monsters | riverdale

Wicked Little Town

You know what say about Riverdale—things can't simmer for too long. At its heart, Riverdale was and is a wicked little town.

Stonewall Prep and all of its madness is behind Mickey, Jughead, and their friends. Not soon after that conquest, the third round of tapes were sent out by whoever's stalking the town.

Veronica leans against the locker next to her sister's. "Daddy's acting like his condition doesn't even exist."

There's also the problem of Hiram Lodge and his declining health.

Mickey closes her locker. "Did he go to his appointment this morning?"

"Yes," Veronica says undoubtedly. "But he was taking his sweet time, like he didn't care if he was late or if he missed it." Then she notices the color-coded binder Mickey's holding and asks, "What's that?"

Then Jughead joins the sisters. "Yeah, what is that?"

"So, I talked to all your teachers, Jug, and we figured out a way for you to catch up on all of your classes." Mickey hands him the binder.

He cracks it open to see there's a printed table of contents as the first page with a color key. "That's not daunting at all. There's an index."

"Red is for American History. You missed the mid-term, so you can catch up by writing an essay on either the Trail of Tears or the Salem witch trials."

"Salem witch trails, definitely."

Mickey kisses him on the cheek, "You really are my soulmate."

"What's blue?" Veronica questions.

"Blue is English. You can choose amongst, Steinbeck's The Pearl, Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, and London's The Call of the Wild, for your book report."

He sighs.

She notices the distress creeping on his face. "What? You've already read all three of them."

"No, I know, it's just, writing a book report...—now I know, how Sisyphus must have felt. Given how far behind I am on literally every topic, is it even worth trying to catch up at this point?"

"Look," Mickey faces him fully. "I know this is a lot. It's a lot of work, but it's only for a couple of months. Just to make sure that you graduate. With me. With all of us. What is more important than that?"

✿

Fangs and Mickey were hanging out when they got an SOS text from Kevin. The two of them enter the music room to find Kevin playing some depressing melody on the piano.

Kevin swings around on the pink bench to look at them, "Late breaking news, I am now singing Oh, What a Beautiful Morning, from Oklahoma! for the variety show."

"What happened to Hedwig?" Mickey inquires.

"Honey nixed it. Said it was too controversial. I told him it celebrates identities, genders, expressions of all kinds and it speaks to our entire generation. He didn't want to hear it though." Kevin's big brown eyes are sad and his bottom lip is sticking out slightly.

Fangs says, "Kevin, if you wanna do Hedwig, you should do Hedwig."

"Honey would yank me off stage before the first note."

"Yeah," Mickey gives Fangs a confused look. "How would he even pull that off at the variety show?"

"Hell, I don't even think he should wait for the variety show." Fangs glances at Mickey and then back at Kevin with a mischievous smirk. "I think you should go rogue."