fierce ↠ sweet pea [1] [✔]

|| THIRTY-SEVEN ||

"Come with me," Weatherbee ordered, and Fangs took a final glance at his friends before following the Principal down the hall, his hands once again in his pockets carelessly.

"Christ, when did his balls drop?" Jared asked Sweet Pea who just shook his head, still looking off down the hall. "I expected you to be the one refusing to ditch the leather Sweet Pea."

"Yeah, well," Sweet Pea breathed, looking the other way to see Toni and Lauryn walking off. "I would've, and I honestly don't give a damn about what these losers think, but, hell, I can't let Lauryn come on her own, and I won't tell her because she'll insist she can do it alone."

"How many people know?" Jared asked, and Sweet Pea shrugged.

"I don't know. Lauryn's not dealin' with all of this attention well, though. I wouldn't let her go through this alone."

"Damn," Jared chuckled as they started walking again. "Remind me to host an award ceremony and give you first prize."

"Nah, I'm just doing what any boyfriend would do," Sweet Pea said, and Jared punched his arm lightly.

"No, dude, I'm serious," he insisted. "You got lucky with that girl, I know I'd treat her like a queen."

"Yeah, uh," Sweet Pea chuckled awkwardly, wondering if he got the wrong end of that comment. "She's great."

Once they got to the lounge after going to their lockers, the girls were already stood together, coffee in hand. "Hey," Lauryn smiled, reaching for her boyfriend's arm as she was relieved he was there. "We were just talking about Fangs' newfound charisma, if you will."

"I still can't believe Fangs' pulled that stunt," Toni remarked, sipping her cup. "I wonder how long he'll be suspended for."

"With that attitude?" Sweet Pea folded his arms, shrugging. "I don't think they're gonna go easy on him."

"What the hell?" Jughead interrupted, spotting them as soon as he entered the student lounge. His suspension had obviously finished, and he was no longer being driven by his unbreakable pride. His jacket was nowhere to be found.

The Serpents ambled into the centre of the room, somewhat embarrassed. Toni knew he would react like this, and she was no happier about it than he was. "Weatherbee gave them to us, said he understood that not every Southside student had the means to purchase Riverdale High acceptable clothes."

"He thinks this will help us fit in," Lauryn explained. "Well, him and Veronica do. If you ask me, it's a play just to make us stand out even more."

Jughead's eyes panned over the Serpents in the room, and he noticed Fangs' absence. "Where's Fogarty?"

"He wouldn't wear the uniform," Sweet Pea answered, glancing down at Lauryn who raised her eyebrows. She somewhat wished she hadn't turned up after all. "So, they got rid of him, suspended him."

Jughead stood before them, in slight denial. He shook his head, wondering how the school could be so transparently discriminative towards the Southsiders. "So, our choices are conform or be cast out?"

"Yeah." Toni nodded, her voice in a lower tone. The other two Serpents gave each other a regretful look. "Meanwhile, we're the laughing stock of the Northside."

"I won't be surprised if we make it onto the front page of the school paper," Jared added on. "They're creaming their pants at us looking stupid. Well... most of us."

Lauryn noticed how Jared looked over at her when he said it before awkwardly looking away, and she furrowed her brow a millimetre in confusion. 

Jughead then had an idea. If they couldn't show that they were Serpents at school without getting kicked out, they'd have to do it secretly. He came up with a plan to host a club during the lunch period, hidden by a title of Swords And Serpents in an imaginary and nowhere near actually created game world.