Living with your older brother, being called the pogue princess, not having a care in the world because nobody cared about you was great. The keggers were fun, the boat days were relaxing, other pogues loved you for your light-hearted openness about everything even though life itself was shitty. You probably would've never had a second thought about being a kook if it wasn't for the money issues you had to deal with. Or the situation you were currently in; DCS was planning to take you and your brother away from the OBX and send you both into foster care on the mainland. You would have rather drowned or been eaten by a megalodon than be separated from your brother, John B, and the rest of your friends.
One second you were running away from an overweight security guard named Gary because you and your friends trespassed on a kooks summer home that was being renovated, the next second you're sitting in an office with some prissy-looking social worker named Cheryl.
"John, Y/N, it's come to our attention that you are both unemancipated minors living on your own," She states dropping the file onto her desk, taking off her glasses looking pretty much over you guys.
You and John B give each other a look, John B responds "No...no, no."
"Guys, I need you, to be honest, so that I could help you. That's what we both want, right?" Pfft, no and if you could laugh you would but you figured it wouldn't be appropriate. This lady seriously thought she was helping you, in reality, this was just a big waste of time when you could've been working your hours and making money. Unfortunately, you and JB had to sit there and try to talk your way out of this situation before they take you away.
You snapped out of your daze when the social worker asked, "When is the last time you spoke to your uncle?"
John B nodded at you to check the time and seeing as how you both didn't have a watch nor have you spoken to uncle T in a while; you estimated around the time before the DCS meeting started, "34 minutes ago."
"When's the last time you saw him?" She wrote down each answer you gave her. Once again you bullshitted another response, "Two hours and 43 minutes ago?" You played it off with a thoughtful expression.
Her eyes flickered between you and John B, "Alright, we're gonna come out there tomorrow to talk to your uncle. If he's not there, we're going to move forward with foster care." The thought of it made you shiver, you shut your eyes tight, 'Great'.
"I want to assure you, we're going to find you a safe and loving home." Cause that's exactly what you wanted, note the sarcasm, after that, you and John B went your separate ways.
You had the get to the country club where you worked with one of your best friends; JJ was waiting for you to help him with the shutters since the news said there was gonna be a hurricane.
~~~
You wake up early the next morning to clean up the house before DCS came to do the assessment, John B told you last night that he called to reschedule because of Hurricane Agatha but just in case, it wouldn't hurt to clean up a little bit. You picked up the piles of trash littered around the kitchen, roaches of joints you had smoked but just left there, organizing everything you could to make the place look decent.
You took a break by sitting on the couch next to a passed-out JJ and opened your phone but once you tried to open social media, nothing would load, meaning the internet was down and if the internet was down; the power is out. On other occasions, it would've been because either you or John B forgot to pay the electric bill but knowing it was Hurricane Agatha, you groaned. Who knows when it'll get fixed, figure-eight gets priority most of the time, and usually by the time they're done fixing the eights houses they'll come a day or two or maybe even a week after claiming they couldn't get through the damage.
You decided to open up a book you were reading for the past few days, "Yo Y/N, you been outside?" You hear John B's heavy footsteps. You murmur a quick no, John B walks by the couch on his way to the backyard and slapping JJ on the back before he stepped out, "You good, bro?"
"I got Polio, bro. I can't walk," JJ says dramatically.
"Mornin' Princess" He lazily sits up beside you after 5 minutes of silence, "Wanna get me a beer?"
You raise an eyebrow poking your head up from your book, "Do I look like your maid or something?"
"No, but if you were you'd be wearing one of those black and white outfits that the ones in the movies wear." He leans in closer to get a peek at the book you were reading, you were side by side, shoulder to shoulder. You could smell the ocean water from when he surfed yesterday, you tried to calm your breathing. "C'mon beautiful, we can even share it."
You felt butterflies in your chest, it's just like JJ to try and get this reaction out of you to get you to give in and do whatever he asked, you wouldn't be surprised if he knew about your deep-rooted feelings for him and held it over you or maybe he just liked to bother you. Either way, you hated how playful he was in his flirting to tease you, not knowing the true effect he had over you. But over the years of being friends, you had gotten used to those feelings and saying no to him. You shoved him away from you, "Get it yourself, loser. And while you're at it bring me one."
He complained but got up and went to get the beer himself. You continue reading your book, stretching out onto the couch now that JJ got up. "Here," He hands you a can, going outside.
Eventually, you join once you start feeling the lack of their presence and you catch John B saying, "Come on think about it, it's God telling us to fish."
"Shouldn't we be cleaning up around here?" You motion towards the fallen trees and branches mixed in with all the trash outside. "The place looks wrecked and DCS could show up any day now."
"It'll be fine, who knows how much damage they took on the mainland." John B reassures, "Could be days or weeks until they show up."
You sighed, agreeing to a boat day. You tried to be the level-headed one when it came to you and John B, it never really worked though, considering you had a knack for getting into your fair share of trouble. Pope and Kie were the responsible ones of the group, when they were around, you let your guard down.
The first stop was to pick up Pope, you all observed the island, scooping out the destruction that was left by Agatha. JJ asked Ms. Amy if she got through the storm okay to which she responded that she was still here.
"She totally looked at me," JJ said smugly. Yeah, cause a grown-ass woman would be worried about him, you thought bitterly.
"I saw it," John B replied, you scolded your brother internally for encouraging JJ.
"We're gonna be cleaning this all summer," JJ groaned.
"That is my nightmare," John B pulled up on the dock where Pope was filling up a bucket of water.
"Well look who we have here," JJ mocked. "We have a safety meeting, Attendance mandatory." John B mimicked radio static.
"I can't, my pops got me on lockdown..." Pope argued. JJ continued to fake static "Your dad's a pussy, over." You cringed at the statement when you noticed Heyward walking down the dock, "Oh I heard that you little bastard."
That is definitely not the best way to get on Heyward's good side, "We need your son," You spoke up. "Yeah, and island rules day after hurricanes a free day," JJ defended.
"Who made that up?"
"Uh... Pentagon, I think, we have security clearance. I have a card." You chuckled at JJs joke.
"You think I'm stupid?" You could tell Heyward was upset at you three, picking up Pope when he needed help, you kind of felt bad.
"I'll do it tomorrow, I promise. Tomorrow." Pope was looking at you all for the confidence to leave. "Hell no, you doin' it right now," Heyward insisted. You each told him to get in and make a run for it, "Boy, if you get in that boat--" Too late, he did.
"How does that feel?" JJ asked, "I promise I'll do it tomorrow pops." That was the last thing Pope said before you all headed off to pick up Kie.
"Ooh, top of the morning to ya," JJ faked an Irish accent. "Good morning Boys, and girl." Kie winked at you, you smiled and held out a hand to help her into the boat.
"Hey, pretty lady."
"Whatcha got? You got some juice boxes?" Pope asked. "You know, just some yogurts and carrot sticks," She said.
"How about my kind of juice box?" JJ mentioned.
"Did you bring the top that I asked you for?" You questioned, you asked to borrow a cute shirt that you saw her wear one day. She promised to let you borrow it next boat day.
"Yeah," She opened the cooler and passed one to you and JJ before getting one for herself and the three of you cheered, going further into the marsh.
She tossed the tie-dye wife-beater towards you and you caught it one-handed, taking off the oversized shirt you had on top of your bathing suit, placing your shirt and the one Kie brought for you one on top of the other. You took off your shorts and stretched.
"Hey, Pope. Can you go a little faster?" JJ moved closer to the edge of the boat with his beer.
You sighed, "How many times has he tried to do this?"
"About 1,000 it's never going to work." John B sat down at his spot.
"I got this, It's gonna work!" JJ tipped the beer and aimed at his mouth with a few inch distance.
"Oh my god, you're getting beer in my hair!" Kie complained. "All right, all right you're done." Pope and John B tried to cut him off since he was getting more beer on everyone else, rather than in his mouth.
"Watch and learn," You grab a beer, coming up next to him in the same exact position. You angled upward and closer to your mouth so it wouldn't spill everywhere. You felt the beer quickly trickle into your mouth, a little bit spilling onto your chin, "See it wasn't that har-"
You were cut off by the boat crashing into something, both you and JJ flew into the water. The beer bottle hitting your top teeth and lip as you splashed into the water, You come up from the water coughing. "Y/N, JJ you okay?" You hear John B call out.
"No!" You were still trying to recover from your coughing fit, "I think my heels touched the back of my head." JJ groans.
"Pope, what did you do?" JJ asks.
"Sandbar, The channel changed."
"No shit," You cough out. You both begin to swim back to the boat.
"Hey, I saved the beer though," JJ mentions. You think back to the beer bottle that smashed into your mouth when you hit the water, it was sinking into the marsh as you all spoke.
"Lucky you," You respond "My beer attacked me." You tap your upper lip with the pad of your index finger, feeling a sting. "Fuck" you whispered, licking your lips and tasting the iron in your blood.
"Damn, it really did attack you," JJ swam closer to you to check out your lip.
"Guys... I think there's a boat down there," Pope says.
"Shut up. What?" John B said.
"No guys, I'm serious there's a boat down there for real," He points a few feet away from where you and JJ were still floating.
"Holy shit, he's right. Let's go" Kie exclaims, jumping into the water with John B and Pope.
"I'm good, done with water for today." You climb into the HMS, "You think there's a dead body down there?" You hear one of them say, while you slip on the top Kie brought you along with your jean shorts.
"You guys saw that right?" Kie exclaims when they come back up.
"What'd you guys see?" You ask.
"A Grady-White, A new one of those is like 500 G's easy," JJ explains, settling down on the seat next to you.
"Yeah. That's the boat I saw when I surfed the surge." John B remembers You bit back a remark about him being stupid and reckless. "Maybe it hit the jetty or something."
"You surfed the surge?" Kiara asks concerned. "Yep, when I explicitly told him not to." You stated looking directly towards John B, at least you weren't the only one who thought that surfing the surge-- despite how gnarly the waves probably were-- is thoughtless.
"That's my boy, pogue style man." JJ praised John B, you shot him a glare.
"Do we know who's boat that is?"
"No, but we're about to find out." John B lifts the hatch to grab the HMS pogue's "anchor".
"Man, that is too deep." JJ looks down to where the Grady-white is, "Oh, for the weak and feeble, JJ"
"Well, I'm not resuscitating you, I'm just making that clear up front." You say with your hands up in surrender. JJ raises his hand up, "Yeah I second that."
"That's fine I wouldn't expect you to anyway princess," John B playfully pushes your head to the side.
"John B." Kiara spoke seriously, You knew she was giving him a warning look. If you didn't know any better you'd think she had a crush on your brother.
"Diver down fool," Pope salutes John B. "Yeah, he is." JJ shoves John B into the water. You sit at the edge with the others waiting to see if John B had found anything when he comes up minutes later.
"Oh, my god. That took forever!" Kie declared.
"Any dead bodies?"
"Looting potential?"
"No, no," John B holds up a key with a yellow tag attached to it. "I found this motel key."
JJ pulls up the anchor, "A key."
"Yes, a key, Pope." John B pulls himself up.
"Great, We salvaged a motel key," You sighed.
"Better than nothing, we could find out who the boat belongs to."
~~~
We all decided we would try to report the Grady-White you all found but once you got there it was total chaos, John B and JJ tried talking to the guy at the front desk but was dealing with some lady that was trying to find her diabetic dog or something. Walking out of the place you all gathered around the entrance, "Well, that went well." Pope said.
"So, what's the plan?" You asked
"I know where we're gonna find the guy who owns that boat," John B hold up the key they found.
"We don't know whose room that is, it could be anyone." Pope made a valid point, though you'd be lying if you said you weren't curious. This could be fun, going on a mini-adventure.
"I'm in," You and JJ said at the same time, You smiled raising a finger yelling out "Jinx!"
"Oh come on! You still owe me one from this morning!" JJ came closer to you, You knew the mischievous look he was giving you. The look that had you bracing for impact when he grabbed your waist and began to tickle you.
"Come on, I'll be lookout." JJ tossed Kie the keys, she wiggled her shoulders at Pope.
"Finder's fee, just sayin'" John B mentioned. "And hey, at least you'll only be an accomplice.
Pope was overthinking it, you could tell by the way he stood still at the entrance. "It'll be fine, poopy," You lay a hand on his shoulder calling him the nickname you gave him in remembrance of the first conversation you had.
You were speaking of your interests and what you thought about doing in the future when he was talking about being a coroner, he said something about what happens when a body is going through decomposition. You heard the words death and shitting and that's when the name was born. He was never a fan of the name, for obvious reasons, but he had to admit it was still a little funny. Plus you didn't call him that all the time.
John B pulled up at the motel and whistled, "I thought the Chateau looked bad." JJ noted.
"This place is a shitshow."
"Motel or meth lab?" Kie said, "You be the judge." Pope responds.
"Doesn't look like a place somebody with a Grady-white stays," John B looks around.
"No, looks like a place someone with a Grady-white would get killed." You scoff, the motel was white with black on the roof, doors, and stairs, shaped like an L, and because of Hurricane Agatha; was trashed with the debris of trees and litter.
"All right, here we go. This is your captain speaking, HMS Pogue comin' in for landing." JJ announces in a weird accent, he hops out of the HMS with an excited shout. JJ ties the rope to something on the grass.
"We good?" John B asks to reassure if the HMS is tied and won't go floating off somewhere.
"Yeah, we're good."
"All right, here goes nothin'" John B heads to hop off the boat, pope stops him pointing at JJ, "Hey, don't let him do anything stupid."
"Oh, we will," JJ says nonchalantly.
"I'm not making any promises," John B shakes his head.
"Alright well, we best be heading out boys." You walk past John B, patting his shoulder as you pass him.
"Woah, where do you think you're going?" John B catches your bicep. You look at where his hand was to his face, his eyebrows were furrowed and his tone was serious.
"Uh, with you guys duh, we don't need three lookouts." You stated in a 'duh' tone.
"Yeah, no. Definitely not." He insists.
"Listen here johnny, we really don't have time for this."
"She's kinda right, this is kinda an in and out typa thing." John B glares at JJ.
"Y/N we don't know who or what's in there, this could be dangerous and-"
"Oh my god, John B we're just scoping out the room, I seriously doubt this is gonna be any more dangerous than being a woman walking in the dark." You roll your eyes, getting frustrated. "Besides you guys are with me so I'm going," You say with finality clipping his shoulder, standing next to JJ.
"Fine, fine, whatever." John B runs a hand through his hair. Kie hands JB the motel key, "Uh, be careful."
"Why are all these mattresses out?" You question.
"After a hurricane, they ditch em' cause they're moldy," JJ responds.
"Just be so careful, John B." JJ wraps his arms around John B and moans.
"God, you're so weird." John B pushes him away, you were walking a few paces behind them, silently watching.
"What was that about?"
"I don't know, maybe she wants us to be careful." John B guesses, Kiara was confusing, to say the least. You loved her, of course, she was your best friend and the closest thing you had to a sister but sometimes she could frustrate the hell out of you. You knew she most likely didn't have feelings for him and that JJ liked to exagerate but she had been getting a little closer to your brother.
"Since she heard you're being threatened with exile, she's been, like," JJ massages John B's shoulders, "Oh! be so careful, John B."
"Get off!" John B shrugs JJ off.
"Just give me that John D already. When are you gonna swoop on that man?"
"Ew! Okay gross JJ." You shove them apart and walk ahead of them, shivering in disgust. "Geez, I do not need to hear that, and really swoop in on that? that's our best friend have a little respect maybe?"
"Relax, Y/N it's a joke." JJ snickered, "Mostly."
"Bro, you know the rule. No Pogue-on-Pogue macking," JB says. Of course, the dreaded rule. The one that reminded you that if there was a chance in hell that JJ liked you back, John B would never approve and would use the no pogue-on-pogue macking rule as a prime excuse. "Besides, you're the one always hitting on her."
And there was also that, JJ liking Kie. "Of course i'm hitting on her, she's a super-hot, rich, hippie chick slumming with us."
"Um, still here, yknow." You were annoyed, maybe it was a mistake coming up with them. Hearing JJ say those things about Kie, it was obvious Kie was attractive but it just fueled the flaming hot jealousy that burned in your chest whenever you thought about JJ and Kie together and how he would never think about you in that way.
They ignored you, "Why? I can't figure it out either, but who cares, bro?"
"I know that door's locked because i've tried it, have you?"
"You need help, and not just a little help but like a lot." John B emphasized, "It's like every girl who just has a heartbeat, you're like... uhhh!"
John ends that conversation, thankfully, as you three approach the door.
"Housekeeping," JJ says in a high-pitched voice and knocks on the door in an upbeat rhythm.
"Should we try it?" You ask.
"No power, no security cameras, no one's gonna know." JJ encourages, John B succesfully unlocks the door.
JJ walks in first, "Huh."
"Check the bag, see if there's a name on there somewhere." John B instructs. You each search through the room, calling out the random things you find when JJ reads from a paper.
"Yo, dude, come here. Maybe this where they were fishing."
"Let me see," John B comes up to him.
"Right there," JJ points. You look at the coordinates, "No, that's off the continental shelf. That's a big swell, nobody fishes there."
"Okay," JJ walks away, continuing to look around.
You notice a smaller note on the side with a 5 digit code: 61666. John B opens up a cabinet with a microwave and coffee pot on top that has a safe. "Hey, maybe this is the code."
John B typed it in, twited the knob and it opened. Your eyes widened, "Holy shit." There were stack of money piled on top of each other, an envelope and a gun. Clearly, the person who stayed in this motel was into some shady shit.
"Uh... JJ," John B called him over, "Your gonna wanna see this." He waved a stack of hundreds over his shoulder.
"Hm?" JJ tucked the stack into his pocket, reaching past you and John B grabbing the gun.
"You grabbed the gun?" You gaped at him.
"This is a SIG sauer," JJ tells you the type of gun. "Put the gun back, JJ!" JB warns.
"This is a fucking spendy gatt, man." JJ points and pretends to shoot different areas of the room, "Just... bam! bam!"
"We are not stealing anything," John B states.
"Yo, princess take a pic of me, right here." JJ poses with the gun.
"Seriously?" You stare at him in mild disapproval.
"She's not taking a picture of you, man." John B tries to point the obvious, "Make our own incriminating evidence?"
You hear something tap at the window, "What was that?" You peek outside the blinds. Pope and Kie are jumping and pointing, John B went to check the window by the door. "Cops."
Your heart jumped out of your chest, "Kildare County sheriffs department!" You heard from outside the door.
You, JJ and John B shuffle out the window above where you found the code and coordinates. JJ takes one side of the wall pressing against it, You and John B do the same on the other wall. John B is closer to the edge of the roof while your closer to the window.
You peer into the window to see what's going inside, you saw Deputy Shoupe hand Officer plumb one of the stacks. You and JJ give eachother a disbelieving look, "Can you believe?"
That's when JJ drops the gun on the roof and it ends up falling on the dumpster, making loud clattering noises. You jump at the sound and fear of getting caught, causing you to slip. John B hold out an arm, catching you and pinning you to the wall, you breath heavily, trying to calm down from the initial shock.
~~~
"Well, that was fun," JJ said cheerfully. "You could've warned us sooner."
"We would have, except Pope was on the math team."
"You were on the math team?" JJ asks pope, You disregard what he says "That's not the point J, the cops took everything like it was a crime scene."
"Did you guys find anything?"
"Did we find anything? No, I don't think so." JJ pulls out the gun and money he stole, "Oh, yeah, we did."
"What the hell?" Pope exclaims, "Why take that from a crime scene?"
"Dude, chill. Come on, better than the cops having it!"
"I'm gonna lose my merit scholarship," Pope begins to freak out.
"Hey, hey, hey. Sh, sh, sh." JJ shushes Pope with the gun, "At least you have us, right?"
You're all gathered around The Chateau's back porch. You can tell you're all trying to recover from what you heard earlier that day. Scooter Grubbs dead body was found and turns out he was the owner of the grady white.
"Okay, so, um... we didn't see anything." Pope comes in through the screen door. "We don't know anything, we need to have total and complete amnesia."
"Actually, Pope's right for once. See, I agree with you sometimes." He gets up from the seat beside you, "Deny, deny, deny."
"Guys, we can't keep that money." Kie says, a part of you agrees with her but the other part pulls out the list of things you could pay for with the money.
"Okay, not all of us can afford unlimited data plans, Kiara." JJ says for you.
"We have to pass that off to Lana Grubbs," She expresses. "Otherwise, it's bad karma."
"Bad karma to be implicated in a felony, too." Pope voices, "We gotta go dark."
"If that means we get to keep the money, i'm all in. Halvsies everyone?" You announce.
"I agree!" JJ affirms.
"I don't agree," John B spoke up.
"What, why?" You were confused, does he not understand all you could use it for.
"Just think about it, this is Scooter Grubbs we're talking about. Same dude that's buying individual cigarettes at the porthole." He walks around like he's doing a TedTalk, "Shit, one time I sae this dude begging for change in the Save-A-Lot parking lot because he needed gas. We're talking about a dirtbag marina rat who's never had more than 40 bucks in his pocket, and all of a sudden, he's got a Grady-white? Just saying'." He discloses.
"All the more reason to spend it, then we have no trace of it." You argue.
After hours of discussing the Pros and Cons of it, spitting out theories of contraband being on the boat and the people Scooter Grubbs were hanging out with being smugglers, you all decided to "lay low" and act normal. In pogue terms that meant having a kegger.
~~~
The rest of the day was spent preparing for the infamous party that takes place every summer, it was filled with every teen on the island despite the ongoing feuds with Pogues and Kooks. John B and JJ carry the keg stand to the middle of the boneyard, and from there you all fill up the red solo cups to pregame. Soon, the boneyard was packed with Tourons, Pogues, Kooks, ready to get drink their life expectancy and have a good time.
You could only hope in the midst of it all, that no problems startup with the entitled pricks who love to blame everything on the Pogues. You stood by the kegger since it was your turn to man it, filling each cup with beer and handing one to everyone in line. You had to admit the tourons got cuter and cuter every year, you fill up another cup and hand it to a guy who you noticed has been eyeing you for a while. He had light eyes, curly hair and a nice smile, you mind getting to know him and you had every intention to before the asshole known as Rafe Cameron showed up and ruined everything.
"Hey, beautiful!" He pops up next to you, throwing an arm around your shoulders, bringing you closer to him.
"Rafe," You look around to see if any of your friends noticed, unfortunately, your brother was flirting with a touron, Pope and Kie seemed to be in deep conversation with people from school, and JJ -- always the life of the party-- is in the center of a crowd shotgunning a beer while everyone cheers him on. "What're you doing here?"
"What, is this a Pogue exclusive?" He waves his free arm around dramatically, "Cause' as far as I can tell there's not only trash here."
"No, just never seen you around these things," You glared, "This doesn't look like your type of scene."
"You wouldn't know my scene, now would you?" He leaned closer to your face, spitting out the word like it was disgusting to even think of it, "Pogue."
"You just seem like you'd enjoy spending hundreds of dollars to snort lines to fill the deep empty hole in your heart with equally as empty people who you like to call friends even though they're just using you for your money, kook." You shove him away, calling Pope to take over the Keg, getting far away from Rafe.
Once upon a time, when you were childhood friends, not close precisely but since your dad and Ward were "buddies", Big John would take you over to have mini play-dates with Sarah Cameron --Rafe's little sister and Kook Princess. You weren't close to her either but she was nice company when you came along with your dad. Rafe was only a couple of years older but he was always around and for some reason, always had an obsession with you. You never understood why, considering he had an abhor for Pogues. Truthfully, if it wasn't because you were in love with JJ and if he wasn't such a dick; you would've given him a chance.
Hours later there was no sign of Rafe thankfully, everything had run smoothly, the sun had gone down. Now everyone was sitting down or walking or dancing in the moonlight. Kie was faintly annoyed at seeing Sarah Cameron, there was some bad blood between her and Kiara, starting back to when Kie had her kook year. After a bit, she got over the fact that Sarah and her boyfriend Topper were here, she just made sure to steer clear of them.
You hear JJ whistle and look up from where you're sitting, He halfway hands John B a cup, of what you assume is some type of liquor.
"Want it?"
"For me? Yeah, I'll take a sip." John B reaches for it, It seems you spoke too soon about things going well.
"Hey!" JJ calls out at Sarah and Topper, who was just passing by. "Sarah! Sarah, can I interest you in a tasty Milwaukee beverage?"
"No, thanks." She replies. You thought that would be the end of that interaction but it appears JJ had other plans.
"Is it not fancy enough for you?"
"No, we were just leaving-" she gets cut off by Topper, "Hey, you know what? I'll take it."
"That's nice, but I didn't ask you." It was clear that JJ had one too many drinks and was just being an asshole to fuck around but the day had gone so well and it was never good to start anything with a kook. "If you said pretty please, maybe, but you didn't."
"Oh, pretty please." Toppers says, "Pretty please."
JJ ignores him, "Sarah, you can have it."
Topper flips the drink into JJ's face, "She doesn't want it, you--" JJ grabs Topper by his shirt and shoves him harshly. That's when you get up and to get a closer look and stop the fight, if that was even possible.
"No, no, no, no. "John B pushes JJ back to prevent the fight but then changes his mind and shoves Topper, when he shouts, "Dirty Pogues!"
Pope then tries to mediate, "We're supposed to be incognito, remember?" Though you doubt John B cared at the moment.
You witness as Topper stomps his way to John B and throws the first punch. You hear Sarah calling out for Topper, he doesn't show any signs that he heard her or cared. You wince as Topper kicked John B into the water, "Topper, stop it!" You shout trying to get closer, only to get pulled back.
"Hey, John B, don't make me drown you like your old man, all right?" He shouts at your brother who was still rolling around in the water, trying to find the strength to get up. You were enraged, how dare he bring up your father and threaten to drown your brother when he was the one who insulted you guys in the first place.
You hear the chants of people saying fight! fight! fight! and at this point, you wanted in on it. Topper kicks John B down again, John B gathers up strength and tackles Topper into the water while he wasn't looking.
"Stop, you guys!" Kie yells, They continue to wrestle and throw punches, getting out of the water and onto the sand. People surrounded the area, somebody had to do something to try and separate them, other than yell. You stood next to a hyped-up JJ shouting out encouragement to John B, "That's what I'm talking about!"
You tensed at the sight of Topper punching John B with a right hook, he recovers quickly, tackling Topper and using the blow to his advantage by flipping Topper into the shallow water. "Come on, Topper! Let's go!" John B delivers a couple more throws before Toppers tosses John B down and begins to choke him.
You ran to them only to be held back by someone again, "Let me go!"
"You don't want to get in the middle of that Y/N trust me!" JJ responds You wriggle in his grip, "He's drowning him, J!"
"Topper, stop! No!" Sarah continues to shout, You look to Kie and Pope who are just as distressed as you, looking around for solutions. JJ lets you go, running to his bag, "Stay there!"
You thought he was gonna tackle Topper or something until you saw the pistol. You heard the safety of the gun click and your eyes widened, "Yeah, you know what that is. Your move broski!"
You saw everyone scatter at the sight of JJ pointing the gun at the back of Toppers head, "JJ stop! Put the gun down!" Sarah orders.
"Did you say somethin', Princess?" He doesn't relent, even after Topper releases his hold on John B. Despite the close proximity to the gun and it being in JJ's erratic and out-of-control hands, you ran to help John B, pulling his head into your lap.
"Kie, can you check your psycho friend please?" Sarah cried out, you paused from lifting your brother's head from the water.
"How bout' you check your psycho boyfriend first, bitch!" You protest, your voice softens when you see John B coughing up the water he has in his lungs.
"Okay, everyone, listen up! Get the hell off our side of the island!" JJ roared out, he shoots two gunshots in the air. A bit extra in your mind but whatever worked, you were too preoccupied with making sure John B wasn't severely injured or dead.
"John B c'mon you gotta help me out." You plead to try to get him to stand, "John B!" He falls onto his back, fainting.
~~~
You were startled awake by the door opening, you reached over to grab a swiss army knife that was on your nightstand. You crept slowly to where you heard the intruder come in, ready to attack if provoked.
"Girl, what are you doing with that knife?" You jump around at the sound of the voice that came behind you.
"Jesus," You place a hand at your chest to steady your heart.
"No, but you might need him soon enough." Sheriff Peterkin nods at you, "Where's your brother, we need to have a talk."
"I'll go wake him up," You excuse yourself and speed walk to John B's room, picking up trash wherever you saw it.
"John B," You whisper yelled while gently nudging him awake.
He was laying flat on his stomach, his next twisted uncomfortably, "Huh?"
"Sheriff Peterkins here so get decent," You warn. "Why is she here?" He gets up rubbing his black eye, wincing once he feels the effects from last night.
"She hasn't said," You pat his knee and nod to the door "Come on."
"Sorry to break in like this, but DCS called, they wanted me to check in on y'all, see how you're doin'" She said leaning on a wall, behind her there were several empty bottles of beer that you were sure she noticed when she came in. "So, how are you, besides the-" She questions John B while circling a ring around her eye, proving she caught sight of the shiner he carried due to the fight with Topper last night.
"Oh, no, I'm-- I'm great. Yeah, fantastic, right Y/N?" He looked between you and Sheriff Peterkin, "We're doing fine."
"Uh-huh, yeah, all good here Sheriff!" You attempted to sound enthusiastic. You suddenly remembered you had to pick up a shift at the country club today for some girl who called in sick. "I'm sorry to just leave like this, but I have work so I should probably get ready."
Sheriff Peterkin sends you a slight smile, "That's alright Y/N, you do what you need to do, I just need to talk to John B."
You send a sympathetic look towards John B before going to your room to get changed into your uniform. You were glad you could still hear the conversation.
"I heard a few things that worried me, let me see if I can remember; oh yeah. One of the things I heard was that your uncle Teddy, your guardian, hasn't been in the state for three months." Your heart stopped and you paused putting on your work shirt, most of the people in the obx knew you and John B didn't have parents anymore, but you counted on the lie that your uncle was your guardian to get by legal issues. Seeing as you and John B are minors.
"That's false."
"You don't have to say anything, I know it's true, I called the school. They said you used to be a good student, but now you're failin' all your classes, and your sister's on her way to your level now." You internally scoff, slipping on your pants, as if John B could influence you. Yeah, you looked up to him, he was your brother and a "father figure" of sorts but he wasn't the reason some of your grades are slipping.
"No, no I'm only failing one and it's history, the guys a dick he's out for me-" John B tries to reason, You had work to pay the bills. Work that you had to get to before you got fired, you finished putting on your shoes, grabbing your bag and keys to the twinkie.
"I heard there was a fight on the beach yesterday and gun was involved," You wondered where she got all her information from cause she was seriously well informed.
"Okay, gun? no." JB patted her on the shoulder, "Did I get in a dustup? Yes, but was there a gun?"
You stepped out into the hall where they were, "No, there was no gun." You jumped in, laughing it off.
"That's okay, I know who it was. I'll get to him." She says, "All I'm worried about right now is making sure you're both in a safe home."
"Yeah, super safe." John B knocks on wood, "Supersound, sturdy. Y'know?"
"Uncle T's actually coming, so..." You add, about to step out.
"That's what he told you?"
"Yep," You call out "but I gots to go so, I'll see you later JB, Sheriff Peterkin." You nod at them before rushing to the twinkie, happy to get out of there.
~~~
After a couple of hours at work, you picked up JJ from his house and headed back to the Chateau where John B filled you all into what Sheriff Peterkin had said once you left.
"Look i'm callin' it off alright?" John B throws a rock, "Peterkin said, if I stay out of the marsh, she'll help us out with DCS."
"And you believed her?" JJ queries, "Yes, I believe her JJ."
"An actual cop, John B. You believed an actual cop."
"All I gotta do is stay out of the marsh for a couple of days, and she'll help me out. It doesn't help that your ass was the one shooting a gun."
"You know what I should have done? Just let Topper drown your ass."
"Are you kidding me JJ?" You scoff at him.
"Topper was gonna drown me?"
"Sure looked like it, I mean have you looked in the mirror."
"Tell me some more, come on. "John B egged him on, you rolled your eyes at the ridiculous way they were acting.
"Oh my god, shut up!" You spoke loudly, "Both of you if you want, I'll fucking go down to the marsh. Sheriff Peterkin didn't say anything about me going."
"I think you were implied, baby pogue." John B deadpans, "We are kind of a package deal when they take us away."
"If they take us away, "you emphasize, "whatever I wasn't there when she told you all that so if I go then I'd just say I didn't know."
"No," John B said simply. You rolled your eyes, huffed a plopped down next to Pope on the couch.
"They always win don't they man, Kooks versus Pogues. They always, always win!" JJ punches the volleyball that's been strung up on the roof for ages now.
"JJ, it doesn't matter now. Can't we just try to let all that bullshit go!" You say at the same time, Kie says, "Look, it's okay!"
"No, it's not okay, and we can't just let it go!" He circles back, "It is not! they don't want us to go down into the marsh, that means there's something valuable down there, and you know it. I know you do, and I understand why you don't wanna go." He points out Pope.
"You're the golden boy, you got way too much to risk, and you--" He points at Kiara, "I mean, you're already rich as fuck anyway. Why would you bother?" It was harsh but it was the truth.
"Princess over here has a bright future even though she keeps dumbing it down thinking she's not gonna be able to get out of the pogue life even though she has a better chance than the both of us combined." He nods at you, you just glare at him back knowing they could be successful if they tried, and though you were a hard worker you couldn't picture leaving the OBX and leading a better life.
"We got nothing to lose, man!"
"JJ-"
"And I know it didn't use to be that way for you-" He pries, John B avoids "I don't wanna talk about this, I don't wanna talk about it."
"So that's it?"
"Just get out of my way, bro." John B pushes JJ out of his way, "John B listen to me, I have a plan."
All three of you, Pope, Kie and you look at each other knowingly. He tries to convince John B of his plan to take the scuba gear off the Cameron's boat, go down to the wreck this afternoon. It didn't seem like a bad plan, the only issue would be if John B got caught or if luck hated you and Sheriff Peterkin was on the marsh.
~~~
Looks like you were all going with JJ's plan, you were all at the sight of the wreck, preparing to dive down to the sunken boat with the scuba gear John B borrowed from Ward Cameron's boat.
"This is empty, you took empty tanks?" You noted, "This one's a quarter full, that's enough for one of us."
"Love it when a plan comes together," Pope mutters.
"Does anybody know how to dive?" Kie asks. "Anybody?"
"It's kind of a kook sport," JJ jokes.
"I read about it," Pope spoke up.
"Great, poopy read about it so someone's gonna die," You snort.
"Look, y-you put the thing in your mouth and breathe. How hard could it be?" JJ questions, then Pope says something about nitrogen getting your blood if you come up too fast and something called the bends could kill you.
"Bends like bend over and..." JJ arches his back while bending over, "The bends kill you." Pope specifies you stifle your laughter.
"I can-- I can dive." John B volunteers, "Yeah, you can dive. I'm cool with that."
"Sure, you can definitely dive," You say sarcastically. At this point, your brother is just risking everything.
"Since when can you dive?" Kie rolls her eyes at him. Pope starts to do calculations.
"You need to make your safety stop at about... ten feet, for two minutes." Kie then proceeds to strip off her knotted yellow shirt and jump into the water, swimming to what you assumed would be the safety stop since she took her shirt with her.
"What was that all about?" Pope, JJ, and John B's eyes meet in question.
JJ being always the fuck boy, "I don't know, but I liked it, a lot."
"Perv," You fake cough out.
"Oh, don't be jealous baby P, you'll always be my number one girl." JJ ruffles your hair, you slap his hand away.
"'M not jealous, I'm just saying, John B was right about the whole every girl with a heartbeat thing."
"You sure about that?"
"Were you not just-"
"JJ, how bout' you not flirt with my baby sister in front of me or like ever." John B stops your banter, that and JJ oogling Kie as she took off her shirt was proof of the reason why you and JJ would never happen.
"Hey! I tied my T-shirt to the anchor chain about ten feet down," Kie comes up from the water. "It's where you need to do your safety stop."
Pope and JJ continue to instruct him on what he needs to do while down there. You help Kie back into the boat and she heads towards John B giving him a kiss on the cheek. Your eyes widen at the interaction, a smirk forming its way onto your lips.
"Diver down?"
"Diver Down."
Now you all wait, you could only hope there are no complications while he's down there. For now, you have to deal with the cops, as you heard the short siren and you see the police pull up.
"Oh, you gotta be kidding me." Pope groans, you know he's worried about anything that could take away his Merit scholarship.
"Just act frickin' normal," Kie advises, you sit next to her pretending to be in conversation.
"Evening officers," Pope says in greeting.
"Evening," they say in response. "How you kids doing? You know the marsh is closed?"
"No," You shake your head looking at each other pretending not to know anything.
"Why is it closed?" Pope asks.
"Well, we're conducting a search out here, a boat went down." Shoupe then asks if we've seen anything to which we deny.
"Where's your friend you always hanging with, he here?"
"He's working," You reply.
"I'm gonna check your little boat out," Shoupe hops aboard the HMS, looking around. Not that he'd find anything, you prayed John B doesn't come up any time soon. Shoupe moves around the edge of the boat, looking into the water. After a small, while he doesn't say anything then tells you to let them know if you see anything, then finally leaving.
You all peer over the edge to check on John B, catching a breath once you see him.
"How'd it go down there, Did you find anything?"
"Yeah," John B throws a book bag up, which JJ pulls up.
"You okay?" You ask, "Yeah, I ran out of air."
"You scared the shit out of me," Kie comments.
"Yeah, the cops were here but we took care of them," Pope fills him in.
"Hey guys, bogey two o'clock," Kie warns.
"Do you recognize that boat?"
"I've never seen it," Kie assures. "What are they doing here? the marsh is closed."
"Let's not stick around to find out," JJ states.
"JJ, get the bowline." John B starts up the HMS Pogue, ready to get out of there.
"I don't like this," You look back to see them heading straight for you.
"Go into the marsh." Pope instructs, "act natural."
John B pushes the boat to go faster, the two men right behind you. The anxiety creeps in at the sight of the strangers chasing after you, probably looking for the same thing you all were; something valuable in the sunken boat. You've turned multiple corners, looking back again and they've pulled out a shotgun and let out a shot.
You all duck, rushing John B. You see a net with a rope and you think, if you were able to throw it out there, it could get caught in their motor and they wouldn't be able to chase you anymore. You go ahead with your plan despite the shouts of the others telling you to get down.
The net was caught and they were now further behind, letting you guys be able to escape. It was almost dark when you docked the boat. You surrounded John B who unzipped the bag, "What do you guys think it is?" Kie asked.
"Gotta be money, right?" You thought John B was asking for a lot when he said that. You thought better than to get your hopes up, although you might confuse that for the anxiety you feel to know what was in the bag.
"Can we please just open the bag?" Pope snaps.
"Wow, Pope. That's a rare outburst of emotion." John B observes.
"Okay, you guys are literally killing me with anticipation."
John B pulls out a long bag drawstring bag, opening it up there was a metal tube that almost looked like a thermos. He twists off the cap only to find a compass that looked oddly familiar. You caught John B's eye and you could tell he thought the same.
"Dude, what? it's not worth anything." JJ states, you saw that Pope and Kie were also disappointed. They didn't know that what you all found meant a lot more to you and John B.
"This was our father's."
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