Y/N PoV
I have finally decided to screw talking with Archie about the Red Circle and his video. He never answers my calls, he is always busy with something, filming that dumb video, or he's getting in trouble with someone. It's sucks.

Betty told me to meet her in the Blue and Gold to find out how her date went with Sweet Pea. I hope it went well, so she will finally have someone of her own. "Betty Cooper!" I walk into the Blue and Gold happily, "How's it going?"

She stares at a paper in front of her, "Bad, really bad."

"What? Why?" I grab the paper in front of her and skim over it, until some very prominent things become noticeable. It can't be true, "The Black hood sent you this?" I ask slowly.

"Yes." She whispers, "He said he's doing it for me." Betty shutters.

"Betty, your words at the Jubilee inspired me. The town's sinners must show their contrition. If not, there will be no more suffering and bloodshed. Enclosed is a cipher. It details where I will punish the next sinner. It is a test. Only you may solve it, Betty." I read aloud.

She sighs with tears forming in her eyes, "My speech, inspired him. The stupid speech I wrote!"

"Ok, so the Black Hood was at the Jubilee. That narrows it down." I try to shine some positivity on her but she doesn't take it.

"The entire town was there."

I toss the letter back on the table, "We should give this to Kevin's dad."

"The cipher, yes sure, but not the letter. This is just for me. We can't tell anyone about it." She tells me.

Kevin appears from the doorway, "What is just for Betty and what aren't we telling anyone about?"

She groans loudly.

"Listen, I signed back up for a dating website so no more cruising." He sits down in the chair next to Betty's, "What are we talking about."

"This." Betty hands him the letter, and he reads it.

Kev's eyes go wide, "It's evidence. We're giving this to my dad."

"Kevin, if we give this letter to your dad, he will tell my mom, and she will make damn sure I'm nowhere near this."

I smirk, "Classical Alice."

"It's not time for jokes. This is a test. He said so himself. What if...this is the start of the test to see what I do with the letter. Do I share it? Or not? Am I strong? Or am I weak? Am I worthy?" Betty asks.

Kevin shakes his head seriously, "He's a psychopath, Betty, and you are in high school, not the FBI."

"Isn't it better for people to be focusing on the cipher, rather than the letter?" She glances at the door making sure there's no more intruders, "It is smarter."

"How would that even happen?" I ask.

Betty raises her eyebrows, "My mom writes for the Register. I'm pretty sure people will find out. Until then, I'm gonna go find my mom." She gets up, "Y/N? Will you keep the letter? My mom snoops."

I grab it, "Yes, of course." To keep it safe, I put it in one of my notebooks.

"I'll see you guys later." Betty quickly leaves us behind in the Blue and Gold discussing it.

—————

I call Jughead after school to talk about the cipher. It keeps ringing, until voicemail. Great, I'll have to figure something out to meet him, but in the mean time I have a code to crack.

The cipher isn't in any language or symbols I've ever seen before. I try to draw out some of them and find any patterns, but it's impossible. I groan looking the the ceiling hoping for ideas to come to me.

My phone dings, "Sorry for the phone tag. Talk later." I read. More missed calls, everyday.

——————

The Jones' trailer door opens with a creek, "Hey Jug."

He rubs his eyes, "Y/N, what time is it?"

"7:15. I wanted to see you before school. I need coffee and some help." I smile at him.

Jug kisses me tenderly, "I'm sorry. I have morning breath. Coffee is in the pot."

"Thank you." I grab a cup from a cabinet and pour me a cup, "I'm heading over to the library to check out some books on ciphers. I was hoping we can solve it together."

"Um, actually, funny enough, Toni of all people and I, we started working on that yesterday at the Red and Black." He sits down at the table while I take a seat next to him, "I can show you what we've got so far, if you want."

  "Toni." I smile, "She does love serial killers."

  He takes a sip of his coffee, "She does have an affinity for the darker side of things, yeah. Sorta like you."

  "Well, in that case, why don't we work on it all together?" I ask, "You, me, Toni,  Kevin, and Betty?"

  "Kevin? Betty? I mean I understand Betty but Kevin?"

  I nod, "Yeah, it'll be like a little code breaking hang out. So fun! You can host." I drink my coffee, and set the cup back down with a big thud.

  "Uh sure." Jug looks over at the time, "You should probably get to school."

  "Oh yeah." I bring the empty cup to the sink, "Thanks, I'll see you tonight then?"

  "Yup." Jug shoves some food into his mouth, "Can't wait." He says sarcastically.

  "Me too." I grab my bag, and leave the trailer.

—————

  "These symbols look so familiar to me. It's like I've seen them before and it's driving me crazy I can't figure out where!" Betty complains.

  Toni looks through a book on old war codes, "Maybe if you loosened your ponytail?"

  I close my mouth together tightly, to hold in my laugh. I look to Jughead and see him doing the same, "This is freaking awesome."

  "What? It was a joke, guys."

  Kevin looks at her sternly, "Betty's ponytail is iconic and beyond reproach."

  "Kev, it's fine." Betty sighs and looks through the cipher again, "And at this point, I'm willing to try anything." She takes out her ponytail.

  "Shit just got real." Jughead whisper to me while sitting up, "Per Mrs.Paroo's books, I'm looking for common letter associations like T-H, A-N, I-N-G."

  "I'm looking for doubles. Double L's and four letter words like kill." Toni tells us.

  Kevin waves around a paper, "Thats morbid."

  "We don't know if this thing's even in English. Guys, this could be an enneagram." 

  Betty rubs her head, "I'm literally on the top of my brain."

  "Alright then." Jughead claps his hands together, "Lets go back to the basics. What do we know about this guy? Who is he?"

  "He's a white male, in his 40s." Toni lists, "Like almost every serial killer ever."

  I grab another book, "No, he means like why is he killing people? What's his motive? Or at least, why now?" I ask.

  "We know the Hood's obsessed with cleansing the town of sinners and hypocrites, right?" Betty thinks for a second, "And he seems to be attacking g anyone with ties to the Northside."

  "True." I agree.

  "Here we go with the fake news again! You Northsiders and your privileges. All you do is demonize the Southside so of course you think the Black Hood's from there." Toni says angrily.

  "It's not demonizing, Toni. It's stating facts." I tell her.

  Betty nods, "There's way more drugs and gangs and,"

  "The drugs you mean which were sold primarily to Northside crackheads? And what about the Northside Neo-Nazis? The Red Circle?" She scoffs, "The Red Psychos, you mean. Hell, Betty, I'm surprised you haven't just come out and said it yet."

  "Said what?"

  "That you think the Black Hood's a Serpent." Toni crosses her arms, "We all know how much you hate us, and now you too Y/N."

  "I'm allowed to hate the Serpents, Toni." I drop the book onto the floor, bored of this conversation, "You guys dumped me, not the other way around."

  "Oh, yeah. Then why is it that your boyfriend here lies about the fact that he sits with us at lunch?"

  My lips purse together as I look over to Jughead. He folds his hands in front of his face giving me nervous glances.

  "I'm gonna go." Kevin tells us, "This is too weird."

  "Yeah, you know what? I'm gonna get outta here, too." Toni collects her things.

  Kevin slings his bag over his shoulders, "Okay. I can walk you home!" He says cheerily.

  She looks at him, confused.

  "Or you can walk Betty and I home." He grabs Betty's hand and pulls her up, "Lets go."

  "But the code." She complains.

  Kevin gives Betty her bag, "Lets go." He says motioning towards us.

  "Fine." The three leave the trailer, walking in different routes.

  I stare at the mess of papers and books piled in front of me. Jughead sitting with the Serpents. It makes me disappointed that I'm not the one sitting with them, I do miss it even if I don't show it. They felt like people I could fit in with better than I do at Riverdale High.

  "Y/N, listen. I sit with the Serpents purely for the reasons of survival." He gets off the couch, kneeling next to me.

  "It's okay, Jug, lets just keep working on the cipher, okay? The clock is ticking." I grab the some random things and begin.

  "What clock? This could be his laundry list."

  I look up from my drawings, "Or his kill list."

—————

  The sun shines through the half open blinds, making it harder to sleep. A phone rings, making it even harder. I slowly open my eyes, and see Jughead's arms wrapped around me, "Jug, we over slept." I don't want to leave his embrace, "Jughead wake up."

  He sighs, "Mmm lets just stay here." Jug kisses my neck tenderly.

  "Juggie, we have school." I squeeze his hand lightly, "And I have to finish an English paper today."

  "Fine." Jughead lets go of me and I get up, "Ugh my neck."

  "Mine too." I rub my neck, "Can I borrow a hoodie? I won't have time to go home."

  "Sure, take whatever you want." He sits up grabbing his beanie.

  I run to a closet and grab one of his hoodies, slipping it on. Yesterday's pants will have to do for now. I go back to the living room, and see Jughead back asleep. I decide to leave him there, because I'm sure he needs sleep more than anything.

  "I'll see you later, Jug." I kiss his forehead, "Love you."

—————

Our teacher looks at his book, "In Science there are important core ideas that-"

The door opens with Weatherbee and the Sheriff walking in. The nervous energy returns to our class, the last time this happened, it was bad, "Sorry to interrupt, Dr.Phylum, but Sheriff Keller and I need to see Archie Andrews in the hallway."

I look over at Archie to see him nervously looking at Ronnie. He stands up, but she gets up, trying to push him down, "I'm sorry principal Weatherbee but the T-shirts were my idea, not Archie's."

"This is not about T-shirts, Miss.Lodge, please sit down." Weatherbee says with authority.

Archie whisper something to Ronnie, I can't hear from across the room. Finally, he complies joining them in the hallway.

"Back to class. So as I was saying about the core values of science..." his words get lost in my thoughts, who knew my brother practically started a civil war.

—————

"Archibald Andrews!" I yell as I walk into the Andrew's house. Fred and Archie look at me from the kitchen.

"What's up, Y/N?" The red head asks.

  "What's up is you started a personal army to "defend" us against the Black Hood! That's so dumb, and why did you get pulled out of class by the Sheriff?"

  "He wanted to search my locker," Archie leans his hand on his chin, "He found a hood, that's not mine it's Reggie's. He came by as a joke trying to scare me."

  Fred throws a rag into the sink, "I don't know what to say. I'm at a loss, Archie. Keller and Weatherbee, they think you're a threat, so they bar you from school property, and I can't tell them any different. I was shot. The man who shot me is still out there, playing some kind of weird cat-and-mouse game with this town. And he scared me. But not as much as you do right now. Because I have no idea what is going on in your mind. I don't know what you're gonna do next." He walks away from him.

  "Wait, dad! Aren't we gonna talk about this?" Archie asks.

  "Yeah, when I get back from the Town Hall we can talk about this. If your ready to be honest with me, and let me back in." Fred grabs a jacket, and walks out of the house to the car.

  He sighs, "That was the worst speech I've ever gotten from my dad. What am I gonna do?"

  "Stop and think for a second." I lean on the counter, "Then find the best solution to fix the mess you made."

  Archie nods, "And then?"

  I shrug, "That's up to you. I would love to stay and talk, but I'm supposed to be meeting Betty and Jughead to find out what the cipher means." I pat my brother on his back, "Good luck."

  "You too."

—————

  I sit, with Jughead, on the Cooper's couch waiting for Betty to return from her room. Jug sighs and stands up, "When you left this morning, you forgot some of your notebooks. Look, I wasn't snooping, believe it or not, but.." he tosses my blue notebook onto the couch, "It just fell out."

  "What did?" I ask.

  He holds up the letter, the very one I've been supposed to keep secret, "The letter, from the Black Hood."

  I snatch it out of his hand, "Jug."

  "I'm assuming that it came with the cipher. Y/N, why aren't you telling anyone about this?"

"We did, we told Kevin." I get up and put the letter in my bag so no one else will see it. Betty is going to kill me when she finds out.

  "Why didn't you tell me?" Jug asks.

  "Because you've been.." I sigh thinking about what I could say. Let every frustration I have about that stupid school and the stupid friends he has, "At Southside High, running around with the Serpents."

  "Y/N, I'd been gone for two days. And yeah, it sucks that we don't go to the same school anymore. But that's not the reason you're sitting on the fact that the Black Hood has sent Betty a letter and you didn't tell anyone! So why is it?"

  "Because of what it says, Jughead. Because of what he wrote!" I yell, "I promised Betty, I wouldn't say anything! Betty inspired him, Jug. She's my friend, and I'm so scared that he is going to do something to her or Kevin or Ronnie..or you. It's my fault, I gave Betty advice and I haven't told anyone about this!"

  Jug sits down on the couch and I follow him, "You think people are gonna blame you for this?"

  "Not everyone. Just one."

  "Archie." He whispers, "For what? Giving Betty advice? Helping your friends? Archie's definitely shook, but he knows who the bad guys are, and your not one of the bad guys." Jug wraps his arm around me, "Your Y/N L/N."

  Betty practically falls down the stares at her speed, bumping into everything, "In his letter, the Black Hood said that I'm the only one who could solve the cipher like he created it for me specifically for me! Maybe using one of my touchstones. If I'm right, I think I know how to decode this!" Betty grabs her bag, "Lets go, come on!"

  I get up off the couch and gather my things, "Where are we going?"

  "Library." She tells us.

  "Sure, I'll drive." I pull out Fred's extra car key from my pocket, and leave the house. It's pouring outside so we make a run for it, trying to not get completely soaked. When we reach the car, I immediately start it and drive us to the library. Before I even put the car in park, Betty is running inside.

  Jug and I follow her in and around the many aisles of books. She stops at one and grabs a Nancy Drew book from the shelf. Betty begins the quick process of decoding the cipher with us looking over her shoulder in complete disbelief.

  "Oh, my god!" Her pen gets payed down on the book, "I will strike next where it all began." She reads.

  "Your speech! The Town Hall." I gasp, "Fred."

  "My mom." She grabs the paper, and we make a mad dash to the car. I don't obey any of the laws, only focusing on how much time we have left. An hour or maybe 5 minutes.

  We run into the Town Hall meeting soaked from the rain. Water droplets fall from our clothes leaving water everywhere we walk. "Everybody needs to leave! Right now!"

  "The Black Hood is coming here!" Jug yells, "He said this is his next target!"

  The crowd looks at each other and panics. Alice on the other hand doesn't believe it, "What are you talking about? What do you mean the Black Hoods coming here?"

  Betty holds up the cipher, "The cipher says he's coming to the Town Hall!" The lights flicker sinisterly until nothing. No one can see a thing unless lightning flashes providing some light.

  Everybody gets out of there chairs looking around for something, anything. "Everyone, stay calm and in your seats. We'll sort this out!" Mayor McCoy says.

  Betty shakes her head in disbelief and goes over to the fire alarm, pulling it.

  Nobody listens to the Mayor. The top priority is to get everybody out as fast as possible. I grab Jughead's forearm to keep us together through the sea of people.

  The luckiest thing happens, everybody gets out and no Black Hood even shows up. But why did he lie?

—————

I get even luckier, later that night. Alice and the Sheriff wanted to talk with us three to interrogate us. Jughead and Betty went to the Cooper's house while I got to go back to Fred's for the night. Fred didn't want me interrogated until he heard exactly what happened, in case we somehow broke a law and I could make up an excuse. It was great, way better than what Jug and Betts got from Alice.

—————————————————————
I didn't know how to end this.