Chapter two

The art room was a chaotic mess of paint splattered tables and disorganised stacks of canvas. I wove my way around to the teacher's desk and approached the woman sitting there. The teacher Ms Boivin, as Betty had informed me, was busy rifling through a heap of notes. I coughed to get her attention.

She looked up, "Oh hello, what can I do for you?"

"My name's Willa, I'm new here and I was really interested in doing photography lessons after school?" I phrased it as a question.

"We would love to have you! Did you take photography at your last school?"

"Yeah, I have my own camera too. I was also wondering how much it costs." My fingers tugged at my sleeve, I felt uncomfortable asking but mom and I weren't in the best financial situation.

Ms Boivin adjusted her glasses, looking at me kindly. "Well the fee for the lessons is paid weekly however you could enter some photography competitions to make some money at the end of the year. Is that something you might like to do?"

"Okay that sounds great, thank you." I said with a smile. It was good to know that I would be able to start getting my name out there with some contests, I just had to figure out how to make some money in the meantime. With my mind preoccupied engrossed in thoughts of possible job ideas I began to walk home.

My feet scuffed along the pavement. The neon sign above Pop's diner flashed brightly at me and I had the sudden idea that maybe they were looking for waitstaff now that school had started again. As I walked inside the door jingled and this time, instead of taking a seat I made my way to the counter.

Pop Tate was a large man, he wore a white apron covered in grease stains and a colourful bowtie. I introduced myself and told him I was looking for a part-time job. He lead me to a small room beside the kitchen.

"Funny you should ask, I've been looking for new waitresses." He said pulling a contract from a shelf in the office. "Is there any chance you could start straight away? It's been busy with all the students back."

"Absolutely! The sooner the better." I hadn't thought it would be so easy.

"Just fill out these forms." I grabbed the pen from his outstretched hand. "Would you mind coming in tonight, it won't be busy so it will be easier to train you."

"Sure, I guess that's because of the back to school dance right?" Betty had told me I should go earlier but dances weren't really my thing. She, Veronica and Archie were all going together which I thought was pretty weird. I was sure it would cause tension because it was clear that both girls were interested in him.

"It is indeed, if you you're going we can make it another time?"

I shook my head, "No no, It's fine. I wasn't planning on going anyway."

"Hello?" I called, dropping my bag haphazardly on the kitchen floor. There was no reply. Walking further inside I noticed a sticky note on the fridge. I hope you had a good first day, sorry that I'm not home but I had to go a bit out of town to get some things for the house. I shouldn't be too late, love mom. I guess she wanted to get settled in quickly.

Upstairs I finished unpacking my things, I had been to tired the night before. My training started at six o'clock, leaving me with enough time to get a snack and work on some homework. There wasn't a lot of food in the house so I made myself a PB&J sandwich to take back to my room. Pop Tate had given me a uniform to wear so I changed into it and tied my hair into a ponytail before locking up the house.

It was pretty lifeless at the diner, though the few stray customers kept me busy. By the time I looked at the clock two hours had passed and it felt like it had only been ten minutes. I was a little frazzled.

"One strawberry milkshake, one chocolate milkshake with no whipped cream, a plain sundae and large fries." I rattled off the teenagers' order. They nodded in confirmation so I tucked my notebook back into the pocket at the front of my apron. On the way back to the kitchen I grabbed some empty plates to take to the kitchen.

"Is this ready to take out?" I asked Stuart, the chef, pointing to a coffee cup and saucer.

"Yeah, just make sure it's still hot."

I touched it cautiously to find it was the right temperature. I balanced the cup precariously in one hand and picked up a milkshake in the other. Using my shoulder to open the heavy door I walked towards the table that had ordered the milkshakes and placed the one I was holding in front of them.

"This is the chocolate milkshake and the rest will be out shortly." I gave my cheeriest smile.

Still holding the coffee I turned around and crashed directly into someone, spilling the hot drink on their shirt. "Oh god, I am so sorry!" I started apologising profusely.

"It's fine, don't even worry about it." The person replied curtly. I could feel myself start to blush and it only got worse when I looked up.

The boy was about my age, he had dark eyes and dark hair curling around the edges of his beanie. He didn't look too pissed off. The crease between his eyebrows showed that he was a little annoyed. I closed my mouth realizing I was staring and probably looked like a complete idiot.

"I will just go get some towels." I said and all but ran to the back room to grab some.

Rushing back with a handful of towels, I thrust them awkwardly at beanie boy.

He took one, pressing it to the coffee stain on his chest. "Thank you. It's just a shirt though, not the end of the world."This comment made me feel slightly better. The boy seemed to genuinely not care about the coffee I had just spilled on him. His eyes were shifting around the room like he was looking for an escape meaning I clearly was making the situation worse.

I felt awful for ruining his shirt though, "I really am sorry, did you want me to take your order? On the house of course." Hopefully that would make up for my clumsiness, then I could leave and he wouldn't have to watch me being awkward.

"Uhh sure, I'll just have a burger thanks."

I nodded and left, avoiding eye contact. Back in the kitchen I was reevaluating my decisions. My decision to get a job here, to work on this very night and to spill coffee on a boy with a crown beanie. Taking deep breaths I pulled myself together.

Only one person remained at Pop's. You would hardly even notice beanie boy tucked away in a booth in the corner. He looked deep in thought, his hand under his chin. Burger in hand, I walked over. Slowly and cautiously so I wouldn't do anything like drop the plate I held.

I set the burger down silently, he was engrossed in typing so I hoped he wouldn't notice. He did notice however and looked up to thank me with a smile.

All the way home I couldn't help thinking about the boy. Wondering if he went to my school and what he had been typing furiously on his laptop. It was late to be at Pops and he had still been there when I left.

Eventually I arrived home exhausted from the long and eventful day. After a brief recap of my day to mom I made my way upstairs and traded my work uniform for my comfiest pyjamas. The thought of texting Betty or Veronica to ask how the back to school dance went, crossed my mind but I decided that it could wait until morning. As soon as my head hit the pillow I dozed off.

It was my mom who told me the next day that Jason Blossom's body had been found. She told me, as soon as she heard, that he had been murdered. We were both shocked, there was little discussion at the breakfast table.

"How is your work going mom?" I asked, breaking the awkward silence.

"Really good except my boss, Alice Cooper, I'd love for you to meet her she's a very… interesting lady."

I laughed at this, she must be rude if mom said that about her. Mom always tried to see the best in people. "Wait, Cooper? Does she have a daughter, Betty Cooper?"

"She might, we didn't really talk about anything non work-related."

I would have to ask Betty at school. It was hard to imagine her having a bitchy mom though, Betty was so genuine and sweet.

I arrived at school in time time hear that a lot had gone on at the dance and the after party. Betty had told Archie how she felt but he didn't return her feelings. Then to make matters worse Cheryl had been hosting a party and made Archie and Veronica go into the closet for seven minutes in heaven. I didn't know how this made me feel about Veronica. Betty seemed to feel betrayed but at least she had made up with Archie. So much for no drama.

"Now that romance is off the table, I'll just say it. Are we 100% sure that Archie's straight? Because no straight man has that body." Kevin said as we walked down the corridor.

"Speaking of bodies Have you recovered from finding Jason's?" Betty was concerned and so was I.

"It was more traumatizing having to explain to my dad what I was doing with Moose at the river.

Yet another perk of being the sheriff's son."

We made our way through the door to the office. Sitting on the bench was a vibrant, expensive-looking bunch of yellow flowers.

"Oh, my God, those are gorgeous. Are those for Betty, Mrs Philips?" I inquired.

"That's why I called her."

A note was sticking out the top which Kevin snatched and proceeded to read out loud, "Dear Betty, please forgive me, XOXO, V. Who the hell is 'V'?"

"Veronica." Just as Betty answered, said person walked into the room saying her own name in unison.

Veronica was carrying a small cardboard box and had a sheepish look on her face. "The yellow is for friendship. I also had Magnolia cupcakes flown in from New York." She indicated to the box, "Because, as my mom likes to say, 'There's no wrong the right cupcake can't fix'."

I looked over to Betty who seemed to be nearly won over by Veronica's extravagant apology.

" Also I've booked us for hers-and-hers mani-pedis at Chez Salon." Betty let out a laugh. "Blowouts, too. I am so, so sorry, Betty. I don't know what happened to me that night." Veronica looked sincere, "It was such a basic bitch move. It was like I was Possessed by-"

"Madame Satan?" Kevin cut in, I nudged him with my shoulder. It was cool that Veronica had put so much thought into winning back Betty's friendship.

I rushed to my first class. Betty had decided to give Veronica another chance so hopefully that was the end of any awkwardness in that department. Unfortunately between the whole Veronica and Betty thing, and getting lost on the way from my locker I was late for science.

There was one seat left which just so happened to be next beanie boy. Great, what were the chances. I walked over as confidently as I could, "Can I sit here?" The boy nodded so I sat in front of the frog we were about to dissect. Snapping a pair of gloves onto my hands, I grabbed a scalpel. My eyes faced straight ahead as I listened to the teacher's instructions.

"Before we get into this did you want to tell me your name? Mine is Jughead."

I looked over cautiously, "Willa." I paused, not wanting to end the conversation with one word. "What kind of name is Jughead?" Immediately my cheeks heated up. "I didn't mean to be rude but is it a nickname or..?"

Jughead looked amused, "Yeah, it's a nickname."

We looked away quickly and pulled the plastic covers off our scalpels. I felt nauseous looking at the dead frog. Blood kind of made me squirm.

"Are you good or did you want me to do it, you could write?"

I shook my head "I'm fine, I just don't really like blood." I explained.

The scalpel made its first incision. I sighed with relief, there wasn't too much blood, just a bunch of stringy intestines and clean parts. I could handle that. Warily I began to help with the cutting before beginning to write notes.

"Could you pull my sleeves up?" with a glance in Jughead's direction I saw that his sweater sleeves were unrolling, his gloved hands were covered in frog insides. I had already taken mine off so I nodded.

"Sure." As I was rolling them I jumped at the startled yelps of some of my classmates. My hands dropped and I turned around to see that Cheryl had viciously stabbed her frog. She was so strange, I was kind of freaked out by her.

"Weird isn't it." I turned to see Jughead was looking at me."The whole situation, the family." I didn't really know what that meant but I was intrigued by it and the fact that Jughead and Archie kept sharing weird glances. Did they know each other? The glances certainly weren't friendly but it was clear that there was some sort of history there. His eyes were intense. "I'm going to get to the bottom of it you know." I stared back. " Jason Blossom's Murder." He added.