CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
TYPICAL RIVERDALE

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     "So, how has your little decrypting party been going lately?" Luna asked Toni as the both of them walked to the tables outside and Toni sighed.

     "We weren't even close to figuring out what this guy was up to. Jughead invited his girlfriend, Betty and her friend from the Northside the second night we tried but that was a bust," she replied and Luna frowned.

     "What happened?" she asked.

     "It's clear she doesn't like the Serpents and she clearly thinks the Black Hood is a Southsider yet fails to understand that the drugs are primarily sold to Northsiders and the Red Circle is basically a Neo-Nazi group from the Northside. And yet, we're the villains," Toni sighed and Luna scoffed.

     "To be honest, I'm not surprised," she said as she shrugged her shoulders and Toni smiled.

     "I never told you this, but sometimes you remind me of Rosa Diaz from Brooklyn Nine-Nine," she said and Luna groaned as she rolled her eyes.

     "I've been told that more times than I can count and I don't see it," she replied and both of them laughed as they found a table on the Serpents' side and sat down.

     "Did you see the newest article in the Riverdale Register?" Toni asked as she put her bag down beside her.

     "Can Alice Cooper go one day without demonizing our home and our community?" Luna groaned as she dropped her head on the table, her forehead colliding with the surface making a loud bang. Luna read the front page article right before she and Rosalie left the house to go to school. Northside Teen Stabbed By Southside Serpent. When she lifted her head up, she saw Sweet Pea and Fangs walking over to their table. Sweet Pea was sporting a bruise around his left eye and he still had that resting bitch face she always saw. "What the hell happened to you?"

     "Jughead's buddy, Andrews, gave it to me. There was a fight and some Northside kid got stabbed," he said.

     "The idiot stabbed himself with his own knife and of course, they think we stabbed him," Fangs said as he sat down.

     "So, Andrews, who I'm assuming is the leader of the Northside Neo-Nazis, decided to wave a gun in your face and expected you to not have any beef with him?" Toni laughed at how her question sounded to her own ears.

     "We caught him tagging our turf with red circles. The fight happens, the Northsider stabs himself in the leg and then Andrews' girlfriend shoots a gun in the air," Sweet Pea said and Luna blinked.

     "A gun? Wait, what did his girlfriend look like?" she asked.

     "Raven hair, kind of like yours but more put together," Sweet Pea answered and Luna narrowed her eyes at him.

     "Do you have a problem with my hair?" she questioned.

     Fangs and Toni tried to hide their smiles while Sweet Pea just scoffed with a little smirk. "Not at all, Lydia Deetz," he replied and Luna glared at him.

     "Bite me, Danny Zuko," she fired back.

     Sweet Pea rolled his eyes and kept telling them about what happened. "Anyway, she kind of looked like Audrey Hepburn walked right out of Breakfast at Tiffany's."

     "I've seen her at the Twilight Drive-In the night we saw Rebel Without a Cause and then I saw her again at Pop's on Retro Night. Also, how do you know about Breakfast at Tiffany's and Audrey Hepburn?" Luna asked and Sweet Pea shrugged his shoulders.

     "I made him watch that movie at the drive-in 'cause he lost a bet between us," Toni answered with a little smirk and Luna shook her head.

     "I don't even wanna ask," she replied.

     "Obviously, the Northsiders got off easy with no trouble while the rest of us got hauled in by the police," Fangs said.

     "Typical Riverdale. Same shit, different day," Luna sighed as she stood up and grabbed her bag. "I'll catch you guys later."

     "Later, Lunes," Toni said as the dark haired girl walked back into the school just as Jughead was walking out.

     "Jones."

     "Luna."

     Luna found her friends in the cafeteria and joined them with a crooked smile on her face but her friends didn't look so happy. "I'm assuming you read the article?" she asked.

     Peyton nodded as she leaned over the table with her arms crossed. "What happened between the Serpents and that Northside kid?" she asked.

     "I talked to Sweet Pea and Fangs. They were there when it happened. There was a brawl between the Serpents and the Riverdale Bulldogs after that kid in the Red Circle video came here tagging the Southside and stuck a gun in Sweet Pea's face. That Northside kid stabbed himself with his own knife but told the police the Serpents jumped him for no reason," Luna said as she put her hands on the sides of her neck. "The raven haired girl from the diner and the drive-in, she was there and shot a gun in the air."

     "Let me guess. Northsiders got off with nothing but the Serpents were arrested," Naomi said with her arms crossed.

     "That sums it up," Luna replied.

     "Maybe Rosalie had the right idea calling it quits with Sweet Pea. If they were still dating and she was there when that fight happened, she would've been arrested too," Maya said.

     "If that happened, my mom would've blamed Sweet Pea for it too. I don't think she ever liked him," Luna sighed while drumming her black painted fingernails against the table.

     "He's cool and so are Fangs and Toni but maybe we should be more careful. Being friends with the Serpents is nice protection against the Ghoulies but what happens when another fight breaks out? Or something worse happens and we just so happen to be there?" Kai asked.

     "Even though we're not Serpents or Ghoulies, this is our life. Also, the reason all this even happened was because that dumbass gingersnap decided to threaten violence against us because he along with many other narrow minded people in this screwed up town think the Black Hood is a Southsider with an ax to grind," Luna said with her arms crossed.

     "They are pretty cool people. They ride motorcycles, for crying out loud," Peyton said and the others laughed.

     "Hey, we're pretty cool. We're in a band," Naomi said.

     "Speaking of which, I don't see this madness dying down anytime soon. We can barely get one practice in for a whole week. I think it would be better for all of us if we go on a semi hiatus until all of this stops. I'll still be writing songs but for now, we put our group practices on hold and try to get through this one day at a time. Do we all agree?" Luna asked as she looked at all her friends.

     "Agreed," they all said.

     "If you guys wanna keep playing music in your own time, then you do that," Luna said and all her friends nodded.

     Her mother had the right idea trying to keep her and Rosalie safe, and her friends needed to be safe too. While their parents probably had their own safety measures put in place, the only way Luna could see them getting through the Black Hood's reign of terror is by pausing their group rehearsals. They would be able to have a longer lunch period instead of cutting it in half to fit in a rehearsal that is already cut short because of setting up their instruments. Maybe this was for the better for all of them.

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     Luna did tell her mother that she wasn't going to Pop's alone and that she was going with her friends, but she still insisted that she join them on their little night out for milkshakes. Once they sat down, the six of them ordered their usual milkshakes while Luna scrolled through the internet on her phone when a certain article caught her attention.

     "Holy shit. You guys are gonna love this," she said with a grin as she passed her phone around the group and all of them were very shocked.

     On the screen was a mugshot of the one and only Alice Cooper as a teenager and the title on the top of the page was Alice Cooper's Secret Serpent Past. Luna, her friends and Rosalie couldn't help but find it very ironic that the same person who bashed them in the local newspaper daily actually used to be one of them, and on top of that, she was a Serpent as well.

     "There is no way that's the same Alice Cooper who attacks the Southside on the daily," Peyton said while staring at Luna's phone screen.

     "If you know another Alice Cooper in Riverdale who resembles that mugshot, please do tell," Naomi replied.

     "Wait, so other than music, you guys talk about the Northside versus the Southside?" Rosalie asked and Maya laughed.

     "Did you think music was our only personality? Sure, we make music that hundreds of people enjoy but we're still Southsiders," Maya said while shrugging her shoulders.

     Luna turned around when the bell over the door rang and Alice Cooper walked in herself. She seemed to have no clue that everyone knew about her past as she went to the counter to order from Pop but looked around while everyone in the diner glanced at her. Some were cringing while others were laughing but they were all thinking the same thing. Pop handed her a newspaper and the look of horror on her face let Luna know that now she knew that her past was no longer a secret.

     "It's funny isn't it? The same person who constantly publicly demonizes us, our friends and our families, was actually one of us. On top of that, you were a Serpent too," Luna said and Alice glared at her before storming out of the diner.

     "I thought you said we should have sympathy for others," Rosalie said with confusion.

     "I won't sympathize with a stuck up woman who acts like she's above people like us when in reality, she used to be one of us. She was just like Toni, and Fangs and Sweet Pea but shits on them and other people like them every day. If you ask me, she needed to be knocked off her high horse," Luna replied before taking a sip of her milkshake.

     "Maybe she'll think twice before publicly calling us Southside scum or trash," Kai said while shrugging his shoulders.

     "Mom is going to flip when she hears this," Luna laughed.

     "Didn't Mom go to Riverdale High with Alice Cooper when they were teenagers?" Rosalie asked while looking at Luna who nodded while her lips were over the straw.

     "I think so. Which means she already knows but I bet this whole time, she found it insanely ironic," she replied.

     Peyton sighed as she leaned back against the seat. "Alice Cooper, a Southside Serpent. Who would've thought?" she asked.

     To be completely honest with herself, Luna would have to say that the last few days had been very interesting. Despite the fact that a murderous psychopath was running around the streets of Riverdale, a lot of interesting things had happened. Jughead's transfer to Southside High, everyone in town trying to solve a cipher and now learning the true past of Alice Cooper. Things could only get more interesting from there.