Thank you for reading!
It was a shock to all of them when Southside High was shut down—unexpectedly, and all at once.
Taken aback, Jughead went, as he always did, to Pop's, where he read out the notice from the mayor to his father, who was mopping the floor. "'Mayor McCoy has deemed Southside High a public health hazard due to toxic fumes from the methamphetamine lab in the basement.'" He sat back in disgust, crumpling up the notice. "There was no meth. Just Jingle-Jangle."
"So the worm turns and it's back to Riverdale High, huh?"
"The way that all this went down? Something smells fishy."
FP laughed. "Damn straight something smells fishy: you not wanting to admit the real reason you don't want to go back."
Jughead frowned at him. "What do you mean?"
His dad made a face at him that said he knew Jughead was avoiding the question. Then the bell jangled and FP's face lit with humor. "Ah, she just walked in the door."
Turning in his seat, Jughead saw the one person he always hoped to see and always tried to avoid. Her ponytail bobbed as she came toward his table and took the seat across from him.
"Good to see you, Betty," FP said, turning away from the table with a significant look at Jughead.
"You, too, Mr. Jones." She looked at Jughead. "Thanks for meeting with me."
Score one for Betty: She was composed and calm, as if there was no reason this meeting might be strange, or emotionally fraught. Jughead, on the other hand, couldn't seem to get hold of himself, stammering a bit as he replied, "No problem. I was going to reach out, clear the air, before Dr. Beaker awkwardly pairs us up in chemistry or something."
"Actually, I wanted to meet because I need help. You remember that baby my mom put up for adoption?"
It was the last thing he had expected her to mention, but it took a lot of the pressure off the conversation. "The long-lost Cooper sibling? Yeah."
"I was hoping you'd put me in touch with your social worker, Miss Weiss, to see if she can help me find him."
Betty was smiling like this was a great idea, not densely packed with any kind of weird issues, and Jughead was immediately alarmed. "Betty. 'Course I'll help, but … why this sudden need for a brother?"
She was silent for a moment, the smile gone from her face. "Polly had the twins," she said at last, her voice flat and emotionless. Knowing how much she loved her sister, Jughead could only guess at how much hurt lay beneath this studied calm. "And she didn't even call my mom to tell her. I know my mom's crazy, but she's also really sad. Maybe if she found her son … having him in our lives …" Betty let the words trail off, shrugging a little to pretend this wasn't for her, as much as for her mom.
"I'll send you Miss Weiss's number," Jughead promised. Suddenly he missed his own sister fiercely.
"Thank you, Jug." Betty paused a moment, then went on, still calmly, "As for clearing the air, I'm … happy you're going to be back at Riverdale High."
"I'm … not unhappy to be going back myself," he admitted. "A little worried how Riverdale High is going to like the Serpents, but I guess we'll see."
"I guess we will."
They looked at each other, the space between them heavy with unspoken words, all the things Jughead wanted to say to her so desperately and couldn't, and then Betty stood up, politely said good-bye to his father, and left.
"That went well," FP said.
Jughead snorted. "Too well. When Betty's that calm on the surface, there's a whole lot going on underneath that she doesn't want anyone to see."
FP looked at him, as if deciding whether to say anything more, then returned to his mop, leaving Jughead to sit there alone and worry about Betty, and the Serpents, and the sudden closing of South Side High.
Telling her parents that Polly had given birth without bothering to inform them was one of the hardest things Betty had ever done. She sympathized with Polly, even as she worried about her joining this weird cult she had suddenly decided was the answer to all her problems, but she also felt badly for her parents, who loved Polly, however poorly they showed it.
To their credit, they took the news well, with as much understanding as possible under the circumstances. Then she told them about her brother, about Charles Smith, and was shocked when her father blew up at her in anger. It seemed clear that her mom wanted to know more, but for some reason she backed up Betty's dad and denied her curiosity.
And then, late in the night, Betty woke to find her mom sitting on the side of her bed. "We can't tell your father because he wouldn't support it, but I want to see him, Betty. I want to see my son."
The Serpents' first day at Riverdale High was pretty much exactly what Jughead had expected—although he gave Veronica, Archie, Josie, and Kevin credit for leading the attempt to make the Serpents feel welcome.
Cheryl Blossom and Reggie Mantle, however, were determined to make trouble, and successfully managed to darken the Serpents' reputation in Principal Wetherbee's eyes enough that he announced a whole draconian set of rules to keep all evidence of Serpent membership out of the high school.
Jughead ranted about it that afternoon to Toni and Sweetpea. "I can't believe you guys don't even see it! Wetherbee is profiling us. Telling us what to wear? What's next? Brain implants? Controlling what we think?"
Toni rolled her eyes. "Jughead, you sound like a conspiracy nut. A school closed down."
"A crappy school," Sweetpea added.
"Yeah, and now we're at a better one! With a computer lab … and textbooks …"
"And toilets that flush."
"Getting transferred to Riverdale High is the best thing that could happen," Toni finished.
"Maybe ever."
"So if I have to take off my jacket, 8:30 to three Monday to Friday, hey—I'm down with that."
Jughead looked at both of them with disgust. Couldn't they see where this was going? Today it was jackets. Tomorrow? Who knew. He was sure things were going to get a lot worse before Cheryl and Reggie got done.
So, naturally, he wore the jacket to school the next day—and as anyone could have predicted, Reggie Mantle jumped him, the Serpents backed Jughead up, and a fight broke out, leaving Jughead suspended for wearing a gang jacket and not giving it up.
His father found him in the White Wyrm later, and was completely unimpressed by Jughead's show of Serpent solidarity. "What's going on, Jug? Really."
It was hard to put words to it, unusually for Jughead. "At South Side High we had a place. Yeah, it was crappy, but it was ours. We were a family. We had a home. I had a home!"
"I hear you. But getting arrested for truancy is not gonna help. You gotta be smart. Serpents hibernate during the winter. Look at me. Think I like cleaning toilets, shoveling slop? No. But it's what I've gotta do. Going to Riverdale High—that's what you've gotta do. So lay low for a while. You never stop being a Serpent."
Jughead accepted that. It made sense. And it was good to be able to talk to his dad, to trust him, to be able to ask for and get advice. There had been too many years when he couldn't.
Unfortunately, on his return to the school the next day, he discovered both Toni and Sweetpea wearing Riverdale High polos that they had been given "in order to fit in", and that Fangs had been suspended when he wouldn't wear one. "So our choices are conform, or be cast out."
Toni nodded.
Just when he'd thought this might be bearable.
Charles Smith—Chic, as he called himself—was defensive, and angry, and hurt by his abandonment, and he lived in squalor. He wasn't interested in Betty or her mom or anything they might have to offer him. In the car after they left him, her mom broke down in tears.
So Betty went back the next day, unable to leave it alone. She found the doorman beating up her brother, who was bleeding from a gash on the arm, and brought him home, where her parents patched him up.
Where he, maybe, could begin patching up their mom.
Jughead found a way to make a space for the Serpents at Riverdale High at last. He created a club—Swords & Serpents—and told Wetherbee it was a gaming club. Role-playing games. Which, if you thought about it, was kind of the truth. Except the roles the Serpents were playing were outside the group, and inside the club was the only place they could be themselves.
Well, if lying was what it took, then they would lie. The Serpents were stronger than the principal, stronger than the mayor. They would not go down quietly; but they would burrow into the earth and wait for their time to emerge.