Chapter Three : The Night After Hell

All across the southsides there were fights that night. Verbal, physical, the works. However, a few stand out.

The first fight of the night started the second school ended that day. It was the first big fight for a normally happy couple, Cheryl and Toni. They were at Toni's trailer, as they quite often were, but today the two were unusually alone.

"You like her!" Cheryl insists.

"I do not. I just don't think she should get beat up for an insult." Toni argues.

"Ever since she got here you've been defending her! At lunch, at the meeting with the Ghoulies."

"Yeah, that's because before I even met you, she was one of my best friends."

"And you didn't think to tell me?!"

"It was years ago. Before she moved. We were kids, like five or six years old; I didn't think it would matter."

"It wouldn't matter if you didn't give her puppy dog eyes all the time!"

"I don't!"

"Oh please, don't lie! I see you do it all the time."

"Babe, I do not like her. I don't know what else to say. Yes, I defend her but only because she used to be my friend. Yes, I look at her sometimes but only because I was curious on why she didn't hang around with us."

Cheryl thinks for a moment before nodding. "Fine. I believe you." She says. Toni takes her hand. "But promise you won't talk to or look at her anymore." Toni looks her in the eyes.

"She's really not a threat." She says.

"Promise." Cheryl repeats. Toni hesitates but finally speaks.

"I promise."

Across the southside, in another little trailer, Jughead is coming home to his dad, stitched up and fresh out of handcuffs.

"Are you crazy, boy?!" FP shouts.

"Hello to you too." Jughead says.

"How many times do I have to tell you that she's one of us?"

"She was insulting us, insulting the serpents, dad!"

"Why in the hell would she do that?! Her family has been loyal to this one since the very beginning." He glares.

"How the hell should I know? Maybe it was adrenaline from pinning her psycho cousin." Jughead rubs his wrists. "It's fine. I handled the situation."

"No matter what she does you can't be going around, getting into fights."

"It's fine. I'm not in jail, am I?"

"You could have been! Who knows for how long?! You're just lucky she's not pressing charges." Jughead ignores his dad and heads to his closet. "Boy, you better not be ignoring me!"

"I have to go meet Betty, I just came back for a new flannel."

"You're not going out."

Jughead scoffs. "Really? What, am I grounded?" He chuckles. "You can't pretend to be a father now.

"Hey, I'm doing the best I can."

"And yet I'm covered in someone's blood and leader of a gang. Nice job." Jughead finishes changing his shirt. "I'm going to see Betty." He pushes past FP and out of the trailer, into the night.

That same night, even further into the heart of the south side, at the Ghoulies hangout, a teen with dark raven hair approaches Penny.

"Sharkbait, what ya got for me?" Penny asks.

"The serpent's got in a fight at school today."he smiles smugly

"Pft. What else is new?"

"With each other." Penny leans forward, suddenly intrigued.

"Which ones?"

"Jughead and that new girl they have hanging around." Penny looks down. "Come on, that's gotta fuck their ecosystem up. I wasn't sure why you let them go the other day, but I get it now. You knew she was gonna disrupt the serpents, right?" Penny keeps looking down, lost in a thought. "Penny? Hello? Earth to Penny? Come on, what are we gonna do to them?" Penny finally looks back up at him and stands.

"Nothing." She says, starting to walk away.

"What?! Why not?!" Sharkbait follows her.

"The times not right."

"No. Fuck that. It's that girl isn't it?! Why are you going soft?!"

Penny stops walking and turns to him. "Fine! You wanna do something to them, go ahead. Count me out this time. It's stupid. They're separated and weak yes, but if we leave it alone, they'll take sides and destroy themselves. If we interfere it will only drive them together." She says. Sharkbait stands there, stunned. "Now if you're done trying to tell me how to run things, go do your job. We have a new shipment coming in in an hour."

Yes this night brought about a lot of fights but they were nothing compared to the divide that would happen the next day at school.