#bghq.starter

JUGHEAD’S FINGERS CLICKED AWAY FURIOUSLY at the keys on his laptop, barely even noticing when someone else approached the otherwise empty booth. Grateful that Pop’s was always open, and for the bottomless flow of CAFFEINE currently fueling his writing frenzy, he had to at least finish his current thought before distractedly lifting his gaze. “—Can I  h e l p  you with something?”

Stella had agreed to meet with one of her customers at Pop’s. She found herself meeting up with any of her customers at odd places, wherever it didn’t really matter, she just cared about getting paid for the work she did. The Serpent was growing frustrated at the jock as he slipped a mere 30 dollars to her from across the booth. Looking down, she let out a chuckle. “30? No, I said it would be 50. My prices are firm,” The oldest Valdez told the Bulldog who had wanted to get an essay done from her. As expected, the boy tried explaining that it what all he had and what he thought they had agreed on, making up excuses. The small diner was fairly empty at this point in the night, but there was quite a bit of commission coming from their booth. “Y’know, it would be a shame if you couldn’t play your next game because you didn’t do your essay. Probably would be even be more embarrassing if people ever found out you have to have a Serpent of all people do your work for you to get a decent grade,” she added on, venom dripping from her voice. Stella happened to take her ‘homework doing and essay writing’ business seriously. If people tried to low ball her or not pay their full amount, she wasn’t about to have it. “So, I’ll repeat this again incase you couldn’t get this through your thick skull. 50 dollars or you don’t get shit. I’m not going to lower my price either just because you throw around a fucking ball,” she added on.

Given it was the afternoon, Tess didn’t have school as an excuse to get away from home; so the petite brunette had taken up hanging at different spots around town, pretty much doing anything to avoid being home when her father was there. Today after classes, she’d opted to hang around Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe, having made herself comfortable at one of the back booths as she sipped her grape soda and picked at her bacon cheeseburger and chili fries. The back booths got less light than those directly by the windows. And while she normally enjoyed people watching and basking in the warmth of the sun, her father’s most recent beating from that morning had left her with a split lip and a nasty bruise covering the left side of her jaw. The lower lighting helped hide that fact, especially since she’d rushed out of the apartment without bothering to put on any sort of concealer. She really wasn’t in the mood to be social, nor did she want to lie explain to anyone what happened to her face.

It was later than he had expected to be sitting at the diner, but he couldn’t get his brain to shut off or his fingers to quit typing so fast. He had refilled his cup of coffee at least five times but knew he would probably need a few more. He rubbed his eyes before looking up to see the person standing there “woah...how long have you been standing there?”