—
Evelynn was leant up against the edge of the boat as she sat on the floor. What she hoped would only be a ten minute dive turned into twenty minutes of listening to JJ freak out over his crush, and her best friend, possibly being dead. The girl had already heard Pope and Kiara reassure him that Kirsten was fine, only for him to shut it down minutes later.
"S-She could be dead already, trapped on seaweed. Possibly eaten by a shark—"
"JJ, shut up!" Evelynn snaps, "She's fine. And as much as I like, hate John B, i'm pretty sure he'd give her whatever amount of air he had left in his tank if she ran out. Relax your nerves, for the love of God, you're making me anxious."
JJ finally quiets down, his eyes trailing to the floor, only looking up at Pope's next words.
"Shit." Pope muttered, "Guys, that's the police."
"Oh, you're kidding." Evelynn whispers, "My parents are gonna kill me."
"Yep, that's the police. Just act frickin' normal." As JJ says this, Eveylnn can't help but squint at his odd sitting position.
"Yeah, cause that's normal."
"Evening, officers."
"Evening."
"JJ, tie it off."
"How you kids doing? You know the marsh is closed? Deputy Shoupe asked, glancing between the four of them.
"No."
"No. Wow."
"I didn't know that. Why... why is it closed?"
"Well, we're conducting a search out here. Boat went down. Seen anything?" The deputy wonders, his eyes trained on JJ, the boy noticeably uncomfortable.
"No, sir." Evelynn speaks up, successfully taking the attention off of the Maybank, "No boats. No."
"Where's your friend you always hang with? He here?"
"He's working." Kie lies.
Shoupe hums, his eyes trailing over Kiara's body, the girl not noticing as her eyes nervously stared at the floor of the boat.
Evelynn struggles to hide her face of disgust as she finds herself practically shoving the life jacket into the girls hand, "Put it on, now."
"I'm gonna check your little boat out."
Pope nods, "Yeah, hop aboard. You wanna check... uh, check her out."
Evelynn doesn't even try to hold back her twentieth eye roll of the day at Pope's horrible lying abilities,
"Thank you."
Shoupe nods to the life jacket Kiara's wearing, "Uh... you got another one?"
"Yeah." JJ vaguely responds. Just as Shoupe looks as if he's about to move on, Pope speaks up again, much to the girls' annoyance,
"Yeah, yeah. Of course. It's, uh... it's in the hold. Yeah. Show him."
JJ clenches his jaw, "Okay. Yeah, here we go."
"All right."
"Yeah."
Shoupe begins to walk towards the edge of the boat, Evelynn pulling Kiara towards her as JJ calls out to the man.
"Be careful."
Pope feels the need to add on, "Be careful. You don't wanna slip."
Evelynn let's a small breath out as the deputies move towards their own boat.
"Beautiful day."
The teens let out their own words of agreement, Evelynn discreetly looking over as she noticed the top of John B's head rise from the water.
"Let us know if you see anything on your way out."
"Will do. Will do."
"We'll be gone soon, sir." JJ calls out, following Evelynn's actions in blocking the view of the water as he almost immediately noticed John B floating up.
"Yes, you will."
After watching the police officers leave, the four teens force themselves towards the edge of the boat.
"They're definitely out of air." Pope says, almost certain in his statement.
"I would think so." Evelynn starts, "Johnathan's dumbass was floating up."
JJ ignored their words as he anxiously waited for Kirsten to make her appearance, gasping as he watched John B come up.
"There he is! Oh, God! Jesus Christ!" He let out, "Where's Kirsten!?"
"Here!" She shouted out, a little ways away from them.
"Don't scare us like that!" Kiara said, waiting to make sure her sister was okay before helping Pope get John B in.
"Are you okay?" JJ whispered to the girl, pushing her hair out of her face.
"I'm okay."
"Did you find anything?" Pope asks, glancing between the two.
"Did we find anything?" John B jokes, shoving a black bag out of his arms. "I almost missed it. Kirsten wouldn't leave until we got it out."
"Yeah, there we go! That's my girl!" JJ beams, pulling the girl into a hug as he cheered.
Evelynn chuckled as she noticed the blush forming on her friends face.
"You guys okay?" Kiara asked, her attention on John B, while Evelynn looked towards Kirsten.
"Yeah, we ran out of air."
"You scared the shit out of me." Kie told him, failing to notice the frown that formed on her sisters face.
Evelynn noticed. The Connor girl moved around their friends as she pulled Kirsten into a relieved hug. "Are you sure you're okay?"
She chuckles softly, "I'm okay."
"Yeah, the cops were up here, but, uh... took care of 'em."
The rest of their words seemed to fall faint to her ears are Kirsten stumbled forward, "Hey, guys? Guys, bogey, two o'clock."
"What?"
"Do you recognize that boat?" Pope asked.
Kie shakes her head with furrowed brows, "I've never seen it."
"What are they doing here? The marsh is closed." Evelynn said, moving further away from the back of the boat, pulling Kirsten with her.
"Let's not stick around and find out."
"JJ, get the bowline."
"Should we wait on 'em?"
Kirsten shakes her head at the dumb question, "No, we're not."
"Go get the stern. Go!"
"Are you joking? JJ, hurry up."
"Don't wait for him, Go!" Evelynn shouts to the long haired boy driving the boat.
"Guys, don't wait for me. Go." JJ reassured as John B turned to him in question.
The panic had officially set in as Evelynn watched one of the men pull a gun out. Her eyes grew wide as she dropped to the ground and pulled whoever was closest to her with her.
Kie groaned as she was forced to the ground by her sisters best friend. "What are you—?"
"Stay down, Kiara!" She shouted back. Just as JJ turned to ask why they were on the ground, a gun shot rang out and startled the teens.
Kirsten practically screeched as she was forced her body under his. His head was tucked in her neck as the gunshots kept going. Her eyes trailed over to the driver,
"John B, get down!"
"Holy shit!"
Breaths of relief and happiness were let out as they finally managed to get away. Kirsten could only stare in shock as JJ jumped around in excitement,
"Booyeah! Pogue god, man!"
•••
"What do you think it is?"
That was the first question asked as soon as they made it to shore. Even after almost getting killed, the groups of teens were almost too eager to continue the search.
"Gotta be money, right?"
"That or a couple of keys with street value to the low-to mid-mils!"
Pope, growing frustrated with the eating, speaks up, "Can we please just open the bag?"
"Wow, Pope."
"That's a rare outburst of emotion." JJ chuckles.
"Okay. You guys are literally killing me with anticipation. Open the bag."
JJ whispers under his breath, "Jeez."
"We almost died over this."
Unzipping the bad, the group of six leans forward with a rush of excitement running through their veins, only to solely disappointed at the compass that was revealed.
Evelynn snorts as Pope stand up in anger, "Oh, wow. Yup. That's about right. Good job, everybody. We found a compass."
Kirsten stared in disbelief as her eyes traveled around the area, her eyes squinting at John B
"It's not worth anything, John B."
"This was my father's."