pilot

"well look who we have here." John B says as he pulls up the boat beside Pope on the dock. "we have a safety meeting. attendance mandatory."

"club rules, Pope. no excuses." I joke and put my hands on my hips. the boy was filling a bucket with water, which I'm sure the last thing he wanted to do.

"I can't, my pops got me on lockdown." Pope whines while Heyward walks up behind him, surveying us.

"come on man." JJ urges before putting his hand into his shoulder and mimicking radio static. "your dad's a pussy. over."

"oh I heard that ya little bastard." Heyward warns as he comes closer. I hit JJ in the side as a reprimanding, hoping he'd keep his mouth shut. the last thing any of us need is to forever be on Heyward's bad side.

"we need your son."

"yeah, and island rules. day after hurricane's a free day." both John B and JJ are toeing the line, so I turn to reach over and smack John B upside the head as well.

"y'all quit." I growl, wishing they'd both listen to me. knowing the both of them there's no way in hell they would.

"who the hell made that up?" Hayward questions, and I know there's no bullshitting now. Pope would have to either run for it and risk getting his ass whooped, or be miserable the rest of the day with his dad.

JJ steps forward, and immediately I facepalm. why do I even bother? "uh, pentagon I think? we have security clearance, I have a card."

"yes, if you'd like to see our cards we would be glad to show you." I join in with sarcasm dripping in my voice. JJ turns to send me a wink, almost saying thanks for back up. "it's a very serious card, sir."

"you think I'm stupid?" Heyward snaps as Pope turns to him begging to be released. I watch as they banter back and forth, and a part of me aches with pain from missing my own dad. granted, my dad would've been a pogue himself so he let me run wild.

Pope finally jumps in the boat after some encouragement from John B and JJ, and I grin even though Heyward seems furious as his son's action. "I promise I'll do it tomorrow dad!" Pope shouts as John B pulls the boat away.

"we'll bring him back in one piece, I promise!" John B yells while waving, and I'm tempted again to hit him. as we start coasting towards the marsh, I notice Kiara in the distance walking towards a dock. "oh, top o' the mornin' to ya!"

"good morning boys, and Lyv." she looks at me with a smile on her face. JJ helps her onto the boat and we all immediately dig a beer from the cooler she brought with her. "salud."

"skoal."

————

"let me show you a party trick!" JJ exclaims while standing up from his seat, beer in hand. I immediately scoot to the front of the boat, not knowing what is about to happen. "hey, Pope, can you go a little faster please?"

"he's tried this 6,000 times, Lyv." John B explains to me from the back of the boat. "never works."

"I got this. It's gonna work!" JJ reassures us before he puts one leg on the end of the boat and starts to tip his bottle back, away from his mouth. beer starts flying everywhere, completely missing his intended target and instead getting on everyone in the boat.

"oh my god you're getting beer in my hair." Kiara complains, turning away and trying to hide. luckily, I only get a little bit of splatter since I'm up next to JJ, while Pope and John B tries to get him to stop.

"JJ, cut it out." I insist as he continues to get the beer into his mouth.

suddenly, there's a loud crash and I'm thrown from the end of the boat. water goes straight up my nose and I hurry to the surface to cough up water. I look to see JJ in the water on his back next to me, and the rest of the group recovering on the boat. "you okay JJ? Lyv?" John B asks as we both groan in pain.

"I think my heels touched the back of my head." JJ replies, as I still spit up water but give a thumbs up as my response. we both start swimming back to the boat slowly, and I wonder if I have whiplash. "hey, I saved the beer though."

"guys, I think there's a boat down there." Pope tells us, standing at the edge of the boat and looking down. JJ and I stop swimming to try and see below while Kiara and John B call his bluff. "no, no guys I'm serious. there's a boat down there. for real."

"holy shit, he's right. let's go." Kiara goes to take off her shorts before jumping in, and John B does the same. Pope follows and I give him a smile.

"I would've believed ya." I lightly kick him under the water to reinforce my point, making him grin.

"you think there's a dead body down there?" he wonders, and the idea makes me sick. I shake my head as everyone goes to dive down, but I decide to swim back to get on the boat. if there was a dead body, I certainly didn't want to see it. I'd already seen one too many for my lifetime.

"you guys saw that, right? that's a grady-white!" JJ exclaims when they come up from the surface. I raise an eyebrow at the guys while they swim back to the boat. "a new one of those is five hundred g's, easy."

"so there's a sunken grady-fucking-white down there?" I peer over the side down into the murky water. why would such an expensive boat be here, and wrecked for that matter? everyone climbs back into the boat dripping water and talking about it.

"that's the boat I saw when I surfed the surge." John B comments, and I stare at him in shock. what did I say, John B would surf through anything. "maybe it hit the jetty or something."

"are you an idiot?" I growl, while Kiara says at the same time, "you surfed the surge?"

"that's my boy. pogue style." JJ boasts, and I smack his arm. "what, I wasn't the one who did it."

"don't encourage it." I caution, raising my hand to exaggerate the fact that I would smack him again. "consequences JJ."

"what kind of consequences?" his eyebrows rose suggestively, causing my palm to meet the back of his head. "again? I thought it would be a fun punishment.

"wait, wait. do we know whose boat that is?" Pope asks us before we all shake our heads.

"no, but we're about to find out." John B replies as he digs out the anchor. I tune out the group's attempts to talk him out of his stupid idea while I look back down at the boat. a chill runs down my spine and I snap out of it when suddenly JJ pushes John B into the water.

we all anxiously wait for his excursion, and when he comes back up we all breathe a sigh of relief. "any dead bodies?" I shudder again when Pope brings it up again, but ignore it.

"looting potential?"

" I found this motel key." John B explains, holding up a yellow tag with a key connected. I groan in annoyance, causing him to look at me. "do you want to see if you can find something else, Lyv?"

"guys, we should report the wreck to the coast guard. maybe we'll get a finder's fee." Kiara suggests as we drive the boat back to land. I wonder if we actually could, or if they'd just completely ignore us and our attempts to report it.

"yeah, and not work all summer." JJ complains, looking around at the mess the hurricane created. "thanks, agatha, ya batch."

"batch? really JJ?" I laugh while looking at him and shaking my head. he grins and comes to grab me, only making me laugh harder. "you couldn't just be normal and say it the right way."

"you and I both know I'm not normal."

————

it was a mad house where the coast guard was set up. I heard something about a dog, and then the talking grew louder as we even neared the doors. "I'm gonna hang out here." I say, Kiara and Pope nodding as well while John B and JJ go inside.

"you okay, Lyvia? it just seems like somethings bothering you." Kiara whispers to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

"yeah it's just the storm." I tell her, not wanting to go into too much detail. the whole day I had been trying to keep my dad off my mind, the last thing I needed to do was to open my mouth to start talking about it.

the three of us stand around waiting, playing rock paper scissors, and when we see JJ and John B coming out we all move to the side to discuss. of course, the coast guard proved to be useless. "I think I know how we're gonna find the guy who owns that boat." John B states, twirling the key between his fingers.

"we don't know whose room that is." Pope stutters, his nerves getting the best of him. poor guy, always getting dragged into every crazy adventure against his better judgment. "it could be anyone."

"come on, I'll be lookout." Kiara reassures him, and I give him a smile to re-enforce it. John B tosses the keys to Kiara as we all start the walk back to the boat, and I run forward to match JJ's stride.

"so, what do you think is going to come out of this?" I ask him quietly, bumping my shoulder into his. before he  answers me, he stops in from of me and hoists me onto his back. "well, thanks for the piggyback ride, good sir."

"whatever comes of it, I have a feeling it will be a hell of an adventure." he says to me, his arms wrapping tighter around my thighs.

"and one wicked story."

————

the building we pull the boat up to barely resembles a building at all. "does everyone have all their vaccines?" I grimace as we all survey the place.

"doesn't look like the type of place somebody with a grady-white stays." John B mutters while getting us to the ground.

"no, looks like the type of place someone with a grady-white would get killed."

"can we stop talking about death and dying please?" I snap, making JJ look at me with concern. "it's just giving me the creeps is all."

"are you sure?" he grabs my hand to get me to look at him, and I nod. not a total lie, but I didn't want to explain that there was more. he lets go of my hand and jumps out to anchor the boat, and John B and I follow him.

"hey, don't let him do anything stupid." Pope begs me while pointing to JJ. he turns to John B and gives him the same pleading look as well. "you too."

"I'm not making promises." John B jokes as I shrug with a smile.

Kiara hands John B the keys and says, "be careful. I mean it."

JJ nudges me and we both wink in the most exaggerated way possible, causing us to chuckle. "be careful." he whispers to me with sarcasm. when the three of us reach the top floor, JJ grabs onto John B. "just be so careful, John. what the heck was that about?"

"oh, leave him alone JJ." I warn, patting John B on the back. truthfully, it was a cute interaction between the two. "we don't want him to get all flustered about it."

"god, you two are so weird. maybe she wants us to be careful." John B waves his hands in the air, trying to get us to stop teasing.

"you. she wants you to be careful." JJ high fives me for my added observation. the amount of mattresses against the railing was insane, and I wanted to cover my nose from the smell of waterlogged bedding.

I fall back behind the boys to double check all the room numbers, and make sure that the place was mostly unoccupied. by the time I catch back up to them, JJ is knocking on a door. "housekeeping." he squeals, and I burst out laughing.

"where the hell did that come from, JJ?" I chuckle, leaning against the wall as I try to regain my breath. John B gets the door unlocked and we walk inside. my hand immediately wants to cover my nose, but I remain calm.

"check the bag. see if there's a name on there somewhere." John B tells JJ, before pointing to me. "check under the beds, sometimes people shove stuff under there."

I want to protest getting on the floor, but figure the faster we snoop, the faster we can leave. laying on the floor, I scrunch up my nose in disgust at the idea of how often this was probably not cleaned. "nothing under bed. now time for bed two." I comment, rolling over to my other side. I see a shoe box and pull it out, tapping JJ's leg when I do. "I got something."

John B focuses on the safe while JJ and I open the box to find a single wad of cash. I examine it, wondering why there was only one wad of twenties in a box under the bed. "rainy day fund maybe?" he turns back to the map on the nightstand, talking about coordinates, fishing, and surf spots to try to decipher what it all means.

"JJ, Lyv, you're gonna want to see this." John B gasps, and the both of us turn to see what he's looking at. the safe was open, but once I actually see the contents my mouth drops open. my mind goes blank as JJ grabs the gun to play with, and I immediately back away. I highly doubt he had ever even touched a gun before, much less shot one.

JJ and John B argue over the gun, and I soon hear taps on the window, breaking the moment. John B walks over to the window to look out, and soon he's running to the window by the door. "cops." he mutters under his breath.

what more could a cop want than to find three kids with a gun, loads of cash, and a key that wasn't theirs?

————