Fate can be Fatal

Part 9: Looks and Whispers

The girls happily exit the car together, automatically gaining stares from fellow students due to the unsuspected friendship. They walk in the front gates, chatting and laughing as they're apporached by Sweet Pea, "Mind if we borrow her?" he asks, dragging Toni away before managing to say anything to Cheryl. "Guys, what are you----" she starts as they go into an empty classroom. "Bad enough she's invaded the Southside and now----" Sweet Pea says angrily.

"Y'know what guys, drop it, just shut up. Yeah Cheryl and I are friends, so what if she's a Blossom. She's not like them and maybe if you gave her a chance, you'd learn that for yourself" and storms off in a bad mood, the guys looking remorseful for what they had said. 

Fangs finally speaks up, "Fuck sake Pea, she's happy, with whatever thing she has with Cheryl, we gotta do it... for her" and Sweet Pea agrees. 

Before being able to find Cheryl again, the bell rings for the first lesson to commence. Still in a bad mood she decides to head to Pops. On the walk there, Betty Cooper runs up to her, "Toni right?". "The one and only" Toni replies, still managing to keep her humour. Around the same time, Kevin Keller joins the growing group. "Anymore people want to join?" she says sarcastically at them. 

"Sorry to ambush you but rumours have been growing---" but Toni blocks Kevin's sentence with her own, "What rumours?" she snaps, worrying what Cheryl will say about this. They take a worrying step back, since Serpents had a reputation, "Well, we've... just been hearing about Cheryl and yourself, as like friends... which people are just blowing up, creating crazy rumours, like you're together or Cheryl converted to a Serpent" Betty says. 

"Look whatever you've heard doesn't matter, stop encouraging people's interest in others business" Toni snaps, "I know your type" but Betty was unable to let the comment go and catches up to her, "Our type?" she says. "Yeah your type, the type that acts all innocent but everyone knows what you're really like, wanting be up in everyone's business, I don't know how Jug puts up with it".

Betty gets angry and tries to become intimidating but Toni turns round quickly and squares up to her, "Don't try it blondie, your boyfriend may be a serpent, but we don't always agree with each other. Also, he's not a bad kisser either" she jokes trying to annoy her, starting to walk off but Betty grabs her arm. "Wait, you and Jug? Now you're the bullshitting one" but Toni laughs, "Ask him, but you won't be happy"

"Southside scum, and by that I mean just you" which results in Toni becoming angry enough to punch her. It was also ironic, due to Betty wanting to join the serpents because of Jughead, her anger simply got the better of her. The girls begin shouting, catching the attention of a biased cop on the other side of the path, noticing a serpent jacket and rushes over. Before he gets there Toni raises her fist, in attempt to scare Betty but the cops grabs her roughly, pushing her down to the ground, handcuffing her but letting Betty walk, fully seeing the two sided argument, "prick" Toni mumbles as she's forced into the back of his car. She see's Betty face drop, knowing this wasn't going to end just like that. The cop gets back into his car and says, "Damn scum on the Northside, creating trouble, the sheriff is going to love this" and Toni stays quiet until they pull up at the station and she finally realised it wasn't a joke to scare her. 

She's escorted out the car and out of some crazy luck, spots Cheryl in the station, answering questions about the attack on her grandma, "Cheryl" Toni yells in her direction, catching her attention. Cheryl's face drops but is stopped from running over by a nearby policeman. But her eyes follow Toni's until they were no longer able to. She's led into a room and Sheriff Keller, Kevin's father of all people is called in. After about an hour of interrogation and threats of imprisonment, Toni is let out on a surprising bail, after being told they'll follow up on the incident soon enough. Her things are returned to her and she leaves the building. Without a lift and a long walk home she is prepared to walk.

All of a sudden, she spots a familiar car, Cheryl Blossoms, sat in the car park, with Cheryl leaning on the bonnet. The two girls make eye contact and smile. Toni makes her way over to the car and hugs Cheryl, tightly. "You bailed me out?" she asks and Cheryl happily nods. "How? Why?" she blabbers, "When you walk in, and Keller walked back out, I stopped him and asked about what happened, he said they could be facing changes. So I asked about bail and he allowed me to pay it, so here we are" Cheryl says. 

Toni's face lights up at the news, unable to speak but simply pulls Cheryl in for another hug. "You have anywhere to stay?" Toni asks, hoping it was a no, despite how bad that sounds in her head. "Nope, mothers persistent about making me suffer, but honestly I've never felt better" 

"Then lets go to mine" Toni says and the girls hop into the car, with Toni explaining how she ended up in a police station on a Wednesday evening...