Since Jughead had decided he wanted to be a Serpent, we had to put him through the initiation process. We were currently sneaking into his trailer with 'the Beast' and snake masks on hiding our faces.

'What the hell?' he woke up with a jump.

'Your initiation begins now, with you assuming guardianship of the Beast' I told him.

We left straight away but left behind Hot Dog - the resident dog who acted as 'the Beast'. The dog was a massive softie and the easiest part of the initiation. His purpose was to teach the new recruits about responsibility.

Toni had volunteered to be Jugheads guide through his initiation - they had really bonded recently - it was kinda cute. It was her job to teach him the laws as well. That's what she was doing when she texted me saying she knew why Jughead had changed his mind about us so suddenly. He wanted to replace FP and try to keep us out of trouble. I couldn't really blame him, I did tend to take the more violent road more than the high road. 

We all gathered at the Wyrm that night to hear him recite our laws.

'What is the fourth law?!' Tall Boy shouted at him.

'No Serpent is left for dead!' Jughead shouted back.

'What is the fifth law?!'

'A Serpent never betrays his own!'

'What is the sixth law?!'

'In unity there is strength!'

'In unity there is strength!' the rest of us repeated.

'You know the laws' I spoke, taking over the initiation, 'Now it's time for the next trial'

Some of the Serpents moved from their seats near the pool table to reveal a glass box holding a snake inside.

'Retrieve the knife' I told him.

'What?' he replied, shocked.

But he did it, he did good. He managed to retrieve the knife although the snake did bite him but Toni was helping to patch him up. He was almost a Serpent now, he only had one more trial to go. He had a day or so until then though so until then, we cut him loose for a while.

The Southside awoke the next day to an expose pushed through our doors on the front page of a Northside newspaper. It featured Alice Coopers teenage mugshot from when she herself was a Serpent and got arrested. It certainly raised a few eyebrows around here, and questions - like who had published it, and why?

We were walking to Jugheads trailer to meet him but when we turned the corner we spotted him with one of his Northside friends - the one who had beaten me up.

'What do we have here?' Sweet Pea asked gleefully.

'He was leaving' Jughead told us quickly.

'Wait, you're friends with these thugs?' the Northsider asked - I should probably learn his name since he keeps popping up everywhere.

'It's not what you think' Jughead told him.

'Are you joining the Serpents?'

'Only if he survives' I said, 'Go ahead and call us thugs one more time though' I threatened, taking a step forward but Fangs held me back before I got too close.

'Jughead, these are the guys who attacked me. Who attacked Reggie, Veronica, Dilton, your friends.'

'Wait, is that why you're here? To warn me?' Jughead asked him.

'No'

'Can I just interrupt and say you attacked us first Northsider, I still have the bruised ribs to prove it, and we never touched any girls so your accusation we hurt a girl named Veronica is false' I told him smugly.

'Whatever' he replied, 'Jughead, I came to tell you to stay away from Betty. She doesn't want to see you anymore'

Betty? I knew that name, that was Jugheads girlfriend! Wait, was she seriously breaking up with him using their mutual friend?! That was wrong on so many levels. It was slightly awkward having to witness the entire thing but maybe it was the push he needed to properly become a Serpent.

It was tonight, at midnight, when Jughead Jones was to face the final part of his initiation - the Gauntlet. I didn't take part in it but I stood watch as he walked down the middle of two lines of Serpents who were throwing punches his way. To pass, he had to stay standing and make it to the end. There was no holding back on our part either, everything they had was thrown into those punches. Until he reached the end and Sweet Pea was waiting for him, wearing brass knuckles that hit him straight across the face several times but he still managed to stand back up.

He had passed.

Toni and I walked over to him and handed him his Serpents jacket back, he had finally earned it. We took him to a Southside tattoo artist who gave all the Serpents their tattoos so he could be branded with our snake symbol. He chose to get it on the top of his arm meaning it would be relatively easy for him to hide if he needed to.