It was over. The evils of Stonewall Prep had been vanquished.And life in Riverdale, more or less, picked up where it had left off. I went to hospital appointments, trying to settle into the mindset of fatherhood, Archie and Veronica were back to being the IT couple, and Betty was back to reporting for the Blue and Gold.
But at its heart, Riverdale was and is a wicked little town. So, no one was surprised when a third round of sinister videotapes was delivered to our doorstep.
Another round of videotapes. I wasn't surprised in the slightest and they were just the same as the last ones. Whoever was making these, was going to great lengths for very little gain other than freaking out the entire town for a few days. Just as with the previous tapes, the ones before were forgotten until a new one arrived. But what did we expect, that was Riverdale.
One thing they were good for though, was bringing the whole family together. Because, just like every other household, the Coopers and the Jones' and me, were all huddled onto the couch, watching the tape and skipping through hours of nothing. And once everyone had gone to bed, I stayed at the window. In a town like Riverdale, a wicked little town like Riverdale, the tapes would only be the beginning, and I dread to think what the step up would be.
"And if you've got no other choice, you know you can follow my voice," I sang. This year's variety show would be featuring songs from Hedwig. Even better, the songs suited this town more so than they should.
Then I felt arms snake around my waist, settling on my stomach. 9 weeks. Nearly ¼ of the way through and getting ever closer.
"Through the dark turns and noise of this Wicked Little Town," Jughead sang huskily in my ear. I loved it when he sang. His tone was rough, barely used, but sweet and melodious, and everything that I wanted to hear. Jug knew better than trying to pull me from looking out the window, instead joining me, showing me that he was there and wasn't about to leave anytime soon.
No one slept much that night, although that wasn't unusual for the town's resident queen., as they waited for a new day to dawn.
Betty had made a binder. Of course she had made a binder. It was all to try and get Jughead to graduate with us and I had no doubt that a similar one was made for Archie. It was colour coded and labeled and indexed. He had an essay for American History that would be his first task; a book report for English; many more colours because that was only red and blue. He still had green and yellow and purple and black and white and pink and orange. Easy stuff.
Jughead's pursuit to graduate led to me reading his book report on 'Call of the Wild'. It was a book that the both of us had read, and it was the one I had chosen for my own book report. But as I read, I had to tell myself to keep a straight face, to not frown, because I was thoroughly disappointed with all of it.
"Okay, so you know I support you, and I think you are going to be one of the greatest crime fiction writers of our generation, Jug." I began, thinking that it is always best to start with the positives in situations like this. I wasn't used to Giving Jughead criticism. "But this feels a little...phoned-in." I admitted.
I watched his face fall slightly, but he didn't seem that surprised. It was like he knew it wouldn't be his best work and he didn't mind showing me tha. Every novel I had read of his was outstanding, but a simple book report lacked individualism and creativity.
"There's typos and incomplete sentences, and I still don't know what the thesis is." As I spoke my words, Jughead sighed and put his head in his hands. I just looked at him expectantly, awaiting his response.
"Yeah, okay. Maybe I'll go offline, hole myself up in the bunker after school and really focus on it. Play Thomas Pynchon for a while." I smiled at him, telling him that it would be a good idea.
The next day it was Archie that announced he had signed up for the variety show. It was agreed that Archie and Jughead could use rehearsals for the variety show as an excuse to have a break from studying and essay writing. We would be The Archies.
I was thinking of outfits for us in my head, the kind of design we would all go for when suddenly we heard the sound of Kevin over the PA. Now it wasn't the sound of the joyful, whimsical director that we all knew and loved. It was the sound of a rockstar Kevin, ready to tear up the stage. We were instructed to get to the music room. The whole school stood and ran to the music room, but I was the first one there.
Kevin owned the stage, in full drag, with Toni on drums and Fangs and Sweet Pea on guitar. He even came off the stage to plant a full mouthed kiss on Archie as we all cheered him on. The sound of the doors opening was a distant sound as we all sang along with him. It wasn't until Mr Honey came and stood before the stage, eyes pulled into a hard glare that we even bothered to realise the repercussions of their actions. Still, it didn't deter us from singing along.
"You're done Mr Keller! You're off the variety show!" The principal threatened, but no one on stage cared or stopped their actions. They knew what consequences they would face, and they planned on going out with a bang. This had to be the best 'bang' that Riverdale had seen yet. And it ended with Mr Honey pulling the plug on the speakers, and Kevin strutting out of the music room.
That night it was deemed 'girls night and Kevin' meaning we were all sitting on Betty's bed, eating candy and deciding which pizza to order. I hadn't had pizza in weeks because everyone was trying to make me 'eat healthy'. Now I may be pregnant, but that didn't mean I had to spend 9 months eating rabbit food and slowly wasting away. But said girls night had one very sad Kevin staring out of the window. Betty tried to ask him what was up, and I moved to sit on the window seat with him, pulling his hands into mine and smiling gently at him.
"Sorry, it's just- working on the variety show made me feel like I was reconnecting with the old, pre-Farm Kevin. Mr Honey didn't just take that away. He made me feel like I was nothing." I could see the tears in his eyes, and I knew the other girls could see that too. He then went back to staring out of the window, looking longingly into the night like it held his answers.
"You know what makes me feel better?" Betty began, then jumped into a perfect rendition of 'Wig in a Box', to which we were all going to join in on. The aim was to make Kevin feel better, so feel better he would. "On nights like this, when he worlds a bit amiss," Betty sang, nodding to me to continue as she pulled Kevin into a hug.
"And the lights go down across the trailer park." I then ran over to her tape player, pressing play. Music filled our ears as Betty and I began to sing together.
"I put on some makeup, turn on the tape deck, and put the wig back on my head," As we sang, we moved over to her vanity, when she placed a small tiara on her head while I picked up a cat ear headband that she had lying around. We put them on our head and fluffed our hair so it sat perfectly before continuing.
"Suddenly, I'm Miss Midwest Midnight Checkout Queen, until I head home and I put myself to bed."
"I hear what you're saying Betty, but I don't think even a Blossom makeover montage will help," He protested as we sat Kevin down in front of the vanity, the others joining us and helping to model different accessories on Kevin. By the time we were finished, he had tried on nearly every wig we could find and we all flopped onto the bed, facing the ceiling laughing.
Just as we had lay down I sat up, trying to rid myself of feeling sick.
"You good, Thi?" Cheryl asked as I took a deep breath.
"Moved too much," I laughed, running to the bathroom, telling them that I would be back. I thought I was over this, but apparently there's always an exception to the rule. I was beginning to believe that the rules were rubbish and weren't that accurate anyway.
At the weekend, Betty and I planned to surprise Jughead, who was spending all his day studying in the bunker. We had agreed that maybe doing some window shopping for baby supplies, even though we would be able to get a lot of stuff from Cheryl that Dagwood and Juniper didn't need anymore. Jughead had been spending every spare moment he had working on graduating with us, something that we had talked about for years.
When we spoke about our future, it usually went college, marriage, and kids. Sadly all that had now been turned upside down, but then again, that was Riverdale. Why did we ever assume that our lives were our own, they weren't, they belonged to the Wicked Little Town of Riverdale. The only thing we could do was embrace our situation, show the town that it wouldn't stop us, wouldn't slow us down. That was why Betty decided to give us a break, try and get us out of the town for a little bit and have some fun. We would be going to Seaside, a walk along the beach and looking in a few shops, to help us feel like this baby was real and on its way.
Instead, what they found when we silently entered the bunker, was Jughead looking at an old TV screen. Next to the TV was a VCR player which was clearly on and showing a recording of a house, which house I couldn't be sure, but that didn't matter. In front of Jughead on the table was a notebook, clear scribblings inside but even from the bunker entrance I knew that there would be nothing to do with the various essays he was meant to be writing.
"Jughead!" Betty snapped as she surveyed the scene with me. The boy quickly turned off the TV and sat up straighter, his eyes closed as he realised he had been caught.
"We came to surprise you with a study break. Tell me this is not what it looks like." Betty asked him, pulling me further into the bunker. I set down my Pop's order on the bed, standing in front of Jughead with a look of pure disappointment.
"It's not." Jughead began, but I cut him off.
"So you're not lying to me about doing your homework while you try to crack some new unsolvable mystery?" Jughead had passed on doing so many things with me, spending evenings together because of his workload. And everytime I sympathised because I wanted to graduate with him, so our child could look back and know that through everything, Jughead and I succeeded in school. He had put off looking and talking about anything baby related, to watch some pointless video tapes in a bunker in the middle of the woods.
"I'm doing both." Jughead tried to reason. The last essay he got me to read was proof that he was not able to do both very well. He would have written a better essay in 8th grade.
"I went to the mat for you with Mr. Honey and with all of your teachers." Betty started. She had been the main advocate for both Archie and Jughead being both capable and willing to catch up with any outstanding and missed assignments. If it wasn't for her, the pair would be repeating senior year without a doubt.
"I didn't ask you to do that."
"She was trying to make sure you could graduate with us!" I shouted at Jughead. "I'm trying to support you so we stay together, so we have a future, because it's not just me and you now Jug!"
Instead, Jughead seemed to miss my point. That wasn't surprising because nothing came from arguing. Nothing would be resolved this way, but with tempers already strained and my emotions off the charts, it wasn't going to make for happy families.
"I'm sorry, in what future are we not together?" He asked, not realising the severity of the situation.
"I'm going to Iowa in a few months, Jug. They have already heard my situation and are putting me in a young mothers program so I can still attend college. That is happening. Where are you going to be?" Betty was silent now, letting us two shout it out. She had heard of my worries that Jughead wouldn't graduate and that I'd be in a state all by myself. Every time I came to her with these concerns she had spoken them away.
"I thought I'd be your dorm-husband and baby-daddy. Just baby sitting and eating pizza while you study teaching." His words were full of venom and anger and resentment.
Before I knew it Jughead was ranting, throwing the nearest pointless thing at the wall in his frustration. Betty moved beside me, a look of utter shock on her face at his outburst. He kicked the stool that he had been sitting on when we entered, his voice raised. I moved and swiped all the notes on his desk onto the floor, my anger challenging his. Jughead moved to stand before me, glaring at me hard, a way similar to that he had looked at the preppies. It of course ended with Betty pulling me from the bunker.