serpent ♔ juliet

Betty's concentration was fixed, as it frequently was, on the work at hand, even if the activity was meant to be purely for the enjoyment of the season. Her competitive drive and need for perfection were only matched by her love of festive holidays, and this year's Halloween seemed to be the pinnacle of both, in place of her mother's traditional Halloween bash. She'd thrown herself into planning Cheryl's annual ghoulish get-together. Virtually appointing herself committee chair, to which no one objected if Halloween meant they could just show up in dollar store costumes and get drunk and make out in dark corners.

Carving pumpkins to pass the time on a quiet afternoon had also been her idea, and despite Veronica and Archie's invitations to join her, Jughead had been the only one who couldn't say no. She was absorbed in her effort, sleeves pulled up past her elbows and even the tip of her tongue peeping beyond her lips in attention as she manipulated the jagged edge of one of Alice's kitchen knives that weren't designed for pumpkins. Betty wouldn't have been trusted to use the knife on her own in most other situations, and even now, she'd made numerous dubious jabs into the side of the pumpkin that had Jughead checking to see if their day wasn't going to end in the hospital.

The stray pumpkin seed tossed her way caught her completely off guard, and her mouth fell in amazement before breaking into a mischievous smile as she rubbed the back of her forearm across her brow. "A ten-point deduction for lack of creativity..." She fired back, as fierce and mischievous as ever, as she proceeded to stand watch over her pumpkin, hoping he wouldn't notice. "It's a trade secret, and you haven't even finished clearing out yours yet, so you can't take my concept." Betty raised an eyebrow at him, noting how much work he still had to do on his and calculating that she could definitely do a second decorative pumpkin in the same amount of time. "A carving contest should be held at the fall festival; I believe it would be enjoyable..."