Riverdale One-Shots

Strong

Hi! So, I've been re-writing this one-shot for about a week now, and I'm still not satisfied with it, but I wanted to post something for you guys, so here you go.

No one requested this, but I got the idea and needed to write a cute little shot of it.

Enjoy, xx.

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Jughead first notices her when he's five.

His eyes dart to the little blonde girl that walks through the door of his new kindergarten classroom, one that is actually placed in an elementary school, and not a small daycare center that he had attended before.

She isn't holding the man's hand that is standing right next to her, who Jughead assumes to be her father. Not like every other kid that walks in the classroom, hand in hand with at least one of his or her parents, sometimes two, even occasionally siblings' that come along as well. She doesn't cling to his arm like some but doesn't run to the toys either.

She just stands next to the man while he greets the teacher.

Jughead notices her eyes moving over every object in the room, as if expecting them to come alive. She looks at everything: the pencils on the low tables, the stack of papers on the teacher's desk... And only then does she move her eyes to the tall, kind lady that is supposed to be their teacher for the following year.

"It's nice to meet you Elizabeth," she says, a bright smile—the same one she had greeted Jughead with earlier—on her face.

The girl, Elizabeth, doesn't smile. She just nods, indicating she has heard her.

Jughead's attention is stolen by Archie, who, the moment he enters the classroom, runs to him to demonstrate the new toy car he has gotten the previous day. Jughead smiles and is about to comment on its awesome blue color when Archie gets called by his dad and the small redheaded boy drags his feet to his father and their new teacher.

Jughead looks after him and notices the girl again.

"What time should I pick her up?"

"Anytime between one and three would be just fine."

"Alright."

The dark-haired boy is left confused when the man only says goodbye to the teacher and doesn't hug or kiss or even give a simple wave to his daughter. And he feels sad when the blonde girl lowers her head after the man has disappeared outside.

Jughead watches how she stands there even when Archie has said hi to Miss Freya and already come back to him to play together. The little boy waves to Fred Andrews when he leaves and sees the teacher squatting down to talk to the blonde girl that is still standing in the same spot.

He doesn't hear them too well anymore, since Archie has made new friends already who are now all talking around him, but he does see the way the girl shakes her head and notices the frown on their teacher's forehead.

"He's my foster dad."

Later that day, Jughead asks his daddy what the word foster means. FP tells him that a foster dad is someone who lives with a child to take care of them while his or her own parents are unable to.

Jughead doesn't like thinking that the little girl who didn't make any friends on her first day and sat all alone at lunch couldn't live with her parents either. And he says as much to his dad while sitting on his shoulders, on his way to the park.

"Then be her friend, Jug."

He makes it his mission do to exactly that.

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