CHAPTER ONE: ON THE VERGE
"You told me that we'd see each other again." -La Sera
Peggy Andrews was prone to nightmares.
As a child, they were centered around horrifyingly misshapen embodiments of darkness, with teeth and eyes and hands that scraped over the skin on her stomach and left her waking up clutching her own throat, gasping for air. When she'd grown older, they were about school. Cheryl Blossom taunted her endlessly through middle school, an inescapable bullying that existed even as she slept, dreaming of an eternal school hallway filled with Cheryl and a million other girls who were laughing and whispering inaudibly, and yet, Peggy always knew it was about her.
When high school started, it was about her parents and their screaming matches. They'd shouted and fought, and god she'd always been jealous of Archie and his bedroom on the second floor, so far removed from the chaos they lived with.
But now, it was always about Jason Blossom.
Peggy always dreamt of him being dragged underwater in Sweetwater River by the raging current, of a last gasping breath, of the girl and the child he left behind.
She always dreamt about Jason Blossom's death, because she knew it was her fault.
Peggy threw the door to Pop's open, probably with more force than required. The man himself glared at her from over the counter, and she winced in apology. "Sorry," she told him, before scanning the restaurant for the person she was here to see. When her eyes finally landed on Betty, she broke out into a grin.
The blonde had been gone all summer, and Peggy had been bored to death without her. While Archie had a job and some summer fling he refused to tell her about, she'd been stuck running the ICEE machine at the Riverdale Roller Rink and teaching kids to skate without falling over.
Her coworkers had been no fun, either. Elaine was a thirty-four year old, gum-snapping woman with long, fake nails, and William was a boy who'd tried to explain the entire Star Wars franchise to her, as if she hadn't seen each movie a dozen times each.
She'd been starved of human interaction for almost two entire months.
Peggy heard her brother tell Betty, "You're the only one I'm telling," before she'd reached the booth.
"Only one you're telling what?" she asked, shoving Archie over and surprising Betty. "Hey, Betty," she greeted with a grin.
Betty replied with a half-hearted smile, "Hey," she replied.
"Go away," Archie told her, nudging her with his elbow. "I see you enough without you crashing my dinner."
"Um, excuse me, it seems like Betty wants to see me," Peggy retorted, kicking him under the table.
"Uh, really? Because her excitement is a bit lackluster now, compared to when you weren't here."
"Ooh, lackluster. Are you studying for the SAT already?"
Archie scowled.
Peggy ignored him, pointedly. "How was your summer, Betty?" she asked.
Betty perked up. "It was great. I loved interning. It makes me excited to be an adult, for some reason?"
Peggy grinned brightly. "I'm glad!" Then, she leaned in closer. "So, what secrets was my brother sharing with you just now?"
"Um…" Betty trailed off, looking to Archie. "He should be the one to tell you."
Peggy pouted. "Please?"
Archie rolled his eyes. "If I tell you, will you leave?"
"Sure," Peggy answered, though she had no intention of following through.
"I've been…" Archie looked away, trying to find the words, "writing songs." He glanced up at Peggy. "I want to focus on music."
She blinked at him. "Seriously?"
"Uh," he said, "Yeah?"
"Cool," Peggy commented, nodding. "Have you told dad?"
Archie shook his head. "No. And you won't either."
"Promise. Scout's honor."
Her brother squinted at her for a moment. "You're not even a girl scout."
Rolling her eyes, Peggy stuck out her pinky. "Fine. Pinky promise?"
Archie linked her hand with his, shaking on it. He smiled, satisfied, and then proceeded to try pushing her out of her booth. "Goodbye," he emphasized.
Scowling, Peggy stole a handful of fries off of Archie's plate, pivoting out towards the aisle between the booths to leave when-
When the most beautiful girl she'd ever seen opened the door to Pop's. Peggy's jaw dropped, though all her intentions of eating the fries in hand were gone. "Holy shit," she breathed.
"What?" Betty asked, turning to see what her gaze was glued on. "Oh. Wow."
The girl looked about her age, with black hair and dark eyes. She walked like some kind of goddess, and that was Peggy's first indication that she was clearly not from around here. Nobody from Riverdale acted like deities. If anything, they were all ghosts, waiting for something to happen, completely out of control of how their lives were going.
But-this girl. Peggy watched as she slid the hood off of her hair and let the red of her lips quirk upwards into a smirk. She moved with intention and purpose and the promise of mystery and tragedy and excitement.
She was getting closer to their table, and Peggy was panicking and balling her hand up into a fist nervously, accidentally crushing the fries inside her palm. "Oh, crap," she said, looking down, just as the girl whizzed by to confirm her order.
"I called in an order for Lodge?" she said.
Lodge. That name sounded familiar, but Peggy couldn't place it.
"Yeah, two burgers, but you're gonna have to wait," Pop answered.
With her hair still acting as a curtain hiding her face from the eyes of the stranger, Peggy took a deep breath. This is fine, she told herself. It was a lie and she knew it.
"Hey," the girl greeted.
Peggy sat up, too abruptly to seem slightly normal. "Hey," she returned.
"Hi," Betty said, smiling.
"Hey," Archie replied.
The girl smiled, and asked conversationally, "How are the onion rings here?" Her gaze drifted lower. "Since you seem to really hate the fries."
Peggy glanced down at her hand, still crushing a handful of French fries inside her grip. "Oh," she said. "Ha ha."
Next to her, Archie sent her a strange look, which she chose to ignore.
"The rings are good," Betty told the girl.
"Can I get two orders of onion rings?" the girl called out to Pop, not dragging her eyes away from their table.
"Yeah," Pop answered.
"Thanks," the dark-haired girl said. "My mom and I just moved here," she explained.
"From where?" Archie asked.
"New York."
Well. That explained it. New York was a big city full of big, important, people. No wonder she walked like a god.
"Do you guys go to Riverdale High?" she asked suddenly, after a silent beat passed.
All three of them nodded. "I'm a junior," Peggy said. "Betty and Archie are sophomores." She cleared her throat. "Also, I'm Peggy."
"Veronica," the girl introduced, sticking a hand out for Peggy to shake. "I'm starting at Riverdale tomorrow. Is it anything to look forward to?"
"Do you like football?" Peggy asked.
"Not particularly," Veronica replied warily.
"Then I don't think so."
A beat passed. "I'm filled with dread," Veronica confided.
"Why's that?" Archie asked her.
"Yeah," Peggy echoed. "What's there to be afraid of?"
Veronica paused for a moment, her eyebrows scrunching up. Finally, she asked them, "Are you familiar with the works of Truman Capote?"
"Yeah, totally," Archie said.
Peggy whirled around. Her brother didn't even know who Truman Capote was, much less what he had written. "You so aren't, Arch."
"Am too!" Archie argued, sputtering.
"They're siblings," Betty explained to Veronica. It was an implicit apology.
"They don't look very similar," Veronica remarked, smiling and raising an eyebrow.
Peggy shrugged, turning away from Archie and back towards Veronica. "He's got our white mom's hair."
"I didn't mean it like that," Veronica said, shaking her head slightly. "But what I meant, was, I'm Breakfast at Tiffany's and this place is strictly In Cold Blood."
Peggy let out a loud laugh, wincing at herself as she did. What the hell was up with her? She was never this awkward. Never.
Archie kicked her under the table, and normally she would've kicked back, but hell. He was right. She was embarrassing herself right now and she knew it. "Do you want to join us?" he offered. "Maybe we can unfill you with dread."
Smiling apologetically, Veronica said, "My mom's waiting for me."
Peggy was filled with simultaneous disappointment and relief. She wanted to know who this girl was. She really wanted to know more about her. But she needed a minute to get her shit together before she did so.
It seemed like Veronica noticed Peggy's expression, because she directed her gaze towards her and added, "To be continued," as she headed over to the takeout counter.
"What the hell was that?" Archie demanded, looking at Peggy like she was some sort of alien. "Are you high?"
"What the hell? No!" she responded, indignant. "She's just...really pretty. I was just, um, jealous of how pretty she is."
Archie fixed her with another funny look. "Uh, what about your boyfriend?"
Peggy blinked at him, before the realization dawned on her. Her boyfriend. Roger, the senior on the football team. Her boyfriend.
Well, fake-boyfriend. Roger was also gay.
But Archie didn't know that. Nobody knew, really, except for Jason and Polly. And Jason was dead, and Polly was gone, shipped off to god knows where by her evil parents.
A stray headlight dragged its way across the diner, briefly allowing her to see the faces of Betty and Archie in the dimness. Peggy squinted at its harshness. "I can appreciate the beauty of other girls, okay? Jesus."
"I wasn't…" Archie squinted, suspicious.
Peggy took this as her opportunity to grab a napkin and wipe the fries off her hand, before making a quick escape out of the booth. What the hell was she doing? She'd almost outed herself.
Though, she thought, speed-walking out the door, this wasn't the biggest secret she was hiding.
a/n: KJ Apa is half pacific islander and I'm sad the show erased it so I'm recasting Fred Andrews as pacific islander so that we can have the Asian representation we deserve. Fred is played by Robbie Magasiva and Peggy is played by Shay Mitchell. Please leave a review if you enjoyed this! (Also, future chapters will be longer, I'm just posting this to test the waters a bit, if that makes sense.)