Chapter Three :
New Kids on the Block

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

     Now that they were all settled in their new home, Winnie and Tasha decided to go around the neighborhood and get to know the area better while Jacob stayed at home with their mother. Maybe even stop at Pop's for a milkshake break. Being in a new neighbourhood or a new town as a whole wasn't usually an easy thing but luckily for them they've been there before. Except that was years ago and they've been in New York for a while before moving back to Riverdale. Being in their hometown was a bittersweet feeling but at least they had things to do until school started.

     "Don't you ever think about trying a different flavour instead of getting strawberry every single time?" Tasha asked and Winnie rolled her eyes but she was smiling as well.

     "Not at all," she replied before taking another sip of her strawberry beverage.

     The girls heard the bell ring which was a way to let it be known that someone was either walking into the diner or leaving. Winnie looked over Tasha's shoulder and saw a pale girl with silky red hair and red lips. She had to admit that she was a beautiful girl and probably turned heads everywhere she went. She was probably the queen bee at her school. And when she realized the redhead was walking over to their booth, she started chewing on her straw, a nervous habit that Tasha noticed.

     "What's wrong?" she asked.

     Before Winnie could even come up with an answer, the redhead stood next to their booth with a wide smile and her hands on her hips.

     "Are you new here?" she questioned with her high pitched voice.

     "Kind of," Winnie replied with an awkward shrug.

     "I figured. I've never seen you around before but you might already know who I am," the redhead said as she flipped her hair and Tasha snickered.

     "We have no idea who you are, Copper Head," she said and Winnie had to cover her mouth to hide that she was fighting a smile.

     "It's Cheryl Blossom, not Copper Head," the girl said with a scowl before looking at Winnie with a smile. "What's your name?"

     "Oh, it's Winnie and this is Tasha," Winnie said as she smiled right back at Cheryl who didn't seem to care about Tasha's presence.

     "Cute. Anyway, I was wondering if you would like to attend my End-of-Summer Pool Party at Thornhill. There will be food, drinks and everything in between," Cheryl said and Winnie slowly nodded.

     The idea did sound appealing but she had one condition. "I'll go if Tasha can go," she said with her arms folded over the table.

     Cheryl looked at Tasha who was simply drinking her chocolate milkshake and smiled again but this time, it was a forced one which Winnie was able to detect. She had seen too many fake smiles in her life to tell the difference.

     "Of course she can come," the redhead said before giving them the date, address and what time the party was going to be at.

     Once she left the diner, Winnie's shoulders relaxed and Tasha cocked an eyebrow. "You're not seriously thinking about going to that brat's party, are you?" she asked but Winnie only shrugged her shoulders.

     "I don't know, Tasha. I didn't wanna be rude even though she wasn't exactly nice to you," she said and her sister waved her hand dismissively.

     "I don't care about that," she laughed. "Now that I think about it, we should go."

     "Wait a minute. You were just about to give me grief for even thinking about going now you actually wanna go?" Winnie questioned with her eyes squinted in confusion.

     "Child, that was before I got a great idea," Tasha replied and Winnie rolled her eyes.

     "When have any of your ideas been great ideas?" she asked.

     "Hear me out before you judge me! Anyway, you saw how she hesitated to let me come along so I was thinking you should go and I should go with you to further piss her off. She seems to like you but it's pretty clear she would step on me with her Prada shoes if she had the chance," Tasha explained and Winnie sighed as she understood what Tasha was going on about.

     "So basically, you wanna go to her party to spite her," she said and her sister smiled widely.

     "Exactly!" she exclaimed.

     "Then what's the point in me even going if it's only your presence that'll annoy her?" Winnie asked.

     "Relax, I'm not gonna drive her over the edge with my existence and not give her some form of relief with hers. I'm not that mean," Tasha chuckled and Winnie shook her head as she took the last sip of her strawberry milkshake.

     "I think you and I have a pretty different idea of what 'mean' is," she said as she took out her wallet and left some money on the table to pay for their drinks.

     "Stating the obvious, are we? And next time, I'm paying," Tasha said as she got up and they left the diner.

     "You say that about everything," Winnie laughed as they started heading back home.

     It was nice to get out of the house and explore their hometown all over again. Maybe next time they go out for some sun and fresh air and to just enjoy the day, they could take Jacob with them. They did ask him if he wanted to tag along but he just simply didn't want to so it was just the two of them. When they got home, they would have to tell their mother about the invite to Cheryl Blossom's party leave out the part where the reason they were going was so Tasha could have her fun and annoy Cheryl but not to the point of insanity because just like Tasha said, she wasn't that mean. The good news was that there was now something interesting for the girls to do before school started. The bad news was that they had no idea what was up ahead.