Ghost Town • Riverdale

Five

It was Monday morning and the gang was back in school. The friends, now closer than they had ever been, gathered around each other in the biology lab laughing and talking about whatever came to their minds. Three of them were utterly clueless about what was going on, simply going with the flow of things and waiting for class to start. Poppy on the other hand continues to fiddle with pen and pick at her fingernails nervously. Archie was about to come clean to Principal Weatherbee about what he heard on July Fourth. The gunshot. She was worried about him, about any repercussions he might suffer for keeping the truth in for so long. He had lied. Archie had lied about everything, he had lied about no knowing what happened on the fourth of July, and even though he was going to tell the truth, he was still lying.

He told her that technically he was not lying, he just was not going to tell them the whole truth. A simple white lie was not going to hurt anybody. But that was what Archie Andrews thought. He was naive to think the dark secrets that he kept would not catch up to him, Poppy had witnessed it happening far too often. Secrets were always revealed in the end.

She sighed loudly which earned her a nudge from Jughead. He stared at her for a while, trying to get a message across without talking. She assumed he was telling her not to be so obvious, god knows she was terrible at keeping secrets, if someone were to ask her what was wrong she would have just burst and told them the truth. Luckily, no one else was paying much attention to the two friends as they continued their silent argument. The Biology teacher walked into the room frantically, a minute late. "We'll be reviewing these systems of human biology," He pointed to the blackboard with slightly faded words, "Starting with-" He stopped when he heard the door open.

Principal Weatherbee, along with one of the cops, stood at the door. No one dares to make a sound. Everyone's minds were racing, had they caught the killer? Was it Cheryl Blossom like most of them had suspected all along?

Poppy almost dropped her pen. Her mind immediately went to Archie, he was not here, had they decided he was guilty? Or perhaps they were here to take the rest of them in for questioning because they decided that Archie Andrews was now a suspect. Poppy gulped, watching the two authoritative figures walk into the room, their footsteps so loud they seemed to echo throughout the entire school. It was all they could hear.

Cheryl Blossom stood up hesitantly, her whole body shaking as she struggled to push herself off the small black stool. She looked at the Principal fearfully, "You're here for me aren't you? Because of the autopsy?"

Principal Weatherbee sighed, "Cheryl, we don't need to do this in front of your classmates."

"It's alright Principal Weatherbee, they'll find out soon enough."

She stuck her hands out.

"Now, that won't be necessary." The cop said.

Poppy gaped at the scene. Even though she and Cheryl were not particularly close, hell they were not even friends, but she never actually though the devilish red headed girl had actually killed her brother. She was joking. Cheryl loved her brother more than anything, more than anyone, she would never do anything to hurt him. She did not have the heart or the guts to kill him. It was impossible. There was no way it could be her. Veronica seemed to be thinking the same thing. She stood up quickly and grabbed Cheryl's shoulder, "Wait Cheryl. Find out what?"

The world seemed to stop as everyone ached to hear the Blossom girl's answer. The murder of Jason Blossom was the most interesting thing that had ever happened in the town, and if Cheryl was really his killer, it just made everything better. Poppy was practically falling off the edge of her seat as she leaned forward.