I didn't want to start a new school. Especially halfway through high school. My mom and I lived in Seaside, but my dad, being the nitorious gang leader he was, had gotten threats from people saying they had found the place he called home, where his wife and son resided, and they were going to kill them, so he brought them up to Riverdale, where the Ghoulies, his father's gruesome gang was. Stan wanted to stay in Seaside for many reasons. But the main one was his father's rather rough upbringing towards Stanley. If Stan was two hours away from where his dad's business was than he wouldn't beat him regularly. Now than Stan lived with him, he could only imagine his weekly beatings would become more frequent. Stan walked up the sidewalk of his new school, Riverdale High. He didn't have a car yet, said he enjoyed walking places. The school looked old, but pretty nonetheless, Stan thought. He opened the huge doors, revealing a long hallway, many classrooms and offices off of the wall. The hallway was still relatively empty, seeing as it was 7:15 and school didn't start until 8. A small brunette boy stood in the hallway, a bag slung across his shoulder. He was holding a folder.
"Are you Stanley Uris?" Stan made eye contact with the boy as he mentioned his name. He changed his direction and was now walking towards the short boy.
Yes, that's me."
"Great! Well, I'm Eddie Kaspbrak, you're student mentor and tour guide. Here's your schedule and a list of extracurriculars." Stan took the folder of papers from him, pulling out his schedule. Eddie looked at it and showed him where his first period class would be. Eddie went on about some of the schools bragging rights, and special things about the school and the town as he continued to show him around the school.
"Do you want to sit with me and my friends until school starts? We sit in the library." Eddie offered him. Stan agreed and followed him into the library.
"Mike, Ben! This is the new student I'm showing around today, Stanley Uris. Stanley, these are my friends, Mike Hanlon and Ben Hanscom." He motioned to them. Both boys were smiling. The boy Eddie had introduced as Mike stood and stuck his hand out to Stanley. Stanley gladly accepted it, shaking his hand.
"Nice to meet you Stanley." Mike offered, a genuine smile towards him.
"Nice to meet you as well. Also I prefer to go by Stan, if you don't mind." He stuck his hand out to shake Ben's as well. Ben returned it and shyly said "Nice to meet you, Stan." The bell rang then, Ben trying to put things back in his bag quickly, Mike neatly stacking the papers for him. Eddie spoke up.
"Stan? Are you ready? I have to get you to your class and also get to mine on time so we need to go." Stan picked up his messenger bag from the floor and followed Eddie into the hallways again, waving a quick goodbye at the other two boys.
"Ben is quite the book worm isn't he?" Stan asked, and Eddie broke into a smile.
"Yes, he loves to learn and to read and to write. He always has his nose deep into some type of book." They had reached Stan's class, and Stan bid a goodbye to Eddie and told him he would see him after class. Stan walked into his class. A loud buzz of voices surrounded Stan as he entered into the class. He chose a seat on the far side, three seats back. No one sat in front of him. The bell rang and the rowdiness of the class calmed. A teacher, stood up, a bleach blonde haired woman who was rather skinny.
"Settle down, settle down. Alright this is Junior English, anyone not supposed to be in this class right now should go. I'm Ms. Criss." She continued talking about the class, and talked about the new assignment, which annoyed Stan. First day back and they already would have homework. The class went on and on. Stan finished his work early on, and then plugged his headphones in and listened to music. Finally the bell rang, and he collected his bag again. As he walked out, his eyes on his feet, zoned out. With Stan's luck, he ran into someone. He looked up, apologizing profusely. He looked up at who he ran into. It was a girl, a girl who he looked like he didn't want to mess with. She had red hair, but not like the traditional ginger hair. It was maroon. Bright, bright red, fiery, like the heroine from Aquaman. She was wearing a black tight shirt that cut off right above her belly button. She wore shorts that went to her mid thigh, and fishnet tights. She had combat boots on that were studded on the toe. She had black nail polish decorating her fingers, and dark lipstick on as well. To top off her outfit, she had a leather jacket on. A large snake sprawled across the back of it, the words 'Southside Serpents' around it.
"You might wanna watch out." The girls voice sounded like poison, but also honey. He wanted to hear her voice and only her voice.
"I'm so sorry, very sorry." He apologized to her once again. She smiled at him, sweetly, and exited the class with others people who were wearing similar jackets. Eddie was waiting in the hallway, ready to take Stan to his next class.
"Hey, Eddie, who is that girl there, with the red hair?" Eddie's eyes widened at the question.
"She's trouble, that's what. Her name is Amelia Tozier, she's a southside serpent. Which is a gang. She's tough, and scary. You don't want to cross her, she's very dangerous, or at least her family is. Her dad's a leader in the gang. All of her family is it as well. Her brother who didn't want to be a Serpent moved out the day after he announced he didn't want any part of it. Their cold-hearted people." Eddie shivered, like he was cold, or scared of the gang.
---
It was now a month onto Junior Year, and Stan was well adjusted to his new life. He hung out with Eddie, Ben and Mike still, they were nice boys and Stan got along with them quite well> Eddie was short tempered and often fought with Stan (playfully of course). Mike had a similar personality to Stan, and they got along quite along. Ben still didn't trust Stan entirely, and was still quiet and a little awkward towards the boy. Not cold, but not super welcoming either. He knew Eddie and Mike both liked Stan and that they wanted him in their group, so he swallowed his truth about the situation. Stan had a secret as well, one that he couldn't tell anyone. Not his mother, or his father, seeing as their ghoulies. He couldn't tell his new friends, seeing as they were terrified of the Serpents. Stan had hopeless crush on Amelia Tozier. The bell rang and they all headed to their classes. Stan had his Chemistry class now, one of two classes he didn't have with one of his new friends. He sat down at the back table, where he had sit since day one of the class. He usually sat with Dustin and Max, who like to argue but they were good company. Neither of them walked into class that day though. The class started and Mr. Sinclair began his lecture. Stan zoned out, which was abnormal for him. About halfway through class, something, or rather someone brought him back to the real world. Low and behold, Amelia Tozier was standing in front of him.
"My friends all partnered up and Toni is home sick today. Wanna be my partner?" She chewed on some bubblegum. Stan looked up at her, stunned at her once again. She was wearing a long black shirt, one with holes in it, like a fishnet shirt, a black lacy bralette underneath. She had black jeans on, and black heeled combat boots. And of course, her Serpent Jacket. Stan came too from admiring her beauty.
"Um, sure..." She sat next to him at the table, kicking her feet up, leaning back in her chair.
"What exactly are we partnering up for?" Stan asked embarrasingly. Amelia laughed at him.
"You really weren't paying attention were you, completely zoned out. We're doing a project on creating the periodic table in an unique way." He nodded, but he could only think of one thing, she was watching him while he was zoned out.
---
Stan stood outside of the school. Amelia had invited him over to work on their project. Stan was incredibly nervous. He had yet to meet any of the Southside Serpents, nor did he know that the Tozier's and the Jones' lived altogether in a huge mansion looking home. Soon, the rowdy group of intimidating teens emerged from the school. The group being led by two raven haired boys, one with his serpent tattoo visibly on his neck, the others on his shoulder. Amelia, and two other boys brought up the rear, the boy with black hair and coke-bottle glasses had his arm thrown around the boy with brown hair and blue eyes. Every last one of them was wearing a black leather jacket with the Southside Serpents emblem on the back of it. Amelia immediately noticed Stan, and motioned him over to them. The rest of the serpents, all of which knew the names of, from class, but had never spoken too. Amelia slowed her pace, distancing herself from her gang, so her and Stanley could have a decent conversation without being interrupted by their loudness.
"I'm sorry about them, they mean well, but a bunch of teens who are mostly ADHD or can't be cooped up for long hours of the day tend to be energetic and maybe a little overexcited, but they calm down by the time they get to the bar." Amelia smiled at her rowdy friends. But Stan looked at her confused.
"They let teenagers into a bar?" Stan asked. Amelia nodded.
"It's pretty much our headquarters. My father owns it." Stan nodded his head. "Everyone except for Rich, Bill, Jughead, Betty, and I all go there after school. As she said that, a group of the teens turned down the road, bidding the five teens a goodbye. They walked a little longer, soon getting to the nicer part of town. They turned down the final street in a neighborhood, the houses stretched down it, rather large. At the end, the largest on the very end of the street. A huge cream white house, almost mansion-like.
"You live here?" Stan asked, amazed, as they climbed the steps. Amelia nodded and one of the boys, Richie, spoke up. "Ya, our dad got wrongfully convicted of a crime before we came to Riverdale. When we did, he wanted us to have the best life he could give us, so he took the money the government gave him for sending him to prison for a year, and bought our entire family this house, his brother and his family live here too." They entered the home, Stan was amazed once again. It was decorating simply, the only abnormal thing was the amount of snake decorations, but that was normal for this particular family.
"My rooms this way, we can get to work." Amelia told Stan, and he followed her up to her bedroom.