Helpline ((Jughead Jones)) 2

15

The thing I loved most about lying next to Jughead was, that even when I was asleep, I could feel his arms around me. Neither of us moved much as we slept, so we very often woke up how we fell asleep, with me lay on his chest, and his arms locked around me. After the events with Jason, I had become a very light sleeper, and Jug always slept lightly, used to listening for when his father would get home. So, when we heard the door to our bedroom moved, we were both wide awake.

J sat up, moving us both backwards slightly before I even had chance to open my eyes fully. He had his arms in front of me protectively as I had my hands on his shoulders. We were lucky that I chose to wear less revealing PJs for bed, or else this would have been slightly embarrassing. By less revealing, I mean one of Jughead's t-shirts that became a dress for me.

"What the hell!" Jug exclaimed, shock and terror clear in his voice as he looked towards the snake masked men standing at the foot of our bed. The only mask that looked remotely scary was the on standing in front, the others looked as if they had been shoved in a draw or at the bottom of a wardrobe for some time.

"Your initiation begins now." The voice spoke, muffled and echoey from the mask. "With you assuming guardianship of the Beats." The snakes all left the room, and a fluffy dog jumped up onto the bed, licking Jughead's face as I stroked his head, laughing at J's annoyed expression.

"You gotta be kidding me."

"What do you think of the Beast?" Toni asked the next day as we walked out of school. We had both hardly slept after, the Beast keeping us awake for the rest of the morning.

"He stinks. And he barks all the time. He's got no boundaries." Jug was less than impressed with the first trial of initiation, hating the animal sharing our trailer with us.

"He's adorable." I commented, earning a smile from Toni. Jughead could just survive people, let alone animals. As a child, he had never owned any, so wasn't used to there neediness. He had said last night that it couldn't be too hard, that I probably required more looking after than him. But, when he woke to a small gift left by the Beast, he quickly retracted his statement.

"Every new recruit has to take care of Hot Dog. It's tradition. By the way this is our third Hot Dog." This was the first we had known about the 'Beast' actually having a name. For a well known vigilante gang, I didn't expect their dog to be called that.

"Oh, Hot Dog the third. It's getting borderline ridiculous."

"Oh, kind of like Forsyth the third?" I threw back, earning a smile from Jug, and a laugh from T, and him throwing his helmet at me to wear. I quickly put it on and sat behind him on the bike we always rode to school.

We, being Toni and I, wee trying to teach dear Jughead the laws of being a Serpent. Toni had said them twice through, with him repeating them, now we were seeing how many he could remember. 6 laws. It wasn't that hard to learn. Once she had said them the second time, I felt like I could list every single one, but Jug was struggling.

"Serpents, uh..."

"Come on. Focus." Commanded Toni, our Serpent mentor. She told Jughead that he needed to take this seriously. This wasn't some test that Jughead could wing. He needed to work extra hard to memorise these laws that were the foundations of the gang. If he didn't know these, he wouldn't be a Serpent. Every Serpent followed these laws stricter than they abided by the laws of the country.

"Okay, I am, Toni. I swear to God I am. It's just-- First the Beast and now these laws?"

"Why the change of heart, anyway? Why go from conscientious objector to full-fledged member?" She asked. Jughead was leaning next to me, against the kitchen counter.