"I don't think we've properly met," Veronica said kindly as she, Kevin, and Josie approached the group of Serpents sitting at the couches in the lounge. She mentally cursed out Cheryl and Reggie in her mind as they all turned to look at her cautiously. Veronica couldn't help but feel extremely bad about what had happened that morning. "Veronica Lodge," she said, holding out her hand to Toni, who sat closest to her.
"Of the Park Avenue Lodges," Jughead mocked and Veronica rolled her eyes at him, causing him to smirk.
"Toni Topaz," Toni said, shaking her hand.
"Oh, the purple colored gemstone," Veronica said, causing Toni to let out an impressed laugh. "Love it."
"And I'm Josie McCoy," Josie introduced. "Formally of the Pussycats, now just . . . Josie," she said sadly. She shook herself out of it a moment later with a small, fake laugh before gesturing to Kevin, who had taken a seat beside Sweet Pea on the couch. "And this is Kevin."
Kevin smiled at them all before his eyes fell on Fangs, who met his eyes. "What's your name?" he asked.
"Fogerty," he said kindly. "Or you can call me Fangs. Your last name's Keller, right?"
Kevin tilted his head in confusion. "How did you know that?"
"Joaquin and I used to hang out," Fangs explained. "He talked about you all the time."
Kevin raised his eyebrows in surprise before looking down at his lap in thought.
"Hey," Ethel chirped as she excitedly hurried inside the lounge. She looked at the Serpents nervously before shooting them all shy smiles. Focusing her attention on Veronica and Josie she said, "you won't believe who just got arrested."
"Who?" Veronica asked, dreading the answer.
"Mr. Williams," Ethel exclaimed.
"No way!" Josie said, completely shocked, as Jughead groaned.
"Who's Mr. Williams?" Sweet Pea asked.
"He's an English teacher," Jughead sighed. "And one of the only teachers I actually liked."
"What's with your favorite teachers being arrested?" Toni asked.
Jughead threw his hands in the air in defeat. "Honestly, I couldn't tell you."
"What'd he do?" Veronica cut in.
Ethel's face scrunched in disgust. "Both Mr. Weatherbee and Mr. Keller got anonymous messages saying that Mr. Williams had child pornography on his computer. They did a search of his computer and it turned out to be true."
"And now I feel dirty," Jughead said, squirming in his jacket.
"My dad didn't say anything about this," Kevin said, his eyes wide.
"That's because it just happened," Ethel said. "Literally two minutes ago they both stormed into his class and pulled him out to check. Your dad just walked out with him in handcuffs. I overheard Mr. Weatherbee raging about how he needs to find a new English teacher asap."
"That's disgusting," Josie groaned.
"Welcome to Riverdale," Veronica said, addressing the Serpents with a fake smile. "Where there is always one scandal after another."
Everyone laughed lightly at this, still reeling from what they just learned.
"You guys!" Mr. Weatherbee demanded, suddenly appearing in the doorway. They all looked at him in surprise and confusion. "Yeah, you guys. Come with me. Now!" he said angrily before stomping away.
They all shared wary looks before getting up to follow him. They quickly followed him down the hall, where they noticed a very cocky looking Reggie standing with his arms crossed. Mr. Weatherbee stopped next to him and glared at them all before gesturing to the ground.
They all looked down to see the Serpent symbol spray painted over the school's crest on the ground. The Serpents immediately felt dread and disbelief pool in their stomachs.
"Which of you defaced our school seal with this graffiti?" Mr. Weatherbee asked, his expression hard.
"This is what they do, Mr. Weatherbee. They tag their turf," Reggie said, giving them all dirty looks that poorly covered up his sick amusement.
"My God, Reggie, could you be anymore transparent?" Veronica sneered. Reggie pretended to think about it before nodding his head.
"No gang related activity of any kind will be tolerated in my school," Mr. Weatherbee said, glaring at them all. "As of this moment no more Serpent jackets."
"What?!" Sweet Pea exclaimed angrily.
"Are you kidding me?" Jughead snapped.
"No more Serpent jackets!" Mr. Weatherbee yelled over them. "All tattoos are to be covered. Any possession of any gang paraphernalia whatsoever will lead to suspension. Are we clear?"
They all glared at him, even those that weren't Serpents. But none of them could do anything about it.
"That's all," Mr. Weatherbee dismissed.
The Serpents all glared at a smirking Reggie, who glared right back. The group slowly walked away, each person cursing both Mr. Weatherbee and Reggie in their minds, none more so than Jughead.
xxXxx
Rose sighed as she stared at her new school. She didn't know if she was ready for this. This had been a stupid idea, moving to Riverdale. Starting over. Whoever suggested that they move should have been slapped.
Oh wait. That had been her.
Well someone should have slapped her.
"Stop that." She looked to her left to see her twin brother, Alfie. He was looking down at her with his usual knowing expression he always wore whenever he caught her deep in her thoughts.
"Stop what?" Rose asked innocently, even though she knew exactly what he was about to say.
"Over thinking," Alfie replied, his eyes lighting up in amusement as she rolled her eyes at his predictable answer. "It's going to be fine. It'll be fun. It always is."
"Please," Rose scoffed, staring at the school. "Being the new kid is never fun. All the stares, all the whispers, all the introductions, all the questions. None of it is ever fun."
"I beg to differ," Lix said from Alfie's left, looking at the new school with his usual boyish excitement. "Being the new kid is always fun. It's like a new adventure every time. New town full of new people with new stories."
"Let me remind you once again that this isn't one of your fiction books," Alfie laughed. "This isn't Percy Jackson or Harry Potter, little man."
"First, I'm not little. The two of you are just giants," he said matter-of-factly, causing both of his siblings to snort. "Second, every town has a story just waiting to be revealed. Especially this one. You guys remember what I told you about the things that have gone down."
"Ah yes, the murder of Jason Blossom, done by his own father. Remind me again why we came here of all places?" Alfie asked, shoving his hands in his jean pockets.
"You know why," Calvin, their father, said. He came to stand beside Rose, throwing his arm around her shoulders. He looked down at her with a gentle smile. "Rose, its over. We're done running. We can finally settle down and live our lives without fear."
Rose continued to stare at the building from where they parked their cars, nerves still fluttering around in her stomach.
"You know the number one reason why you always dread being the new girl?" Calvin continued. "Besides all the questions and the staring? Because you always knew you could never get close to anyone. Never join clubs, or make friends, or even have a relationship. But you can now. You can walk into this school, make friends, and not have to worry about the next time you're going to leave. This is it. Riverdale is our permanent home."
"I can finally join clubs," Lix said excitedly, practically bouncing on his feet. "I'm going to join robotics club, chess club, future scientists club, mathletes, photography, film, drama, anime club-"
"Make sure to leave time to breathe," Rose laughed, but Lix just grinned widely.
"And I can finally date," Alfie said, grinning. "Finally I can freely flirt with all the girls. Or boys. Whichever tickles my fancy in the moment."
Rose scoffed. "Like that stopped you before."
"But now I can flirt with the possibility of it going somewhere being an option," Alfie said happily.
"And you can make friends," Calvin said, tugging her closer to his side. "People you can hang out with and have fun, go out to eat or do something with, have over the house, or sneak out to go to a party with. All the fun stuff."
Rose raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you encouraging us to sneak out and go to parties."
Calvin shrugged. "Sneaking out to go and party is a teenage right of passage."
"Preach," Alfie grinned.
"Besides, don't think I don't have all your phones chipped so I know where you are should I choose to check."
"Un-preach," Alfie deflated, causing Calvin to chuckle.
"I won't check unless I feel I have to," Calvin reassured. "I trust you kids. It's everyone else I don't trust."
Everyone stood in silence for a moment, taking in just how much their lives would be different now.
"And what about Sampson?" Rose said, looking down at the dog dutifully sitting at her feet. The pitbull/bulldog mix was wearing his typical yellow vest that said 'Do Not Pet'. She couldn't help but smile fondly at him as he looked up her with his big, round eyes, almost as if he was asking 'are you okay?'. She looked back up at Calvin and said, "You know what people think of the girl that has a service dog? That she's a freak or disabled. No one wants to be friends with that girl."
"Then it's their loss," Alfie said, crouching down to rub Sampson's head, "because both she and her service dog are pretty great." He stood and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Rose we've got this. Together, like always. And this time we've got Lix going to school with us as well, and Pops is teaching so he'll be there too. We're all going to go through this together."
"Rose," Calvin said, turning her so they were face to face. "You chose Riverdale, and for a reason," he said giving her a pointed look. "Make the most of it."
Rose sighed and looked at them all before looking at the school determinedly. "Ok, you saps, let's do this shit."
Both Alfie and Lix whooped and high-fived while Calvin just grinned. "Language, but I like the sudden confidence. Let's go." With that said, he headed towards the school, Lix quickly joining his side. Rose tightened her right hand around Sampson's leash and interlocked her fingers of her left hand with Alfie's before following after them. None of them were aware of just how much their lives were going to change from that point on.
xxXxx
"Hey," Toni said as she approached Sweet Pea and Fangs in the hallway. "Have you guys seen Jughead?"
"No," Sweet Pea said, scoffing. "I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't show up at all. Especially with how mad he is about the jackets."
Toni hummed in agreement, getting lost in her thoughts as they went back to their conversation. She understood why Jughead was so mad, they all did. But what Jughead didn't understand was just how much going to this school meant to the other Southsiders. They'd all been used to crap schools their entire life. Going to a real school with real teachers that actually gave a fuck about teaching you was a real opportunity for them. It gave them a chance to make something of themselves and get out of this hell hole of a town.
"Hey," Kevin greeted excitedly as he, Josie, and Ethel approached them in the hallway. Toni smiled kindly. So far they, along with Veronica, were the only Northsiders that had been kind to them. "The new English teacher is here, and he is hot."
"Mr. Loser-bee found a replacement that quick?" Sweet Pea asked.
Josie nodded. "Apparently he and his family just moved to town and he was looking for a job when the ad for the position popped up. He applied and got the job the same day Mr. Williams was arrested. I guess he has a Masters degree in English and was a college professor back in California."
"How do you know all of this?" Toni asked incredulously.
Josie shrugged. "News travels fast at Riverdale High."
"Plus I help out in the main office and Mr. Weatherbee speaks loudly," Ethel added.
"Anyways, his kids are starting today as well. Look, thats them," Josie said hurriedly, pointing towards the main office where a group of people were lead from the office by Mr. Weatherbee.
Toni took them in. All of them were black and like skyscrapers. The oldest, who was obviously the father and the new teacher, was hot. He was ridiculously tall, even taller than Sweet Pea, with muscles that were obvious through his shirt. He had short, black, cropped hair and brown eyes. He was dressed casually, wearing a brown sweater and jeans, and he had a messenger bag slung around his shoulder.
Next to him stood a boy that was around her age. He was also very tall, maybe about six foot one or two. He was thin, but in a lean way, and had a small afro. His eyes, which were focused on Mr. Weatherbee, were green and filled with amusement. He was wearing a grin that he was obviously trying to control as he listened to whatever the principle was saying. He had on a purple flannel shirt that was buttoned up with a black bow tie at the top, dark jeans, and white sneakers.
The other boy was obviously younger, maybe a freshman. He looked a lot like his brother in build and hairstyle, but he was a tad shorter,brown eyed, and was lighter skinned. Thick black rimmed glasses sat on his nose. He wore a red shirt that had a yellow lightning bolt in the center, and over that he had on a brown sweatshirt. His hands were buried in the pockets of his dark brown pants, though he'd remove one once in a while to happily wave at people that passed them by. He was looking around in excitement, obviously very glad to be there.
Lastly, Toni took at the girl. She noticed immediately how the girl kept to the back of the group, basically staying put in the doorway of the main office. She, like the younger boy, also had lighter skin, and she was also as tall as the older boy, probably taller than the average amount of girls in the school. She also seemed to be a little on the thicker side, like Ethel, but instead of looking chunky she just looked sturdier, bigger boned. Her hair was wild with curls, some falling in her face. She also wore thick, black rimmed glasses. She wore short overalls that seemed a little worn out, and the shirt she wore underneath was a pale yellow button up with a small, floppy black bow tie. Toni smiled when she saw that the girl was wearing Avengers themed converse. The girl was looking around nervously, obviously not as happy as her brothers to be there.
Toni's attention was drawn to her left hand, which was nervously petting the top of a dogs head.
"She has a service dog," Toni said, nodding in its direction.
"I didn't even notice that," Ethel said as they all took in the girl and the dog.
"I wonder what's wrong with her," Fangs said.
Toni shot him a look. "Please don't ask her that," she said.
Fangs rolled his eyes. "I know sometimes I can be stupid, but I'm not that stupid. Nor am I insensitive."
"Good," Toni said, turning to look at the group again.
"I'll see you guys later," Ethel said. "Mr. Weatherbee wants me to show them around and help them out today."
"Ooh, we have an inside source to all the details," Josie said excitedly.
Ethel laughed. "Yes, but try to remember that they are people."
"Yeah, yeah. Now go get us the good gossip." Josie teased. Ethel laughed and waved at them as she walked away.
"Well, as fun as its been to stare at the new kids, I'm hungry. Vending machine?" Sweet Pea said, looking at Fangs.
He nodded. "Y'all coming?" he asked the rest.
Toni nodded, taking one last look at the new girl, who was now smiling slightly at Ethel as she spoke. They all walked away, wondering if they'd get to meet the new kids.
xxXxx
"And these are your lockers," Ethel said, ending the tour in front of the lockers that were in the same hallway as the main office. "431 and 432. Felix, yours is on the other wall, closer to the corner."
"Awesome, I'm going to go check it out. Also, call me Lix. Everyone does," Lix said with a grin before bounding down the hall.
Ethel laughed a little nervously. "He has a lot of energy."
"Try living with him," Alfie laughed as he opened his locker. "Thanks for showing us around. Gotta say, you're probably the nicest tour guide we've ever had."
Ethel blushed. Rose could tell she wasn't used to being complimented as her expression turned bashful.
"And thanks for not asking all the imposing questions we usually get, or saying all the dumb comments," he added, shoving his stuff into his locker. "Where are you from?"
"Why did you move here?" Rose continued, opening her own locker.
"You guys are twins?"
"Your both so tall."
"Your dad is so hot."
"Why do you have a service dog?"
"What's wrong with you?"
"Can I pet the service dog?"
Together they slammed their lockers closed and grinned at her.
Ethel looked between the two of them, kind of scared now that she'd say the wrong thing. "Er, your welcome?"
They both laughed, and she awkwardly smiled.
"Well, get ready because here at Riverdale High there are a lot of nosy, inconsiderate people. They're all going to want to know about you guys. Sorry to say this, but especially since you have a service dog," Ethel told them.
Rose rolled her eyes, scratching Sampson behind the ear. "I've gone through this 'new kid' thing about four times in the last year alone. We've been moving around our whole life. The questions are nothing new."
Ethel's eyes widened at the information, but she kept herself from asking the burning question.
Alfie looked at her, immediately noticing the internal battle going on. He laughed, "You're trying really hard not to ask, aren't you?" Ethel looked at him guiltily, and he laughed again. "It's okay. Pops' job moves us around a lot. He's a well sought after teacher. Moves from one college to the other, teaching for a semester or two, and then onto the next. Being a single dad he needed to make the money where he could," he explained, telling the story the family had come up with.
"We're finally at a place where he can get a less busy job and we can live comfortably. So he decided he wanted to settle down and finally stay somewhere permanently," Rose continued.
"So we took a map," Alfie said.
"Threw a dart at it," Rose added.
"And here we are," Lix said excitedly, popping up next to Ethel, who jumped. "Good ole' Riverdale."
"Huh. Well, it's good that you guys finally get to settle down and just have normal, teenage lives," Ethel said with a smile.
"You could say that again," Rose laughed lightly.
"And I'd be glad to make that easier. So if you have any questions or need help with anything while your here don't be afraid to ask," Ethel said kindly.
Rose smiled at her, liking her. "Thanks, Ethel."
Ethel nodded. The warning bell went off and Ethel's eyes widened. "Oh, time to go to class. Luckily you're both in my first period Math class. Lix, your English class with your dad is on the way so I can show you where it is."
"Lit," Lix said happily. They all followed Ethel down the hall, Rose hoping she had just made her first friend.
xxXxx
Rose rolled her eyes as she walked down the hallway, tightly holding Sampson's leash in both aggravation and nerves. It was after her second period, which had been Chemistry, and she was now heading back to her locker to get her things for her third period English class. She hadn't had Chemistry with Alfie, who had Art, so she'd been on her own. She hated walking through the halls on her first day of school alone. She always felt like she was under a microscope with the amount of people staring, whispering, and pointing at her and her dog.
Finally she reached her locker and felt like she could breathe again. Opening her locker she started to change out her books when a shadow fell over her. She could have groaned in frustration, already knowing it wasn't Alfie, Lix, or Ethel.
"Hey!" an overly nice voice said from behind her. She reluctantly turned to see a tall Asian boy standing there, obviously a jock from the jersey he was wearing, grinning charmingly at her.
She already didn't like him. Someone with that much confidence from the get was never good news.
"I'm Reggie, captain of the football team. You're Rose, the new girl, right?" he asked. She blinked at him. The need to make her feel impressed by him was written clear as day as he looked at her.
"Yes," she said simply.
"Cool, cool. Cool dog," he said, going to pet Sampson. Before he could Sampson growled, causing Reggie to jump away.
"I wouldn't do that," Rose warned nonchalantly, putting her hand on Sampson's head. He immediately stopped growling.
Reggie glared down at him before looking at her incredulously. "Should you have a dog like that around people?"
Rose merely raised an eyebrow. "He's not dangerous. He just knows whether or not people have permission to pet him. If you don't have permission then he doesn't let you pet him," Rose explained, looking at him with a blank expression. On the inside she was calling him every insult in the book.
"Oh. Then, can I pet him?" he asked confidently.
"No."
"Why?" Reggie asked, insulted.
"Because he's a service dog," she said, pointing to his vest and the 'Do Not Pet' sign that was in big bold letters on the side facing Reggie.
"Yeah, I don't get that," Reggie said, shrugging. "Why can't people pet service dogs?"
"Well for one, it's rude," Alfie said, appearing beside Rose, who sagged in relief. He was much better at dealing with assholes than she was. "You shouldn't pet any dog without the owner's permission. Second, a service dog's job is to keep all it's focus on it's owner in case something happens so that they can help. If Sampson's attention is on you, or anyone else, and something happens to my sister that he doesn't catch and doesn't help, the results could be fatal. Do you want to be the reason my sister ends up in a fatal accident?"
Reggie looked at both of them as if they were something weird he'd never seen before. "What's wrong with her?"
Alfies glared at him when Rose looked down at her shoes. "We don't like you. You can go away now."
"Excuse me?" Reggie asked, affronted.
"You're excused," Alfie said dismissively. He crossed his arms and glared at the ignorant boy. "You walked over here with nothing but the intention of finding out the scoop on the new kids. You tried to touch Sampson without permission. You made ignorant comments and asked a rude question. Three strikes, your out."
"Listen, I didn't mean-"
"Yes you did," Alfie cut him off. "There's one of you in every school, and every time we encounter one of you the conversation is always the same, as is the outcome. So let's skip to the end where you just walk away, leave us alone, and we all live happily ever after. Yeah?"
Reggie looked between them, his expression becoming more and more frustrated at being shown up. "Whatever, freaks," he spit, stomping away.
"Wow, how original," Alfie said sarcastically. He turned towards Rose, who was still looking at her boots. "Don't let that asshole get to you, Ro. He isn't the worst we've dealt with."
"No, it's not that," Rose said quietly. She looked up at him and said, "It's just, I need to start being able to do that on my own. Standing up for myself. I can't depend on you forever."
Alfie looked at her sadly. "Whether you're the toughest bitch out there or the weakest sod, I'm always going to stick up for you. No matter what."
"Yeah, but you won't always be there," Rose said, sighing. "And you shouldn't have to be."
"Well too bad, cuz you're stuck with me," he laughed, opening his locker. "Besides, soon enough people will get over the shiny new toys and move on to something else to talk about and you won't have to deal with that bullshit anymore."
"Here's to hoping," Rose said quietly.
"Hey, nice take down of Captain Jackass," Sweet Pea said as he, Fangs, and Toni approached from across the hall where their own lockers were.
Alfie laughed and closed his locker, taking them in. "I take it he's always like that?"
Toni scoffed. "He's the typical egotistical high school jock."
"Ah," Alfie said, shooting a scowling Reggie an amused look from down the hall. "Good to know."
"I'm Toni Topaz," she introduced. "This is Sweet Pea, and he's Fangs," she said, pointing to each boy, who both said hello. "We and a bunch of other people transferred here yesterday from the Southside."
"Oh yeah, I heard about you guys," Alfie said, nodding in recognition. "You guys are the talk of the school. Well, after us now."
"Yeah, the Northsiders weren't too happy we were invading their pure air with our filthy selves," Sweet Pea said before scoffing and rolling his eyes.
Rose frowned. "Do they really say that?" she asked.
They all nodded. "The North and South side have never really gotten along. They see us as nothing but bad influence, druggies, and scum because we wear leather jackets and ride bikes, and we think they're all ignorant, privileged,and rude," Toni explained.
Sweet Pea snorted. "'Cuz they are."
"Point is, that's just the way it's always been."
"And since we started school here most of them don't hesitate to remind us of their views," Fangs added, smiling down at Sampson.
"Well, that's awful," Rose said, scrunching her nose. "I'm Rose. And this is my brother Alfie."
"Nice to meet you," Toni nodded.
"You as well," Alfie grinned.
"What's his name?" Fangs asked, gesturing towards her dog.
"Sampson. Would you like to pet him?" Rose asked.
Fangs' eyes widened. "Oh, no, I wouldn't want to distract him."
Rose smiled at his thoughtfulness. "Its okay. You see, what I didn't tell Captain Jackass over there," Sweet Pea grinned at her use of his name, "was that Sampson is a highly trained service dog who has been with me for years. He can sense something happening to me before even I can most times. I let people pet him all the time. I just didn't want him to," she said, motioning towards Reggie.
Fangs looked longingly between her and Sampson. "Are you sure?" he asked.
Rose laughed lightly. "Positive. Besides, it'll be enjoyable to watch the asshole's pissed off expression."
That sealed the deal for Fangs as the rest of them laughed. He eagerly knelt down and started gushing over Sampson, who happily accepted the affection with an excited wagging tail. They all glanced down the hall to see Reggie watching the whole thing with a gaping mouth. When he caught them all laughing he gave them all a heated glare before slamming his locker closed and stomping off, his teammates all hurrying after him.
They all laughed harder at his little tantrum show. "I love showing up punks," Alfie smirked.
"Oh, I like you guys," Sweet Pea said, grinning wildly.
"Which is a huge compliment because he doesn't like many people," Toni said, petting Sampson lightly.
"Yeah? Well, we like y'all too. So far you guys and Ethel are the only ones who haven't treated us like shiny new toys," Alfie laughed.
"Well, you guys haven't treated us like we're scum," Toni said.
"Oh," Rose said suddenly, looking at the clock. "We have to get to English. You know Pops will find some way to try and embarrass us if we're some of the last kids in there." Alfie cringed, knowing she was completely true.
"We have your dad's English class next too," Fangs said excitedly, finally standing to his feet again.
"Awesome, let's head out," Alfie said, leading the way alongside Toni.
"So what do we need to know about your dad as a teacher? You know, the Dos and Don'ts," Sweet Pea asked from Rose's left, Fangs on her other side.
"Well, from what we can tell from sometimes going to work with him, he's actually a really chill teacher," Alfie explained. "As a person he's one of those guys that respects you as long as you respect him. The same goes for in the classroom."
Rose nodded in agreement. "His teaching method is different. The books he's having us read this year will be surprising. He's just not your typical teacher."
"Sounds interesting," Sweet Pea commented.
"Oh, he is," Rose laughed, and Sweet Pea grinned down at her.
"Here we are," Toni said, stopping in front of the room. Rose could see through the window that the room was barely occupied. Her father was sitting in his chair, smiling while talking to Ethel, who sat near the front.
"Let the fun begin," Alfie grinned before walking in.