aftermath ↬ reggie mantle

the exchange

riverdale, a town with more secrets than there are people. when i moved here i figured it was a quaint, quiet town and my cousin veronica was the biggest disturbance they would ever have. i had never been so wrong about my assumption. jason blossom's murder unearthed so many secrets that riverdale couldn't handle, which included my own.

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"mija, you're going to be late to school," my dad commented as he sipped on a steaming mug of coffee at the kitchen counter. i whisked by him and opened the refrigerator door to grab a hydroflask full of raspberry smoothie in one fell swoop.

as i grabbed my bag from the top of the kitchen table, i faced him. "i think being late to school is less of a concern compared to uncovering jason's killer, which by the way dad, the sheriff's office seems to be failing at currently." my dad sighed and set down his mug.

"ivy, just go to school. i can't talk about the blossom kid's case." i scoffed and left the kitchen without another word. out the door i went and i knew exactly where i could talk about jason blossom.

riverdale high seemed to be at the center of what happened to jason blossom. maybe that's why betty's new extracurricular activity at the blue and gold was the key to uncovering who shot jason and every other secret that leads back to him. i hastily opened my locker and grabbed the binder full of new information that could help betty and jughead's investigation for the blue and gold. veronica being friends with cheryl has honestly proven to be a good asset for the group.

"miss villareal?" i slammed my locker door shut and shoved the binder into my bag. none of this was ready for public consumption, especially not for any of the riverdale high staff. i plastered on a big smile for the math teacher approaching.

"hi, mrs. walker, what can i do for you?" i responded politely. the young math teacher that turned heads more than she actually did teach practically beamed at me.

"you're such an excellent pre-calc student that i think you'd be a fantastic tutor! one of your classmates is in dire need of help and i'd like to ask you to help him," she explained. i had to stop myself from rolling my eyes. the last thing i needed to do was at stay at school for even longer than i needed to.

i gave her a small smile. "mrs. walker, i would be more than happy to help a classmate but i have the river vixens and the blue and gold. they are already such big commitments that i fully immerse myself into so i feel like cutting into my time at both would be a huge disservice to the riverdale high community." my math teacher's face fell at my words but immediately brightened.

"i promise you that tutoring this student won't take as much time as you think. one day out of the week should be sufficient. i'll send him your way, ms. villareal. thank you so much for being helpful." before i could even open my mouth, she was already on her way down the hallway.

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i opened my locker again to feed the now-empty binder into it. betty and jughead had so much going on in the blue and gold room that the new information that i had written down from veronica had made it into the already growing pile of papers. i suddenly caught a whiff of michael kors cologne and i immediately rolled my eyes.

that expensive scent belonged to the one and only riverdale football captain and local rich boy, reggie mantle. he was also the local womanizer who just got dethroned by the former riverdale star footballer and current sleazeball chuck clayton. if reggie wasn't flinging with a random girl, he'd be taking out someone else's girlfriend for a joyride in his shiny, sleek black bmw that dear ol' daddy mantle bought for him.

"what do you want, mantle?" i asked, pulling out my biology textbook and slamming my locker shut. he leaned on my locker and smirked.

"villareal, you're snippy today," reggie commented. i rolled my eyes again.

"cut to the chase."

reggie leaned in really close and played with a loose strand of my hair. "guess who's the latest victim of mrs. walker's meddling? if you can't guess, it's me and i'm your 'fellow classmate that's in need of dire help'." he tucked the strand of hair he was playing with behind my ear. "oh, and i need an escort to the football game and cheryl so kindly offered you to be mine."

"of course cheryl did. you're lucky i find it annoying when i'm on cheryl's bad side so i'll 'graciously accept' her suggestion. but if you try anything, i will embarrass you in front of the whole school, mantle. i'm the one telling you where and when these tutoring sessions are, by the way, because i don't want them just like you do." i turned on my heels and sauntered away from the jock as a smirk spread on my face.

archie threw his water bottle. jughead rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "archie, calm down," he said. i sighed heavily.

"you can't escort him at the game! it's already bad enough that he messes around with his teammates' girlfriends but now the girl who's my best friend? no way," archie fumed.

"ivy doesn't have much of a choice. cheryl already assigned everyone to a player," veronica pointed out.

"besides, it's not like she's going on a date with him," kevin added.

"she's much smarter than that. you should know that already," betty interjected.

"can we please not talk about me like i'm not five feet away from you guys?" i asked exasperatedly as i leaned on the wall across from the vending machine. everyone looked sheepishly at me. i cleared my throat to ease the silence that followed my interruption. "besides, escorting reggie mantle is a lot less important than figuring out who's jason's killer." the mere mention of tutoring reggie mantle would just get archie in an even bigger of a twist.

betty sighed. "there are so many things that we don't know about jason's death that this article is turning out to be a lot harder to write."