[Thunder]~[Jughead Jones]

The River's Edge: Part 3

After the Assembly, Archie and I walked together in the halls.

"Well that was..." I held in a breath trying to figure out what to say about the Blossom girl's speech before being cut off by Archie.

"Yeah" he agrees. "Hey listen I gotta go talk to Miss Grundy. She's the music teacher here" he informs me being as I was still new and didn't quite know everyone yet.

"Oh" I say realizing what he's getting at. "Okay, great well I'll see you at lunch then" I say.

"See you Nat".

°°°°°

By now I was outside going to lunch. And somehow, I found myself walking to the courtyard, next to Veronica. Not that I was complaining mind you. Conversation with Veronica Lodge was very pleasant and stimulating. We talked about our old lives in New York and Los Angeles.

Anyone looking at the two us, from a stereotypical point of view that is, might find it surprising that someone who comes from a wealthy background as well as dresses very chic and speaks in a very skillful, cultured manner like Veronica Lodge and some girl from out of town who so far has been fairly quite and I suppose is pretty enough, would even look each other in the eye let alone engage in walking and talking to each other.

As we we're continuing our conversation, I could tell that Veronica was still exasperated from being 'The Blue Jasmine of Riverdale High' to use her words. But she was also genuinely trying to adjust to a somewhat different kind of life here in Riverdale. I knew it

"So before I forget to ask, how's your day been going Natalie? It has be better than mine" Veronica asks kindly, despite the annoyance hidden in the back of her voice.

"Well, when I woke up this morning I actually got this feeling that my day would be interesting..." I pause for a second. "So far so I haven't been let down" I honestly answer before nudging my shoulder to her offering a kind smile earning one in in return from her.

"Well if we're getting personal here, I'm actually glad we've met" she says giving me her kindest smile.

"Really?" I ask.

"Of course"

"Considering both of us are the new girls in town, your are literally the only person I've been able to relate to about my situation the most. Plus you and Betty have been the nicest to me since I've been here" she admitted graciously.

Eventually, we found a table where Archie and our new friends were sitting. As we got close, I began to recognize music playing from Archie's computer, undoubtedly, it was one of his songs. I smiled to myself at the memories playing in my head of me and Archie in his room recording one of his songs together onto his computer.

Archie knew how much I loved music and loved to sing when we were kids, so when he told me over a milkshake at Pop's that over the summer he'd been working on some songs and asked if I would do a little duet with him. And since I was still deeply depressed and recovering from my recent sorrows, naturally, I said okay.

Later on that day when we got home, Archie pulled out his guitar and we sang together one of Archie's beautifully written songs called 'I got you'.

I did end up feeling a lot better like Archie had hoped for. In fact that day was ended up, at least for me, being of those little moments of calmness and peace during my young life that I wouldn't want to forget. Because god knows I'd need to hold on to those kind of memories especially now after...

"Can we join?" Veronica's voice brought me back to reality. "Yeah". Betty and Archie made room for me to sit between the two of them while Veronica sat down on the other side next to Kevin. "What are we doing?" She asked adjusting herself on the seat.