chapter twelve:
lost

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"i'm so glad i came with you. but trying to keep up was rough," sia laughed as she took a swig from her water bottle.

posie grinned, "what can i say, i'm fast,"

sis laughed, "you know you're like riverdale's golden girl right? i'm kind of jealous,"

posie looked at her funny, "what do you mean?"

"well, you've beat the state record in track twice now, you're a river vixen, you do fantastic in school, and you were dating the captain of the football team. does that not sound like every golden girl in the movies?"

mariposa shrugged, "i guess,"

if only sia knew about AJ, and the sisters and the things she went through from her stepdad. maybe she wouldn't think she's so perfect anymore.

"so how have your friends been treating you lately?" posie asked as the girls sat on the front steps of the cooper house.

sia sighed, "they still think i should get kicked off the track team. who knew this would be such a competitive sport? i thought it would be fun,"

"it is fun," posie reassured the younger girl, "they're just petty high school girls. i mean, you an i have fun running together right?"

the blonde girl nodded, "yeah we do"

"exactly. if this is something you enjoy, don't let them take that away from you" posie smiled at her new friend.

sia grinned back, "yeah i do enjoy it. you're right," she teased, "as usual"

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posie and luca sat in the back seat of her car with a sleeping AJ in her car seat between them.

there was a pile of phone books they found sitting on the console. in the front passenger seat was alice's and their mother, leanne's, adress books that they both 'borrowed' from their respective households.

"this is gruelling mar," luca said, tossing another phone book on to the pile after searching through the 'A' section twice.

"we have to do what we have to do luke. it's not like mom's gonna tell us anything," mariposa told her older brother.

"okay and let's say we do find him. then what? we go see him maybe, or just stalk him to see what he looks like? what if he left us for a reason pos," luca sighed.

mariposa placed the book she was looking through on the pile as well. she thought about it for a second. their mother had always told them he left, showed them one picture and left it at that. it didn't matter how many times they would ask, she would never reveal anything. and in mariposa's eyes, that meant she had to be lying.

"well," she started, "at least we will know. we could show up on his doorstep and he could turn us away and say he never wants to see us again. sure we would be hurt, but it'll be closure. and that's a gift not many people get,"

he sighed, "it just feels like we're looking for someone who doesn't want to be found."

"or maybe someone who's not allowed to look for us? mama lied to us about eric, who says she hasn't lied to us before that?" she reminded him.

luca pondered it. "i guess that could be the case,"

"exactly, so let's not worry about that right now. let's take a break though, this is boring,"

"what should we do?" luca asked.

AJ stirred and slowly opened her little blue eyes. she stared right at mariposa as she did so. the older girl smiled and picked up her baby to kiss her on the cheek.

"maybe we can pick up some pops and have a car dinner with christian like old times?" posie suggested.

"or we could drop off AJ with christian and see a movie with evie?" luca contributed.

posie shook her head, "no i don't want to leave her," she gestured to her daughter, "things would be so much easier if people knew,"

"well," her brother began, "why can't they?"

she shot him a pointed look, "that would ruin the cooper family's reputation and i don't need the blossoms all over me. jason never trusted them and neither do i. plus cheryl would turn all my friends against me and kick me off the vixens. it's not a winning situation for anyone." she explained.

"oh come on, the only person that cares about the cooper rep is alice, and she has a soft spot for you. cheryl would never boot her best vixen and the blossoms can't be that dangerous,"

"you'd be surprised," she muttered, but luca heard it.

he gave her a questioning stare but chose to ignore it. if she wanted him to know she would tell him, "okay fine. car dinner with christian it is,"

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posie strode over to the track where betty and cheryl already we're, an empty barrel in front of them. it was a little before school started and fall was starting in riverdale. mariposa shivered in the breeze a little and she's got closer to them. she held a box of matches in her hand and shook them as she approached the younger girls.

"posie, i'm sorry. i know you're still grieving and i should respect that," betty began.

mariposa smiled and nodded her head at the girl, "i forgive you,"

"and mariposa," cheryl said, "i'm sorry too. i should have been honest with you from the beginning. he really cared about you,"

"thank you cher, i forgive you too,"

cheryl sighed, placing the playbook into the barrel. "i can't believe he put your name in that book. he should never have done that,"

"these boys hurt people cheryl," betty said, holding her hand out. mariposa placed the box in betty's hand.

she took a match out and swiped it along the side of the box, handing the small flame to posie.

"it's all in the past now, it's time to move on," she said, tossing the lit match on top of the book.

she stared intently as the pages went up in flames. she wasn't surprised her name was amongst all the other girls. like the book said, she was a hot commodity because of her older brother. he used to be on the football team before he graduated. but she would be lying if she said seeing her's next to jason's name didn't hurt. she thought she was different to him, that he cared about her more. and possibly, overtime, that became true. but it was clear that when they first met, she was nothing to him but a couple points.

as if losing her young love and raising his child on her own wasn't enough, that just made her feel a whole lot worse.

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OKAY WOW I AM SO SORRY. i cant even begin to explain these last few days. next update will probably bring us into episode five which is the funeral episode so you can anticipate some drama these next few chapters

i'm definitely going to try and paste once a week, but every time i say that i never do so we'll just have to see how that goes.

thank you so much for reading i see we hit 2k views and almost 50 votes. i'm so thankful for all of you.