princess || s.p

-4-

"Betty. Everyone's here, come downstairs." Alice appeared at the door of her daughter's bedroom with folded arms, glancing between Betty and Aria - who was currently doing homework at Betty's desk.

"Sure, mom I'll be right down." Betty forced a smile and nodded, Alice nodding in satisfaction and flashing a smile at Aria before turning and descending the stairs without another word.

"What's everyone here for, exactly?" Aria frowned, standing from her seat and slipping her phone into her pocket.

"A parent's intervention for those at Veronica's party. You can stay, if you want." The blonde shrugged.

"Watching people get in trouble for doing drugs? I'm there." Aria shrugged and grinned, walking ahead of Betty to jog downstairs and enter the living room, sharing a brief glance with Archie. The two still hadn't talked since he had left her to oversee Jughead's Serpent initiation, and, each of them being as stubborn as the other, neither wanted to be the first to bring it into discussion.

"No surprise that she's here after Betty's psycho outburst on me." Aria heard Veronica mumble to Kevin on her way past, the brunette not batting an eyelid at the comment.

"Oh, for once, cram it Veronica, won't you?" Aria spoke with a cheery smile, turning and glancing at the girl who was currently visibly seething at her, before sitting on the arm of the couch next to Josie.

"Riverdale's best and brightest, huh?" Alice re-entered the room and set a tea tray on the coffee table, glancing around her with raised eyebrows.

"Alice, thank you for hosting." Mayor McCoy interjected, forcing a smile at the woman.

"Of course, Mayor McCoy. When I heard what happened at Nick's party, I decided that we should come together to deal with this motley crew of liars, dope fiends and fornicators. Except my Betty, who was smart enough to leave the party before it descended into a bacchanalian free-for-all." Alice turned to beam at Betty boastingly, earning eye-rolls from almost every person in the room.

"This is where it gets juicy." Aria muttered happily, leaning back and grinning around her, waiting for someone to react, while both Josie and Reggie shot her smirks of amusement.

"Oh my god, Mom, please don't." Betty mumbled, while Veronica audibly whispered to Kevin - Aria not within range to hear exactly what was said, but she rolled her eyes at the girl anyway, just the sound of her voice enough to anger the brunette.

"Just for clarity, Alice, you're hosting this to gloat?" Fred raised his eyebrows, Aria having to stifle her laughter as she shared a glance with Archie.

"I may have taken Jingle-Jangle, but she's the one who had a psychotic break." Veronica mumbled to Archie, this time Aria hearing and scoffing loudly.

"Cut her some slack, Veronica, she just broke up with Jughead." Archie shook his head, shooting Aria a meaningful glare that she knew meant not to get involved - the boy was well aware of how much she despised Veronica, and would take any opportunity to start an argument.

Alice suddenly cleared her throat, halting the teens' mumbling to one another, Aria looking up at the woman expectantly as she waited for the next snide comment.

"Careful throwing stones there, acid-queen Alice. I'm not the only one in this room that knows the story behind that mugshot that your daughter printed in the paper." Hiram Lodge cut in.

"Finally, it's getting interesting." Aria leant forward in her seat, Reggie chuckling and grinning at the girl knowingly.

"Well I, for one, would like to know who brought the Jingle-Jangle to the party." Hermione caught everyone's attention, the humoured smile on Reggie's lips immediately disappearing, Aria looking up at him meaningfully, knowing he was the only one in the room that had a known reputation within school to have access to drugs. He sighed and started to raise his hand in admittance, when suddenly his mother grabbed his arm and glared up at him.