Chapter 1: The "Sleepy" Town
Into the woods I went
With my two best friends
We would lay in the grass
Over the river came
Clouds of gray, we got lost in the day
We got lost in the day
Into the Woods by The Lower 48
Riverdale.
The name that weighed heavily on Rosie Green's mind like metaphorical lead.
Riverdale.
That was the place that she would be spending the last of her high school years in.
Riverdale.
From the research she had done late into the night before, it was small town. It wasn't exactly the familiar, rainy Portland. It didn't have the towering skyscrapers that seemed to stretch high towards the stratosphere. There was no hustle and bustle of Ubers, foot traffic that went on for hours, or ginormous, arching bridges that went on for miles.
Riverdale.
It had a diner or two, one franchised supermarket, an elementary and middle school combined, and a singular high school. The nearest town was all the way across Sweetwater River with only one bridge connecting them.
Riverdale.
It was so vastly dissimilar to anywhere the Green family had been before, it terrified them all.
"Rosie, I can hear your boring Indie music out of your headphones."
Rosie continued to stare out the car window at the Midwestern landscape. She was lost in her own world, deep in thought about Riverdale – and her new school.
Her younger brother reached over in annoyance and tugged on her long side braid.
She immediately snapped to attention, turning towards the boy. She frowned deeply and yanked her earbuds out of her ears.
"Seriously, Will?" she questioned, slightly irritated. "You could have just tapped on my arm or something."
"You wouldn't have paid attention," he replied, snarky, folding his arms.
"You are one of the most inconsiderate people I've ever met," Rosie shook her head, shoving her headphones back into her ears.
She knew Will was probably ragging on her that very moment, but she tuned them out by turning her music up louder.
Rosie knew that the artists she listened to weren't exactly the most popular in the world, but she enjoyed their original melodies and lyrics. There was a particular art to them that, according to Rosie, seemed more authentic than anything else she had ever listened to.
Suddenly, her music was ripped away from her the second time that day. Before she could reprimand her brother yet again, she was interrupted by her father.
"Rosie, you can't scold your brother like that," Kenneth Green reproached.
"Dad, he pulled out my earbuds when he could have just nudged me," Rosie defended.
"Rosie, listen to your dad," Carol Green added on firmly. "Your brother said he tried saying something, but you didn't listen. He had the right to get your attention in any way he could."
Rosie sighed.
Typical parents taking Will's side on everything, she thought, doing her best not to roll her eyes at Kenny and Carol.
"Fine," she gave in, snatching up her headphones and jamming them back into her ears.
As she did so, she overheard her mother muttering darkly.
"If only she was more like Will…"
But it didn't surprise her. She had been hearing that phrase ever since Will had come into the world just a year and a month after she had.
Perfect Will with his perfect grades and his perfect looks inherited from their perfect parents.
Rosie realized she was starting to sound like Lucius Malfoy when he whined about Harry Potter.
But she knew it wasn't an exaggeration. William Henry Green was basically a Greek god to her parents. He had inherited their mother's beautiful, wavy, golden blonde hair and their father's tall, lean, muscular physique; not to mention their father's emerald green eyes. At only fourteen (almost fifteen), Will had already made State championships with his varsity basketball team, had a four-point-oh in junior high, been offered several modeling contracts from many a Portland agencies, and had a few ex-girlfriends. He was popular and charming, dressed like a typical millennial jock, and a complete, total douchebag.
On the other hand, Rosemary Patricia Green was like the black sheep of the two kids. She had stick straight, medium ash brown hair that fell to her mid-torso; always kept tidily in a side braid. She had inherited the short genes from her father's side, although Kenny Green was over six foot. Technically, she wasn't short, but compared to the rest of her family, five foot seven inches was small. She was of average weight and build, but stayed on the slimmer side. Her eyes were a mix of sterling silver and periwinkle blue, usually switching between the two depending on what colors she was wearing. Rosie did fine with school, earning at three point five, although she was wicked smart. She dressed like a Portland hipster. She was outgoing, loyal, and brutally honest. She was a failure in her parent's eyes, although she hated to think so.
"…through the brush we found, something running round; we went opposite ways, we went opposite ways…"
Rosie decided to push the negative thoughts about herself and her brother to the back of her mind and focused on the lyrics of Into the Woods by The Lower 48.
As the trees flew past, Rosie noted that they looked almost like giant, green, bigfoots chasing their car. They sped silently down the empty highway towards the boring town of Riverdale.
Rosie had no idea that the sleepy place she had read extensively about late the night before would be so much more awake than she ever thought possible.
An hour later, Rosie felt a hand smack her upper arm. It was Will again, this time gesturing up to the front seat of their car.
Rosie paused the song, then removed her earbuds. "Yeah?"
"We're here," Carol announced to them all, voice full of fascination.
Rosie swiveled in her seat to watch the town go by out her window. Her eyes grazed over a sign that read, WELCOME TO RIVERDALE: THE TOWN WITH PEP! She smirked slightly at the faded typography. How very…Midwestern.
As they passed into town, the sky opened and rain pelted the front window like bullets.
"Geez louise," Kenny muttered as they pulled off down a short, wide, muddy road.
Rosie glanced around at the landscape. Construction equipment littered the property; pouring water soaking the peeling, yellow paint on most of the machines.
"Why are we at your new job site?" I inquired.
"I thought we were heading straight to the new house," Will agreed. "I need to get my basketball stuff out to practice for tryouts for the next week."
"Dad had to reschedule the meeting with his new boss. The original one was tomorrow when the movers came to help with all of our stuff," Carol explained.
"My hair is going to get ruined in this rain!" Will moaned.
Rosie huffed out a breath, holding in her disbelief of her younger brother.
"Rosie, did you bring your umbrella?" asked her mother.
Rosie held up the clear umbrella that had been resting on the seat next to her. "Yeah."
"Give it to your brother."
Rosie's eyebrows shot up. "We can share."
"There's not enough room for you and me. My hair will get wet," Will explained, as if it made the most sense logically. He seized the umbrella and tugged it from his sister's grasp.
"You are the whitest white girl of all time," Rosie shot back. "You're such a brat!"
"Rosie, don't talk to your brother like that!" Kenny chastised.
"What, we can't share the umbrella? That's too much for him?" Rosie reasoned calmly.
"Just let him use it, will you? You are the biggest teen drama queen," Carol lectured as they came to a stop a little way away from the trailer. "It's only sprinkling. You'll be fine."
Just as she spoke, the sky rumbled deeply and a crack of light flashed quickly across the dark sky. The rain shook their car, almost as if it was trying to overturn it into the mud.
Rosie sighed as Will stuck his tongue out at her.
Very mature, she thought.
Her mom, dad, and brother all leapt out of the car, umbrellas up and shielding them from the lake that was dumping on them outside.
Rosie didn't have a coat with her in the car, as it was late August. She glanced down at her thin, charcoal gray, V-neck long sleeve shirt with crisscross straps in the front, distressed blue jeans, and burgundy converse. Her hand brushed against her layered, silver disk chain necklaces that she wore constantly. She would be drenched in seconds. But she couldn't help it.
She grasped the handle, counted down from three, then jumped out of the car straight into a deep puddle. She gasped as water filled her shoes and saturated her socks. She slammed the door and scurried after her family, who were almost already into the building.
She ran towards them, calling out for them, but they quickly shut the door behind them.
Suddenly, Rosie's eyes were staring at dead, wet grass. Her knees and elbows ached. She had tripped on a small rut in the ground and tumbled down to the ground. Rain pounded into her back and ran down her face. Her glasses were spotty with water and dirt now.
She grumbled, cursing her inherent clumsy nature, then stomped up the stairs to the trailer. She opened the door, then quickly stepped inside and crashed the door after her.
Rosie turned and slumped against the door, catching her breath as she shivered from the sudden breeze of air conditioning.
She realized that Will, Carol, and Kenny were staring at her in puzzled incredulity. A scruffy man was standing in front of them, his arms crossed in a dark green flannel. A ginger-haired teenage boy who looked about her age was leaning on a desk just behind him. The man and the boy's expression were both of confusion, but it was sympathetic confusion.
Rosie shook out her sleeves and moved the wet tendrils of now dark brown hair out of her eyes. She smiled slightly at the man and the boy as she stood.
Rosie was a social girl, unafraid of new people and challenges.
She walked up and stood right next to her mother. She shoved up her sleeve and held out a hand for the man to shake.
"Hi," she greeted warmly, "I'm Rosie Green."
The man grinned and accepted her handshake, which was firm. "Fred Andrews. Nice to meet you, Rosie. Kenny never mentioned he had a daughter."
Rosie shrugged. Unfortunately, she was used to her father purposefully not mentioning her to others.
"I must have forgotten," Kenny replied with practiced ease, a fake smile playing around his mouth.
"That's alright," Fred Andrews nodded, shoving his hands into his pockets. "I sometimes forget my kid, too."
"He's not lying," chuckled the redhead.
Rosie grinned at the two. She could tell she was already going to like the father and son.
"Oh, hey, you're here," Fred joked, pretending to be startled as he turned and saw his son. He waved his hand at him. "Get over here."
The boy stood and trudged up next to his dad.
"This is my son, Archie," he introduced. Archie waved at them all.
"Nice to meet you," he addressed them all kindly.
Will pushed his way past Carol and Kenny, making Rosie groan inwardly. He was going to try to brag and get this kid to be friend, as always. And, as always, the kid would fall under Will's charm spell and be his best friend until Will found somebody better.
"Hey, I'm Will," said Will, a cocky tone lacing his voice. "I'll be a freshman at Riverdale High this year."
Archie politely nodded once. "Oh, hey, cool. I go to Riverdale. I'll be a sophomore."
Rosie raised her eyebrows hopefully. "Really? I will, too – "
"Will played varsity basketball back in Portland," Carol interjected, completely cutting off her daughter. "He carried his team all the way to the state championships."
"Wow, good for you," Archie replied graciously. His eyes flickered to Rosie. "Did you say you'll be sophomore, too?"
Rosie's jaw almost dropped all the way to the carpet. Archie wasn't sinking into Will's act. He was paying attention to her. It threw her off a little, but she caught herself.
"What? Oh – yes. Sorry. I'll be a sophomore."
"Hey, what a coincidence!" Fred said cheerfully, patting Archie's shoulder. "Archie and his crew have been running amok in Riverdale for years now. I'm sure you'll fit right in, Rosie."
Fred send a wink Rosie's way and she laughed. Archie chuckled at his dad's antics. Fred turned back to the entire family. "Speaking of Riverdale, why don't I get Kenny situated? Arch, why don't you tell Rosie more about Riverdale High since you'll probably have some classes together?"
Rosie glanced over at Carol and Will. Carol's eyes were frozen on Fred and Archie, as if they were insane for not wanting to interact more with Will. Will seemed merely offended. They shuffled off into a corner of the room near the door.
Kenny was falsely joyful and went off to the back of the trailer to talk with Fred Andrews. Archie smiled over at Rosie, who smiled back. She loved making new friends.
Archie noticed her mother's mystified gaze on the two of them. He turned to Rosie. "Do you need a towel?"
Rosie's nerves instantly came to life. Goosebumps popped up all over her body as a drop of water ran down the back of her neck. She hadn't realized that she was dripping all over the floor, a puddle where her feet were planted on the carpet.
She winced. "That'd be great. Sorry about the floor."
Archie waved it off as he dug through a cupboard to her right. "Hey, it's just a little water. At least it's not a milkshake or something, right?"
"That'd be nauseatingly sticky and incredibly arduous to clean up," she replied, squeezing rain out of the end of her braid. She wiped the lenses of her glasses with her sleeve.
Archie snickered slightly and handed her a large, soft towel. She graciously accepted and wrapped it around herself.
"I look like a fluffy burrito," she smiled.
Archie laughed again. "Yeah, you do kind of, don't you?" He pointed to a sofa. "Do you want to sit down?"
"Why not?"
She shuffled over to the sofa and sat down carefully on a comfy cushion. Archie sat down exactly one cushion away.
"Have you lived in Riverdale your whole life?" she asked.
Archie nodded. "Yep. I was born here, too."
"I always kind of wondered what that would have been like," she told him. "I was born in Portland, but since dad's a contractor, we've moved all over the place."
"How long are you here for?" Archie wondered.
Rosie smiled. "Dad promised we wouldn't be moving until after my senior year."
"Hey, that's awesome! It'll be nice having a new face around Riverdale, you know? Our town is so small and there's been some bad stuff going on lately," he said.
Rosie's eyebrows scrunched. "Bad stuff?"
Archie looked over at Carol and Will, then lowered his voice. "Jason Blossom drowned in Sweetwater River last month. He was in our grade and big football star. The town has been calling him the 'Golden Boy' of Riverdale ever since. The town hasn't been the same since."
"That's so interesting," Rosie blurted. "I don't mean like, interesting as in 'wow, the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell-why?' but as in, 'wow, it's interesting that small towns are so upturned by something like accidental deaths,'"
Archie's facial expression was one of misunderstanding.
"I've never lived in a town where the population is less than 100,000. This is all new to me," she clarified.
Archie's thick red eyebrows shot up. "Really?"
Rosie nodded. "Los Angeles was the worst."
"You've been to LA?"
"I lived there for a few years."
"And you didn't like it?"
She shook her head. "It's so funny to see Southern Californians get caught up in rain. It's like the sky is falling. Portland gets so much rain, it's not even funny. I like the rain and clouds more than sun."
Archie's voice lowered again, as if he was telling her a significantly important secret. "The only reason I'm asking is…I've gotten really into music this summer. I was thinking that after high school, I might move down there and try to get a record deal."
"Are you serious?" Rosie questioned quickly. "Do you play, write, sing…?"
"All three," Archie replied rapidly. "Why? Do you?"
"Yeah, all three! What instruments?"
"Guitar, just guitar. What about you?"
"Guitar, ukulele, piano, and drums."
Archie looked taken aback. "Did you parents pay for all those lessons?"
Rosie shook her head in disappointment. "My parents don't exactly…support me in my decisions to pursue music. I had to teach myself with instruments I got off craigslist. But when did you start playing guitar?"
"My dad's not too happy I'm focusing my time writing songs when I spend all day working with him here at his company, so I understand. I started playing just a couple years ago, but I didn't start practicing more until this summer," Archie nodded.
"We should jam together sometime," Rosie suggested.
"We definitely should," he agreed, grinning widely.
"What kind of music inspires you?" she wondered.
"One of my favorites has to be – "
"Rosie, we're leaving!"
The girl hung her head and sighed, then called back. "I'm coming." She turned back to Archie. "Hey, feel free to swing by whenever you're free this next week. Your dad probably has our new address. Bring your guitar and a pencil."
She stood from the couch and unraveled herself from the comforting towel.
Archie took it back and nodded, smiling. "Yeah, definitely."
"Rosie, let's go!" demanded her mother, starting to head out the door.
"Okay, I'm just saying goodbye," she explained.
"Hurry it up!"
"I am, mom."
Rosie turned to address Archie. "But, uh, hey, it was great to get to talk. It'll be nice to know at least one person on the first day of school."
"Oh, hey, you should come over this next week and meet my best friend, Betty," Archie told her hurriedly. "You'd probably get along well."
"Really? That would be spectacular!"
Carol banged the door closed for emphasis, telling her daughter to get done faster.
"Shoot, I really need to go. But seriously – thanks."
She hurried towards the door, braid flying out behind her. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Andrews!"
"Nice to meet you, too, Rosie! Welcome to Riverdale!" he yelled back at her.
"Thank you!"
Archie watched her leave through the blinds. She had to catch up to the car, which had started to roll away without her. Archie frowned.
"What was with her parents?"
"I think you mean, 'what was with her family?'" Fred corrected darkly. "Archie, that is a prime example of what it looks like when parents pick a favorite kid. Poor Rosie isn't treated like she should be."
"Why?" Archie wondered sadly. "She's great."
"I know, I can tell you two will be friends. But I have no idea," his dad replied, shrugging as they two watched the Green family car drive away into the stormy evening. "Watch out for her, will you? Kenny will be a great contractor, but someone who treats their kid like in front of strangers worries me."
"Yeah, I will, dad."
Welcome to the Riverdale fic Ends of the Earth! Thank you so much for reading this first chapter! I hope you enjoyed the introduction of my OC Rosie and her family. There's a lot more I have in store for Rosie and her journey as a character as she navigates that tumultuous plot that is the show of Riverdale.
I've noticed there's a lack of Archie/OC stories on this site, so I really wanted to make a quality contribution to the Riverdale collection here on FanFic. If you'd like to read more about Rosie and how she fits into Riverdale, please follow and review! Feedback would be lovely. :) Thanks so much for reading!