Snakes and Ladders - Falice

Oh No

  Don't do love, don't do friends. I'm only after success.

  жжж  

            The Cooper family drama continued with every passing day. Betty was made to feel sick as her parents continuously thrived off of the Jason Blossom story in order to help their newspaper flourish. She didn't know what exactly Jason had done to Polly to make Alice and Hal hate him so, but it must have been tremendous if they could tell his tragic story with a smile on their faces.

I just want to make a change, I just want to change.

"Hey, honey." Hal had said as he and Alice entered Betty's room to find her writing in her diary as she so often did when there were events to be recounted. "We just wanted you to know it's going to be a bit of a late night for us." As he spoke, Betty stared at her mother. She didn't know what it was about her, but she just never seemed to have a genuinely convincing look on her face no matter how hard she tried.

"It's going to be a lot of late nights for us." Alice corrected with a grin, leaning on Betty's chair and putting a hand on her hip. "I mean, an accidental drowning, who cares? But the sociopathic son of the wealthiest family in town murdered? That's a national obsession waiting to happen." Betty's face twisted into a grimace as her mother almost sounded pleased.

Even Hal became rather sick to his stomach. "He's barely in his grace, Alice."

"Can you warm up the car, Hal?" She cut him off abruptly without even glancing his way. "I'll be right down." And then the sickeningly counterfeit smile was back on her face even through her sharp words with her cowardly husband as she moved towards her daughter.

"Betty," she began with a warm smile that almost seemed true. "you know what I love most about you?" She sat down beside her, "It's that you always want to see the good in people." So had she at that age, and that was perhaps her first mistake. "Even people like Cheryl Blossom and Veronica Lodge and Archie Andrews." Betty braced herself, there had to be more to her mother's comments. "But, when they betrayed you this weekend, you saw their true colours, didn't you?"

"I did. I definitely did." Alice could have sighed a breath of relief upon Betty's answer.

"So no backsliding. No Cheryl, no Veronica, and –"

"No Archie." Betty finished for her, evoking a smile from her satisfied mother.

Alice had filled Betty's head with all kinds of unforgiving nonsense that would hopefully provoke the young girl to stay away from the redheaded boy next door. Unfortunately for Alice, she had raised a smart daughter. Betty wasn't blind, she knew that her mother was all about manipulation in order to get what she wants. But they didn't want the same things, that was clear. So, Betty marched straight to Archie's house. If he didn't have feelings for her, she would eventually get over it, she knew that. But to lose him as a friend? To have him gone from her life forever? That was something that she would settle for.

I know exactly what I want and who I want to be.

Meanwhile, while her daughter was off at school, doing exactly what her mother had told her not to by forgiving all those who had wrong her, Alice found herself in a dimly-lit autopsy laboratory that stunk of sanitizing alcohol. The Jason Blossom Saga continued as her thirst for revenge only intensified. She felt no remorse, staring at Jason's deceased body. She wasn't there to pay her respects, she was there because she had connections. An envelope of cash handed to the medical examiner under the table was all that it would take to get just enough information for her story. She'd always loved a good mystery.