Jellybean Jones

Chapter one: Jellybean Jones

THIS IS SET THREE YEARS IN THE FUTURE, JELLYBEAN IS 13 AND FP HAS A PROPER HOUSE.
'Mum, come on, come on!' I practically dragged her to the car. 'We've got to go, I can't wait any longer!' Five years I was finally seeing the other half of my small family. My mum left my dad when I was eight and I went with my mum and Jughead stayed home with dad. The excitement was raging inside me, threatening to ooze out of my ears and into a puddle on the floor.
'Okay. Yes. Tomorrow? Okay, I guess I can do that.' My mum spoke into the Bluetooth earpiece that never left her ear. She turned to me.
'Sweetie, I have a conference tomorrow here so I'm going to meet you in Riverdale on Tuesday okay?' I nodded and got into the taxi that held our small suitcases.
'Same place please sir.' I leaned to the driver and he nodded. I plugged my headphones into my ears and the sound of Josh Dun's drums and Tyler's singing filled my head.
***
I must have dozed off, because before I knew it, I was being gently shaken awake by the taxi driver. I paid him with the money my mum had pressed I to my hand before I left and got my suitcases from the boot.
My parents had agreed to meet at the diner and I was already late, I ran inside and scanned the booths for my brothers signature grin and my dads soft face. I saw the top of my brothers hat poking out of the booth, but instead of my dad, there was a girl beside him. I ran up to him and hugged him from behind. He recoiled in surprise, when he saw it was me, he stood up and burst into tears. We embraced for an eternity, then he stood back and seemed to scan me for changes. The girl who was sitting beside him coughed and he turned and immediately wiped his eyes.
'Um. Jay, this is Betty, she's my um...'
'It's okay Juggie, I'm not blind, I know.' I stuck my hand out and she shook it gently.
'Yeah, I'm Betty.' She smiled so warmly, if my heart was made of marshmallows, they would be roasted.
'I'm Jellybean, our parents were very, original, when it came to names.' I gestured to Jughead and then to myself. 'So the few people I know call me Jay.' Betty nodded and I suddenly remembered who she was.
'Hey, you're Archie's friends right?'
She laughed. 'Yeah.'
'Oh, Jay, dad couldn't come today, as you can see because he was working but we'll see him later.' Jughead butted in.
We spent the next hour chatting and catching up on the past five years.
***
'Jay?' Jughead turned to me from his bed, I was on a blowup mattress in his room. Our dad had recently bought a small apartment and Jughead and I were sharing a room.
'I didn't want to bring this up in front of betty but, where's mum?' He looked so worried.
'She had a conference meeting tomorrow so she said she'll meet us on Tuesday.' My face must have looked doubtful, because his face fell.
'She's not coming is she.' He muttered. I shook my head and let the tears fall. He came over to the mattress and gave me a hug.
'She's just going to come up with an excuse to stay and that'll be it.' I sobbed. We both just sat there, not sure who was comforting who.
***
'Jay, Jay, Jay!' Jughead shook me awake.
'Come on! Your school is next to mine, I'll drop you off on my way. GET DRESSED!' He dragged me out of bed.
'Okay, okay, I'm coming.' I made my way groggily to the bathroom and brushed my teeth with about as much energy as anyone can have on a Monday morning.
When we arrived at Jugheads school, he met up with Archie, Betty, Kevin and a new girl I didn't recognise.
'OMG! Jay! It's been so long!' Kevin hugged me too tightly. Archie smiled and looked at me as if I had just grown a second head and was sprouting German literature from it.
'You've grown so much Jay.' He hesitated before he hugged me.
'Says you mister six pack!' I pushed him lightly in his rock hard abs, earning a giggle from the dark haired girl.
'Hi, my name's Veronica. You are so adorable!' She hugged me, leaving my body numb from all this unexpected human affection.
'Well, I better go to school now, it was nice seeing you guys and it was a pleasure to meet you Veronica.' I was getting claustrophobic and Jughead clearly saw the fear plastered in my face because he grabbed my wrist and dragged me to the tall, looming building.
'Jay, any grief from any kids you text me okay? If you start feeling claustrophobic remember the breathing exercises that Dr Jones taught you.  I gotta go. Have a great day and I'll see you later.' I nodded and he raced to his school, touched by him remembering, I was temporarily frozen, until a voice came from behind me.
'OMG! Is that your boyfriend?' A girl with ocean eyes and a mane made of strands of pure gold grabbed my hand and looked at me the way a lion looks at its prey right before ripping its guts to pieces.
'What's? Ew no, he's my brother!' I quickly shook the thought from my head.
'Oh, your his sister. I heard he got a girlfriend and his sister was coming to town, must have got them muddled.' She shrugged, flipped her hair and sashayed away.
A pair of legs appeared from the tree above me. A girl jumped down and wiped her hands on her jeans, her cinnamon hair springing up in all different directions.
'Stay away from that blood sucking demon okay? She's evil.' She did a quick impression and then stuck her hand out. 'I'm Alice, who are you? Other than Jughead's sister.'
'I'm Jellybean, not gonna explain my name. Just call me Jay.' I shook her hand vigorously and realised as soon as I let go that I might have done it too hard so I shook it again lightly for good measure.
'Sorry, I'm really awkward, and new.' As if being new came anywhere near being an excuse for my chronic awkwardness and inability to be normal.
'That's okay, I'm not new so I can show you around.' She led me to the main building, all the kids in the car park looked at us and started whispering.
Look, cowpat girls got a new friend!
Maybe she can teach her to wash!
God her clothes are mingin', if I looked like her, I'd never leave my bed.
She could at least try and make her look less like a birds nest!
Her sister is so pretty though, what happened to her?
If Alice heard them, she didn't show it. She strode into the school and turned into an office.
'Hi Polly, I mean, Ms Cooper, Jellybean is here to sign in.' Alice gave me a gentle push forward, the heavily pregnant lady smiled.
'Hello Jellybean, my sister is dating your brother so yeah. I've heard a lot about you. Your brother was very excited for you to come back.' She printed a sheet out and handed it to me, 'This is your schedule, don't lose it! Because it's a pain to get a new one off the system.' I giggled nervously and Alice took the schedule from my hand.
'Cool! We have the same classes for almost everything! Except music and art, I'm terrible at both of those.' She handed it back. I loved music, my guitar was in its case at home, I had to leave my artwork in New York because they wouldn't fit anywhere.
'Yeah, I chose those, I hope I can make some new art, I had to leave all of my art at my old house along with my easel and paints, I can get some more soon though.' I replied, we turned and Alice led me to homeroom.
When we got there, our tutor was already there, assigning seats and lockers.
'Hello Alice, and you must be Jellybean, welcome!' A few people sniggered at my name.
'You're next to Issy. Alice, you go and sit next to Nick.' The girl from before looked at my with her ice eyes and gave me a fake smile. Alice mouthed good luck as I walked to my desk.
'Okay class, my name is Mr Porter, I have you for homeroom, you're only with me for an hour every morning so let's make the time count okay?' He started teaching us about combustion and I tuned out.
'Okay class, tonight I want you to research the history of Panic! At the Disco.
Alice came over.
'He always sets really weird homework, you'll get used to it.' We turned to leave when Mr Porter spoke up,
'Jellybean, can I speak to you fit a minute please?' I motioned for Alice to go without me.
'Yes sir?' I hoped I wasn't in trouble in my first day.
'How are things at home, is Jughead okay?' His question shocked me, and I did a double take.
'Yeah, it's fine, why do you ask?' I tried to regain my posture.
'Oh, it's just that, Jughead's been a little distant lately. A few teachers from the higher school have noticed it. So I'm going to ask again. Is Jughead okay?' He looked really stern. But I didn't say anything. I just nodded and got the hell out.
Alice was waiting outside, leaning against the door frame as if she owned the school.
'What'd he want to know?' She tried to act like she wasn't listening the entire time.
'You already know.' I laughed at her.
'You're absolutely correct, I do. Now, time for actual lessons.' She grabbed my hand and dragged me to my first period.
***
Jughead was leaning on the gates. I ran over to him and he hugged me.
'How was school?' He asked.
'It was school, what do you want me to say?' I replied and he nodded. 'But too many teachers asked if you were okay, as if I'm their voice from the inside or something.' Jughead tensed as I said that.
'What did you say?' He looked at me as if I was about to drop the guillotine on his neck.
'Nothing, I said that us Jones like to keep ourselves to ourselves and that they need to respect that.' I told him and he relaxed.
'Thank you.' He replied and we walked home. Our dad was home and hugged me as soon as he saw me. He held me at arms length and sighed.
'I missed you grow.' His voice cracked.
'It's okay dad, I don't stop growing until I'm twenty, I'm only thirteen.' I smiled at him and ran to my room.
'Jay?' Jughead asked, I looked up from my book.
'Hmm?' I replied.
'Do you think that maybe mum will come?' He looked so hopeful, I didn't want to break his heart, but I had to.
'I really don't think so. She does this a lot.' I sighed, he shrugged and I went back to my book.
***
I grabbed my phone and went outside, when I was sure that Jughead couldn't hear me, I called my mum.
'Hello Jellybean darling!' She shrieked into the phone, I had to take it away from my ear.
'Hi mum, do you know when you're coming tomorrow?' I sighed, playing dumb was boring.
'Actually darling-' she started but I cut her off.
'You know what mum? Jughead and I don't need this, we're perfectly fine without you, just send my guitar and don't talk to us again.' I hung up and ran inside. I fell onto my bed and sobbed into my pillow. I thanked the small gods of Olympus that my brother was in the bathroom. I didn't want him to see me cry, again. I heard the shower stop and his soft plodding on the floor so I turned over, now facing the wall.
'Oh, hi Jay, are you okay?' he sat on his bed.
'Yeah, I'm fine, just really tired, I'm gonna go to bed.' I replied.
'In your school clothes? At five in the afternoon?' I could feel his judgmental stare burn its way into my back.
'I'm fine!' I snapped. Jughead sat on my mattress and saw my tear stained face.
'Jay, what's wrong?' He sat down on my blowup mattress.
'I called mum.' was all I said.
'I know the exact thing you need.' he said.
'I swear to god, if you say hug...' I replied.
'Oh, no. I meant a milkshake!' he grimaced. I nodded and grabbed my coat. We walked the short way to Pop's and sat in a booth. A few minutes later Veronica came in and draggedJughead out. Jughead mouthed 'sorry' at me. I shrugged and carried on sipping the icy drink.
Jughead's POV
'What do you want Veronica? My sister is really upset and I'm trying to cheer her up.' I sighed.
'Jughead. It's your mum. She's been shot.' She replied.