Picnic || jarchie

eleven

"I'm sorry, what?"

If there was one thing Jughead learned from this interaction, it was that being blunt was probably not the best idea. Sheriff Keller was not agreeing to let him have access to the autopsy report files, or any other files on the Jason Blossom case. And while Jughead understood that  a 15 year old having access to that information is not normally a good idea, he didn't exactly enjoy it.

He was in the sheriff's office with Betty, sitting across from a clearly disgruntled Sheriff Keller. Jughead tapped his fingers against his knee, biting his lip in thought. Telling Sheriff Keller that he wanted to see them because he was curious was clearly not the way to go about this. His eyes dashed towards Veronica's  who also appeared to be thinking.

Veronica sighed as she rubbed her hands against her jeans. "Mr Keller, right?  Please if I may? We're mourning the loss of a student, someone who we're all close with," Veronica reasoned with him. She turned to Jughead who blinked at her, confused. She huffed before grabbing his hand, "We just want some more closure. We just wondering how he ended up in Sweetwater River." She finished.

Sheriff Keller stared at the two thoughtfully. He clicked the cap of his pen 3 times. Jughead's leg bounced as he crossed his fingers. For a moment, the two were hopeful, he pulled out a Manila folder and laid it on the desk. Jughead felt his breath catch in his throat. The folder was slid across the desk. With shaky hands Jughead grabbed it, glanced at Veronica, and opened it. Inside the folder was completely empty.

"I don't know what you're trying to pull, but Jason Blossom taunted you for years, Mr. Jones.  What kind of closure could you possibly want? If you may, I'm working here, kids." Sheriff Keller ended the conversation by clicking his pen one final time and placing it on the desk.

Jughead stared at the empty folder as Veronica got up. She dragged him out of the office, he was still holding the folder. In fact he still had the folder with him when they met up with Archie and Betty a few hours later, in that same booth at pops.

With milkshakes around the table, they discussed their lost causes. Jughead had placed the folder on the table wide open. He had explained their failed attempt and drank his milkshake in sadness. While Veronica and Jughead had gone to visit the sheriff's office, Archie and Betty had met up with Cheryl after cheer practice.

It hadn't gone well, Cheryl Blossom was just as much of a mess as she had been since her brother had gone missing. Although now, with the weight of his death now on the young girl's shoulder she was crankier than normal. It seemed as though the idea of being blunt had gone just as wrong for the two of them as it has for Jughead and Veronica.

The four had been no closer to finding out the truth about Jason Blossom than they were a few days ago. Betty let out a sigh, reaching over to grab an onion ring from the basket on the table. The group was silent, all off in different worlds. That is until Kevin Keller pulled them back in. He was smiling, and holding flyers. He passed them around the table, bouncing on his feet.

"Annual First dance is next week and i expect you all to be there. It's um, It's in honor of Jason. It's gonna be a lot of fun, you have to go." Kevin explained, pointing at Jason's picture on the flyer. Jughead had laughed, everyone knew school dances were not his thing, but they also knew that Betty and Archie would drag him with them anyways.

Veronica had smiled, before looking around the table confused, "Why don't you look excited? It's a school dance!" Betty had laughed now, rubbing Veronica's arm and shaking her head. Kevin had left, although not before stealing a French fry and bidding his goodbyes to his friends.

Archie ran a hand through his hair, "I don't think School Dances are really that important anymore, I mean, what? We're gonna dance to bad pop music in honor of a poor kid who died?" Jughead nodded, agreeing with him.