"Ready." Abby holds a pair of glasses in her hand. She picked them up after school to take them to the trailer park.
"Yes," Tessie screams.
"Alright, here you go." She put the glasses on her.
"Oh, you're prettier than I imagine." She smiled up at Abby before looking around. "Hot Dog." She ran to cuddle with the sheepdog.
"Sweet Pea? Fangs? Toni? Cheryl? Ms. Shapely?" She ran around the room hugging everyone.
"I got everyone right." She cheered.
"I am the only pink blob." Toni let Tessie play with her hair.
"Now that you have glasses, you can go to school." Ms. Shapely had her register in Southside Elementary.
"I don't want to leave." Tessie had been scared to leave the trailer park. It took Fangs, Sweet Pea, and a few more Serpents to make her feel safe enough to go to the optometrist. The whole time, she refuses to let go of Abby's hand.
"You have to. Don't want you to learn how to read, write, and do math." Cheryl tries to encourage her.
"Fangs and Abby can read to me." The two had been taking turns reading her bedtime stories.
"Sue is going to school. She is not going to want to be friends with a dummy who can't read." Sweet tried a different approach that made everyone glare at him.
"If Sue is going to learn then I have to." She didn't want her best friend to leave her behind.
"I bet you can learn faster than her too." He smirks, happy that it worked.
"Stop, that is her friend, not her rival." She scolds him.
"Hey, whatever gets her to go to school. Our kid isn't going to be left behind." Abby blushed at him saying our kid.
"She is mine too." Fangs remind them.
"You are included in our." Sweet Pea wasn't leaving him out.
"As long as you remember that." He wanted a say too.
"How about we picked out an outfit from the clothes that Auntie Cheryl and I got for you." Toni walks over to the dresser that is up against the wall. The living room was also Tessie's room. They took out one of the armchairs to put a toddler's bed. For now, it would work since she was a child who didn't care about privacy.
"Oh yes, first impressions are important." Cheryl grabs Tessie to take her over.
"I know it's only been a week but it's hard to imagine life before her." Sweet Pea watched the little girl looking between the two dresses that Cheryl was holding up. She never had to choose an outfit before, she didn't want to do it wrong.
"That's the magic of kids." Ms. Shapely smiled. Tessie jumped around when Cheryl praised her for choosing the red dress.
"I don't want to be here." Tessie looked around the old building. The upkeep was much better than the high school, but you could still tell it had never been upgraded.
"You'll get to spend the whole day with Sue." Abby kneels to be on her level.
"Why can't I go to school with you?" She asks.
"Because you have to learn how to read and write before you go to high school." She reasoned.
"Going with us is not an option, but we finish school at the same time. So I'll come to get you after. We can go to Pops and get a milkshake while Abby's working." Sweet told her.
"Okay." She nods.
"Tessie." Sue waved from the classroom.
"I'm coming, Bye." She hugged them before running into the class.
"Why is everyone singing?" Sweet Pea sneers at their off-tone peers passing by.
"They're probably practicing for the auditions for Carrie, the musical." Abby, whose locker was under his, waiting for him to grab his stuff, so she could get hers.
"So lame, I don't know why Fangs is interested in that crap." He huffs.
"Is someone jealous that Fangs is doing something without him?" She teases.
"I'm not jealous." He slammed his locker shut and moved to the side. Abby opens her to grab her math textbook. "Aren't you annoyed? He is the one that insisted we take in Tessie and now he is not here to help. He missed dropping her off on her first day of school."
"Do you want to find another home for her?" Abby was wondering how much of a stable home three teens could give to a child.
"No." He said it sternly and with no hesitation. "Why do you?" He looks at his girlfriend's guilty face.
"The selfish part of me wants to keep her. I've grown attached to her. I know we're better than what she had, but I can't help but worry I'm not going to be enough. With school, work, and life I don't know if I'll have time for her. The time that she needs. I can't help but think she is better off with people who have their shit together. We're teens, we don't even know what having our shit together would look like." Tears were building in her eyes.
Sweet Pea grabs her face to make her look at him, instead of her locker. "You're thinking like a Northsider."
"What are you talking about?" She wasn't in the mood for his North/Southside talk.
"I know in the North it's every man for himself. But, in the South, we stick together. We understand the importance of tribal living. It's not just the three of us doing this by ourselves. We got Ms. Shapely who put her under her insurance. We got FP putting her under Serpent protection. We have a whole trailer park of neighbors willing to pick up the slack if we need them to. Who will put us in our place if we're doing something wrong?" He wasn't scared because he didn't feel like the weight was all on his shoulders.
"I want to do right by her, not what is easiest for me." She didn't know what move to make.
"Nothing about this is easy, but we'll get through it together." He gave his word.
Cheryl was sitting on a bench with Abby. "I'm telling you Abs, if Broadway gets a hand on that movie Jughead is making, they're going to beg me to join them."
Kevin sat down next to her. "Cheryl, someone's been sending me letters saying they're the black hood, wanting me to recast Carrie. At first, I thought it was a prank but now I'm not sure." He showed them a letter.
"This is your last warning to replace Cheryl. Next time, the sandbag won't miss." Abby read the letter made from magazine letters. "What is this about a sandbag? I thought you said rehearsals were going smoothly." She looked over at her friend.
"She almost got hit by a sandbag during one of her numbers," Kevin told her. "Cheryl, it's a matter of your safety. I have to recast the role of Carrie."
"I will not succumb to thespian terrorism and allow myself to be ousted from this production! After the fires I've walked through, Kevin, the world needs to see me up on that stage. A Dark Phoenix reborn in the spotlight…" Cheryl needs this role more than anyone else.
"Well, they'll have to wait, Cheryl." Penelope Blossom walks out of the office.
"Mother." She sneers.
"Even in a town as twisted as Riverdale, students require parental approval to partake in certain extracurricular activities. As I reminded Principal Weatherbee when I told him you didn't have my approval to do the musical and never will." Her smile shows that she enjoys taking something from Cheryl.
"So what? You just feast on broken dreams now, is that it?" She shoved Kevin back in his seat when he tried to leave.
"Playing a murderous telekinetic teen who kills her mother? Please! This matricidal revenge fantasy... Never gonna happen. That's final." She mocks her before leaving. Cheryl watches her with tears in her eyes. Kevin felt bad that she had to give up the role, which was ironic since he was annoyed when she first demanded it.
Abby hugged her. "Screw the musical, no offense Kevin." He put his hands up to show that he didn't take any. He knew she was trying to cheer up her best friend. "You only wanted it to prove that you weren't shaking by what happened at that horrible place, but you can do that by shining every day."
"You can't say screw the musical then make a reference to one of its numbers." Kevin snorted, thinking she was talking about You Shine, a song between Betty and Archie's characters.
"What are you talking about?" She tilts her head.
"She was referencing to something my brother told me." Cheryl smiled.
"Oh," He nods, feeling embarrassed.
"Hey," Betty sat down next to Tessie at the counter that Abby was behind.
"Hey, what flavor of milkshake do you want?" She asks.
"Chocolate? But, I wanted to ask you for something that wasn't on the menu." Betty leans on the counter.
"What?" She was wary of what the blonde could want. With Betty, it could be something simple like doing make-up for the musical or something dangerous like catching a killer.
"Could you invite Chic to the play? It would mean a lot to my mom and me." She asks.
"I thought you were happy he got kicked out?" She knew that Betty had wanted her brother gone.
"I don't know him living with us, but my mom deserves a relationship with her son." She reasoned.
"I'll invite him. I can't guarantee he'll be there." She gave her best offer.
"When has he not come when you asked him to?" Betty smiled, feeling like it was a guarantee.
"I don't like that wording." She went into the kitchen to make the milkshake. Betty thought about her word choice then cringe when she realized how it could be taken.
"Who are you?" Tessie spoke up.
"Oh, I'm Betty. Where are your parents?" She asks.
"I don't have those. I have an Abby, a Sweet Pea, and a Fangs." She told her.
"Oh, you're Tessie. I heard a lot about you." Betty smiled. Tessie explains the whole story of being rescued from the Sister of Quiet Mercy and living with the Serpents.
"Tessie." Abby came out at the end of the story. "What did I tell you? You can't tell people that. That was one of the agreements we had to make to keep you." She put down the milkshake.
"But, she said she already knew." She whines.
"So people around could have overheard… Now go back to tracing your letters." She pointed at the child's homework. She pouted as she did what she was told.
"You were right." Abby looked up to see her brother in her doorway.
"What?" She was shocked.
"I've been horrible to you… to dad. When I think about how I've been breaking his heart over and over again, every time I throw the morals and values he taught me out the window, it makes me feel like I'm garage." He walks into the room.
"It's the same toxic cycle with you, Archie. You do something wrong, you apologize and for a while, you're great until you do something horrible again." She sighs. "I need more than an apology, I need to see a change in behavior. Tell me this, are you still going to be with the Lodge."
"Just for work. He is my boss. But, dad is where my loyalty lies." He promised.
"We'll see. I hope for dad's heart you're right." She knew her dad would always take Archie back in, no matter how many times he betrayed him.
"What are you doing?" He looks down at the box of old toys.
"I'm taking you to the kids at the trailer. Don't worry, it's not any of yours." As mad as she was at him, she wouldn't take his sentimental memories from him.
"I'll look through mine later to see what you can give to them. They need it more than me." He nods.
"I gotta go. I'll see you at the play." She was going to the trailer to help get Tessie ready for the sleepover before they go to the play.
"Where are you going? How come I have to spend the night at Sue's?" Tessie asked.
"Because we're going to see a play that Fang helped make," Abby told her.
"What's a play?" She tilts her head.
"It's like a movie but in person." Sweet Pea explains.
"I want to come." She smiled.
"You can't, it's scary." She shook her head.
"Why would Fang make something scary when he knows I can't watch scary movies?" She whines.
"He didn't get to choose. He tried to get them to do one that you could see but the mean Northsiders wouldn't let him." Sweet Pea bent down whispers to her.
"Oh, damn Northsiders." She copes his phrase along with the angry pout.
"Sweet Pea, I told you to watch what you say around her." Abby glares.
"The sooner she learns there's a difference between us the better. It's either I tell her or life tells her. I don't want life to tell her." He crossed his arms over his chest.
She took a big sigh. "Look, this is gonna be a fun night for you. It's your first sleepover."
"What's exciting about a sleepover?" She and Sue played until dinner anyways, she didn't see the big deal.
"At sleepovers, the fun doesn't end until you fall asleep. You get to paint each other's nails, tell stories, and eat junk food while watching tv." She went on.
"We don't know if Sue's parents are going to allow any of that." Sweet Pea didn't want Tessie's hope to be crushed if there was no junk food or nail polish.
"It's a night of best friends, it's gonna be fun no matter what." She assured her.
"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow?" She nods.
"Yeah, tomorrow morning." Sweet Pea would be there to get her.
"Okay, let's go." She took her backpack with a change of clothes and walked with them out the door.
"Why are you saving a seat?" Sweet Pea looked at the purse Abby put in the empty seat next to her. He looked over at Tomoko and Trev, who shrugged, not knowing who it could be for either.
"Chic said he was coming." She told him.
"Oh god, that creep is back." He groans. "Why did you invite him?" He didn't need this guy worshipping the ground his naive girlfriend walks on.
"Betty asked me too." She whispers. "After Fangs told us about Alice having that freak out about being alone in rehearsals, how could I say no?"
"Fine, but he keeps his distance. We don't need any more of his slimy friends around." He knew better than to fully trust him.
"Alright." She rolled her eyes at his concerns.
"Hey, I thought you said Betty wanted me here." Chic took the seat next to her.
"She asked me to invite you." She felt like she was going to be saying that a few times tonight.
"I went backstage to wish her luck and she was being weird." He was annoyed with the way Betty went back and forth with her feelings towards him.
"She wants you here for Alice." She figured that would explain it.
"How did she get a part in a school play?" He asked.
"Kevin wanted age-appropriate casting," Tomoko told him.
"Interesting." He leaned back in his seat as the play started.
It went along smoothly until Alice's number Evening Praying. "Father Almighty, she's only a child. But the woman is waking inside her. She will be lost if her passion runs wild. So I can't let her stumble and fall. Maybe I do things that I can't explain. But my feelings for her never change. You are still my precious one. Can you forgive what I've done? All right, Carrietta, it's time to come out of your closet." The backdrop lifted to show the next scene.
"What the fuck?" Sweet Pea yelled. Midge was positioned in the cross, being held up against the wall with knives. Written in blood around her was I am back from the dead. All those who escaped me before will die, BH.
"Thank god, Tessie isn't here." Abby grabs her chest.
"Oh, my God! Somebody should help her. For God's sake, help her!" Cheryl yelled.
Alice turned around to let out a scream making everyone get up to rush to the door. It created a stampede. "We need to get out of here." Chic grabs Abby's arm to pull her out.
"No, put your legs up. We can't trust these idiots to not push you down and run over you." Sweet Pea was much stronger than Chic so he was able to pull Abby from his grasp. Abby, Trev, and Tomoko did as Sweet Pea advised while Chic ran out with the crowd. The guys had to kneel on the chairs since their legs were longer but they found themselves safe.
When the place was empty except for the cast and family members, they put their legs down. "Good idea." Trev nods to him.
"Yeah…. Let's get Fangs and get the hell out of here." Sweets stood up. They did that before going home. Not that anyone got to sleep that night.