The Serpent Queen

Chapter Thirty

A loud and insentient knocking on the door of FP's trailer woke us up the next morning. I grabbed one of FP's shirts off the floor so I was semi decent when I answered the door.

'Sherrif' I greeted, a tiny bit surprised to see him there.

'Crystal' he responded, shock was evident on his face, 'I was looking for FP and Jughead'

'Sure, they're here, come on in'

I led him into the trailer, calling FP and Jughead who came to join us in the kitchen while I started to make us coffee and breakfast.

'Sorry to interrupt your morning but I need to talk about something with you' Keller started, 'The head from the General Pickens statue has gone missing. Wondered if any of you knew anything about  it?'

'Is that an accusation Sheriff?' I asked.

'No, it's not Crystal, it's just a question'

'Well we know nothing about it so you can go now' I dismissed him.

He sighed heavily.

'Alright. Well if any of you hear anything then please call me' he asked before he left.

'Please tell me you had nothing to do with this Jughead' I glanced at the boy who had been uncharacteristically quiet.

'Of course not Crystal!' he replied, outraged I would ask such a thing.

'I'm sorry kid but I had to ask'

'We;re going to be hounded until that head is found' FP groaned, 'Yet another downside to being us'

All the Serpents were reporting that they had been asked about the Head at least four or five times - it was annoying us all because no-one else was being questioned like we were. Sweet Pea and Fangs had stopped answering their doors altogether.

'Crystal!' Sweet Pea called to me in the corridor at school, 'Wait up Queen'

'What's up kid?'

'Join me, Fangs and Kicks at the Quarry tonight?' he asked.

'Sure honey, what about Toni? She not joining?' I asked.

'Nah, says she has other plans so it's just you and us boys'

'You're my favourite boys though'

We had a great time at the Quarry gossiping away and drinking. I was half drunk when I received a phone call from Jughead.

'Crystal where are you?' he asked frantically.

'At the Quarry, why, what's up?'

'Sheriff Keller has put up eviction notices saying that we all gotta move out of our trailers!'

'That's completely irrational, we've never had problems before' I commented.

'Apparently it came from the Mayor because a lot of us are behind on our payments'

'Yes, because no-one will hire us!' I ranted, 'Where is everyone Jughead?'

'At the Wyrm'

'We'll be there soon'

The four of us rushed to the Whyte Wyrm where everyone was up in arms about the eviction notices. FP was up on the stage addressing the crowd so I went to join him.

'We all got the eviction notices, but I swear to you, no - one is going anywhere' he told them.

'The heat has been on us since Pickens Day, and they are using that fucking statue as an excuse to turn it up' I continued, 'But if we're gonna fix this then we gotta ask yo, is anyone here in this room responsible for cutting off Pickens head?'

Nobody said anything but then Tall Boy spoke up.

'Why don't you ask your boyfriends son what he has to say, Queen?' he directed to me.

'What is your problem Tall Boy?' Jughead asked angrily.

'You wrote the article that started this mess. You and your posse fired the opening shot at Pickens Day' Tall Boy stated, just as angry.

'It was a peaceful protest' Toni and I retaliated.

'That accomplished nothing. So what's to say you didn't go back that night with a ladder and hacksaw?' Tall Boy accused.

'Hey' Jughead defended us 'We didn't do it. Hell Tall Boy, you're the tallest guy in this room. You wouldn't even need a ladder'

'Jughead, Tall Boy, the last thing we need right now is to turn on each other' FP tried to calm the waters, 'We'll find a way out of this'

The crowd slowly died down a little bit so FP and I made our way to where dad was stood behind the bar. I was extremely surprised to see Sophie stood with him holding Elijah.

'Sophie' I greeted.

'Hey Crystal. I didn't realise you were a Serpent, much less their Queen' she stated.

'Yeah, most of the time it's not too bad, unlike today' I replied.

'Well I'm here for a reason actually Crystal' she said hesitantly, 'Jonathon and I have decided to build a restaurant on the side of our house and we want to offer your dad a job there running the place. It's decent money and we're prepared to offer some other Serpents jobs as well'

'That is kind of you Sophie, thanks' FP said, 'You might also want to talk to Fred Andrews for the construction side of things'

'Thanks, I'll talk to him'

'Sophie?' I asked hesitantly 'Could I hold Elijah please?'

She was a little shocked by my question but let me hold my baby brother for the first time. He looked at me curiously before smiling happily.

'Oh no, who gave Crystal a kid?' Sweet Pea asked as he and Fangs joined us.

'This is Elijah, he's my half brother' I told them.

'He's cute but you know the rules Crystal' Fangs laughed.

'You have rules?' Sophie asked curiously.

'Yeah, well, just one really. We don't let Crystal near kids because she's wanted one since she was 14 and gets really broody' Fangs explained.

'But look at his adorable face!' I pouted.

'You're not having kids yet Crystal' Sweet Pea argued which caused me to sulk even more.

I noticed FP had been weirdly quiet throughout the discussion which made me feel a little bit guilty as we still hadn't had the whole kids and future talk yet.

'Have you guys seen Jughead?' Toni asked as she too joined us.

We told her we hadn't and she sighed heavily.

'I feel like I'm babysitting him. I swear he's going to do something stupid!'

'Let the kid do his thing' FP told her 'No-one can change his mind once it's set'