Picnic || jarchie

ten

Even though the playful attitude of summer vacation was gone the second the missing posters went up, the summer didn't end until two days after Jughead Jones and Kevin Keller found  a body at Sweetwater river. Back to school was solemn, the hallways passed eerily, as if the ghost of Jason Blossom walked among his classmates and tainted their moods. The school was dull, everyone was pointing fingers at everyone else, as if the cause of jason's death was among them. Jughead Jones had been demoted from 'Archie Andrews' best friend so we guess he's cool' to the weirdo.

Walking the halls of Riverdale highschool was different without Archie. It was vulnerable, the lockers were a brighter blue. The floor screamed with every step he took, anytime someone caught his eye it burned. That's why he looked down. His converse became his new favorite thing to look at. They were scuffed and old, and he drew a smiley face on them when he was bored that mocked him now. Although, maybe he should have looked up, because that landed him in his current situation.

Veronica Lodge was the one bright thing to come out of summer. She was a millionaire goody too shoes from new york with silky black hair and a large vocabulary. She was also the person that Jughead happened to bump right into on the third day of school.

He bumped right into her, toppling both of them over, landing on the hallway floor with an umph. Books and papers flew out of both of their arms and scattered all around the hallway. Jughead stayed sprawled out on the floor. He glared at the ceiling as if he genuinely believed if he thought hard enough it would get him out of his horrible situation. He was expecting her to call him a slur of terrible names, stomp on his hand with her expensive heel and force him to pick up and alphabetize her paperwork. Instead Jughead was met with the sound of the girl laughing.

She was clutching her pearl necklace, and was  a in sitting position. Jughead's advanced english textbook landed on her lap. She laughed in a royal purple, it was bright and warm, like Archie's maroon. Jughead sat up and tore his eyes from the ceiling to watch her, terrified. She finally stopped laughing to catch his eye. He bit his lip expecting her to step on him now.

"You should watch where you're going, Jughead Jones." She announced, handing him his textbook. He gawked at it, almost expecting her to hit him with it. He slowly raised his hand to take it from her before holding it to his chest and studying her.

"You're not being a horrible person like you're expected to be. Also, you know my name, which is a first because most girls know me as-" he was going to say Archie's best friend, he paused, "a weirdo." he finished.

Veronica raised an eyebrow as she started reaching over to grab all her paperwork, "I'm not a horrible person, and I know your name because your friends are my friends. Betty? You know Betty Cooper. She's been my helper basically. Totally nicer than anyone from New York."

Jughead stood up, helping her pick up the papers, without saying anything. She let him be silent, which was weird to him. When there were no more papers left to gather he handed them to Veronica and picked up his textbook.

"I'm sorry about this. Why were you walking in the hallway during class anyways?" He asked.

She straightened the papers and tucked a strand of black hair out of her eyes. Clearing her throat she stated, "I couldn't find my class. This school is confusing,  Do you know where the French class is? Oh, and why are you in the hallway?"

Jughead sighed, tugging at his backpack straps. He really didn't want to help her, he wanted to go to his special spot behind the bleachers and write more in his book. But, in a way, she connected him to Betty and Archie. Maybe, if he helped her, he could get close to them again.

Jughead admitted defeat, "C'mon I know where it is. And to answer your question I was ditching class."

-

Veronica sat on Betty Cooper's bed and watched as she sat at her vanity and applied more lipgloss.

"You're boring Betty Cooper, Where's the fun lips?" Veronica complained, putting in her pearl earrings and looking out the window curiously. They were meeting Archie at Pops.

"We're going to the cheesy diner down the street, Ronnie." Betty answered, pulling her ponytail tighter and standing up. Veronica smiled at her before standing up as well. They made their way down the stairs and grabbed their coats.

Veronica was still new in town, she arrived the day the body was discovered, and hadn't left her house until the school year started. She made friends fast, but she was still a new face. She felt like she was filling the hole Jason blossom's death brought onto the town.

When she and Betty arrived at Pops she hadn't expected to see anyone sitting in the booth besides Archie, let alone the guy who had toppled over her a mere couple hours ago. It looked as though he wasn't expecting her either by the way his eyes caught hers. He turned to Archie, as if going to ask why, but Archie beckoned them over before he could.

"Jughead!" Betty called, she slipped in next to him in the booth and hugged him tightly. Jughead immediately melted into the hug, turning to face her and bury his face in her shoulder. Betty was his other best friend. Losing Betty and Arch over the summer was hard.

Veronica slipped into the open boothspace by archie and raised an eyebrow at him.He shook his head before clearing his throat. Jughead and Betty separated as Archie tapped his finger against the table.

"Look, I need your guys help." He started, before gesturing to Jughead.

"Why Veronica? I mean this in the nicest way possible but we've all known her collectively about 4 days." Jughead stated before adding, "No offense,"

"None taken," Veronica responded, "I don't know what's going on but if it doesn't involve me, it doesn't involve me."

Archie shook his head. He opened his mouth to speak when pops came by with milkshakes, "Sorry, i didn't know what to get you, Veronica, i hope Cookies and Creme is fine. " She nodded before he continued.

"I trust her, I think she can help Jughead." Archie concluded. Jughead pressed his lips into a fine line as his blue eyes darted between everyone at the table.

"We all know what happened to Jason Blosssom," He started.

"He drowned." Betty supplied, sticking her finger into the whip cream and licking it off.

"That's what they want you to believe." Jughead disagreed, he shook his head. Taking off his beanie, he ran his hand through his hair.

"There's more to the story, Jason Blossom didn't drown, He was murdered. By a gunshot wound to the skull."

Veronica looked around them confused, "But the autopsy report was in the paper." Betty nodded, looking at jughead in confusion.

"Someone, I believe Mr or Mrs Blossom, is paying for false information to be spread to hide the real reason Jason died." Archie theorized, meeting Jughead's eyes with a smile.

Betty scoffed, "You guys that impossible." Jughead shook his head. He took a sip of his chocolate milkshake, sighing.

"It's not, Betts. I saw a bullet wound in Jason Blossoms head and i need your guy's help to get to the bottom of it." Jughead supplied.

-

10 chapters in and we finally get a plot