Unlikely - Sweet Pea

Chapter 2.0

The Serpents had all thought Andy would either start crying or yelling. Sweet Pea slightly narrowed his eyes at her, not threateningly, but . . . confused. He was oddly startled by her factual tone like everyone else. 

Usually when he threatened people, his general tone and appearance was enough to either piss someone off or completely terrify them. But this passive voice giving a genuine reply to his statement was very new. 

Archie brought everyone back to Earth and sighed before speaking, taking away Sweet Pea's ability to respond. "Look, An, I don't tell you what to do and you don't tell me what to do. I'm going to do this whether you want me to or not." Andy closed her eyes and sighed, her attention back on her brother. She didn't know how to pull him out of his self-destructive streak.

Frustrated, she decided to let him do what he wants. "You know what? Fine, go beat each other up like idiots. But if I ever see a gun in your hand again, I'm moving out," Andy said coldly, stepping back up the stairs. She left an awkward silence in her wake before Archie started up the conversation again, trying to forget his sister's words.

Archie turned back to Sweet Pea, and they decided that they were going to fight in the street without any weapons.

"So we doing this now, or what?"

--

Andy tried to ignore the groans and punches coming from outside her house, but eventually she couldn't help but run to her window to witness the damage. She watched her brother slam his fist into the handsome Serpent's face and had to wince and turn away. Even after what she said, the idiots still had their fight. Andy closed her eyes, rested her head against the glass, and wondered when it would end.

Suddenly, a gunshot rang out. Andy's eyes shot open as she frantically ran down the steps and out the front door towards the noise, under the impression that Archie somehow got his hands on another gun and shot the Serpent.

However, when she arrived on her steps about fifty feet from the rumble, she saw the Serpents running towards her. 

Or more correctly, running away  from the always fierce Veronica Lodge, who was dramatically sticking a gun into the air. 

Andy sighed a breath of relief as she realized Roni fired it to stop the fight. A smart idea, but this confirmed that Roni lied about throwing the gun into Sweetwater River, which made Andy a bit uncomfortable.

After realizing that no one had been shot, Andy allowed herself to remember where she was and what was happening around her. She noticed the rain for the first time. 

The skyscraper of a guy ran past Andy and she grabbed his arm on instinct. His sudden stop making her stumble slightly. "Hey wait are your guys all okay?" she inquired, squinting at him through the rain. 

"What?" He looked at her like she was insane.

"Your friends, are they all good without a hospital?" she asked.

"I-I, um, yeah. We usually are. This wasn't exactly the worst fight we've been in. But why do you care?" he asked. Her hand was still tight on his arm. She looked up at him through her rain-soaked, strawberry-blonde locks.

"I just wanted to make sure. I know you guys aren't bad people. We're all just kids," she looked down at her feet. "I interned at the hospital last summer. I'm not a brain surgeon or anything but if you guys ever need anything, Jug knows how to find me." She looked up at him through her thick eyelashes and wet hair. "I'm Andy, but I guess I said that already." She took her hand off his arm and held it out for him to shake.

He looked mystified and the rain intensified his brooding demeanor. Sweet Pea remembered how she helped prevent Archie from shooting him. He looked in wonder at her, a small smile sliding on his face despite the blood pouring down the sides of it. He tried telling himself that she was a Northsider. She was the enemy. But as she stood in front of him in the rain, holding her hand out for him, all he could think was how cold she must be and how pretty she looked and how sweet she was. He took her hand and shook it. "Everyone calls me Sweet Pea," he admitted. "And I will keep that in mind, Andy." They stared at each other for a while, their hands still locked together. 

"Wait . . . how do you know Jones?--"

The door to Andy's house slammed shut and they both jumped, separating their hands.

"Shit, I should go--"

"Yeah, you should . . . go."

They looked at each other one last time and Andy gave him a small smile. He returned it slowly before turning and jogging to his motorcycle, throwing his leg over it and revving the engine.

Andy watched him go, smiling softly to herself before turning back to her house and running up the steps. Luckily, Archie didn't see her talk to the handsome Serpent and was instead getting cleaned up by Roni. Andy snuck back into her room and dried off, changing into warm pjs and attempting to return to her math homework. Instead, she soon passed out, thinking about a certain Southside Serpent with a nickname that suggested surprising things about his true personality.