introduction

A Serpent never shows cowardice.

Even though her mother wasn't consider a Southside Serpent anymore and hadn't been for awhile, she was never a coward. She would have been ready to anything to defend her opinion or herself and to protect her family. However, her dad was the definition of a coward. He had made her mother weaker than who she really was after all those years.

No Serpent stands alone.

When it came to her mother, this Serpent rule may not exactly have apply. She couldn't blame them, after all, her mother had abandoned the Southside Serpents years before for her perfect little life. Life that turned out not to be so perfect after all. But that night, Alice Cooper wished she hadn't stand alone, in front of her drunk husband. Maybe it would have end differently, maybe she would still be alive.

If a Serpent is killed or imprisoned, their family will be taken care of.

Betty Cooper thought she had lost everything that night. Her mother was dead, her dad was in prison, her sister had been gone for years. While she believed she was completely in the dark, a whole new family opened their arms to her.

In unity, there is strength.

Goodbye Riverdale High. Goodbye perfect white picket fence doll house. Goodbye murderous father. Betty Cooper was about to join the Southside of Riverdale and watch her life change forever. Even though she didn't knew it yet, she would never be alone again.

Hi! So I'm trying this whole fanfic thing one more time? Heh, if you know me and/or have seen my accounts, I tend to have big dreams about fanfic but abandon them after awhile (hello writer's block!). But for this one, I'll really try to finish it! I have to say this : I may be biligual, but my english is far from being perfect. I think that's it for me?

Now, about the story! It'll be quite dark, as you may have notice with the introduction. Warning : there will be some major character death. Also, this story will have some canon divergence, especially for some character like, for example Nana Rose (you'll see). I still made it rated T, because it really won't have explicit scene of murder or sex, not really my thing.

Now that I'm done, please enjoy the first chapter.

Chapter one ~ New life

Black dress, black shoes, black coat. Betty gave herself another look in the mirror of the bathroom, trying to fix her makeup. She had just given her speech about her mother, her dead mother, for her funeral. It was hard, but certainly not as hard as having to witness her mother being killed by her own father as she was hiding in the pantry. She could still see Hal Cooper taking a kitchen knife and threatening his wife with it. She could still see him slice Alice's throat and all the blood. She could still see…

"Betty? Are you okay?"

That was Archie Andrews, her childhood friend and neighbor. Archie was there that night, after the police arrived. He stayed with her at the police station all night, while the sheriff was officializing her father's arrest.

Of course not, she wanted to answer. But instead, she got out of the bathroom and gave him a small smile and a solemn nod.

"It's weird that you won't be coming back to Riverdale High after summer. Are you sure you have to go to the other side of the town?" She almost wanted to laugh. She didn't really expect Archie to understand anyway. The poor guy seemed to live in a fantasy world where everything was beautiful and without any problem.

Truth is, when Alice started to consider her divorce, she was clear to her daughter : if anything was to happen to her, Betty was supposed to contact the number that was hidden in the bathroom cabinet. About a week after the brutal murder of Alice, when she finally got back in the house, Betty followed her mother's wish. Turned out that the number belong to a woman living on the Southside of Riverdale. After she explained to him who she was and why she was calling, all the woman answer was "I'm taking care of this sugar". Next thing she knew, social services were calling her, telling her she had a distant relative in Riverdale who was ready to take her in their charge.

She now had a new home, quite a nice place for the Southside actually, and a new family. Turned out the woman she had call was an old lady name Rose. The woman lived in her house alone with her granddaughter. Now, Betty was living with them. Well, actually, she still hadn't met the granddaughter of Rose, but her first night in the house last night had actually been quite nice. Rose had made her cookies and hot cocoa and told her some stories about herself before she went to bed. It could have been worst and Betty was well aware of that.

"I'm going to miss seeing you everyday Betty" said Archie after a moment of silence between them.

"We're still going to see eachother often Arch', don't worry about that."

"I know, but it won't be the same without my favorite cheerleader."

"I thought I was your favorite cheerleader?" came the voice of Veronica Lodge behind them. The brunette came to hug Betty from the side, staying close to her. Girlfriend of Archie and best friend of Betty, Veronica had came in their life a year prior to this one. The two girls had a good number of ups and downs in the last year, but they were still very close nonetheless. "Now, I know your mother wanted you to go to that awful Southside, but know that, if anything, and I mean anything, went wrong there, you will always have your place at the Lodge's."

"Thanks V, but I think I'll be fine."

"I know, if anyone can get through all of this, it's you Betty Cooper."

~.~.~

Betty was walking from the bus stop to her new house. She had convince everyone - Veronica, Archie, Mr Andrews and Rose - that she didn't need a ride from the cemetery to the house. She just needed to walk, alone with her thoughts, a little. In her earphone, the sweet music of some indie band, The Paper Kites, was playing in the beat of her footsteps. She was lost in her own world, thinking about her late mother, when a hand on her shoulder made her jump.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startled you!" Betty looked at the girl in front of her. Pale skin, ginger hair, way taller than her in her high heels, red leather jacket. Her face was cold, but her smile was friendly. Even though Betty didn't knew who she was, she felt like she had saw this young woman before. "I'm Cheryl Blossom," she said handing her hand in front of her. "You're Betty, right?"

That's at this moment that Betty realized where she had seen her before. Cheryl was Rose's granddaughter. She took her hand, shaking it lightly.

"Yeah, that's me. I was about to go back to the house."

"I know, Nana texted me. Asked me to go check if you were close. You want a lift?" she asked, making a move to the car parked on the other side of the road.

"That's kind of you, but I'm fine. I just need to think a little."

"No problem, I get it," Cheryl said with a small nod. "I'll see you back home."

And like that, almost as fast as she had come, Cheryl was back into her car, turning to go on the road to the house. There was something about this girl that made Betty almost nervous. She was so confident. She seemed to have such a loud and bold personality. If she had met her in another context, Betty felt that Cheryl would have been the kind of girl she would never get along with. But it was only her first impression of her and, honestly, she didn't have a choice to get along with her.

~.~.~

Finally in front of Rose's house, Betty gave two shy knock to the door before entering. While yesterday the house was quite silent, today it was completely different. She could heard laughter and loud talking coming from the living room. Leaving her handbag and her coat in the closet, Betty then proceed to join the others. She was afraid she would destroy the happiness of everyone. Who was she to them? Just the poor girl who had just lost her mother to the hands of her psychopathic father who now lived with Rose. She had no place here. She almost didn't knew anyone. But she had to try to mingle in, for her mother and for Rose. In the living room, she found a group of two guys, a girl, Cheryl and Rose. Cheryl was the first one to notice her.

"Betty! I'm glad you're finally here, we were starting to starve here," she said with a laugh.

"I get the message, I'll go finish everything for dinner. Betty, sweetheart, come sit. Cheryl will introduce you to everyone." Without any more words, Rose left the room to go into the kitchen and Betty took a place on the couch.

"Betty, let me introduce you to my dear fellow Serpents : Fangs, Sweet Pea and my dear girlfriend Toni. You will without a doubt see them a lot since my love lived with us and those two are always here."

"You knew we were included in the package when you invited Toni to live here," laughed Sweet Pea. "It's great to meet you Betty."

For the first time in a while, even before everything that went on between her parents, Betty felt like she belong somewhere and like she could be happy. Something between the warm smiles, the friendly welcome and the sweet way everyone was treating her, she felt that everything she thought she knew about the Southside was wrong. Maybe, just maybe, they were more human than anyone she knew in the Northside of Riverdale.