Asher and her father have just moved to Riverdale from the sunny state of California. Despite living on the south side, she will be attending Riverdale High due to Southside High being shut down. She prefers being alone and doesn't generally open up...
It was quickly nearing one in the morning as I approached the school. Sweet Pea, Fangs, Toni, and Jughead were flanking closely behind me, and a few other Serpents were scouting ahead to make sure we wouldn't be seen. We obviously knew that we'd be punished for it eventually, but we didn't want caught in the act.
We crouched down beside a dumpster at the back of the school and waited for the signal. The five of us were silent, but we didn't have to talk to know what everyone was thinking. Jughead still thought it was a bad idea; the nervous look that was plastered on his face made it pretty obvious. Contrastingly, Toni, Fangs, and Sweet Pea couldn't stop smiling. They've been wanting to do something like this forever, and it was about time the Northsiders heard what they had to say. I, however, was incredibly anxious, and it must have shown because I suddenly felt a set of long fingers intertwine with mine. I leaned into Sweet Pea's large body, and he gently kissed the top of my head, reassuring me that he was going to stick by my side. That definitely helped to calm my nerves.
A small, bright light blinked in our direction twice. That was the signal; the coast was clear. We swiftly shuffled across the parking lot and next to the gym building. It was a large, blank wall that would make the perfect canvas for my largest piece. Not only that, but because of its convenient location, those stupid jocks who always gave us a hard time would be the first ones to see it. Reggie would be especially pissed, and that thought made me smile.
Once we approached the wall, however, I realized that I had a little dilema; I wasn't tall enough to make the piece as big as I wanted to.
"Shit," I mumbled quietly. All four of them whipped around to look at me.
"What's wrong?" Toni asked nervously.
"I'm too short to make it big enough" I sighed, feeling slightly defeated.
"Not a problem" Sweet Pea scoffed as he knelt down beside me, "just get on my shoulders."
"What?" I questioned bewilderedly. "Are you serious?"
"Of course I'm serious" he retorted, "now unless you have a better idea, stop wasting time and hop on".
I looked at Jughead, but he just shrugged in response, so I grabbed the black spray paint can from my bag and climbed on. He stood up slowly, steadied himself for a moment, and then stepped towards the wall. It took me a second to get used to the height, him being 6'5 and me sitting on his shoulders, but I quickly became comfortable and got to work.
It took about 15 minutes to get the basic outline, but after that, the rest went rather fast. Having had their fair share of tagging themselves, Toni, Fangs, and Sweet Pea helped me fill in the piece as Jughead stood anxiously on lookout.
"And we're done" I sang with a smirk on my face as I sprayed the final detail. We all stepped back and admired our work. The word "Southside" stained the side of the building, officially tagging the spot as our territory. Even though it was technically Northside turf, we wanted to prove that we belonged at this school just as much as they did, and if this didn't do it, I don't know what would.
"This is so sick!" Fangs beamed, playfully punching Sweet Pea's shoulder.
"Yeah, this is super great. Now let's go" pleaded Jughead as he began to walk away.
"Hold on" Toni retorted, grabbing his arm to stop him, "we still have a few pieces left to do, and the other's have been scoping out spots to put them. Chill out, Jones". With that, Jughead rolled his eyes and started to make his way towards one of our other agreed upon targets. Toni and Fangs followed him, Sweet Pea and I lagging closely behind them.
"What's his deal?" I asked Sweet Pea, gesturing towards the beanie wearing boy in front of us, "I thought he was the one who wanted to make a statement".
"I don't know," he whispered back, "he's just being Jughead, I guess".
We quickly met up with the other Serpents and tagged some smaller designs at two other locations: one by the outdoor lunch area so that everyone could see it,
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and one by our hang out near the back parking lot to further determine the space as ours.
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Once we finished that, everyone said their goodbyes and went their separate ways, disappearing into the night. It was now just Sweet Pea and I walking and leaving the school behind us.
"Do you want me to walk you home?" he offered after a moment of silence.
"I guess," I replied dully, saddened by the idea of going back to my house, not knowing how I would find my dad.
"Or you could come back to my place," he suggested, sensing the fact that I had no desire to go home.
"But Sweets, it's like 2:30 in the morning".
"So?" he retorted, dismissing the fact that we had to be up in about four hours for school.
"What about your parents" I tentatively pointed out, suddenly realizing that we'd never talked about his home life in the few months that we've been dating.
"Oh please" he laughed, "my dad's been out of the picture for years, and my mom's on another bender, so she won't be bothered. She's been gone for three days, and I doubt that she's back". The nonchalant way in which he revealed this information to me made my heart sink. I assumed that his homelife wasn't great based on the fact that he never talked about it, but I didn't think it'd be that bad. And although he talked about it so casually, I could tell it was a touchy subject; his eyes revealed the pain he felt when he mentioned it. Even though it was dark, I could still see him trying to hide the hurt; however, I knew exactly how he felt because I've been trying to hide the same pain for years.
"Are you sure?" I asked him.
"Yes babe, I insist," he replied, slinging his arm around me and gently squeezing my shoulder. And with that, I let him lead me over the tracks and towards Sunnyside Trailer Park.
