Chapter One : The River's Edge
"Welcome to Riverdale."
Where nightmares come to play and dreams come to die. Where the rich are favored and the poor are left for dead.
This is where my childhood died.
My mother's car pulls into my dad's driveway. She parks the car and I could hear her say in a soft wispher, "Get out."
I unbuckle my seatbelt, climb out of the car, grab my bag and head inside not even saying goodbye. I couldn't muster up the words, she also didn't deserve to hear them.
The car speeds off down the street and I take in a giant breath before heading inside.
I don't want to do this. Maybe I can turn around and walk away, walk away and never come back.
The door behinds me clicks shuts and I brace myself for what's to come. I look around and no one is insight. Dad is probably at the bar, getting wasted. I head down the hall and put my bag on my bed before grabbing my sketch book and head to Pop's. I would always hang out there, it's my safe haven.
When I open the door, I close my eyes and take in the smell of grease. I was home right there in that moment. The voice of a teenage girl brings me out of it by saying, "I called in an order, for Lodge?"
I look over to find the voice belonging to a raven haired girl, wearing a black cloak. She must be rich like the Blossom's. "Two burgers, yeah, almost ready, but you gotta wait."
He looks at me and asks, "Will it be the usual, Poppy?"
"Yeah, Thanks Pop." I reply heading towards my favorite booth. The one me, my mom, my older brother, and my dad use to sit before everything happened.
After sitting down I look in front of me to see the raven haired girl walking over to two people in the booth near her right. I take a closer look to see Betty and Archie.
I hope to god they didn't see me walk in. I don't feel like talking to them, I know they were trying to do the right thing but it just got me into more trouble.
Pop's came over with a cup and the coffee and poured me a cup. I gave him a smile and take a sip. He walks away and heads in the back. I set the coffee cup back down on the table and grab my sketchbook opening it up seeing the first page. It was my mom and dad. They were happy and smiling.
I quickly flip to a blank page and let go of the breath I was holding in. I take out my pencil and look around for something to draw.
What was there to draw?
An hour ticked by and I still had nothing to draw.
"Poppy."
I look up to see Archie and Betty standing there. I wonder what they're going to say. Maybe they're actually going out.
"So did you two finally get together?" I ask, the question dripping with sarcasm.
"No..We were just wondering if you wanted a ride home?"
Nope, that was the last place I wanted to be. "No I'm good. Thanks for asking though."
"Okay, well we'll see you tomorrow at school."
"Yeah..see you tomorrow."
They turn and walk straight out the door. I look down at my blank canvas and let out a sigh. I'm still left with the vacant question, What am I going to draw?
I look around and I see a boy sitting in the booth to my right typing away at his computer. I can draw him.
And that's exactly what I did. I sat there and drew him until midnight. I had to quit because I was tired and I didn't want him thinking I was stalking him or something. He'd probably think I'm a giant weirdo.
I drank the last bit of my coffee and left a five underneath the cup. I figured that would cover it. Plus if it was less it would just go to tomorrows cups. I picked up my sketch book and was about to walk towards the door but a voice says stopping me in my tracks, "Since you've been staring at me all night can I at least see it?"
I turn to the side and look at the boy with raven black hair and a crown beanie, he seems really familiar. He looks up from his computer and looks me straight in the eyes, almost as if he was looking straight into my soul and digging out my most darkest secrets.
I look from him to my sketchbook before flipping to the page I was recently on and sit down at his booth, hesitantly showing him the drawing. He eyes it and says, "Wow, that's pretty good."
"Thanks, I didn't have anything else to draw so I started drawing you." I quickly look at my phone and the time read 12:12.
"Well I should be getting home." I reply grabbing my sketch book and rushing out the door. I left him there in the dust, I figured if I would have stayed any longer he would have seen the rest of the drawings. If he saw them, he'd go asking questions and those are questions I really don't want to answer.
Later that night I started to think about the boy in the beanie. I tried to remember where I'd seen him. Then it hit me. It's Jughead. Jughead Jones.
School, the second hell I have to go to. It's already been a couple of hours and I already think it would be better at home. And for me that's saying something.
At school I always find myself observing everyone. I don't fit in with nerds, the jocks, or the cheerleaders so I'm always alone.
Well that was until Betty gave a tour to the new girl with raven black hair.
Third Person's Point Of View
Through out Betty's tour they came to the lounging area of the school where they found Poppy sitting in a chair drawing.
"Here is the lounge. This is the finale place on our tour. We all hang out here and do our homework." Betty tells Veronica.
Poppy was off in her own little world, drawing. When she draws the whole world falls away.
"Who is that?" Veronica asks Betty pointing to Poppy sitting in a chair over in the corner.
Betty looks over to see where she's pointing and she sees Poppy drawing. "Oh that's Poppy Perrish."
"Is she nice?"
"Yeah she's nice. We use to be best friends, but we're not anymore." Betty replies, a sad expression replacing her happy one.
"May I ask what happened ?"
"Me and Archie got into something we shouldn't and Poppy paid the price. We should've went after her and talked to her but we didn't."
"Well then we should try and fix it." She says walking over to Poppy. Poppy was a little confused on what the two of them wanted.
"Hi, I'm Veronica." She says holding out her hand.
Poppy shakes it saying, "Poppy."
"You wanna come try out for the vixens with us?" Veronica asks.
I remember last year, me and Betty tried out but Cheryl said we were to fat.
"Uh...last time I tried out Cherly said I was to fat."
"Well she hasn't seen our moves." Veronica grabs Poppy's hand and the she grabs Betty's and they head to the locker room to change.
Once they change they head into the gym where the vixen's were holding tryouts. "Maybe this will be good for me." Poppy thinks to herself as they walk to the center of the gym in front of where Cheryl was sitting, a smug smile upon her lips.
The three girls give each other a look and start the cheer, "We're blue! And go! We're dynamite! We'll take you down, and fight the fight!"
Veronica and Poppy both say, " Whoo! Go, Bulldogs!"
"Hmm." Cheryl starts. "Ladies, where's the heat? Where's the sizzle?"
Veronica eyeballs me and then says to Cheryl, "Well, you haven't seen our big finish yet."
Veronica walks over to me and whispers, "Don't freak out. Just trust me."
Veronica leans in and kisses Poppy. She was very confused on what is happening. When they pull away Cheryl says, " Check your sell-by date, ladies, faux lesbian kissing hasn't been taboo since 1995."
Poppy looks at Betty and gives her a confused look. "So let's see if you do better with the interview portion of audition."
Cheryl looks at Betty and asks, "Betty, how's your sister doing?"
"Um, Polly's fine, thanks for asking."
"Veronica, has Betty told you about her sister yet?" Cheryl asks.
Anger started to boil inside of Poppy, she knew how sore of a subject it was for Betty. "Um no."
"Go ahead, Betty." Cheryl says, "Tell Veronica about your sister and my dear brother."
"Polly and Jason dated." She says promptly.
Cheryl scoffs, "I wouldn't say "dated"."
"It didn't end well." Betty tells Veronica, you could hear the sadness in her voice.
"In fact, Jason's probably why your sister had a nervous breakdown and now lives a group home, isn't it?" Cheryl rudely says.
"That's what my parents think."
The air became icy when Cheryl says, "What do you have to say about that, Betty?"
Betty stayed quiet. "Go ahead, the floor is yours. Whatever you've been dying to speed about Jason and how he treated Polly, unleash it."
She still stayed quiet. Cheryl says demandingly, "Destroy me. Tear me a new one. Rip me to shreds. Annihilate me."
"I just..." Betty begins but gets cut off by Cheryl saying, "Finally."
"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about what happened to Jason. I can't even imagine what you and your family is going through."
"Right." Cheryl replies. "Now onto you Poppy. What about how your brother was bullied into suicide what do you have to say about that? You know how my brother and the football team bullied your brother."
Poppy was about to cry. No one had brought up her brother in a while. It had only been 6 months since he died. She kept quiet. She couldn't bring herself to say anything.
"Veronica, welcome to the River Vixens. Betty, Poppy, better luck next time."
Anger boiled inside Poppy. It made her mad to see Cheryl use their family against them. "You wanna know what Cheryl, I'm not gonna just sit here and take your crap. I thought maybe you wouldn't bully us into being bitches this year because of what happened with Jason but I guess not."
She was about to leave but Betty grabbed her arm and quietly asked, "Hey, are you okay?"
Poppy nods and they hear Cheryl say to Veronica, "I need girls with fire on my squad."
"I know what you need, Cheryl, because I know who you are. You would rather people fear you than like you, so you traffic in terror and intimidation. You're rich, so you've never been held accountable, but I'm living proof. That certainty, that entitlement you wear on your head like a crown? It won't last. Eventually, there will be a reckoning. Or...Maybe that reckoning is now. And maybe, that reckoning...is me." Veronica spits out angrily at Cheryl. Everyone was shocked at what she said.
"Betty, Poppy, and I come as a matching set. You want one, you take all three. You want fire?" Veronica continues walking over to Cheryl and then says, "Sorry, Cherrybombshell, my specialty's ice."
Poppy didn't go with the girls to walk around the track with Betty and Veronica after making the team she wanted to go to Pop's to get some more coffee.
First it was the River Vixens then what was it going to be going to the back to school dance they were having. It just wasnt her scene. She wanted to lay low, she knew people would start wanting her to go back to the same happy girl she use to be.
It just want going to happen.
So that night of the dance she found herself settling in Jughead's booth so she could finish her drawing. Not knowing what events would unfold.
It was midnight, and my old friend Archie Andrews arrived at the one place in town that was still open.
He was looking for the girl next door. Instead he found me and the girl in the booth next to me, Poppy.
"Hey, Pop. Betty hasn't come in tonight, has she?" Archie asks, desperately trying to find his best friend.
"Nope. Just the night Hawks in tonight."
"Thanks." Archie replies, looking over at Poppy and Jughead.
"Uh, can I sit, Poppy, Jughead?"
"If you want." Jughead and Poppy say in unison.
"What are you working two working on?" Archie asks the two.
Poppy shows him and Jughead replies, "My novel. It's about this summer, and Jason Blossom."
"Seventeen years old and how will he be remembered? As captain of the water polo team?" Archie asks.
"The Aquaholics?" Jughead asks. "Considering how he died, probably not."
"No, what I mean is..Was he doing everything he was supposed to do, everything he wanted. I mean, did he even know what that was?"
"Coach Clayton was in here talking to Pop Tate. Varsity. Does that make you, what, Mr. Popular Football God now?"
"No. In fact, I'm kind of terrified I lost my best friend tonight." Archie tells the two sitting in the booth drinking coffee.
"If you mean Betty, whatever happened, just talk to her. You know it'd go a long way." They're was a small pause before he says to Archie, "Would've gone a long way with me."
"It would've worked with me too." Poppy says to Archie. He gives her a smile and then gets up and takes off running to find his best friend.
Little did they know the body of Jason Blossom would be found, with a bullet in his head.
By morning, everyone would be talking, texting, and posting about it.
We'd all be feeling it.
That the world around us had changed, maybe forever.
That Riverdale wasn't the same town as before.
That it was a town of shadows and secrets now.
On Monday, the autopsy on Jason's body would take place.
And on Tuesday, halfway through fifth period, the first arrest would be made.
Jughead came up to Poppy who was sitting in her booth, drawing her coffee cup, asks, "You wanna help me solve a murder?