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Chapter Two
In the Wrong Places
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     WHEN TORI ARRIVED HOME, HER MOTHER'S CAR WAS STILL GONE which meant that her mother was working a double shift. She pulled her keys out of her bag and stuck the house key into the lock and twisted it until she heard a click. She pushed the door open and once she was inside, she closed the door and locked it. Her footsteps echoed throughout the empty house as she ascended up the stairs where her bedroom was. She untied the laces of her ankle boots and slipped her feet out of them with ease and put them in the closet. She walked over to her bed and put her bag down on the pillow and crawled on top of the soft lavender duvet.

     The math homework in her bag only seemed to make her want to ignore it even more but since she already went to summer school to keep her from having to repeat her sophomore year, she did not want to go through it all over again so she internally groaned as she decided to tackle the math homework first and just get it over with. By the time had finished the math homework alone, her head was already throbbing and she felt even more tired than she was earlier. She would have no problem doing her biology and chemistry homework but at that moment, all she wanted was to sleep for a while before getting back to it. Her phone buzzed on her nightstand and she lazily reached out for it and checked her messages to see that her mother had texted her to tell her that she was bringing home Chinese food. Tori put her phone back down and sat up to put her math homework back into her bag and then decided to do the biology work and then chemistry.

     By the time Tori was finished everything, she let herself drop backwards onto her bed and closed her eyes. Her body felt limp and her head throbbed from the last few hours of homework. And just as she was about to take a nap, she heard the door slam very loudly and in that moment she knew that her mother was home. She moaned in frustration as she forced herself to sit up and put her stuff back in her bag. Her sock clad feet made contact with the plush grey carpeted floor and headed downstairs where her mother was waiting with a bag of Chinese takeout.

     "Get it while it's still hot," her mother said as she put the bag down on the table.

     Tori grabbed a plate and a fork and started loading it with food. Although she felt tired, she knew that her mother was probably exhausted from working a double shift so she straightened up and pretended as if she wasn't affected.

     "So Tori, how was school?" her mother asked.

     "It was alright. Me and Cheryl stopped at Pop's for milkshakes after," Tori said before sticking a forkful of chicken fried rice into her mouth.

     "Listen hun, I know you like having a friend but the Blossoms might not be the place you want to look for one," her mother said.

     Tori frowned and continued eating her food. Unfortunately, her mother never approved of Cheryl or any of the Blossoms. There were many reasons to not trust Cheryl's mother, Penelope Blossom, but Cheryl's Nana Rose was okay and never gave Tori the creeps or any type of bad feelings. Tori's friendship with Cheryl was something that her mother never understood, thinking that Cheryl was only going to make Tori's life miserable in every way possible. In fact, no one understood how she could be friends with Cheryl after all the chaos she caused for so many other people but Tori just figured that she never had anything against Cheryl and Cheryl never had anything against Tori. They accepted each other, flaws and all and that's all Tori wanted.

     When Tori was finished eating, she washed her plate and washed her mother's plate which became empty just as she was done washing her own plate. When she was finished cleaning the dishes, she put the leftover Chinese food in the fridge and her mother was already heading upstairs.

     "I'm gonna go to bed early. See you tomorrow, Tori," she said as her voice slowly faded away.

     "Goodnight, Mom," Tori said.

     When she heard her mother's bedroom door shut, she sighed and leaned against the counter. Now that she had eaten and her mother was down for the night, she could finally relax and maybe catch a few extra hours of sleep for the night. Once she reached the top of the stairs, she went into her bedroom and pulled out a pair of pajamas from the dresser beside the window. She left them folded on her bed and left her bedroom to go to the bathroom. She grabbed a clean towel from the closet right beside the bathroom and went inside, making sure to close the door. She let the towel drop onto the closed toilet seat and quickly stripped out of her clothes. Once she was naked, she stepped into the bathtub and turned on the pipe and then switched to the shower pipe. Tori tampered with the knob until she was satisfied with the temperature of the water and let the weight of it flatten her hair against her skin.

     Once her hair was washed and the water had rinsed all the soap off her skin, she turned the water off and patted her hair so it wasn't dripping with water and wrapped the towel around herself. When her skin was dried and moisturized, she put on the pajamas she had laid out and went back to the bathroom to comb her hair and brush her teeth. When she was done, she rinsed out the toothpaste from her mouth and pulled her hair back into a ponytail so it wasn't falling in her face. She turned off the lights in the bathroom and in the hallway before going into her own room and shutting the door. The only source of light was the fairy lights she had lined up on the walls which gave the room a soft and gentle glow and she crawled onto the mattress. She flipped a switch that turned off all the fairy lights and left her in complete darkness. She pulled the duvet over her and turned around until she was laying on her stomach with her face buried into the pillow, welcoming sleep with open arms.

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

     "EARTH TO TORI," CHERYL SAID AS SHE SNAPPED HER FINGERS IN TORI'S FACE.

     Tori blinked and massaged the sides of her temples to ease the headache she was feeling.

     "I'm sorry, Cheryl. I thought if I went to bed earlier I could get more sleep but then my mom woke me up at six o'clock this morning just to tell me that she will be home when I get back from school today," Tori said as she stifled a yawn.

     "I can't believe it," Cheryl said with her arms crossed.

     "Yeah, and I've been up since," Tori confirmed.

     "No, I mean I can't believe they are letting those Southside snakes come to our school. It's already a living nightmare at home, I don't need my school life to be a nightmare too," Cheryl said.

    "Oh right, the student transfer. I forgot about that, but they're coming today, right?" Tori asked.

    "Unfortunately, which is why I am going down there where little Veronica and her little boyfriend are welcoming them and giving those snakes a piece of my mind," Cheryl said while stomping towards the main staircase.

     "Cheryl, I know you don't like it but could we at least pretend to get along with the Southsiders? I mean, what have they ever done to you?"

     "They're about to ruin my school life!"

     Tori knew that when Cheryl was mad, she was mad and instead of screaming and hitting, she hid it behind sass and sarcasm which Tori found to be worse than the traditional yelling and punching, with the exception of the time she started hitting Jughead Jones because everyone thought it was his father, FP Jones who had killed Jason Blossom.

     She noticed Reggie on his way to give the transfer students hell and that was when she really needed to warn them. Wanting to spare the newcomers of her ex boyfriend and best friend's wrath, she rushed to the main hallway where she saw Veronica Lodge and her boyfriend Archie Andrews standing behind a table with stacks of papers on top of it and a group of Southsiders standing in front of the table. She quickly jogged over to them and tapped Veronica on the shoulder.

     "Oh hi, Terri! Do you wanna help us welcome our new students?" the young Lodge asked with a welcoming smile.

     "Okay, one, it's Tori. I don't know how you can't remember that. Two, I came to warn you guys─"

     "Warn us about what?" Archie questioned.

     "If you shut up and let me talk, I will tell you," Tori said and she started to get frustrated with the couple standing in front of her.

     "You got some fire," a tall boy with tanned skin and black hair said while smirking.

     "Thanks, I guess. Anyway I came to warn you guys that Cheryl and Reggie are─"

     "You mean Mantle?" another male Serpent asked.

     "Yes! Reggie Mantle! And Cheryl Blossom! Coming down here to give you hell!" Tori raised her voice as she spoke, clearly getting very annoyed with the interruptions. "Do you understand what I am trying to tell you?"

     "Stand down, Eva Peron," Cheryl called out.

     Tori heard the familiar footsteps of Cheryl's heels clicking on the floor and she turned around to see the redhead descending down the stairs with Reggie trailing right behind her along with the entire cheerleading squad of River Vixens and Bulldogs dressed in cheerleading uniforms and football jackets.

     "Nothing like some familiar school spirit," Jughead muttered under his breath.

      Tori turned back around to look at the group of Southsiders and the two Northsiders and pointed behind her with her thumb.

     "You all see that? That's what I was trying to tell you," she said.

     "No one invited Fascist Barbies to the party," Veronica said while looking at Cheryl and Tori.

     "Excuse me? I tried to give you a heads up but nobody was listening to me," Tori said in defence.

     "Wrong! No one invited Southside scum to our school," Cheryl retaliated.

     "Actually, they weren't invited, they were sent here," Tori pointed out.

     "I am not about to let this school's above average GPA be screwed up by classrooms overcrowded with underachievers," Cheryl said rather loudly.

     "Um, Cheryl─"

     "So, why don't you do us all a favour and go find some other school to debase with your hardscrabble ways?" Cheryl said, completely ignoring Tori who was standing on the sidelines.

     "I dare you to come over here and say that to my face," a short brown skinned girl with pinkish purple hair said as she stalked closer to Cheryl.

     "Gladly!" Cheryl said and soon both girls were standing right in front of each other.

     "Cheryl, please no!" Tori begged as she pulled the redhead away from the female Serpent.

     "Can we just put our differences aside and act civil towards each other?" Archie asked.

     "You don't speak for the Bulldogs, Andrews. And need I remind you that these greaser-snakes showed up at your house to kick your ass," Reggie said.

     "Happy to finish what we started," a tall and broad Serpent boy said as he took a step forward but was held back by the other Southsiders.

     "That is exactly what I'm talking about," Reggie said.

     "Can it, Reggie!" Tori demanded.

     "I am so over this toxic masculinity right now!" Veronica said.

     "Reggie," Tori said into her hand but passed it off as a cough when everyone looked at her. "Something in my throat."

     "Yeah, you had way more than that down your throat," Reggie chuckled.

     "So help me Reggie, I will shove my foot so far down your throat it comes out of your ass and I would love to do it in front of an audience right about now so do not test me," Tori said menacingly.

     "Enough! Get to class," Principal Weatherbee said.

     The crowd disbanded and Tori headed to her next period class, avoiding Cheryl and Reggie. She knew that Cheryl did not like the Southsiders but she still didn't think it was fair to automatically treat them like criminals just because of where they came from. Reggie on the other hand, this behaviour from him was not unexpected. He looked down on the Southside as if they were chewed up gum on the bottom of his shoe just like any other Northsider.

     When class was over, Tori decided to eat her lunch in the student lounge instead of sitting with Cheryl at their usual table in the cafeteria. When she got there, some of the transfer students were sitting inside and chilling while Veronica was introducing everyone and they all looked at her as she entered.

     "Tori, right?" Veronica asked. Tori nodded and shifted her feet while everyone was watching her. "Have a seat. We were just introducing ourselves."

     Tori headed straight for the blue bean bag chair, which was her favourite spot in the lounge and Veronica continued with introductions. Tori pulled out a small bag of Flamin Hot Cheetos from her bag and opened it.

     "In case you guys didn't notice, this is Tori. She's the one who tried to warn us about the Vixens and Bulldogs earlier today," Veronica said and everyone turned to look at the small girl who had her mouth full of Hot Cheetos.

     "Unfortunately, you didn't warn us soon enough," the same Serpent who was about to fight with Archie earlier on said and Tori glared at him.

     "You know what, Sweet Pea, she would've gotten the warning out if you guys didn't keep interrupting her," the girl with purple hair said. She stuck out her hand and said, "Toni Topaz."

     "Tori Alvarez," Tori said as she took Toni's hand in hers and shook it.

     "Toni and Tori. Alvarez and Topaz. Tori Alvarez and Toni Topaz. Your names literally make the best duo ever," a pale boy wearing a blue long sleeved shirt said.

     "That's Kevin, by the way, and I am Josie McCoy," a dark skinned girl said.

     A Serpent who went by the name Fangs asked Kevin about his last name and mentioned how another Serpent called Joaquin talked about him. Tori offered her bag of hot Cheetos to Sweet Pea who had been sitting on the couch right next to her and he looked at the bag hesitantly.

     "They're just Hot Cheetos," Tori said while shrugging her shoulders.

     "How hot are they?" Sweet Pea asked.

     "Not that hot. They are a little spicy but they have a sweet aftertaste," Tori said. Sweet Pea took one Cheeto and put it in his mouth. When he was done with that one Cheeto, he grabbed the entire bag that had the rest of the Cheetos inside. "Hey!"

     Tori tried to get the bag of Cheetos back from him but he stood up and held the bag above his head.

     "What now, shrimp?" he teased.

     "I happen to take that as a compliment because I find shrimps to be really cute," Tori said as she crossed her arms.

     "You guys! Come with me, now!" Principal Weatherbee demanded.

     Everyone followed him to the school seal where there was a green snake shaped like an "S" spray painted over it. Tori had an unsettling feeling in her stomach as she got an idea about what happened when she saw Reggie standing there with his arms crossed and a very smug smirk on his face.

     "Which one of you defaced our school seal with this graffiti?" Mr. Weatherbee asked.

     "This is what they do, Principal Weatherbee. They tag their turf," Reggie said.

     "Could you be any more transparent?" Veronica asked and the smirk did not leave Reggie's face, not even for a second.

     "Mr. Weatherbee, they didn't do anything, they were with us in the student lounge this whole time," Tori said.

     "Since when did you care about Southside snakes?" Reggie asked.

     "We all know it was you who did this, Reggie, but now that some of the Southsiders transferred here, which wasn't their choice by the way, you have someone to blame when something goes wrong," Tori said.

     "Effective immediately. From now on, no more Serpent jackets and all Serpent tattoos must be covered. Any gang related paraphernalia whatsoever will result in immediate suspension," Principal Weatherbee said and Reggie stood there with a grin the whole time while the Southsider students were very irritated about what was happening and who could blame them? They were the ones being punished for something they didn't do.

     "Principal Weatherbee, this is discrimination!" Tori protested.

     "That is all. Are we clear?"

     Tori crossed her arms as she watched Reggie and the principal walk away but this was only the beginning.