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  Betty’s hands were clenched at her sides and she was trembling slightly. “I can’t believe you did that! Did you tell people to throw them at us?”

  “No!” Tina suddenly registered that she may have revealed too much. “Well not exactly.”

  “And you told them where we’d be? At dinner or by the pool or wherever. You arranged it so people could harass us?”

  It became obvious to Tina that the other members of The Candy Hearts might not be happy with her revelation, but there was no point in denying her tactics any longer. “Well . . . yes,” Tina sheepishly confessed.

  With her hands on her hips, Veronica glared at the drummer. “So I guess you have worked a lot harder on the band than the rest of us.”

  “I know.” Tina nodded her head vigorously. “Now do you see why you have to go to New York?”

  Veronica’s brown eyes were practically shooting daggers. “No,” she snarled, “I do not. And I’m definitely not going.”

  “Yeah,” Betty added. “I’m sorry, Tina, but I don’t want to go, either.”

  “Me neither,” Nancy chimed in. “I think fame just isn’t as important to us as it is to you.”

  There were several moments of sputtering before Tina could even speak. When she finally found her words, she screeched, “Fine! I’ll form a new band. There are millions of girls out there that would kill for this opportunity!”

  Betty softened, realizing that Tina was truly disappointed. “I’m sorry,” she said in a gentler voice. “We didn’t realize how much you wanted to be famous. I guess it’s something we should have talked about when we formed the band.”

  But Tina was beyond being rational about the disbanding of The Candy Hearts. “The name’s mine, you know!” she raged at them while fighting back angry tears. “I came up with it and I’m going to keep it!”

  “Fine,” Veronica shrugged.

  “And most of the songs! I wrote half of them, so I should get them. It’s the least you can do after stabbing me in the back!”

  “You can have everything you worked on,” Betty told her. “But none of the songs that are just mine. Especially ‘BFF.’”

  “But,” Tina protested, “that’s our best song!”

  Betty held firm. “Sorry, Tina, but there’s no way. I wrote that song about Veronica and me before we even really knew you. That’s our song.”

  Epilogue

  With the dissolution of the original Candy Hearts, Betty was more than happy to return to her comfortable, although admittedly quieter, life in Riverdale. She had time to reconnect with her family and spend time with friends that she felt like she hadn’t seen in ages. Tina had left for New York almost immediately after the mall show without even bothering to say good-bye. Betty felt a bit bad about it, but she understood that Tina was a girl focused on pursuing her dream.

  Nancy was out and about with Chuck almost every day. He had apparently decided to take a break from working on his portfolio in order to enjoy the last days of summer.

  Betty hadn’t seen much of Veronica since the band’s breakup. She knew her best friend had gone on a week’s vacation with her parents, but she was still concerned that Veronica might be feeling a bit bad about the disbanding of The Candy Hearts. Veronica was the kind of girl that thrived on a lot of attention, after all. That’s why Betty felt so pleased when Veronica called her up to see if she wanted to head to Pop’s Chocklit Shoppe to see The Archies play. It would be a good opportunity to check in with her best friend to make sure everything was going okay.

  “Hello, ladies,” Mr. Burly-Man the bouncer said as he stood, blocking the back entrance to Tate’s place.

  “Yeah, yeah, we know,” Veronica rolled her eyes. “Customers go around front.”

  The bouncer looked a little confused. “No, I was just saying hello. You can go on in.” He stepped to one side, unblocking the door.

  Both girls stopped and stared at him. “You mean you’re not going to give us a hard time about being in the band?” Betty asked.

  “No, I recognize you two from The Candy Hearts.” He gave them an appreciative smile. “I know you’re musicians.”

  “Well,” Veronica murmured to her friend as they sauntered into Pop’s Chocklit Shoppe, “that might be our very last perk from being in the band.”

  “Does that bother you?” Betty asked. “I mean, that we’re not in a band anymore? Are you going to miss being in the spotlight?”

  “No, I’m happy to be done with The Candy Hearts. Being in a band is always fun, and at first it was kind of neat to have fans and everything, but I really don’t want to be famous. There’s just no privacy,” Veronica confided. “Besides, it was putting way too much strain on our friendship.”

  “Yeah,” Betty agreed. “I think Tina had a lot to do with that. I wouldn’t say she was a bad person, she was just very . . .” Betty searched for the right word.

  “Manipulative?” Veronica offered.

  Betty smiled. “Exactly!”

  “Hey, girls,” Jughead called, loping up to them. “Boy, do I have something to show you.” He pulled out a magazine that he had stuffed in his back pocket and unrolled it. “Look at this.”

  Betty and Veronica put their heads together over the photo that Jughead was indicating. It was on a page with the headline, “Chicks That Rock!: Up-and-Coming Girl Bands,” and among a collage of six photographs was an image of Tina with three other girls, all dressed in jewel tones and wearing bright lipstick. The caption read, “Tina and The Candy Hearts are winning raves with their song ‘Best Friends Forever.’”

  “Wow!” Betty blinked repeatedly. “She didn’t waste any time.”

  Veronica gave her a concerned look. “Does it bother you that she’s pretty much ripping off your song?”

  “No.” Betty shook her head. “I’m glad she’s pursuing her dream.” Then she added with a smile, “And not torturing the rest of us in the process.”

  The Archies’ show was pretty packed, but Betty and Veronica managed to score a table up front, along with Midge; her boyfriend, Moose; and Kevin. When it was time for the band to play “Sugar Sugar,” Archie leaned into the microphone and said to the audience, “Our old bandmates, Betty and Veronica, are here. I think maybe if we harass them a little, they’ll join us onstage. What do you guys think?”

  The crowd started applauding. Veronica looked like she could be persuaded, but Betty hesitated. She looked up, her blue eyes very wide. “Do you really think we should?”

  “Oh, come on,” Veronica said, pulling her by the arm. “It’ll be fun.”

  And it was. They played “Sugar Sugar.” The crowd cheered so much that they went on to play “Jingle Jangle.” The crowd kept cheering so they kept playing. Betty and Veronica stayed onstage for the rest of the gig, dancing and laughing and singing.

  “That was really fun, you guys,” Archie said after the show while the band packed up their gear. “I wish you two would rejoin the band. I know we’re not as glamorous as The Candy Hearts, and we’re still going to be called The Archies, but the band’s a lot more fun when you’re part of it.”

  Surprised, Betty and Veronica exchanged tentative looks, but the decision was pretty obvious to both of them. “We’d love to join the band again, Archiekins!” Veronica cooed.

  “Yeah, that’d be great!” Betty chimed in. “But,” she couldn’t help but add, “I do have a question.”

  “What’s that?” Archie asked, snapping shut his guitar case.

  “Well,” Betty hesitated. “I was wondering, why let us back in the band? I mean, we’d love to play with The Archies again, but after everything that’s happened, why take us back?”

  Archie smiled at them, his eyes twinkling. “Don’t you girls get it? What’s the point of cake without a little frosting?”

 

 

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