Chapter Text
Veronica had thought Riverdale would be sedate, ghostly, and safe at night. The all-American town, where you could wander down a side street at three in the morning and only pass a seven-eleven and maybe a gas station.
But then she never thought she would be doing that, herself, because she wasn't a sketchy midnight wanderer. And she prided herself on always getting her beauty sleep.
Still, here she was. Here they all were, creeping down a very unsafe road in the South Side. Betty, because she was far too much the town's Nancy Drew, it turned out; and also very into defying her mother right now. Cheryl, because Cheryl appeared wherever they were all the time always, wrapped in a designer cloud of orchid perfume and a barely-concealed need to be included. And Kevin, because 12am was the only time he could get out from under Sheriff Keller's overprotective gaze and meet Joaquin (a serpent and a hottie and so scandalous that Veronica had actually high-fived Kevin when she'd heard).
"To clarify, we didn't need to actually come to the South Side to meet him!" Kevin hissed now. "Or we wouldn't have, if Veronica hadn't stolen my phone and texted him that we were coming! He would have come to us."
"I approve of that," Cheryl said. "You should always make a man jump to meet you at first. It sets the necessary tone for the rest of the relationship."
"You know what isn't a good tone to set?" Kevin said. "Showing up with three women to a gay man's date. Hi, Joaquin. Here are my three--"
"Call me a hag and I will slit your throat," Cheryl said.
Betty said, "Can we please be quiet?"
This was a good request. Everyone in the North, East, and West sides of Riverdale was snug in their queen- or king- sized beds, behind cheery curtains and brightly-painted front doors, waiting for the paperboy and the jingle of the food truck (that would be the East Side. The East Side was hipster heaven). Here in the South Side, everyone was still awake. Televisions blared behind thin trailer walls, and somewhere not too far off some meatheads were riding their motorcycles aimlessly along a mud slick.
It was all very 8 Mile and Veronica never wanted to visit again.
Still, she led the charge when it came to sneaking past the trashcan fire-pit parties and probable-alcoholics in lawn chairs. She had been the one to drag them out here. And while she was furious that her louboutins were now covered in mud, she was starting to feel that she'd made the right choice.
That was our life, her mother had said, like the well-furnished pied-à-terre was too ghastly to contemplate spending a lifetime in. It was small, of course. It wasn't the Dakota. Any of Veronica's Spence classmates would have sneered at it.
But it wasn't this. If the Lodges had been relegated to this, then -- then maybe Veronica would have understood.
"Why did you drag us here, V?" Cheryl whispered now. Because she was fast and deadly in her ruined thigh-high boots, she had managed to make herself second in line behind Veronica, leaving Kevin and Betty to squelch along in the rear. "Are you looking up new places for you and your waitress mother to live? It is très tragique how you've fallen--"
"Cheryl, I swear to god, I will sell you to a passing biker," Veronica hissed.
"Why, V, do you need the money?" Cheryl asked sweetly.
"Who's talking money?" Veronica said. "I would sell you for five cents. I'd bargain against myself to get you off my hands."
Cheryl huffed, but dropped it.
Only Betty was privy to her reasons for coming here. Veronica's father was still her father, after all, and it wouldn't do to reveal his drive-down-the-price-of-Riverdale scheme to a Blossom. Even Veronica understood that.
"But I still have to do something," she'd told Betty. "This town is all Wisconsin death trip sometimes, sure, but it still feels like I should be here. Like I should be one of you. Doesn't it? I mean, I have to keep daddy from ruining it."
"We don't know if he's still going to ruin it, though," Betty had said. "Or if he has plans to ruin any more of it. Nobody but Jughead really did like the drive-in. And your mother said he'd sunk everything into this one deal, right? Just one?"
Even in Betty's wholesome mouth, the idea that Hiram Lodge, modern-day robber baron, would stop at one deal -- well. It sounded ridiculous. But something unspoken had passed between them then. Betty didn't believe in Hiram Lodge, but she did seem to believe in Veronica, and so she wanted to investigate before she concluded that Veronica's father was totally and completely shady.
So: the South Side. Where all the evidence was. Or at least where Joaquin was. Kevin swore up and down that Joaquin was nothing like the rest of the Serpents, so hopefully he could tell them something.
His trailer, when they found it, was strung up with cheerful lights like no one had bothered to take them down after Christmas. He had a lawn gnome. Betty poked it and said, "Aw, that's cute. You didn't tell me he was kitschy," and Kevin said, "To be honest, I really just explored his tonsils. I don't really know that much about him."
"You told us he was trustworthy!" Veronica said now. "You said, 'he's straight!'"
Kevin blinked at her.
"Why would I ever say that? I said, not straight, like a man finally finding water in the desert, and you misheard me. That's on you!"
"He's someone we can more or less trust to talk to us," Betty said, brushing past them and knocking on the door. "That's a start."
Joaquin, when he opened the door, didn't look likely to deceive. Mainly because he looked thrilled to see Kevin, and then sort of confused to see the rest of them. Confusion looked good on his bronzed, greek god features, but then any emotion would look good on those. Veronica had to forgive Kevin as a result.
She mouthed nice and Kevin mouthed right?
"Uh, do you want to come in?" Joaquin said. "All of you? I guess?"
"I don't even want to be here," Cheryl said loudly. "I just want to know what secrets B & V are hiding this time. It's connected to Jason, I bet."
Betty and Veronica both rolled their eyes. With a sniff, Cheryl led the way in. Joaquin stepped aside to let her pass, looking blindsided. The inside of his trailer was cramped but clean, and once they were all seated on his lumpy orange couch he hovered nervously.
"Uh, so, it's not much--"
"It certainly isn't," Cheryl agreed, and then shrieked when Veronica kicked her.
"--but I thought it would be only Kevin."
"Kevin also thought it would be only Kevin," Kevin said, with a chastising look at the rest of them. "Kevin is so, so sorry."
Joaquin grinned at him. Kevin grinned back. It was definitely A Moment for them and Veronica almost felt sorry for ruining it, except that Joaquin belonged to a gang her father was brokering shady deals with, so no, she wasn't sorry.
"We aren't here to ruin your date. We just need some information," she announced.
"For an expose we might run in the Blue & Gold," Betty put in, with a wary glance at Cheryl. "About the city selling property off when the Serpents look like they might move in. But not just the Serpents. Anybody from the South Side! Sort of a socioeconomic expose, you know." She smiled, and somehow made the smile look ashamed of itself and also of its entire class.
"How the town turns its back on places that aren't frequented by the right kinds of people," she finished.
"Oh," Joaquin said.
He poured them all some water, which was nice of him, and pulled a small chair over so that he could sit with them.
"Um," he said. "I don't think you need to do a socioeconomic expose. Most people, uh, don't ever want to associate with the poor."
"That is so true," Cheryl said, with a flutter of her lashes and a delicate hand on her chest. "I'm 100% opposed to associating with the poor myself."
Veronica tried to kick her again, but this time she dodged it. Kevin, who had clearly been rooting for Veronica's kick to land, hissed, "Sure, Cheryl, you following us to a trailer park really proves that."
"Anyway," Betty said loudly, "As you can see, some people at Riverdale High still need to learn that there's value in the people of the South Side. Even the Serpents."
"Oh, no, the Serpents really are horrible," said Joaquin. "I've been trying to leave for like four months."
"Really?" Kevin said, sounding hopeful.
"Why?" Betty said, zeroing in on the lead. "What are they doing? Is it connected to the Twilight?"
Joaquin blinked his beautiful baby-blues at her beautiful baby-blues.
"How did you know that?"
"Hot tip," Veronica said quickly. "What can you tell us about that deal?"
"Well, I mean, that was FP--"
"FP?" Betty repeated. She looked unsure, like he'd said something she hadn't expected him to say.
"What's an FP?" Veronica asked her.
Before she could answer, someone pounded on the door.
"Little snake!" said a voice. A familiar voice. The voice of the man from the drive-in, the one she had seen arguing with her mother. They caught a flash of him through the window -- dark hair, dark stubble -- that confirmed it.
"Aw," Cheryl crooned. "It's your mother's boyfriend, Veronica."
"It's a speak of the devil moment is what it is," Joaquin said, sounding panicky. "Get in the bedroom. Now! Especially you, Kevin."
He moved fast, hustling them all off the couch and in the direction of a narrow door. The space beyond it was barely big enough for the four of them. Veronica and Cheryl and Kevin all ended up on the bed. Betty stood in the small space just before the door, her ear to its thin wood, her hands tucked into her armpits. She looked very worried about something. Probably the gang leader in the room just beyond.
"Oh my god," Kevin was saying. "Oh my god. Is that guy the head Serpent? My dad is gonna kill me if he finds out, Veronica--"
"Oh, please. You're in Hunky Soprano's bed, which is exactly where you wanted to be. You can calm down about it any second now," Cheryl said, rolling her eyes.
And Betty said, "Shut up!"
Which was pretty uncharacteristic for Betty.
"Bets?" Veronica said.
Betty turned wide eyes on her.
"That guy--" she said. "Guys, I think that's Jughead's dad."