HURRICANE AGATHA had been something none of us were expecting. It wasn't that we didn't see storms often — we were no stranger to them — but she had been grossly unpredicted. A hurricane that wasn't even supposed to be a hurricane by the time it made landfall, that's what they reported yet she came in at full force as a category three. She saw my dad and I rushing down to the dock in between John B and I's house to tie my dad's boat down even more in fear that she would wipe it away. She'd done plenty of damage and that was only from what I could see out of my bedroom window this morning.

It was around three in the morning when the eye of the storm hit us and the reason I knew was because I heard the loud echo of a train passing. That's what it sounded like when you were in the eye of a storm and it had took some time for me to calm myself back to sleep.

I wasn't that scared of hurricanes or tropical storms but I was always apprehensive when we reached the eye. I never knew what would happen.

I woke up covered in sweat, my room like a heat magnet despite my open window and I climbed out of bed to check the air conditioning in my room. The monitor was off, the screen blank and out of curiosity I flicked my light switch next to it while looking to my light.

"No power." I mumbled.

So it was time to crack the battery powered fans out.

I opened my bedroom door, wiping the sweat off the brow of my head away with my forearm and I treaded into my house, "Dad? Where you at?"

"Kitchen." He responded and just as I turned the corner I saw him standing behind the island, John B and JJ opposite him.

I frowned seeing my two friends and yawned as I eyed them suspiciously, "What are you doing here?"

"Yeah, mornin'." John B smiled at me sarcastically.

"I saw them outside this morning." My dad said, "Called them over, wanted to make sure they were holding up after the hurricane."

I nodded and walked over to the pantry, grabbing a box of cereal and taking it over to the counter. I leaned on the side and stuck my hand into the box, grabbing a handful of Cheerios and putting them in my mouth before saying, "What's the damage?"

"Besides the no power?" My dad asked me, "The big tree between here and the chateau is down. We lost a couple of slabs from the porch roof and there's a leak in the living room ceiling there."

I looked over to where he was pointing and saw a bucket on the floor collecting the water.

I nodded once, "That's nice."

"Nothing I can't fix, kiddo. We'll just be stuck using gas lamps for a while." My dad responded.

If the power was out here it would be out across the entire island as well and it would be for some time — especially on the Cut — given how much damage Agatha had done. All of Figure Eight would have power by tonight though, guaranteed, with all their backup generators. As always with no power came no cell service but it wasn't like I used my phone much anyways. The only reasons I used it was to call my mom every once in a while to check in or text the group chat to see where everyone was but we mainly used that in school.

The upside of the hurricane though — the one that only a few ever saw — was that the storm surge created by Agatha would've pushed all the crabs out on the marsh maze.. and where there was crabs there was fish.

I turned to my two friends and rose my brow, "So how did you two idiots not die in the chateau, huh? I can't recall you doing any hurricane prep whatsoever."

"Oh, I did my prep." JJ quipped with a grin.

I widened my eyes at him in a way he would catch on and discretely nodded in the direction of my dad. I didn't need him knowing the that we got high in our spare time, as far as dads go mine was pretty chilled out but I could imagine he'd have something to say about his daughter and her two best friends of eight years getting high.

My dad turned to JJ with an interested brow raised, as if he had an inkling of what he was talking about and he asked, "What did you do, JJ?"

"Oh, you know." He scratched the back of his neck and I resisted the urge to smack my head off the counter top, "Put some extra food down for the rooster and some covering on the cage."

My dad nodded once, not the tiniest bit convinced before he glanced to me, "All right, I gotta shoot but I'll see you later."

He pressed a kiss to my temple and I smiled at him, "Bye, dad."

"See you later sweetheart. John B, JJ."

JJ pouted, faking disappointment, "For a minute I thought you were calling me sweetheart."

My dad chuckled in amusement as he picked up his bag before the front door. He turned back to the three of us, his hand on the handle, "You wish, son. Don't you three be going and getting into any trouble today, you hear me?"

"Loud and clear, Mr. R." John B nodded.

JJ stood straight and saluted him, "Yes, sir."

"Make sure you catch some fish today." He told us before he left through the door, closing it behind him. My dad was off on his job fixing up the island like he always did after a storm or a hurricane. He leant a hand to the those who needed it the most out of the goodness of his heart, he hardly ever took money from anyone who offered it when it came down to his fixing and rebuilding abilities.

I turned to John B with a confused expression after he had gone and furrowed my brows, "I don't get why you call him Mr. R. Just call him Rob, it's his name."

"Mr. R sounds better." He told me as if it were obvious, "And it's certainly better than calling him Mr. D."

JJ snorted in amusement and I rolled my eyes, "Oh god you two are so immature it's painful." I groaned.

"Shut up." JJ said to me jokingly as he leaned on the counter, "Also, you look like shit."

"Well don't you know how to flatter a girl." I said to him through gritted teeth, glaring at him. I was well aware of the dark bags underneath my eyes and the state of my hair. I didn't need him pointing the obvious out to me when I'd only had a little amount of sleep again. The hurricane didn't help either, when I was finally able to get to sleep it hit us and the loud wind speeds kept me awake, "It's called Insomnia JJ, ever heard of it?" I asked him bluntly.

"No." He shrugged nonchalantly, "No can't say I have."

I narrowed my eyes at him, "I hate you." 

He winked at me in response with a cheeky grin as John B leaned on my kitchen counter, "Storm keep you up?"

"No." I shook my head, "My body's inability to sleep did."

"All right, all right." He responded, holding his hands in surrender, "You can sleep on the boat, c'mon bubba."

"I have to change first." I told him.

JJ frowned in confusion and looked at me, "What's wrong with what you're wearing? I like that."

I looked down to my cotton shorts and strappy vest top and back up to them and signed, "These are my pyjamas."

"Yeah, they're fine." JJ told me as he walked over to me. He grasped the material of the bottom of my top in his hands and nodded, "Thin, short— not to mention it looks incredibly hot on you."

I put my hands on his chest and shoved him backwards lightly while glaring at him. My short temper only seemed to humour him further and he sniggered as he grinned at me.

"All right, let's not get into a fight in the middle of the kitchen." John B stepped in the mediate, "Mal, go get changed. We'll wait for you on the HMS."

It didn't take me long to get ready given I'd had time to plan out my outfit in my head when I couldn't sleep last night. All I had to do was change, brush my teeth and throw my hair up into a messy ponytail to keep it out of my face. I didn't need to pack a bag today because I had nothing to take with me besides my sunglasses that I put on my head. I had probably only been keeping my two friends waiting five minutes tops but they both complained about how long I'd taken when I walked over to the boat.

I ignored their complaints as I helped them drag the HMS Pogue out on to the marsh, avoiding getting into the marsh with my shoes on and took JJ's hand of offering to climb into the boat. We headed for the marina in the hopes of tracking down our brainiac best friend, John B in the captains chair as he drove the familiar route on the water to get to our destination.

I sat down on the edge of the port and brought my sunglasses down over my eyes as the sun shone brightly, a harsh glare out on the water that almost blinded me. The three of us sat in silence as we passed the houses on the edge of the Cut, surveying the damage that had been caused by the hurricane that had graced us.

The damage was minimal in some areas, in fact you wouldn't even know we'd been hit by a hurricane but the further you got into the middle of the island and towards the marina was where you saw the damage.

It didn't look too clever, the damage was clear and Agatha certainly hadn't gone easy on us as a whole. The marina was a total mess — rubbish scattered all over the place in and out of the water. It was horrible to see because the water was normally otherwise clean and I could imagine this was going to take some cleaning. There was fallen debris — bits of flimsy wood that hadn't survived the storm — all over the wooden docks haven fallen from the shops on the shoreline. In the water several boats had capsized having been blown forcefully into each other due to the high speed winds we'd experienced. The damage was unprecedented — I'd never seen remnants like this before.

"Oh man, look at his place." I mumbled to myself in despair while JJ whistled lowly.

"Agatha, what did you do?" He asked rhetorically.

It was painful to see the place you lived appear so destroyed. I knew how hard everyone on the Cut worked to keep everything nice and now all of their hard work had been wrecked overnight. What made it worse was that if this was Figure Eight it would be fixed up before night fell — here, it was going to be at least two weeks.

John B looked around as he steered us into the marina, "She is a crazy lady."

"Hard-core dude." JJ said, "Hurricane surge."

"Yeah." My friend nodded.

"This is a mess." I muttered as I looked to them both.

"I know." JJ agreed with a grimace, "We're gonna be cleaning this all summer."

"That is my nightmare." John B said then in response and we pulled up by the dock Pope's dad owned. Heyward's appeared to be in a pretty decent condition compared to other businesses on the marina. They seemed to have gotten by with not much damage.

I spotted our friend we were in search of, knowing he'd most likely be out here with his dad and I saw him hosing the wooden floor of the dock down. He was standing next to a capitalised sign that read 'bring it on Aggie you bitch'.

"Well, well, well." I chimed, "Look who it is boys."

Pope picked his head up as he followed the sound of my voice. I smiled at him as I met his eyes, giving him as small wave as JJ whooped from behind me. He walked over to the side of the boat as we drew closer towards Heywards dock and he placed his hands on my shoulders while leaning over me.

John B covered his mouth partly from the side of us, turning into his shoulder, "We have a safety meeting." He announced, pretending to talk into a radio, "Attendance mandatory." He added before he mimicked a static sound.

"I can't." Pope told us as he turned the hosepipe off, "My pop's got me on lockdown."

"Come on man." JJ said and he copied John B with the radio jig, "Your dad's a pussy. Over."

"Oh, I heard that you little bastard." The four of us turned to see the legendary man himself. Heyward was dressed in the quintessential Cut attire — an old work tee and a pair of shorts with his shop pinafore on. He walked out from the back of his store with a broom in his hand as he eyed the three of us in the boat.

I felt JJ nudge me in the back with his knee, his way of telling me that I was up and I smiled broadly, "Mornin' Mr. Heyward. You're looking good today, have you lost a couple pounds? Cut your hair maybe?"

"Now don't you go tryin' to butter me up Mally." He said to me with a raised brow as he pointed the edge of the broom towards me, "I know you girl."

I rose my hands in surrender and smiled, "You caught me, Sir."

"We need your son." John B tried after my failed attempt. We hoped his blunt and truthful words would convince Heyward into letting Pope tag along with us today. After all, there was a slim chance Heywards would be opening today. They'd just be cleaning up with shop after the hurricane.

"Yeah." JJ aided with a nod, "And island rules.. day after a hurricane is a free day."

"Who the hell made that up?" Heyward asked us as he scoffed.

"Uh..." JJ stuttered, "Pentagon, I think. We have security clearance — I have a card."

I snorted and looked up to JJ as he continued to lean over me, "Yeah, nice try."

He glanced down at me and sneered jokingly before smiling, "Yeah? Better than your attempt."

"Y'all think I'm stupid." Heyward said to the three of us then, drawing my attention away from JJ and back to him.

Pope turned to his dad, unleashing the pleading eyes, "Dad I'll do it tomorrow. I promise."

Heyward looked to his son with wide eyes, "You think—"

"—I'll do it tomorrow." Pope repeated as he begged.

"No, no. Hell no. You doin' it right now." His dad argued.

Pope turned to the three of us for help and I rose my brow at him silently, crossing my arms lightly over my chest, "Get in the boat." John B whispered to him.

"Make a run for it dude." JJ said lowly.

"We haven't got all day." I added as the boat continued to pass slowly passed the dock. Pope had less than a minute before we'd of passed entirely and then he'd be chasing us down the marina to try and get in.

I watched as Pope contemplated it before he dropped the hose pipe to the floor, running across the dock.

"Boy, if you get in that boat—" Heyward warned him as Pope jumped off the dock, his feet landing in the HMS safely as he defied his dad.

"Yeah, how does that feel?" JJ asked him proudly, clapping his shoulder.

"Go, go, go." Pope urged John B quickly as his dad walked towards the edge of the dock.

"Bring your ass back up here." Heyward demanded just as John B pushed on the throttle and turned the steering wheel.

"I promise I'll do it tomorrow, dad." Pope called back to his dad as we steered away.

"Wooo!" JJ cheered, swinging a rope in the air as we left.

"When you get back your gonna clean shrimp, your gonna clean dish—"

"—Love you, pops." Pope interrupted his dad but he continued to shout after us.

"You'll clean your dirty-ass room!"

"We'll bring him back in one piece." John B shouted back.

"Yeah, we promise." I yelled to him, "We'll even bring you back some fish!"

"I don't like your friends!" Heyward called in annoyance.

"Bye!" JJ hollered.

I cupped my hands over my mouth to shout back across the water, "We love you Heyward!"

If the man replied we didn't hear him as the revving of the HMS' engine became too loud. We left the marina, circling back on ourselves to head over towards the posh side of the island. The four of us headed out of pick up our last friend, hoping she would be ready.

JJ walked away from me, still smiling in amusement, and over towards John B as Pope sat down on the side of the boat next to me with a smile. I bumped my fist on the top of his before changing to the bottom and then clapping his hand in our handshake before he spoke, "Mornin' Mal."

"Same to you Pope." I smiled, looking out across the bay as we reached Figure Eight territory. Kiara lived close to the border — as we called it — between the Cut and Figure Eight which was pretty convenient if we were coming from the marina as we didn't have to traipse across the whole island.

"How's that stuff off my dad working out for you?" He asked me curiously.

"Oh you mean the tea?" I asked him then as I raised my brows.

"Yeah, that." He nodded, "Wait—I thought it was herbs or something."

I shook my head, "It's herbal tea."

"It's all the same."

I shook my head in amusement before I said, "I haven't really given it much chance to notice a difference yet. I only started taking it a few nights ago."

So, as it turns out, my dad and I learned just the other week that Heyward could get his hands on the Chamomile tea I used to drink when I was first diagnosed with insomnia. I told you the man was a legend, he could get anything for anyone and I had absolutely no idea how he managed it. The bonus of it all was that he could get it for more than half the price my dad and I were originally paying for it. So now not only did we have the bottle my mom had to buy at full price, we had the bottle we'd gotten from Heyward at half price and it was the exact same thing.

"Oh well." Pope nodded before he nudged my arm lightly, "I hope it does the trick."

"Yeah." I nodded with a small chuckle, "That makes two of us."

It wasn't long after that did we reach the dock belonging to the Carrera family attached to the back yard of their massively oversized house. Kie must've seen us coming down because she was half way up the dock when we approached and John B slowed the speed of the boat down. Our friend was dressed in a baggy overshirt and a pair of acid wash denim shorts. She had her bag pack on her back and in her hands a sight for sore eyes.

I gasped in delight, my eyes widening seeing the red cooler box she carried, "Oh, Kiara, my saviour."

"Yeah, yeah." She smiled at me, "Don't you forget it."

"Top o' the mornin' to ya." JJ greeted her cheerily as he held his hand out for her to take, aiding her our little vessel.

"Shut up you moron, you can't speak Irish." I said to JJ in amusement with a laugh.

"Mornin' boys." Kie greeted, "Mal."

I nodded in greeting, eyeing up the cooler box, "What you got in the box there?"

"You got some juice boxes?" Pope asked her with a grin.

"Oh you know." Kie smiled in response, "Just some yogurts, some carrot sticks."

"What about mine and Mal's sort of juice boxes?" JJ asked her then, helping her into the boat.

"Yeah." She nodded and as soon as she sat down on the boat we cracked the lid on the cooler and grabbed the beers. JJ opened mine with his bottle opener before passing it to me and the five of us clinked glasses while toasting, "Salud." JJ said then, grinning as he looked to us all and John B steered the boat out into the marsh.

I smiled, tipping the cool beer down my throat and swallowing the bitter tasting alcohol. The sun pounded down nicely on us and I put my sun glasses over my eyes. Yes, today was going to be a good one.

• • •

I had cleared my first beer down before we'd made it out on to the marsh — which took us less than five minutes — after toasting to hurricane Agatha with JJ. The beauty of the beer situation was we had plenty to last us the day. Kiara had borrowed at least a crate full from The Wreck — her dads restaurant. She'd also taken a bit of food from the store cupboards too but it wasn't like it was a first time thing. Whenever we went out on to the marsh for the day, or did anything, we often took it in turns to supply the food and drink. I'd supplied the alcohol the other day when we we were out at Figure Eight and at Tommy's party and now it was Kiara's turn.

She often borrowed the food and drink from the restaurant, in fact she did it pretty much all the time. Either her dad knew about it and didn't say anything about it or he was just plain oblivious because she didn't take little and often. She burned a hole through the store cupboards sometimes.

I took my loose over shirt off before I reached for my second beer and stowed it away in my bag for safe keeping. I didn't want any dodgy tan lines today so sitting in my bikini top would do the trick. I'd enlisted the help of JJ in putting sunscreen on my back to prevent me from burning and I'd gotten Kie to watch him do it to be sure he didn't draw anything on my back with the cream. I didn't trust him not to after what he'd done to John B last year drawing a rather detailed sketch of a boys manhood on his back. Of course John B burnt that day and he had to wear a top for eight days straight before the sunburn disappeared.

I'd taken a seat at the bow of the boat, laughing and joking with my friends — having the summer we planned — while we found a good spot on the marsh to fish. It was what I loved about being a Pogue, how you could live so freely without being judged by rich middle aged men and women. I couldn't imagine life outside of the Cut — the Pogue life — Kook life just wasn't for me.. I'd been there and I'd tried and granted I was young but I didn't like it.

It was too formal, to nicey nice and way to conservative. There was no enjoyment to it, no adrenaline rush when you got caught on private land or when you're running from a security guard. It was just bragging about what you had and trying to one up your neighbour, hanging around with people your age who weren't really interested in you at all.

My dad was a Pogue born and raised but he fell in love and he was willing to do anything to prove himself and he did. He dropped everything and converted to the Kook life but when his marriage failed and he had to move back to the Cut he had no one. His old friends weren't interested in him anymore. He had to start fresh — we started fresh. That was when he met Big John, thus kickstarting John B and I's friendship.

I might've been born on Figure Eight but I was not a Kook.

"Hey, I bet you can't do this." JJ said to us with a grin, "I'm gonna show you all a party trick."

"Oh god, here we go." I said as he stepped towards me at the edge of the boat.

"Shut up Mally, it's your favourite." He grinned at me.

I rolled my eyes, "I doubt it is."

"Hey, Pope, can you go a little faster please?" JJ asked. He stood on the ledge of the bow where I was perching as the boat picked up it's pace.

"God, here we go. I'm movin'." Pope said.

"It doesn't work." John B shook his head, "We've tried this like 6,000 times."

"I got this." JJ told us confidently, "It's gonna work!"

I chucked in amusement under my breath, "Ten says it doesn't."

JJ turned to me with a mischievous glimmer, "You, Mally Davis, have yourself a deal."

He lifted the bottle up and tipped it to pour the beer into his mouth.. except it went everywhere but in his mouth. The beer splashed all over his face, down his neck and chest and even splattered on to me.

"You're getting beer in my hair!" Kie laughed.

"Oh, my god." Pope said, "All right. All right."

"All right, you're done." John B told JJ but he carried on, spraying us all with the alcohol.

I shook my head and stood up, reaching for his beer, "JJ, seriously all you're doing is wasting good beer."

"All right, stop!" Pope tried but he continued to ignore us.

The motor of the boat rattled and I found myself hurdling off the boat, landing straight into the marsh and going under the water. I choked on my breath once I hit the water, shocked at the sudden fall and I quickly tried to kick up towards the surface again to take a breath.

The boat must've gotten caught in something for it to stop so suddenly.

I resurfaced spitting the salty water out of my mouth while treading, "What the hell?"

"Are you guys alright?" John B asked.

"I think my heels touched the back of my head." JJ groaned as he resurfaced, floating on his back.

"Yeah well, serves you right." I said to him.

"Thank you Mal." He replied sarcastically before opening his eyes and looking over in my direction, "You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah." I nodded, treading in the water, "I'm fine, but you owe me ten bucks."

He nodded, "Pope, what did you do?"

"Sandbar." Pope told us, "The channel changed."

"No shit." JJ responded, swimming over to me.

"Ugh, this is probably gonna mess this whole place up." John B groaned.

"It better not." I said, "The only reason my dad let me out with you two bozos in the first place was because we were supposed to be fishing."

JJ reached me and shrugged, "I saved the beer though."

With an annoyed expression I splashed him with water to convey my dismay but in response he put his hand on my head and dunked me. I barely had the time to hold my breath so when I resurfaced again I gasped, opening my eyes as water dripped down my face, "What the hell, JJ?" I asked, hitting his chest, "Are you trying to kill me?"

"Oh come on." He said to me, "It was funny."

Kie came to the side of the boat with two towels and dropped them there for us but I was too busy arguing with JJ to get out of the water just yet.

"You dunked me!" I argued.

He scoffed, "So?"

"So." I repeated incredulously, "It wasn't funny."

"It wasn't funny was it?" JJ arched a brow.

I got closer to him, "Tell you what, how about I dunk you, huh?" I asked and I put my hand on top of his head, pushing him down into the water and making sure to submerge the beer with him.

Before I let him come back up I felt him grab on to my hand and he tugged me downwards, pulling me under for the third time. I opened my eyes under the water to see him grinning at me and I quickly swam upwards, ready to argue again.

"Hey— hey, guys." Pope said once we resurfaced and I looked up to him, "I think there's a boat down there."

"Shut up." John B said in disbelief.

"No way." I heard Kie disagree.

"No, no guys I'm serious." Pope said, "There's a boat down there."

I looked up to Pope, "For real?"

"I swear. There's a boat down there." I watched as John B and Kie walked over to Pope, looking into the water I was treading in, "A boat." Pope pointed, his tone high pitched.

"Holy shit, he's right." Kie said, walking away quickly.

I looked at the water in shock, "Seriously?"

"Here." JJ passed me and I followed him as he swam further away from John B's boat as the other three jumped in after us.

"How did we not see it?" I asked JJ.

He shrugged, "No idea."

Once we were all in and surrounding the boat we dived under, kicking down and I opened my eyes. Low and behold there was a boat. I didn't know what I was expecting, maybe for it to not be there but I was definitely confused.

JJ and I should've seen it surely? Maybe not when we were dunking each other but maybe when we first hit the water. I fell of the side off the boat but JJ fell right off the middle, he would've hit it right?

We swam back to the surface at the same time and JJ gasped, "You guys saw that right?"

I pushed my hand over my hair, smoothing it out of my face, "Yeah, I saw it."

"Yeah." John B nodded, "What the—"

They laughed in disbelief, "That's a Grady-White." JJ told us, "A new one of those is like 500 Gs, easy."

"What's someone doing sinking a boat like that?" I asked as we started swimming back to the HMS.

"Maybe it went under with the hurricane?" Kie asked as we climbed out the boat.

"That's a primo rig." JJ told us. He knew everything about boats, it was almost like he was an expert.

"That's the boat I saw when I surfed the surge." John B told us, "Maybe it hit the jetty or something."

"You surfed the surge?" Kiara asked.

"Yeah."

"That's my boy." JJ laughed, "Pogue style."

I ran the towel through my hair and shook my head, "I can't believe you surfed the surge and didn't invite me."

John B shrugged, "Sorry Mal."

"Wait, wait." Pope said, "Do we know whose boat that is?"

"No." John B said, flipping the hatch and opening the small door to the cargo hold under the deck, "But we're about to find out."

"Dude it's too deep." JJ told him and I walked to the edge of the boat, standing next to him and peering over the edge.

"Hmm, I don't know John B." I said to him.

JJ grabbed my arms and jolted me forwards towards the water and I shrieked. I grabbed his arms as he pretended to push me overboard, my heart thumping against my ribs with the sudden shock. He grinned in amusement as he steadied me on the edge of the boat, wrapping my arms around my stomach and I exhaled while shaking my head.

I turned my head to glare at him as he grinned at me mischievously, dipping his chin into my bare shoulder, "JJ." I muttered.

"I'm sorry." He chucked, "I couldn't resist."

"You're a moron."

I heard clattering and before JJ could reply to me I turned my head to see John B pulling the anchor out onto the deck. I furrowed my brows as I looked at my friend as I shrugged JJ's arms off of me, "Uh, JB, what are you doing?"

"JJ said it was too deep." He told me, "This way I'll get down."

"No way." JJ shook his head in disbelief. I think we were both quite shocked that John B would actually cling to the anchor to get down to the boat. It definitely wasn't his smartest idea.

"Oh, for the weak and feeble, JJ." John B replied as he stood up.

"Well I'm not resuscitating you." JJ said from besides me nonchalantly, "I'm just making that clear up front."

"That's fine." He picked up the anchor and held it to his chest.

Kie watched him apprehensively, "John B."

He chuckled in amusement as he looked over at her, "What?"

I rose my brows and shook my head. John B really was playing the fearless card, whether this idea was going to work or not we were about to find out.

"Diver down, fool." Pope said, mock saluting him.

John B signed and saluted back, "Diver down."

JJ stepped forwards from my side, "Yeah he is." He pushed John B, knocking him off the side of the boat and into the water, the splash echoing as he hit and the water cascading into the air after his fall.

I kneeled down on the bow, leaning over the edge of the boat as JJ, Pope and Kie kneeled down next to me. We watched the water anxiously for any sign of John B, every passing second felt like an hour and Pope turned to me, "Should we go get him?"

And just then he resurfaced, coughing while wiping his eyes to get rid of the water.

"Oh, my god. That took forever." Kie said in relief.

"Any dead bodies?" Pope asked.

JJ got to his feet, "Looting potential?"

I shook my head, of course all he was interested in was looting the boat.

"No, no." John B told us, "I found this motel key."

"You found a key?" I deadpanned.

"Yes, a key, Mally." He replied as JJ pulled the anchor out of the water.

I stood up and shook my head, holding my hands in surrender. All that for a key?

"Great." JJ said sarcastically, "We salvaged a motel key."

Pope walked to the engine and turned it over, the boat roaring to life again and we passed the sunken boat while picking up the speed. Pope drove through the marsh, looking for a fishing spot while we dried off in the breeze.

"Guys, we should report the wreck to the coast guard." Kie suggested, "Maybe we'll get a finders fee."

"Yeah and not work all summer." JJ said, "Thanks, Agatha, ya batch."

"Yeah, I hardly doubt we'd get a finders fee." I deadpanned, looking to my friends as I sat down on the chair and kicked my legs up on to the controls as Pope stood in front of me and drove.

"So coast guards it is." He nodded, veering off down the marsh and back towards the Docks.

• • •

We didn't get a finders fee. In fact, we didn't even get a conversation out of the coast guard because it was absolutely chaos in there. The place was the busiest I'd even seen it, every man and his dog was in there. They were reporting damage, complaining about the power shortage, having a bitch about the storm or arguing over anything and everything. There was absolutely no way we were going to get anything out of the coast guards today.

John B, JJ and I walked out of the tent and regrouped outside while I scolded JJ for stealing a pen from behind the desk. He didn't really care for what he'd done and we fired at each other back and forth in hushed whispers until Pope caught our attention, clearing his throat loudly.

Our friend crossed his arms over his chest and rose his brow, "Well?"

I sighed in disappointment and put my hands on to my hips as I turned to face him, "What did I say to you all on the marsh?"

"You said we weren't going to get a finders fee." JJ pointed at me then.

"Did we?" I asked him incredulously, my eyes widening, "Did we get a finders fee? Do you see money in our hands right now?" 

He rolled his eyes, "Well, no—"

"Exactly." I replied shortly, "Not only did the coast guard completely ignore you both but we didn't get a finders fee."

"So now what?" Kie asked the four of us, looking around for any ideas or suggestions.

Pope nodded in agreement with her, seemingly waiting on John B, JJ or I to come up with something, "Yeah, what's the plan?"

JJ slung his arm over John B's shoulder and looked to him as our friend pulled the motel key out of his pocket. He shook it with a knowing grin and said, "I know how we're gonna find the guy who owns that boat."

"No, no." Pope declined almost immediately, "We don't know who's room that is. It could be anyone."

JJ snatched the key out of John B's hand and tossed it to me while saying, "I'm in."

I caught the key in my hand and nodded, falling in step with JJ as he walked back to the boat, "We've got nothing better to do."

"Come on." Kie convinced Pope as she followed JJ and I, "I'll be lookout."

"Finders fee." John B reminded, "And, hey, at least you'll only be an accomplice."

"Ah, we love being the accomplice." I sighed, the sun shifting into the later side of the day as it passed mid afternoon. All this time we'd been out on the marsh and I hadn't caught a single fish. My dad was surely going to kill me when I got home later on.

JJ slung his arm around my shoulder though and he distracted me from my thoughts and I turned my head to see him grinning at me. He dipped his head lower to mine, our noses mere inches apart and his eyes glimmered mischievously as he said, "Nothing better than being the accomplice."

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