How it Began

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Who would've thought that Fred Andrew's 43rd birthday bash would be the thing to bring them all together again? That's exactly what did it.

The rest of the guests have cleared out by now and it's just them and their respective children.

Hal Cooper sits beside his wife on the couch, not noticing how her and FP are making eyes at each other from across the room. Mary sits beside them. FP sits in the chair across from Alice. Fred takes the one beside him. Hermione and Hiram take the loveseat.

It's as if the last 20 years never happened, the conversation flows smoothly between the 7 of them. They talk about getting older and how funny it is that all of their children are friends just like they were all those years ago.

"How's 43 feel, Fred?" FP asks, patting Fred on the shoulder with a taunting smile.

"Feels just as good as 42."

"Getting up there, aren't ya?"

"You'll be 43 next month, FP, I wouldn't go taunting Fred about his age just yet." Alice says and FP smirks. She still remembers his birthday after all these years.

"And you're only a few months behind me." 3 months and 4 days to be exact but he leaves that part out. He remembers everything about her too. "We're all getting up there, aren't we?"

"Part of life I guess. Some of us look better than others though." Hiram says.

"Still as cocky as ever, Hiram." Alice mutters.

"Still as sassy as ever, Acid Queen Alice." Hiram quips. Alice narrows her eyes at his use of the nickname he gave her in high school.

She opens her mouth to say something but Hermione interjects. "Alright you two."

Alice slumps back against the couch, Hiram has always gotten on her nerves. Maybe it's because he's the reason Hermione broke her best friends heart. Alice and Fred may not be best friends like they were back then but she still does care for him deep down, she cares about all of them deep down, and she knows that seeing Hermione with Hiram still hurts him.

Hal pats her knee and she smiles softly at him. FP watches them with gritted teeth, wanting to be the one sitting next to her, touching her.

"Anybody want anything to drink? Coffee? Tea? There's leftover cake too-" Mary starts but is interrupted by the sound of the kids all hollering their respective parents names.

"Mom!" Betty yells as she runs downstairs. Archie follows right behind her, Jughead and Veronica hot on their heels.

"Dad! How come you never told me all of you were friends in high school?" Archie asks when the kids all burst into the living room.

"What?" Fred asks, confused as to how Archie even knows now.

"We found your yearbook in the attic when we were looking for a game!" Archie explains, gesturing to the yearbook in his hands.

"God, I haven't seen that in years." Fred takes the yearbook from Archie and opens it up.

He sees the graduating class of his senior year. He sees Hermione and he's flooded with the memories of their past relationship.

"Mom, your hair!" Betty says, laughing as she looks at Alice's yearbook picture.

"Let me see." Alice walks over and stands behind Fred's chair, resting her hand nonchalantly on FP's shoulder when he leans over to look as well. "Oh my." She says, laughing as well once she sees the hairstyle she was sporting.

"What were you thinking?"

"It was 1992, it was in at the time. Don't worry I only wore it like that the one time."

"Yeah, thanks to my brutal honesty." Hermione speaks.

Fred flips the pages and lands on the sports page. "Oh my god, mom! You were a cheerleader?" Veronica exclaims.

"And dad you were on the football team?" Jughead seems shocked by the revelation.

"Fred and I both were." FP says.

"I was actually head cheerleader." Hermione says, causing Veronica to smile.

"I hope I'm head cheerleader someday."

"I'm sure you will be mija." Hiram says.

"Mom, were you ever a cheerleader?" Betty asks and FP laughs. "What? What's so funny?"

"Your mom hated the cheerleaders, she would make fun of them from the bleachers."

"Mom! That's terrible." Betty exclaims and Alice rolls her eyes in response. Did she expect her to be nice in high school? She's not even very nice to people now.

Fred flips the next page and what she sees causes her and FP's eyes to widen and their mouths drop a little.

It's a picture of Alice and FP when they were in high school. She remembers that day all to well. The football team had just won the championship game thanks to FP getting a touchdown in the final minutes. She had ran up to him on the field and he lifted her up as she gave him a congratulatory kiss.

"Mom is that you?" Betty asks, moving closer to get a better look. Alice digs her nails into FP's shoulder as Betty examines the photo.

Fred slams the yearbook shut before anyone can ask anymore questions.

"Dad!" Archie exclaims. "We wanted to look at the pictures of all of you guys."

"Archie-"

"Will you tell us the story?" Jughead asks. "Of how you were all friends?" The kids all nod in agreement, eager to hear the story.

The adults all looks around at each other, sharing a nervous look...

A/N
I got this idea from a one shot request and a book on Ao3 that I'm in love with. Plus there's seriously not enough parentdale books and I've been wanting to write one for a while.
I hope you guys enjoy this, let me know what you think!