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Chapter Five
The Cold Shoulder
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     DESPITE THE SMALL DETAIL THAT CHERYL WAS IGNORING TORI, it only gave her more time to talk to Toni and Fangs. Toni could be tough for a small girl when she needed to be and Fangs almost gave off the innocent aura if it wasn't for the fact that he was a Serpent. It was almost as if they weren't Serpents and just kids like everybody else. Toni sat on the couch and Tori sat in her favourite spot in the students lounge, which was the blue bean bag chair that was right next to the couch Toni was sitting on so they were right next to each other. Sweet Pea and Fangs were sitting in some of the single chairs while Toni was tossing Hot Cheetos into Tori's mouth. Every time she caught one, Fangs cheered but Sweet Pea looked like he was bored.

     "Sweet Pea, you wanna try?" Toni asked.

     "They're too spicy for me," Sweet Pea said in a tone of indifference.

     "Lies! That's not what you said when you snatched my Hot Cheetos the day you transferred here," Tori said.

     "You offered them to me!"

     "I offered you some, not the whole bag, dumbass!"

     "You guys sound like a married couple," Veronica said.

     "No, we don't!"

     Tori and Sweet Pea glared at each other right after they spoke at the same time and Tori reached her hand into the bag of Hot Cheetos. She pulled out a single Cheeto and threw it at Sweet Pea and it bounced right off his forehead. Fangs laughed loudly but stopped when Sweet Pea glared at him. Tori smiled as she placed another Hot Cheeto in her mouth and leaned farther bag into the bean bag chair.

     "So, where's Cheryl," Sweet Pea asked with raised eyebrows as he leaned forward with his elbows on his knees.

     Tori sighed and put her bag of Cheetos in her lap while looking at the tall Serpent.

     "She's ignoring me. Apparently, she thinks she's losing me to you guys and she's been blowing me off every time I want to do something with her," she said as she slouched in her spot.

     "Not surprised. She tried to blackmail Archie into getting me to side against you too," Veronica said. "She's sort of blackmailing you too, Tori."

     "She's just ignoring me," Tori said while shrugging her shoulders.

     "She is blackmailing you but it's less obvious. She's ignoring you until you side against the Serpents too. If you know her as well as you say you do, then you should know that she won't stop until she gets what she wants, which is you to agree with her and stand against the Serpents," Veronica said.

     "And how do I do that? I can't just avoid them, Sweet Pea is in my chemistry class, Toni is in my biology class with Cheryl and that Jones kid is in my history class with Cheryl," Tori listed out which of the Serpents she spent her classes with so it was inevitable that she would interact with them in any way.

     "But what kind of friend does that?" Toni asked.

     "I'm just gonna give her space 'cause she has practice with the River Vixens for the rest of the week," Tori said while continuing to eat her snack.

     "No, she doesn't," Veronica said.

     "What?" Tori asked.

     "Football season is over so the Vixens are off for the rest of the year," Veronica said and Tori visibly deflated when she realized that Veronica was a River Vixen and that Cheryl had lied to her.

     "Tori─" Fangs started but Tori cut him off.

     "It's fine," she said quietly.

     She closed the open bag of Hot Cheetos in her lap, suddenly losing her appetite and her stomach was starting to feel heavy. She put the bag away and sunk farther into the bean bag chair. Sweet Pea felt slightly guilty since he was the one who brought up Cheryl but he would never say anything. Tori couldn't stand the deafening silence anymore and grabbed her stuff as she got up.

     "Where are you going?" Fangs asked.

     "I have history first today and class starts soon. I'll see you guys later," she said as she made her way out of the student lounge.

     When she was gone, Toni broke the silence by saying, "Class doesn't start for another twelve minutes."

     "It doesn't surprise me that Cheryl would do something like this, but I didn't think she would do it to Tori after she stood by her side through everything. Tori always defended her when people called her names but still tried to defend others when Cheryl was in the wrong like when she tried to warn us. Tori is supposed to be her best friend, you don't do that to your best friend," Veronica said. "Honestly, I feel kind of bad for Tori."

     Sweet Pea scoffed. "Why? It shouldn't surprise you that someone like Cheryl would eventually turn their back on their friend like that. If anything, Tori should've know better from the beginning," he said.

     "Are you seriously going to sit there and talk down on her like that after she helped you twice?" Toni asked while glaring at Sweet Pea who only rolled his eyes.

     "If she wants to help, she can start by getting Cheryl and Mantle's Bulldogs off our backs," he said.

     "She doesn't talk to Reggie anymore, she hates him," Veronica said.

     "Not my problem."

     "Wait, what happened between Tori and Reggie?" Fangs asked.

     "I don't know, she never talks about it. All anybody knows is that she hates him because of something he did," Veronica said while shrugging her shoulders.

     Meanwhile, Tori was standing right outside of the student lounge with her head hanging low. Sweet Pea suggested that they should all start heading to class and when he stepped outside of the lounge, he cursed under his breath when he saw Tori standing right there, listening to everything. Toni, Fangs and Veronica stepped outside as well and their eyes widened when they saw Tori standing right there and not heading to class like she said she was doing.

     "If you have a problem with me, just grow a pair and say it to my face and get it over with," Tori said and everyone knew it was directed at Sweet Pea.

     Before Toni could try and lighten up the situation, Tori was already speed walking away. If Sweet Pea didn't feel like a jerk before, he sure felt like one at that moment.

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

     "YOU'RE HOME EARLIER THAN USUAL," Tori's mother said when the teenage girl walked in through the door.

     "Cheryl and I were busy so we didn't have time to hang out like usual," Tori said nonchalantly with a smile that was faker than her old Barbie dolls, but her mother wouldn't notice a thing.

     "Well, I just started dinner so it should be ready by seven," her mother said while changing the channel on the TV.

     Tori hummed and nodded as she headed upstairs. When she got to her room, she checked her text conversations with Cheryl and there was nothing. She exhaled loudly as she put her phone down on the nightstand and took her leggings off, leaving her in her white tank top and black underwear. She didn't even feel like doing her science homework, not that she had much to do anyway as she pretty much finished it during class since Cheryl ignored her in biology and she ignored Sweet Pea in chemistry. She sighed and closed her eyes as she thought about everything that was discussed in the student lounge. How did she not catch Cheryl in her lie before? Veronica made a point when she said that football season was over so the River Vixens were off until the next football season and she felt like a fool for not realizing it sooner. So in other words, her best friend claimed to be busy with cheerleading all week, although she wasn't really doing any cheerleading, to purposely avoid her. Was all of this seriously because she caught her talking to the Serpents

     Tori let herself fall back onto her bed and picked up a book that was sitting on the nightstand next to the lamp. She looked at the purple pink cover that had the title Dancergirl written in all lowercase letters in the middle of the cover and opened to the page she was on before. She lied in her bed reading and even plugged in her pink headphones that was a recent Christmas gift from her aunt. She was listening to Sabrina Carpenter's album Eyes Wide Open as she turned the pages of her book and she wasn't listening to the world around her. Eventually, she stopped thinking about Cheryl and Sweet Pea who actually had more beef with her than he lead on. By the time she had listened to the entire album, she was bored of reading and bookmarked the page she was on and put the book down on the nightstand.

     Tori sat up and pulled open the drawer of the nightstand and took out a bracelet. It was a beaded bracelet that was very detailed and had charms that were shaped like cherries, lipstick, a rose and the letters "C" and "B" hanging from it. Tori had made the bracelet herself after her grandmother had taught her everything about beading when she was younger and it was one of her favourite hobbies. She herself had made the bracelet for Cheryl as a birthday gift even though her birthday was months away. She didn't know what she wanted, although she was sure she had everything that came to her mind so she settled for a handmade bracelet. She took her headphones off and put them down on the nightstand as well and got off of the bed.

     She remained bored out of her mind until her mother called her downstairs for dinner. She quickly put on a pair of lounge shorts and went downstairs and into the kitchen where her mother was standing over a large pot on the stove.

     "I made your favourite, cuchuco," her mother said as she filled a bowl with soup.

     Tori smiled as she grabbed her own bowl and served herself. She grabbed a spoon from the drawer where all the silverware was and sat at the small table right next to the kitchen. Despite what was happening with Cheryl and Sweet Pea, a bowl of her favourite food made her feel a little better about the day's events. Usually, there were stories from both Tori and her mother about their day when they were eating together but there wasn't much to say. For Tori, she didn't want to tell her mother that Cheryl was purposefully ignoring her and that a Serpent had a problem with her just because she lived on the Northside. As for her mother, nothing much happened at her job so there was nothing to report.

     Later that night, Tori lied in her bed thinking about how funny it was that there were no problems between her and the Blossom girl until the Southside students transferred to Riverdale High. She didn't blame them for what was happening between her and her friend, but she did think that Cheryl may have been acting a bit unreasonably. But Cheryl was the It-Girl and she seemed to take that as justification to all of her antics like blackmailing Archie or publicly hurling insults at the Southside students on their first day in a new environment.

     Tori picked up the phone and dialed Cheryl's number on the keypad and held it up to her ear. When all she got was her voicemail, she felt her chest tighten even more and her limbs felt heavy. She plugged her phone into her charger and placed it face down on top of the nightstand. She took her shorts off and she was once again in her tank top and underwear but this time, she took off her bra and lied down on top of the sheets. The lights were already off and the only thing left on was the lamp. Even after she turned the lamp off and tried to sleep, she just couldn't do it. For the first time in months, people were starting to get to her and it kept her up for most of the night. And just as morning came rolling in, she barely got any rest but she would always fake it until she made it.