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Annabelle stood outside the coat guard office along with Pope and Kiara as they restlessly waited for JJ and John B who had gone inside to repost the wreck they had found. The dock was crowded with scattered panicked people all eagerly trying to get help. This was no surprise since the hurricane had done some major damage. However, Annabelle spotted people pleading for help for dog diabetes like there was anyone the cost guard could do about the problem.

Annabelle peaked through the window to see that her two pouge friends were being completely ignored whilst the coast guardsman focused on the kooks. The girl rolled her eyes and groaned as she saw the lack of respect they were getting despite their problem being much bigger than some kook getting mud on their 300-dollar shoes.

The two boys appeared in the doorway with two disappointed looks on their faces.

"Well, that went well," Pope said as JJ and John B joined them.

"So, what's the plan?" Annabelle asked folding her arms over her chest.

John B held up the motel keys and dangled them in front of his friends. "I know how we're gonna find the guy who owns the guy who owns that boat."

"We don't know whose room that is. Could be anyone's." Pope protested.

"I'm in," JJ shrugged as he grabbed the keys from John B. before tossing them over to Annabelle who caught them with ease, sending the blonde a smile.

"That's what I'm talking about." She said as she draped her arm over Pope's shoulder. "You can be lookout."

The boy sighed in defeat before unwillingly following his friends as they all headed down the dock back to the boat.

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The group of friends watched the building in silence as they approached it slowly. Annabelle stared at the wreck that once looked decent but now looked more like something from a zombie movie.

"Geez and I thought the chateau looked bad," JJ said.

"This place is a shot show." John B commented as they closed up on the small dock where he planned to stop.

"Motel or meth lab?" Annabelle heard Kiara say.

"You be the judge," Pope replied jokingly.

"I'd prefer the second." Annabelle shrugged and JJ sent her a nod of agreement. The girl sat next to John B. behind the wheel with her wet hair in a bun.

"Doesn't look like a place somebody with a Grady- White stays."

"No. Looks like the place somebody with a Grady White would get killed." Annabelle added as she stood up, walking to the front of the boat as she and JJ prepared to dock the boat.

"This is your captain speaking," JJ said, putting on a fake radio voice. "HMS pouge comin' in for landing."

He and Annabelle sent each other a look of reassurance before the two skillfully and symmetrically pushed their feet off the boat, landing in front of it just as it collided with land. The two docked the docked the boat like they had many times before.

"We good?" John B asked earning a nod from the two of them.

"Alright, here goes nothing." Annabelle stood up straight before turning to walk to the motel leaving Pope and Kiara who volenrealy had called lookout duty. But the girl didn't make it a single step before JJ swiftly stood in her way.

"Hey, you're staying here." He stared at her with full seriousness making her scoff.

"No, I wanna go with you." She argued.

"JJ's right. It could be dangerous. Let the men handle it." John B taunted her and dramatically showed off his muscles along with a smolder on his face. JJ snickered before joining his actions, the two showed off their manly dignity. Annabelle rolled her eyes before placing a hand on each of their chests to shove them back.

"You're not going on a murder mystery without me." She protested.

"Am I gonna have to break your legs to get you back in that boat? Because I'm willing to." JJ said with a crooked smile.

"I'll kill you if you find a dead body without me." Annabelle crossed her arms as she sat back down in the boat knowing that both JJ and John B were too stubborn to even argue with.

"I'd like to see you try." The blonde said.

"That'll be the second time you try to kill me today, you know." John B snockered before the two boys saluted the girl.

"Bon appetite.. or whatever," JJ said.

"It's Bon Voyage," Annabelle muttered with annoyance, still bitter that she couldn't go.

"Hey!" Pope stopped the boys just as they had turned their backs on them. "Don't let him do anything stupid." He told John B as he pointed to the Maybank boy.

"Oh, we will," JJ said, leaning his foot against the boat.

"I can't make any promises."

"Yeah, I know," Pope said as he sat back down behind the wheel.

"Be careful," Kiara told John B who stood awfully close to her face, if you ask Annabelle. The black-haired haired frowned, seeing the long eye contact between her two friends as the Carrera girl handed the keys to the brunette.

"yeah," He smiled before slowly turning away. Their three friends that stood around them, stared in silent shock as the pair exchanged multiple flirty looks as the boy turned away.

Annabelle was forced to tear her gaze away from them at the sound of JJ snapping his fingers in the air in front of Pope's face. "Hey, keep an eye on this one while I'm gone, alright?" He said, referring to Annabelle. The girl cocked her head to the side at the comment.

"Oh, so we're babysitting me now?"

"Now? We've all been babysitting you since the third grade." He told her with a teasing glimpse in his eye. Annabelle flipped him her middle finger as he and John B turned on their heels, heading for the motel leaving the rest of their friends to stare as they disappeared out of sight and into one of the rooms on the second floor.

Once they were of earshot Annabelle shot her best friend a confused look to which she played dumb acting like she and John B didn't just drool after each other.

"What was that?" The James girl mouthed.

"What?" She shrugged to which Annabelle shot up from her seat, hurrying over to the opposite side of the boat, sinking down next to Kiara.

"You could cut the sexual tension in here with a knife." She whispered to make sure Pope didn't hear them. "Have you not heard of the no pouge on pouge making rule?! Girl, you literally came up with it."

But before Kiara had a chance to defend herself their attention shited to Pope as he shop up and whispered to the girls. "Hey, hey Cops!"

The two girls turned to see the blue and white police car that belonged to Deputy Shoupe.

"Shit." Annabelle cursed as the viechle parked by the motel.

"Call them," Pope said.

"I can't. Towers are down." Kiara told him, her voice revealing the panic she felt. The three of them slowly rose from the boat, trying to sneak out from it without being spotted.

"If I lose my merit scholarship because of this, I'm going to kill someone," Pope said as they emerged from the boat heading for the grassy open surface in front of the window to the room where their two best friends were currently in.

"If my dad finds out that I got in trouble with the cops again, I'll be that someone," Annabelle said.

"Maybe they're not heading up there?" Pope suggested but immediately regretted his words as the two cops began walking towards the staircase of the motel.

"They're going up." Panic began to crawl up Annabele's spine and she sprinted over to the grass bank hoping to get the boy's attention somehow. The blinds were closed making it impossible for them to see her from where she stood.

"Okay, do something," Kiara said making Pope and Annabelle look around for something to use. The boy picked up a rock and took a couple of steps back getting ready to throw it.

"Stand back." He warned them and the two girls immediately listened, stepping back as they prepared themselves to see the throw of a lifetime. But the rock that left Pope's hand didn't even make it more than three feet and it sure as hell didn't reach the top floor window.

Annabelle snatched her head in his direction. "Didn't you ever play baseball?" She frowned at his incompetence as she, herself got ready to throw her rock.

"I was on the math team!" Poep defended himself.

Annabelle threw small rocks at the window until she finally spotted John B's head peaking up in it.

"Cops! Cops!" The three friends cupped their hands to the sides of their mouths to warn the boys. John B stared at them for a moment of confusion before his eyes widened upon realizing what they were saying. Annabelle watched as his head disappeared out of sight before she glanced over to the two cops who were now standing on each side of the door leading into motel room 29.

"Move it," Annabelle whispered to Pope and Kiara waving her hand to signal that they had to get back to the boat before the cops noticed them. All three hurried back to the docked boat, falling down on each side of it. Annabelle adjusted the way she was sitting as if that was going to make them look less suspicious, sitting outside the wrecked motel.

"Should we peel?" Kiara asked from where she now sat behind the wheel. Annabelle snapped her head in the girl's direction as her words almost made her mad.

"No, you never leave a Pouge behind." She told her before turning her attention back to the two boys watching as the two cops fiddled with the keys to the motel room. She held her breath knowing that the boys were about to get caught at a crime scene and they were next. Her upper teeth dug into the inside of her lower lip.

"No, seriously should we peel?" Kiara asked once again.

"No fucking way," Annabelle said without tearing her gaze from the room. She could hear her heart's rapid beats thrumming in her ears as she prepared herself for the sight of her two best friends being escorted out of the room to the cop car a few feet away. Every second of not knowing what was happening in there felt like a plague.

Suddenly her eyes widened to their limits when the two boys climbed out the window shutting it just as the cops got the door open before standing on each side of it. She wasn't sure if she should feel relieved or horrified knowing that they did escape the cops but were now reliant on their grip on the stone.

"What the fuck," Annabelle said, petrified by the sight of her two best friends only inches away from falling to their death.

"What are you guys doing?!" Pope whispered a bit too loud, waving his hands in the air to which the two signalated for him to be quiet by placing their index finger to their mouths. Annabelle sent JJ a wide-eyed look making him give her an overly excited smile as if the situation wasn't about to give her a heart attack.

"Remind me why we're friends with these idiots?" Annabelle said

The black-haired girl noticed a black object that JJ had tugged into the waistband of his shorts. Before she had time to say anything about it the boy somehow managed to nudge it, making the gun leave its place in his pants falling to the ground, hitting the ground with a loud thud. The two boys immediately pressed themselves against the wall, clutching onto it for dear life.

"I'm gonna kill him," Annabelle said to herself moments before Deputy Shoupe's face appeared in the window making the girl swiftly turn back to her friends in an attempt to act innocent.

The man closed the blinds again and after a few moments, he and the other cop left the scene, driving off in the car. The two boys got down from their hiding and came at the rest of their friends, looking unnecessarily happy.

"You idiot!" Annabelle exclaimed as she rushed into JJ's embrace. The boy encircles her waist as Kiara and Pope ran to wrap their arms around John B. "I told you I should've come."

The two unraveled from the hug, their eyes lingering over each other for a moment before Annabelle turned to the other boy, sending him a scolding look before shoving her arms around his neck, jumping into an embrace.

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"You could have warned us, you know," JJ chuckled once they were back on the boat.

"We would have but unfortunately, Pope was on the math team." Annabelle send the boy a smile making JJ snicker at her comment.

"You were on the math team?" He asked sarcastically.

Annabelle leaned her back against the side of the boat, placing her head on Kiara's leg who sat next to her on the edge.

"The cops took everything like it was a crime scene." John B said with a more serious tone, changing the subject.

"Did you find anything?" Annabelle asked. Her eyes fixated on the blonde as he searched through his pockets, fiddling with two objects. Annabelle lifted her head from Kiara's leg as she waited for him to reveal his finds.

"Did we find anything? No, I don't think we did. Oh wait, yeah we did." He said sarcastically as he revealed a stack of hundred dollar bills and a gun like it was nothing. Like what he was holding in his hands wasn't just casually an illegal weapon and probably stolen money that he had just stolen from a crime scene. Annabelle's eyes shot wide open and within seconds she had joined Kiara in a stance.

"JJ, what the hell!" She exclaimed, rushing up to the blonde to hide the objects that he was now proudly presenting for his friends and anyone within eyeshot. The boy looked up at her with a smirk but Annabelle only sent him a glance back. "Why would you take that from a crime scene?" She said, looking around to make sure no one saw what was happening.

"Dude, what?" Kiara joined in.

Annabelle knew that JJ was dumb but this was stupid even for him.

"Better than the cops having it," JJ argued.

"You know, I'd feel much safer if they did than you, yes." She cocked her head to the side, throwing him a joking smile. "JJ, you'd shoot someone for touching your surfboard."

"Hey, relax, Bells. If I'm killing anyone, trust me you'll be last." He joked earning a laugh from John B making Annabelle fling her head around to face the brunnet who remained calm in his seat, looking almost unbothered with a smile on his lips.

"Are you serious? We told you specifically to not let him do anything stupid." The black haired stared at the boy whose face dropped at the scolding by her. He sat upright with his feet on the floor instead of resting on the helm, reminding Annabelle of a child being scolded by his mother.

"We're gonna go to jail." The girl sighed before JJ walked over to her, jokingly cooing at her to calm down. He wrapped his arm around her neck, standing disturbingly close as he, instead of his finger, used his metal glock to press against her lips. "Hey, shh, shh, shh."

"Get that thing out of my face before you blow my brains out." She pushed him off her, adjusting her bun back in its place.

"At least we'll be going to jail together." JJ smiled as if that would be anything good.

"I'm living the nightmare," Annabelle stated, staring up at the taller boy letting her gaze remain on him for a moment, watching as a slight grin appeared on his face before she shoved him off her once again with an eye roll. "At least let me have it." She said to which JJ tauntingly laughed.

"No way. You have even worse anger issues than I do."

𝟐𝟕𝟑𝟒 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬
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𝐀/𝐍
two chapters in one day!!
please tell me if u like this story and if u want me to continue w it