Collateral Damage ▻ Riverdale [1]

3.12

THE SECOND TIME AROUND
CHAPTER TWELVE

At lunch, the next day, Sweet Pea, Mandy, Toni, Fangs and numerous other teenagers Serpents huddled around a table outside as Sweet Pea and Fangs went over their plan to blow up the Riverdale Register. Queenie knew the entire plan was completely bonkers and that she would never let her friends go through with it, but she wondered how far would they go through with it.

Jughead exited the side exit door of the school to find the Serpents all huddled around a table. Queenie looked up at her younger brother and sent him a glare, "Nice article your girlfriend's mom wrote." Queenie spoke up, referring to Alice Cooper.

Jughead sighed, instantly hearing the venom in her voice as she spoke, "Yeah, I saw that, Queenie," He replied quietly before he became louder, "Dilton Doiley said he was stabbed and a bunch of you guys jumped him?"

Queenie shook her head as she looked down at the ground in disbelief. Calling her pissed about the whole thing would be an understatement in her case, "Yeah, idiot stabbed himself, with his own knife." Fangs shot back before Sweet Pea decided to add in.

"And we didn't jump him. There was a fight; Bulldogs versus Serpents. And you see this?" Sweet Pea questioned, pointing to his black eye, "Your boy Andrews gave me this." Jughead seemed to not care much, letting out a sigh as he looked around.

Queenie noticed this and decided to speak up, "Don't forget the part where his girlfriend shot in a gun into the air." She added in, causing Jughead stare right at her, a face full of shock.

"What happened?" Jughead asked, deeply confused by his sister's statement.

"And of course, the Northsiders get off scot-free while the rest of us are hauled in by the police," Queenie explained, "Did you know, because Keller hates me so damn much from the stuff with Jason, I almost got stuck staying overnight?"

"It's payback time." Fangs added in as Sweet Pea and himself leaned forward as they looked down at the blueprint paper.

Jughead frowned, noticing this almost instantly, "What are you guys talking about?" He questioned them before looking down at the paper they were all looking at, "What is that? Is that a pipe bomb?"

"Fogarty's cousin served in the army, he's going to build us something." Sweet Pea informed him.

"We'll do it after hours and it'll shut the Riverdale Register down once and for all." Fangs added in.

Jughead was clearly getting frustrated with the group, the look on his face told it all, "You think blowing up a building is going to make anything better?" He asked them all.

"It can't get any worse." Sweet Pea argued sternly, giving Jughead yet another glare.

"Yeah, Sweet Pea, it can," Jughead argued back, "Let me talk to Archie, let me figure this out, okay?" Jughead suggested as Fangs began to fold up his papers.

Queenie scoffed, rolling her eyes at her brother, "Is that your answer for everything, Jug? Talk and more talk? Sorry to break it to you, bud, but that solution rarely ever works for this side of town. And we don't even know who you stand with; Us, or them?" She told him before she pressed the palms of hers on the table as she leaned forward, "You can't be half a Serpent, Jughead, remember that." She reminded him before she picked up her bag and headed back inside, the rest of the Serpents following close behind.

Every single one of the seemed to go back inside, leaving Jughead with Mandy, who had decided to remain where she was. Jughead sighed as he took a seat beside Mandy, "Great. So Archie started World War three," Jughead complained to her.

Mandy rolled her eyes as she turned to look at her friend's younger brother, "Jughead, the Northside has been dumping on us for years. Your dad tried to keep that peace. And he was also able to keep that happening with Queenie keeping the younger ones in line. Now, that your dad's gone, Queenie's a totally different person and Sweet Pea's obsessed with trying to impress her by only seeing one solution for everything: Violence."

Jughead slightly frowned at this, "So...the only reason Sweet Pea is even doing this is for my sister? Great, "He questioned confused, "But Queenie's not like that. She may hate the Northside, but some of those people are still considered her friends; Cheryl, Polly, hell, even Archie at times."

Mandy scoffed, "I don't really think you got your facts straight, Jughead, Archie pulled a gun on Sweet Pea and Queenie the other night. She told me it triggered her PTSD of some sort, she's officially done with him." She explained and Jughead seemed to be shocked by the news, "Oh, you didn't know?"

Jughead sighed, "Queenie's barely spoken to me in days, she's been telling me I either become a full-fledged member of the Serpents or to get my ass back to the Northside," Jughead replied bluntly and Mandy laughed at him, "It's not funny, Mandy."

"Yeah, it is." She argued before getting up from her seat, "Catch you later, Jones."

______

That afternoon, Queenie was playing a game of pool with Sweet Pea when Jughead entered the bar and made his way over to them, wearing his Serpent jacket. Sweet Pea stopped playing pool for a moment as he nudged Queenie, gesturing for her to look up. She let out a sigh when she saw it was her brother, "I think this Northsider's lost." Sweet Pea spoke up loudly, "Don't you think, Queenie?"

Queenie stayed quiet, not answering her boyfriend's questions. She watched as walked down the small set of steps and made his way closer to him, "I'm not," He argued, looking over at his older sister, "I'm over being half a Serpent."

Sweet Pea scoffed, "Wow. You'll do anything to protect your Northside buddies." As he walked past Jughead, Sweet Pea purposedly bumped into him before he started to make his turn in the pool game he was playing against Queenie, who happened to be the champion for almost a year now.

After being able to best FP, nobody seemed to even be close to how good Queenie was at that game.

  Well, that was until Sweet Pea came. Sweet Pea seemed to be the only who could even come close to beating her, yet he still hadn't actually beaten her  though. But there was still time for that. Much time.

"My father was a Serpent. Queenie is a Serpent. They led you together. Queenie still leads you. I wanna stand with you guys. Queenie and Tall Boy were the ones who gave me this jacket. It's finally time I start wearing it." Jughead announced loudly.

Queenie let out a laugh, looking up at her brother after taking her turn, "So, now you want to be a Serpent, Jug?" She questioned, making her way over to him.

Queenie stared at her brother up and down as a way to intimidate him before she looked at him directly in the eyes, "Let's see if you survive the initiation first."