word count: 1,360

CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR:

↳ CHANGES

     AFTER JUGHEAD'S BIRTHDAY PARTY, everything began to fall into place, kind of. Ginny felt a relief that she told the truth— despite how awful it was and how public. The weight on her shoulders was gone and she had Jughead. Jughead and Ginny had always been together in a sentence, everyone expected them to be a pair. Now, they were finding a balance romantically.

Virginia Hopkins was happy.

For once Ginny felt in control of her life. That's why when she went home with Jughead, she noticed how her mother was crashed on the floor, a needle in her arm. Her brown hair was splayed on the floor, her mouth opened to snore.

"Jug," Ginny called from the doorway, looking down on her mother. For once, Ginny didn't rush to aid her mom and just... stared. Jughead appeared in the doorway, sighing as he noticed her stare at the prone figure on the floor.

"Call an ambulance and make sure the cops come too." Ginny told him, walking away from the doorway.

"Are you sure, Gin?" Jughead's eyebrows were furrowed as he looked down at his best friend. Last time he called the cops, Ginny hated him. "Last time—"

"Last time was a mistake, Juggie. You were right, she needs to be put away where she can't get to drugs or hurt me." Ginny Hopkins was learning more about life and even though she was her mother by nature she wasn't by nurturing.

Jughead nodded, walking into the other room and Ginny heard a faint exchange of words before she exited the room.

She wanted to clean the house. She wanted a fresh start. Ginny, however, couldn't start cleaning the house of her past because Jughead walked back into the room, shoving his phone into the confines of his dark jeans.

"They're almost here," Jughead told her. Ginny was surprised that there was such a quick response team– no one had gotten a quick response if they lived on the Southside.

The cops and ambulance came and Ginny stood outside of her house with Jughead and an officer, watching her mother be taken away. She was happy that she was going to be gone from her life. Mrs. Hopkins was toxic and now taken away, forever.

"Ma'am?" The cop turned towards her, notepad in hand. It seemed so trivial to write down the words that people spoke since computers and phones existed. "Who is your guardian?"

"Her," Ginny nodded towards the gurney that was being loaded up. Jughead stood beside her, his hand on the small of her back, rubbing circles of encouragement. Ginny felt content and safe beside the tall boy, glancing up at him for reassurance. 

"Any next of kin?" Ginny shook her head at the cop's question. "You're underage we can't leave you unattended."

Ginny felt her heart drop. The foster care system. She knew that she couldn't handle the foster care system, she could be sent to live away from Jughead or her family wouldn't let her see her friends. Or something worse could happen.

Her hands felt shaky and she blindly reached out her hand and grasped onto Jughead's. His warm palm encompassed hers, reassuring her further and making her stronger. 

A sudden idea came to Ginny.

Ginny knew that the Hopkins name wasn't her mother's, it was her father's. Her mother didn't have siblings and her parents were dead, leaving her one option.

"Give me a month, sir. Give me a month and I'll find my father."

º   º   º

     IT WAS THAT MORNING AFTER JUGHEAD'S BIRTHDAY PARTY WHEN Alice Cooper walked into Betty's room, tray in hand. The blonde girl cracked an eye open at her mother's entrance with a groan.

"I brewed some Highpoint and brought you some aspirin for the headache I'm sure you have." Alice said with a slight tone to her voice. She disproved of the party, especially the drinking but didn't say a word.

"Thanks mom," Betty sighed sitting up as her mother placed the tray on her bedside table. 

"So I saw that you invited Jughead's dad to your little soiree last night." The older woman began lightly, sitting down on the bed beside Betty.

"I did. I thought it would be nice." Betty muttered bitterly, thinking back to the nights events. She definitely wasn't telling her mom they broke up, she would just laugh and tell her that she was right. 

"And he was talking to a long-haired delinquent wearing a leather jacket." Alice brought Betty out of her thoughts. 

"You mean Joaquin?" Betty asked with raised eyebrows. She knew her mom wasn't lying. 

"Is that his name?" She asked, she didn't really care for trivial facts like his name, rather wanted to know why FP Jones was talking to the young teenager. 

"They know each other through the Serpents. He's kind of dating Kevin."

"What? A Southside Serpent dating the Sheriff's son? This is a small town but it's not that small."

"Mom, what happened?" Betty asked her mother, she knew she was hiding something. 

"I don't know, I was watching through my binoculars," Alice began casually and Betty rolled her eyes at her mothers nosey antics. "And I saw the two of them talking before that little Hopkins girl barged in."

Betty frowned at her mom's words, her brain reeling from this information. She didn't know when Ginny was alone– maybe when Jughead and her broke up– but still, why was Ginny talking to them? 

"What? Why was Ginny talking to FP Jones and Joaquin?" 

º   º   º

     BEFORE SCHOOL, JUGHEAD decided to go visit his father and bring breakfast. A sort of peace offering that could allow him to say hi to his father. After his birthday party, Jughead wanted to make things right with his father. He needed a father right now.

"Dad, have you been body-snatched?" Jughead asked in amazement, looking around the trailer to find it cleaned.

"Oh, I feel good, Jug. Wanna look good, too." FP told his son, motioning to his face and the surrounding room. "Shave. Clean the place up a bit. A little paint."

"Oh, I got us some coffee and donuts." Jug raised the bag of donuts.

"And I read your, uh–Your essay? Manuscript?" FP told his son as they settled down at the table.

"You did?" Jughead asked skeptically, pulling out a donut and passing it to his dad.  

"Yeah." FP Jones nodded, stuffing his donut into his mouth with a hum of approval. 

"Really?" Jughead asked in clarification, taking a sip of his coffee.

"I asked you for it, didn't I?"

"Yeah, I don't know. I figured you were just pretending to be interested." Jughead shrugged, nibbling on his donut. 

"This is excellent. Me, I can barely string two sentences together, but you– You got a gift. Thank God you're not wasting it. Mind if I ask you a couple questions?" Jughead was elated at his father's words– for once FP Jones was acting like a father.

"Yeah. Of course."

"Why Jason Blossom, huh? Out of all the things you could write about, why pick a dead kid?" Jughead didn't realise why his father brought up this topic.

"I don't know. It was sort like he picked me." Jughead sighed. "Tell the story that no one was gonna tell. Or even know how to tell. From the outside, looking in." He paused before he blushed sheepishly. "And I knew that writing a romance novel wasn't my forte despite the amount of poetry I wrote about Ginny." 

FP chuckled at Jug's embarrassment but wanted to keep on track of his questions. He needed to know what Jughead thought. "Who do you think killed him? I mean, you and Betty are in this deep. You gotta have an opinion."

"To me, I don't think the question is, "Whodunnit?" I think the real question is whether Riverdale is a place of good or a place of darkness and evil. Or both."

"Most things are both. Can I make one suggestion?" FP asked with some finality to his words. 

"That's what Betty says, and then it's about a dozen suggestions."

"I think, at a certain point, you should move on. You can't let this be the only story you're gonna tell, Jughead. Hell, it shouldn't even be the most important one."

"Don't worry, dad, I've got another story I want to write. It's about a girl. . ." 

º    º    º

uh oh, betty gonna fuck ginny over !! 

by the way, what do you think jughead and ginny's ship name should be? (i'm really bad at them!) 

↳ ginhead

↳ virghead

↳ juginia 

↳ junny

↳ suggestions ?