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𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗘𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧𝗬 𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗘𝗘
odd news

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・・・・☆・・・・☆ ・・・・

Kiara and Rhi finally came back from their little fishing trip to deliver the fish to the bait shop, both wearing smiles on their faces. "Hey, what took you guys so long? And why do guys look so happy?" Kyla asked, arching a brow at them. She had still had been worried about JJ since he hadn't come back yet, but she was trying to take her mind off things for now.

"Uhhh, the fish were a bit sleepy today, I guess," Kiara said, ignoring her sister's second question and scratching the back of her neck awkwardly.

"Definitely sleepy," Rhi added with a quick nod, holding back a laugh.

"Uh-huh..." Kyla slowly hummed, sharing a look with Alex.

"Anyway, Rhi, want to help me tend to the garden?" Kiara quickly said to change the subject, rubbing her hands together.

"Gladly." The two then left, leaving Kyla and Alex to watch them with suspicious.

"They definitely hooked up or something, right?" Kyla spoke once they were out of earshot.

"Oh, for sure," Alex agreed before the two started laughing.

"Let's go spy from outside, come on," Kyla said giddily, walking out of the shop and onto the deck of it to watch the two of them tend to the garden. They seemed to be talking and laughing as if they had known each other forever. "This is exactly what I wanted."

"It is?" Alex inquired, leaning on the railing.

"Yeah. Kie hasn't had a lot of luck in love so far and neither has Rhi. I thought it would be good if the two of them met," she told him. "Hey, wait, their names even rhyme. Kie and Rhi. I didn't even realize."

Alex chuckled. "Yeah, well, I just want my sister to be happy. She likes distracting herself with different people but I know she doesn't like it."

"What about you? When are you gonna find someone?" Kyla questioned him, poking him in the side. "Rhi told me that you haven't had a girlfriend since your freshman year."

Alex laughed awkwardly, his face going slightly red. "Just haven't found someone that likes me like that, you know?"

Kyla gave him a look. "Seriously? You know the amount of parties we went to and how many girls tried hooking up with you? People definitely want you, Alex."

"Well...maybe I'm waiting for the perfect someone to come along then," he voiced, staring off into the distance.

Kyla furrowed her brows a little, going to reply before her phone buzzed. She quickly took it out, thinking it had been JJ who texted her, but it was actually an email from her school. "What?" She said to herself, clicking on it and reading the whole thing before her face and stomach dropped.

"Ky, what happened? Is everything okay?" Alex asked once she hadn't said anything, looking over to see the expression on her face.

"Davidson suspended me until further notice because of that video of me punching Ruthie," she told him, looking up at him. "Someone...someone must have sent the video to the school to get back at me. I mean, it was probably fucking Ruthie."

"Holy shit, Ky," Alex breathed out. "Does the email say what you can do?"

"It says I have to wait until classes start back up again to have a meeting with the Dean. Shit, Alex, what the fuck do I do? I can't deal with this right now. My parents are gonna fucking kill me if they find out," Kyla said, starting to become even more stressed than she was.

"Hey, hey, it's okay, it's okay," Alex said, reaching his hand out to place on her shoulder. "You're gonna figure out a way to fix this. You always do."

"I-I just...I can't deal with this. There's already so much going on," Kyla told him, trying hard not to cry.

Alex noticed her eyes had started to become glossy so he frowned. "Come here." He pulled her into a hug to try and soothe her, and she let out a sigh as he did so. She really needed a hug at that moment and although she had wished it had been JJ, one from a friend wouldn't hurt either.

And it seemed like her wish had been granted because JJ had pulled up in his boat to get back home. As he did, he looked toward the bait shop to see...Kyla and Alex hugging? "What the fuck," he muttered under his breath, getting even angrier than he already was. He stopped the boat and got off, shaking his head to himself as he walked back onto land, continuing to watch their hug go down.

Kyla's eyes had been closed as she tried not to cry, so when she finally opened them, she saw her boyfriend walking on the island. "JJ, oh, my God!" She exclaimed, immediately pulling away from Alex and jogging down the ramp to get to him. "J! JJ, where have you been?!"

"Well..." Alex whispered to himself in defeat, walking back into the shop just in case anymore people showed up.

JJ sighed and stopped walking, turning to face her with a downtrodden expression. "Long story. Where are the others?" He asked somberly.

"Kie and Rhi were tending the garden, but I don't know where they went. Probably to hookup, I don't know. And the others are almost here, why? What happened?" Kyla replied, not knowing why he had seemed so gloomy.

JJ shook his head. "Nothin'."

"JJ, what's going on? Don't lie to me."

"It doesn't matter. It's just my dad."

Kyla was taken aback. "Your dad? He's back on the island?"

"Yup. He's been holding up at Barracuda Mike's, I guess."

"He's not trying to come back here, right? He didn't say anything about the place being his?" Kyla slowly asked.

"No, no, no. It wasn't about that."

"Because the town council thing's tonight."

"No, it wasn't about that."

"Okay, so what was it about? You don't have to lie to me, J."

"Why don't you first tell me what that hug was between you and Alex first?" JJ interrogated, raising his brows at her.

Does he think something is going on between Alex and I? Kyla thought to herself in confusion. "That hug? J...I just found out I was suspended from DC. He-he was comforting me."

"Shit," JJ muttered, feeling stupid. But he also still had a feeling that Alex had ulterior motives. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah, 'shit' is right. I gotta figure what I'm gonna do. But first, do you think there's something going on between Alex and I or something?" Kyla questioned him, placing her hands on her hips.

JJ licked his lips. "Okay, not that there is something going on because I trust you, but I think he wants something to go on," he explained. "He just...Look, I can tell when someone wants my girl, okay? I don't want him gettin' any ideas."

Kyla couldn't lie, seeing JJ so protective like this and him calling her "my girl" really made her love him even more. But she also thought he was crazy for even thinking that. Then again, Rafe had also said the same thing and she hadn't spoken to him in over a year either.

"Alex isn't the type to try to be a home wrecker, okay? And that's if he even likes me, which I don't think he does at all but that's my opinion. And you can trust me, J. If any guy ever tries to get with me, you can bet your ass I'm telling them a million times that I'm taken by the JJ Maybank," she told him with a warm smile.

JJ nodded with a small smile before it faltered at the mention of his last name. "Yeah, about that, uh...with my dad...He told...He told me he wasn't my real dad."

Kyla blinked. "Was he drunk or something?" She asked, not knowing how that could be possible.

"No, he wasn't drunk. He was being — I don't know what he was being, but..." JJ reached into his pocket, pulling out a note, "I get this. It's from Wes Genrette. Look at this." He handed Kyla the note for her to read. "It says, 'Talk to your father.' And then Luke says that Wes Genrette...is my grandfather. Which makes Groff..."

"Your dad," Kyla finished for him in shock.

"Yeah," JJ nodded.

"So he's saying that Chandler Groff is your dad?" Kyla reiterated since it still didn't make any sense.

"No, I know, it doesn't make any sense! But then he says, like, Larissa — You remember that painting? The one-the one — Larissa Genrette, where she drowned with her baby? He said that baby didn't actually die, and that was me. That I'm that baby," JJ went on and Kyla's mouth had been parted in complete shock at his words. "I know. He's just trying to work some inheritance scam. That's all he's trying to do. He's trying to get some money, trying to use me for a quick buck, 'cause he's done it his entire life! That's all he's doing. I mean, I don't know," the blonde talked himself out of it, not wanting to believe it.

Kyla snapped herself out of her shock, seeing how much this had messed with the boy's head. "J, come here. Come here, JJ," she said, reaching her arm and grabbing him, pulling him into a much needed hug. He immediately wrapped his arms around her, sniffling a bit. "Look, it's gonna be okay. We're gonna figure this out. There's gotta be an explanation out there somewhere," she assured him, rubbing his back with her hand softly. She felt him nod against her cheek and she pursed her lips together, not wanting him to feel so conflicted like this.

Finally, though, the Twinkie had pulled up. "Oh, they're finally here," Kyla said, slowly pulling away from the boy. "You good for now?"

"Uh, yeah. But Ky? Can we, uh...just not tell them?" JJ asked her.

"Why?"

"I mean, yeah, it's all bullshit, but, like, I just don't want them, uh, even thinking, like, I'm a Genrette," he admitted.

She nodded. "It stays between us."

"Between us," he repeated, placing a quick kiss on her lips, before the two walked toward the Twinkie. "Find it?" JJ asked Pope once he got out of the truck.

"Mission failed on all fronts. There was something there, but we didn't get it," Pope answered.

JJ dabbed him up. "Well, at least the Twink made it back."

"Oh, hey, guys!" Kiara called out as her and Rhi stepped out of the house, rushing over to greet them all. Kyla raised her brows at her sister, wondering what her and Rhi were doing in the house for so long. "Ugh, wait, what's that smell?" Kiara questioned once she reached the group.

"You don't wanna know," Pope told her.

・・・・☆・・・・☆ ・・・・

"It's a catacomb! It's got a bunch of skulls and everything around it!" Pope exclaimed once he finished explaining what had happened at Charleston.

"Jesus," Kiara breathed out.

"And the weirdest part is, there were other people down there looking for the same thing we were looking for," Pope added.

"It wasn't just other people. It was the man who killed Terrance," Cleo corrected him.

"Oh, yeah, and there were rats. Like, so many rats."

"Hate that I missed out," Kiara spoke sarcastically and Rhi laughed at that.

"Where'd you ghost off to, big guy?" John B asked JJ, who had been sitting and leaning against the railing just thinking about everything he had learned.

JJ turned around, glancing at Kyla. "Oh, I was, uh...just trying to help out the team. Quick cash grab. Yeah. But the plan fell through, 'cause it was Barracuda Mike," he lied and Kyla looked down at her feet.

"Yeah, Barracuda Mike. I'm not surprised that didn't work out," John B replied, seeming to buy it.

"What the hell is a Barracuda Mike?" Alex questioned from where he sat, just confused on all fronts.

"Drug dealer. Not important," Kyla told him as she looked back up, shaking her head.

"Listen, I'm, uh, super sorry about the rat stuff and everything, but we have that bullshit zoning hearing coming up tonight, and we don't have any money for a lawyer," John B reminded them.

"Obviously."

"Any ideas are welcome."

"Oh, yeah, let me just study up on real estate law in one day. You know, I'll just—"

"That sounds like a lot of sarcasm we don't really need right now, Pope, okay?" John B cut him off, shrugging his shoulders.

"Sorry, I was just rat swarmed, so..."

"Wait, Rhi, don't you want to work with businesses? Does that fall under real estate at all?" Kiara asked her, raising her brows.

"Uhh, for what I wanna do, not really. I have no idea how this zoning shit works since the reason isn't for wildlife. Sorry, guys," she told them and they nodded in defeat at that.

"How about we call people? The whole island is pissed about what they've been doing. We get everybody over there, pack the house, rally the troops," John B suggested. "Maybe we'd actually have a shot at winning this thing."

"Yeah, the more the merrier, right? I could get the surf squad out there. From the beach," JJ told him.

"Yeah, just make sure you make it back," John B poked at him a bit.

"He will," Kyla quickly cut in, defending the boy.

"I-I'll stay on mission, I promise," JJ nodded.

"Pope. Maybe we call some of your family. Maybe Uncle Roger," Cleo proposed.

"I can do that."

"Speaking of family, this is gonna sound completely insane, but Rafe came by before," Kyla began, pulling his card out of her pocket.

"What? Rafe? He didn't do anything to you, did he?" JJ immediately asked, getting up from his seat. He had no idea why Kyla hadn't mentioned Rafe coming by sooner since that seemed like a pretty big deal.

"No, JJ, don't worry. He just said he wanted to help us and he gave me his card," she assured him and JJ nodded slowly, sitting back down. He didn't like that Rafe came to talk to her whatsoever, knowing of their history and just because Rafe was batshit crazy.

"Why did he do that?" Sarah questioned in confusion.

Kyla went over and handed it to Sarah. "I don't know, that's what he said."

"Rafe loves to help, doesn't he?" John B muttered.

"'Rafe Cameron, CEO,'" Sarah read aloud. "CEO of what? Hm, whatever. I'll hit him up. Maybe he can help us."

"All right. Let's do this shit. Let's save Poguelandia."