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𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗦𝗜𝗫𝗧𝗬 𝗦𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗡
𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒏𝒐𝒘

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・・・・☆・・・・☆ ・・・・

After their failed heist, the Pogues were able to make it back to the Outer Banks. They would have never thought they wouldn't have been tricked like that, but here they were...their happiness completely dissipated.

Well, maybe not completely.

They went back to the Château only to see that John B and Big John had come back from wherever they had gone. As soon as he saw the Pogues, all of their faces lit up after frowning for almost the whole day.

"Look at you, big man! Look at you!" Big John said as he embraced Pope excitedly before JJ jumped onto his back, messing with him. "JJ, come on, come on," he played along with him before JJ jumped off of his back.

Kyla smiled wholeheartedly at the interaction, happy to see that Big John seemed like a much needed father to him. "It's good to see you, JJ," Big John told him and JJ gave him a nod, unable to hold back his grin. He then looked over at Kiara, who went over to him and gave him a hug. "Now, tell me these boys haven't given you any trouble," he told her as he pulled away.

Kiara let out a laugh. "Sorry, but I don't think I can," she joked, causing him to chuckle before he looked over at Kyla.

"You look awfully a lot like Kiara," he pointed out, furrowing his brows a bit.

"Well, I am her sister, so that would make sense," Kyla replied awkwardly, not as close to Big John as the others seemed to be before his disappearance. She had still been a Kook then which he hopefully didn't know a lot about to hold it against her.

It seemed like a light bulb had gone off in his head. "Right, yes, Kyla. The one JJ over here would always yap about," Big John revealed, causing Kyla's eyes to widen and for JJ to look down in embarrassment.

"Get exposed!" Pope teased, causing JJ to shove him with his elbow. "Ow!"

"Shut up, man," JJ whispered-shouted through clenched teeth before he locked eyes with Kyla, who had been giving him a look. Even though she had been distraught about the fact that JJ almost died, she still didn't forget about the fact that he stole her father's wallet which she ended up telling Kiara about.

It wouldn't have been a big deal if their father wasn't already against him, but since he was...Kyla knew that her father would never let them forget about it.

As she looked at him, JJ licked his lips nervously before he looked back down again, not believing that Big John had just revealed that.

He wouldn't say he had a crush on her before they even became friends, but he definitely would never shut up about her being so attractive. He mostly did it to annoy the shit out of Kiara, but he was never lying; he really was attracted to her beauty, becoming even more so to her once he got to know her personally.

After introducing Big John to Cleo, the Pogues all sat and stood near the tree to discuss what happened while Big John and John B were gone, and what happened in Wilmington. "Yeah, yeah, so we, um...we went to the archives in Charleston, and, uh...it was — it was a dead end," John B explained disappointedly after they told him what happened with the cross. "A dry hole. So..."

"So that's the gold, the cross, and now El Dorado. We're three-for-three, guys," Pope pointed out to them before he threw a stick angrily. He scoffed, "The streak continues. That's great."

Kyla looked over at Kiara, who had been wearing an frown. "See you, John B," Kiara then said to her friend before she began to walk off, knowing that their parents would want them to come home.

Kyla didn't follow her sister just yet since she had wanted to see what JJ would say. He didn't look over at her at all as he spoke up, "I'm going fishin'. Thanks for the beer." He then got up and walked away, resisting the urge to look back since he felt Kyla's eyes on him.

Kyla swallowed hard, trying not to let it get to her since he could have just been dealing with the news roughly. "Bye, John B," she said and John B gave her a nod. She then looked over at his father. "It was nice meeting you, Mr. Routledge."

"You can call me Big John," he told her and she sent him a small grin before she walked off, wanting to catch up with her sister.

After they arrived back home, they were pretty much forced to tell their parents about what JJ did since their father had been looking for his money clip.

Kyla didn't want to since she knew it would just make her father hate JJ more, but if they didn't say anything and he found out about it, it would just give him an excuse to punish them, or send them away, or something like that.

"I mean, he's a thief. Why wouldn't he steal my money clip?" Mike pointed out as the Carrera family sat in the kitchen area, discussing the matter.

"Okay, we're not gonna press charges with him, right?" Anna cut in, knowing that would only make their daughters hate them.

"Dad, please," Kyla begged as Kiara nodded along, the both of them knowing he wouldn't be able to pay for a good lawyer or anything like that if it was taken to trial.

Mike looked at his daughters for a second before he decided, "Okay. No charges. But you both are dropping that little gangster JJ. Aren't y'all?"

Kyla and Kiara glanced at one another. "I know," Kiara replied. "He stole."

"Good."

"I'm gonna back off."

Mike looked at Kyla. "Ky?" he pressed, wanting to hear it come from her mouth as well. He didn't know if anything had been going on between them for sure, but he had an inkling ever since she mentioned almost sleeping with a Pogue before disappearing for a month. He just hoped he'd been wrong since he didn't want the boy to cause her more trouble.

Kyla looked up at her father, wanting nothing more than to go against him but she knew she couldn't. "Yeah. We'll drop him," she forced out and Kiara had grabbed her hand from underneath the table, giving her a reassuring squeeze.

Mike nodded. "I'm proud of you both. This is the first step. You're both starting to see more clearly."

A knock then came at the door and Anna look past them and said, "Sarah?"

"We got it," Kiara quickly said as she and Kyla got up from their seats, going over towards the door. "Hey," she greeted after opening the door.

"Hey, I'm sorry, I don't mean to bother if this is a bad time."

"No, you're fine," Kyla assured her.

"Yeah, what's going on?" Kiara asked.

"Um...John B and I kind of got into, like, a little fight," she told them.

"Yeah, he's been acting so gripped since his dad got back," Kiara complained.

"And he's not the only one," Kyla muttered, thinking of the way JJ had just been completely ignoring her, before clearing her throat.

"Yeah, and basically, I don't have anywhere to stay, and Rafe's at Tannyhill with Tara probably, and I was just wondering, like, maybe I could stay here with you guys?" Sarah spoke, hoping that she would be able to.

"Yeah, of—"

"Hey, hey, hey. No," Mike interrupted, making them all look over at him. "What did we talk about? Boundaries."

"Guys, come on. You guys got to try and respect our time. We're trying to respect both of yours, right?" Anna said to them.

"Listen, Sarah, I'm sorry. You're always welcome here, but come tomorrow. All right? Right now, we just need some family time, okay?" Mike explained to her.

Sarah nodded slowly. "It's fine. Yeah. No, I-I understand."

"We're sorry," Kyla whispered, wanting to yell at her parents for being so inconsiderate but again, she couldn't.

"Um, I'll probably just hit up JJ or something," Sarah replied and Kyla nodded although she didn't know if JJ would actually be at his house or not. "Sorry."

"We'll see you later," Kiara said before she shut the door, leaving Sarah to fend for herself.

・・・・☆・・・・☆ ・・・・

The two girls then made their way up to their rooms for the rest of the day since there was no point in asking their parents to let them go out again after Wilmington. They just wanted them off their backs for a bit by behaving how they wanted them to act.

But it was getting pretty boring being cooped up in their rooms all day, so Kyla decided to go Kiara's room. She knocked on door and Kiara said, "Come in."

Kyla opened the door, sending her sister a small smile. "Hey," she greeted and Kiara gave her a smile back, looking down at some photos. "I'm bored so I decided to come here. What are you doing?"

"Just lookin' at some photos," Kiara shrugged, pursing her lips as she sorted through them.

Kyla went over to her and sat on the bed next to her, looking down as Kiara picked up a photo of JJ sitting on a thick tree branch. Kyla grinned lightly at it seeing as though he looked really good in the photo, and since they were dating and all.

Kiara noticed the look on her sister's face. "You can have it if you want," she spoke, handing the photo over to Kyla.

"What? Oh, no, it's your photo," Kyla shook her head, pushing her hand back.

"And he's your boyfriend," Kiara argued, giving her sister a look.

Kyla chuckled softly. "Well, maybe not anymore. We're supposed to be dropping him, remember?"

Kiara sighed, placing the photo back on her bed. "Yeah, I know. But it's JJ. I've known him for so long and you two just got together. It's not fair."

"So you're saying you want to lie to our parents by saying we dropped him when we really didn't?" Kyla questioned and Kiara nodded. "Good, 'cause I was thinking the same exact thing," she grinned mischievously.

Kiara scoffed at her sister, impressed by her willingness to lie to their parents. "Wow. You're really becoming a full Pogue, aren't you?"

"Duh," Kyla replied, making the two of them laugh. Kyla then stopped laughing slowly, her smile becoming more of a frown as she thought of all the Pogues. "What do you think's gonna happen if our parents never let us hang out with the Pogues again?"

"Well, I'm guessing we wouldn't care and we'd hang out with them anyway," Kiara answered, not really taking the question seriously since she couldn't imagine a life without the Pogues.

"No, but seriously, Kie. I'm scared that they aren't bluffing. I mean...what if they decide to send you to that troubled teen camp or something?" Kyla brought up, remembering how they kept on threatening that to Kiara before they snuck onto the Coastal Venture.

Kiara's lips downturned a bit. "Then we just have to fight back," she said and Kyla sighed, looking down. "I mean, I don't understand why they freak out so much over the Pogues when Dad literally used to be one. It's just hypocritical."

"Dad was probably always getting into the trouble which made Mom get into trouble, so they probably don't wanna see us go down that path," Kyla assumed. "But they're just fine now, so I really don't see the real problem. They know we can handle ourselves at this point."

"Yeah, I don't know. I guess we're just gonna have to keep playing these 'good girl' parts until they back off. Should be easy for you, though, right?" Kiara teased as she nudged her sister, trying to make her feel better.

Kyla let out a low laugh. "Yeah, I guess." She then sighed again, looking outside Kiara's window to see that the sun was setting. "I hope Sarah found somewhere to stay."

"Yeah, me too. Look, I love Big John and stuff, but ever since he came back John B's been acting different. It's like he's keeping things from us," Kiara voiced, shaking her head as she began to put back some of the photos.

"Yeah...maybe. I just hope things start going back to normal since we no longer can get the cross and El Dorado was a dead end," Kyla replied, starting to get up from the bed so she could return back to her room.

"You know things are never gonna be normal," Kiara pointed out and Kyla shrugged and nodded, knowing that she was probably right. "Hey, wait," Kiara then said before Kyla could leave. She picked the photo of JJ back up again and walked over to Kyla, giving it to her.

"Kie—"

"No, you have it. You're gonna need photos of him now that you're together so this can start you off," Kiara cut her off, giving her sister a small grin.

Kyla looked back down at the photo, a smile subconsciously forming on her face. "Thanks, Kie," she said before she hugged her tightly.

"No problem, Ky."

authors note
i love their sister
relationship sm 😭😭😭
they're always so supportive
of each other it's so cute (me
saying this as if i didn't write
them to be this way 💀💀💀)
anyway this was kinda like
a filler chapter ig since i realized
that the ep we're on was mostly
centered around john b and big john
and sarah so yuhhh hope u enjoyed