As we sit in class, wondering what Cheryl meant by her saying she was guilty. The teacher quickly makes us go back to the lesson. And I am left their wondering if the girl that I comforted about her dead Brother was the one who murdered him all along.
Not too long after Cheryl was taken, and we see her parents storming through the halls and after hearing them, telling her not to say another word, they drag her out demanding she tells them everything when they get home
Later at home, a newspaper gets dropped on my bed as I am reading the problems for my biology work and it's a picture of Cheryl next to her brother with the headline "Cheryl Blossom guilty as sin" I sigh taking my glasses off looking up at Veronica " poor Cheryl first her brother dies and now this how much do you want to bet that Betty is tearing her mother a new one" I giggle softly " oh for sure because I know that she's upset with her mom for leaking Jason blossom's autopsy, and now this is just the icing on the cake" Veronica says sitting on my bed " so where have you been running off to after school you haven't been at Pops and you haven't been here. I asked Smithers. Have you been running off with a Jughead and How is that going? You two look pretty cozy at the dance" I sigh " I can tell you for sure it's not going anywhere. He confided in me that he likes somebody else so I've been getting to know some of his friends from the southside and they are... basically just like me" I smile softly as my phone dings next to me as if on cue. I pick up my phone receiving a message from Jughead
J: "meet me at pop's I would like to talk to you"
Without responding, I quickly get up to get changed " hey V I'm going to meet jughead at Pops. I will see you later." I say as I push her out of my room. I quickly get changed into a pair of jeans and a band T-shirt. And I quickly head over to Pops.
I quickly see that jughead is in his usual booth and I said across from him with questioning eyes " what's up jug?" he looks at me with a look I cannot read and then takes a deep breath. " look I know I told you that I like somebody else but I also like you and I don't know if or what. It's going to happen between me and the other person so if you would like to try, we can work towards something." He plays with his fingers with his laptop closed in front of him
I Giggle softly at his shyness and I grabbed his hand " I am fine with that. And I'm happy that you came to me instead of just saying it over text" we sit and talk for a little while longer and he then walked me home as it gets later "I'll see you at school tomorrow jug" I smile and kiss his cheek He smiles back, but little did I know the real reason he opened up to me about this.
~next day at school~
Is jughead, and I hang out in the hallway we soon make our way to the lounge wear my sister, betty and Kevin are sitting and talking " so are you a suspect now?" Veronica asked Kevin. " my dad says we all are including me." Kevin says. " not Veronica, and I we don't know these people." I say while entering the area " guys, should we may be re-binge making a murderer on Netflix tonight?" Kevin asks with a smile. " can't sorry. Gotta stay late to work on the paper." Betty says "and I'm helping Betty" I say next to jug " count me out too. I got a date tonight." Veronica says "you do?" I ask curiously "who?" I look at Veronica " which riverdale hottie made the cut?" Kevin asks as she's about to answer someone speaks up "hey Vee-Lo i'll swing by the Pembrook to pick you up at 8" Chuck says. " I'll be waiting." Veronica says, with a smile on her face.
" Chuck Clayton?!" I ask " you're going on a date with Chuck?" Kevin asks " he's kind of a player" Betty says and I point at her agreeing " I've heard things around school V be careful" I say softly " who cares? he's the hottest of hot and he is the varsity football coach his son in Riverdale. That's like dating a Kennedy" Kevin says as Veronica looks proud of herself, not caring about the warnings.
As I sit in the blue and gold with Betty, we hear a voice from the door " is print journalism is dead. What am I doing here?" we both turn and see jughead. " the blue and gold isn't dead. Juggy it's just dormant." I laugh softly but not before catching the nickname Betty has for Jughead " you're writing a novel, right? About Jason blossom's murder?" Jughead box up not want to making eye contact with me "I am" he grabs a magnifying glass " Riverdale's very own in cold blood" and Betty soon cut him off " which started out as a series of articles. I'm hoping you'll come write for the blue and gold." She looks at him a bit flirty and a realization comes to me. This is the girl that jughead told me he had feelings for.
Jughead smiles a little bit " I just don't think the school paper is the right fit for my voice" he says now looking at me "juggy..." he looks back at Betty " Jason's death has changed Riverdale people don't want to admit that, but it's true. We all feel it. Nothing this bad was ever supposed to happen here but it did." She says as she steps closer and closer to Jughead " I want to know why" she says softly " would I get complete freedom?" He asks " I'll help, and edit and suggest, but it's your story. Your voice." He laughs " doesn't sound like complete freedom, but.. " he smiles a bit wider at her " I'm in" Betty clapped her hands together and give him the biggest smile " OK great! Um, in that case, I have your first assignment there was one person who was at the river on July 4th that no one's talking about" jug got serious suddenly "Dilton Doiley and his scouts." Betty nods " exactly" Jughead wipes, his nose with his thumb and then walks out, not even saying goodbye to me and I suddenly feel a bit of jealousy this is probably help that he felt after Veronica and Archie went into the closet together.
"Hey B I know I said I would help but I really have to go" I say in a soft voice "oh are you ok?" She asks, looking worried. And in the back of my mind, I know that I was the only one jughead had that talk with. I nod and look down " I do have one question is there anything going on between you and Jughead?" She looks at me shocked. " of course not. He's a really good friend." I nod not entirely, believing what she said.
A few hours later Veronica comes back from her date, with a smile on her face, and soon goes to bed
As Veronica and I walk down the halls the next morning we split off as she goes to talk to Betty and Kevin at her locker no doubt about Chuck. I woke up soon after I hear somebody ask my sister about what they said was a "sticky maple" and I grew curious and soon my phone along with Betty and Kevin's start ringing and we see the post that pops up " oh my God" Kevin says loudly as I finally get the picture up on my phone and my eyes go wide Veronica, snatches Kevin's phone asking what a sticky maple is " It's exactly what it sounds like it's kind of a riverdale thing." I cut him off. " no Kevin it's a slut shaming thing." I say angrily " and I am neither a slut, nor am I going to be shamed by someone named, excuse me, Chuck Clinton" Veronica says angrily "does he think he can get away with this? Does he not know who I am? I woke up the brakes on his souped up phallic symbol-" Betty cuts in " or we can go to principal weatherbee" I roll my eyes " about the coaches son, who is captain of the football team?" I snap still feeling anger from the day before " and not to mention Riverdale highs resident golden boy" Veronica says after me " or I can expose him on the pages of the blue and gold. Yeah, I can do that." I shake my head and laugh a bit " spoken like a true girl, who always follows the rules and Veronica doesn't follow rules" sous chef, Kevin's phone into his arms " I make them and when necessary I break them" she starts off with me following close behind with Betty falling behind me " do you want to help me get revenge on Chuck Betty? awesome but you better be willing to go full dark, no stars what do you say? In or out?" But he looks at me worriedly as we follow my sister into the boys locker room to find truck and we bump into Archie. Almost nothing. His towel off as Betty is hiding her eyes "Betty? What are you guys doing here" Archie asks and Veronica pushes him to the side, telling him not to worry about it, and he tries to step in front of her " I mean it Andrews hit the showers and stay out of my way" she pushes him more pulling Betty behind me walking past silently as she walks up to chuck
Veronica clears her throat getting Chuck's attention "Huh B and V Ménage a right on ladies oh and V's sister y/n/n" he says well, rubbing his hands together, licking his lips, and my sister shelves, her phone in his face as I get ready to punch him " this is disgusting. Take it down." Veronica demands " whoa, whoa, why are you so wound up? It's a badge of honor." I laugh along with Veronica at his comment " and you're not exactly Virgin territory after your closet date with Andrews" I step forward but Betty beats me to saying something " OK that's beyond irrelevant Chuck you're not allowed to go around humiliating girls for any reason under any circumstances you jerk" and Chuck moves his attention to Betty " look I get it you're not a closet kind of girl but hey if you want to ride the chuck wagon that can be arranged" I scoff and as mad as I was at Betty I grab her arm pulling her by my side as Veronica speaks up " let's keep this simple , so that your preppy murderer half brain. Can grasp it Take. This. The hell. down." She steps forward " OK that high toned bitch attitude may have worked on the betas you did it in New York but you're in bulldog territory" a guy behind him barks making me glare at him as B and V jump a bit and more guys bark "but please, fight back" he eyes, Veronica, and I up and down before walking away but stopping in front of her first saying " you'll only make it harder on yourself" he then brushes past me, and I fight the urge to punch him so hard that he won't be able to have children.
As we go to our next class or in my case free period a text Sweet pea
~Texts begin~
Y/n: hey sweet pea are you busy right now?
S: I'm in school what's up?
Y: same I just have free time, and I am bored can I come by later?
S: for sure, I can pick you up at the border of the northside and Southside after I dropped you off I got an earful from jugheads dad
I roll my eyes
Y: OK I will meet you there after school lets out and after I get something to eat
~Texts end~
as we sit at home, Veronica and I are sitting at the table doing our homework, more like her scrolling on her phone through the comments of Chuck's post and me doing my work soon her phone starts buzzing " it's Betty can I take it?" She asked our mom who just got home from work. I continue my school work until she comes back in. " mom. Y/n and I have to go back to the school to help Addy with the newspaper. We completely forgot and Buddy) is waiting for us" she says, as she gives me a look to go along with her our mother looks at us and I'm nod " oh yeah, I completely forgot let's go V" we grab our things and rush to the school soon entering the room for the blue and gold seeing Betty's surrounded by other girls
" the story is bigger than we thought. I started asking around to see if what happened to you has happened to anyone else and if anyone could go on record." A girl with short curly hair turns to Betty "I will 100%" very nice back as a response to her and looks at Veronica and I "it's five guys on the football team. Chuck and his posse. Ethel was about to tell us." Betty says pointing to the girl with the short curly hair " one day last year Chuck and I talked in the library for 10 minutes. I helped him with a pre-Cal problem, and nothing happened. But the next day he... he started telling people that I let him do stuff to me like, sex stuff." The girl starts looking very uncomfortable " and then he or one of his goons wrote " sloppy seconds" on my locker" and as soon as she said, that, we hear another voice from the doorway and that voice belonged to Cheryl
"Yes, yea we've all heard your tragic origin story" she says leaning against the door frame " I'm so sorry Ethel that's horrible" I say softly earning a sad smile from the girl " not as horrible as being a suspect in your own brothers torture/murder case but we all have our crosses" Cheryl says " in the meantime River Vixen practice starts in five minutes, sluts, so..." Ethel cuts her off with tears in her eyes " they're ruining our lives and tell them it's just a game they keep score..." I cut her off "wait, what do you mean they keep score?" I look at her with shock. "each conquest earn some points they keep track and some secret play book" Veronica, laughs, dryly, quotes OK we have to talk to Weatherbee" Betty says and Ethel shakes her head " I already tried Weatherbee said he didn't find anything" I sigh "we need proof" Betty says " proof of what Nancy drew? that boys will be boys? And that type of reeks of Suburban Legend" Cheryl snaps " how would you know Cheryl ?" Veronica asks " because Frida Shallow, before he died, my brother was cocaptain of the football team with Chuck and Jason never mentioned it, and he never would've allowed it" she laughs a little at the end " OK well I never met your brother, but I'm not lying about what happened to me and Ethel is not lying and proof or no proof, book or no book, I am going scorched earth on these privileged despicable miscreants do you want to take hot in that backdraft Cheryl? Call me, or any of these beautiful, young, strong, intelligent women "slut" one more time" she says dangerously low as Cheryl smiles
(I'm skipping past all of the stuff that happens after this and skipping pass the part where they already found the book and are currently in the locker room looking at it)
"Polly's in this book" Betty says and I look at her "next to Jason's name" Cheryl says as Betty walks away "I'm so sorry Betty" Veronica says "This isn't.. Jason would never..." Cheryl stumbles on her words "it's right there Cheryl! Your brother hurt my sister. This is what guys like Jason and Chuck. Think about women wr're objects for them to abuse. And when they're done with us, they shame us into silence. They have zero remorse for the lives they destroy." We all stay silent as Betty rants "maybe u don't know jason" Cheryl simply says, then walks over to Betty and Veronica takes a picture to show to the principal, and as I stare at the book, they talk about how the girls deserves justice, but I zone out mid conversation, putting the book away and storming out of the locker room
~skip to next day~
Veronica and I walk up to Betty as she is holding the freshly printed blue and gold papers " quite the expose" Veronica says " didn't you guys hang out all night when did you find time to write it B?" I look at her. As she sighs tiredly "uhh stayed up all night couldn't sleep after.." Veronica folds her arms "me either" I look between them " what did you guys do to the point where you couldn't sleep?" I ask, and they quickly change the subject until I walked away. And they started walking down the hall.
I see Coach Clayton, walking his son out of the doors as he is suspended and kicked from the team The girls are talking about how they got justice for Ethel. And then later on in the day after school, we all went our separate ways and I see Cheryl and Betty go off together and I met jughead in the blue and gold room we were talking a little bit and then Betty walked in with Dilton and he immediately starts talking " if you publish that story saying I fired that gun my life will be ruined. I'll be banished from the adventure scouts, and charged with a misdemeanor. So what if I have a better story" we all look at each other and motion for him to continue talking " if I tell you what I know, promise me, the gun shot stays between us" Betty walks around the front of the desk and nods " you have a word as journalists" she says as she sits by Jughead
Dilton leans forward " I saw something at Sweetwater River something nobody else saw, miss Grundy's car by the rivers edge she was there.." Jughead starts to look worried as Betty and I look at him and at each other