theserpentlife

[theserpentlife]

SWEET PEA!

[theserpentlife]

Chapter 1: The Fall

hey loves, so here’s the first chapter of my riverdale rewrite based on this storyline and character synopsis i did awhile back. this is my first time writing fiction like ever and it was really fun and i hope you guys enjoy it and let me know what you guys. send me nice messages pls.

Recommended Song to accompany read; Always forever - The Cults

As the raging summer takes its last humid breath, trees morph from tones of lush greens into assorted hues of red and gold. Brightly tinted maple leaves fall from the trees like confetti, a triumphant declaration of the beginning of the crisp and cool autumn. The season of fall had come to Riverdale, a small town nestled inconspicuously on the northern border. The season of autumn held great significance for the townspeople. It marked the beginning of the new school year for the town’s youth. A change of hands between the elder of the teens who would be leaving town for their college lives and the younger bright-eyed ones on the cusps of their new lives as high school students.

Fall was also the prime harvesting season for the town’s number one export - it’s rich tapestry of sickly sweet maple syrup. An abundance of sticky gold bled bountifully out of the trunks of the tall maple trees that surrounded the town. Steeped in decades of tradition and history, the Blossom Maple Farms, founded by the descendants of the Blossom Family, was truly the bedrock of the town’s economy.

In the winter of 1998, under the celestial glow of the full moon, the next in line to the empire would be born. An heiress. Cheryl Blossom had skin as pale as snow and hair as red as flames. As soon as she had left the confines of her mother's womb she had already committed a grave sin - being born a daughter to parents who had prayed ceaselessly for a son. Imagine the wrath that rained on her after Penelope was told she could no longer bear any other children. Cheryl Blossom’s very existence marked the end of the Blossom bloodline.

__________

Archie Andrews threw his freshly pressed light blue shirt over his broad shoulders and slowly worked his way up the buttons. As soon as he reached the very last one on the top, a bizarre scene unfolded in the reflection of his bathroom mirror. He saw that his hands were replaced with much paler ones, nails long and exquisitely polished in a deep red color. The air around him had suddenly gone cold. He was paralyzed by the sight before him and yet he could not look away. It was as if the cool wind had frozen him in place too. A sickeningly sweet aroma swarmed around him and his eyes darted anxiously as if trying to trace its source before fixating on his reflection once more. The mysterious hand was now gone and so was the smell. Archie swallowed hard at the lump that had gathered in his throat. It was probably just his imagination playing tricks on him, he reasoned. After all, he spent most of the night before tossing and turning in bed.

He takes a handful of his watered-down hair wax and slathers it generously onto his saffron hued locks. As expected the wax doesn’t take well to his hair. "Damn it." He grunts in annoyance before slathering another dollop, this time running his hands through his hair with increasingly aggressive strokes. His rage interrupted by a sudden weight pressing down on his right shoulder. His fear-ridden body jumps in response to the unwelcomed stimuli. “Woah Arch, I didn’t mean to scare you. I thought you heard me come in.” It was Betty Cooper. “You okay?” Betty's brows were furrowed softly in concern. Archie's usual warm and rosy complexion was drained of all its color. She ran her hands across the length of his back in soft and soothing strokes. Her touch did wonders in soothing him. “Y-yeah I’m good.” "You sure?" "Yeah, Bets." this time Archie manages to conjure up a soft smile. Betty mirrors her childhood sweetheart melting into a soft smile herself. Her eyes trail the entire length of Archie’s body before fixating on his hazel brown eyes. “You look handsome.” she cooed. Archie couldn’t help but break into a light chuckle before averting his gaze away from her crystal blue eyes. Archie always had a habit of looking away or biting his lips whenever he felt sheepish and Betty loved that about him.

She brushed back the loose strands of hair that had fallen on his forehead and adjusted his navy blue varsity jacket, making sure to dust off any loose traces of lint. He instinctively stepped forward, eliminating the distance between them wanting nothing more but to take in the familiar aroma of her rose-scented perfume and the slight traces of her magnolia shampoo. He lifted his hands to embrace her face, thumbs softly stroking the pink of her cheeks. “I don’t know what I would do without you, Betty Cooper.”

______________

It’s twenty minutes before the start of the first period and the schoolyard is teeming with cliques of excited teens all engrossed in exchanging stories about how they had spent their summer. Right across the street, a sleek black BMW pulls into the street. Its tinted windows rolled down to reveal a raven-haired teen peering discreetly at the scene before her.  

“Andre, my dear, you can stop the car here.”

“But Miss-”

“It’s okay Andre, I prefer to walk.”.

Veronica Lodge had a plan. After her family's not-so-graceful fall from high society in New York, Veronica wanted nothing more than to detach herself from the shame of her past life. Opting instead to forge a new one for herself. She looked down to inspect her outfit one last time. A simple black dress, sinched fashionably at the waist with a thin violet belt. Her hands found its way to her collarbone and lingered on her bare skin where her prized pearl necklace used to lay.

"No need to pick me up later. I'll see you at the Pembrooke." Andre nodded, pausing thoughtfully for a second before flashing a warm smile at Veronica's reflection in the front view mirror. "Have a nice day at school, miss." she heard Andre say before closing the car door behind her. Nice day. I sure hope so she thought. Veronica wasn't expecting much from her new life in Riverdale, after all, she wasn't planning on staying for long. She figured it was best if she kept a low profile and made a graceful exit when it came time for her family to return to their lives in New York. No attachments, no drama. The lesser her classmates knew about her the better.

Inscribed in gold on the school’s brick facade read “Riverdale High”. Here goes nothing. As soon as she pushed open the rust-tinted front doors, she found herself right in the middle of it all. Students gathered in front of their lockers, chatting with friends and getting their books in order. All eyes were drawn to her immediately. You see in a small town like Riverdale, everybody knew everybody. They all shared the same street, grew up in the same schools. It was an understatement to say that she stood out like a sore thumb. She eased into a slight smile hoping it would soften her image, but her attempts were received with snickers and ridicule instead. There was no time for pleasantries anyway, the first period was coming up and she hadn't found her locker yet. “431.431.431” she repeated as her eyes scanned the row of deep blue lockers on either side of the hallway. “Veronica Lodge?” She froze in her tracks as if struck by a freeze gun. No way. Was it someone she knew? Perhaps someone from New York? This couldn't be happening. Her cover already blown and all before the first period?

She turned slowly on her heels to meet her fate and to her surprise and great relief it was a new face, someone she hadn't met before. Standing before her was an all-too-enthusiastic, blonde ponytail donning Betty Cooper. “I’m Betty Cooper, I’m on the welcoming committee. I’m supposed to give you a tour of the school? You know get you oriented on our programs and clubs and where the restrooms are...”. Her cheerful demeanor and upbeat voice threw Veronica off. I guess she wasn't used to the warm hospitality. An ambiguously awkward period of silence passed between the two before Betty let out a nervous laugh, embarrassment coloring her cheeks a bright pink. “Right Betty, nice to meet you". Veronica extended her hand for a handshake and Betty gladly returned the gesture.  

“So, have you found your locker yet?”.

“No, actually, I’ve been walking in circles for the past five minutes. Do you know where 431 is?" Betty nodded and mouthed an Ah-hah before leading Veronica further down the hall. “431, here we are.”. Veronica entered the code for the lock and viola her life at Riverdale High had officially begun.

________

“So here we have the girls’ locker room, that's the gym hall over there, and the cafeteria is just down the hall to the left.”. The all-inclusive Riverdale High campus tour was in full swing, led by Riverdale's golden girl no less. Veronica nodded nonchalantly, a polite gesture in acknowledgment of Betty's forthcoming reception. Veronica, however, took little effort to remember the details of the tour seeing as her time at Riverdale High would be brief.  

“Oh, and this is the Blue & Gold-" Veronica's ear perked at the noticeable boost in enthusiasm in Betty's tone. You'd think the blonde couldn't get any peppier than this. "You’ll find me here most of the time, I’m the Chief Editor here.”. The pair stepped into the dimly-lit space, a small classroom haphazardly converted into a publishing center for the school's paper. Tall dusty shelves lined the corners of the room with volumes of worn and aged books displayed sparsely on its bones. Their workstations buried in tall stacks of paper, several empty coffee mugs, and typewriters. Talk about old-fashioned. Who knew moving to a small town meant going back in time. “You know we’re always looking for writers so if-” “No thanks, I’m not much of a writer myself,” Veronica interjects, ‘But...I love what you’ve done with the place,” she rejoined, feeling her initial rejection of Betty's offer was rather crass for the good-hearted blonde.

Seated at the very corner of the space was Jughead Jones. A pair of gold-rimmed glasses perched precariously on the edge of his sharp nose. He sips his black coffee with one hand while the other dances frantically over the keyboard of his MacBook. Paying absolutely no heed to the presence of the two. “Jughead, this is Veronica Lodge she’s-” “New girl I know.” he interrupts, not even bothering to pry his gaze from his laptop to meet theirs. “This is Jughead, he’s one of the best writers in this school. His pieces are phenomenal.”.

“Well, I guess I should start reading the school paper then.” Veronica thought she should offer a light compliment, perhaps as a way to break the ice. She reached out her freshly manicured hand to shake his but was met with an unfazed Jughead still blissfully engrossed in his writing. She retrieved her hand, ego sorely bruised by the boy's crude demeanor. It took everything in her not to roll her eyes and return his hostility with a snarky remark. But she was new Veronica and new Veronica was not going to make an enemy out of her classmate on the very first day of Sophmore year.

Just as Betty was about to usher Veronica out, they hear Jughead read the summary of his latest piece aloud. A seemingly innocent behavior laced with malice of course. A deliberate attempt to rattle the cage. You see Jughead Jones was a bit of a sadist, getting a kick out of ticking people off every once in a while. He reclined into his seat, fingers interlocked behind his head as he began the narration of his latest piece. “Dark and mysterious family moves into town on the very same night Riverdale's scarlet heiress Cheryl Blossom goes missing - an awful coincidence perhaps?” “Jug!” a wide-eyed Betty scolds.

“Excuse me?” Veronica glared in disbelief. “Oh, it’s just a piece I’m working on about the disappearance of Cheryl Blossom.” Jughead gets up from his seat to come face to face with a fuming Veronica. His cold blue eyes peering straight through her dark ones. She couldn't help but scoff at Jughead's ridiculous attempt at yellow journalism.

“So let me get this straight, you think I body-snatched some girl I don’t even know, just so I could take her place in some local high school in the middle of nowhere?” Jug shrugged nonchalantly. “It’s just a working theory.”. Unbelievable! The guy practically knew her for all of five minutes and already he’s pegging her for a kidnapper. “Come on Veronica, let's go.” Betty ushered Veronica out of the room before looking back once more to shoot Jug a disapproving look.

“Betty, I have a question.”

"Yup?" the blonde hummed, eyes glued to the pages of her baby blue leather notebook. She ran her index finger down the rows of her handwritten agenda making sure she had covered all the bases of Veronica's orientation tour. "Who the hell is Cheryl Blossom?”. Betty blinked up at Veronica, her organized thoughts completely disarrayed. She wasn't prepared for this. Cheryl Blossom's disappearing act of the summer was not on the agenda for today and frankly, she didn't know how to describe Cheryl, well not with decent adjectives at least. "Well, she umm... she's-". Betty fumbled over her words before giving up completely seeing as Veronica herself was absorbed in the sight before them. A locker plastered with personal messages and flowers with a row of lit candles lined up neatly at its foot. A bright red banner hung from the ceiling just above it reading "Come home, Cheryl.".

_____________________________________

ok so should i continue with a chapter 2 or lets can this mess - what do ya’ll think? sound off in the comments.

[theserpentlife]

if only riverdale was brave enough to do what elite did -  they literally threw the 2 most unexpected characters together and boom instant chemistry. Sigh if only the riverdale writers could stop pandering to the loudest in the fandom and just write good and compelling storylines. Even Archie and Josie was an interesting turn but of course it didn’t last, hell even Toni and Jughead had major potential too. I really can’t think of any other series that keeps the same two characters in a relationship for almost 3 seasons in a row. Elite also has a similarly huge cast and yet they manage to keep every single character relevant and so intricately interlinked. With Riverdale, it’s like a constant rerun of the core 4 breaking up then making up, then some parent drama on the side, and then actual interesting and layered characters like Cheryl, Josie, Kevin and Toni randomly comes into the picture every once in awhile. 

[theserpentlife]

“Hold me while you wait I wish that I was good enough If only I could wake you up My love, my love, my love, my love Won't you stay a while? “

hey guys i’m back with yet another sweetvee edit, an angst one this time. sweet pea and veronica’s summer fling turns into something more but comes to an abrupt end because of penny peabody. 

stay hydrated my sweetvee intellectuals, xoxo

[theserpentlife]

i’ve been itching to make another sweetvee edit. who’s excited?

[theserpentlife]

@theserpentlife is someone I don’t know too well but someone I’d love to get to know. I saw a fan vid she had made before and thought it was brilliant and she’s super talented! She seems like a really cool individual and I’m glad to have her in the fandom!

anonymous at @theserpentlife (via riverdalepositivity)

this is so sweet <3!! gurl come say hi

[theserpentlife]

rewriting riverdale

basically season 1 Riverdale if they kept up the same energy. 

I’m thinking of writing this whole series of dark Riverdale without any of the supernatural mess. Let me know what you guys think.

Background Stories:

Archie Andrews: Promising football star, the pride of the school, well-liked by his peers, kind and very outgoing, righteous, always stands up for the little guy. Tough family life - Fred Andrew’s construction business is not doing well, bills are piling up, on the brink of losing his home and having Andrew’s construction go bankrupt. feels helpless as he watches his father slowly crumbling under the weight of their financial situation. takes up extra shifts at Pop’s to help out. one of the front runners to be scouted to receive a full ride to college, only one scholarship up for grabs and he’s up against Reggie, the other rising star of the football team. Reggie’s rich, got the connections, and the coach’s pocket and Archie will do almost anything to get that scholarship, he’s desperate.

Betty Cooper: the definition of perfection. she’s the envy of every girl at Riverdale high, perfect grades, perfect hair, perfect boyfriend, a seemingly perfect life. a newly minted river vixen, chief editor at the blue and gold. all this perfection doesn’t come without pressure and betty’s slowing losing her grip on her picture-perfect life. After the sudden death of her sister Poly Cooper, Alice Cooper is completely unravelled, now taking out her wrath of losing her eldest daughter on Betty. Alice Cooper is a total control freak and seeks to control every little thing in Betty’s life. With all the pressure building up, Betty is desperate for some relief, which for her, happens to come in a tiny blue pill.

Veronica Lodge: New girl. Rich. Sole Heiress to Lodge Industries. Ex-New York City Socialite. Midtown High’s cold-hearted bitch. Has no intentions of fitting in at her new school, believes that her father’s scandal will soon blow over and she can return to her life of opulence in New York. Plans to keep her head down, attend her classes and go straight back home to the Pembroke after school. She ends up being thoroughly intrigued and swept up in the lives of a select few students at Riverdale High. She deliberately dresses down as a cover. No pearls and no designer bags. She’s given a welcome tour by Riverdale High’s golden girl Betty and is introduced to the seemingly simple lives of the teenagers living in a small town but she soon realises that they’re not so smooth around the edges after all. She decides to keep up her cover for as long as she can, there’s just something so liberating about being the “new girl from out of town” and not having to carry the weight of her family name like the way she needed to back in New York.

Jughead Jones: Outcast. Lone wolf. Grew up in a broken family on the wrong side of the tracks. A brilliant writer and often buds heads with Betty on the Blue and Gold. Betty often shooting down his pieces for being too out of line / “inappropriate for a high school paper.” His pieces are brutal, he does not mince his words, he bares the truth for what it is. Doesn’t socialise much, his only two relationships are those of necessity - Betty Cooper his partner at the Blue and Gold and to everyone’s surprise Archie Andrews. Archie Andrew and Jughead were known to be childhood friends before Jughead’s family moved to the Southside, and needless to say, they inevitably grew apart. The truth is they were as good as strangers now and Archie’s golden boy persona was frankly repugnant to Jughead. So what reason could Jughead possibly have to want to be associated with Archie - well let’s just say Archie’s hiding something big and Jughead is on to it.

Current Pairings:

Archie Andrews x Betty Cooper

Of course, I’m planning to have the Southside serpents and Cheryl Blossom but I want them to come in the story a little later after the core 4 has established some kind of special dynamic.

Small Teasers for Possible Future Pairings:

Archie x Betty x Tony - ok get this, Toni sees Betty stumbling across the wrong side of town, she recognises the sweet Blonde from her new school at Riverdale High and wonders what a girl like her would be doing at the back alleys of the Whyte Wyrm. She finds out Betty’s out getting her “fix” and slaps the white bag of powder out of her hands, “trust me, you don’t want to get into those gutter drugs hun.” and offers to take her home. Betty breaks down in front of Toni and all Toni could do is hold her and just like that the girls spent the entire night on Betty’s front porch. Morning comes and Betty asks Toni to leave for fear that her mother might find out she’s acquainted with a southside serpent. Betty and Toni grow closer after this encounter, and Betty soon realises maybe the affinity she has for Toni is one that’s more than friends

Veronica Lodge x Sweet Pea - Veronica Lodge is appointed as the welcome guide for the new influx of Southside High students. Sweet Pea takes notice of her immediately and doesn’t hesitate to make his move. Veronica, being the natural charmer that she is, flirts back and let’s just say it doesn’t take long for these two to get hot and heavy. Veronica is adamant it’ll just be another fling, a harmless exchange, after all, she wasn’t planning to stay in Riverdale for long. Things start to get a little complicated when she starts falling for him and the thought of coming clean to him about her true identity terrifies her.

Cheryl Blossom x Jughead Jones - to be continued.

[theserpentlife]

SIS YOU’RE NEW SWEETVEE VIDEO IS GIVING ME LIFE

late reply but thanks dear <3 us sweetvee shippers are the most deprived i’m glad to keep my lovelies hydrated anyday

[theserpentlife]

Grizz is gay though? Like, canonically gay?

yeah i know. thats why i specified in the description that it is an AU (alternate universe) take on their relationship. it doesn’t have any relation to the actual plot of the show. 

[theserpentlife]

An AU where Grizz and Allie have been bestfriends since they were little but things start to get a little complicated when both secretly develop feelings for each other.

[theserpentlife]

Do you wanna maybe… go get a milkshake at Pop’s? Celebrate? Unless you have a better idea…

[theserpentlife]

okay low key though archie and josie are kinda cute - like finally archie is in a safe and healthy relationship and josie being the only one that managed to talk some actual sense into his hard-headed ass that’s some refreshing change

[theserpentlife]

[theserpentlife]

okay so i’ve been just resurfaced after being down the rabbit hole of Veronica X FP edits yes i know eww the age gap and its wrong i do not condone it.but anyway the image and vibes of both of them reminds me so much of Darling and Buddy from baby drivers and i would so love to read about an AU like that

[theserpentlife]

When Sweet Pea isn’t embarrassed to admit he prefers to be in a committed relationship, chooses himself, and becomes the anti-toxic masculinity poster boy for doing it all like a man.

[theserpentlife]

I wanted to know if you’d be my date to the wedding? as your boyfriend? does it have to so official?

[theserpentlife]

Friend: why do you keep watching riverdale if you hate it so much

Me: