Helpline ((Jughead Jones)) 2

14

We approached the Serpents, who were sat outside, to hear them speaking, most likely about last night. I hadn't told Jughead, but I had a feeling that Archie had or would tell him. Jughead and I had spoken this morning, about him and Betty. We had agreed that he can have girl best friends as much as I can have guy best friends, of which Sweet Pea was quickly becoming, as long as we told each other where we were going, and didn't keep anything hidden. This was, after all, the 21st century, and a girl and a guy were perfectly capable of being just friends.

"Nice article your best friend's mom wrote." Sweet Pea snapped. We had both read it this morning, before we came to school. It was filed with Northsider's lies and painted the Southsiders as vermin that needed to be exterminated in order to save the town from the Black Hood.

"Yeah, I saw that," He replied, "Dilton Doiley said he was stabbed and a bunch of you guys jumped him." I could see on Jughead's face that he believed Dilton's story. We, of course knew Dilton, and it was more likely that he stabbed his own leg and made up some bullshit story to get the Serpents in trouble after they were winning the fight.

"The idiot stabbed himself with his own knife." Fangs said, proving what I had already thought.

"And we didn't jump him. There was a fight. Bulldogs vs Serpents. And you see this," Pea pointed to very red and bloodshot left eye. "Your boy Andrews gave it to me. Just before your girlfriend shot a gun in the air to break it up, before any of us had the chance to properly hurt the Bulldogs." Sweet Pea explained.

Jughead turned straight to me, his hand on my arm as he looked at me in utter disbelief. He hadn't heard anything of the battle, and I knew that if he had been home, then Veronica would have asked him to go instead of me. Out of all the Serpents, Sweet Pea seemed the most angry at Jug, but I wasn't completely sure what for. Missing the fight. Defending Archie. Perhaps it was his unwillingness to be a Serpent.

"What happened?" He asked me, almost not believing the tale Sweet Pea was telling.

"And of course, Northsiders get off scot-free, and the rest of us are hauled in by the police, right after I dropped Lady Serpent back home safely." I nodded to Sweet Pea, thanking him again for taking me home. I looked at the Serpents in sympathy, not knowing they had been arrested for something that they didn't do. However, they were Serpents that had grown up on the Southside, so I guessed that they were more than used to dealing with the Northside and the police. Fangs said that it was payback time, and I immediately had a bad feeling.

"What is...? What is that?" Jughead asked, gesturing to a peace of paper with writing and diagrams on it. It was clearly a plan of some sorts, but what the plan was going to accomplish would be the more important thing. Jughead scanned the diagram quickly, I looked over his shoulder at it.

"Is that a pipe bomb?" I questioned, shock laced in my voice. I knew the Serpents would want to retaliate, but I didn't think they would go to these extremes. Looking down at Toni, I saw the same worry swimming in her eyes, but, as she was an official Serpent, she would go along with what they said.

"Fogarty's cousin served in the army. He's gonna build us something."

"We'll do it after hours. But it'll shut the Riverdale Register down once and for all." Fangs finished. What they were planning on doing wouldn't help the hate for the Southside. If anything, it would triple by the time the first fire engine got there.

"You think blowing up a building will make things better?" Jug snarled at Pea and Fangs. Sweet Pea replied that it couldn't get any worse. I knew, from experience, things could get a lot worse.

"Yeah, Sweet Pea, it can. Your own father could shoot his son in the head, and then sleep in the same house as you for months. Things could get a lot worse than this." I concluded, and Pea looked at me with slight regret.

Deciding to try and stop their plan, Jughead wanted to talk to Archie, try and stop everything before the need for explosives came about. Unfortunately, because he always wanted to talk, Sweet Pea wasn't happy.

"Man, that's your answer for everything. Talk and more talk," I gripped Jughead's hand, wanting him to keep quiet as he gritted his teeth, forcing himself not to through an insult back. "We don't even know who you stand with. Us or them," Sweet Pea leaned forward, and I knew that Jughead was now processing what he had said, seeing how true the words were. Jughead and I needed to pick a side, and I knew which one, despite the Black Hood's threats, I was leaning towards. "You can't be half a Serpent." With those words, the Serpents left Jug and I, walking off to get to class until Toni was the only one left.

"Great, so Archie started World War III." Jug sat down on one side of T, while I took her other side. She smiled at me, but she didn't initially look at the boy who sat beside her.

"Northside has been dumping on us for years. Your dad tried to keep the peace. Avoid bloodshed. Now that he's gone, idiots like Sweet Pea think there's one path and one solution. Violence." With her speech finished, we all just sat in silence, Jughead contemplating his next move, but also deciding where he wanted to stand in the Serpents. I knew that FP had influence over them, but I didn't realise until now that he was the glue holding them together. He was the one that stopped an all out war between the two sides.

Back at the trailer, Jughead was looking at the jacket, the Serpent jacket I had placed a chair when I came home the previous night. He hadn't really spoken since Toni had made her peace with him.

"What are you thinking, J?" I asked him. He was leaning against the kitchen counter, and I moved to stand in front of him, my hands on his waist as his weaved around my back. He looked from me to the jacket and back again, choosing which one to keep his attention on. I could see what he was thinking. One of those thoughts would be what I would think if he joined the Serpents. "Jughead, I will love you no matter what. If your next move is to join them, I will support you." He kissed my head in thanks. Then, he took my hand, grabbed his jacket and headed outside to the motorcycle. As I put on the helmet, he put on the jacket, and we headed to the Serpent Lair.

Upon entering the White Wrym, silence befell the entire bar, staring at Jughead and I.

"I think this Northsider's lost." Sweet Pea announced, as he took his shot on the pool table. He was playing against Tall Boy. I heard my name called and looked to Toni who was sat on a stool, watching over the game. Jumping onto the stool next to her, I watched Jughead address the crowds of Serpents gathered around them.

"I'm over being half a Serpent."

"Wow. You'll do anything to protect your Northside buddies. Even your Northside Princess girlfriend is more a Serpent than you." He spat, moving to take his next shot. Toni squeezed my hand as Jug looked our way, I felt a hand of reassurance on my shoulder and looked back to see Fangs smiling at me. I nodded for Jughead to carry on, urging him to continue.

"My father was a Serpent. He led you. I wanna stand with you guys. Tall boy was the one who gave me this jacket," He announced to every Serpent listening. He was no longer addressing a small group of kids in a school gang. Jughead was talking to the entire gang, the one that his father led. "It's finally time I start wearing it." Tall boy pushed some of the balls on the table, approaching J.

"So, now you wanna be a Serpent, huh?" Tall Boy was squaring up to Jug, standing at the same height. J stood his ground, glaring slightly at the man in front of him, not moving as the older Serpent moved his way. "Let's see if you survive the initiation first." With a nod from Jughead, he was officially becoming a Serpent. From all the times he had hated the gang for what it made his father become, he now found himself joining, to not only protect the Northside, but also to protect the ones he loved.