Archie and Fred hauled a large Christmas tree into Pop's Choc-Litte Shop. In order to pay off Fred's medical bills, the family had to start selling Christmas trees. Not the most glamorous job in the world but at least it was festive.
"God, don't work yourself too hard Lex, you might break a bone!" Archie said sarcastically, glancing back at Lexy who was strolling happily behind them.
"I'm supervising! Someone's gotta make sure neither of you slip on ice." Lexy replied.
Archie and Fred set the Christmas tree down beside the front counter.
"What do you say Pop, is it okay?" Archie asked the owner.
"The best tree yet! Thanks Archie, thanks Fred." Pop beamed at the green bristles.
"What about me?" Lexy asked.
"I thought you were just supervising." Pop said innocently.
Archie laughed and nudged Lexy playfully as she rolled her eyes.
***
"Okay Veronica, your turn!" Kevin chirped, handing Veronica her secret Santa present.
You could cut the tension in the room with a knife. Lexy did her best to lighten the mood but between all of the couples being broken up and Reggie's constant inappropriate jokes, nothing was really working. Veronica opened her present to reveal a gift certificate for a couples massage.
"You can go with Betty! Or your mom." Josie suggested awkwardly. She had obviously bought it before Archie and Veronica broke up.
"Or I can go with your Mom." Reggie implied.
Veronica rolled her eyes.
Lexy, who was squeezing into an arm chair with him, placed a hand on his shoulder "Reggie, I mean this in the nicest way possible... nobody enjoys your humor."
"Betty you're next and mercifully last." Kevin said.
"Well I think I know who picked my name based on wrapping skills." Betty laughed, unwrapping her present. She pulled out an old read along record her and Archie used to listen to as kids.
As Betty and Archie reminisced about the old days, Lexy saw Jughead and Veronica trying, and failing, to suppress their jealous looks.
"Hey! Merry Christmas everyone."
Everyone turned their heads to see Moose and Midge entering the student lounge together, for the first time in weeks considering Moose has been in recovery. Reggie and Lexy immediately jumped out of the arm chair they were sharing and ran to embrace Moose in a hug. His timing had never been better.
***
"Penny Peabody has got my Dad dealing drugs." Jughead said to Lexy and the Serpents who were gathered around an outdoor fire. "I know this because she had me doing it before him. Now, she's roped in Tallboy and Sweetpea."
"Man, if you're pissed because your old man tapped me instead of you-" Sweetpea started.
"No, Sweetpea, I'm pissed because I don't want the Serpents to end up like the Ghoulies. And I doubt that any of you became Serpents just to be at the beckoned call of a drug queen. I know where this ends. Death. Jail. Which is why, in the interest of self preservation, we have to take out Penny."
"Snake charmer's helped some of us." Sweetpea argued.
"Oh yeah? And what has she asked for in return, Sweetpea? How many favors?" Sweetpea shifted uneasily knowing Jughead was right. "If we don't stop Penny tonight, she is going to get every single one of us in on this, I promise you Sweetpea. What I'm asking is are you willing to risk your necks to save my dad's life?"
"Why is the Northsider here?" Sweetpea asked coldly.
Lexy arched an eyebrow at him, confused as to why he was being so cold to her. "Okay, rude, but yeah why am I here?" She asked Jughead.
"You're here because nobody knows knives like you do. And we're gonna need you in order to take out Penny."
"I am not killing Penny for you, Jug, if that's what your getting at!"
"I'm not. We're just gonna scare her."
Lexy sighed. "Well I guess I'm in then."
All of the other Serpents still looked skeptical until Toni spoke up.
"What is the first law?" She called out.
"No Serpent stands alone." Sweetpea answered, standing up and walking towards the fire. "I'm in."
"Me too." Toni said.
"Let's do this." Fangs added.
All of the Serpents began to stand up and make a circle around the fire. Lexy stayed seated but Jughead gestured for her to join them, forcing Sweetpea to roll his eyes. This did not go unnoticed by Lexy and Toni and Fangs.
After the Serpents planned out how they would take out Penny, Lexy approached Sweetpea who was getting ready to get on his bike.
"Hey, what's with you?" She asked accusingly.
"Don't know what you mean." He replied.
Lexy knew he was playing dumb but she explained herself anyway. "At Fp's retirement party, we had a good time, and now I'm just a Northsider to you again."
"You'll always be a Northsider, Andrews. Just because you're going through a rebellious phase doesn't mean that's gonna change anything."
Usually when Sweetpea called her Andrews, it was cute and she liked it. Now it sounded more like an insult and she felt offended. Lexy scoffed at his sudden outburst and rolled her eyes. He must've just had one too many drinks the night of the retirement party. He never really liked her.
"Fine. Whatever." She snapped, walking away from him and the rest of the Serpents.
Fangs noticed her walking away angrily and knew Sweetpea had something to do with it. "What did you say to her?" He asked.
"Nothing!" Sweetpea shot back.
"You know, you're my best friend, but you can be an asshole sometimes."
Fangs rolled his eyes and went back to talking to Toni, angry at his best friend for treating an innocent girl like a criminal.
***
Jughead and the serpents had just kidnapped Penny and brought her to a ditch in Greendale, knowing that nobody would see them there. Toni removed the bag they had over Penny's head roughly. The rest of the Serpents stood in front of her intimidatingly.
"Where am I?" Penny asked.
"You're in Greendale, your new home." Jughead explained. "But frankly, Penny, I don't care where you set up shop. But it's not gonna be in Riverdale. And it's not gonna be with the serpents. You wanna do drugs? You wanna extort people? That's your business. But not on the Southside. That belongs to us."
Penny began laughing patronizingly at him.
"You stupid, cocky kid!" She rolled up her sleeve exposing her snake tattoo. "Serpent law says you can't hurt one of your own."
"Oh Penny, it's time you learn, that tattoo doesn't make you a serpent." Jughead said.
He walked towards Lexy who was standing at the front of the group flashing her knife around like Jughead instructed her to. A scare tactic he thought would work against Penny. Clearly he was wrong.
"You have to cut off her tattoo." He whispered.
"As in the tattoo on her skin?" Lexy asked in disbelief.
"Yes."
"No Jug, no. I can't... you told me that this was just going to scare her. You said I wouldn't have to actually do anything to her!"
"She knows we're bluffing so we have to do something!"
"Well then beat her up, throw her in Sweetwater River but don't make me do this."
"Lex, as long as she has that tattoo we can't hurt her. None of the serpents can. And if we can't touch her then my dad and the serpents go back to being drug runners."
Lexy looked around at all the serpents who were looking on warily. None of them thought she would have to do this. They felt bad that she was being forced into it, but there was nothing they could do. She looked at Sweetpea, who shook his head at her. He knew she would never be the same if she did this. He hoped she would just turn around and walk away. But he should've known she was going to do whatever she could to help them. And she didn't want Sweetpea to go back to drug running, even if he was rude to her and doesn't think of her as anything other than a Northsider.
She took the knife from Jughead, her small hands shaking as she did so. She took a deep breath and marched towards Penny, who began to panic. Grabbing her arm and rolling up her sleeve, Penny screamed like a banshee as Lexy cut the snake tattoo off her skin.
Immediately after she finished, she dropped the knife on the ground. She left the ditch and ran down the road and behind a tree. Her breathing became heavy as she paced back and forth thinking about what she had just done. She didn't realize how long she had been there until she heard...
"Lexy!" Sweetpea exclaimed when he finally found her. "Are you okay?"
"Sweetpea, go away!" She shouted back.
"No, Lexy-"
"Sweetpea, I mean it, leave!" She yelled, waving her hands in the air frantically.
"Lexy." Toni sighed as she and Fangs approached the two.
"Did you not hear us calling after you?" Fangs asked.
"All of you, would you please just leave me alone!?" Lexy screamed, desperately trying to make them leave.
"Lexy, we're not leaving you alone-" Sweetpea said as he walked towards her, but before he could console her anymore, she turned her back to him and threw up on the ground.
She fell to her knees and continued to throw up, disgusted at the act she was just forced to perform. Sweetpea crouched down next to her and pulled her hair out of her face and mumbled words of reassurance.
When Jughead found them, guilt didn't even begin to describe the feeling he felt as he watched his friend getting sick because of him.
"I'm so sorry you had to do that, Lexy." He apologized quietly.
Once she had stopped puking and composed herself a little, she suddenly became filled with rage. She stood up and marched towards him, giving him a form shove backwards.
"'Had to do that'!? I didn't have to do that! You made me! How could you do that!? You promised me I wouldn't have to hurt her!" Lexy screamed as she continued shoving him.
"I'm sorry, Lex." Jughead replied, his voice cracking slightly.
"Just leave me alone. I don't want to see you." Lexy said, a hard edge to her voice.
Jughead nodded sadly and left the four of them alone. Toni wrapped her arms around Lexy who hugged her back weakly.
"I can't believe I did that." Lexy whispered.
"It's not your fault. You just wanted to help us." Toni said, smoothing out her hair.
"Come on, Lexy. It's late. We need to get you home." Sweetpea said placing a hand on her shoulder.
She turned around to look at him and shook her head. She was still mad about how he had treated her and this was not going to be his weak way of apologizing.
"Come on, I'll take you home. Before you're family realize your gone."
That was the only that convinced her. "Ok."
He led her to his motorcycle and helped her get on. She took his helmet and tightened it, her fingers still shaking. Sweetpea kept his word and drove her all the way back to Riverdale. They reached her house and she slid off the bike. She walked up her driveway without saying another word and sat on her porch steps.
"Lexy, are you going to be alright?" He called up to her unsurely.
All she did was nod slightly but Sweetpea sighed as he saw the disturbed look on her face.
"It's really cold. Go inside, Andrews. I'll see you soon."
She simply nodded again, so there wasn't much else he could do. Sweetpea put on his helmet and rode away, not able to get Lexy out of his head the entire way back to the Southside.
***
It was Christmas Day. Lexy was still freaked out about the whole Penny Peabody situation but she was recovering. Her dad and brother definitely noticed that something was wrong, she was a little more reserved than usual, but she used the old 'I'm just tired' excuse.
Lexy opened the front door to see Archie and Veronica kissing under the mistletoe that the Andrews family didn't put up.
"Sorry to interrupt!" Lexy chirped. "Just getting the mail. Carry on!"
The couple let out embarrassed laughs and entered the house. Lexy walked down the driveway to the mailbox and wasn't shocked to see no mail. She was shocked however to see a tall serpent, walking towards her house.
"Hey?" She greeted, but it came out as more of a question.
"Hey Andrews. Merry Christmas." Sweetpea smiled.
"Same to you. What are doing here?"
Sweetpea looked her in the eyes and his face took on a serious expression. "We haven't talked since... that night. You haven't talked to any of the serpents. I just wanted to check up on you, make sure you're okay."
"Yeah I'm great! The day after, it was like everything went back to normal." Lexy waved him off, talking about it too casually to be true.
Sweetpea knew she was lying, but before he could say anything Lexy spoke again.
"Why are you checking up on me anyway? I thought I was just a Northside Princess?" She asked, quoting his words directly.
"Well you definitely are a princess but you're not a Northsider... I mean... you are but you're not like all the others." He said.
Lexy avoided eye contact and brushed a tuft of annoying baby hair begind her ear.
"Look, I'm sorry about that. See, I'm not really good with... feelings. All the girls on the Southside are the same and all the girls on the Northside are either scared of me or turn their noses up at me. So I've never really cared about any girls before. That is, until I met you at that drag race. You were so different from anyone I had ever met. But when I started to to like having you around... I freaked out. I'm not supposed to like Northside girls. So I pushed you away. But it didn't take me long to realize that you were stuck in my head... and there's no way I can get you out of it."
Lexy blushed as he admitted all of this to her. Nobody had ever felt this way about her as far as she knew. He seemed like such a tough guy but as he told her his true feelings, she realized there was more to him than she thought.
"And as a way of making it up to you, I got you a little something." He said, pulling a small box out of his jacket and handing it to Lexy.
She opened it cautiously to reveal a beautiful, gold necklace with the initial 'P' with a crown on it hanging from the bottom. Lexy gasped and held it delicately between her fingers.
"Oh my gosh! Sweetpea..."
"That's the reaction I was going for." He laughed.
"P as in..."
"Princess." He finished for her.
"Sweetpea, you need to take this back and get a refund!" She placed the jewellery back in the box and closed his hand around it.
"What? You don't like it?" He asked.
"I love it..." She paused, "But you cant afford it and I didn't get you anything."
"You don't need to get me anything. And I know a guy who sells jewelry cheap to his friends on the Southside." Sweetpea explained.
"Okay, then I guess I can accept it." Lexy gave in. "Put it on for me?"
She turned around and brushed all of her hair to one side. Sweetpea put the necklace around her neck and fastened it at the back. She turned back around and smiled.
"How does it look?" She asked.
"Fit for a princess." He said.
Lexy blushed and fiddled with her coin.
"Well, I... uh... I better go... before your parents or someone sees us." Sweetpea stuttered.
"Okay, I'll see you soon then?" She asked.
"You bet, Andrews." He smiled cockily as he turned around and walked down the quiet street.