Helpline ((Jughead Jones)) 2

10

Jug had sent me home initially, while he stayed back to begin the article. So, my handbag slung over my shoulder with a message from Toni telling me to bring coffee and cookies to the Red and Black room, I travelled back into school.

He was sat at the desk I left him at, seemingly not having moved for the entire two and a half hours I'd been gone. The sound of the old door creaking turned his attention to me.

"Thia!" I called, his face full of fear and horror. I shut the door behind me, quickly glancing around the room to see that my new best friend was yet to arrive. Putting my bag down, I reached inside to wear I had a pack of cookies. "You cannot be here at night unless you are armed." He warned. I raised the cookies out of my bag and pointed them to him, grinning, telling him I was armed. I dropped the cookies as Jug stood up and began talking.

"I hit pay dirt. Do you remember how no one could explain the local component of you dad's drug pipeline? Jingle-Jangle, the stuff Moose and Midge were on? It's coming from here." His face showed one of devious excitement and I knew before he had said it that this would be the main basis for the first article of the red and Black. "My dad said the Serpents never deal in hard drugs, but the Ghoulies do." He looked both terrifying and devilishly hot all at once.

"Is it wise to be writing about these drugs while we go to school here? This would just put a target on your back." I told him, scared that if we published this, and Jughead put his name as the writer, then, despite its thrilling nature, he would attract more Ghoulies than Jingle-Jangle itself.

"Are you worried about me?" He asked, walking towards me with his hands lazily on his hips, pushing the bottoms of his jacket back. When I didn't answer, he smiled more, enjoying the fact he had a worried girlfriend in the room. I managed to whisper out a confirmation that I was concerned for his safety, both our safeties. He ran his hand up my arm to my shoulder.

"I thought you liked me reckless." He replied, using the classic Jones smirk. I leant in, him meeting me, and kissing him for the first time that day. J put his hand at my neck as mine rested on his cheek, pushing him against the table in the centre of the room.

Breaking our kiss, the door opened, revealing Toni. I smirked at her as she smiled back, Jug was looking away.

"Sorry guys, if you want privacy I can go." She laughed, loving Jug's embarrassment. Trying to change the subject, Jughead reached in my bag and found the cookies and then held up the coffee after.

"Look what Thia brought for us."

"And I have the kettle to match." I took the kettle from her and set it down on the table nearest a plug and set the jar of coffee grains and pack of cookies next to it. At first it felt like I was a completely different species to those who went to this school. But the Serpents and Toni were showing me a better side to everyone. If I wanted to be with Jughead, then I'd have to be a Serpent.

It wasn't long before we decided it would be better for us to head home. Jug sat in his desk chair and turned off his lamp as I picked up my bag. He spun around to me and smiled, contempt with the room we had created, our safe place. Jug stood up and grabbed my hand as we left the room and walked out into the dim lights of the halls of Southside High.

"I love you, princess." He said as we walked, and I leant up to kiss his cheek. Just as I pulled away to say something back, a door slammed somewhere close. No one else was meant to be in the building. Toni had left half hour ago and had texted me she was home, so it wasn't her. Jug had sent away the Serpents so they weren't here.

We froze.

"J?" I asked, looking up at him with wide eyes. He said nothing, but gripped my hand a little tighter and began to move us more quickly through the halls. Barely two steps later, the lights in the hall cut out, and we both looked back down the hall at the moonlit spray paint. The words 'School of Lies', which we knew were there and probably painted year sago, seemed fresh and threatening.

Jughead walked quickly down the stairs, pulling me with him as we both aimed to get out of the building as quickly as we could. With a glance behind, Jug went to open the fire exit. It wouldn't budge. He looked down at the handles to see they had been chained together. That definitely hadn't been put there by the school janitor.

From a distant place in the building we heard a shout of Jughead. He then started running, dragging me with him, as we both aimed to find an exit. Just as he rounded a corner, Jug was thrown back by a punch to the face. He pushed me back as the guy grabbed his jacket and hit him again. I screamed for Jug as he got kicked to the ground. Pulling out my phone, I called Toni, but didn't have chance to speak as a hand wrapped around my mouth and waist, hauling me into one of the classrooms.

I heard Jughead scream for him to leave me alone but he didn't listen. The boy threw me into the room, I felt the bruise forming on my wrist from how he pulled me, and into a desk, sending it screeching backwards. He pushed my head to the floor with his hand locked around my hair. I couldn't just lie there while a Ghoulie beat me, not when I took it from Chuck. I brought my knee up to his groin, kicking hard. Although I made contact, the Ghoulie had caught me before I could hurt him enough to get him off. He grabbed my hair, yanking my off the ground and over a desk, pressing my upper body flat over the wooden surface.

"I've wanted this since you walked in here, Northside Queen." He kissed my neck roughly, then began to lift up the bottom of my dress. In that moment, I cursed myself for wearing a dress, and I cursed Jughead for going here. If my brother hadn't got with Polly or if my dad hadn't killed Jason, then none of this would be happening. Jug would still be going to Riverdale High and that meant that I would be safe. Instead I was forced over a desk by a gang member as he harshly brought his hand down on my arse as I screamed for help, but knowing Jughead wasn't coming.

Just as I felt his hands slip under the band of my underwear, the door burst open. Shaking, I stood as a figure ripped the Ghoulie off me and another help me gently. I saw that it was Sweet Pea sat on the guy and Toni who was guiding me out of the room and to a bruised Jughead who was just coming round. The moment he saw my tears and shaking, hearing my shallow breaths, he stood up and ran over to me, taking me into his arms.

"You're safe now, Thia. You're ok." He whispered as I slowly calmed in his embrace. His smell alone was enough to distract me from my rising panic, and his words made me forget the danger I had been in seconds ago.

The following morning, having calmed enough to process what had happened, I slowly cleaned the cuts on Jughead's forehead. He had taken a beating, while I had a single bruise on my wrist. I had also found that it didn't hurt unless there was pressure applied to it, but Jughead's eye was throbbing slightly.

"Are you ok?" I asked, saying some of the first words spoken that morning.

"Just some cuts and bruises." These were almost the first words we had spoken to each other that day since Toni walked into the trailer to walk with us to school. No one wanted to talk about what happened, and I knew that Jughead didn't want to admit that the Serpents had been right.

"We warned you about the Ghoulies." She began, picking up her camera, "I think you'll take them all the more seriously now." Jug answered with a simple yes, and just as I put down the cotton pad I had used to clean Jug's wound, he pulled me closer, kissing the top of my head.

At school, during lunch, Jughead and I walked over to the Serpent's area. He had kept me close all day, not letting go of me for anything. It had helped a lot when the Ghoulies looked our way. As if, when he let go, a Ghoulie would take me again, Jug had his arm tight around my waist as we walked.

"Are these seats taken?" he asked Toni, gesturing to the two empty spaces next to her and across from Sweet Pea. She moved her bag and looked towards Sweet Pea, the one Jug had turned away the day before. Once we were seated, Sweet Pea didn't say anything surprisingly. J had his arm still around my waist, and I was turned into his shoulder, just breathing in his embrace and warmth as he glared at everyone over my shoulder. That was how we stayed. It was clear to every Serpent that Jughead needed them to help him protect his girl. Despite his unwillingness to be a pack animal, if it meant he wouldn't get beat up all the time and his girl would be safe, I knew that he would do anything.

Those kids in the fairytales who go into the woods, they don't ever come back the same. They're always changed in some fundamental way. Sometimes for the better. More often for the worse. That's the common misconception about fairy tales. They very rarely have a happy ending.