Blood of My Blood, Flesh of My Flesh (Bughead)

3. The Passenger

The song for this chapter is The Passenger by Hunter as a Horse. It's the song that plays at the end of the first episode, first season, when Jason's body is found. It's also the song that, if I had not heard it, well...there'd be no story, since the whole idea came from this song. So, do yourself a favor and at least go look up the lyrics, because you'll find many direct parallels this chapter to the lyrics!

Betty, by the end of the week, felt bad about the purse. Or, she was fairly sure that the purse had been her fault, even if she wasn't entirely sure how it was done. It's not like Veronica knew, and Betty wasn't offering up her apologies and taking claim, but she still felt bad that she'd ruined it, especially knowing that for a girl like Veronica, a purse like that was likely a thousand dollars, or something. However, on the flip side, Betty figured that wasn't the only expensive purse Veronica owned.

Still.

However, Veronica was still defying all of Betty's expectations. Despite the way that Veronica's eyes roved over Archie, she was still going out of her way to help Betty snag him. She didn't seem like that sort of girl at all, but she was trying extremely hard to be a likable person. Well, as likable as a New York City girl could be, that is. She, any time they were together, was nudging Archie towards Betty and sending Betty wide grins and covert thumbs up, or sending her emojis telling her to get on it and ask Archie to the upcoming dance, which shockingly had not been cancelled.

Betty just couldn't hate her, despite the feeling in her stomach that told Betty she might be smart to do so. Betty chalked it up to not taking her medication and began to smile around Veronica, just a little.

The other thing that her lack of medication was doing (or, so she explained to herself), which she'd been pretending to take the whole week, was making her jump to do things she wouldn't have normally done. Like Veronica talk her into tryouts for the Cheerleading squad.

If she had thought Veronica was bad, then that must have made Cheryl the devil herself. Cheryl had perhaps never had a kind word for Betty in her life, and even with her brother dead and declared missing, she hadn't softened one bit. Betty felt bad about the situation but held no lost feelings toward Cheryl specifically.

Last year's tryouts had been horrendous. She'd recalled that she had came home crying and hid from her mother, who had told her cheerleading wasn't for her anyway. Polly had snuck the carton of ice cream up to her room and the pair of them had watched Gilmore Girl reruns until Betty had stopped sobbing. Cheryl had not so sneakily tripped Betty on her last spin and she'd nosedived into the floorboards, breaking her nose and had gone running to the bathroom to stop the bleeding, but her nose had been out of shape and bruised for weeks, which had just added insult to injury.

She didn't know why she was returning to this event, the event that had made Betty self-conscious and quiet the entire year, but somehow Veronica had talked her into it. She was just such a headstrong person, someone Betty found it hard to say no to.

And so here she was, under the fluorescent lights of the gym, running through the cheer routine that Veronica had told her was 'impossible to ignore'.

And Cheryl did not look impressed.

Betty found herself caring little, however. As soon as she started moving, the groaning and shifting in her bones had paused, at least for now. She'd felt more grounded, whereas the rest of the day she'd felt like she was going to be lifted away at any second. She had a better hold on things. She didn't know if it was dancing, if it was doing something that probably would lead to disappointment and doing it anyway, or choosing to be Veronica's friend but whatever it was, she felt herself liking it.

"Hmm, ladies, where's the heat? Where's the sizzle?" Cheryl is looking underneath her nails.

"Well, you haven't seen our big finish," She says matter-o-factory, and turning to Betty, "Don't freak out." Which is exactly what you say to someone when they probably should be freaking out.