A Falice Story

27. The Lost Returns

Morning of the First Day of School

"Did our power go out last night?" FP asks upon waking up, realizing that his phone never charged during the night. I roll over groaning, "What time is it?" 

"Almost 7," he replies, trying to turn on the light with no luck, "What the hell...?" he mutters, getting out of bed. I slowly sit up, stretching, "Go check the breaker I guess--" He's about to leave the room when we hear pounding at our door, "MOM!!" 

He opens it, revealing a very angry looking Betty, still wearing her fuzzy pink robe, "There's no power! How am I supposed to get ready for school?!" I get out of bed throwing my robe on over my nightgown, "FP's going to check the breaker, but we have no idea why we lost power honey."

She throws herself on my bed, groaning in annoyance. Jellybean wanders in still in pajamas and flops down next to Betty, "Alice, I have to straighten my hair--I can't start sixth grade with this mess!" she holds up a few tangled strands to emphasize her point. I crawl over next to them, "Girls, calm down, we'll get it figured out." 

"Well, I tried the breaker but nothing happened, so it's not just a quick fix," FP announces as he comes back upstairs. "How are we going to get ready for school?" Jellybean asks, panicked. "It's the first day of junior year, I don't want to go looking like this--" Betty whines.

"Ask Veronica if you can get ready at the Pembrooke," I tell the girls. Betty gets up to retrieve her phone and Jellybean follows her out. "This is the shitty part about not living right next door to Fred," FP comments, quickly throwing on work clothes.

"We need a ride to Veronica's!" Betty shouts from the hallway. "I'll bring them," FP tells me kissing my cheek. He goes into the hallway, meeting Betty and Jellybean, "Where's Jug?" They both shrug and FP pounds on his son's door, "Boy! Wake up! First day of school!" 

Jughead opens the door, his eyes still shut. He has a horrible case of bedhead and he squints his eyes, "What's going on?" he asks sleepily. Betty crosses her arms, "We don't have any power, so now we're going to Veronica's to get ready for school!" 

He rolls his eyes, "What'd you wake me up for? I don't need power to get ready," Jughead argues. "That's disgusting," Jellybean comments. "Come on, Jug. Your dad is dropping us off before he goes to work," Betty says, "Now hurry up!" He throws his arms up in defeat, "Ughh fine! I'll be down in two minutes." 

"He's so weird. Remind me again why you're dating him?" Jellybean asks Betty and they both laugh as they walk downstairs. FP chuckles at his daughter's comment and wraps his arms around my waist, giving me a goodbye kiss, "I hate running off and leaving you with this, but you'll have to call an electrician to come over and check it out." I nod, "Not a problem, I'll call right away." 

He pecks one last kiss against my lips as Jughead comes down the stairs, "Alright, alright. I'm here--being drug out of my bed for no good reason..." he pouts. "Bye kids! Have a great first day of school!" They wave, Jughead still lagging behind. 

I close the door and head into the kitchen to look up the number for the electric company. 

Everything was about to change.

************

The chime of the doorbell rings in my ears. I open the door and standing in front of me is a handsome young man, I'd say in his twenties, with shaggy dark blonde hair and bright blue eyes. He offers a warm smile, "Hi, is this the Jones residence? I was told your power is out?" 

I nod, "Yes, we uh, for some reason we don't have power," I can't help but stare at him. He just looks so familiar. He nods, "Okay, well I'll check it out for you." I smile and thank him, watching him walk to the company van to get tools.