THREE
GIVE ME THAT JOHN D ALREADY !
(episode one. pilot)
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AFTER TRYING TO REPORT the boat to the coast guard and failing, the five teenagers decided to hop back onto the HMS Pogue and figure out why there was a motel key in the boat themselves.
The coast guard didn't even listen to them when they arrived, the person at the desk was too busy focusing on an angry couple who were angrily speaking about their dog who had diabetes.
Like that coast guard gave a shit anyway.
Dani was perched on the side of the boat beside Kie as they drove up to the worn-down, old-looking motel where the key led to. Dani grimaced at the sight of mildew growing on the sides of the building wondering how disgusting this building looked inside.
She had definitely seen this motel in one of her nightmares before. The motel looked like the cliche, horror movie set, where the serial killer hides out for a few days before going out and stalking their victims. Dani gained a weird feeling in her stomach as they drove through the water, the motel getting closer and closer.
JJ whistles. "I thought the Chateau looked bad."
"This place is a shitshow."
Dani agrees. "This is definitely where a serial killer would live." She spoke nervously, nudging Kiara with her elbow.
Kiara ignores her nudge. "Motel or meth lab?"
"You be the judge," Pope responds, not taking his eyes off the disgusting-looking motel.
Dani nervously chews one of her manicured nails before JJ softly kicks at her with his foot. "Hey...you'll be okay," He whispers as Dani stares at him with nervous eyes. "Stay with me and you'll be fine."
She nods her shaky head, giving him a smile. She appreciated how he immediately noticed how nervous she was going to this sketchy motel but staying with him the entire time they checked the place out wouldn't help her.
She wanted to leave.
"Doesn't look like a place somebody with a Grady-White would stay." John B adds, focused on the motel in front of him. His voice had a hint of confusion in it, wondering who on God's earth would stay in a motel like the one in front of the teenagers.
"No." Pope's eyes are fixated on the wreckage outside of the motel, staring at the mouldy mattresses and rubble situated outside of the motel. "Looks like the type of place somebody with a Grady-White would get killed."
Dani agrees.
"This is your captain speaking. HMS Pogue comin' in for landing." JJ spoke through his imaginary radio resulting in a huff from Dani.
JJ was the first to jump out of the boat, letting out a hoot as he landed with John B shortly following him. John B had turned off the boat's engine, leaving the group to part ways in silence. "Hey!" Pope calls out as John B begins to step out of the boat. John B turns and stares at the boy as Dani stands by his side, with her arms crossed. "Don't let him do anything stupid." He spoke, pointing his index finger at JJ who was standing opposite him.
Dani scoffs. Of course, JJ was going to do something stupid.
He's JJ.
"Oh, we will." JJ retaliates.
"I'm not making promises." John B replies.
Pope gives up and slumps in the driver's seat behind Dani who continues staring at her boyfriend whilst he was returning the stare. John B and Kiara were busy in their own bubble while Dani took a few steps toward the blond boy, taking his hands. "Be safe." She says softly.
He smiles. "Why don't you come with us?" He suggested immediately making Dani's heart race.
Her eyes widen. "No."
"Why not?"
" — Because I don't want to die!" She releases her grip on her boyfriends' hands and takes steps back towards Kiara who had finished her conversation with John B. Dani was not the stealthy type, having failed every single gym class she had taken.
"C'mon Dani! We need someone sensible to come with us because we all know John B and I are not in the slightest and Pope needs to be protected by Kie in case someone attacks them or something, so that leaves you!"
Kiara raises an eyebrow at the couple before interrupting. "What's he saying?"
John B answers for JJ. "He wants Dani to come check out this motel room with us." John must have known about this plan already which hit Dani with a twinge of annoyance.
Why does no one tell her before so she can prepare herself?
"No!"
The rest of the group flinch at Kiara's sudden outburst of rage. "No way is she going with you guys!" She clenches one of her fists and points a finger at JJ who was equally as surprised as everyone else. "No goddamn way!"
JJ folds his arms all the while having a cocky look on his face. "Well, why not, Mrs Thornton?" JJ teases, indicating that Kiara was acting like Dani's mom in this situation.
"Because she is always used as a goddamn pawn in your stupid games JJ!"
Dani was shocked to see Kiara this angry. Kiara had never been this angry apart from one time when she found out that the Mcdonald's in Charleston still gave out plastic straws.
"A pawn?" John B intercepts, standing beside JJ on the grass in front of the HMS Pogue.
"How are you going to explain that Dani Thornton, daughter of the chief of police in all of Outer Banks and Charleston, sister of Topper Thornton is doing with two Pogues from the Cut in a sketchy motel?"
"School project?" JJ suggests which earns a facepalm from John B.
"Bullshit!"
"Calm down Kie," John B commanded, rolling his eyes at her reaction. "If the cops do come, Dani will be the first person they see!" Kiara narrows her eyes at what John B had just said but lets him continue. "They will let Dani off easy if she's caught with us and Dani can distract them long enough to make JJ and I escape," He turns to face JJ who was nodding along. "We've got it all planned out."
"That's true, the cops won't even care that Dani's here," Pope chided, relaxing Kie the slightest bit. "Her dad basically owns the whole police force, they can't do anything to Dani or her Dad will flip his shit."
"Dani...it's your decision." John B glances at the girl who was cowering behind the angry Kie. Dani fixes her posture once all eyes are on her and clears her throat.
"If anything happens, you'll have my back right?" She asks quietly, wanting confirmation that they'd help her if something went wrong.
"Of course Dani." John B rolls his eyes as if he's annoyed that Dani doesn't automatically expect him to have her back.
"So I'm not your pawn?" She jokes as she clambers out of the boat, avoiding looking into Kiara's eyes as JJ helps her. He lifts her from the boat and sets her down on the grass, his hand moving from under her arms to her lower back.
JJ let out a loud groan as John B slapped her shoulder lightly. "Don't be an idiot." JJ snickers slightly as he takes her arm gently.
"Yeah Dani, you're just our pawn." John B wraps an arm around her shoulders and clutches her chin as Dani tries to push him off. Dani felt her lower back grow cold as she realised that JJ had dropped his hand and was staring at Kie.
"You're annoying," She huffs, brushing him off and finally facing Kiara. "I'm sorry." She winces as she sees the angry girl's face. Kie didn't look mad at her but mad at the fact that the two boys convinced her to come with them. Dani just couldn't say no to JJ's face.
She was shaking her head. "Be careful," She advised, staring directly at the tanned boy beside her who Dani swore was blushing at Kiara's concerned voice. "I mean it."
"Yeah." He chuckles, avoiding eye contact with the girl in front of him. Dani and JJ exchanged a glance, eyebrows raised before both of them stifle a laugh.
John B was down bad.
"Let's go." JJ chides and leads the way to the motel room. John B was still smiling as he turned towards the motel room, acting like a schoolboy with a crush.
"Why are all these mattresses out here?" John B questions as Dani's heart pounds in her chest. She was nervous to check out this room. What if there was a dead body in there or something?
JJ answers. "After a hurricane, they ditch 'em 'cause they're moldy." Dani was curious about how he knew this fact but she didn't question him about it. She trails behind the two teenage boys, staring at JJ. She knew that he was begging to bring up that moment between Kie and John B and just as that thought came into her mind, JJ places an arm on John's shoulder and teases him. "Just be so careful, John." He speaks seductively, grabbing John B's chin as John B pushes him away.
"God! You're so weird!" He walks ahead of JJ, trying to avoid his teasing, whilst looking back.
"What was that about?" JJ queries, waiting for Dani to catch up so he can intertwine his fingers with hers. Dani appreciates this and clutches at his hand, watching the bickering between the two boys.
"Oh, I don't know – maybe she wants us to be careful?" John B responds sarcastically, an annoyed look taking over his usually happy face. His eyebrows were knitted together, clearly frustrated at JJ's teasing.
"Kie can care about John B without it being romantic JJ." Dani giggles as JJ turns to look at her.
"I know but – ever since she heard that you're being threatened with exile, she's just been like," JJ lets go of Dani's hand and pretends to give a shoulder massage to John whilst saying "Oh! Be so careful, John B." Dani tries to stifle her laughs as she can tell John is not liking this conversation.
"Get off." John mutters, glancing at Dani as if to say "Help me!"
" – Oh, give me that John D already!" JJ is still imitating Kie. "When are you gonna swoop in on that man?"
"Bro, you know the rule! No Pogue-on-Pogue macking."
"That's literally not a rule," Dani intercepts, pointing her finger at John B as he walks backwards, staring at Dani with his arms crossed. "JJ and I are together."
"Doesn't count," John rolls his eyes as JJ fiddles with Dani's fingers. "You're not a Pogue."
"Neither is she!" Dani barks, frustrated with John as JJ steps between the two.
John B rolls his eyes as he sticks his middle finger up at JJ. "You're being a dick."
JJ laughs as he playfully punches John B's arm. "You don't know that door is locked because you haven't tried it!"
"You need help."
Dani bursts out laughing.
"Not a little bit of help, you need a lot of help."
JJ hums in agreement as Dani overtakes the two boys wanting to get to this motel room as quickly as possible. They reach the end of the corridor before Dani leans against the door. "This is us right, twenty-nine?"
"This is it." John B confirms.
JJ lets go of Danis hand and knocks on the door lightly. "Housekeeping" He says in a high pitched voice, using the same voice he'd use when mimicking Dani.
"Should we try it?" John B glances at Dani for her approval and then at his best friend, holding the key in front of him. JJ immediately nods but Dani is hesitant to answer.
"Yeah." Dani replies. Nothing to lose, right?
John B reaches for the door handle and unlocks the door with a loud click as JJ reassures the teenager. "No power. No security cameras. No one's gonna know."
"Well God will know – if you believe in that stuff anyway." Dani nervously babbled. The two boys stare at her in confusion as Dani begins to feel her cheeks turn pink.
"I'm sure God will forgive us, just this once Dani." John B asserted as Dani took a step back.
JJ walks in first before turning and staring at his girlfriend. "Stay here and keep a lookout." He tells her as she folds her arms. "If any cops come, scream."
"Scream?" Dani scoffs. "Wouldn't that make the cops suspicious? Danielle Thornton screaming randomly in a sketchy motel?"
"Yeah, I realised that after I said it –"
"Knock on the door." John B interrupts the blond boy as he turns to face her. "If you see any cops coming, knock on the door and distract them." Dani could feel herself getting nervous with such a simple task as knocking on the door. "Just do anything to tell us someone's coming."
Dani nods as John now walks into the dark motel room. "Please don't steal anything..."
"I can't promise you that Danielle!" JJ smirks just before Dani takes the handle and shuts the door on them, leaving her standing outside the motel room by herself. She sighs and rests her arms on the bannister opposite the motel room, shaking her head at the fact that she let herself become the lookout for JJ and John B. She turns her head and looks at her two friends sitting on the HMS Pogue, giving them a wave as they both wave back.
A few minutes go by as Dani gets impatient. She hears a few loud noises coming from the room but decides to not investigate and instead, goes on her phone and replies to a text that Sarah sent her about a new bikini she bought at the mall for the pool party. Dani was definitely not going to that pool party because Rafe Cameron was going to be there and she did not even want to be in close proximity to that asshole.
Each time she'd encountered him, he'd hit on her in the worst way possible. Two years ago, before she had met JJ, the two of them shared a kiss at a beach party Topper had dragged her along to and ever since, Rafe had sort of been obsessed with her. Dani had never even kissed anyone at that point, so Rafe Cameron being the first person she had ever kissed was a pretty low moment in her life.
Topper had the brilliant idea of trying to set the two up last summer and now, in her brothers and Rafe's eyes, she was sort of Rafe's situationship with no strings attached. She had to act like she was flirting with him each time they came across each other but the two hadn't been intimate with each other since that night at the beach party.
Dani huffs at the thought of Rafe Cameron before she feels something solid hit her head and a sharp pain erupts from the spot where she was hit. "Ow!" She mumbles to herself wondering what caused the pain. She looks down and notices a small stone at her feet before looking up and seeing Kiara and Pope below the bannister frantically pointing to the right.
Dani rushes up to the end of the bannister. "What?" She sputtered, staring at the two panicked pogues.
"Cops!" They both whisper-shout, jumping up and down as if they were excited when in fact, they were shitting themselves. Dani's eyes widen and she spins her head to the side. Shoupe and Plum were making their way up the steps leading to the motel room John B and JJ were investigating that Dani just so happened to be keeping a lookout for.
"Shit" She glances back at Pope and Kie. "What do I do?" She gestures, shrugging her shoulders and moving her arms towards the direction of the two cops. She had forgotten that John B told her to knock.
"I don't know?" Kie stares at her in a panic as Dani begins to panic herself.
The reminder of knocking suddenly flashes in her brain before she throws herself onto the door and knocks on it over and over again. Dani didn't know morse code but she was sure she was basically spelling out the word DANGER by the amount of knocks she was hitting the door with. Dani turns to look at where the cops were now and they were at the top of the staircase about to walk in her direction. She gave up knocking and pretended to be looking out at the sea, facing away from the cops walking towards her.
"Miss Thornton?" Dani hears from behind her as she puts on a brave face and tries to act as nonchalant as possible when she turns to face the Shoupe and Plum.
"Oh!" She pretended to act surprised. "Officer Shoupe, I – uh – didn't expect to see you here." She smiles as Plum narrows her eyes at her.
"We didn't expect to see you here either Miss Thornton," He puts his hands in his police vest. "What exactly are you doing here?"
Shit. Dani hadn't thought of that.
" Uh – well, sometimes I like to come here and read," Dani's mind races for an excuse. "I love how much fresher the wind feels plus, I like the walk." She cringes at how terrible her excuse was.
"The wind feels fresher?" Plum questions as Dani's hands tremble behind her.
Shoupe holds his hand out to quiet Plum and reaches for the handle of the door. "You should probably be home now Miss Thornton, your father wouldn't like to hear that you were on this side of the island, especially after a storm."
"Y – Yes, of course," Dani walks past the two cops and stops, turning back. "We'll keep this between us right?"
Plum scoffs. Shoupe just nods.
"Of course Danielle, now get home."
Dani stands and watches as the two cops open the door and walk inside. Dani then sprints down the stairs as fast as her legs could take her, towards the HMS Pogue whilst she was praying to the God that she didn't believe in, that the boys had found somewhere to hide.
"Guys, the cops have gone into the room – " She says as she reaches the boat, where Pope was pacing back and forth on the HMS Pogue as if he was freaking out. "Pope?" He doesn't answer but just points towards the window on the side of the motel.
John B and JJ were pressed against the exterior wall, hiding from Shoupe and Plum who were inside the room. "Jesus Christ –" Dani holds her head in her hands as she nervously watches. It was a pretty clever place to hide other than the fact that one of them could fall and their cover would be blown. "Stupid." She thought to herself as JJ waves an arm as if to tell her that they were okay.
Dani begins to calm down a bit because it seemed as if they were hidden pretty well. Her heart was just starting to pound less and less until JJ reaches into his pocket as if to take something out but drops it.
The sound of the object hits the tin roof below the two teenagers, making a loud clanging noise making all five of the Pogues freeze.
Popes arms go over his head as if something was about to explode. John B screws his eyes shut and presses himself into the wall even more whilst Dani covers her mouth in shock.
Pope and Kiara suddenly started talking about dolphins of all things which prompted a confused look on Dani's face. "Kie, what are you talking about?"
"Shoupes looking." She said through a gritted smile.
"Oh shit."
For what felt like forever, Shoupe was staring out the window wondering where the loud noise came from. Dani was out of sight from the window as she hadn't quite reached the HMS Pogue yet when she noticed the two boys hiding. Finally, Kiara breathed a sigh of relief and waved her arm at the two boys. "Get down here, now!"
The two teenagers wait a few more minutes till they definitely knew that Shoupe and Plum had left the motel and hopped down from the roof earning a sigh of relief from Dani, Pope and Kiara.
"Well, that was fun!" JJ grinned as the group of friends had made it onto the boat and sped away from the creepy motel, "Could have warned us sooner."
"We would have but Dani had other priorities," Kiara rolled her eyes as she spoke in a deadpan voice. John B and JJ's eyebrows furrowed. "She was wistfully staring into the horizon like she was in a movie."
"I'm sorry! I – I forgot where I was for a second." Dani stuttered, not wanting to admit that she was thinking about Rafe Cameron.
"What were you thinking about?" JJ queries as Pope interrupts him.
"The cops took everything like it was a crime scene, did you guys find anything?" He asks as JJ sits up with a smug look on his face.
"Did we find anything?" He pretended to act like he didn't know anything, shrugging his shoulders. Dani shakes her head. She knew he had stolen something even though he hadn't admitted to it yet. "No, I don't think so," He says as he pulls out two of the most inhumane things he could have stolen from a motel room out of his pockets. "Oh yeah, we did."
"Are you fucking kidding me JJ?" Dani gasps as she stands up from where she was sitting beside JJ. JJ just laughs as he walks towards the worried Pope.
"Why would you take that from a crime scene?" He hissed, placing his hands on his head as he stared at JJ.
"Why out of anything would you steal a gun JJ?" Dani folds her arms as she looks at John B who was acting like JJ had done nothing wrong.
"Are you serious?" Kie asks John B who just avoids eye contact. Dani was just as pissed off as Kie was, sitting back down to where she was originally sitting and letting JJ 'console' the panicked Pope.
"I'm gonna lose my merit scholarship."
"Hey, hey, shhh," JJ hushes the boy as he holds the gun up to Pope's lips. Pope shoves the gun away as JJ laughs slightly. "At least you have us right?"
"What are we gonna do?" Dani asks as Kiara nods in agreement.
"I'm living the nightmare." Pope announces as he flops back onto the driver's seat.
Dani's brows furrow as she glances at the gun in JJ's hands and at JJ's face. She wasn't surprised that JJ had stolen money but a gun?
"C'mon Dani, don't be mad at me," JJ spoke quietly, making sure the rest of the group didn't hear him as he notices Dani's serious face. She sights and sits next to the worried teenager, staring at Pope as JJ analyses her, searching for any reaction from her.
"You stole money and a gun from a motel room JJ, I can't believe you did that." She shakes her head.
"But Dani, it's for our protection."
"Protection?"
"Yeah protection, plus I think I look cool with one," Dani rolls her eyes at that. "Don't ya think?"
Dani thought for a moment before looking into JJ's blue eyes. "Not at all." She says but she cracks a smile and giggles at him posing with it. He had the gun up to his face and he was sort of pouting, but failing to do so. This earns a smile back from her boyfriend, relieved that she wasn't mad at him.
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thank you for reading! :)
- lara
word count - 3.9k