"Hello, Diana. You thought you could cheat playing my game."

The deep, computerized voice told me enough who it was. My feet turned to concrete bricks, keeping me from moving anywhere at all. Something about that voice, the words he chose to use, sent a shiver down my spine. Though I knew exactly to whom I was speaking, I had to ask simply out of sudden anxiety, "Who is this?"

"The Black Hood."

"What do you want this time?" I questioned, my voice shaky but firm.

"We had a deal. Dilton Doiley dies, your boyfriend lives. You cheated. Did you think I wouldn't find out?"

I tilted my head in a gesture, speaking sarcastically, "Well, you were supposed to be dead."

"New rules," he said, slowly. "You do as I say...and I won't kill everyone you care about. Starting with your sister."

It wasn't hard to hear his seriousness—it punctuated every syllable. I didn't want to comply. I didn't want to agree so easily. But I knew exactly what the Black Hood was capable of, and I knew firsthand not to take that chance. "Deal. So, I'll ask again. What do you want?" I asked, before inhaling a deep breath.

"I want to play a game."

Putting my books in my locker, I moved some things around, and then shut the door. It was your average Wednesday at Riverdale High. The only out of place thing to happen was Archie's sudden interest in wrestling. But that had more to do with kissing up to his girlfriend's dad than it did the actual sport. You gotta commend a guy who's dedicated enough—or stupid enough, depending on how you look at it—to go through hell just to get parental approval.

What must it be like to have a boyfriend like that? Maybe someday I would know. Until then, my Prince Charming could find me studying for an Algebra test with Jesse in the Library. The school Library was located on the second floor of the school. I only ever used it for group studying or looking at reference books.

Once I made it up the stairs, I followed the hall to the back wall and hung a left, right through the Library doors. Jesse was already there, sitting at an otherwise empty table in the quiet area near the back. The Library was usually quite dead. Today there were only a few people in the aisles here and there. I crossed the Library to the quiet area and sat in a chair at the table, on the opposite side of Jesse, dropping my bag on the table top space to my left.

He looked up from his text book as I slid into my chair, sitting back in his seat with a sigh. "I wanted a better education, but..." he widened his eyes momentarily in an expression before finishing his sentence. "This is a bit much—and I thought I was good at math."

"Honestly, it's not my best subject either. I guess if we fail the test, we'll have someone to complain about it with," I shrugged, with a small smile-smirk.

Chuckling a little, he nodded, and I pulled out my text book. It wasn't a second later that something flashed in front of my face, followed by a thud and a rush of air on my face. A copy of the Blue & Gold now laid on my open text book. I stared down at it in surprise while Toni's voice filled my ear from over my shoulder. "Did you know Jughead was going to publish this?" she demanded the answer, sounding furious.

I was confused, to say the least. She knew I didn't keep in very good contact with Jughead, though our texting relationship was getting better. But she still accused me of knowing he was going to do something she was angry about as if it were true already. Sighing, I picked up the paper and skimmed the front page. "What is it?" Jesse asked, even more clueless than I was.

"I knew he was doing a history report on your grandfather," I twisted in my seat the best I could in order to look up at Toni—and I could've sworn I could see smoke billowing out her ears, accompanying a pair of devilish horns atop her head. "I had no idea he was putting something in the Blue & Gold."

"Yeah, well, now the whole town thinks my grandfather is some defenseless old guy!" Toni fumed.

I held up my hands in surrender, "I'm really sorry, Toni. But I can't do anything other than tell you Jughead's in the Swords and Serpents room right now."

"Thank you."

She grumbled the words before yanking the paper off the table from in front of me, turning on her heels, and marching toward the Library exit. Turning to face straight ahead in my chair, I exhaled a deep breath. "She's going to murder him," Jesse said, tapping the end of his pen against his book rapidly. "Probably violently, too."

"He's a big boy—he can take care of himself. I don't have time to play referee," I replied, before attempting to find my place on the page in front of me.

A dull ache throbbed in the lower right side of my back, and my fingers almost immediately relinquished my pencil to instead move to the aching area, resting there palm flat as I hissed. "What's wrong?" Jesse asked, concerned but calm. "Are you okay?"

I nodded quickly, groaning a little as I turned my attention to my book yet again, "Yeah, I'm fine—I think I just slept wrong last night."

"Are you absolutely sure?"

I lifted my head to give Jesse a tired expression, only to finally notice the look he was already giving me. He was leaned forward in his chair, elbows on the tabletop, with every feature pulled tight into an expression of serious concern. It wasn't hard to tell just what he was thinking. He was already prepared for the worst. I titled my head, "Really, everything's fine."

Slowly, he sat back in his chair, lowering his eyes to his book. But I could feel him eyeing me the second I'd turned my attention to my own studies. I couldn't blame him. This experience was new for everyone in my friend circle. All of us were on edge when something even a little out of the ordinary occurred involving my body—like a sudden ache. Though it has thus far turned out to genuinely be nothing, it never hurt to be ready for it to be something.

We'd studied in the Library until Jesse needed to get to the gym for basketball practice. Tryouts were tomorrow, so some of the would-be players were going to be getting in a little last-minute practice. "I didn't know you could play sports," I said, shoving my book into my bag.

Jesse chuckled, "I'm six-four, what else am I gonna do with these legs?"

"I…am not touching that one."

"That's what she said."

"Why are we like this?" I dropped my shoulders, sighing.

"I don't know," Jesse shrugged, before pulling his back pack onto his shoulder. "Beats being average-white-kids-in-a-teen-drama kind of friends."

We started walking toward the door. I nodded a little with an 'i guess' kind of expression. As we neared the door, Jesse stepped around me and tugged it open, holding it. He was talking about motorcycles for some reason—to this day, I still don't remember why—as I exited the Library, him shortly following after me, and I'd completely spaced what he'd said after that. I was too busy thinking.

It was a rarity for someone to hold a door for me. Being pregnant in this school didn't do you any favors. But this was a habit of Jesse's. I'd first noticed it when he started sleeping on my couch. After a week of camping out in my living room, he found a cheap apartment arrangement, one that came with a roommate. So he no longer needed my sofa. It was a bit of a bummer to see him go—even though it was literally only a block from my house.

Cash was very disappointed. She got over it quickly, though. Having not heard a word he'd said the entire trip down the stairs and across the school to the gymnasium, I tried to nod along at where i'd jumped in. He seemingly didn't notice me zoning, so that was good. The problem: I had no idea what was going on in this conversation. "-I mean, he seems like a nice guy—and he's a Serpent—but I don't know how long I can last with him snoring like that," Jesse exhaled.

"What was his name again?" I asked, innocently.

He glanced down at me while he pushed open the door to the locker room, "Matt."

"Right, Matt. Just download some Mozart and bud your ears when he's sleeping," I suggested, staying in the hallway. "That, or fall asleep before he does."

"Easier said than done, but I'll try it."

I aimed a finger-gun at him, back-stepping, "See ya on the flip side."

He aimed a finger-gun back at me with the hand that wasn't holding the door open, winking while making a clicking sound with his mouth, before disappearing behind the locker room door as it fell shut. I took a deep breath, standing still in the middle of a semi empty hallway. It was hard. I wasn't used to being in a platonic relationship with someone I had hoped would've been romantic. It was difficult for my body to work with my mind.

My body took everything he did as an advance, whereas my mind was resigned to the fact that it wasn't going to happen. I rested a hand over my heart and took another breath. "Calm down in there," I whispered, before turning and heading for the entrance to the gym. It wasn't far from the locker rooms. Just down the hall and around the corner.

I pushed through the heavy gym doors and my nose was instantly assaulted by the smell of sweat and broken dreams. That infamous smell that belonged to every gym in America. It repulsed me, to say the least. But I stifled a gag as I walked toward the stands. I dropped my bag on the second row up and climbed up to sit. "Diana?" I'd just sat down when I heard my name, followed quickly by the visual of Fangs walking up to me.

Exhaling, I plastered on a casual smile, "Hey, Fangs."

"Since when do you watch basketball practice?" he asked, smiling a little in his curiosity.

"Oh, uh- I'm just hear to watch Jesse. He told me he was trying out so I wanted to see if he was any good," I replied, bobbing my head as I rested my forearms on my knees.

Fangs nodded a little, but his left eye narrowed as the corners of his lips tugged higher. "So...you didn't come because there's an eighty percent chance he's going to be shirtless?" he asked, sarcastically. I titled my head, giving him a slightly annoyed look. He laughed a little before adding, "Hey, no judgment here. Just know I'm going to start calling you Dirty Diana."

"Don't you dare, Fogarty," I sat upright, giving him a stern expression.

He backed away from me smiling, before turning around to walk straight ahead back onto the court. Oh, the struggles of sharing a name with a Michael Jackson song. No one but your close friends actually comment on it, but somehow it felt like that was worse. Then the people who are doing it are the people who really know how to push your buttons.

There was a handful of players out on the court talking, getting ready to start their practice game. This group included Sweet Pea and Fangs. As Fangs walked back to the group from where I sat, I noticed Sweet Pea trying to casually glance in my direction and failing miserably. I rolled my eyes. It was getting ridiculous. Why were the guys I fell for so obsessive? First Archie wouldn't leave me alone, now Sweet Pea was all but stalking me.

A whining of hinges pulled my eyes to the far right, to the door leading into the locker rooms. Jesse and his roommate, Matt, were both walking toward the group of players on the court. With a glance my way, Jesse jutted his chin in a gesture, smirking a little. I nodded back, smiling as though I wasn't incredibly annoyed. A part of me wondered if hanging out with Jesse would make things weird in the case of both he and Sweet Pea making the team.

The rest of me knew Jesse was a big boy, as I'd stated Jughead was, who could obviously handle himself if something happened. But I still worried. "Well, this isn't exactly the place I thought I'd find you," a voice that was undeniably Cheryl Blossom's came from my left.

I turned my head to look that way, sighing a little, "What do you want, Cher?"

"I wanted to apologize. For...what I'd said about your Southside friends. I know they mean a lot to you, and I had no right to say them," Cheryl said, so genuinely I sat back in surprise. She stood just in front and to the left of my position with a soft expression. "It was incredibly insensitive of me to not think of you first. I'm sorry—please forgive me, Diana."

"I forgive you," I nodded a little.

Her face lit up as she exhaled a breath of relief. Cheryl eagerly climbed up to sit beside me, bouncing a little as she sat down. "So, who are we making eyes at today?" she asked, bubbly and lighthearted.

I didn't want to tell her. She'd kept secrets for me before, so it wasn't at all that I didn't trust her. I just didn't want to say it out loud. I didn't want to make it a real thing. It was best to just keep it low-key for as long as humanly possible. But I had to make some effort to show her I meant my forgiveness. That everything was good between us. If I said we were fine and then shut her out as if we weren't, she would assume we weren't.

Bracing my palms against the bench beneath the outer edges of my thighs and turning my head to see her beside me, I admitted, "Jesse Jericho."

"Oooh," she sat up a little before mirroring my position, her smile wider than I'd ever recalled seeing before. "He's so pretty."

"He's also a little untouchable. Pun intended."

Her features contorted to one of confusion, "Why?"

"Because I 'have a lot going on'. I can't really say I blame him, though. Have you looked at my life lately?" I replied, huffing a chuckle at my sarcasm.

"Are you kidding me? Everyone has a lot going on—it's called life. It happens. You guys shouldn't let that stop you from being together," Cheryl said, her firstly annoyed comment turning sympathetic as it went on to its end.

I scoffed lightly, "I could say the same to you."

She sat upright at that, her eyes becoming downcast. The whole atmosphere changed then. "You know why I can't, Diana," she told me, in a hushed tone. "After the things I've said, she wouldn't want to be with me anyways."

I tilted my head, knowing she was full of it, just trying to give herself more reasons to say no. Turning to better face her, I replied, "That's such BS, Cher. You have a chance to be really happy, and you're here talking yourself into throwing it away—and for what? Your mom? Forget her. Your life is about you. Anyone would be an idiot to pass you up."

"You really think that?" her mopey, saddened expression slowly upturned as her eyes searched mine. "You think I would have a chance with her?"

I nodded confidently, "You just have you show her you're not the mean girl you let everything think you are."

"That sounds easier said than done. Didn't you read Jughead's article?"

"That was a lot of Blossoms ago—you haven't committed mass murder recently, have you?"

She tilted her head in an expression, "No."

"There you go. You're nothing like that. Just go for it. I know Toni will understand."

Veronica had offered to throw me a baby shower at the Pembrooke weeks ago. But, given Lodge Industries' new involvement in Pickens Day, it was hard to reconcile being friends with Veronica at all—let alone going to her house for a baby shower in my honor. Veronica's heart was in the right place. It usually was. Though, I couldn't help feel like I would be betraying Toni if I went along with it.

So I talked it over with Veronica, and she seemed to get where I was coming from. Instead, we decided to have it at Betty's house—with Betty as the new host—and Veronica could still come to support me if she wanted. Betty was more than happy to step in, and Alice was absolutely over the moon to be apart of it all. The only hard part was getting Betty to stop stressing out over her brother being at all present.

I hadn't met him yet, so I couldn't really understand fully why Betty was nervous about it. Cash and I showed up to Betty's house early to help her decorate. Well, Cash was going to be decorating. I wasn't allowed to take part in any of the planning, purchasing, or decorating—a decision i'd protested quite a lot, but was still overruled. I knocked on the door and, a few moments later, a blonde male opened the door.

Given the circumstances, I could only assume it was Betty's brother, Chic. His features were sharp and a bit darkened with his mood. The first thing he said, seconds after opening the door, was, "You must be Diana, the pregnant girl."

"Yeah...that's me," I replied, my eyebrows knitted slightly. I held out my hand to him next. "Diana Cassidy."

"Come in," he said, ignoring my gesture as he pulled the door open all the way to allow us entry.

It was obvious he was trying to avoid me, but I didn't take it personally. From all I'd heard over the week from Betty, this boy had too many secrets and scars to know what to do with. I simply nodded once and Cash ran into the house before I stepped inside. Chic shut the door behind us and walked around me to get to the living room. "Alice and Betty are in here," he told me, over his shoulder.

When I walked into the living room, the first thing I noticed was the overabundance of blue streamers. Alice was already getting Cash set up on a decoration task. Betty hurried over to me from the fireplace, where she was attaching a small banner, and threw her arms around me. "Hi! We've been having so much fun decorating—I hope you like it," she said, as I hugged her back.

She pulled away as I replied, "It looks wonderful, you guys are doing great."

"Oh, Diana. We've planned for five to seven guests—would that be accurate?" Alice asked, leaning out of the kitchen to see me in the living room.

I'd briefly counted it in my head and nodded, and she disappeared back into the kitchen. Chic dropped into a living room chair and started fidgeting with a decoration package. Betty glanced at him over her shoulder and turned back to me with a small sigh. "I hope you don't mind having him here," she said, apologetically.

"It's okay, I understand—I'm just thankful you're able to do this on such a short notice."

"Well, I don't think my mom would pass this up at the cost of her left kidney."

Betty and I shared a chuckle at that—mostly because we both knew it to be true. Alice didn't have a hand in most of Polly's pregnancy when Polly was in Riverdale, so it was only natural for her to want to be apart of everything she could involving mine. She'd become a bit of a mother figure for me. Though, she did still annoy me quite a bit.

I was grateful for everything she'd done for me in the past few months—I was grateful for everything she was still doing for me. She treated Cash and I like we were her own children. You couldn't find that just anywhere. Alice Cooper was a dedicated and loyal mother hidden beneath a woman too scared to go against her husband and lose everything she's worked hard for. Unfortunately, women like that were all too common.

Betty set up a boombox on the mantle to play some baby shower appropriate music, while I sat on the couch and responded to a text message. It felt so awkward just sitting there. But I wasn't allowed to help. I offered Alice help in the kitchen and she just about super glued me to the couch. So I decided to sit there willingly instead.

The Cooper women had everything ready by the time guests began to arrive. Alice answered the door each time and ushered people inside, directing them to where to put gifts, get snacks, and sit. Betty and Cash had just finished putting a tray of cheese and crackers on the table when the first guest arrived—Toni. Shortly after her, Cheryl arrived, and after that, Veronica. Jade, Midge, Josie, and Ethel all came on their own.

Betty's baby shower playlist played Charli XCX's song 'Boys' as the last of the expected guests were arriving, and Toni started chuckling beside me on the couch. "Get it? Because you're having a boy," she said, her chuckling morphing into cackling.

I shook my head slowly, smiling, "Yeah, I get it."

Alice answered the door and, by the sound of her voice, I could tell she was surprised by whatever guest stood outside the door. She let them in regardless, and Fangs walked into the doorway to the living room a moment later. "Hey, D," he said, standing there with a medium-sized box in his hands. He was grinning like an idiot—already giving me an idea of what could be in the box.

"Hey," I said, smiling up at him. "Come sit."

"Uh, actually I just wanted to stop by long enough to give you this—then I have to bounce," he explained, as he stepped toward the couch. He held out the box to me and I took it from him gratefully. It was your average cardboard box, but I knew it would mean more to me than anything wrapped in paper. "Go ahead and open it."

Per his request, I unfolded the flaps of the box. Inside was a small leather jacket lying atop a bed of blue tissue paper. I was smiling like an idiot as I carefully plucked the jacket from the box, holding it up to turn it around and look at the back. A small Serpent patch was sewn into the back of the jacket. It looked like a miniature version of my Serpent jacket. "Fangs, this is adorable," I said, tilting my head to look up at him.

He was smiling wide, "You think Little Pea will like it?"

"It'll be the only thing he wears, okay? He's gonna love it."

My words only made his smile grow—if that were even possible. I handed the jacket and the box over to Toni beside me, then stood up from the couch to wrap my arms around Fangs in a hug. Originally, it had seemed he only adopted me as a friend because of Sweet Pea. But it didn't take long for that to change for the better. And I couldn't be more thankful for that.