A Touch Of Colour

Projects

Next morning, Betty texted Archie asking if he and Kevin would come over for breakfast. Alice was making pancakes and had some left over.

"Do you want to?" Archie said, showing Kevin his phone screen.

"If you do," Kevin replied.

"Sure. Oh, should we tell them?"

"Tell them...?" Kevin raised his eyebrows in confusion.

"That we're soulmates."

"I don't mind, that's up to you, I mean, you were dating Veronica and you've been best friends with Betty your whole life, that's your decision to make," Kevin said.

"I think we should wait," Archie sighed. "They've got so much going on, I don't think we should just spring this on them."

"Yeah, that makes sense. Let's wait until we have things figured out."

"I like that."

Archie knocked on the red door of the Cooper house, and seconds later, Betty swung the door open.

He knew nothing was different about her, but in Archie's new eyes, the girl who had grown up with Archie looked like a whole new person. His mind wandered to Veronica, and what she might look like painted in colour.

"Archie, Kevin, come in. There's a few pancakes left, we were hungry." Betty smiled.

Alice, Polly, and Veronica were sat around the table, and Archie, Kevin and Betty filled the remaining seats.

"Help yourselves, boys. The rest of us have had plenty, so don't worry about saving us some." Alice smiled.

A buzz on the table, the source Veronica's phone.

"Third time this morning," she sighed, declining the call and setting here phone back on the table.

"Who's that?" Archie asked, eyes shifting from the pancake he was transferring to his plate to Veronica.

"My mom. She won't stop calling me. I guess she thought I'd be back home by now. She doesn't realise that I'm not coming home. As long as I'm not a burden to you, Mrs. Cooper. I don't want to see her any time soon."

"Veronica, call me back. I know you're mad at me for being unaccepting or whatever, but mija, I need you to come home, now"

Veronica listened through the voicemails her mother had left her after breakfast, letting the other three listen in.

"Veronica. I don't have time for your silly games. Call me back, it's important."

"But you couldn't be there for me in the most important part of my life? Yeah, okay mom." Veronica said to the phone.

"Veronica Cecilia Lodge, call me back right now. You need to come home. We can sort out this petty feud later, there are more important matters to focus on right now."

"V, I think you should at least see what's so important." Betty wrapped Veronica's free hand in hers. "It'll get her off your back, at least."

"I don't think so, Betty. I don't want anything to do with her," Veronica pouted.

"You're going to have to face her eventually," Kevin reminded.

"And we can cross that damn bridge when we get to it."

"Dad, I'm going to drop Kevin back home, be back soon," Archie called from the doorway. Fred yelled back an 'okay' so Archie was sure he heard him. He shut the door behind Kevin, who had been upstairs gathering his things—his clothes and his phone charger (he keeps one with him at all times, in case of emergencies). He was wearing a shirt of Archie's, a pair of Archie's jeans, and his letterman jacket.

"My dad keeps hounding me to get a license, since I'm old enough now, but I'm not sure, driving seems so... complicated. I've tried a few times, but never really gotten the hang of it," Kevin explained.

"It gets easier with time," Archie smiled. "You get used to it after practice."

"Are you the only one with a license around here? You're always chaperoning Betty Veronica and I."

"Betty's mom's too paranoid to let her drive after her dad died 8 years ago in an accident. Even Alice is hesitant to drive, but she's got to get around somewhere. Polly isn't a fan of Alice's precautions, but Betty agrees with her mom. Well, to an extent," Archie said.

"Betty's dad died? Jeez, I really need to learn more about you people."

"Well, we have all the time in the world." Archie looked over at Kevin briefly and smiled. Kevin smiled back, butterflies in his stomach resurfacing for the hundredth time that day.

At school the next day, their English teacher decided to pair them all up randomly for a writing project.

"You're going to be writing a short story. Actually, let me rephrase. You're going to be co writing a short story. I would let you pick your own partners, but in my experience, that almost never goes well. So, I'll hand you all a piece of paper for you to write your names on, and then you can fold them, and put them in..." She shuffled things around on her desk. "Put them in this jar." She held up a jar, which she spilled the contents of onto her desk.

The students obeyed, writing their names on the paper their teacher had ripped from a random notebook, and put them into the jar at the front of the room.

"Okay, we'll go from the front of the room to the back. Reggie, you first."

Reggie Mantle stood from his desk and walked over to the jar. He picked out one of the papers at random, and unfolded it.

"Who'd you get?" the teacher asked.

"Josie. McCoy," Reggie held out the paper. Josie walked over to Reggie's desk and pulled a chair over.

"Toni, you next." Toni pulled out a name.

"Cheryl Blossom," Toni called, looking around the room. Cheryl stood, smiling, and walked over to Toni's desk.

A few more names were called, until they got to Betty, who was paired with Sweet Pea. Archie was paired with Fangs. Kevin was paired with Ethel. Veronica with Moose.

"Your short story has to be around... let's say, three thousand words."

A collective moan around the room.

"Two and a half," the teacher sighed. The class still groaned, but less. "I'm not budging from that. You can pick any topic, it can be handwritten or typed, I don't mind. Your deadline is one month from now.