Loner and a Writer |Jughead Jones|

Paybook |chapter 14|

Jughead led me to where Diltion was practicing with his scouts. "At ease Doiley," Jughead said, looking right at Diltion. "Evans and I are writing and artical for the Blue and Gold. Hoping you can help." "Dismissed," Doiley called to his scouts. "But stay close." All the scouts started to dismiss but one. It seemed kind of odd. "Cheryl and Archie said they both heard a gunshot the morning of July fourth," Jughead said. "But they don't know who fired it," I said.

"Sheriff Keller and his right hand man already asked me about this," he responded, looking right at me. Then back at Jughead. "And like I told them. My scouts and I, we didn't hear anything weird." I could see the scout that stuck around behind his shoulder. He looked a bit concerned. "Well did you see anything weird?" I asked. He thought before he spoke. Like he was thinking of some excuse. "A whistle wing crossbill. A long earned owl," he said. I could see Jughead rolling his eyes. "Oh and Cheryl sitting by the river soaking wet.

When he walked away, I looked at Jughead. "That scout is hiding something," I said gesturing over to the lone scout. "I've seen him at Pops after training. Will question him then," he said. We walked off and walked around two for a while. We were buying time for scout training to be over. When it was, we headed over to Pops. We saw the scout and his dad in a booth. When the dad left to pay the check, we made our move.

Jughead jumped over the booth and stole the kids ice cream. "What the hell man?" The scout asked. "I saw the way you looked at me. During grizzly training," I said. "Your hiding something," Jughead told the kid, with ice cream in his mouth. "It's scoutmaster Doily. He's lying," he said. "About what?" I asked. "The gunshot. It was him. He was teaching Gus how to shoot targets," he admitted. "Diltion Doily shot the gun on July fourth?" Jughead said. I was taken back by the scouts' confession.

"He's a hard core survivalist. He said if we don't protect ourselves no one will." Jughead nodded and we headed out of Pops. I phone buzzed and saw it was a text from Betty to meet her at the school. "Hey I have to go but..." I said, getting close to him. I grabbed my camera off his neck. "Thank you for holding on to this Jones." I started to take off. I heard him from the background. "I'll see you at the Mayor's sinding," he yelled.

I went to the school to see Betty, Veronica, Ethel, and Kevin. "I got your text what's up?" I asked. "There's a playbook," Kevin started. My heart sunk. "Do you know what a playbook is?" Veronica asked. "Yeah. Sadly I do," I said. We started walk down the hall to the locker room. "Football players behaving badly what else is new?" Veronica commented. "Steubenville Glen Ridge," Ethal replied. "The coaches son being the ringleader. I mean just how depraved is this town?"

"Color me impressed," I heard a voice call. We all turned around to see her wearing all black but her top and lips. "A b and e with B and v with two K. What would your holy roller mother say about this Betty?" "What are you doing here, Blossom?" I asked, getting right to the point. "And where did you get those thigh-high boots? They're amazing," Kevin said. I nudged him in his side. "Trev told Valire who told Josie who told Ginger who told Tina who told me," she explained. "And I thought I would help out."

"Help? Or derail our investigation?" Betty asked. "Get over yourself Betty," Cheryl demanded. "Hey guys. Get over here," Ethal called from the locker room. She was holding what I was guessing was the playbook. "Trev was right. They didn't even bother to hide it." "New girl? Is that what I'm reduced to? Nine points," Veronica said, the most recent line in the book. "Better than big girl seven point five," Ethal read, on the other page.

"Kathrine..." Kevin said, pointing to the line above Veronica's. "Cops daughter K... eight point five," I said. "Polly's in this book..." Betty said. That was the last thing I heard before everything started to muffle together. I snapped out of it. "I'll take a picture. Well shoe it to Weatherbee," I said, taking a picture with my camera. Everything started to go quiet. I walked over to Kevin. I told him I had to go to the sinding and that I had to leave.

When I got to the gym, where the party was heald, I went up to the cat walk. I saw Jughead kneeling down. "Hey Evans... are you okay? It seemed like you've been crying," he said. I kneeled down next to him. "I'll tell you about it later," I told him. He nodded and accepted my answer. We saw Archie coming up to the cat walk with us while the Pussycats where playing.

"Are you sure it's was worth sneaking out for some locally sourced Munster?" Jughead asked the boy. "I helped write that song man," he said. "Not bad," I said. "We'd love to stay but we got to shake down an evil adventure scout," Jughead said, referring to Diltion. "See ya Andrews," I said walking with Jughead.

"Hello Doily," I said, finding him in a stair way. "We've talked to one of your scouts. We known you fired the gun," Jughead told him. "Which makes you both a liar and a public menace," I added. "So what if I did? I was doing the adventure scouts a favor. Somebody has to teach them how to stand their ground. The way this town is going..." he tried to explain. "Save it for your stautment. Which you make to Sheriff Keller our to us. I suggest the latter. Blue and Gols offices. Tomorrow," Jughead demanded.

We started to walk back home . "So what happened with Betty?" He asked. I tried to explain, but I was too tired. Then he threw another question at me. "What's that pealing off your arm?" I looked at my forearm to see my latex was peeling off. We reached my house. "I'll tell you tomorrow morning Jones."