The full moon set while the two were asleep.

Sweet Pea woke up to find himself on the floor of the bunker, naked, obviously. The clothes he had worn the day before were all ripped and torn.

It took the serpent a moment for his brain to adjust to his surroundings and for his body to adjust to now using two legs aside from the four legs it had been using that evening.

He rose to his feet and stumbled over to the cot in the corner, on top of said cot laid a pile of clean clothes he had brought. This isn't his first full moon, so he knows to be prepared.
Sweet Pea waisted no time changing into his clothes, since the bunker got cold at night, the warm sensation of normal clothes was a big relief. But the biggest relief was the weight of his serpent jacket on his shoulders, it gave him a sense of safety.

The last thing he checked was his phone because he knew exactly what awaited him before he even opened it.
A long line of text messages and phone call notifications cluttered his lock screen.

Toni had checked up on him twice, wondering what he was up to exactly. Same with Jughead, asking why Sweet Pea wasn't at the usual Serpent hangout, the Whyte Wyrm.
Fangs, on the other hand, his texts always outnumbered the others.
47 text messages were sent from Sweet Pea's best friend. That caused a smirk to appear on Sweet Pea's face.

Classic Fangs

Was the only thing the werewolf could think as he quickly sent out a text explaining how he lost his phone, making up some lie about how he left it in his motorcycle's side compartment.

~

Carmen woke up to the panting sound of her best friend.

Her eyes fluttered open as Duck jumped onto her bed and nuzzled up against her.

It took her a moment to realize that she had fallen asleep and the full moon was no longer a threat, she still needed to beware of water, but now she was able to look out the window like a normal person.

Duck put his head on Carmen's stomach and gave her a look she was way too familiar with.

"Don't worry babe, I'm gonna feed you" Petting his head before getting up.

As she prepared her own breakfast she also filled Duck's bowl with food and carefully refilled his water.

Carmen heard her before she saw her. "Morning mom" She greeted as she passed her mom, toast in hand, she kisses her mom on the cheek as she goes to sit at the table.
"Hon? Aren't you going to be late for the first day of the last week of school?" She asked as Carmen took a glance over at the clock on top of the stove.

"SHIT!" Carmen hollers as she jumps to her feet, stuffs her toast into her mouth and runs upstairs.

"LANGUAGE!" Her mother shouts before her voice is cut off by the door to Carmen's bedroom door closing.

She throws on a red baseball shirt with blue jean shorts, then tossed her bag over my shoulder and ran out the door.

~

Sweet Pea has always lived alone in Sunnyside trailer park. But this wasn't by choice, none of this was...
He was born a werewolf, it's his family's legacy, but he's the only one left of his family in Riverdale. When he turned 17 his family moved away, to some other city named Beacon Hills, something about the Alpha in the town needing help or something.
Sweet Pea wanted nothing to do with it, so he stayed in town. He stills hears from his parents sometimes, it's not like they had a falling out or anything, but Sweet Pea wasn't that close with his parents anyways.

Plus, he likes the peacefulness of living alone. Sweet Pea is never 100% alone tho...
The main thing his parents left him was Rex, the husky.
It's easy for Sweet Pea to bond and communicate with his dog since, well, Sweet Pea is technically half wolf himself.

On weekends, Fangs and/or Toni will come and sleep over, keep him company. It's fun...

The one thing he misses is the personal alarm clocks his parents were in the mornings, now Sweet Pea has 15 consecutive alarm clocks on his phone from 6-7 am, so he'll wake up.

He grabbed some cereal and ate it while listening to the morning radio and watching his big husky dog eat her breakfast.
It was still early enough that he had enough time to take him on a walk before school.

So he grabbed Rex's leash and headed for the door. The beast noticed right away and followed her owner to the door where he waited for her leash.

Sunnyside traitor Park is surrounded by forest, which makes perfect walking paths.
It's also nice to have a map of the area in case Sweet Pea gets himself into... Trouble, and needs to hide out until he can shift back.

The cool morning air did good on his body, relaxing his nerves and helped him clear his mind. He took his time on this specific walk, remembering that it was the beginning of the last week of school and even if he was late, he knew whatever punishment he received, wouldn't be that bad.

Sweet Pea did his usual route through the forest and back to his trailer, then got on his motorcycle and made his way to school.

~

Riverdale High has always been a packed school, even more so with the mix of South and North Side students going to school together.

The tension has died down, Reggie and Sweet Pea are no longer at each other's throats, Cheryl and Toni are hitting it off, and everything is pretty okay right now.

Carmen meets up with her usual friends, Betty and Veronica.

"Hey, guys," Carmen says as she approaches her girls.
"Hey, C" Veronica perks up a bit more as she sees Carmen approaching them.
"Hey Carmen" Betty greets me as she stands beside them.

"What happened last night, by the way, Betty you couldn't make it to my house?" Veronica asks.
"OHhhh, she was probably in the bunker with Jughead" Carmen smirks as Betty playfully nudges her.
"No guys... No, I was busy working on university applications. Plus Jughead said that Sweet Pea had booked the bunker anyways" She shrugs as she turns towards her locker.
"Wonder what he was up to" Carmen wonders as her friends shrug.

The subject changes and Veronica turns to Carmen. "What about you? You couldn't make it either".
"Oh, yeah. Sorry V, I was busy, washing my dog" She lies as Betty chimes in. "How is Duck doing, haven't seen him in forever".

"Duck? He's good, he's good..." Carmen nods, then adds "I gotta get to my locker but I'll see you later" She gives her friends a quick wave before she turns and makes her way towards her own locker.

~

It's lunchtime now and the halls are packed, everyone is trying to get to where they wanna go as fast as they can which causes so many human traffic jams. People running into each other, people getting tripped, all of it.

Carmen was in the clearing, her locker was open while she retrieved her lunch bag and put her textbooks and binders away.

~

Sweet Pea was going to meet up with his Serpent friends outside, it was the last week of school so they were able to eat outside and just hang out, which was nice.

He was making his way through the school, mildly cold coffee in hand, he had it in one of those takeaway cups, with no lid, cause Sweet Pea has an odd hatred for the lids on the coffee cups. Dodging oncoming traffic, avoiding any spillage that may occur.

He stayed close to the side of the hallway since most of the big groups tended to clog the middle of the hallway.

~

Carmen just shut her locker and turned to go towards the cafeteria, then, she closed her eyes for a split second.

~

Sweet Pea didn't even see her when her locker closed, he tried to avoid her but the hall was too crowded.

He bumped into her.

He tried to lift his cup up to squeeze past her but he could feel his cup tipping slightly.

~

She could feel it before it even touched her.

Cool, kinda warm, probably coffee...

Carmen despised coffee, too bitter.

Before the guy who was, much taller than her, could fully pass by, she bolted. Carmen only looked back once, just to see the guy who had bumped into her was a serpent.

~

Sweet Pea felt the girl run and his eyes instantly followed her as she ran. He stopped for a moment in confusion which was followed by a wave of guilt washing over him.

He let out a sigh. as he started following her trail, using his enhanced senses to see where she went. The werewolf walked until her trail was ended, causing him to stop and observe his surroundings.
This hallway wasn't as full as most were at this time, so this allowed him to sense which room she was in.

Her trial ended in front of a normal looking door titled, Janitor's Closet. He took a step closer and let out a shaky breath.

Why am I nervous?
I've done much worse and haven't felt a thing

Sweet Pea thought before he raised his hand up an knocked on the door. A moment after he realized how loud his knocks were.

~

"Occupied!" Carmen said with an irritated tone. She had shifted just as she locked the door to the Janitor's closet, landing on her front side moments before some guy knocks on the door.

Thank God for locks

Carmen thinks before turning back to the door.

"I'm sorry. But hey, it's just coffee, what's the worst it can do?" He says, the mermaid can basically hear him let out a light laugh at his own comment.

"You have no idea..." Her voice trails off as she looks at the situation she's in.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" He asks, actually sounding sympathetic. Carmen sighs with that, now she felt bad for making this guy feel bad.
"No... No, it's fine. I just need some time for myself" She says as she gestures to the tail that replaced her legs.

~

"Oh, okay, well, sorry" Sweet Pea gives up at that point. He rolls his eyes before leaving the girl to do whatever she was doing in that closet.

The Serpent makes his way through the school, just like he was before, down to the main doors and out into the warm summer weather. He locates the Serpents pretty quickly since they're a big group of gang looking students with matching logos on almost all of their items of clothing.

"So Sweets, how was your night in the bunker?" Toni wiggles her eyebrows a Sweet Pea rolls his eyes.
"Yeah, what exactly were you doing Sweet Pea?" Jughead asks as he looks up from where he's sitting on one of the picnic tables with a Pop's burger in hand.
"Guys get off his back, my man probably had a vixen down there, you know" Fangs winks at me as I mentally facepalm.
"You idiots" Sweet Pea tries not to smile at his friends but a smirk appears on his face. "I had a shit tone of homework and I needed someplace to really focus".
"Now that's a load of crap" Toni points out as everyone giggles and laughs, obviously not believing his lie.

"Here, eat up" Jughead changs the subject as he tosses Sweet Pea a burger all wrapped up nicely and the smell leaking out from its papery wrapping makes the werewolf's mouth water. He takes a seat beside Fangs and digs in.

~

Carmen took another 10 minutes to dry off and shift back.
After all that chaos she excited the janitor's closet to find the hallways mostly empty, only a couple students lingering by their lockers. But no sign of the serpent boy who is the cause of this mess. She shrugs before leaving the site of the crim and heading towards the cafeteria to meet up with Betty and Veronica.

"Hey C, what took you so long?" Veronica asks as she notices Carmen approach them in the cafe.
"Sorry guys I, I dropped all my books in the hallway" SHe lies as she sits down beside Betty and starts on her lunch.
"You guys got any plans tonight?" Carmen asks.
"Nothing too much going on, just going to study, what about you V?" Betty asks.
"Just the normal, working at La Bonne Nuit" She shrugs as she catches Reggie's eye from across the cafeteria.

~

After school, Carmen went home and she was greeted by her best friend Duck.

"Hello Duck Newton," She says in her usual baby talk as she gives him belly rubs and ruffles his fur. "You in the mood for a walk you good boy?".
It was only 3 so her parents wouldn't be back from work for a bit, so she knew she could take her time.

Carmen grabbed the leash and Duck's tail instantly started wagging even faster than normal. She leashed him up and busted out the door.

It was a perfect 25 degrees Celsius day, with no humidity thank god or else her and duck would be drenched in sweat before even making it to the dog park. The walk to the dog park was a couple of kilometres, not too bad, but when they arrive the two both take a breather on one of the many benches that are scattered around the park.

Carmen took a sip from the water bottle she carried on her belt then helped Duck water fountain it into his mouth, using a little bit of her mermaid magic to make sure it went in his mouth and not on her. After she let Duck off his leash and he ran to play with some of the other dogs that were also at the park, smiling as she watches him go catch someone else's ball.

Life was good for a moment. Carmen was happy, surrounded by dogs, no water spillages, it was good.
But then she noticed that Duck had disappeared...
She sat up and immediately started scanning all the dogs, looking for her corgi.

The moment her eyes found Duck, she knew what he was going to do. He was looking at this husky dog that was at least two times Duck's size, and the look he was giving that dog was something she spotted in an instance.

"Crap" Carmen cussed as she grabbed her stuff and ran towards Duck.

You see, Duck has always done this, he's a guy, it's bound to happen, but Carmen always tries to avoid it happening cause the worst thing ever to say is "Sorry for my dog humping your dog"

She ran as fast as she could once she noticed Duck looks ready to pounce. She was a moment too late. Moving in super speed she leashed Duck and pulled him off the poor husky.
"Yo, watch your dog" a deep voice booms from behind her. Carmen stops in her tracks, like a deer in the headlights, she was hoping to get Duck and bolt before the other dog's owner saw.

"S-Sorry, he's just young and horny" Carmen tries to break the ice as she turns to face the beholder of said booming voice. She was pleasantly surprised to see the owner of said voice was the same Serpent who caused the whole lunchtime debacle from previously.

"Wait... You're that guy who spilled his coffee on my head today" Carmen snaps with her realization. His eyes grow wide as that same realization dawns on him.
"Crap! That was you?" He stops in front of her. "Sorry about that, it really was an accident. Plus it is just coffee, what happened to you?" The Serpent asks Carmen as Duck sits down by her leg.

"It's really none of your business" The mermaid responds as she bends down and gives her dog a good scratch on the head. Then there's a moment of silence, but the serpent doesn't leave, so Carmen stands up and asks "What's your name, you at least owe me that".

"Sweet Pea, it's Sweet Pea" He answers as his husky walks up beside their owner. "And this little princess is Rex" Sweet Pea pats his dog. Carmen smirks and says "Didn't see that coming".

"What? I can name my dog whatever I want!" He says with a hint of protectiveness.

"No, no no... Your name, Sweet Pea. Isn't that a little soft name for a Serpent?" She tries not to laugh.

Sweet Pea is left flabbergasted by the amount of balls this girl has.

How dare she talk to a Serpent like that!

But even tho he was annoyed, he felt that he was at a loss for words, so he just said the first thing that came to mind. "Well, it's better than whatever your name is! It's probably something preppy like Sally, Samantha, Sarah?"

She smirks and playfully rolls her eyes at his question. "That's pretty stereotypical of you, just assuming that we north siders are all preppy and shit, by the way, it's Carmen" Our protagonist leashes up her dog, Duck and but before leaving, turns and gives the serpent a wink, then continuing on her way.

Word Count: 3005

Will Sweet Pea and Carmen ever find out about each other's secrets?

WHat will happen during their final week of high school before summer?

And will Duck ever stop humping other dogs?

You'll have to wait and find out for yourself during the next chapter of A Different Side Of Me.

See y'all next time, hope you enjoyed. 

So long

and

Goodnight.

~Alley