Sierra barely spared her a glance. “You think everything is stupid.”
“This is especially stupid,” Penelope argued, kicking her heels against the leg of the table she was currently perched on. “Don’t you think this is especially stupid?”
Hermione raised a brow. “How exactly is testing brownie recipes for our bake sale stupid?”
“That’s not the stupid part,” Penelope said. “The fact that we’re having a bake sale is stupid.”
Gladys laughed. “Do you actually want to have to share equipment with the boys? Don’t you want our own balls?”
“That’s just it, though,” Penelope said, and the fact that she didn’t rise to Gladys’ pointedly dangled bait shows the depth of her irritation. “We’re trying to raise money so we don’t have to work with the boys. How is a joint bake sale helping us achieve that?!”
Hermione smiled. “It’s not our fault,” she said mildly, measuring out neat tablespoons of sugar. “It’s school policy.”
“Yeah, unless you wanna wait till next month so we can have our own fundraiser,” Sierra said, stirring a large bowl of cake batter.
Penelope rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Did you hear the news? The fake princess said that if Jones tries to talk to her, she will punch him in the face. The same thing goes for Cooper. Do you believe that?”
"Is Alice threatening to hit Cooper again?"
Everyone glanced up at the sound of FP's voice, its owner trailing after Alice as she entered the room.
When nobody talked, he turned towards her with a boyish grin. “Are you?”
"Always," Alice said with a scoff. "I'd say he deserves it, too."
FP grinned. “Who would have said that the princess had teeth?”
Alice shot him a look but didn’t say anything. Then he added more seriously. “But if he annoys you again, I’ll punch him.”
“Isn’t there a clause in the captaincy code that requires you to defend his honour or at least pretend to?” Sierra asked him with a smile on her lips.
“Oh Sierra, he doesn’t care aha. He would do anything for Alice, even lose his role as captain-“
“Isn't it romantic? The other day I saw him brushing a strand of Alice’s hair behind her ear.” Mary had the heart-eyes while she was talking.
“Ew.”
“Don’t say that Penelope, I found it rather cute.”
“You find everything cute, bloody mary.”
“But you should have seen the look in her eyes. She also blushed and-“
“Can you all stop talking about me and Forsythe Pendleton Second in the third person like we aren’t even here?” Spat a furious Alice. Then she turned towards FP, who had stayed silent while watching the whole exchange with a boyish grin on his face.
Alice saw it and she became angrier. She knew he was wearing that look because he was so proud of himself and she didn’t like being described as a virgin schoolgirl with no experience that blushed in front of FP Jones. “Don’t flatter yourself, Jones. I wasn’t blushing and the two of us aren’t even together.”
For an instant, she fought that she had seen hurt in his face, but that moment didn’t last long since the playboy started to laugh. “Don’t be so dramatic, Smith.”
“Anyway, I don’t believe that the fake princess and the failed playboy are together,” Penelope said while straighten herself up to validate her point. “Plus, didn’t you say that you’ll punch him in the face too? Or was that code for ‘banging him’ like a slut, indeed you used it even for Cooper. Do you open your legs so fast or-“
“Hey. Quit it." FP said gritting his teeth.
He had seen Alice tensed and he knew that if he didn’t intervene there would have been a fight between girls and he didn’t have time for that. He told himself that that was the reason why he had stopped Penelope in the first place, and not because in his mind there were starting to form images of Alice and Hal in a bed while he was kissing his Alice. No, she wasn’t his. And he wasn’t hers.
Yes, he did that only because a fight between girls was annoying. Maybe if he continued to tell himself that, he will start to believe it.
“Jones is right, Penelope. A joke is a joke when it doesn’t last long.” Hermione said with a smile on her lips. “We should go back to our tasking, that is baking.” She added quickly when she saw Penelope and Alice sharing angry looks.
There were a few minutes of silence while the girls turned to their task. FP was watching Alice silently, while she gave him slide glances that didn’t escape to Penelope. Annoyed by them she started to complain again.
“What's he doing here?" she asked Alice while pointing her finger at FP. “The two of you came here together.” She added just to be more bitchy.
Alice rolled her eyes, but before she could have the chance to answer Mary left a giggle causing her to stop from talking.
“What now?” She asked Mary. The redhead looked at Hermione and then back to the blondie. She looked embarrassed and she was red in the face like a child who was caught by her parents doing something that she shouldn’t have to.
“Well?”
“Emh. Hermione and I were saying that it could be cute if the two of you wear the same t-shirt during the day of the competition so you won’t look only like the captains but also like a coup-“
Hi Falice fandom, so I wanted to tell you that I write a Falice Christmas OS that I posted on my AO3 account under giulyshipsarelife and the fic is called “Merry F*cking Christmas”
Summary:
Fp arrived “home” two days before Christmas, expecting to find an empty house, but someone was there to great him.
Post 2x08 – falice. Old friends reminisce about times long gone in lieu of their kids going through heartbreak.
Word Count: 2.5k
A/N: So I’ve never written falice before (obviously) and I know that if it happens, it’ll fuck up my main ship but srsly with everything that happened in 2.08 I couldn’t help myself. So here are some of my falice feels. Warning: some fluff. Mostly angst. Un-beta’d.
It had been a few hours and only now the sobs coming from Betty's room had subsided. A few things had crashed to the floor in her room and Hal had tried going upstairs multiple times – Alice stopping him everytime. If her daughter was anything like her, she knew Betty would need to be alone, or, at the most, with Veronica. She didn't need someone to tell her it was going to get better, she needed someone to agree that this was a crappy situation. But, now that the crashing had subsided, Alice went upstairs, cautiously to see how her daughter was doing. When she pushed open the door, she saw Betty trying to open a band-aid and failing terribly.
“Oh, honey,” she said, immediately at her side, examining the cut possibly caused from the broken lamp lying on the floor. Betty sniffed and pointed at the lamp.
“It just kinda happened. I'm sorry,” she whispered and Alice nodded – she would clean it up later.
“It's okay, Betty. We need to wash this out and then I'll bandage it, okay?” She asked, taking Betty's arm and pulling her to her feet. Betty nodded, allowing herself to be taken to the bathroom. After Betty let water wash over her cut, Alice took out the first-aid kit from the cabinet and began bandaging the cut.
“You wanna talk about it?” She asked and her daughter shook her head. She nodded and continued dabbing away blood from the wound with cotton.
“It's just,” Betty began and Alice had to repress a smile. There was something nice about Betty, in spite of everything, continuing to confide in her. “I don't even know why it happened, you know? Like why did we break up. He says it was to keep me safe but I was safe. There's something he's not telling me and it's just never been like this between us. Jughead and I... we always tell each other everything. But since he joined the Serpents, it's like he's become this completely different person. And so have I. I don't like it.”
“All done,” Alice said, pinning the bandage down and standing up.
“Thanks, mom,” Betty said, giving her a tired smile. Her face was still red from crying and her eyes were still very puffy. Alice smiled, cupping her cheek for a moment and wiping away a stray tear.
“You should get some sleep, you look exhausted,” she said and Betty nodded. Her daughter climbed into bed and Alice went to the door.
“Mom?”
“Yeah, sweetie?”
“Do you think--” her voice caught in her throat and Alice saw a new layer of tears glistening in her eyes. “Do you think we'll be okay?”
Alice shut the door and approached the bed. Betty moved to one side as she sat down, putting an arm around her daughter and pulling her close.
“I think that you kids are a lot smarter than I was at your age. Betty, at your age, I was already a Serpent – already making bad decisions. I pushed people I thought I didn't need away and regretted it years later. You are so smart, Elizabeth. You have so much potential and I know that you won't make the same mistakes I did.”
“What mistakes did you make?” Betty asked and Alice smiled, her mind flooding with memories.
“Those are stories for another time,” she said, and Betty nodded after a pause. “Besides, as much as I don't like Jughead, I know how happy he makes you. I think you'll get through this.”
“Are you sure?” Betty asked and Alice smiled, kissing her forehead.
“Positive.”
“Mom?”
“Yeah?”
“Will you stay with me?” Betty asked and Alice thought about the article she was supposed to write, currently sitting on her laptop.
“Of course I will,” she said, continuing to stroke Betty's hair until her daughter fell asleep.
Alice padded down the stairs to the living room where Hal was pacing, worry creasing his face. He looked up when she approached and raised his eyebrows, asking how she was doing. Alice nodded in response.
“She's asleep,” she said and Hal sighed, the worry lines dissipating as he picked up his phone. Alice, on the other hand, was stewing in nostalgia and regret. When she had told Betty that she regretted pushing people away, she wasn't really talking about people. She had only been referring to one person.
“Then leave him.”
Her heart had skipped a beat when she heard those words. It was the second time she had heard her thoughts for the past few decades vocalised. And both times it had been by the same person.
“At home.”
The afterthought changed the entire situation. Suddenly, she was the same girl, pregnant and standing in the parking lot after school, after one of the million fights she had had with Hal. It always seemed to come down to how irresponsible she was for choosing to have the baby. How stupid she was for not getting that abortion. For free, Hal might add.
“He doesn't deserve you, Alice. No one does.”
“Alice?” Hal's voice brought her back to the present and she looked up.
“Yeah?”
“You okay?”
“Yeah, no, I'm fine,” she said, shaking her head and closing her eyes for a moment, to clear her head. It didn't work.
“Do you want pizza or chinese?” He asked and, for the first time in a while – since having Polly, actually – Alice realised that this wasn't who she was at all. She had spent so long convincing herself that the bitchy suburban mom was who she truly was and that she had left the past behind her. But with her past now catching up to her, she no longer wanted to be that bitchy suburban mom.
“Neither,” she heard herself respond and Hal looked confused.
“Indian? Thai? Alice, there's no food at home, we need to order in,” Hal said and she shook her head.
“I have to go,” she said.
“What?”
“I have to... go,” she repeated, grabbing her coat and pulling it on, in addition to tying a scarf around her neck.
“Where are you going?”
“I'll figure it out,” she said, reaching for the main door, only to have Hal's hand slam down on it.
“Alice, what the hell is going on?”
“Okay, Hal, order Thai. But I don't want any. Now, move,” she said and watched him slowly remove his hand, bewildered. She opened the door and left, hearing it shut behind her, muffling one last cry from Hal.
She knocked thrice on the door before it opened.
“Alice?” FP said, staring at her, confused.
“What the hell are you... did you walk here?” He asked, looking somewhat impressed. Alice shrugged – she had realised that she had forgotten the keys after leaving and couldn’t bring herself to go back. She could feel the warmth from inside slipping out the longer he held the door open and peeped over his shoulder at the trailer. He noticed and quickly stepped aside. “Come in. Did anyone see you come here?” He asked and she frowned at the paranoia in his tone.
“No, I don't think so. Ever since the Black Hood, the streets have been kinda empty.”
“Okay, good. That's good. Can I get you something to drink? Coffee?”
“Do you happen to have something stronger?” She asked and he grinned at her.
“Coming right up. Please, sit down,” he said, motioning to the messy couches. Gingerly, she sat on one end of the couch while he went and got two glasses. She frowned at the glasses.
“I thought you were sober.”
“Can't be sober and a Serpent, right?” He said, sitting down beside her, and pouring her substantially more than he poured himself.
“A Serpent? You said you were done with that.”
“It's a long story,” he said, emptying the contents of the glass in one go. “So, what brings you to this part of town?” He asked and Alice realised she had no idea what she was doing here. She just knew she had to be somewhere that wasn't her house and this was the first place she had thought of.
“I was just wondering how Jughead was doing,” she came up with the lie on the spot. Seeing FP raise an eyebrow, catching her blatant lie, once again took her back to simpler times when she had pretended to like a different milkshake. It was when she still liked Hal – she had been drinking strawberry milkshake and, when FP confronted her about it, she lied saying it was her new favourite. Of course, he didn't buy it for a second and continued getting her chocolate, pretending to forget everytime.
“He's okay – spending the night at Archie's. Figured that would do him more good than spending it with me. That kid... he's strong, they'll get through this,” he said, nodding, with a sad smile turning up one corner of his mouth.
“Like we got through it?” She asked and he looked up, frowning. She shrugged – it was true. Once she had clearly fallen out of love, they hadn't even tried to go back to the way things were.
“They're smarter than we were,” he said, finally.
“Yeah, they are,” she agreed with a slight smile. “But they shouldn't have to be. They're just kids, FP. They shouldn't be going through all of this.”
“None of us should. But they won't make the same mistakes we did. I'm sure about that,” he said, reciprocating her smile. Sure it had been years but Alice Cooper's smile, when real, could still light up a whole room. Or, in this case, a whole trailer.
“I mean, I'd argue they weren't all mistakes,” she said and he raised his eyebrows at her, waiting for her to proceed. “Like that time in the back of the car. I don't know about you but that was definitely not a mistake,” she said with a smirk and he laughed.
“If your dad had caught us that night, he would have probably castrated me,” FP said and Alice laughed too. Laughing, she suddenly looked infinitely younger. Like the girl he had seen in the cafetaria in high school. The girl who made him feel a surge of jealousy every time she kissed Hal Cooper.
“Well then it's lucky you didn't last very long,” she said and his jaw dropped slightly, in disbelief. Sure this was the Alice Cooper he had known – chockful of innuendos. But, in the clothes she was currently wearing, there was such a jarring difference.
“That's not what you said in the woods,” he said and she laughed again, her voice filling the trailer. He smiled, watching her laugh before she took another sip of her drink.
“Those were good days,” she said, leaning back instead of sitting with her back straight like she had been.
“They really were,” he agreed. They sat in silence for a while, FP turning his glass in his hand, fighting the urge to pour himself some more while Alice occasionally took a sip.
“Why are you really here, Alice?” He asked and she turned to look at him.
“I don't know. I guess... I was talking to Betty about everything that had happened and I was trying to assure her that Jughead wouldn't be her one that got away,” she replied and he didn't have to ask to know who hers was. He nodded and they sat in silence for a while.
“When did we become this?” She asked and he looked at her, confused. “This – you know, these people who just... aren't happy. I mean, I love Betty and Polly with all my heart but I'm just not... happy. Hal... hell, he doesn't even know where I am. I just left him,” she paused and looked at FP.
“At home?” He asked and she gave a laugh. This one, however, was laced with sadness.
“Yeah. At home. You know, when I was a kid, I always imagined that I would spend the rest of my life with someone I loved. That we would have kids together, and they would eventually leave, but there would be this one person in my life who always just... stayed. I know it sounds crazy but--”
“It doesn't sound crazy at all, Alice,” he said, meeting her eye, his words coloured with longing. He knew he couldn't ask her to stay – it was too much. After all, if Alice Cooper left, the Coopers would fall apart and he couldn't do that to Betty. And anyway, it was too late to ask. “In fact--”
“Why didn't you ask me?” She interrupted and he stared at her at her for a few moments, trying to read her – it was rare that he couldn't.
“Alice, you know--”
“No that's the thing, FP. I don't know. It's been decades and this is the one question I've never known the answer to. Everything was right there. It was perfect timing. All you had to do was ask and I would have... I mean, I gave you a chance on a silver platter and it was like you took the platter and threw it away.”
“It's a little late for this discussion, Alice,” he said, deciding to call it a night and reaching for her glass on the table. She put her hand on the rim, preventing him from taking it. He looked up sombrely – he didn't want to do this.
“Please, FP. I have to know,” she said softly and he sighed.
“What can I said, Alice? I mean, you were incredible and smart and too goddamn good for anyone in this world. Hell, no one was worthy. Not me, not your parents, and especially not the man you decided to... the world didn't deserve you, Alice and I, well, I definitely didn't. How could I ask you to stay when the best thing for you to do was leave,” he said, remembering the night she had told him that she was leaving the Serpents. That Hal Cooper had asked her to marry him. She stayed silent for a few moments when he said this and then removed her fingers, allowing him to take the glass.
“Thank you,” she said, and, although he wished she had said more, he was glad that this is what they were ending the night on. He heard her follow him to the sink, where he put away the glasses. “I should go,” she said, after a moment's pause and he nodded, waiting for her to go to the door. She slowly put on her coat and scarf as he opened the trailer door.
“Goodnight, FP. Thanks for the drink,” she said and he smiled, nodding.
“Thanks for the company,” he said and she smiled too. He watched as she turned, descending the stairs, reliving the exact moment he watched her walk away to the same man years ago.
“Alice,” he called out, against better judgement. She stopped and turned, looking at him curiously. “If I asked you today, would you still do it?”
She smiled – the same smile that lit up the trailer.
“In a heartbeat,” she replied and he grinned at her. “Goodnight, FP,” she said, again and turned around to leave. He knew that this was how the night was going to end. Just because she would do it didn't mean she could. Not right away, anyway. But god, the things he was ready to do for her if she did.
“Bye, Alice,” he said, to himself and shut the door.
They say that one really falls in love only once in a lifetime and at this point, Alice is more than certain caffeine is undoubtedly the love of her life.
She knows every single code of the machine on the second floor of her office by heart, so much so that by now she doesn't even remember the real names of the various types of coffee. When she goes in front of the machine she thinks “mmmh I could take an 04 today, with sugar level 3 "; probably if she went to a real bar she wouldn't even be able to tell the bartender what she wanted.
This morning she is in the relaxation room on the second floor (for a change) and on the radio, they are broadcasting a song that she is sure to have already heard somewhere. It has a good rhythm, and Alice finds herself moving her hips slightly with music while waiting for her 04 sugar level 3 of the day to get ready.
The break room has two small machines, which is a great relief as the queues are avoided, but also a huge waste of space given that almost nobody besides her takes a coffee every morning. Which makes her morning extremely solitary, but also extremely pleasant.
Alice is still dancing, allowing herself to sing even the words in playback, putting body and soul into the performance, when suddenly someone enters the tiny room and heads for the free machine on her left without lingering over.
She suddenly freezes, praying and re-praying all the Hindu gods present that the man had just not seen her shaking her pelvis at the sound of "You're indistructibleeeee always believiiiing".
When she finally manages to recover from the embarrassment and her corner of the eye manages to see the face of the new intruder, Alice must restrain herself from not letting out a noisy “ugh” from her mouth, because the intruder just entered is none other than Mr Forsythe Jones himself.
"Good morning, Alice," he greets her, without even looking at her.
"FP...."
She and Fp don't like each other very much, in fact, she can even say that they hate each other. They have been working together for three years, but their hatred goes back many years before they became colleagues, precisely to an embarrassing and prehistoric past back in 2010, when Alice was fifteen and her sister Penny was in her last year of high school. Alice had been single for a lifetime and Penny had just become engaged to the most disputed boy in the school, the beautiful and reckless FP Jones, the star of the school, the one that all the girls craved.
Her sister and FP had been together for only five months, until he decided to break up with her on their graduation day, just to go to Australia to pursue his dream of studying Aboriginal languages.
The story between her sister and FP seemed to have ended there, except that, seven years later, she and her sister's ex had found themselves by chance working for the same publishing house in the same office and in the same area at London.
The first thing Alice had told him when they met had been, "Why aren't you in Australia?" And FP had replied with a sarcastic: "There were too many snakes".
Alice and the boy who had broken her sister's heart into a thousand pieces to go to Australia and then return to England seven years later found themselves (obviously) working on the same level, but after three years in close contact in the same office, even now it is rare for them to speak. (And if they do, it's almost certainly just an excuse to argue).
The fact is that Alice does not like Fp for three main and very sensible reasons: the first obviously concerns what happened between him and Penny in high school and, although they did not speak much then, his attitude towards her sister was absolutely unacceptable.
The second reason is a bit more recent, namely the fact that, by spending almost every day together, Alice realized that she and FP Jones are two completely different people. FP Jones is one hundred and eighty centimeters of pure bliss and love for himself that is too exaggerated, he is a slobby person and he loves beer. Alice Smith is one hundred and sixty-two centimeters, she loves to change her hairstyles every week, her main features are that she loves frozen yoghurt, coffee, high heels and she absolutely hates beer, preferring wine. FP is twenty-seven years old, originally from Brighton, but lives in Camden is the son of a CEO and has lived alone for six years in an apartment with three bathrooms and two kitchens.
Alice is twenty-five, living alone for a few months in an apartment in Greenwich, her parents have a small pub called is Pop’s and she doesn't even have a kitchen in her house.
The third and final reason, on the other hand, concerns the novel that Fp published a month ago with his own publishing company which became a best seller in a few weeks.
It could have been a fact that Alice would have easily ignored, except that it was her dream, that was what Alice had been trying to finish for more than two years, and FP Jones stole her dream, stole her dream and then he took all the credit.
Alice has been preparing her novel for two years, with sleepless nights, working on every word and mulling over each sentence until it becomes perfect, two years in which she dreams of becoming a bestselling author herself, and she cannot conceive of the fact that someone who hates so deeply has managed to reach her goal before her.
At this point in her life, Alice came to hate and envy Fp Jones with all of herself, so much so that she hardly even tolerates his presence.
Today FP wears an elegant suit, as usual, complete with a tie and a steel watch on his wrist, which makes him look more like a Gucci model than the employee of a publishing house.
Alice quietly admits that FP is really an attractive guy, with his black hair always in order, those perfectly shaped eyebrows that make her die of jealousy every time she sees him and his face always and in any situation completely shaved.
The problem is that FP is handsome and knows that, which makes him even more unbearable in Alice’s eyes.
He has always known he was beautiful, since high school when the girls died behind him and Alice spent day and night studying how it was possible for a male to have such damned perfect eyebrows.
FP gives her a quick smile, then takes a few seconds to go to the machine next to her and press 08 for his coffee.
Decaffeinated, Alice acknowledges. That sucks, she thinks.
"Look, I need you to do me a favour this weekend," he says suddenly, bringing his plastic cup to his mouth as soon as the machine tells him he's ready.
Alice looks up, slightly surprised. They've known each other for almost ten years and it's the first time Fp has come to her for a favour.
"Oh, okay. What is it?."
"I need you to come to Brighton with me for three days and pretend to be my girlfriend in front of my family."
