Riverdale's King- Jughead Jones

Her Majesty's Grand Entrance

As Veronica Lodge rolled the window of her black Sedan down, she gazed at the passing houses and small diner of Riverdale, her (hopefully temporary) new home.

She turned back to look at her mother, bent over in her seat. She was only inches away from her yet Veronica could have been on the other side of the planet and even then that distance would have seemed closer in comparison to the aloofness and cold shoulder she was being given. Her mothers wrists, once covered in Cartier watches and bracelets, David Yurman rings with diamonds sparkling as bright as their future. Now it lay bare, her fingers holding no rings, petite fingernails adorned with no high-class manicure, and delicate wrists showing off nothing but a smooth complexion.

Hermione Lodge had went from a rich socialite mother with a millionaire husband on one side and a future Stanford undergraduate on the other, to an exhausted independent single working mother, selling away all her valuables that were her to sell, in a matter of months. She had put on a brave face, Veronica had to admit, yet
she had been able to see through the chinks in her legal guardians armor. Soon she would have to sell her jewelry and expensive clothing as well, even her makeup and items she had collected while traveling overseas. Yes, Veronica was sure of it.

Until then, I'm going to relish in my last shred of royal appearance, she thought, sighing internally.

Pulling to a stop in front of a three-story house, the teenager wondered for the briefest moment what sort of characters she'd meet on her first day in Riverdale High.

•••••••
'Juggy!' Jughead looked up at Archie's fast approaching figure, irritated at the nickname a visiting cousin had conjured up years ago in his thens best friends presence and hadn't been able to shake off since.

'Keep it down.' Jughead commented as Archie sat down at the booth opposite of him, out of breath from running over to the diner. Archie waved a waitress over and ordered a milkshake before turning back to whatever had been troubling it.

'What have you heard?'

'For someone getting a free ride to uni, you are the opposite of descriptive. 'What have you heard', he asks me, a person who receives literally thousands of pieces of gossip and rumors from countless sources around this drama-filled town.'

'I mean- have the teachers caught on?'
'Ohh,' Jughead laid back in his seat and looked at Archie Andrews, sitting in his varsity jacket, twiddling his thumbs in anticipation.

'You mean you want to know if anyone's caught wind of you and the Groaning Grundy Gal?'

'Jughead.' Archie threatened.

'Calm down, I am not passing judgement on Professor Grundy or her taste in jocks.' Jughead turned to look out into the highway, cars cruising along in the quiet nightlife forever shrouding Riverdale.

'I haven't heard anything. No one's caught wind of it. Yet.'

'I need a favor from you.'

Jughead turned his head back to the redhead.

'If someone comes to you with this information, or you hear that someone's talking about it, I need you to tear them down. Destroy them. Rebuttal the entire thing. She can't have this traced back to her. It'll ruin her career.'

The waitress came back to their table with a strawberry milkshake in tow.

'I do not tear down people for hearing things or for creating their own opinions. I do not stifle freedom of speech. What I do stifle is drama. I will handle whoever comes to me that has information regarding your...' he paused for a moment before continuing,'educational interlude. I don't spread shit. I minimalist the damage. I don't believe anything until I all the fact are given to me. I am the best at confirmation, not bogus story-telling. Don't ever tell me what to do Arch. We were friends a while back, and let's not turn those memories bitter because of your actions.'

'I'm sorry; thank you.' He said after a beat, finishing his drink and putting down money on the table as well as a tip before awkwardly walking away from the table, sitting down next to his teammates on the other side of the diner, out of sight and earshot.

Jughead sighed.

'Every single person is a fool, insane, a failure, or a bad person to at least ten people.' He muttered as he turned his focus back to his laptop, although not before catching a glimpse of a raven-haired girl with onyx black orbs that looked like they held all the grievances of the world in them through a rolled out window of a black car.

Jughead felt his shoulder tense.

'Things just got more interesting.' He mused, typing away at his laptop with fresh new energy surging through him.