Archive of Our Own ^beta

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.

Chapter Text

FP shook his hands out, rolling his neck several times to try and diminish some of the nerves that were threatening to eat him alive. He was on the sidelines of the football field. He had been here thousands of times before. Every game when he was in middle school, every game when he was in high school, and every other game in his college career had all led up to this.

This wasn’t any typical game though. This was the college football championship game. The University of Georgia. The Bulldogs. Playing against The University of Rivergreen. The sharks. The Bulldogs took the championship title almost every single year though, however FP was determined to make this the year that the title was stolen from them.

He had been the best quarterback that the University of Rivergreen had ever known. The school had recruited him his junior year on a full ride scholarship, after he brought Riverdale High School to 3 consecutive champions. Beating national teams like Stonewall Prep, SeaSide High, and Greendale High.

It had always been sort of second nature for him. He liked to tell people that he had started throwing a football as soon as he learned how to walk, and everyone believed him. Truth is, he hadn’t even considered playing until he was 13 years old. The year his dad walked out on him and his mom.

When his dad went out for a pack of cigarettes and never came back, FP crashed, and he crashed hard. He had never been particularly close with his father. His entire childhood it always felt like he could never live up to his fathers expectations of him. They fought all the time. Even getting physical on multiple occasions. Despite his and his fathers strained relationship, his mother had been extremely close with his father, and when he left it took an extreme emotional toll on her.

Not only did he have to try and sustain for both of them, since she had never had a stable job, but he also had to keep his mom from falling under and doing something stupid or something irreversible. He had to take care of his mom and himself, all while working odd jobs around Riverdale for a few bucks to keep them afloat, and still trying to find time for school, homework and friends.

FP didn’t realize how exhausted or how irritable he was, but everyone else around him did. Particularly: Fred Andrews. Fred and FP had been friends since Kindergarten. Both of them athletic. Both of them enjoyed music. They had bonded over their affinity for bears when they were 5 years old and had been best friends since then.

It was no wonder that he was the first one to notice something off about FP. Fred knew that his dad had left, and he knew it was going to mess him up, but he wasn’t sure the extent of it. Not until FP had begun snapping at him for every little comment that Fred had made. It didn’t matter if it was good, bad, funny, surprising, or sad. Fred would get a snarky, bratty, rude reply in response.

It wasn’t until they were walking home together one day after school, that Fred had asked how FP’s mom was doing, causing him to break down into tears. It was the first time he had even shown emotion about the situation. He wasn’t able to talk to his mother due to how emotionally fragile she was about the whole situation. He didn’t have any other adult he could turn too, and he had been determined to not put the burden on any of his friends either. And he had. He had avoided it for so long, until he just couldn’t anymore.

Fred and FP spent the next hour or so talking about how FP was really doing. It was near the end where Fred got an idea on how to help, or at least how to try and help. He was going to try and distract him from all the stress he was under.

It had been 10 simple words, from one friend desperately trying to help another friend in need, that changed the course of FPS life forever. 10 simple words. “Want to meet at the football field later?” The words that had sparked FPs love for Football. The words that had given him something to look forward to. The words that had given him an outlet. A way to distract himself from all the hell going on in his life.

Since that day, he hadn’t looked back. He picked up a football with Fred Andrews, played a simple game of catch and never put the ball down again. He had practiced every day. Not necessarily as a way to get better, but as a way to focus on something and let his frustrations drown out. By doing so though, he became good. Really quickly. He went from middle school, to high school, to college… to today. Every moment had built up to this. Every high. Every low. Every triumph. Every defeat. Every passed ball. Everything had led up to this moment.

He felt sick to his stomach. His heart was racing, he felt hot and sweaty, he didn’t feel like he could get enough air, and the sounds of people cheering outside only made everything worse. This was the game that would determine basically the rest of his life.

There were several NFL recruiters there, all watching every player on that field. They were keeping an extra eye out for FP though. They had heard about him. They had heard how good he was. How he brought an unpopular, nobody school, to the championship. The pressure on him was high. He had to prove himself. If he could get recruited, he could turn his entire life around.

FP was knocked out of his thoughts when the assistant coach walked into the locker room. “Game time, boys. Are we ready?” There was an eruption of cheers from almost every single boy on the team. Everyone but FP who was too nervous.

“All right everyone. Rivergreen on 3.” the coach announced as all the boys huddled into a group circle, putting their hands together in the middle.

“1…”

“2…”

“3…”

“Rivergreen!” the chorus of men, including FP, all shouted at once.

Right after that, they all dispersed, each player touching the top of the doorframe to the locker room as they exited. A pregame tradition that they thought would bring them good luck. None of them truly believed it would, but at the same time they were all frightened about what would happen if they didn’t. Now wasn't a good time to test that theory and mess up the first good season they had for over 50 years.

Almost every boy was out of the locker room by the time FP finally grabbed his helmet and tucked it under his arm. He glanced back at the whiteboard again, going over the game plan they had set as a team in his head once more. He wanted to give himself every single possibility of success out there that he possibly could. He had memorized the plays yet again the night before. Meditated. Gone to bed early. Gotten up early to throw and loosen his arm up. If he was going to lose, it wasn’t going to be because of him.

“Hey, man. You're going to do great.” One of his teammates, Henry, had said, snapping him out of his thoughts. FP and Henry had grown close and considered each other best friends. Henry was the running back which meant he spent a lot of time with FP practicing, coming up with ideas, talking about what worked and what didn’t work, and due to all the time they spent with each other on the field, they had also grown quite close off the field.

Despite the reassuring words from one of his closest friends, the nervousness and anxiety FP was feeling didn’t seem to go down at all. In fact he was pretty sure it just got worse. He hadn’t even thought about this since he had been so focused on himself, but his whole team was also counting on him. If he couldn’t complete his passes, it would mean his receivers couldn't catch the ball, making them both look inexperienced in the process. Everyone truly was counting on him.

“Yeah. Thanks. So are you.” FP said, hitting Henry's shoulder in a kind gesture before they both left the locker room together, making sure they touched the top of the door frame as they did. The two men hadn’t even made it outside of the school but they could already hear the amount of fans that were in the stadium. The talking. The voices. The cheering. There were so many people that they could hear it from inside the school, nearly a quarter of a mile away from the actual football field.

He couldn’t focus on the anxiety though. If he did, he knew he’d play bad. He would get inside his own head and the whole game would become a living hell in the first 5 minutes. FP closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath. He tried to ground himself, using the technique he had so many times before. Something you can feel. The leather of the gloves he had on. Something you can taste. The lingering taste of old gatorade he had been sipping from since he got there. Something you can hear. The clicking of the electric fan as it spun, clearly already a few years past its expiration date. Finally, something you can see. He opened his eyes slowly, coming face to face with the glass doors that led to the night outside.

Once he felt calm enough to go out there, he finally did. He pushed open the double doors, jogging down from the school, to meet the rest of his team at the field. Everyone was already in the huddle, the game clock counted down from 2 minutes. 2 minutes until it started. Until he went out there with somehow nothing but yet everything to lose all at the same time.

The ref came over, asking for someone to join him in the middle of their field so they could do the coin toss, determining who got the ball first. Henry went out for the sharks, while the quarterback, the team captain, went out for the bulldog.

FP hadn’t been paying attention to who won, but by the way his team erupted in cheers, he was pretty sure he got his answer anyway. Henry had opted to give the other team the ball first, deferring it so the sharks could instead get the ball once halftime was over and the 3rd quarter started.

The clock finally rang, signalling the start of the game. The first half went by quickly. The sharks defense was good, to no surprise. Most of the team was over 6 '3 and most weighed over 250 lbs at least. Size truly was the advantage here. Not only was their defense good, but their offense was performing even better than they had all season. There wasn’t one pass that FP didn’t complete, not one ball that was dropped, and not one missed opportunity. By the time there was 2 minutes left in the 2nd quarter, the score was already 24-0 for the sharks.

When the bell rang, all the men stopped off the field with smiles on their faces. Their confidence was high, and so was their morale. There was no way they were going to lose the game at this rate. They all talked about what colleges might be there watching, and how many girls they’d get when they became national champions.

Even FP, who had been so nervous earlier, had loosened up and seemed more comfortable with himself and his ability. The team truly was on a high.

FP was messing around with one of his teammates, making a joke about how no girl was going to want him, even if he did win.

The teammate laughed, calling FP an asshole before pushing him. FP lost his balance and stumbled backwards. He wasn’t upset though, since he was still laughing and smirking. One step further though, and he accidentally ran into someone. “Holy shit. I’m so sorry…” He said before turning around to give a proper apology.

That’s when his entire mood changed. The smile fell from his face, his arms dropped to his sides, and his heart began racing again, just like it had before the game started.

“FP?’ the girl in front of him had recognized him, as much as he wished she wouldn’t. They both stood there, frozen in place. The only words that FP was able to get out, sounded unsure, hoarse, and almost scared.

“Alice….”

Chapter Text

Alice and FP stood face to face for the first time in years. For the first time since they had broken up in high school, and neither of them knew how to react. They were both nervous. Both of their hearts were racing. Both of their breathing had sped up. Alices hands were shaking and she let out a nervous laugh. “Um Yeah! Yeah. Hi. Hi!” She said, unable to control the words that were leaving her mouth.

FP wasn’t any better. Instead of rambling, he didn’t say anything at all. He just kind of stood there, the football still in his hands. As far as Alice could see, he looked the same as he had when they were in high school, albeit a little more mature. Same dark brown eyes. Some brown hair. Same face she had fallen in love with.

Alice though? FP hardly recognized her at all. She had dropped the grungey clothes she used to wear, and switched it for nicer, higher end looking clothes instead. Her hair that had once been down to the middle of her back with a slight wave, now barely reached her shoulders. It wasn’t blonde anymore either. It was almost a sort of light red. All of her piercings, including her septum, her eyebrow, and every single ear piercing she had, had all been taken out, with no sign that they had ever existed in the first place. All the cross and skull necklaces had also been ditched for a simple gold pendant. She was nothing like the girl he remembered.

They stared at each other for what felt like hours. In reality, it had only been a few seconds, but that was enough time for both FP’s coach and Alice’s manager to be upset that they weren’t doing what they were supposed to be doing.

“Sorry. I h- I have to go. It was… good seeing you.” FP said, to which Alice kind of just gave him an awkward little wave before they both turned to leave.

Alice tried to compose herself. She really did. She adjusted the microphone in her hand, although she could already feel the sweat from her nervous hands forming around the base of it. Taking a deep breath, she went up to one of the coaches so she could interview him.

“So.. so. H-how.. How do you think-...” She couldn’t think straight. Her mind was racing with thoughts. The furthest thing from her mind right now was what questions to ask people she didn’t know about a sport she didn’t care about. Instead her mind was racing with thoughts of FP, with thoughts of their past, with thoughts of truths she didn’t want to uncover.

She opened her mouth to say something again, but instead the microphone slipped out of her hands which seemed to be the final breaking point for her. Alice ran back to the dressing room she had came from, needing and wanting to get off the field and as far away as she could, as soon as she could.

Hermione had been watching from the stands, and after some light protest from both Hal and Hiram that Alice would be fine, and that Hermione would get in trouble if she went back there, they eventually gave in after she persisted.

Hermione stood up and walked down the aisle of the bleachers, before going down the stairs as fast as she could, trying to catch up with Alice before she lost her. Although Hermione had no idea what had happened or what had caused this, she wasn’t about to let her best friend be by herself.

“Alice! Hey!” hermione said as she finally caught up to her and began walking side by side.

Alice turned to look at her but didn’t say anything. Instead she opened the door to the dressing room then tried to close it before Hermione got a chance to get in. Hermione was smarter than that though, and stopped the door with her foot then pushed it open.

“What the hell is going on?” The brunette asked, closing the door behind her once they were both inside of the dressing room.

Alice shook her head. She was breathing quickly, almost like she was on the verge of just completely hyperventilating. “I can’t- I can’t go back out there, Hermione. I just can’t” She said, shaking her head. She was pacing back and forth across the small room.

Hermione went up to her Alice and set her hand on the other girls shoulder. “Why can’t you go back out there? Why? What happened Alice? What is going on?”

Alice shook her head again, pulling away from Hermiones touch. “FP is here. I-I saw him. We made eye contact. I can’t do it, Hermione.”

As soon as FP’s name slipped from Alice’s mouth, Hermione understood exactly what was going on. She had been friends with Alice throughout the entirety of middle and high school. They had been friends before Alice had gotten with FP or Hal, before Hermione had gotten with Fred or Hiram. They knew things about each other that no one else probably did.

Although she had only heard what happened with FP and Alice from Alice, and had basically been a bystander for the whole thing, she still understood enough to know that the two hadn’t ended on good terms. Even that was most likely an understatement.

Hermione didn’t try and reach out to touch Alice again, instead she let her arms hang by her side, trying to calm her friend down with a gentle smile and a soft voice instead. “Hey. Who cares about him? Your here to do your job. Then you’ll never ever have to see him again.”

Alice ran her hands through her hair, messing up the style that had taken hours to do in the first place. “I don’t care. I don’t want to see him. I don’t want to think about him. Besides that, I made a complete idiot of myself. I don’t even care if I lose the job as this point.” She said

Hermione looked at her, her tone immediately growing more stern. “Hey. I don’t want to hear any of that. This isn’t the Alice Smith I know. The Alice Smith I know would go out theer and kick some ass anyways. She wouldn’t care what anyone else thought of her. If anyone thought negatively of her, she’d go out there and prove them wrong. Bring that Alice back. Because trust me, you’ll regret losing the opportunity and the job. Maybe in a week, maybe in a month, maybe in a few years. But I know you will. And for what? Some stupid boy? Yeah it sucks seeing him. And yeah I know you guys don’t like each other. But you can’t let it go in your head like this. Okay? I don’t want to sit back and watch you fail just because some guy you haven’t talked to in years happened to be here. Now take some deep breaths and get back out there.”

Hermione handed Alice an unopened plastic water bottle. Her hands were still shaking as she grabbed it, and she still looked like she was on the verge of a panic attack, but now there was a slight laughter in her tone. Like she realized how ridiculous she was being in the first place. “Yeah. Yeah your right.” She said as she opened the bottle and took a small sip from it.

“I know I am. I’m always right.” Hermione joked, putting her hand on Alice shsoulder and urging her to the direction of the door.

“See you after the game?” Alice asked, setting the bottle down on the table as she opened the door to the dressing room.

“Yeah. See you after the game.” Hermione said before they both parted ways.

Hermione made her way back to the bleachers and took her seat next to Hiram again, while Alice made her way back towards the football field, where the cheer performance and ridiculous games for people to win some stupid prize like free food, were all starting to end.

Just as she was about to go pick up her microphone again, one of the talent directors hurried over to her. “Miss Smith. There you are.” she said, bending down to pick up Alice’s mic and hand it to her. “I’m so sorry. But we had to replace you. We had to get the interviews done so the television networks would have something to watch during halftime and you weren’t there. We’ve decided to just let her finish out the rest of the game if that’s okay?”

Alice laughed as she grabbed her microphone from the talent director, although there was no humor in it. It was a nervous laugh or one you make when your trying not to let something get to you, even though it obviously did. “Yeah. Yeah. I understand. Thanks for the opportunity.” She said, not letting the woman get another word in before she turned and walked away. She couldn’t. The longer she sat there the more upset she got. Either she was going to start crying, or she was going to get mad and start yelling, which either way was something she didn’t want to do.

“Maybe we can try again in the future!” The talent woman yelled as Alice walked away. Even though they both knew the odds of there ever being another time were slim to none. “Yeah! Ahuh!” Alice yelled back. Her eyes already stinging with tears.

She kept her head down as she walked. Her arms wrapped around herself as if she were shielding herself or defending herself against some unseen force.

The sound of the other interviewer talking to some of the players who had started to come out from the locker room, just hurt Alice even more. It should’ve been her. It should’ve been her on the big screen. It should have been her on tv.

Instead, here she was, a complete and utter mess, walking back to the dressing room she would no longer use, all for a boy she didn’t expect to be there.