SMOKESTACKS
CHAPTER | TWENTY-FOUR
"I told her I wouldn't do it." Betty announced, "Not unless you're up there with us, Jug."
"I appreciate the righteous indignation, Betty, I do." Jughead told her with humour in his tone, "But Jubilees aren't my thing."
"Jug, hows your dad?" Archie asked, taking a bite out of his chicken. "Did you get in to see him?"
"Here's the latest." Jughead started, as if he were spreading around locker room gossip. "Mayor McCoy wants my dad to name names in exchange for a lesser sentence."
"What?" Betty exclaimed, "Who's names?"
"The Serpents. Sheriff Keller thinks they're dealing the drugs that Clifford Blossom brought into town."
"My dad says more and more drugs are hitting the streets." Kevin interjected with a somber expression on his face.
"Kevin, relax." Jughead told him with a scoff, "This isn't The Wire. My dad says they weren't the ones dealing."
"Meanwhile, Mayor McCoy hasn't even said the words Clifford or Blossom in public." Betty contributed, raising her eyebrows as if she should be surprised. "It's all about how the Serpents are the problem. The Villains. This is outrageous, I'm writing an article about this. And not just for the Blue and Gold, for the Register. This is a town story."
"Okay." Jughead said hesitantly, "As long as the article doesn't include my dad."
"No, it is going to be about your dad, Jug." Betty declared firmly, "It doesn't matter how many Jubilees Mayor McCoy throws. This town has changed."
Veronica watched as Betty leaned back with a sigh. "Speaking of the Jubilee. Does anyone know is Savannah is going?"
The group all looked exchanged glanced, each of them coming up blank.
"She won't answer my calls." Jughead admitted, his phone sitting in front of him on the table, attracting his attention every few seconds. "She text me saying not to worry but, what does she expect?"
"It must have been difficult for her." Betty hypothesised, "She watched the boy that she had basically been in a relationship with, get shot by his own dad."
"I'll try and speak to her later." Veronica assured her friend, "I'll try and get her to come to the Jubilee.
Both Betty and Jughead nodded in thanks.
As Savannah wandered blindly through the halls of the school, she heard the whisperings of a girl who had written an article defending the Serpents. Her mind was clouded with fog, each locker slam echoing like a gun shot through her ears.
Kyle had made her come back to school. She'd already missed two days.
Savannah guess that the girl who wrote it article was Betty Cooper, one of her closest friends. That she'd tried to defend Jughead's dad as an act of friendship and support, painting a target on her back in return.
She felt two pairs of eyes on her as she walked into the cafeteria, over to their usual table, on the other side of the hall as the table she used to sit at with Piper, her ex-best-friend.
"Savannah!" She heard Veronica cry in surprise, "Hey, how are you doing?"
"Fine." The brunette said, stonily. "What are you two talking about?"
Veronica frowned in concern for the girl, "Uh, just that I'm dating his best friend, so I thought we should get to know each other better."
Savannah quirked an eyebrow, "You and Archie? Congratulations." She didn't sound too joyful.
There was a click of heels from behind her, causing the girl to turn around and see Cheryl Blossom standing there, staring directly at the boy that she had attacked in the same room less than a week ago.
"Jughead." She started, guilt etched across her featured. "I'm sorry. I have no right to pummel you the way I did that day. As recompense, I'd like to give you this." She tossed something to him, which he swiftly caught. "My iconic spider brooch. It'll catch a pretty penny at the local pawnshop. Enough to keep you in burgers and S t-shirts for years, if not, decades."
"Cheryl, what is going on?" Veronica asked firmly, trying to get an answer out of the girl for the second time that day.
"I'm -"
She was interrupted by Kevin who skidded to a halt in front of their table, "Guys, hurry, it's Betty's locker. Come on. It's bad. Come on."
Jughead and Veronica leapt up in an instant, following after Kevin, the girl latching onto Archie's wrist as they passed by, urging him to come with them. They left one girl behind, a girl who was watching the final Blossom twin carefully.
She studied the girl from head to toe before smiling, "You offered me dinner before, right?"
Cheryl nodded, almost like a robot. "Yes."
"Let's make it lunch." Savannah gestured to the table.
"Okay." Cheryl agreed. She moved around the table, pushing the abandoned trays away from her side as she sat down.
"So tell me." Savannah started, pulling Veronica's tray toward her and starting to eat the watermelon that she'd left behind. "How was it, kissing Moose?"
"Gross." Cheryl scrunched up her face in disgust, "I was desperate for a distraction and he was there. I drank too much."
Savannah snorted, "Funny. That sounds like me and Jason."
Cheryl didn't speak for a moment, pausing in thought. "You saw the video, didn't you? Of my - of Jason getting - I mean -"
"Yeah." Savannah cut her off, saving her the pain of having to say it. "I did. Trust me, Cheryl, you should be glad that you didn't see it."
The red head nodded thoughtfully before offering one more smile, "So tell me about you and Jason, how did it all start?"
"Well." Savannah began with a light laugh, "We were both being tutored by Ms. Grundy."
"Hey." Savannah swung her head around the doorframe into the common room to see the somber faces of her friends, "Have you seen Cheryl around?"
"No." Betty said. "Did he tell you?"
"Did who tell me what?" Savannah asked, edging closer into the room.
"Jughead?" Veronica chimed in, "He's at Southside High."
"What?" Savannah frowned, "Why would he be there?"
The three exchanged a look that Savannah knew all too well. It was a look that she had seen so many times in the past few months, it meant that there was something she didn't know.
"What don't I know?"
"Jughead can't stay with me and my dad." Archie started to explain to her, "Social services found him a foster family in Riverdale. But it's on the south side, he had to transfer schools."
"Okay?" Savannah shook her head in confusion, "So why the sad faces? At least he's still in Riverdale, they could have taken him out of state."
"You don't get it." Veronica interjected, "Jughead said that he's there because that's where he belongs and that no one wants him here."
It was like a scene out of a teen movie, the four of them skidding around the halls of Riverdale High, Archie slipping over his own feet as they went. They all filed into Veronica's car and she slammed the pedal to the floor, smoke coming off the wheels as they sped toward Southside High.
"So this is all very dramatic." Savannah commented from the back.
They burst through the doors and ran through the metal detectors, that thankfully had been turned off, although the sight of them had Savannah slightly worried about what they were getting themselves into.
"Where would he be?" Veronica asked.
"Cafeteria." Archie and Betty responded.
Savannah pointed at them and clicked, "That's what I was gonna say, yep."
The Serpents were circling Jughead's table, panic starting to fill her up like a balloon until, they all burst into laughter. She saw Jughead's book, tossed to the side. He'd found another source of entertainment.
"Jug." Betty gaped at them.
Jughead turned around in his chair, startled to see them. "What are you guys doing here?"
Savannah couldn't tear her eyes away from the girl with blue hair that had been staring at Jughead. It reminded her of Ryan, who she assumed went to this school considering Piper had said she was on the south side.
"I didn't tell you because I thought you would try and stop me." Jughead explained to Betty and Savannah, who were identical in their sullen faces and crossed arms.
"Damn straight." Savannah commented.
"We're still gonna try." Betty confirmed, a nod from Savannah showed that she was in agreement.
"The Southside is where the powers-that-be want me." Jughead argued his case, "Maybe I wanna be here aswell, I blend in better here."
"What about our second lunches?" Savannah blurted out, her eyes wide. "We have the same study period on a Thursday afternoon, we always get burgers."
Jughead looked to Betty pointedly. The blonde nodded and moved away from Jughead and Savannah, leaving them to talk in private.
The boy reached out for the girl, who stepped willingly into his embrace. He couldn't help but think of how childish she was somedays, pouting with wide eyes, her voice was even more high pitched. She loved pillow fights and stuck her tongue out behind people's backs.
Yet he loved everything about her.
"I finally have an answer for you." Jughead told her.
Savannah raised her head from his chest with a frown, "What are you -"
"Guys!" Veronica cried from the front of the school, a look of panic on her face. "We have to go! Now!"
It was that one, fateful winter afternoon that a group of kids tore across the woods at Sweetwater River, looking for a red headed girl who was intending on reuniting herself with her brother, however bittersweet it was.
They came to a stop at the edge of the ice, their eyes locking onto the girl who was smashing at the surface with a rock in the distance.
She stood, face wet with tears as they called for her, pleaded for her to come to them and that they could talk it all out.
But the ice couldn't hold her weight.
And under she went.
Ignoring the statement that Archie had mentioned before, that the ice would shatter under their weight, they all dashed across the ice and trampled through the snow, eager to reach the girl who had been swallowed whole.
"The current has her!" Archie cried, "Spread out."
They started swiping at the loose snow, wiping away the dust to see if they could spot a flash of red underneath.
"She's here!" Archie announced before he cracked his fist against the ice, surely breaking his wrist.
The surface started to crack and blood dripped from Archie's knuckles, staining the ice and water red. It looked like a bloodbath, as the four other teenagers stood back in shot, watching as their friend went to desperate measures to save a grieving girl.
"Would you like another cup of tea, Cheryl?" Savannah asked the girl, wrapping a blanket around her shoulders as she sat on the couch in the Clarke's living room.
"No, I'm fine, thank you."
"Tough." Kyle appeared around the corner with a smile and a mug in his hand. "You don't get a choice."
Savannah had given Cheryl some fluffy pyjamas to change into, along with some extra fuzzy socks to help her get a heat back in her.
It had been the scariest moment of her life, watching as Cheryl plunged beneath the surface of the icy river. She could almost hear the scream that left Cheryl's lips as she saw her dead brother reach toward her like a ghost with unfinished business.
"I'm fine, honestly." Cheryl insisted to them, "I don't want to burden you."
"Cheryl." Savannah frowned at the girl, "We're not going anywhere."
Cheryl turned her head to face the older boy, who simply nodded in return.