Chapter Text
Being a reporter had been Alice’s dream job ever since she was a kid. She had the looks for it. Long, blonde hair. Dark green eyes. Fair skin. A small build. Not only that, but she had the personality for it as well. If someone were to get in a fight with her, they knew they’d lose. Whether it was verbally or physically. She wasn’t afraid to speak her mind, even if it went against the crowd. Plus, she was confident, but in a way that made everyone turn and look at her when she walked into a room. Not in the way that made everyone judge her for being overly cocky, or even narcissistic.
To say she was built for this job would be an understatement. That didn’t make her any less nervous though. She had done small things. Local things. But right now? She was about to be on national television. Interviewing the winning team for the college football championship. If she messed up, everyone would know. If she froze, everyone would know. Besides, what kind of questions was she supposed to ask anyways? The two people she had dated in high school, Hal Cooper and FP Jones, both played football. She knew 7 points- no- 6 points equalled a touch down. There was a quarterback (what FP played) and a runningback (what Hal played), and there was an offense and a defense. That was all she remembered. She didn’t exactly pay attention to the games when she went.
So what kind of questions was she going to ask? “Stick to the basics.” Hermione had reminded her the day before. Hermione had worked as the weather girl at the same station that Alice had done the local news reports, and they had become fast friends. Hermione was everything Alice wasn’t. Most people thought it should’ve been Hermione that got offered the position by the college football association. Not Alice. Hermione had a bad habit of letting people walk all over her though. Not that Alice had, their boss just didn’t think Hermione would survive long in that line of work.
Their was no hard feelings between Alice and Hermione though. In fact, Hermione had convinced her boyfriend, Hiram, that they should go to the game, just so she could see Alice interview the players at half time and after the game ended. Hiram obliged. Football wasn’t really his thing. Basketball and wrestling was. He wanted to impress Hermione though, so he bought the tickets for them, despite how expensive they were.
There was a half and hour or so before the game started and the stadium was starting to fill up. Quickly. The more people started to come, the more nervous Alice got. Every 10 minutes or so she would check, and every 10 minutes when she checked, the people seemed to double in size.
There was a knock at the door to her trailer, followed by someone stepping inside, without gaining permission. “Hey, baby.” Hal said as he walked in. He had a bouquet of flowers in his hand for Alice, a simple but kind gesture. As soon as Alice saw Hal her face lit up. They had been dating on and off since their sophomore year of high school, but had most recently gotten together during their freshman year of college, and the two had been together ever since.
They were the definition of the perfect couple. Both smart. Both athletic. Both attractive. Hal had been the boy everyone had a crush on in high school. He was running back on the football team, 3rd base on the baseball team, and starting guard on the basketball team. Not only was he athletic, but he was attractive too. Due to sports, he had an extremely muscular build for any teenager. He also had dirty blonde hair and bright blue eyes. He was any girls dream man. He only had his eyes set on one girl though, Alice Smith. The first day he saw her, was right after he had moved to Riverdale. She yelled at him for splashing her at the pool. She was sitting, tanning, and he was messing around with his friends, splashing them as they splashed him. Things got out of control though, as things often do with a group of 15 year old boys, and Hal ended up drenching Alice. Which promptly caused her to yell at him, and he really had loved her ever since. He saw a spark in her that he didn’t see in anyone else.
It took some convincing from him to get her to finally agree to go out for the first time. He was from the Northside of the town. The rich side, with all the nice houses, nice cars, and nice neighborhoods. Alice, however, was from the Southside of town. The complete opposite of the northside. The Southside was poor. It was rundown. Very little houses, but a whole lot of trailer parks. There were gangs running the streets. If you weren’t from the Southside, you would try to avoid it at all costs.
The North and South sides didn’t mix. A Northsider couldn’t be friends with a Southsider, and they definitely couldn’t be in a relationship together. That was the stigma. It had been that way for decades. It wasn’t like Alice and Hal were about to change it.
Eventually, Alice did agree to go out on a date with him, as long as they kept it low-key. No one were to know but the two of them. Not even their parents, or their friends. It was strictly between them. The closer the two of them got though, the more obvious it had become to everyone else. The most surprising part though? No one even seemed to care. Either they all had their own things to worry about, or the stigma that had been around for so long had finally started to disappear as new generations came through. Whatever the reason was, it was a definite bonus for them.
“Hi.” Alice said. She wanted to turn to look at him, but she was getting her makeup done and didn’t want to mess it up. Not that she couldn’t have done it herself, she had practice in it actually, but the employees there claimed to know what makeup look ‘suit’ her, better than she did. “I’m so happy you actually came. I thought you said you had work or something.” She said.
Hal walked over, setting the flowers down on the dresser in the room. “I asked if I could get the day off. I wouldn’t want to miss seeing my best girl start to move up in her career now, would I?” It was a rhetorical question. They both already knew the answer to it.
“I guess not.” She felt a little better now that Hal was there. Her nerves were still running rapid though, but the presence of her boyfriend seemed to calm her down. “How many people are out there?”
He shrugged a little, standing behind her and setting his hands on her shoulders. It was obvious how tense and nervous she was, and he wanted to help ease it at least a little bit. “Uh, I think it’s best if you don’t know.”
Alice groaned. That answer made her more nervous then if he had just told her. “Oh man.” She groaned, finally able to swivel around in her chair after they finished her hair and make up.
Hal smiled, wrapping his arms around her waist as she stood up. “You’ll do great. I know you will.”
She smiled a little, giving him a peck on the lips. “Yeah. Thanks. I’ll see you out there.” Alice said, with as much confidence as she could muster in this situation.
One of the other crewmembers camera nd knocked on the door. “3 minutes til halftime” They told her with a hint of urgency in their voice. This was now the 4th time Alice had been told that half time was nearing, yet here she was, still sitting in her trailer.
“Yeah. Got it. Thank you.” She replied. Giving Hal one last smile, and checking herself in the mirror one last time, she finally walked out of her trailer and towards the football field.
The sight of all the people instantly made her sick to her stomach. She didn’t think there was a single seat that wasn’t occupied. It wasn’t only the fans either. There were the players, the coaches, the referees, the athletic trainers, the announcers, the medical team, and so on. If she screwed up, she knew this would be her final chance of ever having a solid career in media.
A kind older lady, who introduced herself as Shelly, guided Alice to where she needed to go, and explained to her what she needed to do. Once half time started, she would wait for them to all to go and talk to their coaches and have their little team get together, and once they started dispersing, she would go up and interview at least 2 people for at least 20 seconds. That was a marker she had to hit.
Alice stood on the sidelines of the field, rehearsing the questions she was going to ask in her head. There was 30 seconds left in the second quarter, and she knew halftime would be there soon. Her time was almost up.
The loud eruption of cheers from one side of fans completely interrupted her from her thoughts. She tried to see what was going on, and realized that the green and black team, The Serpents, maybe? Had just scored a touch down, leaving the game tied with 3 seconds until half time.
The teams lined up again in the middle of the field, and the Quarterback called for the ball to be hiked, but as soon as he did, the buzzer sounded and all the players dropped their positions. She knew this was when she needed to go in. Her body and her mind felt disconnected though. Her brain wanted her legs to move, to walk out there, but her body didn’t.
Most of the stands started to clear out as fans went to the bathroom, got food, or just stood up and walked around to stretch their legs. Her eyes darted around the stadium though, trying to spot Hermione or Hal. There were so many people though and so much movement that the odds of finding them were low.
While she was standing there, looking for the familiar faces, she felt someone run into her from behind. It knocked her off balance, but it wasn’t hard enough to knock her over completely.
“Holy shit. I’m so sorry.” came a voice from behind her. She turned around to see who it was, to tell them it was no big deal, but as soon as she saw who was standing in front of her, she stopped dead in her tracks.
“FP?” Her voice came out small and timid, but they both had the same feelings upon seeing one another again after all this time.