Loner and a Writer |Jughead Jones|

Girl Power |chapter 28|

Jughead had called me to inform me that he was staying with Archie and not with his father. I was glad he made the right decision. The next morning the whole group met in the student lounge to talk about what was currently going on with the whole Polly and Jason scandal.

"Pollys convinced herself that no one wanted her baby," Betty explained. "Besides of course the child-snatching Blossoms monsters. No offense Cheryl," Kevin tried to say nicely. "None taken," she said, quickly looking at him up and down. "So your mom and dad want Polly but not the baby, and the Blossoms want the baby and not Polly," Jughead summed it up. "That's a true Gordian knot."

"It's an impossible situation," Betty said. "Betty, come on. An impossible situation is being invited to both the Vanity Flair Oscar party and Elton John's Oscar party on the same night. Which happened to me one year, I know," Veronica said. "Yeah, a perfectly normal complicated situation," I scoffed.

"This is merely an annoying situation. But luckily, I've been percolating on an idea, hellishly simple I'm its conception. What if my mom and I were to host a baby shower?" "Count me in," Cheryl smiled. "You want Polly to feel loved and supported right?" Veronica asked Betty. "Yeah but ideally by her own parents," she pointed out. "Okay so baby steps girl. Get Polly and your parents in the same room in a public setting where they can't fight and voila let the healing begin."

"Am I expected to come to this thing? I don't really know Polly," I said. "Yes you are!" Veronica said, excitedly. "You're going to help us decorate and take pictures." "So I have to go?" Jughead interjected. "Yeah, so do you. Your Kathrine's official guy best friend who may or may not be platonic," she said.

Then out of nowhere Betty's mother walks in more pissed than ever. "Elizabeth Cooper," she announced. "Mom?" Betty said.

"I need you and you," she said, pointing to Betty and Veronica. "Right now!" When Betty's mom was hauling them away, Veronica looked back at me with a confused face while I just shrugged. I could feel a glare coming from Kevin. When I looked at him, he had a huge smirk and then looked at Jughead back to me.

The next morning I was woken by a phone call from Archie. "What the hell do you want Andrews?" I groaned. "Hey Kathrine," he said, clearly wanting something. "Andrews, you have five seconds before I'm hanging up to tell me what you want," I demanded. "We need your help," Jughead told me. The sound of his voice made me really wake up.

"What for?" "My dad's company is in trouble," Archie said. "And we were hoping for the next few weeks, you could help out at the construction site," Jughead explained. "Yeah of course just tell me what times and I'll be there," I replied. "Okay, can you start in like an hour?" Archie asked. I quickly looked at the time to see it was five a.m. "Yeah sure why not, I'm already awake," I agreed.

I hung out and I started to get ready. I put on a yellow flanel, a white crop top that looked like a bra, and blue jean shorts. I headed over to Archie dad's construction site and saw some guys from the football team there and Jughead. "Are you ready to get to work?" Jughead smiles, putting a yellow hard hat on my head. "Of course I am," I told him. "I have to pay back Mr. Andrews so how for bailing me out of jail."

We started to take tools out of the back of Kevin dad's truck to start working. We headed towards the trailer as Mr. Andrews and a lady came out. "What is this?" He asked. "Your new crew reporting for duty," Archie exclaimed. "I appreciate it, I do, but isn't there something more important you need to be doing? Like going to school, playing football, cheerleading? " He asked.

"We can work after practice and on weekends until you find a new crew to help keep things on schedule. Come on dad. I worked for you the whole summer. And these guys.." Archie said, getting cut off. "And Evans," Jughead said, putting his arm around me. "We're bruised studs Mr. Andrews. At least some of us are," Moose commented, looking at Jughead and I. Mr. Andrews had a quick talk with the lady before turning to us.

"All right. Here we go," he said, leading us to a site. For the rest of the day, everyone piled rocks into a wheelbarrow that Archie was hauling back and forth. It seemed like Jughead and him were having some good laughs on their trips. Every time I picked up a rock to put into the pile, if one of the football guys were near me, they would cat-call me while looking at my ass. Of course I just ignored them and kept on what I was doing.

When I saw Kevin hauling a huge rock by himself, I went over to help him. "Need some help Keller?" I joked, grabbing the other side of the boulder. "Thanks Karthind," he said, greeting me with a smile. "So are you a Jughead, a thing now?" I scoffed. "I have no idea what you're talking about," I blushed, turning away. "Well if he ever hurts you..." he trailed off. "Hey no! None of that stuff. I can take care of myself," I reminded him, putting the rock on a pile.

"Okay but I'm still going to be there for you," he laughed. "Even if he doesn't break your heart." "Keller, I don't need a man to help me," I said. "But you should have friends," he reminded me. "Okay that's fair. But you will always be the first person to come and tell," I reassured him.

It started to get a bit hot while working so I took off my flanel halfway through and set it to the side. When it was night, we all headed into the trailer to return all of our stuff. "Hey guys you were a life-saver today," Mr. Andrews greeted us. "I appreciate it. Hard hats go in the bin and there's sodas in the fridge."

"Crap! Hey guys I forgot my phone," Moose announced, putting his hat on the table. "Hold up, let me come with you. I felt my flanel," I said, catching up with him.