Family || Sweet Pea [1]

13

Chapter 13 || Dance, Princess

The next morning Sweet Pea, Fangs and I walked to school together. Toni said she'd meet us there, apparently upset she wasn't involved in the brawl last night. I didn't care if she was mad, she wasn't the one that had a gun pulled on her. Sweet Pea stood behind me, reading the article Alice Cooper wrote in the Riverdale Register over my head.

"Nice article your girlfriend's mom wrote." Sweet Pea snapped, making me glance up and see Jughead.

"Yeah, I saw that." He said, avoiding eye contact with me. "Dilton Doiley said he was stabbed when a bunch of you guys jumped him."

"Idiot stabbed himself. With his own knife." Fangs corrected.

"And we didn't jump him, there was a fight." Sweet Pea added. "Bulldogs versus Serpents."

"And you see this?" He added pointing to his black eye. "Your boy Andrews gave it to me. And the bruises on Kitty came straight from Reggie Mantle, just before Andrews' girlfriend shot a gun into the air."

"What happened?" Jughead asked, suddenly interested.

"And, of course, Northsiders get off scot-free, and the rest of us are hauled in by the police." Sweet Pea continued his mini rant.

"It's payback time." Fangs decided.

"What are you guys talking about?" Jughead questioned.

"This." Sweet Pea stated, pointing down at the blueprints in front of us.

"What is that?" Jughead asked. "Is that a pipe bomb?"

"Fogarty's cousin served in the Army." Sweet Pea informed. "He's gonna build us something."

"We'll do it after hours," Fangs started. "But it'll shut the Riverdale Register down once and for all."

"You think blowing up a building is going to make things better?" Jughead asked angrily.

"Can't get any worse." Sweet Pea said, standing up straight.

"Yeah, Sweet Pea, it can." Jughead disagreed. "Let me talk to Archie. Let me figure this out, okay?"

"Man, that's your answer for everything." Sweet Pea snapped. "Talk and more talk. And we don't even know who you stand with. Us? Or them?"

Jughead looked conflicted, and then Sweet Pea leaned back down over me.

"You can't be half a Serpent." Everyone turned to leave, and I stayed, staring at my brother.

"Great, so Archie started World War III." He said, sitting down beside Toni.

"Northside has been dumping on us for years." Toni corrected. "You dad tried to keep the peace, avoid bloodshed. Now that he's gone, idiots like Sweet Pea think there's only one path and one solution: violence."

"You wouldn't be saying that if you were the one with a gun pulled on you." I snapped, causing Jughead and Toni to look at me.

"What?" They chorused.

"The whole reason for the fight last night was because we caught Archie tagging Serpent turf. Sweet Pea tried to scare him off, and Archie pulled a fucking gun on me, Fangs, and my man. So, yeah, idiots like Sweet Pea think there's only one path and one solution because he was started on that path by a psycho Northsider." I snarled, glaring at my brother.

"Kat-" Jughead started.

"I'm headed to the Wyrm." I cut him off.

--------

"Why were you involved in the brawl last night, Kitty?" Tall Boy asked as soon as I entered the Wyrm. Toni followed behind me, falling into the booth with Sweet Pea and Fangs.

"Because, Tall Boy, I don't much appreciate having a gun pulled on me. And I was fighting alongside the Serpents." I explained.

"You aren't even a Serpent, princess!" He yelled.

"My name is Kitty Jones, Tall Boy, and I am a Serpent." I snarled in reply.

"Until you do the dance, princess, you have no say in what happens with the Serpents." He smirked.

"You want me to dance?" I asked, throwing my leather jacket at Fangs. I ripped my shirt off and made my way to the pole on stage. "You'll get your fucking dance."

--------

Third Person POV

"Shit." Toni muttered, grabbing Sweet Pea's shoulder before he could storm the stage and rip Kitty off the pole.

"Let me go, Topaz!" He roared, not tearing his eyes off of Kitty, who was dancing expertly around the pole.

"No, Sweet Pea. She needs to do this to shut Tall Boy up and to help take control while FP's gone." Toni told him, watching as his shoulders sagged.

"FP's going to be pissed." Fangs announced, standing in wait for Kitty to finish her dance so he could wrap her back up in her leather jacket. As soon as they heard clapping, Fangs was up and covering Kitty's torso. He pulled her to the table the quartet were sat at and forced her into the booth seat.

"Put your shirt back on." He ordered softly, tossing her discarded shirt in her face. She let out a light chuckle and pulled her shirt on.

"Nothing you guys haven't seen before." She said, rolling her eyes at the glare Sweet Pea was giving her.

"Drop it, Pea. I already know you guys didn't like it." Kitty warned, leaning back in the booth.

"I can't just drop it, Kit." Sweet Pea snapped.

"Why not?" Kitty asked, challenging him with a raised brow.

"Because you're my girl, and now everyone's seen a whole lot of you." Sweet Pea glared.

"Great job princess, but sorry. Seeing as you waited so long to dance for us, you gotta run the gauntlet before you get a jacket." Tall Boy announced, smirking down at the teenager.

"Wait until FP hears about you sending his little girl to run the gauntlet." Sweet Pea said, shaking his head at Tall Boy.

"Hah, set the time and place Tall Boy. You want me to get the knife, recite the laws for you too? I've already taken care of the 'beast' seeing as Hot Dog's always with me." Kitty rolled her eyes. She didn't wait for an answer as she grabbed Sweet Pea and started a game of pool for the both of them.

"I think this Northsider's lost." Sweet Pea boomed, glaring down at Kitty's twin brother. Kitty glanced up from the pool table and offered Jughead an uninterested glare.

"I'm not." Jughead disagreed.

--------

Kitty's POV

"I'm not." Jughead shook his head. "I'm over being half a Serpent."

"Wow." I scoffed, walking with Sweet Pea up to Jughead.

"You will do anything to protect your Northside buddies." Sweet Pea said, bumping shoulders with him. I followed him around the table, setting up my next shot.

"My father was a Serpent. He led you." Jughead stated. "I want to stand with you guys."

No one said anything, and I stood up from the table. I looked at Tall Boy, who looked away from me.

"Tall Boy was the one who gave me this jacket. It's finally time I start wearing it." Jughead said.

"So," Tall Boy said, walking over to Jughead. "Now you wanna be a Serpent, huh? Let's see if you survive the initiation first."

Then he turned to me with a sick grin.

"You and your twin."