only a moment, before the two of them hastily undressed and the shouts of 'streak' started again even louder than before.
We were invincible. Or, at least, we thought we were. That little stunt landed FP and Fred in hot water. And as for us girls...
The ringing of the final bell brought Melinda out of her daydreaming haze.
"Welcome to Saturday detention."
Gathered in that classroom, we were strangers, more than friends. And none of us could have guessed that our lives were about to change forever. It was just supposed to be one Saturday. Eight hours. Seven people with seemingly nothing in common.
The bad girl.
"Alice Smith?" She lifted up her pencil as roll was called, the Serpent looking like she wanted to be anywhere but here.
The rebelling Catholic.
"Hermione Gomez?" Hermione did the same, though with a more welcoming expression.
The teacher's pet.
"Penelope Blossom?" The red-haired girl's hand shot straight in the air with an eager look.
The artist-athlete.
"Fred Andrews?" Fred stopped spinning the drumsticks in his hands long enough to raise one before going back to playing with them.
The political animal.
"Sierra Samuels?" She lifted up a fist with a smirk on her face.
The mysterious loner.
"Melinda Mao?" Melinda merely rolled her eyes next to Sierra, slumping further in the uncomfortable desk.
And the ladies' man.
"Forsythe Pendleton Jones Jr.?" FP raised his one good hand, a nasty glare fixed on his face.
Forsythe Pendleton Jones Jr. He was the BMOC, an all-American athlete. A stud-muffin as we used to say. He was different back then, just like everyone else in that dirty classroom. Trying to be something other than what he was. But still trouble, always trouble.
"Wait," Becca interrupted Betty as she sat up from her place on her bed, "Are you telling me that FP Jones and your mom had a thing back in high school?"
Betty sighed over the phone, "Yep and surprise! Charles, who I don't even know if he's alive or not after that whole Chic thing, was FP's son!"
Becca paused for a moment, contemplating this, "Yeah that tracks actually. Your mom and Jughead's dad always had a weird, unexplained tension. And now with your dad gone..."
"Just wait," The blonde-haired girl continued, "It gets even more interesting."
The dark-haired girl nodded to herself, allowing Betty to continue and laying back down on her bed.
I hated him. Not just for blowing me off all the time, but for what he'd done over the summer. Usually, his summers were spent on the Southside, with occasional meetups with his Northside pals. But when he was on the Southside, he was with me and that's how I wanted it. Except that summer, he wasn't.
He was with Melinda.
I don't know what happened between them, but I can only guess. At the end of the summer, everything returned to normal. FP and I hooked up when no one was watching and then he'd leave for his trailer right next door to mine.
The only difference was her.
And the certain sadness he now carried with him, one that I could tell, despite everything, that Melinda also carried.
Needless to say, the bad girl and the mysterious loner didn't get along.
"While you're here today, you will not talk," The vice principal started talking as he handed out sheets of notebook paper, "You will not play."
He grabbed Fred's drumsticks as he walked by with a stern look, "You will not move."
He locked the drumsticks away from his desk and Sierra passed Melinda some paper. The two shared an annoyed look.
"I don't even want you to breathe," A wicked smirk appeared on his face, before he noticed Sierra's raised hand, "Yes?"
"What if we have to pee?" She asked with a deadpan look.
"You hold it Miss Samuels," He answered sharply, "And at the end of the day, you will deliver a 1,000-word essay on why you are here today."
Sounds of protest rippled across the room as Melinda flipped her hood up and sunk lower in her seat.
"I will be right down the hall, in my office, all day long," He continued in a warning voice before he mumbled bitterly, "'Cause I got nothing better to do."
With that, he left, and the seven of them were left to their own devices. Fred, Penelope, and Hermione reluctantly started on the essay, their pencils scratching at the paper. Sierra knocked her papers to the floor while Melinda made a makeshift pillow with her arms and took a nap at her desk. FP doodled on his own paper while Alice had gotten up to go vandalize a windowsill.
9:00 turned into 10:00 turned into 11:00. The scratching of Alice's pocketknife had increased exponentially to the point that even Melinda couldn't take a decent nap with all the racket she made.
"Dude can you not?" Fred finally said, running an irritated hand through his thick, dark hair.
There was momentary reprieve from the noise as Alice stopped before shooting back, "Dude, can you bite me?"
"Oh my god, shh!" Penelope burst out, shushing everyone.
Melinda sighed heavily, realizing she wasn't going to get any decent sleep before sitting up and rubbing at her face. God, she could go for a cigarette right now.
"Psst, Sierra!" A harsh whisper was heard from the door.
Everyone looked up to see none other than Tom Keller peeking his head from around the doorway, a wry grin on his face. Sierra's face lit up as she quickly ran over to him.
"Sit down! We'll get in trouble!" Penelope protested in her nasally high voice.
"Calm down Penelope, Vice Principal Stanley hasn't been in here since this morning," Melinda snorted softly.
"That doesn't mean he won't come in here again, Melinda!" The red-haired girl was quick to reply.
"God you're such a teacher's pet," She shook her head again, finally putting her hood down. Her short, dark hair was messy as she raked another hand through it.
"At least I'll live past the age of forty you chain smoker," Penelope spat with disgust.
"Okay, Penelope that's enough," FP put in roughly, an equally irritated look on his face at the Blossom girl's annoying comments.
Melinda cast a glance at him, but as soon as their eyes met, she looked away harshly. A faint blush creeped across her cheeks as FP's did the same. Alice watched them carefully, her eyes narrowing at the dark-haired girl.
"Tommy!" Sierra squealed, effectively ending their interaction as the two shared a heartfelt kiss.
Melinda smirked slightly as everyone else's mouths dropped open in surprise.
"Brought you some sustenance," Tom chuckled softly as he handed her a bag of food from Pop's.
"Thank you," Melinda's best friend giggled quietly.
"I love you," Tom said tenderly, "I'll see you tonight, okay?"
Sierra nodded eagerly as he gave her one last, lingering kiss before leaving down the hallway. As soon as he left, she was bombarded with questions.
"Sierra?" Fred said with disbelief, "You and Tom Keller?"
The lovesick smile on her face was the only answer he needed.
"Guys," The Andrews boy continued, looking around at all of them, "We've been going to the same school since Kindergarten. Well except you, Melinda."
He nodded slightly to her, a brief smile flitting across his lips, and she nodded knowingly.
"How do we not know anything about each other?" He finished, looking around.
"We're not friends," Penelope answered in a short tone, "Cliques don't cross-pollinate. Haven't you seen Heathers?"
"Well," Sierra started, leaning against the giant desk at the front of the room, "We've got uh six more hours to kill and no one to impress. How about a round of Secrets and Sins?"
Melinda quirked an eyebrow, suddenly becoming nervous. Sure, she wanted to know more about her best friend and maybe even FP and Alice...
But she wasn't about to tell anyone about herself.
Despite her reluctance, the seven of them ended up sitting in a circle on the floor as Sierra started the game off. At least her secret wasn't much of a secret anymore.
"Tommy and I have been secretly dating for a few months now," She confessed, a grin lighting up her face.
"Why secretly?" Hermione asked curiously.
"Our parents don't want their children dating someone so...different," Sierra answered reluctantly, "to use their euphemism of choice."
Basically, they were racist assholes.
"My mom is all up in my relationships too," Hermione said with a secretive smirk, "You know Hiram Lodge?"
"Ah yes," Fred put in, "Dude is ripped."
"And a petty criminal," Penelope commented in a judgmental tone.
"He's a self-starter who provides for his family," Hermione defended sharply as Penelope merely rolled her eyes.
"But to my mom, he's a scrub," She continued in a sadder tone.
She said something else in Spanish before quickly translating, "That's the way to the American dream, mija. But what dream? She cleans hotel rooms in that stupid Five Seasons sixteen hours a day. Hiram's got the right idea. Get out of Riverdale, no matter what you have to do."
Melinda hoped one day she would too.
"Yeah, except Riverdale is not the problem," Fred countered, "Me? I want to stay here my whole life."
Sierra scoffed as Alice mocked, "Is that how long it's gonna take you to decide between music or baseball?"
Fred ignored her biting tone, "Our minor league is solid. And we're close enough to the city to play music gigs. This town's got it all. Could even see myself running for mayor one day."
"Ugh, a nightmare job," Sierra shook her head dismissively, "Why not shoot for something bigger? You can do all those things in a real metropolis!"
"Yeah, except look after my dad," Fred said quietly and the room grew silent, "He's sick. Real sick. And he took care of me my whole life. So, now it's my turn."
Hermione reached out a hand and rubbed Fred's knee comfortingly. He gave her a sweet smile before looking at the rest of him. An uncomfortable silence stretched between them all.
"Alice," He finally said, sighing heavily, "You're up. What's your deepest, darkest secret?"
All of the girls looked over at Alice with pity as she fumbled for something to say. Melinda swallowed thickly, avoiding both her and FP's gazes.
"Um..."
"Let's skip her!" Hermione burst out, coming to the rescue.
"Alice just tell 'em about the time you lit a dumpster on fire in the Southside," FP supplied dismissively.
The Serpent grew angry at his words, "Why don't you tell them that you actually live in Sunnyside Trailer Park?"
FP grew nervous as Penelope questioned, "I thought you lived on Elm Street."
"Yeah," Alice chuckled wryly, "Of course. Because that's what Forsythe wants you to believe."
Melinda looked between the two of them, the only one not surprised by Alice's revelation. It didn't go unnoticed by the blonde-haired girl though. If anything, it only made her even more angry that she'd been privy to that secret. A secret that she thought only her and FP shared given their Southside heritage.
"You parade around the school in your varsity jacket like a Northsider," Alice mocked viciously, "Don't kid yourself, you'll never escape from the Southside. You're gonna end up just like your dad. Downing six packs in your double-wide."
"Okay Alice, jeez, we get it," Melinda finally spoke up, her dark eyebrows furrowing in annoyance at the Serpent.
Alice whipped her head around, openly glaring at her now.
FP's pained expression turned to anger, "Maybe, but I'm not gonna hit my kid. Not like my old man hits me."
Melinda watched as he tried to fight back the uncontrollable tears pooling in his eyes, "I told him I didn't want to join his gang. That I wanted to be the first Jones to go to college."
Alice's expression softened slightly as FP held up his cast, saying simply, "He didn't like that."
He chewed on his lower lip, sighing heavily and avoiding everyone else's gaze. Melinda looked down at her hands, pulling her hood back up.
"Okay," Penelope said with a raise of her eyebrows, "I guess that just leaves me."
"Not so fast Penelope," Alice still wasn't done yet, directing her hatred towards the hooded girl next to Sierra, "Melinda, you seem awfully quiet."
She rolled her eyes dismissively, starting off in a neutral tone despite the blonde-haired girl's cold one, "Probably because I don't want to be here Alice, same as you."
"Hm," The Serpent scoffed, "Then I'm sure you wouldn't mind sharing a secret, same as everyone else. Let's start with what your family does for a living because I can't seem to recall what that is."
No one made a move to stop her, everyone equally as curious as Alice. FP seemed to still be reeling from Alice's words as he looked down at his cast.
"Okay," Melinda said in a short, clipped tone, "Since we're all in the business of sharing secrets then. Alice, I don't remember you actually participating with a secret of your own. And since you went before me, it's only fair that you start."
The smirk on the blonde-haired girl's face slowly began to drop at her words as Melinda taunted, "Go on. I'm sure everyone is dying to hear one of Alice Smith's dark secrets."
"Mel," Sierra warned her quietly, hoping her best friend would shut up.
"You self-serving, lowlife, piece of-"
"Okay!" Penelope interrupted the two of them before Alice could finish her sentence, "Why don't we just skip both of you since I don't want detention again!"
There was a moment of silence, the tension between the two girls so thick it could be cut with a knife.
Then, FP's voice spoke up, "Why don't you finish Penelope?"
Both girls' gazes landed on the dark-haired boy. He looked at Alice before his eyes settled on Melinda. A silent look of understanding passed between them. The youngest Smith ground her teeth together.
"Well Forsythe, since you asked so nicely and fair is fair," Penelope said with a delighted smile.
The two girls reluctantly backed down from one another, but not before Alice cast one last nasty look at Melinda. She returned the gesture, pulling her hood down even further and tightening it with the strings around her neck.
The red-haired girl's smile faded though, replaced with a downcast expression, "The Blossoms...they're terrible people."
She said this like a weight had been lifted off her chest.
"But Penelope," Hermione voiced the group's confusion, "You're a Blossom."
"No I'm not," Penelope was quick to reply, "Not really. I grew up at the Sisters of Quiet Mercy Orphanage."
Sierra gasped as Melinda's eyebrows raised slightly.
"Oh my god, Penelope," The Samuels girl said in disbelief, "that place has violated, like, every humanitarian code."
This didn't come as a surprise to her as she continued, "When I was eight, the Blossoms came and asked to see all the red-headed children. The next thing I knew, I was leaving with them."
Wetness formed around her eyes as she sniffled slightly, "I was so excited. I very quickly realized this was not an altruistic adoption. I was being groomed. To first be Clifford's sister, then, eventually, his life companion. Every second away from that house, even today, is a relief."
She finished with a heavy sigh, swiping at the tears that had threatened to run down her cheeks. Melinda stared at Penelope, her eyes growing wide. This was almost too fucked up, even for her.
"Why are you still living there?" Hermione asked, a disgusted tone to her voice.
Penelope looked confused, even with tears falling down her face, "They're my family."
Melinda's jaw clenched painfully. She hated how much the Blossom girl sounded like her sometimes.
"That's not family!" Hermione persisted in an incredulous tone, "It's basically incest, it's disgusting!"
"At least I'm not cleaning up other people's toilets like your mom!" Penelope shot back, her voice shaking from emotion.
Anger flashed across the raven-haired girl's face, "Well, at least she has class! She's not stealing child brides out of orphanages!"
This time, Penelope made the first move and grabbed Hermione's hair, knocking both of their glasses off their faces as they dog-piled on one another.
"Here we go again..." Alice rolled her eyes as everyone leapt up to stop them.
Melinda moved out of the way just in time as they came crashing on top of one another. As chaos once again ensued around her, she perched herself up on the windowsill. With a flick of her lighter and a cigarette that she'd pulled out of her jacket pocket, she lit it up and crossed her legs.
Even in detention, this was still far more entertaining than writing a 1,000 word essay.
Not even five minutes later, and all seven of them were back in their desks. Hermione and Penelope looked a little worse for wear as Vice Principal Stanley watched them all with a disappointed look.
"Congratulations," He said dryly, "You all just upped your sentence. From one Saturday detention to four."
Melinda slammed her fist on the table as everyone protested quietly.
There was truly never a boring day at Riverdale High.
( alice and melinda @ each other )
A/N: whaaaaaaat??? Another update???? Yes 🥰 I got back into my writing groove so I thought I'd go ahead and update!!! I hope you guys enjoyed some flashbacks ;-) Also....what happened between FP and Melinda 👀👀👀
As always, don't forget to comment and fave! Also, just to make sure this is clear, Betty is telling Becca her mother's side of the story. Therefore, Alice, Betty, and Becca don't know anything about FP and Melinda's relationship or her family! That'll come later....😉
This chapter and the next will be really long, so stay tuned!