Riverdale: The Missing Cheerleader

And So It Begins

The story's about a town, a small town, and the people who live in the town. From a distance, it presents itself like so many other small towns all over the world... Safe. Decent. Innocent. Get closer, though, and you start seeing the shadows underneath.

The name of this peculiar town is Riverdale.

Riverdale also is known as "the town with pep!" But stick around here long enough, and you start to realize just how many of those pasted on smiles are really only covering up a normal-sized closet full of skeletons. Sure, every small town has its secrets. But even those  who've grown up here, who've lived their whole lives in Riverdale, are shocked at what's being pulled from Pandora's box.

Trust Gracie, she should know. Lately, she's realized that everyone she cares about is tangled up in one Lynch-esque melodrama after another.

Riverdale's also a tour of Rockwellian traditions: the midnight pancake banquet in late winter, frost lacing the Town Hall windows and vapor curling from their mouths when-if-they dare to step outside.

Or the Riverdale High School Homecoming weekend, a network TV-ready worship of the apex of Americana: football, dancing, and small-town pride.

But Jughead and Gracie's personal favorite-really, the only one that's ever meant anything to them has to be the annual July 4th Summerfest Carnival. Typically, Betty, Archie, Jughead, Kevin, Jossi, and Gracie would hit up the carnival together, stuffing their faces with hot dogs, burgers, and cotton candy and testing our skills at the dunk tank (Betty and Jossi always did have the best arm). By evening, Archie, Kevin, and Jughead would hit the road to check out the Centerville fireworks, Betty hanging back to catch Riverdale's display with her sister, Polly (she never minded being the third wheel with Polly and-more recently Polly's attached-at-the-hip boyfriend, Jason), and Jossi and Gracie would set up a sleepover at Gracie's house.

The Summerfest is just what they do. What they've always done.

Archie, Gracie, Jughead, and Jossi started going before they were even walking, thanks to their parents. Betty and Kevin started tagging along around first grade, and it's been a thing ever since.

Or, really, it was a thing.

Because this summer, everything's been different. Betty's off in LA, honing her writing skills with an internship at Hello Giggles. (Not to mention, Polly and Jason had an epic, scorched-earth breakup on par with The War of the Roses.) Archie's been busy working construction for his dad...

Honestly, don't ask Gracie about it. They still aren't on speaking terms with what he did to Jughead.

As for Gracie? So far, she's been working at Pop's Chock'Lit Shoppe, helping Jughead out at the Drive-In, and babysitting. So far, Jughead and Jossi are only people who she's really seen this summer, but that's okay. She's happy to be helping them out.

Gracie had already been to Girl's Camp, spending at least a week away from Riverdale and up at Rock County Lodge. Sure, she missed spending time with her friends, but she also loves going to Girl's Camp. Going boating out on the lake for one, doing the challenge courses, challenging her endurance and strength, such as, zip-lining, climbing walls, balance, going through a spider's web, and, of course, learning medical aid skills. Her messed up leg didn't stop her from doing that. She found her own way around it.

The thing that surprised her and Jughead the most was when Jossi asked to go to Girl's Camp with Gracie, and she went with her.

Kevin was off training for wrestling for the new school year with his dad, the Sheriff of Riverdale, so Gracie saw him occasionally whenever he went out for a bite to eat at Pop's.