Rebel Without A Cause

➶chapter five

CHAPTER FIVE

Jughead's Point of View

•Wednesday October 6th•

While Fangs, Sweet Pea, and Toni went to the quarry I had another agenda in mind. I was going to go back to the north side. I may have grown up on the south side, but the north side was where I spent all my time when my dad was busy being the leader of the serpents. Before I was a part of the Southside Serpents I went to Riverdale High. I never fit in there, but once I became a serpent it was definitely where I belonged. Back in the day a certain red haired boy and I were best friends.

I walked around the northside trying to stay out of sight from literally everyone. If they saw my serpent jacket they would call the police. With my father already behind bars facing twenty years in prison was making me more nervous and on edge than usual. However, I was not about to give up on getting justice for certain social issues.

There was still some justice that a family deserved.

I reached the backyard of a certain red headed boy that needed a visit. I was holding one of his flyers in my hand that I wanted to talk about with him. I knocked on his back door and waited for Archie to hopefully let me in.

"What do you want Jug?" he asked barely letting me in his house, but I made my way inside

"Well I'll start with the bad news first. Tall Boy roughed up a few more low lifes and none of them know anything about your dad being shot. I'm sorry Arch" I then placed his flyer for a group called The Red Circle on the counter. I remembered the red circle was the name of a comic book that Archie and I read when we were kids. "What is the point of this Arch?"

"My dad was shot Jughead, Moose and Midge were stabbed, Ms. Grundy was strangled, no one is safe from the black hood and the police haven't made any progress trying to find him. We're not vigilantes Jug; we're just trying to protect this town as another source of eyes and ears for the police"

I looked at Archie with complete confusion, "so your Bulldogs are watchdogs?" I asked trying to wrap my head around what Archie was doing

"We're the red circle. We hold the line. We're not waiting for the next attack. We're protecting our own, and we're focusing mainly on Riverdale High to keep the students safe"

As much as I did not like the idea of Archie and his north side football playing pandas; running around trying to be watchdogs; I understood what he was at least trying to do. Archie was afraid and he has every right to be. The Black Hood is hunting down northsiders even chasing them down to the neighboring town of Greendale - which is where the Black Hood killed Ms. Grundy. Sweet Pea, being the hard ass that he is, use to call the Black Hood a hero. The Black Hood was not going after southsiders which made the police believe that he was one. Archie nearly lost his father and he does not know how else to react other then trying to protect him at all cost.

That was the kind of person Archie was. He always wanted to protect people and does not ask for nothing in return.

"So what? You're all just going to go around kicking people's asses that could be the black hood?" I asked him being confused as to what his plan was with the red circle

Archie chuckled trying to keep himself calm. I noticed how quiet he was being. "That was my first thought, but no weapons and no violence. We are patrolling making sure that everyone is safe"

Just as Archie and I were finishing our conversation his front doorbell rang and he went to go get it. From the kitchen I saw Betty, Veronica, and Madison come bursting through the door. It looked like they had a bone to pick with Archie, but it may have also just been something urgent to discuss.

"Have you seen this?" Betty exclaimed throwing a newspaper onto the kitchen counter

Both Archie and I looked at the newspaper and saw that Betty's mother posted something about the Black Hood on the front page of an emergency newspaper released in the middle of the day. Never has the Riverdale Register ever posted two different newspapers in one day.

I looked down and started to read the letter on the front page:

"This is the Black Hood.
I am the man who shot the adulterer at Pop's.
I killed the child predator in Greendale.
I stabbed the drug- and sex-addicted teenagers at Lovers' Lane.
Riverdale is not innocent.
It's a town of hypocrites, degenerates, criminals.
My wrath is the price of your lies, your secrets, your sins.
I will not stop.
I cannot be stopped.
I am the wolf.
You are the flock.
This is the blood-letting.
You will hear from me again"

"Now you see what I've been trying to say! All three of these crimes are connected....the Black Hood has been going after people that I care about. What if the next one is you guys?" Archie exclaimed unable to remain calm

"Calm down Archie....it says he's doing this because of our lies, secrets, and sins" I said looking over at Madison giving her a look of warning before I said, "none of us have secrets and lies....let alone sinners of Riverdale. I mean we're just kids"

"Midge and Moose are just kids too" Veronica stated snarling at me. I wondered what the hell she had against me, other than the fact that I am sitting in her boyfriends kitchen. I knew she did not like me because her family was trying to destroy my home, and I tended to talk shit about her family in my articles. "If some low life tries to kill another Riverdale High student, whether he's a serpent of not....I'm going to kill him myself"

Betty rubbed Veronica's back trying to get her to calm down. "Easy V"

Madison just stood there remaining quiet. Unlike her new north side friends I knew she had secrets and lies under her belt. She was lying to the serpents pretending that she was living on the south side. She has been keeping secrets from her new friends since the day she's met them all. In my opinion I think she wants to be a southsider, but she could not handle the southside life just yet. Whether she changed or stayed in the northside I think she would do anything to stay with her family.

The five of us stood there arguing about how we could deal with everything going on surrounding the Black Hood.

A lot of our arguing dealt with Veronica shit talking the southside with me sitting right there. If her father wanted to ruin the south side I sure as hell was not going to let a rich teenage girl get in my way of trying to save it.

"Madison had a crazy idea before. She said we should bait the Black Hood to try and draw him out" Betty said

"That's ridiculous! We can't just try and find the black hood like he's some teenage bully. This guy kills people for Christ sake!" Archie exclaimed swiping the newspaper

"Archie! If you want to find the person you tried to kill your father, then you need to fight! Together with everyone. There is strength in unity!" Madison exclaimed trying to get Archie and everyone in the room to focus on what really needed to be done

She was really persistent in wanting to capture the Black Hood. I do not know if it is because she wants him in prison, or because she is still scared of her own encounter with the Black Hood, as if it was a way of keeping her mind at ease.

I looked over at Madison when she said that. She basically just recited the sixth serpent law, and I could not believe she just said that. If she were to recite another law accidentally, then I would start to think that she was actually a serpent. Which is just plain ridiculous. She can not be a serpent. She is a northsider.

•

•

•

-Always gotta have some background on the legendary Jughead Jones. Since their is none in the show I have to think of a way to incorporate Sweet Pea's background-