Abby had the Blue and Gold in her hand. She was reading the article that Jughead wrote. The facts about finding out who Jason's murder was made up the article. Maple Syrup has been a front for transporting heroin. Jason knowing too much and wanting to run away got him killed by his own father. Now, that the drug issues were brought to light the new topic of discussion was who was dealing the drugs. The pressure was making Mayor McCoy and Sheriff Keller crack. "You know they're going to blame the Serpents." Sweet Pea, whose legs she was sitting in between, read over her shoulder. He and Fangs were in her room printing out their essays.
"They'll be out of luck, we're only allowed to deal weed." Fangs was on Abby's laptop. He opens up his essay through an attachment on an email and prints it out.
"Like Mayors or cops care about real justice, Fangs. They want to lock up whoever they can blame the fastest so that people don't cause a riot. Northsiders want their kids safe." He pinches Abby's cheeks.
"He's right, Mayor McCoy hasn't even said anything about the Blossoms. In her press conference, she kept talking about the drugs and the Serpents. They're probably offering FP a deal right now." She swings back her arm to elbow him to get him to let go.
"FP would never rat." Sweet Pea pushes her off, so her face meets the comforter. He rolled off the bed and sat down on the rolling chair after Fang's essay was printed out.
She sat up, glaring at her boyfriend. "I didn't say he would, I just said their offering."
Fangs lie down on her bed. "This feels amazing. It's like a cloud." He moans. It felt much better than his mattress that was the same age as him. "Hey, would it be okay if I sleep here sometime?" He looks up at Abby. She giggled, shaking her head at him. She never took him seriously, she knew that he liked to push Sweet Pea's buttons. "Why not?" He whines.
"Fangs." Sweet Pea grunts.
Fangs smile innocently. "I meant when she slept over at the trailer. It is a shame to think this bed is going to waste."
"Whatever, you lying perv." He grabbed his essay to staple it together before putting it in his backpack.
"How come she didn't mention that other gang, the Ghoulies?" Abby had been wondering since she saw the press conferences and she remembered Malachai offering her drugs.
"Because they don't know about those bastards. The Ghoulies are still new, fucking multiplying like rabbit lately, though." Sweets inform her.
"Do you think FP would mention them to throw the heat off the Serpents?" She asked.
"Nah, that starts a war we can't afford right now? Since they got Jingle Jangle and every other drug under the sun, they're making a lot of money. We only push weed and whatever leftover money we got after our bills goes back into the community." Fangs explained.
"You guys aren't in danger, are you?" She worried about this other gang starting a war once they got big enough to push them out.
"No. A serpent can't be taken down by a ghoul." Sweets pull her to her feet. "Come on, wiz kid. Let's get you to school." He grabbed her backpack and his before making his way out of the house.
"Bye Mr. Andrew." Fangs wave to her dad making Abby and Sweets echo the goodbye.
"See ya kids." He waved from his seat on the porch. He has been depressed lately, feeling like he made the wrong decision in keeping them and not making them go to Chicago.
Abby got on the bike behind Sweets and he drove her to school. Fangs follow behind, just in case anyone starts trouble. Some Northsiders were getting feisty now that they thought Serpents were giving their kids drugs.
When they got to school, she got off and gave him a kiss. Tomoko and Trev wolf whistle from behind her. "Shut up." She giggles, walking over to them.
They joke around with each other as they walk into the school. Abby was jerking back from Tina bumping shoulders with her. "Ew, you better not have gotten any snake sperm on me, Ohpidiophilia."
"What did you call me?" Abby squints.
"It's a person that has sex with snakes." Ginger came up from behind her and circled around to stand next to her friend.
"I wasn't aware you two knew a word with more than two syllables." Tomoko glares at the girls harassing her friend.
"Tell me, what of this is drug money? This shirt." Tina went to grab her shirt, but Abby grabbed her wrist and dug her nails in.
"I know that Cheryl used to buy your wardrobe, so tell me what of yours isn't bought with drug money." She throws Tina's wrist away from her.
"I'd tell your boyfriends to not pick you up anymore. I heard a few bulldogs talking about running them off the road." Gingers smirk.
"Get the hell out of here." Trev stood in front of her to shoo the two girls away. "I swear when people think there's a monster amongst them, they become the monster." He shook his head.
"Those girls were always monsters, they're just learning to stand on their own." Tomoko glares at their backs. "Don't let them get to you." She turned to her friend who went quiet after the threat.
"It's hard not to when they're so angry at the Serpents that they're attacking them when they're not even the ones who brought the drugs into Riverdale." She pulls out her phone. She went to the group chat she had between her, Fangs, Sweets, and Toni. She let them know about the threat. She told them she would catch the bus for this week's tutoring session, which Sweet rejected and said he would be at the front of the school. She sighs at her stubborn boyfriend.
"Hello, my fellow redhead." Cheryl smiles at Abby.
"Hey, Cheryl." Abby closed her locker to give all her attention to her friend.
"I want to give you this." She put a large makeup trolly between them.
"That's a lot of makeup." She looks down at it.
"It's more than just makeup. It's my mac brushes, all my skin products, and everything else to make you feel beautiful." She pointed at the different zippers.
"I can't take all this." Abby shook her head.
"Yes, you can. You are the only one with my skin complexion so you would use it best. Most importantly, I want to give you this." She gave her a gold heart compact mirror that had diamonds making a CB on it. "The gold and diamond are real. You can trade it in to get a lot of money, but I would like it if you kept it."
"Cheryl, don't you need this?" She looks at the personal item in her hands.
"I can't look at any of this the same anymore. But, I can give them a new meaning by giving them to you." Cheryl shook her head.
"Alright, but if you want it back you let me know." She traced the letters that the diamonds made.
"I could never think of a more fitting home for it." She smiled before walking away.
Fred and Abby were making dinner together as Fred told her about his day. "Does she not understand what being a partner means? She can't make decisions like that without talking to you." She reacted to her dad telling her that Hermoine fired the Serpents.
"She's hoping we won't be partners for long. She wants to buy me out." He put the cut-up vegetables into the stew.
"Are you going to sell?" She asked.
"The price she offered me is more than I would make from the project." He told her.
"So, you're thinking about it?" She stirs the pot.
"I can't help but think about it." He nods. A knock at the door put an end to the topic. "I'll get it." He went to the door. A few minutes later, he came back into the kitchen with a blonde in a business suit. "This is Ms. Weiss, she's Jughead's caseworker."
"Good, we need to get the paperwork to keep Jughead with us." Abby smiles.
"Yeah, we do. Do you have them?" Fred looks at the woman.
"I heard he was staying here, so I look into you, Mr. Andrews, and I'm afraid you're not a suitable guardian for him." Mrs. Weiss looks at the man.
"What?" The Andrews looks at her confused.
"With your DUI and..." She explains.
"DUI?" Abby looked at her father.
"It was around the time your mom left." He told his daughter before turning to the social worker. "That was over two years ago."
"The bigger issue is money. I'm afraid with two kids of your own to take care of, you don't have enough to take on Jughead too." She informs them.
"What's going to happen to him?" Abby's voice shook.
"We have a foster home on the Southside. The family is good and we have worked with them before. Unfortunately, he would have to transfer to Southside High." She gave them the good and bad news.
"Why does he have to transfer? He's been going to our schools while living in the Southside his whole life?" She asked.
"It appears he's been using this address to do that. Which is illegal, but we're willing to look the other way. But, now he has to go to a school in the district he's living in." She explains.
"He's making good grades, he's part of the paper, he got a girlfriend and great friends. He has a family here." Abby explains all the things he might lose.
They heard the door open and Jughead telling Archie. "That hottie kept looking at you."
They came into the kitchen and stopped when they saw the woman. "Hey, guys. Um... This is Ms. Weiss from Social Services. She's, uh... She's Jughead's caseworker." Fred points to the woman.
"Jughead, I know how terrible and emotional the last few days have been for you. Your father's facing serious jail time. Your mom's over-extended and out of state. We just want to make sure that you're being taken care of." She looks over at the teen.
"Well, he can keep staying with us, right, Dad?" Archie looks at his dad.
"I offered already, Arch." Fred looks down at the counter. Jughead perks his head up at that since he knew Fred was on the fence about him staying here.
"Great, so what's the problem?" Archie asks.
"It was a DUI. After your mom left. Look, we can talk about this later but between that and my cash flow problem, it knocks me out." He looks over at Jughead with an apology in his eyes.
"There is a family on the Southside that's offered to foster you. They're good people, they've worked with us before." She told him.
"That doesn't sound completely horrible." He shrugs.
"It does mean you'll be in a different school district, Jughead, and you'll have to transfer schools." She delivered the next bad news.
"What the hell? When is all this supposed to happen?" Archie glares at the lady who came in and changed their lives with little emotion on her face.
"The paperwork has been processed. Unless there is a radical change in your father's case, you'll be on the Southside by the end of the week." She told the teen. Jug closed his eyes and struggled not to cry.
After seeing Betty's locker that had her newspaper article screaming FP innocence taped to her locker with Go To Hell, Serpent Slut written in pig blood, Abby decided that there was no way she was going to let Sweet Pea pick her up. On the day of their tutoring, she skipped her last class and took the bus to the Whyte Wyrm. She didn't want Sweet Pea to go to the Northside. She texted him from her seat at the bar. "Did your dad know about us getting fired?" A serpent leaned against the bar.
"No, he didn't. Hermoine no longer wants criminals associated with her project now that her husband is coming home. She even tried to buy my dad out." She told him.
"I thought it was something like that." He nods.
The door swung up and Sweet Pea came charging in. "You are the most stubborn woman I know." He grabbed her face.
"Look, who's talking." She playfully rolled her eyes.
He gave her a hard kiss. He only pulls away when a few people clear their throats. "I knew her since she was a kid, mind not eating her face in front of me." Hogeye sighs.
"And I'm here to learn, not to have my virgin eyes burn from the unholy sight." Fangs took the seat next to her.
"Please that cherry has been popped and tossed around a few times already." Sweet Pea scoffs taking the seat on the other side of her.
"Can I ask you for a favor?" She looks between them.
"Ah, you owing me. I'm interested." Sweets rub his hands together.
"Jug can't stay with us anymore, because the social worker said my dad doesn't have enough money. He is going to be put into a foster home on the Southside and he has to transfer to Southside High. Can you look out for him? He's like a second brother to me. I'm worried that once the Ghoulies find out FP is his dad, that will be it for him." She pulls out the manilla folders with papers to help them get through Night by Elie Wiesel.
"That's no problem. We'll take him under our wing." Fangs promised.
"No, you can't approach him like that. He'll pull away if he thinks it's out of pity or obligation. Let him think he's on his own for now." She told them.
"Why do you Northsiders have to make everything so damn complicated?" Sweets huffs. Even though Jug spent almost his whole life living at the Sunnyside trailer park, he went to school and only had friends in the North. In Sweet's eyes that made him the worst type of people. A Southsider who turns his back on his own to live an easy life in the North. Forgetting about their roots and choosing to live in that blissful ignorance.
"Sweets," She whines.
"I'll look out for him, but the second he gets snippy he's on his own." He gave her a peck on the lips.
She pulls out her phone when it rings. "Hey Cheryl," She answers.
"I couldn't send you a goodbye text like everyone else. I had to call you. You tried harder than anyone else to be there for me. Other than Jason, you were my only real friend. You never asked me for anything. You put me in my place when I needed it, but you were never cruel. I can only hope that one day I'll see you on the other side." She whimpers over the phone.
"Cheryl, what are you talking about?" She stood up from the barstool.
"You said that you didn't know why you ran after me that night at the game. Your body moved before your mind could think. I believe that was Jason. He brought us together because he knew that if anyone could have saved me, it would be you. I love you, Abigail Andrews. Thank you for giving it your all but I'm going to be with Jason now." She hangs up the phone before Abby could talk her out of it.
"Sweets, I don't have time to explain, can you take me to the sweetwater river?" She grabbed onto his leather jacket.
"Sure," He agrees instantly, seeing the tears running down her face. She pulled him out of the bar and got onto the back of his bike. She held on tightly as he sped to the river. He put his kickstand down the same time her dad's truck pulled up. They ran to the river, screaming the suicidal teen's name.
"She's not here." Archie looks around the frozen-over river.
"Over there! Oh, my God." Betty points to the middle of the river.
"Cheryl! Stop!" She screams at the teen slamming her fists into the ice.
They ran to have Archie push them back. "Wait, Wait, Wait!" He pointed down to the ice that was cracking with all of them on it.
"Too much weight, and we'll all go under," Jughead told them.
"We all don't have to go." Abby ran past them before anyone could grab her. She drops to her knees to grab Cheryl's hands that were bloody from hitting the ice. "You have to come back with me."
"No, it's too hard." She shook her head.
"Remember, how we agreed that when times get hard you have to think of Jason and what he wanted for you. He wanted for you to shine, Cheryl." She hugs her to feel that she was ice cold. Cheryl was wearing the white dress that she wore the last time she saw Jason. It was a thin summer dress that didn't provide any protection from the snow and wind.
"I tried, I can't. I can't." She sobs.
"Yes, you can. If you couldn't then Jason wouldn't have sent me to you. He knows you can. He knows I'm the most stubborn woman you'll ever meet. I'm not leaving here without you. It's not time for us to say goodbye. We have the rest of our lives to become sisters." She rubs her hands along her arms to try and give her warmth.
"Okay." She nods. Abby helps her to her feet. The groups cheered when they saw them moving towards them. Those cheers turned to screams of horror when the ice beneath the redhead's feet broke and took them under.
They ran out onto the ice. "The currents have them. Spread out. Spread out." Jughead looks at the running water in the hole.
The teens wipe the snow off the ice to see where they were. "They're here." Archie could see his sister struggling to swim to the top while holding onto Cheryl. Sweet Pea ran over to him and they slammed their fists into the ice.
"Be careful!" Veronica warns as ice turns red from their blood.
When a hole was made, Sweet Pea reached in to yank Abby out while Archie grabs Cheryl. "Give her CPR!" Abby screamed. Cheryl passed out right when they hit the freezing water. With each second they were under, she could feel her pulse slowing down. Archie did what his sister was demanding.
Sweet Pea took off his jacket and wrapped her up in it. "Don't ever scare me like that again?" He hugs her tight.
Abby couldn't hear him, she was focused on Cheryl's limp body. She smiled when she saw Cheryl's body jerk up to breathe air.
"Cheryl! Hey. Hot chocolate? With a little splash of peppermint liqueur." Veronica hands a cup to her before giving one to Abby.
"Thank you." They nod.
"No problem. Are you warm enough?" Veronica put another blanket around them.
"What are they doing here?" Hermoine came in and looked between Cheryl and Sweet Pea.
Veronica got up to whisper to her mother, "She got in an accident. And she needed help, so I brought her here. He helped too."
"I'll just warm up and go home." Cheryl didn't want Veronica to get into any trouble for her.
"You don't have to go home. You can come to my house." Abby told her.
"I don't want to trouble you..." Cheryl was going to politely decline, even though she wanted to be anywhere else but at home.
"I insist. I want you there." She grabbed her hand.
"Okay," She smiled, weakly at her.
When she felt warm enough, Sweet Pea called Fangs. He came to give Cheryl a ride on the back of his bike to the Andrews. After the girls took a hot shower, the four of them sat at the table to have corn chowder. The boys dominated the conversation with trivial things.
"You're not going to make me talk about it?" Cheryl picks up a cheddar biscuit. The table fell into silence.
"Since you brought it up. I want you to know that when you start to feel like that even if it's a whisper in the back of your brain, you come to me right away. Don't let it grow into something huge that crushes you. You're not trouble or a bother Cheryl. You're my friend, my fellow redhead and we meant to stick together." She smiled.
"You're really too good for this world." Cheryl sighs and looks down at her soup before looking at Sweet Pea. "You're lucky to have her."
"I know and so are you." He nods.
Later that night, Cheryl kissed Abby on the forehead before slipping out of bed. She went to Thornhill to purify it of all the sins, the only ways she knew how with gasoline and a candle. Abby didn't think anything of it when she woke up alone. She read the note on her nightstand and assumed that Cheryl woke up before her and went home. She got dressed and opened her door to see her dad. "I was about to knock. Come on, let's go have breakfast at Pops." He waved for her.
"Anything serious?" He only took them to Pops in the morning for serious conversations, whether they were good or bad. He did it when he told them the responsibilities of getting Vegas and their mom leaving.
"It's just breakfast." He laughs. They got into the red truck to drive to Pops. They sat in a booth and waited for Archie. "Hey, Casanova. I ordered you the usual." Fred greeted his son when he walked through the door.
"Thanks, Dad. I'm just gonna go wash my hands." He held up his hands.
"Who knows where those have been?" Abby teases. Archie ruffles her hair when he passes her to go to the bathroom. "Archie!" She screamed at the bathroom door as her giggling brother went through them.
The door opened and a man wearing a mask came in. "Who's in charge here? Show me where the safe is!" He pointed a gun at Pops.
"There is no safe!" Pops yelled.
"Stay calm, don't move," Fred whispers to his daughter.
"You've got a safe. Show me where it is! Where's the safe, old man?" The man got on the counter and grabbed Pops to hold a gun to his head.
"There ain't no safe." Pops cried. Archie came out of the bathroom. Fred stood up to block him from view before the robber could see him.
The robber jumped off the counter and stuck the gun in Fred's face. "Give me your wallet!" As Fred reached for it, the robber shot him.