#otbol

Finally posted the first chapter of my story for Bughead Fest - many thanks to @miss-eee for putting this challenge together! 

Read on the basis of love on AO3! 

-- summary:

"Welcome to Psych 143, otherwise known as the Psychology of Love."

...Also known as the class where Betty and Jughead disagree on everything.  From the moment they crashed into each other, they couldn't get along—they hated each other.

But they also understood each other, better than anyone else. She knows there's more to him than this rebel-outcast demeanor, and he knows she's just putting on on a good-girl act.  Too bad they're too stubborn to admit it.

(Written for Bughead Fest! Prompt: a large lecture, where they're the only ones who participate but don't ever agree)

--

won’t you come see about me?

He heard her breathing hitch in surprise, as if not expecting his endorsement. “Sorry?” she whispered back.  

“Are you really going to make me say it again?” They both looked up, and he slightly shook his head with an amused smile. “You’re right, okay? About…” Me, he almost said. “Bender.”   “Bender, huh,” she said, doubt clear in her voice.  The disbelief written all over her face only confirmed his suspicions that she knew.  This was her way of calling him out, the same way he called her out the week before. He didn’t know when Betty figured it out, but they definitely weren’t talking about Bender anymore.     “I have a question for you,” he said, keeping his voice hushed. She didn’t respond, but leaned a little closer so they could converse quietly. “Given...Bender...was a class-A asshole, why was Claire giving him the time of day?” Why are you giving me the time of day? he curiously wondered. Would she continue to give him any of her time? 

“You?”  they both said. 

“You’re in Psych 143?” she asked in disbelief. 

“Am I?” He paused, taking an overly-dramatic glance around the room. “Evidently I am.”

Smartass. “Can you be serious?” 

“Can you unclench?” he fired back. “Jeez, you were more fun last night, and I didn’t even like you then.”

“Fun? Ruining my date was fun for you?”

He rolled his eyes, returning his attention back to his laptop. “Oh please, quit the act.”

“Excuse me?”

“You can stop pretending you actually liked him; we both know you self-sabotaged your own date.”

More chapters coming very soon to AO3 here!

This deadline (of tomorrow) really snuck up on me—so I’m about to blast out like a couple more chapters in a row...big oof, y’all! 

“So she conveniently decided to turn into a female greaser? To look exactly how Danny wanted her to look? She never once wanted to look like a greaser, no way,” Betty argued. “We all saw what she was like in the beginning of the film—pure, honest, soft-spoken—”

“A little naive, wouldn’t you say?” he interrupted.

Naive? Sandy? Betty stopped to give it some thought, but then he added: “You, not Sandy.”

“Excuse me?” she nearly shouted. He was calling her naive?

The students in the rows between Betty and Jughead seemed to shrink deeper into their seats as they witnessed this debate become a bit more heated.

She silently fumed as she saw Jughead shrug and roll his eyes, as if dismissing her outrage. “I’m just saying it’s a little naive for you, of all people, to assume that the ‘innocent and reserved’ Sandy—” he paused dramatically to throw up some air quotes, “—was the real Sandy.”