Serpent Princess

-Part Seven-

I stand up from playing my game of pool as I notice a certain blonde walk in. Betty Cooper. I pass my cue to another young serpent before rushing over and pulling her into my embrace. 

"Cooper, what're you doing here?" I smile

"I am planning a retirement party for your dad, a party fit for a king" I nod, thinking how much dad will love a good send off. She smiles before turning to Toni "You have a stage. Would you be open to me bringing a karaoke machine?" 

"For FP's retirement? Sure. As long as the Princess gives us a song!" Toni smiles in my direction and I roll my eyes.

"Also, Toni, one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you,beyond the party planning is, I've been walking the razors edge since Jughead joined the serpents. And all I've been thinking is as soon as FP gets home, everything will get better, because he'll be there to protect Jughead and Hunter and make sure they don't get hurt" I roll my eyes, where is this going? 

"Yeah, I'm following you. I mean with FP out of the picture--" Toni starts before getting cut off by Betty 

"That's my point, I do worry. So I wanna keep an eye on Jughead myself. Make sure that as deep into these shark infested waters as he goes, he doesn't do something, that, you know, puts him in danger." Betty rants on 

"So, what, you wanna be a serpent?" I ask Betty. She gives a nod and I smirk. "Okay, well I want in too." 

"I wanna be part of his world, this world" As Betty finishes a lady begins laughing, looking to my left I spot Byrdie. 

"Shut it, Byrdie"Toni yells towards her. 

"Sorry, girls. You wanna join the club, you gotta do the dance. The serpent dance." She chuckles nodding her head towards a girl on a pole. 

"Serpent dance?" I look at Toni with a questioning look.

"Its some outdated sexist serpent tradition. I tried to get it outlawed but misogyny dies hard. You don't wanna know" Toni glares at Betty. 

"ugh, yeah, I do. I wanna know everything" Betty smirks, turning her body to watch the dancer again. I give Toni a look but she just softly shakes her head at me. I chuckle lightly, I'm glad jug has someone like Betty. I turn to look at the girl on stage and chew my lip.

---

"A party? no,no,no. The problem is, I'm trying to keep the serpents in my rearview mirror, remember?" Dad sighs as we walk into the trailer 

"It's one night" Jug smiles "Not even. It's like three hours. You've done right by the serpents." I pull out the chinese takeout and set it on the table. "More than right. let them do right by you now." 

"Come on, it's the end of an era. Plus me and Betty did not spend all day getting your party ready for you to be a no show" I remark as I pick up my food. The boys chuckling at my remark and dad lets out a sigh. 

"Okay. Okay, lets do it" Dad finally agrees and I give a little fist pump in victory. Jug's phone begins to vibrate and he looks kind of worried.

"It's Archie. Don't bogart the egg rolls" I shake my head at him, grabbing a couple of egg rolls and putting them on my plate. I push my food around on my plate, not particularly hungry.

"Okay, what's wrong?" I look up from my plate and shake my head but dad just raises his eyebrows. 

"Can I ask you something but you can't get mad at me..." He nods slowly "I want to do the serpent dance..." I breathe out. 

"Absolutely not" He doesn't even think about it

"Why?" I ask, starting to push my food around again