The Only Beanie - Book 4 (Riverdale Season 4/5)

Lynchian

They sat on the couch as Jughead started the videotape, watching as a cartoon mask of Jughead appeared. He seemed to be breathing heavily as another person in a mask of Betty came forwards, bludgeoning 'Jughead' to death with a rock.

"Oh my God," Aminity let out as Jughead stopped the tape.

"Okay, so that was dropped off at the sheriff's station in a bin with all the other voyeur tapes?" Betty checked.

"Yeah, but all the other voyeur tapes were just static shots of people's houses at a distance. This is clearly an escalation. It's a recreation of whatever someone thinks happened to me in the woods. And the big questions are, who is doing this and what are we gonna do about it?"

"Me? Nothing. No. I am not getting pulled into some creepy new mystery," Betty told him. "But you can feel free to get sucked into this one, okay?"

"I could always use an extra set of eyes and ears, little brother."

"Okay," Jughead agreed with Charles. "Aminity?"

She thought about it before sighing. "Look, despite everything going on, I'm in a good place right now. You know, I have a semi-normal life. And between school and the center and everything I'm doing at La Bonne Nuit now... I can't get involved in another mystery."

"No problem," Charles told her.

***

"Earth to Aminity," Sweet Pea said, shaking her out of her thoughts as they sat at one of the tables in the Serpent Den. She hummed as she paid attention again. "What's going on in that head of yours?"

She sighed. "There's been some developments with the voyeur tapes. I told Jughead I wanted to stay out of it but..." she sighed. "I didn't want to mess up the good streak I've been on."

"Yeah, but you seem to really love solving these type of things. There's nothing wrong with missing it."

"Missing almost dying, serial killers, etcetera?" He chuckled, following her point. "So... Have you thought anymore about college?" she changed the subject.

"Uh, a little bit," he nodded, setting his drink down. "It's not as big of a plan as I thought I wanted, but I missed the deadline for all those types of college applications. I thought about maybe taking a gap year, but I did some more research and Riverdale Community College is still taking applications. I thought I'd start with my gen eds and then decide what I wanted to go into. Maybe I transfer or maybe I stay there. We'll see."

She looked at him with a proud smile. "I think that's a great idea." She leant in, giving him a chaste kiss.

"Oh, I forgot, we gotta go to Pop's." He stood and grabbed his jacket before offering her his hand.

"Why?" she asked, letting him help her up.

"Fangs had some news he wanted to share."

***

"So, what's the big news you wanted to tell us about?" Toni asked as they all sipped on their milkshakes.

"Well," Fangs glanced at them all, "I got offered a scholarship from the University of Pittsburgh."

"Fangs, that's amazing!" she told him.

"Dude, congrats."

"Great job," Aminity smiled.

"Thanks," he blushed a little. "What about you guys? Any news."

"Well," Toni started, "I officially got accepted into High Smith College." They cheered for her as they smiled before Fangs and Toni looked at Sweet Pea.

"Well, uh... I..." He looked over at Aminity who nodded with a smile, putting a hand on his thigh. "I got accepted into Riverdale Community College." They were quiet for a second and Sweet Pea started to panic.

"That's a great choice, Sweet Pea," Toni told him with a smile.

"Yeah, that's awesome, dude," Fangs hit his milkshake to Sweet Pea's. They fell back into conversation, laughing as Pop's started to empty and the sky became darker.

"You didn't tell me you got in," Aminity whispered as Fangs and Toni concentrated on their conversation with each other.

"I wanted to surprise you, Princess."

"I'm not surprised," she shook her head, making him frown. "I knew you would get it. And you're gonna crush it. Besides, I'm not complaining about having you around for my senior year."

"Oh, you're gonna have trouble getting rid of me," he teased.

"Now, why would I ever want to do that?" she asked, smiling as he leant down and kissed her, Fangs and Toni too caught up to care.

A bit more of just a sweet chapter. Aminity is taking a much needed break from the mysteries around her and finally focusing on herself. I wonder how long that will last. I know it's not the best or the most interesting chapter, but I hope you all enjoyed!