The summer flew by, and Riverdale was able to spend it in bliss. Abby along with her friends and family spend it fundraising and building. Somehow it never felt like work. They were getting the El Royale ready to be a community center. Their mother helped them make it a non-profit. They had to add a second bathroom. They did a remodel where they half the large locker room to make another room. It would be where kids who weren't interested in sports could feel comfortable hanging out. It was where tutoring, art, and other things could happen.
Abby was filling up the drawers with art supplies. Sweet Pea was sitting on a beanbag chair with Tessie, reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar to her. "Babe, take a break and read the next book." Sweets called her over.
"An Amelia Bedelia, my favorite." She took a seat on the beanbag next to them.
"I know you giggle through the whole story." Tessie sat beside her. She opens up to the first page to begin. While in the middle of the story she got blinded by a flash.
"Sorry, didn't realize the flash was on." Sweet apologies. "Tessie looks so cute, curling up and sleeping next to you." He took in Tessie's features. With her red hair, big brown eyes, and tan skin, sometimes he forgot that she wasn't their blood daughter.
"How long was she sleeping for?" She put the book down.
"Not that long. Do you want more kids?" He asks.
"Sure," She nods.
"How soon?" He was itching to grow a family with her.
"After college, at least a year after working in my chosen career." Ideally, she likes to wait for the right time.
"What if I can get us in a secure place? Would you think about having one sooner?" He had been thinking about trade schools since Greg mentioned them.
"You can't knock me up on purpose without putting a ring on it." She held up her ring finger.
"I can do that." He nods eagerly, making her eyes widen.
"The school supply drive at Pops went well." Nancy came in with the guys carrying boxes.
"We got more in the car," Dracula told them.
"What! No Ways!" She smiled.
"And you got extra help too." Toni came in with Cheryl.
"We heard what you were doing and we wanted to help. So, we donated fifty backpacks to fill up with the supplies." Cheryl told them.
"That's great." She hugged them. "We got a lot of work to do to get ready for the giveaway." She set up an assembly line so the bags would get filled quickly.
"What do you say?" Munroe prompted his little brother.
"Thank you." He took the backpack from Abby.
"You're Welcome, Malcolm." She smiles.
"This is Abby. You're going to see a lot of her. She's going to tutor you." He introduced her. The young boy gave her a small smile.
"Not to be corny, but we'll make learning fun." She knew he'd be reluctant to have someone not that much older than him trying to teach him.
"We'll see." He nods. Munroe pulled him along to meet Archie.
"We got a skeptic." Sweets watch the grumpy preteen follow his older brother.
"Wouldn't you be skeptical of some Northsider offering to help you?" She would have to prove herself.
"I'm still wondering if you're legit." He kissed her cheek. "Everything is going perfectly. It's nice to make a difference instead of just surviving."
"Yeah, but someone is missing." She watched everyone interacting with the kids.
"I feel it too. We don't know where the cult is." Like her, Fangs was always in the back of his mind.
"We're not trying to find him." She felt like they could be doing more.
"You heard Charlie. The FBI is on it. We would be putting ourselves at risk if we went after them. We have Tessie to think about. We agree that we'd think about her first when making decisions now." His priorities were his small family then the Serpents.
"Betty is on the case so we'll get him back soon. Hopefully with enough time for him to graduate with you." She was ready to help rehabilitate him back into society.
"If not, he can graduate with you." He knew she would enjoy that.
"Oh, something to think about…. No, I want him to do it on time." She got rid of the thought of sharing classes with Fangs.
He groaned when he looked back. "Tessie, is that a second milkshake?" She was drinking a strawberry one when she had a mint one earlier.
"She cut off, Pops," Abby told the man.
"Aw, well how about a pie? She did a lot of work running this drive." He smiles at the young girl. He enjoys seeing the next generation come through the door.
"If she has room after a real meal, she can have a pie." She didn't want to deal with a sick child the night before the first day of school.
"Senior year, one more year of this hell and we're out." Sweet Pea cheered as they went through the high school's doors.
"I'm a little nervous. I don't know what I'm going to do after this year." Nancy was filled with anxiety.
"The way I see it, I'm already having to do adult stuff: paying bills and raising a kid. As far as I'm concerned high school takes a big chunk of my day that could be used for something more beneficial." He put his hands in his pocket.
"Sweet Pea." Abby sighs.
"Matter what field you go into, school is a waste after learning to read, write, and do basic math. I am never going to need to know the inner workings of a frog." He argues.
"It's an opportunity to explore fields and see if you have an interest. Maybe some surgeries found an interest that way." She never thought education was a waste.
"I'm sure some serial killers did too." He teased.
"What do you want to do after high school, Sweets?" Nancy asked since he was ready for it to be over.
"I'm going to go all in with the Serpents and be a father." He put his arm around Abby.
"What about you, Greg?" She looks at the other seniors in the group.
"I'm going to a trade school. I'm good at wood shops, so maybe I'll be a carpenter." Greg, like Sweet Pea, wasn't that worried.
"Men." She sighs. "What about you, Abby?"
"I'm not too sure. After high school, I'll go to college, and get my associates. If I still don't have it figured out then I'll take a gap year to think about it." She thought of being a teacher or therapist, but she didn't have her heart set on anything yet.
That took some of the pressure off of Nancy's chest. "There are a few more years to figure it out."
"Hello, students. Instead of going to your homeroom today, we will be having an assembly. Meet in the gym." Doris Bell's voice went over the intercom.
The students piled into the gym. A man they had never seen before was standing in the middle. "Hello, Riverdale High. I'm your new principal, Mr. Honey." Whispers break out at the introduction. "I'm letting you know right now that I will not let mayhem run through here as Mr. Weatherbee did. This is a school and not a circus. I expect you to act like young adults, not animals. You work with me and I'll do everything I can to help you succeed. I understand that you guys have been living in no man's land, so I'm going to remind you of the rules so no one can pretend they didn't know." He took out a paper to go over the rules.
"Now this is what I imagined when I first came here." Sweet was surprised when he came to Riverdale High. It was in better shape but the authority figures didn't seem to have that much more of a hold than the Southside teachers did.
"None of his rules are that bad." She thought they were pretty normal.
"At least they are applying to everyone, not just a certain group of people." Toni was still annoyed with Weatherbee for targeting the Serpents when they first came.
"As student body president, I made him a welcome basket that we can give him after school, TiTi." She grabbed her girlfriend's hand.
"Good luck, I don't think he likes ass kissers." Kraken didn't let the holes Cheryl was staring into his head get to him.
The Serpents were sitting on the bleachers, watching Dracula try out for the football team. "Oh shit, Munroe is a beast." Greg watches him outrun Reggie, making him slam into the ground.
"Hey, get over here. Now!" Mr. Mantle yelled from his red convertible.
"What the fuck is wrong with him?" Sweets watch him tug his son around by his face guard before slapping his helmet.
"If he is doing that in public, what does he do in private?" Nancy watches the grown man having a tantrum over football practice.
"Let's not jump to extremes, guys," Kraken warns them.
"Now that you mention it, over the years Reggie has had a lot of unexplained bruises and injuries. It was blamed on whatever sport he was playing." Abby thought of the boy that was always around Archie despite their arguing.
"That's not unexplained." Greg pointed out.
"They would appear between seasons. He would say they were from when the guys were roughhousing. Archie would be confused because he didn't remember him getting hit there but we shrugged it off. I remember the night my dad came home after taking Reggie to the hospital when he broke his arm. I overheard my parents talking about Reggie having bruises along the side of his body that shouldn't have been harmed. They are talking about Mr. Mantle's temper." She sneaks down the stairs to listen to her dad tell Mary the news on Reggie's condition. "Reggie's arrogance and overall bad attitude stop us from thinking about the possibility of him being a victim." She watches him during practice closely.
Abby sat at a table in the extra room with Tessie who was doing her homework. Nancy and Tomoko were sitting on bean bags. "Don't get too depressed." Tomoko looks at her friend's sad face.
"I thought that a few would come. We gave away all the backpacks." She put her head on her hands.
"Anytime you're giving something away for free people will show up." Nancy didn't expect fifty kids to show up but she thought some would come.
"I'm offering free tutoring." She pouts. Sweet Pea came in with Sue and the rest of the kids who lived in the Serpent camp.
"Hey, kids." Nancy got up. "We're going to do our homework first then we'll do some art and craft."
"Or you can come back and learn some moves." Sweet Pea pointed back at the door.
"Hey, mind cheering her up." Tomoko nods to Abby.
"Sure… What up, Babe?" He sat by her.
"I was hoping to reach more than just the camp." She sighs.
"Just camp?" He raised an eyebrow.
"That's not what I meant. Munroe and his family don't live under Serpent protection. A Lot of kids don't. I wanted to give them a safe place." She wanted them to know that someone cared.
"It might take some time. As a kid who grew up in a tough neighborhood. There's always a charity run by upper-class people that say they want to help you out. They do what they can. They feed, tutor, and give up their old things. But, they go back to their regular lives after they feel good about themselves. They leave us in poverty to go back to struggling. You grow bitter about it." He explains what they were up against.
"How do I get them to see this place is open for them?" She couldn't prove herself to them if they never showed up.
"Just camp kids go to school with them." He teases making her shove him. "We show up for them, they talk about it and the kids who need a safe place will come."
"That's true. We still have time to turn this around." She got up to help the kids with their homework.
Abby was walking to her locker when she saw Reggie. Her eyes widened at his black eye. "Reggie, are you okay?"
"This." He laughs while pointing to the eye. "Please, it's nothing. It's all in the name of the game." He tosses a football up in the air to catch it.
"But, you had a helmet on yesterday and didn't get hit in the head." She made sure to watch him in case any bruises showed up.
"When you tackle guys, sometimes the side of my head takes a hit. Even with the helmet on, pressure is pressure." He shrugged.
"Um…. if you're ever in danger you know you can stay at our house, right?" She knew he wouldn't admit it but she had to offer.
"What the hell are you talking about? Why would I be in danger? Have you seen these guns? I am the danger." He flexed.
"You never know if anything comes up. This is Riverdale." She wasn't going to take it back.
"I don't know what Archie told you. But, I'm fine. Just because my dad showed his love differently than yours did, doesn't mean he's a bad person." He leaned in to whisper.
"Then he needs to work on his issues because it's not okay to show love like that." She looks at his bruised eye.
"I'm not a lost kid you can shepherd into the boxing club, which from what I heard you can't do that either. So, maybe you Andrews need to focus on yourself instead of bothering others." He slammed his locker shut to walk off.
Cheryl's party was celebrating the first week of school is done. Cross Her by Ed Sheeran was playing. Sweets whisper the lyrics to Abby while they dance by the pool. Cheryl stood in front of the DJ booth while he took a break. "My esteemed guests, may I have your attention, please? Students of Riverdale, we have a new enemy in our midst. This killjoy is our new principal, Mr. Honey." The crowd boos at his name. "However, never fear, I, as your student body president, will make sure that he is beheaded by homecoming or my name isn't Cheryl Marjorie Blossom." The crowd cheers for that. The DJ started the song where it left off.
"Chug, chug, chug." The jock encourages Reggie to do the longest keg stand.
"He is sloppy drunk." They watch him stumble around. He shouted about going to the bathroom while he walked towards the house.
"So, what do you think he's going to pee in?" She didn't see him making it to the bathroom.
"Probably in a plant or closet." Sweet guesses.
"If I knew people discovering his dad's abuse would cause this I would have kept my mouth shut." She felt responsible.
"Hey, don't do that to yourself! If you ask me, it's good that more people are finding out about it. He doesn't deserve to get away with beating his wife and kid." Sweets knew silence was the worst in this situation. He pulled her towards the kegs. "Your mom watching Tessie, we can cut loose. We deserve it after the first week."
"Why? We didn't get any new kids to come. The first week of school is the easiest." She took a solo cup filled with beer from him.
"Being a Debbie Downer is a party foul. You know what the punishment is…. chug, chug, chug." He got people around them to chant.
"Okay, okay, I'm chugging." She gave in to peer pressure.
The police light shines with the siren going off. "I wonder how much time I'm going to get for tainting the Northside princess." Sweet teased.
FP stepped out of the cruiser. "Parties over. Go home. Move." He shouted, making the teens that didn't know him scatter. "Jughead, you better not be drinking whatever in that cup." His son dumped his cup.
"Sheriff Jones, someone gets this guy a beer." Reggie stumbled over.
"Do you want to see the inside of the drunk tank tonight, Mantle?" He looks at the drunk teen.
"I'll take him home, Mr. Jones." Archie helped him walk off.
"Let's get out of here." He pulled her to his bike to take her home.
Abby was walking out of her last class. "Hey." Kevin walks alongside her.
"Hello." She wonders what he wanted.
"I've been going to therapy. I wanted to say sorry to everyone that I hurt by being in the cult. I owe you an apology." He was on an apology tour, first his family, then Betty, and now Abby.
She stopped at that. "What are you sorry for? Are you sorry that you pulled Fangs into the cult? Are you sorry for turning him against me when I had his best intentions in my heart, unlike you, who was just recruiting? You thought he was beneath you before you got into the cult. What you should be sorry for is that he is still with those crazy people…" She stopped when she started to sob.
"Abby." His heart softens as he watches her cry. "I'm sorry for everything. I was brainwashed by the farm. I thought at the time that I was doing something great for Fangs. But, I know now that I wasn't. I'm so sorry that he is still with them." He looked around to make sure no one was around. "I'm working with Betty and the FBI to shut them down. I've met with Fangs. He's trying to get information out of me. He's doing fine. He's still very much brainwashed but he looks physically fine."
"I know you probably can't tell me much else but are you close to bringing him back?" She wonders.
"I think so." He nods.
"Thank you." She hugged him.
"Hey." Reggie walks towards them. "Everything okay?" He stares at her tears.
"Yeah, Fangs talk." She took a step away from Kevin to wipe away her face.
"So, I kind of need to talk to Abby." He looks at Kevin.
"Got it." He went to meet up with Betty.
"I wanted to say sorry for being mean to you when you were showing me concern." He didn't mean to lash out.
"I get it. You must have been panicking with people finding out a secret that you've been keeping under wraps for so long. You love your dad, so it must be complicated." She didn't think he said anything too bad.
"While I still think you Andrews stick your noses in everyone's business, you have the best intentions so it's not too bad of a habit. It worked out for me. I had to beat up his car but he finally listened to me." He felt great after wrecking it.
"As long as there are no more bruises." She is happy that he seems to believe his dad would stop hitting him.
"I can't say that won't happen but not from the old man." He laughed.