So many more reviews this time! Thank you all who took the time to leave a comment, it made me super excited about updating! I planned on doing it yesterday, but my internet went out :( I would have done it earlier, but I was working on grad school applications...scary, right? Just in time for the Halloween season...
But anyway, a huge thanks to my reviewers: Guest, Guest, Boris Yeltsin, whastmypassword, Guest43, orangiethefox, and Guest.
Guest: Thanks!
Guest: Thank you so much!
whatsmypassword: Sweet Pea is my personal fav ;) Still, when this story was in its early stages, I was just going to have it all be Betty's POV. However, i figured we needed a person who knew about the magic community to explain things, so the readers weren't learning everything at the same stage of Betty. I thought about having it be Jughead, but that would mean he'd have to have already changed, and that would take major re-writing to the events and tbh I wanted to be able to start from the canon of season 1. But, I liked the idea of a Serpent being a wolf. I needed someone who would interact with Betty, thus, baby serpent. After that, since I'm a smidge biased, the choice was easy :)
And man oh man it's going to diverge. Right now it won't seem like it, since we're hardly an episode in, but I'm writing around episode 5 and there is a whole bunch of things that are VERY different and will continue to be so, since I changed this it changes that and so on and so on.
Also, hating FP is a totally valid response :) He's for sure not perfect. He, like the rest of the characters, will do thing sometimes that infuriate you. If you always hate him, though, at least that's something other than just feeling 'meh' about the story lol. As for your ideal plan, I can't say much without spoiling the future!
Guest43: True that!
Guest: Glad I could scratch that itch in a sense :)
Song for the chapter is 'Lost in the Shadows' from the Lost Boys movie, which is an old Vampire movie
The rest of the summer lazed by for most of the wolves. They tried to take as much of the summer weather as they could take before they'd be forced back into school, forced to do homework and learn about things that, when they really questioned it, hardly mattered in the general span of things. Toni and Fangs started to hang around with Sweet Pea more and slowly, Fangs got the hang of his shifting, even if he still sometimes turned into a wolf when that sad Sarah McLaughlin commercial came on. It led, once, to an interesting night at his place where he poofed in the middle of his living room and Sweet Pea had to talk him back down while Toni did damage control by asking his dad any question she could think of about what it was like to work at a gas station so he didn't enter the living room and Fangs just blubbered in his wolf form about all the sad puppies.
It was a night Sweet Pea looks back on and chuckles about.
Apart from that, Toni and Fang's summers have been rather quiet. The entire town has been quiet, which is exactly how it's always been. Riverdale is the quintessential little American town with just too much charm and not enough Walmarts or Targets. Nothing exciting ever happens, discounting the very magical presence. Jason Blossom's disappearance was the first semi interesting human driven thing to happen in a very, very long time, at least since The Great Magic Outburst of '53, in which no magical intervention could have fixed the befuzzlement of the humans when a vat of a witch's potion mysteriously made it into everyone's coffee and the town went crazy for awhile. That's just a memory to a lot, or a tall tale. Point being, Riverdale is boring as fuck most of the time and the most exciting thing, usually, is a rare bird being seen by a river.
Toni, Fangs, and the rest of the Junior Wolf Pack have been able to ignore the whispers and worries about Jason Blossom. The older wolves, and Sweet Pea, have not been so lucky. Because of this, the rest of the summer drags by for Sweet Pea in agony as he just waits for the other shoe to drop.
Day before school starts up again and it still has not arrived.
He's been trying to do as FP asked, to keep his ears ready for information, but he's not sure what he should be listening for. He tries to keep it swerved in the direction of FP too, because FP hasn't said anything more about the night of the 4th, but FP's mind is a steel trap, more inpeternatble than usual.
The day before the start of Sweet Pea and Toni's junior year and Fang's sophomore, Sweet Pea is hanging out around the Wyrm when he most certainly should be in bed. He thinks school is a utter waste of time. Anything he wants to learn he can pretty much just google now, and sitting through 8 hours a day in a hot and stuffy room with so many sights and smells just about drives his senses crazy. He's warned Fangs about it already, since he finds it unbearable most times, and he's been to school as a wolf for years at this point.
To his credit, he's only morphed once at school without meaning too. Luckily, at Southside High, there's two or three Serpents around, enough to get a kid out in a pickle if it seems like there's going to be a furry little problem. Still, though.
"You should lay it off, kid," Byrdie refuses to give him another beer, "It's gunna rot yer brain."
"Oh piss off," Sweet Pea grumbles, wishing he could just drop out already. He could be so much more useful to the Pack if he didn't have damn things to do like homework or pretend like the biggest problem in his life was if he was going to college or not. Hah, what a joke.
"You'd better scatter before FP returns," Byrdie raised a single eyebrow, "You know how he feels about a good education." It was one of the few things Sweet Pea outright disagreed with FP on, but FP always said Sweet Pea was too young to understand it.
"Speak 'o the devil," Mustang coughed from the other side of the bar as the doors swung open and FP's leather-clad figure stepped into the dusty lights.
Immediately, a stench vile and cloying attacked Sweet Pea's senses. He coughed violently. The other wolves in the room covered their mouths, but began to shout at once at FP.
"God, you been rollin' in a deer carcass that's been dead for a year, boss?" Sweet Pea asked, breathing through his mouth.
FP was trying to talk over the crowd, to answer what seemed like 50 questions at once. Tall Boy whipped around, as though he hadn't noticed the youngest wolf sitting in the corner in all that commotion. He cocked his head.
"Karan? What the hell are you doing here boy? It's 2 am, school's at 8." Tall Boy said, narrowing his eyes. Sweet Pea bared his teeth at Tall Boy. If there was one thing he hated more than anything in the world, it was being referred to by his last name, a name that only ever reminded him that his mother was dead and he never had a father to take that name of.
"Easy," Byrdie said, patting Sweet Pea's hand, "The boy's going now, right?"
Sweet Pea bristled at the beta for a second longer before backing down. He started patting his pockets to make sure his keys, wallet, and phone where all still on him. He decided to slip out before FP gave him an alpha's order to leave. Firstly; he hated giving FP a reason to think that he needed to be bossed around, and second, getting an Alpha's order just left a bad taste in Sweet Pea's mouth, like drinking orange juice after bruising your teeth.
As he slid off the barstool, FP seemed to finally look at him.
"If you want to say, you can," was what he said, nudging Tall Boy back a step. Sweet Pea didn't need to be asked or offered twice. He sat right back up.
By this point, FP had managed to calm the room and was holding up a firm hand of silence. Sweet Pea leaned forward on bated breath to hear what had everyone so upset, and why the hell did FP and Tall Boy smell like a graveyard with really shitty grave diggers?
"The tip we got wasn't fake; it's true." FP began. He didn't go out of his way to explain to Sweet Pea what was going on, because everyone else seemed to know, and Sweet Pea wasn't upset because he wanted to be able to sit at these meetings. Plus, he figured enough context clues would present itself eventually.
"It's been years since we last saw their kind! Why now?" A wolf in the back called.
"Hard to say," FP rubbed his chin, "They're at the Pembrooke. As far as I saw, it's only two. Hiram's not with them. Still in jail, last I heard."
"Should we go officially welcome them to the neighborhood?" Mustang asked with a vicious smile. Sweet Pea goto the feeling that whoever this was, the serpents weren't happy.
"Back. Welcome them back," Byrdie bit out, "Hermione was born here, you know. This is her home."
"Was her home, 'till she died." Mustang argued back.
"Hey, hey," FP snapped, "We're going to let it go. There's a girl with her, and let's not scar her for the rest of her live. Plus, as long as they're just living here, peaceful like we are, I'm sure we can all get along."
Apparently, it looked like few others believed that.
"She's one of them, I'm sure! They always change their kids young." Mustang was still going on.
"Not this young," FP spoke in a low voice, "I don't care what their parents were like before. I think a lot of us can say that we are not who our parents were, right? Let's give them the benefit of the doubt."
"And wait for them to kill one of us? Or kill a human?" Fords scoffed.
"No, we're more prepared than that. We keep aware of the situation, and we give them a single chance. But, let's not go making enemies right away, right?"
Sweet Pea was still trying to figure all this out, although a couple very helpful hints had been given.
FP sighed, "It's late, everyone. They're not going to go out on a blood spree tonight, or ever maybe, so let's just all go to sleep."
There was a disgruntled group grumble, but everyone began gathering their things and heading for the door.
"I can't stand the mosquitos that are this size, FP," Mustang said as he left, cracking his fingers apart a quarter of an inch, "So I sure as hell can't stand them bloodsuckers when they walk and talk pretending to be human."
"I know," FP said, "Trust me, I do. But can't you trust me too?"
Thank you, Mustang, Sweet Pea thought, the final connection finally clicking as he recalled the first conversation he'd had with FP all those years ago.
"You're talking about vampires, right? The Lodges?" He asked as he was counting his money for lunch tomorrow at the bar. Only Byrdie, Tall Boy, and FP remained.
A look of pride flashed on FP's face and he nodded to confirm it.
"Vampires, to us, smell like rotting corpses. Well, that's sort of what they are. Reanimated dead people, frankly. Different than zombies, which don't have any sentience, but magically re-animated. Humans don't smell any difference. It's pretty bad first go around, huh?"
"Yeah, I'd say take a shower, but at this point I think you need to be rinsed off with acid," Sweet Pea gagged. FP chuckled, giving a 'perhaps' sort of look.
"So, I guess it goes without saying that you don't speak a word of this to any of the others, okay?" FP said.
"What if they come across the young vampire?" Sweet Pea asked, "And wonder about the smell?"
"She's going to be going to Riverdale High, I'm sure. Likely won't be a problem they'll ever run into, if she is changed, that is." FP dismissed it, "Let me give you a ride back home, little wolf."
"No, I'm fine." Sweet Pea shook his head, "Think I'm gunna run. Lots to think about." Sweet Pea was already taking off his jacket and flexing his shoulders, "We're still okay, aren't we? This isn't going to turn ugly?" He asked.
FP paused, "I knew Hermione before she turned, a long time ago. If she still wants now what she wanted then, we won't have an issue." He said simply.
"And what did she want?"
"What we want too," FP said, "To grow up with our children in a safe place, for simplicity. Sometimes, when you have magic, all you'd give is to be normal. Hermione is a mother. I have to think that hasn't changed it." FP said, a feeling or an urge Sweet Pea didn't get but nodded all the same.
"Stay ready, right boss, just in case?" Sweet Pea asked just before he left.
"It's all going to be fine, but yes." FP said.
Oh boy, how wrong he was going to be.
XXxxXX
Betty Cooper hears all about Jason's disappearance.
It's not like she was living under a rock that summer, she'd been living in D.C.
She heard it first from Kevin. Kevin, who of course knew from his father. Kevin, who always had good gossip. Kevin, the only person from Riverdale who she kept in contact with regularly while she was away.
Archie texted belatedly later, but he was so bad at texting her that she didn't find it strange.
Jughead mentioned it, but only in passing, that it had spurred the idea for a new novel.
The only person who hadn't outright mentioned it was Polly, and she seemed rather odd about the whole thing. She acted like it was a surprise to her (and, as someone currently living in Riverdale, Betty very much doubted this) and seemed almost...nonchalant? When Betty asked hadn't she known him, since they were the same age and all and had a couple classes, Polly had replied "I guess. I don't know. I don't care, Betty." And that was the absolute last thing Polly had said about it. With the fuss the rest of the town was making, it seemed out of the ordinary, but Betty had other things to do than wonder about why her sister was so cold to a kid that, as far as Betty knew, had only ever been kind to either of them...unlike the demon of his sister.
And then, it's like the texts came out of the woodwork. People that Betty hardly ever talked to in high school were messaging her about this, about the drama surrounding it. By a week after it, so much had gone on in Betty's life that it for sure felt like old news.
But, she had to realize, for everyone back home it was not. It was still very hot news, the only news, to be frank.
Betty had to be a little proud about this, that she was away from her small town in a place where so many other things were happening that a seventeen-year-old's disappearance and likely death was just a blip on her radar. People seemed jealous when she talked about what she'd been doing, when they inventively gave her the polite 'how's your summer been' after some back and forth about the absent Blossom twin. Betty sort of liked them being jealous.
A huge party of Betty did not want to return to Riverdale. She wanted to find a way to stay here in D.C. for the rest of her high school, to be honest. There wasn't a lot going for her at home.
Her friends were few; Kevin, as her closest friend. Archie, her former best friend, but he was just so busy nowadays. Jughead, she could have a conversation with if they found themselves alone. Her sister, but Polly had been pulling away of late, not texting back as cheerfully and seeming distant when they Skyped.
And, that completed Betty's list. She had more people she did not want to see than people she did...the whole of Riverdale high to be honest. Her mother, and even her father most of the time. Just, everyone.
Her freshman year of high school was the point that Betty hit the lowest in her life she'd ever been. Being ridiculed and cut from the cheerleading tryouts before she even got a chance to try, spending the rest of the year eating alone, perpetually being picked last in gym class...suffice to say that when she got accepted into her internship, Betty didn't think twice about leaving.
She knew this internship had been the best thing in her life so far. It made her a stronger, more assertive person. It made her believe in her own worth, something she'd so been lacking before.
Betty felt like a different person. She felt like something had been awakened.
She wasn't sure if it was because of the internship, however. She'd only noticed this feeling low in her stomach, in her bones, in her breath in the last couple weeks. She'd worked hard to get to the slimmer Betty she'd been in her childhood, running or working out everyday and watching what she ate more carefully, and she had achieved it. But, that still wasn't it. She felt like a different Betty, like she might not even be Betty anymore. Slightly overweight Betty had still been her, right?
She had more energy, she craved better and more healthy food, she didn't have as dark of urges; all these things she could attribute to her lifestyle change.
There were other things that she couldn't quite put into words that she couldn't imagine came from hitting the gym, which made Betty a little nervous. As it was, it felt like something inside of her was bubbling, was festering, just waiting to be released.
As someone who had spent long hours in the darkest parts of her mind, this scared Betty. She was worried who would come out. What would come out.
D.C. had been so good to her. She was terrified she'd lose all her momentum back in Riverdale. Alas, she hadn't been able to convince her mother why she should stay, so all too soon Betty Cooper was loading a bus to take her back to the rainy, dull bane of Betty's existence thus so far.
She only had two things she was looking forward to back home; resuming her movie nights with Kevin and seeing Archie again.
Archie Andrews, the boy Betty had been friends with for years, but at this point knew that she was terribly, terribly in love with.
It was a recent development. Around the start of their freshman year, those feelings had begun to grow. As he'd been a rock to her unpopularness while he became a class favorite, it only grew. And now, after being away all summer, with his texts (albeit as few and far in between as they were), not a single one didn't fail to make her smile. He was so genuine about everything, the 'boy next door' that Betty never imagined falling for, because it was just such a cliche. Something about the fact that Betty was sure that Archie had no idea how she felt just made him that much more irresistible.
Somewhere, although Betty didn't know if she'd ever be brave enough to set it forth, she had a plan.
What absolutely threw a wrench in her plans was seeing the six-pack abs that Archie had developed over the summer.
"It's fine, you're both not how," Kevin had assured her while she had a mild panic attack, "You've both come out as butterflies. Like, you're smoking hot, Betts. If you were a dude or if I was straight, I'd do you."
"You're just saying that, Kev." Betty shoved him as she flopped onto her bed.
"Well, I am, but it's true." He said, "Get that boy. Get him for both of us and then tell me all the nasty details."
"You're awful." Betty laughed between her fingers. It died a little in her throat, however. Kevin noticed and Betty just forced a smile, saying the bus ride had tired her out. She'd waited until the last possible second to come home, as it was. In reality, even being here and being so happy with Kevin and swooning over Archie did not budge that feeling that was creeping around inside her, that feeling of a soda being shaken or a kernel of popcorn seconds before popping out. It was unsettling. It was frustrating.
And, this development did not help matters.
Her plan was half-baked at best. It was more of a recurring dream, more than anything. It was going to Pop's with him, sharing a milkshake with him, and then diving across the table and kissing him like neither of them had ever kissed anyone. Of course, the Archie she imagined all summer was the lanky, perpetually-mussed hair and a little awkward Archie she'd known all her life. Somehow, adding this...sexy Archie into that daydream made it better and worse all at the same time.
Betty was fairly confident in the person she'd become, in terms of how she looked. By the end of the summer, she'd had more than a few guys interested in her. She figured that if she looked like this, maybe Archie would want to be with someone like her. It was shallow, yeah, but he was a guy so Betty figured it was what he needed, the last push to get them together.
And, it seemed to be going okay, and Betty had just about mustered the courage to tell Archie how she felt, lay it all on the table, when she walked in.
From the first moment Betty met Veronica, her instincts were going wild.
She'd always trusted her instincts, but even if Archie wasn't completely distracted, this was a different sort of instinct, a deeper voice that Betty had never heard before.
It wasn't telling her to distrust Veronica, but it was telling Betty to be extremely wary. It was telling her to never turn her back on this girl, for some reason. It was telling her that Veronica was undeniable different, different from Betty, and different sill from Archie...even if Betty couldn't put her finger on why.
Betty was beginning to dislike these new found 'instincts' because all they were doing were giving her a stomachache.
XXxxXX
Back at home, Betty ignored her mother's questions about everything and went straight for the bathroom. Coming home had been not fun; among other things, she'd gotten the lecture about how Polly had been 'forever sullied' by that Blossom boy, the one that was missing, which was peculiar because of how Polly had treated it. Despite it all, it was all about Polly as usual, and nothing about Betty, even when this would be a moment they would favor Betty. Or, maybe look at Betty and realize she'd never done anything wrong, not that she liked to throw Polly under the bus.
In all, it was not the homecoming Betty wanted.
She stood in the shower for a long time, forehead pressed against the tile as the water steamed over her spine. The feeling inside of her had paused, but when she focused on it, it was still there, like a thought on the tip of her tongue.
She thought of how Archie looked right through her tonight and for a second, something stirred in Betty like a tidal wave, something rose and rose until she couldn't breathe and then-
"You almost done?" Polly pounded on the door, "I need to brush my teeth."
Betty muttered under her breath before plastering a fake smile. Even if Polly couldn't see it, she might be able to hear it, "Yep, yep! Lemme just grab my towel."
She shut the knob off, ringing her hair out onto the bathmat so that when her sister stepped, it would be damp, just a little spiteful. She leaned her palm on the wall to shake her hair a bit.
If she was focusing more on her hand, she would have noticed the tendril of smoke and the sizzle from where she evaporated water from the wall.
XXxxXX
The next morning was no better. Betty awoke still feeling...off. She felt compressed, which only heightened when her mother came up before she'd hardly got finished getting ready, and from the look on her face, it was clear it wasn't a warm and soft goodbye for school. 'Warm and soft' were two things her mother was not, and her father too, when she thought about it.
No, this was 'Lecture Mom' face, something that Betty wasn't in the mood for.
She talked about being focused, even thought Betty still had three years of high school to figure all that out. She talked about how all boys were awful and wanted the same thing, a tune that wasn't unfamiliar. She talked about all the things Betty knew, but really didn't want to hear this morning.
A part of Betty wanted to tell her mother about the strange churning in her bones, the way it whooshed through her body. She wanted her mother to fix things, because that's what Alice Cooper did best. She would take a lecture if it meant that her mother could explain what was going on.
In all the puberty books Betty had read, and she had ready many in preparation for a young women's body to come, not a single one had ever mentioned the feeling like your bones were being snapped and remanded all the time, the feeling of fire that started at one's fingertips and burned through your veins, the feeling of something had pressing on your stomach like invisible hands shoving you down. It wasn't the darkness; Betty knew the suffocation of the darkness inside of her well. This was something new. This was something unexplained.
However, her mother didn't allow Betty to get much more than a couple weak words in edgewise, and she was gone back down to the kitchen before Betty could ask, her worries exhaling silently as her mother left. She'd handed off Betty's prescription, which within the business of packing up her internship room and returning home, Betty hadn't refilled. She hadn't used it in the last month at all, actually.
Betty knew this was bad. It had been an oversight on her part. She hadn't purposely meant to skip it.
Yet, as she screwed open the lid, a voice stopped her.
It was a voice that caused her to close the bottle tightly without dispensing a single pill, and just throw the whole thing in a drawer in her dresser. A voice that told her not to take it.
She'd had her own devil's advocate wonder out loud before what would befall her if she stopped. That voice wasn't unusual.
This voice? It wasn't Betty's own. It was someone else's voice, something else's voice inside her head. And, while usually Betty would be wary for trusting unknown voices, this one quelled the feeling of being burned alive as soon as it appeared. It told Betty that she shouldn't take it, not today, but maybe tomorrow.
It was a voice that, despite all logic and knowledge, Betty trusted.
She left for school without taking it, knowing instinctively she'd made the right choice.
XXxxXX
School was boring as hell.
Sweet Pea considered all the different ways he could just walk out of the classroom and leave. He considered everything from leaving silently all the way up to flipping the bird and making a huge ruckus about it. Some of the other Serpents in his grade seemed to be more okay with school starting, or just as zoned as usual, but that's because no one knew about the meeting last night.
Because, of course, he couldn't tell them. Upper circle only.
He figured this meant he was part of the upper circle, and this brought him great glee and great frustration. Frustration, because he was clearly wasting his time here in school, when something was obviously brewing. Something that was setting FP on edge. Something that made Tall Boy look over his shoulder once or twice. Something that all the other older wolves seemed to see coming, but Sweet Pea was too young to have experienced it.
It was honorable, to want to keep the young wolves as innocent as possible. It was something Sweet Pea agreed with. He'd seen more magical blood shed over a shitty trade or a stupid turf disagreement than all of the other young wolves combined. He'd tasted bad magic on his tongue and known the stench of things not going how it was supposed to go. He'd seen it all, and he was not a green summer wolf.
So why was he being treated as one?
At lunch, he checked in on Fangs to see how he was doing, his first day back. He handed off some herbs for the boy to chew on, if the scents and the smells and the cloying heat of the school rooms were getting to be too much. It would make him sick if he had it constantly, but it would take the edge off if Fangs worried he'd pop out as a wolf anytime soon. It, in practice, made one feel human again.
Sweet Pea avoided taking it unless completely necessary. After years of living with heightened senses, to return to not being able to hear what was going on in the classroom across the hall or smell the flowers outside of the school near the entrance from his bio class would drive him crazy. It would feel like he was sick, times a thousand, and he'd rather be too focused on all of the senses than not focused enough.
Toni assured that he was doing fine, all things considered. He'd had the whole summer to get used to things, which some of the other young wolves had not. Darkon had changed for the first time mid-October and had been able to get a doctor's note for a week off, but after that was right back in the room. He was in Sweet Pea's grade, and around that time they'd been dissecting cats for science and the whiff of blood had nearly set him off. Sweet Pea had seen the yellow reflected in his eyes, the curl of his lip as fangs started to poke out, and the way his fingers gripped the table. He'd made the executive decision to drop a semi-noxious beaker on the ground, causing the whole wing to need to be evacuated. Sweet Pea had gotten a detention for that, but it was well worth it.
After Sweet Pea had done his usual rounds, he'd scarfed down his food and headed to the field. He'd heard the whispers in his head last night as he'd run home, and he wanted to know what was going on today. Maybe he could help? He wanted to help.
In the woods by the soccer fields, Sweet Pea slouched behind the generator and shifted.
The barrage of thoughts that hit him were scrambled and clearly concerned. There was something about Jason Blossom, the missing kid, as well as discussions about vampires and old treaties and deals that had been made years before Sweet Pea was born. It took a couple moments, but soon someone noticed the presence of his thoughts.
What the hell? Aren't you in school, Sweet Pea? It was Mustang.
I think I should leave. I think I can be of more help out there ,not here, reading 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.
Kid, turn back. Turn back and get your little furry tail right back to school.
Shut up, Tall Boy. You know I'm more help out there.
Little Wolf, FP sounded exasperated, We also need you at school, watching over the others. They have no idea what could be coming for them, and we need you there.
But-
Turn back. When I need something from you, I'll call you.
But-
Now.
That was an Alpha's directive at the end, snarled with such a force that Sweet Pea stumbled back into human form. Sweet Pea stared at the forest around him with his mouth agape for a second, since FP rarely used his Alpha status on him. It was a degrading, dirty feeling to have to be ordered, and such a strong one to force him out of his wolf skin. He felt his anger bristle along his spine, and before he knew it there was the familiar feeling of his bones popping out of place to turn. However, he couldn't quite make the transition.
While he usually was more careful about holding his emotions, he was furious and let his body half change; fangs coming out, eyes turning gold, hands turning into dangerous paws. He didn't know how, but somehow FP had locked him out of changing, which truly showed Sweet Pea that things were not all okay. In uncontrollable anger, Sweet Pea mauled a couple trees and killed a rabbit before easing himself down to total human form. He stood, panting, trying to regain his senses.
"Fuck," He muttered, looking at his arm. Somehow, he'd sliced his own skin, and hadn't felt it at the time. At the moment, his arm looked like he'd gotten out of the wrong side of a tussle with a bear or a yeti, his arm covered in blood and marred with three large and ugly claw marks. He'd hurt himself before, but only as a young wolf. He'd gotten careful about where his fangs and claws were, and this felt like a rookie mistake.
Cursing, he picked up his undershirt from the leafy ground and wrapped his arm with it tightly, before sliding back on his flannel and his jacket over it. He was too embarrassed to go to the teacher that would understand where it came from, and no way in hell could he show this to just a normal human nurse, since they'd freak. He usually had super-speed healing, but wounds from a wolf (yourself or otherwise) were immune to it, which meant he'd be suffering this like any normal human.
Ah-fucking-making.
His day just got better and better.
XXxxXX
Betty giving Veronica the tour today was nothing short of hell. She was a nice, polite girl, so she suffered it silently, trying to treat Veronica like she was just any other transfer student. Like she wasn't the daughter of a very bad, very dangerous man. Like she wasn't the girl who Archie had been drooling over last night. Like she wasn't someone who was setting off all the alarm bells in Betty's head, and that voice that had appeared this morning was telling Betty to stay the heck away from.
But she couldn't just leave her off with someone else. There was only one other Student Leader who gave the welcome tours and they were tragically absent the first day of school, probably off getting high, because he was a senior and it was his prerogative to slide as much as he could this year.
And thus, Betty plastered a smile, guiding her through the halls and trying to pretend like all her strange references made 100% sense to her.
It was all going, well not 'okay', but fine until Archie appeared in their view again. Thank god Kevin was there as a buffer, otherwise who knows what Betty would have done to her?
Answer, nothing. Because Betty wasn't going to get sent to detention for catfighting over something stupid, and because she was better than that. But, it didn't mean that Betty didn't think about doing things to Veronica out of sheer jealousy.
"We're just friends," Betty said, not wanting to proclaim to everyone her intentions to get with Archie to the whole of the school.
"In that case, mind putting in a word? I've tried every flavor of boy but orange-," Veronica asked, completely unaware and looking Archie up and down with a sinfulness that Betty couldn't believe she was displaying in public.
Betty reached out for her arm, grabbing the edge of her purse, a sharp retort on her tongue. She didn't like how she was referring to boys as 'flavors', as though it was something to be collected, or something whenever it fit her fancy. Archie was a forever type of boy, Betty wanted to say, not just a quick snack when you were out of Rocky Road.
"Actually, to clarify, Betty and Archie aren't dating, but they are endgame." Kevin stepped in for her.
When Veronica turned to Betty, there was no competition in her eyes, which surprised Betty. There was just a thoughtful look of surprise, and then an understanding that made Betty want to curl up in a hole. She gave a smile that was so genuine that Betty wanted to hate it, but couldn't help but like Veronica just a little bit in this moment.
"Then you should ask him to the semi-formal then." She encouraged, nodding. Betty had expected a fight for him, but Veronica seemed willing to drop it all for Betty. Betty's anger left in a puff.
She fumbled to explain that there wouldn't be a semi-formal, but Kevin beat her to it. Belatedly, Betty realized a hand was still on Veronica's vintage purse and released it.
It was only as they were walking to the assembly that Betty heard Veronica make a noise of distress in the back of her throat and show Betty and Kevin with horror the burnt edge of her handbag, right where Betty's fingers had clutched it.
So, some notes on this chapter!
1) We don't actually know anything about Sweet Pea's name other than his nickname. Whenever I write a story, I use 'Jordan' which is the name of the actor, because I just can't see him as anything else. As for last names, in my other Sweet Pea story where I mention it, I use 'Peabody' and make him the cousin of Penny. I have different plans for his heritage here...but I can't say much more! I can't remember why I chose Karan, but I like it. *shrug*
2) Polly. When I was writing this, I couldn't remember if she had already left for the Sisters, so I wrote her in. And then when I realized she had, I was too lazy to change it. As it is, I'm taking her path in a slightly, ever so, different direction anyway.
So, next chapter is continuing on with ep1 and Betty's witch powers will fully manifest soon! Also, I've chosen to move up the timeline for not only when Bughead starts getting together, but other couples like Choni as well, so hopefully ya'll like that ;)
Please leave a review! It would make grad school applications a little bit more enjoyable.