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𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗪𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗬 𝗙𝗢𝗨𝗥
𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒖𝒕

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・・・・☆・・・・☆ ・・・・

Kyla sat in her seat in class, writing down some notes as she listened to the teacher talk. She wanted something to do to distract herself since everyone was still whispering and staring at her with no shame.

She then felt her phone vibrate in her pocket, instinctively reaching for it just in case it was her sister, or someone important. She glanced up to make sure the teacher wasn't looking before she clicked on her phone, seeing that the message was from an unknown number. She furrowed her brows, but tapped on the text anyway before it revealed a photo of John B and Sarah in a sunny looking area.

Kyla's eyes widened in shock, her mouth dropping at the sight of them since they were supposed to be dead. Tara, who was also in the classroom, narrowed her eyes at Kyla from across the room suspiciously since she had noticed the girl's strange reaction.

Kyla then got up from her seat, gathering her belongings to go somewhere more private to figure out if the text really was from John B and Sarah. And if it was, then she needed somewhere private to cry.

"Excuse me, Ms. Carrera? Where do you think you're going?" the teacher asked, making everyone look at Kyla.

"Uh...to the bathroom," Kyla told her, walking towards the door.

"But I didn't say that you were allowed to."

"It's an emergency," Kyla said before she walked out, not caring if she got in trouble or not. She would usually care about how everyone perceived her in school, especially teachers, but right now...she didn't even think about that.

Tara tried to follow the girl out, but the teacher was able to stop her before she could, making the blonde curse under her breath.

Kyla quickly walked to the girls bathroom, checking to make sure no one was inside before she locked the main door so no one would be able to get in. She placed a hand up to her mouth once she looked at the picture again, hoping that it was real.

But how could it have been? Shoupe had told them that they were gone, and there was no way they could have survived a storm like that unless a miracle had happened.

Kyla didn't even realize that the other Pogues were on the text until Kiara messaged, 'WTF is this you???'. Kyla didn't bother sending anything yet until she got some solid proof that it was really them. For all they knew, it could have been a stupid Kook prank.

The unknown number started to type before it asked, 'Is JJ there?'.

JJ replied with, 'I'm here Bree'.

The unknown number then asked, 'Did you pimp my short board?'. Kyla smiled and let out a breathless laugh, knowing that it was some type of inside joke between JJ and John B.

The unknown number then started to type again and this time it asked, 'Is Kyla there?'.

Kyla bit her lip softly and replied, 'I'm here'.

The unknown number typed for a few seconds before it said, 'Would you rather have nipples for eyes or eyes for nipples?'. Kyla let out another laugh, feeling tears well up in her eyes as she realized that the couple was alive.

'I don't even want to ask what it means but apparently Ky and Kie know, so I'm cool with it', JJ responded after a moment, making Kyla let out a chuckle as she cried happy tears.

'Laying super low in Nassau', John B said after a moment, making Kyla arch a brow. How the hell did they get to the Bahamas? Kyla thought to herself, but she wasn't complaining if that meant they were safe. 'Can you clear my name? Wanna come home', John B texted and Kyla nodded to herself even though no one could see her. 'Be in touch. P4L'.

Kyla smiled, whispering, "Yes!" to herself under her breath.

John B and Sarah were really alive.

・・・・☆・・・・☆ ・・・・

"For the record, I never doubted them," JJ said as the four of them walked out of The Wreck. They had met up there after school to eat, and to discuss the recent discovery about John B and Sarah.

"I owe you five bucks," Kiara said as she laughed.

"Hey, Kiara, Kyla, I do need those setups done by five!" Anna yelled out to her daughters.

"You know, there are other people that work here!" Kiara called back, making Kyla chuckle softly. It did get annoying working for your parents' business every once and a while.

"But ain't none of them my children!"

"I feel that. On a deep, emotional level, I understand that," Pope said as they sat down on the docks near the restaurant.

"So, we going to the Bahamas or what?" JJ asked.

Kyla furrowed her brows at the blonde. "How are we supposed to get to the Bahamas without our parents knowing?" she replied and JJ shrugged.

"And, dude, there's no way we're getting to the Bahamas anyway," Pope added and Kyla nodded in agreement.

"John B's gonna nabbed sooner or later. So if we're gonna clear his name, we need to have done it,
like, yesterday," Kiara commented with an arched brow.

"Yeah, that's true," Kyla agreed. There was no way that John B and Sarah could stay in the Bahamas for too long since they would obviously have no place to stay or eat for free.

"I'll tell you how we do it," JJ said.

"Oh, do you have it all planned out?" Pope asked, not believing him.

"As a matter of fact, I do," JJ said after a moment.

"Well, let's hear it," Kyla said, trying to stay optimistic even though JJ wasn't the best planner.

"We kidnap Rafe," he told them, making Kyla's mouth drop.

"I'm sorry, what?" Pope said in confusion, glancing at Kyla, who was shocked.

"We kidnap Rafe, tie him up, and stick the gun in his mouth and just wait till he starts squawking," JJ explained, using his hands as a model.

"You know, torture's a war crime," Kiara said.

"I thought it was a good idea."

"Definitely not a good idea," Kyla said, surprised that the boy would even consider that idea to be remotely good. Even though she knew that Rafe probably deserved it, they could never actually do that.

"Yeah, so how exactly do you plan on clearing John B's name from a prison cell? Because that's a felony,"
Pope told him.

"All right, well, what do you got, Pope? I was just trying to keep it simple. You know, one stop, and we're done," JJ pointed out, sitting down next to Kyla.

"Simple? One stop?" Kyla repeated and JJ nodded. "Tara practically hangs off him every second now, so if we were to kidnap Rafe, she would be right there watching, and be a material witness," Kyla explained to JJ.

He shrugged. "We could kidnap her, too," he suggested and she just gave him a look.

"Material witness," Pope repeated under his breath in a whisper, his eyes widening slightly.

"What?" Kyla asked in confusion.

He looked up. "Guys, all we need is a material witness," Pope said, but Kyla was still confused. "We saw Ward's plane fly right over our heads with the gold inside of it. He didn't fly it. And if somebody else was flying it, they were there on the tarmac. They saw Peterkin get murdered," he explained and Kyla's mouth parted at the realization. "We just have to find whoever that was and get them to confess on record."

"How do we do that?" Kiara asked.

Pope shrugged slightly and replied, "A little light espionage."

"A little ghost recon," JJ added, putting his red cap back on.

"Woogity-woogity," Pope said, reaching his hand out over Kyla and towards JJ.

"Woogity, baby!" JJ exclaimed as they twiddled their fingers.

・・・・☆・・・・☆ ・・・・

"If this guy flew planes for Ward, he's gotta be pretty tight-lipped," Pope said as Kiara drove the car over the bridge.

"So then direct approach gets my vote," JJ said as he loaded a gun he had taken out, making Kyla's eyes widen since she was sitting right next to him.

"JJ, no," Pope scolded.

"No. What?" Kiara exclaimed in a high voice.

"Put the gun down, man!"

"JJ, put the gun away right now before I do it for you," Kyla threatened, her eyebrows raised at him.

"Guys! We gotta keep this simple, guys, or else we'll never get John B off," JJ argued, keeping the gun in his hand.

"And you call using a gun, simple?" Kyla questioned in disbelief.

"Yes!" JJ replied.

"Or..." Pope said, holding up Kiara's AirPods, "...we just tickle the wire."

"What?" Kiara asked in confusion.

"Tickle the what now?" Kyla asked, never hearing that phrase before. Apparently, she needed to watch more spy movies.

"We tickle the wire," Pope repeated. "I plant my phone in his car, and then we listen in on your AirPods," he explained as he put the AirPods in his ears. He then held his phone up to Kiara's face and said, "Say something."

"Something," Kiara said with a shrug.

Pope waited a moment before he said, "Okay, we have audio." Kiara drove a little farther down the road before Pope pointed out, "Okay, I think that's his house over there." Kiara slowed down the car, pulling it over to side of the road. "Okay, honk, or, uh...or yell or something if you see anything suspicious."

"Don't do anything dangerous," Kiara told him as he unbuckled his seatbelt.

"Come on. I'm not JJ," Pope joked before he got out of the car, making Kyla snort under her breath.

"Funny, Pope. Love third-wheeling. It's my favorite thing," JJ said sarcastically as Pope snuck over to the house to plant the phone in the guy's, whose name was Gavin, car.

"And I love fourth-wheeling," Kyla added, making her sister shake her head in disbelief at the two.

"How it's been going, you know, with Pope and all?" JJ then asked Kiara after a moment, making Kyla glance at him and give him a weird look at the prying question.

"It's good," Kiara replied awkwardly.

"It's good? All right," he replied with a slight nod. "In the bedroom, is he, like, kinda freaky, 'cause it's Pope, you know?" he then asked after another moment.

"What kind of question is that?" Kyla asked, letting out a short laugh because of how awkward it got.

"And why are you asking?" Kiara added.

"I don't know. Just k-kinda curious," JJ said with a shrug, making both girl's scrunch up their noses. "Just spitballing here."

"You don't need to spitball. We could all sit in silence," Kiara told him as she looked out the window.

"Complete silence," Kyla added breathlessly, inching away from JJ in disgust. She found his questions funny, yet weird at the same time.

"Oh, yeah, sure, sure," JJ said before he cleared his throat, fixing how he was sitting in the seat to get closer to Kyla on purpose. She rolled her eyes at him before she looked out the window, waiting for Pope to come back. But, JJ didn't stick to silence since he continued, "Okay, but, ranking-wise—"

"Oh, you're still asking?" Kiara cut him off, turning to look at him the same time Kyla looked over at her right at the blonde.

"Yeah, I was just kinda curious," he told her as he moved his hands up and down.

"Oh, you're still curious."

"Is — is — is John B better or...?" he asked.

"What?" Kiara exclaimed.

"Okay."

"Since when have you kissed John B?" Kyla questioned in shock, making her sister's eyes widened. "Kiara?" Kyla said, needing to make sure that the boy didn't cheat on Sarah.

"It was before he even asked Sarah for help, okay? And besides, I didn't even kiss him back," Kiara explained, making Kyla feel better.

"Yeah, she totally rejected him," JJ added.

"Thanks, JJ, I totally didn't get that from what she just said," Kyla replied sarcastically, making him hold his hands up in defense.

"Okay. Phase one is complete," Pope said as he hopped back into the car. Pope then glanced at all of them, furrowing his brows. "Everything — we all good?"

"Superb," Kyla replied with a tight-lipped grin, and Pope just nodded awkwardly.