Resilience | Sweet Pea.

73 - Not a victim

Monday morning, the day I'd been dreading. I stand in my bedroom alone. I'd pulled myself out of bed, while Sweet pea showered and been standing in the mirror.

"Nova Daniels, you are NOT a victim." I whisper to myself.

I pull on a singlet and shorts, matched with fishnet tights and my boots. I pull my hair into a pony tail and wing my eyeliner. I won't let anyone see me as a victim. Not anymore.

"You look hot." Sweet pea says, entering the room in a towel, his hair wet from his shower.

"Shut up." I laugh at him.

I pick through my lipsticks, to be fair, I only own 4; red, dark red, nude and black. All mainly unused. I don't wear much lipstick but today, I'm considering it.

"Babe?" I ask.

"Hm?" Pea replies, rummaging through his draw in my dresser. We'd decided that was a better plan than him carting a duffle bag back and forth every time he stayed over.

"Black lipstick, is it too much?" I ask him.

He doesn't answer, so I look over at him, he's standing in his boxers, looking at me in confusion.

"What?" I ask.

"What's this about?" He asks. "You never wear lipstick, especially not to school."

"Can't I just want to look nice?" I ask.

"Of course you can, love. I just... You don't normally?" He hums, I sigh.

"I'm going to walk in there today, and everyone is going to look at me. I'm not a victim and I won't act like one. If they're gonna stare, I may as well look good while they do it." I explain, he smiles at me.

"Black lipstick isn't too much." He says, walking over and kissing my forehead.

*

"You locked your mom in Dilton's bunker?" Jughead asks Betty as she relays her weekend to Jug, Veronica, Archie and myself. I shift nervously for her.

"Betty...?" I hum, I look around the room to see everyone sharing my same concerned glance towards Betty.

"Yeah... It's the only place where she'll be safe from the Farm, guys." Betty explains to us. "And I've already made some headway with the deprogramming. Next I'm going to listen to her testimony tapes and see if there's anything I can use to help me get my mom back."

I look over at Archie, who meets my nervous glance. I feel awful for Betty. Before anyone can tell Betty that locking her deranged mother in a dead kid's secret bunker is not the answer, we hear a distinct banging on the lockers from outside the room.

"What is that?" Archie asks, getting out of his seat.

The 4 of us follow Archie out of the common room to see one of the cheerleaders banging her head against a locker, a bloody mark left behind. Another cheerleader attempts to make her stop, but the cheerleader pushes her to the ground, only to continue bashing her head against the locker.

"What the hell is going on?" Jughead asks as a few of the cheerleaders finally pull the girl away from the lockers, but not without the girl thrashing and struggling.

"Well... At least I'm old news now." I say under my breath, Veronica hisses 'nova!' at me. I shrug.

"Hey, did she take something?" Jughead asks, the girl's face now clear to us. Her eyes are empty and angry, with blood seeping from her forehead and foam forming at her mouth.

"Jesus Christ." I gasp

"Yeah, she took some G." One of the cheerleaders tells him.

"What the fuck is G?!" I ask. The girls look at me, distressed. "What are you two waiting for?! Get her to the infirmary!"