Escape

3

"I'll be here at 3:00 to pick you up. A girl named Betty Cooper will be meeting you at the office. Have a great first day!" Calum calls after his sister as she got out the car.
"Thanks," she smiled. "And good luck with job hunting." The two waved goodbye to one and other and parted ways. Andrea turned to the large school and sighed heavily.
Don't fuck this up.
She began walking slowly, observing all the cliques she passed. A group of jocks began hollering at Andrea and wolf whistling.
Pigs.
There was one jock who stuck out the most, he had extreme vibrant orange locks (brighter than Archie's) and sported the same varsity jacket as Archie did. He must've been the alpha of the pack considering he sat on the table while the rest of them sat around him in seats. He looked extremely familiar, but she couldn't put her finger on it.
"Hey look, it's Wednesday Adams!" An Asian jock heckled at a boy dressed in all black and had a grey crowned beanie hugging his head.
Wasn't he at Pop's with Archie?
"Andrews!" Someone from the jock table shouted. Andrea whipped her head around and saw the same ginger she had seen at Pops. Archie and Andreas eyes met, she smiled softly and waved; Archie ignored her friendly gesture and went to bump fists with his friends.
Well.
Andrea pushed the doors open to Riverdale High and took a deep breath, regretting it immediately because it smelled like paper and day old meatloaf. The schools style was very old and vintage, the lockers were bulky and took up a lot of hallway space, old torn up flyers up against the billboards and heavy wooden doors at every classroom entrance.
Andrea wandered around, looking for the office. All of the stares she was getting was a little distracting, she hated all the attention she was getting and the whispering, she couldn't tell if it was positive or negative. The whispering seemed to become louder and began to freak Andrea out.
"Oof!" Someone grunted as their body collided with Andreas. She looked up and saw a very well dressed boy with sharply parted gelled hair.
"Sorry."
"Its fine. Are you new?"
"That obvious?" She chuckled and brushed ran her fingers through her hair.
"Only because I have a, never seen you before and b, you look scared. I'm Kevin Keller, the schools honorary gay best friend."
"Andrea Hood, no title."
"Well Andrea, can I help you find your class? Or where are you heading?"
"The office, I'm meeting someone named Betty-"
"Cooper? She is my ride or die! I'll bring you to her." Andrea followed Kevin down the hall. A tall skinny blonde was waiting outside of what Andrea assumed was the office.
"Betty!" Kevin sang. Betty's tight ponytail swung as she turned around to address whoever had called her.
"Hey Kev!" Betty sauntered over, she seemed extremely perky.
She was also at Pop's.
"This is Andrea." Kevin introduced.
"Hey, I know you," Betty grinned. "I'm Betty Cooper, president of student council."
"Andrea."
"Well, I'm off to biology. I'll leave you with Betty, bye Andrea." Kevin calls over his shoulder and disappeared into a sea of people. The bell rang, signalling it was time for first period.
"C'mon, let me give you the grand tour." Betty began to recite historical facts about the school, Andrea just nodded but tuned out everything Betty was saying, a skill she had mastered whenever her dad rambled.
"Betty." Someone called, their attention shifted to another ginger.
What is up with the ginger population here.
Andrea had to admit that this girl was drop dead gorgeous. Her long luscious red curls bounced every step she took and her outfit was sophisticated and edgy at the same time.
"Whose this?" The flaming redhead flashed a blinding white smile at Andrea.
"Andrea." Betty said slowly, unsure what her goal was.
"I'm Cheryl Blossom, other half of the Blossom twins and captain of the Riverdale Vixens."
Does everyone have a title here?
"Nice to meet you." Andrea forced a smile. Cheryl grabbed Andreas hand and clasped it between her two dainty little hands as if she was going to propose to her.
"Believe me, pleasures all mine." Cheryl smiled a second time but this time, made Andrea felt uneasy. "Follow me on twitter and I'll do the same, my handle is at cherylbombshell. Ciao!" With that, Cheryl sashayed away.
"That was a little creepy." Andrea said as she tried to process what had just happened.
"Same thing happened to Veronica. Cheryl just needs to make sure you like her and fall for her charm so she can control you. But c'mon, let's finish the tour."
Betty was by Andreas side up till lunch, she insisted that Andrea came and sat with her and her friends and given that she had no one else to eat with, she agreed.
"I'm sure most of you know Andrea. She'll be eating lunch with us today and hopefully for the rest of the year." At the table was "Wednesday Adams", Kevin Keller, a boy with a welcoming smile and a girl with raven hair.
"I don't think we've properly met, I'm Veronica Lodge."
"Jacob Rhyan."
"And I'm Jughead Jones the third." Andrea politely greeted everyone and sat beside Betty. She pulled the wrapper off of her strawberry yogurt cup and listened in on the conversation they were having.
"Archie's been weird, ditching us for the jocks. It's just so unlike him," Betty sighed.
"He's probably just enjoying the attention he's getting from all the girls. Jughead suggested as he poked a piece of chicken.
Jughead is jealous? Noted for now.
"Maybe we should be happy for him, for finding a distraction... he's been struggling with his mom and dad, music and the incident with Grundy."
Betty is empathetic. Noted.
"My dad is in jail and my mom is doing shady shit with the south side serpents, we are basically broke and I'm on the cheerleading squad. He's just being a diva." Veronica snapped at Betty's defence for Archie.
Veronica is sassy. Noted. Jacob hasn't said anything... shy?
"So, Andy- is it okay if we call you that?" Veronica paused for consent before she continued speaking.
"Sure?"
"How are you liking it here so far?"
"It's nice," The four looked at Andrea, waiting for her to say more. "It's really different from home." She offered.
"Not a woman of many words I see."
Kevin is also sassy. Noted.
Jughead stepped on Kevin's foot.
"Ouch!" He hissed.
"We never asked, why did you move here?" Betty ignored the two boys playing aggressive footsie. Andrea felt sweat prickle her armpits as ten pairs of eyes fell on her.
"Hey guys." Archie interrupted Andreas thinking for an excuse.
Thank you God!
They all muttered heys and scooted down to make space for Archie. The focus was taken off of Andrea when Archie asked for the crews opinion on a song he wrote.
"That's really good." Jacob complimented genuinely. They all nodded in agreement and patted Archie on the back.
"If you went a little stronger in the chorus, and lowered the guitar riff..." Andrea stopped when all eyes fell on her again. "Um, I think it would sound better. Not that it doesn't sound good now. Just a little suggestion." She said quietly.
"That might actually work." Archie nodded, showing gratitude for the advice. "Thank you, Andrea."
"Andy, you never answered Betty's question." Kevin poked Andrea.
Fuck.
"What was the question?" Archie asked as he packed away his laptop.
"Why did she move here."
"I'd actually like to know more about Archie's music. How did you get into it?" Archie gladly started boasting about his music career and explained what had happened with Ms. Grundy, the music teacher who was forced out of town.
Jughead focused on Andreas faux interest on Archie's story. There was something she was hiding, and he was going to find out what.