CHAPTER EIGHT
cops and kooks
▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

"I MEAN, IT'S OBVIOUS, RIGHT?" john b started, "a family heirloom. what better place to hide a message? he had to know it was gonna get back to me right?" he questioned.

"yeah, it's possible."

"it could also be possible that you're concocting wild theories to help, you know, deal with your sad feels." pope expressed his opinion.

dakota rolled her eyes and reached over from her spot next to jj and flicked his ear not liking how they were talking about john b and how he handles dealing with his dad's disappearance.

"bro, you know how i process my sad feels. dank nugs and the stickiest ickies, that how i do it." jj admitted with a smile on his face, however it fell when john b ignored him and addressed pope. "i'm not concocting, okay? my dad's trying to give me a message."

     feeling bad that he got ignored, dakota starting rubbing circles on jj's back, something she often did when they sat next to each other.

     "if it helps you believe, john b." kiara nodded looking him in the eye.

     "look, i- i don't need a therapy session, okay?" john b stressed, "look, i'm not trippin' out."

     "it's okay to trip, bro, but—" jj tried to chip in, but he was cut off.

      "look, my- my dads not missing, okay?" john b whipped his head around looking at everyone in the back, "you don't know what it's like to have the person closest to you vanish and then have no idea what happened. Just wake up every morning wondering."

     to john b's knowledge he didn't know much about dakota's home life. all he knew was that her brother was a not so good person who did not so good things, her mother fled with some drug dealer, and her dad, no one really knew what happened to him except for jj.

noticing her discomfort after john b said that, jj reached his hand over and placed it on top of hers. she sent him a small smile in thanks.

     "it's been almost a year." kiara spoke softly not wanting him to get angry.

     "hey, he could have been kidnapped. that's definitely a possibility." jj said trying to ease the tension.

     "yeah, could be in a soviet sub getting interrogated by the kgb somewhere." pope piped up.

     "absolutely. uh... or atlantis." jj suggested.

     scoffing, dakota turned to him. "okay, now you just sound outright stupid."

     "jj." kiara turned to give him a stern look. "what do you think the message is?" she asked turning her attention back onto john b.

     "redfield. redfield lighthouse. that's my dad's favorite place." john b announced as they pulled in and parked near the lighthouse.

     hopping out of the volkswagen, they walked over to stare at the lighthouse in curiosity wondering why they would come here of all places.

     "you're gonna post up and look out for bogeys, okay?" john b pointed to jj who was against the idea.

     "wait... why me?" jj held his hands out in disbelief.

pope looked at him in the eye, "because you're not coming." he deadpanned.

"why?"

"there a independent and dependent variables. you independent. we don't know what you'll do." pope tried until he was interrupted by jj continuously telling him to shut up.

john b walked to the two breaking them up, "listen to me for a second." turning his attention to dakota, "dakota, you pope and jj will stand lookout, okay? if we get split up, we meet back at jj's house."

dakota nodded her head rapidly. no way in hell would she ever go up a death trap so high. heights would always be one of her downfalls.

"great." kiara said before walking off toward the lighthouse with john b.

pope turned to the two best friends, "i'm gonna work on my merit scholarship essay, and i'm trying to keep felonies to a minimum." he pointed at the two.

dakota rolled her eyes, "then maybe you should hang out with your math team instead." while jj told him to shut up while playing with his hacky sack.

as they waited for john b and kiara, pope, jj, and dakota decided to play catch with the hacky sack to pass time until they heard sirens in the distance. as soon as they took notice of the cop car coming towards them, they sprinted towards the van and decided to follow the plan for if they split up. they made their way to jj's to wait for the two.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

THINGS DIDN'T GO AS PLANNED, turns out that john b and kiara ended up getting caught by the cops, and had to have kiara's dad bail them out. since they didn't stick with their plan to meet at jj's, she had him drive her over to the country club to work a short shift, seeing as she didn't have anything to do at the moment since john b was caught up in different problems.

     dakota didn't particularly like her job but it helped her get through. the down side of it was that she had to deal with snobby kooks whenever she was working, but it gave good pay so she couldn't complain much.

     she had one hour left of her shift, and she couldn't be any happier. she could feel the sweat dripping down her neck as she walked with her tray in hand. empty glasses sat on top of it as she was making her way to the kitchen so they could be cleaned, until she felt a strong force push against her shoulder and before she knew it, the tray fell out of her hands crashing to the floor, the glass shattering along with it.

     "what the hell." she yelled at none other than rafe cameron. she knew he'd knocked into her on purpose, he lived to make the pogues life a living hell.

     smirking at her he feigned innocence, "oh my god, i'm so sorry koko didn't see you there." he smirked before walking away muttering 'dirty pogue' under his breath as he walked away satisfied with what he had accomplished.

     she sighed and bent down and started picking up the broken shards of glass and placed the glass on the tray so it'd be easier to throw away.

     "excuse me, ma'am." came a squeaky voice from above her. "would you like some help."

     looking up, dakota made eye contact with jj.

     "oh thank god you're here." she groaned out as he bent down to help her pick up the broken shards of glass making sure he was careful so he wouldn't accidentally cut himself.

     "the van's out front." he started. "the crew's all in there, we're just waiting for you till we head to our next destination."

     after all the glass had been picked up, her boss (after lots of consideration) let her leave early knowing she was stressed out from the accident that's had previously occurred.

jj and dakota jogged out to the van curious about where their next destination was.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

sorry for the short chapter
i promise the next one will
be longer!!