It's been 6 months since Hal Cooper's murder. Ten months since she had met Jughead and almost a year since the murder of Betty's mother, brother and sister. It's been the worst year of her life and at the same time, the best year of her life. Meeting Jughead was the best thing that could have ever happened to her. He has shown her more love and kindness than anyone she has ever known. That is the reason she fell in love with him. He is the reason she is where she is today. Alive.
Today they are driving up to Centerville, Betty's home town, to visit their grave site. A place Betty has never been before.
Even though she has come a long way. She still has nightmares about that time. Jughead hopes that seeing their graves and saying goodbye will give her the peace of mind that she truly needs.
Jughead turns and sees Betty looking out the window, seemingly lost in thought. "Are you okay?" he asked her.
"Yeah, I'm just a little nervous." she said, "Looking at the passing scenery is helping to calm my nerves." she adds.
"You know I'll be with you the whole time. Right?" he told her.
"Yeah, I know. It doesn't make me any less anxious. It's just what it is." she said as she smiled softly.
He placed his hand on her knee, trying to relax her a bit. It seems to help so he keeps it there. She turned back towards the window and resumed her position, looking out the window.
It takes another 45 minutes to get to the town. Jughead stops at a little store on the city limits. He goes in and buys some flowers. While there he asked for directions to the cemetery. He was a little lost.
It took another 10 minutes to get to the cemetery with the directions that were given to him. He didn't tell Betty and that it was between him and the clerk.
Shady Elms Cemetery, the signs read. What a strange name, he thought to himself as he grabbed Betty's hand and interlocked it with his, she is shaking badly. He hates it when there is nothing that he can do for her.
He walks up with her. Someone has been taking care of the area. It's been kept up real nice. He hands her the flowers and let's her finish the trek up there, alone. This was something she needed to do on her own.
Betty fell to her knees and started to cry and started to talk a bit in between the sobs.
Jughead sat on the ground by a tree and let her be. He watched and that was it. She started to talk to each one of them separately.
"Mom, I miss you so much. I just want to tell you that I'm okay. Really, I am, so don't worry about me. I've met this amazing man. He is everything a man should be. I wish you could have met him. You would have loved him. He makes me feel special and that is all that matters. I'm sorry that I haven't been to visit before, I promise to come here more often. I love you." she says as tears flow down her face at an unprecedented rate.
"Polly, big sis. How I miss you so much. So much has changed in a year. I don't know where to start. You would love Riverdale. It's kind, people here are kind, and they do care. You would love Toni and Cheryl. Yes, Cheryl as in Blossom. They are like sisters to me. Jason is here too, but there's more to that story, but that's for a later time. I joined the cheerleading squad and it's awesome. Oh, I have a boyfriend now, and he's kind and sweet and loving. He takes care of me. He is why I'm here today" she sighed. " I wish things were different. I love you Polly, I will visit soon." she adds.
Two months ago Betty got another tattoo. It's located on her upper back. It's of angel wings and has her mother and siblings names and birth dates in between the wings. A remembrance for them. It's a real beautiful peace. It made 8-ball cry after he finished it. To this date he says it's the best piece he has ever done. Even took a picture of it and framed it on his wall. This made Betty proud. She is showing it off to them. Jughead smiles as he watches her.
"Charles, guess what? I'm a senior now and I write for the school paper. I enjoy it immensely. I even joined a group of people that are showing me how to take care of myself. So you don't have to worry about protecting me anymore. I'm safe and protected. Don't be mad but I have a boyfriend. He loves me and he would never hurt me. You might have given him a run for his money in the badass department. You truly were my hero. You would love it here. I think you would fit in especially with Archie, Sweet Pea and Fangs. I love you big bro." she said. More tears flow.
She stands up. "He's gone, he can't hurt me again or anyone else for that matter. I hate him. He destroyed everything." she said. "But I have to go now. I'll visit again, I love you and I promise I'm safe," she said as she looked at Jughead, who was standing up and walking towards her.
"I love you" she said to him as he pulled her into an embrace.
"I love you too." he said as he leaned down and kissed her forehead.
"Have I ever told you, Thank you." She said, smiling.
Jughead chuckled. "Many times." he said.
Betty is still smiling. "Thank you for today" she said as she leaned up and placed a single kiss on his cheek. She pulled back. "I really needed this today." she adds.
"Did it help?" he asked as he pulled her back into another hug.
"I think so, it's hard to explain it though." she said.
He nods in understanding.
"I'm starving, Can we eat?" she asked.
He laughed. "You act like I'm going to turn down the chance to eat." he said as they started to walk back to the car.
"You never know. One day you might." she laughed.
"Never!" he said as he picked her up and threw her over his shoulders. She started to giggle.
"Juggie! Put me down," she said as she started to wiggle, trying to get him to put her down. He's laughing hard at the effort she's giving off. Eventually he decided to put her down once they reached the car. She smacks his chest playfully, "You're such a meanie." she said as she stuck her tongue out at him. He laughed again. He loves seeing her like this, carefree and playful.
"There's a diner up off the highway, I saw it when we got here. Want to try that?" Jughead told her.
"Sure." she said as she frowned. Which worried him.
"What's wrong?" he asked her.
"I just don't want to run into anyone I know, I don't think I'm ready for that." she said to him.
He grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips and kissed it. "I'll be there and I'll protect you," he said.
She smiled. "Promise?" she asked.
"Promise." he said. "Anything for my forever Queen." he adds.
She started to laugh. "Forever Queen?" she said.
"What? No." he smirked. She shook her head no. "okay, I'll try again." He added, laughing, mainly at the expression on her face.
Jughead drives to the diner, parks and they walk in. They get seated at a table in the middle of the room. "Have you been here before?" he asked her.
"Yeah" she said as she looked around the room.
"Is the food good?" he asked.
"I don't remember, it's been awhile. I was very young the last time I came here." she said.
They decided to stick with Burgers and Fries, you can't really go wrong with that.
"Elizabeth cooper, is that you?" someone asked. Betty froze when she heard it.
Jughead turns and sees a tall woman walking towards the table. She has glasses and seems a little older. "Mrs, Moore." Betty said as she stood up to greet her. They hugged each other.
"Darling, you just upped and disappeared on us. We are truly sorry for what transpired last year. Then we heard the news that your daddy died in a prison riot last year, poor child, so tragic." Mrs Moore said.
Jughead clears his throat when he sees Betty digging her fingers into her palms. She jerks away.
"Sorry about that." Betty said as she looked at Jughead, who didn't look amused. "Yeah I moved to Riverdale with my aunt. Everything happened so quick, I wasn't able to say goodbye to anyone" Betty said.
Mrs Moore seemed pleased with her answer. With a tilt of her head she started talking again,"Riverdale, you say." she seemed concerned now.
"Yeah, Why do you say it like that?" Betty asked her.
"Oh, I've heard things about that town. Bad things. Just be careful darling. I heard there was a group down there called the snakes, Vicious killers" she said,
Jughead started to choke on his water. Betty started to giggle. Mrs Moore finally registered that Jughead was at the table with Betty and arched her brow when she saw the leather serpent jacket hanging on the back of his chair. Then she gasped and leaned closer to Betty. "If you need help, just send me a sign." Mrs Moore said.
"I'm good Mrs Moore, I promise." Betty said,
The woman glares at Jughead, who has finally had enough. "Screw this, Let's go Betts." he said. The woman is pissing him off. Betty nods and he throws his money on the table, grabs Betty's hand and walks out of the restaurant.
Once outside, Jughead shakes his head. "Man , that woman is intense." he said.
"Yeah, she was my neighbor. She tried to lie for my father." she said. "I think she was secretly in love with him." she added. Jughead crinkles his nose in disgust. "Right!" Betty said laughing.
Betty's stomach starts to growl and she looks up at Jughead. He smirked. "We will stop somewhere else," he said. She smiles. "Then we need to head back, we have a party to attend." he adds.
When they arrive back in Riverdale around 6pm, The Serpents are throwing an end-of-summer party down at the river. Also, its gauntlet night with three new recruits. He parks his car off the main road.
"Are you doing okay?" he asked her.
"I am." she smiled.
"We don't have to stay long." he said.
She laughed. "Are you kidding, I've been waiting for this party for 3 damn weeks. It's time to have fun, Mr Jones." she said, smirking.
"Is that so?" He asked, laughing.
"Mhhmm." she said as he kissed her.
They continued to walk and make it to the river bank where the Serpents are all ready at, waiting for the next step. Jughead whistles and gets everyone's attention as they walk on to the makeshift stage. "Let the festivities begin." he yelled. The serpent's clapped. "First, I want to thank everyone for coming. I appreciate every one of you. You guys make this family whole." he said as there were more cheers from the crowd. "We are doing great things these days. We are growing larger." he adds, more cheers erupt. This makes Jughead smile. He's proud of his family. "It's been a great summer, but it's ending. So let's party." he screamed. He walked over to where Betty was standing. "Are you ready?" he asked her.
"I sure am." she grinned.
"Let's do this then." he said. She nods. "Shank, Turbo and Bob, please come up here." he said. Three men walked onto the stage. "We are doing 3 initions today, because of that we have already asked them the laws of the Serpents, that have all passed. Now we just have the gauntlet left." he smirked. "So serpents, line up." he says as the serpents line up, Jughead is at the end with Archie, Sweets and Fangs by his side. "You good?"" jughead asked the men. They all nod and the gauntlet begins, one by one they make it through. Betty waits for them at the end and when they stand up for the final time she hands them each their serpent jacket.
Now it's time to party, especially when Jughead sees the food table and heads over to it. He starts to pick at the food, when Sweets comes over to where he's at.
"Boss?" Sweets said.
"Sup?" Jughead asked as he started to eat some chips.
"The Ghoulies left town today." he said.
Jughead arched his brow in surprise, "Seriously, all of them?" he asked, just to make sure he heard correctly.
"Seems like it," he said.
"That's odd and very unexpected, I know I'm on okay terms with Penny, but Kai is literally the bane of my existence, he's been put here to utterly annoy me on a daily basis" He laughed.
"I don't know, boss, just telling you what I know." Sweets said.
"Keep watching." he said,
"Already on it, I think it's a good job for the recruits." he said.
"Sounds good." Jughead said.
They sit back and watch everyone. Cheryl and Toni are dancing. Betty is talking with Josie, which makes Sweets smile. Josie and he are officially dating now, and Sweets is the happiest he has ever been. Things are good and then there is a commotion. Archie is arguing with one of the recruits, Jughead and Sweets walk over to him.
"Sup, Arch?" Jughead said.
"Sup bro." He said, agitated.
"What seems to be the problem here?" he asked as he turned and looked at Turbo.
"I don't know boss, I was talking and red came over with a serious case of attitude" Turbo said.
Jughead laughed. "Red has a name, you know and he's your superior" he said.
"Bro, this asshat was talking about how he was going to nail the blonde that gave him the jacket." Archie said,
Jughead growled in anger.
"I told him that he needed to learn his place and things like that could get him killed and he told me to get bent" Archie said. "How do you not know who the Queen of the gang you just joined is?" he adds, rolling his eyes.
"Shit!" Turbo said as he recognized what he had just done.
Jughead smirked.
"Boss, i'm sorry. I didn't know she was yours."Turbo said.
"Does it matter? The fact is you completely disrespect a woman and that shit don't fly here." Jughead said as the Serpent women started to cheer, they knew that Jughead would always have their back, and there are no double standards here. "Fangs?" he said.
"Yeah Jug?" he said.
"Go with Archie, get this piece of shit out of my face and deal with him." he said.
"On it" fangs said as he and Archie walked with turbo. They were going to show him how the Serpents deal with disrespect.
"He looks at Shank and Bob, who have just been watching. "Y'all good?" he asked both of them. They both nod. "Good, now go with Sweets, he's going to explain to you your first assignment." Jughead said. They nod and walk off with Sweets.
Jughead walks over to the girls. Toni smiles at him. "Jones, you know I love you right?" she asked.
"Of course you do, "I'm your bestie" he grinned.
She laughed, "Shut it Jones." she said as she took another drink of her beer.
"Oh my god." Betty screeched.
Jughead looks at her in confusion. "What?" he asked her.
"No you." she said as she whispered something into Toni's ear.
"What the fuck." Jughead laughed.
"Oh!" Toni said as she whispered in Cheryl's ear, making Jughead more confused.
"Perfect!" Cheryl exclaimed as she then whispered into Josie's ear.
Josie smiled. "Girls, let's do this." she said.
Toni went over to where the Serpent Drew was and told him to put on a song for them.
The girls cleared the area. The song Wannabe by the Spice Girls starts playing.
If you want my future, forget my past
If you wanna get with me, better make it fast
Now don't go wasting my precious time
Get your act together we could be just fine
I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want
So tell me what you want, what you really, really want
I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha)
I wanna really, really, really wanna zigazig ah
If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends
(Gotta get with my friends)
Make it last forever, friendship never ends
If you wanna be my lover, you have got to give
Taking is too easy, but that's the way it is
Oh, what do you think about that
Now you know how I feel
Say, you can handle my love, are you for real
(Are you for real)
I won't be hasty, I'll give you a try
If you really bug me then I'll say goodbye
The girls are singing and dancing. Everyone is watching them. Jughead is only watching one. He's mesmerized by her, watching how she moves her body. "Oh" he said as he tilted his head as he watched her bend her body in ways he didn't know she could,
They finally finished their performance and got a round of applause from everyone.
Jughead walked over to them. "Amazing, ladies," he said. He then leaned into Betty and kissed her. Then whispered in her ear. "You can show me those moves when we are alone, like now." he smirked. She giggled. "Alright ladies we must say our goodnights, been a long day." Jughead said.
Toni laughed. "Sure, that's your story and you're sticking to it, huh?" she smirked.
Jughead winked and took Betty by the hand and walked back to the car. Time for home.