*Girl on Fire*
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Everyone knows who she is, where she’s from…
There isn’t a soul alive in their tiny town who hasn’t heard of the girl with the honey hair and fire eyes. She’s famous in her own right, a dangerous kind of fame littered with baggage and sacrifice, The kind of fame that covers magazines and graces television screens with pretty emerald eyes and bubblegum lips.
She’s the face of the Revolution, dimples on her cheeks and switchblades in her boots.
Betty Cooper, 16 years old and standing at 5 foot three inches had single handedly lead the Revolt to free her people from Hiram Lodges tyranny.
The world had fallen apart long before Jughead Jones was even a thought in the universe, The Lodge family had taken over the small town of Riverdale with a power so indestructible it had spread throughout the surrounding areas too fast to maintain.
Hiram Lodges great grandfather had divided cities, destroyed homes and families.. communities were ripped apart in favor of a hierarchy consisting of only the wealthiest class, the rest? Well the rest were left to burn.
That’s where that left him, Jughead Jones rode the poverty line, beat down trailers and jobless families.. struggling to find a meal and provide for his baby sister while his father drank away his workers pay and his mother ran off with the baker two towns over. Angry guards in black suits with heavy rifles clipped to their belts guarded the border, they didn’t let people like him through to the Northside.. he didn’t belong amongst the upper class with their thousand dollar dresses and indulgent meals left to be thrown in the trash.
He didn’t want to belong to those people.
And then there was Betty Cooper, born to a family just wealthy enough to make it on the Northside.. comfortable enough to be taken care of by the dictators that ruled over their land. Hal Cooper ran the newspaper and as long as Hiram Lodges face sat smiling on the front page every Sunday there would be coats on his families backs and food in their fridge. Jughead couldn’t blame the man, he had to provide just like himself but still.. watching Chic Cooper walk the streets holding hands with a pretty brunette, heavy letterman jacket on his back and a smile on his face… it made his stomach turn. But then.. the Coopers weren’t all they seemed..
He had known of Alice Cooper, the black hood they called her, blonde hair tucked behind a cape and garbage bags full of food and clothing in her grasp. She provided for the the Southside, gave school books to the younger children, medication to the pregnant women and older residents and fresh fruits and vegetables to families in desperate need. His father had referred to her as “The Riverdale Robin Hood.” It was illegal to help, a foolish rule made up by The Lodges to keep the divide strong and prominent. Alice Cooper was bold and brave to so blatantly break the rules, but of course no one would tell.
Rumor has it she was born to the Southside, raised amongst the dirt and metal only to find a way out when she grew up, it was a fairytale the younger Southsiders whispered in the junk yard.
Truthfully it shouldn’t have been a surprise, he should have known, they all should have.
Alice Coopers daughter was not like the rest.
She wasn’t well known, quiet and reserved unlike her older sister and brother, Polly Cooper was head of the cheerleading team and Chic was varsity football captain but Betty.. betty didn’t belong amongst the chaos and the social hierarchy.
Betty Cooper went to the school opposite of him, Riverdale High was beautiful and clean and advanced while Southside High was a step up from the rubble of the junkyard.
Still.. her blonde ponytail was often seen walking the halls of Southside High, paperwork in her hands and the most determined click to her features that dared his principal to try and shut her down. She was filled with ideas of how to make it better.. how to fix what had been broken for years beyond her time. Betty held protests against the unfair treatment, sit ins, hunger strikes, anything she felt would make a difference.. it was amazing to see the flames in her eyes, there was no one on this planet he admired more than the girl who had never once looked his way.
And then… then she changed the world.. she changed everything.
Betty Cooper had killed the monarchy president.
Betty Cooper had killed Hiram Lodges father.
There was no proof, she’d done it late at night.. poison, a painless death for an evil man. People had said her best friend Veronica Lodge had been her in, the youngest heiress hated the way her family ran their people but once again.. there was no proof.
Betty Cooper was far too smart to leave a trail.
The only indication was the spray painted words
“If we burn you burn with us.”
Streaking the spotless white walls of the mansion.
Everyone knew… Betty Cooper had said those words just three days before at the town Jubilee in the crowded auditorium of her high school on the televised screens running through Riverdale, emerald eyes staring directly into the camera.
The news had caught wind of the beautiful young girl responsible for the beginning of the downfall of the lodge monarchy.. they had taken her side… scooped her up and pasted her on the television screen in skintight leather and ruby painted lips.
And now in the middle of his poorly cared for lawn, jellybean crawling on the floor by the weeds with Hot Dog, Betty Cooper was smiling at him, combat boots crushing dirt and her tiny scarred palm extended.
“Jughead? Jughead Jones?”
