Anarchist | Riverdale

Touch of Evil

I think many of us, maybe the entire town, had been hoping against hope that somehow Jason Blossom hadn't drowned on July fourth. We'd come to school Monday morning and there Jason would be or that we'd see him and Cheryl in a booth at Pop's but that was before the undeniable, irrevocable fact of his bloated waterlogged body. A corpse with a bullet hole in it's forehead and terrible secrets that can only be revealed by the cold, steel blade of a coroner's autopsy scalpel or the telltale beating of a guilty heart.

"Betty you ready to walk to school?" Ellie shouts to her sister.
"I'm gonna walk with Archie." Betty appears at Ellie's door.
"You're serious? After what he did to you last night?"
"I've thought things over and this shouldn't ruin our friendship." The youngest Cooper girl smiles.
"Whatever, I'll walk with Jug, see you later." Ellie sighs and walks out leaving her sister standing there.

"So Jug, I need to ask you something." Ellie says once the two meet up.
"Anything, shoot." Jug replies.
"Your father, FP Jones? And is he king of the Southside Serpents?"
"How do you know?" Jughead stops in his tracks.
"He may of kicked me out of the Whyte Wyrm last night."
"And why the hell were you in there?"
"My boyfriend is a Serpent." Ellie braces herself for his reaction.
"Holy shit Ells. You need to be fucking careful with them. They're bad people." Jughead sighs and continues walking.
"I know but Sweet Pea is so, well, sweet."
"Just promise me you'll be careful and promise me you won't be joining the Serpents you see what happened to my dad."
"I promise." Ellie smiles, linking arms with her best friend and walking along with her head on his shoulder.

Ellie walks with Betty through the halls later on the morning when Mrs Phillips calls her to reception.
"Oh my god, these are gorgeous." Ellie comments walking in and seeing a yellow bouquet of flowers. "Are these for Betty Mrs Phillips?"
"That's why I called her." The older woman says back. Ellie picks up the card attached and reads it aloud.
"Dear Betty please forgive me XOXO, V." The sisters share a look of confusion. "Who the hell is V?"
"Veronica." Betty and the black haired girl say once she comes into the doorway. Ellie rolls her eyes at the effort she's put in, what she did was unforgivable.
"The yellow is for friendship." Veronica nears the two girls. "I've also had magnolia cupcakes flown in from New York. As my mom likes to say, 'there's no wrong the right cupcake can't fix'. And I've booked hers-and-hers mani-pedis at Chez Salon. Blowouts too.  I am so, so sorry Betty. I don't know what happened to me that night. It was such a basic-bitch move. It was like I was possessed by -" She didn't get to finish as Ellie butted in, not taking the apology at hand even though it wasn't meant for her.
"Madame Satan?" Betty shoots her elder sister a warning look and Veronica carries on.
"The old Veronica." She sighs. "And I will never ever do anything like that to you again. I swear on my mother's pearls. Just, can you give you give me one more chance please?"
"Okay." Betty shrugs and smiles.
"What?" Ellie and Veronica say at the same time.
"Really? Awesome. I'll take it and you won't regret it."
"Okay." Betty smiles again.
"And I'll bring these to lunch so we can celebrate." Veronica says, gesturing to the cupcakes. The bell then rings and Veronica turns to go to class with a quick bye and a smile.
Ellie shakes her head at her sister, disappointed in how easy she made that for Veronica.
"It's the path of least resistance Ell. A week ago Veronica and I weren't friends. Next week we'll nod to each other as we pass in the hall, but that's it. In two weeks she won't even remember my name and in three she'll have latched onto some other girl to destroy." The youngest Cooper girl shrugs, her sister still unimpressed.

Ellie parts ways with Betty to head to their different classes and on the speakers comes a speech from Weatherbee. "Good morning students. This is your principal speaking. There have been many inquires about the upcoming pep rally. So let me state clearly, it is happening as scheduled." He announces and Ellie rolls her eyes and puts on headphones in, not caring the slightest bit about the stupid pep rally. She definitely won't be attending and definitely will never attend again.
"Ellie." The girl hears Jughead once he grabs her arm and scares the daylights out of her.
"Jesus Jug, what."
"Did you hear the speech about Jason?" He asks as Ellie puts her headphones back in her jacket pocket.
"No, I didn't realise they were talking about Jason, I heard pep rally then put my headphones in."
"Right, but I have a crazy, crazy theory."
"I like your crazy theories. Go on." Ellie is always all ears when Jughead has an idea.
"So you remember that road trip we went on during this summer?"
"Of course."
"Well, originally I was supposed to go with Archie. He bailed last minute and then Jason was killed. It makes sense in my head, I don't want it to but I find it a little suspicious."
"Well talk to him, find out. He's just entered the restroom over there." Ellie points as she sees Archie's red hair and letter jacket jog into the restroom.
"I'll catch you later." Jughead then says, running to find Archie. Ellie smiles and shakes her head at her friend's crazy mind, but without his crazy mind she wouldn't love him as much.