The Better Andrews ||Veronica Lodge||

0.2

"Alex!" Archie yelled shaking me. "Wake up, time to get ready for school."

"Alright." I said climbing out of my blankets and walking to my bathroom. I had my own bathroom and my father and Archie shared one. After I was done showering, I put on a pair of joggers and a cutoff tank top before drying my hair and putting a beanie over it. "What's for breakfast dad?"

"Whatever you make." He said and I rolled my eyes, biting back the comment about how at least mom fixed me breakfast in the mornings. "I think there's some cereal in the cabinet."

"Cool." I said grabbing a piece of bread and a bottle of Gatorade from the fridge. Archie ate a bowl of cereal and a banana before running to the car, as if him not getting shotgun was the end of the world. When I got to school, it was weird, the hallways darker than normal, but I guess things seem darker whenever your town goes through a tragedy.

"Alex!" Josie McCoy said hugging me. "It's been a long time girl."

"Yeah, it has." I said and Josie kissed my cheek. "Nice to see you, how are the girls?"

"Missing our jam sessions." Josie said and I looked down. "Please tell me that you kept up with the music."

"It's complicated, things were great when I was with my mom, but I'm a bit unmotivated back here." I said and Josie nodded before walking with me to class. "Do you know when basketball tryouts are?"

"Nope." Josie said before walking away. I went to my seat and tapping my pencil to the beat of Enter Sandman. Things around here changed, I was taller than most of my classmates, including the ever so beautiful Cheryl Blossom who I remembered towering over me at some point. I was an inch shorter than Archie exactly which was actually infuriating, but I had darker red hair which looked amazing and my eyebrows didn't look like bloody caterpillars.

"Alex, you look cute." Cheryl said and I turned around. "Maybe you should try out for the Vixens."

"I don't like cheering bombshell." I said and she gave me an angered look. "Come on, we both know it."

"Please, maybe we can do that thing afterwards?" Cheryl said and I shrugged. "It's been a while babe."

"I guess so." I said before grabbing her hand and walking to class. After class was lunch which I couldn't have been happier for except for the part where Archie was showing off his music to everyone. Cheryl came by and Betty was a bit awkward around her, but for good reasoning.

I gave Betty an apologetic look and she smiled awkwardly back at me. Despite me being a "closet monster" as Cheryl so shamelessly called it, people didn't really think much of the way that Betty and I interacted. Before I left there were light touches, hugs, and the occasional kiss on the cheek being exchanged constantly. In a way, we were the school's couple goals, or at least should have been.

"You should totally try out for cheerleading." Veronica said to Betty and she shook her hed. "Please, it'll make me happy."

"Alright." Betty said and they talked while I awkwardly glared off into space, occasionally seeing Josie out of the corner of my eye. I wanted her to get with Cheryl badly, but I also kind of wanted Cheryl to myself. Maybe it was the fact that she was practically my first everything or the fact that I am a hormonal closeted teenager who thinks that the idea of sneaking around with the school's head bitch is absolutely exciting in every way.

"I'm assuming that we'll be seeing Andrews there too?" Veronica asked and I shrugged. "Come on, you'd totally rock the uniform."

"I'm a bit tall, besides, it may get in the way of basketball." I said and Veronica gave me a look. "Hey, Riverdale needs a player like me."

The rest of my day up until Vixens tryouts was absolutely boring and slow. I was athletic, but the wrong kind for this, so it was kind of a disaster. Cheryl let me hang out in the bleachers with a look of pure pity on her face. Obviously I wasn't sure how to work with the extra lank that I'd unluckily acquried.

"You were cute." Cheryl said before kissing my cheek. "In a painfully awkward, someone have mercy on her poor soul type way."

"Thanks Cherry Bomb." I said before putting my headphones in and walking home. While Archie and his friends hung out at Pop's, stayed in and worked on my music. I knew that I'd have to work extra hard to make it because I wasn't lucky like Archie, I didn't have someone to cater to my every demand and problem.

"Alex?" My dad said and I looked up, a nervous smile plastered on both of our faces. "I, uh, made dinner."

"Thanks dad." I said walking downstairs. This house seemed too empty, half of its occupants gone. I sat at the table with my plate across from him. He made steak, mashed potatoes, and some vegetable mixture that came from a can or frozen bag. "Your cooking improved a bit."

"Thanks for that backhanded compliment Alex." He said and I was shocked from the amount of sarcasm in his voice. "How was school?"

"Okay, tried out for the Vixens, failed miserably, saw Josie which was always fun, and kind of got to spend some time with this new girl Veronica." I said and he nodded. "What'd you do?"

"I worked, the same old same old." He said and I nodded. "When did we drift apart?"

"When Archie became your top priority." I said and he looked at me sadly. "Don't take it personally, it's true. Archie became a bit more important than me, it happened with mom too. She paid a bit more attention to him until she noticed that I had fallen a bit behind."

"Are you mad about it?"

"No, I have absolutely no reason to be. I got closer to mom, she left, took me with her, and then dumped me back here because I couldn't shut the two of you out." I said before taking a bite of the steak that he'd cut for me. "God, I'm a sophomore in high school that has her father cut her steak into tiny pieces like a child."

"Hey, it makes me feel like you haven't completely grown up." He said and I played with the gravy before picking out the broccoli. "I mean, you're not the little girl who was nearly too small to play outside with her brother. The little girl who'd pretend to be Jughead's wife and get upset whenever Archie told you to stay home because that's what girls do."

"Hey, there was no room for sexism in my games." I said and he laughed. "I mean, I'm still kind of the awkward kid that wasn't sure of their movements. Vixens practice made that clear today. Although I wouldn't be surprised if Cheryl offered to help me with it."

"She always did like you better, maybe she saw herself in you." He said and I bit back my comment about how I'd seen her in me too.