Beronica Oneshots

Long and Lustrous Winter

It's a normal, average, everyday sort of day at Riverdale High.

Betty gets up bright and early as usual, does her simple makeup, fixes her ponytail, goes to school. English, math, lunch, geography, and gym. During English class Veronica passes her a note – date with Archie tonight, new blue dress or green one? Betty writes back – green looks so nice on you. At lunch, Jughead steals her sandwich while she chats with Midge. She gets an A on her geography pop quiz. Reggie tries to sabotage Archie and Veronica's date plans with some harebrained scheme while the girls are running laps for gym.

After school, Archie cancels their band practice – he has to go fix his jalopy before his date. Betty lends him a hand and gets a grease stain on her favorite brown blouse that she doesn't think will ever come out. She goes home, eats dinner with her parents, helps her mom with the dishes, does her homework, reads a book, and goes to bed.

She doesn't think too hard about the parts of the day that upset her – Veronica's indifference to how she'd feel about her going on a date with Archie, Archie canceling practice, Archie using her as free labor – it's just part of what every day is like at Riverdale High when you're Betty Cooper. And, she thinks, as she snuggles under her covers, tomorrow's another day, and it'll probably be different, and it'll probably be better. It sort of has to be, right?

Betty Cooper's morning routine is so entrenched that she's halfway to school before she realizes she's picked the same blouse to wear to school two days in a row. It's her favorite, and was right there in the front of her closet, so naturally, she put it on.

She's on the school steps when she remembers the grease stain.

She's being passed a note from Veronica when she realizes something is seriously, seriously wrong.

"Dilton," she says, cautiously, as they sit down at their desks for math class, "do you notice anything strange about today?"

"There's something strange about every day," Dilton replies. "Every day we're one day closer to the sun going supernova. Every day the polar icecaps are melting just a little bit more. Every day –"

"Gloomy, much?" Veronica says, butting in. "Hey, Betty, do you think I should wear my black or white pearls tonight?"

"Black," Betty says, and turns her attention to the teacher. She really gets the lesson today – the algebra had been a bit complicated last time. This time. Oh dear.

She tries to probe Midge at lunch, but Midge hasn't noticed a thing. Jughead steals her sandwich again. She thinks that's pretty unfair.

She gets an A+ on the pop quiz this time.

Everyone else in the class is groaning over the test, but she's pretty excited.

Reggie's scheme fails and he ends up in detention. Archie cancels practice. Betty helps him fix his jalopy. She gets grease on her shirt again.

She goes home, eats dinner with her parents, helps her mom with the dishes, does her homework, reads a book, and goes to bed.

A little bit better, she guesses, than last time. Just a little. She's probably just dreaming, anyway. After all, a lot of wacky stuff goes on around Riverdale High, but this one is just a bit too bizarre to be believed. She goes to sleep expecting to wake up.

The blouse is in her closet again the next morning, with no grease stain in sight.

Betty thinks it over as she walks to school. She runs into Dilton in the front hall and asks him his opinion on the possibility of time repeating itself.

As she hurries to make it to class after his long, detailed explanation, she realizes she's come to accept that she's in a time loop, as he put it. Unfortunately, even Dilton's giant brain doesn't know how to break it.