𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞: 𝐬𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬

𝐂𝐎𝐁𝐘 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐒𝐏𝐑𝐀𝐖𝐋𝐄𝐃 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐎𝐍 the pullout couch in the château, knocked out with her mouth wide open. she was wearing a pair of boxers and one of john b's t-shirts with her hair going in every direction. she had beads of sweat on her forehead because of how hot it was in the house. the rest of the pogues went home the night before, but coby didn't really feel like dealing with james and her mother so she stayed. john b came out of his room, walking straight to the pullout and nudging the girl.

"cobe!" he called, still trying to shake her awake. she slapped his hand away before she turned onto her stomach, making the routledge boy roll his eyes. "coby, wake up!"

"i don't wanna." she mumbled into the pillow she was laying on, her words slurred from sleep.

"come on. we gotta put the tanks back." john b told her, starting to shake her again.

"stop shaking me!" the girl scolded, slapping his hand away again. "why can't you put them back by yourself?"

"i don't wanna get caught again, so i need you to do it." the taller boy answered.

"and you want me to be the one that gets caught?" coby questioned, turning back onto her back to look at the boy.

"you're coby. you're not gonna get caught, unless you wanna get caught." john b mumbled, shrugging his shoulders.

the sawyer girl rolled her eyes but sat up from the bed nonetheless. she swung her legs around before she slipped on a pair of her shorts, and then her dirty converse, already having a pair of socks on. don't worry, she's not a psychopath. she was just too tired to take them off last night and ended up knocking out before she could. she stood up from the bed and went into the bathroom, freshening herself up and brushing her teeth. she looked at how wild her hair was, combing her fingers through it enough for it to be slightly less wild. she walked back out, seeing that john b was sat on the pullout, waiting for her.

"let's go." she mumbled.

with that, the two left the château and made their way to the dock. the both of them climbed onto the pogue, coby immediately laying down on the floor. john b let out a chuckle as he pulled away from the dock, heading towards the camerons house so that they could put the tanks back. they arrived there quicker than coby had hoped, wanting to get some more sleep. but before she knew, it, john b was nudging her with his foot.

"we're here." he announced in a hushed tone.

"why are you whispering?" she asked him, standing up from the floor.

john b simply shrugged, reaching into his pocket and handing her the key to get inside of ward's big boat. she took it from him, putting it into her own pocket before she grabbed the bags with the tanks in them. with that, she climbed onto the druthers and made her way to where she had followed john b the last time they were here. she looked at the door, seeing that it was cracked opened slightly. she shrugged before she slid it open all the way, stepping inside. she froze when she saw sarah laying on the couch. she let out a silent sigh before she carefully entered, trying her hardest not to make any moved.

but of course, one of the canisters had to clank against another one and make some type of noise.

"wheezie, shut up." sarah muttered, making coby wince slightly.

coby tried to make her way back to where the tanks belong, but then they banged against each other once again. she silently cursed when she heard a gasp come from sarah, making her look over her shoulder and at the blonde girl.

"you're not wheezie." she mumbled.

"ding, ding, ding. i'm sorry." coby apologized.

"what are you doing?" sarah questioned, her voice groggy.

coby felt her stomach flip at the sound of sarah's voice, making the girl furrow her eyebrows. "uh, just dropping off some scuba gear. what are - what are you doing here?"

sarah looked at coby with knitted eyebrows, silently asking if she had really said that. "it's our boat. it's also the only place with air conditioning.

"right. yeah, that makes sense." coby nodded.

"did you, um. . . did you and john b top the tanks?" sarah asked.

"no. the power's down, so no compressors." coby easily lied, shrugging her shoulders.

"so, you're sneaking onto our boat at 5:00 a.m with empty tanks? i'll make sure to tell ward."

coby nodded, "okay. cool" she muttered, gently placing the tanks and bags down on the floor.

"yeah, yeah, the middle of the room is fine." sarah commented sarcastically.

"i know it is. thanks for the reassurance, cupcake." coby shot back, sending a a tightlipped smile towards the blonde as she turned around to walk out. but then she froze. "can you actually not tell your dad about this?"

"what? that you poached our scuba gear?" sarah asked, tilting her head slightly.

"look, we borrowed it for a few hours. and then we brought back intact and unharmed."

"minus air."

"please don't tell him." coby pleaded, knowing how much this job meant to the boy that was patiently waiting outside. "please? he'll fire john b and probably have me arrested."

"what are you gonna do? pull a gun on me?" sarah teased.

the sawyer girl scoffed, "only if your homophobic boyfriend tries to drown me."

"maybe you should get better friends."

"maybe you should get a better boyfriend. you literally have options, everyone fucking wants you." coby shot back, eyebrows raised in a challenging manner.

"are you insinuating that you want me, coby?" sarah asked, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth as the corners of her mouth shot up.

"in your dreams, cupcake." coby answered, feeling her stomach flutter at the sight of sarah's lip bite. "but you'd like that, wouldn't you? but, seriously? can you promise not to tell your dad?"

"don't worry, coby. your secret's safe with me." sarah promised.

"nah, i don't trust that." coby mumbled before she stepped forward, holding one of her pinky out.

sarah eyed the girl's pinky, eyebrows raised. "are you serious?"

"as serious as a fucking heart attack." the brunette answered. "people lie all the time, so i do this for extra precaution."

sarah smiled up at the girl, finding it adorable that she still believed in pinky promises. another thing to add onto the list of what she like about jacoba sawyer. it was a pretty long list, like if she was to write down everything that was on it, it'd be a few pages long.

"i'm not leaving until you do it, cupcake." coby said, eyebrows raised as she waited patiently.

the cameron girl rolled her eyes, "don't call me that." she mumbled as she wrapped her on pinky around coby's.

the slightly taller girl smiled, pulling her hand away before she dropped it. "you know. . . you pretend to not like it, but you let me call you 'cupcake' at least two times before you said 'don't call me that.' so, you obviously love when i call you that."

"whatever." sarah muttered, watching as coby started to leave.

"i'll see you around. cupcake." coby said, putting emphasize on the last word just to annoy sarah. "sweet dreams."

and with that, coby slid the door closed and went back to the pogue. john b was patiently waiting there, feet up on the console. when she jumped onto the pogue, the routledge boy flinched, making coby release a few laughs. he untied the rope before he pulled off, heading back towards the château.

"what took you so long?" he asked.

"sarah was in there." coby simply answered. "i'm going back to sleep when we get back to the château."

"yes, ma'am." john b nodded.

☠︎ ✶ ♡ ✶ ☠︎

❝𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐖𝐄 𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐎𝐔𝐓𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄 like this." jj said, moving over to put his back onto the wall. "and all we hear is just, 'bam! bam! bam!' knocking paint off the wall, g, from the inside! and i'm just looking at him, like -" he continued before he interrupted himself and started to run his fingers through his hair as he walked over to his friends. "wait, first off, look at this shit."

"that's dandruff, disgusting." kie mumbled, scrunching her nose in disgust.

"okay, thank you." pope commented sarcastically, pushing jj away from and coby.

"look at all that. all right? that's paint." jj told his friends.

"really? cause i thought it was lice." coby muttered in a groggy voice, having just been pulled out of slumber by her blonde friend and john b five minutes ago.

"at that point, i was just, like. . . i'm waiting for death." the maybank boy finished.

"oh, okay. so you saw the guys that shot at us, right?" pope questioned, which lead to jj nodding. "did you get a good description of them? what did they look like?"

"yeah. anything?" kie agreed, the both of them looking at jj with raised eyebrows.

"anything we can bring to a police report?" pope continued.

"burly." jj answered.

"burly?" coby repeated, rubbing the tiredness out of her eyes.

"yeah. you know, like -"

"that's not very helpful." kie mumbled.

"okay, well, no. like the type of guy at my dad's garage. i mean, you guys know he made cargo hides for drug smugglers."

"yeah. yes, we know."

"i can tell you with full confidence, guys, these boys, these killers. . ." jj continued, stopping himself so he can take a pull from his juul. "they're square groupers."

"they're square groupers, like cargo square groupers? like, pablo escobar square grouper?" pope quizzed.

"yeah, man."

"yeah, i'm going back to sleep." coby mumbled, shooting up from her spot next to pope.

"you guys, not everything is a kingpin movie." kie told the boys as coby walked around jj and back into the château.

she plopped down onto the pullout, landing flat on her stomach. she released a sigh, hearing the muffled sounds of her friends arguing on the porch. closed her eyes, planning on going back to sleep. and for a minute, she had started to doze back off into the wonderful land of sleep. but she was pulled back to reality when she felt someone pulling her off the springy mattress, that someone being kiara carrera. a groan left coby's mouth as her feet dragged along the floor, making kie let out a small chuckle.

"what're we doing now?" coby questioned.

"going into big john's office." pope answered.

"wait, really? i've never seen the inside of it." coby mumbled as john b unlocked and opened the door.

"exactly. i've slept over here like 600 times, and i've never seen this door opened." pope agreed as the group of five walked through said door, earning a hum from kie.

"here, look. this is the original owner, right here." john b informed as he placed a bulletin board with pictures onto the cluttered table before pointing to one of the pictures.

"okay. robert q. routledge, 1880 to 1920." kie read aloud. "there's the lucky compass, right there."

"actually, he was shot after he bought it. then the compass was shipped back to henry." john b corrected, pointing to the second photo. "henry was killed in a crop dusting accident while he had the compass. after he died, the compass was given to stephen. stephen had the compass with him when he died in vietnam." john b finished, pointing to the third photo.

"let me guess, he died in action, right?" jj questioned.

"sort of." john b hesitated. "uh, a - actually, he was killed by a banana truck. in- in country. anyways, after that, stephen passed the compass down to him, my dad." he finished, pointing to the last picture on the board.

jj hummed. "sounds like there's a reoccurring theme here."

"yeah, um, you guys have a death compass." pope added.

"i do not." the routledge boy defended.

"you definitely have a death compass, jb." coby nodded.

"get rid of it. it's cursed, and made it's way back to you." jj told them.

"look, my dad used to talk about this compartment in here. soldiers used to hide secret notes." john b informed his friends as he untwisted the back of the compass.

"what's that?" kie asked.

"that wasn't there before." john b mumbled. "this is my dad's handwriting."

"how can you know that?" pope questioned.

"because he does these weird r's with the - see it?" john b explained, showing his friends what he was talking about.

"can i see?" jj asked. "'red - rout -'"

"no, i think that's an a." john b mumbled.

"its redfield." kie and coby corrected in unison, making the two boys look at them weirdly.

"well, what's redfield?" kie questioned, looking at john b.

"besides the most common name in the county." pope added.

"maybe it's a clue." john b suggested. "maybe it's a clue to where he's hiding."

"a clue? come on, that's -" pope started, but he stopped himself when he had seen kie's face. "but if it is a clue, maybe it's an anagram?"

"yes. perfect. anagram. you need paper." john b quickly said, looking around on big john's messy desk for an empty sheet of paper and a pencil.

"how can you concentrate with that thing crowing at you?" pope asked him.

"jj loves the rooster." john b answered.

"i love the rooster." kie added.

"me too." coby mumbled, crossing her arms over her chest.

she then tuned out the banter of her friends, resting her head on kie's shoulder as she closed her eyes. the carrera girl looked down at her before she moved closer, wanting to the both of them to be comfortable.

"guys. guys! somebody's here!" john b called.

this made the other four pogues turn to him before they walked towards the window. they looked through it, seeing a black truck parked behind the twinkie, two familiar men walking towards the château.

"guys, guys, is that them?" kie asked john b and jj.

"no." jj groaned.

"is that them?" kie repeated.

"this is suboptimal." pope mumbled.

"john b, i told you." jj said, walking away from the window. "why does it always -"

"jj! hey, look at me. where's the gun?" john b asked, walking over to the blonde boy.

"gun? i, uh, i can't -" jj stuttered.

"now you don't have the gun, the one time we need the gun?" kie asked, panic starting to sink it.

"it was in my backpack, and then i -" jj started, trying to remember where the black pistol was at.

"backpack." john b repeated. "it's on the porch."

"on the porch." with that, the maybank boy exited the office to go get his backpack. but not even ten seconds later, he was running back into the office, slamming the door shut. "they're on the front porch, guys."

"routledge!" one of the guys yelled. "where ya at?"

"we gotta leave!" kie gently exclaimed. "window! window!"

with that, jj and pope ran to the window that was blocked. the both of them tried to open it, but it wasn't budging.

"what - what's happening? why is it taking so long?" kie quizzed.

"it's painted shut, okay?" pope answered in a hushed voice.

"i'll check the kitchen." one of the men yelled.

john b went in front of the door, quickly locking it before he leaned on it. coby joined him so that there could be more weight on the door. kie started to look around the office to find something that would cut through the paint. pope and jj was still trying their hardest to open the window, but it was no use.

"okay, guys. guys. here, i got it." kie whispered, holding up a sharp object that coby wasn't focused on.

"check the back room!" the same man yelled.

pope and jj left the window, letting kie get to it so that she could run the knife along the paint. the two boys rushed the girl, anxiety and adrenaline flowing through their veins. the both of them then turned to where john b and coby was standing in front of the door.

"be quiet." coby quickly hushed, holding a finger up to her mouth.

the whole room went silent, the only noise coming from the living room being trashed. then, the doorknob started to rattle from the other side, followed by a few bangs on the door. "you better not be in there!"

kie had finally gotten the window opened but before anyone could climb through, the sound of the door being broken echoed through the room. coby quickly moved away from the door when she heard it splintering, everyone climbing out of the window. she then felt herself being pushed to go through the window by john b. the five of them all ran over to the chicken coop, crawling inside so that the square groupers wouldn't notice them. john b looked through the cracks of the coop, watching the two men walk out with boxes of his father's research.

the sound of the rooster crowing filled the pogues' ear for the millionth time, knowing that the men outside would be able to hear it.

"do something, pope. shut him up." jj whispered.

"what do you want me to do?" pope asked in a hushed tone.

"pet it, or talk to it. i don't know." kie suggested.

pope went to grab the rooster, only for it to peck at his fingers. the dark-skinned boy pulled his hand back, trying to shake the pain away. the rooster then started to cluck, getting louder and louder, gaining the attention of one of the men.

"you do something." pope shot towards jj.

jj quickly grabbed the rooster before he started to push it into the ground, adding more and more force before the rooster went silent and a crack echoed through the coop. coby closed her eyes so she wouldn't see the limp rooster, hearing kie silently sob beside her.

"ratter! what the hell are you doing? let's go" one of the men yelled.

the five pogues waited anxiously for the truck to drive down the dirt road before they made any moves. and once the sound of an engine had vanished, everyone crawled their way out of the coop.

"well, that was fucking fun." coby mumbled to herself, having her fingers tangled in her hair.

daij speaks!
okay. so ik i said i would update other books. but i'm excited to get to a certain part of the book, so i might just spam for awhile 💀

but i hope u guys enjoyed