Ryder and I were sitting at Pop's, a basket of cheese fries - our third order of them- in front of us, as well as our milkshakes. We both loved Pop Tate's famous chocolate milkshake apparently. We had been sitting in the booth for over an hour-and-a-half, our Chemistry textbooks and laptops open before us. I sighed. Ryder looked up from whatever he was typing on his laptop.

"Everything alright?" he asked, sipping the straw protruding from his milkshake.

"Yeah, I guess I'm just bored. Maybe we should take a break from all this studying."

"That's surprising," Ryder commented.

"What is?"

"That you would be the one to say we should stop working."

"I'm not saying we should stop, just that we should take a break," I defended. "We've been working for ages. If we keep studying like this we'll be done in a few days."

"That's a bad thing how….?" Ryder question, his eyebrows raised, a smile on his face.

I whacked his shoulder playfully. "Let's just stop working for a while," I suggested.

"Fine," Ryder reached over and grabbed a few fries.

"So, I was thinking..."

"Oh no," Ryder deadpanned. "Now I'm scared."

I whacked him again. "We haven't really gone on a date."

Ryder thought for a second. "You're right, we haven't. Why don't we make this one?"

I smiled. "Ok," I agreed. "Let's play Twenty Questions to get to know each other better."

"You start."

"Ok, what's your middle name?"

"Kaiden," he answered. "What's your's?"

"Gemma."

"Jellybean Gemma Jones," Ryder said my full name. "Has a nice ring to it."

"Jellybean isn't my real name you know", I reminded him.

"What is it then? My second question by the way, so you have to answer."

"I refuse," I jutted out my chin.

"Fine," Ryder relented. "But one day you will tell me."

"As if," I scoffed. "My turn. Do you have any siblings?"

"Yeah, I have an older brother who lives in New York. I would ask the same question, but I think I know the answer."

"Yep," I answered. "I only have Jughead and Caddy as my siblings."

"When's your birthday?" was Ryder's next question.

"3rd of March. When's your's?"

"24th of November."

The night went on as we continued asking each other questions, each enjoying the others company.

...oOo…

Later that night I was sitting on my bed, phone to my ear. My friend, Mercy from Toledo, had just texted me that she had gotten back from her trip to Wyoming from visiting her cousin's family. I immediately dialled her number once I saw the text, missing my friend terribly.

"Hey JJ!" Mercy squealed into the phone.

"Mercy!" I smiled at her excited greeting. It was good to know she hadn't changed - she had always been the energetic one. "I've missed you!"

"I've missed you too. It isn't the same in Toledo without you."

"You've been back in Toledo for what? Two minutes?"

"It still isn't the same." I could almost hear her frown. "So what have you been up to? You've started school by now, right?"

"Yes, I started last week."

"Oh, how did your Dad and brother take the news?"

"Great actually. Well, as great as learning that your mother/wife died in childbirth."

"And Caddy? How's she?"

"Caddys' fine," I told my friend. "She and I are staying at Jughead's girlfriend's - Betty's- house. Oh, and Betty's mom is kinda Dad's girlfriend too."

"What?!" Mercy exclaimed. "Do you like them? Betty and her mom?"

"Yeah, Alice and Betty are really nice," I said, quietly as I didn't want Caddy to wake up.

"And how are you?"

"Great. I love it here. Riverdale is a quiet town, just what I needed. And I kinda have a boyfriend…"

"Ooh, and what is this guy's name?"

"Ryder. He's a good friend of Jug's, and he's really nice. In fact, he even asked me to the dance tonight."

"That's great!" Mercy said. "I'm happy for you."

I thought of Mercy's crush on Tyler. I knew that both of them liked each other, but they both wouldn't say anything. I was almost out of my mind about those two. They just acted as friends to each other.

Tyler had been staying with Ryder in Ryder's trailer for the week since they apparently were good friends. An idea came to me

"Hey, Mercy, would you like to come to Riverdale?" I asked her. "You could stay for the term."

"I would love to!" I heard rustling from her side of the call. "Let me go ask my mom."

Mrs Burnett was always quite mellow; she allowed Mercy to do most things, like visit her cousins and miss out on a week of school. Surely she would allow Mercy to come to Riverdale for the term, she could come to Riverdale High too.

The was a muffled conversation on the other line until Mercy put her phone back her ear.

"I can come!" she shouted, causing me to hold my phone away from my ear.

"Awesome!"

We spent the next twenty minutes discussing details, like where Mercy would stay - in the Cooper's spare room of course - and when she would come- she told me she would leave tomorrow. I purposely left out that Tyler was here already. Mercy hadn't had time to call Ty, so she wouldn't even know he wasn't in Toledo. I thought it would be a good surprise for them both. I was going to enjoy playing matchmaker.

Author's note: Hiya! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I just want to thank all the people who left me a review - I really appreciate them! Also, thank you to the all the guest reviewers who commented, especially Guest43 (I think that's your name, sorry if I got it wrong), you read my mind about Dixie;) Don't worry, you all will find out what I mean soon! :) Please, review/favourite/follow. Thanks to my friend Amber for helping me with this plot. I promise it will get way more dramatic in the next few chapters. I'm excited to bring Mercy into this story! Please let me know what you think.

Xx G