Things had calmed down at Riverdale High enough that the Serpents didn't have to wear a uniform anymore. While Abby missed seeing Sweet Pea looking adorable in a turtleneck, she was happy to see that he was more relaxed. He wasn't constantly on edge, waiting for a bulldog to try something. They walked into the student lounge to see Jughead, Veronica, Betty, and Kevin sitting on the couches.
"Well, he's very fetching for someone who was living on Skid Row." Veronica looks at Betty's phone.
"Who was on skid row?" Sweets sit next to Kevin on the couch. Abby took a seat on the arm of the couch.
"My brother, that my mom had when she was a teen, so she put him up for adoption. I recently found him. He wasn't in a good place. I hope we can help him." Betty explains.
Hearing about another male in Betty's house, Sweet Pea snatched the phone from Veronica's hands making her gasp and held the phone up to Abby's face. "This is the guy you saw in the window?"
"Oh, yeah." She looked at those cold blue eyes.
"Window?" Jughead asked.
"I saw him in Alice's window and it scared me." She didn't explain how she was topless and he was staring.
"Oh sorry, I should have told you sooner. He moved into Alice's room." Betty apologized. She knew that must have been frightening.
"He's a hottie who looks incredibly familiar to me, by the way." Kevin took the phone from Sweets to get a better look.
"Your adventures in the woods?" Jughead asked. Sweet Pea looked at Abby for clarification. She waved her hand to say she would tell him later.
"I don't know, but maybe if we were allowed to meet this hottie in person…" He looked over at Betty.
"Chic's still acclimating. And I'm trying to get him to trust me, but my mom is treating him like he's a ten-year-old, and my dad's acting like he's the devil's spawn." Betty didn't want him to feel overwhelmed.
"Maybe it would be good for him to meet new people. So he can feel more welcome." Abby wanted to meet him, so maybe she could get those cold eyes out of her head. If she could associate some warmth with him, she wouldn't shiver at the thought of him.
"I think that's an amazing idea. Bring The Omen to Pickens Day and we can all meet him. Everyone's coming, right?" She looked around at all of them.
"No, because the Serpents weren't invited." Sweet scoffed.
"The Serpents were specifically asked to come." Veronica corrected him.
"Yeah, to provide security. It's like we're all on the Snowpiercer train, but the Serpents happen to be the ones eating the cockroaches." Jughead scoffs at the rich girl also.
"You don't have to work if you don't want to." She sighed. The only reason they were throwing this thing was so people could see the Serpents as humans.
"The damage, as they say, has already been done. Talk to you guys later." He got up when he saw Toni waiting at the door for him.
"Plans with Toni?" Betty was failing to hide the jealousy in her tone.
"Uh, yeah, I'm interviewing her grandfather for my oral history report. The oldest living Serpent." He went over to her. Betty watched as they walked away together.
"Are any of the Serpents coming?" Veronica asked Sweet Pea.
"Even if we weren't asked to work, I wouldn't go. I'm not celebrating a man that slaughtered my people." He stood up and pulled Abby along with him. They went to the Swords and Serpents Club room.
Abby locked the door on her way out. "Hey!" A voice stopped her as she was walking down the porch steps. She froze when she saw the boy she now knew as Chic jogging towards her.
"Hey," She said with a shaky voice.
"I'm Chic. I'm Alice's son. I know that might be a shocker." He introduced himself.
"I'm Abby. It was shocking when I first found out." She nods.
"First found out?" He wondered how many people knew about him.
"Betty told me." She plays with the straps of her backpack.
"How much did she tell you?" He pierces her with those cold eyes.
"She explained that Alice put you up for adoption and that she was recently able to track you down. She is more of my brother's friend than mine." She adds the last part in the hope to convince him that she didn't know anything incriminating about him.
"I came over to apologize. I know I scared you the other night. You hit the ground pretty hard. I didn't mean to frighten you. I guess I couldn't look away, it was an exotic sight." He was amused at the way she blushed.
"I guess anyone would have stare if they looked out the window to see that." She looked down at her feet. "Can you please not tell anyone?"
"Don't worry. I won't. I understand you keep your curtains closed now, but I don't mind them being open." He watches her face get even redder.
"The guy I was with was my boyfriend, Sweet Pea." She felt uncomfortable about letting a stranger flirt so aggressively with her.
"That's good for you. He's a very good-looking guy." He nods.
"I gotta get going to school." She walked through her yard to get to the sidewalk.
"I'll walk with you, I'm headed to the bus stop. I got to get something from my old place." He walked alongside her.
"How are you liking it in the Cooper house?" She asked.
"Between Alice's babying, Betty's prying, and Hal's pestering it's tense. But, it's better than what I had." He shrugs.
"I'm sure as time goes on everyone will mellow out." She tried to comfort him.
"You think they're gonna let me stay for a long time?" He raised an eyebrow. "I mean, didn't they have another daughter who got kicked out? Do you know what that was about?"
"She got pregnant. They tried to get her back, but Polly chose to live somewhere else. The Coopers used to like keeping a Leave it to Beaver appearance. But, them taking you in, shows that they're changing." She was surprised that Alice would reveal her dirty secret to the world. A little while ago, she was upset about her Serpent past being revealed, but now she was announcing a secret love child.
"Whether it's long or short, I'll make the best of it. Make some friends." He side-eyed her.
"I know a lot of Betty's friends are excited to meet you." She stopped in front of the bus stop.
"Would you mind being my first friend?" He opens his phone and hands it to her after pushing a few buttons. She grabbed it and saw the new contact page. She filled out her name and number before handing it back to him.
"It was nice talking to you, neighbor." She waves before walking away.
Cheryl and Abby were sitting at a booth in Pops. "General Pickens was a murderer... and ripples from his gruesome acts continue to be felt today. Descendants of the victims are still being displaced. So I challenge the Northside, instead of honoring men like General Pickens and Hiram Lodge, to hold them accountable. Reparations must be paid to men like Thomas Topaz, who are too old and beaten down to fight back for themselves." Abby read Jughead's article in the Blue and Gold. "Jughead can be such a bonehead." She knew Toni would be crushed by how her Grandpa was being depicted.
"I can't believe my Grandpappy did this. All my life I heard stories about how he was a genius. A hero that made life at Riverdale enjoyable for everyone." She stared down at the article, reading it over and over. "It's just another lie to add to the list."
"Cheryl," She put a hand over hers.
"I've been honoring this monster for years. Has the whole Blossom history been filled with blood and crime? My dad was a drug pin. My mom is a lady of the night. My brother got killed by my father. Maybe Blossoms have to die young or they turn into monsters." She wasn't in the mood for the strawberry milkshake that was in front of her.
"Cheryl, you're not your family. The fact that you feel bad about this proves that." She squeezed her hand.
"I feel so dirty. My clothes, make-up, everything I own is bought with drug money. Drugs that Jason had to die for. I was learning to deal with that. But, now I find out the land and the house we have is from killing innocent people. People that I was trying to marginalize last week. So, you see I am like my grandpappy." She pushes her milkshake over to her friend.
"You can't do anything about the past, you can only live in the present." She took a sip of the milkshake. "You just have to be the person you want to be."
"Yeah, the person I want to be." Cheryl gazed at her best friend.
Abby watches as her dad puts down the Blue and Gold. "So?" She asked.
"I'm sorry, honey but I can't back out of Picken's day." He sighs.
"What? You're going to support a child killer." She gasps.
"America has a bloody history. Colonization happens everywhere. There isn't anywhere in the country where the land was given up voluntarily." He rubs his temple.
"That doesn't mean that we have to honor those men and what they did." She slammed her hand down on the dining table they were sitting on.
"I understand that you're upset. But, it's too late. We have to celebrate this day so that people get on board with the Southsiders being in the North. We are trying to help the Serpents and doing that on Picken day can be seen as a way of apologizing." He tried to get her to understand this was business.
"Or just rubbing it in their faces that once again they are being pushed out of their land." She got up to go to her room.
"You sure you want to do this, I mean your dad is sponsoring this?" Sweet Pea was sitting next to her on the bar as they made signs that said Honor This Land.
"He's the one that wants to go through with this. Calling it an apology." She looked him in the eyes. "I want to do this."
"Good, I can't wait to see you with tape over your mouth." He winks.
"Likewise." She rolled her eyes. "I ran into Chic today."
"Betty's brother?" He stopped painting to look at her.
"Yeah, he apologized for staring. He said he couldn't look away." She clears her throat, embarrassed to repeat it.
"I can't blame him for that. I would've stayed too if I was him. I still want to punch him in the face though." He knew anyone would be tempted to watch two good-looking people go at it. Especially when it was outside their window but the thought of someone else seeing her bare breasts made him want to break the person's face.
"From what Tomoko overheard from Kevin and Betty. I think he would be more into you than me." She looks to see his facial expression change from rage to his regular resting bitch face.
"You're not just saying that, so I don't punch him?" He asked.
"No, he even told me that he thinks you're good-looking." She reassured him that the man who saw her had no interest in her. Not that she knew that to be hundred percent true. "He is a camboy that serves other men."
"Oh, is that all he wanted, to apologize?" He asked.
"He wanted to be friends. I gave him my number but I can block it if you're not comfortable." She showed him the text messages that were innocently asking for each other's favorite things.
"I'm not going to tell you to not be friends. Just be careful and let me know if he does anything, I'll fuck him up." He read over the texts. He knew a lot of guys who pretend to be friends with girls to bed them.
"Don't worry, I'll never replace my biker." She pulls him down by his leather collar to kiss him.
The Serpents walked into the General Picken day celebration as Veronica was singing Union of the Snake, ironically. Abby had tape over her mouth. She walked beside Sweet Pea, who was holding a sign that said Honor This Land. The crowd stared at them in shock. When she felt an arm hook her with her, she stiffened but relaxed when she saw it was Cheryl. They head straight for the stage. "Toni? Jughead? What the hell is going on?" Veronica stops singing to ask.
Toni brought out a megaphone as they stood in front of the stage. "We're here representing the dead and the silenced. Pickens Day is a lie. General Pickens slaughtered the Uktena tribe, my grandfather's family. And this land, the land that we're standing on, the land that will soon give way to a new Southside, was stolen from them. And we can't bring them back, but we can and we must honor them."
Hiriam went on stage to grab the microphone to take control of the situation. "Hey, folks, hi. Uh... I think we can all be proud to live in a Riverdale where young people stand up for justice. Where a young woman can defend the honor and legacy of her grandfather. And where we can celebrate the living legacy of the Uktena, who contribute to the rich tapestry that is Riverdale, that is the Southside and that will be SoDale. So let's hear a round of applause for that, am I right?" The crowd clapped. "That's right. What do you say, people?" Jughead went to charge on stage but Mr. Topaz pulled him back.
The group shook in anger as the people easily went back to enjoying the festival as if Toni's words weren't heard at all. They were happy to have an excuse to overlook the past and the people who got hurt by it because it wasn't them that got screwed over.