Helpline ((Jughead Jones)) 2

24

One week after Riverdale High's absorption of its Southside counterpart, and everything was the same.

Jughead walked with his hand locked in mine, with his headphones planted firmly on his head. A group of freshmen all desperate to get out on the football field barged past us, splitting our hands and bruising our shoulders. Jughead chose to just stand and take their aggression, knowing he was a Serpent and they all hated him; I tried to press myself to the side of the hallway. Once they were all out of the way, Jug reached his hand out to me again, and I eagerly took it.

And nothing was the same.
Take Archie Andrews. On the surface, he's getting ready for basketball tryouts, as he does every winter. But underneath, he was churning. His life in chaos after an unexpected visit from the feds. Meanwhile, the town was preparing to honor its founding father, General Augustus Pickens.

Jughead and Toni had gone off to interview her grandfather so Jughead could actually complete his oral history report, while I chose to stay and wait for him in the Blue and Gold's office. I was comparing how many things have changed from when I last came here. It was like a game.
1) The classrooms and hallways were identical. 1) Jasons memorial notes were gone.

2) Everyone who I knew still went to the school. 2) They didn't like me anymore.

3) My sister was still queen B 3) My sister no longer was my sister as I was disowned.

4) The school was zero-tolerance for everything 4) I was now in a gang.

I could have continued further, listing all the boys who once sought after a phone number but were now hissing at me as I walked past. Maybe added to that list should have been all my northsider friends who I now couldn't be around as much. Perhaps it wasn't the school or the people that had changed at all, and it was really me that had changed.

I was in a gang.

I lived with my boyfriend.

I was no longer a Blossom.

I was no longer slightly outspoken.

I wasn't a victim of rape

I was no longer the dead-kid's sister.

Jughead knocked on the door a little later, walking over to the table I was sat at and sitting on top of it. His beanie was the same. His style was the same. Jughead was the same Jug that I had fallen in love with, he was now just friends with people in a gang like I was.

"How was Toni's grandad?" I asked him. The oldest living Serpent had to have some knowledge and words of wisdom the Jughead would have soaked up.

"Let's just say he had some pretty interesting things to say." Jughead replied, handing me his notebook. "A lot of intense stuff about General Pickens. But I did some research after. General Pickens was hired by Barnabas B. Blossom to remove the Uktena tribe by force. Thia, he killed 400 innocent men, women and children." Jughead told me as I flicked through his scribbled notes. His writing alone was enough to realise how quick he was writing, trying to get every word that was said down onto a page.

"My gosh, J! That's horrific!" I exclaimed to him, seeing how angry he was about this.

"And, adding salt to the wound, the last remnants of the tribe, the Serpents, are being squeezed out of existence. Toni's grandfather lives in a trailer the size of a broom closet. Hiram Lodge is honoring this murderer, instead of trying to make amends. I think it's a story that needs telling."

"Well, J, the story needs a writer who will do it justice." I said, handing him back his notebook, watching his face pull up into a sly grin. He kissed my forehead before taking a seat at the computer beside me and beginning to write.

When the article was published, it was clear that it caused a stir. Jughead had told me how angry Toni had been, and he and her had gone to apologize. I stayed at the trailer and chose to clean it for the Jones'. FP was kind enough to let me stay, and I often cooked for them both in the evenings and every week, while the boys were out, I made sure I was able to clean the trailer for them. It wasn't much, but it was my way of saying thank you.

Jughead called me to meet him just outside the Picken's Day celebration with duct tape. Not knowing exactly what I was getting myself into, I followed his request and turned up to see the Serpents carrying signs. These weren't just current gang members but also older men, retired Serpents.

"Thia, I need you to cut the tape into strips and tape the mouths of the Serpents please." J said, coming to greet me. This must have been there way of responding to the article. I began to cut the tape and place it gently over the Serpent's mouths, smiling at each person I did it too. Toni, her grandad and I were the only ones not wearing it. Signs read 'honor this land' and were held high. When Veronica began to sing 'union of the snake', a clear reference to the Serpents, we all began to walk through the celebrations.

Everyone began to gather around the band stand as we made our way to the font of the crowd, Jughead keeping me close. Veronica stopped singing, facing us in confusion.

"Toni, Cynthia, Jughead? What the hell is going on?" She asked us. It was Toni that answered, Fangs and Sweet Pea flanking her, holding their signs in the air and making sure their taped mouths could be clearly seen.

"We're here representing the dead and the silenced. Pickens day is a lie! General Pickens slaughtered the Uktena tribe, my grandfather's family, and this land, the land we're all standing on, was stolen from them. And we can't bring them back." As Toni was speaking, I saw Hiram Lodge making his way to the stage.

He began to twist this protest into his personal campaign. Hiram had managed to hijack our parade to benefit himself. I watched Veronica's look of panic wash away and her mother relax more as people began to clap. Even Madame Mayor clapped in approval. Something was clearly going on with them. Jughead went to go up on stage, ripping his tape off, but Toni's grandfather held him back. Instead, he settled for narrowing his eyes at Hiram Lodge.

That night, plans would be made, alliances would be formed, and a horrifying act of desecration would be committed. Ensuring that the town's civil war would go from a possibility to an inevitability.

As Jughead lay in bed, me laying on his chest with his hand slowly combing through my hair, I didn't think about the protest or the changes that I had undergone. I thought of nothing until Jughead began to speak.

"This wasn't the life I wanted for you." He said after not speaking for a good half hour. I turned my head to look at him.

"What do you mean, J?" Jughead simply looked back at me, focusing on my eyes and his hand brushing against my cheek.

"This. Living in a trailer, with danger lurking around every corner and darkness trying to seep into our lives from every angle, and being part of the Serpents. You just deserve so much more and I can't provide that." His hair was falling over his eyes, and his voice was deeper as he began to feel the effects of being awake at 1:30 in the morning. Despite Pop's coffee keeping us awake, we were both tired from another conflict filled few days.

"Jughead Jones, do you think I care that I live in a trailer? Every night I get to lie next to you. And every day I get talk to the greatest friends I have ever had. And each evening I get to come home to a proper family, one that I haven't had since Jason died. So this may not be a manor house or a mansion, but I wouldn't have it any other way." I told him, stroking his hair from his face and pulling him closer to me.

"As long as you don't want out already." He whispered back, closing his eyes slightly as I settled for nustling my head in the gap between his shoulder and neck.

"I wouldn't have it any other way J."

"Me neither, Princess."