𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐰𝐨: 𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐰𝐞 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐏𝐎𝐆𝐔𝐄𝐒 𝐒𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐋𝐘 𝐏𝐔𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐃 up to the motel that the key belonged to, all of them having disgusted looks on their faces. lets just say that the motel wasn't didn't look as pretty as everyone though it would. but then again, it was a motel on the south side, what should they have expected?

jj whistled. "i thought the château looked bad."

"this place is a shitshow." john b added.

"motel or meth lab?" kie questioned.

"you be the judge." pope mumbled.

"i wouldn't be surprised if there was a meth lab in the basement." coby then said, making jj point to her with a nod.

"doesn't look like a place somebody with a grady-white stays." john pointed out.

"no. it looks like a place someone with a grady-white would get killed." pope quickly corrected as they pulled up to the shoreline.

"here we go." john b mumbled.

"this is your captain speak. hms pogue comin' in for landing." jj announced as he cupped his hand over his mouth.

with that, the blonde boy jumped off the boat and tied it down to a rock. coby stood up from her spot next to kie and stepped off the boat too, jj immediately wrapping his arm around the shorter girl.

"we good?" john b asked him.

"yeah, we good."

"all right. here goes nothin'." john b mumbled to himself as he stepped off the boat.

"hey." pope called, standing up.

"yeah?"

"don't let them do anything stupid." pope told john b, pointing towards jj and coby.

"oh, we will." the both of them nodded, jj shaking coby's shoulders in excitement.

"i'm not making promises." john b said truthfully.

"yeah, i know." pope muttered as he sat down.

"uh, be careful." kie said as she handed john b the motel key. "i mean it."

jj and coby looked at each other with knowing looks but otherwise kept quiet. they waited for john b to walk past them before they turned around and followed him to the motel. the three pogues went up to the floor that the room was on, talking about why all of the mattresses were out of the rooms.

"just be so careful, john b." jj mimicked, making coby release a chuckle.

"god, you're so weird." john b mumbled as he pushed jj off him.

"what the heck was that about?" jj questioned.

"i don't know. maybe she wants us to be careful." john b answered sarcastically.

"since she heard you're being threatened with exile, she's just been, like, 'oh! be so careful, john b. oh, just give me that john d already?'" jj continued, bringing his hands up to massage john b's shoulders, to which the routledge boy pushed him off. "when are you gonna swoop on that, man?"

"i'd be careful. you know kie can hear things." coby said as she trailed behind the boys, her hands stuffed inside of her shorts pockets.

"bro, you know the rule. no pogue on pogue macking." john b reasoned.

"which is the dumbest rule in existence." coby interrupted. "literally none of us follow that rule.

"c has a point." jj agreed, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

"besides, you're the one always hitting on her." john b continued.

"of course i'm hitting on her. she's a super hot, rich, hippie chick slumming with us." jj reasoned, making coby make a face in agreement. "why? i can't figure it out either, but who cares, bro? i know that door's locked because i've tried it. have you?"

"you need help. not like a little bit of help, you need a lot of help." john b told his blonde friend. "it's like every girl who just has a heartbeat, you're like. . . 'uhh!'"

"that's not true. i didn't do that to coby." jj tried.

"no, you definitely did. remember in fifth grade when you tried to kiss me?" coby quickly corrected. "and then i punched you in the face?"

"oh, yeah." jj mumbled.

"is that us? twenty nine." john b spoke, making his two best friends look towards the door that he was in front of. "yeah, this is it."

"okay." jj mumbled before he knocked on the door. "house-keeping." he then spoke in a high-pitched voice, making coby roll her eyes.

he continued to knock on the door before he went to the window, but he didn't receive any answer. the three pogues looked at each other, coby nudging john b to tell him to use the key.

"should we try it?" he asked.

"duh." coby said, looking at him with raised eyebrows.

as john b put the key into the lock, coby turned to look at where pope and kie was sitting on the boat. she saw that the duo was looking at the three of them, making her bring her hand up and wave at them. she then turned her wave into a middle finger, jj grabbing her other arm and dragging her into the room once john b had opened the door. the routledge boy turned the flashlight in his hand on since there was no power on the cut.

"check the bag. see if there's a name on there somewhere." he mumbled to himself as he started to check said bag.

jj turned his own flashlight on as he started to look through a pile of clothes. coby walked around the room, her eyes going over almost every detail. she noticed that there was two dingy beds that was neatly made, which was weird since they had thrown all of the other mattresses away. she walked over to where the bathroom was, going to see if there was anything in there. and it was; a little bag full of toiletries. she looked through it, pulling out a tube of deodorant.

"yo, guys, come here." jj called, making coby walk out of the bathroom and over to the blonde boy, seeing that he was looking at some coordinates. john b joined them. "maybe this is where they were fishing."

"let me see." john b mumbled, making jj move his hand. "nah, that's off the continental shelf. that's the big swell. nobody fishes there."

"here jj. i found some deodorant for ya, bud." coby told the boy once john b had walked away. "found it in a dopp kit that jb won't let us steal."

"yeah, because we're not stealing shit." the routledge boy quickly said as jj took the deodorant from coby and stuffed it into his pockets.

the sound of beeping and john b mumbling to himself is what made jj and coby look at him, seeing that he was punching in random numbers into a small safe.

"punching shit at random. that will. . . definitely work." jj said sarcastically as he turned back to the map that he was previously looking at.

"wait a second." john b mumbled, standing up from his crouched position and walking over to where jj was, grabbing a small piece of paper. he then walked back over to the safe.

"i don't know. i don't know about the second one." jj muttered, making coby look at him with raised eyebrows. "these coordinates, they. . . wait. my cousin said you could catch swordfish here."

"swordfish?" coby repeated, walking over to the boy so that she could see what he was looking at.

"that doesn't make any sense, right?" he asked, making the shorter girl shake her head. "uh, what about a surf spot? that could possibly be it. or shoals."

"i don't think so." coby told him, shaking her head again.

"uh, guys?" john b called, making his two best friends turn around to look at him, the both of them humming. "you're gonna wanna see this."

the two pogues walked over to where john b was, seeing the many wads of cash and a gun. because jj is jj, he grabbed the gun with an excited smile. and because coby is coby, she grabbed one of the wads of cash. she looked at it with wide eyes, not used to having this much money in her hands.

"you grabbed the gun." john b pointed out, quickly going over to where jj was standing.

"of course he grabbed the gun." coby mumbled.

"this is a sig sauer." jj informed.

"put the gun back, jj!" john b demanded.

"this is a fucking spend gatt, man. just. . . bam! bam!" jj said before he started to pretend that he was shooting someone. "bam! bam! bam!"

"hey! dude! we are not stealing anything!" john b reminded before he turned to look at coby. "right, coby?"

"yeah, yeah." the sawyer girl nodded, basically drooling over the money that was in her hands.

"just take a pic of me. right here." jj whispered, posing with the gun in his hand.

"you want me to take a picture of you?" john b questioned, pointing his flashlight at the shorter boy.

"yeah, dude. like. . ." jj nodded, going into another pose with the gun.

"make our own incriminating evidence? is that what you're talking about?" john b quizzed.

the sound of something hitting the window is what coby look away from the money and towards it, the boys doing the same thing. coby and john b pushed the blinds out of the way and looked through them, seeing that pope and kie were outside.

"cops. cops! cops!" the both of them mouth, pointing towards the door of the motel room.

john b quickly closed the blinds back before he went to the window that was by the door, carefully peaking through those blinds.

"what is it?" jj asked, looking between him and coby.

"cops." john b answered just as said cops started to knock on the door.

"kildare county sheriff's department!" the voice of deputy shoupe announced, making coby silently curse.

she looked around for a few seconds before her eyes landed on the window that she had just looked out of. she quickly pulled the blinds up before she opened the window and climbed out. she could see that john b and jj were still panicking inside, making her make a quiet noise to get their attention. the boys looked at her before they quickly climbed through the window and onto the ledge with coby. jj quickly put his arm around coby as he joined her on the right side, john b quickly putting the blinds back and closing the window. coby quickly remembered that she still had a wad of cash in her hands, making her mentally curse herself.

the three of them heard talking coming from inside the room, meaning that shoupe and deputy plumb was now inside of the room. they then turned to look at where kie and pope was at, back on the pogue, looking at them like they were crazy.

"what are you doing?" pope mouthed, which made his three friends just bring their fingers up to their mouths to hush him.

john b and jj were looking through the window, watching as shoupe and plumb grabbed the money and started to put them bags, the two pogues watching in disbelief.

"what the f -? do you believe -" jj whispered but interrupted himself when he accidentally dropped the gun, making it hit the ledge of the window with a loud thud before it hit the ground below.

"jj, what the fuck?!" coby scolded in a hushed tone.

she went quiet once the blinds in the window shot up, revealing shoupe. jj, john b, and coby tried their best to push themselves further into the wall so shoupe wouldn't see them. coby even held her breath as if that would make her turn invisible or something. seconds felt like minutes as shoupe stood there to see what had made the noise.

"all right, let's go. no one's here." the muffled voice of shoupe said, making the three pogues release a sigh of relief.

around ten minutes later, the three teens were back in the pogue with kie and pope, cruising down the waters of obx.

"well that was fun." coby mumbled.

"could've warned us sooner." jj told kie and pope.

"we would've, except pope was on the math team." kie informed.

"you was on the math team?" coby questioned, making the heyward boy nod his head sheepishly.

"the cops took everything like it was a crime scene." he spoke before asking, "did you guys find anything?"

"did we find anything?" jj repeated, sitting up from his spot next to coby. "no, i don't think so. oh, yeah, we did." he nodded, pulling out his gun as coby pulled out the ward of cash.

"what the hell?" pope exclaimed.

"dude, chill. come on." jj tried to soothed.

"why take that from a crime scene?" pope asked, looking between the blonde boy and coby.

"it's better than the cops having it, bro." jj quickly defended, making coby point to him in agreement.

"you serious?" kie asked the girl, eyebrows knitted together.

"to be fair, i forgot that i had it in my hand when we climbed out the window. so i didn't take it on purpose." coby quickly defended. "but am i glad that i did take it? yes. yes, i am."

"i'm gonna lose my merit scholarship." pope mumbled, panicking as he looked around at all of his friends.

"hey, hey, hey." jj soothed, wrapping his arms around pope as he hushed him. "at least you have us, right?"

"i'm living the nightmare." pope said, pushing jj off of him.

this made the maybank boy look at him with knitted eyebrows before he turned to look at coby. she just gestured for him to sit back down.

☠︎ ✶ ♡ ✶ ☠︎

𝐂𝐎𝐁𝐘 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐂𝐇 of the château, playing hacky sack by herself. john b was sat on a chair, throwing a glass bottle up in the air and catching it before he repeated the actions. jj was in the arm chair, playing with his lighter like he always did. kie was sat on the couch, waiting coby with raised eyebrows as she kicked the hacky sack in the air before catching it with her foot multiple times. they had just found out that scooter grubbs was the owner of the grady white that they had found in the marsh and that the man was now dead. this led to pope basically having a panic attack in the yard of the château.

they heyward boy came onto the porch, "okay. so, um. . . we didn't see anything. we don't know anything. we need to have total and complete amnesia." he told his friends as he sat down on the couch with kie.

coby kicked the hacky sack into the air before she caught it with her hand, turning to face her friends. "i agree with him."

"yeah, pope's right for once." jj added as he got up from his seat. "see, we agree with you sometimes. deny, deny, deny."

"guys, we can't keep that money." kie spoke up.

"okay. not all of us can afford unlimited data plan, kiara." jj told her.

"we have to pass that off to lana grubbs. otherwise, it's bad karma." kie quickly reasoned.

"bad karma to be implicated into a felony, too. we gotta go dark." pope said.

"if that means we get to keep the money, then i agree." jj said, still playing with his lighter.

"i don't agree." john b announced.

"what? why?"

"just think about it. this is scooter grubbs we're talking about. same dude that's buying individual cigarettes at the porthole." john b started, making coby nod in agreement. "shit, one time i saw this dude begging for change in the save-a-lot parking lot because he needed gas. we're talking about a dirtbag marina rat who's never had more than 40 bucks in his pocket, and all of a sudden, he's got a grady white? just sayin'."

"he makes a point there." coby mumbled.

during the conversation, the pogues had moved out to the dock, pope and jj having fishing poles in their hands as they fished. coby was once again playing hacky sack, kicking the small bag around and doing tricks with it.

"all right, so think about it, pope. how does a marina rat get a grady-white?" john b questioned.

pope inhaled sharply, "prostitution."

"square groupers, bro." john b corrected. "okay, flying under the radar, no aerial surveillance. they don't do that stuff during a hurricane. what does that mean? jj?"

"they were straight smuggling." the blonde boy answered.

"smuggling." john b repeated. "and i guarantee there's a serious amount of contraband in that wreck."

"hell, yeah." coby agreed, her voice coming out strain as she tried to catch the hacky sack wit her foot.

the group of five quickly made their way back into the château, all of them being piled into john b's small room. kie was sat at john b's desk, her legs on the bed. rain was in between her legs, having her head on kie's stomach as the carrera girl played with her brown locks. pope was sat on the bed as well, with jj and john b sat in the window sills.

"for the record, if that is a smuggling ship with illegal contraband on the inside of it. . . it probably belongs to someone else." pope pointed out, the wad of cash that coby had stolen in his hands.

"minor details." the girls said in unison.

"they could come looking for it. taking it would be catastrophically stupid." they heyward boy continued.

jj reached forward and grabbed the money out of his hands. "right. well, stupid things have good outcomes all the time. all we need to do is figure out a way to get into the cargo hold of that wreck. until then, we just lay low. just act normal."

"right. and how exactly do we do that?" pope asked.

"kegger?" kie suggested.

that made coby smile, raising her hand so that kie could slap it. john b and jj nodded in agreement, looking at pope with smiles on their faces. the heyward boy released a huff, wondering why his friends were like this.

daij speaks!
heyyyyyyy. a lot of u guys wanted another update for this book so here it is :) u might get another one before i work on my other books, because i still have to write the kegger part of the first episode. i love kie and coby's platonic relationship, they're so cute.

but i hope u guys enjoyed this chapter <3