It's a sunny day at Riverdale High, with the cheerleaders and football team outside for practice due to the nice weather.
It's the middle of cheer practice and time for the vixens to practice their lifts. This will be the first time in their new formation on the grass, and Betty is excited as she is going to be the flyer in this one. She is going up.
Veronica sees her excitement and comes up to her for the water break before they do their first attempt.
"Remember to breathe when you are up there, B," she says, laying a comforting hand on her shoulder. Betty nods, and Veronica continues, "It'll be me and Tia lifting you so you're in good hands," she smiles, and Betty exhales.
"I've got it," Betty says before pivoting back to their patch of grass to practice.
Betty hasn't noticed, but Jughead has been watching from the side of the stands, leaning up against the metal bars. He watches as they go through 3 practices of the lift successfully, then hears Cheryl yell out for them to turn it into an extension, whatever that means.
Betty nods at Cheryl's request, knowing this means she will be going up higher than before, with Veronica and Tia extending their arms this time.
Betty sets up in between the two girls, Veronica on her left and Tia on her right. She lays her hands on their shoulders and both of their faces have unwavering focus so she takes a deep breath. Cheryl makes the call and she steps in, then in two counts she is up higher, but it's uneven.
Her side is falling as Tia hasn't extended her arms all the way, so her left knee buckles and Veronica prepares to catch her. Tia has backed up to avoid the fall, and their third wasn't close enough to save her right side from the fall. Her right foot tries to steady her on the ground fails, and pain shoots up her leg, radiating from her ankle.
For Jughead all of this happens in slow motion, and before he know it he is by Betty's side, taking over as Veronica rips Tia a new one for bailing during the catch.
"Jughead?" Betty says with a face of confusion, before it contorts once again into one of pain.
He takes his arm that isn't currently supporting her shoulders and pushes gently behind her knees. She takes the signal that she is being picked up and loops her arms around his neck as he lifts her. She hears Cheryl snapping at the other girls to get back to practice before she hears Jughead's response.
"I was around, if that's what you were wondering," he says, bringing her to the lowest seats in the bleachers, "what's more important is that this needs to be cleaned up, iced, wrapped-," Jughead goes on, and Betty has a realization.
"Oh god my mom can't find out," she cuts him off, looking at him with wide eyes, "if I go home..." she trails off, because Jughead doesn't need to know her problems.
Jughead has taken off her shoes and started to pick off the blades of grass, "what is it?" he asks, genuinely concerned.
Betty takes a breath and looks out to her team, where Cheryl is no doubt telling them to get back to work, it's the middle of practice anyways, and answers Jughead, "it's just," she sighs and looks at her ankle, already starting to swell, "she was so mad when I joined, now she'll think I'm just reckless now," she pinches her eyes shut, and Jughead's movements stop.
"Well," Jughead stands, "you can't go far and I don't have a car," he looks away, thinking, "we have the keys to the Blue and Gold office," he says, looking at her with a grin, "and there is a first aid kit in there," he adds, leaning down to wipe away the one tear that fought its way out.
"Sounds like a plan," Betty says, standing on her good foot and letting Jughead take her weight.
"If we're lucky we won't need to amputate," Jughead jokes, "'tis but a flesh wound."
Betty laughs, making Jughead smile.
They make their way slowly inside the school, and are walking down the hallway when Betty brings it up again.
"So you just happened to fly onto the scene when I got hurt," Betty states, looking over to the teen supporting her.
Jughead makes a face and tries to make words before getting out, "well I was watching the teams for an article," he says wincing when it doesn't come out at convincing as he wanted, "how's your ankle?" he asks, deflecting.
Betty opens her mouth to answer then shuts it, knowing what Jughead is trying to do, "you can show me the article then," she says, "we are going to the Blue and Gold after all," and Jughead knows he is caught.
Betty smiles as she sees the blush rise in Jughead's cheeks. He turns to her and sees her smiling, and mirrors with his small side smile, which causes Betty to look down as she feels the heat rising in her own cheeks.
"Ankle feels fine," she says to change the conversation, and Jughead let's out a small laugh.
They take a few more strides, "Here we are," Jughead announces, leading Betty inside the school newspaper office.
He leads her to sit on a cleared desk and rolls over a chair in front of it, then goes to the first aid kit and picks it off the wall. When he turns around he looks at Betty seriously.
"With the whole 'mom seeing you as reckless thing'," he pauses, looking down at the kit, "I know you like to be seen as perfect," he says before he starts to walk over slowly, "but you should choose whose opinions matter to you," he arrives in front of her and sits down. He opens the box and starts taking out supplies, "your mom, no offense," he looks up to Betty for a second before focusing again on her injury, "is out of her damn mind if she doesn't see you as perfect," he begins wrapping her foot in a tensor bandage as she sits with this new information.
She feels a flutter in her chest and doesn't know what to say, and Jughead takes this as a bad thing.
"You obviously need to work on this bad ankle thing though," he says to cover up the feeling of rejection crawling up his throat.
Betty senses his apprehension and kicks her foot out, her bad foot by accident, and winces.
"You think I'm perfect?" she says quietly.
"Are you trying to hurt yourself!?" Jughead shouts at the same time, checking her foot closely until he feels Betty's hand on his shoulder.
"Juggie," she says and he finally looks up at her to see how happy she looks, "you think I'm perfect?"
Jughead gulps and finishes his wrap, then mumbles, "yeah," scratching the back of his neck. He attaches the clips to keep the wrap on, "there you go, Cinderella," he deadpans, looking straight at the foot, rolling away on his chair slightly.
"Thank you my prince," she says and Jughead looks up with a grin.
Betty hops onto her good foot then falls into Jughead's lap with a laugh as they roll with the added force. The move has brought their faces close.
"Well this is a way to get around," Jughead says, wrapping his arms around Betty so she doesn't fall.
Betty nods, distracted by the closeness between them, and Jughead tilts his head up to bring their lips together.
The kiss is short and innocent, just the right pressure of lips together until Betty leans out of it.
"Perfect,"she bugs Jughead and he rolls his eyes before she kisses him again.
