New Girl In Town

Chapter 20

When we entered Principal Weatherbee's office, he was seated at his desk; the sheriff and Mr. Moretti stood on either side of him. I wasn't surprised to see the sheriff, but seeing my art teacher there definitely threw me for a loop. He looked at me sorrowfully as we sat down.

"I'm sure you all know why you're here," Mr. Weatherbee began, "And I must say, I am incredibly disappointed in all of you for your actions." We were all silent; none of us dared to look at him.

"Asher," Mr. Weatherbee said, turning in my direction, "following the discovery of the graffiti outside, Mr. Moretti came to me with some interesting news. He told me that he saw similar designs in your sketchbook yesterday. Is this true?" Mr. Moretti gave me an apologetic look, and I stared down at the floor as a blush grew on my face from this confrontation. I was embarrassed and upset with the fact that I had disappointed the one teacher I actually like in this school.

"She didn't do anything" Sweet Pea defended as he began to angrily get up from his chair; but I gently placed my hand on his thigh to calm him down, and he reluctantly leaned back into his seat.

"Oh really?" retorted Mr. Weatherbee, "If that's the case, then why did I see her, along with the rest of you, on the security footage from last night?" All of our shoulders fell in defeat as he revealed this information to us. He had video evidence, and we had been caught.     

"Do you realize the severity of your crime?" the sheriff promoted. I noticed Sweet Pea roll his eyes at the question.

"Defacing public property is a major offence, and you can all be charged for it. Most of you don't have the best history with the Riverdale Police Department, so I would suggest taking the law a little bit more seriously if you don't want to serve jail time".

"Then maybe you guys could take us seriously for a change," Jughead snapped back, speaking up for the first time upon entering the office. "Mr. Weatherbee, please let me explain our side of the story" he begged in a softer tone as a pleading expression flooded across his face.

"Fine," Mr. Weatherbee replied after a moment of silence. "As for the rest of you, please wait outside of my office until I'm finished speaking with Mr. Jones". Jughead nodded at as, so we slowly made our way out of his office and sat on the benches beside the door.

"I can't say I'm surprised," Toni huffed as she dropped her bag on the ground and plopped down onto the bench next to Fangs, "but it's a bummer that they caught us on camera".

"Yeah," Fangs agreed, "that's just going to make things worse in court".

"Court?" I squeaked. I've never been in trouble with the law before, so hearing them talk about it so casually freaked me out.

"Don't worry about it," Sweet Pea reassured me, placing his hand on my knee and squeezing it lightly in an attempt to calm me down. "We'll just get a fine and have to do a hundred hours of community service or something."

"How can you be so calm about this?" I whisper-screamed at him "This is serious".

"Babe, it's not that big of a deal. I've been dealt with Sheriff Keller plenty of times; he's got other things to worry about. At this point, us getting in trouble is old news to him" Sweet Pea said as he gestured to the Serpents surrounding us.

"Wait, Keller? As in Kevin Keller?" I asked, finally hearing the Sheriff's name for the first time. Kevin Keller was a kid in our grade; he was a good friend of Betty's, and I'd met him a few times before. He seemed nice enough, but things might be awkward now that I was getting in trouble with his father.

"Yeah, he's Kevin's dad," Fangs replied. "Believe it or not, Kevin used to date a Serpent; my buddy, Joaquin."

"But wait," I said, turning my attention back to Sweet Pea, "Why are you so familiar with Sheriff Keller? Did you get arrested or something?"