BENEATH THE SURFACE

Chapter 1: Buried Truths

Betty Cooper had to be quick if she didn't want to be seen. She was racing against the sun and the early risers who would soon exit their cookie cutter homes to head to work. She had to get this mud off of her. She needed to be clean.

Panting, she jogged towards her house, a place that hadn't felt safe since she received her first letter from the Black Hood. It was the only place she had to go, though. Nobody could know where she just was or what she was doing, especially not her friends. 

Betty ran up her steps and into the yard under the cover of a dim morning sky. Ducking as she passed the front windows, she went to the side of her house, opened up the faded wooden gate and entered the backyard. Grabbing the nozzle of her family's garden hose, she turned the tap on quiet enough so that no one would hear it. She slipped off her white converse runners and ran water over them, before taking the hose to her navy blue jeans that she had put on the day before. 

As Betty entered the house and slowly made her way up the stairs to her room, she checked the time. 6:29 a.m. She removed her wet clothes, threw them in the hamper, slipped into a baggy t-shirt and flopped down in her bed. Heart pumping nervously and eyes burning from another night of sleeplessness, Betty waited for the light to flick on in Archie's room the way it did every Monday morning as he rose for football practice. She too had to be in early to work on the Riverdale Blue and Gold.

Like clockwork, Archie's light lit up her room at the strike of half passed six and a text message came across the screen. 

Archie: Are we still walking together?

Betty rose up from her bed and put on her pale pink house coat, then stepped in front of the window. Archie appeared in the window frame, his eyes half shut with sleep, but a smile painted on his face. He waved at her.

Betty:  Yes. Give me fifteen minutes.

On a normal day, Betty would have been up for an hour already –she would have showered and ironed her clothes –but today wasn't like any other. She sprayed dry shampoo through her hair and combed it back into her signature ponytail. She spent little time on her makeup, as she preferred the natural look –a little mascara and some soft-pink lipgloss. She threw on a pair of white skinny jeans and a pale blue long-sleeved shirt with a white collar. She stepped into her black ballet flats and then ran down the stairs, books in hand.

"Elizabeth, where do you think you're going?" Alice yelled, halting Betty halfway out the front door.

Betty exhaled and rolled her eyes. She hadn't heard her nosey mother get up or she would have gone down the stairs quieter. "To work on the paper, like I do every Monday morning, Mom."

"Are you going to have breakfast before you go?" Alice said, delaying Betty as she tried to exit her house once more. She hated when her mother made her pretend that they were a functional family. It wasn't that she didn't love her parents, she just didn't see the need to upkeep an image.

"No. I don't have time," Betty said, eager to get out of the house.

She quickly slammed the crimson front door and jogged down the steps. On the sidewalk stood Archie, backpack resting over the shoulder of his blue and gold letterman jacket. It was a scene Betty was familiar with, but could never grow tired of. And for the first time in 24 hours, she felt safe.

"Morning," Archie said, the smile lines on his face growing and his eyes creasing in the pleasant way that they always do. 

They walked to school, side-by-side, shoulder bumping shoulder. For the first few minutes, Archie talked about how football was going, new songs he had been working on and how his dad was recovering from being shot by the Black Hood. Betty tried to pay attention the best she could, but her mind kept wandering back to what she had been doing earlier.