Every small town has it's shadows
I was walking my dog, as I do every morning, my large irish wolfhound bounded through the trees, never straying too far from my side. I'd trained him to be loyal, to stick by me, just in case I was ever put in danger.
The fallen leaves and muddy ground coated my shoes and left distinct footprints as I moved, dodging the trees and low branches as we walked through the woods. It was always quiet out here, most people were still enveloped in the comfort of their own beds so early in the morning, that's why I like it out here in the misty woods at 6 in the morning. The tranquility of the woods always calmed me, but, not then, not on july 4th.
Usually the only noise around me was the sound of twigs snapping beneath my feet or the sound of Zeus bounding through the trees, enjoying himself. And I was comforted by that sound, was.
I turned to keep my eye on Zeus when a loud piercing gunshot rang through the forest, my whole body clenched up and I stood frozen in my spot. Zeus letting out a loud threatening howl as he bounded back to me. My eyes were as wide as a deer in headlights, a few seconds after the gunshot had halted I motioned for Zeus to follow me and we ran.
I didn't stop running until I reached my mom's house, my house. Hurriedly rummaging through my pockets to find my house keys before stuffing them into the lock and practically diving through my door. Zeus closely following behind and once we were both inside I slammed the door shut, my back pressing up against it as I sunk down to the floor.
My lungs hurt and my legs ached, I'd run five miles, five miles in fear. I heard movement from upstairs and knew the sound I'd made must've woken my mom up. I quickly wiped away a small tear that had crawled down my face as I got up.
That's when my mom came downstairs, still mid way through tying up her dressing gown. She looked mad, her face formed a well practiced scowl, the lines in her forehead grew into creases as she stared down at me
"Are you okay?" She asked me, the tone she spoke with indicated that she was very clearly annoyed at the fact that I'd woken her up so early.
"Yeah..," I paused, my throat dry. "I'm fine mom, just raced Zeus back to the house." I plastered a fake smile on my face and looked up at her. "He won." I added. My mother nodded, turning and trudging back upstairs
I looked down at my shoes, the black material of my trainers now coated in another layer of dirt, I slid them off my feet and placed them on the wooden shoe rack by the front door. Moving quickly through the house and into the kitchen, I reached the back door where I let Zeus outside again.
We had a nice house, my mum was a lawyer, so she worked from home and was her own boss. Something I aspired to be in my own life. Although she had to take frequent business trips in order to promote her business. But I didn't mind, her being away gave me time for myself.
My dad had left us around three years ago, and after a long custody battle between the two the courts had sided with my mother on the basis that my father was away a lot because the base of his realtor operation was New York. Not long after he'd left my mom had spiralled, keeping herself composed outside the house but inside was a different story. She drank a lot and was very sad most of the time, she blamed me for my dad leaving, claiming I'd torn the family apart.
My phone lit up, snapping me out of my thoughts, as I was poured some cereal, a text from Jughead popping up on the screen.
'Meet me at pop's in 10'
I chuckled to myself, smiling down at my phone before moving the cereal to the side and putting a post-it note on it that said 'For mom'. I then grabbed my bag from the bar stool next to the counter and heading back down the hallway and out the front door.
Gently this time I closed the door behind me and locked it before sliding my keys into my back pocket. I glanced over the street, I lived opposite Archie and Betty, which made me close to the two. Both their lights were off so I assumed they were still asleep.
I moved down the pavement and to my car, a retro silver Karmen Gear which I'd spent my life savings on buying and restoring, my pride and joy. I slid my car keys into the door and turned them, the car door clicked and I pulled it open. The red leather interior greeted me as I sat down, my hands reached up and ran over the smooth, varnished wood of the steering wheel. I took a deep breath, the hot air from my lungs leaving a dense mist in the cool air.
The lights in Pop's were dim but visible, the pink tinted LED's glowing ever so slightly so that people could still see that they were open. I headed up to the main entrance and went inside. The comforting ring of the entrance bell echoed through the store. I looked down the booths and spotted the O-so-famous beanie of Jughead Jones, my best friend.
I smiled and pushed the events of this morning to the back of my mind as I weaved my way down the narrow aisle and slid into the side of the booth opposite Jug.
"Good mo-orning." He said as he pushed a tall vanilla milkshake across the table towards me. He looked up from his burger and grinned. "I ordered your favourite." I returned the smile and grabbed the straw of the milkshake, taking a long sip of the smooth liquid and smiling.
"Thanks Jug." I replied, reaching over to steal one of his fries and then popping it into my mouth. He opened his mouth in faux shock and gasped.
"Atlantis, how dare you." but I merely smirked in reply, knowing he would never truly be mad.
It was now monday morning, a week later, which meant it was time to go back to school after a whole summer off. My alarm went off at 7, it went off so late because after what happened last saturday I'd been too scared to walk Zeus out in the morning.
Groaning in annoyance I rolled out of bed and pressed snooze on my phone alarm. I rubbed my eyes and leant my elbows on my legs. I'd been up late last night, which, thinking about it now, was not a good idea.
Standing up I reached out and grabbed my hoodie from my doorknob and slid it on. Quietly opening my door and heading downstairs into the kitchen. Tip-toeing so that I didn't wake up my mom.
Once I'd reached the kitchen and opened the back door, the cold breeze from outside woke me up as I reached outside to grab Zeus' dog bowl. I plonked the bowl on the counter, pulling open the fridge door and grabbing the dog meat and then using a spoon I plonked some in Zeus's dog bowl.
"Zeus," I whispered. "Here boy." I finished as I placed the dog bowl on the mat next to his water bowl. The distinct sound of pawprints got louder as Zeus travelled from his bed to his bowl, immediately tucking into his food.
Once both Zeus and I were fed I walked back upstairs, going back into my room and getting ready for the day.
I closed the door behind me and as expected Jughead was waiting for me outside. Smiling down at him.
"Hey stranger." I said, skipping down my steps and meeting him on the pathway. "How are you?" Jug looked up at me, a grave look on his face.
"Did you hear about Jason?" He asked, his voice serious.
"No, I've been cramming all weekend, I have a history test today. Why? What happened?" I was shaking my head as I spoke.
"He drowned." Jughead had said it so blatantly that the shock hit me hard. Big things never really happened in our small town, it was mediocre, boring even. "I'm going to write a book about it." I took a deep breath, snapping out of my thoughts of dread.
"About his death? Why?"
"'Cause I think it's going to be interesting." He replied nonchalantly. I nodded, Jughead was a great writer, it's what he spent the majority of his time doing, so if he's going to channel his emotions into a creative output I'm not going to argue with it.
"We need to get to school." I said, bringing the conversation to a close. Both of us chucking our headphones in and walking to school in silence.
As we reached the tall school entrance of Riverdale High, Jughead and I parted ways, our lockers being on opposite sides of the school, I gave him a soft wave as he left, he gave me a smile before turning and heading left down the hall.
I turned right and made my way to my locker, it being next to Archies I saw him every morning.
"Hey Archie." I said as I opened my locker, Archie looked up from the notepad he was reading and shot me a grin.
"Atlantis, it's been a while." He said, his eyes flicking back to the notepad after he spoke. "Still short I see." I scrunched my face up at his joke.
"Ouch." I grabbed my books from my locker and snuck a peak of what was on the notepad he was holding so close to his chest. "What've you got there? A new diary?" I joked, raising an eyebrow at him.
He let out a small chuckle.
"Nah, just..," He paused "I've been writing the s-" He was cut off when my locker was slammed shut, Reggie leaning on it and having no respect for my presence, as usual. I rolled my eyes.
"Classy." I mumbled under my breath.
"Bro, you are ready for football. I'm not kidding you dude you got ripped." I sighed and began to walk away as I heard Reggie start to talk about how much weight Archie was lifting. The bell rang soon after I left and that's when I bumped into Betty.
She was showing around a very unfamiliar face, I tilted my head to the side in confusion.
"Betts!" I yelled, walking up to her as she turned around. "Who's this?" I asked, gesturing to the new girl. The raven haired girl stuck her hand out to me.
"Veronica Lodge, and you are?" Veronica spoke up, slowly I took her hand and shook it, slightly taken aback at her abruptness.
"Atlantis Jackson, welcome to Riverdale." I replied, realising that this was the new girl I'd heard rumours about, the one whose dad was in jail for fraud. A new yorker, and posh by the look of her matching top and pencil skirt, a delicate string of pearls rested on her neck.
I felt slightly intimidated in my plain outfit, a rough worn pair of red doc martins, black jeans, and a black jumper that said '#savethebees'. I tugged the strap of my leather satchel further up on my shoulder and turned back to Betty.
"So what's the social scene like here? Any nightclubs?" Veronica asked, Betty was about to answer when Kevin popped up out of the blue and dispelled his socialite knowledge to us.
"A strip club called the Ho Zone and a tragic gay bar called Innuendo. Friday nights; football games and then tailgate parties at the Mall-mart parking lot. Saturday night is movie night, regardless of what's playing at the Bijou, and you better get there early, because we don't have reserved seating in Riverdale, and Sunday nights; Thank God for HBO.
"Veronica Lodge, Kevin Keller. Veronica is new here Kevin is-" Betty's introduction was cut off when Veronica piped up and finished her sentence.
"Gay, thank god, let's be best friends." Veronica was now sporting a grin.
"Is it true what they say about your dad?" Betty and I looked at Kevin in shock, Veronicas grin was gone.
"Seriously Kev?" I whispered to him, even though everyone could still hear me. Betty, Kevin and I slowly turned our faces back to Veronica who had her hands clasped in front of her defensively.
"That he's the Devil incarnate? I stand by my father. Does everyone here know?" I nodded as Veronica's eyes flicked between the three of us. "Wonderful, ten minutes in and I'm already the blue jasmine of Riverdale high." She then walked off, Betty shot Kevin a glare before following the tourist down the hall. I followed Betty's example and gave Kevin a stern look.
"What?" He asked, shrugging.
"You have a tendency to be very blunt Kev. Now come one before we lose them." I grabbed his arm and dragged him in the direction Betty and Veronica went.
The tour we were giving Veronica was almost up and with all the stops Veronica made to let out a sarcastic comment about how dingy our school was it had taken up the whole of first period. The bell had just rung and people were slowly beginning to pour out of their classes.
Down the hall Archie was exiting his free period class and Veronica's eyes immediately attracted themselves to his figure as he stopped to wait for his friends. She grabbed Betty's arm and pulled her close, lowering her voice slightly.
"Theres the hottie we were with last night." She said, still holding onto Betty's arm.
"His names Archie." I pointed out, raising my finger to point at him subtly.
"The red-headed Ansel Elgort." She continued, gushing over him. Veronica let go of Betty's arm and straightened up. "Is he your boyfriend?" She asked the group. We all spoke up at the same time.
"No, he's straight" Kevin said.
"No, we're just friends." Betty's voice had a tinge of sadness to it.
"No, I don't like him like that." I said, finishing my sentence after everyone else.
Veronica looked between the three of us, and let out a small laugh.
"In that case, mind putting in a word? I've tried every flavour of boy but orange." She said as we began walking down the hall.
"Orange?" I said and she shot me a wink. That was when Kevin spoke up.
"Actually, to clarify, Betty and Archie aren't dating but they are endgame." Betty made and annoyed expression and clicked her fingers.
"You should ask him to the Semi-formal then." Veronica stated, glancing at Betty as Betty's cheeks began to flush a subtle shade of pink.
"She should," Kevin spoke in agreement. "But I heard it might get cancelled, because of what happened to Jason, they're gonna tell us at the assembly."
"Who is this Jason and what happened to him?" I sighed, still not knowing all the details myself, just the rumours that I'd heard down the halls and what Jug had told me. Although I trusted Jug's story more than the whispers in the wind because Jug had heard and gone down to the river when Cheryl was found.
"You'll find out soon enough." I said as I moved away from the three and heading towards the gym where the assembly was being held.