𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗟𝗢𝗚𝗨𝗘
episode one
she had always been fond of the sound of thunder. It helped her concentrate — like a tranquil melody to distance her from her thoughts, as she sat on the porch of the chateau. With her sketchbook in her lap, she watched out the window to the trees tinted in a bronze hue. A distant rumble of the hurricane filled silence, as the sunset painted the sky, and stars faintly screamed through thick black clouds. A violent ocean crashed harsh waves as passing birds flew for their lives — and there she sketched, meticulously, the scenery she saw. It was most likely extremely dangerous to be sat outdoors during the calamitous weather, but that was AJ for you.
Angelina Aven Jones, ( though she preferred AJ or Aven ) had a history of destructive impulses that often got her into — for lack of better words — deep shit. It wasn't abnormal for her to make reckless decisions; jumping off roofs, breaking into abandoned buildings or spontaneously buying her red Chevrolet impala. ( She loved that car like it was her child ) Anyway — ever since falling off the wagon she was making dumb decisions, so, no wonder she found herself best friends with the pogues.
In a sudden moment she was dragged back into reality by a tap on her shoulder. "Would you like to join me on a journey of stupidity?" A question like this wasn't irregular around here, and as she turned to the mischievous grin of John Booker Routledge, a childhood friend, she immediately knew her answer.
"Always."
Smiling, they performed their 'super-secret handshake' that they made up in the first grade, as she stood up and was soon enough grabbing their boards and hopping in the Twinkie. Not long later, John B had dragged her to the beach where the hurricane viciously conceived harsh waves and aggressive winds. Despite such weather and dangerous waters, they ran out into the ocean without a second thought.
Surfing the deadly waves together, AJ was calmed by the silence when thrown under the ocean, over and over again. It was often that she found herself underneath the water, comforted by the pressure sinking into her skin, squashing her lungs within a grasp. It would be quiet, and her would brain have a moment to focus on holding her breath instead of whatever else may cloud her mind. It wasn't a habit she intended to hurt herself in doing, it was one like listening to music or taking a walk. It cleared her head. Though, she most definitely concerned people when they'd expect her to return to the surface, only to stare back at their own reflection in the water for minutes going by.
But, most that knew her long enough, knew that was to be expected of AJ. She made reckless decisions that scared the people that were brave enough to care about her. ( And that was very few people )
In fact, when first catching gaze with her eyes, the immediate thing to notice would be the intimidation and daggering glare she would give. Her aggression in a simple thing such as eye contact — laced in a throat tightening coldness fired from her piercing eyes, would scare away anyone mildly willing to stay.
Good thing John B and her were childhood friends, or she'd be destined in a life of solitude.
When the sun rose, blanketing the morning under a peaceful yellow warmth, after the hurricane had passed and AJ and her partner in crime returned to the chateau, everyone was completely exhausted. Thunder and destruction had made sleep almost impossible the night before, and in result most the pogues resided in their beds — completely passed out.
At the chateau, where AJ had crashed for the night, she slept on the sofa bed in the living room. Sprawled over her face chaotically laid her curly brown hair, legs tangled between another's while her arms hugged her pillow. "You guys been outside yet?" Mumbled John B who rubbed his eyes approaching the door.
AJ remained half asleep, muttering something indecipherable in return. And in all honesty, she couldn't even understand herself. She may have been a morning person at heart, but without sufficient sleep her brain — basically — buffers slightly.
"Yo, Aurora, wake the fuck up." Groaned JJ, a blonde haired definition of the term 'surfer dude' and a pain in AJ's ass, poked her to consciousness.
Moaning, she untangled her legs that managed to fall on his side during the night and sat up. She rubbed her eyes and soon returned the aggravating boy's comment. "Love that you know the name of the Disney princess, J."
"I mean, I'd call you 'Sleeping Beauty' but you're kind of lacking a part of the name."
"Stop bickering, dumbasses, get out here!" John B spoke over his friend. He stood on the porch, looking over the wreck hurricane Agatha left behind. As the pair managed to get out of bed, he assessed the damage — clearing fallen branches off the HMS pogue. ( Their luxury — totally not falling apart — yacht that looked slightly more like a very small boat ).
"Agatha did some work, huh." JJ commented, sipping a random half empty can he found on the nightstand.
"No, I'm pretty sure it was like this before." AJ spoke with complete seriousness laced in her tone, a very normal occurrence of her sarcasm. JJ rolled his eyes at her before walking down the stairs towards John B.
"What about the DCS, wasn't that today?" JJ questioned his childhood friend, leaning on a fallen branch.
Threatened with foster care ever since his father 'disappeared' at sea, John B had been barely escaping the inevitable for a few months now. Agatha may have ripped the chateau to shreds, but in a way, she was a blessing in disguise.
"They're not getting on a ferry." John B shook his head. "But, hey, I'm thinkin' that storm surge pushed all the crabs out on the marsh maze. All those drum are gonna chase the crab." He smiled, holding twigs in his grasp as he gestured to the water behind him, "It's God tellin' us to fish."
"I don't remember learning that at Sunday school." AJ shook her head, hopping into the boat to help clear out the branches.
"You went to church?" John B questioned. She only went for a few weeks when she was ten, but even then she never believed in the big man upstairs.
"I had a crush on a choir girl."
on passing docks, people cleaned their destroyed properties, cursing Agatha's name. The sky was clear in contrast to the night before, mocking many of the mellow weather to depart from due to the hurricane. Dreading cleaning the wreckage for most their summer, AJ, John B and JJ were gathered on the Pogue, drifting the waterfront.
"Hey, Miss Amy. You guys get through it?" John B called, waving at a blonde woman on the dock. She returned with a nod and polite smile.
"She totally looked at me." JJ patted John B's shoulder, grinning at him. It was common knowledge to many on the island that JJ Maybank was a player. The Joey Tribbiani of the group — if you will. AJ's skin crawled and stomach twisted whenever she caught sight of him flashing his charming smile at gorgeous, but airheaded, tourons. It could ruin her entire night, leaving her feeling the need to throw up. She despised him — though she couldn't quite pinpoint why. They'd simply never really gotten along.
Their circumstantial 'friendship' was filled with constant bickering that drove others around them crazy.
"Maybe she's got a thing for assholes." AJ commented, unbuttoning her patterned shirt and throwing it to one side. Underneath, she comfortably wore a black sports bra with swim trunks loose on her hips. ( She hated bikinis )
"Smoking hot assholes." JJ responded, proudly smirking as he took a seat on the boat. Sometimes AJ was astonished by JJs arrogance, and today clearly was no different.
Cruising the waterfront, the trio eventually approached Pope Heyward — cleaning the dock beside a board spray painted with the words: Bring it on Aggie, you bitch! Suddenly, John B called out ringing sounds, "We have a safety meeting. Attendance mandatory." Mimicking static, AJ rolled her eyes and stood from her seat. She walked to the ledge, propping her foot up with a wave in Pope's direction.
"I can't. My pop's got me on lockdown."
"C'mon, man." JJ complained, then additionally mimicked a radio static, "You're dad's a pussy. Over."
Soon enough, the legendary Mr Heyward ( as the pogues liked to call him ) approached behind his son. "Oh, I heard that, you little bastard." He scolded JJ's dumbass-ery — much to AJ's delight.
"Sir, it's Island rules. Day after hurricane's a free day." JJ shrugged.
"Who the hell made that up?" Heyward responded, not believing a word JJ said.
"Pentagon, I think. We have security clearance. I have a card." JJ pondered, rummaging in his pockets for said fake card.
As John B and JJ managed to convince Pope to ditch despite his fathers protests, AJ's hand extended for him as he jumped aboard. "I'll do it tomorrow, Dad, I promise!" He yelled, tapping John B desperately to gun it. "We'll bring him back in one piece, don't worry!" John B waved, "Love ya, pops!" Speeding away, JJ hooted in victory as the four of them set off to retrieve the last member of their club.
Following down the water closer to Figure 8, where their kook friend resided, they eventually approached another swaying dock. Kiara Carrera wandered down, a cooler in hand, and greeted everyone. "Whatcha got, you brought some juice boxes?" John B grinned, helping her onto the boat.
"Mmm, some yogurt, some carrot sticks." Kiara smiled back, opening the cooler to reveal an abundance of beer.
"And my favourite flavour of juice, I see." AJ replied, grabbing a bottle and popping off the cap. She sat beside Pope, leaning back and putting her feet up over his lap. Comfortable, she opened a packet of skittles she managed to smuggle into her pocket. ( It was her favourite snack, always supplied to her by John B at the chateau ). He may not be blood, but they'd always been more of siblings than friends. He ensured to stock up on her skittles and peaches — always sprayed some form of sweet smells around the house before she came in order to not be scolded. She trusted him, and that was a rare occurrence.
The rest of the pogues she had only known for around seven months now, and trust was a lengthy progress with AJ. She felt at ease around the others, but ( though she would never ) she knew she could turn to John B if she was ever in trouble.
Out in the marsh, the pogues laughed amongst themselves over stupid conversations.
"You've got to be kidding me." Kiara smiled brightly at John B who told an embarrassing story about AJ as a child. She death stared him, with nothing but full intention to throw him overboard.
"No, I'm serious! She named the toy Sir Banana Bread III" He responded, laughing uncontrollably at the fond memory of a childhood stuffed monkey. AJ would carry it with her wherever she went, and cry for hours if ever separated from it. ( And she'd never, ever, ever say it out loud — but she still took it with her to her grandmothers house; it sat comfortably on her nightstand )
"How cute." JJ smiled, practically drowning in his sarcasm as he took a sip of his beer while stood on the edge of the boat. He chuckled to himself, happy in any situation where AJ was irritated in some way.
Tensing her jaw and rolling her eyes at him, suddenly a genius idea struck. "Hey JJ." She had a devilish smirk, grabbing his attention as she gently moved Pope out the way of the helm. Completely clueless, his smug expression never left his face, however it only motivated her more. She, in a quick motion, suddenly stopped the boat in its fast speed down the marsh.
And JJ was swiftly flipped off the edge, violently splashing into the water.
As everyone groaned at the harsh and abrupt stop, JJ quickly resurfaced from under the water. He coughed, "Oh, I think my heels touched the back of my head." Voice scratchy, he began swimming back to the boat, jaw clenched in irritancy over AJ's smile.
"Have a nice swim, J?" AJ pondered with a grin, crouched over the boat, gazing down at him in the water. "Looked relaxing." JJ, with no second thoughts crossing his mind, grabbed onto her arm, dragging her in.
Meanwhile in their bickering, as AJ splashed and yelled at JJ, Pope hoverd himself over the edge of the boat. Brows furrowed in concentration, he analysed the dull waters of the marsh. Underneath, he could see a faint shape of something he never expected — a sunken boat.
"Guys . . . I think there's a boat down there." Pope spoke over the pair in the water, his words quieting their argument.
"No way." Kiara refused to believe him, until her own eyes travelled to the direction of his own. There, the faint image of said boat sat, completely still under the water.
AJ, John B and JJ followed, seeing the boat themselves. "Holy shit." JJ muttered under his breath. "Let's check it out." Kiara added.
In true Pope fashion, he asked, "You think there's a dead body down there?" Pope aspired to study forensic pathology. It was a strange ambition, however at least he knew in certainty what he wanted. He was one of the only pogues with an ironclad plan for the future — he had goals and schedule.
Pope often reminded AJ of how she once lived her life over a year ago.
Swimming to the floor of the marsh, they all collectively explored their new discovery. AJ's eyes wandered the bow, slowly deciphering that this was definitely an expensive boat. And as they ran out of air, pushing themselves to meet the surface again, smiles were shared between them in curiosity and eagerness.
"Oh my god, did you see that?" John B laughed in excitement.
"That's a Grady-White" JJ informed everyone. "A new one of those is like 500 Gs, easy."
Climbing back onto the boat, AJ rubbed her eyes and tied her hair up with a spare tie on her wrist. Just as she sat on the ledge, John B spoke up again. "That's the boat I saw when I surfed the surge. Maybe it hit the jetty or something."
John B had mentioned witnessing a boat within the harsh storms, but AJ dismissed it as his eyes playing tricks on him. There was no way someone would go out during a hurricane, right?
"You surfed the surge?" Kiara asked in disbelief. She was quite protective of John B's safety — she knew he had a tendancy to get himself hurt in the midst of his trouble. And, as AJ had come to notice, the two of them also had slight crushes on one another. AJ didn't particularly want to intrude, so she never asked either of them about it, and she didn't concern herself thinking about it. She was just aware of it, and so were the rest of the pogues, really. They made it fairly obvious.
"That's my boy, pogue style." JJ prised his friend for his dangerous acts.
"Do you know who's boat that is?" Pope questioned as John B rummaged through the small hatch in the boat. Eventually he pulled out the anchor, holding it to his chest.
"Nope. But we're about to find out." John B smirked, ignoring her comment and holding up the anchor to demonstrate his idea.
"Well that looks like a good idea." AJ commented with a sting of sarcasm as she crossed her arms and rolled her eyes with a smile.
"Yeah, dude, it's too deep." JJ agreed, much too AJ's disbelief, causing her to turn to him with her brows furrowed in utter bewilderment. It was very rare — in fact, so rare that to her recollection, had never happened — for JJ Maybank to agree with Aven Jones. It truly was a once in a lifetime experience.
"You just agreed with me, Maybank." She stated, scoffing slightly. He rolled his eyes in response, throwing his head back — frustrated, as always, by AJ. He didn't have a chance to respond before John B cut in, trying his best to prevent their bickering.
"Oh, for the weak and feeble, you two." He responded to our doubts, climbing to the edge of the boat with the anchor to his chest.
"Right. Well I'm not resuscitating you. I'm just making that clear up front." JJ assured, before finally saluting him on the edge. "Diver down, fool."
"Diver down." John B repeated before splashing back into the water.
Anchor weighing him down, he managed to easily reach the sunken boat. And, as he explored, little to the pogues knowledge, their discovery would be the beginnings of a treasure hunt. Lead down dangerous paths, and uncovered truths. Ones in which would put all their lives at risk.
They had no idea what they were in for.