{1} Tempest {Sweet Pea}

XXV

Storm was at Jughead's trailer before school even started and Sheriff Keller was there to annoy them about statue heads.

"Did you do it then?" Sheriff Keller asked as he was turning his head to Storm now, who stared right into his eyes and shook her head.

"No I didn't. Why the hell Sheriff, would I ever do something like that to anyone's statue?" She asked and he looks at her.

"You're the only Northside Serpent and you're a target for many rumors and horrible nicknames. I figured if it was anyone, it might be you who held a grudge." He said, and she simply just scoffed at his words.

"I don't hold grudges, unless someone specifically harms my family. Whether that's the Serpents or my blood family it doesn't matter to me, Sheriff." She'd say and he looks at her, and shook his head, as he walked out.

The next day, FP was attempting to calm the huge crowd of Serpents at the Whyte Wyrm, while, it was Storm who was now calling, every available contact that she had from her mom as she scrolled through reports and ways to stop this.

"Hey! Hey! We've got our newest lawyer already on the job! She's been workin' on it since she got the call last night from Jughead. No one, is going anywhere!"

FP was saying rather loudly to be heard over everyone else, as Sweet Pea sat on the pool table next to Storm who was frantically typing.

Even the occasional sentence of swearing quietly under her breath as yet another one of her mom's contacts hung up the phone on her.

"The heat's been on us since Picken's Day, and they are all using that damn statue as an excuse to turn it up. But if we're gonna fix this, I gotta ask: is anyone in this room responsible for cutting off Picken's head?" FP asked.

"Why don't you ask your son what he has to say? Or for that matter, ask that Northside lawyer scum, who willingly follows that posse everywhere." Tall Boy says and Storm growled loudly as everyone stopped suddenly, looking at her.

"What is your problem with us, Tall Boy?" Jughead snapped immediately, as Storm went back, to typing rather frantically onto her computer.

"You wrote the article, that started this mess. You and your posse fired the opening shot at Picken's Day. That Northsider scum, has no right to be in here, much less as a member of our Serpents, and we let her walk free!"

Storm slammed her hand onto the pool table and stood up from her seat and growled.

"If you have got a problem with me Tall Boy, if you've got a problem with me, the only one of you guys, who is a Northside Serpent among you all, if its the only problem that you have with a girl being a Serpent, who survived the Gauntlet, then fine. But I am a Serpent through and through. No matter, what side of the tracks I was born on. So, I'll stay away from the meetings, if it will be the way to make you stop harassin' a group of teens, who just so happen... to be my friends. But I won't sit there as you insult all of us, just because of one anomaly among the Serpents."

She said and the teenaged Serpents closed around her protectively as Tall Boy steps towards her, and then FP, he once again got in between them all.

"Hey, we'll figure this out." FP says and Storm shakes her head.

"I'll keep working on it. If I don't get any sleep for the next few nights, if I have to, I won't. I'm not gonna let the mayor, or anyone else for that matter, push you guys out of your home." She grabbed her computer and nodded to the others.

"You guys know where to find me if you guys want some extra support in this." She says, and zips up her jacket as she walked out, computer bag over her shoulder.

Storm had heavy, heavy bags under her eyes as she walked in next to Jug and stopped when she saw Penny.

"What the hell are you doing here?" A snappy tone was in Storm's voice, low and cold.

"We don't need Penny's kind of help. I have a lawyer standing right here." At once, there was a defiant tone in Jug's voice.

"You don't get a say anymore. None of you young Serpents do. Not since, you broke Serpent law, hurting one, of our own." Tall Boy said to them both, then Penny dropped her arm onto the table in front of the older ones.

"That used to be my Serpent tattoo, until your Northside scum Serpent as well as your son, sliced a chunk out of my arm and left me bleedin' in a ditch in Greendale."

FP put his face in his hand as Penny looked around. "But I'm still willing to help the Serpents. Tall Boy showed up with the eviction notices. They're legit every one of them."

"But, luckily for you guys, I can think of about 41 ways to stall the process to evict you guys, and I'm talking years."

She says and Storm shakes her head at her in disbelief. "Yeah maybe you can you bitch, but at what cost to the real Serpents who aren't interested at all, in being drug runners for the rest of their lives?" Storm snapped.

"What's your price, Penny?" FP asked as if Storm hadn't spoken at all and he looked at Penny Peabody.

"Blood for blood. An eye for an eye. I want back in with the Serpents, and I want them both kicked out. Oh, yeah, one last thing. I want their tattoos all carved out. And I want to do it myself, every one of the tattoos on your body, I think you've got a few too many for your age." Penny says, her voice cold, and Storm's eyes blazed up sharply at her words but for once it was fear, not anger that everyone saw.