"Do you have any idea how hypocritical you are being right now?" Betty Cooper was fuming. Alice had her face in her hands as she stuttered a response.

"Yes...you know, BBBetty...I am just trying to ppprotect you. If you can only just--"

"PROTECT ME?" Betty's large eyes seemed even larger. "I have had enough of your self-righteous grandstanding, Mom. I'm sorry, but you have some nerve telling me that being the best girl of a Serpent is 'too dangerous' when you yourself did the same thing with FP Jones!"

Alice was horrified and taken aback. "How did you--"

Betty was sardonic and pushy. "I'm an 'amateur sleuth,' remember, Mom? You said so yourself. I have ways of finding out things too you know." Betty unzipped her bookbag. Alice heard the old familiar sound of hand-on-leather as Betty shed a dark jacket from its Jansport skin. Time stood still as the bold haunting emblem flashed before Alice's now wide eyes. "I've been approached, Alice...and...I've made my choice."

"Elizabeth Cooper, you come back here this instant..." Betty slipped the Southside Serpent jacket on over her sweater and slowly tightened her ponytail as she walked out of the room without looking back. Alice sobbed uncontrollably and fell to her knees for she knew she had lost her favorite daughter for good.

"I'm ready to go." Betty walked out of the darkness into the glow of the county line street lamp.

"That jacket looks good on you. You made the right choice."

"Thanks, Fangs." Betty tried to appear confident in her decision in front of Fangs Fogarty. Jughead didn't scare her. Fangs scared her.

"We're just waiting for Jughead now. He's making sure Hot Dog has enough food set aside for while we're away." There was a breeze through this part of town that made the hairs on the back of your neck spring to life. But it also made you look around you--wondering what would happen next.

Familiar footsteps approached. "Betty!" Jughead's adoration was what kept Betty going these days. His voice had her aching for his touch. She had been through so much with him already. And not only had their relationship survived, but its intensity had grown with every kiss and each time they came together.

"Over here, Juggy...we're ready." Betty's smile improved his posture and reminded him why he had chosen to be a Serpent. FP was still in jail, and it was going to have to be up to him to figure out a way to make things right again.

"Hot Dog is all set. I'll have a treat ready for him for when we get back."

"Well all right, then. Are you folks ready to be a part of a family that WON'T forsake you at the drop of a hat?" Fangs was eager.

"Easy, Fangs. You don't have to hard-sell us anymore." Jughead stood all in black with hands on his hips.

"I told you you were a viper, Jug." Fangs talked with his hands toward Betty. "Vipers are direct and to the point--Constrictors...well constrictors just cling and cling tighter and tighter and smother you until you're dead." Betty chuckled at Fangs' comment. Jughead patted Fangs on the shoulder to let him know they should get going.

Betty couldn't wait to coil her arm around his bicep. Something about the sound and smell of leather just made her heart start to race. "You're my right-hand, and Betty's my best girl...what more could a guy ask for?"

"Vipers--Lifers!" The shine of the chrome on their motorcycles made you breathe easier and imbued them with a rush of power and feeling of invincibility. Betty watched as Fangs effortlessly revved up his Harley and drove off down the hill toward Sweetwater River. It was their turn now.

"Juggy, I love you so much." Betty kissed him with a fervor that had her clawing at his leather lapel.

"You don't have to be nervous, Betts."

"Who says I'm--"

"Your bottom lip--it's a dead giveaway every time." She raked her fingers through his unkempt mop.

"I'm here, aren't I?" Betty tilted her head and watched her man mount his own awaiting ride.

"Your chariot...Juliet? I love you too."

"Oh, so I'm Juliet again?"

"Get over here. We gotta go." Betty straddled the remainder of the leather seat and pressed herself firmly up against Jughead's arched back, wrapping her arms around his chest.

"Wait!" Betty startled him with her sudden request.

"What is it now?"

Betty reached back and took her hair down. She shook her blonde mane like a lioness being freed from captivity. "That's better."

Betty smiled like someone finding clarity for the first time. Free from her parents' icy stares, she now had a true family to stick by her. One day she and Jug would have a family of their own too. And sure it would be loud and yes it would be exciting. It would be a gang of brothers and sisters united for a common cause--everything Riverdale SHOULD have been but wasn't. "Let's ride, Romeo."

A few kicks and a rumbling through their cores had their landscape beginning to change. "I feel so alive!" As Jughead hit the accelerator, Betty tightened her hug on his torso. If he was a Viper, then she was definitely the Constrictor in this family.