"Y'KNOW, ME PERSONALLY if i wasn't dating john b he and maya would make a hot couple." mara commented from her spot on the pullout, kalani wrinkling her eyebrows in confusion as john b glanced at the blonde in disgust.

"first of all, that's your sister." he pointed out. "second of all, that's gross."

"agreed." maya chimed in, arden nodding in agreement.

"i could see marlee and pope as a couple."

"no question about jj and lani." john b said, pointing as his sister with a look of disapproval on his face.

"i flirt with jj all the time and that makes you think i like him?" she asked, marlee looking at the brunette who was sitting on the floor next to the coffee table with a confused look on her face.

"you're telling me you don't like jj?"

"he's been my best friend since kindergarten, i'm the reason he and john b are friends." kalani explained. "i have seen every side of jj there is to see, yeah, i could definitely do better."

"okay, ouch." jj replied, putting his hand on his heart pretending to be offended before looking at marlee. "but she's totally right."

"always am." kalani responded, looking over at arden. "speaking of which, i'll do your summer homework this year but it's gonna run you about fifty bucks for all of it."

"i'll pay it, and you know i can't get an a, right?"

"yeah because that would be suspicious." john b chimed in, arden glaring at him, mara laughing on the opposite end of the pullout from her blonde best friend.

"y'know speaking of friends." jj mentioned loudly, looking at mara. "when do we get to meet this taylor girl?"

"who?" kiara asked, mara glaring at jj.

"carra taylor, she just moved here from seattle and i met her at heyward's. we really hit it off, she seems nice." mara explained, kalani moving to be leaning against the sofa next to john b's legs so she could see mara.

"you should invite her over tonight, we can all ride out the hurricane here."

"i wouldn't trust your house to a fourty mile per hour wind, i'm definitely not riding out a hurricane here." pope deadpanned.

"agreed." kiara mentioned.

"you guys can leave. the maybank's and the routledge's and the one flores can ride out the hurricane here, if they're all in favor, of course." john b said, looking at the three maybank's and marlee, who exchanged glances before grinning and nodding at john b.

"marlee can sleep in my room." kalani said quickly, arden sighing heavily.

"fine, then i get my girlfriend." she said, looking at mara who nodded.

"i'm down." she agreed, john b looking between his sister and his girlfriend in bewilderment.

"she's my girlfriend and she's staying with me." he said matter-of-factly, mara rolling her eyes.

"if you insist." she said sarcastically, frowning at arden. "sorry babes, i guess i have other obligations."

"ugh, tell your boyfriend to go to hell." arden said with a smirk as she looked at john b, who rolled his eyes at the two blondes, standing up and looking between them both.

"you two give me high blood pressure, hey, lans-" he was cut off when an unknown source caused him plummeting face first into the hardwood, making kalani laugh hysterically.

"y'know, i really though you were going to notice the second you stood up." she said through laughter, the girls on the couch as well as jj and maya joining in on the laughter as john b groaned and untied his shoes from each other.

"okay then, no surge surfing for you." he told kalani, who shrugged and stood up.

"wasn't planning on going anyways, jj and i we're going to sit on the dock in our bathing suits and see who can last the longest in the rain.

"like hell you are." arden deadpanned, jj rolling his eyes at the oldest routledge girl.

"can you not be a killjoy for once?" he asked, arden shaking her head.

"i am not a killjoy. there's also no way i'm going to let kalani go stand on a dock with you in the middle of the pouring rain during a hurricane. it's not happening, jj."

"WHAT'RE YOU THINKING?" maya yelled over the rain, arden shaking her head as she watched kalani and jj run into the rain, towards the dock.

"i'm gonna kill them both." she said flatly, mara shrugging behind her.

"i'll take their ankles, maya can take their wrists. they can't overpower all of us, right?"

"kalani might, jj definitely won't, all he knows how to do is run." maya commented, watching as kalani and jj's figures disappeared in a cloud of foggish pouring rain, shrugging her shoulders. "well, we did all we could do."

"wanna go steal small things out of john b's room to minorly inconvenience him and make him think he's going crazy?" arden asked, maya and mara exchanging a look and nodding.

"i love watching john b flip out over that type of stuff, im definitely down." maya said, following her sister and arden into the house, the three of them completely forgetting about jj and kalani on the dock.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE we're doing this." kalani yelled over the rain pouring on the tin roof of the shelter-type structure on the dock, painful bursts erupting on her skin as she stood by where the boat would normally be tied up.

"i can't believe arden didn't grab us by the hair and pull us back inside." jj yelled back, kalani nodding in agreement as she shielded her face from the painful raindrops, causing her hands to redden as the drops continued to fall on the exposed skin.

"you giving in?" jj asked, kalani shaking her head and pushing her rain-soaked hair out of her eyes.

"not a chance, you?" she screamed over the rain, which only became more torrential downpour by the second.

"no way in hell." jj assured, kalani nodding, flinching as the rain continued to get harder.

"here comes the eye-wall." jj commented before he and kalani both doubled over, the impossibly more torrential wave of rain erupting in red marks all over their bodies.

"yeah, i'm done." jj said, turning and running back towards the house, kalani following close behind, limping as her legs threatened to give out from the pain. when they made it through the screen door, the duo looked at each other before laughing hysterically.

"you look like a drowned rat." jj said through laughter, kalani collapsing onto one of the porch couches.

"you look like a strawberry." she fired.

"you're both dead!" mara yelled from inside the house, jj and kalani exchanging a look before running back outside into the rain as arden ran onto the porch.

"this is stupid." she muttered.

kens speaks 🪐

jj, lani, arden, mara, and maya >>>