Out of His League → Reggie Mantle [1]

eleven

OUT OF HIS LEAGUE

【CHAPTER ELEVEN】
【CRASH AND BURN】

Maybe hopping a bus with Jughead and Betty to a home for "troubled youths" wasn't the greatest idea. But it did being the trio closer to finding out what really happened to Jason.

Deciding school could wait, Betty had suggested that the trio went to this place that Mara had never heard of. Betty had made a point about how the day was just getting ready for the Variety Show, which had been the point to win Mara over.

On the way to said place, Mara teased Jughead and Betty for liking each other, which they both denied with blushing faces. Mara knew better, as almost everyone did.

They weren't too obvious, but it was just enough to be known.

—

Jughead and Mara stood by Betty, watching her look up at the building with sadness and fear.

"Hey," Jughead spoke up. "Don't judge a home for troubled youths by it's facade, right?"

Mara hid a snort as Betty Cooper reached up to tighten her ponytail by separating her hair into two parts and pulling them both in the opposite direction. Betty began to march in, Jughead and Mara following suit.

Once they got inside, Mara nearly screamed. It looked like a haunted library and Mara hated libraries, though she didn't mind the haunted part.

She followed Jughead to the front desk, where Betty was already working.

"Hi. My name is Elizabeth Cooper," Betty said, sounding confident. "I'm here to see my sister, Polly."

The elderly woman glanced at the three teenagers hard, immediately looking untrustworthy.

"May I see some identification?"

Betty pulled out her card, sliding it over to the woman. Betty looked pleased with herself, and smiled at Mara when the elderly woman slid back Betty her card. She slid another thing with Betty's card — a clipboard with a pen.

"Sign in here please." The elderly woman looked suspiciously at Jughead and Mara, adding, "They'll have to wait."

Betty nodded at the pair behind her, sliding the clipboard back after signing her name.

"Good luck," Mara whispered, smiling softly. She squeezed Betty's hand as she passed by in support, watching Jughead watch her.

As soon as Betty was gone, Mara smirked at Jughead. "I know you like her."

Jughead groaned, the palm of his hand slapping his forehead. Mara cackled as Jughead tried to deny his supposed feelings for the girl that is Betty Cooper.

—

They were caught.

The Sisters apparently forgot to mention that they notify Mrs. Cooper if Polly gets a visitor. How convenient for them.

Following in suit behind Mrs. Cooper, Betty, a whole wall of security guards (only three but they were big enough to create one), and Jughead, Mara couldn't wait to gett out of the depressing dollhouse this home for troubled youths was.

It was creepy, this place. Mara could practically see the cobwebs and the maggots falling off rhe ceiking, just like in Suspiria, the 1977 horror movie. Where was the room filled with barbed wire? The creepy dead witch body?

One can never know with creepy houses like these.

Mara noticed Betty kept catching glances at Jughead, which made Mara extremely happy.

Sure, Mara has had problems with Betty before. But that could not and would not stop Mara from shipping Betty and Jughead together.

They ran into Polly, who looked back at Mrs. Cooper with so much anger that it scared Mara. And she slept with a Chucky doll when she was growing up.

"Mom?"

"Polly," Mrs. Cooper said, shocked.

Polly didn't even try small talk and easing her way to the discussion. "Jason's dead? And you didn't tell me?" Polly cried, heartbroken. "And you kept me in here?"

Two men in white had come running towards the group as soon as they heard Polly distressed.

"Baby, it's for your own good," Mrs. Cooper tried to reason, but looked heartbroken. It made Mara think that maybe Mrs. Cooper didn't want her daughter at a home.

"Ugh! You always say that," Polly yelled angrily. "And it's not true!"

As the men tried to pull a resisting Polly away, Polly reached for Betty screaming her name. Betty lunged forward with a teary eyed Mrs. Cooper trying to pull Betty back.

Jughead also tried to leap forward but the wall of security guards prevented him from doing so.

Betty held Polly in an embrace, the sisters refusing to let go of each other.

"I'm gonna get you out of here," Betty promised. "I swear to God.

"I love you Polly."

Polly looked absolutely crushed as Betty let her sister go, screaming for Polly as she was taken back to her room.

Everyone stood in silence.

It didn't take long for Mrs. Cooper to drive all of them home. Mara was the first to be dropped off, and did Mrs. Cooper get her in trouble with her parents.

Mara was not able to leave the house for the rest of the night as punishment for skipping school. And though Betty and Jughead went to go find this car Polly had talked about, Betty had her on the phone the whole time.

And the car was a crime scene, in the words of Jughead Jones. And it only brought more questions to Mara's attention.

The main one being why Jason had drugs in the first place.

Polly maybe could've answered her question. But Polly Cooper had escaped from the Sisters, leaving only a broken window and some blood behind.

And more questions.

WORD COUNT: 1002 words

AUTHORS NOTE:
hey i updated on time for once can i get some applause??
this chapter was vvvv short im so sorry. there wasn't as much dialogue with the scene where Juggy and Betty found the car and i currently am tired so i didn't have the energy to be creative so i just made her parents angry with her. best way to go i guess
also, i have a MEET MY OCs book up and Mara is in the book so go check it out??