The hallways looked oddly bleak that morning as I walked down them. Maybe it was the horrible nightmare I had last night or maybe it was because of Jason's murder or maybe it was because it was just a Monday, but something felt off.
Principal Weatherbee had just told us the pep rally would not be cancelled and that if anyone had any information regarding his death they should report to his office as soon as possible. Cheryl had also came on the intercom, telling us that she already had suspicions of who the murderer was and to use the hashtag #riverdalestrong. She sounded different, almost like she really was sad this time.
Jughead was standing next to the water fountain with Archie when I found hi m that morning.
"Is there something you want to tell me pal?" Was all I heard him say as I walked up to them.
Archie said nothing and left.
"What was that about?" I asked with an eyebrow raised.
"I've been thinking, you said you saw Archie with Miss Grundy on July Fourth and that was also the day of our road trip."
"Oh. That's strange."
-12:00 pm.-
"Seats everyone." The teacher announced as he walked into the classroom, "Pair off, gloves on, scalpels up."
"Can I be with Cheryl?" Archie piped up.
"And I want to be with Betty!" Veronica called out while Betty mumbled something about wanting to be with Kevin.
"Actually, uh, Keller's with me. We, like, talked." Moose decided as he began to walk towards him and winked.
"Oh god." Kevin breathed as he approached him.
"And I'll be wi-" I stopped talking when I saw Jughead already paired off with someone in the back.
"I'll partner with you." A small voice said from behind me.
I turned to find a blonde girl with a small smile on her face and I felt something die inside of me.
Little Isabelle Simpson, one of Cheryl's followers sat behind me.
Isabelle was always a quiet girl who rarely spoke. I didn't know much about her, except for that one thing.
"No Mom! Please!"
I turned and saw Isabelle looking at her mother with tears in her eyes. She was in her bedroom and I could see little through her the blinds on her window, but I managed to snap a few pictures.
"Listen Izzy, you need to take these!" Her mom commanded holding a small container in her hand and a glass of water.
"You don't understand! I feel like I'm going insane!" She shouted at her.
"Honey these will help. Just take them!" She pleaded.
Isabelle caved onto her bed and shoved the small thing down her throat.
Her mother left the room and the bottle sitting on her window sill.
She looked at them with pure hatred and started to unlock her window.
I ducked under a bush and I saw her throw the empty bottle out her window and then slam it shut.
Stealthily, I grabbed the bottle and read it.
"Topamax, perscribed to Isabelle Simpson. Take once daily or as suggested by doctor."
Of course I had no idea what that was so I looked it up and found it was a bipolar medication. The perfect, sweet Isabelle was bipolar. The medicine bottle was stashed in my safe along with the picture I had snapped of her and her mother's fight.
"Uhmm, okay."
I slipped into the seat next to her and let out an awkward cough.
"So, dissecting frogs, that's interesting." I said in an attempt to start a conversation, but to no avail since she just nodded her head in agreement.
We sat in silence as we prepared the frog until she finally spoke up.
"Do you think Cheryl had something to do with Jason?"
I looked at her in complete shock, "Why would you say that?"
"Well," she started quietly, "her story doesn't really add up and I asked her about it this morning, but she got extremely defensive and angry at me."
"It's possible, but why don't you believe her? Aren't you friends?" I asked her.
She shrugged her shoulders, "Not really. I usually hang out with her because I've known her for so long. I'm usually a bit shy, if you couldn't tell, so I don't make friends easily."
She smiled at me a little bit and nervously tucked a light strand of hair behind her ear.
"Well then we'll be friends." I stopped to think. "We can hang out at Pop's later."
She beamed at me, but her expression slowly changed and she pointed to Cheryl.
"I'm fact I'm amazing." Cheryl said loudly before plunging her scalpel into her frog and ripping it open.
-3:00 pm.-
The library smelled faintly of old books and flowers as I wandered in. My father told me I was supposed to meet Camden here for my therapy session. The problem was it was empty.
My eyes settled on a book sitting on a table near the window. After walking closer to it I found Camden in the corner reading "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens.
"Oh Marina, You're here." She said, shutting the book and setting it down on table. "Have a seat."
I slid into a chair next to her and crossed my arms and legs. Maybe if I looked uninterested she would get discouraged and let me leave.
"So I know you don't want to do this and that you hate the fact that it's almost like a therapy session an-"
"Is a therapy session." I interrupted her.
She rolled her eyes, "Look, we don't even have to talk about anything serious unless you want to. So let's talk about something else."
My finger tapped against my phone case as I held it in my arms.
"Alright, what do we have in common?" She asked.
I fiddled with my hair and mumbled a barley audible, "Nothing."
Her head shook and her brown waves shook with the movement, "Our siblings are in the same grade."
I perked up at the statment, "You have a sibling."
"Yeah," she said obviously excited I was engaged, "Lily, she's friends with your brother I think."
"Wait they're friends?"
Max never brought anyone home, on the rare occasion he was actually there.
"He comes over a lot and they practically live at Pop's now."
This shocked me more than it should have, I mean he was an eighth grade boy of course he went other places and hung out with people, including girls. Did I really not know my brother that well?
"Are you and Lily related biologically?" I asked her.
She raised and eyebrow, "Of course. Why wouldn't we be?"
"I just thought that since you were adopted th-" I stopped myself when I realized that she didn't know that I knew about her current situation.
Her jaw dropped and she looked around the room furiously.
"Who told you I was adopted?"
"I-I kind of found out."
"You can't tell anyone!"
I blinked at her, "I wasn't planning on it. Why is it such a big deal anyway?"
"It just is." She sighed, "I think our session is over, you can leave now."
I left the library regretting the fact that I said that. I had probably just ruined her day. Then again, I shouldn't really care it's not like we we're friends anyway.
-6:30 pm.-
The car began to rumble quietly after I turned the ignition. Max sat quietly in the passenger seat next to me, emotionless.
"So I heard you a Lily Collins were friends." I stated causing him to get red-faced.
"W-we're not friends." He said hastely, "She just invites me over sometimes."
"I know that look Max, " I laughed as we pulled out of the driveway.
He folded his arms and put his hood on his sweatshirt up.
"How long have you been talking?" I asked him.
"Since school started." He answered plainly.
I saw him smiling under his hood and fiddling with his thumbs.
"She's good for you Max, you seem happier so I assume she's going to be at the pep rally."
"Yeah," he said allowing his Cheshire Cat grin to show. "She's good I guess."
We drove in silence for a little while until I finally got the courage to tell him what I'd been wanting too for a while.
"You can talk to me Max. We're obviously going through similar things and I miss the little brother who I could cuddle and watch a movie with, without him screaming and running to his room."
He looked over at me and took in a breath, "I know, I just feel like you've been getting more attention than me and like, I'm having problems too."
"I know, and I'm sorry I didn't realize sooner."
I parked the car in the highschool parking lot and got out.
"Hey, c'mere." I said to him.
He walked over to me and I hugged him as tight as I possibly could without popping him.
"Mari, you can let go now." He said nervously and I noticed Lily watching us.
"Alright, alright. Have fun and don't do anything stupid."
"Bye, Mari!" He shouted at me.
Lily hugged him and I couldn't help but smile when he shakily grabbed her hand and they walked through the gates to the football field.
Why the heck am I making a background character have a better lovelife than me? I also added Lily to the cast list because she becomes more important a little later on in the story. Btw I might leave out some parts and the dialogue won't be exact in some parts because took episode two and three taken off of the CW app so I can't look back at it anymore to check myself.