Preparation for the SATs comes with two realizations for Betty:
The first one is plain and simple: She's got this.
Her years and years of carefully written flash cards, afternoons spent studying for various tests and trying to stay on top of all her assignments are finally paying off. She already knows or at least has heard about most of the things she has to study, and it makes her life so much easier not having to sort through millions of book pages for the right interpretation of a poem or watching 15 different YouTube tutorials on how to solve a complicated math problem. She just knows what to do. Despite all the tricks her brain plays on her sometimes, it works perfectly for academic purposes and that does wonders to her self-esteem.
The fact that she also completely stopped trying to satisfy her mother's impossible standards after the stunt she pulled with the Sisters of Quiet Mercy, gives her even more peace of mind. She is doing this for herself now. For her future. This is entirely, 100 % only about Betty Cooper for once and she doesn't feel an ounce of guilt about it.
The second realization has nothing to do with academics and only purely with the leather jacket clad and beanie wearing boy, that just walked into her room, greeted her with a soft: "Hey babe", a short peck and had then continued to drop onto her bed unceremoniously, like he'd always lived here.
"In a way he has" she thinks.
After all, Jughead has always been around, it just took her a while to recognize him. Truly recognize him. She'd given up feeling guilty about that too, though. They have each other now and that is everything that matters.
And that is what her second realization consists of: Although studying with Jughead is mildly distracting, they are not the kind of teenage couple cliché that does everything but studying during their study dates. On the contrary, going over her notes, while he has his back propped up against the back of her bed and she is snuggled comfortably against him, provides her with a feeling of giddiness and warmth, that makes her heart beat a little faster just thinking about it.
She watches as he leans back and props himself up onto his arms, nodding towards the flash cards she'd been writing on when he entered the room: "What are you prepping for?"
"English lit." Betty sighs and looks down at the flash cards again. "You know, the four moods and stuff."
Jughead scrunches his nose and scoffs: "Urgh, don't remind me, that bullshit is fucking complicated. Why couldn't these people just write prose like any normal human being?"
Betty smiles a little at that. He might be a writer alright, but he's never really had a sense for poetry. Jughead writes to cope with the things that happen around him, to make sense of the world around him. And Riverdale is not the place for paragraphs and paragraphs of flowery descriptions of love and the beauty of nature. Sure, there are darker poems that probably would fit their little town better, but it's still not his style.
"What did you bring?" Betty asks, while she saunters over, and sits down next to him.
"American history." he answers and pulls the text book out of his messenger back. It has various markers sticking out on top and Betty can't help but feel a little proud at the fact that he apparently copied her system of marking the different chapters.
Blue is for the Civil War, yellow for the chapters about important presidents, green for the Civil Rights Movement, orange for just general developments that happened throughout the centuries, like the foundations of cities or the invention of important gadgets.
"Wow, that's a lot of order in your studying, Jones" she says, and he laughs, turning towards her with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
"That's your bad influence, Cooper. And please don't start getting sassy, because that usually makes me want to kiss you senseless and we really don't have time for that."
Betty chuckles and gets back to her flash cards, leaving him sitting on the bed. They work on in a comfortable silence. Every now and then Betty steals a glance over at Jughead. How half way through, his beanie comes off and he starts running his hands through his hair. Or the way his facial expression changes, when he is totally focused on something, and then turns into an eyeroll a second later, when he gets to a chapter that doesn't fit with his believe system at all. Through all of it, he stays focused though, his attention not wavering too much from the book in his lap.
She is not going to lie, it does something to her. The fact that he takes this as seriously as she does, the fact that he too, wants to be good at this. Wants to make a decent score, so they can get to a good college and as far away from this hell hole of a town as possible. The fact that he also wants a better future for himself.
After another while he lets out a satisfied sigh and she hears his text book closing. Not long after that, she feels his hands on her shoulder, his fingers gently digging into the knots that have formed there over the last hours. She leans into his touch and closes her eyes.
"How much do you have left?" Jughead asks.
"Actually, I'm done, I was just going over them again." Betty admits and he chuckles.
His hands still and he leans forward, planting his chin on her shoulder.
"I'll never get how you do that." he murmurs. "I barley made it through the stuff I wanted to study today before the letters started dancing in front of my eyes and you manage to put in at least twice the effort."
"Nah, I think we are both doing pretty good with this. I mean, it is important, after all."
"Hmm." Jughead hums in response. "But to be honest, anything that helps us get out of this stupid town and build our future together is worth the effort."
"Our future." Betty's breath hitches a little at those words and she knows that he notices. He always does. His hands grip the back of her office chair and he spins her around slowly, crouching down in front of her and taking one of her hands in his.
"What is it baby?" he asks, looking up at her with a mix of concern and adoration that takes her breath away.
It hits her right then and there. She'd expected those two words, "our future" would make her freak out, would spike her anxiety. But they don't. Not at all. No alarm bell rings, nothing makes her bite her lip anxiously or dig her nails into her palms. On the contrary. Just like studying with him, thinking about having a future with him makes her oddly calm. It feels save. And if she is being honest, no matter what she pictures for herself in the years to come, Jughead is always right there beside her. In every single vision she has for herself. She slowly retreats her hand and instead cups his face with it.
"Nothing." she mumbles. "I just... 'our future'. I like the ring that has to it."
He smiles, that warm, bright smile he only reserves for her.
"So, you are not planning on getting rid of me once you are a badass journalist, uncovering major government fuck-ups?"
Betty scoffs at that and swats his shoulder.
"Of course not. You are not getting rid of me that easily Jughead Jones."
"Good." he answers, stands up and pulls her flush against him. "You wouldn't mind if I stayed here tonight then, right?"
"Not in the slightest."
