❝NICE KNOWING YOU GUYS.❞
third person
"these are empty, you guys took empty tanks?" kiara asks in bewilderment as sage rolls her eyes.
"i didn't see you doing anything to help, and he took the tanks, i was there as a distraction." the blonde defends as kiara scoffs and checks the gauge on the last tank.
"this one's a quarter full, that's enough for one of us." she says, looking around the boat.
"love it when a plan comes together." pope deadpans from behind sage.
"does anyone know how to dive?"
"you act like we're the rich ones." sage sassed, glaring up at kiara who rolled her eyes and tossed the gauge down on the bow.
"i read about it once." pope tried from behind sage, who gave him a thumbs up.
"great, pope read about it, so someone's gonna die." kiara said flatly, john b sighing heavily from next to the curly haired kook.
"i can- i can dive!" he says, trying to sound confident but not convincing anyone.
"yeah, you can dive, i'm cool with that." jj says from the ground, sage raising her eyebrows at jj and shaking her head at john b.
"no, you cannot dive, you a-class dumbass." the older routledge said, leaning back in her chair and crossing her legs.
"look, you put the thing in your mouth and breathe, how hard can it be?" jj asked cluelessly.
"if you come up too fast nitrogen gets in your blood and you get the bends." pope explains, jj standing up and looking at pope in confusion.
"you mean the bends like- bend over and-" he starts, and sage rolls her eyes.
"the bends kill you." the blonde deadpans as jj looks at her, now partially embarrassed.
"right." he says shortly, sitting back on the ground like a child, a smile pulling at sage's lips as she watched him.
"i can dive!" john b speaks up again.
"yeah, sure, you can dive." jj replies quickly, john b beginning to strap on the tank.
"let me do some calculations real quick." pope adds, grabbing a random piece of paper as sage takes jj's pen out of his pocket and passes it to him. "that boats about... thirty feet down? that means you need to make your safety spot at about ten feet. for two minutes."
"ten feet, two minutes, got it." john b says. without warning, kiara pulled her t-shirt off and jumped into the water, pope, john b, and jj staring at where the water was now rippling where she had landed.
"what was that all about?" jj asked.
"i don't know." pope said.
"i liked it. like a lot." john b added, sage smacking the back of his head as jj stood in front of the younger routledge twin, holding out a small plastic key.
"when you get down there, you're gonna look for the cargo hold? okay? then you're gonna stick this in the hole, and twist and pull, okay?" he instructed, john b nodding and taking the key.
"stick in the hole, twist and pull, got it."
"my dad moved some weight back in the day." jj commented, sage shrugging.
"who didn't?" she replied as kiara surfaced.
"hey! i tied my shirt to the anchor chain about ten feet down. it's where you need to do your safety stop." she explained, grabbing sage's hand as the blonde pulled her up onto the boat again, john b moving to the edge and grinning over at sage.
"you need to make sure you have enough air to decompress too." the older twin commented, john b's grin falling slightly.
"how much is that?" he asked, pope shaking his head.
"no idea. breathe as little as possible." he instructed, john b biting his lip and nodding.
"zen, think zen, y'know?" jj asked, beginning to mimic the breathing movements necessary to do zen, sage shaking her head at him.
"diver down?" john b asked his sister, who nodded, giving him a smile as she did so.
"diver down." she replied, giving john b a thumbs up. before he could get in the water, kiara was standing on the bow, cupping his face in her hands and giving his cheek a quick peck.
"the hell?" jj asked, sage wrinkling her nose in disgust.
"okay, that's enough." she deadpanned, pulling her brother away from kiara, who glared at her.
"good luck!" sage told john b with false enthusiasm, the brunette deadpanning at his older sister, who only grinned up at him.
"thanks for that." he replied sarcastically, walking to the edge of the boat and pulling the scuba mask over his face before jumping into the water. he gave the group one last look before turning the gauge on and slipping back under the water, sage's grin fading slowly.
"guys, bogey, two o'clock." kiara stated, jj and sage looking towards the direction she was speaking in and then at each other.
"that's the police." the blonde girl said flatly, looking at the other teens on the boat with an unamused look on their faces before kiara tossed her hair over her shoulder.
"just act frickin' normal." she said, sage nodding.
"yeah, you guys are lucky this is my boat." she commented, the sheriff's boat cruising to a stop beside theirs.
"evening, officers." pope greeted, shoupe nodding at the teens.
"evening." he said, looking around the boat. "whatre you guys doing out here? you know this marsh is closed, right?" he quizzed, sage shaking her head and pretending to act concerned.
"no, we weren't told, why is it closed?" she asked, shoupe looking between her and jj.
"a boat went down, we're conducting a search. you two haven't seen anything, have you?" he asked, suddenly interested in what the kids had to say, but they all shook their heads.
"i haven't been out here since right after the hurricane." sage said, putting her hands up, jj nodding in agreement.
shoupe hesitated, looking between the two blondes. "im gonna check your little boat out." he said, jj nodding.
"yeah, yeah, come aboard." pope tried, but sage shook her head and kicked him in the shin.
"let me and jj do the talking." the mumbled, pope nodding and leaning back in his seat as shoupe grabbed a life vest from the floor of the boat.
"you guys got another one of these?" he asked, jj nodding and mumbling that the vest was in the hold.
"show him." sage said, motioning to where kiara was sitting as jj opened the hold next to the curly haired girl, pulling out another bright orange life jacket and holding it up for shoupe to see.
"okay, okay." he muttered, stepping up onto the bow and putting his sunglasses on, looking into the water. sage glanced over at jj, who quickly shook his head at her. shoupe gave one last look into the water before turning to face the teens.
"alright." shoupe said, stepping down from the bow much to sage's surprise, the blonde smiling at him.
"alright." she said, shoupe climbing back into the sheriff's boat, looking back at the teens.
"let us know if you kids see anything." he said, sage and jj nodding.
"we'll be gone soon, sir." jj assured, shoupe nodding.
"yes, you will." he confirmed, plumb starting the boat as shoupe started to drive off, sage quickly sprinting to the edge of the boat and looking over the edge into the water, looking around frantically for any sign of her brother.
"he's definitely out of air." pope stated, kneeling on sage's left as jj went to her right.
"no shit." she replied, preparing to jump into the water as john b surfaced. a grin broke out on the blonde's face as she reached her arm out to pull john b closer to the boat. jj and pope laughed as john b ripped the scuba mask off his face, shoving his soaked brunette hair out of his eyes.
"don't scare me like that, man!" jj said happily, john b smiling widely at his blonde best friend. "did you find anything?"
"did i find anything?" john b asked through gasps of air, throwing a black duffel bag onto the side of the boat, sage laughing as she grabbed the bag and tossed it onto the floor.
"that's my boy!" jj said happily, sage putting both hands into the water to help pull john b back into the boat, the brunette latching onto his twin's hands and climbing over the edge of the boat.
"how did things go up here?" he asked, looking between sage and pope, who were easily the two most rational ones on the boat.
"cops showed up, jj and i took care of them." sage explained, jj nodding and throwing his arm over the slightly shorter blonde's shoulders.
"yeah, you kinda missed the show, brother." he said to john b, who looked back at pope.
"your calculations were shit by the way, i ran out of air way before the safety stop." he said, grabbing sage's towel to briefly dry himself off with. he began to unstrap the oxygen tanks and looked down at sage. "did you actually get rid of the cops?"
"pogue style." the blonde girl answered simply, glancing back over at her brother, who was dropping oxygen tanks back onto the deck of the boat.
"guys, another bogey." kiara stated, sage and john b turning to see a white boat speeding toward the hms pogue.
"who's boat is that?" sage asked, quickly moving to the stern to get the anchor.
"let's not stick around to find out." john b said, sage still pulling the anchor rope as the boat continued to approach them.
"b, go! go into the marsh." sage instructed, still pulling the anchor chain out of the water as john b started the boat, beginning to steer the boat towards the marsh.
"they're following us!" jj announced, sage finally getting the anchor pulled back onto the boat and into the hull, standing up off the stern to look back at the other boat. her eyes widened when she saw the man who wasn't driving pull something out of a duffel bag and point it at them.
"get down!" she yelled as a gunshot echoed through the air, she, jj, pope, and kiara all hitting the ground as another gunshot blasted through the air. john b, however, could only get down so far, as he still had to drive to boat. "nice knowing you guys, gun it, john!" sage yelled as another shot whizzed over her head, the one that followed hitting the pole next to john b's head.
"they're not slowing down." sage mumbled to kiara, who nodded, frantically looking around the boat before her eyes fell on the boys' fishing net.
"move." the curly haired girl told sage, who slid closer to jj while kie grabbed the net, standing up fully behind john b, the men on the boat still firing at the teens, but now with an open target.
"get down, kie!" john b yelled, kiara tossing the net into the water and hitting the deck again sage sitting up slightly to watch as the net got stuck in the propeller of the boat, causing it to spin to the side.
"hell yeah!" sage yelled, high-fiving kiara as the men fired one last time at the group, this time missing by a long shot.
when the teens finally got back to the chateau, the sun was mostly set. sage tied the line for the boat while john b grabbed the duffel bag and followed pope, kiara, and jj onto the dock, his blonde twin following right behind.
"what do you think it is?" john b asked jj.
"money." sage said enthusiastically, jj grinning at her.
"come on, sagebrush, think big!" he said with a large smile, smacking john b on the shoulder. "a couple of keys to a sports car or mansion, definitely-"
"can we please just open the bag?" pope interrupted, causing everyone to stop and look at him.
"wow, pope." john b said, surprise lacing his voice. "that's a rare outburst of emotion."
"we almost died for this, open the bag." pope said sternly, john b finally opening the bag which revealed a metal container. he unscrewed the lid, and dumped the contents into his hand. sage's face fell as soon as she saw the compass.
she knew exactly who's it was. her dad's. she thought when he died, the compass was gone too. he told the twins stories when they were kids, about tragedies that came upon the people who owned the compass. it wasn't that she thought there was a curse on the compass, nothing like that.
she just hated the man who owned it.
"oh wow." pope said, false happiness in his voice. "yep, that's about right. great job everyone, we found a compass."
"dude, what?" jj asked john b, who was staring at the compass with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. "it's not worth anything."
"this was our father's." he said, looking at sage, who exchanged a glance with him before looking back at the compass.
that stupid compass.
kens speaks 🪐
i 🩷 long miss americana chapters and i 🩷 sage