Forever And Always

Chapter 4

  On Monday morning Callie sat in the kitchen doing her honors English and trig homework as her dad gave Vegas a piece of food.

"Morning, dad, Morning Cal," Archie greeted as he walked into the room.

"Morning," the two greeted.

"Where'd you sneak off to last night?" Fred asked his son.

"You, uh, you heard that?" Archie questioned.

" The house is pretty squeaky," Callie pointed out. 

"Son, I've been hearing you sneak out since you were eight years old, going to Jughead's tree house" their dad added.

" I couldn't sleep," Archie answered. " Went out for a jog to tire myself out."

"Got something on your mind Arch?" Callie questioned.

"Just all the stuff with Jason," Archie answered.

"No more midnight runs until the police catch whoever it was that shot that poor kid," their dad ordered after a sip of coffee. " I swear to God, this town." Later that morning, they heard the doorbell rang. Callie opened the door with Archie standing behind her, and they saw that it was Betty.

"Walk me to school?" Betty mainly asked Archie. The three walked down the familiar paths on the way to their high school. " I needed time to process. To separate what my mom wants from what I want...I think I want".

"Which is?" Archie asked the girl from next door.

"My mom says I should never speak to you again," Betty answered. "You too Callie, even if we are not friends."

"What do you want?" Callie asked her.

"But I...Even though you don't like me like that, I still want us to be friends...Best friends," Betty admitted.

"You do?" Archie asked surprised.

"Yeah," Betty confirmed. The two broke out into smiling, causing Callie to roll her eyes in annoyance.

" I mean, that's great, Betty. Me, too," Archie admitted. 

" I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt," Betty pointed out.

"And I'm sorry Betty," Archie apologized. " I didn't do it to be a...I don't know, I just...I thought it would be better in the long run".

"And it will be," Callie commented. " We probably shouldn't tell Alice Cooper that you two are friends once again."

"Callie!" Archie hissed.

"She's not wrong," Betty agreed before walking ahead of them. When they got to school, they broke off. Callie went and found Reggie. He was with Moose and another football player. She walked down the hallway while holding Reggie's hand, in the distance she saw Jughead whisper something to Archie before walking away. As they passed each other, Callie and Jughead accidentally collided a little.

"Watch it, Wednesday Addams," Reggie ordered pushing him to the side.

" Be nicer," Callie pleaded as they continued to walk.

"He hurt you," Reggie reminded her as he rubbed her arm.

"It was an accident," Callie told him. " I am fine." They soon passed Jason Blossom's old locker and set down flowers and a teddy bear along with the others. Later on, in the first period, Callie was sitting next to a couple of her vixen friends when the announcements started up. 

"Good morning, students," Principal Weatherbee began in the overhead. " This is your principal speaking. There have been many inquiries about the upcoming pep rally. So let me state clearly, it is happening, as scheduled. Now, on a less felicitous note, if you could give your attention to Sheriff Keller".

"Most of you already know the details, but your classmate Jason Blossom's body was found late Saturday night. So as of the weekend, Jason's death is now being treated as a homicide," Sheriff Keller informed them. Everyone in the classroom glanced at each other wearily. " It is an open and ongoing investigation-" 

"And may I interject," Cheryl's voice sounded in the sound system. " Neither I nor my parents will rest until Jason's death is avenged, and his cold-hearted killer is walking in the green mile to sit in Old Sparky and fry. I, for one, have my suspicions. Hashtag Riverdale strong".

" If you know anything that could help us find and apprehend Jason's killer or anything about what happened to him on July 4th, I strongly urge you to come forward immediately. You can speak with me or Principal Weatherbee. A death like this wounds us all. Lets not let Jason down," Sheriff Keller finished up. The next period started up, and it was biology, one of the classes she had with her brother. She was sitting next to Cheryl when two of the vixens walked up to the table.

" We were wondering, Cheryl," Ginger began. " Back in July, you told the po-po that Jason drowned."

"Yet, we come to find out that Jason didn't drown, " Tina added. " He was shot. That's slightly suspicious, no?"

"Do you two bobbleheads think that Cheryl would kill her twin brother?" Callie questioned the two girls.

" We're just curious," Ginger defended the two. " What do the police think happened?"

"I'll tell you what I told them," Cheryl began. " Which is that Jason did fall into the water. We both did. I made it to the shore. He didn't. Maybe he made it to the other side of the river, and someone shot him there. Who knows?"

"Seats everyone," the teacher instructed as he walked into the classroom. " Pair off, gloves on, scalpels up".

"Can I be with Cheryl?" Archie questioned, Callie and Cheryl gave each other weird looks.

"And I want to be with Betty," Veronica perked up.

"Oh, uh, I was thinking I'd partner up with Kevin," Betty protested, Kevin nodded his head in agreement. 

"Actually, uh, Keller's with me," Moose informed the two. " We, like, talked." He then walked away as he brushed his hand against Kevin's shoulder.

"Oh god," Kevin whispered to Betty.

"I'll partner with Jughead I guess," Callie said as she got up. She moved her stuff and sat right next to Jughead.

"When was the last time we paired up with something?" Jughead asked Callie.

"When we were eight, when we did that book report together," Callie reminded him. 

" As I recall we had a project together last year, we had a couple of projects together, between 8 years old and now," Jughead corrected.

" Well we can add this lab to the list of projects," Callie stated, Jughead smiled and shook his head at her. Ginger and Tina then joined them. Callie heard one of them gasp, Callie and Jughead looked back. They saw Cherly staring straight ahead as she stabbed the frog that they were dissecting.