"Hello, Keller. No, we don't have or know where General Picken's head is." Sweet Pea opens the trailer door to see the Sheriff. "How many times are you going to visit for the same reason?"
"We got to keep covering our bases." He didn't like this any more than they did.
"What are your other bases beside this trailer park?" Abby got up from the table to stand next to her boyfriend.
"You guys did try to stage a protest on Pickens Day. There is a connection." He had to defend his actions at every door.
"You're doing a lot more work to catch a statue killer than you did my dad's shooter. You wrote that off as some druggy looking for his next score. It's strange to see you looking so hard for someone who vandalizes property." She leaned against the door frame. Sweet Pea shot him an amused look from over her head. His cocky smile, begging the Sheriff to reply to her.
"Call us if you hear anything." He steps away from the door and walks to the next trailer.
Sweet Pea slammed the door when Abby moved back. "Like I'd ever call them for anything."
"That's like his fourth time here." Fangs spoke from his seat at the dining table.
"You know how attached the government is to their statues." Abby sat down to continue eating her French Toast.
"Yeah, more attached to their dead children-slaughtering idols than to the living poor people in their communities." Sweet sneers.
"Can we not have so much bitterness in the morning?" Fangs sigh.
"Just take away everything I am." He scoffs as he sits down in front of his plate.
"Yeah, what next you're going to tell him no more glaring and pouting?" She teased.
"I do not pout." He glares and without realizing it pushes his lips together. Fangs and Abby laughed at his unconscious facial expression. "Stop laughing!" Which only added to the giggles.
Abby, Trev, and Tomoko were sitting in the Blue and Gold room. Tomoko was sitting in Betty's old seat, the editor's seat. "Thank you guys for agreeing to help since Betty and Jughead were forced out." She smiled. When Weatherbee kicked the two other members out she thought the newspaper was going to get shut down. But Trev and Abby stepped up so she could keep practicing her craft.
"No problem, babe. This will look good on our college applications too." Trev was confident about writing the sport and music columns.
"I just hope I'm able to keep up with you." Abby smiles weakly. She agreed to take on a regular column and help out with the main issue articles as they came along. She was giving the spotlight column, where she highlighted a club, faculty member, or student. She was nervous to have to find different things to write about every month.
"I got something for you to write." Sweet Pea came barging in with Fangs and Toni.
Tomoko jumps up from the seat to grab the paper from his hand. "An eviction notice. 14 days, is that legal?"
"What?" Abby and Trev got up to surrender Tomoko, so they could read the paper.
"That's bullshit." Trev couldn't believe the way the town was bullying them.
"You guys pay your rent." Abby didn't understand how they could get kicked out when they paid every month.
"A few people in the trailer park haven't, so they haven't been making payments on the land and the city can do what they please." He explained it the way the officer did.
"But, Keller also said to Jughead that if we found the head while packing our stuff it would calm the waters." Toni let it be known this was no coincidence.
"So, which one of you is going to write about it?" Fangs asked.
"Unfortunately, we might not be able to." Tomoko felt bad that they came to get their voices heard but it might not happen.
"What do you mean?" Toni squints.
"We had a meeting with Weatherbee to go over the new rules because he doesn't want any more lawsuits. So, now he has to approve all our ideas before we write an article." She grabs a form to show them the steps they have to take.
Sweet Pea grabs a pen to fill it out. "Relevance?"
"We have to put how it is relevant to the student body. We can't write about things that don't directly affect them." Abby explains.
"Students live at the trailer park." He wrote it down. "Reaction?"
"Would the article make people react negatively? Would it inspire violence or depression?" Trev told him.
"Seriously." He dropped the pen.
"It wouldn't matter anyway, this would come out in two weeks. We are not allowed to put out issues anytime we want like before. It has to be punctual." Tomoko hated that her newspaper was going to be a water down Blue and Gold.
"My reaction is depression." Fangs sat down in a chair.
Sweet Pea picked up filled-out forms in his girlfriend's handwriting. "Teacher of the year."
"I saw it on Gilmore Girls." She defends herself.
"Hey Toni, look this one is for your photography club." He hands the form to her.
"We're doing a spotlight column, I was going to see if I could do that club first. I was going to ask you for an interview if it got approved." Abby wasn't going to ask yet in case it got rejected. She didn't see why it would, but maybe a Serpent being in the club was enough reason to turn it down.
"I would be happy to do it." Toni nods. She thought it would be good for people to see her as more than a gang member.
"The dangers of peer pressure, classes that allow you to express yourself, these get worse and worse." Sweet Pea laughs as he flips through the forms.
"I don't have a lot to work with." She snatched them from his hands.
"I don't think it's bad to know which classes allow you to express yourself. I would like to take those classes." Fangs tried to make her feel better.
"Creative writing, Photography, any art class, there you go." Sweets listed.
"The History of the Word Virgin. That's a good one." Toni read over Abby's shoulder.
"Yeah, but that one probably won't be approved. Too sex-positive for a school newspaper." Sweet Pea ruined her best idea.
"I hate you, right now." Abby glares.
"As long as it's just a moment." He bops her nose.
"I got him." Fangs grab him from behind to hold him in place while Abby tickles him. Everyone else joined in making Sweet Pea scream laugh.
"I'm going to hate all of you forever." He shouted.
"Archie, watch it." She held the laptop close to her chest as she pushed herself against the wall to avoid him running down the stairs.
"Sorry, I gotta run some errands for Mr. Lodge." He ran out the door.
"I have never seen him eager to do chores before." She went to her room and shut the door. She put the laptop down on the desk. She opened it up to read over the transcript of the interviews she did with members of the photography club. She was doing an outline in her notebook to tie it all together when a generic ringtone filled the room. She picked it and stared at the screen before picking it up.
"Hello," She answered.
"I thought you weren't going to answer for a second." A low voice answered.
"What?" She was confused by the start of this conversation.
"The look on your face didn't seem like you wanted to talk to me." She turns to her window to see Chic standing in Polly's window.
"Why don't you facetime or come over if you want to talk face to face." She sat down on the window seat.
"Why when we have a unique situation that allows me to see you every day?" He enjoys watching her squirm.
"Can you stop joking about watching me, it's uncomfortable." She glares.
"I'm not joking, watching you is the most exciting thing around here." He sits on the window pane.
"That creepiest and saddest thing I ever heard." All she ever did was homework, surf the internet, or watching tv in here.
"So, your boyfriend doesn't like me." He stated.
"What makes you think that?" She asked.
"Well, whenever his motorcycle is parked in front of your house the curtain is closed. I can tell when you're with him because you don't text back as fast." He ditches everyone from his old life. The only contact he had on his phone besides his family was her. He found himself texting her a lot.
"After you catch someone watching you being intimate with your girlfriend, it puts you on edge around them." Sweet Pea had good reason to be cautious of Chic. He was reading their text messages and everything was innocent, but the clinginess that came with the constant texting was worrisome.
"Abby, what is your reason for being friends with me?" He asked what he had been wondering for a while.
"What?" She had never been asked that before.
"My reason for being friends with you is because I need more human contact than Alice and Betty. But, you have a group of friends and family. You have all the human contact you could want. So, why continue to talk to me? I can tell you're still uneasy around me." He almost admired how her instincts wouldn't let her relax no matter how he tried to manipulate her into feeling safe. She made sure they were never alone. She always had another friend there claiming it was for his benefit of meeting people but he knew better. Deep inside she knew what he was capable of. It was driving him crazy wondering what her reason would have to keep walking further into the fox's den.
"Because you're my neighbor. You can see into my window and unless I want to sweat all summer and spring I have to feel safe enough to leave the window open." It was the reason she kept texting him back. It was also of guilt that she was the only person he had besides Betty and Alice, something that he mentioned more than once.
"Don't want to feel like the devil is next door?" His smirk shows that he enjoyed the idea of someone fearing him.
Abby wondered if this friendship was easing her worry or making them worse. "Something like that." She rolled her eyes, playing it off like he was joking when she wasn't sure he was.
Abby was sitting on Sweet Pea's bed watching him get ready to go to the Whyte Wyrm to have a vote if they were going to kick Jughead out for Penny's legal help. "Are you still undecided on your vote?" He had been going back and forth on what he was going to do.
"I've grown to tolerate Jughead and even enjoy his presence on occasion. I do think he wants what is best for the Serpents. But, what we did was wrong. I feel bad that he is taking the heat for it, but he needs to learn to follow FP's orders. He always wants to go off and do his own thing. You have to agree with him or he makes you out to be a monster. That's not what being a Serpent is about. You do what's best for the group." It didn't matter which way he voted today, he was going to feel like crap about it.
"And Penny understands that better than Jughead?" She tilts her head, not understanding why she was the better member.
"No, she is not. She only comes around when you call her and she makes you hate having to call her, but it's not like we can afford another lawyer. More than just Serpents live here. These people have lied to the police for us and helped orphans like Fangs and me through the years. We owe it to them to find a way for them to keep their houses." He knew what was right for the community, but it hurt to have to betray Jughead.
She got up to hug him, which he returned instantly. "The position you guys are in sucks."
"Yeah, getting a vote isn't always great." He agrees.
"We got rid of Tall Boy." Fangs came through the door cheering, followed by Sweet Pea.
Abby and Hot Dog, who fell asleep on the couch waiting for them, got jolted awake. "What?" She questioned, seeing as that wasn't an option when they left.
Sweet Pea took a seat next to her while Fangs animatedly told the story. "We were about to start the vote when Jughead and Betty came bursting into the place saying, Stop the Vote. In Jughead's hands is the General's head." He pretends to be holding his head. "He says that it was in a fridge at the scrap yard."
"Who is he, Patrick Hockstetter? He realizes there is no Pennywise to make the town people ignore all the bad things, right?" She guessed that it was a good hiding place in theory.
"I don't remember there being a Patrick? No, wait there was one in the remake but I don't remember there being a fridge." Sweet Pea cocks his head.
"Read the book!" She was tired of them not getting her references because they only watch the movies.
"Back to my story." Fangs pointed at himself.
"Oh, so Tall Boy got kicked out, you guys no longer need Penny, and Jughead in the clear." She concluded.
"No." He put his hands on his hips.
"Okay, then what happened?" She didn't see where else the story could go.
"We did kick Tall Boy out and send Penny away. But you can't cut out the shocking part of finding out he was working for Mr. Lodge to try and take over the Serpent with Penny." He sighs.
"He tried to work with the Ghoulies, so it is not that surprising." She shrugs.
"Maybe this will shock you, Jughead is on probation." Fangs gave the next piece of information.
"You guys have probation? For how long?" She asked.
"Probation means that you have to prove that you're for the club to the King again. It'll be over when he can do that." Sweet Pea explains.
"So, he has to go through the trails again." She held onto Hot Dog.
"No, he just has to do it through club deeds. It's not hard. He has to go out of his way to do more things for the club than he normally did." With FP being his dad, he doubts Jughead would be on probation for long.
"I was excited to tell you the whole thing." Fangs throw himself down on the armchair, pouting.
"I'm sorry, Fangs. How about you pick the movie and dinner tonight?" She suggested.
"And you won't be on your phone?" He hates the phone buzzing every other minute.
"Chic hasn't texted me at all tonight…. That's strange." With the vote, she didn't even notice until now.
"Seems pleasant to me." Sweets wrap an arm around her.
"I'll order the tacos and get The Bronze from my room." Fangs grabbed his phone from his pocket as he went to his room.
"He just wants to see Sebastian Stan shirtless." He knew that was his best friend's celebrity crush.
"Don't we all?" She hummed.
"Look like I'm going to have to cover your eyes whenever he's on-screen." He put his hand over her eyes.
"Stop it, the movie isn't even on." She fought to get his hands off her. They wrestle around on the couch causing them to fall off. Hot Dog jumps on Sweet Pea's back to try and mount him.
"Fuck." He jumped up to push the dog off of him. Abby rolled around on the ground laughing.