Milly got out of the Civic in the high school parking lot and leaned against the hood. She was there to give Jughead a ride, but was looking for Janie. Milly hadn't seen her since school started and she obviously hadn't called.

"Milly?" A white boy with dreads and wearing a jerga cautiously approached. "Hey?"

"Oh, hey Mark," Milly said. She recognized him because Janie used to hook up with him last year. "Janie around?"

"Uh, no. She's already on the bus, I think," he said. "Uh, I heard you dropped out. What's up?"

"I did. I'm just here to give my boyfriend a ride," Milly explained.

Mark looked surprised, not that he really knew Milly, but she had always given off the impression that she was the type to be dating a 30 year old, married, record producer partly because she never gave anyone the time of day. "Who's your boyfriend? Do I know him?"

"Uh, Jughead Jones? He's a sophomore," Milly shrugged.

"Sophomore?" Mark blinked. Now he was even more surprised. Chicks usually didn't date down.

Jughead had just gathered his books from his locker and exited the school to see Typical Stoner speaking to his Milly. He heard the word "sophomore" or so he thought. "Jughead Jones the third," he held out his hand to the kid.

"Uh, Mark," he shook it. "See you around, dude."

Jughead watched him walk away and then stepped closer to Milly. He put one hand to her cheek and the other to her face and then kissed her. Deeply. Milly kissed him back with her hands on his waist and he slipped his tongue into her mouth in front of the whole school. Archie, Betty, Kevin, and Veronica walked by all with their jaws agape.

It was a full minute before Milly pulled away. "Not here, Jug."

"Right, right," he agreed and climbed into the car afterward. "Was that kid giving you shit about dating a sophomore?"

Milly nodded. "He didn't actually say anything. It was all in the tone."

"Well, Archie has," Jughead said. He was thinking of earlier when he confronted Archie about July 4th and in return received a snarky comment about his love life.

"Who gives a fuck?" Milly scoffed. "Pop's?"

"Yeah, but I gotta get back early. I need to talk to Archie," Jughead said.

Milly scrunched up her face, but drove on. "About what? That's budding friendship?"

"No, it's- he's with Grundy," he admitted.

"Grundy?! As in the music teacher?" Milly asked. "That's not right."

"I know! But I saw them in the music room. What could a 28 year old woman want with a sixteen year old? That's like pedophilia," he said.

Milly shrugged. "Well, statutory at least."

"That isn't funny," Jughead laughed. "I need to talk to him."

After they ate, Milly dropped Jug off two houses down from Archie's, which was surprisingly close to downtown, and made him promise to come over afterwards no matter how it went. She drove back to her apartment and Jughead sat on the Andrews's stoop to wait.

Finally, Archie returned and was surprised to see Jughead there. "What's up?" he asked.

"What's up is that I saw you with Ms. Grundy. In the music room," Jughead said. He needed the truth from his "friend."

"Keep your voice down, my dad is in there," Archie hissed.

"I'm trying to help you, dude. I'm trying to be your friend here, even if we're not," Jughead said. "How long? You and Grundy?"

"Since the summer," Archie admitted. "I like her."

Jughead scoffed. Grundy was a predator. What did she see in a sixteen year old boy? It was wrong. "So she's the reason you've been acting weird since summer."

"One of them," Archie confessed. They just kept rolling.

"One? There's more?" Jug had figured that Grundy had been his only secret. People were starting to get on his case for Milly, but at least that was still legal.

Archie felt he owed Jughead multiple explanations. He had chosen Grundy over him so easily and now that decision was eating him up from the inside. "We were at Sweetwater River on July 4th We heard a gunshot; the gunshot"

"Dude-" Jughead was slightly disappointed himself that he was unable to come up with a better word during this moment of surprise. And it was a better scoop than Jug could have imagined. "You have to tell somebody."

"I can't," Archie began to panic. "And neither can you. If people find out about Grundy-"

"A kid is dead, Archie! And you're worried about some, some cougar." Jughead couldn't believe this was his best friend from middle school.

"Don't call her that. She's not like that, she cares about me. You're girl is older, too," Archie argued.

There it was, but Jug ignored it. The two situations were not comparable. "A stab in the dark, here, I'm guessing she cares more about herself. She's the one who's telling you not to say anything right? Look. I saw you guys. She's messing with you man. And she's messing with your mind."

"What do you even know about it Jughead?" Archie yelled at him in a last ditch effort to defend his choices. "What about me even?"

"Nothing," Jughead shrugged. "But I used to know this guy once, Archie Andrews, he wasn't perfect, but he always tried to do the right thing at least." He turned to go.

"Jug," Archie caught his arm. "If you tell anyone about this-"

Is that a threat? "What? What are you gonna do?" Jughead sneered. Milly was wrong; this friendship couldn't be reconciled.

Fred Andrews opened the door before Jughead could respond and invited him to stay for dinner, but Archie told him that Jughead was just leaving.

"Yeah, actually, I'm going to meet Milly," Jughead said. "But thank you."

Milly was at Pop's eating dinner waiting for Jughead to get back from Archie's. "You're wrong," was the first thing he said after ordering food when he sat down in the booth across from her. "That friendship is irreconcilable."

"Just wait it out," Milly told him, sure that right.

"That's what you said about Jason Blossom," he pointed out.

"And I wasn't wrong," she said. "He didn't drown."

Jughead eyed Milly's food and his stomach began to grumble. Pop's was crowded and food was taking a little bit longer to turn out. "Why do you always eat out?" he changed the subject. "You have a kitchen now."

"Kind of useless if I don't know how to cook," Milly said. "Do you know how to cook?"

Jughead grinned. "Pancakes."

Milly smiled. "You do realize now you have to make me pancakes, right?"

"And I will," he promised. "Tomorrow. Before the pep rally."

Milly's eyes widened. "Oh. No. No!"

"Come on," Jug groaned. "It's not a dance!"

"What do you want to go to a pep rally for anyway?" Milly scoffed. "If you wanna watch the cheerleaders bounce around in their short skirts- mine are shorter."

"Yeah, I've noticed," Jughead smirked. "I'm going to people watch. My novel is about this town; I have to observe events."

"Fine," Milly sighed. "Maybe Janie will be there. I haven't seen her in forever, but only if you make me those pancakes first."