High School Musical (Riverdale)

The guy you met on vacation

Over the next few days, Betty and Jughead became more and more depressed. Betty thought Jughead dumped her. Jughead thought that Betty had dumped him. And, even though their friends tried to cheer them up, nothing worked.

One day, during PE class, Archie, Reggie and Kevin and some other students were goofing around on the outside basketball court. They were passing a ball in a circle, fast and slick, just like the Harlem Globetrotters. Laughing, they waved at Jughead, inviting him to join them.

But Jughead ignored them, and headed over the track for a jog instead, moving steadily away from his friends.
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That evening, Jughead shot baskets alone in his backyard. He missed a few baskets and slammed the ball down in frustration. His father watched from an upstairs window, worried. He knew something was wrong. He also knew it wasn't the right time to find out what it was.

At the Cooper house, Betty was sitting by her bedroom window. He was surrounded by her books, but she wasn't reading. Instead, she was gazing out the window at the stars and trying not to cry.

Her mother opened the door, holding a portable phone. Alice held it out to Betty indicating the call was for her.

Betty just shook her head.

Then next day, Betty and Jughead happened to pass each other in the cafeteria. They glanced at each other, then away . . . then defused the awkward moment by moving on without saying a word.

Archie and Veronica saw the exchange from opposite ends of the room. They looked at each other and nodded. They'd seen enough. They would see the effect of what they'd done and they knew they'd screwed up, big time.

Now they had to try to fix it . . .
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Jughead was sitting by himself in the rooftop garden, glumly eating a sandwich. The door opened and Archie, Reggie, and Kevin appeared.

"We just had a team meeting, Jug." Archie said.

"Wonderful," Jughead answered. He tried to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

Archie swallowed hard. "We had a meeting about we haven't been acting like a team. Us, not you. The singing thing—"

"I don't want to talk about it." Jughead said shortly.

"We just want you to know that we're going to be there cheering for you." Archie finished.

Jughead looked up, surprised. "Huh?"

Reggie nodded furiously. "Yeah. Cap, if singing is something you want to do, we should be boosting you up, not tearing you down."

"Win or lose, we're teammates," Archie added. "That's what we're about. Even if you turn out to be the worst singer in the world—"

"—which we don't know, because we haven't heard you sing," Kevin pointed out.

Jughead sighed. It was great to finally have the support of his buddies, but it didn't mean anything anymore. "And you're not going to hear me sing guys, because Betty won't talk to me, and I don't know why."

Archie and the boys exchanged glances. "We do." Archie finally do.

Reggie pulled a bag of cookies from his backpack and offered to Jughead. "Baked these fresh today.  Want to try some before we tell you the rest?"

Inside the chemistry lab, Betty was surrounded by Veronica and the Scholastic Club.

"We're worse than jerks," Veronica was saying earnestly. "Because we're mean jerks. We thought Jughead Jones and the singing thing was killing our chances to have you on the Scholastic Decathlon team."