We found the pair and invited them to the library. When I say the library, it wasn't the actual library, instead it was the small reading corner that overlooked the school's entrance. I wasn't surprised by the fact Stonewall Prep had a reading corner, arm chairs and more books than Riverdale High had in the building.
"Well considering we're trapped here until the morning, at least, let's say we pass the time with a game of never have I ever." Jughead proposed.
I was a pro at this game. Now I can feel most of you asking why, and saying that it wasn't really a game you can be good at. However, being the innocent Blossom, I hadn't done a lot of the stuff most teenagers had done, and I wasn't rebellious. That being said, I still knew most people's secrets or could at least guess what they were, hence targeting people and winning games just like this. It was easy when you knew how.
"I do love a good salacious drinking game," Donna commented, leaning forward in her chair as if she were at a business meeting. In some ways, they were, both her and Bret were practically being interrogated without it being too obvious. We all held up our hands as Donna offered to start. So, I flipped my red hair over one shoulder, leant forward smiling, and waited for the first round to begin. "Never have I ever kissed a girl."
5 fingers stayed standing.
"I expected you to be a little more scandalous, beauty." Bret commented as he and Jughead lost a life each. Without responding directly to him, I smiled at Jug, beginning my turn.
"Never have I ever taken illegal drugs," at my comment, Bret went down to three and Donna lost her first life. I knew that there was more to Stonewall Prep than met the eye.
Bret, clearly angered slightly at the fact neither Jugher nor I had taken any form of recreational drug, decided to ask about Riverdale being the 'drug capital of the world'. I was certain that he was making a dig towards the drug dealing associated with the Serpents. Bret took a drink and took his turn.
"Never have I ever been in a gang," Bret smiled, watching as Jughead and I put down a finger each. Not only were we in a gang, but we were the leaders of it. Proud leaders. Jughead was on three, the same as Bret, and I was the same as Donna, a fact that seemed more intentional with every connection of eyes.
"Really? But you look so sweet." Donna added to me, referring to the fact that I was in a gang. I knew that it would be common knowledge that I was not only in the Serpents but the queen. No one disrespects the queen.
"And you look like you have loving parents, but I know they dump you here to forget your existence." I snapped back. A queen scorned is a dangerous enemy, and Donna gave every wrong vibe. Donna sent back a viscous glare but otherwise remained silent. These preppies may believe that they were entitled to everyone worshipping the ground they walk on, but a Blossom bows to no one, and an Andrews is never talked down to.
At Jughead's turn, he ended up finishing the flask, Donna and Bret not willing to admit to being in any form of secret society. It was a round that we guessed they wouldn't admit to, but it was the perfect way for me to search their rooms.
"Oops, looks like you lose that round, Forsythe. Now you gotta finish the whole flask." Jughead took the flask and downed the remainder of its contents. There wasn't much left in there anyway. Jug handed me the flask and I made the excuse of going to refill it.
Once out of sight, I left the flask on a side table, heading towards Donna's room. She shared it with Joan, another of the members of Mr Chipping's elite group, and another of the preppies currently helping make Jug's stay here hell.
The room was like any other, two beds on either side and the desks and drawers filled and topped with meaningful trinkets. The most logical place to start is the desk, so I moved to the one that had a picture of Donna and her parents sitting proudly atop, and began to open draws. On the desk, I found a small silver box, so I opened that as well, a tie pin falling out of it. This tie pin wasn't hers. On the end, I saw the silver pin depicting a quill biting a skull, which reminded me of everything Jughead had said earlier that evening. Twisting the delicate piece of jewelry in my fingers, I saw two letters inscribed on the back. RC. Now I wasn't the best detective, but I knew Donna's name didn't begin with R.
Without trying to arise any suspicion, I walked back into the library area we were playing in, the pin safely in my pocket.
"Jug, I can't find where you put the bottle," I said, everyone's eyes on me.
"I'll come and show you, you probably wouldn't be able to open it anyway," He jested, resulting in me giving me a half offended slap to the chest. He placed his arm around my back, guiding me out of the room and back towards his dorm.
"Don't be too loud, Queenie," Bret called, clearly interpreting our departure as something else entirely. Him calling me that was wrong. He wasn't a Serpent; he knew not of the meaning of the name he was calling me. At the name, Jughead tightened his hold on me, guiding us quicker than before.
When we got to his room, I had barely opened the door before beginning to talk to him.
"Jug, I found this tie pin in Donna's room, and it has an engraving on the back. The initials RC." I told him, handing it over to my boyfriend in order for him to have a look further. Then, I voiced my slight hunch, asking what Mr Chipping's first name was.
"Rupert." Jug answered. That meant the initials matched his. Now it could all be a coincidence, but I had dealt with too many mysteries to believe in such things. "How does Donna have this?" He asked, as if I had all the answers he was searching for.
At first I shrugged then added the known fact that killers often had a habit of taking something from their victim. Although Chipping died through suicide, that didn't mean that it was entirely his own doing. So, with this new evidence in hand, we made our way back to confront our enemies. In this game, it is all moves and countermoves until one team forces the others hand and they surrender. Just like chess, we felt we had Bret and Donna in check.
"There you two are. We thought you'd been murdered. Or does Forsythe really last that long?" Bret asked, directing the question at me. I clenched my jaw, looking over the pair. Bret sat in the arm chair like it was a throne, and Donna placed her arm over the back of it, trying to play queen.
"No dice on the booze, I see. Forsythe you must have done something incredible to make you forget that key ingredient." Donna added, looking me up and down, searching for a hair out of place, or a single trace of lipstick on Jughead that she could ridicule.
"Not a drop to be found, and trust me, if that was what we were doing, we wouldn't be standing here now," J replied. I couldn't help but agree. After not seeing my boyfriend for a while, I wouldn't be standing with the preppies if that was what we were doing. In fact, we'd be just starting.
"But I say we keep playing the game, and I'll go next," For added dramatic effect, he held his hand as if he were about to play another round. "Never have I ever tried to cover up a murder." In unison, the pair looked at eachother, and then back at us, smiling as if they knew nothing. I suppose that was true, at this moment, they knew nothing of what we were going to put to them.
"Oh, you guys are just so cool. You know that?" Jughead sat in the armchair opposite Bret, me standing beside me, just like Donna was doing to Bret. And as the men locked eyes with each other, I kept my gaze trained on Donna. The key to fighting a snake, never look away first. "You're never breaking a sweat, never betraying an emotion. Hell, writing fake suicide notes, how cool is that? But you guys aren't as devious as you think."
"Otherwise, you wouldn't have left incriminating evidence, like Mr Chipping's tie pin." I added, holding up the pin for them both to see.
It was Donna's eyes that betrayed her emotion. A mix of shock and anger as she asked rhetorically if I went into her room. A look of pure innocence flashed over my face, as I held my hands up.
"It was an accident, I swear. All the doors look the same and I'm still learning my way around." Her face hardened into a harsh glare.
"Between a suicide note and a tie pin, you two are trying to cover up somethin about Mr. Chipping's suicide. Or was it a murder? Care to explain?" Jughead leant forward as he questioned them, sure he was onto something and close to unravelling the mystery.
Donna's face then looked down, a look of false sadness creeping into her stoney look. She met my eyes one last time, showing me that she had already come up with a reason for having the tie pin that was far from the truth, and then returned to looking down.
"You were there Jones. You saw him jump. No one pushed him out that window," Bret said to us. The semantics of words was amusing. The phrasing was very particular. 'Pushed' implies that it was an action, less a mental blackmail.
"Not physically. But Psychologically, Mr. Chipping could've been pushed to the edge." Once I had finished my words, Donna made a swift exit from the room, walking swiftly back out where we had come in and heading towards her room.
Of course, I followed.
"Donna. How? Where... Did you get this? We just want to know the truth." I told her as I entered the room. This time the lights were on, and Donna was standing in the middle of the room. Whatever she was about to say, I had to take with a pinch of salt, knowing that anyone would say anything to place the blame elsewhere. The girl who had held her head so high before, was now turned to me with a very teary face.
"Mr. Chipping gave it to me, okay? We were having an affair." I nearly walked out. She had made up an affair in order to shift blame, but this would perfectly explain the suicide, and completly explain away her possesion of the tie pin.
Donna sat on the bed, her head hung. She had been practising this act for a while, clearly, because this was almost believable.
"I knew it was wrong, and I didn't want anybody to get into trouble, so I tried to break it off with him. But then he got aggressive. I was so scared. I told him if he didn't stop, I'd go to the headmaster, and then..." Her performance was academy award winning. Her tears break her speech at just the right moment. But, it didn't explain away the fact this girl sat there, blank faced as her 'abuser' threw himself out the window, a fact that now she was so upset about. "The next day, he jumped out the window." I took a deep breath. In order to poke holes in her story, I needed to get her to think I believed her, and that started with a sympathetic smile and a hug.
The night was drawing in, ending with Jughead and I sat on his bunk, his jacket wrapped around my shoulders as he ate chips and I ate chocolate.
"I'm so confused. This whole time, Mr. Chipping was the bad guy? It wasn't Bret or Mr. DuPont? And poor Donna." I had told him everything, adding the fact that I didn't completely believe her, but without proof she was lying, we had no choice but to take her story as truth.
"I'm still not so sure that Donna isn't playing us, J." I told him, handing him a new packet of chips.
"What do you mean? Are you saying she made all of that up?" He took the chips and began eating them. I tried to remember a time where we weren't in some kind of gripping dramatic tale, trying to ride every twist and turn that the story threw us.
"I don't want to say that, because there is always the possibility that they had a harrowing affair. But there's a possibility in which the story she told me was to stall us from uncovering the truth. You should just talk to your headmaster, Jug." I suggested, adding that at least it would get it on his radar, hint that something weird is happening at this school. He agreed to this, saying it would be his first task come Monday morning.
"Hey, I was thinking maybe, if the storm clears up by tomorrow morning, that we can go home for the weekend." The original plan was for us to spend the weekend at Stonewall, because everyone would be going home, save a small few that kept to themselves. But, knowing that Bret and Donna were also staying here, made the both of us a little more wary.
"Sure. In the meantime, how will we stay warm tonight?" I questioned, grinning at Jughead, and rubbing my arms for effect. It was freezing, and I had on a jumper and Jug's jacket, yet I was still feeling the chill of the ice storm.
It was silent for a moment as Jughead stared at me, smirking slightly as I grinned back. Suddenly, he swiped his hands over all the packets, sending them falling to the floor as he pushed his body over mine, pinning me underneath him on his bed. I couldn't help but giggle at his antics as he connected our lips. That night I felt warm, all night.
There was one thing we missed that night. There was something we missed that should have been the most obvious thing in the world, yet we both missed it. We missed the red light of a camera flashing in the corner of the room, pointed straight at us.
At the end of the weekend, I stood beside Archie as he hung a plaque on his community centre wall, honouring his father in the work he was doing for the kids of Riverdale. I hung the photo of our dad, in a brand new frame to match the plaque it was beside, Archie pulling me into a hug. I was proud of my brother for the work he was doing, and I was even more proud that he fund a way to honour our dad.
We moved to stand beside his mum, she put her arms around each of us. Betty and Jughead stood on my side, Veronica and Reggie beside Archie, all looking at the wall and remembering the man of the town. Everyone, all our friends, turned out to the community centre to watch this day.
"What do you think guys?" Archie asked his mom and me.
"Your father never would've believed this," She answered first, and I told him that our dad would have loved this. Dad made me proud to be an Andrews. And I felt like I was finally learning how to float, how to tread water, so now I could start swimming.
As Mrs Andrews addressed everyone that had come, I looked at the plaque, looking at the quote we had placed on the bottom, a quote that everyone needs to know, every troubled soul needed to remember. 'Don't let the life around you take the life from within you.' Jughead came and wrapped his arms around me. "I love you, Cynthia Andrews." He whispered in my ear. I turned to him, smiling at my boyfriend and the man that I loved so much. "And I love you, Forsythe Pendelton Jones the Third." I mocked, using his borderline regal title. He laughed, shaking his head, kissing my hair before looking back to the plaque.