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𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗵𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗻𝗲: 𝗮.𝗶. 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝘁𝗴𝗽𝘁

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The car ride back to Poguelandia 2.0 was tense. Cassie had been holding one of the ice pops Sarah packed up to her knuckle, soothing the bruises that were already forming from her punch to Ruthie's jaw.

She didn't regret it. That bitch deserved to be hit for what she did to that baby turtle. And the way that none of the Kooks even seemed to care? It was despicable. If only that one Kook didn't pull out her phone to film...Cassie would've done more than just punch Ruthie.

Sarah tried cheering Kiara up the ride home, but it hadn't really worked. She just kept muttering on and on about how much she hated the Kooks. No one could really argue that.

Cassie also noticed the way Emery was eerily quiet. She was usually the liveliest out of all of them, but she just sat there, looking down at her hands. She hadn't even been reading her script.

Cassie wanted nothing more than to teach those Kooks a lesson for ruining their good day, but there was no point. She'd probably land herself in jail for doing so and they didn't really have time for that when they were trying to save Poguelandia.

The six of them made it back home and John B parked the Twinkie in front of the house. Kiara slid the door open, still complaining about the Kooks.

"Just every single time, like, every single time we see them, something goes wrong. Like, we can't do anything without them getting triggered."

"Kie, Kie, they're Kooks, okay?" JJ tried to assure her. "And now that Cass almost cold-cocked Ruthie, hopefully they'll be off our backs."

"I seriously doubt that," Cassie piped up. "They're definitely gonna try to come at us harder the next time we see them."

"Which is hopefully never," Kiara expressed and Cassie nodded in agreement.

Emery listened to their conversation as she bit the inside of her cheek before she noticed Pope strolling out of the house. "Hey, Pope," she waved.

"Aye, Popey!" Cassie addressed, excited to tell him about how she punched Ruthie. She knew the boy would definitely say how it was a terrible idea, but would secretly celebrate it.

When Pope didn't answer, JJ said, "Yo."

"Hi," Sarah greeted.

"How'd it go?" JJ asked Pope before he noticed the thick, red liquid on the boy's hands, his face falling. "Pope..."

"What is that?" Kiara questioned as she stepped closer to the Heyward boy. "Is that blood? Pope, whose blood is that?"

Cassie followed their gazes, seeing how his hands had been stained with dark, red blood. Her stomach dropped at the sight, her mind going blank.

"Pope, Pope." JJ stepped forward and grabbed Pope's hands to examine them. "Pope, what happened?" Pope didn't answer, only making eye contact with the Maybank boy. JJ grabbed his shoulders, shaking them. "Pope, what happened?"

"Where's Cleo?" Sarah asked in concern.

"She's-she's inside," Pope answered weakly before they all rushed inside the house, immediately thinking of the worst: that something had happened to Cleo.

The seven teenagers pushed through the front door before they stopped, gasping at the sight in front of them. A man had been dead in the middle of the living room, blood soaking through his clothes with a gun on the floor next to his body. Cleo had been looking down at him, tears in her eyes as she sat frozen on the kitchen countertop.

"What the hell?" JJ breathed out first, blinking at the sight of the man. "Cleo, what...what happened?"

"It's Terrance," she managed to get out shakily.

Terrance.

They all knew that name at this point. He had been the man that helped Sarah and John B navigate their way through the Bahamas and he had been the reason why they met Cleo.

Cleo had also detailed her life with the man, who had practically raised her since she thirteen years old. He was like a father figure to her before she left him when things got too hot in Nassau for her. And now...now he was dead.

Emery brought a hand up to her mouth. "I think I'm...I think I'm gonna be sick," she spoke from underneath her hand, racing to the bathroom.

Sarah tore her horrified gaze away from Terrance, looking around at the others. "I'll go-I'll go help her," Sarah spoke up as she followed after Emery, wanting to distract herself in that moment.

Cassie played with her necklace, not being able to get a word out just yet. She looked away from the dead man in front of her, looking over her shoulder to see that John B and Pope were talking outside.

"What...what happened?" Kiara slowly inquired, her arms crossed as she tried not to look at Terrance on the floor.

Cleo kept her gaze on Terrance, her chin wobbling. "The man that attacked JJ and Cassie...he kidnapped me last night."

Cassie and JJ shared a surprised look. "What?" Cassie finally said something, taking a step closer to Cleo.

"He-He wanted me to give him the amulet. I brought him back here and...he was going to kill me. Terrance...he saved my life," Cleo explained before she shut her eyes, a few tears falling down her face as she did so.

Cassie felt her heart break for the girl. Although Terrance wasn't actually Cleo's father, based on the stories she told about him, it was clear she viewed him as one.

And Cassie knew all too well about what it was like to lose a father. Most of them had at this point.

Cassie moved toward the girl, sitting down next to her as she wrapped her arm around the girl's shoulders. She also knew that when she lost a father, she would have liked to have people around her. If she had...she maybe would have never developed a drinking problem.

"It's okay, Cleo," Cassie voiced as she rubbed the girl's arm. "We're gonna figure this out."

JJ gave her a look since they had no idea how they were supposed to figure this out, but Cassie just shook her head and gave him a warning look. Although she wasn't sure how exactly they were going to figure this out either, Cleo just needed support right now.

Sarah and Emery came out of the bathroom as the latter wiped at her mouth, avoiding looking down at Terrance's body. "Is she good, Sarah?" JJ asked, running a hand through his hair.

"She's fine. It's just..." Sarah trailed off, looking over at Emery.

"Never seen a real dead body before," Emery mumbled, her gaze still avoiding the sight of Terrance.

Sarah pursed her lips. "Yeah. That."

Suddenly, they heard the sound of a car rolling up to the house over the dirt outside. JJ looked away from the girls, peering outside the window to see a cop car had parked outside the house.

Cassie noticed the way all their expressions had changed and hopped off where she had been sitting next to Cleo, looking outside the window to also see the cop car.

"Is that Shoupe?" Cassie questioned as she squinted her eyes, noticing the man sitting in the driver's seat.

"Oh, shit," JJ cursed before he turned around, running to go tell John B and Pope.

The boys came running back inside as JJ dodged Terrance's body on the floor. "Oh, my God. Oh, my God," Sarah repeated worriedly.

"Umm, why is he here? He's just sitting in his car," Kiara pointed out frustratedly.

Emery swallowed thickly, her forehead sweaty from throwing up in the toilet before. "Guys..."

The Pogues all kept muttering to themselves in a panic, trying to figure out what to do now that Shoupe had randomly decided to show up and they had a dead body in their living room. Did Lightner tip him off? Was he just here on a whim?

All they knew was that they had to figure this out now.

"We have a dead body in our living room!" Pope whisper-shouted.

"Yeah, I don't think we need to keep repeating that," Cassie remarked for Cleo and Emery's sakes since they were the most visibly shaken out of all of them.

Pope's lips pressed into a thin line. "What are we gonna do?"

JJ ran his hands through his hair. "Shit, Pope!"

"What do you mean, 'what are we gonna do?' We have to tell the truth," Kiara spoke up.

"Are you kidding me, Kie?" JJ said to her.

"We didn't do anything wrong. Someone broke into our house!" The Carrera girl reasoned.

"Kie, it's Shoupe—"

"And attacked us and stole from us!"

"He's never gonna believe us!" JJ argued.

"JJ's right. He won't," Cassie agreed with her boyfriend.

"Didn't he-didn't he help you with your mom that time?" Emery pointed out.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean anything. He was throwing me a bone for all the shit he put us through. But right now, with-with this," Cassie gestured to Terrance, "we're screwed unless we don't come up with something."

"What we need to do is get out of here," JJ thought of. "That's what we need to do. We need to banana split."

"Go where? That never works," Kiara asserted.

"Okay, I don't know, but it's better than staying here. Number one rule, never trust a cop. Especially that one. Okay?" JJ quickly said as he pointed to Shoupe's car outside.

"JJ! Anybody home?" They heard Shoupe call out from outside the front door.

"Fuck," Cassie cursed, gripping back onto her necklace again.

"John B, what do you wanna do?" Sarah queried.

"We did nothing wrong," Kiara repeated once more before Shoupe banged on the front door, causing Emery to flinch.

JJ went up to John B, placing his hands on the boy's shoulders. "Okay, I need you to make a decision right now," JJ told him as John B opened and closed his mouth. "What's it gonna be?"

Shoupe banged on the door again. "JJ! I know you're in there. Come on out!"

JJ kept his stare on his best friend as Shoupe kept on knocking. "What do you wanna do?"

John B looked past JJ and at Terrance before he decided, "Hide the body."

"Hide the bo— Hide the body, where?" Pope quickly asked in disbelief.

"Hurry, shut up, that's what we're doing, okay?" JJ concluded frantically.

"Hide the body where?" Pope questioned again.

"Behind the couch," John B answered. "Hey, move the couch."

"Behind the couch?!" Pope exclaimed quietly, holding his hands up to his head.

The others moved toward Terrance apart from Cleo and Emery, who were both frozen in place. They tried dragging his body before Sarah scolded them not to. Kiara ended up finding a skateboard, rushing over to them to help.

Pope went up to both Cleo and Emery, knowing the two girls wouldn't be any help with the state they were in. Especially if they needed to lie to Shoupe. "Guys, go upstairs. Go upstairs. It'll be all right."

"Pope, get your ass over here!" JJ demanded as Kiara came into the room, showing them the skateboard.

Cassie noticed Cleo and Emery walking towards the stairs instead of going to help and she furrowed her brows. "Pope, where are they going?"

"Upstairs. Figured it wouldn't be good for them to be down here," he answered and Cassie hummed, having to agree with that before Pope fully walked into the room, noticing what they were doing. "You're putting him on a skateboard? Really?"

"Cleo. Em. Don't look. Just go upstairs," Kiara instructed breathlessly and the girls did just that without a word.

"JJ, go buy us some time!" Cassie hissed since she kept hearing Shoupe call for him.

"Good idea!" John B agreed before JJ cursed and turned around, running outside to go distract Shoupe.

Once they got Terrance's body onto the skateboard, Pope and John B maneuvered him over to the couch. The girls began scrubbing the floor with towels and bleach that Sarah had brought over, trying to get rid of any evidence of a murder happening.

Pope and John B froze in their positions once they saw Shoupe walking out the window before they continued once he disappeared from view. The girls kept scrubbing as fast as they could, but the blood was barely coming off of the floor.

Once Pope and John B were done putting Terrance behind the couch, they looked over to see that the girls were having trouble. "Bleach. We need more bleach," Pope panted.

"It's too sticky!" Kiara cried out shakily.

"Bleach? You need bleach?"

"Yes! Dump it!"

Pope poured more bleach on the floor and Sarah shut her eyes, shaking her hands in disgust. "Sarah, we have to keep going," Cassie urged despite the metallic smell of the blood filling her nose, making her stomach churn.

None of them had been no stranger to blood at this point, but trying to clean this much up? That was a different story.

Kiara went over, picking the gun up from the ground. "Wait, the gun, the gun. Pope, you have to do something with the gun."

Pope took it from her as John B said, "We'll get rid of it later. Just wipe the prints off." Pope quickly took a towel and wiped the gun before placing it in a random drawer.

They kept scrubbing the floor until most of the blood seemed to come off, but the boys kept wiping for extra measure. "We need to act normal!" Cassie directed as she ran over to one of the chairs, taking her phone out of her pocket to pretend like she was scrolling on it.

Sarah ran over to the couch, grabbing a magazine and placing on over her head while she leaned back to act as if she had been resting.

Kiara made her way over to one of the other chairs before she noticed Shoupe and JJ outside, coming toward the door. She whisper-shouted, "He's coming, he's coming, he's coming. John B, hurry! Sit down!"

"There's so much blood in the hallway," John B told her as he sprayed more bleach and wiped down the rest of the hallway.

"John B!" Cassie hissed and John B tossed the bleach and towels in the other room, shutting the door. He and Pope quickly rushed over to the table, grabbing some cards to pretend as if they were playing a card game.

"Oh, shit. What's up, y'all?" JJ greeted nonchalantly as he walked inside with Shoupe right behind him.

"Hi, Shoupe," Sarah said as she feigned tiredness, getting up from where she laid.

"Long time no see, Shoupe," Cassie acknowledged the Sheriff as she pretended to yawn, putting her phone back in her pocket.

"Hey. Yeah, we were just hanging out," John B told the man as Pope stared down at his deck of cards, trying to remain calm.

"Yeah, yeah. Gang's all here, huh?" Shoupe pointed out. "So, uh, y'all too high to hear me knockin'?"

"It's just, uh, it's just been a long day," Kiara answered casually.

"Hey, everybody mind clearing out for a minute and letting me, uh, talk to your boy and Cassie alone?" Shoupe asked and Cassie knitted her brows together, looking at JJ who shrugged behind Shoupe.

The Pogues also looked at one another in confusion, not sure what this was about. "Uh, yeah, yeah. No problem, Shoupe," John B shrugged.

Kiara stood up. "We'll just get out of your hair."

"We'll, uh, be outside."

"Yeah, yeah. We'll see you guys in a sec," JJ said as he leaned against the wall.

"Good seeing y'all," Shoupe voiced slowly, slight suspicion in his tone. He looked between the couple, nodding his head a bit. "Why don't y'all sit down over there?" He suggested, pointing at the couch.

"I'm already sittin', Shoupe," Cassie replied, gesturing to the seat she was in. She didn't want to go over to the couch, where Terrance's body was being hidden at the moment.

Shoupe let out an annoyed sigh. "Just sit down over there, Blake."

Cassie released a huff before she went over to the couch with JJ, plopping down next to him. She watched as Shoupe went over to the table, grabbing a wooden chair for him to sit on.

"Jay, what's going on?" She muttered under her breath while Shoupe had his back turned.

"No idea," JJ answered as he shuffled uncomfortably on the couch. Shoupe brought the wooden chair over, placing it down in front of them so he could sit. "There's way too many damn pillows on here, man," JJ complained, throwing the pillows off the couch intentionally to hide Terrance's body. "Alright, uh, let's just make it quick, you know? Ticktock."

"Let's," Shoupe agreed, pulling out his phone from his pocket. "A little, uh, at-home entertainment for. Take a gander."

Shoupe turned his phone toward the couple, showing them a video. It had been a video of JJ on the beach before, staring down the Kooks as he threatened, "You come near my girlfriend or any of us ever again...and I'll come back and kill every single one of you."

"JJ..." Cassie trailed off, slowing looking at her boyfriend since she had no idea he had said that. Granted, she found it hot as hell but still.

"That you?" Shoupe asked the boy even though he already knew the answer.

"A.I. has come a long way," JJ responded, scratching his nose and Cassie resisted the urge to let out a snort.

"A.I., huh?"

"Yup."

Shoupe clicked his phone off, putting it back in his pocket. "Well, looks clear to me. Come on, man."

"Okay, Shoupe, like, they came at us with a truck, ran over a turtle hatch, nearly killed Kie, all right?" JJ explained. "And-and then, they were saying shit about my girl here," he gestured to Cassie, "like, would you let that slide?"

"You said you were gonna kill 'em all," Shoupe pointed out.

"Yeah, out of self-defense, all right?"

"Self-defense? Okay, then why did I get a report from Ruthie saying she was assaulted by 'your girl' over here?" Shoupe brought up as he gestured over to Cassie with his head and she pursed her lips, sinking lower into the couch. "Which, apparently, happened after she said to the poor girl that she was going to shove her into a room and make sure she never comes out?"

Cassie's eye twitched before she shrugged. "ChatGPT, you know? Can come up with crazy things."

Shoupe let out a frustrated sighed, rubbing his face. "You're lucky the only evidence is from eyewitness reports from drunk teenagers, so I can't exactly charge you," he revealed and Cassie let out a relieved sigh. "But do you know how many parents were calling me? And then I get a report from the ER saying you guys vandalized a hyperbaric chamber. What the hell is that?"

"Well, that was a huge misunderstanding because they kept us in there far too long, okay? We were cooked like a chicken, like, uh— There's the Improper Patient Care for a Patient Act, where it, like, it protects me from—"

"Just stop. Stop," Shoupe interrupted and JJ leaned his head back on the couch. "I don't want to charge you guys for this shit, but I'm gonna need you guys to help me on something. I'm...trying to put this together." Shoupe pulled a few photos out of his chest pocket. "Take a look at these. You know anything about him?" JJ shuffled through the photos of a dead guy as Cassie looked from next to him, her nose scrunching. "You never seen him around?"

"No," JJ answered before he looked at Shoupe, seeing that it seemed like he didn't believe him. "No, seriously, I've never seen him in my life."

Shoupe's eyes landed on Cassie who began to shake her head. "No, I don't think I've seen him either."

JJ handed the photos back to Shoupe before he dropped some of them onto the floor. Shoupe went to go bend down and pick them up before JJ quickly got up, reaching down first.

"It's good. I got it, I got it."

"Don't wanna hurt your back, you know?" Cassie laughed awkwardly, knowing that JJ was trying to prevent Shoupe from possibly seeing Terrance.

"Oh, uh, all right. I appreciate it."

JJ handed the photos back to Shoupe as he stayed standing. "Yeah, uh...is that it? You know, 'No further questions, Officer?'" JJ inquired.

"Actually, come to think of it, there is something else." Shoupe got up from his seat, which prompted Cassie to do the same so she could walk over next to JJ. "Listen, just between us..."

JJ hummed, crossing his arms as Cassie gently laid a hand on the boy's shoulder.

"...we're looking into the cause of death for Wes Genrette."

Cassie and JJ shared a confused glance. "For Wes?" JJ repeated.

"Mm-hmm. So, what were y'all doing on Saturday night?" Shoupe interrogated and Cassie blinked at the man.

"Seriously? Goddamn it, Shoupe," JJ scoffed.

"I gotta know."

"You accusing us or something?" Cassie questioned.

"Should I be?" Shoupe challenged and she raised her brows at his audacity.

"No, we were here," JJ quickly cut in. "We were-we were here. We made a campfire, uh, fried a fish up, and then we...put on some tunes, sang some-some songs. And, uh, and that was it."

Shoupe nodded, unsure if he believed it. "Okay. Cooking up fish and singing songs?"

"Yup. That was it," JJ confirmed as Cassie narrowed her eyes at the man.

Shoupe hummed. "All right. That's all I need from you guys. For now." He walked past the two, patting JJ's chest.

"'Kay. Happy to help."

"Thanks. But listen, guys, you just gotta stay out of trouble for a minute. And keep being honest with me, all right?" Shoupe said before he left.

"Yes, sir."

Once they heard the door open and close, Cassie turned to JJ. "What the fuck just happened?" She blurted out.

"Don't know, but...he didn't see Terrance. That's all that matters," JJ pointed out.

"That's all?"

"For now," he shrugged. "We gotta go tell the others before they shit themselves though."

"Think it's too late for that," Cassie retorted.

JJ and Cassie rushed outside to get to the surf shop to tell the others what just happened. "What'd he say?" Sarah immediately asked them once they arrived.

"What-what was he doing here?" John B added.

JJ made sure Shoupe had driven off before speaking, "We're good...Kind of."

"Man, did we find the body or not?" Pope cut to the chase.

"No, he did not find Terrance, okay?" JJ relayed.

"Why did he want to talk to you two and not all of us?" Sarah questioned.

"Because one of the Kooks recorded me saying, 'I'll kill you all' at the beach or whatever," JJ explained nonchalantly.

"Oh, my god," Pope groaned as Kiara made a face.

"That's-that's why?" Sarah stammered in disbelief.

"Ruthie also filed a report about me, but there's no real evidence other than unreliable eyewitness to charge me with anything," Cassie added and they groaned again.

"Don't forget about the hyperbaric— Doesn't matter. He didn't see Terrance. That's the main thing, okay?" JJ told them. "There's something else, though. Shoupe thinks Genrette was murdered and it had something to do with us. But I told him we weren't anywhere near his place."

"And he believed you?" Kiara piped up.

"About everything. I mean, Kie, look whose sellin', all right? He bought it." However, the others didn't look convinced, especially Pope. "He did. Pope, he didn't see him. Nothing to worry about there." JJ went over to Pope. "Hey, yo. Pope, you handled it, all right? We got it. We got nothin' to worry about."

"Nothing to worry about? Not too sure about that when we have a dead body behind our couch," Cassie pointed out with wide eyes.

"Weren't you the one that said not to mention that anymore?" JJ countered, tilting his head at her and Cassie groaned. "Come on, Cass, you were in there with me. He bought it, right?"

Cassie glanced around at her friends' worried gazes before see ultimately nodded. "He bought it."

"See? We're good. Kinda."

authors note!
jj's line about a.i. actually made me
laugh out loud when i first watched
this episode. he's so funny istg reminded
me of s1 sm. miss him everyday, i actually
don't think i'll ever get over him </3