Stand of Pearls ~ Vughead/Jeronica

Ch, 12. Break In

Veronica

We head inside, Jughead quickly shuts the door, he looks panicked, so does Betty. Betty quickly shuts the blinds and begins to print out more photos to add to the board.

"This is bigger than we thought," Jughead let's out a nervous breath.

"Who is Penny, why is she called the snake charmer?" Betty begins to hand the photos, Fred, and a picture of a woman I am assuming is her.

"She is a Southside Serpent," Betty begins to tie string around Penny and my mother, then pinning a piece of paper Sugarman scribbled onto it.

"Who is the Sugar Man?"

Betty shrugs, "I have no idea, I have never heard of him before. What's bad is that she is involved. We don't need to worry about who that is right now. We need to be more worried about her"

"But she is a Southside Serpent why would you have to be worried about her if she is one of you right?" I ask them.

Jughead shakes his head, "she is always on thin ice, she is one of us but she keeps her word so we can't exile her."

"Well what has she done that has made you two afraid of her?" I ask. Betty looks up at Jughead.

"She has made many of our friends do her favors for her. After she grants them something they desire, weather that be information, money, etc."

"She has video of our friend Sweet Pea delivering drugs, she has lots of blackmail on almost all of the Serpents. Luckily nothing on either of us, we were about to make a deal with her dealing with Fp's sentencing in court, but his father forbid it."

"He quote said, 'you will be banished and stripped of your jackets if you make any dealings with that woman,'" Betty added.

"We almost did it anyway just to help him, but we got Cheryl to speak out, and his lawyer turned out to be pretty decent, the judge was lenient too."

"That's why my father can't get rid of her because of all the blackmail she has on almost all the Serpents, my father included."

"What is also scary is that she is a lawyer. She is on the correct side of the law, she says it is so she can help the Serpents when in reality it is for when she needs to look good. Who will believe us? We are seen as criminals while she is seen as a respected lawyer so who will they believe?"

I nod, "you've got a point, but she is a Serpent so maybe some of them know what she is up to. I say we head to the bar right now and find out."

Betty smiled, "the problem is they might be suspicious about us coming right after Penny saw two strangers hear the information shared tonight."

"Then we talk to your dad Jug. Don't give me that look your his son he will not rat you out to anyone. We have to you know we do he could be wrapped around this. He won't snitch on you and especially not her. Let's give it a try, worse comes to it he doesn't know anything and he keeps a look out. That is a good thing for us."

Jughead nods hesitantly, "alright, let's head there, I still don't like this."

Jughead

We pull into one of the front parking spots, a lot of Serpents are here tonight. Betty and I head in first, many are at the bar drinking and laughing while others are playing pool. I head over to Veronica and hold her hand, "don't glare at anyone and just be confident as always and we will be fine."

Tall Boy comes up to me, "long time no see Jughead, Betty, a month? Two? What has you back?"

"Were here to see Fp," she says.