//

"One week after Riverdale High's absorption of its Southside counterpart, and everything was the same. And nothing was the same. Take Archie Andrews. On the surface, he's getting ready for basketball tryouts, as he does every winter. But underneath, he was churning, his life in chaos after an unexpected visit from the Feds. Meanwhile, the town was preparing to honor its founding father, General Augustus Pickens."

Ricky sat in class, zoning out, ever since his talk with McKenzie, he hadn't been the same. All he wanted was her approval from the start and now that he had it, it was making him feel terrible. He realized how his choice to be with Jughead affected her and now he had to figure out what to do now.

Jughead who noticed Ricky's dazed look, reached over gently nudging his arm. "Ricky?" At his touch, the Andrews boy turned to him. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just thinking," he mumbled.

"You looked out of it."

"Because...I'd rather not talk about it right now..." he said softly, looking down.

"Well, if you want to talk-"

"Mr. Jones, eyes up front," the teacher, Mrs. Haggly called out as Cheryl was doing a presentation.

"Thank you, Mrs. Haggly," Cheryl replied, before continuing, "As I was saying, each year, we honor the memory of General Pickens, yet few know the truth. That it was my great-great great-grandpappy Colonel Barnabas B. Blossom, who bankrolled General Pickens' settlement of, '...an Eden along the river of Sweetwater, where maple trees grow taller than the steeples of Europe's grandest cathedrals'. Which is why every year I petition the mayor's office to rename Pickens Day."

As soon as the bell rang, Ricky got up, grabbing his stuff, walking out quickly. He knew Jughead was gonna keep asking what was wrong and he was scared that if he did, he'd probably break up with him...which he was honestly debating on doing.

***

Ricky sat in the student lounge with Veronica, Betty and Kevin as the blonde told them and showed them her older brother.

"Well, he's very fetching for someone who was living on Skid Row," Veronica said, looking at the picture of Chic on Betty's phone.

Kevin grabbed the phone. "Yeah, he's a hottie who looks incredibly familiar to me, by the way."

"Your adventures in the woods?" Ricky asked, looking at the picture.

"I don't know, but maybe if we were allowed to meet this hottie in person..."

"Chic's still acclimating," Betty replied. "And I'm trying to get him to trust me, but my mom is treating him like he's a ten-year-old and my dad's acting like he's the devil's spawn."

"Well, I have an amazing idea," Veronica spoke. "Bring The Omen to Pickens Day and we can all meet him. Everyone's coming, right?"

"Maybe," Ricky mumbled.

"No, because the Serpents weren't invited," Jughead replied.

"The Serpents were specifically asked to come," Veronica replied.

"Yeah, to provide security. It's like we're all on the Snowpiercer train, but the Serpents happen to be the ones eating the cockroaches."

"You don't have to work if you don't want to."

Jughead sighed as he saw Toni waiting on him. "The damage, as they say, has already been done. Talk to you guys later."

"Plans with Toni?" Ricky asked.

"Uh, yeah, I'm interviewing her grandfather for my oral history report. The oldest living Serpent," Jughead replied, kissing Ricky's cheek, not caring if anyone saw anymore, before he walked off.

Ricky smiled but it didn't reach his eyes as he looked to the three still there. Betty looking surprised and Veronica with raised eyebrows.

"Oh...I forgot to tell you guys that me and Jug are...." Ricky trailed off.

"A thing?" Betty asked.

"Yes."

"Really, when did this happen?" Veronica asked.

"A while ago."

"...Which is great because you there are really cute," Kevin spoke up, trying to ease the tension.

"You knew about this?" Betty asked him.

"Yeah...like a month ago. Wasn't my business to tell."

Both girls went back to look at Ricky who sighed, "I didn't wanna make things weird plus I didn't know if it was a real thing between us."

"Well...is it?" Betty asked him, jealousy clear in her voice Kevin and Veronica could tell.

"I think so..."

Betty forced herself to smile. "Well...that's great because if you're happy, I'm happy."

"That means a lot coming from you." He looked at the time on his phone. "Shit, I got something to do but I'll talk to you guys later." He picked up his backpack walking out.

Betty kept her face blank as she watched Ricky walk out.

"Well, you could cut that tension with a knife," Kevin mumbled.

"Kev, it's fine. He's happy with Jughead so I'm happy for him..."

"And not at all jealous?" Veronica asked.

"Or in love with him?" Kevin asked.

"I still love him but I'm not gonna let this bother me, it's not a big deal," Betty replied with a shrug.

***

A few days later, Ricky sat in the Blue and Gold office with Kevin, McKenzie and Betty as Kevin told them about how wrestling with Archie went.

"It felt so good," Kevin continued. "It's like, yeah, Archie, you have the physique of a 1970s porn star, but that doesn't mean you can wrestle."

Ricky laughed. "Oh God, I would love to see his bruised ego in that moment."

"Speaking of porn stars..." Betty began.

"Did you get lost down a webcam rabbit hole last night?" McKenzie asked.

"It's...fascinating. I brought Chic home to help my mom without knowing who he was, and now to find out he's actually multiple people, performing online."

"Wow, that is a lot to take in," Ricky said.

"How do I broach that with him? Do I broach that with him?" Betty asked.

Jughead knocked on the door. "Hey, am I interrupting?"

Betty, McKenzie and Kevin all had the same response. "Yeah, kinda..."

"No," Ricky mumbled.

"I just wanted to run some stuff, but I can come back," Jughead replied.

"No, no, no, it's fine," Kevin said, getting up and leaving.

"Yeah, I need some air anyway," Betty said leaving.

"Me too," McKenzie mumbled, following behind Betty.

Ricky smiled at Jughead who sat across from him. "By the way, I'm really digging Kevin's new gossip column," Jughead spoke.

"Apparently, readers love it. And Betty needed to fill the extra space when you transferred to Southside High."

"Betty took over the Blue and Gold?"

"No, I just needed a break, I barely got back to it recently."

"Well, I'm actually working on a story right now," Jughead said, handing Ricky his folder of research. "When I interviewed Toni's grandfather for history class, he had some pretty intense things to say about General Pickens." Ricky looked up from the folder. "But then I did some follow-up research. General Pickens was hired by Barnabas B. Blossom to remove the Uktena tribe by force. Ricky, he killed 400 innocent men, women and children."

"Jesus Christ," Ricky mumbled. "That's horrible."

"And adding salt to the wound, the last remnants of the tribe, the Serpents, are being squeezed out of existence. Toni's grandfather lives in a trailer the size of a broom closet. And Hiram Lodge is honoring this murder instead of trying to make amends. I think it's a story we need to tell."

Ricky nodded. "Are you gonna try to get a quote from Hiram Lodge?"

"Doubt he'll talk but yeah."

"But before you publish any article, I think you should at least talk to Toni about it."

"I will but I still wanna do as much of a deep dive as possible," he said, moving to sit next to Ricky.

"Good, I know your writing is good enough to reach audiences who don't know the entire truth about Pickens day."

Jughead placed a hand on his. "Thanks for your support on this."

Ricky looked at his hand, running it through his hair. "Yeah, no problem."

He saw the sudden change in his body language. "Are you mad at me?"

"What? No."

"Then what's wrong? You've been acting weird all week."

Ricky sighed, looking at him before kissing him. It was a test to see if he could still feel the way he felt about him.

Jughead immediately held onto him, pulling him closer. "Really, here?" Jughead mumbled.

"We had sex in an empty classroom before now you're objecting?" Ricky mumbled, pulling back to look at him. There was definitely something between them, he could feel it.

"I'm not objecting, I'm just surprised."

"I just wanna spend time with you before we get occupied with busy stuff again," he replied, getting up and closing the door to the Blue and Gold before pushing a chair underneath the handle to keep it closed in case someone tried to walk in.

"Agreed," Jughead replied, grabbing the front of his shirt and kissing him heatedly.

Ricky's hands ran up into Jughead's hair, gently gripping at it as Jughead undid Ricky's shirt as Ricky pulled back from the kiss, his hands prying Jughead's off of him.

Jughead looked at him confused until Ricky slowly kneeled in front of him, undoing Jughead's pants...

***

A few days later, Ricky sat in the stands on his brother's last day for wrestling try outs. Archie asked him to be there, said he needed at least one person that wasn't Veronica rooting for him.

Ricky looked up from his phone as Veronica and Hiram sat close by. "Ronnie, hi. Mr. Lodge," Ricky greeted.

"Here to support Archie too?" Veronica asked.

"Of course. After hearing how he's been doing so far, he could use all the luck in the world."

"He'll definitely need it," Hiram replied.

Ricky glanced at him, knowing Hiram did something but didn't say anything about it as the wrestling coach blew his whistle.

"Gather around, boys," the coach called to the wrestlers. "We're gonna change things up a bit. First up on the mat is Andrews, who is going up against Clayton."

Archie looked to him. "Wait. Coach, isn't Chuck in a higher weight class than me?"

"Damn, Andrews. You sound like my little sister. Come on. Time for Thunderdome," Chuck Clayton remarked making Ricky roll his eyes, he still hated that asshole.

"Enough chatter. In the center. Now," Coach called out as the two moved to the mat as the whistle blew.

The two immediately circled each other, trying to figure one's next move.

"You know that part in Diary of A Wimpy Kid where Fregley and Greg were wrestling? This is literally the same thing," Ricky told Veronica.

"Ricky," she softly scolded.

"What? It's true."

Archie moved to grab him but Chuck nearly immediately pinned him to the mat, both flipping and flailing over one another before Archie managed to get up.

"Come on, Arch! You got this!" Ricky cheered.

Chuck tried to make another grab at Archie who grabbed him, suddenly throwing him to the mat, pinning him but struggling as the coach counted down.

Once Archie won and released Chuck, Veronica and Ricky cheered while Hiram only slowly clapped.

As Archie looked to the stands, Ricky smiled, giving him thumbs up to tell him he did good.

***

Ricky was at the Pickens day celebration, he didn't support it at all considering all he heard from Jughead but still, his family was there and he wanted food.

As Archie and Ricky bought popcorn, Ricky looked to him. "Arch, I'm glad you're making an impression on Hiram and you did good at wrestling but..."

"But?" Archie asked.

He looked around to make sure Hiram wasn't near. "When he was up in the stands, when he got close, I just had this bad gut feeling."

"Why?"

"I've kind of had this feeling about Hiram since I met him. It was one thing to hear about the things he's done before but when I met him, I had this bad gut feeling about him like he's going cause shit that'll affect us and doing this with Pickens day only proves that."

"Ricky, I don't want you to worry about Mr. Lodge," Archie told him.

"Arch, you're not hearing me out-"

"I'm hearing you but I don't this to be another thing you stress about. All right? I'm fine and I'm aware of what Mr. Lodge is capable of."

He sighed as he got his bag of popcorn when his dad got on stage. "Hello, Riverdale. Happy Pickens Day. On behalf of Lodge Industries and Andrews Construction, we are thrilled to kick things off with a new twist on an old favorite. So, Veronica and the Pussycats."

Veronica walked on stage with Melody and Valerie as they played instruments and began to sing.

Once they got halfway through the song, the Southside community came walking in with tape on their mouths and holding signs, Toni leading them as the approached the stage.

Veronica stopped singing, looking at the Serpents. "Kenzie? Toni? Jughead? What the hell is going on?"

Toni held up a megaphone. "We're here representing the dead and the silenced. Pickens Day is a lie. General Pickens slaughtered the Uktena tribe, my grandfather's family. And this land, the land that we're standing on, the land that will soon give way to a new Southside, was stolen from them. And we can't bring them back, but we can and we must honor them."

Hiram went up to microphone. "Hey, folks, hi. Uh...I think we can all be proud to live in a Riverdale where young people stand up for justice. Where a young woman can defend the honor and legacy of her grandfather. And where we can celebrate the living legacy of the Uktena, who contribute to the rich tapestry that is Riverdale, that is the Southside and that will be SoDale. So let's hear a round of applause for that, am I right? That's right. What do you say, people?"

Ricky sighed as people applauded.

***

Ricky stood outside Jughead's trailer, knocking on the door, trying to calm himself down as Jughead himself opened the door.

"Hi," Ricky mumbled.

"Hey, didn't get a text you were coming," Jughead said as he let Ricky in.

Ricky walked into the trailer. "I...wasn't sure how to approach this."

"Approach what?" Jughead asked sitting down while Ricky stayed standing.

Ricky sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Jug...I don't think we should be together anymore."

He immediately looked up. "Wait, what? Why?"

"Because-"

"Is this about Betty?"

"No, its not. I..." He sighed. "I like you, Jug."

"Exactly, so what's the problem?"

"I like you but McKenzie's in love with you."

"She said she was okay with it."

"She says that but she's not, if I were her, and I was in her position, I'd be upset and I wouldn't tell anyone that because they're happiness would matter before my own."

"Ricky, just think about this-"

"I have, all week, that's why I've been distant," he admitted. "You say you like me but I can tell you love her."

"You mean, like how you love Betty?" he remarked.

"Yes. And I'm standing in the way of two people of being in love together. I can't do that anymore, its not fair to you or her."

"But I don't want to be with her right now, I want to be with you."

"You said 'right now', which means you do want to be with her eventually..." He sighed, deciding to fess up completely. "I like you, Jughead...I probably even love you but I can't do this with this constant guilt eating me up inside at the thought of her being to the side, watching us together or letting her be the other woman when that's not how it's suppose to be...Maybe in the future, if you and me are meant to happen, it will but not now. I need to let you go and I hope to God that I don't lose you completely as my best friend but I'll understand if you want to cut ties."

"Ricky, please..." Jughead said softly.

Ricky kissed the top of his head. "I'm sorry, Jug. Please don't hate me," he mumbled walking out of the trailer, trying to push down any sadness felt.

"And so, with only a brief conversation, the pure hearted, boy next door, Ricky Andrews, ended a relationship for a reason being that he was going to put a friend's happiness and needs before his own. That night, plans would be made, alliances would be formed, and a horrifying act of desecration would be committed ensuring that the town's civil war would go from a possibility to an inevitability."

***

Sorry if you were rooting for Ricky and Jughead but this is a Betty Cooper story.