Pearl Crowns

Chapter 2

I don't think there is any Spanish in this chapter if there is oops sorry.

Jughead was assaulted by the horrid stench that the warehouse possed. He looked over to Veronica with her nose scrunched up thankful he wasn't alone.

"Hey, Princess-"

"Shh." Veronica put her hand up to him. Not but a second later a tall skinny woman came out from the shadows behind the many racks of crates.

The woman presumably the supplier had long flowing blonde hair and piercing blue eyes the color of ice. She had a scar on her cheek that ran from her ear to her lips. She wouldn't be hard to recognize out and about in regular life.

"Lodge." The blonde called curtly. Veronica only nodded in return. "And who is this?" The woman jutted her chin out at Jughead.

"My associate. He's only here to put the stash in the truck. Let's say he's my poor excuse for muscle." Veronica never took her eye's off the woman on the other end of the room even when she was setting a jab at Jughead.

"Well look at you, Lodge. Did they give you a raise? You finally get a job all to yourself? You know I'm honestly proud of you." Jughead wasn't sure what was happening but he didn't dare voice his confusion.

"Cut the crap, Finn. Do you have what we came here for or not?" Veronica snapped.

"All right calm down I have what you want." She put her fingers between her lips and let out a high pitched whistle. A moment later two guys came around the same corner Finn came from dragging a huge crate behind them.

Veronica walked up to the men. She motioned for Jughead to follow her so he did. He stood behind her as she inspected the crate. She reached her hand behind her while she looked. "Crowbar." Jughead just stared at her. He had no idea what she meant.

Veronica whipped around when she noticed she wasn't being handed the crowbar she asked for.

"What?" Jughead asked shrugging his shoulders. Veronica dropped her head and sighed.

"One thing, Jones. I ask you to do one thing. Grab the crowbar when you get out. That's all you had to do and you messed it up!" Veronica yelled. Jughead lifted his hand up and put his finger in her face.

"First off, you never asked me to grab it and secondly there wasn't even a crowbar in the car for me to grab if you had. Do not blame me." Jughead was much calmer than her.

"Wow, you guys bicker like an old married couple." Finn laughed.

"Oh, Abby-" Veronica started.

"Finn!" Finn corrected her. It was a known fact that Abby Finn would kill a man for using her first name.

"Sorry." Veronica said sheepishly looking to Jughead with a look that said 'what a piece of work'. "Do you have a crowbar we could use to inspect our product because my partner here is incompetent." Jughead wanted to argue but thought against it because he liked being alive and in one piece.

Veronica was reluctantly handed what she needed and opened the crate. Jughead stayed back and watched Veronica do her job, she looked like she knew exactly what she needed to do. Eventually, she dropped everything back into the crate and dropped the top back down.

"Everything looks good. Your men can help my associate here bring it to our truck." She motioned to Jughead. "Now onto payment." Veronica crossed her arms and Jughead stayed by her side.

"Twelve hundred," Finn spoke. Veronica looked to Jughead.

"Jones, leave." Veronica wasn't going to take no for an answer, he could tell, but he's stubborn so he didn't budge. "I said go!" Veronica growled. He watched Veronica's side profile for a second then dropped his arms and walked to the door.

"Come on boys," Jughead yelled to Finn's lackeys.

Finns boys looked way too young to be involved with something like drug dealing but then Jughead remembered that he was only a teenager himself and he had been involved with the gang life since birth. He had no room to judge.

Jughead spent a good amount of time trying to get the huge crate into the bed of the truck. It was heavier than he expected it to be but Veronica thankfully brought a piece of plywood to push the crate up and into the truck with.

Jughead was in the bed of the truck putting the plywood away and trying to find the straps to keep it from falling out the back of the truck when he heard a loud bang come from the warehouse. He looked up to see Veronica running out.

"Start the car, Jones!" Veronica screamed as she ran.

"It's not strapped in," Jughead called back staying where he was.

"We'll fix it later! Now start the damn car, Jones!" Jughead didn't think twice. He hopped out of the truck and dropped into the driver seat and turning on the ignition.

Jughead watched Veronica run to the truck faster than he'd ever seen anyone run before. She never looked back once the whole time he watched her. She jumped into the passenger side out of breath.

"Drive," Veronica yelled before she had the door closed.

Jughead slammed on the gas kicking up a dust cloud just like the ones he knew dirtied the walls of the warehouse. He took off down the unpaved road they came in on. He listened to Veronica's heavy breathing next to him as he sped to their destination.

When he was sure he was far enough and no one was behind them he pulled off the side of the road and parked the truck. Veronica looked to him confused. He hopped out of the truck and walked to the back and waited for Veronic to do the same.

"So what happened back there, Princess?" Jughead asked as he grabbed the ties.

Veronica shrugged. "She wanted more than the agreed price." Veronica looked to Jughead with a proud smile. "So I decked her and left." Jughead burst out with unbelieving laughter and Veronica followed suit.

"Holy shit. You know what? That was brave. I respect that." Jughead said looking Veronica in the eye.

"I respect you too, Jones." Veronica smiled a real genuine smile.

Jughead scoffed. "Why?"

"You didn't ask questions. You just trusted me. I don't get that a lot." Veronica looked down at her hands wrapped around the green rope.

"Why not?" Jughead stopped what he was doing to watch Veronica.

"I'm the Ghoulie princess, not the prince." She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "They don't think I can do it because I'm a girl never mind that my mother, a woman, runs the show. The Ghoulies are just a bunch of neanderthalic men who don't think I'm fit to be Queen. That's why this run was so important, it's my chance to show them that I can do things right."

"Is that why I'm here?" Jughead asked quietly not sure if he was allowed to.

"Yeah, they figured that a Serpent would make things that much harder."

"Prove them wrong." Jughead hadn't actually thought about what he had said before he said it but he didn't want to take it back in the slightest. Veronica looked up at him with glossy eyes.

"You know what, Jones? I will. If I can do this with the help of one person not even talking about the fact that that person was a Serpent, I can do anything." Veronica smiled up at him triumphantly. "I can be a damn good Queen." Jughead smiled back at her, proud.

So side note Abby Finn is an actual character from the comics but I changed her appearance for this story for obvious reasons. Hope ya'll still like the story and want me to continue.