Ride or Die

*2*

The next day after the serpent versus bulldog fight, I and some other serpents stood around a table looking down at a piece of paper. Sweet Pea and them were planning to blow up the register. I was neither against it nor for it but they were all pretty stubborn and wouldn't listen to me.

"Nice article your girl's mom wrote," Sweet Pea said when Jughead walked up to us

"Yeah I saw that" Jughead started, "Dilton Doiley said he was stabbed and a bunch of you guys jumped him"

"Yeah idiot stabbed himself with his own knife" Fangs spoke up

"And we didn't jump him, there was a fight, bulldog versus serpents. And you see this" Sweet Pea says pointing up to his eye "Your boy Andrews give it to me. Just before his girlfriend shot a gun into the air"

"What happened?" came Jughead's reply

"Northsiders got off scot-free, and the rest of us are hauled in by the police," Sweet Pea said wrapping his arm around me

I gave a smile up at him before saying, "It's payback time"

"What are you guys talking about?" Jughead said before Sweet Pea turned over the paper and showed him "What is that? Is that a pipebomb?"

"Fogarty's cousin served in the Army," Sweet Pea said "He's gonna build us something"

"We'll do it after hours, but it'll shut the Riverdale register down and once for all" Fangs said

"You think blowing up a building is gonna make things better?" Jughead said leaning in a little giving Sweet Pea a look

"Can't get any worse" Sweet Pea said

"Yeah Sweet Pea, it can," Jughead said "Let me talk to Archie. Let me figure this out, okay?"

I groaned and rolled my eyes and listened to Sweet Pea's next words, "Man, that's your answer for everything. Talk and more talk. And we don't even know who you stand with. Us? Or them? You can't be half a serpent"

Afterwards, we walked off leaving Toni and Jughead there. Sweet Pea and I walked into a classroom together where I sat on the desk with him standing between my legs. He pulled me into a kiss before pulling away to kiss me on the forehead.

"You sure this is a good idea?" I asked him " Blowing up the register is gonna get all of you arrested"

"You know better then anyone what those Northsiders have gotten away with, Babydoll," He said using my name instead of some nickname

"I know, Sweets, I know," I told him pulling away from him a little "I lost my mother to one and for all, I know he's still walking around Riverdale freely."

—

I leaned against the wall of the White Wyrm, drinking my third cup of Tequila as Sweet Pea played pool with the others when Jughead walked in when his serpent jacket on.

"I think this Northsider's lost," Sweet Pea said

"I'm not," Jughead said "I'm over being half a Serpent"

"Wow," Sweet Pea started "You will do anything to protect your Northside buddies"

"My father was a Serpent," Jughead said "He led you. I wanna stand with you guys"

I titled my head a little paying more attention to Jug's little speech. FP hadn't just lead us but in my case took care of me after the stuff I went through.

"Tall Boy was the one who gave me this jacket." Jughead continued "It's finally time I start wearing it."

"So, now you wanna be a Serpent, huh?" Tall Boy said coming closer "Let's see if you survive the initiation first."

After the first trial with Hot dog, we all meet up at the White Wyrm for the second trial. The trial was knowing the six Serpent laws. I stood by Sweet pea in front of the rattlesnake tank as Jughead and Tall Boy were in the middle of the other Serpents.

"What is the fourth law?" Tall Boy yelled

"No Serpent is left for dead" Jughead yelled back

"What is the fifth law?" Tall Boy continued

"A Serpent never betrays its own"

"What is the sixth?"

"In unity, there is strength"

"In unity there is strength!" We all yelled

"You know the laws." Tall Boy said, "Now it's time for the next trail."

With that, we moved away from the tank letting Jughead see the rattlesnake tank and knife in there. Tall Boy continued by telling him to get the knife from the tank. He did retrieve it and was bitten in the process but the venom glands were removed. I spent the night drinking and playing pool with Sweet Pea and the others while Toni cleaned up Jughead's snake bite.

—

"What the hell do we have here?" Sweet Pea asked when we came by for the gauntlet

"Just leave him, all right?" Jughead answered back putting himself between the redhead, who I'm guessing started the fight between Bulldog and Serpents, and us

"Wait," He said "You're friends with these thugs"

"It's not what you think," Jughead said sounding like he was just caught cheating

"Are you joining the Serpents?" Andrews asked

"Only if he survives" I finally spoke

"Go and call us thugs one more time." Sweet Pea said going closer but being stopped by me and Jughead

Archie went on about how we had attacked them causing me to roll my eyes because from what I heard he'd had put a gun to their faces on our side. He had it coming one way or another. But then we got into a different topic, Betty was breaking up with Jughead through Archie. That's low like really low.

"What?" Jughead asked us after Archie left "Did you enjoy the show?"

"The show hasn't even started yet." Sweet Pea answered back with his arms crossed