"What's that guys deal?" Wondered Fangs Fogarty aloud, as the serpents table stared at their accomplice, Toni Topaz giving some weirdo with a beanie a tour. The serpents shrugged, apart from a rapidly typing Wren Devine. She nudged her neighbor, Sweet Pea and held up her phone. His brown eyes scanning the screen then perking up.
"It's Jughead Jones." He confirmed in slight awe, as Jughead turned his back on Toni after slapping her reassuringly on the arm and sat down by himself. The group frowned as Wren scooted up for her best friend.
"Before you say anything, I warned him that the Ghoulies are gonna make him their mouse." Sighed Toni digging into a salad Wren had saved for her as she doodled on Wrens notes for English. Tony bent the paper so Wren could see one of her doodles and the two girls giggled trying to go unnoticed by the boys, succeeding.
"Surely FP Jones' son would know that he pretty much has no choice but to sit with us? He was born with serpent blood after all." Replied Sweet Pea abandoning his sandwich, waving his hand at Wren who offered him her Salad.
"He doesn't have to." Pointed out Fangs with his mouth full. Swallowing his BLT, he stated: "He'll come crawling back, trust me." The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. The Southsiders grumbled and stood up, chucking their unfinished food into the trash. The four walked off into the hallway, reaching their lockers and banging them closed as they collected their books for English. As Wren slammed her locker shut, she eyed Sweet Pea without his book, and she waved her book in front of his face and he smirked, then laughing.
"I forgot mine. Well, your's is technically mine since we've been sharing for the last two weeks." He laughed, making Wren grin too. Without further a due, he grabbed the book out of her hands and held it high above her head. She silently gave him a hearty sneer and reached up to as high as she could to retrieve it, jumping too, but no luck. He was a lanky beanpole when she was short as a pencil. The bell rang again, and the two realized that Toni and Fangs were already halfway to the classroom.
"Catch me if you can." Smirked Sweet Pea further, beginning to jog down the hall followed by a devilishly grinning Wren. She began sprinting as Sweet Pea began to slow down in an effort to taunt her, and caught off guard she jumped at him to no victory, since his height always won and Fangs applauded Wren for her efforts as Toni rolling her eyes stated that she would sit next to Jughead so he wouldn't be targeted by the Ghoulies.
"Fangs?" Called Sweet Pea through the rustle of students trying to sit with their friends. Fogarty has already had some sort of conversation with some other serpents. Sweet Pea turned around to see Wren already laying out her notes from the last class.
"Can you pass me them after school?" He asked leaning back in his seat. Wren just passed them over anyway.
"You still up for the quarry? After we're heading to Pops to get takeaway- or we can play pool at the Wyrm. Oh, and we can do a Fight Fighters marathon if you want." Gossiped the already bored boy as Mr. Phillips entered the classroom. Wren turned around abandoning her notes and nodding excitedly. She had her bathing suit underneath her large red sweater, no matter how uncomfortable she was the girl was still very excited. She typed in her phone 'How are we gonna dry off and get changed?'
"Uh, you and Tony can just sunbathe until your swimsuits get dry." He concluded unsure yet winking. With a few pressed of a few buttons, Wren held up her phone to his face and mouthed 'If I win Fight Fighters you owe me dinner at Pops.' making the already grinning boy chuckle. He took his feet off the desk when the teacher shot him a glance, and he just stared at Wren's notes as Mr. Phillips began to explain some stupid crap about yet another book. He wondered how his best friend was so interested in that stuff.
"Fahrenheit 451, by one of my favorite authors, Ray Bradbury." Began Mr. Phillips as Sweet Pea began to make small talk with Wren as he skimmed throughout her encyclopedia of English notes.
"Wren, what's that?" He asked suddenly, spotting a small doodle with 'Jordan + Bronwen = Together Forever' with a love heart around it causing the girl's bright green orbs to glance at what he was gesturing too. Her hand sprung to snatch the paper as she realized he had pointed out something quite embarrassing.
"Who is Jordan?" He hissed, only to see the face of his best friend to turn tomato-like. He didn't like getting pissed at his best friend, but he couldn't help it whenever there was another guy that could possibly be a threat to Wren... She scrambled to take her phone out and began typing, Sweet Pea hovering over her and almost breathing down her neck. She was only a few letters in, and Sweet Pea spotted the inevitable words: A guy.
"What? Damn it!" Shouted Sweet Pea, nearly turning over several desks as he stormed out of the classroom leaving the teacher slightly stunned. Regaining his composure, Mr. Phillips continued his lecture.
"Let's start with the title. Can anyone tell me its significance? People, there's a burning book on the cover." Sighed Mr. Phillips, as Wren didn't even bother typing her answer since Sweet Pea would normally read it out for her. If she chose anyone else in the classroom they would probably just take her answer as their own, and her serpent friends were too far away for her to cause a fuss. Suddenly, the lanky arm of Jughead Jones shot into the air.
"451 Fahrenheit is the temperature at which paper burns. "It was a pleasure to burn." Answered Jughead, finishing with the first sentence of the entire book.
"Indeed. Thank you, Mr... Jones. And welcome to hell." Replied the assured teacher, since he might have one better student this year. The bell rang and everyone gathered their things. Toni and Fangs approached Wren and she took this as a hint to already start typing her answer out since she assumed the two others would be curious as to what happened.
"What happened with Sweet Pea? "questioned Fangs, to be Answered as Wren passed her phone to the two of them.
"Sweet pea was looking through my notes and saw the doodle you made earlier, Toni. Sweet Pea jumped to a conclusion that Jordan Connor was some guy I have a crush on. He obviously got pissed." Read the two serpents. Fangs was confused as Tony cracked up laughing.
"Jordan Connor is an actor that Bronwen here has taken a liking to." Explained Toni. "He was probably jealous." Making Fangs laugh too:
"Poor dude, where is he?" Wren pointed to her own locker, where Sweet Pea was leaned up against sulking. Tony gave Wren a look and Wren rolled her eyes, signalling that Tony could explain everything to Pea. The three grouped up with a dropping Sweet Pea and the three of them smiled reassuringly at him.
"What do you guys wa-"
"Jordan Connor is an actor, Pea." Giggled Toni, leaning up beside the guy. "I doodled that at lunch just to make fun of Bron. Don't blame her. I'm gonna go check on Jones, I noticed him heading to the Red and Black. Cya in ten." Waved Toni skipping off down to the abandoned newspaper HQ.
"Fine- Sorry, Wren I just-"Began Sweet Pea, only to be interrupted by Fangs:
"Pucker up, Sweet Pea. C'mon guys, I forgot my towel in my locker, on the way back we can check up on Toni." He started earning a nod from Wren and a playful shove from Sweet Pea.
"To the quarry!" Boomed Sweet Pea his arms around his friend's shoulders. He looked down at Bronwen, the two giving each other a giggly apologetic smile. Wren wrapped her arm around his torso and joined in on the boys cheering, except slightly quieter.
"Topaz. Let's bounce." Said Sweet Pea, entering the Red and Black. "Jones, wanna come with? We're going to the quarry." He presented, trying to make an effort which Wren inwardly smiled at, however, to be quickly snuffed out by the Jones' kid's response.
"Uh, I don't have my beach body yet." He responded sarcastically, provoking Sweet Pea.
"What? You'll ask for help from the Serpents when you need it, but you won't hang with us? Don't come crawling to us, hat in hand, when some Ghoulie decides to earn his stripes by taking out FP Jones' kid." Scowled Sweet Pea, the serpents in the room inwardly agreeing, including Wren who was still not a full member.
"Duly noted. Thank you, Sweet Pea. I appreciate what you and the Serpents have done for me and my dad. I do. But I'm done. Okay? No more favours coming your way. Why don't you, Fangs and 'Zip-Mouth' scuttle off." Replied Jughead, sending a rather vile insult in Wren's way. He didn't know that she was a selective mute, he just never saw her talking and Wren had her lips pursed due to the tense air in the room. Jughead's stupidity and obliviousness didn't just provoke a now fuming Sweet Pea, but everyone in the room.
"You say that again then your mouth will be the one zipped, Jones!" Snarled Sweet Pea being pulled back by Bronwen who had a painful expression on her face saying 'let him off, he didn't know.' Jughead backed up confused.
"Jughead!" Hissed Tony, as Fangs gritted his teeth. "How could you say that?"
"Say what?" He asked further confused.
"He doesn't know..." Sighed Fangs, pulling back Sweet Pea. Wren stepped forward and began using sign language, to be translated roughly by Toni who only took a small online crash course.
"I'm a selective mute, which means my social anxiety pretty much stops me from communicating with people. Whenever I try to speak, my brain just stops me. I can speak, but the last time I spoke was four years ago,." Translated Toni, almost reciting it since she had to translate quite a bit for the oblivious people.
"I'm sorry- That was stupid of me. I guess I'm Jughead, an oblivious ass. You are?" He introduced himself, holding his hand out. She took it and shook it forgiving him since this happened quite a bit and by that time she was used to it.
"Bronwen." Jumped in Sweet Pea, tugging back Wren. "You up for the quarry?" He Asked again.
"Same answer as before." Sighed Jughead somewhat guiltily.
"You serious?" Hissed Sweet Pea.
"Hey, hey, he made up his mind, okay?" Intervened Fangs.
"Take the hint, Sweet Pea. He's just not that into you. Let's motor. Catch you later, Jones." Called Toni, grabbing Wrens arms and strutting off with the two serpent boys following suit. Sweet Pea turned around as the rest left the Red and Black, and grabbed Jughead by the collar:
"There's a reason why Bronwen doesn't speak, and I couldn't protect her from it. If you even dare lay a finger on my girl you will wind up in the freezer where Jason Blossom was once placed by your father. You flick dust at my Wren, you're dead meat Jones."
TO BE CONTINUED... "THE QUARRY."
I'm your author Leah, and I really hope you all enjoyed! Please comment your first thoughts and constructive criticism! ;3