"SIERRA PEARL RAY." Shoupe let out his millionth sigh of the evening as he sat down in his old chair that squeaked every time the tiniest bit of pressure was put on it. A file was slapped onto the table while Sierra patiently waited for some sort of explanation for the interrogation. "Do you know why you're here, today?"

"Nope, besides the fact that I was found with a framed fugitive." Sierra shrugged simply while staring back at Shoupe, an annoyed but calm expression met the Sheriff's frustrated eyes.

"Have you spoken to your lawyer, Jeremy Felcher, in the past couple days? Has he shown any sign of suicidal tendencies or something like that in general?"

"Suicidal tendencies!?" Sierra sprang up from her slouched position at the words, "I think I would know and inform someone if my own lawyer had been thinking of suicide, and no, I haven't talk to him at all. He hasn't responded to messages either, but I just assumed that he was busy since he's a lawyer and all."

"Well, I hate to inform but Jeremy was found dead yesterday morning, he hung himself." Shoupe muttered quietly while staring down at the open girl sadly.

"W..What?" Sierra stuttered whith wide eyes, she swallowed thickly as a hand came up to cover her open mouth.

"Are you sure that Jeremy didn't express any signs, at all?" Shoupe pressed on while watching the girl silently panic, "Because if he did I need you to tell me."

"No, no, I swear." Sierra rapidly shook her. "How the hell is this even possible, he had a wife, a kid, he lived on Figure 8 and was living the best life anyone could ask how could he just fucking hang himself!"

"Not everyone expresses what they're truly feeling on the inside, and I guess Jeremy was just one of them, since you've spent your own personal money on this whole case the county has decided to donate back the you spent." Shoupe stood from the annoyingly squeaky chair and laid a hand on the young girls shoulder, "I'm sorry for your lost."

Sierra heard those words far to many times, it always left a bitter taste in her mouth, but a sense of Deja Vu filled her conscience as she imagined the young child loosing their father and being left to be raised by their mother. She knew that feeling all too well and god she despised it, but there really wasn't much the teenager could do despite constantly wanting to do more. It seems as the thats been the case with the past few days, hoping to do more when you know you can't. Sierra stood from the seat walked out the room without another word, she just wanted to get away, as far as she possibly could.

Was she cursed like the stupid compass?

—

Of all the people Sierra thought would go to jail, JJ was at the top of her list, I mean, he already has anyway, but he'd definitely get a couple years for vandalizing a Kooks backyard or something. It constantly stressed Sierra out every time he went off and did something stupid. What she didn't expect was for a day in the OBX to look gloomy while she sat in a courtroom with tired eyes, and as John Booker Routledge stood before the judge with the orange jumpsuit and handcuffs tightly gripping his wrist.

Sierra sat with her hands tightly clasped together, her eyes constantly flickering to look at different details within the court just so she could gain a some-what calm demeanor. Once the gavel struck down on the wooden block Sierra's attention immediately flew forward to look at the judge.

"John Booker Routledge, pursuant to the North Carolina statues section fourteen, you are charged with murder in the first degree with aggravated circumstances." The older woman listed, anyone who truly knew John would've been shocked at the accusations, but within that courtroom everybody just glared at the man who supposedly killed Sheriff Peterkin. "If convicted, the maximum sentence would be the dealt penalty."

The once quiet courtroom flooded with different voice of both anger and joy, Sierra couldn't disfigure whether the ringing in her ear was real or in her head. Her eyes watered as JJ stood up, the tight grip on her hand letting  go as it flew up in anger. "Your honor, he's seventeen! He's seventeen, are you kidding me?"

Pope had lightly nudge Sierra shoulder to break her from the trance, her blurry vision that faces the floor came up to look at the raging blonde. She stood afterwards and took a last glance at the boy she called her brother. "JJ, let's go." Pope tugged the boys arm to finally pull him out the court along with the rest of the crowd, an exhausted and worn out Sarah hooked onto Sierra's arm. The young Pirate had begun to worry for her best friend as she noticed the deep dark circles that laid under her once bright eyes. It seemed as though a frown was permanently engraved onto her mouth, she only spoke in a low tone and whisper, not finding enough strength to be any louder. The rare moment Sarah did voice out was to whimper and cry out John B's name as they took him away in handcuffs, only look at him for the last time.

"Is this a joke? Are we in hell or..?" Kiara scoffed.

"I should have never come home." The blonde mumbled, exiting the court room along with the rest of the large crowd. Half of the people didn't even know what was fully going on, all they wanted to do was point fingers and watch as an innocent teenager gets convicted for a false crimes

"They're gonna kill him, guys, I know it." JJ grumbled out, still fuming like a bull headed straight towards the waving, red cape.

"Sorry for what you and your family have gone through." A clueless, ignorant man spoke towards Ward. "Thank god the system works."

Kiara whipped her head towards the direct of the voice and scrunched her face up in complete fury, "Can you please shut up? Of course you think the system worked because it was made to protect you and people like you!"

"He'll have his day in court, a jury will decide." Wards lawyer defended, already looking away before Kiara took a small step towards them, her voice raising.

"He shouldn't even be in court! You should, 'cause you're a murderer!" The teen accusingly pointed a finger at Ward, "You've done nothing but ruin the lives of my friends! You have a lot of nerve showing up to court."

"I know you're upset, I understand you're upset, okay?" Ward extended out an arm to calm Kiara but his words added fuel to the fire.

"Upset?"

"I know he's got you fooled, he's got you all fooled!"

"Oh hell no!"

"No, I'm not just upset!" Both Kiara Ms Sierra had began to lunge towards the older man before the cops and the friend group pulled them away.

"Show some respect!" Chaos has ensued with the crowd watching the whole thing, the Pogue's defending each other, the cops lecturing, and Ward being a complete asshole from a distance. Fucking pussy.

"Why don't you take the Kooks down for a change?" JJ argued towards the sheriff as he glared back at the troublesome teen.

"You wanna get arrested? Get out, you need to go!"

"This is bullshit."

"Complete, utter bullshit."

Sarah's quiet voice had whispered towards the two girls making them begin to leave, but of course, as soon as s their back was turned more people had to go off and say the dumbest shit.

"It's not a coincidence that your daughter's sitting with us!"

—

"I gonna testify, under oath." Sarah spoke up, her voice being the only thing that spoke over the loud pitter-patter of the rain. "I was there! I just need to get a hold of my sister."

"Sister?"

"Kie, do you have your phone? Wheezie is the only other person that knows Rafe wasnt home that day."

"Wheezie?"

"She was the girl who answered the door that day we went to clean my clothes." Sierra whispered towards JJ as the realization struck his soft features, his lips falling into a large O.

"Ohhh, that day me and you did that thing in the sh-" He began to recall a little to loud as Sierra elbowed his ribs causing him to groan and curse lowly.

"Continue." Sierra cleared her throat as Sarah tossed a brow towards them.

"Ok, well, I got into this mess." Sarah began once again, "I'm gonna do my best to get us out."

"Wheezie? Yeah, that'll work." JJ scoffed. "Well, she's right about one thing, we gotta do something. Our boy is a PO-dub right now, he's held captive by the enemy right now, maybe even scheduled for execution, are we just gonna sit here!?"

"What's the plan? We start by kidnapping Shoupe?" Kiara rhetorically asked knowing the the blonde would recommend that kind of horrible idea.

"Maybe, like, that's not the worst idea actually."

"JJ that's the worst fucking idea, we'd get arrested and end up as worse as JB!" Sierra shouted, trying to get the point further in his brain.

"Okay, don't fucking yell at me!"

"Well then stop coming up and agreeing with stupid ass ideas!"

"I will admit, that is one of the worst plans I've ever heard."

"It's pretty bad."

"You know, please, just stay out of this!" JJ blocked out the blonde who was dialing in the number to her sister.

"Don't treat Sarah like that, Jay! She's part of this too!" Sierra scolded loudly as JJ sighed loudly.

"Okay, okay, fine! Jesus, just please stop yelling at me!" Sierra took a deep breath out and dropped her tense shoulders, silencing herself. "Okay, Pope, look, we've been doing everything your way and how's that been working out."

"Okay, okay, so what's your plan? You gonna storm a jail, guns a-blazing?" Pope stood from his seat, towering over JJ's sitting figure.

"Look, Pope, all I'm trying to get you to understand is they for our boy. Are we just gonna sit here and do nothing? No, we're gonna go get his ass, we're gonna do something about it!" JJ mind was made up, he was going to break John out of jail, one way or another.

"JJ, I'm gonna need you to be so fucking for real with me right now." Sierra pinched the bridge of her nose, her brows furrowing in frustration. "Storming a jail? Breaking JB out like some GTA shit? Not fucking happening."

"Fine! Then go sit on your comfy throne, and do nothing, I'm gonna see what I can do, even if I have to do it myself." He spat angrily towards her as Sierra rolled her eyes.

"You're going to get yourself killed, Jay!"

"So what? I'd sacrifice everything for John B, and if you want to sit on your ass, not helping for shit, then be my guest." He shoved his hat onto his his messy mop of hair. Sierra reached out a hand to his tense shoulders to which he simply shrugged off, boots trudging off the patio.

"Oh, okay, then don't come boo-hooing to me when this plan doesn't work out!" Sierra shouted out before the boy slammed the door shut. "Dickhead." She stomped back into the house, throwing herself into the bed that JJ and her usually shared when they slept over. She didn't want to cry, but the shouting just reminded her too much of her past, the past she wanted to leave behind. Quickly, Sierra wiped the tears and pulled out a book from the bedside, she wasn't going to cry, it was bullshit. Let JJ learn.

NAT SPEAKS:
Hiii! It's been a while, again...ik this is short but I wanted to leave at least a lil some some, love y'all smmm . And to get a sneak peek, I may release a pt 2 to Glitter called She! MWAH MWAH take care of yourselves my lovelies

—XOXO, nataly