----
"DCS! I know you're in there!" Liv's eyes open and she turns around to face John B.
"Johnny," Liv pushes him, trying to wake him up.
"What?" He groans, rubbing his eyes.
"It's DCS, they're here," Liv whispered harshly.
Suddenly, a figure appears in the window, making the pair jump. Liv screams and falls off the bed.
"Gotcha slick," JJ laughs, "You should have seen your faces."
"I hate you," Liv says, laying back down onto the bed.
----
"Im just saying, I don't know why you don't at least try to get with Kiara?" JJ asks, looking at John B, "She clearly liked you. She's like 'Oh John B',"
Liv rolls her eyes at the boy, reading her book in the back of the van.
"Is that what she does?"
"Shes sketching about you diving, then she kissed you," JJ carries on.
"She kissed me on the cheek," John B states, "It's not like we were making out,"
"Low-hanging fruit, bro. Don't pretend you don't notice, I see it in your eyes. You're like 'I kinda like that' and you start blushing,"
"I blush?" John b raises his eyebrows, "I don't blush, do I Liv?" He looks back to Olivia.
"Do you want me to be honest or..." Liv starts, not looking up from her book.
"Hey don't touch that," John B shouts, reaching for the compass.
"I was just looking at it," JJ snatches it out of his hand, "I gotta admit, your fathers compass in scooters boat, is a bit freaky."
"That's why we're going to talk to Ms Lana, figure this whole thing out," John B tells them.
"Hey, can you just drop me at Kie's? Don't really want to get into this investigator stuff right now," Liv asks, putting her book down.
"Oh ok, sure," John B says.
----
Olivia adjusts her top before hopping out the van. Kie's parents never took a liking to her. The fact that she was always getting into trouble, sometimes bringing Kiara into it, made it easy to believe. Liv knocks on the door and after a few minutes, Anna finally answers the door.
"Oh Olivia, hello," She says, not trying to hide the disappointment in her face.
"Hello, Ms Carrera! Is Kiara here?" Liv asks, trying her best to sound uplifting.
"Uh actually, i don't thi-" Anna starts before getting interrupted by a shout from upstairs.
"Mum, whos at the door?" Kie shouts from upstairs.
"Uh... It's Olivia," She says and Kiara runs down the stairs, grabs Liv's hand and pulls her up the stairs. Once they get to her room, Kie quickly pulls the door shut and jumps onto her bed.
"Your mum doesn't like me very much, does she?" Liv asks, sitting down on the bed.
Kie shakes her head with a smile.
"So what do you want?" Kie asks, laying down on her bed.
"Oh ok, no hello or how are you?" Olivia says, sarcastically, laying down next to her.
"Oh I'm sorry, babes," Kie turns onto her side to face her, "How are you?"
"Meh," Olivia chuckles, turning onto her side.
Silence fills the air but it's not uncomfortable. They just sit their, staring at each other. Kie's eyes move to Liv's lips then back up to her eyes, as if she was asking for consent. Liv nods slightly and leans in till she can feel Kie's breath on her face. Their lips meet for a second, however the door slams open and Anna storms in.
"This door stay open," She exclaims looking directly at Liv.
"Mum go away!" Kie shouts throwing a pillow at her.
Anna rolls her eyes and walks away. Kie groans and lays back on her bed.
"Do you ever just want to run away?" Kie says, staring at the ceiling,"To leave the obx and never come back,"
"All the time," Liv replies, truthfully.
"Why don't we do it?" She quickly returns onto her side, "Why don't we go?"
"What now?" Olivia faces Kie.
"Yes right now, we go and never look back,"
"Don't you think the boys would miss us too much?"
Kie shrugs, "We'll bring them too,"
Liv laughs and Kie phone buzzes.
"They boys want us to go round to the chateau,"
----
"And we were right outside like this," JJ explains, leaning us against the wall, "And all we hear is just BAM BAM BAM,"
"Knocking paint off the wall, G! From the inside. And im just looking at him like-" He interupts himself, "Wait, first off, look at this shit," He comes up to them and shakes his head. White flakes fall out of his hair onto the girls laps.
"That's dandruff, disgusting," Kie scoffs while Liv pushes his head away in disgust.
"Look at all of that," JJ points, "That's paint. At that point, I was just waiting for death."
"Oh ok you saw the guys that shot at us right?" Pope asks, head in his hands.
"Yeah"
"Did you get a description of them?"
"What'd they look like?"Liv pipes in.
"Anything we can bring to a police report?"
"Burly..." JJ finally says and leans back with a huff.
"Burly?" Pope repeats.
"That's not very helpful," Kie scoffs.
"Ok well the type of guy that works at my dad's garage," JJ exclaims, "I mean you guys know he made cargo hides for drug smugglers. And i can tell you with full confidence, these boys, these killers... they're square groupers," JJ adds, dramatically.
"They're square groupers, like narco square groupers?" Pope asks.
"You guys, not everything is a kingpin movie," Kie groans.
"What does this square grouper look like?" Liv asks again. She looks over to John B whose standing in the corner and he just shrugs at the girl.
"You weren't there!" JJ snaps, "I wasn't taking little mental Polaroids the entire time! But i can tell you by the way Ms Lana was screaming, these guys are serious."
"Why would they want the compass?" Kie questioned.
"It's a piece of shit," Pope blurts out. Liv slaps him on the arm and gives him a look that says shut up.
But the boy carries on anyway, "You can't pawn it off for 5 if you wanted to."
"No offence," He adds on the end.
"The office," John B mutters, running into the house.
The others follow him as he explains, "He always kept his office locked because he was worried about his competitors stealing his Royal Merchant research. We used to laugh at him like he was going to find it.
"But now that he's gone, i've kinda... I just left it as he kept it,"
"Yeah for when he gets back," Olivia smiles up at him.
He slowly takes off the lock and pushes the door open. The 5 walk into the office that was filled to the brim with books and papers.
"I've slept over here like 600 times and I've never seen this door open," Pope breathed.
"Here look," John b pulls a frame off the wall, "This is the original owner, right here,"
"Ok, Robert Q Routledge. 1880 to 1920. There's the lucky compass right there." Kie points at the man.
"Actually, he was shot right after he bought it," John B sighs. Olivia chokes on her water in surprise.
"Then the compass was shipped back to Henry. He was killed in a crop-dusting accident when he had the compass. After he died, the compass was given to Steven. He had the compass with him when he died in Vietnam."
"Let me guess, he died in action, right?" JJ assumes.
"Sort of," John B shrugs, "Actually, he was killed by a banana truck. In country. Anyway after that, Steven passed the compass down to him, my dad,"
"Hm. Sounds like there's a reoccurring theme here," JJ states.
"Yeah, you have a death compass," Pope finishes.
"I do not," John B exclaims.
"Get rid of it," JJ orders.
"It's cursed and it made its way back to you," The boys carry on.
"Look, my dad used to talk about this compartment here," He grabs the compass, "Soldiers used to hide secret notes."
"What's that?" Kie points to the writing at the bottom of the compass.
"That wasn't there before," John B murmurs, "This is my dads handwriting," He gapes at Liv.
"How could you know that?" Pope scoffs.
"Because he does this weird Rs with the- See it?" He holds the compass up for them to see.
JJ leans over and tries to read the word, "Red- rout- no i think thats an A,"
"It says Redfield," Liv whispers to him.
"Redfield!" He shouts, proudly, "It says redfield,"
"Ok well whats redfield?" Kie asks.
"The most common name in the country," Pope states.
"Maybe it's a clue to where he's hiding," John B exclaims. Olivia nods, however inside she felt sad for the boy. After a few months, Liv stopped believing that Big John was alive. But John B never did. No matter how hard she tried to get him to move on, he never stopped.
"A clue thats..." He trails of seeing the look that Kie and Liv were giving him.
"But if it's a clue, maybe it's an anagram," Pope says, in a much more uplifting tone.
"Yes. perfect. Anagram. You need paper," John B says, searching for paper.
"How can you concentrate with that thing crowing at you?" Pope complains.
"JJ loves the roster,"
"Liv loves this roster," JJ points out.
"I do, I love Hen Solo," Liv smiles up and Kiara, who wraps her hands around the girls waist.
"Hen solo?" Kie laughs.
"Dedfiel. No thats stupid," Pope writes down. The 5 converse with each other, until, John B nudges Liv with his elbow making her look up at the window. A black car drives towards the house.
"Guys," John b says, "Guys somebody's here!" The pogues look up from the compass.
"Guys, guys is that them?" Kiara asks.
"John B i told you! Why does it always-" JJ starts, pacing around the room.
"JJ! Hey look at me!" John grabs him and pushes him against the wall, "Where the gun?"
"Gun. I- I cant," He stutters.
"Now you don't have the gun, the one time we need the gun?" Kie shouts, voice cracking in fear.
"It was my backpack and then-," JJ realises.
"It's on the porch," Liv chimes in, eyes widening.
JJ runs out the door to the porch and Liv runs a shaking hand through her hair.
"John Routledge!" One of the men shouted, aggressively, and JJ quickly runs back into the room.
"Guys," Kie sobs and Olivia quickly grabs her in comfort.
"Come on out now!" The man shouts again.
"Where's the gun?" John B asks, eagerly.
"There on the front porch guys," JJ mutters, jaw tensing.
The men start smashing things inside the house and Liv puts her hands up to her mouth to muffle her screams.
"Guys guys window!" Kiara mumbles, pointing towards it. JJ and Pope run to the window and start trying to pull it open.
"Whats happening? Why is it taking so long?" Kiara asks, while Olivia starts pacing.
"It's painted shut ok." JJ hisses as red as a tomato.
Kiara finds a knife and helps get the window free. John B, with his back against the door, grabs the panicking girl and pulls her against his chest, trying to stop any panic attack that was seconds away from starting.
One of the men starts kicking the door and John B, Pope and Liv try to keep him out. The wood starts falling off the door and the 3 quickly run towards the window Kiara was still trying to open.
After what seems like hours, Kie finally gets the window open and hops out with JJ and Pope following. Olivia puts one leg out of the window before looking back at John B who was hesitant to follow. Olivia climbs back in, grabs his hand and pulls him out with her, with a pitiful look.
They follow the others into the chicken coop. Kiara grabs Olivia's hand, pulling them close to eachother.
"Do something , Pope? Shut him up!" JJ whispers, angrily.
"What do you want me to do?"Pope hisses.
"Pet it or talk to it. I dont know," Kiara sobs. Pope tries to pet the chicken but it freaks out, clucking even lowder.
John B quickly moves away from the door, body stiff. Olivia holds her breath, putting her hands over her ears. JJ grabs the chicken, pushing it down onto the floor. His hands curl round its throat and he squeezes his hands. It finally goes limp and Liv lets out a quiet sob. John B grabs her hand in a comforting way. She puts her head on his shoulder, taking deep breaths.
They finally hear the car drive away and a tear runs down Liv's cheek.
----