Betty and Veronica

   A bright spring morning found Betty and Veronica walking down downtown Riverdale, lost deep in thought. As a part of their end of the term project, Mrs Grundy had asked them to start an online business . A good business which raked in money, would help them get good grades. They were considering their options and trying to figure out what they were good at.

   They met a couple of friends walking from the opposite direction, who in the passing, complimented Veronica on her trendy outfit. As they walked on, Betty smiled excitedly .”That’s it Ron ! “ she said. “People keep complimenting us on our clothing sense and say they would like to pick something similar. So, we give them what they are looking for. We know where to pick the stuff we wear and how to put it together. So, let people tell us whom they want to dress up as and we will create the look for them. “

“That’s a fantastic idea, Betty”, said Veronica. “Let’s call the venture ‘Your look, Our style’ We put together their look based on our style. “

They immediately got down to putting their plan in place. First they went to Betty’s place, where they made a photo portfolio of all her favourite looks. T-shirts and shorts, mini skirts and flirty dresses cropped pants and bell-bottoms. She had a girl-next-door look which everyone loved. They repeated the same at Veronica’s place. Veronica brought her own rich-bitch style to the table. Sweater sets and pant suits, ball gowns and pearl sets, mink coats and ankle boots. Soon, they had a good collection to showcase online. A few minutes online and they had set up Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts for their business. Their model was simple. A customer would choose one of the looks they had advertised. Betty and Veronica would buy the clothes and put together the look for the customer. The satisfied customer would pay them for their services.

Betty and Veronica got busy advertising their business with their friends and acquaintances. Before long, orders started pouring in. Girls on a first date, asked to be dressed like Veronica and those for a day at the beach or a walk downtown, preferred Betty’s easy style. Soon, requests came from the girls to style their boyfriends too. With their friend’s permission Betty and Veronica added a whole wardrobe full of looks. Archie’s cool jeans and sneakers, Reggie’s V-necked sweaters and Jughead’s famous crown like hat. They also expanded their business to include Mr. Weatherbee’s toupee’, Mrs. Grundy’s no nonsense style of dressing and Mr. Lodge’s business suits. The business was doing very well indeed.

A few days later, Archie was walking in the park, when he saw Veronica seated on a park bench with her back to him. Deciding to surprise her, he crept up behind her and was about to place a kiss on her cheek, when a loud “AAARRCHHIIEEEE!!!!” had him almost falling over. He looked back to see Veronica glaring at him with her hands on her hips and the girl seated on the park bench giving him a curious look . “OMG !! Ron !! I thought it was you !! Honest !! “ said Archie slowly backing away from the other girl. The other girl who had now spotted Veronica, got up and ran towards her saying, “Oh Veronica, I loved the look you put together for me ! And to make it look authentic, I got the same hairstyle and dyed my hair black !” Veronica was not impressed. The intention of the business had been to help people and not to create imitations of Betty and Veronica themselves.

Soon, other complaints started coming in. Reggie had decided to play a prank on Betty, but had gotten slapped as he had mistaken a stranger for Betty. Jughead was miffed as everyone seemed to be sporting his special hat, Mr. Weatherbee could not buy a new toupee’ as all of them had been sold out and Mr. Lodge had been shocked one day to find all his employees dressed exactly like him. And the person most upset with Betty and Veronica was Mrs. Grundy herself. There was not a single person in the whole of Riverdale who wanted to be dressed like her. 

A week later, Betty and Veronica sat glumly at Pop Tates, sipping shakes. They had apologised to their friends for all the mistakes and were planning to pull the business down. Archie walked in and asked cheerfully, “Hey, what’s with the long faces?“ They both gave him a grumpy look to which he said “Cheer up, girls. The business model may have not been the best, but your ability to create good looks has not gone anywhere. Don’t dress up others like you, but instead dress them up the way they want to look .“ The girls thought over Archie’s words and thought it was a brilliant idea. “We can do this !” said Veronica. “But now, our venture has to be ‘Your style, Our look !’. We dress you up the way you want to look ! .“

This cheered up the girls considerably and they clinked their glasses with Archie’s, toasting their new venture.