The Serpent Queen

Chapter Fifteen

The next day at school was Jughead's first day there as an official Serpent. He wasn't wearing his jacket but it was almost as though people knew as they walked past him in the corridor.

I was walking through the halls with Toni and Sweet Pea, trying to find him when the doors to the school banged open. We looked at them in shock when we saw it was the Mayor, Sheriff, and his deputies. They were here for us. Something or someone, had made them come down here to arrest us.

'Run!' I shouted to them, already heading to a different entrance.

We were too slow though as we were pushed up against the lockers and handcuffed. Sweet Pea and I struggled against them, trying to break free until the officers holding us hit us with batons. Everywhere I looked Serpents were being arrested, except Jughead who had managed to escape. This was a nightmare and I didn't see an easy way out of it.

There were around 20 of us in total who had been arrested at Southside High and we had been shoved into two cells at the police station. From what I had overheard, the Mayor thought we were dealing Jingle Jangle and nothing I said could persuade her that it was the Ghoulies, not us who dealt the drug.

'We gotta get out of here Crystal' Toni told me while panicking.

'I know Toni, I'm just stuck as to how we're going to do that right now. Especially since I don't know which of us already have records' I replied.

'Only me and you have the records' Sweet Pea told me.

'Well damn, that's not good' I muttered, 'Good news for the rest of you though' I reassured them.

'I can't stay in here' Toni stressed.

'I'll get you out' I promised, lightly hugging her.

'Reckon they'll let you share a room with FP in prison?' Sweet Pea teased.

'Maybe they will if I beat you up good enough' I threatened.

The Sheriff walked back in as soon as I'd finished my threat and I hoped he hadn't heard it! He came over and opened the cells to let us out.

'What's going on Sheriff?' I asked cautiously.

'We're letting you go' he replied.

We didn't need to be told twice! We almost ran out of the station and had to walk back to the Southside since none of us had our vehicles. It was quite a long and tiring journey but we finally made it to the Wyrm - I needed several drinks!

'Crystal, you're out!' my dad looked extremely relieved.

'Yeah, are you okay?' I asked him.

'Better now that I've seen you're okay'

He pulled me into a hug and when we broke away, Jughead ushered me over to him to talk but I took him up to the office where it was more private.

'What's up Jughead?' I asked.

'I don't want to be a grass but there's something I think you need to know' he said hesitantly.

'Out with it then'

'It's Tall Boy. He has a problem with your leadership and wants us to join forces with the Ghoulies'

'He what?!' I exclaimed angrily, 'What the hell?! There's no way the Serpents and Ghoulies would work together. It's just wrong!' I ranted.

'I know, that's why I'm telling you this, we need to do something because Tall Boy is trying to call the shots and go over your head on this'

'Something needs to be done about this' I decided 'We need to go talk to FP about this, he's gonna hate it but it's necessary and I need his advice'

'I'll pick you up in the morning' he told me.

I walked back to the bar where some of the Serpents were stood downing the shots that my dad was handing out. Toni handed me two which I downed immediately, followed by three more. We were all pretty shaken from the days events so we ended up staying in the Wyrm for several hours before Toni, Sweet Pea, Kicks, Fangs and I went back to crash in my trailer.

One thing bugged me though - how had we been released so quickly?