VIPER→ s. pea [1]

CHAPTER FOURTEEN ✔️

Midge followed after the brunette, the two switching to talk about fashion instead as they entered the lockerooms, changing into the cheer uniforms.

˚✧₊⁎*⁎⁺˳✧༚

    After the morning practice Harley decided to take Midge's advice. Or her own. She wasn't really sure. Whoever's advice it was, she was taking it. It explained why she was currently headed in the direction of the Mantle boy. She hadn't spoken to him since the fiasco that was welcoming the Southsiders to their school. She really didn't want to either, if she was being completely honest. Lately he had been acting like a complete douche. She understood that he despised the Southside, she really did. In fact, she was supposed to feel the exact way. That was how the northside parents of Riverdale raised their children, the Byers were no exception.

The truth that many of the residents of Riverdale refused to admit was that the Southside wasn't as bad as they were made out to be. Sure, some of them were Serpents, but if the Northside hadn't excluded them, if they hadn't shut them out in the cold, none of this would've happened. And as far as Harley knew, the Serpents were more than just a gang of violence. They were a family. At least according to Jughead. The Ghoulies might've fit the description about the Southsiders. They were truly reckless, violent, drug dealers and ruthless. The Serpents? Not so much.

But the Northsiders liked to have someone to put the blame on. While they were born with a silver spoon in their mouths, some raised to be the very definition of perfect ( like Harley, or Betty ), they all made mistakes. So, to make them all seem spotless and perfect, the blame was out in the Southside. The finest of Riverdale's teens did drugs? Southside High was raided. The golden boy Jason Blossom was murdered by his own father? FP Jones, the Serpent king was arrested. A lunatic Northsiders out on a Hood and decided to target 'sinners'? The entire population on the wrong side of the tracks were blamed.

They just never seemed to catch a break.

Of course, there were exceptions. Some people didn't automatically put the blame on someone else. Instead, they owned up to it. Take Fred Andrews. He was shot. Everyone kept telling him that the culprit who had done it was a Southsider. Did he assume the same? No. He admitted that he too was scared, but he defended the Southside at the town hall meeting infront of the entire town. Then there was Betty Cooper. When everyone was sure that FP Jones was guilty even after Clifford committed suicide, she posted an article defending him, painting a big fat target on her back. It resulted in someone hanging a voodoo doll at her locker, writing with pigs blood on it.

The world was a cruel and unfair place. Riverdale was no exception.

Backtracking to the present. Harley was hurrying down the corridor towards Reggie. Something about his expression made her furrow her eyebrows. He looked smug, more so then usual. She tapped him on the shoulder, gaining his attention. But before either one of the teens could say anything, Principle Wheaterbee came walking down the school corridor, wearing a deep scowl.

     With an accusing finger pointed to the Serpents standing at the far end of the hallway, he spoke up. "Now, which one of you defaced our school seal with this graffiti?" He demanded. Harley's eyes widened as she looked up at Reggie. If possible, his smirk had grown even cockier looking. She ran a hand down her face in disbelief.

Please tell me he didn't. "Reggie what the hell did you do?"

The look on his face was answer enough.