pairing: Jughead Jones x Y/n L/n
( made this one slightly platonic simply because them being a couple adds nothing to the story at all )
Narrator's pov:
*six months prior*
Y/n's heart was racing as she walked down the narrow street that lead to the Whyte Wyrm. Tonight was the night she officially joined the serpents. All the rest of the initiation tasks were fairly easy for her. Taking care of 'the beast', reciting the laws, and even retrieving the knife, came naturally for her. Over the past few months, she'd felt out of place on the Northside, and began to wonder about what else the town had to offer. She didn't remember the southside to be as bad, or trashy as the people on the northside made it seem.
Her father was a southsider, a serpent himself, but completely opposite was her mother; a northsider completely against gangs and the violence that came along with them. Y/n was raised on the southside, however she was currently living with her mother on the northside, and had been going to school on the northside for a few years, so she was incredibly unfamiliar with anything recent going on in the southside. That's when she met Toni, and by default, her best friend Sweetpea, one night at the Bijou, the town's one movie theater that was located on the border between the two sides of town. They became friends immediately, maybe it was her short-temper or wit, but the two instantly connected.
After a while of hanging out with the serpent teens, she let them convince her to join, officially. Toni had ranted to her about something called the 'serpent dance' and how it was misogynist and gross, and how somehow she complained enough to get one of the serpent leaders to bend the rules slightly; giving the girls an option now. Toni wouldn't explain what the dance entailed, but assured Y/n she wanted nothing to do with it. Instead, Y/n was to undergo the gauntlet, which to her understanding was just an excuse for a group of people to beat the shit out of you, to 'prove your strength,' and while the idea terrified Y/n, she knew it's what had to be done.
"There she is." Sweetpea muttered under his breath as he stood beside Toni, who had a slightly concerned look on her face while clutching a leather jacket between her small hands.
The group of serpents got into their spots, forming a double-sided line. She started to hyperventilate, questioning why she agreed to do this in the first place. Though, she pushed all her worries aside and stepped into the line. She clenched her stomach as the first few punches were thrown and though the group was combined of both female and male serpents, they were all equally strong.
The next punch was directed towards her face, making her stumble backwards, then being pushed forwards, into the next hit. After only a minute or two, she was covered in blood. There she stood, in front of the last serpent. She knew what was ahead, the final strike. She'd observed others go through the gauntlet, and the final hit was always the worst one. She stood there in pain as she waited. She flew to the ground as the pain shot through her cheek, the brass knuckles used, were sure to leave a mark.
Fangs Fogarty, another serpent who she became familiar with over the past few months, stuck his hand out to her as she lay sprawled across the grass, attempting to catch her breath. She accepted his hand as he pulled her off the ground, patting her on the shoulder, to which she winced. "You did good, Y/n."
"Great." Toni corrected, "You did great." She handed her the fresh, new leather jacket that was customary when joining the serpents. She smiled at her friend, feeling accomplished, in a lot of pain, but still accomplished. She finally felt at home with that group, seeing as that's where she came from, she finally felt like herself. There was only one thing left on her mind that night; how was she going to hide this from her northside friends?
Y/n's pov:
*present time*
I shuffled behind a group of people crowding through the main entrance of the school, the small double doors small enough to slow us down to what was almost a complete stop. I could feel my bag being pushed from behind, but continued to ignore it and just kept moving forward as fast as I could. I walked through the halls barely looking where I was going, so sleep deprived I felt as if my mind was still at home, tucked underneath my blankets, far far away from me. I had music blasting into both ears, in an attempt to keep my thoughts quiet as I walked to my locker. Before I made it there, I bumped shoulders with someone walking full speed in the other direction, headphones on, head hung low, just like me.
I picked my head up to see my best friend, Jughead Jones, standing a foot away from me, with eye bags that matched the ones resting beneath my eyes as well. He was the first to speak after the slight moment of awkward silence as we just stared at one another;
"Y/n, Hi. Um, I was meaning to come find you, actually-" Last night was another one of our fights. We fought a lot for two people who claimed to be each other's best friend. But every time we fought, it was always for a reason, and we always made up afterwards. Last night he was having another angst episode where he took his anger at the world out on me. It was nothing we couldn't move past with a simple conversation. However that conversation was not happening at that moment, for Jughead's sentence was cut off by the sound of the doors being opened aggressively as a group of leather-coated teens walked into the main building.
Serpents. I was so absorbed in our hormone-induced argument that I forgot the northside's worst nightmare was coming true today; the teens from southside high were being transferred to riverdale high, due to their drug-ridden school being shut down.
Less than five minutes had gone by and there was already a clique battle happening, right in front of the main office. Sweetpea and Reggie were the main concern, while Fangs and a few of the other serpents looked like they were going to chew the heads off a group of football players. Reggie began babbling some recycled rant about how all southsiders are trash, or whatever else he decided to spew that day. Sweetpea looked like he had just about enough and stepped forward even more, clenching his abnormally large fists in anger.
Both Toni and I knew what was about to happen, Sweetpea was going to swing at Reggie, and there was going to be a mass fight in the middle of the hallway. Before that could happen, Toni stepped forward, screaming for them to stop while pulling the tall serpent a few feet backwards. There was a short pause before Reggie looked like he was going to speak again.
"Why can't you just leave them alone for once?" I blurted, loud enough so I knew Reggie would be able to hear me. Reggie and I had our issues in the past, due to him just being a total douchebag at all times, so he already held a grudge against me.
"Why does it matter to you anyway, Y/n? Are you friends with these thugs?" I rolled my eyes at how dumb he sounded, glancing to the group of serpents, remembering how many times they'd helped me in the past, and all of the friends I'd made within the group.
"No, you idiot, I am one of these 'thugs'" I slightly lifted the sleeve of my t-shirt to show him the snake tattooed across my bicep, a symbol serpents used to identify themselves. Reggie just rolled his eyes, it's not like it was very shocking to anyone. It was expected, most people who knew me knew my father came from the southside. It was one of the things people used first against me in an argument.
Immediately after that, principal Weatherbee stormed out of his office, demanding the feuding kids go to class. The crowd parted, and while I tried to walk towards my first period, Jughead had other plans. He took me by the arm, forcibly dragging me into the nearest classroom, peering in first to see that the class was completely empty.
None of my friends from the northside liked the serpents, in fact, most of them hated them. Jughead had never explicitly said any different, so I figured he agreed with them. So when he looked at me, saying nothing and waiting for me to speak, I couldn't help but think he was waiting for an apology.
"I'm not going to apologize, Jughead. If that's what you're looking for, you're looking in the wrong place" With our most recent conversation being an argument, I was naturally on edge for what this one would bring.
"You have nothing to apologize for. I'm not mad you're a serpent, and quite frankly I'm not shocked either. You know my dad's a serpent right?" I nodded slightly, knowing how sensitive his family life was to him. "I just want to know why you didn't tell me, I thought we told each other everything. I just want to know what made you want to go behind my back" I could hear the hurt in his voice, he wasn't angry with me for not telling him, he was hurt that I kept such a big part of my life secret from him.
"I'm sorry Jug, I really am. I just figured with everything going on, I didn't know how you'd react."
A smirk made its way to his mouth as he wrapped his arm around my shoulder, "So you're in a gang now?" He asked with a laugh as we made our way to first period.
. . .
I tried to save this one the best I could but there's really no plot to it