Hiss And Herps

Dear Future Alice

Elizabeth "Betty" Cooper...the sixteen year old, picture perfect cheerleader who wrote for the school newspaper, a hobby started by her and her amazing boyfriend's ambition to catch Jason Blossom's murderer. She lived most of her life in an ideal, normal family household until her older sister became pregnant with Jason's baby and dark secrets were soon unveiled. These were the moments her mother became an enemy in her eyes. She had always been a bit strict, but lately, with the mind of a rebellious teenager, Betty had begun to despise the woman who gave birth to her and brought her up with such tender love and care. Where had her attitude stemmed from all of a sudden? Why had her mother suddenly become so obsessed with keeping Betty at home at all times and away from the outside world? One could only guess. Though Betty wouldn't have to guess for long.

One night, Elizabeth had found herself coughing and sneezing up in the family attic as she searched for an old photo album to show her boyfriend, Forsythe Pendleton "Jughead" Jones the Third. Searching through boxes of dusty old dolls and baby clothes, the blonde rolled her eyes at her mother's insistence to hoard all of their memories into their, soon to collapse, attic. She waved a bit of dust out of her face after throwing a cardboard box of stuffed animals aside, finding another beneath it. The top of it read "Alice: High School." Before even thinking of her option to NOT open it, Betty knelt in front of the box and began to look through.

Some old VHS tapes and 8-track tapes were piled up inside as Betty dug through them. She pulled out an old yearbook and opened to the dog-eared page. Smiling down upon the photo of her mother and father as prom king and queen, she suddenly frowned. Her mind had gone to a dark place, once again...something that had been happening all too often lately. The photo sent her to a flashback of her mother's conversation with her about her mother and father's eventful prom night. She remembered how FP, Jughead's father, had almost let it slip that Betty may have a secret sibling out there somewhere and that dear old Dad had suggested abortion to her teen mother at the time.

Why had everything fallen apart lately? Why couldn't Betty go back in time to before Jason's murder and before Polly had gotten pregnant? Things were better then...for her, for her sister, for her father, for her mother. Well...wait! Betty had found something. Her hand felt a familiar weight in it and she pulled out, what she had rightfully guessed was, an old composition notebook. Otherwise known as....an old diary. Her mother's. WERE things better for her mother before? Betty had to know.

With the knowledge that Jughead had been waiting for her long enough, she decided to only read the first page she opened to, intending on hiding it afterward to come back to it later for some more reading. Her thumb found a page toward the end and she opened the dusty thing to read what her eyes befell upon.

"Dear Future Alice, I hope you're still there. Lord knows it's a miracle I've made it this far already. I'm sorry you can't read so much about this passed year. So much has happened since...well, since that night. Well, you know. You were there. I...well, you...well...you and I....WE finally convinced our parents to move to the Northside after IT happened. We tried to run away, but we both know that didn't go as planned. So, turns out we had to tell Mama and Papa the truth about everything. I couldn't keep it a secret anymore. Not after...well, you know. So...here I am. 17 years old and guess what! Today is the day of our senior prom, Alice! I'd say I were excited if only I didn't have to tell Hal the news. If you really ARE there, Future Alice...then you know that yesterday I took my first pregnancy test. I'm filled with joy, fear, and confusion as well as uncertainty. I wish time travel were invented already. Is it invented where YOU are? If so...could you please show up right now and tell me how I'm supposed to tell Hal that I think the baby might be FP's?"

Wide-eyed Betty slammed the diary shut the moment she read those words. Her long lost brother could, in fact, be Jughead's long lost brother?! She looked around in shock before bolting out of the attic and heading to her bedroom where Jughead lay on her bed, playing with one of the knick-knacks on her nightstand.