The disappointment was real. The bursts of negative emotions were real. But to John B, it wasn't. In the bag he retrieved from the sunken boat was a compass, something the pogues hadn't wished for.

John B was flustered, he recognised the compass as something he hadn't seen in a long time. He thought it to be missing, alongside his father. Because this, this compass, really belonged to Big John Routledge.

To John B it was more than a compass. It was a new spark of hope, a mystery he wanted to hunt. It was everything. It was in his mind on the drive back. It was in his dreams. The compass was everywhere.

The compass was also in Maggie's mind. During the painting of the restaurant, before going to sleep. Kiara's parents were nice, though, they weren't pushing Maggie to work faster because she was elsewhere in her thoughts. Maggie loved Mr. and Mrs. C.

After painting for around two hours, Kie and Maggie made their way to the shack. Maggie wanted to talk to Kie about that girl on the beach during the keg. She had never seen her before and usually Kie doesn't make friends that soon.

"She's just someone I met that night," Kiara explained. "She's a Pogue. Adriana Reyes. Apparently she's doing this project to make a new turtle habitat, so we talked about that."

"Yeah, sounds perfect," Maggie grinned. She knew Kie liked girls before Kie knew so herself, though she didn't say it. Maggie wanted Kie to realise and tell them herself. "She sounds perfect."

Kie sighed. "Yeah, she is," Her eyes widened, realising what she had said. She turned her head to the slightly shorter girl. "Oh, my God."

"Oh, your God," Maggie nodded with a big smile. "And she's totally into you, Kia. Better get a move on, lover girl." She gave her a playful wink.

"What makes you think that?"

With the shack in sight, Maggie turned to walk up the stairs backwards. She leaned forward to keep the conversation between the two of them. "She put a flower in your hair. She put an amaryllis in your hair."

Pope already sat on the couch on the porch, waiting for John B and JJ to come back. "What're you two whispering about?"

The two girls exchanged glances and had trouble keeping their giggles in. "Girl stuff, Pope," Kiara answered, a small chuckle in her voice. "Just girl stuff."

Maggie sat down on the opposite side of Pope, on a chair. When Kiara sat down beside her — partially on her lap, because the chair wasn't too big. Maggie wrapped her arms around Kiara's frame, showing she fully supported her in whatever she did.

Kiara laid her head on Maggie's shoulder. "Thank you." She whispered. Maggie nodded, planting a friendly kiss on her forehead. Kiara truly was one of the reasons Maggie hadn't left yet, the other being JJ and the other Pogues.

Among others.

The sound of a slamming car door came from outside the porch. "Finally!" Pope exclaimed, he hit his thigh lightly with his hand.

But Maggie noticed by the first glance at JJ that something was wrong. He didn't give her one of his cheesy grins, his breathing was ragged and he overall couldn't look at her. In fact, he wasn't looking at anyone.

It soon was clear that he was distraught because him and John B had visited Ms. Lana's house and seen the same guys that shot at them the day before beat Ms. Lana.

JJ paced around the porch, blabbering with the anxiety still laced in his voice. "And then we were right outside like this," He leaned against the wall. "And all we hear is just, 'Bam! Bam! Bam!' Knocking paint off the wall, G! From the inside. All right? And I'm just looking at him, like—" JJ got off of the wall and got close to the Pogues. "Wait, first off, look at this shit," He started ruffling in his hair. "Look at it."

"That's dandruff," Kie scrunched up her nose. "Disgusting."

"Yeah, J, we believe you without the disgusting dandruff, paint mixture on the bloody table." Maggie added, also scrunching up her nose.

Pope stopped JJ from ruffling his hair any more, because he didn't seem to stop. "Okay, thank you."

"Look at all that. All right?" JJ stood back up. "That's paint. At that point, I was just, like . . . I'm waiting for death."

"Okay—" Maggie lightly tapped Kie's leg so she could get up. She walked over to the other side of the porch to take one of JJ's cigarettes out. Maggie held the pack of cigarettes in front of him. "Take one. Please. You're freaking us all out."

JJ took one cigarette out of the pack as Pope asked. "So you saw the guys that shot at us, right?" He held his head in his hands. JJ confirmed, which made Pope ask. "Did you get a good description of them? What did they look like? Anything we can bring to a police report?"

"Burly."

Pope raised his eyebrows. "Burly?"

Maggie sat back on the small table in the corner of the porch, eyeing John B. He also just stood there silently, listening to the conversation. John B shrugged, which made Maggie laugh.

"That's not very helpful." Kie said. She sat forward in her chair, and Maggie could see in the way she sat that she was in deep thoughts.

"Okay, well, no, like the type of guy at my dad's garage." JJ explained. "I mean, you guys know he made cargo hides for drug smugglers," Kie said they indeed knew. "I can tell you with full confidence, these boys, these killers..." He took another drag of the cig just given to him as he leaned back against the wall. "They're square groupers."

Killers.

Pope still wasn't totally convinced. "They're square groupers, like narco square grouper? Like Pablo Escobar square grouper?"

"Yeah, man."

"I don't think they'd be that big and important," Maggie intervened. "I mean, they missed, they mustn't have been the best at what they do."

Kie agreed. "Not everything is a kingpin movie."

"Okay, so what does this square grouper look like specifically?" Pope asked again, hoping to get a better description this time.

JJ raised his voice. "You weren't there, bro!"

Pope also raised his voice. "Apparently you don't know what to look for!"

JJ's voice cracked. "Dude! I wasn't taking mental Polaroids the entire time, man, I was under duress! Okay? I can tell you— I can tell you by the way that Ms. Lana was screaming that these guys are serious, serious hombres, man," JJ neared Maggie. "It's a heavy vibe right now, okay? I'm not liking this very much."

Kiara changed the subject slightly. "Okay, why would they want the compass."

"It's a piece of shit. You couldn't pawn it off for five bucks if you wanted to."

"We don't know that, Pope." Maggie replied, gesturing her head to John B, who was now standing with his back to them.

Pope understood the gesture. "No offence, John B, I know it's in your family—"

"The office," John B interrupted him. "My dad. My dad's office," John B sped up his pace, wandering around the porch. "He always kept the office locked because he was worried about his competitors stealing his Royal Merchant research."

Maggie's eyes widened when she heard the name she hadn't heard in ages. She choked on air. "I'm sorry, did you say the Royal Merchant?"

"Yo, Mags, you good?" JJ patted her back to stop her from coughing. "Need to inhale some?" He stupidly offered his cigarette, but Maggie swatted his hand away, following John B.

"We used to laugh about it all the time like he was actually gonna find it," John B went to his dad's office. "But now that he's gone, I've just kinda... I just left it as he kept it."

"Yeah," Kie sympathised. "For when he gets back."

John B unlocked the door to the office and entered it. "I've slept over here like 600 times, and I've never seen this door opened." Pope mentioned.

Maggie didn't care for what they were saying. She scavenged the desks for any information on the Royal Merchant. It's there, it's all there. The nightmare followed her to the OBX.

Her breathing started to get harder, Maggie scratched her forearms to the point where they started bleeding. "I need some fresh air." She ran out of the office.

JJ wanted to run after her, but got held back by Pope, because John B kept on talking. He wanted to know what was wrong. What was so bad about the Royal Merchant that Maggie couldn't even look at it? Could it have to do with...

Her past?

starting to get a little closer to maggie's past.. yall arent even ready for her arc