AN: Any recognisable dialogue belongs exclusively to the Netflix Original T.V Show; Riverdale

Sugar, Spice and Everything Nice

Forsythia Jones; Jellybean to her family, JB to her friends. To him, she's always been something else. Riverdale AU (Aged-up Jellybean)

Chapter V – Daisy

"Guilt, innocence. Good, evil. Life, death. As the shadows around Riverdale deepened, the lines that separated these polar opposites blurred and distorted. 'I'm guilty,' Cheryl said in Biology class. But of what?"

"If print journalism is dead, what are we doing here?"

"The Blue and Gold isn't dead Juggy," Betty smiles, swiping a finger through the thick layer of dust atop an old computer. "It's just… dormant."

"It's just dusty is what it is." JB says, eyeing the unkempt room with distain.

Betty brushes the dust from her hands and smiles again. "C'mon JB, we can wake it up. Juggy, you're writing a novel right? About Jason Blossom's murder?"

"What?"

"I am."

"You are?"

"Yes, Riverdale's very own, In Cold Blood."

"Which, started out, as a series of articles – I'm hoping you'll come write for the Blue and Gold." Betty smiles sweetly, her hands twisted together in an unconscious movement JB recalls from their childhood, whenever Betty would talk them into doing something, she knew her Mother wouldn't approve of. "And Jel, you have a fantastic eye, you could be our photographer!"

JB raises an eyebrow at the re-emergence of Betty's childhood nickname for her as Jughead shakes his head. "I uh, don't think the school paper is the right fit for my voice."

"Juggy, Jason's death changed Riverdale. People don't want to admit that, but it's true, we all feel it. Nothing this… bad, was ever supposed to happen here, but it did. I want to know why."

"Betts," JB begins seriously, "your curiosity is going to get you in trouble."

"Good!" Betty answers, "if it means we can find out what actually happened to Jason, I'll welcome any trouble that comes my way. So, what do you say Jel?"

"I'm sorry Betty, but–" JB shakes her head. "Even if I wanted to, I have no equipment, and before you ask, no, I can't afford to buy new or even used gear."

"Will I get complete freedom?" Juggy asks, barrelling past any objections Betty might have raised.

"I'll help, and uh, edit and suggest, but it's your story, it's your voice."

Juggy smiles, and JB glances between them – they're like magnets, she thinks, watching as they move in sync, gravitating toward each other, until there's less than a foot and a half distance between them and JB feels as if she's been forgotten.

"It doesn't sound like complete freedom… but I'm in."

The smile Betty bestows on Juggy is like sunshine, all warmth and beauty and JB watches a shadow of it appear on Jugheads lips. "Okay great! Um, in that case, I have your first assignment. There's one person who was at Sweetwater River on July fourth that no one is talking about."

Jughead nods, a curious gleam in his eyes. "Dilton Doiley and his Scouts."

"Exactly."

He brushes his thumb against his nose and offers a smirk even as Betty turns back to tackling the thick layer of dust coating the room.

"C'mon Beanie, we need to talk."

JB follows him from the Blue and Gold – they've fallen into a comfortable sort of truce, neither had voiced a call for one, yet somewhere between their recurring argument about Juggy coming home and the mystery surrounding Jason's death, it's formed nonetheless. Jellybean falls into step beside him, the silence between them companionable as they walk toward the parking lot.

"You paid my bill at Pop's."

Jellybean stops. "That's what you wanted to talk about? That I covered your tab?"

"Beanie," Jughead starts, "fifteen dollars is covering my tab; you gave Pop five times that. Where the hell did you get that kind of money?"

"Does it matter?" She asks, turning away from him.

"Yes!" Jughead retorts, reaching for her arm.

Jellybean pauses, her throat closing around the truth; that it was Cheryl who gave her the money, that she did so without protest. Was it, charity? Pity? Kindness? JB doesn't know, and honestly, she doesn't particularly care, but Jughead… he would. "I got a job."

"Where?"

Jellybean sighs. "On the Southside Juggy."

Clearly disbelieving, he raises an eyebrow. "On the Southside." He repeats.

"Yes, Christ! On the Southside, where I live." The dig stumbles out of her mouth and Jellybean winces at the hurt that fleetingly crosses his features. "I didn't," she sighs, "I didn't mean it like that Juggy."

"We can't keep having this argument Beanie."

"I know Juggy… I know." Jellybean rakes a hand through her hair – and stops in the middle of the corridor, a thought striking her. "Jug, are you… are you ashamed of us? Of, of me and dad and coming from the Southside?"

"What?" He gapes. "JB – Jellybean, no."

"Jug–"

"No." He repeats emphatically. "I love Dad, I love you. It's–" Jughead groans, "it's complicated."

"Complicated." She scoffs.

"Yes, it's complicated! I'm not ashamed; no, Beanie, listen to me! I'm not ashamed of you, or Dad or that I come from the Southside." He sighs, shaking his head. "I'm angry. At Mum for leaving, at Dad, for spiralling into the bottom of a bottle, at the Northside, for the stupid 'wrong side of the tracks' mentality that has them looking down at anyone from the Southside. I'm angry, Beanie," he slumps, curling in on himself, "at you."

"Me?" Jellybean exclaims. "You're angry at me?"

"Yes!" Jughead shouts and stops, suddenly all too aware of the questioning eyes upon them.

He grabs her arm again pulling her into an alcove. "I am angry at you," he sighs, "for not letting me go."

"Jughead." Jellybean whispers. "You don't mean that."

"It's not rational." He shrugs, defeated. "But sometimes," Jughead sighs, "I do."

JB jerks a nod, her chest suddenly hollow. The decision is made in the space between heartbeats and her expression falls into something cold and blank as she steps backwards – and lets him go. His stricken murmur of "Beanie" is lost to the rushing of blood in her ears as she shoulders past him, out of the alcove and into the still busy corridor; she heads straight for the parking lot, straddling the bike and kicking it into gear, helmet forgotten in her locker in her haste to flee from Jughead and Riverdale High. She traverses the familiar roads on autopilot and soon she's pulling into Sunnyside – with no recollection of the journey between.

It's a curious sort of emptiness that has settled in her chest, the dull ache of loneliness she had been learning to ignore unexpectedly maddening in its intensity. Jughead's rejection stung; he's her brother, her twin… and he wants her in his life no more than she wants Gladys to return to hers. It strikes her then, that for all his faults, it's her Father that has remained constant.

"Some family." JB mutters.

FP, drowning at the bottom of a bottle, Gladys, who'd left and Jughead who wants her to let go. She wonders suddenly, what would her life have been like, had Gladys made good on even one of her promises to get Jughead and herself out of the Southside – it makes her angry. For all Gladys' talk of family first, she was all too ready to leave without any of hers. Serpent or blood.

She glances at the trailer – without Cheryl as a distraction, it's the last place she wants to be.

"Joaquin?" She calls, skipping one of the three steps leading up to his door, "you there?" He doesn't answer, so she knocks, once, twice, three times before he appears, bleary-eyed and half-naked.

"JB?" He asks groggily, pushing back the hair that's fallen in his eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"Why did you join the Serpents?" She blurts.

"What?"

"Why," she asks again, slower this time, "did you join the Southside Serpents?"

Joaquin shrugs, the casual movement at war with the storm brewing in his eyes. "Does it matter?"

"No." She shakes her head and ducks under his arm. "Yes." She changes her mind, throwing up her hands. "I don't know. I just, will you tell me why?"

He sighs and shuts the door behind her. "I had nowhere else to go JB." His eyes flick toward the closed off bedroom before seeming to make a decision and sitting down on the worn couch and patting the spot beside him. "Come, sit."

JB curls up like a cat at his side – he's uncomfortable, she notes, tense.

"It's…" He sighs, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's not a happy story JB. My Father… was not great – do I have to talk about this?"

"No." JB answers immediately.

Joaquin sighs, and continues despite his obvious reservations. "Look, it's a miracle I made it to double digits okay? He wasn't," Joaquin shrugs, "he wasn't always such an asshole, you know? He just didn't know what to with the kid who killed his wife – a part of me gets it, but when he found out I was gay... he made it clear I was no longer welcome under his roof."

"Joaquin…" She breathes.

"Your Dad found me. Saved my life. Set me up here… I joined the Serpents as soon as I was well enough to run the Gauntlet."

"The Gauntlet?"

Joaquin shifts so he's looking down at her, his dark eyes searching. "You want to join the Serpents." He says finally.

JB nods into his shoulder. "I want in."

"Once you're in JB, there's no out."

"I know."

"Leaving Riverdale, going to College – you have to understand JB, this isn't something you do on a whim."

"When was the last time you saw my Dad Joaquin?" She asks, not waiting for an answer. "This morning right, at the Drive In? Or was it, last night at the White Wyrm?"

"I–"

"This isn't a whim. The Southside is my home and of all the family I have left, FP is the most consistent – he's either drunk at the Drive In or drunk at the Wyrm. Gladys left, Jug doesn't want me and I just…" She swallows. "I can't be alone anymore."

Joaquin's arms tighten around her. "Joining the Serpents won't be a cure-all JB… he won't stop you – he can't without risking his crown – but you have to know, he's never wanted you or Jughead anywhere near this."

"I'm not going into this with my eyes shut Joaquin." She whispers.

He nods. "I'm not agreeing to sponsor you." He raises a hand as JB pulls away, a protest on her lips. "Not yet. I'm not putting you forward as an initiate without FP's blessing. I owe him that much."

It's another question – one she again wants to ask, but she thinks perhaps, she's already pushed too far today. "Okay." She agrees, standing easily.

"Nine o'clock tomorrow, at the Wyrm."

JB nods. "I'll see you then." She hesitates at the threshold, and glances toward his closed bedroom door. "Tell him I'm sorry for interrupting."

Joaquin splutters, and JB smirks, an unfamiliar snort of laughter following her out.

She takes the bike.

It's not necessary to do so – the White Wyrm is within walking distance of Sunnyside – but it's a way to keep her nerve, a reminder, of why she went to Joaquin in the first place.

'How do you feel about breaking and entering?'

She stares down at the text from Cheryl, and blinks. 'Did you or did you not get arrested yesterday?'

'Oh, but that was for murder, this is different.' Is the reply she receives and JB snorts, a follow up coming through seconds later. 'I'm innocent.'

'No, really?' JB responds – the idea that Cheryl murdered Jason is laughable. Helping him escape the toxic confinement of Thorn Hill she could believe, but murder? 'Sorry, where are you breaking into?'

'School. You coming?'

'Can't, have fun.'

'Obviously, I love chaos.'

JB shoves her phone into her back pocket without responding and hangs the helmet on one of the handlebars, carding her fingers through her hair. She tugs nervously at the knots in her curls, hoping Cheryl won't begrudge the choice she's making when the truth comes out; Jughead certainly won't approve, she thinks, staring morosely at the crown carved into the helmet.

"JB."

She raises an eyebrow. "Fully clothed, I see."

Joaquin smiles wryly, tucking his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket. "You came unannounced." He chastises gently. "Nervous?"

JB eyes the Wyrm's façade. The gaping jaws of the painted snake should be frightening; but instead, she feels nothing but calm. "No." She says honestly. "I'm ready."

He leads the way, and JB falls into step behind him – it's the sound that hits her first, the knocking of the pool balls against each other, the low rumble of conversation and the faint strains of music she recognises as the kind her Father favours. The bar is dark; all wood finishes, worn couches and red mood lighting – there's a jukebox pushed in a corner and adorning the wall opposite the entrance is a green neon sign, twisted into the shape of a serpent. JB smiles. It feels like home.

She feels their eyes upon her as she follows Joaquin through the crowd, and raises her chin, refusing to buckle under their scrutiny.

Joaquin leans across, tilting his head toward hers as he speaks lowly. "You'll need the vote of the younger Serpents – being FP's daughter and Forsythe's granddaughter is an in, but these are the people you will interact with, the people you will need on your side." He flicks his eyes in the direction of the bar they're quickly approaching – the girl bartending is young; she's pretty, JB thinks admiring the pink in her hair and the smile she graces upon Joaquin when she notices him.

"Quin!" She greets enthusiastically as she removes the cap of a bottle of beer, handing it to a Serpent JB only vaguely recognises.

"Hey Toni." He replies with a grin and waves a hand toward her. "This is JB Jones."

JB fights the urge to squirm under Toni's appraising gaze. "Oh," she smirks, "I know."

"You do?" JB blurts, flushing immediately.

Toni nods, still smirking as she sets two empty glasses in front of her, upending a bottle of lime cordial over each and filling the rest of the glass with lemonade from the post-mix gun. "We have a mutual friend." JB watches, mesmerised as Toni shakes a few drops of bitters mixture into each, turning the clear liquid a vibrant orange. "Dark haired? Obnoxiously tall. Tattoo of a snake on his neck?"

JB feels her cheeks grow hot and ducks her head, taking a sip of the Toni made her. "How long have you worked here?" She asks, changing the subject.

"Since I was tall enough to reach the top shelf." Toni answers with a grin, allowing her to do so.

"So, about a year?" Joaquin quips, smirking behind his glass.

Toni shoots a half-hearted scowl in his direction. "You looking for a job Princess?"

JB shrugs, it would give truth to the lie she told Jughead. "Maybe."

Toni nods, her gaze appraising. "Well Jones, if you make it through Initiation," Toni scribbles a series of digits on a napkin, and slides it across the bar, "call me. I'll hook you up."

"Hog Eye won't say no to an extra pair of hands." Jellybean freezes, all at once feeling like a toddler, caught with her hand in the cookie jar and she realises she's nervous. Despite Joaquin's adamancy that FP won't block her initiation, she knows her Father well enough to understand that he would, for the right reasons. "What are you doing here Jellybean?"

"I came to see you, Daddy." She greets and kisses his cheek – it's a warm kind of affection she hasn't bestowed on him since before he started drinking again, and she knows he'll recognise the calculation in it as a trait she's picked up from Gladys. "Joaquin agreed to sponsor me."

"No." Joaquin contradicts quickly, wilting beneath FP's accusatory glare. "No, I told her, not without your say-so."

"Did you now?" FP drawls, unimpressed. "And what, Jellybean, were you planning to do, when I send your ass home?"

Jellybean fixes him with a mutinous glare. "You won't."

"Girl, I swear to God–"

"Don't, cause a scene." She hisses, nodding subtly to the Serpents mingling around them in the building. "The Serpents are my legacy too."

"Your legacy?" FP growls, gripping her arm tightly and pushing her into the unoccupied kitchen behind the bar. "You are a child, my child, and I don't want you near this."

"You don't have a choice." JB argues. "I'm already here, and I want in. You turn me away now and you'll have quite the scandal on your hands."

He looks furious, she thinks, and somewhat shocked at her audacity. "You think I give a fuck about a scandal? I want you to get out of Riverdale, go to college, see the world – the last thing I want, is you trapped in this life."

"You left–"

"Left? I enlisted Jellybean, it wasn't a holiday or a new life, it was war! And when it was over, I had to come back here, without half the friends that went with me."

"What if I don't want to leave? What if I don't want to go to college or travel the world? Huh?" She asks angrily, "Did you ever think about that?"

FP looks pained, and she's almost sorry. "Jellybean… I just, " He sighs, "I never wanted you to be forced into this life, like I was."

Jellybean shakes her head, the fight draining out of her. "Dad… I walked through those doors of my own volition and I went to Joaquin because this is what I want. College is two years away, the world isn't going anywhere – joining the Serpents doesn't disqualify me from either… it'll just," Jellybean shrugs, "make it more difficult."

FP bows his head, kneading the back of his neck with his hand. "I'll allow Joaquin's petition–"

Jellybean throws her arms around him, scarcely believing his acceptance. "Thank you." She murmurs softly, feeling his arms tighten around her.

"Don't thank me yet kid, I have conditions." FP states, pulling away and gripping both of her upper arms as he looks into her eyes. It's the same searching gaze that Joaquin fixed on her earlier. "You're gonna stay away from the illegal stuff, if I find you near any of that shit, you'll be out on your ass faster than you can blink, do you catch my Riverdale drift girl?"

Jellybean nods her ascent quickly. "Yes."

"And don't even think, about getting on Byrdie's stage."

"I won't." She agrees easily – she has no desire to be seen as some kind of hoodrat.

He hugs her tightly again, and Jellybean relaxes in his arms. It's been too long, she thinks, since she's received this kind of comfort from him – he still smells the same, like whisky and gasoline and something that's just, uniquely Dad. FP presses a kiss on the top of her head. "Don't make me regret this Jellybaby. Please, don't make me regret this."

"Good and evil. Light and Dark. Betty and Veronica, two sides of the same Janus coin.

Given Betty's article, Weatherby needed a sacrificial lamb, needed to make an example of someone. So, after Hermione Lodge negotiated a lesser sentence for our two avenging angels, Coach Clayton, to save his job, to save the school's reputation, was forced to cut his own beloved son and goon squad, from the team. An action that, though none of us knew it at the time, would have terrible consequences in the weeks to come.

But one thing was certain, Betty and Veronica, now, B and V, and maybe forever, had been forged. They walked through fire, and survived. We crave absolutes. They comfort us, but life, is infinitely more complex than that.

Despite all of our recent troubles, I would have done anything to protect Archie but Dilton Doiley had just opened Pandora's box, and now, there was nothing I, or anyone, could do to save him."

AN: Here's JB's first real foray into the life of the Southside Serpents, with Joaquin at her side and Toni behind the bar.

I hope you all have enjoyed this update, thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favourited and followed. You're all amazing.