What We Once Were

Chapter 8.

Surprisingly, Betty beat Jughead to the school that next morning. She sat outside Riverdale high waiting for her partner who arrived 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 talented young woman. She could've done anything she wanted. It's so unfortunate what happened to her, 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 about 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."